Posts Categorized: Human Rights

UNHCHR Oral Update on Sri Lanka

by United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif, UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, June 21, 2023 Sri Lanka: promoting reconciliation, accountability and rights 53rd session of the Human Rights Council Oral update on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka Statement by Nada Al-Nashif United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for… Read more »

The Gospel According to the Sri Lankan (Sinhalese) Army

2022 version by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 21, 2023 This is my review of a book with a very long title -34 words! It is, ‘Prabhakaran’s Ruthless Terrorism in the guise of Liberation – Are the Sri Lankan Security Forces guilty of Genocide? – How the LTTE violated Human Rights by intentionally committing genocide –… Read more »

Report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984

by Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984, September 2002 Report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984 – Report Report of the Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1981-1984 – Documents – A summary of the Nature and Extent of Damage suffered by Victims of Violence, PART 1 Report of the Presidential… Read more »

Batalanda Commission Report

by Commission of Inquiry into the Establishment and Maintenance of Places of Unlawful Detention and Torture Chambers at the Batalanda Housing Scheme, Colombo, 2000 Batalanda Commission Report – Book English From an introduction written by Nandana Weerarathne in March 2023 During the 1988/89 era, government forces and police were running torture camps. Also, there were… Read more »

What Happened at Maruthangeni and Its Consequences

by A. Nillanthan, June 13, 2023 [translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate with minor changes by the Editor.] The fact that the intelligence department is monitoring the political activities of the Tamil people has been a reality for the past several decades. Especially for the last 14 years, the intelligence department has been… Read more »

Mass Graves & Failed Exhumations in Sri Lanka

by Center for Human Rights and Development (CHRD), Families of the Disappeared (FoD), Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), Colombo, International Truth & Justice Project – Sri Lanka (ITJP), South Africa, June 13, 2023 This joint report examines Sri Lanka’s record of dealing with mass graves from multiple periods of conflict. All over the… Read more »

Amirthalingam Speech in Parliament re 1981 Burning of Jaffna Library

by Sri Lanka Parliamentary Debates, June 9, 1981, vol.15, no.1, columns 67-92, posted on Facebook by Sivakumar Subramaniam, May 30, 2023 The speech made by then Leader of the opposition Mr A. Amirthalingam in Parliament. A verbatim transcript is provided below. Honorifics of participants have been omitted for convenience. A.Amirthalingam: Sir, I wish to place… Read more »

Police Threaten & Assault TNPF Leader at Meeting in Maruthankerny

Sri Lankan police intelligence officer wields gun at TNPF leader following commotion at meeting in Maruthankerny by Tamil Guardian, London, June 2, 2023 A Sri Lankan police intelligence officer pointed his gun to Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam after he was attacked during a meeting in Maruthankerny. Ponnambalam was at a meeting… Read more »

Deja Vu ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ in Sri Lanka?

by Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene, Sunday Times, Colombo, June 3, 2023 Truth and Reconciliation is now again in the air, we are sublimely told by the Government of Sri Lanka. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, along with his merry men and women in Parliament in the Pohottuwa ranks are singing to the eminently hypocritical refrain of truth and reconciliation commissions… Read more »

Kilinochchi Maveerar Thuyilum Illum, February 2023

by N. Ethirveerasingam, May 17, 2023 I took these pictures in Kilinochchi Maveerar Thuyilum Illum during a visit in February 2023. * When Kilinochchi fell in 2008 the army bulldozed about 4 acres of gravestones – a war crime.  Other LTTE graveyards in the North met the same fate. * I was there at the… Read more »

Amnesty’s Concern re PTA Arrests

Amnesty International today [May 26, 2023] issued the following statement on Twitter (see https://twitter.com/amnestysasia/status/1662056434002190337): “Sri Lanka: @amnesty is concerned by the Sri Lankan government’s continued use of its draconian anti-terror law, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) despite repeated assurances to repeal the legislation, while ignoring calls to issue a serious moratorium against its use…. Read more »

Prez gives N-E Land Release Orders to Forest Dept.

Prez-Tamil MPs talks Forest Dept. to release N-E lands taken beyond limits demarcated in 1985 maps, Archaeology Dept. to rectify land acquisition errors  by Buddhika Samaraweera, The Morning.lk, Colombo, May 24, 2023 President and National Policies Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has issued an order to release the lands in the Northern and Eastern Provinces that have… Read more »

HRW: Still No Justice on Sri Lanka War Anniversary

UN Pursues Accountability in Response to Government Inaction by  Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, Human Rights Watch, New York, May 16, 2023 On May 18, Tamils in Sri Lanka will mark Mullivaikkal Memorial Day, in remembrance of those who died in the final stages of the country’s brutal civil war that ended in 2009. Thousands… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s New Anti-terrorism Law is Old Wine in New Bottle

If torture is to be eradicated in Sri Lanka the institutions of the magistrate and police need to be reformed. by J.S. Tissaiyanagam, The Diplomat, Washington, DC, May 5, 2023 Sri Lanka’s government is desperate to quash dissent. It faces opposition on multiple fronts – people protesting onerous austerity measures to combat an economic crisis,… Read more »

Amnesty: Widespread Protests re ATA

Widespread Protests in Sri Lanka Highlight Unifed Opposition to Anti-Terrorism Act by Amnesty International, May 2, 2023 In response to increasing protests throughout Sri Lanka in response to the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), the proposed replacement legislation to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), Amnesty International USA Asia Advocacy Director Carolyn Nash said: “The ATA poses… Read more »

Designation of Sri Lankan Governor

Due to Involvement in a Gross Violation of Human Rights PRESS STATEMENT ANTONY J. BLINKEN, US SECRETARY OF STATE APRIL 26, 2023 The United States is designating Wasantha Karannagoda, Governor of North Western Province in Sri Lanka, pursuant to Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2023, due to his involvement in a… Read more »

The Smell of Terror

by Tissaranee Gunasekera, Groundviews, Colombo, April 23, 2023 “On land a tiger, in the water a crocodile.” A Bengali proverb In Sri Lanka terror means Tamil or Muslim. When the J.R. Jayewardene government responded to the ethnic problem not with the promised political reforms but with repression and the PTA was born, the concept of… Read more »

Tamils Flag Escalating Attacks on Temples in Northern Sri Lanka

by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, April 23, 2023 Several Tamil political parties have called for a protest on April 25 against the recent temple attacks, among other issues Tamils in Sri Lanka have witnessed an escalation in the attack on Hindu temples in recent weeks, a trend that they note is part of the… Read more »