National Plan of Action to implement the recommendations of the LLRC is completely gender blind and does not pick up a single recommendation with regard to women

JOINT CIVIL SOCIETY SUBMISSION

TO UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER

FOR HUMAN RIGHTS,

MS NAVANETHAM PILLAY

ON HER VISIT TO SRI LANKA

(25th - 31st August, 2013)

We, Sri Lankan civil society organisations, welcome the country visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navanetham Pillay, in the preparation of an oral update at the 24th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) and a comprehensive report at the 25th session of the UN HRC, on the implementation of its resolutions on promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka.

Weliweriya killings: If this is how the armed forces behave towards the Sinhalese, how must they have conducted themselves in the North and East for thirty years ?

WELIWERIYA, GAMPAHA: BLACK THURSDAY 2013 By DR DAYAN JAYATILLEKA

pic courtesy of: twitter.com/azzamameen

Who deployed troops, clad in flak jackets (body armour) and armed with T-56 assault rifles to confront and disperse a crowd of protestors blocking a highway? Who was the ultimate decision-maker? The protestors were not armed, certainly not with lethal weapons. Therefore, no real harm could have come to soldiers in body armour. A ‘clash’ between lethally armed soldiers and protestors with stones and slippers is not a clash that warrants in any way, the use of lethal force.

CHOGM: To have any credibility the Commonwealth People’s Forum need to be managed by civil society

Commonwealth people’s forum can enhance government’s credibility
Jehan Perera
The significance of international pressure in directing the government along the path of good governance can be seen in several recent developments. As a member country of the international community, Sri Lanka has many obligations to fulfill, even as it seeks the benefits of being a member of the international community.  But for the country, and its political leadership, to reap these benefits that accrue from being an integral part of the international community, it has also to subscribe to international rules and norms.

Jaffna: CVK Sivagnanam's house attacked

CVK Sivagnanam

The residence of Mr CVK Sivagnanam, a veteran civil activist and joint-secretary of the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK), has been attacked Tuesday night around 11:45 p.m. by alleged operatives of the SL military in Jaffna. Mr Sivagnanam narrowly escaped from the squad that stoned his residence.

Hope and reconciliation: Healing Sri Lanka’s wounds of conflict

Mary Robinson with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who she and the rest of Nelson Mandela's Elders group refer to as 'the Arch'. Attila Photograph:Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

DESMOND TUTU & MARY ROBINSON
Absence of war is not peace: the saying is true of Sri Lanka today.
While the country's civil war ended four years ago, and roads have been rebuilt, human rights protections are getting weaker. The personal tragedies of the conflict's victims have yet to be acknowledged and accounted for. The climate required for reconciliation does not yet exist.

Rehabilitate Gota and release university students - Opposition parties

Jaffna University students who are detained at the Welikanda camp will be released after rehabilitation, was the statement made by Defense Secretary Gottabaya, which cannot be accepted was stated by opposition parties.
They pointed out that Gothabaya is functioning with arrogance beyond his limits and he needs rehabilitation.
Who is Gottabaya to take court actions arbitrarily? He is a normal government official. He can only function under limited powers given to him was mentioned by Tamil National Alliance and all the opposition parties. Parties urged for the immediate released of the detained university students.

Jaffna protests Sri Lanka’s oppression of Tamil civic bodies

Protest in front of Nallor Piratheasa Chapai (PS)

13 elected civic bodies in the Jaffna Peninsula organized parallel agitations in their respective areas on Monday, protesting against occupying Sri Lanka’s violent intimidation and machinations blocking the mandated functions of the elected bodies. The protestors condemned the recent brutal attack on the Nalloor divisional council (Predeasa Sapai) chairperson Vasanthakumar, allegedly by SL military intelligence operatives, while he was attending legal procedures for recovering a civic body land occupied by the SL military.

Military visited CPA on 15th, hate posters against CPA appeared on16th: Is there a connection ,ask CPA

STATEMENT ON THE POSTER ATTACKS AGAINST CPA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

16 October 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) views with very serious concern the appearance of posters in Sinhala on Monday, 15th October 2012 in the environs of Colombo, the English translation of the text of which states: “Let us save the pro-people Divineguma Act that builds the lives of fifteen lakhs of low income families from the Paikiasothy gang that aids and abets the separation of the country.” Photographs of the poster are attached. The chilling import of the reference to CPA Executive Director, Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, requires no emphasis in the current political climate of violence against critics of the government and the culture of impunity for perpetrators. This is the most recent attack against CPA and its Executive Director. It must be unreservedly condemned.

Condemn the arrest of IUSF convener – JVP

Sanjeewa Bandara

The Political Bureau of the JVP has issued a statement condemning the arrest of the convener of the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF).

The statement issued yesterday (20th) states, “Yesterday (18th), the convener of Inter University Students Federation the student Sanjeewa Bandara was arrested by the police. He was arrested while going back after participating in an agitation organized by the IUSF demanding the government to solve issues in the education sector including that of university teachers.

Eastern Province election: The big lie about shared power in Sri Lanka

Photo courtesy AP/Eranga Jayawardena

Kusal Perera

• Justice Minister Hakeem was reported to have told during campaigning, he should not be made to look like a man taken hostage.

• Ministers Rambukwella and Premjayantha, invited TNA to form a “National” alliance for the Council in the East.

• Senior Minister and Communist Party leader DEW Gunasekera says he wrote to President Rajapaksa proposing a “National Council” that includes the TNA, for the East.

• Senior Minister and LSSP leader, Prof Tissa Vitharana backs a “non racial”, all included Council for East.

“Sri Lankan pilgrims will have no problem here’’ - Jayalalitha

SL pilgrims in Tamil Nadu

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday said Sri Lankan tourists and pilgrims would face no problem in the State and sought to explain that she had prevented sportspersons from that country playing or training in Tamil Nadu only to express the State’s anguish and protest over the denial of rights due to Tamils in the island nation.

Speaking at a function got up in Srirangam, her constituency, where she launched or laid the foundation stone for a number of projects, the Chief Minister said she had taken measures such as getting a resolution passed in the State Assembly seeking economic sanctions against Sri Lanka to pressure that government into granting Tamils equal rights.

SRI LANKA: The murder of an innocent man by the Hungama police must be independently and promptly investigated

Sri Lanka police: brutality is their norm

On 16 August 2012, at about 5.00pm, Thushara went to Hungama Town to buy some vegetables and as he was on his way several police officers attached to the Hungama Police Station arrested him at Bataatha Farm. Thushara was severely assaulted in full view of some bystanders. Due to the injuries he suffered at their hands the police officers admitted him to the Ranna Government Hospital for emergency treatment but hospital authorities then transferred him to the Tangalle General Hospital. Subsequently he was transferred to the Matara Teaching Hospital and finally to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital. At that hospital whilst in the Intensive Care Unit he succumbed to his injuries early in the morning of 20 August 2012. 

4,000 Lankans take their own lives every year, nearly 500 over love affairs

 More Adolescents between 15 and 30 years of age are found to be committing suicide in Sri Lanka than any other group and at least 11 suicides take place in the country each day. Although the rate of suicide had shown a downward trend a few decades ago, it had now shown an upward trend in from recent times.

On average around 4,000 persons had been committing suicide annually in the country, Consultant Psychiatrist, National Institute of Mental Health Promotion Dr. Neil Fernando told a Media Seminar on Suicide Prevention Day September 10 held at the Health Education Bureau yesterday (10).

Police dragging their feet over assault on major, corporal

Accused Malaka with his father Minister Mervyn Silva

Police, who are conducting investigations into the assaulting of an Army Major and a corporal allegedly by a group led by the son of controversial Minister Mervyn Silva in the early hours of last Sunday are not forthcoming with clear answers.
In addition to the assault, the gang numbering seven had removed the official firearm of the major, his cell phone and a gold chain.

When The Island contacted police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana to find out what steps the police had taken to nab the attackers who caused injuries to the body and head of the two army personnel, who are still being treated at the National Hospital,

A tasteless cartoon, Twitter and Indo-Sri Lanka relations

To see the Cartoon clearly   click here

 Groundviews 

On Sunday, for some unfathomable reason, Lakbima – a newspaper with high circulation – decided to run this cartoon. Lakbima currently has no Editor. Whether it’s acting editor, a senior journalist, saw and approved this cartoon before publication is not known. What is a matter of public record is the response to this cartoon after it was discovered by The Hindu’s foreign correspondent, R.K.Radhakrishnan (@RKKrishnan),

Very quickly, the Sri Lankan President’s spokesman, Bandula Jayasekara (@bundeljayse), was involved in the discussion and asked for an official response. Given that the publication in a broadsheet of a cartoon that depicts the Indian Prime Minister underneath an uplifted sari of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and looking up isn’t exactly something that’s defensible, even for committed apologists, the response was unequivocal,

Minister sitting tight as 'Aussie' Tamil seeks his family cinema

The Sridhar Cinema in Jaffna has been occupied
for 16 years by Sri Lanka's Minister for Traditional
Industries and Small Enterprise Development.

IN its 1970s heyday - before war and poverty made movie theatres a luxury northern Sri Lankans could ill afford - the Sridhar Cinema was Jaffna's "A Number One" film house.

The smart new cinema, with its dress circle and regular Bollywood offerings, was hugely popular in the northern capital, as was its young owner Ratnasabapathy Mahendraraviraj, who built the theatre on family land just 1.5km from the heart of Jaffna town.
But the decline and current predicament of the once-grand Sridhar Cinema - and its now Australian-resident owner - reflects a wider problem plaguing many displaced Tamils as they return to their war-ravaged homes.

STF to take over non military civil matters

STF, a military force

Police Special Task Force Commandant DIG R. W. M. Chandrasiri Ranawana said that the STF would assist the Police to eliminate organized crime, such as contract killings, drug cartels, mass murders, bank robberies and the underworld.

Sri Lanka to demolish mosque after monks' protest

Sri Lankan officials have decided to demolish a mosque and a Hindu temple under pressure from Buddhist monks who demanded their removal from a Buddhist sacred area.

The harassment of Ms. Sandya Ekneligoda by the government’s supporters in Geneva and by the Attorney General’s department, for joining the UN Human Rights Council

Mrs. Sandya Ekneligoda was one of the speakers during a side event held on 19th March 2012 during the 19th sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The side event was titled “Rule of Law and human rights violations in Sri Lanka: Perspectives from women, minorities and families of disappeared”.

Govt. must take responsibility – TUC

The government is directly involved in the abductions of Kumar Gunaratnam and Dimuthu Attlygalle, the Trade Union Confederation (TUC) alleged.