Photograph: Amnesty International

Today marks a year since the detention of prominent Muslim human rights lawyer, Hejaaz Hizbullah, who was detained under Sri Lanka’s draconian and internationally condemned Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Following the unwarranted and internationally condemned arrest of the Mayor of Jaffna, Viswalingam Manivannan, Sri Lanka’s army commander, and accused war criminal, Shavendra Silva visited the province to “evaluate security developments” ahead of New Year festivities.

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A Sri Lankan minister has sparked controversy and a backlash from Germany after claiming that “6.9 million people who voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted him to be a Hitler”, when speaking about the Sri Lankan president’s 2019 election victory.

Dilum Amunugama, Sri Lanka’s transport minister, added that “even I accept that”, and that “when he [Gotabaya Rajapaksa] fails to do so, they criticise him”.

Sri Lanka’s army has announced that it will send 243 army personnel to serve in Mali under the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission despite the UN suspending the use of Sri Lankan troops except for “essential” service in 2019.

During a visit to Vavuniya, last week accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa expressed the need to “protect” the “ideology” and “force” that made him President and claimed that groups were used to “spread lies about white vans, crocodiles and sharks”; his comments came in the same week in which the elected Mayor of Jaffna V. Mannivannan was arrested by Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) and amongst intense military harassment of Tamil and Muslim civil society members.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa visited Vavuniya to hold his 17th “Discussion with the Village”, in one of the few talks to be held in the Northern Province. A programme which began running in September 2020, aimed to meet people in remote villages and inquire into their problems and discuss solutions. In previous discussions, the President has claimed that he does know what human rights abuses he has committed.

During this discussion in Vavuniya, Gotabaya Rajapaksa stressed the importance to protect the ideology that brought him into power and criticised hostile forces towards this “ideology” claiming that they are spreading “false propaganda” and trying to destroy it.

The International Truth and Justice Project have called upon the British Foreign Office to abide by its commitments to human rights and impose Magnitsky Sanctions against Sri Lanka’s Army Commander, Shavendra Silva, who is credibly accused of crimes against humanity.

Heavy deployment of Sri Lankan police and military in Jaffna last month

Sri Lankan army commander Shavendra Silva, told the Colombo Gazette that nearly 3000 people have been quarantined in Jaffna due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. 

Photo of a Sri Lankan Navy vessel

Sri Lanka’s Navy has arrested 30 Tamil fishermen off Poonakary, in northern Kilinochchi, as the navy continues to intensify its patrols.

This announcement follows Fisheries Minister, and accused human rights abuser, Douglas Devananda, introducing a set of restrictions to limit fishing to only permit holders.

(Photo provided by the World Bank)

The World Bank’s recent report on Sri Lanka highlights the devastating impact the coronavirus has had on the economy; with the country experiencing its worst growth rate on record, contracting 3.6 percent throughout 2020, with a massive 16.4 percent contraction in the second quarter alone. Economic recovery, the World Bank notes will be reliant upon foreign direct investment and normalising tourism.

Foreign Investment

Sri Lankan police interrogated and threatened the chair of a divisional council in Kilinochchi over the naming of a road after a former cadre of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The interrogation was in regards to the naming of a street in Santhapuram as ‘Vettri Lane’, after the nom-de-guerre of a local former combatant who had undergone the Sri Lankan government’s notorious ‘rehabilitation’ programme after the end of the armed conflict.