Indian FM harps on failed 13th Amendment in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 November 2010, 09:16 GMT]
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who ceremoniously opened an Indian Mission near Kantharmadam junction in Jaffna, failed to deliver any positive message to Eezham Tamils on India's position in resolving the national question. Mr. S.M. Krishna harped on the failed 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, a model Tamils have rejected as inadequate in guaranteeing their rights and he also failed to touch the territorial integrity of the North-Eastern Province which was de-merged by Rajapaksa government that disregarded the earlier arrangement that has been in practice for several years following the Indo Lanka Accord.
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SLA deploys soldiers in LTTE leader's village

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 20:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army on Friday deployed hundreds of soldiers in Valveddiththu'rai (VVT), the birth place of LTTE leader Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan, to stop anyone publicly celebrating his birthday. Road patrols and searches too were conducted in Valveddiththu’rai forcing people to stay indoors.
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UN post confers no absolute immunity from war crimes prosecution

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 November 2010, 00:04 GMT]
Under the terms of the United Nations Charter, UN Officials only have “functional” immunity, immunity ratione materiae which confers immunities on those performing acts of state (duties). War crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are not incidental to the duties of a UN accredited diplomat, and therefore, Shavendra Silva, Sri Lanka's official at the UN in New York, can be prosecuted under the 18 USC 2441 of US criminal code for allegedly committing war crimes outside the US. Legal sources also said that the UN Headquarters Agreement on UN officials' Privileges and Immunities concluded with respect to the UN Charter arguably confers functional immunity only as well.
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SLA holds leader of protestors under house arrest in Karaichchi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 10:33 GMT]
More than ten Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers arriving Thursday around 11:00 a.m at the house of the President of Oottuppulam Rural Development Society (RDS), who led the protest demonstration Wednesday demanding the cancellation of the sudden transfer of Karaichchi Divisional Secretary on the instructions of SLA authorities, continue to hold him under house arrest surrounding his house, sources in Ki’linochchi said. The president who is held under house arrest was to lead a hunger strike in front of Ki’linochchi Government Agent’s office Thursday along with nine other RDS presidents and a large number of civilians until the transfer order issued to the Divisional Secretary was cancelled.
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Tamil civilian reported missing in Wattala

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 November 2010, 09:31 GMT]
A fifty two year-old Tamil civilian has been reported missing since Wednesday morning, according to a complaint by his relatives in the Wattala Police station. Wattala is in the suburbs of Colombo.
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New York media alerts UN posting of 'War Criminal'

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 November 2010, 18:47 GMT]
"A suspected war criminal who allegedly played a key role in the slaughter of 40,000 civilians in Sri Lanka has landed a cushy job at the United Nations -- with full diplomatic immunity," said New York Post in the Sunday Edition, adding "Human-rights groups are outraged that Shavendra Silva, 46, a top ex-military commander, was named Sri Lanka's deputy permanent UN representative in August, after which he moved to New York." Innercity Press, referring to NY Post's story, pointed out to ICP's August 25th report where ICP asked the UN spokesperson that if the alleged killings by Mr Silva during the final stages of the war was true, whether the UN Secretary General has the discretion to reject Mr Silva. ICP said the question is no longer a hypothetical and that Ban Ki Moon did nothing.
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UN must produce a Congo-type war crimes report on Sri Lanka, says Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 November 2010, 05:12 GMT]
Reviewing the recently released 550-page United Nations Report of the Mapping Exercise Documenting the Most Serious Violations of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Committed Within the Territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), an article in the American Society of International Law (ASIL) said, "[t]he report detailing killings, rapes, destruction, and other violent attacks is alarming, not least because similar crimes continue to be committed in the DRC, where impunity still reigns large." Professor Boyle of Illinois College of Law, an expert in international law, commenting on the UN report said, "Tamils worldwide must demand the same “UN Mapping Report” of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by the Government of Sri Lanka against the Tamils."
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Major General Shavendra Silva gives evidence in “white flag” case

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 November 2010, 10:39 GMT]
Major General Shavendra Silva, now posted as Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative in the United Nations Monda, gave evidence before a three-member bench of the Colombo High Court in a case in which the former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka has been charged for causing disrepute to the government by an alleged interview to the English weekly Sunday Leader. Sarath Fonseka is reported to have alleged in that interview that the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ordered Major General Shavendra Silva to shoot all LTTE cadres dead who come forward to surrender holding white flags.
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Paramilitary-employed Daya master says ex Tiger members unable to secure jobs

[TamilNet, Sunday, 14 November 2010, 17:23 GMT]
“All the former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) combatants detained should be released under general amnesty and steps should be taken to reunite them with their families enabling them to lead a normal life,” V. Thayanithy, who was once an employed media coordinator of the movement, said while 'witnessing' at a session before Mahinda Rajapaksa's 'Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission' (LLRC) in Oorkaavattu’rai St. Henry’s Church, in the islets of Jaffna on Sunday. 'Employers are reluctant to give jobs to the rehabilitated and released former LTTE combatants. They are unable to lead a normal life and they should be assisted to rejoin the society, Mr. Thayanithy said.
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War crimes and the responsibility of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 November 2010, 04:04 GMT]
Eezham Tamils have made a strategic blunder two decades back in not internationally indicting the Indian Establishment for the war crimes committed by the IPKF. On one hand they allowed the indictment to sink under the din of Rajiv Gandhi assassination and on the other hand sections of them thought that the Indian Establishment should be spared for future benefits. Yet some others thought that it was not as important as Tamils acquiring military strength. The failure, in two decades of time, resulted in those who were a party to the crimes – from politics to military and from diplomacy to media – to boldly commit further crimes on a massive scale in proxy ways. Tamils should not fail again. Now it should be comprehensive indictment that needs own initiation and institutions coming from Eezham Tamils, writes TamilNet political comentator in Colombo.
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Al Jazeera staff denied visa over Sri Lanka war crimes broadcast

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 November 2010, 20:29 GMT]
Three journalists from Al Jazeera, the international news network headquartered in Qatar, were denied visa to enter Sri Lanka, after the station broadcast photographs that provided additional prima facie evidence of widespread war crimes committed by Sri Lanka security forces during the final stages of war with Liberation Tigers, media reports from Colombo said.
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Tamil editor blames Colombo of deceiving uprooted civilians in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 18:14 GMT]
A leading journalist and the news editor of Thinakkural Tamil daily published in Jaffna, M. Vamadevan accused the Sri Lankan governments in power during the last 20 years of deceiving the uprooted people from Valikaamam North Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zones (HSZs) saying that resettlement is not possible as they are infested with land mines, witnessing before the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) Thursday in Jaffna. Promises had been given to the uprooted families that they will be soon permitted to resettle in their own places at various instances by various Sri Lanka ministers and government officials but nothing has been done to resettle them, Vamadevan told LLRC.
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Al Jazeera spotlights Sri Lanka's alleged War Crimes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 November 2010, 00:43 GMT]
Al Jazeera, the international news network headquartered in Qatar, published photographs Wednesday "showing graphic scenes, with dead bodies blindfolded, hands bound [and] shot through the head," that appear to provide further believable evidence of alleged massacre of Tamils during final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war. One of the photos shows a line of bodies, including what is believed to be the body of the son of Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the news network said.
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Rights groups flay LLRC, say whitewashes War Crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 04:17 GMT]
International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the three premier human rights watchdogs, today slammed Sri Lanka’s reconciliation commission (LLRC) accusing the commission of failing to “meet basic international standards for independent and impartial inquiries,” and for "proceeding against a backdrop of government failure to address impunity and continuing human rights abuses.” The Rights groups further pointedly attacked the island's legal system saying, “Sri Lanka’s government and justice system cannot and will not uphold the rule of law and respect basic rights.”
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Arrested printer's mother harassed, hospitalized, says rights group

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 November 2010, 01:18 GMT]
Mother of arrested printer Jayampathi Bulathsinhala was harassed, and her house searched without a warrant by a group in civilian clothes and by a group in police uniform late October, an exile network of Sri Lanka journalists callling themselves Networking for Rights (NfR) said in a press release Thursday. Bulathsinhala and eight workers of 'Sarala Graphics' of Nugegoda were arrested under an order from Sri Lanka defense ministry headed by Sri lanka's President's brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse on September 7, 2010 for allegedly printing posters for the opposition UNP.
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TamilNet wartime correspondent from Vanni reaches a free country

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 22:13 GMT]
Living incognito since May 2009, the TamilNet chief correspondent who reported from Vanni during the war, reached a free country this week. He was just 24 when he joined TamilNet. His knowledge in English was just basic. He was neither a member nor an associate of the LTTE. The free working space he had in Vanni was based only on an understanding about the political outlook of TamilNet towards the national cause of Eezham Tamils. But what he achieved goes into history of war journalism. He did a marvellous job on the ‘war without witnesses’, which major international media establishments couldn’t do or didn’t want to do. His safe passage to a free country was achieved by international civil society infrastructure. Many organisations, individuals and progressive Sinhalese helped him in his passage.
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Southern fishermen occupying Vadamaraadchi accused of sexual harassment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 04 November 2010, 06:20 GMT]
One of the fishermen of nearly 600 Sinhala and Muslim fishermen from South brought by Sri Lanka government with the assistance of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to catch sea cucumber and conch shells in Vadamaraadchi East, was thrashed by local people when he tried to sexually harass a young woman, civil sources in the region said. Intervention by SLA soldiers to save the fisherman has triggered conflict between the people and the army and tension prevails in the area. The presence and activities of the southern fishermen, protected by SLA, is viewed by the civilians of the area as causing cultural deterioration including sexual abuse of women and children of the area. The fishermen brought in by the SLA were behaving as 'winners' from the South, also causing structural and psychological genocide, the sources further said.
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Denmark Tamils take legal step to file war-crimes charges

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2010, 16:25 GMT]
Bjørn Elmquist, a Danish attorney specializing in criminal law on crimes against humanity has written to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague Netherlands to bring war crimes charges against Sri Lankan officials alleged to have committed war-crimes against Tamils in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka. The legal effort is being initiated by three Danish Tamils and the Denmark Tamil Forum. The DTF officials told TamilNet that the Danish legal effort is being closely co-ordinated with the recent legal action undertaken by Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET).
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Police recover male corpse in Kalladi

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2010, 16:10 GMT]
Kaaththaankudi Police Saturday morning recovered the corpse of an elderly Tamil civilian, Michael Gnanapiragasam, 65, along the coast of Kalladi in Kaaththankudi police division in Batticaloa district. The deceased was a resident of Thiruchchenthoor, according to the Officer-in-Charge of the Kaaththaankudi Police Station.
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Uprooted Mullaiththeevu detainees in Vavuniyaa demand immediate resettlement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 October 2010, 06:40 GMT]
The uprooted civilians from Mullaiththeevu detained in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Menik Farm camp staged a protest demonstration refusing food in front of the camp Monday demanding the authorities to immediately allow them to resettle in their places in Mullaiththeevu district, sources in Vavuniyaa said. The situation turned tense when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers tried to scare the protestors away but the situation was brought under control due to the efforts of UNHCR personnel, the sources added. The protesters were forced to demand resettlement as living conditions in the camp had worsened due to problems arising between the government administrators in Mullaiththeevu and Vavuinyaa on the issue of the responsibility of looking after the people of Mullaiththeevu.
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