UNP MP and former foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera has lamented Sri Lanka's foreign policy, arguing that it should focus on western countries, rather than Africa.

Residents at Othiyamalai, faced increased scrutiny from the Sri Lankan intelligence officers and military today as they held a remembrance event to mark the Othiyamalai massacre of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan military in 1984, reports Tamilwin.

After Indira's, a bold decision

The Indian government's sudden decision to accept that what happened at the final conflict was a genocide for the first time has caused astonishment and bewilderment. 

The Central government minister P. Chidambaram announced this position of the Indian government about the final conflict, at the event which took place in Chennai on Saturday evening. This announcement - this position of India's central government - is a very, very important milestone in the Eelam Tamil struggle. 

Going one step further Chidambaram announced that the Indian government would not rest until those responsible for the genocide on the island are brought to justice, reported the Tamil version of the newspaper, 'The Hindu'.

There is no doubt that if this is the true position of the Indian government on the final conflict, then this is to be praised and welcomed.

If a lasting peace is desired on the island, then it is vital that the international community accept that what is taking place here is a genocide, and those responsible for the war crimes committed during the final conflict are identified and brought to justice. 

Only when the fact that a genocide is being committed against Tamils is accepted, can the international community provide a true, just and fair solution to them. Similarly, it is only when those involved in the war crimes and genocide are brought before the law that afflicted Tamils will find solace, and confidence in the majority community can be found.

City University Tamil Society continued the ‘Breaking the Silence’ genocide awareness campaign last week.

Holding the exhibition in the Main Building corridor, the Tamil society displayed posters that outlined the countless forms of genocidal abuses that the Tamil people face in Sri Lanka.

The exhibition attracted much attention, with several students taking time to read through the posters and ask committee members questions.

Students passing by signed petitions for an international independent investigation into war crimes committed in Sri Lanka, and recorded their reactions in hand-prints to make a reflective poster on the ongoing atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka. Joint by City University’s Amnesty International society, members of Tamil society walked students through the Breaking the Silence exhibition.

The Secretary General of the Commonwealth Kamalesh Sharma has welcomed Sri Lanka’s launch of a census to count how many lost their lives during the armed conflict.

In a statement on the Commonwealth’s website, Sharma said the announcement was a “welcome step” and that it would advance the “process of post-conflict reconciliation sought in the national Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation report”.

Obhrai lays a wreath at Elephant Pass (12/11/13). Photograph Colombo Gazette

The ongoing human rights abuses in Sri Lanka were “an elephant in the room” that the government of Sri Lanka cannot hide from said Canada's Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Human Rights, Deepak Obhrai, during a media roundtable on November 30th held together with Corneliu Chisu the MP for Scarborough East-Pickering, regarding his recent visit to Sri Lanka as Canada's representative to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. 

Stating that he had made the visit to Jaffna via an 8 hour drive, after the Sri Lankan government cancelled all flights to Jaffna, Mr. Obhrai drew on his experiences in Jaffna, where he met with newly elected Chief Minister Wigneswaran, Bishop Savundranayagam of Jaffna, and visited the offices of the Jaffna newspaper, the Uthayan, where he met with the paper’s editor, and said that in his meetings he was consistently told of the lack of reconciliation, increasing disregard of human rights, rule of law, and freedom of religion was emphasised by key players in Jaffna.

Responding to questions by the journalists gathered, Mr. Obhrai drew attention to the prevalence of political intimidation and the climate of fear in Jaffna, which he noted “seemed pretty strange considering a government (the TNA) has won an electoral mandate.”

Asked by Tamil Guardian to explain the seeming inconsistency in the Canadian government's approach to human rights, where despite Prime Minister Harper's boycott of CHOGM, Tamil refugees continue to be deported to Sri Lanka despite overwhelming documented evidence of returned deportees facing detention, abuse and torture, Mr. Obhrai said,

“Before somebody is deported out of the country, not only to Sri Lanka, but any other country, there is a very rigid process in place in Canada where they can make appeals and say, indicate to us, why there is a threat to their lives or anything. So this process gives them tremendous opportunity, to all claimant refugees to make a genuine claim."

"It is the question that is raised whether the claim is genuine or not, that is for the independent—and there is an independent board to make the decision, it’s not for the government. The government does not make the decision. Once the independent board has rejected a claim, then the government has to fulfill that mandate.”