Sri Lanka accepts UN criticism of camps

Sri Lanka on Thursday said it accepted much of the United Nations' recent criticism over its handling of 250,000 Tamils detained in camps since the end of the island's ethnic conflict six months ago.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe pledged the government would address recommendations made by Walter Kaelin, a representative of the United Nations secretary-general, who last week toured the detention facilities.

"He (Kaelin) said a lot of factual things like getting the sewer and sanitation right on an urgent basis and to make things comfortable for those living inside the camps," Samarasinghe told AFP.
"It is a very positive statement. We take these things in the right spirit."
The government has vowed to re-settle all people displaced during the decades of war by January, but international aid and human rights groups have questioned its commitment to the welfare of Tamil civilians.
Kaelin spent five days visiting the overcrowded camps and holding talks with officials.

He asked Sri Lanka to comply with its international obligations and said a clash at the weekend between troops and detainees raised serious human rights issues.
Sri Lanka has resisted repeated calls to close the camps, saying it needed more time to weed out former Tamil Tiger rebel fighters.

UN Security Council Calls for Appointment of Special Representative on Sexual Violence

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution creating new tools to combat sexual violence against women and children in conflict situations. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chaired Wednesday's meeting, which came on the last day of the United States' presidency of the council.

Secretary Clinton said that during her July trip to Africa, she met victims of sexual violence in the eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than a 1,100 rapes are reported each month.
"The physical and emotional damage to individual women and their families from these attacks cannot be quantified nor can the toll on their societies," said Hillary Clinton. "The dehumanizing nature of sexual violence doesn't just harm a single individual or a single family or even a single village or a single group. It shreds the fabric that weaves us together as human beings. It endangers families and communities, erodes social and political stability, and undermines economic progress. We need to understand that it holds all of us back."
Clinton said that despite two earlier Security Council resolutions, sexual violence in conflict situations has not diminished, and in some cases has escalated.
She noted that new resolution - 1888 - aims to give the U.N. and member states new tools to prevent conflict-related sexual violence and end impunity.
"It [the resolution] calls on the secretary-general to appoint a special representative to lead, coordinate and advocate for efforts to end sexual violence," said Secretary Clinton. "It also calls on the secretary-general to rapidly deploy a team of experts to work with governments to strengthen the rule of law, address impunity and enhance accountability."
The resolution also raises the possibility of sanctions, as it requests Security Council sanctions committees to consider patterns of sexual violence when adopting or targeting sanctions.
Sexual violence against women and girls has been widespread in Africa, where U.N. statistics show that as many as a half a million women were raped during the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s; some 64,000 women were victims of violence during Sierra Leone's 10-year long conflict; and today in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands more suffer. But the problem is not limited to Africa. Rape has been used as a weapon of war in the Balkans, Burma and Sri Lanka.
Human rights groups, which have criticized the United Nations and the Security Council for not doing enough to protect women against violence, welcomed Wednesday's resolution and urged the secretary-general to move swiftly to appoint the new special representative.

Supreme Court to decide terrorism support law

 The U.S. Supreme Court said on Wednesday it would hear an Obama administration appeal defending part of the Patriot Act, which has been criticized by civil liberties groups for giving the government broad powers.

The justices agreed to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that struck down as unconstitutionally vague a law that makes it a crime to provide support to a foreign terrorist group.

The law, first adopted in 1996, was strengthened by the USA Patriot Act supported by then-President George W. Bush and approved by Congress right after the September 11 attacks in 2001. It was amended again in 2004.
The high court is expected to hear arguments in the case early next year, with a decision likely by June. It will be the first time the court will consider part of the Patriot Act.
Convictions under the law, which bars knowingly providing any service, training, expert advice or assistance to a designated foreign terrorist group, can result in sentences of 15 years to life in prison.
The law does not require any proof that the defendant intended to further any act of terrorism or violence by the foreign group.

"The material support law resurrects guilt by association and makes it a crime for a human rights group in the United States to provide human rights training," said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor and the lead attorney challenging the law.
"We don't make the country safer by criminalizing those who advocate nonviolent means for resolving disputes. Congress can and should draw a clear line between assistance that further terrorism and that which does not," Cole said.

The Obama administration appealed to the Supreme Court and called the law "a vital part of the nation's efforts to fight international terrorism."
Since 2001, the United States has charged about 120 defendants with the material support of terrorism and about half have been convicted, the Justice Department said.
"Many of those prosecutions potentially prevented substantial harm to the nation," Solicitor General Elena Kagan said in the appeal. Defendants have been charged under the law with "providing al Qaeda with martial arts training and instruction" and "medical support to wounded jihadists."

The challenge had been brought by groups and individuals who want to provide support to the Kurdistan Workers Party in Turkey and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. The State Department designated both as foreign terrorist groups.
The Humanitarian Law Project, a human rights group in Los Angeles, previously provided human rights advocacy training to the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK, and the main Kurdish political party in Turkey.
The Humanitarian Law group and others sued in 1998 in an effort to renew support for what they described as lawful, nonviolent activities overseas.

Extension of GSP Plus status to be decided next month

The European Commission will convene on October 15, to discuss the matter of extending the GSP Plus status to Sri Lanka. As per GSP Plus, exports from Sri Lanka do not attract any import duties in its exports to the countries of the European Union.

GSP Plus gives Sri Lanka the right to export more than 7,200 products duty-free to the EU, which last year accounted for 36 percent of Sri Lanka's US $8.1 billion in total exports. Countries receiving GSP Plus must have ratified and implemented 27 international conventions on rights, labour, development and good governance.

As per sources in the European Commission, the status may be extended, but with conditions attached. The Commission is probing the excesses of the military in its war against terrorism, last year and which has become the central topic of the Commission in its decision to extend the status.
The biggest export revenue generator; apparels is fully dependent on the GSP Plus status being given a extension, since most of the exports from the sector are destined for Europe and losing the status would mean competing with other countries like China, India and Vietnam on a equal footing.

At UN, Ban Cannot Stop Sri Lanka's Shooting, Blake's Visit, Report Mid-October

In the wake of the Sri Lankan Army shooting at least two children on the margins of the Manik Farm "Internally Displaced Persons" camp in Vavuniya, Inner City Press on Tuesday asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon if, in his September 28 meeting with three Sri Lankan ministers, he sought or gained any commitment for non-use of lethal weapons on unarmed IDPs. Mr. Ban rattled off "three points" -- in essence, resettlement, reconciliation and accountability -- and said "they committed that they will do as we have agreed. But we have to have a close watch and monitor this process."full story

Transferring IDPs, instead of releasing them, must stop: Anglican Bishop

If [IDP] persons said to be released [from the internment camps in Vavuniyaa] are in fact being transferred to camps in different regions, this is misleading and must stop, says Anglican Bishop of Colombo Rev. de Chickera. The Bishop has urged Rajapaksa government to allow media access to areas in the North and provide public updates on the work regarding resettlement of displaced persons.
Extracts from the statement by the Bishop follow:
"If the decision [to release persons in the camps] has been put on hold it must be reactivated. If the response of relatives has been slow, more time and wider publicity should be given. If persons said to be released are in fact being transferred to camps in different Regions, this is misleading and must stop. Reports of the lack of co-ordination amongst State Authorities are disappointing, and all those responsible for implementing this decision should be required to ensure co-ordination, compassion and speed.
"The decision to release, should however be clearly seen as an interim measure. The much more urgent task is to expedite the process of resettlement. Once the ‘home areas” of the Displaced are cleared of mines and the required infrastructure built, persons displaced, whether in the camps or with relatives, should be resettled in their original homes.
"I finally urge the Government to provide the Media with access to areas being de-mined and reconstructed, (subject to their safety and security precautions) and to also make regular public updates on this work. This will in turn provide information to all Sri Lankans, whether displaced or not, on the progress being made in this regard. In doing so the Government will demonstrate transparency in its management of the crisis and State Ministries and Officials will quite rightly be held accountable by the people."

SLA shoots 6 including women, children in Cheddiku'lam camp

Sri Lanka Army (SLA) on Saturday around 6:00 p.m. opened fire and injured six civilians including two women and three children in Cheddiku'lam internment camp, according to initial reports reaching from Vavuniyaa. One 8-year-old child, seriously wounded in the episode, was transferred to Anuradhapura hospital from Vavuniyaa hospital, medical sources in Vavuniyaa said.
The unfortunate group of six is said to have gone for collecting firewood in the surroundings of the camp.

World Food Programme (WFP) has stopped supplying cooked meals from 17 September. The inmates are dependent on dry rations (rice, sugar and dahl), but they lack proper facilities to cook the meals.
Civilians inside the camps are forced to get other materials, firewood, salt, tamarind etc., from external sources.
The civilians who tried to cross over the camps to get firewood were shot by the SLA.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan military officials in Colombo said the SLA opened fire when civilians who tried to 'escape' started to stone the SLA soldiers when they were blocked from leaving the camp. The military officials put the number of wounded civilians at three.

‘Paranoid Colombo machinates IDP human shield’

A whole world is duped in what Colombo is machinating in the name of resettlement of IDPs, Tamil circles in Jaffna commented, citing Sri Lanka Navy’s new internment camps around its installations in the island sector of Jaffna. Colombo’s aim is threefold: a human shield of civilians for its occupying forces, prevention of rightful owners reoccupying houses and lands around its military installations and eventually confiscating those lands in strategic areas for its expansion and other demographic conspiracies in the very heart of Tamil homeland, pointed out Tamil circles adding that a paranoid Sri Lankan state can never deliver justice to Tamils. The core truth is that the barbed-wire camps came up because the world powers wanted it. But some powers by not directly taking responsibility and some others like India by sitting on international action continue injustice, Jaffna circles said.
The SLN ‘resettled’ nearly 2000 civilians brought from the internment camps of Vavuniyaa in new internment camps created by using abandoned houses around its naval installations in Kaarainakar and in Kayts, this week.

For nearly two decades now, Colombo’s armed forces are occupying vast tracts of potential civilian land along the northern coast of the peninsula in the name of High Security Zone. A so-called ‘development model’ for Jaffna that is now being circulated shows that this tract is not going to be returned to people, but is going to be used for resource exploitation and a new city for the occupiers, with harbour, airport and military installations, as a joint venture of Colombo and New Delhi. Reviving the cement factory in Kaankeasanthurai is the biggest environmental crime that is going to affect hundreds of thousands of civilians, discouraging them from inhabiting the northern part of the peninsula, academic circles in Jaffna said.
Meanwhile, the SLA installed landmine blast that seriously injured three recently resettled civilians in the Ariyaalai tract is alleged to be another trick of Colombo to discourage the call for expediting resettlement. Unless the international community takes direct responsibility and removes Colombo’s occupying armed forces, peace and ‘reconciliation’ is a mirage in the island, opined a veteran Tamil politician in Jaffna.

Civilians clash with SLA in Vavuniyaa internment camp

Additional police and Sri Lanka Army troops were brought into the College of Education internment camp in Vavuniyaa after clashes erupted between civilian inmates and Sri Lankan forces following the arrest and assault of a Tamil youth in the camp. Several civilians and armed personnel sustained minor injuries, sources in Vavuniyaa said.
On Monday, a 31-year-old Tamil youth Paranchami Chandramohan, was taken by force by the SLA. He was severely assaulted and taken away. The inmates of the camp were inquiring the SLA and police on his whereabouts for the last two days.

The civilian protestors who did not get any positive reply from the Sri Lankan forces tried to breach the fences and attempted to come out Wednesday morning. They were throwing stones.
In return, the Sri Lankan forces also reacted in the same manner. The matter was brought to the notice of Vavuniyaa Magistrate A.G.Alexraja. He personally visited the camp and brought the situation under control.
The youth is presently being treated at the Vavuniyaa hospital.

US leadership in rights issues questioned

Noting that the "[Obama] Administration has pursued a low profile approach to Sri Lanka, where a military offensive against rebels is believed to have killed thousands of civilians," Washington Post in an article in Tuesday edition says that rights advocates have been frustrated by several episodes and said US's new approach has undercut U.S. leadership on human rights issues. Responding to U.S.'s assertion

Excerpts related to Sri Lanka from the article follow:
Silence on Sri Lanka?

The other major concern of human rights advocates monitoring developments at the United Nations is Sri Lanka.

When the government launched its final offensive this year against the country's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), it was Mexico and Austria that first raised the alarm in the Security Council. France and Britain sent their foreign ministers to the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, to press the government to show restraint.
The United States supported those efforts to draw attention to the crisis in the Security Council, which China and Russia opposed. It backed a compromise that allowed for discussion on the Sri Lanka conflict in the U.N. basement.
"The U.S. government remained relatively silent on the Sri Lankan crisis, especially in the early stages of the fighting," said Fabienne Hara, vice president for multilateral affairs at the International Crisis Group. Its response to Sri Lanka "did not seem to match the commitment to preventing mass human rights abuses stated during the presidential campaign," she said.
Rice challenged that assessment, saying "my perception is that we spoke out very forcefully."She said that the United States had a strong ambassador on the ground in Sri Lanka, conveying American concerns, and that the assistant secretary of state for refugees traveled there to conduct an assessment mission. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rice said, had been personally focused on the issue.
"I think that is an instance where our stand was clear, consistent and principled," she said.