Vanni ban leaves little to take

A note at the bottom of a circular by Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence listing the things that are not allowed to the Vanni sent to government officials in Vavuniya, reveals the extensive and arbitrary manner in which Colombo's economic embargo is imposed on the northern region.
"A person can/should be stopped from taking things with him on the advice of an authorised officer. Even permitted items can be stopped at the last moment on the basis of information received by the army about the future needs and plans of the terrorists. Soldiers at the checkpoint can decide whether a person should be stopped from passing through or whether to postpone the checking of his bags," the note says. "The list of banned and permitted items displayed here to the public and government departments is totally deceptive. In effect, an officer or soldier has the right and authority to stop anything from being taken to Vanni purely at their discretion," explained an official at the Vavuniya District secretariat Monday.

The special gazette notification (No. 867/12) listing the items banned was issued on 20 April 1995. There is neither a Tamil nor English translation available in Vavuniya, the border town from which people begin their hazardous journey to the Vanni.

Soldiers at the Piramanalankulam check point, which is the main entry point between the Vanni and the Sri Lanka army controlled part of the Vavuniya district, seized goods ranging from Nylon ropes to sanitary napkins from travellers and burnt these in the evenings on days when the public was allowed to pass through. The Vavuniya district judge M.Ilancheliyan gave a directive earlier this month that the practice was not legal even in the context of the sweeping and arbitrary powers granted to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) under the Emergency Regulations and the special gazette notification of April 95.

S.Lanka slammed over civilian deaths

COLOMBO (AFP) – The Sri Lankan government killed thousands of its civilians by shelling "no-fire zones" in the last months of the country's decades-long civil war that ended a year ago, an independent group said Monday.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group urged the United Nations and Sri Lanka's aid donors to press for a war crimes investigation into the military offensive that finally crushed the separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas
The ICG said the military encouraged hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians to move into government-declared "no-fire zones" and then subjected them to "repeated and increasingly intense artillery and mortar barrages."

"This continued through May despite the government and security forces knowing the size and location of the civilian population and scale of civilian casualties," the ICG charged.

It repeated allegations that government troops also intentionally shelled hospitals as well as aid operations run by international relief agencies.

"The consequences of the security forces' shelling were made substantially worse by the government's obstruction of food and medical treatment for the civilian population," it added.
The report, released on Monday, said Sri Lanka's leaders must be held accountable for the civilian deaths, and it also blamed the Tamil Tigers for war atrocities.

"The substantial body of evidence collected by the Crisis Group since August 2009 offers a compelling case for investigation of the conduct of hostilities and the role of the military and political leadership on both sides," it said.

The ICG said it had collected eyewitness statements as well as hundreds of photographs, videos, satellite images, electronic communications and documents from multiple sources to support the charges

TGTE Elections in Canada - Candidates and their responses

The election for the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam is to take place on Sunday, May 2, 2010, in Canada.

Tamilcanadian.com, in its continued effort to inform our readers, sent a questionnaire seeking responses on eight questions. The questions are outlined below. We received 6 responses from the candidates so far. We have included all six of the responses herein.

We note that while we attempt to inform our readers of the process, candidates, and their respective positions, we do not endorse any of the candidates. It is noteworthy, and disappointing, that all the candidates did not chose to submit responses and make their views known to the public.

Sri Lanka accused of war crimes in final onslaught

An investigation into the last months of Sri Lanka's bloody civil war released yesterday claims that government forces were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands more civilians than previously estimated, and targeted hospitals and humanitarian operations as part of their final onslaught on the rebel Tamil Tigers.
According to the International Crisis Group study, many thousands more people may have died in the operation than UN figures have suggested, with as many as 75,000 citizens unaccounted for, and almost all of the deaths in the so-called "No-Fire Zone" due to government fire.
The study also claims that the government shelled hospitals where it knew international NGO staff and civilians to be working or receiving treatment. "The Sri Lankan government committed war crimes with top government and military leaders potentially responsible," it says. "An international inquiry into alleged crimes is essential."

The Sri Lankan government has refused to comment on the report, the most comprehensive account of the violence that ended a year ago today. Senior officials have insisted in the past that there were no civilian casualties in the last months of the war.

At the weekend the Sunday Observer newspaper, widely considered a government mouthpiece, claimed that the report was part of a plot to promote former army head Sarath Fonseka at the expense of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Fonseka was imprisoned after he lost the post-war election to Rajapaksa, accused of participating in political activity while still in uniform.
Yesterday the government gave details of its own proposed 'reconciliation commission', which would suggest methods for promoting national unity and determine compensation for those affected by the war with the Tamil Tigers, or Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE).

The proposals stop short of any investigation into violations of humanitarian law. "The only chance of credible scrutiny is by outsiders," said Alan Keenan, Crisis Group's Sri Lanka project director. "There has never been a credible internal process."

Although the US Permanent Representative to the UN, Susan Rice, last week welcomed Sri Lanka's planned reconciliation commission, she cautioned that it did need "to probe violations of international standards during the final stages of the conflict", and there has long been scepticism about the Colombo government's willingness to sanction a full investigation. One foreign diplomat based in Colombo is quoted in the Crisis Group report as saying in November last year: "The regime isn't going to disembowel itself."

The long-running civil war in Sri Lanka reached its zenith in the early months of 2009, when the government pinned the rebels down in an ever-shrinking "No-Fire Zone" (NFZ) on the country's northern coast. The death toll has always been murky because reporters and independent observers were barred from the area. The UN put the toll before the final period of fighting at around 7,000, while Crisis Group points out that around 365,000 civilians were known to be alive in the NFZ in February last year – and only 290,000 survivors registered in government-run camps three months later.

Slim hopes of a UN-led inquiry now rest with the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, since both the Security Council and Human Rights Council have declined opportunities to take Sri Lanka to task.

According to Crisis Group's president Louise Arbour, the lack of consequences for President Rajapaksa makes it more likely that other conflicts will be conducted in similar style in future, and provides no incentive for the draconian Sri Lankan regime to change its approach. "The means are so attractive," she said. "Why would you restrict yourself to doing it just once?"

Crisis Group also suggested that India and the United States failed to do enough to discourage Rajapaksa at the time of the conflict.

TGTE inaugurated in transnational way, Ramsey Clark stresses importance of history

87 of 115 representatives of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) already declared elected from 11 countries are meeting in three spots of the world, in the US city of Philadelphia, in London and in Geneva, in a 3 day inaugural session from 17 to 19 May. The Tamil Eelam flag was hoisted and a representative from each country addressed the public stating that the goal of the TGTE should be the formation of independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka. William Ramsey Clark, a former US Attorney General, was one of the keynote speakers of the inaugural event. He characterized the move to form the transnational government a "brave initiative to find the wisdom and the courage to achieve - as it was for many centuries - a free and independent Tamil Eelam."

The 82-year-old Ramsey Clark, who was a prominent figure in the anti-Vietnam War moment, had functioned as the Election Commissioner of the TGTE elections in the USA.



"I need to tell you that your challenge is enormous […] Freedom is possible. But you have to work awfully hard at it. And you have to be right. You have to convince other people that you are right. […] You need to know your history. You need to persist your history and need to have your history understood that you were a uniquely different people than the Sinhalese on the same island," Clark said.

"Resolve your differences together openly and frankly wherever it occurs outright and quickly, and abide by the agreement
that you reach," Mr. Clark said elaborating how the American nation was made possible with unity as an unprecedented force to achieve independence. "To divide and conquer a dispersed people is an easy thing to do," he warned.

Francis Boyle, a professor of international law, Domach Wal Ruach, the secretary general of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) USA and Janani Jananayagam, a British Tamil activist engaged in awareness campaign on Tamil genocide were the other speakers in the inauguration ceremony.
Congratulating the members of TGTE, Domach Wal Ruach of the SPLM-USA said: "Although results are not seen overnight, I think what you have done now is a step towards right direction. We have been there and we are getting close to it now. The struggle is not easy. There are setbacks. But, you have to be steadfast. You owe it to the young generation. They are coming to you. If you don't do it now, no-one else would do it and the entire generations would be
lost."
"I want to tell you that, through collective work, diaspora is one of the component. Our leader commanded the largest single rebel groups ever. And yet, we were not able to win, militarily," he said and added: "The most important organic guarantee that you could always have, is your diaspora." Explaining the history of the Sudanese struggle and how the SPLM organized the diapora in grass-root level.

He further claimed that the US had done magnificent help to Sudanese. "I don't think we could have done this without the United States of America," he told the TGTE members who were gathered at the Philadelphia National Constitution Centre (NCC): "They helped us so much. I want to thank them again once more. The peace agreement is still unimplemented, but we are hopeful that in January next year, we will be an independent state," he said. "That has cost us 2.5 millions of peoples lives, dead."

Professor N. Sriskandarajah, a member of the advisory panel, who invited the elected members of the TGTE for the inauguration meeting, had set the agenda for the session. In an invitation to the elected, Prof Sriskandarajah had outlined the following agenda in advance: "The elected body will be transformed into a Constituent Assembly, an Interim Chief Executive and a small executive committee to manage this process elected, important themes for the Constituent Assembly discussed, agreed on and teams created, and a number of working groups for important and immediate tasks also elected."

The main venue of the event was changed from London to Philadelphia in short notice. However, virtual participation through video conferencing from London and Geneva has worked satisfactory on Monday as it was a session of presentations.

"Despite the issues of sectarian politics involved in the pre-formation process of the democratic exercise and the conceptual concerns, the people have had their say in electing their representatives. The representatives have also clearly expressed what they stand for in their addresses. It is now up to the elected to prove their credibility in the formation process," commented a diaspora analyst, following the developments.

The inauguration commenced at 13:00 on Monday and is scheduled to conclude by 13:00 on Wednesday.