Shiva Pasupathy appeals to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Former Sri Lankan Attorney - General , Mr.Shiva Pasupathy has written to UN Human Rights High Commissioner Ms. Navanetham Pillay about the plight of Civilians in the Northern mainland of Sri Lanka.
Mr. Pasupathy has urged Ms. Pillay to ensure that all citizens are allowed to remain wherever they want to stay and that none should be compelled to move to detention camps against their will.
Mr.Pasupathy now resident in Australia has written this letter along with three other co - signatories.
The former A-G is currently chairperson of an organization called Australians for Human Rights of the Voiceless.
The Full Text of Mr. Pasupathy's appeal is given below:
We are Australian citizens who share a deep concern about the escalating civilian crisis in Sri Lanka. We appeal to you to bring about an immediate cease-fire between the Sri Lankan Forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and to induct a United Nations Peace-Keeping Force, to ensure a cessation of hostilities. We also urge that, in the meantime, diplomatic personnel, non-government agencies and independent journalists, be allowed access to the affected areas, so that urgent relief could be provided and there could be a true and independent disclosure and assessment of the prevailing situation.
Foreign and local media have been banned from entering the conflict zones since January 2008, when the government unilaterally withdrew from the Cease-fire Agreement and commenced its military offensive. In fact, the local media have been banned from publishing reports adverse to the government and media persons not complying have been killed or subject to assaults and threats. In the absence of independent reporting, it has not been possible to distinguish between facts and propaganda, disseminated by the parties to the conflict.
We are deeply concerned about the lack of medical staff and personnel of aid agencies, serving the estimated around 300,000 civilians trapped in the conflict zones. In September 2008, the Sri Lankan government evicted United Nations and international aid agencies from these areas.
The departure of the only international and independent witnesses from the conflict areas, has removed the accountability of the parties to the conflict. The Sri Lankan government has also issued orders to doctors and other health staff to leave the conflict areas immediately. We appeal to you to take steps to allow international monitoring and to allow medical and aid agencies unrestricted access to the conflict zones immediately.
In direct violation of the Geneva Convention, civilian hospitals in the conflict zones have repeatedly come under aerial bombing and shelling. Furthermore, on 2 February 2009 the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary, Mr Gotabaya Rajapakse, stated that every place outside a government declared “safe-zone” is a military target and no exception will be given to any places providing medical facilities. We urge you to require the Sri Lankan government to stop the aerial bombing of hospitals and that both parties ensure the safety of the civilians, until a cease-fire becomes operational.
As you are aware, the detentions centres setup by the government, have been described by recognised human rights organizations as concentration camps, in view of the ban on person interned to leave the camps and access to the camps being denied to relatives, media and international organizations. Further statements made by internees who are subject to intense pressure by the armed forces, have been disseminated as voluntary and credible statements.
We, therefore , appeal to you to take such steps as you deem appropriate, to allow citizens to remain where they wish to, instead of compelling them to enter detentions camps and to allow access to them by the United Nations representatives, international aid agencies and the media.
Signed by
1) Former Attorney General of Sri Lanka & Chairman of Australians for Human Rights of the Voiceless Hon Shiva Pasupati
2) Sudar Eswaran – Councillor, Strathfield Municipal, Australia
3) Dr Mano Mohan – Consultant Cardiologist & Chairman Australian Medical Aid Foundation
4) Mr R Mahendran – President Durga Hindu Devasdanam, Sydney, Australia
8 Comments
A meaningful human rights request, which should be respected.
It is surprising that such a request, is even necessary, as it is the meaningful and rightful actions of a UN authority. Why is it denied by a government?
It appears that even those civilians enclosed in the "internment camps" are denied the basic human rights. This is most appalling. How will any others be willing to be camped in it?
Are we back to the Hitler era of democracy?
This is a very clever presentation,suitable however, to a Court of Appeals.These appeals to international bodies are excercises in futility.These organizations have no power to do anything.Their resoltions can be defied with impunity by even members of the UN.Do I really have to give examples here?What in fact can they do in Sri Lanka?Send a military contingent,following RTP code, as a third force and creat more civilian casualties?These international treaties are pious statements with no bite to them.
This trust in an essentially fictious "international community" has been cultivated by the fools and fantasists of the expatriate Tamil community for a long time and it has certainly not borne fruit.In fact this misguided faith in this community's power and influence has only made matters worse for the Tamils by making them believe in their impractical dreams and sef-defeating strategies.It is these follies and fantasies that have brought us to the verge of not only political destruction,but according to recent analyses,even demographic destruction.
For a rational anyalysis of some of these considerations, read Victor Ivan's
It is really a strange thing how Mr.Pasupathi was performing his duty as the former AG of Sri Lanka.He was handling many LTTE cases and just after the retirement ,he became a supporter of LTTE.So there is big suspicion about his duty as The AG of Sri Lanka.I wonder still he is getting his pension from the SL Govt.
Good work done by dedicated men.
IT IS THE CITIZENS WHWHO HAVE TAKEN ARMS AGAINST THE STATE THAT MUST LAY DOWN THEIR ARMS AND BEHAVE LIKE {human civilans}.
THEREFORE, IT IS UP TO LTTE TO DISARM AND ALLOW THE CIVILIANS TO BE FREE FROM THEIR MILITARY DICTATORSHIP RULE.
BOTTOM LINE IS THERE ARE NO TAMIL HOMELANDS IN SRI LANKA. IF YOU WANT TO ENJOY THE BENEFITS OF BEING IN FREE SRI LANKA. LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND LIVE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.
Mr.Pasupathi
It will not be long before you will be labelled as another hard-core LTTEer since you are a Tamil and you are writing to Pillay, whose name looks like that of a Tamil and she has been already marked as an LTTer.
It means all Tamils who do not agree with the principles of MR regime (striking similarity with RM - Robert Mugabe's regime) are LTTEers.This is the world we have to live in. They are so short-sighted that they cannot see the number of dead bodies of the valiant soldiers, but they can perceive the exact location of the wounds of Charles Anthony - the prodigal son of Prabaharan!
Nostradamus has predicted that the next world war will be initiated by China - a factor that has been ignored by the wesrtern world as well as India which is more than willing to help Lankan Government in the war.
I have a bad feeling about this. Are we in the epicentre of the WORLD WAR to come?
It is a totally hopeless situation for Tamil civilians. A fascist government and its murderous army are allowed to invade and occupy Tamil homeland under the pretext of preserving Sinhala government’s so-called sovereignty. What about the Tamil polity's sovereignty, when the Sinhala Political Establishment even treats Tamils as second class citizens, in their homeland? We have a situation for over the last twenty five years, successive Sinhala fascist governments have even gone to war with Tamils and occupied the Tamil homeland militarily, when they have absolutely no right to invade and occupy Tamil homeland. It Tamil sovereignty and Sinhala sovereignty are not one and the same, if Tamil patriotism and Sinhala patriotism are not one and the same, then it is only common sense that we part company amicably.
Given that we have been subject people of the European colonialists for nearly five hundred years, and that our politicians although very able and quite well educated too at the time of independence, the fact remains that the Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism, began to rear its ugly head, undermining all progressive elements and even absorbing them. Now the Sinhalese are willing to admit to for the most part what went wrong, but still like to blame the Tamils anyway for not trying hard enough stop their sociopathic behaviour of persecution and slaughter of Tamils. Wonderful chaps these Sinhalese! I must admit, in all honesty, Sinhalese are fundamentally friendly hospitable people, except they have taken their hospitality towards Tamils just a little too far, politically speaking, to smothering Tamils with relentless persecution and murder, out of perhaps unremitting love for the Tamils.
It is now time to tell the Sinhala supremacists that the ‘underlying premise’ on which the invasion and occupation of Tamil homelands took place is fundamentally and incontrovertibly wrong. Broadly, a genocidal Sinhala-Buddhist ideology was and is predominant at the heart of Sinhala Political Establishment. Just because the Sinhala leadership subscribed to a fascist ideology does not mean that Tamils should stick their neck out and make it easy for the Sinhala murderers to hack them to death – but, unfortunately that is what has happened, and continue to happen.
It this warped logic by which the Tamils have been persecuted and are being murdered to the point of extinction that this genocidal Sinhala government should be forced to admit. If more experienced members of the Tamil community both at home and in the diaspora could kindly come forward and articulate forcefully this point until the murderous Sinhala terrorist government demilitarizes from Tamil homeland, our woes of consequent to persecution and oppression would slowly but steadily begin to disappear.
QUIT THAMIL EELAM: Sinhala terrorist governments cannot send in the Sinhala Army to illegally invade and occupy to settle a political question with the Tamils. If the Sinhalese cannot persuade Tamils to live under one roof then they should have the decency let the Tamils go on their own. What business does the Sinhala Army have in Tamil homeland? How can the international community allow the fascist Sinhala Army to lay siege to over quarter of a million Tamils in their homeland in this day and age and get away with it. It is even preposterous that innocent Tamil civilians should be allowed to be interned to deprive all manner of freedoms hard won by humanity world over, by making endless sacrifices. These Sinhala barbarians should be brought to their senses and persuaded QUIT THAMIL EELAM, without shedding further Tamil blood in their homeland!
Needless to say, the immediate need of the hour, as you rightly explained in your letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is to feed those starving masses, who have been relentlessly bombed, shelled and displaced for over two decades!
I sincerely hope that you would bring your valuable experience bear on this humanitarian disaster that Tamils rather unfortunately find themselves in. Thanks for your patience!
P Shantikumar
London
Mahida may fight for human rights after his terms.
he may get some advise from Mr Pasupathy