Counsel for Mahinda Rajapaksa filed a motion for "enlargement of time to respond to the complaint" at the US Dictrict Court of Columbia, reported Tamilnet.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was served a US court summons in October, under the US Torture Victim's Protection Act for extrajudicial killings - a civil suit.

Speaking to Tamilnet, spokesperson for the US based activist group, TAG, said,

"This is a landmark development for the expatriate Tamils who are forcing Sri Lanka's President to a neutral western court to answer charges of war-crimes. From absolute immunity enjoyed by Heads of State before world-war II, evolving restricted immunity doctrines within the US's Federal Surveillance and Intelligence Act (FSIA) with the exception clauses will force Rajapakse to present exculpatory legal or factual arguments to rebut exceptions to immunity likely to be advanced by plaintiffs.

Tamil lobby groups should work with sympathetic congresspersons to write letters of support for the case, and pressure the executive branch not to bail out the perpetrator of crimes against humanity,"

The case was brought by three plaintiffs who allege that Rajapaksa held command responsibility for extrajudicial killings of Ragihar Manoharan, the son of plaintiff Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan; of Premas Anandarajah, a humanitarian aid worker for Action Against Hunger and the husband of plaintiff Kalaiselvi Lavan and four members of the Tevarajah family, all relatives of plaintiff Jeyakumar Aiyathurai.

Rajapaksa having evaded a accepting a legal summons, by simply refusing or instructing his government officials, including the Minister for Justice, to refuse any official summons, was subsequently served his summons unconventionally using Tamilnet and Sri Lankan newspapers.

The Supreme Court has ordered the unblocking of a website critical of the government.
Sri Lanka Mirror was one of several websites blocked by the Sri Lankan government in recent months for propagating ‘false information’.

The websites, including Lanka-e-news and Sri Lanka Guardian, are all highly critical of the ruling party.

The conditions placed on Sri Lanka Mirror by the Supreme Court include a ban on providing links to any of the websites still blocked.

The EU and US missions in Colombo expressed concern at the time of the ban, calling on Sri Lanka to allow media to operate freely.

See report in The Washington Post here.

Related articles:

Supreme court sanctions Media Ministry's authoritarianism (03 Dec 2011)

Media Ministry has "full authority" to act against websites (17 Nov 2011)

EU express ‘concern’ over website bans (08 Nov 2011)

Sri Lanka bans opposition website (07 Nov 2011)

The long awaited report by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) has been presented to the Sri Lankan parliament today.

For full report click here or here.

In its conclusion the report stated that no civilians were intentionally targeted in the No-Fire-Zones.

"In evaluating the Sri Lanka experience in the context of allegations of violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the Commission is satisfied that the military strategy that was adopted to secure the LTTE held areas was one that was carefully conceived, in which the protection of the civilian population was given the highest priority." the report stated in its Principal Observations and Recommendations.

"The Commission also notes in this regard that the movement of the Security Forces in conducting their operations was deliberately slow during the final stages of the conflict, thereby evidencing a carefully worked out strategy of avoiding civilian casualties or minimizing them,"

"On consideration of all facts and circumstances before it, the Commission concludes
that the Security Forces had not deliberately targeted the civilians in the NFZs, although civilian casualties had in fact occurred in the course of crossfire."

"Having reached the above conclusions, it is also incumbent on the Commission to consider the question, while there was no deliberate targeting of civilians by the Security Forces, whether the action of the Security Forces of returning fire into the NFZs was excessive in the context of the Principal of Proportionality.

"Given the complexity of the situation that presented itself as described above, the Commission after most careful consideration of all aspects, is of the view that the Security Forces were confronted with an unprecedented situation when no other choice was possible and all "feasible precautions" that were practicable in the circumstances had been taken,"

Related articles:

Can't investigate; won't investigate (14 Dec 2011)

British PR firm wrote Rajapaksa's UN speech (05 Dec 2011)

LLRC witness summoned by Sri Lankan CID (14 Nov 2011)

Amnesty on Sri Lanka's LLRC (07 Sep 2011)

Upto 50 Tamil asylum seekers in the UK are being deported to Sri Lanka on Thursday reported The Guardian newspaper.

The deportation comes despite recent reports by Freedom From Torture (a UK based torture victim NGO) and the UN Committee Against Torture detailing damning evidence of on-going torture.

Activists and campaigners have also heavily criticsed the UK Government's failure to monitor the wellbeing of Tamils following deportation.

According to The Guardian, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) lodged a petition at the High Court this week, stating the UK government had failed to review its deportations policy after recent allegations of torture.

Freedom from Torture chief executive Keith Best told The Guardian,

"Despite this evidence, which points to an ongoing risk of torture including to individuals with an actual or perceived association with the LTTE, the government is set to return another plane-load of Sri Lankans including refused asylum seekers without sufficient monitoring on return."

A multitude of Tamil civil society groups condemned the "deception and deviatory polity" of the TNA's leadership, in a memorandum presented to the party leader's on Tuesday, reported Tamilnet.

It added that the impressive list of signatories to the memorandum, including trade unionists, community leaders, religious leaders, academics, profressionals and educationalists, urged "firmness of leadership in political stand" and asserted that "Tamils are not a ‘minority’ requesting concessions, but a nation demanding self-rule".

See here for Tamilnet report in full.

Extracts of the memorandum, translated and abridged by Tamilnet, are reproduced below:

"It is deplorable that the TNA leadership that had earlier decided to come out of the futile talks with Colombo, decided to re-commence the talks at a time when the war crimes issue was to be taken up by the UN. This was only an attempt to protect Colombo.

The TNA leadership backed out from spelling out the status of Eezham Tamils as a nation and their right for self-determination, at the conference convened by Congress parliamentarian Dr. Natchiappan in New Delhi.

TNA leaders Sampanthan and Sumanthiran, by their polity of reducing Tamils as ‘minorities,’ differ from the broadly accepted political fundamentals of the Tamil National Alliance.

‘Minorities’ have to stop at requesting cultural concessions. Only a nation could demand for self-rule. Eezham Tamils are a nation needing self-rule.

The talk of ‘Equal Rights’ is not a substitute for autonomy or self-rule. Equal Rights could be achieved even by the restoration of the Rule of Law. But in the context of the island, even restored Rule of Law cannot resolve the issues faced by Tamils.

Ideas of nation and the right to self-determination not necessarily mean secession. No one can place a stigma on Tamils claiming for recognition of their status as a nation and for asserting to their right to self-determination.

Tamils look upon the TNA and mandate it in every election, not as an ordinary political party of ‘electoral politics,’ but as a political liberation movement rising above electoral politics.

An organisation campaigning for women's rights in Sri Lanka has revealed there are 89,000 war widows in the north-east of the island.

Committee member for Women for Rights, Dr. Sarojini Savithri, said 12,000 of those widows were under the age of 40.

"All these women suffer immense hardships and their children are also greatly affected," Convener of the organisation, Dr. Chandani Karunathilaka said.

Read report on Colombo Page here.

Addressing parliament on Wednesday, Foreign Minister GL Peiris asserted Sri Lanka will not allow an international investigation into allegations of war crimes.

The Sri Lankan government "is firmly for solving the country’s internal issues by itself,” he reiterated.

It is unfortunate then that this is the only aspect of the investigation of war crimes the government is firm about.

Almost a month after the LLRC report was presented to the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the dithering continues.

No definite release date has been set. Any calls to expedite its release are condemned as "indecent hurry", whilst the demand for an international investigation is deemed a Western plot against the country.
 
Commenting on the TNA leader's call for an international investigation, Peiris warned parliament, "there are dangerous undertones to his speech".

Sri Lanka has "no intention of allowing an international policeman" he added.

How fortunate then that the ICC's next prosecutor is a woman.

Amnesty International, Tamils Against Genocide and the director of 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' documentary, Callum Macrae joined others in a discussion on 'Where now after Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' on 25th November.

The event, organised by Freedom from Torture, the medical foundation for the care of victims of torture, who released a damning report into the widespread and ongoing practice of torture by Sri Lanka's security forces, was fully booked.

Yolande Foster from Amnesty International, Jan Jananayagam from TAG, the shadow minister for international development, Rushanara Ali and the journalist and director, Callum Macrae were invited to share their thoughts the allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sri Lanka, prior to the public discussion.

Reflecting on recent suggestions by the Sri Lankan government that a "few bad apples" were responsible for any alleged crimes, Callum Macrae urged sustained pressure to ensure the accountability rests with those at the very top of the chain of command.

Slamming Sri Lanka's attempts to denounce the calls for accountability as a Western plot, Macrae asserted that not only had the world got a right to call for it, but it had a duty to do so.

Highlighting the systematic targetting of Tamil civilians, as outlined in the report by the UN Panel of Experts, Jan Jananayagam outlined the overwhelming evidence of not only war crimes or crimes against humanity, but genocide.

Jananayagam pointed out that although the focus on the events of 2009 was welcome, the measures used against the Tamil civilians were tried and tested by the Sri Lankan state.

Reflecting on the Norweigan government's appraisal of their role in the peace process, Jananayagam urged British "introspection and seriousness on the issue". In the face of such damning evidence of ongoing torture, the British government's continued deportation of Tamil civilians is deplorable she added, slamming the UK Border Agency's conclusion that witnesses are not at risk on return to Sri Lanka.

Yolande Foster called on the British government to not only show its support for justice and accountability at the next UN Human Rights Council, but to ensure that other member states of the council are being lobbied effectively. Highlighting the Latin American and African member states as "swing states", Foster urged a concerted effort to outline the magnitude of the crimes.

Pledging sustained pressure by the Labour Party on the UK government for an independent, international investigation into the allegations of war crimes, Rushanara Ali, concluded that the atrocities represented yet another failure by the ICC to act.

Macrae warned,

"There is a generation of very angry young Tamils who are looking to the world, and looking to have democracy, accountability and justice."

"If democracy and accountability fail to come then that is a terrible lesson for those young Tamil, and we could see history repeating itself".

 

See related articles:

'Do not let Sri Lanka off the hook' - Freedom from Torture (11 Nov 2011)

UK charity hands torture report to UN (07 Nov 2011)

China’s General Xiaotian was warmly welcomed to Sri Lanka by army chief Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya.

General Xiaotian arrived at the army headquarters on Tuesday morning, where a guard of honour was awaiting him.

Lt. Gen. Jayasuriya stressed that Sri Lanka was ‘true friends’ with China due to the military assistance the country provided during the last few years of the war, which left at least 40,000 Tamil civilians dead.

The Army Commander told the visiting General, 'how the nation, as the war was on, looked at the true friends of Sri Lanka with a deep sense of pride and appreciation', the army said on its website.

Jayasuriya received his training at a military academy in China and stands accused of involvement in war crimes by human rights organisations.

Reports have emerged that the Sri Lankan Army is ready to distribute and sell fruits and vegetables, as thousands of farmer protested against a new law requiring plastic crates to be used in their transportation.

The protests took place as 40 lorries were seized by the government’s Consumer Affairs Authorities, after they were found to be transporting these fruits and vegetables without the proper packaging. A shortage of fruits and vegetables was later reported in Colombo’s Manning Market due to the raid.

Army Spokesman Brigadier Nihal Hapuarachchi was alleged to have said that the Army would be willing to step in and take over the sale and distribution of the goods.

Having been involved in selling vegetables since January, just last month, the military also announced that they would now also be maintaining the three biggest cricket stadiums in the country. They Army has also been involved in running an domestic airline, reconstruction work in the North, running restaurants along the A9 highway to Jaffna and even supervising the private companies that collect rubbish in Colombo.

See a piece in the Economist earlier this year, entitled "Sri Lanka's Army - In bigger barracks".

Commenting on the Sri Lankan Army’s ever-expanding influence over civilian affairs, Vijay K Nagaraj, research director at theInternational Council on Human Rights Policy, wrote in the Guardian in January.

“All too stressful? Tune into Ranaviru (war-hero) Real Star, a reality TV show reserved for military personnel.

If you prefer a holiday, the Sri Lankan army will be pleased to pamper you with "luxurious comforts at very reasonable rates" at the new Thalsevana beach resort – the second army-owned and managed resort – in Kanakesanthurai on the Jaffna peninsula, long part of the Tamil homeland. According to some, the resort is in a "high security zone", so peace is assured – no annoying Tamils (they are all gone, somewhere) or dissident noises.

Forget war. In Sri Lanka it is peace that is really turning the military establishment on.”

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has called for investigations into the disappearances of two activists, who helped organise a protest in Jaffna drawing attention to the plights of missing people on the island.

The disappearances are just the latest in a string of abductions, which have seen a marked rise in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

The two missing men, Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan, were last seen in Avaragal near Jaffna, as they were making their way to the protest on Friday. Both men were involved in organising a series of protests against disappearances, bringing relatives of the victims from the North to Colombo.

The statement from the AHRC comes on the same day that they released an account into the death of 28-year old Sri Skandaraja Sumanan, who was arrested and taken to Jaffna Police Station, before his dead body was discovered in a canal with over 40 injury marks.

The number of people missing in the North-East has risen sharply, as well as in Colombo, where at least nine people have been abducted in recent months. The majority of victims were all either last seen in Police custody or have been taken away by unmarked white vans. Relatives of the missing have been turned away by the Police and Red Cross, as they try to register complaints.

The recent spate of abductions threatens to plunge the island back into the trend of state-sponsored disappearances that have long plagued the Tamil people.

A 1999 UN study found Sri Lanka to have the second highest number of disappearances in the world, with 12,000 having been detained by security forces. This worrying pattern returned once the Sri Lankan government’s war effort was mobilised after the collapse of the peace talks, as abductions once again began to rise.

See the video by Human Rights Watch entitled “Sri Lanka’s Ghosts” made in 2008, below.

Also see our earlier posts:

White vans and vanishing men (Jan 2009)

Sri Lanka’s ‘White Van Syndrome’ (Dec 2008)

For the people of the NorthEast, 2007 was a grim year (Jan 2008)

Death from white vans: the logic of terror (Sep 2006)

Mahinda Rajapaksa's ears must have been burning yesterday, as ministers took turns to confess their gratitude to the President during the parliamentary session.

"We must be grateful to him" urged UPFA member VK Indika, lauding the "numerous benefits" Rajapaksa is said to have been bestowed upon the fisheries sector.

"We must thank President Rajapaksa for eliminating terrorism" echoed UPFA's Suriapperuma.

Meanwhile UPFA MP Azwer took things one step further - Rajapaksa deserves a peace prize.

Lamenting what he described as the West's misguided view of a peace, Azwer urged the Norwegian Nobel Committee to present the next prize to the Sri Lankan President.

"Eradication of terrorism was a formidable feat no head of state in the world had achieved, except President Mahinda Rajapaksa."

"Therefore, looking at the attainment of peace in its proper perspective, the President rightfully deserves to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."

"President Obama was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. May I ask for what? The Norwegian Nobel Committee made this award to President Obama ‘for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of work and work for a world without nuclear weapons."

"That is how the West understands or rather misunderstands – the concept of real peace."