KAMALIKA PIERIS ( Continued from B4) TNA has had  continuous contact with the USA. Rajiva Wijesinghe recalled that, during Eelam war IV, he met Sampanthan in close conclave with the US Ambassador and the European Union representative, at the resident of the Political affairs Officer of the US embassy. In 2011, a delegation of TNA […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  (Continued from B3) TNA has always had links with the UK government. In 2016, TNA met Baroness Anelay when she visited Sri Lanka, to seek her intervention to get rid of the army, have an international probe on war crimes and other such issues. Baroness Anelay was UK’s Minister for the Commonwealth and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS (Continued from B2) Western delegations have made it a point to meet and speak with the TNA, when they visit Sri Lanka. These are not secret discussions. They are   proudly reported in the newspapers. Sampanthan’s discussion with these foreigners covered the full spectrum of Tamil Separatist Movement concerns, such as the National question, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 18.9.21 The Tamil Separatist Movement was not crushed by the Eelam defeat. They knew it was going to happen and were ready for it. The Movement created two new organizations after the war ended, ‘Transitional government of Tamil Eelam’(TGTE) and the ‘Global TamilForum’ (GTF). TNA is the local representative in these two […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was formed in October 2001. TNA consists of four parties:   Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, (ITAK), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), and Eelam Peoples’ Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). These are separatist parties and the last three TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF were active […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 18.9.21 TNA became the dominant Tamil separatist party once the LTTE was eliminated at end of Eelam war IV. It is remarkable how quickly the Tamil National Alliance moved into this new phase, said Chandraprema. The war ended in May 2009 and by the end of that year, the TNA had taken […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The fourth country that supported Eelam was Canada. Sri Lanka was handled at the UNHRC in the 1980s by Canada, said Pathfinder Foundation. Canada is part of the Core group which put forward resolutions against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC in Geneva in 2021.  Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, tens of thousands of […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS In 2019 a Private Member’s Bill (Bill no104) titled An Act to Proclaim Tamil Genocide Education Week was placed before Ontario Legislative Assembly, Canada   by Vijay Thanigasalam, MP for Scarborough-Rouge Park. Vijay Thanigasalam is a LTTE supporter.  The move had been facilitated by the Committee on Regulations and Private Bills coming under the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS At the June 2021 session of the UNHRC in Geneva, Canada led an alliance of 44 States (mainly Western and European countries), demanding that China allow meaningful and unfettered access to investigate credible reports of widespread human rights violations against China’s Muslim minority Uighur in Xinjiang province. Immediately after this China delivered a joint […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Once upon a time, said commentators, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)   was the most trusted broadcaster, to which the world turned for news without distortion or warped opinions. It was the world’s first national broadcaster.  BBC World Service kept listeners around the globe informed during the Second World War.   Even today BBC is […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS (Continued from Pt 23 Db) The Hard talk documentary next featured TNA leader Rajavarothiam Sampantham. This was   very different to the interview with Gotabaya Rajapaksa .The Sampanthan interview was not Hard Talk at all. It was nice and gentle. There was no interrogation. Sampantham was allowed to speak without interruption.  He is shown […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Britain was the third country to support the LTTE in the Eelam war. Britain   provided a home for the LTTE   very early on in the Eelam war. Tamil Refugee Action group had got a British National Lottery grant in 1998.    LTTE had continued to openly run its offices from London even after the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Eelam victory has led to an interesting development in United Nations policy at the United Nations Secretariat. The failure to control Eelam War IV in Sri Lanka   has led the UN to adopt a new global policy called Rights up Front”, which places human rights at the center of the UN’s work. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The UN Security Council was approached, without success by the Tamil Separatist Movement to get the Eelam war stopped and Eelam declared. According to the UN Charter the only UN body that can discuss the Eelam war was the Security Council. This was clearly stated in article 7 of the UN Constitution.   […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The United Nations delegated the subject of ‘war’ to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The UN Charter authorizes the Security Council to investigate any situation threatening international peace and take suitable action. UNSC is the only UN agency whose decisions Member states are obliged to follow. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS UN Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report on Sri Lanka in January 2021. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/LK/Sri_LankaReportJan2021.docx. Sri Lanka   rejected this report.   Tamara Kunanayagam commented on the report in a television interview. http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2021/02/14/sri-lanka-cannot-compromise-at-the-unhrc-sessions/ Tamara said that this report has dangerous concepts in it. It is an attempt at precedent setting, to change the very […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lankans have been given the impression that Sri Lanka is under the HRC. That is incorrect. Sri Lanka‘s connection to the UNHRC comes through Sri Lanka‘s membership of the UN. Sri Lanka became a member state of the UN in 1955 and since then is entitled to participate in all General Assembly […]

  KAMALIKA PIERIS The Human Rights Council of the UN is, as its name indicates, the UN body which deals with human rights. However, HRC has no power over UN member countries.  It cannot impose sanctions, but it can pass resolutions on a country, on majority vote, whether that country likes it or not. The […]

  KAMALIKA PIERIS Yahapalana government signed resolution 30/1 in September 2015, and then it signed resolution 34/1 in March 2017 and in November 2017 reiterated a “very firm” commitment to fully implement the resolution within two years.  The commitment was made by the Head of Delegation to the HRC’s Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, Harsha […]

  KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 24.8.21 The government of Sri Lanka defeated the LTTE in May 2009, and the Eelam War IV came to an end. Soon after, the separatist movement went into its next phase of attack, which was UN action against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was to be punished for defeating the LTTE and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Norway wanted to see the country divided, and Eelam become a reality.  Norway tried to create Eelam through the Ceasefire Agreement. The Ceasefire Agreement” (CFA) was signed on 22nd February 2002  by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka and by Velupillai Prabhakaran on behalf of the Liberation […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Norway was the second country to enter Sri Lanka to deal with Eelam. Norway operated as a sole mediator in Sri Lanka.  MichelsenInstitute, in its review ‘Pawns for Peace ‘said that Norway did not work in collaboration with any powerful state.  However, Michelsen records that Norway felt it had to consult the US […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 15.8.21 Scratch below the surface of any civil war and there is usually a foreign sponsor to be found, said analysts.   Almost all civil wars have an external dimension. It is necessary to be alert to such interventions. These interventions hide under the   term ‘Terrorism”. Terrorism is the perfect tool to exert […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS 2nd Revision  6.8.21 REPARATION In 2005, the UN General Assembly passed a  Resolution titled Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law”  (General Assembly resolution 60/147 of 16 December 2005) . This […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 1.8.21 When the Tamil civilians found that they were getting caught in the gunfire between the army and the LTTE, in the last phase of Eelam War IV, they decided to get out of the war zone, into which they had run so eagerly. They ran to the government sector, across the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS (Continued from C11) UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE (2017) Sri Lanka ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) Convention in January 1994 and incorporated the Convention into Sri Lankan law by enacting the ‘Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  (Continued from C10) OFFICE OF MISSING PERSONS   (2016) The Office of Missing Persons Act was passed in Parliament on 12.8.16, during the rule of the Yahapalana puppet government. It was rushed through Parliament ignoring objections. It went through all three readings within 40 minutes. The Bill was not referred to Supreme Court.   […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS (Continued from C13) MUTUAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS ACT,  (2018) In May 2018, the government gazetted sweeping amendments to the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, No. 25 of 2002.  This amendment  became Act no 24 of 2018. CA Chandraprema has commented at length on the Bill..The purpose of the original Act, said […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  (continued from C12) UN CONVENTION ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES (2018) Sri Lanka signed the UN International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances (ICPPED) in December 2015 and in March 2018 passed a Bill to incorporate its provisions into Sri Lanka law. The Bill was passed, without amendments, amidst disturbances from […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The war cry” for war crimes came from the west which is smarting from the defeat of the LTTE in Eelam war IV. This   essay looks at the various measures used to bring the Sri Lanka army before a war crimes tribunal. The International Criminal Court  is the   sole  international tribune for war […]