Australian Federal Attorney-general, Robert Mc Clelland, has halted the criminal proceedings against Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, citing diplomatic immmunity.
 
Mc Clelland's spokesperson explained that Commonwealth laws extended immunities to heads of state and heads of diplomatic missions. 

"The attorney-general has refused to grant this consent as continuation of the proceedings would be in breach of domestic law and Australia's obligations under international law," 
 
"Those immunities include personal inviolability, including from any form of arrest or detention and immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the receiving state."

An indictment was filed against Rajapaksa for war crimes, by 63-year-old Australian Tamil, Jegatheeswaran, in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.
 
Rajapaksa is due to arrive imminently for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth this week.
 
Speaking to Australian news channel, ABC, the prime minister, Julia Gillard, confirmed Rajapaksa's diplomatic immunity, however, reiterated the need for an investigation into the allegations of war crimes. 

"On the direct question you raise, no such legal action can be taken on an issue like this without the consent of the Attorney-General, and the Attorney-General hasn’t received any request in relation to this matter, so that’s on the direct question you raise."
 
"On the broader issue about human rights, Australia and like-minded countries have been urging and will continue to urge Sri Lanka to address the serious allegations that have been made of human rights violations during the end stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka, and we will continue to do that."

Responding to the Attorney-General's move, Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia, Thisara Samarasinghe, who has also been accused of war crimes, said,

"We are very thankful. We continue to reject any allegations whatsoever by any individual or any organisation."

A spokesperson for the Rajapaksa's office added, 

"It's hilarious to file charges against a head of state who has defeated terrorism in Sri Lanka."

The national carrier of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Airlines, is at serious risk from being barred from entering European airspace due to safety concerns by the European Aviation Authority.

Sri Lanka’s The Island reported the airline is on ‘virtual notice’ and safety audits on the carrier’s planes have become almost mandatory at European airports.

The barring of the airlines from Europe will have serious implications for the future of the airline, as a huge proportion of its flights operate to and from Europe.

See The Island report here.

The UK’s independent media regulator, Ofcom, has found that Channel 4’s documentary examining war crimes in Sri Lanka did not breach any broadcasting codes and was impartial.

The documentary, broadcast in June this year, examined the final events of the Sri Lankan government’s offensive in the Vanni, where they have been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a statement Monday, Ofcom said, 

"Channel 4 has a unique public service remit to provide programming that is challenging, diverse and likely to provoke debate. Consequently, the broadcaster has a history of broadcasting very challenging material from war zones (including graphic footage) and seeking out the voices and views of those who may not be represented.”

"Ofcom therefore concluded that overall Channel 4 preserved due impartiality in its examination of the Sri Lankan government's actions and policies during its offensive and there was no breach of [the broadcasting code]."

See report from the Guardian here.

The regulator also went on to say,

"The images included in this programme, whilst brutal and shocking, would not have exceeded the expectations of the audience for this Channel 4 documentary scheduled well after the watershed with very clear warnings about the nature of the content."

The documentary features footage from inside the “safe zones” of the war showing civilian settlements and hospitals being bombed. Videos from Sri Lankan soldier’s mobile phones were also included, which showed extrajudicial killings and images of dead naked bodies, suggesting torture and sexual abuse had occurred.

It has gone on to be broadcasted on both Australian and Indian television, as well as being shown in the EU, British Parliament, Washington and other capitals across the world, sponsored by human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Crisis Group.

Last week, Dorothy Byrne, the Channel 4 head of news and current affairs told a Lords committee, which is inquiring into the future of investigative journalism, that Channel 4 faced an intense worldwide PR campaign, conducted by the Sri Lankan government.

See our earlier post: ‘Protest was organised by Ministry of Defence – Channel 4’ (Oct 2011)

Malcolm Fraser, the former Liberal Australian Prime Minister, has urged the Australian government to toughen its stance on Sri Lanka until there is an investigation into war crimes on the island.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Fraser said,

''There ought to be a proper investigation and if that leads to indictments before the International Criminal Court or the War Crimes Tribunal, so be it.''

Fraser, who will be attending the 2011 CHOGM in Perth in a few days time, also slammed the decision to host the 2013 CHOGM in Sri Lanka saying,

"Under current circumstances, holding the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka in two years' time is quite inappropriate.”

Backing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s call, Fraser reiterated that human rights issues had to be dealt with first, before Sri Lanka would be allowed to host the meeting.

The former Prime Minister went on to criticise Australia’s current approach to Sri Lanka stating,

"To this point I think we've got one leg each side of a barbed wire fence. That's a rather uncomfortable position to be in you've ever tried it."

''If the government is taking a very soft approach in this matter because of its concern about asylum seekers, I think it is again forgetting what it ought to be doing.''

"We should not place a desire to stop boats and get the co-operation of the Sri Lankan government above the need to seek justice in Sri Lanka between the warring parties."

He went on to condemn then Foreign Minister Stephen Smith’s visit to Colombo in November 2009, describing it as “outrageous”. The visit ended with Australia granting Sri Lanka $11 million to help them halt the stem of asylum seekers on boats, seeking to leave the island.

"By giving financial support to the Sri Lankan government we were virtually saying, 'What you have done is all right so long as you stop boats'".

"You can't have principles which are important and then throw them over when it's expedient. There's been too much of that in Australia over the past 10 to 15 years." 

The call comes as pressure from Australia continues to mount on Sri Lanka as President Mahinda Rajapakse prepares to attend the CHOGM in Perth.

Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon criticised the Australian Federal Attorney-general’s decision to halt a criminal case against the Sri Lankan President for war crimes saying that it will "set a horrific precedent if it rolls out the red carpet for Sri Lankan officials at CHOGM while allegations of war crimes remain unanswered".

"A grandmother from Northern Sri Lanka described to Amnesty International how she and other displaced women attempting to flee the conflict in May 2009 were tortured by Sri Lankan army personnel, who she alleged forced them to parade naked, perform acts of a sexual nature and raped them in front of family members, including her grandchildren."

"On 13 November 2009, he (the victim) was among eight Tamil prisoners who said they were attacked and brutally beaten by a mob of Sinhalese prisoners. He told Amnesty International that the prison authorities were complicit in this attack; they had read out a list of eight names and handed the prisoners over to the Sinhalese prisoners to be beaten."

“Impunity remains the rule rather than the exception for violations of human rights in Sri Lanka.”

Ahead of the CHOGM in Perth, writing in the Trinidad Express on Monday, Peter Kellner, journalist and chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, accuses the conference and the institution of the Commonwealth of "sleeping walking into irrelevance".

Urging it to reconsider its plans to hold the next meeting in Sri Lanka, a country that has refused to investigate credible allegations of war crimes, Kellner states,

"The Commonwealth's ability to become a respected 21st century global network rests on its commitment to democracy and human rights. For this week's meeting to confirm Sri Lanka unconditionally as hosts in two years' time would be to confirm the worst fears that the Commonwealth has utterly lost its way."

See article in full here.

An umbrella organisation consisting of 180 groups, representing over a million Canadians, passed a resolution last week expressing its support for the self-determination of the Tamil nation and calling for an immediate halt to the ongoing genocide in the Tamil homeland.

In a special panel discussion on Sri Lanka during their bi-annual convention, the Canadian Peace Alliance called for an “immediate end to the colonialism and genocide of the Tamil nation and an end to the occupation of the Tamil homeland by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and its allied paramilitary groups.”

Mr. Sid Lacombe, Coordinator of the Canadian Peace Alliance told the convention,

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has had an indictment filed against him, in Melbourne Magistrates Court, for war crimes.

The indictiment was filed by Arunachalam Jegatheeswaran, an Australian Tamil who witnessed the government's aerial bombardment of hospitals and other civilian buildings during the height of the conflict in 2009.

The charge comes as Rajapaksa is scheduled to arrive in Australia, for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth this week.

Speaking to Australian media channel, ABC, Jegatheeswaran explained what he has witnessed:

"Patients were killed and patients who were in the hospital were killed and there were other patients waiting for treatment, they were killed.

"And there was a medical store where they kept the medicines, those were destroyed, scattered all over the place, you can see.

"Ambulances was destroyed. So I have seen that personally."

"The hospital, clearly a big red cross sign was marked on the roof, and drones usually take surveillance, so I'm very positive that they know where the hospital is and they know it'll be damaged. So, that's what I can tell at this stage.

"He's [Rajapaksa] the commander-in-chief and nothing would have happened without his knowledge or his directions, and ultimately, he should be answerable to what was happening."

See here for full interview.

Jegatheeswaran's lawyer, Rob Stary, urged the Australian government to investigate,

''The government will need to show a bit of backbone to investigate it, but there is absolutely no reason on the face of it why they should not pursue it.

"It's incontrovertible in our view that war crimes have been committed."

Stary confirmed the hearing is scheduled to take place on the 29th November.

Under the Australian criminal code, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) must conclude there is sufficient material to compile a brief of evidence of criminality, for the case to proceed. It would then be refered to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for consideration, before Attorney-General consent is sought.

The International Commission of Jurists' recent submission to the AFP is said to contain a brief of evidence outlining the allegations of war crimes that Rajapaksa is charged with.

The ICJA's report called for the Sri Lankan president and the Sri Lankan high commissioner to Australia, Thisara Samarasinghe, who was the Naval commander in 2009, to be investigated for war crimes.

The filing of this indictment in Australia follows similar attempts in the United States.

See Unconvention US court summons for Rajapaksa (Oct 2011) and US court summons for Rajapaksa (Oct 2011)

The Global Tamil Forum and Australian Tamil Congress co-hosted an international conference in Sydney, reaffirming the role of the international community in pressure Sri Lanka to address human rights violations that occurred during the war on the island. 

The conference, held on the 20th October in Sydney, was entitled “Accountability in Sri Lanka: Common Justice in the Commonwealth” and saw a vast array of distinguished speakers from all over the world, including MPs from Malaysia, South Africa, Australia and Sri Lanka.

Geoffery Robertson, an eminent QC, who was appointed by the UN Secretary General as one of the three distinguished jurist members of the UN’s Internal Justice Council and part-time appeal judge at the UN-backed court for war crimes in Sierra Leone was also in attendance, along with guests from Amnesty International (Graham Thorn - AI's Australia Refugee Coordinator, and Senthorun Raj - NSW president of AI Australia) and diplomats, including, Sisa Njikelana, an MP from South Africa's ANC (African National Congress).

Prof Suriyanarayanan of India, member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India during 2008-2010, also spoke at the event, which recognised that “India must revisit its approach and strategy towards Sri Lanka.”

Other notable speakers included Lionel Bopage, former general secretary of the JVP in Sri Lanka who resigned from the party on principle as he disagreed with the party's approach to the Tamil issue; Professor Damien Kingsbury from the Schoool of International and Political Studies at Deakin University, and Associate Professor Jake Lynch, the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney.

Those who have witnessed first hand alleged war crimes and human rights abuses that took place were also present, including, Meena Krishnamoorthy, who was caught up in the No-Fire Zone and two Malaysian MPs, Manogaran and Ramakrishnan, who visited Vanni shortly after the conflict unofficially.  

The conference was held ahead of the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, the conference called for Sri Lanka to be denied privileges such as hosting the 2013 CHOGM and 2018 Commonwealth Games until the issues of war crimes and crimes against humanity were effectively dealt with. Furthermore, they called on the international community to “take all necessary steps to implement the UN Panel recommendations in its entirety”.

Amid the topics discussed were sessions on “National reconciliation on the basis of Justice and Accountability” and “Recognising identities and democratic rights of the peoples”.

The failure of international governments and institutions, such as the United Nations and Commonwealth, in “preventing this human catastrophe” - the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in the final months of the war - was also highlighted.

Amongst those present were seven cross-party Members of Parliament from Australia, as well as Senator Lee Rhiannon from the Green Party and John Robertson, Leader of the Opposition in New South Wales.

Amongst the Australian MPs who attended were Laurie Ferguson (Labour Party - MP for Werriwa), Michelle Rowland (Labour Party - MP for Greenway), John Murphy (Labour Party - MP for Reid), Philip Ruddock (Liberal Party - MP for Berowra), Nathan Rees (Labour Party - Member for Toongabbie), and David Shoebride (Greens Party - Member of State Parliament, NSW).

In a joint statement the Presidents of the GTF and ATC, said that Sri Lanka had “made a mockery of Commonwealth Principles” and stated,

“What the Commonwealth of Nations believes in is commendable but can it really make the right of self-determination as a right of every community in the commonwealth?"

"It is our belief that the forthcoming CHOGM will address the issues pertaining to Sri Lanka and uphold its principles and become an organisation of relevance to the people it claims to protect and provide for and not simply state that it is an internal problem.

"The Tamil problem is not an internal affair."

Sri Lanka has come under increased pressure from Commonwealth members such as Canada and Australia to implement the recommendations of the UN panel of experts, and looks set to be discussed at the 2011 CHOGM in a few days time.

In a statement released on Sunday, Sri Lankan external affairs minister, demanded a probe into the death of Muammar Gaddafi.

"The government of Sri Lanka is of the opinion that the circumstances surrounding the death require an explanation" the statement read.

Gaddafi and the Sri Lankan state, particularly the Rajapaksa regime, have long enjoyed a close relationship.

See Meeting of minds (Feb 2011)

The TNA were urged under no circumstances to barter away war crimes accountability for "political concessions" by the Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) during a press conference on Sunday.

The TNPF is a group of former TNA parliamentarians and civil society members, formed in early 2010 in exasperation at the TNA's reluctance to base its policies on the Tamil nation's rights.

The TNA has since again become more forceful in articulating Tamil grievances, and the party swept local government elections earlier this year.

On Sunday the TPNF congratulated the TNA on its electoral success and welcomed the party's forthcoming visit to the United States.

"What TNA does in this trip is of tremendous importance to the political future of the Tamil people," TNPF founding member, Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam, told TamilNet.

In a press statement, the TNPF said,

"TNA should insist that the US takes the lead in recognizing Eezham Tamils as a distinct nation having the right to self-determination."

"International Community at present has been focusing on war crimes.

"TNPF's view is that Sri Lanka not only committed war crimes during the final phases of war, but also carried out systematic structural genocide for the last sixty years on the Tamil people.

"The genocide has continued unabatedly even two years after the war has ended."

"TNPF has information that the Sri Lankan state is carrying out a campaign among the International Community asking to put aside accountability for war-crimes for some unspecified political concessions to Tamil people."

"It is TNPF's firm view that TNA must take this opportunity in Washington to insist that accountability for the systematic genocide be seen as a totally separate issue from the political process.

"War-crimes accountability should in no circumstances bartered away for "political concessions".

The conference was attended by S. Kajendren, the General Secretary of TNPF, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, vice president, V. Mannivannan, leader of the Youth wing and a co-vice president, and K. Dharmarajah, treasurer.

TNA leaders, R. Sampanthan, Maavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran and M.A. Sumanthiran are due to visit the US this week.

Speaking in parliament on Thursday, UPFA member, A H M Azwar, expressed sorrow at the end of Gaddafi's rule.

"In the world scene Col Maummar Gaddafi, the leader of Libya had been arrested by the foreign armed forces. We do not know his fate. We as Muslims we pray for the safety of him and for the country, because these countries are self-governing countries."

"Their sovereignty and independence must be recognized. Now that is not happening as far as the superpowers are concerned. Tomorrow is Friday and according to our calendar, it is a holiday for the Muslims for the week. All the Muslims in this country and all over the world will also pray for the safety of this great leader and also for the great country called Libya."

"It is not only Libya, it is not only the other Arab countries like Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Afghanistan but also other countries."

"Nobody cannot come and conquer our country however much powerful they are, as if it is their own business and nobody else's business.

"Who gave them that right? Has God given the right to any superpower on earth in order to conquer another country?

"So, we must be very cautious and aware of these things."

"They also wanted Sri Lanka to be subjugated by foreign powers again."

"As long as His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa is at the helm of affairs of this country and as long as loyal and brave people live in this country, we shall not allow such a thing to happen."