Sri Lanka cannot escape war crime charges

Although Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the Rome Convention which set up the International Criminal Court (ICC), the island nation can still be dragged before the ICC without its consent, senior cabinet minister and a former Professor of Law, G.L.Peiris, has said.

He told The Sunday Island on December 20, that the UN Security Council had the right to request the Chief Prosecuting Officer (CPO) of the ICC to embark on an investigation of the complaints it had received with a view to prosecution. The CPO could, on his own, seek the approval of the Pre-Trial chamber of the ICC to conduct investigations.

In the Sri Lankan case, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Extrajuicial Killings and Arbitrarty Executiuons, Philip Alston, had called for clarifications on the allegation that the Sri Lankan army had killed three top leaders of the LTTE and their families when they had come to surrender waving white flags as per a prior arrangement between them and the Lankan government. The allegation had been made by no less a person than Gen.Sarath Fonseka, a former Army Commander who is now a candidate in the January 26 Presidential election.

It is felt that Alston’s letter could well be the first step in a UN bid to get key Sri Lankan decision makers and officials to appear before the ICC.

CPO COULD ACT INDEPENDENTLY

According to former diplomat Bandu de Silva, Sri Lanka might be able to block a Security Council initiative with the help of a Russian or a Chinese veto, but it should be borne in mind that the CPO could act independently. The CPO was already thinking of bringing the US before the court for war crimes, he said.

In an article in The Sunday Island on December 27, Kalana Senaratne, said that the CPO could on his own make a case for prosecution by analyzing the seriousness of the charges made and seeking further material from UN organisations, rights bodies and inter-governmental bodies.

“The statements made by Sarath Fonseka can only add to the evidence that is piling up in the CPO’s office right now.”

“If the prosecutor comes up with a serious case, the Security Council would need to take note of it, which could result, not in the setting up of a special tribunal, but in approving and directing the ICC to initiate an inquiry – which is possible under Art 13 (b) of the Statute,” Senaratne said.

Additionally, the ICC could come into the picture legitimately under the Rome Treaty on the grounds that Sri Lanka had failed to investigate the complaints on its own, and that external investigation was therefore necessary. Denial of Fonseka’s allegations would, therefore, not do. Colombo would have to investigate, Senaratne said.

OTHER COUNTRIES COULD ASSERT JURISDICTION

Minister Peiris hinted at the possibility of other countries asserting jurisdiction on war crimes.

A Spanish court heard a case against Israeli Generals under the “universal jurisdiction theory under a private plaint by relatives of the affected parties (Geneva Convention).”

The District Court of Colombia heard the case against Israeli Lt.Gen.Moshe Ya’alon under a private plaint.

DANGER OF ARREST ABROAD

Peiris had also said that there was a “real danger” of Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa or the former commander of the 58 Army Division, Maj.Gen.Shavendra Silva, being questioned, if not arrested, when being abroad.

According to Kalana Senaratne, the Westminster Magistrate’s Court had issued an arrest warrant against Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, for alleged war crimes committed by Israel during the operations in Gaza in December 2008.

BAD OMEN

That the international community is not too pleased with Sri Lanka even now, six months after the end of the war against the LTTE, is evident from the fact that the European Council has recommended the denial of EU trade concesssions under the GSP Plus scheme on the grounds that Colombo has not kept its promise to safeguard human rights and work towards ethnic reconciliation.

ENS

Gota - The Troublemaker - உண்மையில் இலங்கையில் வன்முறையாளர் கோத்தபாய தான், புலிகள் அல்ல – “த கார்டியன்”

The merciless Rajapaksha regime must find its way out
“Sri Lanka failed to produce a statesman. All those ruled us were constrained stocks and worse is the present regime of Mahendra Percy Rajapakse-an idiosyncratic nasty regime that is surviving on the sufferings of the people.”

Cuntinues in english after the Tamils text....

தற்போது இலங்கையின் பாதுகாப்பு செயலாளராக பணியாற்றும் கோத்தபாய ராஜபக்ஷவே உண்மையான வன்முறையாளர் என்று “த கார்டியன்” தெரிவித்துள்ளது.

முந்திய காலத்தில் ராணுவத்தில் பணியாற்றியுள்ளதால் அவருக்கு மனித உரிமைகள், மனிதாபிமானம், சர்வதேச யுத்த சட்டங்கள் என்பது தொடர்பாக தெரிந்து வைத்திருக்கவேண்டும் என்று அதில் குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

மகிந்த அவர்களின் சகோதரன் என்பதனால் மட்டுமே அவர் இந்த பதவிக்கு வந்ததாகவும் கடந்த ஓரு தசாப்த காலமாக தாய்நாட்டையே பார்த்திராத கோத்தபாய, திடீரென களத்தில் இறக்கப்பட்டதன் விளைவாக மனிதாபிமானம் பாராமல் பல அப்பாவி உயிர்களை பலிகொடுக்க நேரிட்டது.

இந்த நிலையில் முன்னாள் ஜனாதிபதி சந்திரிகா குமாரதுங்க, தமது மாமாவை பாதுகாப்பு செயலாளராக வைத்திருந்ததை போலவே மகிந்த ராஜபக்ஷவும் வைத்திருக்க முயற்சித்தார்.

கோத்தபாய தமது யாருக்கும் அடங்காத இனத்துவேச வெறியுடன் செயற்பட்டு, எவ்வாறாயினும் தமது இலக்கை அடைய வேண்டும் என ஜனாதிபதியையும் கட்டுப்படுத்த ஆரம்பித்ததாக த கார்டியன் தெரிவித்துள்ளது.

Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksha is a fundamental rights violator. Being one time in the military service, he should have known the implications of violating the military, humanitarian and the international rules and laws in any military engagements. His conduct has surpassed the behaviour of his predecessor, the self professed General Anuruddha Ratwatte of the former President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s regime to make political statements to hurt the most vulnerable people in our island nation.

Bestowed with unquestionable political and military decision making powers, arrogated from his dear brother the President Mahinda Rajapaksha, Gotabaya is one those who is not only determining the failing path of Sri Lanka but also the unpredictable future of his brother and his family’s political fortunes. Since May 2009, he has made many pronouncements about his military victory against the LTTE. For political expediency and to undermine the military leadership, he says war victory was his own making. In this, he says the former chief’s of forces were his own creation and no one could have won the war if his leadership was not there.

For more than a decade, the Defence Secretary Lt. Col. Gotabhaya never stepped on his motherland and was away from the battlefield. Following the election of Mahinda Rajapaksha as President, the unknown Gotabhaya was brought into the scene. With his sheer arrogance, ruthless maneuverings and his imprudent conduct towards the media and the democratic voices, Gotabhaya acclaimed his status on aspects of the dirty war against the LTTE on behalf of the President. How can a retired Lt Col. could solely take credit for the outright victory against the LTTE, thus undermining the military hierarchy that had on the ground level made meticulous preparations and enormous sacrifices to achieve the much wanted success.

Like the former President Chandrika Bandaranaike’s uncle Anuruddha Ratwatte, who was acting as Defence Secretary during her term, Gotabaya too is trying to score political points on the military victory. Unlike the ruthless Anuruddha, Gotabya has gone all out to demean the military leadership and its achievements.

There are similarities in both their ego missions. The non combatant Anuruddha promoted him with the help of his President Sister to be called the General, whilst Gota with the sheer manipulation of a University got an honorary doctorate title for defeating the LTTE recently. At least the self proclaimed General Ratwatte was much seen in the battle front overseeing some of the operations, but the hot headed Gota limited his activities in an unscrupulous manner to develop a clandestine secret military machinery to throttle the very basic functioning of the civil society.

It is claimed Gotabhaya is a vegetarian and also a non-smoker. This claim again is said to be of his making for his silly political point scoring. Having presided over the secret mission of the Defence establishment to ruthlessly end the lives of many in connivance with the murderous underworld, Gota could have only given the leadership to create an atmosphere of fear amongst the nation’s people. No one was able to raise their voice and tell the truth. The secret white van missions and motorbike riding hit men were the real mechanisms that silenced the people. These were the heinous criminal products of Gota in his war effort. Following their master’s orders to bestow the ultimate penalties on the civilian society to suppress their voices, was the order of the day. The clandestine military mechanism worked very well when high technology telephone tapping became the backbone of the Gota’s drive to eliminate the dissenting voices.

Having enjoyed the ruthlessness, Gota’s ego centric mentality became his power crazy psyche. Following the defeat of the LTTE, he could not blame everything on the Tigers and now is playing his downright ruffian political game to impose a sense of fear among the people that he is the master brain of the victorious Sri Lanka against the LTTE.

What he failed to understand was that the forces have gone through a 30 year history, battling with the LTTE and the LTTE was progressing without new options or adventurisms. The victory bell was ringing well before Mahinda was elected as President. The military was able to pull through with a masterly military plan with sheer dedication of our valiant soldiers and their commanding officers. The dedication and the sacrifices that followed are now being capitalized for political point scoring by Gotabaya.

The final battle against the LTTE was victorious because there was absolute unity amongst the forces and they had the people and the media support, instead only of the political direction of Rajapakse family. One must realise the odds were absolutely against the LTTE as its arrogance diminished its credibility and authority as a group that could spearhead an armed struggle any longer. On the scale of diminishing returns, for the LTTE, its decision to go for peace agreement with the UNP; foolish way path of boycotting the 2005 Presidential election to teach a lesson to Ranil Wickramasinghe and then it’s unilateral engagement to initiate a war against the forces under the pretext of peoples force were the underlying self defeating causes of its making that ultimately destroyed its military mission.

I would like to highlight two violations involving the pseudo non-violent and vegetarian Buddhist Goatabhaya when he was serving as Lt Col in the Army. In one of his recent private TV interview, the Former army commander General Sarath Fonseka had said that Gotabhaya and his four fans together assaulted unto death a soldier attached to the Sinha Regiment in the Minneriya Forest. After this very serious incident, he was hiding somewhere in Nugegoda in the outskirts of Colombo to escape from some army officials who wanted to teach Gotabhaya a lesson. His hide and seek game with the help of the underworld had helped him not incurring any harm.

The second incident is narrated in a police report of a relative of a victim who was killed during the JVP’s second insurrection in the late 1980’s. The report states, Gotabhaya was in-charge to one of the detention camps in Matale, where hundreds of youths belonging to the JVP and some innocent school children were massacred.

These two incidents are fair account to understand the vegetarian mindset of Gotabhaya and how he did impose his non-violent Buddhist policy in to violence, when he was serving in the Sri Lankan army. Unfortunately, all these ruthless murders are now swept under the carpet and now Gotabhaya returned to Sri Lanka from exile like a piri sudhu mahattaya to continue with his gangster methodology to suppress the civilian society. Gotabhaya is none other than a war criminal and now tries to stand on moral high grounds to portray him as the father of all the victories in Sri Lanka.

I am not saying that he did nothing. My argument is that he did some thing but comparatively little to the sacrifices and committed contributions of many others to defeat the LTTE. Gotabhaya is not the sole author of the victory. What he is doing is to exploit the sacrifices of the real hero’s of the war and paint a wrong picture about the historical victory.

Gota’s gangland theory cannot be applied to a professional military mission. He had proved himself as a crucifying victor against the democratic voices and those dead and buried together with imprisoned persons are testimonies that is expected to be kept under the wrap for a foreseeable future unless a pragmatic and a down to earth leader is installed to the helm to reveal them.

There is nothing wrong in saying that the entire family of Rajapakshas are crooked. They are comparable to the Rumanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu’s rule.

Worshiping the Buddha status and his other murderous mission to eliminate the opposition must be carefully considered. Mahinda/Basail/Gota management of the government has caused so much harm to the nation that even the genuine achievement of the people and the forces cannot be celebrated with all honesty.

They in the first place stole the credibility of the SLFP and now they have turned into a big time mafia and steeling every good thing’s of the Tamil Tiger rebels without the knowledge of the people. These three discredits are now on the march to steel even the sole achievement of the Army.

Rajapaksha’s are thinking that they can stay in power while keep on talking about the victory of the War and also by mudslinging against the opponents. They are attempting to move forward in their psychopathic path and the poor and innocent people are getting entrapped in this brute maneuverings. Instead of competing in a free and fair society, Rajapakse’s are attempting to thrive on the goon culture and in the culture of fear and intimidation.

In their book, Alezander and Margrete Mitscherlich , has pointed out, “ Painful experiences and guilty set in train no progress in the maturation of the ego, do not mobilize the capacity to maintain critical thought under the pressure of guilty, to tolerate disappointments about one’s own behavior, and the like. Instead, the energy of the ego is wasted on warding off the return of the repressed. The ego protects itself with memory gaps, and remains by and large as it was. It thus falls behind. It loses the ability freely to face the past.” (quoted - ‘Inability to Mourn –page – 106) Present situation of the family rule of Rajapaksha’s is similar. Rajapaksha has failed to find a political solution and address the core issues like educations, health and transport etc. They have only fattened their Swiss accounts to settle peacefully in the Chinese, Pakistani, Russian, Iranian or Myanmar regimes following the political reversal they are destined to be rewarded by the people.

Fortunately the Rajapaksha’s power crave came for testing few months ago and there is now an opposition-party alternative to back a non-party candidate. This is a major turning point in the history of Sri Lankan to prevent another Nicolae Ceauşescu regime being permanently installed through democratic means in the country. Defeat of cronyism and rise of General Sarath Fonseka is a must and an able and practical leader to govern the country and to redeem it from the slumber is the urgent need a leader like Sarath could deliver. His election will be a revolution the country ever experienced and his military achievements can be consolidated to create a fair and just society in Sri Lanka for all the nation’s people to breathe the fresh air of freedom they are yeaning for.

Moses was eventually told by God to free the Jews and Moses spoke on God's behalf and used God's powers to try and convince the Pharaoh to let the Jews go free. When he refused, seven curses were released that devastated Egypt and forced the Pharaoh to let the Jews go. As they were leaving, the Egyptian army was sent after them to slaughter them in revenge for the plagues that had been released on Egypt. Trapped between the army and the Red Sea (which was probably a mistranslation of a now dried u marsh, not the actual red sea) Moses asked God to help him escape and with God's power, Moses parted the waters of the sea to allow the Jews to escape to the Sinai. The army tried to follow, but the waters returned when the soldiers were in the middle of the marsh/sea and they all drowned. 20 years and about 100 miles later (I don't know why it could possibly take that long) the Jews reached Palestine, and would eventually destroy the native populations there and replace them.

Sri Lanka failed to produce a statesman. All those ruled us were constrained stocks and worse is the present regime of Mahendra Percy Rajapakse-an idiosyncratic nasty regime that is surviving on the sufferings of the people.

Sri Lanka is yearning with hope to bury the past of hate mongering politics and the victory maker of the war is the only hope the people have, to attain the much needed good governance Sri Lanka honestly need in this ever degrading standard of ruling.

Kilde: srilankaguardian.org

Rajapakse buys properties in USA - அமெரிக்கா: 70 கோடியில் ராஜபக்சே மாளிகை

From where rajapakse got this money?  

An offspring of Sri Lanka’s ‘royal family’ has bought a building worth US$6 -7 million from Manhattan in New York. This has been revealed to ‘Lanka Irida’ by Sri Lankans living in the US.

Continues in english after the Tamil text.

இலங்கை பாதுகாப்பு அமைச்சக செயலர் கோத்தபாய மற்றும் அவரது குடும்பத்தினர் அமெரிக்கா செல்லும்போது தங்குவதற்கென நியூயோர்க் மன்ஹெட்டன் பகுதியில் 70 கோடி ரூபாவுக்கு சொகுசு வீட்டுடன் கூடிய மாளிகை ஒன்று வாங்கப்பட்டுள்ளதாக லங்க இரித பத்திரிகை செய்தி வெளியிட்டுள்ளது.


ராஜபக்ச குடும்பத்தினருக்கு நெருக்கமான முகவர் மூலம் அமெரிக்காவில் நியூ ஜேர்ஸி பகுதியில் பல வீடுகள் லட்சக்கணக்கான டொலர்களுக்கு வாங்கப்பட்டுள்ளன என்றும் அந்த செய்தி மேலும் தெரிவித்திருக்கிறது.

மஹிந்தவின் மகன் நமல் ராசபக்‌ஷ தனது தந்தையின் வெற்றிக்காக ரூபா 325 கோடி செலவில் விளம்பரம் செய்து வருகின்றமையும கண்டு பிடிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. எந்தவொரு வியாபாரமோ அல்லது தொழிலோ செய்யாத மஹிந்தவின் மகனுக்கு இந்தளவு பணம் எங்கிருந்து கிடைத்தது என எதிரணிகள் துருவ வெளிக்கிட்டுள்ளனர்.


இந்த விளம்பரத்தினை நமல் ராசபக்‌ஷவின் "A Tomorrow for Youth" என்ற அமைப்பின் ஊடாகவே செய்யப்படுகின்றது. இந்த அமைப்பிற்கு போரில் பாதிகப்பட்ட மக்களுக்கு என அரசாங்கத்தினாலும் , வசந்தம் திட்டத்தின் கீழும் பல நூறு கோடி ரூபாய்கள் புவர்வாழ்வு திட்டங்களுக்கு ஒதுக்கப்பட்டிருந்தன. ஆனால் விளையாட்டு கழகங்களுக்கு பந்தும் நெற்றும் வாங்கி கொடுத்ததை தவிர வேறெந்த பாரிய திட்டங்களையும் இவர் முன்னெடுகவில்லை என்றும் கூறப்படுகின்றது.


வேலை இல்லா ஒரு நபருக்கு தகப்பனிற்காக ஒரு நாளைக்கு 72 தடவை ஏழு தொலைகாட்சிகளில் விளம்பரம் செய்வதற்கெ ஏது பணம் என ஊடகவியலாலர்களும், ஊழல் தடுப்பு ஆர்வலர்களும் கேள்வி தொடுத்துள்ளனர்


This has been revealed when ‘Lanka Irida’ made an inquiry from Sri Lankans living in the US regarding information it had received that a person connected to politics in Sri Lanka had bought a building for an exorbitant price from Manhattan in New York. It is revealed that the building had been bought for a sum equal to Rs.700 million. According to unconfirmed reports an agent for this ‘royal family’ in Sri Lanka has bought several houses in New Jersey in the US for several million dollars.

These houses in the US are being bought for outrageous amounts of money by the family members of a so-called ‘patriotic family’. The business place that was bought by ‘the family’ was the place the political top man of the family used to stay when he visited the USA and according to what the ‘royal prince’ had told his friends, it was bought when the owner who gave shelter to this top man had requested him to buy it as he was plagued by economic crises.

However, a story that is spreading in the inner circles of the Colombo society states the real intention of buying this building is for the ‘royal prince’ to cover up the expenses of his irrational life style from the rents received from the shops in the building when he visits the USA. They also indicate the ‘royal prince’ would need this money to spend for his frequent visits to the sex-shop that is situated in close proximity to the building.

Kilde: Lankan Irida.com / lankatruth.com

பிரபாகரன் குறிப்புகள்

பிரபாகரன்

தம்பி எனத் தமிழர்களால் அழைக்கப்படும் அண்ணன். 30 ஆண்டு காலம் இலங்கை அரசுக்குக் கிலியூட்டி வரும் புலிப் படைத் தலைவர். வீரத்தின் விளைநிலமாக தமிழ் ஈழத்தை மாற்றிக்காட்டிய மனிதர்!

அரிகரன் – இதுதான் அப்பா வேலுப்பிள்ளை முதலில்வைத்த பெயர். ஒரு அண்ணன், இரண்டு அக்காக்களுக்கு அடுத்துப் பிறந்த கடைக்குட்டி என்பதால், துரை என்றுதான் எல்லாரும் கூப்பிடுவார்கள். பிறகு என்ன நினைத்தாரோ, பிரபாகரன் என்று மாற்றுப் பெயர் சூட்டியிருக்கிறார் அப்பா!

வல்வெட்டித்துறையைச் சேர்ந்த பெரியசோதி, சின்னசோதி, சந்திரன், குட்டிமணி, தங்கத்துரை, சந்திரன், பிரபாகரன் ஆகிய ஏழு பேர் சேர்ந்துதான் விடுதலை இயக்கத்தை முதலில் தொடங்கினார்கள். இதற்குப் பெயர் வைக்கவில்லை. பிரபாகரன்தான் அணியில் இளையவர் என்பதால், ‘தம்பி’ என்றார்கள். எல்லார்க்கும் தம்பியானதும் அப்படித்தான்!

பிரபாகரனுக்கு அரசியல் முன்னோடியாக இருந்தவர் பொ.சத்தியசீலன். ”போலீஸ் நிலையங்களைத் தாக்கி ஆயுதங்கள் எடுக்க வேண்டும்” என்று இவரைப் பார்த்து பிரபாகரன் கேட்க, ”எடுத்தால் எங்கே வைப்பது” என்று சத்தியசீலன் திருப்பிக் கேட்க… அதன் பிறகுதான் காட்டு வாழ்க்கையைத் தேர்ந்தெடுத்திருக்கிறார்!

பிரபாகரன் அடிக்கடி படித்த நாவல் – அலெக்ஸ் ஹேவியின் ‘ஏழு தலைமுறைகள்’. அதில் ‘இடியும் மின்னலும் இல்லாமல் மழை பொழியாது. போராட்டம் நடத்தாமல் யாரும் எதையும் தர மாட்டார்கள்’ என்ற வரிகளை அடிக்கோடு போட்டுவைத்திருந்தார்!

மிக மிக வேகமாக நடக்கும் பழக்கமுடையவர் பிரபாகரன். பள்ளிக்கூடம் போகும்போது சட்டைப் பையில் இருக்கும் பேனாவை இடது கையால் பிடித்துக்கொள்வாராம். அந்தப் பழக்கம் பிற்காலத்திலும் தொடர்ந்திருக்கிறது!

”ஏன் எப்போதும் சீருடையில் இருக்கிறீர்கள்?” என்று வெளிநாட்டுத் தமிழர் ஒருவர் கேட்டபோது பிரபாகரன் சொன்னது, ”யாரும் அணியத் துணியாதது இந்த உடைதான். அதனால்தான் எப்போதும் இதில் இருக்கிறேன்.”

”பிரபாகரன் ஒருபோதும் புகைத்தது இல்லை. மது அருந்தியதும் கிடையாது. மற்றவர்களிடமும் இப்பழக்கத்தை அவர் விரும்பவில்லை. விடுதலைப் புலிகள் அமைப்பில் புகைபிடிக்கும் பழக்கம்கொண்ட ஒருவரை பிரபாகரன் சகித்துக்கொண்டார் என்றால், அது பாலசிங்கமாகத்தான் இருக்கும். பாலாவிடம் இருந்து வரும் சிகரெட் நெடி பிரபாகரனுக்குப் பிடிப்பதில்லை. எனவே, பிரபா முன்னிலையில் பாலாவும் சிகரெட் பிடிப்பதில்லை” என்கிறார், பாலசிங்கத்தின் மனைவி அடேல்!

அக்காவின் திருமணத்தையட்டி தனக்கு அணிவிக்கப்பட்ட மோதிரத்தை விற்றுத்தான் அமைப்புக்கு முதல் துப்பாக்கி வாங்கப் பணம் கொடுத்தார் பிரபாகரன். அதன் பிறகு அவர், நகை அணிவதில்லை!

எந்த ஆயுதத்தையும் கழற்றி மாட்டிவிடுவார். ஆயுதங்கள் தொடர்பான அனைத்து ஆங்கிலப் புத்தகங்களின் மொழிபெயர்ப்புகளும் அவரிடம் இருந்தன. ‘தொழில்நுட்ப அறிவு இல்லாதவன் முழுமையான போராளியாக முடியாது’ என்பது அவரது அறிவுரை!

ஒவ்வொரு நவம்பர் மாதமும் 25, 26, 27 ஆகிய மூன்று நாட்களும் பிரபாகரன் உண்ணாவிரதம் இருப்பார். 26 அவரது பிறந்த நாள். 27 மாவீரர் நாள். அன்று மாலை மட்டும் தான் திரையில் தோன்றி அனைவருக்குமான உரையை நிகழ்த்துவார்!

‘இயற்கை எனது நண்பன்; வாழ்க்கை எனது தத்துவாசிரியன்; வரலாறு எனது வழிகாட்டி’ என்ற வார்த்தைகளைத்தான் அவர் தனது டைரியில் எழுதிவைத்திருப்பார்!

போரில் யார் காயமடைந்து பார்க்கப்போனாலும், ‘பொன்னியின் செல்வன்ல வரும் பெரிய பழுவேட்டரையருக்கு 64 வீரத் தழும்புகள் உண்டு’ என்று சொல்லித் தைரியம் கொடுப்பாராம் பிரபாகரன்!

ஆறு கோடியே 43 லட்சம் ரூபாய் பிரபாகரனுக்கு எம்.ஜி.ஆர். கொடுத்திருக்கிறார். பிரபாகரன் கொடுத்த துப்பாக்கி ஒன்றைத் தனது தலையணைக்குக் கீழ் எம்.ஜி.ஆர். வைத்திருந்தார்!

பேனாவை மூன்று விரல்களால் பிடித்துத்தான் அனைவரும் எழுதுவார்கள். பிரபாகரன் எழுதும்போது ஐந்து விரல்களாலும் பிடித்திருப்பார்!

பிரபாகரனுக்குப் பிடித்த புராணக் கதாபாத்திரம் கர்ணன். ”தன்னிழப்புக்கும் உயிர்த் தியாகத்துக்கும் ஒவ்வொரு மணித்துளியும் தயாராக இருந்தவன் கர்ணன். அவனை எப்போதும் நினைப்பேன்” என்பார்!

தமிழீழம் கிடைத்த பிறகு எனது பணி காயம்பட்ட போராளிகளைக் கவனிப்பதாகவும் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட மக்களின் முன்னேற்றம் பற்றியதாகவும் மட்டுமே இருக்கும் என்று பிரபாகரன் பகிரங்கமாக அறிவித்திருந்தார்!

பிரபாகரன் குறித்து தங்களது வாழ்க்கை வரலாற்றுப் புத்தகத்தில் மிக உயர்வாக எழுதிய இந்திய ராணுவத்தின் உயர் அதிகாரிகள் மேஜர் ஜெனரல் ஹர்கிரத் சிங், ஜெனரல் சர்தேஷ் பாண்டே, ஜெனரல் திபேந்திரசிங். இவர்கள் மூவரும் இந்திய அமைதிப் படைக்குத் தலைமை வகித்து பிரபாகரனுடன் மோதியவர்கள்!

அநாதைக் குழந்தைகள் (போரில் பெற்றோரை இழந்தவர்கள்) மீது அளவுக்கு அதிகமான பாசம் வைத்திருந்தார் பிரபாகரன். அவர்களைப் பராமரிக்க செஞ்சோலை சிறுவர் இல்லம், காந்தரூபன் அறிவுச் சோலை ஆகிய காப்பகங்களை வைத்திருந்தார். பெற்றோர் இல்லாத அநாதையாக அமைப்புக்குள் வந்து பெரிய போராளியாக ஆகி மறைந்தவர் காந்தரூபன்!

உயிர் பறிக்கும் சயனைட்தான் எங்கள் இயக்கத்தை வேகமாக வளர்த்த உயிர்’ என்றார் பிரபாகரன்!

பிரபாகரனைச் சிலர் குறை சொன்னபோது, அமைப்பில் இருந்து ஒன்றரை ஆண்டுகள் விலகி இருந்தார்!

பிரபாகரனிடம் நேரடியாக போர்ப் பயிற்சி பெற்ற முதல் டீம்: கிட்டு, சங்கர், செல்லக்கிளி, பொன்னம்மான். இரண்டாவது டீம்: சீலன், புலேந்திரன். மூன்றாவது டீம்: பொட்டு, விக்டர், ரெஜி. இவர்கள்தான் அடுத்து வந்தவர்களுக்குப் பயிற்சி கொடுத்தவர்கள்!

தன் அருகில் இருப்பவர் குறித்து யாராவது குறை சொன்னால் பிரபாகரன் பதில் இப்படி இருக்குமாம், ”நான் தூய்மையாக இருக்கிறேன். இறுதி வரை இருப்பேன். என்னை யாரும் மாற்ற முடியாது. நீங்கள் குறை சொன்னவரை என் வழிக்கு விரைவில் கொண்டுவருவேன்!”

”ஒன்று நான் லட்சியத்தில் வென்றிருக்க வேண்டும். அல்லது போராட்டத்தில் இறந்திருக்க வேண்டும். இரண்டும் செய்யாத என்னை எப்படி மாவீரன் என்று சொல்ல முடியும்?” என்றுஅடக்க மாகச் சொல்வார்!

மிக நெருக்கடியான போர்ச் சூழல் நேரங்களில் பெட்ரோல் அல்லது ஆசிட்டுடன் ஒருவர் பிரபாகரனுடன் இருப்பாராம். அவருக்கு ஏதாவது ஆனால், உடனேயே உடலை எரித்துவிட உத்தரவிட்டிருந்தார். எதிரியின் கையில் தன் சாம்பல்கூடக் கிடைக்கக் கூடாதுஎன்பதில் தெளிவாக இருந்திருக்கிறார்!

‘தமிழீழ லட்சியத்தில் இருந்து நான் பின்வாங்கினால் என்னுடைய பாதுகாவலரே என்னைச் சுட்டுக் கொல்லலாம்’ என்று பகிரங்கமாக அறிவித்திருந்தவர் பிரபாகரன்!

Kilde: Vikadan

The Election, the War and the Tamils

A war masquerading as a humanitarian offensive, an all out assault against an enemy stronghold teeming with desperate civilians billed as a hostage rescue operation cannot be fought in the open, under the full glare of media lights.

The end phase of Eelam War IV had to be fought under a cloak of selective invisibility because the whole truth was politically unaffordable. In accordance with the Rajapakse-Fonseka law on the conduct of war, only the Tiger dead and the civilians killed or harmed by the LTTE were permitted to be visible. Official restrictions prevented the media from revealing Lankan military casualties while even the possibility of civilian casualties at the hands of Lankan forces was consistently and strenuously denied.

The myth of zero casualties was insisted on, from President Rajapakse downwards, while those questioning this irrational and impossible lie were castigated as Tiger-loving traitors. The national and international public were expected to suspend not just their moral qualms but also their intellectual faculties and critical judgement and accept at face value the regime’s fantastic version of a sanitised war which killed none but the Tigers.

“It is certainly the greatest folly to throw salt into the sea and statues into the mud….” Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra)

The regime, having interred the issue of human rights in the convenient tomb of ‘War against Terrorism’, believed itself to be safe from any inquiry. This feeling of impunity was enhanced by its victory at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, in the immediate aftermath of the war. With the only eyewitnesses to the end phase of the war locked up, incommunicado, in open prison camps, the regime seemed to have concluded that it could not be held accountable for misdeeds on the part of the Lankan Forces. Moreover, the Rajapakses seemed have believed that they have the capacity to become international trend setters in battling terrorism, and that even the West would rush to fete them and learn from them.

The supposed revelation by Gen. Sarath Fonseka, about the execution of surrendered Tiger leaders, fell on these tranquil waters of conscious amnesia with the impact of a meteor. Suddenly the manner in which the Lankan side fought the Eelam War was placed on the centre stage. Candidate Fonseka’s subsequent denial of his statement did little to lessen the furore.

The regime and its supporters railed against Mr. Fonseka, accusing him of violating the Official Secrets Act (which ironically gave credence to the charge of executing surrendering Tigers, since the purpose of the Act is to protect inconvenient or damaging truths from being revealed; if Mr. Fonseka’s supposed charge is a lie, it would not come under the Official Secrets Act).

Whether Sarath Fonseka wins or loses this election, his candidacy has had an impact on the country that will reverberate beyond January 27th. Not only has the Presidential election being transformed into an acrimonious battle between the Commander in Chief and the Army Commander who presided over the defeat of the LTTE. More pertinently, the contest is bringing into light some key questions about the conduct of the war which needs to be dealt with if the past is to be relegated to the past and a future different from the past is built.

Hard Facts

The war against the LTTE became inevitable because of the very nature of the LTTE (Mr. Pirapaharan engineered a Rajapakse victory in 2005 precisely because he wanted a war). But in fighting that necessary war, did we become increasingly like the Tigers? Why is the government still denying the media free access to the Northern camps, if it has nothing to hide? What if the Channel 4 video is not a fake? After all, before the government imposed its media restrictions, there were reports that members of Lankan Forces stripped and exhibited the corpses of female Black Tigers who were killed in the raid on Anuradhapura Air Force camp.

The UTHR in its latest report makes some damning charges against both the LTTE and the government. The issue of war crimes will not go away until and unless the government is willing to permit an independent and credible investigation.

Revealing the truth about what happened, especially in the last weeks and months of the war, is important for more reasons than one. Did some senior Tiger leaders, having compelled young cadres to opt for the cyanide capsule in order to avoid captivity, tried to save their own hides by working out surrender deals? If so, their conduct symbolises a failure which is far more fundamental than mere military defeat. Since the cyanide capsule and the death affirming message it represented was a basic premise of Tiger ideology, any departure from it by Senior Tigers, even as young recruits were being exhorted to die in their thousands for the cause, morally and politically discredits the Tiger ideology, in a way that military defeat alone cannot.

Making the young Tamils of today and tomorrow aware of this paradigmatic failure would be the best way to combat the organisational or ideological recrudescence of the Tigers. A Tiger myth cannot grow if it is proven that many senior Tigers had feet of clay and more.

Most civilian Tamils would have a parent or an offspring, a sibling, a spouse or a friend who belonged to the LTTE and, more often than not, died in its service. Criminalising any association with the LTTE will therefore criminalise the absolute majority of the Tamils. Equating Tamil with Tigers was the premise on which the government fought the war; equating Tamil with the LTTE seems to be the basis on which it prefers to build peace. This was one of the reasons for the incarceration of 300,000 Tamils in open prison camps masquerading as welfare villages. This is also why the North and the Tamil areas of the East are being run like occupied territory. The peace which will result from such measures would not be a consensual peace but a peace that is based on force on one side and fear on the other. The capacity of such a peace to be stable or lasting is doubtful, beyond the very immediate term.

Opting, again, for the non-democratic/armed path to win their rights would be suicidal for the Tamils and destructive for Sri Lanka. But if such a return is to be avoided, a consensual peace is necessary. And a consensual peace is impossible so long as Tamils are not allowed to come to terms with their past. The survivors of this war need the time and the space to mourn their dead, including children and spouses, siblings and parents who were members of the LTTE.

Another necessary task is to uncover the truth about the fate of civilian Tamils during the war, including the kith and the kin of Tiger leaders who were not members of the LTTE. For instance, there should be attempts to uncover and make known the fate of Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s wife Madhivadini and his younger son Balachandran, neither of whom were Tiger cadres. Treating family members of Tigers as terrorists is wrong, morally and legally; it is an archaic practice, a residue from an uncivilised past which has no place in the modern world.

Tamil consent to a Sri Lankan future cannot be ensured by destroying Tiger cemeteries and building memorials to the Lankan Forces in their stead. Nor can the Tamils be weaned away from their past by building Buddhist temples through sheer force. Sullen silence should not be mistaken for loyalty. The JVP and the Tigers banned those they deemed to be traitors from being remembered, post death. Now the Lankan state, under the auspices of the Rajapakses, seems to be following in the same direction. It is one thing to ensure that there are no memorials to senior Tiger leaders but it is both inhuman and uncivilised to destroy the last resting places of every Tiger cadre. Such conduct does not behove a civilised nation in general; it is particularly unsuitable for a race reputed for not dishonouring even dead enemies.

Such acts of petty revenge would also anger and alienate the surviving family members of LTTE cadres and help those who dream of resurrecting the dead Tiger, in a more heroic and holier guise. If the only future the Tamils can realistically expect reduces all their problems and concerns to the malignity of the Tiger, criminalises even mourning dead family members and denies their war related losses, what else can they do but cling to the past, which would become less objectionable and more alluring with each passing day?

A Bad Deal

The case of Dr. S Murali is symbolic of the Sinhala supremacist, anti-democratic and intolerant future the Rajapakses are building. Dr. Murali was an acting Consultant Community Physician attached to the Ministry of Health. He had been critical of the conditions in the Northern internment camps and had expressed the need for an open debate on the issue among medical practitioners, in a private e mail to a Sinhala colleague. For sending a private message, expressing his private opinion, he was accused of bringing ‘disrepute on the Government of Sri Lanka’ and interdicted with immediate effect.

Dr. Murali’s fate not only reveals the surreal lengths to which the regime is willing to go in order to prevent the country and the world from finding out the manner in which it treats civilian Tamils. It also demonstrates the subordinate position accorded to the Tamils in a Sinhala supremacist Sri Lanka. The Rajapakses may have relaxed some of their stringent rules and regulations in a vain attempt to obtain the GSP+ facility and to win over Tamil voters. But for how long this relatively more relaxed attitude would last is open to question. The Rajapakses are trying to present the best face to the country and the world, with deeds ranging from reducing taxes on essential commodities to withdrawing objections to senior journalist Tissanayagam being given bail. Is this a thaw which will lead to a less punitive and oppressive rule? Or is this just eyewash, which will not outlast the parliamentary election?

The regime’s sudden decision to relax travel restrictions on Tamils is instructive in this regard. The step is indubitably positive but its timing is rather curious, and raises disturbing questions about why these restrictions were imposed in the first place (especially the regulation banning plantation Tamils from coming to Colombo without a special permit). If these measures were motivated by security considerations they should have been relaxed/ removed when the war ended. But for six months these restrictions were maintained, until they were removed suddenly, a week ago. Their removal in the context of a closely fought election indicates that they were motivated not by security considerations but by other factors such as the Rajapakses’ Tamil phobia. What if post-election, the Rajapakses revert to this old form?

The Tamils need a leader who will treat them with some consideration and justice. The country needs a leader who will not undermine the democratic system from within, who will not abuse the state limitlessly for the advancement of his family. That Mahinda Rajapakse is incapable of acting justly and democratically is evident from the manner in which he led the country in the last four years. It could be argued that Sarath Fonseka cannot do worse than Mahinda Rajapakse. Perhaps; perhaps not; he can be better or worse than the incumbent or as bad.

Whatever the choice we make in this election, it carries with it an uncommon amount of risk and danger to the future of Sri Lanka

- Asian Tribune -

Sri Lanka tsunami aid misappropriated: watchdog

COLOMBO (AFP) – Nearly half a billion dollars in tsunami aid for Sri Lanka is unaccounted for and over 600 million dollars has been spent on projects unrelated to the disaster, an anti-corruption watchdog said Saturday.

Berlin-based Transparency International demanded an audit of the money received by the Sri Lankan government to help victims of the Asian tsunami which hit the island on December 26, 2004, killing 31,000 people.

The group's Sri Lankan chapter said the public have a right to know how the aid money was spent as the tropical nation marked the fifth anniversary of the tsunami.

The group alleged that out of 2.2 billion dollars received for relief, 603.4 million dollars was spent on projects unrelated to the disaster.

Another half a billion dollars was missing, the group said.

"There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of 471.9 million dollars," the Transparency International statement issued in Colombo added.

An "audit should be done by the government to explain the utilisation of the money received and the challenges faced," the group said.

An government official declined comment Saturday on the allegations but Colombo has consistently rejected such accusations in the past.

An initial government audit in 2005 found that less than 13 percent of the aid had been spent, but there has been no formal examination since, Transparency International said.

Kilde: Afp

Land without checkpoints feels free to Tamil refugees

''IT FEELS like freedom, now,'' says Sanmugam Sarpatheepan.

Around him are the markers of his new life; the modest home in Melbourne's west is well maintained but has few personal touches, except for a couple of unwashed teacups in the kitchen.

Mr Sarpatheepan, 25, and his intellectually impaired housemate, Kanapathippillai Thajaparan, 24, are no ordinary new arrivals: they are the only Sri Lankans off the customs ship Oceanic Viking to have been resettled in Australia after the October stand-off involving 78 asylum seekers.

The duo, who are distant relatives, landed at Melbourne Airport on December 20 from Jakarta, but their route here has been tumultuous.

It was reported during the impasse that each passenger had paid $US12,000 to a people smuggler, but these young men say they paid $US6000 each for passage on the ''no-good boat'' from Jakarta. When it started sinking after about four days, they were picked up by the Australian ship, but in Indonesia's search and rescue zone.

Although in Australia barely a week , Mr Sarpatheepan is alive to some of the nuances of the refugee debate that followed the boat's interception. He agreed to speak, he says, because he wants to show the desperation that drives Tamils to get on to ''bad boats'' to seek refuge in a far-off continent.

''Being born as a Tamil in Sri Lanka, you have no freedom …  the ultimate choice is to flee the country,'' says Mr Sarpatheepan. His family home near Jaffna, in the north, was at the frontline of the bloody ethnic conflict between the Government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Although he mostly speaks through an interpreter, he barely pauses to draw breath as he recalls neighbours and friends, all young men, who have ''got disappeared'' after an encounter with the Sri Lankan army. The interrogators, he alleges, would accuse every civilian of being a Tiger operative. Young women in his home town would regularly be sexually assaulted.

Mr Sarpatheepan remembers, most graphically, his friend, Danu, then 22. ''He got arrested one day, and he didn't come back,'' he says. Determined that their son avoid this fate, the salesman's parents raised the money to buy him an air ticket to Jakarta in 2006 that could eventually secure a sea passage to Australia.

But in Jakarta on a one-month tourist visa, he was jailed by police and then spent about 10 months in a detention centre in Makassar, South Sulawesi. When he was released, the International Organisation for Migration placed him on Lombok Island, near Bali, where he stayed in a hotel for two years.

Mr Sarpatheepan said it was in Lombok, where he had ''freedom of movement'', that he was able to make arrangements to cross to Australia. His cousins, many of whom had already resettled in Western countries, raised the money for the passage.

''Australia is a land of freedom,'' he said. ''There is no checkpoint, and I don't get stopped by the military.''

He smiles, but there is a touch of longing for things lost. ''You know, every Tamil would go back to Sri Lanka if there is no war.''

Kilde: The age Australia

How Lanka averted US move to evacuate LTTE leadership - இறுதிக்கட்ட போரில் முக்கிய புலி தலைவர்களை வெளியேற்ற அமெரிக்கா முயன்றது?

About two months before the final battle on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon in May, the United States had offered to evacuate top LTTE leaders and their families.

The unprecedented proposal had been made by the then US Ambassador in Colombo Robert Blake after the Co-Chairs to the Sri Lankan peace process, spearheaded by the Norwegians agreed that the LTTE could no longer halt the army advance.

Continues after the Tamil Text:

இறுதிக் கட்ட போருக்கு இரு மாதங்களுக்கு முன்னர் வன்னியில் போர்க்களத்திலிருந்த விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் முக்கிய தலைவர்களையும், அவர்களது குடும்பங்களையும் பாதுகாப்பாக அங்கிருந்து வெளியேற்ற அமெரிக்கா முயற்சிகளை மேற்கொண்டு வந்ததாக தி ஐலண்ட் பத்திரிகையின் முகப்புச் செய்தியில் தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. இலங்கை ராணுவம் முன்னேறிக் கொண்டிருப்பதை இனியும் விடுதலைப் புலிகளால் தடுத்து நிறுத்த முடியாதென்பதை நோர்வே ஏற்றுக்கொண்ட பின்னர் இந்த முயற்சிகளை இலங்கைக்கான அப்போதைய அமெரிக்கத் தூதுவர் ரொபேர்ட் பிளேக் மேற்கொண்டு வந்ததாகத் தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.


வன்னியில் சிக்குண்டுள்ள பொதுமக்களை வெளியேற்ற இன்னும் சந்தர்ப்பம் உள்ளதாக மார்ச் மாதத்தில் அமெரிக்கா வலியுறுத்தியதற்கு முக்கிய காரணம் தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள் தலைவர் வேலுப்பிள்ளை பிரபாகரன், கடற்படைத் தளபதி சூசை, புலனாய்வுத் துறைத் தளபதி பொட்டு அம்மான் அவர் குடும்பங்கள் உள்ளிட்ட சுமார் 100 பேரைப் பாதுகாப்பதில் அமெரிக்கா தீவிரம் காட்டி வந்ததாக இப் பத்திரிகை மேலும் தெரிவித்துள்ளது.

இவ்வாறு தலைவர்களை வெளியேற்றும் திட்டம் குறித்து கலந்தாலோசிக்க பிளேக் அமெரிக்க வல்லுநர்களை கொழும்புக்கு அழைக்க இருந்ததாகவும், தலைவரை மீட்பதற்கு அமெரிக்க கலங்களைப் பயன்படுத்துவது குறித்தும் அவர் ஆலோசித்தார் என்றும் அச்செய்தி கூறுவதோடு, ஆனால் இந்தியாவின் ஆலோசனையின்றி இவ்வாறு புலித் தலைவர்களை மீட்பதற்கு அனுமதிக்க முடியாது என இலங்கை அரசாங்கம் அமெரிக்காவிற்கு இரகசியமாக அறிவித்ததாகவும் தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

புலித் தலைவர்களை மீட்கும் நோக்கில் ஹவாய் நாட்டிலிருந்து வந்த விமானம் ஒன்று தரையிறக்குவது குறித்த முறையான செயல்களைச் செய்வதில் முரண்பட்டு பின்னர் தரையிறக்கப்பட்டதாம். மேலும் இந்த விமானம் இலங்கை வருவது குறித்த தகவலானது, அது ஏற்கனவே வானில் பறக்கத் தொடங்கிய பின்னரே அறிவிக்கப்பட்டதாகவும் அச்செய்தியில் குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளது. எனினும், இலங்கை அரசாங்கம் மிக நுட்பமான ராஜதந்திர அணுகுமுறை ஒன்றைப் பின்பற்றி இந்த முயற்சிகளை முறியடித்துள்ளதாகத் தெரிவிக்கப்படுகிறது.

இந்த ரகசிய முயற்சிகள் நடந்து கொண்டிருந்தபோது, ராணுவம் மெல்ல மெல்ல புலிகளின் பகுதிகளுக்குள் ஊடுருவி 45 சதுர கிலோமீற்றரை மட்டும் புலிகளின் கட்டுப்பாட்டில் விட்டுவிட்டு மிகுதி அனைத்தையும் ராணுவம் கைப்பற்றி விட்டதாக அப்பத்திரிகை மேலும் தெரிவிக்கிறது. இருப்பினும் சரணடைய வந்த புலித் தலைவர்களை சுட்டுக் கொண்றது, தொடர்பில் இப் பத்திரிகை எக் கருத்துக்களையும் முன்வைக்கவில்லை

Although a section of the press in March 2009 speculated that the US was exploring the possibility of evacuating civilians trapped in the war zone, it can now be revealed that the actual move was to evacuate the LTTE leadership. Well informed sources told The Island that the US plan envisaged taking over 100 persons, including Velupillai Prabhakaran, Sea Tiger leader Soosai, Intelligence Wing leader Pottu Amman and their families.

Sources said that Ambassador Blake went to extent of calling US experts to Colombo to work out modalities regarding the deployment of US assets to evacuate the LTTE leadership discussed the possibility of deploying US vessels to carry out the evacuation.

Sources said that an aircraft from Hawaii carrying US experts touched down at the Bandaranaike International Airport following a dispute over formalities regarding landing rights. Sources said that the US embassy had alerted the government of the impending arrival of the aircraft only after it was airborne.

Responding to The Island queries, sources said that at one point the Sri Lankan government had suggested that Ambassador Blake should also consult New Delhi regarding the controversial evacuation plans.

While secret negotiations were taking place, the Army had advanced slowly but steadily into the remaining LTTE-held territory in the Mullaitivu district. By the second week of March, a multi-pronged ground offensive was eating into some 45 square km territory under LTTE control. At the beginning of the Sri Lankan offensive in September 2006, the LTTE had about 15,000 square km under its control.

Sources said that government forces could have finished off the Tigers earlier had the army carried out an all out attack regardless of civilian losses. In fact, UN Chief Ban-ki-moon had inquired why the government did not carry out an amphibious assault on the Mullaitivu beach to conclude the offensive as he flew over the Vanni battlefields.

Sources said that much talked about UN bid to save about 50 LTTE leaders and their families was made hot on heels of the failed US attempt. Sources said that had international operations to evacuate the LTTE leadership succeeded, Sri Lanka would have faced an extremely difficult situation and the so-called Eelam government in exile would not be a joke had they escaped.

The US and the UN had intervened on behalf of the influential Tamil Diaspora which continued to play a pivotal role even in the post-LTTE era. Sources said that those pushing US and western capitals were not only Sri Lankan Tamils but influential groups from South Africa and South East Asian countries.

After Sri Lanka had successfully thwarted international intervention, the LTTE on its own tried to use one of its vessels to evacuate Prabhakaran and his family, the sources revealed.

Navy Commander Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe last Monday (Dec 21) said that a 90-metre ship seized by a special SLN team was believed to have been involved in a last ditch attempt to rescue Prabhakaran. He said that a light chopper launched from the ship could have picked Prabhakaran as the army advanced on the last LTTE stronghold.

Fearing an LTTE operation, the navy deployed the bulk of its assets on the north-eastern waters while the SLAF stationed a pair of jets at the China Bay air base to meet any eventuality.

Once the 55 and 59 Divisions linked-up on the Mullaitivu beach, it was only a matter of time before the Tigers collapsed on the Vanni front.

Kilde: island.lk

Tsunami minnestund 26.des 2009 - ஆழிப்பேரலையால் உயிரிழந்தவர்களுக்காக அஞ்சலி செய்வோம்

ஆழிப்பேரலை இன்னலை நாம் எதிர்கொண்டு இன்று 5 ஆண்டுகள் நிறைவடைகின்றது. இவ்வேளையில் வரலாறு காணாத அந்த அனர்த்தத்தில் உயிரிழந்த உறவுகளுக்கு இன்றைய நாளில் நாம் அஞ்சலி செலுத்துவதோடு, அந்த இயற்கையின் சீற்றத்தில் இன்னல்களை எதிர்கொண்டு இன்னும் அதிலிருந்து மீளமுடியாது தவிக்கும் உறவுகளின் துயரங்களில் நாமும் பங்கெடுத்துக்கொள்வோம்

Sted: Annai Poopathi

Rommen avd.(2 etg)

Dato: 26. desember

Tid: 18:00

Arrangør: TRO

Sri Lankans want to know where tsunami aid has gone

COLOMBO // Five years after the tsunami swept over the shores of Sri Lanka destroying everything in its path, victims are continuing to rebuild their lives. But their efforts have been plagued by nagging questions over widespread corruption in programmes expected to provide thousands of houses worth billions of rupees.

More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed and more than a half million displaced when an earthquake off the Indonesian coast on December 26, 2004 triggered a series of tsunamis along coastlines in the Indian Ocean. Nearly 100,000 houses in Sri Lanka were destroyed by the deadly waves.

A drive down to Galle or Matara in the south and Batticaloa or Ampara in the east reveals numerous tsunami victims who have yet to receive promised houses or compensation, while the houses built for many others were constructed so shoddily that they need to be replaced.

Elsy Priyadharshi, a tsunami survivor from Wattala, a coastal town about 10km north of Colombo, was quoted in a statement issued on Tuesday by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) as saying that soon after the tsunami struck, she and her family found refuge in a nearby church and then moved to a camp for the displaced and thereafter to transitional shelters.

“After five years we are finally moving to permanent houses, which are 100,000 times better than the camp where we stayed before and this has helped us get our lives back to normality,” Ms Priyadharshi, who has been a leading advocate for permanent housing, said in the statement.

Her new home is part of the IOM tsunami recovery programme that has built about 8,570 emergency transitional shelters and permanent homes for tsunami-affected communities along the southern and eastern coasts of the island nation. Takuya Ono, the head of IOM Sri Lanka’s engineering services, said in the statement that without a permanent home, it is difficult for people to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

Ms Priyadharshi and others are now asking why it took so long for them to get a home to call their own.


Transparency International Sri Lanka in March 2007 found that funds pledged by donors for post-tsunami work totalled 241.5 billion rupees (Dh18.9bn), of which 122 billion rupees were disbursed to various implementing agencies. Out of this, only 68.5 billion rupees were spent on projects.

“There is no precise evidence to explain the missing sum of 53.5 billion rupees [of money disbursed],” TI said at the time. Rukshana Nanayakkara, TI Sri Lanka’s deputy executive director, said no proper audit of funds used in post-tsunami work has been done. “An audit was done by the government’s auditor general in 2005 [soon after the money came in from donors] but nothing after that,” he said in a recent interview.

“There were serious issues about how the money was being spent and by whom,” said Firzan Hashim, the deputy executive director of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, which acts as a co-ordinating body for many non-governmental organisation’s relief efforts, including Save the Children and Oxfam.

Mr Hashim pointed out that after numerous NGOs swarmed into the country after the tsunami hit, local authorities struggled to keep track of their movements. Citing one example of the attempts to misuse donor funds, Mr Hashim explained how one foreign couple wanted pictures of tsunami housing projects to send abroad to a donor and claim it was done by them. “We chased them away,” he said.

Jayaweerabaduge Nimal, a 43-year-old fisherman from Ussangoda village near the southern town of Hambantota, said he’s lucky to be alive after the tsunami almost swept him away. While his house was not destroyed, as it was some distance from the sea, he said several new houses meant for the victims went to others who were unaffected.

“If you were friendly with a local politician or prepared to pay a small bribe to a local official, you could get a house on false pretences,” he said.

Mr Nimal’s sister and four other relatives died in the tragedy. His parents, whose house was near the beach at Ussangoda, survived the tragedy but their house was washed away.

Mr Nimal does recall one short-term benefit left in the tsunami’s wake. While many fishermen didn’t return to the sea for nearly three months, he took his catamaran out to sea in early January 2005 and was blessed with a large catch. “There was an overflow of fish as no fishing had taken place for several days and we had plenty to eat and sell,” he recalled.

Mohamed Rushdi, also from Hambantota, has no such positive memories of the effects of the tsunami. “We were on the second floor of our house and heard this loud noise. With my father and mother, I rushed downstairs and then saw the place flooded. We then rushed upstairs only to be washed away as the waters swelled and rose,” he said.

Moments later Mr Rushdi found himself 500 metres away from his home with a broken leg and debris all over. The bodies of his parents were never recovered. Mr Rushdi now lives in Canada. He recently returned to Sri Lanka for his sister’s wedding. “That was a traumatic experience,” he said, recalling the tsunami and its aftermath.

But the wave of sympathy for the affected, irrespective of race or religion, in those early days, lifted some hopes that the majority Sinhalese would patch up their differences with minority Tamils who were complaining of discrimination in state education and jobs.

“Unfortunately that didn’t happen. We lost a great opportunity for unity after the tsunami. We have another chance now that the conflict is over,” said Renton de Alwis, the former head of Sri Lanka’s state agency responsible for tourism, who is now a social activist.

Today the government says it is better prepared should another tsunami hit. Gamini Hettiarachchi, the director general of the Disaster Management Centre, said 55 tsunami warning towers have been placed across the island with sirens and speaker systems that are operated at the press of a button from the Colombo-based centre.

“We get global alerts on earthquakes and did an evacuation on a tsunami warning in July 2007,” he said, adding that creating awareness on disasters such as the tsunami and setting up district committees on early warning, search and rescue, and camp management have been going on in the past few years.

The Disaster Management Centre was organising a tsunami-alert rehearsal at 3pm on Saturday in 11 districts in which 400 to 500 families will be evacuated to safer ground after warnings are sounded.

We need to maintain a state of preparedness,” Mr Hettiarachchi said.

Kilde: thenational.ae

Sri Lanka war-displaced struggle to resume lives

VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Thousands of ethnic Tamils displaced during Sri Lanka's war have gone home again, but are finding basic services and infrastructure lacking despite a massive government post-war resettlement programme.

The government has gradually been resettling around 300,000 ethnic minority Tamil people, most displaced in the final phase of the army offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended with the Tiger's defeat in May after a 25-year war.

Various foreign aid and human rights groups, as well as U.N. officials, have criticised conditions in the camps and have urged the government, which needs foreign help and investment to boost Sri Lanka's post-war economy, to resettle the Tamils quickly. According to government data, it had resettled 127,352 people in their areas of origin as of Wednesday. Over 140,000 are yet to be resettled.

At one point over 280,000 displaced people were being kept under guard in northern Vavuniya, 260 km (161 miles) away from Colombo, inside cramped military-run camps.

Many have now been resettled in their original home areas, after the government determined there was not a threat of land mines. But those Reuters spoke to say the conditions leave much to be desired.

"We don't have drinking water or toilet facilities," said Muttaiah Sivayoganathan, a 53-year-old father of three in the colony of Parannattakal, 10 km north from Vavuniya town.

"Backside forest has been used as our toilet." he said, referring to woods behind his house.

"I don't have any money to resume farming. But still we were asked by the government to build a house on our own land temporarily before proper resettlement."
His wife and three children had gone to have a bath in one of his relative's house in Vavuniya town, where they also cook their food due to lack of clean water around his newly built house.

Walls of the 9 square-meter, one-room house are made of coconut fronds and the roof of galvanised tin sheets. The dirt floor was wet due to pouring monsoonal rain outside. Along with some dry rations, the government gave him 16 galvanised tin sheets, 5,000 rupees ($43.7) in cash, and some farming equipment to rebuild his house and resume his livelihood.

POISONOUS SNAKES
Many others in the resettlement area complained about conditions as well. Some had been bitten by poisonous snakes when they were using forests for lavatory purposes.

"The government should punish those who were involved in terrorism, not all ethnic Tamils," a dejected old man in the colony told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Two weeks ago, his wife was bitten by a snake, but luckily survived after a four-day treatment in a nearby hospital.

"They promised us (the government would) provide everything. But so far nothing has happened in the last two months since we resettled here."

Some said they stay in the area only in the daylight hours, going to relatives' house at night due to the presence of snakes and lack of facilities.

The Sri Lankan government gave freedom of movement from Dec. 1 to the displaced persons housed in military-run camps, after facing pressure to speed up resettlement not just internationally, but locally ahead of a presidential election Jan. 26.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's administration promised the United Nations to resettle between 70 and 80 percent of those in the camps by the end of the year and all by end-January.

However, many remain in the camps because their home areas have not yet been opened up as mine clearance operations are still going on.

That is the situation for tens of thousands of Tamils from the former rebel-held districts of Mullateevu and Kilinochchi.

"I won't feel freedom, until I go to my own home," said M. Iruthayanyahi in Vavuniya town while waiting for a bus to return to Manik Farm camp, the largest, after staying 15 days at a relative's house.

She had lost her eldest son on Jan. 10 in Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaitivu district by a shell attack and her second son is in army custody over suspicious LTTE links.

Which candidate most of Sri Lanka's Tamil minority chooses to support could be an important factor in the presidential election, with the resettlement process one of the issues.

Rajapaksa's main challenger General Sarath Fonseka, who led the military to defeat the LTTE as the then-commander of the army, says the government has resettled the displaced persons without proper planning.

Kilde: http://uk.reuters.com/

The Democratic rights of the People

The House of Tamil Eelam, an association created after the end of way in May 2009 to defend the rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka organised an referendum, asking the people of Sri Lanka to pronounce on the future political situation of the Tamils in that island.
Eezham Tamils living in France voted on the 12th and 13th to say yes or no for independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam in the island of Sri Lanka. The formation committee for the country council of Eelam Tamils in France organized the poll with the support of 61 Eezham Tamil organizations and two NGOs in France. Taking the secret ballot was officiated and presided over by independent members of the local government councils and independant people from the French associations.

The poll gains significance at a time when Tamils are left with no choice other than politically proving their geopolitical importance as powers have made it absolutely clear that they are guided only by geopolitical considerations.

Global Tamils have to prove the geopolitical significance of the Tamil homelands to the International Community, making the powers to listen to reason.

Re-mandating the independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils based on the main principle of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution of 1976, which was voted by the Tamils in Sri Lanka in 1977 and has become more important than it was before May 2009, because what remains today is only a political premises based on the democratic will of the freedom of the people.

On the 12th and 13th of Decembre nearly 32000 Tamils of Sri Lanka origin over 18 years old presented themselves and voted in 37 polling stations spread of in Paris and its outskirts and also in the Provinces.

The organisers were contacted by thousands of tamils living in isolated french towns making their will to participated in the vote. So postal voting system was made available for them.

On the available results without counting the postal votes 31148 people participated in the vote and 30936 people answered yes to the question "I aspire for the formation of the independent and sovereign state of Tamil Eelam in the north and east territory of the island of Sri Lanka on the basis that the Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka make a distinct nation, have a traditional homeland and have the right to self-determination."

More than laying sound democratic foundations to the liberation struggle, the referendum will be deciding how the free Eezham Tamils and their descendants choose to identify themselves to the world – whether as ‘Sri Lankans’ or as Eezham Tamils, in the wake of international attempts to impose identity on them. By stating the Tamil aspirations democratically and in no uncertain terms, the referendum fills in the political vacuum of Eezham Tamils in the aftermath of war where more then 50 000 people were massacared more the 30000 children left handicaped and more then 300000 people left homeless and when the UN and the Security Council is being silent with evidence for war crimes and crime against humanity.

According to Raphaël Lemkin (http://www.preventgenocide.org/lemkin/)the acts by all the Sri Lankan gouvernments since 1948 can be termed as genocide according to UN and International Laws.

Relying on the following definitions of Genocide, namely Article 2 Paras (a) to (c) of the UN Convention On Genocide (1948) and the term Genocide as originally defined by Raphael Lemkin:

Article 2: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

•(a) Killing members of the group;

•(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

•(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

•(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

•(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Raphael Lemkin Definition is broader. It includes non-physical acts of genocide. He personally defined it as follows:



"Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group."

There has been an intent to commit genocide by the Sri Lankan State acting via its officers since atleast as early as 1948 continuing to the present time. In support of this intent we rely on explicit statements of the a series of Presidents [reference ..] including but not limited to “If I starve the Tamils the Sinhala People will be happy” [Jeyawardene July 1983] and “Nothing must exist outside the safe zone”.[Rajapakse, 2009]

Specific events in Sri Lanka already meet the UN Convention definition of Genocide and have been so recognised:

•The 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom was itself a genocide by the UN Convention definition [see Sheet 1 for definition, the UN convention will be addressed in a future sheet]. The International Commission of Jurists termed the 1983 events an “Act of Genocide”.

•By the same reasoning, all previous pogroms – 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 - qualify as genocides in the UN Convention.

•Specific aspects of the current [Eelam War IV] – such as the targeting of civilians in Safe havens – are similar to events recognised by the ICTY [International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia] as genocides

•Nevertheless under the Lemkin definition, there is a continuum of genocide since 1948. We say there has been genocidal intent, accompanied by genocidal actions – together, a “Genocide” – since 1948.

Methods
•Legislation intended to achieve an ethnically pure elite in public administation, the military and police.
•Ethnic cleansing, both violent and non-violent
•Mass killings and massacres: both pogroms in times of peace and massacres in war
•Killing of intelligentsia since 1983, but with accelerated episodes
◦Killing civil society leaders in Jaffna
•Killing media workers
•Killing Tamil parliamentarians
•Killing/abducting academics (e.g. Vice Chancellor of Eastern University) and student leaders
•Killing aid workers

Threats to physical existence:Starvation, embargos of medicine Depopulation – abductions, disappearances etc War as a pretext for genocide

Genocide in Vanni

We also can see that attacks and conditions in Vanni as a genocide along the lines established by the ICTY in Krstic comparable to the genocide in Srebenica.

We are cognizant of the obligations of UN Members states under the UN Convention 1948 under Article 1 which states: “The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.”. We note the failure of UN Members in their obligations towards the Tamil people under the Genocdie convention.

Seeing all this we are living in a world which accepted the Freedom of KOSOVO after the massacre by the Serbes, the Freedom for East Timor, the creation of Bosnie after the massacre in Serbenica our wish to all leaders of this world to act according to international law and accept the right of the victims since 1948.

Today the diaspora Tamils making nearly 1/3 of the Tamil population of Sri lanka are voicing the voice for the voiceless through referendums all arround the world declaring the right of Self determination declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Kilde: lankanewsweb.com

Sri Lankan Military Intelligence Operatives planning a secret operation to execute Tamil Prisoners of War - HR Activist

Human Rights activist from Sri Lankan capital Colombo, on conditions of anonymity told WarWithoutWitness that, Sri Lankan Military Intelligence Operatives are planning a secret undercover operation to execute most of the 10,000 odd Tamil Prisoners of War (PoW) before the forthcoming Presidential election to be held on Jan. 26, 2010. WarWithoutWitness couldn’t independently verify the authenticity or credibility of this alert. Given the track record of human rights violations by Sri Lankan defense forces & the number of peoples life at risk, extracts of the alert is reproduced below ‘AS IS’.


Alert from a Human Rights Activist in Colombo, Sri Lanka;

“..one of my friend connected to sri Lankan military, who is concerned about human beings life told that a group of military intelligence personal with the orders from top boss are planning to stage play a secret attack on one of the major camp where LTTE Prisoners are detained without ICRC, UN or outside access. They are planning to use some of the LTTE leaders currently in detention to launch an attack on the prison itself (like a rescue mission from remaining LTTE) and execute LTTE prisoners during the counter attack by military personnel providing security to the prison. It is going to happen before presidential election. If this is done this will be a big killing ..”

Kilde: tamilnewsnetwork.com

Witness Video
http://www.warwithoutwitness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=34&Itemid=55
 
Photographs of Tamils with ‘dog-tag’ imprisoned at undisclosed torture camps in Sri Lanka
http://warwithoutwitness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=278

When dad has the power, the son could do anything - நமால் ராஜபக்சா மொடல் அழகியுடன் உல்லாசம் - மக்கள் விரட்டியடித்தனர்

A popular model faced quite a predicament during the party that was held at the Fingara Hotel following a dinner held for the artistes who participated in the Tharunyata Hetak advertisements organized by Namal Rajapaksa, son of Mahinda Rajapakse.

The model, Ayesha, had been engaged in various amorous activities inside vehicle bearing number WP HE 9972 with a leader of the Tharunyata Hetak Organization when villagers in the area had started to attack the vehicle in protest.

Ayesha had then been compelled to run out in her under garments. Finally, several Thuarnyata Hetak members had arrived in the scene in the vehicle bearing number 64-6764 and helped the two escape from the angry villagers.

சிறீலங்கா அரச தலைவரின் மூத்த புதல்வர் நமால் ராஜபக்சா தென்னிலங்கை மொடல் அழகியுடன் வாகனம் ஒன்றினுள் தகாத நடத்தைகளில் ஈடுபட்டதை தொடர்ந்து கிராம மக்கள் அவர்களை அங்கிருந்து விரட்டியதாக கொழும்பு ஊடகம் ஒன்று தெரிவித்துள்ளது.


இது தொடர்பில் அது மேலும் தெரிவித்துள்ளதாவது:

நமால் ராஜபக்சாவின் நிறுவனமான தெர்யன்ட ஹெடக் அமைப்பு பின்கரா ஆடம்பர விடுதியில் ஒழுங்கு செய்த விருந்தில் தென்னிலங்கையின் பிரபலமான மொடல் அழகி அயிசா கலந்து கொண்ட பின்னர் வாகனம் ஒன்றினுள் நமாலுடன் இருந்த போது கிராம மக்கள் அவர்களை அங்கிருந்து விரட்டியுள்ளனர்.

WP HE 9972 இலக்கமுடைய வாகனமே கிராமத்தில் நின்றதாகவும், அதனை கிராம மக்கள் முற்றுகையிட்ட போது ஆயிசா அரை குறை ஆடைகளுடன் தப்பி ஓடியதாகவும் நமால் ரஜபக்சாவை ஹெடக் அமைப்பை சேர்ந்தவர்கள் காப்பாற்றியதாகவும் தெரிவிக்கப்படுகின்றது.

அதன் பின்னர் அவர்கள் 64-6764 இலக்கமுடைய வாகனத்தில் தப்பிச் சென்றுள்ளதாக அதில் மேலும் தெரிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

On Sri Lankan Killings, As Alston Asks Rajapaksas, Why Not UN's Nambiar?

While the UN in New York has been mute about the admission by Sri Lanka's former General Sarath Fonseka of orders by Presidential brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to kill those who sought to surrender, an independent rapporteur for the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva Philip Alston wrote to the government on December 18 formally requesting answers.

If the past is any guide, the Rajapaksa administration will either not provide direct answers, or will issue vituperative denials. It did this in response to video footage depicting Sri Lankan soldiers killing bounded and naked people, footage that has since been authenticated.

Continues in english after the Tamil text......

இலங்கையின் வன்னிப் பகுதியில் இடம்பெற்ற இறுதிநேர யுத்தத்தின் போது சரணடைய வந்த விடுதலைப்புலிகளின் தலைவர்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டமை குறித்து ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை இலங்கை அரசிடம் விரிவான விளக்கத்தைக் கோரியுள்ள, அதே சமயம் இறுதி யுத்தத்தின்போது விடு தலைப் புலிகளின் தலைவர்கள் தாம் சரணடையப் போகின்றனர் என அறி வித்தும் அது பற்றிய எந்தவித நடவடிக்கையும் எடுக்காமல் இருந்த ஐக்கிய நாடு கள் சபையின் விசேட பிரதிநிதி விஜய் நம்பியாரிடம் விளக்கம் கோராமல் இருப் பது ஏன்?


இவ்வாறு “இன்னசிற்றி” பிறஸ் கேள்வியெழுப்பியுள்ளது. இறுதிக்கால யுத்தத்தின் போது ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபையின் சிறப்புப் பிரதிநிதியாக இலங்கைக்குச் சென்ற விஜய் நம்பியாரின் விஜயங்கள், தொடர்பாடல்கள் தொடர் பான சந்தேகங்களையும், புலம்பெயர் தமி ழர்கள் நடத்திய போராட்டங்களை கண்டும் காணாமல் இருந்த ஐக்கியநாடுகளின் மெத்தனப் போக்குகளைத் தமது முந்தைய பத்திரிகையாளர் சந்திப்பில் கண்டித்துள்ள “இன் னர்சிற்றி பிறஸ்” தற்போது இந்தக் கேள்வியினை எழுப்பியுள்ளது.

சரணடைந்த விடுதலைப்புலிகளின் தலைவர்கள் இலங்கை பாதுகாப்பு அமைச் சின் செயலாளர் கோத்தபாயவின் உத்தரவின் பேரில் இலங்கைப் படையினரால் சுட்டுக்கொல்லப்பட்டார்கள் என்று இலங்கையின் முன்னாள் இராணுவத் தளபதி சரத் பொன்சேகா தெரிவித்தும்கூட இது விடயத்தில் அமெரிக்கா மௌனம் சாதித்து வருகின்ற அதேவேளை, சரணடைந்த விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் தலைவர்களுக்கு என்ன நடந்தது என்று விளக்கமளிக்குமாறு ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபையின் படுகொலைகள் விவகாரம் தொடர்பான பிரதிநிதி பிலப் அல்ஸ்டன் இலங்கை அரசிடம் கோரியுள்ளார்.

படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்ட விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் தலைவர்கள் சரணடைவதற்கு முன்னர் அவர்கள் தொடர்பு கொண்ட ஐ.நா. அதிகாரியான விஜய் நம்பியாரிடமே ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை முதலில் விளக்கம் கோரியிருக்க வேண்டும். ஆனால் அவ்வாறு நடைபெறவில்லை. இதுதொடர்பாக விஜய் நம்பியாரிடம் விளக்கம் கோராதமை ஏன் என்று “இன்னர் சிற்றி பிறஸ்” கேள்வி எழுப்பியுள்ளது.


So one wonders, given not only the UN's role in the final days of what even it called the "bloodbath on the beach" in Sri Lanka, but especially UN chief of staff Vijay Nambiar's reported role in the deadly surrenders, why Rapporteur Alston has not already demanded answers from the UN itself. Nambiar was present with Ban at the Security Council stakeout on Monday morning.

On December 15, Inner City Press asked the UN spokesman, Martin Nesirky

Inner City Press: John Holmes has appeared on an interview with CNN’s [Christiane] Amanpour, and seemed to confirm that during the final days of the fighting in Sri Lanka, that Vijay Nambiar was telephoned by leaders who sought to surrender, who ended up being killed. So, there is a big controversy right now in Sri Lanka about the charge that the Defence Minister, with whom Mr. Ban has met, gave the orders to kill surrendering prisoners. I wonder if it’s possible, is that… Number one, can you, it’d be good to hear instead from Holmes about Nambiar, or maybe from Mr. Nambiar, but what was the UN’s role in these attempted surrenders? And where does it stand on Mr. Ban’s call for accountability or some type of an outside investigation or panel of inquiry into possible war crimes?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: What Mr. Holmes said yesterday, he speaks for himself in this particular case; of course, I am not going to amplify what he said. He knows what he’s talking about. What I would suggest is that you let me find out some more details and then I can answer you with more certainty.

Inner City Press: All right. Maybe from Mr. Nambiar on some basis, because I think he’s confirmed that he got these calls from people who ended up being killed while waving white flags. So, it seems important to nail down what happened.

Spokesperson Nesirky: Once he’s back in town, we’ll see what we can do.

After that, with Nambiar in Copenhagen ostensibly unreachable by the UN, he gave a quote to the New York Times trashing a former UN official fired for openly blowing the whistle on what he called the UN's cover up of electoral fraud in Afghanistan. So on December 17, Inner City Press again asked

Inner City Press: Earlier this week there was an issue that came up with Mr. Nambiar and his role in the deadly surrender at the end of the Sri Lankan conflict, and you were like, well, when he comes back we’ll talk to him. Clearly he is reachable, apparently, to at least the New York Times. Mr. Nambiar, I mean. Is he in Copenhagen? Is that where he gave those comments?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I will have guidance.
Later, the UN inserted into the transcript an answer -- but not about Nambiar, much less the killings in Sri Lanka:

[The Spokesperson later announced that the reason Peter Galbraith's appointment as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan was terminated was that the Secretary-General determined that such action would be in the interests of the Organization. Further elaboration would not be appropriate at this time since Mr. Galbraith has chosen to challenge the termination of his appointment.]

Now Alston writes to the Sri Lankan government, but not to the UN's own Vijay Nambiar, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff. Ban Ki-moon will speak before Christmas about Copenhagen. What about extrajudicial killings, and the UN's own role? Watch this site.

Alston's letter to the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations office at Geneva

18 December 2009
Excellency,

I have the honour to address you in my capacity as Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions pursuant to General Assembly resolution 60/251 and to Human Rights Council resolution 8.3.

I write to your Excellency's Government with regard to the circumstances of the death of three senior representatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr. Balasingham Nadeshan, Mr. Seevaratnam Pulidevan and Mr. Ramesh, as well as of members of their families, in the night of 17 to 18 May 2009.

According to information I have received:

On 17 May 2009, the day before your Excellency's Government announced that its forces had completely defeated the LTTE. Messrs, Nadeshan, Pulidevan and Ramesh were trapped with other senior cadres of the LTTE in a small area north of Vellamullivaikkal. Through intermediaries they sought to establish contact with your Excellency's Government to inquire how they could surrender to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). The reply, coming from the Secretary of Defence in your Excellency's Government and from a Members of Parliament who is at the same time a senior adviser to the President, and conveyed through the intermediaries, was that they should walk towards the positions of the SLA in a way that made their intentions clear and holding a white cloth. The Commander of the SLA 58th Brigade, the unit on the front line with the last LTTE position, however, received a telephone call from the Secretary of Defence instructing him to order his forces to shoot those surrendering. When Messrs. Nadeshan, Pulidevan and Ramesh walked towards the SLA positions carrying white cloths in the first hours of 18 May 2009, soldiers opened fire on them and killed them. An unspecified number of family members of the three men were killed as well.

These allegations were made by the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army at the time of the events and subsequent Chief of Defence Staff (now retired) General Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka, in an interview to the newspaper The Sunday Leader. The accounts of journalists embedded with the SLA 58th Brigade confirm some of the alleged circumstances of the death of Messrs. Nadeshan, Pulidevan and Ramesh and their families.

While I do not wish to prejudge the accuracy of these reports, I would like to refer your Excellency's Government to fundamental legal rules applicable to all armed conflicts under international humanitarian law and human rights law.

Common Article 5 (applicable to armed conflict not of an international character) of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, to which your Excellency's Government is a party, dictates that "[p]ersons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely [....]". To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at anytime and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons: (a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds".

Similarly, an authoritative study of customary international humanitarian law finds that attacking and killing persons who are recognized as hors de combat is prohibited. Persons hors de combat include anyone who clearly expresses an intention to surrender, provided he or she abstains from any hostile act and does not attempt to escape (Rule 47 0f the Customary Rules of International Humanitarian Law identified in the study of the International Committee of the Red Cross).

It is my responsibility under the mandate provided to me by the Human Rights Council to seek to clarify all cases brought to my attention. Since I am expected to report on the death of Messrs. Nadeshan, Pulidevan and Ramesh, as well as of the members of their families, I would be grateful for the cooperation and observations of your Excellency's Government. In particular in relation to the following questions:

1. Are the allegations summarized above accurate, If not so, please share the information and documents proving their inaccuracy.
2. What information does your Excellency's Government have on the family members of Messrs. Nadeshan, Pulidevan and Ramesh allegedly killed on 18 May 2009.
3. Please refer to the results of my military, police, judicial and other inquiry or investigation carried out in relation to the allegations summarized above.

I undertake to ensure that your Excellency's Government's response to each of these questions is accurately reflected in the report I will submit to the Human Rights Council for its consideration.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

© Inner City Press

Sri Lankan guards 'sexually abused girls' in Tamil refugee camp - இராணுவத்தினர் பெண்களை பாலியல் பலாத்காரம் செய்தனர்: வாணி

A British medic held for months in an internment camp for Tamil civilians has revealed how military guards dealt out cruel punishments, while many suspected of links to Tiger rebels were taken away and have not been seen since Tamil women interned after escaping the horrors of the civil war in Sri Lanka were sexually abused by their guards who traded sex for food, a British medic has revealed.

Continue in english after the Tamil text.....

லண்டனைச் சேர்ந்த வாணி குமார் (25) வன்னிக்கு வந்திருந்தபோது ராணுவத்தினர் மேற்கொண்ட போரினால் பெரும் அவதிக்குள்ளாகி, வவுனியா தடுப்பு முகாமிலும் அடைபட்டுக் கிடந்து கடந்த செப்டம்பர் மாதம் விடுவிக்கப்பட்டார். அதன்பின் லண்டன் சென்ற அவர் ஆரம்பத்தில் இலங்கையில் நடந்த கொடூரங்களை விவரித்து வந்தார். ஆனால் அவரது குடும்பத்தினர் முகாம்களில் இருந்ததால் அவர்களுக்கு பாதிப்பு ஏற்படக்கூடாது என்பதற்காக பின்னர் பேட்டி கொடுப்பதை நிறுத்தியிருந்தார். ஆனால் மீண்டும் அவர் கூறியதாக சில தகவல்களை பிரிட்டிஷ் பத்திரிகை வெளியிட்டுள்ளது. இப்போது அவரின் நண்பர்கள், உறவினர்கள் அனைவரும் முகாம்களிலிருந்து வெளியேறிவிட்டதால் அவர்கள் மீது பழிவாங்கல்கள் நடக்காது என்று அவர் நம்பிக்கை கொண்டுள்ளார்.

வன்னியில் நடந்த சோதனைகளை விவரித்த வாணி, முகாம்கள் அடைபட்டிருந்ததையும் அங்கு பேசுவதற்கான சுதந்திரம் முற்றாக மறுக்கப்பட்டிருந்ததையும் கூறியுள்ளதோடு, பல இளம் தமிழ் பெண்களை அங்கு பாதுகாப்புக்காக நின்றிருந்த படையினர் பாலியல் ரீதியான முறைகேடுகளுக்கு உள்ளாக்கியதைத் தாம் கண்டதாகக் கூறியுள்ளார். முள்வேலி அமைக்கப்பட்டிருந்த முகாம் வேலிக்கு வெளியே உறவினர்கள் வந்திருக்கும்போது பெண்கள் அவர்களுடன் பேசிக் கொண்டு இருப்பார்கள். அவ்வேளையில் அப்பக்கம் செல்லும் ராணுவத்தினர் இளம் பெண்களைத் தொடுவதைத் தாம் மட்டுமல்ல அங்கிருந்த அநேகர் பார்த்துள்ளார்கள் என்றார்.

இவ்வாறு ராணுவ அதிகாரிகள் நடந்து கொண்டாலும் பெண்கள் ஒன்றுமே திருப்பிப் பேசமாட்டார்கள், ஏனெனில் திருப்பி ஏதேனும் பேசினால் தமக்கு மேலும் கொடுமைகள் நடக்கும் என்பது அனைவருக்கும் தெரிந்திருந்தது என்று வாணி மேலும் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார். பாலியல் முறைகேடுகளுக்கு உள்ளாக்கிய பின்னர்தான் அங்கு பெண்களுக்கு உணவு வழங்கப்பட்டது. இந்த உணவுக்கான பாலியல் உறவு என்ற வியாபாரத்தை ராணுவ உயர் அதிகாரிகள் செய்தது மட்டுமல்லாது உணவுக்காக பல மணி நேரம் வெயிலில் முட்டுக்காலில் நிற்க வைக்கப்பட்டதையும் காணக்கூடியதாக இருந்தது என்றார் அவர். சில வேளைகளில் பெண்கள் மீது பாலியல் வன்முறையில் ஈடுபட்டுவிட்டு பணமும் உணவும் கொடுத்துள்ள ராணுவத்தினர் தாம் நினைத்தபடி எதையுமே செய்யக்கூடியதாக இருந்தனர் என வருத்ததுடன் கூறியுள்ளார் வாணி.

வன்னிக் கொடும் போரில் இருந்து தப்பி வந்த பின்னர் தடுப்பு முகாம்களுக்குள் அடைக்கப்பட்டிருந்த தமிழ்ப் பெண்கள் சிறிலங்காப் படையினரால் பாலியல் துன்புறுத்தல்களுக்கு உள்ளாக்கப்பட்டனர்.


ஒருவேளை உணவுக்காகக் கூட படையினருடன் உறவு கொள்ளும் நிலைக்கு அவர்கள் உள்ளாக்கப்பட்டனர் என்று கூறுகிறார் மருத்துவப் பணியாளர்.

வாணி குமார் என்ற இந்த மருத்துவப் பணியாளர் நான்கு மாதங்களாக இந்தத் தடுப்பு முகாமில் முட்கம்பி வேலிகளுக்குப் பின்னால் அடைத்து வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்தார்.

தமிழ் கைதிகள் சுட்டெரிக்கும் சூரிய வெய்யிலின் கீழ் முழங்காலில் மணிக் கணக்காக நிற்க வைக்கப்படுகி்ன்றனர்.

விடுதலைப் புலிகளுடன் தொடர்பானவர்கள் என்ற சந்தேகத்தின் பேரில் படையினரால் கொண்டு செல்லப்பட்டவர்களை - பின்னர் ஒருபோதுமே அவர்களது குடும்பங்களால் பார்க்க முடிந்ததில்லை என்றும் விபரிக்கிறார் வாணி.

வாணி கடந்த செப்டெம்பர் மாதமே விடுவிக்கப்பட்டார்; ஆனால், முகாம்களில் நடந்த கொடுமைகள் பற்றிய முழு விபரங்களையும் வெளியிடுவதற்கு அவர் இவ்வளவு காலமாகக் காத்திருந்தார்.

ஏனெனில், தான் வெளியிடும் தகவல்களால் ஆத்திரம் அடையும் படையினர் முகாமில் தன்னுடன் இருந்த தனது உறவினர்களையும் நண்பர்களையும் பழிவாங்கிவிடுவார்களே என்ற பயமே அதற்குக் காரணம்.

அனைத்துலக அழுத்தங்களைத் தொடர்ந்து சிறிலங்கா அரசாங்கம் இந்த மாதத் தொடக்கத்தில் முகாம்களைத் திறந்து விட்டதனால் வாணியின் உறவினர்களும் நண்பர்களும் இப்போது விடுவிக்கப்பட்டு விட்டனர்.
முகாம்களில் உடலியல் ரீதியாகவும் பாலியல் ரீதியாகவும் மக்கள் துன்புறுத்தப்படுகிறார்கள் எனத் தெரிவிக்கும் ஐக்கிய நாடுகள் சபை அமைப்புக்களின் அறிக்கைகள் தமக்குக் கிடைத்துள்ளன என்பதை சிறிலங்கா அரசு உறுதிப்படுத்தி உள்ளது.

ஆனால், அத்தகைய குற்றச்சாட்டுக்களை உறுதிப்படுத்துவதற்கான வழிகள் ஏதும் இல்லை என்று அரசு தொடர்ந்து கூறி வருகின்றது; முகாம்களில் மக்கள் காணாமல் போனார்கள் என்பதையும் அரசு முற்றாக நிராகரிக்கிறது.

ஆனால், முகாம்களில் தடுத்து வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள பல்லாயிரக்கணக்கான மக்களின் நிலை குறித்த தகவல்கள் வெளியில் வருவதைத் தடுப்பதற்குத் தன்னால் முடிந்த அனைத்தையும் கொழும்பு செய்கிறது என ஐ.நா. பேச்சாளர் குற்றஞ்சாட்டுகின்றார்.

தடுப்பு முகாம்களில் அடைத்து வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள மக்கள் தவறாக நடத்தப்பட்டார்கள் என்பதை சிறிலங்கா அரசு தொடர்ந்து, உறுதியாக மறுத்து வருகின்றது.  ஆனால் - கொழும்பு அரசைத் திரும்பத் திரும்ப விமர்சித்து வரும் மனித உரிமை அமைப்புக்களுக்கு வாணியின் குற்றச்சாட்டு புதிய ஊக்கத்தைத் தரும்.

“அந்தத் தடுப்பு முகாம்கள் கொடுமையானவை; அங்கு மக்கள் ஒருவரோடு ஒருவர் பேசிக் கொள்வதற்குக்கூட அனுமதி இல்லை.
முட்கம்பி வேலிக்கு வெளியே செல்ல முடியாது; அவர்கள் வெளி உலகத்தில் இருந்து முற்றாகப் பிரித்து வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்தார்கள்.

படையினரால் கொண்டு செல்லப்பட்டவர்கள் மற்றும் பாலியல் துன்புறுத்தல்கள் பற்றி அந்த மக்கள் யாருக்கும் சொல்ல முடியாதிருந்தது.
வெளியில் யாரும் அது பற்றி அறிந்து கொள்வதை அரசு விரும்பவில்லை.
பாலியல் துன்புறுத்தல்கள் அங்கு சாதாரணமானவை; அதனை நான் நேரடியாகவே பார்த்துள்ளேன். படை ஆட்கள் பெண் பிள்ளைகளின் மீது கைகளைப் போடுவார்கள்; அடுத்தவர்கள் முன்னிலையிலேயே அவர்கள் இதைச் செய்வார்கள். அது மாதிரியான சிலவற்றை நான் நேரடியாகவே கண்டிருக்கிறேன்.

தமிழ்ப் பெண் பிள்ளைகள் பொதுவாகவே பாலியல் முறைகேடுகள் பற்றிப் பேச விரும்புவதில்லை. அப்படி அவர்கள் ஏதாவது பேசினால் முகாம்களில் அவர்களுக்கு என்ன வேண்டுமானாலும் நடக்கலாம் என்பது அவர்களுக்கு நன்கு தெரியும்.  அதே நேரம் - நிவாரணப் பணத்திற்காகவும் உணவிற்காகவும் தம்முடன் பாலியல் உறவு கொள்ளும் நிலைக்குத் தமிழ்ப் பெண்களை சிறிலங்காப் படை அதிகாரிகள் உட்படுத்தினர்கள்; அந்த மக்கள் விரக்தியின் விளிம்பிற்குப் போய்விட்டார்கள். அவர்கள் எல்லாவற்றிலுமே நம்பிக்கையிழந்து போய் இருக்கிறார்கள்.



தாம் நடத்தப்படும் விதம் குறித்து யாராவது முறையிட்டால் அவர்கள் படையினரால் தனிமைப்படுத்தப்பட்டுத் தண்டிக்கப்படுவார்கள்.
ஒரு தடவை - ஒரு வயதான நபரை படை அதிகாரி ஒருவர் உதைந்து தள்ளியதை நான் நேரில் பார்த்தேன். அவர்களுக்கு இடையில் என்ன வாக்குவதாம் நிகழ்ந்தது என்பது எனக்குத் தெரியாது; ஆனால் அந்த மூத்தவரை படை அதிகாரி பின்னால் இருந்து உதைத்தான்.



அதே பகுதியில் சுட்டெரிக்கும் சூரியனின் கீழே மக்கள் மண்டியிட்டு நிற்க வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்தார்கள்; தமது உணவுக்காக படை அதிகாரிகளுடன் வாக்குவாதப்பட்டதே அவர்கள் செய்த குற்றம். சில சமயங்களில் மணிக்கணக்காகக் கூட அவர்கள் இவ்வாறு நிறுத்தப்பட்டார்கள்” என்று நிலைமையை விபரிக்கிறார் வாணி.

சில சமயங்களில் "வெள்ளை வான்"கள் முகாமிற்குள் தோன்றும். அதில் ஆட்களை அவர்கள் பிடித்துச் செல்வார்கள். "வெள்ளை வான்" என்பது சிறிலங்காவில் ஒரு பயங்கரத்தின் குறியீடு.  கொலைகாரக் கும்பல்களால் ஆயிரக்கணக்கான மக்கள் கடத்தப்பட்டு காணாமல் போகச் செய்யப்பட்ட சம்பங்களுடன் அவற்றுக்குத் தொடர்புகள் உண்டு.

“விடுதலைப் புலிகளுடன் தொடர்புகள் இருந்தால் கூறுமாறு படையினர் கேட்பார்கள்; அப்படியானவர்களின் பெயர்களைக் குறித்துக் கொள்வார்கள்; அதன் பின்னர் - "வெள்ளை வான்" வந்து குறிப்பிட்ட நபர்களைக் கொண்டு சென்றுவிடும்.

அதன் பின்னர் அவர்களுக்கு என்ன நடக்கும் என்பது யாருக்குமே தெரியாது. இவ்வாறு கொண்டு செல்லப்பட்ட தமது குடும்ப உறுப்பினர்கள் ஏராளமானோரை மக்கள் இன்னும் தேடிக்கொண்டு இருக்கிறார்கள் என்பது எனக்குத் தெரியும்” என வாணி கூறுகிறார்.  “முதல் இரண்டு மூன்று நாட்கள் முகாமி்ல் நான் தனியாக இருந்தேன்; இப்போது நினைத்தாலும் பீதியாக இருக்கிறது. அந்த முகாமை வந்தடைந்ததும்,என் பைகளைக் கீழே எறிந்துவிட்டு நான் கதறி அழுதேன். அந்த உணர்வுகள் என்றும் என்னை விட்டுப் போகாது.

முகாமில் இருந்த நாட்களில் எனக்கு என்ன நடக்கப் போகிறது என நினைத்து நான் பயந்ததை மீண்டும் ஒருமுறை நினைத்துப் பார்க்கவே நான் தயாராயில்லை.  முதல் சில நாட்கள் - இது கனவா அல்லது உண்மையிலேயே நடக்கிறதா என்று கூட நினைத்துக் கொண்டேன். எனது முகாம் வாழ்க்கை முடிவுக்கு வரும் என்று நான் ஒருபோதும் நினைத்திருக்கவில்லை” என்கிறார் வாணி.

கடுமையான வெப்பத்தில் இருந்து தப்பிப் பிழைக்க மெல்லிய நெகிழிக் கூரைகளின் கீழ் லட்சக்கணக்கான மக்கள் நெரிசல்பட்டுக் கிடந்தனர். கழிவறைகளிலும் தண்ணீர் வசதி தேவைக்கு ஏற்ற அளவில் இருக்கவில்லை; உணவும் குடிதண்ணீரும் கூட மிகக் குறைவாகவே வழங்கப்பட்டன.



“திறந்த வெளியில் மற்றவர்களின் முன்பாகவே தான் குளிக்க வேண்டும்; எனக்கு அது பெரும் சங்கடமாக இருந்தது.  எனது கூடாரம் படையினரின் ஒரு நிலைக்கு அருகே இருந்தது. அதனால் ஒவ்வொரு நாளும் நான் குளிக்கும் போது படையினர் பார்த்துக் கொண்டிருப்பார்கள்; யார் குளித்தாலும் அப்படித்தான்.  அதனால் நான் அதிகாலை 3.30 மணிக்கு எழுந்து குளித்து விடுவேன்; ஏனென்றால் அப்போது இருட்டாக இருக்கும். நாம் குளிப்பது அடுத்தவருக்குத் தெரியாது” என வாணி தனது வேதனையைக் கொட்டினார்.

“அந்த முகாம்களுக்குள் மனிதர்கள் வாழவே முடியாது. அதற்கான அடிப்படைகள் எதுவுமே அங்கு இல்லை. அடிப்படைத் தேவைகளான உணவுக்கும் தண்ணீருக்கும் எப்போதுமே பிரச்சினைதான்.  பெரும்பாலான நேரங்களில் தண்ணீருக்காக நீண்ட வரிசையில் காத்து நிற்க வேண்டும்.

கழிப்பிடங்களோ மிகப் பயங்கரமானவை; அங்கு கூட போதிய தண்ணீர் கிடையாது; அவற்றைத் துப்பரவு செய்வது முடியாத காரியம். அதனால் நோய்க் கிருமிகள் எங்கும் பரவின.  ஒரு கட்டத்தில் - இரண்டு மூன்று நாட்கள் பெய்த மழையில் மலக் கழிவுகள் அனைத்தும் தண்ணீரில் கலந்து கூடாரங்களுக்குள் புகுந்துவிட்டன

முழங்கால் அளவுக்கு இருந்த அந்த மலக் கழிவுத் தண்ணீரில் தான் அனைவரும் நடந்து செல்லவேண்டும்” என்கிறார் அவர்.  முகாம்களில் நடந்த முறைகேடுகள் பாலியல் கொடுமைகள் மற்றும் தண்டனைகள் குறித்துத் தான் அறிந்திருப்பதாகக் கூறும் சிறிலங்கா அரசு, இருப்பினும் அவை பெருமளவில் நிகழவில்லை என்று மறுக்கிறது.

அந்த தடுப்பு முகாம்களுக்கு உள்ளே “பெருமளவு பாலியல் உறவுகள் நடந்துள்ளன” என்கிறார் பேரிடர் முகாமை மற்றும் மனித உரிமைகள் அமைச்சின் செயலாளர் ராஜீவ விஜேசிங்க [ Rajiva Wijesinha, the permanent secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights ].  ஆனால், பெரும்பாலான பாலியல் கொடுகைள் முகாம்களுக்குள் இருந்தவர்களாலேயே அடுத்தவர்கள் மீது மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டதாக அவர் தெரிவித்தார்.  “அங்கே எதுவும் நடக்கவில்லை என்று நான் உங்களுக்குச் சொல்ல முடியாது; ஏனெனில் நான் அங்கு இல்லை. அங்கொன்று இங்கொன்றாக சம்பவங்கள் இடம்பெற்றிருக்கலாம்.

அப்படி ஏதாவது நடந்திருந்தால் அதனை அறியத் தாருங்கள், உரிய நடவடிக்கைகள் எடுக்கப்படும்.” என அவர் மேலும் கூறினார்.  ஐ.நா. அமைப்பு ஒன்றிடம் இருந்த கிடைத்த அறிக்கை மூலமாக தான் ஒரு சம்பவத்தை அறிந்ததாக அவர் கூறினார்.  “படை ஆள் ஒருவர் கூடாரம் ஒன்றிற்குள் இரவு 11 மணிக்குச் சென்று அதிகாலை 3 மணக்குத்தான் திரும்பி வந்தார் என்று எமக்கு ஒரு அறிக்கை கிடைத்துள்ளது.

Kilde: The Observer

Vany Kumar, who was locked up behind barbed wire in the Menik Farm refugee camp for four months, also claims prisoners were punished by being made to kneel for hours in the hot sun, and those suspected of links to the defeated Tamil Tigers were taken away and not seen again by their families.

Kumar, 25, from Essex, was released from internment in September, but has waited until now to reveal the full scale of her ordeal in the hope of avoiding reprisals against friends and family held with her. They have now been released after the Sri Lankan government bowed to international pressure this month and opened the camps.

The Sri Lankan government confirmed to the Observer that it had received reports from United Nations agencies of physical and sexual abuse within the camps, but maintained that it had not been possible to substantiate the allegations. It denied that prisoners had disappeared. In response, a UN spokesman accused Colombo of "doing everything it could" to obstruct attempts to monitor the welfare of the hundreds of thousands interned in the camps.

Kumar, a biomedical graduate, was incarcerated in May in what she describes as a "concentration camp", along with nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians who managed to escape the slaughter which accompanied the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels, who had been fighting for 25 years for a separate state on the island. Working amid heavy shelling in an improvised field hospital, she had spent months helping save the lives of hundreds of civilians wounded as they were caught between advancing government soldiers and the cornered Tigers.

Sri Lanka has consistently denied mistreating the detainees, but Kumar's damning new evidence will bolster the claims of human rights organisations which have repeatedly criticised the government in Colombo.

Speaking at the family home in Chingford, she accused the Sri Lankan government of persecuting Tamils as it sought to round up rebels who had escaped the fighting. "It was a concentration camp, where people were not even allowed to talk, not even allowed to go near the fences," she said. "They were kept from the outside world. The government didn't want people to tell what happened to them, about the missing or the disappearances or the sexual abuse. They didn't want anyone to know.

"Sexual abuse is something that was a common thing, that I personally saw. In the visitor area relatives would be the other side of the fence and we would be in the camp. Girls came to wait for their relatives and military officers would come and touch them, and that's something I saw.

"The girls usually didn't talk back to them, because they knew that in the camp if they talked anything could happen to them. It was quite open, everyone could see the military officers touching the girls," she said.

"Tamil girls usually don't talk about sexual abuse, they won't open their mouths about it, but I heard the officers were giving the women money or food in return for sex. These people were desperate for everything."

She said prisoners who complained about their treatment were singled out by the guards. "One time I saw an old man was waiting to visit the next camp and this military officer hit the old man. I don't know what the argument was, but the officer just hit him in the back.

"In the same area people were made to kneel down in the hot weather for arguing with the officers. Sometimes it lasted for hours."

Sometimes white vans appeared in the camp and took people away. White vans hold a particular terror in Sri Lanka, where they are associated with the abduction of thousands of people by death squads. "They were asking people to come in and take their names down if they had any sort of contact [with the Tamil Tigers]. They did an investigation and then a van would come in and they would take them away and nobody would know after that. I know people still searching for family members."

Kumar said that on arrival at the camp, near the northern town of Vavuniya, she was put in a large tent with several people she did not know. The camp was guarded by armed soldiers and ringed with high fences and rolls of razor wire. "The first two or three days I was alone there still scare me. When I arrived at the camp I put my bag down and just cried. That feeling still won't go. I just don't want to think about those two or three days in the camp, the fear about what was going to happen to me.

"For the first few days I didn't eat anything. We didn't know where to go to get food. I thought, 'Am I dreaming or is this really happening?' I never thought I would end up in a camp." Tens of thousands of people were crammed into flimsy tents which provided little respite from the intense heat. Toilets and washing facilities could not cope with the demands and food and water were in short supply.

"You have to bathe in an open area in front of others, which I find very uneasy. I stayed next to the police station, so every day I had a bath with the police officers looking at me, men and women. Everyone can see you when you are having a bath. So I would get up early in the morning about 3.30am, so it was dark," she said.

Kumar was held in the best-equipped part of the camp, but even there conditions were dire. "It is not a standard a human being can live in. The basic needs like water and food [were] always a problem. Most of the time you were queuing for water.

"The toilets were terrible, and there was not enough water, so we could not clean them. There were insects and flies everywhere. After two or three days of continuous rain, the sewage was floating on the water and going into the tents and everyone [was] walking through it, up to knee height." She was finally released into the custody of the British High Commission in early September.

The Sri Lankan government says it is aware of allegations of sexual abuse and punishment of prisoners, but denied large-scale abuse. Rajiva Wijesinha, the permanent secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, said "there was a lot of sex going on" inside the camp, but he claimed that most reports involved abuse by fellow detainees. "I can't tell you nothing happened, because I wasn't there," he said. "Individual aberrations could have happened, but our position is 'Please tell us and they will be looked into'."

He said he was aware of one report from a UN agency, but claimed that establishing the facts was very difficult. "We received a report that a soldier went into a tent at 11pm and came out at 3am. It could have been sex for pleasure, it could have been sex for favours, or it could have been a discussion on Ancient Greek philosophy, we don't know."

As many as 100,000 people are believed to have died in Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war

Kilde: guardian.co.uk

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