• Sri Lanka orders releases of Indian fishermen ahead of talks

    Mar 23
    The Sri Lankan government ordered the release of 54 Indian fishermen on Monday, hours before the two countries were set to meet for talks in Chennai over the ongoing fishing issue, reports Colombo Page.

    The fishermen were arrested on Sunday morning by the Sri Lankan navy for alleged poaching. Ten trawlers were also seized.
  • Sri Lankan government pledges to return 818 acres in Sampur
    The Sri Lankan government pledged on Tuesday to return 818 acres of land in the Sampur region of the Eastern province to "original owners" by the end of April, said the Minister of Resettlement, Reconstruction and Hindu Religious Affairs, D M Swaminathan.

    The government also promised to release 234 acres of land, currently under the Sri Lankan navy, to its original owners, reported the state media site, News.lk, adding that the "preliminary phase of the transfer had already begun".

    The new pledges come a day after the government promised to release 425 acres of army occupied land in Jaffna.

    Commenting on the announcement, during a ceremony attended by the Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena, the Northern Province's chief minister said that whilst “we are no doubt glad a start has been made to give back our people’s lands... their expectations had been far in excess to that seen on the ground today”.

  • Govt ally rejects 19A as 'constitutional coup'
    The government ally and Buddhist monk party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) rejected the government's proposed 19th amendment to the constitution as a "constitutional coup", stating that the proposal were aimed at taking power away from the executive president, and making the prime minister powerful.

    “The people elected President Maithripala Sirisena with a mandate to curb the arbitrary powers of the Presidency and not to make the Prime Minister the Head of the Government nor allow Parliament to override the Executive. The Prime Minister can be made the Head of the Government only if approved at a referendum,” the JHU General Secretary, and Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying on Tuesday at a press conference in Battaramulla. 

  • New Sri Lankan govt reiterates Rajapaksa given 'maximum security'
    Sri Lanka's new government rejected criticism of the security it had granted the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, stating it had given him "maximum security".

    Speaking to journalists the cabinet spokesperson and minister, Rajitha Senaratne confirmed that Mr Rajapaksa's security included 21 vehicles and 213 officers, including 108 Sri Lankan army soldiers.

    Rejecting an accusation made by Mr Rajapaksa that his security had decreased, Mr Senaratne was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying that Mr Rajapaksa "didn’t provide any security to his predecessor Chandrika Bandaranaike and she had to go to the Supreme Court to get her security."

  • ICRC received over 16,000 requests to trace disappeared in Sri Lanka
    The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed receiving 16,100 requests to trace missing persons since 1990, in a statement issued following the conclusion of ICRC Director of Operations Dominik Stillhart's five-day visit to Sri Lanka.

    Mr Stillhart, who met with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera on his trip, said "the ICRC’s experience from its work with families of missing persons in other countries is that their needs are multifaceted".

    "Their priority is the need to know the fate and whereabouts of a missing relative, without which they have no closure and a mechanism which is distinct from an accountability process is required to address this need,” he added. “But they also have other needs such as psychosocial and economic support and administrative or legal concerns arising from having to resolve pension or property rights."
  • India assures assistance to Tamil refugees

    India's Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijju said the government will continue to give assistance to refugees from Sri Lanka who have been seeking refuge in Sri Lanka for over twenty years.

  • Sri Lanka Campaign launches 'Manifesto for Peace'
    The Sri Lanka Campaign, in a report released on Monday, outlined a set of deliverables that it found be a prerequisite to peace on the island.

    Stating that the needs of the survivors of the civil war had to be considered for a lasting peace in Sri Lanka, the report listed elements as part of a ‘Manifesto for Peace.”

    These included:

    1) The factual establishment of what took place in the final stages of the war, including the publication of a comprehensive list of the dead, with cause of death where possible, and the names of those detained and those still not accounted for.

    2) Credible investigation and prosecution of senior political and military commanders of the Sri Lankan Army, and surviving members of the LTTE, for their role in the final stages of the war before a court with international oversight and jurisdiction.

    3) The absence of the military from day-to-day life of Tamils in the north and east.
  • Sri Lankan president expands cabinet
    Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has exercised his executive powers by appointing 26 new members to the cabinet.

    Mr Sirisena appointed 11 new cabinet members and 15 deputy ministers the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) at a swearing in ceremony on Sunday.

    "This is a national government, and this is a (SLFP) party decision. We want to do all the reforms and then go to the elections," government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told Reuters.

    Mr Sirisena was appointed chairman of the SLFP after he defeated former party leader Mahinda Rajapaksa in presidential elections in January.

    See a list of the newly appointed members below.
  • Tamils protest across North-East rejecting domestic probe into atrocities, call for international action
    Protests in Jaffna             Photograph:Tamil Guardian

    Demonstrations took place across the North-East on Monday, rejecting a newly proposed domestic probe into mass atrocities that occurred at the end of the armed conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Sri Lankan government in 2009, and calling on the Sri Lankan government to give the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) investigation into Sri Lanka’s (OISL) team unfettered access to the North-East.

    Protesters also rejected the current domestic presidential commission into the disappeared and called for an international process that would ensure that the whereabouts of the disappeared were known.
  • Sri Lankan president grants release of 425 acres of army-occupied land in Jaffna
     

    Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena allowed the release of 425 acres of land in Jaffna to its original Tamil owners after years of occupation by the Sri Lankan military.

    At a ceremony in Jaffna, Mr Sirisena was flanked by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga on stage, where he handed back the deeds of land formerly demarcated as a High Security Zone.

    A total of 1,000 acres was pledged to be released by government officials. No time frame has yet been set for their release.

    Speaking at the ceremony, Northern Province Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran said that whilst “we are no doubt glad a start has been made to give back our people’s lands... their expectations had been far in excess to that seen on the ground today”.

    “Unless Grama Sevaka Divisions 244 and 252 are released in full as promised earlier, what has been gingerly granted today would hardly be of any use to the few families now selected to enter their erstwhile denied lands,” added the Chief Minister.
  • USCIRF 'hopes and trusts' Sri Lanka will address issues of religious freedom
    The United States Commission on International and Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said it hopes Sri Lanka will address issues of religious freedom on the island and hold perpetrators of crimes committed against religious groups accountable.

    In a statement released to mark the end of a three day visit to the island by Commissioner Eric P. Schwartz and USCIRF Senior Policy Analyst Sahar Chaudhry, USCIRF said it was “very pleased to hear that reports of abuses perpetrated against minority religious communities have diminished over the last few months.”

    “We encourage the government to hold perpetrators of such crimes accountable,” said the statement. “We believe accountability will encourage a critical sense of security and well-being among affected communities.”
  • Buddhist groups slam government move to allow Sri Lankan anthem in Tamil

    Several Buddhist groups in Sri Lanka have attacked the government for allowing the Sri Lankan national anthem to be sung in Tamil, Ceylon Today reported.

    The groups accused the government of "acceding to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sentiments".

    The Ravana Balaya said it is organising a "massive protest" against the government's decision.

    The group said the anthem cannot be sung in two languages as stated in the constitution, accusing President Maithripala Sirisena of pandering to Tamils, especially the TNA and "pro-tiger" groups who had voted for him.

    "This is why beside mature politicians like the TNA Leader R Sambanthan, there are crooks like Democratic People's Front leader Mano Ganesan placed in the National Executive Council," Ravana Balaya's leader Iththekande Saddhatissa said.

    The Bodu Bala Sena's general secretary, Gnanasara said the ruling coalition had violated the constitution twice.

  • UK cross-party MPs urges UNHRC to ensure justice for Tamils


    The UK's All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) urged member states of the UN Human Rights Council to ensure justice for the mass atrocities committed against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

  • Sri Lanka must deliver tangible improvements to Tamils says Pasumai Thaayagam
    The Tamil Nadu based NGO, Pasumai Thaayagam, urged the UN Human Rights Council to ensure that the 6 months granted to the new Sri Lankan government lead to tangible improvements to the Tamil people.

    "Six years since the end of the armed conflict, Sri Lankan troops, who are almost entirely ethnically Sinhalese, continue to be deployed across the Tamil areas in the North-East," the NGO's representative Vinthan Asokanathan told the Council on Friday, during an Item 5 general debate on minority issues.

    Acknowledging the new government's ambitious 100 day plan to reform the state, Pasumai Thaayagam said it     "while these reforms provide welcome reprieve to the Sinhala Buddhist people - who are the larger in population, and who have also had their freedoms curtailed by the previous government - the proposed reforms fail to address the concerns of the Tamil people who have faced discrimination and oppression by successive Sinhala majority governments."

  • Sri Lankan navy arrests 54 Tamil Nadu fishermen
    Fifty-four Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan navy on Sunday on charges of poaching and ten trawlers seized, reports The Hindu.

    The Tamil Nadu chief minister, O Panneerselvam urged the men to be released ahead of schedules talks between the two countries on the issue of fishing in the Palk Straits.

    “I wish to state that only when all the apprehended fishermen in Sri Lankan custody and their boats are released would the talks be meaningful and conducted in a conducive atmosphere,” Mr Panneerselvam wrote in a letter to the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.

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