Commenting on Sri Lanka's announcement that it is appointing a laws-of-war commission, Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch said, "[e]very time the international community raises the issue of accountability, Sri Lanka establishes a commission that takes a long time to achieve nothing. Ban should put an end to this game of smoke and mirrors and begin a process that would ensure justice for all the victims of Sri Lanka's war," adding, "Secretary-General Ban should not let Sri Lanka bully and manipulate him into abandoning justice for Sri Lanka's war victims," Adams said. "It is time for him to demonstrate that he is squarely on the side of the victims of Sri Lanka's long war."
Full text of HRW's statement:
Sri Lanka: Government Proposal Won’t Address War Crimes
The Sri Lankan government's suggestion that a newly announced commission will provide accountability for laws-of-war violations during the armed conflict with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is yet another attempt to deflect an independent international investigation, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take steps to ensure accountability through an independent international investigation into the alleged laws-of-war violations.
The announcement of a commission on "lessons learnt and reconciliation" came after a months-long campaign by the Sri Lankan government to prevent Ban from establishing a panel of experts to advise him on accountability in Sri Lanka. In May 2009, after the war ended, President Mahinda Rajapaksa signed a joint communiqué with Ban promising that "the government will take measures to address allegations related to violations of international humanitarian and human-rights law." But no substantive steps have been taken.
"Every time the international community raises the issue of accountability, Sri Lanka establishes a commission that takes a long time to achieve nothing," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Ban should put an end to this game of smoke and mirrors and begin a process that would ensure justice for all the victims of Sri Lanka's war."
The government has yet to publish the findings from a committee established in November 2009 to examine allegations of laws-of-war violations, despite an April 2010 deadline. When the committee was announced, Human Rights Watch warned that it was just a smokescreen to avoid accountability.
According to conservative UN estimates, 7,000 civilians were killed and more than 13,000 injured from January to May, 2009. Other estimates suggest that as many as 20,000 were killed. Government officials, including the president, have repeatedly insisted that no violations by government forces took place, and the government has taken no meaningful steps to ensure accountability.
On May 6, 2010, the Sri Lankan government announced that it will establish a commission to report on the lessons learned from the conflict and reconciliation efforts. In a statement posted on the government's website, the government announced that "there will be the [sic] search for any violations of internationally accepted norms of conduct in such conflict situations, and the circumstances that may have led to such actions, and identify any persons or groups responsible for such acts." The statement said nothing about holding such persons accountable under Sri Lankan criminal law or what other steps would be taken against those found to have been acting in violation of Sri Lankan or international law.
According to the government statement, the committee will consist of seven Sri Lankans, located in Sri Lanka and abroad, but will have no international involvement.
"Genuine government efforts with broad participation to promote reconciliation should be supported," Adams said. "But this cannot succeed without genuine and good faith efforts at accountability."
Sri Lanka has a long history of establishing ad hoc commissions to deflect international criticism over its poor human rights record and widespread impunity, Human Rights Watch said. Since independence in 1948, Sri Lanka has established at least 10 such commissions, none of which have produced any significant results.
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed in November 2006 to investigate serious cases of alleged human rights abuses by both sides was a complete failure. A group of international experts, appointed to ensure the investigation was being conducted according to international norms and standards, resigned in 2008 because it had "not been able to conclude...that the proceedings of the Commission have been transparent or have satisfied basic international norms and standards."
In June 2009, Rajapaksa dissolved the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, even though it had conducted investigations in just 7 of its 16 mandated major human rights cases. The president has not published its report.
This week's announcement of a new commission came after weeks of attempts by the Sri Lankan government to prevent Ban from establishing a panel of experts. After Ban informed Rajapaksa on March 5 that the secretary-general intended to establish an expert panel to advise him on accountability in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan government fiercely protested the decision, denouncing it as "uncalled for" and "unwarranted."
Ban has yet to appoint any members to the panel or announce its terms of reference.
"Secretary-General Ban should not let Sri Lanka bully and manipulate him into abandoning justice for Sri Lanka's war victims," Adams said. "It is time for him to demonstrate that he is squarely on the side of the victims of Sri Lanka's long war."
Remarks Of Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka:
Sunday, May 9, 2010
'Long live human dignity; shame on international community'
While the so-called international community is "exposed of its shameful conning," thousands of Tamil civilians and combatants are laying down their lives to "uphold Tamil dignity, and human dignity," says a Tamil academic in Colombo. Those who blame the LTTE for bringing in the disaster know well that Colombo always had the option to negotiate or to come out with a political solution convincing Tamils not to continue the conflict. But Colombo’s aim is not power sharing but genocide and subjugation of Tamils by forcing war on them. "The only way now for the IC to come out of the colossus shame is direct intervention and recognition of the justification for Tamil Eelam," the academic said.
Further comments from the academic:
"Mahinda Rajapaksa’s untruthfulness to the world on the use of heavy weapons, the number of Tamil civilians involved in the tragedy and the number of them get killed are too well known. Yet the IC shamefully allows them, allows the imprisonment and inhuman humiliation of civilians and in future plans to leave everything in the hands of Colombo.
"Tamils don’t expect any sense of shame or any justice coming either from Colombo or New Delhi, the partners of the war. The world knows Sonia’s statement a week ago that the war was over by the efforts of her government and Pranab Mukherjee’s statement a couple of months back, putting the number of civilians at 70,000. They will never be bothered about shame.
"China, Russia and Vietnam, by sitting on UN, act on behalf of Colombo and New Delhi, to prevent international action and to keep the Tamil question to rot at the backyard of the war partners. The Indian Establishment is particularly adamant in preventing all international efforts. It could have acted long back had it really cared for its natural allies in the island and even now it doesn’t need any ‘invitation’ from any one, if it wants to do any justice to Tamils. It has to only come out of its ‘bias’.
"But the Co- Chairs and especially the US among them, which is directly involved in the crisis by setting its course diplomatically, has undeniable responsibility. What is the effect or credibility of the recent White House statements is a question widely asked in the Tamil circles now.
"Colombo has neither stopped war nor stopped using heavy weapons and there was no UN to receive the injured and the captured civilians. Only the LTTE responded to the White House statement.
"Caring for Colombo’s meaningless sovereignty and waiting for unwilling India’s consent will bring in only disastrous effects on the credibility of the West and on the reliability of the global order it envisages.
"It is clear that the LTTE is prepared to meet the White House demands within the means of Tamil dignity and if the US statements are going to mean only a conning, they are prepared to die fighting but not without upholding Tamil dignity.
"The ball is in the court of the White House.
"With the dignity and self-respect upheld, the Tamils can always rebuild their struggle. But the shameful ones will never find credibility again."
Further comments from the academic:
"Mahinda Rajapaksa’s untruthfulness to the world on the use of heavy weapons, the number of Tamil civilians involved in the tragedy and the number of them get killed are too well known. Yet the IC shamefully allows them, allows the imprisonment and inhuman humiliation of civilians and in future plans to leave everything in the hands of Colombo.
"Tamils don’t expect any sense of shame or any justice coming either from Colombo or New Delhi, the partners of the war. The world knows Sonia’s statement a week ago that the war was over by the efforts of her government and Pranab Mukherjee’s statement a couple of months back, putting the number of civilians at 70,000. They will never be bothered about shame.
"China, Russia and Vietnam, by sitting on UN, act on behalf of Colombo and New Delhi, to prevent international action and to keep the Tamil question to rot at the backyard of the war partners. The Indian Establishment is particularly adamant in preventing all international efforts. It could have acted long back had it really cared for its natural allies in the island and even now it doesn’t need any ‘invitation’ from any one, if it wants to do any justice to Tamils. It has to only come out of its ‘bias’.
"But the Co- Chairs and especially the US among them, which is directly involved in the crisis by setting its course diplomatically, has undeniable responsibility. What is the effect or credibility of the recent White House statements is a question widely asked in the Tamil circles now.
"Colombo has neither stopped war nor stopped using heavy weapons and there was no UN to receive the injured and the captured civilians. Only the LTTE responded to the White House statement.
"Caring for Colombo’s meaningless sovereignty and waiting for unwilling India’s consent will bring in only disastrous effects on the credibility of the West and on the reliability of the global order it envisages.
"It is clear that the LTTE is prepared to meet the White House demands within the means of Tamil dignity and if the US statements are going to mean only a conning, they are prepared to die fighting but not without upholding Tamil dignity.
"The ball is in the court of the White House.
"With the dignity and self-respect upheld, the Tamils can always rebuild their struggle. But the shameful ones will never find credibility again."
Germany elects first representative for TGTE
Vithiya Jeyasangar B.Eng was elected Sunday as the representative for Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) from Berlin in Germany. The elections for remaining constituencies, except one constituency where 2 representatives are elected uncontested, will take place on 16 May.
Vithiya Jeyasangar B.Eng.Mrs Vithya Jeyasangar received 441 of 630 votes polled in Constituency 1 (Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachsen-Anhalt, Sachsen, Thüringen).
Seven candidates have been nominated in Constituency 3 (Nordrhein-Westfalen), where elections will take place to elect 4 representatives.
Six candidates are contesting in Southern region (Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland) where 3 candidates will be elected.
Two representatives are elected uncontested in Constituency 2 (Bremen, Hamburg, Niedersachsen, Schleswig-Holstein).
Vithiya Jeyasangar B.Eng.Mrs Vithya Jeyasangar received 441 of 630 votes polled in Constituency 1 (Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachsen-Anhalt, Sachsen, Thüringen).
Seven candidates have been nominated in Constituency 3 (Nordrhein-Westfalen), where elections will take place to elect 4 representatives.
Six candidates are contesting in Southern region (Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland) where 3 candidates will be elected.
Two representatives are elected uncontested in Constituency 2 (Bremen, Hamburg, Niedersachsen, Schleswig-Holstein).
TGTE member from New Zealand speaks on Vaddukkoaddai Resolution
Mr. S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, in his last ever speech in the Sri Lankan parliament on 19 November 1976 said: “Our Party is moving with the idea of establishing a separate state. It is not an easy matter to get a separate State; it is a difficult matter. We know it is difficult. But either we get out of the power of the Sinhala masses or we perish. That is certain. Therefore, we will try and get this separation.” Citing the speech Mr. A. Theva Rajan, member of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, from New Zealand, said that the relevance of Vaddukkoaddai Resolution today is unique in historical terms as "the reign of Percival Rajapakse" fully demonstrated to the world that the Tamils are facing a genocidal onslaught. "Rajapakse brothers made the Tamil genocide open, indelible and internationally recorded,” he said.
Mr. A. Theva Rajan with New Zealand parliamentarians [L-R] Mr. Keith Locke, MP (Green Party Leader), Ms. Carol Bemaunt, MP Labour Party and Mr. Rajen Prasad MP (Labour Party) during the announcement by the TGTE election commission in Auckland.
Professor K.S.Naguleswaran (Kailasapillai Sivapatham Naguleswaran) [right] representing Wellington for TGTE. Seen with him is Fr. G. Burns. According to Mr. Theva Rajan, in the 1977 general election the entire country voted on the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution and not just the Tamils. Because, responding to the TULF manifesto based on the VR, even the United National Party made promises of redress. But after coming to power getting 5 / 6 majority with Tamil, Muslim, Malay and Burger support, the Sinhala leadership enacted only ethnic pogroms on Tamils, Theva Rajan said.
Mr Theva Rajan and Prof. K.S. Naguleswaran were elected uncontested from New Zealand for the TGTE, representing the constituencies Auckland and Wellington respectively.
Coming from Puloali West in Jaffna, Theva Rajan, 76 years old, is a scholar in his own right contributed to Tamil studies for more than half a century. He retired early from public service to become a trade unionist and freelance journalist in Tamil and English.
Theva Rajan was one of the first to study the Brahmi inscriptions of Sri Lanka, bringing out the Tamil personal names and the other Dravidian elements in them to the attention of scholars in India and Sri Lanka. In the early 1970s, associated with the Jaffna Archaeological Society, he brought to light a megalithic urn burial in Vallipuram. His research presentations and publications were on wide-ranging topics: Murukan cult among the Sinhalese, Tamil language rights in Sri Lanka, public servants and legal remedies, human rights, children’s literature and many others.
Since 1960s Theva Rajan was associated with the organization of a number of societies such as the committee for the installation of the statue of Arumuga Navalar in 1969, society remembering a Tamil scholar Sathaavathaanam Kathiraivet Pillai and Fr. Thaninayagam Foundation.
Settled in New Zealand in the late 1990s, he is active in working on human rights and on cultural affairs of the diaspora, caring especially the third generation.
Professor K S Naguleswaran, born in Kantharmadam in Jaffna is an old student of Jaffna Hindu College. After graduating from the University of Ceylon, he did his doctoral studies at the University of Birmingham. Now retired after serving as an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury, Professor Naguleswaran has told media that it was his early experience of the 1958 pogrom that made him to realise the importance of Human Rights, good governance and democracy.
Following is the full text of an article written by A. Theva Rajan:
HISTORICAL UNIQUENESS OF THE VADDUKKODDAI RESOLUTION
The Vddukkoddai Resolution of 14 May 1976 consists of 13 preambles tracing aspects of the history of the Tamils and their political agitations and experiences.
Preamble 5 is more marked in that it identifies specific areas of deprivals and oppression of the Tamils.
Of these 5(e) is very important in that it embodies the fundamental rights deprived to the Tamils. It says:
“denying to the Tamils equality of opportunity in the spheres of employment, education, land alienation and economic life in general and starving Tamil areas of large scale industries and development schemes thereby seriously endangering their very existence in Ceylon.”
5 (g) deals with state terrorism against Tamil public and 5 (h) deals with state terrorism against Tamil youth.
Emphasizing that the democratic rights of Tamils are being trampled the resolution adds:
“this convention resolves that restoration and reconstitution of the free, sovereign, secular, socialist State of Tamil Eelam, based on the right of self determination inherent to every nation, has become inevitable in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in this country.”
In the General Election that ensued in 1977 the Tamil United Liberation Front made the Vaddukkoddai resolution as the basis of their Manifesto. Ten (10) items under the sub title, The Tamil Nation Under Sinhala Domination, outlines in detail the alienation of Tamils, in their fundamental rights and participatory democracy. The TULF called for a mandate from the Tamil people to carry forward their agenda. The TULF said it:
“.. seeks in the General Election the mandate of the Tamil Nation to establish an independent sovereign, secular, socialist State of Tamil Eelam that includes all the geographically contiguous areas that have been the traditional homeland of the Tamil speaking people in the country.”
The Tamils mandated the Vaddukkoddai resolution at the 1977 General Election with over 75% support. Incidentally, the United National Party in its Election Manifesto for the same elections sought the support of the entire Nation for a mandate to rectify the grievances of the Tamils. The UNP Manifesto said :
“…(that) the United National Party accepts the position that there are numerous problems confronting the Tamil-speaking people. The lack of a solution to their problems had made the Tamil-speaking people support even a movement for the creation of a separate State. In the interest of national integration and unity so necessary for the economic development of the whole country, the Party feels such problems should be solved without loss of time. The Party, when it comes to power, will take all possible steps to remedy their grievances in such fields as – 1) Education : (2) Colonization.(3) Use of the Tamil language : (4) Employment in the Public and Semi Public Corporations.”
The people, Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and Burghers voted overwhelmingly for the Party and the UNP secured 5/6th majority in Parliament while the TULF was privileged to be the main opposition Party securing the position of the Leader of the Opposition to its leader.
It has to be underlined here that the entire country voted on the Vaddukkoddai resolution mandating the immediate redress for the Tamil grievances.
Events that followed reaffirmed that the mention about Tamil grievances was only like shedding crocodile tears - the usual trump card to secure Tamil votes at the Elections.
Soon afterwards, in August 1978,J.R. Jayawardene, the Prime Minister then, thundered in Parliament “ If you want war let there be war; if you want peace let there be peace.”
It is a repetition of the history of Sinhala leadership.
Even begging for support to entrench them in power and then to cut under the feet of the Tamils. This is the unaltered long dark history of Sinhala politicians. The 1977 and 1983 State oriented pogroms are indelible chapters in the bloody history of Sinhala political leadership.
All that happened under Presidents Jayawardene, Premadasa and Chandrika are dark pages of the history of Sri Lanka’s racist politics.
The reign of Percival Rajapakse fully demonstrated to the world that the Tamils are facing a genocidal onslaught.
Rajapakse brothers made the Tamil genocide open, indelible and internationally recorded.
The late Mr.S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, the internationally revered leader of the Tamils in his last ever speech in Parliament made on 19 November 1976 left this message to the Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Nation and the international community in unambiguous terms.
“Our Party is moving with the idea of establishing a separate state. It is not an easy matter to get a separate State; it is a difficult matter. We know it is difficult. But either we get out of the power of the Sinhala masses or we perish. That is certain. Therefore, we will try and get this separation.” (Parliament Hansard Vol. 1977, column 1965 – 19 November 1976)
In the background of all these developments there can be no doubt that the Vaddukkoddai resolution is unique in historical terms.
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