Internet restrictions curtail human rights, says US
[Mar 12, 2010, 07:39], [BBC]
Many governments have used the internet to curtail freedom of expression at home, the US state department says in its latest annual human rights report.
In many cases new forms of electronic communications are restricted to control domestic dissent, it says.
The wide-ranging report also highlights continuing human rights violations in China against the Uighurs and extra-judicial killings in North Korea.
Iran, Sri Lanka, Burma and Switzerland also come in for criticism.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the annual country reports - legally required by Congress - as "an important tool in the development of practical and effective human rights strategy by the United States government".
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Sri Lanka urged to end witch hunt against the media and NGOs
[Mar 12, 2010, 07:37], [AI]
The Sri Lankan government should end its harassment of journalists and activists and take steps against those making threats, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement.
Since the January 2010 presidential election, the government has engaged in a campaign to silence and discredit journalists and nongovernmental organizations. A recently leaked document, which appears to be a government surveillance list of more than 30 journalists and activists, significantly raises concerns about the safety of the people on the list, the organizations said.
â??The Sri Lankan government is conducting a carefully coordinated witch hunt aimed at discrediting critics of the government,â?? said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. â??This is extremely dangerous and irresponsible in a country where journalists and activists have often been threatened and killed.â??
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US reports rights violations in Sri Lanka
[Mar 12, 2010, 07:25], [Sfy.com]
Sri Lanka violated human rights last year as it dealt a final blow to Tamil Tiger insurgents and clamped down on media freedom, the US State Department said Thursday.
But in an annual report, the State Department also reported some signs of progress since May when Sri Lankan forces defeated the Tigers who had waged a 37-year war for a separate Tamil homeland.
"The government's respect for human rights declined as armed conflict reached its conclusion," the State Department said.
It said that young Tamil men accounted for an "overwhelming majority" of victims of human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, even though Tamils only make up some 16 percent of the population.
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US slams rights abuses in China, Iran
[Mar 12, 2010, 07:22], [The Age]
The United States has accused China and Iran of increasing human rights abuses as it raised the alarm about growing anti-Semitism worldwide and discrimination against Muslims in Europe.
In its annual report on human rights for 194 countries, the US State Department also denounced North Korea's "deplorable" record, "egregious" abuses in Burma as well as "numerous and serious" violations in Cuba.
In China, the report said, the authorities continued the repression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, the western region where China's Han majority engaged last year in deadly clashes with local Uighurs.
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Sri Lanka: End Witch Hunt Against the Media and NGOs
[Mar 11, 2010, 18:16], [HRW (D)]
(New York) - The Sri Lankan government should end its harassment of journalists and activists and take steps against those making threats, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement today.
Since the January 2010 presidential election, the government has engaged in a campaign to silence and discredit journalists and nongovernmental organizations. A recently leaked document, which appears to be a government surveillance list of more than 30 journalists and activists, significantly raises concerns about the safety of the people on the list, the organizations said.
"The Sri Lankan government is conducting a carefully coordinated witch hunt aimed at discrediting critics of the government," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
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Sri Lanka doing massive deals with China
[Mar 11, 2010, 16:50], [malaysiasun.com]
Sri Lanka will soon build a second international airport on the south of the island, with much of the money coming from China.
Beijing will lend about $200 million for the airport project and also make another $100 million available to re-fit the island's ageing rail network.
The new airport will be near a sea port which is currently being developed with Chinese funds.
Both India and China have been vying for contracts in Sri Lanka following the end of the 20 year civil war, but already China is supplying more than half of all the construction and development loans for the island.
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Family fears for missing Sri Lankan cartoonist
[Mar 11, 2010, 16:48], [AFP]
COLOMBO — Six weeks ago Sri Lankan political writer and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing, and his fate has raised further concerns about the island's culture of violence against the media.
Eknaligoda, who contributed to the pro-opposition Lankaenews.com website, did not return home after work on January 24, two days before the island's presidential elections.
A police probe into his whereabouts has drawn a blank, and his family and friends believe he was abducted by government authorities who act against critics.
Eknaligoda was briefly detained, roughed up and freed by unknown assailants in August.
The family allege his current situation is linked to his support for defeated opposition presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka.
"I believe high-ranking people within the government have abducted my husband for his writings and cartoons criticising President Mahinda Rajapakse," Sandhya Eknaligoda, 47, told AFP.
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Sri Lanka: UN supports health services for resettled women
[Mar 11, 2010, 02:28], [U.N Org]
9 March 2010 – The United Nations is setting up mobile health clinics and distributing hygiene packs and maternity kits to women and children returning home to former conflict zones in northern Sri Lanka.
“UNFPA [the UN Population Fund] is pleased to be working with our partners in restoring health services and ensuring that the unique health concerns of women and girls are not overlooked during the resettlement process,” said UNFPA Representative Lene Christiansen after visiting several resettlement areas recently.
Of the 2,500 pregnant women who moved out of displaced camps this year, some 150 are expected to give birth in the next month, UNFPA said today.
Government forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) last year after more than two decades of fighting. But the conflict left hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced.
Given that most health facilities were damaged during the conflict or are difficult to access by the limited public transport, UNFPA and the Sri Lankan officials have begun to operate mobile reproductive health clinics in resettled areas.
The mobile clinics – run in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, provincial health officials and the Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka – offer prenatal and postnatal care, voluntary family planning, services for prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and psychosocial counselling.
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UK's Hi Tech Miliband Is Asked of Somalia and Sri Lanka, by Twitter, Yes or No
[Mar 11, 2010, 02:23], [Inner City Press]
UNITED NATIONS, March 10 -- It's all the rage in diplomatic spin: UK foreign secretary David Miliband is taking questions by Twitter today, during his two day stay in Boston. The UK consulate there has been soliciting questions, saying they will be answered throughout the day.
At the UN in New York, Inner City Press has asked Miliband questions at the Security Council stakeout, several times receiving wordy answers the meaning of which was not entirely clear.
Perhaps the format of 140 characters -- less with all the hash marks -- in the questions and especially the answers will make Miliband's meaning more clear. Here are two questions tweeted to the UK consulate as per their instructions on Wednesday morning by Inner City Press:
1) Has UK cut aid to WFP in #Somalia, and if so what is required for the aid to hungry Somalis to be resumed?
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China lends S.Lanka cash for new airport, railways
[Mar 11, 2010, 02:21], [AFP]
COLOMBO — China has loaned 290 million dollars to the Sri Lankan government to build an airport and expand the island's railway network, the foreign ministry in Colombo said on Wednesday.
The Export-Import Bank of China loaned 190 million dollars to construct a second international airport in Sri Lanka's south and 100 million dollars to develop the island's railways.
China, which is a key military and political ally of Sri Lanka, loaned the island 1.2 billion dollars in 2009 to build roads and a coal-fired power station.
Beijing helped block a UN resolution censuring Sri Lanka for its handling of the final stages of the war against the Tamil Tiger rebels last year and is one of the leading suppliers of small arms to the South Asian nation.
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GTF President urge Tamils to support the candidates or parties loyal to the fundamental aspirations of all the Tamils
[Mar 10, 2010, 08:56], [TNS]
The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) President, Father S.J. Emmanuel, while in the first place expressing the GTF’s compassion and solidarity to the brothers and sisters still struggling to survive on the island of Sri Lanka urging Tamils to not to support pseudo political leaders who betray the Tamil cause for liberation but to support candidates or parties who are loyal to the fundamental aspirations of all the Tamils within and without Sri Lanka in the upcoming Parliamentary election. The Global Tamil Forum President, Father S.J. Emmanuel says the GTF is mobilising the varied resources and aspirations of the Tamil Diaspora and will support and work with Tamil political leaders and parties who on the basis of inherent right of self-determination, adhere to the fundamental aspirations of the Tamils and courageously stand up for the nationhood, homeland and autonomy of the Tamil people.
Chickenpox threatens Merak asylum seekers
[Mar 10, 2010, 01:10], [ABC, AU]
People smuggling will be a main topic of talks between the leaders of Australia and Indonesia tomorrow amid claims that a potentially deadly chickenpox outbreak threatens asylum seekers docked in an Indonesian port.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have yet to discuss an issue that has strained bilateral relations - the fate of more than 200 Sri Lankan asylum seekers on a boat docked in Merak.
The asylum seekers have spent almost 150 days on board.
A spokesman claims there has been an outbreak of chickenpox among the asylum seekers and one doctor fears it could endanger the lives of at least three children on board.
The boat's self-appointed spokesman, Alex, vanished last week. One of the asylum seekers, 33-year-old Shan from Jaffna in Sri Lanka, says he is hopeful a decision is made in their favour soon.
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Is the British Conservative Party making a strategic change in relation to Sri Lanka?
[Mar 10, 2010, 00:38], [LN]
The Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague's address to the Global Tamil Forum signals potential change in Conservative Party's approach to the conflict in Sri Lanka.
Last week's Global Tamil Forum inaugural conference was, the first time ever, a Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary addressed a gathering organised by the Tamil lobby in relation to the conflict. According to many observers, this is a clear signal of the change in Conservative Party's approach to the conflict and also acknowledgement of the British Tamil Diaspora's role in shaping a future
Conservative Government's policy towards Sri Lanka.
The main Conservative opposition in United Kingdom also took a highly unusual step of issuing congratulatory messages from both, the Leader of the opposition and the Shadow Foreign Secretary, to the conference last week.
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DEVELOPMENT-SRI LANKA: Water Woes Fall on Women’s Shoulders
[Mar 9, 2010, 17:03], [IPSNEWS]
COLOMBO, Mar 9, 2010 (IPS) - As a wife of a rice farmer and mother of two children aged nine and two, Sanjeevani Bandara’s days are packed with chores. Yet while she used to be able to keep up with all she has to do in a day, this Sri Lankan mother now finds herself struggling to accomplish even the most basic tasks.
Blame it on the weather, which has been causing water shortages that force Bandara to spend more and more time fetching water for her family, farther away from home.
While the volume of annual rainfall in Sri Lanka has not changed, agriculture specialist Champa Navaratna says that weather patterns are changing to high-intensity rain for short periods, causing floods, landslides and long periods of drought – which in turn result in water problems.
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S.Lanka's detained general 'ends hunger strike'
[Mar 9, 2010, 17:00], [AFP]
COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka's defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka ended a hunger strike after just one day when he was allowed to speak to his daughters, his party said Tuesday.
Fonseka has been held at a detention centre since his arrest on February 8, two weeks after losing elections to President Mahinda Rajapakse.
The former army general began his fast Sunday but ended it Monday night after being allowed to speak to his daughters in the United States, a spokesman for his party said.
The government has yet to specify the charges Fonseka will face, but a military spokesman told reporters Monday that investigators had finished gathering evidence.
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