Monsoon Journal

Sri Lanka’s first post-war parliament must get rid of draconian emergency laws that have allowed for decades of widespread human rights abuses, Amnesty International said in a press release on April 20th. Ahead of the first sitting of Sri Lanka’s first post-war parliament on 22 April, Amnesty International is calling on Sri Lanka to lift the State of Emergency that has been in force almost continuously since 1971, and to abolish the Prevention of Terrorism Act and other associated emergency security laws and regulations, replacing them with human rights-friendly laws. The emergency laws grant state authorities sweeping powers of detention and permit the use of secret prisons, a practice that encourages human rights abuses like enforced disappearances, torture and death in custody, which could constitute crimes under international law.

In the last thirty years, thousands of Sri Lankans have spent years in detention without trial. Over the past year, the government has increasingly used these laws to crack down on journalists, political opponents, and trade unionists. “Sri Lanka must repeal these laws and end impunity for human rights violations if it wants to move forward,” said Madhu Malhotra, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Deputy Director. “The Prevention of Terrorism Act, the Public Security Ordinance and other emergency provisions in Sri Lanka enable security forces to systematically violate human rights.” Since the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended almost a year ago, Sri Lankan legislators have continued to extend the State of Emergency on a monthly basis. Successive governments have ignored calls for repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

“The war is over. Perpetuation of the emergency is now just being used as a weapon against political opposition, and as a quick fix for poor law enforcement practices and a dysfunctional justice system,” said Madhu Malhotra. Amnesty International is calling on the new parliament to press for the release of people detained under Sri Lanka’s emergency laws unless they are charged with an internationally recognized criminal offence, and are tried in regular civilian courts to international standards for fair trial.

[IRIN News] Healthcare services in Sri Lanka ’s conflict-affected east should not be forgotten as humanitarian agencies focus their efforts on rebuilding the country ’s north, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. Since the end of the civil war in May 2009, agencies have concentrated on assisting hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Vanni, an area comprising a number of northern districts. “With the international community focused on the rehabilitation of the Vanni area in the north, support needed for the rehabilitation work in the east will remain difficult,” Edwin Salvador, WHO’s technical officer for emergency humanitarian action, told IRIN. “As programmes to rebuild public infrastructure, food security and livelihoods have been prioritized ahead of health in the east, delivery of essential services to the people will remain a big challenge,” he added. Sri Lanka’s war was based on demands by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who fought for an independent Tamil homeland in the country’s north and east.

The Eastern Province was retaken by government troops from the LTTE in July 2007, with more than 200,000 displaced people returning after the conflict, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Recovery and development measures were announced for the area, which suffered heavy damage during the conflict. But Salvador said shifting funding priorities and a lack of human resources were undermining efforts to provide health care for scattered communities of resettled people. “International NGO partners, including health partners that had played an important part during the emergency phase during the eastern conflict, have been forced to abandon the east and concentrate on the north due to funding constraints or due to lack of development work experience,” said Salvador. According to WHO, of the numerous health-related international NGOs initially operating in the east, only the Comité d’Aide Médicale (CAM) remains.

It provides mobile medical clinics for resettled communities and support for government mental health programmes. Provincial and central health authorities are trying to repair damaged health facilities but only have limited funds to do so, WHO says. Health facilities, especially those outside major towns, suffered collateral damage during decades of fighting in the east. “Rehabilitation of damaged health facilities in the east has taken place at a slow pace. This has resulted in [the] resettlement population needing to travel long distances in order to access health services,” said Salvador. “Mobile clinics and outreach services are in place to provide primary health care services but due to the many [small resettlement areas], it has been difficult to reach all of them through mobile clinics,” he said. Finding enough health workers to service communities is also a challenge. “There are also many health posts that remained vacant in the health systems. As a result, doctors and nurses are required to rotate amongst the different health facilities,” he said.

Sumangala Kailasapathy, currently a resident in the city of Ann Arbor, has announced in a press release that she officially filed her nominating petitions recently to appear on the Aug. 3 primary ballot for City Councilperson in Ward 1. She will challenge incumbent Democrat Sandi Smith, media in the City of Ann Arbor reported. The City of “Ann Arbor,” said to be bearing the names of spouses of the city ’s founders and its stands of trees gained a reputation in the 1960’s as a hub of the Civil Rights Movement and a forerunner against the Vietnam War.

City of Ann Arbor, home of the prestigious University of Michigan is still a bastion of liberal democratic activism and traditions. Ms. Sumangala Kailasapathy, a former student of University of Jaffna, writes as follows on her campaign website soliciting the support of the voters in the ward: I am Sumangala (“Sumi”) Kailasapathy and have been an Ann Arbor resident for 13 years. I am originally from Sri Lanka, but have been living in this country for the past 19 years. I received my undergraduate degree (magna cum laude) from Wellesley College in economics and political science. I also have an MA and an MPhil in political science from the New School for Social Research. I taught courses in Gender Studies, International Political Economy and Globalization at Eastern Michigan University for 10 years. Currently I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) at a downtown Ann Arbor firm.

I moved from Sri Lanka to the USA in 1991. While an undergraduate at Wellesley College, I worked with the local Chapter of Amnesty International to create awareness about the illegal incarceration of my fellow students back home. We also demanded AI change its mandate to agitate for the release of persons incarcerated by non-government actors. I lived in Jaffna, Sri Lanka during 1980s when a civil war was raging there. After finishing high school, I went to the University of Jaffna to pursue my undergraduate degree in business. I was the treasurer of the University Students’ Union and was an active student leader defending not only the democratic, civil and human rights of the student community, but also that of the larger society under the dual threat of the military as well as the rebel group Tamil Tigers.

The Students Union played a courageous role in defending the space of the civilians in an authoritarian environment. Many of my brave colleagues and teachers lost their lives in the process of defending human rights and dignity. Their courage and selflessness continues to inspire me to stand up for issues of greater good. While I was an undergraduate in Sri Lanka, I also co-founded a women’s orgainzation called the Poorani Womens’ Oraganization. I was the treasurer of this organization after it was formed. In the initial stages, Poorani ran a safe house for the women who were victims of military rape.

Then it metamorphed into promoting and undertaking micro financing in order to empower war-widows and destitute women who wanted to set up their own small businesses and projects that would provide them and their families with a livelihood. Until Poorani inserted itself into the development arena, most NGOs were satisfied with donating sewing machines to war-widows and destitute women. Needless to say, this was informed by their limited imagination of gender stereotypes of womanhood. But a village that faced a massacre and ended up with 20 widows could not sustain 20 seamstresses.

In the end most widows sold their sewing machines in the second-hand or used equipment market and ended up where they began: dependent and poor. We at Poorani believed womens’ capacity and interests were limitless. We asked the women themselves as to what they wanted, and their answers were varied: one wanted seed money to set up a bicycle repair shop that had been run by her father and brothers before they were killed, one wanted to continue farming the fields that she and her husband had been doing and so on. Not one of them asked for a sewing machine! How does all this link-up with the Ann Arbor City Council? It has many connections.

First and foremost we need to listen to the constituents and find out what their priorities are and what they want. When everyone wants better roads and bridges why do we spend millions on a giant underground parking structure? When neighborhood committees want to preserve their single home character why do we force all these PUDs on them? Jaffna, the civil war, and all my experiences seem a life time away from Ann Arbor in certain instances. But in certain other ways it seems like deja vu all over again. Accountability, transparency and a commitment to self determination are some of the core values that I bring to my political practice from my past experiences from back home.

I give you my pledge that I will up hold these values as a City Councilperson if I am elected to office in November. I have two sons, Ashwin and Keshav who attend Clague middle school and Logan elementary school. My husband Giri Jogaratnam is a professor at Eastern Michigan University and has taught there for the past 17 years. Ann Arbor has provided us with a stimulating and nurturing environment for us to thrive. Running for City Council is a small way of saying thank you to all of you. I hope you decide to vote for me in the August 3rd primaries so that I can work for you.

[IRIN News] (Kilinochchi) Uthayakumari, 39, lost her husband and a son in fighting between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and government forces in 2009, and is still searching for her daughter who went missing earlier the same year. The girl was aged 16 when she was forcibly recruited by the Tigers in 2007. Uthayakumari and her family made an ill-fated decision to stay in LTTE-controlled areas to remain in contact with her. “People in the country are celebrating the New Year this week. For me, every hour that goes by is an hour of suffering and weeping for the death of my loved ones, and trying to locate my lost daughter. “They [Tamil Tigers] were on a child-abducting spree - they wanted to expand their ranks. My daughter never wanted to join the LTTE.

They abducted her in December 2007 from Kilinochchi town and kept her in their camps on the war front. She was a beautiful child who never liked violence, but the LTTE took her away. “We were helpless. In those days, the LTTE controlled all these areas [in Kilinochchi], so we couldn’t do anything about the abductions. “We didn’t want to leave the war zone because our daughter was held by the LTTE. I didn’t feel it was right for our family to run away, leaving her. As the war and LTTE moved from Kilinochchi to Mullaitivu areas, we also moved with the LTTE. “Later on, in April 2009, we decided we had to leave as the war became unbearable. A lot of shelling was going on. “While we were fleeing Mullaitivu to government-controlled areas, a shell fell between my husband and my son.

They both died on the spot; I saw my husband\’s body being torn into pieces. I was very near to them. My spirit died that day, and I’m now living like a dead person. “Soon after the last New Year, I lost the people I loved the most. How can I celebrate another New Year? Nothing feels new or fresh to me. “I have contacted the authorities to find my daughter. I cannot locate her at all. Please help me to find my daughter. Many LTTEabducted children were rehabilitated and released by the government, but my child was not on any of those lists. “For me, there will no New Year until I find my daughter. But I just don’t know where to look for her.”

Full Text of GTF Press Release London — The Global Tamil Forum views the parliamentary election in Sri Lanka, conducted on April 8, as an election that was imposed on the Tamil-speaking people of the island. The Tamils living in a highly militarized, oppressive condition continue to undergo many forms of immense suffering, depravation of the basic necessities of life, denial of freedom, fear and intimidation. There are still about 100,000 Tamils housed in military-run internment camps and their rights have been denied.

Thousands of Tamils have been denied their right to vote in this election. The very low turn-out at the polls by the Tamils in Northeast Sri Lanka, clearly due to fear, mistrust and despise for these elections, have sent a clear message to the international community that they have hardly any faith in this Sri Lankan form of ethnicmajoritarian democracy and its mode of elections. The government of Sri Lanka, in its attempt to justify itself as a democratic government and to deceive the international community, imposed the election on Tamil people in an environment of oppression and occupation.

The Tamil people that participated in the election, however, have elected the political party, the Tamil National Alliance, that has been championing for their legitimate political aspirations. While congratulating the elected members of the TNA, the President of GTF, Rev. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel said  “the Tamil people have sent two messages very eloquently: one of them is that they do not believe in the Sri Lankan political system that is imposed on them, and the other is by electing a party that has been voicing for their freedom, they are conveying their desire for liberation. ” He added  “GTF will be working closely with TNA in addressing the day-to-day needs of the Tamil people as well as their political aspirations. ” GTF calls upon the Tamil people to sink any differences caused by the election, and unite under the common goal of freedom. It calls upon the Tamil Diasporas and their organisations to unite and engage themselves with the international institutions and governments and work towards achieving a political resolution where all the peoples of the island can live peacefully side by side with freedom and dignity.

By Phil Mercer [VOA News] Sydney: Representatives of the Australian Tamil community have held talks with senior Australian officials to discuss the recent freezing of asylum requests from Sri Lanka. Canberra has said it will not process applications for three months while it reviews the security situation in Sri Lanka, a move that has angered activists.

Representatives from several Tamil community groups were invited to Canberra for talks with officials from Australia’s immigration and foreign affairs departments. A range of issues was discussed, including Australian aid to Sri Lanka. They also considered how the Tamil diaspora can support reconciliation and lasting peace in their troubled homeland, where decades of civil war have only recently come to an end. But the main point of discussion was Canberra’s decision to freeze for three months the processing of asylum applications from Sri Lanka. Australia says the move is the result of improved security in Sri Lanka.

But Tamil activist Sara Nathan, who attended the meeting in Canberra, says community representatives made it clear they opposed Australia’s decision. “Almost everyone commented that they were not happy with the visa suspensions because there is lots of inconsistencies,” said Nathan. “For instance, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has not changed its guidelines on Sri Lanka. It is still risky in Sri Lanka. There are 88,000 Tamils still held in internment camps.” Australia has also suspended the processing of asylum claims from Afghanistan for six months, again insisting that the situation there was becoming less hazardous.

Australia reopened mainland immigration detention facilities following a surge in boats ferrying asylum seekers, including many Sri Lankans and Afghans. A purpose-built camp on Christmas Island, a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, is over-capacity. Conservative opponents of Australia’s left-of-center government say what it calls “soft” immigration policies have failed to deter boat people.

Government ministers have strongly rejected that point of view. The vast majority of people seeking asylum in Australia arrive by air, but community groups worry that the debate about illegal immigration will become more uncompromising as an election due later this year draws closer. About 13,000 refugees are allowed to resettle in Australia each year as part of official international humanitarian schemes.

Promptly Process All Refugee Claims (New York, April 15, 2010) – The Australian government should reverse its decision to suspend the processing of new asylum applications from Sri Lankan and Afghan nationals, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Immigration Minister Chris Evans today. Human Rights Watch said that the new policy, announced on April 8, 2010, fails to recognize the serious threats to security for certain groups in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka and violates Australia’s obligations under international law not to discriminate in the treatment of refugees.

“The Australian government shouldn’t cherry-pick among nationalities when deciding whose refugee claims get heard,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Australia should be setting a positive example for refugee protection in the region, not undermining international standards.”

The Australian government said it would suspend new asylum applications from Afghans for a period of six months and from Sri Lankans for a period of three months, in an apparent effort to deter unauthorized arrivals by boat. Human Rights Watch said that the blanket suspension of all applications from nationals of specific countries is discriminatory under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, to which Australia is a party.

Even if human rights conditions have improved in a country of origin, Australia is still obligated to provide individuals with an opportunity to claim asylum and to examine their refugee claims. In the cases of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, however, Human Rights Watch’s research shows that human rights conditions are far from stable or adequate, and that individuals and certain groups continue to face significant threats and to lack effective protection.

For instance, women and girls, ethnic and religious minorities, media workers, civil society activists, opposition party members and supporters, and alleged militants may be at risk of persecution in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. In the letter, Human Rights Watch said the April 8 announcement about suspending asylum procedures alongside an announcement of enhanced measures to stop the crime of “people smuggling” implied criminality on the part of asylum seekers.

“Individuals under threat in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan sometimes have no choice but to turn to smugglers to escape persecution,” Pearson said. “While smuggling is a crime, the Australian government seems to confuse smuggling with asylum, tarring the victims with the stigma of crimes committed against them.” Human Rights Watch noted that in 2008 the then-new Labor government initially made good on its election promises to protect the rights of refugees. But over the past two years, the government has changed course.

Today, asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat remain subjected to mandatory detention, Christmas Island’s detention centers are again filled with asylum seekers, and now newly arriving Afghan and Sri Lankan boat people, including children, will be made to endure the hardship of additional months of detention, regardless of the merits of their refugee claims. “In the heat of an election year, the Rudd administration is choosing politically expedient refugee bashing over the principles of refugee protection,” Pearson said. “It is a sorry reflection on Australian public opinion that the government thinks it must discriminate against Afghan and Sri Lankan refugees in the hope of winning votes.”

Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi, has said that conditions in Sri Lanka cannot improve unless the Tamils are given a respectful place in society as equal citizens. Rajinder Sachar former Chief Justice made the remarks during a conference on Sri Lanka’s war crimes held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) held on 15th of April.

“Unfortunately, that is not happening” he said, according a media report on the conference. The report also says that he pointed out that the Tamils may be forced to take other courses of action if in the immediate future the Lankan government did not give them an equal and respectful place. VR Krishna Iyer, former Judge of the Indian Supreme Court, seconded Sachar’s point by adding that the concept of human rights was absent for the Tamils suffering in Sri Lanka.

U Anand Kumar of India’s Express Buzz News service reported on the conference as follows: Participating in a convention on ‘The unspoken Genocide: War crimes in Sri Lanka,’ Justice Sachar said that though the war was over, the situation was yet to change and the Tamils were yet to get their due respect as fellow citizens. Justice Sachar, who was a member of the People’s Tribunal, which submitted its report on genocide of Lankan Tamils, said that the island Tamils should decide what they should do now.

Maintaining that there were no human rights as far as Sri Lankan Tamils were concerned, Justice V R Krishna Iyer suggested that human rights should be restored in the island nation. Since Justice Iyer could not attend the convention due to health reasons he had sent a video message. He also advocated for a federal system of the government in Sri Lanka so that Tamilians would get their due share in all aspects. Kolathur Mani, president of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, in his address described the Sri Lankan refugee camps in Tamil Nadu as nothing but illegal prisons.

The little known sides of Prime Min- ister Manmohan Singh, Indira Gandhi and eight other famous alumnus of Ox- ford University from Asia was brought to light in a unique exhibition at their alma mater from 24 April – 29 April. The exhibition focused on 10 Oxford graduates from south Asia, including Manmohan Singh, who has a D.Phil from the ancient university. The exhibition, titled Oxasians, shows the lives of ten individuals who came to Oxford to study between 1889 and 2009.

The unusual and unknown sides of the 10 individuals were brought to life through a combination of dramatisations by actors with life-size hologram style projections and exclusive film inter- views alongside archival material. Besides Singh and Gandhi, the unknown sides of Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to study law at Oxford and the first female Indian barrister, father-son cricketr duo Iftikar Ali Khan Pataudi and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto were brought to life.

Oxford’s south Asian community has long been an important part of the uni- versity’s diverse student body, and the ten individuals featured in the exhibit span 120 years of this history. Indian students are today the sixth- largest national population at Oxford. The university currently has around 450 South Asian students, along with more than 1,100 alumni and six alumni branches in India alone. The Oxasians exhibit also looked to the future by featuring British Indian Rajeeb Dey, a 2009 gradu- ate and former president of Oxford Entrepreneurs. In 2005 Dey founded Enternships.com, a venture provid- ing ‘entrepreneurial internships’ to students. Oxford’s South Asian history traces back around 400 years: The first recorded Englishman to arrive in India was from Oxford (Father Thomas Stephens from New Col- lege, in 1579). His letters lay the foundation of Anglo-Indian literature. The Univer- sity’s relationship with South Asia remains stronger than ever in the 21st century. In 2008, the University of Oxford launched the one-year MSc in Con- temporary India, the first of its kind in the world. It also offers master’s degrees in Contemporary South Asian Studies , Tibetan and Himalayan Studies, and Classical Indian Religions, among others.

Cornelia Sorabji courtesy of Oxford University There is also a risk that 19,000 displaced chil- dren may be affected by a lack of money to run schools at camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) Of the 1.3 million people still displaced by conflict in NWFP and tribal areas, 60 percent are estimated by UNICEF to be children The exhibition focused on 10 Oxford graduates from south Asia, including Manmohan Singh, who has a D.Phil from the ancient university.