01/03/2012
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The Island
The gap between headline statistics of falling poverty and rising income levels and the reality for many poor and vulnerable groups in Sri Lanka was highlighted recently in a discussion facilitated by the Law and Society Trust.
09/13/2011
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Amnesty International
The Sri Lankan President's special envoy told the United Nations this week "Our commitment to human rights is second to none, and with such commitment we seek to transform our society to one of peace, pluralism and equality." - Mahinda Samarasinghe, Geneva, 12 September 2011
09/07/2011
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Asian Human Rights Commission
ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION-URGENT APPEAL PROGRAMME
Mr. Aadawalage Gayan Indika (26) of No 6th Canal, Kagama in Kakirawa in the district of Anuradhapura is married and father of one son. Gayan was travelling with his brother on his motorbike when they were stopped by plain clothed persons who demanded their identities. When Gayan in turn demanded the identities of the group he was told that they were officers of the Kakiwara Police station. Gayan was accused of making illicit liquor and when he refused the accusation he was severely beaten by the officers who he believes were working hand in hand with the person actually producing the liquor. This is yet another example of the breakdown of the Sri Lankan policing system.
09/04/2011
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Times of India
NEW DELHI: In what might prove to be a political embarrassment for Congress in Tamil Nadu, a Wikileaks cable has revealed that India viewed Western criticism of Sri Lanka's human rights record with concern as it felt shunning the island nation would drive it towards China.
08/16/2011
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The Hindu
Two years after defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and eliminating it as a military entity, Sri Lanka is still struggling to emerge from the woods on some important fronts. Two issues are predominant. One is the nature of the peace, and the efforts by the Sri Lankan government towards a political reconciliation between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority. The military victory over the LTTE, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa's strength in parliament, gave the government an unprecedented opportunity to put in place a progressive political framework to heal the wounds of a 30-year war, and address Tamil grievances that predate the war. That it has taken only nominal steps in this direction is a matter of concern even to friends of Sri Lanka, such as India, which stood by its military efforts against the LTTE. The second issue, which has found strong voice in a recent documentary by a British television station, Channel 4, and in a United Nations report, has to do with the nature of the military operations in the final stages of the war in 2009. Both make allegations of war crimes against the Sri Lankan Army, accusing it of knowingly aiming fire at civilians such that thousands lost their lives, of killing captives in cold blood, and of possible sexual assault. It is shocking that instead of addressing these issues in the right spirit, a high-ranking official of the Sri Lankan government, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a brother of the Sri Lankan President, has chosen to vitiate the atmosphere even more with his intemperate remarks against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, and by attributing motives to the adoption of resolutions on Sri Lanka by the State Assembly.
08/04/2011
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Channel 6 News Online
COLOMBO (BNO NEWS) -- Residents in northwestern Sri Lanka held a mass protest on Wednesday over the murder of a prominent human rights activist whose body was found 17 months after he disappeared, the Colombo Page reported on Thursday.
08/04/2011
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www.rferl.org
To help "ensure that the United States does not become a safe haven for serious violators of human rights," U.S. President Barack Obama today issued a proclamation barring the entry of individuals said to be involved in systematic violence, war crimes, and other severe rights violations.
08/03/2011
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Associated Press
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — An international human rights group urged the United Nations on Wednesday to investigate the execution-style slaying of 17 workers for a French aid agency in Sri Lanka five years ago, after a government probe did not identify the killers.
07/29/2011
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BBC
UN calls for speedy investigation over the mysterious death of a prominent rights activist.
07/20/2011
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The Wall Street Journal
Even though Indian foreign policy is not the focus of Mrs. Clinton's visit to Chennai, her trip to Tamil Nadu nonetheless flags an important issue: the dismal state of affairs across the Palk Strait in neighboring Sri Lanka.
The island nation's problems are not entirely of India's making. But New Delhi has failed to slow Sri Lanka's rapid slide toward authoritarianism, protect the rights of minority Tamils, or stem rising Chinese influence. This raises an awkward question about India's quest for great-power status. Simply put, how can India expect more clout on the world stage when it wields so little influence in its own neighborhood?