• Hundreds of Sinhala nationalists protest against UN human rights chief

    Feb 06
     
    Photograph: Daily Mirror

    Hundreds of protestors took to the streets of Colombo demanding UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein leave the island, shortly after his arrival in Sri Lanka on Saturday.

    Waving Sri Lankan flags, protestors threw shoes and slippers at photographs of the UN human rights chief, before burning posters with his image.

    The protestors, which included a large contingency of Buddhist monks, marched to the UN Office in Colombo, and held banners that read "Al Hussein hands off - Sri Lanka", "We condemn your report", "No war crime courts, no foreign judges" and "Don't send war heroes to the guillotine". 


    Photograph: Daily Mirror

  • UNP, SLFP agree on no international element to accountability process
    The UNP and the Sri Lanka Freedom party are in agreement that there would be no foreign judges in a local judicial mechanism to look into alleged violations of international humanitarian law, reports dailymirror.lk.

    Speaking to press, the government spokesperson Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, said,
  • UN High Commissioner meets protesting relatives of the disappeared in Jaffna

    The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, met with family members of the disappeared who were staging a protest as he arrived in Jaffna on Sunday.

    The family members, who were holding photographs of their loved ones who had disappeared, were outside the Chief Minister of the Northern Province’s office as the UN Human Rights chief arrived.

    “They could have shown us our children or they could have given us a decision,” said the weeping mother of a disappeared son. “They must give us an answer today. They have to give us our children back.”

  • Human Rights Chief talks political prisoners, disappearances and release of land on North-East visit

     
    The UN Human Rights chief discussed the “challenges” faced by the Tamil people, in talks with the Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council C. V. Wigneswaran on Sunday.

    Speaking to reporters UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said he held a "constructive" meeting with the chief minister, adding,

    “Discussions very much focussed on the challenges the province faces but also the plans and the achievements in connection with this region and the people who aspire to see more information in terms of those detained and those missing as well as the issue of the release of land”.

    “These discussions will continue of course in the course of today tomorrow and in Colombo with the highest officials of the state,” he added.

    Justice Wigneswaran also handed the High Commissioner a list of 4,000 people who have been listed as missing since the end of the armed conflict, alongside dates and places they were last seen.

  • Chinese FM meets Sri Lanka foreign minister
    China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Sri Lanaka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera during a short stay, reports Ceylonews.

    Sri Lanka’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dr Harsha de Silva said,
  • India must play an active role in resolving the Tamil national question in Sri Lanka – GTF
    The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) called on the Indian government to take “an active role in resolving the Tamil national question in Sri Lanka” and for closer engagement with Tamil diaspora groups across the world.

    Speaking to the New Indian Express, GTF spokesperson Suren Surendiran said India’s role is vital “not just as the regional super power but as the closest neighbour who also has a large Tamil constituency”.

    “Historically, India has played an active role in attempting to resolve the Tamil national question,” he said and called for “formal engagement and acknowledgement” by the Indian government with the Tamil diaspora.

    Stating that although progress has been made on the island, Mr Surendiran said it has been “very slow” and highlighted a number of steps that the Sri Lankan government was yet to take.
  • UN Human Rights chief says he will 'listen to everything' as he arrives in Sri Lanka
  • Indian FM discusses political solution and militarisation with TNA

    India's minister of external affairs, Sushma Swaraj, met with a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Friday.
  • India to renovate schools and hospital in North-East
    India on Friday signed agreements with the Sri Lankan government to build a hospital in the East and renovate schools in the North.

    Twenty-seven schools in the North will be renovated and a surgical unit will be constructed in Batticaloa hospital, the spokesperson of India's ministry of external affairs, Vikas Swarup, said on Friday via Twitter.

  • Sri Lankan police construct Buddhist shrine in Jaffna

  • Sri Lanka: Looking for a deal, not truth and justice – Frances Harrison
    Deep rooted reform in Sri Lanka is not on the government’s agenda writes Frances Harrison, in a piece for Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka.

    The author of Still Counting the Dead and former BBC correspondent noted that for Sri Lanka, “it’s getting impossible to paper over embarrassing public differences between the country’s President and its Prime Minister on the issue of war crimes”.

    “The most immediate crisis is over interviews the President gave to the BBC and Al Jazeera in which he rolled back on the country’s commitments in Geneva regarding international involvement in a special court yet to be set up,” she said. “Tamil victims don’t have faith in a process that’s purely domestic - it’s not a question of ability and professionalism - but one of trust, given many of the alleged war criminals are still in positions of power.”

    “Worse still, the President now says there were no war crimes, perhaps just a few human rights violations by the odd rotten apple in the military,” she added. “No matter that a UN investigation has been very clear the violations were systematic and widespread and could result in convictions for war crimes and crimes against humanity when tested in a court. “But perhaps not in the court currently envisaged for Sri Lanka.”
  • Swaraj says India 'fully satisfied' with Sri Lanka's programme - Daily Mirror

    The Indian government is fully supportive of Sri Lanka's programmes and is grateful to the new administration's policies on reconciliation and development, visiting foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said according to the Daily Mirror.

  • Tamils in Trincomalee call for return of disappeared persons

    Tamil protestors in Trincomalee marked Sri Lankan Independence Day on Thursday, by staging a demonstration calling for the return of their loved ones who have disappeared.

    The protests took place alongside others across the Tamil North-East, where families of the disappeared called for the government to be held accountable for the missing.

  • Zeid to arrive tomorrow for 4 day visit
    The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein will commence his four day visit of the North-East and Sri Lanka tomorrow.

    "During his visit, the High Commissioner will discuss a range of current challenges and opportunities for strengthening the rule of law and protection of human rights in Sri Lanka, including reviewing the implementation of the recommendations made in his report to the Human Rights Council, and in its subsequent Resolution 30/1 on “promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka," his office said in a statement on Friday.

  • Wigneswaran appreciates national anthem being sung in Tamil
    The chief minister of the northern province, C V Wigneswaran welcomed the Sri Lankan government's decision for the national anthem to be sung in Tamil on Thursday at a ceremony marking Independence Day, reported Adaderana.

    "Although it is a very small action in the name reconciliation it should be appreciated and that now a background has been created to foster unity and brotherhood between communities," he was quoted by the paper as saying.

Subscribe to Tamil Affairs

Most-Read Articles

Velupillay makes history as first Tamil at a FIFA World Cup
Photograph: @Socceroos Nishan Velupillay has been selected in Australia's squad…
17 years today - A massacre in Mullivaikkal
To mark 17 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens…
In Pictures - Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day commemorated in Mullivaikkal
All photographs by Uthayarasa Shalin Thousands of Tamils gathered at Mullivaikkal…
Tamil rapper arrested for ‘terrorism’ over TikTok video
A Tamil rapper from Kilinochchi has been arrested and remanded under Sri Lanka's…
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay marks Mullivaikkal remembrance with pledge to support Eelam Tamils
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay issued a message on Monday evening marking…