Posters were found in Sri Lanka after the slaying of LTTE chief Prabhakaran thanking India for the help rendered by it in wiping out terrorism. SriLankan Ministers have gone on record that SriLanka was in constant contact with India when the final hostilities were on with LTTE.
Karunanidhi has gone on record that the Centre has declared that it has nothing to do with this operation, yet gone on a hunger strike between breakfast and lunch to stop war in Srilanka
Nirupama Rao and Shivsankar Menon make a tea, breakfast and lunch trip to Srilanka regularly and meet the Chief Minister/s Tamil Nadu later.
What exactly is going on?
Has India actively helped Srilanka in Tamil Genocide?
If not why not rebut SriLankan claims?
If the answer is yes, explain to the people of India in general and Tamils in particular.
Now that Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a resolution moved by Jayalaithaa that Rajapakshe/Srilanka committed genocide and that economic sanctions be imposed on SriLanka,what is the Centre’s take?
This resolution will prove to be embarrassing to the Centre , to say the least if Rajapakshe is declared guilty of war crimes by the UN ,based on the expert Panel’s report.
India can be indicted for abetting genocide.
Will the centre clear the air?
Story.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today denied that he had come under pressure from India to offer the minority Tamils a political solution, saying that any settlement to the matter will have to be approved by the parliament.
“There was no pressure from India on the thirteenth amendment of thirteen plus,” Rajapaksa told reporters.
Responding to a query on the visit by Indian National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar, he said the Indians had only discussed with him routine bilateral issues.
A thin strip of land in northern Sri Lanka was the brutal theatre of war during the closing phase of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil conflict. Thousands of civilians were hemmed in as the government battled Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland.
The report by a UN-appointed panel of experts focuses on alleged war crimes committed by both the Sri Lankan armed forces and Tamil Tigers during the months leading up to the defeat of the rebels in May 2009.
Numerous allegations were circulating at the time and have emerged since. During that final stage of combat very few of the accusations could be independently verified. Journalists and most aid groups were barred from the region.
Civilian deaths
In March 2009, the UN said it feared actions by both sides might amount to war crimes. The UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillaydescribed the level of civilian deaths as “truly shocking”, and warned it could reach “catastrophic” levels.
The government was accused of repeatedly shelling safe zones set up to protect civilians. The rebels were accused of holding civilians as human shields and firing on those who tried to flee. Both denied the allegations.
The UN estimated that up to 7,000 people had died by the end of April. The latest report now says it believes tens of thousands of civilians were killed in that final stage, adding that most civilian casualties in the final phases of the war were caused by government shelling.
Conduct of war
Civilians on a Red Cross ship are disembarked in 2009 as the conflict drew to its bloody end
Sri Lanka’s government was accused of using heavy weaponry and UN images obtained by the BBC appeared to show shelling damage in a government-designated “safe zone” for civilians.
The report claims the government shelled food distribution lines and near ICRC ships coming to pick up wounded civilians from beaches.
The government denied security forces had shelled the safe zone, saying there were a number of rebel suicide blasts in that area. The UN report is also said to condemn the rebels for killing civilians through suicide attacks.
Britain and France said the rebels had been “forcefully preventing civilians from leaving” during a 48-hour ceasefire. The rebels said the truce had not been long enough to allow civilians to safely leave the conflict zone. They rejected the charge that rebels prevented civilians from leaving the war zone.
The report also alleges the forced recruitment of children by rebels.
At the time, the Sri Lankan government denied the army had caused civilian casualties but said it had pierced rebel defences.
After the conflict ended, a group of doctors who worked in Sri Lanka’s rebel-held war zone were arrested on suspicion of collaborating with rebels. They later retracted their accusations against the government.
Extra-judicial killings
After the war more allegations emerged. One video obtained by Britain’s Channel 4 news purported to show the extra-judicial killing of what were thought to be Tamil rebels. Sri Lanka’s army spokesmanangrily rejected the video as a fabrication.
In late 2010, graphic video which apparently showed more footage from the same incident was aired by Channel 4 news. The pictures, which also showed bloodstained and blindfolded bodies, was rejected by Sri Lankaas an attempt by rebel sympathisers to tarnish Sri Lanka’s image.
And one senior army commander told Channel 4 news that orders for the killings came from the top – Sri Lanka denied those allegations.
The UN said independent experts concluded the footage was authentic, but the government rejects this. The images cannot be verified.
In the midst of the fighting, the BBC talked to civilians fleeing the war about their ordeal. They said they had lived under constant gunfire, intense shelling and an acute shortage of water, food and medicine.
They also confirmed accusations that the rebels were forcibly recruiting children. The head of the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in Sri Lankatold the BBC of shrapnel wounds to the limbs of civilians.
The BBC was part of a trip organised by the government to part of therecently captured front line, where refugees in a state of shock were listlessly standing. The army said it would work on developing the area.
The BBC has also heard numerous allegations from Tamils that their relatives are missing, among them a number of senior rebel fighters.
The government says that the military inflicted no civilian deaths during the final stages of its victory.
International human rights groups, however, say a comprehensive and independent war crimes inquiry is needed.
Sri Lanka conducted its own inquiry into war crimes but human rights groups refused to participate, saying the inquiry does not meet international standards.
Estimates say that as many as 100,000 people were killed during 26 years of war.
The World is concerned about Qadhafi and is pounding Libya.
Mass murderer is making deals with the world powers.
UN is yet to come to any decision on the atrocities committed on Tamils in Sri Lanka.
India is a mute spectator.
Whenever a mumble is heard from the rulers in Chennai is heard Nirupama Rao flies to Colombo, has tea with the killers and comes back.
Hope that Jayalalithaas’s hard stand that Economic Sanctions on Sri Lanka bears fruit.
Dr.Kalaignar is busy weeping over a corrupt daughter.
If it were Jews who had been killed in Sri Lanka, US would have invaded Sri Lanka and Israel would have spirited away Rajapakshe.
Please read my other blogs filed under” ‘Sri Lanka’ – ‘Tamils’
This film contains very disturbing images,” warned Jon Snow at the beginning of Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields. It would, he continued, depict “death, injury, execution and evidence of sexual abuse and murder”…
Channel 4‘s film addressed a crime of omission as well – the failure of the international community to effectively protest against the treatment of civilians in the closing stages of the civil war. It began with the withdrawal of the United Nations from Kilinochchi, the Tamil capital in the north, after the Sri Lankan government had announced that it could no longer guarantee the safety of the UN mission, a move interpreted here as a premeditated plan to remove inconvenient witnesses…
Ground work being done to wrangle more seats in the elections.MK has the habit of writing letters to Center whether it be SriLankan Tamils issue or attack on fishermen in Rameaswaram. Personal visits to Delhi are reserved for getting ministerial berths in center for his relatives and for bargaining more seats.
He shall be leaving for Delhi soon.
Story:
Chennai, Oct.9 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi on Saturday reiterated his party’s demand to resettle the war displaced Tamils living in camps in Sri Lanka at the earliest.
Horrendous.Humanity must hang its head in shame over this for its insensitivity.Weather cock politicians in Tamil Nadu who cash in on SriLankan Tamils misery, posing as Saviors of Tamils should have quit the Central Cabinet over this issue for the Delhi’s’ inaction in forcing Rajapakshe to come to heels and arrange for resettlement of Tamils and for immediate political solution for Tamils.Well, Saviors shall go to Delhi to get cabinet berths for their kin and their kin dine with Rajapakshe and accept gifts from him smiling.Are you not ashamed as a human being?SriLankan Tamils! Do not trust these vultures.As a world wide community go to UN direct ,seek Obama’s help. Video apparently showing extra-judicial killings by Sri Lankan troops is genuine, a UN envoy has said.
UN special rapporteur Philip Alston said three independent experts had confirmed the video was authentic, renewing calls for a war crime inquiry.
The footage – which Sri Lanka says is fabricated – shows a man dressed as a soldier shooting a man in the head.
It was allegedly filmed in January during the final stages of the bloody conflict with Tamil Tigers rebels.
The government in Colombo said it concluded the video was fake after conducting its own investigation.
Bodies on ground
Mr Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, said there was no reason to assume the footage was fake.
He said he based his conclusion on reports by independent investigators – with experience in forensics and firearms – who had examined the video.
Mr Alston also called on the Sri Lankan government to hold an independent inquiry into possible war crimes committed by both sides of the conflict.
It is not clear where the footage, which also shows other bodies on the ground, was taken.
The video was provided to the BBC and other media organisations by a group called Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, which said it showed “the reality of the behaviour of the government forces during the war”.
Government troops finally defeated the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) last May after months of fierce fighting.
Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka said the video had been taken in January 2009.
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