A new report published with the support of the Sri Lanka Advocacy Network, Germany says that Repression and human rights violations in the North remained under-reported throughout 2012. This report does not provide a comprehensive account of all incidents and trends happened in 2012, nevertheless it attempts to highlight some key human rights violations facing the Tamils in the North. At the same time it has to be recognized that violations and repressions are faced by all communities across the country, such as in the East and in the plantation sector.
In November issue of the Asia Pacific Bulletin published by the East West Centre, Neil DeVotte, Associate Professor at Wake Forest University argues, one word that is increasingly mentioned when discussing contemporary Sri Lanka is “authoritarianism.†This is primarily due to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s frittering away of citizens’ civil liberties even as he and his “First Family†arrogate power and—together with their close relatives, cronies, and supporters—govern extra-constitutionally and extrajudicially.
The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or Buddhist Strength Force, a new hard-line Sinhalese Buddhist group has called for the abolition of the Muslim halal system of certifying foods in Sri Lanka. They also demanded shops to clear their stocks by April 2013. They have openly accused the Muslim and Christians, in particular and said that foreign “propagators of religions†should leave the country within a month.
The government is engaged in an ambitious programme to establish permanent security forces bases in the Northern and Eastern Provinces as part of a strategy to thwart any possible attempt to revive LTTE terrorism. Authoritative government officials told The Island.
