The head of Sri Lanka's delegation at the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva has reportedly snubbed UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay, by missing a scheduled meeting with her. According to the Island , Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe caused a stir by skipping a meeting that he was due to have with the HIgh Commissioner. The move follows his address to the council last week, where Sri Lanka attacked the High Commissioner, accusing her of a "lack of objectivity". The address was met with criticism from the UK, with a senior member of mission stating , "the unpleasant verbal...
Hundreds of protesters made of DMK party workers along with the leader, MK Stalin, were arrested on Tuesday as they attempted to picket the Sri Lankan High Commission in Chennai. Calling for an an international inquiry into alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan government, protesters shouted slogans demanding that the Indian government does not "betray" the Tamils. Other Tamil Nadu political figures were also arrested, including Dravidar Kazhagam leader K Veeramani and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi leader Thol Thirumavalavan.
Statement made by Ms. Vani Selvarajah at the UN Human Rights Council on Monday on behalf of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, during Item 2 - Interactive Dialogue with High Commissioner: (See here for UNHRC webcast at 00:59:50) "Thank you Mr. President, Madam High Commissioner, on behalf of Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada and the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), we welcome your annual report, and thank you for your continued resolve to protect human rights around the world. The situation in Sri Lanka is deteriorating, with an increased level of militarization, suppression of free speech, the breakdown of the rule of law and the loss of any democratic space. The Tamil people are living under army occupation. Students from the University of Jaffna were illegally arrested and detained for peacefully protesting. Journalists continue to live and work in fear of reprisals. The Chief Justice, Shirane Bandaranayake, was illegally impeached this January. We are encouraged by your optimism that findings of the Secretary General's landmark internal review undertaken by Charles Petrie, would allow for increased responsibility, transparency and accountability within the UN system. To effectively promote accountability in Sri Lanka, Council itself must act to ensure acceptance of the UN Panel of Experts Report as an official document. The Panel of Experts concluded that there were credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides of the conflict in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan government is on the lookout for people providing information to the British television broadcaster channel 4, reported a Sinhala daily paper, The Divaina. The paper reported that the Ministry of Defence had requested the public to report any members of the public that they suspected of 'betraying the country for monetary gain' by passing on information to Channel 4. The Ministry of Defence alleged that Channel 4 documentaries that accused Sri Lanka of war crimes had used unauthenticated evidence. The producer of the Channel 4 documentary on Sri Lanka, " No Fire Zone:The...
Protest rally in Geneva on 4th March 2013. Photographs www.Sankathi24.com
Writing in the Nigerian national daily, ThisDay, head of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association Boma Ozobia has argued for Nigeria to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka later this year. See extracts below: The 5th and Current Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Kamalesh Sharma is visiting Nigeria at about this time and as is this case with these visits, various matters of mutual concern will be tabled for discussion between the government of Nigeria and the visiting dignitary. I trust the current situation in Sri Lanka will be top of the agenda. I...
At the beginning of last month, TNA MP S. Sritharan, accused Australian MP Julie Bishop (Shadow Miniser for Foreign Affairs and Trade) of not caring about Tamil grievances, in an interview with an Australian Tamil radio show on Melbourne Radio 3Cr. See here for his comments in full. Responding on Twitter to the story by Tamil Guardian, Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP) tweeted , "that report does not reflect what occurred - it is refuted". Asked by Tamil Guardian for her version of events, Bishop sent us the following written response which has been reproduced in full below. (Highlights in bold...
China has refused a loan request by Sri Lanka for $500 million, saying that it would only approve “project loans”, reported the DailyMirror . Sri Lanka had sought the loan in order to buy petrol products. An official with the Finance Ministry said that China was only prepared to grant project loans for which interest rates were relatively high. China is now Sri Lanka’s biggest lender, with a total of US$3.1 billion obtained in loans and export credit to Sri Lanka in 18 months, at interest rates varying from 2.9% to 8.25%.
The MDMK leader Vaiko was arrested by Chennai Police after attempting to lay seige to the Sri Lankan High Commission on Monday, reported NDTV. He was demanding that New Delhi vote in favour of a resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council later this month, and call for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes.
Speaking at the current United Nations Human Rights Council sessions, the UN high Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, expressed concerns about the absence of accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. An excerpt of Pillay's statement read : "I remain concerned about the lack of meaningful progress on accountability and reconciliation. Although I support the National Plan of Action for the implementation of the LLRC recommendations I do notice that this is being done selectively. So I welcome the engagement by the Human Rights Council to monitor domestic processes especially...