The leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband has pledged to continue to push for a "full and independent international investigation" into war crimes in Sri Lanka, in a video message to the British Tamil community marking the Tamil New Year. Thanking the British Tamil community for the "incredible contribution" it has made to the UK, the opposition leader said the Labour Party has always been "a friend of the Tamil community".
The Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF), a network of civil society groups in the North-East, welcomed the statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, released on Saturday, following his visit to the island. "We are pleased that Mr de Grieff has addressed many issues that was raised by TCSF in his meeting with him," the group said on its social media page on Monday.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Free Media movement (FMM) condemned the arrest of an Uthayan journalist and intimidation of 3 further Tamil journalists in Jaffna. In a statement released on Monday the IFJ, noting that Sri Lanka's commitments to media freedom were “clearly slow in filtrating to the police in the country’s north,” said, “This is clearly an attempt to police and intimidate journalists in Jaffna and sows the dismissal status of press freedom in Sri Lanka even after the promise by the new government to improve the safety situation.”
Responding to a letter by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warning Sri Lanka that it risked its international status over its decision to hold elections under a contentious sports law introduced by the new government, Sri Lanka's sports minister, Navin Dissanayake, denied that the ministry was exerting any pressure on sporting bodies. “We categorically deny that any pressure had been exerted to any sports body or federation by our Ministry,” Mr Dissanayake wrote in a letter dated April 7, reports the Daily Mirror . The international body for football, FIFA, also echoed the IOC's...
The Sri Lankan military has constructed army camps on top of the destroyed houses of displaced Tamils in Jaffna, reports the Uthayan . The discovery was made after the military granted permission for a small group of Tamils to view their land in Palai Veemankamam, which had been seized by the military. “They built army camps on lands where our homes were,” said one of the Tamils who was granted access to their land. One home, belonging to 74 year old Mr Kanthasamypillai, has been completely destroyed, with an army camp now stood in its place.
The Tamil National Alliance and the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) called on the government to avoid implementing the delimitation of electoral boundaries in the Northern Province for the next 10 years, until displaced people are resettled in their original lands, including those that fled the country due to conflict. The TNA parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran, in a meeting with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday, said that if a delimitation process was carried out now, the representation of Tamil members in Parliament would be substantially reduced, reports the Sunday Times .
(Security Force Headquarters East) The Sri Lankan military organised an awareness programme on traffic law to students of the Methodist Tamil School in Pothuvil earlier this week. The lecture was delivered by a police officer from Pothuvil police station, and army officials and teachers of the school were also present. The military's ongoing involvement in Tamil affairs almost 6 years after the end of the armed conflict has been widely condemned by Tamil politicians and activists, with numerous calls for the new president, Maithripala Sirisena to demilitarise the North-East.
The Tamil struggle stands on its own and own arguments and does not need justification, said that a former anti-apartheid activist who works in on promoting justice, reconciliation and democracy around the world. Speaking to Ceylon Today in an interview on Friday, Dr Ivor Jenkins, highlighting that Sri Lanka had a chance to find a solution to bring stability to the island, said, “The Tamil ethnic question can indeed be resolved through talks and negotiations to everyone’s satisfaction.” Dr Jenkins added that any solution must ensure that the “process is all inclusive and not an externally...
Sri Lanka’s state owned National Savings Bank (NSB) lost millions of rupees through investments in the Colombo Stock Exchange, said the government’s finance minister Ravi Karunanayake. ColomboPage reported Mr Karunanayake telling reporters that investments by the NSB resulted in losses amounting to Rs.1.1 billion, after Rs.2.6 billion from bank funds were used to make investments. An investigation is being launched into the matter added the minister.
Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force (STF) provided weapons training to a politician and 10 other businessmen, reports the Sunday Leader . According to the paper, defence sources stated the training was provided after applications were submitted to obtain firearms. “The training is given as per the instruction issued by the Defence Ministry and it includes training in every weapon that is in used (sic) at present,” the official said.