The state-owned China Construction Communication Company (CCCC) is losing over $380,000 per day, according to a statement from the company, after the Sri Lankan government suspended construction around the Port City project in Colombo. According to the company, the suspension has harmed efforts to protect land reclaimed due to the suspension, which is in place whilst the Sri Lankan government decides on the fate of the project. Over 200 metres of breakwater which has been constructed so far has been damaged, said CCCC. "As a result of this suspension, CCCC estimates an initial direct loss for the company of over 380,000 U.S. dollars per day. Furthermore, the interest on the financial loan obtained by the company for the development of the project is being paid, regardless of the ongoing suspension," the company added in a statement .
Photograph: Tamil Guardian Truth telling can never be a substitute to justice said the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday. Speaking at a side event on enforced disappearances organised by Amnesty International, Juan Mendez, noting international concern on the situation in Sri Lanka, said, “We must ensure that the plight of the victims is not swept under the rug. Even truth is disclosed or political solution is offered.” Mr Mendez added further, “The remedy to torture and disappearances, cannot just be compensation. It must include disclosing of truth. Truth telling can never be a substitute to justice and reparations cannot be a substitute to truth telling.” Responding to a question on how trust in domestic processes could be built with the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, Amnesty International’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, said, “The government can immediately release a list of all persons placed in detention.” Bhavini Fonseka a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, addressing the event, outlined, the ongoing situation of disappearance’s in Sri Lanka. Noting that Sri Lanka had the second highest number of cases of disappearances with the UN working group , Ms Fonseka warned, that Amnesty International’s estimate of 80,000 disappeared could be far higher. The researcher noted that there was “a culture of appointing commissions in Sri Lanka and not seeing it through,” meaning that any domestic search for truth and justice would need carefully defined benchmarks to measure progress. Speaking on how the Sri Lankan government could build trust, with the Tamil community, Ms Fonseka, outlined the need for the government to have an in depth consultation with Tamil community and release previous commission reports and findings. A prominent human rights defender, Ruki Fernando, who was detained and released last year, recalling attacks on the president of the #FreeJeyakumari campaign, said, “People campaigning against disappearances are deemed as traitors.”
Updated 17:45 GMT A former female LTTE fighter, who is working as a pre-school teacher under the management of Sri Lanka's Civil Security Division (CSD) at Puthukudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu was abducted by a member of the Civil Defence Force on Wednesday, before being hospitalised earlier today. The 26 year old woman, named as Vishvalingam Vinothiny from Puthukudiyiruppu, was heading to the pre-school on Wednesday morning when four men on motorcycles stopped her. The men assaulted her until she fell unconcious before placing her on one of the motorcycles and driving off. One of the key suspects in the abduction is a Tamil member of the Civil Defence Force, a paramilitary unit, auxilliary to the security forces, which specifically targets Tamils in the conflict zones for recruitment. According to locals, who wished to remain anonymous, officers with Sri Lanka's police force, who know the suspect well, stood by whilst the attack and abduction took place. She was admitted to Puthukkudiyiruppu Hopsital at 10:00 this morning. Her current condition is unknown. Ms Vinothiny, a former member of the LTTE was put through the Sri Lankan government's 'rehabilitation' programme after the end of the armed conflict, before also joining Civil Defence Force.
The Global Tamil Forum called on India to ensure the Tamil people's ongoing humanitarian and political concerns are urgently resolved, as the country's prime minister Narendra Modi embarks on his visit to Sri Lanka this week. "The recent changes of governments in India and Sri Lanka have significantly altered the geopolitical dynamics of the region. These developments have also created opportunities for the successful resolution of the Tamil national issue, a feat if accomplished, will usher the Indo-Lanka economic and political relations into a different era. Prime Minister Modi’s visit at such a crucial time is potentially transformational," the GTF said in a statement released on Wednesday. "In our opinion, there is no better time to arrive at a permanent solution to the Tamil national question, and no country other than India can play the crucial role in making this a reality," adding however, that "time is of essence".
Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena says no UN officials will be allowed to visit the island to conduct investigations into mass atrocities. In an interview for the BBC Sinhala service, President Sirisena said the government had requested the UN to have faith in a domestic process. “No, we have made a clear statement requesting them to have faith on our domestic investigation,” he said in response to a whether the government would allow external investigators. “What we can do is to take UN's opinions in to consideration and strengthen the domestic mechanism accordingly. Therefore I don't think that we need anyone from outside to conduct the investigations. But of course, we can obtain their ideas to make our work more effective.”
The leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, challenged Sri Lanka’s new president, Maithripala Sirisena, on the ongoing military presence and the plight of political prisoners. During a meeting with Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander, Mr Sirisena and Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Mr Miliband highlighted the “extreme importance” of the diaspora and said there was “deep unhappiness” in the Tamil community regarding the atrocities committed during the armed conflict.
Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran said the 13th Amendment “can never be the final solution” in Sri Lanka and called on the visiting India Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “ensure maximum power sharing for the North and East” ahead of his visit to Jaffna. “We know we have a friend in him,” said Mr Wigneswaran, in an interview to The Hindu, stating Mr Modi was a “proponent and an advocate of devolution.” “We appreciate his concerns for us, in wanting to come to the North,” he continued. “We would recommend to him that it is time to reconsider the 13th Amendment, which was a fall out from the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 and to replace it with a more dynamic system, which would ensure maximum power sharing for the North and East.” Mr Wigneswaran added that “the path to ultimate settlement is going to be long and arduous”, stating the “thirteenth Amendment can never be the final solution”.
Despite the election of a new government which has pledged reforms in Sri Lanka "a disturbing dark reality remains: the absence of justice for the massacre of thousands of Tamil civilians in "No Fire Zones" at the civil war's end in 2009" said Callum Macrae, the director of the documentary, 'No Fire Zone: the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka'. Writing in the journal, Foreign Policy , Mr Macrae said: "on the need for truth, justice, and an end to impunity and bold political solutions to the long-standing injustices suffered by the Tamils, the new government has shown precious little genuine progress." See here for full opinion.
India should support a United Nations investigation into mass atrocities that took place in Sri Lanka, said Northern Provincial Council member M. K. Shivajilingam in a letter Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit to Jaffna this week. The councillor called on the Indian prime minister to support the ongoing OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) stating it was the “only hope for justice, accountability and protection” for the Tamil people. In a letter written ahead of Mr Modi’s visit to Jaffna, Mr Shivajilingam also urged the Indian prime minister to press Sri Lanka on...
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said there are now greater expectations of Sri Lanka and encouraged the government to take immediate, feasible steps. Speaking on his return from the island, Mr Feltman told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York that accountability must addres grievances in the North. “The meetings and talks with the Government of Sri Lanka are so different than they used to be, so that leads us to greater expectations…There was suffering across all Sri Lanka, every community suffered and accountability must address the grievances in the North, but also allow that all [people] in Sri Lanka feel like all their concerns are being addressed,” he said.