As speculation drove Sri Lanka’s stock market to a 1-week high, foreign investors net sold $1.5 m (Rs. 165m) worth of shares on Monday, Reuters reported. Foreign investors have sold a net $58m (Rs. 6.36 bn) worth of shares in 2011, after a record $240m (Rs. 26.4 bn) in 2010. See our earlier posts: Sri Lanka’s stocks: a closer look (Jan 2011) Foreigners sell, state buys (Oct 2010)
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navanethem Pillay, during her opening statement to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 30 May 2011. Let me also refer to the report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka, which concludes that there are credible allegations of a wide range of serious violations of international law committed by both the Sri Lankan Government forces and Tamil Tigers in the final stages of the conflict. It is incumbent on the Government to investigate these allegations and I also urge it to implement the measures recommended by the...
While Sri Lanka’s friends urge a domestic investigation into war crimes committed during the final months of the island’s war as a way of fending of an international probe, a defiant President Mahinda Rajapaksa made clear Friday there will be nothing of the sort. See reports by the BBC and other agencies . “ We were with you in the battlefield. It is the same today. We will not betray you before the world ,” President Rajapaksa told his troops in a speech marking the second anniversary of the end of the war with the Liberation Tigers. "I will recall what I said in the past - that our troops...
The rank of President’s Counsel (PC) in Sri Lanka – originally Queen’s Counsel (QC), as it is in UK – is awarded to the most senior lawyers who are experts in a particular field. The title refers to those considered sufficiently eminent as to be appointed to represent the head of state. According to Sri Lanka’s constitution, PCs are those lawyers who have “reached eminence in the profession and have maintained high standards of conduct and professional rectitude.” Thus, at a time Sri Lanka is under growing international scrutiny for mass killings during the final months of the island’s war,...
In the light of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s categorical refusal to investigate war crimes by Sri Lanka’s military, this is what US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Robert Blake, had to say during his visit earlier this month (see AFP’s report here ): "We look first to the host government, in this case the government of Sri Lanka, to take responsibility (for) these issues. " The US has continuously expressed to the government of Sri Lanka to implement a credible process of accountability." "[An] international mechanism can become appropriate in case of states that are unable or...
From the Sunday Times, May 30: Rehearsals for the Victory Day parade held on Friday began two weeks ago. Among those rehearsing were a group of 23 newly-recruited policemen from Jaffna, six of whom were women constables. On the eve of the parade they were told, that due to security reasons , they had been dropped from the parade, but if they wished they could witness the parade. See also our earlier posts: Which nation’s team? (April 2011) Strict criteria ... (Dec 2010) 'Ethnocracy'? (Nov 2010)
Daily Mirror's cartoon Friday May 27, 2011 Sri Lanka on Thursday withdrew the on-arrival free visa facility for Indian tourists. Although potential visitors from 78 other countries will also be impacted by the decision announced this week, t he majority of tourists to the island are Indians. Over 120,000 visited last year, up from 85,000 in 2009. See the Hindustan Times’ report here . The move comes amid growing hostility to India, and Indians, amongst Sinhala society. Amid barely-disguised resentment over India's refusal to support Sri Lanka against international demands for an investigation...
Sri Lanka's announcement of the appointment of yet another commission to investigate human rights abuses should come as no surprise. Following the release of report by the UN expert panel, calls for an international, independent inquiry into the final stages of the conflict are gaining momentum on a global level. This new commission, like its predecessors, including the infamously impotent Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is a farce. Its announcement is a insolent retort at the UN report and all those advocating accountability, as well as another of Sri Lanka's habitual ploys to buy time for international attention to fade.
The United Nations has signed a ‘routine’ agreement with Sri Lanka so that resources can be accessed when needed for peacekeeping. This is despite 20% of a Sri Lankan peacekeeping force in Haiti being sent back in 2007 after UN investigations confirmed reports of sexual exploitation of children, and there having been no prosecutions against the soldiers once repatriated. “[This] was a routine agreement, which the UN has already signed with 89 other member states," Martin Nesirky, the UN spokesman, told a news briefing. "It is meant to speed up the provision of resources to the UN when...
Sri Lanka on Monday began compulsory military-led training for thousands of university entrants, despite a Supreme Court stay, and protests by opposition-backed student unions that called it the government’s latest move to militarise the country. See reports by Reuters and AFP . President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government has ordered 22,000 university entrants to attend what it calls “ leadership and positive-thinking training ” for three weeks at 28 military camps islandwide. (See our earlier post here on Sri Lanka's mono-ethnic military.) The first 12,000 began on Monday, despite Sri Lanka's...