Sri Lanka

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  • No solution possible without LTTE – South Africa

    Mar 25
    Expressing deep concern over the escalating violence in Sri Lanka, South Africa this weekend called for renewed negotiations to end the protracted conflict and emphasized “no solution to this conflict can be found without the involvement of the two principal parties to the conflict – the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.” Speaking in London, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Communications Roy Padayachie assured that his country would render every assistance towards making peace but, in an i
  • Jaffna: Beseiged by terror
    Jaffna, a peninsula surrounded by sea, except for a narrow strip of land joining it with the rest of the island of Sri Lanka, has always had a special history of its own. For more than one and a half years now, this peninsula has been cut off from the rest of the island, after the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) closed the only land route through the narrow strip of land, thus isolating its more than 400,000 residents.
  • Inescapable Reality
    The goodwill of the Sinhala majority is a brittle basis for lasting peace in Sri Lanka.
  • EU warns over rights abuses, demands access to Vanni
    The European Union has expressed "very serious concerns" about human rights violations in Sri Lanka and warned that existing trade concessions could be at risk if the rights abuses continue. The EU also requested diplomatic access to Vanni to deliver key messages to the Liberation Tigers.
  • Abductions increasing despite international concern
    Despite international concern and calls for the Sri Lankan government to reign in the deteriorating human rights situation, abductions and disappearances in war-torn Northeast and in the capital Colombo, blamed on the Sri Lankan security forces, has increased in recent weeks.
  • US, Sri Lanka row over rights report
    The US State Department accused the Sri Lankan government of abuses including unlawful killings, abductions, arbitrary arrests and the denial of fair public trials in its latest Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka released last week.

    The Sri Lankan government, however, rejected the US report and claimed it presented a distorted and exaggerated view of the situation, triggering a diplomatic row.
  • Concern for media freedom as state militarizes broadcaster
    International and local media rights organizations last week, expressed deep concern at the attacks on journalists and militarization of state television by the Sri Lankan state.

    In the past three months staff members of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) have been hunted and attacked on the roads of Colombo as well as in their homes.
  • Sri Lanka accused of lying over human rights
    The International Red Cross has angrily accused Sri Lanka's government of releasing confidential communications and manipulating information from the organisation to defend its rights record.

    In rare public criticism of a government, the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Colombo has been "misrepresenting its findings" to stave off allegations it was behind abductions and disappearances.
  • Kidnappings ‘nothing to fuss about’
    Sri Lankan Foreign Affairs Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama has said that kidnappings are normal in society and no one should make an undue fuss about such incidents.

    He made this statement in reply to a question posed by a journalist at a news conference last Wednesday, when a journalist asked for his comments on the kidnapping of two women, one Sinhala and one Tamil, in Batticaloa on March 10.
  • LTTE ending use of child soldiers - US
    The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) “is eliminating the recruitment and use of child soldiers,” the US State Department said this week in its annual human rights report. The LTTE had not complied with its promise to end the practice by end of 2007, but its policy of recruiting one person from each family targeted those 18 years or older, the report said.
  • Army-backed paramilitaries wins Batticaloa council polls
    The Army-backed paramilitary group, the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal party (TMVP), has won a landslide victory in the first elections to be held in eastern Sri Lanka for more than 10 years.

    The TMVP or Karuna Group, set up by renegade Tamil Tiger leader, Karuna, won every local council in and around Batticaloa city, officials said.
  • Canada’s amended Security Certificate regime criticised
    The Canadian Parliament’s Bill C-3 came into force February 22, amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act 2000, just one day before a Supreme Court deadline expired.
  • A message gets through
    Dear Friends,

    I want to share my experience at the Hillary Clinton campaign speech in Houston, Texas on March 3rd.

    It was a very well attended event. President Clinton gave a half hour speech mainly on the economy and the future of the country. My husband and I displayed placards that we prepared and took to the event.
  • International experts quit in disgust at Sri Lanka’s conduct
    Sri Lanka was hit by scathing criticism over its human rights record last week, with its government fingered over hundreds of "disappearances" and an influential international panel of observers storming off the island.

    A team of top foreign judicial and forensic experts said it was quitting the war-torn nation because Colombo had failed to seriously investigate a string of high-profile cases including the massacre of aid workers.
  • And the Tamil response …
    Despite the biblical injunction not to answer fools, an exception can be made for you, Mr. Ambassador.

    You may deny it for all you are worth, the Tamils of Sri Lanka comprise a nation. There is ample evidence to show that the Tamils have lived in the island for centuries. The Tamils have preserved a language, religion and culture with which they are identified. It is a fact of history that there are two nations in the island – the Tamils and the Sinhalese.
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