• Australian city unites to save Tamil family from deportation

    Jan 12

    The city of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia has banded together to help save a Tamil family from being deported to Sri Lanka, reports The Border Mail.

    Hundreds of people attended a rally at Alfred Deakin Place to demand Neelavannan Paramanathan, his wife Suganthini and their three children are not deported back to Sri Lanka, where they face the risk of human rights abuses.

    “There are children, families and people from all over Victoria at this gathering who just want assurances that this family will be safe,” said rally organiser and refugee advocate Kath Morton.

  • UK £6.6 million to be used for implementation of UNHRC resolution and de-militarisation in Sri Lanka parliament
    Britain’s £6.6m Conflict Stability and Security Fund to Sri Lanka will seek to support Sri Lanka “in implementing the commitments it has made to the international community on promoting peace, accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, including through demilitarising the north and east and returning military held land to its civilian owners,” says the British Foreign Minister Hugo Swire.
  • UN Human Rights chief to visit Sri Lanka in Feb

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein will visit Sri Lanka in February, announced the Resident Coordinator of United Nations in Sri Lanka.

    The Resident Coordinator of United Nations in Sri Lanka Subinay Nandy announced that he is leaving the island to take up his next assignment in New York, but added, "I am not saying good-byes right away since I shall be back to Sri Lanka accompanying UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Al Hussein in his next month's visit to Colombo".

    The High Commissioner's visit will focus particularly on the issue of IDPs said Mr Nandy, who added, “He is also pleased with Sri Lanka’s present leadership and their commitment towards the minorities”.

  • Indian foreign secretary begins Sri Lanka visit

    The Indian foreign secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar landed in Sri Lanka on Tuesday morning to begin his two-day visit ahead of the upcoming India- Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting (ISLJC) in Colombo when India's external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj will be attending.

  • Japan and Sri Lanka discuss increased cooperation

    Japan and Sri Lanka held talks in Colombo today, aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two countries.

    The meeting which is part of a longer running dialogue between the two foreign ministries on policy issues which was agreed on during the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to Tokyo in October 2015.

  • India urged to ensure release of fishermen from Sri Lankan jails before Pongal

    India's National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF) on Tuesday urged the central government to ensure the release of Indian fishermen currently incarcerated in Sri Lankan jails before the traditional Tamil festival of Pongal.

  • EU delegation to visit Sri Lanka to discuss trade issues
    A delegation of European Union officials from the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) will visit Sri Lanka from 19-22 January, reports Colombo Page.

    The delegation is expected to discuss a range of issues, including the possibility of reinstating the GSP+ trade concession.

    A special seminar on the GSP+ and other trade issues is expected to be held in association with the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (ECCSL) at the Colombo Hilton on 22 January. Speakers will include the Deputy Head of the GSP Unit at the Directorate General for Trade at the European Commission .

    Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Harsha De Silva is also expected to speak on Sri Lanka’s approach when dealing and trading with the European Union.
  • ITJP calls on Sri Lanka to allow UN rapporteur on sexual violence to visit
    In response to the Sri Lankan government’s endorsement of the G8 Declaration on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict (PSVI)the International Truth and Justice Project, noting that sexual violence in Sri Lanka  had be found ‘to be a part of a deliberate policy to inflict torture,’ called on the government to allow the UN Special Rapporteur on Sexual Violence in Conflict to visit Sri Lanka.

    See full press release below.
  • Power sharing necessary in Sri Lanka – The Hindu

    Sri Lanka’s proposed drafting of a new constitution must include provisions for “strengthening democratic institutions, a comprehensive rights regime and substantive power-sharing arrangements involving all ethnic minorities,” said The Hindu.

  • ‘Serious reforms lie ahead for Sri Lanka’ - Thomas Shannon

    Sri Lanka still faces “serious political, economic, and security reforms” said the Counselor of the US State Department Thomas Shannon, in a piece for the Sunday Observer last week.

    Stating that the United States, knowing the “promise and potential of Sri Lanka” was “strengthening our relationship and investing in the future”, Mr Shannon added that:

    “Serious political, economic, and security reforms still lie ahead and are never easy”.

    “But as Sri Lanka walks this path – including through full and timely implementation of the historic Human Rights Council Resolution that our nations co-sponsored last year –it will continue to have our full support in addressing these challenges,” added Mr Shannon.

  • Majoritarian governance must end to continue as one country says TNA in Sri Lanka
    Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran, speaking in parliament on Tuesday, stressed the need for any constitution to have the required safe guards to allow peoples who are small in numbers to govern their own affairs for the island to move forward as one country.


    Calling for the a new constitution that started from the premise of ‘recognising different peoples in the country as equal to each other,’ TNA MP said “it was the non-recognition of that character of this country that resulted in 3 decades of actual fighting and a conflict that has raged since independence to this day.”

    Reiterating the need for a non-partisan constitution, he added, “the constitution cannot grant pre-eminence to one or the other group of people. If we are to continue as one county all the different peoples must be given equal status, regardless of what their numbers are.”
  • Southern and Tamil civil society calls for implementation of UN resolution

    Civil society activists called on the Sri Lankan government to fully implement a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution passed last year, in a statement released to mark one year since Maithripala Sirisena was elected as president.

    Activists from the North-East and South of the island said that whilst the government had made “some progress… much more is needed if Sri Lanka is to experience genuine peace and reconciliation”.

    The UN Human Rights Council resolution passed last year must be implemented in full, said the statement, which added:

    “the solemn commitments made by the government to victims, Sri Lanka’s citizenry and the international community constitute the necessary basis on which accountability, reconciliation and human rights in Sri Lanka should be advanced”.

  • One year on in Sri Lanka – torture rape and abductions continue, says BTF
    Promises made by the Sri Lankan government have not been delivered and human rights abuses continue said the British Tamils Forum in a statement released to mark one year since Sri Lankan President Maithrirpala Sirisena assumed office.

    “A year has passed since the new government in Sri Lanka came to power with a lot of promises to the Tamil people and the international community,” said BTF in a statement released this weekend. “None of the promises made have been delivered, but the new regime keeps on repeating its rhetoric of change.”

    Stating that an “all Sinhala 160,000 strong military stationed in the Tamil people’s land at a ratio of one military personnel to six civilians still occupies 42,000 acres of private land that belong to the Tamil civilians” the organisation added that “the military’s grip on the Tamil people’s homeland in the North and East of the island continues unabated”.
    Citing a recent report by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) the statement went on to add that “torture, rape, white van abductions and suppression of the Tamil people continue regardless of the regime change”.

    BTF also expressed at the UK’s decision to allocate £6.6 million over 3 years to Sri Lanka in order to support “military reform, displaced persons and reconciliation” was made “without any pre-conditions or requirements for compliance with the UNHRC resolutions”.
  • Racist ‘Lions’ Blood’ graffiti spray painted on Muslim home

    A Muslim home in Sri Lanka was defaced with graffiti earlier this month as part of a Sinhala nationalist campaign sweeping across the island.

    The graffiti – which spelt out the words “Sinhale” (Lions’ Blood in Sinhala) - was found spray painted over the walls of Muslim homes in Nugegoda.

    The campaign, which has seen the slogan appear on public buses, police motorbikes and other vehicles, is being promoted by current UPFA Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila and the Sinhale National Movement.

    Whilst the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka called for those responsible for the graffiti to be arrested, Mr Gammanpila remained defiant, stating that “no one can challenge the fact that Sri Lanka is ‘Sinhale’ and that even historically, pre-independence, Sri Lanka was recognized as a Sinhala nation,” according to The Sunday Leader.
  • New constitution will not alter place of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, declares minister
    Senior Sri Lankan government Minister Lakshman Kiriella reassured reporters that a new constitution would continue to grant Buddhism the foremost place on the island.

    Mr Kiriella told reporters that the new constitution is one that the government will ensure will last “forever” with no provisions for change, even if all 225 parliamentarians voted against it.

    “Nothing is going to happen to the Unitary Status of the country and to Buddhism,” the minister declared.
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