Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Sri Lanka destroys evidence, prevents ICRC, UN access - Prof. Boyle
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Noting that the slow genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka accelerated to more than 10,000 killed in the last few months, far exceeding the horrors of Srebrenica, Professor Boyle in conversation with Los Angeles KPFK radio host, Michael Slate, Tuesday, accused Sri Lanka Government of bulldozing and destroying evidence of massacres in the Safety Zone while preventing access to the Red Cross and UN agencies. Boyle added that the United States Government with spy satellites would be knowing exactly what Sri Lanka's actions are in the Safe Zone, and stand implicated along with UK, France, and India in allowing the genocide to happen.
KPFK discussion with Prof. Boyle (start @4:00)
"Today ICRC still does not have access when the area should be flooded with food and medicine to urgently attend to the 300,000 Internally Displaced Tamils held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) supervised camps," Boyle said, adding, survivors from the Safety Zone, from starvation, resembled escapees from Nazi death camps.
Prof Francis Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law
The situation was similar to what happened in Gaza, Boyle said, but in Gaza people had access to food via under ground tunnels, whereas the Tamils holed up in the Safety Zone were completely cutoff from the outside and were entirely dependent on food transported by the ICRC ships.Tracing the history of the conflict, Boyle and Slate agreed that Sri Lanka was an apartheid state from the very beginning of independence, and pointed to the violent elements of the Buddhist clergy, and the India's dravidian-oriented racism as elements that exacerbated the deterioration of the conflict towards genocide.Peace processes failed, Boyle argued, because Sri Lankan Governments, instead engaging in good faith negotiation, "wanted control, domination, and elimination of the Tamil population.""We may be at the beginning of a humanitarian catastrophe for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka which would fit the ultimate objective of the Government motivated by chauvinist, violent racism," Boyle said, adding "my experience in working in genocidal situations says once the government and the people are possessed of this genocidal mentality it's very difficult to stop."Slate added, "Tamil people are a severely oppressed nation. Anyone of conscience must stand up and support their resistance." From tamilnet
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KPFK discussion with Prof. Boyle (start @4:00)
"Today ICRC still does not have access when the area should be flooded with food and medicine to urgently attend to the 300,000 Internally Displaced Tamils held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) supervised camps," Boyle said, adding, survivors from the Safety Zone, from starvation, resembled escapees from Nazi death camps.
Prof Francis Boyle, University of Illinois College of Law
The situation was similar to what happened in Gaza, Boyle said, but in Gaza people had access to food via under ground tunnels, whereas the Tamils holed up in the Safety Zone were completely cutoff from the outside and were entirely dependent on food transported by the ICRC ships.Tracing the history of the conflict, Boyle and Slate agreed that Sri Lanka was an apartheid state from the very beginning of independence, and pointed to the violent elements of the Buddhist clergy, and the India's dravidian-oriented racism as elements that exacerbated the deterioration of the conflict towards genocide.Peace processes failed, Boyle argued, because Sri Lankan Governments, instead engaging in good faith negotiation, "wanted control, domination, and elimination of the Tamil population.""We may be at the beginning of a humanitarian catastrophe for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka which would fit the ultimate objective of the Government motivated by chauvinist, violent racism," Boyle said, adding "my experience in working in genocidal situations says once the government and the people are possessed of this genocidal mentality it's very difficult to stop."Slate added, "Tamil people are a severely oppressed nation. Anyone of conscience must stand up and support their resistance." From tamilnet
IFJ CONDEMNS REACTIVATION OF SRI LANKAN PRESS COUCIL LAW
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The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemned the Sri Lankan Government's decision to revive the Press Council that was established by an act of parliament in 1973. The Sri Lankan Press Council Act of 1973 contains stringent provisions, including the power to prosecute for contempt and sentence journalists to extended periods in prison and to prohibit the publication of certain kinds of content by the media. Reflecting on the move by Colombo, media activists in Colombo told TamilNet Saturday that the Sri Lanakan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, despite his claim that the Tamil war has ended, was continuing his war on journalists, aiming at creating a full fledged authoritarian ruling of the island. Full text of the IFJ/IFEX statement issued on Friday follows:Reactivation of Discredited Press Council Law a Step Backward for Sri Lanka(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate organisations in Sri Lanka - the Free Media Movement, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association and the Federation of Media Employees' Trade Unions - in strongly condemning the Sri Lankan Government's decision to revive the Press Council that was established by an act of parliament in 1973.The Sri Lankan Press Council Act of 1973 contains stringent provisions, including the power to prosecute for contempt and sentence journalists to extended periods in prison and to prohibit the publication of certain kinds of content by the media, including:- Internal communications of the government and the decisions of the Cabinet;- Matters relating to the armed services that may be deemed prejudicial to national security; and- Matters of economic policy that could lead to artificial shortages and speculative price rises.The IFJ notes that four other professional organisations - the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance, the Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum, the Newspapers Society of Sri Lanka and the Editors' Guild of Sri Lanka - joined its affiliates in lodging a strong letter of protest with President Mahinda Rajapakse on 22 June over this deeply worrying decision by his government."We applaud this demonstration of unity by the media community of Sri Lanka and urge President Rajapakse to heed the warning that the 1973 law represents a worrying retreat from an agreed compact that the media is best served by self-regulation rather than a coercive imposition of the government‚s will," IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said."Clearly, the 1973 law is designed to protect governmental privileges, rather than serve any public purpose, such as the right of the people of Sri Lanka to be informed about the processes under which they are governed," White said.The professional media organisations in Sri Lanka have recounted in their letter to Rajapakse, that there was agreement between the media community and the Government as far back as 1994 that the statutory provisions of the Press Council law would be kept in abeyance and self-regulation instituted as the more democratic process.Further, in 2003, as the then leader of the opposition, Rajapakse had spoken out against stringent legal impediments to the free functioning of the media. He strongly urged the passage of a law that made defamation a civil rather than a criminal offence.It was then agreed by unwritten consent that the 1973 law would be scrapped. In line with this compact, the Sri Lankan media community in 2003 joined forces to set up the Sri Lanka Press Institute, which also established a Press Complaints Commission to act as a body overseeing the ethical conduct of the media.Sri Lanka's media community reminds Rajapakse of the need to honour this compact, and deplores the decision to revive a lapsed piece of legislation without consulting major stakeholders."We stand by our colleagues in Sri Lanka in this struggle to defeat the revival of old habits of thought," White said."We are convinced that the spirit of unity they have shown in lodging their protest with the President of Sri Lanka will provide a new impetus to the institutions and processes of self-regulation that began in 2003." Thank you tamilnet
Saturday, June 13, 2009
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