Actions and Issues

Get on the Bus 2019 featured speakers and actions focused on human rights around the world.
2019 Actions:

Sri Lanka: Justice for Ragihar Manoharan and the Trinco Five
China/Tibet: Unconditional release of Tibetan activist Tashi Wangchuk and Uyghur economist
​and professor Ilham Tohti
Syria: Stop widespread human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary detention,
and executions in Syria
The Philippines: Unconditional release of Senator Leila de Lima
Bahrain: Unconditional release of human rights activist Nabeel Rajab 

​Download the action letters packet: COMING SOON.

Sri Lanka: Justice For Ragihar Manoharan 

Ragihar Manoharan, a Sri Lankan Tamil student, and four fellow students had gathered for a chat near the seafront in the town of Trincomalee in northeastern Sri Lanka at about 7:00 p.m. on January 2, 2006, when a grenade was thrown at them from a passing auto rickshaw. The students ran, but at least three of them were injured in the explosion. A short while later, a group of 10 to 15 officers in uniform, believed to be police from the elite Special Task Force, arrived. They reportedly put the injured students into their jeep and beat them with rifle butts, and then pushed them out onto the road. According to a witness, the security forces personnel then shot the five students dead. 

Despite subsequent court hearings and an investigation by a presidential commission of inquiry, no one has been prosecuted for these murders. Ragihar’s father gave evidence at the proceedings and then received death threats. Ultimately, Ragihar’s family was forced to flee Sri Lanka.

Justice for Ragihar and the rest of the Trinco Five has been one of the GOTB actions for several years. In July 2013, due to the mounting international pressure, the Sri Lankan government arrested 12 Police Special Task Force members in connection with the murders. All 12 are out on bail and no further action has been taken since then. We are continuing to call on the Sri Lankan government to effectively investigate and prosecute those who murdered Ragihar Manoharan and the rest of the “Trinco Five."

In January 2018, the Sri Lankan government announced that it would allow evidence to be given by Skype in the Trinco Five case, which would facilitate testimony by witnesses living outside Sri Lanka.  To date, though, little progress has occurred in the case. In fact, both the 2017 and 2018 reports on Sri Lanka from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights cited the case of the Trinco Five students as an emblematic case of human rights violations for which no appreciable progress has occurred.


Take Action Now: Join the South Asia Regional Action Network
Sign up for monthly actions by email on Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, the Maldives and Bangladesh.

Email jmcdonald@aiusacs.org and write "SARAN sign-up" in the subject line.

Online Resources

Tibet/China

​This year's Get on the Bus will once again call for the immediate and unconditional release of political prisoners being held by the Chinese government. We will have a special focus on two prisoners of conscience: Tibetan writer and blogger Druklo, who is better known by his pen name, Shokjang, and Tashi Wangchuk.

Druklo:

Druklo was sentenced to three years imprisonment in February 2016 on charges of separatism, after being detained in March 2015. It is believed that this is as a result of an article he wrote describing the increased presence of Chinese security officers ahead of the March 10th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising. Previously, Druklo was detained by Chinese authorities in 2010 for writing about the wide-scale Tibetan protests of 2008.

Tashi Wangchuk:

Tashi Wangchuk is a Tibetan entrepreneur and language rights activist. He has been detained by the Chinese government since January 27, 2016 on charges of inciting separatism, after he worked to sue the Chinese government to expand access to Tibetan language education. He faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted. 

• Coming to the China/Tibet rally? Please print and cut out this mask of Tashi Wangchuk's face. We will be bringing some to the rally, too
Picture
Photo by Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times
Druklo links:
​Tashi Wangchuk links:  

Syria

Info coming soon...
The Phillipines
Info coming soon...

    Bahrain

    Info coming soon...​