• Only an international mechanism can address crimes committed by Sri Lanka say North-East priests

    Sep 15

    Only an international mechanism can address the crimes committed by Sri Lanka, priests and religious leaders of the North-East have said in a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights today.

    "Since the end of the armed conflict many of the structural causes of the conflict remain intact and indeed, have been exacerbated under this period of ‘victor’s peace’," said the letter signed by 170 priests.

    Highlighting Sri Lanka's recent honouring of former Army Chief General Sarath Fonseka, and appointing of Major General Jegath Dias as chief of staff - both alleged war criminals - the letter said:

  • Sri Lanka minister rejects UN recommendation for 'hybrid court'

    A senior Sri Lankan minister has told the BBC that the government will not accept a hybrid court, as suggested by the UN’s human rights office.

    "Our stand on war crimes is we need an internationally accepted local inquiry. We are not ready to agree with the international inquiries," Rajitha Senaratne said.

    A local mechanism, made up of a series of domestic commissions, including a South Africa-style Truth Commission, will be set up "to clear the name of the country" the minister said.

    Asked explicitly whether they would set up a domestic court to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes, Mr Senaratne said that they would.

    "When there is always a conflict like this, what I feel is that war itself is a crime. Always there is violations in a war," he said.

    He however suggested that the government could take action against former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and military commanders, if they were found guilty of involvement.

    "Where even the president or other commanders or defence secretaries - whoever - is involved, our government is ready to take action," Mr Senaratne said.

  • UK welcomes OISL report on Sri Lanka
    The UK government said that it welcomed the publication of the report from the investigation on Sri Lanka by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), which was released earlier today.

    "I welcome the publication of this important report into allegations of serious violations and abuses of human rights in Sri Lanka," the UK's Minister for Asia, Hugo Swire, said in a statement.

    "I am grateful to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, his staff and all who contributed, for the work that went into producing it. The UK has been a strong advocate for the UN’s investigation and was instrumental in securing the resolution that mandated it. We believe it is vital that the legacy of the conflict in Sri Lanka is properly addressed, to allow the country to fulfil its huge potential."

  • Cross-party UK MPs call for hybrid court to investigation Sri Lankan crimes
    A cross party group of British MPs called on the international community to establish a special hybrid court to ensure accountability and justice for mass atrocities in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009, as recommended by the report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Wednesday.

    “We are shocked by the UN’s report into human rights abuses and war crimes at the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka. The report makes harrowing reading, and presents evidence of gross human rights abuses suffered by mainly Tamil civilians at the hands of Sri Lankan government forces and the Tamil Tigers," the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) said in a statement on Wednesday.

    “The UN’s report only came about because the UK and other members of the UNHRC demanded an independent investigation into human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, an investigation that the Sri Lankan government attempted to block."
     
    “Today’s report is not the end of the Tamil people’s struggle for justice, it is barely the beginning. The people of Sri Lanka desperately need reconciliation. But true reconciliation can only take place after proper accountability for the grave human rights abuses set out in the UN’s report."
     
  • Tamil Nadu passes resolution calling for international inquiry in Sri Lanka
    The Tamil Nadu state government on Wednesday passed a resolution calling on the Indian central government to back an international investigation into the mass atrocities committed during the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka.

    "The Tamil Nadu assembly requests the Government of India that if the US takes a stand supportive of Sri Lanka (at the UNHRC), then India must take diplomatic efforts to change that," the resolution stated. 

    The resolution, tabled by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, was passed only a few hours before the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released the findings of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) which called for a special hybrid court to be established.

  • UK must lead in seeking accountability in Sri Lanka - British MPs debate

    Reconciliation in Sri Lanka cannot take place without accountability, said British MPs while calling on the UK government to take a lead in seeking accountability for human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.

    Moving a debate Tamil Rights in Sri Lanka in Westminster Hall on Tuesday, James Berry MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, said "it is beyond sensible dispute that thousands of civilians were killed in [the] no-fire zone."

    On Sri Lanka's reaction to the UN Panel of Experts report, Mr Berry said,

    "Instead of engaging with the UN report in a meaningful or sensible way, the Sri Lankan Government arrogantly rejected it, describing it as “fundamentally flawed” and “patently biased”. Sri Lanka did nothing to address the alleged human rights abuses at the end of the war. Not a single prosecution was instigated. It is reasonable to surmise that the Sri Lankan Government hoped that the international community would turn the other way."

  • UPFA MP calls for immunity for Sri Lankan troops from war crimes charges

    The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) General Secretary and UPFA MP Udaya Gammanpila said that his party would propose an Act of Indemnity to protect Sri Lankan troops from war crimes charges.

    Speaking in Sri Lankan parliament on Tuesday, ahead of the release of a United Nations investigation into the mass killings of Tamil civilians, Mr Gammanpilla said:

    “The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on Sri Lanka will be published tomorrow. If the report calls for war crimes charges to be levelled against our war heroes, we will present an Indemnity Act in parliament to provide them legal immunity”.

    “This Act is not something new,” added the MP.

    “Even Sri Lanka has implemented it at least thrice to protect our officials. Once it was brought in 1915 by the State Council with regard to the Sinhala, Muslim riots and twice by UNP governments to protect officials from being questioned for any action taken during the 1977 and 1987 riots.”

    Mr Gammanpila went on reassure Sri Lankan soldiers that the PHU's Ranaviru Legal Aid Foundation was “ready to protect them” from any war crimes charges.

  • ‘UN HRC must not fail families of Sri Lanka's dead and disappeared’ - HRW
    The UN Human Rights Council must not fail the victims of Sri Lanka’s dead and disappeared and ensure that a credible justice and accountability involves a majority of international judges and an independent international prosecutor, said Human Rights Watch (HRW).

    In a statement delivered to the UN Human Rights Council the non-governmental organisation outlined three elements that are “crucial” for the council to ensure a credible accountability process in response to the UN High Commissioner’s much-anticipated investigative report on Sri Lanka.

    “First, the resolution will need to set out concrete benchmarks for an effective justice and accountability mechanism, including a majority of international judges in an independent system, an independent international prosecutor, and measures to ensure that the applicable law for the mechanism will include customary international humanitarian law, notably command responsibility,” said HRW.
  • UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka pledges assistance towards reconciliation

    The UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Subinay Nandy, said the global body would provide technical assistance and contributions to advance reconciliation and find a sustainable solution to the longstanding ethnic grievances, reports ColomboPage.

  • US congressional caucus discuses accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka
    A congressional caucus event on the Path Forward for Accountability, Peace and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka, was held by the Senate Human Rights Caucus on Tuesday.

    Panellists discussed issues relating to the need to demilitarise the North-East of Sri Lanka, further trust building initiatives between the victim community and the need for genuine accountability to deal with mass atrocities in Sri Lanka.
  • UN must act on call for hybrid justice process in Sri Lanka – FFT

    Freedom From Torture called on the UN Human Rights Council to follow through on a United Nations report into violations of international humanitarian law committed on the island that was released earlier today and ensure that a justice process has “strong international participation”.

  • Recommendations of OISL report must be implemented - HRW
    The Geneva director for Human Rights Watch John Fisher called on the international community to respond robustly to the Human Rights High Commissioner's recommendations to Sri Lanka and incorporate them into a resolution that is adopted by this session of the UN Human Rights Council.

    See full statement below.

    The High Commissioner's report marks a significant step towards justice and accountability for the victims of international crimes and the family members of Sri Lanka’s dead and disappeared.  The international investigative team has extensively documented alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, executions and enforced disappearances.
  • Strong UNHRC resolution needed to help war victims says Chief Minister

    Strong UNHRC resolutions calling for international investigation mechanisms and action to alleviate oppression in the North-East will be vital to fulfil the needs of war victims, the Chief Minister of the Northern Province has said.

    Speaking at the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) committee meeting on Friday, the Chief Minister, C V Wigneswaran said:

  • TAG welcomes OISL reports, urges UN to deliver on prosecutions
    The UK based rights group, Together Against Genocide (TAG), said it "unreservedly welcomed" the report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and called on the UN Human Rights Council to "take concrete steps and a concrete timeline to deliver successful prosecutions and thus an end to impunity in Sri Lanka."

    See full statement here. Reproduced in full below:
    Together Against Genocide (TAG) unreservedly welcomes the report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka.  We urge the government of Sri Lanka to accept in whole the recommendations of the report.
     
    This is a hopeful first step on the long road to justice. Each of the lives lost remains precious to us and we continue to hope to see them fully accounted for and their families granted Justice.
     
  • Evidence of organisational planning lifted crimes to international level - UN Rights Chief
    The nature of the crimes in the report have been lifted from ordinary to international due to the evidence of organisational planning, reports, said the UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Hussein in an interview with Channel 4 News.

    When asked whether the crimes amounted to genocide, Mr Hussein said,
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