Facts to the United Nations
World Summit on the information society
The Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR) officially accredited to participate in the
United Nations World Summit on the Information Society – WSIS in Tunisia
16 - 18 November 2005
Information ˆ Nations Unies
Sommet mondial sur la sociŽtŽ de lÕinformation
Informativos a Naciones Unidas
Cumbre Mundial sobre la Sociedad de la Informaci—n
LOGO
Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR
Centre Tamoul pour les droits de l'Homme - CTDH
Centro Tamil para los Derechos Humanos
(Established in 1990)
Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR
Centre Tamoul pour les droits de l'Homme - CTDH
Centro Tamil para los Derechos Humanos
(Established in 1990)
Website : www.tchr.net
TCHR participation in United Nations World conferences and meetings
* The Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR) officially accredited to participate in the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society – WSIS in Tunisia, 16 – 18 November 2005.
* The Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), officially participated in the NGO forum of the UN World Conference Against Racism – WCAR in Durban, South Africa, from 28 August to 1 September 2001. TCHR held an information stall including an exhibition at the forum. The TCHR representatives also attended the main WCAR conference held in Durban, 31 August to 7 September 2001.
(http://www.tchr.net/reports_wcar_detail.htm)
* In 1993, the TCHR held an information stall and a photo exhibition on human rights violations, in the United Nations 2nd World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, Austria, from 14-25 June.
* TCHR has participated in meetings of Treaty bodies and has submitted reports to the same.
Fact finding missions to the North East of the Island of Sri Lanka
* May 2003 (http://www.tchr.net/report_studymission_2003.htm)
* December 2003 – addendum report (http://www.tchr.net/report_studymission_2003add.htm)
* July-August 2004 (http://www.tchr.net/reports_visite_2004.htm)
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Contents
Page
Appeal 02
The situation in the island of Sri Lanka
35 years of non-violent protest
Agreements unilaterally abrogated by Sinhala leaders
Constitutional safeguards scrapped 04
Democratic mandate
Planned arson attack on Library - destruction of 90,000 books
Pressure on humanitarian workers
Media blackout
Human rights monitoring censored 05
Some of the systematic human rights violations over fifty years
Human Rights Defenders Assassinated
Human Rights Web-site
Arrest, Killings, Disappearances, Rapes, etc 1956-2004 07
Journalists harassed, attacked, killed 08
Disaster response helped by Information and Communication Technology 09
Tsunami disaster in the island of Sri Lanka 10
Victims and damage caused by Tsunami 11
Damage to the fishing industry
Human Development, Education and training 12
ANNEXES 13
1
16 November 2005
Mr. Yoshio UTSUMI
Secretary General
UN World Summit on Information Society – WSIS
Tunisia
Dear Sir
At the very outset, we the Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR, would like to warmly congratulate you on the ardour you have brought to your tasks, as Secretary General of the World Summit on the Information Society. The WSIS process was born in 1998 and today we see the fruit of untiring work.
Information Communications Technology (ICT) and the global changes have played a vital role in the information society. When we compare the 1980s and 90s with todayÕs world, one realises how many days and months were spent on accessing required information. In today's world, everything can be achieved in a few seconds and minutes with the help of ICT. But is this available to everyone in today's world? No.
In today's world, the promotion and the protection of human rights and public awareness of the legal instruments related to the same are under scrutiny. With the greatest difficulty, we assist in monitoring adherence to all the legal instruments of human rights and we advocate for the ratification of the same.
Many dictatorial and so-called democratic states have used unconventional powers to prevent ICT facilities from being available to everyone. Such powers are practiced through various forms – censorship, bans, state sponsored vandalism and biased reporting.
Sri Lanka is one of the countries that is experiencing this situation. If we carefully consider the realities well documented in reports by UN institutions and its executives, international organisations and academics – there is clear evidence of denial of equality in education to the youth in the North East and denial of rights enshrined in the ICESCR and the ICCPR. Censorship, bans, vandalism against newspapers and attacks and killing of journalists are very frequent in Sri Lanka.
Furthermore the governmentÕs manipulation of information technology prevents balanced reporting in Sri Lanka. The biggest publishing house is the mouth-piece of successive governments, justifying the racist mindset and actions of the numerical majority .
The latest technology was cleverly used by the state to prevent the actual truth of human rights violations in the North East, from becoming widely known. The effects of more than a decade of economic embargo on the people of the North East and the disappearances that took place in the North East were smartly hidden. According to the UN records Sri Lanka had the second number of disappearances in 1998, a fact not well-known to the world.
In 1981, one of the biggest Libraries in South East Asia with 90,000 volumes of book was burned down by the government forces. The international community has not been aware of it to this day, despite the growth of information technology.
The election results of the North East in 1977 and in April 2004 have been successfully hidden from the International community. In these elections the people of the North East overwhelmingly voted for their rights – the right to self-determination and for recognition of their sole representatives, the LTTE.
As far as Sri Lanka is concerned information technology is used for disinformation regarding the realities in the North East of the island. At times the authorities even endorse the use of dangerous hate propaganda.
While this Summit looks at the positive side of the Information society, it is time also to look at the more sinister side that is seriously damaging the developing nations. Action must be taken to ensure that ICT is used for the good of humankind and that issues of justice and human rights underpin the deliberations of this summit.
It is for you, Sir, to steer this world summit so that its legacy will be one of contributing to the vision and reality of the communication and information society as under-girded by noble values, recognising the diversity, the dignity and the rights of all peoples and of all persons – as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Covenants.
We are confident that steps will be made to achieve this goal in the following days and thereafter. Civil society and past and present victims of human rights violations deserve nothing less.
Thank you
Yours truly,
S. V. Kirubaharan
General Secretary - TCHR
2
Facts to the United Nations
World Summit on the Information Society - WSIS
TCHR – Tamil Centre for Human Rights welcomes and endorses the Civil Society Declaration to the World Summit on the Information Society titled "Shaping Information Societies for Human Needs".
The declaration states that the heart of civil society's vision of information and communications societies is the human being and that the dignity and rights of all peoples and each person must be promoted, respected, protected and affirmed.
ÒSocieties in which everyone can freely create, access, utilise, share and disseminate information and knowledge, so that individuals, communities and peoples are empowered to improve their quality of life and to achieve their full potentialÓ are envisioned - ÒSocieties founded on the principles of social, political, and economic justice, and peoples' full participation and empowerment."
Communication is a fundamental social process, a human need and a foundation of all social organisation. It follows that all peoples and every person must be able to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, association and information. When people are denied these rights problems inevitably ensue.
Furthermore, if governments introduce systematic laws and implement racist policies to violently crush dissenting voices, prohibit freedom of expression and practise heavy censorship - serious and long-lasting conflicts can arise. Some such protracted violence has even resulted in armed conflicts.
International human rights organisations and other observers have for years warned that injustice and denial of rights, lead to discontent, legitimate anger and that if no redress is found within the country, victims of human rights violations are obliged to take their case to international forums.
The situation in the island of Sri Lanka
The situation in the island of Sri Lanka is a case in point. Censorship and curtailed freedom of expression in Sri Lanka has long been a concern of human rights organisations who have reported on the situation both in the South of the island and the North East.
Whereas in the South the views of certain sections of society have been suppressed, in the case of the North and East, the islandÕs political leaders of the dominant ethnic community have suppressed the rights of the numerical minority, a distinct people who have their own identity, culture, language and homeland.
35 years of non-violent protest
Since independence (1948) from the British, racist legislation and Sinhala racism have been at the heart of the political problems in Sri Lanka. Racist policies implemented on citizenship, language, education, land and other areas discriminate severely against the Tamil people in the island.
For more than 35 years the Tamil people in the island of Sri Lanka expressed their reactions and opinions on these discriminatory policies, through peaceful non-violent protest. These protests were then suppressed by violent means by the Sri Lankan security forces. Anti Tamil pogroms (including those in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981, and 1983), unleashed by successive Sri Lankan governments, Sinhala extremist groups and thugs, ruined the socio-economic and the political rights of the Tamil people. Thousands were massacred, burnt or hacked to death, thousands of women were raped and millions of rupees worth of properties were looted and destroyed.
Agreements unilaterally abrogated by Sinhala leaders
Attempts through parliamentary means, to challenge the oppressive legislation and its accompanying consistent pattern of brutal repression of protest, proved futile. Several agreements signed between the Tamil leaders (Parliamentarians) and the Sinhala leaders (Prime Ministers) to resolve the political turmoil in the country were unilaterally abrogated by then Prime Ministers in power. (In 1957, the "Banda Chelva" pact and in 1965 the "Dudley-Chelva" pact). These agreements were based on a quasi-federal system devolving certain powers to the Tamils in the North East provinces.
3
Constitutional safeguards scrapped
In 1972, the dominant Sinhala Buddhist majority gave itself an autochthonous constitution, renamed the island as 'Sri Lanka' (Sinhala name) and ensured that the Constitution secured a dominant role for Buddhism. The constitutional safeguards, which had hitherto (de jure but not de facto) debarred the enactment of discriminatory legislation, were scrapped. The human rights of the Tamil people were deteriorating alarmingly.
Democratic mandate
In the 1977 general elections the Tamil people voted overwhelmingly to establish and exercise their right to self-determination in the North East, based on having a homeland, a cultural and linguistic identity, a sense of nationhood, and the fact that their fundamental rights and freedoms had been systematically and brutally violated. The response of government to this election result was extreme. MPs were banned from even talking about the collective views of the Tamil people and their right to self-determination. The 1977 mandate is still ignored by the Sri Lankan government.
Planned arson attack on Library - destruction of 90,000 books
A few years later in 1981, in a horrific attempt to annihilate the total sum of literature and information about the entire Tamil history and culture, the library in Jaffna was burned down by Sri Lanka government forces. Over 90,000 books and documents, some very ancient, were destroyed. This was a blatant attack on all that was important in the field of communication and information. The burning down of libraries has been described as ÒmemoricideÓ - the attempt to erase the memory of a people.
The horror climaxed even further. In 1983, thousands of Tamils were brutally murdered in state sponsored racist pogroms. The terror, anguish and suffering experienced were unbearable. Thereafter, a resistance movement for freedom from oppression, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – LTTE grew rapidly with the support of the masses in the North East. War broke out, its seeds having been sown in the preceding state violence and denial of civil and political rights. Grotesque attacks on civilians by the government armed forces followed.
Pressure on humanitarian workers
Humanitarian workers who were stunned and horrified by the cold-blooded killing of large numbers of civilians in the North East by aerial bombing and strafing, in breach of the Geneva Conventions, did speak out on a small number of occasions. Those few organisations which did, faced an onslaught of diplomatic pressure and accusations that they had lied. They were forced to make the choice between keeping silent or leaving the island. Those members of civil society who tried to get information and photos of the atrocities and bombings out of the island faced massive obstacles and dangers, risking their lives.
In the context of the ethnic conflict in the island of Sri Lanka, including two decades of war, the government attempted to distort information, presenting a false picture to the world and indeed to the population in the South, about the causes and origin of the war, through its domestic and international communication channels. Hate media, endorsed by the authorities, has been used in the South to whip up anti-Tamil hysteria. To continue to commit atrocities of genocidal proportions it is vital that other countries and their peoples are prevented from knowing the real situation. The public revulsion and outrage would be strong and may lead to international protest against the oppressive government. Therefore the Sri Lankan government exercised draconian censorship.
The Emergency Regulations (ER) and the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary provision) Act (PTA) intensified the censorship strategy. Anyone who is Tamil can (still) be arrested simply under suspicion. Rule under ER has become the norm - for more than 34 years since independence. The PTA, made permanent in 1982, gives free hand to the Sri Lanka security forces to arrest, detain, torture, rape, kill and dispose of the bodies of Tamils with impunity. The extraction of false confessions under torture to force Tamil detainees to implicate themselves, became routine; a heinous communication method calculated to make untrue information appear substantiated.
Media blackout
The government created a media blackout, systematically obstructing journalists from going to the North and East, thus preventing independent international news coverage.
4
"Communication experts" were posted by the government in Sri Lanka High Commissions round the world to spread disinformation in key countries and through their political systems, especially where many expatriate Tamils live and were speaking of the realties and tragedies. To those working on the issue, the pattern of disinformation is horribly familiar, it is used to discredit and vilify the other party to the conflict.
Human rights monitoring censored
Voices expressing concern for human rights were smothered. Human Rights organisations could not function. For example, Peace Brigade International - PBI left the island after the Sri Lankan army insisted on scrutinising their documentation before it could leave the island. The organisation could not work ethically under such conditions. Those whose lives they were protecting would not be made safer by their accompanying presence. On the contrary, they would be even more vulnerable and at risk.
On 14 November 1995, anti-NGO (Non governmental organization) sentiments supported by the government drew together a crowd of up to three thousand intent upon disrupting the annual consultation of the NGO Forum on Sri Lanka which held at the Bentota Beach Hotel.
In fact the gross and systematic human rights violations; have continued for more than fifty years. In 1998, the UN Working Group on Disappearances stated that, "Sri Lanka had the second highest number of disappearances in the world, ranking next to Iraq". Also Sri Lanka was the only country that the UN Working Group on Disappearances has visited three times. So far no proper remedies have been found for these disappearances.
á High Security Zones still cruelly prevent civilians returning to their homes in breach of the Cease Fire Agreement - CFA
á More Sri Lanka army personnel are now occupying the Jaffna Peninsula than before the CFA.
(Please refer to the statistics given on Page 7)
Human rights activists face death threats and intimidation. Prominent lawyer Mr Kumar Ponnambalam, defender of the rights of both Sinhalese and Tamils, raised these urgent matters in international human rights forums, including in the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva and in the European Parliament in Brussels. He paid the ultimate price for his courageous and unswerving stand. He was assassinated in Colombo in cold-blood on January 5 2000. Mr Chandra Nehru, former Parliamentarian and human rights activist of NESOHR (North East Secretariat on Human Rights) was assassinated on 7 February 2005 in the East. Until today neither of these killings, nor those listed below have been properly investigated nor have the culprits been brought to justice.
People cannot think freely, write independently, speak openly, and publicly demonstrate their views and aspirations in this island. Whoever dares to exercise their right to freely express themselves, or their right to defend the human rights of others, runs the risk of facing the death sentence in the form of abduction and murder.
As shown on the list on page eight, senior journalists Aiyathurai Nadesan was killed on 31 May 2004, and this year D. Sivaram was murdered on 28 April 2005. Soon after each of these and the other killings, as usual, the government ordering of an immediate investigation follows. In the meantime government officials and ministers get ready to justify themselves. Impunity reigns.
5
ÒI salute a friend and fellow journalist most gruesomely murdered by those who dare not show their faces nor advance or protect their interests as honourable and brave men do. In the land where people were proud of the Sinhala lion, desperate jackals roam, seeking out their defenceless prey. Richard and many more have been brutally murdered; who or what is to be blamed? The collective psyche of the Sinhala people? Enough of this silent impotence. The terrorists have to be resisted. Extreme cowardice and a gnawing lack of self esteem as usual seem to be at the source of this faceless terrorism. Therefore it should be collectively resisted before it starts to knock on every door looking for victims to torture and kill, thereby to reassure itself of its existence.Ó
D. Sivaram, a friend of Richard de Zoysa. Written after the murder of Richard de Zoysa in 1990. D. Sivaram himself was killed fifteen years later in a similarly horrific cold-blooded murder.
The internet - Digital solidarity
Tamil international news and media networks have exercised the right to freedom of expression in the search to find ways to tell truth to the world. Ground realities have been broadcast by radio, TV and internet sites instantly, in the Tamil language to the diaspora. In turn, the diaspora has produced articles and news items, in other languages. Much information is disseminated via the internet. This has increased the international communityÕs understanding of the true ground realities in socio-political, economic terms and also touched many in personal ways as individual and collective stories of suffering have been told.
The Tamil diaspora, each family with its own personal experiences of suffering and persecution at the hands of the Sri Lankan government in some way, now have a live and vibrant electronic multi-media in which news is broadcast. Debates are encouraged and views expressed and shared. The Tamil administration in the North East also has its own electronic and multi-media communications of radio and TV. The living conditions and realities as experienced locally can be described and communicated to those living outside the area.
Human Rights Web-site
TCHR was established in 1990 and launched its website in the new millennium. The immediacy of electronic communication via the internet has helped distribute information efficiently and safely. Prior to the advent of the electronic medium each communication was written and disseminated by post. Information can be supplemented with related articles by hyperlink. The unequivocal corroborative evidence of the killings, atrocities and denial of freedom of expression can be seen speedily and clearly with a few clicks of a mouse.
The technology required to design and adapt Tamil fonts was developed. This was followed quickly by a vast number of Tamil web-sites in Tamil script, balancing at least in part, the myriad sites in roman letter based language. The diaspora also has sites in English, French and other languages.
The sites cover many areas of cultural, political, artistic and scientific interest and continue to be of interest to knowledge based societies all over the world. These sites constitute a celebration of the Tamil language, literature, philosophy and culture, which has developed since ancient times, rich in tradition and knowledge. All this is now in the public domain, advancing the cause of intellectual creativity and innovation, fundamental aspects of the information and communication societies.
The ÒThirukkuralÓ, world renowned literature on philosophical wisdom, was written about 2000 years ago by Thiruvalluvar, originally on palm leaves. It can be found in Tamil and English on several websites.
6
|
Date |
Name of victim |
Reporting for: |
Incident |
|
18/02/1990 |
Richard de Zoysa (journalist for UN funded Rome based agency - IPS) |
International Press Service |
Abducted in Colombo shot dead |
|
14/05/1999 |
Sri Lal Priyantha |
Lakbima |
Arrested |
|
15/07/1999 |
Ten journalists |
Freelance & News |
Assaulted by Police |
|
21/07/1999 |
Several journalists |
Freelance & News Papers |
Victims of violence by PSD (Presidential Security Division) |
|
07/09/1999 |
Rohana Kumara |
Editor-Satana |
Shot dead in suburb of Colombo |
|
27/09/1999 |
Susannah Price (British) |
BBC |
Received death threats by telephone |
|
02/11/1999 |
Nadarajah Atputharajah |
Thinamurusu |
Shot dead in Colombo |
|
03/04/2000 |
Nellai G. Nadesan |
Virakesari |
Grenade attack at his home in Batticaloa |
|
20/10/2000 |
Mylvaganam Nirmalarajan |
BBC, IBC |
Shot dead at his home in Jaffna |
|
02/01/2001 |
N. Thiruchelvam |
Lake House |
Arrested and tortured in Colombo |
|
20/01/2001 |
M. Vithiyatharan |
Editor-Uthayan |
Arrested by Police in Jaffna |
|
21/03/2001 |
A. Fasmi |
Thinakural |
Arrested by Sri Lanka Army in Mannar |
|
16/04/2001 |
Marie Colvin (American) |
Sunday Times UK |
Shot and injured by Sri Lankan army |
|
23/05/2001 |
Office of the weekly |
Athavan |
Hit by a lobbed smoke bomb |
|
07/06/2001 |
Pirabaharan |
Freelance |
Attacked by gangsters in Bogawantala |
|
17/07/2001 |
Aiyadurai Nadesan |
Virakesari |
Interrogated by the Army in Batticaloa |
|
03/08/2001 |
A. Manoharan |
Lake House |
Received death threat |
|
26/12/2001 |
Dharmaratnam Sivaram |
Freelance |
Beaten with clubs and knives in Batticaloa |
|
26/12/2001 |
M. Wijetharan |
Thinakathir |
Beaten with clubs and knives in Batticaloa |
|
26/06/2002 |
P. Satchivanandan |
BBC |
Threatened. Family member attacked |
|
02/09/2002 |
Chandramogan |
ABC Radio |
Police attacked him in Point Pedro |
|
10/12/2002 |
Vellupillai Thavasylan |
IBC Radio |
Police attacked him in Point Pedro |
|
07/01/2003 |
S. Jayananthamoorthy |
Virakesari |
Grenade attack at his home in Batticaloa |