The UK based rights group, Together Against Genocide (TAG), said it "unreservedly welcomed" the report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) , and called on the UN Human Rights Council to "take concrete steps and a concrete timeline to deliver successful prosecutions and thus an end to impunity in Sri Lanka." See full statement here . Reproduced in full below: Together Against Genocide (TAG) unreservedly welcomes the report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka. We urge the government of Sri Lanka to accept in whole the recommendations of the report. This is a hopeful first step on the long road to justice. Each of the lives lost remains precious to us and we continue to hope to see them fully accounted for and their families granted Justice.
The nature of the crimes in the report have been lifted from ordinary to international due to the evidence of organisational planning, reports, said the UN Human Rights Chief Zeid Hussein in an interview with Channel 4 News. When asked whether the crimes amounted to genocide, Mr Hussein said, “We haven’t come to that assessment. We believe that we can only say that the patterns we have examined are suggestive of war crimes and crimes against humanity. That is not to say that a court at a subsequent stage will not come to that finding. You yourself have noted that we didn’t have full...
A new infographic created by the advocacy organisation Sri Lanka Campaign highlights that as many as 147,000 people could be unaccounted for after the end of the armed stage of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict. Noting that “a wider pattern of mass violence in Sri Lanka” had resulted in the death of thousands on the island “but particularly Tamils over many decades,” a briefing report by the Sri Lanka campaign provides new infographics and insight on Sri Lanka for the UN Human Rights Council's 30th session. In a briefing outlining the organisation’s stance on the UN report into Sri Lanka’s mass atrocities, (OISL), Sri Lanka Campaign, said, “There is now no doubt that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by both sides of Sri Lana’s civil war, and that many of the tens of thousands of civilians who died in the early months of 2009 were murdered by their own government. The single most positive step the new government of Sri Lanka could make is accept this basic truth.” “With tens of thousands dead or unaccounted for, 2009 saw the worst violence Sri Lanka has ever seen, and most of the victims were Tamil. Sadly, this tragedy is part of a wider pattern of mass violence in Sri Lanka which has resulted in deaths of tens of thousands of people from all ethnicities, but particularly Tamils over many decades.”
In his report to the Human Rights Council today, the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, called on Sri Lanka to take immediate action necessary to achieve sustainable peace. Mr de Greiff called on Sri Lanka to develop a comprehensive transitional justice strategy that included in-depth reform of the justice and security systems, the establishment of independent truth-seeking mechanisms and the design of a comprehensive reparation scheme, among other things; and, in parallel, to take immediate action on the fate of the disappeared, land issues, arbitrary detentions, surveillance and harassment, particularly of women in the North-East, and psycho-social support for victims. He added that these steps needed to be taken “in relation to ensuring criminal accountability". Addressing Sri Lanka’s past history of failed commissions he highlighted the failure of past commissions of inquiry and the resulting erosion of trust of victims and society.
The walk to raise awareness for Tamil demands for an international accountability mechanism concluded on Monday, when it reached its destination in Jaffna. The last leg of the walk, from Kaithady to Nallur, in Jaffna, saw participants stop at the site of the Chemmani mass grave, where candles were lit in memory of the Tamils who were buried there.
CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation called on the UN Human Rights Council to “stay the course and serve as a springboard for just action” on Sri Lanka, at the opening day of the 30th UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva on Monday. In a statement delivered at the session, CIVICUS said it was awaiting the High Commissioner’s report on violations of international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka, adding, “We are cognisant that the Council has indeed served as a forum where victims of human rights abuses have been able to bring their stories; it has listened and given courage to...
The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi urged his Sri Lankan counterpart, Ranil Wickremesinghe to ensure "genuine reconciliation" on the island, where Tamils could live a “life of equality, justice, peace and dignity”, during bilateral talks on Tuesday morning as Mr Wickremesinghe commenced his three day visit to New Delhi. “Sri Lanka has voted twice this year for change, reforms, reconciliation and progress. There can be no stronger statement of Sri Lanka’s democratic tradition. There can be no clearer sign of Sri Lanka’s march towards a peaceful, inclusive, and prosperous future,” he added. Calling for better economic agreement, Mr Modi told Mr Wickremesinghe that Indian businesses were keen to invest in Sri Lanka in infrastructure, transport and energy. “We both want deeper economic engagement,” Mr Modi was quoted by Reuters as saying.
China's ambassador to Sri Lanka, Yi Xianliag met with the Secretary of Defence, Karunasena Hettiarachchi on Tuesday. "Matters of mutual interest and bilateral relevance," were discussed the Ministry of Defence website said. The meeting comes on the same day that the Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe met with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi in New Delhi. See more here .
The International Truth & Justice Project released two interviews with Tamil victims of torture at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces, a practise that has continued on the island despite the change in government earlier this year. The ITJP said: "On 18 May 2015, ‘Witness1’, attended a Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day event for those who died in the last phase of the civil war. Within days he was abducted and taken to an unknown site where his torturers showed him photographs of himself at the event." He was accused of trying to regroup the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE, a charge he denies. He had however assisted the opposition Tamil National Alliance party.
The 30 th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) commences today amidst widespread calls for an international accountability process to deal with findings of the Office of the High Commissioner’s (OHCHR) Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL). Sri Lanka’s new government will face the council whilst having failed to gain the trust of the predominantly Tamil community in the heavily militarised North-East. Amidst reports of ongoing torture and sexual violence under the new government, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister is expected to work at the UNHRC session this month to garner support at the council to allow Sri Lanka to deal with the findings of the OISL report and ongoing human rights issues domestically. Following a number of specific events at the UNHRC pertaining to human rights in Sri Lanka, the findings of the OISL report will be discussed by the council on October 02. Keep an eye on Tamil Guardian over the next 3 weeks for updates from the 30 th session of the UNHRC.