The body of a young woman was found hanging inside a house in Jaffna this morning, the Uthayan reports. The woman, identified as 19 year old Selasta Anton, was reported missing to the police by her husband on Friday night, 10pm local time. The body has been transferred to Jaffna hospital for a post mortem.
The US has the opportunity to prosecute Sri Lankan war criminals and place sanctions on Sri Lanka, the Congressional Caucus on Ethnic and Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka heard at a discussion last week. The prosecution of Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa was focussed on by panellist Professor Ryan Goodman, during the caucus' second such event on Capitol Hill last Wednesday. Speaking from the discussion panel, Goodman, who is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Just Security and Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, urged the US to take concrete actions in working towards...
A Sri Lankan politician with the ruling party and three other men have been jailed for the killing of British aid worker Khuram Shaikh, murdereded whilst on holiday in Southern Sri Lanka in 2011. Sampath Vidanapathirana, a politician with reported close links to the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was handed a 20-year jail sentence by the Colombo High Court, over the vicious Christmas day attack, where 32-year-old Shaikh was shot and stabbed and his Russian girlfriend raped. The case has faced considerable delays with repeated accusations of political interference and witness intimidation. The accused was initially released and reinstated to his political post before being re-arrested following intense international pressure over the murder. British Prime Minister David Cameron had cited the case as an example of Colombo’s failure to deliver justice and Prince Charles had reportedly taken a private interest in the case.
The Canadian government has expressed concern about the recent restrictions issued on non-governmental organisations by Sri Lanka. Foreign Secretary Deepak Obhrai urged Sri Lanka to “respect the right to freedoms of expression, assembly and association”, in a statement released on Thursday. “Canada is deeply concerned by reports of efforts to restrict legitimate activities of civil society and non-governmental organizations in Sri Lanka. We urge the Sri Lankan authorities to respect the right to freedoms of expression, assembly and association, and the right to take part in public affairs,” he said.
The body of a man was found floating in the water under Kallady bridge in Batticaloa on Friday, reported Adaderana Tamil . The body has been identified as Saajahaan, from Kaaththaankudi.
All 7 Sri Lankan navy soldiers that were arrested in suspicion of being involved in the rape of an eleven year old Tamil girl in Jaffna have been released after the victim failed to identify her attackers. The girl was asked to identify her attacker whilst suspected navy personnel were paraded in front of her, reports Global Tamil News . The girl was admitted to Jaffna hospital after the attack on Wednesday with one suspect initially arrested. 11 year old girl raped by navy officer in Jaffna (16 July 2014)
The Tanzanian Foreign Minister, Bernard K Membe, who also chairs the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) will visit Sri Lanka next week, reports news.lk . Memba will meet with the Sri Lanka Minister of External Affair, GL Peiris, to form agreements on the Establishment of a Joint Commission on Cooperation and on Bilateral Political Consultations that will reportedly be signed by the two Ministers.
Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa invited three international experts to the country's domestic disappearances commission, reported Reuters , amid increasing international pressure over mass atrocities committed against Tamils in the final stages of the armed conflict. The three experts include a former UN prosecutor in Sierra Leon war crimes investigations, Sir Desmond de Silva, a member of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Sir Geoffrey Nice, and the chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, David Crane. The invitation comes as the UN Human Rights Council mandated international inquiry examining the final stages of the armed conflict formally began earlier this week. "The government is under pressure. That's why it has had to resort to these measures," a government official was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Sri Lanka told the United States not to base its relationships on human rights, warning this was where it was "falling behind" to China, reported Bloomberg . "[Human rights] should not be the yardstick by which you base your relationship, especially bilaterally in a geopolitical situation as what we face globally today,” said Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, the Sri Lankan president's coordination secretary in an interview in Washington on Tuesday. "That’s where, fundamentally, the U.S. is falling behind and where China is gaining," he added.
A four day anti-Christian campaign was launched Tuesday, by a Buddhist group in Sri Lanka, reports the Barnabus Fund . Reports suggest that the Ravana Balaya General Secretary announced a 4 day campaign against ‘Christian fundamentalism’ and advised Christians to halt their activities. The organisation’s General Secretary Ittekande Saddhatissa further warned that firm action would be taken should Christian organisations fail to listen to the campaign's advice. He added that the decision to run such a campaign was made after several Buddhist monks complained about Evangelical Christians.