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by Sam Thambipillai

When Human Rights are grossly violated or crimes against humanity are perpetrated, civilised countries, valuing human life, take punitive action against the offending state. But when genocide is carried out, the UN is bound to act based on the 1948 UN convention on Genocide. This happened in Bosnia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.

Radovan Karadzic,the Bosnian President during 1992-1993 war, fought to take Sarajevo and link it to Serbia. Water and power were cut off and the people lived on scarce food. Bombs and grenades rained Sarajevo daily. Bosnian civians were killed. Along with his military commander Ratko Mladic, Karadzic now faces charges of genocide over the Sarjevo siege.

Mahinda Rajapakse, the Sri Lankan President, is fighting a war to take over Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu and link to Colombo. Medical, fuel and food supplies to the areas are cut off. The Government Agent for the area is moved out.

[Displaced in seeking refuge in Kilinochchi]

At least 12,000 families, mainly with women and children have left; unwillingly leaving behind the sick, the blind, the maimed and the handicapped. Their animals are left without food.

Political belief of Tamils to achieve self rule

Surely, this is “Collective Punishment” by the GOSL for the political belief of Tamils to achieve self rule. It is a war crime. Each of the 12,000 is a Collectively Punished Person (CPP). The UN and the International Community should recognise them as such. The term IDP does not clearly denote who they really are.

The Serbians viewed Bosnian as property less than human and so do the Sinhalese view the Tamils.

Therefore, upto this stage, every act of the siege of Kilinochchi stinks exactly like the siege of Sarajevo.

The only thing left is for the GOSL to rain bombs, grenades and shells at Kilinochchi daily, kill Tamil civilians and destroy their property. With that Mahinda Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka would more than qualify to face charges of genocide in the Hague. And Sri Lanka and the Sinhalese would be disgraced and humiliated internationally like Serbia and the Serbians.

Mahinda Rajapakse started the war as “war on terrorism”. But the bombings and shelling of his armed forces has killed many civilians, destroyed their property and displaced many. Now the war has changed into State Terror on Tamil civilians, collective punishment and genocide. But still he calls the war “war on terror” to cover up his genocidal acts and hoodwink the world.

The UN and the International Community are normally slow to act on genocide. The trouble is that it takes a long time for the west to identify and name it. The presidents of USA stopped short of calling the killings as Genocide when it started in 1990 in Bosnia, in 1994 in Rwanda and in 2004 in Darfur.

The west should stop acting as those who only record the history of genocide. Instead, they should learn to prevent it by taking timely and appropriate action under the 1948 UN convention on Genocide.

The internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Vanni continue to face hardships and challenges to overcome due to numerous restrictions in place in Vanni for essential goods, according to the Secretariat of Government Agents (GA) of Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi. The GAs’ concerns are published in a news report in today’s Thinakkural, a Tamil daily published from Colombo.

More than a hundred thousand people are displaced in Vanni. Kilinochchi Secretariat has said 124,868 people are seeking safety in Kilinochchi alone.

[Displaced tot in Kilinochchi]

The just started seasonal down pours are expected to add immense woes to the 75% of the displaced currently living in open spaces. The rains also pose serious health risks.

Motor vehicle parts and fuel are among the items prohibited into Vanni since 2006. This ban by Sri Lanka government has caused the people of Vanni to face several difficulties, Thinakkural reported.

Sri Lanka Defence Ministry says a monthly allowance of 500,000 litres of kerosene is being sent to Vanni. However, Kilinochchi GA Rasalingam Vedanayagam and Mullaithivu GA Imelda Sugumar say shortages are widespread.

Several reports also indicate persistent shelling is causing multiple displacements and adding delays in providing adequate shelters and other needs to the IDPs.

The United States is interested in assuring a free and fair election and not working with any particular party, Ambassador Robert Blake said when commenting this morning after a meeting with Dayananda Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s Election Commissioner.

He denied allegations in Colombo media that the United States and perhaps other western countries might be working with political parties to determine the outcome of the upcoming provincial elections.

[Ambassador Robert Blake, file pic]

Full text of the Statement by US Ambassador Robert Blake:

Good morning! How are you?

Let me just make a brief statement to say that I appreciated very much the opportunity to meet with the Elections Commissioner this morning. The United States takes a strong interest in free and fair elections around the world including here in Sri Lanka.

This is my second meeting with the Elections Commissioner. I previously had the pleasure of talking to him before the eastern council elections that took place earlier this year. And I must say he is somebody with a deep experience in supervising elections and he gave me a very detailed and impressive briefing on the steps that he and his team are taking to ensure free and fair elections.

And let me also say that I saw in some of the press this morning that there are allegations that the United States and perhaps other western countries might be working with one or another political parties. That is absolutely not true. United States is strictly neutral in every election around the world. And we are certainly not working with any particular party. Our interest is in assuring a free and fair election – and one that is free of violence. And based on what I have heard from the Elections Commissioner I think that he and his team are taking a lot of steps to ensure that outcome. So, again I want to thank him for his time. I think that is all I need to say.

Thank you very much.

New separate units for medical care of wounded Sri Lanka Army soldiers at the war front is to be opened at all Hospitals in the North, Tamil daily Virakesari’s website reported today.

President Mahinada Rajapakse has issued special directives to the Ministry of Health in this regard. The urgent measures were taken at a meeting President had at the Temple Trees with senior officials of the Ministry of Health this morning, to discuss the numerous shortcomings at the medical facilities in the North.

Health Ministry officials have been asked to import all needed medical equipment and medicines for the Northern hospitals for medical care of soldiers without any delay, according to Virakesari.

Relatives have lodged complaints with Police and Deputy Minister P. Radhakrishnan, of two kidnappings by the ‘white van squad’ on Friday, August 15th.

They are 34 and 49 years old and fathers of young children; one of them an amputee after a 1995 auto accident. They hail from Nelliyadi and Pungkuduthivu from North of Sri Lanka but are longtime residents of Colombo and Watala, a report in Tamil Daily Thinakkural said today.

Rohini Balakumar of 70/2 New Chetty Street has complained her husband Selvarajah Balakumar (34), a native of Nelliyadi has gone missing after he was kidnapped by two Sri Lanka navy soldiers on a motorcycle and an armed Tamil group dressed in civil clothes riding the white van without a license plate.

She said the two navy soldiers came to their house around 9:30 in the morning on Friday, assaulted and dragged her husband before handing him over to the group in the white van.

At this same address, Markandu Vadivananthan was kidnapped on August 22nd, 2006 and missing since then, even though a ransom of 35 lakhs was paid, Thinakkural added.

49-year-old disabled person, Christhotharan Francis was abducted on August 15th, the same day as Selvarajah Balakumar from his residence located along Jayanthi Mawatte in Wattala-Hunupity junction during the night. A complaint in this regard was made to the Kiribathgoda police station by his wife yesterday.

Christhotharan Francis, a native of Pungkudithivu worked in Saudi Arabia and became disabled after an accident in 1995.

His wife Veronica Christhotharan said a youth arrested in Vavuniya was also brought along and premises around the house and lavatory were dug during a search by around 10 persons. They came to the house in a white van, an auto and a blue truck, and gruesomely assaulted Veronica Christhotharan’s disabled husband, Thinakkural report says.

Deputy Minister P. Radhakrishnan has said Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake was informed of the kidnappings.

The Minister added, of the 210 persons kidnapped this year, 1 person has been shot dead, 22 persons being held in Police stations and Boosa and no information is yet available on the other 121 persons.

University of Jaffna students and staff gathered for a silent protest against the isolation of civilians in Vanni on Tuesday Aug 19th, a media report said.

“We express our deep felt sympathy and support to the thousands of Internally Displaced Persons in the Vanni mainland and our strong condemnation against the Sri Lanka Government for continually unleashing severe military and aerial offensives on the people of Vanni,” the President of Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) said in his introductory speech at the beginning of the protest which began at 10:00 a.m.

“The Jaffna University society is observing this silent protest, at a time when freedom of speech and freedom of expression are denied to the residents of Jaffna peninsula,” the JUSU representatives said.

“The government has systematically and very effectively cut off all connections between Vanni and the outer world to carry on its scheme of annihilating the people in Vanni in the dark in its next phase of an offensives onslaught,” the JUSU representatives further said.

The Vice-chancellor Prof. N. Shanmuglingan, Faculty Deans, lecturers, administrative staff and students in their hundreds observed 15-minutes absolute silence at Kailasapathy Auditorium, which has become the venue of ‘Silent’ plays and prayers. The hall lacked space to accommodate all the participants. Hundreds of students stood outside the hall and participated in the protest. The lectures and other activities in the University were suspended from 10:00 a.m for an hour.

[A memorial constructed during the ceasefire period outside the Kailasapathy Hall, in destoryed state: text & pic TN]