ONE of the worst atrocity crime stories of recent decades has barely registered in the world’s collective conscience. We remember and acknowledge the shame of Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. We agonise about the failure to halt the atrocities in Syria. But, at least until now, the world has paid almost no attention to war […]
February 4th, 2013 by Bhavani Fonseka Today, the 65th National Day of Sri Lanka, offers a moment to reflect on achievements since independence. Although more than three years have passed since the end of the war in 2009, prospects for justice, peace and reconciliation continue to elude the tiny island in South Asia. More recent developments highlight […]
Posted: 10 July 2009 The statements made to the media by doctors detained by the Sri Lankan government for providing what it says was false information about civilian casualties during the last days of its offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) points again to the need for an independent inquiry into allegations […]
28 July 2009 (London) – Despite the end of hostilities, children in Sri Lanka continue to be at risk of forced recruitment, arbitrary detention and other human rights abuses, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (Coalition) said today. In a new briefing to the Security Council Working Group (Working Group) on Children […]
The Sri Lankan government should immediately release the more than 280,000 internally displaced Tamil civilians held in detention camps in northern Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said today. The government, in violation of international law, has since March 2008 confined virtually all civilians displaced by the fighting between government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers […]
Beside a green lagoon on Sri Lanka’s northeastern coast, on a sandy spit of land less than 8 miles long, violence reportedly erupted 9-10 May as military soldiers clashed with rebel Tamil Tigers.Now, a detailed AAAS assessment of high-resolution satellite images seems to confirm descriptions of intense fighting within Sri Lanka’s “no-fire zone”—revealing a landscape […]
During the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war, the island nation’s government barred the media and other observers from entering the war zone. As a result, first-hand accounts of the conditions facing the hundreds of thousands of Tamils forced to flee their homes, and later interned in internally displaced peoples (IDP) camps, were practically […]
“If you look at the history of war crimes there isn’t one instance where a winner of a war has been tried before a Tribunal. They have always been set up for losers. And if you were to take winners then the start would have to be taken elsewhere. Sri Lanka did not drop atom […]
25 August 2009 Dear Sir/Madam, Video evidence of extra-judicial executions in Sri Lanka We, ‘Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka’, wish to bring to your attention this disturbing video clip. We are not in a position to disclose the way we received it, but we can say that the video was captured during the month […]
A disturbing video recently provided to the media showing the apparent summary execution of prisoners by Sri Lankan soldiers underscores the need for an international commission of inquiry into possible war crimes committed by both sides during the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, Human Rights Watch said today. The video shows men in Sri Lankan […]
