A panel discussion on “Impending High Commissioner’s Report on Sri Lanka” was held on the 16th June 2015 in UNOG, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
Geoffrey Robertson QC
This event was organized by Ibn Sina, with partnership of Collectif la Paix au Sri Lanka, International Crime Prevention and Protection against Genocide (ICPPG) and the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) at the UN Human Rights Council, Geneva.
The key speakers included Geoffrey Robertson QC an International Human Rights Barrister, Professor Ramu Manivannan from the University of Madras, with the session being moderated by Manicka Vasagar Minister of International Affairs TGTE.
The speakers raised some critical concerns about the Impending High Commissioner’s Report on Sri Lanka. The Panelist were unanimous in raising questions about how the Sri Lankan state can deliver justice, when the government and its leadership itself has been accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Tamils.
They also agreed that there is no fundamental change in the political and legal environment in Sri Lanka vis-a-vis the Tamils.
Geoffrey Robertson provided searching options of trial against Sri Lanka, such as referral to the ICC, Security Council based initiatives, hybrid mechanism and even sought an active role of the Secretary General.
It was emphasized by Prof Manivannan that an electoral change need not be construed as political transformation in Sri Lanka. If world governments see light in the regime change in Sri Lanka, then darkness of injustice in Sri Lanka cannot be eliminated by abandoning the well- meaning international processes for domestic investigations.
This panel discussion was followed by a Q&A session, attended by representatives from diplomatic missions and INGOs.
backlash / June 17, 2015
The recent controversy surrounding Sudan’s President Al Bashir (visiting Nigeria for the OAU – in violation of ICC censures) is enough proof ICC is not to be treated lightly. The Sword of Dramocles continues to hang over the heads of the two Rajapakse Brothers and their accomplices. That the Rajapakses are no longer in power does in no way mitigate what is in store for them when the UNHC soon issues its Report. The ICC is obliged to act upon the UNHC Report as UN-SG Ban Ki Moon was to point out in the Al Bashir incident.
Backlash
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Off the Cuff / June 17, 2015
Dear CT Readers,
“……with the session being moderated by Manicka Vasagar Minister of International Affairs TGTE”.
Here is a comment I addressed to Mr Manicka Vasagar that NO ONE has yet been able to successfully contest.
Dear Mr. Manicka Vasagar of the TGTE,
Rome Statute of the ICC state,
Article 8, War crimes,
2(b)(xxiii) Utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations; (page 7)
This is what is known as a Human Shield.
According to the above, IF the PRESENCE of a civilian (Tamil civilians) is used to protect military forces (LTTE Cadres) then the LTTE commits the war crime of using Human Shields.
The POE confirms this “Presence” in their report (item 237)
Quote
“…… they forced thousands of civilians, often under threat of death, to remain in areas under their control during the last stages of the war and enforced this control by killing persons who attempted to leave that area”
Unquote
Thus according to the Rome Statute, Article 8, 2(b)(xxiii) The LTTE is GUILTY of the war crime of utilizing a Human Shield.
Additionally there is ample evidence in the public domain of Amputations of limbs, shooting civilians in the back and suicide bombings of those who managed to reach safety, all of which was targeted at discouraging the civilians leaving LTTE areas.
That the LTTE located Heavy Guns, Mortar pits, Ammunition dumps, Command centers amongst the civilians is also confirmed by evidence in the public domain (please see aerial photographs taken by Times of London photographers who overflew the No Fire Zones with the UNSG Ban Ki Moon).
Thus EVERY CONDITION required to be satisfied by the Human Shield Law, of the Rome Statute, in order to find the LTTE guilty, has been satisfied and the LTTE should be found Guilty.
Let’s see what the POE say (item 237)
Quote
“(With respect to the credible allegations of the LTTE’s refusal to allow civilians to leave the combat zone, the Panel believes that these actions did not, in law, amount to the use of human shields…”
Unquote
The experts are EXONERATING the LTTE!!!!
As far as the UNSG’s POE is concerned the ICC statute does not even exist.
The UNSG’s POE has deliberately subverted International Law and exonerated the Guilty! Why did they do it?
Let’s look at the repercussions of such a decision.
If the LTTE was found guilty then those who financed them and procured armaments will automatically be guilty of the same crime and will get prosecuted.
This means the Separatist big wigs of the BTF, GTF, TGTE etc, (including yourself), will be in the hot seat. Thus it is to your advantage to have this matter swept under the carpet.
LTTE financiers were caught trying to bribe US officials. Your BOSS the TGTE’s Rudrakumaran, is a known white collar Financial Thief who lost the license to practice as a lawyer in the US due to it.
Was the UNSG’s POE similarly bribed by the TGTE or BTF or GTF or an organisation/person with lots of wealth?
The conclusions made by the Panel of Experts, Mr. Darusman, Ms. Yasmin Sooka and Mr. Steven Ratner is contrary to International Law.
Were they bought over?
Are you planning to buy some others?
Have your tentacles reached the UN’s Office of Investigation of Sri Lanka too?
.
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/tgte-welcomes-fonsekas-willingness-to-face-war-crime-trials-urges-him-to-avail-to-uns-oisl/comment-page-1/#comment-1840247
.
Kind Regards,
OTC
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Hilarious / June 19, 2015
What was shown at the OAU meeting in SA was that the ICC has no status in the world..it is a rogue organisation supported by the ex-colonialists which needs to be despised by the rest of the world. Period.
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Real Peace / June 17, 2015
Whoever committed crimes, whether they are SL soldiers, LTTE members or the Pungudutheevu rapists must face justice. No one should be permitted to evade the long arm of justice.
By the way, if the P’theevu rapists had been Sinhalese, do you think the state machinery would gone into action swiftly as it had done so…? I doubt it…!!
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / June 17, 2015
Same old, same old, the same circle jerking each other off. For how many years has this Robertson been barking impotently now? Might be time to fire him and get someone else on retainer (maybe give Burus Pain or Francis Boyle another chance? They’ve been awfully quiet lately) :D
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Native Vedda / June 17, 2015
Wee Thamihz Senior Journalist Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon
is aware of war crime investigation is being carried out in Bangladesh after 44 years committing the brutality . Please pass this news item to your fellow Wee Thamihs and inform the war criminals that they can run but they can’t hide.
Bangladesh war crimes trial: Key accused
16 June 2015
The former leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, was sentenced to 90 years in jail for crimes against humanity on 15 July 2013.
Ghulam Azam, who was in his 90s, was the party’s leader until 2000 when he retired from active politics. He died in October 2014 while an appeal against his conviction was pending.
He denied all the charges against him, which included genocide, murder, abduction and arson.
Azam is alleged to have created and led pro-Pakistan militias which carried out numerous murders and rapes during the nine-month war.
Described by his party colleagues as a writer and Islamic thinker, Azam was strongly opposed to Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, arguing at the time that it would divide the Muslim community.
He also cautioned that an independent Bangladesh would come under the political and economic influence of neighbouring India.
Azam’s supporters say he is widely respected across the Muslim world. But his detractors – mainly in the governing Awami League party – see him as a traitor.
In 1973, the government cancelled his citizenship for allegedly co-operating with Pakistani forces during the independence war.
Azam lived as an exile in Pakistan and the UK but returned to Bangladesh in 1978 when the country was led by Gen Ziaur Rahman – the assassinated husband of the country’s current opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
The Supreme Court restored his citizenship in 1994.
Motiur Rahman Nizami – sentenced to death
The current head of Jamaat-e-Islami was sentenced to death for war crimes in October 2014 but is currently appealing against the sentence.
Motiur Rahman Nizami, 71, faced 16 charges including genocide, murder, torture and rape. Nizami was born in 1943 and has been an active supporter of the party since he was a student.
At the time of the 1971 war, he was president of Islami Chhatra Sangha, then the party’s student wing, and vociferously campaigned against the division of Pakistan.
He is accused of setting up the al-Badr group, an auxiliary force that helped the Pakistani army identify and kill pro-independence Bengali activists.
Nizami, a Dhaka University graduate, has twice been elected to the Bangladeshi parliament, serving as a minister in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led government between 2001 and 2006.
He has described the accusations against him as “the worst falsehood in history”.
His supporters consider him to have been a competent and honest minister and an authority on Islamic teaching. They say he is widely respected in the Muslim world. Nizami has written about 20 books, mostly on Islam.
In 2009, he was judged to be among the top 50 most influential Muslims by an American Islamic think-tank.
Delwar Hossain Sayeedi – sentenced to life in jail
A prolific speaker and a well-known leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the 72-year-old former MP had his death sentence overturned on appeal and is now serving life in jail.
He was found guilty in February 2013 of charges including murder, torture and rape.
Arrested in June 2010, he was the first suspect to be indicted by the tribunal in 2011.
State prosecutors accused him of working with the al-Badr group during the independence struggle and of carrying out numerous atrocities, including forcibly converting Hindus to Islam.
His critics say that during the war he formed a small group to loot and seize the property of Bengali Hindus and those who supported independence.
He denied all the allegations and after he was convicted there were widespread protests across Dhaka.
Sayeedi’s supporters say that – like many of his co-accused – he is an Islamic scholar and a conscientious member of various social organisations.
He has travelled to the US and Europe to give lectures on the Koran and has written books on interpreting Islam.
Some British MPs opposed his visit to the UK in 2006 because of his alleged extreme views, particularly his comments against the US and British role in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid – sentenced to death in July 2013
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, 64, is the secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami and an influential figure within the party. He was sentenced to death in July 2013 – a decision that was upheld in June 2015 when the supreme court rejected his appeal.
He is highly regarded for his organisational skills and oratory. He was social welfare minister in the BNP-led government from 2001-2006. A student leader in 1971, he was among those who supported Bangladesh remaining part of Pakistan.
His critics say he was also an al-Badr leader responsible for the killings of a number of pro-independence Bangladeshi leaders and intellectuals.
He strongly denied the allegations but the tribunal found him guilty of five charges, including abduction and murder.
Like many other Jamaat leaders he went into hiding soon after independence, but resurfaced after Gen Ziaur Rahman came to power in a military coup in 1977.
His supporters say his trial was nothing but a political vendetta by the ruling Awami League.
They also say he was a successful minister known for his honesty and integrity.
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury – sentenced to death in October 2013
A former minister, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury is a BNP MP and the most senior leader from the party to be sentenced for crimes against humanity. He is appealing against his conviction.
Better known as Saqa, he is the eldest son of the late Muslim League and Chittagong-based leader Fazlul Quader Chowdhury and a member of the BNP’s main policymaking body.
His father was the Speaker of the National Assembly of undivided Pakistan in 1965 and campaigned for a united Pakistan.
The tribunal found him guilty of nine out of 23 charges including genocide, arson and persecuting people on religious and political grounds.
He was also accused of forcefully converting a number of Hindus to Islam.
The prosecution said that his father’s residence in Chittagong was turned into a torture cell during the war. Chowdhury denied all the charges and the BNP – which did not exist at the time of the war – described his trial as a political vendetta.
Chowdhury complained at the time of his conviction that the verdict had come “from the [law] ministry”, saying it had been made available on the internet before it was formally announced in court.
Chowdhury’s family alleges that he has been tortured while in custody and that his health has deteriorated since he was jailed. The authorities have rejected the allegations.
Muhammad Kamaruzzaman – executed in April 2015
The assistant secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami was found guilty in May 2013 of masterminding what the prosecution described as one of the bloodiest single episodes in the independence war.
The Supreme Court later upheld his death sentence on appeal and he was hanged in April 2015.
The war crimes tribunal heard that he played a prominent role alongside Pakistani troops in the “slaughter” of at least 120 unarmed farmers in the remote northern village of Sohagpur which subsequently became known as the “village of widows”.
Three women widowed as a result of the killings testified against Kamaruzzaman during his trial. They described how he led Pakistani troops to the village and helped the soldiers to line up and execute the farmers.
Kamaruzzaman was found guilty on five out of seven charges of crimes against humanity, including the murder and torture of unarmed civilians. His lawyers insisted that he did not receive a fair trial.
Working as a journalist after independence, Kamaruzzaman tried on several occasions to become an MP but was unsuccessful in each attempt.
Abdul Kader Mullah – hanged December 2013
Abdul Kader Mullah, assistant secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party since 2010 and a former executive editor of The Daily Sangram, was found guilty on five of six counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes on 5 February 2013.
He was sentenced to death in September of that year after a failed appeal and hanged in December.
Mullah, who denied all the charges, was convicted of killing 344 civilians as well as rape and other crimes. Many of the atrocities for which he was convicted took place in Dhaka’s Mirpur area, earning him the name “Butcher of Mirpur”.
He was sentenced by the tribunal to life in prison – which caused huge anger among many Bangladeshis who took to the streets demanding he be put to death. Prosecution and defence lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court. On 17 September the court increased his life jail term to a death sentence.
Mullah was born in 1948 in Faridpur district. He joined Jamaat’s student wing, then known as Islami Chatra Sangha (ICS), while studying for a science degree at Rajendra College in Faridpur in 1966. When leaders of the Jamaat opposed the independence movement in East Pakistan in 1971, Mullah joined the feared paramilitary force al-Badr, prosecutors said.
He was charged in December 2011 with abetting the Pakistani army and actively participating in the 1971 atrocities. Following his death sentence the attorney general ruled out an appeal, meaning his only chance of clemency would have been a presidential pardon.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20970123
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Rajan / June 17, 2015
Meanwhile GWB and Dick Cheney live happily after while only non western country leaders face the full extent of international law. But I guess America get what they pay for when they contribute 22% of UN revenue. Even comedians like John Oliver do a better job in highlighting the brutal breaches of human rights by America than this joke of a human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson.
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thondamannar / June 17, 2015
“The recent controversy surrounding Sudan’s President Al Bashir (visiting Nigeria for the OAU – in violation of ICC censures) is enough proof ICC is not to be treated lightly – backlash”
This ICC is a funny Organisation. It appears that this Org manned by whites and their cohorts are great in bringing blacks & coloured before the ICC. Whites can do no wrong.
The long and short of it, ” Tamil Tigers were bloody terrorists who committed war crimes against their own people in their final days. Geoffry Robertson Q.C – SL’s Secrets.
What Robertson does not want to be aware is that he sits with TGTE in a panel discussion. THAT SEAT OF THE TGTE TO APPEAR WITH ROBERTSON OR THE ARRANGEMENT TO SIT MAY HAVE COST THEM WITH A TIDY PACKET. WONDER, WHETHER ROBERTSON TOO IS IN POSESSION OF A SWISS BANK ACCOUNT OR ELSE WHERE WAS HE GOING TO DUMP THIS MONEY. ON THE OTHER HAND WONDER WHETHER IT WAS COVERED UNDER THE FOREWORD FOR THE SL’S SECRETS.
Yes Mr. Robertson. We all do carry secrets & conspiracies be it a third world or a first world country. Nevertheless, on must know that waters does not flow uphill. PERHAPS THE IRAQ WAR……
“The disgusting abuse of power a moral quagmire that never ends. America is attacked by terrorists and so, declares war on a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with the attacks, while ignoring an oil rich ally which had everything to do with them (saudi arabia).
WHERE WERE YOU GEOFFRY ROBERTSON ????????
“Decent people are forced to lie on an international stage” EITHER FOR MONEY OR PRESTIGE. YOU WHITE PEOPLE HAVE MADE LOT OF MONEY VIA DEAD HUMAN CARCASSES IN SRI LANKA & ASSISTED TO FUND TERRORISM FROM YOURS SHORES.
“Thousands of Allied Troops and hundreds of thousands of blameless Iraqis are killed, although plenty of companies and individuals benefit from the US dollars that were shipped out, literally, by the ton. More recently, Iraq, now in a far worse state than it ever was under any dictator”
“yet, did you really bring yourself to hold anyone accountable”
Robertson Q.C., WHERE WERE YOU? WAS NOT YOUR COUNTRY CULPABLE TOO?????
Fifa .. In the air accusations of arms deals for votes involving… wait for it… Saudi Arabia ?????
oh !! ho !! incestuous relationship between the 01st Developed World Political Class and its Media Moguls………………
GEOFFRY ROBERTSON Q.C., BARRISTER ON HUMAN RIGHTS, ..MY FOOT.
Tamils in the North have lost a whole generation children and Youth because of the funding that came from yours shores to the ltte & its maniac leader to wage war.
SO AWAIT THE KARMA TO CATCH UP WITH THOSE CONNECTED WITH AND/OR CONCERNED WITH TERRORISTS.
reading the comments of Real Peace, there will be no peace during our life time nor even during the next generations.
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Subramaniam Thiagarajah / June 18, 2015
T wish to thank the Panel for the truth expressed by them.Regarding Prof.Manivannan’s comment,We have already stated that the Govt Change will not give the rights of Tamils as some Tamil politicians think,as a very,very few organizations like the Global Tamil Forum think.Some countries expect there will be change with the New Govt.We already pointed out there will be no such drastic change.Tamils can survive only if the UN help them to get back their Kingdom taken over by the sinhalese in 1940s.
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Aravindan / June 18, 2015
Kingdom??? Ha!Ha!
Dream on and keep on sucking upto the west.
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Native Vedda / June 18, 2015
Aravindan
“Kingdom??? Ha!Ha!”
???????????
“Dream on and keep on sucking upto the west.”
Whats wrong with dreaming?
Are you saying that only a section of people are capable of dreaming or are given permission to dream.
For example Sinhala/Buddhists have been dreaming for the hundred or so years building a Sinhala/Buddhists ghetto. You don’t seem to laugh at their dream.
If you did really laughed at them could you give us the exact date and of your laughter.
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Native Vedda / June 18, 2015
Subramaniam Thiagarajah
“Tamils can survive only if the UN help them to get back their Kingdom taken over by the sinhalese in 1940s.”
Where is this kingdom and could you define the territorial borders of this imagined kingdom?
Would you like to revert back to old kingdom and crown your king. Who might be the lucky/unlucky chap that would rule your kingdom? Now that VP is dead and buried who is the next potential candidate?
Will he be a martial art expert, knows how to fight his opponent from a mounted elephant, a good horseman, ……….?
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thondamannar / June 18, 2015
O’ Lord let thy Subramanium Thiagarajah’s KINGDOM.COM………….
O’LORD, HE HAS BEEN DREAMING FOR FAR TOOOOOO LONG.
O’LORD HE HAS INVESTED HEAVILY ON HIS DREAM KINGDOM TO COME AND AWAITS RETURNS.
O’LORD, BLESS THOSE LIVES OF YOUTH & CHILDREN EXPENDED THROUGH SUBRAMANIAM THIAGARAH’S INVESTMENTS IN SEARCH OF HIS KINGDOM.
O’LORD, FORGIVE SUBRAMANIUM AS HE NOWETH NOT WHAT HE IS WRITTING – AMEN
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