The ultra Sinhala nationalist party, JHU, are to take legal action over TNA leader, Sampanthan, for statements 'regarding formation of a Tamil Eelam state', reports Colombo Page. The spokesperson for the JHU, Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe, asserted that Sampanthan's statements were in violation of the 157th article of the constitution of Sri Lanka. The party, led by Buddhist monks, has criticised the government and accused it of failing to take action over the Sampanthan's comments at the ITAK convention held in Batticaloa recently.
The Sri Lankan Army is to import 10,000 cows from Australia, as they aim to produce enough milk to support the entire country. Colonel A.V. Gunaratne, Director of Agriculture and Livestock at the army-run Kandakudah farm, was reported to have told journalists of the military project, as he took them on a tour of the area. The project was to be backed by a ‘foreign company’ reported The Island , with all produce being made available to the state-owned Milco company. The European company also allegedly wanted assurance from the government that they would purchase any produce not bought by the...
Tamil students in Jaffna marked the Queen’s diamond jubilee, where she dined with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa by symbolically burning the island’s constitutions from 1833 until the present day. The students laid the 7 constitutions in the form of placards and wreath down in St John’s cemetery in Jaffna, before setting them all alight as a mark of protest and managed to evade the security forces in the heavily militarised North. Photograph: Courtesy of TamilNet See the report from TamilNet here .
Sri Lankan Minister Reginald Cooray was forced to leave Coimbatore abruptly on Thursday as activists from Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) and Tamil Desa Poduvudamai Katchi (TDPK) flocked to his hotel to stage a protest. The incident has angered the Chief Opposition Whip of Sri Lanka John Amaratunga, who slammed India's "step-motherly treatement" and called for an official protest against the Indian High Commissioner of Sri Lanka, reported ColomboPage . The Minister for Minor Export Crop Promotion was in...
The current US Ambassador-designate has stated that she will prioritise human rights, if confirmed as the next Ambassador to Sri Lanka. Speaking at her Senate confirmation hearing, Michele Sison said that the US was looking for “near term progress” and stating, "serious allegations of violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law, committed by both sides at the end of the war remain to be investigated and have slowed reconciliation." The former Ambassador to Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates went on to say, "The United States and other international partners have...
Sri Lanka's parting representative to the UN in Geneva, Tamara Kunanayakam, sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, questioning the impartiality of the UNHRC resolution passed earlier this year, the Daily Mirror reports . In a letter, published by the newspaper, Sri Lanka ambassador, asserts that Pillay's office, "instead of implementing the resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council at its Special Session on Sri Lanka in 2009, was playing the political agenda of the USA and other Western powers." Citing an email communication by the head of the Asia-Pacific division of the OHCHR, Rory Mungoven, to Pillay's office, 'triumpantly announcing the adoption' of the UNHRC resolution, Tamara writes, " The communication raises serious doubts about the impartiality, objectivity, and non-selectivity of the work conducted by the staff of OHCHR and their respect for decisions of the Human Rights Council." Tamara's full letter, as published in The Daily Mirror, is reproduced below: "I am writing to you in connection with an email communication dated 22 March 2012 addressed to the staff of your Office by Mr. Rory Mungoven, Head of the Asia-Pacific Division of OHCHR, triumphantly announcing the adoption that morning of the resolution on Sri Lanka by the Human Rights Council, describing it as “the culmination of the sustained and determined work by many in the team and other parts of the house over the past few years.”
Amid strong calls for reconciliation and rehabilitation in the North, the Sri Lankan government, who are currently accused of war crimes and human rights abuses, are looking to raise $5 billion dollars, to invest into Hambantota, President Rajapaksa’s home constituency, and in the southern capital city, Colombo. See here . A recent report on a $5 billion investment raising initiative exhibited Sri Lanka’s continuous investment drive to help develop its southern ports facilities. Speaking about plans for Colombo and Hambontota, in a recent interview with a UK newspaper, Sri Lanka Ports...
Writing in The Guardian , Donna Covey, the chief executive of a leading UK charity for refugees and asylum seekers, Refugee Council, condemned the UK's policy of deportation to Sri Lanka, following the recently published testimony of the tortured Tamil deportee, 'Hari'. 'Evidence that shows it is unsafe to return people to Sri Lanka grows by the day . Just last week, the UK's high court stopped the removal of 40 refused asylum seekers to Sri Lanka on the grounds that their human rights would be violated . Human Rights Watch have this year alone reported 13 cases of refused asylum seekers who...
As an estimated 8000 protestors gathered outside Marlborough House to demonstrate against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, it was reported that inside, British Prime Minister David Cameron also discussed the issue of war crimes with Rajapaksa. The Prime Minister’s spokesman Craig Oliver told Channel 4 that, “The Prime Minister raised the issue of making sure that allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka were properly investigated”. Earlier, reports from “senior sources” to The Times indicated that the British Prime Minister would also warn Rajapaksa of potential boycott of the 2013 CHOGM...
Video footage has been released that appears to show Sri Lankan soldiers “gloating” over more than a hundred Tamil corpses, many of which have been stripped naked, reported The Independent . The video clips, recorded by Sri Lankan soldiers, shows more than 100 dead bodies of Tamils, with many of the dead dressed in civilian clothing. Almost all of the dead women in the video have had their clothes stripped off to expose their breasts and genitals. A second clip appears to show injured Tamils lying on the ground surrounded by Sri Lankan soldiers before cutting to a clip of lines of Tamil women...