• Sri Lanka ‘acting’ to curb torture – Peiris

    Nov 07

    A Sri Lankan delegation, led by Mohan Pieris, told the UN Committee Against Torture on Tuesday that they are acting to curb torture committed by its security forces.

    He told the panel that the Sri Lankan government agrees “110 percent” that there must be no tolerance for torture.

  • Supreme Court backs government's expropriation bill

    Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has backed the government's contentious expropriation bill.

    The court ruled that the controversial legislation, which would allow the government to acquire enterprises and assets deemed to be underperforming is consistent with the country's constitution. 

  • Sri Lanka bans opposition website

    The Sri Lankan Government has blocked more websites from being accessed in the country, after calling on all news websites to register with the media ministry.

  • Swiss court slammed over refugee ruling
    NGOs and refugee agencies have criticised a Swiss federal court ruling that allows failed asylum seekers to be returned to Sri Lanka, calling it a “dangerous” decision.

    The ruling deemed that it was safe to return asylum seekers back to the island, despite acknowledging the worsening human rights situation, particularly with the deteriorating freedom of speech, and sparked a wave of criticism.
  • Victims recount torture at the hands of Sri Lankan forces

    Victims of torture at the hands of Sri Lankan forces, as recently as this summer, have come forward to recount their ordeals. 

    In anonymised interviews with Channel 4 news, the two men, with scars on their backs, described the shocking events:

    "They used to beat me with a steel cable. It would peel away my skin. The pain would be simply unbearable. They would hang me upside down and dunk my head into water. They covered my head with a polythene bag soaked in petrol and tied it tightly around my neck. When I tried to breathe in it felt like I was breathing fire."

    "They laid me upside down and dunked my head in a barrel of water. They lay me face down on a table and hammered me with wires, poles and rods. They burned me with cigarette butts. When I asked for water to drink, they gave me urine. I thought it would have been better if I had died at the end of the war, rather than survived to face this."

    The victims' testimony comes on the eve of a review by the UN Committee Against Torture and as Tamil refugees are deported to Sri Lanka on the premise that their lives are no longer at risk.

     

    Further torture victims have come forward and given evidence to the group Freedom from Torture. Excerpts of testimonies have been included in the group's report, 'Out of the Silence: New evidence of ongoing torture in Sri Lanka', published on Monday.

    Excerpts reproduced below:

    Saarheerthan:

    “Many of us bear the marks of torture on our minds and bodies, but in Sri Lanka you can’t express that you’ve been tortured. If you show your scars to a doctor you risk them telling the authorities and you would likely be detained again.”


    Lakshiyan:

     "The government tortured people who they could say to the rest of the world “these are LTTE terrorists”. Other countries wouldn’t help, as the LTTE is a banned organisation. It seemed to us like they managed to ban the whole Tamil community.”

  • UK Charity hands torture report to UN

    Freedom from Torture, a charity working with victims of torture, has handed a report on Sri Lanka to the UN on the eve of a meeting of its Committee against torture.

  • Sri Lanka orders news websites to register

    The Sri Lankan Government has urged all news websites to register with the media ministry, in a move widely seen as an attempt to further restrict the freedom of the press on the island.

    "This ministry believes that those who are operating and maintaining these clandestine websites have been doing so to discredit the government, the head of state," the ministry said in a statement.

  • Sri Lanka gives up on Army deserters
    Colombo has announced that it will de-list over 60,000 Army deserters, signalled that they will no longer pursue trying to prosecute them.

    The 60,000 deserters who have left the Army since 1982, will be placed into four categories and “de-listed after due legal progress,” according to Brigadier N Hapuarachchi.
  • US has ‘high expectations’ for LLRC
    The United States has said that they have ‘high expectations’ for the forthcoming LLRC report, which is due to be handed over to Sri Lankan President mahinda Rajapakse later this week.
  • Army to build a 5-star hotel
    The Sri Lankan Army is to take part in construction work, building a 5-star hotel in Colombo according to reports.
  • Sri Lankan Navy pelts Tamil fishermen with stones

    Six Tamil Nadu fishermen were injured when Sri Lankan navy personnel pelted the fishing boats with stones. Upto ten boats were damaged, and fishing nets cut by the navy during the attack.

    The Tamil Nadu Fisheries department has said one of the fishermen suffered multiple injuries from a broken window glass pane, caused by the stoning.

    The fishermen came under attack near the Katchatheevu islet on Sunday.

    The attack come less than just over a week before Sri Lanka is due to host a maritime conference - Galle Dialogue.The delegates will be welcomed by Vice Admiral DWAS Dissanayake - Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy.

    Presentations include a paper by a member of the Indian Navy on "Indian Navy’s Perspective on Regional Maritime Cooperation; The Way – Ahead", and a paper by Rear Admiral JSK Colombage, the Commander Eastern Naval Area, Sri Lanka Navy on
    "Cross Border Fishing; Impacts and Challenges".

  • Sri Lanka looks to appease China as hotel deal collapses
    A Chinese state-owned defence company has been awarded a contract to construct a university department on Colombo, days after a major hotel deal was cancelled by the Sri Lankan government.

    The deal to construct a hotel on the illustrious Galle Face Green with the Chinese defence contractor China Aviation Technology Import-Export Corporation (CATIC), was worth $500 million and was hailed as one of the island’s single biggest foreign investments.

    See our earlier post: ‘Sri Lanka’s defence ministry and tourism investment’ (June 2011)

    The Sri Lankan Government, anxious to placate the Chinese investors, were reportedly looking for alternate land and have now offered the university project worth $89.6 million.

    The contract was cancelled after the Sri Lankan government came under intense scrutiny from opposition parties over the sale, who claimed the deal was not done transparently.

    They also questioned why the “best property in Sri Lanka” was being sold to an arms company that owns only a few hotels in China and not a well reputed international chain, reportedly with not a single cent of tax being charged. CATIC does however, export military aeroplanes to Sri Lanka.

    The announcement comes as Sri Lanka faces increased pressure from China for loan repayments, leading to Sri Lanka trying to swap some of its debt for equity with Chinese firms, starting with the Norochcholai power plant in the North-West.
  • Government not serious about political settlement- TNA


    The TNA have condemned the Sri Lankan government's failure to investigate war crimes and the forestalling of bilateral discussions to address the Tamil peoples leigtimate grievances.

  • Expropriation bill claims first victim

    Supporters of President Rajapakse’s government have stormed a private sugar company owned by an opposition MP.

    Sevanagala Sugar Industries was one of the 36 private companies ear-marked for nationalisation by the government for under-performing, a move made possible by the controversial expropriation bill.

  • ‘Competent authorities’ for takeover appointed

    The Sri Lankan government has appointed six “Competent Authorities” that will handle the 37 enterprises that are due to be taken over by the recently passed Assets Acquisition Bill.

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