Former president and scion of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SFLP), Chandrika Kumaratunga, has endorsed the opposition candidate, former general Sarath Fonseka, in his bid against SFLP candidate and current president, Mahinda Rajapaksa. The move Sunday 24 January is seen as a major blow to the re-election bid by Rajapaksa in a close and increasingly violent campaign. It is the first election following the government’s victory in the long war against the Tamil Tigers last year.
Opposition parties have rallied around the former general, and accuse the ruling party of electoral fraud, of hogging the state media, and of planning a coup to seize power if the vote goes against Rajapaksa.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, The Guardian, New York Times
Sri Lanka’s voters go to the polls next Tuesday 26 January in elections that were called almost two years early by the country’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa. They are almost evenly divided between supporters of the president and his main opponent, former army chief Sarath Fonseka.
Both the president and his opponent are claiming to be national heroes after last year’s victory over the separatist Tamil Tigers in the country’s decades-long war. The Tamils of the north and east are eagerly courted by both sides in the race, and presidential politics have arguably speeded up the government’s dismantling of the remaining displacement camps, set up to house and screen the hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians displaced by the civil war.
The Tamil Tigers were fighting for a separate homeland, arguing that Tamils suffered discrimination and neglect at the hands of the majority Sinhalese.
Links to other sites: AFP, Al-Jazeera, Sri Lanka Guardian
Durban, South Africa (GenevaLunch) - The England captain showed a previously unseen side to his game when he scored 50 runs in only 49 balls in reply to South Africa’s score of 343 all out in the second test at Durban. The home team made that many largely thanks to the late assault on Graeme Swann’s bowling by Dale Steyn. England ended the second day on 103 for one.
The main interest of the day was focused on the system of referring umpiring decisions to television replay: this led to Mark Boucher being given out lbw to Swann after the umpire’s “not out” was reversed.
About 40 people have been injured in brawls between Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum seekers being held at a holding centre on Christmas Island over the past few days. Three people were evacuated to Perth for treatment. The center holds more than 1,000 people, mainly from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, while their applications are processed. Several Sri Lankans have had their applications denied and were sent home, increasing tensions, although human rights groups blame the tension on overcrowding. The Australian government has said it will increase capacity at the centre by 800 this year.
An Australian navy ship intercepted a boat with 56 suspected asylum-seekers on board 100 nautical miles norwest of Derby, Western Australia, Monday afternoon. It is the 46th ship intercepted this year, and the second in two days.
Many boats are organized by people-smugglers from Indonesia who organize the trip from the country of origin, and then hide people on small boats. Once they reach Australian waters, the boat sends out a false distress signal to alert rescue ships in the hope of being taken to the detention centre, Al-Jazeera reports.
Links to other sites: Al-Jazeera, BBC, News Sun, Radio Australia
South Africa (GenevaLunch) – The English batsmen put on a rare display as they beat South Africa in the ICC Champions Trophy. Andrew Strauss won the toss and decided to bat but lost the opening batsmen quickly. Owais Shah (98) and Paul Collingwood (82) then gradually took control and Eoin Morgan added 67 in just 34 balls. England reached an impressive 323 for 8: the second highest score in the tournament’s history.
An Australian border protection patrol intercepted a boat with 60 suspected asylum-seekers on board about 420 km north of the Australian city of Broome, Western Australia late Tuesday 15 September. It was the fourth such interception in two weeks. The asylum-seekers will be sent to a detention centre on Christmas Island. Their nationality was not immediately known.
Immigration policy under the previous Australian government of John Howard was widely criticized for letting illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers, including children, languish in camps on the islands of Nauru and Manus. The current Rudd government has continued the robust interdiction of people-smuggling, but detainees who pose no threat to the community must be processed within six months.
The government blames the continued flow of people on conflicts in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. BBC, Sydney Morning Herald
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Monday 14 September that an “intolerable” number of displaced people continue to live in camps”, and added that in the case of Sri Lanka “internally displaced persons are effectively detained under conditions of internment”. Some 280,000 civilians are interned in government-run camps waiting to be screened. In a reply to the council, Sri Lanka’s minister of disaster management and human rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, said that “this is furthest from the truth “, and pointed out that the civilians will be allowed to leave the “relief villages and welfare centers once they are screened”. The government is worried that former Tamil Tiger fighters may flee disguised as civilians. Samarasinghe said that almost 170,000 people had been registered and that 45,000 had been cleared to leave the camps or had already left.
The UN’s head of political affairs, Lynn Pascoe, arrived in Sri Lanka for two days of talks with the government on the slow pace of releasing Tamil civilians from camps where they have been held since the end of the war in May against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam separatist group. The BBC quoted Pascoe as saying, “We’re very concerned about the pace of progress,” before leaving New York. BBC, Bloomberg
Lords/London, England (GenevaLunch) – Shahid Afridi was the star as Pakistan at last was in the news for a celebration of victory. The Pakistan team has played little cricket in the last few years as other teams have refused to travel to Pakistan because of security concerns. The last team to visit was the Sri Lankans who were forced to end their tour by a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus.
London, England (GenevaLunch) – Sri Lanka put in a great team effort to demolish the West Indies in the second of the semi-finals, payed at the Oval. The Windies won the toss and put Sri Lanka in to bat but the Sri Lankans started well, reaching 73 before the first wicket fell. Two more wickets went quickly but the runs kept coming for the innings to end at 158-5 with Dilshan on 96 not out: a competitive total.
The West Indian innings started disastrously, with three wickets falling in the first over, all out from playing the ball onto the wicket.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has rejected claims that the UN had purposefully withheld casualty figures in the final phase of Sri Lanka’s war against the Tamil Tigers. “I categorically reject – repeat, categorically – any suggestion that the United Nations has deliberately underestimated any figures,” he said in a speech to the General Assembly Monday 1 June. The rebuttal comes after claims made last week by France’s Le Monde newspaper that the UN under-reported figures of civilian deaths in order to maintain a presence in the country. Reuters
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – World headlines about endless casualties and aid organizations being kept out of Sri Lanka’s conflict area have died away, last week’s news, but the battle to find out what really happened and how many died may be only beginning, media reports 29 May show. Le Temps and Le Monde jointly carry an article by reporter Philippe Bolopion in Colombo that accuses the Sri Lankan government of hiding the real number of deaths and the UN of collusion out of fear that its ability to work in the country would be compromised. In the UK, The Times front-page story Friday 29 May says that 20,000 civilians – three times the official number – were killed.
The Times story is based on photos taken on the beaches in the conflict area, UN documents as well as “witness accounts and expert testimony.” The numbers are in fact the same as those published a day earlier by Le Monde, which also cites UN sources. The photos were taken for The Times. Le Monde refers to satellite images taken by Unosat of the conflict area, which reportedly show shelling damage, possibly after the date when the Sri Lankan government said it had stopped.
In Geneva Wednesday 28 the Human Rights Council, an independent inter-UN organization, rejected a Swiss-European draft resolution to investigate possible war crimes in Sri Lanka and instead adopted a Sri Lankan counter-resolution. Human Rights Watch condemned the UNHRC move, saying it had “passed a deeply flawed resolution on Sri Lanka that ignores calls for an international investigation into alleged abuses during recent fighting and other pressing human rights concerns.”
The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in Sri Lanka have acknowledged that Velupillai Prabhakaran, their leader, was killed fighting the Sri Lanka army 17 May, according to the BBC and several other Western and Indian media, although TamilNet and EelamNation make no mention of it in their latest news reports Sunday evening (Swiss time). In a statement attributed by the BBC and Times of India to the LTTE’s head of international relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the Tamil Tigers also say they will now use “non-violence” to fight for Tamil rights.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan now surpasses two million people since August 2008, according to Geneva-based UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees). The figures correspond to those being issued by Pakistan’s government.
The total number of IDPs fleeing the conflict in in northwest Pakistan in the Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts, and registered by UNHCR since the beginning of the month is close to 1.5 million.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has tried to reach civilians and wounded for nine consecutive days in the area of intense fighting in Sri Lanka’s northeast. It appealed again Monday 18 May to the government of Sri Lanka to facilitate access.
Update 21:55 Brussels, Belgium, Canada, Sri Lanka and Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Some 1,500 Sri Lankans gathered in front of the UN building in Geneva Monday evening 18 May were pushed back by police when they tried to enter the security gates of the “Palais,” report TSR and the Tribune de Geneve, citing a police spokesperson. The group had gathered Sunday to call for international diplomatic aid for their countrymen.
The Sri Lankan government broke into regular TV programming late Monday 18 May to announce that the leader of the Tamil Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been killed, reports AP. No details were given, and initial reports from other international media are contradictory. Several news sources quote two anonymous officials who say they are not authorized to speak to media. According to one source he was in a van, accompanied by a busload of soldiers, and a two-hour gunfight ensued with government forces . Another source says he was in an ambulance that was ambushed as he tried to escape.
The Tamil Tigers announced Saturday on their web site that they were laying down arms after nearly 26 years of fighting, to save the many injured civilians who have been cut off from medical aid. The government said Sunday that fighting was continuing in cleanup operations.
© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
UPDATE 07:45 The BBC reports the Sri Lankan government as saying bodies of Tamil Tiger leaders have been found as “brushing up” operations continue. The country’s Tamil Tigers have accepted defeat after 25 years of fighting, with their head of international relations saying on their web site Sunday 16 May that the “bitter end” had been reached. Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse told a group of G11 developing countries leaders meeting in Jordan Sunday that he is “proud” to have declared victory over the Tamil Tigers Friday 16 May, after cutting off rebel access to the sea. About 50,000 civilians fled the fighting in recent days, 36,000 on Saturday alone, reports the BBC, quoting army sources. The government had announced previously that no more than 20,000 civilians remained in the area, although 16 May the pro-Tamil tamilnet.com reported that fighting, including heavy artillery, continues in the area and that thousands of wounded civilians remain trapped. Al Jazeera, Christian Science Monitor
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Our staff are witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe,” ICRC (International Red Cross) Director of operations, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, said in a statement 14 May from the organization’s headquarters in Geneva. “Despite high-level assurances, the lack of security on the ground means that our sea operations continue to be stalled, and this is unacceptable. No humanitarian organization can help them in the current circumstances. People are left to their own devices.”
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A local International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) employee and his mother were killed 13 May by an army shell, reports Le Temps, in the crowded and dangerous northeast corner of Sri Lanka, where government troops are battling Tamil Tigers.
A ferry boat contracted by ICRC to take essential food and medicine to the safe area and evacuate those civilians most at risk, especially the wounded, women and children, was unable to beach Monday 12 May due to the dangerous situation, according to Paul Castella, ICRC chief delegate in Colombo. The ICRC has called for a ceasefire to allow civilians trapped by the fighting to leave.
The UN called for an immediate end to the fighting in Sri Lanka, which a UN spokesman described as a “bloodbath scenario [that] has become a reality.” reports AFP. Government forces and Tamil Tigers have both said civilian casualties are very high, with each side blaming the other. The Tigers hold a strip of coastline that was heavily attacked over the weekend. Among the dead: more than 100 children. Al Jazeera, ColomboPage, LankaPage
Almost 400 civilian are said to have been killed by government artillery fire Saturday and early Sunday, according to Tamil Tiger reports that quote medical workers in the NE Sri Lanka conflict zone. The government has denied shelling the designated safe area. Independent confirmation is impossible because Western news agencies are not allowed access.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) in Geneva announced late Friday that it is stepping up emergency aid to Sri Lanka to help “tens of thousands” of people who are newly displaced as a result of fighting in the north of the country. The group is boosting aid for internally displaced persons by $2 million. The first of two Boeing 747 cargo planes that will deliver more than 200 tons of tents arrived in Colombo Monday 27 April, carrying 2,850 family-sized tents from central stockpiles in Dubai.
Some 25,000 civilians are believed to have fled a combat zone in northern Sri Lanka after government forces “broke through a fortification which had been blocking their advance into the Tigers’ last stronghold,” the BBC writes, quoting the army. The UNHCR in Geneva 17 April said it had stepped up its efforts to help civilians in the face of some 63,000 people who had fled areas with fighting.
Geneva, Switzerland and Sri Lanka (GenevaLunch) – Sri Lanka has rebuffed UN efforts for a truce that would allow more civilians to leave the country’s northeast corner, where fighting with Tamil Tigers continues. An estimated 50-100,000 people are trapped in the area, reports the BBC. In Geneva, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) says that 63,000 have fled the area, with refugees describing dire conditions. The UNHCR says it is concerned about the growing need for de-mining in the area when refugees return home.
Chart: UNHCR, "Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2008"
Geneva, Switzerland (Genevalunch) – Political turmoil in Afghanistan and Somalia increased the number of asylum seekers in 2008 for the second year running, according to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Iraq provided the largest number of applicants for asylum, 40,500, a 10 percent decrease from 2007.
