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In a momentous diplomatic development, President Ranil Wickremesinghe engaged in extensive discussions with a diverse delegation that represented both the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and distinguished Buddhist monks. This pivotal meeting unfolded at a critical juncture, coinciding with the formal presentation of the Joint Himalayan Declaration to the President.
The Joint Himalayan Declaration, a collaborative endeavor between the Global Tamil Forum and the Buddhist delegation, advocates for a pluralistic Sri Lanka committed to actively promoting the well-being of all its communities. The declaration places a strong emphasis on learning from the nation’s historical missteps and underscores the imperative to implement measures that ensure accountability.
The joint delegation featured highly esteemed Buddhist monks, each playing a significant role in shaping the discourse. Notable members included Ven. Dr. Madampagama Assaji Tissa Thero, Anu Nayaka of Ambagahapitiya Chapter, Amarapura Nikya; Ven. Siyambalagaswewa Wimalasara Thero, Chief Sanganayaka of Northern & Eastern Provinces, Malwatta Chapter of Siam Nikaya; Ven. Kithalagama Hemasara Nayaka Thero, General Secretary, Siri Dharmarakshitha Chapter, and Chief Sanga Nayaka of Western Province; Ven. Prof. Pallekande Rathnasara Thero, Acting Mahanayaka of Vajirawansa Chapter of Amarapura Nikaya; Ven. Kalupahana Piyaratana Thero, Former Member of SL Human Rights Council 2023, Chairperson of Human Development Edification Centre; Ven. Narampanawe Dhammaloka Thero, Chief Sanganayaka of Pathathumbara of Central Province, Asgiriya Chapter of Siam Nikaya; and Ven. Wadduwe Dhammawansa Thero, Deputy General Secretary, Ramagngna Nikaya.
Additionally, the delegation boasted international representatives, such as Suren Surendiran (UK), Dr. Kannappar Mukunthan (Australia), Bhavan Bhavaguhan (UK), Prakash Rajasundram (Australia), Velupillai Kuhanendran (UK), Raj Thavaratnasingham (Canada), and Dr. Elias Joseph Jeyarajah (USA).
The formal handover of the Joint Himalayan Declaration symbolizes a momentous stride towards fostering dialogue and collaboration for a harmonious and inclusive Sri Lanka. President Wickremesinghe expressed sincere appreciation for the initiative and committed to thoroughly considering the recommendations outlined in the declaration. This diplomatic discourse not only reflects a shared commitment to national reconciliation but also establishes a foundation for sustained progress in the future.
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]]>Daily News – By Sievalee Wijayawardhana
Since the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009, numerous Tamil interest groups have sprung up, purporting representation of Sri Lankan Tamils abroad, reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka, and charitable projects in Canada, the UK, the United States, Australia, and other Western nations. One less publicized aspect of some of these organisations is their covert incitement of the objectives of the defeated Tamil militant group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an organisation that has been proscribed as a terrorist group in most countries of the world….
https://www.dailynews.lk/2022/03/15/features/274799/threat-terrorist-fronts-abroad-grows?fbclid=IwAR1c2osAglfKtMuOZ3NRaChxallu1pCvyAiV3NegNsardclH9MVwcTvNZcw
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]]>By R. Sundaralingam
Ever since the end of the arms conflict in Sri Lanka in May 2009, actions such as rehabilitation, resettlement, reconciliation and peacebuilding has been the fore front of headlines in all corners of the world. Sri Lanka militarily defeated one of the most ruthless terrorists organisations (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam-LTTE) in the world successfully. Their propaganda engine with multi-million dollars of blood money successfully painted the Eelam victim card while the LTTE used suicide bombers and child soldiers to kill innocent civilians. LTTE were responsible for ethic cleansing of Sinhalese and Muslims from the North-East of Sri Lanka from 1948-2009 and also eradicating any Tamil political parties that did not adhere to LTTE ideology. (see ref article by V. Anandasangaree)
Some Tamil diaspora who arrived as refugees to Canada, had some experiences of losing a family or friend during the arms conflict, had not experienced any social connection to Sinhalese culture or had personal friendships or relationships with Sinhalese. LTTE’s propaganda machine had indoctrinated hatred towards Sinhalese. LTTE had destabilized and over time eradicated the inter-group relations of Tamils-Sinhalese in the North-East of Sri Lanka.
The Eelam struggle is about ethnic cleansing Sinhalese and Muslims from the north-east of Sri Lanka and establishing a state solely for Tamil eelam. How is this not infringing on sovereignty of Sri Lanka? How is this not interfering with the tremendous post war rehabilitation effort? We have seen many politicians speak about Eelam struggle without verifying facts. Eelam struggle is a racist separatist movement.
In Canada, several groups of effected persons gathered and mourned their losses since the 1980s at various dates usually celebrated by LTTE in the north-east provinces and imported into Canada. It was a political capitalization that a new movement of identifying the Tamil lives lost (mostly LTTE comrades) as a “genocide” for risky polarized political exposure. Even Tamil political parties and many scolars in Sri Lanka rejected this claim. United Nations alsong with Canadian government does not recognize the end days of the conflict as “genocide”.
The political lobbyists used political exposure and pressured various Tamil groups to work to get Bill 104 drafted. The risk assessment likely had included what-if scenarios of what-if the bill gets challenged in court and the big lie exposed? If the Tamil genocide narrative gets defeated in court what will this serve the purpose of those actually mourning the loss? What if the Tamil Genocide narrative gets defeated, what will it do for all the politicians that rallied? Who will be ultimately be blamed for making all those effected look like fools? It will likely fall on those that helped draft the Bill 104 or those that actually raised their hand to approve it?
Please to donate TODAY to help fund to repeal TGEWA:
a. etransfer for Canadians only: etransfer@srilankancanadian.ca
b. https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=HX9JJNMQSZFJG
c. https://www.gofundme.com/f/legal-fund-for-fighting-against-bill-104
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]]>The Central agencies and the elite ‘Q’ branch of the Tamil Nadu police are on high alert after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) used the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against three people in a fake passport case which was registered in the state in October 2021 by the ‘Q branch.
The NIA registered the case after intelligence inputs regarding former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) trying to raise funds to support the activities of the now-defunct movement in Tamil Nadu, the PTI reported.
A few former operatives of the banned terror outfit based out of Europe were trying to withdraw the unutilized funds of the LTTE from several accounts in India.
The ‘Q’ branch had arrested a woman, Mary Francisco (51), who is a Sri Lankan national settled in Canada and who was used by the LTTE operatives from Denmark and Switzerland to withdraw the money from a Mumbai based bank using fake identities. The police had arrested her after a tip-off from central intelligence agencies with a fake Indian passport at Chennai airport.
The police also arrested a Sri Lankan national from Tiruchi airport and another person from Madurai airport and on questioning they tried to pass it off as just fake passport cases. However, acting on tip offs from the central agencies, the NIA took over the case in January 2022 and registered a case under the UAPA against the offenders as they were specifically deployed to withdraw unutilized funds of the LTTE and to try and revive the movement in Tamil Nadu.
Several organisations with a Tamil identity including NGOs were under the watch of the central agencies after they tried to conduct webinars and public programmes against the Chinese investments in Sri Lanka. Sources in the central agencies told IANS that these organisations could possibly provide a cover to get ground support for Tamil nationalism in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu at the expense of the Chinese expansion. The construction of a new port at Hambantotta in Sri Lanka with Chinese funding was becoming a matter of concern for Indian agencies.
Mary Francisco had told the intelligence agencies that she was staying at Anna Nagar since the past two years and had obtained a PAN card, Aadhar card, Voter Identity Card and Indian passport with the help of a few agents. She told the interrogators that crores of rupees in unutilized funds were lying in several banks. The modus operandi was to withdraw these funds using people like her with fake identities and to transfer this money to other accounts in India and abroad under the cover of some shell companies.
Sources in the intelligence agencies told IANS that the woman and two of her associates had tried to activate the mobile number linked to an account with a nationalized bank in Fort Branch, Mumbai. However the central intelligence agencies were tracking her movements and she was arrested.
Prior to this, a former intelligence operative of the LTTE, Satkunam alias Sabesan (47), was arrested by the NIA in October 2021 for alleged involvement in the smuggling of drugs and arms from Pakistan. The Tamil Nadu ‘Q’ branch police had said that Satkunam had a close relationship with the Sri Lankan don, Ankola Lokka who died in Coimbatore where he was staying undercover.
The NIA and the ‘Q’ branch had after interrogating Sabesan and his aides Chinnasuresh and Soundararajan found that the proceeds from the sale of drugs from Pakistan to Sri Lanka were routed to India through a hawala network operated by one Jayaprakash, a Tamil person based in Bengaluru. He was also arrested. The accused had informed the investigating agencies that the funds were used to finance LTTE activities in India.
With the LTTE setting up its network using hawala transactions and drug money, and with some NGOs and political organizations acting as a front, a revival of Tamil nationalism is being planned in Tamil Nadu with the LTTE as the key focal point. This is a worrying factor for the Indian intelligence agencies as the government does not want any banned organization working against a foreign government from its soil.
Sources in the Indian agencies told IANS that there would be a strict crackdown on the sympathizers and supporters of the defunct LTTE and other Tamil national movements if they try to create an atmosphere of support for the cause on Indian soil against the Sri Lankan government.
Original article:
https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking_news/TN-police-on-high-alert-over-probable-regrouping-of-LTTE/108-230113
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]]>SUNDAY OBSERVER
India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) last Tuesday arrested a former LTTE intel operative on charges of playing a crucial role in reviving the defunct outfit. In this backdrop, the Sunday Observer spoke to Prof. Rohan Gunaratna who continues to study developments with the LTTE. He believes the terror group is much active in the international front, although it was decimated militarily in Sri Lanka in 2009.
Professor Rohan Gunaratna is Director General, Institute of National Security Studies and Senior Advisor to the Faculty of Defence and Strategic Studies at the Sir John Kotalawala Defence University. A former Senior Fellow at the United States Military Academy at West Point, he received his PhD from St Andrews University where he was a British Chevening Scholar.
Excerpts
Q: An LTTE member was arrested this week in Chennai with a haul of arms. He was a senior intelligence operative of the LTTE and is trying to revive the defunct group, the Indian security officials have revealed. Do you believe the LTTE is in a revival state?
A: The LTTE is entering a renewed phase of threat. The South Indian based LTTE operators are engaging in criminality smuggling weapons and narcotics. West based LTTE functionaries are using votes and donations to move resolutions against Sri Lanka.
The threat diminished after the LTTE organisation in Sri Lanka was dismantled in May 2009. Today, the LTTE strategy has shifted from propaganda, fundraising, procurement and shipping in the pre-May 2009 era to lobbying, litigation and law making. The investigations revealed that the LTTE international network was behind the “genocide” resolutions in Ontario, Canada in May 2021 and New South Wales, Australia May 2021 and the “genocide” protocol in Palermo, Italy in September 2021. Using constituency pressure, LTTE front, cover and sympathetic affiliates taking the face of human rights, social, cultural and welfare organisations seek to influence and infiltrate political parties. The plans by LTTE fronts in the US to move a resolution in the US Congress to declare the North and the East as “Tamil homeland” were prevented.
In parallel to political and diplomatic efforts by the LTTE, its intelligence operators in Europe and North America directed 16 LTTE attacks on Sri Lanka. They were disrupted with the flow of information from members of the Tamil community that does not want the return of the LTTE.
Q: Who is this 47-year-old operative Sathkumam? Is he living in India with his family? What is his background?
A: Tamil Nadu based LTTE member Sathkumam alias Sabesan was serving a LTTE network engaged in smuggling narcotics and weapons to Sri Lanka. Before he travelled to India, he served the LTTE rank and file. After he was injured in the shoulder, Sathkumam served in the LTTE intelligence wing under Pottu Amman. In 2004, the LTTE stepped up its secret program to smuggle drugs to raise funds and to introduce drugs to Sri Lankan youth in the South. The LTTE trafficked heroin and marijuana from Rameshwaran and Danushkodi to Mannar and Peshali, Nachchikuda and Wedithalathivu. To support LTTE operations in Tamil Nadu, LTTE intelligence wing deputy leader Kapil Amman sent Sathkumam to India in 2007. The Indian authorities arrested him for drug trafficking and was jailed in Madurai from 2009-2019.
After Sathkumam’s release, he relapsed and reengaged in trafficking drugs. In addition to relocating Sathkumam’s family to the UK, Indian investigators reveal he transferred proceeds of crime to fund the LTTE’s revival.
Q: Do you think the LTTE’s drug, crime and people smuggling operations continue uninterrupted despite the group’s military defeat in May 2009?
A: The LTTE did not stop the fight for separatism in May 2009. Operating in the shadow, the LTTE intelligence wing and its international network continued the campaign. Since its inception, the LTTE was funded through criminal enterprise and coercing the Tamil businesses and intimidating the community. From bank robberies to bank and cheque fraud, and people smuggling to drug trafficking, the LTTE raised funds worldwide. The LTTE front in France, the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC) came to the attention of Interpol for its role in trafficking drugs. The French police arrested V. Manoharan, the head of the TCC and subsequently head of the LTTE International Secretariat, for possession of heroin.
The courts jailed him for two years. He had to pay a fine of 120,000 francs as well. As his operation was authorised by the LTTE, Manoharan’s family received his salary from the LTTE, while he remained in French custody. The money from criminal proceeds was laundered to buy weapons from the Middle East, Eastern Europe and from North Korea, the procurement hubs of the LTTE.
According to the LTTE international chief and its international accountant, the LTTE also paid to human rights activists to lobby the UNHRC in Geneva including a nongovernmental organisation accredited by the United Nations Economic and Social Council. With the remnants of the LTTE international network lobbying Western Politicians with votes and donations, host governments are concerned of the commingling of funds. That is the fusion of funds between LTTE criminal proceeds and diaspora individual and business contributions.
Q: Do you think the assistance by foreign governments to Sri Lanka to prevent a revival of the LTTE is adequate? There is an allegation that the LTTE has penetrated the British and Canadian parliaments? What is your take on that?
A: The Sri Lankan authorities continue to work with their foreign counterparts on security matters. The LTTE will remain a proscribed organisation in the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, the LTTE will continue to engage Western politicians and officials including diplomats in its effort to delist the LTTE for two purposes. First, to start operating again and second, gain access to frozen LTTE funds. According to the US law enforcement authority, the FBI, in the past, “Pratheepan and defendant Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy were also involved in the attempted bribery of purported U.S. State Department officials to remove the LTTE from the list of designated foreign terrorist organisations. In addition, Vinayagamoorthy participated in laundering LTTE money through a Swiss bank account to covertly fund a U.S. Congressman’s trip to the LTTE-controlled territory in Sri Lanka.
The LTTE international network, especially the LTTE Canada and Europe has been lobbying their host country politicians incessantly. However, the LTTE suffered a setback when the Manchester High Court in 2020 ordered the British Tamil Forum (BTF), the LTTE front to cease operations under the Insolvency Act 1986. Through a judgement delivered on July 20, 2020, the BTF was ordered to pay compensation to Roshini Sivagurunathan, the petitioning creditor, together with legal costs out of the assets of the Tamils Forum UK Limited. The BTF served as the Secretariat of All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT). To lobby the UK politicians, the Tamils for Conservatives and the Tamils for Labour have been infiltrated by LTTE members and their second generation. In return, British politicians have mounted pressure on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and made representations against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC in Geneva.
Q:The Government is being pressurised by the international community – European Union on one side and the UNHRC on the other – to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). In this backdrop, what do you suggest, should it be repealed or revisited?
A: The global threat of terrorism has evolved since the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was enacted by the Sri Lankan Government as a temporary measure in 1979 and made permanent in 1982. In the fight against terrorism, there are times when one cannot wait till a person who has energised himself to commit terrorist acts in fact commits such an act.
Having taken into consideration his antecedents and propensities, with the view to protecting national security and the imminent likelihood of his committing an act of terrorism, there is a need to detain him as a preventive measure. The Emergency Regulations provided for preventive detention.
The Supreme Court has viewed it and concluded that preventive detention is not inherently unconstitutional, provided the decision to detain a person is taken upon an objective consideration of relevant material and the need for continued detention is reviewed periodically. Although it is very important to keep jobs and the inflow of foreign currency, retaining GSP+ is only an incidental outcome of enacting an effective counter terrorism law which is compatible with human rights norms.
What does the State achieve by having a good counter terrorism law? The ability to give effect to criminal justice response to terrorism. It would entail effective investigation of acts of terrorism, identification and arrest of perpetrators, their detention, prosecution, punishment and rehabilitation. Why should we not merely stop at attending to the requirements indicated by the EU? Because, we must make use of this opportunity to develop a better counter terrorism law for our country. We need a new law that will give rise to a fine balance between the need to efficaciously counter terrorism, while adhering to the rule of law which will not lend itself to human rights violations.
The PTA is archaic and needs updating. Terrorism is not defined and not criminalised in the PTA. Only certain specific crimes generally committed by terrorists and reflective of the nature of terrorism perpetrated in the late 70s are captured in the PTA. Killing of civilians is not captured in the PTA unless they were witnesses to the killing of ‘specified persons’. The PTA does not capture the manifestations of contemporary terrorism. For example, the killing of civilians in large numbers such as the mass slaughter during the Easter Sunday attack by the Islamic State is not captured in the PTA.
The revised law needs safeguards to prevent it from being abused by law enforcement authorities. The human rights law has evolved during the past 30 years and the PTA remains dated. The PTA is no longer compatible with the evolved internationally recognised counter terrorism norms and standards, including certain UN counter terrorism conventions and resolutions. The revised law should be compatible with human rights standards to which Sri Lanka by international law is required to adhere to. The revised law should provide for registered rehabilitation programs as an alternative to prosecution.
The revised law should provide for suspension of the institution of criminal proceedings, which can be used to achieve a political settlement to the overall issue of terrorism by a group, if the need arises. The revised law should provide all the necessary investigational tools required by law enforcement to investigate acts of terrorism. While the PTA does not provide for arrest of suspects by the armed forces, the revised law should.
Q: Adele Balasingham who was behind LTTE child soldiers and women suicide cadres, is living in London with her three children, and the LTTE is said to be building a cemetery for their dead in Oxford. How detrimental are these developments for peace in Sri Lanka? Shouldn’t the Sri Lankan Government raise these issues with their counterparts in Britain?
A: The LTTE remains a proscribed organisation in the UK. However, the LTTE UK remains active largely in the political and diplomatic domains. The Sri Lankan Government should work with the British Government to address the geopolitical concerns and security challenges.
Since the LTTE International Secretariat was located in London for three decades, it is correct that the UK remains a hub for LTTE activities. One of the active LTTE front in the UK, the World Tamils Historical Society Community Centre in Oxford commemorates the LTTE events including its suicide bombers. There are over 100 key LTTE functionaries including Adele Balasingham living in London.
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]]>Newswire
One more Sri Lankan national, alleged to be a former member of the intelligence wing of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was picked by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Vizhinjam arms case.
The arrested has been identified as Satkunam alias Sabesan, who was residing at Valsaravakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The investigation has revealed that the accused had arranged conspiracy meetings of sympathisers of LTTE in India. He had played a crucial role in routing the proceeds of drug trafficking to former LTTE cadres in Sri Lanka for the revival of the LTTE, the agency said in a communication.
Satkunam, according to the NIA communication, was arrested for his involvement in arms and drugs trafficking from Pakistan to Sri Lanka, and utilising the proceeds of the crime for furthering and supporting the revival of the LTTE.
The agency had earlier arrested nine persons, including some Sri Lankan nationals, from a fishing vessel Ravihansi in March this year.
The NIA took over the investigation in the case after a complaint from the Narcotics Control Bureau against the Sri Lankan nationals. The Coast Guard had intercepted the fishing vessel off Minicoy coast on March 18 and recovered AK-47 rifles and one thousand rounds of 9mm ammunition and 300 kg heroin from them. (Hindu)
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]]>SANGADASA AKURUGODA – THE ISLAND
The lead news item in the Divaina of 22 August, 2021 said a foreign organisation has already given Rs 850 million via an NGO, to some political parties and trade unions, etc., to campaign against the current government. The news item revealed how this money had been distributed among the various recipients, including a media team and a popular monk. The money is said to have been given with the intervention of a top official in the relevant foreign organisation. Out of this amount, Rs 500 million has been distributed to the relevant media team, Rs 50 million to the popular monk, and Rs. 300 million to trade unions and political parties.
Use of foreign funding to brainwash the people, for regime change, and to destabilize the country is not something new in Sri Lanka. We have come across several articles and books providing details of how foreign funds were used to achieve such goals of foreign organisations in the past.
We can see that most of the well-known NGOs and trade union activists are getting wide publicity to their statements in the media today, similar to the period we had during the war against terrorism. Like mushrooms and many other fungi, these activists pop up whenever the environmental conditions suit them.
The easiest way to find out what they said and how some of these mushroom activists contributed to the continuation of terrorism in the past is to search their records online. Interestingly, I found a list of names of politicians, so-called civil societies and trade union activists, who were promoting LTTE as an integral part of ‘the solution’ and campaigning in support of the CFA in 2006, in a pro-LTTE website.
Although some of the activists who appeared in the list were very active, when promoting the so-called yahapalana regime during 2015-2019 too, most of them are no more, most likely with time. Those politicians, civil society and trade union activists who promoted the yahapalana regime appear nowhere to go now; as the majority of the general public are aware of their past and the damage they have done to the country. The Covid-19 pandemic appears to be a golden opportunity for these elements, after the disappearance of LTTE terrorism from the country‘s soil, for the so-called activists to raise their heads, once again, to destabilise the country.
How these foreign-funded NGOs, politicians and the so-called activists attempted to brainwash the people of the country and the entire world are well known, and we can imagine the status of our country today, if their motives were successful in the past, by looking at how terrorism grew and gained control in Afghanistan today.
Freedom to involve in political activities were very limited (or not at all) for the government employees prior to 1970. As a result of granting some political freedom to government servants under the United Front government (comprising SLFP, LSSP and CP) elected in 1970, and by allowing politicians of successive governments to interfere with the appointments of various positions within the public service, the government servants and their trade unions are politically divided to an uncontrollable extent today.
Instead of carrying out government policies, some government officials and trade union leaders are fulfilling the needs of their political parties, while criticising the government policies in public. Media statements issued, almost daily, by the two well-known trade unionists attached to the health sector, that are very critical on every action taken by the government to control the present-day pandemic serve as an example. Appearance of the names of these politically motivated trade unionists in the said list found in the TamilNet, is a clear example of their past and to whom they are serving. In addition, we can see that even the politicians rejected by the masses at the last Presidential and general elections, are getting wide publicity in the media to make frequent statements to demoralise the general public mind, against steps taken by the government to control the Covid-19 epidemic and recover the economy at this crucial stage.
We were under foreign powers for centuries due to the acts of saboteurs and traitors. We have witnessed, during our lifetime, how powerful are enemies within, when destabilising regimes. The coming months will be very decisive, as local paid agents of the enemies of our nation will work overtime, and will use the money said to have been distributed among them, to achieve their desired goals; disregarding the extent of hardships caused and loss of lives of the general public. The public must be aware of these enemies, as a priority, and should rally against such elements in order to protect our nation.
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]]>The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has commenced investigations into the Aranthalawa massacre that took place in 1987.
The Attorney General’s Department briefed the Supreme Court today on the investigation being conducted by the CID.
Ven. Andaulpatha Buddhasara Thera who had sustained critical injuries in the Aranthalawa massacre had filed a Fundamental Rights petition in the Supreme Court last year.
He had sought an order to prosecute any living terrorist involved in the massacre, in which 33 Buddhist monks, most of them young novice monks, and four civilians were killed by the LTTE.
Following the petition, then Attorney General Dappula De Livera had directed the IGP to record a statement from the Thera and commence criminal investigations into the incident. (NewsWire)
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]]>An LTTE supporter who was deported from Qatar has been detained by the Terrorism Investigations Department (TID).
The Police said the suspect was deported from Qatar for promoting the LTTE.
Police Spokesman, Senior Deputy Inspector General (SDIG) Ajith Rohana said that the suspect was detained after undergoing 14 days quarantine at a facility in Mullaitivu.
Investigations have revealed that the suspect had fled to Qatar in 2009 and had aided and promoted LTTE ideologies since then.
The TID had informed the INTERPOL and had obtained a Blue Notice against the suspect, after which he had been deported to Sri Lanka.
SDIG Ajith Rohana said upon the suspect’s arrival to Sri Lanka he had been placed in mandatory quarantine and had been arrested by the TID after the completion of his quarantine process yesterday.
The Police spokesman said the suspect who is a 41-year-old resident of Trincomalee, will be detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for interrogations.
The TID is conducting further investigations into the incident.
(MENAFN – Colombo Gazette)
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]]>BY SHENALI WADUGE
In April 1984 Nicaragua referred the US Government to the International Court of Justice claiming the US violated international law by supporting the Contras. The ICJ ruled in favor of Nicaragua in 1986 & demanded reparations be paid to Nicaragua. The US did not participate in the court proceedings. The US also blocked enforcement of the judgement & thus prevented giving compensation. India’s role and interference in Sri Lanka is well documented and one that demands Sri Lanka should officially put India’s interventions internationally – seek apology & reparations too.
The ICJ held that the US was
- ‘in breach of its obligations under customary international law not to use force against another State’
- “not to intervene in its affairs”
- “not to violate its sovereignty”
- “not to interrupt peaceful maritime commerce”
- “in breach of its obligations under Article XiX of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce & Navigation between the Parties signed in 1956.
The US intervention in Nicaragua goes back to early 1909s. Background reading on the Contras, Oliver North and various US administrations will reveal much.
The case in point & what Sri Lanka can take note of from the charges filed by Nicaragua against the US was that the US was “recruiting, training, arming, equipping, financing, supplying and otherwise encouraging, supporting, aiding & directing military and paramilitary actions in and against Nicaragua” – was this not what India was doing to Sri Lanka via Tamil militant groups that India created. Jain Commission report even gives the locations of where India trained these Sri Lankan Tamil groups.
Nicaragua accuses US of violating international Treaty Obligations:
- Article 2(4) of the UN Charter
- Article 18 & 20 of the Charter of the Organization of American States
- Article 8 of the Convention on the Rights & Duties of States
- Article 1, 3 of the Convention concerning the Duties & Rights of States in the Event of Civil Strife
- US breached customary international law by
- Violating the sovereignty of Nicaragua – armed attacks against Nicaragua by air, land & sea, incursions into Nicaraguan territorial waters, aerial trespass into Nicaraguan airspace, direct & indirect coercions & intimidations
- Using force & threat of force against Nicaragua
- Intervening in internal affairs of Nicaragua
- Infringing the freedom of the high seas & interrupting peaceful maritime commerce
- Killing, wounding & kidnapping citizens of Nicargua
These allegations, immediately call to mind how India forced the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987. A call to the Sri Lankan envoy in Delhi with a subtle threat to not take action, the violation of Sri Lanka’s air with the infamous parippu drop, carrying Prabakaran & family to India by helicopter, the many Sri Lankans raped & killed by Indian Peace Keepers, the violation to Sri Lanka’s marine bed using internationally banned bottom trawlers, the stealing of Sri Lanka’s fish, the illegal immigrants, the interference in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs – the list goes on.
What is noteworthy is that while the US put forward arguments against the judgement of the Court, the countries that sided with US did not challenge the Courts judgement, its findings or the merit of the case. Undoubtedly, all of India’s neighbors will side with Sri Lanka, as these countries have all been victims of India’s intervention too.
The judgement listed 291 points that US was involved in ‘unlawful use of force’ – how many points can Sri Lanka list of India’s interventions in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs using ‘unlawful use of force’?
We can recall the upteen times our officials had to virtually fly every week to Delhi to brief the Indians of the progress of Sri Lanka’s military/humanitarian cause in 2009.Why did Sri Lanka have to report to India, if we are a sovereign nation?
What is poignant is that the Court concluded that even though US made its objections, US was subject to the Court’s jurisdiction.
In November 1986, the UNGA passed a non-binding resolution (94-3 against – El Salvador, Israel & US) urging US to comply with the 27 June 1986 Court ruling.
Points that the judgement gave against US is relevant to India’s interference & interventions in Sri Lanka (past and present/ongoing)
The Court rejected US justification of collective self-defense – this is similar ot the eternal parroting by India justifying interference in Sri Lanka to maintain India’s security concerns! When by the very assistance to Sri Lankan Armed groups, India has virtually invited and opened its borders for its own balkanization by this act.
Just as the Court found US guilty of training, arming, equipping, financing & suppling the Contras against Nicaragua – India by its own self-admissions via Indian diplomats, Indian military personnel, Indian journalists etc self-confess to arming LTTE and other Sri Lankan armed groups since 1970s as documented even by foreign think tanks like Council of Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/sri-lankan-conflict(India’s Role in the Conflict)
If US was found guilty of violating the principles of non-intervention, India has to be guilty of doing same. Not only did India train, arm, financially assist LTTE & other armed groups, India even exerted pressure to amend Sri Lanka’s constitution bringing the 13thamendment and creating the headache of Provincial Council system. India continues to use diplomatic force to demand full implementation of the clauses of this agreement which India wishes to turn to its political advantage.
India forced the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord which rested on India committing to deliver 5key clauses – which India has failed to commit. This automatically places the Accord null & void. Under the principle of International Law ‘Pacta Sunt Servanda’ (agreements must be kept) both parties must execute their mutually agreed obligations in good faith. India breached its obligations under the Accord.
The Indo-Lanka Accord was signed on 29 July 1987 in Colombo under emergency while the 13thAmendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution was passed on 14 November 1987. There is no word in the Indo-Lanka Accord that mentions amending Sri Lanka’s Constitution. The Accord makes no mention of ‘devolution’ either. There is no mention of devolution in the exchange of letters between Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi or Sri Lankan President JR Jayawardena. Their letters & the Indo-Lanka Accord only speak of the North East provinces & a system for these 2 provinces only. How did 13thamendment come about? Given that 13a is now part of Sri Lanka’s constitution, India has no right to add, remove or amend any of its clauses!
India violated Sri Lanka’s airspace with the parippu drop. India threatened Sri Lanka if we took action against India’s interventions. India rescued a terrorist and flew him & family out of Sri Lanka to Delhi where Indian PM presented this terrorist with his own bullet proof vest! India armed 35 militant groups of which LTTE became supreme virtually killing off the other leaders. Indian peace keepers killed and raped Sri Lankans, documented by LTTE itself. India trained an armed group to be headed by their poodle Varatharaja Perumal (Tamil National Army) – isn’t it ironic TNA has become Tamil National Alliance parroting what India & West wants! The use of internationally banned bottom trawlers that ruin our marine bed, marine environment and livelihood of our fishermen is a violation of Sri Lanka’s territorial waters but a marine crime as well. The influx of illegal immigrants is also a topic that needs to be taken to the table. The manner that India uses Tamils as a guineapig to exert its political will is a factor that has resulted in unnecessary tensions amongst communities. The manner India has used its powers to exert its will culturally, economically via cheap goods and manipulation of trade agreements is also a topic to debate.
Sri Lanka cannot progress primarily as a result of India feeling that India must give the nod of approval for every internal decision any Sri Lankan government makes. Even the UNHRC Resolutions by West/EU bloc came only after India’s nod of approval as did the 2002 Norwegian brokered CFA.
Sri Lanka, can come up with 101 policy papers and templates, but none of these nicely documented colourful blueprints will see light of day, if our politicians and advisors run with these documents and expect a pat on the back from India before implementing or a cut and chop if India objects!
Look at the disaster of allocating key assets for development – how can we progress if we work on mathematics that claim – if we give x, we must give y even if y has no plans to do any development and wish to only embrace it and prevent it from developing. Isnt this going to be the story of Colombo’s Western Terminal?
Unfortunately, there are some in Sri Lanka who think because of the Buddhist link Sri Lanka must remain eternally grateful to India. Siddartha was born in Nepal. There was no India. India has a history of 74 years having been christened “India” in 1947 by the colonial British amalgamating independent states & territories. India is making use of Buddhism as a soft tool to gain footprint in Asia as a political tool. However, some in in Sri Lanka think they must run to India and seek its approval without realizing Sri Lanka is a sovereign state capable of making its own decisions. If Cuba can stand up to the self-righteous global bully US, why can’t Sri Lanka do the same with India?
Nicaragua may not have got compensation but it won a moral victory and the example set by Nicaragua is certainly one that Sri Lanka should take against India. Whatever friendships Sri Lanka offers to India or however Sri Lankans and Indian people are close at personal levels, India’s political framework & intel are only interested in destabilizing Sri Lanka.
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]]>The Island
The issue regarding a separate homeland for the Tamils of the world has evoked considerable interest over the past 70 years or so. From the 1950s to about the early 1980s, a strong campaign took place in India for carving out a separate state of Dravidastan in the southern part of India. That campaign reached a level where it nearly threatened the break-up of India; but with some strong-arm tactics and quiet diplomacy, India was able to manage the issue. Nevertheless, as is well known, the yearning is still strong among the Tamils in India to set up a separate state, and many are waiting for a new spark from anywhere in the world to trigger the call once again. The Tamils in Sri Lanka too, attempted to establish a separate State in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka, even prior to Sri Lanka’s independence from the British, and have made many efforts to realize such a goal.
When the call for a separate state in Sri Lanka was mooted, it was no secret that the Tamils in Tamil Nadu were overtly and covertly assisting the effort of the Sri Lanka Tamils to do so. That support was akin to the support that the Tamils in Sri Lanka gave to the Tamils in India, when the Tamils in India tried to realize the dream of a Dravidastan nation. In fact, it is well-known that Tamils in India were supporting the Tamils in Sri Lanka, not because of their sympathy or affinity towards the Tamils in Sri Lanka, but rather as a result of their own compelling desire to create a separate Tamil State, which then, could be of benefit for all Tamils, worldwide.
Unfortunately, the separatist effort in Sri Lanka evolved into a violent and terror phase because of the ruthlessness of the terrorist leader Prabhakaran. But even so, the Tamils worldwide tolerated the terror and the cash extortions, since they perceived Prabhakaran as the possible conduit through whom the elusive Tamil homeland could be won for all Tamils of the world.
It is estimated that there are about 100 million Tamils living in many countries across the world. That, therefore, makes them one of the few races in the world with such a large population, but are yet without a geographical land mass to call their own. This drawback perhaps may be the psychological factor that drives the Tamils’ inner desire to carve out a homeland of their own in some part of the world. However, since their attempts to do so in India and Sri Lanka have failed, it is necessary for the Tamils to now examine the option of identifying a new location, or a part of a country, to create a homeland of their own. It is only if they are able to do so, that they could practice self-determination, nurture their culture, and protect their customs in a comprehensive and sustainable manner.
To achieve that vision, three important factors need to be fulfilled in the identification of a country to host the Tamil nation. First, that country must be sympathetic to the cause of the Tamils, and be one which would encourage the Tamils to express themselves in their own style. Second, that country must already have a critical mass of Tamils. Third, that country must have a sufficient land mass to be able to allocate a land area for setting up such a new Tamil homeland. Then, the billion-dollar question world is which country fits these specifications?
A host country that could comfortably fulfil the conditions as referred to above, is undoubtedly Canada, which is a second largest country in the world. It has a land mass of almost 10 million square kilometres, which makes it 153 times the size of Sri Lanka! It practices bilingualism and is one of the most ethnically diverse, multicultural nations. It has a population of only 38 million. Nearly 15% of its people are Asians, with a large proportion of them being Tamils. Canada is already divided into 3 territories and 10 provinces, many of which are very sparsely populated. That also suggests that the influx of a few million new immigrants to Canada could be accommodated without much tension or displacement of the existing population. In addition, Canada’s Constitution provides for a significant degree of autonomy to its provinces, which would conveniently allow a new ethnic group to establish themselves as an autonomous group, living in a specified location within a federal system of government.
The number of Tamils living in Canada as Canadian citizens is estimated to be around one million, and therefore a critical Tamil population mass has already been established in that country. Many Tamils from Sri Lanka and India have made Canada their home, and serve Canada diligently and loyally. In return, Canada has been sympathetic and generous towards them. At the same time, based upon the benign and tolerant attitude that the Canadians have developed towards minorities, the Canadians have also been able to understand and appreciate the aspirations of the Tamil People. Therefore, Canada will be in a position to actively provide the Tamils with the opportunity to express themselves in a separate state of their own. Moreover, many European Canadians, especially the current leadership in Canada, have openly supported the Tamil aspirations to establish a separate homeland for the Tamil people. They have done so at many world fora, and also canvassed for the Tamils at many global organizations, including the United Nations. Taking all these factors into consideration, Canada seems to be the ideal host country to provide the necessary framework for the Tamils of the world, to help establish their own nation.
The recent demonstrations by the Tamils in Canada have given expression to this growing sentiment, and that must now be recognized by the Canadian authorities. Hence, a suitable official response should be given by Canada to the Tamils of the world, without allowing such peaceful demonstration to take the shape of more violent expressions, as those that took place in Sri Lanka and India. In that regard, the best course of action for Canada would be to respond in a fair manner, and grant the Tamils in Canada the freedom to exercise self-determination in a demarcated part of Canada in a land area of around 200,000 square kilometres, which would, in effect, be only about 2% of its massive land mass. That would then provide the Tamils in Canada the political and economic space to engage in self-rule within the demarcated territory, thereby fulfilling a long felt need of the Tamils.
In that context, the province of Manitoba in Canada seems to be the ideal location from which a suitable segment of land could be conveniently demarcated for the new Tamil nation, since that province has one of the lowest population densities in the world. Such a new nation of the Tamils could, in due course, accommodate Tamils from India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji and from any other country, who wish to migrate and make a home in the new nation within the Canadian territory, in much the same way that the Jews from difference lands migrated and settled in Palestine, and established the new state of Israel. This type of a gesture by Canada would not only be a magnanimous humanitarian expression, but also one in which the world surely would position the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau as the foremost contender for the next Nobel Peace Prize. Even more importantly, that action would also lead to the Tamils of the world being finally able to realize their cherished dream of having a separate nation for themselves, with land under their control, and with their own government.
Dr. LIONEL PETERSON
Australia
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]]>By Dr. Neville Hewage
A leading Human Rights lawyer Yasmin Sooka, Executive Director of International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), announced that ITJP submitted their deliberation against current Sri Lanka army commander Shavendra Silva on April 12, 2021. ITJP request to impose sanctions against the army commander.
The ITJP submission argues why Silva, Sri Lanka’s current Army Commander, should be designated under the United Kingdom’s Global Human Rights
(GHR) Sanctions Regime established on July 6, 2020.
Dr. Neville Hewage and his legal team of the Ontario Center for Policy Research joined Jaryaraj Palihawadana, Solicitor, and his legal team of London Initiative, UK. A joint deliberation was submitted to the Sanctions Unit, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom, on June 16, 2021. Dr.Hewage is the lead author of the deliberation and argued that IITJP submissions are politically motivated and should be rejected without further consideration.
Dr. Hewage and his legal team also submitted deliberation with London Initiative legal team against the de-proscription of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Tamil terrorist group in UK. The Proscribed Organization Appeal Tribunal in the UK exercised its discretion not to issue relief for the Tamil terrorist
organization. Dr. Hewage and his legal team successful in their submission. LTTE is remained proscribe in the UK.
Please read the complete deliberation against imposing sanctions against Sri Lanka Army commander Shavaendra Silva here:
http://www.srilankancanadian.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Neville_Hewage_Submission_Shavindra_Silva_V3_Final.pdf
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]]>The post An Open letter to Honourable Members of the House Foreign Relations Committee, and Members of the United States Senate appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>Ms. Chandra Fernando Educational Consultant, USA
I write to you today as a US citizen of Sri Lankan descent, a teacher trainer, child advocate, and an advocate for peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Ever since the devastation of the Asian Tsunami,
I usually spend several weeks in Sri Lanka in January and February of each year.
Since the war ended, I have participated in efforts towards reconciliation through my role as an educational consultant, teacher trainer and peacemaker. Since 2009, when the 26 year -old conflict ended, I focused my attention on reconciliation efforts through several private organizations and friends in Sri Lanka.
First, I visited a rehabilitation center for 200 former child combatants and participated in several educational and recreational activities with them. My first visit was not long after the war ended. I visited these children ages 12 to 16 with a group of teachers who worked with them every week day afternoon. At that time, I observed their sad and untrusting demeanor and witnessed their physical and mental trauma. It was heartbreaking to listen to their stories of abduction, molestation and oppression by the LTTE. This was a heart wrenching experience.
From the first time I visited these children, I was struck by the kindness and the nurturing shown to these children by the staff of the Rehabilitation Center. Most military staff who worked with them
did not wear uniforms so they could make the children feel comfortable. The Commander of the rehabilitation center although in uniform, was so kind to these children that they called him Appa” which in the Tamil language means, Father”. Men and women who cared for them took great care to make the children comfortable both physically and mentally. It was a long road to recovery; but when I went back a year later, I was stunned by the success of this rehabilitation program. In my research on the plight of child soldiers in international conflicts, I had never come across such an amazing and effective undertaking in such a short period of time.
I wanted to focus on this venture to put a very important and positive light on the handling of a very significant burden of any war. Children are the worst affected in any armed conflict. The recruitment of young children as soldiers is a brutal and dastardly act. As an American, and humanitarian, I am conscious of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Although the United States has not ratified the Convention of the Rights of the Child, it is still a signatory to it. I am sure you will agree this act of barbarism is totally unacceptable in civilized societies.
I am bringing this up at this time because on several occasions, the United States has humiliated Sri Lanka by sponsoring resolutions on human rights violations, and not once did the US Government
mention the positive measures undertaken on the ground. Not once did these resolutions recognize important child protection initiatives undertaken by the Sri Lankan Government. As an eye- witness to some of these measures on my visits to the North in the past several years, I am disappointed at the way we in the US have acted towards a nation that has finally put a stop to the daily violence by the LTTE. The pro-LTTE diaspora may have billions to lobby congress but they have the blood of innocent children on their hands.
In the past couple of years, I have been involved with other children’s projects designed to promote reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka. We have had joint educational and social projects between the children of the North and South which have resulted in many heartwarming exchanges between the Tamil and Sinhalese children. Many groups in Sri Lanka have activated wonderful opportunities for reconciliation. These efforts by both the government and private organizations need to be recognized and encouraged. The US needs to listen to those people who want a united Sri Lanka. It is time to recognize Tigers in Sheep’s clothing; the Pro-LTTE Diaspora does not have a plan for a united Sri Lanka. They have economic interests in keeping a conflict going between the two communities. The pro-LTTE diaspora are creating a wedge between the local communities for their own benefit. However, there is a large silent majority of the diaspora and the Tamil citizens in Sri Lanka who do not agree with their ideas and tactics.
If the goal of some Western powers is to divide the country along ethnic lines, this will certainly happen. What the UNHRC rand US esolutions have achieved indirectly up to now is the creation of distrust in the Sri Lankan community. The Pro-LTTE Diaspora has been emboldened by the results of the biased resolutions and they are doing their utmost to destroy a sovereign state and its gentle people. Most of the pro-LTTE diaspora have not stepped foot on Sri Lankan soil during or after the end of the conflict. We, who have regularly visited and worked with the people of the North have a very different view of things on the ground. Using doctored-material, these divisive individuals have spread false information about the people of Sri Lanka to members of Congress and to the international community, who in turn have fallen for it Hook, Line and Sinker.
Sri Lanka has made tremendous strides since the successful end of its war against terrorism in May 2009. Since the end of the conflict, Sri Lanka has:
· Resettled 300,000 people who were displaced by the conflict;
· Invested $1 billion annually on new infrastructure to help support livelihoods and the economy, especially in conflict-affected areas;
· Rehabilitated over 1,000 former LTTE child soldiers and re-united them with their families;
· Given amnesty and job and educational training to 12,000 former LTTE terrorists who have returned to civil society;
· Held Presidential, Parliamentary and Regional elections in formally terrorist controlled areas;
· Lifted conflict-era emergency regulations that were in place for 26 years;
· Have begun to adopt the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.
I hope you will consider the view of those of us who have no affiliation with the Government of Sri Lanka, no connection to any political party in Sri Lanka, and no hidden agenda. As a teacher, peace advocate and one who seeks peace for ALL children of Sri Lanka and beyond, I respectfully ask you to consider these few facts I have noted:
Ms. Chandra Fernando
Educational Consultant, USA
Member, Peace and Social Justice Committee,
The American Montessori Society
(Author, A Little Book of Peace in Sinhala, Tamil and English
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]]>Amb. Aryasinha cites Gash, Smith:
Following Gen. Chagie Gallage’s strong condemnation of what he called a sininster US move to harass Sri Lanka further, as reported by The Island recently, the Sri Lankan government has formally requested the US House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) not to proceed with H. RES. 413 against Sri Lanka moved by Congresswoman Deborah Ross (Democrat/North Carolina) on 18 May 2021.
In a letter addressed to HFAC Chair Representative Gregory Meeks (Democrat/New York) and Ranking Member Representative Michael McCaul (Republican/Texas), Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the USA Ravinatha Aryasinha said, “Sri Lanka vehemently opposes the contents of the resolution which contains allegations relating to Sri Lanka that are inaccurate, biased and unsubstantiated, raising grave suspicion regarding the intention of the resolution”.
The letter was accompanied by a detailed analysis of the resolution, which laid out paragraph by paragraph, its prejudicial nature.
The Ambassador observed that the proposed resolution which equates the LTTE – proscribed by the US since 1997 and named by the FBI in 2008 as “among the most dangerous and deadly extremists in the world” – to an ‘armed independence organization’, exposes the resolution’s origins and purpose.
The Resolution encourages separatism and questions even the nature of the Sri Lanka State, by references to ‘Traditional Tamil Homelands’. This not only misrepresents established historical facts, and present-day realities, but also contributes to supporting the dismemberment of Sri Lanka, which is the ultimate goal of the LTTE and its supporters.
Ambassador Aryasinha said the resolution’s willful ignorance of the USA’s own security concerns about the LTTE and its front organizations and efforts at glorification of terrorism, will give inspiration to rump elements of the LTTE and its numerous front organizations within the US and across the world, as well as to other terrorist organizations.
Observing that the USA had been “a consistent defense partner of Sri Lanka, including in Sri Lanka’s war against terror”, the Ambassador said “the resolution which is at significant variance with stated U.S. policy, across Administrations – both Democratic and Republican, may lead to an erroneous conclusion that the House supports armed acts to achieve political goals. This would undermine the US Administration’s own foreign policy foundation of being rooted in democratic values, and negatively impact the warm bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and the USA”.
It asserts that the Sri Lanka Government, having struggled for nearly 30 years to defeat LTTE terrorism, consistent with its constitutional duties to protect its citizens regardless of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion or place of birth, launched a humanitarian operation to protect and liberate all Sri Lankans. It also outlined the measures taken by the Government since the defeat of terrorism in May 2009, to address the needs of 300,000 internally displaced who had been used as human shields by the retreating LTTE, to rebuild and develop infrastructure in the conflict affected areas and to restore livelihood opportunities to many, including to over 12,000 ex-LTTE combatants – also comprising 596 child soldiers, who were rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society.
Ambassador Aryasinha recalled that following the ending of the conflict, the then government in 2013 conducted Northern Provincial Council elections, ensuring democratic freedoms and rights to the people of the North. He noted that since 2017, all minority parties in Parliament, including the TNA, supported the deferral of elections, through a ruling that required electoral reform prior to holding PC elections, which never materialized. For nearly 3 years, the HRC or Western countries having not taken issue with the delay of elections to Provincial Councils, including that of the Northern Province, however, presently have projected it as a major issue, at a time the current government has taken the initiative to appoint a Parliamentary Committee to make recommendations on this matter.
Noting that reports on Sri Lanka cited in the Resolution, including the OISL Report of 2015, constituted a mere subjective narrative of events including “desk-reviewed” information, the Ambassador said that these documents failed to reveal sources and were not verifiable. On the contrary, there was an abundance of verifiable evidence that has been ignored, contained in, interalia, the Lessons Learnt Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the ‘Paranagama Commission’, reports from the UN and international agencies including the UNDP, UNICEF and the ICRC, as well as information presented before the UK House of Lords by Lord Naseby challenging among other things the vastly exaggerated civilian casualty figures. Expert opinions including by international legal luminaries, as well as dispatches in real time by Colonel Anton Gash, Military
Attaché of the British High Commission in Colombo and statements by Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith who had served as Defense Attaché of the US Embassy during the last phase of the conflict, also contested this narrative.
Ambassador Aryasinha also observed that, having had Sri Lanka co-sponsor UN Resolution 30/1 in October 2015 and extracted a commitment that Sri Lanka will initiate an accountability mechanism which would include foreign judges and lawyers, which was unconstitutional, for 5 years neither the UN bodies nor the US and other proponents of this resolution, pressed the previous government to carry out its promises.
He said, calling for an “international mechanism” at this juncture is sinister, at a time the present Government has provided a credible transparent domestic process to address the concerns raised, by in January 2021 instituting a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCOI), which had on 4 March 2021 “invited any person, persons or organizations to submit written representations or information or any other material which relates to the above for the Commission to inquire”. The Commission has been conducting hearings since April and heard testimony from witnesses.
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]]>The post Response to the US Congressmen & Resolution 413 against Sri Lanka appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>Resolution 413 was presented to the US Congress on 18 May 2021 by Deborah K Ross and 4 co-sponsors though 9 US Congressmen signed a letter to US Secretary of State on the same day. It was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Ironically, 4 of these signatories have direct links to pro-LTTE lobbies. Presumably Resolution 413 was to be about Sri Lanka’s conflict that ended on 18 May 2009 but the demands coming out of it, tells a different stor. The clauses and allegations no doubt were penned not by them and warrants to know the architect of this draft resolution.
Part 1: Questions for US Congressmen writing to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Sri Lanka
Lie 1:
Sri Lanka’s conflict that ended in May 2009 was between Government of Sri Lanka National Army and LTTE. Members or leaders of other armed Tamil groups were killed by LTTE during the 1980s and 1990s.
Lie 2:
Sri Lanka’s conflict was not ‘civil’ nor ‘ethnic but terrorist. With an armed group attempting to by gun carve part of Sri Lanka and hold control of it with the gun. LTTE were an all Tamil armed group but LTTE killed more Tamils than they care to admit not only in Sri Lanka but overseas as well. Overseas killings continue to this day. What are foreign governments doing to stop pro-LTTE groups threatening non-LTTE Tamils?
Lie 3:
Not only Tamil people, but every other citizen of Sri Lanka suffered while LTTE prevailed with their guns. There was never a day without a LTTE suicide mission, bombing or assassination attempt. All communities were displaced and casualties prevailed from all communities. It is unfair to presume & promote notion that only Tamils suffered.
Lie 4:
The Lessons Learned & Reconciliation Commission was appointed by the Government in March 2010. The UN Secretary General appointed a 3-member panel to personally appraise him in June 2010. There is no ground to claim that because the LLRC failed the UNSG appointed a panel.
Moreover, this panel was only a personally commissioned panel without mandate of either the UN General Assembly or the UN Security Council.
The UN must explain how a personally commissioned panel report can end up the basis for the OHCHR Head’s reports and the foundation of successive resolutions against a sovereign and UN member state.
Challenge to UNHRC:
The UNHRC must explain the legal basis for OHCHR’s report using a personally commissioned report as basis for reports against Sri Lanka.
The UNHRC must explain why the UNSG’s personally commissioned report was never tabled in the UNHRC, UNGA or UNSC
The UNHRC must provide evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and verifiable violations of international humanitarian laws instead of hiding ‘witnesses’ for 20 years and depending on media lobbying and lies to embarrass and humiliate a sovereign state and its national army. We accept that there may be one or two soldiers who may act reckless and outside of the line of orders, but this should not warrant for the UNHRC or any country to paint the entire army as war criminals. Bring out the evidence against these individual soldiers and demand action be taken against them only. We will all support this. But, we are not ready to have our armed forces branded as war criminals based on a legally questionable post-conflict process that has denied due process to Sri Lanka and has more questions than answers.
It is clear from every demand made in the successive UNHRC Resolutions and the coterie of co-sponsors headed by US that these demands are using the conflict as a guinea pig to continue their geopolitical arm twisting against Sri Lanka.
The US Congressmen may like to look at all the international tribunals held and realize the futility of these tribunals which have not brought any justice to the victims whatsoever. South Africa is a good example of no truth nor justice arising after millions have been spent. Thus, the allocation of funds for a similar exercise in Sri Lanka is going to be nothing but distribution of employment opportunities and to facilitate people to poke their nose into Sri Lanka’s internal affairs on the camouflage that they seek truth.
Lie 5:
There is no such ‘traditional Tamil homeland’and anyone claiming so must prove where Tamils evolved first (in Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka) and next answer how there are 76million Tamils in Tamil Nadu (named as State for Tamils) and only 2million Tamils in Sri Lanka. Where Tamils evolved is the homeland of the Tamils. Tamils sought self-determination in Tamil Nadu first.
An ethnic group cannot demand 2 separate homelands in 2 separate sovereign states.
Lie 6:
On what evidence are these Congressmen claiming the North is ‘heavily militarized’ – this is the very nation that is refusing to remove troops from Okinawa, Japan, continues to maintain troops in Germany despite end of World War 2 and is illegally occupying countries with armed forces stationed since 2001.
The US Congressmen have completely ignored the US military attache of the US embassy Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith and the UK defense attache Lt. Colonel Anthony Gash’s despatches from January to May 2009 that completely demolishes the allegations by UNHRC.
Authenticity of statements
The former Northern PC Chief Minister, former justice of the Supreme Court who lived all his life in South of Sri Lanka, was educated amongst Sinhalese and only after his 70plus years went to live in the North in 2013. He needs to survive in politics and to do so, he needs to play to the gallery by making statements to keep alive the LTTE /separatist lobby. The allegations he has made publicly is now facing a court case.
Lie 7:
The Provincial Council system was forced upon Sri Lanka following the forced signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord in 1987. No one in Sri Lanka asked for a PC system. The merged North-East Provincial Council was annulled following a unilateral declaration of independence in 1990 by Varatharaja Perumal who ran away to live in India. The merged N-E PC was demerged in 2006. While elections have been regularly held in other PCs, the terror of LTTE prevented elections in North & East. However, no sooner the East was liberated PC elections were held in 2008 and PC elections were held in North in 2013. The people of Sri Lanka however do not wish to continue the PCs primarily because it is a burden on the tax payer. Regular elections are held for Parliament & to elect a President therefore the people’s democratic rights are very much prevalent.
According to IHS Markit, there are 85million surveillance cameras watching over US citizens (one for every 4.6 people in the US) Under the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, the U.S. Postal Service photographs the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States and these Congressmen are talking about surveillance in Sri Lanka.
With over 609421 covid deaths in US, the highest the world over, the US can hardly be proud of its record. Sri Lanka until October 2020 had just 13 deaths and the health workers and Sri Lanka Armed Forces, Police & Intel agencies were doing an admirable job handling covid.
Reminding UNHRC of the UN Charter
The UNHRC has been of late targeting smaller nations as a result of lobbying of powerful nations and powerful lobby groups. This runs contrary to the main UN Charter that assures non-interference into internal affairs of sovereign states.
It is unfortunate that while the very countries that accuse Sri Lanka, violate all international laws with impunity & immunity, they deem fit to question every internal system of Sri Lanka and demand that Sri Lanka only enforces what they desire, and they call this democracy and human rights!
Do the US Congressmen questioning about military appointments in Sri Lanka know that out of the 45 presidents of the United States, 29 had some military experience!
Do the US Congressmen now quoting the US role in the UNHRC Resolutions against Sri Lanka, also recall that the US walked out of the UNHRC calling it the ‘cesspit of political bias’.
Certainly, we want justice but that justice must cover all the victims without favor and it must begin by giving justice to the victims of the terroristsand that even includes all of the other Tamil militant groups that were virtually annihilated by the LTTE.
The commemorations that the LTTE lobbies attend with fanfare does not include mourning for the dead of other Tamil militant groups. In fact, mourning them is taboo.
All of the commemorations taking place in US, UK, Canada, France etc featuring pro-LTTE groups proudly displaying the LTTE flag alongside the US National Flag, the Union Jack etc are mourning LTTE dead not Tamil civilian dead.All of the commemorations taking place to which US, UK, European, Australian, Canadian MPs attend are to mourn the LTTE dead not Tamil civilian dead. This is what makes a mockery of banning LTTE by their governments. It is not that everyone does not know this. Everyone knows this but it is a good geopolitical arm twisting tool.
Therefore, it is the LTTE that must face the war crimes charges. They took to guns. They chose their fate. They were given 3 opportunities to surrender. They refused to lay down arms and surrender. With this opportunity given and denied from January 2009 onwards the war ended and the humanitarian rescue operation began until all of the Tamils taken hostage and kept as human shields were brought to safety on 15 May 2009.The remaining 3 days was between the LTTE fighters and the Sri Lankan National Army. If anyone claims that during the last 3 days some 40,000 died – then these were LTTE fighters and too bad they met their waterloo by choice. Anyone getting killed after 15 May 2009 by Sri Lanka’s troops were LTTE and not Tamil civilianswho chose to fight till their last man. Let no one forget that some 12,000 LTTE in civilian clothing did surrender and this included 594 child soldiers who were all given a presidential pardon, rehabilitated and returned to their families.
But if foreign governments and foreign politicians & even the UNHRC wish to cry over LTTE dead & hold international commemorations – we won’t stop them because it is a hilarious sight to watch!
Nevertheless, continuing the demand for justice, what the people of Sri Lanka want is for the GoSL to hold an investigation into every individual and political group that had links with the LTTE & begin with the TNA and hold them guilty of treason and declare them traitors to the nation for aiding and abetting terrorism and separatism via the 6thamendment.
As for the UN mechanisms for tribunals and truth seeking, we seriously question how far any of their tribunals have manifested in providing any justice except giving employment and creating opportunities to poke the noses into internal affairs of countries for further geopolitical interference. Isn’t this the real reason for the conflict that ended in May 2009 to continue politically? When the people are Sri Lanka are getting on with their lives. When the Tamils are enjoying a developed North, when former LTTE are also starting a new life – who seems to want to reverse all this? The LTTE lobbies living overseas and their political cronies overseas.
Are LTTE lobbies influencing foreign governments and foreign politicians or are foreigngovernments and foreign politicians manipulating LTTE lobbies for their geopolitical agendas?We all know the answer – its nothing but a ‘you scratch our backs, we will scratch yours’.
If the UNHRC was doing its job properly, it should have investigated and taken action against all the illegal invasions & arming and training of terror groups & exporting them to countries to cause mayhem instead of henpecking a country that solved its terrorist problem by its own armed forces, a fete no other national army has been able to do.
Let jealousy and revenge not tarnish the image of Sri Lanka’s national army.
By all means, let the personally commissioned Darusman Report be tabled in the UNGA, UNSC together with the OISL report and afford an opportunity for us to present counter arguments and for the UN legal team to answer one simple question – was the process of UNHRC Resolutions legal & was due process followed by the UNHRC and OHCHR Head and Office.
Shenali D Waduge
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]]>The post 34th year commemoration of the Aranthalawa massacre appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>It is on a day like this (June 2nd 1987), the Tamil Terrorists, funded by the Tamil Terrorist Diaspora killed 33 innocent Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka. This is the Tamil initiated genocide that happened in Sri Lanka. Who is responsible for this massacre? Tamil Terrorist sympathizing Diaspora, LTTE, Canadian politicians who support the Terrorist sympathizers.
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]]>The post Ignoring the human rights of disabled students… appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>JAY KOBLOVSKY
Disability Advocate/Policy Analyst/Sometimes Epic DJ
The York Region District School Board (YRDSB) is no stranger to ignoring the human rights of students underneath its care, let alone their parents as well. In 2016, the Province of Ontario had to step in to investigate allegations of systemic racism not just within board and political leadership but by staff as well. The board was eventually taken to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal where the tribunal ordered an apology to a black woman who was called the “n” word by a YRDSB trustee, along with this woman’s children being racially discriminated against by staff. The provincial investigators later recommended that The York Region District School Board put into place an “independent” human rights office to assist with defending the board against human rights claims. A move that the Ontario Ombudsman completely signed off on.
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]]>The post A huge challenge to integrity of Canadian laws appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>An Open Letter to Canadian Leaders
Impact of Ontario’s Bill 104, Tamil Genocide Education Week Act, 2021 and GTA Mayoral Proclamation of Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day on May 18th
Right Honourable Prime Minister, Honourable Ministers, Premier of Ontario, Honourable Members of the Federal Parliament/ Ontario Legislature and GTA Mayors,
A private member’s bill by one MPP Vijay Thanigasalam of the PC Party, apparently an active supporter of the internationally designated terrorist movement, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), so designated by the UNSC Resolution Number 1373 of September 2001 and proscribed by 32 countries, including Canada, the USA, the UK, India, the EU, etc., as seen from material carried in his Facebook, which, has since been deleted following exposure, presented this Bill with a host of false statements which are unproven and unsubstantiated, which, unfortunately was passed into law on May 6, 2021, without even hearing the objections presented by the public, thereby seriously affecting the integrity of the laws of this province of Canada.
Furthermore, the Ontario Provincial Legislature does not have the authority to determine the actions of any party in an armed conflict anywhere as being ‘genocidal’ in nature, as this authority rests with the United Nations, following the Genocide Convention held in 1948 as per the ruling given by the International Criminal Court, following the adoption of the Resolution by the Member States of the UN. Neither the UN nor any of its agencies has to date declared the military actions taken against the separatist terrorist movement, the LTTE, as being genocidal in nature.
This opens the door for an officially recognized Tamil Genocide Education Week from May 11th to May 18th each year in Ontario Schools, allegedly committed by the Sri Lankan authorities during the latter stages of the armed conflict between the security forces of the Sri Lankan Government and the armed terrorist forces of the LTTE, concluded on May 18, 2009, with the defeat of 30 years of terrorism and the dawn of an era of peace and the restoration of the ‘Right to Life’ which had been hijacked by the terrorists that targeted both the military and civilians in the country. This is bound to cause intense pain, and suffering among the children in Ontario schools from the rest of the constituent communities making up the Sri Lankan nation, such as the Sinhalese, Muslims, Malays, Burghers, including Tamils that opposed the terrorist ways adopted by the LTTE such as suicide bombings, ethnic cleansing, night attacks on remote villages with machetes and guns, etc. They could even become victims of harassment and violence in the school environment.
The armed conflict was thrust on the Sri Lankan state by the armed separatist terrorist group that sought 30 percent of the island’s land and 66 percent of the coastline and adjacent territorial waters of the Indian ocean in the north and east, for 12.8 percent of Tamils of whom less than half lived in the region with a larger number living outside in mixed ethnic surroundings. By cutting off drinking and irrigation water at the Mavil Aru anicut in Sri Lanka, to 30,000 farming families dependent on the same, for almost two weeks in July/August 2006, compelling Sri Lanka to use her Army to restore water to the affected people.
Refer the Human Rights Watch report of March 15, 2006, wherein it is stated that the LTTE extorted large sums of money from expat Tamil individuals and businesses to launch their so called final war of liberation. The LTTE forces were later forced to withdraw from their bases on the northwest coast and the Vanni to their strongholds in the northeast, compelled the Tamil civilians to accompany the retreating LTTE forces to be exploited for their labour, conscripted to replace fallen cadres and used as a human shield.
Sri Lanka rescued a total of 295,873 persons, including 12,600 Tamil Tiger fighters who surrendered, kept them in welfare camps in Vavuniya, fed them three meals a day, provided medical and psychological treatment, access to education, vocational training and new livelihood skills, and resettled them in their former villages after demining the land of nearly 1.5 million landmines, restoring infrastructure, including building 1,000 schools, hospitals, roads, replacement homes, re-establishing the rail links by replacing almost 150 km of rail track destroyed by the Tamil Tigers within a space of about 1 – 3 years.
The Justice Maxwell Paranagama Commission on Missing Persons in Sri Lanka was assisted by a team of international legal and military experts in matters relating to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and War Crimes issues in respect of the military operations against the LTTE, where they concluded that the Sri Lankan forces had not violated IHL or committed war crimes. These experts were internationally recognized authorities, many of whom had served as legal advisers or prosecutors in the International Criminal Courts. The team of experts was led by Right Honourable Sir Desmond de Silva, QC. (UK), together with Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. (UK), Professor David M. Crane (USA), Mr. Rodney Dixon, QC. (UK/ South Africa), Professor Michael Newton (USA) Vanderbilt University, Professor William Fenrick (Canada), Professor Nina Jorgensen of Harvard University, Mr. Paul K. Mylvaganam (UK) and Major General Sir John Holmes, DSO, OBE, MC (UK) former head of the British SAS. The ignorance inscribed within this simpleton reading is underlined when set in contrast with an assessment provided after a careful review in 2015 by the retired SAS officer, Major General Sir J.T. Holmes after: “the SLA did not rush in, but instead took its time to plan and adapt its tactics to take account of the civilian presence. It was, in the view of the author, an entirely unique situation and the fact that 295,000 people escaped alive is in itself remarkable.” Refer the blogsite of Prof. Michael Roberts of Adelaide, Australia for more pertinent information: https://thuppahis.com/2018/10/16/the-western-worlds-cumulous-clouds-of-deception-blanketing-the-sharp-realities-of-eelam-war-iv/.
The Tamilnet, a propaganda arm of the LTTE reported total of 7398 being killed during the period January 1 to May 18, 2009, the UN Resident Representatives Office said that 7721 had been killed between September 2008 and May 13, 2009, the US embassy in Colombo estimated 5,000 deaths, while Col. Anthony Gash, the UK Military Attache in Colombo, reported a total of between 7,000 and 8,000 to the FCO in the UK, saying that about 2,000 of whom were done to death by the LTTE per Lord Naseby of UK. The Sri Lankan Government carried out a census using Tamil school teachers and public officials as enumerators to arrive at a figure of 7,432 deaths due to the conflict. The ICRC reported having ferried 18,439 injured for treatment to hospitals outside the final battle theatre, which number is usually 2 to 3 times the number killed based on global averages.
MPP Thanigasalam cites the figure of 40,000 deaths estimated by UNSG’s personally appointed panel, not sanctioned by the UNGA or UNSC, headed by Marzuki Darussman which later recommended that the information mainly gathered from pro-LTTE supporters be locked away for 20 years till 2031, the UN’s Charles Petrie’s internal review of the Darussman report where he estimated 70,000 deaths, the LTTE propagandist Yasmin Sooka’s estimate of 100,000 deaths, and yet others who like Darussman and the rest estimated a total of as much as 146, 679 deaths from outside Sri Lanka without visiting the country. These figures quoted by the MPP are fictitious and not proven, and therefore cannot form part of the legislation.
It has been established that half the LTTE fighters did battle in civilian attire deliberately to blur the distinction between combatant and genuine civilian. They prevented these Tamil civilians from leaving to safety during two 48-hour ceasefires implemented by the Sri Lankan forces in February and April 2009, and in fact fired on those that attempted to flee their control killing large numbers, which was captured by UAVs and shown to foreign diplomats based in Colombo. Nor did they agree to surrender, despite numerous offers made by the state to ensure the safety of the internally displaced Tamil civilians, expecting western countries to intervene and spring them to an African country to continue their terrorist warfare in pursuit of a separate state.
It is hoped that the political leaders of Canada will rectify this serious anomaly in the law, and restore Canada’s honour and integrity.
MAHINDA GUNASEKERA
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]]>The post Canada: Unofficial State sponsor of LTTE Tamil terrorism against Sri Lanka appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>LTTE Tamil Terrorist organization was banned in 2006 by Conservative government of former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Tamil Canadian diaspora was formed in Canada as a result of Tamil Terrorist sympathizers who arrived in Canada as refugees. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada offered automatic refugee status to anyone in Sri Lanka that claimed to be Tamil. As a result, Canada went on to accept the highest percentage of asylum seekers, who were also LTTE Tamil Terrorist sympathizers, then any other country in the world….
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]]>The post Sri Lanka Friend to All Enemy to none appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>The Story Still Untold
Lanka Courier
In the aftermath of the world’s greatest catastrophe, the Second World War, Sri Lanka played a
significant role in turning the tide of events to negotiate peace between the two parties. Urging the
states that attended the San Francisco Conference in 1951 to choose love over hatred, Sri Lanka made
its mark in a long tradition of promoting world peace. To this date, it has not changed this standpoint.
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]]>The post Sri Lankan Army contingent to join Canadian and other peacekeeping forces in Mali amid greetings! appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>Sri Lanka Army’s newest contingent of 243 professionally-trained Army personnel in the Combat Convoy Company (CCC), well-prepared to serve in the United Nations (UN) Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), amid best wishes of the General Shavendra Silva, Chief of Defence Staff, Commander of the Army and Head of the National Operations Centre for Prevention of Covid-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) left the country for Mali early this morning.
General Shavendra Silva, together with a few senior officers was at the airport to see the Sri Lankan CCC, comprised of 212 Officers and Other Ranks, representing 12 Regiments of the Army, off to the landlocked West African country.
At first, the Commander at the airport spoke to Lieutenant Colonel Dinesh Bulathsinhala, Commanding Officer in the Mali-bound CCC, Phase III, Major L Udagedara, 2nd in Command of the CCC Phase III and members of the CCC.
General Shavendra Silva shared a few thoughts with them and extended his best wishes to the CCC at the airport after a brief military formality before boarding process commenced.
Earlier on 10 April, the Mali-bound CCC presented a formal military salute to the Commander of the Army at the IPSOTSL premises at Kukuleganga.
The CCC includes Army Officers and Other Ranks of the Gajaba Regiment (GR), the majority in the contingent as well as members of the Sri Lanka Army Service Corps (SLASC), Sri Lanka Armoured Corps (SLAC), Sri Lanka Engineers (SLE), Sri Lanka Signal Corps (SLSC), Corps of Engineer Services (CES), Mechanized Infantry Regiment (MIR), Sri Lanka Army Ordnance Corps (SLAOC), Sri Lanka Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (SLEME), Sri Lanka Corps of Military (SLCMP), Sri Lanka Army Medical Corps (SLAMC) and Sri Lanka Army General Service Corps (SLAGSC).
A group of 31 Army personnel, belonging to the same CCC are expected to leave after a few days due to logistic requirements. In the meantime, 240 members of the CCC troops (Phase II) already serving Mali having completed their peacekeeping roles will return home soon under two phases.
Major General Senarath Bandara, Chief of Staff, Major General Priyanka Fernando, Director General General Staff, Major General Sanjaya Wanasinghe, Adjutant General, Brigadier Lasantha Rodrigo, Major General Indrajith Kandanaarachchi, Director General Agriculture, Major General Swarna Bothota, Commandant, OCDC, Buttala, Major General Lal Chandrasiri, Overall Security Coordinator at the Army HQ, Director Overseas Operation, Brigadier Dinesh Udugama, Centre Commandant, Gajaba Regiment and few Senior Officers also were there at the airport during their departure.
Original article:
https://www.dailynews.lk/2021/04/21/local/247152/newest-mali-bound-army-contingent-leaves-amid-greetings
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]]>The post Over 1,600 Jaffna youth joined Army last three months – Commander appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>Daily News
More than 1,600 Jaffna youth joined the Sri Lanka Army during the ongoing recruitment drive in the past three months, Army Commander General Shavendra Silva said.
Silva who also holds the portfolios of Chief of Defence Staff and Head, National Operations Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) was addressing a large gathering of Tri Service troops serving the peninsula on Monday.
Silva said “this re-assures the faith and high regard those young ones have towards our organisation and symbolises their sincere need for true co-existence and reconciliation, despite obstacles and threats, placed before them by various disgruntled and divisive elements and those who want to incite them while pandering to recurrence of violence”.
The Army Commander was on a visit to assess the security situation, COVID-19 preventive work and particularly to share New Year greetings with Tri servicemen who forego their leave and opportunity to meet their loved ones during festive season.
Since the dawn of peace, the Commander said troops have been rendering an exemplary and dedicated service to the enhancement of Jaffna civilians’ livelihood income sources, development of infrastructure, construction of houses for the needy, schools, while performing civil-military cooperation projects on a large scale.
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]]>The post Why did Canada, US and UK attempt to defeat a motion for the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance at the United Nations? appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>The western governments in November-December 2020 seems to have attempted to defeat a UN motion calling for “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance” (A/C.3/75/L.49).
At its 12th meeting, on 18 November, the Committee had before a draft resolution, which was submitted by Angola, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Burundi, China, Comoros, Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) and Viet Nam. Subsequently, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Barbados, Benin, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Cambodia, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, the Philippines, Serbia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe joined in sponsoring the draft resolution.
It was stated in the motion
“Stressing that the purpose of addressing hate speech is not to limit or prohibit freedom of speech, but to prevent incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence, which shall be prohibited by law,
In March a UN Core Group on Sri Lanka – including the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, and Montenegro – did not stand by the numerous victims of abuses by calling for renewed Human Rights Council action. In its statement, the Core Group merely “encourage[d] the government of Sri Lanka to continue cooperation and dialogue”. While Sri Lanka rejected this motion, it was adopted by the UNHCR with a majority vote.
Full text of the motion:
https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3896183?ln=en
In April, Federal Liberals have used an unpopular tool to limit time for debate in the House of Commons on a bill that would harmonize Canada’s laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Liberals successfully passed a motion to impose closure on the opening round of debate on Bill C-15 in order to put it to a vote and move it along to a Commons committee for further scrutiny. Bill C-15 represents the third attempt to have Parliament approve implementation of the UN declaration in Canada. The UN declaration, which Canada endorsed in 2010, affirms the rights of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination and to their language, culture and traditional lands. It also spells out the need for free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous Peoples on anything that infringes on their lands or rights.
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]]>DailyFT
By Ranjiv Goonawardena
It is worthwhile to examine the recent history of the key countries who have passed the vote against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council and shine a light on their true values, as have been to date pertaining, with regard to human rights.
Countries that passed judgement against Sri Lanka have been the UK who was the penholder, in tandem with Canada, Germany and France just to name a few. Proclaim themselves to be judge, jury and executioner of human rights; sanctimonious to lecture other nations, having a dishonourable record themselves on the same subject matter of human rights. Surely their moral integrity is questionable; are these countries fair and genuine to criticise Sri Lanka?
There seems to be so much historical amnesia about what the British Empire really entailed. The fact that colonial history inclusive of its ugly brutality is not taught in schools or even in universities, has led to a complete lack of awareness of the atrocities committed throughout the empire and its subjugation of people by force. The extraction of substantial wealth was taken out of the colonies that they held by force and intimidation. Also, Britain financed its Industrial Revolution and its prosperity from the degradation of empire.
Let’s look at the UK’s true values
The UK Government it seems has conveniently forgotten all the atrocities and human right abuses caused by the British Empire, death and destruction stretching from Europe, Middle East, Asia to Africa, for instance:
In Chagos Islands: Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said the UK was now an illegal colonial occupier. Between 1968 and 1974, Britain forcibly removed thousands of Chagossians from their homelands and sent them more than 1,000 miles away to Mauritius and Seychelles, where they faced extreme destitution and discrimination. Britain then invited the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia. US planes have been sent from the base to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq. The facility was also reportedly used as a “black site” by the CIA to interrogate terrorism suspects. In 2016, the lease for the base was extended until 2036.
In May 2019, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Chagos Islands being returned – with 116 states backing the move and only six against. The UN said that the decolonisation of Mauritius “was not conducted in a manner consistent with the right to self-determination” and that therefore the “continued administration… constitutes a wrongful act”.
The UN resolution came only three months after the UN’s High Court advised the UK should leave the islands “as rapidly as possible”.
The UK has repeatedly apologised for the forced evictions, which Jugnauth has said were akin to a crime against humanity. Prime Minister Jugnauth said the UK and US lectured countries “to respect human rights, but they are champions of double talk”. “They are hypocrites. Shame on them when they talk about human rights and respect,” he added.
In India: Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, also called the Massacre of Amritsar, the incident happened on 13 April 1919, in which British troops fired and killed up to 1,000 peaceful protesters. They were a crowd of unarmed Indians in a park known as the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in the Punjab region of India.
Acting Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to fire their rifles into the crowd of unarmed Indian civilians. The entrance was blocked by the armed soldiers, as well as by two armoured cars with machine guns. The vehicles were unable to pass through the entrance. Upon entering the park, the general ordered the troops to shoot directly into the gathering. The shooting continued unabated for about 10 minutes and the soldiers’ supply of 1,650 rounds of ammunition was almost exhausted. He has been called “the Butcher of Amritsar”. He became a celebrated hero among some with connections to the British Empire. Some historians argue the episode was a decisive step towards the end of British rule in India.
Some commentators have suggested that the British Government orchestrated and were a contributing factor to the severity of famines during the time India was under British rule. During the Indian famine under British rule, up to 29 million Indian starved to death. Historians have said that it wasn’t a famine it was a form of grand theft perpetrated by the British Empire to steal the food of India for the benefit of the mother nation England. While under the British administrative rule they diverted, stockpiles of tens of millions of tons of food from India. Then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said: “I hate Indians, they are beastly people with beastly religion, the famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.” The architect of the so-called famine in India.
In Iraq: At the crashing of the Iraq independent uprising in 1920, here the British indiscriminately massacred a large number of the Kurdish population in northern Iraq, on an industrial scale.
It wasn’t Saddam Hussein who first used chemical weapons in 1988 against the Kurdish population, it was rather the British Empire, no other than the infamous Winston Churchill as the War Secretary in Lloyd George’s Coalition Government who decided to conduct aerial bombings with chemical weapons to annihilate and subjugate the population.
In Germany: Coincidentally one of the Royal Air Force squadron leaders in Iraq was Arthur Harris – who in 1942 assumed the leadership of RAF Bomber Command. Several of his senior officers in Bomber Command had served in the same squadron in Iraq. For Harris, during the Second World War believed that the German people could be obliterated from the air as he had once vanquished the tribesmen of Iraq. The destruction of Hamburg, Dresden and scores of other German cities and towns followed. Around 600,000 Germans, mostly civilians were killed, he earned the nickname “Butcher” Harris but as a sign of admiration. He was vilified as a mass murderer and a war criminal only decades later.
After his evil deeds were regarded as heroic deeds, and he was loaded with titles of the realm, ending up as ‘Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet GCB OBE AFC’.
In Kenya: The Mau Mau rebellion in 1952 was undeniably caused by the growing tensions between the Kikuyu ethnic group native to Central Kenya and the English white immigrants. The Kikuyu had long been unhappy with white immigrants in Kenya taking their ancestral land without compensation rather obtained by brute force, and their economic deprivation led to vast discontent throughout the Kikuyu. The British troops rounded up to 1.5 million Kenyans including Barack Obama’s grandfather and put them into concentration camps in Kenya. British colonial records indicate 100,000 believed to have died.
Sir Evelyn Baring, 1st Baron Howick of Glendale, KG, GCMG, KCVO, played an integral role in atrocities committed and the subsequent cover-up of the abuses carried out during the suppression of the Mau Mau revolt and kept them secret from the British public.
Colonial administrators and governors including Sir Patrick Muir Renison GCMG, Sir Henry Steven Potter KCMG and Sir Walter Fleming Coutts GCMG MBE had a significant part to play according to the archive reports.
Let’s look at America’s true values
In America: As historians are fully aware, during the 500 years of the transatlantic slave trade, colonists from the US, the UK and France transported 12.8 million enslaved Africans to the Americas, in addition to another 10 million who died during transportation.
The act of dropping atomic/nuclear bombs on a civilian population; on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was at the time governed by international law found in the Hague Regulations on Land Warfare of 1907 and the Hague Draft Rules of Air Warfare of 1922–1923 and was therefore unlawful. Also, under the Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions, the nuclear bombing of Japan was a gross violation of international humanitarian law. It clearly states that using nuclear weapons on civilians in any situation would violate international law. Is estimated over 226,000 civilians died and has America been brought to justice over this heinous crime. The person who sanctioned it; then, President Harry S. Truman be found guilty similar to the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi Germans and sentenced to death?
Presently in the US, black people are constantly harassed and murdered by white police officers, we have seen this day in day out on television. Henceforth, you can imagine what white immigrants must have done to the indigenous inhabitants of America who were completely wiped out by European migrants when there were no TV cameras or critical journalists to witness them. To date US justice has not prevailed for black people in education, employment and the list goes on.
The brutal killing of George Floyd in America by a police officer, by putting his knee on his neck so he couldn’t breathe. Is merely a recent example that was witnessed by the world because of modern technology. Otherwise, it too would have passed into oblivions without witnesses. As pointed out by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination long ago, African descendants in the US, Canada, Germany, France and the UK face systemic racism on health, employment, education, fair trial and other rights.
Let’s look at Germany true values
In Germany: As early as the beginning of the 20th century, German colonists slaughtered indigenous Namibian tribes and stole their land. Between 1904 and 1908 Germans carried out systematic genocide by having five concentration camps, “camps of death”.
The German military killed over 100,000 indigenous people, including three-fourths of the Herero people and over half of the Nama people. United Nations Economic and Social Council Commission on Human Rights said in a report that this is the first genocide in the 20th century. During WWII, Nazi Germany slaughtered almost six million Jews, including one million children.
Let’s look at France’s true values
In France: Historians have discovered evidence, to show that the French army massacred 5.5 million people in Algeria during the colonial period, and stole their land, which is a crime against humanity. It’s been nearly 80 years since hundreds of black West African soldiers who fought for France’s freedom against Nazi Germany during World War II were killed in cold blood by their fellow white French officers in Senegal in 1944.
In what is now known as the Thiaroi massacre; this is the story of how France treated its black soldiers and took their lives because they demanded for their rights. How was this then covered up and erased from the school curriculum? Was it in attempting to deny the truth and rewrite history? Was it to lighten the nation’s conscience burdened with guilt and culpability?
Let’s look at Canada’s true values
In Canada: The indigenous people of Canada have been constantly undermined and discriminated against by the non-indigenous European immigrants who settled in the continent of North America.
There is a deep rift between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in Canada. It’s a divide that goes back hundreds of years when Europeans arrived in North America. This is when the discrimination began and the theft of their ancestral land. It didn’t stop at just taking land from the indigenous people, they brought with them a policy of physical and cultural genocide to snuff out the so-called Indian problem.
The first Indian Residential schools started opening in the 1870s at the beginning of what some have called the darkest chapter in Canadian history. What took place in Residential schools amounts to nothing short of cultural genocide. By 1920 the Indian Act was amended to make it mandatory for status Indian children to attend a Residential school. When their parents refused to send them, police showed up and forcibly took them. It’s estimated that 150,000 children were taken from their families and placed in these schools, where they were stripped of their culture and their language.
The goal of this program was assimilation, to quote, “kill the Indian in the child”. It is documented that thousands of children died, with some estimates saying the mortality rate was as high as 60% in some of these schools. Those who survived have shared horrific stories of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. The last Residential school closed in 1996. The impacts of those horrific institutions are still palpable today.
Indigenous communities have shown incredible resilience in the centuries since the European migration arrived, but the impacts of intergenerational trauma and colonisation still run deep. In 2007 the largest class-action lawsuit was taken against the Canadian Government which reluctantly acknowledged the damage inflicted by Residential schools in Canada.
Modern-day war crimes
It is reported that some in the US, the UK and their allies violated the Geneva Conventions and brutally killed innocent civilians in Afghanistan, which constitutes war crimes.
It is recorded that the US and the UK, among others, used some test tube of washing powder and staged a video as evidence to launch wars against sovereign countries including Iraq and Syria, which caused untold casualties of innocent civilians, tore apart and displaced numerous families. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Syrian crisis. In Syria alone, 350,000 people have been killed in the war, their families have been destroyed and their lives greatly affected. Orchestrated according to historians by Western forces including America Shouldn’t the perpetrators be sanctioned?
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of Libya’s civil war. France, the UK and the EU, among others, launched the war in Libya, creating a large-scale humanitarian disaster, which is the root cause of the current migrant and refugee issues and an important factor leading to regional turbulence. More than 400,000 people remain displaced within Libya. More than a million people are in urgent need of assistance. Shouldn’t the perpetrators be held accountable?
These countries show no remorse for the human rights, atrocities committed by them and the turmoil they created in other countries; they even go further to impose unilateral sanctions on others in the name of human rights, severely jeopardising the rights to life, health and development of people in relevant countries.
Weaponising vaccines
In the face of the epidemic, these above-mentioned most developed countries have turned a blind eye to their people’s rights to life and health, leading to losses of tens of hundreds of lives. In pursuit of “vaccine nationalism”, they’ve hoarded vaccines far in excess of their population’s needs, leaving developing countries struggling with insufficient vaccines.
We can’t help but ask: how could people have any right if they lost their lives? The United States and the West have been trumpeting protecting human rights, but who and what right on earth are they protecting? In what way are they respecting and protecting human rights? Shouldn’t they feel ashamed?
The new media age
These few countries are obsessed with lecturing others on human rights. However historic facts have proved that they are neither qualified nor capable of doing so. Historians have stated; we hope they will understand that you can’t tell a lie and expect to get away with it especially with the dawn of the new media age, where everybody has access to information on their phone.
A clear example of this would be the demonstrations that mushroomed all over the world in disgust of what happened to George Floyd who was illegally killed by a white police officer. It went viral everywhere in the world causing demonstrations because they had access to information and at the same time, they found it absolutely unacceptable that in 2020 an innocent black man can be killed because of his colour in America.
Weaponising the Human Rights Council
The time to intimidate emerging nations is long gone. In the old days, they had something called gunboat diplomacy where they could threaten with violence to get their way. Now, they are weaponising the Human Rights Council to be a precision-guided missile to exert influence on specific countries. Also gone are the days when several so-called scholars and state media could unscrupulously malign nations in collusion with impunity. Any nation worth anything must robustly defend national interests and dignity. It’s a courtesy to reciprocate what we receive.
There are no longer any excuses for discrimination, prejudice, ignorance and arrogance. Never try appeasement. That’s what British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain did with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and it ended up with the Second World War. Historians and aficionados have now widely discredited it as a policy of weakness.
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]]>Aftermath of UNHRC Resolution, what is next?
Had LTTE lost its political game forever inside the UN system?
Date: Sunday, April 11, 2021
11:00 AM Canada & US
4:00 PM London, UK
7:00 PM Dubai, UAE
8:30 PM Colombo, Sri Lanka
5:00 PM Geneva, Switzerland
Panelists:
Tamara Kunanayakam, Sri Lanka.
(Former Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN at Geneva.)
Prof. Dr. (h.c.) Mehmet Şükrü Güzel, Switzerland.
Jayaraj Palihawadana, Solicitor, Attorney-at-law, United Kingdom.
Moderator: Dr. Neville Hewage, Canada.
Abstract
The Core Group, including Canada, did not mention any international committee of inquiry in the resolution. But this time in the operative paragraph 6 asked for “…. and to support relevant judicial proceedings in the Member States with competent jurisdiction.”
Any member state may open court against Sri Lanka under the principle of aut dedere aut judicare (extradite or prosecute), extraterritorial Human Rights Jurisdiction. However, this court can hear matters related to genocide, crime against humanity, or war crime only.
Thanks to Lord Naseby, the world became aware of being cheated by the death numbers in the OISL report. The Canada and Core Group States now know that they were cheated by the so-called death numbers in the OISL report. The core group is tried to find a way to eliminate the mistake they had made. They want to avoid their humiliation at all costs. They need a solution, is it the 3rd state, to open a domestic court against Sri Lanka? Is this State, Malawi, the new co-sponsor State?
Further, an established legal principle, the presumption is innocent until proven guilty. The information collected by the UNHRC commissioner cannot be treated as evidence (UNHRC certified information) until it is tested before the court. If the Malawi court or other jurisdictions not allow or bypass the process in determining evidence validity, it can be treated as a serious violation of fundamental human rights.
Malawi Criminal Code Procedure and Evidence Act section 184 does not accept “hearsay” evidence. It seems UNHRC commissioners’ information that was collected or intended to collect is “hearsay” and will face another legal debacle.
Further, to prove the criminality, the prosecution must establish “intent.” With the lack of such intent and evidence related to criminal intent, if any case before the Malawi court or other jurisdictions will not be succeeded. Again, Canada and the Core Group will face international embarrassment.
The Core Group and UNHRC shall allow Sri Lanka to continue its unique accountability process the restorative justice mechanism under the principle of forgiveness and rehabilitation. The UK led core group’s western accountability an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth does not fit on the social-cultural fabric of Sri Lanka.
Pro- Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has nothing to do with transitional justice or reconciliation in Sri Lanka. After the military defeat, LTTE tried to use the UN system to achieve what it could not achieve militarily. The political road map of the LTTE was based on remedial secession theory. For remedial secession, there is a need for some conditions that might justify the secession of a subgroup from its parent state as a “remedy of last resort.” At the 46th session of the UNHRC, LTTE has lost every aspect of their political game.
Full Video:
https://fb.watch/4P41MVyXtu/
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]]>By Neville Ladduwahetty –The Island
Resolution A/HRC/46/L.Rev.1 dated 16 March 2021 has been adopted by the UN Human Rights Council based on procedures and practices adopted by Committees of the General Assembly. Of the 47 Members in the Council, 22 Member States cast an affirmative vote, 11 members opposed it, and 14 abstained. The procedure adopted does not recognize the number of votes that abstained. Therefore, adoption of the Resolution was based on 22 affirmative votes, which is less than half the 47-members in the Council. This outcome should be a cause to fault the Council for adopting a procedure that permits a Resolution to be adopted even when more than half of its members decided not to support it for whatever reason.
However, other agencies of the UN adopt other procedures. For instance, the 15-member Security Council requires nine affirmative votes for a decision to be adopted. Others who see a moral obligation to the institution they represent require half plus one for a decision to be adopted. Simple majorities in most Parliaments require half plus one of its elected members for a Bill to become Law. Therefore, there is nothing comical if perceived from another perspective, that the resolution did not secure a majority of the 47 Member Human Rights Council and furthermore, that 25 Members did not affirmatively support the Resolution. The lesson, in particular for the Human Rights Council, is that the basis for adopting a Resolution should be revisited, because the current practice allows Resolutions to be adopted by less than half the number in the Council. This is not good enough a threshold for a UN institution as vital as the Human Rights Council where much is at stake for all States.
Notwithstanding all of the above, the hard reality is that the Resolution was adopted. Another hard reality that is of serious consequence is that the adoption of the Resolution comes at a great cost to the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. In fact, having stated at the very outset that the Resolution is “Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations …” the Resolution goes on to violate Article 1(2) and Article 2(7) of the Charter. In addition, it recalls co-sponsored Resolutions of 2015, 2017, and 2019, despite withdrawal from co-sponsorship because they violate Sri Lanka’s Constitution; a right granted under the Vienna Convention and furthermore, violates the mandate granted to the Human Rights Council under General Assembly Resolution 60/251. Under these circumstances, such a flawed Resolution should not be adopted, particularly with votes less than half the membership in the Council.
Article 1(2) states: “To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples…”. AND Article 2(7) states: “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state…”.
Article 1(2): Right of Self-Determination
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights AND the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights state in Article 1 of their respective Covenants:
“All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”.
In view of the people’s right to freely determine its political status, the Resolution of the Core-Group states: “…to ensure that all provincial councils, including the northern and eastern provincial councils, are able to operate effectively, in accordance with the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka” (Preamble to the Resolution)
COMMENT: This is a violation of the right of self-determination of a people to freely administer and govern themselves because it binds the people of Sri Lanka to a particular form of internal Government, and denies them the opportunity to self-determine a form of Local Government that best serves them. Therefore. this provision amounts to a denial of the fundamental freedom of a Peoples to govern themselves under a form of Government of their choosing. For the Human Rights Council to impose restrictions on how a Member State should govern itself is a denial of their fundamental right to self-determination.
The Preamble states: “Noting the enactment of the twentieth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, while stressing the importance of democratic governance and independent oversight of key institutions”.
COMMENT: The need to remind the people of Sri Lanka the “importance of democratic governance and oversight key institutions” is an insult in view of the fact that the amendment is a product the people of Sri Lanka have determined in keeping with their right of self-determination. Furthermore, Sri Lanka is not the only country to function under a Presidential system of government under provisions of separation of power and the internal arrangements in each are different as they are with the systems of governance in each state that supported the Resolution. Under the circumstances, the need to draw special attention to arrangements in Sri Lanka is a slur on what Sri Lanka has rightfully determined for itself.
It is indeed comical for the U.K. as the sponsor of the Resolution to “stress the importance of democratic governance”, when three-fourths (¾) of U.K. Parliament was for staying in the European Union whereas the majority of the people of U.K. wanted to leave the EU, thus laying bare the U.K.’s deficit in democratic governance.
Article 2(7): Domestic Jurisdiction
Section 2 of the Resolution states: “…implement the recommendations made by the Office and to give due consideration to the recommendations made by the special procedures ….”
Section 7 of the Resolution ‘expresses serious concern at the trends emerging over the past year, which represent a clear early warning sign of a deteriorating situation of human rights in Sri Lanka, including the accelerating militarization of civilian government functions; the erosion of the independence of the judiciary and key institutions; ongoing impunity and political obstruction; policies that adversely affect the right to freedom of religion or belief; increased marginalization of persons belonging to the Tamil and Muslim communities; surveillance and intimidation of civil society; restrictions on media; freedom, and shrinking democratic space; arbitrary detentions; alleged torture and sexual and gender-based violence’.
COMMENT: Section 7 of the Resolution is influenced by the Report of the Office of the High Commissioner. It contains comments and observations that violate provisions of Article 2(7) of the UN Charter in respect of issues that are “essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state” cited above.
Unlike under normal circumstances, the literal interpretation of Article 2(7) that prohibits UN from intervening in issues domestic as enunciated by Professor Kelsen and others of similar view, is justified under the extremely extraordinary background that Sri Lanka and the rest of mankind had to face due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This view was underscored by the UN when it decided NOT to intervene in issues domestic relating to how member states coped with the COVI-19 pandemic. What the Resolution addressed instead was the situation that prevailed in Sri Lanka in the background of a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists in 2019, and the measures adopted to cope with the pandemic in the absence of international guidelines that the UN should have spearheaded.
The extraordinary circumstances referred to above started with a new President being elected in November 2019. A bare two months later, starting January 2020, Sri Lanka encountered its first COVID-19 patient. Until August 2020 when a new Parliament was elected, it was the Executive that had to deal with the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 pandemic.
In fact, most countries were at a loss as to what strategies to adopt to deal with the pandemic. Furthermore, a fact that should not be overlooked is that during the period of review by the Council, the Legislative and Executive Branches of the government in Sri Lanka had existed only for four months.
At the end of the day, governments have to make hard choices. In the background of a raging pandemic the choice is whether to implement strict controls by deploying personnel known for their ability to ensure strict adherence to health guidelines, or to relax them. Those countries that have decided to leave it to individuals as a matter of individual choice have experienced far more deaths than countries such as Sri Lanka that decided otherwise. Are they guilty of fratricide? To fault elected representatives for the choices they made in the fulfillment of their responsibilities to their people, is to place individual choice at a premium over state-initiated guidelines to contain a global crisis. Not to recognize the positive results in terms of lives saved because of the measures adopted by the government is not to recognize the most fundamental of all human rights which is right to life.
The impression conveyed upon perusing the list of societal shortcomings cited in Section 7 is that they are unique to Sri Lanka. On the other hand, over the span of one year there would be instances of societal shortcomings similar to those cited in Section 7, in every country. For instance, in other countries too, policies exist that affect freedom of religion or belief; marginalization of persons or groups; restrictions on media freedom; shrinking democratic space; sexual and gender-based violence etc. Such shortcomings exist, albeit to different degrees, in all of the 22 countries that supported the Resolution despite the existence of independent institutions, or how liberal and democratic their policies are. Therefore, what is so special or unique about Sri Lanka for it to deserve special attention?
Mandate of the Human Rights Council
Section 6 of the Resolution states: “Recognizes the importance of preserving and analyzing evidence relating to violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes in Sri Lanka…and to develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law…and to support relevant judicial proceedings in Member States with competent jurisdiction”.
COMMENT: The Human Rights Council has NO MANDATE nor the COMPETENCE to collect evidence relating to international humanitarian law or to support judicial proceedings in Member States. The Council is expected to function within the mandate stated in UN Resolution 60/251. The relevant provisions are:
3. Decides also that the Council should address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations, and make recommendations thereon. It should also promote the effective coordination and the mainstreaming of human rights within the United Nations system;
4. Decides further that the work of the Council shall be guided by the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, constructive international dialogue and cooperation, with a view to enhancing the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development…”.
The mandate of the Council does not authorize it to share its findings with other Member states for them to engage in judicial proceedings because it violates the “principle of equal sovereignty” (Article 1(1) of the Charter. If they do, what about the evidence sequestered for thirty years? Instead, what the Council is supposed to do, is to make recommendations to the states concerned. By focusing on Sri Lanka, the Council is being selective, thus violating the principles it is supposed to follow as stated in Paragraph 4 cited above.
A fact that should be borne in mind is that no investigations that could lead to a prosecution would be possible, using any evidence gathered for the purpose of future accountability exercises because access to victims and witnesses would not be possible due to Paragraph 25 of the OISL Report relating to confidentiality in the OISL Report.
CONCLUSION
Resolution A/HRC/46/L.Rev.1 dated 16 March 2021 has been adopted by the UN Human Rights Council based on the procedures and practices adopted by Committees of the General Assembly. Since the procedure adopted does not take into account the 14 abstained votes, the 22 members who supported the resolution prevailed over the 11 that opposed. Consequently, the procedure adopted enabled the Council to adopt the Resolutions based on votes that were less than half of the 47-member Council.
While the procedure adopted by the Council is acceptable for Committees of the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council is in a league by itself. Since its decisions impact on nearly every aspect of human life, the procedures and practices it adopts should be unique and stand alone. Another Council of similar standing is the Security Council. The procedure adopted by them is that out of its fifteen members at least nine should vote affirmatively for a decision to be adopted. Democratic Parliaments require half plus one of its members for a Bill or decision to have any legitimacy. Therefore, Sri Lanka should take the initiative to table a Resolution in the General Assembly calling on the Human Rights Council to take a fresh approach in the adoption of Resolutions. The outcome of such an approach should as a minimum be that even if the abstaining votes are not recognized, no Resolution should be adopted without half plus one of its members casting an affirmative vote for it to have any legitimacy i.e., more than 24 affirmative votes.
Having stated at the very outset that the resolution is “Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter”, the Resolution goes on to violate Article 1(2) and 2(7) of the Charter, right of a State to withdraw from an undertaking if it is in conflict with the “internal law of fundamental importance” to the State based on a right granted under Article 46 of the Vienna Convention, and violates the mandate granted to the Human Rights Council. If a Resolution violates the stated purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the General Assembly should take note and declare such a Resolution unadoptable.
The call on the Sri Lankan government to hold Provincial Council elections and to ensure that all Provincial Councils operate effectively in accordance with the 13th Amendment is a violation of Article 1(2) because it denies the right of self-determination to institute local government arrangements that suit them best and to bind the people of Sri Lanka to internal arrangements of governance set by external entities.
Article 2(7) does not “authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state…”. In keeping with this provision the UN did NOT intervene in the decisions taken by member states to handle the enormous challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Having stayed in the sidelines they have decided to single out Sri Lanka to document what the Council determines as shortcomings in the manner Sri Lanka coped with the crisis presented by the COVI-19 pandemic in a background of a Muslim terrorist attack that denied the fundamental right to life of hundreds.
The resolution is not binding on Sri Lanka. Furthermore, as stated above it violates certain provisions of the UN Charter and holds Sri Lanka to commitments it withdrew from on legitimate grounds. What Sri Lanka could do is table a Resolution in the General Assembly highlighting the issues at stake and seek redress. In addition, such a Resolution should propose a revision on the lines suggested above to the procedures adopted by the Human Rights Council in respect of how it decides to adopt Resolutions since current procedures are totally inappropriate for an all-important institution as the Human Rights Council.
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]]>Global Tamil Forum among groups listed
By Easwaran Rutnam – Daily Mirror
The Government has banned a number of Tamil diaspora groups, including some influential organizations based in the UK.
Some of the groups were banned in 2014 but were de-listed by the Government in 2015.
The Global Tamil Forum (GTF), British Tamil Forum (BTF), Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC), Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), National Council of Canadian Tamil, Tamil Youth Organisation and the World Tamil Coordinating Committee have been proscribed by the Ministry of Defence.
The have been banned under Regulation 4(7) of the United Nations Regulations No. 1 of 2012.
The gazette notice issued to ban the organizations has been signed by Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne.
The Government has also banned a number of individuals based in the UK, Germany, Italy, Malaysia and several other countries.
Among those banned are GTF spokesman Suren Surendiran, who had been engaged in talks with then Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and the Tamil National Alliance after the former Government lifted the ban on some of the diaspora groups.
The former Government had de-listed most groups considered as being moderate in their views, in an attempt to seek their support for the reconciliation process and development of the North.
However, the current administration considers these groups as still being linked to terrorism and a threat to national security.
The latest ban had been enforced just before the UN Human Rights Council began to meet in Geneva.
The Tamil diaspora have been critical of the current administration on the human rights issue and had been lobbying for support for the resolution against Sri Lanka in Geneva.
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]]>Dr. Daniele Ganser’s book “Ilegale Kriege” (ඉලේගාල ක්රීග) or “The Illegal wars” explains the manouver by UK and Germany last week in misleding the UNHRC to give a new form to the illegal wars!
UK and Germany manouvered the UNHRC to get a mandate to “investigate war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka”. In order to do that, they first suppressed the truth – the obvious evidence! This could possibly cost German Foreign Minister his job!
The truth relating to Sri Lanka’s war against the fascist Tamil Tigers is easy to get and direct; they are at UK’s fingertips; The evidence is in the dispatches sent by the UK’s then defence attache Colonel Anthony Gash in Colombo who was reporting directly from the warzone and those from his US counterpart Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith, plus the ICRC reports.
The UK hid these from the UNHRC, according to UK parliamentarian Lord Michael Naseby. The German foreign ministry as well as the UNHRC evaded their due diligence to ask for those when the matter was brought to their knowledge.
This is the new form of illegal wars – how the UN system is misused to achieve NATO’s goals.
Dr. Ganser describes in his book how NATO manouvered the UN, from the day of Bay of Pigs attack on Cuba in 1962 through many other similar wars!
Fascinating read to understand how the world system functions. Unfortunately only available in the German language! A must translation to Sinhala.
Dr. Ganzer is a Swiss peace researcher, he lives in Basel (බාසල්), Switzerland.
සාමය පිලිබඳ පර්යේෂකයකු වන ස්විස් ජාතික ආචාර්ය ඩනියෙල ගන්සර් යනු අප කවුරුත් දැන ගත යුතු චරිතයකි.
එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මූලික නියමයන්ට අනුව 1945 න් පසුව එක් රටකට තවත් රටකට එරෙහිව යුද්ධ කිරීම තහනම් වේ.
ස්විට්සර්ලන්තයේ බාසල් විශ්ව විද්යාලයේ තම මූලික උපාධිය හැදෑරූ ගන්සර් මහතා තම නිබන්ධනය උදෙසා ආකර්ශනීය මාතෘකාවක් තෝරා ගත්තේය (1997). එනම් ඇමෙරිකාව 1962 කියුබා ආක්රමණය කලේ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානයේ නියමයන් වලට අනුගත වූයේද වගයි.
ඒ අනුව එතුමා එ.ජා සංවිධානයේ පුස්තකාලයට ගොස් කියුබානු ආක්රමණයට අදාල එකල එජා සංවිධානයේ සිදුවූ සාකච්ඡා පරිශීලනය කිරීමට පටන් ගත්තේය. ඒවා කියවූ ඔහු තේරුම් ගත්තේ බලවත් ජාතීන් තමුන්ගේ අභිප්රායන්ට සිතැඟි පරිදි එජා සංවිධානයේ නීති මගහැර තමුන්ට අවශ්ය දේ කරගන්නා බවයි. ඒ අනුව ඔහු තම නිබන්ධනය 1997 දී “Role of the UN in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962” නමින් එලිදැක්වීය.
වසර 2000 දී ඔහුගේ කෘතිය ඇමෙරිකාවේ University Press of the South මගින් “Reckless Gamble. The Sabotage of the UN in the Cuban Conflict and the Missile Crisis in 1962” නමින් එලිදැක්විය.
පසු කලෙ ඔහු “NATO Geheheimarmeen in Europa නේටෝ ගෙහයිම් ආර්මේන් ඉන් ඔයිරෝපා” නොහොත් “යුරෝපයේ නේටෝ රහස් හමුදා” නම් කෘතියක්ද පල කලේය.
එජා මානවහිමිකම් සංවිධානය මෙවර ලංකාවට එරෙහිව හැසුරුනේ එජා සංවිධානයේ නීති උල්ලංඝනය කරමිනි. පාකිස්තානු සහ වෙනිසුවෙලා තානාපතිවරුන් ප්රකාශ කල ලෙසට එජා සංවිධානය 60/251 නීතිය උල්ලංඝනය කරමින්, ශ්රී ලංකා රණවිරුවන් පෝරකයට ගෙන යාම සඳහා හොර පාරක් සාදා ගත්තෝය.
ලංකාවේ කොතෙකුත් උගතුන් සිටිති. ආචාර්ය ගන්සර් සිසුවෙකු ලෙස කල ලෙසට එජා සංවිධානය ශ්රී ලංකාවේ රණවිරුවන් කොටු කිරීමට තම සංවිධානය බලවත් ජාතීන්ට අවශ්ය ලෙසට මෙහයවූයේ කෙසේදැයි සොයා බලා පර්යේෂණ ග්රන්ථයක් එලිදැක්වීම ලාංකික විශ්ව විද්යාලවල මහාචාර්ය වරුන්ට සහ සිසුවන්ට අයත් කාර්යභාරයකි.
– රනිල් ජයනෙත්ති –
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]]>The post The realpolitik behind the UNHRC actions: Can Sri Lanka fly with the Eagle and ride the Dragon? appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>The Western countries behind the UNHRC resolution have their own highly developed intelligence sources of information on the Eelam war, as it was of intense interest to the Western nations. In fact, the foreign ministers of UK and France actually came to Colombo to intervene personally. Given that level of interest, they had reams of information on the Eelam war. Lord Naseby has exposed the tip of this hidden iceberg of information possessed by the British Government alone. The US, Indians, French, Canada with its huge Tamil Diaspora, and most of all the Norwegians possessed first-hand information. None of that has been exploited by the UN, but remains hidden because, in all probability, what is in them are of little use to the agenda of the core group of nations behind the UNHRC resolution.
All such information is ignored by the “moral crusaders” who also try to claim that this was a vicious war conducted without witnesses whereas there were many witnesses, and first hand reports, from journalists like M. Reddy, representatives of the IRC, UN, and TULF MPs who were in close contact with the LTTE, churchmen. There were military observers of diplomatic missions who were working closely with some Western aid organizations and NGOs embedded in the Vanni. Existence of some of these NGOs depended on the existence of the Tigers. They had such a symbiosis with the Tigers that one such NGO even surreptitiously allowed the Tigers to use their earth-moving equipment to build earthen bunds to prevent the advance of the army. Information from such sources were available to foreign missions. The Norwegians were personally close to Balasingham and other top Tiger operatives and knew the facts and often concealed the facts in their belief that such connivance will help “peace” negotiations. However, they did appeal to the Tigers to release the hostages held as a human shield.
Then there were the TULF/TNA MPs who were the political arm of the Tigers. Why do commentators conveniently forget what Mr. Veersingham Anandasangaree, the then General Secretary of the TULF told at the Annual Meeting in December 2008? Sangaree mentioned how the LTTE was killing its own injured, including civilians in cold blood, as they were regarded as a liability. Reports of the LTTE loading it’s injured into buses that were too damaged for use, and setting them on fire exist. The pro-LTTE TULF member from Mutative (Mooladoova) who was present at the Dec. 2008 meeting is said to have retorted that such things are necessary in the fight to achieve Eelam! But such dead are also conveniently attributed against the Armed forces.
Furthermore, there were “student volunteers” from some Canadian Universities who had been brainwashed by the Canadian Diaspora to work in the Vanni. They came to “help” the Tigers in the romantic adventure of creating an “exclusive Tamil homeland” that will herald a great Tamil Nation stretching from South Africa to Malaysia. Their ethnic-Tamil academic peers were in touch with these student volunteers.
The UNHRC itself, in 2014 had appointed a 12 member committee to conduct an investigation into the allegations of human rights violations in Sri Lanka during the war. .The investigators, coordinated by Sandra Beidas http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/30427 expelled from the Sudan for alleged “unethical” ivestigations) had analyzed the evidence they had gathered and given an overall picture of trends of human rights violations. The analysis provided an official report of atrocities committed by the LTTE during the war, to the anger of the Tiger sympathizers who had long demanded an international investigation, but only into the actions of the GOSL!
Furthermore, the investigation rejected the chrage of genocide that has been leveled against GOSL by the Tamil Diaspora. Here it should be noted that the TNA spokesman, Mr. Sumanthiran had also rejected the charge of Genocide.
So there is enough hard evidence from a variety of independent sources, and even partisan sources like the Tamil net that imply no more than some 7000 as the number killed in the period under review. The UN has the capacity and diplomatic clout to access information available only to governments, and to hire competent investigators and research analysts to dig out the information. But the UNHRC effort is not a fact-finding exercise.
Yasmin Sooka was a Mère Fondatrice of the NGO entitled “Campaigne for Justice and Peace in Sri Lanka” (CJPSL). Its mission stated in 2009 was to bring Sri Lanka before the International court of Justice for war crimes. It worked closely with a prominent Colombo NGO that proposed “policy alternatives”, with another Hong Kong based “human rights” NGO, and Western diaspora groups. They even got Naom Chomsky on their side for a short time. Even the prospective names of what finally came out as the “Darusman committee” were submitted to the office of Mr. Ban-ki-Moon by individuals connected with the CJPSL, So it is not surprising that Yasmin Sooka was shooed in.
So the UN exercise is an operation directed by political agendas. Thus the claim that the GOSL carried out a massacre of not 40,000, but 170,000 was recently stated by Navi Pillai after her retirement from the UNHCR. This narrative is best suited for (a) the local politics of the Western politicians who depend on Tamil Diaspora votes in their electorates, (b) Indian government’s need to be au fait with Tamil Nadu politicians, (c) geopolitical needs of the West in punishing the Rajapaksa government for not cooperating with the West with its Status of Forces agreement etc., and in being increasingly pro-Chinese.
Even the Sri Lankans, i.e., even the Tamils and Moors (Muslims), and not just the Sinhala Buddhists who have become the devil incarnate, are going to be punished by the West for putting back the regime headed by the Rajapaksas who depend on the votes of the Devil Incarnate. That was the war-winning regime that the West successfully conspired to dethrone in 2015. They put in the Sirisena-Wickermeasinghe-Samaraweera-Sampathan government that allowed Washington to even overseer the writing of a new constitution for the country, while Jayasuriya, the Speaker of the Parliament had a US-funded “advisor” to guide him in running the parliament and link with Western lobby groups!
So, given the political, rather than factual basis of the UNHRC actions, what is the strategy that exists for Sri Lanka to close the UNHRC file and terminate Western antagonism?
Sri Lanka has been attacked by Islamist Jihadist elements even though it had stayed away from engaging with the US and Pakistani efforts against the Taliban. There are unconfirmed reports that the US had indeed approached the SL government for possible use of a Sri Lanka contingent in Afghanistan. The Taliban had destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2003, and Sri Lanka could have justified such intervention as defending Buddhist heritage by deploying some of its forces to give protection to archaeological sites of the ancient Gandhara, given that the Eelam wars are over. Unlike the Trump administration that hoped to bring all US forces in Afghanistan back to the US by 1st April 2021, the Biden administration is inclined to keep a continued presence. If Sri Lanka opts to work with the US, but with the accord of Islamic nations like Pakistan, one can predict that the behavior of the US in Geneva in 2022 will be a complete about turn! However, engaging in any war, even to defend archeological sites, has its own unpredictable consequences.
So, Sri Lanka’s future lies in its capacity to fly with the Eagle, under the crescent moon, but without being singed by the Dragon. Given the mismanagement of the Covid cremation issue, cautious diplomacy may be well beyond the capacity of Sri Lanka whose diplomacy is crippled and diluted by the appointment of political henchmen and family members of politicians even to key diplomatic positions.
Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandre_Dharma-wardana
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]]>The post ‘It is unforgivable and a black day for my UK Govt’ as UK suppressed ‘robust evidence’ at Sri Lanka’s expense at UNHRC – Lord Naseby appeared first on Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition Ontario Bill 104.
]]>It was reprehensible that the UK, as the leader of the Core Group on Sri Lanka and a member of the UNHRC, had suppressed ‘robust evidence of utmost importance’, Lord Naseby said on Tuesday (23).
The Conservative party member said in his capacity as the President of the All Party Parliamentary UK – Sri Lanka Group: “It is unforgivable and is a black day for my UK Government.”
The following is the text of a statement made available by Lord Naseby’s Office in the aftermath of the UNHRC adopted accountability resolution with 22 voting for, 11 against and 14 countries, including India skipping the vote: “The Core Group chaired by the UK tabled a shoddy motion based on a hostile UNHRC Report riddled with factual errors and unproven allegations going back to 2009; none of which qualifies as robust evidence.
It is a gross intrusion on the sovereignty of a state, Sri Lanka, based on a simple majority vote when Motions of this significance would need a 2/3rds majority. Even worse, the UK Minister for Human Rights Lord Ahmad is the same Minister, who despite a series of Written Questions from me has purposely and consciously withheld ‘Robust evidence’ of the utmost importance being sent to the UNHRC. I refer to the UK Military Attaché, Lt. Col. Gash’s Dispatches from the War front. Dispatches that highlight the care the Sri Lankan armed forces took not to kill civilians, indeed how nearly 300,000 civilians were rescued. He also witnessed the war actions of the Tamil Tigers in recruiting and putting in the front line several thousand Child soldiers, a War Crime in itself, plus the 250,000 poor Tamil civilians forced out of their homes to be a human shield. Finally, Lt Col Gash makes his own estimate as 7,000 civilians sadly killed of which 25% were probably LTTE cadres.
I find it unacceptable that the senior UK Minister responsible for Human Rights policy should state that the UNHRC did not ask for these Dispatches. The Minister knew how crucial the contents of these Dispatches are to the truth. He should have sent them unredacted to create an informed Report. The action is made even worse by the UK Chairing the Core Group and is absolutely reprehensible. It is unforgiveable and is a black day for my UK Government.
As we approach Easter, I remember a phrase from St Mathew in the Bible: ‘Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
http://island.lk/uk-suppressed-robust-evidence-at-sri-lankas-expense-at-unhrc-lord-naseby/
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