Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

Ranga Jayasuriya
 Early this week, the General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), Galaboda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, giving evidence in a Court hearing, on an attack on the Calvary Church at Araliya Place, Thalahena, alleged that 374 organizations, registered under the Company Act, are involved in 'unethical conversions' of Buddhists in the country. He alleges that the police, under the instructions of the Attorney General's Department, had provided 'protection' to those institutions.

Attacks against Muslim community in Sri Lanka

The Secretariat for Muslims in collaboration with the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka has been documenting the harassment, intimidation and violence perpetuated by extremist groups against the Muslim community in Sri Lanka.

SriLanka: Families of missing persons subjected to threats, intimidation

The intelligence wing of the occupying Sri Lankan military and the ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Department (TID) operatives in the North intimidate and threaten the families of the missing persons as many of the victims were not prepared to give up their complaints. The latest harassment comes in the wake of the so-called ‘independent’ Presidential Commission on Investigating Missing Persons had its first sitting in Ki’linochchi district last month.

Opposition Slams Sri Lanka Government on Foreign Interference

We have implemented 85 per cent of the LLRC's recommendations

By PTI - COLOMBO

The opposition today blamed the Sri Lankan government for leaving room for the world community to interfere in the country's internal matters over alleged rights violation duirng the war against Tamil Tiger rebels.
A senior leader of the United National Party (UNP) asked Foreign Minister GL Peiris in parliament if the slow nature of implementing the recommendations of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was the cause for global interference in Sri Lanka.

Why Sri Lankan children in north drop out

Young teenagers are at greater risk
Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN

 Sri Lankan authorities have expressed concern over an increasing number of reports that children are dropping out of school in the conflict-affected north, where economic pressure and poor prospects are creating conditions that could have negative consequences for the future development of the region.
Most of the dropouts are from poor families who find it difficult to make ends meet as humanitarian assistance dries up almost five years after decades of civil war ended. This situation is being aggravated by an acute lack of job opportunities and a rising cost of living. “It’s a vicious cycle,” said Sivalingam Sathyaseelan, Secretary to the provincial Ministry of Education.

Sri Lanka: UN wants accountability

Farhan Haq, the Acting Deputy Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that theThe United Nations (UN) has reiterated there needs to be accountability in Sri Lanka over the alleged incidents which took place during final stages of the war. This was stated by him at the  UN Daily Press Briefing today answering questions from Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press.

The post war winners: urban rich or rural poor?

For some time now it has been quite clear to economists that assessments of economic performance cannot be solely focused on overall income growth, but must also take into account income distribution.This is because a growing body of research has established that where the income inequalities are large and widening it’s often the case that both economic prosperity and social stability soon suffer.

Sri Lanka: Government wants a year to implement LLRC recs

The Government says it will take at least a year to implement a bulk of the recommendations of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
President’s Secretary Lalith Weerathunga reiterated the Government needs time and space to address the issue. Speaking in a Government propaganda video titled “Sri Lanka: Reconciling and Rebuilding” aired in the US, Weerathunga said that the pace of the implementation process of the LLRC recommendations is, in his view, fair but not excellent.

Sri Lanka: Human rights violated says UNP

Lakshman KiriellaThe UNP today said that there were human rights violations committed by the Government and they need to now set things right.
UNP MP Lakshman Kiriella said that the Weliweriya incident where villagers were attacked when demanding water and the Welikada prison riot where several inmates were killed, are good examples of human rights being violated.

Sri Lanka: The Road from Geneva

Darisha Bastians

the Government is with UNHRC Sessions in March, staving off an international war crimes inquiry may prove the least of its troubles. Having alienated its most crucial ally across the straits and with inaction by Colombo forcing  a reaction by some of the world’s most powerful nations to act, Sri Lanka’s real problems may start when Geneva ends
Last Sunday (2) morning, American television audiences were treated to a 30 minute long form commercial about Sri Lanka, a place many of them would ever only hear of in passing during their lifetimes.

Drift of the island: From inside Sri Lanka

you cannot miss these bill boards

One of the very first things passengers getting off planes at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport see is a huge portrait of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa. The view remains pretty much the same as one travels across the island. You cannot miss the billboards and posters in every nook and corner with the president staring at you.

The visitors are also likely to see something more striking – almost insane infrastructural projects, the thing which magnifies Sinhalese majority’s acclaim for nationalist government. Brand new roads, hotels and railway lines are to be the proofs of country’s tremendous progress. The greatest efforts to make these proofs visible are being made in president’s home district. The officials hope to boost economic development of the area by constructing a new city near dull fishing town of Hambantota.

U.S. says Sri Lanka refuses visa for official after war crime accusations

Reuters
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka has refused a visa request for a U.S. State Department official, the U.S. Embassy said on Tuesday, after Washington signaled it would propose a U.N. resolution against the South Asian state over alleged war crimes.
However, Sri Lanka's External Affairs Ministry said the embassy's statement "was not a correct representation of the facts", adding the dates for the proposed trip had not been convenient.

Mosque and church attacks harm Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan government minister GL Peiris has tried to justify a wave of attacks on churches and mosques, claiming that these were simply community reactions to unauthorised facilities. The state’s refusal to protect religious minorities further undermines human rights in Sri Lanka overall.
For instance, two churches in Hikkaduwa were attacked during Sunday worship on 12 January. It was claimed that they were violating a 2008 circular by the Ministry of Religious Affairs requiring all new places of worship to be authorised. But as the Colombo Telegraph pointed out, they had been running since the 1990s.

New Inquiry on Sri Lanka Points to Possible War Crimes

GENEVA — Senior Sri Lankan government officials and military officers may bear criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during an offensive near the end of the island’s civil war, according to a new investigation that backs calls for an international inquiry into those events.

Island of Impunity: Attacks on civilians and the denial of humanitarian assistance during the last phase of the war

Sri Lanka’s battle theatre was sealed off from the outside world by the Sri Lankan Government.  International journalists were unable to access the war zone, and so could not directly report on the impact of the conflict on hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped inside. In early September 2008, the United Nations (UN) and international non-government organisations (INGOs) left the Vanni under intense pressure from the Sri Lankan Government. Their departure coincided with the escalation of the Government’s military campaign, which, from early January 2009, resulted in a chain of important victories against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forces.

Sri Lanka: Almost five years of peace but tens of thousands of war-displaced still without solution

Returnee woman with two grandchildren

As of February 2014, four-and-a-half years after the end of Sri Lanka’s internal armed conflict, there were thought to be as many as 90,000 people still living in internal displacement as a result of it, most of them with host communities. Of more than 480,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) registered as having returned to their places of origin in Northern and Eastern provinces, the situation of tens of thousands also remains a cause for concern.

Sri Lankan security forces blamed in report for crimes against humanity

12-year old son of a Tamil rebel leader

Tom Allard  - National Affairs Editor
Picture of Balachandran Prabhakaran, the 12-year old son of a Tamil rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Assassination: Balachandran Prabhakaran, 12, the son of the Tamil Tigers commander, where he was allegedly held in captivity, before he was later found shot dead.
Sri Lankan security forces were responsible for the ''vast majority'' of alleged war crimes during the final months of its bloody civil war, and may have systematically destroyed mass burial sites of civilians in an apparent effort to destroy evidence, a new report has found.

Sri Lanka: MR slams Geneva resolution

President Mahinda Rajapaksa today slammed attempts to bring a resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next month. The United States is to sponsor the resolution on Sri Lanka’s human rights situation but the President says the resolution will be a grave crime against peace. Addressing the Nation at the 66th Independence Day celebrations in Kegalle today, the President noted that critics tend to forget the hard fought peace in the country and also forget the grave human rights violations committed by the LTTE.

Why does Lalith Weerathunga wants to investigate IPKF’s alleged war crimes now?

PR: Do you feel that an international investigation into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka in 2009 is justified and what do you make of the recent comments by the Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka Lalith Weeratunga that if such an investigation were commenced, IPKF must also be investigated?
​RH:  Yes, I think there is sufficient ground now to determine the extent of war crimes committed by both Sri Lanka government and the LTTE and fix culpability of authority and responsibility of perpetrators of the crimes.

Sri Lanka refuses visa to high-ranking US official, Catherine Russell

Catherine Russell

In what is likely to be treated as a major diplomatic insult, the Sri Lankan Government has refused a visa to US Ambassador at Large for Women’s Issues, Catherine Russell, forcing her to cancel a high-level visit scheduled for February 10-11.
“It is regrettable that the Government of Sri Lanka has refused to grant a visa to Ambassador Catherine Russell for this trip,” a US Embassy Spokesman said.

Jaya demands moving a seperate resolution against Sri Lanka by India

J Jayalalithaa

Demanding that India move a seperate resolution against Sri Lanka in a UN body next month, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today said Congress-led UPA however would not do that and claimed "scenes will change" after Lok Sabha elections where her AIADMK will have a say in this matter.
 Jayalalithaa said there were reports about four countries, (including the US) trying to move a resolution against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for alleged war crimes.

Holding Sri Lanka to Account - Editorial NYT

Washington is once again trying to put pressure on the government of Sri Lanka to commission a credible independent investigation of crimes and human rights abuses committed during the end of that country’s bloody civil war in 2009. It was a good move to send a senior American diplomat to the island nation last weekend to press the case with public officials and community leaders.

Third Resolution: Failure of governance in Sri Lanka

''The past two years witnessed a negative turn in good governance of the country. The situation which had led to the impeachment of the Chief Justice, the inability of the government to enact a right to information law, and the lack of genuine interest of the government to control the uprising of extremism, indicate our failures in governance to bring a lasting peace in the country.''
Rukshana Nanayakkara

HRC debunks US envoy’s allegations as almost all LLRC recommendations implemented

Ravi Ladduwahetty
Human Rights Commissioner, Dr. Prathibha Mahanamahewa, yesterday debunked the statements made by the visiting US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Nisha Biswal, on human rights issues in Sri Lanka, and added that almost all the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliations (LLRC) had been implemented.

Sri Lanka Government slams US, Nisha Biswal

G.L NishaThe Government, in a strongly worded statement, has slammed the United States and the concluding remarks made by US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Nisha Biswal following her visit to Sri Lanka.