Jaffna citizens have demanded an end to illegal settlements of Sinhalese people in the district. The illegal appropriation of lands to create Sinhala settlement villages and army camps must cease, concluded a meeting of the Jaffna co-ordinating committee on Thursday. The meeting’s attendants particularly condemned the building of houses in Navatkuli for 53 Sinhalese people. The committee warned that citizens would engage in disruptive action during presidential and government visits to Jaffna if Sinhala settlements and army landgrabs continued.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) called on the Sri Lankan government to respond to the “clear demand for justice” laid out in the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF) and fully implement its recommendations. “The CTF report highlights a widespread lack of trust among Sri Lankans across the country, regardless of region, ethnicity, religion or language, in the ability of the criminal justice system in its current form to address serious human rights abuses stemming from the conflict,” said Nikhil Narayan, the ICJ’s South Asia senior legal adviser. “If the Sri...
Parliamentarians from the United National Party dismissed claims there were conditions attached to Sri Lanka regaining GSP+ and asserted what they described as "Sri Lanka's 2500 year old Buddhist culture" was "non-negotiable for whatever reasons". "Legalising homosexuality or any other step which diluted Sri Lanka's rich culture would never happen," UNP MPs Harshana Rajakaruna and Wijepala Hettiarachchi were quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying at a media briefing on Friday. "The division of the country was also out of the question and that the government had not agreed to any condition that...
Sri Lanka’s security forces must stop harassing former LTTE cadres, the Northern Province Chief Minister has said. Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran held talks with the EU’s Deputy Head of Delegation over a variety of topics but highlighted the problems especially faced by former fighters. The chief minister said that the Sri Lankan army and police would use any security issue or crime in the North as an excuse to knock on the homes of former cadres for questioning and intimidation. Ex-cadres face a multitude of problems and have struggled to reintegrate into society due to lack of care and...
The Sri Lankan army has been intimidating Mullaitivu villagers ahead of a presidential visit. Soldiers threatened Keppapilavu villagers against holding protests over land-returns during President Sirisena’s visit. The villagers were told that if they protested and demanded their own lands back - instead of accepting the alternative lands or monetary compensation currently promised - they would be forced to remain in their displaced situations. Keppapilavu villagers, currently living in temporary settlements, were expecting their lands to be returned during the upcoming presidential visit on...
Sri Lanka’s military said that it will continue to occupy a military camp in Omanthai, contrary to earlier reports that the camp was to be dismantled and the land it occupied returned to its private landowners. Sri Lankan military spokesperson Roshan Seneviratne was quoted by the Daily Mirror as stating the checkpoint would not be completely removed and the army was only releasing lands to the west of the camp. “The army personnel there will be deployed at the army camp on the other side of the road,” he added. “It is not a sudden decision to vacate the land. The process of vacating the land...
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein met with Sri Lanka’s prime minister in Switzerland, to discuss the island’s human rights situation. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met with the UN human rights chief on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday . ColomboPage reported the high commissioner told Mr Wickremesinghe “that it was the hope of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to see Sri Lanka take forward its program to establish and protect all rights of Sri Lankans in a sustainable manner” and to “pay special...
China's Alibaba company is keen to invest in Sri Lanka said the finance minister on Thursday. The finance minister, Ravi Karunanayake met with the online company's chairman, Jack Ma at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, the Colombo Page reported. "Jack Ma has said that he will take immediate action to start investment in Sri Lanka. He has also pointed out that his proposed investment will generate hundreds of employment opportunities to the youth in the island," the finance minister was quoted as saying.
The European Union in a statement reiterated that the only criteria by which Sri Lanka will be assessed to rejoin the GSP+ trade concessions are its ratification and implementation of 27 international conventions it has signed in the past. "These conventions relate to international human rights, labour rights, environmental standards and good governance. Benefitting from GSP+ requires the government to undertake to make further progress in implementing the conventions and to cooperate with the EU to monitor implementation and address shortcomings," the statement published on Wednesday said. "...
The Sri Lankan government has dropped its own proposal to decriminalise homosexuality, which was included in its national human rights plan put forward to help regain the European Union’s GSP+ concession, reported the Deutsche Presse Agentur . Homosexuality is currently a criminal offence under Sri Lankan law. "In view of the protests by members of the cabinet of ministers, as well as other groups, we have decided to drop the proposal," government spokesperson and Health Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne said on Wednesday. Sri Lankan LGBT groups criticised the government’s u-turn. “This move only...