CHOGM 2013 /Sri Lanka: Opposition boycott as mobs close to Secretary of the Defence Rajapaksha play havoc

In a letter to the Commonwealth Secretary Kamalesh Sharma, UNP General Secretary MP Tissa Attanayake informs that the UNP has been compelled to change their decision attend inaugural ceremony of the CHOGM today (15). In the letter sent yesterday, MP Attanayake stated that though it was initially stated that the UNP leader and other invitees from the party would attend the event, they had been compelled to change the decision due to latest developments which included the assault on the UNP leader by 'mobs transported by army and government vehicles'. 'In view of these developments, the UNP will boycott tomorrow's opening session and all other related functions,' MP Attanayake added.

CHOGM 2013 /Sri Lanka: UK reps behaving as if we were still a colony - Gotabhaya

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday alleged that the UK government was acting as if Sri Lanka were still a British colony. The actions of some of the British representatives here for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) had undermined bilateral relations, Rajapaksa said.

Julie Bishop denies going soft on Sri Lanka's human rights record

The Australian
JULIE Bishop has denied the Australian government was going soft on alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka in return for Colombo's cooperation on asylum-seekers, saying her attendance at the Commonwealth summit was "not a PR exercise".

As CHOGM Opens, IFJ Seeks Accountability for Free Speech Violations - IFJ

Media Release: Sri Lanka  /   15 November 2013                                                                          

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls on the heads of government and delegations of the Commonwealth countries, who today begin their bi-annual summit meeting in the Sri Lankan national capital of Colombo, to lay appropriate stress on the need for the restoration of democratic liberties and media freedom in the host country, after a quarter century or more when these have been under severe stress.

CHOGM 2013: Sri Lanka's Commonwealth Summit comes under fire

In 40 years that Queen
will miss the summit

(UPI) Sri Lanka's government is on the defensive ahead of the 53-nation Commonwealth Summit following complaints of interference from a British television crew.

The team from Channel 4 TV was prevented from visiting the former war zone in the north when their train was stopped by pro-government protesters, the BBC reported.
About 250 placard-carrying demonstrators blocked the train from leaving Anuradhapura and accused the journalists of supporting the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.

Friction over Sri Lankan rights record shows at Commonwealth as president defends gov’t effort

Rajapaksha at CHOGM ( AP photo)

Associated Press
Sri Lanka’s president lashed out at criticisms of his nation’s human rights record, saying Thursday that the government deals with any complaints of abuses committed during or after its bloody 27-year civil war. Pro-government protesters, meanwhile, attacked the headquarters of the main opposition party.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa was speaking on the sidelines of a summit for the 53 nations in the Commonwealth of Britain and its former territories. The group has been accused of making a mockery of its core values of democracy and human rights by holding this year’s summit in the seaside capital of Colombo.

CHOGM 2013: Sri Lanka’s Climate of Fear

Militarisation is visible

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD, New York Times /November 13, 2013

In August, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, issued scathing observations on the state of human rights in Sri Lanka after her visit there. Ms. Pillay denounced, in particular, attacks on freedom of expression and a climate of fear that is undermining democracy and eroding the rule of law. She has set a deadline of March for the Sri Lankan government to undertake a credible inquiry into reported human rights violations. The government disputes her findings.

Sri Lanka: Smear campaign and threats against Ms. Nimalka Fernando

Dr. Nimalka Fernando

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Sri Lanka.

CHOGM 2013 / Sri Lanka: Police obtains court order to ban protests in Colombo on 14 & 15

The Colombo magistrate courts has issued and order restricting protests and processions in Colombo city on November 14 and 15.
Police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said that above ruling was made after considering a request by the Police.
Accordingly, protests and processions will be banned within the Colombo city today (14) as well as tomorrow, which will see the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

CHOGM 2013 /Sri Lanka: HR festival participant arrested

Participants at the Festival

A youth from Mullaitivu who had attended the Human Rights Festival at the UNP Sirikotha headquarters has been arrested by security forces this afternoon. (Nov. 14).
The youth, named Sudharshan was arrested by Mirihana police OIC and a group of TID officers, reports say.

CHOGM 2013: Sri Lankan opposition boycotts Commonwealth summit after attack

Sri Lanka's opposition is boycotting the Commonwealth leaders' summit after a pro-government group attacked the party's headquarters here on Thursday, an official said.
Sri Lanka's main opposition the United National Party (UNP)'s headquarters on the outskirts of capital Colombo was the venue for a human rights exhibition highlighting the many people who have disappeared during the country's protracted conflict.

'International Civil Society' deeply concerrned on President Rajapakshe’s statement at the Commonwealth Peoples Forum

 GLOBAL CALL FOR THE PROTECTION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN SRI LANKA 

Over 100 activists from 50 countries meeting in Johannesburg during International Civil Society Week are deeply concerned by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakshe’s statement at the inauguration of the Commonwealth Peoples Forum in Colombo:

Thanks to the Commonwealth Summit, the world might get some excellent insights into Rajapaksa thinking and governance

Democracy and Freedom, Medamulana-Style by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“…the tradition of giving pretty names to ugly things is as old as warfare.”Christopher Hitchens (Arguably)

Organised mobs are important weapons in the Rajapaksa armoury.

An organised mob was deployed on Tuesday to prevent Channel 4 journalists from travelling to the North1. For hours, two trains were stuck at the Anuradhapura station because the rail tracks were occupied by “nearly a thousand supporters of North Central Provincial Council Chief Minister and supporters of his brother Deputy Minister SM Chandrasena”2.

CHOGM 2013 /Sri Lanka: Tamils stopped en route to Colombo before Commonwealth summit

 The train carrying the Channel 4 team
was unable to continue its journey

More than 100 Tamils whose family members disappeared during or after Sri Lanka's civil war have been prevented from travelling to Colombo as the city hosts a Commonwealth summit.

The military stopped their buses from leaving the north en route to a human rights festival in the capital.
 Separately a team from the UK's Channel 4 TV has been prevented from visiting the former war zone in the north.

Sri Lankan navy officer accused of being key player in people-smuggling racket

The alleged linchpin of Sri Lanka's biggest people-smuggling racket is a decorated naval officer who briefed Australia's border protection chief and its high commissioner to Sri Lanka on how to stop human trafficking. But the Australian government has refused to comment on what information it might have shared with the accused officer, Lieutenant-Commander Sanjeewa Annatugoda.

CHOGM 2013 / Sri Lanka: Commonwealth & human rights principles in Sri Lanka, in the weeks before CHOGM

HR festival banned

RUKI
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is due to start tomorrow. The last few weeks has seen series of violations of Human Rights and Commonwealth principles in Sri Lanka, which is the host country and expected to lead the Commonwealth in the next two years. Victims of human rights violations, their families, activists, local and international journalists, UN experts and opposition politicians from Sri Lanka and Commonwealth countries who are critical of the government have been amongst those targeted. Pro-government protests have been allowed to go ahead, even as Police obtained a court order preventing protests in the Colombo city today and tomorrow. Below are some incidents reported, based on testimonies of victims, eye witnesses and media.

Sri Lanka cracks down on Tamil opposition ahead of summit

 Amal Jayasinghe (AFP) 

Colombo — Sri Lanka's military stopped scores of ethnic Tamils protesters from entering the capital Wednesday ahead of a Commonwealth summit as a British TV crew was barred from a former warzone. 
Sri Lanka had hoped the three-day Commonwealth summit, due to start Friday, would showcase its post-war revival after security forces crushed the decades-long Tamil separatist conflict in 2009.
But it is turning into a major public relations disaster as some of the Commonwealth bloc's 53 members and rights groups focus attention on the island's human rights record.

Toronto torture victim takes Sri Lanka to UN rights body

Roy Samathanam ( Star Photo)

A Toronto Tamil man who was detained and tortured in Sri Lankan jails for three years is taking his case to the United Nations.
Tamil Canadian Roy Samathanam, 43, is filing a complaint against the Sri Lankan government before the UN Human Rights Committee for torture. He was detained for three years from 2007 to 2010. He still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lessons to learn from CHOGM

Editorial , Ceylon Today 
The challenges before the Heads of Governments of Commonwealth nations who are meeting in Colombo for the biennial summit, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), are enormous, and yet could be more matter-of-fact than most pundits and academics would articulate. The forum that has transformed the City of Colombo into one giant carnival, has already suffered two body blows in the decisions made by the heads of two leading democracies, Canada and India, but the heads of other leading democracies, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand included, could give the event the clout it requires to make the Commonwealth matter in the 21st century.

CHOGM 2013 / Sri Lanka: Cannot vouch foreign journalists' safety - Minister

Minister Keheliya

Media Minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, said yesterday that he cannot vouch for the safety of foreign media personnel who travel outside the Colombo city. He said that the government can guarantee security for foreign media personnel within the city but not when they go outstation on their own volition. He said, "There is 'huge dissent' among the public regarding Callum Macrae, the Channel 4 Director who exposed alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, and the people appear to have taken steps on their own to agitate."

CHOGM 2013 / Sri Lanka : Army dismisses Jaffna protest as a 'circus'

Military Media Spokesman, Brig. Ruwan Wanigasuriya, yesterday alleged that organized groups are trying to draw international attention to their claim that the military should be moved out of the North, under the guise of blowing out of proportion, a non-existent or minuscule land issue through purported demonstrations.

Sri Lanka CHOGM 2013: Ensure the safety of foreign journalists and withdraw the restrictions

The Free Media Movement (FMM) expresses its concern that on 11^th November a protest was organised at the at the entrance of the Katunayaka Air Port against the Channel 4 journalist Callum Macrae who was visiting Sri Lanka to cover the CHOGM 2013.  

CHOGM 2013 / Sri Lanka: Leader of the opposition attacked on his way HR festival

An unidentified group has made an attempt to attack the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe a short while ago , who participated in the Human Rights Festival held at United National Party headquarters, said UNP parliamentarian Mangala Samaraweera.

Sri Lanka’s Potemkin Peace: Democracy Under Fire

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT

Colombo/Brussels, 13 November 2013: Despite recent moves meant to show progress towards post-war reconciliation and respect for human rights, Sri Lanka's government has not altered the authoritarian direction of its policies, and the rights and security of all communities remain under threat.