Repercusssions from Oxford debacle spills over to Sri Lanka's parliament

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 03:17 GMT]
A parliamentary Select Committee is to be appointed to inquire if the opposition United National party (UNP) MP, Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, had acted in contravention against the Sri Lanka's Constitution, State run daily Dinamina said. Ruling party alleged that the MP instigated the protests by Tamil activists in UK that resulted in the cancellation of Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse's speaking engagement at the Oxford Union. Both the government and even the main opposition, United National Party (UNP) agreed for the setting up of the committee.
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"Sovereign Immunity question is a matter for U.S. Supreme Court"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 23:01 GMT]
The U.S. Justice Department responding to a query by Tamils for Obama, a US-based activist organization, in August of this year, on the immunity against arrest of heads of state accused of war crimes visiting the U.S., said, "as a matter of general policy, the Office of the Solicitor General does not state or provide opinions on such matters unless such questions arise in the context of Supreme Court or other appellate litigation." The response was received during the week of controversy of the attempted arrest of suspect war criminal Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London.
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Sinhalese VC for Eastern University?

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 20:25 GMT]
A Sinhalese academic is likely to be appointed as the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University by the Sri Lanka Ministry of Higher Education. The Eastern Provincial Council Chief Minister and several deputy ministers in the eastern province have given consent to the appointment, according to reports emerging from education sources in Batticaloa. Meanwhile, Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr.C. Yogeswaran, made an appeal in the parliament recently that the steps now being taken by the government to appoint a Sinhalese as VC should be stopped as the Eastern University is located at Vanthaa'rumoolai in the Tamil dominated district.
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Rajapaksa vengeance orchestrates political shield of captive Tamils in Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 11:45 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa, crest fallen in London, tried to simulate support for him Saturday, by intimidating Eezham Tamils living in captive conditions under his military in Vanni. On Saturday early morning, amidst heavy rains, Sri Lanka army rounded up ‘re-settled’ Tamil civilians in Vanni, including pregnant mothers, elderly and children, and brought them to Ki’linochchi forcing them to carry placards in a ‘demonstration’ that Rajapaksa was doing good to them and it was wrong for the diaspora Tamils in London to reject him. About 500 civilians were caught in the military harassment and those who resisted were attacked by the military. Rajapaksa is determined in demonstrating that the genocidal conditions set by him is the reality to comprehend with, as opposed to diaspora articulations, and he is backed in it by the position taken by India, observers said.
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Leaked documents reveal UK lacking practical approach and India unwilling

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 09:38 GMT]
Though there was recognition for the need of a political solution and intention to stop human tragedy, lack of insight on the nature of the Sri Lankan state, lack of a serious and practical policy in handling a state like Sri Lanka long known for its chauvinism and lack of perspectives in addressing a national question as a national question, paved way for the failure of the Miliband-led British foreign policy on the war in the island, reveals leaked classified documents of British Foreign Office by Wikileaks. The documents also reveal that the British saw India “ambivalent and unwilling to undertake any heavy lifting on Sri Lanka” during the last days of the war. In this regard, a British diplomat confessed that he had trouble in getting meetings with India’s political level.
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Suspect War Criminal flees UK, escapes arrest

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 03:43 GMT]
Suspect Sri Lankan war criminal, Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London, escaped arrest by his premature departure from Britain, British daily Guardian reported. "An application [for arrest warrant] was lodged at Horseferry Road magistrates court, central London, but inquiries by Scotland Yard established that he [Chagi Gallage] had left on Thursday night," the paper said. Tamil campaigners sought the arrest warrant claiming that the ex-General who was in-charge of 53 & 59 divisions committed war-crimes by intentionally shelling civilian hospitals while advancing towards Mullaiththeevu area.
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SLA guns down trauma affected male in Thenmaraadchi

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 12:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army soldiers on A9 Road opened fire on an uprooted Tamil along the A9 road Friday afternoon near Puththoor junction in Meesaalai. The victim was a psychologically affected male due to the war last year. The soldiers harassed him prompting the victim to attack a soldier and gunned him down, civilians in the area said.
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One did not fly over

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 04:54 GMT]
It was billed as a ‘private’ visit. But when Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse flew to Britain on Monday, the entourage he took with him included Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris, Education Minister S.B.Dissanayake and even a Provincial Council member, Nauzer Fauzi, amongst other politicians. Also came Sri Lanka Army Major General Chagi Gallage – though he was Thursday reportedly scrambling to find a flight out to escape an arrest warrant UK lawyers are building a case for. The only member of President Rajapsksa’s entourage not to get a visa to Britain, The Times newspaper reports, was Tamil paramilitary leader and ruling party Parliamentarian, Douglas Devananda.
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Sri Lanka video contains evidence of war crimes, says ICTY legal expert

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 04:01 GMT]
"This is a very disturbing video and clearly, on the face of it, shows war crimes have been committed and perhaps crimes against humanity, depending on who the group targeted was," said Mark Ellis, Executive Director of the International Bar Association (IBA), after reviewing the execution video broadcast by Channel-4, and added ""[t]here is no question that this video is prima facie evidence that these crimes were committed. And therefore there's a responsibility on the part of the international community to push for an investigation and prosecution."
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Rajapakse endures brickbats and snowballs in London

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 02:40 GMT]
Mass demonstrations in London condemning Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse as a war criminal took place Thursday evening in front of his luxury hotel and the Sri Lankan High Commission where he held a glittering reception for some of his supporters in lieu of his abortive address to the Oxford Union. Over seven thousand Tamil expatriates and others braved the snow falls inundating Britain this week to crowd Park Lane, where The Dorchester is located, to demand Sri Lankan officials be prosecuted for war crimes, while hundreds more filled the short street in front of the High Commission. President Rajapakse’s reception began with an organising mix-up that left some of his select guests waiting to be allowed into the mission, and ended with a flurry snowballs thumping into his departing police-escorted motorcade.
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A’luth punchi ku’lama, Kugnchukku’lam

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 01:29 GMT]
The new small tank
The small tank
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War crime suspect in Rajapaksa entourage plans charted flight escape

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 December 2010, 00:44 GMT]
Sri Lankan Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London, plans to escape war crimes accusation in the courts of London by chartering a flight, informed circles in London said Thursday midnight. Meanwhile, if Mr. Rajapaksa's visit was a private one as claimed by him, why there were senior ministers like G.L.Peiris and military commanders in the entourage, wonder media circles in London. The escape plans of the military commander follows attempts by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) to file a war crimes case against him in London. Valid reasons are suspected behind the escape attempt of Chagi Gallage. Around 7,000 Eezham Tamils in London protested the presence of Rajapaksa entourage in London Thursday.
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Gotabhaya's ministry to act against opposition MPs supporting Tamil diaspora

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 19:12 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defense Ministry headed by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has threatened to launch 'investigations' against 'Sri Lankan' politicians who express solidarity with Tamil diaspora saying that they support 'separatism'. "Action would be taken against them on evidence found," said Lakshman Hulugalla, Director General for the Media Centre for National Security at a hurriedly arranged media briefing held Thursday.
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Leaked video shows LTTE commander Ramesh in SLA custody

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 12:36 GMT]
A video clip has surfaced on YouTube Thursday showing LTTE's Batticaloa Commander Col. Ramesh in the custody of Sri Lankan soldiers, after he reached Sri Lanka Army captured Vadduvaakal with civilians on 18 May 2009. TamilNet has been in contact with a person who witnessed Ramesh reaching Vadduvaakal unarmed on 18 May. The eyewitness, fleeing the island, also confirmed that Ramesh was identified by the SLA personnel and separated from civilians. The latest information on Ramesh is the 34 seconds video that has been leaked out on the Internet.
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UNP MP threatened in Sri Lanka Parliament over UK protests

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 05:20 GMT]
Tense situation is prevailing in Sri Lanka's parliament Thursday morning after the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarians attempted to assault UNP MP Jayalath Jayawardena accusing him of instigating the protests in the United Kingdom against visiting Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, parliamentary sources said.
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Rajapakse, brothers responsible for alleged War Crimes in Sri Lanka, says leaked US cable

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 01:20 GMT]
In a startling setback for the war-crimes concealment agenda of Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, and his siblings holding high level positions in Sri Lanka's defense and civilian sectors, a January 2010 cable from US Embassy in Sri Lanka, made public by Wikileaks Thursday, acknowledges that U.S. is cognizant of the fact that "responsibility for many alleged crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka." Ambassador Butenis further reasons the lack of progress in internal investigations: "There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power."
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‘Sheer scale’ of expected protests compels Oxford Union to cancel Rajapakse event

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 19:02 GMT]
The Oxford Union Wednesday said it was cancelling Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s address planned for Thursday. "Due to the sheer scale of the expected protests, we do not feel that the talk can reasonably and safely go ahead," the organisation, an independent debating society which is not part of the University of Oxford, said. Thousands of people were expected to protest Thursday in the university town to express their outrage at the event, organised despite growing international outrage over the Rajapakse administration’s war crimes and ongoing repression. Last week Tamil societies from sixteen British universities wrote to the Oxford Union protesting the invitation. On Monday hundreds of people demonstrated at Heathrow airport as Rajapakse’s plane landed.
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Woman victim in Channel-4 video identified as Journalist Isaippiriyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 12:53 GMT]
One of the women victims, stripped naked, hands tied behind back, and shot dead, as seen in the video footage that has recently reached Channel-4 has been identified as 27-year-old Shoba, with nom de plume Isaippiriyaa, who worked as media specialist with the LTTE, according to the TamilNet Vanni correspondent who recently reached a free country in the West. “I am able to learn through those who have been at Mu'l'livaaykkaal in the final days of war, that Shoba remained unarmed and did not take part in combat," the Vanni correspondent told TamilNet, adding that Shoba lost her 6-month-old baby girl, named Akal, in the last stage of the war. TamilNet refrains from publishing the cruel video, but instead publishes a video footage of Isaippiriya as a reporter from LTTE's O'liveechchu video magazine.
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Britain assured Rajapaksa diplomatic immunity: Times of India

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 12:44 GMT]
The Times of India on Wednesday reported that the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was visiting UK on an assurance that he has diplomatic immunity against any attempt to arrest him in UK. In the meantime a Tamil diaspora activist spearheading legal suits against Tamil genocide urged Tamil organisations and media not to give false hopes to the diaspora Tamils as if Rajapaksa's arrest was something imminent urging all concerned to concentrate on credible action on legal front.
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Australian MP calls for Independent Inquiry into Sri Lanka war crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 December 2010, 11:23 GMT]
"I am calling on the Australian Government to support other governments, including Britain, the United States of America and France, in writing to the United Nations declaring support for an independent inquiry into: alleged war crimes committed particularly in the last phase of the war; the treatment of more than 11,000 Tamil youth detained be in accordance with the Geneva Convention; ending planned West Bank style settlements in the Tamil homeland," said Minister of Fair Trading and Australian Member of Parliament for Strathfield, New South Wales, Ms Virginia Judge, during the parliamentary session Wednesday.
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