As many as 52 skeletal remains, fragments of artillery, and clothing resembling LTTE uniforms have been recovered from the 10 days of excavation work at the Kokkuthoduvai mass grave site.

On the 10th day itself, researchers unearthed 12 human remains alone and proceeded to gather more evidence for identification.

The third phase of excavation of the Kokkuthoduvai mass grave began on July 4, after months of delays from Sri Lankan authorities who claimed that there was insufficient funding to undertake this research.

Initial findings suggest that the mass grave site contains the bodies of dozens of LTTE cadres.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) usually buries the bodies of fallen fighters in cemeteries that once dotted across the Tamil homeland, but have now been destroyed by the Sri Lankan government. The nature of the mass grave however suggests that the killings or burial of the bodies took place under Sri Lankan military control.

V. Niranjan, attorney-at-law after appearing on behalf of the families of the disappeared spoke at the scene of the mass grave and said that preliminary research has found that many of the bodies showed signs of being riddled with gunshot wounds. In some of the situations he said that the clothes had been torn off from the body. He said this is an indication violence and abuse, which could constitute human rights violations. 

"52 human remains have been uncovered during the excavation of the Kokkuthoduvai mass grave site,” he said. “We believe that many of them maybe members of the LTTE and a majority of them being women." 

 "The investigations into the evidence are ongoing by Prof. Raj Somadeva and his team, they will begin carbon dating to identity the exact period these bodies were buried and other significant evidence that can be collated to make a stronger case." 

Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickremasinghe has appointed Lohan Ratwatte, an official who previously threatened to kill two Tamil political prisoners at gunpoint, as the State Minister for Plantation Industries and Mahaweli Development.

In September 2021 Ratwatte stormed into the Anuradhapura prison and forces Tamil political prisoners to kneel at gunpoint. The then prisons minister, who was inebriated at the time, questioned the Tamil political prisoners if they had killed any soldiers during the war. He went on to point his gun at the inmates accusing them of complaining to the UN, adding that the president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had empowered him to release or kill the inmates.

In 2022, the bodyguard of the former convict turned Sri Lankan minister, turned his pistol on a barking pet dog that approached the minister in Jaffna, killing the animal.

Ratwatte himself has a history of mass murder and irresponsible behaviour with firearms. He led the killing of ten unarmed Muslims during the 2001 general elections for which he was convicted and sentenced by the high court. He was later acquitted on flimsy grounds. 

In late December 2020, he terrified hotel guests in Kandy by firing gunshots into the air, reportedly due to anger. 

His latest appointment by Wickremesinghe has already drawn widespread outrage on social media.

As reminder, in 2021, when Lohan Ratwatte was prisons minister, he apparently made Tamil prisoners held under a draconian terrorism law kneel and threatened to shoot them. He went to another prison, armed with a pistol, demanding to inspect the gallows.https://t.co/3GWk4fGjMl https://t.co/Y1lugvxCXL

— meenakshi ganguly (@meeganguly) January 29, 2024

Sri Lankan security officials halted a bus that was carrying Tamil members of the families of the disappeared from Amparai and interrogated them, before eventually preventing them from attending a protest in solidarity with farmers in Batticaloa on Sunday.

The family members were on their way to join protest in Mayilathamadu, with livestock farmers protesting the encroachment of their grazing land by the Mahaweli Authority for new settlements.

However, they were halted at the Kallady bridge and subjected to questioning from 9 a.m. until noon, preventing them from joining the demonstration.

The incident occurred as Sri Lankan police came under criticism for their harsh response to the ongoing farmers' protest, including violent attacks on the protestors. Simultaneously, there has been a double standard in the treatment of counter-protests, such as one led by Sinhala Buddhist monk Ampitiya Sumanarathna, a monk known for making violent and racist remarks. 

A spokesperson for the Amparai chapter of the families of the disappeared told reporters that the double standard employed by state authorities, once again, only goes to highlight the legitimacy of their call upon the international community to intervene to provide justice.

Photo Credits: AntanO

Thousands of public sector workers across Sri Lanka staged a strike on March 15 to protest the IMF bailout plan, demanding that the government roll back high taxes imposed as a precondition to unlock $2.9bn IMF loan. 

The nationwide action, involving 40 trade unions, caused schools to cancel term tests and outpatient departments at hospitals to close. 

“The strike came despite a ban imposed by Wickremesinghe last month, and warnings that violators could lose their jobs. Trade union spokesman Haritha Aluthge said talks with the authorities overnight ended inconclusively, forcing them to go ahead with Wednesday’s work stoppage.”

President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said 20 trains operated to support office workers traveling to Colombo, but according to unions, it accounted for less than five percent of daily services.

While the president’s office referenced state-run buses in operations, very few were seen on the roads while attendance at schools, offices and factories was significantly lower. 

“Anyone who violates the essential services order will face the full force of the law,” cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardana warned prior to the strike.

Unions say that the strike will last in accordance with the government’s response to their demand to reverse new taxes, lower record high interest rates and reduce power tariffs.  

Formerly exiled Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has left for the United States with his family amidst calls for his arrest under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

According to officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Rajapaksa and his family left for the US via Dubai this morning. He is accompanied by his wife, Ayoma Rajapaksa, his son Manor Rajapaksa, his daughter-in-law, and his grandchild.

In July 2022, the former president was forced to flee the country after mass demonstrations which led to crowds storming his official residence. After fleeing from Sri Lanka to the Maldives, and then to Singapore, Rajapaksa announced his resignation. On 2 September, he returned back to Sri Lanka.

In July, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court demanded that Rajapaksa's to return to face the court in relation to a petition which called for an investigation into corruption and the bankruptcy of Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa ignored the summons and failed to appear before the court on 1st August.

Following his escape, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) filed a criminal complaint to Singapore's Attorney General, seeking Rajapaksa's "immediate arrest" for committing war crimes. A group of 17 Tamil and human rights organisations from across the world, also issued a joint letter urging Singapore’s Attorney-General's Chambers to investigate and prosecute Rajapaksa for his involvement in international crimes during the culmination of the Tamil Genocide in 2009.

Read More
 

Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe told reporters that discussions are underway with diplomats to prevent an international accountability mechanism, as his government proposed yet another domestic commission to probe mass atrocities committed by state forces.

“The government is hopeful that a domestic truth-seeking mechanism with honesty unlike on previous occasions will help Sri Lanka secure its place in the international community amidst its ongoing currency crisis”, said the minister.

“We are negotiating with them and we are trying to solve the problem through a domestic mechanism,” he continued. “I think if we can accelerate that process and show some results the international community will cooperate with us.”

“Even though the countries which sponsored the resolution officially didn’t confess their willingness to support Sri Lanka, but I hope if we show proper results, they will,” he concluded.

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution this month that will “extend and reinforce the capacity of the Office of the High Commissioner to collect, consolidate, analyse and preserve” evidence that may be used in future war crimes trials.

Rajapakshe’s remarks come despite Tamils and other survivors of Sri Lanka’s violations having demanded an international accountability mechanism for decades. To date, not a single Sri Lankan military or government official has been held to account for the abuses of 2009, in which tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were massacred.

Instead, accused Sri Lankan war criminals have been pardoned, or even promoted in the military and government, with abuses still rampant.

Rajapakshe himself joined other Sri Lankan officials in blaming the Tamil diaspora for the resolution at the global body, which will mandate the collection of evidence that could be used in future war crimes trials.

Sri Lanka’s president claimed to have received “a rousing welcome” as he met with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos in Manila on Thursday, where they reportedly pledged “the long-standing friendship between Sri Lanka and the Philippines would be promoted by developing Asian regional cooperation”.

During their discussion, the two reportedly spoke of “new approaches” to strengthen ties between their governments.

The two have much in common.

In March last year, the Philippines voted against the UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka which mandated for Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to "collect" as well as "consolidate, analyse and preserve” evidence that could be used in future war crimes trials.

Sri Lanka’s former president, and accused war criminal, Gotabaya Rajapaksa thanked the Philippines in a call with his then counterpart Rodrigo Duterte last year.

In 2019, former Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena has discussed reintroducing the death penalty to “replicate the success” of President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called drug war in the Philippines.

There has been a drastic increase in the number of Tamil children being sent to children’s homes in the Northern Province, as Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has forced families to breaking point across the region.

According data provided by the Child Care and Probation Department of the Northern Province, as of June 2022 nearly 246 children have been sent to children’s homes in the Northern Province.

The economic crisis functions as both the direct and indirect factor behind children in the North being sent to children’s homes, since their parents are no longer capable of providing for them, said Northern Province Commissioner of Child Care and Probation Guruparan Rajendran to The Morning yesterday.

With the economic crisis impacting on government spending, he added that there was insufficient funding being provided to his department.

“There is inadequate funding to support and maintain these children and therefore, the Child Care and Probation Department has had to opt for the option of sending them to homes,” he added. 

“The institutionalisation of children and sending them to homes should be the last option. But we are sending children to homes as the first option due to the lack of funds.”

There are 1,529 children in 37 registered child development centres, while 689 children are cared for by guardians as they are orphans, according to data provided by the Child Care and Probation Department of the Northern Province. 

Read more from The Morning here.

The former director of Sri Lanka’s of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) revealed how the security forces blocked the interrogation of the Easter Sunday bombers before the attack had taken place allegedly due to “national security”, and instead attempted to frame former LTTE cadres in a shocking set of revelations last week.

A Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed by Shani Abeysekara, revealed how Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence service (SIS) and Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) falsified evidence and allowed members of the National Thowfeek Jamath (NTJ) to function without being interrogated by the CID.

The NTJ went on to perpetrate the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks on churches and luxury hotels on the island, killing over 250 people.

Abeysekara begins by outlining how the Vavunativu murder of two policemen, had been falsely blamed on two former LTTE cadres by the DMI, who had fabricated that the attack was revenge for the interruption of a Maaveerar Naal memorial ceremony on 27th of November 2018.

He states that the SIS had submitted a motorbike jacket as crucial evidence, three days after the murder, despite having been at the scene on the day of the crime. Sniffer dogs that had picked up the scent on the motorbike jacket had only led the CID to former LTTE cadre, Ajanthan’s home, but not to the crime scene itself.

After having been arrested and detained for months, CID officers confirmed only after the Easter Sunday bombings that the murder of the two officers had been committed by the NTJ. Later, the rifle used to kill the policeman were found in a NTJ safe house, and CID investigations implied that the DMI and SIS had falsely fabricated evidence to frame the former cadres.

Abeysekara also states that on more than one occasion, investigations involving one or more NTJ members had been blocked by the SIS or DMI. According to Abeysekara, the SIS had a serving officer who was in direct contact with the NTJ before and after the attacks. The reportedly told Abeysekara “not to proceed” with the interrogation of the officer as it “is a part of [a] covert operation which is directly connected to national security”.

A separate incident involving vandalism of Buddha statues in the Mawanella, Peradeniya and Velambada Police areas triggered a series of investigations that led to an NTJ member admitting that M.C.M. Zahran was intending to cause “communal disharmony” in Sri Lanka.

Abyeskara was soon after swiftly transferred from his position as the Director CID to personal assistant to the Deputy Inspector General of Police in Galle Range, for no clear reason. 

Following this, he says he received calls threatening him and his family from unknown numbers and the security personnel assigned for his protection had been evoked. He says he was then abruptly removed from his services due to a "recorded telephone conversation", however he claims that no further investigation was carried out, nor was he allowed to give a statement regarding the his dismissal. 

Since his dismissal, the petitioner has been arrested for allegedly having "introduced certain weapons that fall within the provisions of the Offensive Weapons Act, Firearms Ordinance and the Explosives Act" amongst other reasons. 

As has been pointed out on social media, Abeysekara’s petition is sworn evidence submitted before the Supreme Court.

See the full petition here.

_{Senior Attorney K Ratnavel}

The Mannar High Court accepted a case against Sri Lankan state minister Lohan Ratwatte on Wednesday on behalf of one of the ten Tamil inmates forced to kneel before him at gunpoint when Ratwatte stormed into Anuradhapura prison under the influence of alcohol. 

Sivasubramaniam Thillairaja, who was remanded under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) is seeking charges of contempt of court and committing a heinous crime under Sri Lankan criminal law against Ratwatte.

During the incident, “he [Ratwatte] asked each person one by one, did you kill any soldiers?” said Senior Attorney K Ratnavel. “He asked Thillairaja who responded he didn’t know Sinhala” then a translator was called in and Thillairaja pleaded he “never committed any murders and that his case was pending in the Mannar court.”

Ratwatte then pointed his gun at another inmate and said, “you sent complaints to the United Nations and Geneva, but nothing will happen, and we will never let anything happen” adding, “when the president gave me the minister position, he told me to do whatever I wanted to the Tamil political prisoners [...] I can release you, or I can kill you.” 

Ratnavel told journalists, “If an ordinary citizen had done this, he would have been immediately arrested for attempted murder [and] challenging the authority of the court” for threatening prisoners. However, the only consequence the minister has faced is to resigned from his post as State Minister for Prison Management and Prisoners Rehabilitation. Despite this, Ratwatte has been able to maintain a different cabinet portfolio.

Sri Lankan Justice Minister, Ali Sabry, recently visited the Anuradhapura prison and told journalists “he had spoken directly to Tamil political prisoners and that they had not been threatened in any way.” Ratnavel called this “a blatant lie” adding the prisoners “signed an affidavit” describing the incident, “the Minister of Justice made a false statement in defiance of this testimony.” 

In September, Sabry, denied that there was a “racial motive” behind the incident when stating he would appoint a committee to investigate the matter. “Politicians should not interfere in this matter and do the right thing [...] the rule of law should be upheld,” stated Ratnavel.

The Mannar court judge requested the prison superintendent to conduct an inquiry into the incident and submit the report by the next hearing on November 30.

The Colombo  Magistrate's Court mandated the continued detention of former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen who had been named as the fifth suspect over the death of a 16-year-old domestic worker at his residence until October 1.
 
Colombo Magistrate granted bail to the wife of Rishad Bathiudeen, Ayesha Shehabdeen and her father at Rs. 1 million each.

MP Rishad Bathiudeen and his brother remain in Criminal Investigation Department (CID) custody over connection to the Easter Sunday attacks under Sri Lanka's widely condemned Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). He is now under investigation for allegedly aiding and abetting in the death and sexual assault of 16-year-old domestic worker Hishalini Jude Kumar.
 
On July 26, the Court had issued an order to exhume the body of the domestic worker and was consequently informed of several discrepancies between the cause of death between the first and second post mortem reports. Investigations are underway to determince whether the death was a murder or suicide.

Earlier in September, a jailor was transferred for providing a phone to the former minister. On Monday, the court ordered a report on the phone records of the presently incarcerated All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) Leader and Rishad Bathiudeen.

Read more here.

Ahead of the 48 UN Human Rights Council Session, Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa has left the island for an official visit to Italy where he will meet with Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli and the President of Slovenia Borut Pahor.

The visit comes despite increased concern over Sri Lanka's human rights record with numerous human rights organisations and Tamil activist groups warning of the continued use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and lack of accountability. Speaking today at the UNHRC session, UN High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet noted that "surveillance, intimidation and judicial harassment of human rights defenders, journalists and families of the disappeared has not only continued, but has broadened to a wider spectrum of students, academics, medical professionals and religious leaders critical of government policies".

Italy along with other European countries had voted in favour of UN Resolution 46/1 which mandated the collection of evidence for potential use at a future war crimes tribunal.

The Prime Minister will be also accompanied by a 17- member delegation including Minister G.L. Peiris to attend the G20 Interfaith Forum 2021, where he is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the opening session hosted at the University of Bologna, this year's theme being "Peace Among Cultures, Understanding Between Religions." 

Sri Lanka’s Catholic church Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith claimed the trip was an attempt to “mislead” the Vatican about the probe into 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. “I condemn this trip [to the Vatican] because they are attempting a coverup and trying to mislead the Pope and the international community,” he said. Following the Archbishop's allegations, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry in a media statement denied that the Prime Minister was to meet the Pope. 

Read more here.

Environmental activists condemned the failure of the Sri Lankan government and its agencies in addressing “the environmental damage and damage to livelihood of fishermen” caused by the X-Press Pearl disaster in May. 

On May 20, a nitric acid leak set the X-Press Pearl ablaze causing the worst environmental disaster in the island's history. At the time authorities banned fishing within a 50-mile radius of the scene because the ship was reportedly carrying 25 tonnes of dangerous chemicals and 28 containers of raw materials used to make plastic bags that spilt into the Sri Lankan coast.

Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Justice, Hemantha Withanage said the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) and National Aquatic Resources Research, Development Agency (NARA) and other local bodies “have not done justice to this issue.”

He reported that during the fire “70 to 75 billion plastic pellets [...] dropped into the ocean.” Likely these pellets would take up to 1000 years to decompose, most would be converted into microplastics and any fish that ate the contaminated plastic would likely die.

“Over 2000 turtle deaths” are reported to have occurred in addition to “around 45 dolphins [and] some whales,” he said. Withanage also criticised the government's failure in compensating affected fishermen due to poor management of insurance programs.

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department initially launched an investigation into the shipwreck with over 900 state officials deployed to assess the damage. However, Withanage stated that despite “apparent” chemical contamination SL authorities have failed to formally address the cause of these “deaths and damages.” 

Withanage urged the authorities to be wary of a possible oil spill as the ship was carrying 300 tonnes of fuel in its tanks. He warned that a leak could “emerge at any time.” 

Read more here.