United Nations "negotiator" on Sri Lanka payroll

Today it was announced that the United Nations would send Vijay Nambiar to Sri Lanka for the second time to try and negotiate on behalf of the trapped Tamil civilians, just as the Sri Lanka army launches a final assault against the LTTE:

It was announced at UN headquarters on Thursday that UN chief Ban Ki-moon is rushing his chief of staff Vijay Nambiar back to Sri Lanka to press for protection of the trapped civilians.

Allow us to bring some facts to light about this supposedly "unbiased" negotiator, who appears to actually be on the payroll of the Sri Lankan government, though indirectly - something that is obviously known to the United Nations. Vijay Nambiar's brother (Satish Nambiar) is a paid consultant for the Sri Lankan army, and has been since 2002. What is the link between this Sri Lankan military consultant and the United Nations? It is hard to determine, but despite the obvious link through his brother, there is also a small resume of Satish Nambiar's located on the UN website:

http://www.un.org/News/dh/hlpanel/satish-nambiar-bio.pdf

Very odd since he hasn't worked officially for the UN since 1993. We should also note that after visiting Sri Lanka, Vijay Nambiar first reported back to his brother in India, before reporting to the United Nations in New York. Under such urgent and dire circumstances, why would he spend days visiting his brother rather than returning to the UN to report about this important matter.

Satish Nambiar has been quoted by the Sri Lankan defence website several times, most recently glorifying the defence secretary for his great accomplishments in routing the LTTE.

What does this mean? The UN sends an "impartial" negotiator to Sri Lanka who's brother has been a paid consultant to the Sri Lankan army since 2002. This same brother also happens to be the Director and President of the "United Service Institution of India", which is organizing an event in Delhi on 27th May 2009, titled "Present Situation in Sri Lanka and the Way Ahead", where the speaker is "His Excellency Mr. Romesh Jayasinghe, High Commissioner, High Commission of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka". This "negotiator's" brother happens to arrange speaking engagements for the Sri Lankan government, while also being a paid consultant for the last 7 years.

Already there is a conflict of interest with the UN sending an Indian who is affiliated with the congress party, accused by most Tamils as being the real designer of this war in Sri Lanka. But on top of it, his brother has been a paid consultant for the Sri Lankan army for 7 years, and is even now arranging speaking engagements for the Sri Lankan government representatives in India.

After Vijay Nambiar made his first failed visit to Colombo to speak with the Sri Lankan government, instead of returning to the United Nations to report the outcome, he went to India to spend time with this brother on "vacation", the same brother who is a paid consultant for the Sri Lankan army! While thousands of Tamil civilians were dying, he delayed reporting to the United Nations and instead vacationed with his brother in India. When he finally arrived at the United Nations he refused to speak to the press, even though it has always been his custom to hold press conferences after such important trips.

On 4/26 Vijay Nambiar's brother, Satish, submitted an article to several newspapers, which was subsequently published in the Indian Express and quoted on the Sri Lankan government's official military website (http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090427_04):

Writing in the Indian Express newspaper, Satish Nambiar said, Sri Lankan Army Commander Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka "has displayed the qualities of a great military leader nations are blessed with from time to time."

Writing on the Army Chief Nambiar further said, "Resurrected from the grave as it were after the attack on him some years back, he has displayed a single-mindedness of purpose in pursuing his goal of decimating the LTTE. Needless to say, he has been able to achieve his objective because of the full support and encouragement provided by the political establishment led by President Rajapaksa.

"The demise of the LTTE is possibly," said Nambiar, " now only a matter of days. The total demolition of the once universally feared organisation that introduced suicide terrorism and the use of improvised explosives (IEDs) as a form of insurgency warfare is a tribute to the determination of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces under its intrepid commander, Sarath Fonseka. General Fonseka has displayed the qualities of a great military leader nations are blessed with from time to time."

He further said, "As someone who was briefly involved with the peace process in Sri Lanka in 2002-2003, I have already acknowledged the outstanding performance of the SL security forces and the efforts of General Fonseka, a person I met on a number of occasions during my visits to Sri Lanka during 2002-2003 and developed great respect for, both as an individual and as a soldier."

So what we have is the following:

1) Nambiar's brother has been a paid consultant for the Sri Lankan army for the last 7 years.

2) Nambiar's brother has written propaganda articles for Indian newspapers, which were subsequently quoted by the Sri Lankan military on their official website.

3) Nambiar's family is connected to the congress party, which is responsible for the present war in Sri Lanka.

4) Nambiar's family is deeply involved in the Indian military, which holds a grudge against the LTTE for its war with the IPKF.

5) Nambiar's brother has arranged speaking engagements in Delhi for the Sri Lankan government's high commissioner to promote the Sri Lankan government's war against the LTTE (http://www.usiofindia.org/EVENTS.HTM).

6) After visiting Sri Lanka on behalf of the UN, rather than report to the UN in New York, he instead went on a vacation with his brother in India, the same brother who is a paid consultant of the Sri Lankan army.

7) The United Nations website contains a small resume of Nambiar's brother on its website despite him not having officially worked for the UN since 1993 (http://www.un.org/News/dh/hlpanel/satish-nambiar-bio.pdf). There is obviously more to this than meets the eye.

8) The bias of Nambiar's brother was evident even in 2002, when he met with Tamil paramilitary groups, but refused to meet with democratically elected Tamil representatives while visiting Baticaloa as a paid consultant of the Sri Lankan army.

Now that the reasons for the complete failure of Nambiar's original trip to Sri Lanka on behalf of the United Nations is abundantly clear, with over 10,000 innocent Tamil civilians killed, and 20,000 severely injured as a result, what would we expect the United Nations to do at this crucial time? They have now decided to send Vijay Nambiar back to Sri Lanka again to "negotiate" on behalf of the civilians. Are you certain he isn't negotiating on behalf of his brother and the Sri Lankan government? In no other field, whether business, diplomacy or anything, would they allow such a conflict of interest to exist, especially with thousands of civilian lives at stake.

Please wake up and realize that the United Nations is not here to help and protect the innocent. The only people the Tamil people can depend on for help are the Tamils. You have tried convincing the international community and the United Nations, and as a result there are 30,000 Tamil civilian casualties in just 5 months. While the UN sends people paid by the Sri Lankan government to "negotiate" on behalf of the Tamil civilians, thousands of civilians are dying day by day. When the LTTE was strong and the Sri Lankan army was on the brink of collapse, the international community tricked the LTTE into the ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire agreement was nothing but a cover to arm and train the Sri Lankan army further, so that they could launch a final war against the LTTE.

Today the UN and the international community does not want to even speak with the LTTE, despite showing so much interest in bringing the LTTE to negotiations in 2002 when the LTTE had the upper hand. This shows that the United Nations only respects violence and military might. When the LTTE was strong, they were requesting the LTTE to negotiate, but when the LTTE is weakened, they no longer have interest in negotiating a settlement to this conflict. Instead they repeatedly call on the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender to face a certain death at the hands of the Sri Lankan army.

Learn this lesson well. The international community only respects you based on your might and capability to commit violence. Some foolish moderate Tamils have in the past criticized the LTTE for not trying to pursue peace, but now the futility of that path has been clearly exposed for all to see. The LTTE chose the path of peace in 2002, and the international community took advantage of this to weaken and destroy the LTTE through proxies. The end result is the entire world stands silently as 10,000 Tamil civilians have been murdered - all because the Tamil people did not possess the military might to protect themselves. The only solution to this problem, the only way in which the Tamil people can be protected, is if they increase their military strength and bring Sri Lanka to its knees through violence. Only then the international community will respect the rights of the Tamil people.

Vijay Nambiar at work.

Massive bombardment of civilian zone by Sri Lanka army

The Sri Lanka army has resorted to a final massive bombardment of the remaining civilian zone prior to an all out assault. Fighting is being reported house to house. Unprecedented bombs have been dropped on the civilians by Sri Lankan air force planes as never before seen. The entire no fire zone is a huge ball of fire, with thick smoke making it impossible to breath. The LTTE has been offering stiff resistance to protect the remaining civilians, but it is only a matter of time. Sri Lankan soldiers have been sighted wearing gas masks, raising fears chemical weapons may have been used in the attack.

Families of dead Sri Lanka soldiers speak; government has abandoned them

The Sri Lankan government’s “final offensive” against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the island’s north has killed and injured thousands of Tamil civilians as well as displacing hundreds of thousands others.

While the defence ministry reports that soldiers are facing “stiff resistance,” it refuses to allow any journalists into the area and last October stopped reporting soldier casualties. The government claims that the death toll is a security issue, but the real reason is its fear that the escalating casualties would add to the popular anger and discontent over the war.

Over the past month, the bodies of hundreds of dead soldiers have been returned to their families in remote villages in the south. Many more wounded soldiers are being treated in government hospitals in Colombo and other areas. This terrible toll is the other side of the Sri Lankan government’s criminal war.

Most soldiers are economic conscripts, forced through poverty to become cannon-fodder in the communal war. Far from enlisting to support the communal aims of the government’s war, they join the army to provide money for their families. While President Mahinda Rajapakse constantly speaks of the “heroes” of his war, the real stories of their lives and deaths are never told.

World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) reporters recently spoke with the parents and families of several soldiers who were killed during last month’s battles in the northeast of the island.

***

Warnakulasuriya Amith Madhusanka, a 19-year-old solider from Haththiniya, about 57 kilometres from Colombo, was killed on April 29 in northern Puthukkudiyiruppu. According to information given to his parents, he was one of nine soldiers from the Gajaba regiment who lost their lives that day.

Like thousands of Sri Lankan soldiers, Amith was forced into the military by poverty. He left school after reaching Grade 10, took up masonry and carpentry work in order to support his parents, and then joined the army in January 2008.

Amith Madhusanka's parents

Amith’s parents, Ajith Joseph and Krishanthi Manike, were distraught over their son’s death.

Ajith Joseph, 39, has picked coconuts for nearly 20 years. Amith’s only sister is married. All are very poor and live in a small dwelling built from wooden planks and a roof thatched with coconut leaves.

Ajith Joseph explained: “The main reason my son joined the army was in order to raise money to build a house for our family. We don’t have land or a house. We used to live in small houses erected on other peoples’ lands and we drifted from one place to another.

“My son was very worried about our condition. He wanted to buy some land for us but he couldn’t do it. For the last two years we’ve been living in the home of his mother’s parents. This small piece of land was given to her father because he was working at the adjoining coconut estate.”

Government parliamentarian Dayassritha Thisera and several local politicians attended Amith’s funeral and told Ajith Joseph that he could build a house on a nearby small piece of land. Ajith Joseph began building a wooden-plank home on that land, using some of the money received by the family from the army for his son’s funeral.

Last week, however, local government authorities told Ajith Joseph that he could not build the house because the land was on a government reservation. “I spent 15,000 rupees [$US127, or more than two months pay] trying to build that house and I’ve now lost everything,” Ajith Joseph angrily said.

Ajith Joseph told us that many people had attended Amith’s funeral, with several parliamentarians appearing at the front of the procession. “All they want soldiers for is war,” he said. When asked about the government, he simply said: “We can’t live in the present unbearable conditions.”

Nirosha Perera from the Colombo suburb of Pannipitiya was told by local police on April 9 that her younger brother, Buddhika Sanjeewa, had been killed. One day earlier she received a telephone call from the Puthukkudiyiruppu army camp where Buddhika was stationed, asking why she had been named as his guardian, even though their parents were still alive.

“He named me as his guardian,” Nirosha told the WSWS, “in order to make me his beneficiary because I am the poorest in the family.” Her father’s sister and brother both had their sons killed in the army. “Now my father has lost his 22-year-old son,” she said.

Buddhika’s 56-year-old father works at the National Hospital in Colombo. He suffers from a heart ailment but has to keep working to support the family. His eldest son, a bachelor, drives a trishaw. Nirosha’s husband is a manual laborer, but without a regular income. They all live in a partially-constructed house.

Buddhika trained as a welder at the government’s Vocational Training Institute. He attempted to establish a welding workshop at home but lacked capital. Concerned about the economic problems facing the family and not wanting to be a burden, Buddhika decided to join the army.

“Mother and I tore up his school leaving certificate to stop him enlisting but he secretly obtained a second copy and joined the army,” Nirosha said.

Buddhika was given four months’ training and sent to the battlefront. Two months later his remains were sent back home. Family relatives told us that the army officers who escorted the body were unable to come to his funeral because they were too busy attending several similar funerals.

Holding back her tears, Buddhika’s grief-stricken mother said: “These people send youth who can just hold a gun to the front. I must say this openly—the government is responsible. To me he is my beloved kid but for them he’s just a soldier. They first said that the war would finish in a month and I thought that my kid would be home in a month, but no. Then they said it would finish in 48 hours but still my son didn’t come. Now you see how he came.”

Naleen Maduranga was killed on the Puthukkudiyiruppu battle front. His home is in Avissawella, about 50 km southeast of Colombo, where he lived with his uncle, M.K. Sunil, a 53-year-old carpenter.

Maduranga, who was raised by his uncle, was killed March 29. On the same day, his sealed coffin was escorted home by several army officers. The government provided 30,000 rupees (about $US260) for funeral expenses.

Sunil's family

Three families—Sunil’s own, his son’s and his daughter’s—live in the house, which is located on a small piece of land. Sunil suffers from a heart disease but he has to keep working to provide income for his extended family.

In tears, Maduranga’s aunt told us: “The army did not even know when my nephew died and we don’t even know that Maduranga’s body was there in the coffin. An army officer waited on duty till the burial was over and we were advised not to open the coffin. We all somehow expect that Maduranga may come home again.”

Maduranga was born in 1987 in Avissawella and educated at Mahiyangana Central College about 220 kilometres from Colombo. Forced to abandon his education prematurely, 11-year-old Maduranga began working as a helper in a local shop. Maduranga’s younger brother became a monk, having been offered to a temple.

Such was the poverty that when Maduranga was about 13 his parents asked Maduranga’s uncle Sunil to look after the teenager. He moved into Sunil’s home and began learning carpentry. Maduranga’s cousins told us that the boy suffered because he hadn’t been able to grow up in the warmth of his own family and out of deep despair tried to commit suicide on one occasion.

Maduranga joined the army in November 2007. He hoped that if he survived the war he could support his parents’ and uncle’s families, and if he were killed then both families would get compensation.

Maduranga quickly became fed up, deserted the army while on leave and began working as a bus conductor. Facing arrest by local police for desertion, he decided to go back to the army. Within months of rejoining, Maduranga’s dead body was returned to the home.

Sunil’s daughter, Thilini, told the WSWS that she was also married to a soldier and now had fears about his life. “I know how terrible the nightmare is for those families who have members engaged in this war.”

Story was a hoax planted by Sri Lankan government

I am very happy to say this story was a false rumor. I was very sad when I saw the story. It was taken from Athirvu.com, and also shown on Makkal TV, which makes me think these are planted stories by the Sri Lankan government.

The root cause of false rumors being spread is the complete ban on the media by the Sri Lankan government. Everyone only wants the truth revealed. We don't want more and we don't want less. But the Sri Lankan government is making it very difficult to get the truth, which sometimes results in rumors being spread as truth. If the Sri Lankan government would allow international media into the war zone, and allow NGOs into all of the IDP camps, then we would not have a situation where false rumors get spread as truth. Such rumors really only hurt the Sri Lankan government, so it is in their own interest to allow free access to the media, unless there is something that they are hiding.

Though the above story was false, the following two videos recorded by Channel 4 news from the U.K. are real, and highlight the terrible conditions within the Sri Lankan concentration camps, where torture, rape and disappearances are rampant.

Elderly Tamil civilians dying of starvation in Sri Lanka concentration camps

The number of deaths among elderly persons in Vavuniyaa IDP camp is on the increase. From May 1 till May 11, sixty-one elderly persons have died due to what is termed "natural causes", a term used to hide the real causes, namely starvation, lack of water and lack of medical facilities. Their bodies have been lying in the mortuary of the Vavuniyaa general hospital awaiting relatives to identify them, sources in Vavuniyaa said.

Hospital sources said their bodies would be buried at the state expense if their relatives fail to identify them and do the last rites. Elderly IDPs are given shelter in Chettikulam Menik Farm camp. While inquiring into the sudden deaths in Cheddikulam, health workers said that a high rate of elderly persons in this camp have been dying due to the above mentioned causes.

UN deplores civilian bloodbath in Sri Lanka; 3,200 civilians reported killed in single day

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The United Nations called the killing of hundreds of ethnic Tamil civilians in a weekend artillery attack in northern Sri Lanka a "bloodbath" amid reports Monday that the war zone was heavily shelled for a second straight night.

The initial artillery attack — which lasted from Saturday evening into Sunday morning — killed at least 378 civilians and wounded more than a thousand more, according to a health official inside rebel-controlled territory.

A rebel-linked Web site blamed the attack on the government, while the military accused the beleaguered Tamil Tigers of briefly shelling their own territory to gain international sympathy and force a cease-fire.

About 6 p.m. Sunday, a new round of shelling pounded the area, according to a government health official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The TamilNet Web site said many more civilians were killed in the second attack and that the death toll from the two days of violence was likely in the thousands.

Reports of the fighting are difficult to verify because the government bars journalists and aid workers from the war zone, but the U.N. confirmed a heavy toll from the first attack over the weekend.

That attack marked the bloodiest assault on ethnic Tamil civilians since the civil war flared again more than three years ago. Health officials said a hospital in the war zone was overwhelmed by casualties, and the death toll was expected to sharply rise.

"The U.N. has consistently warned against the bloodbath scenario as we've watched the steady increase in civilian deaths over the last few months," U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said Monday. "The large-scale killing of civilians over the weekend, including the deaths of more than 100 children, shows that that bloodbath has become a reality."

U.N. figures compiled last month showed that nearly 6,500 civilians had been killed in three months of fighting this year as the government drove the rebels out of their strongholds in the north and vowed to end the war.

About 50,000 civilians are crowded into the 2.4 mile- (4 kilometer) long strip of coast along with the separatists, who have been fighting for 25 years for a homeland for minority Tamils.

The government has brushed off international calls for a humanitarian truce, saying any pause in the fighting would give the rebels time to regroup.

The initial attack began Saturday evening soon after a Red Cross ship that had been evacuating wounded civilians left the war zone, health officials said.

Artillery pounded the area throughout the night, forcing thousands to huddle in makeshift bunkers, said Dr. V. Shanmugarajah, a health official in the region.

Hours after the attack, the dead and wounded continued to pour into the hospital, he said. As of Sunday afternoon, the bodies of 378 civilians had been brought in and were being buried by volunteers, but the death toll was likely far higher since many families buried their dead where they fell, he said.

TamilNet said rescue workers had counted 1,200 civilians killed in the attack. The Web site initially reported that the rebels' military spokesman, Rasiah Ilanthirayan, was among the dead, but later said only that he was seriously wounded.

Bodies were laid out in rows on the mud outside the hospital, some of their faces covered with mats and sheets, according to photos from the area. One small boy was stripped to the waist, his head covered in a bloody bandage and his mouth agape.

The hospital was struggling to cope with the 1,122 wounded civilians amid a shortage of physicians, nurses and aides made treatment difficult, Shanmugarajah said.

"We are doing the first aid and some surgeries as quickly as we can. We are doing what is possible. The situation is overwhelming; nothing is within our control," he said.

More than half the hospital staff did not turn up for work because their homes were attacked and many of the wounded went untreated for more than 24 hours, said the other health official, who declined to be named.

Suresh Premachandran, an ethnic Tamil lawmaker, said the assault was the deadliest attack on civilians since the 1983 anti-Tamil riots that killed as many as 2,000 people and helped trigger the civil war.

"In the name of eliminating terrorism, the Sri Lankan government massacres its own citizens. It is absolutely unacceptable," he said, calling for the international community to intervene.

TamilNet also blamed the attack on the Sri Lankan forces, which rights groups have accused of bombing and shelling the war zone despite its pledge to stop using heavy weapons.

The Sri Lankan military denied firing the artillery and said they witnessed the rebels firing mortar shells from one corner of the coastal strip into another section heavily populated with civilians for one hour Sunday morning.

"I think the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is now trying to use these people as their last weapon to show the world that the army is firing indiscriminately and stop this offensive," military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Human rights groups have accused the rebels of holding the civilians as human shields and shooting some who tried to flee.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday accused the military of repeatedly shelling and bombing hospitals in the war zone.

Tamils in concentration camps die of starvation as Sri Lanka leaders live luxuriously

The Sri Lankan government has recently released some old family pictures of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, and claimed they show Prabhakaran living a very luxurious life. I am sure everyone in the world has pictures of themselves celebrating some special occasion. There is nothing wrong with celebrating a special occasion with a feast. Defence.lk is trying to twist the photos to suggest every single day Prabhakaran is living a luxurious life, but the fact that he has refused to be bought out for years proves this is not the case - he is not interested in money or a luxurious lifestyle.

They say Prabhakaran gave special treatment to his own son, but sent other people's sons to fight. But Prabhakaran's son was leading from the front lines last month when he was injured in combat. Prabhakaran is willing to let his son fight and die on the front lines for the cause of the Tamil people.

The Sri Lankan government continuously tries to benefit from contradictory statements. They will simultaneously say Charles Anthony was injured on the front lines, but then they will say he is protected and living a luxurious life in a foreign country. They are unable to make up their mind which story to publicize, so they foolishly publish both versions which are mutually contradictory.

They show a picture taken during peace times of Prabhakaran's son celebrating his birthday. During peace time there was no shortage of food, or difficulties for the people. Do they expect Prabhakran's 6 year old son should be dressed in military dress during peace time on his birthday? Again they show a picture of Prabhakaran's son riding a bicycle during the peace times, claiming it is somehow wrong for a child to ride a bicycle.

They show a picture of an NGO worker eating on the beach during the peace time, and claim there is something wrong with that. Do NGO workers not eat food? Should NGO workers live off of air? Again, this picture was taken during peace time when there was plenty of food for everyone. It was not like it is now in the no fire zone, where the Sri Lankan government denies food to more than 150,000 civilians, while the government leaders enjoy sumptuous meals in Colombo.

There have already been a number of starvation deaths reported inside the government detention camps. While the Sri Lankan government lets imprisoned Tamil civilians die of starvation in their custody, the leaders like Rajapaksa enjoy sumptuous meals in Colombo and on international trips. Take for example the fact that during a short period of less than 2 years (2006 to 2007), Mahinda Rajapaksa spent around 473 million rupees on trips abroad. This same person wants to criticize Prabhakaran for giving a birthday cake to his son in 2002 during peace times.

Let anyone who wants to criticize old family photos first look at the house, car and food that Mahinda Rajapaksa uses today. Maybe Defence.lk can show us photos, side by side, of Prabhakaran's place of residence, fighting with his people in the no fire zone, compared to Mahinda Rajapaksa's luxurious house in Colombo.