The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice have today named two new members of their advisory council: Scott Sheeran and Yasmin Sooka.
Yasmin Sooka is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa. She is one of three co-authors of the April 2011 Panel of Experts' report on Sri Lanka done at the request of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Prior to joining the Foundation, she was a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, serving first for three years as Deputy Chair to the Human Rights Violations Committee and then as the chair of the committee. She authored the final report of the TRC. During 2002 and 2004 she was appointed by the UN as an international commissioner for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Sierra Leone.

She has consulted and assisted the governments of Ghana, Nepal, Afghanistan, Burundi, and Liberia in setting up truth commissions. Yasmin also serves on The Board of Trustee�s for Black Sash Trust, International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience, is Executive member for Niwano Peace Foundation as well as Advisory member for Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and Institute for International Law.

Scott Sheeran is a Senior Lecturer, and Co-Director of the LLM in International Human Rights Law, at the School of Law and Human Rights Centre, University of Essex. He is co-editor with Professor Sir Nigel Rodley of the forthcoming Routledge Handbook on International Human Rights Law.

Scott's prior experience includes a number of years in the New Zealand Foreign Service, including a three-year posting as the Legal Adviser at the New Zealand Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. During this time, Scott was appointed Vice-Chair of the UN Sixth (Legal) Committee of the General Assembly, and was a member of the Bureau of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Assembly of State Parties.

Scott was also previously a legal counsel in a constitutional law firm in New Zealand and a consultant for The Boston Consulting Group. Scott has a Master of Laws (International law) from the University of Cambridge, and was a UNITAR Fellow at Columbia Law School.

Commenting on her appointment Yasmin Sooka said,

"Reconciliation in Sri Lanka can only be built on Truth, Justice and accountability. To date the Sri Lankan Government (GoSL) has failed to address the issues raised in the report of the Secretary General's Panel of Experts as well as to implement the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). Reports of continued intimidation of media and human rights defenders amid extrajudicial killings, continued disappearances, abductions and deteriorating rule of law make the Sri Lanka Campaign's objectives more urgent. I believe that unless allegations of war crimes are addressed through a truth seeking mechanism and/or an independent commission or criminal investigation which places victims at the centre of the process, reconciliation will continue to elude Sri Lanka."

Commenting on his appointment Scott Sheeran said,

"The deaths and suffering in the last few months of the war described by the UN Secretary-General's Panel of Experts are both saddening and tragic. These sorts of events can only happen in a society that has carried a burden of differences and difficulties for some time. Without true accountability and reconciliation, the challenge of which is not to be underestimated, there will be further conflict and suffering. Only in a free and fair democracy with the rule of law, can the human rights of all Sri Lankans - including the Tamil, Muslim and other minorities � be truly respected."

Welcoming the appointments Edward Mortimer, the chair of the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, said,

"It is really fantastic to welcome Yasmin and Scott to our advisory council. That we can attract such impressive people from all parts of the world is a testament, both to their desire for a better world, and to the severity of the problems we face. We are now truly a global campaign."

The Advisory council is a volunteer body of influential figures that provide advice and guidance to the campaign. They come from all walks of life and regions of the world and support the Campaign's three main objectives: effective humanitarian relief, human rights for all and a lasting peace in Sri Lanka based on justice and reconciliation. Our Advisors use their links with the media and with other opinion-formers to push forward the campaign demands, as well as providing a sounding board for the Campaign's work.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

Photos of Scott and Yasmin are attached.

A full biography of all members of the advisory council can be found here:
http://www.srilankacampaign.org/advisorycouncilb.htm

Yasmin Sooka�s full statement on joining the council is as follows:

"Reconciliation in Sri Lanka can only be built on Truth, Justice and accountability. To date the Sri Lankan Government (GoSL) has failed to address the issues raised in the report of the Secretary General's Panel of Experts as well as to implement the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). The March 2012 UN Resolution tabled by the United States - on a probe of war crimes committed in the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009 asks the Sri Lankan government to explain how it will address alleged violations of international humanitarian law and how it will implement recommendations of an internal inquiry into the war.

"Sri Lanka's report to the Universal Periodic Review of human rights in November 2012 is expected to include the progress made in implementing the LLRC's recommendations.

"Reports of continued intimidation of media and human rights defenders amid extrajudicial killings, continued disappearances, abductions and deteriorating rule of law make the Sri Lanka Campaign's objectives more urgent.

"I fully endorse the Campaign's emphasis on the critical need for humanitarian relief and rehabilitation, an end to human rights violations and the culture of impunity and a repeal of draconian anti-terror regulations and a lasting peace based on justice and reconciliation.

"I believe that unless allegations of war crimes are addressed through a truth seeking mechanism and/or an independent commission or criminal investigation which places victims at the centre of the process, reconciliation will continue to elude Sri Lanka."

The Council now has the following 18 members

Aitzaz Ahsan - Pakistan

Beate Arnestad - Norway

Lakhdar Brahimi - Algeria

Adele Barker - USA

Basil Fernando - Sri Lanka

Charles Glass - USA

Bruce Haigh - Australia

Carolyn Hayman - UK

Bianca Jagger - Nicaragua

Damien Kingsbury - Australia

Antony Loewenstein - Australia

Jake Lynch - Australia

Chibli Mallat - Lebanon

Rajan Menon - USA

Edward Mortimer CMG - UK

Teesta Setalvad - India

Scott Sheeran - New Zealand

Yasmin Sooka - South Africa

These appointments come as part of a renewal of the council's membership to better prepare the Sri Lanka Campaign for the challenges ahead. As part of that renewal a few advisers asked to leave the advisory council as, while they fully supported our work, they felt they no longer had the capacity to do the campaign justice. They remain friends of the campaign.

One of those who departed, Noam Chomsky, gave this comment:

"I really wish that I were able to make a substantive contribution to the extremely important work being undertaken by the Sri Lanka campaign. Without knowing a great deal more than I do, and having some free time to devote in a constructive way to the project, I regret to have to say that I cannot do so in a satisfactory manner."

The other three departing were:

Brahama Chellaney

Michael Grodin

Stuart Rees

A group of Govt MPs have informed Minister Basil Rajapaksa that they are not going to support the 19th Constitutional amendment bill if it attempts to hinder the Provincial council powers or make any suggestions regarding the Executive Presidency. Govt sources say that under these circumstances the Govt has faced a problem of rallying a 2/3 majority in the Parliament as this has caused a 8 MP shortage. Lanka News web site reports that although the Govt had previously planned to call upon a Presidential election on March next year after bringing in the 19th Constitutional amendment, changing the Presidential election time period from 4 years to 3 years and changing its period of office from 6 years to 5 years, due to the lack of majority, it has faced trouble.

The eldest daughter of the former JVP leader, Rohana Wijeweera was arrested by the police after a complaint was filed against her by her mother, Police Spokesman SP Buddhika Siriwardena stated. Rohana Wijeweera has four daughters and a son while the arrested daughter was the eldest. She is due to be presented to courts for allegedly assaulting her mother, police further stated.

Articulating right demands and slogans in Genocide Remembrance events is crucial at a time when the Eezham Tamils in their homeland are barred from even silently mourning their heroes and civilians who sacrificed their lives in the culmination of the genocidal war at Mu"l"li-vaaykkaal, said a Tamil political activist from Jaffna commenting on the slogans used by protestors at the May 19 event at Marina beach in Chennai. Civil society activists, artists, political leaders and ordinary people had participated a mass gathering near the Kannagi statue in the honour of those Eezham Tamils who perished in Sri Lanka"s genocidal war despite dissuasion by the police. Speaking to TamilNet from the gathering, Umar, an activist from the May 17 criticized the failure of UN in preventing the genocide, stating that Sri Lanka must be hauled in the UNSC.

Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Minister Douglas Devananda, an advocate of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, yesterday said the delegation of land and police powers to the provincial councils should be held back for the time being when constituting to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC). In an interview with Daily Mirror, Minister Devananda said there appeared to be dissension in the south over the delegation of such powers to the Provincial Council (PC) and therefore, it should be held back till an understanding between the two major communities - Sinhalese and Tamils - was built up. "If there is no delegation of such powers when forming the Northern Provincial Council, the Tamil people will be concerned. Likewise, Sinhala people will be concerned if these powers are delegated. Therefore, it is advisable to hold it back for the moment until there is understanding," he said.

Respect for basic rights and liberties has declined in Sri Lanka in the four years since the government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This week marks the fourth anniversary of the brutal civil war's end. Since the end of the 26-year-long civil war, the Sri Lankan government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has resisted taking meaningful steps to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes by government forces and the LTTE, end the crackdown against the independent media and human rights activists, and stop ongoing abuses against suspected LTTE supporters. Government pledges to address the concerns of the ethnic Tamil population have gone unfulfilled. "Four years after Sri Lanka's horrific civil war ended, many Sri Lankans await justice for the victims of abuses, news of the 'disappeared,' and respect for their basic rights," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead, the Rajapaksa government has rejected investigations, clamped down harder on the media, and persisted in wartime abuses such as torture."

Protests by the fishermen community and political parties have yielded result with the Sri Lankan government ordering the release of the 26 Karaikal fishermen on Monday. The fishermen who are in the custody of the Sri Lankan government will be released after being produced before the Lankan court, said Union Minister of State V Narayanasamy. "Orders for the release have been issued after the intervention of Union Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid, Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Ministers of Tamil origin," Narayanasamy said. As the relations between India and Sri Lanka were not good due to agitations against Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu, securing their release took lot of time,he added.

Former Colombo Deputy Mayor Azath Salley who shot to fame as a result of his arrest, today said President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the ideal person to bring about proper peace and reconciliation. Mr. Salley told a news conference that President Rajapaksa's own family comprised members of different religions and ethnic groups who lived peacefully. Therefore he said it would be easy for the President to establish peace in the country in the same way he had maintained peace among his own family members. The Former Deputy Mayor thanked the Ministers in the government, several countries and opposition politicians who played a role in securing his release from prison. He recalled that many had worked towards his release, although he was not even a member of a local authority.

Vanni district parliamentarian Sivasakthi Anandan has received a written order to report to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) regarding a function held at the Vavuniya Town Council Hall on May 18th to commemorate the war victims. Mano Ganeshan, the leader of People's Democratic Front has stated that by ordering Sivasakthi Anandan to report to CID the government has violate the public right to commemorate dead which is recommended in a report in the Presidential Commission. Speaking to 'BBC Sandeshaya' he has stated "the provisions in Learned Lessons and Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) report clearly indicates that the public must be provided with an opportunity to commemorate dead. However the government has not allowed it. The MP who was involved in the commemoration has been ordered to report to CID".

The Russian Federation has requested Sri Lanka's support to win the bid for hosting EXPO 2020, the Government Information Department reported. The Head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independence States-Russia, Konstantin Kosachev when he met Sri Lanka's Prime Minister D.M.Jayarathna has emphasised how important the vote of Sri Lanka is for Russia to host EXPO 2020. Russia is competing for the votes of 162 countries along with Thailand, Turkey, Brazil and UAE. Kosachev has briefed the Sri Lankan PM that Russia expects to conduct this exhibition in Yekatennburg which links Asian and European countries and around twenty million people from foreign countries are expected to attend this exhibition. Kosachev has reiterated that it would help Sri Lanka to meet its goal of attracting 2.5 million tourists.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka has commenced recording statements from the family members of people disappeared in the Matale area during the 1988-1989 insurrection of the Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The CID has so far recorded the statements from the families of 13 persons who had claimed that their loved ones were among those killed and buried in the Matale mass grave. The mass grave in Matale was unearthed at the Matale Hospital premises last November and 154 skeletal remains were exhumed from the grave. It is believed that the skeletal remains unearthed from the Matale mass grave were of insurgents from the JVP killed during the 1988-89 violence. Matale magistrate and additional district judge Chaturika de Silva earlier this month ordered the CID to record statements from the relatives of the missing persons.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which is now being drafted by the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK), is expected to be released to the four Tamil National Alliance (TNA) political partners to resolve the longstanding stalemate in registering the TNA as a political party before the announcement of polls to the Northern PC , political sources said yesterday. The Bishop of Mannar, Dr Rayappu Joseph also earlier intervened to invite the leaders of the Tamil political parties - TULF, TELO, PLOTE, EPRLF and the ITAK - to bring about a settlement to this longstanding problem of registering the TNA, but gave up after deliberating at length after TULF leader V. Ananda Sangari stormed out of the meeting, the sources said. TNA parliamentarian, M. A. Sumanthiran told The Sunday Island that the Elections Act stipulated that any application for registering a party should be forwarded during the month of January each year and it could not be done if there was a pending election.

Thousands of people came together to take part in a rally through London, in remembrance of the hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians who were killed, maimed and displaced by Sri Lankan forces in Mullivaikkal in May 2009. Leaving Marble Arch at 1pm, the crowd - from toddlers to octogenarians - braved the unseasonably cool May weather to walk to Waterloo Place, near Piccadilly Circus. With the generous co-operation of the Metropolitan Police, busy London thoroughfares such as Park Lane and Piccadilly were closed on a busy shopping day in order to let the procession pass.

The differences of opinion over the 13th Amendment to the Constitution among the constituent parties of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) have come to the surface with Parliamentary Group Leader of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) threatening to take to the streets, if the government goes ahead with the Northern Provincial Council elections scheduled for September this year. Speaking to a packed audience at the Public Library Auditorium yesterday, Parliamentarian Rathana Thera said his party would present a private member motion to abolish the 13th Amendment and the Provincial Council system. "If the government does not listen to us, and proceeds to conduct the election, we will be on the streets," he warned to an appreciative audience.

Norway has asked Sri Lanka to comply with "well established international rules on diplomatic immunity" after a Colombo Court ruled that the former Norwegian Ambassador and three officials did not have immunity in a huge transaction involving an NGO. Norway's Ambassador Grete Lochen said yesterday that her government had held the position that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations should be respected since Sri Lanka was a party to this convention. "Diplomats and state officials from Sri Lanka are enjoying the same privileges when serving their government," she said in an email interview. The ambassador said the Norwegian embassy was carefully studying the translation of the Colombo District Court order in which four Norwegian nationals including the country's former Ambassador Hilde Haraldstad were being held accountable for the non-fulfillment of a financial transaction with a local NGO.

Sri Lanka's Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya criticized the foreign representatives expressing different opinions about maintaining army camps in the North. Participating in a radio program on the state-run SLBC, the Army Commander noted that there are only three Army camps in the Jaffna peninsula at present, although there were sixteen army camps at the end of the war in May 2009. He told the state run radio that, as the Army Commander he is well aware of what has to be done to safeguard the independence gained by defeating the terrorism. "Foreigners have no right to decide where the army camps of this country should be maintained," he said during the program.

The body of the Navy sailor who went missing following the capsizing of a Navy boat at the Galle Face on Saturday during the victory day parade was found from Bambalapitiya this morning. Four navy personnel had fallen off a small Sri Lanka Navy vessel which had been involved in an accident during the Victory day Parade but three sailors were rescued yesterday at sea.

It is reported that the SLFP has decided to hand over the operational leadership of the future elections in the party to Minister Basil Rajapaksa. The powers have been vested upon the National Organizer of the Party. However, internal party sources say that most of the powers which MP Maithripala Sirisena had enjoyed as the Party secretary has now been given to Minister Basil Rajapaksa. Sources say that this has triggered an internal dispute among its members. Previously, Party secretary had the power to call upon meetings an d to give direct orders to seat organizers. BUt the new decision has releived all these powers from the Secretary.

Election monitors are concerned about the possible strong military presence in the North if elections are held in September. Executive Director of CaFFE, Keerthi Tennakoon said that the political environment, the political freedom, the freedom of press and freedom of movement in the North needs to be addressed before the elections take place. 'There are still restrictions in those areas that could hamper the movement of people engaged in election campaigning. The freedom of assembly on the other hand is always a question mark, because in Mullaitivu, Jaffna and even in Kilinochchi we see that if there are a group of people gathered, there are so many questions being asked by the security forces.

Having consulted External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris yesterday afternoon, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Sunday Island that contrary to media reports, acquiring land by the government for the expansion of Palaly-Kankesanthurai security zone hadn't been raised by Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid when he phoned his Sri Lankan counterpart on Friday morning. Rajapaksa said that positioning of armed forces during the war as well as post-conflict situation would be the prerogative of the government. The deployment of troops and military assets would be done in accordance with overall post-war security plan hence it couldn't be amended owing to domestic as well as external factors.

The Saudi Arabian government Kingdom has offered a grace period for the overstaying Sri Lankan migrant workers, Sri Lankan embassy of Riyadh said. The grace period is valid from today and the overstaying Sri Lankans can leave the Kingdom under an amnesty. The Embassy asks the overstaying Sri Lankans to report to the Saudi Immigration and Emigration Department to obtain pass to leave the country without being punished. Unconfirmed sources say that around 10,000 Sri Lankans are staying in the Kingdom without valid visa or authorization.