ICJ blames Colombo for world's largest detention, cautions donors against complicity

The International Commission of Jurists in a latest report has urged the International Community and the United Nations to extend 'rehabilitation' donor support only on condition of compliance with international law and standards, given the current legal vacuum and uncertain conditions under which at least 8,000 ‘surrendees’ are being detained by Colombo. Otherwise, those who provide support to Colombo's detention programme risk complicity in a policy of systematic mass arbitrary detention, the ICJ warned, in an in-depth report titled "Beyond Lawful Constraints: Sri Lanka’s Mass Detention of LTTE Suspects". In the report, the ICJ has characterised the detention as the largest mass administrative detention anywhere in the world. "[T]he mass detention has the character of collective punishment, which is prohibited in any circumstances under international law," the report said. http://www.icj.org/default.asp?nodeID=349&sessID=&langage=1&myPage=Legal_Documentation&id=23159 ICJ Briefing Note

UNROW Calls for Establishment of War Crimes Tribunal for Sri Lanka

In 2009 the multi-decade conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government ended in a devastating battle. The Sri Lanka government had pushed the rebel group, as well as Tamil civilians who were not affiliated with the group, into a small region in northeastern Sri Lanka. Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group reported thousands of civilian deaths, as the government indiscriminately bombed the region, and the rebel group did not allow civilians to leave for safer areas. Although there is international concern about the crimes committed by the rebel group, less attention is being paid to those perpetrated by the Sri Lankan government. http://hrbrief.org/2010/09/unrow-calls-for-establishment-of-war-crimes-tribunal-for-sri-lanka/ An electronic copy of the report is available here (.PDF).

Anusha Ravichandran, "Please bring my sister back to me"

Sixteen months after the end of the civil war in northern Sri Lanka, thousands of former rebel fighters are still missing or in government detention, according to the government and a local NGO, Law and Trust Society. Anusha Ravichandran, 15, and her family lost contact with 16-year-old Dharisah two months after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels forcibly recruited her in March 2009. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90570

Nagerkovil school bombing (September 22, 1995,)

On 22 September 1995, Nagerkoil Central School in the Jaffna peninsula was bombed. The intensified aerial bombing and shelling by Sri Lankan government forces came about within hours of the government's imposition of Press Censorship midnight September 21. The bombing of the school happened at12.50 p.m. during the school's lunch break when several of the school children were gathered under a shade tree in the school compound. 25 school going children were among 40 Tamil civilians killed on the spot. Twelve were six and seven year olds. Nearly 200 others were injured, most of them students in the same school. Elsewhere in the area, 15 other civilians were also killed in the course of the same bombing raids. The scene of the attack was visited by the International Red Cross. Pieces of human flesh were strewn around the area including the tree branches, making identification impossible. The total death toll later increased to 71. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagerkovil_school_bombing

Sri Lanka war panel hears of Tamil disappearances

(By Charles Haviland BBC Sep 21)People in northern Sri Lanka have told a war inquiry that family members who served with the Tamil Tigers disappeared after surrendering.

They said their loved ones went missing at the end of the war in May 2009.

The defence ministry blocked the BBC from covering proceedings in the former rebel headquarters of Kilinochchi.

But Sri Lankan journalists who did attend said the panel now intends to question security force officials on the subject of missing people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11374199

‘Elusive international justice snatches away desire to live’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 September 2010, ] “We expected some country to step in to resolve the crisis... We believed that a dawn would come, a solution would come through [international] mediation after all the hardships we went through. But, nothing happened. Everything went out of hand for us to end up in the army-controlled area as living corpses. All countries have betrayed us,” told 40-year-old Ananthi Sasitharan, the wife of Elilan, the former Trincomalee Political Head of the LTTE, to BBC Tamil Saturday after complaining to the LLRC that SL President should know the whereabouts of her husband and fellow LTTE officials surrendered through a Catholic Priest in Mullaiththeevu on 18 May 2009. When asked whether she was concerned about repercussions for stating her views publicly from Vanni, the mother of three responded: “I am not afraid. I am prepared to face anything since we don't now live with the zest for life.” http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=79&artid=32650

Sri Lanka bans BBC from covering civil war hearings

The BBC has been blocked from covering public hearings about Sri Lanka's civil war in former rebel-held territory. For three days, civilians will have the chance to give evidence on life under the Tamil Tigers or LTTE. The government says the Commission on Lessons Learned and Reconciliation is working to prevent a repeat of the conflict. A senior defence ministry official said he could not allow the BBC to attend the sittings, due to start on Saturday. An important part of the commission's work is to meet ordinary Tamil civilians who were displaced by the war and suffered severe trauma, injury or the loss of close family members. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11349494

Sri Lanka is still denying civilian deaths

(Peter Bouckaert guardian.co.uk, 5 September 2010)During the Vietnam conflict, the US military developed some creative ways to increase the numbers of Viet Cong insurgents it claimed to have killed. "If they're dead, they're Viet Cong," meant that any Vietnamese killed by American soldiers would automatically count as enemy fighters.

Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has taken such creative accounting to new heights. The United Nations reported that at least 7,000 civilians were killed and tens of thousands wounded during the final months of the brutal conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which ended in May 2009. But Gotabhaya has repeatedly cast aspersions on the idea that there were any civilian casualties.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/sri-lanka-still-denying-civilian-deaths

174 Tamil youths disappeared in Vanthaa’rumoolai remembered(05.09.1990)

Parents and relatives of one hundred and seventy four Tamil youths disappeared after arrest by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from Vanthaa'rumoolai campus of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka in Batticaloa district two decades ago held prayers in memory of them Sunday. SLA troops had come in buses and taken 158 Tamil youths by force from Vanthaa'rumoolai campus on 05.09.1990 and 16 youths eighteen days later on September 23. Since then for the last two decades parents and relatives of these youths are in the dark whether their loved ones are alive or dead. These youths had sought refuge in Vanthaa'rumoolai campus to evade atrocities by the state armed forces and were arrested by SLA in the name of interrogation. The parents and relatives of the youths were not informed about their whereabouts. Some parents who are under the impression that their children are alive held prayers in temples of their faith Sunday for their safe return. Other parents who think their children are no more held rituals seeking solace to their souls. http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=7437