{"id":69373,"date":"2017-09-02T00:14:52","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T06:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=69373"},"modified":"2017-09-01T16:57:15","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T23:57:15","slug":"who-funded-the-kangaroo-trial-by-the-international-truth-and-justice-project-itjp-headed-by-yasmin-sooka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/09\/02\/who-funded-the-kangaroo-trial-by-the-international-truth-and-justice-project-itjp-headed-by-yasmin-sooka\/","title":{"rendered":"Who funded the kangaroo trial by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) headed by Yasmin Sooka?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

As usual half-baked stories are being sold as hot cakes with the gullible falling prey! Suddenly news is a bug about some \u2018verdict\u2019 by a kangaroo court set up by the International Truth & Justice Project which is administered by the Foundation for Human Rights whose Executive Director is non other than Yasmin Sooka the \u2018comrade\u2019 of LTTE fronts and one of the 3 handpicked members of Ban Ki Moon\u2019s personally commissioned panel report which declared LTTE as\u00a0\u2018the most disciplined and most nationalist of the Tamil militant groups\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Foundation for Human Rights was launched in 1996\u00a0through a cooperation agreement between the European Union and the South African government. Its mission was to address the historical legacy of apartheid in South Africa. Sooka is an EU employee and paid by EU.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.fhr.org.za\/index.php\/projects\/<\/a><\/p>\n

At its 10th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary a report was generated solely concentrating on South Africa\u00a0http:\/\/www.fhr.org.za\/files\/6613\/6120\/1921\/0045_3-_Making_rights_real.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

The question is when the Foundation for Human Rights has been set up and funded to look into the affairs of people in South Africa why should it create a sub-entity called the International Truth & Justice Project on Sri Lanka and why ONLY Sri Lanka?\u00a0http:\/\/www.itjpsl.com<\/a>\u00a0and they also run a website Stop Torture –\u00a0http:\/\/www.stop-torture.com<\/a>\u00a0that too on Sri Lanka. The entire focus seems to be on Sri Lanka only! Very strange!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who is funding the ITJP projects?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sooka spends a lot of time issuing statements on the right for LTTE to commemorate its dead at Mullaiwaikkal\u00a0http:\/\/athavaneng.com\/?p=270504<\/a><\/p>\n

Sooka is also an advisory member of the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice –\u00a0https:\/\/www.srilankacampaign.org\/about-us\/organizational-structure\/<\/a>\u00a0whose members include a plethora of controversial figures & it is very interesting how well networked they are<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. S. Tissainayagam<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Teesta Setalvad<\/p>\n

    Natalie Samarasinghe<\/p>\n

    Bianca Jagger<\/p>\n

    Bruce Haigh<\/p>\n

    Basil Fernando<\/p>\n

    Beate Arnestad<\/p>\n

    Callum Macrae \u2013 Board Member<\/p>\n

    Charu Lata Hogg \u2013 Chairperson<\/p>\n

    The present kangaroo court recalls another\u00a0The People\u2019s Tribunal on Sri Lanka held in Dubiln, Ireland in 2010 January was organized by the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

    The most hilarious part of this tribunal which was featured on\u00a0International Council of Eelam Tamils\u00a0website\u00a0http:\/\/www.iceelamtamils.com\/peoples-tribunal-on-sri-lanka\/<\/a>\u00a0was promoting the Vaddukoddai Resolution\/Separation of Sri Lanka!<\/p>\n

    It is certainly interesting to find out who funded this Dublin Tribunal!<\/p>\n

    In 2013 Sooka was invited as Guest Speaker to the\u00a0Global Tamil Forum conference in UK. She was introduced as \u2018comrade\u2019. Sri Lanka\u2019s Opposition Leader Sambanthan and Sumanthiran were also present as invitees!<\/p>\n

    That same year Sooka campaigned to get countries to boycott attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo.<\/p>\n

    Yasmin Sooka in March 2014 joined Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bishop Joseph Rayappu, R. Sampanthan, CV Wigneswaran and 35 others jointly addressed to the UNHRC to set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Sri Lanka. This petition was generated by Campaign for Peace and Justice of which Yasmin Sooka happens to be a member of the Advisory Council!<\/p>\n

    The same month, the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice released another report titled Crimes against Humanity in Sri Lanka\u2019s Northern Province\u201d. The foreward of the report was by the Centre for Justice and Accountability which Sooka endorsed!<\/p>\n

    Her unashamed bias and conflict of interest erases any semblance of credibility\u00a0http:\/\/www.onlanka.com\/news\/is-yasmin-sooka-biased-and-prejudiced-against-sri-lanka.html<\/a><\/p>\n

    Such characters have no business to be calling people as war criminals. Who are funding these projects? Who are funding these tribunals? Who are paying for these trials and the amount of legal lies being concocted and disseminated over media by others who are also part of a large network out to discredit the achievements of Sri Lanka\u2019s Armed Forces.<\/p>\n

    No amount of paid tarnishing campaigns can remove the fact that LTTE was a non-state armed group. Sri Lanka\u2019s conflict was a non-international armed conflict. LTTE are not prisoners of war and they do not enjoy any privileges of rights given to PoWs.\u00a0 LTTE\u00a0is not entitled to be referred to as an ENEMY COMBATANT.\u00a0In a non-international armed conflict such as Sri Lanka\u2019s, COMBATANT and PRISONER OF WAR STATUS DOES NOT APPLY.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    LTTE fall into category of\u00a0<\/strong>Unlawful combatants who are likewise subject to capture and detention, but in addition they are subject to trial and punishment by military tribunals for acts which render their belligerency unlawful.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    A public petition must be organized demanding that LTTE must stand trial first for their war crimes over 30 years before any tribunals are introduced illegally bypassing the sovereign internal laws of Sri Lanka.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    There are 5000 missing soldiers why are people like Sooka not speaking on behalf of these missing soldiers instead of going behind figures of people they cannot produce even birth certificates to proof they were even born!<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    This farce has been going on for too long. Let it be made clear that LTTE started armed warfare. LTTE targeted civilians and scores innocent villagers became the first victims. Entire villages were attacked & villagers cut to pieces and chased out. That was how LTTE came to declare North as belong to only Tamils \u2013 after chasing out Muslims & Sinhalese. Where were the human rights organizations, foreign envoys and UN then? Did they even bother to count these dead killed by LTTE? The entities talking about the army hitting makeshift hospitals during the final stages and killing civilians during firing have conveniently forgotten the scores of LTTE suicide missions and bombs placed inside passenger trains, buses, civilian installations etc where were the vigils for these deaths? We never saw a single foreign envoy lighting a candle for them and LTTE carried out over 300 suicide attacks! Let those foreign envoys lighting candles for the dead answer this simple question \u2013 which dead are they mourning?<\/p>\n

    We do not know<\/p>\n