The Sri Lankan military unveiled the construction of a Buddhist stupa inside its headquarters in Amparai this week, as the armed forces continue to erect Buddhist monuments across the North-East.
The commander of Sri Lanka’s army warned the military will be launching a war on drugs that will be “identical to how we finished off LTTE terrorism”, in an ominous announcement in Colombo this month.
Sri Lanka’s president lashed out against a UN resolution that his government co-sponsored at the Human Rights Council in Geneva last week, calling it a “betrayal” of the military and rejecting its terms.
Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry has revived its counter terrorism unit with its most important priority being to coordinate efforts to lobby for the continued proscription of the LTTE abroad, Colombo Gazette reports.
The unit was revived to coordinate more closely between defence, law enforcement authorities and other relevant agencies, and Sri Lankan missions abroad on counter terrorism and crime, according to the newspaper.
Sri Lankan plantations are under investigation by international ethical label groups after an expose found illegal wage deductions were leaving some workers taking home as little as 26 rupees (14 US cents) a day.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has hit back at claims by Sri Lankan government officials that have appeared in the Colombo media, stating it “seriously misrepresents” her meetings with the government delegation.
“I am deeply disappointed by the spin that has been put on my discussion with the Sri Lankan Government delegation,” said Michelle Bachelet in a press release this morning.
The Sri Lankan government is reported to be hesitating over Japan's US $1 billion loan for the third phase of the Central Expressway project, stating the conditions attached are too severe.
Families of the disappeared this week expressed fury at the UN Human Rights Council's decision to grant a two year extension to Sri Lanka to implement resolution 30/1.
Sri Lanka’s president claimed that the government’s representative at the United Nations had co-sponsored a resolution on accountability without his knowledge and claimed that doing so was a betrayal to the military, earlier today.
Maithripala Sirisena claimed Sri Lanka’s UN representative in Geneva committed his government to co-sponsor a resolution at the Human Rights Council without his consent. The Associated Press added that he called the co-sponsorship “akin to betraying the armed forces”.
Tamil refugees who fled Sri Lanka and sought asylum in Tamil Nadu, India have welcomed efforts to grant them citizenship in the country, stating the risk to Tamils continued on the island.
Sri Lanka, the country that the Lonely Planet declared as the top destination of 2019, is a “holiday paradise is polluted by torture and lies,” wrote Freedom from Torture's policy and advocacy director Steve Crawshaw in The Independent last week.
Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Tilak Marapana today reiterated the goverment's rejection of a hybrid court to provide justice for war crimes as layed out in the UN Human Rights Council resolution, stating instead that any transitional justice process would be "firmly grounded in the constitution and the domestic legal framework".
The German Foreign Ministry’s report on human rights around the world highlighted Sri Lanka’s continuing military occupation of land in the North-East and lack of accountability for crimes committed during the armed conflict last month.
