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"Opportunity for peace marred," says Navi Pillai
U.N. High Commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay has again criticised Sri Lanka for failing to examine abuses committed during the civil war last year between the government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Pillay presented her 2009 report to the annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday.
“In Sri Lanka, the opportunity for peace and reconciliation continues to be marred by the treatment of journalists, human rights defenders and other critics of government” the High Commissioner said.
"I am convinced that Sri Lanka should undertake a full reckoning of the grave violations committed by all sides during the war, and that the international community can be helpful in this regard," she said in a speech presenting her annual report.
EU to suspend Sri Lanka trading privileges over rights
(BRUSSELS) - EU nations have decided to suspend Sri Lanka's preferential trade status because of the island's human rights record and will make the formal move later this month, officials said Friday.
"European ambassadors have taken the decision. The EU Commission's investigation showed Sri Lanka has not demonstrated that it has taken the steps that would allow it to retain or regain the GSP+ status," a European diplomat said.
Ugly low-pay truth of high street fashion
FACTORY workers in Sri Lanka are struggling to survive on basic wages as low as 25p an hour to produce clothes for leading British retailers, who say they abide by an ethical trading initiative intended to protect employees’ rights.
Even in the better factories supplying companies such as Marks & Spencer and Next, thousands of women work six days a week to take home a basic wage of less than £50 a month. Some of the factory owners and retailers admit that the basic wages are insufficient to live on but say they are dictated by fierce international competition.
Government moves against media raise fears for Sri Lankan democracy
A crackdown on media organisations has raised fears for democracy in Sri Lanka days after President Rajapaksa’s disputed re-election.
Media and rights groups accuse Mr Rajapaksa’s Government of closing and blocking news outlets and harassing, assaulting and detaining journalists who it claims supported General Sarath Fonseka — a former army chief and Mr Rajapaksa’s rival in last Tuesday’s election. Sri Lanka is South Asia’s oldest democracy, but Mr Rajapaksa severely curbed civil liberties during the military campaign that led to the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels last May.
During vote counting last Wednesday, his Government sent troops to surround General Fonseka’s hotel headquarters, and raided his campaign office after he disputed the result.
Sri Lankan government 'settling scores' in media crackdown
The newly re-elected government of Mahinda Rajapaksa has been accused of orchestrating a fresh crackdown on the media after a series of websites were blocked and at least one reporter detained after raising questions about the conduct of the election. One journalist is missing, one has been assaulted and others have received death threats.
In what campaigners claimed was a "settling of scores", around half-a-dozen websites have been blocked and the offices of one of them sealed. A foreign journalist who had been ordered from the country after asking a question about the President's brother was subsequently told she could stay after her case received international attention.
"Now that the President has been re-elected, there appears to be a settling of scores with critics of the government," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). "Just days after the election, some officials seem to be on a campaign to abuse their power."
New York) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and key international actors should take steps to bring accountability for Sri Lanka's grave human rights violations so that the thousands of victims will not continue to be denied justice during President Mahinda Rajapaksa's second term, Human Rights Watch said today.
The human rights situation in Sri Lanka deteriorated markedly during Rajapaksa's first term, and he failed to hold perpetrators accountable. During the final months of the 26-year-long war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended with the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, both government and LTTE forces committed numerous serious violations of international humanitarian law, in which more than 7,000 civilians died in what the UN called a "bloodbath."
"The human rights situation in Sri Lanka plummeted to new depths on Rajapaksa's watch," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The president deftly played a false conflict between rights and the fight against terrorism in his first term. But with the war over, the UN and other international actors should loudly insist on justice for victims."
Despite verbal acrobatics reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, Sri Lankan officials have been unable to dismiss a shocking mobile phone video from last January purportedly showing Sri Lankan soldiers summarily executing naked and bound captives. The government has consistently claimed the video is fake, without providing any evidence that the gruesome scene was staged or the footage tampered with.
Now, the top United Nations envoy responsible for investigating extralegal executions around the world has added his voice to those believing the tape to be genuine. After commissioning three experts on forensic pathology, video analysis and firearms to review the tape, the envoy, Philip Alston, told the BBC, "You cannot fake the precise sort of reaction which the human body makes when shot at close range by such a weapon."
Of course Sri Lanka's public relations team went into its usual overdrive, denouncing the "bias" of the UN expert and suggesting that he was on a "personal crusade" to force a war crimes investigation over the allegations.
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in 2005 the United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 as an annual international day of commemoration to honour the victims of the Nazi era.
The 2010 observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust will focus on a central theme that emphasizes the legacy that survivors will pass on to succeeding generations.
Bloody Sri Lanka News Contradicts Sanguine New York Times Travel Advisory
Tour Sri Lanka Amidst Landmines?
New York Times readers may have been making Sri Lanka travel plans after perusing the publication's latest 31 getaway suggestions. A reality check by way of Sri Lanka news coverage might have them change their itineraries.
MIA: F*** New York Times!!!!
Sri Lanka topped a recent NY Times list of '31 Places to go in 2010,' but one of the country's most famous natives doesn't agree. "FUCK NEW YORK TIMES! DO YOU THINK YOU NEED TO GO HERE ON VACATION?" MIA tweeted with a photo of a pile of mangled bodies.
Video Alleges War Crimes
Breaking news: CNN's Becky Anderson talks with a U.N. Special Investigator investigating war crimes in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Execution Video 'Authentic' - UN Envoy
Video apparently showing extra-judicial killings by Sri Lankan troops is genuine, a UN envoy has said. UN special rapporteur Philip Alston said three independent experts had confirmed the video was authentic, renewing calls for a war crime inquiry. The footage - which Sri Lanka says is fabricated - shows a man dressed as a soldier shooting a man in the head. It was allegedly filmed in January during the final stages of the bloody conflict with Tamil Tigers rebels. The government in Colombo said it concluded the video was fake after conducting its own investigation. But Mr Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, told reporters: "The conclusion clearly is that the video is authentic." He said the video had been examined by three US-based independent investigators.
Sri Lanka's War on Journalists
Today marks the 100th day of J.S. Tissainayagam's 20-year prison term. Tissainayagam, known as Tissa, was convicted of “terrorism” charges for articles documenting human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan military, as well as the difficult conditions faced by Sri Lankans displaced in the nation’s long war. His sentence was a dire warning to other journalists who would dare be critical of the government. They are right to be concerned.
In the years since Mahinda Rajapaksa has held high office in Sri Lanka—as prime minister in 2004 and then as president since 2005—nine journalists have been murdered with impunity. According to CPJ data, Sri Lanka has the fourth worst impunity record in the world, behind only Iraq, Sierra Leone, and Somalia. And over the years CPJ and other journalist support groups have been handling a steady flow of requests for assistance while threatened reporters seek either temporary refuge or permanent exile.
Right violaters need to be accountable-Blake
US aid to Sri Lanka will be dependent upon its commitment to political reconciliation and progress of human rights, says, senior American diplomat, Robert Blake.
“Aid given to Sri Lanka will depend some what on the country's commitment to political reconciliation and progress of human rights”, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert Blake told media on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka: Free All Unlawfully Detained
(New York) - As it prepares to allow the 130,000 internally displaced persons detained in camps to decide whether to stay or leave, the Sri Lankan government should ensure that no additional persons are subject to arbitrary detentions, Human Rights Watch said today.
On November 21 the government announced that the camps would be opened by December 1. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called on the Sri Lankan government to release displaced civilians and to restore their full freedom of movement. Human Rights Watch said that the decision to release the people in the camps is a positive step, but also expressed concern that the authorities would step up the arbitrary detention of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspects in violation of international law. Read more...
Sri Lanka Resettlement Plan Needed
COLOMBO (AFP) – The Sri Lankan government has failed to make adequate welfare provision for the 136,000 Tamil civilians it plans to release from internment camps, rights activists and opposition parties said Sunday.
Heeding international calls for the camps to be closed, the authorities said the remaining detainees -- held since the military finally crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels in May -- would be allowed out.
Many observers welcomed Saturday's announcement, but warned the government that it must organise a structured resettlement programme.
"We are insisting that the International Committee of the Red Cross or the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) should be present when people are resettled," said Nimalka Fernando, spokeswoman for the Democratic People's Movement.
She said the government's plan to "haphazardly" send the civilians back to their villages was "seriously flawed". Read more...
In Sri Lanka, Anger Over Detainees’ Fate
TRINCOMALEE, SRI LANKA -- Six months after Sri Lanka's decades-old civil war ended with a final assault, about 200,000 people remain trapped in overcrowded government-run camps that were once safe havens for those fleeing the conflict.
Facing pressure from the Obama administration and the European Union, the Sri Lankan government last month launched a campaign to resettle tens of thousands of the minority Tamil detainees. But interviews in the country's war-ravaged north reveal that many civilians have merely been shuffled from the large camps to smaller transit ones and are being held against their will. Others have been released, only to be taken from their homes days later with no indication of where they have gone. Read more...
US State Department Report of Possible War Crimes
US War Crimes Report Details Extensive Abuses
NEW YORK - October 22 - A US State Department report on possible violations of the laws of war in Sri Lanka made public on October 22, 2009 shows the need for an independent international investigation, Human Rights Watch said today. The report details violations of the laws of war committed by both government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from January through May 2009.
"The US State Department report should dispel any doubts that serious abuses were committed during the conflict's final months," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Given Sri Lanka's complete failure to investigate possible war crimes, the only hope for justice is an independent, international investigation." Read more...
January 27: Honouring International Holocaust Remembrance Day and remembering the plight of Tamils
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