France to provide 100-bed field hospital for IDPs in the North
Sat, 2009-04-25 03:44
Colombo, 25 April, (Asiantribune.com): Responding to a call to the international community made yesterday by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama for emergency relief assistance for the large number of civilians who have fled LTTE control and sought sanctuary in the cleared areas in recent days, the French Foreign Minister,Dr Bernard Kouchner telephoned his Sri Lankan counterpart today(24th April 2009) and informed that the Government of France will be providing a fully equipped 100-bed field hospital, backed by a 75 strong medical and support staff immediately.
In this regard,an advance team will arrive in Colombo tomorrow to make a field assessment to locate the hospital facility in the Vavuniya district.
As a further manifestation of the long-standing excellent bilateral relations between the two countries, Dr Kouchner accepted Minister Bogollagama's invitation to visit Sri Lanka. This visit is expected to take place as early as next week.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
With 6432 Dead in Sri Lanka, UN Council Takes Over Press Room, UNHCR Funds Detention Camps, "Collective Punishment"
With 6432 Dead in Sri Lanka, UN Council Takes Over Press Room, UNHCR Funds Detention Camps, "Collective Punishment"
Apr 25, 2009, 01:07 Digg this story!
UNITED NATIONS, April 24 -- The UN descended into chaos on Friday on the topic of Sri Lanka. In Colombo, the UN gave diplomats an updated chart of civilian casualties, with the death count having risen to 6432 since January 20, up from 2683 as of March 7. Inner City Press exclusively published the first report, and now places online this second one, here. In response to Inner City Press' questions on Friday, UN Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe said that these UN figures "may be a reasonable estimate." Video here, from Minute 10:29.
While the 3749 minimum additional civilians were being killed, the UN Security Council has held three informal meetings, the last on April 22 with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's envoy, Vijay Nambiar. Ban claimed the Nambiar had won a commitment from the government to a UN humanitarian assessment mission to the conflict zone. But the government of Sri Lanka has now said such a trip is not necessary or feasible.
Friday morning, Inner City Press asked a range of Council diplomats what they would do, given this new development. One senior diplomat from a Permanent Member of the Security Council opposed to adding Sri Lanka to the Council's formal agenda told Inner City Press that Ban had made a mistake by speaking publicly about what Nambiar said he had won. He said that his country, as supporter and funder of the government of Sri Lanka, believes that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam uses UN Council meetings to argue to civilians to stay with them in the conflict zone. Whether UN Webcasts can be seen there is not clear.
Nevertheless, even this Council member later on Friday agreed that Council president Claude Heller of Mexico could read out his second "remarks to the press" about Sri Lanka in three days, this time encouraging the government to cooperate with the UN to visit the conflict zone.
When Ambassador Heller read this out -- more below on how and where he did this -- Inner City Press asked, is the Council calling for a ceasefire? No, Heller said. Video here, from Minute 15:48.
Inner City Press asked if Heller or the Council had seen the UN's count of 6432 dead civilians. Heller replied that the Council on Wednesday had "no opportunity to discuss the casualties." Video here, from Minute 13:31. What then have they been discussing?
Amb. Heller in near-empty Council, run to near-empty press room described below
The manner of Heller's presentation was without precedent at the UN. In the UN's briefing room, UNHCR's representative in Sri Lanka Amin Awad was answering questions about his agency's work with the government on camps. Of the camps, he said the government was given an "aide memoire" which he would now try to make public, and that the camps "should not be collective punishment."
Midway through, after Inner City Press had asked about charges that the UN is working with and funding detention camps in violation of international humanitarian law, suddenly Ambassador Heller and his spokesman, UK Ambassador John Sawers and other Council staffers, burst into the room. They stood along the wall, as cell phone filmed by Inner City Press.
A note was handed to UN Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe, and she asked Amin Awad to leave the rostrum. Heller took his place, and read out his and the Council's "remarks to the press." He tried to immediately leave, but Inner City Press asked a question about the UN's casualty figures, and if the UN's Neil Buhne trip to Jaffna was the mission to the conflict zone that the UN is speaking of. Video here, from Minute 13:31.
Heller replied that now John Holmes of OCHA is going to "the region." Does this mean the conflict zone? Heller didn't answer. He was asked if this was a formal Council statement. He called it "remarks to the press," and said it was the "best way to agree." But agree on what?
Inner City Press is told that Heller and Sawers came out of the Security Council but found few to no journalists waiting to hear the remarks meant for them. Much of the UN press corps elsewhere, covering a committee meeting about listing companies which helped North Korea's recent launch.
Frustrated, Heller headed for the media briefing room, figuring he'd find reporters there to hear the Council's remarks. There were perhaps a half-dozen journalists in the room, listening to Amin Awad. In fact, at the beginning of the briefing Ms. Okabe had indirectly apologized, saying that many reporters would be "watching in their rooms."
Now the under-attended humanitarian briefing about refugees was converted into the forum for the full Council's scripted "remarks to the press." UK Ambassador Sawers showed himself -- he did not go to the rostrum or consent to taking questions -- while France's Ambassadors Ripert or LaCroix were nowhere to be seen. The U.S., it was said, was represented by Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo, with Susan Rice being in Washington, most surmised.
Once Heller left the stage, Inner City Press asked Amin Awar about a comment Amb. DiCarlo had made, that IDP camps that do not comply with international humanitarian law should only be funded for so long. Amin Awar said that UNHCR has to be there, that there may be bilateral talks he is not privy to. Video here, from Minute 27:25.
On the elevator going down to the UN lobby, he told Inner City Press that in Washington earlier in the week he had met with Inter-Action and testified to Congress along with NGOs. Inner City Press asked him about reports that the government of Sri Lanka is funding DC-based firm Patton Boggs to represent its interests. I didn't know that, Amin Awar said. And so it goes at the UN.
Footnote: We continue to wait for the UK's formal answer to the first of the two questions which Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of this press time nine days later, the formal answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement, and this. On April 21, Inner City Press put the question to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, whose spokesman the following day cleared this response: "UN personnel should have freedom of movement and be treated with respect." But they are still detained as of this writing. As more answers arrive or are released we will report them on this site.
Apr 25, 2009, 01:07 Digg this story!
UNITED NATIONS, April 24 -- The UN descended into chaos on Friday on the topic of Sri Lanka. In Colombo, the UN gave diplomats an updated chart of civilian casualties, with the death count having risen to 6432 since January 20, up from 2683 as of March 7. Inner City Press exclusively published the first report, and now places online this second one, here. In response to Inner City Press' questions on Friday, UN Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe said that these UN figures "may be a reasonable estimate." Video here, from Minute 10:29.
While the 3749 minimum additional civilians were being killed, the UN Security Council has held three informal meetings, the last on April 22 with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's envoy, Vijay Nambiar. Ban claimed the Nambiar had won a commitment from the government to a UN humanitarian assessment mission to the conflict zone. But the government of Sri Lanka has now said such a trip is not necessary or feasible.
Friday morning, Inner City Press asked a range of Council diplomats what they would do, given this new development. One senior diplomat from a Permanent Member of the Security Council opposed to adding Sri Lanka to the Council's formal agenda told Inner City Press that Ban had made a mistake by speaking publicly about what Nambiar said he had won. He said that his country, as supporter and funder of the government of Sri Lanka, believes that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam uses UN Council meetings to argue to civilians to stay with them in the conflict zone. Whether UN Webcasts can be seen there is not clear.
Nevertheless, even this Council member later on Friday agreed that Council president Claude Heller of Mexico could read out his second "remarks to the press" about Sri Lanka in three days, this time encouraging the government to cooperate with the UN to visit the conflict zone.
When Ambassador Heller read this out -- more below on how and where he did this -- Inner City Press asked, is the Council calling for a ceasefire? No, Heller said. Video here, from Minute 15:48.
Inner City Press asked if Heller or the Council had seen the UN's count of 6432 dead civilians. Heller replied that the Council on Wednesday had "no opportunity to discuss the casualties." Video here, from Minute 13:31. What then have they been discussing?
Amb. Heller in near-empty Council, run to near-empty press room described below
The manner of Heller's presentation was without precedent at the UN. In the UN's briefing room, UNHCR's representative in Sri Lanka Amin Awad was answering questions about his agency's work with the government on camps. Of the camps, he said the government was given an "aide memoire" which he would now try to make public, and that the camps "should not be collective punishment."
Midway through, after Inner City Press had asked about charges that the UN is working with and funding detention camps in violation of international humanitarian law, suddenly Ambassador Heller and his spokesman, UK Ambassador John Sawers and other Council staffers, burst into the room. They stood along the wall, as cell phone filmed by Inner City Press.
A note was handed to UN Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe, and she asked Amin Awad to leave the rostrum. Heller took his place, and read out his and the Council's "remarks to the press." He tried to immediately leave, but Inner City Press asked a question about the UN's casualty figures, and if the UN's Neil Buhne trip to Jaffna was the mission to the conflict zone that the UN is speaking of. Video here, from Minute 13:31.
Heller replied that now John Holmes of OCHA is going to "the region." Does this mean the conflict zone? Heller didn't answer. He was asked if this was a formal Council statement. He called it "remarks to the press," and said it was the "best way to agree." But agree on what?
Inner City Press is told that Heller and Sawers came out of the Security Council but found few to no journalists waiting to hear the remarks meant for them. Much of the UN press corps elsewhere, covering a committee meeting about listing companies which helped North Korea's recent launch.
Frustrated, Heller headed for the media briefing room, figuring he'd find reporters there to hear the Council's remarks. There were perhaps a half-dozen journalists in the room, listening to Amin Awad. In fact, at the beginning of the briefing Ms. Okabe had indirectly apologized, saying that many reporters would be "watching in their rooms."
Now the under-attended humanitarian briefing about refugees was converted into the forum for the full Council's scripted "remarks to the press." UK Ambassador Sawers showed himself -- he did not go to the rostrum or consent to taking questions -- while France's Ambassadors Ripert or LaCroix were nowhere to be seen. The U.S., it was said, was represented by Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo, with Susan Rice being in Washington, most surmised.
Once Heller left the stage, Inner City Press asked Amin Awar about a comment Amb. DiCarlo had made, that IDP camps that do not comply with international humanitarian law should only be funded for so long. Amin Awar said that UNHCR has to be there, that there may be bilateral talks he is not privy to. Video here, from Minute 27:25.
On the elevator going down to the UN lobby, he told Inner City Press that in Washington earlier in the week he had met with Inter-Action and testified to Congress along with NGOs. Inner City Press asked him about reports that the government of Sri Lanka is funding DC-based firm Patton Boggs to represent its interests. I didn't know that, Amin Awar said. And so it goes at the UN.
Footnote: We continue to wait for the UK's formal answer to the first of the two questions which Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of this press time nine days later, the formal answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement, and this. On April 21, Inner City Press put the question to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, whose spokesman the following day cleared this response: "UN personnel should have freedom of movement and be treated with respect." But they are still detained as of this writing. As more answers arrive or are released we will report them on this site.
The agony in Sri Lanka
The agony in Sri Lanka
April 25, 2009
ONE OF THE WORLD'S longest, bloodiest conflicts is coming to a gruesome conclusion on the island nation of Sri Lanka. The United Nations estimates that some 6,500 civilians have died and 14,000 have been injured in the government's merciless offensive against the Tamil Tigers in the northeast of the country. The Obama administration and other governments, particularly India and China, should pressure both the Sri Lankan government and the Tigers to halt the fighting and permit trapped civilians to escape.
Discuss
COMMENTS (22)
This sort of humanitarian intervention would be more likely to succeed if the interveners make it clear that Sri Lankan government officials and Tiger leaders will be held responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Accounts from refugees leave little doubt that both sides have perpetrated such crimes. It was probably to hide those crimes that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Minister Gotabahaya Rajapaksa, his brother, banned international aid groups and independent journalists from the theater of war.
At a time when 100,000 refugees need medical care, food, and shelter, and another 50,000 are under shelling in a five-square-mile war zone, the international community has proved impotent to live up to the UN's 2005 adoption of a "right to protect" civilians who are not protected by their government. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon deserves credit for announcing Thursday that he was sending a humanitarian aid team to the war zone. "So many lives have been sacrificed," Ban said. "There is no time to lose." Welcome as the UN chief's humanitarian initiative must be, the sad truth is that it comes woefully late, after too much preventable human suffering.
The Rajapaksa brothers have been able to get away with their no-quarter assault on the Tigers, with all the collateral damage that entailed, because they dressed it up as a war against terrorists. Their propaganda has been effective because it is grounded in a half-truth. The Tigers have committed terrorist acts. But the overwhelming majority of the victims in the Rajapaksa brothers' war have been Tamil civilians. For more than a quarter century, successive Sri Lankan governments have refused to grant ethnic Tamils in the north and northeast of the country some form of autonomy or self-rule in a confederal state.
The Tigers may be crushed in the next few days. But the anger and alienation of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka is more acute than ever. The ultimate solution for Sri Lanka's communal conflict can only be political, not military. If the Tamil populace sees no hope for autonomy within Sri Lanka, it may come to demand a separate state - after all, the secessionist goal of the Tigers.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
READER COMMENTS (22)
ampanai wrote:
This is first "hell from earth" for Obama administration. Such individuals as Ms.Susan Rice and Ms.Samantha Powers have a responsibility to protect civilians from war crimes. If we do not act in the next few days, we may witness skyrocketing casualties.
Yes, separation is the only solution left!
4/24/2009 9:46 PM EDT
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Varathan wrote:
"I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people... now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion... the more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here... Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy."
J.R.Jayawardene, Former President of Sri Lanka - Daily Telegraph, 11th July 1983
Whoever the president the message is same, It is Tamil Genocide. "We are witnessing an enormous human tragedy. People, who have done well in their professions, are as good as beggars today. There should be immediate efforts to stop the tragedy,'' Ravi Shankar said. SRI LANKA,S NO-FIRE ZONE IS, ZONE OF DEATH, NO-FOOD ZONE, NO-CARE ZONE, now NO-SAFETY ZONE, FIRE ONLY ZONE... World Watches Helplessly Genocide of Eelam Tamils in Vanni by Sinhalese
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=145&id=5729
Sri Lanka used Chemical weapons, Cluster bombs, dropped over 5000 bombs per day. Tigers are not the root cause of the long conflict in Sri Lanka. Tigers are mere symptom of chauvinist and terror state of Sri Lanka to defend the rights of Tamils. The mother died while nursing the baby.The baby was still breastfeeding..." screams of the child when it was taken away from its dead mother http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=28924, Has anyone seen a picture of a full term pregnant mother who was killed by a shell, which lacerated her womb exposing the leg of the fetus? Or the baby that was born with shrapnel embedded in its thigh? It is most disheartening to see thousand of our mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters being brutally killed by the occupying Sri Lankan security forces in the North and the East and enduring long and immense sufferings in the hands of the Sinhalese chauvinism for more than six decades, but particularly during the last three years under the current regime, which is brutal and bloody to the Tamils. We are witnessing the barbaric slaughter of our race including indiscriminate bombings and torture of innocent civilians. Civilian casualties top 20,000 in Vanni: Leaked UN document,
April 25, 2009
ONE OF THE WORLD'S longest, bloodiest conflicts is coming to a gruesome conclusion on the island nation of Sri Lanka. The United Nations estimates that some 6,500 civilians have died and 14,000 have been injured in the government's merciless offensive against the Tamil Tigers in the northeast of the country. The Obama administration and other governments, particularly India and China, should pressure both the Sri Lankan government and the Tigers to halt the fighting and permit trapped civilians to escape.
Discuss
COMMENTS (22)
This sort of humanitarian intervention would be more likely to succeed if the interveners make it clear that Sri Lankan government officials and Tiger leaders will be held responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Accounts from refugees leave little doubt that both sides have perpetrated such crimes. It was probably to hide those crimes that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Minister Gotabahaya Rajapaksa, his brother, banned international aid groups and independent journalists from the theater of war.
At a time when 100,000 refugees need medical care, food, and shelter, and another 50,000 are under shelling in a five-square-mile war zone, the international community has proved impotent to live up to the UN's 2005 adoption of a "right to protect" civilians who are not protected by their government. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon deserves credit for announcing Thursday that he was sending a humanitarian aid team to the war zone. "So many lives have been sacrificed," Ban said. "There is no time to lose." Welcome as the UN chief's humanitarian initiative must be, the sad truth is that it comes woefully late, after too much preventable human suffering.
The Rajapaksa brothers have been able to get away with their no-quarter assault on the Tigers, with all the collateral damage that entailed, because they dressed it up as a war against terrorists. Their propaganda has been effective because it is grounded in a half-truth. The Tigers have committed terrorist acts. But the overwhelming majority of the victims in the Rajapaksa brothers' war have been Tamil civilians. For more than a quarter century, successive Sri Lankan governments have refused to grant ethnic Tamils in the north and northeast of the country some form of autonomy or self-rule in a confederal state.
The Tigers may be crushed in the next few days. But the anger and alienation of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka is more acute than ever. The ultimate solution for Sri Lanka's communal conflict can only be political, not military. If the Tamil populace sees no hope for autonomy within Sri Lanka, it may come to demand a separate state - after all, the secessionist goal of the Tigers.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
READER COMMENTS (22)
ampanai wrote:
This is first "hell from earth" for Obama administration. Such individuals as Ms.Susan Rice and Ms.Samantha Powers have a responsibility to protect civilians from war crimes. If we do not act in the next few days, we may witness skyrocketing casualties.
Yes, separation is the only solution left!
4/24/2009 9:46 PM EDT
Recommend (12)
Report abuse
Permalink
User Image
Varathan wrote:
"I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people... now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion... the more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here... Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy."
J.R.Jayawardene, Former President of Sri Lanka - Daily Telegraph, 11th July 1983
Whoever the president the message is same, It is Tamil Genocide. "We are witnessing an enormous human tragedy. People, who have done well in their professions, are as good as beggars today. There should be immediate efforts to stop the tragedy,'' Ravi Shankar said. SRI LANKA,S NO-FIRE ZONE IS, ZONE OF DEATH, NO-FOOD ZONE, NO-CARE ZONE, now NO-SAFETY ZONE, FIRE ONLY ZONE... World Watches Helplessly Genocide of Eelam Tamils in Vanni by Sinhalese
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/page.php?cat=145&id=5729
Sri Lanka used Chemical weapons, Cluster bombs, dropped over 5000 bombs per day. Tigers are not the root cause of the long conflict in Sri Lanka. Tigers are mere symptom of chauvinist and terror state of Sri Lanka to defend the rights of Tamils. The mother died while nursing the baby.The baby was still breastfeeding..." screams of the child when it was taken away from its dead mother http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=28924, Has anyone seen a picture of a full term pregnant mother who was killed by a shell, which lacerated her womb exposing the leg of the fetus? Or the baby that was born with shrapnel embedded in its thigh? It is most disheartening to see thousand of our mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters being brutally killed by the occupying Sri Lankan security forces in the North and the East and enduring long and immense sufferings in the hands of the Sinhalese chauvinism for more than six decades, but particularly during the last three years under the current regime, which is brutal and bloody to the Tamils. We are witnessing the barbaric slaughter of our race including indiscriminate bombings and torture of innocent civilians. Civilian casualties top 20,000 in Vanni: Leaked UN document,
Friday, April 24, 2009
Dark victory:But the imminent end of war offers an historic chance to make peace
Dark victory
Apr 23rd 2009 | COLOMBO
But the imminent end of war offers an historic chance to make peace
Reuters
A DARK herd creeps across a grassy plain, wades a shallow lagoon and clambers to safety. Filmed from the air on April 20th, this was a scene Sri Lanka’s government had been dreaming of: the start of a mass breakout from the Tamil Tigers’ last sanctuary by, it claims, over 100,000 refugees—perhaps two-thirds of those being held hostage there. Having inspired the exodus, by breaching a sandy embankment around this “refuge”, a few kilometres of beach in north-eastern Sri Lanka, the army has encircled the surviving Tigers.
According to its private estimate, the Tigers may be reduced to 1,000 hardened fighters, plus a few thousand recently impressed refugees. The army believes Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tiger chief, and his senior henchmen are among them—as was also claimed this week by a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the rebels are properly known, after the Eelam, or Tamil homeland, for which they have waged a 26-year war. To bag these men, the last prize of a brutal two-year offensive, the army claims to be using stealthy tactics, with “deep-penetration” commandos and snipers. It has a history of over-egging its battlefield triumphs. But the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa seems genuinely to believe that one of Asia’s oldest wars could be over within days.
That would be momentous, and the island-nation’s Sinhalese majority will rush to celebrate it—and perhaps also give Mr Rajapaksa victory in an important regional election, in Western Province, on April 25th. Sri Lanka’s long war has probably cost over 100,000 lives, including 30,000 in the past two years.
Coinciding with a period of high economic growth outside the war-zone, in the west and south, the conflict has come to seem an increasingly anachronistic blot on a hopeful country. By rallying Sinhalese, who make up around three-quarters of the population, to support an all-out campaign against the Tigers, which his steely defence chief and brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, and General Sarath Fonseka, the army commander, have ably delivered, Mr Rajapaksa has almost erased this stain. Nor should Mr Prabhakaran and his crew be mourned. A well-organised and vicious terrorist group, expert in brainwashing and suicide-blasting, the LTTE has maintained its fief—which until late 2006 extended over almost a third of the country—by murder and fear. Moreover, having sabotaged a peace initiative of the previous government, and helped it lose an election by imposing a boycott on Tamil voters under its sway, Mr Prabhakaran has had the war he was asking for.
Yet, among Tamils, who may represent 18% of Sri Lanka’s population, including a community descended from 19th-century Indian immigrants which has played little part in the war, Mr Rajapaksa’s impending declaration of victory will be largely derided. And the congratulations of many foreign governments, especially Western ones, will be muted. The main reason is that the government’s apparent victory has come at an appalling cost. Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, said this week that the entire world was disappointed that in its efforts to end the war, it was causing “such untold suffering”.
In its rush to exterminate the Tigers—partly in justified fear of their skill at manipulating foreign opinion—the army has shown a cruel disregard for Tamil civilians crowding the battlefield. Earlier this month the UN estimated that since early January, when the Tigers’ fled their northern capital, Kilinochchi, driving perhaps 200,000 civilians before them, some 4,500 had been killed and 12,000 wounded. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has evacuated over 10,000 wounded civilians and their relatives from the no-fire zone, said on April 20th that hundreds more had been killed or wounded since the army made its breach.
Most appear to have been victims of shellfire inside the Tigers’ last refuge, though the government designated it a “no-fire zone” and claims to have shelled it only when civilians would not be harmed. It accuses the Tigers of bombarding the zone, to bolster international demands for a humanitarian ceasefire. But entrapped civilians, including doctors manning a makeshift hospital on the northern tip of the zone, say the army is to blame; and human-rights researchers believe them. More broadly, the government’s campaign has been marked by gross disregard for the rule of law, especially as it applies to Tamils. The defection in 2004 of a senior LTTE commander known as “Karuna”, now minister for national integration and reconciliation, enabled the army to capture the east rapidly, by mid-2007. Unfazed by the crimes allegedly committed by its proxy, including the forcible recruitment of children and many murders, the government has partly emulated them. In the east and elsewhere, especially Colombo, the country’s main city, it is alleged to have abducted and killed hundreds of young Tamils. Nor are Sinhalese entirely safe, especially journalists. Several have been mysteriously assassinated, and the rest terrorised. Reporters Without Borders, an NGO, considers Sri Lanka more hostile for journalists than any other democracy.
Asked whether he could not have prosecuted a just war more justly, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the defence chief, says the government had no choice but to use extraordinary tactics against a monstrous foe. Mr Rajapaksa denied they included extra-judicial killing. But he admitted that many Tamils had been detained and interrogated for extended periods. Most, he claimed, were operating as LTTE agents under false identities. “You can’t expect all the normal things that happen in a normal society because the LTTE are not like that.”
The American example
If this recalls the defence of water-boarding and other brutalities offered by America’s former government, it should. A former Sri Lankan army colonel, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is also an American citizen; and the government has often likened its war against the LTTE to America’s zero-tolerance of Islamist terrorists. To an extent, America and its Western allies have encouraged the comparison, by proscribing the Tigers as a terrorist group. Yet the Western powers, which face no threat from the LTTE and whose politicians are susceptible to skilful lobbying by the expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils who bankroll it, have extended their sympathy only so far. They have lambasted the government for its human-rights abuses and, in the case of the EU, Sri Lanka’s biggest export market, threatened to cancel preferential trade terms. Making matters worse, the government has used such criticism, levelled, it claims, by Tiger-hugging imperialists, to stir up Sinhalese nationalism. This has hardened domestic support for the war, but alienated Sri Lanka’s foreign allies.
As a result, Sri Lanka, one of Asia’s oldest democracies, has been driven to seek other friends: Pakistan, its main arms-supplier; Iran, which has been providing 70% of its oil supply on tick; and Libya, from which it expects a soft loan of $500m to arrive soon. That cash would be welcome, but insufficient to avert a looming solvency crisis. The government’s profligacy, including defence spending that has ballooned as the army’s strength has been doubled within three years, to 200,000, has depleted the country’s foreign-currency reserves, which now cover barely six weeks of imports. The president, who is also the finance minister, this week dispatched emissaries to the IMF to negotiate terms for a $1.9 billion loan.
Undoing the damage its campaign has done to Sri Lanka’s economy, reputation and democratic institutions will take years. But the government’s abuses against Tamils may prove even costlier. Annihilating the LTTE will work only if, as the government claims, they do not represent the aspirations of their marginalised community. But its ethnically-guided “control measures”, in Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s phrase, have suggested to many innocent Tamils that the government considers them terrorists. The internment of almost every resident of Mr Prabhakaran’s former northern fief, including some 70,000 before this week’s flood, provides a relatively mild, yet pressing, example of this.
Given that many of these people have grown up under the LTTE, the government obviously must vet them. It also reasonably notes that their mine-strewn paddy-fields may be unsafe for some time. Yet the government’s original plan, to keep this population penned up for a year or more, was outrageous. In a rare concession to its critics, the government has somewhat relented: it now aims to resettle 20% of the interns by the end of this month and 80% by the end of the year. Yet to members of a proud minority, almost without exception, such blundering confirms the government as just the sort of diehard Sinhalese overlord that drove the LTTE to take up arms in the first place. And indeed, some members of Mr Rajapaksa’s regime, including General Fonseka, are avowed Sinhalese chauvinists. So even moderate Tamils, their ranks severely thinned by LTTE assassins, say they will be worse off without Mr Prabhakaran as their champion. Echoing the LTTE’s propagandists, a retired Tamil judge, an otherwise sensible pundit, accuses the government of genocide.
Winning the peace
For Mr Rajapaksa to win over many Tamils would be tough. Yet if he is to turn military triumph into enduring peace, he must try. And in some ways, he has an historic opportunity to succeed. Crowned with laurels, he is expected to hold parliamentary and presidential elections within a year, and win thumping majorities in both. That would give him—and his three brothers with ministerial status—unprecedented power to transform Sri Lanka. Having removed the obstructive LTTE, or (remembering the restorative powers of the Tamil diaspora) at least crippled it, Mr Rajapaksa could preside over the emergence of a liberal Tamil polity. By implementing a policy of regional devolution, that has existed on the statute for two decades but never in fact, he would go a long way to meeting the basic political demand of most Tamils. Such steps would win Mr Rajapaksa global acclaim. Yet there seems worryingly little chance he will take them.
As in the east, the government says it will quickly hold an election in the north for a provincial government. It also promises massive infrastructural development in the region. Yet Eastern Province is an unconvincing blueprint for healing Sri Lanka. Its election, won by a coalition led by Minister Karuna’s mob, was tainted by allegations of voter intimidation. Under the chief-ministership of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, a former LTTE child-soldier and comrade of Minister Karuna (with whom he is now at war), it remains worryingly violent. According to the International Crisis Group, which this month released a discouraging report on progress in the east, Mr Chandrakanthan’s administration has minimal power.
Nor should the north count on even this modest reform. In the absence of a powerful local proxy, the government is mulling having another of its controversial Tamil allies, Douglas Devananda, elected as its chief minister. This might be difficult. Mr Devananda, the minister for social welfare, is said to be loathed in Jaffna, the capital of Northern Province. But if he, or some other enemy of the LTTE, cannot be assured of victory, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says the election may not be held. Despite the supposed liberation of the region from the terrorists’ yoke the authorities seem strangely worried that northerners may yet vote in a pro-LTTE government.
Apr 23rd 2009 | COLOMBO
But the imminent end of war offers an historic chance to make peace
Reuters
A DARK herd creeps across a grassy plain, wades a shallow lagoon and clambers to safety. Filmed from the air on April 20th, this was a scene Sri Lanka’s government had been dreaming of: the start of a mass breakout from the Tamil Tigers’ last sanctuary by, it claims, over 100,000 refugees—perhaps two-thirds of those being held hostage there. Having inspired the exodus, by breaching a sandy embankment around this “refuge”, a few kilometres of beach in north-eastern Sri Lanka, the army has encircled the surviving Tigers.
According to its private estimate, the Tigers may be reduced to 1,000 hardened fighters, plus a few thousand recently impressed refugees. The army believes Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tiger chief, and his senior henchmen are among them—as was also claimed this week by a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the rebels are properly known, after the Eelam, or Tamil homeland, for which they have waged a 26-year war. To bag these men, the last prize of a brutal two-year offensive, the army claims to be using stealthy tactics, with “deep-penetration” commandos and snipers. It has a history of over-egging its battlefield triumphs. But the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa seems genuinely to believe that one of Asia’s oldest wars could be over within days.
That would be momentous, and the island-nation’s Sinhalese majority will rush to celebrate it—and perhaps also give Mr Rajapaksa victory in an important regional election, in Western Province, on April 25th. Sri Lanka’s long war has probably cost over 100,000 lives, including 30,000 in the past two years.
Coinciding with a period of high economic growth outside the war-zone, in the west and south, the conflict has come to seem an increasingly anachronistic blot on a hopeful country. By rallying Sinhalese, who make up around three-quarters of the population, to support an all-out campaign against the Tigers, which his steely defence chief and brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, and General Sarath Fonseka, the army commander, have ably delivered, Mr Rajapaksa has almost erased this stain. Nor should Mr Prabhakaran and his crew be mourned. A well-organised and vicious terrorist group, expert in brainwashing and suicide-blasting, the LTTE has maintained its fief—which until late 2006 extended over almost a third of the country—by murder and fear. Moreover, having sabotaged a peace initiative of the previous government, and helped it lose an election by imposing a boycott on Tamil voters under its sway, Mr Prabhakaran has had the war he was asking for.
Yet, among Tamils, who may represent 18% of Sri Lanka’s population, including a community descended from 19th-century Indian immigrants which has played little part in the war, Mr Rajapaksa’s impending declaration of victory will be largely derided. And the congratulations of many foreign governments, especially Western ones, will be muted. The main reason is that the government’s apparent victory has come at an appalling cost. Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, said this week that the entire world was disappointed that in its efforts to end the war, it was causing “such untold suffering”.
In its rush to exterminate the Tigers—partly in justified fear of their skill at manipulating foreign opinion—the army has shown a cruel disregard for Tamil civilians crowding the battlefield. Earlier this month the UN estimated that since early January, when the Tigers’ fled their northern capital, Kilinochchi, driving perhaps 200,000 civilians before them, some 4,500 had been killed and 12,000 wounded. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has evacuated over 10,000 wounded civilians and their relatives from the no-fire zone, said on April 20th that hundreds more had been killed or wounded since the army made its breach.
Most appear to have been victims of shellfire inside the Tigers’ last refuge, though the government designated it a “no-fire zone” and claims to have shelled it only when civilians would not be harmed. It accuses the Tigers of bombarding the zone, to bolster international demands for a humanitarian ceasefire. But entrapped civilians, including doctors manning a makeshift hospital on the northern tip of the zone, say the army is to blame; and human-rights researchers believe them. More broadly, the government’s campaign has been marked by gross disregard for the rule of law, especially as it applies to Tamils. The defection in 2004 of a senior LTTE commander known as “Karuna”, now minister for national integration and reconciliation, enabled the army to capture the east rapidly, by mid-2007. Unfazed by the crimes allegedly committed by its proxy, including the forcible recruitment of children and many murders, the government has partly emulated them. In the east and elsewhere, especially Colombo, the country’s main city, it is alleged to have abducted and killed hundreds of young Tamils. Nor are Sinhalese entirely safe, especially journalists. Several have been mysteriously assassinated, and the rest terrorised. Reporters Without Borders, an NGO, considers Sri Lanka more hostile for journalists than any other democracy.
Asked whether he could not have prosecuted a just war more justly, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the defence chief, says the government had no choice but to use extraordinary tactics against a monstrous foe. Mr Rajapaksa denied they included extra-judicial killing. But he admitted that many Tamils had been detained and interrogated for extended periods. Most, he claimed, were operating as LTTE agents under false identities. “You can’t expect all the normal things that happen in a normal society because the LTTE are not like that.”
The American example
If this recalls the defence of water-boarding and other brutalities offered by America’s former government, it should. A former Sri Lankan army colonel, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is also an American citizen; and the government has often likened its war against the LTTE to America’s zero-tolerance of Islamist terrorists. To an extent, America and its Western allies have encouraged the comparison, by proscribing the Tigers as a terrorist group. Yet the Western powers, which face no threat from the LTTE and whose politicians are susceptible to skilful lobbying by the expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils who bankroll it, have extended their sympathy only so far. They have lambasted the government for its human-rights abuses and, in the case of the EU, Sri Lanka’s biggest export market, threatened to cancel preferential trade terms. Making matters worse, the government has used such criticism, levelled, it claims, by Tiger-hugging imperialists, to stir up Sinhalese nationalism. This has hardened domestic support for the war, but alienated Sri Lanka’s foreign allies.
As a result, Sri Lanka, one of Asia’s oldest democracies, has been driven to seek other friends: Pakistan, its main arms-supplier; Iran, which has been providing 70% of its oil supply on tick; and Libya, from which it expects a soft loan of $500m to arrive soon. That cash would be welcome, but insufficient to avert a looming solvency crisis. The government’s profligacy, including defence spending that has ballooned as the army’s strength has been doubled within three years, to 200,000, has depleted the country’s foreign-currency reserves, which now cover barely six weeks of imports. The president, who is also the finance minister, this week dispatched emissaries to the IMF to negotiate terms for a $1.9 billion loan.
Undoing the damage its campaign has done to Sri Lanka’s economy, reputation and democratic institutions will take years. But the government’s abuses against Tamils may prove even costlier. Annihilating the LTTE will work only if, as the government claims, they do not represent the aspirations of their marginalised community. But its ethnically-guided “control measures”, in Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s phrase, have suggested to many innocent Tamils that the government considers them terrorists. The internment of almost every resident of Mr Prabhakaran’s former northern fief, including some 70,000 before this week’s flood, provides a relatively mild, yet pressing, example of this.
Given that many of these people have grown up under the LTTE, the government obviously must vet them. It also reasonably notes that their mine-strewn paddy-fields may be unsafe for some time. Yet the government’s original plan, to keep this population penned up for a year or more, was outrageous. In a rare concession to its critics, the government has somewhat relented: it now aims to resettle 20% of the interns by the end of this month and 80% by the end of the year. Yet to members of a proud minority, almost without exception, such blundering confirms the government as just the sort of diehard Sinhalese overlord that drove the LTTE to take up arms in the first place. And indeed, some members of Mr Rajapaksa’s regime, including General Fonseka, are avowed Sinhalese chauvinists. So even moderate Tamils, their ranks severely thinned by LTTE assassins, say they will be worse off without Mr Prabhakaran as their champion. Echoing the LTTE’s propagandists, a retired Tamil judge, an otherwise sensible pundit, accuses the government of genocide.
Winning the peace
For Mr Rajapaksa to win over many Tamils would be tough. Yet if he is to turn military triumph into enduring peace, he must try. And in some ways, he has an historic opportunity to succeed. Crowned with laurels, he is expected to hold parliamentary and presidential elections within a year, and win thumping majorities in both. That would give him—and his three brothers with ministerial status—unprecedented power to transform Sri Lanka. Having removed the obstructive LTTE, or (remembering the restorative powers of the Tamil diaspora) at least crippled it, Mr Rajapaksa could preside over the emergence of a liberal Tamil polity. By implementing a policy of regional devolution, that has existed on the statute for two decades but never in fact, he would go a long way to meeting the basic political demand of most Tamils. Such steps would win Mr Rajapaksa global acclaim. Yet there seems worryingly little chance he will take them.
As in the east, the government says it will quickly hold an election in the north for a provincial government. It also promises massive infrastructural development in the region. Yet Eastern Province is an unconvincing blueprint for healing Sri Lanka. Its election, won by a coalition led by Minister Karuna’s mob, was tainted by allegations of voter intimidation. Under the chief-ministership of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, a former LTTE child-soldier and comrade of Minister Karuna (with whom he is now at war), it remains worryingly violent. According to the International Crisis Group, which this month released a discouraging report on progress in the east, Mr Chandrakanthan’s administration has minimal power.
Nor should the north count on even this modest reform. In the absence of a powerful local proxy, the government is mulling having another of its controversial Tamil allies, Douglas Devananda, elected as its chief minister. This might be difficult. Mr Devananda, the minister for social welfare, is said to be loathed in Jaffna, the capital of Northern Province. But if he, or some other enemy of the LTTE, cannot be assured of victory, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says the election may not be held. Despite the supposed liberation of the region from the terrorists’ yoke the authorities seem strangely worried that northerners may yet vote in a pro-LTTE government.
White House says the government of Sri Lanka must stop shelling neutral areas and allow international aid groups to work
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042403516.html
WH: Sri Lanka must stop shelling neutral areas
The Associated Press
Friday, April 24, 2009; 8:04 PM
WASHINGTON -- The White House says the government of Sri Lanka must stop shelling neutral areas and allow international aid groups to work during the nation's civil war.
The White House on Friday said Washington is "deeply concerned about the plight of innocent civilians caught up in the conflict." The White House says civilians should be allowed to leave the combat zone, and journalists should be allowed to report on the violence.
Washington also called on both sides to adhere to humanitarian law and warned abuses would make reconciliation difficult.
The United Nations on Friday reported almost 6,500 ethnic Tamil civilians have been killed in the last three months. The south Asian island nation has endured a quarter-century of civil strife.
WH: Sri Lanka must stop shelling neutral areas
The Associated Press
Friday, April 24, 2009; 8:04 PM
WASHINGTON -- The White House says the government of Sri Lanka must stop shelling neutral areas and allow international aid groups to work during the nation's civil war.
The White House on Friday said Washington is "deeply concerned about the plight of innocent civilians caught up in the conflict." The White House says civilians should be allowed to leave the combat zone, and journalists should be allowed to report on the violence.
Washington also called on both sides to adhere to humanitarian law and warned abuses would make reconciliation difficult.
The United Nations on Friday reported almost 6,500 ethnic Tamil civilians have been killed in the last three months. The south Asian island nation has endured a quarter-century of civil strife.
165,000 civilians face imminent starvation, LTTE urges IC to act
165,000 civilians face imminent starvation, LTTE urges IC to act
[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 23:52 GMT]
In a press statement titled 'UN and IC Need to Act Faster to Prevent Hunger' the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam Friday said 165,000 Tamil civilians belonging to 40,000 families within the LTTE controlled area in Mullaiththeevu coast are faced with serious crisis due to the deliberate denial of food and other humanitarian supplies by the Sri Lankan Government. "The LTTE urges the UN and other members of the international community to act promptly to ensure immediate and continuous supply of food to these people. We fear that further delay can result in a crisis similar to that faced in Darfur or even deadlier," the statement released from Vanni said.
Full text of the statement follows:
Media Release
24th April 2009
UN and IC Need to Act Faster to Prevent Hunger
The civilian population in the LTTE controlled Mullitivu coastal areas are faced with serious crisis due to the deliberate denial of food and other humanitarian supplies by the Sri Lankan Government. The dwindling stocks coupled with the deliberate withholding of fresh supplies has made starvation imminent over 165 000 civilians belonging to 40, 000 families now living in this area. Food supplies have been withheld since 2nd April, local authorities have been seeking dry rations since 11th April in an attempt to minimize the spectre of starvation that looms ahead. According to the District Secretariat for the month of March just 1050 Metric Tons of food was received whereas the minimum requires was 4950 MT.
In addition to preventing international humanitarian agencies into the Vanni region, the World food organization has been purposely delayed and frequently denied access, since the escalation of this phase of offensive operation by the Sri Lankan armed forces. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has continued to deny access to international media to report on the humanitarian catastrophy that is unfolding.
In the last few months, the Sri Lankan regime has blocked the food supplies through land and sea. The supply routes have been deliberately targeted by artillery and mortars. The occupation of Puthukdiyerupu and surrounding areas has made impossible food supplies by land. Delivery by sea the only option for supplies to the people living in the LTTE controlled areas.
This systematic and deliberate denial of food, medicine and other medical supplies in serious breach to the international humanitarian law is a war crime and falls within the international crime of genocide.
The LTTE urges the UN and other members of the international community to act promptly to ensure immediate and continuous supply of food to these people. We fear that further delay can result in a crisis similar to that faced in Darfur or even deadlier.
The LTTE welcomes the announcement of the UNSG on sending humanitarian monitoring team to this part of the Island. We are prepared to engage in a constructive dialogue to address the humanitarian crisis in Vanni.
Political Head Quarters
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Tamil Eelam
[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 23:52 GMT]
In a press statement titled 'UN and IC Need to Act Faster to Prevent Hunger' the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam Friday said 165,000 Tamil civilians belonging to 40,000 families within the LTTE controlled area in Mullaiththeevu coast are faced with serious crisis due to the deliberate denial of food and other humanitarian supplies by the Sri Lankan Government. "The LTTE urges the UN and other members of the international community to act promptly to ensure immediate and continuous supply of food to these people. We fear that further delay can result in a crisis similar to that faced in Darfur or even deadlier," the statement released from Vanni said.
Full text of the statement follows:
Media Release
24th April 2009
UN and IC Need to Act Faster to Prevent Hunger
The civilian population in the LTTE controlled Mullitivu coastal areas are faced with serious crisis due to the deliberate denial of food and other humanitarian supplies by the Sri Lankan Government. The dwindling stocks coupled with the deliberate withholding of fresh supplies has made starvation imminent over 165 000 civilians belonging to 40, 000 families now living in this area. Food supplies have been withheld since 2nd April, local authorities have been seeking dry rations since 11th April in an attempt to minimize the spectre of starvation that looms ahead. According to the District Secretariat for the month of March just 1050 Metric Tons of food was received whereas the minimum requires was 4950 MT.
In addition to preventing international humanitarian agencies into the Vanni region, the World food organization has been purposely delayed and frequently denied access, since the escalation of this phase of offensive operation by the Sri Lankan armed forces. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government has continued to deny access to international media to report on the humanitarian catastrophy that is unfolding.
In the last few months, the Sri Lankan regime has blocked the food supplies through land and sea. The supply routes have been deliberately targeted by artillery and mortars. The occupation of Puthukdiyerupu and surrounding areas has made impossible food supplies by land. Delivery by sea the only option for supplies to the people living in the LTTE controlled areas.
This systematic and deliberate denial of food, medicine and other medical supplies in serious breach to the international humanitarian law is a war crime and falls within the international crime of genocide.
The LTTE urges the UN and other members of the international community to act promptly to ensure immediate and continuous supply of food to these people. We fear that further delay can result in a crisis similar to that faced in Darfur or even deadlier.
The LTTE welcomes the announcement of the UNSG on sending humanitarian monitoring team to this part of the Island. We are prepared to engage in a constructive dialogue to address the humanitarian crisis in Vanni.
Political Head Quarters
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Tamil Eelam
UNHCR starting emergency airlift of relief to Sri Lanka
UNHCR starting emergency airlift of relief to Sri Lanka
2009-04-24 22:42:47
GENEVA, Friday (Reuters) - The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday that it was starting an emergency airlift of tents and other supplies to Sri Lanka, where tens of thousands of people have fled fighting in the northeast.
The airlift, which could begin as early as this weekend, will carry 5,000 tents suitable for families and other items from the agency's stockpile in Dubai to the capital Colombo.
"The decision follows a dramatic escalation in fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels in recent days as the government attempts to flush out the remaining rebel stronghold," the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.
Indian envoys met Sri Lanka's president on Friday after New Delhi demanded a truce in the closing phase of a 25-year war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which U.N. data says may have killed almost 6,500 people in the last three months.
The Sri Lankan military said more than 108,000 people had poured out of the dwindling rebel-held area since Monday.
The tents will be used to shelter families who have fled the conflict zone now gathered in some 38 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the towns of Vavuniya, Jaffna and Trincomalee, the UNHCR said.
"Overcrowding at the camps is becoming a major worry...Many IDPs in the camps have no shelter from the sweltering heat."
The Geneva-based agency urged the government to allocate more land to build emergency shelter and water and sanitation infrastructure and make public buildings available for shelter.
"Aid workers also cite growing problems of malnourishment, lack of transport to move the sick to hospitals and a shortage of medical personnel," it said. "Some of the displaced have not eaten for days."
SITUATION CATASTROPHIC
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the situation in northeastern Sri Lanka remained "catastrophic".
"Several tens of thousands of people are still trapped in the conflict area with very little access to medical care, food and water. Sanitation is deplorable," ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno told a news briefing in Geneva.
The ICRC managed to evacuate 900 wounded and sick people since Monday and plans to evacuate another 300-400 people.
Sri Lankan authorities were preventing the neutral humanitarian agency from bringing life-saving surgical and medical supplies into the conflict zone, the spokesman said.
"The couple of doctors still operating within the conflict zone work with absolutely nothing. They have no blood supplies, no antibiotics and a very limited amount of bandages," he said.
"We are continuing to negotiate this delivery of medical material in the zone with the authorities but with no success for the moment," Schorno added.
UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau warned that risks were growing for civilians, especially children, caught in the crossfire. "The risk of seeing more and more children killed is considerable and unacceptable," she told reporters in Geneva.
2009-04-24 22:42:47
GENEVA, Friday (Reuters) - The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday that it was starting an emergency airlift of tents and other supplies to Sri Lanka, where tens of thousands of people have fled fighting in the northeast.
The airlift, which could begin as early as this weekend, will carry 5,000 tents suitable for families and other items from the agency's stockpile in Dubai to the capital Colombo.
"The decision follows a dramatic escalation in fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels in recent days as the government attempts to flush out the remaining rebel stronghold," the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.
Indian envoys met Sri Lanka's president on Friday after New Delhi demanded a truce in the closing phase of a 25-year war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which U.N. data says may have killed almost 6,500 people in the last three months.
The Sri Lankan military said more than 108,000 people had poured out of the dwindling rebel-held area since Monday.
The tents will be used to shelter families who have fled the conflict zone now gathered in some 38 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the towns of Vavuniya, Jaffna and Trincomalee, the UNHCR said.
"Overcrowding at the camps is becoming a major worry...Many IDPs in the camps have no shelter from the sweltering heat."
The Geneva-based agency urged the government to allocate more land to build emergency shelter and water and sanitation infrastructure and make public buildings available for shelter.
"Aid workers also cite growing problems of malnourishment, lack of transport to move the sick to hospitals and a shortage of medical personnel," it said. "Some of the displaced have not eaten for days."
SITUATION CATASTROPHIC
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the situation in northeastern Sri Lanka remained "catastrophic".
"Several tens of thousands of people are still trapped in the conflict area with very little access to medical care, food and water. Sanitation is deplorable," ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno told a news briefing in Geneva.
The ICRC managed to evacuate 900 wounded and sick people since Monday and plans to evacuate another 300-400 people.
Sri Lankan authorities were preventing the neutral humanitarian agency from bringing life-saving surgical and medical supplies into the conflict zone, the spokesman said.
"The couple of doctors still operating within the conflict zone work with absolutely nothing. They have no blood supplies, no antibiotics and a very limited amount of bandages," he said.
"We are continuing to negotiate this delivery of medical material in the zone with the authorities but with no success for the moment," Schorno added.
UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau warned that risks were growing for civilians, especially children, caught in the crossfire. "The risk of seeing more and more children killed is considerable and unacceptable," she told reporters in Geneva.
Washington Lobbyists (Patton Boggs) Cash In On War in Sri Lanka
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/04/hbc-90004852
Washington Lobbyists Cash In On War in Sri Lanka
By Ken Silverstein
It’s hard to know who bears more responsibility for the bloodshed in Sri Lanka, the government or the Tamil Tigers, but it’s clear that huge numbers of civilians are being killed in the crossfire. “The United Nations asserts that at least 4,500 civilians have been killed since January as the government has sought to decisively end a bloody rebellion that has lasted for a quarter-century,” said a Washington Post op-ed on Wednesday. “The army is said to be preparing a final assault that, according to U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, could produce a ‘bloodbath.”‘
This is a situation of armed conflict in which both parties are acting in ways that pose a grave risk to innocent civilians. The party that is perhaps more culpable — the rebels — answers to no one. And the Sri Lankan government has been able to operate with virtual impunity because it is fighting “terrorists.” Even Western states that usually condemn violations of international law have given the situation a wide berth.
The leader of the government’s military campaign is Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan Secretary of Defense, brother of the President and an American citizen. (He lived in the U.S. until 2005, when he returned to Sri Lanka and helped get his brother elected. He still has a residence in San Dimas, California valued at around $1 million, according to Bruce Fein, general counsel of Tamils Against Genocide, an organization funded by ethnic Tamils living abroad.) Sarath Fonseka, the Commander of the Sri Lankan army, also has U.S. ties, being a green card holder.
Predictably, Washington lobbyists are making out quite well from the war. In January, the firm of Patton Boggs was retained by the Embassy of Sri Lanka, with “a fixed fee of $35,000 per month, payable quarterly in advance,” according to the contract. Democratic lobbyist Tommy Boggs is helping run the account, which calls on Patton Boggs to “provide guidance and counsel to the Embassy of Sri Lanka regarding its relations with the Executive and Legislative Branches of the U.S. Government.” In other words, to sanitize the government’s conduct of the war and make it look good with the Obama administration.
After producing a “white paper” on Sri Lanka and the ongoing civil war, Patton Boggs organized a series of officia l meetings for its client. In late-March, the Sri Lankan ambassador to the U.S., Jaliya Wickramasuriya, met separately with Senator Richard Lugar. He briefed him on the conflict, stressing “the care taken to protect displaced civilians,” according to an Embassy press release.
Despite Patton Boggs’ best efforts, the government’s PR offensive has fallen flat. “I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering,” Secretary of State Clinton said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in February Fein filed a 1,000-page report with the U.S. Justice Department against Rajapaksa and Fonseka, charging violations of the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007. “Derived from affidavits, court documents, and contemporaneous media reporting, the indictment chronicles a grisly 61-year tale of Sinhalese Buddhists attempting to make Sri Lanka ‘Tamil free’,” he wrote recently in the Boston Globe.
Washington Lobbyists Cash In On War in Sri Lanka
By Ken Silverstein
It’s hard to know who bears more responsibility for the bloodshed in Sri Lanka, the government or the Tamil Tigers, but it’s clear that huge numbers of civilians are being killed in the crossfire. “The United Nations asserts that at least 4,500 civilians have been killed since January as the government has sought to decisively end a bloody rebellion that has lasted for a quarter-century,” said a Washington Post op-ed on Wednesday. “The army is said to be preparing a final assault that, according to U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes, could produce a ‘bloodbath.”‘
This is a situation of armed conflict in which both parties are acting in ways that pose a grave risk to innocent civilians. The party that is perhaps more culpable — the rebels — answers to no one. And the Sri Lankan government has been able to operate with virtual impunity because it is fighting “terrorists.” Even Western states that usually condemn violations of international law have given the situation a wide berth.
The leader of the government’s military campaign is Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan Secretary of Defense, brother of the President and an American citizen. (He lived in the U.S. until 2005, when he returned to Sri Lanka and helped get his brother elected. He still has a residence in San Dimas, California valued at around $1 million, according to Bruce Fein, general counsel of Tamils Against Genocide, an organization funded by ethnic Tamils living abroad.) Sarath Fonseka, the Commander of the Sri Lankan army, also has U.S. ties, being a green card holder.
Predictably, Washington lobbyists are making out quite well from the war. In January, the firm of Patton Boggs was retained by the Embassy of Sri Lanka, with “a fixed fee of $35,000 per month, payable quarterly in advance,” according to the contract. Democratic lobbyist Tommy Boggs is helping run the account, which calls on Patton Boggs to “provide guidance and counsel to the Embassy of Sri Lanka regarding its relations with the Executive and Legislative Branches of the U.S. Government.” In other words, to sanitize the government’s conduct of the war and make it look good with the Obama administration.
After producing a “white paper” on Sri Lanka and the ongoing civil war, Patton Boggs organized a series of officia l meetings for its client. In late-March, the Sri Lankan ambassador to the U.S., Jaliya Wickramasuriya, met separately with Senator Richard Lugar. He briefed him on the conflict, stressing “the care taken to protect displaced civilians,” according to an Embassy press release.
Despite Patton Boggs’ best efforts, the government’s PR offensive has fallen flat. “I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering,” Secretary of State Clinton said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in February Fein filed a 1,000-page report with the U.S. Justice Department against Rajapaksa and Fonseka, charging violations of the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007. “Derived from affidavits, court documents, and contemporaneous media reporting, the indictment chronicles a grisly 61-year tale of Sinhalese Buddhists attempting to make Sri Lanka ‘Tamil free’,” he wrote recently in the Boston Globe.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Trapped in 'catastrophic' war zone
Trapped in 'catastrophic' war zone
Thousands have fled but thousands more civilians remain trapped in the war zone [AFP]
Tens of thousands of civilians are stranded under "catastrophic" conditions in Sri Lanka's conflict zone, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.
Fighting between the Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has killed and wounded hundreds of other civilians, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the director of operations for the ICRC, said in Geneva on Wednesday.
"What we are seeing is intense fighting in a very small area overcrowded with civilians who have fled there," he said.
"I honestly cannot recall a situation as painful and extreme as the one affecting civilians in the Vanni currently."
Kraehenbuehl said the situation is "nothing short of catastrophic".
The ICRC has said up to 50,000 people are trapped on a small strip of territory in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka's north.
It called on the LTTE to allow civilians to flee the area, and it urged the government to distinguish between military targets and civilians.
"It is imperative that independent humanitarian organisations also be allowed to provide desperately needed services and relief for civilians still trapped in the 'no-fire zone'," Kraehenbuehl said.
Both sides criticised
In video
Sri Lankan civilians 'escape' rebel stronghold
Sri Lankan fighting exacts grim civilian toll
The US also expressed concern for the condition of Sri Lankan civilians on Wednesday.
Testifying before congress, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, criticised both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.
"I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed, that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering," she said.
As for the LTTE, Clinton said: "There seems to be very little openness on the part of the Tamil Tiger leadership to cease their efforts so that we could try to get in and help the people."
'Hellish' conditions
Earlier, Sri Lankan refugees escaping the last remaining stronghold of the LTTE described to Al Jazeera the "hellish" conditions they endured.
Focus: Sri Lanka
Q&A: Sri Lanka's civil war
The history of the Tamil Tigers
Timeline: Conflict in Sri Lanka
'High cost' of victory over Tigers
Caught in the middle
Talking to Al Jazeera's David Chater at a reception centre in Pulmudai just south of the narrow strip of land held by the LTTE, some refugees said that they had been held on a beach and shot as they tried to flee.
"A lot of them are in a very distressed state. They are suffering from heat exhaustion, dehydration and all sorts of illnesses," our correspondent said on Wednesday.
"I've been talking to the Tamils about the conditions they have been in - they described them as 'hellish'."
Hugues Robert, the head of the mission for Medecins Sans Frontieres which is treating the wounded in Sri Lanka, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that medical teams in Sri Lanka are "reaching the limit".
"What we are seeing inside the hospital is over 400 freshly wounded people coming to us. The cases are that more than three-fourths of them were injured due to a mine blast or bombshell."
'Rescue operations'
The Sri Lankan military says its so-called hostage-rescue operations are continuing.
Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a Sri Lankan military spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the army "rescued" 40,000 civilians from the northern conflict zone on Wednesday alone.
"We are conducting hostage rescue operations, and up till now 100,000 hostages have been rescued by army troops since the 20th of this month," he said.
"They have been evacuated to welfare camps located in one area."
Officials also said Velayutham Dayanithi, the LTTE's former media spokesman, whose nom de guerre is Daya Master, and an interpreter for group's political wing, known only as George, turned themselves over to government forces on Wednesday.
The war zone of about 21sq km has been split into two sections by the army, our correspondent said.
A Tamil website reported on Wednesday that the Sri Lankan military fired cannons towards a coastal area where the ICRC was preparing to take injured civilians away from the conflict zone.
The LTTE defied a government ultimatum that expired at noon (06:30 GMT) on Tuesday to give up or face a "final assault", saying they will not surrender.
The warning forced tens of thousands of civilians to escape from the conflict zone.
Blast injuries
Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka's minister for disaster management and human rights, told Al Jazeera that the civilians are being checked for weapons and are then handed over to a government agency that looks after them in the various camps.
Dr Ghana Gunalan, the director of health services, at Trincomalee on the northeast coast, told Al Jazeera: "Most of these [refugees] have been transported under ICRC flags to Trincomalee. Most people have blast injuries, including to their limbs and abdomens.
"Admittedly, it is not five-star accommodation, but we are trying very hard. There are areas for improvement and we are working on them very consciously," he said.
The UN, which estimates that more than 4,500 civilians have been killed in the past three months, has been one of a number of voices calling for a negotiated truce to allow civilians to leave the rebel-held coastal strip.
The Sri Lankan government has barred independent journalists from entering the war zone.
The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland in the north for the country's Tamil minority for 26 years.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Thousands have fled but thousands more civilians remain trapped in the war zone [AFP]
Tens of thousands of civilians are stranded under "catastrophic" conditions in Sri Lanka's conflict zone, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.
Fighting between the Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has killed and wounded hundreds of other civilians, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the director of operations for the ICRC, said in Geneva on Wednesday.
"What we are seeing is intense fighting in a very small area overcrowded with civilians who have fled there," he said.
"I honestly cannot recall a situation as painful and extreme as the one affecting civilians in the Vanni currently."
Kraehenbuehl said the situation is "nothing short of catastrophic".
The ICRC has said up to 50,000 people are trapped on a small strip of territory in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka's north.
It called on the LTTE to allow civilians to flee the area, and it urged the government to distinguish between military targets and civilians.
"It is imperative that independent humanitarian organisations also be allowed to provide desperately needed services and relief for civilians still trapped in the 'no-fire zone'," Kraehenbuehl said.
Both sides criticised
In video
Sri Lankan civilians 'escape' rebel stronghold
Sri Lankan fighting exacts grim civilian toll
The US also expressed concern for the condition of Sri Lankan civilians on Wednesday.
Testifying before congress, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, criticised both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.
"I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed, that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering," she said.
As for the LTTE, Clinton said: "There seems to be very little openness on the part of the Tamil Tiger leadership to cease their efforts so that we could try to get in and help the people."
'Hellish' conditions
Earlier, Sri Lankan refugees escaping the last remaining stronghold of the LTTE described to Al Jazeera the "hellish" conditions they endured.
Focus: Sri Lanka
Q&A: Sri Lanka's civil war
The history of the Tamil Tigers
Timeline: Conflict in Sri Lanka
'High cost' of victory over Tigers
Caught in the middle
Talking to Al Jazeera's David Chater at a reception centre in Pulmudai just south of the narrow strip of land held by the LTTE, some refugees said that they had been held on a beach and shot as they tried to flee.
"A lot of them are in a very distressed state. They are suffering from heat exhaustion, dehydration and all sorts of illnesses," our correspondent said on Wednesday.
"I've been talking to the Tamils about the conditions they have been in - they described them as 'hellish'."
Hugues Robert, the head of the mission for Medecins Sans Frontieres which is treating the wounded in Sri Lanka, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that medical teams in Sri Lanka are "reaching the limit".
"What we are seeing inside the hospital is over 400 freshly wounded people coming to us. The cases are that more than three-fourths of them were injured due to a mine blast or bombshell."
'Rescue operations'
The Sri Lankan military says its so-called hostage-rescue operations are continuing.
Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a Sri Lankan military spokesman, told Al Jazeera that the army "rescued" 40,000 civilians from the northern conflict zone on Wednesday alone.
"We are conducting hostage rescue operations, and up till now 100,000 hostages have been rescued by army troops since the 20th of this month," he said.
"They have been evacuated to welfare camps located in one area."
Officials also said Velayutham Dayanithi, the LTTE's former media spokesman, whose nom de guerre is Daya Master, and an interpreter for group's political wing, known only as George, turned themselves over to government forces on Wednesday.
The war zone of about 21sq km has been split into two sections by the army, our correspondent said.
A Tamil website reported on Wednesday that the Sri Lankan military fired cannons towards a coastal area where the ICRC was preparing to take injured civilians away from the conflict zone.
The LTTE defied a government ultimatum that expired at noon (06:30 GMT) on Tuesday to give up or face a "final assault", saying they will not surrender.
The warning forced tens of thousands of civilians to escape from the conflict zone.
Blast injuries
Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka's minister for disaster management and human rights, told Al Jazeera that the civilians are being checked for weapons and are then handed over to a government agency that looks after them in the various camps.
Dr Ghana Gunalan, the director of health services, at Trincomalee on the northeast coast, told Al Jazeera: "Most of these [refugees] have been transported under ICRC flags to Trincomalee. Most people have blast injuries, including to their limbs and abdomens.
"Admittedly, it is not five-star accommodation, but we are trying very hard. There are areas for improvement and we are working on them very consciously," he said.
The UN, which estimates that more than 4,500 civilians have been killed in the past three months, has been one of a number of voices calling for a negotiated truce to allow civilians to leave the rebel-held coastal strip.
The Sri Lankan government has barred independent journalists from entering the war zone.
The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland in the north for the country's Tamil minority for 26 years.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Clinton says Sri Lanka is causing 'untold suffering'
Clinton says Sri Lanka is causing 'untold suffering'
22 Apr 2009 16:08:26 GMT
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka has caused "untold suffering" as it fights Tamil Tiger rebels in what is believed to be the endgame of Asia's longest-running war, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.
"I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering," Clinton told lawmakers, referring to the thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone.
22 Apr 2009 16:08:26 GMT
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka has caused "untold suffering" as it fights Tamil Tiger rebels in what is believed to be the endgame of Asia's longest-running war, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.
"I think that the Sri Lankan government knows that the entire world is very disappointed that in its efforts to end what it sees as 25 years of conflict, it is causing such untold suffering," Clinton told lawmakers, referring to the thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone.
UN's and Ban's Backing-Down to Sri Lanka Questioned by NGOs, IMF Delay Praised
UN's and Ban's Backing-Down to Sri Lanka Questioned by NGOs, IMF Delay Praised
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 22 -- The lead-up to the "bloodbath on the beach" in Sri Lanka was the barring from the northern part of the country of not only journalists but also non-governmental organizations. Wednesday several prominent NGOs had a briefing at the UN, and they were asked why not only the UN but also they had not said more. Joseph Cornelius Donnelly of CARITAS International replied that fear of losing all access to the country, as with the UN, weighed on the side of keeping quiet.
Nimmi Gowrinathan of Operation USA pointed out that as an American NGO, the Patriot Act and the Material Support of Terrorism Act problematized some of their activities in north and east Sri Lanka. The group's president, she said, went to Colombo to meet with U.S. Ambassador Robert O. Blake, but a decision was made not to speak up in such a way as to "bring in Homeless Security" to see what they were doing. Video here, from Minute 50:21.
Inner City Press asked the groups to assess the UN's performance, in withholding casualty figures and refusing to call for a cease-fire. Anna Neistat from Human Rights Watch said that more journalists should have pushed the UN to give out the figures. She referred to the March 2009 document which Inner City Press obtained and published: at that time, 2683 dead, now risen past 4500.
The UN played scared, said Robert Templer of the International Crisis Group, and ended up with the worst of both worlds: no full access to the camps, and complicity in not speaking up about casualties caused by the government. The UN "should have been more forthright," he said. Video here, from Minute 29:55.
Annan biographer Traub, UN's "Best Intentions" on Sri Lanka not shown
Also taking questions on the panel was James Traub, policy director of the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect and biographer of -- some say apologist for -- Kofi Annan. After Traub had praised Annan's successor Ban Ki-moon for "very intense telephone" advocacy leading to the government's call for a two day holiday lull, Inner City Press asked him to comment on Ban's refusal to call for a cease-fire, and failure to speak out about the detention of UN staff without freedom of movement in government IDP camps.
"I can give a very satisfactory answer," Traub said, because "I don't know the underlying facts you cited to me." He went on to muse that Ban's failure to call for a cease-fire might have been a question of "nomenclature," that he was willing to call for a pause but not a cease-fire. But why? While appropriately also laying blame at the feet of member states, Traub conceded that the UN "is too institutionally inclined to say yes to retaining access, and no to speaking out publicly." Video here, from Minute 53.
But the problem is not only institutional. Even Kofi Annan, one surmises, would have said more in this case, when the UN's own reports showed 2,683 civilians killed between January 20 and March 7. HRW's Anna Neistat posed a question that remains to be answered: how could Sri Lanka so intimidate the UN, when it has so little leverage? She said she doubts Sri Lanka can even afford to throw out humanitarian groups. Why did the UN back down so cravenly? This remains to be answered.
One development was praised at Wednesday's session, the delay at the International Monetary Fund of Sri Lanka's request for a $1.9 billion loan. It was supposed to be approved weeks ago, HRW's Anna Neistat said when asked by a correspondent from Xinhua. Video here from Minute 49:09. In mid-March, when Inner City Press asked the IMF's spokesman if any conditions would be attached, he said it was still being negotiated.
While Neistat said that human rights conditions can't be attached to loans, early in the the week at the UN, Jo-Marie Griesgraber from New Rules for Global Finance responded to Inner City Press' question about Sri Lanka's loan request by noting that under Michel Camdessus, military over-expenditure can be to considered a "non productive expenditure." Video here, from Minute 33:14.
And is the building of detention camps, now being funded by the UN, a legitimate "humanitarian" expenditure? To be continued.
Footnote: We continue to wait for the UK's formal answer to the first of the two questions which Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of this press time a week later, the formal answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement, and this. Tuesday, Inner City Press put the question to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, whose spokesman on Wednesday cleared this response:
As more answers arrive or are released we will report them on this site.
Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 22 -- The lead-up to the "bloodbath on the beach" in Sri Lanka was the barring from the northern part of the country of not only journalists but also non-governmental organizations. Wednesday several prominent NGOs had a briefing at the UN, and they were asked why not only the UN but also they had not said more. Joseph Cornelius Donnelly of CARITAS International replied that fear of losing all access to the country, as with the UN, weighed on the side of keeping quiet.
Nimmi Gowrinathan of Operation USA pointed out that as an American NGO, the Patriot Act and the Material Support of Terrorism Act problematized some of their activities in north and east Sri Lanka. The group's president, she said, went to Colombo to meet with U.S. Ambassador Robert O. Blake, but a decision was made not to speak up in such a way as to "bring in Homeless Security" to see what they were doing. Video here, from Minute 50:21.
Inner City Press asked the groups to assess the UN's performance, in withholding casualty figures and refusing to call for a cease-fire. Anna Neistat from Human Rights Watch said that more journalists should have pushed the UN to give out the figures. She referred to the March 2009 document which Inner City Press obtained and published: at that time, 2683 dead, now risen past 4500.
The UN played scared, said Robert Templer of the International Crisis Group, and ended up with the worst of both worlds: no full access to the camps, and complicity in not speaking up about casualties caused by the government. The UN "should have been more forthright," he said. Video here, from Minute 29:55.
Annan biographer Traub, UN's "Best Intentions" on Sri Lanka not shown
Also taking questions on the panel was James Traub, policy director of the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect and biographer of -- some say apologist for -- Kofi Annan. After Traub had praised Annan's successor Ban Ki-moon for "very intense telephone" advocacy leading to the government's call for a two day holiday lull, Inner City Press asked him to comment on Ban's refusal to call for a cease-fire, and failure to speak out about the detention of UN staff without freedom of movement in government IDP camps.
"I can give a very satisfactory answer," Traub said, because "I don't know the underlying facts you cited to me." He went on to muse that Ban's failure to call for a cease-fire might have been a question of "nomenclature," that he was willing to call for a pause but not a cease-fire. But why? While appropriately also laying blame at the feet of member states, Traub conceded that the UN "is too institutionally inclined to say yes to retaining access, and no to speaking out publicly." Video here, from Minute 53.
But the problem is not only institutional. Even Kofi Annan, one surmises, would have said more in this case, when the UN's own reports showed 2,683 civilians killed between January 20 and March 7. HRW's Anna Neistat posed a question that remains to be answered: how could Sri Lanka so intimidate the UN, when it has so little leverage? She said she doubts Sri Lanka can even afford to throw out humanitarian groups. Why did the UN back down so cravenly? This remains to be answered.
One development was praised at Wednesday's session, the delay at the International Monetary Fund of Sri Lanka's request for a $1.9 billion loan. It was supposed to be approved weeks ago, HRW's Anna Neistat said when asked by a correspondent from Xinhua. Video here from Minute 49:09. In mid-March, when Inner City Press asked the IMF's spokesman if any conditions would be attached, he said it was still being negotiated.
While Neistat said that human rights conditions can't be attached to loans, early in the the week at the UN, Jo-Marie Griesgraber from New Rules for Global Finance responded to Inner City Press' question about Sri Lanka's loan request by noting that under Michel Camdessus, military over-expenditure can be to considered a "non productive expenditure." Video here, from Minute 33:14.
And is the building of detention camps, now being funded by the UN, a legitimate "humanitarian" expenditure? To be continued.
Footnote: We continue to wait for the UK's formal answer to the first of the two questions which Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of this press time a week later, the formal answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement, and this. Tuesday, Inner City Press put the question to U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, whose spokesman on Wednesday cleared this response:
As more answers arrive or are released we will report them on this site.
Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
On Sri Lanka, UN's Nambiar Resists Briefing the Council on His "Confidential" Trip: Is a USG Subpoena Needed?
On Sri Lanka, UN's Nambiar Resists Briefing the Council on His "Confidential" Trip: Is a USG Subpoena Needed?
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 21 -- Despite having been sent as the UN's envoy to the "bloodbath on the beach" in Sri Lanka, Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar is now reluctant to give the Security Council even a closed door briefing on the crisis, sources told Inner City Press late Tuesday.
One well-placed Council diplomat said that despite all 15 members, including China and Russia, agreeing to an "informal interactive dialogue" with Mr. Nambiar, who has just returned via India from three days in Sri Lanka, they were told that Nambiar views the matter as "too sensitive" even for discussion behind closed doors. Nambiar argued that as a "mediator," what he discussed with Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers was "confidential," even from the Security Council.
One Permanent Five member of the Council, in this account, has protested Nambiar's refusal, which will be transmitted to Nambiar and the Secretariat by Council President Claude Heller on Mexico. At press time late Tuesday, the projected Wednesday afternoon briefing of the Council, at least by Nambiar, is in doubt. Nambiar has argued that "it is mostly a humanitarian and not a political situation," as Council source, and China before that, have put it.
UN's Nambiar at right re Myanmar, reluctance to brief not shown
Thus, Nambiar argues, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs should give the briefing, not him. But it is Nambiar who with such fanfare flew to Colombo. And OCHA chief John Holmes, who has not been in Sri Lanka for weeks, is now in China. The only other option would be Hitoki Den, below director level in the UN Department of Political Affairs, who accompanied Nambiar on his trip.
Even regarding Myanmar, Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari briefs the Council, and then takes questions from the media.
Council and other UN sources expressed amazement that in this Sri Lanka case a UN Under Secretary General would attempt to rebuff a request to brief the Council, on one of his few pieces of public work during Ban Ki-moon's administration. Perhaps the Security Council needs to serve Nambiar a subpoena... Watch this site.
Footnote: We continue to wait for the UK's formal answer to the first of the two questions which Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of this press time more than six and a half days later, the formal answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement, and this. Now, the same question has been posed to another Permanent Five member's Permanent Representative. As more answers arrive or are released we will report them on this site.
Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 21 -- Despite having been sent as the UN's envoy to the "bloodbath on the beach" in Sri Lanka, Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar is now reluctant to give the Security Council even a closed door briefing on the crisis, sources told Inner City Press late Tuesday.
One well-placed Council diplomat said that despite all 15 members, including China and Russia, agreeing to an "informal interactive dialogue" with Mr. Nambiar, who has just returned via India from three days in Sri Lanka, they were told that Nambiar views the matter as "too sensitive" even for discussion behind closed doors. Nambiar argued that as a "mediator," what he discussed with Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers was "confidential," even from the Security Council.
One Permanent Five member of the Council, in this account, has protested Nambiar's refusal, which will be transmitted to Nambiar and the Secretariat by Council President Claude Heller on Mexico. At press time late Tuesday, the projected Wednesday afternoon briefing of the Council, at least by Nambiar, is in doubt. Nambiar has argued that "it is mostly a humanitarian and not a political situation," as Council source, and China before that, have put it.
UN's Nambiar at right re Myanmar, reluctance to brief not shown
Thus, Nambiar argues, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs should give the briefing, not him. But it is Nambiar who with such fanfare flew to Colombo. And OCHA chief John Holmes, who has not been in Sri Lanka for weeks, is now in China. The only other option would be Hitoki Den, below director level in the UN Department of Political Affairs, who accompanied Nambiar on his trip.
Even regarding Myanmar, Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari briefs the Council, and then takes questions from the media.
Council and other UN sources expressed amazement that in this Sri Lanka case a UN Under Secretary General would attempt to rebuff a request to brief the Council, on one of his few pieces of public work during Ban Ki-moon's administration. Perhaps the Security Council needs to serve Nambiar a subpoena... Watch this site.
Footnote: We continue to wait for the UK's formal answer to the first of the two questions which Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of this press time more than six and a half days later, the formal answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement, and this. Now, the same question has been posed to another Permanent Five member's Permanent Representative. As more answers arrive or are released we will report them on this site.
Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.
SLA shells Church in Valaignarmadam, Fr. James Pathinathar wounded
SLA shells Church in Valaignarmadam, Fr. James Pathinathar wounded
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 08:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up artillery and mortar barrage on Valaignarmadam Wednesday killing and maiming civilians who have sought refuge at several locations. Rev Father James Pathinathar, a prominent Catholic priest was injured in SLA shelling that hit the Church in Valaignarmadam Wednesday noon, initial reports said.
The SLA shelling on Tuesday killed a doctor and seven persons including medical staff at a makeshift medical centre in the same area.
As SLA was continuing to monitor civilian movement and directs attacks on fleeing civilians towards LTTE areas, immediate transport for wounded towards the RDHS run makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal was severely disturbed, reports TamilNet correspondent from Vanni.
Exact casualty figures are yet to emerge.
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 08:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) stepped up artillery and mortar barrage on Valaignarmadam Wednesday killing and maiming civilians who have sought refuge at several locations. Rev Father James Pathinathar, a prominent Catholic priest was injured in SLA shelling that hit the Church in Valaignarmadam Wednesday noon, initial reports said.
The SLA shelling on Tuesday killed a doctor and seven persons including medical staff at a makeshift medical centre in the same area.
As SLA was continuing to monitor civilian movement and directs attacks on fleeing civilians towards LTTE areas, immediate transport for wounded towards the RDHS run makeshift hospital in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal was severely disturbed, reports TamilNet correspondent from Vanni.
Exact casualty figures are yet to emerge.
Attempt to ‘Sinhalize’ Muslim areas in East – Hakeem
Attempt to ‘Sinhalize’ Muslim areas in East – Hakeem
SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem told Parliament yesterday (21), that there was an attempt to ‘Sinhalize’ Muslim areas in the East by naming these areas with Sinhala names.
"I have received complaints from the people living in several places in the East including from those who are in North of Kokilai that the Navy had begun to name places with Sinhala names instead of their former Muslim names. Now there are no Jinna Nagar and Akbar Town but Mihindu Pura, Pubudu Mawatha and Vihara Mawatha. When residents had objected, Navy officers had told them that the re-naming was done for the convenience of Sinhala service personnel, as it was difficult for them to remember Muslim names," MP Hakeem said during the adjourned debate of the Local Government (Special Provisions) Amendment Bill.
He said that the local authorities in the areas had intervened to stop the re-naming but shortly afterwards archaeologists had been sent from Colombo to excavate the area in search for ruins to establish the fact that Sinhalese people had resided in these areas in pre-historic times. Then the re-naming of areas resumed again, he said. "There is an attempt to change the demography of the area," he said.
SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem told Parliament yesterday (21), that there was an attempt to ‘Sinhalize’ Muslim areas in the East by naming these areas with Sinhala names.
"I have received complaints from the people living in several places in the East including from those who are in North of Kokilai that the Navy had begun to name places with Sinhala names instead of their former Muslim names. Now there are no Jinna Nagar and Akbar Town but Mihindu Pura, Pubudu Mawatha and Vihara Mawatha. When residents had objected, Navy officers had told them that the re-naming was done for the convenience of Sinhala service personnel, as it was difficult for them to remember Muslim names," MP Hakeem said during the adjourned debate of the Local Government (Special Provisions) Amendment Bill.
He said that the local authorities in the areas had intervened to stop the re-naming but shortly afterwards archaeologists had been sent from Colombo to excavate the area in search for ruins to establish the fact that Sinhalese people had resided in these areas in pre-historic times. Then the re-naming of areas resumed again, he said. "There is an attempt to change the demography of the area," he said.
Monday, April 20, 2009
UN Misspeaks on Sri Lanka Complaints
UN Misspeaks on Sri Lanka Complaints and Skanska Suit, Kosovo Runaround, Fiji Connections
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 19 – In last week’s UN answers to questions asked at noon, there were at least two seeming misstatements, and one near-comical runaround. On Sri Lanka, Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq told Inner City Press on both April 13 and April 14 that the UN had “repeated” urged the government to release UN staff members detained in internally displaced people’s camps. But by week’s end, Sri Lankan “Resettlement” Minister Rishad Baduideen replied that the first the government heard from the UN about the issue was on April 15 -- two days after Inner City Press wrote and asked about it, and Mr. Haq’s answer.
On April 17, Inner City Press asked and Haq responded
Inner City Press: Just on this asbestos, first can you either confirm or respond to the seeming fact in the public record that Skanska is a named defendant in an ongoing civil suit about mishandling asbestos in the Monterey Courthouse in California, and that it had paid a fine in connection with that case earlier on? And also that ATC has been issued an order of non-compliance from the Clean Air Act by the EPA, and why they were selected.
Associate Spokesperson Haq: You know, I have something for you on that, but I don’t know whether I have it here. So many papers, but that one is still upstairs. I’ll have to tell about that on afterwards.
[The Associate Spokesperson later said regarding the lawsuit in California concerning Skanska and asbestos abatement: Skanska had made the United Nations aware of this lawsuit before they were selected, in the 2007 Request for Proposal process. Neither Skanska nor Skanska subcontractors performed any asbestos abatement on the referenced project and all charges were dismissed in 2007 and permanently removed from the record by the State of California.]
There is only one problem with this answer: it is false to say that the lawsuit is dismissed, because the civil suit continues, as Skanska and CMP personnel below the level of Michael Adlerstein admit. Adlerstein has misspoken, and the Spokesperson’s office has repeated it, in writing. (Similarly, it is possible that OCHA or the UN Country Team in Sri Lanka are the origin of Haq's statements that the Sri Lankan government has denied.) Now what?
Of the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General, sources tell Inner City Press that it is filing complaints with DPI chief Kiyosaka Akasaka and others that the Office is under-staffed, particularly with Ban Ki-moon's near constant travel. Despite Sri Lanka directly contradicting with Haq and John Holmes said, it is of course possible that it is the UN telling the truth. But then one expects the UN to publicly take issue with Sri Lanka's denials, just as the UN and OSSG have with Sudan, Zimbabwe and other member states. We'll see.
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 19 – In last week’s UN answers to questions asked at noon, there were at least two seeming misstatements, and one near-comical runaround. On Sri Lanka, Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq told Inner City Press on both April 13 and April 14 that the UN had “repeated” urged the government to release UN staff members detained in internally displaced people’s camps. But by week’s end, Sri Lankan “Resettlement” Minister Rishad Baduideen replied that the first the government heard from the UN about the issue was on April 15 -- two days after Inner City Press wrote and asked about it, and Mr. Haq’s answer.
On April 17, Inner City Press asked and Haq responded
Inner City Press: Just on this asbestos, first can you either confirm or respond to the seeming fact in the public record that Skanska is a named defendant in an ongoing civil suit about mishandling asbestos in the Monterey Courthouse in California, and that it had paid a fine in connection with that case earlier on? And also that ATC has been issued an order of non-compliance from the Clean Air Act by the EPA, and why they were selected.
Associate Spokesperson Haq: You know, I have something for you on that, but I don’t know whether I have it here. So many papers, but that one is still upstairs. I’ll have to tell about that on afterwards.
[The Associate Spokesperson later said regarding the lawsuit in California concerning Skanska and asbestos abatement: Skanska had made the United Nations aware of this lawsuit before they were selected, in the 2007 Request for Proposal process. Neither Skanska nor Skanska subcontractors performed any asbestos abatement on the referenced project and all charges were dismissed in 2007 and permanently removed from the record by the State of California.]
There is only one problem with this answer: it is false to say that the lawsuit is dismissed, because the civil suit continues, as Skanska and CMP personnel below the level of Michael Adlerstein admit. Adlerstein has misspoken, and the Spokesperson’s office has repeated it, in writing. (Similarly, it is possible that OCHA or the UN Country Team in Sri Lanka are the origin of Haq's statements that the Sri Lankan government has denied.) Now what?
Of the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General, sources tell Inner City Press that it is filing complaints with DPI chief Kiyosaka Akasaka and others that the Office is under-staffed, particularly with Ban Ki-moon's near constant travel. Despite Sri Lanka directly contradicting with Haq and John Holmes said, it is of course possible that it is the UN telling the truth. But then one expects the UN to publicly take issue with Sri Lanka's denials, just as the UN and OSSG have with Sudan, Zimbabwe and other member states. We'll see.
Sri Lanka Denies UN's Claimed Advocacy for Detained Staff, UK's Des Browne Said on Way to NYC
Sri Lanka Denies UN's Claimed Advocacy for Detained Staff, UK's Des Browne Said on Way to NYC
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, April 18, 1:36 pm, updated -- As in Sri Lanka the “bloodbath on the beach” progresses, the United Kingdom is proclaiming its own diplomatic push at the UN. Sources tell Inner City Press that Gordon Brown's envoy to Sri Lanka, whom the government rejected, is headed to New York to “to visit the UN to speak both with UN spokespersons, whose public statements have been very much in step with ours, as well as with those who do not share all of our views.”
The latter group includes Security Council veto-wielding members China and Russia, both of which have fought to not have Sri Lanka put on the Council's agenda, and confined the last “informational” briefing by top UN humanitarian John Holmes to the basement of the UN, not the Council chamber or consultation room. Diplomatic protocol being what it is, one would at least expect the Permanent Representatives of the two countries to meet with Mr. Browne and hear him out. Some wonder if it is Des Browne who might finally get the US Obama administration's mass crimes expert Samantha Power involved.
[Update: four hours after this report went online, the UK issued a statement announcing Des Browne's trip, here.]
If it is true that the UN through its spokespersons are “in step” with the UK, then the UK is not asking for a cease-fire. Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon if he was making such a call, and he did not. On April 17, Ban's Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq responded to Inner City Press' question if Ban's envoy Vijay Nambiar was asking for a cease-fire by saying that the UN is only asking that heavy weapons not be used.
The UN has also dissembled, it seems, on its advocacy with the Sri Lankan government for its own staff members. On April 13, Inner City Press began asking why the UN had not spoken up about its staff members detained without freedom of movement in the government's camps. Both Haq and then Holmes said that they had been pushing hard with the government.
But now Sri Lankan “Resettlement” Minister Rishad Baduideen has said that the first the government heard from the UN about the issue was on April 15 -- two days after Inner City Press wrote and asked about it.
UK's Browne and UN's Ban, cease-fire call not shown, nor answers on detentions
Then, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator Neil Buhne finally wrote a letter to the government, and his office admitted that 11 UN staff members and their families are being detained in camps in Vavuniya.
Until then, “Minister Baduideen said he had not received a letter from the UN and unless they receive a formal complaint that they cannot look into it, and as and when they do they will discuss it with the military officials.... Meanwhile [the spokesman for] UNCEF director Ann Veneman was quoted by the Inner City Press as saying the UNICEF and UN systems staff visiting the area were in contact with their staff in the camps and that they have been prevented from leaving the camps.”
So the government denies that the UN raised the issue until April 15. Who is to be believed? Watch this site.
Footnote: We continue to wait for the UK's formal answer to the first of the two questions which Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of this press time more than 72 hours later, the formal answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement, and this. As more answers arrive we will report them on this site.
Click here for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, April 18, 1:36 pm, updated -- As in Sri Lanka the “bloodbath on the beach” progresses, the United Kingdom is proclaiming its own diplomatic push at the UN. Sources tell Inner City Press that Gordon Brown's envoy to Sri Lanka, whom the government rejected, is headed to New York to “to visit the UN to speak both with UN spokespersons, whose public statements have been very much in step with ours, as well as with those who do not share all of our views.”
The latter group includes Security Council veto-wielding members China and Russia, both of which have fought to not have Sri Lanka put on the Council's agenda, and confined the last “informational” briefing by top UN humanitarian John Holmes to the basement of the UN, not the Council chamber or consultation room. Diplomatic protocol being what it is, one would at least expect the Permanent Representatives of the two countries to meet with Mr. Browne and hear him out. Some wonder if it is Des Browne who might finally get the US Obama administration's mass crimes expert Samantha Power involved.
[Update: four hours after this report went online, the UK issued a statement announcing Des Browne's trip, here.]
If it is true that the UN through its spokespersons are “in step” with the UK, then the UK is not asking for a cease-fire. Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon if he was making such a call, and he did not. On April 17, Ban's Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq responded to Inner City Press' question if Ban's envoy Vijay Nambiar was asking for a cease-fire by saying that the UN is only asking that heavy weapons not be used.
The UN has also dissembled, it seems, on its advocacy with the Sri Lankan government for its own staff members. On April 13, Inner City Press began asking why the UN had not spoken up about its staff members detained without freedom of movement in the government's camps. Both Haq and then Holmes said that they had been pushing hard with the government.
But now Sri Lankan “Resettlement” Minister Rishad Baduideen has said that the first the government heard from the UN about the issue was on April 15 -- two days after Inner City Press wrote and asked about it.
UK's Browne and UN's Ban, cease-fire call not shown, nor answers on detentions
Then, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator Neil Buhne finally wrote a letter to the government, and his office admitted that 11 UN staff members and their families are being detained in camps in Vavuniya.
Until then, “Minister Baduideen said he had not received a letter from the UN and unless they receive a formal complaint that they cannot look into it, and as and when they do they will discuss it with the military officials.... Meanwhile [the spokesman for] UNCEF director Ann Veneman was quoted by the Inner City Press as saying the UNICEF and UN systems staff visiting the area were in contact with their staff in the camps and that they have been prevented from leaving the camps.”
So the government denies that the UN raised the issue until April 15. Who is to be believed? Watch this site.
Footnote: We continue to wait for the UK's formal answer to the first of the two questions which Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of this press time more than 72 hours later, the formal answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement, and this. As more answers arrive we will report them on this site.
Click here for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.
Costs of policing Tamil protests raises concerns
Costs of policing Tamil protests raises concerns
By Pauline Tam , Canwest News ServiceApril 19, 2009
Ottawa police move in to remove picket signs from protesting Sri Lankan Canadians in support of the Tamil Tigers as they continue the third day of protests in front of Parliament Hill on April 9.
Ottawa police move in to remove picket signs from protesting Sri Lankan Canadians in support of the Tamil Tigers as they continue the third day of protests in front of Parliament Hill on April 9.
Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — As the Tamil-Canadian vigil on Parliament Hill enters its third week, with a fresh wave of demonstrators expected on Tuesday, area politicians are calling on the federal government to cover the extra costs of patrolling the protest.
“As a clear and pragmatic point, the federal government should be paying for these services that are provided from the City of Ottawa,” Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar said Sunday.
The price tag for the Ottawa police’s involvement has not yet been tallied, but councillor Eli El-Chantiry, chairman of the Ottawa Police Services Board, said he has asked for a breakdown of expenses to be presented later this month.
“I have asked staff to get a detailed report for every dime and nickel spent from Day 1, and I can imagine the number is not going to be pretty,” said El-Chantiry. “But I can assure you I will be requesting assistance from the federal government whenever we have the number.”
Protest organizers have indicated that as many as 25,000 Tamil supporters are expected on the Hill Tuesday. While police say they are prepared to handle a large crowd, they don’t expect a repeat of what happened during the early days of the demonstration, when downtown traffic was ensnared and buses were rerouted, creating commuter havoc.
“The flavour of the protest has changed and it has been very co-operative in nature,” said Ottawa police Insp. Mark Ford. “The protesters are trying to minimize the impact and work with us in doing our job.”
For two weeks, Tamil supporters have gathered around Parliament Hill to protest the civil war in the South Asian country and urge the Canadian government to intervene.
Many say they fear for the safety of family members caught in the violence. The protesters are angry about what they view as hostilities by the Sri Lankan military, which has moved onto land historically held by the country’s Tamil minority.
For nearly four decades, the Tamils have been fighting for an independent homeland. Over the weekend, nearly 3,000 civilians were reported to have escaped from Sri Lanka’s northeast war zone and sought shelter with government forces. The United Nations estimates up to 100,000 civilians are trapped in the area in “dire humanitarian conditions.”
The developments have reverberated in this country, which is home to an estimated 140,000 Tamil Canadians.
In addition to calling for a ceasefire, Tamil Canadians have asked the federal government to impose political sanctions as well as trade and arms embargoes.
Yet federal politicians — nervous about the optics of being associated with protesters waving a flag identified with the Tamil Tigers, labelled a terrorist group in Canada — have so far kept their distance.
The protest could become harder to ignore as MPs return to Parliament Monday after a two-week break.
Over the weekend, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae joined a growing chorus of world leaders in urging the Sri Lankan government to allow humanitarian aid for civilians caught in the war zone.
The Tamil protesters, who had been starving themselves to pressure the Canadian government to call for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, temporarily suspended their hunger strike Saturday evening amid calls from the Tamil community that they nourish themselves before doing permanent damage to their health. But three of the original six hunger strikers say they may resume their strike Tuesday.
Ottawa Citizen
By Pauline Tam , Canwest News ServiceApril 19, 2009
Ottawa police move in to remove picket signs from protesting Sri Lankan Canadians in support of the Tamil Tigers as they continue the third day of protests in front of Parliament Hill on April 9.
Ottawa police move in to remove picket signs from protesting Sri Lankan Canadians in support of the Tamil Tigers as they continue the third day of protests in front of Parliament Hill on April 9.
Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — As the Tamil-Canadian vigil on Parliament Hill enters its third week, with a fresh wave of demonstrators expected on Tuesday, area politicians are calling on the federal government to cover the extra costs of patrolling the protest.
“As a clear and pragmatic point, the federal government should be paying for these services that are provided from the City of Ottawa,” Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar said Sunday.
The price tag for the Ottawa police’s involvement has not yet been tallied, but councillor Eli El-Chantiry, chairman of the Ottawa Police Services Board, said he has asked for a breakdown of expenses to be presented later this month.
“I have asked staff to get a detailed report for every dime and nickel spent from Day 1, and I can imagine the number is not going to be pretty,” said El-Chantiry. “But I can assure you I will be requesting assistance from the federal government whenever we have the number.”
Protest organizers have indicated that as many as 25,000 Tamil supporters are expected on the Hill Tuesday. While police say they are prepared to handle a large crowd, they don’t expect a repeat of what happened during the early days of the demonstration, when downtown traffic was ensnared and buses were rerouted, creating commuter havoc.
“The flavour of the protest has changed and it has been very co-operative in nature,” said Ottawa police Insp. Mark Ford. “The protesters are trying to minimize the impact and work with us in doing our job.”
For two weeks, Tamil supporters have gathered around Parliament Hill to protest the civil war in the South Asian country and urge the Canadian government to intervene.
Many say they fear for the safety of family members caught in the violence. The protesters are angry about what they view as hostilities by the Sri Lankan military, which has moved onto land historically held by the country’s Tamil minority.
For nearly four decades, the Tamils have been fighting for an independent homeland. Over the weekend, nearly 3,000 civilians were reported to have escaped from Sri Lanka’s northeast war zone and sought shelter with government forces. The United Nations estimates up to 100,000 civilians are trapped in the area in “dire humanitarian conditions.”
The developments have reverberated in this country, which is home to an estimated 140,000 Tamil Canadians.
In addition to calling for a ceasefire, Tamil Canadians have asked the federal government to impose political sanctions as well as trade and arms embargoes.
Yet federal politicians — nervous about the optics of being associated with protesters waving a flag identified with the Tamil Tigers, labelled a terrorist group in Canada — have so far kept their distance.
The protest could become harder to ignore as MPs return to Parliament Monday after a two-week break.
Over the weekend, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae joined a growing chorus of world leaders in urging the Sri Lankan government to allow humanitarian aid for civilians caught in the war zone.
The Tamil protesters, who had been starving themselves to pressure the Canadian government to call for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, temporarily suspended their hunger strike Saturday evening amid calls from the Tamil community that they nourish themselves before doing permanent damage to their health. But three of the original six hunger strikers say they may resume their strike Tuesday.
Ottawa Citizen
UK envoy in Sri Lanka peace talks
UK envoy in Sri Lanka peace talks
Des Browne
The MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun is a former defence minister
Gordon Brown has sent a special envoy to the United Nations in New York for "urgent" talks on the war in Sri Lanka.
Special Representative, MP Des Browne, will try to secure a ceasefire between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels fighting in the north.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was "gravely concerned" that 100,000 civilians remained trapped in the area.
Earlier this month, hundreds of Tamils demonstrated outside Parliament in London calling for Britain's help.
'Disrespectful intrusion'
At least 28 civilians have been killed in the last two days of fighting, health officials in Sri Lanka estimate.
However, the United Nations puts the figure at 2,800 dead and 7,000 injured in the past two months.
Mr Miliband said: "The British government maintains its calls for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka and for civilians to be allowed to leave the conflict area.
We are committed to do all we can to bring this terrible conflict to an end
David Miliband
"We have been joined by many other governments, including France and the United States, in making similar calls."
"The Tamil community are a community we value and they make an important contribution to British society. They have seen friends and relatives perish and their loved ones are still at grave risk from the fighting.
"We have heard their voice and will keep listening. We are committed to do all we can to bring this terrible conflict to an end."
The Sri Lankan government has rejected calls for a ceasefire, arguing it would give Tamil Tiger rebels time to regroup.
The Tigers - or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - are fighting for a separatist state in the north and east of the island.
They are a proscribed terrorist group in many countries, including the UK.
The rebels have recently pushed into an area declared a safety zone for civilians fleeing the fighting.
The rebels deny they are holding civilians as hostages, saying people do not want to leave the zone because they fear the military.
Earlier this month, 100,000 protesters marched through central London to draw attention to alleged human rights abuses from the 25-year conflict which has claimed 70,000 lives.
Sri Lanka recently rejected Mr Browne's appointment as a special envoy, saying it was a "disrespectful intrusion".
The MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun is a former defence minister.
Des Browne
The MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun is a former defence minister
Gordon Brown has sent a special envoy to the United Nations in New York for "urgent" talks on the war in Sri Lanka.
Special Representative, MP Des Browne, will try to secure a ceasefire between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels fighting in the north.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was "gravely concerned" that 100,000 civilians remained trapped in the area.
Earlier this month, hundreds of Tamils demonstrated outside Parliament in London calling for Britain's help.
'Disrespectful intrusion'
At least 28 civilians have been killed in the last two days of fighting, health officials in Sri Lanka estimate.
However, the United Nations puts the figure at 2,800 dead and 7,000 injured in the past two months.
Mr Miliband said: "The British government maintains its calls for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka and for civilians to be allowed to leave the conflict area.
We are committed to do all we can to bring this terrible conflict to an end
David Miliband
"We have been joined by many other governments, including France and the United States, in making similar calls."
"The Tamil community are a community we value and they make an important contribution to British society. They have seen friends and relatives perish and their loved ones are still at grave risk from the fighting.
"We have heard their voice and will keep listening. We are committed to do all we can to bring this terrible conflict to an end."
The Sri Lankan government has rejected calls for a ceasefire, arguing it would give Tamil Tiger rebels time to regroup.
The Tigers - or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - are fighting for a separatist state in the north and east of the island.
They are a proscribed terrorist group in many countries, including the UK.
The rebels have recently pushed into an area declared a safety zone for civilians fleeing the fighting.
The rebels deny they are holding civilians as hostages, saying people do not want to leave the zone because they fear the military.
Earlier this month, 100,000 protesters marched through central London to draw attention to alleged human rights abuses from the 25-year conflict which has claimed 70,000 lives.
Sri Lanka recently rejected Mr Browne's appointment as a special envoy, saying it was a "disrespectful intrusion".
The MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun is a former defence minister.
Speech at United Nations Rally by V. Rudrakumaran
Speech at United Nations Rally
by V. Rudrakumaran, April 17, 2009
What’s happening in Sri Lanka is not a civil war, it’s not a war on terror, but an act of genocide, pure and simple...
We have gathered here today in front of the U.N. to ensure that the U.N. doesn’t repeat the Rwanda genocide in the island of Sri Lanka...
The U.N. was able to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas within 22 days. Why can’t the U.N. bring about a similar ceasefire on the island of Sri Lanka? Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god? When the Bashir expelled the international NGOs from Darfur, the U.N. issued warnings. But when the GoSL orders international NGOs to leave, they meekly left the Tamil areas the next day. Why this double standard?...
We are told that since the LTTE is a “terrorist” organization, the GoSL’s military offensive is legal. If that is so, what about the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which is also designated as a “terrorist organization?” Such a statement also raises the question whether the international community is willing to accept Genocide as collateral damage in its “war on terror.” If that is so, they should say so openly.
Brothers and sisters, we are here to answer the call of history. We are here to answer the answer the call of humanity. We are here to awaken the conscience of the international community.
Presently, more than 300,000 Tamil civilians have been internally displaced by the GoSL, that is dominated permanently and overwhelmingly by the Sinhala nation. Presently, the Tamil people in the Vanni area are subject to indiscriminate bombing and shelling solely on account of their Tamil ethnicity-- a genocidal act that shocks the conscience of mankind. In September 2008, the GoSL expelled the INGOs, who had been providing food, shelter and medicine to the Tamil areas. This is a calculated effort on the part of the GoSL to bring about the physical destruction of the Tamil nation, in whole or in part—a Genocidal Act. A couple of weeks ago we also learned from credible local sources that the GoSL employed chemical weapons against combatants' as well as against noncombatants.
New York Tamil American rally in front of UN April 17 2009
Rally in front of UN, April 17, 2009. Photo: TamilNet
Child injured in 'Safe zone' by Sri Lankan army shelling April 17, 2009
Child injured in 'Safe Zone' by Sri Lankan army shelling, April 17, 2009
In order to ascertain the intent of the GoSL’s military onslaught, the GoSL’s present military response should be compared with her response in the 1970s when the Sinhala youths took up arms. When the Sinhala youths took up arms, the GoSL did not engage in indiscriminant bombing or shelling. When the Sinhala youths took up arms, the GoSL did not ask the Sinhala villagers to leave their habitat and livelihood, and did not herd them into concentration camps. The glaring disparity demonstrates that the intent of the GoSL is to destroy the Tamil Nation, in whole or in part.
In addition, the press statements by the Defense Secretary and the Army Commander that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala nation and Tamil nationalism — not the Tigers — are the problem demonstrate that the intent of the GoSL is to engage in genocide. It is also brought to the attention of the International Community again, that when 8,000 Muslim were massacred in Srebrenica on account of their ethnicity, the International Court of Justice held that that fact constitutes genocide.
On December 9, 2008, the New-York Based Genocide Prevention Project issued a red alert against eight countries where genocide is happening or is likely to happen. Needless to say, Sri Lanka was one of those countries. On February 4, 2009, the UK Foreign Minister, Hon. David Milliband endorsed a view of a Member of the House of Commons that the signals coming from Sri Lanka indicate that the government is prepared to go ahead with an act of genocide. Along this line, 38 members of the US Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stating that there can be no doubt that ethnic-based violence is widespread in Sri Lanka, and that Tamil non-combatants are deliberately victimized by the GoSL. What’s happening in Sri Lanka is not a civil war, it’s not a war on terror, but an act of genocide, pure and simple.
This ultimate crime, which the GoSL is brazenly committing against our brethren back home, compels us to come out on their behalf. For the last two months, the Tamil Diaspora around the world in one voice has taken the Tamil genocide to the streets of the capitals of various countries. Being outside the clutches of the genocidal GoSL, we are in a unique position to contribute to halt this genocide. Being members of the political communities in various countries, we are also in a position to influence the foreign policy of our respective countries. In other situations, such as the overthrow of the Marcos regime in the Philippines and the successful completion of the nuclear deal between the US and India, their diasporas played a pivotal role.
New York Tamil American rally April 17 2009 Times Square
Rally at Times Square after UN rally, April 17, 2009
Through our Awareness rallies with Tamil Eelam flags and pictures of the Tamil national leader, Hon. Vellupillai Pirabaharan, we have demonstrated to the GoSL that their zeal to quell the Tamils’ thirst for the realization of the right to self-determination or their dream of wiping out the LTTE will be a futile one. The more they bomb, the more the Tamil diaspora is resolved to protect their brethren. The more they shell, the more the Tamils are resolved to realize their right of self-determination. The more they brag about their military adventurism, the more the Tamil people rally under the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Our efforts, our rallies, are starting to have a creeping influence on the international community. For the international community’s muted call for a ceasefire or for its call for a “humanitarian pause,” the determination, the sacrifice, the passion, the unity demonstrated by the Tamil diaspora has played a significant role. However, we have not seen the light at the end of the tunnel yet. We have to continue to perform our moral obligation in a peaceful and sustained manner until a ceasefire is enforced and a process for political resolution is initiated.
We have gathered here today in front of the U.N. to ensure that the U.N. doesn’t repeat the Rwanda genocide in the island of Sri Lanka. We have gathered here today in front of the U.N., so that another Srebrenica doesn’t take place in the island of Sri Lanka. We have come in front of the U.N. in thousands because we still believe that the U.N. is not only a club of states, but also a temple of justice. We have come here today in the belief that even though the U.N. can be paralyzed in terms of taking tangible action, it still has the moral courage to speak the truth.
However, the U.N.’s response has been shameful to the current crisis on the island of Sri Lanka. The U.N.’s answers to the GoSL’s genocide of Tamils are ethnic cleansing and concentration camps. Rather than sanctioning or calling for the GoSL to immediately stop the genocide, the U.N. Secretary General’s office’s response is to uproot the people from their areas of habitation and livelihood and to place them in internment camps under the control of the GoSL’s mono-ethnic armed forces. The Secretary General’s office attempts to justify this abuse on the grounds that they are acting in accordance with humanitarian laws. We respectfully point out the Secretary General is wrong in his reading of humanitarian law. Article 21 of the Guiding Principles of Internal Displacement mandates that “prior to any decision requiring displacement, all feasible attention should be employed in order to avoid displacement altogether.” We are here to say that a ceasefire is the feasible alternative.
The U.N. was able to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas within 22 days. Why can’t the U.N. bring about a similar ceasefire on the island of Sri Lanka? Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god? When the Bashir expelled the international NGOs from Darfur, the U.N. issued warnings. But when the GoSL orders international NGOs to leave, they meekly left the Tamil areas the next day. Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god? While the U.N. brought the issue of Darfur to the Security Council, it refused to do so in connection with the genocide of Tamils. Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god?
The U.N.’s double standard is not only appalling, but also undermines the integrity of the U.N. itself.
We have been told that the GoSL will not agree to a ceasefire. It is hard to believe that if the international community could stand up to Saddam Hussein and enforce a no-fly zone and safe haven to protect the Kurds, that it does not have the moral courage to stand up to the GoSL, a tiny fascist. It is hard to believe that if the international community could stand up to Milosevic, that it does not have the moral conviction to confront the evil in the island of Sri Lanka. The U.N.’s inhumanitarian inaction raises the question whether there is U.N. acquiescence for a military solution to the Tamil national question.
We are told that since the LTTE is a “terrorist” organization, the GoSL’s military offensive is legal. If that is so, what about the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which is also designated as a “terrorist organization?” Such a statement also raises the question whether the international community is willing to accept Genocide as collateral damage in its “war on terror.” If that is so, they should say so openly. But we know that they won’t because international law, specifically Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, prohibits genocide not only in time of peace but also in times of war.
The GoSL’s alibi that its military onslaught is part of its war on terror raises the issue of the designation of the LTTE as a “terrorist organization.” This is not the time or the forum to dwell on the issue of whether the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization is legal in terms of international law or morality. However, it is a time to take stock and analyze what the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization has achieved. Has it reduced the loss of innocent lives? Has it contributed to the peace process? Has it contributed to create a single polity that upholds liberal values and where both the Sinhalese and Tamils feel that they are legitimate stakeholders? The answer to the above questions is a big NO.
As the Christian Science Monitor aptly stated, the “war on terror” policy emboldened the GoSL. The designation disrupts the balance of power, the power equilibrium that functioned as a deterrent, and now enables the GoSL to engage in a military onslaught. The GoSL’s military onslaught not only shrinks the conflict area, but also shrinks the political space for any kind of reconciliation between the Sinhalese and Tamils. In the future, when historians and jurists make an objective study of the current situation, they will find that the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization contributed to Genocide. They will also find Tamil blood not only on the hands of the GoSL, but on the hands of the International Community.
The ongoing genocide, coupled with the international community’s inhumanitarian inaction, reinforce the Tamils belief, expressed through the 1977 General Elections, based on the International Law concept of self-preservation, that the Tamils very physical survival can only be guaranteed in an independent state.
We call upon the international community to act immediately and put an end to the Genocide. An unconditional permanent ceasefire is a first step in that direction.
Published: April 18, 2009
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by V. Rudrakumaran, April 17, 2009
What’s happening in Sri Lanka is not a civil war, it’s not a war on terror, but an act of genocide, pure and simple...
We have gathered here today in front of the U.N. to ensure that the U.N. doesn’t repeat the Rwanda genocide in the island of Sri Lanka...
The U.N. was able to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas within 22 days. Why can’t the U.N. bring about a similar ceasefire on the island of Sri Lanka? Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god? When the Bashir expelled the international NGOs from Darfur, the U.N. issued warnings. But when the GoSL orders international NGOs to leave, they meekly left the Tamil areas the next day. Why this double standard?...
We are told that since the LTTE is a “terrorist” organization, the GoSL’s military offensive is legal. If that is so, what about the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which is also designated as a “terrorist organization?” Such a statement also raises the question whether the international community is willing to accept Genocide as collateral damage in its “war on terror.” If that is so, they should say so openly.
Brothers and sisters, we are here to answer the call of history. We are here to answer the answer the call of humanity. We are here to awaken the conscience of the international community.
Presently, more than 300,000 Tamil civilians have been internally displaced by the GoSL, that is dominated permanently and overwhelmingly by the Sinhala nation. Presently, the Tamil people in the Vanni area are subject to indiscriminate bombing and shelling solely on account of their Tamil ethnicity-- a genocidal act that shocks the conscience of mankind. In September 2008, the GoSL expelled the INGOs, who had been providing food, shelter and medicine to the Tamil areas. This is a calculated effort on the part of the GoSL to bring about the physical destruction of the Tamil nation, in whole or in part—a Genocidal Act. A couple of weeks ago we also learned from credible local sources that the GoSL employed chemical weapons against combatants' as well as against noncombatants.
New York Tamil American rally in front of UN April 17 2009
Rally in front of UN, April 17, 2009. Photo: TamilNet
Child injured in 'Safe zone' by Sri Lankan army shelling April 17, 2009
Child injured in 'Safe Zone' by Sri Lankan army shelling, April 17, 2009
In order to ascertain the intent of the GoSL’s military onslaught, the GoSL’s present military response should be compared with her response in the 1970s when the Sinhala youths took up arms. When the Sinhala youths took up arms, the GoSL did not engage in indiscriminant bombing or shelling. When the Sinhala youths took up arms, the GoSL did not ask the Sinhala villagers to leave their habitat and livelihood, and did not herd them into concentration camps. The glaring disparity demonstrates that the intent of the GoSL is to destroy the Tamil Nation, in whole or in part.
In addition, the press statements by the Defense Secretary and the Army Commander that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala nation and Tamil nationalism — not the Tigers — are the problem demonstrate that the intent of the GoSL is to engage in genocide. It is also brought to the attention of the International Community again, that when 8,000 Muslim were massacred in Srebrenica on account of their ethnicity, the International Court of Justice held that that fact constitutes genocide.
On December 9, 2008, the New-York Based Genocide Prevention Project issued a red alert against eight countries where genocide is happening or is likely to happen. Needless to say, Sri Lanka was one of those countries. On February 4, 2009, the UK Foreign Minister, Hon. David Milliband endorsed a view of a Member of the House of Commons that the signals coming from Sri Lanka indicate that the government is prepared to go ahead with an act of genocide. Along this line, 38 members of the US Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stating that there can be no doubt that ethnic-based violence is widespread in Sri Lanka, and that Tamil non-combatants are deliberately victimized by the GoSL. What’s happening in Sri Lanka is not a civil war, it’s not a war on terror, but an act of genocide, pure and simple.
This ultimate crime, which the GoSL is brazenly committing against our brethren back home, compels us to come out on their behalf. For the last two months, the Tamil Diaspora around the world in one voice has taken the Tamil genocide to the streets of the capitals of various countries. Being outside the clutches of the genocidal GoSL, we are in a unique position to contribute to halt this genocide. Being members of the political communities in various countries, we are also in a position to influence the foreign policy of our respective countries. In other situations, such as the overthrow of the Marcos regime in the Philippines and the successful completion of the nuclear deal between the US and India, their diasporas played a pivotal role.
New York Tamil American rally April 17 2009 Times Square
Rally at Times Square after UN rally, April 17, 2009
Through our Awareness rallies with Tamil Eelam flags and pictures of the Tamil national leader, Hon. Vellupillai Pirabaharan, we have demonstrated to the GoSL that their zeal to quell the Tamils’ thirst for the realization of the right to self-determination or their dream of wiping out the LTTE will be a futile one. The more they bomb, the more the Tamil diaspora is resolved to protect their brethren. The more they shell, the more the Tamils are resolved to realize their right of self-determination. The more they brag about their military adventurism, the more the Tamil people rally under the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Our efforts, our rallies, are starting to have a creeping influence on the international community. For the international community’s muted call for a ceasefire or for its call for a “humanitarian pause,” the determination, the sacrifice, the passion, the unity demonstrated by the Tamil diaspora has played a significant role. However, we have not seen the light at the end of the tunnel yet. We have to continue to perform our moral obligation in a peaceful and sustained manner until a ceasefire is enforced and a process for political resolution is initiated.
We have gathered here today in front of the U.N. to ensure that the U.N. doesn’t repeat the Rwanda genocide in the island of Sri Lanka. We have gathered here today in front of the U.N., so that another Srebrenica doesn’t take place in the island of Sri Lanka. We have come in front of the U.N. in thousands because we still believe that the U.N. is not only a club of states, but also a temple of justice. We have come here today in the belief that even though the U.N. can be paralyzed in terms of taking tangible action, it still has the moral courage to speak the truth.
However, the U.N.’s response has been shameful to the current crisis on the island of Sri Lanka. The U.N.’s answers to the GoSL’s genocide of Tamils are ethnic cleansing and concentration camps. Rather than sanctioning or calling for the GoSL to immediately stop the genocide, the U.N. Secretary General’s office’s response is to uproot the people from their areas of habitation and livelihood and to place them in internment camps under the control of the GoSL’s mono-ethnic armed forces. The Secretary General’s office attempts to justify this abuse on the grounds that they are acting in accordance with humanitarian laws. We respectfully point out the Secretary General is wrong in his reading of humanitarian law. Article 21 of the Guiding Principles of Internal Displacement mandates that “prior to any decision requiring displacement, all feasible attention should be employed in order to avoid displacement altogether.” We are here to say that a ceasefire is the feasible alternative.
The U.N. was able to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas within 22 days. Why can’t the U.N. bring about a similar ceasefire on the island of Sri Lanka? Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god? When the Bashir expelled the international NGOs from Darfur, the U.N. issued warnings. But when the GoSL orders international NGOs to leave, they meekly left the Tamil areas the next day. Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god? While the U.N. brought the issue of Darfur to the Security Council, it refused to do so in connection with the genocide of Tamils. Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god?
The U.N.’s double standard is not only appalling, but also undermines the integrity of the U.N. itself.
We have been told that the GoSL will not agree to a ceasefire. It is hard to believe that if the international community could stand up to Saddam Hussein and enforce a no-fly zone and safe haven to protect the Kurds, that it does not have the moral courage to stand up to the GoSL, a tiny fascist. It is hard to believe that if the international community could stand up to Milosevic, that it does not have the moral conviction to confront the evil in the island of Sri Lanka. The U.N.’s inhumanitarian inaction raises the question whether there is U.N. acquiescence for a military solution to the Tamil national question.
We are told that since the LTTE is a “terrorist” organization, the GoSL’s military offensive is legal. If that is so, what about the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which is also designated as a “terrorist organization?” Such a statement also raises the question whether the international community is willing to accept Genocide as collateral damage in its “war on terror.” If that is so, they should say so openly. But we know that they won’t because international law, specifically Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, prohibits genocide not only in time of peace but also in times of war.
The GoSL’s alibi that its military onslaught is part of its war on terror raises the issue of the designation of the LTTE as a “terrorist organization.” This is not the time or the forum to dwell on the issue of whether the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization is legal in terms of international law or morality. However, it is a time to take stock and analyze what the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization has achieved. Has it reduced the loss of innocent lives? Has it contributed to the peace process? Has it contributed to create a single polity that upholds liberal values and where both the Sinhalese and Tamils feel that they are legitimate stakeholders? The answer to the above questions is a big NO.
As the Christian Science Monitor aptly stated, the “war on terror” policy emboldened the GoSL. The designation disrupts the balance of power, the power equilibrium that functioned as a deterrent, and now enables the GoSL to engage in a military onslaught. The GoSL’s military onslaught not only shrinks the conflict area, but also shrinks the political space for any kind of reconciliation between the Sinhalese and Tamils. In the future, when historians and jurists make an objective study of the current situation, they will find that the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization contributed to Genocide. They will also find Tamil blood not only on the hands of the GoSL, but on the hands of the International Community.
The ongoing genocide, coupled with the international community’s inhumanitarian inaction, reinforce the Tamils belief, expressed through the 1977 General Elections, based on the International Law concept of self-preservation, that the Tamils very physical survival can only be guaranteed in an independent state.
We call upon the international community to act immediately and put an end to the Genocide. An unconditional permanent ceasefire is a first step in that direction.
Published: April 18, 2009
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Discuss this article (7 posts)
Largest UN, New York rally fills Times Square
Largest UN, New York rally fills Times Square
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 11:04 GMT]
In one of the largest rallies held by the American Tamils in New York, more than 5000 protesters from different parts of the United States and Canada converged in New York in the park on 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues near the UN, and a smaller group in the permitted area 43rd Street park directly across from the Secretariat Building between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Friday, and urged the UN to take urgent steps to stop the carnage unfolding in the coastal villages of Mullaiththeevu where the Government of Sri Lanka is slaughtering hundreds of Tamil civilians daily under the pretext of cornering the LTTE leadership. The protesters then marched westward to the Times Square, one mile from the UN, and continued the protest until 5:00 p.m., according to the organizers.
* Text of Rudrakumaran's speech
Ellyn Shandler, a physician who worked in Vanni during post-tsunami recovery period, Rudrakumaran, legal advisor, and several others spoke at the rally.
Matthew Lee of Inner City Press talking to protesters
Matthew Lee of Inner City Press talking to protesters
Ellyn Shandler, speaking at the rally
Ellyn Shandler, speaking at the rally
Mathew Lee, the UN correspondent to the local non-profit, Inner City Press, who has been covering the UN activity related to Sri Lanka, and providing Tamil readers a rare insight into the inner-working and politics behind UN actions, witnessed the rally and spoke to several protesters.
Organizers brought own generators and high power audio systems to facilitate speeches to be heard by the protesters who stood along three long blocks along the 7th avenue. New York metropolitan Police assisted by more than 100 marshalls from the Tamil diaspora maintained smooth crowd control throughout the afternoon, according to participants.
Police had marked a full traffic lane and two thirds of the sidewalk along the three blocks for the protesters. Speeches were given from a well equipped flat-bed truck the organizers have brought to support the rally.
A press desk manned by several volunteers and an 60" LCD TV next to the desk repeated played videos on the ground situation, organizers said.
"UN has told diplomats in Colombo that the civilian death count in North Sri Lanka since January 20 has risen from 2683 to 4500, in New York UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq on Friday declined to confirm the UN's figures or their release," Innercity press said. More than 10,000 have been injured during the same period according to estimates from Vanni health officials.
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 April 2009, 11:04 GMT]
In one of the largest rallies held by the American Tamils in New York, more than 5000 protesters from different parts of the United States and Canada converged in New York in the park on 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues near the UN, and a smaller group in the permitted area 43rd Street park directly across from the Secretariat Building between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Friday, and urged the UN to take urgent steps to stop the carnage unfolding in the coastal villages of Mullaiththeevu where the Government of Sri Lanka is slaughtering hundreds of Tamil civilians daily under the pretext of cornering the LTTE leadership. The protesters then marched westward to the Times Square, one mile from the UN, and continued the protest until 5:00 p.m., according to the organizers.
* Text of Rudrakumaran's speech
Ellyn Shandler, a physician who worked in Vanni during post-tsunami recovery period, Rudrakumaran, legal advisor, and several others spoke at the rally.
Matthew Lee of Inner City Press talking to protesters
Matthew Lee of Inner City Press talking to protesters
Ellyn Shandler, speaking at the rally
Ellyn Shandler, speaking at the rally
Mathew Lee, the UN correspondent to the local non-profit, Inner City Press, who has been covering the UN activity related to Sri Lanka, and providing Tamil readers a rare insight into the inner-working and politics behind UN actions, witnessed the rally and spoke to several protesters.
Organizers brought own generators and high power audio systems to facilitate speeches to be heard by the protesters who stood along three long blocks along the 7th avenue. New York metropolitan Police assisted by more than 100 marshalls from the Tamil diaspora maintained smooth crowd control throughout the afternoon, according to participants.
Police had marked a full traffic lane and two thirds of the sidewalk along the three blocks for the protesters. Speeches were given from a well equipped flat-bed truck the organizers have brought to support the rally.
A press desk manned by several volunteers and an 60" LCD TV next to the desk repeated played videos on the ground situation, organizers said.
"UN has told diplomats in Colombo that the civilian death count in North Sri Lanka since January 20 has risen from 2683 to 4500, in New York UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq on Friday declined to confirm the UN's figures or their release," Innercity press said. More than 10,000 have been injured during the same period according to estimates from Vanni health officials.
Tamils will never forget what they received when asked for justice: LTTE
Tamils will never forget what they received when asked for justice: LTTE
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 07:35 GMT]
The LTTE on Monday, in a significant statement, recognized and welcomed a refreshing attitude in US, different from the other countries. It pleaded the Sri Lanka government to listen to international opinion, to stop the war and enter into negotiations. But at the same time it warned Colombo of dire consequences if the war is continued. "The LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace as it imagines a military victory will bring. However, for the record, the LTTE would like to emphasize again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict”, the LTTE statement issued from the political headquarters in Vanni, read.
"The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam appreciates the genuine concerns expressed by the United States Government's statement dated 16th April 2009, on the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in the Vanni/Mullaitivu region."
"So far, while the rest of the world has concentrated on apportioning blame, the United States has stressed the importance of finding solutions to put an immediate end to the plight of the Tamil civilians being lured and attacked in the safe zone by the Sri Lankan Government."
"The community that has been fighting for justice over its treatment and unequal status will now never forget the deep wounds left by the innumerable deaths of their kith and kin directly caused by the actions of the Sri Lankan Government."
"The LTTE urges the Sri Lankan government to stop its military actions, including shelling and bombing civilian areas and accept the call of the United States and other members of the International community for a ceasefire, which we believe will create a conducive atmosphere for talks on all relevant issues."
Full text of the statement issued by LTTE Political Head Quarters in Vanni follows:
20th April 2009
The LTTE Welcomes The US State Department’s Statement
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam appreciates the genuine concerns expressed by the United States Government’s statement dated 16th April 2009, on the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in the Vanni/Mullaitivu region. This is an important step towards meaningful international action to actually protect and provide relief to the forlorn Tamil civilian population incurring daily causalities and unspeakable tragedies from the offensive military operations of the Sri Lankan armed forces towards the safe zone where they were asked to go into, by the same Sri Lankan Government.
Apart from the plight of the civilian population in the safe zone, the Tamil people in other parts of the Tamil homeland are facing severe military oppression, countless indignities and denial of basic human rights. The people detained by the Sri Lankan Government at military controlled detention camps in Vavuniya are subjected to incessant persecution and torture by the Sri Lankan state forces. The Tamil people in Jaffna peninsula, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai are subject to atrocities of the Sri Lanka ’s military, police and paramilitary rulers on a daily basis. The IDPs in North and East of the Island are subject to indefinite military control without any effective mechanisms to facilitate their safety and return to their own homes and villages.
So far, while the rest of the world has concentrated on apportioning blame, the United States has stressed the importance of finding solutions to put an immediate end to the plight of the Tamil civilians being lured and attacked in the safe zone by the Sri Lankan Government. USA has also been openly acknowledge the need to address the basic discrimination, inequality and racism towards the Tamil people by the Sinhalese Sri Lankan Government that was and is the root cause for our fight for freedom. The community that has been fighting for justice over its treatment and unequal status will now never forget the deep wounds left by the innumerable deaths of their kith and kin directly caused by the actions of the Sri Lankan Government. A military solution will never lay this problem to rest, as the Sri Lankan Government envisages and constantly promises everyone.
The LTTE would like reiterate its commitment to a ceasefire without any preconditions, as urged by the US and other members of the international community. The LTTE is also ready for a meaningful negotiation on all issues related to humanitarian access, security, movement and welfare of the Tamil civilian population.
The LTTE urges the Sri Lankan government to stop its military actions, including shelling and bombing civilian areas and accept the call of the United States and other members of the International community for a ceasefire, which we believe will create a conducive atmosphere for talks on all relevant issues.
We note the Sri Lankan Government’s recent statements that we are not in a position to ask for any preconditions. We would like to make it clear that while the basic rights of the Tamils continue to be denied, while successive Sri Lankan Governments always consider that the way to address our grievances is through military action and not constitutional changes, while the injustices against the Tamils now also includes daily shelling and killing of Tamil men, women, children and even unborn babies (for all of which we have pictorial evidence), while the international community watches on in deafening silence, the LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace, as it imagines a military victory will bring.
However, for the record, the LTTE would like to emphasise again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict.
Political Head Quarters
Liberation Tigers of TamilEelam
TamilEelam
[TamilNet, Monday, 20 April 2009, 07:35 GMT]
The LTTE on Monday, in a significant statement, recognized and welcomed a refreshing attitude in US, different from the other countries. It pleaded the Sri Lanka government to listen to international opinion, to stop the war and enter into negotiations. But at the same time it warned Colombo of dire consequences if the war is continued. "The LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace as it imagines a military victory will bring. However, for the record, the LTTE would like to emphasize again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict”, the LTTE statement issued from the political headquarters in Vanni, read.
"The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam appreciates the genuine concerns expressed by the United States Government's statement dated 16th April 2009, on the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in the Vanni/Mullaitivu region."
"So far, while the rest of the world has concentrated on apportioning blame, the United States has stressed the importance of finding solutions to put an immediate end to the plight of the Tamil civilians being lured and attacked in the safe zone by the Sri Lankan Government."
"The community that has been fighting for justice over its treatment and unequal status will now never forget the deep wounds left by the innumerable deaths of their kith and kin directly caused by the actions of the Sri Lankan Government."
"The LTTE urges the Sri Lankan government to stop its military actions, including shelling and bombing civilian areas and accept the call of the United States and other members of the International community for a ceasefire, which we believe will create a conducive atmosphere for talks on all relevant issues."
Full text of the statement issued by LTTE Political Head Quarters in Vanni follows:
20th April 2009
The LTTE Welcomes The US State Department’s Statement
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam appreciates the genuine concerns expressed by the United States Government’s statement dated 16th April 2009, on the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in the Vanni/Mullaitivu region. This is an important step towards meaningful international action to actually protect and provide relief to the forlorn Tamil civilian population incurring daily causalities and unspeakable tragedies from the offensive military operations of the Sri Lankan armed forces towards the safe zone where they were asked to go into, by the same Sri Lankan Government.
Apart from the plight of the civilian population in the safe zone, the Tamil people in other parts of the Tamil homeland are facing severe military oppression, countless indignities and denial of basic human rights. The people detained by the Sri Lankan Government at military controlled detention camps in Vavuniya are subjected to incessant persecution and torture by the Sri Lankan state forces. The Tamil people in Jaffna peninsula, Mannar, Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai are subject to atrocities of the Sri Lanka ’s military, police and paramilitary rulers on a daily basis. The IDPs in North and East of the Island are subject to indefinite military control without any effective mechanisms to facilitate their safety and return to their own homes and villages.
So far, while the rest of the world has concentrated on apportioning blame, the United States has stressed the importance of finding solutions to put an immediate end to the plight of the Tamil civilians being lured and attacked in the safe zone by the Sri Lankan Government. USA has also been openly acknowledge the need to address the basic discrimination, inequality and racism towards the Tamil people by the Sinhalese Sri Lankan Government that was and is the root cause for our fight for freedom. The community that has been fighting for justice over its treatment and unequal status will now never forget the deep wounds left by the innumerable deaths of their kith and kin directly caused by the actions of the Sri Lankan Government. A military solution will never lay this problem to rest, as the Sri Lankan Government envisages and constantly promises everyone.
The LTTE would like reiterate its commitment to a ceasefire without any preconditions, as urged by the US and other members of the international community. The LTTE is also ready for a meaningful negotiation on all issues related to humanitarian access, security, movement and welfare of the Tamil civilian population.
The LTTE urges the Sri Lankan government to stop its military actions, including shelling and bombing civilian areas and accept the call of the United States and other members of the International community for a ceasefire, which we believe will create a conducive atmosphere for talks on all relevant issues.
We note the Sri Lankan Government’s recent statements that we are not in a position to ask for any preconditions. We would like to make it clear that while the basic rights of the Tamils continue to be denied, while successive Sri Lankan Governments always consider that the way to address our grievances is through military action and not constitutional changes, while the injustices against the Tamils now also includes daily shelling and killing of Tamil men, women, children and even unborn babies (for all of which we have pictorial evidence), while the international community watches on in deafening silence, the LTTE and the fight for our freedom will also continue. The methods may vary but Sri Lanka will never be able to live in peace, as it imagines a military victory will bring.
However, for the record, the LTTE would like to emphasise again that it is always ready to explore peaceful means to resolve the conflict.
Political Head Quarters
Liberation Tigers of TamilEelam
TamilEelam
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Sri Lanka rupee hits new low of 116.65/75 vs dollar
Sri Lanka rupee hits new low of 116.65/75 vs dollar
Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:36am IST
COLOMBO, April 20 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's rupee hit a new life low of 116.65/75 versus the dollar on Monday on import demand for the U.S. currency, dealers said.
"The rupee hit 116.65/75 due to importer demand. The highest trade was done at 116.73," said a currency dealer, who asked not to be named. Other dealers confirmed the fall.
The rupee has fallen 0.56 percent from Friday's close of 116.00/10, Reuters data showed. (Reporting by Shihar Aneez, Editing by Bryson Hull)
Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:36am IST
COLOMBO, April 20 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's rupee
"The rupee hit 116.65/75 due to importer demand. The highest trade was done at 116.73," said a currency dealer, who asked not to be named. Other dealers confirmed the fall.
The rupee has fallen 0.56 percent from Friday's close of 116.00/10, Reuters data showed. (Reporting by Shihar Aneez, Editing by Bryson Hull)
Thursday, April 16, 2009
On Sri Lanka, UN Speak of Siege, Calls Cease-Fire Unrealistic, Only Private Diplomacy
On Sri Lanka, UN Speak of Siege, Calls Cease-Fire Unrealistic, Only Private Diplomacy
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis:
Sir Holmes is also questioned on chemical weapons usage by the SLA.
(What a surprise when he said he had no information?) (Check Video)
UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- As military action recommences in northern Sri Lanka, the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes on Wednesday repeated government assurances that it would be in "siege mode." Inner City Press asked Holmes, given his estimate of 100,000 civilians trapped in 17 square kilometers, if the UN is asking for a cease-fire. Holmes said that "a cease-fire is not available, we are trying to achieve something realistic." Video here, from Minute 23:14.
Holmes acknowledged that UN staff members -- who he pointed out are "local" or "Sri Lankan national" staff -- are held without freedom of movement in the camps set up by the government. Inner City Press asked him why he and the UN did not speak publicly about these detentions until being asked about it. Holmes said that the UN chose "private diplomacy." Asked twice if there are other countries in which UN staff are being similarly held but the UN is saying nothing, Holmes said "I can't think of a similar possibility at the moment." Video here, from Minute 6:26.
Left unexplained is why the UN is treating Sri Lanka's government different than, for example, those of Sudan or Israel, condemned by the UN for harming civilians while fighting armed opponents and for any detentions no matter how short in duration.
John Holmes of the UN, speaking of siege but not cease-fire
While the UN expends significant time and diplomatic capital seeking political solutions in Darfur and the Middle East, it is unclear what if anything is being done in the case of Sri Lanka. Inner City Press asked Holmes to comment on Sri Lanka's loud ouster of Norway from a mediating role. "I don't think it's a very helpful step," Holmes said, adding that Norway like anyone else if free to contract the LTTE Tamil Tigers if they wish. Video here, from Minute 17:58.
But it is for precisely such contact, combined with damage to a Sri Lankan embassy in Oslo, that Norway was denounced by Colombo. It is such denunciations which seemed to have worked to make the UN much quieter about abuse of civilians and even UN staff in Sri Lanka than the UN would be in any other country.
Inner City Press asked Holmes if the lack of media coverage has made his humanitarian coordination job more difficult with respect to Sri Lanka. He acknowledged that it has, saying that the lack of press access and of images from "major press outlets" limits knowledge and concern, but it's "beyond our control." The UN can presumably control what it says, for example speaking out about the detention of its staff and the exclusion of the press, much less control its funding of detention camps that violate international humanitarian law. We will continue to follow this.
Footnote: Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on Wednesday:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of press time five hours later, the answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement. As more answers arrive we will report them on this site.
Click here for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis:
Sir Holmes is also questioned on chemical weapons usage by the SLA.
(What a surprise when he said he had no information?) (Check Video)
UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- As military action recommences in northern Sri Lanka, the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes on Wednesday repeated government assurances that it would be in "siege mode." Inner City Press asked Holmes, given his estimate of 100,000 civilians trapped in 17 square kilometers, if the UN is asking for a cease-fire. Holmes said that "a cease-fire is not available, we are trying to achieve something realistic." Video here, from Minute 23:14.
Holmes acknowledged that UN staff members -- who he pointed out are "local" or "Sri Lankan national" staff -- are held without freedom of movement in the camps set up by the government. Inner City Press asked him why he and the UN did not speak publicly about these detentions until being asked about it. Holmes said that the UN chose "private diplomacy." Asked twice if there are other countries in which UN staff are being similarly held but the UN is saying nothing, Holmes said "I can't think of a similar possibility at the moment." Video here, from Minute 6:26.
Left unexplained is why the UN is treating Sri Lanka's government different than, for example, those of Sudan or Israel, condemned by the UN for harming civilians while fighting armed opponents and for any detentions no matter how short in duration.
John Holmes of the UN, speaking of siege but not cease-fire
While the UN expends significant time and diplomatic capital seeking political solutions in Darfur and the Middle East, it is unclear what if anything is being done in the case of Sri Lanka. Inner City Press asked Holmes to comment on Sri Lanka's loud ouster of Norway from a mediating role. "I don't think it's a very helpful step," Holmes said, adding that Norway like anyone else if free to contract the LTTE Tamil Tigers if they wish. Video here, from Minute 17:58.
But it is for precisely such contact, combined with damage to a Sri Lankan embassy in Oslo, that Norway was denounced by Colombo. It is such denunciations which seemed to have worked to make the UN much quieter about abuse of civilians and even UN staff in Sri Lanka than the UN would be in any other country.
Inner City Press asked Holmes if the lack of media coverage has made his humanitarian coordination job more difficult with respect to Sri Lanka. He acknowledged that it has, saying that the lack of press access and of images from "major press outlets" limits knowledge and concern, but it's "beyond our control." The UN can presumably control what it says, for example speaking out about the detention of its staff and the exclusion of the press, much less control its funding of detention camps that violate international humanitarian law. We will continue to follow this.
Footnote: Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on Wednesday:
Does the UK believe that international law and the rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the now-acknowledged detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the British Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the accuracy of that, and of this and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin? What did the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As of press time five hours later, the answer has been referral to Minister Miliband's April 12 statement. As more answers arrive we will report them on this site.
Click here for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Sri Lanka central bank makes Rs22bn forex loss:
Negative Seigniorage
16 Apr, 2009 07:36:26
Sri Lanka central bank makes Rs22bn forex loss
Apr 16, 2009 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's central bank, which has a monopoly on money issue in the island, has made a 5.04 bullion rupee loss in 2008, badly hit by a 22.8 billion rupee forex loss, despite running a dollar peg which has to be backed by US assets.
In 2007, the central bank made a profit of 29.8 billion rupees.
Monopoly Rents
A central bank, which has a state monopoly on money issue, has a captive opportunity to sit back and rake in profits or seigniorage as the cost of issuing fiat paper money is always lower than its face value.
A central banking monetary regime essentially makes profits by financing governments and inflating the economy using the mechanism of legal tender laws which eliminates competition in money.
If mis-used, the state money monopoly can easily lead to economic collapse, as has happened in the case of the US Federal Reserve and more disastrously in the case of Zimbabwe and other hyper-inflating economies.
After going through a bout of hyper-inflation, Zimbabwe has now allowed central bank competition and several foreign currencies have been made legal, giving citizens the economic freedom to choose.
In Sri Lanka, foreign currency banking units have started to dent the money monopoly.
In 2008, Sri Lanka's central bank earned 7.0 billion rupees on interest from its Treasury bills bought with printed money. Until September 2008, the central bank sold down its treasury bills portfolio and collected foreign reserves.
The process reversed thereafter, as the monetary authority engaged in an ill-fated peg defence exercise, which eventually put it at doors of the International Monetary Fund.
From August to December 2008 the central bank's net reserves fell from 3.0 billion US dollars to 1.4 billion dollars.
Foreign Earnings
In monetary authorities that have pegged exchange rates, the yield from investing foreign reserves outside the economy, form a large percentage of profits.
Sri Lanka's central bank reported 19.9 billion rupees as earnings from foreign reserves in 2008, (19.8 billion rupees in 2007) including interest and capital gains, as global market interest rates fell.
A pegged central bank would normally invest the majority of its foreign reserves on government securities of the anchor currency country, which is used as the intervention currency in the domestic forex market.
Sri Lanka's intervention currency is the US dollar.
But in 2008, Sri Lanka's central bank has reported a record 22.8 billion forex loss, indicating that it has had significant investments in assets which were not denominated in the anchor US dollar currency.
In 2007 the central bank made an exchange gain of 8.8 billion rupees. A Third World pegged central bank that inflates the economy and depreciates the currency, can usually make gains every year as the exchange rate moves only in one direction. However they are usually passed through the balance sheet instead of the profit and loss account via an asset fluctuation reserve.
In the latter part of 2008, the US dollar zoomed as banks refused to lend to each other and to customers and money was parked in the Federal Reserves as excess reserves.
Meanwhile other floating rate central banks, which were not suffering from central bank impotence, were able to push down their currencies by cutting rates.
Sri Lanka's central bank says the reserve fall in the latter part of 2008 was accelerated by global currency movements against the dollar, to which the rupee is pegged.
"That is because other currencies also went down in price," governor Nivard Cabraal told reporters last week.
"If the pound which was trading at two dollars comes down to one dollar forty something, you take a hit."
Its liabilities to countries in the Asian clearing union, which include Iran and India, also increased to 91.3 billion rupees from 48.4 billion rupees during the year.
Yield Chase
In recent years many pegged central banks in the world increased Euro reserve assets as well as other currencies which were stronger than the dollar due to stricter inflation targeting, far beyond precautionary liquidity needs, forgetting that they were not actually pegged to such currencies.
In doing so, pegged central banks engaged in currency speculation instead of focusing on the responsibility of backing the convertibility of its domestic monetary base and giving confidence to foreign exchange markets.
Discarding lessons earned through the centuries, central banks also shifted from liquid anchor currency government securities, to higher yielding private investments.
Sri Lanka's central bank had disclosed earlier that it had moved money out in the nick of time, before banks such as Lehman collapsed.
The Chinese central bank went so far as to buy equity, and suffered billions in losses as the value of investments such as Blackstone capital tanked. The losses are isolated through a separate agency.
Pegged central banks that amassed massive reserves by sterilizing inflows at interest rates higher than that of the anchor currency country were also caught in a negative yield trap and were looking hither and thither to increase the yields on foreign assets.
Such pegged central banks have also forgotten another old lesson from the currency board era - that foreign reserves far above the domestic monetary base, serve no practical purpose and is costly to itself and to the domestic economy.
Meanwhile in another twist, a part of the domestic assets of Sri Lanka's central bank known as 'provisional advances' which is made up of money printed and given interest free to the Treasury, climbed to 76.3 billion rupees from 60.7 billion rupees.
The central bank has to either sell down interest bearing Treasury bills, or issue its own interest bearing securities to sterilize such advances if it wants to keep inflation low, putting additional costs on the bank.
Though it is a short term 'revolving credit', provisional advances have not been repaid for decades, and critics have pointed out that for all intents and purposes the advance is behaving like the biggest and longest running 'non-performing loan' in the country.
Critics have said the auditor general, who passes the central bank accounts, has so far failed to comment on the issue.
Analysts have called for Sri Lanka's monetary law to be changed to stop provisional advances.
Converting existing advances to interest bearing marketable securities which can be sold down, would also help prevent the issue of fresh central bank securities.
The Central Bank's equity meanwhile fell to 120.9 billion rupees in 2008 from 131.3 billion rupees in 2007. It has made an 8.0 billion rupee transfer to the government during the year.
Updated. Corrected financial year
16 Apr, 2009 07:36:26
Sri Lanka central bank makes Rs22bn forex loss
Apr 16, 2009 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's central bank, which has a monopoly on money issue in the island, has made a 5.04 bullion rupee loss in 2008, badly hit by a 22.8 billion rupee forex loss, despite running a dollar peg which has to be backed by US assets.
In 2007, the central bank made a profit of 29.8 billion rupees.
Monopoly Rents
A central bank, which has a state monopoly on money issue, has a captive opportunity to sit back and rake in profits or seigniorage as the cost of issuing fiat paper money is always lower than its face value.
A central banking monetary regime essentially makes profits by financing governments and inflating the economy using the mechanism of legal tender laws which eliminates competition in money.
If mis-used, the state money monopoly can easily lead to economic collapse, as has happened in the case of the US Federal Reserve and more disastrously in the case of Zimbabwe and other hyper-inflating economies.
After going through a bout of hyper-inflation, Zimbabwe has now allowed central bank competition and several foreign currencies have been made legal, giving citizens the economic freedom to choose.
In Sri Lanka, foreign currency banking units have started to dent the money monopoly.
In 2008, Sri Lanka's central bank earned 7.0 billion rupees on interest from its Treasury bills bought with printed money. Until September 2008, the central bank sold down its treasury bills portfolio and collected foreign reserves.
The process reversed thereafter, as the monetary authority engaged in an ill-fated peg defence exercise, which eventually put it at doors of the International Monetary Fund.
From August to December 2008 the central bank's net reserves fell from 3.0 billion US dollars to 1.4 billion dollars.
Foreign Earnings
In monetary authorities that have pegged exchange rates, the yield from investing foreign reserves outside the economy, form a large percentage of profits.
Sri Lanka's central bank reported 19.9 billion rupees as earnings from foreign reserves in 2008, (19.8 billion rupees in 2007) including interest and capital gains, as global market interest rates fell.
A pegged central bank would normally invest the majority of its foreign reserves on government securities of the anchor currency country, which is used as the intervention currency in the domestic forex market.
Sri Lanka's intervention currency is the US dollar.
But in 2008, Sri Lanka's central bank has reported a record 22.8 billion forex loss, indicating that it has had significant investments in assets which were not denominated in the anchor US dollar currency.
In 2007 the central bank made an exchange gain of 8.8 billion rupees. A Third World pegged central bank that inflates the economy and depreciates the currency, can usually make gains every year as the exchange rate moves only in one direction. However they are usually passed through the balance sheet instead of the profit and loss account via an asset fluctuation reserve.
In the latter part of 2008, the US dollar zoomed as banks refused to lend to each other and to customers and money was parked in the Federal Reserves as excess reserves.
Meanwhile other floating rate central banks, which were not suffering from central bank impotence, were able to push down their currencies by cutting rates.
Sri Lanka's central bank says the reserve fall in the latter part of 2008 was accelerated by global currency movements against the dollar, to which the rupee is pegged.
"That is because other currencies also went down in price," governor Nivard Cabraal told reporters last week.
"If the pound which was trading at two dollars comes down to one dollar forty something, you take a hit."
Its liabilities to countries in the Asian clearing union, which include Iran and India, also increased to 91.3 billion rupees from 48.4 billion rupees during the year.
Yield Chase
In recent years many pegged central banks in the world increased Euro reserve assets as well as other currencies which were stronger than the dollar due to stricter inflation targeting, far beyond precautionary liquidity needs, forgetting that they were not actually pegged to such currencies.
In doing so, pegged central banks engaged in currency speculation instead of focusing on the responsibility of backing the convertibility of its domestic monetary base and giving confidence to foreign exchange markets.
Discarding lessons earned through the centuries, central banks also shifted from liquid anchor currency government securities, to higher yielding private investments.
Sri Lanka's central bank had disclosed earlier that it had moved money out in the nick of time, before banks such as Lehman collapsed.
The Chinese central bank went so far as to buy equity, and suffered billions in losses as the value of investments such as Blackstone capital tanked. The losses are isolated through a separate agency.
Pegged central banks that amassed massive reserves by sterilizing inflows at interest rates higher than that of the anchor currency country were also caught in a negative yield trap and were looking hither and thither to increase the yields on foreign assets.
Such pegged central banks have also forgotten another old lesson from the currency board era - that foreign reserves far above the domestic monetary base, serve no practical purpose and is costly to itself and to the domestic economy.
Meanwhile in another twist, a part of the domestic assets of Sri Lanka's central bank known as 'provisional advances' which is made up of money printed and given interest free to the Treasury, climbed to 76.3 billion rupees from 60.7 billion rupees.
The central bank has to either sell down interest bearing Treasury bills, or issue its own interest bearing securities to sterilize such advances if it wants to keep inflation low, putting additional costs on the bank.
Though it is a short term 'revolving credit', provisional advances have not been repaid for decades, and critics have pointed out that for all intents and purposes the advance is behaving like the biggest and longest running 'non-performing loan' in the country.
Critics have said the auditor general, who passes the central bank accounts, has so far failed to comment on the issue.
Analysts have called for Sri Lanka's monetary law to be changed to stop provisional advances.
Converting existing advances to interest bearing marketable securities which can be sold down, would also help prevent the issue of fresh central bank securities.
The Central Bank's equity meanwhile fell to 120.9 billion rupees in 2008 from 131.3 billion rupees in 2007. It has made an 8.0 billion rupee transfer to the government during the year.
Updated. Corrected financial year
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