The Indian government feels anguish and pain over the war crimes committed by Sri Lanka's military against Tamil civilians, the External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj was quoted by The Hindu as saying on Friday. “The anguish with which the members have raised the issue [of crimes committed during the war of 2009], the government associates itself with the same pain,” Ms Swaraj was quoted by the paper as saying. “Our aim is to protect the interests of Tamils in Sri Lanka. You can achieve this through two means: by either doing it forcefully or through persuasion with the friendly country."...
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday criticised what he described as Sri Lanka's "consistent failure to effectively investigate, prosecute and punish serious crimes" arguing that such failure "appears to reflect a broader reluctance or fear to take action against members of the security forces". Addressing the UN Human Rights Council, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein highlighted a number of areas on which Sri Lanka had failed to take any or adequate action on. "In the face of rising frustration among victims, a number of confidence building measures must be accelerated. These include...
The former Sri Lankan defence minister, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who was named by the country's Criminal Investigation Department as running death squads in a report submitted to a Magistrate's Court this week, sought to deflect responsibility to the former army commander, Sarath Fonseka. “He [Fonseka] was the army commander at that time," Mr Rajapaksa told The Hindu on Tuesday. "If he knew of such a death squad, why did he not take any action on them. He was completely wrong in not taking action."
The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday adopted a resolution on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka without a vote, granting the country two more years to implement the actions set out in resolution 30/1 which was adopted in October 2015. This session's resolution was sponsored by Sri Lanka, as well as Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan, Montenegro, Norway, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, UK and the US. The resolution calls on Sri Lanka "to implement fully the measures identified by the Council in its resolution 30/1 that are outstanding"...
Protests were held in various locations across the North-East last Thursday demanding a justice mechanism with international judges.
The spokesperson for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) reiterated the party's view that an justice mechanism examining mass atrocities committed in Sri Lanka must include international judges. "There is no compromise on the view that an investigation on war crimes and human rights violations in Sri Lanka's war must include international judges as a necessity," the TNA said in a statement published on its website on Friday. "The Tamil National Alliance has pointed out that there is no constituitional barrier to conducting an investigation which includes international judges," he added. Mr...
There will be no real justice in Sri Lanka while there is no accountability or acknowledgement of the abuses committed against Tamils, Australian senator Lee Rhiannon has said. In a press release following the publication of ITJP’s ‘Joseph Camp’ report, the Greens senator for New South Wales said “This is another extremely disturbing report from the International Truth and Justice Project containing accounts of the most horrific abuse and torture imaginable. “Recently another ITJP report also drew our attention to the ongoing and systemic nature of abuse perpetuated by Sri Lanka’s security...
Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigations Department on Monday told a court that the former president's brother and former defence minister, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ran a 'top secret death squad', Al Jazeera reported. The death squad was responsible for the assassinations of political opponents and journalists, including the former Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickremetunge. Excerpts of a report compiled by the CID was read out in court: "Testimony from the former army commander [Sarath Fonseka] shows that there was a special secret unit outside his authority and controlled by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa...
Impunity Reigns in Sri Lanka, a new report released by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), examines the failure of successive Sri Lankan governments to service justice for the massacre of Tamil civilians in Kumarapuram which took place over 20 years ago. The report details findings based on, “interviews with victim survivors from Kumarapuram and the lawyers who represented/assisted them; and interviews with a broad cross-section of human rights lawyers in Sri Lanka.” In a press statement released on Monday, PEARL’s Human Rights Director, Dharsha Jegatheeswaran, said, “While Sri...
The Mayor of Toronto paid tribute in Mullaitivu to the thousands of Tamils massacred by the Sri Lankan state in the final stages of the war in 2009.