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Text and video by British Tamils Forum:

Over 100,000 people converged on the streets of London on Saturday 20 June 2009 to remember the tens of thousands that perished in the Sri Lankan states final onslaught against the Tamil civilians and to call for the release of 300,000 that remain under threat of death, disappearance, rape and torture in government-run internment camps.

Protesters, carrying black flags and adorned in dark attire, marched to rouse the UK and international community into action over the following three demands:

• Stop the disappearances, rapes and torture occurring daily in the internment camps and find all those who were unaccounted for.

• Free people from the camps immediately so that they can return to their normal lives.

• Bring the perpetrators of the genocide against the Tamils to justice.

Busy for six months

‘Other commitments’ more important than court for police

Six months after the murder of The Sunday Leader’s Founder Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge police investigations into the killing are reported to have made no progress whatsoever.

Further, on consecutive occasions when the Wickrematunge murder case was being heard at the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate’s Court police representatives failed to make an appearance forcing the postponement of the hearings.

When questioned by The Sunday Leader as to why the Mirihana Police had failed to appear before the court, Police Spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera claimed that ‘other commitments’ did not allow them to attend the sessions.

Where are his killers? over to you Mr. President

Exactly six months have passed since the day when the collective lives of Lasantha Wickrematunge’s three children were shattered. Ahimsa his daughter, still cries from time to time, as if her heart would break, for the father she loved so much. Lasantha’s 10 year old son Aadesh says that he misses the daily phone call from his dad, so very, very much. Even now, six months later, when the phone rings, for a brief, incredulous moment, his eyes light up in a flash of hope. Avinash his eldest son - to date cannot find words to express his deep sorrow. A pain, that has not, yet dimmed.

“It’s not that the Mirihana Police wanted to stay away from court but they have other pressing obligations that need be carried out,” he said.

Wickrematunge was brutally assassinated on January 8 at the Attidiya Junction in broad day light in a high security zone in close proximity to the Ratmalana Airport and Air Force Base.

While several witnesses were reported to have been present at the murder scene the combined efforts of the Mirihana and Mt. Lavinia Police have failed, as yet, to make a credible breakthrough in the case.

On April 2 the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate directed the police to submit a full investigation report into the case by April 16 but for the past three months the police have failed to submit either the investigation report or the Government Analyst’s (GA’s) report on the crime.

According to Athula S. Ranagala, the attorney appearing on behalf of Lasantha Wickrematunge’s wife, Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge, the police have also not submitted a Moratuwa University report on the telephone data related to the crime, which is known to be in their possession.

“If the police genuinely want to take the investigation forward they would have made a sincere effort. Now it’s more than three months since they received the GA’s report and the Moratuwa University report on telephone data but so far none of this has been submitted to court,” Ranagala told The Sunday Leader.

The lawyer also stated that he would submit a formal request to the Attorney General to have the investigation transferred to the CID as police investigations have not made any progress over the past six months. [thesundayleader.lk]

Related: Sri Lanka President condemns the killing of Lasantha Wickramatunga [lankamission.org]

Yet another a Sri Lankan journalist was kidnapped last week near her home in the capital Colombo. She was held for a day by people claiming to be the police.

Krishni Ifham, a mother of two children is a Tamil reporter who works for media development NGO Internews. She said the kidnappers had warned her to give up journalism altogether, according to BBC.

Krishni’s remarks about her ordeal, published in the Sunday Times of June 28th tell the anguish faced by many parents and others who fear for the safety of their loved ones:

Krishni Ifam

Journalist was taken in van from Wattala to Kandy

Journalist and NGO employee Krishni Kandasamy, the most recent victim of media harassment, said she had worried about how her disappearance would affect her mother’s health all the while she was being held by her abductors.

“My mother is in the habit of calling me at office several times a day,” she said. “I knew how anxious she would be the moment she heard I had not turned up at the office. I begged my abductors to allow me to tell my mother that I was okay.”

Ms. Kandasamy, a resident of Wattala, Colombo, was abducted last week by three men in civilian clothes who claimed to be policemen. She was driven to an unknown destination and questioned. When she was finally dropped off, she found herself in Kandy, from where she had to find her way back to Colombo.

She said she had stepped into the street to head to work when she was stopped by three men in a van who told her she was required to give a statement to the police. When she insisted that she had to inform her mother first, she was forced into the van and driven away.

“It was then around 8.30 am. It was around 2.45 in the afternoon when I was taken to a room for questioning. During the long drive, I had no idea where I was being taken,” Ms. Kandasamy said.

Because she kept saying she had to call her mother to say she was safe, she was finally allowed to make the call, just before she was led in for questioning.

“They let me make the call from my mobile phone. I told my mother I had been taken in by the police for questioning and that she need not worry. When she asked where the police station was, I said I did not know. I was about to tell her to inform my husband when the phone was taken away from me.”

Her mother then called Mrs. Kandasamy’s husband, Ifham Nizam, also a journalist, and a few others, who immediately started calling police stations in the Wattala area. None of the stations said that anyone by the name of Kandasamy was being detained.

After being questioned about her work, Ms. Kandasamy was led back to the van and driven for more than two hours before being finally dropped off in Kandy.

“I told the men I had no money to take a bus. They gave me Rs. 200 and asked me to go home. I got into a bus and called my husband and told him what had happened,” she said.

Related editorial on The Island: The return of the white van

26 June 2009

Full Text of Press Release:

DAY 51 Aboard the Captain Ali - Lack of Movement at the Ground Level After the positive statement by the External Affairs Minister Hon. Mr. S.M.Krishna on Wednesday evening (24 June 2009) regarding the Mercy Mission ship the MV Captain Ali, Mercy Mission personnel, supporters, volunteers and the Tamil Diaspora as a whole were relieved that there was movement on the part of the Government of Sri Lanka and that the desperately needed humanitarian relief aboard the ship would be delivered to the 300,000 Tamil civilians in the internment camps in Sri Lanka.

As of Friday evening (26 June 2009) Mercy Mission has yet to be formally notified of the 24 June decision and statement by the Indian and Sri Lankan governments. There has also not been ANY movement at the ground level and the MV Captain Ali remains anchored five (5) miles off the Port of Chennai.

The situation on the ship is now critical. The crew and passengers have been onboard for 51 days without respite and in very harsh, stressful conditions. The passengers, Uthayanan Thavarajasingam and Kristjan Gudmundsson have formally requested that the authorities allow them to disembark and to take the next flight to London and Iceland.

We request that the Government of India to:

1. Allow the MV Captain Ali to enter Chennai Port and unload the humanitarian relief
which will be kept “in transit” and handed over to the Indian Red Cross for
transportation to Sri Lanka and distribution in the internment camps;

2. Allow the passengers to disembark and proceed to the nearest international airport
where they will be able to fly to their home countries;

Statement by External Affairs Minister Hon. Mr. S.M.Krishna

“6. I also requested the delegation that as a humanitarian gesture, the Sri Lankan Government allow the ship Captain Ali to off load the relief items on board meant for IDPs in Northern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan delegation kindly agreed to our suggestion and these would now be routed to Sri Lanka through the Indian Red Cross.”

New Delhi
24 June, 2009
Link to statement: http://meaindia.nic.in/cgi-bin/db2www/meaxpsite/coverpage.d2w/coverpg?sec=pb&filename=pressbriefing/2009/06/24pb01.htm

S.Pooranachandren (Director) Dr. V. Paramanathan (Director)
497 Sunleigh Road, Wembley, HA0 4LY, UK Tel/FAX: Tel: +442087338235

info@vannimission.org www.vannimission.org

Sri Lanka has announced yet another series of local elections and a rigged outcome is widely being predicted by independent groups and political parties.

“As John Dowd, President of the Australian section of the International Commission of Jurists recently pointed out, Sri Lanka in essence is a totalitarian state. The elections, particularly since President Mahinada Rajapakse came into power are being ‘staged’ to hoodwink and showcase a false sense of democracy. This is not any different than the Presidential election than in Iran, another totalitarian regime that floats democracy for name sake,” said an observer.

[Placard at a recent Tamil awareness rally in NYC]

Sri Lanka has tilted has been tilting closely towards Iran for financial assistance and Iran’s holocaust denier President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been lending totalitarian ideas to Sri Lanka in return, independent analysts said.

Call for international monitors

The Peoples Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), a leading polls-monitoring group in Sri Lanka is reportedly looking at the possibility of bringing in foreign observers for the elections to the Jaffna Municipal Council and the Vavuniya Urban Council, scheduled br held on Aug 8th.

Colombo daily The Daily Mirror quoted PAFFREL Executive Director Rohan Hettiarachchi saying, “We will have about 700 local observers for the Uva Provincial Council polls and about 100 for the Jaffna and Vavuniya polls. But Tamil political parties are calling for foreign observers to monitor the polls in Jaffna and Vavuniya.”

The Peoples Action for Free and Fair Elections said it would have to obtain the permission of the Elections Commissioner and the Sri Lanka Defense Ministry if PAFFREL was to deploy foreign observers and added that this matter would be discussed with the EC and the Ministry soon, Daily Mirror added.

Newspapers burned in Jaffna

All the local newspapers of Jaffna that defied publishing an anonymous and defiling notice came under attack by an armed group in the early hours of Thursday, according to media reports. Thousands of copies of the local newspapers, Valampuri, Uthayan and Thinakkural (Jaffna edition), were burnt down wholesale in huge flames by the armed group allegedly operated by the Sri Lankan military intelligence at Aanaippanthi and Kannathiddi junctions at 5:00 a.m. Thursday, while the newspapers were being taken for distribution.

Newspapers burned in Jaffna in the early hours of Thursday

The distribution workers were also brutally attacked.

A distribution worker of Thinakkural, 26-year-old Anojan, who was physically attacked, was also robbed of his belongings by the armed men.

Newspaper editors of Jaffna were intimidated to publish the notice and warned of dire consequences the previous day through anonymous telephone calls. However, the editors skeptical of the contents of the notice decided not to publish it.

After the burning of the Eezhanaadu newspaper along with the public library in 1981 by the Sri Lankan forces, and again the burning of Eezhanaadu by the Indian military (IPKF), this is the third major burning of the newspapers of Jaffna by occupying forces.

‘Strengthen Tamil hands and defeat duplicity’

“We do not believe that the elections are going to be free and fair. The burning of newspapers on the eve of nominations raises a big question about the circumstances under which the elections are going to be conducted,” said Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarians Mavai Senathirajah and Suresh Premachandran at a press conference Thursday Jun 25th afternoon after tending nominations for the Jaffna Municipal Council elections, according to a media report.

The report further said:

The government is fully responsible for the attack on newspapers that took place when two of its ministers are camping in Jaffna said Suresh Premachandran MP. “A vicious propaganda is being made that the TNA is divided, but we stand together in all respect and take decisions in our central committee,” he further said.

A liberation struggle never fails, said Suresh Premachandran adding that the struggle will be spearheaded in democratic ways and new strategies will be designed soon in this regard.

The government wants to fake the elections in Jaffna just like it faked the elections in the Eastern Province. The aim of the government, which is facing an economic crisis, is to show ’support’ of Tamils to it to the outside world and to beg for money. People have to strengthen Tamil hands and defeat the duplicity of the government begging in the name of Tamils, the TNA parliamentarians said.

“We have a three point agenda of demands in the election: immediate attention to the human catastrophe caused by the war, political solution and re-building the Jaffna city,” the parliamentarians said.

Iran and Sri Lanka Leaders warmly greet each others at Colombo International Airport Sri Lanka on 28 April 2008-pic South Asian Foreign Relations

The United Nations Security Council should make sure that its existing commitments to protect civilians during armed conflict are actually carried out, Human Rights Watch said in a letter dated June 22nd to council member states.

Even though there is no fighting in Sri Lanka’s “no fire zone”, HRW said: “There is still a need, however, for the council to urgently address the continuing humanitarian and human rights crisis and help undo some of the damage that its previous inaction helped foster.

In its letter, Human Rights Watch identified the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Chad, and Sri Lanka as examples of nations in which the Security Council has failed to take meaningful action to address and prevent civilian suffering during armed conflict. Persistent problems needing attention in those countries include: sexual violence, lack of justice and accountability for abuses, continuing violence toward internally displaced people and refugees, and violations of international humanitarian law.

Full text re: Sri Lanka, in HRW’s Letter to UN Security Council Regarding the Debate on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict

The Security Council’s indifference to the plight of the Sri Lankan civilians caught up in the fighting between government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the final months of the armed conflict this year represents a failure of historic proportions. According to UN estimates, more than 7,000 civilians - and perhaps as many as 20,000 - died from January through May 2009 in the midst of serious violations of international humanitarian law by both the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE. And yet, the Security Council failed even to discuss the issue, except in the context of an “informal interactive dialog,” which precluded in advance the possibility of any council action.

The Secretary-General’s seventh report on the protection of civilians emphasizes the suffering of Sri Lankan civilians both during the recent conflict and continuing today. Both sides in the conflict showed wanton disregard for human life in violation of international humanitarian law. The LTTE used civilians as human shields and forcibly prevented civilians from escaping the conflict zone. The Sri Lankan government also committed grave violations, none of which are excused by its claims of fighting terrorism. Despite denying the use of heavy weapons to council members, government forces repeatedly shelled densely populated areas, including hospitals.

It is now too late for the Security Council to act to protect the civilians killed and wounded in the government’s erroneously named “no-fire zone.” There is still a need, however, for the council to urgently address the continuing humanitarian and human rights crisis and help undo some of the damage that its previous inaction helped foster.

Nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamil civilians are now detained in the government’s closed “welfare camps,” including entire families who are prevented from leaving either for work or to move in with relatives or other families. The council should act to protect them by pressing for the rights to liberty and freedom of movement of civilians placed in government camps and basic human rights protections for persons the government suspects of being LTTE members; ensuring access to humanitarian organizations, the media, and human rights organizations to internally displaced persons and former conflict zones; and creating an international commission of inquiry to investigate alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by both sides during the recent fighting.

Conclusion

As the Secretary-General says in his latest report on civilian protection in armed conflict, the debate on June 26 provides an opportunity for “determined action” and “reinvigorated commitment by the Security Council, Member States, and the United Nations to the protection of civilians.” We urge the council to use the debate to urgently remedy existing shortfalls in civilian protection.

The Council should act more robustly and strategically to confront the appalling conditions suffered by civilians in armed conflict in these four countries and worldwide. Protection of civilians needs to be made a priority in reality, not just in words.

Sincerely,

Steve Crawshaw
United Nations Advocacy Director