The Associate Director of Fitch APAC Sovereigns Sagarika Chandra said the challenge for Sri Lanka will be to meet criteria laid out before it by the International Monetary Fund, at a presentation delivered last week. The Sri Lankan government still must refinance a figure close to 3 billion US dollars for the rest of the year and still remains vulnerable to shifts in investor sentiment said Fitch Ratings. Lanka Business Online reported Ms Chandra as stating, “from a rating stand point key drivers of ratings are really progress on the IMF program and certain degree of predictability with...
A ship from the Australian navy has arrived on a “goodwill visit” to Colombo, reports Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence . The Australian ship HMAS Perth docked in Colombo on Sunday and was welcomed by troops from Sri Lanka’s navy. As part of a five day visit, the Ministry of Defence added “several events” have been organised “in view of strengthening friendship and solidarity”.
The Sri Lankan military organised a two day workshop on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in the Tamil North-East earlier this month. The workshop was “organised by the Security Force Headquarters - Jaffna (SFHQ-J) for the troops serving in Units, Brigades and Divisions under the SFHQ-J,” declared an official military website . Conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the workshop reportedly focussed on “challenges faced by military personnel and Commander’s Responsibility”. Brigade Commanders and Commanding Officers of the Battalions were in attendance. See our...
The Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council CV Wigneswaran stressed the need for international participation in any further accountability and investigation process into Sri Lanka’s mass atrocities during a meeting with the a delegation of the European Union Political Affairs on Monday. Important discussions with CM Wigneswaran on #accountability and making devolution work for all Sri Lankans #HRC pic.twitter.com/tnHS9MOu7Z — EU in Sri Lanka (@EU_in_Sri_Lanka) June 21, 2016 During a meeting with the head of the delegation Mr Paul Coutry, the chief minister added that statements made...
The international community should insist on course correction by Colombo through strong statements and continued monitoring after the high commissioner submits his final report in March 2017, writes JS Tissainayagam in the Asian Correspndent. Highlighting several instances of Sri Lanka reneging on its commitments to the United Nations Human Rights Cuncil JS Tissainayagam warns that “There is no doubt that this year too Sri Lanka’s UN delegation will embellish the sordid performance of its government with conciliatory words and artful phrases.” Full opinion produced below.
Victim consultation and international participation are crucial to achieve accountability and a sustainable peace, according to NGO Pasumai Thaayagam. Speaking at the 32nd session of the UN Human Rights Council, a representative urged the council to "remain persistent" in encouraging the implementation of the resolution on Sri Lanka, passed in October last year. "While the Sri Lankan government has made some strides in the right direction, we remain concerned with government statements and messages contrary to commitments made by the government," Pasumai Thaayagam said. "There is increasing fear amongst Tamils that the current progress on the government's pledges, such as the establishing the Office of Missing Persons, is designed to alleviate international pressure rather than genuinely address concerns. Such fears are exacerbated by the government's lack of transparency and lack of consultations with the victim community in establishing such mechanisms."
The former head of Sri Lanka’s army Sarath Fonseka has been denied a visa to enter the United States, reports the Daily Mirror. Diplomatic sources were quoted as stating “incidents that happened when he held the post of Army Commander might have resulted in the rejection process,” though this has been denied by his media secretary. Mr Fonseka, who oversaw the final phase of the armed conflict on the island where tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were massacred, was promoted to become Sri Lanka’s only five star general and the by Regional Development Minister by the current Sri Lankan government. In December 2015 the former army general was previously denied entry to the US, reportedly over his role in overseeing war crimes.
Sri Lanka handed over its first set of fishing exports to the Ambassador to the Delegation of the European Union in Sri Lanka David Daly, in a ceremony that marked the first export since the lifting of the ban on fishing exports last week. Participating in a press conference at the Dikowita Fisheries harbour, Ambassador Daly officially announced the lifting of the Sri Lanka’s fishing exports ban to the EU. Mr Daly added that he believed Sri Lanka would use this opportunity to preserve the ability to export to the EU and not lose it again, reports Colombo Page.
Swiss Tamils were joined by Tamils from France, Germany and the UK at a rally outside the UN Human Rights Council today, calling for justice to be served through an international accountability mechanism.
Voices from the North (Uncut) from Together Against Genocide on Vimeo . Together against Genocide, launched its report “No Justice, No Truth: Unfulfilled Promises of UN resolution 30-1 (Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights)” at the 32nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council last week. The event saw diplomats addressed by a panel including the director of Together Against Genocide (TAG) Jan Jananayagam, Barrister at Mansfield Chambers Shivani Jegarajah, and Fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and Washington Post columnist Dr Kate Cronin-Furman. Introducing the event, the director of Together Against Genocide (TAG) said that the report, to be released later this week, found that minimal progress had been made by Sri Lanka on the recommendations of the High Commissioner for Human Rights which were referenced in the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 30-1. After outlining the methodology behind the progress report, Ms Jananayagam said, “On looking at the recommendations of the resolution, and mapping them to which of the 33 recommendations of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Investigation into Sri Lanka’s (OISL) report they refer to, our conclusion is that very little has been implemented.” Speaking on institutional reform Ms Jananayagam further noted the “Sri Lanka simply doesn’t have the legal framework to deal with the systemic crimes against humanity outlined in the OISL report. On security sector reform, she added that the intense militarisation of the Tamil North-East remained and raised concern at Sri Lanka’s selective attempts to vet military soldiers, stating, “The North-East is the most highly militarised regions in the world. If Sri Lanka vets the troops it sends out on peacekeeping missions without betting those remaining on the island, it actually means that you have a higher concentration of mass atrocities perpetrators on the streets of the Tamil North-East. So partial implementation of security can be counter productive. “ Dr Kate Cronin Furman went on to highlight underlying political barriers in progressing on accountability and transitional justice in Sri Lanka. Noting demographical challenges in Sri Lanka, Dr Furman said, “In practice accountability and justice in places were mass atrocities occurred also depends on politics. Transitional justice is a very hard sell when either of two things are true. One is that Perpetrators remain powerful even though they are not explicitly in office. The other is when large sections of the voting population oppose accountability. Unfortunately in Sri Lanka both these things are true.”