The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) welcomed the sanctions on Sri Lankan military officials for human rights violations which were announced by the US State Department earlier today. 

“This isn’t just a visa ban against low level alleged perpetrators but a warning signal to their commanders, many of whom are still in positions of power, that they too are extremely vulnerable," Yasmin Sooka, ITJP's Executive Director said. 

The United States has announced bans on two more Sri Lankan military officials for human rights violations, as the State Department expand sanctions on those accused of war crimes.

Chandana Hettiarachchi, a Sri Lankan naval intelligence officer, involved in the ‘Trinco 11’ disappearances and Sunil Ratnayake, a soldier guilty of murdering at least 8 Tamils, are now barred from entry to the US.

Their families are also barred from entry.

The United States is “not satisfied” with progress in Sri Lanka and is eyeing up a broader involvement in the island’s ethnic turmoil, said Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran, who held a series of high-level meetings in Washington DC, New York, Toronto and London last month.

Speaking to the Tamil Guardian in London, the lawmaker said that there had been discussions regarding “greater involvement by the US, broadly speaking, in the Tamil affairs in Sri Lanka”.

A mob which included the Sri Lankan police Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of a local station in Kilinochchi attacked diners at a restaurant last month, allegedly for not wearing face masks.

CCTV footage from the restaurant shows the masked men raiding the premises on November 24^th and attacking diners as well as employees.

British MP for Harrow West, Gareth Thomas, has continued his calls for Magntisky style sanctions on Sri Lankan army commander and accused war criminal, Shavendra Silva.

On Twitter Thomas asked:

(1/2) Why is General Shavendra Silva not subject to travel restrictions and assets freezes given his complicity in ‘gross violations of human rights abuses’ in the final months of 2008/9 in Sri Lanka? pic.twitter.com/c51gUkCM6M

A Chinese fertiliser company, Seawin Biotech, has launched a legal case against Sri Lanka for turning away scheduled exports of fertilisers worth 49.7 million US dollars, the Global Times reported.  

A ship loaded with 20,000 tons of fertilisers was heading to Sri Lanka, but it would now go to Singapore instead because Colombo has expressed concerns regarding the quality of the product. 

Sondra Anton, student attorney at the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, addressed the United States House of Representatives Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights yesterday, as it held a hearing on 'Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka'.

See the full text of her address and video footage of the event below.

Former Sri Lankan Navy Commander, Wasantha Karannagoda who has been investigated as a suspect in the case of the disappearance of 11 victims, has been appointed as the new Governor of the North-Western province today. 

Karannagoda served as Sri Lanka's Navy Commander from 2005 to 2009, during the armed conflict which saw the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils. In 2019, Karannagoda was named as the 14th suspect in the case of the abduction and forced disappearance of 11 people, who were predominantly Tamil. 

Pakistan's Defence Minister Pervez Khattak is facing a backlash after he claimed “murders take place” when young people get emotional following the lynching of a Sri Lankan factory manager in Pakistan by a mob last week.

The mob reportedly accused the Sri Lankan of blasphemy for tearing down a poster with Islamic holy verses. 

_{Image Credit: Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs}

Belarusian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikalai Barysevich met with Sri Lankan Ambassador J. A. Liyanage on Tuesday during a meeting in which she expressed a desire to enhance the bilateral relations despite ongoing concerns over Sri Lanka’s human rights record.