Int. Bar Association expresses serious concern as Colombo revokes visa

04 FEBRUARY 2013

BY RAMANAN VEERASINGHAM

Mounting additional international pressure on Sri Lanka’s hawkish government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the renowned International Bar Association (IBA) on Saturday expressed “serious concern” over Colombo’s withdrawal of visa issued to its top delegation to assess the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in the island nation.

“An International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) delegation has been forced to postpone a planned visit to Sri Lanka to assess the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary due to the last minute withdrawal of permission to enter the country,” Romana St. Matthew Daniel, the Press Officer of the London-based IBA said in a statement on Saturday.

He said that a visa that was issued to one member of the delegation on January 18 and was revoked on January 29, while approval to enter the country was suspended in the cases of other delegates on January 29 and 30 of this year.

Ten day visit

According to the statement, the IBAHRI delegation consisting of distinguished jurists was scheduled undertake a ten-day visit to Sri Lanka from February 01 “to conduct meetings and consult a wide diversity of stakeholders” with regard to the development of the legal profession, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka, including members of the legal profession, government, media and civil society”.

“The IBAHRI has expressed its serious concern to the Sri Lankan High Commission in London regarding the revocation and suspension of entry approval for its high-level delegates and looks forward to working together with the relevant authorities in ensuring a speedy and satisfactory resolution,” the statement said.

The eleventh hour revoking and suspension of visa to the top delegation of the IBAHRI came barely a couple of weeks after many powerful members of the international community and rights organisations slammed the Rajapaksa regime for controversially impeaching chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake and replacing her with a government loyalist.