Human Rights Watch believes that these benchmarks are reasonable and well within what any rights-respecting government—particularly a Commonwealth government committed to implementing the 1991 Harare Declaration—should voluntarily undertake. To allow Sri Lanka to host the 2013 summitwithout meeting these benchmarks would be to reward an abusive government with an undeserved badge of international acceptance.
Yearly Archives: 2013
TCHR Arbitrary Arrest/Detention January – June 2008
TAMIL CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS – TCHR 9, rue des Peupliers, 95140 Garges les Gonnese – FRANCE – Tel/Fax : 33 – 1 – 42 67 54 36 Documented cases of ARBITRARY ARRESTS/DETENTION – January 2008 – June 2008 (actual arrests higher than documented by TCHR) http://www.tchr.net/cp_sum_jan2008-june2008.htm No. Date Full Name Sex Age… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s War on Eelam Tamils
INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA இனம் ஒன்று அழிவதா, இதை நாம் பொறுப்பதா… “…. suffering in common unifies more than joy does. Where national memories are concerned, griefs are of more value than triumphs, for they impose duties, and require a common effort. A nation is therefore a large-scale solidarity, constituted by the feeling of the sacrifices that one has… Read more »
1987 UNHRC Resolution on Sri Lanka
http://tamilnation.co/unitednations/uncom87.htm UN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS 43RD SESSIONS: FEBRUARY 1987 Resolution by UN Commission on Human Rights – 12 March 1987 Original Revised Draft Resolution Statement by Mr.Virendra, leader of the Indian delegation – 2 March 1987 “…In the beginning of February, the Government’s security forces carried out several operations, especially in the eastern province, ostensibly… Read more »
Photos from Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields
Frances Harrison recently wrote for the Times of India about how the Government of Sri Lanka is turning the site of the final battles of the civil war, where tens of thousands of civillians were killed, into a tourist attraction. The article unfortunately did not include the many pictures provided which evidenced the piece, and so we are… Read more »
Tamil Villages Names Changed
Letter from DMK Chief Karunanidhi to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh detailing 89 Tamil villages renamed with Sinhala names in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The letter gives the location of the villages on a map and by district, and lists the Tamil heritage names of the villages and the new Sinhala names. In addition,… Read more »
SL Leader Seems to Reject Greater Autonomy for Tamils
Sri Lankan Leader Seems to Reject Greater Autonomy for Tamils NEW DELHI — The president of Sri Lanka appeared to rule out greater political autonomy for the country’s Tamil ethnic minority on Monday, despite promising for years to support the idea in the wake of a bloody civil war. President Mahinda Rajapaksa traveled to Trincomalee,… Read more »
Justice in Guatemala
To deny the guerrillas local support, he sent soldiers to wipe out hundreds of Mayan villages. In 1999, after the war’s end, the United Nations-sponsored Historical Clarification Commission tallied thousands of rapes, tortures, disappearances, violations of cultural rights and extrajudicial executions his forces committed while he held power, and concluded that he presided over acts of genocide…
How, then, to account for Guatemala’s move to prosecute its most notorious public figure? Most of the credit goes to survivors and victims’ families for 30 years of tenacious research and advocacy. International human rights groups, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the United Nations and foreign governments helped. And Guatemala’s attorney general since 2010, Claudia Paz y Paz, has revolutionized the prosecutor’s office, pushing cases involving war crimes, corruption and narcotrafficking.
Human Rights Failings Detailed
by Human Rights Watch, New York, February 1, 2013 RELATED MATERIALS: World Report 2013: Sri Lanka JANUARY, 2013 The Sri Lankan government needs to address the many problems that undermine basic rights for people in the war-torn North and East. Justice and accountability for abuses, an end to torture in detention, and ending constraints on… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 4
by Sachi Sri Kantha, January 31, 2013 Part 3 Mentors who shaped MGR’s character In this part, I provide materials on MGR’s mentors, as he had described in his autobiography. Foremost among the real mentors was his mother Sathyabama, about whom I presented some details in part 3. I provide translations of his autobiographical chapters… Read more »
Ini Avan: Hauntingly Beautiful But…
Ini Avan, Asoka Handagama’s latest film, in Tamil, has won international cinematic acclaim. And it is easy to see why. The film has interesting characters who within their confined destinies take some unpredictable turns and moves at a compelling and deliberate pace through carefully designed frames with strong aesthetic appeal that are also revisited, like recurring… Read more »
Meet to Discuss Tamil Future
“The president has said that he is not going to get the US involved in any overseas conflicts except to prevent genocide,” said the press spokesman. “We are trying to persuade him that genocide is just what is involved with the Tamils in Sri Lanka.”
Tamil Groups Convene for Discussion
These discussions will continue and progress with wider participation to bring together more Tamil and Tamil speaking people’s organisations in the months to come.
Casey, Leahy Call for International Investigation
Accountability is a necessary precursor to reconciliation and a stable democracy in Sri Lanka. It is clear to us that the LLRC process is mired in bias and delays, and only an independent, international investigation will achieve real accountability.
Senators Urge War Crimes Probe
Thousands of civilians died in the final months of the war when the Sri Lankan military launched a decisive offensive against ethnic Tamil rebels. Sri Lanka set up a commission to investigate alleged abuses, but rights groups say the military is not being held to account.
The Obama administration has called for steps toward accountability but has not called for an international investigation.
An Eerie Silence Takes Over
Ground zero is Kotkai, which sits amid barren saffron and chocolate colored hillsides above a snaking river cutting through South Waziristan. The town was one of the first targets of the 2009 strike and now is at the heart of the military’s rehabilitation zone…
But the government has given little to help individuals rebuild homes that were damaged or destroyed during the offensive…
Some residents of South Waziristan remain wary of their own military, which is sometimes seen as the heavy hand of the nation’s dominant Punjab class used against the country’s Pashtun population, a large ethnic group from which the Taliban draws most of its fighters.
[Sound familiar? Editor]
Govt Withdraws Funding in Northern Province
The government has withdrawn over Rs 560 million worth of funds ear marked for development in the TNA controlled Northern Province, reports the Sunday Times. According to Jaffna’s Local Government Assistant Commissioner S Jeyaharan, the directive to withdraw the funds came from the Ministry of Local Government. M K Sivajilingam said: “They do not want us… Read more »
The Story of the Weeping Widows
As the group delved in to the deeper meaning of this particular interaction, the dilemmas faced by the welfare oriented NGOs working in the war affected regions became more and more apparent. On the one hand they are forced to work with the rhetoric of “peoples participation” and “empowerment”. They have to accede to the demands made by the donors in this respect. But on the other they have to work within a system that is unmerciful and relentless in its grip on centralized political power. Even the civil administration in those areas has changed a great deal. The transformation is to the extent that the language hitherto spoken only by the military hierarchy, such as “ granting permission” and “ban on activities”, is used now by the civil administration in their day-to-day interactions with NGOs. A single wrong move on their part may mean end of the road for the NGOs. It is in working with the most marginalized of the war-affected community that these vulnerabilities of the NGOs get to be exposed thoroughly.
MGR Remembered – Part 3
“One day in the make-up room when we were alone, MGR told the following. ‘Everyone believes that I’m a true Malayalee. I’m telling this to you. That’s wrong! There isn’t anything inferior in identifying oneself as a Malayalee. But, as for me, it is not true. My ancestors belonged to Kongu Nadu region and were from Mandradiar group. Their ancestral town was Pollachi. During the period of Haider Ali who ruled Mysore, he passed an edict that Hindus should convert themselves to Muslims. Scared by this edict, many Hindu families turned into Muslims. Those who were not willing to turn into Muslims, left their ancestral town Pollachi and passed Koimbatore and via Palakkadu valley, settled in the villages around that region. Among those who settled like this, my father’s ancestors was one.’
China Card Becomes ‘License’ for Genocidal Order
Speaking at a ceremony of Sri Lanka’s National Chamber of Commerce held at Hotel Hilton in Colombo, the SL Defence Secretary and presidential sibling, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was cited saying, “The biggest threat the US can pose to Sri Lanka’s military is to take away their defence scholarships”
“We can send our soldiers to China for training,” Gotabhaya added.