INDICTMENT AGAINST SRI LANKA Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam indicted on terrorist charges 25 August 2008
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New York, August 25, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Colombo high court's indictment of journalist J.S. Tissainayagam today on terrorism charges for articles he published in 2006. Sri Lanka's Terrorist Investigation Division arrested Tissainayagam, the editor of news Web site OutreachSL, and five of his colleagues within a few days in March 2008. Three of the group were released later that month, according to the Sri Lankan Free Media Movement. Tissainayagam and two others, OutreachSL manager N. Jasiharan and his wife, remain in custody without charge. It is not clear if Jasiharan and his wife have also been indicted.
Tissainayagam, an ethnic Tamil, is also a columnist for the Sri Lankan weekly The Sunday Times. Free Media Movement spokesman Sunanda Deshapriya told CPJ that North Eastern Magazine was a known as a pro-Tamil English-language publication that was not considered pro- Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, he said. It closed down over a year ago. "We condemn J.S. Tissainayagam's long detention and harsh charges for publishing a magazine, which should not constitute an offence," said Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia Program Coordinator. "This is the latest step by the Sri Lankan government to intimidate journalists who write about security issues." Tissainayagam pleaded not guilty today because he does not believe he committed a criminal act, Sumanthiran told CPJ. He was denied bail and will go to trial on September 18, the lawyer said. Rajiva Wijesinha, Sri Lanka's secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, denied to Human Rights Watch on August 12 that Tissainayagam had been detained for criticizing the government. "Some of their publications were designed to embarrass the Sri Lankan government through false accusations," Wijesinha said of Tissainayagam and "his business associates," according to the text of the letter, which is published on the Web site of the Sri Lankan permanent mission to the UN in Geneva. He does not name the business associates in the letter. Tissainayagam's Sunday Times column, written from a Tamil viewpoint, frequently tackled issues sensitive to the Sri Lankan government, including security issues. One of his final columns before his arrest was titled "Child soldiers: What the govt. report did not report."Child soldiers: What the Government report did not report 24 February 2008 Earlier this week, the media highlighted government’s plan to present the report of the Committee to Inquire into Allegations of Abductions and Recruitment of Children for Use in Armed Conflict (CIAARC), at the sessions of the UN Security Council on Thursday. What transpired at the sessions was not known at the time this article was written. CIAARC was appointed by Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and headed by Justice Ministry Secretary Suhada Gamalth. Among the highlights of the report, written after a fact-finding mission to Batticaloa, was that “there had been no complaints of abductions or forced recruitment recorded by law enforcement authorities in 2008” (Daily Mirror 19/Feb/2008). In a concise, but comprehensive statement, the Civil Society Working Group on Child Soldiers (CSWGCS), comprising a number of civil society organisations, has demolished the work of CIAARC exposing the lies, omissions and the deliberate attempt to mislead the UN Security Council’s Working Group on Children in Armed Conflict by creating a false picture, apparently to exculpate the government. The CSWGCS statement contradicts bluntly CIAARC’s claim there were no abductions reported in 2008 by stating: “Already, 5 cases of underage recruitment by the TMVP (three cases of recruitment and two re-recruitments) have been reported by the UNICEF for January 2008.” It has to be noted that the reason for the formation of CIAARC was persistent allegations of abductions and recruitment of children by the TMVP, once headed by Karuna and now by Pillaiyan. The CSWGCS statement questions the work of the CIAARC fact-finding mission. Calling it a “fly-in, fly-out mission,” CSWGCS accuses it of staying only four hours in Batticaloa during the field visit. What is more, it says “this high-profile committee did not talk to the parents of the children abducted, or groups working with parents and child abductees.” The statement goes on to dismiss out of hand the government’s pretence of not being complicit in the acts of the TMVP through denial, including Samarasinghe’s request for “credible evidence” of this link, by citing the training camps of the TMVP in government-controlled areas. “There are number of training camps … established in government-controlled areas and in visibly close proximity to military outposts, army checkpoints and camps ... Theevuchenai, Muttukal in the Welikanda area and Kadiraveli ... Despite persistent denial of any involvement with the TMVP, its cadres have been seen patrolling with soldiers and walking in and out of army camps.” Finally, the statement places the political link between the government and TMVP in perspective declaring, “This armed faction, listed in the annex of the UN Secretary General’s Report on Children and Armed Conflict as a violator of child recruitment, is now openly contesting jointly with the government in the local elections in Batticaloa.” The CSWGCS statement concludes CIAARC “was intended to be nothing but a face-saving mechanism with no genuine political will.” Having demolished CIAARC, the statement proceeds to debunk claims made by the government to have set up a number of institutions for the protection of children and the efforts made by them to address underage recruitment. Before dealing with this plethora of institutions, the CSWGCS statement documents the state of mind of civilians. It says, “Civilians live in a climate of fear, suppression and without the capacity to voice out their grievances. Parents, risking threats, intimidation and harassment, have made complaints to the Police, the National Child Protection Authority as well as to the Supreme Court regarding the abduction of their children, but to no avail.” Speaking of the Police, the statement reports no progress had been made in protecting children or addressing underage recruitment. It dismisses “Samarasinghe’s claim that the Police would immediately investigate reported cases of abductions” by saying no reports had been made available “bringing into question whether investigations even took place.” On the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka’s role, the CSWGCS says that despite complaints to the Commission it had “failed to visit the camps named in the HRW (Human Rights Watch) report where children and youth are being held and/or given arms training.” It adds the Commission made no attempt at even identifying camps where children were being held. Going on to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) under Chairman Jagath Wellawatte, the CSWGCS challenges the organisation’s excuse for inaction by claming it was not mandated to launch investigations into child recruitment cases without an official complaint. “This statement is completely contradictory to its mandate, which maintains: ‘the authority may, where it has reason to believe that there is child abuse on any premises…. authorize an officer of the Authority to enter and search such premises,’” the CSWGCS points out. The CSWGCS report reserves its harshest criticism for the one-man Mahanama Tilakaratne Commission on Abductions, Attacks on Civilians and Killings. It says “the investigation was a sham,” buttressing the conclusion by, “to date no results of the investigations have been made public – even though parents, witnesses have been questioned. A number of parents were not even informed that such an investigation was taking place.” The Commission’s visit to Batticaloa was not announced and the three-day visit “was too short to achieve any substantial findings.” It is on the basis of the shoddy and disingenuous work of these institutions that the government hoped to present its defence on the protection of children in armed conflict in Sri Lanka. The fact that it did not have tangible evidence of such abuses was not because there was no evidence, but because they did not bother to collect it systematically. It could be that the government believed its customary approach of blaming all child recruitment on the LTTE would enable it to wriggle out of a tight spot. But such an argument might not wash this time judging from the tone of the HRW report released on Thursday claiming the LTTE’s recruitment of children had “dropped significantly over the past nine months,” though it accuses the Tigers of not keeping to the deadline of releasing all underage recruits already in its ranks. Or it could be the government believes its reliance on slogans (“zero tolerance of child recruitment”), brazen falsehood (“there is no credible evidence” of TMVP abductions in government-controlled areas), or the appointment of a raft of committees, would protect it from too much damage in the hands of the UNSC Working Group. The exposure of the machinations of the government and the institutions it has established, should not blind us to the fact that, finally, the UN is a club of states. Whether this club of states is willing to impose strictures on a fellow-member, fighting a counterinsurgency war using child soldiers, is left to be seen. Children and Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka: UNICEF and Underage Recruitment Jayantha Gnanakone, 12 March 2006 Dear UNICEF, I certainly am glad that I have received a response from UNICEF on this issue. Now the whole Tamil diaspora and the UN can have a full discussion on the actual facts, fiction and the law on the issue of Geneva Convention Article 77, the Optional Protocol of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and childrens' rights. As the UN, UNICEF, the ICRC and the US are very well aware, only the Geneva Conventions are international law, and the rest are wishful thinking for the future. Shown the past good will of the LTTE towards UNICEF on the issue of underage children as combatants, if the UN and the International Community mandate the Optional Protocol as international law, I am certain LTTE would agree to cooperate with such laws. However, it also should be common courtesy for the UN to provide observer status to the LTTE. Recruitment targeting teenagers It has been unequivocally confirmed to me that the GoSL armed forces take their campaign to the villages to recruit Singhalese youth at 15. I am aware the US government targets children at 14 and 15 into paramilitary services to join the marines and other armed services units, known as the ROTC, with summer training of 4-8 weeks at Camp Pendleton. CA. There the kids receive different kinds of basic military training and, above all, receive thousands of dollars in cash for coming for training. They are constantly brainwashed about the benefits of joining the armed forces on a permanent basis and also promised tens of thousands of dollars in benefits for their college education, etc. Don't you forget that I have two teenage children in an American high school and I am fully exposed to the armed forces recruiters visiting the high school targeting 15 -16 year olds. The US armed forces spend millions of dollars in their advertising budget (all 4 forces), targeting teenagers who are below 18. Two sets of rules To have two separate sets of rules, one for states which practice state terrorism, where they can recruit at 15 and above, and another for liberation organizations fighting a civil war for 3 decades against the government of GoSL and India with their meager resources and private funding, is nothing but an act of Hypocrisy, Chicanery and Dishonesty. I believe that there will be presentations at the upcoming 62nd Session on human rights in Geneva on the legality and morality of non-state members being prevented from recruiting under 18s, when governments are allowed to recruit those over 15. UN organizations which attempt to demonize the Tamils and the LTTE are very wrong. Where does the UN, which itself is engulfed in corruption, nepotism, wastage, and misappropriation, get its moral right to formulate laws which are not fair and just directed against liberation movements fighting State Terrorism, oppression, repression, and blatant discrimination? May I ask you how many rapes, molestations, arrests, incidents of torture, beatings, shootings, shellings, bombings, incarcerations of under 18 children has UNICEF prevented in the last 23 years? Where were you and UNICEF when all the under 18s were and are victimized on a daily basis? Where were they when the Bandaranayake-Kumaratunghe-Rajapakse regimes denied medicine, food, and fuel for the Tamil children for years during the embargo? The death and destruction, as well as untold suffering, is well documented and has been totally ignored by most INGOs, as well as foreign diplomats, for 22 years. But the UN and UNICEF want to mandate unjust laws that would make it illegal, criminal for under 18 and over 15 children to participate in combat against such evil forces, but are unable to prevent children from all ages being barbarically brutalized by Singhla racist mobs, sponsored by the government itself, and its armed forces. Defense against state terror Let me tell you that I, from when I was a child of 9 years old, have been a victim of state terror in 1956, 1958, 1961, 1977, and 1983. I could have been brutally murdered in any one of these years of state-sponsored terrorism and pogroms, and the UNICEF or UN would not have cared a damn. The Tamils have picked up arms as an act of self-defense, so such laws formulated by corrupt and dishonest officials sitting in their ivory towers of New York, Geneva, London and Washington do not matter. The living conditions under State Terror, and Mob Terror are totally different from the sanguine conditions of children in world cities of New York, Geneva, London and Washington. The ground reality is totally different. Other abuses of children's rights As UNICEF professes genuine interest in all children, can you tell me why the UN and UNICEF have turned a blind eye and blatantly ignored the gross violations which are transpiring on an hourly basis in the Sinhala South? Since UNICEF when it is convenient plays deaf, dumb and blind like the proverbial monkeys - See no evil, Hear no evil, and Speak no evil...Let me detail such violations of over 200,000 children. 1. Child pornography 2. Child prostitution 3. Child labor and slavery 4. Child exposure to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases Is this because the LTTE is an easy target and, if the above issues were raised more vigorously, UNICEF would not be welcomed so enthusiastically by the GoSL, whose permission the UN feels is necessary to operate on the island? Let me tell you that Tamils are tired of this Hypocrisy, Dishonesty, and Chicanery. The UN and power Diplomats speaking in Geneva or New York do so at the behest of powerful countries and their own political agenda. There is more to it than international law and human rights law on the issue of recruitment over 15 years and under 18. I am a retired DC 8 pilot and I have seen air force fighter pilots being trained, after being recruited at 16. So trying to corner a liberation organization about the Optional Protocol/Geneva Convention rules is nothing but dubious. It is deliberately kept ambiguous for only one reason. That is to use and abuse it by the UN and powerful states for their own advantage and convenience. That is pretty obvious. My point is the law needs to be applied uniformly and universally. Geopolitical interests There seems to be an International Conspiracy by vested interests in certain parts of Europe and America, where for geopolitical, and geo-strategic reasons (need and greed) it has become expedient to demonize the Tamils and LTTE and even possibly destroy them and neutralize them to be the slaves of the cotton fields or Tea estates. Ironically, these very same people have realized that the Sinhala government, which has no morals or scruples, can be purchased for a few marbles and glass beads like how the white man purchased Manhattan from the native Indians. But the Tamils and the LTTE are a different kettle of fish. Since there is Oil and Gas, mineral sands, millions of tons of limestone, International Ports and Airports in Trincomalee and Jaffna, the sudden interest in occupation and exploitation has increased. When oil prices were US$ 2 dollars a barrel in 1973, consumption at less than half what it is now and plenty of reserves 35 years ago, the energy needs of the west was not critical. But with the present oil prices at $65/barrel, and future prices at $100, any oil and gas anywhere is of serious interest. With China and India consuming huge quantities of energy, now & into the future even a tighter squeeze is on the meager energy resources of the region half the world population lives. 35 years ago there was no major war in Iraq , Afghanistan, and (and now possibly) Iran that all require a large presence of coalition forces from the West. The best natural harbor in the area is the port of Trincomalee, which is much larger and better than Singapore and Dubai, and has tens of thousand of excellent hinterland. The international airports to be built in Trincomalee and Jaffna, the Sethusamuderam Canal project from the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Strait, the Koodankulam Nuclear project in Nagar Kovil in TN, where India is going to produce 40 % of the Nuclear Fuel and enriched fuel for its WMD program, are all of great interest to the US and EU countries, as well as Japan, Canada, and Australia. This is what is called geopolitical and geostrategic interest in resources and assets. For that purpose 2 million Tamils living in the North and around Trincomalee are expendable to these forces and there is no genuine love or interest in the well-being of the Tamils or Tamil children. These same forces have done ZIP to save and protect the Tamil Children from the GoSL's armed forces. Additionally, why this issue of underage recruitment receives such priority, especially after one of the worst natural disasters in human history is mind boggling, when for the 5th year there has been no fighting in the Tamil homeland. Therefore, for the UN and UNICEF to concentrate their efforts so diligently and forcefully of the well-being of children above 15 and under 18 is nothing but suspicious. Military sales by countries that protest underage recruitment Furthermore, these Western countries during a civil war should desist in providing military aid, sales, training and credit facilities for a government which for decades has practiced State Terrorism and 'blatant discrimination.' Iran, India, Pakistan, China and Israel are also helping the GoSL will arms for profit where sales exceed over a Billion dollars. The GoSL also spends millions of dollars of tax revenues on arms purchases and has blatantly denied Tsunami aid to Tamils, both adults and children. Red Cross You mentioned the Red Cross in your note. The American Red Cross collected 2.5 Billion dollars for Tsunami survivors, but has not spent ONE DOLLAR on the Tamils in the NorthEast, claiming fraudulently that they were not permitted by the US Government to do so. That is the performance of the Red Cross in the Tamil homeland and you say they also are monitoring the use of children being provided training for military purposes and self-defense! I have a written confession from the American Red Cross: Tamils For Justice: |
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