• India raises fishing issue with Rajapakse

    Nov 09
    Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Thursday, where he raised the issue of the Sri Lankan Navy’s frequent attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen.

    The 45-minute meeting took place on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in the Maldives, and comes as Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai ended a three-day trip to Sri Lanka, where he also discussed the issue with the Sri Lankan President.

    Last week, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to Manmohan Singh, urging him to “take a strong stand” against Colombo and "convey its serious apprehension through tough words and action", after a recent spate of attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy.

    The letter read,

    “I am constrained to point out that all the concerns of the Centre and Government of Tamil Nadu in this regard have only fallen on deaf ears where the Sri Lankan authorities are concerned.”

  • Free press campaigners condemn Sri Lanka's proposed media regulation

    The Committee to Protect Journalists has criticised the Sri Lankan government's announcement to enforce regulation of the media, in a statement released on Thursday.

    CPJ said,

  • Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' - More evidence to be aired
  • UN: Secret detention centres in Sri Lanka

    The UN Committee against Torture (CAT) has said that several secret detention centres exist in Sri Lanka, with torture and killings widespread.

    Vice Chair of the CAT, Felice Gaer, said an independent investigation is needed to look into the allegations.
    "Sri Lanka Army and affiliated Para military groups have run and made possible to run secret facilities which torture and extra judicial killings, have it is claimed, perpetrated" she said

    She informed the session that the UN Working Gropup on Disappearances holds Sri Lanka as haing the second highest number of disappearances in the world.

    "While many of these cases have been clarified there are more than 5,000 that haven't been" said Miss Felice Gaer.

  • International human rights groups urge UN to act on Silva

    Ten international human rights organisations have urged the UN to suspend the diplomatic credentials of Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN and former army commander, Shavendra Silva, following the overwhelming evidence of war crimes made against him.

    The organisations consist of SPEAK Human Rights and Environmental Initiative, UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic at American University Washington College of Law, Center for Constitutional Rights, Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School, Human Rights USA, World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, TRIAL, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities, Society for Threatened Peoples

    Writing in a joint letter to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, the ten organisations said,

    “Overwhelming evidence showing that the Government of Sri Lanka perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity compels the suspension of General Silva’s credentials,”

    “Permitting General Silva to retain his credentials would send a message to lawbreaking governments around the world that the United Nations will not defend the cause of justice and that it will shelter war criminals and perpetrators of mass atrocities.”

    "Sri Lanka should not be rewarded with unlimited immunity for war crimes for militarizing its diplomatic positions.

    "I urge you to encourage the Credentials Committee to recommend to the General Assembly that General Silva’s credentials be suspended, and thereby ensure that the victims of torture and war crimes have their day in court."

    Silva is facing a lawsuit in a New York federal court for war crimes, including torture, extrajudicial killing and the intentional shelling of civilians during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict.

    On Tuesday, attorneys filed a response to the Sri Lankan General, Shavendra Silva’s motion to dismiss the war crimes indictment made against him arguing diplomatic immunity.

    The lead counsel in the lawsuit against Silva, Ali Beydoun, who is also, director at American University Washington College of Law’s UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic and a Senior Partner at SPEAK Human Rights & Environmental Initiative said,

    “The United Nations has a war criminal within its ranks. This is a moral and legal offense,”

    "Silva should not be allowed to manipulate diplomatic immunity to use it as a shield for his crimes.”

    “As the largest international body protecting peace and justice, the United Nations has a duty to allow a full investigation into General Silva’s war crimes.

     

  • EU express ‘concern’ over website bans
    In a statement released Tuesday morning, the EU Heads of Mission in Colombo stated their concern over the growing lack of media freedom in Sri Lanka, after a recent crackdown on anti-government websites.
  • Sri Lanka ‘acting’ to curb torture – Peiris

    A Sri Lankan delegation, led by Mohan Pieris, told the UN Committee Against Torture on Tuesday that they are acting to curb torture committed by its security forces.

    He told the panel that the Sri Lankan government agrees “110 percent” that there must be no tolerance for torture.

  • Supreme Court backs government's expropriation bill

    Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has backed the government's contentious expropriation bill.

    The court ruled that the controversial legislation, which would allow the government to acquire enterprises and assets deemed to be underperforming is consistent with the country's constitution. 

  • Sri Lanka bans opposition website

    The Sri Lankan Government has blocked more websites from being accessed in the country, after calling on all news websites to register with the media ministry.

  • Swiss court slammed over refugee ruling
    NGOs and refugee agencies have criticised a Swiss federal court ruling that allows failed asylum seekers to be returned to Sri Lanka, calling it a “dangerous” decision.

    The ruling deemed that it was safe to return asylum seekers back to the island, despite acknowledging the worsening human rights situation, particularly with the deteriorating freedom of speech, and sparked a wave of criticism.
  • Victims recount torture at the hands of Sri Lankan forces

    Victims of torture at the hands of Sri Lankan forces, as recently as this summer, have come forward to recount their ordeals. 

    In anonymised interviews with Channel 4 news, the two men, with scars on their backs, described the shocking events:

    "They used to beat me with a steel cable. It would peel away my skin. The pain would be simply unbearable. They would hang me upside down and dunk my head into water. They covered my head with a polythene bag soaked in petrol and tied it tightly around my neck. When I tried to breathe in it felt like I was breathing fire."

    "They laid me upside down and dunked my head in a barrel of water. They lay me face down on a table and hammered me with wires, poles and rods. They burned me with cigarette butts. When I asked for water to drink, they gave me urine. I thought it would have been better if I had died at the end of the war, rather than survived to face this."

    The victims' testimony comes on the eve of a review by the UN Committee Against Torture and as Tamil refugees are deported to Sri Lanka on the premise that their lives are no longer at risk.

     

    Further torture victims have come forward and given evidence to the group Freedom from Torture. Excerpts of testimonies have been included in the group's report, 'Out of the Silence: New evidence of ongoing torture in Sri Lanka', published on Monday.

    Excerpts reproduced below:

    Saarheerthan:

    “Many of us bear the marks of torture on our minds and bodies, but in Sri Lanka you can’t express that you’ve been tortured. If you show your scars to a doctor you risk them telling the authorities and you would likely be detained again.”


    Lakshiyan:

     "The government tortured people who they could say to the rest of the world “these are LTTE terrorists”. Other countries wouldn’t help, as the LTTE is a banned organisation. It seemed to us like they managed to ban the whole Tamil community.”

  • UK Charity hands torture report to UN

    Freedom from Torture, a charity working with victims of torture, has handed a report on Sri Lanka to the UN on the eve of a meeting of its Committee against torture.

  • Sri Lanka orders news websites to register

    The Sri Lankan Government has urged all news websites to register with the media ministry, in a move widely seen as an attempt to further restrict the freedom of the press on the island.

    "This ministry believes that those who are operating and maintaining these clandestine websites have been doing so to discredit the government, the head of state," the ministry said in a statement.

  • Sri Lanka gives up on Army deserters
    Colombo has announced that it will de-list over 60,000 Army deserters, signalled that they will no longer pursue trying to prosecute them.

    The 60,000 deserters who have left the Army since 1982, will be placed into four categories and “de-listed after due legal progress,” according to Brigadier N Hapuarachchi.
  • US has ‘high expectations’ for LLRC
    The United States has said that they have ‘high expectations’ for the forthcoming LLRC report, which is due to be handed over to Sri Lankan President mahinda Rajapakse later this week.
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