Thursday, November 20, 2008
Christians tell of human rights abuses in Sri Lankan war zone
இந்தியாவின் இந்துக்கள் ஈழத்தமிழர்களிலே அக்கறை காட்டாதிருப்பதற்கும் சில சநாதன இந்துக்கள் ஈழத்தமிழர்களுக்கு எதிராகச் செயற்படுவதற்கும் காரணமென்ன?
Christians tell of human rights abuses in Sri Lankan war zone
Thursday, 20 November 2008 11:48
Christian activists in Sri Lanka expressed increasing anxiety and frustration over widespread abuses of law and violations of human rights in the country's northern war zone.
"Police and armed forces behave as if they are a law unto themselves. The special powers granted to the armed forces because of the concerns regarding national security have led to a range of human rights abuses (even) in areas outside the conflict," said Father Nandana Manatunga, director of human rights for the Kandy Diocese, during a recent ecumenical meeting.
At least 8,000 people – mostly Tamil rebels – have been killed since government forces launched an all-out war in 2007 against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in northern Vanni, where the rebel group runs a de facto state of more than 300,000 ethnic Tamils.
Fr Manatunga said human rights groups have recorded 662 killings and 540 disappearances of civilians in the country in 2008. Five serious human rights abuses are reported daily, he said.
"Torture and ill treatment in army and police custody were widespread," he said, adding that innocent people are hung upside down to extract confessions to justify illegal detentions.
Due to the support the government is giving to security forces, police frame innocent people for ordinary crimes and wash their hands of the investigation while the crime "remains unresolved and the culprits at large," he said, adding that the rate of court convictions in criminal cases is as low as four per cent.
Ruki Fernando, co-ordinator of the Christian Solidarity Movement, and a Catholic, said: "The government wants to silence anyone who speaks against the war or supports the war victims." He said government officials use censorship, threats and intimidation.
"I was thrown out of a train recently (by security forces) on my way to peaceful Kandy – despite having a reservation – for carrying a laptop," he said. "I was shocked but that is the state of affairs here. The security forces are the lawmakers here."
text at
http://www.totalcatholic.com/tc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=390:christians-tell-of-human-rights-abuses-in-sri-lankan-war-zone&catid=15:world&Itemid=35
==============================================
Sri Lankan pastors stay in danger zone to help victims of war
By Ecumenical News International
20 Nov 2008
Some Sri Lankans see parallels to Moses leading his people through the Egyptian deserts as written in the Bible's Book of Exodus in the clerics who are accompanying those displaced by a brutal civil war in northern Sri Lanka - writes Anto Akkara.
While all aid workers including U.N. staff, on the orders of the Sri Lankan authorities, withdrew from the Vanni region which is held by Tamil rebels, the pastors decided to stay. They want to minister to their people who are seeking refuge as the government forces inch closer.
"We gave our pastors the option to move out of Vanni due to the war. But, they insisted on staying with the people," the Rev. W. P. Ebenezer Joseph, chairperson of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka and president of the Methodist Conference, told Ecumenical News International during an interview at his office in Colombo.
Joseph pointed out that many of the pastors are taking great risks in frequently crossing over to government-controlled territory to collect money from church centres and to buy medicine and other essential items for the people.
"They could come under attack from their side when they move in the war zone on their [motor] bikes," said Joseph. He noted that six pastors belonging to his Methodist church are moving with war-displaced ethnic Tamils. The pastors serve 300 Methodist and other families in the war-ravaged area.
Most of the quarter of a million Tamils in the Vanni region have been displaced by the hostilities, with government forces already capturing several outer parts of Vanni. This is the last bastion of the rebels, called the Liberation Tigers of Talim Eelam, where they are attempting to run a parallel state.
"Eleven of our pastors are in Vanni living with our people," the Rev. S. Jeyanesan, chairperson of the Church of the American Ceylon Mission (which was formed recently following a split in the Jaffna diocese of the Church of South India) told ENI on 12 November.
Pointing out that nine of his 11 churches in Vanni have been damaged and vacated due to the conflict, Jeyanesan said the pastors had to evacuate six orphanages in the war zone and take children from them and move them to safer areas.
"Funerals are a common occurrence in Vanni today," said Jeyanesan, while giving details of his visit to the congregations in Vanni in mid-October.
The Sri Lankan government says it has killed nearly 10 000 rebels in its action to oust the LTTE from its Vanni stronghold, while civil rights groups say the casualties also include civilians killed in indiscriminate shelling and bombing.
With nearly 30 000 Roman Catholics among the people of Vanni, the larger church also decided to defy government orders and to accompany its people during harrowing times.
"Many of them are on the run and do not have a roof over their head and have to take shelter under trees," the Rev. Damian Fernando, director of Caritas Sri Lanka, a Catholic relief agency, told ENI.
More than 20 Catholic priests and as many as nuns are staying with their congregations on the move in the Vanni jungles providing spiritual and emotional support to the distressed people, Fernando said.
Church workers, especially nuns, take care of the medical needs of the people, as well as distributing relief supplies that church aid agencies such as Caritas is providing for the war victims, with special permission from government forces.
The majority of Sri Lankans (76 percent) are Buddhist and speak Sinhalese, while the Tamil residents of the northern and eastern provinces are mainly Hindu (eight percent of Sri Lanka's total population). Christians (seven percent) and Muslims (nine percent) are minority populations. "The Christian community within Sri Lanka has both Tamil and Sinhalese people coming together," says Joseph.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
text at
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/8009
Christians tell of human rights abuses in Sri Lankan war zone
Thursday, 20 November 2008 11:48
Christian activists in Sri Lanka expressed increasing anxiety and frustration over widespread abuses of law and violations of human rights in the country's northern war zone.
"Police and armed forces behave as if they are a law unto themselves. The special powers granted to the armed forces because of the concerns regarding national security have led to a range of human rights abuses (even) in areas outside the conflict," said Father Nandana Manatunga, director of human rights for the Kandy Diocese, during a recent ecumenical meeting.
At least 8,000 people – mostly Tamil rebels – have been killed since government forces launched an all-out war in 2007 against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in northern Vanni, where the rebel group runs a de facto state of more than 300,000 ethnic Tamils.
Fr Manatunga said human rights groups have recorded 662 killings and 540 disappearances of civilians in the country in 2008. Five serious human rights abuses are reported daily, he said.
"Torture and ill treatment in army and police custody were widespread," he said, adding that innocent people are hung upside down to extract confessions to justify illegal detentions.
Due to the support the government is giving to security forces, police frame innocent people for ordinary crimes and wash their hands of the investigation while the crime "remains unresolved and the culprits at large," he said, adding that the rate of court convictions in criminal cases is as low as four per cent.
Ruki Fernando, co-ordinator of the Christian Solidarity Movement, and a Catholic, said: "The government wants to silence anyone who speaks against the war or supports the war victims." He said government officials use censorship, threats and intimidation.
"I was thrown out of a train recently (by security forces) on my way to peaceful Kandy – despite having a reservation – for carrying a laptop," he said. "I was shocked but that is the state of affairs here. The security forces are the lawmakers here."
text at
http://www.totalcatholic.com/tc/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=390:christians-tell-of-human-rights-abuses-in-sri-lankan-war-zone&catid=15:world&Itemid=35
==============================================
Sri Lankan pastors stay in danger zone to help victims of war
By Ecumenical News International
20 Nov 2008
Some Sri Lankans see parallels to Moses leading his people through the Egyptian deserts as written in the Bible's Book of Exodus in the clerics who are accompanying those displaced by a brutal civil war in northern Sri Lanka - writes Anto Akkara.
While all aid workers including U.N. staff, on the orders of the Sri Lankan authorities, withdrew from the Vanni region which is held by Tamil rebels, the pastors decided to stay. They want to minister to their people who are seeking refuge as the government forces inch closer.
"We gave our pastors the option to move out of Vanni due to the war. But, they insisted on staying with the people," the Rev. W. P. Ebenezer Joseph, chairperson of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka and president of the Methodist Conference, told Ecumenical News International during an interview at his office in Colombo.
Joseph pointed out that many of the pastors are taking great risks in frequently crossing over to government-controlled territory to collect money from church centres and to buy medicine and other essential items for the people.
"They could come under attack from their side when they move in the war zone on their [motor] bikes," said Joseph. He noted that six pastors belonging to his Methodist church are moving with war-displaced ethnic Tamils. The pastors serve 300 Methodist and other families in the war-ravaged area.
Most of the quarter of a million Tamils in the Vanni region have been displaced by the hostilities, with government forces already capturing several outer parts of Vanni. This is the last bastion of the rebels, called the Liberation Tigers of Talim Eelam, where they are attempting to run a parallel state.
"Eleven of our pastors are in Vanni living with our people," the Rev. S. Jeyanesan, chairperson of the Church of the American Ceylon Mission (which was formed recently following a split in the Jaffna diocese of the Church of South India) told ENI on 12 November.
Pointing out that nine of his 11 churches in Vanni have been damaged and vacated due to the conflict, Jeyanesan said the pastors had to evacuate six orphanages in the war zone and take children from them and move them to safer areas.
"Funerals are a common occurrence in Vanni today," said Jeyanesan, while giving details of his visit to the congregations in Vanni in mid-October.
The Sri Lankan government says it has killed nearly 10 000 rebels in its action to oust the LTTE from its Vanni stronghold, while civil rights groups say the casualties also include civilians killed in indiscriminate shelling and bombing.
With nearly 30 000 Roman Catholics among the people of Vanni, the larger church also decided to defy government orders and to accompany its people during harrowing times.
"Many of them are on the run and do not have a roof over their head and have to take shelter under trees," the Rev. Damian Fernando, director of Caritas Sri Lanka, a Catholic relief agency, told ENI.
More than 20 Catholic priests and as many as nuns are staying with their congregations on the move in the Vanni jungles providing spiritual and emotional support to the distressed people, Fernando said.
Church workers, especially nuns, take care of the medical needs of the people, as well as distributing relief supplies that church aid agencies such as Caritas is providing for the war victims, with special permission from government forces.
The majority of Sri Lankans (76 percent) are Buddhist and speak Sinhalese, while the Tamil residents of the northern and eastern provinces are mainly Hindu (eight percent of Sri Lanka's total population). Christians (seven percent) and Muslims (nine percent) are minority populations. "The Christian community within Sri Lanka has both Tamil and Sinhalese people coming together," says Joseph.
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
text at
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/8009
Labels: christians, vanni, war
// posted by ஜூலியன் @ 7:50 AM 
