Amnesty International indicated that the self-critical United Nations report, released yesterday, further authenticates calls for an independent international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Speaking in an interview on TamilNet's Palaka'ni channel, TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam asserted that Eelam Tamils were a nation and asserted their right to sovereignty, and outlined the Tamil National People Front's position as:

"The existence of the Tamil nation must be secured. The recognition of Tamil nationhood and its distinct sovereignty is non-negotiable, that is our party's position. As to how that status is going to exist, whether it is going to exist within a larger state, or within a larger country, so as in the country being a multi-national state, or whether the Tamil nation is going to exist as a nation state, is something the eventual peace process will decide. But our view, what is fundamental, is the recognition and the safe-guard of the Tamil nation."

See full video here.

“That’s absolute nonsense.... To say that Sri Lanka was intimidating the United Nations, a very small country, and the United Nations being what it is, I think that’s absolute rubbish.”

"I think that you are talking nonsense again. Sri Lanka was... There were hundreds of UN staff in Sri Lanka at the time. They were given visas to come into the country I don’t think any UN staff member who applied for a visa at the time was refused admission."

"Q: Do you know that for a fact?"

"As I said, I do not THINK that they were refused admission."

"Q: Do you believe the decisions taken at the time of the Sri Lankan conflict by the Sri Lankan Government were the right ones? Today, do you believe that is the case?"

"Absolutely... The decisions made at the time were the best decisions for all the people in the country."

The Tamil National Alliance said it demands an international investigation into the crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government, after the UN accepted it failed to protect Tamils.

Spokesperson MA Sumanthiran told AFP on Thursday that the TNA wanted immediate action.

"Now that the UN has come with this report we want action."

Tamils in South Africa have condemned the appointment of Sri Lanka's Major General's Shavendra Silva's appointment as the Deputy Ambassador to South Africa.

What's Sri Lanka’s response to the forthcoming UN internal review, which is to state that under intense pressure from Sri Lankan authorities, the UN concealed its knowledge that “a large majority” of civilian deaths in the closing months of war in 2009 were caused by government shelling?

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has slammed the state of Australian offshore asylum camps.

Refugees arriving in Australia are now processed in camps in Nauru, where several detainees have conducted hunger strikes in protest at the conditions.

The UN's Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, condemned the increasing reports of intimidation and attacks on judges and judicial officers in Sri Lanka.

In a news release, Knaul said:

“I urge the Sri Lanka Government to take immediate and adequate measures to ensure the physical and mental integrity of members of the judiciary and to allow them to perform their professional duties without any restrictions, improper influences, pressures, threats or interferences, in line with the country’s international human rights obligations,”

“The irremovability of judges is one of the main pillars guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary and only in exceptional circumstances may this principle be transgressed,”

Commenting on the Internal Review Panel on the UN's conduct in Sri Lanka in 2009, Human Rights Watch's UN director, Philippe Bolopion, said on Wednesday:

J. Stafford is a member of TAG's advocacy team (Tamils Against Genocide)

Nov 1-14. The UPR on: the Significance of Context, of Terror and lest we forget, the Tamil Question

On Thursday 1 November, Sri Lanka stood to account before the Human Rights Council. Procedures, protocols reassuringly followed, the Sri Lankan delegation exuding calm professionalism, consummate politicians with seemingly measured, reasonable responses. They interjected occasionally, as is fitting, seen to be engaging with the recommendations. The lines they were following carefully articulated in their national report. And then, of course, on the 5th November, 100 of the recommendations were rejected - a record.

But all this was anticipated. The chair at the side event on the 31 October, Nimalka Fernando - President of International Movement Against all Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) made the point that the contents of the National Report were directly contrary to the knowledge and experiences of the side event panel.  The Sri Lankan state approach was predictable. As Alan Keenan from ICG observed, that the Government chose to impeach the chief justice on the very day of the UPR speaks volumes to the state’s arrogance and level of contempt for international institutions. 

(See video of UPR here) 

But it is a contempt masterly deployed, and, most disappointingly, one that garners support from diverse quarters. Sri Lanka attends the UPR and in so doing, in submitting to the procedures, the reports, the recommendations, the whole show, is able to firmly reinforce its message and self-representation. As a state it enjoys legitimacy at the UN. It is one among other states, part of a club.

Two men, both aged 33, were held in custody on Monday night in connection with the murder of French TCC leader Nadarajah Mathinthiran.

The two suspects, both described as of ‘Sri Lankan’ nationality, were arrested on Sunday morning in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges and La Chapelle.

A leaked draft of an UN internal report on Sri Lanka concludes that "events in Sri Lanka mark a grave failure of the UN", reports the BBC.

The report, headed by former senior UN official Charles Petrie, points to a “systemic failure” and questions decisions such as the withdrawal of UN staff from the war zone in September 2008, after warning from the Sri Lankan government that it could no longer guarantee their safety.

One member of the UN team that left, Benjamin Dix, claimed to have disagreed with the pull-out, saying:

"I believe we should have gone further north, not evacuate south, and basically abandon the civilian population with no protection or witness. As a humanitarian worker, questions were running through my mind 'what is this all about? Isn't this what we signed up to do?'"

The report says that the situation on the ground was “catastrophic” and points out that:

"many senior UN staff did not perceive the prevention of killing of civilians as their responsibility - and agency and department heads at UNHQ were not instructing them otherwise," going on to describe "a sustained and institutionalised reluctance" among UN personnel in Sri Lanka "to stand up for the rights of people they were mandated to assist".

The Tamil National Alliance's MP V. Saravanapavan, questioned the silence of India over increasing calls to abolish the 13th Amendment, reports the Daily Mirror and the Island.

Speaking at the second reading of the budget, MP Saravanapavan is to have said,