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 president’s decision to shift foreign policy “eastward” after persistent and damaging human-rights abuse allegations from the West was confirmed last week when China emerged as the island’s biggest financial donor in 2009.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is facing a crisis of its own making. In its website, the OHCHR states “As the principal United Nations office mandated to promote and protect human rights for all, the OHCHR leads global human rights efforts speaks out objectively in the face of human rights violations worldwide”.[1] Instead of speaking out, it has shown a preference for silence.

The 24th of February marked the first month anniversary of the disappearance of Prageeth Ekneligoda, the Lanka E-News journalist. Two special Police teams are said to be on the case.  They have however, not come up with any information as to Ekneligoda’s whereabouts.

There is a view that the UN Organization General Secretary Ban Ki Moon appointed a panel of experts to investigate the human rights (HR)  violations and the war crimes committed during the Sri Lanka (SL) war was  in order to get an extension for  his term in office as Gen. Secretary. It is evident that when his first term is  about to end , he is resorting to various ploys to get it extended.

The war of words between the Sri Lankan government and the United Nations has begun all over again, this time over the creation of an experts’ panel on the island’s human rights record. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon wants to appoint this panel, but Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa says it is "unwarranted and uncalled for".

The Human Rights Council this morning held an interactive dialogue with the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances, the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on arbitrary detention, and the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons.

After abetting a military defeat and subsequently blessing a political defeat, the coterie of countries propping up Sri Lankan state is now bent upon enacting a third Mu’l’livaaykkaal, by bringing in a ‘development defeat’ of Eezham Tamils through handing over development management to the Sinhalese.

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.

The arrest a month ago of Sri Lanka's former army chief and defeated presidential candidate, Gen Sarath Fonseka, along with some of his supporters, has raised fears among rights groups in the country. The authorities accuse the general of having worked with what they call anti-government forces.

Two hundred and fifty four Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking refugees have been trapped on a tiny boat in the port of Merak in Indonesia for almost 150 days. They have been detained as a direct result of a request by the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, to the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The refugees are threatened with being incarcerated in a horrific detention centre or sent back to Sri Lanka where life had become unbearable during the war.

The People's Tribunal on Sri Lanka which conducted preliminary findings on the war which ended in May 2004, declared that the Sri Lankan government was guilty of war crimes . The findings listed that the Sri Lankan Government was guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, requires further investigation on charges of genocide and the failure of the International Community, particularly the UK, and USA to share the responsibility for the breakdown of the peace process.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has warned UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon of the consequences of appointing a panel of experts to advise him (the UN chief) on alleged violations of international humanitarian laws and human rights during Sri Lanka’s military campaign that ended the separatist war by Tigers.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has summoned parliament on Tuesday - a month after its dissolution - to allow for the extension of the state of emergency. The president was acting well within the ambit of the constitution which states that he may summon parliament after dissolution if he is satisfied that “an emergency has arisen of such a nature that an earlier meeting of Parliament is necessary”.

The controversy surrounding the victory of Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Sri Lanka presidential election over combined opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka, refuses to die down. World attention is focussed on the detention of General Fonseka, the former Army Commander and once-wounded war hero who led the action against the LTTE. So far, except for general statements hinting at a coup attempt and a broad conspiracy, the Sri Lankan government has chosen to remain silent about the real reasons behind Fonseka’s confinement and impending trial.