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Thursday, 22 December 2011 17:01 |
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Women in Sri Lanka’s predominantly Tamil-speaking north and east are facing a desperate lack of security in the aftermath of the long civil war. Today many still live in fear of violence from various sources. Those who fall victim to it have little means of redress. Women’s economic security is precarious, and their physical mobility is limited. The heavily militarised and centralised control of the north and east – with almost exclusively male, Sinhalese security forces – raises particular problems for women there in terms of their safety, sense of security and ability to access assistance. They have little control over their lives and no reliable institutions to turn to. The government has mostly dismissed women’s security issues and exacerbated fears, especially in the north and east. The international community has failed to appreciate and respond effectively to the challenges faced by women and girls in the former war zone. A concerted and immediate effort to empower and protect them is needed.
Source: International Crisis Group
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Last Updated on Thursday, 22 December 2011 17:13 |
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Monday, 29 August 2011 16:12 |
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The five doctors who worked inside the final conflict zone (the government-declared “no-fire zone”) and who released accounts of the situation and the numbers of killed and wounded civilians there gave a press conference press conference on July 8. The doctors said they were “pressured” by the LTTE to release the casualty figures during the fighting, and that in reality the number of killed and wounded civilians was much lower. Many international observers doubt the veracity of this “confession”, and casualty figures from other sources are inconsistent with the numbers given by the doctors at the press conference. Some have said the doctors were told they must make this sort of statement or be prosecuted for assisting the LTTE. It is not known if they will in fact be released soon, but it appears they have been treated relatively well while in detention. There is some concern for their safety if the doctors are in fact released
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Last Updated on Monday, 29 August 2011 16:25 |
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Written by Lobby for Peace
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Wednesday, 03 August 2011 19:34 |
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — An international human rights group urged the United Nations on Wednesday to investigate the execution-style slaying of 17 workers for a French aid agency in Sri Lanka five years ago, after a government probe did not identify the killers.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said the government's failure to bring the killers to justice "highlights a broader lack of will to prosecute soldiers and police for rights abuses."
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Monday, 26 September 2011 09:43 |
Having forensically documented the ongoing torture of Tamils in Sri Lanka after the civil war, including a number of individuals who were tortured after returning to the country, Freedom from Torture is gravely concerned about the risks facing refused asylum seekers whom the UK Border Agency is planning to forcibly remove on a charter flight next week.
The removal flight – planned for Wednesday 28 September – and the risk of torture and other ill-treatment upon return will be up for discussion at the Labour Party Conference this weekend in Liverpool, as Freedom from Torture and Human Rights Watch – in conjunction with Channel 4 – host a fringe event: ‘Values & human rights in UK Foreign Policy: where now after Sri Lanka’s killing fields?’.
Source: Freedom from torture
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Wednesday, 03 August 2011 19:48 |
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Source: Human Rights Watch
The Sri Lankan government's failure to bring to justice those responsible for the execution-style slaying of 17 aid workers five years ago highlights a broader lack of will to prosecute soldiers and police for rights abuses.
(New York, August 3, 2011) - The Sri Lankan government's failure to bring to justice those responsible for the execution-style slaying of 17 aid workers five years ago highlights a broader lack of will to prosecute soldiers and police for rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. Despite strong evidence of involvement by the security forces in the killings, government inquiries have languished and no one has been arrested for the crime.
On August 4, 2006, gunmen murdered the 17 Sri Lankan aid workers - 16 ethnic Tamils and one Muslim - with the Paris-based international humanitarian agency Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger, ACF) in their office compound in the town of Mutur, Trincomalee district. The killings followed a battle between Sri Lankan government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for control of the town.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 19:51 |
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Wednesday, 27 July 2011 14:44 |
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Exclusive: two Sri Lankans who witnessed the violent final showdown of the country's 26-year civil war claim a top military commander and Sri Lanka's defence secretary ordered war crimes.
One of these eyewitnesses, an army officer, accuses Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa - the president's brother - of ordering Brigadier Shavendra Silva to execute Tamil rebel leaders, whose safe surrender had been guaranteed by the president.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 July 2011 15:05 |
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Monday, 26 September 2011 09:33 |
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UK 'Complicit in torture' as Tamils return to Sri Lanka
Britain is leaving itself open to allegations it is complicit in torture by sending failed Tamil asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka despite evidence physical abuse is a "daily reality", a charity warns. The charity Freedom from Torture said a number of Tamils were due to be forcibly removed by the UK Border Agency and flown back to Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
The group says it has credible evidence that members of the Tamil minority are still being routinely mistreated following the end of the country's bloody civil war.
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Last Updated on Monday, 26 September 2011 09:39 |
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Wednesday, 03 August 2011 19:41 |
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A leading human rights group is calling for an international investigation into the execution-style killing of 17 aid workers in Sri Lanka five years ago.
New York-based Human Rights Watch says the Sri Lankan government's failure to bring the killers to justice highlights what it called “a broader lack of will to prosecute soldiers and police for rights abuses.” The Sri Lankan employees of Paris-based aid agency Action Against Hunger were found dead in August 2006 in the eastern town of Mutur. Human Rights Watch said Wednesday the killings followed fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels for control of the town.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 19:43 |
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Friday, 01 July 2011 23:16 |
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Stewart Bell Jul 1, 2011 – 3:30 PM ET | Last Updated: Jul 1, 2011 3:40 PM ET
A Canadian man has returned to Toronto after spending three years in the custody of Sri Lanka’s anti-terrorism police, whom he said detained him until he signed a false confession saying he had smuggled equipment to the Tamil Tigers rebels.
Roy Manojkumar Samathanam, 40, said that while visiting Sri Lanka, where he was born, he was arrested by the country’s Terrorist Investigation Division. He said he was beaten, threatened and witnessed torture while imprisoned at three locations.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 14 July 2011 23:41 |
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