Disappearances

Meera Srinivasan . For Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, the new year began with two stark reminders. It was the year 1948, when young American Jesuit priest Father Benjamin Henry Miller, or Fr. Harry Miller as he was better known, arrived in Batticaloa. He spent the next seven decades here, teaching at a local boys’ school, serving […]

Human skeletons of 269 people have been unearthed within 115 days of excavation of Mannar Mass Grave , the countries biggest mass grave which was discovered in May 2018 in Mannar city of Northern Sri-Lanka,  and this situation has raised serious concerns among human rights defenders and war affected communities on justice, future protection and non recurrence. Also the […]

Image: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Ravindra Wijeguneratne being escorted by a police officer yesterday – Pic by Gayan Amarasekara. After months of evading arrest, burly CDS surrenders to court; refused bail Remanded till 5 December; special protective custody ordered CDS reprimanded for arriving in court in military regalia; changes for next session Fort Magistrate […]

Image: In custody: Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne at the Magistrates Court in Colombo on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: AFP Meera Srinivasan COLOMBO,NOVEMBER 28, 2018. He is accused of harbouring the suspect in a case concerning the disappearance 11 youngsters in the final stages of war A magistrate court on Wednesday remanded Sri Lanka’s top-most military officer […]

Lieutenant Commander G. Laksiri, a key witness in a case regarding the abduction and disappearance of 11 youths in an alleged Navy abduction racket, has been threatened by six navy officers, including the Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, Police Spokesperson SSP Ruwan Gunasekara confirmed. The victim is one of the main witnesses in […]

Image: People continue to protest the  constitutional coup by Sirisena. ( Kandy 24 Nov 2018  Photo Freddy Gamage) The illegal transfer of power on 26 October is starting to take a toll on high profile investigations and justice processes, lawyers warn, after a week that saw the attempted transfer of a top CID sleuth and the reinstatement […]

Sri Lankan experts say a mass grave found earlier this year in the north-western town of Mannar has turned out to be the country’s biggest such site. More than 230 skeletons have now been found at the grave in the former war zone, up from about 90 in August. Human rights groups say at least […]

( November 16, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) We are passing the dark days of our nation by risking longstanding democratic values that are being disturbed by the Executive Power. President Maithripala Sirisena must apologize before the people and nation for creating this putrid mess to gain personal political advantages. He is hammering and burying all principles […]

 (Dr) Jayampathy Wickramaratne, President’s Counsel and Member of Parliament. There is speculation that Parliament will be dissolved. Arguments have been made for and against the right of the President to dissolve Parliament at will, at any time. The Golden rule It is a golden rule that in interpreting a Constitution, the Constitution as a whole […]

Oct 24, 2018 /ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s police on Wednesday arrested a senior navy officer for the abduction and murder of two Tamil businessmen underscoring the crimes committed under the cover of the island’s ethnic conflict. Lieutenant Commander K. A. Dayananda was taken before a magistrate and remanded in custody till Thursday over the double […]

Tamil mother waiting for her son to come back ( Image courtesy of Vikalpa) Parliament of Sri Lanka this week, passed into law the ‘Office for Reparations Bill’ (the Bill), the second mechanism promised within the transitional justice agenda. Though the noise on the Bill was somewhat muted unlike the lead up to the enactment […]

“Human rights is about all human beings being able to live in dignity, without discrimination, want or fear. Which is very much in line with our faith as Catholics that all human beings are equal and were created in the image of God. Human rights play a key role in Catholic Social Teachings. The principle […]

Image: Abducted children were kept in Navy camp, in Trincomalee. Denying  the news item on the front page of The Sunday Island of Oct. 07, under the headline, “Ex-navy Chief Karannagoda emerges as key suspect in killing of children”, former Navy Commander Admiral (Rtd.) Wasantha Karannagoda has issued a statement.In his statement he confirmed the […]

The investigation into the abduction and the murder of 11 children has taken a new turn with fresh evidence showing the involvement of former navy chief Wasantha Karannagoda, a magistrate has been told. Criminal investigators told the Colombo Fort Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne last week that Karannagoda intimately knew about the abductions and is continuing to […]

Ports and Shipping Minister and SLFP spokesman Mahinda Samarasinghe Thursday (Oct 4) insisted President Maithripala Sirisena wouldn’t give in to Western pressure under any circumstances. Samarasinghe, the former human rights envoy of the previous Rajapaksa administration said so at the regular SLFP briefing at its T.B. Jayah Mawatha office when the media sought an explanation […]

Media personnel in Sri Lanka have been facing numerous constraints from Law Enforcement authorities in two distinct ways — criminal defamation and contempt of Court. Reference to media is not confined to print and electronic. As a result of the reforms suggested in the Colombo Declaration 1998 with a view to achieve a free and […]

Image: Sirisena with the some of the attendees of the meeting. (original photo by PMD phot0). Addressing the Sri Lankans living in United States at the Sri Lanka Permanent Mission to UN in New York  September 26 Sri Lanka president Maithripala Sirisena  has said that only incidents [ human rights violation by  soldiers] outside the war field,  […]

Former Secretary to the then Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, has held him and Lt. Commander Sumith Ranasinghe accountable if 11 children had gone missing after being abducted. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday (26), informed Colombo Fort Acting Magistrate Deemani Baddewela that Rear Admiral Shamal Fernando, the former Secretary to former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, […]

Image: Lt. Commander Krishan Welagedara. Lt. Commander Krishan Welagedara provided damning evidence to CID sleuths in 2012, when he was able to help the agency to establish that the 11 youths abducted by a suspected navy gang were held in detention at Gun Site at the Trincomalee Naval Base. A Navy Intelligence officer, Welagedara was privy […]

The key state witness in an abduction case has written to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, complaining that his employer, the Sri Lanka Navy, is victimising him and blocking his promotion. Lt. Cmdr. Krishan Welagedara is a leading witness in a Habeas Corpus application filed in respect of five young Sinhala, Tamil and […]

Image: Screen shot of the video; S.B. Disanayake and Dilan Perera. Two former ministers who served during the Rajapaksa regime have admitted that LTTE members including Tamils who had surrendered to the Army had been killed. This allegation has been levelled against the Sri Lankan security forces for almost ten years by the war affected […]

At 3.30 am on September 10, Admiral Ravindra Wijeguneratne, the country’s highest ranking military official, boarded a Qatar Airways flight bound for Singapore. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) was travelling overseas to attend the 208th National Day celebrations in Mexico, according to his Office. The trouble was, September 10 was also the day Admiral […]

Executive Summary: The establishment of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) marks a significant milestone in the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka to address the issues of the missing and the disappeared. Established under the Office on Missing Persons (Establishment, Administration and Discharge of Functions) Act No. 14 of 2016 as an independent commission, the […]

Sri Lanka enacted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Act in March 2018. The new law criminalises enforced disappearance, and grants the High Court in Colombo exclusive jurisdiction to try offences under the law. A question that vexes families of the disappeared is whether the new law applies to […]

In its first interim report, the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) recommended the government to suspend state officials including members of the armed forces and police who were named as suspects or accused in criminal actions relating to abductions and enforced disappearances, pending the final determination of such cases. The OMP report said the government […]

5. Urgent Recommendations 40. A key objective of the OMP is to make recommendations to relevant authorities in order to reduce the number of incidents of missing persons and identify avenues of redress that take into account the best interest of the victims and the families. Specifically, the OMP is empowered to make recommendations with […]

Image: Navy base, Trincomalee. The progress of ongoing criminal investigations into the grisly killing of several Tamil youths following a racket of abduction for ransom, spearheaded ‘allegedly’ (here, I use the term quite deliberately) by a Naval officer and others during 2008-2009 will be the crucible on which this Government and this Presidency’s commitment to […]

Image: Jamaldeen Jennifer Weerasinghe and Sarojini Naganathan. (2 September, 2018.)After explosive revelations in Court in Navy 11 youth abduction case : Families of missing boys hope justice is finally within reach.  by Maneshka Borham Jamaldeen Jennifer Weerasinghe and Sarojini Naganathan The investigation into a suspected Navy abduction for ransom racket has led to explosive revelations in […]

by S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole. The Anti-Mahaweli Tamils’ Heritage Forum submitting a petition to Mullaitivu District Secretary Ms. Ketheeswaran on ‘Colonization’ The Anti-Mahaweli Tamils’ Heritage Forum submitting a petition to Mullaitivu District Secretary Ms. Ketheeswaran on ‘Colonization’ We in the North fear the troops. It is just not Tamils. We have seen viral videos of […]

GENEVA/COLOMBO (29 August 2018) – The UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, will conduct an official visit to Sri Lanka from 3 to 11 September 2018, at the invitation of the Government. “My visit aims at collecting first-hand information and examine questions related to debt and other financial obligations […]