Tamil refugees forced into sex rackets

CONDITIONS for about 300,000 refugees forcibly detained in camps across Sri Lanka remain dire, with reports of a prostitution racket run by officials in a remote camp.

Aid workers told The Australian yesterday officials at the internally displaced people's camp in Pulmoddai, a remote northeast region, are running the prostitution ring using women kept in the camp.

The Australian understands the allegations are the subject of a joint investigation between the Sri Lankan government and an aid organisation.

"It's been brought to the attention of senior government officials but no one seems to be doing anything about it," said an aid worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.

"It's hard to know whether it's coercive or not, but there is an average of three families living to a tent and it can be extremely difficult trying to get privacy. You can imagine the military coming in and asking for something in return for more space or more favours."

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Palitha Kohona described the claims as "absolute rubbish", but confirmed the government was investigating the reports.

"These (the military) are the guys who were winning the war - they could have raped every single woman on the way if they wanted to. Not one single woman was raped," he told The Australian last night.

"I am sure in a mass of people there may be individuals who want to make a quick buck one way or another, but you have to remember the tents are so close together you can't do anything without the entire neighbourhood knowing. If you had a racket going, thousands of people would know about it."

A UN official said yesterday many families remained separated in the camps and that men and women believed to be Tamil Tiger fighters were being removed with "no due process or proper documentation, like arrest receipts, given to parents or guardians". "These issues are of huge concern for us," the official said. "The lack of freedom of movement is a violation of human rights under Sri Lanka's own constitution."

The restrictions have heightened tensions in the camps, including a mass protest in the Ramanathan camp in the northern town of Vavuniya on Sunday in which IDPs tried to break down barbed-wire fences separating one camp zone - and many relatives - from another.

Tamilnet.com claimed two people were killed and at least two were injured when troops opened fire on the refugees.

But reports from aid workers in the camp suggested troops fired only into the air, causing no casualties, and that camp officials reached a compromise that allowed the IDPs movement between the two camps.

UN Sri Lanka co-ordinator Neil Buhne said camp conditions were slowly improving, thanks to better water and sanitation facilities.

"But the main thing is people are still inside these camps and they can't go anywhere. The government has made public commitments to get 80 per cent of people back to their homes by the end of the year (after separating civilians from the fighters) but that's going to be a difficult target to meet."

The Sri Lankan military crushed the Tamil Tiger rebel forces in May after a 26-year civil war. President Mahinda Rajapakse has committed to reaching a political settlement with the Tamil leaders that goes some way to addressing their grievances.

This week he gave the All Parties Committee, established some years ago to find a compromise solution, until next month to submit its report.

as reported by: Amanda Hodge | The Australian | link to article

Sri Lanka: Inside the Manik Farm detention centre

World Socialist Website By our correspondent
8 June 2009

The following report was provided by an elderly person who visited several relatives being held in one of the internment camps set up by Sri Lankan authorities to house nearly 300,000 civilians who fled during the final weeks of fighting between the army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Manik Farm is about 30 kilometres from the northern town of Vavuniya. It is the biggest camp established by the army, housing more than 160,000 Tamil refugees. They fled from the last strip of territory held by the LTTE after facing constant shelling by the military.

One reaches Manik Farm only after the harrowing process of passing through several army checkpoints. What one sees is a huge open prison with men, women, children, the elderly and the injured. It is behind barbed and razor wire fences and guarded by heavily armed security personnel.

There are rows and rows of small tents or rooms made of aluminum seats or wooden planks. Basic facilities like water and sanitation are inadequate. At least two families live in each tent or room. When the wind blows or a vehicle passes by, people are showered with dust.

There are four camps at Manik Farm: Ramanathan, Kadirgamar, Arunachalam and Anandakumaswamy. Each houses nearly 40,000 people. Armoured vehicles travel up and down the road near the camps frequently. People are not allowed to walk along the main road from one camp to another. They have to hire a three-wheeler taxi and pay 100 to 150 rupees for one or two kilometres.

Visitors have to walk through the barbed wire fences to an open space near the camp. Small huts act as waiting rooms. Hundreds of visitors are waiting to see their loved ones and there is not enough room in the huts. Many have to stand outside in the burning sun. There are no toilets. For drinking water there is a plastic water barrel in each hut. Outside there are small shops that serve tea and a few snacks.

The police officers arrive after 9 a.m. to register your details, including your name and the unit number and block number of the detainee you are going to visit. Mobile phones and cameras are banned. You have to leave them at one of the shops. Some shopkeepers charge 50 rupees just to look after a mobile phone.

There are several of my relatives in camps in Manik Farm. I first went to Ramanathan camp hoping to see one of my sisters and her sons. A Tamil-speaking man in civilian clothes arrived and started to collect the details of detainees each of us was going to visit. I gave my details to him. He abruptly said I couldn’t visit that day. They have allocated separate days for each camp.

Although I argued that I had come from Colombo, he told me that nothing could be done. He refused to let me speak to a senior officer to complain. I was compelled to abandon the idea of meeting my relatives there. Then I visited Kadirgamar camp and had to go through the same process.

They called my brother but he was on the other side of a barbed wire fence. He was crying. I saw several persons crying after seeing their relatives. Some have been separated from their parents. Some have been separated from their spouses.

Meeting a relative is like speaking to a prisoner. You only get 15 to 30 minutes. The police on guard come to tell you when the time is up. No one gets more time. You can give basic gifts such as food and clothing but only after they are thoroughly checked. The police are checking all the time you are talking.

My brother explained to me that because of the war he had to move from one place to another from mid-December. Finally they reached Mathala in the Mullaithivu coastal area. There were tens of thousands of people there. They did not have enough food and just had the clothes they arrived in. They kept running from one trench to another under the thunder of shelling. Many died.

Finally they decided to leave in April. They trekked about 8 kilometres. The army first tried to shoot them. Then they were asked to wait several hours. Thereafter the army took them to Manik Farm. For two weeks they were provided with pre-cooked food parcels.

Now they have been given 4 vessels and a few spoons to cook with. Each person receives 3 kilograms of rice, 3 kg of flour and 300 grams of sugar and a little dhal [lentils] for a month. The army has opened a few shops to sell vegetables and other food items. But without any money most people cannot buy anything. They cannot imagine eating vegetables and other food and have to live on what they are given.

Drinking water is supplied by lorries, but that too is not enough. There is a river running through the camp but with very little water to have a bath. People have no soap. The toilets are built with polythene or aluminum seats. However, there are not enough.

Soldiers or policemen in civilian clothes roam around the camp even checking the toilets. No one is allowed to even stand in the shade outside a hut. They are scolded and told to leave.

Most parents with teenagers never sleep at night because they are worried their sons and daughters will be abducted. The names of young people are often called out and they have to go to the office. The officials say they are being investigated. Some of them come back, others do not. Even the parents are not informed where they have been taken and why.

It is a terrible situation.

300,000 Tamils in concentration camps - MIA

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 June 2009, 12:25 GMT]
Oscar and Grammy award nominee, Jaffna born music phenom, Maya Arulpragasam (MIA) who used to live in Sri Lanka and experienced the war, told Sky News: "Three hundred thousand people have been put into concentration camps and they (the authorities) have taken all the rights away from these people. They have no food and access to the media and aid. No freedom of speech or freedom of press," and said Britain and international governments should step in and help. MIA was speaking in support of Ms Jananayagam who contested the European Parliament elections held Thursday. The results are expected to be released Sunday.

Full text of the article follows:

Singer MIA has called on the EU to help hundreds of thousands of Tamils she says were put in "concentration camps" following the defeat by the Sri Lankan army.

The star, who lives in the UK but is of Tamil origin, has given her support on Twitter to Jan Jananayagam, an independent British candidate in the current European elections.

Ms Jananayagam has been been lobbying the British government to help stop the war in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil Tiger rebels were defeated last month after a conflict lasting about 30 years.

MIA, who used to live in Sri Lanka and experienced the war, told Sky News: "Three hundred thousand people have been put into concentration camps and they (the authorities) have taken all the rights away from these people.

"They have no food and access to the media and aid. No freedom of speech or freedom of press."

She said the European council has been "undecided on the issue" and she said Britain and other international governments should step in and help.

MIA, real name Mathangi Arulpragasam, said Ms Jananayagam was "the first person that I've seen in politics who can actually raise questions and be about the people".

She added: "Nothing's getting done about the people. In Sri Lanka, we've seen thousands of people getting killed in front of eyes on television and on the internet.

"If it happened anywhere else, we would be so much more active."

MIA went on: "There's still no genuine representative for the Tamil people that has stepped forward. That's why Ms Jananayagam's really important because it's about getting to hear those stories about the Tamil people which we're not.

"We're still getting stories from the Sri Lankan governent fed to us. We're not celebrating, we're not in the streets setting off firecrackers and having a great time and celebrating the end of a war.

"We still don't have answers about these people that are stuck in the barbed wire fences. They're dying of diseases. Some 60% of the population in these camps are wounded and have no medical attention."

She said Europe was divided and "we need a representative in there" to help with the civil rights of the Tamil people.

China on the rise once more across the East

If any more evidence of China's steady ascent towards Asian regional dominance was needed, the climax of Sri Lanka's war has provided the proof.

By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor
Published: 7:22PM BST 19 May 2009
Source: Telegraph UK

An ally of Beijing has fought a bitterly controversial conflict to a final victory, while shrugging off international protests along the way. India, the other Asian giant, is only 50 miles from Sri Lanka across the waters of the Palk Straits, yet it has been shown to have far less influence on its neighbour than China.

Through a combination of strategic investments in seaports and pipelines, along with direct financial and military support for friendly governments, China is building a web of influence across South Asia. Many of Beijing's immensely ambitious projects are years away from fruition, yet the repercussions of these ventures are already being felt.

In Sri Lanka, Beijing began constructing a port in Hambantota in 2007 and the scheme is scheduled for completion in 2022. This forms the basis of China's alliance with President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government and helps explain the diplomatic support Beijing gave Sri Lanka during the war against the Tamil Tigers.

The official line is that Hambantota is only a "commercial" trading venture and the facility will handle civilian shipping and nothing else. "Any attempt to distort the facts would be invalid," said Ma Zhaoxu, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman.

But the appearance of a new Chinese port on Sri Lanka's southern coast would allow Beijing the option of using the facility as a naval base in the future. Other projects under way at strategic points across the Indian Ocean raise the same possibility.

China is building another port at Gwadar on the Pakistani coast and at Kyauk Phyu on Burma's island of Ramree. Taken together, these and other facilities may allow China to extend its growing naval strength well beyond its traditional coastal waters and into the Indian Ocean. It would mark a crucial stage in the country's rise to become Asia's hegemonic power.

"China is marching towards regional dominance and that brings it into conflict with India on one flank and Japan on the other," said Kerry Brown, a senior fellow at the Asian programme of the Chatham House think tank. "It will at some point become much more active as a military power in the region."

China's ambitions are of deep concern to its Asian rivals, especially India which shares a 2,100-mile disputed border with its neighbour. Countries as far away as Australia have also shown they are worried. Kevin Rudd's government in Canberra is hugely expanding the Australian navy with the unspoken aim of balancing China's growing strength.

These fears may, however, be exaggerated. China is bidding to become Asia's foremost power, but not a global behemoth to rival the United States. Moreover, all the evidence suggests that its prime aim is securing its economic growth and domestic stability.

"The Chinese are not seeking conflict. They are seeking a stable international environment within which they can continue their economic development," said Mr Brown. "The key imperative is to preserve internal security within China."

There is no sign of China becoming an overtly threatening, expansionist power. Far from having designs on other countries' territory, China has resolved all border disputes with 12 of its 14 neighbours. In the case of Russia, where the People's Liberation Army fought bloody frontier skirmishes in the 1960s, and Vietnam, where Chinese forces waged a full scale border war in 1979, Beijing chose to make big concessions and give away large areas it had previously claimed.

If a future Chinese government decides to use the string of new ports as naval bases, this does not necessarily mean Beijing is out to intimidate its neighbours and overawe the region.

Instead, China's economy is largely dependent on energy supplies brought from the Middle East and Africa along vital Indian Ocean shipping lanes. Guaranteeing the safety of these arteries is an understandable aim and does not, of itself, show an aggressive intention.

In particular, China imports about 80 per cent of its oil through the Strait of Malacca, where the Indian Ocean joins the Pacific. President Hu Jintao has called this dependence the "Malacca Dilemma" and China's naval planning seems geared towards ensuring this passage remains open, while developing alternative routes where possible.

Whatever the motives behind the inexorable extension of China's influence in Asia, however, the balance of global power has already changed dramatically.

Sri Lanka navy seizes British Tamil aid ship on 'mercy mission'

The Sri Lankan navy seized a ship carrying medical and food aid donated by British Tamils on Thursday, claiming the vessel was carrying military equipment to support the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.

By Barney Henderson in Mumbai
Published: 3:52PM BST 05 Jun 2009
Source: Telegrapgh UK

The Syrian-registered ship, the Captain Ali, set sail from Ipswich on April 20, carrying nearly 900 tons of food, medicine and other aid donated by British Tamils, according to Mercy Mission to Vanni, the group that sent the supplies.

However, the Sri Lankan navy said the ship had set sail "under the pretext of a mercy mission" and seized it 150 nautical miles off the coastline before escorting it to Colombo. Among the 13 crew members and two passengers detained in Colombo for questioning was Uthayanan Thavarajasingam, a 51-year-old British charity worker.

"This is a purely humanitarian mission and the longer the aid is delayed, the more people are suffering in the camps," said Arjunan Ethirveerasingam a spokesman for Mercy Mission. "All we want is to distribute the aid."

But a Sri Lankan military spokesman said: "The ship has arrived here under the pretext of a mercy mission. We had no details of the ship or cargo apart from that it (the cargo) was loaded by LTTE supporters in the UK."

Mercy Mission collected aid in March to support 250,000 refugees displaced by the bloody conflict. However, the Sri Lankan government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May and is now clamping down on anyone with suspected links to the rebels.

On Thursday, a group of doctors working in rebel areas during the war were charged with collaborating with the Tigers for giving information to journalists who were banned from the zones.

It is not known whether Damilvany Gnanakumar, the Briton who was working in Tamil hospitals and has been held in an internment camp since mid May, will also face charges.

Genocide in Sri Lanka

June 4th, 2009 Posted by: Suren Surendiran
Source: Reuters

Suren Surendiran is the spokesman for the British Tamils Forum. The opinions expressed are his own. -

The news that over 20,000 innocent civilians were killed by the military onslaught of the Sri Lankan army has shocked the world, but not world leaders like President Obama, Prime Minister Brown, President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel. For, they knew exactly what was going to happen and what is happening now.

How right Albert Einstein was when he said, “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of those who are evil but because of those who don’t do anything about it”.

“When genocide is happening,” said candidate Obama, so eloquently during the second presidential debate, “when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us.”

The United Nations has yet again proved under the current leadership, that it is an ineffective organisation in conflict resolution and prevention of genocide.

It is a great shame for India to have had a hand in the mass killings of Tamils. The other countries that had helped Sri Lanka militarily do not have the best human rights record in the world and their moral values proved to be questionable. India produced the greatest of men on earth, the great Mahatma Gandhi.

The politicians who do not follow Gandhian principles are not worthy to hang his photograph in their place of work. Mahinda Rajapaksa has admitted that he fought India’s war, but as the Commander in Chief of the armed forces and Executive President of the country, he is the one who would be facing the War Crimes Tribunal, even if he pleads insanity.

The U.S., the EU and other forward thinking democracies, should use their financial leverage and force an independent investigation on the Sri Lankan government for war crimes. The resolution passed in the United Nations Human Rights Council on 27 May to allow Sri Lanka to investigate itself is a laughing matter.

The Sri Lankan economy is in the doldrums because of mismanagement, disproportionate military spend and corruption after Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government came into power.

The U.S. and Western governments, having stood idly by when the massacre of innocent civilians by the Sri Lankan State took place, could now show the world that they are taking some action against the perpetrators. This should take the form of punitive economic measures.

The U.S. Secretary of State has indicated that the IMF loan for nearly $2 billion would be stopped or delayed.

The EU is known to be considering the withdrawal of GSP Plus concession worth nearly $2 billion subject to investigation into Sri Lankan government’s human rights abuses. Economic sanctions and curtailment of bi-lateral trade should also play a part. The Commonwealth should suspend Sri Lanka’s membership subject to independent international investigation into war crimes.

Tamils in Sri Lanka have been discriminated by successive governments since independence in 1948. It is widely acknowledged that what is happening in Sri Lanka is genocide. The genocide of a people means that the security of those people cannot be left to the perpetrating government itself. It then follows that some form of separation and self determination for the Tamils in the long term is unavoidable.

It is about time for those who said “never again” in Darfur, to take their “responsibility to protect” seriously and substantiate their words with immediate firm action.

Justice delayed is justice denied!

UN Security Council: action needed on Sri Lanka

Asia, Individuals at Risk | Posted by: Jim McDonald, June 4, 2009 at 11:04 PM

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to brief the Security Council tomorrow on Sri Lanka. As with past sessions on Sri Lanka, it will be a closed-door session and won’t even be held in the Council area, since Sri Lanka isn’t on the Security Council’s agenda, as the Council president recently explained.

Amnesty International today said that the Security Council should stop discussing Sri Lanka informally and instead should address Sri Lanka’s human rights crisis in a formal session resulting in strong action being taken by the Council. The Sri Lankan government is still denying aid agencies full access to civilians displaced by the recent fighting who are being held in military-controlled internment camps. The Sri Lankan government recently reconquered the remaining territory held by the opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who fought for over 26 years for an independent state for the Tamil minority in the north and east of the island. Both sides were responsible for gross human rights abuses during the conflict. Nearly 300,000 people were displaced in the last few months by the fighting. Amnesty is urging the Security Council to demand that the Sri Lankan government provide full access for aid agencies to the displaced civilians.

AI also called on the Security Council to demand an international investigation into the abuses of human rights and humanitarian law committed by both the Sri Lankan government forces and the LTTE during the recent fighting. That call was echoed today in Geneva by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, who repeated her earlier support for an independent international inquiry. The Sri Lankan Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva responded to her remarks by rejecting an international inquiry, saying that any process of accountability would be handled by Sri Lankan institutions. You should also be aware that yesterday, a Sri Lankan minister told reporters that the government had no plans to investigate the reported deaths of thousands of civilians during the recent fighting. So what kind of accountability will we ever see if it’s left to the Sri Lankan government?

We don’t have time to waste. AI is still getting disturbing reports of family members searching fruitlessly for relatives who were forcibly separated from them at government-controlled crossing points after the families managed earlier this year to flee the war zone. Given the thousands of human rights violations committed by the security forces, we’re very concerned that the people taken away by the government forces could be at serious risk of torture and enforced disappearances. We need the Security Council to act now.

Source: Amnesty America

Sri Lanka's displaced families torn apart by war - AP

Picture: AP: David Gray
Tamil civilians stand behind a barbed-wire fence in the Manik Farm refugee camp located on the outskirts of the northern Sri Lankan town of Vavuniya home to 220,000 refugees Tuesday, May 26, 2009. , (AP Photo/David Gray, Pool)

By RAVI NESSMAN Associated Press Writer | 26-May-2009 | 1200 words, 12 images

Lakshmi Rasamy reached through the barbed wire enclosing this displacement camp, grabbed her mother's hand and wept for her four children who were killed in the last spasm of fighting in Sri Lanka's civil war.

Around her, other camp residents searched the crowd outside for their loved ones and spoke of families split apart by the chaos, of sons detained by the military, of illness, injury and death.

While Sri Lanka celebrates its military victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels after a quarter-century of warfare, nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamils who were driven from their homes and trapped in the war zone are struggling to come to terms with the scars of the fighting.

Most of them have been corralled into Manik Farm, a 1,400-acre (570-hectare) lot of former scrubland that has been turned into what the U.N. describes as the world's largest displacement camp, housing 210,000 people in endless rows of white tents.

Like dozens of other smaller camps in the north, Manik Farm is surrounded by coils of razor wire and rows of barbed wire. Those inside are barred from leaving, a restriction that has generated strong criticism from international rights groups who say the displaced should be free to choose where they want to live.

"We are holding them here for their own safety," military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said during a military-led tour of the camp Tuesday. "We don't want anyone to come here and set off a bomb."

Other officials say the war refugees must be screened to weed out any remaining rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who may be hiding among them.

But the restrictions have also kept families apart and left the barbed wire fence as the only link between those inside the camps and their relatives who lived outside the war zone.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes called on the government Tuesday for more freedom of movement for those now in camps, family reunifications and rapid resettlement of people forced from their homes. "If that does not happen, then very serious questions will have to start being asked," Holmes told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Rasamy, 45, sat in the dirt with tears pouring down her cheeks as she held hands through the rows of barbed wire with her mother outside the fence. She told her of the final days of the war, her escape from the battle zone five days ago and the death of four of her five children in the violence.

A nun, who gave her name as Sister Madeleine, had received a note that her sister's family was in the camp and came here in hopes of seeing them for the first time in two years. But after five hours and repeated announcements over a camp loudspeaker, she was still waiting.

Nearby, Veluppilla Selvaraj, 39, scanned the crowd for his mother and sister. He was given emergency leave from his job as a security guard in Saudi Arabia to try to find them. "I was here yesterday and the day before and the day before. I am still searching," he said.

Many in the camp said they lost their families in the chaos and violence of the final days of the war and their flight across the front lines. Some held formal family photos taken at wedding celebrations, pointing to those relatives that were missing.

One man said he got separated from his wife and two children last month as they fled the approaching fighting. He doesn't know whether they are alive or dead. Another woman said she thinks her 7-year-old son is with his grandmother in another camp, but she isn't certain.

A mother said her 2-year-old son was shot in the head while they were fleeing the unrelenting shelling and gunfire in the war zone two weeks ago. When she reached Sri Lankan lines, she gave the child to soldiers who promised to take him to the hospital. She's heard nothing of him since.

On Tuesday, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights demanded an independent investigation into atrocities committed in Sri Lanka's civil war.

Navi Pillay recommended to the U.N. Human Rights Council that the government and rebels be investigated for the tens of thousands of civilians killed and wounded since December.

Sri Lankan Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka said it was "outrageous" to suggest the government should be investigated, saying it was like asking the victorious allies of World War II to accept a war crimes tribunal for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

A 29-year-old woman at the camp named Ranjini meanwhile said the army had taken her husband as they escaped the conflict zone on suspicion he was a rebel fighter.

Military officials said they had pulled out 9,100 suspected rebels and sent the bulk of them to rehabilitation camps.

Some of the displaced said the military is suspicious of everyone.

"Most of the Tamils they are calling LTTE," said a man who identified himself as Seevalingam, a former worker at the hospital at Kilinochchi, once the rebel's administrative capital.

U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe, who visited Sri Lanka on Saturday with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, stressed the importance of political reconciliation.

"The big issue that's going to be out there is who talks for the Tamil side — how broad a group there is involved in the discussion," he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York. "These are the kinds of questions that need to be worked on in the near future."

Though the government has said it hopes to resettle the bulk of the displaced by the end of the year, Seevalingam said he feared they would be stuck in the misery of this crowded mini-city for a long time.

Nearby, two dozen people line up with pails and empty bottles to pump water from a well alongside the white tents, which house as many as 15 people each. Hundreds of others — many of them mothers holding small children — waited for a ration of soap, baby formula and aspirin. Others washed their toddlers in plastic basins.

Satgunanathan, who like many Tamils uses one name, said that in the final days of the war there was massive shelling from both sides and nowhere was safe. He bears shrapnel wounds in his head and one leg from a shell that landed outside his family's shelter.

He complained about conditions in the camp, said his wife and two children were in the hospital with diarrhea and expressed fears about the heavy military presence here.

"Everybody is in misery here. We want to go back to our own homes," he said.

———

Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Geneva and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

In Sri Lanka 13,130 Missing IDPs Reported But Downplayed By UN, Journalist Beaten

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 2 -- With the UN already under fire for withholding and downplaying the number of civilian casualties in Sri Lanka, another ongoing controversy has opened up concerning the number of internally displaced persons detained in the IDP camps in northern Sri Lanka. Between the May 27 and May 30 reports of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 13,000 IDPs simply disappeared from the camps.

OCHA's May 30 report states that "276,785 persons crossed to the Government controlled areas from the conflict zone. This represents a decrease of 13,130 IDPs since the last report (Sitrep No.18) on 27 May 2009. The decrease is associated with double counting. Additional verification is required."

But earlier, OCHA had praised the "improved, systematic registration being undertaken in the camps."

UN sources in Colombo tell Inner City Press that senior UN officials above them, Sri Lankan nationals who are Sinhalese, are downplaying the 13,000 "missing" IDPs, which would otherwise be of much concern given the reports of disappearances from the camps, the seizing of teenage males for detention and females for other purposes, UK Channel 4 asserted with on camera interviews.

UN's Pascoe and Holmes, head of OCHA, questioned by Press, missing IDPs not shown

These UN sources are surprised, since even Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is under fire for downplaying what has happened to the Tamils, that the UN would be so seemingly cavalier about 13,000 "missing" persons from almost entirely Tamil interment camps.

Meanwhile, in further fall out, journalist Poddala Jayantha, secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association, was kidnapped near his home and severely beaten with sticks before being dumped in a suburb of Colombo. The government had accused him of being too sympathetic to the Tamil Tiger -- or just to the Tamils. The UN, too, has its different way of trying to crack down on journalists. Watch this site.

Calls mount for Sri Lanka probe -BBC

Debris was seen in the conflict zone after Sri Lanka declared the war ove

Leading human rights group Amnesty International has called for an urgent inquiry into claims of civilian deaths in the last days of the Sri Lankan war.

Responding to a Times newspaper report that more than 20,000 were killed, it also urged the UN to publicise its estimate of the death toll.

UN human rights chief John Holmes said an investigation would be a good idea.

The Sri Lankan government has strongly denied the claims surrounding its recent onslaught against Tamil rebels.

The figures published on Friday in the Times newspaper in the UK - quoting official documents and witness accounts - is far higher than previously thought.

The UN says that there are no confirmed estimates of civilian casualties, and its last estimate two weeks before the end of the war said 6,500 people had died.

Claims of war crimes by both sides have arisen, including from Amnesty's Asia Pacific director Sam Zarifi.

"The Times report underscores the need for this investigation and the UN should do everything it can to determine the truth about the bloodbath that occurred in northeast Sri Lanka," he said.

Mr Holmes, the UN's senior humanitarian affairs co-ordinator, queried the figures but said the claims needed to be examined.

"I think a lot of the figures which are floating around don't have much justification behind them.

"But nevertheless, there have been serious charges against the [Tamil Tiger rebels]... for holding civilians as civilian shields for such a long time, and thereby being indirectly responsible for their deaths.

"And against the government for using heavy weapons in an area where there are so many civilians and thereby, not deliberately, but again causing many civilian deaths."

He added: "No-one was there, no-one knows and we may never know. And that's why an investigation would be a good idea."

Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC says Sri Lanka will face an inquiry from the UN Human Rights Committee

British human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said it would take time for the true story to emerge.

Foreign journalists and humanitarian groups were barred from the conflict zone and although the Red Cross entered, it does not give evidence in international courts, he said.

"In the fullness of time, of course, you do have witnesses, you do have thousands of people who were on that dreadful strip of beach [designated as a safe zone by the government]."

He said as well as priests and doctors talking about what happened, there were also graves.

"This is the way, unfortunately, war crimes are now dealt with, through forensic investigators finding out the story by investigating mass graves.

"And there do seem, from aerial photographs, to be some."

False claims

A senior official from Sri Lanka's Centre for National Security told the BBC the accusations were totally false.

Video evidence published by The Times suggests that the Tamil Tigers established mortar positions and military encampments within camps for displaced people, which were then shelled by the military.

The paper says that it compiled its evidence using aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony.

AUDIO Interview: Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC says Sri Lanka will face an inquiry from the UN Human Rights Committee

Sri Lanka 'to send Briton home'

About 300,000 people are being held in camps for the displaced

By Swaminathan Natarajan
BBC Tamil service,

A British woman who is being held in one of the displacement camps in northern Sri Lanka has been traced and may soon be released, officials say.

Damilvany Gnanakumar, 26, was working at one of the temporary hospitals inside Sri Lanka's war zone.

A local official told the BBC that efforts were underway to send Ms Gnanakumar back to Britain.

She is one of the many thousands who fled the final stages of the conflict ending Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war.

'In good health'

"Today I visited the camp personally and met her [Ms Gnanakumar] and verified her documents," Mrs Charles, government agent for northern Vavunyia district where most of the camps are located, told the BBC's Tamil service.

She said she had been instructed to do so by President Rajapaksa's brother and political adviser, Basil Rajapkasa.

"I went to the camp and met her. She is in a camp located in the Ramanathan relief village. She is living with her friends and relatives there. She is in good health," Mrs Charles said.

"She has no injuries on her body. You can tell her relatives that she is safe, she is happy and we are making every effort to send her back to the UK."

She said Basil Rajapaksa had assured her that he would hasten the legal process.

Ms Gnanakumar's family had expressed their fears for her wellbeing to the Guardian newspaper on Saturday.

Britain's High Commission staff in Colombo were in touch with the Sri Lankan government over Ms Gnanakumar's release.

About 300,000 people displaced by Sri Lanka's bitter war are currently being held in camps in the north of the country.

Aid agencies and human rights groups have been calling for unfettered access to these camps.

The military has so far refused to release refugees from the camps wholesale, saying they must be screened to weed out any Tamil rebels who may be hiding among them.

Sri Lankan Puppets in the Hands of Emerging Superpowers

By Richard Dixon RichardDixons@googlemail.com

We all wept when the Asian Tsunami took the lives of thousands

When the Asian Tsunami struck the shores of Sri Lanka, more than thirty thousands died instantly. They stopped breathing in minutes after they were swept into the ocean. Their last chapters were very brief.

News channels from major broadcasting networks were showing the horrors of tsunami twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Media and Sports personalities appealed for aid. We packed gifts and took it to our churches and schools. Nations of the free world gave billions as aid to a country that still treats its Tamil minorities as second class citizens.

But the world remained silent when thousands of women and children experienced painful slow death in the killing fields of Sri Lanka

Another disaster struck the Tamils of Sri Lanka recently and this was a war conducted with many hidden agendas. More than fifty thousand innocent Tamil civilians were killed and thirty thousands were maimed in one of the most brutal wars in the history of the mankind. This war has cost more lives than the Asian Tsunami in this tear drop island.

Men, women and children were forced to live inside bunkers without food and medicine for months. Innocent civilians were bombed and killed by Chinese F7s and Russian MIGs in schools, hospitals and public places. Heavy artilleries and banned weapons were used against the helpless and vulnerable.

Many had to experience slow and painful death. Wounded civilians were bombed even when they were being treated in makeshift hospitals. Food and medicine were denied deliberately to the sick and to the needy. Women and children had to witness horrors after horrors.

News channels in the west didn't give much importance to this man made tsunami that was orchestrated by some world powers. Media and Sports personalities who regularly talk about poverty elimination in Asia and Africa didn't even lift a single finger to save the innocent lives.

Corrupt leaders in the UN failed in their duties. Instead of protecting the vulnerable, they danced to the wrong tunes that were played by the wrong people

UN and other international organisations who are supposed to protect the vulnerable, acted like they were also part of a mysterious game that took the lives of thousands. Many had the powers to stop the destruction but they didn't do it because they didn't want to.

The way how the diplomats and the leaders of some Nations spoke and acted during the war, made many to doubt that they were all acting out a script, written by some aliens from space.

Many leaders including the UN Secretary General kept their mouths shut and spoke only a little when they had to. Vijay Nambiar, the Head of Staffs at UN and other UN representatives went to Sri Lanka few times to negotiate a ceasefire but they failed because they had their own agendas.

They had miserably failed in their roles and had provided their full support to a regime that had committed crimes against humanity.

Some Indian leaders who were orchestrating the war in Sri Lanka visited Colombo few times not to arrange a ceasefire, not to stop the war, not to talk about the civilian causalities but to monitor the progress of the war and to congratulate the Sri Lankan authorities.

They always talked about receiving the head of the rebel leader on a platter and a piece of document with the proof of his death. This was to deceive the world that they were only after the rebel leader and the war was not about military strategies in the region and India having access to the oil reserves found in the Seas of Sri Lanka.

Only person who came across as a genuine defender of human rights was Hon. David Miliband. He confronted the Sri Lankan authorities about the deaths caused by the usage of heavy and banned weapons against civilians. As usual David Miliband or anybody who talks about human rights violations in Sri Lanka are called white tigers, brown tigers or yellow tigers depending on the colour of their skin.

War on Terror is over but the Killings haven't stopped

Sri Lankan authorities had declared that they had killed the rebel leader and decimated his group. According to them, terrorism has now been wiped out from Sri Lanka.

But the ground realities are telling us a different story. War is over but the killings haven't stopped yet. Sri Lankan government hasn't finished with the Tamils. Every Tamil man, woman and child is considered as a suspect. Under the emergency rules, Sri Lankan forces have the right to arrest or kill anybody they consider as a suspect. Living as a Tamil in Sri Lanka is like walking on a thin rope above a deep valley that is filled with deadly snakes.

So called war on terror and humanitarian operations are now over. But the killings are still continuing. One should now question whether the objectives of the war were genuine. No government on earth would bomb and kill fifty thousands people and make thirty thousands maimed and destroy an area twice the size of Singapore just to chop the head of just one rebel leader.

“Killings of Tamils” started after Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948 and this will continue till the government of Sri Lanka come up with a constructive plan to address the grievances of the Tamil community in this island.

How is the world responding to the massacre of Tamils?

Forty seven nations came together to vote on Sri Lanka. Majority voted in favour of Sri Lanka and they all took a stand that what had been happening in Sri Lanka was an internal issue. They voted to congratulate Sri Lankan Government on its victory over the Tamil Tigers and to ignore calls for an inquiry into possible war crimes.

United Nations Human Rights Council has now lost its credibility. This body has totally lost its purpose for which it exists.

According to the majority who voted in favour of Sri Lanka, their message was very clear. “No matter what Sri Lanka does to the Tamils, we will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Sri Lankan government because we also have skeletons in our closets. Let them bomb and kill innocent women and children. Let them starve them to death. Let them deny medicine to the wounded. Even if they kill all the Tamils and dump them in mass graves, we will still support this terror island because we have our own interests and hidden agendas in the region”

This is the state of the world now. Many of these countries no longer care about human rights but are only interested in satisfying their own greed.

I often wonder if voting is a great idea in emergency situations where the majority is not at all interested in saving lives but having their focus on destructive policies in order to look after their own interests.

If a building is on fire, it is not sensible to have voting and then decide not to go and save lives when the majority is not interested. We don't have voting to rescue the passengers from a sinking ship. Even if we have one, the focus will not be on whether to save the people or not but on how to save the lives.

Human Rights Council should now be discussing about helping the innocent civilians who are abused in the Nazi Style concentration camps in Sri Lanka. It is a disgrace to the whole humanity that a green light has now been given to any country that wants to wipe out its minority.

Could we have avoided this bloodshed?

The answer is “Yes”, but there were many beneficiaries in this war. Therefore many had decided not to stop the war but to let it to continue till the end, despite thousands of civilian causalities. Countries like India, China and Pakistan, who have traditionally not been in good terms, surprisingly became friends. They acted like vultures that came to an agreement to share a piece of meat, which they were desperately looking for.

Everybody knew what was happening. World leaders were listening to the casualty figures as a slow cricket commentary. Some of them made statements here and there, just for the sake of making it. Nobody had the boldness to stand up and say “STOP THE KILLINGS”. They had the power but they didn't do it.

UN was updating its score boards with the number of deaths taking place. Even when the score went up by thousands a day, they kept quite. They didn't open their mouths and speak about it.

US satellites were taking pictures of the killings but no attempts were made to stop the bloodbath. Hearts of the nations became stones and the helpless perished so that the greedy could be satisfied.

Defenders of human rights and highly paid diplomats were hearing about the horrors in Sri Lanka while having their big breakfasts. They found these stories very boring. Experts and researchers in human rights were looking forward to publish their latest journal papers instead of doing something about saving lives.

Many western countries, although some had raised their voices, their statements were not strong enough to stop a regime that was determined to carry on with its destructive agenda.

Relatives of those who were dying in Vanni went to the streets of great cities of the world. They knelt down and cried before the kings and queens. They protested through various means. We didn't hear their cry but we found them very annoying because they blocked our streets. They did all that was possible to get the message across. But their cries fell on our deaf ears. If we did listen and acted, we would have saved thousands of lives.

Our radio shows were not about the reasons for the protests but we talked about how to get these protesters out of our streets. We are now happy because there are no more Tamil protests and many of the people who they were trying to protect are now dead.

It is very clear that this war was conducted with the full support of many countries .They could have persuaded the Sri Lankan government to stop the bloodshed especially after the rebels had announced their surrender.

Bloodbath could have been avoided but nobody was interested because all went according to their plans. Partners of this war had started to reap their benefits even before it had come to an end.

Who benefited from this war?

Sri Lankan government was used as a puppet in the hands of India and China for these countries to secure their interests in the region. Everybody is happy now, apart from an innocent Tamil community that is slowly being wiped out from Sri Lanka.

Sinhala extremists who have been killing Tamils for more than sixty years in this country have a lot to rejoice for.

China has been fishing in the trouble spots of this world. It has once again achieved its goal by giving deadly weapons to the one it saw as the “strong man”. China has started many construction projects in the South of Sri Lanka including a port that will mainly be used by its Navy.

India has already started to draft project plans for oil explorations in the seas of Sri Lanka and now sending its experts to start many construction projects in the North and East of the country.

Although China and Pakistan had supplied most of the deadly weapons, they were neither involved in writing the script nor executing the script for the War.

Sri Lankan President had recently acknowledged that he fought India's war in Sri Lanka. One of the former Indian High Commissioners has confessed that India has blood in its hands but India doesn't care about the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

War in Sri Lanka was not to do with the head of the rebel leader. Making a big deal out of the body of the rebel leader and all these victory speeches were not foolish acts but they were deliberately done by parties who want to hide all the deadly snakes under their carpets.

War Crimes in Sri Lanka

Number of war crimes that had been committed by the Sri Lankan forces is more than what Saddam Hussein did to the Kurdish people.

Surrendered rebels with white flags were executed and thousands of wounded civilians were killed without mercy. Serious war crimes have been committed and the culprits are not just Sri Lankan forces but some Indian security experts, Sri Lankan and Indian politicians and UN officers.

Banned weapons (cluster and phosphorus bombs) were used against innocent men, women and children. Red Cross workers were killed. The same hospitals were repeatedly bombed. Buildings and properties were destroyed by very powerful bombs.

Innocent civilians were forced to live inside the bunkers for months. Food and medicine were denied to them.

Sri Lanka is still hiding the evidences

Killing more than fifty thousands, wounding thirty thousands and forcing three hundred thousands in concentration camps will not convince anybody as a genuine humanitarian or rescue operation. These people never lived as hostages in the first place.

Sri Lanka knows that serious war crimes had been committed and they are now working to hide their atrocities.

Witnesses of these war crimes are mainly the people who came out of the war zone. They saw all that happened to them and to their loved ones. One of the main reasons why the Sri Lankan forces are not allowing journalists and aid workers into the IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps is because they want to hide their crimes.

Three doctors who served the wounded people in Vanni are considered as real heroes by the international community. Instead of appreciating their efforts, Sri Lankan government has locked them up in jail in order to hide the evidences of war crimes.

War came to an end two weeks ago but the journalists and aid workers are still not allowed to the war zone. When Sri Lanka declared that the war was over and all the civilians had been rescued, there were still thousands of wounded lying in the killing fields and many frightened civilians were hiding inside the bunkers.

Mass graves have become an outdated technique for the Sri Lankan forces. Sri Lankan authorities are still not allowing any journalists or aid workers to the war zone. It is taking quite a long time for the military to dispose thousands of dead bodies.

Recent announcement by the Head of Sri Lankan armed forces about how they cremated the rebel leader’s body and threw the ashes into the sea is an indication that they are using the same technique on all the dead bodies. Sri Lankan forces might probably using mobile cremation furnaces to cremate the bodies in order to wipe out evidences.

It is obviously going to take sometime for them to finish this process considering the number of people died in the conflict. When everything is over, our BBC reporters will be taken to that area and they would tell us about a beautiful blue sky and golden flat sandy beaches in Vanni.

War crime evidences have already been collected

This is one of the controversial wars in the history. Although the Sri Lankan forces had barred all the reporters and journalists into the war zone, images and videos of the dying civilians were regularly sent out to individuals and organisations all over the world.

Communication systems were functioning in Vanni till the last minute. High resolution satellite images are available to prove the use of heavy weapons against the civilians. Last moments of the war had been captured by various technical devices.

It is a complete waste of time that Sri Lankan authorities are shutting the mouths of those in the IDP camps because many civilians who were stuck in the war zone till the last day were able to cross the waters and many had already reached the foreign shores.

Millions of evidences are already available to prove that Sri Lankan forces had committed war crimes and those who are responsible for these crimes should be brought to justice.

Horror camps for the Tamil civilians

Sri Lankan forces bombed and killed more than fifty thousands. Now they have locked three hundred thousands up in Nazi style concentration camps.

Ten to fourteen deaths are taking place daily in these notorious camps mostly among the children and elderly. Detainees are not allowed to meet their relatives and are not allowed to receive foods or cloths from their loved ones.

Sky news had recently reported about rapes and torture taking place inside these camps. Young people are disappearing daily. Dead bodies are thrown outside these camps.

Wounded and the sick and not given proper medical care. Sri Lankan government is still not allowing any international aid workers to these camps. Family members are purposely kept in separate camps in order to destroy the foundations of the entire Tamil race in Sri Lanka.

Can this happen again?

This will be repeated again in Sri Lanka or in some other parts of the world unless we bring the culprits to justice and restructure UN with the powers to deal with such wars in the future

War in Sri Lanka was orchestrated by India. Deadly weapons were given by China and Pakistan. UN and many Western Nations knew what was happening but they remained silent.

Are we going to allow something similar to happen in the future? Do these innocents have to die to satisfy the greed of some countries?

UN with its corrupt staffs has failed in their duties. They deliberately remained silent and didn't do anything constructive to stop the bloodshed although they had the ability to do so.

Sri Lankan leaders became puppets in the hands of some of these sleeping giants. Masters of this war should be brought to justice.

Role of UN in resolving any conflicts in the future is now in doubt. We desperately need an International body that can stand on its own and stop such crimes. There is no use in having an organisation that is completely powerless to stop the killings of the innocents.

Sri Lanka is now on radar

As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, Rebel leader is dead. LTTE is gone. More than fifty thousand civilians have been killed.

If everybody is happy with what they have achieved, the question is why the killings are still taking place? Tamils are still intimidated and their properties are burned throughout the country. Tamil women on the streets are harassed by Sinhala mobs.

This island might even witness another riot just like it experienced in the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties.

Those times, they sent the Tamils to the North and East. As the whole island is now filled with uniformed Sinhala men and women with arms, Tamils will have nowhere to run for their safety.

Danger of another Tamil rebellion

The Tamil Diaspora is not an alien to Sri Lanka. More than ninety percent of the Tamils among the Diaspora had witnessed what happened to their friends and relatives in Vanni. They saw their brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers dying helplessly. They communicated with their loved ones till the last days of the war and they all knew what was happening. Many of them have their relatives locked up in these notorious IDP camps.

Prabhakarans are not born but they are made. He did all that he did after witnessing many horrors. He saw Tamils being burned alive in the south of Sri Lanka. He saw properties of the Tamils being destroyed by Sinhala mobs.

If the oppression against the Tamils continues, Sri Lanka and even India might one day regret creating more Prabhakarans out of the Tamils from the Diaspora.

Minority indigenous Tamils who live mainly in the north and east of the country are one of the most oppressed communities on this planet.

Future of Sri Lanka completely depends on the steps taken by the Sri Lankan government. Policies based on racial and religious supremacy, attempts to continue with Sinhalasisation of the country through systematic Sinhala settlements in the Northern and Eastern provinces will escalate the conflict further and hit deadly levels.

This may not just destabilise Sri Lanka but will even have global repercussions.

Conclusion

Sri Lankan President and his ministers have recently acknowledged that they fought India's war in Sri Lanka with the help of the weapons from China and Pakistan. Half of their crimes have now been confessed verbally by the Sri Lankan authorities.

Sri Lankan leaders have now become puppets in the hands of two emerging superpowers that are competing with each other. A conflict that was once confined within the boundaries of Sri Lanka has now become an international issue. Sri Lankan military muscles have now been artificially strengthened by their new masters. A country that once spoke to the West with a humble voice has now started to challenge many countries.

China's opposition in the Security Council for the Sri Lankan conflict to be discussed in the formal meetings is an obvious evidence for China's role in Sri Lanka's war.

India, China and Pakistan found themselves on the same side with Sri Lanka in the United Nations Human Rights council. They all voted against war crime probes over alleged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan forces. This clearly shows that they all have blood in their hands.

Defendants of human rights and the world powers who fought many wars to restore freedom for their own citizens have now seen the faces of the master magicians who orchestrated the war in Sri Lanka.

Although India gave the strategic directions and China provided with the weapons for the war, it was the Sri Lankan armed forces that carried out the massacre of Tamil civilians. A country that is well known for slowly wiping out its minorities found a perfect opportunity to cause maximum damage to the innocent Tamils with the blessing of their new masters.

Now it is time for the civilized to world to decide whether to allow the Sri Lankan government and its friends who had caused so many thousands of deaths, to run these controversial Nazi style concentration camps.

We have all failed to save many lives in this war but it is still not too late to save the innocents that are still being abused, raped, tortured and killed in the barbed wired concentration camps.

Richard Dixon

RichardDixons@googlemail.com

Source: Telegraph.uk
Richard Dixon Live Journal

UN Human Rights Council should tackle Sri Lanka crisis-Amnesty International

The armed conflict in Sri Lanka appears to have come to an end but a humanitarian crisis continues to unfold in the country.

Amnesty International welcomed the decision of the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold a special session on Tuesday to address the plight of more than a quarter of a million civilians—including some 80,000 children--now held in difficult conditions in de facto internment camps.
"For the sake of hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in Sri Lanka, the Council should ensure that the Sri Lankan government takes immediate and concrete steps to address this crisis, beginning with providing immediate, unhindered access to international aid workers and monitors," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director.

Most of these civilians suffered seriously under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who used them as human shields and as a source for forced recruitment (including of children) and involuntary labour.

The civilians who survived weeks under heavy combat reached the camps sometimes badly injured, malnourished, exhausted and traumatised.

The displaced civilians are suffering from widespread and serious human rights violations at the hands of government security forces and allied paramilitary forces, including enforced disappearance; extra-judicial executions; torture and other ill-treratment, and forced recruitment to paramilitary groups.

These concerns are aggravated by the fact that the Sri Lankan government has severely curtailed access to the camps by international humanitarian agencies, including from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Amnesty International has called on the Human Rights Council to demand that the Government of Sri Lanka immediately provide the UN and the ICRC full access to critical locations, notably at displaced peoples registration and screening points, all places of detention and camps for the displaced.

The Sri Lankan government should also provide international observers (aid workers, journalists and NGOs like Amnesty International) with free access to all relevant parts of the country to monitor the situation and provide a safeguard against human rights violations.

Amnesty International has also called on the Council to set up an international commission of inquiry into allegations of serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the recent conflict, with a view to establishing the facts and making recommendations on how best to ensure accountability for abuses.

"The Council should note that the human rights issues in Sri Lanka are older, broader and more pervasive than those related to the current humanitarian crisis situation," said Sam Zarifi. "The current catastrophe exists against a backdrop of pervasive human rights violations, weak institutional mechanisms to protect human rights, and a culture of impunity for perpetrators that has continued for years."

22 May 2009

Source: Amnesty International

Read More from Amnesty

Sri Lanka: Government misrepresentations regarding the scale of the crisis (Public document, 22 May 2009)

UN Security Council must act immediately to stop "bloodbath" in Sri Lanka (News, 11 May 2009)
Civilian casualties continue to mount in Sri Lanka (News, 24 April 2009)

Aid groups blocked from former Sri Lanka war zone

29 May 2009 11:20:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Red Cross unable to access former Sri Lanka war zone

* UNHCR urges Colombo to prepare to send war-displaced home

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA, May 29 (Reuters) - International aid groups said on Friday they still could not access Sri Lanka's former war zone from which hundreds of thousands of people fled, stalling efforts to help people return home.

Spokesman Florian Westphal said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has not been permitted to access the northeast strip the Sri Lankan military had advanced upon to extinguish the Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

The ICRC and its aid partners, including U.N. agencies, have faced obstacles reaching the huge military-run camps housing those who escaped the fighting, including the Manik Farm facility whose population is estimated at 220,000.

Sri Lanka, which has said it is in control of the refugee situation and that there is no problem with access, this week relaxed its restrictions and allowed aid vehicles into the camps. But other limitations remain in place, the ICRC said.

"We haven't been able to access the areas where most of these people would have fled from since the ending of the most recent fighting," Westphal told a news briefing in Geneva.

The government, whose troops have been accused of killing and mistreating civilian bystanders, also kept outsiders from the war zone during the fighting that officially ended last week, making claims of abuses on both sides hard to verify.

Aid workers have cited acute health, nutritional, water and sanitation needs in the camps holding mainly ethnic Tamils, on whose behalf the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they were waging their insurgency against the majority Sinhalese.

The United Nations estimates that between 80,000 and 100,000 Sri Lankans have died since the civil war erupted in 1983.

The LTTE is notorious for having perfected the suicide bomb jacket and recruiting child soldiers, and was reported to have used civilians as human shields against the Sri Lankan military.

Western governments seeking to examine allegations of war crimes during the conflict suffered a major setback this week at the U.N. Human Rights Council, when Sri Lanka gathered its allies to pass a resolution celebrating its military success and asserting its right to act without outside interference.

The resolution praised Sri Lanka's pledge to resettle "the bulk of" those driven from their homes within six months and "to further facilitate appropriate work" by aid groups to meet urgent needs in displaced-persons camps.

On Friday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the government should do all it could to lay the groundwork for people to return to their homes in the region where the LTTE had been battling to establish an independent Tamil homeland.

"This may be somewhat of a time-consuming process but the work needs to begin now to prepare these areas of return. UNHCR for one certainly hopes that people will be able to go home as soon as possible," spokesman Ron Redmond told the briefing. (For more information about humanitarian emergencies, please see: www.alertnet.org)

AlertNet

More than 280,000 Sri Lankan refugees could be held in camps for up to two years

Fears of a humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka are growing after the government said 280,000 refugees who fled the conflict zone would be held in overcrowded camps for up to two years.

By Dean Nelson in Colombo
Published: 6:17PM BST 20 May 2009
Source: Telegraph

Officials said the delay was necessary to screen for Tamil Tigers and rebuild and restore electricity and water supplies to thousands of homes in the vast areas of land destroyed in the 26-year civil war.

But the plan increased concern for the safety of those held in the camps as charities gave warning that conditions were deteriorating quickly.

There was growing anger over Sri Lankan government restrictions on access to the camps for international aid groups, including the United Nations and the Red Cross.

Save the Children said the lives of mothers and children in the "overcrowded" camps of Vavuniya would be at risk unless extra food and water was provided soon.

It said almost a third of them were suffering from malnutrition when they arrived at the camps, and many had spent days without clean drinking water.

The Sri Lankan government confirmed refugees would be held in the camps surrounded by razor wire for up to two years, saying it would not be dictated to by the UN.

Mr Laxman Hulugalle, director-general of Sri Lanka's National Security Media Centre, said the government would provide only basic food, shelter, education and health care at the camps. "You can't expect five star treatment," he said.

Overcrowding is expected to increase in the coming days as an estimated 50,000 civilians make their way in from the former war zone.

Dr Balwant Singh, Save the Children's South & Central Asia Regional Director, said: "The lives of children will be endangered if the health of mothers is not made a priority. Mothers and children have already suffered greatly after weeks of being trapped without adequate access to food, water and medical attention. We urgently need to step up our assistance to them."

The UN led calls for restrictions to be lifted and for humanitarian agencies to be allowed free access to the former war zone where thousands of civilians and Tamil Tiger fighters are believed to have been killed.

It accused the government of deliberately excluding its officials from the camps, and demanded Colombo allow its officials in to examine conditions.

Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said: "We need to have access, I repeat, total access, without the least let or hindrance, for the UN, for NGOs and for the Red Cross."

Its refugee agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said 80,000 Tamil civilians had fled the former war zone in the last three days, raising the total number of displaced to 280,000.

Its spokesman confirmed the Sri Lankan government was blocking humanitarian access, but said he did not know why. "It's urgent that assistance gets into those camps and that we are able to deliver. We've got lots of humanitarian supplies that need to be delivered," he said.

U N Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is expected to exert further pressure on Colombo to lift restrictions when he visits Sri Lanka on Friday. He will fly over the former war zone and visit refugee camps and hospitals treating civilians for shell, shrapnel and bullet wounds.

Sri Lanka declared a public holiday on Wednesday to celebrate the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The government also said former Tamil leader Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, also known as Colonel Karuna, had positively identified the body of rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran whose corpse was shown on television.