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Today has been chosen to mark Black January, a memorial for all the attacks on the media that have occurred in the month of January in the past three years, and the failure of the government of Sri Lanka to bring to account those responsible for attacks on numerous journalists. The Sri Lankan Free Media Movement, and the International Federation of Journalists are leading the campaign.

To mark the occasion we will be posting the last (posthumous) editorial of Lasantha Wickermatunga, the editor of the Sunday Leader who was murdered on the 8th of January 2009. The original can be found here.

And then they came for me

No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.

I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be The Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower.

Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.

But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience.

The Sunday Leader has been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it: whether it be a spade, a thief or a murderer, we call it by that name. We do not hide behind euphemism. The investigative articles we print are supported by documentary evidence thanks to the public-spiritedness of citizens who at great risk to themselves pass on this material to us. We have exposed scandal after scandal, and never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or successfully prosecuted us.

The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.

Every newspaper has its angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy. Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning. Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we recognise that all human beings are created different, and we need to accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to be. And democratic... well, if you need me to explain why that is important, you'd best stop buying this paper.

The Sunday Leader has never sought safety by unquestioningly articulating the majority view. Let's face it, that is the way to sell newspapers. On the contrary, as our opinion pieces over the years amply demonstrate, we often voice ideas that many people find distasteful. For example, we have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes of terrorism, and urged government to view Sri Lanka's ethnic strife in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism. We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens. For these views we have been labelled traitors, and if this be treachery, we wear that label proudly.

Many people suspect that The Sunday Leader has a political agenda: it does not. If we appear more critical of the government than of the opposition it is only because we believe that - pray excuse cricketing argot - there is no point in bowling to the fielding side. Remember that for the few years of our existence in which the UNP was in office, we proved to be the biggest thorn in its flesh, exposing excess and corruption wherever it occurred. Indeed, the steady stream of embarrassing exposés we published may well have served to precipitate the downfall of that government.

Neither should our distaste for the war be interpreted to mean that we support the Tigers. The LTTE are among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations ever to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting them mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dhamma is forever called into question by this savagery, much of which is unknown to the public because of censorship.

What is more, a military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen - and all of the government - cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall.

It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.

The irony in this is that, unknown to most of the public, Mahinda and I have been friends for more than a quarter century. Indeed, I suspect that I am one of the few people remaining who routinely addresses him by his first name and uses the familiar Sinhala address oya when talking to him. Although I do not attend the meetings he periodically holds for newspaper editors, hardly a month passes when we do not meet, privately or with a few close friends present, late at night at President's House. There we swap yarns, discuss politics and joke about the good old days. A few remarks to him would therefore be in order here.

Mahinda, when you finally fought your way to the SLFP presidential nomination in 2005, nowhere were you welcomed more warmly than in this column. Indeed, we broke with a decade of tradition by referring to you throughout by your first name. So well known were your commitments to human rights and liberal values that we ushered you in like a breath of fresh air. Then, through an act of folly, you got yourself involved in the Helping Hambantota scandal. It was after a lot of soul-searching that we broke the story, at the same time urging you to return the money. By the time you did so several weeks later, a great blow had been struck to your reputation. It is one you are still trying to live down.

You have told me yourself that you were not greedy for the presidency. You did not have to hanker after it: it fell into your lap. You have told me that your sons are your greatest joy, and that you love spending time with them, leaving your brothers to operate the machinery of state. Now, it is clear to all who will see that that machinery has operated so well that my sons and daughter do not themselves have a father.

In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it.

Sadly, for all the dreams you had for our country in your younger days, in just three years you have reduced it to rubble. In the name of patriotism you have trampled on human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other President before you. Indeed, your conduct has been like a small child suddenly let loose in a toyshop. That analogy is perhaps inapt because no child could have caused so much blood to be spilled on this land as you have, or trampled on the rights of its citizens as you do. Although you are now so drunk with power that you cannot see it, you will come to regret your sons having so rich an inheritance of blood. It can only bring tragedy. As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker. I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish.

As for me, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not travelled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: most of them are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands. Others walk in the shadow of death that your Presidency has cast on the freedoms for which you once fought so hard. You will never be allowed to forget that my death took place under your watch. As anguished as I know you will be, I also know that you will have no choice but to protect my killers: you will see to it that the guilty one is never convicted. You have no choice. I feel sorry for you, and Shiranthi will have a long time to spend on her knees when next she goes for Confession for it is not just her owns sins which she must confess, but those of her extended family that keeps you in office.

As for the readers of The Sunday Leader, what can I say but Thank You for supporting our mission. We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and mighty so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view. For this I - and my family - have now paid the price that I have long known I will one day have to pay. I am - and have always been - ready for that. I have done nothing to prevent this outcome: no security, no precautions. I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when.

That The Sunday Leader will continue fighting the good fight, too, is written. For I did not fight this fight alone. Many more of us have to be - and will be - killed before The Leader is laid to rest. I hope my assassination will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration for those who survive to step up their efforts. Indeed, I hope that it will help galvanise forces that will usher in a new era of human liberty in our beloved motherland. I also hope it will open the eyes of your President to the fact that however many are slaughtered in the name of patriotism, the human spirit will endure and flourish. Not all the Rajapakses combined can kill that.

People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niemoeller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niemoeller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niemoeller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:

First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

If you remember nothing else, remember this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled. Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted. Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter.

As for me, God knows I tried.

In October two mid-ranking politicians within the Sri Lankan ruling coalition exchanged gunfire in broad daylight – killing three. In November, in front of the President, MPs from the same ruling coalition ran across the floor of Parliament to punch opposition lawmakers in the face. And in December Sri Lankan politicians were again in the news, with tragic results.

Khuram Shaikh Zaman was 32 and British. He worked for the ICRC in the Gaza strip (he headed up the programme giving prosthetic limbs to landmine victims) and was in Sri Lanka on holiday with his friend, Victoria Alexandrovna, 23 - a Russian. On Christmas Day he was murdered in a brutal attack; he was both stabbed and shot. She too was horrifically assaulted and has been in intensive care ever since.

The attack took place in Tangalle, a village just down the road from Hanbantota – the fishing village (population 10,000) which contains an international airport, a vast deep sea port, an international cricket stadium and an international conference venue. Tangalle and Hanbantota have the same MPs, among them: Namal Rajapaska (the president’s son), Chamal Rajapaska (the president’s brother), and Nirupama Rajapaska (the president’s cousin). They of course all represent the ruling party – the UPFA.

A key cog in that local UPFA machine, and a “loyal friend” of Namal Rajapaska, is the chair of Tangalle municipal council Sampath Chandrapushpa Vidanapathirana. Several eyewitnesses claim they saw Chandrapushpa attack a local hotelier known as “Ryan” on the dancefloor of the Nature Tangalle hotel on Christmas day. Zaman then allegedly attempted to break up the fight and he and Alexandrovna were assaulted with broken bottles. Eyewitnesses then claim Vidanapathirana reappeared with friends brandishing assault rifles, four of them were seen dragging Alexandrovna away, and Zaman was not seen again alive.

These reports have not been corroborated but it is clear that a horrific crime has taken place and that Vidanapathirana is the main suspect. Alexandrovna has now regained consciousness and identified Vidanapathirana as her assailant. After some foot dragging on the part of the police, he was eventually arrested, but he has still not been stripped of his elected office or his UPFA membership. Speculation is rife that the Rajapaska regime are protecting him – journalists reporting on the case have received death threats and many people have complained that “forces” are attempting to undermine the investigation.

Assuming the witnesses are correct, how on earth can Vidanapathirana have thought he would get away with this? It may be that this is because it is not the first time. In 2010 Vidanapathirana was arrested for the murder of an elderly woman while campaigning in the General Election. He was not charged because the police accepted the explanation that he was “mentally ill” and yet they took no further action. Nor did his illness prevent him from going on to hold elected office, or from running the Rajapaska’s local political machine.

What is clear is that officials within the ruling party believe they are above the law. And until a foreigner became involved, that was not a belief without foundation. Taking the incident that begins the piece: many people regard it as an open secret that Duminda Silva MP killed his colleague Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra. Even if you don’t believe the rumours, the bullet lodged in Silva’s skull places him irrefutably at the scene of the crime. And yet the Sri Lankan police allowed him to walk out of the country and beyond the reach of the law because “he wasn’t a suspect.”

Sri Lanka is in the grip of a culture of impunity. Everybody knows that if you are a member of the ruling elite you can get away with murder – and frequently they do. To understand how we got to this stage one needs to look at the events of May 2009.

If you believe an independent panel of experts appointed by the United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon then there is credible evidence that then, in the last few days of civil war, tens of thousands (the best estimate is 40,000) civilians were killed - mostly by the Government of Sri Lanka deliberately shelling so-called "safe areas". In addition the Government of Sri Lanka repeatedly and deliberately shelled hospitals, executed prisoners in cold blood and made political opponents disappear.

The Government has adopted an approach to reconciliation which can best be summed up as “truth and reconciliation without the truth”. The logic is that we should move on from these terrible events, and leave them in the past. But if you try to forgive and forget without first reconciling then you do not get peace: To quote, Archbishop Desmond Tutu "the process of forgiveness also requires acknowledgement on the part of the perpetrator that they have committed an offence". Without this you get a culture where anything goes; as Silva, Vidanapathirana and all the other thugs the regime protects knew all too well.

Nor are these isolated incidents. The UN Committee against Torture found that torture was in widespread use as a tool of the job by the Sri Lankan military and armed forces. There are currently 5,000 unsolved disappearances in Sri Lanka. 34 media workers have been killed in the last six years and not a single killer has been brought to justice. The Committee to Protect Journalists adjudge Sri Lanka the fourth most dangerous media environment on the planet.

The Sri Lankan experiment, or charade, of reconciliation has clearly failed, and Khuram Shaikh Zaman and Victoria Alexandrovna are just the latest victims of its failure.

Labels: Media freedom, Sri Lankan government, Sri Lankan military, Torture, United Nations

This is the third post in our three part series on the rights of Hill or Plantation Tamils.The first is available here. All three of these posts take material from a report by Home for Human Rights which we are making available here.

“Without access to continued education, people on the estates miss out on opportunities for new careers, economic advancement, and intellectual development. Likewise, estate workers and their families also lack critical information about their rights, bodies, and health care choices” – Home for Human Rights

Sri Lanka’s literacy rate has always been high for the region, and it has continued to soar – currently hovering in the 90%s. This is not the case for the Central Hill region however. Despite various UN conventions: the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the ICCPR and the ICESCR, instructing that all children must have the right to education regardless of their ethnicity, data collected by Home for Human Rights holds that children from within the tea estates in the Central Hill region are without the same educational opportunities as children from other backgrounds and geographical areas.

It has been found by Home for Human Rights that those living on tea estates showed a pattern of stopping their formal education well before the national average. 17% of respondents had completely ceased formal education during primary school and over a third stopped school after the 5th grade with only a worrying 0.6% completing their A Levels. Such low levels of education undoubtedly lead to marginalisation, and to communication concerns: in that administrative and medical staff within the plantation sector do not speak Tamil, and only a small minority of workers can understand Sinhala or English. Furthermore, the lack of readily available secondary education (as obligated by international law) obstructs women and children from making informed choices regarding health, namely that of sterilization as discussed previously. This is reinforced by Sri Lanka’s National Demographic Survey which links lower levels of education to inadequate information about family planning and moreover to “limited and harmful choices.” (HHR Report p.40).

A decent education is the key to emancipation from discrimination, poor health and lifestyle choices for men, women and children alike. One commentator holds:

“education was not part of the plantation culture; it was neither technically necessary nor did it have any survival value. For labourers’ children, education is a means of emancipation, but to the planter it is a potential threat to the labour supply.”(HHR Report p.39)

It is time the Government of Sri Lanka took responsibility in making this a reality rather than stifling the educational and intellectual rights held by the Central Hill Tamils for its own benefit.

Labels: Central Hill Tamils

This is the second post in our three part series on the rights of Hill or Plantation Tamils. The first is available here. All three of these posts take material from a report by Home for Human Rights which we are making available here.

"Unfortunately, the importance of the tea industry to the Sri Lankan economy has not helped to secure a reasonable standard of living for most estate employees." - Home for Human Rights

Under international law, the Government of Sri Lanka is under an obligation to ensure the reasonable treatment of workers. This is far from the case however, with plantation workers enduring a sense of indebtedness to the estate in which they work, which in turn promotes a vicious spiral of discrimination and poverty. Despite the fact that the 2003 Grant of Citizenship to Person's of Indian Origin Act no.35 finally entitled the Central Hill Tamils to citizenship, a poor birth registration system means that a large number of workers are without birth certificates and thereby the necessary documentation required to apply for citizenship.

However, it cannot be said that citizenship alone will solve the Hill Tamil's problems. Home for Human Rights reports that no efforts have been made by the Government of Sri Lanka to elevate their working conditions. Plantation workers receive no wage increases, thereby becoming consumed under the rising cost of living. This again reinforces their dependency upon the cruel plantation sector; crucial as it may be to the Sri Lankan economy. Indeed, the tea plantation industry in Sri Lanka is the third highest foreign exchange earner and provides Sri Lanka's largest agricultural export.

Due to the culture of dependency and lack of education endured by the Hill Tamils, men and women are forced to endure horrific conditions at work; including the use of sexual harassment as a control tactic. Home for Human Rights reports that significant amount of women regularly tolerate such harassment within the workplace, as leaving the estate is far from simple. Indeed as a survey conducted by HHR showed most respondents' freedom of movement outside of their estate was subject to authorisation by estate owners. 52% said that they were prevented from leaving the estate completely. Of course such a practice stands in direct contravention to the civil, political and human right of the “liberty and freedom of movement.”

It is time the government paid respect to the workers who maintain the strength of the tea industry which is so vital to the economy of Sri Lanka. Positive action to halt the endless cycle of entrapment and indebtedness must be started immediately. When will the Government of Sri Lanka appreciate its workers rather than address them as its subordinates?

Labels: Central Hill Tamils, Human rights

On December 10th 2011, human rights day, a group of 42 Human Rights Defenders (HRD's) and political activists from the South of Sri Lanka were detained by police in the Northern town of Jaffna.

Labels: Human rights

The Government of Sri Lanka's long awaited investigation into the end of the civil war, the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), is finally out. At a first read it appeared to be the whitewash we all feared and subsequent detailed study has not changed that view. Amnesty International,theInternational Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch, Freedom from torture, Sri Lankan commentators, the US state department and a former secretary of two presidential commissions of enquiry have all pointed out that, while the report does acknowledge that the government's lie that no civilians were harmed is no longer believable, it fails to provide any effective or independent mechanism for dealing with the allegations.

In a humiliating blow for the Sri Lankan government, the LLRCs release spurred a senior former military officer to speak out against the Rajapaksa regime, saying that Sri Lankan army commanders were ordered by the country’s leaders to assassinate surrendering Tamils. The confession, made by a former major general, marks the highest ranking person to assert that atrocities against members of the LTTE and civilians were sanctioned by the government.

The unnamed major general gave a sworn deputation in secret which was shown to the British Daily Telegraph. In it he states that he was informed that Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the defence secretary, passed on “some instructions to a field commander to get rid of those LTTE cadres [who] are surrendering without adhering to normal procedures”. The general confirmed that killing Tamil Tigers who had been captured or surrendered became “standard operating procedure” as the army closed in on the last of the LTTE fighters.

The Sri Lankan government have lambasted the claims in typical fashion. saying: “We categorically deny these malicious allegations”, and the claims are unlikely to force a confession out of the government as to their conduct during the war. However, the testimony, from such a high-ranking former member of the military increases the momentum for a war crimes prosecution.

Furthermore, his statement directly contradicts the LLRC. Although the LLRC admitted that some allegations of civilian abuses by security forces may have occurred and needed to be investigated further, it suggested that these acts could only have resulted from soldiers who were not following orders, thus purging the army and the government of any responsibility.

The report contains few surprises. The Rajapaksa regime mantra on civilian deaths has changed slightly; now it is no longer believable that there were ‘zero-civilian’ casualties, the report suggests that some civilians may have died due to military operations. However, it insists that these deaths were caused by "crossfire", despite the existence of a United Nations report accusing the government of deliberately shelling civilian areas.

The report states that in regards to the shelling of hospitals, ‘the material placed before the Commission points to a somewhat confused picture as to the precise nature of the events’. The Sri Lankan government created that confusion - by preventing independent witnesses such as journalists or NGOs from entering the area - so that the conflict became a war without witness.

The government now hopes that this report, with its rhetoric about the future, will placate international demands for reconciliation. However, by uncritically accepting the Government's rhetoric that these deaths were the result of crossfire and all rights violations the result of the actions of a few rogue individuals, the report does victims of abuse by both sides a disservice.

Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General, has been weak in his response, saying that he hopes the government will ‘move forward on its commitments to deal with accountability concerns’. We know this will not happen. The history of Sri Lanka is littered with reports such as the LLRC; they have always failed to prevent further cycles of bloodletting. It is up to the international community to make both sides face up to their actions, and so end the madness.

Labels: LLRC, LTTE, Reconciliation

URGENT ACTION

FEARS FOR MISSING SRI LANKAN ACTIVISTS

Sri Lankan political activist s Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan have been missing since 9 December . They were arranging a press conference for the following day to publicize a protest . Lalith Kumara Weeraraju ’s family received a phone call saying that he hadbeen killed.

Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan were last seen leaving Kugan Muruganandan’s residence in Avarangal, Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, on 9 December. There were preparing a press conference to be held on 10 December, World Human Rights Day, which aimed to publicize a protest planned for the same day. The protest included parents and relatives of people missing since the end of armed conflict in Sri Lanka in 2009, and was to focus on denouncing human rights violations against Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan military and calling for the release of detainees held without charge since the end of the war.

According to family members, the two men left the house on a motorbike bearing the license number NP GT 7852 at around 5:00pm on 9 December. Family members say they later received an anonymous phone call saying that Lalith Kumara Weeraraju had been killed. A missing persons complaint was lodged with the Jaffna Police, who denied they are holding the two men in custody.

Lalith Kumara Weeraraju has previously received threats warning him against involvement in politics in Jaffna, particularly during recent elections. He was also attacked and injured during a demonstration in Jaffna town on 14 November 2010, and was arrested and interrogated by the army in early 2011.

Human rights defenders say the Sri Lankan army and police attempted to block some 50 people from southern Sri Lanka attempting to join the demonstration, including members of the Civil Monitoring Committee, a voluntary human rights organization. The protest at the Jaffna bus stand went ahead on 10 December despite the obstacles.

Please write immediately in English or your own language:

Expressing concern for the safety and wellbeing of Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan;

Calling on the Sri Lankan authorities to order an immediate and impartial investigation to establish the whereabouts of Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan;

Calling on the Sri Lankan authorities to ensure that human rights defenders are able to carry out their legitimate human rights work without fear of harassment or intimidation

P LEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 24 JANUARY 2012 TO :

His Excellency the President

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Presidential Secretariat

Colombo 1, Sri Lanka

Fax: +94 11 244 6657

Email: lalith@icta.lk

Salutation: Your Excellency

Inspector General of Police

N K Illangakoon

New Secretariat Colombo 1

Sri Lanka

Fax: +94 11 244 0440

Email: igp@police.lk

Salutation: Dear Inspector General

Defence Secretary

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa

Ministry Of Defence and urban development

15/5, Baladaksha Mawatha,

Colombo 03, Sri Lanka

Fax: +94 11 254 1529

Email: secdef@sltnet.lk

Salutation: Dear Defence Secretary

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

URGENT ACTION

FEARS FOR MISSING SRI LANKAN ACTIVISTS

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Harassment, intimidation and attacks against human rights defenders and others who expose abuses in Sri Lanka are common. Many victims of human rights abuses feel an increased sense of insecurity as there is a lack of credible domestic mechanisms for filing and investigating complaints.

Name: Lalith Kumara Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan

Gender m/f: Both male

UA: 358/11 Index: ASA 37/018/2011 Issue Date: 13 December 2011

Labels: Campaigns, Human rights

Commenting on the release of the Govenment's Lessons Learned And Reconcillaition Comission report Fred Carver, Campaign Director for the Sri Lanka Campaign for peace and justice, said "On a first read it's the whitewash we all feared but sadly had come to expect.

"Given the LLRC's flawed methodology we should not be surprised that it is a flawed report. The 388 pages of waffle, denial, and justification seem designed purely to sever the chain of responsibility leading to the President and senior members of the regime - a task in which the report fails given the grievous nature of the allegations. Amidst the dozens of recommendations there are few that survive close scrutiny and none which stand any chance of leading to an effective investigation given the institutions charged with delivering them. Victims of the serious rights abuses committed by both sides will feel let down."

Labels: LLRC, Reconciliation

"This systematic pattern of authority-sanctioned coerced sterilizations may amount to an intentional destruction ... of the Tamil estate population." - Home for Human Rights

Whilst it is easy to suggest that the plight of the Tamils of the North and East of Sri Lanka deserves the most attention in light of the bloody end to the civil war, such a generalization is misleading and dangerous. No community in Sri Lanka is free from strife and this attitude can lead to us creating "forgotten people" such as the Central Hill Tamils.

This 800,000 strong community predominately work in the tea plantations in the middle of the island. Originating from Southern India, these Tamil speaking people are discriminated against by many within the Sinhalese majority community who class them as Tamils, yet are also subject to similar treatment by "Sri Lankan" Tamils; largely because they overwhelmingly belong to lower castes, and also because all sides have been guilty of believing the lie that Hill Tamils are "more Indian than Sri Lankan". This attitude, unchanged despite the 150+ years that Hill Tamils have lived in Sri Lanka, was one of the reasons they were denied citizenship until the 1990s, and the vote until 2002.

Such prejudice is not the worst of the matter however. The most distressing occurrence endured by the Hill Tamils and tea Plantation workers is that of non-consensual sterilization by virtue of governmental pressure to stop reproduction under the umbrella of "family planning."

Consensual sterilization is not merely a question of offer and acceptance alone. Rather, consent is only valid if the pre-requisites of the offer are fulfilled; such as adequate knowledge of the sterilization process, its implications and consequences. As education among the Central Hill Tamils is below average and there is often a language barrier, it is the responsibility of the doctor to provide sound guidance regarding the life changing process. According to reports by Home for Human Rights (HfHR) however, doctors do not do this, nor do they adequately brief the patients on their rights and the procedures governing sterilization before performing the operation.

Instead, as reported to HfHR by patients, many are subject to inappropriate pressure and over 80% are offered a small lump sump payment (typically around 500 rupees - a tiny amount of money, but not if you are on the bread line) in compensation for loss of their reproductive capacity, seemingly as part of a government policy to restrict the growth of this particular population. In most legal systems, acceptance of such a bargain would not qualify as informed consent, and indeed the practice contravenes international human rights law, which makes plain that governments must uphold the highest attainable standard of health for their citizens.

But what makes it much worse in this case is that it has to all appearances been adopted as part of a "politically motivated demographic control project". Since 1996, the Central Hill Tamil population has dropped annually by 5%, compared to a growth of 14% for the country overall.

In stark contrast, the Government has introduced a scheme in which police and army officers are encouraged to have a third child, with a payment of 100, 000 Sri Lankan rupees. According to President Rajapaksa, “giving police families cash for having a third child is the mark of a "caring society”. Of course those benefiting from this scheme and their families are likely to be loyal to the Government, and almost all would be of Sinhalese origin. Civil society activist Herman Kumara argues that this incentive aims primarily to “socially militarise” the nation. One might go even further and say that, taken together, these two schemes amount to a policy of eugenics.

This post takes information from a report by Home for Human Rights which we are making available here

Labels: Central Hill Tamils, Ethnic tension, Human rights

The concluding observations of the Committee Against Torture (CAT) have officially been released to the public by the UN Human Rights division – and they do not make for comfortable reading for the Rajapaska regime.

Committee Experts, Ms. Felice Gaer and Mr. Alessio Bruni, drew attention to numerous reports of torture and ill-treatment in Sri Lanka throughout the numerous sessions; most notably the unaccounted disappearance of 5,000 people, the discovery of torture-detention centres throughout the island and the pending cases of Sri Lankan soldiers who faced allegations of rape and sexual violence against women during the aftermath of the Civil War.

Throughout the concluding report, which did acknowledge the ‘new circumstances’ that prevailed after the end of a Civil War that had consumed the country for nearly thirty years, the Committee emphasised that there must be no tolerance of torture. And while it noted the Sri Lankan Government’s reformation of a handful of protocols, they remained seriously concerned about continued and consistent allegations of widespread use of torture and ill-treatment.

They also expressed further concern at reports that suggested torture and ill-treatment still remains to be used as a tool by both the Sri Lankan military and police today, especially to extract confessions or information to be used in criminal proceedings, including acts that took place after the Military Conflict ended in May 2009.

They also had a damning judgement of Sri Lanka’s domestic accountability mechanisms, stating that the CAT “remains concerned about the prevailing climate of impunity in the State party and the apparent failure to investigate promptly and impartially whenever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed” and that it “regrets the apparent limited mandate of the [government run accountability process] LLRC and its alleged lack of independence”.

We have long drawn the link between the current human rights abuses prevalent in Sri Lanka and the failure to establish proper accountability mechanisms following the events in the last few weeks of the war. CAT is not the first UN mandated body to confirm this link - the Panel of Experts report discussed it at length – but in light of Ban Ki Moon and the Human Rights Council’s continued failure to implement the findings of that report, such a strong statement from a UN body is significant.

It also begs the question, if even UN institutions doubt the credibility of the LLRC, then why are Governments around the world still hoping its much delayed publication will bring substantive process; and why are they continuing to delay action until it is published?

The concluding observations of the Committee Against Torture are damning. They show how little faith one should have in domestic accountability mechanisms in Sri Lanka and how, sadly, Sri Lanka needs independent international help if it is to return to the straight and narrow.

Labels: Human rights, Sri Lankan military, Torture, War crimes

Only weeks after the shoot-out between politicians Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and Duminda Silva that left Premachandra dead, another altercation took place on Monday the 21st, this time within the seat of power.

(Original photo courtesy of AP via MSNBC)

Members of Sri Lanka’s ruling party, the United People’s Freedom Alliance, attacked the opposition who were protesting inside parliament about President Rajapaksa’s budget. Punches were thrown in front of the President.

According to reports, members of the United National Party - no strangers to human rights abuses themselves during their own time in power - tried to hold up placards saying “shame” on the House floor in protest of the proposed budget, which they said did not contain enough measures to help people who were struggling economically. They were then surrounded by lawmakers who punched them, grabbing their placards.

Since the incident, Chamal Rajapaksa, speaker of Sri Lankan parliament and eldest of the Rajapaksa brothers (who include the President, the defence secretary and the Minister for Economic Development), has appointed a committee to investigate. However, like other investigations run by the government (such as the discredited Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission) the probe is likely to pay lip-service to objectivity and free the government of any blame

"Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa has ordered to initiate an investigation into the unacceptable behavior exhibited by some MPs in the House during the budget speech by President Mahinda Rajapaksa," Maithripala Sirisena, health minister and secretary of the the largest party in the governing coalition, the SLFP, said on Wednesday.

Sirisena condemned the opposition MPs' behaviour at a media conference and denounced their actions of bringing in placards and posters and disrupting the budget speech. He accused the opposition party of instigating an incident to create a display for invited foreign diplomats in the gallery.

"It was their premeditated plan to disrupt the presentation of the budget," the Minister has said.

The consensus among the SLFP is that they were the wronged party, forced to engage in violence by the provocative behaviour of the opposition. Yet the right to protest is an essential component of any democracy, and the UNP MPs were protesting in a peaceful manner.

This incident is a fitting symbol of the state of the country. Those at the heart of power are engaged in violence and ruthless suppression.

After the incident, opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters: “Today our Parliament became a symbol of lawlessness...What wrong did we commit?”That same question could be asked by the thousands of minority groups who have been subjected to brutality, violence and displacement by this government, and before them by the LTTE and UNP, the scores of journalists who have been murdered and the dozens of others who have been chased out of the country.

Labels: Politics

This winter, we've teamed up with Amazon to allow you to do your Christmas shopping - or any other shopping for that matter - from behind your computer while raising money for a good cause - us!

Under Amazon's "affiliates" scheme, when you shop using Amazon on our recommendation, we get at least 5% of everything you spend, at no extra cost to you - It's Amazon's way of thanking us for encouraging you to use their site.

Just click this link to give us 5% of the cost of your Christmas shopping!

You know how bad the situation in Sri Lanka is, but we are continuing to have success - ramping up the pressure from the international community (following the launch of our campaign on the subject the UK and South Africa pulled out of the notorious "Galle Dialogue" maritime festival) - and will carry on doing so until we have a lasting peace in Sri Lanka based upon justice and human rights.

But times are hard and we really need your support if we are to hold both the sides in the recent civil war to account, and to take on the Government over its persistent rights abuses. We need your help if we are to build on our success, so please do use our link when you come to shop.

Click this link and then use the Amazon website as you normally would.

Many thanks and an (early) happy Christmas,
The Sri Lanka Campaign

Want to give the gift of peace in Sri Lanka? Click here to make a donation in someone's name.

Want to find a gift for someone with a Sri Lankan obsession? At our Amazon store you will find books and DVDs written about the state of Sri Lanka as well as books and DVDs by Sri Lanka Campaign advisers. And we will get 5%+ on everything.

Looking to buy shoes or handbags? Amazon's partner site Javari are even more generous - giving us 15%! Just click here.

Not in the UK? The links above and below will take you to the UK site. You can then go to your home site but we will no longer earn any money if you do so. Not to worry! For your benefit we have now signed up for a number of schemes around the world:

Click here if you live in Canada
Click here if you live in the USA or Australia (or any other country which isn't listed separately)
Click here if you live in Germany
Click here if you live in France
Click here if you live in Spain
Click here if you live in Italy

Labels: Fundraising

The recent Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice ‘Sink The Seminar’ campaign had a fantastic response from concerned individuals around the world. Over 6,000 messages were sent to the 25 invited Governments via our campaign website. They were demanding that their Governments not whitewash the reputation of Sri Lanka's military for brutality and rights abuses – as documented in the United Nations report of the Secretary-General's panel of experts on accountability in Sri Lanka.

23 out of the 25 invited Governments attended, with the UK and South Africa pulling out at the 11th hour; whilst Dr W Lawrence S. Prabhakar, Associate Professor Department of Political Science of Madras Christian College Chennai, declined to present a paper on "Non Military Applications in Regional Maritime Domain; Opportunities, Trends and Challenges"; although the Government claimed this was due to reasons beyond his control.

All 25 Governments received a significant number of individual demands to boycott of the seminar. The number of messages sent was as follows:

Australia - 645
UK - 594
Canada - 440
USA - 422
France - 307
India - 285
Bangladesh - 249
Japan - 233
South Africa - 240
Singapore - 222
Malaysia - 202
China - 187
Indonesia - 172
South Korea - 179
UAE - 165
Thailand - 166
Kenya - 158
Russia - 163
Iran - 150
Seychelles - 151
Maldives - 153
Oman - 148
Burma - 139
Qatar - 139
Pakistan - 134

TOTAL 6043

Despite 23 of these countries attending the conference, this campaign has highlighted that Governments can not get away with saying one thing in public and another in private. If they attend what are essentially PR events that seek to legitimise the actions of a Sri Lankan State then we will notice, and we will draw attention to it. We would like to thank our supporters for making that possible.

Want to help us run similar campaigns? Click here to find out how you can support us.

Labels: Campaigns, International community

Gotabhaya "Gota" Rajapaksa the Defense Secretary, Presdent's Brother, and arguably most powerful man in Sri Lanka made an extraordinary speech today in which he claimed that the Sri Lankan Government had, as part of its census, conducted a survey into how many people had been killed in the civil war. He also admitted for the first time that human rights abuses may have taken place or, as he put it so artfully, "during the three and a half years of humanitarian operation, the Sri Lankan military had to be expanded at a rapid pace. In the circumstances, it is possible that a few individuals who lack the capacity to withstand the pressures of the warfare with the required composure may have been recruited."

Clearly the Government of Sri Lanka is realising that it's previous line (that no human rights abuses) took place, has lost all credibility. But their new approach is also worthy of incredulity - to claim now that they have identified and named every single missing or dead person is patently absurd.

The Sri Lankan Government does not have a good record when it comes to counting civilians in the north and the east. As the UN Panel of Experts report made clear, they "deliberately and purposefully underestimated the number of civilians who remained in the Vanni", so when the President's brother says the census shows very few people died, does he draw this conclusion by comparison with the "deliberately and purposefully underestimated" figure or the true figure?

As so often with the Rajapaska regime, we have more questions than answers. This only underlines the urgent need for a credible, independent process to uncover what really took place. Until this happens, the best information we have is the UN Panel of Experts' report, which concluded there was credible evidence that "tens of thousands" - even "up to forty thousand" - civilians were killed.

Much like its flawed and discredited Lessons Learned & Reconciliation Commission, this seems to be yet another attempt by the Rajapaska regime to stall for time while it continues to tighten its grip on the country and commit flagrant abuses.

Labels: Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, LLRC, Sri Lankan government

On 8 October, in the Kolonnawa district of Sri Lanka's commercial capital, Colombo, Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, minor political party leader an adviser on trade union affairs to the Sri Lankan president, was killed in broad daylight during a shoot-out with a group led by another parliamentarian, Duminda Silva, a Colombo district MP who had worked closely with Gota Rajapaksa.

Our Chair, Edward Mortimer, takes up the story at the Huffington Post (we even made the foreign affairs front page!).

Labels: Politics, Sri Lankan government

Here is the executive summary of the United Nations Panel of Experts' report into accountability in Sri Lanka translated into French & Spanish. We believe it is the first time the report has been translated into these languages.

Spanish:

Queridos amigos,

Os adjunto el resumen ejecutivo del informe del Grupo de expertos de las Naciones Unidas sobre la rendición de cuentas en Sri Lanka traducido al español. Creemos que es la primera versión traducida de este informe.

Un cordial saludo,

The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice

Resumen Del Reporte Ejecutivo (pdf)

French:

Chers amis,

Je vous joins le résumé du rapport du Groupe d'experts des Nations Unies sur la reddition de comptes (responsabilite´s) au Sri Lanka, traduit en français. Nous croyons que c’est la première fois que ce résumé est traduit dans cette langue.

Cordialement,

The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice

Rapport du Groupe (pdf)

Labels: United Nations

The Government of Sri Lanka announced some weeks ago that it would raise defence spending by over 5% in 2012, allocating 230 billion rupees ($2.1 billion) for 2012, up from 215 billion rupees ($1.92 billion) estimated for 2011. This is almost double the combined expenditure on health and education which constitute only 3.3 % and 2.5% of total spending. Whilst most governments today are shouldering enormous budget deficits in an effort to keep economies from falling into recession, it seems that the Government of Sri Lanka is resorting to the same option – a deficit of over a trillion rupees – in order to keep the army from shrinking. Almost half of the defence budget of 230 billion rupees will be spent on the 200,000-strong Army.

The Government has defended its allocation on the grounds that it has to meet significant instalment payments on military hardware bought to fight the war. However the reality is that it is more about the fact that the Rajapaksas know that their popularity is dependent upon keeping unemployment down - by making the army artificially large - and by militarising the nation. However it may prove a false economy: Sri Lanka's heavily leveraged economy is dependent upon the IMF releasing the next tranche of its US$2.6 billion loan. The IMF made clear at the time of the loan and in a public letter a few months later that the loan program was based on the agreement by the Sri Lankan Government of a considerable reduction in military expenditure. Were the IMF to remember their commitment and renegotiate the remainder of the loan then the Rajapaskas love of the gun could prove disastrously expensive.



Meanwhile strict austerity measures are causing unbearable increases in the cost of living for the Sri Lankan public. We sought out the views of some of them:

Labels: Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lankan government, Sri Lankan military

The official body of the UN that reviews allegations of torture, the Committee Against Torture (CAT) met this week to discuss Sri Lanka and the Government did not have an easy ride.

It was always going to be tough for Sri Lanka after twelve different organisations submitted detailed reports as to how torture is endemic throughout the island. Most damning of all was Freedom from Torture (formerly the Medical foundation)'s report which detailed irrefutable forensic evidence of torture in nearly 200 cases a year - and that is just from those who made it out to the UK. Channel 4 also released a report on Monday backing up the allegations and further ramping up the pressure.



Things did not get any easier once the session started. Committee Expert, Ms. Felice Gaer not only drew attention to the 5,000 disappearances staining Sri Lanka’s human rights record but also exposed a number of secret detention facilities under military control throughout Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan delegation denied the existence of such facilities yet did not suggest any process to substantiate this refutation. Furthermore no charges or investigations were brought against soldiers who faced allegations of rape and sexual violence against women in the aftermath of the civil war, or in Haiti (where Sri Lankan soldiers working as UN peacekeepers ran amok). Committee Expert Mr. Alessio Bruni also discussed how the “rehabilitation camps” were
actually detention camps under military rule, while other witnesses before the committee detailed the harassment of journalists and human rights lawyers.

Despite such detailed allegations levelled at the Government of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan representative and advisor to the Cabinet Mr. Mohan Peiris responded with empty and generalist statements such as the notion that Sri Lanka agreed “110%” with the commitment against torture. Peiris also drew attention to the “Human Rights Action Plan,” a cabinet document which, as this blog has detailed, does not live up to its billing.

Once again, Sri Lanka has evaded explicit and credible allegations of torture with
generalisation and inaction. Yet once again it has been demonstrated to the international community that rights violations are commonplace in Sri Lanka. This would make the returning of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka becomes a violation of international commitments to protect refugees from further abuse. But if, once again, the international community chooses to turn a blind eye to this inconvenient fact then they are going to look increasingly hypocritical and ridiculous as the truth continues to surface.

Labels: Sri Lankan government, Torture, United Nations

After last month's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting prompted fresh calls for war crimes investiations, Sri Lanka has ramped up its diplomatic PR drive by announcing the release of a National Plan of Action for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights. The only problem is that nobody seems to have seen it.

Minister for Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe announced on 6 October that the Cabinet had adopted a five-year plan addressing issues including the prevention of torture. Sri Lanka pledged to produce the plan in 2008, when the country was reviewed by states under the UN Human Rights Council's peer-review process. Samarasinghe said that all government ministries had been tasked with implementing the plan, which is to take effect immediately.

However, information received by the Sri Lanka Campaign suggests that the Cabinet may have initially rejected the plan and asked for it to be watered down. Attempts by the Campaign to establish its contents or speak to someone who has read it have so far proved unsuccessful. Given that the plan was initially announced by Samarasinghe at the UN in September, why has nobody seen it?

The plan bears the hallmark of a government smokescreen: a grand but hollow announcement aimed at pacifying critics. Over the past 12 months, the Sri Lankan government has repeatedly come under fire, as evidence pointing to war crimes mounts. 2010 saw a a flurry of damaging reports issued by NGOs including the International Crisis Group, Asian Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International. Towards the end of that year, British TV station Channel 4 released footage allegedly showing government soldiers executing civilians in the final months of the civil war. In April 2011, a UN panel of experts called for an independent investigation into these allegations. A month later, Channel 4 screened 'Sri Lanka Killing Fields', a documentary featuring further footage, at the UN. The film was also broadcast on television in the UK, US and India. In August, the UN Secretary-General officially forwarded his panel's report to the Human Rights Council. At the Council's autumn session, Canada belatedly withdrew an attempt to raise concerns over Sri Lanka after it became clear that Council members such as China would block action.

The lead up to October's Commonwealth summit was peppered with lawsuits filed in the US and Australia against the Sri Lankan president and other high-ranking officials. At the summit itself, Canadian Prime Minister Harper reportedly walked out when the Sri Lankan president was invited to speak. Sri Lanka's failure to address war crimes allegations split Commonwealth leaders, with Sri Lanka forced to call on countries like India to ensure that its bid to host the next summit in 2013 was accepted. The Commonwealth had previously postponed this decision in light of the allegations. Harper has said that he would boycott the 2013 meeting if human rights abuses were not investigated.

This sustained pressure has deflated Sri Lanka's post-war arrogance. Earlier this year, it abandoned its ridiculous claim that not a single civilian had died at the hands of the army in 2009. It later released 'Lies Agreed Upon', a crass and often farcical propaganda film that seeks to rebut 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' (it even mimics its style). It then ended months of prevarication by announcing that its Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) would release its report on 15 November. The Commission has been widely dismissed as partisan and toothless.

The National Plan of Action is the latest move in this PR offensive. According to the BBC, “the government said [the plan] would largely involve setting up committees to monitor implementation of existing laws and to ensure better understanding and respect for civil rights”. The independence of such committees has repeatedly been called into question. Last year, a constitutional amendment gave the president more power over appointments to state commissions, the police and judiciary, easing the deployment of key military personnel to high-level posts. (This is occurring against a backdrop of militarisation, which has seen the armed forces become involved in areas such as development, agriculture, tourism and welfare. The army and navy are even taking over the maintenance of two cricket stadiums.)

Like the LLRC, announced by the government in 2009 as further details of its brutal war conduct emerged, the National Plan is a ruse and a familiar one at that. None of Sri Lanka's plentiful past inquiries and initiatives have produced meaningful outcomes. This is yet another attempt at deflection by an increasingly embattled regime.

Labels: International community, LLRC, Sri Lankan military, United Nations, War crimes

Next Monday representatives of 25 of the world's most powerful countries will be wined and dined by Gotabaya Rajapaksa: the president's brother and Sri Lankan defence secretary, arguably the most powerful man in Sri Lanka, a brutal autocrat who has publicly denounced democracy and human rights, and a man against whom the UN has found credible allegations of the most serious types of war crimes; an allegation that is also levelled against the LTTE, their adversary in the conflict.

Click here to send these governments a message that they should not attend.

Governments around the world are attempting to have their cake and eat it: on the one hand they pander to us by making stern pronouncements about war crimes allegations in Sri Lanka, its human rights record, and its downward trajectory, yet on the other it wishes to enjoy the hospitality and fruits of co-operation from those identified by the UN as being most responsible for these war crimes and human rights abuses.

Click here to join our campaign and expose this hypocrisy

The Government of Sri Lanka is attempting, through events such as this (and its earlier conference on “defeating terrorism”) to promote and normalise morally unacceptable and counterproductive attitudes towards security; in the long run this will only weaken and undermine the "maritime stability" this conference seeks to promote. The best way these 25 nations could improve the security of the Indian ocean would be to take a moral stand, and stay away from Gotabaya's cynical PR stunt of a conference.

Click here to send that message to the Governments in question

Gota once dismissed allegations of rape in the north of Sri Lanka out of hand because one particular Tamil nurse - "a person so attractive" - was not raped. The Sri Lankan Navy have been identified by the ICJ as being heavily complicit in war crimes. No government that values democracy and human rights should attend an event like this.

We only have a week to stop the seminar - so please forward this to your friends!

Labels: Campaigns, International community, War crimes

Our campaign director kick started our community fundraising initiative yesterday by cycling the route of the London Marathon. Here is his story.

Yesterday morning, undeterred by a light rain and a heavier hangover. I set out to do my first ever marathon. Running seemed a little beyond me at this stage so I did it on my bike. Unfortunately since I didn't have the foresight to move to a house at the start or finish lines, it ended up being a 40 mile round trip.

I completed the marathon part in 2 hours and 35 minutes, meaning that even on a bicycle I am not as fast as Haile Gebrselassie. Althought, in my defence, the traffic stopped for Haile Gebrselassie and Haile Gebrselassie didn't spend twenty minutes lost in Rotherhithe.

It was a real privilege to be the first person to complete an event for the Sri Lanka campaign. My objective was simply to test the system and show how anybody can set up an event to raise money for Sri Lanka without needing to sacrifice enormous amounts of time and effort. Therefore I was delighted that your generosity and devotion to the cause of peace and justice in Sri Lanka meant that we not only made our original target of £300 but also the revised target of £400. Maybe we can now make £500?

Sterner challenges lie ahead, not least my triathlon in the spring, but every penny raised is greatly appreciated. With the Government of Sri Lanka, the remnants of the LTTE, and the international community all failing to develop the truth, reconciliation and respect for rights necessary for a lasting peace - our work becomes more important than ever.

Are you inspired to answer the call and get involved with community fundraising for Sri Lanka? If so please visit our community fundraising website, and find out how you can join up with like minded people and bake, run, swim, play chess, hold coffee mornings, or climb mount Everest for Sri Lanka.

Labels: Fundraising

Dear Commonwealth Heads of Governments,

This letter follows an earlier letter on this subject that many of us jointly wrote to Commonwealth Foreign Ministers, prior to their meeting in New York on 22 September 2011. In the absence of any public pronouncement by Foreign Ministers on this issue we have to assume that no decision has yet been taken to put in place a process for assessing the suitability of Sri Lanka’s candidature for hosting the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). In this context, we recall your 2009 decision to defer Sri Lanka’s candidature as host and seriously urge you to consider a similar postponement at CHOGM 2011.

We reiterate that Sri Lanka continues to face allegations of human rights violations that are of an extremely serious nature. These allegations have been found credible by none less than a Panel of Experts appointed by the UN Secretary General. In addition to this, several other well grounded allegations exist about the lack of fundamental freedoms within Sri Lanka, which it is charged, has resulted in serious violations of freedom of expression, association and movement as well as entrenched impunity for past human rights violations. Together these make Sri Lanka one of the most acute human rights situations in the Commonwealth.

In a recent response to one of our organisations the Commonwealth Secretary-General stated that the decision for Sri Lanka to host the 2013 CHOGM was taken by CHOGM 2009 and that it needs no further confirmation from CHOGM 2011. He also informed that the Commonwealth is waiting for the report from Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to decide its policy on the country. The report is due in November 2011 after CHOGM 2011, when it will be too late for any further consideration of the CHOGM venue. On the other hand, though the Commission’s report may deserve a fair hearing, it is important to remember that the UN Panel of Experts and numerous civil society organisations have cast doubts on the impartiality and effectiveness of the LLRC. In other words waiting for the LLRC report would mean that, due to paucity of time and the complexities of procedures involved, Sri Lanka will be able to host CHOGM 2013 regardless of any outcome and without any scrutiny, at the cost of the Commonwealth condoning serious human rights violations.

We believe that the moment to re-consider Sri Lanka’s suitability as a host for Commonwealth’s most emblematic meeting must be at Perth. The Heads must take into account the consistent intransigence of the government of Sri Lanka and the lack of investigations or progress on impunity within the country since the 2009 decision to postpone CHOGM.

Providing space for Sri Lanka to be the host of CHOGM 2013 will only serve as a declaration of the Commonwealth’s indifference to human rights concerns. It will also allow a government in serious controversy over its role in egregious human rights violations to preside over the organisation from 2013 to 2015 without the necessity of having to conduct any serious or credible investigations into the allegations it faces.

If it is wished that Sri Lanka should host a future CHOGM after 2013, we urge you to direct the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to monitor the performance of Sri Lanka against specific benchmarks. We believe that before Sri Lanka is considered as the host of a future CHOGM it must meet the following minimum benchmarks that require it to:

1. Ensure meaningful domestic implementation of the international human rights treaties to which the Government of Sri Lanka is party and bring all legislation in line with international human rights standards;
2. Treat all people within Sri Lanka with dignity and respect as equals while allowing them to live in an environment in which they can enjoy all fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Sri Lanka and international human rights law;
3. Restore Constitutional provisions that guarantee separation of powers and re-instate the independence of the three wings of State;
4. Restore the independence of key government institutions, such as the National Human Rights and Police Commissions;
5. Institute effective mechanisms to protect journalists, civil society groups and human rights defenders who work for the promotion and protection of human rights;
6. Support and cooperate with independent and credible domestic and international investigations into all allegations concerning violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in the country, especially relating to the conduct of the armed conflict which ended in 2009; and
7. Commit to collaborate with the Office of the UN Secretary General and initiate the implementation of all recommendations set out in the report of the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts.

Sincerely,

Yap Swee Seng, Executive Director, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)

Wong Kai Shing, Executive Director, Asian Legal Resource Centre

Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives

Ingrid Srinath, Secretary General, CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation

Maja Daruwala, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

Hassan Shahriar, President, Commonwealth Journalists Association

Hassan Shire Sheikh, Executive Director, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project

Phil Lynch, Executive Director, Human Rights Law Centre (Australia)

Brad Adams, Executive Director Asia Division, Human Rights Watch

Nick Gorno, Deputy President and Chief Operating Officer, International Crisis Group

Souhayr Belhassen, President, International Federation for Human Rights

Chris Chapman, Head of Conflict Prevention, Minority Rights Group International

Ruki Fernando, Rights Now Collective for Democracy

Edward Mortimer CMG, Chair, Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice

Labels: Campaigns, Human rights, International community, LLRC