Over 10,000 people have disappeared from Tamil IDP camps

A report sent by Vavuniya District Secretary S.M. Charles to the Deputy Inspector General of Police in-charge of the IDP camp area states that over 10,000 people have disappeared from the camps after surrendering to the security forces.
A census conducted on the displaced persons in the camp along with the register of names who have initially entered the camps through the security forces has revealed the disappearance of over 10,000 persons.
The security forces after claiming that these people have escaped from the camp have also launched a special investigation to apprehend them. However, sources from Vavuniya say that while most of the disappeared people have been killed, the rest are being held in a secret location.
Sources further observed that armed Tamil political parties and groups affiliated to the government during the past few months had entered the IDP camps and taken thousands of young Tamil boys and girls without entering any records in the books alleging them to have had links with the LTTE.

Losing touch with old friends

A report for the European Union into Sri Lanka’s fitness for preferential tariff treatment is unfavourable

RARELY has a government soiled its reputation as dramatically as Sri Lanka’s. In recent months President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime has won a war and lost the love of many allies.
Its alleged wartime and other abuses make a grim catalogue: thousands of Tamil civilians allegedly killed by army shelling during the rebels’ last stand; scores of Tamils disappeared; nearly 300,000 Tamil war-displaced callously interned; murder and intimidation of journalists—including J.S. Tissainayagam, sentenced to 20 years hard labour on August 31st for criticising the army’s tactics (see article).
There is not much high-minded western countries—to whom Sri Lanka once looked for aid money—can do about this. Mr Rajapaksa has found alternative friends, in China, Libya, Pakistan—and others, who recently scotched a European effort to launch a war-crimes investigation into Sri Lanka. But the Europeans do have one wrench on Mr Rajapaksa’s government: a trade concession known as “GSP Plus”. This boon, which has helped make exports to the EU the country’s biggest source of foreign exchange, worth $3.3 billion last year, is up for review. Judging by an EU-commissioned report on Sri Lanka’s compliance with its terms, which include stipulations on human rights, it can kiss the concession goodbye.
The confidential 130-page report, which has been obtained by The Economist, concludes that Sri Lanka has failed to honour important human-rights commitments, and is ineligible for GSP Plus. Widespread police torture, abductions of journalists, politicised courts and uninvestigated disappearances have all played a part in creating a state of “complete or virtually complete impunity in Sri Lanka”. The internment of the Tamil displaced, which the government claims is necessary to weed out the last Tamil Tiger rebels and to protect them from munitions left in their fields, is “a novel form of unacknowledged detention”.
A final decision on GSP Plus is not due until October. The government, which barred the report’s authors from visiting Sri Lanka, called the study “outrageous” but seems resigned to losing the trade preference: a senior official in the trade ministry, S. Ranugge, admitted: “GSP Plus is very unlikely.”
Perhaps this does not bother Mr Rajapaksa: defying the West is part of his appeal. Anyway, his minions recently secured a $2.6 billion loan from the IMF. But as an indicator of where one of Asia’s oldest democracies may be headed, it should worry Sri Lankans, and all who wish their country well.

Tsunami aid still in bank account

Aid money raised by people in Falkirk for those affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has yet to be spent, it has emerged.
Falkirk Council said £15,000, collected for victims in the Jaffna region of Sri Lanka, is still untouched and remains in a council bank account.
The authority said the outbreak of civil war in the province had left it unable to spend the cash in the area.
They have promised to seek a solution to the problem as a matter of urgency.
The money was collected by the Bairns Aid charity, a partnership between Falkirk Council and the Bairns Trust, from April 2005 for the specific purpose of building new homes in Jaffna.
Report due
When the campaign was launched, it was hoped the cash would be used to rebuild fishing villages washed away in the Boxing Day tsunami.
Among those taking part in the fund-raising effort were Falkirk Football Club, local primary schools and businesses.
A spokesman for Falkirk Council said: "A report detailing the fund will be brought to a future meeting of Falkirk Council where we will provide a full update on how the money raised locally will be used."
Nearly a quarter of a million people were killed in 13 countries hit by the tsunami, triggered by an undersea earthquake.
It is regarded as one of the deadliest natural disasters of modern times.

news:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8235533.stm

Media Minister orders ITN and Rupavahini Chairmen to take custody of video tapes amidst Channel 4 controversy

The Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa had ordered the Chairmen of ITN and Rupavahini that all video tapes on the war scenes in the North during the final phase be immediately taken into the custody of the Chairman.
Incidentally , it was only the ITN and the Rupavahini the only two State Institutions which were permitted to cover these war scenes. This urgent order by the Minister to take into custody all tapes both telecast and not telecast has raised queries as to whether this action of the Minister has any connection with the airing of human executions in SL by men in military uniform by Channel 4 in Britain.

Rajapaksa rejects Western models of development

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that his country will develop its own model of economic development based on a strong agricultural sector and not follow the existing Western models in which industrial growth gets precedence.
“We must have a Sri Lankan model. I prefer it to be agriculturally based. If you can be self-sufficient in food, then the industries will come,” he told Forbes magazine on August 28.
Economic development rather than a conventional political settlement would ensure lasting peace in the island nation, which had just emerged from a 30-year armed rebellion by the Tamil minority, the President said. “Without development, there won’t be peace; we must develop the economy,” he stressed.
Reconciliation with Tamil communities in the island’s north and east, he added, meant providing basic needs to them such as electricity, water, shelter, education. “They (the Tamils) want to start their paddy fields, go back to their farms,” he said.
REJECTS WEST’S DIM VIEW: Western institutions have a dim of Rajapaksa’s Lanka. Transparency International had placed it between India and Pakistan as one of Asia’s most corrupt economies. The World Bank measured the ease of doing business around the globe and ranked Sri Lanka 102nd out of 181 countries, knocking it for its tax regime, legal system and permit processing.
On the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, Sri Lanka ranked 111th of 179, slammed for roadblocks to foreign investment, its financial system and opaque property laws. With scores of ministers and 10 to 15 per cent of the workforce employed by the government, Sri Lanka was one of the world’s most administered countries.
But according to Rajapaksa even during the war, the Lankan economy grew by at least six per cent each year (though the global recession was cutting that to 3.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent in 2009). Inflation is now down to 1.1 per cent, from 11 per cent four years ago, according to Central Bank figures. And he noted that per capita

At UN, Susan Rice Calls Sri Lankan Executions Disturbing, No Council Session Set, Rajapaksa No Show, HG Error

Three months after the UN Security Council held informal session about the conflict Sri Lanka, the newly released video footage depicting the Sri Lankan Army committing summary execution has not led any Council member, including the United States, to propose that the situation be discussed on the Council agenda. Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa had been scheduled to come along with a large entourage. But reportedly Karuna and others in his party were denied visa. Now, Rajapaksa will apparently not come, leaving the Prime Minister to represent the country.

news:www.innercitypress.com/untrip7may4srilanka090209.html

Statement by Minister Cannon on Sri Lanka’s Sentencing of Journalist

The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement on the sentencing of Jayaprakash Sittampalam (J.S.) Tissainayagam, a Sri Lankan journalist:


“The Government of Canada is deeply concerned by the sentencing of J.S. Tissainayagam to 20 years in prison for violating Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act.
“Canada is a strong proponent of vibrant and free media, an essential element of democratic governance in Sri Lanka and around the world. Open and informed debate remains vital to long-term reconciliation and reconstruction in Sri Lanka.
“Canada supports the advancement of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law for all countries of the world.”

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For further information, media representatives may contact:
Natalie Sarafian
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
613-995-1851
Foreign Affairs Media Relations Office
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
613-995-1874

http://w01.international.gc.ca/MinPub/Publication.aspx?lang=eng&publication_id=387522&docnum=243