Protest held in Colombo against Sarath Fonseka court martial

[TamilNet, Monday, 15 March 2010, 16:33 GMT]
Hundreds of supporters of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Monday held a protest in Fort in Colombo demanding the scrap of military tribunal appointed by President Mahinda Rajapakse to charge the defeated common opposition presidential candidate General (retd) Fonseka.
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Demand US to reveal more inculpatory war crimes evidence, urges Boyle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 March 2010, 18:13 GMT]
While applauding the U.S. Government for revealing significant amount of details that point to complicity of Sri Lanka Government in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, Professor Francis A. Boyle of University of Illinois College of Law, urged American Tamils to "pressure the relevant agencies of the United States government to produce as much evidence in public as they possibly can against the Rajapaksas, Fonseka, the GOSL General Staff, etc." Prof. Boyle noted that "[t]he United States government did this once before against the Serbian genocidaires Milosevic, Karadzic et al. for what they did to the Bosnians and the Kosovars. The United States government can certainly do the same against the GOSL genocidaires against the Tamils," Prof. Boyle said.
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Fonseka will not attend court martial, lawyers to challenge its legality

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 March 2010, 07:21 GMT]
General (retd) Sarath Fonseka will not appear before the Court Martial that is to begin March 16. Instead a team of lawyers will attend on behalf General Fonseka and would challenge the legality of the composition of the Court Martial. They would argue that there is no provision in the Army Act to court martial Fonseka and such ‘trial’ is illegal, according to Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentarian Anura Dissanayake to media.
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Fonseka to be produced before Court Martial on March 16

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 March 2010, 04:47 GMT]
General (retired) Sarath Fonseka who unsuccessfully contested the January presidential poll will be produced before court martial on March 16 and 17 on seven counts under the Army Act. The bench of the court martial comprises Major General H. L. Weeratunge (Chairman), Major General A. C. R. Wijetunge and Major General D. R. A. Jayatilake, according to Military Spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe.
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UN investigation can serve as leverage to establish ICTSL, says Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 March 2010, 03:28 GMT]
Commenting on the United Nations report that UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon's appointed experts will establish standards for Sri Lanka's accountability concerning "possible breaches of international humanitarian law...," Professor Francis A. Boyle of University of Illinois College of Law said, "[t]his language of "international humanitarian law" means that the United Nations will be getting into investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the GOSL against the Tamils, which is an encouraging sign. In other words, the United Nations will be investigating international criminal responsibility by the Rajapaksas, Fonseka, the General Staff, et al," Boyle added.
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Sarath Fonseka to be tried over 5 charges under Army Act

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 10:58 GMT]
Retired Major General Sarath will be tried over five charges under Army Act at a court martial within next few days, Military spokesman, Major General Prasad Amarasinghe told media Monday. He added that the summary of evidence over charges against General Fonseka made in compliance with provisions of the Army Act was completed and handed over to Army Commander over the weekend.
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JVP will oppose any power devolution to North, East provinces

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 09:28 GMT]
The Sinhala Marxist party Jantha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) former parliamentarian, Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that JVP will oppose if a new political constitution devolving powers to the Northern and Eastern provinces is to be created, in a press briefing held in Colombo Tuesday. “Minister G. L. Peiris recently said that the government intends implementing its newly drafted political constitution following the parliamentary elections and I call upon the government to make public this new political constitution,” Anura Kumar Dissanayake said adding that JVP will never permit the country to be divided.
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Ban Ki Moon concerned over Sri Lanka's lack of progress

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 March 2010, 04:09 GMT]
Expressing concerns on the lack of progress on "political reconciliation, the treatment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the setting up of an accountability process in Sri Lanka," United Nations Secretary General, confirmed that he intends to move forward on a group of experts which will advise him on setting the broad parameters and standards on the way ahead on establishing accountability concerning Sri Lanka, a UN News Center report said. "The accountability concerns possible breaches of international humanitarian law or abuses of human rights carried out during the conflict," the report said. Earlier, High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Navi Pillay, called on Sri Lanka to investigate the allegations itself, albeit with outside help.
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Time for International Criminal Tribunal on Sri Lanka, says Boyle

[TamilNet, Sunday, 07 March 2010, 22:03 GMT]
Dismissing the response by Colombo that Ban Ki Moon had not appointed panel of experts on other countries where there are "continuing armed conflicts on a large scale, involving major humanitarian catastrophes and causing the deaths of large numbers of civilians due to military action," as "simply untrue nonsense," Francis A. Boyle, professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, said that during the past year alone UN Human Rights Council had authorized Goldstone Commission investigation into Israel war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. Noting that the "United Nations is just beginning to do the right thing for the Tamils," Prof Boyle urged that "Tamils around the world could do the same thing for establishing an International Criminal Tribunal for Sri Lanka (ICTSL)."
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Unacknowledged suffering can return to haunt history, says NPR

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 March 2010, 04:30 GMT]
During the popular Diane Rehm show in Washington's National Public Radio (NPR) Friday, responding to a question on the muted response of Obama administration to the slaughter of civilians in Sri Lanka, NPR's commentator Gjelten said, "When people feel that their suffering is not acknowledged and recognized by the international community, they tend to develop grudges, and they remember this. And they are scarred by that experience. One sobering lesson is that, when Nations feel historic grudge, it can come back to haunt history generations later... These grudges come back to the surface, and they can re-ignite in new conflicts."
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Ex-Somali defense minister in war-crimes trial in US

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 02 March 2010, 12:09 GMT]
U.S. Supreme Court will hear "war-crimes charges" against former Somali Defense minister and Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Samantar in a civil case this Wednesday, legal sources in Washington said. Samantar, 74, currently lives in Fairfax, Virginia, after fleeing his native country in 1991 to Rome, and then moving to the U.S. to join his wife and children in 1997. Samantar's five accusers say that Samantar bears command responsibility for a "regime of repeated rape, abduction, summary execution, and years long imprisonment in solitiary confinement" of many of their relatives. Samantar's attorneys argue that their client has immunity under Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act.
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Sri Lanka's democratic institutions in peril, says Seattle Editorial

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 February 2010, 19:52 GMT]
Noting that the "European Union recently dropped the island's preferential trade status because of human-rights violations," Seattle Times (U.S.) on Friday "says Sri Lankan media are not free to discuss the challenges, so the best hope is international attention." The writer, Peter Mountford, observes, "at the core of Sri Lanka's problem is a rotten constitution, which gives the president near dictatorial power. Opposition members in parliament are easily bought through cushy ministerial appointments, and the chief justice of the Supreme Court is appointed by the president."
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7 political parties submit nominations in Jaffna electorate until Thursday

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 February 2010, 07:20 GMT]
Five political parties submitted their lists of candidates contesting Jaffna electoral district in the parliamentary election at Jaffna Secretariat Thursday making a total of seven political parties contesting the election including Tamil Arasuk Kadchi (TAK) and Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, 3 independent groups have also submitted nomination lists Thursday, the sources added.
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British Shadow FM calls for political reform, independent war-crime investigations

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 February 2010, 17:21 GMT]
Noting that "there is a natural affinity between Tamils in Britain and our [Conservative] Party," William Hague, the British Shadow Foreign Secretary, in his speech to the inaugural launch of Global Tamil Forum, warned that the "continued confinement [of thousands] will simply sow the seeds of discontent, [and] could lead to renewed conflict in years to come," called for "meaningful political reform," and said that "there should be a full independent inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by both sides during the final stages of the military conflict."
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SLA soldier recovered dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 February 2010, 03:07 GMT]
The body of a Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldier with more than five bullet wounds was handed over to Jaffna Teaching Hospital Monday from Vettilaikea’ni in Vadmaraadchi East. SLA authorities claim that he had shot himself to death. Meanwhile, the newly appointed SLA commander for Jaffna, Major Gen. Kathurusinghe, met several civil society representatives 17 February in an effort to get their cooperation in integrating activities in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said.
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Wickramasinghe to contest under UNP led UNF, Fonseka under JVP led DNA

[TamilNet, Monday, 22 February 2010, 15:06 GMT]
The main opposition United National Party (UNP) Sunday night decided to contest the forthcoming general election set for April 8 under its Elephant symbol, rejecting the last minute appeal by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) to contest under the Democratic National Alliance (DNA). JVP led DNA is contesting under the symbol Champion Trophy.
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Sri Lanka enters Information dark age?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 21 February 2010, 03:28 GMT]
Commenting on Sri Lanka's plans for additional cyber censorship, and the invitations extended to Chinese Information Technology experts for assistance in formulating Sri Lanka's internet policy framework, Prof. Kumar David, in the weekend edition of Lakbima says, "This [Rajapakse Government] is a frightened regime, truth and transparency give it diarrhoea; this country [Sri Lanka] has never before been threatened with despotic thought control replicating Chinese or any other Stalinism as the norm; no not ever before. The worst is that once this rotten lot start it, the next government and the ones thereafter, UNP, SF or whoever, will never roll it back; they too will exploit these despotic powers to the full, till one day the people throw out the whole putrid system."
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Fundamentalism versus totalitarianism in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 February 2010, 03:22 GMT]
Religious fundamentalism and state totalitarianism, which contribute to each other in the island of Sri Lanka is now at loggerheads, when state totalitarianism wants to have complete reins over the other, is the interpretation of a leftist academic in Colombo over the Maha Sangha controversy this week. Meanwhile, BBC Sinhala reported Friday, that "the main opposition in Sri Lanka has accused the government of violating the constitution by trying to destroy the Theravada Buddhism in the island."
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Colombo court releases former SLA, SLAF personnel arrested with Fonseka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 2010, 01:56 GMT]
Colombo Chief Magistrate Champa Janaki Rajaratne Wednesday ordered the release of fourteen persons arrested with Sarath Fonseka after the latter’s defeat in January presidential election as the prosecution did not file any charges against them.
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“Rajapaske is the cause, not the solution”: Sydney Morning Herald

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 17 February 2010, 02:05 GMT]
The ushering of the perceived “post-war” era in Sri Lanka, bridled with hopes of prosperity blindly predicated by global powers has instead revealed the reality of a “dictatorship [that] must be watched with alarm by the democratic world” stated the Sydney Morning Herald in an editorial piece on Friday. Citing the arrest of presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka, described as “a textbook case in abuse of incumbency”, the temporary imprisonment of election commissioner Dayanada Dissanayake and continued intimidation of journalists, the editorial warned of a “new rebellion, this time among the Sinhalese majority on the lines of previous Marxist insurgencies”. The paper also urged Canberra to re-evaluate its co-operation with Sri Lankan authorities in stemming in the tide of Tamil refugees seeking asylum in Australia, describing President Rajapakse as “the cause, not the solution”.
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