Building on a previous report published late last year - 'Returnees at Risk: Detention and Torture in Sri Lanka', Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) published their latest report on Wednesday: 'Activist Intimidation: Surveillance and Intimidation of Tamil Diaspora Activists and their Supporters'. Analysing afresh data collected from the 'Returnees at Risk' report, this new report includes five interviews with diaspora activists conducted in January 2013, as well as a further eight successful asylum appeal determinations. Speaking to Tamil Guardian, Henrietta Briscoe of TAG said, "Our report shows that the government of Sri Lanka is not only committing egregious human rights violations against Tamils in Sri Lanka.. disappearances, torture and so on. It's also increasingly hostile towards foreign countries where significant Tamil populations live, in particular Europe, the United States and Canada." "We now have evidence of surveillance carried out in Europe, the data from which is used to target for torture persons returning to Sri Lanka from abroad. It's now a global problem and we hope the UN Human Rights Council will take note of that in this and following sessions." See here . Extract of the report's Executive Summary reproduced below: 'The GoSL defines ‘traitor’ and ‘terrorist’ broadly to include both those who call for an independent international process of accountability for the crimes committed during the Sri Lankan conflict and human rights abuses since the end of the conflict, and those who are considered to bring Sri Lanka into international disrepute, such as asylum seekers and protesters. Commensurate with its assessment of the threat, the GoSL allocates resources to collecting (both through surveillance and interrogations) and then acting upon that threat. Those accounts of interrogations under torture that are detailed in our data sets reveal the information requirements of GoSL officials.
An extensive and noteworthy list of civil society activists from the North-East have called for the draft resolution currently being discussed at the UN Human Rights Council to be " revisited ", " revised " and " strengthened ", and be used as an " opportunity to correct the mistakes of 2012 [UNHRC resolution 19/2]". The appeal, released on the 10th March, concluded in the hope " that the upcoming resolution in the 22nd session of the UNHRC will help the Tamil people climb out of the precarious situation that they are in at present ". See here . Reproduced in full below: 'Appeal from the Tamil Civil Society to the International Community regarding the upcoming resolution in the UNHRC on Sri Lanka This appeal, signed by civil society activists who live and work in the North and East of Sri Lanka, seeks to state our position with regard to the resolution on Sri Lanka to be tabled at the 22nd sessions of the UN Human Rights Council. We understand that the resolution will seek to provide more time to the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations contained in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and that it will fall short of calling for an international independent investigation to hold to account those responsible for the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. If this resolution would contain only the above and no further, in our opinion, it would be truly unfortunate.
A recently formed advocacy movement, the Dead And Missing Persons Parents' Front (MPPF), condemned the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for a favorable attitude towards Tamils and for supporting terrorist organisations in Sri Lanka. Claiming that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was involved in assisting terrorists, the chairperson of the movement, Ananda Perera, proposed that instead of scrutinising the Sri Lankan government the UNHRC should be focusing its attention on the Tamil National Alliance. Prior to the start of the UNHRC sessions, the MPPF took the opportunity to...
The US Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the Secretary of State Kerry, urging the State Dept to support a call for an international independent investigation, stating that he had serious concern regarding the "deterioration of democracy and the lack of progress on reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka." Letter reproduced in full below: Dear Secretary Kerry: I am writing to express my concern about the continued erosion of democracy in Sri Lanka and to urge you to call for an independent international investigation into allegations of war crimes by both the Government of Sri Lanka and the terrorist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), during their final battles.
In a statement the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils called on the UN to create an " International Commission of Investigation into the allegations of War crimes, Crimes against Humanity and the Crime of genocide against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka " and urged the member states of the UNHRC to strengthen the current proposed draft "so that it will have meaningful action on the ground; bringing the individuals who were responsible for the violation of International Humanitarian Law, including extra-judicial killings, sexual violence and enforced disappearances to account." Falling...
Addressing t he Unite d Nations Human Ri ght s Council at Geneva , Tasha Manoranjan of Tamil Nadu based NG O Pasumai Thaayagam, stated that S ri Lanka has " served as a precursor for the tragedy now unfolding in Syria " . Stating th at Sri Lanka's "long history o f impunity is inst itutionalised" , the speaker said " abuses by the Sri Lankan government remain unchecked, uninvestigated and unprosecuted ". The full statement has been reproduced below.
Speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Ambassador Gerard Cor, Ireland's permanent representative to the UN, called for Sri Lanka to remain on the council's agenda, stating the county had made "very limited progress" since the passing of the March 2012 resolution. Addressing the council on behalf of the European Union, Cor stated, " Given the very limited progress of the last year, the EU believes that the current human rights situation in Sri Lanka, and accountability and reconciliation, should remain on the agenda of this Council. The impartial application of the rule of law is...
Student protests that proclaim the US resolution on Sri Lanka inadequate, which were initially started at Loyola College in Chennai, have spread across the Tamil Nadu state, resulting in a massive student voice of dissent around India’s dealing of the Eelam Tamil issue. The protests have resulted in spontaneous hunger strikes and burnings of the US draft resolution, reports TamilNet. The protesters have described it as a motion that “bails out the genocide-accused Sri Lankan state.” Forming a conglomerate organisation, 'The All Colleges Students Federation of Tamil Nadu for the Liberation of...
The opposition UNP wishes to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the government "to support the country in dealing with the aftermath of the impending resolution at the UNCHR" and stop the country becoming a "pariah state", announced the leader of the UNP, Ranil Wickremesinghe at a press conference on Wednesday. Wickremesinghe added that the UNP would support the government in implementing the LLRC, the 13th Amendment, and give "required assistance in solving the national issue". The news comes only a few weeks after the UNP joined other opposition parties, including the TNA, to sign a...
The Sri Lankan president and his wife arrived in Japan on Tuesday as part of a four day official visit, accompanied by Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Management Nimal Siripala de Silva, Monitoring MP for Ministry of External Affairs Sajin de Vaas Gunawardena, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga and Governor of Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal. They were received by Minoru Kiuchi, the Parliamentary Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retired Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, Sri Lankan Ambassador in Japan and Nobuhito Hobo,...