Members of the Global Tamil Forum met with US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal in Washington this week to discuss justice and accountability on the island. Joined by Assistant Secretary for Human Rights Tom Malinowski, Ms Biswal tweeted that she had a good discussion on “diaspora efforts to support reconciliation and accountability”. The Assistant Secretary also met with a Sri Lankan parliamentary delegation in Washington, where Sri Lanka signed up to the House Democracy Partnership .
The Sri Lankan government announced on Tuesday that it had decided not to proceed with plans to build an Indian funded coal power plant in Sampur. The construction of the power plant was opposed by locals and environmental activists. The ministry of power and renewable energy had decided "not to go ahead with constructing the [Indian coal power] plant", deputy the solicitor general, Sanjaya Rajaratnam was quoted by Ceylon News as saying. See more here .
A fire has destroyed shops and stalls at Kilinochchi market on Friday evening, after local fire services struggled to bring the blaze under control. It is not known how the fire, which broke out at midnight started. Market vendors, many who had only started to rebuild their lives after the end of the armed conflict, have been left with nothing but ashes.
Sinhalese journalists from the South were taken on a tour of Jaffna by the Sri Lankan military last week, who briefed them on the "reconciliation process" that was allegedly underway in the region. The journalists from various organisations were flown to the Tamil North-East in Sri Lankan air force planes, where they were greeted by military personnel. Southern journalists talk to Tamil IDPs as the military watches over The army then took them on a tour of various camps where displaced Tamils are now sheltering, with an official military website commenting the journalists “had the chance to...
The Sri Lankan government called on North Korea to “abide by its international obligations” in a statement released in response to a nuclear test launched last week. Colombo condemned the testing and said it “notes with concern” that this is the second such test to be carried by the DPRK this year. Sri Lankan went on to state that North Korea should “refrain from any action which would compromise peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula”.
The release of land occupied by the Sri Lankan army in Kilinochchi has revealed the widespread destruction of an LTTE cemetery that once stood on that ground, reports TamilNet . Video footage obtained by TamilNet shows the graves of hundreds of fallen fighters have been obliterated, reportedly by bulldozers. Only fragments of tombstones can now be seen littering the landscape. See the video from TamilNet below. The Sri Lankan military has regularly desecrated the graves of LTTE fighters whenever it captured territory.
The United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances at a press conference in Colombo in November 2015. Photogrpah: Colombo Gazette. The United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances said “international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators” to take part in a judicial accountability mechanism for human rights abuses, including disappearances. In a 22-page report released in Geneva today, the UN group reiterated the importance of including international actors in any accountability mechanism. “The road that leads to truth and justice is long but is the right one to...
Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council's 33rd session in Geneva on Wednesday, the UK mission highlighted the lack of progress on key issues in Sri Lanka and reiterated the UK's support for the full implementation of the resolution adopted by the Council one year ago. "Welcome Sri Lanka’s continued progress on implementing resolution 30/1, most recently through the law to establish an Office of Missing Persons. This is a significant step towards reconciliation." "However, much remains to be done including: repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act; releasing more civilian land occupied by the...
The former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunge on Thursday called for a federal and 'semi-secular' constitution. "Sri Lanka should learn a lesson from number of countries which have resolved their issues by formulating federal and secular constitutions," she was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. Calling for what she termed a "semi-secular" state, Ms Kumaratunge said, "Buddha said that everyone is equal. So why are we against giving equal rights to everyone in the nation?. Our effort is to compile a constitution which gives priority to Buddhism and gives equal rights to all other...