Showing posts with label warcrims. Show all posts
Showing posts with label warcrims. Show all posts
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
1:15 AM
Guinness World Record in Hair !
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
11:09 AM
Channel 4 had to face an organized campaign against it originating from the Sri Lankan ministry
Speaking to the Lords communications committee on the impact of PR companies on television current affairs, Ms. Byrne said that this was something "not just us but the whole of society needs to be aware of," The Guardian reported Wednesday.
The Lords committee was holding an inquiry into the future of investigative journalism.
Commenting, Tamil diaspora activists in London said that what was known on the international operations of Sri Lanka’s State terrorism is only a tip of the iceberg.
“We have friends,” Mahinda Rajapaksa said when the UN panel report on Sri Lanka’s war crimes advocated international investigations.
What is the ultimate source of funds and strength for Sri Lanka to unashamedly uphold genocide as a justifiable international paradigm to answer a national question and unabatedly continue structural genocide after the war, has to be investigated and brought to light by international media seeking justice to human civilisation, the diaspora activists said.
On the question of Eezham Tamils, the international media for long failed to differentiate and justify the spontaneous voice of the people long suffering State genocide from the deceptive campaign orchestrated by not only Genocidal Sri Lanka but also by a group of over 30 abetting Establishments.
The international media now needs a focussed political and ideological orientation to compensate and to eliminate the Frankenstein Monster, the diaspora activists further said.
An interesting but dangerous reality revealed through the testimonies of Channel 4’s Byrne and Panorama’s John Ware to the Lords committee was that countering the malicious and orchestrated campaigns were costlier to investigative journalism than researching on truth or even choosing not to tell the truth.
According to John Ware, the cost of dealing with a concerted campaign of complaints about a recent edition of BBC1's Panorama was more than it cost to make the programme itself.
"A recent Panorama was cleared in almost every respect save for some minor matters. I'm pretty sure the bill for that was significantly more than the actual transmission itself," he said, adding:
"That's fine – it's a public service broadcaster – but what I'm saying is there aren't the funds, the resources, to deal with the aftercare and the aftercare is getting greater because of the lobby groups."
"I hope we are still pretty rigorous in facing it off where it needs to be faced off. But there is an increasing amount of spin, PR, and people who are very clever at … stopping us putting material out," John ware revealed the realities.
Talking on the point, Byrne said: "If we are doing a really big investigation that could take six months to a year … We have to be ready that we could be living with an investigation for a year after it has gone out.”
"Stories have appeared, for example, about our Sri Lankan investigation all over the world in a highly organised way," she told the committee.
"They appear to be normal stories and they are not – they are obviously coming from somewhere. Demonstrations have taken place in the street – there was one outside Channel 4 – and this demonstration had been organised by the Sri Lankan ministry of defence," she further said.
BBC or any other international media were neither moved by genuine and spontaneous demonstrations of the affected people nor were put into ‘cost’ concerns when they were silent on the genocide while it was taking place.
But now, when they choose to reveal a little of the genocidal phenomenon in the island the cost of facing Establishment’s orchestrated opposition is higher than researching and telling the truth. This is the real danger journalism face today.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
2:16 AM
how international silence enabled Sri Lanka’s genocide
In March 2009 Sri Lanka had come to the attention of the UN’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Francis Deng, but despite his disquiet he did not take further steps as Sri Lanka had assured him the United States and India supported its military campaign, according to a leaked US cable. The account of the meeting on March 16, 2009 between Mr. Deng and the US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, as well as other US cables, shows how international inaction and silence, rather than ignorance, made it possible for Sri Lanka to continue and escalate its mass killings of Tamil civilians.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice
Francis Deng, Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide
Robert O'Blake, Former Ambassador to Sri Lanka
The discussion on Sri Lanka is summarised thus:
“Deng spoke of conversations that he had with that [Sri Lanka’s] permanent representative to the United Nations. The Sri Lankan perm rep told Deng that his country's actions in mounting an offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elan (LTTE) in the north of Sri Lanka were known to its friends the United States and India.
“The Sri Lankan representative left the impression that his government's measures against the LTTE are supported by the US and India.
“A visit to Sri Lanka left Deng impressed with the great cleavages between the Sinhalese and Tamils that would not be solved by the government's victory on the battlefield.”
US knowledge and silence
There is no indication in the cable that Ambassador Rice had either contradicted Sri Lanka’s assertion, or raised the issue of mass casualties amongst civilians being inflicted by the ongoing attacks and humanitarian blockade by the Colombo government – though these were discussed in relation to Sudan.
This is despite, just two days before the Deng-Rice meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton having called Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa over the mass killings of civilians by government forces.
For at least two months earlier, international rights organisations like Human Rights Watch were highlighting the shelling of hospitals and other civilian targets.
Invisible massacre in Sri Lanka (Courtesy: Chappatte cartoon)
Ambassador Blake told Mr. Bogollogama Sri Lanka’s denials of civilians being shelled by government forces “was simply not credible, given multiple, credible, independent sources on the ground in the safe zone.”
Calling Sri Lanka’s blocking of medical supplies into the Tamil areas “unconscionable”, Mr. Blake warned Mr. Bogollogama that if government forces took the safe zone by force thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, could be killed and that if such casualties occurred, the government would be accused of war crimes.
‘Push back’ on genocide
None of these US concerns were however expressed in public, enabling Sri Lanka to continue its murderous onslaught against the Tamil population untrammelled by any international pressure.
The only voices protesting vehemently against Sri Lanka’s mass killings were some international human rights organisations and the Tamil Diaspora, who staged mass demonstrations in western capitals. And they were largely ignored.
Another US cable sent on March 4, for example, notes that embassy staff were receiving a daily “flood of emails” from concerned Diaspora Tamils calling for a ceasefire and focusing on conditions of civilians in the safe zone and internment camps.
In response, the cable says, US officials were “pushing back” against allegations of genocide, “calling it an overstatement.”
Yet barely a month later, on April 18, 2009 , Ambassador Blake - again privately - told Sri Lankan officials that “comparisons are already being made to what transpired in Rwanda” and international action on Sri Lanka’s actions.
Separately, also in early April, senior UN officials told representatives of Tamil groups including the US-based TAG (Tamils Against Genocide), that there was a “divided opinion” within the UN as to whether what was unfolding in Vanni was genocide or not.
But in public the UN not only maintained a total silence on the mass killings, but even sought to play down the numbers of civilian casualties.
Little wonder, then, that Sri Lanka could confidently assert to the international community, as it had to Mr. Deng, that the US and India were supportive of its military offensive.
In April 2011, the report by a panel of experts appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon not only said it found credible that 40,000 civilians had been killed in five bloody months, adding that “most civilian casualties in the final phase of the war were caused by government shelling”
Amongst their recommendations was that the UN’s own actions in the period be looked at. Last week Mr. Ban appointed former UN Population Fund chief Thoraya Obaid to conduct a review.
Citing judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and other precedents, TAG argues that the UN panel of experts’ 2011 report supports the case for genocide in Sri Lanka.
Contrast to Sudan
The account of the Deng-Rice meeting puts in further focus the case of Sri Lanka.
The cable describes at some length their discussion on the situation in Sudan – Mr. Deng’s home country.
Ambassador Rice challenged Deng on the dismal response of African leaders to the crisis in Sudan, described many African leaders as “being more interested in their narrow self-interests rather than the good of the people of Sudan.”
She also criticised the SPLM (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement) for “not play[ing] a constructive role in seeking security and justice for the people of Darfur”, and for “remain[ing] conspicuously silent when the government of Sudan announced the expulsion of international humanitarian NGOs from the country.”
Ambassador Rice also noted that she had gone on record as labeling the Sudanese expulsion of humanitarian agencies and the resulting closure of aid programs as “genocide by other means.”
However, just a few months earlier (September 2008), the Sri Lankan government had also expelled humanitarian agencies from the Vanni.
In response there was no protest, let alone action, from the US or any other international actor.
Instead, in an accompanying blaze of publicity, the humanitarian community drove out of the Vanni in a single convoy, abandoning hundreds of thousands of people to their fate.
Interestingly, this is what the cable quotes Mr. Deng as saying regarding Sudan’s humanitarian blockade:
“he had drafted a mild statement in response to the Sudanese government's action to expel aid agencies, but that it was stuck in the office of the Secretary General where a quiet, low-key approach is favored when dealing with this matter.”
Mr. Deng had opened the meeting by stating that his mandate as the Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide (SAPG) “is impossible, but must be made possible”.
He saw the work of his office as the catalyst for a larger process within the UN to prevent genocide from occurring, but admitted that “at the moment, he does not push to be allowed to brief the UN Security Council unless he knows that he will get a positive response.”
He also noted how NGOs were pushing his office “to adopt a strategy of ‘name and shame’” in the prevention of genocide.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
8:46 PM
Sri Lanka dismisses reports of recalling Jagath Dias
Sri Lanka's External Affairs Ministry has dismissed a Swiss news Agency report that said the Deputy Ambassador to Germany, Switzerland and Vatican, former Major General Jagath Dias has been recalled due to alleged war crimes charges.
The Ministry has said the diplomat will return to the country at the end of this month when his two-year term lapses.
The Ministry has explained that former military personnel are stationed at diplomatic posts strictly for a two-year term and they are required to return to the country unless the President renews the term.
The Swiss News agency reported that diplomatic sources had confirmed that Major General Dias had been recalled to Sri Lanka. However the diplomatic missions in Berlin and Geneva had not confirmed the report.
The Ministry has said the diplomat will return to the country at the end of this month when his two-year term lapses.
The Ministry has explained that former military personnel are stationed at diplomatic posts strictly for a two-year term and they are required to return to the country unless the President renews the term.
The Swiss News agency reported that diplomatic sources had confirmed that Major General Dias had been recalled to Sri Lanka. However the diplomatic missions in Berlin and Geneva had not confirmed the report.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
2:00 PM
West’s criticism of Lankan human rights record concerned India
In what might prove to be a political embarrassment for Congress in Tamil Nadu, a Wikileaks cable has revealed that India viewed Western criticism of Sri Lanka’s human rights record with concern as it felt shunning the island nation would drive it towards China. An Indian official in the external affairs ministry told US diplomats that the West - by shunning a victorious Sri Lanka (after its defeat of the LTTE) over human rights issues - “pushed Sri Lanka into China’s arms”, and opened the region to the influence of both China and Iran.
In the January, 2010, interaction, joint secretary T S Tirumurthi said the elections in Sri Lanka should be welcomed and they would mark a new phase in resolving the Tamil question democratically. India was confident that if the vote is closely divided it would motivate the victor to consider the views of the other camp.
“The pattern of Chinese assistance to the needy northern areas of Sri Lanka would not uphold democratic ideals and human rights. Indian security, defence, and ethnicity-related interests are directly affected by Sri Lankan actions. In this regard, India welcomed U S engagement and saw the U S abstention on the IMF vote as a signal of a pragmatic approach,” the cable says of the Indian position.
While Indian did not perceive the Chinese role as ill-intentioned, nor wish to counter it, Tirumurthi highlighted that India last December extended a $425 million line of credit to Sri Lanka that had however got no attention.
A Sri Lankan first secretary in the embassy at New Delhi told US diplomats that “that some of the rail projects were funded in part by the Chinese, so it would be “very embarrassing” if the Indians did not complete their section.”
The cable also stated that Tirumurthi’s comment that India was not trying to counter Chinese influence in Sri Lanka should be taken with a grain of salt. “Our contact at the Sri Lankan High Commission hit the bull’s eye with his comment that India might be embarrassed if they could not match Chinese contributions to reconstruction.”
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
6:53 AM
srilanka army made terror unleashed in Jaffna after public unmasks ‘grease devils’
Occupying Sri Lanka Army entered into houses at Naavaan-thu’rai in Jaffna city Monday night, dragged out hundreds of youth and children and tortured them in their camps during the night, following public in Naavanthu’rai on Monday identifying the ‘grease devils’ as SLA soldiers. Many houses were destroyed and plundered by the SL soldiers. On Monday when five ‘grease devils’ entered into a house at Naavaanthu’rai and when the public chased them, the intruders escaped by entering into a nearby SL Army camp. Identifying the intruders as SLA soldiers, the public waged a protest in front of the camp demanding the arrest of the intruders by SL police. The angry public pelted stones at the camp. The SL Army in a planned revenge terrorised the residents during the night.
On Tuesday morning the SL police produced the youths taken away by the SL Army in the courts with complaints that they were behaving unruly.
The youths were found with injuries caused by SLA assault and torture.
About 25 of them were admitted in hospitals after a court order. Many more need medical treatment, the victims said.
The assault and torture took place both at the SL Army camp and at the SL police station, the youth victims further said.
Besides causing damages to houses, the SL Army plundered money and valuables worthy of several lakhs, the residents said.
Streets and buildings were found abandoned in Naavaanthu’rai on Tuesday.
Naavaanthu’rai, located about 3 km from the heart of Jaffna city is a fishing suburb.
The attitude behind the incident only reiterates why Sinhalese and Tamils cannot make a single country, responded a Catholic priest of the area.
A similar incident was also reported from Mallaakam in Valikaamam part of the Jaffna peninsula on Monday.
The ‘grease devil’ is a terror formula that grips Tamils and Muslims in the north and east of the island.
Assailants applying grease on their face attack especially the women, sometimes grievously.
The attacks have caused much tension not only in all the districts of the north and east, but also in the up-country and in Puththa’lam where Tamils and Muslims live in concentration.
After such attacks the SL Army is brought into the areas to establish camps in the guise of providing ‘security’.
The public has long been suspecting that the occupying SL forces for the attacks as in many of the incidents the attackers used to escape by getting into the camps of the occupying forces.
On Monday at Naavanthu’rai in Jaffna the culprits responsible for such attacks were clearly identified as occupying SLA soldiers.
In another incident at Vathiri in Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna, a ‘grease devil’ caught by the public on Monday night was found to be a Sinhala soldier of the intelligence unit.
The ultimate anger of the public turns towards India, USA and China that continue to ‘grease’ the genocidal military machinery in the island.
The youths were found with injuries caused by SLA assault and torture.
About 25 of them were admitted in hospitals after a court order. Many more need medical treatment, the victims said.
The assault and torture took place both at the SL Army camp and at the SL police station, the youth victims further said.
Besides causing damages to houses, the SL Army plundered money and valuables worthy of several lakhs, the residents said.
Streets and buildings were found abandoned in Naavaanthu’rai on Tuesday.
Naavaanthu’rai, located about 3 km from the heart of Jaffna city is a fishing suburb.
The attitude behind the incident only reiterates why Sinhalese and Tamils cannot make a single country, responded a Catholic priest of the area.
A similar incident was also reported from Mallaakam in Valikaamam part of the Jaffna peninsula on Monday.
The ‘grease devil’ is a terror formula that grips Tamils and Muslims in the north and east of the island.
Assailants applying grease on their face attack especially the women, sometimes grievously.
The attacks have caused much tension not only in all the districts of the north and east, but also in the up-country and in Puththa’lam where Tamils and Muslims live in concentration.
After such attacks the SL Army is brought into the areas to establish camps in the guise of providing ‘security’.
The public has long been suspecting that the occupying SL forces for the attacks as in many of the incidents the attackers used to escape by getting into the camps of the occupying forces.
On Monday at Naavanthu’rai in Jaffna the culprits responsible for such attacks were clearly identified as occupying SLA soldiers.
In another incident at Vathiri in Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna, a ‘grease devil’ caught by the public on Monday night was found to be a Sinhala soldier of the intelligence unit.
The ultimate anger of the public turns towards India, USA and China that continue to ‘grease’ the genocidal military machinery in the island.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
12:49 PM
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields screened in New Zealand parliament
BBC Channel 4’s documentary Sri Lanka: The Killing Fields was screened in the New Zealand parliament Tuesday for members of the parliament and staff of the political parties. Green Party MP Keith Locke, Labour Party MP Maryan Street and National Party MP Jackie Blue were co-sponsors of the show. The Sri Lanka High Commission and some supporters in the Sri Lankan community in New Zealand tried to stop the screening without success.
MPs and staff from four parties attended the show. They included Mana Party leader Hone Harawira and Green Party co-leader Russel Norman.
Green MP Keith Locke said the audience left the screening silent and stunned by the horrific scenes in the film.
There was a feeling among those present that something to be done to bring those responsible to account, news sources in New Zealand said.
