How do we ensure that peace does not come at the expense of democracy?
Posts Categorized: Politics
Top U.N. Rights Official Links Assad to Crimes in Syria
The four-member panel investigating human rights offenses in Syria has produced “massive evidence” of the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the official, Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, told reporters here in Geneva. She went on: “They point to the fact that the evidence indicates responsibility at the highest level of government, including the head of state.”…
Ms. Pillay later sought to clarify her comment, observing that “I have not said that a head of state is a suspect. I was quoting the fact-finding mission, which said that based on their facts, responsibility points at the highest level.”
US: Patience with Sri Lanka Could ‘Wear Thin’
Washington – International patience could wear thin with Sri Lanka unless it takes action to address allegations of atrocities during the island nation’s civil war, the top U.S. diplomat for South Asia said Tuesday. Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal stopped short of endorsing a deadline set last month by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who… Read more »
What is Happening in Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, is well noted for broken promises. Soon after the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, he promised Indian leaders and the world community, that he would bring about reconciliation with the Tamil minority by implementing Amendment 13 and by improving on it. Amendment 13 was a consequence of the Indo-Sri… Read more »
Why It is Not Genocide
We Don’t Have Freedom In This House Or In This Country
It is those countries which so banned the LTTE and which indeed crippled the LTTE thereby, that are now stating quite clearly that there must be a political solution because these countries realize that there were valid causes for the conflict to emerge, that the said valid causes continue and are a recurring phenomenon and that unless there is a political solution that addresses these causes effectively, there can be no reconciliation. The Sri Lankan Government, on the contrary, seems to think quite erroneously that with the physical demise of the LTTE, peace and normalcy have returned to the country, however spurious such a claim maybe, and that everything is indeed hunky dory. This is the quagmire in which Sri Lanka is presently entangled and Sri Lanka, it appears, needs a great deal of assistance to disentangle itself from this situation. This basic reality, in my submission, Mr. Deputy Speaker, needs to be borne in mind in addressing the current situation in Sri Lanka.
Judging by what is happening in this country today, Sir, I would think that there are two critical words that have a bearing on the future of this country and those words are “accountability” and “reconciliation”. Genuine reconciliation is not possible unless there is credible accountability. Unfortunately, one observes impunity in every area of activity moving towards authoritarianism. The treatment of the Tamil people is worse than what it has been ever before.
Parliment Speech by Sritharan MP
Translation of some of the speech by Tamil Guardian, London at http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=9348 Speaking in Parliament today, TNA MP, Sivagnanam Sritharan, outlined that the majority of the Tamil people in the North-East had voted for the TNA to support the ideals of the LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran. Sritharan further reiterated that the Tamil people had a… Read more »
Genocide, Resistance and the Politics of Remembrance
The right to assembly, association and expression is deemed a threat to the state as they unwittingly acknowledge the collective will of the Tamil nation in rejecting Colombo’s sovereignty and embrace their national aspirations.
Sri Lanka: A View From Britain
Last week, The Agenda did a series on the situation in Sri Lanka ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held there. We’ve gotten some reaction to the series, so we are hosting a series of follow up conversations. In this video, Jan Jananayagam of the NGO Tamils Against GenocideEurope evaluates British Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to… Read more »
The Time for an International Investigation is Now
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s presence at last week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) facilitated coverage that might not have been possible otherwise for media organisations. But if the human rights and war crimes issues highlighted by the international media are to be redressed and Commonwealth values and international law upheld, the band-aid solution proposed… Read more »
Nepal (Not So Random) Connection
In addition to the presence of the UNMIN, Nepal’s 2006 peace accord had one other significant aspect in contrast to the Sri Lankan cease fire accord and the peace process. Nepal’s agreement expressed ““determination to carry out a progressive restructuring of the state”. Something Sri Lanka has never been willing to do and the international players have not made that a requirement for stable peace ( LTTE’s insistence on a political solution for them to accept an internationally monitored end to the conflict stands vindicated by the current status. Just as it was then, international players are scrambling to come up with excuses for the lack of political will).
Cameron Sets March Deadline for Sri Lanka Rights Investigation
CNN news video of PM David Cameron in Jaffna at http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/16/world/asia/sri-lanka-commonwealth-cameron-march/index.html British Prime Minister David Cameron has given Sri Lanka a March 2014 deadline to hold an independent international inquiry into alleged war crimes during the country’s 26-year civil war. Cameron held talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa while in the capital of Colombo for… Read more »
Abuse Accusations Overshadow Commonwealth Meeting in Sri Lanka
NEW DELHI — Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, tried to pre-empt criticism of his government’s human rights record on Friday as he welcomed leaders of Commonwealth countries to asummit meeting in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, that was overshadowed by persistent allegations of state-sponsored abuse during a long civil war by the Sinhalese-dominated government against ethnic Tamils…. Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Climate of Fear
Since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009, the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has had a record of serious human rights violations and failed to provide accountability for wartime abuses. In August, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, issued scathing observations on the state of human rights in Sri Lanka after her… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Potemkin Peace
by International Crisis Group, Belgium, November 13, 2013 Full report at http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/253-sri-lankas-potemkin-peace-democracy-under-fire.pdf EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Sri Lanka’s ethnically-exclusive regime continues to close political space and consolidate its power. Recent moves that create a perception of progress have not weakened the power of the president, his family or the military or brought reconciliation, ended human rights… Read more »
Channel 4’s ‘No Fire Zone’
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/no-fire-zone/4od ABOUT THE PROGRAMME The team behind the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields tell the story of the 138-day-long final offensive in Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war Available for a limited time only at Channel 4 site. —————— Channel 4 Nov. 9 blog on interview with Isaipriya’s mother and sisters http://blogs.channel4.com/miller-on-foreign-affairs/sri-lanka-tamil-familys-distress-footage-daughter/430
Interview with TGTE PM
Published on Nov 9, 2013 This is the full interview with Viswanathan Rudrakumaran for the documentary ‘That Tamil Issue’. Interviewers : Tejinder Singh and Rajesh Sundaram. Shot in New York, USA. Co-Producer : Prakash Ezumalai —————————- CHOGM 2013 Walking into Genocidal Sri Lanka http://naathamnews.com/?p=32 A Booklet by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) 1) … Read more »
India’s PM Under Fire For Boycotting Commonwealth Conflab Under Tamil Pressure
He had a summit with President Obama in the White House, and he saw China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow all in a period of a few weeks. Yet Manmohan Singh, approaching the end of a decade as India’s prime minister, won’t be hobnobbing this week with the leaders of the… Read more »
New Delhi Experiments Eezham Model ‘Counterinsurgency’ on Its Own People
Indian State now consolidates a policy that extraordinary political movements of mass basis, coming from peoples long exposed to social oppression, material deprivation, un-freedom and stark poverty in India, have to be eliminated with the deployment of an increasing number of armed forces. The more the forces are special and armed-to-the-teeth with impunity, the more… Read more »
An Uncommon Disrespect for Human Rights
by Jack Healey, ‘The Huffington Post,’ October 31, 2013 Founder, Human Rights Actions Center The Commonwealth of Nations was established in 1949 during the decolonization process of the British Empire. Meeting biennially in various of the fifty four member states, the Commonwealth is a voluntary and equal association of nations that is theoretically bound by… Read more »