“War Crimes in Sri Lanka:International Implications”

Denis Halliday & Mary Lawlor

Thursday, October 77

PMJ. M. Synge Theatre

Arts Building

Trinity College Dublin

Denis Halliday is former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Mary Lawlor is Director of Front Line, The International Foundation for theProtection of Human Rights Defenders.

Denis Halliday and Mary Lawlor were both panel members of the People’s Tribunal on SriLanka, which met in Dublin in January of this year.

The Tribunal found the Sri Lankangovernment guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the final phase of the civilwar in 2009, and that the international community shared responsibility for the breakdownof the peace process in Sri Lanka.

Some video evidence from the war will be screened at this event.

For the Tribunal report please visit www.pptsrilanka.org

Organised by the International Peace Studies programme at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin www.tcd.ie/ise/peace/ and the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka www.ifpsl.org

All Welcome

Haiti needs a sustained international effort as it seeks to recover from this earthquake. The current outpouring of support is encouraging, and now we need to cancel Haiti’s debt so the country can start its recovery without the burden of debts it won’t be able to pay. In addition we must be vigilant that new aid doesn’t come in the form of loans that would create new debt for Haiti.

But here and now, there is a very clear goal: let’s get rid of this crippling debt.

http://one.org/international/actnow/haiti/

J.M. Synge Theatre, Trinity College Dublin
Saturday 16th January @ 2.00pm

The Permanent People’s Tribunal (successor to the Bertrand Russell Tribunal) will be conducting a People’s Tribunal on the war in Sri Lanka and its aftermath in Dublin on the 14th, 15th & 16th of January 2010.

On behalf of the Tribunal organisers, the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka, invite you to attend the public event on Saturday January 16th at 2pm in the J. M. Synge Theatre in Trinity College, Dublin during which the jury will announce an interim response to the evidence presented at the Tribunal. The session will include a discussion on the future course(s) of action that will need to be taken based on the findings of the Tribunal.

The People’s Tribunal will investigate the allegations that the Government of Sri Lanka and its armed forces committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during and after the final phase of its war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Tribunal will also examine the local and international factors that led to the collapse of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement.

He brought our attention to the publication of the QCEA Sustainable Energy Security programme’s first report – ‘The Nabucco Gas Pipeline: A chance for the EU to push for change in Turkmenistan’.

You can read the report here:
http://www.quaker.org/qcea/energysecurity/The_Nabucco_Gas_Pipeline.pdf

As the report summary says:

The European Union has stepped up its engagement with Turkmenistan in order to secure supply for its flagship gas security project the Nabucco pipeline. Turkmenistan is among the most brutal and repressive dictatorships in the world. US NGO Freedom House included Turkmenistan in its 2009 ‘Worst of the Worst’ list of countries without social and political freedoms, alongside North Korea and Burma. In a 2008 report, Amnesty International described ‘widespread and systematic abuses’ of human rights in the country, while Human Rights Watch noted ‘the fundamental and ubiquitous nature of repression in Turkmenistan’ and ‘the government’s abysmal human rights record’.

The Council and Commission accept the need to tackle human rights, democratisation and certain development issues with Turkmenistan, but they have not specified the root cause of continuing tyranny in the country: the appropriation and mismanagement of hydrocarbon revenues by an unelected governing elite. The EU is right to target human rights and development issues in Turkmenistan, but should also realise that shortcomings in these areas are enabled by the Turkmen government’s stranglehold on the country’s collective oil and gas riches. The EU will be part of the problem in Turkmenistan, not part of the solution, unless it combines its energy security goals with dedicated efforts to bring about reform in the management of hydrocarbons in Turkmenistan.

Neil would like people to join the campaign to get the EU to take notice of the recommendations made in this report. We need Friends and anybody who is interested to ask their MEPs to raise the issues covered in the report with the EU’s new foreign minister Catherine Ashton and with the European Commission.

Below is a PDF document containing a standard letter to email to your MEPs and instructions on how to find out who your MEPs are. If your MEP contacts you in due course with a reply from the European Commission and Catherine Ashton’s office, it would be great if you could forward it to Neil at nendicott@qcea.org.

Write to Your MEP

This document presents the program of the 13th government of the Palestinian National Authority. The program, which sets out our national goals and government policies, centers around the objective of building strong state institutions capable of providing, equitably and effectively, for the needs of our citizens, despite the occupation. We believe that full commitment to this state-building endeavor will advance our highest national priority of ending the occupation, thereby enabling us to live in freedom and dignity in a country of our own.

It makes very interesting reading for anybody concerned about peace in the Middle East.

Palestinian National Authority Program of the Thirteenth Government

The next one is entitled Peace Testimony and Response to Conflict.

Speakers are Helen Haughton AVP and a speaker from Quaker House Belfast.

The venue is Quaker Meeting House,

Southville Gardens,

Ballinacurra,

Limerick

On Tuesday 6th October

Starts at 7.30pm.

We continue the relief work for refugees. But only medical relief programme for now. It was expected that the refugees from South Ossetia will be accommodated in the new build homes or will get financial compensation by the end of September, but approximately 3500 families still live in shelters. Only 400 families have received financial compensation and moved away during last few months.

For now there is no exact date when they all will be moved either to new build areas or get financial compensation instead of a home. The dates was few times postponed by Ministry of Accomodation of refugees. As they explain, they do not have enough funds to build it for everyone.

We have attached a couple of pictures from the distribution of the medicine, that we delivered to a policlinic in the Digomi district of Tbilisi , in Summer. The medications were distributed for refugees by doctors.

Greetings from Wi’am Centre.

“Until one feels the spirit of Christmas, there is no Christmas. All else is outward display – so much tinsel and decorations. For it isn’t the holly, it isn’t the snow. It isn’t the tree not the firelight’s glow. It’s the warmth that comes to the heart”

Although it is still early, Christmas seems to be fast approaching. Christmas is to be a time of peace and celebration; however, life in Bethlehem (the place of Jesus’ birth) has become difficult due to economic deprivation and the occupation, making an atmosphere of celebration difficult. As a result, many children in Bethlehem do not experience the joy of Christmas or the excitement of a Christmas gift.

Every year Wi’am provides the opportunity for Christmas celebration and the restoration of hope, through its Christmas Smile Festival. This program reaches out to children, who are often the most affected by the general situation, and tries to restore joy to the season. The project usually attracts around one thousand children and their families in Bethlehem and the neighboring cities.

Our children’s group and women’s group starts training for their performance in the Christmas Smile Festival that Wi’am has done every year since 1994. This training helps them to develop their skills and build their identity. There will be different activities such as performing the Traditional Dabkah dance, singing Christmas hymns, and dramas. One of the activities will be volunteering in an elderly home. Children will sing and dance with the elderly, learning more about their problems and needs.

Part of the Christmas program also is to give every child a small educational gift of 10 dollars in value. In order for this project to take place, we need the support of your churches, families, philanthropists, and social committees. Through prayer, warm thoughts, and financial support, you can help hundreds of children and their families have a joyful experience at Christmas.

Any support given is greatly appreciated, so please give warmly and do not let the Grinch steal Christmas.

Feel free to contact us for more info about this project at our website http://alaslah.org/

Irish School of Ecumenics,
Bea House,
Milltown Park,
Dublin 6,

at 6.00pm, on Monday 7th September 2009.

This publication consists of papers presented at the conference “Neutrality: Irish Experience, European Experience” organised by the Irish School of Ecumenics and Quaker Dublin Monthly Meeting Peace Committee 8th & 9th May, 2009.

Noel Dorr (former Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs), Karen Devine (IRCHSS research fellow at Dublin City University) and Bill McSweeney (ISE) will launch this publication. Irish contributors include Maurice Hayes, Senator Deirdre de Burca, Professor Ivana Bacik, Dr Karen Devine, Dr Noel Dorr, Professor John Maguire and Paddy Smyth. European contributors include Professor Edward Dommen (Switzerland), Dr Magnus Petersson (Sweden), Wiglef Pürschel and Martina Weitsch (Quaker Council for European Affairs).

This publication is available for download as a PDF.