Reconciliation

Image: A group of Muslim women from Hambantota: “We have lived here for generations”. The much anticipated, debated, and controversial presidential election is now just around the corner. The candidate for the SLPP was confirmed and announced; and while there maybe a comforting confidence among the party about securing the majority Sinhala Buddhist vote, winning […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sri Lanka is going into another presidential election in a few weeks with unresolved human rights issues and undelivered promises in hand. The Executive Presidency continues unabolished despite repeated promises of the presidential candidates who came to power in the last 25 years. Though the 19th Amendment to the Constitution trimmed the powers […]

Image: A solider having a look at (temporary) the memorial wall for the disappeared at OMP on 31 August 2019. © Sunanda Deshapriya Office on Missing Persons (OMP) says the Government has failed to heed the recommendations made by them on Military and Police officers involved in enforced disappearances. According to the Chairperson of the […]

Images of the Hindu Deity Krishna mistaken for Buddha images. By Arjuna Ranawana. Women’s activists are angry and exasperated by police detaining women wearing sarees or dresses with the images of Hindu Deities on them. Activists say there has been a rash of such incidents recently. Some of the images, particularly of the Hindu deity […]

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: People of kokkuthoduvai, Kokkilai and karunatkerni villages held a campaign in Mullitivu town to stop encroaching their lands under the name of Mahaweli “L” Zone development. Nearly 300 farmers both men and women who have been deprived from their  agricultural lands and water resources peacefully marched to the Mullaitivu Government Agent”s office and handed over […]

(24 August 2019, London) The appointment of Shavendra Silva (Silva) as the new Commander of the Sri Lankan army is a deeply troubling development. For the Tamil community, this signals the end of the road for reconciliation efforts from the Sri Lankan Government. For the international community and all those interested in human rights and […]

Image: MP S. Shritharan. Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) lawmaker S. Shritharan yesterday raised a privilege issue with Speaker Karu Jayasuriya highlighting the recent raiding of his house in Kilinochchi by Police and the Terrorist Investigations Unit (TID) with the assistance of the Army in search of explosives. According to the lawmaker, he and his […]

Major General Shavendra Silva was appointed as the 23rd Commander of the Sri Lanka Army today (19).He received his letter of appointment from President Maithripala Sirisena this morning.Major General Silva joined the Sri Lanka Army as a Cadet Officer in 1984 and held the position of Chief of Staff of Sri Lanka Army prior to […]

Image: JVP led National People’s Power launched its campaign with a huge rally at Galle Face Green. With the nomination of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as its presidential candidate, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has officially launched its presidential election campaign. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who has remained a nominal member of the SLFP and the UPFA […]

(UCAN ) Catholics in Sri Lanka have protested after a stone was allegedly thrown at a statue of St. Sebastian at a church where more than 100 people died in the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. Police and soldiers were deployed to Katuwapitiya on Aug. 6 when about 100 protesters gathered outside St. Sebastian’s Church to demand […]

Image: File photo, not related to this news story. Victim beaten brutally; sustains injuries to spine, stomach. Methodist Bishop says Christians will remain calm in the face of persecution. Expresses deep concerns about eroding freedom to practice faith in SL.   The Head of the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka has accused three Buddhist monks […]

Image: “So, please remember this and the earlier  you do it, the better. If you do not do it and abstain from doing the right thing, I do not think the Tamil people will take it lying down for too long,” Sampanthan tells the govt. NEW CONSTITUTION WITH NATIONAL CONSENSUS. R. Sampanthan. Mr. Deputy Speaker, […]

Speech delivered by Hon R Sampanthan MP, at Matara on 7th July 2019, at the event to felicitate Hon Mangala Samraweera MP, Minister completion of 30 years in active politics. Hon Mangala Samaraweera my dear friend for a long time, Hon Sajith Premadasa Minister, Hon Ministers Hon State Ministers, Hon Deputy Ministers Hon Members of […]

In her opening speech at the HRC 41 Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said that Sri Lanka should be given a priority to bringing political, religious and other community leaders together to address root causes of all forms of violence and discrimination. “In Sri Lanka, I am concerned that the terrorist attacks two months ago have fuelled increasing […]

Background: The Easter Sunday terrorist attacks have drastically changed Sri Lanka’s social and political fabric. Over the existing ethnic polarization, Sri Lanka now faces polarization on the grounds of religion. On 21st April 2019, 08 suicide bombers led explosions in Sri Lanka killing 252 people and injuring hundreds. Two Catholic churches, one Zion church, and […]

Image: The child’s home, a ramshackle shack. (ST) This week, a small child died of malnutrition in Tissamaharama at the same time that Sri Lanka’s Parliament debated the passing of millions of public funds to purchase luxury vehicles for Ministers as well as former President and current Opposition Leader, Mahinda Rajapaksa. Laid out in her white […]

Image: Sampanthan meeting Michele Coninsx . Press Release/10.06.19. Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate(CTED) Ms Michele Coninsx met with the leader of the Tamil National Alliance Mr Sampanthan in Colombo Yesterday (8th June 2019). Highlighting the importance of the implementation of the United Nations Human Rights Council […]

Editorial, The Hindu. Sri Lankan leaders must move to end the demonising of Muslims. The mass resignation of two Muslim governors and nine Ministers in Sri Lanka deepens a new fault line that has emerged in the island nation after the Easter Sunday blasts perpetrated by a fanatical Islamist group. Sinhala Buddhist hardliners had demanded that the […]

Sri Lanka is still trying to emerge out of the darkness of its three decade long ethnic war that ended in 2009.  Unfortunately, the Easter Sunday bombings linked to the Islamic State (IS), and the damaging reaction to it by those who ought to be responsible political leaders, are taking our country once again in […]

OIC press release/03.06/2019. Communal violence targeting Muslims in Sri Lanka has regional and global security implications. The developing situation over the past few days has been extremely worrying with regards to the safety and protection of the Sri Lankan Muslim community, including some foreign Muslim refugees. The lives and livelihoods of Muslims, including their local […]

In the face of the damage to life and property caused by the terrorist attacks on 21st April 2019, it is the duty of the state to support the victims with rebuilding and restoring their lives to normalcy. While their loss and pain cannot be erased, every effort must be made to ensure that these […]

When bombs planted in churches and hotels killed more than 200 people in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, few had realised that the nation had a problem with Islamist militancy. One man who did, reports the BBC’s Secunder Kermani, was Mohammad Razak Taslim. Lying on a hospital bed, Mohammad Razak Taslim’s face contorts with pain. […]

Image: Galagodaatte Gnanasara has been serving concurrent jail terms over his disruptive behaviour in court. COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s president granted an amnesty to a firebrand Buddhist monk on Wednesday, four days after holding talks with him at the country’s main prison, officials said. President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned Galagodaatte Gnanasara days after releasing 762 other convicts to […]

by Melani Manel Perera. Television operators invade the homes and privacy of survivors, they “must be educated in communications ethics”. A comment posted on Facebook sparks new violence against Muslims in Chilaw. Survivors must be supported in the long run by specialist groups. Taking care of even the first responders, priests and nuns included. Colombo […]

Statement by the United Nations in Sri Lanka on the prevailing situation in the country. 2019 May 14 (Colombo, Sri Lanka) – The United Nations in Sri Lanka is concerned about emerging incidents of communal violence and tension in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. The United Nations calls on the Government and […]

Human societies scattered across the world have evolved over time under diverse circumstances, both material/ecological and ideational. Though archaeologists, historians and philosophers have gone far back in time in tracing the above process, modern social and human scientists have observed human societies in more recent times and uncovered certain patterns in the way they have […]

Abbraar Masjid mosque is seen after a mob attack in Kiniyama, Sri Lanka May 13, 2019.   | Photo Credit: Reuters. Meera Srinivasan. Police impose island-wide curfew till Tuesday morning amid fears of escalation in violence. Mobs attacked several mosques, torched dozens of shops and homes of Muslims in Kurunegala District, some 100 km north-west of […]

Wrong To Have Withdrawn Military Training Ambassador Blake regretted that after the Sri Lanka-LTTE war ended in May 2009, the US had stopped its military aid and training programs in the island on the plea that there had been human rights violations by the Lankan military. “In the last years of the war in 2008 […]

Image Courtesy of Aithiya.lk. Ahilan Kadirgamar. As reports about those behind the Easter Sunday attacks emerge, many questions remain about the motives of the extremists. The full picture of the formation of this extremist force and the objectives behind their heinous crimes may take time. However, they have succeeded in creating a spectacle of death, […]