Indian support in negating Tamil aspirations in Sri Lanka

The following fact file was compiled by a group of Tamil citizens in Tamil Nadu. If the facts and numbers are right, the story is very devastating. It also spells a very inhuman approach in wiping out Tamil aspirations under the guise of rehabilitation, with total consent and support from the Indian administration.

This fact file compiled, also reveals that all decisions are taken by a Committee controlled by military and police personnel.
Chennai based M.S.Swaminathan’s Research Foundation is seen as the brain behind the whole project. In fact Swaminathan was a respected a visitor in Sri Lanka who met with President Rajapaksa and his Advisors about a month ago and was reported to have discussed future developments in Sri Lanka.
in this fact file needs immediate and serious scrutiny by human rights and democratic organizations, both in SL and in South Asia.
Fact File on the proposed “rehabilitation” in Northern Sri Lanka.
On 27th April 2009 a sum of Rs.100 crores was announced as relief by the Government of India..
Again on 23rd May 2009 a sum of Rs.500 crores was announced by the Indian Government presumably also to cover the following cost:
- Expenses towards running of Indian Medical hospital at the camp of Vavuniya.

- De-mining project at Vanni, undertaken by Private companies viz “Horizon” of Pune and “Sarvathra” of Gurgaon (Haryana) and the expenses towards deploying of 500 Indian army personnel for de-mining.

- Fee for imparting rapid agricultural programme for the rehabilitated women under the aegis of Multinational corporations under the supervision of M.S. Swaminathan’s Research Foundation.

The Secretariat/Committee for Rehabilitation:

- No. of Members : 18

- Chairperson: Basil Rajapakshe

- Member: Gotabhaya Rajapakshe

- Not even a single Tamil in the team.

- 8 of them are from the army and the police

- The rest from the Bureaucracy

- Major General Chandrasri, the Chairperson of all the camps, and now appointed Governor of the North, is one of the members, (Chandra Sri served as the totalitarian Head of the Army at Jafna between 2006 and 2008).

12 army divisions, aggregating 84,000 Sinhala personnel will be stationed at Vanni region to supervise the rehabilitation.
In addition to this, 20,000 Police personnel and an equal number of Administrative personnel will be posted in the North.
30,000 Sinhala prisoners are to be released and to be inhabited in the North.
Over one lakh members of the family of Sinhala Police and Administration are expected to move to the North.
Thus, even before the Internally Displaced Tamils are rehabilitated in their homeland at Vanni region, approximately 2.5 lakh Sinhalese representing the administration personnel and their families are to be moved to the Vanni region.
Hence, the traditionally Tamil dominated Vanni region will be predominantly inhabited by sponsored Sinhalese shortly. This is precisely the reason why Sri Lankan President declined to recognize the existence or rights of the traditional Tamil homeland.
Meanwhile, according to the rehabilitation package, able bodied Vanni women would have been converted as contract labourers of private Agri and Fisheries corporates, thanks to the assistance rendered by Chennai based M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation.
The men in the camps will be detained under long term Preventive custody.
In this backdrop, the Srilankan government may even declare the implementation of the 13th Constitutional amendment and conduct general elections in the Vanni region and proclaim itself as a great democratic nation!
Human Casualties and disappearances during the last 14 months of war (Apr 2008 to June 2009):

Total population of Vanni region in April 2008: 4,03,000 (extrapolated from 2004 population data)

- No. of Internally Displaced persons detained in the camps: approx. 2,80,000 [as on 18th June 2009, as per UN OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) Report]

- Children among them: 60,000 approx

- Aged and pregnant women: 4,000 approx

- Fatally injured: 12,000

- Crippled: 4,000

- Thus, those who are dependent on others number 80,000 (Approximately one third of those detained in the camp).

- Hence, the number of able bodied persons: 2,00,000

- Therefore the number of persons disappeared: 1,20,000 (Approximately one third of the total population in the Vanni region).

- Number of youngsters detained separately suspected as supporters of LTTE : 13,000

- Rate of Death in the Camp: 10 per day (66 on May 23rd; 62 between May 26th June 9th ; These were reported at Menik Farm at Vavuniya Chettikulam. The dead were buried enmasse).

What can be done for rendering justice to the people of Vanni?
India should prevail upon the GOSL to dismantle the Task Force Committee constituted for implementing the “Northern Spring”. (வடக்கின் வசந்தம்).
Rajapakshe brothers who have been accused of committing War Crimes and Crimes against humanity are the key members of the Rehabilitation Committee. More over all of them are Sinhalese. This committee will have to be reconstituted for the genuine reconstruction of North with suitable members. The Committee should be reconstituted with the members representing the refugees in the Sri Lankan camps and the displaced living in India and elsewhere; and representatives from various Human Rights Organisations; and representatives from the UN. Sinhalese like Sri Lankan Justice Sarath Nanda Silva and the like to be included in the committee. Until the committee is reconstituted, disbursement of Rs.500 crores declared by the Indian government should be kept on hold.
Indian government and the Government of Tamil Nadu should impress upon the GOSL categorically that the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Vanni region should be vested with the people of the region for whom it is their traditional home land, since time immemorial, and it cannot be left with the occupied Sinhala army/authorities.
India should initiate action against GOSL in the UN Human Rights Council and the ICC and bring the authorities concerned for a trial for their War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. The truth behind the disappearance of over 30% of the population in the North and the plight of the civilians in the detention camps need to be examined by independent agencies. India should prevail upon all concerned to ensure transparency of the probe and expose the crimes committed by the GOSL.
M.S.Swaminathan’s Research Foundation and other Private Corporates which have been lined up to obliterate the Tamils, their very identity and existence as a community, in the name of the so called rehabilitation and reconstruction should withdraw from their role from Sri Lanka.
No corporates or other institutions from India should engage themselves in any activity in Sri Lanka which will deprive the people of Vanni region their rights over their traditional homeland. If they indulge in such ventures for gain, they will also be deemed as participants in the genocidal war

34 media personnel killed during present SL govt rule: JDS

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) express its serious concern that even after government's declaration of war victory and end of war, intimidations and harassments to media and journalists continue with increasing ferocity.

People of Sri Lanka are deprived of their right to information and media and journalists are forced to practice unprecedented level of self censorship, a press release today by the executive committee of the Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) said.
JDS statement further said: It is in this context JDS reports with anger and great sadness that thirty-three journalists and media workers have been killed with no recourse to justice since the present government was formed. Out of 34 killed, 30 were from the Tamil community, three were Sinhala journalists and one Muslim and.
In addition, 10 journalists and media workers were abducted. Journalist Jeyaprakash Tissainayagam, his printer Vetrivel Jesiharan and Jesiharan’s wife Vadivel Valarmathi remain in custody since their arrest over a year ago. These unresolved killings and abductions clearly demonstrate the culture of impunity that prevails in Sri Lanka.
The United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government came into power in April 2004 with the present President Mahinda Rajapaksa as its prime minister. Never before in the history of Sri Lanka have such a number of journalists and media workers been killed in such a short period of time.
During the same period, intimidations and threats against journalists and media increased unabated. This situation resulted in more than 50 journalists leaving Sri Lanka fearing persecution: Austria 01; Australia 03; Canada 03; Denmark 01; France 12; Germany 04; India 05; Malaysia 01; Netherlands 02; Nepal 02; Norway 02; Switzerland 16; UK 10; USA 02.
JDS supports the eleven point plan put forward by International Press Freedom Mission to redress the perilous press freedom environment in Sri Lanka and pledges to work with all democratic forces within and outside the country to achieve human and democratic rights for all peoples in Sri Lanka.
JDS calls upon the United Nations, governments and other international organisations to put pressure on the government of President Rajapaksha by taking all practical means at their disposal to end the culture of impunity and to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice.
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) is an action group of journalists, writers, artists and human rights defenders who fled persecution in their country and convened in Europe in order to campaign for democracy, human rights and media freedom in Sri Lanka.

UN concerned about camp conditions, calls for clear IDP resettlement plan

A detailed plan to resettle almost 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka is needed to sustain donor assistance, says UN Country Representative. Meanwhile Spokeperson for the UN Secretary General in yesterday's press briefing said "we have tremendous concerns about the humanitarian conditions in the camps, and that was in fact one of the topics that the Secretary-General raised with the Sri Lankan President last week."

“It’s very important that there be clear plans and timelines for people to return,” Neil Buhne, the UN country head, had told IRIN in Colombo.
“I think it is going to be difficult to sustain the financing (for relief measures) over a long period if you have 300,000 people in there (IDP camps) for months and months, stretching into a year,” Buhne warned. “The first stage in reconciliation is how (IDPs) are treated. I think the government recognizes that, we recognize that, but it is a huge challenge.”
His comments followed a pledge by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 10 July to resettle up to 60 percent of the IDPs by November. In 180 days, we want to settle most of these people. It's not a promise, it's a target.
But aid workers on the ground have expressed concern that some of the facilities being erected in the camps appear more permanent than temporary.
Spokeperson for the UN Secretary General when asked about the deaths in the internally displaced person's camps on Tuesday said due to the level of available access they do not have precise information and added that UN is concerned about the humanitarian conditions in the camps, and that was in fact one of the topics that the Secretary-General raised with the Sri Lankan President last week.
"Well, that of course depends on the level of access we have. We don’t have necessarily the most precise information about things like death tolls. At the same time, we do have tremendous concerns about the humanitarian conditions in the camps, and that was in fact one of the topics that the Secretary-General raised with the Sri Lankan President last week."
Transcript of the question and answer at the Tuesday press briefing by the Spokeperson for the UN Secretary General at UN:
Question: Perhaps belatedly, over the weekend, Action Contre la Faim -- it’s this French NGO -- denounced the Sri Lankan Government’s ending of an inquiry of how 17 of their workers were killed, and they called for an international inquiry, including calling on the UN to take action. Since the UN -- John Holmes and others -- had said they were closely watching that investigation, what do they say now that it’s over, and the group concerned calls it a whitewash?
Associate Spokesperson: We’ll check with OCHA what kind of particular response they have on the issue concerning Contre la Faim. As far as that goes, there has been no UN investigation into this, as you are aware. We’ll first monitor events on the ground, and we do continue to monitor a wide range of issues concerning how the Government of Sri Lanka has followed up on the commitments that the Secretary-General had outlined in his letters. As you know, the Secretary-General met with President [Mahinda] Rajapaksa last week on the margins of the Non-Aligned Movement summit, and he brought up again the sort of actions we had wanted taken in Sri Lanka.
Question: Just one more on that. I wanted to know, there was a report in the Times of London saying that, in the camps in Vavuniya, up to 1,400 people have died, and the AP has also reported that the conditions are very dire in terms of health. What’s the UN, if they’re closely monitoring, are they monitoring both the health and the level of deaths inside these camps?
Associate Spokesperson: Well, that of course depends on the level of access we have. We don’t have necessarily the most precise information about things like death tolls. At the same time, we do have tremendous concerns about the humanitarian conditions in the camps, and that was in fact one of the topics that the Secretary-General raised with the Sri Lankan President last week.
Comment by Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City press at UN
With Sri Lanka putting restrictions on the Red Cross and the press, and despite statements by the UK and US on the country's application for a $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, on July 20 IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn announced his staff will recommend a $2.5 billion transfer to Sri Lanka at a board meeting on July 24.
Since March, Inner City Press has asked IMF spokespeople what safeguards if any would be attached to the loan. Most recently on July 16, the IMF's Caroline Atkinson said that the views of the international community will be taken into account. Four days later her boss issued a press release with no mention of safeguards. Pro-government media in Sri Lanka report IMF board approval as a mere formality. HSBC and now JPMorgan Chase are helping the Rajapakse regime to do a road show to foreign capitals to drum up more investment.
Outgoing UK minister to Asia and the UN Mark Malloch Brown told Inner City Press earlier this month that "the IMF loan is not moving," is not going anywhere. His boss David Miliband had said the conditions are not right for such a loan. With 300,000 people detained in government camps, are the conditions any better now?
An AP wire service reporter who exposed conditions in the camps was told to leave the country, his visa not renewed. (Reuters with more pro-government reporting, on the other hand, apparently had no such problem.)
The Red Cross was been ordered to cut back in Eastern Sri Lanka, where it had over 140 workers. Despite commitments to investigate itself, the Rajapakse government ended an investigation into the killing of 17 workers of the NGO Action Contre La Faim, exonerating its armed forces. And what does the UN have to say?

War without end - SL having won the war risks losing peace: NYT

The guns have fallen silent in Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war, but the deep wounds of ethnic animosity have not even begun to heal. An estimated 300,000 Tamil civilians remain essentially prisoners in internment camps run by a Sinhalese-dominated government, says Robert Templer, Asia program director of the International Crisis Group in his opinion to New York Times.

To begin easing the deep mistrust between the communities, donor countries will have to pressure the government to be as serious about securing a just peace as it was earlier this year about winning the war, he said.
The opinion column further said: The final months of combat in the decades-long war between the Sri Lankan Army and the rebel Tamil Tigers were brutal. As government forces tightened a noose around insurgent positions, hundreds of thousands of civilians were caught in the middle.
The army was indiscriminately launching artillery shells and air strikes into mixed areas of insurgents and innocents, and the Tigers shot at people who tried to escape. The U.N. estimated some 7,000 civilians, including at least 1,000 children, died and more than 10,000 were injured in the last few months of the war.
The legacy of atrocities on both sides clearly needs to be investigated if the Tamils and Sinhalese are to share the same island peacefully in the future. The immediate concern is for the 300,000 Tamils still interned behind barbed wire in camps with no government plan for returning them to their homes. Up to two thirds of them are in the giant camp at Manik Farm, where lives are lost every day to overcrowding, poor sanitation, lack of clean drinking water and inadequate medical services.
The government has blamed the United Nations and international aid agencies for the poor conditions, because those organizations are reluctant to build permanent or semi-permanent shelters to house the displaced. The real origin of the problem, however, is the government’s refusal to expedite its “screening” process and allow tens of thousands of the displaced to live with relatives or host families.
Furthermore, access for international agencies is restricted in ways that limit the effectiveness of aid delivery. Many of the restrictions appear designed to prevent the disclosure of conditions in the camps or the situation that civilians faced during the final months of the war. No private consultations with the displaced are allowed in the camps, and no cameras or recording equipment can be brought in.
Many of the displaced remain uncertain about the whereabouts or fate of family members from whom they have been separated. Many suspected of involvement with the Tigers have been separated from their families and detained for further questioning, some in undisclosed locations. Some end up in detention and rehabilitation centers that the Red Cross and Unicef have access to.
One case deserves special mention. Three Tamil government doctors and one senior health official are known to be in government custody and are now threatened with prosecution for cooperating with the Tamil Tigers. As just about the only remaining officials inside the war zone in the final weeks, they worked heroically to save lives and alert the world to the humanitarian disaster endured by civilians trapped in the fighting. On July 8, their captors forced them to recant their stories. This farce should end: They should be freed.
After winning the war, the Sri Lankan government now risks losing the peace with its approach toward ethnic Tamils displaced by the conflict. Colombo needs to alter course if the country is to begin overcoming years of animosity and avoid having old hatreds and current antipathy turn into the next Tamil rebellion.
Specifically, the government needs to provide a clear timetable for rapid and full resettlement of those currently interned in all the camps. It also has to make significant improvements in access to and conditions in those camps. Colombo should make public its lists of the interned and allow the Red Cross access to all places of detention and all aspects of the “screening” process conducted by the military and intelligence agencies.
The international community has a clear role to play in convincing the Sri Lankan government to take these steps. The cochairs of the Tokyo Conference on Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka — the United States, the European Union, Japan and Norway — have particular responsibility as they prepare to meet in August. They must send an unequivocal message.
All donor countries, both acting alone and using their influence in key institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, should condition all new non-emergency economic assistance to the country on their implementation. Creating the basic conditions necessary for a sustainable and equitable peace demands no less.

AP writer leaves Sri Lanka after visa not renewed

The Associated Press bureau chief in Sri Lanka, who broke news of private U.N. reports outlining civilian death tolls, has been denied permission to remain in the country.

The AP's Ravi Nessman left Sri Lanka on Monday after the government declined to renew his journalist's visa.
The government denied that the decision was related to his reporting on the final throes of Sri Lanka's quarter-century civil war with the Tamil Tiger rebels. The AP reported extensively on the heavy toll the war took on civilians as government forces surged across the rebels' strongholds in the jungles of the north this year.
"We find this failure to renew Ravi's visa disturbing," said John Daniszewski, AP's senior managing editor for international news.
Aside from reports on civilian casualties, Nessman revealed first word of a government document from January outlining a plan to keep hundreds of thousands of displaced people in camps for up to three years.
Nessman received a one-year journalist visa upon arriving in Sri Lanka in July 2007, and it was renewed the following year. The government declined to renew it for a third year.
Lucien Rajakarunanayake, director of international media in the office of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, insisted the government had not ousted Nessman. He said it was standard for foreign journalists to be based in Colombo for two years.
Nessman's predecessor as AP bureau chief, Dilip Ganguly, was based in Colombo for a decade, from 1997-2007.
Both sides of Sri Lanka's civil war have been accused by media groups of attempting to manipulate coverage.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 11 Sri Lankan reporters were forced to flee the country in the past year, and Amnesty International said at least 14 Sri Lankan journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of 2006.(AP, COLOMBO)