“International Community is failing to take action against GoSL which perpetrates war crimes”

(September 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) International community is failing to take action against a government which perpetrates war crimes, and crimes against humanity - against a people who have been struggling for their Right to Self-determination for many decades. Thus charged S. V. Kirubahar, General Secretary of the Tamil Centre for Human, in a memorandum submitted to the 9th session of the Human Rights Council which took place in Geneva, from 8 to 26 September 2008.

“Genocide, cultural genocide, multiple displacements are occurring while a systematic economic embargo to the North East is implemented on the starving people”, he accused.

He further stated in the report as follows:

On a daily basis, over a hundred Tamils are being arrested and detained. The security forces and paramilitaries are given a free hand to abduct, arrest, rape and carry out arbitrary killings. Aerial bombing and artillery attacks on the civilian population are causing severe problems in the North.

The situation of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the North East remains critical. Press freedom and freedom of expression are in peril in Sri Lanka. Journalists are arrested, tortured, abducted, disappeared and killed over-night.

International human rights law and international humanitarian law are being massively violated by Sri Lanka.

Impunity is a very serious problem. Many notorious human rights violators in the Security forces especially in the Army, Police and the Paramilitary have received the best promotions and appointments as Ministers and to high profile jobs in the government. The government of Sri Lanka encourages and allows the perpetrators to move freely in society - and the violations continue.

In the Northeast the human rights situation has been deteriorating for many long years. Genocide, cultural genocide, multiple displacements are occurring while a systematic economic embargo to the North East is implemented on the starving people.

First hand witnesses to these Crimes against humanity - hospitals full of child and adult casualties, cemeteries full of murdered bodies, camps full of displaced people, people starving due to the economic embargo and buildings destroyed in all parts of North East. The security forces have created “High Security Zones” in the densely populated residential areas of the Northeast and are occupying civilian homes and public buildings.

Misinformation is disseminated locally and internationally by the Sri Lankan government, to distort the real picture of what is happening in Sri Lanka. - Sri Lanka Guardian