The United Nations Human Rights Council clashed Tuesday over two competing resolutions on how to provide aid to thousands of people displaced by the Sri Lankan military campaign against the Tamil Tigers.
The first resolution, tabled by Switzerland and supported by European countries, proposed that international aid agencies be given direct access to those affected by the long-running war, including more than 300,000 people housed in government camps. It also calls for investigations into possible war crimes during the conflict against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). A counterresolution, tabled by Sri Lanka and backed by powerful allies including China, Russia, and India, calls for the UN to cooperate with the Sri Lankan government in providing humanitarian assistance.
During the session, Sri Lanka clashed with Western countries as it attempts to curtail investigations into allegations of war crimes, reports The Times of London.
Tuesday's special session on Sri Lanka was requested by 17 nations, including France, Germany, Britain, and Canada. A Human Rights Commission special session has been convened on only 10 previous occasions.
Observers at yesterday's preliminary meeting in Geneva, which was described as acrimonious, said that the 47-member Council was divided over the European resolution, with 18 countries for and 18 against. The other nine are undecided….
The two competing agendas clashed in the preliminary meeting when an Asian bloc led by India, Pakistan and Malaysia argued for today's special session to be abandoned altogether. India, China and Egypt walked out of the meeting after this was refused.
Sri Lanka went to the meeting backed by powerful new allies such as China, which provided much of the military hardware for the final offensive that defeated the Tamil Tigers last week after a 25-year war….
Several undecided countries, including Chile and Mexico, are pressing for a compromise resolution incorporating elements of both drafts.
International human rights groups are dissatisfied with the European resolution because it fails to call for an international war crimes inquiry and instead suggests that Sri Lanka launch internal investigations, reports Agence France-Presse.
Although the European-led text targeted violations during the conflict and backed investigations, the watchdog group UN Watch dismissed it as "a joke".
"Despite the call by UN rights officials for an international inquiry into possible war crimes, the proposal instead asks Sri Lanka to investigate itself -- it's a joke," said UN Watch's executive director Hillel Neuer….
Advocacy group Human Rights Watch said that the Council needed to examine the creation of an impartial commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of human rights violations committed by both parties as a matter of urgency.
But the Sri Lankan government denies such reports and insists it is in favor of a national reconciliation campaign. On the eve of the Human Rights Commission session, a Sri Lankan government official said international monitoring was unacceptable, reports The Nation, a Sri Lankan daily news paper.
The international community is welcome to provide Sri Lanka with assistance, but it should be according to the wishes of the people of this country, including the people of the North, Senior Presidential Advisor and MP Basil Rakapaksa said in a message to the international community.
"If they want to be our friends, then they should be genuine friends. We do not want 'monitors,' we need partners. Be our partners in this task to help our people," Rajapaksa said.
An opinion piece in an Indian newspaper, the Deccan Herald, argues that the Human Rights Commission's disagreement on how to tackle Sri Lanka is evidence of a global power play underway in the Indian Ocean.
In essence, Sri Lanka is the theatre where Russia and China are frontally challenging the US's incremental global strategy to establish NATO presence in the Indian Ocean region. The US has succeeded in bringing the NATO up to the Persian Gulf region. The NATO is swiftly expanding its relationship with Pakistan. But it is Sri Lanka that will be the jewel in the NATO's Indian Ocean crown. Russia and China (and Iran) are determined to frustrate the US geo-strategy. The hard reality, therefore, is that geopolitics is sidetracking Sri Lanka's Tamil problem.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government last Tuesday rejected the Tamil Tigers' offer to participate in the country's democratic process after being defeated last week, reports the BBC.
In an interview with the BBC, [Sri Lankan defense secretary] Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said the LTTE rebels could not be trusted to give up "terrorism"....
He said: "I do not believe the LTTE can enter a democratic process after years of their violent activities." He added that there were "enough democratic Tamil political parties in the country" to represent the Tamil minority....
Mr Rajapaksa also said the work of government forces was not yet over as they had to recover weapons hidden by the LTTE in the northern and eastern regions.
Read More....
Showing posts with label BBC LTTE Sri Lanka Army Shelling Terrorist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBC LTTE Sri Lanka Army Shelling Terrorist. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Answer to BBC [Hospital 'hit by Sri Lankan army']
The LTTE is conducting false propaganda to cover their defeat and to find a breathing time to regain their lost power. In this regards a well organized network is assisting them to control the international Medias. Recently an e-mail was sent by a doctor who is working for LTTE with some images attached. It would very well have been ignored, but made the headline of BBC South Asia.
I think we need to have some kind of an online source to counter attack these propagandas in a timely manner. Let this be a such initiative....
BBC:The Sri Lankan army has killed 91 people at a makeshift hospital inside a civilian safe zone in the last two days, two doctors have told the BBC.
Answer: As a respectable institute we expect BBC to be fairer when producing news. This is such a sensitive topic. To say that SLA hits hospitals, they need to at least give the name of this doctor. That doctor, T Varatharaja is an LTTE stooge. Why would these news organizations take his words as gospel truth?
Going along this, can I also make headlines by sending an email with bunch of photos to prove something that never happened?
BBC:The doctors said bombardments from the army had killed 64 people on Saturday, including patients, their relatives and bystanders in Mullivaikal.
Comment: Given that he sent photos, why did he failed to produce the photos of the 64 people died in the incident as well. I mean even if one produces them, will you believe it, not knowing the date of which those photos were taken.
BBC:About 87 people were injured. Another 27 people reportedly died on Friday.
The army has denied bombing the hospital, saying that Tamil Tiger rebels carried out suicide attacks.
Comment: Who denied this, let us see the sources to trace this news back, then again who said that LTTE terrorists are carrying out suicide attacks to damage hospitals in their areas? Jesus… Am I getting this right???
BBC:A doctor in Mullivaikal has sent images he says show shelling at the hospital
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan army said that although soldiers had heard explosions in the area, they had not fired any shells.
Answer: First there is only one spokesman for army. Second we never heard him say this. However he did say that LTTE was firing shell from inside out. The LTTE is firing shell to the out skirt of safe zone to first, kill/ threaten civilian who are about to leave, second to put the bad name on Sri Lankan Army.
BBC:The army had not used heavy weapons for some days, he said, since the government announced on Monday that it was halting its use of heavy weapons in the conflict zone.
The army spokesman said Tamil Tiger rebels had launched eight suicide attacks in the space of two days.
A doctor working within the zone has e-mailed the BBC a number of photographs which, he says, show the aftermath of recent shelling at the hospital in Mullivaikal.
Answer: Simply there is no hospital in Mullivaikal. Didn’t responding to this news, Sri Lankan government say this?
One image appears to show a father and son killed as they slept.
Answer: In another image it shows shelling at the hospital, but in the same image we see an unharmed tire and a trolley alongside, which tell us that a magical shelling has been taken place to blast off the hospital while not shaking the tire.
BBC:The hospital lies within a government-designated safe zone set up to protect civilians.
In contrast, the defense ministry has put on its website video clips which, it says, show the rebels moving an artillery piece through the zone they control, our correspondent says.
Journalists are not allowed near the conflict zone, so the conflicting accounts cannot be independently verified.
Answer: Yes you cannot verify the accountability, fair enough. But then why the hell you give publicity to the photos sent by so called doctor (I call him an LTTE carder)? Isn’t it what makes the headline of this article??
BBC:Trapped civilians
The images sent by a doctor appear to show bodies and damage to structures
The reports centre on a tiny strip of land on the north-east coast, where Tamil Tiger rebels are still holding out against government forces.
Comment: They are not rebels they are terrorists, the whole world including LTTE diplomats claim this, but not BBC.
BBC:The Sri Lankan military has restricted the rebels to a 12 sq km (5 sq miles) area and believes it is close to defeating them.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been trapped in the area, and the EU and the UN have urged Sri Lanka to observe a pause in its campaign to let them out.
Answer: There is a difference between “been trapped” and “forcibly kept”, what do you think is happening there?
I think we need to have some kind of an online source to counter attack these propagandas in a timely manner. Let this be a such initiative....
BBC:The Sri Lankan army has killed 91 people at a makeshift hospital inside a civilian safe zone in the last two days, two doctors have told the BBC.
Answer: As a respectable institute we expect BBC to be fairer when producing news. This is such a sensitive topic. To say that SLA hits hospitals, they need to at least give the name of this doctor. That doctor, T Varatharaja is an LTTE stooge. Why would these news organizations take his words as gospel truth?
Going along this, can I also make headlines by sending an email with bunch of photos to prove something that never happened?
BBC:The doctors said bombardments from the army had killed 64 people on Saturday, including patients, their relatives and bystanders in Mullivaikal.
Comment: Given that he sent photos, why did he failed to produce the photos of the 64 people died in the incident as well. I mean even if one produces them, will you believe it, not knowing the date of which those photos were taken.
BBC:About 87 people were injured. Another 27 people reportedly died on Friday.
The army has denied bombing the hospital, saying that Tamil Tiger rebels carried out suicide attacks.
Comment: Who denied this, let us see the sources to trace this news back, then again who said that LTTE terrorists are carrying out suicide attacks to damage hospitals in their areas? Jesus… Am I getting this right???
BBC:A doctor in Mullivaikal has sent images he says show shelling at the hospital
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan army said that although soldiers had heard explosions in the area, they had not fired any shells.
Answer: First there is only one spokesman for army. Second we never heard him say this. However he did say that LTTE was firing shell from inside out. The LTTE is firing shell to the out skirt of safe zone to first, kill/ threaten civilian who are about to leave, second to put the bad name on Sri Lankan Army.
BBC:The army had not used heavy weapons for some days, he said, since the government announced on Monday that it was halting its use of heavy weapons in the conflict zone.
The army spokesman said Tamil Tiger rebels had launched eight suicide attacks in the space of two days.
A doctor working within the zone has e-mailed the BBC a number of photographs which, he says, show the aftermath of recent shelling at the hospital in Mullivaikal.
Answer: Simply there is no hospital in Mullivaikal. Didn’t responding to this news, Sri Lankan government say this?
One image appears to show a father and son killed as they slept.
Answer: In another image it shows shelling at the hospital, but in the same image we see an unharmed tire and a trolley alongside, which tell us that a magical shelling has been taken place to blast off the hospital while not shaking the tire.
BBC:The hospital lies within a government-designated safe zone set up to protect civilians.
In contrast, the defense ministry has put on its website video clips which, it says, show the rebels moving an artillery piece through the zone they control, our correspondent says.
Journalists are not allowed near the conflict zone, so the conflicting accounts cannot be independently verified.
Answer: Yes you cannot verify the accountability, fair enough. But then why the hell you give publicity to the photos sent by so called doctor (I call him an LTTE carder)? Isn’t it what makes the headline of this article??
BBC:Trapped civilians
The images sent by a doctor appear to show bodies and damage to structures
The reports centre on a tiny strip of land on the north-east coast, where Tamil Tiger rebels are still holding out against government forces.
Comment: They are not rebels they are terrorists, the whole world including LTTE diplomats claim this, but not BBC.
BBC:The Sri Lankan military has restricted the rebels to a 12 sq km (5 sq miles) area and believes it is close to defeating them.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been trapped in the area, and the EU and the UN have urged Sri Lanka to observe a pause in its campaign to let them out.
Answer: There is a difference between “been trapped” and “forcibly kept”, what do you think is happening there?
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