http://www.spur.asn.au/LTTE_Atrocities_20070528_Ratmalana_Bomb.htm
http://www.spur.asn.au/LTTE_Atrocities_20060615_Kebithigollewa_Massacre.htm
http://www.spur.asn.au/chronology_of_suicide_bomb_attacks_by_Tamil_Tigers_in_sri_Lanka.htm
http://www.spur.asn.au/After_signing_the_so-called_JM.htm
"kevin larry" <kvjohan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:8bdb7dac-d6bd-4b0a-b4db-4ddda6f192e3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lanka UNder siege
Sri Lanka's recent human rights (HR) record will come up for review in
New York at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on
Thursday (21) while the HR Council sessions in Geneva open on March 3.
When the delegation from Colombo visited Baticaloa yesterday, the
officials there were tight-lipped on conscriptions last year but
emphatically said there were no child abductions after January 1, 2008
Sri Lanka's recent human rights (HR) record will come up for review in
New York at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on
Thursday (21) while the HR Council sessions in Geneva open on March 3.
Attorney General C.R. De Silva, P.C., Justice Secretary Suhada Gamlath
and Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Yasantha Kodagoda will fly to New
York this week to join Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the United Nations
Prasad Kariyawasam, as the government is taking the UNSC meeting
seriously.
There are 15 members, including five with voting rights, and Sri Lanka
has approached Russia, which has a permanent member****p in the UNSC.
It was only last week that news re****ts said that Russia could emerge
as a major economic ally to Sri Lanka. In all probability, Ambassadors
of a few other Security Council member states would also have been
approached.
Rock's allegations before UN
What will specifically come up at the UNSC meeting will be UN special
advisor Alan Rock's allegation that security forces were involved in
assisting the Tamil Makkal Viduthalaip Puligal (TMVP) better known as
the Karuna faction, in conscripting underaged children. Rock made
these observations after a 10-day field trip to Sri Lanka as special
advisor to Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the UN
Secretary - General Kofi Annan, on Children in Armed Conflict. This
week Coomaraswamy too, came down hard on the SLA, on the question of
child conscription.
Rock, who made these allegations following a visit to the east,
however, failed to turn up credible evidence, despite a request from
the government to do so. As there was no credible evidence forthcoming
from the UN Representative barring the affidavits, HR Minister Mahinda
Samarasinghe appointed a special committee more than a month back, to
go into the matter.
The committee's members visited Batticaloa yesterday, ahead of the
UNSC meeting, on a fact-finding mission to ascertain any truth in the
allegations made by Rock.
The team headed by Justice Secretary Suhada Gamlath, also included DSG
Shavindra Fernando, DSG Yasantha Kodagoda, Director Legal of the
Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) ****rani
Gunatilleke, and two officers from the HR ministry Nishan Muthukrishna
and Amerawardene. The team met the Government Agent, Batticaloa, eight
to 10 Divisional Secretaries, child probation officers and other
officials in a bid to find out whether there were any cases of child
soldiers among the Karuna faction and whether the army sup****ted in
conscription. The officials in Baticaloa were tight-lipped on
conscriptions last year but emphatically said there were no child
abductions after January 1, 2008.
Cracks on Rocks
Minister Jeyeraj Fernandopulle and others who humiliated Rock, calling
him a terrorist, would now have to eat humble pie, as the matter is
scheduled to come up before the Security Council. Instead of these
untoward remarks, what the government should have promptly done was to
go into the allegations, ascertain their veracity and take punitive
action, if there was complicity.
After clearing its name, the government would have been in a stronger
position to take on Rock.
One thing is certain, unlike the paramilitary, the government never
recruited underaged soldiers into the military. So, all it had to do
was to verify the Rock allegations then and there, and clear its name,
as there was no credible evidence forthcoming on his part.
This ethnic conflict has seen passions running high and combatants
lying and getting civilians to lie to foreign dignitaries, to paint a
dismal picture of the other side. It could have been possible that
Rock was misled by civilians, at the instigation of the
Lparamilitary , which was still operative in Batticaloa, during his
visit.
Karuna spills more than beans
But, the government blundered in despatching Karuna to the UK. He is
now in the custody of the British authorities, and UK is a permanent
member of the Council. Karuna has already tried to implicate senior
government officials of having issued him a diplomatic pass****t.
That Karuna is miffed with sections of the military, for sidelining
him and allowing his deputy Pillayan to take over the leader****p of
the breakaway group, is well known. Will he further implicate the
security forces and strengthen Rock's case?
HR groups are insisting that Karuna be tried for war crimes as well.
On the question of child soldiers, the danger is that he could be used
as a witness against the Sri Lankan Government.
If Karuna, against whom there has been do***entary proof of recruiting
underaged soldiers, admits that the Army assisted his group in the
conscription, the government would not have a leg to stand on.
HRW in black and white
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), this week, reiterated
that the other party, the paramilitary was continuing to recruit and
use underaged cadres. Was this an attempt by HRW to appear to be
playing fair by all sides? The UN Security Council should impose
sanctions against government and rebel forces that persist in using
child soldiers, HRW said on Tuesday (12).
With the complicity or willful blindness of the Sri Lankan Government,
the Karuna group paramilitary has abducted and forcibly recruited
hundreds of children in eastern Sri Lanka, HRW said in a re****t
released January 24, 2007.
In the new 100-page re****t, "Complicit in Crime: State Collusion in
Abductions and Child Recruitment by the Karuna Group," HRW do***ents a
pattern of abductions and forced recruitment by the Karuna group, over
a long period. Through maps and photographs, it shows how Karuna
cadres operate with impunity in government-controlled areas, abducting
boys and young men, training them in camps, and deploying them for
combat.
Ahead of the Security Council taking up the issue of child soldiers,
Sri Lanka's UN Ambassador Kariyawasam in a statement said: "The
Government of Sri Lanka reiterates its long held policy of zero
tolerance towards the recruitment and use of children in armed
conflict. The Government believes strongly in addressing issues of
children and armed conflict pursuant to Resolution 1612."
Kariyawasam called on the Security Council to consider this issue on
the basis of sup****ting the establishment of security and
consolidating peace in conflict afflicted societies, to enable States
to protect their children from non-state actors who violate children
with impunity.
Circling the wagons
In the end, the paramilitary is in the dock and so is the Karuna
Group. Much will depend on the findings in Batticaloa of the committee
appointed by the HR Minister Samarasinghe, to salvage the government.
The committee will have an uphill task, given that the HRW re****t has
do***entary evidence. But, any misrepresentation of the facts could be
challenged by at least two members of the committee, who would head
for New York, armed with evidence from the Batticaloa visit.
AG De Silva, who will return from New York, would then get ready to
proceed to Geneva for the HR Council opening session. He will be part
of the high level segment that would be headed by HR Minister
Samarasinghe. Other members at this segment include Gamlath, Secretary
General SCOPP Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe, DSG Fernando and former DIG CID
Asoka Wijetilleke.
While Fernando will remain for the entire four-week long sessions that
would see DSG Kodagoda and SCOPP Director Legal Gunatilleke join him
in the second week, the rest of the segment would return to Colombo in
the first week of March. Sri Lanka's influential Ambassador in Geneva,
Dayan Jayatilleke, will play a leading role. In a letter by a British
citizen, Ben Silva, to President Mahinda Rajapksa, Jayatilleke was
described as one of the best assets to beat the LTTE's propaganda war.
Preventive measures
Back in September last year, Sri Lanka succeeded in ensuring that a
resolution on the country at the HR Council Sessions, was dropped.
However, country visits by top UN officials, could not be prevented.
In most cases, requests made to visit the country were turned into
invitations.
UN Special Rap****teur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, ended his weeklong
visit to Sri Lanka on October 8. Nowak's re****t would come up before
the HR Council sessions in March and so would Representative of the
Secretary-General on the HR of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),
Dr. Walter Kälin's, who visited Sri Lanka later in 2007.
On September 19, Kälin told the HR Council that, in order to ensure
the full protection of the HR of IDPs, there should be a strong
normative framework, political will, and the capacity to protect.
Louise harbors for 'post' here
UN High Commissioner for HR, Louise Arbour, after an official visit,
left Sri Lanka on October 13, 2007, and requested that Sri Lanka
become a signatory to the new International Convention for the
Protection of All persons from Enforced Disappearances.
"In light of the do***ented violations of international humanitarian
law, Sri Lanka should seriously consider joining the 105 countries
which have ratified the Rome Treaty creating the International
Criminal Court," said Arbour, at a parting media conference.
Are there plans to haul Sri Lankans before this court, for violating
international humanitarian law?
HR Minister plays dodge ball
Arbour pushed for a UNHR Office here, but the government vehemently
disagreed to her proposal.
Subsequently, Minister Samarasinghe, who met her in Geneva, agreed to
pursue a working arrangement, but that was not to be.
The latest on the issue is that Sri Lanka has verbally proposed a
national institution for HR, with representation for the UN High
Commissioner's office in this facility. Arbour has said that, given
the nature of the HR violations, what has been proposed was
insufficient.
During her visit to Sri Lanka, Arbour warned that the 10-year-old
local HR Commission, that it may lose its accreditation to the
international body governing these institutions
Arbour has asked for a UN working mission on HR and a separate office
for the High Commissioner.
The chances are that Minister Samarasinghe would discuss the matter in
greater detail, on the sidelines of the sessions in Geneva.
Some of the key issues that the UNHRC in Geneva would take up are the
current situation on HR, taking into consideration whether there has
been an improvement in the HR record, consequent to the commitments
made by the government, following the visits of Rock, John Holmes,
Nowak, Kälin and Arbour. Just recently, There was a SLAF aerial
bombing in Kilinochchi exactly 460 metres away from the UNDP, INICEF
and Save the Children offices comprising five UN expatriate Staff and
60 locals. None of these personnel were injured though, but the
experience was shattering.
IIGEP before HR council
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP)
monitoring the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into 19 im****tant HR cases,
which had a running battle with the government, has already given
notice that it would pull out in March. The treatment of the IIGEP and
the fact it would pull out would also be discussed at the HR council.
Some IIGEP members, however, have agreed to stay on in an unofficial
capacity.
On March 3, on the eve of the opening of the HR Council sessions, at
this end, the public inquiry of the cases handled by the CoI would
commence at the BMICH. At these sessions, it would be discussed
whether the CoI was satisfied with the investigations to date or,
whether fresh investigations need to be ordered.
Minuses sans GSP+
While Sri Lanka succeeded in getting a resolution on the country, at
the last sessions of the HR Council, dropped, given the sup****t it
received from many countries, the authorities did entertain fears of
losing the GSP+ the following year.
As the European Union (EU) was pu****ng for such a restriction, based
on HR groups pressing the case, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollogama
and Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohonna met with the EU Ambassador and the
French Ambassador to stay such a drastic move. There was no firm
commitment on the part of the Ambassadors, but a foreign ministry
official said the meeting was very cordial. More than 100,000 people
in the garment industry were likely to lose jobs, if the GSP +
facility was revoked, it was pointed out. What the HR groups in Sri
Lanka should realise is that, the loss of 100,000 jobs would mean that
at least 500,000 people, including dependants, would be adversely
affected by this move. While pressuring the government to uphold HR is
im****tant, what must be remembered is that the right to a decent
living of so many other innocent citizens would be adversely affected,
if the GSP + was withdrawn.
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