Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry has confirmed that President Rajapaksa will be visting Pakistan later this month to “take stock of the bilateral relations and identify potential areas for mutual benefit”, NDTV reported. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with Sri Lanka’s Secretary for External Affairs Kshenuka Senewiratune on Wednesday and emphasised the importance of the countries’ relationship. "We need to address impediments and deepen bilateral economic relations between the two countries," Nawaz said. Senewiratune said that Pakistan and Sri Lanka had “always supported each...
Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested four Muslims for allegedly sending “religious hate messages”, reports ColomboPage . The CID acted after reportedly receiving a “tip-off” that the four were sending “hate” SMS text messages. The messages warned that another Anti-Muslim riot has been planned to take place in August, adding that the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence had been meeting to organise it. The four men are to be produced before the courts again on the 18th of August. The Sri Lankan Army had warned last week of arrests for circulating “false” messages,...
The Northern Provincial Council's health minister stated the number of people committing suicide has been increasing, blaming it on the psychological impact left from disappearances and murders across the North-East. Health minister Sathiyalingam noted that almost everyone in the North-East has been affected, stating that at least one person from each house in the North-East has been arrested, disappeared or murdered. With many of these acts taking place in front of relatives, a large number of people have suffered psychologically and have gone on to commit suicide, added Sathiyalingam.
The embassies of the UK, France, Germany and Switzerland condemned the disruption of a meeting on Monday organised for families of the disappeared from the North, by a mob led by Buddhist monks. "Over 30 family members of disappeared persons having travelled from the Northern Province, members of civil society and NGOs as well as members of the diplomatic community were in the premises when the disruption took place. All those present felt that their security was under threat ," the embassies said in a joint statement issued on Tuesday, calling on Sri Lanka to "ensure and respect freedom of assembly and expression". " We sincerely hope that the security of those having travelled from the Northern Province to share their experience will be assured upon their return ," the statement added.
The Sri Lankan president expressed regret on Tuesday over a derogatory article posted by the Ministry of Defence over the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I regret that it has happened. I have called for a report on it," Rajapaksa told media in Colombo, the Daily Mirror reports. The public statement of regret comes as there was widespread outrage in Tamil Nadu from cross-party politicians as well as personalities from the hugely influential Tamil Nadu film industry.
Member of Parliament for the Tamil National Alliance P Ariyanethiran has condemned Sri Lanka's continued intimidation of journalists in the North-East, calling for an immediate halt to curbs on media freedom. Uthayan reports that the Batticaloa district MP said it was not just Sri Lanka's infamous Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) that was intimidating journalists, but that other government authorities were also involved. Ariyanethiran went on to cite the recent case of a journalist in Batticaloa who had been called in for questioning by the TID over a news article published on a website. Calling it a “condemnable matter”, the MP added it was “unacceptable” for the TID to call intimidate and investigate journalists over news.
The terms of reference for the UN inquiry on mass atrocities in Sri Lanka - ' OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) ', which begins work this week, were published on Tuesday, detailing the legal and time framework to be applied and how to submit evidence. Based on the resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in March this year, the OISL, led by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is to investigate the period covered by the LLRC, looking in to " alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties to the conflict ". The...
Updated 15:34 A second meeting for families of the disappeared from the North was cancelled over concerns of safety, after mobs led by Buddhist monks disrupted a similar meeting held earlier today in Colombo where Tamil families were meeting with international diplomats. Picture: @Mari_deSilva Activists and journalists who were at the meeting, reported via Twitter, that the mob charged into the meeting and shouted abuse at the Tamil relatives of the disappeared. Members of the mob took photographs of the Tamils at the meeting. “You are selling our motherland for dollars. You are supported by the USA to give evidence at [the] war crimes panel,” the protestors shouted, an independent journalist, Dushi Yanthini, reported. Diplomats from the US, UK and the EU, including the Acting Deputy Chief of the US mission, Mike Honigstein, witnessed the incident. Condemning the incidents of mob intimidation, the Deputy Chief of the US Mission consoled Tamil families and said that he would raise the issue with the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, tweeted Dushi Yanthini.
The Sri Lankan Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has told NewsFirst that he is ready to enter parliamentary politics if President Mahinda Rajapaksa tells him to. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the brother of the president, was one of the key figures behind the Sri Lankan military’s onslaught on the Vanni, and is thought to be one of the individuals holding command responsibility for atrocities committed during the armed conflict.
The Indian government is to summon the Sri Lankan High Commissioner over a defamatory article posted on the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence website last week, said the Indian External Affairs Minister on Monday, reports The Hindu . “The government strongly condemned the development,” said the minister, Sushma Swaraj. The decision came as India's Lok Sabha was disrupted by protests, with AIADMK MPs demanding stricter action against Sri Lanka, the BBC reported.