Sri Lanka

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 […]

Image: The placard asks by implication: When will you start issuing ‘Certificate of Absence’ (CoA) ©Sunanda Deshapriya. The Government has extended, by two more years, legal provisions that enable issuance of a ‘Certificate of Absence’ (CoA) to families of war-time missing and disappeared persons. The Registrar-General’s Department issued a Gazette Extraordinary last Wednesday to extend the effective […]

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has unveiled his national strategy or vision as a presidential candidate with an authoritarian zeal. This is clear from his Viyathmaga speech. He should be commended however for his fairly clear expression of views and objectives. His definition of objective of government was the following at the outset: “The objective of any government […]

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 […]

“Those who seek power at any price detect a societal weakness, a fear that they can ride into office.” Carl Sagan (The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark) One point four million extra votes – that is what Gotabaya Rajapaksa needs to achieve his burning desire to become the next president of Sri Lanka. […]

Democracy will not come Today, this year Not ever Through compromise and fear. I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I’m dead. I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread. ‘Democracy’ Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967) ‘Actioning the Blueprint’ was the […]

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: Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ( Al Jazeera) (REUTERS) In a split decision, a panel of five Supreme Court judges rejected a petition by Rajapaksa, who had asked that a lower court case in which he is accused of embezzling state funds be thrown out, his spokesman said. If Rajapaksa, 70, is found guilty in a trial, […]

Image: UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French  delivered the statement. UN Human Rights Council 42 – UK delivers Core Group Statement on Sri Lanka UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French outlined that the UK remains steadfast in its commitment to help Sri Lanka deliver peace, reconciliation and prosperity for all communities. This […]

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 […]

September 10, 2019/Media Statement. The Free Media Movement vehemently condemns the takeover of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation to be placed under the Ministry of Defense using presidential powers. The takeover is even more worrying and critical since we are in a context where there are preparations for an election. The Free Media Movement is extremely […]

The state-run Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) was brought under the purview of the Ministry of Defence yesterday evening (9). A gazette notification signed by President Maithripala Sirisena, who also holds the Defence portfolio, was issued a short while ago announcing the takeover. Veteran media personality Kalum Palitha Maheeratne was appointed SLRC Chairman on 6 […]

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 […]

Meera Srinivasan. Jaffna district MP and Tamil National Alliance spokesman on the national unity government’s performance, the 13th Amendment, and India’s relations with Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka’s presidential poll in 2015, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), representing Tamils of the north and east, led its constituency in a crucial protest vote against then President […]

In a few months’ time this country will once again make decisions on the political leadership that will guide the destinies of the nation. This is a pivotal point in regard to the direction and manner in which our country will develop in the near future. 1. CONTEXT We must recognise the reality that we […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

By Shreen Abdul Saroor. The International Day of the Disappeared is on the 30th August and I was in Mannar when a group of mothers were preparing to show their collective resistance at Omanthai in North and Kalmunai in East. The discussion was around how safe it is to protest even though the emergency has […]

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 […]

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 […]

The JVP deserves a chance, because it promises a credible third alternative to the hackneyed ethno-nationalist and neoliberal paradigm of the UNP-SLFP-SLPP cohort – Pic by Lasantha Kumara. The forthcoming Presidential Election is in many ways going to be an acid test for the two ethnic minorities, Tamils and Muslims, whose recent living experience had […]

UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed. GENEVA / COLOMBO (26 August 2019) – Simmering ethno-religious tensions in Sri Lanka require urgent action by the authorities to strengthen respect for freedom of religion or belief in Sri Lanka, says UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed. […]

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) pointed fingers at the security forces over its failure to conclude investigations into some high-profile criminal cases, The Sunday Morning learnt. Reports on six high-profile investigations were handed over to the Attorney General’s (AG) Department last week. Meanwhile, following the updated report on investigations that had been submitted by the […]

  As the heir apparent to the House of Medamulana, now that the old squire of the estate had decided to untie his laces and hand the jackboots to his younger brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa stayed in the shadowy wings till his brother had ended his valedictory speech where he heaped endless praise of psalms on […]

Attorneys for SLPP presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa have sought, in a fresh filing in the California Central District Court, to dismiss a lawsuit brought against him alleging his culpability in the January 2009 torture and extrajudicial killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge. The new filing asserts, while denying the allegation that he had a hand in the […]

I wonder how many people remember ‘Always Breakdown.’ It was probably the first political satire TV series in Sri Lanka, long before ‘Kathura,’ ‘Ethuma,’ and ‘And Company.’ The political figures were all puppets: no one was spared, though the series, broadcast on TNL, singled out Chandrika Kumaratunga. Whatever the politics, it was an overnight sensation. […]

(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 […]