NEW DELHI — Fears of a broad crackdown against rights activists in Sri Lanka have been heightened after the Sri Lankan police recently arrested two prominent human rights advocates and a woman who has made a public campaign of finding her missing son. The arrests took place just as the United Nations Human Rights Council… Read more »
Monthly Archives: March 2014
MP Shivajilingam Statement
Shivajilingam_GenevaStatement_10March2014 SriLanka_NPC_Resolution_Jan2014_English Statement from Hon M.K.Shivajilingam, Member of Northern Provincial Council, Sri Lanka Presented to the UN Diplomats in Geneva, Switzerland on March 10, 2014 Your Excellencies, Honorable Members of the UN Human Rights Council, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am an elected Member of Northern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka, and I stand here today… Read more »
Contemporary Global Tamil Poetry
In Our Translated World Contemporary Global Tamil Poetry A review by Richard L. Reinert, PhD Given the political climate and military turmoil that affected the people of Sri Lanka, one would expect that contemporary Tamil poetry to be underscored by sadness. And so it is in many of the selections in this book written by… Read more »
New Video Evidence of Government War Crimes
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Accountability in Focus
Dr. Singh… once again brought up the most critical issue that affects the Tamils of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province: the Army’s brazen occupation of vast areas of civilian land. Dr. Singh asked Mr.Rajapaksa to pare the Army presence in the North. No doubt, the mellow mood in the Sri Lankan ruling establishment comes from the realisation that slowly but steadily the UN Human Rights Council, and, by implication, the international community, is becoming tougher on the issue. In the long run, there is no escape from a credible investigation that establishes accountability. And the question of the political rights of Tamils remains to be addressed with a measure of seriousness and urgency.
Statement by TNA Leaders on Draft Resolution
TNA Response to the Draft Resolution_March 2014 TNA Response to the Draft Resolution_March 2014 The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has given careful consideration to the draft resolution on Sri Lanka proposed at the 25th sessions of the Human Rights Council by the United States of America, the UnitedKingdom, Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and… Read more »
Primacy of Accountability
Last week’s opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s 25th session gave rise to strong and welcome calls from key member states for an international inquiry into Sri Lanka’s mass atrocities. That Sri Lanka is not going to investigate the horrific crimes for which its leaders are responsible and that accountability depends entirely on an… Read more »
Interactive Dialogue with SASG on Prevention of Genocide
http://webtv.un.org/watch/id-special-advisor-on-the-prevention-of-genocide-15th-meeting-25th-regular-session-of-human-rights/3316281947001 [See also Chapter 15 by France Libertes: Fondation Danielle Mitterrand ] 25th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council Geneva March 7, 2014 Item 3 – Interactive Dialogue with SASG on Prevention of Genocide Organization: Pasumai Thaayagam Thank you Madam Vice President. On the 65th anniversary of the “Convention on the prevention of Genocide” we are… Read more »
Sovereignty vs. Self-Rule
by Peter Barker, ‘The New York Times,’ March 8, 2014 WASHINGTON — They wanted to break away from a country they considered hostile. The central government cried foul, calling it a violation of international law. But with the help of a powerful foreign military, they succeeded in severing ties. The Kosovars’ secession from Serbia in… Read more »
Bring Up the Bodies
by ‘The Economist,’ London, March 8, 2014 DELHI | From the print edition EVIDENCE of past atrocities keeps turning up in Sri Lanka. Last year 154 bodies were unearthed from a mass grave behind a hospital in Matale, in the centre of the island—victims, in all likelihood, of an uprising by Marxist rebels in the 1980s. In… Read more »
On That “Memo to the US Congress and Senate
by Sachi Sri Kantha, March 5, 2014 One of my regular correspondents sent me last month, a “Memo to the US Congress and Senate regarding the UNHRC Resolution-Re: The Geneva UNHRC Resolution in March 2014 against Sri Lanka ” and asked, ‘What do you think of this?’. It was posted in the Lanka Web Com… Read more »
Crimes Against Humanity in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, March 4, 2014 Crimes-against-humanity-in-sri-lanka-s-northern-province EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Report is the first of its kind to map the facts of well-documented, post-war human rights violations in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province to the legal elements of crimes against humanity. Amidst growing calls that the UNHRC mandate an international… Read more »
A Food Crisis Waiting to Happen
The problem points to a particularly worrisome situation for the people in the north who bore much of the brunt of the ethnic war and who depend entirely on agriculture and fisheries for their livelihood. Photo: Meera Srinivasan With the monsoon failing, the fisheries sector not showing much promise, and disputes over water sharing, northern… Read more »
Let the U.N. Unmask the Criminals of Sri Lanka’s War
BRUSSELS — IN early 2009, as many as 40,000 civilians were killed in the final days of Sri Lanka’s civil war, having been herded into an area about the size of Central Park and subjected to relentless shelling. No one has been held accountable for these crimes, and even now the government in Colombo remains… Read more »
ICG: UNHRC Action Remains Crucial
by International Crisis Group, Brussels, February 28, 2014 This briefing note draws on Crisis Group’s extensive reporting on post-war political developments in Sri Lanka, as well as recent interviews with a range of Sri Lankan stakeholders. Read all our published reports on Sri Lanka. Overview The government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has failed to comply with two… Read more »
US State: 2013 Report on Human Rights
The government prosecuted a very small number of government and military officials implicated in human rights abuses and had yet to hold anyone accountable for alleged violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law that occurred during the conflict that ended in 2009.