Urban legend causing very real problems in Sri Lanka

The North Eastern part of Sri Lanka is gripped by a mythical creature. The so-called Grease Devil attacks have sparked outraged among locals. But the Sri Lankan government refuses to seriously investigate the attacks of what they claim to be ‘only a myth’.  Over the past few months this has led to clashes between protesters and government officials. In one case a policeman was lynched by the angry mob.        More >

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Sri Lanka’s Elections for Local Bodies to give Impetus to Crony Democracy

The outcome of the election for 23 local government bodies, including 16 municipal councils besides Colombo, will also be determined to a large extent by the new age voters, who are hit by high cost of living index, and growing unemployment.

Sri Lanka government has announced elections for local civic bodies including the prestigious Colombo Municipal Council on Oct 8.  These elections were repeatedly postponed earlier under the emergency regulations. President Mahinda Rajapakse likes to use these elections to strengthen his democratic credentials and keep at bay the pressure from human rights groups for accountability for the crimes committed by the army particularly during the closing phase of Eelam War IV. 

 Full story

AIADMK stages walkout in Puducherry Assembly over Sri Lanka issue

PTI / Thursday, September 15, 2011 17:24 IST

The AIADMK Thursday staged a walkout in the Puducherry Assembly after Speaker V Sabapathy declined permission to table a private member resolution seeking economic sanctions against Sri Lanka.
When Speaker V Sabapathy asked AIADMK`s legislature wing leader A Anbalagan, to speak on the demands for grants to some departments he wanted a clarification whether the House would take up a private member resolution he had given notice of to urge the Centre to announce economic sanctions against Sri Lanka.
"Unless this is clarified I will not go ahead with speaking on the demands," he said.
He also said he was surprised at the Chief Minister N Rangasamy not being present in the House when he was making the plea for a resolution. (The Chief Minister had retired to his chamber a few minutes before Anbalagan rose to speak).
The Speaker told the member that there was no listing of any resolution for adoption or discussion today.
Anbalagan said the Puducherry government was thus making it clear that it was not concerned about the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.It had been the convention that on the last day of every session the Assembly would adopt government or private member resolutions, but this time it was violated, he said.
Protesting against Speaker's refusal to let him to table his resolution for economic sanctions against Sri Lanka, he and three other AIADMK members staged a walkout.
They returned to the House a few minutes later.
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Fears for British Tamil held for four years in Sri Lanka

Sam Jones  Thursday 15 September 2011
Relatives and charity say Viswalingam Gopithas has suffered a stroke and is being held without charge under terror legislation
 The British government and a legal charity have expressed concerns about the plight of an ill British Tamil who has been held in Sri Lanka for almost four-and-a-half years without charge or trial under controversial anti-terror legislation.

Viswalingam Gopithas has been held in Sri Lanka for over four years

FULL sTORY>>>

Sri Lanka: Post-War Progress Report

Last updated 13 September 201

1. Post-war progress? Assessing government claims

2. What should be done?

3. Resources

More than two years after the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, the political situation in the country remains deeply worrying. The unique opportunity the government has to build a lasting and just peace after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is being lost. The government  has not taken credible steps to ensure accountability for the grave allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity identified in the April 2011 report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka. Nor has the government pursued policies to reconcile the country’s ethnic communities after decades of political violence and conflict. Instead, its post-war agenda has been to further centralise power, expand the role of the military, undermine local civilian authorities, and politicise the institutions that should uphold the rule of law and combat impunity. As argued in Crisis Group’s most recent report, the risk of an eventual return to violence is growing again.   
 Full Story>>>
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Sri Lankan navy thwarts refugees

theage.com.au

Legal expert John Dowd: "This is hardly an example of compassion".

AUSTRALIA has lauded a crackdown by the Sri Lankan navy that stopped a boat carrying 44 people fleeing the strife-torn country to Australia, prompting a sharp rebuke from human rights advocates.

Australia's high commissioner in Colombo, Kathy Klugman, issued a statement praising the Sri Lankan police and navy for picking up the boat in rough seas on Sunday as it set out on the perilous 5500 kilometre journey.

The spectre of boats departing directly from Sri Lanka to Australia is a nightmare for Labor's already stressed asylum seeker policy, raising the prospect of more people on the open seas.

Read more:>>>

US urges Sri Lanka to boost Tamil police

  
By Mel Gunasekera 

14/09/2011 18h41 GMT

©AFP/Presidential Office

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse (L) shakes hands with US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake (R) in Colombo

COLOMBO (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka to deploy more minority Tamils to police the former conflict zone in the island's north to help "heal the wounds of war".

Tamils in the formerly embattled region feel intimidated by the presence of predominantly Sinhalese-speaking government forces and police, US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake said at the end of a three-day official visit.

"It is important to deploy Tamil police in the north so that the military no longer needs to perform these functions," Blake told reporters in Colombo.

"Having Tamil police is good to improve community policing. It raises the level of trust," added Blake, who previously served as ambassador to Sri Lanka.

Blake also called on the government to disarm Tamil-speaking paramilitary groups which supported the Sinhalese majority during the conflict and since its end have allegedly been terrorising the local Tamil population.

During meetings with President Mahinda Rajapakse and other senior government officials, Blake said it was important to address Tamil grievances which led to the 37-year conflict with the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sri Lanka's military forces defeated the Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in May 2009 after decades of warfare but relations between the country's Sinhalese majority and Tamil-speaking minority remain deeply strained.

Though a lot of post-conflict rebuilding work is in progress, Blake said a great deal needs to be done "to heal the wounds of war and ensure a democratic and prosperous Sri Lanka".

He added that the United States remained "deeply concerned" about continued attacks on Sri Lanka's media.

On Tuesday, Blake visited the Uthayan newspaper in northern Jaffna, whose news editor was severely beaten up by unidentified men recently.

In the past decade 17 journalists and media employees have been killed in Sri Lanka, with none of the murders being solved, according to rights groups.

"A very important part of reconciliation and returning to people's lives to normal in the north is an improvement in human rights," Blake said.

Blake's visit to Sri Lanka came as pressure mounted at a UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes during the conflict.

On Monday the UN Human Rights Council received a report from UN chief Ban Ki-moon that accused Sri Lankan troops of killing thousands of civilians in bombing attacks.

UN chief Ban has said he cannot order an international inquiry into the alleged killings -- which the Sri Lankan government has strongly denied -- but that a forum such as the Human Rights Council could do so.

Ban's sharing of the report with the UN Human Rights Council, Blake said, underlined the need for a "comprehensive national reconciliation process."

He said it should include "a full, credible and independent accounting of and accountability of those who violated international humanitarian law."

US urges Sri Lanka to boost Tamil police      

Disarming the armed groups; transferring civil administration to Tamil speaking police and divesting forces of civil security tasks are possible - Blake

Wednesday 14 of September 2011


LLRC should examine Moon’s Darusman report
(Lanka-e-News -14.Sep.2011, 11.00P.M.) ‘America is not a country that offers any threats to any country. We are there to help develop the countries. We are having a great faith in the final report of the Lessons learnt and reconciliation Commission (LLRC). We are paying a lot of attention to it. We expect the LLRC to examine the Dharusman report of the UN Secretary general . We believe that we will receive the answers for many of the questions’ – Robert O Blake , the Assist. State Secretary of US in charge of South and Central Asia made these comments when answering a question raised by a media personnel at a media discussion he participated today in Colombo in his last leg of his Sri Lanka tour.
The question posed by the journalist was whether US is pressurizing SL?

.Full story »

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US announces resumption of Govt-TNA talks

Blake alleges EPDP attempted to hamper his meeting with Jaffna Uni. students

September 14, 2011

 By Shamindra Ferdinando

 The government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will resume talks on      devolution and other contentious issues soon.

 The announcement was made by visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Robert  O. Blake at the end of his three-day visit to Colombo and Jaffna.

 The former US Ambassador in Colombo, Blake said the talks were crucial for post-war Sri Lanka. He asserted that talks could resume as early as this week.

Read More ...

Colombo recalls Dias over war crimes prosecution fear

Territory under the military command responsibility of Jagath Dias [Illustration: CC[NS]/TAG]

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 September 2011, 00:49 GMT]
Maj. Gen. (retd.) Jegath Dias, deputy Counsel in Sri Lanka’s embassy in Germany, and commander of Sri Lanka Army's (SLA's) 57th division during the last phase of the Sri Lanka war, was recalled by Colombo "in response to accusations he was involved in war crimes," Swiss media reported today. Spotlight on Dias's alleged war-crimes began when Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils (SCET) and Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist group, first filed a case in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against 
Germany for accepting Dias to the diplomatic post. Two other legal efforts by Swiss-based advocacy groups, Society for Threatened People and TRIAL, and by Germany-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights further hindered Dias's ability to function as a diplomat, sources said. 

Maj. Gen. [retd.] Jegath Dias

Full story >>



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Alleged Sri Lankan war criminal Jagath Dias withdrawn as diplomat from Berlin

 

A statement issued by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)

(September 14, Berlin, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to media reports, Jagath Dias, a former Sri Lankan Army Commander suspected of having committed war crimes, was withdrawn from the Sri Lankan Embassy in Berlin. Dias held the position of a deputy ambassador for Germany, Switzerland and the Vatican State. It is alleged that the former Major General is responsible for war crimes committed during the final phase of the Sri Lankan civil war. During this phase of the conflict, Dias was one of the leading superiors in the field commanding the armed forces. In January 2011, ECCHR sent a comprehensive dossier substantiating the allegations put forward against Dias to the German Federal Foreign Office and requested the withdrawal of his diplomatic visa. In particular, the dossier listed incidents of attacks carried out by the 57th Division under Dias’ command and directed against civilians in no-fire-zones, as well as against hospitals, religious sites and humanitarian institutions.

FULL Story>>>

SRI LANKA: Pressure mounts on accountability process

COLOMBO, 14 September 2011 (IRIN) - The failure of a national accountability commission into human rights abuses in the last days of the civil war could add to calls for an international inquiry, a top US diplomat warned on 14 September in Sri Lanka.
“If it [a national inquiry] is not a credible process, there will be pressure for some sort of alternate mechanism,” Robert Blake, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said at the conclusion of a three-day visit to the island nation.

Blake, who met President Mahinda Rajapaksa and ministers, noted, however, that Washington would wait for the release of the final report of the government's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), appointed by the president in May 2010 to investigate the final days of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), before passing judgment. The report is due in November.    
Tens of thousands lost their lives in the war
Full Story>>>


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UN to review its actions during Sri Lanka's war

14 September, 2011

United Nations is to review its actions during the war in Sri Lanka and its aftermath. The Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has appointed Thoraya Obaid, former executive director of the UN population fund to lead this review. The review will be conducted on the recommendation of the Expert Panel appointed by the Secretary General to advice him on possible war crimes in the last months of the war in 2009. In a letter to the president of the Human Rights Council, the UN Secretary General said “on my Expert Panel’s recommendation that I should conduct a review of actions by the United Nations system during the war in Sri Lanka and its aftermath regarding the implementation of its humanitarian and protection mandates”. The report released in April 2011 by the Expert Panel, recommended that the Secretary should conduct a comprehensive review of actions by the UN system during the war.

Stop paramilitary activity in north; US tells govt

Wednesday, 14 September 2011 
  

The United States today called for paramilitary activity in the North to be controlled and for Tamil Policemen to be deployed to the North. The US Assistant Secretary of State Robert O. Blake also expressed his concern about Human Rights in the country.

“I am concerned about human rights. I discussed with relevant officials the importance of disarming paramilitary groups, on which progress is being made. It is important to deploy Tamil policeman in the north so the military no longer needs to perform these functions,” he said.

Blake specifically named the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) as having a strong paramilitary presence in the north. “Paramilitary groups are not allowed to carry weapons in public. While I was in Jaffna I myself, experienced the power of the EPDP who was able to prevent me from meeting with some university students,” he said. Read more.
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Act or we will says Blake

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 

The United States says if Sri Lanka fails to address concerns of human rights violations there will be pressure from outside including from the US government US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake, addressing reporters in Colombo today (Wednesday) said that the US government is keenly awaiting the report of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) which is due in November. Read More » 
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Blake for Credible Probe into War Crimes in Lanka

PTI | Colombo | Sep 14, 2011
Top US envoy Robert Blake today told Sri Lanka to order a "credible and independent" probe into alleged war crimes and also called for Tamil speaking policemen in the north to rebuild confidence.

"It is important to deploy Tamil police in the north so the military no longer needs to perform these functions," visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs, Blake said.Full Story>>>

US official wants Sri Lanka war crimes probed

THE TIMES OF INDIA  AP | Sep 14, 2011, 02.25PM IST

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA: A top U.S. official has urged Sri Lanka to address allegations of war crimes in a report on its civil war due to be released this year.

The call from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert O. Blake comes just days after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent a expert report to the U.N. Human Rights Council that concluded that tens of thousands of people were killed in the last five months of the war, primarily by government troops.

Blake said on Wednesday that the U.N. decision underlines the need for accountability for those who violated international humanitarian law.

The U.S. has repeatedly warned Sri Lanka to investigate the allegations stemming from the final months of the 26-year war with Tamil Tigerrebels. The government has denounced the U.N. report.
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Sri Lankan activists won’t mess up a Hazare opportunity: View from Sri Lanka

14-Sep-2011

Guest Column by Dr Kumar David

Yes that’s right, the implication in the title of this column is intended; radical political activists in India have not capitalised on nor made use of the opportunities for mobilisation that the Anna Hazare phenomenon presented. On the contrary they have missed the bus, gasping without direction and unable to direct and influence the passions and emotions that corruption scandals have stoked all over the country. Grassroots activists, political campaigners and advocates of good causes in Lanka would have been smarter than their Indian counterparts, at least if one uses the marginalisation of the latter during the Hazara phenomenon as a criterion.  Full Story>>>

TNA Statement-R. Sampanthan Leader of the Tamil National Alliance

TNA Statement
The TNA is surprised to learn of the contents of the September 12 address to the UN Human Rights
Council by Hon. Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, Head of the Sri Lanka Delegation. We take
particular exception to his claim that the government’s approach to reconciliation has been
predicated on building trust and amity between communities. The experience of the Tamil people in
Sri Lanka does not support this claim.
The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission [LLRC] of the government was appointed in
May 2010. This flawed Commission with a limited mandate made very modest interim
recommendations to the government, which included the following:
• Publish a list of names of those in detention.
• Expedite prosecution or discharge of detainees.
• Issue a clear statement of policy by the government that private lands would not be utilized
for settlements by any government agency.
• Disarm illegal armed groups in the North and East.
Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe claimed that measures have been taken to implement these
recommendations ‘without delay’. Significantly, this claim comes exactly one year since the interim
recommendations were made on 13 September 2010. Yet, not one of the above recommendations
has been implemented, in whole or in part. The government, however, has been engaged in a
constant flow of misinformation to the international community; for example, the Minister for
External Affairs informed the Heads of Missions in Sri Lanka in January 2011 that a database
containing the list of Tamil detainees was active and available for perusal by the next of kin. This
announcement was pursuant to a concern raised by the TNA at the very first meeting of the talks
with the government delegation in January 2011. However, not only was this information untrue,
but even after several subsequent promises to make available the list of detainees, it has not been
implemented to date.            Full Story>>>
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UN rights panel gets Sri Lanka "war crimes" report

13 Sep 2011 18:23

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Human Rights Watch hopes for full international probe
* UN rights panel action unlikely till next year-envoys
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 13 (Reuters) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent the top U.N. rights body a report saying there was evidence Sri Lankan forces committed war crimes when crushing separatist rebels in 2009, the U.N. said on Tuesday.
Ban sent the report of his own advisory panel, which was published in April, to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, as well as the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva late on Monday, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.     Full Story>>>

Sri Lanka doctors 'complicit in torture'

13 September, 2011

	Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq - abuse

Doctors in five countries including Sri Lanka are complicit in torture by failing to report torture when they treat torture victims, says the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

In a detailed report, the BMJ says medical professionals in UK, US, Italy, Israel and Sri Lanka are complicit in torture by failing to blow the whistle.

Full Story>>>

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Sri Lanka recalls diplomat accused of war crimes

swissinfo.ch   Sep 13, 2011

The Sri Lankan government has recalled its second most senior diplomat to Switzerland and Germany in response to accusations he was involved in war crimes.

Former general Jaghat Dias led the 57th division of the Sri Lankan army. He is accused of ordering his troops to fire upon civilian and hospital targets during the army’s final offensive against the rebel Tamil Tigers in 2009.

A report by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights also accuses Dias of participating in acts of torture and the execution of rebel fighters.
Last month, the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed it had contacted Sri Lankan authorities about the case, which it said was of “great significance”.
The Swiss news agency reported on Tuesday that diplomatic sources had confirmed Dias had been recalled to Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan embassy in Berlin also has diplomatic responsibility for Switzerland and the Vatican. Dias was accredited in Switzerland in January 2010.

swissinfo.ch and agencies
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EPDP protest blocks Blake meet with Jaffna civil society, students

Add caption

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 11:00 GMT]
The visiting US Assistant Secretary of State, Robert O Blake, had to cancel his appointment with civil society representatives, including student representatives of the University of Jaffna on Tuesday afternoon as EPDP paramilitary cum political party, aligned with Rajapaksa regime in Colombo, organized a protest outside the American Corner, situated on 4th cross street in Jaffna, sources in Jaffna said. Hundreds of people were brought from EPDP-controlled islets off Jaffna with placards supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa and staged the protest outside the American Corner. Full story >>

UN Rights Council: Act on Sri Lanka Report

Failure to Follow Up Would Be Shameful

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

RELATED MATERIALS: 

Sri Lanka: Official Report Whitewashes Military Abuses

Sri Lanka: Diplomatic Offensive Won’t Make Killing Fields Disappear

When a UN Panel of Experts report concludes up to 40,000 civilians died amid war crimes, the Human Rights Council should feel compelled to act. The council should order a full international investigation – anything less would be a shameful abdication of responsibility.

Brad Adams, Asia director

(Geneva) – The United Nations Human Rights Council should act on the recommendations in a report commissioned by the UN Secretary-General detailing grave abuses during the final months of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent the report to the council on September 12, 2011. Ban has said that he would welcome a mandate to establish an international investigation mechanism, the main recommendation of his Panel of Experts report.Full Story>>>
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Ban forwards report on Sri Lanka war crimes to top UN human rights body

IDP settlement near Putumattalan Hospital in second No Fire Zone, March 2009

13 September 2011 – 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent the report of his panel of experts on accountability issues during the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka to the United Nations human rights chief and the President of the Human Rights Council.  

Full Story>>>
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Canada seeks Sri Lanka boycott at Commonwealth meeting

THE AUSTRALIAN    September 14, 2011

CANADIAN Prime Minister Stephen Harper has set the scene for a strained Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth next month, vowing to push for a boycott of a 2013 summit in Sri Lanka unless it improves its human rights record.

Mr Harper backed an independent investigation into alleged war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan army in the final phase of the 26-year civil war with the Tamil Tiger guerillas. The Sri Lankan government inched closer to a possible inquiry yesterday after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon referred a damning report on alleged human rights abuses and war crimes to the Human Rights Council.     Full Story>>>

A white Van sans registration number plate enters Colombo with impunity -police asleep or pretending ?

(Lanka-e-News -13.Sep.2011, 10.15P.M.) A people’s informant of Lanka e news has reported that a white Van without a registration number as well as a number plate (most notorious for criminal activities) has today travelled via Mahabage , Wattala, Peliyagoda and Baseline Road and entered Colombo this morning (13). This concerned people’s reporter has intimated this to the Traffic police officer on duty at the Wattala main junction, without avail , as he had paid no heed. He had not even taken the simple step of transmitting a radio message about this serious multiple traffic offence. Neither has he chased after this Van in his motor bike.

 The Van was driven by a youth wearing a yellow Tee shirt and a sun glass. This vehicle entered Colombo via Baseline road without any incidents. The biggest question mark is , what is this mysterious white Van without a number and number plate ? Despite the police being informed , why wasn’t it seized.? How was this Van driven from Mahabage to Colombo so fearlessly and sans suspicion, and for what purpose ?

May we recall that an earlier IGP told via the media to the fair sex to take photographs using their mobile phones of those who try to molest them and inform the police.

The third picture reveals how the police is ignoring the white Van as though they have not seen it.

Our profuse thanks to the public spirited people’s reporter . If there are more like you there will be fewer like these white Van criminals and behind the scene culprits backing them in Sri Lanka no matter how high their personal or political status      More >>

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Kandiah highlights glaring shortcomings in title registration

September 12, 2011, 9:59 pm

Citing glaring shortcomings in the title registration system, President of the All Ceylon Hindu Council and attorney-at-law Kandiah Neelakandan has requested the BASL to urge the Ministry of Land and Land Development to halt the issuing of deeds under the Title Act which is not in operation in the Northern region.

According to the new measures, the government has requested the Tamils who had left the country to apply for new deeds. The ministry is supposed to verify the authentication of each application and the respective land will be surveyed before a new deed is issued to the rightful owner.

In a letter sent to the President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Shibly Aziz, Neelakandan says that the Ministry of Land and Land Development cannot seek to give deeds without having legal provisions.

The law applicable to registration of ownership in Sri Lanka is the Registration of Documents Ordinance except in areas in which the Registration of Title Act has been brought into operation and the BASL has requested that numerous deficiencies of the Title Act be amended before being implemented.

He says that the application form has been prepared in a haphazard manner and certain clarifications are needed on conferring the ownership since the ownership cannot be transferred by an illegal transfer. He also says that arrangement in the application form that the authentication of title being decided on observation and certification from the Grama Niladhari is unsatisfactory. Therefore, he has requested the BASL to urge the government to amend the Act rectifying all the deficiencies pointed out by the BASL and implement the act in the Northern region and in the rest of the country in a lawful manner. (PH)

SL’s defense Ministry intelligence officer leaves for US to spy on Major General Shavendra Silva

Tuesday 13 of September 2011
(Lanka-e-News -13.Sep.2011, 11.30A.M.) According to sources from the defense Ministry providing information to Lanka e news, on the instructions of the SL defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse , a spy of the Defense Ministry Intelligence (D M I ) had been dispatched secretly to America to garner information in respect of Major General Shavendra Silva , who is SL’s permanent representative to the UN Organization in New York against whom a confidential dossier is being prepared .

 Full story >>


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hina, Pak back Lanka at UN Human Rights Council: Minister

AgenciesTags : Human Rights Council, Pak back Lanka, Ban Ki MoonPosted: Mon Sep 12 2011, 00:12 hrsColombo:

Human Rights Council. (AP)

Full Story>>>

China and Pakistan have backed Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council as Colombo sought to prevent the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's special panel report from being discussed at the session today.

Plantation Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who heads the government delegation at the 18th session of the UN Human Rights Council, told the state owned `Lakhanda radio on the telephone that China and Pakistan had spoken in support of Sri Lanka.