The International Committee of the Red Cross in Sri Lanka has been denied access to the rehabilitation centers where LTTE cadres who have surrendered are being held, Spokeswoman for the ICRC in Colombo Sarasi Wijeratne told Daily Mirror online.
The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Neil Buhne speaking to the BBC had also criticized the fact that the International Committee for the Red Cross was being denied access by the government of Sri Lanka to 10, 000 of the Tamils whom the government calls Tiger suspects.
Meanwhile Ms.Wijeyratne said that talks with the government of Sri Lanka to determine what activities could be carried out on behalf of the relevant populations the ICRC works with were ongoing since July this year, when the government had requested the ICRC to shut down its offices and operations in the eastern province.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
UN ‘war crimes witness’ expelled - report
A senior UN diplomat was expelled from Sri Lanka in July for providing details to the international community of mass killings of civilians during the final battles against the Tamil Tigers, The Guardian newspaper in Britain reported Saturday. Peter Mackay, an Australian citizen, was given two weeks to leave the country for providing detailed rebuttals of Sri Lankan government’s "wartime propaganda." The diplomat is seen as a legal timebomb by the Sri Lankan government as he could personally take the stand and testify that the army shelled non-combatants – action considered to be a war crime under international law, the paper said.
News of Mackay’s expulsion comes days after the UN chief, Ban Ki-Moon, denounced Sri Lanka's decision to expel Unicef's communications officer, James Elder, spoken out on child casualties and malnutrition rates during the fighting.
Elder, like Mackay, has criticised the inadequate provisions for war refugees once the battles were over.
“Mackay, a field operative who worked for Unops – the technical arm of the UN – was a less familiar face to the media. But he played a key role in keeping the outside world informed about the number of civilians killed in the final months of the war – deaths that Sri Lanka was keen to play down,” The Guardian reported.
Mackay collected high-resolution satellite images showing that the number of people trapped on beaches where the Tigers made their last stand was far higher than that claimed by the government.
The data showed that not only were more people in danger than the government admitted, but that the food and medicine sent to the "no fire zone" were inadequate.
Mackay was also in touch with local staff and put together briefings, using eyewitness reports of the war, which led the UN to warn of a "bloodbath" in the final weeks of fighting.
Mackay's experience and knowledge of LTTE-held territory made him the ideal UN candidate to record how the war was being fought, the paper said.
“He was stranded behind Tamil Tiger lines on a mission to rescue 100 local staff and their families and was repeatedly bombed for 10 days in January, despite desperate calls to army commanders by his superiors imploring them to stop firing,” the paper reported.
His presence, however, attracted the attention of Sri Lanka's military. In a letter sent in late July, the authorities gave him two weeks to pack up, saying that his "adverse activities had come to the notice of the intelligence services".
A senior UN source confirmed that Mackay had been asked to leave, adding that "the issue was taken up through diplomatic channels with the government, but their decision remained unchanged".
News of Mackay’s expulsion comes days after the UN chief, Ban Ki-Moon, denounced Sri Lanka's decision to expel Unicef's communications officer, James Elder, spoken out on child casualties and malnutrition rates during the fighting.
Elder, like Mackay, has criticised the inadequate provisions for war refugees once the battles were over.
“Mackay, a field operative who worked for Unops – the technical arm of the UN – was a less familiar face to the media. But he played a key role in keeping the outside world informed about the number of civilians killed in the final months of the war – deaths that Sri Lanka was keen to play down,” The Guardian reported.
Mackay collected high-resolution satellite images showing that the number of people trapped on beaches where the Tigers made their last stand was far higher than that claimed by the government.
The data showed that not only were more people in danger than the government admitted, but that the food and medicine sent to the "no fire zone" were inadequate.
Mackay was also in touch with local staff and put together briefings, using eyewitness reports of the war, which led the UN to warn of a "bloodbath" in the final weeks of fighting.
Mackay's experience and knowledge of LTTE-held territory made him the ideal UN candidate to record how the war was being fought, the paper said.
“He was stranded behind Tamil Tiger lines on a mission to rescue 100 local staff and their families and was repeatedly bombed for 10 days in January, despite desperate calls to army commanders by his superiors imploring them to stop firing,” the paper reported.
His presence, however, attracted the attention of Sri Lanka's military. In a letter sent in late July, the authorities gave him two weeks to pack up, saying that his "adverse activities had come to the notice of the intelligence services".
A senior UN source confirmed that Mackay had been asked to leave, adding that "the issue was taken up through diplomatic channels with the government, but their decision remained unchanged".
Executions: Sri Lanka refuting processed video, not original
Sri Lanka’s technological refutation of the authenticity of a video of Army (SLA) soldiers executing unarmed Tamil men broadcast by Channel 4 in August is based on a processed video-file taken from the broadcaster’s website, rather than the original mobile phone footage, experts said. An analysis commissioned by US-based pressure group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) of the original video distributed by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) and Sri Lanka’s subsequent technological refutation says Colombo’s experts looked “at a second generation transcoded video to derive erroneous conclusions.”
FULL STORY
FULL STORY
Sri Lanka's top envoy hits out at EU over GSP Plus
Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's top diplomat hits out at the European Union for "punishing" the country, after EU investigators recommended cancelling a £1bn trade concession over the country's failure to honour human rights commitments.
Kohona, Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN, Thursday said the country would "handle the loss" of the export privilege, which allows businesses on the island to export 7,200 items to Europe duty free, the Guardian reports.
The trade concession, known as GSP Plus, depends on compliance with human rights standards – and a damning 130-page review handed to the Sri Lankan government last month makes it clear that the EU should withdraw preferential treatment for the Indian Ocean nation.
The report includes allegations that the government backed Tamil paramilitary groups who were involved in "child abductions, torture and killings of civilians".
But in an interview with the Guardian, Kohona said the EU should consider whether it was interested in the past or the future. "Hundreds of thousands of people, especially women who work in the export sector, will be impacted in order to punish Sri Lanka for apparent human rights violations," he said. "This smacks of a cynical approach to the problem by the European Union".
He said that Sri Lankan goods could find new markets in Asian economies. "We can handle [the loss]. Western countries should remember that economic power has shifted from the west to the east. New markets open up in the east. Our friends China, India, Japan, Korea, Iran … a whole range of countries [can help]."
But Kohona admitted that the loss of EU trade would be a blow to the country that was "liberated" from Tamil Tiger rebels after a 26-year war ended in a short, bloody clash on a beach in northern Sri Lanka in May. "We won a war against terrorism … the EU should recognise that."
It is estimated that between 7,000 and 20,000 civilians lost their lives in the last weeks of fighting and campaigners say dissent in Sri Lanka has been ruthlessly crushed, with journalists murdered and activists imprisoned.
According to sources in Colombo, EU investigators found that there had been a "wholesale failure of the criminal justice system" when investigating murders by "state agents". The report condemns Sri Lankan security forces for "perverting the evidence and silencing witnesses, rather than conducting any real investigations".
It also draws attention to the plight of nearly 300,000 Tamil refugees who are still being held in government camps, to which the media and aid organisations have restricted access. The report describes the situation where internally displaced persons have no freedom of movement as "unacknowledged detention".
Sri Lanka's trade ministry has already conceded that the "report is very adverse and GSP Plus is very unlikely", but a final decision by Brussels will be taken in October.
Western diplomats in Colombo say the Sri Lankan government is reconciled to the loss of the EU concession. "[The government] is trapped by their own rhetoric which means they can never be seen to give in to the west," said one.
The EU, with strong backing from Britain, has supported calls by the UN human rights commissioner for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes by both the Sri Lankan army and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
In July, a number of countries, including the US and Britain, publicly abstained – an unprecedented move – when the board of the International Monetary Fund voted to approve a $2.6bn loan.
If the EU does withdraw the trade concession it will mark a turning point in relations. There has been growing unease in the west about alleged human rights abuses during and after Sri Lanka's war against the rebels. But so far this pressure has been deflected by other countries which have used overwhelming military force to quell secessionist movements.
Two large arms suppliers – China and Russia – backed Sri Lanka at the UN security council, blocking all attempts at censure.
This week Britain's high commission in Colombo was caught in a media storm over its failure to issue a five-year, multiple entry visa to Kohona. The high commission said there was no "political bias".
The Sri Lankan diplomat said he was unperturbed by "western pressure". "Sri Lanka has enough friends around the world. You have to realise that financial resources and power is no longer concentrated in one part of the world." (guardian.co.uk)
Kohona, Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN, Thursday said the country would "handle the loss" of the export privilege, which allows businesses on the island to export 7,200 items to Europe duty free, the Guardian reports.
The trade concession, known as GSP Plus, depends on compliance with human rights standards – and a damning 130-page review handed to the Sri Lankan government last month makes it clear that the EU should withdraw preferential treatment for the Indian Ocean nation.
The report includes allegations that the government backed Tamil paramilitary groups who were involved in "child abductions, torture and killings of civilians".
But in an interview with the Guardian, Kohona said the EU should consider whether it was interested in the past or the future. "Hundreds of thousands of people, especially women who work in the export sector, will be impacted in order to punish Sri Lanka for apparent human rights violations," he said. "This smacks of a cynical approach to the problem by the European Union".
He said that Sri Lankan goods could find new markets in Asian economies. "We can handle [the loss]. Western countries should remember that economic power has shifted from the west to the east. New markets open up in the east. Our friends China, India, Japan, Korea, Iran … a whole range of countries [can help]."
But Kohona admitted that the loss of EU trade would be a blow to the country that was "liberated" from Tamil Tiger rebels after a 26-year war ended in a short, bloody clash on a beach in northern Sri Lanka in May. "We won a war against terrorism … the EU should recognise that."
It is estimated that between 7,000 and 20,000 civilians lost their lives in the last weeks of fighting and campaigners say dissent in Sri Lanka has been ruthlessly crushed, with journalists murdered and activists imprisoned.
According to sources in Colombo, EU investigators found that there had been a "wholesale failure of the criminal justice system" when investigating murders by "state agents". The report condemns Sri Lankan security forces for "perverting the evidence and silencing witnesses, rather than conducting any real investigations".
It also draws attention to the plight of nearly 300,000 Tamil refugees who are still being held in government camps, to which the media and aid organisations have restricted access. The report describes the situation where internally displaced persons have no freedom of movement as "unacknowledged detention".
Sri Lanka's trade ministry has already conceded that the "report is very adverse and GSP Plus is very unlikely", but a final decision by Brussels will be taken in October.
Western diplomats in Colombo say the Sri Lankan government is reconciled to the loss of the EU concession. "[The government] is trapped by their own rhetoric which means they can never be seen to give in to the west," said one.
The EU, with strong backing from Britain, has supported calls by the UN human rights commissioner for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes by both the Sri Lankan army and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
In July, a number of countries, including the US and Britain, publicly abstained – an unprecedented move – when the board of the International Monetary Fund voted to approve a $2.6bn loan.
If the EU does withdraw the trade concession it will mark a turning point in relations. There has been growing unease in the west about alleged human rights abuses during and after Sri Lanka's war against the rebels. But so far this pressure has been deflected by other countries which have used overwhelming military force to quell secessionist movements.
Two large arms suppliers – China and Russia – backed Sri Lanka at the UN security council, blocking all attempts at censure.
This week Britain's high commission in Colombo was caught in a media storm over its failure to issue a five-year, multiple entry visa to Kohona. The high commission said there was no "political bias".
The Sri Lankan diplomat said he was unperturbed by "western pressure". "Sri Lanka has enough friends around the world. You have to realise that financial resources and power is no longer concentrated in one part of the world." (guardian.co.uk)
Protests Against Clothing 'Made in Sri Lanka' on September
On September 12, 2009 concerned consumers across the nation plan to stage protests in front of GAP and Victoria’s Secret stores to warn customers to check the label and say no to products made in Sri Lanka.
US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) welcomes this campaign by consumers who are advocates for human rights. A statement regarding this campaign released by USTPAC said: Sri Lanka is attempting to destroy the Tamil community on the island and this effort is being paid for by American customers who buy clothing 'Made in Sri Lanka.' We are asking Americans to say 'No to Garments for Genocide.'
In 2009, the Sri Lankan armed forces killed over 20,000 Tamil civilians with indiscriminate attacks and starvation. While Western nations call for an investigation of war crimes, the Sri Lankan government continues to deny independent investigators and journalists access to war-torn areas. Currently 282,000 Tamil civilians are being held indefinitely in military-controlled internment camps in unsanitary conditions without adequate food and water, from which 4-5 young people are taken every day to unknown destinations. An estimated 1400 civilians die per week from preventable diseases, as humanitarian agencies are not being allowed to provide sufficient aid.
While holding innocent Tamil civilians in internment camps and claiming insufficient funds to provide necessary food and shelter, the Sri Lankan government continues to recruit troops and build up its army to occupy the traditional Tamil homeland in the North East of the Island. To sustain such a highly militarized state, the Sri Lankan government depends on the garment industry, Sri Lanka’s largest source of foreign exchange. Recognizing Sri Lanka’s human rights violations, the European Union has indicated in the past week that Sri Lanka will likely lose its trade preferences for garments.
Protestors hope that American corporations will begin to move their production of clothing to other countries that do not commit serious human rights abuses. GAP and Victoria’s Secret are two primary American corporations who purchase and sell garments made in Sri Lanka, thus helping the Sri Lankan government fund its military. Accordingly, these two corporations have been targeted as part of a larger boycott campaign against products made in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has tried to sell its garments under the slogan 'Garments Without Guilt' because of its labor conditions, but that slogan does not take into account the treatment of the Tamils on the island generally and the job discrimination against Tamils in the garment factories.
Consumers who purchase products made in Sri Lanka enable the Sri Lankan government to continue to violate the basic human rights of its Tamil citizens. In order to call attention to Sri Lanka's brutal treatment of Tamils and prevent further violations, protestors are asking consumers to check the label and not purchase products made in Sri Lanka.
In 2009, the Sri Lankan armed forces killed over 20,000 Tamil civilians with indiscriminate attacks and starvation. While Western nations call for an investigation of war crimes, the Sri Lankan government continues to deny independent investigators and journalists access to war-torn areas. Currently 282,000 Tamil civilians are being held indefinitely in military-controlled internment camps in unsanitary conditions without adequate food and water, from which 4-5 young people are taken every day to unknown destinations. An estimated 1400 civilians die per week from preventable diseases, as humanitarian agencies are not being allowed to provide sufficient aid.
While holding innocent Tamil civilians in internment camps and claiming insufficient funds to provide necessary food and shelter, the Sri Lankan government continues to recruit troops and build up its army to occupy the traditional Tamil homeland in the North East of the Island. To sustain such a highly militarized state, the Sri Lankan government depends on the garment industry, Sri Lanka’s largest source of foreign exchange. Recognizing Sri Lanka’s human rights violations, the European Union has indicated in the past week that Sri Lanka will likely lose its trade preferences for garments.
Protestors hope that American corporations will begin to move their production of clothing to other countries that do not commit serious human rights abuses. GAP and Victoria’s Secret are two primary American corporations who purchase and sell garments made in Sri Lanka, thus helping the Sri Lankan government fund its military. Accordingly, these two corporations have been targeted as part of a larger boycott campaign against products made in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has tried to sell its garments under the slogan 'Garments Without Guilt' because of its labor conditions, but that slogan does not take into account the treatment of the Tamils on the island generally and the job discrimination against Tamils in the garment factories.
United Nations Calls for Faster Resettlement of War Refugees in Sri Lanka
The United Nations is calling for faster resettlement of war refugees in Sri Lanka, and warns that it will not indefinitely fund a camp which houses tens of thousands of Tamils displaced by the fighting in the country. A quarter-century-long civil war ended in the country in May.
The Menik refugee camp in northern Sri Lanka is cramped with nearly a quarter of a million Tamils who fled their homes to escape fighting in the months before the military defeated the Tamil Tigers.
The government says the refugees will be allowed to return to their homes after screening them to determine who might be former Tamil Tiger guerrillas. It has said a majority of the Tamils will be sent back to their villages by the end of the year.
However, United Nations spokesman in Colombo, Gordon Weiss, says they are not seeing enough progress in return of the displaced Tamils to their homes. He is calling for more transparency from the government as it tries to weed out the former militants.
"We want to be clear that we expect people will be allowed to return home very soon and much faster than is taking place at the moment," he said. "We want to understand how people are being screened, because there are a lot of people inside these camps who clearly present no appreciable security risk to the government, lots of women with young families, lots of young children, separated and orphaned children, people who are ill."
U.N. spokesman Weiss says it is not possible to indefinitely fund the camps, which are being run with assistance from the UN and other international donors.
"There needs to be a degree of clarity about how this money is being spent, what it is being spent for, in other words there needs to be a conclusion because the involvement of the United Nations in these camps is on the understanding that the people will not be there for a long time," he said.
A government official said Friday nearly 10,000 people had been dispatched out of the camp to their villages in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. This is in addition to some young children, elderly people and priests who were earlier allowed to leave the camp.
However, the total number released so far is just a fraction of the refugee population in the camps.
While the government cites security reasons for their detention, human rights groups have questioned why the refugees need to be confined after the civil war has ended.
The Tamils are an ethnic minority in Sri Lanka. The quarter century long civil war in the country was fueled by complaints of discrimination against the Tamils by the majority Sinhalese community.
NEWS
The government says the refugees will be allowed to return to their homes after screening them to determine who might be former Tamil Tiger guerrillas. It has said a majority of the Tamils will be sent back to their villages by the end of the year.
However, United Nations spokesman in Colombo, Gordon Weiss, says they are not seeing enough progress in return of the displaced Tamils to their homes. He is calling for more transparency from the government as it tries to weed out the former militants.
"We want to be clear that we expect people will be allowed to return home very soon and much faster than is taking place at the moment," he said. "We want to understand how people are being screened, because there are a lot of people inside these camps who clearly present no appreciable security risk to the government, lots of women with young families, lots of young children, separated and orphaned children, people who are ill."
U.N. spokesman Weiss says it is not possible to indefinitely fund the camps, which are being run with assistance from the UN and other international donors.
"There needs to be a degree of clarity about how this money is being spent, what it is being spent for, in other words there needs to be a conclusion because the involvement of the United Nations in these camps is on the understanding that the people will not be there for a long time," he said.
A government official said Friday nearly 10,000 people had been dispatched out of the camp to their villages in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. This is in addition to some young children, elderly people and priests who were earlier allowed to leave the camp.
However, the total number released so far is just a fraction of the refugee population in the camps.
While the government cites security reasons for their detention, human rights groups have questioned why the refugees need to be confined after the civil war has ended.
The Tamils are an ethnic minority in Sri Lanka. The quarter century long civil war in the country was fueled by complaints of discrimination against the Tamils by the majority Sinhalese community.
NEWS
Interview: Prof Rajiva Wijesinha
The spokesman for Sri Lanka's ministry of disaster management responds to claims that his country was involved in human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings.
A transcript of Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s interview with Professor Rajiva Wijesinha of the Sri Lankan ministry of disaster management.
KGM: You’ve been urged by the international community to investigate human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings. Have you started yet?
RW: Yes. Sri Lanka has had commissions of inquiry when evidence is presented before us. I think the problem with this particular video is, it’s a gross generalisation.
When Philip Alston wrote to us, I wrote back to him immediately. We were slightly worried about the fact that Mr Alston, contrary to his promise to us previously, actually sent us a letter at 2.45 in the afternoon and followed this up with a public press release that contradicted what he…
KGM: But he wants an independent inquiry…
RW: I’m sorry. Can I finish? What he said in the letter to us is, could we have an investigation by Sri Lanka?
Now, when you send a letter at 2.45 and follow it up 45 minutes later on a Friday afternoon with a claim for an independent inquiry, that makes a mockery of the letter you’ve sent us.
Now, we have the feeling that Professor Alston – he’s done this before, he’s quite a nice man but gets carried away by idealism… You know, the last time we thought he’d attack us he spent a long time against Nato.
Ithink there’s a certain political element in this. I’ve actually wondered why he hasn’t pointed out there was some extra-judicial killings in Sri Lanka which were very bad, but these have not been asked inquiry into.
KGM: But have you actually held the independent inquiry? Has it begun? And in what form is it independent?
RW: I’m sorry, but we don’t have to have so-called independent inquiries into any Tom, Dick and Harry allegation. We pointed out to him that we had an extra-judicial killing a couple of weeks ago. We are sorry he wasn’t concerned about that. But that’s because it was not grist to the mill of LTTE…
KGM: This isn’t a Tom, Dick or Harry allegation. This is an allegation that the United States ambassador to the UN says gives her grave concern.
RW: What we wrote to Philip Alston was to say…
KGM: Let me finish the question.
RW: I’m sorry. I’m answering your question. Your question was about the video. We wrote to Philip Alston to say, very gently: “Do you have any evidence of such an incident taking place? Or are you telling us that a video was shown by Channel 4? In that case, could you tell us perhaps where this incident took place or when it took place? Or ask Channel 4, if they wish to conceal whoever told them, to at least give some information so we can proceed.”
KGM: So you’re not going to go looking for evidence of extra-judicial killings until somebody comes to you and says: “This is when we believe the incident happened. This is who we believe was involved”? You’re not going to go and interview armed forces personnel to find out?
RW: How can we go into generalisations? We’ve gone into this video itself which, as you say, you haven’t actually given to us, but we’ve gone into what we could see of it.
We have found certain discrepancies. There were some technical ones which I believe your correspondent, if he was there at the press conference…
KGM: We’ve just listed those.
RW: Yeah. But no, you haven’t mentioned the technical difficulties. What you’ve mentioned is certain discrepancies. You didn’t show that wonderfully moving leg. You didn’t show the way in which the man who was shot in the back of the head went down very smoothly, like that.
So these are areas in which we would now like you to at least tell us who these Journalists for Democracy are.
When I spoke to you a bit earlier, I’m glad that I gave you all the points I was going to make – which was a bit more than you did to our high commissioner, because when you invited him to speak, they asked to see the video before and you refused to show it to him.
KGM: Well, that does bring us to another question, really… Let me get another question in for a second, because you say when we approached your high commission on the day of this, just before broadcast, they gave us an extensive denial. And that has been your position throughout. They gave us that denial without having actually seen the video themselves…
RW: They asked to see it and you refused.
KGM: And you stuck to that position all the way through.
RW: I’m sorry. They asked to see it. You refused to show it to them. You said your policy was not to show these things… I’m sorry, this is what you said.
But you’ve showed it to a so-called independent human rights expert – you haven’t told us who he is – who said it was authentic.
At some point you’ve got to realise that you’ve got to be at least consistent.
KGM: Fine. OK. The point is, you’ve got to convince the United States and the United Nations and governments like Norway, who described this as more than solid evidence to accuse the Sri Lankan government.
Now, have any of them, since you came out with your rebuttal this week, come to you and said: “OK. We’re convinced. We drop our concerns”?
RW: Well, we’ve written to Alston and he hasn’t replied to my last letter. The Norway… Mr Solheim is not the Norwegian government. We have had discussions with the Norwegian ambassador in Sri Lanka.
KGM: None of them have accepted your version of events, have they?
RW: Well, they have not actually mentioned a version of events. Solheim said very clearly the video does not seem to be authentic. He didn’t say it was obviously false.
But he, like you, hides behind this wonderful suggestion: “We’re not responsible for this. We don’t know if it’s authentic – but have a look.”
And I think that sort of approach, that I think you’ve been taking up, is really an attempt to put doubt in people’s minds, whereas your responsibility was (a) to check that video carefully, as our experts have done.
We’ve now shown you what we think is wrong. Prove that we weren’t wrong. Show us that that leg did not move. You can change the video again.
And also, most importantly, you talk about the Journalists for Democracy and say because they’re Sinhalese, it must be authentic.
Let me tell you that this is not a matter of race. People can be wicked, whatever race they are. Most of the Tamils in Sri Lanka are relieved the LTTE is over.
But this particular group have had a lot of ties with the opposition in Sri Lanka. We know that. I told your people this morning. Investigate, please.
KGM: OK. You’ve had a chance to make that clear. Professor Wijesinha, thank you very much indeed for joining us today.
NEWS
A transcript of Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s interview with Professor Rajiva Wijesinha of the Sri Lankan ministry of disaster management.
KGM: You’ve been urged by the international community to investigate human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings. Have you started yet?
RW: Yes. Sri Lanka has had commissions of inquiry when evidence is presented before us. I think the problem with this particular video is, it’s a gross generalisation.
When Philip Alston wrote to us, I wrote back to him immediately. We were slightly worried about the fact that Mr Alston, contrary to his promise to us previously, actually sent us a letter at 2.45 in the afternoon and followed this up with a public press release that contradicted what he…
KGM: But he wants an independent inquiry…
RW: I’m sorry. Can I finish? What he said in the letter to us is, could we have an investigation by Sri Lanka?
Now, when you send a letter at 2.45 and follow it up 45 minutes later on a Friday afternoon with a claim for an independent inquiry, that makes a mockery of the letter you’ve sent us.
Now, we have the feeling that Professor Alston – he’s done this before, he’s quite a nice man but gets carried away by idealism… You know, the last time we thought he’d attack us he spent a long time against Nato.
Ithink there’s a certain political element in this. I’ve actually wondered why he hasn’t pointed out there was some extra-judicial killings in Sri Lanka which were very bad, but these have not been asked inquiry into.
KGM: But have you actually held the independent inquiry? Has it begun? And in what form is it independent?
RW: I’m sorry, but we don’t have to have so-called independent inquiries into any Tom, Dick and Harry allegation. We pointed out to him that we had an extra-judicial killing a couple of weeks ago. We are sorry he wasn’t concerned about that. But that’s because it was not grist to the mill of LTTE…
KGM: This isn’t a Tom, Dick or Harry allegation. This is an allegation that the United States ambassador to the UN says gives her grave concern.
RW: What we wrote to Philip Alston was to say…
KGM: Let me finish the question.
RW: I’m sorry. I’m answering your question. Your question was about the video. We wrote to Philip Alston to say, very gently: “Do you have any evidence of such an incident taking place? Or are you telling us that a video was shown by Channel 4? In that case, could you tell us perhaps where this incident took place or when it took place? Or ask Channel 4, if they wish to conceal whoever told them, to at least give some information so we can proceed.”
KGM: So you’re not going to go looking for evidence of extra-judicial killings until somebody comes to you and says: “This is when we believe the incident happened. This is who we believe was involved”? You’re not going to go and interview armed forces personnel to find out?
RW: How can we go into generalisations? We’ve gone into this video itself which, as you say, you haven’t actually given to us, but we’ve gone into what we could see of it.
We have found certain discrepancies. There were some technical ones which I believe your correspondent, if he was there at the press conference…
KGM: We’ve just listed those.
RW: Yeah. But no, you haven’t mentioned the technical difficulties. What you’ve mentioned is certain discrepancies. You didn’t show that wonderfully moving leg. You didn’t show the way in which the man who was shot in the back of the head went down very smoothly, like that.
So these are areas in which we would now like you to at least tell us who these Journalists for Democracy are.
When I spoke to you a bit earlier, I’m glad that I gave you all the points I was going to make – which was a bit more than you did to our high commissioner, because when you invited him to speak, they asked to see the video before and you refused to show it to him.
KGM: Well, that does bring us to another question, really… Let me get another question in for a second, because you say when we approached your high commission on the day of this, just before broadcast, they gave us an extensive denial. And that has been your position throughout. They gave us that denial without having actually seen the video themselves…
RW: They asked to see it and you refused.
KGM: And you stuck to that position all the way through.
RW: I’m sorry. They asked to see it. You refused to show it to them. You said your policy was not to show these things… I’m sorry, this is what you said.
But you’ve showed it to a so-called independent human rights expert – you haven’t told us who he is – who said it was authentic.
At some point you’ve got to realise that you’ve got to be at least consistent.
KGM: Fine. OK. The point is, you’ve got to convince the United States and the United Nations and governments like Norway, who described this as more than solid evidence to accuse the Sri Lankan government.
Now, have any of them, since you came out with your rebuttal this week, come to you and said: “OK. We’re convinced. We drop our concerns”?
RW: Well, we’ve written to Alston and he hasn’t replied to my last letter. The Norway… Mr Solheim is not the Norwegian government. We have had discussions with the Norwegian ambassador in Sri Lanka.
KGM: None of them have accepted your version of events, have they?
RW: Well, they have not actually mentioned a version of events. Solheim said very clearly the video does not seem to be authentic. He didn’t say it was obviously false.
But he, like you, hides behind this wonderful suggestion: “We’re not responsible for this. We don’t know if it’s authentic – but have a look.”
And I think that sort of approach, that I think you’ve been taking up, is really an attempt to put doubt in people’s minds, whereas your responsibility was (a) to check that video carefully, as our experts have done.
We’ve now shown you what we think is wrong. Prove that we weren’t wrong. Show us that that leg did not move. You can change the video again.
And also, most importantly, you talk about the Journalists for Democracy and say because they’re Sinhalese, it must be authentic.
Let me tell you that this is not a matter of race. People can be wicked, whatever race they are. Most of the Tamils in Sri Lanka are relieved the LTTE is over.
But this particular group have had a lot of ties with the opposition in Sri Lanka. We know that. I told your people this morning. Investigate, please.
KGM: OK. You’ve had a chance to make that clear. Professor Wijesinha, thank you very much indeed for joining us today.
NEWS
The Sri Lankan media war continues
UN human rights groups and journalists are working to uncover the truth about the last bloody days of the battle. A disturbing video has surfaced that appears to show cold-blooded executions. The video has provoked an immediate response from the Sri Lankan government and a fight over the veracity of the footage is being waged all the way from the capital, Colombo, to London.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/listeningpost/2009/09/2009911133626307252.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/listeningpost/2009/09/2009911133626307252.html
Counting the human cost of Sri Lanka's conflict
The Government of Sri Lanka announced a plan on 23 May to resettle most civilians displaced by conflict by the end of the year. The government’s target of 80% was later revised downward to 60%.
The 180-day process was to include both people newly displaced by fighting in the north, as well as people who had been displaced for extended periods of time.
Some Sri Lankan families have been displaced for years or decades and the process of resettling them has been ongoing. Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Rishad Bathiudeen told Sri Lanka’s Parliament in August that the Government had re-settled more 59,000 war-displaced families in recent months, mainly victims of earlier displacements in the east.
According to UN relief statistics, as of 28 August, 266,567 people displaced by conflict in the north after 1 April 2009 remained in camps and hospitals. This is down from about 280,000 in June. Almost 250,000 of them were in Vavuniya district.
The Government’s plan to return people to their places of origin has four phases, with families from eastern Sri Lanka and Jaffna returned first, followed by Vavuniya, Mannar and finally from the former LTTE strongholds of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. The Office of the President is responsible for coordinating this plan.
By the end of August, 6,490 people were reported to have been released from camps to stay with host families or in elders’ homes by the end of August. The majority of these people were elderly or disabled. 5,123 people were returned to Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts between 5 August and 28 August.
On 26 August, some 800 Hindu and Catholic priests were released from camps for displaced people in Vavuniya. On 20 August, 130 people displaced in 2006 were moved from sites in Batticaloa District to Trincomalee District, but they were unable to return home because their land is within a military-designated High Security Zone. They have been accommodated in a school and another public building.
The 180-day process was to include both people newly displaced by fighting in the north, as well as people who had been displaced for extended periods of time.
Some Sri Lankan families have been displaced for years or decades and the process of resettling them has been ongoing. Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Rishad Bathiudeen told Sri Lanka’s Parliament in August that the Government had re-settled more 59,000 war-displaced families in recent months, mainly victims of earlier displacements in the east.
According to UN relief statistics, as of 28 August, 266,567 people displaced by conflict in the north after 1 April 2009 remained in camps and hospitals. This is down from about 280,000 in June. Almost 250,000 of them were in Vavuniya district.
The Government’s plan to return people to their places of origin has four phases, with families from eastern Sri Lanka and Jaffna returned first, followed by Vavuniya, Mannar and finally from the former LTTE strongholds of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. The Office of the President is responsible for coordinating this plan.
By the end of August, 6,490 people were reported to have been released from camps to stay with host families or in elders’ homes by the end of August. The majority of these people were elderly or disabled. 5,123 people were returned to Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts between 5 August and 28 August.
On 26 August, some 800 Hindu and Catholic priests were released from camps for displaced people in Vavuniya. On 20 August, 130 people displaced in 2006 were moved from sites in Batticaloa District to Trincomalee District, but they were unable to return home because their land is within a military-designated High Security Zone. They have been accommodated in a school and another public building.
Fears for safety of UN official
AN AUSTRALIAN United Nations official has received anonymous threats to his safety days after being branded a terrorist sympathiser by the Sri Lankan Government and ordered to leave the country.
James Elder, the United Nations Children's Fund spokesman in Sri Lanka and the father of three young children living in Colombo, must leave Sri Lanka in less than a fortnight after having his visa revoked.
This week Sri Lanka's former foreign secretary, Palitha Kohona - also an Australian citizen - accused Mr Elder of ''doing propaganda'' in support of the Tamil Tigers insurgency.
Dr Kohona's comments have raised fears about the safety of Mr Elder and his family in a country where ethnic tensions remain high just months after the end of a long-running civil war.
Dr Kohona, who worked for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for more than a decade before returning to Sri Lanka, has just become Sri Lanka's representative to the United Nations, the organisation that employs Mr Elder.
The Age believes Mr Elder has received intimidating phone messages after it was announced that his visa would be cancelled on September 21. It is not suggested that Dr Kohona is behind the threats to Mr Elder's safety.
Even if the Sri Lankan Government reverses its decision to expel Mr Elder, Dr Kohona's comments appear to make his position in Sri Lanka untenable.
The Tamil Tigers are a proscribed terrorist organisation in many countries, including Australia.
After more than 25 years of fighting, separatist Tamil Tiger rebels were routed by the Sri Lankan army in May and the group's leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, killed.
Mr Elder, who has been UNICEF's spokesman in Sri Lanka for more than a year, made frequent statements to the media about the plight of children caught up in the conflict and who were subsequently sent to guarded camps for Tamil refugees. Sri Lanka has stridently resisted international pressure to allow an investigation into allegations of a high civilian death toll and war crimes during the closing stages of the war.
It is estimated that between 7000 and 20,000 civilians were killed in the final weeks of the war and many of the victims were children.
The Australian Government has offered Mr Elder consular assistance, but so far the Government's reaction to the expulsion has been muted.
Mr Elder has received strong support from the highest level of the UN.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he ''strongly regrets'' the decision and would take up Mr Elder's case with Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
''The United Nations is working impartially to assist the people of Sri Lanka, and the Government should be supporting and co-operating with its efforts,'' he said.
There was great tension between Sri Lanka and the UN in the bloody climax to the civil war in the first five months of this year.
Jehan Perera, head of Colombo's National Peace Council, said Mr Elder's expulsion showed the Sri Lankan Government had not yet moved on from its wartime mindset.
NEWS
James Elder, the United Nations Children's Fund spokesman in Sri Lanka and the father of three young children living in Colombo, must leave Sri Lanka in less than a fortnight after having his visa revoked.
This week Sri Lanka's former foreign secretary, Palitha Kohona - also an Australian citizen - accused Mr Elder of ''doing propaganda'' in support of the Tamil Tigers insurgency.
Dr Kohona's comments have raised fears about the safety of Mr Elder and his family in a country where ethnic tensions remain high just months after the end of a long-running civil war.
Dr Kohona, who worked for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for more than a decade before returning to Sri Lanka, has just become Sri Lanka's representative to the United Nations, the organisation that employs Mr Elder.
The Age believes Mr Elder has received intimidating phone messages after it was announced that his visa would be cancelled on September 21. It is not suggested that Dr Kohona is behind the threats to Mr Elder's safety.
Even if the Sri Lankan Government reverses its decision to expel Mr Elder, Dr Kohona's comments appear to make his position in Sri Lanka untenable.
The Tamil Tigers are a proscribed terrorist organisation in many countries, including Australia.
After more than 25 years of fighting, separatist Tamil Tiger rebels were routed by the Sri Lankan army in May and the group's leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, killed.
Mr Elder, who has been UNICEF's spokesman in Sri Lanka for more than a year, made frequent statements to the media about the plight of children caught up in the conflict and who were subsequently sent to guarded camps for Tamil refugees. Sri Lanka has stridently resisted international pressure to allow an investigation into allegations of a high civilian death toll and war crimes during the closing stages of the war.
It is estimated that between 7000 and 20,000 civilians were killed in the final weeks of the war and many of the victims were children.
The Australian Government has offered Mr Elder consular assistance, but so far the Government's reaction to the expulsion has been muted.
Mr Elder has received strong support from the highest level of the UN.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he ''strongly regrets'' the decision and would take up Mr Elder's case with Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
''The United Nations is working impartially to assist the people of Sri Lanka, and the Government should be supporting and co-operating with its efforts,'' he said.
There was great tension between Sri Lanka and the UN in the bloody climax to the civil war in the first five months of this year.
Jehan Perera, head of Colombo's National Peace Council, said Mr Elder's expulsion showed the Sri Lankan Government had not yet moved on from its wartime mindset.
NEWS
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