Cluster bombs found in Sri Lanka, UN expert says

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17861187

Unexploded cluster munitions have been found for the first time in Sri Lanka, a UN expert on land mines has claimed.

In an email, Allan Poston said that small bombs from the weapons were discovered in the north of the country, near to where a child was killed in an explosion last month.

The government has denied that it ever used cluster bombs during the civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels.

They are banned under an international treaty that took effect in August 2010.

The treaty has been signed by more than 60 countries, but not Sri Lanka, China, Russia, India, Pakistan and the US - who all argue that the bombs are a legitimate weapon of war when used properly.

The UN says that tens of thousands of civilians may have been killed in the last few months of the Sri Lankan war in 2009.

  - UN finds cluster bombs in Sri Lanka - AP
  - Cluster bomb use in Sri Lanka could trigger war crimes probe - CTV
  - UN report says unexploded cluster munitions found in Sri Lanka, appearing to confirm war use - Global News

Sri Lanka rejects call to withdraw army from north

http://news.yahoo.com/sri-lanka-rejects-call-withdraw-army-north-085000343.html

Sri Lanka's president has rejected a call by Indian legislators to withdraw soldiers from the island's former war zone in the north where minority Tamils are concentrated, his spokesman said Sunday.

President Mahinda Rajapakse told a delegation of visiting Indian lawmakers that troops could not be pulled out despite the end of the decades-long Tamil separatist war in 2009.

"The president explained that there are troops elsewhere in the country as well," spokesman Bandula Jayasekera told AFP. "They are not only in the (Tamil-dominated) north."

The visiting delegation was the first team of Indian MPs to visit the island since Sri Lankan forces crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels, ending an ethnic conflict which had claimed up to 100,000 lives.

Indian opposition leader Sushma Swaraj and the cross-party delegation met with Rajapakse on Saturday.

Among the visiting MPs were representatives from Tamil Nadu state, whose 60 million population share close cultural and religious links with Sri Lanka's Tamils.

Sri Lankan forces have a strong presence across the north, which was badly damaged during decades of fighting.

Tamil politicians there have demanded political autonomy to address long-standing grievances of discrimination and oppression by Sinhalese-dominated governments.

Sri Lankan mosque forced to abandon prayers by protesters

A mosque in Sri Lanka has been forced to abandon Friday prayers amid community tensions in the central town of Dambulla.

About 2,000 Buddhists, including monks, marched to the mosque and held a demonstration demanding its demolition.

A mosque official told the BBC he and several dozen companions were trapped inside and feared the crowd would destroy the building.

Overnight the mosque had been targeted by a fire-bombing - no-one was hurt.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says the tensions have been growing in the neighbourhood.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17781372

Horrible rise of disappearances in post-war Sri Lanka continues unabated

[ Groundviews Apr 05,2012 ]

Twenty nine disappearances (including an attempted abduction) have been reported in Sri Lankan media between February and March 2012. There have been fifteen in March and fourteen in February. This brings the total number of disappearances reported in the last six months to fifty six.

Nineteen cases were reported while the sessions of the UN Human Rights Council were in progress in Geneva from the 27^th of February to the 23^rd of March 2012.

http://groundviews.org/2012/04/05/horrible-rise-of-disappearances-in-post-war-sri-lanka-continues-unabated/

SRI LANKA: A sorry state of affairs -- illegal arrests and detention

[ AHRC-Apr 03,2012 ]

The criminal justice system of Sri Lanka is in decline. Across the country numerous reports document that illegal arrests and detention continues to happen indiscriminately. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has issued several hundred urgent appeal cases over the past decade regarding illegal arrests and arbitrary detention in locations across the country. Most, if not all of the cases, demonstrate that state authorities have acted illegally when arresting and detaining civilians. Indeed, in most of the cases, the state agency did not supply the victim with a reason for the arrest. This is a serious violation of Sri Lanka's legal code and departs from both domestic and international standards regarding arrest and detention. Although the right to a fair trial is guaranteed as a fundamental human right within Sri Lanka's Constitution, state authorities, particularly the police, have shown little respect for these constitutional provisions.

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-078-2012