AI
Sunday, November 10, 2013 10:17:44 PM
'Tamils still being raped and tortured' in Sri Lanka
"Roshini Thinakaran travels to countries ripped by war and reeling in its aftermath. But amid destruction, she sees something
else: Strong, resilient women with a passion for their people and the difficult work of rebuilding lives and countries."
9 November 2013 Last updated at 01:20 GMT
By Frances Harrison Presenter, Our World
VIDEO - Frances Harrison's report on Sri Lanka
Related Stories
Pillay attacks S Lanka rights record - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23899082
Sri Lanka profile - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11999611
Q&A: Post-war Sri Lanka - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11393458
As Commonwealth leaders prepare to meet at a summit in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, allegations of rape and
torture by the Sri Lankan security forces have emerged, some of them occurring four years after the civil war ended.
"When the lady left and that man closed the door, I knew what was going to happen," says Vasantha. "They raped me."
One evening earlier this year, Vasantha says, she was going back to her home in northern Sri Lanka when a white van drew up and two men asked for her identity card.
She says she was thrown into the back of the vehicle and blindfolded.
-----
Find out more
[hidden: A Tamil rape survivor, who we are calling Nandini]
Watch Our World: Sri Lanka's Unfinished War on BBC World News on Saturday 9 November at 11:30
GMT and on Sunday 10 November at 17:30 GMT and 22:30 GMT or watch it later on the BBC iPlayer.
Our World: Sri Lanka's Unfinished War -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03j0r4q/Our_World_Sri_Lankas_Unfinished_War/
[i hope the correct one is posted below for others denied access]
-----
Vasantha says she realised the authorities had finally caught up with her, four years after the war and just as she was about to leave for Britain on a student visa.
Her story is one of a number given to the BBC, horrific accounts of torture carried out long after hostilities ended.
During the civil war, Vasantha had helped Tamil Tiger rebels pass messages and set up safe houses in the capital, but she says she never took part in the fighting or held a gun.
Like other women I have interviewed, Vasantha never saw the outside of the building where she was held or met another detainee, but she said she did hear female voices, screaming in Tamil.
She describes being photographed and fingerprinted and then kicked, beaten with batons and pipes, burned with hot wires and cigarettes, submerged in a barrel of water until she thought she would drown, suffocated by having a petrol-soaked plastic bag put over her head, before being repeatedly raped by men in army uniform.
She says she signed a confession in a language she could not understand - Sinhala - but the torture and rape went on for 20 days before a relative could find her and pay a bribe for her release.
For the last three days, she remembers her skin itching terribly in a filthy cell as she was kept completely naked.
This Tamil man says he was branded during a torture session
"On the last day, at about two in the morning, three people came and they blindfolded me again and handcuffed me. At that moment I thought they were going to kill me," she recalls.
Vasantha has a medical report from an independent expert who corroborates her story of rape and torture, as well as documents to show her family reported her disappearance to Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission at the time.
She has recently been granted asylum in the UK on the basis of her story.
Vasantha is one of 12 men and women who say they were raped by the Sri Lankan security forces in detention this year - one as recently as August.
The Sri Lankan government says it does not tolerate torture and the military says there were only five incidents of sexual violence involving soldiers in the north of the island from 2007 to 2012.
But a Human Rights Watch report documented 62 cases of sexual violence involving the security forces after the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka and said their evidence strongly suggested the abuse was widespread and systematic.
-----
Sri Lanka Timeline
1948 - As Ceylon, the island gains independence from Britain.
1972 - The government changes its name to Sri Lanka and gives Buddhism primary place as country's religion, antagonising largely Hindu Tamil minority.
1983 - As ethnic tensions grow, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launches a violent uprising, seeking autonomy for the Tamil-dominated north and east.
2005 - After years of war, and failed peace talks, Mahinda Rajapaksa is elected president.
May 2009 - Tamil Tigers defeated after army over-runs last patch of rebel-held territory in the north-east. LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran killed.
Apr 2011 - UN says both sides committed atrocities against civilians and calls for an international investigation into possible war crimes. Sri Lanka says the report is biased.
Nov 2012 - Another UN report says 70,000 civilians were "unaccounted for" at the end of the war.
Nov 2013 - Colombo prepares to host Chogm
-----
The UK charity Freedom from Torture has examined 120 incidents that took place after the war in Sri Lanka, while two British doctors from the charity Medact have seen more than 60 cases of Sri Lankans branded on their bodies with hot metal rods since the war ended.
"There is such a systematic set-up in Sri Lanka, whereby it's absolutely clear to me… that detention and torture is going on in a very large scale and that it's done in a very similar way every time," says Dr Alison Callaway, an NHS doctor from Coventry who has written 200 independent assessments for the Home Office of alleged torture cases from Sri Lanka in the past five years.
"It must be assumed that it's the deterrent effect that they will never again be able to have the strength or the purpose to want to fight against the Sri Lankan government or undertake underground activities against them because the terror and the distress and the trauma has been so great," she concludes.
A BBC investigation also found seven Tamil men who allege they were tortured in the Sri Lankan government's official rehabilitation programme for suspected former rebels. Four have documentation to show they were rehabilitated as well as medical reports corroborating their allegations of torture.
Organisations such as the International Commission of Jurists and two United Nations reports have said the Sri Lankan rehabilitation programme failed to meet international standards and warned of the possibility of torture, but this is the first testimony from survivors.
The allegations come as Sri Lanka prepares to host the Chogm summit
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence says it had "a world-class terrorist rehabilitation programme" that offered healthcare, education, vocational training and facilities for sports, meditation and entertainment to former Tamil Tiger rebels.
This was not the experience of Ravi, who says he was forced to join the rebels for the last six months of the war but then spent four years in rehabilitation being tortured in all the places he was detained.
"They would put my testicles in the drawer and slam the drawer shut. Sometimes I became unconscious. Then they would bring someone and force me to have oral sex with him. Sometimes if we lost consciousness during the torture they would urinate on us," he says.
A leading British lawyer examined the evidence of continuing torture and rape gathered by the BBC along with other documentation from the United Nations and human rights groups.
Kirsty Brimelow QC says: "It all equates to a crime against humanity and therefore in cases like this, normally you'd be looking at them being referred to the international criminal court for further investigation."
The Sri Lankan government paints a picture of an Indian Ocean paradise recovering from decades of war
The Sri Lankan High Commission in London said: "Allegations of systematic abuse are a travesty of the truth for they suggest that this is the policy of the Sri Lankan government. It is certainly not so."
They said it was not fair to expect them to respond fully to allegations contained in anonymous testimony.
Their written statement suggested the people who spoke to the BBC could have been paid to discredit Sri Lanka or even tortured by the Tamil Tigers themselves.
The names of Vasantha, Ravi and Nandini have been changed to protect their identities.
Our World: Sri Lanka's Unfinished War will be broadcast on BBC World News on
Saturday 9 November at 11:30 GMT and on Sunday 10 November at 17:30 GMT and 22:30 GMT.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24849699
=====
Sri Lanka's Unfinished War by BBC -8thNov2013 -Part 1 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR7camXGFUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xJvVy83th8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63oDqI7VgQo
=====
Deported asylum seekers arrested in Sri Lanka
16/11/2012
Published by ABC Radio Australia
View the rest of the article
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2012-11-16/deported-asylum-seekers-arrested-in-sri-lanka/1047076
The story said
A group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers deported from Australia has reportedly been arrested in Colombo. The 32 men were flown back to Colombo after seeking asylum on Christmas Island. More than 200 Sri Lankans have been forcibly returned since the Australian government reintroduced off-shore processing, while another 92 have returned voluntarily.
Did you know
Nearly all the boat arrivals in recent years have been people from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Burma – countries which are or have recently been active war zones. Asylum seeker arrival numbers follow regional and global trends – no policy of ours is going to change the fact that people are fleeing for their lives.
See more facts - http://www.rethinkrefugees.com.au/the-facts/
http://www.rethinkrefugees.com.au/in-the-news/deported-asylum-seekers-arrested-in-sri-lanka/
===== .. imo, deportations as those are shameful ..
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to boycott CHOGM summit over alleged Sri Lankan rights abuses
Updated 7 hours 0 minutes ago
PHOTO: It is believed Manmohan Singh decided to boycott the summit to avoid upsetting India's ethnic Tamils. (RAVEENDRAN / POOL / AFP)
Related Story: Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon detained in Sri Lanka
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-10/greens-senator-lee-rhiannon-detained-by-officials-in-sri-lanka/5081840
Related Story: Sri Lanka hits back at Canadian PM in CHOGM snub
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-09/an-sri-lanka-hits-back-at-canada27s-pm/5012292
Related Story: Labor MP calls for Sri Lanka CHOGM boycott
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-30/labor-mp-calls-for-sri-lanka-chogm-boycott/4660478
Map: Sri Lanka - http://maps.google.com/?q=7,81(Sri%20Lanka)&z=5
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh will skip this week's Commonwealth summit in
Sri Lanka, as pressure grows for a boycott of the event over alleged war crimes by Colombo.
Mr Singh sent a letter to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse on Sunday telling him of his decision not to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which has become steeped in controversy over demands for Colombo to address the allegations.
The prime minister was "unable to attend personally" the 53-nation summit which Sri Lanka is hosting from November 15-17, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.
Mr Singh's move is seen as bowing to pressure from India's own large population of ethnic Tamils to stay away in protest at the alleged massacre of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan forces in the final months of the Tamil separatist war in 2009.
Mr Singh is sending his top foreign official, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, to head the Indian delegation.
Sri Lankan foreign minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris said Mr Singh's decision was not a setback for the hosts.
"If he came, we would have been very happy. But he has taken this decision considering domestic political compulsions," Mr Peiris said.
"But it is not going to diminish the success of the CHOGM in any way."
Coalition and Labor both opposed to boycott
Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has already announced he would boycott the summit, to protest against Sri Lanka's failure to investigate its troops over allegations they killed up to 40,000 civilians in 2009.
Both sides of Australian politics have previously said that boycotting the summit would further isolate Sri Lanka ..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-28/australia-rejecting-push-to-boycott-chogm/4655530 .
However, Greens leader Christine Milne and former prime minister Malcolm Fraser have both called for a boycott of the meeting ..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-28/australia-rejecting-push-to-boycott-chogm/4655530 .
And yesterday, Sri Lankan immigration authorities briefly detained Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon and New Zealand MP Jan Logie .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-10/greens-senator-lee-rhiannon-detained-by-officials-in-sri-lanka/5081840 .. who were making a fact-finding mission into alleged rights abuses.
Video: Lee Rhiannon had been attending meetings with pro-democracy activists. (ABC News)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-11/greens-senator-lee-rhiannon-leaves-srilanka-after-being-detained/5082094
The move came less than two weeks after Sri Lanka kicked out two Australian media rights activists who were meeting local rights activists.
British prime minister David Cameron has said he will attend the summit, but has pledged to push for an international investigation into the allegations of war crimes.
Mr Cameron said he would put "serious questions" to Mr Rajapakse, after watching a "chilling documentary" about the events of 2009 that shows footage of alleged war crimes.
"It (the documentary) brings home the brutal end to the civil war and the immense suffering of thousands of innocent civilians who kept hoping that they would reach safety, but tragically many did not," Mr Cameron said.
"I will raise my concerns when I see president Rajapakse next week in Colombo.
"And I will tell him that if Sri Lanka doesn't deliver an independent investigation, the world will need to ensure an international investigation is carried out instead."
Sri Lanka rejects war crimes allegations
Sri Lanka responded by repeating its denial that its troops committed any such abuses.
"If a foreign head of government raises any issue with us, we will respond appropriately," Mr Rajapakse's spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said.
"We deny that there were war crimes. What we tell them is, please provide the evidence and we will look into it."
United Nations rights chief Navi Pillay last month warned Sri Lanka to show clear progress towards reining in rights abuses and investigating the suspected war crimes by next March, or face an international probe.
Mr Singh's move comes amid concerns about a crackdown in Sri Lanka against journalists, rights activists and others before CHOGM.
CHOGM is held every two years.
Prince Charles will represent his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who is head of the bloc of mainly former British colonies.
ABC/AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-11/india-prime-minister-boycott-chogm-sri-lanka-human-rights/5082022
"Roshini Thinakaran travels to countries ripped by war and reeling in its aftermath. But amid destruction, she sees something
else: Strong, resilient women with a passion for their people and the difficult work of rebuilding lives and countries."
9 November 2013 Last updated at 01:20 GMT
By Frances Harrison Presenter, Our World
VIDEO - Frances Harrison's report on Sri Lanka
Related Stories
Pillay attacks S Lanka rights record - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23899082
Sri Lanka profile - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11999611
Q&A: Post-war Sri Lanka - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11393458
As Commonwealth leaders prepare to meet at a summit in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, allegations of rape and
torture by the Sri Lankan security forces have emerged, some of them occurring four years after the civil war ended.
"When the lady left and that man closed the door, I knew what was going to happen," says Vasantha. "They raped me."
One evening earlier this year, Vasantha says, she was going back to her home in northern Sri Lanka when a white van drew up and two men asked for her identity card.
She says she was thrown into the back of the vehicle and blindfolded.
-----
Find out more
[hidden: A Tamil rape survivor, who we are calling Nandini]
Watch Our World: Sri Lanka's Unfinished War on BBC World News on Saturday 9 November at 11:30
GMT and on Sunday 10 November at 17:30 GMT and 22:30 GMT or watch it later on the BBC iPlayer.
Our World: Sri Lanka's Unfinished War -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03j0r4q/Our_World_Sri_Lankas_Unfinished_War/
[i hope the correct one is posted below for others denied access]
-----
Vasantha says she realised the authorities had finally caught up with her, four years after the war and just as she was about to leave for Britain on a student visa.
Her story is one of a number given to the BBC, horrific accounts of torture carried out long after hostilities ended.
During the civil war, Vasantha had helped Tamil Tiger rebels pass messages and set up safe houses in the capital, but she says she never took part in the fighting or held a gun.
Like other women I have interviewed, Vasantha never saw the outside of the building where she was held or met another detainee, but she said she did hear female voices, screaming in Tamil.
She describes being photographed and fingerprinted and then kicked, beaten with batons and pipes, burned with hot wires and cigarettes, submerged in a barrel of water until she thought she would drown, suffocated by having a petrol-soaked plastic bag put over her head, before being repeatedly raped by men in army uniform.
She says she signed a confession in a language she could not understand - Sinhala - but the torture and rape went on for 20 days before a relative could find her and pay a bribe for her release.
For the last three days, she remembers her skin itching terribly in a filthy cell as she was kept completely naked.
This Tamil man says he was branded during a torture session
"On the last day, at about two in the morning, three people came and they blindfolded me again and handcuffed me. At that moment I thought they were going to kill me," she recalls.
Vasantha has a medical report from an independent expert who corroborates her story of rape and torture, as well as documents to show her family reported her disappearance to Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission at the time.
She has recently been granted asylum in the UK on the basis of her story.
Vasantha is one of 12 men and women who say they were raped by the Sri Lankan security forces in detention this year - one as recently as August.
The Sri Lankan government says it does not tolerate torture and the military says there were only five incidents of sexual violence involving soldiers in the north of the island from 2007 to 2012.
But a Human Rights Watch report documented 62 cases of sexual violence involving the security forces after the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka and said their evidence strongly suggested the abuse was widespread and systematic.
-----
Sri Lanka Timeline
1948 - As Ceylon, the island gains independence from Britain.
1972 - The government changes its name to Sri Lanka and gives Buddhism primary place as country's religion, antagonising largely Hindu Tamil minority.
1983 - As ethnic tensions grow, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) launches a violent uprising, seeking autonomy for the Tamil-dominated north and east.
2005 - After years of war, and failed peace talks, Mahinda Rajapaksa is elected president.
May 2009 - Tamil Tigers defeated after army over-runs last patch of rebel-held territory in the north-east. LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran killed.
Apr 2011 - UN says both sides committed atrocities against civilians and calls for an international investigation into possible war crimes. Sri Lanka says the report is biased.
Nov 2012 - Another UN report says 70,000 civilians were "unaccounted for" at the end of the war.
Nov 2013 - Colombo prepares to host Chogm
-----
The UK charity Freedom from Torture has examined 120 incidents that took place after the war in Sri Lanka, while two British doctors from the charity Medact have seen more than 60 cases of Sri Lankans branded on their bodies with hot metal rods since the war ended.
"There is such a systematic set-up in Sri Lanka, whereby it's absolutely clear to me… that detention and torture is going on in a very large scale and that it's done in a very similar way every time," says Dr Alison Callaway, an NHS doctor from Coventry who has written 200 independent assessments for the Home Office of alleged torture cases from Sri Lanka in the past five years.
"It must be assumed that it's the deterrent effect that they will never again be able to have the strength or the purpose to want to fight against the Sri Lankan government or undertake underground activities against them because the terror and the distress and the trauma has been so great," she concludes.
A BBC investigation also found seven Tamil men who allege they were tortured in the Sri Lankan government's official rehabilitation programme for suspected former rebels. Four have documentation to show they were rehabilitated as well as medical reports corroborating their allegations of torture.
Organisations such as the International Commission of Jurists and two United Nations reports have said the Sri Lankan rehabilitation programme failed to meet international standards and warned of the possibility of torture, but this is the first testimony from survivors.
The allegations come as Sri Lanka prepares to host the Chogm summit
The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence says it had "a world-class terrorist rehabilitation programme" that offered healthcare, education, vocational training and facilities for sports, meditation and entertainment to former Tamil Tiger rebels.
This was not the experience of Ravi, who says he was forced to join the rebels for the last six months of the war but then spent four years in rehabilitation being tortured in all the places he was detained.
"They would put my testicles in the drawer and slam the drawer shut. Sometimes I became unconscious. Then they would bring someone and force me to have oral sex with him. Sometimes if we lost consciousness during the torture they would urinate on us," he says.
A leading British lawyer examined the evidence of continuing torture and rape gathered by the BBC along with other documentation from the United Nations and human rights groups.
Kirsty Brimelow QC says: "It all equates to a crime against humanity and therefore in cases like this, normally you'd be looking at them being referred to the international criminal court for further investigation."
The Sri Lankan government paints a picture of an Indian Ocean paradise recovering from decades of war
The Sri Lankan High Commission in London said: "Allegations of systematic abuse are a travesty of the truth for they suggest that this is the policy of the Sri Lankan government. It is certainly not so."
They said it was not fair to expect them to respond fully to allegations contained in anonymous testimony.
Their written statement suggested the people who spoke to the BBC could have been paid to discredit Sri Lanka or even tortured by the Tamil Tigers themselves.
The names of Vasantha, Ravi and Nandini have been changed to protect their identities.
Our World: Sri Lanka's Unfinished War will be broadcast on BBC World News on
Saturday 9 November at 11:30 GMT and on Sunday 10 November at 17:30 GMT and 22:30 GMT.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24849699
=====
Sri Lanka's Unfinished War by BBC -8thNov2013 -Part 1 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR7camXGFUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xJvVy83th8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63oDqI7VgQo
=====
Deported asylum seekers arrested in Sri Lanka
16/11/2012
Published by ABC Radio Australia
View the rest of the article
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2012-11-16/deported-asylum-seekers-arrested-in-sri-lanka/1047076
The story said
A group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers deported from Australia has reportedly been arrested in Colombo. The 32 men were flown back to Colombo after seeking asylum on Christmas Island. More than 200 Sri Lankans have been forcibly returned since the Australian government reintroduced off-shore processing, while another 92 have returned voluntarily.
Did you know
Nearly all the boat arrivals in recent years have been people from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Burma – countries which are or have recently been active war zones. Asylum seeker arrival numbers follow regional and global trends – no policy of ours is going to change the fact that people are fleeing for their lives.
See more facts - http://www.rethinkrefugees.com.au/the-facts/
http://www.rethinkrefugees.com.au/in-the-news/deported-asylum-seekers-arrested-in-sri-lanka/
===== .. imo, deportations as those are shameful ..
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to boycott CHOGM summit over alleged Sri Lankan rights abuses
Updated 7 hours 0 minutes ago
PHOTO: It is believed Manmohan Singh decided to boycott the summit to avoid upsetting India's ethnic Tamils. (RAVEENDRAN / POOL / AFP)
Related Story: Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon detained in Sri Lanka
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-10/greens-senator-lee-rhiannon-detained-by-officials-in-sri-lanka/5081840
Related Story: Sri Lanka hits back at Canadian PM in CHOGM snub
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-09/an-sri-lanka-hits-back-at-canada27s-pm/5012292
Related Story: Labor MP calls for Sri Lanka CHOGM boycott
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-30/labor-mp-calls-for-sri-lanka-chogm-boycott/4660478
Map: Sri Lanka - http://maps.google.com/?q=7,81(Sri%20Lanka)&z=5
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh will skip this week's Commonwealth summit in
Sri Lanka, as pressure grows for a boycott of the event over alleged war crimes by Colombo.
Mr Singh sent a letter to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse on Sunday telling him of his decision not to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which has become steeped in controversy over demands for Colombo to address the allegations.
The prime minister was "unable to attend personally" the 53-nation summit which Sri Lanka is hosting from November 15-17, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.
Mr Singh's move is seen as bowing to pressure from India's own large population of ethnic Tamils to stay away in protest at the alleged massacre of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan forces in the final months of the Tamil separatist war in 2009.
Mr Singh is sending his top foreign official, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, to head the Indian delegation.
Sri Lankan foreign minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris said Mr Singh's decision was not a setback for the hosts.
"If he came, we would have been very happy. But he has taken this decision considering domestic political compulsions," Mr Peiris said.
"But it is not going to diminish the success of the CHOGM in any way."
Coalition and Labor both opposed to boycott
Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has already announced he would boycott the summit, to protest against Sri Lanka's failure to investigate its troops over allegations they killed up to 40,000 civilians in 2009.
Both sides of Australian politics have previously said that boycotting the summit would further isolate Sri Lanka ..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-28/australia-rejecting-push-to-boycott-chogm/4655530 .
However, Greens leader Christine Milne and former prime minister Malcolm Fraser have both called for a boycott of the meeting ..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-28/australia-rejecting-push-to-boycott-chogm/4655530 .
And yesterday, Sri Lankan immigration authorities briefly detained Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon and New Zealand MP Jan Logie .. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-10/greens-senator-lee-rhiannon-detained-by-officials-in-sri-lanka/5081840 .. who were making a fact-finding mission into alleged rights abuses.
Video: Lee Rhiannon had been attending meetings with pro-democracy activists. (ABC News)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-11/greens-senator-lee-rhiannon-leaves-srilanka-after-being-detained/5082094
The move came less than two weeks after Sri Lanka kicked out two Australian media rights activists who were meeting local rights activists.
British prime minister David Cameron has said he will attend the summit, but has pledged to push for an international investigation into the allegations of war crimes.
Mr Cameron said he would put "serious questions" to Mr Rajapakse, after watching a "chilling documentary" about the events of 2009 that shows footage of alleged war crimes.
"It (the documentary) brings home the brutal end to the civil war and the immense suffering of thousands of innocent civilians who kept hoping that they would reach safety, but tragically many did not," Mr Cameron said.
"I will raise my concerns when I see president Rajapakse next week in Colombo.
"And I will tell him that if Sri Lanka doesn't deliver an independent investigation, the world will need to ensure an international investigation is carried out instead."
Sri Lanka rejects war crimes allegations
Sri Lanka responded by repeating its denial that its troops committed any such abuses.
"If a foreign head of government raises any issue with us, we will respond appropriately," Mr Rajapakse's spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said.
"We deny that there were war crimes. What we tell them is, please provide the evidence and we will look into it."
United Nations rights chief Navi Pillay last month warned Sri Lanka to show clear progress towards reining in rights abuses and investigating the suspected war crimes by next March, or face an international probe.
Mr Singh's move comes amid concerns about a crackdown in Sri Lanka against journalists, rights activists and others before CHOGM.
CHOGM is held every two years.
Prince Charles will represent his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who is head of the bloc of mainly former British colonies.
ABC/AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-11/india-prime-minister-boycott-chogm-sri-lanka-human-rights/5082022
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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