Sri Lanka’s human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid': Haigh

[TamilNet, Thursday, 16 May 2013, 11:41 GMT]
Criticizing Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s support to holding the CHOGM in Sri Lanka, former Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh opined that Sri Lanka at the head of the Commonwealth would bring the institution’s demise, arguing that “Sri Lanka has a human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid.” In an article for ABC News on Thursday, Mr. Haigh further said that despite evidence to the contrary, Bob Carr “believes that the Sinhalese majority are free of triumphalism and ethnic abuse of Tamils, amounting to state sponsored genocide, following a bloody civil war that occurred because of the very attitudes and practices being deployed against Tamils today.” Asserting that the Rajapaksa regime undermines the values of the Commonwealth, the author further called on Australia to boycott the CHOGM.

Excerpts from Bruce Haigh’s article ‘Boats should not stop a CHOGM boycott’ published on ABC News follows:

“In the face of a great deal of evidence to the contrary, Bob Carr has declared Sri Lanka an ideal democracy.”

“He has declared their institutions sound, and scoffed at the idea of corruption within the ranks of the Rajapaksa government.”

“He has declared the police, army and navy to be clear of charges of detaining and torturing members of the Tamil minority. He believes that the Sinhalese majority are free of triumphalism and ethnic abuse of Tamils, amounting to state sponsored genocide, following a bloody civil war that occurred because of the very attitudes and practices being deployed against Tamils today.”

“And why has Carr adopted such a serendipitous attitude to Sri Lanka? It's called boats, where the curtailment of asylum seekers arriving off Australian shores overrides human rights and all other considerations of compassion and common sense. In order that the bipartisan policy of turning back, preventing or in some other way stopping the boats from sullying our shores, Carr must declare that everything is hunky dory in Sri Lanka and that anyone getting in a boat, risking their lives and spending money they don't have must be economic refugees; and a range of acolytes seeking government preferment puppet his response.”

“As a result of the Sri Lankan government's failure to investigate war crimes and because of its participation in ongoing repression of Tamils, the Canadian government has said it will boycott this year's CHOGM to be held in Sri Lanka. Should this meeting go ahead Sri Lanka will head the Commonwealth for the next two years. This is despite the fact that the Rajapaska regime undermines, on a daily basis, the values and principles of the Commonwealth.”

“Carr has rubbished the stand taken by Canada. The Queen has advised that she will not be attending; no doubt seeking to avoid the controversy that will inevitably surround the meeting should it go ahead. By accepting the mantle as head of the Commonwealth, Sri Lanka could well bring about its demise. Sri Lanka has a human rights record as bad as South Africa under Apartheid. It would have been unthinkable for South Africa to have hosted a CHOGM, so why is Sri Lanka being shoe horned into the job? In fact, so gravely were South Africa's human rights abuses viewed that the Commonwealth instituted sanctions, followed not long after by the UN.”

“ASIO does not have an independent capacity to gather information on the ground about persons of interest. They must rely on a friendly or cooperative government to provide them with police clearances and checks. We could not do that with Apartheid South Africa, although ASIO did maintain unofficial contact with the ruthless South African Bureau of State Security, and contact with countries behind The Iron Curtin, during the Cold War, for purposes of obtaining security clearances, did not happen.”

“For ASIO to continue its campaign against persons linked to the LTTE it must go along with the fiction that Sri Lanka is a neat and tidy democracy and is not conducting a post war vendetta against the Tamils and the military wing in that dispute, the LTTE.”

“In all conscience Australia must also boycott CHOGM.”

Chronology:

16.05.13  'Sri Lanka’s human rights record as bad as South A..

15.05.13  UK Deputy PM’s awareness not on genocide

09.05.13  Let Prince do dirty work at CHOGM: Boyle

07.05.13  UK Tamils urged to boycott Conservative Party

03.05.13  Keith Locke questions New Zealand's silence on Sri..

02.05.13  Commonwealth SG upholds SL venue of CHOGM, meets C..

30.04.13  Australian Labor MP calls for CHOGM boycott

27.04.13  Fraser supports CHOGM boycott as CMAG ducks action

17.04.13  Cancel CHOGM, appeals Prof. Lynch

10.04.13  CHOGM heats up, Rae calls Sri Lanka a "Rogue Membe..

26.03.13  Queen to skip CHOGM - paper

16.03.13  Commonwealth's quandary over CHOGM in Sri Lanka

12.03.13  Commonwealth day brings to focus war crimes, Sri L..

11.03.13  Tutu, Robinson call for shift of CHOGM venue

03.03.13  Sri Lanka CHOGM boycott calls multiply

28.02.13  Australia should withdraw from CHOGM in Sri Lanka:..

10.02.13  CHOGM boycott calls for renewed action on Sri Lank..

Plight of UAE refugees expose human rights deception of IC, UN

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 April 2013, 08:08 GMT]
No country in the West should have any problem with providing political asylum to the fleeing Tamil Journalist Ms Lokini Rathimohan, currently held at detention in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), rights activists in the island concerned with the protection of journalists fleeing genocidal Sri Lanka told TamilNet. As the journalist's name and photos have been published in the international media now and as there have been write-ups in the hostile press in Colombo suggesting to the SL government to get her deported to Colombo to ‘disprove’ the killing of Isaippiriya, a colleague of Lokini at the National Television of Tamileelam (NTT), the need to assure Lokini's security has become much more important than ever before, the activists further said. In the meantime, a former administrative official at the NTT confirmed that Ms Lokini was not an LTTE member, but was an employed journalist.

Despite the UN refugee agency the UNHCR recognising the refugee status, the group of Eezham Tamils face prolonged detention and threat of deportation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is a pro-USA confederation in the Arab World.

Commenting on the situation, and comparing it with the attitude of some the diplomatic missions of the West in Colombo, the activists in the island involved in protecting the fleeing journalists told TamilNet Saturday that there were particular instances in which some Western diplomatic missions in Colombo acted in the most inhuman way in rejecting visa to some of the most-needing victims.

This happens because they want to avoid the victims’ evidences independently reaching the world public, leading to the indictment of the genocidal regime in Colombo and to the embarrassment of the Establishments in complicity, at a time when they try to save the regime in international forums such as the UNHRC, the activists in the island said.

The Establishments that were in complicity with Sri Lanka in the genocidal war against Eezham Tamils, and that are continuing in abetting the structural genocide, now play a double game by posing themselves as saviours of human rights, but systematically prodding the victimised Tamils towards the genocidal State, the activists told TamilNet, urging the Tamil diaspora lobbyists, who claim to have bargaining leverage with their host countries, to take up the issue locally with the Establishments of their countries.

Ms Lokini Rathimohan

In the meantime, the Tamil Action Front, New Zealand, (TAFNZ), in a letter to New Zealand’s Minister of Immigration, Mr Nathan Guy, has requested him to consider grating asylum to the 19 Eezham Tamils facing deportation from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) into Sri Lanka where their lives are endangered. The group of Tamils are accredited by the UNHCR as refugees and some among them are most vulnerable, the letter signed by TAFNZ Coordinator, Mr A Theva Rajan said, citing the case of Ms. Lokini and nine others.

The 30-year-old Lokini Rathimohan, a journalist, has worked with the National Television of Tamil Eelam (NTT), a satellite TV station that was run by the de facto state.

Ms Lokini, who served as a media worker for several years, was an anchor in NTT in the last year of its operation, replacing Isaipriya, who was an LTTE member, a journalist as well as an artist in the movement.

It is also significant to note that ITN, a Sri Lankan TV media organization, that staunchly stands by the policies of the genocide-accused Rajapaksa regime, in a broadcast on 4 April, said that if deported to Sri Lanka, Lokini must be “compelled” to “reveal the truth” about Isaipriya’s death.

It was against such a backdrop, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and several other journalists have called on the offices of UNHCR to prevent the deportation of the refugees to Sri Lanka.

In a joint release on Friday, the RSF and JDS urged the office of the UNHCR “to do everything possible to prevent this expulsion, which would constitute a total violation of international law and the right protection that the UN Refugee Agency granted to Lokini.”

"UNHCR is looking for a solution to resettle the 19 refugees in other countries. We have full cooperation from the UAE government and there is no threat of the refugees being sent back to Sri Lanka," Times of India quoted Babar Baloch, spokesperson for UNHCR in Geneva, in a report on Friday.

"We have been working sincerely to settle them in other countries. Fifteen of the 39 recognized refugees left UAE and 12 are in the process of departing. Resettlement for others may take time. The UAE government has been supporting UNHCR in sheltering the refugees," he had further said, adding that he wasn’t sure on how long the UAE government would keep them.

Chronology:

14.04.13  Plight of UAE refugees expose human rights decepti..

06.04.13  UAE Tamil deportees face torture, HRW raises alarm

Worsening human rights woes drive political skulduggery

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 March 2013, 00:56 GMT]
While Tamils unitedly view the Mu'l'livaaykaal killings as an international crime of genocidal proportions committed by the State, Colombo, sensing the tightening of the rights noose around its neck at the UNHCR and beyond, is resorting to political skulduggery, even while Tamils look suspiciously at the international actors, particularly India and the U.S. Both India and the U.S., even while armed with credible evidence of Rajapaksas' complicity in the genocidal crimes, continue to allow Colombo space and time to act on "improving" the rights climate, while Colombo continues its cultural genocide, and aggressively erases any remaining evidence of mass atrocities.

Recent reactions by two Sinhala opinion makers in Sri Lanka captures the ignominious Government response to the worsening diplomatic situation due to Sri Lanka's inaction on improving rights on the ground and the failure to implement the recommendations made by Colombo's own commission.

In either case, there was no attempt to ascertain and admit to what the facts are. The approach is to find ways to avoid or circumvent the need to expose the truth.

Mr. Wickremesinghe, a former Prime Minister and the current leader of the opposition, recalled that he had declined to sign an agreement on International Court (ICC) during his tenure as Prime Minister, thus preventing the Sri Lankan leaders from being charged of war crimes. “I created a favorable situation for Sri Lanka in 2003, but the present regime had turned the table,” Wickremesinghe is quoted as saying.

Wickremesinghe either knowingly misrepresents, or unknowingly makes a factual blunder questioning "why the government decided to join the ICC by changing the stance of the previous UNP Government. During my tenure as the premier of this country I did not join the ICC because I had plans for a political solution for the national problem."

TamilNet is unaware, and the Coalition for ICC, which advocates universal ratification of Rome Statute, has not made any pronouncements that Sri Lanka has taken even the preliminary step as a signator to Rome Statute. A Signator simply expresses the intention to join, and is not bound by the Statute until the country ratifies the Statute.

As of February 2013, 122 states are states parties to the Statute of the Court, including all of South America, nearly all of Europe and roughly half the countries in Africa. A further 31 countries, including Russia, have signed but not ratified the Rome Statute. 41 United Nations member states have neither signed nor ratified or acceded to the Rome Statute.

Sri Lanka is one of the last group of 41 UN members, a position adopted by successive Colombo governments precisely to escape being hauled into the ICC for crimes committed, legal sources in Washington said.

A former ambassador to France, Mr. Jayatilleke, admonishes Colombo, "what is crucial is that they [Sri Lanka diplomats] speak with credibility so as to convince the members of the Council [UNHRC]. However, the wicket they have to bat on is not a good one, due to the fundamental miscalculations of our policymakers."

"The worst thing that could happen is the setting up of an international inquiry, but even the appointment of a UN Special Rapporteur on Sri Lanka would mean a whole new ball game. In any case these repeated resolutions and defeats suffered by Sri Lanka at voting time, constitute a gradual encirclement and choking of the State. It is not yet the end-game but these are all steps that will lead to such an endgame," Mr Jayatilleke ponders.

Bad wicket, a mere "miscalculation," and new ball games indeed. The light hearted comparison to cricket does not comport with the seriousness of genocidal crimes in question, Tamil activists point out.

"The Sinhala opinion makers appear to be intensely concocting ways to avoid an investigation. Truth appears to scare these pundits," Tamil circles commented.

Related Articles:
22.02.13   Blake, architect of Tamil tragedy, spectator to genocide
07.08.11   Russell, Foucault on Truth, Lies in Sri Lanka context
13.01.09   Humanitarian tragedy unfolds in Vanni


External Links:

Wiki:		States parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
CT:		The Perils of Reporting Progress

British arms sales to Colombo

British arms sales to Colombo continue

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 February 2013, 11:10 GMT]
Despite Sri Lanka's dire human rights record, and the Foreign Office still classifying Sri Lanka as a “country of concern” for rights abuses, British small arms and weaponry worth at least £3m including pistols, rifles, assault rifles, body armour and combat shotguns were sold in the three months between July and September last year, The Independent reported. The figures on Britain’s most recent arms sales come from the Government’s own Export Controls Organisation, the paper said.

More than £2m of the sales came under the “ML1” label – a category used by the Government to denote small arms and weapons. Export licences were granted on four separate occasions – once in July and three times in August. In total the Government approved the sale of 600 assault rifles, 650 rifles, 100 pistols and 50 combat shotguns. The sales also included £330,000-worth of ammunition and £655,000 in body armour, the paper added.

“Given Sri Lanka’s shameful military record and its continuing abuse of human rights, it seems extraordinary that the Government has approved these export licences for small arms and ammunition. In 2011-12, not a single licence application for these items was refused, even though the Foreign Office lists Sri Lanka as a ‘country of concern’ for its human rights record,” the paper quoted Kaye Stearman, from the Campaign Against Arms Trade, as saying.

Ms Stearman said researchers have increasingly seen anti-piracy measures being used by the Government to justify arms sales but that the final destination for such weapons is often ambiguous. “Since the licence end-user is not listed, and the notes are often worded ambiguously, we don’t know which weapons are intended for this use,” she said.

External Links:

Independent:

Revealed: UK sells arms to Sri Lanka's brutal regime

Sri Lanka rejects 100 recommendations at UPR

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2012, 23:37 GMT]
A hundred recommendations that came out in the submissions of the member states of the United Nations at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Sri Lanka have not enjoyed the support of Sri Lanka, reveal a draft document by the UPR working committee on Monday. The report also identified 110 recommendations as enjoying the support of Sri Lanka. All conclusions and/or recommendations contained in the present report reflect the position of the submitting State(s) and/or the State under review. They should not be construed as endorsed by the Working Group as a whole, said the draft report. At its 18th meeting held on Monday, the Working Group adopted the report on Sri Lanka India, Benin and Spain had been selected by the UN Human Rights Council as rapporteurs (troika) to facilitate the review of Sri Lanka.

The UPR deliberations were ‘counting trees’ commented an Eezham Tamil politician in the island.

The review of Sri Lanka was held at the 16th meeting on 1 November 2012. The delegation of Sri Lanka was headed by Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of the President for Human Rights.

The final document is yet to be released. The draft has been released as unedited version at the following URL:

www.upr-info.org/IMG/pdf/a_hrc_wg.6_14_l.14_srilanka.pdf

During the interactive dialogue, 98 delegations made statements.

The Sri Lankan delegation faced a list of questions prepared in advance by Australia, Canada, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Norway, Mexico, Pakistan, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States, which had been transmitted to Sri Lanka through the troika prior to the interactive session.

Chronology:

05.11.12  Sri Lanka rejects 100 recommendations at UPR

02.11.12  Sri Lanka demands ‘time and space’ to complete gen..

ICE justice means rewarding people connected to genocidal war

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2012, 14:33 GMT]
Rajapaksa regime this week has approved new diplomatic appointments to generals conducted the genocidal war in the island. Conspicuously, they will be representing the regime in a new set of Establishments. People are usually named for such assignments not without prior consent by the concerned countries. Sri Lanka’s Major Generals, Shavendra Silva, Jagath Alwis and Kamal Gunaratne are named to go as Deputy Ambassadors respectively to South Africa, Israel and Brazil, media reports from Colombo said. Earlier the UN, some Western countries, Japan and Australia have received war-crimes-accused SL generals as diplomats.

Meanwhile, people connected to the course of the genocidal war in the island are invariably rewarded in some or the other way by certain countries and by the International Community of Establishments (ICE), political observers commented.

They cited MK Narayanan going as governor, Shiv Shankar Menon becoming the NSA, Nirupama Menon Rao going as US ambassador after retirement and above all the former Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee who misled the world on the number of people in the killing field becoming the President of India.

The UNSG Ban Ki-Moon received his second term, Robert Blake continued as US Asst. Secretary of State from Bush Administration to Obama Administration, UK’s John Sawers became the head of MI6, and the latest is Erik Solheim getting named to lead development facilitation of a body of 24 leading developed countries, the political observers further cited.

The Rajapaksa regime getting shielded overtly or covertly by everyone, getting pampered diplomatically and getting bestowed with competitive monetary aid from all quarters are no secrets.

“One of the worst atrocity crime stories of recent decades has barely registered in the world’s collective conscience,” lamented ICG’s President Emeritus and Australia’s former foreign minister Gareth Evans, a few days ago.

“We remember and acknowledge the shame of Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. We agonize about the failure to halt the atrocities being committed almost daily in Syria. But, at least until now, the world has paid almost no attention to war crimes and crimes against humanity comparable in their savagery to any of these: the killing fields of Sri Lanka in 2009,” he further said.

But the Establishments are fully conscious of the global significance of what they have ‘achieved’. Otherwise they would not pay this much of attention in rewarding the players, political observers commented.

Meanwhile, the genocide-affected nation of Eezham Tamils plunges further into structural genocide and into an invisible genocide, i.e., psychological genocide resulting from the denial of justice and commendation of the culprits.

There are no signs at all that it is practical to expect justice to come from the existing nature of the Establishments unless there is a globally coordinated mass struggle and civil society movement.

For those who think ‘collaboration’ is practical, the fate of Pillaiyan, Karuna and the East should be an eye-opener, civil activists in the island commented.

But certain Western diplomatic circles in Colombo are engaged in a campaign nowadays that challenging or creating awareness on the ‘illogical justice’ of the International Community of Establishments is an ‘impractical’ approach on the part of Eezham Tamils, the civil activists further commented.

Related Articles:
03.11.12   ICE rewards Solheim with international position to lead deve..
02.11.12   Sinhala academic condemns ICE’s manipulations of Eezham Tami..
31.10.12   ICE orchestrates once again to deviate from crux of the matt..
16.10.12   Address UN failure on referring Sri Lanka to ICC investigati..
08.10.12   Academics question ICE deceit after Solheim's speech at Lond..
25.09.12   UN and IOM deceive world on Tamil IDP resettlement

Colombo opts for anti-Tamil campaign to handle constitutional case

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 October 2012, 12:31 GMT]
The petitioners of a constitutional case against the ‘Divineguma’ Bill that will snatch away even grassroot development and social welfare powers of the provinces in genocidal Sri Lanka are currently targeted through a Sinhala poster campaign of ‘counterinsurgency’ style that collectively names the petitioners as ‘Paikiasothy Gang’ aiming ‘separation of the country’. The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), headed by Colombo-based Tamil, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, in a statement on Tuesday hinted at the connection between the posters and Sri Lanka Army coming for ‘investigations’ of the Centre on Monday. The SL Supreme Court on Monday decided for a separate hearing of the case filed by the TNA and has fixed it to next Monday, while four more writ petitions challenging the bill will be taken up for hearing by the court on Thursday.

The bill, seeking to bring rural development and social welfare outfits under a department of Colombo named ‘Divineguma’ in Sinhala, snatches away even the flimsy powers devolved to the provinces.

The bill was challenged on grounds that it is against the doctrine of the separation of powers, that it sets precedence for the possible reversal of certain subjects devolved to Provincial Councils, that it facilitates general oversight over the executive in parliament’s control over public finance and that it denies public access to information on ‘development’ held by government.

Accepting the constitutional perspective of the bill, the SL Supreme Court earlier said that Colombo should get the approval of the provinces also to pass the bill.

Under the current situation in the island, the Rajapaksa regime didn’t have any difficulty in getting the approval of the Sinhala provinces. After engineering the Rajapaksa-SLMC administration in the SL-occupied Eastern Province, one of the first bills passed was the Divineguma Bill that was seeking further deterioration of the powers of the provinces and facilitating Colombo’s agenda of taking up structural genocide of Eezham Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims to the grassroot levels.

In the SL-occupied Northern Province, in the absence of an elected administration to pass or reject the bill, the occupying Sinhala governor has given his approval, and this has become another constitutional issue, challenged by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Besids the TNA, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu (Centre for Policy Alternatives), Mr. Mano Ganesan (Democratic People’s Front), Dr Wickremabahu Karunaretna (Left Front), Mr. Asad Sally (Islamic Solidarity Front) Mr. Srithunge Jayasuriya (USP), Mr. Sarath Manamendra (Nawa Sihala Urumaya) and Aruna Soyza (Ruhunu Janatha Party) have filed writ applications before the SL Supreme Court, both jointly and independently, through attorney Gowrie Shangary Thavarasa, arguing that in the absence of the elected Northern Provincial Council, its powers could not be exercised by the Governor.

* * *

The ‘Divineguma’ Bill is a classic example for the edification of those who harp on ‘devolution’ of powers, provincial councils, 13th Amendment and the LLRC implementation as solutions to the national question in the island.

Devolution of powers is only in the lips of the powers, India and the USA that back the genocidal regime in the island. In truth, they only want a highly centralised, militarised and dictatorial regime – never mind if it is genocidal– to complete the land grab and implement an imperialism-friendly economic, ‘developmental’ and social order.

Buying time is their current tactic to complete their agenda and to write the final chapter on the ‘successful victory of counterinsurgency’ through genocidal means.

Unless there is a ‘policy alternative’ leading to total rejection, non-cooperation and internationalised mass uprising against the vicious agenda of the powers that are in partnership with the genocidal state and regime in the island, the ultimate subjugation and the annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils cannot be prevented, commented new generation Tamil political activists in the island.

Any collaboration or ‘engagement’ with the powers has hitherto proved as the affected people themselves consenting to give more time to their adversaries, the activists said adding that the Divineguma Bill is a good lesson to the TNA, Paikiasothy’s CPA and to a host of others in the island and in the diaspora, who in seeking solutions ‘engage’ with the real culprits in New Delhi and in the International Community of Establishments (ICE).

Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu’s Colombo-based CPA has long been viewed as a pro-ICE group.

The CPA statement on Tuesday ignored the national question of Eezham Tamils and was still harping on ‘minority protections and devolution’. The TNA’s statement on its visit to New Delhi didn’t want to even call Tamils as a nation in the island.

But neither Dr Saravanamuttu’s consistent opposition to separation nor the TNA’s abandonment of so-many things has saved them from being projected as forces seeking separation in the eyes of the Sinhala masses. The mere Tamil identity of anyone is enough, and this shows how no solutions could be arrived at through constitutional processes within the framework of the island, civil activists in Colombo said.

The posters that appeared in Sinhala in Colombo against one of the petitioners, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the CPA, said: "Let us save the pro-people Divineguma Act that builds the lives of fifteen lakhs of low income families from the Paikiasothy gang that aids and abets the separation of the country.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Jaffna district TNA parliamentarian Maavai Senathirajah had filed a writ petition, seeking to prohibit the Northern Provincial Governor from expressing his views on the Divineguma Bill on behalf of the Northern Provincial Council and from expressing agreement or disagreement with the passing of the Bill.

The SL Court of Appeal had referred the petition to the Supreme Court on October 8.

When the matter was taken up by the Supreme Court for hearing on Monday before a three-member bench that comprised of the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranaike, Justices S.Sripavan and Chandra Ekanayake, the Counsel for the petitioner Mr. M.A.Sumanthiran appearing for the petitioner made a request to appoint a full bench of the SL Supreme Court (SLSC) to hear the reference by the Court of Appeal.

The three-member bench of the SLSC then directed the registrar to furnish the full list of the SLSC judges to consider the appointment of a full bench.

Counsel S.L.Gunasekara appeared for the SL Governor of the Northern Province and Deputy Solicitor General Shavindra Fernando appeared for the Attorney General.

Regardless of the matter being referred to the Supreme Court on the question of the role of the Governor, the controversial Bill was tabled for the second time in the Parliament on 9 September 2012.

Chronology:

17.10.12  Colombo opts for anti-Tamil campaign to handle con..

13.10.12  SL Supreme Court to decide on governor’s approval ..

03.10.12  Colombo snatches away even little power devolved t..

German translation of NESoHR’s book on pre-2009 massacres released in Frankfurt

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 October 2012, 15:51 GMT]
The German translation of a compilation of large-scale massacres of Eezham Tamils by Sinhala forces from 1956 to 2008, brought out by the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR), has been released at the famous Frankfurt Book Fair, reputed to be the largest book festival in the world, on Sunday. The book release of “Damit wir nicht vergessen” saw the participation of Peter Schalk, Professor Emeritus Uppasala University, Christian Weiss, the owner of the publishing house that brought out the book, apart from several Eezham Tamil activists. Speaking at the release, Prof. Schalk said that this book contained important evidence indicting the GoSL of human rights violations and genocide and it would be an asset in hauling the Sri Lankan state before the International Criminal Court.

Prof. Schalk had written an introductory note to this publication of NESoHR’s compilation.

The German version of the compilation includes data on IPKF massacres, which had been excluded in the English version of the same published in 2009.

The IPKF massacres, documented by the NESoHR were however brought out in a separate publication, “In the Name of Peace: IPKF Massacres of Tamils in Sri Lanka”, by Delhi Tamil Students Union in April 2011.

Eezham Tamil youth who attended the book release felt that this book would be an important document for second generation Eezham Tamils involved in activism not just to get a broad picture of what happened in the past, but also to use in their work to secure justice for their suffering brethren.

Chronology:

16.10.12  German translation of NESoHR’s book on pre-2009 ma..

02.10.12  NESoHR book on Tamil massacres prior to 2009 publi..

Uprooted Champoor villagers file FR application in SL Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 October 2012, 15:03 GMT]
A Fundamental Rights Violation petition filed by uprooted villagers of Champoor in Trincomalee is to be taken up for further hearing on November 15, according to legal sources in Colombo. The petitioners have been challenging the Gazette Extraordinary issued on May 12 this year that a “Special Zone for Heavy Industries” had been demarcated in the areas formerly inhabited by them. Seven villagers in their petition filed on Friday before the Sri Lankan Supreme Court complained that the Gazette purportedly attempts to demarcate a “Special Zone for Heavy Industries” within the provision of the Section A of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka Law No:4 of 1978.

The petitioners had been seeking the Court to declare that their fundamental right to equality and equal protection of the law as well as the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language etc and the right to the freedom to engage in any lawful occupation and the right to the freedom of movement and of choosing their residence within the island were violated by the respondents.

President’s Counsel K.Kanag Iswaran with M.A.Sumanthiran, Bavani Fonseka, and Juanita Arulanantham instructed by Mohan Balendra appeared for the petitioners.

Counsel Priyantha Jayewardene appeared for the 1st respondent Economic development Minister Basil Rajapakse, Deputy Solicitor General Shavendra Fernando appeared for the 3rd respondent Director General of the Board of Investment and the Attorney General.

Related Articles:
12.10.12   SL Police in Champoor appropriates public playground in Naav..
22.08.12   Sri Lanka's coal-power politics
20.08.12   Land appropriation by Colombo in Trincomalee district goes u..
25.07.12   SL Supreme Court to inquire into FR application against Cham..
20.07.12   Acute malnutrition prevails among uprooted Champoor families
07.07.12   Colombo's new highways scheme genocidal demographic change i..
21.02.12   Sri Lanka plans ‘foreign’ enclave to balance India in Trinco..
19.12.11   Champoor uprooted Tamil families live in fear due to continu..
09.09.11   Champoor power plant, an ominous threat to public health
23.05.11   Uprooted Champoor Tamils show resolution to get back their l..

Address UN failure on referring Sri Lanka to ICC investigation: HRW

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 October 2012, 14:50 GMT]
“When it comes to ICC referrals, the United States, Russia, and China seem more concerned about prosecuting their enemies and protecting their friends,” says Richard Dicker, International Justice director at Human Rights Watch in a press statement issued on Tuesday adding that “[t]his checkered approach has left victims of abuses in Syria, Gaza, and Sri Lanka without recourse to justice.” The statement by the HRW comes while UN Security Council discussion, its first ever debate on the ICC open to all UN members, is scheduled for Wednesday.

“The Security Council’s ‘on again, off again’ approach to ICC referrals undermines its credibility in promoting justice,” Dicker said. “ICC member countries should use this debate to generate real Security Council support for the court, rather than allow it to twist in the wind.”

Full text of the statement by the HRW follows:

UN Security Council: Address Inconsistency in ICC Referrals
Use Debate on International Court to Forge a More Principled Relationship

(New York, October 16, 2012) – A United Nations Security Council discussion on the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is an important opportunity to address inconsistencies in the Security Council’s referrals to the court, Human Rights Watch said today. The Security Council discussion, its first ever debate on the ICC open to all UN members, is scheduled for October 17, 2012.

Specifically, Human Rights Watch said, the debate should examine the Security Council’s failure to refer situations in Sri Lanka, Gaza, and – most starkly – Syria to the court, as well as shortcomings in its Libya and Darfur referrals.

“The Security Council’s high-stakes relationship with the ICC merits a full discussion by council members and non-members,” said Richard Dicker, International Justice director at Human Rights Watch. “This open debate among all UN member states is an unprecedented opportunity for governments supporting the ICC to demand a more coherent approach to international justice.”

Under the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding treaty, the Security Council may refer a situation in any country to the ICC prosecutor under Chapter VII of the UN Charter if it determines that a situation amounts to a threat to international peace and security. The Security Council first acted on this authority by referring the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan to the court in March 2005 following months of intense debate. The Security Council’s only other referral took place in February 2011 with respect to the situation in Libya.

The Security Council’s referral authority significantly extends accountability for grave international crimes for which there would otherwise be impunity. At the same time, some governments contend that Security Council referrals taint the ensuing investigations, causing them to be seen as politicized. As the ICC has gained global status, the relationship between the Security Council and the court has grown more critical, Human Rights Watch said.

Council selectivity and double standards in making – and failing to make – referrals undercuts the appearance of the court's impartiality and independence, Human Rights Watch said, especially in relation to the role of the United States, Russia, and China, which are permanent Security Council members but are not subject to the court’s authority. The Security Council has on key occasions failed to act in situations where there was strong evidence of widespread and serious international crimes and little prospect of local accountability.

“When it comes to ICC referrals, the United States, Russia, and China seem more concerned about prosecuting their enemies and protecting their friends,” Dicker said. “This checkered approach has left victims of abuses in Syria, Gaza, and Sri Lanka without recourse to justice.”

The two Security Council referrals to the ICC, Resolutions 1593 and 1970, have included provisions that are damaging to the court, Human Rights Watch said. Both referrals imposed the entire financial burden of the new investigations and prosecutions on the court and its member countries. They also allowed exemptions for the nationals of non-member third countries should they be implicated in serious crimes committed in the referred country.

The Libya referral to the ICC was emblematic of the Security Council’s inconsistent approach, Human Rights Watch said. While the Council’s February 2011 referral was prompt and unanimous, once political circumstances changed in Libya, the Security Council no longer actively supported the ICC investigation and failed to press Libya’s new government to cooperate with the court. Similarly, the Security Council has done little to ensure that governments help to enforce Darfur-related ICC arrest warrants. Such practices undermine the effectiveness of the ICC.

“The Security Council’s ‘on again, off again’ approach to ICC referrals undermines its credibility in promoting justice,” Dicker said. “ICC member countries should use this debate to generate real Security Council support for the court, rather than allow it to twist in the wind.”

In a September 26, 2012 letter to 121 foreign ministers of ICC member states, Human Rights Watch urged governments to speak out during the debate on the shortcomings in the Security Council-ICC relationship.

The October 17 discussion could help highlight Security Council inconsistency in referrals, and discourage future referrals that deny funding and create carve-outs for citizens of non-member countries. It could also highlight the lack of Security Council support for the court following a referral, Human Rights Watch said.

SL Police in Champoor appropriates public playground in Naavaladi

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2012, 20:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan government officials in Colombo have instructed the divisional secretary of Moothoor to hand over a play ground, about four acres in extent, situated at the centre of several villages in Champoor area to the occupying SL police, civil officials told media. The Moothoor DS is the sole authority of the playground. The Divisional Secretary has handed over the playground for the use of the SL police camped at Champoor without seeking the consent of the people of the area and the school administration.

Before the fall of Moothoor East in to the hands of Sri Lanka Army in the year 2006, the villages Cheanai-yoor, Kaddai-pa'raichchaan, Chaalaiyoor, Chanthoashapuram, Amman Nakar, Kanesapuram, Chantha'na-veddai, Champoor, Kooniththeevu, Choodaik-kudaa, Navaratnapuram, Ilakkanthai, Veeramaanakar, Paaddaa'li-puram, Nalloor, Iththik-ku'lam, Chinnak-ku'lam, Srinivasa-puram, Pa'l'lik-kudiyiruppu and Thangka-puram were under the LTTE administration. The said playground is situated in the middle of these villages.

The said land was cleared and used as a playground in 1948 under the administration of the then Kaddai-pa'richchaan Village Council. With the introduction of Piratheasa Chapai (PS) system the playground was taken over by the Divisional Secretariat.

Veteran Eezham Tamil educationalist passes away

Veteran Eezham Tamil educationalist passes away in Seychelles

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2012, 06:12 GMT]
Mr V. Sivasupramaniam, teacher, educational administrator, trade unionist and social worker, passed away in Seychelles on Wednesday, at the age of 81. His funeral takes place on Friday. Mr. Sivasupramaniam taught at Jaffna Hindu College between 1953 and 1972. Besides his reputation as an eminent, committed and inspiring teacher, he was also a leading trade unionist, long associated with the Northern Province Teachers Association that was the predominant teachers union of the region at that time. Later, the newly independent Seychelles government was benefitted by his services in developing educational infrastructure and institutions there. Serving Seychelles for nearly quarter a century, Mr. Sivasupramaniam was also a key person in building a cultural centre, a temple, for the South Asian Hindu community there.

Mr. V. Sivasupramaniam (1931 - 2012)

Mr and Mrs Sivasupramaniam were planning to wind up their long stay in the Seychelles, but providence decided his demise there, in the land of his high-watermark achievements.

Studied under the Jaffna Youth Congress generation of teachers, and was inclined to socialist ideology, he was an example of the old generation of committed educationalists who served humanity wherever they went.

Born at Aiyanaar Koayiladi in Jaffna in 1931, Mr Sivasupramaniam studied at Jaffna Hindu College in the 1940s. After graduating from the University of Ceylon, he was teaching Civics and Politics as well as English at the same college. He was also a leading figure in directing the Scouts movement of the college.

After 1972, he was principal at various schools, including A’laveddi Arunodaya College. He also served in Nigeria for sometime before going to Seychelles.

In 2010, on his 80th birth year, he brought out an inspiring book "Souvenir 80 - My Educational Memories," in which he remembered 218 educationalists of his times in the island.

The temple at Victoria in Seychelles [Photo courtesy- Panorama/Google Earth]

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‘Sri Lanka model of COIN sets a dangerous precedent for humanity’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 October 2012, 18:26 GMT]
After the International Community of Establishments working in tandem with a genocide-intending Sri Lankan state oversaw a brutal military solution over the armed struggle of the Eezham Tamils in May 2009, the ‘Sri Lanka model’ of dealing with insurgencies is now being incorporated into the science of Counterinsurgency (COIN), opines RM Karthick, observing what dangerous ramifications this could have for struggling peoples worldwide in an article published on Sanhati, an Indian online journal, on Wednesday. Outlining internal and external factors in shaping the conflict, using the politico-military analysis of the late TamilNet senior editor ‘Taraki’ Sivaram, the author explains how internationally coordinated measures against the LTTE and the genocidal intent of Sinhala nationalists led to Mu’l’livaaykkaal and the systemic repression of the Eezham Tamils in their homeland that followed.

Full text of the article by Mr RM Karthick, a research scholar in Political Theory at the University of Essex, UK, published on Sanhati follows:

Genocide as Counterinsurgency – Brief Notes on the “Sri Lanka Model”

Speaking at a conference at Trinity College, Dublin on 24th May 2012 titled ‘The Local and the Global: The Geopolitics of Peace and Conflict’ exiled Sinhala journalist Bashana Abeywardane, opined that genocide was used as a Counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy by the Sri Lankan state to crush the armed struggle for a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam led by the LTTE. Citing British military strategist Frank Kitson, who had played an important role in suppressing the Mau Mau uprising and the insurgency of the Malayan Communist Party, Mr. Abeywardane said that when you want to neutralize an insurgency movement, you must destroy its “genuine subversive element” – arguing that in the case of Sri Lanka, the genuine subversive element in the island was the Tamil population as such. He further cited geo-political factors that influenced the decision of the world powers to support the Sri Lankan state’s military offensive leading up to May 2009, arguing that the island held geo-strategic importance only if it was a unitary political entity.

COIN, as the term suggests, is a war manoeuvre used against insurgents by states. While the principal feature of COIN is to ensure that a state facing an insurgency does not lose its constitutional-legal monopoly over violence in the territory it controls/seeks to control over to the insurgents, there are specific cases where COIN gains additional features as well. According to David Kilcullen, a leading COIN expert based in the US, counterinsurgency “is an umbrella term that describes the complete range of measures that governments take to defeat insurgencies. These measures may be political, administrative, military, economic, psychological, or informational, and are almost always used in combination.” He further adds that to understand strategies deployed in particular conflicts it is necessary to take into consideration “the nature of the insurgency being countered, the nature of the government being supported, and the environment—especially the human environment—in which the conflict takes place.”

As a phenomenon, countering insurgencies is as old as states and empires. As a concept, study in COIN gained momentum in the colonial period so as to deal with frequently occurring rebellions in colonies as well as to counter the “communist menace”. As a science, it grew with late modernity and the rise of what ‘Taraki’ Sivaram (iconic Eelam Tamil journalist, military analyst and senior editor of TamilNet who was assassinated by Colombo in 2005) called “counter-insurgency nation-states”. We must understand that COIN has developed as a science, deployed by specific actors in specific conditions as a science. And by virtue of its being a science, each deployment – whether successful, partially successful, or failed - is closely followed, studied and applied by various states engaged in COIN operations according to the particular conditions they encounter.

Some refined political analysts, understanding the geo-strategic importance of Sri Lanka, have argued that the Sri Lankan war machine was ideologically and materially equipped in its COIN operations against the Tigers by a confluence of world powers. Reflecting on this, Mark Whitaker writes in his biography of ‘Taraki’ Sivaram that “by the middle 1990s Sivaram had come to view Sri Lanka’s conflict as a kind of military-political laboratory in which the various repressive forces of late modernity (local and international) were testing their clever, often cruel, counter-insurgency tactics”. Just that the lab rats favoured by the world powers in the island had genocidal intentions.

From here, we need to chalk out those points that need to be outlined so as to further study the ‘Sri Lanka model’ of COIN – both objective conditions and subjective forces that existed in the island.

Objective conditions:

1. Location of the island of Sri Lanka makes it geo-strategically important. The position of the island between the routes of the Straits of Malacca and Hormuz make it an excellent base for a power seeking to exert influence in the Indian-Pacific waters;
2. Demographic distribution in the island, with the Eelam Tamils identifying the North and East region as their traditional homeland (i.e. Tamil Eelam).

Subjective forces:

3. A virulent strain of Sinhala/Sri Lankan nationalism that seeks to forcibly assimilate Eelam Tamils through Sinhalization, which possesses a neanderthal paranoia about external Tamil conspiracies to take over/divide its Sri Lanka, seeing the entire island as primarily Sinhala property, and exercises control over both repressive and ideological state apparatus;
4. An Eelam Tamil nationalism that had manifested itself as an armed struggle, that aspired for a political solution based on the right of nations to self-determination;
5. World powers with vested interests in preserving the unitary state structure of Sri Lanka.

The author needn’t spend time in elaborating on point (3). The inherent appeal for genocide that such a strain of nationalism would possess should be evident to readers. Suffice to point out that the ideological patriarch of Sinhala nationalism, Anagarika Dharmapala, a xenophobic monk who expounded theories of Sinhala race superiority and the need for their lebensraum, was greatly impressed by Japanese militarist nationalism. No wonder that what his sons did at Mullivaikaal is compared by Tamils to the Rape of Nanking.

Point (4) needs some observation. The armed struggle for Tamil Eelam led by the LTTE was categorized under “Identity-Focused Strategy” by the US Field Manual 3-24.2 on ‘Tactics in Counterinsurgency’ (April 2009). According to the manual, “The identity-focused strategy mobilizes support based on the common identity of religious affiliation, clan, tribe, or ethnic group. In this strategy, legitimacy and popular support are tied to their identity and, often, no effort is made to garner popular support outside their identity. Rather, communities often join the insurgent movement as a whole, bringing with them their existing social or military hierarchy. External support is garnered from international elements of the same identity.” Further, it is argued that this strategy “Protects what it considers the interest of the identity”, and “Mass base easily aligns with insurgency objectives.” In other words, the goals of this type of an insurgency includes preserving and protecting political, historical and cultural symbols that are of core value to the community, and the strength of this type of an insurgency is the support it enjoys amongst masses adhering to an identity.

To use Sivaram’s analysis [1], the LTTE, after it developed into a conventional army effectively challenging the monopoly of violence that the Sinhala state possessed, required the following conditions:

1. A politically motivated population from which to raise battalions;
2. An economy to raise resources to clothe, arm, feed and deploy its forces;
3. A secure territory to train and barrack the forces;
4. An efficient logistics system;
5. Facilities to treat a battalion of wounded fighters.

To this, I would like to add another crucial condition (F), namely, a rear base to withdraw should a situation emerge when the best fighting forces risk complete annihilation. The Tigers had this in Tamil Nadu till the point when the Indian government turned hostile towards the Eelam Tamils’ struggle. The neutralization of the rear base by India cut-off the only possible, strategically favourable sanctuary the insurgents had in the region.

Other than this, the LTTE’s de facto state that emerged after hugely successful military operations against the Sri Lankan military secured all other conditions. Popular support among the Eelam Tamil people, a civilian infrastructure that functioned like a ‘normal’ government with its system of taxation, funds from a million strong diaspora, medical facilities to treat the wounded, a political and military stronghold in the Vanni region, and logistics system secured mainly through control of the sea with the Sea Tigers.

It was this force that the Sri Lankan state faced. From the conditions that the LTTE secured in their de facto state, we can map out those measures taken to destroy them.

Measures adopted by Sri Lankan government to destroy the LTTE:

1. The measures taken by the co-chairs (the group of US, EU, Norway and Japan who were ‘managing’ the peace process initiated between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government since 2002 till its collapse in 2006) in the ceasefire period to restrict taxation by the LTTE in the territory in governed – but considering the taxation of the Sri Lankan government as legitimate [2];
2. The measures taken in the ceasefire period to restrict the movement of the Sea Tigers, thereby affecting flow of logistics;
3. Foreign intelligence supplied to the Sri Lankan military to target and attack the Sea Tigers’ bases, boats and supply channels;
4. Proscription of the LTTE in Western countries where the Tamil diaspora is present, arrests of diaspora activists and criminalization of fund raising for political or relief purposes [3];
5. Sri Lanka’s undeclared embargo on food, medical and other basic supplies to LTTE controlled regions;
6. Sri Lanka ‘compelling’ the pull-out of relief organizations and NGOs after the collapse of the peace process in 2006;
7. Sri Lankan military’s systematic targeting of hospitals, educational institutions and food supplies so as to leave the Tiger’s civilian infrastructure in complete disarray;
8. Making the secure territory of the insurgents insecure for the population;
9. Collective trauma inflicted to hurt not the insurgent alone, but the population as such, so as to destroy their political motivation. A study of the patterns of claymore attacks, Kfir bombings, and artillery shelling by the Sri Lankan military would show that these were intended to target the Tamil population primarily. Add to this cordon and search operations in Sri Lanka overrun Tamil territory, creation of High Security Zones and military enclaves, military checkpoints that make the Sinhala repressive state appear omnipresent, destruction of Tamil cultural and political symbols, routine tortures, rapes, interrogations, disappearances etc. The point is, reduce the population to subhuman conditions that let alone being political, even to be treated as something close to a human would appear as an act of benevolence by the Sinhalese.;
10. Finally, with all external factors in its favour, with the political space for the Tigers completely blocked, and the internal factor of Sinhala nationalism being at an all time high, using the moment to inflict as much casualties as possible on the Eelam Tamil people as a warning of what would happen to those resisting Sinhala hegemony.

The adoption of these measures led to Mullivaikaal, with 40000 plus dead and many more disappeared. An observation of these measures shows that while the genocidal intention of internal actors in the state influenced the manner in which they handled conditions (A) and (C), the counter-strike to conditions (B) (D) (E) and (F) was dealt wholly or largely by external forces. Or, the external forces, which had vested interests in the island, created favourable conditions for the Sri Lankan state to unify the island through whatever means possible.

It all these known factors taken into account that made the ‘Sri Lanka model’ tick.

What followed after shows Sri Lanka’s operations did not stop with the military defeat of the Tigers. They are listed out as points to give readers a general overview – ideally, each of the points merits separate analysis – of what is happening in the so-called ‘post-war’ era. Some of these factors have been listed by Sivaram much earlier as being part of a COIN strategy.

— Increased military presence in the North and East and creation of military bases in Tamil areas. A report published in the July 14, 2012 issue of the Economic and Political Weekly titled “Notes on the Military Presence in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province” states that military to civilian ratio in the North is as high as 1:5 – higher than Kashmir. The Sinhala military monitors, dominates and penetrates all aspects of social, cultural and political life of the Eelam Tamils be it civil society protests, religious festivals or birthday celebrations. Paul Virilio contends that “Whoever controls the territory possesses it. Possession of territory is not primarily about laws and contracts, but first and foremost a matter of movement and circulation.” Sinhala military control of Tamil territory equals Sinhala possession over it, to facilitate smooth access of the Sinhala state apparatus to all corners of the island.

— Settlement of Sinhalese from the South in places where Tamils have been displaced. Tamil activists argue that this is a system of colonization intended to destroy the territorial integrity of the Tamil homeland by bringing about demographic changes that would make them a minority in their own areas.

— Building of Buddhist statues and monuments celebrating Sinhalese triumph in Tamil areas often carried side-by-side with destruction and desecration of places of political or cultural importance to the Tamils.

— Parcelling out Tamil lands to foreign investors through a military-corporate nexus. A combine of free-market capitalism that respects no borders and a militarist state that is bent on breaking the sovereignty that the Tamils aspire to, works towards facilitating exploitation of human and material resources available in the Tamil homeland.

– Induced proliferation of drugs, alcohol and pornography among the Tamil people. Likewise, a high prevalence of sexual abuse of Eelam Tamil women by the Sri Lankan military and police forces has also been recorded. An ICG report on “Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East” credits this to the overwhelming military presence in the Tamil areas. However, the analysis and conclusions of this report has been criticized by Tamil feminists and scholars for failing to recognize the genocidal nature of the sexual violence perpetrated on the Eelam Tamils. Analysts further say that all of these processes have been intended to systematically tear the socio-cultural fabric that binds the Tamil people

— ‘Disappearances’ and routine psychological harassments of ex-LTTE cadres not just to make them broken persons, but also to warn those around of the consequences of rebellion. Particularly affected are women combatants. A TamilNet analytical feature details how women cadres have been subject to abuse and in many cases, forced pregnancies, in the course of ‘rehabilitation’. The fate of about 2000-3000 women cadres is still unknown, the feature notes.

What is to be noted here is that none of the world powers that aided the Sri Lankan state with ammunition and ideas, some of who have now started to ask the Sri Lankan government to speedily implement the “positive recommendations” of the ‘reconciliation’ commission setup by it, have addressed even one of these issues with the seriousness it deserves. Likewise, while the Sinhala nationalists justify/deny the above in the name of security, other observers call these processes a protracted genocide, results of structural violence. These are the effects of the ‘Sri Lanka model’ on the Eelam Tamil nation.

The science of COIN will add the ‘Sri Lanka model’ in its ambit. Already, numerous states across the world facing insurgencies have threatened to do a Sri Lanka on the rebelling people. Turkey of late has been making most references in public to this model to the Kurds. But as mentioned above, the success of the ‘Sri Lanka model’ depended on a combination of internal and external factors, objective conditions and subjective forces, none of which will be found at a different time and a different place – the laboratory and the lab rats would not be the same elsewhere. We must also realize that international legitimacy, ideas and weapons from all directions given to the internal actors who had genocidal intention played the major role in effecting the defeat of the insurgents and the concomitant genocide than the internal actors themselves. Other states needn’t have all the advantages that Sri Lanka had.

Then again, no COIN expert worth his salt would suggest a blind imitation of this model. It needs to be restated here that there is no pure model of COIN – each one influences the other and in turn is influenced by others. What will happen is that those aspects of the ‘Sri Lanka model’ that can find applicability in other conflicts will be studied deeper and applied accordingly.

One can see at least 3 general lessons emerging from the ‘Sri Lanka model’ that other states might find appealing to deal with insurgencies.

- Military solution first. Display ruthlessness in securing your hegemony and the population will be willing to accept any political solution you throw at them later.

- Winning ‘hearts and minds’ is outdated. Break the spine of the population; throw fear in their hearts and numb their minds. They will be grateful to you for letting them to just live.

- The press does nothing to influence public opinion that you don’t want it to. If they are against you, they are with the ‘terrorists’ and are to be dealt accordingly.

What this would mean for people involved in struggles against various oppressive governments is left to the reader’s imagination.

Notes:

[1] See Mark Whitaker, “Learning Politics From Sivaram: The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka”, London: Pluto Press, (2007) p. 146.

[2] For further information on how the LTTE’s Peace Secretariat viewed the tilting of the parity of status by the co-chairs through various means during the peace talks, click this link.

[3] For a more elaborate account of how the criminalization of Tamil diaspora politics is still taking place in the West so as to arm-twist them to drop the demand for Tamil Eelam, refer to Vicki Sentas’ chapter “One more successful war? Tamil diaspora and counter-terrorism after the LTTE” in “Counter-Terrorism and state political violence: The ‘war on terror’ as terror” edited by Scott Poynting and David Whyte, Routledge (2012).

External Links:

Sanhati:

Genocide as Counterinsurgency – Brief Notes on the “Sri Lanka model”

‘Surrendering a struggle’: Biafran lessons to Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2012, 15:56 GMT]
In an article published in The Guardian on Tuesday, famed novelist Chinua Achebe, who hails from the Igbo community in Nigeria, opines that decades after Nigeria’s genocidal war on the short-lived state of Biafra, the Igbo people still face monumental problems under Nigerian rule. The Nigerian-Biafran war ended after the internationally aided Nigerian offensives on the Igbo people, which resulted in the death of around 2 million, compelled the leaders of the armed resistance for Biafra to capitulate. Whether the Solheim clique in the Western establishments who now claim that they could have saved civilian lives by facilitating the ‘surrender’ of the LTTE leadership in 2009 had the same intentions for the Eezham Tamil nation, ask Tamil political activists.

After the internationally forced capitulation, the political and economic situation of the Igbo worsened, while Nigeria paraded superficial improvements to the world.

Prof. Achebe, who is most known for his novel ‘Things Fall Apart’, is also poet, academic and postcolonial literary critic. Prof. Achebe had been a strong advocate for Biafran sovereignty when the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria to form a de facto state in 1967.

After a brutal civil war, which saw the deliberate targeting of civilians by the Nigerian forces, imposed starvation, and cutting off medical supplies to the Biafran territory, the Nigerian government retook the region after the surrender of the leadership of the Biafran resistance in 1970. The death toll among the Igbo during this period is said to range anywhere between two to three million.

In its war on the Igbo, Nigeria was assisted by a confluence of world powers, most notably the UK, which had strong economic relationships with the Nigerian regime. On the other hand, the political demands of the struggle for Biafra were not recognized by any major power in the world, though issues of their human rights violations touched Western media.

The parallels with Tamil Eelam are obvious, but for the fact that the LTTE leadership did not surrender the cause despite the compulsions by the International Community of Establishment (ICE) that in practice abetted the genocidal war against the Eezham Tamils.

Tamil political activists say ‘surrender’, as envisaged by some journalists, intellectuals and those in Western establishments, cannot just be taken as a humanitarian action that may have saved thousands of lives. They argue that it would have severe moral and political consequences that would affect the life, politics, and culture of the resisting people for generations to follow as a mortal blow to the idea of resistance and justice.

The current ramifications of the ‘surrender’ of the Biafran armed movement more than four decades ago have been elucidated by Prof. Achebe’s article in The Guardian through the questions he raises.

“Did the federal government of Nigeria engage in the genocide of its Igbo citizens – who set up the republic of Biafra in 1967 – through punitive policies, the most notorious being "starvation as a legitimate weapon of war"? Is the information blockade around the war a case of calculated historical suppression? Why has the war not been discussed, or taught to the young, more than 40 years after its end? Are we perpetually doomed to repeat the errors of the past because we are too stubborn to learn from them?”

“Supporters of the federal government position maintain that a war was being waged and the premise of all wars is for one side to emerge as the victor. Overly ambitious actors may have "taken actions unbecoming of international conventions of human rights, but these things happen everywhere". This same group often cites findings, from organisations (sanctioned by the federal government) that sent observers during the crisis, that there "was no clear intent on behalf of the Nigerian troops to wipe out the Igbo people ... pointing out that over 30,000 Igbos still lived in Lagos, and half a million in the mid-west".”

“But if the diabolical disregard for human life seen during the war was not due to the northern military elite's jihadist or genocidal obsession, then why were there more small arms used on Biafran soil than during the entire second world war? Why were there 100,000 casualties on the much larger Nigerian side compared with more than 2 million – mainly children – Biafrans killed?” Despite world establishments lauding Nigeria for reintegration and rehabilitation of the Igbo, Prof. Achebe notes that these have been but superficial cases that the Nigerian regime parades to the world to rehabilitate its own image.

“There are many international observers who believe that Gowon's actions after the war were magnanimous and laudable. There are tons of treatises that talk about how the Igbo were wonderfully integrated into Nigeria. Well, I have news for them: The Igbos were not and continue not to be reintegrated into Nigeria, one of the main reasons for the country's continued backwardness.”

“Borrowing from the Marshall plan for Europe after the second world war, the federal government launched an elaborate scheme highlighted by three Rs – for reconstruction, rehabilitation, and reconciliation. The only difference is that, while the Americans actually carried out all three prongs of the strategy, Nigeria's federal government did not.”

“What has consistently escaped most Nigerians in this entire travesty is the fact that mediocrity destroys the very fabric of a country as surely as a war – ushering in all sorts of banality, ineptitude, corruption and debauchery. Nations enshrine mediocrity as their modus operandi, and create the fertile ground for the rise of tyrants and other base elements of the society, by silently assenting to the dismantling of systems of excellence because they do not immediately benefit one specific ethnic, racial, political, or special-interest group. That, in my humble opinion, is precisely where Nigeria finds itself today.”

Colombo’s Defence Seminar of 2012, that also saw the participation of military personnel from countries that abetted the genocidal war on the Eezham Tamils, harped on five Rs – rehabilitation, reconstruction, reintegration, resettlement and reconciliation. With the aid of powers that that have vested interests in the island, such grand terms are used to only to reconcile unitary Sri Lanka with the world community.

It can be deciphered through Prof. Achebe’s poignant article that the forced surrender of a struggle fighting for a just cause might appear as saving a few thousand lives at that particular moment, but in the long run, it only causes a systematic depredation of the resisting people at the hands of the oppressive system, the latter having gained more legitimacy owing to the surrender.

Tamil activists wonder whether this was the solution that those like Solheim had in mind when they claim now that they could have arranged a ‘negotiated surrender’ of the LTTE leadership to the Sri Lankan government.

At the height of the Vanni war, a representative of the Biafra struggle sent a message to TamilNet. He wanted the Eezham Tamils to remember that in his view they were fighting not merely for them, but for the cause of an array of nations and peoples like them all over the world. If the Eezham Tamils fail they fail the world of liberation he had said.

In The Guardian article, Prof. Achebe writes “As a writer I believe that it is fundamentally important, indeed essential to our humanity, to ask the hard questions, in order to better understand ourselves and our neighbours. Where there is justification for further investigation, justice should be served.”

It is high time Eezham Tamils and their supporters pose hard questions to the world establishments and international bodies like the UN, demanding justice for the internationally-abetted genocide through a restoration of their lost sovereignty in the clearest of terms.

External Links:

The Guardian:

The genocidal Biafran war still haunts Nigeria

Creating historical fiction on Mu'l'livaaykkal massacre

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2012, 02:32 GMT]
Julian Vigo, a Britain-based academic, who authored a report based on eye-witness accounts from twelve United Nations humanitarian workers who were working on the ground during the last phases of war in Sri Lanka that ended in May 2009, in an interview to TamilNet, apportions blame to the United Nations organs operating in Sri Lanka at the time of the massacre at the killling fields of Mu'l'livaaykkal, and says, "I am interested in how historical fictions (if we are to take the media as the recorder of history) are created around the issue of Sri Lanka's dead and the way that international organizations eschew responsibility for their role in the 40,000 dead while finger pointing to Colombo."

Julian Vigo, author of UN complicity in Sri Lanka killings

Vigo recently filed statements from UN workers on the policies implemented by Colombo, leading to starvation, deprivation of medical supplies, indiscriminate bombings of hospitals and schools in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1612 amounting to war-crimes and crimes against humanity. Vigo also was exposed United Nation's officials' inaction, failure to speak out and the UN's willingness to acquiesce with the Rajapakse government's rights violations and state sanctioned killings of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians.

Vigo's interview with TamilNet follows:

TamilNet: You list anthropology and human rights as special expertise among other skills. Are you an academic by heart?, and why did you get involved in this project?

• Report on UN complicity in Sri Lanka HR violations

Julian Vigo: I got involved because I was working on child trafficking projects in Haiti and was approached by two different members of the UN who asked me to make a report about what they witnessed in Sri Lanka that resembled much of what they were seeing in Haiti.

TamilNet: Were all the UN staff witnesses working with you in the Haiti project? How long did the interviews last? and how long did it take you to prepare the report? Were the staffers satisfied with the product?
Julian Vigo: This is a report, not a team survey so the report was published and did not get 'approval' by anyone. I do not think that having the subjects approve of the report would have been ethical to be honest. This report is virtually verbatim hence it was really a matter of checking out some facts and putting together the report through their testimony. Interviews varied in time from each person--some had more to share than others.

TamilNet: How did you conduct the interviews? Did you record the interviews, audio or video? I recorded the interviews. Why did you choose to expose the UN's role in Sri Lanka's war, when many others with knowledge had stayed quiet?
Julian Vigo: This question rather answers itself. The fact that people were silent and others spoke out necessitated an analysis of the spoken testimony.

TamilNet: Did all witnesses have a serious issue with the way the UN officials were prepared to remain silent?
Julian Vigo: They had issues with what they saw and by the policy of the UN to remain silent and force them to be silence.

TamilNet: Why do you think the UN officials acted the way they did? Was there directives from the NY office, or if the Colombo-based staff acted locally not to jeopardize their careers or both?
Julian Vigo: I dislike speculating on this subject as I can only state what those UN staff members stated which is all in the report. The consensus is that the UN remains silent in countries such as Sri Lanka for fear of getting kicked out. As for directives from NY, I cannot guess as to what NY was doing or saying. I have attempted to interview the NY UN office and they have refused to be interviewed.

TamilNet:Sri Lanka and UN will be furious for this exposure. Are you or others whose names have been exposed not worried of the repercussions? Will you and others be prepared speak out on these issues again?
Julian Vigo:Anyone with a modicum of ethics should not be furious about this report or any other but rather these individuals should be concerned about the serious actions that led to the death of 40,000 humans. Obfuscating nutrition reports, allowing certain UN agencies to send chalkboards to a starving population, the creation of a concentration camp to house people, to remain silent about the illegal actions of the Sri Lanka government. These are all reasons to be furious.

TamilNet: Do you think some of the witnesses will be willing to take this matter further, like appearing as witnesses in any future legal actions?
Julian Vigo:Two yes. Many others are terrified of losing their careers and hence jobs in an economic climate which is unkind to even the most competent.

TamilNet: In what way has the Haiti and Sri Lanka exposure affect you in the way you view the way the international NGOs deal with humanitarian matters?
Julian Vigo: I have written much about the devastating effects of "humanitarian aid" and the concept of "development" in the West and within the larger UN structure. Having studied the insertion of NGO's at approximately the same time of the decolonization processes of many nations in the 1950s and 1960s, it is not surprising that NGOs and the UN have merely acted as surrogates to one upon a time colonial powers. The downside to this is, of course, that there is not mandate to 'get out' as if a temporary military invasion and countries across Africa and Asia and the Americas have had their economies devastated and their infrastructures modeled after a dependency structure. Haiti, for instance, once exported most of its produce for profit and in the 1950s was a wealthy country. It is one of the most economically devastated in the world today with US rice costing less than locally grown rice, with the presence of 10,000 NGOs in such a small nation. Clearly development is a failure in Haiti as it is in in every African nation. Economist Dambisa Moyo in her book Dead Aid gives an economic analysis regarding why aid is simply not working. Yet these structures perpetuate to give jobs to the well-educated and often well-off members of societies. So while there were Haitian doctors and lawyers in need of work after the earthquake, the UN's response is to pay specialists in the areas of $20,000-$30,000 per month (tax free) to do what Haitians are completely capable of doing for themselves. In brief, "aid" and "development" schemes are aiding Western industries and work forces while impoverishing further the local sectors of professional formation and labor.

TamilNet: In what way does Sri lanka's war and the tamil killing field fit into your broader research interests?
Julian Vigo: I have been working on issues of violence from the suicide bombers in the West Bank during the Second Intifada to the disappearing of Muslim men post 9/11 in the USA where 14,000 men have gone reported missing. I am interested in how historical fictions (if we are to take the media as the recorder of history) are created around the issue of Sri Lanka's dead and the way that international organizations eschew responsibility for their role in the 40,000 dead while finger pointing to Colombo. Certainly there is blame to go around but without any sliver of honesty from the UN, I fear that this will simply result in a UN that is resilient to questioning and arrogant to respond to questions. The first step is to begin to ask the questions and to demand an external investigation of these incidents by professionals from outside the UN body.

Chronology:

05.10.12  Creating historical fiction on Mu'l'livaaykkal mas..

24.09.12  UN complicit in Mu'l'livaaykaal killings, say UN h..

External Links:

DM:		Dambisa Moyo and Dead Aid
EP:		Essays by Julian Vigo

Commonwealth Secretariat thrusts ‘Sri Lankan’ identity on Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 October 2012, 20:08 GMT]
An Indian official in the Commonwealth Secretariat, Amitav Banerji, Director of Political Affairs of the Secretariat, will be addressing “We Sri Lanka 2012” event organised by The Association of Professional Sri Lankans in the UK, on Saturday at Clore Management Centre of the University of London. Amitav Banerji is also the chief political adviser to the Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma, and is responsible for managing the Commonwealth’s political activity. He was earlier a career diplomat of New Delhi. The ‘We Sri Lanka’ meet will also be featuring a panel discussion on ‘Road to Reconciliation Post LLRC Report, Commonwealth Diaspora Dialogues about their recent visit to Sri Lanka, besides Sri Lankan dances and refreshments.

Similar to the shadowy role played during the genocidal war by another Indian diplomat, Vijay Nambiar, Chief of Staff to UN Secretary General, Indian diplomats in the Commonwealth Secretariat and in various other international agencies work as agents for New Delhi than as officials of the supra-national or universal bodies, political observers in New York and London said.

Indian diplomat and Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma stretching his position to uphold the Sri Lanka venue of the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet, and his hint at Canada in this regard have been noted with much anger by Tamils and with serious concern by a large section of world’s diplomats.

New Delhi tries to monopolise and control the Commonwealth, especially in the case of protecting the genocidal state and regime of Sri Lanka, political observers say. Political activists in another South Asian country, the Republic of Maldives, also share an opinion that New Delhi is playing a game in the Commonwealth to pursue its agenda in that country by using Indian officials in the Secretariat.

Last year’s ‘We Sri Lanka’ event in the UK was addressed by the genocidal state’s High Commissioner in London.

The proceeds of the event, for which participants have to buy tickets, would go in aid for war victims, the organisers say.

Where were the ‘We Sri Lankan’ professionals advocating ‘inclusive national identity’, when 150, 000 Eezham Tamils disappeared in the genocidal war is the question asked by the diaspora Eezham Tamil activists in the UK. All the exercises are ultimately aimed for bailing out the genocidal state and regime of Sri Lanka in the international forums and to allow it to continue with the annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, the activists said.

Meanwhile, SL presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa told Indian journalists in Colombo this week that Sri Lanka is “very firm” on getting training for its military from India, despite protests by the Tamil Nadu state government and by almost all political parties in the state. Basil Rajapaksa was critical of the stand of Tamil Nadu.

New Delhi’s intelligence bigwigs are of the opinion that their ‘grand strategies’ on the island are thwarted by the ‘stupidity’ of Tamil Nadu politicians, sources close to the Indian intelligence agencies say. Colombo’s military top brass and politicians are habitual in their contemptuous outbursts at Tamil Nadu politicians whenever the latter, reflecting the strong grassroot sentiments of their people, voice for the genocide-affected Eezham Tamils.

Which human civilisation would accept a ‘grand strategy’ that has caused the disappearance of 150,000 people of a nation, continued shielding of the culprits and continued annihilation of the identity of that nation, ask political and social activists in Tamil Nadu. If the New Delhi regime and its intelligence agencies adamantly insist that it is their ‘grand strategy’ then they are the foremost enemies of humanity, the activists further said.

In the meantime, British High Commission in Colombo, on Wednesday said it has supported ‘a group of six young people from the diaspora in the UK’ to visit the island from August to September 2012 as part of a ‘wider programme supporting reconciliation in Sri Lanka’.

“During their visit to Sri Lanka, the group attended the annual conference of Sri Lanka Unites in Jaffna,” revealed a press statement from the British High Commission.

Chronology:

04.10.12  Commonwealth Secretariat thrusts ‘Sri Lankan’ iden..

14.09.12  International civil society urged to act on CHOGM ..

14.10.10  Indian Secretary General leads Commonwealth away f..

External Links:

http://ukinmontserrat.fco.gov.uk:

Young Diaspora Supporting Reconciliation and Development