Archive for the ‘War Crimes’

Making Foreign Policy on the Street

The declared threat, the demonstration, siege, fast unto death outside the office of the UN in Colombo by the Wimal Weerawansa led National Freedom Front, raises interesting and alarming questions about policymaking in our country. Wimal Weerawansa announced that he would call upon his supporters to surround the UN office until the UN Secretary General disbanded the advisory panel he has set up on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.  It was reported that the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) had informed the UN that these were the views of an individual and not that of the GOSL.  Days later, Weerawansa, a cabinet minister and key supporter of the president and regime, leads a demonstration of hundreds to the UN office, blocks the entrances and exits to the building, declaring that they will not move until the panel is disbanded. It has also been reported that the police attempted to disperse the demonstrators but were withdrawn, according to one report…

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Managing diplomacy with melodrama: Sri Lanka’s Madness

Wimal fast

Photo courtesy Vikalpa’s Flickr photostream on the NFF protest The point of departure for this note is the fast unto death by a government (cabinet) Minister, hereinafter referred to as VW, in front of the UN’s Colombo office. The protest campaign launched by the said individual, and his decision to fast, are meant at demonstrating his party’s (and, being a vocal member of the governing coalition, the present government’s) opposition to the investigative panel appointed by the UN SG on alleged war crimes during the last phase of civil war in early/mid 2009. The UN SG has been functioning under prerogatives accorded to him in his mandate. The most recent precedent for a panel of this nature is that on Israel’s thoroughly questionable conduct in the Gaza strip, and its recent atrocities over a humanitarian vessel. Let’s not forget that this panel is chaired by Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN. How can Sri Lankan diplomats currently posted to…

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Video from second day of Wimal Weerawansa’s fast unto death

The National Freedom Front (NFF), in a procession from Bullers Road, approached the Russian Embassy today and met with officials inside the premises. The second day of Wimal Weerawansa’s fast unto death (and the third day of NFF’s agitation in front of the UN in Colombo) saw him call a press conference in the afternoon. In his physically weakened condition, what he said was not voluble enough to be captured by Vikalpa’s video camera. However, a woman’s strident and emotionally charged call to save his life at the end of the video captures the essential volatility of the situation in front of the UN, and how quickly a deterioration in Wimal’s condition, a statement by him, or action by the NFF can escalate tensions, with a domino effect elsewhere in the country by party loyalists and others. Also during the course of the 9th, though Wimal Weerawansa sought to resign from his Ministerial post of Housing and Construction, the President…

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Photos from Day 3 of NFF protest against UN in Colombo

vdvz

Original photo here. More on the ground updates and photos from the Twitter feed of Groundviews: Day 3 of Protest outside UN office. Wimal Weerawansa begins hunger strike. http://yfrog.com/117akrj Day 3 of protest. Poster outside the UN office. #srilanka #lk #un http://yfrog.com/jwvdvzj Protestors outside the UN office in Colombo. Day 3. #srilanka #lk #UN http://yfrog.com/mtqkwsmj Protest outside UN in Colombo. More images. Day 3. #srilanka #lk #un http://yfrog.com/0atntbj Protest platform constructed outside the UN in Colombo. #srilanka #lk #un http://yfrog.com/eu8feoj

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The protest by Wimal Weerawansa against the UN in Sri Lanka: Condoned by government?

On 30 June, senior Government Minister Wimal Weerawansa urged the public to surround the UN office in Colombo and hold its staff hostage until moves by the UN to appoint a panel on Sri Lanka is dropped, putting the UN in Sri Lanka on high alert. On the same day, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said that when the UN contacted the Sri Lankan government over this statement, the government assured they were Minister Weerawansa’s “individual opinion”. On 2 July, it was reported that the government may tender an apology to the UN over the Minister’s comments. Any communication to this effect by the government to the UN is, to date, not in the public domain. On 4 July, Minister Weerawansa said he stood by his comment, and clarified that he made it as the National Freedom Front (NFF) leader and not in his capacity as a Government member. He also reiterated his call for the public to surround the building…

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Photos and video from the UN headquarters in Colombo today

Photos courtesy Vikalpa, and more will be added anon. Others taken by blogger Indi Samarajiva can be seen here. Google has the latest updates from all web media, including tweets and blogs. Our curated Twitter news feed also features the latest updates from sources like @DMbreakingnews. More videos from Vikalpa can be accessed here. 8 July 2010: For more videos and updates, read The protest by Wimal Weerawansa against the UN in Sri Lanka: Condoned by government? on Groundviews.

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Compilation of special edition on the end of war in Sri Lanka

Special Edition Logo

Download the 162 page compilation of content as a PDF in high quality (25.4Mb), or low quality (3.7Mb). The low quality version is good enough to read, but the photos will look and print much better in the high quality version. From 19 – 27 May 2010, Groundviews ran a special edition on the end of war in Sri Lanka. Over this week alone, the site received over forty thousand readers and exclusively featured over eighty thousand words of original content, one video premiere, over a dozen photos, generating over one hundred and fifty thousand words of commentary. Tens of thousands more have read and commented on this content since, making the special edition a sui generis archive of intelligent debate, incisive critique and vital perspectives that mainstream media in Sri Lanka, even post-war, is too fearful to feature. For example, one memorable and particularly hard-hitting comment inspired by the content in this special edition came from Tathagata Bose, an Indian…

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Hand Washing

Murder cannot be hidden, bodies decompose but skeletons remain; certainly they can be washed from beach into sea and stripped clean by carnivorous fish yet the panel requires just a few examples, sufficient to flesh out a theory of mass slaughter; satellite shots will be investigated abroad and conversations conducted with survivors of precarious boats landing on Christmas Island or dragged into Jakarta. Scale of killing poses a serious problem for management of disaster; appointment of soft, suave diplomat to run damage control at foreign ministry did not succeed. Murder will be revealed. Macbeth is read also in Sri Lanka; it landed in the culture before the current lot of customs inspectors; am sure Saratchchandra contemplated translating the play if it did not circulate already in the island like monsoon wind or ethics which exist along with denial and chutzpah among its inhabitants; government can throw a temper tantrum but GSP will be linked to human rights and Ban Ki…

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Should we prosecute crimes against humanity?

It must be acknowledged that international law, both customary and humanitarian, is undergoing significant changes with regard to crimes committed during armed conflicts.  Thus it is difficult to assert that international legal measures for dealing with crimes against humanity should be assessed primarily in terms of successful prosecutions given that there is a paucity of empirical evidence to substantiate claims about how well criminal trials actually achieve the goals ascribed to them (Souare, 2009:377-381). More research needs to be done on the subject but I would suggest that decisions to prosecute should be tailored to the specific context and that in some cases an adherence to international legal fundamentalism may be counterproductive. Successful prosecutions may in some cases not be the best method for dealing with crimes against humanity. An investigation of the International Criminal Court shall be the focus of this essay. The decision to create a permanent international criminal tribunal or court dates back to the late 1940s…

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Mass Graves: Nothing new to Sri Lanka

The recent discovery of mass graves  at Ganeshapuram in  Kilinochchi and at Nachchikuda in the  Mannar Districts  has  been very much in the news during the past weeks.  Such finds need not  surprise anyone.  Following an analysis of satellite images taken during the height  of the war, the American Association for the Advancement of Science  has already  reported  that on  19th April , 2009 the images showed the roads in the ‘Civilian Safe Zone’  to be  mostly deserted. The images taken on the 24th April, 2009 showed a large grave yard in the same area.  The report adds, that the analysis identified three different graveyards, counting a total of 1,346 likely graves. The satellite images can neither reveal if these graves contain civilians or Tamil Tiger fighters,.. In the circumstances, it is likely that more and more graves would be discovered, if free access to the area is available to the people and the security forces do not  take any…

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Learning Old Lessons from a New ‘Lessons Learnt’ Commission: the ‘Home-Grown’ Way?

One year after the war, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has established another commission; known as the ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’. Eight eminent members have been appointed. The Commission is chaired by a former Attorney General. The Commission is to ‘inquire and report’ the following: the facts and circumstances which led to the failure of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA); whether any persons/groups/institutions bear direct/indirect responsibility; ‘the lessons we would learn’ in order to ensure there would be no recurrence of such events; a methodology through which restitution to persons affected could be effected; the administrative/institutional measures which need to be taken to avoid recurrence/promote national unity and reconciliation. ‘Lessons Learnt’ When, and how, did this idea of ‘lessons learnt’ come into being? Is this Commission, as popularly claimed by the Government, an entirely ‘home-grown’ mechanism, a ‘home-grown’ solution? A careful examination would show that the Government had the intention of establishing some mechanism which took into account this aspect of ‘lessons…

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The latest Commission of Inquiry in Sri Lanka: Another Exercise in Deception

Louise Arbour of the International Crisis Group is reported to have  said during an interview in the BBC that the government violated the laws of war by blurring the line between combatants and civilians, and that its killings of civilians were not accidents.   Perhaps in response to this, speaking to the BBC Tamil Service recently,  the Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Palitha Kohona is reported to have said that  the commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation  set up  recently by the government is sufficient to investigate the allegations of humanitarian standards and human rights violations  during the war. Let us therefore have a look at some of the commissions of inquiry appointed by the governments in the past to check  how effective they have been to understand the veracity of the statement made by Dr. Kohana with regard to the current commission. It is common knowledge that several commissions of inquiry had been appointed from time…

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Soldier: Hero, villain or both?

Each time I see a soldier, my mind shifts into ‘mode chaos’. When I was a kid, things were black and white. They were my heroes; the guys who were taking the bullet for me, so I could get about with my life as I know it. They were the brave guys who would safeguard our beloved motherland from all that was evil. I would always return their smiles if I ever caught their eye. I’d even quite willingly stop for a chat sometimes, if they initiated conversation. It was the very least I could do to show my gratitude to the guys who had ‘given up their today, for our tomorrow’ right? Everything was so simple then. As I grew up though, it was not so much that I stopped being grateful to them, but I became aware of many more dimensions to these ‘brave men in cami’s’ than I had known or been exposed to as a kid….

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I REMEMBER: 19 May 2010

As we come together to commemorate the anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s long and bloody civil war, these are some of the things I remember: I remember hearing reports in late January 2009 of UN workers and their families being shelled by government forces in the Vanni while hiding in bunkers and under UN trucks. I remember not quite believing these stories. I remember the hospitals and medical centres shelled, and the patients and medical staff killed and wounded in what the Sri Lankan government was calling no fire zones”.  I remember later on meeting some of those who survived and hearing their terrifying stories. I remember the extraordinary bravery and generosity of all the doctors, medical workers, and staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross who served under terrifying conditions. I remember that some of them gave their lives saving others. I remember seeing Gotabaya Rajapaksa on TV in February 2009 telling an interviewer…

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A clueless regime’s parade for glory with a bumpkin polity

While a victory parade with military highlights is on to commemorate the war victory, that provides occasion for this regime to revel on its own pride in defeating the LTTE, what is the most important need of the 19 million people, right now ? In a more direct way, does the Sri Lankan polity know what they most urgently need ? The whole pugnacious crisis in Sri Lanka lies in the answer to this simple question. The bumpkin Sri Lankan polity knows not, what they most urgently need. This was aptly demonstrated and proved in the two most historically important elections held in post war Sri Lanka. The presidential elections in January 2010, announced in November 2009, just 06 months after the war was declared victorious with the defeat of the LTTE and thereafter the parliamentary elections held in April 2010, within 01 year of the conclusion of the war, discussed nothing of importance in terms of Sri Lanka’s future….

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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