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(HRW) The Sri Lankan government should release a prominent journalist and two others connected to a website critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said today. The three have been held without charge since March under emergency regulations.

The three have spent more than 150 days in custody, yet no charges have been filed and no evidence of any crime has been produced. If the authorities have no credible basis to charge Tissainayagam and the two others, they should be immediately released. ” – Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

On March 7, 2008, the police Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) arrested J.S. Tissainayagam, a columnist with the Sunday Times newspaper and editor of the Outreach website. The previous day the TID had arrested N. Jasiharan, the owner of E-Kwality press, and his wife V. Valamathy. Tissainayagam and Jasiharan are co-directors of the company Outreach Multimedia; Valamathy has no official role with the company. In a court appearance on June 23, Jasiharan stated that TID officers had assaulted him.

“The three have spent more than 150 days in custody, yet no charges have been filed and no evidence of any crime has been produced,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “If the authorities have no credible basis to charge Tissainayagam and the two others, they should be immediately released.”

The government has yet to provide reasons why the three were detained. Tissainayagam has been critical of the government on many issues. At the time of his arrest, government sources suggested that he may have connections to the armed separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but have produced no evidence of this. Reports have suggested that Jasiharan and Valarmathy were detained due to their connections to Tissainayagam. Journalists and others who are vocal critics of the government are often accused of having links with the LTTE and branded as traitors and terrorists.

Human Rights Watch expressed deep concern at the government’s disregard for Sri Lankan and international law in these cases. Detention orders for the three were not issued at the time of arrest as required by the emergency regulations. On March 27, the attorney general’s department stated before the Supreme Court that a detention order had been issued for Tissainayagam, but said that the order was not in their possession to be given to the courts or the detainee. Later the same day, a detention order was issued to Tissainayagam, backdated to March 7.

None of the three detainees has had adequate access to counsel. Tissainayagam has been allowed visits by his lawyers only twice. On both occasions, police officers were present during the discussions, violating his right to communicate and consult with a lawyer in full confidentiality. The three have filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court challenging the legality of their continued detention.

On July 11, the attorney general’s department informed the Supreme Court that investigations into Tissainayagam’s case had been completed. But the attorney general’s department obtained an extension until August 20 to report back to the court on the status of the investigations. Human Rights Watch said that the slow pace of the investigation reflected broader concerns about the department’s independence and impartiality that raised troubling due process issues.

“The attorney general should release the three, instead of continuing to violate their rights under domestic and international law,” said Adams. “By detaining a prominent government critic without charge, he is seriously risking the credibility of his office.”

Human Rights Watch reiterated its concerns about sweeping emergency regulations introduced in August 2006 after the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgama. The present regulations give the security forces expansive powers of search, arrest, detention, and seizure of property, including the authority to make warrantless arrests and to hold individuals in unacknowledged detention for up to 12 months. Most of those detained under the emergency regulations are young Tamil men deemed by the security forces to have LTTE ties. Increasingly, however, the regulations are being used against Muslims and Sinhalese who challenge or criticize the state.

Human Rights Watch research determined that the Sri Lankan government is responsible for widespread abductions and “disappearances” that are a national crisis. Human Rights Watch urged the government to reveal the whereabouts of the “disappeared,” immediately end the practice, and hold the perpetrators accountable.

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International Human Rights Monitoring Mission Urgently Needed

(HRW) The Sri Lankan government is responsible for widespread abductions and “disappearances” that are a national crisis, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch urged the government to reveal the whereabouts of the “disappeared,” immediately end the practice, and hold the perpetrators accountable.
Since major fighting between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) resumed in 2006, Sri Lankan security forces and pro-government armed groups have “disappeared” or abducted hundreds of individuals, many of whom are feared dead.

The 241-page report, “Recurring Nightmare: State Responsibility for ‘Disappearances’ and Abductions in Sri Lanka,” documents 99 of the several hundred cases reported, and examines the Sri Lankan government’s response, which to date has been grossly inadequate. In 2006 and 2007, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances recorded more new “disappearance” cases from Sri Lanka than from any other country in the world.

“President Mahinda Rajapaksa, once a rights advocate, has now led his government to become one of the world’s worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The end of the ceasefire means this crisis will continue until the government starts taking serious measures.”

Under international law, a state commits an enforced disappearance when it takes a person into custody and denies holding them or disclosing their whereabouts. “Disappeared” persons are commonly subjected to torture or extrajudicial execution, and cause family members continued suffering. An enforced disappearance is a continuing rights violation – it is ongoing until the fate or whereabouts of the person becomes known.

The vast majority of cases documented by Human Rights Watch indicate the involvement of government security forces – army, navy, or police. In some cases, relatives of the “disappeared” identified specific military units that had detained their relatives and army camps where they had been taken. In other cases, they described uniformed policemen, especially members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), taking their relatives into custody before they “disappeared.”

Vairamuththu Varatharasan, a 40-year-old truck driver and father of five, was abducted from his home in Colombo on January 7, 2007, and has not been seen since. His wife told Human Rights Watch:

“A group of about 20 men – some in police uniforms, some in civilian clothes surrounded the house. One policeman came inside and asked for our identity card. I went into one of the rooms to get the identity card. By the time I came out of the room, my husband was not there; neither was the policeman. I ran out and spotted a van parked in a dark place on the road. I ran to the road, but by the time I got there, the van started and left.”

Most of the victims are ethnic Tamils, although Muslims and Sinhalese have also been targeted. In many cases, the security forces “disappeared” individuals because of their alleged affiliation with the LTTE. Clergy, educators, humanitarian aid workers, and journalists also were targeted – not only to remove them from the civil sphere, but also to warn others to avoid such activities.

Pro-government Tamil armed groups are also implicated in the abductions and “disappearances” – specifically the Karuna group and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) – acting either independently or in conjunction with the security forces.

The number of abductions perpetrated by the LTTE is comparatively low since targeted killings, rather than abductions, appear to be the LTTE’s primary tactic. The LTTE has also been responsible for numerous other egregious abuses, including bombings against civilians, political assassinations, forced child recruitment, and the systematic repression of basic civil and political rights in areas under their control.

In the face of the crisis, the government of Sri Lanka has demonstrated an utter lack of resolve to investigate and prosecute those responsible. Not a single member of the security forces has been brought to justice for involvement in “disappearances” or abductions. Human Rights Watch said that Sri Lanka’s emergency laws, which grant the security forces sweeping powers to arbitrarily arrest and detain people without being held to account, have facilitated enforced disappearances.

“So long as soldiers and police can commit ‘disappearances’ with impunity, this horrific crime will continue,” said Pearson.

The Rajapaksa government has set up an array of special bodies tasked with monitoring and investigating “disappearances” and other human rights violations. None have yielded concrete results.

Human Rights Watch said this failure is unsurprising given that, at the highest levels, the Sri Lankan government continues to downplay the problem, denying the scale of the crisis and that its own security forces are involved.

“The government’s mechanisms to address ‘disappearances’ will remain impotent so long as the president and top officials fail to send a clear signal to the security forces that these abuses will not be tolerated,” said Pearson.

Sri Lanka’s key international partners and the UN bodies, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have raised serious concerns about the alarming number of “disappearances” and prevailing impunity. They have expressed growing support for the establishment of a UN human rights monitoring mission to investigate and report on abuses by government forces and the LTTE throughout the country.

Human Rights Watch deplored the Sri Lankan government’s opposition to an international monitoring mission, given that such initiatives have proven effective elsewhere in dealing with “disappearances.” With sufficient mandate and resources, the monitoring mission could achieve what the government and various national mechanisms have failed to do: establish the location of detainees through unimpeded visits to the detention facilities; request information regarding specific cases from all sides to the conflict; assist national law enforcement agencies and human rights mechanisms in investigating the cases and communicating with the families; and maintain credible records of reported cases.

“The Sri Lankan government’s rejection of a UN monitoring mission reflects badly on its commitment to human rights,” said Pearson. “While the government dawdles, many Sri Lankans will continue to pay the price.”

Human Rights Watch called on the government of Sri Lanka to:

• Take immediate measures to end the practice of enforced disappearances, vigorously investigate all cases reported, and bring the perpetrators to account; and
• Cooperate with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish and deploy an international monitoring team to report on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict.

Human Rights Watch also called on Sri Lanka’s international partners, in particular India and Japan, to make further military and other non-humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka contingent on government efforts to halt the practice of “disappearances,” and to end impunity, including its acceptance of an international monitoring mission.

Testimonies from the report

“They started beating Thiyagarajah. They took his T-shirt off and stuffed it into his mouth. The neighbors came out to help, but they pushed them away. His wife was crying and shouting, and they hit her with a gun butt. She was nine months pregnant. They were accusing Thiyagarajah of having bombs in the house, and forced him to dig the ground around the house. They searched the house, turning everything upside down, but didn’t find anything. They beat him so badly that he couldn’t walk – they had to carry him away. They took him away on a motorcycle.”
– A relative of 25-year-old Thiyagarajah Saran, “disappeared” on the night of February 20, 2007, from East Puttur, Jaffna

“The villagers told me they saw Pathinather and Anton being interrogated by the military. The military held them at gunpoint. Then the military put them into the Powell [vehicle], and also loaded their bicycles into their vehicle. The villagers could not see much because the army ordered them to disperse, and now they are too afraid to talk to anybody about what they saw.”
– A relative of 21-year-old Anton Prabananth, “disappeared” on February 17, 2007 together with 24-year-old Pathinather Prasanna, from Jaffna

“When we got to the [Kodikamam] army camp, I saw my nephew’s bicycle parked there. It was parked near the camp, in the military-controlled area. When we asked the soldiers, they denied arresting them, and when I said we had seen the bike, they got very angry, and started yelling, ‘Who told you to go and look there?! We’ll shoot you if you ever approach this place again!’ We asked the GS [local civilian official] and the police to get the bike back, but they couldn’t. Eventually, the commander in the camp returned the bike to us. He said that the people who had arrested our men were no longer there, so we should just take the bike and go.”
– A relative of 26-year-old Thavaruban Kanapathipillai, “disappeared” on August 16, 2006, together with 30-year-old Shangar Santhivarseharam from Kachai, Jaffna

“Two people came to our door, in uniforms. They were armed. Another man was dressed in an army T-shirt and jeans. I asked where they were taking my husband. The person in civilian clothes showed me a pistol. I asked where they were taking him again and he showed the pistol again, and then they took him out. I ran after them, and they had two vans, white and blue.”
– Wife of 21-year-old Ramakrishnan Rajkumar, “disappeared” on August 23, 2006, from Colombo

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UN Vote Upholds Council Membership Standards on Rights

(HRW) 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

(HRW) With the complicity or willful blindness of the Sri Lankan government, the Karuna group has abducted and forcibly recruited hundreds of children in eastern Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The Karuna group, led by V. Muralitharan, a.k.a. Karuna, a former commander with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), split from the Tamil Tigers in 2004 and now cooperates with the Sri Lankan military in their common fight against the LTTE.

In the new 100-page report, “Complicit in Crime: State Collusion in Abductions and Child Recruitment by the Karuna Group,” Human Rights Watch documents a pattern of abductions and forced recruitment by the Karuna group over the past year. With case studies, maps and photographs, it shows how Karuna cadres operate with impunity in government-controlled areas, abducting boys and young men, training them in camps, and deploying them for combat.

“The Karuna group is abducting children in broad daylight in areas firmly under government control,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government is fully aware of the abductions but allows them to happen because it’s eager for an ally against the Tamil Tigers.”

Based on research in Sri Lanka, including areas where the Karuna group operates, the report features testimony from two dozen family members of boys and young men abducted by the Karuna group. They described armed Karuna members forcibly taking their brothers, nephews and sons from their homes, workplaces, temples, playgrounds, public roads, and even a wedding.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has documented more than 200 cases of child recruitment by the Karuna group in Sri Lanka’s eastern districts, where the group is active. But the real number is certainly much higher due to underreporting.

Children are not the only targets. Human Rights Watch found that the Karuna group has abducted and forcibly recruited hundreds of young men between ages 18 and 30. Human Rights Watch knows of only two cases in which the Karuna group abducted girls. It generally targets poor families, and often those who have already had a child recruited by the Tamil Tigers.

At least since June 2006, and probably before, the Sri Lankan government has known about the Karuna abductions. The districts of the east where they have taken place are firmly under government control, with myriad military and police checkpoints and security force camps.

“After years of condemning child recruitment by the Tamil Tigers, the government is now complicit in the same crimes,” said Jo Becker, child rights advocate at Human Rights Watch, who has written extensively about the Tamil Tigers. “The government’s collusion on child abductions by the Karuna group highlights its hypocrisy.”

In one incident in June 2006, the Karuna group abducted 13 boys and young men, holding some of them for a while in a shop across the street from an army post. Some of the parents pleaded with the soldiers to intervene. Two soldiers spoke with the Karuna group members, parents told Human Rights Watch, but the soldiers did not stop the abduction.

On the same day in another village, soldiers from the Sri Lankan army gathered seven boys and young men in a field, checked their IDs, and took their photographs. Members of the Karuna group arrived that night and abducted four of the seven, although it remains unclear in this instance whether the army forces were deliberately acting in collusion with the Karuna group.

After abducting boys and young men, the Karuna group often holds them temporarily in the nearest office of its political party, the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), which are routinely guarded by the Sri Lankan military or police. Parents told Human Rights Watch that they either saw their abducted sons in these offices or TMVP officials confirmed to families that they had been there.

After a few days, the Karuna group usually transfers abductees to one of its camps in the jungle about 10 kilometers northwest of Welikanda town in the Polonnaruwa district, about 50 kilometers northwest of Batticaloa town. Welikanda is where the Sri Lankan Army’s 23rd division has its base. The area is firmly under government control, as is the main A11 road from the eastern districts to the Welikanda area. Travel through the area necessitates passing through numerous army and police checkpoints, and transporting abducted youth to the camps would have been impossible without the complicity of government security forces. The Karuna camp at Mutugalla village is near a Sri Lankan army post.

“Not only do government forces fail to stop the abductions, but they allow the Karuna group to transport kidnapped children through checkpoints on the way to their camps,” Becker said.

Human Rights Watch said that the Sri Lankan police are also complicit in their unwillingness to seriously investigate complaints filed by the parents of abducted boys and young men. In some cases, the police reportedly refused to register parents’ complaints. In other cases, the police registered the complaint but failed to undertake what the family considered a proper investigation. In no known case did the police secure the child’s release.

In a November interview with Human Rights Watch, Karuna denied allegations that his forces were abducting or recruiting children. He said his forces had no members under age 20, and that they would discipline any commander who tried to recruit a person under that age. He subsequently made commitments to the UN to issue policy statements banning child recruitment, to release any child found among the Karuna group’s ranks, and to provide UNICEF with access to his camps.

On January 2, 2007, the TMVP, Karuna’s political party, provided UNICEF with regulations for its military wing, stating 18 as the minimum age for recruitment, and specifying penalties for members who conscript children.

There is no sign yet that these commitments are being honored. Local human rights activists and international agencies report that the Karuna group continued to abduct boys and young men in November and December 2006.

In November, after UN envoy Allan Rock raised allegations of government complicity in Karuna abductions, the Sri Lankan government promised an investigation. Instead, government and military officials launched attacks against Rock’s credibility.

“The government must stop making excuses and launch a serious and impartial investigation of government complicity in Karuna crimes,” Adams said. “If the government won’t investigate, then it must allow an independent, international inquiry.”

The LTTE has long abducted children into its forces, and used them as infantry soldiers, intelligence officers, medics, and even suicide bombers. Human Rights Watch documented the practice in a 2004 report, “Living in Fear: Child Soldiers and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.”

The new report includes updated information on Tamil Tiger child abductions and urges the UN to impose targeted sanctions on the group because of its status as a repeat offender. The UN should insist that the Karuna group immediately adopt and implement an action plan to end all recruitment and use of child soldiers, and consider targeted sanctions if it fails to do so, Human Rights Watch said.

On February 9, a UN Security Council working group on children and armed conflict is scheduled to consider reported violations against children by all parties to Sri Lanka’s armed conflict. The working group will make recommendations for Security Council action.

In the meantime, Human Rights Watch called on the Tamil Tigers, the Karuna group, and the Sri Lankan government to stop the recruitment of children. The Karuna group and the Tamil Tigers should immediately release all children among their ranks.

(HRW)The British government today regrettably allowed an abusive former Tamil Tiger leader who had been in its custody to return to Sri Lanka as a free man, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the Sri Lankan government to investigate and prosecute Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, known as Colonel Karuna Amman, for war crimes committed as a commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and later as head of an anti-LTTE armed group.
Karuna was the top commander of the LTTE in eastern Sri Lanka, and the reputed number two in the LTTE hierarchy until he left to form his own armed group in March 2004. Tamil Tiger forces under Karuna’s command were directly involved in some of the worst crimes of Sri Lanka’s ongoing civil war, including torture, summary execution, and use of children as soldiers. Because his armed group fought against the LTTE in recent years, the Sri Lankan government did not prosecute him.

“The British government had an alleged war criminal in custody for six months and couldn’t manage to file charges,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This was a rare opportunity to hold a leader of the Tamil Tigers accountable for horrific human rights abuses, and the British government blew it.”

Immigration authorities in the UK arrested Karuna on November 2, 2007. After a criminal conviction, he served half of a nine-month term for possessing illegal documents. Despite assistance from nongovernmental organizations and others, the government on May 9, 2008 announced that the Crown Prosecution Service found there was insufficient evidence to convict Karuna for any criminal offenses in the UK.

The British government has frequently raised concerns about Sri Lanka’s deteriorating human rights situation with Colombo and has long criticized the LTTE for serious human rights abuses. British law permits the prosecution of individuals for serious violations of international law, including torture and war crimes, committed abroad. For example, in 2005, UK courts convicted a former Afghan warlord, Faryadi Sarwar Zardad, for acts of torture and hostage-taking in Afghanistan.

Tamil Tiger forces under Karuna’s command were directly involved in some of the worst crimes of Sri Lanka’s ongoing civil war. In June 1990, some 400 to 600 police officers who surrendered to the LTTE were bound, gagged, and beaten. The Tamil Tigers, including forces under Karuna’s control, then executed the Sinhalese and Muslims among them. In July 1990, Karuna’s forces stopped a convoy of Muslims traveling in Batticaloa district and executed about 75 people, including women and children. In August 1990, Karuna’s forces killed more than 200 civilians in two incidents in Batticaloa district.

In 2004, Human Rights Watch investigated the Tamil Tigers’ recruitment and use of children as soldiers. Karuna’s forces played a prominent role, routinely visiting Tamil homes to tell parents to provide a child for the “movement.” The LTTE harassed and threatened families that resisted, and children were abducted from their homes at night or while walking to school.

After Karuna broke away from the Tamil Tigers, his armed group operated with the complicity of the Sri Lankan security forces. The Karuna group, as it was known, engaged in abduction of children for use as soldiers in Sri Lanka’s eastern districts, taking boys from their homes, work places, temples, playgrounds, public roads, camps for the internally displaced, and even a wedding. These abuses are documented in the Human Rights Watch report, “Complicit in Crime: State Collusion in Abductions and Child Recruitment by the Karuna Group,” published in January 2007.

“Karuna’s escape from justice in the UK is a failure for international justice,” Adams said. “Now that Karuna is back in Colombo, the spotlight is on the Sri Lanka government to do the right thing or be deemed complicit in his crimes.”

COLOMBO, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s office has interfered with a commission probing civil war rights abuses and murders that include some blamed on state security forces, international observers said on Wednesday.

The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) says the presidential probe into abuses, including a massacre of 17 aid workers last year that Nordic truce monitors have blamed on security forces, lacks transparency and fails to meet international standards. There was no immediate comment from the president’s office.

The panel said the president’s office wrote to the commission last month clarifying that it was not necessary to probe the conduct of the Attorney General or his department regarding investigations relevant to the probe. [more…]

COLOMBO: A public opinion survey by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a Colombo-based think-tank, has brought to the fore the deep divisions among the majority and minority communities of Sri Lanka on the ongoing undeclared war in the island nation.

The 27th in the series of such surveys conducted since 2001 shows that 48.5 per cent of the Sinhala community feel that the war can be ended and peace restored in the country only by the government defeating the LTTE.

However, in the other three communities (Tamils – 62.3 per cent, Upcountry Tamils – 96.7 per cent, Muslims – 85.2 per cent) the option chosen was to stop the war and conduct peace negotiations. [more…]

(ReliefWeb) KANTALAI, Sri Lanka, Aug 10, 2006 (AFP) – Doctor Iranthi de Silva has worked for 15 hours straight, battling fatigue and stress as casualties in Sri Lanka’s strife-torn northeast mounted Thursday.

A brief lull in the chaotic, makeshift emergency room at the Kantalai Base Hospital allowed her to sit down.

But the distant wailing of an arriving ambulance carrying soldiers wounded in fresh battles with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) signalled she would continue working the rest of the day.

“This country has been stressed out the past 20 years,” she said, referring to the Tiger insurgency that has claimed some 60,000 lives.

“I am stressed out,” she added. “I have not slept in a long time, I want to rest, but if more casualties come in today, no way.”

In the past few hours, she has tended to at least three soldiers wounded in fighting near disputed sluice gates at Maalivaru.

The government says it launched a “defensive operation” in the area to prevent Tiger guerrillas from occupying it.

At least 45 soldiers were wounded and three killed in the fresh fighting, adding to an official death toll of more than 440 in the past two weeks.

The small Kantalai Base Hospital is almost spartan and was used mainly to treat patients with minor injuries in the past.

But the outpatient reception area has been converted into a makeshift emergency ward, with hospital staff scrambling over one another in cramped conditions.

“We lack so many things here. We don’t have a fully functioning emergency treatment facility, no ICU (intensive care unit),” said hospital worker Minushi Kannangara as she hovered over a gunshot victim on the verge of unconsciousness and grimacing in pain.

“What we do is to try and stop them from dying here and give them a better chance before they are transferred to a bigger general hospital,” she said.

“What we can manage, we try to do here under extremely difficult circumstances,” Kannangara added.

“If war continues and there are more casualties, then we can’t file for a leave of absence,” she said, adding that medical personnel travelling in ambulances have also been targeted in the conflict.

“It’s safer if we stay here. And we can help,” she said.

Medical supervisor D.G.M. Costa said there are about 30 doctors working at the emergency unit at any one time.

He added that more volunteers were needed because the health situation in overflowing refugee camps was beginning to deteriorate.

“We are trying to build a field hospital outside of here to accommodate as many as we can. If this conflict continues, we certainly need more doctors,” he said, after barking orders to stressed nurses and aides.

At the moment, he said, there were enough medicines and supplies, but other doctors said the local blood bank could run dry if the stream of casualties continued over the next few weeks.

“At the rate this fighting is going, we expect much more to be brought here. We need all the help we can get,” the medical supervisor added.

At the emergency ward, Kannangara tries to calm a patient as she checks his vital signs. Blood oozed from a badly bandaged wound on his legs.

“You are going to be okay,” she said, her hands steady around a tourniquet.

But dark circles under her eyes and a quiver in her voice betrayed her exhaustion.

(ABC Online) Sri Lanka’s military has admitted that a four-year-old cease-fire with Tamil Tiger rebels has collapsed in the country’s north-east.

A pro-Tamil website is claiming at least 45 civilians have died in fighting around the coastal Trincomalee district.

The military says it has lost three soldiers during a day of air and artillery battles.

The fight is for control of a disputed irrigation channel which feeds water to about 15,000 inland rice farmers.

But the theatre of conflict has widened to include disputed control over several towns.

Up to 60,000 civilians have fled to makeshift refugee camps and concerns for their health and welfare is growing.

The United Nations meanwhile has strongly condemned the apparent execution-style murders of 17 civilian aid workers caught up in the conflict.

An Australian forensic expert is helping oversee the post mortem investigation.

(Reuters) KANTALE, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Three troops died and dozens were injured as Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers fought against what they said was a major military offensive on Thursday.

Medics treated more than 30 new army casualties taken to the government-held town of Kantale in the island’s restive east, and were told to expect more. The local hospital struggled to cope, as injured shared beds and lay on trolleys.

The town is already struggling to cope with around 30,000 people displaced by days of fighting.

“There is a big offensive going on two fronts,” S. Puleedevan, head of the Tigers’ peace secretariat, told Reuters by phone. “Heavy fighting is going on, artillery, mortar fire and Kfir jets are bombarding.”

“The ceasefire really is in danger,” he added, saying hundreds of civilians were fleeing the area.

The military confirmed fighting but gave no details.

The fresh violence comes after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Tuesday lifted a blockade on water supplies to thousands of farmers in government territory in the east.

The government says it will not halt its operation until it controls a disputed sluice and a reservoir that feeds it. The Tigers say the land is theirs, and say ongoing army attacks amount to a declaration of war.

“It will continue until we can get our irrigation engineers to the area,” said Defense Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella.

THOUSANDS DISPLACED

Civilians displaced and caught in the crossfire are paying a heavy price.

Doctors treating dozens of cases of skin infections and diarrhea in makeshift camps in Kantale turned to focus on new army casualties.

“Today we will have to cut back in the camps because in the camps there is no urgent need. They are not bleeding,” said Kantale Hospital administrator D.G.M. Costa as medics worked on throat and torso injuries.

“If things continue like this, then we will need more doctors.”

His team was treating more than 30 injured troops, many with blast injuries to their legs, who arrived in trucks and ambulances wearing bandages and crude wooden splints.

Aid workers say the human cost has already been high, although it will become much worse if the two-decade civil war that has already killed more than 65,000 people escalates to cover more of the north and east, where the Tigers want a separate homeland for minority Tamils.

Tens of thousands fled the battered eastern town of Mutur, heavily damaged by days of shelling and fighting. Aid agencies had planned to take two-busloads of residents back to the town on Thursday, but had to cancel the trip.

“We are just ordinary people,” 55-year-old fisherman M.A. Mohamed, one of many who has fled the conflict area and is now living under a bullock cart with four other families in Kantale. “We just want to get on with our lives.”

(Gulf Times) NEW YORK: Former US president Bill Clinton, who is a UN special envoy on tsunami recovery efforts in the Indian Ocean, expressed shock at the killing of 16 aid workers in Sri Lanka.

“I was shocked and saddened to hear of the killings in Sri Lanka” of the workers “who I understand were providing assistance to tsunami survivors in the eastern part of the country,” Clinton said.

The slain workers were staff in the Sri Lankan city of Muttur for the French aid group Action Against Hunger (Action Contre le Faim).

“I hope that this wanton act will not deter the critical efforts of aid workers in Sri Lanka, who have operated with courage and determination under difficult circumstances,” added Clinton in a statement released by the UN’s office of the special envoy for tsunami recovery, set up after the December 2004 disaster in the region.

“I offer my condolences to the victims and strongly urge the authorities to do everything possible to apprehend the perpetrators of this crime and bring them to justice,” said Clinton.

The Paris-based group, founded in 1979 by author Marek Halter and physicist Alfred Kastler, halted all activities in Sri Lanka and demanded an investigation into the murders.

The victims, all wearing ACF shirts, were clearly identified as aid workers, according to president Denis Metzger. ACF has been in Sri Lanka since 1996 and has 15 international employees and 224 national employees there. – Agencies

(ReliefWeb) TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 9 (Reuters) – The brutal murder of 17 Sri Lankan aid workers last week highlights the difficulties faced by relief organisations around the world trying to balance helping people with politics.

The massacre, which took place in the northeastern town of Mutur after days of fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, was one of the bloodiest attacks on an aid group in history.

“This will change how we operate, who we help and how we do it,” said one aid worker in Trincomalee, aid hub both for the conflict area and also for a swathe of the island’s east coast hit by the 2004 tsunami.

In the last few days, aid crews have found access to the area limited by angry mobs, mainly from the island’s ethnic Sinhalese majority, who say non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are biased in favour of minority Tamils and the rebels.

“Ever since this government got into power, it has whipped up anti-NGO feeling,” said Rohan Edrisinha, analyst at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in the capital, Colombo. “I think that has percolated down to the army, bureaucrats and officials.”

It is not only in Sri Lanka that aid workers are under fire. In Sudan’s Darfur region, aid agencies say July was the worst month on record with eight Sudanese staff killed and access restricted by violence and intimidation.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, aid staff say western agencies are often seen as simply an extension of the United States military and its allies.

In Zimbabwe, aid agencies continually have to lobby the government simply to remain—and so barely dare talk about their conditions, food shortages or abuse.

Some have ceased work all together.

POLITICISED AID

“When aid gets politicised, you have to negotiate simply to have the space in which to operate,” said one Trincomalee-based aid worker who also worked in Africa. “That makes things much more difficult. It can also make it more dangerous.”

With governments increasingly moving into the aid sphere, and relief programmes more involved in trying to engineer long-term social change that can involve contact with rebel groups rather than simply handing out food, it seems a growing trend.

In Sri Lanka, some attribute the rising anti-NGO sentiment to political pressure from hardline Buddhist and Marxist government allies.

With rebuilding after the 2004 tsunami slower than many hoped, aid workers and officials also blame each other.

“Here, problems seem to have been exacerbated by the fact that some foreign governments want to work through the NGOs rather than the government,” said Edrisinha.

The government says it will launch a proper investigation into the killing of the 17 staffers from the aid group Action Contre La Faim, but family members and increasing numbers of aid workers say it already appears likely that government troops were responsible.

All but one of the victims were Tamils, trapped in a majority Muslim town.

With a large number of victims of both the tsunami and the two-decade civil war being Tamils, aid workers say with hindsight that they probably did not do enough to win over hearts and minds of Sinhalese and Muslim residents—although with thousands of Muslims now displaced by the current crisis, they are trying hard.

“They see our white vehicles go through their village almost every day and they see us give them nothing,” said one aid worker.

(FreeMedia) Deputy Inspector of Police Trincomalee district threaten to baton charge and barred the media personal waiting at Trincomalee hospital to cover the postmortem inquiry of the 15 NGO workers killed in Muttur.

17 humanitarian workers of the French NGO, Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger, ACF was shot to death in the aftermath of fighting between government forces and LTTE, in Muttur.

Media personal had obtain permission form the hospital authorities but DIG Trincomalee said that it is his authority not the hospital authorities to permit or not to permit media to cover the incident.

Save the Children today warns of a humanitarian crisis as fighting continues in eastern Sri Lanka. Save the Children continue to scale up their relief effort as violence in the area surrounding Muttur, near Trincomalee, escalated Sunday evening and Monday morning after a brief lull.

It is estimated that over 20,000 people have moved to Kantale in the Trincomalee district after leaving their homes due to the fighting in Muttur. Over the last two days Save the Children have supplied non food items including sleeping mats, sheets, towels and hygiene kits, kitchen utensils and some children’s clothes to over 1,200 families. Save the Children’s Child Protection Advisor is in the district helping children who have been separated from their families during the exodus.

Richard Mawer, Save the Children Programme Director in Sri Lanka says “Fighting has become more severe and moved into heavily populated areas over the last few days, causing families and children to flee their homes to escape rockets and artillery fire. This is a humanitarian crisis and we are concerned for the children who have been caught up in the fighting.”

He also noted with grave concern the killing of 15 national staff of the international humanitarian organization Action Contra la Faim in Muttur. “These killings send a clear message that humanitarian space and ability to work is under threat, and this is especially worrying given the escalation in violence and the potential for ever greater violence given this breakdown.”

(Yahoo News) Explosions sounded out in Sri Lanka’s east on Tuesday as fighting between the military and Tamil Tigers over a water supply entered a 14th day, while aid workers planned for the burials of 17 slain local staff.

Reuters witnesses in the eastern port of Trincomalee could hear explosions toward the disputed area to the south after dawn, after a Norwegian peace envoy convinced the rebels to reopen a blocked sluice gate and halt fighting only to find the army stepped up attacks.

“Several rounds of artillery were fired during the night. Still we are consolidating the area, waiting and hoping we will be able to allow the water to flow,” said a military spokesman.

“We are still clearing landmines and booby traps are there,” he added.

Nordic truce monitors and diplomats are exasperated by the government’s decision to continue a military campaign despite the Tiger offer to open the sluice. The rebels have already pulled back to their original positions after the first ground battle since a 2002 truce.

The government says the only option is for the Tigers to vacate the area, and analysts suspect President Mahinda Rajapakse is pushing on as either a concession to hardline Marxist and Buddhist monk political allies who hate the Tigers or as a matter of government pride.

“This is so incredibly stupid,” said one western diplomat. “There are no winners in this situation.”

More than 800 people had been killed so far this year even before the recent fighting in which the military say they killed over 150 rebels and in which dozens of civilians are said to be dead.

SHOT IN THE HEAD

Aid workers transported the bodies of 17 local colleagues found slain in the eastern battle-ravaged town of Mutur, where they had been working on post-tsunami projects, to the port town of Trincomalee overnight.

Most had been shot in the head, execution style, fellow aid workers said.

International aid agency Action Contre La Faim (ACF), or Action Against Hunger, said it was waiting for post-mortem results and had halted all activities in the area. It also said it might ask for help from the United Nations or Red Cross to uncover what had happened.

“It would seem that it was rocket explosions or bullets to the head. We don’t know. There are several versions. Perhaps some were killed by bullets and others by bombs. We will have more information in the coming hours,” ACF executive director Benoit Miribel told Reuters Television in Paris.

Officials said 15 of the staff were found dead on the floor of their office, while two others had been gunned down while apparently trying to escape in a car. It was not clear when their funerals would be held.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy condemned what he called “the appalling and cowardly murders.”

Pro-rebel website Tamilnet blamed the government for the killings, while the army pointed the finger at the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who have fought for an ethnic Tamil homeland for two decades in a civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people.

Colombo / Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) strongly condemns the killing of 15 national employees of the French humanitarian organization Action Contre la Faim (ACF) in the town of Muttur, Trincomalee district, Sri Lanka. The ICRC is deeply concerned about the serious deterioration of the security situation, which has severely hampered the efforts of aid workers to provide assistance for the country’s most vulnerable people. “We are appalled at what happened to the ACF staff,” said Yvonne Dunton, head of the ICRC’s sub-delegation in Trincomalee. “This was a deliberate attack on a humanitarian organization that was doing valuable work for the people of Muttur.”

The ICRC calls on all the parties to the conflict to respect the work of humanitarian agencies and to refrain from any acts that might jeopardize their staff or their activities. It also urges the relevant authorities to take all necessary measures to ensure that aid workers assisting the civilian population and persons no longer taking part in the hostilities are spared from attack and can move about freely and safely.

Today, the ICRC provided displaced families in the town of Kantale with assistance consisting of 335 tarpaulins, 335 hygiene kits (soap, washing powder, razors, bath towels and shampoo) and 112 baby parcels (blankets, towels and baby powder). It is also installing sanitary facilities an two water-distribution systems in the camps where the families are sheltering. More relief activities for the displaced population are planned for the coming days.

(Yahoo News) Tired and hungry aid workers labor ceaselessly in crowded refugee camps on the edge of Sri Lanka’s conflict zone amid the thundering sound of artillery.

Their steely resolve gives hope to nearly 30,000 people displaced by heavy fighting between Tiger rebels and government forces, but news that 15 of their colleagues were killed has outraged them to a point that they are now demanding protection.

“This is plainly a crime, not only to us but to those we serve,” said Guy Hovey, head of delegation for the US-based United Methodist Committee on Relief which has been working to evacuate people since the fresh conflict began.

The killings of 15 employees of French agency Action Against Hunger (ACF) is an atrocity that could complicate efforts to bring aid to some 5,000 people trapped in the town of Muttur.

More than 425 people have been killed in the latest round of fighting according to an official count.

“We’re non-combatants and we can’t operate if we are attacked. We would like some form of security guarantee or safe passage,” from both sides, Hovey told AFP as his staff tended to scores of children and women under a makeshift tent in Kallar, 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) south of Muttur.

“We have a humanitarian duty to remain and help the people. We will remain until we are effective,” he said, but stressed that if there was another security breakdown “we may pull out.”

Hovey’s group of 20 volunteers are trying to work on bringing food and aid to some 5,000 people believed still remaining in Muttur, which came under attack from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) trying to cut off a military supply routes.

The fighting erupted on July 26 when war planes bombed suspected Tiger positions in a bid to force the rebels to lift their blockade of an irrigation canal that was denying water to some 15,000 farming families downstream

Heavy shelling that followed a week later devastated the mainly Muslim town and forced thousands to flee. The area is now cut off, telephone services and power are down even as reports say bodies still lie uncollected days after it was bombarded.

Aid workers who managed to enter Muttur have reported finding the bodies of the 15 ACF staffers. It was not clear how they were killed, and the deaths were the first in the agency’s 25-year history.

“Aid and relief workers should not be harmed or killed. We are a neutral force. We are bringing help to these people,” said Ahmad Raslan from the Islamic Red Crescent medical agency.

“We have tried time and again going to Muttur by road, we heard there are still people there. We just couldn’t get to them,” he said. “There are still dead bodies there and some people left behind needing help.

“We are not afraid to help, but we also demand that there is some form of guarantee we will not be harmed. We are trying to do our humanitarian work, we can’t do that if we come under attack,” he stressed.

Muslim relief agencies, he said however, will remain on the ground for the long-haul. “God willing, we may be able to reach Muttur by road soon. We will keep trying,” he said.

“We condemn the attack on civilians, including the volunteers,” he said, referring to the ACF casualties.

Lars Stuewe, a medical officer of the German Emergency Medical Technician aid group working with Islamic organizations here, noted that apart from the deaths in Muttur some ambulances have also come under attack from civilians.

“There were NGO vehicles attacked yesterday and the other day. We know of one worker who was also beaten and this is the situation we have to live with,” he said, adding that it was not clear who were behind the attacks.

“We will not go to Muttur unless we deem it safe.”

(ICRC) An ICRC convoy composed of six trucks, two ambulances and three cars yesterday reached the Mutur area and was able to evacuate around four hundred displaced people from the conflict zone to Trincomalee town. In addition to that, two injured people were transported to Eachilampattai hospital.

As for the fifteen thousand displaced people currently accommodated in Kantale, the ICRC is assessing their humanitarian needs with a focus on water and hygienic problems. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) is assisting with food supplies.

In Trincomalee town, the ICRC has also delivered 163 kits of essential household items, containing tarpaulins, mats, pots, buckets, mosquito nets, kerosene cookers and lanterns. Around 300 displaced families benefited.

The ICRC reminds both parties to the conflict of their obligation to comply with international humanitarian law. It urgently calls upon both parties to ensure the protection of the civilian population as well as to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.

“We are facing a serious humanitarian emergency,” said Toon Vandenhove, the ICRC’s head of delegation presently in Kantale to meet the local authorities, “We therefore need the collaboration and assistance of all parties”.

(Yahoo News) A French aid agency was trying to find out who shot dead 15 of its employees as a Nordic truce monitor hit out at the Sri Lankan government for shelling Tamil rebels as they tried to reopen a bitterly-contested waterway.

The bodies of 11 men and four women, wearing Action Against Hunger (ACF) T-shirts, were found face-down in their office on Sunday in the town of Muttur, close to heavy fighting between Tamil rebels and government forces.

The rebels have accused the security forces of killing the aid workers, who were all members of Sri Lanka’s minority ethnic Tamil community.

Benoit Miribel, the director general of Action Against Hunger (ACF), said his organisation was stunned by the killings which were unprecedented in its 25-year history.

“We are trying to send a team to find out what is going on in this area,” Miribel told AFP in Paris. “But soldiers have prevented us from entering the town which remains completely sealed off.”

ACF is one of the hundreds of aid agencies that set up operations in Sri Lanka after an Indian Ocean tsunami wiped out much the island’s coastal infrastructure and killed an estimated 31,000 people in December 2004.

There was no immediate word from the government about what happened to the aid workers.

Fighting intensified last Wednesday after sluice gates at a dam were closed to get the government to improve drinking water for residents in the town and the surrounding northeastern district of Trincomalee.

The government accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of blocking the waterway. The rebels say residents shut the sluice gates.

The rebels were close to reopening them on Sunday but were forced back by government shelling, which brought a stern rebuke from Ulf Henriksson, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) which is trying to negotiate a ceasefire.

Henriksson said the Maavilaru dam was just minutes away from being re-opened, returning water supplies to thousands of families, when the bombardment started.

“No water. War instead of water. Not a good idea, not a good solution,” Henriksson told the BBC in comments reported Monday.

“... we could have waited some minutes more for the water so I think (the attack) was a bad idea,” he said.

At least 425 people have died in clashes over the Maavilaru dam since July 26.

A spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the monitors had a “narrow shave” in the shelling.

“We had informed the Sri Lankan government and clearance was obtained,” S. Puleedevan told AFP. “But, as they approached the area, there was heavy shelling and they can’t open the sluice gates. Even the monitors had a narrow shave.”

The government said it was not involved in talks between peace-broker Norway and the rebels on re-opening the dam.

“Water should not be a negotiating tool,” Colombo spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told AFP. “We don’t want terrorists to come and open the waterway. They must simply allow irrigation engineers to do it, otherwise we will open it anyway.”

It has been the worst fighting in Sri Lanka since a truce was agreed in 2002. An estimated 60,000 people have been killed since the Tamil insurgency began around three decades ago.

(Yahoo News) Sri Lanka’s chief truce monitor has criticised government troops for shelling Tamil rebels as they tried to reopen a bitterly contested waterway at the centre of the heaviest clashes in years.

Ulf Henriksson, head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), said the Maavilaru dam was just minutes away from being re-opened, returning water supplies to thousands of families, when the bombardment started.

“No water. War instead of water. Not a good idea, not a good solution,” Henriksson told the BBC in comments reported Monday.

“... we could have waited some minutes more for the water so I think (the attack) was a bad idea,” he said.

At least 425 people have died in clashes over the Maavilaru dam in the northeastern district of Trincomalee since July 26 after the government accused rebels of blocking the waterway, cutting off supplies to thousands of families.

The guerrillas said residents closed the waterway, which lies in rebel-held territory, to get the government to improve their drinking water supply.

A spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the monitors had a “narrow shave” in the shelling.

“We had informed the Sri Lankan government and clearance was obtained,” S. Puleedevan told AFP. “But, as they approached the area, there was heavy shelling and they can’t open the sluice gates. Even the monitors had a narrow shave.”

The government said it was not involved in talks between peace-broker Norway and the rebels on re-opening the dam.

“Water should not be a negotiating tool,” Colombo spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told AFP. “We don’t want terrorists to come and open the waterway. They must simply allow irrigation engineers to do it, otherwise we will open it anyway.”

It has been the worst fighting in Sri Lanka since a truce was agreed in 2002. An estimated 60,000 people have been killed since the Tamil insurgency began around three decades ago.

(ZeeNews) Colombo, Aug 07: A French aid agency said it was trying to find out who shot dead 15 of its employees in northern Sri Lanka but that government troops had sealed off the scene of the massacre.

The bodies of 11 men and four women all wearing Action Against Hunger (ACF) T-shirts were found face-down in their office on Sunday in the town of Muttur, close to heavy fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.

The rebels have accused the security forces of killing the aid workers, who were all members of Sri Lanka’s minority ethnic Tamil community.

Benoit Miribel, the director general of Action Against Hunger (ACF), said his organisation was stunned by the killings which were unprecedented in the organisation’s 25-year history.

“We are trying to send a team to find out what is going on in this area,” Miribel told reporters in Paris. “But soldiers have prevented us from entering the town which remains completely sealed off.”

He said the organisation urgently wanted “to go to our offices there to retrieve the bodies and carry out an investigation to find out who was responsible.”

Miribel said ACF, which has nearly 250 staff in Sri Lanka working on tsunami relief programs, had no plans to leave the troubled northeast.

Heavy fighting broke out in Muttur and the surrounding northeastern district of Trincomalee last month after the government accused the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of blocking a key waterway.

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

This year is the 23rd anniversary of the Black July of 1983. In a book published in June 2002, Sirisena Cooray, very much an insider to the regime in power in 1983 gives the story of the manner in which the racial riots in Colombo broke out and the responsibility of president Jayawardene for not preventing them. The death of 13 soldiers in the North had provoked a natural reaction from the military and some sections of the armed forces wanted to bring the bodies to Colombo. The purpose was clearly to express the military’s frustration. The president was made aware of this plan. According to Sirisena Cooray there were protests from the Prime Minister who saw that this would lead to serious trouble. However, Jayawardene, known to be a Machiavellian politician, knew that if he stopped this move there would be a conflict with the military and ultimately there might be some challenge to him personally. Instead of letting that happen he allowed a situation to occur that was bound to provoke a terrible riot. By now his regime was already illegitimate politically since the members the parliament held their power only due to a referendum for an extension of their term of office for a further six years.

The essential aspects of Jayawardene’s policy throughout his regime were to divert challenges to his regime by the creation of other forms of social unrest through which the focus on the protests against the regime was lost. And this was what Jayawardene did on this occasion.

To view the ethnic conflict purely on racial terms is to ignore the politics of this conflict which go far beyond racial parameters. The power crises in the regimes that have been in power have much more to do with the present ‘ethnic crisis’ than ethnicity. This is an issue that the AHRC has highlighted regularly in its statements. This insider story helps to look into this same issue once again during the month that marks a historically black period which took a decisive turn for the worst in 1983.

An excerpt from President Premadasa and I – our Story (pp 60-63)

ERRORS AND MISTAKES

The day we heard about the killing of the 13 soldiers in Jaffna I went to see Mr. Premadasa. He was on the phone to the President. There was a lot of tension in the country and we were extremely worried about the way things were moving. Mr. Premadasa turned to me and informed me that the President is planning to bring the bodies of the dead soldiers to Colombo, to be cremated at Kanatte. Mr. Premadasa had been trying to get the President to change his mind when I walked in. When he saw me Mr. Premadasa said: “Sir, Sirisena is here; you ask him”. And he put me on. The President told me: “Cooray, these people want to bring these bodies to Colombo and cremate them at Kanatte. What do you think?” I said: “Sir why do you want to bring these bodies to Colombo? These are not people from Colombo. If you bring the bodies here there will be problems”. This was precisely what Mr. Premadasa had been telling the President before I walked in. Afterwards Mr. Premadasa told me that they bad decided against bringing the bodies to Colombo; I remember we were both extremely relieved.

That afternoon I went for a wedding at the Shalika Hall in Narahenpita. Mrs. Jayawardene was also there. I was talking to her when she suddenly said: “Mr. Cooray, you know that they are bringing those 13 bodies to Colombo today”. I was thunderstruck. I said: “Madam, the President promised the Prime Minister only a little while ago that the bodies will not be brought to Colombo”. She responded: “No, no they are going to go ahead and bring the bodies here. I do not know whose idea it is”. I had the impression she too was unhappy about it.

This was madness. Like Mr. Premadasa I knew that all hell was likely to break lose when those bodies are brought to Colombo. I just got up and walked to my car. But I had no clear idea about where I wanted to go. I couldn’t think clearly. I didn’t want to go home and I didn’t want to go to the CMC. Finally I went to the Sugathadasa stadium. That was the time we were reconstructing the Stadium. I walked into the middle of the grounds and just stood there. That was when SP Ariyaratne came to me and told me that there was a radio message from the PM asking me to contact him urgently. When I called Mr. Premadasa he too was extremely upset and worried. He told me about the new decision to bring the bodies to Colombo that evening and asked me to make the necessary arrangements. He told me that the President is planning to attend the cremations and he too was expected to be there. He knew full well there would be problems but he had no choice in the matter. The decisions were made elsewhere and he was just informed of them. If the President listened to Mr. Premadasa, the ‘83 July riots could have been avoided and the history of this country would have been different.

Like Mr. Premadasa I too had no choice but to do what bad to be done, given the situation. The Kanatte is owned and managed by the CMC and as Mayor my tasks were clear. So I went to the Municipal Workshop and made all the arrangements. I also phoned the Municipal Commissioners and told them to come to the cemetery. After that I went to the cemetery. As soon as I entered I could feel the tension. There was an organized crowd present, making a huge show of grief, weeping hysterically. I walked up to DIG Edward Gunawardane and I asked him why they allowed this madness. He and the other senior police officers present told me that they had nothing to do with the decision, that they were just following orders. I warned them that this drama would end with a riot. Though the bodies were not brought yet, the crowd was organised and ready. I realized that if I stayed here I too would be thrashed. Gamani Jayasuriya was also there waiting for the bodies to be brought. I went up to him and said: “Sir, what are you doing here? Don’t wait here. There is going to be trouble”. Then I called Mr. Premadasa’s security personnel who were waiting for his arrival and told them: “Tell the PM that there is going to be trouble; tell him not to come here and tell him I said so”. I told the same thing to the President’s bodyguard. I explained that amidst the inevitable disturbance even if a stone hits the President it will be humiliating and therefore he should stay away. I was able to issue orders since the General Cemetery came under the CMC and I was the Mayor.

Fortunately the President decided to heed my warning; this enabled Mr. Premadasa also to stay away (he would have been forced to attend, even though he was not happy about the whole thing, if the President attended). Once I got confirmation that neither the President nor the PM would be attending the cremations I informed the Municipal Commissioners who were present that I will go and change and come back. Of course I did not go back. And as Mr. Premadasa and I predicted, rioting started immediately afterwards. I later heard that the Army wanted the bodies to be brought to Kanatte and that the President succumbed to their pressure.

It was a terrible time and the worst part was that we were almost powerless. We could do nothing to stop the killing, the destruction. The President made a mistake in putting the Army in charge of restoring law and order. After the killing of the 13 soldiers the mood in the military was a very dangerous one and they were not really motivated in stopping the violence. If the Police had been given a free hand they would have done a better job. During this period President Jayawardene was reduced to a state of helplessness. Mr. Premadasa and I used to visit him every day. That was the only time I saw IRJ being speechless. The Army was not taking orders and I think we were very close to a state of mutiny. That was why the Air Force was called in eventually and they quelled the riot.

(Ilankai Tamil Sangam) by K.Mylvaganam

After 25 hours of agony, anxiety, uncertainty, tension and fear, I was a free man. All these were due to the silly and idiotic action of some uneducated, chauvinistic elements in the army. No sooner I returned to Kilinochchi, I took a cutting of a picture from a paper similar to the one in my camera and sent it to the OIC of the army camp in Puthur with a note saying, “This from The Sunday Times of 25.05.06; arrest its editor if you can.”

It was on the morning of the 11th instant at 10.00 a.m. I left for Jaffna to attend a wedding that was to take place at 10.a.m. on the 12th inst. On my way I had to visit some relatives in Valvetti [thurai].

At Kodikamam the driver turned towards Vadamarachchi and within two kilometers we were stopped by the army and directed to park in a side lane. There were a few vehicles already parked in that lane. The drivers of those vehicles did not know why they were directed into the lane. When I asked the soldier for the reason why we were diverted, he said that there was a bomb blast two kilometers from there and, until he got the OK signal, he was not supposed to allow any vehicle through.

I returned to the vehicle with the intention of canceling the Valvetti trip. I wanted to call Valvetty and inform them of the change of plan as I was expected for lunch by them. I borrowed the mobile phone from the driver and called Valvetty. I was told to go up to Meesalai and take the road to Puthur and from there to proceed towards Valvetty. This we did and it turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life.

As we approached Puthur we were stopped at a wayside checkpoint of the army. The time was 11.30 a.m. They just did a superficial check of the vehicle and we did not have any heavy luggage. I had only a backpack with a change for the night and a shirt and a dhoti for the wedding. As the checking was almost over and when we were about to leave, my ill luck fell on me.

One of the soldiers, on seeing my camera, wanted to go through the pictures on it. There were all sorts of pictures – family pictures, garden pictures and pictures taken at the Sencholai (home for the kids) on it and I happily gave it to him. After a few seconds, his face changed and took it to his senior who was seated inside the hut. He then called someone and there was a hive of activity going on and everyone was trying to have a look at it. Then one soldier came to me, put his rifle on my forehead and asked whether I took all the pictures on the camera and when I answered in the affirmative, he asked me why I took the photos of an LTTE training camp.

I told him that those pictures were not from an LTTE training camp, but of the training of civilians for self-defense. I added that these pictures appear in the daily papers and on TV quite often and I found that there was no harm in taking those pictures. Also I said that, not only the LTTE, but also the army is training civilians for self-defense. To this he replied sharply, “Don’t talk about the army, but you tell me about your LTTE.” I thought it would be unwise to reply to that and kept quiet. Then he said that he was going to take me to their camp nearby. Three of the soldiers got into our vehicle fully armed with T-56 rifles and ordered the driver to proceed as directed by them. At the camp ten spldiers came out to my vehicle and started asking all sorts of questions.

Question: Do you know the LTTE people?

Answer: I live in Kilinochchi and all those living in Vanni know the LTTE

Q: Do you know them?

A: Yes but not personally.

Q: What do you mean?

A: For example I know Mr. S.P.Thamilchelvan as head of the Political Wing, but I do not know him personally. I have heard him speaking in meetings. So do I know about Pottu Amman, Soosai,, etc. but I have never seen them.

Q: So you attend the LTTE meetings?

A: No I do not attend LTTE meetings, but I do attend, for example, opening ceremonies, human rights conventions, etc. where such leaders speak.

Q: You have a Norwegian passport and what are you doing in Kilinochchi?

A: I am not the only foreigner in Kilinochchi. There are hundreds of them there.

Q: You tell me what you are doing there?

A: I am from Kilinochchi. When I come from London I stay there.

Q: What do you do in London?

A: I live there. (Now he is confused)

Q: You have a Norwegian passport, and you do not live in Norway, but you live in London and also in Kilinochchi. Why?

A: Why not?

Q: You do not ask questions. I ask questions and you answer. Right? (Very sternly put)

A: That was really not a question. What I meant was that there is nothing legally wrong by living in more than one place provided you have the visa from the respective countries. In Sri Lanka I have the residence visa for one year.

Q: Three months back you went to London. Why did you come back after three weeks?

A: My wife was sick, so I had to accompany her there.

Q: Why did you not stay behind and look after your wife?

A: I think this a personal matter yet, since you ask, I may say that she is capable of looking after herself.

Q: What do you do in Kilinochchi?

A: I am in the process of building a house there.

Q: Don’t you have a house in London?

A: Yes I do.

Q: Then why do you build a house in Kilinochchi?

A: Because I cannot live in the London house when I am in Kilinochchi.

Q: Don’t try to be smart with us.

A: Sorry (I didn’t dare to say your question was silly)

Q: When did you go to Norway?

A: In 1974.

Q: Why did you go there?

A: To work there. (another silly question)

Q: Who helped you to go there?

A: One Norwegian.

Q: Where did you meet him?

A: In a pub.

Q: Pub? What Pub? What do you do there?

A: We play Billiards and drink beer.

Q: Do you drink a lot a lot of beer?

A: I take a beer every day. Whether it is a lot, I do not know.

Q: Do you like beer very much?

A: No.

Q: Then why do you drink it?

A: Because I cannot get my favourite drink.

Q: What is your favourite drink?

A: Red wine.

Q: Why don’t you drink red wine then?

A: I can’t get it in Kilinochchi.

He thought he was asking the questions, but he did not know that I was dragging him along. Then, one by one, several of the soldiers started asking the same silly questions over and over again. I did not find it difficult to answer them as none of them appeared intelligent to me. At times there will be an fight going on among them. One would say, “I am asking, you wait”; the other would say the same thing back at him. I had to intervene and ask them to put the questions one by one. But they never listened. Once, one of them sharply told me, “Look at my face and answer my question.” I said my problem is I do not know who is asking which question as so many of you are asking so many questions at the same time. The questioning at the base started at about 12.15 p.m. and it went on till 3.30 p.m.

I forgot to mention that they confiscated my wallet, camera with the charger, passport, the LTTE’s Residence Permit, my driver’s mobile phone and his vehicle’s switch key.

I had my breakfast at 7.30 at home. They never offered even a cup of tea. I was supposed to go to Valvetty for lunch at 12.30. The time was nearly 4.00 p.m. I was terribly tired, hungry and thirsty. I kept asking whether I could make a call and inform them that I was getting delayed. This was denied. I even said that I would tell them that the vehicle had broken down. But the answer was “NO.” I never got to call.

Then another guy came with a file and a form and started filling it with my name, date, address, etc. He was writing something in Sinhalese while saying it loudly. Even though I speak some Sinhalese, yet I could not decipher what he was writing or saying. Finally he wanted me to sign. Now I became worried and a frankly a bit scared. I told them, “I cannot read Sinhalese, hence I cannot sign for something that I cannot understand. And what is it tell me.” He said it meant that I have received all my goods intact and that I was not scolded or beaten. I said that I would then write in Tamil all what you said and sign it. “Why can’t you believe us and Sinhalese is the official language?” I said, “According to the Sri Lankan constitution Tamil also has equal status. Hence, I have the right to write in Tamil.” He said none of them could understand Tamil. Now we have a problem, I said, but I was prepared for a compromise. And that was I would write in English and then sign it. To this, he agreed and it was done accordingly.

Now they told me that I would be taken to the police station and be handed over to them. There was a policeman there and he accompanied us with his gun. But he was quite polite. Two more soldiers also got in with their rifles.

Inside the vehicle I got my mobile and, with the policeman’s permission, I tried to ring Valvetty. But there was no balance left in the card. Certainly those fellows at the base must have used it up calling their families and friends.

Atchuveli Police Station

It was 4.30 p.m. when we reached the police station. The policeman who accompanied me said that we would be released to go soon. There was an Inspector of Police (IP), Mr.Sugathathasa, who was the officer in charge (OIC); his assistant was a sub-inspector (SI) called Vannasinghe. Both of them appeared very polite and courteous. Both of them addressed me either as ‘Aiyah’ or ‘sir.’ When they were about to begin questioning me, I asked whether I could call Valvetty to inform them of the situation and my whereabouts. The IP immediately summoned a constable to take me to their office and let me use their phone. When I returned, a cup of tea was awaiting me. That was the best cup of tea I have had recently, as I had neither eaten or drank anything since 7.30 a.m. Both of them went through the photos and appeared satisfied with my explanation.

Then the real interrogation started. Those two guys, unlike the morons at the army camp, were intelligent fellows. Their questions were focused to ascertain my dealings with the LTTE. I accepted that the LTTE cadres come to me now and then to get Tamil translations for materials that were in English. Most of their questions were sensible ones and concentrated to security risks.

Now the time has passed 6.30 p.m. The IP said that certain entries have to be made about my case in their books and ordered a sergeant to attend to it. The IP and the SI profusely thanked me for my cooperation and assured me that they have no suspicion on me and they are satisfied with my replies, which they said were frank and open. They even apologized for the inconvenience caused. I, too, thanked them back for their cordiality and hoped that I would be on my way very soon.

Before leaving me, the IP said that he would report the matter to his superiors and come back to me. Time passed and, at 7.30 p.m.. a Tamil constable, Mr.Suveekaran, came over with a register and said that he has to record my statement. He was extremely polite and apologized in advance to tell me, “Aiyah, they are going to keep you overnight. That is the order the IP has got. The IP tried his best to tell them that yours was a bona-fide case and there was no doubt or suspicion of any nature and that you are 74 years old. He has been asked to call a bit later.” The recording of the statement was done in Tamil by Suveekaran. The IP came to me at 8.30 p.m. and said in a very melancholy tone; “Sir, I am afraid you would have to stay overnight and be presented to a magistrate on the following day. Once you have seen the magistrate, you do not have to come back here and you can be on your way to attend the wedding.”

I got bread and dhal for dinner. I was given a thin mattress and had to sleep on the floor. However, a mosquito coil was lit and put between me and the driver. I should mention, however, that the IP offered me to sleep inside their office, where there was a fan working. But I turned it down as the office was brightly lit and there were phone calls every two or three minutes. I did not have a wink of sleep the whole night. My worry was what the Magistrate was going to say the following day. Will I be acquitted and sent home or will I be sent on bail, which meant I should be reporting at the next date fixed by the magistrate or will I be remanded, which would mean I would be jailed for a few weeks?

In the morning I called a friend of mine, on the advice of the IP, as a standby to bail me out if it became necessary. Luckily, the Magistrate, a lady who listened to my presentation (I did not retain a lawyer), told the police that there was no incriminating evidence against me and asked whether the police had any objection to her releasing me. The police did not make any objections, hence she discharged the case and I was released at 12.00 noon.

After 25 hours of agony, anxiety, uncertainty, tension and fear, I was a free man. All these were due to the silly and idiotic action of some uneducated Buddhist chauvinistic elements in the army. No sooner I returned to Kilinochchi, I took a cutting of a picture from a paper similar to the one in my camera and sent it to the OIC of the army camp in Puthur with a note saying, “This from The Sunday Times of 25.05.06; arrest its editor if you can.”

© 1996-2006 Ilankai Tamil Sangam, USA, Inc.

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

In a very strange move that will surprise anyone concerned with the global effort to eradicate disappearances and gross human rights violations, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), which claims to be the country’s prime agency for the protection and promotion of human rights, officially decided to stop further inquiries into disappearance cases unless an order is received from the government to continue with the inquiries as the findings may result in the “payments of compensation etc”.

The mandate of the HRCSL among other things was to inquire into the infringement of fundamental rights and