McDonagh on Sri Lanka: ‘Watch Channel 4 News’

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1184614595?bctid=42951590001
Addressing the final day of the 2009 Labour party conference, former Labour whip Siobhain McDonagh MP draws attention to Channel 4 News's coverage of events in Sri Lanka.

The Labour party conference in Brighton turned its attention to the aftermath of the civil war in Sri Lanka today.

In his speech, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said –
"In those democracies, like Sri Lanka, where civil war claimed lives and liberty, we say governments have a duty to uphold the civil, social and political rights of all their citizens, whatever their ethnicity or religion."
The conference went on to debate – and pass – a resolution which condemned "the detention by the Sri Lankan government of 300,000 men, women and children" as inhumane.
The resolution also called for journalists to be allowed to enter Sri Lanka and report what is happening in the camps, and for the withdrawal of Sri Lanka’s favoured trading status.
Debating the resolution, former Labour whip Siobhain McDonagh described Sri Lanka as "a country where we can see on Channel 4 News young men, naked and bound, shot at close range."
On 25 Augusthttp://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/asia_pacific/execution%20video%20is%20this%20evidence%20of%20war%20crimes%20in%20sri%20lanka/3321087which appeared to show Sri Lankan forces executing Tamils.
The footage allegedly dated from January of this year, several months before Sri Lanka declared victory over the Tamil Tigers after a civil war that had lasted more than a quarter of a century.
Sri Lanka’s government disputed the authenticity of the footage, but it nonetheless
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/un+probing+sri+lanka+aposexecutionsapos/3328212
UN rapporteur Philip Alston remarked: “This videotape seems to have most of the characteristics of a genuine article.”

On 7 September http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/asia_pacific/footage+reveals+sri+lanka+camp+conditions/3335367
which appeared to reveal the victims of Sri Lanka’s war, suffering poor conditions in UN-funded camps.
Four days later, on 11 September, Professor Rajiva Wijesinha, spokesman for Sri Lanka’s ministry of disaster management,http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/interview+prof+rajiva+wijesinha/3340897appeared on Channel 4 News, questioning the authenticity of the film shown on 7 September and of the earlier footage.

Sri Lanka accepts UN criticism of camps

Sri Lanka on Thursday said it accepted much of the United Nations' recent criticism over its handling of 250,000 Tamils detained in camps since the end of the island's ethnic conflict six months ago.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe pledged the government would address recommendations made by Walter Kaelin, a representative of the United Nations secretary-general, who last week toured the detention facilities.

"He (Kaelin) said a lot of factual things like getting the sewer and sanitation right on an urgent basis and to make things comfortable for those living inside the camps," Samarasinghe told AFP.
"It is a very positive statement. We take these things in the right spirit."
The government has vowed to re-settle all people displaced during the decades of war by January, but international aid and human rights groups have questioned its commitment to the welfare of Tamil civilians.
Kaelin spent five days visiting the overcrowded camps and holding talks with officials.

He asked Sri Lanka to comply with its international obligations and said a clash at the weekend between troops and detainees raised serious human rights issues.
Sri Lanka has resisted repeated calls to close the camps, saying it needed more time to weed out former Tamil Tiger rebel fighters.

UN Security Council Calls for Appointment of Special Representative on Sexual Violence

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution creating new tools to combat sexual violence against women and children in conflict situations. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chaired Wednesday's meeting, which came on the last day of the United States' presidency of the council.

Secretary Clinton said that during her July trip to Africa, she met victims of sexual violence in the eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than a 1,100 rapes are reported each month.
"The physical and emotional damage to individual women and their families from these attacks cannot be quantified nor can the toll on their societies," said Hillary Clinton. "The dehumanizing nature of sexual violence doesn't just harm a single individual or a single family or even a single village or a single group. It shreds the fabric that weaves us together as human beings. It endangers families and communities, erodes social and political stability, and undermines economic progress. We need to understand that it holds all of us back."
Clinton said that despite two earlier Security Council resolutions, sexual violence in conflict situations has not diminished, and in some cases has escalated.
She noted that new resolution - 1888 - aims to give the U.N. and member states new tools to prevent conflict-related sexual violence and end impunity.
"It [the resolution] calls on the secretary-general to appoint a special representative to lead, coordinate and advocate for efforts to end sexual violence," said Secretary Clinton. "It also calls on the secretary-general to rapidly deploy a team of experts to work with governments to strengthen the rule of law, address impunity and enhance accountability."
The resolution also raises the possibility of sanctions, as it requests Security Council sanctions committees to consider patterns of sexual violence when adopting or targeting sanctions.
Sexual violence against women and girls has been widespread in Africa, where U.N. statistics show that as many as a half a million women were raped during the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s; some 64,000 women were victims of violence during Sierra Leone's 10-year long conflict; and today in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands more suffer. But the problem is not limited to Africa. Rape has been used as a weapon of war in the Balkans, Burma and Sri Lanka.
Human rights groups, which have criticized the United Nations and the Security Council for not doing enough to protect women against violence, welcomed Wednesday's resolution and urged the secretary-general to move swiftly to appoint the new special representative.

Supreme Court to decide terrorism support law

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Wednesday it would hear an Obama administration appeal defending part of the Patriot Act, which has been criticized by civil liberties groups for giving the government broad powers.

The justices agreed to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that struck down as unconstitutionally vague a law that makes it a crime to provide support to a foreign terrorist group.
The law, first adopted in 1996, was strengthened by the USA Patriot Act supported by then-President George W. Bush and approved by Congress right after the September 11 attacks in 2001. It was amended again in 2004.

The high court is expected to hear arguments in the case early next year, with a decision likely by June. It will be the first time the court will consider part of the Patriot Act.
Convictions under the law, which bars knowingly providing any service, training, expert advice or assistance to a designated foreign terrorist group, can result in sentences of 15 years to life in prison.
The law does not require any proof that the defendant intended to further any act of terrorism or violence by the foreign group.

"The material support law resurrects guilt by association and makes it a crime for a human rights group in the United States to provide human rights training," said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor and the lead attorney challenging the law.
"We don't make the country safer by criminalizing those who advocate nonviolent means for resolving disputes. Congress can and should draw a clear line between assistance that further terrorism and that which does not," Cole said.
The Obama administration appealed to the Supreme Court and called the law "a vital part of the nation's efforts to fight international terrorism."

Since 2001, the United States has charged about 120 defendants with the material support of terrorism and about half have been convicted, the Justice Department said.
"Many of those prosecutions potentially prevented substantial harm to the nation," Solicitor General Elena Kagan said in the appeal. Defendants have been charged under the law with "providing al Qaeda with martial arts training and instruction" and "medical support to wounded jihadists."

The challenge had been brought by groups and individuals who want to provide support to the Kurdistan Workers Party in Turkey and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. The State Department designated both as foreign terrorist groups.
The Humanitarian Law Project, a human rights group in Los Angeles, previously provided human rights advocacy training to the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK, and the main Kurdish political party in Turkey.
The Humanitarian Law group and others sued in 1998 in an effort to renew support for what they described as lawful, nonviolent activities overseas.

Extension of GSP Plus status to be decided next month

The European Commission will convene on October 15, to discuss the matter of extending the GSP Plus status to Sri Lanka. As per GSP Plus, exports from Sri Lanka do not attract any import duties in its exports to the countries of the European Union.

GSP Plus gives Sri Lanka the right to export more than 7,200 products duty-free to the EU, which last year accounted for 36 percent of Sri Lanka's US $8.1 billion in total exports. Countries receiving GSP Plus must have ratified and implemented 27 international conventions on rights, labour, development and good governance.

As per sources in the European Commission, the status may be extended, but with conditions attached. The Commission is probing the excesses of the military in its war against terrorism, last year and which has become the central topic of the Commission in its decision to extend the status.

The biggest export revenue generator; apparels is fully dependent on the GSP Plus status being given a extension, since most of the exports from the sector are destined for Europe and losing the status would mean competing with other countries like China, India and Vietnam on a equal footing.

At UN, Ban Cannot Stop Sri Lanka's Shooting, Blake's Visit, Report Mid-October

In the wake of the Sri Lankan Army shooting at least two children on the margins of the Manik Farm "Internally Displaced Persons" camp in Vavuniya, Inner City Press on Tuesday asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon if, in his September 28 meeting with three Sri Lankan ministers, he sought or gained any commitment for non-use of lethal weapons on unarmed IDPs. Mr. Ban rattled off "three points" -- in essence, resettlement, reconciliation and accountability -- and said "they committed that they will do as we have agreed. But we have to have a close watch and monitor this process."FULL STORY