Toronto torture victim takes case to UN

A Tamil Canadian who was tortured by Sri Lankan state forces when he reutrned to the island in 2007 has filed an official complaint at to the UN Human Rights Committee, accusing Sri Lanka of violating international human rights laws. 44-year-old Roy Samathanam, a Canadian citizen since 1996, was arrested in Colombo, by machine-gun wielding officers from Sri Lanka's Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) in 2007. He was handcuffed, blindfolded, kept in custody and tortured for 3 years after failing to provide a bribe, whilst his wife and daughter were placed under house arrest.

UNP 'opposed to international inquiry'

Sri Lanka's main opposition party, the United National Party (UNP), once again reiterated their unwillingness to co-operate with an international inquiry into war crimes, on Monday. Stating that the government's LLRC was adequate enough to deal with the allegatios, the UNP general secretary, Tissa Attanayake stated , "We are opposed to any international inquiry. That has been our position". UNP united with government against foreign intervention – Premadasa (17 November 2013)

Chinese firm pens $500mn hotel deal

The China Harbour Engineering Company has signed a deal worth $500 million with Sri Lanka authorities to build a golf courses and hotels in Hambantota and Katunayake, according to reports . The same Chinese firm built a $209 million airport in Hambantota, named the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, funded by a loan from China. See our feature from 2010: Who benefits from Chinese loans to Sri Lanka? (21 November 2010)

Tamil man disappears in Kilinochchi

Photograph @Kajeepanv No sooner had the international spectacle of the Commonwealth leaders' summit drawn to a close, than reports of disappearances begun to resurface. A 35 year old Tamil man from Kilinochchi, Sivakumar Baskaran is reported missing. According to TamilNet, Baskaran was a grassroots activist for the Tamil National Alliance. See here .

Reconsider CHOGM2015 urge Malta's Greens over SL human rights concerns

Malta's Green party urged the government to reconsider offer to host the CHOGM 2015 stating that it ‘could be interpreted as condoning human rights abuse in Sri Lanka’. (See here for report in Malta Today. The chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika, Arnold Cassola, said: "Can Prime Minister Muscat please inform the Maltese citizens about the Maltese government's attitude to these serious accusations of human rights violations on the part of the Sri Lankan government?" "AD considers it appropriate to have the invitation reconsidered and withdrawn in solidarity with Sri Lanka's human rights...

International investigation central to Tamil political demands - TNPF

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) welcomed the boycott of CHOGM by the leaders of Canada, India and Mauritius. Explaining TNPF's engagement with Mauritian officials, Ponnambalam said: "We made very clear to the Mauritian envoy that what is happening here is a genocide," Criticising international claims that recent Northern Provincial elections were a marker of progress and reconciliation, he said: "If the international community is pointing to an unwanted provincial council, that was forced upon the Tamil people, as a sign of progress, then Rajapaksa and Sinhala nationalists will be reassured that no matter what they do, the world will always fall at their feet,"

SL state media calls British Premier an 'unmitigated boor'

Sri Lanka’s state media referred to British Prime Minister David Cameron as a buffoon, a boor and a bully today, in response to his calls for an international independent investigation into war crimes should Sri Lanka fail to complete one by March. The government paper, the Daily News, in its editorial demanded an apology from Cameron “for being, in short, the total unmitigated boor on his recent trip to Sri Lanka to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.” Further extracts from the editorial reproduced below. “The disrespect was palpable, but what stood out was the exceptional...

Families of the disappeared hold candle-lit vigil

Families of the disappeared staged a candle-lit vigil in Vavuniya, Sunday The event was organised by the Vavuniya civil monitoring group in a further attempt to raise awareness about the plight of the disappeared and their families. Hundreds of effected families also staged demonstrations to raise awareness during the historic visit of the British premier, David Cameron, to the North-East on Friday.

Sri Lanka told to protect human rights by China

China has told Sri Lanka that it should "make efforts to protect and promote human rights", during a media briefing earlier today, PTI reports. Foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang was responding to a question on the Commonwealth summit, human rights and British Premier David Cameron’s pledge to push for an international investigation through the UN Human Rights Council, if Sri Lanka doesn’t complete an independent, credible inquiry by March. "Due to the differences in the economic and social development of different countries, there could be differences on human rights protection," Qin said.

CHOGM hotel occupancy ‘far below’ expectations

The average occupancy rates of the hotels in Colombo remained far below expectations during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the Daily Mirror reports . A number of star-class city hotels including Taj Samudra, Cinnamon Grand and several other relatively small hotels carried out expensive refurbishments targeting CHOGM 2013. According to Colombo City Hotels Association Chairman M. Shanthi kumar, the expectation had been that a minimum of 4,000 city hotel rooms will be occupied. “I don’t want to comment on the reasons, but only 2000 to 2100 rooms were occupied during the...

Pages