Sri Lanka major Tamil party to make representations to the UNHRC during sessions in March

Mon, Dec 30, 2013, 11:05 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Dec 30, Colombo: Sri Lanka's major Tamil political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will make representations to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva during the March sessions next year.
TNA Spokesperson, parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told the media that the party at its recent meeting in Vavuniya has discussed the measures to counter the government's alleged attempts to cover up several issues before the international community.
He explained that the government has failed to respect the resolutions adopted at the UNHRC in 2012 and 2013 on addressing post war issues and implementing the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
He charged the government of trying to distract the international community with its census on human and material losses caused due to the conflict and said as a result, the Northern Provincial Council, will conduct a separate census.
According to Premachandran, the TNA will also brief the US delegation headed by US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal scheduled to visit Sri Lanka next month.

FISHERMEN PROTEST FOR THEIR RIGHTS

Please find the flowing URL 

 Fishermen PROTESTatThoppuwahttp://youtu.be/LjKhu1M6Dn8

 

http://youtu.be/LjKhu1M6Dn8

Fishermen Protect for their rights

Hundreds of fishermen were protesting and blocking Puthlam -Colombo road in 17 th December at Thoppuwa junction ,Kochchikade

* They were protesting against foreign fishing vessels

*Fisher women who participated in the protest were asking for the release of fishermen who are in Indian jails, for some time. They accused India, of closing down the international shipping routes in between SL and India, and they are taking SL fisherman into custody, while in international waters.

*Furthermore, the fishermen wants to cancel the subsidy for fuel, and reduce the price in general. Since the subsidy does not meet the requirement and also the process is not well organised. They say that they are being cheating by the government.   

Puthlam - Colombo road was blocked for about one and half our until deputy minister of fisheries Mr. Sarah Gunarathne promised to take the issues to the president Mahinda Rajapaksha today himself. Twenty representatives from the protesters were selected to go and discuss the issues they are having.

Sanath Nishantha, minister for fisheries in northwestern provincial council and also senior parliament member Mr. Milroy Fernando were at the site of the protest, and will join the conversation with the president

 

stop the foreign fishing vessels

fisher women campaign for their husbands whose arrested in India

police man get the photos of the protesting team

north western fisher minster Sanath Nishantha

Deputy minister of fisheries Mr. Sarah Gunarathne promised to take the issues to the president Mahinda Rajapaksha today himself.

human right day campaign

We conducted the campaign in Mannar on highlighting the issues of Disappearance,IDPs rights,  protecting the Human rights defenders and against the   human right violations.Please you can see the Video clip  below link. 

http://youtu.be/R_2Thvpk0Hw

Sri lankan -Cardinal spoke to Media on LLRC Recomendation

Addressing media at an event at the Sri Lanka Bishop's conference in Borella today to launch a publication titled "Revival through Local Unity Alliance" by the Sri Lanka Catholic Bishop's Association. Rev. Cardinal Ranjith said uncles the government worked towards reconciliation and addressed allegations of war crimes during the war against Tamil Tigers, a foreign intervention is inevitable.
 
 

 
 

Tamil activist gets death threats for his work defending the families of the missing

12/10/2013 17:03
SRI LANKA

by Melani Manel Perera
For months, Sunesh has been receiving phone calls from a stranger telling him to quit his job or have his head "hanging on the street." His complaints to the police prove useless. Although police know the identity of the caller, they also told the activist to find him himself. His wife, who was shadowed by a stranger, was forced to seek refuge with her brother. "I will not stop my activities," the activist said, "but I am looking for protection. I am afraid for myself and my family."


Colombo (AsiaNews) - "If you want to see your children again, quit your job. Otherwise, your head will be hanging on the street. This is not a warning," said a caller who has been making death threats against Anthirai Jude Basil Sosai, a Tamil human rights activist also known as Sunesh.
For months, the unknown caller has been telling him "to stop making trouble" if he wanted to live. "I want to continue my work," he told AsiaNews, "but I do not feel safe in Sri Lanka. I need protection."
Sunesh, 33, is married with two children. "My family and I are Tamil," he explained, "a minority that is often discriminated and marginalised in Sri Lanka."
"I work with the Mannar District Fisheries Solidarity, a project of the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO). "I work with Internally displaced people (IDPs), with the families of missing persons and small-scale fishermen."
Since 2010, when he began working for NAFSO, he has become one of the most active members in organising peaceful demonstrations, campaigns and hunger strikes. However, he noted, "as a result of my activism, I have been targeted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the army and police."
According to Sunesh, protests he organised could be the reason for the threats. The first came on 6 June. A stranger told him to come out of his house, and threatened him. He resisted, and two days later he went to the police to report the incident.
With the stranger's phone number, police identified the caller, but then told the activist: "You now have his name and national identification number, you can go and find him yourself."
Several months later, on the night of 21 November, the human rights activist received another call on his mobile from the same number. "I was in Negombo," he said, "where we had organised the World Fisheries Days. I answered the phone and the stranger spoke to me in broken Tamil. He told me to come out, that he was outside of my house."
When Sunesh showed no interest in accommodating him, the man began to speak in fluent Sinhala, the language spoken by Sri Lanka's majority.
"He kept pestering me and I told him that if he continued to threaten me, I would make ​​public our conversation," Sunesh said. "His replay was: 'You can talk to whoever you want. We should have kidnapped you before, but did not do it. That was a mistake.'"
After the second call, Sunesh returned to the police to report the matter. Two policemen came to his house and questioned his wife. She told them that someone had followed her and that she was afraid, but nobody did anything.
"For security reasons, I told her to stay momentarily with her brother together with the children," he said. "I am still in Negombo. The other NAFSO members, along with other NGOs, organised a silent march in my honour. But my family and I now live in constant fear."

Human rights day 10 th December

Human rights activists and CSO organizations   are conducting the demonstration on protecting the rights of human rights defenders   in Mannar 

New district comity was celected in Trincomalee district.

In November during the district comity meeting all decided to change the leaders and select new team for the 2014 .According to that decision 08 of December 2013   they held district comity meeting and  selected the new leaders for the 2014 ,We found that they are work in 16 villages .Out of the 16 villages 13 village leaders participated the meeting .
Members of the co team
District convener[Sinhala-Men  ]
Two other deputy conveners[Tamil Women and Men ]
Secretary of the comity [Muslim women  ]
Vice Secretary[Sinhala -women  ]
Treasurer[Sinhala -Men ]
Other 03 members  One Sinhala one Tamil and one Muslim
In the same time  they selected each member from the other villages
They plan to develop the annual action plan before the next meeting and decided to conduct the district meeting once in two month

District convener Ananda peries  address the meeting

Explain the NAFSO activities and future plan for the Human rights and livelihood 

 
  

 

"Otherwise I remain cosmopolitan in my outlook; in my thoughts I am as free as a falcon.

The anchor of all my dreams is the collective wisdom of mankind as a whole. I am influenced more than ever before by the conviction that social equality is the only basis of human happiness... It is around these issues that my thougts resolve. They are centred on humans, the ideas for which they strive; on the new world that is emerging; the new generation that declares total war against all forms of cruelty, against any social order that upholds economic privilege for a minority and that condemns the mass of the population to poverty and disease, illiteracy and the host of evils that accompany a stratified society".

From a letter to Senator Douglas Lukhele in Swaziland, 1 August 1970.

Nelson Mandela, "Conversations with Myself",

London, Macmillan, 2010, p. 182-183.