Sinhala doctors at a government hospital refused to treat Muslim victims that had been attacked by Sri Lankan security forces during riots in Kandy last week, reports JDS. Abdul Saleel Mohamed Fazil, a local councillor, told JDS that commandos from Sri Lanka’s elite Special Task Force (STF) broke into his house and attacked him last week, as anti-Muslim violence flared in the area. "I was with my friend Faizal, when the STF broke into the house,” he said. “The women and children started screaming as they were terrified. We were dragged down the steps by the STF members, thrust plastic bags...
A senior Sri Lanka navy commander declared open a newly constructed office for a Buddhist vihara in Nainativu earlier this year, as Sri Lankan military involvement in consolidating Sinhala Buddhism in the North-East continues.
The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice (SLC) has urged the international community to “move beyond mere rhetoric” on Sri Lanka, as Colombo falls behinds on commitments made in a United nations resolution more than two years ago.
The body of a former LTTE cadre who was reported missing on March 9th was found washed up on the coast of Vadamarachchi. Fisherman and 38-year-old father of three, Thevathas Julio Alexan, of Kattaikkadu did not return home after work on the March 9. Although his boat and equipment washed ashore, locals were unable to find him out at sea. His body was discovered on Tuesday morning. Mr Alexan was a former member of the LTTE’s border force, locals said.
Tamils in Jaffna held a protest condemning the anti-Muslim violence in Kandy and across the island last week. The protestors called for perpetrators of racist violence to face justice.
Tamil National Alliance MP warned that Sri Lanka’s “culture of impunity is a ticking time bomb,” as he criticised failure to ensure justice and accountability, in the wake of anti-Muslim violence last week. “Not once, but twice during my lifetime, the Sri Lankan government arranged for me, along with many other Tamils, to be transported to our place of origin in Jaffna during times when violence was being perpetrated against the Tamil community,” said the parliamentarian, in a column for the Sunday Observer. “Not once, but twice the Government acknowledged to me, and to all the Tamil people,...
A Muslim restaurant in Puttalam was attacked with a petrol bomb this weekend, just days after anti-Muslim violence erupted in Kandy, reports The Island. The restaurant in Anamaduwa saw a group on motorcycles hurl a petrol bomb at it, in the early hours of Saturday morning. The police said they suspect the attack was “racially motivated”. A group of seven suspects have since been arrested by the Sri Lankan police after CCTV footage captured the attack. See more from The Island here and here .
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister lamented the “heavy blow” dealt to the economy and tourism to the island, after anti-Muslim violence by Sinhala Buddhist mobs last week. "The work of a handful of saboteurs has caused a heavy blow to the country both economically and socially," AFP reported Ranil Wickremesinghe as saying in a statement. Al Jazeera Mr Wickremesinghe as stating the violence has dealt “great social and financial damage to the country”. “Tourists were greatly inconvenienced and this has dealt a blow to the tourist industry,” he was quoted as saying. His announcement comes as Germany’s...
The former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay said that Sri Lanka’s “efforts fall short of realization of the core terms” of a UN resolution on accountability for international crimes committed during the armed conflict. Speaking to Ceylon Today at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Ms Pillay said that she had “had great hope that the new Government will deliver on the undertakings they gave the HRC”. “They articulated a strong will to do so, and convinced the member States of their serious intent to implement the Resolution,” she added. “They were well-positioned to...
A Tamil couple seeking asylum for themselves and their two infant daughters in Australia are being held at a detention centre in Melbourne after Border Force officers stormed their home and gave them ten minutes to pack their belongings and leave. The family who lived in a rural town in Queensland were detained a day after their visas has expired. The Tamil Refugee Council said that the family were misled over their visa status and expecting to have their visa renewed. The Council also said the family were mistreated in the way they were transported, with the couple being separated and the...