Sri Lanka lifts foreign travel ban to ex-war zone

COLOMBO | Tue Jul 5, 2011 1:04am IST

(Reuters) - Sri Lanka lifted a ban on Monday for foreigners travelling to former war zones in the island nation's north as tourism has boomed following the end of a three-decade war in May 2009.
The Defence Ministry said it had lifted the requirement for foreign passport holders to get prior approval for travel to the north, effective immediately.
The restriction was imposed during the final phase of the war, from 2006.
"As normalcy is flourishing in the country we see...travel restrictions to foreign passport holders as no longer required," the Defence Ministry said on its website www.defence.lk, quoting an unnamed official.
The Sri Lankan military fought a quarter-century-long war against separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.
The travel restriction to former war zones had applied to foreigners, journalists and independent observers even after the Tamil Tigers were defeated.
The international community and human rights groups said the restriction prevented them from getting independent information on alleged incidents of post-war human right violations, which the government repeatedly denied had occurred.
The government wants to attract foreign visitors to the former war zones as part of an ambitious strategic plan aiming woo 2.5 million tourists and earn $2.5 billion from the industry by 2016.
(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Writing by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Michael Roddy)
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Navy accused of land grab in Ampara

04 July, 2011  

Villagers in the eastern Sri Lankan district of Amapara have been protesting against the moves by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) to acquire their ancestral land in order to establish a new camp.

Panama, Kumana, Helawa and Ragamwela residents who have tried to resettle after the war say they were prohibited by the SLN, which the villagers charge of land grabbing.    Full Story>>>

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UN urged to review Sri Lankan civil war

Last year, a United Nations panel of experts found there was credible evidence that up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the war. [Reuters]

Last Updated: 19 hours 20 minutes ago

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd says new information about atrocities against Sri Lankan civilians at the end of the civil war is appalling.

A new British television documentary has shown evidence of civilians being killed by government troops.

The 26-year war, which ended in 2009, was waged between Tamils seeking to create their own state and the Sri Lankan government and military.

Last year, a United Nations panel of experts found there was credible evidence that up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the war.

Mr Rudd says the UN's Human Rights Council needs to reinvestigate the issue.

"I believe their deliberation on it was inadequate and I would call upon - as does the Australian Government through its mission in Geneva - the Human Rights Council to revisit this matter and to examine once again whether their original findings can any longer be regarded as well founded," he said.
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Sri Lankan situation: the truth must come out

4 July 2011  
                    

Sunili Govinnage 

 

Tonight, ABC's Four Corners will show Killing Fields, the UK Channel 4 documentary that claims to provide evidence of war crimes committed at the end of Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war.
But yesterday, the Sri Lankan High Commission asked the ABC not to broadcast the documentary. The program was shown to the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva last month and has already aired in the UK. The Sri Lankan government claims the documentary contains manipulated videos and is biased. The Sri Lankan government is also claiming it now has the 'original' version of a video that it says has been doctored and sent to the documentary's producers by pro-Tamil groups.
The conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the separatist Tamil Tigers, also known as the 'Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam' (LTTE), left the country in tatters. It also gave the world suicide bombing - the LTTE pioneered the use of suicide belts and introduced female suicide bombers. The LTTE fought for an autonomous homeland in the island's north and reacted with violence against government policies seen to have privileged the dominant Sinhalese population to the detriment of Tamil Sri Lankans.   More  

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Sri Lanka Tamil minority still being victimised

K Pragalath | July 3, 2011
Malaysian parliamentarians who visited Sri Lanka recently say no efforts have been made at reconciliation or improving the living standard of the minority Tamils.

KUALA LUMPUR: It has been two years since the civil war ended in Sri Lanka but there has been little effort made in reconciliation and helping the Tamil minority who were the main victims of the conflict.
Teluk Intan MP M Manogaran, Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul, Selangor Senator S Ramakrishnan and two NGO members made a five day field trip to the island last month and their conclusion is that nothing much has been done to help the victims of the war.
They visited Colombo, Puttalam, Vavuniya, the north and northeast region of Sri Lanka.
“We expected to see some semblance of normalcy but there was none,” Manogaran said when relating his experience in Sri Lanka to FMT .
“Access to the many areas in the northern region which was formerly held by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is controlled by the military.
“Every civil action must receive military approval. Application has to be made via general agent,” said Manogaran .
A general agent is like a district officer.                . More»     
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UN report: 1,00,000 Tamilians killed in war

 

Jul 3, 2011BANGALORE: Nearly 1,00,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the war in Sri Lanka during the final stages of civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a report by a committee of the United Nations said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC) has estimated that nearly 14,000 wounded Tamil civilians were evacuated by ship from a no-fire zone in Sri Lanka during the end of war. Of which, the Committee said, 5,000 civilians were amputated and nearly 70,000 children died of starvation during the war in 2008.

Political Science professor Paul Newman from Bangalore University on Saturday presented these statistics quoting from a UN panel report headed by Marzuki Darusman, Steven Ratner and Yasmin Sooka.

In his presentation on the War Crimes and Genocide Investigation: Brief on Permanent People's Tribunal report and UN Experts Panel Report on Sri Lanka, Paul Newman underlined that reports show hospitals and schools were targeted by the military. Besides, even the LTTE had used civilians as human shields.

During the seminar on war crimes and genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka organized by Forum Against War Crimes and Genocide, human rights activists in the city called on the international community to act swiftly and protect the rights of people.

Nagaragare Ramesh of People's Democratic Forum emphasized the need for an independent enquiry by UN. "The human rights abuse during the war is disturbing. It is not just the Tamils but everyone should raise their voice against the human rights violation in Sri Lanka," he said.

Writer G Ramakrishna urged for an immediate relief to the Sri Lankan Tamils. "The war has only devastated the lives of civilians in our neighbouring country. The people responsible for this disaster should be punished," he said. 

Key issues for Govt., time running out

y

Security situation in north worsens as PSC faces boycott by UNP, JVP Tough letter of demand from Jayalalithaa as battle over Channel 4 video intensifies By Our Political Editor Balachandran Sathkunanthan (30) set out from his house in the farming town of Avarankal in the Jaffna peninsula the previous Saturday evening for a leisurely ride on his motorcycle. The next day (last) Sunday morning, his blood-drenched body was hanging from a goal post in a playground in Putur, just two kilometres from his home. It bore torture marks. The nails of fingers in both hands had been plucked out, Jaffna Judicial Medical Officer (JMO), Dr. S. Sivaruban, testified at the post-mortem inquiry. He said there were no suicide signs on the body that hung from a nylon cord. The inquest is still pending. On the good side, it is now possible for citizens of Jaffna, to decide at the spur of the moment to move to any corner in the peninsula without fear. They are no longer under the watchful eyes of Tiger guerrilla cadres who would have punished them if there was no convincing reason for doing so. On the bad side is a disturbing reality. In the northern Jaffna peninsula where some 50,000 troops and policemen are deployed, recurring incidents are posing a serious question -- whether total normalcy is yet to return to the once-beleaguered peninsula with the defeat of the Tiger guerrillas more than two years ago. During the past six months, the Sunday Times learnt, at least 30 killings have taken place. They include the death of four soldiers. That such incidents recur when the government says it wants to restore democracy in the north raises more questions for it than to others. Polls to local councils are due this month. President Chief Minister Jayalalithaa meets Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 15 in New Delhi. Pic courtesy Hindu Mahinda Rajapaksa has declared that elections to the Northern Provincial Council would be held "early next year." That violence is increasing in the peninsula could only drive more fear into the people and thus create instability is no secret. It also throws in bad light the on-going post war reconstruction efforts.  read more..

Tightening the noose on Pakistan and Lanka

 

Sunday 03 July 2011

The strategy of the Western powers, especially the US, Britain and France, in dealing with contentious human rights issues in the MEM (Middle East and Maghreb, that is Arab North African) countries, Asia and Africa have hardened considerably in the last year. There are three reasons; first when MEM uprisings showed a road to replacing authoritarianism with more democratic and also pro-Western regimes, ‘Why not’ they reasoned. Second, internal lobbies such as the Tamil diaspora, members of Parliament or Congress, human rights groups and the press have become effective as public voices, and thirdly, the behaviour of some Third World regimes have turned so horrific that even the Chinese and Russians are sometimes willing to go along with sanctions. A variation of the last theme is Delhi’s reluctance to give Colombo further succour because it has become a headache -- Darusman Report, Channel 4 (UK Sunday Times Food & Restaurant critic A. A. Gill not withstanding) and Jayalalitha. Placating Tamil Nadu is more important than pandering to Rajapaksa.
I have been highlighting this Western policy shift for a long time and events are bearing me out. Of course when it is not in the West’s interests (Bahrain or Saudi Arabia) to use pressure or too difficult to handle (Syria), strategy will differ. Indeed every case is different and the way the West deals with Libya, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is palpably case specific. Managing the relationship with Islam - all three manifestations (conventional, fundamentalist and radical) -- is another conundrum. At no time in US history, except during the two wars, has foreign policy been as much a Pandora’s Box as what Obama and Hillary Clinton are entangled in today. The Cold War may have been more dangerous, but at that time the game plan was clear and as straight as a die.
Read more...
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UN rights chief warns of action in absence of S.Lanka probe

   Sun, 3 July 2011  
The UN's human rights chief Thursday warned Sri Lanka not to take too long in probing war crimes allegations, saying failure to carry out a credible inquiry could lead to international action.
"There is now a high level of expectations expressed by member states that Sri Lanka should seriously inquire into these allegations" of prisoner executions and assaults, said Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"But this should not be an open-ended process," she stressed, noting that a previous Sri Lankan internal inquiry "failed to complete its task, never published its report and never led to a single prosecution."
"If that should be the case again, there is an intention for the international community to take further action. I certainly believe that the Human Rights Council should actively consider this matter," said Pillay.
Pressure has mounted on Colombo since Britain's Channel 4 broadcast a documentary that showed what it said were prisoner executions and bodies of female Tamil fighters who appeared to have been sexually assaulted.
A recent UN report accused government forces of war crimes, alleging that they executed rebel leaders who had surrendered.
An estimated 100,000 people were killed in the nearly four-decade-long Tamil separatist conflict, which began in 1972.
Pillay's remarks echoed that of the United States, which on Tuesday urged Sri Lanka to move quickly to address allegations of war crimes.
Colombo has questioned the authenticity of the Channel 4 footage but said that a local panel, known as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, would take action if the allegations are proven.
 

CAN SRI LANKA DITCH AMERICA AND EMBRACE CHINA?

Saturday, July 02, 2011By Gamini Weerakoon

Sri Lanka’s friends - Dimitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa went into warm embraces with Presidents Hu Jintao of China and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia at the St Petersburg International Economic Conference last month but there were only brickbats for Rajapaksa from British political leaders such as David Cameron and the US State Department during the same period.
The Russian and Chinese leaders had assured the Sri Lankan president of their backing against attempts by the UN, which is strongly urged by leading western nations such as the United States and Britain, to compel Sri Lanka to probe alleged war crimes by its armed forces.
On Wednesday the US State Department urged the Sri Lankan government to ‘quickly address allegations of war crimes and ‘demonstrate that it is able and willing to meet these obligations as it seeks reconciliation’. If Sri Lankans do not do this there will be ‘growing pressure from the international community to examine other options’ the State Department had said.
While the issue of whether the United States and its allies have the moral right or the right under international law to make such demands on a sovereign state has been questioned before and will no doubt be reiterated, it also appears to mark a point of departure in foreign policy of Sri Lanka and the West.
Sri Lanka in Shanghai Organisation                          Read More »   
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Tamils deported, Iraqis win reprieve

By IRR News Team

30 June 2011, 4:00pm

The government has been organising deportations of Sri Lankans and Iraqis despite the dangers they face on return - but has met with resistance.

On 16 June, just two days after the screening of Channel 4's shocking exposé of the war crimes against Sri Lanka's Tamils in 'Sri Lanka's killing fields' and the day after prime minister David Cameron called for an investigation into the allegations, forty-two refused Sri Lankan asylum seekers were deported from the UK to Colombo. The flight went ahead despite Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch expressing their grave concern that those deported face the risk of detention and torture, as most are Tamils, and are therefore suspected of belonging to or supporting the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Labour's Siobahn McDonagh MP claimed that when the flight landed, the Sri Lankan CID was waiting for it, but no representative from the British High Commission. But the Home Office claims that the situation in Sri Lanka has improved and that it is safe to remove people there. It was reported that on the eve of the flight, on 15 June, one of the detainees, 31-year-old Nagendrarajah Suthakaran, attempted to hang himself after receiving a phoned death threat from Sri Lanka. He and two others who had also had death threats won a last-minute reprieve from the High Court. According to the Medical Foundation, another removal flight to Sri Lanka was scheduled for today.                 Full Story>>>  

‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’

“You can bend it and twist it... You can misuse and abuse it... But even God cannot change the Truth.”

by Gareth Thomas

( July 02, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) I rise to raise two issues. First, I want to ask a series of questions on the Government's view of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and, through them, to ask a series of questions of the Sri Lankan Government. I understand that the UN Secretary-General is due to receive a report on 13 April produced by a three-member panel that has been mandated to advise him on options for addressing accountability for crimes committed during the final stages of the recent conflict with which all who have an interest in Sri Lanka will be familiar. I ask whether that document will be published, and if not-or, indeed, if we are unsure whether it will be published-I ask the British Government to call on the UN Secretary-General to publish it.                                  Read More
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The Anti Tamil Dialogue of Shiv Shankar Menon with Rajapakse

July 1, 2011 – 1:16 pm  By Guest Writer Sundaram Aiyer, New York
In the second week of June an Indian delegation led by Mr.Shiv Shankar Menon the National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister of India met Srilankan President Rajapakse and discussed for two hours. There is a mystery about what transpired between them.
Mr. Menon was one of the troika comprising him, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and defense secretary Pradeep Kumar which went to Colombo immediately after a change in Government in Tamil nadu. At that time Colombo was panicked by the resolution passed by the Tamil nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa that called upon the Government of India to impose economic sanctions against Sri Lanka and declare President Mahinda Rajapaksa a war criminal. Therefore the high level delegation might have been meant for giving assurance to Rajapakse on the continued support to him. But anyone can guess that such assurance if made public will invite the wrath of people from Tamil nadu.      Read More  

Batticaloa Bank heist: 'we know the political force behind ; we will not cringe' –Commanding chief of East warns

Batticaloa Bank heist: 'we know the political force behind ; we will not cringe' –Commanding chief of East warns

(Lanka-e-News, 02.July.2011, 2.45PM) Commanding chief of the East Major General Boniface Perera at a special media briefing held yesterday at Deavar Hall, Batticaloa referring to yesterday’s Bank heist at Batticaloa said , this robbery is not only a threat to the security not only of Batticaloa , but of the entire Island.

‘After one and half years , looting , killing and crimes have shot up in Batticaloa. We know who are behind these crimes. We have received accurate details of the politicos who are responsible. We know illegal weapons and arms are with whom. These weapons should immediately be surrendered .If not , we will not hesitate to go there are and seize them. When these individuals were told to hand over their arms , they kept back 40 weapons and handed over ten of the fifty in their possession. Nobody except the Govt. security divisions can possess arms’ These were the statements made by the Commanding chief two years after the war ended.
Speaking further , Boniface Perera added , there is a political force behind these crimes. No matter what rank or position they hold, the arms illegally with them should be surrendered . Otherwise he would take action . He warned that measures will have to be taken again to introduce barriers and conduct search operations.
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Bank heist in broad daylight at Batticaloa: The marauders had come in a white Van armed with T-56

Saturday 2 of July 2011(Lanka-e-News, 02.July.2011, 4.45AM) A massive Bank robbery took place in Batticaloa in broad daylight at about 3.30 p m on 30th June

Five masked robbers had stormed into a State bank situated at Nimlaitheevu, Putur, Batticaloa. After locking up those in the bank in a room , they have taken the cash and jewelry which were in the Bank , and have fled, police spokesman from the Batticaloa police said ,when speaking to Lanka e news.

According to the police these criminals have been armed with T 56 rifles and had come in a white Van (notorious vehicle used for several earlier crimes with the opposition accusing the Govt. of having a hand because most abductions and disappearances of persons were carried out using a white Van ). At the time the heist was committed there had been only three staff members in the Bank who were all females.
The police spokesman also said , it is impossible to assess right now how much of cash and jewelry had been stolen.
Residents say , looting and robberies in Batticaloa had shot up now much more than those during the period of the LTTE.

Rajapakse regime’s knowledge hub or drinking pub? –Educational zonal Director has only GCE ord. level and has failed in Maths

(Lanka-e-News, 02.July.2011, 4.45AM) While the Rajapakse regime is waxing boastful of making Sri Lanka an educational hub , the Govt.’s Matara Zonal education Director’s putrid record has come to light. Unfortunately we are compelled to reveal the details in the national interest - the Govt.’s loud and proud boasts notwithstanding.

The number of Govt. Schools in the Matara educational zone is 12. Provincial council Schools are 97. The total number is 109.The number of students who are learning are about 66000. There are 3900 teachers including graduates , diploma holders and Philosophy teachers. The Head for all of them is the zonal education Director , W R Weerakoon. Will you believe if we tell that this Head and zonal Director has only passed the G C E ord. level and he has failed in Maths.? It is incredible but true. (the certificate is pictured herein). He has joined the educational service as a non certificated Assist. teacher .

Though he is unqualified he had entered the teaching service on the basis of the concessions granted to politically accepted individuals during the period of former President Chandrika Bandaranaike. This was the’ sweep ticket’ given to political stooges. According to this appointment during that period , it is therein clearly stated that ‘ you are entitled only to a salary pertaining to the service and no other benefits whatsoever ’ (the relevant letter of appointment is shown herein ).Hence, when that is what is clearly stated based on laws , how come Weerakoon who was appointed on political grounds and not on merits reach the position of Director.?

The biggest joke of the century and most disgusting from the point of view of the education of students is , this Weerakoon who has no proper education and always showing an antipathy to University education and who knows no value of a University has been appointed to a highest seat in the national education system – this educational Director is now an advisor for the University Board .

Whither SL’s education ?

Date set for Sivaram murder trial

01 July, 2011
Date set for Sivaram murder trial

	Sivaram was abducted in Colombo in April 2005 and his body was found dumped in a HSZ, a day later

A court in Sri Lanka has set the dates for the trial of the abduction and murder of a senior Tamil journalist.

The Colombo High Court has decided to proceed with the trial on the murder of Tamilnet editor Dharmetnam Sivaram (Tharaki) on 01September.

Mr Sivaram was abducted in Colombo on 28 April 2005. His body was found dumped in Sri Jayawardenepura, a high security zone, a day later.

The Attorney General has filed charges against Arumugam Sri Skadharaja also known as Peter in 2006.

But the case did not proceed further despite having taken for hearing few times for over five years.

International and Sri Lankan media watchdogs have voiced anger over lack of progress in murder investigation.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Sri Lanka Free Media Movement (FMM) have urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa not to let the murderers go unpunished.
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On the government’s political solution and ‘Southern Suaveness’

groundviews journalism For citizens -1 Jul, 2011

Photo courtesy Amal Jayasinghe | Agence France-Presse

The stage is set to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee in order to formulate a political solution to the north and east crisis. During a meeting with the print and electronic media heads on Tuesday at Temple Trees, President Mahinda Rajapakse had stated that he would accept any solution that will be outlined by the parliament. In an interview with a weekend newspaper last week the Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Pieris revealed that the government will carry out a dialogue with all the political parties parallel to the ongoing discussions with the TNA. Ultimately, according to the minister, these discussions will be intersected at a certain point. Therefore, the ‘point of intersection’ will be the provenance of the ‘political solution’ of the government.
Can this be termed as a bona fide attempt? This is, of course, an important question. The track record of the government in this regard would provide a reasonable answer for this. In the very same manner, the present regime took various steps to find a political solution for the North-East crisis, but all these efforts ended up being time-consuming exercises. The government deliberately transmuted these ‘efforts’ to become fruitless, inefficacious and time-buying exercises. In this context, there is a big question mark about the ulterior motive of this ‘Parliamentary Select Committee’. Let’s revisit the history.        Continue reading »  

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