UN-Sri Lanka

will he act? By DAVID MILIBAND and BERNARD KOUCHNER  / Published: June 20, 2011In April 2009, we travelled together as foreign ministers to Sri Lanka, as 25 years of fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers neared its end. The remaining fighters were trapped in the northern most part of the country […]

War crimes: Tyrants are right to fear the new technology witnesses There was much in the documentary to commend. Its recognition that Tamil Tigers were prepared to use as pawns the civilians they claimed to represent; the forensic way it explored the UN’s unconscionable retreat as the conflict worsened; the wide range of experts interviewed […]

Sri Lanka has accused Britain’s Channel 4 Television of not providing the government with a copy of the video titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ but assured that it is ready “to constructively engage” with the UN Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.The offer to engage with Rapporteur Christof Heyns was made when Minister Mahinda […]

Britain has renewed calls for Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of war crimes after video footage apparently showing the summary execution of naked and bound prisoners was broadcast on UK television, in the documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Field.The film, shown on Channel 4, reportedly shows “trophy videos” taken on mobile phones by Sri Lankan soldiers […]

‘Sri Lanka trying to pretend events of summarily executed prisoners are history, as the economy and tourism pick up. They are not’ Evidence that won’t be buried: On this occasion there are reasons why it was right to dispense with the responsibility broadcasters have to avoid causing distressGuardian UK Editorial, Jun 15, 2011 The footage […]

Other than the film by embedded “trusted” reporters and trophy mobile phone videos by the soldiers, the Sri Lankan authorities and the Sinhalese were in too much of a victorious mood, to realise that all their actions in the battlefield were under scrutiny by satellite surveillance of several nations. 12 June 2011/by Dushy Ranetunge in […]

2011-06-14 In any military conflict injured and captured fighters are supposed to be treated in a dignified manner according to international law and Geneva Conventions. Injured fighters are supposed to have been given medical attention without any undue delay. However Sri Lankan military personnel seem to have disregarded all international law, humanity and abused dead and […]

What new footage and new evidence of war crimes is in the Channel 4 documentary?•    Previously unaired mobile phone footage of point-blank extrajudicial executions of three people, including a woman.  •    Previously unaired mobile phone footage of dead Tamil Tigers, including women,,that suggests sexual abuse.•    First video testimony of a Tamil woman who says she […]

 11 June 2011,/ By Janith AranzeSince the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) viewed Channel 4’s startling documentary Killing Fields, depicting Tamil prisoners being summarily executed by Sri Lankan soldiers, the government refuses to acknowledge the documentary as a credible source.Jon Snow will present “Killing Fields” on June 14 – pic: Guardian.co.uk However, an extensive […]

UNP National Organizer and MP Ravi Karunanayake says after vilifying UNSG Ban Ki-moon over ‘Darusman Report’, which dealt with accountability issues in Sri Lanka, the government has endorsed a second term for the UN Chief.MP Karunanayake says the government owes the public an explanation on its policy U-turn. “Had the UNP said something in favour […]

By Namini Wijedasalobal politics is notoriously skewed. Large, powerful, white governments get away with murder even when it is committed on the territories of other countries. Sri Lanka does not have this luxury.We already knew that. We are always bleating about it. But unless Sri Lanka has a formula up its sleeve that will cure […]

June 10, 2011/     By K. KarthikeyanIt appears Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s Sri Lanka moves have rattled New Delhi.Within minutes of the AIADMK supremo getting the state Assembly to pass a resolution on Wednesday demanding that India must get the UN to launch an investigation of the Sri Lankan government for war crimes, […]

By Matthew Russell LeeUNITED NATIONS, June 6, updated — In the past forty days, Ban Ki-moon has apparently done no review of Sri Lanka after he said on April 25 that he would act on the Panel of Experts’ recommendation for a “review of the United Nations’ actions regarding the implementation of its humanitarian and […]

Interested parties are awaiting UN reactionBy Wilson GnanadassIt was not a shock, for the Sri Lankan delegation currently participating at the 17th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council when the controversial video footages depicting scenes of human rights violations allegedly committed by government soldiers was shown.The screening of the video was done Friday […]

2011-06-06Remarks after the screening of the Channel 4 documentary were – one human rights worker said ‘How did we let this happen to these people’….’Is that man still in power’ said a junior diplomat…..’In my country we would have hanged him a long time ago’ said another.The C4 documentary was very powerful. As the US […]

But the LLRC’s interim report (forming the basis of all Government action on LLRC recommendations to date) made no reference to those allegations and included no recommendations to pursue accountability; it restricted itself to practical fixes for long-acknowledged problems. UN Human Rights Council, Seventeenth Session,30 May – 17 June 2011General DebateMr President, Amnesty International welcomes […]

by Hui Min Neo GENEVA (AFP) – Sri Lanka came under renewed pressure this week at the UN Human Rights Council over video footages detailing violations allegedly committed by soldiers during the country’s civil war. A UN investigator authenticated some of the footage early this week, while at the end of the week, a documentary […]

GENEVA | Mon May 30, 2011/ By Barbara LewisVideo footage of summary executions apparently committed during the Sri Lankan civil war appears to be convincing evidence of “serious international crimes,” a U.N. special envoy said on Monday.The charge adds to pressure on Colombo to submit to an international inquiry into allegations that thousands of civilians […]

The International Federation of Journalists, co-author partner organisation International Media Support, and 37 signatory members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), including co-authors the Writers in Prison Committee – PEN International, Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters sans Frontières, endorsed the following letter at IFEX’s General Meeting held in Beirut, Lebanon on May […]

 01 June 2011Channel-4’s announcement of screening of an hour-long film on Sri Lanka’s killing fields at UN on 3rd June, and the presentation of video footage to the UN Human Rights Council by the UN special investigator into extrajudicial killings, Christof Heyns, spread a gloomy war-crimes cloud over Sri Lanka making the terror-summit in Colombo, […]

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press A U.N. human rights expert says gruesome new footage from the final days of Sri Lanka’s civil war is authentic and proves war crimes took place there, challenging the government’s claim that videos showing the army executing captured rebels in May 2009 are faked.The U.N.’s independent investigator on extrajudicial killings says […]

Ms Pillai says HRC should reconsider its 2009 May verdict on Sri Lanka in light of “efforts to combat impunity worldwide”Senior UN officials and sections of the international community have called for an international body to investigate alleged rights violations during Sri Lanka’s civil war.Some other countries including China have opposed the call. Speaking at […]

If what the President saying is true, why there is opposition to an independent investigation. Let an independent international investigation tell us, what the President saying is truth and nothing but the truth. Let them assert that the soldiers were holding the Human Rights Charter in one hand and that they did not kill a […]

 Let me also refer to the report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka, which concludes that there are credible allegations of a wide range of serious violations of international law committed by both the Sri Lankan Government forces and Tamil Tigers in the final stages of the conflict. It is […]

May 27, 2011 Carter Center; Human Rights Watch; Enough Project; Democracy Coalition Project; Freedom House; Open Society Foundations; International Crisis Group; Physicians for Human Rights; Citizens for Global Solutions; U.S. Campaign for Burma; and Amnesty International have jointly urged US to act on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council, in a letter to […]

” In the presence of jumbo sized state military and intelligence service and the state backed paramilitaries and the violent government goons, the HRC is being engineered to do an exercise to undermine any further UN effort on war crimes  against Sri Lanka.”  ___________________________________________by Rajasingham JayadevanMay 27 2011 Media reports of government appointing a five […]

As professionals, we have seen the deterioration of the institutional integrity and rule of law in this country for many years. As lawyers we have, from time to time, urged the succeeding governments to protect human rights of the citizens and establish Rule of Law.    2011-05-25 | Press Statement- Lawyers for DemocracyThe war in […]

By Matthew Russell LeeUNITED NATIONS, May 24 — Not only has UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon not asked for any Security Council, General Assembly or Human Rights Council action on the UN Panel of Experts report on war crimes in Sri Lanka — he hasn’t even transmitted it to Geneva, his spokesman acknowledged to Inner […]

24 May 2011Members of Non-Aligned Movement have a critical part to play in ensuring these terrible abuses never happen again and that survivors of the conflict can seek justice, thus laying the groundwork for reconciliation.They should encourage the UN and the government of Sri Lanka to implement the panel’s recommendations on accountability, including the panel’s […]

Ananth KrishnanChina on Tuesday said it supported the Sri Lankan government’s efforts towards reconciliation, and indicated it would back the country against any international pressure following a recent United Nations report accusing the government of war crimes.Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told visiting Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris in talks on Tuesday that […]