Sri Lanka Air Force attacks convent in Vanni, deploys cluster bombs

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2008, 07:40 GMT]Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombed a convent named Holy Cross Convent, located on Paranthan Mullaiththevu Road, 600 meters away from Paranthan junction Tuesday night around 10:30 p.m., a day before Christmas. TamilNet correspondent who visited the site Wednesday morning witnessed that the attacked premises was marked with Red Cross on the roof. The nearby church also sustained damage. The SLAF deployed cluster munitions in the bombardment, residents who fled the site said. 85 cows of a herd a few meters away from the convent were killed in the attack.

Karaichchi North Co-Operative society building located between the junction and the convent was also attacked by the SLAF bombers, causing the remaining civilians to flee the area. Paranthan has been bombed in more than five sorties by the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers causing civilians living near the convent to flee the area. The indiscriminate bombardment has also targeted shops and other commercial establishment in Paranthan and Kumarapuram. SLAF bombed Paranthan three times Tuesday night and twice Wednesday morning, at 7:30 a.m. and around 9:00 a.m.The bombers also attacked Kugnchup-paranthan where heavy fighting has erupted Wednesday morning.

Ruthless Genocidal Sri Lankan Army Shelling Killed 5-month-old child

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 2008, 13:02 GMT]
Two males who went to their agricultural lands in Kanakapuram, a suburb of Ki'linochchi town, were killed in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling Saturday morning around 11:45, medical sources at Ki'linochchi hospital said. A 17-year-old boy sustained injuries in the attack. Meanwhile, a 5-month-old child was decapitated by the shrapnel of a shell that exploded inside the hut of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on Hudson Road in Vaddakkachchi, near Thakarap-pi'l'laiyaar temple Saturday around 9:30 a.m. The mother of the baby, an IDP from Chinnap-pa'ndi-virichchaan, was wounded.

The child killed was Jeyarooban Ajanthan. His mother wounded in the shelling was identified as 26-year-old Jancy Rani Jeyarooban.

One of the males killed in Kanakapuram was identified as 41-year-old Paalaiya Pulendran, a native of Ki'linochchi who was displaced to Visuvamadu. The other male killed in the shelling was yet to be identified.

The victims had gone to their agricultural lands to unearth cassava roots in their attempt to earn money to safeguard their families.

The youth who sustained injuries at Kanakapuram was identified as Jeyakaran, from Periyaku'lam in Pu'lyampokka'nai. He was being treated at Ki'linochchi hospital.

The dead bodies of the two males killed in Kanakapuram were brought to the hospital in Ki'linochchi town and transferred to Tharmapuram.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) fighter jets bombed 6 times in Vaddakkachchi and Paranthan areas.

Condoleeza Rice spotlights Rights violations in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 December 2008, 12:15 GMT]United States Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, Wednesday, awarded the 2008 Human Rights and Democracy Achievement Award to Michael De Tar, the chief of the Political Section of our Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for engaging "constructively with Sri Lanka while underscoring our [U.S.'s] human rights," and for proposing the roadmap adopted by the Sri Lankan Government "to induce a paramilitary aligned with the government to begin to release its child soldiers [in the east]." The situation in the East, however, has rapidly deterioted recently with Human Rights Watch accusing the Colombo-backed paramilitaries in the east for thirty murders and thirty abductions during September and October."Secretary Rice presented the "Freedom Defenders Award" to Yulia Latynina, an independent journalist, writer and radio host from Russia, and the "Diplomacy for Freedom Award" to James D. McGee, U.S.'s Ambassador to Zimbabwe during the same ceremony held at the Treaty Room Washington, DC.Rice said that De Tar was "a key actor in the international effort to monitor an official Commission of Inquiry investigating high-profile cases of human rights abuse, and he has responded quickly and effectively when journalists and other activists have been threatened or arrested."The Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), a rights monitoring mission set up to oversee the investigations of rights violations by the local Commission of Inquiry (CoI) terminated its observation mission reasoning that the proceedings of the CoI have not been transparent and did not satisfy basic international norms and standards. The IIGEP blamed the Government of Sri Lanka for "absence of will" in the present Inquiry to "investigate cases with vigour, where the conduct of its own forces has been called into question." Full text of Secretary Rice's speech on Mr De Tar's award follows:"Our diplomatic effort to advance human rights is not just a job for ambassadors, and that is why annually we confer the Human Rights and Democracy Achievement Award upon an outstanding officer serving at one of our posts abroad. This year’s recipient is Michael DeTar, the chief of the Political Section of our Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka.Sri Lanka’s 25-year conflict has escalated over the last two years, triggering a sharp increase in human rights violations by the warring parties – the government, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil [Eelam], and paramilitary organizations. Michael found creative and pragmatic ways to engage constructively with Sri Lanka while underscoring our human rights concerns. Michael helped position the United States to play a leading role in the stabilization and recovery of the conflict-torn Eastern Province, focusing on disarming and demobilizing paramilitaries there. He was also a key actor in the international effort to monitor an official Commission of Inquiry investigating high-profile cases of human rights abuse, and he has responded quickly and effectively when journalists and other activists have been threatened or arrested. The Sri Lankan Government adopted Michael’s proposed road map to induce a paramilitary aligned with the government to begin to release its child soldiers. So using his extensive network of civil society and media leaders, Michael has enriched our reporting on human rights conditions in Sri Lanka. And he has not only reported, he has acted. And so I am delighted to bestow the 2008 Human Rights and Democracy Achievement Award on Michael De Tar," Rice said.Meanwhile, in an op-ed column in the Washington Post, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said: "With a new administration and a new vision coming to the White House, we have the opportunity to move boldly to restore the moral authority behind the worldwide human rights movement.The moral footprint of the United States has always been vast. "Our next president has an unprecedented opportunity to lead through example by inspiring and supporting those who would reach for freedom and by being tough and effective with those who would impede freedom's march. All Americans must give him full support."

Sri Lanka in "Genocide Red Alert" watch list

Sri Lanka in "Genocide Red Alert" watch list[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 December 2008, 12:41 GMT]New York-based Genocide Prevention Project in a report to be published Tuesday includes Sri Lanka as one of the eight "red alert" countries where genocide and other mass atrocities are underway or risk breaking out. A comprehensive list of 33 countries is also contained in the report. Tuesday marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nation's convention on the prevention of genocide, and 20th anniversary of U.S's ratification of the treaty. "Red alert" countries include Afghanistan, and Iraq alongside regions currently experiencing genocidal conflict such as Sudan's Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These and Myanmar, Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka all made the list's top eight because they appear in each of the five "expert" indexes.The next 25 "orange alert" countries appear in at least three of the indexes. They include China, Colombia, Philippines and Indonesia as places where ongoing or simmering violence could flare to genocidal proportions."It is possible to identify early indicators of mass atrocity crimes. But what happens now is the international community sees what's going on, gets paralyzed and, if it acts, really only acts after the fact," said Jill Savitt, project executive director.Savitt states three factors that are likely to change the "political will" lacking in the past. First, the stated determination of Susan Rice, U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. ambassador to the UN, to prevent future genocides after witnessing the after-effects of the 1994 Rwanda slaughter. Second, current discussion around the 60th anniversary of the genocide prevention convention, which calls on countries to prevent and punish actions of genocide.And third, the public "guilt" over what occurred in Rwanda and Bosnia, and what she called public "hunger for a response" to the Darfur crisis, Savitt says.Meanwhile, a task force led by Madeleine K Albright, former Secretary of State, and an advisor to Obama and Clinton, released Monday a report on world genocide threats which will likely be used by the Obama administration as a guide post to prevent developing genocides."Preventing genocide is an achievable goal," the Albright report says. "Genocide is not the inevitable result of ancient hatreds or irrational leaders. It requires planning and is carried out systematically. There are ways to recognize signs and symptoms, and viable options to prevent it at every turn if we are committed and prepared," Washington Post said, quoting from the Albright report.

Tamil Women in protective custody, transferred to ruthless genocidal Sri Lankan Army detention centre, fear for safety

[TamilNet, Monday, 08 December 2008, 00:40 GMT]The women and children who faced death threats in Jaffna from the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and its paramilitary and placed under protective custody through the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission in Jaffna at Kurunakar Rehabilitation Centre have been suddenly moved to the detention camp run by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) inside its High Security Zone in Thellippazhai. The women and children are being denied the opportunity of meeting their family members besides fear for their safety, according to legal sources in Jaffna. They have appealed to the team of Magistrates who visited the camp to relocate them to a protection facility in Jaffna city. Kurunakar Rehabilitation Centre was vacated in order to house persons fleeing from war in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held territories to Jaffna peninsula.Meanwhile, the husbands of the above women, placed in Jaffna Prison had protested against the sudden transfer of their wives by observing a token protest fast.Their fast, however, was given up due to pressure exerted by powerful parties in the government, the sources further said.The women who appealed to the team of magistrates pointed out that the opportunity of meeting their family members and relatives, which they had been allowed to in Kurunakar Rehabilitation Centre, is denied in the SLA detention centre where they are now housed.The husbands of these women in Jaffna Prison suffer from mental depression and fear for their wives and children, the officials of Jaffna Prison said.The inmates at the detention camp of the SLA, located inside the HSZ in Thellippazhai, have been treated as 'suspects' under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), as they were forced to sign a document which stated that they were ex-members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) in the past. Although, the new inmates were not subjected to sign a such document, they were being treated as potential 'terror suspects' by the SLA men guarding the detention centre, legal sources that were in contact with the families said.