Oshkosh gets $189.1 million Army deal for latest mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehiclesSeptember 14th, 2009 Oshkosh gets $189.1M Army deal for new MRAPsWASHINGTON — Oshkosh Corp. recently received a $189.1 million contract from the Army to buy additional mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, and related items, the Pentagon said late Monday.
Indian agricultural team to visit Sri Lanka next weekSeptember 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A team of agricultural experts from India will visit Sri Lanka next week to help in rehabilitation of displaced people in the north of the island nation, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said here Thursday.
Government moves to bring back Indian prisoners in Sri LankaJuly 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi has asked the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka to take necessary steps to bring back the Indians languishing in prisons in the island nation. "I have asked our mission in Colombo to take necessary action in the matter," Ravi told IANS on phone from Kochi.
Building on Indian Navy's initiative, Lanka hosts 34 navies of IORMay 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Taking the Indian Navy's initiative a step further to increase maritime cooperation among navies/maritime agencies in the Indian Ocean Region, the Sri Lanka Navy is hosting IONS Technical Seminar 2009 in which delegates of thirty-four nations are participating. The IONS (Indian Ocean Naval Symposium) provides a forum for discussion of issues, both regional and global.
Address Tamil grievances, Jayalalitha tells Sri LankaMay 21st, 2009 CHENNAI - In her first comment after the decimation of the Tamil Tigers, AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha Thursday asked Sri Lanka to address 'all the genuine grievances' of the Tamil community.
Sporadic violence in Tamil Nadu after Prabhakaran's deathMay 19th, 2009 CHENNAI - Violent protests erupted in parts of Tamil Nadu Tuesday following the death of Tamil Tiger chief V. Prabhakaran and other top leaders of the terrorist outfit in Sri Lanka.
Details sought from Sri Lanka on Prabhakaran: CongressMay 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian government has sought details from Sri Lanka about the military action in which LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed, the ruling Congress party said Monday. 'It is a very sensitive issue.
India trying to help Tamils in Sri Lanka: PMMay 9th, 2009 CHENNAI - India is doing what it can to help the beleaguered Tamil community in Sri Lanka lead 'a life of dignity and honour', Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday. The prime minister told journalists while on a campaign tour here that he was 'deeply concerned over the very difficult situation in Sri Lanka' where thousands have died in a military onslaught aimed at crushing the Tamil Tigers.
We will ensure Tamil state in Sri Lanka: JayalalithaMay 6th, 2009 CHENNAI - Reiterating her call for a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka, AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha Wednesday said the Indian Army would be sent to the island nation to carve out Tamil Eelam state if her alliance wins all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Army, navy on high alert to prevent LTTE infiltrationApril 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Indian Army and the Indian Navy have been placed on high alert along the country's southern coast to prevent any infiltration bid by Tamil tiger cadres fleeing the military offensive against them in Sri Lanka, a top commander said Wednesday. 'There is a high alert in the southern command,' Indian Army vice chief Lt.
New Delhi feels the ripples of Lankan imbroglioApril 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Human rights activists, including church leaders, on Wednesday staged a protest here against the ongoing ethnic war in Sri Lanka. The protestors appealed to both the Indian and Sri Lankan Governments to establish peace in the island nation.
Sri Lanka did not act under Indian pressure: CongressApril 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress party Monday insisted that Sri Lanka did not call off 'combat operations' against the Tamil Tigers due to Indian pressure, and instead credited the move to 'world opinion'. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the Sri Lankan decision followed 'collective world opinion in which India was in the vanguard'.
Congress urges Sri Lanka to declare ceasefireApril 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress, India's main ruling party, Wednesday urged Sri Lanka to declare ceasefire to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the island nation and allow Tamil civilians to move out of the conflict zone. 'The Indian National Congress calls upon the Sri Lankan government to declare a ceasefire so that the humanitarian crisis can be resolved in a demonstrable way,' the party said in a statement.
Karunanidhi wants Sri Lanka to announce immediate ceasefireApril 17th, 2009 CHENNAI - Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Friday said India should sever all ties with Sri Lanka if the island nation does not announce a ceasefire immediately.
ISI could infiltrate through Sri Lanka: ChidambaramFebruary 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government is alive to the threat of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) attempting to infiltrate its operatives into south India via Sri Lanka and has taken steps to counter this, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Wednesday.
July 13th, 2009 at 9:25 am
India would redeem its betrayal by allowing the mandated Human Rights bodies to do their job instead of playing its farcical role in UNHRC meeting on Sri Lanka (SL) war crimes
Sri Lankan case is a classic ‘how to’ guide book on committing the worst human rights crimes and still escape criminality. All the invaluable work on SL’s human rights crimes done by UNHRC and other mandated Human rights groups were brought to naught (even a preliminary investigation was killed off thanks to Delhi) at the May Council meeting with Delhi exploiting the Council’s weakness as presently constituted. Delhi involvement in the SL genocide explains its intense interest in seeking such an outcome.
UNHRC and related Hunan Rights groups used their commendable field work and statements/reports to successfully prosecute the world’s most renowned human rights abusers/criminals. In SL’s case Human Rights groups reported ‘unacceptably high’ civilian deaths and ‘politically motivated massacres of surrendering Tamil Tiger fighters’ by the SL army. Yet Delhi (Raman) not only disputes vehemently the civilian numbers killed in SL’s ‘no fire zone’ but unfairly accuses the West and the personnel of the UN and mandated Human Rights groups of using the ‘Elam issue to embarrass the SL government and put its senior officers in the dock by disseminating unauthenticated high figures of civilian casualties’ and cruelly overlooking the savagery of SL’s attacks on civilians that bordered on criminality; There was intense bombardment of the narrow ‘no-fire zone’, government troops throwing grenades into unarmed bunkers where civilians were sheltering, using heavy vehicles to run over injured civilians and bulldozing civilians ‘into mass graves along with the dead’. Leaks of graphic details of these are effectively plugged by keeping incommunicado the front line human shield civilians prisoners now in the concentration camps in the Vanni. However TV images of the long marches to the concentration camps of emaciated civilians, victims of starvation vouch to the savagery of SL’s use of starvation as a weapon of war on unarmed civilians. A well informed analyst cynically observed that SL crimes received praise in that Council meeting which also ordered an investigation into Gaza atrocities though SL’s crimes were easily 10 times worse; the difference; there were no cameras in the SL case for the world see.
An observer explained ‘India’s (strong) backing for SL over the war crimes at the UNHRC for the West using ‘the Eelam struggle, to actually de-stabilize SL and India’. The ‘no fire zone’, the brain child of Narayanan/Menon was meant for the massacres to occur in utmost secrecy without independent witnesses, to frustrate potential SL war crimes proceedings. Tamil civilians entrapped in the war front trustingly moved into the India blessed ‘no fire zones’ but they were actually well planned ‘massacres zones’ unlike Israel’s 1982 Shabra and Shatila camp massacres. Lurid pictures of the SL massacres are in the public domain worldwide, thanks to the internet. Furthermore the revelation in The Sunday Times Gothabhaya Rajapakse’s interview described the role of the Indian trio (Foreign Secretary, National Security Advisor and Defense Secretary) who were ‘in the loop during the fighting’ and involved in the step by step liaising with the SL counterparts over the timing /details of the (May 16 to 19) massacres. Narayanan reportedly insisted that RAW be involved in the capture and massacre of the Ltte leadership along with a certain number of civilians politically acceptable to Delhi. RAW’s over flights gave precise co-ordinates of the targets and the ground conditions for the massacres. In these circumstances prudence called for India to act in the May UNHRC meeting as it did. India saw a threat in the West’s SL war crimes initiatives in the UNHRC though the Tamils view that the western powers unlike Delhi were acting perfectly morally exposing SL’s inhuman crimes against unarmed civilians. The Tamils are distressed that an unabashed Delhi will continue to frustrate UNHRC’s pains to establish the criminality of the SL genocide as long as the Council is heavily stacked with members who are human rights abusers. Sri Lanka lost its membership in the UNHRC almost exactly a year ago. SL’s success in the UNHRC this time around is the result of India’s robust lobbying for SL’s for which the Tamils in their tens of thousands were used as sacrificial lambs.
vssubramaniam
SINGAPORE
July 15th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Delhi’s complicity in Sri Lankan (SL) war crimes
Sri Lankan case is a classic ‘how to’ guide book on committing the worst human rights crimes and still escape criminality. All the invaluable work on SL’s human rights crimes done by UNHRC and other mandated Human rights groups were brought to naught (even a preliminary investigation was killed off thanks to Delhi) at the May Council meeting with Delhi exploiting the Council’s weakness as presently constituted. Delhi involvement in the SL genocide explains its intense interest in seeking such an outcome.
UNHRC and related Hunan Rights groups used their commendable field work and statements/reports to successfully prosecute the world’s most renowned human rights abusers/criminals. In SL’s case Human Rights groups reported ‘unacceptably high’ civilian deaths and ‘politically motivated massacres of surrendering Tamil Tiger fighters’ by the SL army. Yet Delhi (Raman) not only disputes vehemently the civilian numbers killed in SL’s ‘no fire zone’ but unfairly accuses the West and the personnel of the UN and mandated Human Rights groups of using the ‘Elam issue to embarrass the SL government and put its senior officers in the dock by disseminating unauthenticated high figures of civilian casualties’ and cruelly overlooking the savagery of SL’s attacks on civilians that bordered on criminality; There was intense bombardment of the narrow ‘no-fire zone’, government troops throwing grenades into unarmed bunkers where civilians were sheltering, using heavy vehicles to run over injured civilians and bulldozing civilians ‘into mass graves along with the dead’. Leaks of graphic details of these are effectively plugged by keeping incommunicado the front line human shield civilians prisoners now in the concentration camps in the Vanni. However TV images of the long marches to the concentration camps of emaciated civilians, victims of starvation vouch to the savagery of SL’s use of starvation as a weapon of war on unarmed civilians. A well informed analyst cynically observed that SL crimes received praise in that Council meeting which also ordered an investigation into Gaza atrocities though SL’s crimes were easily 10 times worse; the difference; there were no cameras in the SL case for the world see.
An observer explained ‘India’s (strong) backing for SL over the war crimes at the UNHRC for the West using ‘the Eelam struggle, to actually de-stabilize SL and India’. The ‘no fire zone’, the brain child of Narayanan/Menon was meant for the massacres to occur in utmost secrecy without independent witnesses, to frustrate potential SL war crimes proceedings. Tamil civilians entrapped in the war front trustingly moved into the India blessed ‘no fire zones’ but they were actually well planned ‘massacres zones’ unlike Israel’s 1982 Shabra and Shatila camp massacres. Lurid pictures of the SL massacres are in the public domain worldwide, thanks to the internet. Furthermore the revelation in The Sunday Times Gothabhaya Rajapakse’s interview described the role of the Indian trio (Foreign Secretary, National Security Advisor and Defense Secretary) who were ‘in the loop during the fighting’ and involved in the step by step liaising with the SL counterparts over the timing /details of the (May 16 to 19) massacres. Narayanan reportedly insisted that RAW be involved in the capture and massacre of the Ltte leadership along with a certain number of civilians politically acceptable to Delhi. RAW’s over flights gave precise co-ordinates of the targets and the ground conditions for the massacres. In these circumstances prudence called for India to act in the May UNHRC meeting as it did. India saw a threat in the West’s SL war crimes initiatives in the UNHRC though the Tamils view that the western powers unlike Delhi were acting perfectly morally exposing SL’s inhuman crimes against unarmed civilians. The Tamils are distressed that an unabashed Delhi will continue to frustrate UNHRC’s pains to establish the criminality of the SL genocide as long as the Council is heavily stacked with members who are human rights abusers. Sri Lanka lost its membership in the UNHRC almost exactly a year ago. SL’s success in the UNHRC this time around is the result of India’s robust lobbying for SL’s for which the Tamils in their tens of thousands were used as sacrificial lambs.
vssubramaniam
SINGAPORE