The Sentinal Project, an organisiation that works to combine genocide research information technology and risk management to prevent genocide, have released a new database to help the process.
The Sri Lankan Ambassador at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has said that his country was prepared to share the country’s experience in humanitarian work.
Ravinatha Aryasinha said post-conflict approaches used by Sri Lanka could be deployed in managing humanitarian situations in other countries as well.
In an attempt to stop one of his UNP MP's from jumping ship to the government, the leader of the opposition, Ranil Wickremasinghe, met MP Dayasiri Jayasekara on Friday.
According to ColomboPage, UNP sources said the discussions, which lasted over an hour, were "fruitful".
Speaking to the Sunday Leader, on the upcoming Northern Provincial Council election, the spokesperson, Suren Surendiran, for the Global Tamil Forum, asserted that "no amount of military intimidation through occupation will suppress our people's demand for self determination".
In the second part of an interview to The Weekend Leader, the leader of the Tamil National Peoples' Front (TNPF), Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, reiterated that the party believed the "North-East is as much the homeland of the Muslims as it is for the Tamils".
Reflecting on past Tamil-Muslim relations, he said,
"There have been unfortunate mistakes made by the Tamils [against Muslims]. The Tamils have unreservedly apologized for those mistakes. We are keen to make sure they are never repeated."
He added,
"My party however refuses to speak on behalf of the Muslim people. They don’t like us to speak for them, as if we have a common identity. I think the Tamils must respect their feeling and accept whatever identity they choose for themselves.
We are committed to working out a framework for the North-East that the Muslims and Tamils will feel mutually comfortable and secure with. I have no doubts that such an arrangement can be arrived at."
See here for part 2 of the interview, and here for part 1. His comments regarding the 13th Amendment are reproduced below:
"The 13th amendment purports to provide devolution within the unitary framework structure of the Sri Lankan State. The term “unitary” has very specific legal connotations under constitutional law.
All legislative and executive powers are vested in one power centre in a unitary state. In other words, the unitary state structure cannot provide for devolution of power.
The 13th amendment only provides the mirage of devolution.
Sri Lanka’s attempts to restrict media accreditation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) later this year and bar international journalists who have exposed the atrocities committed against the Tamil people at the end of the armed conflict, have led to widespread condemnation of the state’s abysmal record on press freedom. Whilst the condemnation is welcome, the current furore negates the very crux of the conflict – the Tamil question. The Sri Lankan state’s clampdown on press freedom is not universal in its intention or impact. Instead, Sri Lanka has a long-standing policy of targeting the Tamil press (and by extension, non-Tamil journalists probing Tamil injustices) in an attempt to silence the Eelam Tamil nation. To Tamil journalists working in the North-East, the granting of media accreditation to their international counterparts is of little consequence. The juxtaposition, so close to home, only serves to highlight the lack of press freedom available to them.
The Australian Prime minister Kevin Rudd has announced that all new asylum seekers who arrive by boat will not be allowed to stay in the country and sent to Papua New Guinea for processing and settlement, effectively closing Australia’s borders to refugees.
Papua New Guinea will receive generous aid packages in return.
A European Parliamentary Delegation, expressed concern over the Sri Lankan military's economic activities in the North, during a visit to the Northern province this week.
Commenting on the TNA's choice for chief minister candidate in the Northern Provincial, former Supreme Court judge, C.V. Wigneswaran, the Economic Development Deputy Minister S.M.Chandrasena, called for Wigneswaran's forming judgments to be examined.
Minister for Economic Development, Basil Rajapaksa told the Hindu that the Sri Lankan government could not risk a provincial government forming its own army through devolved police powers.
Dismissing arguments that Tamil armed struggle was now a thing of the past, Rajapaksa said:
A crowd of Sri Lankans was protesting outside the French Embassy in Colombo against the movie Flying Fish, which was screened at a French festival on the island.
The protestors objected to the depiction of the military in the movie.
Representatives of Ranaviru Sevana, politicians and members of the public shouted slogans condemning the movie, reported Ceylon Today.
