US Congressional Rights Group urge investigation into Sri Lanka crimes

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2009, 10:53 GMT]
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives in a communication sent to President Obama said that the United States has to take concrete actions to to hold the Sri Lankan state accountable for its actions for rebuffing the international community, and urged the President to instruct the Department of Justice to look into the possible linkage of Sri Lanka officials to crimes committed during the prosecution of the war. The note mentioned Gotabaya Rajapakse, Basil Rajapakse, and Sarath Fonseka as possible perpetrators of war crimes.
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Colombo 'ended' the battle with a massacre

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2009, 07:25 GMT]
Monday early hours around 3:00 a.m. Vanni local time, the LTTE Political Chief B. Nadesan and LTTE Peace Secretariat Director S. Puleedevan telephoned their contacts in Europe and informed them to tell the ICRC Head Office that only around 1,000 wounded cadres, civil officials of the LTTE and civilians remained in the so-called safety zone and there was no firing from the LTTE side. They urged the ICRC to evacuate the wounded. A few hours later, Colombo's Defence Ministry website claimed finding the dead bodies of Mr. Nadesan, Mr. Puleedevan, Mr. Ilango (Tamileelam Police Chief), and LTTE Leader V. Pirapaharan's son Mr. Charles Antony. The LTTE is yet to confirm, but initial reports indicate a determined massacre by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).
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Why information sabotage, UN questioned

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2009, 01:52 GMT]
Why the UN withheld casualty figures and satellite information on the no-fire zone in Sri Lanka, while it released such information on Gaza was the question put to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Tuesday, by the Inner City Press (ICP). The Secretary General’s reply not touching the question reflected his continued hopes in private deal with the Colombo government. Tamil circles find it strange, that a UN that accepts its inability to send its team or life-saving food cum medicine supply to the no-fire zone, and unable to guarantee the human rights of the civilians already moved, is showing keenness only in further ‘evacuation’ of civilians and in helping Colombo in ‘any post-conflict facilitations’. While the ICP hints at hidden Indian hands behind the UN, the Tamil circles wonder whether the UN stand is the stand of the US also.
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Ocampo urged to investigate Sri Lanka's war crimes

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 May 2009, 22:12 GMT]
Bruce Fein, counsel for a US-based Tamil activist group, in a letter sent to Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) Hon. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, and made public Monday, urged him to open investigations for war crimes, crimes against humanity and war crimes against four high-level officials of the Sri Lanka Government. Fein said he had sent copies of the Model Indictment for Genocide currently being reviewed at the U.S. Department of Justice, to Ocampo's office.
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Rajapaksa appoints notorious commander to head IDP resettlement

[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 2009, 17:32 GMT]
Sri Lankan President and C-in-C of the armed forces Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday appointed Chief-of-Staff of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasiri as the Competent Authority Officer in charge of resettlement of Tamils from Vanni in alleged barbed-wire 'internment camps' and 'villages' in the North. Maj. Gen. Chandrasiri was the former chief of the SLA in Jaffna, under whose command Jaffna witnessed hundreds of forced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations in the period from 2006 to 2008. Meanwhile, Colombo has started to seek funds to 'resettle' and 'rehabilitate' civilians who have been captured from the LTTE controlled area.
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Fein debunks Patton-Boggs "white paper" on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 April 2009, 21:52 GMT]
Bruce Fein, former Associate Deputy Attorney General and counsel for a Washington-based Tamil activist group, responding to a "white paper" on the current situation in Sri Lanka written and distributed to the media by Patton Boggs LLP, the Washington Law firm retained by the Government of Sri Lanka for advocacy work in the U.S., said, the "[p]aper is a collection of lies or misrepresentations calculated to conceal the ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes perpetrated against Tamil civilians by Sri Lanka’s armed forces," and "fails to discredit a single one of the more than 1,000 genocidal incidents marshaled in the model genocide indictment."
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Colombo uses chemical weapons: LTTE

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 April 2009, 20:08 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army extensively used chemical weapons on LTTE combatants at Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) during the weekend, according to Lawrence, a senior commander of the LTTE, who personally encountered the attack and escaped, LTTE sources told TamilNet Tuesday. Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Defence Ministry has claimed that it has killed hundreds of Tiger combatants including senior commanders in PTK last weekend. The use of chemical weapons were the suspicion of many who have seen the photographs released by the SL Defence Ministry, but now the accusation comes from the LTTE. The Tiger sources neither confirmed the type of the chemical weapon nor said anything on the casualties claimed by Colombo.
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US Group to file court action against US vote on IMF loan

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 March 2009, 14:07 GMT]
Bruce Fein, counsel for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, said Sunday that TAG is preparing to file a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction, and a declaratory judgment to prohibit the United States Treasury Secretary from voting to support the request by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) for $1.9 billion in economic assistance from the International Monetary Fund. TAG’s complaint alleges that a United States vote in favor of the assistance would violate a federal statute, 22 USC 262d, intended to prevent United States financial complicity in harrowing human rights abuses by IMF member governments, Fein said.
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Fein invites Patton Boggs for debate at Press Club

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2009, 18:56 GMT]
Bruce Fein, former Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Reagan and counsel for a Washington-based Tamil activist group, has invited Patton Boggs LLP, the Washington Law firm retained by the Government of Sri Lanka for advocacy work in the U.S., for a debate at the National Press Club to defend the President of Sri Lanka and his inner circle against credible allegations of genocide under the Genocide Accountability Act (GAA).
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Australian State MP supports Tamils' struggle for self-determination

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 March 2009, 03:32 GMT]
“It is important that the Government of Australia and the international community recognise the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people and acknowledge the legitimacy of their struggle for self-determination,” said Hon. Ian Cohen, Member of Legislative Council and Greens Party during a speech he delivered on Thursday 5 March 2009 in New South Wales Parliament, Australia. "Too many lives have been lost, and each day we keep silent we allow more deaths to occur. It is important that the Government of Australia and the international community recognise that the' targeting of a minority' has been taking place for decades. What we see taking place today is but a culmination of successive attacks targeting the Tamils."
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Forced starvation constitutes an act of Genocide - Prof. Boyle

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 March 2009, 04:53 GMT]
Commenting on recent reports that Colombo is withholding food supplies forcing into starvation the more than 300,000 Tamil civilians trapped in the war-zone, Prof. Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at University of Illinois College of Law, in a note sent to TamilNet said, "[I]n the context of longstanding Sri Lankan genocide against the Tamils, this recent GOSL atrocity also constitutes an act of genocide as defined, prohibited and criminalized by Genocide Convention Article II (c):"Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
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US Congressman supports review of Gotabaya, Fonseka indictment

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2009, 11:59 GMT]
Congressman Walter B Jones representing North Carolina's 3rd District, in a letter of support sent to the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder, said that the "Department of Justice must take care to review all issues brought to its attention," in the model indictment submitted early February, and requested that the Justice Department to "review this document thoroughly." Congressman Jones serves in the House Committee on Armed Services and in the Committee on Financial Services.
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Chennai journalists demand Vithyatharan's immediate release

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 February 2009, 19:34 GMT]
Over a hundred journalists held a demonstration in Chennai near the State Guest House on Saturday to condemn the increasing attacks on the media in Sri Lanka and the recent abduction and arrest of well-known Tamil newspaper editor Nadesapillai Vithyatharan. The participants were from the Chennai Press Club, the Madras Union of Journalists, The Madras Reporters' Guild, and 'Journalists against Fascism'.
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US Subcommittee to hear genocide charges against Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 February 2009, 11:47 GMT]
In an invited written testimony to the hearing on "Recent Developments in Sri Lanka" before the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Middle East and Asia, at the Dirksen Senate Building Tuesday, Bruce Fein, former U.S. associate deputy attorney general, details the recent violence by the Sri Lanka Government against Tamils civilians under "impenetrable media blackout and eviction of all outside observers...has crossed the line into genocide, which justified a criminal investigation under United States laws."
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Genocide in Sri Lanka - Boston Globe

[TamilNet, Sunday, 15 February 2009, 12:28 GMT]
Comparing the recent bombing of hospital and training artillery barrage on a demarcated safety zone, where most of the 350,000 Tamil refugees were huddled, slaughtering hundreds of them to the "Bosnian Srebrenica genocide of more than 7,000 Muslims," an op-ed article written by former Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Reagan, Bruce Fein, Sunday said only a "genocide indictment" would "deter Rajapaksa and Fonseka from their ongoing atrocities against Tamil civilians." Pointing to US's actions against Serbia for noncooperation in apprehending genocide defendants Slobodan Milosevic et.al., Fein says, "[t]he United States should be no less scrupulous in prosecuting suspected genocide by its own citizens or permanent residents."
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Pope’s emissary visits Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 February 2009, 17:18 GMT]
Representative of the Holy See from Vatican, Bishop Rt. Rev. Mario Senario, is on a visit to Jaffna to meet the displaced Tamils detained in camps in Jaffna and to learn of their situation, Jaffna Bishop’s House sources said. Biship Senario will also discuss the plight of the Tamils caught in war in Vanni. Jaffna Bishop, Rt. Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam, and Rt. Rev. Mario Senario will also hold jointly a special mass for the safety of the Tamils in Vanni and for permanent peace for the Tamils in Sri Lanka Sunday 7:30 a.m. in St. Mary’s Church, Jaffna, sources added.
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Fonseka, Gotabaya Genocide charges filed with US Justice Dept

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 February 2009, 19:39 GMT]
Bruce Fein, counsel for US-based group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), Thursday afternoon 3:00 p.m. submitted to United States Attorney General, Mr Eric Holder, the Model Indictment charging U.S. citizen and Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and U.S. green card holder and Sri Lanka's Army Commander, Sarath Fonseka, for genocide, war crimes and torture against Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Counsel urged the Department to open a grand jury investigation into the crimes, based on evidence amassed in the three volume 1000-page document which the Counsel said "amply satisfies the Department's threshold for commencing a criminal investigation."
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Last statement of Muthukumar

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 January 2009, 09:04 GMT]
Journalist Muthukumar distributed a 4-page statement in Tamil before his self-immolation Thursday in Tamil Nadu. TamilNet provides a translation for the English readership to grasp the significance, without taking responsibility for the accuracy of facts. "The sacrifice of young and idealistic Muthukumar is lamentable beyond words and thoughts of re-enactment should never become a necessity to anyone. It is a reminiscence of the Vietnam of 1960's when self-immolation of monks protesting brutal atrocities as a consequence of US military campaign was common. Such acts occur as a last resort of public frustration when governments suppress democratic space and don't respect overwhelming public opinion of emotional importance," said a diaspora Tamil academic.
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Samaraweera to raise Colombo's rights violations with U.S.

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 January 2009, 04:13 GMT]
Asserting that Mahinda Rajapakse regime is “the darkest, the most brutal and the most ruthless,” that has ruled Sri Lanka, Mangala Samaraweera, the convenor SLFP (M), in an interview published in this weekend Sunday Leader, said that he will “seek an appointment with the US State Department and the incoming Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton,” to offer evidence related to human rights violations committed by “Gotabaya [Rajapakse] and Basil Rajapakse as well as Sarath Fonseka…The US must deal with these people. They have an obligation to deal with them.”
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Intent of Genocide provable in Sri Lanka - Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 2009, 11:54 GMT]
Bruce Fein, former U.S. Deputy Associate Attorney General and currently counsel for the US-based group Tamils Against Genocide, addressing a select gathering of media persons and intellectuals organized by the Max Foundation in Chennai Friday, told the audience that there is enough evidence to criminally convict U.S. citizen Gotabaya Rajapakse and U.S. Green card holder Lt.Gen. Sarath Fonseka in the U.S. Federal Courts for "intent to commit Genocide" in Sri Lanka, sources from Chennai said.
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