Ekip
20 October 2016•Update: 20 October 2016
By Dilrukshi Handunnetti
COLOMBO/Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka needs to broaden its work on minority rights, despite signs of progress after a 27-year civil war, a U.N. expert said Thursday.
The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Rita Izsak-Ndiaye told reporters at the end of a 10-day visit that the focus on tension between the Sinhala-majority and large Tamil minority, the main parties in the civil war, meant the island nation's other minorities were neglected.
She said there was a particular need for social support for women belonging to minority communities.
“Women’s experiences have been particularly bad and gender-based violence appears to be high,” said Izsak-Ndiaye.
She also pointed out that the Muslim community faced several issues, including displacement, regaining lost land and religious discrimination.
She said disenfranchisement and a sense of exclusion was still felt by the island's other minorities, including Malays, Tamils, African-origin Sri Lankans and Veddahs.
Izsak-Ndiaye said the government should continue the reforming momentum started by a change of government in 2015, when President Maithripala Sirisena replaced his controversial predecessor Mahindra Rajapaksa, whose presidency was colored by accusations of war crimes and corruption.
For three decades Sri Lanka's government fought a civil war with militants calling for a separate state for Tamils, the country's largest minority, until it was ended in 2009 by an army offensive, during which the army was accused of committing war crimes.
