Evidence presented against Sri Lanka at Genocide Tribunal in Germany

ICC's failure to prosecute Sri Lanka, no shelter to Africa's criminals, says HRW

African leaders are raising concern over the actions of the 11-year old court of last resort, the International Criminial Court (ICC), where the eight cases that are currently active and the twenty-one defendents are all from Africa, Washington Post reported Sunday. The article quoted Richard Dicker from Human Rights Watch who countered Africa's arguments saying that African nations cannot deny redress to victims (in Darfur or Kenya) just because it is not possible to provide victims in Sri Lanka justice, implying that while ICC has failed to go after war-criminals in Sri Lanka even after the UN's Petrie Report has accused Sri Lanka of killing more than 70,000 Tamil civilians in the no-fire zone, this is not sufficient to deny african victims redress through the Court. Full story >>

Aussaresses, Abbott, Rajapaksas, birds of the same feather on torture?

While Australian Premier, Tony Abbott, whose recent statements on condoning the allegations of torture by Sri Lanka security forces, was condemned by international rights groups, European media reported that one of top French ex-military officers, Aussaresses, who confessed to coldbloodedly torturing and summarily executing dozens of prisoners during France's brutal colonial war in Algeria decades earlier, and who defended his actions, passed away this week. He was 95. He was stripped of his medals, and was convicted later in France. Allegations of rape and torture are also rampant in Sri Lanka under the rule of Rajapakse-family, with UK charity Freedom From Torture documenting more than 60 cases of torture by Sri Lanka security forces, and Human Rights Watch documented 62 cases of sexual violence involving the security forces, noting that rape is widespread and systemic. Full story >>


2ND LEAD (Adds documents)

Reminding Britain of its geostrategic injustice against Eezham Tamils

The British Prime Minister David Cameron seeking ‘engagement’ with Tamils needs to be reminded of the root injustice the imperial Britain had committed against Eezham Tamils by making them prone to more than 60 years of genocide in the hands of the unitary Sri Lankan State. The British cabinet in 1947 decided to short-circuit the discourse of an evolutionary constitutional approach with an accelerated process of handing over of power to Sinhalese, an exercise it carried out on the basis of its own geostrategic considerations amidst the pressure exerted by DS Senanayake, a shrewd politician on the Sinhala side. In their geostrategic concerns to secure defence, trade and external-affairs control of the independent Ceylon within the British Commonwealth, the British ignored the Tamil ‘50-50’ balanced representation demand as well as the Kandyan claim of three federal units. Full story >>

Lankan diplomat ducks rights discussions in UK

The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Britain, Chris Nonis, declined to participate in a rights discussion on Sri Lanka held end of last week at the UK's Frontline club where the author of Sri Lanka's Unfinished War, Frances Harrison, Channel-4's producer of a series of documentaries on Sri Lanka's war, Callum Macrae, and policy and advocacy manager at Freedom from Torture, Sonya Sceats, took part. The discussion was moderated by barrister Sadakat Kadri, who was a rapporteur to the investigation into the impeachment of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice. Full story >>

Students protest against Colombo's discriminatory closure of Jaffna University

The Sri Lankan State through its administration kept the universities across the island closed while the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) took place in Colombo. Except the University of Jaffna, other universities were opened before 02 December. The reason for Colombo instructing its authorities to keep the Jaffna University closed till Monday was to make sure that the students were away from the University premises during the Heroes Day, the university management in Jaffna said. When the university was opened on Monday, the students staged a demonstration inside the premises. Sinhala and Muslim students also took part in the demonstration. Hundreds of riot control police commandos of the occupying Sri Lanka were deployed around the premises. Full story >>

Cameron reneges on Sri Lanka war-crimes investigations

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, after returning from Colombo Commonwealth meeting, said in an article that appeared in the Arab News, that there should be a transparent, credible investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. But he reneged on the time frame pronounced for the completion of the inquiry. In Colombo, Cameron said, "Let me be very clear, if that investigation is not completed by March then I will use our position on the UN human rights council to work with the UN Human Rights commission and call for a full, credible and independent international inquiry." However, in the Arab News, likely issued to blunt expectations of March completion of investigations, Cameron said, "if those investigations were not begun properly by next March, we would call for an international inquiry through the United Nations." Full story >>

Australia's Lawyers blast Abbott, Sri Lanka

In hard-hitting articles appearing in the Lawyer's Weekly, the Law Council of Australia's (LCA's) president Michael Colbran QC, criticized Sri Lanka over the worsening rule of law in Sri Lanka and expressed concern over the "reports of threats and intimidation directed at members of the legal profession and judiciary." The Law Weekly also slammed Prime Minister Tony Abbott whose recent comments appeared to condone the allegations of torture by Sri Lanka security forces, as “deplorably simplistic," and that Abbott's assertion "is contrary to international law as well as Sri Lanka’s own Constitution which prohibits torture without exception," adding also that "[Abbott's] remark underscores a basic lack of understanding regarding the problem of impunity that Sri Lanka, now the chair of the Commonwealth, faces." Full story >>

Fr Johnpillai reveals details of death threat by alleged SL operatives

Parish Priest of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Trincomalee, on Thursday, described, in an email released to media through the Catholic mission sources in the East how two armed men, claiming to be Sri Lankan intelligence operatives threatened him on 26 November. When the priest asked them to show proof, they refused. But, as the questioning was rapidly becoming a heated argument, one of the operatives suddenly told the priest that he would give him proof of his identity, caught Fr Johnpillai by his priestly garb, pushed him against the wall pointing a pistol at his head and threatening to shoot him. Full story >>

EPDP paramilitary stricken by internal strife

Following the arrest of EPDP’s Jaffna District organizer and the opposition leader in the Northern Provincial Council Kamal Kamalendran for alleged involvement in the killing of the EPDP chairman of Neduntheevu civic body Mr Daniel Rexian alias Rajeev, the internal strife in the paramilitary group has widened. The involvement of EPDP operatives in the killing of Tamil journalists will be exposed, informed sources said. The Sri Lankan military intelligence has been using EPDP operatives to exercise control over the occupied Jaffna. Some of these operatives would be deployed as scapegoats when Colombo would be forced to conduct a show of investigations in the near future, the sources further said. Full story >>