The Hindu‘s coverage of the news relating to Tamil Genocide warrants this conclusion.
The Hindu which was known for integrity and unbiased reporting is no more.
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‘Activists of Delhi Tamil Students’ Union, Democratic Students Union, Students for Resistance and other common students raised slogans against N. Ram accusing him of being a ‘media fascist’ and ‘a stooge of Rajapaksa’ at a public meeting in JNU after his reply to a question on The Hindu’s role in whitewashing the Sri Lankan state genocide of the Eezham Tamils, wherein he had extensively blamed the LTTE. The meeting on ‘Paid news and media ethics’ was organized at JNU on Wednesday by the Student’s Federation of India, which is the students wing of the CPI(M). The fact that N.Ram and The Hindu have unethically manipulated news to cover up the war crimes of Colombo makes them complicit in the genocide committed on the Eezham Tamils, a Tamil Nadu research scholar in JNU told TamilNet.
Mr. Ram was talking about journalist coverage in India elections and during the US’ wars and on the theme of media ethics, referring greatly to Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent, a classic on understanding how news is manipulated and on editorial bias.
An activist of the DTSU raised a question on why Ram, who had talked about journalists being attacked in Palestine and Iraq, had nothing to say about media freedom and assault on journalists in Sri Lanka, including murder of Sinhala journalist Lasantha Wikramatunga.
When he has been silent about this, used his newspaper to support the genocidal war on the Eezham Tamils, called a visit to the IDP camps in Vavuniya an uplifting experience when they were reality in concentration camps, how could he talk about the ethics of journalism, the activist further asked.
As a reply, N. Ram had said that those who criticize the GoSL do not criticize the LTTE [an argument highlighted by Mahinda Rajapaksa too nowadays]. After criticizing the ‘ruthlessness’ of the LTTE in his reply, he added a line that had the GoSL committed excesses, he would criticize that too…..
When an activist of the DSU observed that his bias was obvious in his reply itself, where he had criticized the LTTE for ten minutes, but had only one line to say about the GoSL, and whether this was his idea of media ethics, Ram fumbled for a response. At this, students in the audience remarked loudly that ‘this is why they gave you Sri Lanka Ratna’ and shouted ‘shame’.
Parental Control must be enabled tp prevent children from watching this Video.
Considering the sensitivity of the Video and the efforts of Rajapakshe of Sri Lanka to wiggle out of War Criminal‘s charge, I understand that moves are afoot to censor this clip or ban it altogether as this gives concrete proof with Forensic evidence of Genocide.
I suggest this may be downloaded by those interested.
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Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: smoke billows from a civilian no-fire zone shelled in 2009. Photo: EPA
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished (Channel 4) was a follow-up to last year’s harrowing film about the end of the war against the Tamil Tigers — a film that came complete with footage of shelled hospitals and summary executions. Faced with the resulting global outrage, the Sri Lankan government promised a full inquiry. So, has it now admitted the truth?
The answer, you might not be startled to hear, is no. An official report has acknowledged for the first time that civilians died — but not that this was in any way the government’s fault. Last night, Jon Snow promised evidence both of more war crimes and of President Rajapaksa’s responsibility for them. In neither case did he break his word.
For a while, it felt as if the programme was proceeding almost too carefully. (At one point, a forensic pathologist was asked to study photographs of mutilated citizens so as to confirm that their injuries were “consistent with shelling”.) But the reason for such caution was soon clear. The original film had been denounced in Sri Lanka as a sloppy piece of reporting. Here, so little was left to chance that any similar objections will surely be impossible to sustain, although, as we saw when the Sri Lankan government was given the right to reply, that didn’t stop them trying.
Certainly by the end, there seemed no doubt that the government had indeed set up special no-fire zones for Tamil civilians — and then fired on them with heavy weaponry. According to a secret UN report, the “probability” that the government had done the shelling was “100 per cent”.
Even so, anybody hoping for the triumph of natural justice was in for a disappointment. When we last saw President Rajapaksa, he was cheerfully greeting the Queen at last year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Australia.”
The Debate is on in UNHRC to censure SriLanka for the genocide of Tamils in SriLanka.
The Resolution was moved by the US and 47 countries are to vote.
China and Pakistan have decided to support SriLanka and Saudi Arabia has already spoken in favour of SriLanka.
Resettled Tamils from SriLanka are taking regular processions in Geneva to awaken the conscience of the Countries that are to vote.
India, though the Tamils killed in SriLanka belong to the ethnic group of Tamils in India,India is callously indifferent to the extent that the Foreign Minister S.M.Krishna stated that India will decide on this issue taking into consideration the relationship of India with other Countries,meaning China.
He had also said that he is yet to know full details!
Full Details of what?
It is a fact that India contributed to the war on terrorism by SriLanka and was actively involved in the final show down between SriLankan Forces and LTTE.
Paradoxically, it was India which armed the LTTE, provided sanctuary to LTTE Supremo Prabhakaran in India.
Tamil Nadu CM Late.MGR openly donated money to LTTE.
Now the equations seem to have changed.
The same India is reluctant to censure SriLanka war crimes, which is therre for every one to see.
What is Morally Right can never be sacrificed for National Interest(I doubt whether there is any Indian interest will be served by supporting SriLanka.
India must unequivocally condemn SriLanka, censure it and impose sanctions on SriLanka.
Unfortunately those killed in SriLanka are Tamils, not Bengalis or Biharis or Sikhs.
However Channel 4 is mounting pressure on UNHRC by planning to release a documentary covering the genocide.
The Genocide was telecast on 14 June 2011 and Independent carried exclusive coverage.
The new Documentary is expected to contain additional footage to prove SriLanka’s crime.
“Fernando” was operating with Sri Lanka’s 58 Division during the final assault. He has risked his life as well as the lives of his family to speak out about the horrors he witnessed. He told Channel 4 News that men, women, and children were actively targeted with small arms by government forces.
A documentary showing graphic new footage of executed civilians in Sri Lanka, including the son of the leader of the Tamil Tigers, hopes to provide conclusive evidence of war crimes by its government.
A year after screening Jon Snow’s award-winning documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields about the dying days of the civil war – Channel 4 has returned to the island to uncover more evidence of alleged abuse.
The 60-minute documentary, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished, will be screened days before the England cricket team flies out to the country….
It comes in the wake of this week’s United States resolution to the UN Human Rights Council censuring Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa and his brother, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaska, for ‘not adequately addressing serious allegations of violations of international law during the war in Sri Lanka’.
‘This forensic investigation reveals damning new evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Sri Lankan government forces,’ said Mr Snow.
‘But it also points directly to those who may bear culpability and command responsibility for this savagery – from the military leaders who led the bloody assaults that killed civilians – to the President and his brother, the Defence Secretary, who have yet to be properly investigated and held to account.
‘It is our duty as journalists to report this evidence; it is up to the UN and the international community to initiate effective investigations and deliver justice for the thousands who lost their lives.
‘At a time when we are seeing similar carnage in Syria – this is vital work..
In the documentary, Mr Snow examines four instances of alleged war crimes using contemporaneous documents, eye witness accounts, photographic stills and trophy footage to determine how events unfolded in the final days of the war and investigate who was responsible for the carnage.
According to UN estimates, up to 40,000 civilians were killed during the conflict between the Government and rebel forces.
One of the most horrific scenes shows the bullet-riddled body of 12-year-old Balachandran Prabhakaran, son of the Tiger leader Velupillai.
Professor Derrick Pounder, a forensic pathologist at Dundee University, confirmed the boy was shot five times rather than killed in combat duty.
He said: ‘There is a speckling from propellant tattooing, indicating that the distance of the muzzle of the weapon to this boy’s chest was two to three feet or less.
‘So he could have reached out with his hand and touched the gun that killed him. After receiving this wound he would have fallen backwards and it’s then that he is likely to have received these two wounds.
‘It’s likely that the shooter was standing over him while he was lying flat on the ground after the first shot. So this is a murder. There’s no doubt about it.’
The programme has also obtained unofficial footage, which suggests that his father Velupillai sustained a massive head wound – when his body was shown on television his head was covered by a rag. Separate stills see him first in uniform, then stripped naked and finally smeared in mud.
Here you find an ethnic community wiped out in a ruthless manner.
India has responded to similar situations like this, say Bangladesh, to such an extent that it went the whole hog to carve out a country-note that the people of Bangladesh were Bengalis and Calcutta would have been up in arms if India had kept quiet!.
India never bothered about the ‘relationship with other countries’ including the US in this case!
Either India is scared of SriLanka playing the China card or it has something to hide in the Genocide operation carried out by the SriLankan Government.
The SriLankan Government is on record saying that they kept New Delhi informed of all the developments when the genocide was on and that it had received tactical and strategic support from India.
India is in a bind.
On the one hand it envisages the China card of Sri Lanka and on the other the Tamil sentiments in India.
Though Karunanidhi is in no position to exert pressure on the Tamil Issue, the case is different with J.Jayalalithaa, present CM of Tamil Nadu.
If New Delhi were to wash its hands off the Tamils issue by indirectly supporting the Rajapakshe Government,the Congress can confidently forget Tamil Nadu in its electoral calculations in future.
What is of real concern is the Moral bankruptcy of the Indian Government is its reluctance to even censure Rajapakshe on the Genocide of Tamils.
Is it also due to its role becoming Public in supporting the SriLankan Government in the Genocide, of which New Delhi was aware , if not a participant.?
How else can one view the New Delhi’s stand in the light of its past’concerns’ on Vietnam ,BanglaDesh etc vs its stand on Tamil Genocide?
“Certainly we will take into account the overall relationship between India and Sri Lanka and the sentiments that are prevalent in our country. We will take every factor into consideration before we take a final call on our stand in Geneva,” Krishna has told media.
Minister Krishna was reportedly responding to a letter sent by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking India to back the US resolution at the Geneva meeting.”
At last the Killer of Tamils,Mahinda Rajapakshe is being served summons to appear before a US Court for his genocide of Tamils.
US Court Notice.
The complaint is available in PDF format in the Link provided.
It took an US court to take this step .
The Tamil Nadu Politicians who garner votes on the blood of SriLankan Tamils could and should have filed a case in India on behalf of the refugee/s living in India.
They should have filed it in UNHURT as well .
Well, they are bothered about perorations and stage-managed weeping to garner sympathy votes,Vaiko included.
What is surprising is the near silence of Indian Media on this news!
Rajapakshe is reported to be contemplating to defy court orders.
My suggestion to SriLankans who are living abroad is to file cases in individual capacity, citing cases of kin lost,missing/dead in SriLanka, in the country where they live in.
File cases in Scandinabian Countries,UK,France,Germany and of course US.
File as many as possible.
The heat on Rajapakse brothers will be immense.
Include Rajapakshe’s brothers and Fonseka as well.
The groundswell of Public Opinion in the world against Rjapakshe is mounting.
This is the correct moment to act against these maniacal killers.
For the atrocities of these butchers please read my blogs filed under Srilankan Tamils/Sri lanka.
As per order issued on the 13th day of October 2011, by the United States District Judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the District Court of District of Columbia, with respect to Civil Action No. 11-00235 (CKK) Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan, et al. v. Percy Mahendra Rajapakse, the Court Summons and the Complaint are published here in full. The 29-page complaint is published as a single PDF document, and as 29 separate jpg images, one for each page.
In a precedent setting order issued by the District Court of District of Columbia Thursday on the case against Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse filed by three Tamil plaintiffs, Judge Kotelly authorized service by “posting the full summons and complaint on the main page of the TamilNet website,” and by publication in two Sri Lankan newspapers. Legal sources in Washington said that Rajapakse being haled into a US court to answer charges of complicity in the extra-judicial killings of plaintiffs relatives is imminent..
Judge Kotelly in her short opinion leading to the order said, ‘[h]aving evaded service in person and refusing service under the international agreement [Hague Convention] established for the purpose of service of process on international defendants, “it is not reasonably possible or practicable to give more adequate warning” to Defendant [Rajapakse] than service by publication. http://www.tamilnet.com/img/publish/2011/10/PublicationOrder10132011.pdf
“The District Court’s order authorizing service of the Torture Victims Protection Act Complaint and Summons on Sri Lanka’s President Rajapaksa via newspaper publication and posting on TamilNet marks a legal milestone in achieving accountability for the gruesome extra-judicial killings of innocent civilians ordered or condoned by the highest officials of the Sri Lankan government during the ethnic civil war.
“After service is effectuated, President Rajapaksa will be compelled to respond to the Complaint’s accusations in a court of law uncompromised by partisan politics. It can be expected that President Rajapaksa will retain an army of luxury-priced lawyers to defend him, who will attempt to throw technical legal obstacles to thwart justice. “We urgently need all available financial and moral support to achieve victory not only for the three named Plaintiffs, but for all the victims of President Rajapaksa’s atrocities. A judgment in our favor in this case would set a precedent that would underwrite copy-cat TVPA suits by other victims of Rajapaksa endorsed or sponsored extra-judicial killings or torture.”
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