Posts Categorized: Human Rights

Cameron Sets March Deadline for Sri Lanka Rights Investigation

CNN news video of PM David Cameron in Jaffna at http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/16/world/asia/sri-lanka-commonwealth-cameron-march/index.html British Prime Minister David Cameron has given Sri Lanka a March 2014 deadline to hold an independent international inquiry into alleged war crimes during the country’s 26-year civil war. Cameron held talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa while in the capital of Colombo for… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Climate of Fear

Since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009, the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has had a record of serious human rights violations and failed to provide accountability for wartime abuses. In August, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, issued scathing observations on the state of human rights in Sri Lanka after her… Read more »

What Cameron Must Salvage from CHOGM

First and foremost, he must seek accountability for egregious rights abuses  Cameron’s sense of outrage is too little and far too late. But it perhaps create an opportunity to salvage something from an otherwise thoroughly discredited Commonwealth meeting, that he is clearly so determined to attend. Just this week, David Cameron described as “truly shocking”… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Potemkin Peace

by International Crisis Group, Belgium, November 13, 2013 Full report at http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/asia/south-asia/sri-lanka/253-sri-lankas-potemkin-peace-democracy-under-fire.pdf EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Sri Lanka’s ethnically-exclusive regime continues to close political space and consolidate its power. Recent moves that create a perception of progress have not weakened the power of the president, his family or the military or brought reconciliation, ended human rights… Read more »

Channel 4’s ‘No Fire Zone’

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/no-fire-zone/4od   ABOUT THE PROGRAMME The team behind the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields tell the story of the 138-day-long final offensive in Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war Available for a limited time only at Channel 4 site. —————— Channel 4 Nov. 9 blog on interview with Isaipriya’s mother and sisters http://blogs.channel4.com/miller-on-foreign-affairs/sri-lanka-tamil-familys-distress-footage-daughter/430

New Delhi Experiments Eezham Model ‘Counterinsurgency’ on Its Own People

Indian State now consolidates a policy that extraordinary political movements of mass basis, coming from peoples long exposed to social oppression, material deprivation, un-freedom and stark poverty in India, have to be eliminated with the deployment of an increasing number of armed forces. The more the forces are special and armed-to-the-teeth with impunity, the more… Read more »

Women and Children in the North

by Watchdog, ‘Groundviews.org,’ Colombo, October 31, 2013 In September 2013, Watchdog travelled to the Vanni[1] and met with survivors of sexual violence, women’s rights activists and representatives of women’s groups. This report is based on information provided during interviews conducted with them, Human Rights organisations based in the North and Colombo and Government sources. During our… Read more »

‘Cover-up’ over Phosphorus Attack Haunts Sri Lanka Talks

  A Sri Lankan army photograph taken after the last battle of the civil war in 2009 Sri Lankan Government/Reuters   When Kannaki was hit by a phosphorus shell, she was six months pregnant, lying huddled in a bunker with 15 other Tamils while an artillery bombardment raged around them for hour after hour. As… Read more »

Credible Sri Lankan War Crimes Investigation on the Horizon

At the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) 68th session in late September, a major stipulation was laid out by UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in reference to the shocking slaughtering of tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamil civilians in the spring of 2009. Given strong evidence that Tamil civilians were killed primarily by… Read more »

Tamils: Need for Change

The prime consideration of the Tamils is security, which determines their very existence. Now that the conflict is ended by the war, there will be an extended period to recast relationships between the state and Tamils, the Sinhalese and Tamils, to overcome past iniquities and focus on the future.

The Tamils must have the assurance that their security won’t be compromised again on any account. While the international community is there to afford relief, it takes time to assemble and implement their directives. It needs an effective local mechanism to prevent such a development.

One clear and unambiguous way of ensuring this would be to embed a self-determination clause in the Sri Lanka constitution as a clear safeguard against any excesses or discriminatory action by the state. At the same time, there must also be safeguards to prevent it being invoked frivolously.

External Development cannot Substitute the Settling of the Basic Unresolved Issues

by the Commission of Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, October 18, 2013, courtesy TamilNet.com, October 21, 2013 Fr_Mangalam_JPC_131018 To: His Excellency Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Spiteri, Apostolic Nuncio Apostolic Nunciature 220 Bauddhaloka Mawatha Colombo 7 Your Excellency, Greetings to your Excellency from the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic… Read more »

Why Ethnicity Matters in Sri Lanka

bu Sinthujan Varatharajah, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ October 16, 2013 Following our Sinhala privilege piece published on our Tumblr, ‘Check your Des(h)i Privilege’, we received a number of responses from Sinhalese and Tamils alike. As one of the co-authors of the piece, I’ve observed some of the conversations that were incited by the piece on social media… Read more »

London Conference on Accountability for Genocide

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) organised a conference on accountability for genocide against the Tamils on 28 & 29 September in London.  During the conference, many  speeches were delivered.   Four of those speeches on YouTube are below.  The speakers presented their views on whether Sri Lanka can be held accountable for committing  genocide. Geoffrey Robertson… Read more »

Oral Update of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Delivered in Geneva by Deputy High Commissioner Flavia Pansieri, September 25, 2013 1.      On behalf of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, I am pleased to provide this oral update on implementation of Human Rights Council resolution A/HRC/22/L.1/Rev.1 on promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka.  This draws on input from relevant Special Procedures mandate holders and the High… Read more »

Pasumai Thaayagam UNHRC Statement

24th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council 24 September 2013 Geneva Item 9: General Debate Organization: Pasumai Thaayagam Presenter: Dr. Anpumani Ramadoss Pasumai Thaayagam condemns all forms of racism and related intolerance. There are many repercussions of racism, ranging from the daily oppression of an intolerant society, to outright genocide. Unfortunately, the latter is… Read more »

Tamil Voters Hope Provincial Election is Step toward Autonomy

by Associated Press in ‘The Washington Post’ Asia/Pacific section, September 20, 2013 JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — The ethnic Tamils of Sri Lanka tried to gain autonomy in their northern heartland first through three decades of protests and strikes, then through three decades of civil war. Northern cities were reduced to rubble and at least 80,000… Read more »

State Facilitated Colonization of Northern Sri Lanka

by Watchdog, ‘Groundviews.org,’ Colombo, September 19, 2013 On 25th September 2012, the Menik Farm camp in Vavuniya, which at its peak, housed close to 300,000 internally displaced persons, was officially closed down when the Government of Sri Lanka relocated the last batch of IDPs. This formally marked the closure of all post-2009 IDP camps in the… Read more »

Protracted Displacement, Urgent Solutions

by Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, September 10, 2013 Significant changes have taken place in post-war Sri Lanka that have assisted the improvement in the lives of those affected by displacement and over 480,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have been able to return to their homes and communities. However, four years after the war displacement… Read more »