In a statement published on Friday, the leader of the UK Labour Party, Ed Miliband MP remembered the " appalling loss of life ", noting that the " terrible events that took place in 2009 resonate to this day ". See here for statement in full. Extracts have been reproduced below: "Three years on, no credible accountability process has been initiated from within Sri Lanka to investigate the serious allegations of war crimes detailed in the UN Panel of Experts report." "In addition, the Labour Party remains deeply concerned by the plight faced by many Tamils on the island, as well as violations...
Amnesty International has called for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to press visiting Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister GL Peiris to address past and continuing human rights abuses and accountability issues. Head of Amnesty’s Washington DC office, Frank Januzzi, said in a statement released on Friday that the international community cannot wait while the government ‘makes empty promises’ and that an independent international investigation should be established immediately. "Secretary Clinton should use this meeting to follow up on her decisive action during the March session of the...
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, may warn Mahinda Rajapaksa personally he would consider boycotting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting due to be held in Colombo unless there is faster action on demilitarisation and devolving power, The Times newspaper reported on Friday. According to the report, 'senior sources' informed The Times, that the UK prime minister may deliver the message personally next month as Rajapaksa attends a lunch marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. See also: UK opposition leader marks Mullaivaikkal (18 May 2012)
Rajiva Wijesinha, Sri Lanka's presidential advisor on reconciliation Tensions ran high at a live public debate run by London based media forum, The Frontline Club, on Wednesday, as the Sri Lankan president's advisor on reconciliation, Rajiva Wijesinha, accused fellow panellists talking “ complete nonsense ” and called the Sri Lankan researcher at Amnesty International a “ vengeful harridan ”. Chaired by the BBC's Stephen Sackur, the panellists considered the impact of the Channel 4 documentary 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' and the situation in Sri Lanka today three years after the end of the armed conflict. Panellists included the director of 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' - Callum Macrae, Yolanda Foster of Amnesty International, Jan Jananayagam of TAG (Tamils Against Genocide), Arun Thambimuttu – the presidential coordinator for Batticaloa district and Batticaloa's SLFP organiser and the president's advisor on reconciliation - Rajiva Wijesinha.
Increasing Sinhalisation feared in the North-East, as attacks on Hindu temples escalate. The past few weeks has seen a string of attacks targeting Hindu priests, Hindu sacred shrines and the forceful demolition of Hindu temples. On 15th May a Sivalingam statue a sacred shrine was reported as missing in Polanaruwa. PhotographsTamilwin Two days before, in Punanai, a village near Batticoloa, a Pillaiyar statue was reported missing.
Army spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya has praised the Sri Lankan Army for not reducing its size despite the war ending three years ago, reported the state-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation . Stating that the troops were consolidating national security, the Brigadier also commented that security measures had not been relaxed, noting that Sri Lanka was unlike any other country in the world. Navy media spokesman commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya also stated that the Navy was continuously conducting 24-hour patrols along the coast to prevent “terrorism”, adding that the number of naval...
When Prof. G. L Pieris, Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister, meets Mrs. Clinton, US Secretary of State tomorrow, he will have in his hand a piece of paper. The ‘Action Plan’ he will present was hastily put together in an attempt to deflect growing international criticism of Sri Lanka’s treatment of the Tamil people. However, the title of the document is misleading. The ‘Action Plan’ is not actually a blue print for forthcoming action. Instead, and as Sri Lanka’s past record of promised ‘action’ on the Tamil question indicates, all the ‘action’ in the ‘Action Plan’ will be done with its presentation. In other words Sri Lanka’s ‘Action Plan’ to resolve the Tamil issue is simply to present the ‘Action Plan’ and then carry on much the same as before.
The Sri Lankan envoy to Australia Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe has told Australian newspaper The Age that Tamil refugees deemed a security threat by Australian officials are needed back home. Dozens of Tamil refugees have been given adverse assessments by the Australian Security and intelligence Organisation (ASIO), which makes it impossible for them to settle in Australia. The refugees are unable to appeal the assessment by the ASIO and are stuck in a legal limbo. Admiral Samarasinghe told The Age that the refugees are welcome in Sri Lanka. ''Help is required in Sri Lanka now. Those who have got a negative assessment, please come back to Sri Lanka. Even if you have been sent out from the place, you will be treated justifiably and fairly and you will be permitted to meet up with your families. Of course, law of the land will prevail.''
Writing on the website www.journalism.co.uk , former BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka, Frances Harrison, slammed the failure of journalists to expose the truth of Mullivaikkal. Excerpts reproduced below: "How is it possible in this world of satellites, rolling news and internet we have no idea how many human beings really perished, even rounded up to the nearest thousand?" " It is because as journalists we have failed to get close to the truth ." "Those aid workers who spoke out were forced to leave the country. Record numbers of journalists were killed and exiled in a deliberate attempt to...
Photographs Tamilwin Posters, condemning the massacre of Mullaivaikal and the affirming the Tamil nation's determination to seek justice and fight for their rights, emerged overnight at locations around the University of Jaffna, Tamilwin reports . According to unverifiable photographs published on the news website, the posters carried messages saying, "Mullaivaikkal is not the end of us", "we will give our rights a voice and fight for justice", "embracing our suffering we will attain our dreams", "even though people have died, our aspirations have not", and "this is the day that with the assistance of the international community, the voice of the Tamil nation's rights was suppressed."