Sri Lanka's Minister of Ports and Shipping, Mahinda Samarasinghe announced this month that the government would be commencing on a three year plan to develop Trincomalee harbour. The harbour's current four terminals would be developed for commercial ventures, the minister added. The development plan involves identifying 10,000 hectares of land which would be gazetted, Colombo Page reported.
Sri Lanka's foreign ministry met with defence officials on Monday to discuss the security forces exchange of 'expertise and experience' with other countries, Colombo Page reported. According to the paper, a discussion also took place on "how security forces can contribute in the effort to strengthen the living conditions of the people in the North and the East" and "how to correct misimpression about the security forces of Sri Lanka, if any, among the global community." "How to protect human rights to strengthen the operation to win over the international community under the guidance of...
A Tamil widow has filed a complaint with the Northern Irish police's ombudsman over the Royal Ulster Constabulary's links to the Sri Lankan police force which was responsible for the massacre of 10 of her relatives in 1986, the Irish Times reported. Officers from Sri Lanka visited Belfast in 1983 in the wake of some of the worst killings of the Troubles to meet with the RUC's elite commando unit and "see at first hand the role of the police and army in counter-terrorist operations", British government files revealed. The Sri Lanka's notorious Special Task Force, which has been linked to a...
The Sri Lankan prime minister on Saturday raised the possibility of introducing regulation of social media sites such as Facebook, arguing that the time had come for the government to consider such legislation. “Modern technology society has changed the issues which the legal sector in particular is facing. For example consider the internet, Facebook. If you regulate Face Book and the internet is it a violation of Fundamental Rights?" he was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. “Many foreign governments are tackling it especially in the social sector and child welfare. These are the issues...
Human rights concerns remain in Sri Lanka said the newly elected as the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, Paul Scully, who pledged to continue to raise the issue internationally. In a statement released on Monday Mr Scully said he would “support the interests of the Tamil community here in the UK”. “The United Nations Human Rights Council recognises that the process is slow and that concerns remain about human rights in Sri Lanka,” he added. “The APPG will continue to raise this in the UK Parliament, in Brussels and Geneva aiming to keep this in the mind of the government...
Sri Lanka’s president blamed “extreme elements” in Tamil areas of the island for refusing to accept housing allocated by his government and of instead backing a “demand [for] lands from other areas”, in a meeting with UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman.
Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake criticised a United Nations Special Rapporteur report on ongoing and systemic torture on the island, stating they were “erroneous remarks”, as he reiterated Sri Lanka’s political and military leaders would not appear before an international war crimes tribunal. Commenting on a recent meeting with another senior UN official, Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, Mr Karunanayake said Sri Lankan government officials held positive talks. A report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson was...
Bar Associations across the North will be boycotting court proceedings on Monday, in protest against a shooting in Jaffna in which a policeman was killed protecting a High Court judge. “We underline the necessity for a speedy and professional investigation to instil confidence in the law and order machinery,” said the Bar Associations of Jaffna, Point Pedro, Mallakam, Chavahacheri, Kayts, Vavuniya, Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. Trincomalee lawyers join boycott, picket Trincomalee Court Complex Jaffna High Court judge Ilancheliyan was the suspected target of the shooting. His police...
Prime Minister Ranil WIckremesinghe at a ceremony in March 2017 where his credentials are presented to a newly appointed chief Buddhist prelate. Photograph:dailymirror.lk Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe marked 40 years as a Member of Parliament last week. Having entered parliament in 1977, Mr Wickremesinghe was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in the United National Party (UNP) government of the time and swiftly appointed, by then president JR Jeyawardena, as a cabinet minister in subsequent years. In an infamous interview to the Daily Telegraph, two weeks before...
Today we mark thirty-four years from the horrors of the anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983, when Tamils were killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the then UNP government and state forces. Armed with electoral rolls, Sinhala mobs targeted Tamil homes and businesses looting and ransacking property. Driven from their homes, particularly in Colombo, over 3000 Tamils were massacred, whilst thousands more were effectively deported by the state to the North-East. Eye witness reports described mobs chasing Tamils down the street with knives and setting them alight alive. Many hundreds of women were raped. Tamil political prisoners locked up in Welikada jail, deep within the island's south, were also targeted as prison guards allowed Sinhala inmates to slaughter them.