An inquiry was launched on Thursday into the 2012 prison riot in Welikada which led to the deaths of 27 inmates, mainly Sinhalese, at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces, AFP reported. Eye witnesses said the officers executed many of the inmates in cold blood. The launch comes just days before the anniversary of the worst massacre at the prison on 25th July 1983 when 54 Tamil detainees murdered by Sinhala inmates. Over three decades later no inquiry has been held and no one has been brought to justice. Prison riots in 1997 and 2000 also saw Sinhala inmates murdering Tamil inmates. Fearing...
In a statement published on Thursday, Human Rights Watch criticised the Sri Lankan governments failure to meet its promises on accountability. "To heal, there needs to be communication, understanding, and above all a sense of righting wrongs. In this, Sri Lanka’s Government is faltering, despite promises to its own people, as well as to the international community," the statement read. In a scathing assessment of the government's failure to the report by the Consultation Task Force which was tasked with delivering on the UN Human Rights Council 2015 resolution, the New York based rights...
Sri Lanka's Joint Opposition accused the government of lying to the public when the foreign minister said that the Convention for Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances would not have a retrospective effect. “The convention can and will be used to take action against armed personnel who fought terrorists during the final phase of the war in 2009," the former SLFP minister, G L Peiris was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. "This piece of legislation will allow the arrest of Sri Lankans when they visit a foreign country. Sri Lanka is also bound to extradite a person against...
The implementation of the Office of Missing Persons is unlikely as the idea was created simply to pacify he UN Human Rights Council, the Northern Chief Minister told the Canadian High Commissioner on Tuesday. Chief Minister Wigneswaran spoke to journalists following the meeting with the outgoing High Commissioner, Shelley Whiting, at his official residence on Temple Road, Jaffna. The Chief Minister said that Ms Whiting expressed regret that the Office for Missing Persons had not yet been established, to which he responded that plans for the OMP had been drafted purely to deal with resolutions...
Seven Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by Sri Lanka’s Navy on Wednesday announced the fisheries ministry. The Assistant Director of Fisheries said two boats used by the fisher men had been confiscated. The latest series of arrests, are the third this month, amidst heightening tensions between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka over the plight of Indian fishermen. See more here.
Ben Emmerson, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, met with Tamil political prisoners detained under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in Vavuniya today, as he embarked on an official visit of the island. Mr Emmerson’s visit comes as Tamil prisoners remain detained under the PTA, despite repeated calls for their release. The Sri Lankan government has also stalled on repealing the PTA, a piece of legislation that has been roundly criticised by human rights organisations as “draconian” for decades. The Sri Lankan government committed itself to...
Sri Lankan soldiers in Mullaitivu organised a workshop on International Humanitarian Law at their military headquarters this week.
Troops from the 57 Division of the Sri Lankan army renovated parts of a Buddhist vihara in Kilinochchi last week, according to a report on the official army website .
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesignhe reiterated to a group of Buddhist monks that both he and the president have agreed on Buddhism retaining the first and foremost place on the island, reports Reuters. Mr Wickremesinghe was quoted as telling a group of Buddhist monks in Colombo, "We are in the process of preparing the new constitution ... the president and myself have agreed to maintain the priority given to the Buddhism in the constitution as it is". His latest reiteration that Buddhist will remain paramount across the island, follows several statements on the issue by the prime...
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is set to provide Sri Lanka with US $4 billion of assistance over four years reports Lanka Business Online. The new scheme would see Sri Lanka receive between US $0.8 billion and US $1 billion per annum from 2014-2018. The reports emerge following a meeting last week between the ADB Country Director for Sri Lanka Sri Widowati and Sri Lanka’s Minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera. Currently the ADB provides Sri Lanka with US $0.5 billion assistance per annum.