This story almost beggars belief. A state that refuses to examine its own war crimes is upset that a man who did commit war crimes may tell the world about war crimes. Farcical: The Sri Lankan government is threatening to execute Sarath Fonseka, the army commander who delivered victory over the Tamil Tigers, if he…
Showing all posts tagged Sri Lanka
Public opinion is lost
While Israeli bloggers debate the rights and wrongs of this week’s Gaza flotilla massacre (there’s something right about it, I hear you ask?) this piece of news is pretty damning: Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of…
Colombo cannot erase what happened to the Tamils
One year after the end of official hostilities in Sri Lanka still sees a country in turmoil, proudly anti-Tamil and unwilling to investigate the war crimes committed in the last months of the war. Chair of the UK-based Sri Lanka Campaign Advisory Council (I sit on the board), Edward Mortimer, says that the world can…
Australia likes human rights in forums and debates but does little in reality
As Amnesty releases its annual report and highlights the “politicisation of international justice” – Israel and Sri Lanka are on their hit list -these issues have direct connection to Australia and the Labor government’s refusal to legally manage refugees from countries at war: RACHAEL BROWN: Last month Australia’s Immigration Minister Chris Evans announced the situation…
What was Ban Ki Moon doing while Sri Lanka died?
The rights and responsibilities of the UN is constantly under scrutiny, as it should be. Its role in Sri Lanka last year, during the government massacres against Tamil civilians, is rightly challenged: Louise Arbour, the head of the International Crisis Group, called for an internal review of the U.N.’s conduct during Sri Lanka’s bloody 2009…
Why Beijing is the new ruler of the brutalised world
Sri Lanka one year after the end of armed hostilities remains a hostile place. Peace is but a distant dream, especially for the Tamils, investigative journalists or anybody else who dares seriously challenge Colombo’s rule. And how did Sri Lanka win the war? One answer: China.
Sipping that cocktail in Sri Lanka should wait til the blood is removed
Sri Lanka is desperate to lure tourists back to the country after decades of fighting (and most of the Western, corporate press seem oblivious to the gross human rights abuses still taking place in the north and east). But anybody with an ounce of decency would seriously re-consider visiting a nation plagued with violence and…
Murdering “terrorists” the Colombo way
We read such stories below and expect little better from the brutes in Sri Lanka. The world responds accordingly. Shock, horror etc. Israel behaves equally aggressively – witness the mass destruction in Gaza – and a myriad of excuses are made. That’s called hypocrisy: Exclusive: a senior Sri Lankan army commander and frontline soldier tell…
Sri Lanka is a good, democratic state (and they say it’s so)
Sri Lanka’s representative in Australia must be getting training from the Israelis. Deny every war crime, allege bias in every report and cause intelligent people to treat you with contempt. Well done, Colombo: ELEANOR HALL: The Sri Lankan Government has hit back at renewed criticism of its human rights record. The country’s senior diplomatic representative…
How Colombo killed innocent Tamils for simply being Tamil
Lest we forget: Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians died in the last, bloody months of Sri Lanka’s civil war, the International Crisis Group said in an investigative report to be released Monday, most of them as a result of government shelling of areas that were supposed to be safe zones. The report, which cites…