Sri Lanka found itself under renewed international pressure yesterday over its human rights record, with the EU threatening to withdraw the island’s preferential trading status.
At the same time, New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned what it described as unacceptable delays in the government’s release and resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians displaced in the final months of the island’s long-running ethnic conflict.
“Enough is enough,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It is well past time to release civilians detained in the camps. Sri Lanka’s international friends should tell the government that they will not accept any more broken promises.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
The displaced Tamils have been held in military-run camps, which the government calls “welfare centers,” where rights groups say they are deprived of their liberty and freedom of movement, in violation of international law.
More than a quarter of a million people have been kept in the camps since May, when government troops finally defeated Tamil Tiger rebels who had been waging a bloody separatist insurgency for decades.
The government has said it needs to screen the civilians for former Tamil Tiger fighters.
On Monday, the EU Commission said a year-long probe had uncovered “serious problems” with Sri Lanka’s human rights record and warned that the island risked losing a deal giving its exporters easier access to the EU market.
The commission’s report says it “will now decide whether to propose a temporary withdrawal of the special incentive arrangement.”
Trade spokesman Lutz Gullner said member states would be consulted and stressed that the commission would be looking for improvement that was “sufficiently serious, rapid and verifiable.”
The Sri Lankan foreign ministry said only it would “study” the findings of the probe, which was launched during the final military offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels in northern Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka had refused to allow the EU inquiry mission access to the country and insisted that its preferential trade access with the EU should be extended without any conditions.
Earlier this month, Washington had pressed Colombo to allow the displaced Tamil refugees to move freely around the country and to foster political reconciliation on both sides of Sri Lanka’s ethnic divide.
Sri Lanka “must also seek to improve human rights and accountability,” Assistant US Secretary of State Robert Blake said.
Walter Kaelin, a representative of the UN secretary-general, called during a trip last month for “immediate and substantial progress in restoring freedom of movement for the displaced.”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages