Sri Lanka’s foreign minister said his government would not allow foreign judges to hear cases in an accountability mechanism for human rights abuses committed during the final stages of the armed conflict, in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed. Mangala Samaraweera said his government was in “no great hurry” to devise an accountability mechanism to try those accused of war crimes, but was clear on the level of foreign participation Colombo would allow. “We are not against foreign participation, but having foreign judges would need an amendment of the law on the judiciary,”...
A protest was held in Kayts, calling for more to be done to prevent violence against women and girls.
The Sri Lankan army distributed artificial limbs to former LTTE cadres and civilians in Kilinochchi. At an event funded by USAID, artificial limbs were presented by Sri Lankan army officers to thirty Tamils, including former LTTE cadres, that had lost limbs during the war. Civil society groups in the North-East have frequently expressed concern about the Sri Lankan military’s involvement in rehabilitation activities. “Given the military's perpetration of mass atrocities during the war and the lack of accountability for those atrocities, the military's involvement in rehabilitation and...
The United States’ Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs highlighted Sri Lanka’s potential to “become a leader in contributing to peacekeeping operations across the globe (and) promoting human rights abroad” in a speech delivered in Washington this week. Bruce Wharton addressed a ‘Sri Lanka National Day Reception’, where his speech said “Sri Lanka has the potential to become the next Asian Tiger”. Mr Wharton hailed the “unprecedented” level of cooperation between the two states, but added “there is always more progress to be made”. “All of this cooperation...
Sri Lankan Independence Day was not a day of celebration for Tamils given the ongoing plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, the British Tamils Forum said in a statement. “For the first three decades since “Independence”, the Tamil people have been clamouring through non-violent, democratic means for equal status and freedom from Sinhala domination and aggression. These demands were met with violence by the Sinhala dominated state which unleashed pogroms against Tamils repeatedly. This resulted in emergence of armed resistance to this Sinhala colonial aggression. This armed resistance and liberation...
A Tamil boy died on Sunday after falling into an unprotected waste oil pit dug by the Sri Lankan army. The body of 10-year-old Gajenthirakumar Sajinthan was retrieved from an 15-foot deep oil pit which has been in Kankensanthurai for ten years. Locals expressed concern that the waste oil pit was uncovered, adding that it contributed to making their community spaces unsafe.
British Tamils gathered outside Downing Street last week to protest the Sri Lankan government's inaction on accounting for missing and disappeared persons.
A group of NGOs and individuals have called on the European Parliament to reject the EU Commission’s proposal to restore the GSP+ trade preference status to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was suspended from the preferential tariff in August 2010 in response to the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. In a letter to the European Parliament, the organisations noted concern about a number of “factual inaccuracies and omissions with the EU Commission ‘Report on assessment of the application for GSP+ by Sri Lanka.’” The letter outlined “Flawed factual analysis of Sri Lanka’s implementation...
The Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council boycotted the military parade that was held in Jaffna to mark Sri Lanka’s Independence Day and instead attended a protest held by Tamil villagers. Justice C V Wigneswaran was invited to the military parade being held in Jaffna, but instead chose to travel to Keppapilavu and Puthukudiyiruppu in the Mullaitivu district to join protesting Tamil villagers, demanding the release of their land. See more on the protests in Keppapilavu here and Puthukudiyiruppu here . In Jaffna, whilst the security forces held an unprecedented parade, family...
Tamil businesses in Mullaitivu shut their shopfronts on Saturday, in boycott of Sri Lankan Independence Day celebrations taking place in the town.