UK Labour party calls for Sri Lanka's War Crimes investigations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 October 2011, 18:57 GMT]
Speaking to Tamil supporters at a meeting during the Labour party conference Wednesday, Douglas Alexander MP, the British Shadow Foreign Secretary, said his party supports the establishment of an international commission to investigate the “acts of unconscionable violence” perpetrated in the final months of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict in 2009, a press release issued by the British group, Tamils for Labour. "Investigation held under international auspices was essential given that there are “profound concerns” regarding the independence, accountability and witness protection capacity of Sri Lanka’s domestic inquiry, the ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission,’" Alexander further said, according to the release.
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‘Reconciliation comes by accepting nations are different’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 October 2011, 10:15 GMT]
The South and its Sinhala polity talked of themselves as Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans. Those who opposed the war, but still wanted to be part of the warring Sinhala ideology, thus said the common meeting point of all Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people is the ‘Sri Lankan’ identity. But this ‘Sri Lankan’ identity is essentially a Southern Sinhala identity, points out veteran Sinhala journalist Kusal Perera. Sinhala political parties in the opposition cannot and does not want to leave their Sinhala identity in challenging this regime [of Rajapaksa]. Challenging this regime with a Sinhala identity is impossible, with a State that is now wholly Sinhalised and is firmly controlled with the defence establishment entrenched in politics and economics, he further said, writing in The Sunday Leader, last Sunday.
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Rajapakse, an enemy of all mankind, filed U.S. Court papers say

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2011, 17:07 GMT]
In a potential precedent setting motion filed in the U.S. District Court of District of Columbia, Bruce Fein, attorney for three Tamil plaintiffs, requested Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, to authorize issuing summons through latest electronic social networks and local papers to the defendant, Sri Lanka's sitting President, Mahinda Rajapakse, forcing the defendant to answer war-crimes charges, paving the way for Court determination of civil claims of $30m, legal sources in Washington said. Arguing that Rajapakse is "hostis humani generis," an enemy of all mankind, the motion provides legal precedence to establish that Rajapakse's crimes fall under Universal Jurisdiction applicable under TVPA.
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Congressman Honda calls for war-crimes accountability

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2011, 16:01 GMT]
Citing Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International's criticism of Sri Lanka's failed accountability through the locally constituted "Commission," and highlighting the atrocities described in the UN Panel's report, California Congressman Honda said in a US Congressional debate Thursday that a independent international mechanism is necessary to investigate Sri Lanka's war-crime allegations. However, the Congressman, appeared to be adhering to the soft foreign policy on Sri Lanka laid out by Asst. Secretary of State for South Asia, Robert Blake, by continuing to express faith in Government of Sri Lanka to "to provide for the peaceful well-being of all its people."
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Sri Lanka’s removal from Commonwealth urged in Canadian parliament

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 October 2011, 05:22 GMT]
“Will the Prime Minister take steps today to urge the commonwealth to revoke Sri Lanka’s membership until it holds the perpetrators to account and they are judged in international courts? Will he support calls from the international community for action against the Sri Lankan government, asked Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis in the Canadian parliament Thursday, accusing the government for doing nothing when thousands were butchered. Supporting the line, and criticising the government for idling too long, New Democratic Party MP, Rathika Sitsabaiesan urged the government to commit to a stand with immediate effect in calling for a UN inquiry on Sri Lanka. Replying, the foreign minister of the Conservative government, John Baird said, “The Prime Minister did not sit idly by when he expressed grave concern about attending a future summit of the Commonwealth in Colombo.”
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Politics of Human Rights

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 September 2011, 08:49 GMT]
“Is it not time for us to realize that these partners in collusion are making us to chase a mirage that is getting further and further away,” asks TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in Asia Pacific, citing Human Rights Council in Geneva giving further time for Rajapaksa to stabilize the genocide. Stressing on the importance of collectivism in ideology to face the situation, the analyst said the lacuna in current human rights activism is that it harps only on individual human rights and not on collective human rights such as the right to self-determination of nations. Individualism carefully promoted by the Establishments leads to inaction, frustration and negativism. The present HR activists hooked to the paradigm should be reminded of the limitations of their activism resulting in negativism capturing the minds of all oppressed peoples, he further writes.
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UK Appeal Court stays deportation order of Tamil asylum seekers

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 September 2011, 03:54 GMT]
An unknown number of Tamils, rumoured to be close to 50, who were to have been on today’s flight and who had appealed for judicial review of their cases have had their High Court removal orders overturned in the Court of Appeal Wednesday, Channel-4 reported. An appeal court judge had overturned one Tamil woman’s removal orders on the grounds that the UK Border Agency had breached British and European law by disclosing potentially sensitive information on the individual to the Sri Lankan authorities, thus placing her at greater risk upon her return, the report added. However, Friday's edition of a Sri Lanka daily said that 50 deported asylum seekers arrived from UK. The true facts behind the conflicting stories is expected to emerge during the day.
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Canada responsible for Tamils becoming refugees: NDP parliamentarian

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 20:38 GMT]
“The Government of Canada refused to act, refused to speak out, refused to demand an end to the atrocities. Canadians of Tamil descent came by the thousands to Ottawa to beg their country, to beg their Prime Minister to do something, to say something in the desperate hope that the slaughter of their families would end. The Prime Minister did nothing. Therefore, in fact, the government helped to create the refugees it denied in 2009 and 2010,” said New Democratic Party MP Irene Mathyssen, speaking on new refugee laws in the Canadian Parliament on last Friday. While the Conservative government of Canada was enacting a draconian law that would affect Eezham Tamils, the decision of the Conservative government in the UK for bulk deportation of Tamil asylum seekers shows orchestrated move of the Establishments across the world without solutions to a situation designed by them.
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Maldives President thinks Sunanda Deshapriya a Tamil

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 16:22 GMT]
Responding to SL government-backing media allegations against exiled, Sinhala media rights activist Mr Sunanda Deshapriya at Geneva, involving the name of the President of Maldives, the President’s Office of the Republic of Maldives came out with a press release on Tuesday that sounded as though the President of Maldives had thought Mr Deshapriya a Tamil.
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Regimes in Sri Lanka, Maldives, forge questionable alliance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 September 2011, 06:09 GMT]
Maldivian Vice-President Dr Mohammed Waheed, meeting Mahinda Rajapaksa over the weekend at the UN General Assembly Sessions, assured the latter of the support of Male to Colombo’s stand on its human rights issues, according to Maldivian media Haveeru, Tuesday. “Early this month Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed defended Sri Lanka’s position at the UN Human Rights Council sessions held in Geneva,” Haveeru said in its feature “Maldives assures support for Sri Lanka amidst UN allegations.” The undue extra efforts taken by the present regime in Male to shield Colombo against the struggle of Tamils and Muslims in the island need careful scrutiny by the people in Maldives and peoples movements across South Asia, commented a political observer in Male.
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BASL exemplifies Sri Lanka's legal institutional decay

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 September 2011, 01:50 GMT]
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) "express[ed] serious concerns as to diabolic overtures by the West to destabilize Sri Lanka on the instigation of the Tamil Diaspora...," a Sri Lanka weekly said Sunday, and added, BASL is establishing "a high powered" committee to advise the government on matters that should be raised before the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The Head of the Committee, de Z. Gunasekera's initial defense of Colombo arguing that delay in Channel-4 video presentation as evidence the video is a fake reflects a serious lack of basic legal reasoning skills from the highest legal institution of practicing lawyers, legal sources in Washington pointed out.
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Inaction on Sri Lanka undermines UN Convention: Canadian foreign minister

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 September 2011, 01:40 GMT]
Citing objection taken “on petty, procedural or process-based grounds to upholding a report that speaks about credible allegations of war crimes committed in Sri Lanka,” and other examples, the Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird speaking at the UN General assembly on Monday, said that “The greatest enemies of United Nations are not those who have publicly repudiated actions, the greatest enemies of the United Nations are those who quietly undermine its principles and, even worse, those who sit idly watching a slow decline. We cannot sit idly. Canada is a vigorous defender of freedom, democracy and the rule of law.” Canada has consistently opposed the debasement of multilateral institutions by conduct that is inconsistent with the values, he further said.
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Targeted attacks in Jaffna show war of Establishments against Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 September 2011, 23:50 GMT]
The US Asst. Secretary of State visiting the island recently, wanted the ‘Grease Devil’ attacks to be stopped as though the ‘switch’ was in his hand. But targeted attacks taking place in Jaffna after his visit, against the backdrop of dubious manoeuvrings currently engineered in the West, only show a continued and concerted war waged against Eezham Tamils by elements in the Establishments guilty of genocide trying politics of intimidation, commented political circles in Jaffna. A house of a judge, two doctors and a bank official were targeted in the attacks in Jaffna last week taking the life of one and injuring at least seven in localities swamped by occupying SL military. The student community in Jaffna would have performed much better by showing righteous resentment to the visiting US dignitary rather than allowing the EPDP to hijack the show, the political circles further said.
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UK plans bulk deportation of Eezham Tamil asylum seekers

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 September 2011, 11:44 GMT]
UK has taken a decision to deport more than 100 Eezham Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka on 28 of this month. The Home Ministry of UK has taken this decision as a test case to declare Sri Lanka a country free from human rights violations, said Eezham Tamil diaspora activists protesting the deportation in a meeting convened by Tamil Lawyers Association at Ealing Amman Temple in London on Sunday. Meanwhile, just last Tuesday, delivering a judgement and stopping the deportation of an Eezham Tamil refugee in India, judge Arul Varma said in New Delhi, “Handing over a refugee to Sri Lanka where he fears persecution will make us nothing short of abettors.” The Indian judge was worrying about the lack of proper refugee laws in India, but UK has striped the rights of its courts to intervene in such matters, the UK lawyers commented.
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‘Politics of Deceit’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 September 2011, 14:51 GMT]
The TNA needs to publicly clarify its position on the Recognition of the Right of Self Determination and how it is proposing to overcome the Politics of Deceit perpetuated on the Tamils for the last 63 years, writes TamilNet Economic and Geopolitical Analyst in the Asia Pacific. As experience teaches us, any agreement can be torn unilaterally. So it is not the details or fine print that matters but that agreement is built on the base of the Recognition of the Right of Self Determination. The politics of deceit is practised universally by the oppressors, in various forms from diversionary politics to pre-emptive solutions, all aimed at blocking political progress of the peoples. What concern Eezham Tamils mostly are the pre-emptive solutions put forward by various interested parties in the prevailing atmosphere of negativism after the disaster of May 2009, he further writes.
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Tamils protest outside Rajapakse's UN address

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 September 2011, 07:13 GMT]
Nearly one thousand Tamils protested outside the United Nations Friday between 10 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. while Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse was addressing the UN's General Assembly. Protesters held placards criticizing UN's inaction on Sri Lanka, and took the 'Pongku Thamizh' oath promising to continue to non-violent struggle until Tamils' inalienable rights are recognized in a political settlement based on Tamils right to self-determination, attendees to the event said. Several protesters crossed the Canadian border to be present at the rally held amid tight security on the 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue.
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Sitrampalam proves self-determination not a diaspora fantasy

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 September 2011, 05:24 GMT]
Prof SK Sitrampalam, Senior Vice President of Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), writing in Thinakkural this month on the importance of Eezham Tamils asserting to their right to self-determination, disproved a distorting campaign by Colombo, New Delhi, Washington, international crisis managers and even the UN panel report trying to tell that this right is not an aspiration of the Tamils in the island but only in the diaspora. While the concerted campaigners assert to their audacity without seeking a referendum and while the Eezham Tamils in the island are constitutionally and militarily gagged to open mouth on the issue, the bold voice of Sitrampalam coming from the island was highly appreciated by many. Today, Tamils in the island are left to feel more compellingly for liberation than Tamils in the diaspora, Tamil political circles said.
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Torture case filed against Sri Lanka's ex-General Shavendra Silva

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 September 2011, 00:50 GMT]
American University Washington College of Law's Human Rights Clinic in a press release issued today said that it has filed civil action at the District Court of New York Southern District (SDNY), on behalf of two Tamil plaintiffs against Sri Lanka's ex-Army General and currently Sri Lanka's Acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Shavendra Silva, on charges of torture and wrongful death. The civil action under the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) called for declaratory relief and compensatory and punitive damages for torts in violation of international and domestic law.
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Tamil name boards removed along Batticaloa - Kalmunai Road

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 September 2011, 18:47 GMT]
Tamil name boards put up by the Batticaloa Municipal Council along the border of Kaaththaakudi have been removed allegedly by the Sri Lankan police, which is engineering dissension between Tamils and Muslims, informed sources in Kaaththaakudi said. The welcome board “Va'nakkam, Batticaloa welcomes you” in Tamil has been removed and the Sri Lankan police was spreading a ‘rumour’ that certain Muslim leaders, including the Batticaloa Urban Council chairman considered “Va'nakkam” in Tamil as harem.
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Discussions in Geneva show world plunging into ‘State Anarchy’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 September 2011, 05:26 GMT]
The way Sri Lanka’s war crimes were viewed by many State actors at Geneva showed how these States are leading the world into anarchy and are contributing to global unrest of peoples, political observers said. In an informal discussion of State delegates and human rights groups held in Geneva on Wednesday on a draft proposal from Canada to convene an Interactive Discussion on the outcome of Sri Lanka’s LLRC in the 19th session in March 2011, Sri Lanka challenged such a procedure. Russia, China, Cuba and Pakistan opposed any demand on Sri Lanka. Malaysia and Algeria were not happy of the procedure. Thailand, Chili and Mexico were sitting on the fence. The EU, UK, USA, Poland, Denmark, Switzerland and New Zealand welcomed the proposal. India and Maldives present in the room were silent.
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