While human rights groups called for investigations of tens of thousands of [Tamil] civilians killed by the Sri Lanka Government, and urged Colombo to release more than 300,000 Tamils including UN staff members held in internment camps, Citybank and Deutsche Bank are looking to make profits on "bloodbath bonds," said Inner City Press which covers the U.N. activities in New York.
Upbeat assessments on the new "Hongkong of India" were also made by a Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) investment analyst who predicted that the "rebound will be spectacular."
However, leading Human Rights NGOs continue to spotlight the urgent need for investigations of the rights abuses by Colombo in the prosecution of the war against the Liberation Tigers. "Sri Lanka’s presidential commission of inquiry started with a bang and ended with a whimper," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The need for an international inquiry into abuses by both sides is greater than ever," Pearson is quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Tamil diaspora circles said plans are afoot for a world-wide economic boycott of Sri lankan goods, and to picket big-label companies including Marks and Spencer, Victoria Secret, and Nike to persuade them to shift their operations in Sri Lanka to other Rights-compliant countries in South Asia. Tourism sector will be a primary target of attack, according these circles.
"Marshalling the energies of the more than 800,000 diaspora Tamils, nearly 50% of whom took to the streets protesting the genocidal level killings in Mullaiththeevu, is key to implementing an effective Sri Lanka boycott, and this will be a good way to kick-off the next phase diaspora activism," a US-based activist group involved in the planning of this effort told TamilNet.
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