Peaceful student protest attacked by SL military in Jaffna

http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=35798

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2012,]
Jaffna University students who boycotted classes on Wednesday and rallied in front of the university entrance Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. protesting against the SL military harassments inside the University premises on Tuesday on the occasion of Heroes Day, were brutally attacked by SL military commanders who had taken position on the road while the students were peacefully walking on a demonstration march. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20531233

The Vanni

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/651360878/the-vanni

by Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock

• Embed

The Vanni is supported by: Arundhati Roy (Booker Prize Winner, God of Small Things), Jon Snow (Newscaster, Channel 4), Frances Harrison (BBC and Author, Still Counting the Dead), Callum Macrae (Film Maker, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields), Vairamuttu Varadakumar (Executive Secretary, Tamil Information Centre), Liv Torres (Secretary General, Norwegian People's Aid), Roma Tearne (Author, The Road to Urbino) Beate Arnestad(Filmmaker, My Daughter the Terrorist) and is being produced with the involvement of a number of survivors of the conflict. 

In 2009, the civil war fought between the Sri Lankan Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam reached a brutal climax.

In the North East of the island, on a spit of sandy beach, over 300,000 Tamil civilians were caught between the opposing sides.

UN 'failed Sri Lanka civilians', says internal probe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20308610
By Lyse DoucetChief International Correspondent, BBC News

Hundreds of thousands of Tamils ended up trapped in a tiny strip of land

The United Nations failed in its mandate to protect civilians in the last months of Sri Lanka's bloody civil war, a leaked draft of a highly critical internal UN report says.

"Events in Sri Lanka mark a grave failure of the UN," it concludes.

The government and Tamil rebels are accused of war crimes in the brutal conflict which ended in May 2009.

The UN's former humanitarian chief, John Holmes, has criticised the report.

Mr Holmes said the UN faced "some very difficult dilemmas" at the time and could be criticised for the decisions it had taken.

"But the idea that if we behaved differently, the Sri Lankan government would have behaved differently I think is not one that is easy to reconcile with the reality at the time," he told the BBC's Newshour programme.

The UN does not comment on leaked reports and says it will publish the final version.

World Tamil Conference calls for an international investigation into crimes of genocide

http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=6245

(Tamil Guardian 07 November 2012)

Gathering at the 2012 World Tamil Conference, Tamil activists and politicians from the North-East and the diaspora, together with British parliamentarians and Tamil Nadu politicians and civil society activists, made a united call for an international, independentinvestigation into the allegations war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of genocide by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil nation.The event, organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) andBritish Tamils Forum (BTF), was held on Wednesday, inside the British Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London.

Sri Lanka’s empty promises and denial of rights crisis exposed at UN

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/sri-lanka-s-empty-promises-and-denial-rights-crisis-exposed-un-2012-11-01

“

Sri Lanka has been making empty promises about human rights for decades. This was made clear by a number of countries which questioned Sri Lanka’s lack of progress in ending human rights violations during the review

”

Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s expert on Sri Lanka

Thu, 01/11/2012

Sri Lanka’s promises on human rights should no longer be accepted by the international community, Amnesty International said as the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on 1 November highlighted Colombo’s continued denial of the human rights crisis in the country and the need for independent investigations into new alleged human rights violations and past war crimes.

The UN examines the human rights situation in each member state every four and a half years, and Sri Lanka has yet to follow up on important commitments made during its first UPR in 2008, when the government was engaged in armed conflict with the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).

“Sri Lanka has been making empty promises about human rights for decades. This was made clear by a number of countries which questioned Sri Lanka’s lack of progress in ending human rights violations during the review,” said Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s expert on Sri Lanka.

“Three years after the end of the civil war, the government continues to stifle dissent through threats and harassment, and has failed to take steps to end enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.”

After Sri Lanka's war, President lines up judges as next target

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/after-sri-lankas-war-president-lines-up-judges-as-next-target-8274493.html

The Sri Lankan government has launched proceedings to oust the country's most senior judge in what many believe is just the latest attempt by the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to undermine the independence of the judiciary. The move comes as the country's human rights record is being scrutinised by the UN.

The government's Information Minister Keheliya Rambukwella confirmed that a motion to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was handed to the speaker of the parliament this morning. 

The government, without giving specific details, claims Ms Bandaranayake has overstepped her role, but many believe the government is seeking revenge for a recent Supreme Court decision that said a proposed piece of legislation that would have centralised a number of powers currently enjoyed by local councils was unconstitutional. 

Bishop of Mannar’s Push for Recognition of the Tamil Nation and Tamil Self Rule Sets Benchmarks for Political Solution for Eelam Tamils

http://www.tamilcanadian.com/article/6274

By: Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah, Senator TGTE

“Our solution does not lie in the 13th Amendment but on the Tamil nationhood to be recognised. We are not a minority. From the beginning of history there have been two nations that must be recognized”

With these profound words that is sure to resonate well with the Tamil Diaspora and the Tamil heartland in the North and East of the island of Sri Lanka, the outspoken Bishop of Mannar, in characteristic fashion set the benchmarks as it were for any future dialogue for a political solution for Eelam Tamils; benchmarks that must be heeded not just by the Rajapaksa administration but by the UN, the international community and India, requiring immediate international intervention.

His Worship, the courageous and forthright spiritual leader revered by Eelam Tamils, chose a forum in Geneva where Sri Lanka’s Universal Periodic Review is set to begin any moment, to make the assertion that the “13th amendment is fundamentally flawed”, that the Tamil people have to be recognised as a nation and have a “right to rule”, reflecting in principle, the long held fundamental demand of Eelam Tamils.

http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=6186