An unscheduled visit by a high-powered delegation from the Indian defence and foreign affairs ministries to Colombo last week created a stir in political and media circles in Sri Lanka with local media speculating on the purpose of the secretive visit.

The delegation headed by National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan  and comprising Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh arrived in Colombo on a special flight from New Delhi on Friday, June 20.

During their two-day visit, the Indian officials held separate discussions with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Commanders of Sri Lankan military, the parliamentary group leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan and Minister of Social Services and leader of the paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) Douglas Devananda.

None of the visiting Indian officials met the press and a brief statement was read out to the Indian journalists.

"India hopes that Sri Lanka can find peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict within the framework of united Sri Lanka, acceptable to all the communities. There are no military solutions," the statement read.

The conflicting reasons given by Sri Lankan and Indian officials as to the purpose of the visit only did not help.

“Their visit is in connection with the forthcoming SAARC summit.” an Indian diplomat told IANS referring to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit scheduled to open August 1 in Colombo.

A top official of the Presidential Secretariat played down the importance of the visit, labeling it a ‘regular one’ and said: “It is part of the regular exchange of contacts at the highest official level between the two countries. The latest Indian official visit can be termed as a return visit to a similar mission from Colombo to New Delhi in September last year.”

A three-member delegation from Sri Lanka comprising Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Gothabhaya Rajapaksa and Senior Advisor to the President Basil Rajapaksa visited India in September last year.

However, retired Sri Lankan diplomat K. Nanda Godage said the 'very composition of the Indian delegation itself shows the visit is something special and not just a routine one'.

“I don't think it is just a return visit or courtesy visit. It certainly cannot be anything to do merely with the security arrangement for the SAARC summit either,” he said.

“We hope this is a visit to convey a positive message from India that it is fully behind Sri Lanka in its effort to solve the ethnic conflict,” said Godage.

Sri Lanka's opposition parties demanded the government disclose the reasons behind the 'sudden visit'.

The sudden and secretive nature of the visit raised questions within political circles also with opposition parties demanding details of the visit.

John Amaratunga, a parliamentarian from the opposition United National Party (UNP), claimed there was a 'crucial aspect' to the two-day previously unannounced visit, pointing out that it had came at a time when the country was 'at crossroads in economic and war fronts', the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.

“Today, India is concerned about what is happening in Sri Lanka. The ongoing military campaign will have serious implications (for) Tamil Nadu (and) the Indian government. So we are eager to know the true position of the visit,” the paper quoted Amaratunga as saying.

Meanwhile, the radical Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) claimed that the visit by the Indian delegation was 'similar to what happened during the Vadamaradchchi operation in 1987' and demanded the government divulge the details of all discussions held.

JVP's parliamentary group leader Anurakumara Dissanayake said India intervened to halt the Vadamaradchchi military operation against the LTTE in 1987 and later forced a peace accord on the Sri Lankan government.

“It is the responsibility of the government to disclose the details of the visit as conflicting reports have appeared in the media,” said Dissanayake.

The JVP also regretted the continued Indian attitude of conducting important talks at the level of civil servants and intelligence officers, who are not answerable to the people of India, and for the meek submission of Sri Lankan politicians to such diplomacy.

Torture has become endemic in Sri Lankan police stations and there seems to be no political will to stop it, an Asian human rights group said June 25.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said torture was standard procedure both in investigating ordinary crimes and as part of the civil war with the Liberation Tigers.

The government said the allegations were baseless.

Despite thousands of complaints, the commission said the attorney general's office had only launched three prosecutions against alleged official torturers.

"Torture is a way of life at all police stations in Sri Lanka, whether the alleged crimes investigated are those relating to petty criminal offences, serious crimes or offences under the emergency and anti-terrorism laws," the commission said in a statement.

Rights watchdogs have reported hundreds of abductions, disappearances and killings blamed on government security forces and Tamil Tigers since the bloody civil war resumed in 2006.

The commission also said investigations into torture were being politically prevented to protect Sri Lanka's human rights record, and that the lack of political will to eradicate torture affected the entire administration of justice.

International observers quit the island earlier this year, saying a probe into a string of high-profile killings, including the massacre of 17 local aid staff in 2006, was going nowhere.

The UN Human Rights Council has called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of killings and disappearances and prosecute those responsible, including members of the security forces.

Fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger guerrillas has intensified since the government formally pulled out of a six-year-old ceasefire pact in January.

Tamils in South Africa on Saturday gathered for Pongu Tamil rally at the Arena Park Regional Hall, in Chatsworth, where they pledged to support the Eelam Tamils' right to statehood, and urged the international community to voice for the Tamils’ rights.

Guest speakers at the event were Deputy Mayor of Ethekwini, Logie Naidoo, and MEC for Sports and Recreation, Mr. A Rajbansi, both of whom spoke out against what they called the “selective morality” of the international community regarding the Tamil freedom struggle.

The key speaker was Dr. Brian Seneviratne, a Australia-based Sinhala expatriate physician, who is supportive of Tamils right to self-determination.

“My agenda is to bring peace to that country and more important than that, peace with justice,” he said. He characterised the current situation in Sri Lanka as “the slide of a democracy into a fascist dictatorship.”

Being a member of the Bandaranaike family, he has rejected their oppressive policies against the Tamils. For more than 3 decades, he has been condemning the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka and has been advocating a separate Tamil state.

Dr. Senewiratne said that South Africa has the potential to play a pivotal role in the resolution of the Sri Lankan conflict because it is one of very few countries that has no agenda where Sri Lanka is concerned.

He also discussed the importance of India, Tamil Nadu in particular, becoming actively involved in protecting the interests of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The Program Director was, Mala Lutchmanan, a local radio personality.

A declaration was made, seeking the International Community to recognise Tamils right to self - determination and recognising the LTTE as the legitimate sole representatives also in the future negotiations.

The declaration further urged the international community to seek a just solution and to put an immediate end to the genocide of the Tamils.

The Sea Tigers, the naval wing of the LTTE, launched a surprise attack on a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Erukkalampiddi in Mannaar in the early hours of June 11, temporarily ceasing control of the camp for about 2 hours before withdrawing.

The Sea Tigers seized arms and military equipments, including a radar, from the camp, LTTE officials in Vanni told TamilNet.

The operation was carried out by Marine Commandos, a special forces unit of the Sea Tigers.

The Tigers seized a 50-caliber machine gun, 81 mm mortars, Light Machine Guns, Rocket Launchers and several other pieces of military hardware from the camp, the Tigers said.

The Sea Tiger Marines of Lt. Col. Cheran unit launched the seaborne lightning strike at 2:08 a.m. Wednesday and brought the entire installation under their full control within 10 minutes, according to the LTTE officials.

Commander Viduthalai led the Commandos while Commander Ilanko led the sea mission including counter-attacks on Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) vessels dispatched from Thalaimannaar SLN Command.

One 50 caliber machine gun, one 50 caliber barrel, two 81 mm mortars, one PK-LMG, one Rocket Propelled Grenade Launchers (RPG), one Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW), one 60 mm mortar, one AK-LMG, one T-56 assault rifle, one radar equipment, two-hundred-and-three 81 mm shells, sixty-five 60 mm mortar shells, four RPG propellers, six RPG shells, three kit-bags, 1,195 50 caliber rounds, 5,870 T-56 rounds and several other ammunitions and military accessories were seized by the Sea Tigers.

The Tiger commandos were in full control of the SLN installation for almost two hours and destroyed the camp at 3:45 a.m., before leaving the Mannaar island at 3:50 a.m., the Tigers said.

Five Tiger commandos were killed in action.

Sea Tiger commandos had verified that 9 Sri Lankan troopers were killed in action. One of the Sri Lankan troopers, seriously wounded, succumbed to his injuries later, according to the Tigers.

Many of the soldiers stationed at the camp belonged to the Gajaba Regiment.

Just before they left, the Sea Tiger commandos destroyed a power generator that was supplying electricity to the camp.

The Sea Tigers attributed the mission to the memory of Lt. Col. Kadaafi, a commander of the Sea Tigers Special Engineering Division, who was killed two months ago.

LTTE officials supplied photos taken during their mission to reporters who went to cover the display of the arms and ammunition that were seized during their mission.

Erukkalampiddi is located 7 km northwest of Mannaar city and 8 km southeast of Peasaalai, in the island of Mannaar.

Police in Naples said Wednesday that the suspects were picked up in cities including Rome, Genoa, Bologna, Naples and Palermo at the end of a two-year investigation. Two more were being sought in Naples.

Police believe the suspects, all Sri Lankan citizens, extorted money from their fellow nationals in the various cities and sent it home to finance the rebel group.

Luigi Bonacura of the Naples police said the operation effectively dismantles the Tamil Tiger network in Italy.

The Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamils.

Support for infrastructure-led growth, lagging regions, and high quality service delivery is the focus of the World Bank Group’s Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Sri Lanka for the period July 2008 to June 2011.

The envisaged lending package of US$900 million for the Sri Lanka CAS was endorsed by the World Bank’s Executive Director at a meeting on June 5.

The CAS is aligned with Mahinda Chintana, the Government’s 10-year economic development framework which aims at accelerating growth, with particular emphasis on equitable development.

The strategy is focused on three objectives.

The first is to expand economic opportunities in lagging regions to achieve more balanced growth by supporting rehabilitation of roads, irrigation networks, and water supply.

Second, the CAS centers on improving the investment climate and competitiveness to encourage private sector investments and growth.

The third objective is to enhance quality services and accountability to improve education, health, social safety nets, and environmental protection.

A substantive share of the resources during this CAS period is devoted to roads, particularly the provincial roads to improve inter connectivity among regions to facilitate faster development in the lagging regions”.

The design of the CAS is based on extensive consultations both with the Government and with a broad cross-section of Sri Lankan society across many parts of the country.“

The assistance strategy aims to sustain the impressive poverty reduction that Sri Lanka has achieved the last five years, “said World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka Naoko Ishii.

“The CAS is designed to deliver positive development outcomes in poor and underserved areas, including the conflict – affected North and the East.”

The CAS will systematically ensure conflict sensitivity in design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of’ Bank-funded activities.

 The aim is to encourage members of different ethnic group to work together around common goals in community driven development initiatives,

The CAS also notes the importance of enhancing macroeconomic stability for achieving higher long term economic growth and for enabling Sri Lanka to better meet the challenges of the recent steep increase in international commodity prices.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bank Group’s private sector arm, plays an important role in the Bank’s strategy by providing long-term financing and business advice for Sri Lankan companies.

 During this CAS implementation period, IFC will increasingly reach out to second-tier, smaller clients and help develop the domestic financial market, In addition, the IFC will continue to provide advisory services through the South-Fast Asia Enterprise Development Facility, a five-year, multi-donor trust find established especially for this purpose.

The credits are from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, and have 20 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period and zero interest.

Sri Lanka’s envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council raised concerns over Britain’s monarchy, leading to the HRC stating in its report that the UK must "consider holding a referendum on the desirability or otherwise of a written constitution, preferably republican” British press reports said reported Saturday.

The UN comments about the Queen were included at the request of the council’s Sri Lankan envoy, Dayan Jayatilleka, the Daily Telegraph and Daily Express newspapers reported.

The monarchy costs each adult in Britain around 62p a year but even groups representing taxpayers said there was no case for getting rid of it.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance in Britain, told the Telegraph: "With so many human rights abuses around the world the UN should be busy reporting on issues of starvation, execution and the denial of the vote to huge numbers of people around the world.”

Speaking at the National War Heroes Day celebrations at Sri Jayawardenapura - Kotte, on June 7, President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised that “task of safeguarding democracy and restoring peace” will soon be accomplished.

“As we remember and honour our Heroes of War, on behalf of the country and the nation, we pledge to complete the task of safeguarding democracy and restoring peace for which they sacrificed their lives and assure you all that the day is not far when we shall accomplish this,” the President said.

Launching an attack on the media and the international community, the Sri Lankan President also called on the opposition, unions and other to not “betray the nation”.

While it was “possible, if necessary, ... to use the armed forces to erect fences and barricades ..., how can we fence or barricade the mouths of those who hate the country?” the President asked.

“I ask all political parties including the opposition, and various other organizations not to betray the victory we have won as a nation. If anyone tries to destroy this, it would amount to destroying a great mansion built upon the aspirations of the people,” he said.

The President said that though politicians were able to respond to allegations, “at the theatres of war at Jaffna or Muhamalai, the troops who come forward ready to sacrifice their lives facing up to enemy bullets, and their officers, have no opportunity to respond to false charges and allegations.”

“When we began we had to make a great commitment to build the morale of our troops. It is not possible to win a war with weapons alone.”

“For this it is necessary for the soldier who goes into battle to have trust and confidence in his leadership. In order to build their morale we had to resolve many problems affecting then, such as service conditions, weapons training, suitable housing, and education for their children,” he said.

 “By facing up to the international forces that were attempting to make us withdraw the steps we had taken against terrorism, and by replying to the false charges they made, we showed that we were not ready to betray our troops,” he said.

“From the time it began, the battle against terrorism, against Eelam; this battle to develop the country, has been pulled back to serve the interest of various forces. This was due diverse pressures such as international opinion or the interest of those in this country who seek to profit from the slogan of peace,” he said.

“But we have not made our troops take a single step forward for political reasons and also they have not taken any step back due to any such interests or pressures, and will not do so in the future too,” the President said.

Noting that the memorial was near the location of the legislature, the President said “We considered it important to have this memorial to our War Heroes located near our supreme legislature because of the service rendered by our War Heroes to safeguard parliamentary democracy and the rights of the people.”

“Now, the representatives of the people will also have the opportunity to pay their respects to the heroes who are protecting democracy before they enter the shrine of democracy,” he said.

Praising the Sri Lankan soldiers, President Rajapaksa said: “The time is not very far when our War Heroes will be honoured not only in our country but throughout the world. Our War Heroes are fighting with sacrifice of their lives to mark a full stop in Sri Lanka to international terrorism.”

“There was a time when no one thought our War Heroes will be able to give this example to the world. Our War Heroes are not only engaged in battling terrorism, they are also engaged in a great operation to ensure and provide the human rights and the necessities of the people,” he said.

Out of Sri Lanka's nettle of war the flower of peace can be plucked with a free and fair referendum on Tamil statehood. That was an unwritten insight of U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake in a recent interview with the Sunday Observer newspaper. More on that later.

A grisly civil war between Sri Lanka's Tamils and the Sinhalese-dominated government of Sir Lanka (GOSL) has convulsed the island nation for more than three decades. Tens of thousands have been slaughtered. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Government sponsored assassinations, kidnappings, disappearances, rape and arbitrary detentions have become commonplaces. Four Tamil members of parliament have been murdered. Tamil journalists are regularly detained, tortured or disappeared. On Feb. 2, 2007, the Asian Human Rights Commission found: "A disappearance every five hours [in Sri Lanka] is a result of deliberate removal of all legal safeguards against illegal detention, murder and illegal disposal of bodies."

The former Sri Lankan minister for foreign affairs similarly protested in the Sunday Leader (Jan. 28, 2007): "Kidnappings, abductions, and killings have become common incidents. No matter who does it, as a government we are responsible." The GOSL was expelled from the United Nations Human Rights Council, after it renounced a 2002 Cease Fire Agreement in favor of a military solution entailing the extermination of the Tamil Tigers.

But the peace solution to Sri Lanka's descent into hell was discerned by Mr. Blake - even if unwittingly - in an interview published in the Sunday Observer on May 25. The subtext affirmed the right of the Tamil people to determine their own political destiny without dictation by Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabharkaran, or by any other person or organization. The ambassador conjectured that the Tamil people "are not seeking an independent Tamil Eelam which Prabharkan is seeking." Indeed, he speculated that in a free and fair statehood referendum, a staggering 95 percent of Tamils would favor a political solution within a united Sri Lanka.

But the ambassador knows that neither the United States nor international practice accepts statehood determinations based on political stargazing, but on free and fair referenda that reliably express the sentiments of the majority. That is the core meaning of self-determination. East Timor, Eritrea and Montenegro are recent examples. (Kosovo declared its independence by parliamentary vote).

The civil war in Sudan ended with a guaranteed self-determination vote in the south in 2011. In Canada, Quebec has twice voted on independence, and rejected the option twice. The United States permits Puerto Rico an independence vote, which has never attracted more than a tiny 4 percent.

A Tamil referendum on statehood in Sri Lanka could be organized and conducted on the model of the United Nations Mission in East Timor established by Security Council Resolution 1246 and operated from June to September 1999. Its mandate was to organize and conduct a referendum on the basis of a direct, secret and universal ballot, in order to ascertain whether the East Timorese wished special autonomy within the unitary Republic of Indonesia, or East Timor's separation. Virtually every East Timorese voted for independence.

Pending the Tamil statehood vote, the contemplated U.N. Mission in Sri Lanka would be given delegated power from the GOSL to exercise all legislative and executive authorities, including administration of justice, in Tamil demarcated areas in the north and east, where all military hostilities from whatever source would cease. The Tamil Tigers would decommission but not surrender their arms. Human-rights observers would be invited to monitor the referendum. Freedom of speech, press and political association would be protected.

A Tamil statehood referendum would be superfluous if Mr. Blake accurately assessed that 95 percent of Tamils would vote to remain in a unitary Sri Lankan state. But his assessment probably overlooked odious landmarks in Sri Lanka's history that might incline Tamils towards independence:

(1) The Citizenship Act, which denied civic and political rights to 1 million Tamils of Indian descent and relegated the remaining Tamils to a Sinhalese majority tyranny.

(2) The revocation of constitutional safeguards for the Tamil minority in the new 1972 Republican Constitution imposed without popular ratification.

(3) The statement of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front, after winning a byelection in 1974 where he sought a mandate for Tamil statehood: "The National Convention of the Tamil United Liberation Front meeting at Pannakam ... on the 14th day of May 1976, hereby declares that the Tamils of Ceylon ... are a nation distinct and apart from the Sinhalese and this Convention announced to the world that the Republican Constitution of 1972 has made the Tamils a slave nation ruled by the new colonial masters, the Sinhalese, who are using the power they have wrongly usurped to deprive the Tamil nation of its territory, language, citizenship, economic life, opportunities of employment and education, thereby destroying all attributes of nationhood of the Tamil people."

(4) The statement of President J.R. Jayawardene to the Daily Telegraph on July 11, 1983, while state-organized race rioters were slaughtering Tamils by the thousands and displacing more than 100,000: "I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people ... now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion ... [T]he more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here. ... Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhalese people will be happy."

The more things have changed for the Tamils since Mr. Jayawardene, the more they have stayed the same. A free and fair referendum on Tamil statehood is the sole plausible strategy for bringing peace to both Tamils and Sinhalese.

Bruce Fein is a constitutional and international lawyer with Bruce Fein & Associates and an attorney with Tamils for Justice, an organization which supports a Tamil statehood referendum.

Eelam Tamils in the Diaspora countries this week began a series of rallies in support of the Tamils’ right to Self-Determination.

The rallies, titled 'Pongku Thamil,' (meaning 'Tamil Upsurge'), are intended as Tamil mobilising through cultural programmes. It resumes a major plank of Tamil political activity.

The very first Pongku Thamil was held on January 17, 2001 by university students in defiance of the Sri Lankan military occupying Jaffna and despite the ongoing fighting in the peninsula.

The Pongku Thamizh movement was initiated by university students in the Tamil homeland  to serve as a demonstration of the motivation and defiant will of the Tamil people for the cause of Tamil Eelam.

After the 2002 Ceasefire began, the rally was repeated not only in Jaffna, but as a series of events to bring the Tamil people together in a common act of peaceful political agitation in support of the Eelam cause.

In 2003 and again in 2005, Ponku Thamil rallies took place in all the major Tamil population centres in Northeast Sri Lanka and across the Diaspora.

This year’s series began with a rally in New Zealand; Tamils gathered at Potters Park in Auckland for two hours on Saturday between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.

More than 350 Tamils of the 400 Tamil families in Auckland, wearing T-shirts marking the traditional Tamil homeland and carrying the portrait of Velupillai Pirapaharan, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), called for the recognition of Eelam Tamils Right to Self-determination and marked the upsurge event with cultural programmes and speeches.

Maire Leadbeater of Indonesia Human Rights Committee, a former East Timor solidarity activist addressed the audience.

Mrs. Narmatha, a former lecturer at the University of Jaffna, who witnessed the emergence of the first Pongku Thamil rally in Jaffna and a representative of Pax Christi International also spoke at the event.

On Saturday Diaspora Tamils in Norway and Denmark also marked Pongku Thamil on Saturday.

In Oslo, around 3,000 Tamils attended a Pongku Thamil event that lasted for more than 4 hours. Trond Jensrud, a ruling Labour Party (AP) politician of the Oslo Municipal Council addressed the event.

Sam Jared, representing an Eritrean organisation in Oslo, in his speech compared the similarities between the cause of the Eritreans and Tamils, and stated that the victory of Tamils is a logical conclusion as their struggle is based on the principle of the right of self-determination.

On Sunday Diaspora Tamils in Northern Italy gathered at Piazza Argentina in Milan, one of the largest cities in Italy, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., and voiced their support for an independent Eelam.

Burani Vainer, a renown lawyer in Italy for his legal defence of freedom struggles, addressed the audience as a chief guest, on the principles of the right to self determination.

Tamil poet Arivumathi, the other chief guest from Tamil Nadu, India, also addressed the audience.

The organisers of the rally said that although only a few hundreds Tamils reside in metropolitan area of Milan, nearly 500 Tamils gathered in the city where only 30 Tamils families live. Many participants had come from remote areas of Northern Italy to take part.

Meanwhile, around thirty Sinhalese arrived at the site and mobilised a counter-protest. Around 50,000 Sinhalese expatriates live in Northern Italy.

On Wednesday, over eight thousand Tamils gathered in Paris to express their support for Tamil independence. For days before the rally, the streets of the La Chapelle area in Paris, where many Tamils live had been decorated with red and yellow balloons – the Tamil national colours.

Tamils in South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, UK, France, Sweden, Canada and Malaysia are also expected to hold their own rallies in the coming days.

The Sri Lankan Army has a problem with desertion.

Currently there are about 15,000 army deserters at large. But late last year, it was worse, with about 20,000 deserters on the books.

In the past, the army has managed to get deserters to return by offering an amnesty.

The most recent one, that was available the first two weeks of May, was extended another two weeks because the initial response was so great.

The army expects to get about a third of its wayward soldiers back.

The main cause of the desertion is the 25 years of fighting with the Liberation Tigers, which has killed over 70,000 people.

About a third are Tamils (18 percent of the population), while most of the rest are soldiers.

Since the army is only about 150,000 strong, and the heaviest fighting has taken place in the last decade, it's no wonder so many recruits changed their minds.

The Sri Lankan army has always been an all-volunteer force.

But once you are in, you are obliged to stay in as long as your contract specifies. If you want to leave before that time is up, you are classified as a deserter.

The army does not make a big effort to hunt down deserters and bring them back. That would cause civil unrest.

A better solution has been victory in combat. And that's what the army has been doing for the past year.

Nothing succeeds like success.

The generals have been keeping army casualties down, while taking down lots of the enemy. So a record number of deserters are returning.

The Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights reached that conclusion after two-day clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees, who had been held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan.

The detainees were never charged with crimes."We found clear physical and psychological evidence of torture and abuse, often causing lasting suffering," said Dr. Allen Keller, a medical evaluator for the study.

In a 121-page report, the doctors' group said that it uncovered medical evidence of torture, including beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, sodomy and scores of other abuses.

The report is prefaced by retired U.S. Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led the Army's investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in 2003."There is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes," Taguba says. "The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account."

Over the years, reports of abuses at Abu Ghraib and allegations of torture at Guantanamo prompted the Bush administration to deny that the U.S. military tortures detainees.

Since only 11 detainees were examined "the findings of this assessment cannot be generalized to the treatment of all detainees in U.S. custody," the report says.

However, the incidents documented are consistent with findings of other investigations into government treatment, "making it reasonable to conclude that these detainees were not the only ones abused, but are representative of a much larger number of detainees subjected to torture and ill treatment while in U.S. custody."

Four of the men evaluated were arrested in or taken to Afghanistan between late 2001 and early 2003 and later were sent to Guantanamo Bay, where they were held for an average of three years before being released without charge, the report says. The other seven were detained in Iraq in 2003 and released within a year, the report says.

All the subjects told examiners that they were subjected to multiple forms of torture or ill treatment that "often occurred in combination over a long period of time," the report says.

While the report presents synopses of the detainees' backgrounds based on interviews with them, the authors did not have access to the detainees' medical histories. Therefore, there's no way to know whether any of the inmates may have had medical or mental problems before being detained.

Among the ex-detainees was an Iraqi in his mid-40s, identified only as Laith, whom U.S. soldiers took into custody in October 2003 and who was released from Abu Ghraib in June 2004. According to the report, Laith was subjected to sleep deprivation, electric shocks and threats of sexual abuse to himself and his family.

"They took off even my underwear. They asked me to do some movements that make me look in a very bad way so they can take photographs. ... They were trying to make me look like an animal," Laith told examiners, according to the report.

According to the report, Laith said the most "painful" experiences involved threats to his family: "And they asked me, 'Have you ever heard voices of women in this prison?' I answered, 'Yes.' They were saying, 'Then you will hear your mothers and sisters when we are raping them.' "

The examiners concluded in the report that "Laith appears to have suffered severe and lasting physical and psychological injuries as a result of his arrest and incarceration at Abu Ghraib prison."

Another detainee, Youssef, was detained by U.S. soldiers nearly seven years ago when he tried to enter Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan without a passport, the report says. He initially was held in an Afghan prison, where he describes "being stripped naked, being intimidated by dogs, being hooded and being thrown against the wall on repeated occasions," the report says.

A few months later, he was taken to the Guantanamo Bay facility, where he was subjected to interrogators who would enter his cell and force him to lie on the floor with his hands tied behind his back to his feet, the report says.

Youssef said the interrogators wanted him to confess of involvement with the Taliban, the report says.Based on its investigation, the report calls on the U.S. government to issue a formal apology to detainees subject to torture and ill treatment by the military since fall 2001 in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

The rights group also demands that the Bush administration:

• "Repudiate all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment";

• Establish an independent commission to investigate and report publicly the circumstances of detention and interrogation at U.S.-run prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay;

Hold individuals involved in torturing detainees accountable through criminal and civil processes; and

• Monitor thoroughly the conditions at U.S.-run prisons all over the world.

It has now become widely accepted internationally that human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan security forces and allied paramilitaries are widespread and routine. Sri Lanka has come under intense criticism by international human rights groups as well as some leading Western states. The Tamil Diaspora, which has for the past quarter century been protesting and lobbying international capitals, has understandably gained some comfort from the strongly worded criticism from some host states. However, firstly, this should not be taken as a reduction in support for the Sinhala-dominated state. Secondly, and more importantly, we should not equate ending Colombo's rights abuses with ending Sri Lanka's oppression of the Tamil people. Abuses are only an element of oppression and only a symptom of state racism.

For sixty years, the Sinhala-dominated state has discriminated against and violently repressed the Tamils. In 1972 the Constitution was changed to set up a permanent racial hierarchy that posits the Sinhala-Buddhist majority as having a 'first and foremost' place in the island with the other minorities as subordinate. In short, Sri Lanka is deemed a Sinhala country in which the minorities - Tamils, Upcountry Tamils and Muslims - are allowed to stay, provided they understand their place in this hierarchy.

Since independence from Britain, Tamil protests against the deepening Constitutional and legislative privileging of the Sinhalese have been met with increasingly violent state repression. This led inexorably - from Tamil demands for equal treatment, to demands for federal autonomy - to insistence on outright independence. That was in 1977. It was when state repression intensified thereafter that militancy emerged. It was following the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom - the worst of five or more such mob attacks - that the Tamil armed struggle turned into a fully fledged war of national liberation.

There are several dimensions to state repression of the Tamils. There are the human rights abuses - murder, 'disappearance', torture and rape by the security forces and allied paramilitaries. There is the violent and militarized Sinhala colonization of the Tamils' homeland. For example, whilst the Eastern province had less than 9% Sinhalese in 1948, by 1981 (i.e. before the 1983 pogrom and the mass displacement and killings of Tamils throughout the war) state-backed colonization had ensured Sinhalese comprised 30%. Then there is the way in which the Sinhala military - assisted by the West-led international community - has waged war: massacres of Tamils, mass displacement of Tamils (often followed by settling of Sinhalese in abandoned lands), indiscriminate bombardments of Tamil population concentrations and embargos on food and medicine. Sinhala racism manifests in almost every state decision. For example, after the tsunami, almost all foreign aid was diverted to the Sinhala south, rather than the Tamil and Muslim dominated Northeast.

None of all this is new to the international community; it has been integral to the Tamil-Sinhala relationship for decades. Quite apart from the incessant lobbying by Tamil expatriates (most of whom arrived in the West as fleeing refugees), the regular reports from Western embassies, research by countless academics, reports from international human rights groups and media reports, have chronicled the Tamils' persecution in detail. Yet, prioritizing its geopolitical and economic interests, the West-led international community has aided and abetted this Sinhala repression - whilst sometimes making much noise about rights abuses (and usually when the Sinhala leaders resist external interests).

There are specific consequences to focusing on human rights as opposed to state oppression. To begin with, reducing the Tamils' suffering to human rights is tantamount to rejecting the Tamils' demand for self-determination; this is because the way to address human rights, in international eyes, is to reform the Sri Lankan state and not 'divide' the country. Secondly, the massive military and economic assistance being extended to the Sri Lankan state is justified under this logic of reform. Supplying further training to the Sri Lankan military means it will be 'more disciplined' and 'less likely to commit abuses', the argument goes. Strengthening the economic base of the Sri Lankan state means 'reducing ethnic tensions'. The state should not be weakened by sanctions, but 'encouraged', by giving it even more aid, to 'improve' its 'governance', its 'accountability' and so on. In short, the logic of 'human rights abuses' thus makes strengthening the Sri Lankan state the solution to Tamils' 'grievances'.

This is why when Tamils protest using the language of 'oppression', racism' and 'genocide', the international community responds in the language of 'stopping human rights abuses'. Which is why the Tamils are told to forget about self-determination or Eelam and to focus on making the state 'more accountable'. This is also why, when we speak of 'state repression', the international community instead blames the 'government' - the problem, we are told, is the Rajapaksa regime, not the state per se. Thus, it is to justify and facilitate the ongoing international support for the Sri Lankan state that Tamils are being encouraged to agitate in Western capitals - again, provided they use the language of 'human rights', and not that of 'national self-determination'. In short, our role is to plead with the international community to take up our 'grievances' and to become our 'representatives' vis-à-vis the Sri Lankan state.

Which leads to the question of Tamils' support for the Liberation Tigers. When the crisis in Sri Lanka is reduced to 'human rights abuses' and the solution is deemed to 'strengthening and reforming the state', there is no room for armed struggle against the state (i.e. 'terrorism') irrespective of the form of the oppression. Which is why the Europ-ean Union, when banning the LTTE in 2006, insisted the move 'was against the LTTE and not the Tamil people.' This is why the 'War on Terror' and 'a solution acceptable to all Sri Lankans' are deemed to be one and the same.

'Human rights abuses' therefore have starkly different meanings for the Tamils and the international community. For the Tamils, the atrocities inflicted on them by the Sri Lankan security forces are a symptom, an indicator of the racist logic of the Sinhala-dominated state; for the international community, they are the problem itself i.e. end the abuses and thus solve the crisis.

The demand for Tamil Eelam emerged out of the impossibility of reforming the Sri Lankan state; i.e. the failure over decades of Tamil efforts to bring about change within a united state dominated by a numerical ethnic majority. The Tamil armed struggle emerged out of the violent, militarized repression of this Tamil demand. In the 21st century, the Tamils have been promised international action- most recently under the logic of 'responsibility to protect' - to ensure the Sri Lankan state ends its oppression. But nothing like this has happened. Instead, the Sri Lankan state continues to receive increasing international assistance - military, financial and political.

The point here, as we have stated before, is not that human rights are not of value - as a community that has suffered abuses for decades, few appreciate these more. Rather, it is to say human rights cannot be separated from the central political issue - in our case self-determination and liberation from state oppression. To do so is to obscure and - given the dynamics of international action in Sri Lanka - in fact to propagate Sri Lanka's oppression.

A motorcycle rider detonated an explosive in front of the office of the Senior Superintendent of the Police on Monday June 16, killing 12 Sri Lankan policemen and himself, and injuring about 40 others.

Later the number killed was modified to 16, CNN reported, calling it “at least the second deadly explosion in Sri Lanka this month”.

Four of the wounded were civilians. Two schoolchildren also sustained minor injuries in the blast.

The attacker rode into a police barrack while the group of policemen were emerging from the office located along the A-9 road, press reports said.

"Twelve people were killed ... from a suicide blast in Vavuniya town," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said, adding several schoolchildren were also among the wounded.

Nanayakkara said a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle had blown himself in front of a police station in the town.

The Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law and Order said on its website that the suicide blast occurred around 7:10 a.m. as the police were leaving a police facility go on duty.

Other reports quoted police as saying the officers had gathered outside to await assignment details when the attacker drove into the group with a motorcycle.

The most senior police official was not in the building at the time of the blast which occurred during the morning rush hour, a policeman in Vavuniya told AFP.

The Ministry of Defence said the 12 police personnel killed included three women police constables.

Vavuniya, located 158 miles (255 km) from the capital Colombo, is the northernmost town under government control. It borders the LTTE held region.

The ministry blamed the attack on the Liberation Tigers for the attack.