Mr. Anton Balasingham, the chief negotiator of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and an extraordinary theoretician within the Tamil struggle, is remembered by Tamils across the world today. His death at his home in London on 14 December 2006, a few weeks after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, shook the Tamil nation. As over 50,000 Tamils across Britain , Europe and the diaspora came to pay their respects, and many thousands more marked his death in Canada and other diaspora centres across the world, tens of thousands of Tamils in the homeland attended memorial events in Kilinochchi and Mullaitheevu. It was a day of national grief . Honouring his three decades of service to the Tamil struggle, the LTTE conferred the title 'Voice of the Nation'.
Almost 100 leading film makers, lawyers, writers and artists worldwide have called on the Malaysian government to drop the case against Lena Hendry, a human rights activist who was detained after screening the film, 'No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka'. Lena Hendry, who is also the manager of Kuala Lumpur's Freedom Film Festival, was charged under Malaysia's censorship laws for screening a film that had not been approved by the country's censorship board. She is due to stand trial on December 14th, facing a possible jail term of upto three years. The documentary, by the director Callum Macrae, displays the mass atrocities committed against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka at the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009.
Sri Lanka will hold local government elections before the Tamil and Sinhala new year in April, the country's prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in parliament on Friday. Responding to a question by the chief opposition whip on electoral reform, Mr Wickremesinghe said discussions on electoral reforms are being held. "We will take a decision in Parliament. Women's representation in Local Government Institutions will be 25 percent," he said. "According to the new system it could be even 100 percent. But 75 percent will be the maximum male representation."
The Sri Lankan army on Thursday conducted a human rights training project for residents in Kilinochchi.
Crowds gather at Nallur as the first day of the commission began. Photographs: Tamil Guardian Tamil families in Jaffna testified before Sri Lanka’s presidential commission into disappearances this week, pleading for information on their whereabouts of their missing loved ones. The first phase of the sittings took place in Nallur where 235 complaints were filed, with proceedings continuing today.
British Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Hugo Swire said the United Kingdom will continue to work towards promoting accountability, reconciliation, political settlement and human rights, in its relationship with Sri Lanka. Writing to the British Tamil Conservatives, Mr Swire said that he had “welcomed the recent report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)” which detailed the patterns of serious human rights violations and other international crimes that have taken place on the island. Speaking on British Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement that the UK will provide £6.6 million to Sri Lanka to support “military reform, displaced persons and reconciliation,” Mr Swire added “the Prime Minister, as he has done previously, raised ongoing concerns and urged further progress towards delivering a lasting peace”. The funding would be used to “support reconciliation efforts, to influence and embed change in institutions central to democracy and stability and to support demining to allow displaces persons to return to their land”.
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP E Saravanabavan asked why the new government had investigated the murder of journalists in the South and not attacks and disappearances of Tamil journalists in the North. Speaking in parliament on Friday, Mr Saravanabavan, who owns the Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna, said that while it is good to see the new Governemtn investigating some of the incidents involving journalists, there must be a focus on incidents involving journalists. Mr Saravanabavan said that several attacks on Tamil journalists had occurred in highly militarised areas.
The European Union and Sri Lankan authorities met in Brussels to discuss the currently suspended GSP plus trade concession. Sri Lanka’s deputy Foreign Minister Dr Harsha de Silva said that the meeting was part for Sri Lanka’s ongoing efforts to regain the HSP plus concession from the EU, reports Colombo Gazette . The GSP plus is awarded based nations complying with the 27 international conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention Against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In a statement made on World Human Rights Day the Chief Minister of the Northern Province CV Wigneswaran said that Sri Lanka’s constitution violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Tamil rights violated by successive Sri Lanka governments says Chief Minister on World Human Rights Day (11 Dec 2015) Sri Lanka businesses must lobby for improved human rights to see GSP+ reinstated says EU ambassador (27 Nov 2015)
The rights of Tamils as individuals and as a People have been violated over the course of time by successive Sri Lankan governments said the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran in his statement to mark World Human Rights Day. Sri Lanka’s former Supreme Court judge, in his statement issued in Tamil and English, quoting article one of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights said, “The legitimate right of self-determination has been denied to the Tamils instead their right to equality, a central human right, has been violated throughout the period of Sri Lanka’s existence. The right to life of individual Tamils has been violated through extra-judicial killings in which the State and its agents actively participated. There has been no accountability for any of the killings that have taken place.” On the right to liberty, Mr Wigneswaran added, “Again a non-defeasible right stated in the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights continues to be violated with the incarceration of many hundreds of young Tamils detained without trial or deprived of proper hearings. Their continued imprisonment is a continuing violation of this important right by the Government of Sri Lanka.” Welcoming the establishment of the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and drawing upon an Northern Provincial Council passed in February, the Chief minister of the predominantly Tamil Northern Province said,
Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende is set to visit Sri Lankan in the first week of January 2016, to hold high level talks with senior government officials. Mr Brende, the Former Managing Director of the World Economic Forum and Former Minister of Trade and Industry in Norway, will be holding discussions regarding increasing trade and investment opportunities on the island. He will also address the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Trade between Sri Lanka and Norway during 2014 accounted for US$ 30 million. The visit comes after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe ruled out signing a trade deal with India this week, stating his government would never sign such an agreement .