04/27/2011
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Inner City Press
UNITED NATIONS, April 27 -- On Sri Lanka, UN “staff were not in the position to assess” the number of casualties in 2009, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky told the Press on April 27, as they had to withdraw because the Government said security could not be guaranteed.
04/25/2011
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Groundviews
In less than two weeks since the Darusman Report (hereinafter referred to as the Report) was handed over to the United Nations Secretary General (hereinafter referred to as UNSG), a large number of articles have been written about the report, its motivations and on its impact on Sri Lanka. Except in several exceptions, the majority of these renderings seem to have lost the plot, in their failure to provide adequate attention to several key issues surrounding the report, or the ‘leaked’ version of it published in the Sri Lankan newspaper The Island. Public reactions to the leaked sections of the Report are best glimpsed from Groundviews, where comments made by readers include rather heated debates on issues such as the number of Eelam War IV casualties raised in the Report.
04/24/2011
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The Sunday Leader
BY TISARANEE GUNASEKARA The mysterious leaking in Colombo of the Darusman (UN) Report was accompanied by a carefully choreographed outbreak of patriotic-hysteria. The President, in a hyperbolic-excess, declared his willingness to brave the electric chair (unaware that capital punishment is rejected by the International Criminal Court!). He also indicated his desire to turn the UPFA May Day demonstration into an anti-UN melee (does this explain the timing of the leak?). His brother, in a warning to India and the West, announced Sri Lanka’s willingness to seek protection by entering Chinese and Russian orbits. The various Rajapaksas acolytes are competing with each other in fear-mongering, as if the UN is amassing a mammoth-force to invade Sri Lanka, tomorrow.
04/23/2011
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South Asian Soundings
Hema Kiruppalini
Research Associate, ISAS
A few days ago, a Sri Lankan Tamil migrant in Canada was accused by the IRB (Immigration and Refugee Board) of war crimes, and if charged, he faces the risk of deportation. He is just one among hundreds of asylum seekers who boarded the MV Sun Sea ship in search of a better future in Canada that is home to the Sri Lankan asylum diaspora. The story of this Tamil migrant appears at a time when a United Nation’s report on war crimes leaked out to the media.
04/23/2011
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BBC, BBC Sinhala
A senior leader of Sri Lanka's main opposition says that the challenge by the United Nation's Committee report could only be defeated by concerted efforts of all political parties along with the release of former army commander Sarath Fonseka.
04/22/2011
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Hindustan Times
Wary of volatile protests against the damning expert panel report to the UN, the world agency has asked its employees to be vigilant in the coming weeks. It was also learnt that some staff members have been asked to work from home and UN stickers have been quietly removed from car windshields. These precautions were being taken as the world agency and the Sri Lanka government seemed headed for a diplomatic confrontation with the UN saying the expert panel’s report on human rights violations during the end of the Lankan civil war will be fully published.
04/22/2011
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Groundviews
The Island newspaper continues to publish leaks from the report produced by the Panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to look into post-war accountability in Sri Lanka. Groundviews has covered in detail the Executive Summary and Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the leaks.
The Island published today Part 5, which focusses on the conditions faced by IDPs in the aftermath of the violent denouement of the war in the Vanni.
04/22/2011
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Groundviews
The report on accountability produced by the panel appointed by the UN Secretary General hasn’t yet officially released it to the public domain. What little is known of its contents comes from leaks published in the mainstream media. Sinhala mainstream media have not translated and published in full the leaked version of the executive summary. Commentary in the mainstream media, including in the newspaper the leaks are published in, is vituperatively dismissive. Even senior members of government haven’t been shared copies of the report. Scanned copies of what appears to be the original executive summary have started to appear online on individual blogs. The UN Country office says it has not seen a copy of the report. Mainstream media reportage has focussed on vehement government denials. In sum, there is little or no information on the UN Panel’s report and its official contents with a lot of spin and misinformation.
04/21/2011
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Groundviews
The Island newspaper continues to publish leaks from the report produced by the Panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to look into post-war accountability in Sri Lanka. Groundviews has covered in detail the Executive Summary and Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the leaks.
The Island published today Part 4, which focusses on the significant discrepancies between the United Nations and the Government on estimating the number of civilians trapped in the Vanni during the final stages of the war, and how this numbers debate resulted in horrific ground conditions.
04/16/2011
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Agence France-Presse
A UN panel has called for an independent inquiry into "credible" allegations that Sri Lanka committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in its final 2009 offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels.