This week Sri Lanka made it to the end of a difficult and violent presidential election, shown in this series of photos from a local independent media service
On 26 January Sri Lanka held its first presidential election since the government of incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared that the war against Tamil separatists was over. The campaign was marred by widespread violence, and media coverage of it operated in the shadow of the ongoing intimidation and assassination of journalists. These images of the campaign are from independent Sri Lankan media organisation Perambara. More
A few weeks ago Sri Lanka’s upcoming general election looked like a walk in the park for the incumbent, President Rajapaksa, who was riding high on the kudos of ending the country’s long-running civil war.
A FEW weeks ago, Sri Lanka’s upcoming general election looked like a walk in the park for the incumbent, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was riding high on the kudos of ending the country’s long-running civil war.
As far as we Tamils are concerned, this is not the right time for any sort of election, regardless of who the candidates are.
Those in the traditional homeland are still recovering from the woes of the war; there has been no time for proper healing, rehabilitation or reconstruction. Most do not know where their loved ones are and whether they are still living or dead. They live in fear under a heavy military presence, with restricted freedom of movement.
The United Nations has turned down a request from Sri Lanka to send observers to monitor the country’s presidential election later this month because of lack of time, a U.N. spokesman said on Wednesday.
COLOMBO (Reuters) – To win a quarter-century war four of his predecessors could not, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa did what none of them would: gave the military near-unlimited power.
But now that he has claimed victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels in one of Asia’s longest-running wars, Rajapaksa has moved quickly to diffuse the military’s influence as he eyes another term in office and rejuvenating the war-hit economy.
Analysts and officers say Rajapaksa is at once sharing the spoils of war and diffusing the military’s post-war power, ensuring there will be no threat to his plan to turn the war victory into an electoral one in a poll expected early next year.
Barely three months after the war ended, Rajapaksa promoted his war-winning army chief General Sarath Fonseka to a newly created post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), which many analysts saw as neutralising the wide powers Fonseka had in wartime.
“Fonseka was kicked upstairs to the ceremonial post before he will be made to retire,” said a serving military officer on condition of anonymity.
Rajapaksa also sent senior officers to foreign diplomatic postings or top civilian jobs and made Lt.-Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, who won a reputation for professionalism when dealing with aid agencies during the war, the new commander.
A number of top officers are regular speakers at business leadership conferences in Colombo, imparting winning lessons.
From the time the war started in 1983 until Rajapaksa took office in 2006, it was an axiom of Sri Lankan political leadership that the military not be given too much power, lest it pose a coup threat.
“A military coup is not possible in Sri Lanka, but with over 100,000 in the force you can put pressure on the political system,” the officer said.
FAKE E-MAIL
Underscoring that reality, last month an e-mail circulated falsely attributed to Fonseka in which he declared his candidacy for president. The general quickly called it a hoax, and the government said it suspects an opposition hand in it.
Fonseka, nearly killed by a rebel suicide bombing in April 2006, engineered the successful war campaign and won it in a 34-month offensive. That garnered him and the military tremendous popularity.
Sri Lanka has never seen a top military leader enter politics, except for Major-General Janaka Perera. A popular member of the main opposition, Perera was killed by a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber last year.
Fonseka, who on paper has oversight of the army, navy, and air force, in fact directly controls no troops and must clear all decisions with his former comrade-in-arms, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a retired army colonel who is the president’s brother.
“The CDS position is overall a policy function and it is not a command function,” said Colonel R. Hariharan, a security analyst who headed military intelligence for the Indian Peacekeeping Force in Sri Lanka in 1987-1990.
Hariharan said the moves leave the president free to focus on politics and strengthening himself before a vote presidential allies say will happen around January, to be followed soon after by a parliamentary election.
SOLID VOTE
“The president wants to get a solid vote. I think he will put presidential polls first. So once the president comes with a big majority, it is psychologically an influence on the parliamentary polls,” Hariharan said.
Rajapaksa’s moves come as Sri Lanka’s $40 billion economy is showing a resurgence since the war ended on May 18 and now that a $2.6 billion International Monetary Fund loan has come through to cushion the war-ravaged economy, which was also hard hit by the global slowdown.
Since then, shares on the Colombo Stock Exchange have risen more than 48 percent, the central bank is holding the rupee steady, foreign exchange reserves have more than doubled to $4 billion, and tourist inflows have climbed every month.
Since the war’s end, Rajapaksa’s administration has been talking to investors directly and indirectly through central bank officials to persuade them to invest in Sri Lanka, amid a quiet intelligence war to nab remnant rebels and their international network.
Under the IMF loan, the government has agreed to cut its budget deficit to 5 percent in 2011 from 7.7 percent in 2008, and many economists say that could make it difficult for his government to maintain some of its populist measures and a top-heavy cabinet.
Criticisms are being levelled from all quarters these days against UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for not taking steps to halt the Sri Lankan (SL) war concluded recently. ‘The Economist’ magazine has declared that Ban Ki Moon’s popularity is on the decline day by day , based on an opinion poll , adding that, one of the reasons for this popularity wane is because Moon did not perform his duties duly during the SL war .The US New York Times newspaper during the last few days has also come down heavily on Ban Ki Moon against his course of action and for not taking measures to stop the war. It had been pointed out that Ban Ki Moon had not adopted adequate strategies and measures to stop the war. Although he tried to halt the war by his personal discussions with the SL Govt. , he did not sufficiently enlist the International community to bring enough pressure to bear on the SL Govt. overtly. He is also being castigated for his lukewarm attitude , having not made an announcement seriously critical of the SL Govt. and for not issuing a notice under his personal signature.
There are also charges against him that even though during the tail end of the war he was scheduled to visit SL , he had instead, sent his representative and divested himself of the responsibilities. This action has come under heavy fire . He has been blamed severely for sidelining his all important scheduled tour to SL during the critical final phase of the SL war.
Irrespective of whether there is any truth in the accusations, it is very clear that the SL Govt. had from the day of commencement of the war, made a right evaluation of the pressures Ban Ki Moon can exert on SL in connection with the war. The SL Govt. on the basis of this evaluation exploited its diplomacy to take measures to forestall and lighten the pressures of Ban Ki Moon. SL Govt. was clever in its manipulations.
Mahinda Rajapaksa knew Ban Ki Moon before the former became President of SL .During the time when voting was to take place to fill the vacancy of Secretary General of UN , there was a view that an Asian shall fill this vacancy. When it was decided that the UN General Secretary post shall be held by an Asian, the Asian countries forwarded the names of their candidates for the post.
South Korea proposed Ban Ki Moon who was a Foreign Minister of their country . SL too had the need to name a candidate for the UN Gen. Secretary post. SL proposed the name of Jayantha Dhanapala , a former High Commissioner who served in the UN Organization. When SL proposed Dhanapala’s name , S. Korea requested SL to get his name withdrawn, in which case, South Korea agreed to provide financial aid to SL .
At that time , the SL’s Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar’s perception was that SL will have to defray large sums of money if it is to contest the UN Gen. Secretary post ,and despite such expenditure , the chances of SL emerging victorious was slim. Therefore, for a poor country like SL , helping S. Korea’s candidate and reaping the financial benefits was a better option , he argued.
Dhanapala insisted that he could contest and win the UN Gen. Secretary post elections. He explained this to the SL President at that time Chandrika Kumaratunge. Mr. Dhanapala’s name was then proposed.
S. Korea representatives met Mahinda Rajapakse who was then the Prime Minster of SL. They requested him to get Dhanapala’s name withdrawn from the contest and support their candidate. It was at that time Mahinda Rajapakse and Ban Ki Moon came to know each other.
When Mahinda Rajapakse was becoming President , Dhanapala was SL’s candidate for the post of UN Gen. Secretary . But , when the UN Gen Secretary elections was drawing close , it was indicated that Dhanapala’s victory was a remote possibility. When Mahinda was extending support to Ban Ki Moon , he requested Dhanapala to withdraw from the contest. By that time, Dhanapala too had realized that he cannot win at the UN Gen. Secretary elections.
Mahinda Rajapakse took a wise decision at that juncture . He intuitively discerned that in the future , the UN Sec. General will be crucial to SL in decision making. Taking a farsighted decisions is what ‘Medamulana diplomacy’ means . If Dhanapala was to be kept in the contest, SL will have to spend large sums of money which would be of no avail as Dhanapala in any case would lose. Besides. Ban Ki Moon and S. Korea’s feelings would be hurt. Mahinda made a judicious move to convince Dhanapala of the actual situation.
For Ban Ki Moon , the decision taken by Mahinda Rajapaksa was unforgettable . This is why when the whole world was vehemently and vociferously protesting against the SL war , Ban Ki Moon took pains to discuss it with Mahinda on a personal level , and requested him to explore the possibility of halting the on going war. He avoided making bitter criticisms against the SL Govt. because he was averse to disrupting the cordial relations that existed between him and the SL Govt.
At the tail end of the war , when he was under intense pressure to visit SL , he sidelined it , and sent Nambiar as his representative. Nambiar’s brother was a former high ranking official of the Indian Army who had negotiated with the Tamil Tigers as India’s representative. However , he had no faith at all in the Tamil Tigers. If India’s former Chief had no trust at all in the Tamil Tigers , it is inconceivable that his brother , the UN representative will have faith in them.
The war ended when Nambiar was in SL. After the end of the war , when charges were brought before the UNHRC against SL , S. Korea ,the country to which UN Sec. General belonged opposed it. Then and only then , the Tamil Tigers would have realized what this Rajapaksa’s ‘ Meda mulana’ diplomacy had done . But , it was too late when that realization dawned on them , for by that time everything needed to be done for their devastation was done and finished.
Totalitarian leader was once a young idealist fighting for human rights
President Rajapaksa’s treatment of the independent press is a shocking indictment of a regime that refuses to tolerate criticism, writes a Special Correspondent
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which?”
A senior US diplomat has warned that Sri Lanka’s failure to share power with minority Tamils after the end of the war could lead to renewed violence.
The US assistant secretary of state for South Asia told AP news agency that Sri Lanka should give more freedom to the 300,000 Tamils displaced by the war.
Robert Blake said it was wrong that many were indefinitely confined to government-run camps in the north.
The refugees were being held “against their will”, Mr Blake said.
The Sri Lankan authorities say they do plan to let civilians return home, but must screen them first to identify rebel fighters.
‘New impetus’
Mr Blake expressed disappointment at President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s reluctance to pursue political reconciliation until after presidential elections are held, probably in January.
“The government needs to find a way to move more quickly than January 2010,” he said.
“Because the risk, of course, is that people will become disaffected and that will give new impetus to terrorism.”
He said the government had to take steps to make Tamils feel they were part of the political process, after the end of the country’s lengthy civil war in May.
He said that it was important that the government allowed more freedom of movement for nearly 300,000 Tamils displaced by the war and confined to government camps.
Mr Blake said some progress had been made over this issue – about 10,000 displaced people had been allowed to leave the camps and 40,000 more are due to leave later this month.
“But most are not allowed to leave,” he said, “and it’s important for them to have this freedom of movement.”
Longer term reconstruction assistance was dependent on progress being made on this issue and on setting up a power sharing arrangement, he said.
On Monday, Amnesty International also urged Sri Lanka’s government to set free hundreds of thousands of Tamil war refugees detained in camps.
The human rights group says their continued internment is a breach of international human rights covenants.
Colombo’s order to the Red Cross to cut back its work at Tamil internment camps is an outrage. The world must boycott Sri Lanka until it starts releasing detainees
There is something despicable about forcing doctors to lie about war crimes. By their calling, doctors are committed to relieving human suffering, to helping the sick and preventing disease. It is therefore particularly disturbing to see the five doctors who remained with the besieged Tamil civilians as the Sri Lankan Army closed in being paraded before journalists to deny their earlier casualty reports. Men who risked their lives to save lives are now being forced to take part in a political charade to cover up the appalling suffering two months ago — suffering that is still being inflicted on 300,000 Tamils interned in detention camps in northern Sri Lanka.
As the army squeezed the Tamil Tigers into an ever smaller strip of beach, the doctors were the only source of news about the slaughter caused by the military’s indiscriminate shelling. The United Nations found that more than 7,000 civilians were killed between January and May. Subsequent aerial photographs of beach graves, revealed in The Times, suggested that the figure was more than 20,000. World outrage embarrassed the Colombo Government. The doctors were swiftly arrested and nothing further was heard of them until Wednesday.
Their recantation, clearly made under duress, was as ludicrous as it was humiliating. Mechanically rehearsed but clearly nervous, they drastically reduced the death toll estimates, denied that a key hospital had been shelled and insisted that they had been forced to exaggerate the totals by Tiger fighters. In response the UN yesterday asserted tersely that it stood by its figures.
Few people will be fooled by Colombo’s crude attempt at a propaganda victory. For the Government took a far more sinister and callous step yesterday when it ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross to scale back its operations in Sri Lanka, leave the camps where it has been monitoring conditions and halt its aid programmes. The need for expatriate assistance was much less now than before, the Government asserted. Sri Lankans were fully able to meet all the needs of those detained in “welfare villages”.
The claim is an outrageous lie. Senior international aid figures said yesterday that about 1,400 people a week are dying at one of the big internment camps. Tamil civilians, rounded up after the government victory on the pretext of a security need to weed out former fighters, are suffering from hunger, disease, insanitary conditions, overcrowding and the enforced separation of families. The Government has taken almost no steps to free them. Indeed, a former Sri Lankan foreign minister has accused it of a policy of deliberate “ethnic cleansing” to change the population balance.
Colombo’s order puts the Red Cross in a difficult position. Historically, it has rarely spoken out — even about Nazi concentration camps — so as not to jeopardise access to those in greatest danger. It was the only aid agency allowed inside the war zone in the final stages of the conflict. But its few statements angered the Government. Sri Lanka wants no witnesses to what is now being done in these modern concentration camps.
If the Red Cross is forced to withdraw, however, the outside world should step in. The Sri Lankan Government is awaiting a $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to address its balance-of-payments crisis and postwar development. None of this money should be paid until independent aid agencies are guaranteed access to the Tamil camps and until Sri Lanka starts to release those detained. Other world bodies — the Commonwealth, the United Nations and even world cricketing organisations — should boycott Colombo until reconciliation begins. A nation cannot run concentration camps and expect the world to look away.
On 8th July 2009, Sri Lankan Government paraded 5 Tamil Doctors (Dr. T.Sathiyamoorthy, Dr. T.Varatharaja, Dr V.Shanmugaraja, Dr. Illancheliyan Pallavan and Dr. S. Sivapalan ), who are currently under Sri Lankan Military Intelligence custody for nearly 2 months, in an effort to cover-up its War Crime Evidences. Those five doctors who acted as the eyes and ears of the world during Sri Lankan Government’s War Without Witness waged in Vanni recanted their previous reporting under duress, sources close to their families confirmed to “War Without Witness”.
The whole drama was staged at Sri Lankan Defence Ministry, ‘Media Centre for National Security’ and moderated by Mr Jeyarajan Yogaraj, son of a Sri Lankan Police Officer and a full time employee of Sri Lankan State Media, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation & Rupavahini TV ‘eye’ Channel.
Under duress, The doctors said that only up to 750 civilians were killed between January and mid-May in the final battles of the war in 2009, a number far below the 20,000 Civilian casualty documented with identities confirmed and published by War Without Witness on 13th June 2009 ( http://warwithoutwitness.com/SLCasualityReport/ ).
Sam Zarifi, the Asia-pacific director for Amnesty International, said that the statements from the doctors were “expected and predicted”. “There are very significant grounds to question whether these statements were voluntary, and they raise serious concerns whether the doctors were subjected to ill-treatment during weeks of detention,” he said. “From the time the doctors were detained, the fear was that they would be used exactly this way.”
” The doctors, who appeared physically well but extremely nervous at the press conference”. ”Their recantation, clearly made under duress, was as ludicrous as it was humiliating. Mechanically rehearsed but clearly nervous, they drastically reduced the death toll estimates, denied that a key hospital had been shelled and insisted that they had been forced to exaggerate the totals by Tiger fighters. “ said The Time, UK
Considering the below facts, War Without Witness, urge main stream media, Human Rights organisations, Governments and Policy makers to be vigilant of these type of Sri Lankan Government Propaganda and also urge United Nations to not act like “club-of-governments” but rather act as a true voice of people & bring those perpetrators of Sri Lankan War Crimes into justice without fail & further delay.
Facts speak for It-Self
1) 20,000 Civilian casualty in 2009 has been documented with identities confirmed (including photos of the victims) and published by War Without Witness on 13th June 2009 ( http://warwithoutwitness.com/SLCasualityReport/ ).
3) UN withheld casualty is 20,000. U.N. official figures show more than 7,000 civilians were killed between January and May. Human rights groups accused the government of shelling heavily populated areas and accused the rebels of holding civilians as human shields. Satellite photos showed densely populated civilian areas had been shelled. Both sides denied the accusations. When asked about the doctors’ latest comments, U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said: “We stand by our statements.”
Source: http://www.innercitypress.com/3832_001.pdf , http://www.innercitypress.com/untrip3may3srilanka060209.html
4) Injured causality of more than 12,000 Tamils were transferred from Puthumattalan War Zone to Trincomalle by ship (more than 20 times) with assistance of I C R C. In addition, I C R C was assisted to transfer the injured people through land route to Vavuniya hospital and Mannar hospitals.
Full Name List ( First 10 Ships ) : http://warwithoutwitness.com/SLCasualityReport/Annex02_ICRC_Ship_PatientList.pdf
6) On 2nd July 2009 , an eyewitness said, “There 35,000 children in the camps and out of which around 1,800 are orphans. “ This would equate to a minimum of 3600 causality ( ie both parents have been killed ).
Social Welfare Deputy Minister Lionel Premasri, officially confirmed on 9th July 2009, that there are 2,800 disabled people in camps amongst 300,00 detained IDPs. Who caused this huge scale of injuries ?
Source: http://www.groundviews.org/2009/07/02/an-eye-witness-account-of-idp-camp-conditions-in-sri-lanka/
7) Mr Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary in Sri Lanka’s ministry of disaster management and human rights, confessed to Guardian on 4th June that the civilian death toll from the last stages of the war as 3,000 to 5,000. Will there be another parade by Rajiva ?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/04/sri-lanka-civilians-tigers-battle
If the hospital and civilians were not indiscriminately targeted by Sri Lankan Armed Forces, how one of the doctors paraded by Sri Lankan Government have injuries in his hand ?
9) S Kanthasamy Tharmakulasingham, Administrative Officer Health Department Mullaithivu – Makeshift Hospital was killed in an indiscriminate attack on hospital on 12th May 2009. On 2nd Feb 2009, A nurse who was attending a wounded patient at Udaiyaarkaddu makeshift hospital was killed when 3 shells hit the hospital. How they have been killed if there is no such indiscriminate attack by Sri Lankan Armed Forces on Hospitals?
10) Dr. T.Sathiyamoorthy, Dr. T.Varatharaja, Dr V.Shanmugaraja, Dr. Illancheliyan Pallavan and Dr. S. Sivapalan who served the many thousands of civilians stranded in the so called “no fire zone” under the most difficult conditions of continuous aerial and artillery attacks, and have been hailed by the UN as heroes, Will the Sri Lankan Government release them immediately and recommend them for their well deserved UN award?
Time CNN : Around the World, Young Tamil Voices Not Quieted By War’s End
…For years, young Tamils have been staging protests calling for international intervention in Sri Lanka’s civil war to help establish a permanent ceasefire. Now they’re shifting their energies to persuade Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa to provide desperately needed resources to war-torn areas across the nation. Many young Tamils have grown loudly critical of Rajapaksa, who they say does not respect the rights of minority groups in the country…
After declaring total victory over the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka remains as combative as ever. Weeks later, it still sees enemies everywhere – and silences them.
Criticisms are being levelled from all quarters these days against UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for not taking steps to halt the Sri Lankan (SL) war concluded recently. ‘The Economist’ magazine has declared that Ban Ki Moon’s popularity is on the decline day by day , based on an opinion poll , adding that, one of the reasons for this popularity wane is because Moon did not perform his duties duly during the SL war .The US New York Times newspaper during the last few days has also come down heavily on Ban Ki Moon against his course of action and for not taking measures to stop the war. It had been pointed out that Ban Ki Moon had not adopted adequate strategies and measures to stop the war. Although he tried to halt the war by his personal discussions with the SL Govt. , he did not sufficiently enlist the International community to bring enough pressure to bear on the SL Govt. overtly. He is also being castigated for his lukewarm attitude , having not made an announcement seriously critical of the SL Govt. and for not issuing a notice under his personal signature.
If the hospital and civilians were not indiscriminately targeted by Sri Lankan Armed Forces, how one of the doctors paraded by Sri Lankan Government have injuries in his hand ?
