Sunila Abeysekera, a recipient of the prestigious Human Rights Defender Awards by Human Rights Watch, speaks on the year that was and what lies ahead in 2008 .
In her interview, Sunila strikes a sombre note and says:
“I think [2007] is the worst year I’ve seen in Sri Lanka in terms of human rights… It’s very hard to have any sense of hope for 2008.”
“The old international community - Norway, Netherlands, Germany - is really seriously irrelevant.”
“No space for civil society.”
“Even if Prabhakaran is killed tomorrow and the LTTE is devastated the issues of discrimination against Tamil people in this country will continue to exist.”
“I donât think equality is going to come about because we have a military victory against the LTTE - certainly not.”
For a related article on Sunila, please read A Romance with Rights.
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- A Romance with Rights Mario Gomez reflects on the work of Sri Lankan human rights activist Sunila Abeysekera. Ms Abeysekera was recently honoured by Human Rights Watch with the Human Rights Defender Award for 2007. He was speaking at a âCelebration off Human Rights Defendersâ to honour both Ms Abeysekera and Rajan Hoole and Kopalasingham Sritharan of the University... groundviews, December 12, 2007
