Fifty nine human rights activists and human rights professionals around the world have called upon the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish an independent international judicial process to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed in Sri Lanka’s civil war.
We publish below the statement in full;
An open letter from a group of human rights professionals eminent citizens to member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council to ensure justice, truth, and peace for all in Sri Lanka.
September 14, 2015
An International Judicial Process for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Sri Lanka
Dear members of the Human Rights Council,
In 2009, the international community failed to prevent the terrible systematic massacres, war crimes, rapes, executions that marked the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Tens of thousands of civilians died as a result – most killed by government forces, although the Tamil Tigers too killed civilians. By its failure to prevent these crimes, the international community failed to uphold fundamental principle of the UN: when a state manifestly fails to protect its own people against crimes such as these, the international community has a responsibility to protect the population.
Now a new challenge faces the international community – to ensure that a genuine process of truth recovery, justice, and reparations is initiated to achieve genuine reconciliation that serves the needs of all victims and all the communities of Sri Lanka.
In March 2014 the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) established an international investigation into allegations of crimes committed during and since the war – known as the Office of the High Commissioner’s Investigation on Sri Lanka or OISL.
The HRC established the OISL because it had concluded that the Sri Lankan government was neither willing nor capable of carrying out its own domestic investigation into those crimes. The OISL’s report was due to the HRC last March, but upon the election of President Maithripala Sirisena, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights delayed the report until September 2015. At that time, HRC members made clear that they expected to see concrete steps from the government of Sri Lanka to support a credible justice mechanism, enhance human rights and facilitate reconciliation. More than six months later, it is clear that reconciliation has not progressed between the Tamils and Sinhalese.
The government has made commendable progress confronting corruption and instituting democratic reforms. The adoption of the 19th Amendment is especially laudable. These reforms, however, while welcome, should not be confused with justice for victims. In effect, democracy is being restored in Sri Lanka’s South, while the largely Tamil lands of the North East remain under military occupation – and the Minister of Defense has pledged that the army will not be withdrawn. While tens of thousands of displaced persons await resettlement, the military has entrenched itself in the North East, engaging in property development and business ventures. There is no incentive for it to relinquish the lands it holds to its rightful owners. Militarization also increases the vulnerability of Tamil women to sexual violence. A March 2015 Report of the Secretary-General stated: “There are indications that abduction, arbitrary detention, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence have increased in the post-war period. Allegations of sexual violence by the Sri Lankan security forces against members of the Tamil community in the closing months of the war and in the post-conflict period have been extensively documented, but rarely addressed.” The failure to protect Tamils and address this widespread sexual violence has deepened tensions and bred a culture of fear in the North and East of the Island.
Sri Lanka still has the second highest number of disappeared in the world after Iraq. Victims desperately need to know the whereabouts of their missing relatives. Though thousands of Tamils should have been in Government custody having been captured or surrendered or arrested, the Government reported that there were only 273 political prisoners in custody. The government has failed to take the responsibility for locating or accounting for the disappeared. Despite talk of reconciliation, the administration has not acted on an essential confidence-building measure: releasing the names and details of prisoners it holds or who surrendered at the end of the war. Instead, the government has reinstated and promoted army commanders accused of direct command responsibility for war crimes. The factors which led the HRC to conclude that an international inquiry was necessary have not changed.
We list these events not as an attack on the new government, but instead to demonstrate that even with the best intentions in the world the Sri Lankan government is not capable of running a credible domestic inquiry into the alleged crimes of its own forces. It is certainly not capable of mounting a judicial process which would have that essential quality: the trust of victims.
The Tamil community’s distrust of the government arises from a long history of the failure of the state to administer Justice. The Tamil experience has been one of massacres, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and rape, even before the bloody end of the war in 2009. Violence has been paired with laws that have systematically marginalized Tamils. These crimes have been met with near total impunity.
Other communities, too, have suffered from this culture of state impunity. In the seventies and the eighties thousands of Sinhala people were massacred and disappeared by state violence. An end to state impunity in Sri Lanka is in the interests of all the communities of the island.
We raise this history to illustrate the great challenges to justice. As noted above, very little has changed since the UN set up the inquiry over a year ago. The government has announced that a domestic mechanism will be in place by September 2015. Such a mechanism will almost certainly fail to meet a touchstone standard: consultation with affected parties and confidence of the victims. This failure will follow in the pattern of all such previous efforts. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice, Mr. Pablo de Greiff, recently observed that Sri Lanka has a long record of ineffectual “commissions of inquiry.” He noted:
Failed, inadequate or uneven implementation of their recommendations has been a common feature. They have not contributed to closing the significant confidence gap between communities, to securing the rights of victims to truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-recurrence, or to making State institutions more trustworthy in the eyes of citizens. On the contrary, the accumulated result of these efforts has increased mistrust in the Government’s determination to genuinely redress those violations.
A judicial process set up by the victor cannot deliver justice for all. As international supporters of human rights and humanitarian law, and in solidarity with all the communities of Sri Lanka, we call on the international community to ensure that Sri Lanka is on a trajectory towards genuine justice and reconciliation.
Soon, the HRC will consider the OISL report into the crimes committed by all sides in the war. This report will follow the UN’s 2011 Panel of Experts Report and the 2012 Petrie Report. These three reports demonstrate the facts and circumstances of the grave atrocities that occurred during and since the civil war’s conclusion. The release of the OISL report should not mark the end of the international community’s responsibility to the people of Sri Lanka.
With the facts in hand, the HRC must fulfill its duty by establishing an international independent judicial process under UN auspices. We do not intend to spell out the specifics of such a mechanism, including its possible location, however at a minimum it must entail:
- Application of international criminal law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide;
- Consultation on the mechanism’s design with all affected groups, especially victims;
- Independent operation and adequate funding;
- Guarantees of witness protection;
- Access to information from all sources, including government and military;
- Finally and most importantly it must entail the appointment of independent and competent personnel by the UN to constitute a significant majority in key positions – prosecutors, judges, and investigators –and jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the alleged atrocities committed by both sides.
Sri Lanka must incorporate international crimes under its domestic law and also sign on to the Rome Statue to demonstrate its genuine commitment to non-recurrence.
The HRC must be clear that the only way those conditions can be guaranteed is by the establishment of an independent international judicial process. In 2009, the world failed to protect Sri Lankan civilians. In 2015, we urge you to rectify that failure by mounting a credible judicial process. The creation of such a process is essential to prevent future atrocities and promote long-term reconciliation.
Thank you for your kind consideration. Sincerely,
- Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President UN General Assembly (2008-2009). Foreign Minister of Nicaragua (1979-1990).
- Miloon Kothari, former Special UN Rapporteur on the Right to Housing.
- Hon. John Dowd AO QC, Former Attorney General of New South Wales. President,
International Commission of Jurists, Australia. President of ActionAid Australia.
- Yudith Rolón, Director General, Office de Verdad Justica y Reparacion (Truth and
Justice Commission on the Arrested & Disappeared, 1954-1989), Paraguay.
- Javier Giraldo Moreno, S. J., Sacerdote Jesuita Coordinador del banco de datos
Derechos y Violencia en Colombia. Tercer Vicepresidente del Tribunal Permanente
de los Pueblos, Colombia.
- Jakob von Uexkull, Founder, Right Livelihood Awards and the World Future Council,
Sweden.
- Norita Cortiñas Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Disappeared), Argentina.
- Maria Stella Caceres, Director of the Museo de la Memorias, Paraguay.
- David Deng, Legislative Director, South Sudan Law Society.
- Martin Almada, Alternative Nobel Prize Laureate, 2002. Member, Lawyers’
Association of the Americas. Paraguay.
- Maude Barlow, Chair, Council of Canadians. Alternative Nobel Prize 2009, Canada.
- Medha Patkar, Founder, National Alliance of People Movements, India.
- Professor Jake Lynch, Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies,
University of Sydney, Australia. Former Secretary General of International Peace
Research Association.
- Hubert Sauper, Academy Award nominated Director, Darwin’s Nightmare; We Come
As Friends.
- Alejandro Cerezo Contreras, winner of the Aachen Prize for Peace, Germany 2012,
Comité Cerezo México, Organization for Human Rights and for the Freedom of
Political Prisoners, Mexico.
- John Cavanagh, Director, The Institute for Policy Studies, USA.
- Elsadig Elsheikh, Director, Global Justice Program, Haas Institute for a Fair and
Inclusive Society, University of California, Berkeley.
- Dr. Dan Plesch, Director, Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS,
University of London.
- Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, Secretary General of the International Peace Research
Association. Senior Lecturer in Media and Politics at Northumbria University, UK.
- Maria Herrero & Juan Carlos Trujillo, Familiares en Búsqueda and Enlaces
Nacionales, (Organizations of Relatives of Forced Disappeared people), Mexico.
- Dr. Robert Dubler SC, Chairperson, Sri Lanka Evidence Project, International
Commission of Jurists, Australia.
- Medea Benjamin, Cofounder, CODEPINK, USA.
- Martinez de la Hidalga, Former Medical Coordinator of refugee camps in Croatia
and Kurdistan.
- Bruce Haigh, Retired Australian Diplomat.
- Candy Canezo Diez, Human Rights Activist, Philippines.
- Richard Obedi, Executive Director, The Populace Foundation International- Uganda
Programme.
- Christoph Wiedmer, Director, Society for Threatened Peoples, Switzerland.
- Professor Wiliam Schabas, International Human Rights Lawyer.
- Christine Ahn, Executive Director, Women Cross DMZ.
- Julian Burnside AO QC, Barrister, Australia.
- Sara Larrain, Director, Sustainable Chile Programme, Chile.
- Dr. David Rampton, LSE Fellow, Global Politics Dept., Government & International
Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science.
- Juan Pablo Eviner, Edmund Rice International, Rights of the Child, Argentina.
- Lewis Gordon, International Human Rights Lawyer, USA.
- Frances Harrison, Author, Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden
War.
- Alnoor Ladha, Cofounder, /The Rules, USA.
- Nimmi Gowrinathan, Director, Politics of Sexual Violence Initiative. Visiting
Professor, Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, City College New
York.
- Dr. Vidya Jain, Director, Centre for Gandhian Studies, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur,
India. Ex Co Secretary General of Asia Pacific Peace Research Association.
- Jerry Mander, Founder, International Forum on Globalization, USA.
- Tony Clarke, Founder, Polaris Institute, Canada.
- Jerald Joseph, Director, Pusat KOMAS, Malaysia.
- Guillo Bullrich, Edmund Rice International, Rights of the Child, Argentina.
- Dr. Jack Santa Barbara, Director, The Sustainable Scale Project, USA.
- Dr. Pradeep Dhakal, Co-Secretary General, Asia Pacific Peace Research Association. Director, Chetanalaya Institute for Humanity, Peace and Spirituality, Nepal.
- Stefanie Grant, Senior Visiting Research Fellow at LSE’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights.
- Elifuraha Laltaika, Executive Director, Association for Law & Advocacy for Pastoralists, Tanzania.
- Anna Blackshaw, Board Member, Just Foreign Policy, USA.
- Nicole D’Souza, Vice Chair, New South Wales Young Lawyers Human Rights
Committee. Project Convener, Sri Lanka Evidence Project, International Commission
of Jurists, Australia.
- Tathiana Flores, Human Rights Advocate, Costa Rica.
- Florencia Santucho, Director International Human Rights Film Festival, International
Environmental Film Festival (FINCA), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Prof. P. Ramasamy, Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Malaysia.
- Elizabeth Carrasco Gardeazabal, Head of the Documentation Center of the Bolivian
Film Archive.
- Lena Hendry Program Manager, Pusat KOMAS (Human Rights NGO), Manager
Freedom FilmFest, Malaysia.
- Mela Márquez Saleg, Executive Director, Foundation Bolivian Cinematheque,
Bolivia.
- Dr. Stuart Rees AM, Professor Emeritus, University of Sydney.
- Julio Santucho, President of the Instituto Multimedia DerhumALC (IMD), Argentina.
- Miguel Álvarez Ganda, President, Serapaz, Service and Assessment for Peace,
Mexico.
- Callum Macrae, Film Director: No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka.
- Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director, The Oakland Institute, USA.
Amarasiri / September 14, 2015
TO: An open letter from a group of human rights professionals eminent citizens to member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council to ensure justice, truth, and peace for all in Sri Lanka.
RE: With The Facts In Hand UN Must Establish An International Independent Judicial Process: HR Professionals
What About
1, Iraq?
2. Syria?
3. Libya?
4. Afghanistan?
5. Gaza/Israel?
6. Kashmir
7. Burma-Mayamar?
Why double standards.
Why single out Sri Lanka, the Land of Native Veddah Aethho?
[Edited out]
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alex / September 14, 2015
Ah yes, the great Sinhala chauvinist argument. Other people kill their national minorities, why can’t we?
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Amarasiri / September 15, 2015
alex
“Ah yes, the great Sinhala chauvinist argument. Other people kill their national minorities, why can’t we? “
That is where the UN comes in. One cannot kill their National Minorities.Period. The Para-Sinhala have been killing other Paras in the Land of Native Veddah Aethho without accoutability.
Those who kill, commit crimes, war crimes, should be prosecuted.
Others, need to be persecuted as well. Others kill is no excuse. The [Edited out]Sinhala or for that matter, anybody else should not be allowed to use that argument. A crime is a crime.
Forgotten People – The Evicted and Displaced North Muslims of Sri Lanka (English)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JV60McNQ9o
Published on Jun 1, 2013
The Evicted and Displaced North Muslims of Sri Lanka. The expulsion of the Muslims and other nations from the Northern province was an act of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Tamil militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization in October 1990. In order to achieve their goal of creating a mono ethnic Tamil state in the North Sri Lanka, the LTTE forcibly expelled the 72,000 strong Muslim population from the Northern Province.
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Shrikharan / September 15, 2015
Amarasiri
You said I quote “The Evicted and Displaced North Muslims of Sri Lanka. The expulsion of the Muslims and other nations from the Northern province was an act of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Tamil militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE….”
Certainly that was regrettable I cannot justify it. But 1983 anti Tamil riots was also on similar lines to chase Tamils out of the country and that is the main reason we have a diaspora now and most of them are those who left Sri Lanka after the 1983 pogrom.
Chasing away of Muslims from Jaffna was a single incident. What about the harassment Rajapakse regime gave to them. They are all with an aim to tell them Sri Lanka is not a place for them.
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Amarasiri / September 15, 2015
Shrikharan
“Certainly that was regrettable I cannot justify it. But 1983 anti Tamil riots was also on similar lines to chase Tamils out of the country and that is the main reason we have a diaspora now and most of them are those who left Sri Lanka after the 1983 pogrom. “
This should include all pogrom. since 1948, including the disenfranchising of the up country Tamils, 1958, 1983, etc.
However, what is ironic is that the SAME Tamils had no hesitation to do the same or worse to their fellow Tamil Speaking Muslims.
That is what they wouls have done, had they got the Fascist State Tamil Eelam with Velupillai Prapakaran as the Fist Dictator, Maha Veeran. aka Mootal Veeran.
Did VP, Mootal Veeran. take money from Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2005 to defeat Ranil Wickramnasinge
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Shrikharan / September 15, 2015
Thanks Amarasiri for your reply. Thanks for your additions on my behalf to include other previous anti Tamil pogroms.
I again quote you “However, what is ironic is that the SAME Tamils had no hesitation to do the same or worse to their fellow Tamil Speaking Muslims”.
Tamils are only humans so made a single mistake. The mouth to mouth whisper as to why Muslims were chased was Muslims were acting as spies to the army. Tamils never conveyed anything to the army on the whereabouts of the LTTE. (May be one or two Tamils if at all and there are always ‘traitors’ in any community.)
Continuing with your same irony, The Jews who suffered the holocaust in Germany under Hitler, the same Jews had no hesitation to commit similar destruction to the people of Palestine
The only way forwards is to accept our mistakes (Tamil side and the Sinhala side) and take responsibility and pave the way for a reconciliation.
I will not accept the argument that accepting war crimes is letting down our country. No it is not. People affected in the war, mostly Tamils, are citizens of this country and in no way brining justice to the affected citizens can be construed as letting down the country. Denying justice on the basis we are letting down the country makes Tamils feel we are foreigners in our own land.
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Amarasiri / September 16, 2015
Shrikharan
“Tamils are only humans so made a single mistake. The mouth to mouth whisper as to why Muslims were chased was Muslims were acting as spies to the army.”
The same argument was put up by the US during World War 2 for sending the Japanese Americans to internment camps and stealing their land.
When did the Tamils expel the Sinhala who we in the North?
May others used that standard excuse. Germans, Russians, Turks etc.
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Shrikharan / September 17, 2015
Amarasiri
“When did the Tamils expel the Sinhala who we in the North?”
Tamils did not expel Sinhalese.
It is the (Sinhalese) Governments which had colonized large stretches of land in traditional Tamil areas by the sinister state sponsored colonization schemes with a sole idea to dilute the Tamils to a minority in their own traditional areas. Tamils had no objection for anyone settling in Tamil dominated areas in their own liking but resented state sponsored colonization with the sinister plan to convert a ‘Tamil dominant area’ to that of a ‘Sinhala area’. Tamils never settled in Colombo and other outside areas on a state sponsored scheme. They settled on their own free will.
You cannot equate the Tamils settling in Sinhala areas and the Sinhala settling in Tamil areas. You must remember Tamils being a minority cannot dilute the Sinhalese to a minority in their own areas which the Sinhalese can do in traditional Tamil areas. The effects are not the same and so both cannot be simply equated.
Remember Tamils are calling Sri Lanka their home because we have our traditional areas which we call ‘ours’ and where Tamil culture and tradition is practiced. If this is not available then we are like foreigners living here with ‘citizenship’, like the Sinhalese and Tamils living in the USA, UK with ‘citizenship’. Certainly Tamils or Sinhalese are not really happy over there and only for other economic and other benefits ‘live’ there when their hearts and minds are in Sri Lanka.
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Richie / September 16, 2015
The harassment towards muslims during the MR regime was connived by the western governments so that they can propagate a regime change. The rebel buddhist monks and their organization has now totally dissipated after the elections. No, protests, not even when a minority party leader is appointed opposition leader in parliament. These monks who created problems for the muslims were most probably paid for by western governments, in order to create a pro western regime/puppet regime. It wasn’t the Rajapaksa loyalists who created problems for the muslims, it was a group of monks who were instigating violence against the minorities and that group of monks have disappeared since the new government came to power.
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alex / September 15, 2015
Yes, and Sri Lanka does not have a justice system capable of investigating any of these events, let a lone the thousands of crimes against Tamils. Thus, the UN system, with the Right to Protect doctrine is now acting.
Your question on the other countries is not relevant. Sri Lanka’s security forces have committed crimes and so far it has proven grossly unable to prosecute criminals.
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anonymous / September 14, 2015
My dear Amare,
You are not being fair or sensible. You live in Sri Lanka, don’t you?. If there is a problem in your family but you see something even worse going on next door, which problem would you try and find a solution to first?. Ask your self.
P.S. By the way, you missed the most important state when it comes to human rights abuses, ‘PALASTINE’. They are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. UN is raising the State of Palastine flag at it’s HQ. Well done UN.
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kumaran / September 15, 2015
Anyone give a damn for the sixty million refugees from Syria and other M.E countries and the images we see daily and reports of butchery? What charletons we are !!! The U.N., Diaspora, the Sinhala extremists, yanks, Canadians, all. None of us have a right to seek vengeance for any reason because, except the Germans no one gives a s–t for these poor souls.
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Maveeran / September 15, 2015
Lets focus on Srilanka’s issues first ok Amarasiri. If you are a native then go back to forest and chase a few monkeys, why waste your scavenging time on Internet and social websites. What are you trying to express to the whole world? Gtfo of here.
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janaka / September 15, 2015
Fifty nine human rights activists and human rights professionals, So Callum Macrae admits he finally is a activists and not a Unbiased Journalist, One would find it very hard to find out what kind of Group let alone military force the LTTE was which EXPORTED the Concept and Technology of Suicide Bombings to the world if you watched Callum Macrae docu drama you would think they were just a NON violent Group of Rights Activisits fighting for thei rights. yet let us see the Final Report and wish the UN would Also Give and Publish the SO CALLED WITNESS who gave evidence as theorug out the EElam wars we have see the blatant manipulation and properganda of the facts. Now some of these activists and human rights professionals names stand out when it came to the Gaza war in 2008 and the Goldstone repot who these very Activitist called it the Most Biased report they had ever encounted and some of them kept their mouths shut and even Argued with other HR Groups such as HRW and Amnisty to Bomb Libya and Syria. YES AS THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A CLEAN WAR, EVEN WHEN THE RULES ARE FOLLOWED TO THE LETTER. The Only name of respect that stand’s out of this Group is the Leader of Code Pink, the rest are part time rights Activitist who pick and choose Human rights situations.
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VIS8 / September 17, 2015
Well said Janaka! Callum macrae is hell bent on achieving his dream of creating a “historic documentary\” and to get his fifteen minutes of fame….. still has not gotten the fact that the photo shown above is from a terrorist propaganda video, with tamil terrorists dressed in Army uniforms of captured soldiers…
THE ORIGINAL “KILLING FIELDS” VIDEO has been FOUND: ALL DIALOG IS IN TAMIL, the language of the terrorists…………
These paid ‘journalists’ and ‘human rights advocates’, all paid by the tamil terror diaspora still believes this channel 4 bull shit.
Macrayyyyyy.. how about creating a “history making” documentary on your British atrocities????? bet you dont have the balls (or the support of terror money) for it. F*%^ off moron!
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Native Vedda / September 17, 2015
janaka
You are back.
What exactly do you want the UN Investigation to do? Do you want UN to confirm that there was zero civilian during and after the war?
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alex / September 14, 2015
Good advice indeed.
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Sellam / September 14, 2015
The UN had failed from the beginning of the war in Sri Lanka because the powerful Member States helped Sri Lanka to fight the LTTE. The report against Sri Lanka by the Human Rights Professionals will do no harm to Sri Lanka. The UN has to change, because the Secretary General has no powers vested in him except that he has to carry out what the member states directs him to do so. The powers of the member states has to change as well. When United States imposes its will , it is carried out. That has to stop and more member states should be given the veto power. The rules have to change in the UN. The domestic Inquiry by Sri lanka would be a farce. America and Britain are not going to do anything about it.
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Eusense / September 14, 2015
With the new government in place the ball is in these human right activists court. Without any fear of reprisal from the new gov. Channel 4, Macrea, HR groups etc. etc. should release sources of all anonymous material they used in making these allegations. Even eye witnesses should be brought forward with their horror stories. Until this is done there is no legitimacy to be asking investigation and prosecution.
No legal system can work with anonymous accusations alone.
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Native Vedda / September 14, 2015
Nuisance
“Until this is done there is no legitimacy to be asking investigation and prosecution.”
Until a caste iron guarantee is given witnesses are not stupid enough to venture out from their self.
The most stupidest person in this forum is sach. Now you have moved one notch from second place to the first. If both of you are sisters, my apologies.
In the absence of witness protection you can tell your war criminals to get lost. UNHRC has its own devices to gather, verify, confirm evidence.
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eusense / September 15, 2015
Vedda
If someone accuses you a murderer would a judicial system accept that and sentence you to death?? Don’t be a retard.
Either the “victims” and the “victims” come forward or forget about a legal proceeding. This is not going to be a kangaroo court!
Your UNHRC can have any amount of their devices and onesided investigations none are legitimate. That is the reason the US is backtracking on SL.
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Native Vedda / September 15, 2015
Nuisance
The evidence is required only at the court of law or at ICC. Then the accused’s legal team will have the right to cross examine them and challenge their credibility, not during the preliminary investigations.
Please consult OTC and his side kick Ramuuuuuu on legal matters.
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eusense / September 15, 2015
Whether an investigation or courts it should be legitimate and approved by both sides. If not SL has the right to reject one sided investigations. If no real victims and witnesses are present there is no legitimacy. I will gurentee this will go nowhere!
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Native Vedda / September 15, 2015
Nuisance
If there is a trial witnesses will come forward to state the facts. No need for them to appear in public during the investigation. It is up to the investigating authorities to interview the witnesses and present them at the courts.
Until then it is better for you to keep your typing to a minimum in this regard.
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Eusense / September 15, 2015
Good luck!!
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Native Vedda / September 16, 2015
Nuisance
“Good luck!!”
Of course the war criminals need lots of it.
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pacs / September 15, 2015
“if I starve the Tamils in the north, the Singhalese will be happy in ….. ” JR Jeyawardene
The same attitude is still prevailing there. Has anyone tried to change the attitude? Can anyone change it.
the fact is mara with this attitude got more Singhala votes than My3
approval of Food and medicine as a weapon of war.
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Tamil from the north / September 15, 2015
A legitimately elected government should act and govern the country properly. The LTTE neither an elected government nor chosen by the Tamils to go out and protect them – remember they were a creation of successive racist policies of elected governments of SL. When the LTTE committed atrocities where they killed innocent Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or whoever, they did not play by the rules of war as there were no rules for a terrorist outfit. One maniac giving orders from the Vanni jungles did not give any legitimacy but they carried out murders at their own will. The ignorant gamaralaya racists in the south always thought the LTTE was chosen by the Tamils and sent out to battle the criminals in military uniform. Now it is time to grow up!!!
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BBS Rep / September 15, 2015
Good luck to the fifty nine human rights activists who signed this appeal.
However expecting The UN to deliver justice is a redundant activity. The UN never stopped a war (eg. Iraq invasion) and do scarce little to prevent massacres (eg.Shabra and Shattila, Ruwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sri Lanka and the list goes on). Looking at the UN organisations for just long lasting solutions to humanitarian problems is day dreaming only.
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Maveeran / September 15, 2015
Good move by the UN and the next should be to educate all tge Sinhalese in Srilanka. Most of them are living in their Mahawamsa period.
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Maveeran / September 15, 2015
Good move by the UN. War criminals who committed genocides should be prosecuted.
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vis8 / September 17, 2015
How about Bush and |Blair? LMAO….;.
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Native Vedda / September 18, 2015
vis8
“How about Bush and |Blair? LMAO….;.”
You should.
Since MR had some experience in the late 1980s taking Sri Lanka to the UNHRC you should appoint him as your campaign manager and the legal expert on war crime.
Added advantage, hire MR, Namal’s service is free.
We are right behind you.
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / September 15, 2015
If local judicial mechanisms are to be set up, as it seems very likely, the best option would be to have judges/ Commissioners representing all three communities in the country and two eminent judge-one each from India and another from the West,heading the process.
Dr.RN
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Shrikharan / September 15, 2015
UN or BN we do not mind. UN can have its own faults but It cannot be an internal inquiry into the war crime charges against Sri Lanka. It is against all forms of justice for an accused to sit in judgment against its own crime allegations. Further all previous local investigations was simply an eye wash and the victims have lost total faith in such an inquiry.
If UN had been faulted then let BN or CN or any N inquire but certainly not the accused inquiring into its own crimes. With quality of people such Sarath Silva and Mohan Pieris as Chief Justice we have seen how low the Sri Lanka judiciary can stoop to and we have no faith in the Sri Lankan judiciary.
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Vinodh / September 15, 2015
LTTE kept the whole of Sri Lanka under pins for over 30 years. So what’s wrong in a legitimate government getting rid of a brutal terrorist organization? When the LTTE bombed and killed many in the south the UN was silent. The maximum was giving out just a condolence message. When thousands of soldiers were killed nobody was bothered.
Now that the government got rid of that terrorist outfit by killing it’s leader, the megalomaniac Prabakaran, and the top rung, the UN is very concerned. This means that the UN and many other countries are supporting terrorism.
In reality there was no ethnic cleansing or genocide against a race by any government ever. It was only fighting terrorism. If there was ethnic cleansing how is that over half of the Tamil community lives peacefully in areas outside the North and the East?
I am a Tamil myself and I have never in my life faced an unpleasant situations in life due to my ethnicity may be because I think of my self as a Sri Lankan first and always and I believe in co-existence.
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Pygmalion / September 15, 2015
Vinodh.
Your line.
In reality there was no ethnic cleansing or Genocide against a race by any Govt:ever….
What then is your considered view of 1983?.Perhaps you were not born then!
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John Stewart Sloan / September 15, 2015
Interesting to note that the name of Basil Fernando of the AHRC was not amongst the signatories.
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Son-of-a-Lanka / September 15, 2015
So when is the inquiry against US & UK for Iraq ?
And oops ….. against Israel for Palestine …..
just to name a few.
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John Stewart Sloan / September 18, 2015
Son, totally agree with you!
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Native Vedda / September 18, 2015
Son-of-a-Lanka
“So when is the inquiry against US & UK for Iraq ? And oops ….. against Israel for Palestine …..”
I appreciate your concern.
You are right you should take it up in the UNHRC. I will be right behind you.
Let us deal one by one, lets bring our war crime investigation to closure and then then take up other countries.
You also must concern yourself about the refugees leaving their country. Being concerned with other people would you now request Sri Lankan state to receive few thousand refugees from Middle East, provide accommodation, rehabilitation, …… etc?
If you did that I assure you I would not rename you as a son of thousand fathers.
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Son-of-a-Lanka / September 15, 2015
Ha ha ha ….. funny to see Callum Macrea also in the list.
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Maveeran / September 17, 2015
You SOB
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Spring Koha / September 15, 2015
My God, what a formidable squad!
And, who can deny that the legitimate request for an honest and impartial inquiry into what happened, that has, given the circumstances, calls for an international involvement.
The best that the GOSL can hope for is to prepare a level pitch, and not to succumb to the temptations of the last regime that sought for 6 long years to deny, obfuscate and delay the inevitable. MR and his regime gave reason aplenty for the rest of the world to doubt our ability to be impartial.
Catharsis can be so liberating, and will free WE the people from the perennial, pestilential stench.
Dammit! It’s time that we bit the bullet and let it happen.
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Harvey Perera / September 15, 2015
[Edited out] Please write instead of posting links – CT
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Richie / September 16, 2015
The picture is not representative of Sri Lankan men. Sri Lankan men; if those are supposed to be LTTE terrorists, then they are a fell fed fat fair lot!!! Even the man in the army fatigues look like a plump man. Either this is a fabricated photo or a picture from a different part of the world. Looks more middle eastern to me – perhaps, Iraqi’s. The Pro LTTE is using false propaganda to bring about false allegations against Sri Lanka for winning the terrorist war and killing the murdering terrorist Prabakaran. U.S.A killed Osama Bin Laden when he was unarmed and sitting in a bed room with his wife. Killing Prabakaran in the middle of war does not constitute a war crime!!!
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Native Vedda / September 16, 2015
Richie
Here we go again.
You haven’t watched the full video clip. Have you.
” Killing Prabakaran in the middle of war does not constitute a war crime!!!”
The man in the above photo is not Prabaharan.
By any chance you are related to Nuisance the stupid I and sach the stupid II.
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Spring Koha / September 16, 2015
Richie,
You’re dead right about the man in the picture NOT being representative of Sri Lankan men. The man in the picture IS representative of a smaller group who took to excesses and shamed us all.
The picture is undoubtedly authentic. You do not need to waste time ‘fabricating’ pictures when there were (and still are) plenty of authentic pictures available, taken by soldiers; trophy pictures, for their warped pleasure, and to show in the village to boost their ranaviru status. Oh yes, they shut the doors to keep out journos and foreign busy bodies but they forgot to take away the cameras of the participants – on both sides. The videos also contain the tormented screams of the victims, and the distinctly Sinhalese voices of the execution squad.
If you think that VP was the only ‘killing’, think again. Times 40,000 at least.
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VIS8 / September 17, 2015
Well said! Callum macrae is hell bent on achieving his dream of creating a “historic documentary\” and to get his fifteen minutes of fame….. still has not gotten the fact that the photo shown above is from a terrorist propaganda video, with tamil terrorists dressed in Army uniforms of captured soldiers…
THE ORIGINAL “KILLING FIELDS” VIDEO has been FOUND: ALL DIALOG IS IN TAMIL, the language of the terrorists…………
These paid ‘journalists’ and ‘human rights advocates’, all paid by the tamil terror diaspora still believes this channel 4 bull shit.
Macrayyyyyy.. how about creating a “history making” documentary on your British atrocities????? bet you dont have the balls (or the support of terror money) for it. F*%^ off moron!
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Native Vedda / September 17, 2015
VIS8
Please read the latest report
“Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka”
Then bang your head on the nearest wall.
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Spring Koha / September 16, 2015
You’re dead right about the man in the picture NOT being representative of Sri Lankan men. The man in the picture IS representative of a smaller group who took to excesses and shamed us all.
The picture is undoubtedly authentic. You do not need to waste time ‘fabricating’ pictures when there were (and still are) available plenty of authentic pictures taken by soldiers; trophy pictures, for their warped pleasure, and to show in the village to boost their ranaviru status. Oh yes, they shut the doors to keep out journos and foreign busy bodies but they forgot to take away the cameras of the participants – on both sides. The videos also contain the tormented screams of the victims, and the distinctly Sinhalese voices of the execution squad.
If you think that VP was the only ‘killing’, think again. Times 40,000 at least.
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