Former Sri Lankan army chief and defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka will face three charges in a military court, including "conduct unbecoming an officer," a source said Thursday. "There will be three charges against him," said the military source, who declined to be named. In addition to the "conduct unbecoming" charge, he will also be accused of maintaining contact with opposition politicians while being head of the army and unfairly granting an arms tender to a company run by his son-in-law. [ full story | comments ]

CHARGES against 11 asylum seekers over a riot at the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre are vindictive and should be dropped, a refugee action group says. The men, all Afghans and Tamils aged between 21 and 36, have been charged with rioting and possessing weapons over the November incident, which allegedly involved 150 detainees from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said the asylum seekers appeared in the Christmas Island Magistrates Court today. [ full story | comments ]

The History and Archeology Department of Jaffna University has excavated a temple of the Chola era in Nedunthivu or Delft Island, off the Jaffna coast. The leader of the team, Prof P Pushparatnam told `Express’ over the phone on Tuesday that the 40-ft long 10-ft wide temple belonged to the era of Raja Raja Chola or 10th Century BC. Raja Raja Chola, one of the most powerful rulers of the Chola dynasty, ruled the Thanjavur-Cholamandalam area from 985 to 1014 CE. [ full story | comments ]

An Indian charity has sent a team to northern Sri Lanka to provide 1,000 amputees with artificial limbs. Workers from the BMVSS charity, which makes the so-called "Jaipur foot", will spend a month in the town of Vavuniya. The Jaipur foot is regarded as the most inexpensive and cost effective artificial limb in the world. [ full story | comments ]

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. "The Sri Lankan government is conducting a carefully coordinated witch hunt aimed at discrediting critics of the government," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "This is extremely dangerous and irresponsible in a country where journalists and activists have often been threatened and killed." "This smacks of retaliation for reporting on violations during the presidential election," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director. [ full story | comments ]

After the brutal and treacherous killings of tens of thousands of innocent people during the final stages of the war, after detaining 300,000 Tamils including children elders and the invalid under inhuman conditions in concentration camps, without any international humanitarian assistance and behind closed doors of the media, the Sri Lankan government still continues to hide the truth of this inhumane situation from the international community, arrogantly refusing to allow international assistance to the victims. Thousands of youth who surrendered are still held in jails without proper inquiry or legal representations and without any contact even with the ICRC. [ full story | comments ]

China is to lend Sri Lanka about $200m (£133m) to build a second international airport in the south of the island. Another $100m from Beijing will help boost the island's railway network, Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said. The new airport will be near a vast sea port which is being largely funded with Chinese money. China is financing a growing number of such projects in Sri Lanka, which some see as an attempt to undermine Indian influence in the region. The two countries are vying for contracts in Sri Lanka following the end of more than 20 years of civil war. [ full story | comments ]

The United Nations says that nearly a hundred thousand ineternally displaced people (IDPs) are still accommodated in temporary camps. All of them were displaced due to the conflict between the Tamil Tigers and Government security forces. A report published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that about almost twice the amount have been released. However the figure quoted by Presidient Rajapaksha to the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao was 70,000. [ full story | comments ]

In the first such incident after the end of the war between Sri Lankan Army and LTTE last year, three Lankan Tamils arrived here today seeking refuge, alleging 'torture' by the island security forces, police said. Sumit Kumar, Gajan and Dharmaseelan of Jaffna District, who arrived by a boat, were sent to the Mandapam refugee camp after interrogation by the Q Branch Police of Tamil Nadu, which deals with extremist elements. The trio had earlier come here as refugees in 2006 and returned to Sri Lanka in 2008. [ full story | comments ]

Refugee advocates have staged a rally in the eastern Australian city of Sydney to mark 150 days since a boat load of asylum seekers moored in Indonesia. About 50 protesters gathered today outside the Prime Minister's Sydney office. Greens MP Sylvia Hale says the government has turned a blind eye to the 230 Tamils still onboard the boat moored at the port of Merak. "Allow those Tamil refugees to proceed to Australia. " [ full story | comments ]

The position of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR) sits uneasily with that of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon who once again reiterated on 9 March 2010 his intension to establish an expert panel to advise him on “setting the broad parameters and standards on the way ahead on establishing accountability” for alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka during the conflict between the government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).[2] This is welcome. [ full story | comments ]

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. Europe, Japan and the United States have been the biggest donors until a few years back when the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, was compelled to rely on China, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Libya for support after intensive battles between government troops and Tamil rebels triggered civilian deaths and strong protests from the West. [ full story | comments ]

The Madras High Court will take up the case of Nalini's Sriharan's premature release as the Tamil Nadu government will produce the Prison Advisory Board report on her in court today. The board was constituted to consider the plea for premature release by Nalini, serving life term in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Nalini's original death sentence was commuted to life in prison after Sonia Gandhi intervened. Gandhi, whose husband, Rajiv, was killed by Nalini, asked for the reprieve for Nalini after the assassin had a baby daughter. [ full story | comments ]

So far over 150,000 have been killed, thousands and thousands have been multiply internally displaced and several thousand arbitrarily detained without any charges for many years. Another 600,000 or more have sought asylum in foreign countries. Press freedom and freedom of expression are in peril in Sri Lanka. Journalists are arrested, tortured, abducted, disappeared and killed over-night. Misinformation is heavily used internally and internationally by the government to distort the real picture of what is happening in Island. [ full story | comments ]

Sri Lanka will get 22.5 billion yen in loans (250 million US dollars) from Japan for hydro power, water supply and provincial road development in former war torn areas in the east, a government minister said. The Japan International Co-operation (JICA) will loan 5,522 million yen (50 million US dollars) for the second stage of a hydro power complex in Upper Kotmale in Sri Lanka's central hills, minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris told reporters. [ full story | comments ]

For more than five months a group of nearly 240 Sri Lankan asylum seekers have been stranded in an Indonesian port. The stand-off began when their boat was intercepted by the Indonesian navy following a tip-off from Australia. The boat people, who are virtually cut off from outsiders, say they want to be resettled in Australia or overseas. But Australia argues that the boat was intercepted in Indonesian waters so the people are Indonesia's problem. Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reports. [ full story | comments ]

In a meeting with a CPJ delegation today, Sri Lankan Attorney General Mohan Peiris said he was prepared to offer protection to any of the nation’s journalists who return to the country from exile. "Speaking for myself, and I’m fairly sure the government will back me up on this, there is no question that the government needs our journalists,” Peiris told the delegation in his office. “They must come back and work with us and help set up the structures so that we can work together and we can respect each other. We must work with these institutions because we need them. We know if they stay outside and attack the government that is not useful.” [ full story | comments ]

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". This week’s posturing is the latest episode in a saga that began about two years ago when the United Nations, especially the U.N. Human Rights Council, raised concerns over the conduct of the final phase of Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war. [ full story | comments ]

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. Jeremy Sarkin, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances, in his concluding remarks, said impunity was a major issue and indeed a major obstacle in terms of dealing with enforced disappearances. [ full story | comments ]

Sri Lanka's bloody civil war came to an end amongst some of the fiercest fighting, with both the government and the insurgents facing allegations of war crimes. During this time, the Tamil-dominated north was virtually off limits to journalists, aid agencies and human rights organizations. It was, essentially, a war without witness. CNN's Sara Sidner gained rare access to Jaffna in Sri Lanka and the people who suffered the ravages of nearly three decades of civil war. While the truth of what happened may be hard to ascertain, the stories of those who lived through it offer a rare glimpse into the power and endurance of the human spirit. [ full story | comments ]