A key donor to Pargav Ltd, the company run by Mr. Adam Werritty, the close friend and styled advisor to UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox who resigned on Friday, said its contribution was meant for development activities in Sri Lanka.

See reports by The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, the Financial Times and the Daily Mail.

G3 (or the ‘Good Governance Group’), which donated Pargav £15,000 in June 2011, is a private intelligence company staffed by former MI6 officers, The Guardian reports.

Dr. Fox visited Sri Lanka in July 2011 to deliver a public lecture. Mr. Werritty was also in the country at the time.

See here Channel 4's report on Sri Lanka's government asking Mr. Werritty to facilitate arms purchases.

A spokesman for the G3 told The Daily Telegraph that its donations to Dr Fox’s organisations

“were made in good faith that they would go to support the reconstruction work of the Sri Lankan Development Trust in the northern areas of Sri Lanka. Our involvement with the Sri Lankan Development Trust was not done for profit or at the behest of any clients.”

The 'Sri Lankan Development Trust' also remains a mystery also. See here and here our earlier posts on several British press reports in recent days about it.

Also, G3 has launched an internal inquiry into how the money it gave Pargav was actually used, the Financial Times reports.

The resignation of British Defence Secretary Liam Fox following revelations about his unauthorised and dubious foreign policy-related activities will be welcomed by all those committed to a just and lasting peace in Sri Lanka. However the serious questions raised – once again – by last week’s media reports about Dr. Fox’s activities must also be answered.

Dr. Fox resigned because, in his own words, “I mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred.” Nowhere is this more true than in the case of Sri Lanka.

Whilst several governments – including those of the UK and US – have sought, along with international human rights groups, to pursue a credible process of accountability for the horrific war crimes and crimes against humanity that marked the end of Sri Lanka’s war, Dr. Fox strove instead to defend the Colombo regime, rationalise its murderous actions, and assist it in weathering international criticism.

He did so despite the manifest outrage of Britain’s Tamil community, the disquiet of international rights groups, and the undisguised frustration of Britain’s foreign policy establishment. Whatever Dr. Fox’s achievements with regards to his defence portfolio, his actions relating to Sri Lanka are despicable. He has done more than any other international figure to assist and encourage the Colombo regime’s defiance of  international opinion, and its hardline and chauvinistic policies towards the Tamils.

Following Monday’s attack on Mr Thavapalasingam, President of the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU), students from the University gathered in protest against the serious assault and the continued intimidation of Tamil students in Jaffna.

Over a thousand students boycotted their lessons, causing the entire university to grind to a halt.

Student leaders addressed the crowds, alleging that successive governments in Colombo have been subjecting students in Jaffna to state terror and harassment.

The students reiterated their commitment to the rights of Eelam Tamils, with a student representative saying,

 ‘Although this trend still continues, the student community is not going to give up voicing for the democratic rights of the Tamil people,’

Hundreds of police officers surrounded the university premises for the duration .  

Mr Thavapalasingam's condition was improving, but he remains in hospital, according to TamilNet.

No one has yet been arrested in connections with the assault, thought to have been perpetrated by members of the Sri Lankan military.

(Pictures courtesy of Pathivu and TamilNet)

The International Commission of Jurists, Australia (ICJA), urged the Australian government to ensure accountability and justice, in a statement released on Monday,

The president of the ICJA, John Dowd QC, called for the suspension of Sri Lankan from the Commonwealth and the prosecution of former navy commander, and current Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia, Thisara Samarasinghe, for alleged war crimes.

Dowd said,

“Those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009 must not be allowed to go unpunished.”

“In continuing violation of international human rights law, there are thousands of former combatants and civilians in Sri Lankan detention camps still not identified or accounted for.”

“The International Commission of Jurists, Australia has furnished the Australian Federal Police with a brief of evidence that corroborates and substantiates the findings of the UN Secretary-General’s Expert Panel. Since October 2009, such evidence has been taken from witnesses in Australia and overseas."

“It is clear that Australia has  an  obligation  to  investigate  and,  where  appropriate,  to  prosecute  those responsible."

“Australia owes this much to the Australian citizens and residents who are victims of the Sri Lankan civil war.”

"If the Commonwealth is to mean anything at all on issues like human rights, it has to look to the actions of its members. This is one of its members who's the putative next host in 2013,"

Former Sri Lankan navy admiral Samarasinghe was the North-East commander during 2009. Several eye witnesses statements state that naval ships fired on civilians as they fled the conflict.

Australia's shadow foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, has raised concerns over whether the government knew of Samarasinghe's highly questionable past before accepting him as Sri Lanka's High Commissioner.

Speaking to the Australian press, Bishop said,

"The allegations against the Sri Lankan high commissioner are extremely serious. Kevin Rudd should review whether the government was aware of the allegations prior to accepting his appointment as high commissioner, and whether the government undertook any inquiries or investigations into the appointment."

Samarasinghe has refuted all allegations: "I specifically reject, totally reject such allegations. Such allegations are baseless."

The Australian Federal Police is currently evaluating whether there is sufficient evidence for an investigation.

Samarasinghe is the latest in a string of Sri Lankan envoys facing scrutiny and possible investigation into war crimes allegations.

See Lawsuit filed against Shavendra Silva in US (Sept 2011)

Dias faces arrest if he returns (Sept 2011)

The ICJA's move comes shortly before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth next week.

Echoing increasing cross-party criticism of the Sri Lankan regime, Australian Greens Party senator, Lee Rhiannon, said,

"With a delegation from Sri Lanka, headed up by their President Mahinda Rajapaksa due to arrive shortly in Perth for (the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting), the Australia government can no longer refuse to take action."

See Australian campaign for Sri Lanka’s Commonwealth suspension (Sept 2011)

The Metropolitan police are to investigate Adam Werritty for possible fraud, following revelations that the close friend of the former defence secretary, Liam Fox, had been posing as an official advisor and sitting in on defence meetings.

The Labour MP, John Mann, has called for the investigation, citing Werritty's distribution of business cards, describing himself as Fox's advisor.  

Mann is also reported to be liaising with the Electoral Commission to consider whether there should be a criminal investigation into Liam Fox's alleged failure to declare political donations.

The Electoral Commission is responsible for regulating political parties and their funding.

The Fox-Werritty revelations are currently being investigated by the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell. A report into the matter is due to be published early next week.

See 'Fox resigns, but the questions remain'

The leader of the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) K. Thavapalan has been attacked and seriously injured by suspected Sri Lankan Army personnel.

Thavapalan, who was elected as president of the JUSU in 2010, was followed by the assailants before being attacked with iron bars, causing grave injuries.

He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital.

Mr Thavapalan has been instrumental in organising recent protests by hundreds of students against grease devil attacks, suspected to be perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Army.

The JUSU was one of the organisations US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake was due to meet in September, but protests by government aligned forces forced the meeting to be cancelled.

The student union, along with Tamil organisations across the world, held a remembrance event on May 16 this year to remember the thousands of lives lost during the final phase of the war, but were subjected to harassment and intimidation by the Sri Lankan military and government aligned paramilitaries.

In a precedent setting case, a US court has ruled that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse can be served over TamilNet and through Sri Lankan newspapers, in a case against him for complicity in extra-judicial killings.

Judge Kotelly of the District of Columbia ruled that with Rajapakse having evaded service in person, “it is not reasonably possible or practicable to give more adequate warning”.

The court then authorized serving the President by posting the full summons and complaint on TamilNet and in two Sri Lankan newspapers.

Attorney Bruce Fein, speaking to TamilNet, said that the ruling,

“marks a legal milestone in achieving accountability for the gruesome extra-judicial killings of innocent civilians ordered or condoned by the highest officials of the Sri Lankan government during the ethnic civil war.”

See report from TamilNet here.

See our earlier post: ‘US court summons issued for Mahinda Rajapaksa’ (Oct 2011)

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will bring the issue of Sri Lanka to be discussed at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth this month, assured his office, as Canada continues to press Sri Lanka on human rights violations.

Harper's associate director of communications, Andrew MacDougall told reporters in an interview,

"We do expect a discussion at the Commonwealth on this and the prime minister will make his position clear."

See report from Montreal Gazette here.

Prime Minister Harper has already made clear that he will boycott the 2013 CHOGM, scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka and encouraged other countries to do the same unless Sri Lanka makes progress in addressing allegations of war crimes.

Noting that the Commonwealth was built on "support for democratic reform and the rule of law", MacDougall said,

"We want to see progress on these fronts and the prime minister has made that clear with respect to Sri Lanka. We'll have the discussion in Australia."

"The prime minister's comments from September stand."

"That's still his view — that there has to be progress in Sri Lanka."

This call has been echoed all across the Canadian political spectrum, as Helene Laverdiere former Foreign Affairs official and current Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party reiterated.

Stating that an international investigation into war crimes was “essential”, she went on to say,

"It's (an investigation) the only way we cannot allow impunity to stand and the only way to make sure that we have durable, sustainable peace."

"The Commonwealth has played an important role, for example, in the case of South Africa. We're not talking the same situation here, but we're still talking about a very serious situation. And I think this is the kind of issue that the Commonwealth should address."

Derek Ingram, co-founder of the Commonwealth Journalists Association and widely regarded as the world's leading voice on the Commonwealth, said that whilst it was unusual for such a strong debate on the venue of the next CHOGM to arise at Perth, it won’t be unavoidable.

"They have to decide at this summit the venue of the next summit," said Ingram.

See our earlier post: 'Canadians turn up the pressure on Sri Lanka' (Sep 2011)

Sri Lanka and Vietnam have signed agreements to share expertise in oil and gas explorations and for the purchase of oil from a Vietnamese state-run company.

A total of eight agreements were signed during a visit by Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang to Sri Lanka, including a deal on machinery manufacturing, greater defence cooperation and bilateral cooperation in public finance management.

The deal comes two days after the visit of the Vietnamese President to India, where he signed agreements with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The agreements included a security pact between India and Vietnam and an accord to promote oil exploration in the South China Sea, ignoring objections by China, who claim vast parts of the sea as Chinese territory.

Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox in 2010 threatened to sue a Labour MP over comments she made about his trips to Sri Lanka, Sky News reports.

Dr Fox's complaints arose from a campaign email Siobhain McDonagh sent to members of the Tamil community in her constituency ahead of the 2010 General Election.

The email contrasted Foreign Secretary David Miliband's visit to Sri Lanka, in which he challenged the government on their human rights record, with a number of visits made by Dr Fox, funded by the Sri Lankan Government and a mysterious organisation called the Sri Lanka Development Trust.

McDonagh has told Sky News her researcher received an "angry" call from Dr Fox in which he shouted down the phone threatening legal action.

"He was certainly deeply sensitive about this. For all we know there were things in that email which were more significant than we thought," she said.

"Perhaps he was concerned we knew more than we did."

No legal action was formally taken by Dr Fox and the issue was not raised again.

The Guardian reports on Saturday:

Those who had paid money to Adam Werrity's company, Pargav Ltd, included a corporate intelligence company with alleged close links to Sri Lanka, a property investor who lobbies for Israel and a venture capitalist.

The money, according to the donors, was supposed to help foster peace initiatives.

In the process, it paid for five-star hotels and first-class travel for Werritty, a self-styled ‘advisor’ and close friend of Liam Fox, who resigned as Defence Secretary Friday.

Following this week's media storm surrounding Fox, the donors to Pargav may now be ruing the day they got involved with Werrity.

Jon Moulton, a venture capitalist who has been listed as making several donations to Pargav, issued a statement following Fox's resignation in which he claimed that the Defence Secretary had lobbied him for money on Pargav's behalf.

"Before the last election, I had made several on-the-record donations to support Dr Fox following a request to do so from a Conservative party fundraiser.

"After the election, I was asked by Dr Fox to provide funds to a non-profit group called Pargav involved in security policy analysis and research and, after obtaining written assurances as to its activities, I provided personal funding to Pargav.

"Neither I, nor any of my associates, have sought or received a benefit of any form from Pargav. I have not received an account of Pargav's activities, nor have I been involved at all with Pargav, since funding. I will not be doing this again."

From UK media on the resignation Friday of UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox:

"Even though [Dr. Fox] has resigned, there are questions yet to be answered about his links to the Sri Lankan government. We have to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again."

- Emma Reynolds MP (Labour)

"For Britain's Defence Secretary to have repeatedly visited Sri Lanka, at the regime's expense, and in the company of Werritty, a known lobbyist, sends completely the wrong signal about the need to investigate atrocities which took place there."

- Alan Keenan, International Crisis Group

See their comments to Channel 4 here.

Also from the Channel 4 report:

“Key to Dr Fox’s downfall was his apparent running of a parallel foreign policy, managed by his best man, Adam Werritty, who masqueraded as a ministerial adviser.

“Nowhere has this compromised the position of the British government more than over Dr Fox’s dealings with Sri Lanka. Human rights groups, who want the Sri Lankan government held to account for alleged war crimes, believe Dr Fox provided a fig-leaf of respectability for a regime increasingly regarded as pariah.

From The Times’ editorial Saturday:

“Dr Fox argued that Mr Werritty was neither his official adviser nor his unofficial one. Given that Mr Werritty clearly provided Dr Fox with advice, fixed meetings for him, attended events with him all over the world, does not appear to have any other work to do, and handed out cards calling himself adviser to Dr Liam Fox, the denial by Dr Fox is on balance perhaps not entirely convincing.

“Yet it is the truth about Mr Werritty’s income, revealed yesterday by The Times, rather than the frequency of their meetings alone, that required the Defence Secretary to resign. Dr Fox’s friend was, it turns out, being paid by political allies of the minister …. These allies made it possible for Mr Werritty to pop up in all sorts of meetings with the Defence Secretary, often ones where Dr Fox was pursuing his own agenda, rather than the Government’s. This was an unacceptable arrangement.

“If Dr Fox knew of such a relationship between his allies and Mr Werritty, it means that the Defence Secretary was accepting a political donation and employing staff without declaring either. This allowed him to pursue his own foreign policy towards Sri Lanka, Israel and America financed by people, anonymous until yesterday, who had a political interest in those areas.”

On Dr. Fox and Sri Lanka, see our posts from 2010:

Loyal defender of Sri Lanka’s realm (Dec 2010)

Too close for British comfort (Dec 2010)

British MPs lobbied for Sri Lanka after junkets (March 2010)
 

Indian and Sri Lankan navies are reportedly contemplating joint patrolling along the international maritime boundary in order to prevent any violence against fishermen.

The possibility was discussed by the Indian foreign secretary, Ranjai Mathai, during his three-day visit to Sri Lanka.

The suggestion comes amidst further Sri Lankan navy attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen. According to reports, the Sri Lankan navy are also employing paramilitary agents to engage in these mid-sea attacks.

Indian officials have also hinted that forming a supervisory committee comprising members of both the navies and representatives of fishermen from the two sides, remains a possibility.

"Both these proposals will be discussed in the next meeting. Joint patrolling by Sri Lankan navy and either Indian navy or Coast Guard in Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay can help address the concerns of Indian fishermen," said an official.

Mahinda Rajapaksa is reported to have categorically denied the role of any navy personnel in the latest assault case, when Mathai raised the issue with him in Sri Lanka.

Mathai later said that there was no place for violence in dealing with a matter which was essentially about livelihood and called on the fishermen of both sides of the Palk strait to engage in deep sea fishing, arguing that such an agreement would minimise conflicts.

Sri Lanka has rejected this suggestion.

Lanka Fisheries Minister, Rajitha Senaratne, said,

“The call to go for deep sea fishing is very good, but it should apply only to Indian fishermen,”

“Fishermen from North West Lanka are fishing only in Lankan waters. It is the Indian fishermen who are intruding into Lankan waters. Therefore, it is the Indian fishermen who should move away from here and fish elsewhere.”

However, Senaratne's statements, though welcomed by the Sinhala south, do not represent the grievances and plight of Eelam Tamil fishermen.

Dr A S Soosai, an activist in the fishermen’s movement and a Professor of Geography at Jaffna University, said,

“Firstly, the deep seas are too far for them. Secondly, the fishermen here do not have multi-day boats with satellite communication equipment. To buy such a vessel they need around $91,000). They also need training and the port facilities. None of these is available now."

See 'Hundreds of Eezham fishermen silently agitate before Indian mission in Jaffna'

The mystery over the ‘development’ trust that former UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox set up to channel funds to Sri Lanka deepened this weekend when the Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal claimed Friday the trust “did not materialize.”

Mr. Cabraal’s claims are contradicted by the results of investigations by several leading UK newspapers.

The 'Sri Lanka Development Trust' is reported to have funded at least three of Dr. Fox’s visits to Colombo, reports said.

And Lord Bell, a friend of Dr. Fox for 30 years, says that Dr. Fox – whilst Defence Secretary – had discussions last summer with the Sri Lankan government, including Mr. Cabraal, on operationalizing the trust.

Lord Bell's public relations firm, Bell Pottinger, was was employed by the Sri Lankan government until last year to improve the country's reputation abroad.

See Mr. Cabraal’s claims in the state-owned Sunday Observer here.

See Lord Bell’s comments to the Financial Times and The Guardian.

See also reports on the Sri Lanka Development Trust by The Times, the Daily Mail, Sky News, Channel 4.

See also our earlier posts:

Sri lanka a raw nerve for Fox (Oct 15)

Fox resigns, but the questions remain (Oct 14)