Sri Lanka May Need Gaza-style Rights Inquiry: U.N

Sri Lanka May Need Gaza-style Rights Inquiry: U.N,  An investigation similar to one that looked at the fighting in Gaza may be needed to determine whether war crimes were perpetrated in Sri Lanka in the final throes of his 26 years of war in the spring, a UN office said Friday .

“There has been a full investigation into what did or did not happen in the last months of the war,” Rupert Colville, spokesman for the High Commissioner of United Nations Human Rights said.

He said an investigation into the conduct of the Sri Lankan troops and Tamil rebels could be done along the lines of research in Gaza, commissioned by the Human Rights Council and headed by jurist Richard Goldstone.

His comments came a day after the atrocities of the U.S. State Department detailed towards the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka.

That report described the allegations of military bombardment of civilians and the killing of prisoners and allegations that Tamil rebels recruited children to fight in the war officially declared in Colombo in May after killing the leader of the Tigers Liberation of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lanka rejected the report, stressed that Washington did not reach legal conclusions as “baseless and lacking corroborative evidence” and said that supporters of the Tamil Tigers had a history of fabricating stories to damage the reputation of the government.

Colville, told a press conference of the UN in Geneva, said that while the State Department’s findings are not exhaustive, it is important that a credible civilian population suffered as the conflict in Sri Lanka approached end.

“We still believe that something like the fact-finding mission to Gaza is certainly justified,” he said.

In late May, the Human Rights Council passed a resolution that commemorates the victory of Sri Lanka Tamils and blocked debate on a European text drawn increasing concerns about the conditions endured by survivors of war in camps in Sri Lanka .

Sri Lanka said the vote claimed his prosecution of the war against the Tamil Tigers and should silence the calls of an external probe into what he described as the country’s own affairs within the Indian Ocean.

But the United Nations – which estimates that 80,000 to 100,000 people died in Sri Lanka since civil war broke out in full in 1983 – then noted that the investigation could still go through the line.

The International Organization for Migration, said Friday that over 250,000 people can not return to their villages of Sri Lanka and staying in the displacement camp Manik Farm, where she continues to need food, water and medical help.

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Sri Lanka May Need Gaza-style Rights Inquiry: U.N was first posted on October 24, 2009 at 12:03 pm.

Sri Lanka Govt to Call Early Elections

The Government of Sri Lanka, seek early elections for president and Parliament, in order to take advantage of his popularity after crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels and end 25 years of civil war earlier this year.

A government website said the Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene saying Tuesday that the final decision on the date of the election will be announced next month.

The parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka is due in April next year and more than two years left in the first term of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Can occur at re-election for another term of six years.

Rajapaksa is popular among the majority Sinhalese country after leading a military campaign that crushed the rebel Tamil Tigers “25 years fighting for an independent homeland. The UN estimates 80,000 to 100,000 people died in the civil war.

Early elections were called in the past in Sri Lanka, and the reports of local media have said the current government wants to seek reelection to the height of his popularity.

Rajapaksa ruling party has won all eight provincial assemblies for elections have been held so far.

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Sri Lanka Govt to Call Early Elections was first posted on October 14, 2009 at 6:59 pm.

Canada Triples Aid to Sri Lanka

Canada has decided to triple its humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka to assist people displaced by the country’s conflict with Tamil separatists, Canada’s top development minister has said.

The move came after Minister of International Cooperation Beverley Oda spent three days visiting the island nation and will take Canada’s total aid contributions to Sri Lanka from 7.5 million to 22.5 million Canadian dollars (USD 20 million).

Oda on Friday visited a camp for displaced people in Vavuniya as part of her three-day official visit in the wake of Sri Lanka’s violent conflict with the separatist Tamil Tigers rebel group.

The lengthy government campaign against the rebel group effectively crushed the separatist movement, culminating in final brutal days of fighting in mid-May, but also resulted in massive displacement of the local civilian population.

“Canada is deeply concerned about the ongoing humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka,” Oda said yesterday. “During my visit to the displaced persons camp in Vavuniya, I witnessed the need of those who are living there.”

“I am pleased that Canada is increasing its support to our partners in their work to provide basic humanitarian support to meet the needs of people affected by the conflict.”

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Canada Triples Aid to Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan LTTE Angry With China and India

New York: More than two months after the Tamil Tigers were decimated, Sri Lankan Tamils living abroad remain bitter about the support China and India extended to Colombo during the war.

The Tamil Diaspora is livid that Beijing provided tonnes of arms and ammunition to Sri Lankan security forces battling the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The anger against India is rooted mainly in New Delhi’s diplomatic backing to Colombo when it came under Western fire over human rights abuses.

On Monday, Sri Lankan Tamils staged a rally outside the Chinese mission to the UN to protest “China’s assistance to Sri Lanka towards ethnic cleansing and genocide of Tamils”.

Around 50 Tamil Americans from around the East Coast came out with placards that read: “China, Stop helping Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Cleansing of Tamils.”

The group chanted slogans like “China don’t fund Sri Lanka’s war crimes.”

The campaigners claim that Colombo’s attacks on Tamil areas were facilitated by Chinese weapons. Beijing supports abuses against the Tamils through economic and military assistance to Sri Lanka, they said.

The rally was organised by Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a NGO based in Maryland that is protesting against alleged atrocities committed by Sri Lanka.

A spokesman for TAG expressed dismay at New Delhi’s support for Sri Lanka’s military campaign that ended in the killing of LTTE founder leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his top lieutenants in May.

“India has done an extreme form of treachery to the Tamils,” the spokesman said. “We need India to do justice to the Tamils.”

In May, India supported a resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva which commended the Sri Lankan government on its defeat of the Tamil Tigers and its efforts to address the needs of the displaced.

The resolution was slammed for ignoring the tactics used by the Sri Lankan army that led to massive human rights violations.

Brazil, Cuba, India and Pakistan blocking a stronger resolution that called for accountability.

The Tamil separatist campaign claimed over thousands of lives since July 1983. The end of the war was followed by accusations of human rights violations against the Sri Lankan authorities.

Human rights groups are also calling for the release of 280,000 displaced Tamil civilians living in relief centres which critics say are no better than “detention camps”.

TAG said it supports the goal of an “independent state” for Tamils through peaceful means and diplomacy.

“The violent form of struggle is dead in the new world order,” said its spokesperson, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter.

“We want an economic boycott from the one million strong Tamil Diaspora,” he added. “The struggle will continue in one form or the other.

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Sri Lankan LTTE Angry With China and India