Tag: politics

COLOMBO, March 27, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse rejected Thursday’s UN Human Rights Council resolution ordering a war crimes probe, telling AFP that he would instead press ahead with his own reconciliation plan.“We reject this,” Rajapakse said. “This resolution only hurts our reconciliation efforts.It does not help. “But I am not discouraged. […]

GENEVA, March 27, 2014 (AFP) – The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday launched an inquiry into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, despite Colombo’s fierce efforts to block an investigation.But they question the credibility of his efforts to come clean on the past and to stem what they say are ongoing rights violations. “The […]

COLOMBO, March 26, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka faces fresh condemnation at the United Nations’ top human rights body this week in a move that observers say could lead to an international criminal investigation for war crimes.A US-led resolution demanding accountability for thousands of deaths of ethnic Tamil civilians five years ago is almost certain […]

COLOMBO, March 19, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has released two leading rights activists after their detention under strict anti-terrorism laws triggered international condemnation, police and supporters said on Wednesday. Sri Lanka has previously said it needs more time to address issues of accountability and reconciliation after ending the 37-year conflict, which according to UN […]

COLOMBO, March 17, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has arrested two leading rights activists including a Catholic priest under anti-terrorism laws, police and campaigners said Monday, ahead of an expected UN censure later this month.Father Praveen Mahesan, head of the Peace and Reconciliation Centre in the war-torn Jaffna region, and Ruki Fernando of the Colombo-based […]

GENEVA, March 5, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Wednesday dismissed a UN report calling for an international probe into allegations of war crimes at the end of its civil war as “fundamentally flawed.” Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris said his government rejected a report from UN human rights chief Navi Pillay “in its entirety,” […]

COLOMBO, March 4, 2014 (AFP) – A US-led resolution calling for an international probe into allegations that 40,000 civilians were killed at the end of Sri Lanka’s separatist war has been filed with the UN’s top rights body. The resolution is “totally based on information of questionable veracity”, the monks said in a petition to […]

COLOMBO, February 28, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president on Friday acknowledged his discomfort at the prospect of being censured by the UN’s top rights body, as he accused Washington of treating Colombo like Muhammad Ali’s “punching bag”.Although the exact text of the resolution is still not known, the US has said it will file […]

COLOMBO, March 1, 2014 (AFP) – Another unmarked mass grave has been found in Sri Lanka’s former war zone, police said Saturday, as Colombo braced for a US-led censure resolution at the UN rights forum next week.A family on Friday stumbled upon nine bodies buried in the garden of their home in the district of […]

WASHINGTON, February 27, 2014 (AFP) – From China’s crackdown on activists to flawed elections in Cambodia and widespread violence against Muslims in Myanmar, Asia’s human rights record in 2013 remained poor, US officials said Thursday. Releasing its annual Human Rights report, the State Department documented a litany of abuses across the continent, with especially strong […]

COLOMBO, February 25, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Tuesday accused the UN rights chief of “unwarranted interference” by calling for an international inquiry into allegations troops killed thousands of civilians at the end of the civil war.The government of President Mahinda Rajapakse formally rejected the demand by rights chief Navi Pillay for an external investigation […]

COLOMBO, February 23, 2014 (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai cancelled a two-day state visit to Sri Lanka Sunday, the foreign ministry in Colombo said, as Taliban insurgents killed 20 of his soldiers in eastern Afghanistan.“Please note that the visit of the President of Afghanistan to Sri Lanka has been cancelled,” the ministry said without […]