Turkey condemns attacks against Muslims in Sri Lanka ; Attacks since June 15 have killed at least 3 Muslims and led to destruction of businesses

ANKARA

Turkey has condemned recent attacks against Sri Lanka's Muslim minority, which have led to concerns among minority communities about spreading communal violence.  "We believe that necessary measures will be taken to make the people in Sri Lanka live in peace again after 2009, when the government successfully ended terrorist activities," said a statement issued by the foreign ministry on Tuesday. Muslim places of worship and shops in different parts of Sri Lanka were attacked early Saturday morning, following anti-Muslim violence on June 15 that killed three Muslims and one Tamil in the country's southwest.

Government Minister wants US leaders be beaten and dragged on the road and killed

Minister wants bush killed!

Government Minister says American leaders must be killed for the atrocities they have committed, particularly in the Middle East. Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake said that Iraq and Libya were doing well till the U.S. invaded those countries and killed their leaders. Speaking at an event in Kandy today, Dissanayake said that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein may have had some shortcomings but he changed Iraq for the better.

Muslim Countries Warn SL Government To Stop "Anti-Muslim Violence"

Several leading Muslim countries had warned the government that they would revise their Visa regulations pertaining to Sri Lanka if the government did not take action against those were involved in what they termed as anti-Muslim violence.

Canada's opposition condemns violence against Muslims

The official opposition party of Canada has issued a statement, condemning the recent violence in Sri Lanka.

The complete statement is as follows : NDP condemns attacks on Muslims in Sri Lanka

The NDP strongly condemns recent violence against the Muslim community in Sri Lanka, which has killed several people and injured dozens more.

5 years after war's end: Prioritising reasons for LTTE’s defeated

 Dr Kumar David

It is natural that many reasons are ascribed for the defeat of the LTTE; none is exclusively true, they are interconnected, some more significant than others. After five years it is timely to sift the wheat from the chaff and reflect upon their relative importance and gain some perspective.

Most oft proclaimed in Sinhalese society is that a determination of leadership (funding, unflagging political support, military strategy, and resisting foreign pressure to compromise) decided the issue; yes this is partly true.

Accreditation Status for sri Lanka in African Union

Turning a new chapter in the history of Sri Lanka – Africa relations, the Commission of the African Union granted Sri Lanka Accreditation Status in the African Union (AU) with effect from April 2014 as a non-African State, the External Affairs Ministry said today. Sri Lanka is the 3rd South Asian country along with India and Pakistan to have obtained Accreditation Status in the African Union.

Sri Lanka HRDs Ruki Fernando and Fr. Praveen released past mid night SL time

Ruki Fernando and Rev. Father Praveen were released after produsing before a megistrate, around 12.30 pm tonight, Sri Lanka time. 

Their colleagues were there to welcome them.

SLB team  thanks all indivuduals, organisations, diplomaric missions  and countries for their solidarity and encourgment in the campaign to get them released, since their arrest around 10.30 pm two days ago until this moment.

Report launch: Australia’s cooperation with Sri Lanka to intercept asylum seekers is in urgent need of rethink

Australian FM Julie Bishop
meets Minister Basil Rajapaksa
(photo:med.gov.lk. )

A new report has found that Australia’s cooperation with Sri Lanka to prevent would-be-refugees from seeking protection is riddled with human rights risks and should be stopped immediately.

The report, Can’t flee, can’t stay: Australia’s interception and return of Sri Lankan asylum seekers, which is based on interviews with government officials, information obtained through freedom of information requests and statements from the public record, reveals a deeply flawed suite of policy measures and practices.

 The Human Rights Law Centre’s Director of Advocacy and Research and the report’s author, Emily Howie, said Australia’s efforts at ‘stopping boats’ are jeopardising the ability of Sri Lankans at risk of persecution to gain access to safety and asylum.

SRI LANKA: Why GOSL fails internationally

Roshan, a Free trade Zone worker shot dead by  Police
on  30th May 2011. GoSL has not make public
the report of the commission investigated his death

'' In my view, the only way to meet the global human rights challenges to be genuine in the commitment to protect and promote human rights.  If Sri Lanka addresses human rights issues genuinely, no other country can point fingers at us. Why we fail internationally is because we do not do it genuinely. Look at Ratupaswela attack, 'grease yaka' attacks in Jaffna, Katunayaka FTZ attack, killing of journalists and ongoing attacks on media institutions, attacks on churches and mosques and so on. Sri Lanka does not address human rights issues genuinely. Quite contrary, the government has nasty reactions on those who raise the issues and undesirable denials on each of those instances. ''

J.C. Weliamuna

International Pressure as part of Democratization: Possibilities and Limitations

Laksiri Fernando
‘International pressure’ is something much talked about these days particularly in the context of the impending 3rd resolution on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC next month. If one is not totally blind or prejudiced, it is clear that as a result of the previous two resolutions (2012 and 2013) and concurrent international pressure, that the Rajapaksa regime was kept under scrutiny and the slide towards gross violations of human rights and authoritarianism was to a great extent arrested. If not for that international pressure, much worst things could have happened. The holding of the NPC elections was one good thing, among others, of this international pressure.

Sri Lanka: Ruling party MP Suriyapperuma goes on a tirade against Singh, Cameron and Obama; FM, G.L.Peiris not perturbed

85-year old parliamentarian, who is four years older than the Indian premier calls him ‘nakiya’

UPFA National List MP J.R.P.Suriyapperuma hurled abuses at Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament yesterday calling him an old man (nakiya) and a fool who will soon be thrown out of power by the Indian people. Eighty five year-old Mr. Suriyapperuma, who is four years older than the Indian Prime Minister directed his ire at Premier Singh for failing to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Colombo last month.

Britain demands ‘concrete progress’ on Sri Lanka rights

Cameron: will meet civil actors too

    Britain will use next month’s Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka to pressure Colombo to make “concrete progress” on human rights and to probe war crimes, the British high commissioner said Wednesday.

Prime Minister David Cameron will send a strong message to Colombo to improve its rights record and show a commitment to good governance, said British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka John Rankin.

Sanctions against Iran is an expression of a naked power - Sri Lanka FM

G.L Peiris

Sanctions expression of naked power
Sri Lanka is of the view that imposing sanctions on a country is a flawed instrument of policy which is simply an expression of naked power, External Affairs Minister Professor G.L Peiris said.
Minister Peiris said this when he  met his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javad Zarif in New York, the External Affairs Ministry said today.

A Post-mortem on Navi Pillay’s visit : The diplomatic war is more dangerous and difficult than the military war

Udaya Gammanpila ( JHU)

The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) warned about the adverse impacts of Navi Pillay's visit very much before her arrival. We challenged her credibility exposing her controversial past, citing authentic sources. A diplomat told me that if we had made our exposures about her past before her appointment as the High Commissioner for Human Rights, she would have most probably lost this prestigious post. Our criticism was not limited to Navi Pillay. It was directed at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) as well.

SL colonial governor chooses to ‘boycott’ Swiss ‘development’ function in Jaffna

A move by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) inviting the occupying Sri Lanka's colonial Governor in North, Major General (retd) GA Chandrasiri, as chief guest to the opening ceremony of two reconstructed schools in the Jaffna Peninsula on Thursday has ended up in the SL governor ‘boycotting’ the event, news sources in Uduththu'rai said.

Fonterra shuts down in Sri Lanka after ‘threats’ form the ruling party supporters

Police officers stand guard as local activists protest against alleged contaminated products in front of a Fonterra factory in Colombo. Photo: Xinhua

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra Co-operative said yesterday it had suspended operations in Sri Lanka after the world's largest dairy exporter faced product bans, court cases and angry demonstrators over its supposedly tainted milk products in the country.

President to leave for Belarus

President Mahinda Rajapaksa will leave for Belarus today on a three-day official visit.
During the visit, President Rajapaksa is expected to hold bilateral discussions with President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, Prime Minister, Prof. Mikhail Myasnikovich, Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus, Anatoly Rubinov and the Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Belarus National Assembly, Vladmir Andreichenko.

Sri Lanka: Ignoring oppression just not cricket

Ruki Fernando

Boycotting Sri Lanka is not the answer, but South Africa could do more to engage with the issues.

In the three months I have been in South Africa, most of the people I've met - the students and professors in the university I'm based at, taxi drivers, people in pubs, passengers in buses and church workers - have heard only one thing about Sri Lanka: cricket. Not about the war, tourist attractions or "Ceylon tea".

A lasting solution to the international criticisms of Sri Lanka’s HR record lies within Sri Lanka and the evolution of a political solution to our ethnic problem

The Importance of a Balanced and Principled Foreign Policy - Friday Forum

The unflattering publicity Sri Lanka has received internationally in the lead up to and after the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva in March 2013, and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) meeting in London in April, is indicative of a significant failure of the Sri Lanka Government to exploit the opportunities of peace and reconciliation opened up by the end of the conflict.

Sri Lanka: Opposition demands foreign probe into protest deaths

Sri Lanka's main opposition party, United National Party (UNP), today called for an international probe into last week's military crackdown on a protest against poor water quality which killed three and injured nearly 50.     "We call for an international investigation, we can't trust a probe headed by a government henchman," said UNP general secretary Tissa Attanayake.