Hague's WikiLeaks admission spells legal danger to Sri Lanka war-criminals

[TamilNet, Saturday, 05 February 2011, 12:11 GMT]
The Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal in The Hague has granted Charles G. Taylor, 62, the former Liberian president, who has been on trial charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the right to use two leaked American diplomatic cables as evidence to challenge the court’s impartiality. While the leaked information in the Taylor case was used by Taylor's lawyer to raise doubts on the courts independence and suggested the prosecution was political, Sri Lanka's leaked cables from the US Embassy contain incriminating information on the complicity of Rajapakse family, Ex-SLA Commander Sarath Fonseka, and Tamil paramilitaries in war-crimes and crimes against humanity on Tamil civilians, legal sources in Washington said.
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Fire destroys offices of website critical of Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 January 2011, 03:59 GMT]
The office of news website LankaeNews located in Rajagiriya, a suburb of Colombo, has reportedly been set on fire by a group of unknown persons who broke into the premises Monday at 2:00 a.m., according to reports from Colombo. The fire has caused extensive damages to the computer and communications equipment in the facililty. Talangama police are investigating into the incident.
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Ambassador, an honest man sent to lie for Sri Lanka, responds Fein

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 January 2011, 16:49 GMT]
Noting Sri Lanka's Ambassador's response to the law suit filed in US by three Tamil plaintiffs as initiated by LTTE-front organizations involved in "publicity stunts like this baseless law suits," Bruce Fein, the attorney for the plaintiffs said that the Ambassador Wickramasuriya was an honest man but was apparently instructed that if both the facts and the law demonstrated President Rajapaksa’s criminal culpability, then he should bugle “Tamil Tigers” to confuse the issue. Further, the group that sponsored the law suit cautioned the Ambassador and Colombo's Presidential spokesperson that libel is a serious offense in U.S. law and that any malicious labeling of legitimate US organizations as terrorist may have serious legal consequences.
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Court martial indicting Fonseka valid under constitution: SL Supreme Court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 January 2011, 14:00 GMT]
Sarath Fonseka, the former Sri Lanka Army commander, who unsuccessfully challenged SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa, and was later imprisoned and court-martialed, lost his appeal to retain his parliamentary seat Tuesday as Sri Lankan Supreme Court ruled that the court-martial investigations were not in violation to the SL Constitution. Mr. Fonseka also lost his civic rights, including the right to vote, for six years in his country. The determination of the Supreme Court was disclosed Tuesday afternoon by the Court of Appeal headed by Justice Ranjith de Silva.
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HRW: Sri Lanka stonewalls on wartime abuses

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 January 2011, 05:37 GMT]
In a press release issued today with the 649-page World Report for 2011, Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that “Sri Lanka’s aggressive rejection of accountability for war crimes is an affront to the victims’ of the country’s long civil war,” and Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director warns that “[t]here is no reason to believe that Sri Lanka will return to a rights-respecting government any time in the near future. Until wartime abuses are prosecuted, minority grievances are addressed, and repression against the press and civil society ends, only the president and his family members in power have reason to feel secure in Sri Lanka.”
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SL Election Department rejects applications of 86 political parties for registration

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 January 2011, 18:31 GMT]
Applications of eighty six political parties seeking registration from the Department of Elections have been rejected, according to the officials of the department. The rejected political parties included the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) led by Sarath Fonseka and the Tamil National Liberation Alliance led by M.K. Sivajilingam.
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Legality of Fonseka expulsion hinges on interpretation of Article 89

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 January 2011, 03:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal is to announce on January 25th the constitutional interpretation from the Supreme Court whether the phrase “any court” in Article 89/d of the Constitution emcompasses within its meaning the "court marshall." The thirty months rigorous imprisonment imposed by Court Martial on former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka resulted in his expulsion from the parliament.
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Gotabhaya to 'witness' in white-flag case

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 January 2011, 22:06 GMT]
Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is to give evidence before the Trial-at-Bar of the Colombo High Court on January 25 in the white flag case. Mr. Rajapaksa is the fourth witness in this case against former commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka who has been charged for causing 'disrepute' to the Colombo government by making a statement in an interview to the English weekly, the Sunday leader.
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JVP abandons Fonseka?

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 January 2011, 13:43 GMT]
SriLanka's election department today announced that the nominations for the dissolved 308 local government bodies will be called from January 20th to 27th, 2011. Meanwhile, local newspapers said that the Democratic National Alliance party led by jailed former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, will not contest the forthcoming local government elections.
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Sri Lanka's attempt at illegal arms deal with Iran, N.Korea exposed

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 January 2011, 02:08 GMT]
A classified State Department cable dated May 1st, 2009, released by WikiLeaks and posted in Norwegian daily Aftenposten, revealed that Sri Lanka's alleged attempts to negotiate arms deal with Iranian Government and North Korean Government violated U.S's Iran Non-proliferation Act of 2000 (INKSNA), and the United Nation's Security Council Resolution 1718 (UNSCR 1718). Lanka Logistics, a Sri Lanka Government owned firm was named in the classified document as the Sri Lanka party involved in the illegal arms deal. Gotabaya Rajapakse, brother of Sri Lanka's President, held the post of chairman of the firm and exercised complete control over arms purchases, according to Colombo media reports.
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SL Chief Justice offers resignation, Colombo media largely silent

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 January 2011, 12:39 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s chief justice Ashoka de Silva handed in his resignation after an altercation with SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa over endorsing a court martial decision about the former SL military commander Sarath Fonseka. When the chief justice declined such endorsement from the judiciary, saying that the case was biased, the president reportedly shouted at him, came out with threatening words and walked out. The SL chief justice sent in his resignation a few hours later. A shocked Rajapaksa didn’t accept the resignation but wanted the CJ to reconsider his decision. Oppressed media in Colombo was reluctant to give wide coverage to the happening.
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Canadian Tamil submission to UN focuses on international investigation

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 December 2010, 14:54 GMT]
From Nuremburg to Rwanda, precedents have been set to indict those who were individually responsible for war crimes. The precedent of individual accountability is a guiding principle in upholding international law, says the war crimes submission of the National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) to the UN advisory panel on Sri Lanka. 26 organizations and parliamentarians, ranging from trade unions and university students associations to Conservative, Liberal and New Democratic parliamentarians, including the leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, Jack Layton, have endorsed the NCCT submission. The submission, extensively dealing with intentional targeting of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan state and arguing for an international inquiry, pointed out that there would be no lasting peace without justice.
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Fox cancels trip amid Sri Lanka War Crimes accusations

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 December 2010, 02:03 GMT]
Liam Fox, the British defence secretary whose friendship with Sri Lanka's President has been in the news during Rajapakse's visit to the UK early this month, was tonight forced to abandon a private visit to Sri Lanka this weekend after a row with William Hague, who feared that Fox would upset Britain's carefully balanced approach to Colombo, UK Guardian reported.
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US Senators call for Independent International Investigations

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 December 2010, 23:16 GMT]
Seventeen United States Senators, in a letter sent to the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urged her to "call for an independent international investigation into the allegations of gross human rights violations that occurred during the country's 25-year civil war." Coinciding with the week following release of WikiLeaks cable which revealed the Colombo-based US diplomats' view that "responsibility for many alleged crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka," the letter follows the August letter sent by 58 members of Congress urging the Obama administration to push for an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes that occurred during Sri Lanka's civil war.
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Sri Lanka Supreme Court to decide on legality of Court Martial

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 December 2010, 02:52 GMT]
The Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Monday put off its determination for Thursday about the legality of the Court Martial under the Article 89D (d) of the Constitution on the Writ Application filed by the former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Sarath Fonseka filed in the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal sought a determination from the Supreme Court in this regard sequel to a Writ Application filed by the petitioner Fonseka seeking it to issue an interim order enabling him to sit and vote in the parliament and to exercise his powers and privileges and immunities as a member of parliament, legal sources in Colombo said.
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Suspect Sri Lanka war-criminal in UN post under US media spotlight

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 December 2010, 07:42 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan government has appointed a senior army officer accused of war crimes in the conflict with Tamil rebels as its deputy permanent representative to the United Nations,” Washington Times said in a lead article Sunday referring to ex-Major General Shavendra Silva who commanded one of the largest divisions in Sri Lanka Army, and was the front line commander during the final phases of the war, the blood bath in which more than 40,000 Tamil civilians were alleged to have been killed in indiscriminate bombardment.
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Defending WikiLeaks

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 December 2010, 14:22 GMT]
U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, has asserted that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating to bring charges against WikiLeaks' Julian Assange for disclosing classified information. Survival of WikiLeaks from brewing legal challenges in the U.S. Courts is essential for bringing charges of war-crimes and crimes against humanity against Sri Lanka officials. A recently released cable from US Embassy in Colombo has revealed U.S. diplomats believed "responsibility for many alleged [war] crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka." The remaining 3324 cables from Colombo are likely to contain information of interest to Tamils on the evolution of US policy towards Sri Lanka conflict.
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"Sovereign Immunity question is a matter for U.S. Supreme Court"

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 December 2010, 23:01 GMT]
The U.S. Justice Department responding to a query by Tamils for Obama, a US-based activist organization, in August of this year, on the immunity against arrest of heads of state accused of war crimes visiting the U.S., said, "as a matter of general policy, the Office of the Solicitor General does not state or provide opinions on such matters unless such questions arise in the context of Supreme Court or other appellate litigation." The response was received during the week of controversy of the attempted arrest of suspect war criminal Major General Chagi Gallage, a member of Mahinda Rajapaksa's entourage to London.
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UNP MP threatened in Sri Lanka Parliament over UK protests

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 05:20 GMT]
Tense situation is prevailing in Sri Lanka's parliament Thursday morning after the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarians attempted to assault UNP MP Jayalath Jayawardena accusing him of instigating the protests in the United Kingdom against visiting Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa, parliamentary sources said.
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Rajapakse, brothers responsible for alleged War Crimes in Sri Lanka, says leaked US cable

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 December 2010, 01:20 GMT]
In a startling setback for the war-crimes concealment agenda of Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, and his siblings holding high level positions in Sri Lanka's defense and civilian sectors, a January 2010 cable from US Embassy in Sri Lanka, made public by Wikileaks Thursday, acknowledges that U.S. is cognizant of the fact that "responsibility for many alleged crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka." Ambassador Butenis further reasons the lack of progress in internal investigations: "There are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power."
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