Should World Countries Ban SriLanka for its war crimes

[AcidPop]

Sri Lanka, one of worst offenders of press freedom - RSF

Sri Lanka was ranked 162nd of the 175 countries in the latest press freedom ranking released by the Paris based Reporters without Borders today. The Asian countries that least respected press freedom were announced as North Korea, one of the “infernal trio” at the bottom of the rankings, Burma, which still suffers from prior censorship and imprisonment, and Laos, an unchanging dictatorship where no privately-owned media are permitted, RSF said.

"To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders prepared a questionnaire with 40 criteria that assess the state of press freedom in each country. It includes every kind of violation directly affecting journalists (such as murders, imprisonment, physical attacks and threats) and news media (censorship, confiscation of newspaper issues, searches and harassment). Ánd it includes the degree of impunity enjoyed by those responsible for these press freedom violations," RSF said in its website, explaining the details behind computing the index.

Asia’s few democracies are well placed in RSF's latest rankings. New Zealand (13th), Australia (16th) and Japan (17th) are all in the top 20.

Respect for press freedom and the lack of targeted violence against journalists enable these three countries to be regional leaders, press reports said.

South Korea (69th) and Taiwan (59th) fell far this year. South Korea plummeted 22 places because of the arrests of several journalists and bloggers and the conservative government’s attempts to control critical media. The new ruling party in Taiwan tried to interfere in state and privately-owned media while violence by certain activists further undermined press freedom.

Two Asian countries were included in the index for the first time: Papua New Guinea (56th), which obtained a very respectable ranking for a developing country, and the Sultanate of Brunei (155th), which came in the bottom third because of the absence of an independent press.

 

[gogbot]

All's fare in love and WAR

This isn't a case of Abusive world powers , disregarding the rules.
This isn't a Tyrant taking advantage of the mis-represented.

This was a brutal, Civil war that represents a dark chapter in a country's History.

And now that the war is finally at an end, we should focus on helping the people in the Country that need help.

The is part of Sri Lanka's history and Let them deal wit how they wish.

we should help avert the Humanitarian Crisis occurring In Sri Lanka, but Apart from that there is nothing else that should be done.

IF we punish Sri Lanka we will simply be punishing its people for ending a civil war.

 

[Brisingr]

I wouldn't call arming, training and funding a terrorist group such as athe LTTE a rational approach. But that's my opinion of course.




But India did have a policy of encouraging the LTTE. Under Indira Gandhi, India poured in money to train the LTTE and other militant Tamil groups, set up training camps in India and armed them.




It's clear you're quite emotional about this issue. Perhaps you are of Tamil origin? But if we were to use your arguement, then other countries can be justified in sponsoring terrorism in India by claiming, for example, that Muslims aren't being treated well. They could point out the riots in Gujarat and Ayodhya. Christians may point out the pogrom against their community in Orissa. And Sikhs may point out the attacks on their comunity. So I guess you wouldn't be able to blame others for sponsoring terror groups in India?

I don't think India "did the right thing" at all. Infact, I consider it one of the major policy failures of India. India ended up arming, training and funding a monster that went on to pioneer suicide bombing and carry out much of the world's suicide bombings. Besides the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi and the killing of over 2500 Indian soldiers, the LTTE has also trained and provided arms to insurgent groups in India such as the ULFA. I think that the USA's arming, training and funding of insurgent groups in Afghanistan was a policy failure too.

Further, I must mention here that I cannot speak for other Sri Lankans. What I say here is my opinion. I think it's pretty childish to use terms such as "you" and "us" when talking about countries.




No offence meant here at all, but I don't think you did anything at all. But the current Indian establishment certainly did help out the Sri Lankan establishment in many ways though. That is why I think, as I have mentioned earlier, that Indo-Lankan relations have never been better. I think both India and Sri Lanka managed the tantrums thrown by Tamil Nadu quite well. I do not see any 'sacrifice' there on the part of India, rather intelligent moves from its establishment and bi partison efforts at managing the Tamil Nadu factor which has previously thrown numerous spanners into the Indo-Lankan relationship.





I guess time will tell. I can hope though, right?




And that's his right to voice his beliefs.

Does not the BJP claim India to be a Hindu country?



I would have to disagree with you there; I think that minorities have legitimate rights in Sri Lanka. However, I do not consider separatism to be a 'legitimate right.' Others may hold a different view.

And I do believe the region is a safer place thanks to the demise of the LTTE -- at the very least, Sri Lanka certainly is.

I have never said that India never helped LTTE. I already said our previous leaders have not dealt the issues appropriately and mistakes were committed by not handling the humanitarian issues in the right way in the beginning…

Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka is your Army Commander and he is the voice representing the entire sinhalese people. He cannot say his own opinion...he would always voice his peoples concerns.If he says Srilanka only for sinhalese then entire Srilankan people must have meant what he said.If he is going against the majority of peoples thoughts then he must be immediately sacked. This is a secular world and such barbaric claims of human inhabited lands based on ethnic divisions is totally offending basic human rights and against UN conventions.

Wars of national liberation are conflicts fought by indigenous military groups against an imperial power in the name of self-determination, thus attempting to remove
that power's influence, in particular many started during the decolonization period. They are often founded in guerrilla warfare or asymmetric warfare, sometimes with intervention from other states.

Here is a list of wars fought and won

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_of_independence_(national_liberation)

Do you think all these guys are wrong in demanding a separate state??? or else whether the Ceylon-Tamils during the initial stages of civil war at 70's and 80's who took arms to counter the oppressive Singhalese were all had it wrong...the answer is in the link below

Take a look at the video and photographic evidence for the sinhalese Genocide
in this link.
Black July 1983: the Charge is Genocide - கறுப்பு யூலை இனபடுகொலை

I'm trying to put a rational argument and nothing emotional. I'm not defending LTTE and i knew they went too far during their later stages of civil war forgetting the very purpose of their existence. I strongly believe they must be punished for their crimes. I'm not here justifying their crimes. Instead of saving the lives of innocent civilians they risked them all. Instead of taking a diplomatic stand they believed bullet for a bullet and paid their price. They should have taken a stand like DalaiLama in tibet long before and must have tried to escalate the humanitarian issues to the world countries and UN in a peaceful way. I hold LTTE responsible for many murders they committed.


Again The question here is whether SLG went way beyond its limits committing inhuman crimes in the process of crushing the rebels. Whether it had forgotten its moral responsibilities as a state govt failed protecting sovereignty of the ethnic minorities...For commiting such attrocities LTTE were tagged as terrorists and banned in 36 countries to follow suit why not world countries demand an explanation from SLG and if found guilty punish the persons behind in the international court...

 

[AcidPop]

US rescinds invitation to Fonseka to attend Hawaii event

The US government has withdrawn the invitation earlier extended to Major General Sarath Fonseka, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and currently holding the post of Chief of Defence Staff, to attend a farewill event to US Pacific Command (PACOM) Commander Admiral Timothy J.Keating at PACOM headquarters in Hawaii, Colombo’s English weekly, the Sunday Times reported in its political column quoting diplomatic sources.


Maj. Gen. Sarath FonsekaMaj. Gen. Fonseka, accompanied by Brigadier Athula Silva and two body guards, boarded a Dubai-bound flight Friday, for a Saturday arrival in Washington D.C., the paper said.

To prevent expiration of the lottery-won green card the General has to visit the U.S. at least once a year.

The paper said, referring to diplomatic sources, that on the 17th, Saturday, US Ambassador Patricia Butenis, had conveyed the message that the US Government had withdrawn the invitation extended to Fonseka for the PACOM event.

The rescission of invitation followed the release of the U.S. State Department report that alleged that the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers committed serious crimes amounting to "crimes against humanity" during the final weeks of the Sri Lanka war.

In Page 46, inside a chapter on killings of combatants seeking to surrender, the Report said, "July 10 – A media outlet reported on July 18 that at a celebratory event in Ambalangoda, Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka stated that the military had to overlook the traditional rules of war and even kill LTTE rebels who came to surrender carrying white flags during the war against the LTTE,"

In the light of the references made in the report to Gen. Fonseka, then Commander of the Army, the sources said, "it would be untenable for the US Government to officially host him at any event," Sunday Times reported.

Earlier, Gen. Fonseka was expected to return to Colombo on November 17. In the light of some official programmes being cancelled, he is now likely to return on November 7, the paper added.

 

[AcidPop]

Forensic analysis confirms execution-video authentic, says US-group

A notarized report of preliminary findings from a US-based forensic company that took nearly three weeks to analyze the Channel-4 broadcast video allegedly showing Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers extra-judicially executing Tamil captives stripped naked and hands tied behind their back, said "[t]he video and audio of the events depicted in the Video, were continuous without any evidence of start/stops, insertions, deletions, over recordings, editing or tampering of any kind." US pressure group, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) which sponsored the study, placed an embargo on revealing the details of the forensic company, until the final report is complete early November.

The report contained determinations on ten different critical issues on the characteristics of the video and audio portions of the 3gp format file distributed by the German-based Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) on 25th August.

The forensic firm used a firing range to conduct field experiments to arrive at some of the findings according to the report.

Key findings listed in the preliminary report follow:
No evidence of tampering or editing was discovered with either the video or audio portions of Video
The blood pooled around the previous victim with the white shirt and with the victim of the 2nd shooting appears to be consistent with blood from the brain, which would contain high amounts of oxygen giving the blood its bright color. The fact that it is still bright in color appears to be consistent with it being very recent.
The audio delay with respect to both gun shots’ audio compared with each corresponding rifle recoil is consistent for some, if not most, camera cell phones that are capable of video recording.
Preliminary field test with a typical camera cell phone of similar audio qualities (per header information in Exhibit “A”), was able to record a MAK-90 (AK variant w/16” barrel) gun shot w/7.62x39mm ammo, with the camera cell phone being positioned in a similar camera field of view of the 2nd gun shot, or 12 feet away from the muzzle, without any distortion of the audio.
The leg of an apparent previous shooting victim lying prone on the ground, down range and at the feet of the first victim, rises in the air when the first victim is shot, and then slowly drops to its former position. This reaction appears to be from the bullet that passed through the first victim and then striking the down range victim and would be consistent with a victim that was very recently shot that has not died yet.


TAG officials told that the official copy of the preliminary findings will be released as soon as the draft for the final report is complete.

TAG also intends to issue a separate supporting document containing the background technical information necessary to understand the on-going dispute raised by the Government of Sri Lanka on the authenticity of the video.

Earlier, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, dismissed Sri Lanka's investigations as not independent. "The only way to do this [authenticate the video] is for an independent and impartial investigation to take place,'' Alston had said earlier.

 

[Spring Onion]

lolzz the yankees should first probe it self for crimes against civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and so on.

The US ignored when India was creating, funding, shelttering LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka and now when Sri Lankans have overcomed the terrorists from LTTE every financer of these terrorists including US and India is crying loud.

 

[Brisingr]

lolzz the yankees should first probe it self for crimes against civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and so on.

The US ignored when India was creating, funding, shelttering LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka and now when Sri Lankans have overcomed the terrorists from LTTE every financer of these terrorists including US and India is crying loud.

Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, all were not bombed by the same country that governs the people. They were foreign forces. Sri lanka has special responsibility towards its citizens. Unless they are not considered as citizens. Let me ask this, what if Hambantota was taken over by JVP, will the government act the same way? And for all who say civilian causality is collateral damage, if ur relations or if u were in the zone will u like things to happen the way they are happening now? Karma always gets us back. SL suffered 25 years because of 25days in 1983. i only pray it wont repeat again.

Once again, many of our "educated & learned" readers of this blog have shown their utter ignorance of the international law. One says "what about war crimes perpetrated by the LTTE?". Hillarious! What is LTTE? A terrorist organization. Who expects Bin Laden to respect the norms of the civilized world? Who expects Prabakaran to respect the same? But can a democratically elected government in a democratic country ignore the responsibilities towards its own civilian population? Majority of the above comments have forgotten this. It is a shame!

 

[Sino-PakFriendship]

India is joking, you support Anti-China Tibetan rebels and Anti-Sri Lanka Tamil rebels. Now you Indian call the terrorists are freedom fighters! Just a hypocrities.

 

[Brisingr]

India is joking, you support Anti-China Tibetan rebels and Anti-Sri Lanka Tamil rebels. Now you Indian call the terrorists are freedom fighters! Just a hypocrities.

Hey SPF...what are you talking about??? Dont behave like a troll. Before posting any nonsense read the previous postings with your eyes wide open.
"Once again, many of our "educated & learned" readers of this blog have shown their utter ignorance of the international law. One says "what about war crimes perpetrated by the LTTE?". Hillarious! What is LTTE? A terrorist organization. Who expects Bin Laden to respect the norms of the civilized world? Who expects Prabakaran to respect the same? But can a democratically elected government in a democratic country ignore the responsibilities towards its own civilian population? Majority of the above comments have forgotten this. It is a shame! "

Can't you understand what this paragraph means...If you cant put forth your argument in a rational way better be a drifter then showing this typical Chinese and Pakistani mentality.

 

[Sino-PakFriendship]

Hey SPF...what are you talking about??? Dont behave like a troll. Before posting any nonsense read the previous postings with your eyes wide open.
"Once again, many of our "educated & learned" readers of this blog have shown their utter ignorance of the international law. One says "what about war crimes perpetrated by the LTTE?". Hillarious! What is LTTE? A terrorist organization. Who expects Bin Laden to respect the norms of the civilized world? Who expects Prabakaran to respect the same? But can a democratically elected government in a democratic country ignore the responsibilities towards its own civilian population? Majority of the above comments have forgotten this. It is a shame! "

Can't you understand what this paragraph means...If you cant put forth your argument in a rational way better be a drifter then showing this typical Chinese and Pakistani mentality.

Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda are initially trained and subsidized by CIA.

Don't tell me USA is civilized and to be moral high!

 

[AcidPop]

HRW: US report ignites call for war crimes investigations against Sri Lanka



The US State Department war crimes report to the Senate submitted as mandated by the explanatory statement to the US Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009, detailed day-by-day account in a format similar to a "model indictment," and said the alleged incidents in the final stages of war may constitute "violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or crimes against humanity and related harms." Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said, "[g]iven Sri Lanka's complete failure to investigate possible war crimes, the only hope for justice is an independent, international investigation," and added, "concerned governments should use the US State Department report as a clarion call for an international investigation. There are no more excuses for inaction."

The report while not reaching any legal conclusions listed Common Article 3 of Geneva Conventions, statutes of International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and Rwanda (ICTR), and the statutes of International Criminal Court (ICC) as "useful foundation for reviewing the conduct" described in the State Department's report.

Legal experts pointed out that under basic rules of international criminal law, the US has to give the GoSL the opportunity to investigate itself credibly, and that, further steps are warranted by the international community, if and when the GOSL fails or refuses to do so.

Meanwhile, Tamil circles pointed out that the international community, including the U.S., was responsible for the plight of the Eezham Tamils and the elimination of their de-facto state through a genocidal war, and therefore real 'reconciliation' comes only when the national question is internationally addressed and when appropriate gestures to this effect come from the IC.

The listing in the report of the same three treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), that form the basis for the European Union to determine the human rights thresholds for providing benefits to Governments under the GSP+, made even more remote, the possibility of Sri Lanka obtaining GSP+ concessions. Recent report by the EU commission said that Sri Lanka failed to meet the established rights thresholds.

The US report showed Satellite imagery evidence as possible tool to fill the information vacuum engineered by the Sri Lanka Government to prevent details of illegal conduct by the Sri Lanka armed forces from reaching outside Sri Lanka, and mentioned that independent investigations on the channel-4 video are still to be carried out to establish authenticity of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers executing captive Tamils.

Another noteworthy aspect of the report is the prominence given to the alleged execution of members of the LTTE political section while surrendering to the Sri Lanka military.

 

[AcidPop]

Sri Lanka editors receive death threats for Channel-4 video comments

Sunday Leader, a weekend broadsheet in Sri Lanka, said in the latest edition that two of the paper's editors, Frederica Jansz, and Munza Mushtaq, received Thursday "hand written death threats by post." The threats relate to Sunday Leader news stories on the authenticity of the August Channel-4 video which showed armed Sri Lankan soldiers executing Tamil prisoners stripped naked and hands tied behind their backs. "This newspaper has consistently in the entire 15 years of its existence come under attack. We have been burnt, bombed, sealed, harassed and threatened, culminating in January this year with the brutal killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge," the paper said.

“The police must treat these death threats written in red ink with the utmost seriousness, especially as they were sent to two journalists whose press group has repeatedly been the target of physical violence,” media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in a press release. “We urge the police to track down and arrest those who wrote these letters,” RSF further said in its press release.

Despite Ms. Jansz's statement in her September interview to al Jazeera that "Channel 4 UK should never have aired the controversial video unless and until it had checked the authenticity of the images," the web page of the Media Centre for National Security carried a slanderous article refuting certain statements made to al Jazeera by Ms. Jansz in relation to the infamous Channel 4 video. The article went so far as to even carry terminology such as "prostituting and prostitute," the paper said.

The Sunday Leader last week on October 18, carried a front page news item which said that in a controversial turn of events, a United States company specializing in forensic services has in a preliminary report maintained that no tampering or editing was carried out in either the video or audio portions of the controversial Channel 4 video clip which showed a man in Sri Lankan military uniform executing civilians. Our story merely reported extracts from the report as well as quoted Minister Keheliya Rambukwella who we spoke to in relation to its contents, the paper wrote.

Ms. Mushtaq's report said that Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), is purportedly carrying out an independent investigations through a yet undisclosed forensic company in the U.S., and published interim conclusions from the report.

TAG officials when contacted by TamilNet said that "Sunday Leader story is entirely accurate," and while refusing to disclose the name of the forensic company which the officials said "is also conducting actual firing range tests to observe the timings and acoustic signature comparisons," added that "within the next 3 to 4 weeks, the final technical report, including the interim report that was leaked by the Leader, will be made public."

The reference to the Channel-4 video in the U.S. State Department's report last week on Sri Lanka's conduct of war has further drawn attention to the importance of an independent third party to conduct forensic analysis of the video to establish its authenticity, the official said.

 

[Spring Onion]

Gaza, Afghanistan, Iraq, all were not bombed by the same country that governs the people. They were foreign forces. Sri lanka has special responsibility towards its citizens. Unless they are not considered as citizens. Let me ask this, what if Hambantota was taken over by JVP, will the government act the same way? And for all who say civilian causality is collateral damage, if ur relations or if u were in the zone will u like things to happen the way they are happening now? Karma always gets us back. SL suffered 25 years because of 25days in 1983. i only pray it wont repeat again.

Once again, many of our "educated & learned" readers of this blog have shown their utter ignorance of the international law. One says "what about war crimes perpetrated by the LTTE?". Hillarious! What is LTTE? A terrorist organization. Who expects Bin Laden to respect the norms of the civilized world? Who expects Prabakaran to respect the same? But can a democratically elected government in a democratic country ignore the responsibilities towards its own civilian population? Majority of the above comments have forgotten this. It is a shame!

Oh please spare us of your sermon specially when India is one of the biggest Human rights violator.

would you like to look into Manipur, other North East operations by Indian army?.

It seems that some people are too perturb by defeat of their funded terrorist organisation.

I did not see any Indian hardly raised voice raisling voice against killing of humanity by US arround the world including Iraq and Afghanistan,

And NO there is no difference whether violation is done by own country or outsiders. what matters is that You being Indian is just playing biase here.

 

[Brisingr]

Oh please spare us of your sermon specially when India is one of the biggest Human rights violator.

would you like to look into Manipur, other North East operations by Indian army?.

It seems that some people are too perturb by defeat of their funded terrorist organisation.

I did not see any Indian hardly raised voice raisling voice against killing of humanity by US arround the world including Iraq and Afghanistan,

And NO there is no difference whether violation is done by own country or outsiders. what matters is that You being Indian is just playing biase here.

Ok let me clear your doubt,Wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, are breaches of International humanitarian law and represent the most serious of human rights violations.

When a government closes a geographical region to journalists, it raises suspicions of human rights violations. Seven regions are currently closed to foreign journalists:

Chechnya, Russia
Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Myanmar (Burma)
North Korea
Papua, Indonesia
Peshawar, Pakistan
Tibet, People's Republic of China
Medellin, Colombia

now the rest ... i'll leave it to your conclusion.


By the way,western nations also care- but only about their own global image. Making noise about upholding human rights after the genocide has been carried out allows to them to appear to be ‘civilised' without having to take any meaningful action.

After all it was quite clear that a colossal human tragedy was in the offing during the war. If the UK , EU and the US had put their combined might together to warn the Rajapakse government properly the Sri Lankan lion- for all its bravado- would have squeaked like a trapped mouse

Sadly, one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies of the century had took place in front of our eyes and still continuing in IDP Camps.I would say the genocide happened in SriLanka, watched silently by the world countries is shame to the entire human race.One has to question if the mankind has already lost its sanity.We can't bring peace to the trouble spots in the world with people who have heads but no hearts.We desperately need diplomats who have the hearts for the oppressed and suffering people

 

[Spring Onion]

Ok let me clear your doubt,Wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, are breaches of International humanitarian law and represent the most serious of human rights violations.

When a government closes a geographical region to journalists, it raises suspicions of human rights violations. Seven regions are currently closed to foreign journalists:

Chechnya, Russia
Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Myanmar (Burma)
North Korea
Papua, Indonesia
Peshawar, Pakistan
Tibet, People's Republic of China
Medellin, Colombia

now the rest ... i'll leave it to your conclusion.


By the way,western nations also care- but only about their own global image. Making noise about upholding human rights after the genocide has been carried out allows to them to appear to be ‘civilised' without having to take any meaningful action.

After all it was quite clear that a colossal human tragedy was in the offing during the war. If the UK , EU and the US had put their combined might together to warn the Rajapakse government properly the Sri Lankan lion- for all its bravado- would have squeaked like a trapped mouse

Sadly, one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies of the century had took place in front of our eyes and still continuing in IDP Camps.I would say the genocide happened in SriLanka, watched silently by the world countries is shame to the entire human race.One has to question if the mankind has already lost its sanity.We can't bring peace to the trouble spots in the world with people who have heads but no hearts.We desperately need diplomats who have the hearts for the oppressed and suffering people

oh dear and you failed to include INDIA in the list.


Have some balls and include Indian Occupied Kashmir as well as North East India, and oh dont forget to include Mezoram where India used air bombardment.

for your information Peshawar is not closed to foreign jouranlists. Have a heart man.