• President Rajapaksa orders release of Tamil Nadu fishermen, as India pledges commitment to Sri Lanka

    Aug 12

    Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered the release of all Indian fishermen in a message on his Twitter account.

    The tweet said that the president ordered the release of the fishermen in Sri Lankan custody “on the occasion of India’s Independence Day", coming up later this week.

    93 fishermen, arrested for allegedly poaching in Sri Lankan waters, are currently in prisons on the island, according to Colombo Page.

    Meanwhile the Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka expressed his gratitude to the government for enabling the smooth implementation of Indian projects on the island and said India remained committed to assist Sri Lanka in its endeavours of rehabilitation, reconstruction and reconciliation.

  • BBS attempt to disrupt pro-Palestine protest

    The Bodu Bala Sena attempted to disrupt a pro-Palestinian protest, organised by Thowheed Jamath, in a Muslim-majority area of Colombo, reported Colombo Page.

  • UNHCR accuses Sri Lanka of violating international law
    The United Nations Refugee agency has accused Sri Lanka of violating international law by forcibly deporting asylum seekers who may face persecution on their return.

    Sri Lanka currently houses 157 asylum seekers according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, mostly from Pakistan. Since August 1st over 88 refugees have been deported, despite warnings that they may face persecution in their home country.

    Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the UNHCR, slammed the deportations saying,
    "Fundamentally, this is a breach of the principle of no forced returns. That's a clear violation of international law."
  • India committed $1.3 billion for 'post-conflict' Sri Lanka since 2008
    The High Commission of India has renewed its support for Sri Lanka, stating it has committed an estimated US$1.3 billion towards supporting the country's development post-armed conflict.

    Speaking at an event celebrating the relationship between the two countries, the High Commissioner of India, Y. K. Sinha said,
    “As Sri Lanka strives towards a peaceful future, the Government and the people of India remain committed to assist Sri Lanka in its endeavours of rehabilitation, reconstruction and reconciliation.”
    A press release from the High Commission noted that “India’s assistance in post-conflict recovery commenced in 2008 even before the armed conflict came to an end”. It went on to add,
  • Police to take action against attacked Tamil student for 'false complaint'

    Sri Lanka’s police have claimed that the injuries a Tamil student received in an attack at Sabaragamuwa University were self inflicted and said they would take action against him for making a false complaint, reported the Daily Mirror.

    Santhirakumar Sutharshan, who originally hails from Muhamalai in the northeast of the island, was attacked earlier this month by masked men, leaving him with injuries requiring hospital treatment.

    He was arrested on his return from hospital last week by Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division. According to the police the student admitted that the injuries were self-inflicted.

  • Chair of govt commission accuses NGOs of inflating disappearance numbers
    The chair of the government's commission into disappearances accused civil society organisations of falsely inflating numbers of those missing in the North of the island.

    “After all the publicity that was given, we only received about 375 complaints from Mannar,” said Maxwell Paranagama. The commission held public sittings in Mannar last week.

    “When we asked the organisation to forward the family members of those who went missing, if there is such high number, the organisation failed to do so,” he added.

    The Tamil National Alliance, the Tamil National People's Front, and the prominent civil society campaigner, the Bishop of Mannar, have criticised the domestic inquiry, stating it is unable to provide justice to the Tamils.

  • Sri Lanka invites Kerry to visit and see for himself
    Extending an invitation to the US Secretary of State John Kerry, Sri Lanka's Minister of External Affairs said he should visit to see for himself.

    “I invited him to visit Sri Lanka and see what we have accomplished on the ground during the past five years after the war was over,” Minister GL Peiris told the Daily Mirror.

    The invitation comes after Peiris last week warned foreign envoys to be impartial and refrain from interfering within Sri Lanka's domestic affairs.

  • MoD's National Secretariat to investigate 4 NGOs
    The National Secretariat, which works under Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence, is to investigate four NGOs, after they allegedly failed to comply with recently introduced government restrictions, the Daily Mirror reports.

    “We are carrying out investigations at the moment. Once investigations are over, we will decide on the action to be taken against them,” the chair of the Secretariat, Saman Dissanayake, said stating that some of the NGOs had been banned previously.

    In July Sri Lanka’s     Ministry of Defence sent letters to all non-governmental organisations, demanding that they refrain from activities beyond their mandate, including press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and the publication of press releases.

  • Failure to support presidential development projects is a sin says chief monk
    A monk speaking at the Presidential opening of a Buddhist temple, warned public servants that they would pay for their sins in the next life if they failed to serve the public and the president.
  • Government to add another international name to domestic commission

    An Indian human rights activist is to be included in the Sri Lankan government's disappearances commission, the NDTV reports.

    Avdash Kaushal, leads an NGO names Rural litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), which focuses on the indigenous tribe of the Northern Himalayas.

    Last month the government appointed three international experts to advise the commissions, just as the UN inquiry, OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), into mass atrocities committed against the Tamil people was to begin.

    This latest appointment comes days after the UN inquiry launched its call for witness submissions. See more here.

    However, despite the appointments, President Rajapaksa has stressed that the international experts will not have any investigative power.

  • No media freedom on island says Batticaloa bishop
    The bishop of Batticaloa condemned the lack of media freedom on the island, adding that "freedom of speech and media freedom for journalists is essential," the Uthayan reports.
  • Access to Sri Lanka not necessary for investigation says UN Human Rights Chief
    The United Nations top human rights official stated investigators do not need to visit Sri Lanka, in order to carry out a full and credible investigation into war crimes committed by the government.

    Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,  told the Thomson Reuters Foundation,
    "There is a wealth of information outside of Sri Lanka which can be tapped into."

    "The credibility of the report will depend on it reflecting proper standards of corroboration of evidence, whether the team is allowed into the country or not."
    Citing the cases of Syria and North Korea, both of which had UN investigations into human rights abuses carried out, Pillay went on to add,
    "Hardly anyone, apart from the Syrian and Democratic People's Republic of Korea governments, are questioning the credibility of these two inquiries, so I don't see why it should be any different in the case of Sri Lanka”.
    See more from Business Insider here.
  • Sri Lanka says US should examine root causes of anti-Western sentiment
    Sri Lanka's External Affairs Ministry rejected a security message issued by the United States last week, which had warned its citizens about increased anti-Western sentiments and violent demonstrations in Sri Lanka, stating that the US should itself examine the root causes of the widening gap in relations between the two countries.

    In a statement released on Monday, the Ministry said it "takes serious note" of the message, which it said "regrettably creates a false and alarmist view of the conditions prevalent in Sri Lanka".
    "There have been no instances of violent protests targeting the US Embassy, its diplomats, officials or citizens, though claimed by the US State Department’s Security Message, that such incidents could occur."

  • BBS tells Rajapaksa - discipline ministers or 'we will have to tame them'
    The leader of the Buddhist monk group, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) told the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa to take action against ministers whose actions the group condemned, warning, "if he [Rajapaksa] fails to correct those [ministers] behaving incorrectly then we will have to tame them".

    “The President cannot shy away from taking the responsibility for the action of ministers. We cannot allow him to mollycoddle everyone including the wrongdoers," BBS leader, the Buddhist monk, Galagodaatte Gnanasera told a press conference, the Daily Mirror reports.

  • 'Sinister' demographic changes made in North-East to stop need for political solution - TNA
    The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) accused the government of ‘sinister’ militarisation and land appropriation in the North-East with a ‘definite purpose’ of changing the demographic composition of the North-East with the aim of making a political solution for the Tamils ‘irrelevant and unnecessary.'

    Highlighting that thousands of Tamil families lost their land to the Sri Lankan military in High Security Zone in the North-East, the TNA leader R Sampanthan,     during a statement made in parliament on Thursday, asked if there was a ‘sinister’ motive to the appropriation of Tamil land.

    Sampanthan said that the land appropriation in the eastern provinces was to break the linguistic continuity of the North-East, whilst highlighting     that the Northern and Eastern provinces were historically Tamil areas, and insisting they must become one unit of devolution, with one provincial council. His statement further warned that there was a strategy to break up the ‘linguistic continuity’  of the North-East as part of the government plan to remove the need for a meaningful political solution for the Tamils.
     
    He added that, though promises had been made by the Supreme Court to release these lands back to the Tamil people, the commitments had not been met and civilians were not able to resettle in their original lands.

    Extracts reproduced below.
    “There are tens of thousands of Tamil families in this position. Why is there no serious effort to address this issue? Despite all the protests and demonstrations that are taking place in the North and the East, despite the matter having been raised in Parliament on several occasions, why is this issue not being addressed seriously? Is this attitude of the Government not indicative of the Government having a sinister objective? I want to pose this question."

    “All this is being done because you want to change the demographic composition of the North and the East and you want to change the cultural and linguistic identity of the districts in the North and the East. These things are being done with a definite purpose, the purpose being to change the demographic composition of the Northern and Eastern Provinces and the cultural and linguistic identity of the Northern and Eastern Provinces so as to make a political resolution, a political solution irrelevant and unnecessary. That is the objective with which you are pursuing this agenda,” he later said in an answer to his question.
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