Category: Featured Headlines

A meeting between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Members of Parliament representing the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) was held at the Presidential Secretariat this evening (March 08).

Fifteen points forwarded by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party were taken up for discussion, the President’s Media Division said.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Ministers Basil Rajapaksa and Dinesh Gunawardena, MP Sagara Kariyawasam and Sri Lanka Freedom Party representatives former President Maithripala Sirisena, Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva and Mahinda Amaraweera, State Ministers Duminda Dissanayake, Dayasiri Jayasekara and Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Deputy Speaker Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, MPs Angajan Ramanathan, Jagath Pushpakumara, Shantha Bandara, Sarathi Dushmantha, Shan Vijayalal de Silva, Chamara Sampath and Suren Raghavan were present at the discussion.

Speaking to the media following the meeting, former President and SLFP chairman Maithripala Sirisena said the President and Prime Minister agreed to convene an all-party conference.

All political parties representing the parliament will be invited to this conference by the end of this month, he said further.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka expands its regional office network by the inauguration of a regional office in Nuwara Eliya (Queen Elizabeth Building, Nuwara Eliya) today.

Among the ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, the Indian origin Tamils are a very significant populace. This particular community migrated to Sri Lanka during the colonial period to engage in the plantation sector. This Indian-origin Tamil community faces very regressive consequences in societal and economical aspects. The major fortitude of establishing a new regional branch in the Nuwara Eliya District is to enhance the protection of the rights of this vulnerable community and to educate these people to claim inquiries during the infringement of their rights.

The inauguration is scheduled for the 08th of March, 2022, and will be steered on the International Women’s Day commemoration in Nuwara Eliya.

The inaugural ceremony of the Regional office will be graced by the High Commissioner for South Africa in Sri Lanka, S. E. Schalk, and the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, retired Supreme Court Justice, Mrs. Rohini Marasinghe.

The Commissioners of the Human Rights Commission, Venerable Kalupahana Piyarathana Thero, Dr. Vijitha Nanayakkara, Dr. M.H. Nimal Karunasiri, and Ms. Anusuya Shanmuganathan and the officers of the Commission are expected to partake in the inauguration. The commemoration will be held themed ‘Gender Equality today for a Sustainable Tomorrow’ on the 08th of March, 2022 from 09.30 am onwards at the Divisional Secretariat Office, Nuwara Eliya.

Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, the head of Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church, called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) at its 49th session in Geneva on Monday to intervene in unvralling the “truth” behind the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.

“As this is a case of a serious violation of the fundamental rights of the aggrieved victims, we earnestly call upon the UNHRC and all its member countries to support the continuation of evidence gathering initiated by the Council last year and to devise a means to ensure an impartial investigation to unravel the truth behind the Easter Sunday massacre,” the cardinal said, addressing the council via video.

Cardinal Ranjith claimed that though the attack – which killed 269 including 47 foreign nationals from 14 countries – first appeared to be the work of Islamic extremists, subsequent investigations indicated that “this massacre was part of a grand political plot.”

“Despite our repeated requests and those of civil organisations pursuing the truth, the incumbent government of Sri Lanka has failed to mete out justice to the victims. Instead of uncovering the truth behind the attack and prosecuting those responsible, there are attempts to harass and intimidate those who clamour for justice.

“As a result, nearly three years after the horrendous crime, we are still in the dark as to what really happened on that Easter Sunday,” he said.

The Catholic leader has been harshly critical of the government over what he claims is its disinterest in finding the alleged masterminds of the attack. Though he had in previous years opposed international intervention in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, in recent months the cardinal had threatened to take the matter of the investigations to the international community.

On Wednesday, he met UNHRC chief Michele Bachelet in Geneva, where the two discussed the probe and what the church alleges is delayed justice.

On Monday, he met Pope Francis in Rome where, according to the Bishop’s House, the Church’s grievances regarding the investigations were discussed.

In September 2018, the Archbishop controversially criticised Western nations for “teaching” human rights to a country like Sri Lanka which he said has been religious for centuries. Human rights have become the latest religion of the Western world, he said speaking at a Sunday service.

Analysts say the religious leader’s apparent frustration over the state of the investigations has compelled him to seek international intervention.

The US yesterday (7) spoke about Sri Lanka during the interactive dialogue about the country at the 49th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), where they called upon the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) to engage with Tamil and Muslim parties for a “lasting political solution”.

“We call on the Government to engage with Tamil and Muslim political parties and civil society organisations to advance an inclusive, lasting political solution,” the representative for the US said in Geneva, Switzerland, yesterday.

The UK noted setbacks in “several emblematic human rights cases” and said that the “recent appointment of an individual named in a key emblematic case as a Provincial Governor is particularly worrying”. Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, who was named in the “Navy 11” case with regard to the disappearance of 11 youths allegedly at the hands of the Sri Lanka Navy, was recently appointed as the North Western Province Governor. Furthermore, the UK also raised concerns of land grabbing in the Northern and Eastern (N-E) Provinces. “The UK also notes concerns of surveillance and the harassment of the civil society and the militarisation of civilian government functions,” added the UK representative.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International said that it remains deeply concerned by the “shrinking civic space and therefore, urged the Government to halt reprisals against critics and perceived critics, including those advocating for justice for the April 2019 bombings”. “Families of the disappeared continue to face obstacles and pushback from state agents while they demand their right to truth and justice, including through the State’s pursuit of court orders attempting to restrict their freedom to protest. The State’s alarming discrimination and targeting of the Muslim community continues unabated,” said Amnesty International. The organisation also called for an immediate moratorium on the PTA, echoing the call of the UN High Commissioner (HC) for HR, Michelle Bachelet in her update about Sri Lanka this year.

Representing the International Harm Reduction Association, Ambika Satkunanathan raised concerns about the militarisation of drug control and treatment in the country and its negative reprisals on the treatment, the individual, and public health. “A worrying pattern of deaths in custody of persons arrested for drug-related offences in alleged shootouts with law enforcement or while assisting law enforcement officials have been documented. The lack of investigations into these custodial deaths entrench impunity and the use of violence by state agencies,” said Satkunanathan.

In March 2021, the UNHRC passed Resolution 46/1, which recognises the importance of preserving evidence relating to violations of human rights in Sri Lanka in order to advance accountability, and as such, a call has been made to implement an “evidence preserving” mechanism in the country. It was adopted on 23 March 2021 at the UNHRC with 22 votes in favour of it and 11 votes in opposition while 14 Member States abstained from voting.

In her written update this month, Bachelet has called upon the UNHRC and its Member States to co-operate with the Office of the UNHCHR in its discharge of accountability related work under Resolution 46/1 and to provide it with the adequate human and financial resources in order to enable it to effectively deliver the full mandate given under the Resolution.

Countries such as China criticised Resolution 46/1 yesterday. “The Resolution is not in line with the principles of impartiality, non-politicisation, objectivity, and non-selectivity and nor has it been endorsed by the State in question. We call on the relevant parties to respect Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and political independence and pass human rights development of their own choice in light of their national conditions,” said China.

In a statement made yesterday, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said that Sri Lanka received “overwhelming support from countries of the Global South who expressed support for the Government’s significant efforts towards reconciliation and reiterated the importance of objective and constructive co-operation as the fundamental basis for multilateral engagement”. “Addressing the UNHRC on 4 March at the commencement of the interactive dialogue, Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, while reiterating Sri Lanka’s commitment to continuing its voluntary international undertakings on human rights and engaging with the UN, including the UNHRC, referred to serious anomalies and weaknesses in the update presented by Bachelet,” the statement noted.

Calling for international support, Sri Lanka opposition MP Harin Fernando briefed the 49th session of the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Monday on, among other matters, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the 2019 Easter bombings and the continued incarnation of his former parliamentary colleague Ranjan Ramanayake.

In a short address at the council session this afternoon (Sri Lanka time), Fernando said President Gotabaya Rajapksa has ignored requests including from the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) to pardon Ramanayake who is serving a four-year prison sentence for contempt of court.

The MP said Ramanayake’s civic rights have been removed over an offence that is not legally defined in Sri Lanka and cannot be appealed.

The island nation’s Supreme Court sentenced Ramanayake to four years’ rigorous imprisonment on January 12, 2021, over contempt of court charges, in connection with disparaging remarks he had allegedly made about the judiciary in August 2017. Imprisonment over contempt of court charges is legal but is increasingly seen as inappropriate and disproportionate, according to Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law, Dr Asanga Welikala, who says many countries in the Commonwealth have introduced legislation to regulate contempt of court powers.

Fernando, a vocal critic of the government’s probes into the Easter Sunday bombings, told the UNHRC that the cries of the victims of the Easter Sunday bombings for truth and justice continue to be in vain.

“The non-prosecution of negligent high officials gives rise to the suspicion that the real brains behind the attacks are been shielded. Instead, investigator Shani Abeysekera, dubbed the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Sri Lanka’, and Senior Police officer Ravi Seneviratne are being hounded, and their lives are in danger,” he claimed.

Fernando also claimed that the government is reluctant to make meaningful changes to what he called the “draconian” PTA, Sri Lanka’s controversial counter-terror law that has been at the centre of many international deliberations on the country’s human rights record.

“The government is reluctant to make meaningful changes to the draconian PTA which facilitated arbitrary detention, torture, and convictions based solely on alleged confessions.

“Citizens exercising their freedom of expression are been harassed. Civil society activists work under severe pressure. Militarisation of the civilian administration is a characteristic of the government,” said Fernando.

Ethnic and religious minorities live in anxiety, the MP further claimed.

The MP also brought to notice of the council an alleged attack that took place against the main opposition office Monday morning by a government MP.

“Added to all this is economic mismanagement. The severe shortage of essential items, disruption of electrical supply, long queues for fuel, and the soaring cost of living are but a few of its consequences,” he said.

Sri Lanka is currently in the midst of one of the worst economic crises in its history as a result of a severe forex shortage brought about by excess money printing to keep interest rates low in a pegged exchange rate regime.

“I call upon the international community to support the people of Sri Lanka whose human rights have been threatened as never before,” the MP claimed.