Modi's Lanka war crime allegations fix

[Gibbs]

Modi's Lanka war crime fix

New Delhi, Sept. 11: Sri Lanka's Tamil leadership has asked India to support an international probe into alleged war crimes on the island at a key UN meet this month, forcing the Narendra Modi government into an uncomfortable choice between a traditional ally and a new friend.

India has traditionally preferred only domestic investigations into human rights abuses, especially in its neighbourhood.

It is also desperate to stand by the government of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, elected in January, which has attempted a shift away from the pronounced pro-China tilt of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Colombo is adamant that it will only agree to a domestic probe.


But three days before Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe arrives in New Delhi for his first overseas visit since taking office, the umbrella Tamil National Alliance (TNA) today made it clear Modi risked belying expectations of the country's Tamils by supporting Colombo.

"We expect the international community, and that includes India, to support an international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka," Leader of Opposition in the Sri Lankan parliament and TNA chairman R. Sampanthan told The Telegraph in an interview over the phone from Colombo. "Our experience with past domestic inquiries suggests that they can't be truly independent."

Sampanthan's clear rejection of a domestic probe comes after days of differences within the TNA - a grouping of four main parties - with some demanding an international probe, and others willing to accept an inquiry conducted by Sri Lankans.

The UN Human Rights Council is expected to meet later this month in Geneva to discuss a report on progress made by Sri Lanka on combating human rights violations after the end of the country's three-decade civil war in 2009.

Sirisena has already told the UNHRC he wants to personally attend the session.

Wickramasinghe, traditionally a friend of India, is expected to discuss the UNHRC report and resolution with Modi during his three-day trip here starting Monday.

Both Sri Lankan and Indian officials had indicated Wickramasinghe might also nudge Modi to use India's influence with the TNA to persuade the grouping to agree to a domestic probe.

Their hopes were based at least in part on differences between some TNA leaders who said they would visit Geneva to attend the UN conference and demand an international probe, and others who appeared more reconciliatory.

But 82-year-old Sampanthan today said the TNA had come to a firm position on the UN session.

"Yes, the new Sri Lankan government is coordinating more with the international community, but it is the TNA's clear position that an international investigation is necessary," Sampanthan said.

Accepting an international probe into Sri Lanka's human rights record would be very difficult, if not impossible, for the Modi government, former Indian high commissioner to Sri Lanka Nirupam Sen said.

Such a precedent could trigger similar demands for investigations in Kashmir, something India is wary of. But there's also a second reason why India does not support international probes in its neighbourhood.

"This is an area where we want to strengthen our influence," Sen told this newspaper. "Why would we want an international presence instead?"

 

[being humane]

International Independent investigation should be done and justice to be served.

 

[magudi]

Pretty tight rope to walk on

 

[slapshot]

International Independent investigation should be done and justice to be served.

So should be in Kashmir for killings and abuse done by Indian Army.

 

[being humane]

So should be in Kashmir for killings and abuse done by Indian Army.

Kashmir is a different matter altogether, dont bring kashmir in to this. . This is about civilian massacre and both sides should be independently investigated and justice to be served.
If you still think about Indian army's abuses and Killings, better go to UN and address your concerns. Dont send Terrorists to India.

 

[Gibbs]

Kashmir is a different matter altogether, dont bring kashmir in to this. . This is about civilian massacre and both sides should be independently investigated and justice to be served.
If you still think about Indian army's abuses and Killings, better go to UN and address your concerns. Dont send Terrorists to India.

How is it different ? Both protagonists were/are employing insurgency tactics against the govts.. It'not a different matter, Well and Kashmir was forcefully amalgamated to what is now known as India against the will of the people.. Sri Lanka has always been a unitary state, If you accuse Pakistan of sending terrorists to India , It was India that trained, Armed and sent terrorists to Sri Lanka..Whats good for the goose is good for the gander

In Sri Lanka civilian massacres from both sides ended in 2009, Yet in India it still goes on, So of cause Kashmir is a case in point.. One of the most militarized regions in the world with a total cloak of secrecy.. And that is why exactly India is reluctant to support an "International" investigation.. Hypocrisy at it's best

Pretty tight rope to walk on

Mr. Modi has more leeway imo.. He is not as constrained as the UPA was with Tamil Nadu politics, Plus the main promoter the US is now backing a domestic inquiry.. So less pressure on multilateral level as well

After decades Indo/Lanka relationship is looking likes it's getting better and for the first time India seems to be getting over the Tamil/Tamil Nadu prism when it's dealing with the island.. I dont think Modi Administration wants to jeopardize that

 

[samv]

 

[Gibbs]

Govt. gets UN probe report ::ailyFT - Be Empowered

• Mangala to view report before speech at UNHRC on Monday
• UN report likely to be public early next week
• Foreign Minister to present Govt. blueprint for accountability in Geneva
• US-sponsored collaborative resolution expected to endorse GoSL plans, subject process to review

By Dharisha Bastians
in Geneva

The Government of Sri Lanka has received an official copy of the UN probe report on alleged war crimes, scheduled for public release during the 30th Session of the UN Human Rights Council which kicks off next Monday (14).
Authoritative sources told Daily FT that the GoSL received the report by the end of this week. The report is likely to have reached the Government by Friday (11), Daily FT learns.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera will see the contents of the highly-anticipated report before he is scheduled to address the Council on its opening day, 14 September, during the session’s high level segment.
Minister Samaraweera is expected to use the speech to lay out his Government’s plan for reconciliation and a domestic accountability mechanism that he hopes will be endorsed by the Council.

The Government blueprint for accountability will include a permanent office for missing persons, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and trials of major cases through the establishment of a Special Prosecutor’s Office, Daily FT authoritatively learns. The UNHRC has adopted three resolutions in Geneva calling for accountability in Sri Lanka, with the resolution in 2014 finally setting up a UN investigation into whether war crimes were committed during the final stages of the conflict.

The United States is expected to float a resolution at the end of the Council’s September session in collaboration with the Government of Sri Lanka, US Assistant Secretary for Central and South Asian Affairs, Nisha Biswal said during a visit in Colombo recently.

Spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for the Human Rights in Geneva, Rupert Colville declined to comment on whether the report had been transmitted to the Sri Lankan Government late this week. The Daily FT also reached out to Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mahishini Colonne for confirmation of the Government’s receipt of the report, but there was no comment at the time of going to print. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) report is expected to be made public early next week, the sources said.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein will officially present the report to member states of the Human Rights Council on 30 September. The contents of the reports will by then be in the public domain.GoSL...
The UNHRC adopted a resolution in March 2014, requesting the UN High Commissioner to undertake a “comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka”.

The resolution which was sponsored by the US and co-sponsored by a host of other UN member states called on the OHCHR to obtain assistance from relevant experts and special procedures mandate holders or special rapporteurs to establish the facts of the alleged violations and crimes.

The OISL mirrored the timeframe used by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), set up by the Sri Lankan Government.

“The period of the investigation is that covered by the LLRC, that is, from 21 February 2002 until 15 November 2011, when it presented its report to the President of Sri Lanka. The OISL will also take into consideration any contextual and other relevant information that may fall outside this time-frame which may provide a better understanding of events or which may be pertinent regarding continuing human rights violations,” the OHCHR said in its official terms of reference on the Sri Lanka probe

 

[The Huskar]

We should not meddle in this.This is an internal affair of Sri Lanka and intensity and scope of the probe should be decided by them.No unnecessary need to isolate another international ally due to domestic political drama.

 

[samv]

 

[gau8av]

lol nice, these are getting sleeker,

make em yourself or copy pasting from somewhere ?

also, what does niyamai mean, machan ?

 

[Gibbs]

lol nice, these are getting sleeker,

make em yourself or copy pasting from somewhere ?

also, what does niyamai mean, machan ?

what a tragicomic eh ?

It means superb

TNA To Send Lawyers’ Team To UNHRC -The New Indian Express

COLOMBO: The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will be sending a lawyers’ team to the coming session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva at which the UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s report on war crimes allegedly committed in Sri Lanka is to be presented and acted upon.

TNA leader and Jaffna MP Mavai Senathirajah told Express on Saturday, that the team will be headed by Supreme Court Senior Counsel, M.A.Sumanthiran, who is also a fellow MP from Jaffna.

“A TNA delegation, as such, might be sent after reading the High Commissioner’s report and the Sri Lankan government’s response to it. The task of Sumanthiran and his team of lawyers will be to examine the High Commissioner’s report and the Lankan government’s reply, and chalk out a line on which the TNA leadership will base its final decision,” Senathirajah said.

Meanwhile, speaking to the media on Friday, TNA’s chief, R.Sampanthan, said that party’s stand on the UNHRC’s proceedings on Lanka will be based on the Tamils’ sentiments as well as the views of the International Community.

“While we have to go by the peoples’ sentiments, we cannot alienate the international community,” he said.

There is an overwhelming demand from the Tamils that the TNA should reject the US-Lankan agreement to substitute the international investigation by a domestic probe. M.K.Shivajilingam, a TNA member of the Northern Provincial Council is currently leading a march from Kilinochchi to Jaffna seeking an international probe and an international judicial mechanism for the trial of the accused.

But the TNA’s leadership feels diffident about alienating the US and the Western world which also dominate the UNHRC...

Truce Over Wigneswaran

Asked if the anti-party activities of the Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran was discussed at the TNA’s Executive Committee meeting on Friday, Senathirajah said that the committee decided to let Sampanthan talk to Wigneswaran to sort out matters.

In the run up to the August 17 parliamentary elections, Wigneswaran had issued a statement saying that he would be “neutral”. As if this was not enough, he indirectly advised voters to support the radical Tamil National Peoples’ Front (TNPF).

Button holed on this by the Tamil daily Thinakkural, Wigneswaran said that he hoped to resolve the issue during meetings with the TNA’s leadership.

“I am not a politician. I had accepted the post of Chief Minister only to see that the war-affected people of the North get their due. I am not interested in anything else,” he declared.

Note: Interesting contradicting statements from the TNA leadership

 

[coffee_cup]

International Independent investigation should be done and justice to be served.

And lets start it with Indian attrocities in Occupied Kashmir...

 

[gau8av]

what a tragicomedy eh ?

It means superb

he is getting much better if it's his original work

but no, I love the posts, and the passion behind it, the Sri Lankan political narrative is largely absent as far as global or even regional news goes, good to get a peek at what goes on in the Island here on PDF.

 

[Gibbs]

And lets start it with Indian attrocities in Occupied Kashmir...

Hmm Indian leadership by all looks of it will be more prudent regarding International Investigations on sovereign nations.. For one it will obviously snow ball on it's own internal conflicts, Two it will give the west a opportunity to influence in it's neighborhood, something that a aspiring regional power wouldn't want

he is getting much better if it's his original work

but no, I love the posts, and the passion behind it, the Sri Lankan political narrative is largely absent as far as global or even regional news goes, good to get a peek at what goes on in the Island here on PDF.

I think @Azizam knows the back ground.. Not exactly what's actually going on inside the island but more of repeated meme's from a desperate troll..