Have the Innocent Tamil Civilians Killed? Sri Lanka Guardian claims that last week!

Justice Sachar goes to Dublin to probe Lankan ‘war crimes’
Shyam Bhatia Posted online: Saturday , Dec 05, 2009 at 0417 hrs
London : Retired Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar has agreed to serve on a “People’s Permanent Tribunal” meeting in Dublin to investigate allegations that the Sri Lankan government and Army are guilty of war crimes against the Tamil community.
Individual witnesses, as well as legal and human rights groups from Sri Lanka, India, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations have been invited to testify before the tribunal which will convene on January 14 and 15 . Its provisional findings will be announced on January 16.

The announcement comes days after the Sri Lankan government announced it was “opening up” special detention camps in the north of the country where tens of thousands of Tamil civilians have been interned for the past six months without any access to the outside world.

Sri Lankan officials have denounced the tribunal and say its timing just days before before the country’s forthcoming general election is suspect.

Sachar, who chaired the 2006 report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India and who will be traveling to Dublin next month, told The Indian Express, “We have to find out the actual matter, including why the Norwegian Peace Initiative failed. There have been complaints about human rights violations. People will present their facts before us. When we have the facts before us, then only can we make conclusions.

One of the movers and shakers behind the setting up of the tribunal is an ethnic Sinhalese academic, Jude Lal Fernando, who boasts he does not have a drop of Tamil blood in his veins, but has been horrified by the persistent hu man rights violations tolerated by successive governments in Colombo.

Said Fernando, a lecturer in conflict, peace and world religions at Trinity College, Dublin: “People who have been victimised will have a voice and their voice will be taken seriously. The whole thing is that none of the human rights violations have been investigated. It has been blocked by the United Nations and the European Union. We are going to create this independent group to investigate war crimes and human rights violations.”

Although the People’s Tribunal has no legal standing, its supporters anticipate a moral impact. “There will be no convictions”, Fernando agreed. “But there will be a very clear record with eye witnesses ratified by an eminent group of people that can be taken further if others want a legal case.”

In Colombo, Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary in the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, commented, “We are pledged to investigate any plausible allegations but I don’t think people will take seriously a tribunal that deliberates for two days and then issues a report. I rather suspect the report will be issued beforehand.”

Asked if the Lankan government would be prepared to testify before the tribunal, he said, “That’s a ridiculous idea. Why would anyone take up an invitation to visit Dublin in the middle of winter and testify before a collection of eccentric individuals?”

Other members of the 11-member tribunal, which will convene in Dublin on January 15 and 16, include Egyptian writer Nawal Saadawi and former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations Dennis Halliday.

Critics of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa say opening the camps is just a political ploy in advance of the general election. They say those who have been freed from the camps can be re-arrested at any time and many Tamils have had their lands taken for redistribution to supporters of the ruling party.

Said a spokesman for the tribunal, supported by the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka and the Irish School of Ecumenics at Trinity College: “Those who survived after the final phase of the war — approximately 280,000 people — were detained in camps run by Sri Lankan soldiers, for nearly six months. There are reports of abductions, rape, disappearances and killings of people in the camps. International and local media were not allowed to enter these camps and aid agencies allowed in have had severe limitations imposed on them. A further 11,000 are kept in undisclosed destinations, most of them without access to lawyers or anyone from the outside world.”