UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION : 2009 COMPLAINT OF TAMIL GENOCIDE

                                                                                                                        21.05.2009

 Ms.Navaneetham Pillai

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Palais de Nations

CH 1211 Geneva 10

Switzerland

Respected Madam

Subject : Seeking  the support of your office to urge the UN bodies to probe all charges of genocide of Tamils in Srilanka regarding….

We are enclosing a book titled : Tamil Genocide under Neo Nazism, which charge sheets the Sinhalese Governments for Tamil massacres committed from 1956 to 2001 when cease fire period delivered a short lived peace broken by Srilankan President Mahinda Rajapakshe who was hell bent to resume a civil war to fulfill his life’s ambition to ethnic cleansing of Tamils. The Tamil genocide could not be buried by keeping international media and UN out of the theatre of war. We Indian Tamils took the decision to place before UN Security Council that Tamil Genocide is a continuing crime that had crossed half a century. This book contains our appeal to UN Security Council to urge the Public Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of Justice to start the probe into the Tamil Genocide.

After the lull of Norway brokered Peace, we have yet to complete compiling the crimes committed by Srilankan Government. We have filed a complaint titled Tamil Genocide :Complaint to the Public Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of Justice. We have quoted from media to eminent judges  and to reports of UN bodies to indicate the fact that there is urgency to probe the Tamil Genocide. We all know how certain hands stalled  official discussions in Security council when Tamil lives in Tamil Eelam theatre of war was lost in thousands every day.

Technical snags created by non-participating states in Rome Statute may put roadblocks to the Public Prosecutor, and it is here the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner must exert pressure within UN to set the process of probe in motion, we Indian Tamils are knocking your doors seeking justice.

The usage of chemical weapons in the theatre of war and its supplier nations which violated international law and conventions should be subjected to probe. We quote the relevant law which fits the definition in each and every word and word by word   all the crimes  have been committed by Srilanka

  

Crimes against humanity, Art. 7, Rome Statute of International Criminal Code describes these as: Murder, Extermination, persecution, enforced disappearances, torture, intentionally causing great hurt, great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health, deportation or forcible transfer of population . 

‘War Crimes, Art.8, Rome Statute of International Criminal Code describes these as:  Bombing of hospitals, civilian habitations, prevention of supply of basic amenities such as food, water, medicines.

Apart from committing each and every crime the framers of Rome Statute brought into the definition of crimes, Srilankan President Mr.Mahinda  Rajapakshe   used starvation as  weapon of war,

"Article 54(1) of Additional Protocol I to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 sets forth a rule of customary international humanitarian law that obligates every state in the world: "Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited."

Furthermore, starvation of civilians as a method of warfare can also constitute an act of genocide as defined by Article II (c) of the 1948 Genocide Convention:

It is needless to state that "The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been claiming a glorious total victory - and denying allegations from doctors on the scene that tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been the victims of indiscriminate artillery fire and scorched-earth tactics," said Boston Globe in editorial, adding "the European Union must follow up on its call for an investigation of war crimes against civilians." The editorial also said that "the United Nations adopted a resolution in 2005 on the "responsibility to protect" populations that are not protected by their own governments. The massive killing and wounding of civilians on Sri Lanka represents exactly the sort of case that resolution was meant to address."

Hence our appeal is to remind your office that what we seek is already finding endorsements in European Union and in UN, and it will be appropriate for UNHRC to support our complaint to order for a probe either by UNHRC or through ICCJ.

With Regards

Yours sincerely

N.Nandhivarman  General Secretary Dravida Peravai

DRAVIDA PERAVAI WRITES TO 147 NATIONS

DRAVIDA PERAVAI WRITES TO 147 NATIONS

IN UN ON SRILANKA’s GENOCIDE OF TAMILS

In the 11 th special session on 26^th May 2009 of the Human Rights Council at Geneva the self laudatory resolution of Srilanka was passed with the support of Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, CHINA, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, INDIA, Indonesia Jordan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Uruguay and Zambia.

The Resolution to charge Srilanka for Tamil Genocide got the backing of Bosnia and Herzegovina, CANADA, Chile, FRANCE, GERMANY, ITALY, Mexico, NETHERLANDS, Slovakia   Slovenia, SWITZERLAND, UK, Northern Ireland.

Japan, Argentina, Gabon, Mauritius, Republic of Korea, Ukraine abstained from voting. The 11^th Regular session of UN Human Rights Council began on 2^nd June and continues till 18^th June 2009. There are 167 embassies in Geneva. Out of these 167 countries excluding China, Pakistan, Srilanka and India, to all other countries Dravida Peravai had sent a 22 page memorandum urging the nations to punish those guilty of Tamil genocide, as well as urging nations that took wrong stand in the special session to reverse the stand before regular session and also to take the issue to General Assembly of United Nations.15 mails bounced.147 nations Ambassadors received the mails. Identical letters were sent.

                                                              

To The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative

Respected Sir

We, a political party in India representing Indian Tamils had been helplessly pleading to the United Nations to redeem our kinsmen in Srilanka from the clutches of the Srilankan Government headed by Mr.Mahinda Rajapakshe who had unleashed a genocidal war are bleeding in our hearts for the failure of the conscience of the humanity which did not prompt United Nations to act in time. We thought that at least in the 11^th special session of the Human Rights Council held on 26^th May of 2009, member nations will initiate steps to probe the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Srilankan President Mr.Mahinda Rajapakshe.

We thank the Governments of Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland who have stood up against Srilanka.

We regret that we have failed to present our case and cause before Japan, Argentina, Gabon, Mauritius, Republic of Korea and Ukraine, which abstained from voting in favour of Srilanka.

We have to pity with  Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, INDIA, Indonesia , Jordan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Uruguay, and Zambia, who have been in haste to vote a self congratulatory resolution of the Neo-Hitler of the 21^st century Mr.Mahinda Rajapakshe. These nations, some of them well known about the magnitude of genocide had backed Srilanka, thereby hoping that all war crimes could be hidden before the world. We will be appealing to all nations, misguided and that had committed mistake, or historical blunder to give a clean chit to genocide, to re-think and reevaluate from whatever evidences that had started to trickle in through media, that too quoting UN sources.

Increasing international media coverage of Government of Sri Lanka's culpability to the massacre of more than 20,000 Tamil civilians in Mullaitheevu must awaken those nations that faltered in their steps on 26^th May of 2009. Emily Wax of Washington Post in story dated 29^th May 2009 said, the beach "shows clear signs of heavy artillery shelling, according to a helicopter inspection of the site by independent journalists, interviews with eyewitnesses, and specialists who have studied high-resolution satellite imagery from the war zone.”

We further quote the full text of The Times’ editorial, dated 29^th May and titled ‘Witness to disaster’, follows: Sri Lanka yesterday faced fresh calls for a war crimes inquiry after reports in The Times that at least 20,000 Tamils were killed, mostly by army shelling, in the closing stages of the civil war. But as Colombo clumsily denounced the reports and the photographic evidence as propaganda, evidence has emerged that not only the United Nations but several Western governments knew of the slaughter weeks ago but kept silent for fear of upsetting the Sri Lankan Government. Such a monstrous collusion in covering up an atrocity must not go unchallenged. If the UN Human Rights Council refuses to investigate what has happened, the West must do so forthwith.

An abashed UN yesterday admitted that the death toll from Sri Lanka's civil war was “unacceptably high”. But spokesmen still refused to confirm the total, compiled from UN sources on the ground. The figures were based on meticulous reports of the daily deaths among the desperate civilian refugees hit by army shells, and the UN rebuffed Sri Lanka's claim that not a single civilian had been killed by shelling. The “well-informed estimates” of casualties, it said, had been passed on to governments and the UN had been “ringing the alarm bells” for a long time.

These reports show just the tip of the iceberg. It is the moral duty of humanity and the custodians of civilized society, namely the member nations of United Nations to indict the Srilankan Government and the nations that supplied chemical weapons banned globally.

We are enclosing an appeal to all member nations as attachment which will give the background of Tamil issue and the present status. In the light of these evidences, we urge your nation to take the correct stand in the General Assembly of the United Nations. We call upon you to advice the permanent representatives of 47 countries to make amends in the 11 the regular session of the Human Rights Council that starts in Geneva from 2^nd June and lasts till 18^th June of 2009.

With Regards

Yours Fraternally 

     

N.Nandhi Varman 

 General Secretary Dravida Peravai India                      2009