By Paul Canning | Care 2
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The British government is continuing to deport Tamil asylum seekers to Sri Lanka despite more evidence emerging that some of those removed are being tortured.
As I reported last year, there is a wealth of evidence that Sri Lankan authorities continue to practice torture on political opponents. Yet British authorities have insisted that the country is safe and hundreds of those fleeing the country have been returned.
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By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene | The Sunday Times
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Is there any other country in the civilized world where the police act under a repealed section of the penal law when making arrests and that gigantic mistake is then sought to be justified by government ministers in the legislative assembly by resorting to the most annoying twaddle?
This is a pertinent question in the wake of recent arrests by the police of opposition web journalists under Section 118 of Sri Lanka’s Penal Code. This Section was however repealed in June 2002 by Penal Code Amendment Act, No 12 of 2002. Section 118 of the Penal Code relates to attempts to bring the President into contempt by contumacious or insulting words or signs and was repealed under the hand of the United National Front government along with the sections relating to criminal defamation.
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Photo courtesy: Roy del Vecchio | flickr
By Indo Asian News Service | Yahoo! News
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Sri Lanka has seen a rise in the number of underage children being raped or abused this year, the police said Thursday.
Over 700 incidents of rape or abuse of children were reported during the first six months of this year, police spokesperson Ajith Rohana told Xinhua.
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By Qadijah Irshad | Khaleej Times
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The Sri Lankan government has been accused of human rights violation following the closure of two opposition websites this week.
While human rights organisations called the raids a part of a the government’s bid to intimidate and harass all critical journalists, the US and the UN have severely criticised the move.
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AFP
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Sri Lanka hit back Wednesday over claims it is clamping down on press freedom after criticism from rights groups and Washington for its shuttering of opposition news websites.
"Look at the newspapers in Sri Lanka. Can you possibly say that there is no freedom of press in the country? There is so much," Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris told reporters in Tokyo.
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Lanka Business Online
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Sri Lanka’s state investment promotion agency said it had inked a deal with a Singapore led consortium to build a 3 billion US dollar tourism city in Katana, north of the capital Colombo.
A consortium led by Asian Resorts, Casinos, a Singapore based firm, will invest in Katana City Developments Private Limited, the project company.
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Lanka Business Online
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Sri Lanka should implement several key measures contained in a report by a commission which studied lessons to be learnt from a recent civil war, some of which can be done without delay, a civil organization of professionals has said.
Sri Lanka's Organization of Professional Association, a civil society organization said a report by Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) had come up with many good recommendations to promote good governance and ethnic reconciliation.
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IRIN
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Sri Lankan parliamentarians in favour of acting on the recommendations in a report into the final stages of the country’s civil war by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) are slowly gaining ground over those who are not, says a presidential peace process adviser.
The government’s initial reaction to the LLRC recommendations was positive, presidential adviser and parliamentarian Rajiva Wijesinha told IRIN, but others saw the report, released just over six months ago, as a call for regime change and were “highly critical”.
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Human Rights Watch
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The Sri Lankan government should immediately end harassment of media outlets and journalists in violation of the right to freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday (03). In the three years since the end of the armed conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government has expanded its efforts to silence critical views.
On June 29, 2012, the Criminal Investigation Department, acting on a court order, raided the offices of the Sri Lanka Mirror, a news website, and Sri Lanka X News, a website of the opposition United National Party. The authorities confiscated computers and documents, and arrested nine people on the grounds that the websites were “propagating false and unethical news on Sri Lanka.” They were charged under article 120 of the Penal Code, which imposes up to two years in prison for those who “excite or attempt to excite feelings of disaffection to the president or to the government.” The day after their arrest the nine were released on bail.
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Xinhua | China Radio International
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The United States will remain engaged with Sri Lanka despite some differences of opinion on the political front, the U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka said on Wednesday.
In a message released in Colombo to mark America's Independence Day, the U.S. envoy in Colombo Patricia Butenis noted that the Sri Lankan government has made progress on the resettlement issue and post war development.
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