Release 12 university students in Bussa
AUGUST 30—The Jaffna university student representatives gave a petition to S.P. Dissanayaka, Minister of Higher Education requesting to take immediate action to release the students of the University of Jaffna, detained at the Bussa detention camp. The requests stated in the petition are:
· Immediate release of the 12 students in Bussa.
· Renovation of the University hostel
· Restarting the Agriculture Faculty in Kilinochchi..
· Transport arrangements for students.
In the meantime, the sister of P. Duvaraka, (a student of the Engineering Faculty, University of Peradeniya who was arrested on suspicion) was present to handover a plea requesting her sister's release but the Minister stated that he has no time to receive it and asked her to come the following day.
INGO worker forced to leave the country
AUGUST 28—The Kenyan woman who was a worker of a leading non government organization ’Non Violence Peace Force’ was officially announced to leave the country by the department within July due to the report submitted by the CID, which claims her activities are disrupting peace in the country.
Show mercy for Tamil refugees
- Archbishop of Vencor
AUGUST 28—The Archbishop of Vencor, J. Micheal Miller, requested to show mercy for Tamil refugees, stating to keep in mind that all citizens should be respected. Furthermore, he added that arguments and debates regarding the 492 Tamil illegal immigrants are taking place often and this should not destroy any innocent lives. Also Canada should grant refugee status to the people who were affected due to the war.
Release 765 detainees - P. Ariyanethiran
AUGUST 22— MP Mr. P.Ariyanethiran stated that he has written to the President requesting to grant presidential pardon or bail for 765 prisoners including 50 women and five children who were arrested on suspicion during the war. Furthermore, he stated that these prisoners are facing a number of problems related to health and sanitation, while some are depressed and mentally affected. He also added that the children are longing to see their father and lead a normal life.
IDPs facing difficulty humanitarian crisis
AUGUST 28—Mr. Sritharan, Member of Parliament of the Tamil National Alliance stated that the IDPs in Mullaitivu and Killinochchi are facing intolerable difficulties as State Forces are preventing them from resettling in their hometowns. Currently they are residing in temporary shelters such as tents in Mailvaganapuram and Kumaraswamipuram and facing unbearable sufferings due to flooding. Some of the major problems are Starvation and Sanitation.
Case heard concerning a disable arrested in camp
AUGUST 28—A Fundamental Rights petition by Mr. Sri Selvan Anton Jude was heard in the Supreme Court. Sri Selvan Anton Jude was arrested in the rehabilitation camp last year on suspicion of having connections with the LTTE. Mr. Sumandiran, Attorney at law who appeared on behalf of the victim stated that the victim lost his eyesight due to torture under police custody and is detained in Bussa to prevent him from attending the case filed in the District Court Colombo claiming compensation for the damages done. Further he added that the victim’s wife and children should be permitted to visit him.
Sinhalese leaders are the cause
of terrorism - Mangala Munasinghe
AUGUST 22—Mangala Munasingha, Sri Lankan High Commissioner for India, while giving evidence to the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission) stated that terrorism was rooted by the Sinhalese leaders.
He further added that when Tamil leaders tried to come to en agreement with government regarding the ethnic crisis, it was the opposition parties which interrupted the process. The 2002 peace talks too proved failure and since none of the decisions which were agreed upon were implemented. This helped the LTTE Intelligence Unit to move freely about in the country and carry out suicide attacks.
He recalled the 1958 peaceful protest of the Tamils who were silenced by way of using violence by the Sinhala majority. Therefore, terrorism emerged due to irresponsible actions by the Sinhala state. He went on to say that 1983 riots were not an ethnic conflict but a political based violence, this made the Tamil youth to believe that violence is the only way to solve the ethnic conflict.
Kilinochchi rape case
Two women were raped and abused in the Visvamadu area. This is an area under post war resettlement plan. The victim aged 22, is a mother of two. A group of army personnel in uniform and civil visited the victim’s house in the morning of June 6, 2010 and on the same afternoon the she was raped and her brother was assaulted by two army personnel. Meanwhile, another army cadre too was involved in an unnatural act. Mankulam Police carried out the initial investigation where statements from the victim’s two children were recorded and six army personnel including a corporal were taken into custody for rape and sexual abuse
CHRD made legal representation on behalf of the two victims. CHRD retained senior counsel Mr. K.S. Ratnavale, together with attorneys-at-law Mr. Lakashan Dias, Ms. Mangaleshwary Shanker, and Mr. Celestine Stanislaus.
The accused were produced in the Kilinochchi Magistrate Court on June 14, 28 and July 13. In the identification parade held on June 14, four accused were identified by the victims. The Kilinochchi Magistrate Mr. Sivakumaran released the remaining two accused as there were no charges against them. On June 28, the defense counsel filed bail applications on behalf of the suspects. On July 13, the Magistrate Court Judge Mr. Sivakumaran refused bail following the objection raised by senior counsel Mr. Ratnavale appearing on behalf of the victims.
Currently investigations are being carried out by the Kilinochchi Police. The next hearing will be on July 27, 2010 and CHRD will continue to represent the victims.
Sri Lanka forces blamed for most civilian deaths
NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians died in the last, bloody months of Sri Lanka’s civil war, the International Crisis Group said in an investigative report to be released Monday, most of them as a result of government shelling of areas that were supposed to be safe zones.
The report, which cites witness testimony, satellite images, documents and other evidence, calls for a wide-reaching international investigation into what it calls atrocities committed in the last months of the Sri Lankan government’s war against the Tamil Tiger insurgency.
The war ended a year ago, when the Tigers’ top leadership was killed on a narrow strand of beach in northeastern Sri Lanka, capping a two-decade armed struggle by a group that pioneered some of the ugliest insurgent tactics in the world, including female suicide bombers and child soldiers.
Because the government barred independent journalists and most humanitarian workers from the war zone, the death toll of the final months of fighting, when at least 300,000 Tamil civilians were pinned down on a beach, caught between the rebels and government forces, is not known.
United Nations workers counted about 7,000 dead in the last weeks of April, just before the last phase of the fighting, but diplomats, aid workers and human rights activists have long argued that those figures far underestimated the dead and did not include the final weeks of battle. Government officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly denied singling out civilians, and have said that the total number of people killed is much lower.
Sri Lankan officials declined to comment on the report, saying they had not yet seen it.
The report by the Crisis Group, an advocacy organization based in Brussels and Washington that seeks to resolve and prevent armed conflicts, said that despite its promises to protect civilians and aid workers as it made its assault on the Tigers, the Sri Lankan government had bombed relentlessly in areas where it knew unarmed people were present.
“Evidence gathered by Crisis Group provides reasonable grounds to believe that during these months the security forces intentionally and repeatedly shelled civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations,” the report said. “It also provides reason to believe that senior government and military officials were aware of the massive civilian casualties due to the security forces’ attacks, but failed to protect the civilian population as they were obliged to under the laws of war.”
The report said that the insurgents, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also committed atrocities, particularly in choosing to corral as many people as possible around its fighters, hoping to maximize civilian casualties and force international intervention.
“Their calculation, ultimately an incorrect one, was that escalating civilian casualties would eventually get the attention of the international community to broker a cease-fire so the L.T.T.E. could regroup or perhaps enter negotiations,” the report said, using initials the Tamil Tigers are also known by.
Instead, the Sri Lankan government pressed the rebels to the bitter end. Tamils who tried to escape were killed, children were forced to fight, and the sick and wounded were left to die, the report said.
But it was the Sri Lankan government, the report concluded, that carried the greatest responsibility for the killing.
“All but a small portion of these deaths were due to government shelling,” the report said.
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