The principle of non-violence is central to Buddhist teachings, but in Sri Lanka some Buddhist monks are being accused of stirring up hostility towards other faiths and ethnic minorities. Their hard line is causing increasing concern. The small temple in the suburbs of Colombo is quiet. An image of the Buddha is surrounded with purple and white lotus flowers. Smaller Buddhas line the walls. But upstairs, …
Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran has expressed his dissatisfaction over the domestic investigation mechanism into the war crimes and emphasised that there should be an international dimension in the investigation process as the domestic mechanism would not bring about the expected results. Wigneswaran, who was answering the questions of journalists during an international tele-press conference on Thursday night and discussing the findings …
A new independent report on the state of human rights in Sri Lanka – the first since the end of the country’s 26-year civil war in 2009 – finds that a silent war continues in which thousands of Tamils, mostly Hindus and Christians, are still internally displaced and subject to military occupation and fierce discrimination by the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese majority. The conflict ended violently after …
Sri Lanka’s wartime army chief says his conscience is clear and he would welcome a war crimes investigation to prove his innocence. “The allegations are there,” Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka said in an interview with the Guardian. “We have to clear our name.” In May 2009 the then General Fonseka was the head of the Sri Lankan army that defeated the Tamil Tigers, or Liberation Tigers of …
The Global Tamil Forum (GTF), a diaspora group based in London, had talks today with the South African Government on Sri Lanka. The GTF said that on an invitation from the Deputy Minister of Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) of South Africa, Ms. Nomaindiya C Mfeketo MP, a GTF delegation lead by Father S J Emmanuel met at the South African High Commission, South …
Chair-Rapporteur of the UN’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), Ariel Dulitzky and his team will arrive in Sri Lanka on 4 August at the invitation of the government to assist in the local probe mechanism intended to deal with alleged human rights violations during the war.The team will be in Colombo until 12 August. Dulitszky, an Argentinean, was appointed Chair-Rapporteur in 2010 by …
Dr.Daya Somasundaram, Professor of Psychiatry at Jaffna University, blames the breakdown of traditional social and administrative structures for the gang rape and murder of 18 year old school girl, S.Vithya, at Pungudithivu on May 13, and the mayhem that engulfed Sri Lanka’s Northern Province subsequently. Mobs burnt tyres on the streets, stoned the court and the police station, ordered hartals, and called for the public execution …
Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran said some mischief- makers are trying bring the people into conflict with the police and create opinion that it could only be controlled by the Army. These mischief makers should not be allowed to ride on the back of the grieving people and that the people should be careful to protest peacefully and resume routine life. Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchi Leader Jaffna Parliamentarian Mavai Senathyraja …
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said on Wednesday a local investigation into allegations of war crimes committed during the island’s separatist conflict would begin by June, vowing to prosecute anyone found guilty. Sirisena said he welcomed any guidance from the UN Human Rights Council on setting up the probe, amid international pressure for the island to account for alleged atrocities committed during the war which ended …
President Maithripala Sirisena said that the Government will give priority to ethnic reconciliation towards achieving sustainable peace and development. “Having experienced war, we must understand the need to give priority to the reconciliation process,” Mr. Sirisena said in his “Remembrance Day” address. In a veiled criticism of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government’s stress on physical infrastructural development to the neglect of emotional reconciliation after the war, the President said: …
< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 >