The British High Commission in Colombo, Thursday, called on Sri Lanka to cooperate with the UN war crimes probe, reports Colombo Page . Sri Lanka and the UK as Commonwealth Members have committed to values set out in the Commonwealth Charter such as democracy, respect for human rights and rule of law, said the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka John Rankin. "It is in context of such commitments, both in the Commonwealth and in the United Nations, that we continue to call on Sri Lanka to cooperate with the international investigation mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March, and to fully implement the specific recommendations in your own Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission report, including on accountability and ensuring justice for victims of all sides during the conflict," he added.
Another Tamil asylum-seeker in Australia was rushed to hospital after, amidst increasing fears of deportation, attempting to self-immolate in Melbourne, reports The Guardian . The asylum-seeker, a 40 year old man, came by boat to Australia in 2012, after being beaten and breaking his leg at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces, said the Tamil Refugee Council.
The screening of a Sri Lankan film, ‘With You Without You’ was cancelled in Chennai on Saturday, after receiving threat calls from Tamil groups who claimed the film was ‘anti-Tamil,’ reports Dailymirror.lk . Commenting on the cancellation of the screening in Chennai, the director, Prasanna Withanage, said that people he spoke to had initially thought it was anti-Tamil but changed their minds after watching the film. “I owe a lot to Tamil cinema, have immerse respect for the filmmakers here. In fact, we were planning to organise a special screening for the people of the Tamil film industry. It...
The Sri Lankan government is set to take over a private resort worth over Rs. 500 million rupees, according to Lanka Business Online. Dunamis Capital Plc, the company that has a 76 percent stake in the land, said the property in Nuwara Eliya was valued at Rs. 536 million.
The recent outbreak of Sinhala mob violence against Muslims in southern Sri Lanka has “underscored the majoritarianism that has dominated the politics of the country” said The Hindu in its latest editorial on Friday. Noting that the group that is largely blamed for instigating the violence, Bodu Bala Sena (or Buddhist Power Force) has been ceremoniously visited by both Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the editorial said the moves were “signalling powerful patronage and giving it a stamp of legitimacy” . The Hindu went on to say that amidst the “unsettled question of Tamil political aspirations”, Sri Lankan leaders were “driving the Sinhala nationalist desire for new enemies” .
To ensure accountability and justice for the Buddhist mob violence against Muslims this week, Sri Lanka must investigate links between its security forces and extremist Buddhist groups, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement Thursday. “Sri Lankan authorities need to do more than arrest those carrying out the anti-Muslim violence. They need to investigate and identify any instigators,” said HRW’s Asia Director, Brad Adams. “That means taking a hard look at the role and relationship between extremist Buddhist groups like the BBS and the Sri Lankan security forces,” he said, referring to the ultranationalist Buddhist movement, Bodhu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Force.
The New Zealand Labour Party has welcomed the appointment of international judge and Former Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright to a United Nations Human Rights Council investigation panel examining war crimes in Sri Lanka. In a statement released on Friday, says Labour’s Spokesperson for Associate Foreign Affairs Maryan Street said, “Her reputation is second to none and we are delighted she will be contributing to this long awaited tribunal.” Dame Cartwright will be quitting from her current role on the Cambodia War Crimes Tribunal, where she has sat as a judge since 2006. The Sri Lankan parliament voted and rejected the UN investigation earlier this week.
Several Sri Lankan government websites been knocked offline after hackers attacked them in the wake of Sinhala mob attacks on Muslims in southern Sri Lanka. Hackers from “ Operation Sri Lanka ” announced on their Twitter account that several government websites, including that of the Sri Lankan Treasury , Sri Lankan President and the Sri Lankan High Commission in the UK had been taken down in a spate of cyber attacks over the last few days. At the time of writing, the websites remain offline. UK #Srilanka n High Commission Website Hacked: http://t.co/r6mlilJqyN Expect us! @UKinSriLanka @PresRajapaksa @RajapaksaNamal @EmbassyofSL — ❖OPERATION SRILANKA (@OpSriLanka) June 19, 2014 The website of the Buddhist group Bodu Bala Sena was also amongst those shutdown by the hackers. The hackers also released over 340 Sri Lankan government login details , including email addresses passwords for several government agencies, with ministries and the Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s office targeted.
Sri Lanka’s Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters that the government has been bypassing US sanctions on Iranian oil purchases by buying through third parties, claiming that there was an “understanding” with Washington, but the US “categorically” denied such an agreement, reported Reuters on Friday. “We have been buying (Iran crude) from third parties. But we have had some understanding with the U.S. as well,” Keheliya Rambukwella, who is also spokesperson for the government, said. “This is not the [permitted] quota. This is in addition to the quota. For instance, Malaysia supplied [what] happened to be Iranian oil,” he said. “It is a very closed secret,” he added. "I know the gravity of it. I know it's a serious statement," he said when asked by reporters if he was aware of the possible implications of what he was saying. A spokesperson at the US embassy in Colombo denied Rambukwella’s claims. "We categorically deny there was any agreement," a spokesman at the embassy told Reuters.
The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Atul Keshap, on a trip to Sri Lanka to discuss long term political solutions and reconciliation, met Friday with the Tamil National Alliance spokesperson Suresh Premachandran. Premachandran told the US official that it would be very difficult for Tamil civilians to give evidence before a United Nations probe into war crimes due to government statements that told media that any one that testified before a UN panel would be ‘dealt with’, reports the New Indian Express . The TNA delegation also outlined that many war displaced civilian...