The resolution calls on Sri Lanka to “credibly investigate” alleged abuses committed toward the end of the country’s bitter civil war and asks the government to explain how it addresses alleged violations of international humanitarian law, as well as how Sri Lanka would implement the recommendations of an internal inquiry into the war. It also encourages the UN human rights office to provide Sri Lanka with advice and assistance and for the government to accept the advice.

The vote was 24 nations voting in favor, 15 against, and eight abstaining, with non-western governments joining in the US-sponsored resolution. Observers note that the vote was supported by Nigeria and India, as well as a number of Latin American countries, demonstrating that this is not a ‘north’ versus ‘south’ issue. According to Sam Zarifi,  Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director, ”It highlights broad concern in the international community that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka is moving in the wrong direction.” He said the resolution was an “opportunity to end the longstanding impunity for human rights violations that have marked the country for decades.”

The resolution means that Sri Lanka “needs to live up to its promises like the one made in 2008 to the UNHRC when it agreed to amending the constitution to allow the establishment of independent judicial, police and other related commissions,” said Dr. Jehan Perera, Executive Director of National Peace Council.

The government’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) issued recommendations last November, and while the government repeatedly has affirmed its commitment to implementation of the LLRC recommendations, it has yet to take any action. Critics assert that while the LLRC made some important recommendations, the body lacked independence, and did not properly investigate allegations of war crimes. An estimated 40,000 people were killed in the final months of the conflict. Many of these were civilians killed in shelling by government troops. The LTTE has also been charged with war crimes, having used civilians as human shields and preventing people from leaving the war zone, but the insurgent movement has been effectively wiped out.

In the context of the debates on the Sri Lanka resolution in Geneva, a number of outspoken human rights defenders have become the subjects of a violent smear campaign by private and state-controlled media in Sri Lanka. There are serious concerns about their continued safety in light of the recent vote. A number of Oblates signed letters calling for a vote in favor of the UN action, hoping international attention would help end the impunity for human rights abuses and promote genuine reconciliation.

Learn more…

A newly issued report from women in northern Sri Lanka highlights the need for serious reconciliation in the country. The following was issued by the North East Women’s Network as part of the International Women’s Day Campaign (March 08th 2012)

The end of the brutal 30 year old war brought with it a hope of reconciliation, peace, development and equality for all. However in the last three years the Sri Lankan States lack of commitment to these basic principles have left women in the North and East in a vulnerable position. The lack of livelihood, safety accountability and justice have left women in a state where we are yet to reap the benefits of a nation not in armed conflict.

In the last three years the security of women has deteriorated in several aspects. Women have found themselves in a position of having to take care of the economic and social wellbeing of their family single handedly while ensuring her and her families safety and security.

The continuation of the presidential task force and the PTA prevent women working at the grass root level to help women who have been affected in the 3 decade old war by providing them counseling. The government’s constant interference in rehabilitation and resettlement activities has hampered the work of these organizations and does not help organizations work in collaboration with the beneficiaries.

The increased military presence in the North and East, apart from creating a sense of fear in the people, has also led violations of rights for women. The military has opened several food and grocery shops, thus curtailing women’s livelihood options in the north. Earlier several women used to earn their livelihood by running small shops. The Military has also been engaging in the sale of vegetables. Women therefore are unable to sell vegetables from their home gardens due to their inability to compete with the military and their fear of doing so. In several places the military has taken over public land and private land alike to create military camps and training centres and they are even engaging in paddy cultivation using the land that has been forcibly taken from poor farmers. Even though the army commander has stated that the army is ready to scale down its presence in the North and east, this is unlikely given the permanent large structures that the army has built in the north and east. (1) This statement also comes at the wake of the proposed resolution at the UN calling for the implementation of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and for additional and more thorough investigations. The Sri Lankan state’s piecemeal measures make us aware that Sri Lanka is not serious about its claim of justice and accountability. Last year’s grease yaka attacks remind us once again of the vulnerable position women are in even though there is a high military presence, which the government has stated is for the security of the people.

Women in the North and East have complained of several instances of harassment and violence at the hands of the military, paramilitary and government officers, apart from the violence that women face within their homes and in the community. This increase in violence by people in authority has placed women in a particularly vulnerable position, unable to take any recourse.

The Mannar rape case in March 2001 where two women were raped, the two women who were raped at the Rettaivaikkal detention in May 2009 and had to leave the country due to harassment from the military, the Vishwamadu rape case of June 2010 by the military – these are but a few examples of the violence women continue to face in the hands of the military. The lack of investigation in these cases or the filing of charge sheets or arrests has led to a culture of impunity and created a trend in regards to violence1 against women. This is reflected in the current rise in violence in the North and the East. Recently there have been several complaints in the North and East of JMO’s refusing to provide medical reports in cases of sexual violence, especially when perpetrated by the military.

Female ex-combatants continue to face harassment by the military and the CID even though they have been released after rehabilitation. They are still required to report to the local military/police station once a month and have been pressured into marrying or becoming informants if they want the harassment to be stopped. In one case an ex-combatant living in the eastern province was raped by a police officer when she went to register in his station.

Women are still looking for those who disappeared during the war and their kith and kin who have been detained. Even though the government has asked people to provide information regarding those who disappeared it has taken no action regarding the same. In several cases women who went and registered their cases have found themselves being harassed by the military personal to whom they provided the information.

While we welcome the LLRC report it is far from what is required if this country is to move forward. Sri Lanka has a long history of commissions set up to inquire into various human rights violations such as disappearances, however, a cursory look in to the past will show that the recommendations made by these commissions have not been implemented and the offences have continued to occur. The LLRC was also not sensitive to women and the vulnerabilities that they have been placed in even though women were the majority of those who testified at the LLRC sessions.

Even though the government has been engaged in resettlement and we welcome the same, the manner it has been conducted in is far from what is desired. Women have found themselves in shelters not appropriate with no access to water or sanitation and no means of livelihood. They have returned to places that are highly militarized.

We, the North East Women’s Network, call upon the UN and its member states to help Sri Lanka on its road to reconciliation and peace through accountability and justice and to strengthen its domestic mechanisms by ensuring international monitoring. We call upon the Sri Lankan State to view the proposed resolution at the UN Human Rights Council as a tool for the implementation of its vision for a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic community and for ensuring long lasting peace for the women who have lost so much and continue to suffer. The Sri Lankan government has been given an opportunity to make real its promises to the ethnic minorities, especially the women in this country who have suffered from three decades of war. We hope the government will fulfill this promise and make women real citizens of this nation.

(1) http://www.colombopage.com/archive_12/Mar02_1330705311CH.php

Released by the North East Women’s Network as part of the International Women’s Day Campaign (March 08th 2012)

Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East warns that the heavily militarized and centralized control of those areas – with almost exclusively male, Sinhalese security forces – creates serious problems for women’s safety, sense of security and ability to access assistance. According to the report, they have little control over their lives and no reliable institutions to which to turn. The ICG is concerned that the Sri Lankan government has mostly dismissed women’s security issues and exacerbated fears, while the international community has failed to appreciate and respond effectively to the challenges they face.

“More than two years after the end of the war, many women still live in fear of violence by the state and from within their own communities”, says Alan Keenan, Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst and Sri Lanka Project Director. “The conflict has badly damaged the social fabric and has left women and girls vulnerable at multiple levels. A concerted and immediate effort to empower and protect them is needed”.

Thirty years of civil war between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has resulted in tens of thousands of female-headed households in the north and east. The report shows that they struggle daily to cope with the detention or absence of family members, continuing displacement and desperate poverty.

The consequences for women and girls reportedly have been severe. ICG reports that there have been alarming incidents of gender-based violence, with many women forced into prostitution or coercive sexual relationships. Fear of abuse and the reassertion of patriarchal norms within the Tamil community have further restricted women’s movement and impinged on education and employment opportunities. The fact that women must rely on the military for everyday needs not only puts them at greater risk of gender-based violence, but also prevents them from building capacity within communities.

Learn more:

• Read the Executive Summary
• Download the full report: (Download PDF)

Christians and human rights groups joined families of missing people and political prisoners in a protest in Colombo yesterday to demand the release of their loved ones, to learn their whereabouts and against crackdowns on political activists.

According to United Nations figures, more than 12,000 people went missing during the country’s civil war and rights groups believe there are more than 8,000 political prisoners languishing in prison.

The protesters held photos, placards, banners and shouted slogans as they marched through the city center.

“Those who raise their voices against human rights violations today will vanish tomorrow,” said Nimalka Fernando, a Christian lawyer and civil rights activist.

“People do not have freedom of expression. Civil activists are duly noticed and picked up by the Crime Investigation Department and the security people,” she said.

“They [the security forces] try to halt demonstrations, harass people and restrict political activism,” she added.

Gathered outside Colombo railway station, the protesters also called on authorities to find people who have disappeared and demanded the release of political prisoners.

Anglican priest Father Marimuthupillai Sathivel said the government should take immediate action to right the wrongs which continue to take place.

“The government has violated the people’s democratic rights and kept many in jail without due proper legal process,” the Anglican priest added.

Minister of Justice Rauff Hakeem has told reporters that the government is taking steps to ensure people being detained without reason are being identified and released.

Thanks to UCAnews.com for this story

The JHU, a conservative, predominantly Buddhist political group, is shepherding an anti-conversion bill through the Sri Lanka parliament that many Christians fear will seriously interfere with their charity work.

Thousand of believers, including Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, members of the Ceylon Reformed Church and evangelical groups, joined in worship and song at the city’s main Anglican church, the Cathedral of Christ the Living Savior, on June 25.

Learn more…

Shocking video footage of summary executions apparently committed during the Sri Lankan civil war has been examined by experts and appears to be convincing evidence of “serious international crimes,” according to Christof Heyns, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

Since late last year, the United Nations has closely studied the video that allegedly showed acts committed during the civil war that ended in 2009. “I conclude on the basis of the extensive technical evidence we obtained from independent experts that what is depicted in the video indeed happened,” Mr. Heyns told the Human Rights Council in Geneva, adding that “I believe that a prima facie case of serious international crimes has been made.” He said an international panel should investigate the evidence.

The charge adds to pressure on the Sri Lankan government to submit to an international inquiry into allegations that thousands of civilians were killed at the end of its 25-year war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lankan authorities have rejected the video as falsified and has responded angrily to U.N. criticisms. They have also rejected a recent report calling for further investigation into the violent end to the conflict in which tens of thousands of people – including many civilians – are believed to have died. The United States has warned that the lack of a credible investigation and a genuine process of reconciliation could lead to an international war crimes investigation.

Learn more:

• Read the UN Report of the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts

Mullivaikkal Hospital Shelled on 30 May 2009

Twenty-five Sri Lankan Christians, including two Oblate priests, issued a statement that is believed to have prompted the recent release of the report of the UN Secretary General’s panel of experts on the war in Sri Lanka. The group has called for open discussion of what happened in the final months of the war, and the current situation in the north where the majority of Tamils live.

According to their letter:

We believe that it is left to us Sri Lankans to establish and acknowledge the truth, apologize for wrongs done, ensure justice and accountability, and through measures such as reparations, show our care and support towards those who have suffered such as families of those killed and disappeared, those who have been injured during war and due to torture, those who continue to be detained without charges and without due process, those who had been displaced and lost properties etc. It is our contention that truth, justice, accountability together with care and reparation for victims are essential ingredients for progress, development of a post war Sri Lanka, along with a longer term political solution that addresses grievances of Tamil community that led to the birth of the LTTE and full scale war.

But it is our assessment that we have been unable to make significant progress on any of the above fronts within Sri Lanka, particularly in the last two years since the end of the war. The process of LLRC [Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission] had not given us much confidence though we still hope for positive outcomes from the LLRC, particularly the publication of it’s final report, conclusions and recommendations as soon as possible, which would have the potential to serve as a valuable resource for our reconciliation efforts. In this context we believe international assistance can also be crucial in our post war rebuilding and reconciliation efforts. Thus, we find it encouraging that establishment of the truth, apology for wrongs done, justice, accountability and reparation for victims is reflected in the conclusions and recommendations of the panel of experts appointed by the UNSG.

Read the full letter…

According to a statement released by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

“The United Nations has today made public the advisory report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on accountability with respect to the final stages of the decades-long armed conflict in Sri Lanka, which was submitted to him on 12 April 2011. The decision to release the report was made as a matter of transparency and in the broader public interest.”

“The report was shared in its entirety with the Government of Sri Lanka on 12 April. The Secretary-General has indicated his willingness to publicize the Government’s response alongside the report. This invitation was extended to the Sri Lankan Government throughout the week, including again on Saturday by the Secretary-General to the External Affairs Minister of Sri Lanka. The Government has not responded to this offer, which nonetheless still stands.”

More than 320,000 citizens suffer from being displaced, while 190,000 former refugees, returned home after stays in refugees camps – in the latest phases of civil conflict, which ended in May 2009 – urgently require protection and assistance: Jesuits from the Jesuit Refuges Service (JRS) tell Fides, working in the north and east of Sri Lanka, monitoring the situation on a daily basis, which “today is very stressful, given that it has already lasted more than two years,” they state.

The Jesuits explain to Fides that, despite the apparent peace, “in the north and the east of the Country there are still Zones of High Security in place and the citizens of those places continue to live precariously, not knowing when the emergency and the military presence will end and when they may return to a peaceful way of life.”

The JRS state that even today, after peace was reached, “the Government is investing a considerable amount of the national budget for military spending and allocating little funds to the assistance and systemisation of the refugees in the conflict. At the same time humanitarian aid agencies who should be providing aid to the displaced persons, experience serious limitations and restrictions on their operations”.

One of the outstanding problems is the clearance of whole area, which, during the war was strewn with deadly explosives. Currently these areas constitute a serious danger to the people: aid agencies are asking the government to urgently allow the refugees to return to their homes, giving highest priority to remediation. But given the situation of stalemate, access to food, social services, education, and transportation in many provinces remains blocked, the resumption of normal civilian life is prevented. Even in refugee camps set up by the government, NGOs in the field note, the general living conditions “are unacceptable”, marked by poverty, lacking the basic necessities and health services.”

SOURCE:

Support urged for refugees and former Tamil refugees (Fides)

The arrival of the refugees-laden ship has generated controversy within Canada. Canadian Tamils, the largest Tamil community outside Sri Lanka and India, have urged authorities to accept the asylum seekers, saying that the minority group faces continued discrimination at the hands of the majority Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada has asked the country to reject their refugee status due to alleged links to the Tamil Tiger separatist movement. The Tamil Tigers or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) as the military wing of the separatist Tamil movement and was brutally wiped out in the spring of 2009. Tens of thousands of Tamils are believed to have died in the final months of the conflict, trapped as they were between the two warring armies. War crimes are reported to have been committed by both sides.

“Keep the dignity of Tamil refugees in mind during immigration debate”

Statement by Archbishop J. Michael Miller who served on the Vatican Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants.

August 25, 2010

The arrival of 492 Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka has generated much discussion about Canada’s immigration policy and the appropriate means of dealing with the men, women and children who recently came by ship.

Some of the reaction has focused on the desperate individuals who have arrived on our shores, smuggled here to flee persecution in their homeland. There has been outcry, much of it hostile, about queue jumping, abuse of the system, and the need to keep Canada from being overrun with would-be refugees. It is critical at this time to keep in mind the fundamental dignity of each human person, particularly these new arrivals. In his own life and ministry, Jesus identified himself with refugees and other marginalized groups: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35).

Catholic Social Teaching is uncompromising on the rights of refugees, and these men, women and children must not become scapegoats in otherwise relevant debates over immigration policy, enforcement and reform.

While it is incumbent on responsible governments to establish the identities of newcomers so as not to open a door to potential security risks, the Catholic Church maintains that people who are victims of armed conflicts, misguided economic policies or natural disasters, as well as “internally displaced persons,” must be recognized as refugees and offered international protection. Canada has a well founded reputation as a nation of immigrants and refugees, and a long history of welcoming those seeking a haven from injustice.

It has been well documented in recent years that one of the global consequences of overly restrictive immigration and refugee policies by industrialized countries has been an increase in human trafficking, particularly of women and children.

The United Nations has called people-smuggling the fastest-growing form of transnational organized crime.

Pope John Paul II warned against the tendency of affluent countries to “tighten their borders under pressure from a public opinion disturbed by the inconveniences that accompany the phenomena of immigration. Society finds itself having to deal with the ‘clandestine’ men and women in illegal situations, without any rights in a country that refuses to welcome them, victims of organized crime or of unscrupulous entrepreneurs.” (Pope John Paul II, Message for World Migration Day 2000, n 4.)

While the state must ensure immigration policy is subject to the requirements of the common good, such control must not inspired by selfish attitudes or “restrictive policies.”

It is only just that as we discuss federal immigration policy, we keep in the forefront the men, women and children currently in detention – all of whom have risked their lives to escape persecution back home.

Before coming to Vancouver, Archbishop Miller served on the Vatican Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants, established by Pope John Paul II in 1988 to minister to the spiritual welfare of those who no longer are or who never have been members of a parish.