Buttons handed out in Berne © Amnesty International
By Christine Heller, a Sri Lanka Coordinator for Amnesty International in Switzerland.
I’ve just come back from our Sri Lanka action in Berne. The sun was out and there were about 40 activists handing out solidarity buttons reading “unlock the camps” in Tamil, as well as postcards featuring the poem “Broken Pottu” by Mahesh Munasinghe, inspired by the plight of children held in the camps.
Continue reading ‘Giving out solidarity buttons in Switzerland’
People displaced by armed conflict, northern Sri Lanka, 26 April 2009. © Private
By Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s researcher on Sri Lanka.
Six months ago the Government of Sri Lanka announced that war in Sri Lanka was finally over. Victory seemed sweet to ordinary Sri Lankans in the south. The deliberate killing of civilians by Tamil Tiger suicide bombers polarized communities and bred real fear that conflict could leak into ordinary life and affect anyone at any time.
Triumphalism about the elimination of the Tamil Tiger leadership led to dancing in the streets of Colombo. What was forgotten in the moment of victory was the suffering of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians displaced by the conflict and now unlawfully detained in camps in the north east.
Continue reading ‘Six months of suffering in the Sri Lanka camps’
Amnesty International activists raise banners in support of the Sri Lankan displaced.
By Tim Molyneux, a volunteer working in Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka team.
On Monday night I took part in a big event to raise awareness about the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in Sri Lanka currently confined in mass detention camps.
This marked the first day of an international week of action in support of the ‘Unlock the Camps’ campaign, calling on the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure safety and dignity for all displaced people in Sri Lanka.
Continue reading ‘Standing in solidarity with displaced people in Sri Lanka’
Activists at a vigil held in support of Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam. © Amnesty International
By Tim Molyneux, a volunteer working in Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka team.
On Wednesday 1 September, the Sri Lanka Team at Amnesty International’s International Secretariat organised a vigil outside Parliament Square in London. We gathered to protest against the sentencing of Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam, known as Tissa to his friends and family, to 20 years ‘vigorous imprisonment’ by the Government of Sri Lanka.
Tissa has been named a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International. We believe that he has been imprisoned simply for publishing articles critical of the Government of Sri Lanka.
Continue reading ‘Standing in Support of ‘Tissa’’
Official entrance of the UN in Geneva
On 12 June, Amnesty International launched a report called ‘Twenty years of make-believe: Sri Lanka’s Commissions of Inquiry.’ The report highlights decades of the Sri Lankan governments failure to pursue accountability and justice in the face of widespread human rights abuses.
In conjunction with the launch of the report, Amnesty travelled to the UN Human Rights Council and hosted a panel discussion on impunity and rule of law in Sri Lanka.
Continue reading ‘Seeking Justice at the UN Human Rights Council’
