A charity dinner held last weekend by the Tamil Diaspora in Malaysia raised a whopping million Ringgit (US$330,000) to support the humanitarian efforts by the Tamil Forum Malaysia (TFM) for Tamils affected by Sri Lanka's war. See the report here.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa . Photo PTI

The United States is “looking at some innovative and creative ideas to break the impasse over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue,” PTI quoted visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in Chennai Wednesday.

The report did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, in a public address Ms. Clinton said that India's example of multicultural democracy should serve as a model for Sri Lanka.

Describing Chennai, Tamil Nadu’s capital, as an example of how much society can achieve when all citizens fully join their country's political and economic life, she added: "Every citizen of Sri Lanka deserves the same hope and opportunity for a better future." (corrected from earlier post)

Her comments predictably drew loud applause from the crowd.

Addressing a crowd of students, industrialists, businessmen, artistes and members of civil society at the Anna library, Ms. Clinton said she chose to come to the coastal city as "an admirer of what has been accomplished in the country in the last 18 years".

She described Tamil Nadu as one of the "most industrialised and educated states" that indicates why India should take a leadership role in the region.

Ms. Clinton’s visit to Tamil Nadu was the only regional engagement of her much anticipated three-day official visit to India.

She is the first high-ranking US official to visit the southern state, one of the powerhouses of India’s booming economy, and a key destination for US investment. The US consulate in Chennai issues more skilled temporary worker visas than any other US outpost in the world, the Wall Street Journal says.

Aligned interest and values

"The United States and India can work together to advance democratic values in the region,” the Times of India quoted her as saying. "Our interests align and our values converge."

“We can support states transitioning into democracy in Africa and the Middle East. India's Election Commission widely viewed as the gold standard for running elections can play a role in this," she said.

"There is no better place to speak about Asia Pacific than Chennai, which looks out onto the Bay of Bengal. Indian traders have sailed these waters for thousands of years and their influence can still be seen across the region – in the Tamil influences in the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia and in the Ganesha gods that guard homes in Indonesia."

"India will have the duty to speak out against human rights violations in Asia. … "We encourage India not just to look east but also act east."

"India's diverse and democratic system can serve as a model for Sri Lanka. In Chennai and in Tamil Nadu, you can see how much society can achieve when all citizens participate in political and economic life. Every citizen of Sri Lanka deserves the same."

Meeting Jayalalitha

Earlier, Ms. Clinton met with Ms. Jayalalithaa for an hour in the Secretariat. They discussed various social, political and economic issues of common interest, an official press release said.

Contrary to assertions attributed to Indian External Affairs Ministry officials last week, the Tamil question in Sri Lanka also featured in their discussions, India press reports said Wednesday.

Ms. Jayalalithaa was quoted by PTI as pointing out that though Sri Lanka’s war en ended two years ago, Tamils in Jaffna area are still in camps and unable to go back to the original areas where they used to live.

Ms. Clinton also congratulated Ms. Jayalalithaa on her electoral victory in the April 13 Assembly polls, and invited the Tamil Nadu leader to visit the United States, PTI said.

India policy on Sri Lanka

Ahead of Ms. Clinton’s visit to Chennai, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Sadanand Dhume, one of its columnists and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, slamming India’s soft-pedalling policies towards Sri Lanka

Noting how “New Delhi has failed to slow Sri Lanka's rapid slide toward authoritarianism, protect the rights of minority Tamils, or stem rising Chinese influence,” Mr. Dhume asked: “how can India expect more clout on the world stage when it wields so little influence in its own neighborhood?”

“At the heart of India's Sri Lanka problem lies the thuggish regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa,” Mr. Dhume said. Detailing the concentration of power in the Rajapaksa family’s hand, he added “This nepotism on steroids has gone hand in hand with one of Asia's worst human rights records. Nor has the Rajapaksa regime confined itself to mistreating minority Tamils.”

“Through all this, India's record has hardly been inspiring. In 2009, India's toothless admonitions failed to prevent the massacre of civilians. Two years later, it has failed to convince the Rajapaksa regime to extend an olive branch to its own citizens.”

Mr. Dhune criticized India’s policy of trying to outbid China’s influence in Sri Lanka with aid projects of its own, saying “ultimately this is a short-sighted strategy.”

“Instead, India must retool its Sri Lanka strategy to play to its own strengths: pluralism and democracy. This means keeping open the option of throwing its weight against Colombo at the UN. It means support for liberal elements in Sri Lankan society [and] working with Western democracies, Japan and the human rights community to demand a degree of accountability in Colombo as a step toward a lasting peace.”

“If India succeeds in nudging Sri Lanka toward embracing pluralism and democratic values as the foundation of prosperity, New Delhi will have enhanced both its influence and its international prestige,” he said.

In glowing reports on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to Jaffna on Monday, the state-owned Daily News said he addressed a “mammoth rally” at Velanei, where he received a “rousing welcome by thousands of cheering people. Here’s a picture of them:

Velanei, by the way, is on Kayts island, which has for decades been dominated by Sri Lankan military bases and is also the bastion of the pro-government Tamil paramilitary group-cum-political party, the EPDP, led by Douglas Devananda, pictured (r) with President Rajapaksa.

Photos Colombopage

India's External Affairs minister S. M. Krishna and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao at the opening on Nov. 27, 2011 of the Indian Consulate in Jaffna. Photo Sunday Times.

India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has been appointed the next Ambassador to the United States, The Hindu newspaper reported.

Ms. Rao joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1973, assuming the office of the Foreign Secretary on August 1, 2009, becoming the second woman to head the Indian Foreign Secretary.

She has served in various key positions and had been India’s envoy to various countries, including China and Sri Lanka.

Ms. Rao was to retire in December last year at the age of 60 but was given an extension till July this year (the government has fixed a two-year term for the post of Foreign Secretary).

Last November she accompanied Indian External Affairs minister S. M. Krishna on his visit to Jaffna where he opened India’s first consulate in the northern Tamil peninsula.

“This is one consulate that I have pursued since the war ended,”  she told The Hindu on the occasion.

“All [Indian] officials, including [Sri Lanka desk] Joint Secretary [Thiru Moorthy] worked very hard to realise this. I am very happy.”

 See Mr. Krishna's speech at the Jaffna opening event here.

Sri Lanka cricket star and former captian Kumar Sangakkara met with the United States Ambassador in Colombo, Patricia Butenis, Monday, colombopage reports, citing a report in the Sinhala daily Divaina.

The newspaper said it was unable to contact Sangakkara to inquire about the matter, and that the US embassy declined to comment on it.

“Amid the Sri Lankan government’s refusal to accede to a political solution and accountability for war crimes, and its continuing militarised repression in Tamil areas, cricket can no more be a unifying force across Sri Lanka’s communities than whale-watching, or any other human pastime.

“Sport is inseparable from politics. Nothing sends a clearer message of international abhorrence of a government’s conduct than when it is shunned by international sportspeople. Conversely, nothing gives a repressive regime greater legitimacy, and makes light of its brutal conduct, than continuing sporting links.

“Australia’s cricketers should take a principled stand in defence of human rights and justice, and boycott play with Sri Lanka until the government there conducts itself according to the rules of international society.

“In doing so, they will have the support of the Australian people, the Tamils, and all those the world over concerned with human rights, justice, and human dignity.”

- Tamil Youth Organisation, July 18, 2001. See the full statement here

Also, see here the International Crisis Group’s report on why, "two years after the end of the war, Sri Lanka is further from reconciliation than ever."

Eight days after the broadcasting in India of Channel 4’s documentary, 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields', the Delhi government has finally broken its silence.

During an interview with Headlines Today, which rebroadcast the documentary, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said:

“Our focus is on the welfare and the well being of the Tamil speaking minorities of Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka. We have consistently emphasized to the Sri Lankan Government that their rehabilitation should be of the highest and most immediate priority.

“A fair and reasonable settlement of the political issues concerning the minorities in Sri Lanka is of utmost importance and the historic opportunity offered by the end of the conflict should be availed of at the earliest.

“The sequence of events during the last days of the conflict is unclear. The Government of Sri Lanka would need to go into the matter in greater detail. The concerns that are being expressed in this regard need to be examined”.

By contrast, this is what Britain’s Foreign minister Alistair Birt's statement, released June 16, the same night the Channel 4 documentary was broadcast in UK, said:

“I was shocked by the horrific scenes I saw in the documentary that was broadcast on 14 June.

“The recent UN Panel of Experts’ report, this documentary and previously authenticated Channel 4 footage, constitutes convincing evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

“The whole of the international community will expect the Sri Lankans to give a serious and full response to this evidence.

“Since the end of the conflict the UK has called for an independent, thorough and credible investigation of the allegations that war crimes were committed during the hostilities and the UK Government expects to see progress by the end of the year. I reiterated this message to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister [today].

“If the Sri Lankan government does not respond we will support the international community in revisiting all options available to press the Sri Lankan Government to fulfil its obligations.

“Unless this is done, Sri Lanka will not be able to move on, and the prospects for reconciliation between Sri Lanka’s communities will be curtailed.  It is of the greatest importance that this does not happen.”

And this is what the Commonwealth Secretariat's statement said on June 26:

“The Commonwealth Secretariat has received expressions of concern about the contents of a recent television programme concerning the civil war in Sri Lanka.

“There is understandable widespread abhorrence at what the programme purports to show. These concerns have been conveyed to the Sri Lankan government, and the Secretariat has been informed that the video footage will be given the attention that it obviously merits by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.”

“The Secretariat welcomes this undertaking to establish the facts of the situation, and to complete a full, credible, and thorough investigation that reflects Commonwealth values and principles to which all members subscribe.

“The Commonwealth has long supported the peaceful resolution of the civil war in Sri Lanka, and recognises that genuine and sustainable reconciliation must include investigation of alleged war crimes and accountability of those responsible, and the promotion of justice.”
 

These are comments by former Indian Foreign Secretary Jaswant Singh during the discussion hosted by Headlines Today on the atrocities highlighted by the acclaimed Channel 4 documentary, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields.

When asked if it wasn’t time for India to get off the fenceon Sri Lanka's war crimes?:

“You said the government of India appeared to sit on the fence for too long. Governments cannot, cannot even appear to, sit on fences for too long. Otherwise the fence will enter their soul, not just their actions.”

When asked if about geopolitical concerns that India's acting would encourage Sri Lanka to ally with China:

“I am always extremely chary of this catchall phrase, ‘geopolitical’. I tend to be very suspicious about the use this phrase because it is a coverall phrase which can mean anything and everything.

“And secondly, I don’t think a great country like India can determine its policies and practice its policies in apprehension of the activities of any other country.”

-----

“Should Indian foreign policy to a neighbour like Sri Lanka be based on such unwarranted fears about India’s interests? Why will Sri Lanka not develop relations with China, even if India does everything to placate the current regime?

“Should norms and values that India hold dear, like minority rights, be sacrificed at the altar of geopolitical gains? Is a militarised, authoritarian Sri Lanka of greater interest to India or a democratic stable one?

“India will have to do more .... It’s support for negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance, that began in January 2011, needs to be pressured to move much faster within a fixed timetable. The talks should have devolution of powers and demilitarisation as priority objectives.

“India should monitor its aid and rehabilitation projects and have transparency and oversight mechanisms for these. India should insist on working through the local government in the north and east for its rehabilitation packages to ensure that aid gets to where it is most needed.”

- Anuradha M Chenoy, Professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal  Nehru University. See her comment in  The New Indian Express here.

Re: India's aid to Sri Lanka, we echoed Prof. Chenoy's concern six months ago:

A Canadian Tamil man has returned to Toronto after spending three years in the custody of Sri Lanka’s anti-terrorism police, who detained him until he signed a false confession saying he had smuggled equipment to the Tamil Tigers.

The below are extracts of his account to Stewart Bell of the National Post newspaper (see full report here)

From the room where he was held [by the Terrorism Investigation Department], Mr. Samathanam said he could see the detainees being hit with cricket wickets and chunks of hard rubber. “One or two cases they did it in front of me, I think just to scare me,” he said. “Others were in a common area, which I could see.”

It was worse at night, when the officers had been drinking, he said. In one unit, detainees would be electrocuted with wires attached to their fingers, he said. In another, they were anally raped with an iron rod.

When it was his turn to be questioned, he was handcuffed awkwardly with one arm above his head and the other behind his back. The officers would push on his arms, straining his shoulders.

They asked him about the LTTE. They showed him pictures taken at Tamil events in Toronto and asked him to identify the people in the photos, he said.

They told him it would be 20 years before he was released, but that if he signed a confession, he would be brought before the Colombo court and freed.

On Dec. 17, 2007, a group of officers came to his room when he was asleep. He said he remembered the date because it was his wife’s birthday. They kicked his stomach and groin, and punched him in the head, he said, and talked about killing the “Canadian LTTE.”

A few months later, he was transferred to Boosa detention centre in Galle.

Each day, when he was moved to the interrogation room, he would see prisoners being tortured, he said. The officers would pour gasoline in plastic shopping bags and tie them over prisoners’ heads, he said.

During questioning, the interrogators told him that unless he confessed, his wife would be arrested and raped. It was a threat made believable by the conduct he had witnessed. It broke him. He said he would admit to whatever they wanted.

Sisters Tharani Thayaparan (right) and Kiruthika perform a welcome dance Thursday during the Canada Day celebrations.  Photo Steven Der-Garabedian/ mississauga.com.

“Tonight we are celebrating our fidelity and gratitude to a great country which has welcomed us, given us refuge and a life free from fear.”

- Anthony Jesuthasan, President of SOPCA (Social Cultural Recreational Educational and Environmental Network).

See mississauga.com’s report and more pictures here.

“As a first step, Britain must support the international isolation of the Sri Lankan regime until it accepts an independent, international investigation into the mass killings.

“A boycott of Sri Lankan sport will send a clear message to Sri Lanka's regime and in particular to its many supporters at home, of the international community’s abhorrence of these atrocities and its commitment to justice.”

“Teams representing countries like Sri Lanka, whose regimes brazenly abuse human rights with impunity, should not be allowed a role in international sport. To do so otherwise is to legitimise these regimes and whitewash their crimes.

“This is why the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) has been conducting the ‘Boycott Sri Lankan Cricket’ campaign this year.”

- Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO). See the full statement here.

“Only a fool thinks that sport and politics do not mix. But I can understand the desire to try and keep the two things separate, to stick your fingers in your ears and insist that the worries of the real world should not intrude of the field of play. Sport is supposed to be escapism, after all.”See also:

- Andy Bull, sports writer with The Guardian newspaper. See his comment here.

“A few South African activists first began campaigning for a boycott of goods and sports in the early sixties, but international action only became reality in the seventies, and then only slowly.

“But that was during the Cold War. The world is a now a lot smaller than it used to be. And issues of human rights, state violence, and popular rights are at the forefront of international politics as never before.”

- Brinthy Skanthatheva, TYO activist. See report by TamilNet here.

See also:

Tamil protestors abused at Sri Lanka-England cricket match (TamilNet June 29)

Atherton on sport and politics in Sri Lanka (The Times June 28)

Impossible to ignore (June 21)

 'Tamils’ plight must prick English consciences' (The Times June 16)

Tutu: 'Sports boycott crucial to ending apartheid' (April 2010)

See also reports on Tamil boycott protests at Uxbridge, Cardiff, Lords and Southampton.

“Not all Sinhalese are evil. Neither is every Tamil a saint. But the fact remains that every soldier in the Sri Lankan army who fought the war against the LTTE during 2008-2009 was a Sinhalese.

“This background information is essential for any non-Tamil to understand how the Sri Lankan army can be so brutal against its own civilians.”

- P C Vinoj Kumar, Editor of the Weekend Leader. See his comment here.

So, how did Sri Lanka’s armed forces became mono-ethnic?

Prof. Brian Blodgett, Director of the History and Military Studies Programs for the American Public University, published a study of Sri Lanka’s military in 2004. In it he notes how,

“in 1962, a policy of recruiting only from the Sinhalese Buddhist community was instituted. This was the beginning of an ethnically pure army.”

Prof. Stanley Tambiah of Harvard University published a book length comment, ‘Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy’, just two years after Sri Lanka’s conflict began. In it he noted,

“[Today, in 1986] the armed forces are filled with Sinhalese and the Tamils are excluded from serving in them. … There has been virtually no recruitment of Tamils into the armed forces, and very little into the police force, for nearly thirty years.”

At the screening last week in New York of the Channel 4’s documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ to UN diplomats and US media, representatives of Sri Lanka’s government insisted on responding to it.

One of those who challenged the documentary, which examined the mass killings by government forces of over 40,000 Tamil civilians, was Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Maj Gen (retd) Shavendra Silva.

Gen. Silva is one of the military leaders who had command responsibility during the final months of the war in 2009.

The Island newspaper reported his delivery as a 'debilitating setback' for Channel 4. And this is how the Sri Lankan government reported it.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself praised Gen. Silva for convincing the international community of the falsehood of the Channel 4 film, state media said.

But see for yourself Gen. Silva's address after the screening: