Five police officers arrested in connection with the killing of two Jaffna university students have been granted bail. Sri Lankan police shot dead two Tamil students from Jaffna University, 23 year old Nadarasa Kajan and 24 year old Pavunraj Sulaxan, in October 2016. The five officers who have been in custody for eleven months in connection with the killings were granted bail by the Jaffna High Court with the conditions that they sign in with the Criminal Investigation Department in Colombo every Sunday morning. The officers are also prohibited from leaving the country and were ordered to...
The United States Marine Corps Forces Pacific has begun a program for Sri Lankan troops on Preventive Medicine and Casualty Care this week.
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development echoed calls y the UN human rights chief for the exercise of universal jurisdiction on Sri Lanka and expressed concern over the lack of action towards accountability by the Sri Lankan government. In a statement delivered at the UN Human Rights Council this week, the organisation said that it had concerns “in relation to lack of progress in essential confidence building measures including the release of military occupied civilian land and the Prevention of Terrorism Act”. “We echo the need for a clear timeline and benchmarks for the...
The Sri Lankan government’s strategy of setting up various reconciliation offices is not the same as full implementation of a UN resolution on accountability said Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement released on Thursday. “Governments at the Human Rights Council should be clear with Sri Lanka that setting up various reconciliation offices and talking of progress is not the same as implementing the 2015 resolution,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Long-suffering Sri Lankans need to see the resolution fully carried out, and they need to see evidence that...
The sentencing in the case of the rape and murder of Punguduthivu schoolgirl Vithiya will take place on September 27th. The panel of judges made the annoucement after hearing the defence's summary on Wednesday. The trial-at-bar for the case has been taking place since May at the Jaffna High Court, with Vavuniya High Court judge Balasingam Sasi Mahenthiran leading alongside Jaffna High Court judge Manikkavasagam Ilancheliyan and Trincomalee High Court judge Annalingam Premashankar.
The signing of a gazette to operationalise the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) has been welcomed by the US, EU and Canada on Wednesday, with calls for “credible commissioners” to be swiftly appointed. The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Atul Keshap said the move was an “important step forward” for advancing reconciliation. “A well-funded and robust OMP with independent & well qualified commissioners will give hope to families from all communities who seek answers,” he tweeted. The European Union said operationalising the OMP was “an important and welcome development” and that it hopes “...
Updated 1655 A team of senior European Union (EU) officials praised Sri Lanka for making progress in advancing human rights but warned that there was a “lack of concrete progress in key areas” which was needed for continued preferential market access under the GSP Plus. Noting that Sri Lanka is a signatory to 27 international conventions, the EU team stated that " progressive implementation of the conventions is the condition for continued preferential access to the European Union market - the world's largest and Sri Lanka's biggest export market – under the GSP Plus". Ambassador Tung-Lai...
The United States Senate Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific stated that there was a need to prosecute perpetrators of mass atrocities and DNA analysis of remains in several countries, including Sri Lanka, in a report released last week. The report, which opposed a 92% cut in US aid to Sri Lanka, said that the committee “ recognizes that there is an ongoing need for DNA analysis and identification of exhumed remains ”. Sri Lanka was named alongside other countries, including Syria, Iraq, Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala, in which forensic identification was needed. In these countries,...
The United Kingdom called on the Sri Lankan government to deliver on its commitments laid out in a UN resolution, at the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday. Speaking at the 36th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Britain said that it welcomed the “recent step towards operationalising the Office of Missing Persons”. However, it added that “we continue to urge the government to deliver on Resolution 34/1”. The statement comes after comments from the United States and NGOs calling for a credible justice mechanism in Sri Lanka. At the start of the session, the United Nations High...
Sri Lanka's newly established National Economic Council held its first meeting on Tuesday with a view to "strengthening the rural economy and ending poverty", the presidential media unit said. Economic policies, state financial affairs, management of state loans and activities related to finance were also discussed. President Maithripala Sirisena presided over the meeting with attendees including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Ministers Mangala Samaraweera, Sarath Amunugama, Susil Premajayantha, Secretary to the President Austin Fernando, Secretary to the Prime Minister Saman Ekanayake...