Thanks for your query about the recent Amnesty report, and also the press release. The latter shows Sam Zarifi, one of the new sensationalistic breed of Amnesty officials, exaggerating as usual. The report does raise issues that also concern government and, while I was Secretary of the Ministry of Human Rights, we worked on an Action Plan that tries to address these. This is near adoption now, and meanwhile we are also trying to address long standing problems such as too ready use of remand mechanisms by magistrates under archaic laws (such as the Vagrants Ordinance) which have lasted from British times.

By Jatila Karawita

UPFA MP Prof Rajiva Wijesinha in an interview with LAKBIMA NEWS says that attacks on media should be investigated, and adds that if the police continue to draw blanks in all instances, ‘then we need to have better police training.’