The government has gradually been resettling around 300,000 ethnic minority Tamil people, most displaced in the final phase of the army offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended with the Tiger’s defeat in May after a 25-year war.

Various foreign aid and human rights groups, as well as U.N. officials, have criticized conditions in the camps and have urged the government, which needs foreign help and investment to boost Sri Lanka’s post-war economy, to resettle the Tamils quickly.

According to government data, it had resettled 127,352 people in their areas of origin as of Wednesday. Over 140,000 are yet to be resettled.

At one point over 280,000 displaced people were being kept under guard in northern Vavuniya, 260 km (161 miles) away from Colombo, inside cramped military-run camps.

Many have now been resettled in their original home areas, after the government determined there was not a threat of land mines. But those Reuters spoke to say the conditions leave much to be desired.

“We don’t have drinking water or toilet facilities,” said Muttaiah Sivayoganathan, a 53-year-old father of three in the colony of Parannattakal, 10 km north from Vavuniya town.

“Backside forest has been used as our toilet.” he said, referring to woods behind his house.

“I don’t have any money to resume farming. But still we were asked by the government to build a house on our own land temporarily before proper resettlement.”

His wife and three children had gone to have a bath in one of his relative’s house in Vavuniya town, where they also cook their food due to lack of clean water around his newly built house.

Walls of the 9 square-meter, one-room house are made of coconut fronds and the roof of galvanized tin sheets. The dirt floor was wet due to pouring monsoonal rain outside.

Along with some dry rations, the government gave him 16 galvanized tin sheets, 5,000 rupees ($43.70) in cash, and some farming equipment to rebuild his house and resume his livelihood.

POISONOUS SNAKES

Many others in the resettlement area complained about conditions as well. Some had been bitten by poisonous snakes when they were using forests for lavatory purposes.

“The government should punish those who were involved in terrorism, not all ethnic Tamils,” a dejected old man in the colony told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Two weeks ago, his wife was bitten by a snake, but luckily survived after a four-day treatment in a nearby hospital.

“They promised us (the government would) provide everything. But so far nothing has happened in the last two months since we resettled here.”

Some said they stay in the area only in the daylight hours, going to relatives’ house at night due to the presence of snakes and lack of facilities.

The Sri Lankan government gave freedom of movement from December 1 to the displaced persons housed in military-run camps, after facing pressure to speed up resettlement not just internationally, but locally ahead of a presidential election January 26.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration promised the United Nations to resettle between 70 and 80 percent of those in the camps by the end of the year and all by end-January.

However, many remain in the camps because their home areas have not yet been opened up as mine clearance operations are still going on.

That is the situation for tens of thousands of Tamils from the former rebel-held districts of Mullateevu and Kilinochchi.

“I won’t feel freedom, until I go to my own home,” said M. Iruthayanyahi in Vavuniya town while waiting for a bus to return to Manik Farm camp, the largest, after staying 15 days at a relative’s house.

She had lost her eldest son on January 10 in Puthukkudiyiruppu in Mullaitivu district by a shell attack and her second son is in army custody over suspicious LTTE links.

Which candidate most of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority chooses to support could be an important factor in the presidential election, with the resettlement process one of the issues.

Rajapaksa’s main challenger General Sarath Fonseka, who led the military to defeat the LTTE as the then-commander of the army, says the government has resettled the displaced persons without proper planning.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BN0R820091224

London, England (CNN) — China will execute a British man convicted of smuggling heroin within the next day, his family said Monday.

Akmal Shaikh, 53, has been informed by the Chinese authorities that he will be executed, said Seema Khan and Latif Shaikh, first cousins of the condemned man.

Khan and Shaikh told CNN Shaikh’s mother had not been informed of his execution, scheduled for Tuesday. “We are keeping the news away from her,” Khan said. “We don’t feel she can take the news and bear the brunt of it.”

Shaikh has exhausted all his legal appeals.

The Chinese government is not known to give 11th-hour reprieves. But Khan and Shaikh say they are “hoping the Chinese government will show some compassion.”

Shaikh’s supporters maintain he is mentally ill and Chinese officials did not take that into account when trying him.

A United Nations official has asked China not to execute Shaikh. Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has said it would be a “major step backwards for China” to execute a mentally ill man.

“Both Chinese and international law clearly indicate that a person who committed a crime while suffering from significant mental illness should not be subjected to the death penalty,” Alston said in a statement released by Reprieve, a British legal group. “I very much hope that the government will grant clemency in this case.”

The British government also has asked China not to execute Shaikh.

But China says it has followed the law.

“This case has always been handled according to law. During the trial, the defendant has been guaranteed his legal rights,” Jiang Yu, spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said last week. “Everyone knows that international drug smuggling is a grave crime.”

Shaikh was convicted of carrying up to 4 kilograms (almost 9 pounds) of heroin at the Urumqi Airport in September 2007. His final appeal — to the People’s Supreme Court — was rejected a week ago.

He would be the first European Union citizen executed in China in 50 years, Reprieve said.

The organization claims Shaikh may be suffering from bipolar disorder, a severe mental condition characterized by delusional and manic behavior. The group claims Chinese authorities have refused requests for Shaikh to be examined by a doctor and for his mental condition to be taken into account during his trial and sentencing.

“We deeply regret that mental health concerns had no bearing on the final judgment despite requests by Mr. Shaikh’s defense lawyer and repeated calls by the prime minister, ministers, members of the opposition, as well as (the) European Union,” the British Foreign Office said last week.

A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN in October there was no evidence of mental illness.

“The British Embassy and a British organization proposed to have a psychological exam but could not offer any proof of mental illness,” the spokesman said. “The defendant himself said that his family does not have a history of mental illness.”

Shaikh claimed he was given a suitcase to carry by another man who had duped him into believing he was traveling to China to become a nightclub performer, and was unaware of the concealed drugs.

Reprieve campaigners have revealed details of Shaikh’s erratic lifestyle prior to his arrest — including traveling to Poland to start an airline and then on to Central Asia to become a pop star.

While living in Poland, Shaikh was approached by a man who helped him write a song that Shaikh believed would bring world peace, according to Reprieve.

The man said he knew people in Kyrgyzstan who could help Shaikh become a pop star. Once there, Shaikh was introduced to another man called Okole, who told him he owned a nightclub in China where they would launch his singing career.

The pair traveled together to Tajikistan, staying in a five-star hotel.

Okole then told Shaikh he would have to travel on to China himself because there was only one seat available on the plane — and gave him the suitcase to carry, according to Reprieve.

Forensic psychologist Peter Schaapveld said he strongly suspected Shaikh is suffering from a severe mental disorder.

Schaapveld traveled to Urumqi earlier this year for Shaikh’s appeal hearing but was unable to meet Shaikh or attend the appeal. He said British consular staff told him court officials had been “bemused and amused” by Shaikh’s “incoherent” testimony.

Schaapveld also examined hundreds of pages of rambling e-mails sent by Shaikh to the British Embassy in Poland and various public figures, including then-U.S. President George W. Bush and former Beatle Paul McCartney.

He said the evidence “very clearly” suggested Shaikh was “probably suffering from bipolar disorder and may also have an additional delusional psychosis.”

CNN’s Jo Ling Kent in Beijing and Zain Verjee and Simon Hooper in London contributed to this report.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/china.smuggler.execution/

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s president has given legal experts four more months to study a US State Department report cataloging alleged war crimes on the island, the presidency said in a statement Monday.

President Mahinda Rajapakse extended the December 31 deadline of the panel he appointed in November to formulate a response to the US report, which accused Sri Lankan forces of war crimes while battling Tamil separatists.

“The president has… extended by four months the period given to the committee to study and report on the US State Department Report,” the president’s office said in a statement.

A recent query by the United Nations over remarks by the country’s former army chief Sarath Fonseka that some surrendering rebels were killed in cold blood was also being referred to the panel for study, the statement said.

Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry has already dismissed the US report as “unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence.”

Sri Lanka has been under international pressure to investigate allegations of human rights abuses and war crimes during the final stages of its battle against the Tamil Tiger rebels, who were defeated in May.

Among claims detailed in the US report was the accusation that Tiger leaders were executed after reaching a surrender agreement with government forces.

Fonseka, who is challenging Rajapakse in a January 26 election, has said he was given information about the alleged killing of the surrendering rebels by an unnamed state media reporter embedded with troops.

Fonseka said he himself was away in China at the time of the incident.

Sri Lanka’s then foreign secretary Palitha Kohona had earlier said the rebel leaders were killed by their own men while they tried to surrender during the final days of fighting.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jc0EVps_AISFtJ_-j9AS1rKGq6wA

By ANDREA HOUSTON , EXAMINER STAFF WRITER

As the frigid wind whipped through Confederation Square last night, the small group of activists crowded around a candle and joined in as a local family sang a South African freedom song to mark International Human Rights Day.

The song, calledThula Sizwe, is a prayer sung during South Africa’s apartheid, said New Canadian Centre’s Fezi Mauncho.

“This is about more than hope,” she said. “Just being here we are using our voices to speak as one.”

Although some didn’t know the words, about 25 people joined her in the song. Others kept the beat by playing maracas.

As Mauncho sang, her nine-year- old daughter Mphilo Mauncho declared her prayers for the future.

“Speak up against injustice. Your voice counts,” she said. “God, no more slavery. Please say no to racism. No more discrimination. No oppression. No more poverty. Lord, let there be liberty.”

The event marks the 61st anniversary of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Daphne Ingram of Amnesty International, who organized the event, said the candlelight vigil is a reminder to the community that there’s many people in the world whose human rights are still not recognized.

“This is a time to get together and remember there is still work to be done,” she said. “We still need to work on human rights for all.

“Even in Canada, there are many people who are not recognized and living in poverty, like some First Nation communities, and women are still being abused.”

ahouston@peterboroughexaminer.com

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2217366

T V Sriram

Colombo, Nov 1 (PTI) Amid speculation that Sri Lanka’s Chief of Defence Staff Gen Sarath Fonseka may fight the Presidential polls, the country’s army chief has warned military personnel against dabbling in politics, saying soldiers in uniform have no right to engage in political work.

Army Chief Gen Jagath Jayasuriya also made it clear that action would be taken against any personnel engaged in political work.

“We should be partial to the government in power. All governments at the end of their tenure hold elections. Army officer or a soldier wearing a uniform has no right whatsoever to engage in political work with any contesting candidates,” the army website quoted Jayasuriya as saying.

“Any soldier or officer if found (violating the advisory) will be subjected to disciplinary action and faces discharge from the Army,” he said while speaking to senior army officers here late last week.

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Russian police said they detained at least 50 people on Saturday at an unsanctioned human rights protest in central Moscow, but protesters put the number higher.

Police dragged off dozens of people to waiting buses and jostled scores of reporters towards metal barriers while protesters continued to chant “Freedom!” and “Respect the constitution!”.

“I want Russia to be free, not to rot in a policeman’s nightmare,” said a protester in a black mask who refused to give his name for fear of reprisals.

Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said about 50 people had been detained at the protest which he said was attended by about 100 people and 100 reporters.

Opposition activists said about 70 people had been detained and that 500 people had showed up.

Hundreds of police and interior ministry troops encircled the “march of the discontented” on Triumfalnaya Square, just a few km (miles) north of the Kremlin. Unlike previous protests, riot police were not used to make arrests.

Human rights groups say the Kremlin has muzzled the media and rolled back freedoms since Vladimir Putin was first elected president in 2000 and the situation has not improved under his protege, President Dmitry Medvedev.

Putin is believed by many diplomats and Russian citizens to be the real ruler in Russia despite stepping down as Kremlin chief to become prime minister in May 2008.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet dissident and one of Russia’s best known human rights campaigners, attended the protest with a police colonel, an escort she said was needed to ensure she was not crushed by the crowds.

“I came here to defend the constitution,” Alexeyeva, 82, told Reuters as she was pushed towards metal barriers by a crowd of police, reporters and protesters.

(Additional reporting by Aidar Buribayev; Editing by Michael Roddy)
By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Russian police said they detained at least 50 people on Saturday at an unsanctioned human rights protest in central Moscow, but protesters put the number higher.

Police dragged off dozens of people to waiting buses and jostled scores of reporters towards metal barriers while protesters continued to chant “Freedom!” and “Respect the constitution!”.

“I want Russia to be free, not to rot in a policeman’s nightmare,” said a protester in a black mask who refused to give his name for fear of reprisals.

Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said about 50 people had been detained at the protest which he said was attended by about 100 people and 100 reporters.

Opposition activists said about 70 people had been detained and that 500 people had showed up.

Hundreds of police and interior ministry troops encircled the “march of the discontented” on Triumfalnaya Square, just a few km (miles) north of the Kremlin. Unlike previous protests, riot police were not used to make arrests.

Human rights groups say the Kremlin has muzzled the media and rolled back freedoms since Vladimir Putin was first elected president in 2000 and the situation has not improved under his protege, President Dmitry Medvedev.

Putin is believed by many diplomats and Russian citizens to be the real ruler in Russia despite stepping down as Kremlin chief to become prime minister in May 2008.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet dissident and one of Russia’s best known human rights campaigners, attended the protest with a police colonel, an escort she said was needed to ensure she was not crushed by the crowds.

“I came here to defend the constitution,” Alexeyeva, 82, told Reuters as she was pushed towards metal barriers by a crowd of police, reporters and protesters.

(Additional reporting by Aidar Buribayev; Editing by Michael Roddy)
By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Russian police said they detained at least 50 people on Saturday at an unsanctioned human rights protest in central Moscow, but protesters put the number higher.

Police dragged off dozens of people to waiting buses and jostled scores of reporters towards metal barriers while protesters continued to chant “Freedom!” and “Respect the constitution!”.

“I want Russia to be free, not to rot in a policeman’s nightmare,” said a protester in a black mask who refused to give his name for fear of reprisals.

Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said about 50 people had been detained at the protest which he said was attended by about 100 people and 100 reporters.

Opposition activists said about 70 people had been detained and that 500 people had showed up.

Hundreds of police and interior ministry troops encircled the “march of the discontented” on Triumfalnaya Square, just a few km (miles) north of the Kremlin. Unlike previous protests, riot police were not used to make arrests.

Human rights groups say the Kremlin has muzzled the media and rolled back freedoms since Vladimir Putin was first elected president in 2000 and the situation has not improved under his protege, President Dmitry Medvedev.

Putin is believed by many diplomats and Russian citizens to be the real ruler in Russia despite stepping down as Kremlin chief to become prime minister in May 2008.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet dissident and one of Russia’s best known human rights campaigners, attended the protest with a police colonel, an escort she said was needed to ensure she was not crushed by the crowds.

“I came here to defend the constitution,” Alexeyeva, 82, told Reuters as she was pushed towards metal barriers by a crowd of police, reporters and protesters.

(Additional reporting by Aidar Buribayev; Editing by Michael Roddy)
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLV111333

New York, October 30, 2009—Chinese police have reportedly arrested two Uighur journalists who published online about Uighur issues in Xinjiang, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Chinese authorities blamed local and international Uighur Web sites for fueling July’s ethnic violence, according to international news reports. 

Security officials arrested Web site manager Hailaite Niyazi in his home in the regional capital, Urumqi, on October 1, according to The Associated Press and Radio France Internationale today. Authorities informed his family on October 4 that he had been detained for endangering national security, RFI reported. Niyazi, who has worked for state newspapers Xinjiang Legal News and Xinjiang Economic Daily, also managed and edited the Web site Uighurbiz until June this year, according to AP.

A second Uighur Web site manager, Dilixiati Paerhati, has been missing since August 7, when unidentified men detained him in his apartment Urumqi, AP report said. Amnesty International publicized the case last week when Paerhati’s brother Dilimulati, a U.K.-based student, appealed for his release. Paerhati’s popular Web site, Diyarim, has been inaccessible since early July, when violent rioting sparked by ethnic tensions between indigenous Uighurs and Han Chinese who have settled in the area prompted a widespread crackdown on the Internet in Xinjiang. The autonomous region remains largely offline, according to international news reports.

“We are concerned that Hailaite Niyazi and Dilixiati Paerhati, who covered the volatile Xinjiang region, have been detained,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia program coordinator. Urumqi authorities must clarify their status immediately. Managing a Web site is not a crime.”

Paerhati was detained and interrogated about the riots on July 24 but released without charge after eight days. No formal notification of his arrest followed his disappearance on August 7 and his whereabouts are unknown, according to Amnesty. “He only edits a Web site, he hasn’t done anything wrong,” his brother told the group.

Uighurbiz founder Ilham Tohti was questioned about the contents of the site and detained for more than six weeks before being released in August, according to international news reports. Tohti told AP he did not publicize Niyazi’s arrest earlier for fear of damaging his case. Niyazi’s wife believes Niyazi gave interviews to foreign media outlets about the situation in July that may have led to the charge against him, Tohti told AP.

“In China, sometimes even if you are just defending human rights, if you say something a little bit extreme, you’ll be in trouble,” Niyazi told AP in July.

New York, October 28, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by ongoing threats to Sri Lanka’s journalists and media organizations. Anonymous letters with death threats, at left, recently sent to Sunday Leader Editor-in-Chief Frederica Jansz and News Editor Munza Mushtaq echo those that ended in the death of the paper’s founder, Lasantha Wickramatunga, in January. 

“Our concern is that these most recent threats, like so many others, and the deaths of 11 journalists since President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power in 2006, will remain unexplained and those behind them will remain unprosecuted,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “The air of impunity surrounding violence against the media is having a chilling effect on journalists.”

The written threats are “almost identical to what Lasantha got three weeks before he was murdered,” Jansz told CPJ in an e-mail message. No one has been charged or prosecuted in Wickramatunga’s death. The editor was killed in his car on his way to work on a busy street in a suburb of Colombo. According to his brother Lal Wickramatunga, chairman of the paper’s parent company, Leader Publications, the editor had been receiving anonymous death threats for months.

According to Jansz, the two letters she and Mushtaq received on October 22 are identical—written in red ink, postmarked October 21. Both letters threatened: “If you write anymore, we will kill you and slice you into pieces,” Jansz said. The Sunday Leader has a long history of being critical of the government, but Jansz said she thinks the latest threat stems from a controversy surrounding an interview she gave to Al-Jazeera about footage aired by Britain’s Channel 4 News that apparently showed a man in a Sri Lankan military uniform executing Tamil prisoners, some unclothed and with their hands tied behind their backs. The government denied the video’s validity, and claimed Jansz’s comments supported claims of the video’s accuracy. 

http://cpj.org/2009/10/death-threats-sent-to-paper-of-slain-editor-in-sri.php

Stu Harrison

While two boat loads of Tamil refugees fleeing Sri Lanka push their case to be admitted into Australia, two reports on Sri Lankan atrocities against Tamils have been released without a word from the Australian media or government.

Reports from the United States state department and the European Commission (EC) revealed the extent of the brutal crimes of the Sri Lankan state.

Alex, a spokesperson for the 254 Tamils onboard a refugee boat currently located in Merak port off West Java, told Green Left Weekly by phone: “The Australian and Indonesian governments are trying to hide what has happened to us Tamils.”

The Tamils are an oppressed nationality mainly from in the north and east of Sri Lanka, subjected to systematic discrimination and violent repression. A nearly three decade-long civil war, in which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fought for an independent Tamil state, was ended with a brutal Sri Lankan offensive that finally defeated the LTTE in May.

Tamil civilians bore the brunt of the Sri Lankan Army’s campaign — including one night in May when Tamil sources estimated 20,000 civilians were butchered in SLA bombings.

Alex described the effect of the war on the Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka: “Many people have been wounded, had body parts amputated, been kidnapped and been imprisoned over long periods.

“We have run away from a war against our people, a genocidal war by the Sri Lankan state”, he said.

“Just the fact that you are Tamil means you will face genocide sooner or later. They are attempting an entire annihilation of Tamils in Sri Lanka.”

Since the formal end of the war in May, hundreds of thousands of Tamil people have been imprisoned in internment camps, in which torture, rape and disappearances are widely reported.

An Indonesian navy patrol boat apprehended Alex’s boat on October 11 after an Australian tip-off.

The boat has been moored at Merak for more than two weeks. On October 30, the Tamils released a statement saying the International Organisation of Migration was pressuring them to leave the boat. Alex said they had cut off the fresh water supply.

It has sparked a media and politician-driven frenzy about the “threat” from refugee boats — including scaremongering that LTTE “terrorists” may be among the fleeing Tamils.

What is missing is any explanation about the horrors the Tamils are fleeing or the context for the LTTE armed struggle.

After independence from Britain in 1948, Sri Lanka declared itself a ethnically exclusive state based on the Sinhalese ethnic majority. Buddhism, the main religion of the Sinhalese, declared the state religion.

For decades, the Tamils led peaceful campaigns for equality. However, the armed campaign of the LTTE won wide support among Tamils after the 1983 “Black July” pogroms, which resulted in 3000 Tamils killed by Sinhalese mobs.

Sri Lanka’s military campaign against the LTTE was supported by Western powers such as the US and Britain. Australia also supports the Sri Lankan state. Australia donates $30 million a year to Sri Lanka in aid to promote “reconciliation and reconstruction”.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Sri Lanka succeeded in integrating its campaign against the LTTE into the global “war on terror”.

However, the LTTE armed campaign was limited to the struggle for an independent state in Sri Lanka’s east and north. The LTTE was purely a national liberation group, whose purpose did not extend beyond that goal.

There is no evidence any of the Tamil refugees on either boat were members of the LTTE. But the idea that a former member of the LTTE fleeing Sri Lanka would pose a “terrorist threat” to Australia ignores the nature and purpose of the organisation.

Also, in labelling the LTTE “terrorist”, Western powers ignored the constant campaign of terror directed at Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan government.

The Sri Lankan government continues to claim its forces were responsible for no civilian deaths in the civil war — even in the face of overwhelming evidence. The United Nations said during the last five months of the SLA campaign, at least 7000 Tamils were killed.

The London Times put the figure at 20,000.

The European Commission (EC) report into Sri Lankan atrocities, released on October 19, focused on allegations of breached of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child carried out by the Sri Lankan government.

It said in Sri Lanka there exists “a widespread climate of impunity”. It said the holding of hundreds of Tamil civilians in barbed wire-enclosed camps amounts “to mass internment” where rape and abductions are common.

The EC report said: “The majority of deaths as a result of torture at the hands of the police are not caused by ‘rogue’ police officers but by ordinary officers taking part in an established routine.”

Since 2006, Sri Lanka has had the highest disappearance rate in the world. In November 2008, the Sri Lankan Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Disappearances said 886 people had disappeared in the last year.

The Sri Lankan government created nine separate bodies to investigate these cases. However, the report said these failed to “carry out effective investigations” or “bring an end to disappearances”.

Torture techniques used by the army included burning with soldering irons and hanging detainees by their thumbs. Pro-government Tamil groups are used to abduct alleged LTTE members from internment camps, including children.

The ongoing state of emergency enacted in 2005 allows for detainees to be held for one year in “preventative detention” without charge. Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act allows for the detention without trial of alleged LTTE fighters for up to two years.

The report said the “anti-terror” laws have been used to target those critical of the government, including journalists, publishers and political opponents.

Summary execution is also common. The report said dissidents have been killed in police detention.

In March 2008, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said: “Extra-judicial killings and disappearances are part of a terrible pattern of abuse in Sri Lanka which must be stopped.”

The EC report said those who have been freed from the camps have not had access to equal rights expected under international law. In fact, international funding to the Sri Lankan state has been used to persecute the Tamils.

When released from internment camps, Tamils are given special identification cards. The report said this is used to “restrict their mobility and access to education”. The card states their residential area and defines where they can receive services like education.

The EC report said that in some cases, “the effect of these designations was to bar the original inhabitants largely ethnic Tamils, from returning to their homes”.

Alex told GLW the Sri Lankan government’s claims about resettlement of displaced Tamils were overblown. He said many of the people moving back into the north and east of the country were actually Sinhalese. It is part of a government plan to change the ethnic makeup of these areas.

For Tamils, fleeing to Australia is clearly a last resort. It is a decision forced on them by the actions of the Sri Lanka’s ethnically supremacist military state and their collaborators in the West — including Australia.

The current scaremongering by Australian politicians and the mainstream media seeks to further cover up what should be obvious — thet Tamils need and deserve our support.

[The full US state department and EC reports can be found at www.jdsrilanka.blogspot.com]