Sri Lanka

By Chris Slee, Green Left Weekly
The ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won nearly two thirds of the seats in the Sri Lankan parliament at the April 8 national elections. The exact figure is uncertain, because the result in two electorates was annulled because of polling day violence.
Re-voting will occur in these areas on April 20.

By Stu Harrison, Green Left Weekly
The Sri Lankan government's fake sincerity towards the plight of the country's Tamil minority may have impressed the Australian government, which claimed "changed circumstances" as the reason behind its decision to suspend the processing of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka for three months. But it has done nothing to resolve the ongoing oppression of the Tamil people.

Chris Slee, Green Left Weekly
12 March 2010 -- The Left Liberation Front is contesting 19 seats in the April 8 parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka.
The LLF, an electoral coalition comprising the Nava Sama Samaja Party, Tamil National Liberation Alliance, and the Socialist Party, stands for the right of self-determination for the oppressed Tamil people, freedom for political prisoners and an end to the state of emergency.

Tony Iltis, Green Left Weekly
13 February 2010 -- Further evidence of the authoritarianism of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime came with the February 8 arrest of former general Sarath Fonseka, who had stood against Rajapaksa in the January 26 presidential elections.
The government has announced Fonseka will be tried by court martial for “military offences”, despite no longer being a serving officer.

Stu Harrison, Green Left Weekly
30 January 2010 -- Sri Lanka was guilty of crimes against humanity for their war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that concluded last May, a People’s Tribunal in Dublin on January 14-16 found.
The people’s court was organised by the Milan-based Permanent People’s Tribunal and hosted by the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka.

Stu Harrison, Green Left Weekly
30 January 2010 -- Incumbent and Sri Lanka Freedom Party candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa has won the January 26 presidential election, receiving 58% of votes cast.

An independent United Nations human rights expert said on January 7 there are strong indications that a video of alleged extrajudicial executions by Sri Lankan soldiers that aired last August on British television is authentic, a UN News Centre article said that day.

20 November 2009, Green Left Weekly

Ignoring calls from the Washington-based Human Rights Watch to tie the granting of further money to the Sri Lankan government to demands such as resettling the more than 250,000 Tamils imprisoned in detention camps, the International Monetary Fund has granted the regime a further $329.4 million.

By Tony Iltis & Stuart Munckton, Green Left Weekly
National Party leader Senator Barnaby Joyce has sought political capital by promoting an even harder line than the Rudd government on Tamil refugees. “Send the Oceanic Viking to Colombo and you will have made a strong statement”, Joyce told the Nine Network on November 8 about the 78 Tamil people refusing to leave the Australian custom ship to be imprisoned in Indonesia’s Tanjung Pinang Detention Centre.
“If we are going to have people in detention from Sri Lanka, then how about we have them in detention in Sri Lanka.”

By Raisa Wickrematunge
Thirty years ago, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was enacted in the Sri Lankan parliament. It was meant to be merely a “temporary” provision, to stamp out the encroaching terrorist menace.
Yet the PTA is still very much in force. Being convicted under the PTA carries a stigma with it, as clear as if a single, damning word were branded on the forehead: “Traitor.”