Posts Categorized: Human Rights

HRW: No Justice in Aid Worker Massacre

The Sri Lankan government has made no real progress in holding accountable those responsible for the execution style slaying of 17 aid workers seven years ago despite renewed international calls for action. On August 4, 2006, gunmen executed 17 Sri Lankan aid workers – 16 ethnic Tamils, four of them women, and a Muslim – with the… Read more »

Mr. Martin Collacott is Appalled…

The reader who sent this article in remembrance of Black July noted “Satyendra’s response to an article by a former Canadian High Commissioner is a timely reminder to the TNA especially Justice Wigneswaran. Justice Wigneswaran and the TNA to on reflect Satyendra’s thoughts that eloquently summarises the thoughts of the Tamil voters that the present government is moving forward with the plans of colonization developed by former Pres. JR Jayawardene.”

Freedom of the Press 2013

http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2013/sri-lanka Freedom of the Press 2013 Report Sri Lanka Sri Lanka In Sri Lanka the “score moved from 72 to 74 to reflect an increase in verbal threats and intimidation against journalists by government officials, as well as the sale of the Sunday Leader, formerly one of the island’s most independent newspapers, to an owner… Read more »

Rape: Sri Lanka’s Weapon of Genocide

My fellow Tamil women What have you done for peace in the isle? Take off your clothes and open up your vagina For the Sinhala warriors of the land of Buddha – Poem by an Angry Tamil Woman On February 26th 2013, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on sexual violence perpetrated on Tamil… Read more »

Interview with Callum Macrae

Interview by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, July 13, 2013 Tamil Guardian’s correspondent based in Toronto, Canada, caught up with the director of the documentaries ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ and ‘No Fire Zone – the killing fields of Sri Lanka‘, Callum Macrae, at the sidelines of FETNA 2013, to find out how he viewed Sri Lanka’s reaction to… Read more »

UK Immigration Court Rules on Sri Lanka Human Rights

Based on the evidence presented to them, the judges said they could make some factual findings, such as that between 40,000 and 100,000 Tamil civilians died in in the final days of fighting in 2009…

In terms of current human rights abuses, the UK ruling said, “year on year, the number of such disappearances is increasing during the peace, rather than decreasing”.

Birds of Freedom?

While some scholars argue that recent wars have thrust women into new roles, enabling them to transform their social situations, identities and destinies, others question whether females achieve ‘emancipation’ through active participation in warfare…

Malnutrition Among Northern IDPs

Attached is a report of a project started a year ago to lower malnutrition in IDPs in the Northern Province by 10%, paid for by Japan through the World Bank for US$2.7 million.  A year ago the malnutrition figures were: Prevalence of anemia (Hb < 11.0g/dL) among children 0-23 months = 61.60% Prevalence of anemia… Read more »

Amnesty: Torture in Sri Lanka

The Prevention of Terrorism Act – a holdover from the 1980s – is one of the main legal tools deployed by the government to silence its critics. Under it, people can be arrested without charge or trial and held for up to 18 months under a detention order, or pending trial – indefinitely. Locked in a sinister limbo and denied the right to a lawyer, they are left vulnerable to torture – despite a constitutional ban on the practice.

Sometimes the authorities eschew legal avenues altogether, harassing and assaulting their critics through anonymous means. Credible reports of people being bundled into white vans by unidentified assailants and later dumped, or never seen again, are alarmingly frequent.

Amnesty: “Tell the Truth”

by Amnesty International, London, June 26, 2013 Amnesty Tell the Truth Six Points for CHOGM June 2013 AI index: ASA 37/015/2013 26 June 2013 Four years have passed since the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan authorities continue to deny mounting evidence of crimes under international law committed by its forces during Sri… Read more »

Amnesty: Forgotten Prisoners

Several years after the end of the war in Sri Lanka — during which both sides committed gross human rights abuses, including deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians, torture and the use of child soldiers — hundreds of people are languishing in prison without charge or trial under Sri Lanka’s repressive anti-terrorism laws.

The Uphill Road

by ‘The Economist’s’ Banyan blog, June 22, 2013  OFTEN, when Sri Lanka’s ethnic-Sinhalese-dominated government appears to be offering a hand in friendship to the Tamil minority, it turns out to be a slap in the face. For example, in 2010 it appointed a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the final phase of the… Read more »

Re-Launch of NESoHR with Report on Jaffna Students

Maaveerar Day attacks on Jaffna University students and NESOHR re-launch The North East Secretariat for Human Rights (NESOHR) was born in the northern part of the island of Sri Lanka in July 2004 during an internationally sanctioned ceasefire and it was destroyed in January 2009 in the genocidal war.  Some of NESOHR founding members, who… Read more »

The Genocidal Imperative

By Ana Pararajasingham, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ June 6, 203 Preamble: Sri Lanka’s history since its independence from 1948 clearly demonstrates that all Sri Lankan governments were driven by the intent to destroy the distinct identity of the Tamils as a nation[1]. As these actions were underpinned by intent, they clearly fall within the definition of genocide as stipulated… Read more »

The Sri Lankan Army is Seizing Land that Could be Worth $2bn

If you own land in the north of Sri Lanka, or know anybody that does, please take a moment to look at this map and forward it on, the more people who are aware of what is taking place the better.

If you think you might be affected by any of these land seizures, or if you have any more precise information about the location of the land, photographs of the land, or who might own the land then please get in touch.

More land notices are being issued all the time and we will update the map as we get them. If you know of any more land seizures please do get in touch and pass on the details. If you can send us a copy of the notice (in any language) so much the better.

Spot Fixing Sri Lanka Style

There are numerous reasons to be concerned about this survey. The timing of the survey – and the military’s heavy involvement – suggests that this was (and remains) an obvious effort to deflect international pressure at the HRC and other international fora. When and why did the DCS begin to work so closely with the Defence Ministry?

Four Years On, Genocide Continues Off the Battlefield

On the anniversary of the 26-year civil war, the Sri Lankan state celebrates its 2009 victory while Tamils mark the bloody nadir of the campaign to systematically dismantle the Tamil nation – one which continues today. In May 2009 as the armed conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government of… Read more »

No Progress 4 Years On

by Human Rights Watch, New York, May 20, 2013 (Colombo) – Respect for basic rights and liberties has declined in Sri Lanka in the four years since the government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This week marks the fourth anniversary of the brutal civil war’s end. Since the end of the 26-year-long… Read more »

Genocide in Guatemala

In further contrast to its neighbors, Guatemalan society was (and remains) profoundly racist, fearful of the indigenous majority that it has continually dehumanized. That racism let the elite-military alliance use anticommunist counterinsurgency principles to justify the extermination of Mayan peoples and communities.

“Why do you ask why Indians were killed?’’ a member of the oligarchy once asked me. “A better question is why didn’t we kill more Indians?”