Following on from a MEDACT conference on asylum seekers last month, Tamils Against Genocide have analysed British Home Office policy documents and guidance for asylum caseworkers, attempting to explain why asylum claims from Sri Lanka continue to be dismissed.

Building on work by Professor Anthony Good, Professor Emeritus in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, TAG assessed Home Office policy, concluding,

“The guidance is flawed, the consequences horrible to contemplate."

Read the full post on the Free Movement blog here.

See extracts below.

"Why are asylum seekers so often disbelieved? How is it that clinical evidence of torture is oftentimes rejected on the grounds of ‘credibility’? Why has the UK judged so many Tamil asylum seekers not to be at risk, forcibly returning them to Sri Lanka where they have gone on to be tortured?"

The Sri Lankan government has launched an official website for the National Action Plan of the implementation of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations, reported Colombo Page.

According to reports, the Criminal Investigation's Department (CID) of Sri Lanka, has arrested 12 Special Task Force police officers for the the killing of 5 Tamil students in Trincomalee in Eastern Sri Lanka in 2006.

One of the suspects is reported to include an Assistant Superintendent of Police.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has issued a directive to the Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya to hold the Northern Provincial Council election.

At the same time, the dissolution of the North-Western Province and Central Province has been approved and will come into effective on midnight on Friday.  According to the Election Secretariat, elections for the three provinces will be held in late September. 

The Higher Education Minister of Sri Lanka, SB Dissanayake, has said in an interview to the Daily News that the TNA has not given up on the Eelam ideology taken by “terrorist” groups and should realise that the country had been united under one flag.

Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa outlined his thoughts on a number of issues in a recent interview. See here for full interview. Extracts reproduced below:

Q: Don’t you think all these leaders, including your brother always felt that the LTTE was a result of a political problem, caused by an issue the Tamil people faced in the North? Do you not think that this problem should be addressed?

GR: It is not a political problem, in many countries including so-called advanced societies which have minorities there are issues relating to the minorities. One has to then understand these issues and address them, whether in the US, the UK or any other country, these  issues exist when there are minorities.

Q: But still don’t you believe in devolution or decentralisation of power?

GR: No I don’t believe in devolution because of the above points I mentioned. If devolution is for administrative purposes that is of course legitimate. But if one thinks that devolution would provide an answer to the national problem that is something that I don’t agree with.

According to the MCNS director, Lakshman Hulugalla, the Indian National  Security Advisor will call on President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya.