Responding to recent developments in Sri Lanka including the opening address to the UNHRC on by the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander said:

“The recent UN Panel of Experts’ Report on Sri Lanka makes very serious allegations about the conduct of both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE (Liberation of Tamil Eelam) during the final months of the conflict between January and May 2009. It accuses both sides were guilty of war crimes and [...]

Channel 4 is to screen Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, a special one-hour investigation which features devastating new video evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Sri Lankan government forces and the Tamil Tigers at the UN this Friday 3 June.

The film will be screened on the margins of the UN Human Rights Council session. It will air on Channel 4 on 14 June.

Featured in the film will be a video first aired by Channel 4 News [...]

By Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka researcher

It’s now 2 years since the end of the war between the Sri Lankan security forces and the Tamil Tigers.  To many, the Sri Lankan conflict may seem strangely remote.  For survivors and those of us who monitored the abuses during the war, the month of May will never be quite the same.

I still remember the 19th May 2009 and the sense of shock and relief as the government announced the war [...]

Members of the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) and human rights group Act Now (AN) protested outside Uxbridge Cricket Ground against the Sri Lankan touring cricket team’s first warm-up match on Saturday.

Chants of ‘Genocide is simply not cricket!’ and ‘Sri Lanka go home’ greeted cricket goers and the touring team. Over a hundred campaigners descended upon the ground objecting to the appearance of the Sri Lankan national cricket team.

Act Now Director Tim Martin went inside the ground and distributed [...]

Guest Column: By Sivanendran.

( Here is an assessment from a Sri Lankan Tamil. The fate of the Sri Lankan Tamils was sealed when the LTTE took on the Indian Peace Keeping Force who had come to implement the Accord. The author mentions that Premadasa�s order for withdrawal of Indian forces in December 1989 sealed the fate of the peace process. Yes- but his order further sealed the cause of the Tamils too.- Director)

The familiar cartoon of a man [...]

On the 18th May 2011, it will be two years from when over 40,000 innocent Eelam Tamil men, women and children were slaughtered by the Sri Lankan state.

Let us come together to remember.

Mullivaikal Remembrance 2011, London – United Kingdom.

Venue: Trafalgar Square Date: 18th May 2011 Time: 6.00pm

http://youtu.be/LYkqSHxajDI

http://tamilsforum.co.uk/mullivaikal-remembrance-2011/

By Satheesan Kumaaran

A fundamental principle of democracy involves a competitive election with freedom of the press and civilian control of the military.  Other important aspects include political pluralism, equality before the law, due process, civil liberties, human rights, peace and elements of civil society outside of the government.  As such, the 14th legislative assembly election in Tamil Nadu, a province within the federation of the Indian republic, is scheduled for April 13, 2011.

Elections in Tamil Nadu are conducted [...]

On this Thursday 17th March the President of the Indian National Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi spoke to the Commonwealth Foundation on ‘Women as Agents of Change’.

India was an important supporter of Sri Lanka’s military offensive nearly two years ago. They were also instrumental in ‘persuading’ the West in turning a blind eye to the atrocities that took place against civilians in the latter part of the conflict. Mrs Gandhi and the Congress Party were thought to be driven by revenge [...]

UK based Human Rights group Act Now re-launched its’ 2011 Global GAP pickets last weekend. Act Now has been running throughout last year pickets of GAP stores in conjunction with its’ US partners in protest at the company’s trading relationship with Sri Lanka.

There are rumors that GAP is considering withdrawing from that relationship i.e. stop importing garments from Sri Lanka? There are a number of companies rumored to be transferring their investments and purchases to alternative suppliers such as Bangladesh. [...]

(Washington, DC) On the eve of the one year anniversary of the disappearance of Sri Lanka human rights defender Pattani Razeek, Amnesty International renews its call for the Sri Lankan government to ensure those responsible for his abduction are brought to justice.

"We understand the person who has been identified as a suspect has a close association with a government official,” said Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka expert. “The government must show it will not tolerate abuses of power and [...]

Act Now Director Tim Martin put the UN Secretary General (SG) on the spot in Oxford Wednesday night. Ban Ki-Moon was giving this year’s Cyril Foster lecture on“Human Protection and the 21st Century United Nations”.

Act Now believes that to be ironic since he has been accused of sitting on his hands whilst innocent civilians were being killed in Sri Lanka at the beginning of 2009. Despite evidence that Government forces were indiscriminately shelling & bombing innocent civilians in a [...]

In November 2010, in Hatton, Sri Lanka, Devarathnam Yogendra cooperated with the Bribery Commission to catch police officer IP Wijesuriya accepting bribes. A representative from the Bribery Commission watched as Wijesuriya accepted a bribe, then arrested him on charges of bribery (Case No.: 50600/01 in the Chief Magistrate’s Court of Colombo). Now Yogendra is being harassed, accused of fabricated offenses, assaulted, and threatened with death as a result of his involvement—by members of Sri Lanka’s police force.

In many developing Asian [...]

Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, Prime Minister of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), today appealed to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to broaden the mandate of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka to cover the abuses that have taken place since the end of the war, and to include current abuses. In a letter citing recent killings, rapes and abductions, he also urged the Secretary General to create a protection mechanism to safeguard the Tamil [...]

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) sent a memorandum to the United Nations advisory panel on investigating War Crimes in Sri Lanka. It detailed grave abuses committed by the Sri Lankan government against the Tamil ethnic group. This UN panel – Secretary General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka – was formed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, after approximately 60,000 Tamils were killed by Sri Lanka Security Forces during the final months of the war that ended [...]

Sri Lankan Boycott campaigners carried out their last pickets of GAP stores for 2010 around the world including Los Angeles (Boycott Sri Lanka campaign) and London (Act Now) last weekend.

Following the recent failure of the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakse to address the prestigious Oxford Union due to accusations of War Crimes, a larger number of shoppers than usual were aware of the issues in Sri Lanka.This greater awareness of Sri Lankan complicity in War Crimes bodes ill for [...]