80 percent of this was caused by heavy rain pushing rubbish into the city's drainage system and then out directly to see it's estimated around 325000 tons of plastic. from brazil every year this is affecting marine life and beaches and about 100. 8 with president jay both scenarios poor record. activists such as goma take it on themselves to spread awareness and call for individuals to drop consumption. this is out 0 in here in the headlines more than 300 schoolgirls have been kidnapped in some far a state in northwest nigeria it's the 2nd abduction in just over a week not just here as i would have dressed reports now from in central nigeria

a very poor from locals we've spoken to this morning said the gunmen arrived shortly after midnight. in this whole girls' school. in a state this is one of the states that is continuously being attacked by these gunmen duction small runs as well as raiding a village just looting and this is practically one of the major things that northerners or people in the north of the country are facing on a daily basis in nigeria the u.s. has carried out an air strike in syria targeting the service is used by iranian backed fighters the pentagon says it's in response to recent attacks against american personnel in iraq. we. have a target that we were there for you know we. were property

that the target was being you know sorry shia militia. that conducted the street police have used stun grenades to disperse protesters in myanmar as demonstrations against a february military coup showed no signs of slowing. people fled from lines of riot police and young on and global pressure on the military is also not in the world bank has announced that it stopped or payments requested by the government after the coup the u.k. supreme court has ruled that a woman who ran away as a teenager to join the eisel should not be allowed to return to britain in order to fight for his citizenship should be the bacon left london with 2 school friends at the age of 15 and married and i salute feisal. those are the headlines we'll have more news fear here on al-jazeera after today's edition of inside story next.

justice denied in sri lanka the un says the government is failing to pursue crimes from the civil war but sri lanka's leaders reject this so will the conflicts victims ever find out the truth about what happened this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. it's been 12 years since sri lanka civil war ended about 100000 people died and more than 20000 disappeared government troops

and the thomas separatists they were fighting were both accused of murder and torture particularly towards the end of the conflict since then the un says little has been done to find out what happened human rights chief says victims have been denied justice and she's accuse the government of further eroding human rights sri lanka's leaders reject the accusations we'll bring in our guests in a moment 1st this report by bernard smith. nearly 12 years after the end of sri lanka's civil war the pain is still roll for those who sons daughters and husbands disappear. this was a protest earlier this month they want answers accountability and justice. but not getting any because the united nations human rights council says the highest levels of sri lanka's government is in denial about past crimes this base course in a society and that and the media which have grown significantly is now rapidly shrinking their independence on really sorry the human rights commission of. the

national police commission another key warning as the needly eroded by the recently adopted prentiss constitutional amendment the. president got a bye rajapaksa was defense secretary at the end of the civil war is brother mahinda was president 100000 people were killed in the 26 year long war between tamil separatists and the government both sides are accused of crimes including murder and torture. and now the un says minority groups are facing more discrimination this protest in february was a rare combined march of muslims and tumbles with a long list of complaints including trying to get education in the tamil language and oppressive police surveillance of muslim lanka's government rejects all the allegations made in the report including claims he uses divisive rhetoric. constitutional guarantees as i mentioned before fundamental rights of all the

citizens and anyone can can must under the fundamental right and our full 3 lanka in the last few years as well as today we have all our programs economic social law on the men official programs all are equally. enjoyed and implemented from the not to the scout. leader not the raja's son was taken away by the military at the end of the war she's no idea what happened to him but he's convinced he's still alive the story is the same for thousands of other families and the political an element of what we see now is that they're trying to make his fed up and stop the protests so we can trust them we will have to go to the international community to get our children back as we have realised that there is no point going to the government here the un's high commissioner for human rights has urged member states

to consider prosecuting alleged crimes in sri lanka to try and get on says the thousands of people like leila bernard smith al-jazeera. as you heard there the u.n. says the 20th amendment to sri lanka's constitution has further eroded human rights so what's changed last october parliament overwhelmingly approved giving the president more power got a virus or proxy can remove any minister including the prime minister and he can dissolve parliament a year after its election the president has full immunity from prosecution and he can appoint top judges the police chief and the heads of the electoral and human rights commissions. all right let's bring in our guests from colombo i saw at the bottom what to a political analyst and chief executive of the center for policy alternatives in beijing kahana sri lanka's ambassador to china and in london. the swat on

a human rights lawyer thank you all for joining us polly to let me start with you today you in human rights commissioner michel bhatia lee said on wednesday that 12 years after the end of armed conflict in sri lanka domestic efforts to ensure justice for the victims have failed what is your response to that. i haven't the number of comments i'm back 1st and foremost. i'd think what michelle passionately a very senior u.n. official and a former president jimmy has misunderstood or whom i do not take as a as a follow up unit free also and a senior official at the un that it's a job that i can be. too tough and for the countries her job is to assist countries on country it's not an issue not to improve the human rights of films her job is to make the world a better place not to go around i can find countries and finding fault with them

and making suggestions to penalize them and also what is most important that she basis assess under-reports which have been get dumped over and over again and also she and she made a basis of on allegations in the end or and suggestions which i think is not turtle head rule is to make head countries assist countries to improve their performance and not through history but also at the countries and there are many countries around us even moving in the rest which need their human rights improved so that i have a lot of problems with but yes the high commissioner bhatia lay also accused sri lanka of reneging on promises to ensure justice for thousands of civilians killed in the final stages of the 37 year separatist war that ended in 2009 do you agree

with that assessment i completely agree i mean i think over the past few years we've seen a really worrying trajectory in sri lanka which i think shall bash latest pointed to signalling and as she has added that there is a real recurrence and risk of violence and cycles of violence in it and i think this quo. to the fact that she has still failed to address the root causes of its ethnic conflict and over the last 2 years there's been a real ramping up militarization an increase in attacks on human rights defenders journalists and victim survivor communities you know this past saturday marked 4 years since the whole families of the disappeared across the northeast began protesting looking for answers and justice around their loved ones who had been disappeared a lot many of them have been disappeared during the final phase of the armed conflict and i think again kind of symbolizes the fact that sri lanka is a country that has sort of allowed for and encouraged impunity rather than actually

dealing with issues in its past and kind of pushing for accountability so that we don't see a recurrence of violence i guess i think how concerned are you about what's going on currently in tree like i mean do you believe that the country is at a tipping point of sorts oh yes very definitely i think that the great insurance. moment is the consolidation of this culture of impunity and increased militarization as far as government and got ones is concerned it's not fixed on the bow so that we are going to be in pretty bad shape. you know we have a culture of impunity which is beyond any barrier to almost to the system the system of governance as far as accountability for these allegations have been set and i think what needs to be understood at the end of the tour is start we are members of an international community and we members of the international community needs to meet her. big ocean some certain responsibilities we can cherry pick those

which we are going to still or hot. so we are definitely out to 2 people. several countries including the u.k. canada germany they have submitted a draft resolution for consideration by the un age r c it expresses concern over what it calls warning signs of the teary orating human rights situation in sri lanka what do you say to that i don't. know if anybody wanted to go to colombo today i do not know where there. is deteriorating situation. the communities are very very integrated into mixed the last majority of the time and population whom i assume you're talking about lives not in the so-called homelands but a month to single out 54 percent of the needs and the situation with jupiter and

they would be fleeing. to the north and then not exact opposite is true they're coming in that. to live in the south because that's where the job opportunities are and also because the rest of the community about comes i don't think there is a tipping point in fact it's it's a meat that has been propagated by self-serving political entities i don't think that is that we have reached a tipping point and it's very unlikely that we are the cause that peeping point was down in 2006 to 2008 when the n.t.t. rules or not and the east and they were they were carrying on a massive campaign. when children were being recruited as for combat but that

there are civilians. at random it's not happening in where is this dipping point i don't think it is a tipping point. also this question about thousands of civilian speak has anybody done that come to this country then at the graves of disabilities who apparently died over cuba during the last stage of conflict nobody 7 found them nobody's found the poems. fikir southie a let me ask you about this draft resolution that's been submitted to the un h r c i mean do you believe that ultimately it will pass and if so what happens next when i think there is a reasonable chance of it. what happens next is i think entirely up to the member states as we all know their human rights council whatever it can only make

recommendations on mandates to x. and y. and out of it is up to the states decide the high commissioner has talked about individual sections travel sanctions freezing of assets she has found for us to consider it a message of restriction and going to the international middle or about the last one of course is highly unlikely. the russian and chinese veto i mean as to what the security council because straight out that it was actually that's never the less i think there are steps that can be taken by individual countries in full servant of this resolution and the recommendations and indeed i mean the pressure i think needs to be kept on the government of sri lanka to meaningful to engage in reconciliation in 2022 a whole swath serious westphalian that forfeits we're not in

a conflict that the roots of. we've produced and certainly not sustained. garcia based on your observations is there a chance that we could see a reoccurrence of violence in treelike i mean are you worried about that being a possibility going forward definitely and i think kind of tied into the resolution and and sort of the sentiments of communities on the island recently we saw this humongous march that was jointly between the tumble and muslim communities of the north east from an eastern point on the island to northern point on the island p 2 p. and trap to some estimates put it at about 50000 individuals it it kind of talked about the number of issues that these communities are still facing ranging from force cremations to increased militarization to a lot of accountability for these really heinous atrocity crimes that occurred

during the end of the war and and despite the government's assertions are incredibly well documented both by u.n. entities as well as international organizations and so i think there is like a real kind of concern that if there aren't any checks and balances put in place and if this kind of continues that sort of thing now but it's nationalism that in a way underpins this government continues on checked that we are going to see kind of a real risk of recurrence of violence and and i think me in march for example in the recent coup there is an important lesson in how unchecked military power can leave real problematic breakdowns in the rule of law polythene last year sri lanka pulled out of a 2015 you in resolution calling for accountability for alleged excesses carried out by sri lankan troops and reparations for victims what was the justification for doing so to 2 important just one is that some of the commitments

made under that resolution well not consistent with the constitutional st roch or in fact there had been suggestions made that don't commit to sri lanka. under that receives by co-sponsoring it should be hauled up before the coats trawl acting contrary to the constitution secondly. there was a massive sentiment in the country against sectors and in a democracy any government have to respond to public pressure the current government was elected but that 2 thirds majority and none of the she can some which it meant to the public to the electorate was that the resolution of 201530 session one and that the electorate expressed itself in no

uncertain terms about what it felt and their way up the 2 very good reasons for the drawing from that from that co-sponsorship as you know very that around them but in democracies countries have not comply or gone ahead with their commitments to comply with international obligations then confronted by domestic opposition the united states is a classic example of that in the circumstances there was no option for the government but to be drop its signature and then of course. having said that. hasn't at the government not done i think would take an adequate measures to comply with whatever it for literally agreed to do it has and that has other things that it continues to do trade example look tracing up missing persons is not complete

and i don't think anything that you could trace on the missing presence in a conflict in a space of 10 years that us people still missing after the 2nd book all that we have now. they have been traced so why should. a developing country the commitment of christians be pushed to the wall and told to find a contact everybody that in fact in the case of some of. their biggest comment happy is said in this time country in fact recently an individual was right before the courtroom though in germany and he was mr guest missing something i think this is all that there's a lot of propaganda a lot of pressure. exerted by entities who have a stake in this and damn disease this has become

a game who's going to win that think that the. rich are. not the international community we sent to invest in countries we're not going to the stock repurchase that by the way i'm sorry i'm sorry you know obviously it is that we're starting to run out of time so i just want to it looked to me as though darshan may have wanted to jump in and respond to some of what you were saying please go ahead i mean i think it's sort of ridiculous to kind of dismiss that whole families of the disappeared across the island who have loved ones who were taken and disappeared by perpetrators that were primarily the shrunken state and this kind of allegation that these individuals are in the diaspora and you know simply because it is missing it doesn't line up with the facts sri lanka continues to remain the country that has the 2nd highest number of complaints filed with the u.n. working group on arbitrary detention a lot of the woman who are protesting on the roads right now spent years after the

war and going from military camp to police station in groups to protect themselves from being potentially disappeared and possibly sexually assaulted looking for their disappeared children their husbands their wives and you know to the question of where are these individuals all. r well if the government is so confident that this issue is one that they're not afraid of handling then why i try so do so try so hard to suppress the voices of the families of the disappeared you know a mother that i spoke to last week said that she was being visited multiple times a day by intelligence officers and that's true of women who need these protests across the northeast their police are taking out court order to prevent them from protesting while the military continues to have parades in the south and we're told that these so-called war orders are because of kobe. so i you know i think it's just such a shame that the sri lankan government fails to recognize the pain and suffering you know in forces appearance takes such

a psychological toll on the family members of the victim and to not address the issues on the fact that the government and its representatives still today are denying the very fact of those disappearances and the importance of addressing them is to me the perfect example of the sri lankan government attitude towards its subnational populations whether that be the community or the muslim community and again reiterate the need for international intervention by q so if the i want to ask you about this 20th constitutional amendment there are many groups that have expressed concern that the independence of the judiciary in sri lanka as well as other bodies such as the human rights commission that they have been significantly weakened by this constitutional amendment what have the ramifications of this amendment been throughout the country. well that effectively what the amendment is done is to remove any chance that it says on the exercise of executive authority and by the elected president we had

a constitutional council that was by no means perfect but at least it vented if you like the various appointments to state institutions as well as chattels etc the list goes the president will appoint and there is a fundamental council which will just give him give their observations as to who he chooses and getting their observations in itself is not mandatory and so what we have here is the consolidation and centralized ocean of indie artists of one person which is you know has terrible riba passions for democracy for the whole question of the institutions and the success of democracy in our country by lethal let me throw that question to you as well i mean what do you say to critics of this 20th constitutional amendment treason from once the 19th amendment which the 20th so to replaced was not the most popular amendment to the country this is

very clear abundantly clear the way the electorate voted at the presidential election and the parliamentary election of a government that has a mandate to mentis changes on history has to respond to that. deliver on that mandate and i don't think you just mount up droopy or even promise a bill to say on the government give the wrong thing the government going to the electorate with certain promises and it has to be good and then my whole point i trace the ridiculousness is not to rock the government deny. deny the existence of disappearance the ridiculousness is about. keeping on making this i like it over and over again i didn't try not to without any substantiation you couldn't stir up the population you could stir up certain segments of the

population to march up and down the street it's not a difficult thing in the modern. communication facilities you can do that and it's being done in the world again in street on and so let me finish on this point . to say that mothers are crying of course i cry for those mothers who have lost their their loved ones to put it to the sisters and looks their brothers for the fathers the lost sons and daughters yes i tried them too but to keep on making this i like you without any substantiated with the concrete substantiation i think it's unique so a propaganda and political. grandstanding there show we just have less than a minute left i want to ask you very quickly about the chilling effect all of this has had on civil society in sri lanka. no i mean i think i think it has had i've been enormous chilling effect on civil society in fact the secretary out of n.g.o.s

it's now been brought under the ministry of defense which is headed by a couple i'm going to run who is in himself named in several u.n. reports as an as having alleged to have been committed committed war crimes and so a number of civil society organizations across the northeast and across the island in fact every at least self-centered to make sure that they can survive this regime and that includes kind of families that the disappeared who despite the government's real efforts islands their claims continue to protest on the roads because what they really want to be reunited with their loved ones or at least know what happened to them all right we've run out of times we're going to have to leave the conversation there thank you so much to all of our guests so at the start of an m o 2 probably thought kahana and jay got the swara and thank you too for watching you can watch this and our previous programs any time by visiting our website of 0 dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter we are apt at a.j.

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understand the differences i need similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take a al-jazeera bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. down to 0. hi there i'm convinced the top stories on. 300 schoolgirls have been kidnapped in northwest nigeria it happened in the states a. gunman arrived at not shooting sporadically took the girls into the bush. mall for a minute in central area the gunman arrived shortly after midnight and operate it for at least an hour after that they heard it. $300.00 goes in. the bushes and disappeared.