Speakers from all three major parties in the UK called for the full implementation of a UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability in Sri Lanka, during a debate in the House of Lords last week.
Tamil News
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Sathiyamoorthy, the Tamil journalist killed inside the ‘No Fire Zone’ by a Sri Lankan army artillery barrage in February 2009, was remembered by journalists and writers in Jaffna on Sunday.
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Keppapulavu residents defied increased security force presence to protest the visit of Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
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The Sri Lankan navy announced that it had arrested a man in Kayts on Thursday, accusing him of possessing 2kg of cannabis.
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Families of the disappeared in Mullaitivu have launched a petition campaign on Saturday, calling for an international accountability mechanism to ensure justice for their loved ones.
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The former Chief Minister of the Northern Province called on the Tamil diaspora as well as lawyers and politicians across the North-East to work towards ensuring that the genocide of Tamils becomes internationally recognised.
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The Chairman of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) has said that the DNA of the families of the disappeared would be tested against remains excavated from the Manner mass grave, if radiocarbon dating tests reveal that the skeletal remains are of those who had died recently.
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The Sri Lankan army continued its intrusion into civilian life in the Tamil North-East, organising a volleyball camp in Mullaitivu last week.
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Residents in Kiran demonstrated this week against the local authority's failure to stop illegal sand mining taking place in the region.
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As Tamils across the North-East and diaspora called for Sri Lanka to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ensure justice for the genocide of 2009, Sri Lanka's prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe renewed talk of a truth and reconciliation commission.
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Eight people who were returned from Reunion Island this week after fleeing Sri Lanka by boat were detained and held in remand on Thursday by Negombo Magistrate's Court.
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The skeletal remains of another child were found on Thursday at the mass grave site in Mannar.
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A woman was hospitalised after being hit by a Sri Lankan army water tanker (bowser) in Jaffna on Friday evening.
Police seized the tanker and arrested the driver.
The incident happened in Kodikamam, Mirusuvil and the victim was taken to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for emergency treatment.
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Families of the disappeared in Vavuniya this week urged member states at the UN Human Rights Council not to grant Sri Lanka more time to implement the co-sponsored 30/1 resolution.
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Tamils campaigning for the release of their land in Amparai marked 180 days of their protest on Wednesday.
Despite a highly publicised land-release campaign by the Sri Lankan army, residents of Kanagar village in Pottuvil have been protesting for around six months for the return of their land and...
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The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has criticised the Sri Lankan government’s announcement that it resume carrying out executions, calling it an “egregious violation” of international human rights law.
Earlier this week the United Kingdom and European Union reiterated their opposition to Sri Lanka's proposed implementation of the death penalty.
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The European Union (EU) Commission announced that Sri Lanka has been kept on its blacklist of governments at risk of money laundering and terrorist financing this week.
Sri Lanka has been added to the list as a “high-risk” third country, which means the EU will not have to carry out additional checks on payments involving entities from the island.
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The United States Coast Guard has completed a program of training Sri Lankan port officials in Colombo this week, as relations between the two governments continue to grow, despite Sri Lanka’s history of rights abuses.
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A march took place in Jaffna on Thursday with demonstrators calling for an end to all forms of violence and aggression against women.
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The US Embassy in Sri Lanka inaugurated two school construction projects in Amparai and Trincomalee this week.
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The director of Sri Lanka’s archaeology department has denied in court that the department granted permission for a Buddhist shrine to be built in Mullaitivu, despite a Buddhist monk previously submitting documents purporting to show approval from the department.
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The Sri Lankan security forces have stepped up their presence in Jaffna, deploying extra officers and troops, ahead of the prime minister's three day visit today.
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The European Union stressed the importance of human rights and reconciliation during the 22nd meeting of the Joint Commission between the EU and Sri Lanka, held in Brussels today, highlighting the need for "further progress" on the UN Human Rights Council resolution 30/1.
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Pakistan’s president has awarded the country’s highest military award to a Sri Lankan navy officer who is currently on bail over aiding a key suspect involved in the abduction and murder of 11 Tamil youths.
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The United Kingdom and European Union this week reiterated their opposition to Sri Lanka's proposed implementation of the death penalty.
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The Sri Lankan navy announced that it had arrested an Indian national in Mannar on Thursday.
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A delegation from the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) met with the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and a Sri Lankan government minister, ahead of the upcoming UN Human Rights Council session later this month.
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Residents of a Mullaitivu village have accused the Sri Lankan army of exploiting the area’s clean water sources and contaminating the water that civilians use.
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Speakers from all three major parties in the UK called for the full implementation of a UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability in Sri Lanka, during a debate in the House of Lords last week.
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The Tamil Homeland Parents of Disappeared Forum has called for Sri Lanka to be referred to the International Criminal Court and for a United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed to the North-East, as families continue to search for their missing children.
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The Vice President of the World Bank, Hartwig Schafer, arrived in Sri Lanka today on a three-day visit.
World News
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Britain’s international relations select committee has published a damning report concluding that the UK’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia are unlawful and called for some sales to be halted.
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A suicide bombing in Kashmir killed almost 40 Indian policemen on Thursday, with India's prime minister pledging those behind the attack will pay a "very heavy price".
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The UN warned this week grains stored in the Red Sea Mills Silos in western Hodeida is at risk of rotting.
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Scott Morrison, Australia’s Prime Minister, has said that the Australian government would reopen its Christmas Island detention centre, after suffering a historic defeat in Parliament over a medical evacuations bill.
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The Cameroon government accuses separatists of setting a hospital on fire and killing four people.
In a press release, the Minister of Communication and government spokesperson Rene Sadi stated, "the fire incident in Kumba District Hospital was committed by close to 20 secessionists rebels”.
Separatists have rejected this assertion, stating on social media that they are "not responsible for the fire incident in the hospital”. They hold the government responsible and further...
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Amnesty International has found Myanmar’s forces are again shelling villages and blocking civilians from accessing food and humanitarian assistance in its battle against the Arakan Army, who are fighting for more autonomy in the Rakhine state.
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Tens of thousands of Spanish nationalists took to the streets in Madrid on Saturday ahead of a proposed meeting between Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Catalan separatists.
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A hospital in the Venezuelan city of Barcelona has reported that 14 children have died due to an outbreak a form of dysentery this week, as the political crisis in the country continues with two men claiming to be the country’s rightful president.
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro warned against US military intervention last week after US National Security Adviser John Bolton was pictured with a notepad signifying “5,000 thousand troops to Colombia”.
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Nepal on Wednesday extended its war crimes investigation for the third time, by passing an amendment on the Transitional Justice Act granting a one-year extension.
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A British parliamentary committee has called for an end to indefinite detention in immigration centres and for detention to be authorised independently of the Home Office.
According to the Guardian, around 27,000 people a year are detained in connection with immigration and are usually held without being given a date for release or deportation.
“Indefinite detention causes distress and anxiety. [It] can trigger mental illness and exacerbate mental health conditions,” a highly...
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There has been international outcry after a number of deaths of women who were banished to “menstruation huts” in Nepal.
This month, 21-year-old woman, from Nepal died after being banished to a “menstruation hut” during her period. The head of police in Doti district, Lala Bahadur Dhami, told reporters that she died of suffocation after making a fire to keep herself warm.
Parbati Bogati, had initially planned to spend the night on the ground floor of an abandoned house but had...
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French president, Emmanuel Macron, yesterday announced a day to remember the Armenian genocide, April 24
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A UN rights group has uncovered more than 50 mass graves in the western province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mai Ndombe.
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Three separatist leaders from the Joint Resistance Leadership in Kashmir have called for a regional strike in protest at the Indian prime minister's visit on Sunday.
Narendra Modi's visit is the first since the BJP pulled out of the coalition government in Kashmir. Announcing new infrastructure projects, Modi warned he would "break the back" of terrorism in the area.
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A second round of internationally administered official talks between the Polisario Front and Morocco to solve the 43- year old political dispute on Western Sahara’s self-determination are set to take place next month, reports Al Jazeera.
The UN Special Envoy for Western Sahara, former German president Horst Koehler, told the United Nations that he planned to...
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Saudi Arabia has agreed to release seven Houthi rebel prisoners after a Saudi prisoner of war was released safely in Riyadh.
The release of Mousa Awaji, a Saudi soldier, was initiated by the Houthi rebels who stated they they did not have the adequate medical equipment to care for his ailments. The UN welcomed the transfer and hopes that this could lead to a ceasefire in Yemen.
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The United Nations’ refugee agency warned of a rise in xenophobic rhetoric in Europe, despite migrant arrivals to Europe reaching a four year low in 2018
The UN High Commission for Refugees said that populist European politicians had been upholding a harsh anti-immigration position despite numbers falling from the highest numbers since World War Two in 2015.
Filippo Grandi, Commissioner General of the UNHRC, added however that even if these politicians do gain power, they will...
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India has engaged in an increased crackdown on border crossings from Bangladesh leading to the arrest and deportation of dozens of Rohingya Muslims this year.
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A French court has rejected Chile’s request of extradition for a leftist militant, who was previously imprisoned over the assassination of an ally of Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Paris’s Court of Appeals refused to extradite Ricardo Palma Salamanca in a decision made on Wednesday, following France’s Office for the Protection of Refugees (Ofpra) granting Ricardo Palma Salamanca political asylum last November, despite pleas from Chile for his extradition.
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Yanghee Lee, a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, publicly called for Myanmar’s army chief to be prosecuted for the Rohingya genocide, stating that holding perpetrators to account is vital before Rohingya refugees can return to Myanmar.
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A brutal crackdown continues in Zimbabwe this week after protests against the rise in the price of fuel and other basic commodities.
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An attack on a hotel complex, DusitD2, in Kenya’s capital, left 21 people dead, several injured and 50 unaccounted for last week, with a total of 700 people evacuated from the hotel complex.
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Israel has come under criticism for the opening of a new highway in the occupied West Bank, separating Palestinian and Israeli traffic between villages of Anata and Azzayim.
The newly opened route 4370, which Palestinians have dubbed as the “apartheid road”, segregates the road into two separate two way lanes with a high wall in the middle, topped with fencing. The western side allows Palestinians in the West Bank to go around Jerusalem while the eastern side allows Israeli settlers...
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President Erdogan stated Turkey is ready to create a 32 km (20-mile) deep safe zone alongside its border with Kurdish-held Syria, running along the border from Afrin to the western bank of the River Euphrates.
The announcement follows President Trump's threat that the US will "devastate Turkey economically” if they attacked the Kurdish separatist militia known as the People’s Protection Unit (YPG).
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Spain's deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, met with Catalan’s Vice President Pere Aragones and spokesperson, Elsa Artadi in Madrid on Thursday.
The meeting came a day after the detaining of 13 activists, a separatist mayor, and a journalist on Wednesday for allegedly disrupting a high-speed rail line on October 1, 2018, the anniversary of the independence referendum, which was rejected by Madrid as 'illegal'.
The Catalan government has insisted that these detentions were...
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Israeli authorities have handed a Palestinian family an eviction notice demanding they leave their home in Occupied East Jerusalem.
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Protests in Sudan calling for the resignation of President Bashir have resulted in the death of a doctor and a child.
Protests occurred in several cities across Sudan on Thursday but police were reported to have fired tear gas and live ammunition on demonstrates who tried to march on the presidential palace, in the capital, Khartoum.
The death of the doctor and child was first reported by the Sudan Doctors' Committee, a group linked to the opposition. The death has also since...
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The Afghan Taliban has warned the United States that it will withdraw from peace negotiations if they refuse to withdraw from Afghanistan, a central demand from the Islamist group throughout the 17 year conflict.
The warning comes a day after the Taliban reportedly attacked a compound in Kabul city killing five and wounding more than 110.
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The Indonesian government has denied its military used white phosphorus in West Papua, following a report published in an Australian paper detailing the unverified use of the chemical weapon against civilians this month.
According to the paper the attack occurred in the region of Nduga in West Papua. Photographic evidence published shows a villager with severe burns and a wounded leg, which has been attributed to use of white phosphorus.
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The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called on Bahrain to release the family members of prominent exiled activist, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, an outspoken critic of the Bahraini government who now lives in Britain.
A report released by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated that the three relatives were being held because of their kinship to Alwadaei. Alwadaei’s brother in law, Sayed Nizar Alwadaei, his mother in law, Hajar Mansoor Hassan and...