STEENOKKERZEEL, Belgium — For Kurt Ryon, the mayor of Steenokkerzeel, a Flemish village 10 miles northeast of Brussels, watching the Scottish independence campaign in the final days before the referendum is like watching a good soccer match. “They were losing for the first half and most of the second half,” he said, “but now we’re… Read more »
Posts Categorized: International
NPC Resolution on OISL
The following resolution was tabled by the Council Member Hon. M.K. Shivajilingam and adopted by the Northern Provincial Council, Sri Lanka on September 10, 2014 … Read more »
The Need for a Strong Victim and Witness Assistance and Protection Mechanism
The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) welcomes the Bill titled “Assistance to and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses” (referred to as the Bill) issued on 11thAugust 2014. At the outset, CPA acknowledges that the Bill in its present form is an improvement on previous drafts but reiterates the need for further reform if… Read more »
‘Sinhala Colonisation a Great Worry for Tamils’
The most urgent step necessary in Sri Lanka is to halt the Sinhala colonisation programme being implemented by the government to change the very identity of the traditional Tamil areas, Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sambanthan said on Wednesday. Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Mr. Sambanthan said the programme was aimed… Read more »
Karen Parker on Self-Determination 2008
Part 1 Part 2
Witness Testimony to OISL
http://www.canadiantamilcongress.ca/article.php?lan=eng&cat=pr&id=144 URGENT Appeal from CTC: Witness Testimony from Tamil Canadians Needed in Support of UN Investigation Our Dear Community, As many of you may know, on August 5th, 2014 the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announced it will accept submissions pursuant to the mandate… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Intransigence
Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, said Tuesday that his government would not cooperate with the United Nations investigation begun last month into suspected human rights abuses, including possible war crimes, committed during Sri Lanka’s civil war. Mr. Rajapaksa’s intransigence puts Sri Lanka in the company of North Korea and Syria, two countries that also barred… Read more »
Hidden from View, Sri Lanka is Trampling Over the Rights of its Tamil Population
It may have gone unnoticed by the rest of the world, but within Sri Lanka the message has been received clearly and chillingly: while a fuss may be made about a well-connected Sinhalese activist, the government can do what it likes to the Tamil population in the north and no one will lift a finger.
Losing Battles but Winning Wars
by Fred Carver, Independent Policy Digest, Washington, August 9, 2014 Jean-Marc Ferré/UN Photo To many external observers the Government of Sri Lanka appeared to lose the plot somewhat during the recent UN Human Rights Council (HRC) session. A series of overt and heavy handed attempts to silence dissent, even as the session was discussing a… Read more »
India’s Sri Lanka Policy Must Include Caution
New Delhi’s foreign policy towards Sri Lanka so far has been characterized by oscillation and inconsistency. It had been unduly defined by Tamil Nadu in the 1980s and is now being increasingly influenced by hazy notions of South Asian integration and “Hindu Buddhist unity”, the latter fuelled by ill-informed sections of the RSS. The latter… Read more »
Britain’s Dirty War Against the Tamil People 1979-2009
Britain’s_Dirty_War by Phil Miller This document, published by the International Human Rights Association Bremen, is an updated version of the evidence Phil gave to the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka… 1. Introduction When Prime Minister David Cameron travelled to Sri Lanka in November 2013, his visit to the northern city of Jaffna was widely seen as British… Read more »
Proxy War Can Have Dangerous Consequences
In fact, notwithstanding states’ incredible material and power advantage relative to their proxy allies, states have often found themselves unable to control their proxies or drawn into unwanted conflict escalation. Rajiv Gandhi’s administration in India had to intervene in the civil war in Sri Lanka to forcibly suppress its proxy, the Tamil Tigers, because the latter had become too powerful and refused to accept Indian attempts to achieve a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
Civilians as Human Shields? Gaza War Revives Debate
GAZA CITY — Militant rockets can be seen launching from crowded neighborhoods, near apartment buildings, schools and hotels. Hamas fighters have set traps for Israeli soldiers in civilian homes and stored weapons in mosques and schools. Tunnels have been dug beneath private property. With international condemnation rising over the death toll in Gaza exceeding 650… Read more »
Sri Lanka: Was It a Genocide
“The credible allegations support the finding of the crime against humanity in so far as the conditions imposed on civilians in the final months in the NFZ’s (No Fire Zones) were calculated to bring about the destruction of a significant part of the civilian population.”…
Whether the victims can expect any “remedial justice” might be speculative at this stage but it is clear from the facts given to us by the U.N. and relevant international laws that the government of Sri Lanka can be found guilty of genocide and war crimes.
Sri Lanka’s Downward Spiral
The government continues to use international pressure to rally its Sinhalese base (Sinhalese people are the overwhelming ethnic majority in Sri Lanka), and the recent rise in repression in the country’s Northern Province, coupled with baseless claims that the LTTE is regrouping within Sri Lanka, are designed to serve those ends.
Written Evidence to FASC
Written evidence from Global Tamil Forum (GTF) (HRS0020) Introduction Global Tamil Forum (GTF) was established in 2009 by a number of grass-roots Tamil groups, following the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. It is the largest Tamil diaspora organisation with members drawn from across five continents. GTF is committed to non-violence and… Read more »
UN’s Chase of Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka’s Search for an Escape Route
On March 27th, the Human Rights Council passed a US-UK originated resolution against Sri Lanka: Various opinions and concerns have been expressed by organizations and countries like US, UK, India, China, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, including Tamil groups and members. The contents of the resolution including the powers of the Human Rights Council and the… Read more »
UN Human Rights Chief Announces Details of Sri Lanka Conflict Investigation
GENEVA (25 June 2014) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay announced Wednesday that three distinguished experts have agreed to advise and support the team set up to conduct a comprehensive investigation of alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka, as mandated by the Human Rights Council in March. The investigation will look… Read more »
US Dismayed by P’ment Vote on Non-Cooperation with UN Probe
Asked why US-led resolutions at the UNHRC were increasingly harsher, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary noted that five years after the war ended there had been little progress on issues related to accountability and a political solution to share power with the island’s Tamil community.
“Five years since the war ended I have not seen any meaningful negotiations of the very tricky political issues related to federalism,” Keshap asserted.
In the Land of Mass Graves
Third, power has been decentralized. If Iraq survives, it will probably be as a loose federation, with the national government controlling the foreign policy and the army, but the ethnic regions dominating the parts of government that touch people day to day. Rwanda hasn’t gone that far, but it has made some moves in a federalist direction. Local leaders often follow a tradition of imihigo — in which they publicly vow to meet certain concrete performance goals within, say, three years: building a certain number of schools or staffing a certain number of health centers. If they don’t meet the goals, they are humiliated and presumably replaced. The process emphasizes local accountability.