• Activist Intimidation' by SL govt - new TAG report

    Mar 13

    Building on a previous report published late last year - 'Returnees at Risk: Detention and Torture in Sri Lanka', Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) published their latest report on Wednesday: 'Activist Intimidation: Surveillance and Intimidation of Tamil Diaspora Activists and their Supporters'.

    Analysing afresh data collected from the 'Returnees at Risk' report, this new report includes five interviews with diaspora activists conducted in January 2013, as well as a further eight successful asylum appeal determinations.

    Speaking to Tamil Guardian, Henrietta Briscoe of TAG said,

    "Our report shows that the government of Sri Lanka is not only committing egregious human rights violations against Tamils in Sri Lanka.. disappearances, torture and so on. It's also increasingly hostile towards foreign countries where significant Tamil populations live, in particular Europe, the United States and Canada."

    "We now have evidence of surveillance carried out in Europe, the data from which is used to target for torture persons returning to Sri Lanka from abroad. It's now a global problem and we hope the UN Human Rights Council will take note of that in this and following sessions."

    See here. Extract of the report's Executive Summary reproduced below:

    'The GoSL defines ‘traitor’ and ‘terrorist’ broadly to include both those who call for an independent international process of accountability for the crimes committed during the Sri Lankan conflict and human rights abuses since the end of the conflict, and those who are considered to bring Sri Lanka into international disrepute, such as asylum seekers and protesters. Commensurate with its assessment of the threat, the GoSL allocates resources to collecting (both through surveillance and interrogations) and then acting upon that threat. Those accounts of interrogations under torture that are detailed in our data sets reveal the information requirements of GoSL officials.

  • Appeal on upcoming UNHRC resolution by Tamil civil society in NE

    An extensive and noteworthy list of civil society activists from the North-East have called for the draft resolution currently being discussed at the UN Human Rights Council to be "revisited", "revised" and "strengthened", and be used as an "opportunity to correct the mistakes of 2012 [UNHRC resolution 19/2]".

    The appeal, released on the 10th March, concluded in the hope "that the upcoming resolution in the 22nd session of the UNHRC will help the Tamil people climb out of the precarious situation that they are in at present". 

    See here. Reproduced in full below:

    'Appeal from the Tamil Civil Society to the International Community regarding the upcoming resolution in the UNHRC on Sri Lanka

    This appeal, signed by civil society activists who live and work in the North and East of Sri Lanka, seeks to state our position with regard to the resolution on Sri Lanka to be tabled at the 22nd sessions of the UN Human Rights Council. We understand that the resolution will seek to provide more time to the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations contained in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and that it will fall short of calling for an international independent investigation to hold to account those responsible for the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. If this resolution would contain only the above and no further, in our opinion, it would be truly unfortunate.

  • UNHRC accused of sympathising with terrorists

    A recently formed advocacy movement, the Dead And Missing Persons Parents' Front (MPPF), condemned the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for a favorable attitude towards Tamils and for supporting terrorist organisations in Sri Lanka.

  • US Democrat calls for international investigation

    The US Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the Secretary of State Kerry, urging the State Dept to support a call for an international independent investigation, stating that he had serious concern regarding the "deterioration of democracy and the lack of progress on reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka."

    Letter reproduced in full below:

    Dear Secretary Kerry:

    I am writing to express my concern about the continued erosion of democracy in Sri Lanka and to urge you to call for an independent international investigation into allegations of war crimes by both the Government of Sri Lanka and the terrorist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), during their final battles.

  • Cross party group of UK MPs call for international inquiry into genocide

    In a statement the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils called on the UN to create an "International Commission of Investigation into the allegations of War crimes, Crimes against Humanity and the Crime of genocide against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka" and urged the member states of the UNHRC to strengthen the current proposed draft "so tha

  • Sri Lanka 'served as precursor' to Syrian tragedy
    Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council at Geneva, Tasha Manoranjan of Tamil Nadu based NGO Pasumai Thaayagam, stated that Sri Lanka has "served as a precursor for the tragedy now unfolding in Syria".

    Stating that Sri Lanka's "long history of impunity is institutionalised", the speaker said      "abuses by the Sri Lankan government remain unchecked, uninvestigated and unprosecuted".
    The full statement has been reproduced below.
  • Very limited progress' by Sri Lanka - EU
    Speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Ambassador Gerard Cor, Ireland's permanent representative to the UN, called for Sri Lanka to remain on the council's agenda, stating the county had made "very limited progress" since the passing of the March 2012 resolution.

    Addressing the council on behalf of the European Union, Cor stated,
  • Growing discontent amongst Tamil Nadu students

    Student protests that proclaim the US resolution on Sri Lanka inadequate, which were initially started at Loyola College in Chennai, have spread across the Tamil Nadu state, resulting in a massive student voice of dissent around India’s dealing of the Eelam Tamil issue.

  • UNP seeks MoU with govt on UNHRC resolution

    The opposition UNP wishes to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the government "to support the country in dealing with the aftermath of the impending resolution at the UNCHR" and stop the country becoming a "pariah state", announced the leader of the UNP, Ranil Wickremesinghe at a press conference on Wednesday.

  • Rajapaksa arrives in Japan

    The Sri Lankan president and his wife arrived in Japan on Tuesday as part of a four day official visit, accompanied by Minister of External Affairs Prof. G.L.

  • LTTE groups using international forces - SL minister

    Groups supporting the LTTE are trying to attack Sri Lanka using international forces said Sri Lankan Minister of Investment Promotion Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena at a public meeting, reported Colombo Page.

  • TNA to be investigated for LTTE crimes - Karuna

    The government is to investigate the TNA's complicity in crimes committed by the LTTE announced the paramilitary leader and deputy minister, Vinayagamoorthy Karuna.

    The news was reported in the Sinhala language newspaper Divaina on Friday. 

  • Further calls for an independent investigation...

    Speaking at the General debate at the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions, Canada reiterated its call for an independent investigation in to the Sri Lankan government’s human rights violations.

    Canadian Ambassador and permanent representative to the UN, Elissa Golberg, stated

  • More discontent in India...

    The Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) calls for a State-wide general strike in Tamil Nadu stirred a widespread response, resulting in arrests and small incidents of violence.

  • Absence of war is not peace' - Tutu & Robinson

    Writing in the Times of India on Monday - Commonwealth Day, two prominent members of the Elders group, the Archibishop Desmond Tutu and the former Irish President Mary Robinson, argue that the "climate required for reconciliation does not yet exist" in sri Lanka and "urge the Commonwealth to seriously reconsider appointing Sri Lanka as its chair for 2013-15".

    See here - 'Hope and reconciliation: Healing Sri Lanka’s wounds of conflict' - together with embedded links.

    Extract reproduced below:

    'How the Council chooses to act at this time will have a profound impact on Sri Lanka's standing in the international community. In this regard, we urge the Commonwealth to seriously reconsider appointing Sri Lanka as its chair for 2013-15, as it currently plans to do. In this role, Sri Lanka would host the biennial meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in November this year.

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