ICRC Sri Lanka during final phase of war
Posted on August 29th, 2015
Shenali D Waduge
The ICRC started operations in Sri Lanka in 1989, an invitation extended by late President Premadasa following his tryst with the LTTE and with LTTE expanding its terror ICRC was able to expand its operations too. What is noteworthy is that ICRC established its offices in areas that were held by LTTE and this certainly questions ICRC’s claim to be ‘impartial’ ‘neutral’ and ‘independent’ as set out by its global mission statement established in 1863. We run through some of ICRC’s past.
Accentuating these ambiguities further is how an impartial, neutral and independent body would call for the immediate declaration of a demilitarized zone in the area covering the Jaffna Fort and the Jaffna hospital. This was declared in July 1990. In fact John Amaratunga then Minister accepted the proposal of the ICRC to the surprise of all which eventually resulted in the overrunning of Kokavil and Kilinochchi by the LTTE and major battle losses for the Sri Lankan Military even having to vacate Mankulam. Why should we have demilitarized zones and ceasefires when they are brutally massacring innocent people? I am not in a mood for any demilitarized zone or ceasefire” was what State Minister for Defense Ranjan Wijeratne had to say when he learnt of the move to declare a demilitarized zone by the ICRC with blessings of John Amaratunga!
In another example that questions the impartial / neutral and independence of the ICRC was its suggestion to give publicity to LTTE’s release of 15 Tamil speaking policemen. Ranjan Wijeratne had pointed out that LTTE had killed 600 policemen so the release of 15 policemen was a mere publicity gimmick. While ICRC was working towards demilitarized zones – LTTE had even stormed the Kattankudy mosque killing 150 Muslims in prayer. What needs to be reiterated is that the ICRC did not make ANY COMMENT on LTTE atrocities during this entire period. Much of ICRC’s records of actions throughout this period where LTTE’s atrocities were at an all time high reveals a high degree of bias which the international agency needs to accept without defending itself.
Some of ICRC’s press briefings closer to the end of war reveals some clues missed out by the Sri Lankan Government in arguing Sri Lanka’s case internationally.
ICRC director of operations Pierre Krähenbühl (21 April 2009 – Press Briefing in Sri Lanka)
http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/press-briefing/sri-lanka-press-briefing-210409.htm
” The hostilities are now taking place in a very narrow stretch of land along the eastern coastline of Sri Lanka. And within that narrow stretch, which had been declared a ‘no-fire zone’ by the government, tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped. At present we put their estimate at 50,000, (This was the ICRC press statement issued on 21st April 2009 declaring that their estimate of the Tamil civilians inside the no fire zone was 50,000 – this means that upto 21st April even ICRC did not know that the LTTE had 300,000 people – obviously we would need to question how many of them were civilians and how many were LTTE posing as civilians. There is also the question of the possibility that a large number of these people could have also been Indian illegal immigrants in which case it behoves the GOSL to determine how many Tamils in the North are actually Sri Lankan Tamils given that we are aware that the LTTE used Tamil Nadu as a transit hub and Tamil Nadu Indians were regularly making their way to Sri Lanka’s north during LTTE reign)
” They have repeatedly been prevented from leaving the area by the LTTEand are exposed at every turn to consequences of the hostilities between the government and the LTTE. (Key words – REPEATEDLY PREVENTED FROM LEAVING THE AREA BY LTTE – EXPOSED TO CONSEQUENCES OF HOSTILITIES – It is therefore the LTTE who compromised the lives of their own people. We continue to question how many of these civilians were in fact functioning as civilians. In an armed conflict as Sri Lanka’s situation has been defined civilians lose their rights as civilians if they have been functioning as combatants (by force or voluntarily, a soldier does not have time to determine which before defending himself from terrorists)
” The LTTE must keep its fighters and other military resources well away from places where civilians are concentrated, and specifically and urgently allow civilians who want to leave the area to do so safely, ” (these statements pose little doubt that the LTTE were keeping civilians by force and that the ICRC who were very much inside the war zone knew exactly how LTTE were treating these civilians and dragging them by force)
ICRC has also reminded the parties of the prohibition on attacking persons hors de combat (in other words, those no longer participating in hostilities) and of the obligation to treat captured combatants humanely.
(Whether civilians were participating in combat or not the 300,000 (we stop short of terming them ‘civilians’ for we cannot determine how many actually took part in some sort of terror activity) who eventually came to the Government side were given receptions that no Western nations currently in combat operations on invading nations treat the civilians in those countries)
ICRC Operational Update (17 March 2009)
” Many of these people are forced to shelter in trenches.They are in considerable physical danger. After having been forced to move from place to place en masse for weeks or even months, they depend entirely on food from outside the conflict area. (this takes us back to the visuals of C4 where much of the images relayed were of people in trenches and we can now determine how these footage came about)
Note: During the final phase of the conflict, the ICRC evacuated 13,800 casualties and accompanying relatives from the war zone to Trincomalee by sea – while the Sri Lankan Armed forces laying down 5000 military lives saved close to 300,000 Tamil civilians!
Then we come to instances when ICRC staff acting like politicians.
- Reference by ICRC to ‘both sides” in describing the movement of civilians – there is no ‘both sides’ to the question of civilians. The Tamil civilians were ALL accompanying the LTTE voluntarily or by force, either way the Tamil civilians were with the LTTE and only those that managed to free themselves from the LTTE managed to cross over to the Government side.
- Reference by ICRC to ‘both sides” came the very day that LTTE refused passage to ambulances and 2 ICRC staff from leaving LTTE controlled areas to Vavuniya hospital despite UN appeals.
Wiki cable clearly exonerates Sri Lanka Army from the false allegations being made
The relevance of this cable is that it was the US Ambassador himself sending a memo after his meeting with ICRC head of operations which clearly indicated that the army did not deliberately shell and in fact delayed the inevitable victory taking to consideration the civilian factor while the LTTE purposely kept civilians or kept themselves among the civilians. Proof of this was evident when a suicide bomber dressed as a civilian blew herself up near a makeshift refugee reception center killing military personnel as well as Tamil civilians.
Wiki cable by US Ambassador to Geneva Clint Williamson on July 15, 2009 after meeting with Jacque de Maio, ICRC Head of Operations for South Asia on 9 July 2009.
On the LTTE, de Maio said that it had tried to keep civilians in the middle of a permanent state of violence. It (LTTE) saw the civilian population as a ‘protective asset’ and kept its fighters embedded amongst them. De Maio said that the LTTE commanders, objective was to keep the distinction between civilian and military assets blurred. They would often respond positively when ICRC complained to the LTTE about stationing weapons at a hospital, for example. The LTTE would move the assets away, but as they were constantly shifting these assets, they might just show up in another unacceptable place shortly thereafter.”
De Maio said it would be hard to state that there was a systematic order to LTTE fighters to stick with civilians in order to draw fire. Civilians were indeed under ‘physical coercion not to go here or there,’ he said. Thus, the dynamics of the conflict were that civilians were present all the time. This makes it very difficult to determine though at what point such a situation becomes a case of ‘human shields.’ – (If civilians were kept by force while LTTE was fighting with the Sri Lankan Army, the LTTE must shoulder all blame for putting civilians in harms way. Numerous appeals both international and local were made to the LTTE to release these civilians – LTTE refused to do so. Not stopping at that LTTE even used these civilians in combat and in an armed conflict these civilians automatically become combatants)
The army was determined not to let the LTTE escape from its shrinking territory, even though this meant the civilians being kept hostage by the LTTE were at increasing risk….de Maio said, while one could safely say that there were ‘serious, widespread violations of IHL,’ by the Sri Lankan forces, it did not amount to genocide. He could site examples of where the army had stopped shelling when ICRC informed them it was killing civilians. In fact, the army actually could have won the military battle faster with higher civilian casualties, yet chosen a slower approach which led to a greater number of Sri Lankan military deaths. He concluded however, by asserting that the GSL failed to recognize its obligation to protect civilians despite the approach leading to higher military casualties. From his standpoint, a soldier at war should be more likely to die than a civilian.” (What is significant about what the ICRC head said to the US ambassador was that there was NO GENOCIDE committed by the Sri Lankan Army, that in desiring to save civilians the Army took longer to finish the operation thus compromising its own soldiers who died as a result. The military objective was to destroy the LTTE while also attempting to save the civilians kept by force or civilians staying voluntarily with the LTTE – this is something Western armies will not understand because their superiors order them to ‘shoot everything that moves’ or soldiers are ordered to engage in 360 degree rotational fire)
Wiki cables from US mission
- Wiki Leaks revelations published in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten revealed that US Ambassador Robert Blake had contacted senior government officials including Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, to urge acceptance of a mediated surrender of the remaining Tigers.
- Ambassador spoke to Gothabaya Rajapaksa on the morning of May 17 to urge him to allow the ICRC into the conflict zone to mediate a surrender.”…. We´re beyond that now,” reporting that approximately 50,000 civilians had escaped from the conflict zone overnight and in the early morning hours” (this tallies with Indian embedded Journalist Murali Reddy’s account when he says that on 16th May 2009, 50,000 civilians escaped as well as Gordon Weiss estimate of 50,000 civilians made on 13th May 2009 and President Rajapakse offered an unconditional surrender which the LTTE had refused.) http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/01/02/
sri-lankas-war-had-witnesses-indian-journalist-b-murali-reddy-2/
UN statements
- Sept 2008 – Gordon Weiss, UN Spokesman in Colombo About 70 offices from five operational UN agencies will eventually be moving out of Kilinochchi,” (ICRC will remain in Vanni)
- 13th May 2009 – The UN estimates that about 50,000 civilians are trapped by the conflict, in a three-sq-km strip of land http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8047580.stm (the very person who claimed that 50,000 was inside a 3sqkm strip and who was aware that this 50,000 escaped by 16th May 2009 spared no time in twisting facts to claim 40,000 dead which has won for him a book deal and international prominence.
- 13th May 2009 – The LTTE [Tamil Tigers] are clearly still holding onto that population against their will, using them as human shields” Top UN Aid Official John Holmes
BBC correspondent
- 9 Sept 2008 – Aid agencies say since June as many as 85,000 have fled ahead of the soldiers’ advance, further into the diminishing rebel-held areas in the north, bolstering the numbers already there. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2008/09/080909_un_vanni.shtml (BBC is careful to not give reference to whether those who FLED were civilians or LTTE but the BBC does say that whoever FLED did so into a DIMINISHING area that was under LTTE).
- 9 September 2008 BBC article also mentions that government had informed that it can no longer ensure the safety of the aid workers” in rebel-held areas….claiming they could be used as human shields, has dropped leaflets urging them to leave.”
- March 3rd 2009 – ICRC claims an impending humanitarian catastrophe in north-eastern Sri Lanka which turned out to be BBC upto mischief once again putting BBC’s own version to what the ICRC did not say and ignoring what the ICRC did say that suffering and death could be avoided ‘by allowing civilians who want to leave to get out of the area’.
There is little doubt in taking the R2P target nations to realize that the UN is being used by the West in a racially oriented invasion drive that is all about imperial inquisition directed at Third World nations in particular the Blacks, Browns and Yellows of the world.
It is for these nations to decide whether they would be servants of the inquisitors serving as sepoys or help unite the nations of the Third World to build a formidable force against the rising racism by the imperial west using numerous international apparatus to keep the world’s public in check while the murder and plunder with impunity.
The build up to the manner Sri Lanka is being treated despite saving 300,000 lives whilst providing a safe nation for 20million people seems not to have any importance of those drafting Resolutions and they forget their silence over 30 years making a hypocrisy of going behind 4 months only.
Shenali D Waduge
August 29th, 2015 at 6:27 am
Further to what Shenali Waduge said, the ICRC had been heavily infiltrated by agents of the LTTE among agents of other foreign elements. And according to the people who lived in Wanni, the ICRC did little about alleviating the suffering of the people. Even during the final stage of war, ICRC ‘s role was limited to transporting the injured people (and many of those people thus transported were recommended by LTTE to ICRC officials) from Wanni to places like Trincomalee by ship and nothing more.
The ICRC might have been initially established to provide aid to alleviate the suffering of people poor regions in the world, especially during war times, but it has become heavily influenced by the policies of foreign powers lately, as it has to depend on funds from the foreign sources. Therefore, it would be inevitable for ICRC to carry out the agenda of such powers.
August 29th, 2015 at 8:47 am
Thank you, Shenali. All Concerned Citizens of Lanka have to now FOCUS on Tamil Leaders SEPARATIST ASPIRATIONS.
The Hidden Agenda behind all the Tamil leader activities after (and even before) Independence for Lanka in 1948, is to form a Separate State for Tamils of Lanka.
To this end :
* ITAK (split from ACTC or Federal Party but now ITAK also known as the Federal Party) was founded in Dec 1949, is the SHAPE SHIFTER Tamil political party now wanting to be the main Opposition party in the Parliament.
* War Crimes charge against the MR govt. bringing in the International community on a Genocide of Tamils charge.
* Demand for a Federal State for Tamils with join up of the North & East.
It is time all Concerned Citizens of Lanka took note of the fact that the Tamil Language is a National/Official language in Lanka. It is the ONLY COUNTRY in the world to do so. This is an open invitation for the take over of Lanka by a minority group.
The Sinhala/Buddhists of Sri Lanka have to hold themselves responsible for this tragedy unfolding via LANGUAGE after the British and the Dutch imported over a Million and a Half Tamil folk of Dalit origin into Lanka to work in the tea, coffee and tobacco plantations.
August 29th, 2015 at 9:57 am
ITAK is attempting to divide Sri Lanka via LANGUAGE. India is divided into separate sub-States through LANGUAGE and ITAK is following this rule. None of the sub-States adjoining Tamil Nadu allow the Tamil Language to spread.
Point to note (am repeating this yet again) : Lanka does NOT need Tamil LABOR in the tea estates as tea plucking can be done with tea plucking machines as done in several countries viz. India, China, S. Africa etc. Anyone can operate these machines. No need to bring Tamils from Tamil Nadu for Labor work in Lanka as Lanka has enough people here for Labor.
Tamil folk of Lanka can follow a Job Oriented Education System, same as the others in Lanka.
August 29th, 2015 at 12:53 pm
Meanwhile, the Diego Garcia lease as ‘boat park’ for USA is expiring in 2016 …..
Extend lease to Trinco …. via Lanka GoSL and not via Eelam or Tamil Fed State … ?
August 30th, 2015 at 10:32 am
Some may not like this, but then we are known to have short memories
Just one more Ministerial Howler
By Lalin Fernando
August 26, 2015, 7:24 pm
article_image
Indian Peace Keeping Force jawans in Sri Lanka in 1990
“How can they have the arrogance to dictate to us where we should go or which countries should be our friends. Gaddafi is my friend. He supported us when we were alone and when those who tried to prevent my visit here today were our enemies. They have no morals. We cannot accept that a state assumes the role of the world’s policeman’’
(Nelson Mandela – on his visit to Libya for the African Council Meeting- 1997)
Minister Eran Wickramaratne (EW) recently in response to a Al Jazeera TV interview question on the plight of the Northern Tamils after the 2015 general elections, dismissively and off the well worn cuff said, “It was the Rajapaksa regime that waged war on the Tamils” or words to that effect.
Rajapaksa regime. This was the first time that the SL public has heard that it was the Rajapaksa ‘regime’ alone that waged ‘war’ on the terrorists. Successive SL governments, starting with the UNP in 1977, had done it ‘their way’. This included giving JRJ’s relative and not the Commander of the Army the task of wiping out the insurgency in 1979, a dream that ended in a nightmare. It included considering extraordinary methods learned from books like ‘resettlement’ (relocation of Northerners to the South) as in the 1950s Briggs plan in the Malayan Counter Insurgency. One President gifted weapons and ammo etc to the terrorists, hallucinating about making friends with the terrorists treacherously.
Then there was the signing of a much-reviled and questionable ‘Cease Fire Agreement’ (CFA) with the terrorists. The CFA elevated them to the same status as the Government. A signatory had been led to believe by an alternative policy planning NGO among others, that the terrorists could not be defeated. It may have led to over of one third of SL being under the terrorists had it not been revoked by the ‘Rajapaksa regime’. The concessions in the CFA led to the decimation of the best under cover elite troops of the Special Forces. Those responsible were not charged with treachery. SL were stunned again when in 2002 they also saw their military officers on TV shaking hands and even saluting the terrorists. This was encouraged and desired by the government!
This conflict was not against the Tamils but the Northern Terrorists . However it was President Jayewardene (JRJ) from the same party –UNP- who in 1977 during the race riots that declared ‘war’ on the Tamils. It was not MR 20 odd years on.
The Northern insurgent movement had not resorted to terrorism in 1977. After the last communal riots in SL In 1983 under JRJ’s watch, tens of thousands Tamils seeking retribution, if not revenge, were driven out of the South, mainly Colombo. They queued up in thousands in Jaffna to join a roaring terrorist movement. Those tens of thousands that fled abroad began to provide the terrorists with money and propaganda. They looked to avenge their kin in their now desperate search for Eelam (separate state) and to escape any more communal frenzy and lesser national status. Fortunately, the majority, not the government, woke up. Their actions had boomeranged horribly on innocent Sinhalese. They never attacked Tamil civilians again.
SL was called a ‘pariah ‘state for decades by these very same ’friendly’ states less India, but no one else. India believed at that time that SL was becoming a US vassal state and undermined SL’s efforts to overcome the ‘terras’.
It was the Rakapaksa government (regime?) on 19 May 2009 that brought the conflict to an end suddenly to usher in peace total and complete. Captured terrorist cadres numbering 12,000, being about 30% of the terrorist fighting cadres, were rehabilitated and released within a year. It was a giant step towards national reconciliation. Paradoxically SL was accused by its ‘western friends’ of ‘war crimes’ advised by some local collaborators. It is a supreme irony that the US now says that the deaths of civilians used as human shields when attacking defences held by terrorists is not a crime. The original accusation was invalid in international law as repeatedly stated by Neville Laduwahetty and confirmed by Sir Desmond de Silva QC.
What then was this Rajapaksa ‘regime’? Unless of course all governments of SL that are democratically elected and have a 2/3rds majority are called ‘regimes’ when or after combating terrorists.
One can be vague and wooly, dismissive and derogatory when unable to give credible answers or appear completely clueless but still offer inane responses.
‘Traditional Friends’: Eran W, switching to foreign relations, said that SL would now get back to her ‘traditional friends in the West’ and India as well. SL had never ever gone away from India to begin with. China, it was said, would no longer play an important role. They may be taking bets on this in IPL India. Some SL ministers have a queer sense of humour!
Western nations were colonizers at first. SL was under colonial rule for nearly 500 years. The colonial rulers left behind a well established, English speaking, Anglicized elite it could rely on in the future. Its plan has reached fruition.
When the SL conflict was ending, the West attempted to interfere and rescue the terrorist leaders. If they had succeeded, the escaped terrorists could probably have regrouped and made preparations to fight another day. The Malayan ‘Communist Terrorists’ (CTs) did so under Chin Peng, who had escaped during General Templer’s command (1952-4). Thankfully the western ‘friends’ were rightly spurned in SL by the Army, SLAF and SL Navy.
Over the past five years SL has been pilloried at Geneva by the ‘friends’. Would that those who pray to Western Gods remember when on TV what three gifts they brought to the East. They started with ‘social diseases’ that decimated populations from Asia and Africa to Hawaii.
Subsequently ‘friendly’ India ‘invaded’ SL in 1987. The human rights record of the IPKF equalled that of the terrorists. They were hated in Jaffna, They lost 1,200 soldiers at the hands of the very same terrorists it had ironically trained, armed and supported logistically. Their inept performance gave the terrorists world wide publicity.
SL’s long time Eastern friends meanwhile were fully supportive through thick and thin, good times and bad and worse, especally so when SL was taking heavy casualties, both military and civilian, from 1983 to 2009 and at Geneva after the conflict ended. Pakistan, China and Malaysia stood out prominently as friends. SL survived because of its servicemen and women in the defence forces, political leadership and the Eastern friends. Ministers are welcome to be selective about what the war achieved to serve their government. So can the citizens who however think differently.
August 30th, 2015 at 10:47 am
Better LATE than NEVER …. FORM a NEW Party to Provide Leadership to the Patriots while the Ship Jumping Hogs Wallow in Somarama Sirisena’s slop trough!
…………………………
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s allies to form new Lanka opposition alliance
Aug 29 (PTI) COLOMBO- Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s allies are planning to form a new opposition alliance, breaking away from President Maithripala Sirisena’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition, senior leftist leaders said today.
“We are looking to form a new political front. We are having talks with different groups,” Tissa Vitharana of the Trotskyist Lanka Samasamaja Party (LSSP) said.
Vitharana was a senior minister under Rajapaksa in his near decade old regime which ended in January.
“We have to form a new front, we are against this national government arrangement,” Vasudeva Nanayakkara of another left party said.
With the August 17 parliamentary election results and Sirisena’s decision to form a coalition government of national unity between the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) and Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the old left have felt overlooked and ignored by Sirisena.
None of them were picked by Sirisena to fill in the national list parliamentary seat allocation which the UPFA won on August 17. These parties played a main role in the return to politics of Rajapaksa since his defeat in January.
The old left parties have been part of the UPFA since its formation in 2004 as an anti UNP political front. The coalition ruled the country between 2004 and early this year.
Vitharana and Dinesh Gunawardena, the leaders of the nationalist Mahajana Eksath Permauna (MEP) have accused Sirisena of breaking the UPFA coalition.
August 30th, 2015 at 11:40 am
Opposition should appoint Sri Lanka’s Opposition Leader, not President, NFF leader says
Aug 30, Colombo: The leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF), a constituent party of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa says the opposition leader of the Parliament should be chosen by MPs who sit in opposition and not by the President.
Speaking to Media today, Weerawansa asked how can a national government can be formed when the opposition leader will get a ministerial post and members from the Sri Lanka freedom Party (SLFP) will be given the choice to go to the other side.
The SLFP Central Committee allowed elected SLFP MPs to sit in opposition if they do not wish to support the national government. However, the Central Committee empowered the President to decide on an opposition leader and the ministerial portfolios given to SLFP members of the National Government.
The NFF leader said that the so called National Government bringing a proposal in parliament to increase the ministerial portfolios is contradictory to the Constitution.
He explained that in order to create a National Government, the SLFP must become stakeholders in the government and there will be no need for an opposition.
“Even if parties hold positions in the government or not, they will all become stakeholders in the government. However, such political streams do not become so-called stakeholders in the government not even the entire Sri Lanka Freedom party,” he said.
Weerawansa said the government cannot implement such a proposal and bringing in such a proposal is contradictory to the constitution.
Speaking to BBC Sandeshaya Weerawansa said the President is killing the country’s democracy by appointing the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, the Opposition Leader and the Chief Organizer of the Opposition all by himself.
Weerawansa said that it was not sufficient to allow SLFP MPs to sit in opposition. They should be free to act as they wish within the opposition.
He said the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and several SLFP MPs will sit in the opposition with the other UPFA members.
August 30th, 2015 at 11:49 am
SLFP rejects TNA’s claim for opposition leader post
By Chris Kamalendran
SundayTimes.lk
August 30, 2015
Main Tamil alliance rocked by breakaway group over National List
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) last night rejected a call by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for recognition as the main opposition party in Parliament. The move was aimed at making Rajavarothiam Sampanthan as Leader of the Opposition.
“The Opposition Leader’s post should be given to the party which has the highest number of members and are not supporting the National Government,” Acting General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake told the Sunday Times.
He said the person holding that office will be announced when Parliament meets on Tuesday. Early yesterday the TNA sought recognition as the main opposition in Parliament even while a third of its new elected parliamentarians were rebelling against the leadership.
The TNA, which contested the August 17 parliamentary elections as ITAK, said in a statement issued yesterday that there is “no question whatsoever of the UPFA sitting in opposition in Parliament.” This is because the UNP and the UPFA which will form a National Government with a joint Cabinet of Ministers “would bear collective cabinet responsibility.” As political parties in Parliament, the statement said, “they must publicly support all Government decisions made in the Cabinet.”
TNA leader Sampanthan told the Sunday Times, “We are entitled to the post of Opposition Leader.” His remarks came as six parliamentarians of the TNA were planning to meet in Colombo today. One of the contentious issues with the leadership is a demand that Suresh Premachandran and Vino Noharthalingam who lost the elections be named on the TNA National List. The two who have now been named on the TNA National List are Shanthi Shri Skandaraja and K. Thurairatnasingham.
Mr. Sampanthan defended his party’s decision. He said, “The National List vacancies were shared on the principle agreed by TNA partners. There was no discrimination and we have given an opportunity to a female candidate too.” Shiva Shakthi Ananthan, newly elected TNA parliamentarian for the Wanni District, confirmed that the group of six MPs would meet today in Colombo. The TNA has 16 members in the new Parliament.
The TNA statement said that both President Maithripala Sirisena and the Government had gone public “in a commitment to treat the Tamil people as equal citizens of this country.” It added, “However, a reluctance to recognise the democratically elected representatives of the Tamil people of the North and East as the main opposition party when such is clearly the case can only be reflective of an unwillingness to honour this commitment….”
The SLFP/UPFA group that is unlikely to support the National Government and sit in the Opposition is estimated to number at least 25 MPs. The SLFP Central Committee which met on Friday gave President Sirisena who is also the party leader the authority to nominate the leader of the opposition from the SLFP.
In 1977, Appapillai Amirthalingam who headed the Tamil United Liberation front (TULF), the precursor to the TNA, became the Leader of the Opposition when the SLFP won only 8 seats in that year’s general elections. All TULF MPs resigned en bloc in 1982 in protest against the 6th Amendment and Anura Bandaranaike became the Leader of the Opposition from the SLFP.
August 30th, 2015 at 2:01 pm
FRAN !!! SRILANKA DOES NOT NEED ONE SINGLE MILITARY BASE LOCATED IN TRINCO OR ANYWHERE ELSE, PERIOD. PLEASE TAKE THAT OFF YOUR MIND.
August 30th, 2015 at 7:28 pm
Sri Lanka does not need ANY FOREIGN MILITARY BASES on its soil, but Sri Lanka NEEDS the MILITARY BASES of ITS OWN ARMED FORCES THROUGHOUT Sri Lanka, and especially in the North & East the FORMER WAR ZONE INFSTED wih SEPARATISTS!
INSTEAD, what does this UNPatriotic Government do? It DISMANTLES Army and Naval Bases in the former war zones and REMOVES them (SEE Article BELOW) leaving those areas WIDE OPEN to infiltration by terrorists, ILLEGAL immigrants, and SMUGGLERS of weapons and drugs from Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu is GEARING UP to FLOOD Sri Lanka with FAKE REFUGEES (see Article 2 BELOW) “returning home” with their progeny sired with Indian Tamils, their new relatives and vast numbers of “undocumented” FAKE relatives! It is a part of their grand plan …… ask Sampanthan, Ramdoss and Vaiko!
Why “undocumented” you may ask. Well, ALL LEGAL documents were DESTROYED during LTTE’s reign, so now “citizenship” is established on the pure say so of the “returning refugess” themsellves in collusion with the Tiger Nominated Agents of the TNA now in charge of the North and East!!
The NET RESULT is the INFLUX of VAST NUMBERS of Kallathonis into Sri Lanka with the TNA FOX in charge of minding the ADMINISTRATIVE HENHOUSE!
Even AFTER the Military ARM of the LTTE, that replaced 1.5 million Sri Lankan Tamils exported abroad with MORE THAN 1.5 million Indian Tamil Kallathonis imported into Sri Lanla during 3 decades f war, was UTTERLY DESTROYED, the Yamapalanayaya Government is IGNORING what is happening and ENABLING the SEPARATISTS to achieve the EELAM with SUBTERFUGE in PEACE that they FAILED TO WIN through MURDEROUS WAR!
May the Hatarawaran Guardian Dieties of Mother Lanka CAST these Yamapalanaya TRAITORS into HELL!
…..Article 1…….
Omanthai check point in northern Sri Lanka removed
Aug 29, Colombo: Sri Lankan military authorities have removed the security check point located at Omanthai in Vavuniya with effect from Saturday, August 29.
The check point, established during the war at Omanthai along the main north-south A9 road, was the main entry/exit point between LTTE controlled areas and Government controlled areas during the war.
After the war ended, the check point remained open with the presence of Army soldiers checking vehicles. Even late as last year the military authorities on the instructions of the government barred foreign nationals visiting the north beyond the check point without prior permission.
As of Saturday, the checkpoint is now open for free passage for anyone, a government official said.
…… Article 2……..
Golden opportunity for Tamil refugees to return
Aug 30 (Hindu) Given the prevailing political situation in Sri Lanka, the time has come for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in Tamil Nadu to return home, said S. C. Chandrahasan, founder of the Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation (OfERR).
“It is a golden opportunity for the refugees to return home especially when there is an effort to form a national government in Sri Lanka. The time has come to reap the benefits of our blood-stained struggle,” he told The Hindu here on Monday.
Tamil Nadu is home to more than one hundred thousand Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, with over 60,000 of them residing in a hundred camps spread across the State.
Asked whether the refugees were ready for return, Mr. Chandrahasan said though they had some reservations, assistance from the governments of Tamil Nadu and India to start their life in Sri Lanka would convince them to return to their homeland.
“The Tamil Nadu government is already rendering a lot of help. They can continue to provide support at least for one year till our people find their feet in Sri Lanka,” Mr. Chandrahasan said. OfERR had already held 17 rounds of talks with the refugees before presenting their case to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and officials of the ministry about the return of the refugees. The Sri Lankan government also was very keen on their return as 3,800 graduates among the refugees would be of great resource for the country.
Mr. Chandrahasan said already over 10,000 people had returned to Sri Lankan on their own. However, politically too, their return was very important to the Tamil community. “We have lost two MPs in the Northern Provinces because of lack of Tamil population. Our return also will make up for the loss,” he said. Noting that the present dispensation in the island nation had the support of former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, he said the Special Presidential Commission that she heads on finding a solution to the problems of the Tamil community was a ray of hope. Mr. Chandrahasan said though he had plans to enter politics he was delaying it for the sake of the refugees.
August 30th, 2015 at 8:21 pm
Bravo …. Wimal Weerawansa … you are almost the ONLY HONEST MAN with GUTS left among the Greedy Ship Jumpers!
I hope that MORE and MORE UPFA/SLFP MPs will join to form a SEPARATE Opposition Party and BRING THIS Yamapalanaya Govt to its KNEES!
It is IMPORTANT to PREVENT the Anti-National LEGISLATIVE AGENDA of the UNPatriotic Party and its TNA Allies from EVER TAKING ROOT!
Newly Elected SLFP MPs! FORM a NEW Opposition Party NOW to PREVENT your Motherland from being made a Colony of the Western NeoColonialists and CHOPPED INTO PIECES to serve their NeoColonialist NGO and Tamil Diaspora-Driven Agenda!
IF YOU FAIL TO DO SO …. you will EARN the WRATH of those Patriotic Citizens who ELECTED YOU! They didn’t vote for you to SELL THEM OUT for a Political/Government Job and a BAG of money!
Don’t be BRIBED and CONNED into BETRAYING your Motherland! WE Patriots are WATCHING YOU CLOSELY!
REMEMBER …. YOU are OUR ONLY DEFENCE against the DISINTEGRATION and RE-ENSLAVEMENT of OUR Motherland!
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President calls for a meeting with UPFA party leaders tomorrow
Aug 30, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has invited the leaders of the parties in the defeated United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) for a meeting Monday.
According to the leader of the UPFA constituent party National Freedom Front (NFF) MP Wimal Weerawansa the meeting will take place at the President’s official residence tomorrow morning.
He said he will be attending the meeting to express his views on several issues including his opposition to a national government between the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
September 1st, 2015 at 11:07 am
And HERE is the NEXT STEP by the INCURABLY TREASONOUS Tiger Nominated Agents of the TNA towards EELAM!
The Yamapalanaya Government’s days are NUMBERED when this REALIZATION HITS the MAJORITY COMMUNITY of Sri Lanka flat in the FACE!
TRAITORS Galore in the UNPatriotic Party can now RUN like HELL, but there is NOWHERE to HIDE in Sri Lanka!
THIS is the BEGINNING of the END for them!!
ALL the Sinhala Buddhist MODAYAS who VOTED for the Yamapalanaya can NOW BEAT their CHESTS, CRY themselves HOARSE and HEAD BACK to President Mahinda Rajapaksa … RIGHT NOW!
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Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council unanimously calls for an international tribunal
Sept 01, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Tamil-controlled Northern Provincial Council (NPC) today unanimously called for an international probe into the alleged war crimes committed towards the end of the war with the LTTE.
The Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council C.V. Wigneswaran on Tuesday passed a resolution rejecting the domestic process being proposed by the United States and other members of the international community.
While acknowledging the “long standing efforts” of the United States and India along with the international community in securing justice, the NPC dismissed a domestic mechanism backed by the U.S. as Sri Lanka has had a “long and blighted history of human rights violations’ which according to the NPC amounts to genocide.
In this context, the NPC, which is controlled by the main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA), said in its resolution that the trial of the alleged perpetrators should not take place through any mechanism instituted by the Sri Lankan Government as a State also incurs responsibility for the acts of its agents.
“Under these circumstances, the trial of the perpetrators of international crimes by a domestic mechanism would be a travesty of justice as it would amount to the potentially guilty Government trying its own agents, thereby violating the prohibition in the maxim nemo iudex in sua causa,” the resolution said.
The NPC resolution alleged that there is well-recorded prejudice among members of the Judiciary against the minorities and emphasized that Sri Lanka’s descent into grave human, political and social rights’ violations was precipitated and reinforced by the failure of key pillars of State.
“The prolonged decline in the political culture and political will of the State and the failure of key institutions of Justice, law and order, i.e. Judiciary, police and the armed forces, ensured that impunity became the new norm in Sri Lanka. The Tamil community bore the full brunt of this new norm at all levels of its existence,” it said.
“For these reasons, the Council calls upon the International community to set up an international tribunal to try those alleged to have committed international crimes against the Tamil People in Sri Lanka,” the NPC said.
“We urge the new leaders of the Sri Lankan government to be courageous enough to work with the International community to set up a credible international mechanism which will deliver justice and put this nation on a path of meaningful reconciliation.”
The United States last week confirmed that it will sponsor a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva later this month supporting the Sri Lankan government to conduct its own domestic probe into the alleged war crimes committed during the war with the LTTE.
The Tamil party has earlier rejected a domestic probe into the alleged war crimes saying that they have no faith in government mechanisms despite assurances given by the government that the domestic probe will meet international standards.
The Northern Provincial Council said it awaits the report of the OISL of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights to be released this month which is due to identify the nature of the crimes committed and possibly, the alleged perpetrators.