Commission on Human
Rights
An Appeal to
The United Nations
Commission on Human Rights
57 Session / Sesiones
19 / 03 / 2001 -- 27 / 04 /2001
No one was left to speak up !
We cannot afford
indifference, individually or collectively. Let us heed the unforgettable
warning of the German theologian Martin Niemoller:
"In
Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because
I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I
didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. "Then they came for me, and by
that time no one was left to speak up."
Excerpts from the Statement by
Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations - 54th session of the Commission on Human
Rights - Geneva, 16 March 1998
********
No government has the right to
hide behind national sovereignty in order to violate the human rights
…………..And let me therefore be very
clear: even though we are an organization of Member States, the rights and
ideals the United Nations exists to protect are those of peoples. As long as I
am Secretary-General, the United Nations as an institution will always place
human being at the centre of everything we do. No government has the right to
hide behind national sovereignty in order to violate the human rights or
fundamental freedoms of its peoples. Whether a person belongs to the minority
or the majority, that person's human rights and fundamental freedoms are
sacred.
Excerpts from the Statement by Mr. Kofi Annan,
Secretary-General of the United Nations
- 55th session of the Commission on Human Rights - Geneva, 7 April
1999
*************
Violations of human rights are no
longer
considered an internal matter
The obligation of Government is made
still weightier by the fact that the defence of human rights is universal in
nature. Violations of human rights are no longer considered an internal matter.
International human rights law is emphatic that when human rights are being
violated the international community has a right and a duty to respond, and to
come to the assistance of the victims.
Excerpts from the Statement by Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General
of the United Nations
- 56th session of the Commission on Human Rights - Geneva, 4 April
2000
Contents
Page
TCHR
appeal to the 57th session 05
1 - General
Foreign loan to Sri
Lanka year 2000 07
Arms
purchase by Sri Lanka Defence
expenditure 09
Sri Lanka Arms purchase
year 2000 10
A few noteworthy human rights violations by Sri
Lanka 11
Fact and figures of 18
years war 12
Comparison: PLO-Kosovo-Tamil 13
2 - Promotion
and protection of Human Rights
Assassination of a Human Rights
defender Kumar Ponnambalam
Government sponsored killers 14
United
Nations raised concern
Key witness tortured
Letter from
Attorney at Law of the family of late Ponnambalam 15
Kumar
Ponnambalam defended Sinhalese 16
Police say
15 most wanted criminals escape abroad
3 - The
right of peoples to self-determination
Sri
Lanka talks peace only when it faces an election 17
LTTE Unilateral cease-fire
10 Tamil parties appeal for cease-fire
Recognise the right to self-determination of
Tamils 18
10,000
demonstrated in Jaffna
Declaration
by representatives of University of Jaffna 19
Batticaloa
University for cease-fire, self-determination
LTTE leader
offers peace talk, Prime Minister vows war 21
4 - Economic,
social and cultural rights 22
Right to Housing
80% Houses
damaged in Jaffna 23
Right to Food
350,000
without food and essential supplies
Withdrawal
of relief payment to over 90,000
Right to Health
3807
patients transported by ship to Trincomalee 24 Deaths due to malnutrition
Hospitals
closed no longer accepting patients 25 Vanni region
further deteriorated
42 lost
limbs 26 Medical officer killed
Press
release of Medicine sans Frontieres (MSF)
Right to Education 27 270,000 Children displaced
58
undergraduates arrested
School boy
abducted and tortured
75 schools
defunct 28 Right to Work
Farmers,
Fisherman, Labourers, Traders affected by embargo
7 farmers
killed 29
Colonisation 30
Tamil-Sinhala
population in Eastern province
Sinhala
settlement
Tamil-Sinhala
population in Batticaloa district
Tamil-Sinhala
population in Amparai district
Tamil-Sinhala population in Trincomalee
district 31
2
5 - Civil
and political rights
State of emergency
27 years of
emergency rule 32
Emergency
context in North and East Sri Lanka
New
emergency regulations 33
22 years of
Prevention of Terrorism Act - PTA 34
Torture
The sexual
abuse of male detainees 34
Deported
Tamils face Torture
Detention
Year 2000 -
over 18,000 arrested under PTA-ER 35
9 under-graduates arrested
Military
death squads
Parliamentarian
arrested
144
Government - run places of detention 36
Disappearances
Visit to Sri Lanka by a member of UN
working group Disappearances on the rise Amnesty 37
Chemmani
mass grave: cover-up continues!
Summary executions
Special rapporteurs observations 38
It’s better
to kill the people
Sri Lanka
Navy officer committed war crime Australian court
Army shot
five people in Mosque 39
Youth
beheaded by Army 6 Plantation workers shot dead
Massacres
31 killed in
detention centre 40
UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, distressed by killings
ICRC -
Amnesty
Recent massacres and major killings 41 Barbaric killings on the increase in
Sri Lanka 42 9th year of Batticaloa
massacre
Death
Penalty
Executions may
be resumed after 24 years in Sri Lanka 43
Freedom of expression At least 31 journalists killed in Sri Lanka 44
Brutal killing of a journalist
Nirmalarajan
received death threats
Person
responsible for killing may even roam corridors of power 45
Bravely
reported on the vote rigging, intimidation and violence
Suspicion
fallen on EPDP
Annual report Reporters without borders
29
journalists assaulted 46
Journalists
killed - jailed - threatened -
attacked
Pressure
and obstruction
Journalist
arrested and tortured in custody in Colombo 47
Foreign
media censored
Newspapers
shut down
Administration of justice
Anti-Tamil
protesters threaten Human Rights Lawyer at UN 48 WFDY condemned the anti-Tamil demonstration
Dr. Jayalath Jeyawardena, MP's complaint before
UN
MPs voted against emergency sought asylum in UK 49
Impunity
Sri Lanka
prepares for the UN Commission on Human Rights Religious
intolerance
75 Hindu
temples closed 50
Buddhism
further strengthened in draft (new) constitution
15 Temple
employees and priest arrested
Permission
refused for Catholic procession
British charity bombed
in Sri Lanka
Communal violence in
up-country 51
3
6 - Violence
against women
UN expert Mr. Paul
Sergio Pinheiro
Gang-rape and murder
case-still no convictions! 52
Many
gang-rape and murder cases
70-Year
old woman raped
Dangers
faced by displaced women and girls
Woman
farmer killed and mutilated 53
Women's
lives affected in every area
Two
young women tortured by male Police
Special
task force rape
Pregnant
women threatened by shortage of medicines
Sterilisation
as a form of genocide
7 - Rights
of the child
900,000 children lack
education, food and shelter 54
Children forced to feel the heat of battle
Extra-judicial killings
of children.
8 - Mass
exoduses and displaced persons Thousand
forced to leave Jaffna UNHCR 55 Refugees from Sri Lanka kept
like cattle
Humanitarian disaster
faces civilians in Vanni 56
Over 160,000 forced out
of their homes ICRC
12,000 displaced
arrests, disappearances continue
Problem face by
deportees from host countries EUROPE 57
9 - The
right to development
UN Official turns
Activist
Bogus Human rights
organisation for ECOSOC status 58 Statement by 6 lecturers of
University of Jaffna on UTHR (J) 59
Assassination “Hit list”
prepared by Sri Lanka propagandists 60
Human rights commission covering up for the
government 61
The Law of the jungle 63
10 - Summary
report (names, dates, places of incidents, etc)
Detainees under PTA in Kalutara
prison 64
Arbitrary arrest / Detention 89
Extra judicial killings
/ summary executions 93
Enforced or involuntary
disappearances 100
Rape / Torture and
others 105
ANNEXES:
1 - Speech of Jaffna district judge Mr. M.
Thirunavukarasu 112
2 - Members of the European Parliament 113
3 - The massacre of Tamil youths Dr. Brian
Seneviratne (A Sinhalese academic) 114
4 - 14
US Congressmen appeal to Sri Lanka -
June 29, 2000 116
5 - Congressmen writes to Madeleine K.
Albright - October 30, 2000 117
6 - European Union calls for Sri Lanka to
enter talks 118
7 - Human Rights watch world report 2001 119
4
March 19 2001
The
Chairperson and Members
57th
Session of the
Commission
on Human Rights