The Sri Lankan military announced it had built a new set of tennis courts for the use of Sri Lankan troops at its Eastern headquarters last week. Maj. Gen. N. J. Walgama declared open the courts on 14 October, with “all officers and several other ranks” present, reported an official army website .
Sri Lankan cabinet spokesperson and government minister Rajitha Senaratne reiterated that there are no political prisoners being kept in Sri Lankan jails, reports the Daily Mirror . Speaking to reporters at the weekly cabinet news briefing, Mr Senaratne stated that prisoners who have been involved in “terrorist activities during and after the conflict” would be prosecuted as soon as possible. He added that some of the prosecutions would be “fast tracked” where the Attorney-General felt there is “strong evidence” against the accused.
The leader of the Janatha Sewaka Party declared he was willing to join forces with any other political party in Sri Lanka to defeat a UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability for violations of international humanitarian law. “I can’t remain silent when such resolution is destroying our independent state,” said Somawansa Amarasinghe, who added that he was open to the idea of partnering with the National Freedom Front. Stating that the resolution has “violated even the UN convention”, Mr Amarasinghe said “this propaganda is handled by separatists because such global organisation is not supposed to adopt country-specific resolutions violating the country’s sovereignty and Constitution”.
2nd Lead Updated 22.30 BST 22 Oct 2015 The government’s report on the Second Mandate of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry Into Complaints of Abductions and Disappearances, highlighting that “the duty to prosecute in all circumstances has not yet crystalised into an international norm,” said “it would also be possible to provide for amnesties from prosecution under national law.” Noting that the US Secretary of State Jon Kerry on his visit to Sri Lanka “made no reference to war crimes prosecutions, the report suggested that a Truth and Reconciliation with amnesties could also be a possibility. The commission added that if there had been a conclusion of genocide “a criminal investigation with a view to prosecution was unavoidable.” The report on the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into complaints of Abductions and Disappearances, also known as the Paranagama report contains detailed rejection of the allegations against Sri Lanka's military that it deliberately shelled no fire zones and hospitals. The report conceded that some of the allegations of war crimes committed are credible, as reported by Channel 4 yesterday, however rationalised the killing of civilians as necessary to end the war. "The resolve of the Government to end the conflict, even when faced with the unpalatable choice of killing or injuring civilians in the vicinity of LTTE artillery batteries, and other legitimate targets is likely to have saved many more civilian lives and those of the armed forces by bringing the war to a close," the report says.
US Secretary of State said that major gains have been made on democracy in Sri Lanka and highlighted US involvement in several countries. Speaking at an event in Washington, where he received Foreign Policy magazine's Diplomat of the Year Award, Mr Kerry said, "I believe that nations obviously – and I’m sure you do – are driven above all by their interests. I think we try to make certain that we’re driven by interests and values simultaneously, and sometimes the interest just overwhelms the value and sometimes the value is foremost and the interests may not be as great,
The UN says it will continue to press for accountability in Sri Lanka. Responding to a question on the announced visit by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Miroslav Jenča , and the release of the Paranagama report, which appears to suggest amnesties for war crimes, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said, "I think first we'll have Mr. Jenca go to Sri Lanka, meet with President Sirisena and other officials, and we can see from there what the results of his discussions are but certainly we have always called for accountability and he'll continue to press for...
British government ministers reiterated their backing of a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka and the importance of its implementation for truth telling and accountability on the island. Speaking at an event organized on the fringes of the Conservative Party conference earlier this month, Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling voiced his support for the resolution, whilst Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Robert Halfon said what had happened to the Tamil people was genocide.
The director of the No Fire Zone documentary into Sri Lanka’s atrocities called on Sri Lankan national television to screen the Emmy-nominated film to support findings from a recently released domestic report in Sri Lanka that found the documentary credibly documented that “ armed forces committed acts during the final phase of the war that amounted to war crimes giving rise to individual criminal responsibility. In a press release, Callum Macrae said, “Now that our findings and our evidence have been so clearly vindicated, not just by the recent report released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, but also by this report ordered by the Sri Lankan government itself, there can be no excuse to delay transmission any longer.”
Updated: 2100 GMT Photographs: Tamil Guardian Thousands of Tamils in Jaffna attended the funeral of the former head of the Women’s political wing division in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Subramaniam Sivakamy. Her funeral was attended by Tamil politicians from across the North-East, including from the TNA, TNPF and TULF.
Tamil politicians across the North-East have paid tribute to Col. Thamilini, the former head of the Women’s political division in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who died on Sunday at the age of 43. Thousands of Tamils attended her funeral in Jaffna on Tuesday. “The grief and affection shown by our people at the loss of Thamilini, even six years after the end of the war, is a testament to the life that she lived and the spirit of leadership she demonstrated during the struggle,” the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C. V. Wigneswaran said in a tributary statement. “With an unrelenting thirst for her ideals, the courageous Thamilini's thoughts were all about the liberation of the Tamil people and the advancement of Tamil women.”