In an asylum appeal case last month, a UK judge deemed that the asylum seeker - a Tamil man who had taken part in numerous protests in the UK - was at risk on deportation purely due to his participation in anti-Sri Lankan government protests, and was granted asylum one this alone, not due to any association with the LTTE.

The First Tier Tribunal Judge Mailer in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber considered:

“The evidence relating to Sri Lanka is clear. Those who seek to appose the government by way of demonstrations, contending that the leaders should be implicated and charged for war crimes, would be treated harshly”.

“Having considered the background material produced as well as the evidence from the report of TAG, we find that the submissions relating to the potentially hostile treatment meted out by the Sri Lankan authorities in respect of a person perceived to have been involved in anti government protests in the diaspora, to be made out.”

See here for a report by Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) on the case. Extract reproduced below:

"The ruling is especially perspicacious in recognizing that risk is related not to facts alone but to perceptions. It was put to the appellant that his being part of protests did not amount to his being a member of the LTTE. The appellant concurred, “He said that it was not he who was saying that. The government might think that.” It is the question of perception that matters and that needs to be considered when assessing risk.
 
There are several sources for unearthing the Sri Lankan State perception with regards to protesters. In her evidence before the Tribunal, TAG Director, Janani Jananayagam enumerated many of these sources. She was quoted in the determination, speaking of a “history of hostility to and demonisation of diaspora organisations supporting a secession of the Tamil homelands in Sri Lanka” – indeed the GoSL attitude and actions today against those who call for accountability for crimes is not without precedent.

The US based advocacy group PEARL - People for Equality And Relief in Lanka - called on the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to suspend Sri Lanka from the Councils of the Commonwealth in a statement released on Wednesday.

See here for full statement, extracts reproduced in full below:

A Tamil man from Australia who returned to Sri Lanka last month to visit a sick family member was raped and tortured by Sri Lanka’s security forces.

Speaking to Australia’s ABC, the man, only identified as Kumar, made shocking claims regarding the treatment he was subjected to on return.

See video of news report here.

Kumar was abducted by a white van, soon after his arrival and taken to a blood-stained room by army intelligence officers.

"I was naked and no place to sleep, except the floor like a dog. I felt like dying but I thought of my kids and family back here,

"They came back and again started hitting me with a log at my back and now I've got a spine problem as well,

"The two guys were drunk and they came to me and they just put their hand on my body and they just rubbed me and I had some sexual torture as well,” Kumar said.

Sri Lankan Police have rejected charges of torture raised in the US State Department’s 2012 Human Rights report, slamming the allegations as “baseless”.

The report, released earlier this week stated that there were still credible reports of torture of civilians carried out by security forces, noting “"a disproportionate number of victims of human rights violations were Tamils".

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has repeated its calls for a change of venue for the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) due to be held in Sri Lanka.

HRW Asia director, Brad Adams said:

“The Commonwealth will rightly face international ridicule if it goes ahead with its summit in Sri Lanka,”

Hundreds of Tamils protested in Jaffna today against the continued seizure of land by the Sri Lankan government, as the government deployed hundreds of security forces personnel.

The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA), called for the suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth, citing Sri Lanka's "breaches of the rule of law and of the independence of the judiciary, as well as the gross harassment of members of the legal profession."

Supporting the resolution passed by the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) which called on the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to please Sri Lanka on the agenda of the group's upcoming meeting on Friday and suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth for "serious and persistent violations of the Commonwealth fundamental values".

The UK Bar Council, a representation of barristers across England and Wales, condemned the impeachment of the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, in a statement released on Tuesday.

Maura McGowan QC, Chairman of the Bar, said:

The Sri Lankan President's son and MP, Namal Rajapaksa, shares his thoughts on the island's ethnic conflict:

@loveshan76 - In SL it was never Majority vs the Minority. It was always Terrorists vs Sri Lankan's

— Namal Rajapaksa (@RajapaksaNamal) April 23, 2013