Abductions

(OFFICE ON MISSING PERSONS/MEDIA RELEASE/15 January 2020) Recent media reports have claimed that the government plans to review the Office on Missing Persons (Establishment, Administration and Discharge of Functions) Act No. 14 of 2016 (the Act) with a view to amending the same. The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) officially communicated its position by letters […]

By Arjuna Ranawana | RepublicNext. They have been eyeball to eyeball, staring each other down over the past month, but as of this week, Sri Lanka and Switzerland will begin the long-slow dance to step back from further confrontation towards normalizing relations. This is not because it is the season of good cheer, but both […]

Professing to stand up for party ally MP Patali Champika Ranawaka in the event of any injustice, the United National Party (UNP) today charged that the family of the MP’s former driver were unlawfully detained in the early hours of today (16). Presenting a united face, a host of parliamentarians representing both sides of the […]

Sri Lanka Brief. – Post Presidential Election Update No 03/16 December 2019. Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa presented a cabinet paper in the first week of December for the establishment of a Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry (SPCOI), under the SPCOI Law (1978) to investigate government officials who had conducted ‘witch hunts’ […]

The CID yesterday informed Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne that there was no evidence to show any connection to an alleged abduction of the Swiss Embassy employee Garnier Banister Francis. The CID in its report said it was revealed from the statement given by Ms Francis to the CID that there had been no such […]

The mainstream media coverage of the the Swiss Embassy employee who was allegedly kidnapped and later released has come under criticism for unethical behavior. Many pro government media has published the victims photograph without her consent. She appeared before the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for the 3rd day today reports Colombo Gazette. Even before […]

Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayarathne yesterday extended the travel ban imposed on Swiss Embassy employee Garliar Barister Francis, who was allegedly threatened and kidnapped by a group of unidentified men, from leaving the country till December 12. When the case was taken up before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court, the Magistrate also issued an order […]

Image: Swiss Embassy, Colombo (Swissinfo) Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) Chief Dr. Deepika Udagama yesterday (03) said investigators should be given to access to the local employee of Switzerland Embassy allegedly abducted close to the diplomatic mission situated on the R.G. Senanayake Mawatha (formerly Gregory’s Road), molested and threatened by a group of […]

Image: Sri Lankan ambassador to Switzerland, Karunasena Hettiarachchi. Press release, 02.12.2019. Following several demarches from the FDFA over the incident concerning an employee of the Swiss embassy in Colombo, State Secretary Pascale Baeriswyl has received the Sri Lankan ambassador to Switzerland based in Berlin, Karunasena Hettiarachchi, in Bern. Ms Baeriswyl confirmed at the meeting that […]

Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has called for a thorough and impartial investigation in to the reported abduction of a Swiss embassy employee to find out information on Sri Lankans who have sought protection through the embassy. The letter sent to acting IGP follows:

Image: The employee had been abducted on Monday and allegedly questioned about a police officer who reportedly sought Swiss asylum [File: Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP] On 25 November 2019, a serious security incident involving a local employee of the Embassy of Switzerland in Colombo occurred. The employee was detained against their will in the street, forced to […]

Image: Minister Rajitha Senaratne with the ‘White Van’ drivers at the press conference yesterday.Picture by Kelum Liyanage. The Government will begin investigations into the rest of the murders and abductions committed during the Rajapaksa era after its affirmation in power on November 17, Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday. The […]

Image: On the International Day of the Disappeared, 30 August, Colombo. © Sunanda Deshapriya. The OMP made such progress amidst an array of challenges including lack of cooperation from key state actors and continuous efforts to deny the rights of families of the missing and disappeared, says Saliya Pieris P. C. , Chairperson, Office on Missing Persons issuing a […]

Image: Trinco Navy camp where abducted 11 youth were held. The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) has decided to raise their concerns with President Maithripala Sirisena on the recent confirmation of rank granted by the Sri Lanka Navy to Commodore D.K.P Dassanayake. The former Navy Spokesman, Dassanayake is one of the main suspects connected to […]

Image: Sri Lanka has failed to implement many of the recommendations from the WGEID. © Sunanda Deshapriya. 2019. We thank the Working Group for its follow-up report on Sri Lanka. This month marks the two years anniversary of the legislative establishment of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP). While we welcome the independent work carried out by […]

Image: Waiting for the justice for disappeared relatives © Sunanda Deshapriya. Follow-up to the recommendations made by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in the report of its visit to Sri Lanka from 9 to 18 November 2015 (A/HRC/33/51/Add.2) 4. On 29 November 2018, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances requested the Government of Sri […]

Image; Mauri Inoka has been waiting six years for justice held a solo protest on 2nd September 2019 at the GalleFace Green, Colombo. © Sunanda Deshapriya. Quintus Colombage,Colombo. Mauri Inoka Jayasinghe sits silently under the hot sun by the side of a main road in Colombo. It is Sept. 2 and this painful experience in […]

Image: Families of the disappeared gathered in front of UN, Colombo and handed over a memorandum. © Sunanda Deshapriya. August 30 was the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Despite Government figures indicating more than 65,000 complaints of disappearances in Sri Lanka, for most Sri Lankans, most media and the Government, it was just […]

Image: A relative of a disappeared writing on the memorial wall at OMP on 30 Aug 2019. © Sunanda Deshapriya. UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka- Statement on the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances. “No-one has been forgotten” Today we stand up for the rights of the victims of enforced disappearances and their relatives. […]

Image: Shavendra Silva, joined the army in 1984 and was its chief of staff from January ( REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte ) GENEVA (27 August 2019) – A group of UN experts expressed serious concern at the appointment of Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva as Sri Lanka’s army chief, and urged the Government to advance long overdue reforms of […]

Image: General Shavendra Silva is seen at the Ampara Air Force camp in eastern Sri Lanka August 24, 2009.  © 2009 Reuters/Stringer/Files. Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, HRW. Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a general whose forces have been credibly accused of war crimes as the commander of the national army. The move would seem to confirm the […]

Lieutenant-General Silva commanded Sri Lanka’s 58th Division during the final stages of the military campaign against the LTTE rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, and UN investigationshave implicated the division in alleged serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN High Commissioner for Human […]

Attorney General Dappula de Livera PC has requested the Chief Justice to nominate a three member Trial-at-Bar to hear the case involving the abduction and murder of journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda. The Co-ordinating Officer to the Attorney General, State Counsel Ms. Nishara Jayaratne told news media that the Attorney General has already prepared indictments to be […]

Image: Keith Noyahr not willing to come to Sri Lanka in person to identify his  abductors. Senior State Counsel Lakmini Girihagama appearing on behalf of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) informed the Mount Lavinia Additional Magistrate that former Nation Deputy Editor Keith Noyahr has agreed to an identification parade via video technology. Girihagama made this remark […]

Image: A shop owner in Minuwangoda, Sri Lanka after his shop was set on fire by Sinhalese mobs. Colombo, 12 June 2019 (The Delegation of the European Union (EU) issues the following statement in agreement with the embassies of France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Romania and the UK High Commission, as well as the embassies of […]

May 30, 2019/Press release. Condemn taking Journalist Mohammed Rizvi Maharoof into custody on baseless charges – Free Media Movement The Free Media Movement is deeply saddened with the injustice Journalist Mohammed Rizvi Maharoof is facing being arrested and taken in to custody on baseless charges., has raised a threat on freedom and safety of media […]

Photo:Rear Admiral A. Guruge, The now famous CID investigation into the abduction and murder of 11 youth by a Navy extortion gang, helped sleuths to break open a secondary racket involving a separate group of naval personnel, including high ranking officers, to abduct businessmen for ransom In June 2010 the gang robbery unit of the […]

11 boys abducted and killed in 2008; 14 naval officers implicated in the crimes, 13 of them arrested and produced before a magistrate. Last Thursday, the 14th suspect in the case, war time Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda won reprieve from arrest in the country’s highest court – probably for the duration of his trial For […]

Conclusions and recommendations. 61. In 2015, by co-sponsoring Human Rights Council resolution 30/1, the Government of Sri Lanka recognized the need to address the past in order to build a brighter future, grounded in accountability, respect for human rights and the rule of law. The lack of decisive steps to that end, and of appropriate […]

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court has ruled that the lower courts were wrong to override the conclusions of a medical expert when considering forensic evidence of torture in an asylum claim.  An asylum seeker from Sri Lanka, known as ‘KV’, appealed a Home Office decision to refuse his asylum claim. Expert medical opinion […]