The annual celebration of Commonwealth Day saw protests by British Tamils, who called on the body to suspend Sri Lanka and not let President Mahinda Rajapaksa take chairmanship of the Commonwealth. The protest, organised by the British Tamils Forum, took place outside Marlborough House, where a reception for representatives of member governments was held. Sri Lanka was represented by External Affairs Minister GL Peiris.
The Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper criticised Sri Lanka in his statement to mark Commonwealth Day. Sri Lanka, the only country he highlighted, has “ failed to uphold the Commonwealth’s core values ” despite being the current chair of the Commonwealth, the Prime Minister said.
Minister for Construction Wimal Weerawansa has accused the US embassy in Colombo of promoting the use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook to overthrow Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government. Speaking at a rally in the south of the island, Weerawansa said that the US is holding social media awareness programmes in order to change things in Sri Lanka, adding that this was the method used in the Arab Spring.
A Sri Lankan school has banned the wearing of the hijab, the Islamic headscarf. The Colombo Gazette reported that the principal forced two girl to remove their hijabs if they wanted to attend classes. Anti-Muslim sentiment is seen to be growing larger. Earlier this month a mosque was ordered closed by a court in Colombo, after complaints and protests by Buddhist monks.
Published 11:23 GMT Photograph Channel 4 New video evidence has been released by Channel 4 (see here ), depicting sexual violence and brutality against Tamil women and men, presumed to be LTTE fighters, by Sri Lankan army soldiers. The video, the latest in a growing pool of graphic video and photograph evidence of atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan military against Tamil civilians and fighters, depicts Sri Lankan military soldiers laughing, cheering and filming over the bodies of a Tamil woman and man. The woman's bloodied body is seen to be lying on the floor, stripped naked from the waist down.
Groups of Tamil Nadu students have dismissed the current draft UNHRC resolution as weak, calling on the Indian central government to ensure an international investigation into war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the Sri Lankan state, as well as a referendum amongst Eelam Tamils over independence.
A bus transporting people from Vavaniya to Jaffna was attacked by a Sinhalese mob, reports the Uthayan . Storming the bus at a rest stop in Iranaimadu, the attackers verbally abused the passengers for being Tamil and linked to the LTTE.
Tamil women are being coerced to join the Sri Lankan military said the Northern Province's Chief Minister, CV Wigneswaran, reports the Uthayan . Addressing an event for International Women's Day in Jaffna yesterday, Wigneswaran, said the Sri Lankan army was going into their houses coercing Tamil women, who were too afraid to refuse, to join. Questioning why the Sri Lankan army were only calling on Tamil women to join, and not men, the Chief Minister stressed that Tamil women faced significant insecurity given the extensive militarisation of the North-East.
The Sri Lankan government will not bow down to international pressure said President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Sinhala voters at an election rally held in Gampaha on Sunday, reports the Colombo Gazette . If the people of Sri Lanka demanded an investigation then the government is ready to comply, but the UN Human Rights Council cannot decide if an investigation is needed in Sri Lanka said Rajapaksa. “ Only the people of this country can decide if the war was right or wrong and not the human rights council, " he added.
The Tamil National Alliance on Sunday welcomed the draft resolution on Sri Lanka being circulated at the UN Human Rights Council, calling on the international community to “ move expeditiously towards mandating an international commission of inquiry ”. In a statement released as member states prepare to meet and discuss the resolution in Geneva, the TNA outlined ongoing rights violations occurring the North and East of the island, including “ mass scale appropriation of land by the military ” and “ sexual violence targeting Tamil women in the North and East ”.