tamilweek.com

COLOMBO, 29 May 2008 (IRIN) – Sri Lanka expects a shipment of rice this week from cyclone-battered Myanmar will help offset the high retail price of the island’s staple food.

Some 8,000MT will be sold to consumers immediately through government-run stores, the Sri Lankan secretary of trade and consumer affairs, RMK Ratnayake, said.

Ratnayake said the shipment was part of a 50,000MT consignment that Sri Lanka had ordered from Myanmar in March at US$400/MT. The 3 May cyclone delayed the arrival of the first shipment and it was unclear when the rest of the delivery would be made.

“Sri Lanka has no shortage of rice,” Ratnayake told IRIN. “Unfortunately, there is hoarding going on. So we ordered this shipment to show the big businessmen that the government can supply good quality rice at a reasonable price.”

Rice prices in Sri Lanka hit an all-time high in March due to rising prices on the world market. The government accused local rice mill owners and shop-keepers of stockpiling and imposed price controls in April.

Sri Lanka produces most of its annual requirement of two million MT of rice. “At any time, the maximum deficit is only about 100,000MT,” Ratnayake said, adding that this was the first time the island was importing rice from Myanmar after several decades.

Prices of the popular parboiled “samba” variety have topped Rs100/kg (just less than $1) while the cost of other types of rice similarly went up, pushing the staple beyond the purse of many Sri Lankans.

Government-imposed price controls

Government price controls were imposed to limit the surge to Rs70/kg, but the open market has maintained its own level. The authorities have criticised rice millers for releasing poor quality rice to the market while reserving the superior grades to be sold at high prices.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Children’s Agency, UNICEF, and other international NGOs warned recently that skyrocketing food prices would compel them to cut back on food assistance to needy sectors of the population, such as people displaced by the ongoing conflict.

“Anything that reduces the pressure on food stocks here is to be welcomed,” said UN spokesman Gordon Weiss of the government’s move.

Nonetheless, some consumers were concerned that the arrival of the shipment was untimely, given the emergency in Myanmar.

“It seems unfair that we are getting rice from Myanmar when their own people are suffering,” said Marina Ismail, a retired sociologist based in the capital, Colombo. “Sri Lanka should have offered to suspend the contract for some time till Myanmar was ready to send it.”

Ratnayake said the government was also set to negotiate with Thailand for 25,000MT to maintain a buffer stock, which will tide it over a lean period expected around December.

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

UN humanitarian chief condemns targeting of civilians in attacks in Sri Lanka:

New York, 29 May 2008: United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes today condemned the continuing targeting of civilians in Sri Lanka.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 200 civilian lives have been lost in bombings in Sri Lanka. Attacks have targeted mass transport facilities and busy public areas in both the immediate conflict areas and population centres.

‘The targeting of non-combatants is a contravention of International Humanitarian Law, for which those responsible must be held accountable,’ Mr. Holmes said. ‘This despicable behaviour must stop,’ he added.

This week alone, more than 20 civilians were killed and several dozens injured in different violent incidents. The attacks include the firing of artillery shells into a populated area in the Jaffna peninsula early on Wednesday, which left six civilians dead and a dozen or more injured.

On Monday, nine people died and 73 were injured when a bomb exploded on a busy commuter train in Dehiwela, a suburb of Colombo. Last weekend, two other bombs were discovered and defused before they exploded. Three days earlier a roadside bomb killed 17 civilians on a main road used to access displaced populations in the Kilinochchi district.

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

Geneva (ICRC) – Millions of people already suffering because of armed conflicts are likely to be particularly hard hit by the current increase in food prices, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned today.

Presenting the organization’s 2007 annual report, ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said: “The recent rise in food and fuel prices is making life even harder for poor people already struggling to cope with the effects of war and internal violence. This is especially the case in countries such as Chad, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Haiti.”

Mr Kellenberger added that despite the price increases, the ICRC intends to maintain its planned volume of relief distributions, supplies of drinking water and level of medical aid in the 52 countries where it assists the civilian population. It is also preparing to provide additional food and other relief for the people worst affected by the combined impact of rising food prices and armed conflict, including those forced to flee their homes, the wounded and the sick, and detainees. For example, the ICRC is about to step up food distributions to conflict-affected communities in Yemen and Somalia.

In its report on 2007, the Geneva-based organization announces total expenditure of 944 million Swiss francs, with 45% of field expenditure last year going to Africa and 21% to the Middle East. The ICRC carried out water, sanitation and construction projects benefiting more than 14 million people, and it provided regular support for health-care facilities that treated nearly 2.9 million patients last year. The organization also gathered and delivered almost 500,000 Red Cross messages (brief personal messages to relatives made otherwise unreachable by conflict) and visited more than half a million detainees in 77 countries.

The welfare of people forced by fighting to flee their homes continues to be a priority for the ICRC. In 2007 it assisted more than four million internally displaced people – around half a million more than in 2006 – especially in places not covered by other organizations on security grounds. The beneficiaries included newly displaced people, in Somalia and Colombia for example, and people returning to their homes after having been displaced, such as in Uganda and Sri Lanka. The ICRC also acted to prevent displacement. In Sudan’s Darfur region, for example, the support furnished by it enabled vulnerable rural communities to remain at home rather than joining the ranks of people fleeing to camps.

President Kellenberger expressed concern that in many armed conflicts, civilians are being specifically targeted, with effects that devastate the lives of millions of men, women and children. “This report draws attention to the countless violations of international humanitarian law that we witnessed throughout the world last year and it documents the ICRC’s efforts to put a stop to those violations,” he said. “Greater respect for the law would mean fewer civilians being killed or wounded, fewer women and girls being raped, and fewer people forced to leave their homes.”

For further information, please contact:

Marçal Izard, ICRC Geneva, tel: +41 22 730 2458 or +41 79 217 3224

For information on the footage contact:

Jan Powell, ICRC Geneva, tel: + 41 22 730 2511 or +41 79 251 9314

[Full Text statement by International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)]

Statement by Human Rights Watch:

UN Vote Upholds Council Membership Standards on Rights

UN member states enforced the standards they established for the new Human Rights Council by not re-electing Sri Lanka to the body today. Domestic and international human rights advocates who had opposed Sri Lanka’s re-election to the council said the vote was a victory for human rights standards and for victims of abuse in Sri Lanka.

Fifteen seats on the 47-member council were filled in the election during the UN General Assembly, in which six candidates competed for the four open seats reserved for Asian countries. The UN assembly elected Japan with 155 votes, South Korea with 139, Pakistan with 114, and Bahrain with 142 votes. Sri Lanka failed to win election with 101 votes, as did the new state of Timor Leste, which garnered 92 votes.

In reconstituting the UN’s leading human rights body in 2006, UN states required council members to “uphold the highest standards” of human rights and “fully cooperate” with the council. Sri Lanka was one of the initial members elected to the rights council in 2006, and strongly campaigned for re-election this year in New York, Geneva, and capitals around the world.

“We applaud UN members for rejecting an abusive state which has used its position on the Human Rights Council not to promote human rights, but to protect itself and other violator states from scrutiny,” said Steve Crawshaw, UN Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch and spokesman for the NGO Coalition for an Effective Human Rights Council. “The defeat of Sri Lanka this year, and of Belarus last year, will help discourage other human rights violators from seeking or winning election to the council.”

In opposing re-election, a coalition of Sri Lankan nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) said that their government has “presided over a grave deterioration of human rights protection” since winning membership, and “has used its membership in the Human Rights Council to protect itself from scrutiny.” A coalition of NGOs from all regions of the world charged Sri Lanka with widespread disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, and a failure to cooperate with UN human rights experts. Three Nobel Peace Prize winners – Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel of Argentina, and former President Jimmy Carter of the United States – also called on UN Members to oppose Sri Lanka’s re-election bid.

A coalition of NGOs also successfully opposed the candidacy of Belarus for the Human Rights Council in 2007, when Belarus was defeated by Bosnia and Herzegovina on a second ballot in the General Assembly.

“The rejection of Sri Lanka after a global campaign lends vital support to the victims of abuse, and sends a strong message to the government of Sri Lanka,” said Michael Anthony, program coordinator of the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. “We hope this result will open a new international dialogue with Sri Lanka that encourages the government to put an end to rampant violations by its security forces, and accept the assistance of human rights monitors from the United Nations. The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam also commit grave human rights abuses, but this does not justify government abuses, and the people of Sri Lanka would benefit greatly from UN monitoring of both sides to the conflict.”

There were competitive elections for the open seats allocated to two of the other five UN regional groups. To represent Western European and Others Group, UN members elected the United Kingdom and France, while Spain failed to win election. From Eastern Europe, Slovakia and Ukraine were elected, while Serbia was unsuccessful. A “closed slate” nominated by the African Group – Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, and Zambia – all won the “absolute majority” required for election to the four open African seats, as did the three countries – Argentina, Brazil, and Chile – which ran uncontested for the three open seats allocated to Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We wish that there had been competitive elections in all five regions, as contemplated when the council was established,” said Franck Kamunga of the African Democracy Forum in Nairobi. “However, all of the countries elected this year have the potential to make a real contribution to promoting human rights. The important thing now is for the new council members to put aside political considerations and alliances and use their positions conscientiously to protect the victims of human rights abuse.”

While taking no position on whether Pakistan and Bahrain should have been elected to the council, the NGO Coalition for an Effective Human Rights Council specifically called on both governments to implement domestic human rights reforms and engage more constructively with other governments on the council.

“Pakistan and Bahrain must now live up to the standards set for Human Rights Council membership,” said Juliette de Rivero, Geneva director at Human Rights Watch. “They must work to strengthen the council’s capacity to protect the victims of human rights worldwide, rather than allowing abusive governments to be shielded from scrutiny.”

To read more about the Sri Lanka campaign, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/effectiveHRC/SriLanka

By Adolfo Perez Esquivel

As Latin Americans are well aware, there is a handful of crimes that a State may commit, which by their nature involve removing people regarded as political enemies, never to know more about them. Our region suffered terribly during the dirty war the years’70 and’80, when thousands of our citizens were disappeared, tortured and killed by security forces.

Other countries still suffer from similar abuse of human rights. According to the United Nations (UN), Sri Lanka now has the highest rate of enforced disappearances in the world. For a long time Sri Lanka has faced the threat of terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Over the past two years, the government has opted to use a dirty war against the LTTE using torture on prisoners suspected of having links with the LTTE and the perpetration of hundreds of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, including humanitarian workers.

Adolfo Perez Esquivel
The Nobel Peace Prize 1980

Incredibly, the government of Sri Lanka is seeking international recognition of their abusive tactics by filing his candidacy for the United Nations Human Rights Council. Even if this council noted in 2006 that the countries elected to demonstrate the highest standards “on human rights and” fully cooperate “with the mechanisms of the Council itself, Sri Lanka has not complied with any of these requirements. For this reason, members of the United Nations should not vote in favour of Sri Lanka in the elections to be held at the UN General Assembly next May 21.

Instead of promoting human rights throughout the world, Sri Lanka has used his position within the Council to avoid scrutiny as a violator of human rights. Among other things, successfully objected to a Council resolution on its human rights situation and refuses to accept that the UN monitor the humanitarian crisis, as recommended by experts in human rights and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The governments of Latin americas can do a great service to the people of Sri Lanka to reject his candidacy to the Human Rights Council.

It should be noted that a precedent already exists within the UN, when the Foreign Minister of Argentina, Jorge Taiana, noted the creation of the Council. Then society argentina suffered the consequences when the former Commission on Human Rights failed to condemn the serious human rights violations committed by the military dictatorship between the years 1976 to 1983.

Americas America can help the suffering people of Sri Lanka, making an international call to those responsible for torture, disappearances and killings in Sri Lanka are properly investigated and prosecuted, as well as refusing to support the reelection of governments responsible for such abuses to the Council Human Rights.

[Translation of Sri Lanka y la ONU, via Google Translate]

Urgent Action Appeal Update on Tissainayagam

J. S. Tissainayagam was also granted access to his lawyer on 14 May, for the first time since 21 March. J. S. Tissainayagam however remains in Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) detention in Colombo, where he is being held without charge…

Amnesty International is alarmed by a number of recent attacks and other violations of the human rights of media workers, which follow the pattern outlined in its recent report ‘Sri Lanka: Silencing Dissent’ (ASA 37/001/2008, 7 February 2008). Journalists and other media workers have been detained for long periods of time without charge on previous occasions.

Further Information on UA 88/08 (4 April 2008) Arbitrary detention

SRI LANKA Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam (m), journalist

Journalist Jayaprakash Sittampalam (J. S.) Tissainayagam was granted access to an eye specialist on 9 May. The specialist has said that his condition needs monitoring and he needs new glasses because the conditions of his eyes have changed. The specialist needs to see him again in a month to reassess his condition. J. S. Tissainayagam was also granted access to his lawyer on 14 May, for the first time since 21 March.

J. S. Tissainayagam however remains in Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) detention in Colombo, where he is being held without charge. He was supposed to be brought before a court on 12 May, in compliance with the Sri Lankan Emergency Regulations which require detainees to be brought in front of a court once a month. However this was postponed with no reason being given and the magistrate reportedly stated that he should be produced in court on 14 May. He was not brought to court on that day and the magistrate reportedly ordered that he appear in court on 23 May.

Amnesty International also understands that there is little ventilation in the cell where J. S. Tissainayagam is being detained due to the air conditioning breaking down, so detention conditions are extremely uncomfortable due to the heat.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Amnesty International is alarmed by a number of recent attacks and other violations of the human rights of media workers, which follow the pattern outlined in its recent report ‘Sri Lanka: Silencing Dissent’ (ASA 37/001/2008, 7 February 2008). Journalists and other media workers have been detained for long periods of time without charge on previous occasions. On 21 November 2006, Parameshwari Munusamy, a Tamil woman journalist with the Sinhalese newspaper Mawbima, was arrested by Special Task Force (STF) personnel and detained at TID headquarters under the Emergency Regulations on suspicion of having links with the LTTE. At the time of her arrest, she was not told details of the grounds and legal basis she was held under. Detained without charge for four months, she was released on 22 March 2007. Her family weas also reportedly assaulted at their home on 14 March 2008, by intruders who forcibly entered their home, causing serious injuries to her father and sister. There have been a number of attacks and arbitrary arrests of media workers in the last few weeks including Gayan Lasantha Ranga, Udayen and Kithsiri Wijesinghe, all contributors to the website www.outreachsl.com. The three were reportedly released on 18 March after being held in TID detention without charge for a number of days.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

- welcoming reports that J. S. Tissainayagam was granted access to an eye specialist on 9 May and access to his lawyer on 14 May;

- expressing concern that J. S. Tissainayagam is being detained without charge by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) in Colombo, apparently to prevent him from peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression through his media work;

- calling on the authorities to ensure that J.S. Tissainayagam is not tortured or ill-treated, and that he is allowed unrestricted access to his family, a lawyer of his choice, an independent court and any specialist medical treatment he may require;

- urging the authorities to release J. S. Tissainayagam immediately and unconditionally, unless he is to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence and remanded by an independent court;

- calling on the authorities to ensure that there is sufficient ventilation in the cell where he is being detained.

APPEALS TO:
His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: 011 94 11 2446657
Salutation: Your Excellency

Hon. Amarasiri Dodangoda
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice and Law Reforms
Superior Courts Complex,
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: 011 94 11 2445447
Salutation: Dear Minister

COPIES TO:
Ambassador Bernard A.B. Goonetilleke
Embassy of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
2148 Wyoming Ave. NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 232 7181
Email: slembassy@slembassyusa.org