Amnesty International calls on all candidates standing in Sri Lanka’s Presidential elections on January 26th to end widespread human rights violations and the culture of impunity that continues to plague the country.

On Monday, the organization issued a 10-point Human Rights Agenda for all candidates.

“Candidates should commit to restoring respect for basic rights, like life and liberty, ending arbitrary arrests and detention, enforced disappearances and torture, and to restoring respect for freedom of expression, said Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka specialist. “In the longer run, what’s needed is to rebuild Sri Lanka’s institutions so that they can protect efficiently and without discrimination. That’s the only way to restore public faith in the justice system.”

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As Sri Lanka’s media comes under increasing partisan pressure, the Committee to Protect Journalists calls on all sides contesting the January 26 general elections to respect the role of journalists in covering the campaign and voting process. CPJ notes with concern today’s assault on the BBC’s Sinhala service reporter who, according to Sri Lankan media reports, was hospitalized after a political mob, apparently linked to supporters of an agriculture minster, attacked her as she was covering the event.

Thakshila Dilrukshi was pursued by government supporters of Agriculture Minister Maithreepala Sirisena, who is also secretary general of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and attacked with clubs. Her recording equipment and mobile phone were taken as well, according to the German News Agency DPA. CPJ is trying to confirm the extent of her injuries.

The media support and press freedom group Media Freedom in Sri Lanka told CPJ that election-monitoring networks have recorded hundreds of incidents of recent campaign-related violence.

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The Asian Human Commission expresses its serious concern over the conditions of overcrowding in Bogambara prison. The government should take notice of the situation and take measures to deal with the unnecessary suffering caused to the prisoners due to overcrowding. Bogambara Prison is a maximum security prison and is the second largest prison in Sri Lanka. It is situated in the city of Kandy and was constructed in 1876.

The Bogambara Prison is seriously overcrowded and according to the chief Jailor it is not possible accommodate any more prisoners. However the Kandy High Court Judge has refused bail which would relieve conditions in some small way and more and more people are being sent to the remand prison, while at the same time suspects being are being sentenced to terms of imprisonment. Despite of the overcrowding at Bogambara more prisoners are brought from Welikada as that prison is being renovated.

As early as 1986 it was noted that there were as many as 384 unconvicted prisoners per 100,000. At that time, as now, the admission of unconvicted prisoners was more than four times that of the convicted inmates.

In early December 25 prisoners went held a protest on the roof of the old Bogambara prison building. They gained access to the roof and refused to come down. Five of them remained on the roof for five days in conditions that ranged from the hot sun and heavy rain, calling for bail. As the administration and the authorities have ignored the protest, the inmates, (especially the so called terror suspects held under the PTA) have begun another fast since yesterday, 11th January 2010. They are asking to either be tried as many of them are still detained without charges or bailed pending trial.

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With Monday’s release  of J. S. Tissainayagam on bail, maybe things are looking up for the media in Sri Lanka. CPJ welcomed Tissainayagam’s release from a sentence of 20 years’ “rigorous imprisonment,” but called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to extend him a full pardon, as it is within his presidential powers to do. For now, at least, Tissa, as he is known, is out of his prison cell though not free to leave the country—the appeal court that set him free demanded that he hand over his passport as part of the bail agreement. But there are many other cases still hanging in the air in Sri Lanka that will not go away, even though they are making their way through the courts.

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“.. From the Government side those in the loop were President Mahinda Rajapakse, Presidential secretary Lalith Weeratunga, Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Parliamentarian and Special adviser to the President Basil Rajapakse and then Foreign secretary Palitha Kohona ..”

“..Gotabhaya Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka..”

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When the waves of the 2004 Tsunami finally receded, Upali, 52, was found clinging to a coconut tree – barely alive. He had suffered a stroke a month before the 2004 tsunami and was just recovering when the tidal wave struck. Upali, his wife Rupawathie, 45, and his four children live in Peraliya, Galle district – a coastal village in the south of Sri Lanka.

Although Upali and his family survived, to this day, Upali suffers from the effects of the tidal wave. Not only did he have to be hospitalized for a month afterwards, his leg was left partially paralysed and his hearing is now permanently impaired. Their house was completely destroyed and all their furniture washed away.

Today, five years after the tsunami, Upali and Rupawathie have a very different story to tell. Their house has now been reconstructed by the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society with the support of the Spanish Red Cross – and they have moved back after living in a temporary shelter.

Before the tsunami, Upali and Rupawathie earned a living by selling dried fish door-to-door from a cart but after his stroke, Upali was unable to work and had to rely solely on Rupawathie to earn a living and needed her help to communicate with others due to his hearing impediment. Their lives changed dramatically – they could not continue their livelihood and had very little money to survive on.

With the support of the livelihood grants given by the Red Cross Upali and his wife have opened a little wooden shop, a few kilometres away from their house, just off the main road. With the Rs 30,000 grant they purchased stocks of dry fish from wholesalers, set up the shop and have managed to earn a stable income selling dry fish to families in the area.

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The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today released the report of a press freedom mission to Sri Lanka, identifying key challenges for the country’s journalists and media at the end of 25 years of internal conflict and the inauguration of a new phase of political contests.

Media stakeholders who met with the mission during its visit to Sri Lanka in November identified the current political circumstances as embodying numerous threats and opportunities.

The entry of a former army commander into the race for the Presidency next year has thrown the contest open and provided an opportunity for local media to create more space for itself. At the same time, the heightened intensity of the political contest may also engender threats.

Certain new flashpoints have emerged in the always fraught relationship between the media and political power-holders. Any form of reckoning with the tactical decisions made during the final stages of the war earlier this year and the humanitarian consequences is actively discouraged. Despite this element of coercion on the media, this issue has been coming up in the campaign debates between rival candidates for the presidency.

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The Canadian government has been asked by Australia to resettle a small but unknown number of Tamil refugees whose boat was found drifting through international waters near Indonesia earlier this year.

In mid-October, 78 Sri Lankan Tamils were found in a boat floating off the coast of Indonesia’s Bintan Island, and signalling for assistance. An Australian customs vessel, the Oceanic Viking, came to their rescue, taking the asylum seekers aboard.

When the ship attempted to bring them back to Indonesia, where they had been living for several years, they refused to disembark and asked to be taken to Australia.

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Some of the 78 Sri Lankan refugees who spent a month aboard the Oceanic Viking in an Indonesian port will begin the resettlement process today.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry officials say 15 Sri Lankans will leave the Australian-funded detention centre at Tanjung Pinang and board a flight to Jakarta today.

All 78 of the asylum seekers who spent one month aboard the Australian Customs ship have been found to be refugees by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

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The isolated location of Christmas Island makes it impossible to implement a humane immigration policy, and is leading to extreme detention conditions that are inappropriate and out of step with the Government’s stated ‘new detention values’, Amnesty International Australia has said, following a research trip to the remote Australian territory.

“Of particular concern are the significant and disturbing levels of overcrowding within the North West Point Immigration Detention Centre, which has led to the use of tent and demountable accommodation, and the lack of ready access to essential services such as adequate mental health care. This situation is completely unacceptable,” said Dr Graham Thom, Refugee Coordinator for Amnesty International Australia.

“Immigration detention on Christmas Island should be stopped. The island is too remote, and the logistical challenges too great for this policy to be effective or sustainable. The policy of excision is not working. It does not have a deterrent effect on people seeking protection from persecution, and constitutes a fundamental breach of Australia’s international obligations under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention,” said Graham Thom.

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