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British Tamils conduct midnight vigil to commemorate Black July 83 and inaugurate London – Geneva Walk for Justice

British Tamils once again embarked on a rally through London on Friday, 23rd July 2010 calling for justice for victims of war crimes in Sri Lanka. In a symbolic yet solemn show of unity and hope, a “midnight vigil” was held from 9pm commencing from opposite Westminster Abbey to Downing Street.

The first of its kind to be held by a minority group in London, thousands of Tamils and non-Tamils gathered carrying candles, placards, banners and hoisting flags appealing to the UK establishment and the UN to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka. Westminster Council, the Mayor’s Office and the Metropolitan Police offered tremendous support to enable this momentous vigil to take place.

The commemorative vigil marks the 27th anniversary of Sri Lankan state sponsored anti-Tamil pogroms in which thousands were slaughtered and serves to remind us that the injustice continues today.

The midnight vigil inaugurated a “Walk for Justice” from the heart of British Parliament, through France and Switzerland to the UN Human Rights Council offices in Geneva. Mr. Sivanthan, a British Tamil youth, will be joined by supporters and well-wishers on a two-week walk to raise awareness and amalgamate support for calls to the:

1. UN to initiate an independent international probe into war crimes committed in Sri Lanka

2. Allow access to Prisoners Of War

3. For all internally displaced persons to be resettled into their own homes. A memorandum is to be handed to the UN in Geneva on 6th August 2010

4. Boycott of Sri Lanka until it respects international laws

The walk for justice to the UN coincides with the recent appointment of a UN advisory panel by Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The Sri Lankan government has shown clear opposition to any prospect of independent monitors investigating war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Government backed blockade outside UN office in Sri Lanka, threats to UN staff and possible denial of visas to the appointed UN advisory panel reflect a hostile reaction to a body that only has an advisory role. Sri Lanka must be reminded it is a democratic country which has subscribed to UN covenants and Geneva Conventions and is obliged to comply with the obligations to which it has signed up to.

Community leaders and well-wishers signed the war crimes book to pledge their support for the calls to the UN. The two-week walk to the UN aims to unite Tamils across Europe hope and the wider community to join calls to highlight the need for UN to uphold international laws to ensure that justice is universal and to set precedents for other rogue states.

British Tamils reiterated calls for boycott of Sri Lanka until it respects international laws. An international day of boycott is taking place on Saturday 31st July 2010 across US, UK, Canada, Australia and Europe to take forward this campaign.

The event concluded at 11:30pm with speeches from representatives of Tamil organisations and other community leaders. A memorandum containing the 4 basic and fundamental humane and humanitarian demands to the UK Prime Minister will be handed at 10 Downing Street on Monday 26th July.

Statement read out in front of 10 downing street London

Dear friends, fellow Tamils, well wishers and supporters of Tamil’s freedom in the island of Sri Lanka, on behalf of British Tamils Forum, I thank you all, for this historic event. I would also like to give a special welcome to our Sinhala Brothers and Sisters including Exile Journalists who have joined us here today – these Sinhala Brothers and Sisters had no choice other than to simply leave the country to escape the murderous Rajapakshe regime run by Mr Rajapakshe and his Brothers.

Today, you have gathered in thousands and in doing so, you are sending a clear message of resilience to President Rajapakshe and his cronies! This also sends a message of hope to our Tamil Brothers and Sisters that we will not rest until they are free from the oppressive State.

Tamils want justice from an independent international war crimes investigation in Sri Lanka but our voices have been silenced by the murderous Rajapakshe regime that will join the list of Rwanda, Srebrenitsa and many others. It is events like these that keep the memory of many innocent people who perished in the hands of the murderous Rajapakshe regime. This is why the Sri Lankan Government does not want to see us Tamils to be united in the call for freedom. It is our duty to ensure that the true face of the Terror State of Sri Lanka is exposed – First to the international community and eventually at the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

Friends, a year is gone, since the war ended, but the conflict hasn’t ended! I repeat the conflict hasn’t ended!

It is clear that the Sri Lankan Government is taking all the steps to wipe out all the evidence of crimes against humanity they committed. They are killing those who they think can be witnesses for war crimes. If the Government of Sri Lanka has got nothing to fear, why are they shying away from international Governments, Agencies and Journalists? Why have they refused access to the UN Panel? This more than a year after the war has ended. Why is the Sri Lankan Government refusing to even publish the list of the prisoners of war that they illegally hold without access? Why? Why? Why?

Friends, we must tell the international community that trying to get concessions from Sri Lanka, which is not just a Failed State but also a Racist State, will not work! It didn’t work with Hitler, it didn’t work with the Khmer Rouge, it didn’t work with the then leaders of Rwanda, it didn’t work with Milosevic, it didn’t work with the apartheid regime in South Africa – It doesn’t work with regimes like these – FULL STOP!

It is our duty to demand no words but action from the coalition Government in our adopted home and from the rest of the world if they care for humanity.

Today, it also marks the 27th anniversary of the Black July massacre of thousands of innocent Tamils that showed the true face of Sri Lanka to the world. Many years have gone and we have lost many more during that time. No where in the world over 40,000 innocent people got murdered in cold blood in broad day light in such short space of time, like what happened in the Northeast of Sri Lanka, last year!

Let’s remember them with a minute’s silence.

Ladies and Gentlemen with tears rolling down our cheeks we, the British Tamils Forum, with the support of the Tamil Diaspora and international community, will work as hard as it takes to ensure that

One – An Independent International Investigation into War Crimes in Sri Lanka takes place and the perpetrators get punished

Two – we gain access to the Prisoners of War

Three – we Boycott Sri Lanka until it respects human rights

I ask you, all of you, to join us in this long march for freedom and justice!

by Col R Hariharan

Though Sri Lanka finished the Eelam War in triumph a year back, its battle with the international community does not appear to be over. It was joined in right earnest last week when the maverick Sri Lankan minister and ‘revolutionary’ turned politician Wimal Weerawansa spearheaded a siege of the UN office in Colombo. He was demanding the withdrawal of the UN expert panel appointed to advise the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sri Lanka’s human rights and humanitarian record during the war.

But Weerawansa added more spice to the protest when he went on “fast unto death.” The National Freedom Front leader being no Mahatma Gandhi nobody expected him to die a martyr. Though theatricals of the protest were overdone, it was more than a publicity gimmick or a photo opportunity for Weerawansa because it had official blessing. President Mahinda Rajapaksa showed his solidarity with the minister’s action by visiting the fasting minister and ‘persuaded’ him to break his fast on the second day.
If paralysing work at the UN office was the objective of the protest, the minister’s mission was eminently successful. Work at the UN office was paralysed and the UN asked its staffers not to come out. The UNDP Regional Centre in Colombo was shut down. The UN Resident Coordinator in Colombo, Neil Buhne was called back to New York.

Buhne is going back now after the UN clearly articulated its expectations from Colombo: better treatment of the U.N. family in Sri Lanka, progress of commitments covered in the Joint Statement of May 2009 including resettlement of internally displaced persons, political reconciliation and accountability. So the minister’s protest has not only failed, but also appears to have firmed up the UN Secretary General’s resolve to go ahead with the work of UN experts’ panel.

As Sri Lanka considers the action of the UN Secretary General an infringement of national sovereignty, its ire is understandable. But the way it is being handled as a populist ploy than through diplomatic moves makes one suspect the intentions. Is it part of President’s strategy to milk the issue for internal political gains? Although, his overwhelming public support was confirmed in the recent presidential and parliamentary polls, the protests focusing on outsider interference does put opposition on the defensive to temper their criticism of the government.

Ban Ki-moon was well within his powers to appoint a panel of experts to advise him on the issue. The Secretary General’s action would have provided a safe option to Sri Lanka to defer the issue from adverse limelight. It would also have given inkling on the follow up action likely at the UN Security Council or the UN Human Rights Commission.
But why Sri Lanka has chosen to do have a confrontation with the UN? Obviously it does not want any external body to investigate allegations of human rights violations.

The second explanation is the fear that allowing experts’ panel would lead to probe into war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka army during the last phase of war. Sri Lanka’s prickly reaction only strengthens suspicions of its conduct. The relentless efforts of influential international NGOs and diehard Tamil Diaspora Eelam lobby to bring Sri Lanka to the dock on this count are likely to continue regardless of Sri Lanka stand on UN panel.

Sri Lanka’s objection should be viewed in the backdrop of its long term skirmish with “foreign interference.” It started with its bitter experience of the way the Monitoring Mission of the peace process 2002 functioned. And international role in Sri Lanka’s conflict became a contentious issue in the presidential poll 2005. Its attitude hardened in 2006 after a disastrous experience with an international panel of eminent persons’ inquiry into alleged killings carried out by security men which was given up midway due to lack of cooperation from Sri Lankan side. And its international reputation had been on the down slide even before the war started when scores of people ‘disappeared’ and media men were hounded.

The common thread running in the UN action as well as the European Union’s suspension of the GSP+ export tariff concessions is the trust deficit in Sri Lanka’s words. And to dismiss as international prejudice or conspiracy to belittle Sri Lanka’s triumph against terrorism would be foolhardy. More situations of a similar kind are in the making.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has suggested to the Indian government to assess the situation in the affected areas in Sri Lanka and the progress of rehabilitation measures undertaken by the Sri Lankan government for internally displaced Tamils. Though he has left the option of who will carry out this task to Dr Manmohan Singh, unless a special envoy is sent the issue would hang fire in Tamil Nadu. And both the leaders cannot afford it as the state is getting ready for assembly poll. The chief minister was only reflecting public opinion and what the Indian government had been asking Colombo in private. How Sri Lanka is going to handle this ‘foreign interference’ is the moot question?

This time around nobody can accuse the TN chief minister of being anti-Sinhalese. Around the same time, he had arrested Seeman, the Kollywood director turned leader of the pro-LTTE Naam Tamilar party, under the National Security Act for ‘inciting the public’ against Sinhalese in Chennai.

Whatever be the President’s internal agenda, he urgently needs to repair fractured international credibility. And regardless of Sri Lanka’s own opinion, its waning credibility will expose it to more and more international criticism. The NAM (non aligned movement) lobby at the UN has already shown to be an unreliable forum to plead for Sri Lanka. China, Russia and India – considered as friends of Sri Lanka – cannot be expected repeatedly to bale out Sri Lanka in the face of strong international line up.

The reason is not merely the demand for greater international accountability of nations, but also greater global awareness of rights of people and citizens. So the issue cannot be wished away; the President is bound to be questioned locally and internationally till their credibility gap is bridged with reasoning.

Sri Lanka’s credibility is directly related to three issues: its human rights record and accountability, rehabilitation issues of displaced Tamils, and vintage grievances of Tamil population. Actions like holding the cabinet meeting in Kilinochi, or providing better connectivity from North do not convince the public when people in villages around are destitute and there is lack of security and trust in government.

For its own good Sri Lanka should seriously look at human rights record and improve it. It is not India or the international community, but almost all opposition parties, media, and President Rajapaksa’s erstwhile chief of defence staff have complained of serious human rights violations. And many of them continue to do so. The emergency regulations are still haunting the public; even now Tamils in Wellawatte are asked to register with the police as pointed out by the National Peace Council.

The strategy to ward off international intrusion in what governments do is simple: be proactive and develop systems to be so. This helps the nation to look beyond playing sleight of hand competition in international forums as Sri Lanka is doing now. And it also enables the nation build its value systems, a great asset in forging ethnic amity. But this is more easily said than done, particularly if those in power want to make political capital out of problems. Even in such an agenda improving leader’s credibility is never a liability.

(Col R Hariharan, a retired Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia, served with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka as Head of Intelligence. He is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies and the South Asia Analysis Group. E-Mail: colhari@yahoo.com Blog: www.colhariharan.org)

Karnatic Keerthanams by Seyvita Sooriakumar (13) of Toronto, Ontario, Canada:

1. ~ Valaichi Ragamalikai – Athi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer (5:10)

2. ~ Vathapi Ganapathim – Hamsadvani – Athi – Muthuswamy Thikshitar (12:09)

3. ~ Sujana Jeevana – Kamas – Rupakam – Thiyagaraja (3:44)

4. ~ Unnaiyallal – Kalyani –Athi – Papanasam Sivan (10:21)

5. ~ Nennaeunji – Maalavi – Athi – Thiyagaraja (4:24)

6. ~ Saravanabava – Shanmugapriya – Athi – Papanasam Sivan (8:36)

7. ~ Pathimamam Sri – Janaranjani – Athi – Maha Vaithyanatha Iyer (4:15)

8. ~ Bandureeti – Hamsanadham – Athi – Thiyagaraja (4:39)

9. ~ Mamavathu Sri – Hindolam –Athi – Mysore Vasuthevacharya (8:47)

10. ~ Ananda Nadamaduvar – Purvi Kalyani – Rupakam – Neelakanda Sivan (3:42)

11. ~ Ean Palli – Mohanam – Athi – Arunachala Kavirayar (3:11)

12. ~ Nagumomu – Aberi- Athi – Thiyagaraja (7:04)

13. ~ Thillana- Kathanakuthuhalam – Athi – Dr. Balamurali Krishna (2:41)

14. ~ Thirupukhal – Hamsanandhi – Athi – Arunagirinathar (0:52)

Govt must assure the public of the independent status of the Attorney General

By The Friday Forum

The Friday Forum is an informal gathering of public spirited persons wishing to contribute to the future development of Sri Lanka within a framework of democracy, social justice and pluralism.

The Forum brings together a diversity of expertise and viewpoints reflecting its membership consisting of academics, various professionals, retired diplomats and civil servants, educationists, leaders of civil society organizations and leading personalities from the private sector. Furthermore, our membership reflects the diverse ethnic and religious composition of Sri Lankan society. The forum meets regularly to discuss issues of public concern and to make interventions in the public interest.

One of the key areas of concern of the Friday Forum is the preservation of the integrity of independent institutions. It is clear that the proper functioning of those institutions, such as the independent commissions recognized by the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution, is essential for democratic governance and to preserve a democratic way of life for the people.

We have noted with concern the current status of the Attorney-General’s Department (AG’s Department) consequent to the Gazette Extraordinary No.1651/20 of April 30, 2010 on the allocation of subjects to various ministries. The AG’s Department, which has traditionally come under the Ministry of Justice, finds no mention in the Gazette notification either under that ministry or elsewhere. The necessary implication under Article 44 (2) of the Constitution is that as an unallocated subject or function the department automatically comes under the purview of the President. So far, the government has neither confirmed that the AG’s Department has come within the purview of the President nor officially disclosed the reasons for changing the long standing convention affiliating the Department with the Ministry of Justice.

That in a democracy, the Attorney-General should not only function but must be seen to function in an independent manner cannot be emphasised more. The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has, in no uncertain terms, recognized and affirmed the independent role of the AG (Land Reform Commission v. Grand Central Ltd. [1981] Sri LR 147).

The AG is the custodian of the Rule of Law and of the public interest in a democracy. The functions of the AG must always be informed by no other factor or consideration than the upholding of the public interest and the Rule of Law. Even in countries where the Attorney-General is a political appointee, there is an expectation that the holder of that office must act independently of the Executive, especially in prosecutorial functions, because to do so otherwise would negate the preservation of the Rule of Law and the public interest.

If the Attorney-General, in discharging the functions of office, provides legal advice to the government or engages in the prosecutorial function in a non-independent manner, moved more by political and partisan considerations, the Rule of Law is defeated and the public interest stands desecrated.

The AG is also the head of the Bar—not only of the Official Bar as one would think, but of the entire Bar. At ceremonial sittings of the court, the AG sits representing the entire Bar. As such, it is the AG’s duty to protect the integrity of the legal profession. It also follows then that the AG has to ensure the protection of judicial independence which is indispensable to the proper functioning of the Bar. If the office of the AG itself is not independent then those objectives cannot be achieved.

The appointment and removal processes of the AG under the current law confirm the independence of the office of the AG in Sri Lanka . The appointment of the AG falls within the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. The President has to obtain the approval of the Constitutional Council to appoint the preferred nominee. The removal of the AG has to be done under terms of the Removal of Officers (Procedure) Act, No. 5 of 2002. Accordingly, the AG holds office during good behaviour (as opposed to at pleasure) and can be removed only by Parliament on specific grounds after inquiry.

Over the past decades, the politicization of the Office of the Attorney-General has been observed with alarm. We have watched successive Attorneys-General go before international forums and defend the position of the government of the day, even when doing so defeated the rights of the people. We have watched charges against political dissidents expedited and charges against the powerful dropped or delayed.

In this post-war era, where public expectations of the State’s commitment to the Rule of Law are very high, and where the restoration of law and order is viewed as an indispensable element of the development process, it is imperative that the public has confidence in the office of the Attorney-General.

Therefore, we urge the government to assure the public of the independent status of the Attorney-General. At a minimum, we urge that the Department be affiliated with the Ministry of Justice as was the norm. Ideally, now that constitutional reform is again on the political agenda, we propose that the AG’s Department be brought under Article 52 (2) of the Constitution so that it is treated on par with the Departments of the Auditor General and the Elections Commissioner, Offices of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsperson), the Secretary-General of Parliament and the Secretary to the Cabinet of Ministers, which means that it is no longer treated as a department of government.

We urge the incumbent Attorney-General to heed public concerns and take every possible measure to demonstrate to the public that he is guided only by the Rule of Law and the public interest.

We make this earnest appeal in a spirit of constructive engagement having as our sole objective the interests of the country.

Signed,

Bishop Duleep Chickera,
Jayantha Dhanapala,
Prof. Arjuna Aluvihare,
Prof. Gananath Obeysekere,
Harin Malwatte,
Dr. Anura Ekanayake,
Prof. Savithri Goonesekere,
Chandra Jayaratne,
Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne,
Dr. Nimal Sanderatne,
Dr. Devanesan Nesiah,
Dr. A.C. Visvalingam,
Ranjit Fernando,
Dr. Selvy Thiruchandran,
Manouri Muttetuwegama,
Sithie Tiruchelvam,
Lanka Nesiah,
Dr. Ranjini Obeysekere,
Jezima Ismail,
Shanthi Dias,
Dr. Stewart Motha,
Damaris Wickremesekera,
J.C. Weliamune,
Ahilan Kadirgamar,
Dr. Camena Gunaratne,
Prashan de Visser,
Dr. Deepika Udagama