The evidence of SriLankan Genocide is stronger than the Rwandan case.
Follow the Link at the end to read the report of the Expert Panel appointed by UN chief to enquire into Srilankawar crimes and accountability,which Rajapakshe and his brothers are trying hard to suppress.
Read my blogs on this filed under Sri Lanka.
A former Rwandan women’s minister has been sentenced to life in prison for her role in the genocide and the rape of Tutsi women and girls.
She was found guilty, along with her son and four other former officials, after a 10-year trial.
The UN report acknowledges this, if not in so many words, while also pointing to the fact that several contemporary issues in Sri Lanka, if left unaddressed, will deter effort towards genuine accountability and may undermine prospects for durable peace in consequence.
“Most notably, this includes:
triumphalism on the part of the Government, expressed through its discourse on having developed the means and will to defeat ‘terrorism’, thus ending Tamil aspirations for political autonomy and recognition, and its denial regarding the human dost of its military strategy;
on-going exclusionary policies, which are particularly deleterious as political, social and economic exclusion based on ethnicity, perceived or real, have been at the heart of the conflict;
the continuation of wartime measures, including not only the Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act, mentioned above, but also the continued militarization of the former conflict zone and the use of paramilitary proxies, all of which perpetuate a climate of fear, intimidation and violence;
restrictions on the media, which are contrary to democratic governance and limit basic citizens’ rights; and
the role of the Tamil diaspora, which provided vital moral and material support to the LTTE over decades, and some of whom refuse to acknowledge the LTTE’s role in the humanitarian disaster in the Vanni, creating a further obstacle to accountability and sustainable peace”.
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.
In this connection I have received a communication from Amnesty International ,requesting me to sign the petition ,urging the UN to make the report Public.
I have signed.
May I request all Right Thinking people to Sign the petition?
Thank you for taking the important decision to set up a Panel of Experts to advise your office on accountability issues in Sri Lanka. This long-overdue mechanism must have the support of the international community to perform its important work towards ensuring accountability and justice for victims. To get this support the UN Panel report must be made public.
Since May 2009, Amnesty International has called for the United Nations to establish an independent international investigation in response to compelling evidence of war crimes and other human rights violations committed by both government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), particularly in the latter stages of the conflict when the government obstructed independent monitoring and reporting.
Almost two years after the end of the conflict the true extent of the violations remains hidden and justice is being denied.
We urge you to fulfil your commitment to accountability issues in Sri Lanka.
Please make the UN Panel report, submitted to your office on 12 April, public without delay.
Report by the UN panel on Tamil massacre in Sri Lanka indicts Sri Lanka stating that
‘ “an independent international mechanism” to investigate what it called credible allegations that both the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels committed serious violations, including some that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, in the months before the decades-long war ended in May 2009…
Also read for Atrocities committed By Sri Lanka Government Blogs under ‘Tamils‘
Related:
Tens of thousands of civilians died in the final phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war – most of them killed in shelling by government forces, a UN panel says.
Report by the UN panel on Tamil massacre in Sri Lanka indicts Sri Lanka stating that
‘ “an independent international mechanism” to investigate what it called credible allegations that both the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels committed serious violations, including some that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, in the months before the decades-long war ended in May 2009…
“Most civilian casualties in the final phases of the war were caused by government shelling,…
Ban supported the recommendation, saying “that Sri Lanka should, first and foremost, assume responsibility for ensuring accountability for the alleged violations” and encouraged the government “to respond constructively.”
Under intense international pressure to investigate abuses, Sri Lanka did appoint a Lessions Learnt and Reconciliation Commission last year, but the U.N. panel said that body does not meet international standards and is compromised by the conflict of interest of several members.”
Ban Ki Moon’s spokesperson said he expects that a long-awaited UN report on alleged war crimes committed during the tail end of the Sri Lanka’s counter-insurgency campaign will go public. Bits of the report have been leaking out to local newspapers –and it paints a damning picture of the behavior of the Sri Lankan government’s final assault on territory controlled by the Tamil Tigers. Tens of thousands of civilians were likely killed. There is pretty strong evidence collected by human rights groups and journalists that the government deliberately targeted civilians.
Evidence points out to Executions,Point-blank shootings,Rape, torture and forcible eviction of Tamils from their property.
UN Secretary General is reported to have been informed of the killings of 20,000 people before his visit to Si Lanka and he has kept quiet (on this subject)
.Worse is the Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar( An Indian)to Gen.Ban is said to be close to Rajapakshe and UN Chief was manipulated willingly or otherwise by him and his his Brother Sathish, a paid consultant to Sri Lankan Army and reportedly close to Gen. Sarath Fonseka.
Sri Lanka is adopting all methods to stone wall the UN report by calling the Report as inadequate and their Foreign Secretary G L Peiris, Sri Lanka External Affairs Minster resisting publication of the report saying the release of the full report would actually damage the UN system.
Net Result..
As the world waited on Thursday 21, April to finally see the official version of the UN Panel’s report in full, what it got was a late briefing from Ban’s, Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq telling the media that the Sri Lankan government “is being given another chance to respond.” This was contrary to Haq’s position just the previous day that the Rajapaksa regime’s lack of response, “doesn’t need to tie our hands down regarding when we are going to put out this report. As we have said repeatedly, we’ll put it out this week.”
India by not taking the initiative to publicize the report and bring Rajapakshe to book shall regret.
A leaked United Nations report indicates “credible allegations” of Sri Lanka war crimes. Video first broadcast by Channel 4 News, showing alleged Tamil executions, formed a key part of the evidence.
A leaked version of the long-awaited report by the United Nations Secretary General (UNSG) panel reveals “credible allegations” of war crimes which – if proven – suggest a “grave assault on the entire regime of international law”.
The report estimates that tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the final four months of Sri Lanka‘s civil war in 2009.
It indicates that actions by both the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 April 2011, 16:32 GMT] Over 100,000 Tamil civilians remain unaccounted for after Sri Lanka’s onslaught in 2009 into the northern Vanni region, Channel 4 reported Saturday. Government census forms obtained by Channel 4 show 430,000 residents in Vanni in mid 2008. However internal UN documents also obtained by Channel 4 show only 290,000 people coming out of the final enclave overrun by the government’s troops and being put into its militarized internment camps. Only 60% of the original residents have returned, a Channel 4 source who recently visited Vanni also said.
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