Residents of a Mullaitivu village continued to protest for a second day, having spent the night outside an air force camp, demanding the return of their lands.
Sri Lanka’s president stated that his government would “extend its highest respect to the security forces,” as he praised troops at a military ceremony on Monday. Maithripala Sirisena stated that his government “will execute its responsibility to strengthen them to help to win their future challenges, gratefully remembering their commitment made through many a sacrifice during the period of conflict”. His comments, during the awarding of the first-ever President's Truncheon and the Regimental Truncheon to the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment (SLSR), come ahead of a United Nations Human Rights Council...
The Sri Lankan government must turn “words into action” said Ann Hannah, head of International Advocacy at Freedom from Torture, warning that every new case of torture or harassment by security forces undermines Colombo’s rhetoric on reconciliation. Responding to the release of a report by the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Torture, FFT said the release “demonstrates the need for a real political commitment from the Sri Lankan government to end torture”. “Co-operation with UN human rights mechanisms only goes so far,” said Ms Hannah. “The government has to turn words into action;...
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) had a 75-member delegation participate at the eighth annual Jaffna International Trade Fair (JITF).
The 32nd anniversary of the Vaddakkandal massacre was marked today at the Vaddakkandal Government Tamil Mixed School in Mannar.
Former Sri Lanka Army commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka claimed that there may be “seven or eight” individuals in the armed forces who are responsible for war crimes, as he lashed out against Sri Lanka's former president for a loss of "discipline" in the army. Mr Fonseka, who is now Sri Lanka’s Regional Development Minister, said that in Sri Lanka 200,000-strong army “there might have been seven or eight” individuals responsible for human rights abuses that blighted the final stage of the island’s armed conflict and called for them to be punished. “If not, I don't think it is reality,”...
Sri Lankan soldiers in Jaffna took part last week in a programme designed to improve their knowledge of humanity and human life.
Tribute was paid on Saturday to the 87 Tamils killed in the Kokkadichcholai massacre which took place 30 years ago. The massacre by Sri Lankan Special Task Forces (STF), in which workers of a shrimp farm were hacked and shot to death, is described as one of the worst atrocities perpetrated in the early years of the armed struggle. The remembrance event took place at the memorial commemorating the victims in Mahiladitheevu, a village 25 km southwest of Batticaloa town.
Kayts locals protested on Friday, calling for justice for the murdered pregnant woman and an end to the violence that has plagued the Tamil people since the end of the war. Civil society, students and the business community all participated in the demonstrations, which included a human chain made on the main road and shops and businesses shutting down in solidarity. 'Government! Ensure women's safety!'
The Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council called on the Sri Lankan government to lift the ban on all Tamil diaspora groups, in order to “make use of their talents and wealth for our betterment”. Speaking in Jaffna on Thursday Justice C V Wigneswaran called for the de-proscribing all Tamil diaspora groups, and not just a partial lifting of a ban on the organisations, as was announced by the current government last year. “Having been a lawyer for over 50 years and half that period as a Judge, I am quite conscious of the security concerns of the State,” said Justice Wigneswaran. “But...