Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, concluding his four day visit to Sri Lanka, last afternoon said;”I know that the Secretary- General himself and the United Nations system more broadly will stand with the people and leaders of Sri Lanka, as they address credibly and thoroughly the accountability and reconciliation issues that, once resolved, will contribute to Sri Lanka’s long-term peace and prosperity.”
Feltman
Addressing the media at a press conference held at the UN Compound in Colombo, he said; “The Honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs before the Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday, we are encouraged by this government’s commitment to promote reconciliation, accountability and human rights. This is very much in line with the 2009 joint communiqué issued on the occasion of the UN Secretary-General’s visit to Sri Lanka soon after the end of the conflict. In our view, credible, tangible progress in these areas is a prerequisite to the achievement of sustainable peace and prosperity in Sri Lanka.”
We publish below his speech in full;
Over the past four days, I have had a series of positive, constructive discussions here in Sri Lanka. The Secretary-General of the United Nations asked me to visit at what he sees as a moment of historic opportunity for the people of this beautiful country: your democratic elections and peaceful transition have not only inspired the citizens of Sri Lanka but also captured the attention of Sri Lanka’s many friends in the international community. I want to thank the Government of Sri Lanka for its generous hospitality in helping to arrange my visit on relatively short notice.
While here, I had the opportunity to meet President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Acting Foreign Minister Ajith Perera, the leadership of the JHU, SLMC, TNA, and the diplomatic community. Yesterday in Jaffna, I met with the Governor and the Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council. In addition, I was able to listen to, and compare notes with, a divergent group of civil society representatives both here in Colombo and in Jaffna. Those I met over the past four days inspired me with their visions for a prosperous, democratic country, at peace internally and with positive, close, mutually beneficial relations regionally and internationally.
Ladies and gentlemen,
2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. We are also approaching the 60th anniversary of when Sri Lanka’s first Permanent Representative to the UN, Sir Senerat Gunawardene, presented his credentials. In the years since then, Sri Lanka has made many important contributions to the Organization. I am thinking of the leadership roles that prominent personalities from Sri Lanka have played in the UN – people such as Justice Christopher Weeramantry, Jayantha Dhanapala, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Andrew Joseph, and Shirely Amarasinghe. The current Governor of the Northern Provincial Council represented your country with distinction in New York during a particularly challenging time. Thousands of Sri Lankan citizens over the decades have contributed to UN peacekeeping efforts, including those currently deployed to important missions in Haiti, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. The Secretary-General believes strongly that we now have the opportunity to build on this existing foundation to renew and strengthen the partnership between Sri Lanka and the United Nations and between Sri Lanka and the international community.
We in the United Nations recognize that Sri Lankans from across the country suffered during a long conflict. No community was immune, and, despite the work of many commissions, the list of grievances and unresolved issues remains long. As demonstrated by the speech of
The Honorable Minister of Foreign Affairs before the Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday, we are encouraged by this government’s commitment to promote reconciliation, accountability and human rights. This is very much in line with the 2009 joint communiqué issued on the occasion of the UN Secretary-General’s visit to Sri Lanka soon after the end of the conflict. In our view, credible, tangible progress in these areas is a prerequisite to the achievement of sustainable peace and prosperity in Sri Lanka.
In that spirit, I have urged government leaders to take steps in the short term to address issues regarding land, detentions, disappearances, and the military posture in civilian areas. Over the longer term, I have underscored in my meetings the expectation by the United Nations and by the international community that the government will – as it has promised — develop in the coming months a strong framework for accountability that meets international standards and norms and that is seen as credible across Sri Lanka. These are not easy tasks, but we believe that they are essential tasks, expected by the international community and also – more importantly – by the citizens of this country themselves.
Without question, there is still a wide trust deficit between communities in Sri Lanka, especially between the Tamil and the Sinhalese. We have thus encouraged the national leaders and political stakeholders to work on all of these issues in the spirit of inclusion and consultation. Inclusion requires that all communities be willing to participate in these processes. As requested by Sri Lanka, the United Nations is committed to assisting in the process of accountability and reconciliation, through the Peacebuilding Fund and other facilities, as appropriate. But it is first and foremost for Sri Lankans themselves to shape how to address issues of the past in order to find a common future.
With regional allies and the world focused in a positive way on Sri Lanka, and with the citizens of Sri Lanka having drawn from Sri Lanka’s strong democratic history and traditions to promote a peaceful transition, this is a historic moment to seize. I know that the Secretary- General himself and the United Nations system more broadly will stand with the people and leaders of Sri Lanka, as they address credibly and thoroughly the accountability and reconciliation issues that, once resolved, will contribute to Sri Lanka’s long-term peace and prosperity. In this 70th anniversary of the UN’s founding and the 60th year of Sri Lanka’s membership in the UN, we welcome the promise of renewed partnership.
Thank you.
Nadesan / March 4, 2015
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION FOR TAMILS’ NATIONAL ISSUE? AND WHAT IS THE PUNISHMENT FOR WAR CRIMINALS?
Those are two ULTIMATE questions. Do not blur with words. You all are playing with the 150 thousands lives lost in 2009.
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Ben Hurling / March 4, 2015
Nadesan Sir,
Do you represent all Tamils? Who gave you the mandate? Now demised “Sole Rep of the Tamil Speaking People”? Remember.
Cheers!
PS: Do you ever recognize there could be other people on the Planet apart from just Tamils?
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Raja / March 4, 2015
Accusations that Tamil youth were being held in secret detention camps were baseless, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told a gathering of Buddhist clergy at Rukmale Sri Dharmaloka Vijayaloka Mahaviharaya on Sunday (1).
Among the invitees at a felicitation ceremony for newly appointed Mahanayake Thera Ven. Iththapane Dharmalankara was Rt. Rev. Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith.
Premier Wickremesinghe emphasised that all those who had been taken into custody were being held in legally run facilities and, therefore, all detainees could be accounted for.
The UNP leader said instructions had been given for preparing a full list of persons in custody in a bid to dispel fears expressed in some quarters as regards secret detention camps.
The Premier didn’t mince his words when he declared that those missing but not listed among those in government custody had either perished during the conflict or were now living overseas.
Authoritative sources said that Sri Lanka’s efforts to track down missing persons living overseas hadn’t been successful due to Western countries’ refusal to cooperate. Sources said that a joint effort was needed to establish the whereabouts of those who had assumed new identities and citizenship in other countries.
Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) leader Kumar Gunaratnam obtained a new Australian passport bearing the name Noel Mudalige had been once considered a missing person.
Another person who had been allegedly abducted and killed after the conclusion of the conflict was arrested in India, sources pointed out. Chance detection in May 2014 of Kathiravel Thayapararajah (33) brought an end to accusation that the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) had executed him. US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs and one-time US Ambassador in Colombo, Robert O. Blake inquired about that missing person, sources said.
Head of Missing Persons Commission, retired High Court Judge Maxwell Paranagama is also on record as having called for international cooperation to trace persons living overseas under new identities.
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Native Vedda / March 4, 2015
Raja
Why do you expect armed forces to acknowledge such camps?
Why should the security forces tell Ranil everything that they know?
The armed forces could chose to brief him on a need to know basis. They decide what to tell the politicians and not to tell them and they decide what Ranil needs to know.
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Raja / March 5, 2015
Native Vedda,,
Why should the security forces tell Ranil everything that they know?
Myabe there is no conspiracy theory, and you and many like you may be in a STATE of DENIAL.
hey decide what to tell the politicians and not to tell them and they decide what Ranil needs to know??
(where is your proof)
security forces always work for the Supreme Authority, who pays the bills. And yes even they have to keep Accounts of everything. no matter how ghastly and because the security forces are no James Bond.
Still the PM has given some Fine Examples
What now is he part of a conspiracy??? This STATE of DENIAL effects many i see.
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Native Vedda / March 5, 2015
Raja
If you haven’t learnt anything you are not going to learn in the present or future either. It is in your nature to remain stupid, that is a privilege you enjoy and I have no problem with it.
The three commission which were appointed by Chanrika to investigate all human rights violation which were committed from 1987 to 1989 by armed forces and other armed thugs found 30,000 cases of credible evidence against disappearances and murders.
These were not voluntarily divulged by the perpetrators. Those commission reports are gathering dust in the National Archive. Go read those reports and you will learn how the armed forces and thugs tried to deceive their masters and the investigating commissions.
If you are comfortable living in a bunker secured from seeping information well that is your privileged life style. I read VP too lived like you.
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Native Gona Vedda / March 5, 2015
@Native Vedda
Here here.. Dont lie
where did you get that FALSE INFO from?? wikipedia?? And you still cant get it correct.
sir can you please give us the Full details such as the names of the 3 commission?? and WHo were the chairs???
My god 30,000 wow shaa nice figures SIR..
ohh and if the info were not ‘voluntarily divulged by the perpetrators’
then how did they get this figures by Torture no no.. the DEAD CAME BACK TO LIFE and told the commission.. AHhh thats how ne.. They donty stay dead for much long do they??? Thats how ALL HR Groups get info the Dead Come back to life.
SIR can you read wikipedia and say how the Dead can come back to life and give evidence.. If the sec forces have no figures or confess????
Sir Miracle Of ASIA you are.
Haraka thats your reward for your detecticts iskills
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Native Vedda / March 5, 2015
Native Gona Vedda
Stupid is as stupid does.
You fit very well into this classification.
Access the report and the details are as follows:
A LEGACY TO REMEMBER;
SRI LANKA’S COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY
LAW & SOCIETY TRUST
SEPTEMBER 2010
Edited by Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena
1963 – 2002
A Reference Guide to Commission Reports
with a Tabulated List of Recommendations
I will make your life little bit easier, here is the link:
http://www.lawandsocietytrust.org/PDF/a%20legacy%20to%20remember%3B%20sri%20lanka%27s%20commissions%20of%20inquiry.pdf
Go read.
Actual reports are gathering dust at the national archive.
Victims of Disappearances – Still Waiting for Justice in Sri Lanka
by M.C.M. Iqbal
Note: This is an edited version of a presentation made by the writer at a panel discussion organized by the International Commission of Jurists at the UN in Geneva on 18 March 2010, on the occasion of the launching of the book “Rule of Law, The Criminal Justice System and Commissions of Inquiry since 1977” written by Kishali Pinto Jayawardena.
Several Commissions of Inquiry into Disappearances of Persons (COIs) had been appointed by successive governments since 1990. Of these, the writer had been the Secretary to what is known as the Central Zone Commission1 and the All Island Commission appointed in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Militancy of Sinhala youth in the South and the Tamil youth in the North resulted in what the NGOs estimate to be the disappearance of nearly 60,000 youth from various parts of Sri Lanka. However, the Commissions appointed in 1994 received only 27,526 complaints. Of these 10,136 complaints were inquired into by the All Island Commission appointed in 1998. The following comments and observations are made as a corollary to the book that is being launched today. It is hoped that the readers would get a clearer picture of the task of the COIs and what followed after their reports were submitted to the President.
The Mandates of these Commissions
It needs to be noted that the Mandates of the three Zonal Commissions authorized the COIs to inquire only into incidents of disappearances that occurred after 1 January 1988. This resulted in a large number of disappearances that occurred during the period before that date being excluded from being inquired into by these COIs.
At the time the COIs were appointed. Jaffna was under the control of the LTTE and the people of that area had no electricity or access to information. They were not able to travel freely to the South. So many of the victims of disappearances in the North at that time did not even know there was a COI appointed to inquire into such incidents. Consequently, the North East Zonal COI, which incidentally never had a sitting in Jaffna, received very few complaints from the Jaffna District.
In the conduct of their inquiries, the COIs are exempted from the requirement to comply with the provisions of the Evidence Ordinance so they were able to come to a finding on a balance of probabilities based on the evidence of complainant and other witnesses, and on an examination of the relevant information, books and records at the police stations. The COIs had to, inter alia, come to a finding on whether credible material indicative of the person or persons responsible, was available.
The COIs were also expected to report on the whereabouts of the persons alleged to have disappeared. This could not be done satisfactorily as they had no access to the several unauthorized detention centers about which the COIs became aware during course of the inquiries.
When the COIs had concluded their inquiries and were in the process of writing their reports, the Secretary to the President summoned the Chairpersons and Secretaries of the COIs and informed them that any compensation contemplated should not be a burden to the finances of the country. They were directed to fall in line with the provisions of a circular issued in 1987 with regard to compensation to victims of the riots that took place during that year. This circular had specified a scale of compensation ranging from Rs.15, 000 to a student who had been killed or disappeared to Rs.500, 000 to a politician who had been killed or disappeared. The COIs had no option in this matter and had to comply with the directive and they added a note in their Reports indicating their disapproval with the grading of the disappeared persons and the amounts to be paid as compensation.
Procedure of Recording Evidence
In view of the large number of complaints that had been received by the COIs, the evidence of the complainants and the witnesses were led only up to the point where credible material indicative of the person responsible came to light. During the trials where the court cases had been filed, the prosecution had not appraised the courts of this fact. Consequently, the defense counsel was able to take advantage of this deficiency and plead that the details of the incident as given by the witness during the trial, were fabrications.
Ignored Recommendations
The key recommendation with regard to the legal action to be taken against the alleged perpetrators was that ‘an independent public prosecutor should be appointed’ to prosecute in cases of disappearances. In making this recommendation, the COIs implied that the Attorney General may not be able to play a neutral role in these cases. Yet these cases were handled by the lawyers in the Missing Persons Unit of the Attorney General’s Department. They perused the evidence and passed on the files for further investigations by the Disappearances Investigation Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department which had been set up for this purpose. The latter consisted of police officers. The brotherly feeling they had with the perpetrators, some of whom had been their colleagues, superiors or subordinate officers, stood in the way of effective investigations being carried out in all earnest.
Among the perpetrators against whom the COIs found credible material indicative of their responsibility for the disappearances are names of several leading politicians, high ranking officers in the police and security forces, many of whom are still in service in higher positions. Those who gave evidence of their involvement in the incidents concerned are helpless spectators of these persons who are now in high positions despite their misdoings.
The President called for a special report from the Central Zone COI on the killing of a candidate contesting a leading politician on the request by the influential wife of the deceased. In compliance with this request, the Commission did a thorough investigation and submitted a special report. The passports of the security officers of this politician, who were complicit in the killing, were impounded. Yet no action was taken against this politician despite having enough evidence of his involvement in the killing. Subsequently, the wife of the deceased, who had complained to the COI and caused a special report to be submitted, was made a Minister following which the Special Report was swept under the carpet.
The COIs drew the attention of the government to the information on the existence of about ten mass graves and several torture chambers in various parts of the country. It was recommended that these be investigated into, yet, successive governments did not take any action with regard to this recommendation even though the location of these places and the names of the persons who were responsible for them were made available in the statements of the relevant witnesses who gave evidence before the COIs.
Interim Report VII of the Central Zone COI refers to an officer in charge of a police station in the North Western Province who was alleged to have threatened a complainant and his family for having given evidence against him before the COI. This matter was brought to the notice of the President with a recommendation that this officer be interdicted forthwith and disciplinary action taken against him. But this recommendation was ignored. Subsequently, this police officer was promoted to the level of an Assistant Superintendent of Police, despite this case and his involvement in several disappearances in the area where he served.
No disciplinary action against errant police officers
Though it was recommended that disciplinary action be taken against all police officers who were found by the Commissions to have violated departmental rules and procedures, no such action had been taken against any of them. Given below are some instances of such violations found by the COIs –
Sri Lankan parliamentarians take turns in lighting candles during the opening ceremony of the 20th anniversary of the Families of the Disappeared (FOD).
• In spite of a circular by the IGP directing that all Information Books relating to the period of the COIs should be preserved until the COIs had completed their task, it was found that many Officers in Charge (OICs) had destroyed these books.
• Where complains of disappearances had been accepted by the police, such complaints had been recorded in the Minor Offences Register. This indicates that whoever recorded such a complaint considered the disappearance of a person to be a ‘minor offence.’ Yet no action has been taken against the officers concerned for this serious lapse.
• There were instances where the list of detainees at a police station on a given day, did not contain the names of some individuals who had in fact been detained as was evident from such names appearing in Diet Register for that particular day which was maintained by another officer. This non-entering of the name of the persons in the detainees register is indicative of the intention of the OIC of that station. Many such persons had disappeared. Yet. no action had been taken against such police officers.
• There had been evidence of female complainants having been raped by police officers either at the police station when they came to make complaints or at other places during search operations. No action had been taken against any such officer even though evidence of such instances had been recorded.
Miscellaneous
The copies of the Reports of the COIs that were printed and made public by the Presidential Secretariat do not contain all the contents of the reports that were handed to the President. While sections of the Reports had been omitted in some reports, parts of the reports in others had been completely left out. Thereby, some important information which the original reports contained had not been made public.
The mandate of the All Island Commission on Disappearances was identical to those of the Zonal Commissions except that it was authorized only to inquire into the 10,136 complaints that had been received by the Zonal Commissions and left un-inquired. In other words it was precluded from inquiring into any new complaints. Yet while the Commission was functioning, it received 12,000 new complaints of disappearances which it was not authorized to inquire into. These complaints have been listed and included in the Report of the COI with a recommendation that the President should take action to inquire into them at a future date.
At the time the All Island Commission was appointed in 1998, Jaffna had been regained from the LTTE and had come under government control. About 600 of the new complaints received by this Commission were in respect of disappearances from the Jaffna District which occurred following the takeover of Jaffna by the government. The Citizens Committee of Batticaloa handed a list of 7,000 disappearances with a note that these were not filed before the COIs appointed in 1994 as the persons who were alleged to be responsible for the incidents were still in service at the respective stations in the East. So the complainants were afraid to complain against them at that time.
Of the 600 alleged to have disappeared from Jaffna, 341 complaints had been filed at the National Human Rights Commission. This Commission appointed a Committee to which it delegated its powers to inquire into these 341 complaints. The Report of this Committee states that in an overwhelming number of those cases, there was clear evidence that the army in Jaffna had taken the persons concerned into custody and that there is no evidence whatsoever as to what happened to them thereafter.
The National Human Rights Commission launched on a project to process the 12,000 complaints left un-inquired by the All Island Commission and to compile a computerized data base of all the information on the disappearances that had been inquired into up to that date by the COIs. Unfortunately, this project was aborted with the change of government and the new set of members taking over the Human Rights Commission by-passing the provisions of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution.
As stated earlier in this document, the role of the Attorney-General in prosecuting disappearances cases was discussed by the COIs in their reports and they have recommended the appointment of an Independent Public Prosecutor with constitutional safeguards. This was cited by the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, who, too contended that the Attorney General was not an independent person and should not lead evidence at the COI appointed in 2007 to inquire into serious human rights violations.
Conclusion
Successive governments continued to ignore the recommendations of the Commissions with regard to the perpetrators and the steps that need to be taken to prevent the re-occurence of such incidents in the future. This promoted the culture of impunity which pervades the police and security forces personnel. It has been said in a lighter vein that the COIs have helped the successive governments identify those in the police and army who could be used to cause disappearances effectively. By this time, causing the disappearance of a person had become a useful weapon in the hands of whichever government that came to power. Even the current incidents of disappearances could be perpetrated by such persons who have by now become adept in the technique.
The three major parties in Sri Lanka — the UNP, the SLFP and the JVP are not interested in dealing with perpetrators of disappearances. They have not pressed for the implementation of the recommendations of the COIs in this regard perhaps because, at some time or the other, each of these parties had used this weapon on those who had become thorns on their backs. In these circumstances, the victims of disappearances who are waiting for justice have no hope whatsoever of getting justice in the near future.
1 The Central Zone Commission was for the disappearances that occurred in the Central, Uva, North Central and North Western Provinces while the other two Zonal Commissions were those for the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and, or the Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Provinces.
M.C.M. Iqbal is a retired senior civil servant of Sri Lanka who had been Secretary to several Presidential Commissions of Inquiry, two of which had been on disappearances of persons. Later he was a Consultant at the National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.
http://www.afad-online.org/voice/march2011/nf_victims.htm
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Native Gona Vedda / March 5, 2015
@ Native Vedda
Hey Idiot.. You have been reading too many MYSTERY BOOKS..
what the security came and told you instead??? No no They told the world that they Abducted these people and hid them. These Magicians?? Everyone elese the security forces told but not the Top two guys of the nation who pays their wages and maintenance cost.
Here Banda.. You have been reading too many books. the wrong books. you need to go outside. Maybe go to watch the Magic show of the security forces.. how they make disappear and reappear in Tamil nadu or the west. AHHHH magic..
And BAnda stop reading wikipedia.
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Native Vedda / March 5, 2015
Native Gona Vedda
Thanks
Could you recommend any useful book other than your bible and constitution Mahawamsa for my Elders have already given me a copy.
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saman / March 5, 2015
Total BS
PM talked about. Kumar Gunaratnam and Kathiravel Thayapararajah. Imagine Kumar how he played the system to get a Australian Passport with a different name as many BOGUS Asylum Seekers have done. and Kathiravel Thayapararajah was registered with the United Nations as a Missing person the UN. And in another Branch of the same UN he is Registered as a Refugee when TN Police conducted investigation.. What the PM could not say as this happend after his speech the Capture of JeyaGanesh Pakeerathy at BIA. She in many Human rights reports on famous one in Jaffna and a INt one was declared a Missing person. There were witness that say the Army killing her. Tell me how does a person who is killed in front of people come back to life to have a Grown child and live in FRANCE????? That is some miracle
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Javi. / March 5, 2015
rajapdeen,
you are never to count all not even a 10% namestake:Ba**l
as it is . keep it light you have ships to patrol.
proud people breed sad sorrows,
sadness for themselves.-Emily Bronte
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Native Vedda / March 4, 2015
Nadesan
“WHAT IS THE SOLUTION FOR TAMILS’ NATIONAL ISSUE?”
They can go back to their ancestral homeland in Thamil Nadu. When they go they should remember to take their Sinhala brethren with them.
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Native Gona Vedda / March 4, 2015
@Native Vedda
Ahh the Modaya.. Amuday Modaya.. ahahaha
So what wikipedia book you have read sir?? to come and comment here. even the readings you get it wrong when you comment.. Ane Banda..
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Lanka Watch / March 4, 2015
Nadesan -You said it right.What has the new revelations to be presented
by the present govt. on the massacre got to do with the past, where thousands of unarmed civilians got killed,including women and children and many women widowed in a massacre, by using heavy artillery, done by the former regime, which crime, the whole world knows. Mr. Jeffrey Feltman, under secretary General for political affairs of UN should treat these two cases separately . By praising the current govt’s attempts to cooperate with a new investigation, will the dead come back
to life ?. The perpetrators of the crime should be brought to books by publishing the human rights violation report, expected at the end of March and any delay in presentation of the report, will make the Tamils
suspicious and lose hope of an impartial decision. Just because the present SL govt.turned directions and supporting the West including US,
can the truth be hidden and history changed by UN. Is this what the UN is set for. TNA should take a serious note of this delay, which seems to be a ploy to play for time, by giving ‘goodies'(small concessions) to the Tamils in the meantime in an attempt to try and divert their attention,after all UN knows people of any nation are gullible.
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Selva / March 4, 2015
Nadesan … VERY TRUE.. what WILL HAPPEN TO TAMIL LTTE WAR CRIMINALS AND FUNDERS BOTH IN SRI LANKAN AND ABROAD WHO HAVE SHOWN NO REMORSE. Such as Bala’s Aussy wife etc etc
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Nadesan / March 4, 2015
[credibly,
thoroughly,
accountability,
reconciliation,
issues, resolve,
contribute,
long-term
peace and prosperity,
commitment to promote,
credible,
tangible progress beautiful country,
easy tasks,we believe,
essential tasks,
expected by the international community, peacebuilding,
appropriate,
detentions and
disappearances]
PLEASE DO NOT CHEAT ETHINIC TAMILS WITH ABOVE WORDS USE THE TWO WORDS “TAMIL EELAM” AND “KILL WAR CRIMINALS” ONLY.
Tamils dont need your English.
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Alahakoon / March 4, 2015
Nadesan,
I can understand your feelings, frustration, probably partially .. Any way all these words and speeches by so called leaders are just “Bila”. I don;t know how to translate the word “Bila” if you do not know this Sinhalese/Portuguese word.. Just ask your Sinhalese friend
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Senthil / March 4, 2015
Nadesan expressed his frustration but most of the reply except from Alahakoon are very crude, not polished or civilised. Why don’t we think like Mithiri instead of thinking like Gotha or MR, they are jungle people. They have gone now and it is every good srilankan’s duty to stop those type of people coming back to politics again. You know one thing, in the west, if they want to tell some one a stupid, they tell it very nicely. In a meeting one man told that 50% of the ordain are stupid’s, and every one aske him to apologise, so he turn around and told, very sorry for my comments but 50% of the ordains are clever – and every one kept quiet – but he told the same thing. The people from the west are very clever to forecast things and act in advance but we 3rd world people do not plan for the future and act only for the present and mess up the future. For example LTTE din not forecast the future, they relied too much on US and again half of them aske people to elect MR, shows they did not learn anything, loosing the opportunity in the hand for some thing imaginary (UN). When MR encourage Tamils to leave the country, he did not think the danger by that – bad planning.
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Taraki / March 4, 2015
Don’t worry Nadesan all will be well.
Report is delayed.
UN Is encouraged.
UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs says the UN strongly believes and is confident that Sri Lanka will conduct a more credible domestic investigation.
UN commits to assisting in the process of accountability and reconciliation through the peace building fund and other facilities.
It is all leading to a whitewash. That’s politics.
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lanka watch / March 4, 2015
Taraki – As you rightly said, that all these ‘hide and seek’ games by the UN, foreign govts. and the current Sri Lankan govt. are leading to
a white wash.You know how UN handles the Palestinian/Isreili conflict
which lasted for the last 40 years or more with no tangible results achieved yet and gets dragged indefinitely and so will be the case with
the case of Tamil massacre.
At least the UN and the current govt. should allow the Tamils, who lost
their loved ones to commemorate their death, at least once yearly and allow them to build a memorial in Vanni to honour the dead. There is a memorial built in Colombo for the Indian soldiers who died in the war against the Ltte and why not a memorial for death of innocent Tamils in thousands.? It is a shame on UN, trying ways to protect the perpetrators of humanitarian crime.
Prince Zeid,UN chief of UNCHR was adamant to bring out the report right
on time,refusing talks with the former regime and approaches made other
govts. on behalf of the former govt. on this matter, and wonder who twisted his arm so forcefully that he had to delay the release with a purpose behind it.
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Native Vedda / March 4, 2015
Taraki
“UN Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs says the UN strongly believes and is confident that Sri Lanka will conduct a more credible domestic investigation. “
If there was zero causality as MR, GR, GLP, DJ, Black and Decker…………. maintained why does Sri Lanka agreed to another round of investigation this time under UN supervision.
Is it true as many said Navi Pillai was working for Diaspora?
By the way UN is giving the state another opportunity to fob off its culpability. Make use of it.
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dcn / March 5, 2015
It is very appreciable the work done by the new government, the President, The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister with regard to our foreign relations and the recognition we are now receiving as a country as a whole from the international governments and otherr agencies.
However, at the same time, the enquiries on missing persons, war crimes etc has to be investigated and those found guilty punished irrespective of race or creed. All these must be carried out in a very transparent manner to satisfy all those genuinely aggrieved parties.
The present government must start the process of establishing the mechanism for carrying out the investigations without delay and if they too bypass the days and find excuses for delays, it would be disgraceful and the international community would lose all faith in our governments and the persons behind same.
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Jim softy / March 6, 2015
The most credible fact here is, as soon as John Kerry involved, the UN delayed their very important report. If the SL govt continues to become lap dogs and stop barking or urinating every where, there after, so long for all these crap investigations.
Tamils always hang to sinking ships.
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Ranil Wijeyesekera / March 11, 2015
The Government is to be applauded for waiving serious crime for the sake of reconciliation. Genocide has being commited againts the tamil,sinhala and muslim communities in the Northan province by LTTE and other supporters. A systematic attempt is being made to drive out people from the Northan province. People who have lived in these areas for generation have being internally displaced. For this efffort people have collected funds, harboured fugertives and aided and abetted the people. Discrimination and effort to change tje demography of the North continues.
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