Skip to main content

UN RIGHTS CHIEF TO RAISE ‘CONCERNS’ IN SRI LANKA

The UN’s top rights official began her visit to Sri Lanka Sunday by brushing aside criticism that she overstepped her brief and vowing to raise human rights concerns with Colombo.

Navi Pillay, who has previously called for a war crimes investigation against Sri Lanka, said she was only holding it to human rights standards agreed to by all nations.

“I am not writing my own statute. I am looking at the (human rights) framework that was also developed by Sri Lanka,” she told reporters as she began her first meeting with local UN staff in Colombo.

“If I raise criticism, it is on whether they (Sri Lanka) comply with those standards,” she added. “I have not come to criticise. I have come to raise human rights concerns.”

Her week-long mission will include talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse and visits to the former war zones in the north and east.

A pro-government group said it will hold a demonstration outside the UN offices in Colombo on Monday to protest at Pillay’s visit. The same group has held similar protests in the past and called Pillay a US stooge.

During her visit, Pillay is scheduled to hold talks with local rights activists.

“We are in the process of finalising our memo to her. We want to talk about the culture of impunity during and after the war,” activist Nimalka Fernando told AFP.

“We are also specifically taking up the issue of media freedom in Sri Lanka.”

Fernando said an armed break-in at the Colombo home of a senior journalist at the Sunday Leader newspaper on Saturday could be linked to her work, although police insisted it was only an attempted robbery.

The attack was the latest of several violent incidents involving the staff of the privately-run newspaper, whose founding editor Lasantha Wickrematunge -- a fierce government critic -- was shot dead while he drove to work in January 2009.

“The murder of the Sunday Leader editor has still not been solved and this is also something that we will take up,” Fernando said.

Tamil groups are banking on Pillay’s first visit to Sri Lanka to revive calls for a war crimes probe.

“We will take up with her the question of accountability, the issue of thousands of missing people, the militarisation of Tamil areas and the lack of political freedoms,” Tamil National Alliance lawmaker Suresh Premachandran told AFP.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ukrainians injured as police dismantle Kiev 'tent city'

At least 10 demonstrators have been injured in clashes with Ukrainian police and another 100 detained in the capital Kiev after authorities began dismantling a makeshift "tent city" protesting against corruption. The tent city was set up in October by supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia who has become an opposition politician in Ukraine. Saakashvili, a critic of corruption in Ukraine, was deported to Poland in February. He said he was "kidnapped" by Ukrainian authorities and removed from the country against his will. Andriy Kryshchneko, police chief of police, said at the camp on Saturday that "two court decisions" allowed authorities to search and dismantle the camp. Police said that explosives and other weapons were found at the scene
Post a Comment
Read more

PayPal wants report from Sri Lanka: Sampath, three other banks to introduce service

Though the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) was first to introduce PayPal to Sri Lanka through the Sampath Bank, it is revealed that three other banks too have been now earmarked by the CBSL. A senior official from the CBSL told AdaderanaBiz, “We were to first introduce PayPal through the Sampath Bank. However, we now plan to introduce this service to the country through four banks. We also plan to gradually involve the rest of the banks in the country.” While the CBSL is discussing with the PayPal branch in India to introduce the service to Sri Lanka, PayPal’s Indian arm has reportedly requested a report on Sri Lanka’s exports. The senior CBSL official told AdaderanaBiz that they would be submitting such a report and hence the introduction of PayPal to Sri Lanka would face a slight delay. Though cash cannot be remitted to Sri Lanka through the world renowned PayPal money transfer service sending money from Sri Lanka is possible even now.
Post a Comment
Read more

ASSIGNING OF PREFERENTIAL NUMBERS FOR LG POLLS COMPLETED

The Election Secretariat announced that assigning preferential numbers for candidates of the Local Government election to be held for 67 bodies has been completed. Preparations are currently underway to hold the polls under the 2010 electoral register, Additional Elections Commissioner W.P. Sumanasiri said. The electoral register of the year 2010 is scheduled to be certified on June 31.
Post a Comment
Read more