Sri Lanka's military approached senior TNA MP Maavai Senathirajah to gather "information" on Sunday night, according to sources in the North-East. Two men visited the ITAK office at Martin Road in Jaffna on Sunday at around 7:30pm, asking security guards, in Sinhalese, to speak to the MP, who is also the leader of ITAK. As he wasn't in the office, the men waited until his arrival soon after. Mr Senathirajah refused to give any information to the men, who identified themselves as military intelligence. The MP stated that parliamentary speaker Karu Jayasuriya would need to give permission for...
Rejecting the UN Committee Against Torture's call on Sri Lanka to investigate the former intelligence chief, Sirisa Mendis, the state minister of defence, Ruwan Wijewardene told The Sunday Leader MR Mendis would not be investigated. Mr Wijewardene was quoted as saying "he does not see any need to investigate Mendis as the allegations against him are baseless." The government would "look into the ocncerns raised by the UN committee", he added however.
The newly appointed Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu O Panneerselvam, has written to India’s prime minister to call for action against the Sri Lankan navy after yet another reported attack on Tamil Nadu fishermen this weekend. Mr Panneerselvam told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that "the Sri Lankan Navy continues to unleash its reign of terror on our fishermen in the Palk Bay, where these fishermen have earned their meagre livelihood from time immemorial". A group of 8 Tamil Nadu fishermen were allegedly assaulted by Sri Lankan naval troops who attacked them with iron rods off the coast of...
Families of the disappeared living in Vavuniya marked international Human Rights Day on Saturday with a demonstration followed by a discussion forum. The event was organised by the'Forum for Families of Searching, Handed, Kidnapped and Forcibly Disappeared Relatives - Tamil Homeland'. At the discussion forum, the families decided they would send a petition to the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena explaining the current situation faced by the families of the disappeared, as well as calling on the TNA and the Sri Lankan government to clearly state their views on enforced disappearances.
Photograph Sunday Times Sri Lanka's navy commander, Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne assaulted a journalist on Saturday, who had been reporting on protests at Hambantota Port. Wearing civilian attire, Mr Wijegunaratne marches up to the journalist before launching a strike aimed at the cameraman.
Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister told parliament that a resolution passed by the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) condemning the building of Buddhist places of worship in the North-East has “no legal standing”. The Island reported Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe as telling parliamentarians that the Sri Lankan constitution did not provide any legal basis for the NPC to enforce the resolution, which called for an immediate cessation to the building of Buddhist viharas. Mr Rajapakshe, who is also minister of the Buddhasasana, went on to reassure the parliament that no such power would be granted in any new...
Russia’s ambassador to Sri Lanka urged Colombo to look to his country for the purchase of military equipment, at a press conference last week. The Island quoted Ambassador Alexander Karchava as telling journalists that “Sri Lanka is searching for a number of products in the air, sea and land”. “We can accommodate everything,” the ambassador said. “Russia has the originals and they are durable, unlike the duplicates." Mr Karchava insisted that military co-operation between the two governments was continuing, pointing to the purchase of military helicopters by Sri Lanka in recent years. Russia...
The Constitutional Assembly Steering Committee has decided to obtain the views of parliamentarians on drafting the new constitution on January 9th 2017 reports Colombo Page. The decision was made during a report submission to the Chairman of the Constitutional Assembly, Prime Minister Ranil Wickrememsinghe, by the Sub-Working Committee that looked into relations between the parliament and Provincial Councils. Addressing the Constitutional Assembly on Saturday, Mr Wickremesinghe said that the seven sub-committees of the Steering Committee have presented their reports, and the new constitution...
The Sri Lankan government must end impunity for torture by holding those responsible accountable said Amnesty this week. The statement follows the report by the UN Committee Against Torture this month which called on the government to investigate ongoing reports of torture by its security services. “If the Sri Lankan authorities are serious about breaking with the harrowing legacy of the country’s decades-long conflict, it must end impunity for torture and other acts of ill-treatment,” Amnesty International’s South Asia director, Champa Patel said. “Sri Lanka has taken important and positive...