Detaining IDPs violates UN treaty: EU
October 08 2009 – Tamil National
A top European Union official has expressed concern over the failure by the government to permit freedom of movement to the more than 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) housed at welfare camps in the North saying the failure to do so is not in line with a United Nations treaty.
According to a local media report Ms. Jean Lambert, President of the European Parliament (EP) delegation for relations with South Asia said that the protracted detention of IDPs is disproportionate and conflicts with key provisions of the ICCPR.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a United Nations treaty based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created on December 16, 1966 and entered into force on March 23, 1976.
The ICCPR is monitored by the Human Rights Committee (a separate body to the Human Rights Council which replaced the Commission on Human Rights under the UN Charter in 2006) with permanent standing, to consider periodic reports submitted by member States on their compliance with the treaty.
Ms Lambert told Daily Mirror online she fully shares the views expressed, in public, by the Commission at the Hearing on Sri Lanka which took place at the European Parliament Sub-Committee on Human Rights as recently as last Thursday that where it was said that “the protracted detention of IDPs is disproportionate and conflicts with key provisions of the ICCPR”.
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Time is running out for SL to respond positively on human rights issues
October 08, 2009 – Tamil National
The EU had drawn the attention to Sri Lanka’s poor record on adherence to GSP norms, well before the concession was set to expire. However, Sri Lanka, presumably in the euphoria of waging a winning war, appeared confident of handling the issue politically. But when that failed, Sri Lanka appears to consider the report an affront to its dignity rather than tackling the issues raised in it, says Col R Hariharan.
If the EU goes by the adverse report Sri Lanka on its conformity with EU norms, the country is unlikely to get the extension of GSP+ tariff concessions for a further period from 2009 to 11. The EU report had condemned Sri Lanka armed forces for “perverting the evidence and silencing witnesses, rather than conducting any real investigations” on human rights issues. Unless there is some political horsetrading the chances of its extension appear bleak. If that happens, it would be a very big blow to Sri Lanka which is in an economic logjam after the war, as its exports particularly apparels, destined for EU markets would be priced out. To avoid this, Sri Lankan government’s foreign and commerce ministers were in a last minute scramble to persuade the EU to extend concessions up to 2011.
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250,000 Tamils in dire humanitarian need, says British Minister
October 07 2009 – Tamilnet
Mike Foste,r, a British international development minister, said after visiting Menik farm, the internment camp where Sri Lanka holds more than a quarter of million displaced Tamils, that the internees “are in dire humanitarian need of being allowed out of internment camps which face flash floods in Sri Lanka’s monsoons,” the British paper Guardian reported. “Although conditions have improved the tents are basically disintegrating. With the monsoons we will have sewage floating around – water-borne diseases will be rife,” the paper said quoting Foster.
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Britain not prepared to fund closed camps in SL, will limit aid to emergency funding
October 06, 2009 – TamiL national
Britain says it will soon withdraw all but emergency funding for the camps where about 250,000 displaced Tamils are confined in northern Sri Lanka and cannot freely leave. Once the imminent monsoon was over, the UK government would only fund life-saving emergency interventions in the camps, a British minister said.
The announcement came after the UK International Development Minister Mike Foster visited the biggest camp at Menik Farm. A quarter of million displaced Tamils are in dire humanitarian need of being allowed out of internment camps which face flash floods in Sri Lanka’s monsoons, he said.
“There’s a pressing humanitarian need for the civilians to be allowed to leave the camps,” said Foster. “Although conditions have improved the tents are basically disintegrating. With the monsoons we will have sewage floating around – water-borne diseases will be rife.
“Freedom of movement is critical if a humanitarian crisis is to be averted,” he added “We will not be prepared to fund closed camps after the monsoons.”
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Sri Lanka’s internment camps for Tamils: experience of an inmate
October 05, 2009 – Tamilnet
South Asia has never witnessed such a large scale, state-organized crime as one committed on Eezham Tamils by the government of Sri Lanka. Perhaps the world has never witnessed hitherto that such a crime of internment camps for civilians could be initiated collectively by all the powers of the world and the UN, and could be left like this without anyone being able to do anything about it. A civilian woman who was a captive in the Zone 3 of the internment camp of Menik Farm for four months, and managed to come out by ‘other means’ a month ago, writes on her experience in the camp – an indelible shame for the so-called civilised world. Menik Farm is divided into five zone camps. Each zone has a Tamil ‘figure head’ from the administrative service receiving orders from Sinhala civil servants who work closely with the military. The Tamil ‘figure head’ and all other interned staff take orders from the military. On occasional visits by dignitaries, she writes, “Then a van with video cameras drove by and started throwing bread and some “sambol” at the inmates crowded behind the office. The inmates rushed competing for the bread while the amused cameramen were videoing. Inmates on many occasions have told me of seeing similar scenes being videoed.” Gun and stick (long baton rods) wielding military control the inmates at all times. Reporting misbehaviour of the military could be fatal, she writes: I asked one senior government employee inmate if this misconduct by the military ought to be reported. I was told that if I attempt anything like that I will “disappear.”
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