The UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye met with ministers from the Northern Provincial Council on Thursday, where she discussed issues faced by the Tamil people of the North-East. Ms Izsák-Ndiaye met with the NPC’s Minister of Education T Kurukularajah and the Minister of Health P Sathiyalingam, as part of her 10 day visit to the island. The ministers told reporters that they discussed issues such as the continued detention of Tamil political prisoners, the fate of the disappeared and the continued Sri Lankan military occupation of land in the North-East. The Special...
Photographs of the posters that Sri Lankan police claim were found pinned up in Jaffna. Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division has arrested a woman in Jaffna over the alleged distribution of posters bearing images of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. The woman, who recently arrived from Germany, was arrested by Sri Lankan security forces in Maruthanarmada on Tuesday evening from a lodge where she was staying. A Jaffna police official claimed footage from surveillance cameras in the area showed the woman pinning up poster bearing the Tamil Eelam national symbols and the LTTE chief in...
Sri Lanka’s prime minister announced that he would be travelling to Brussels this weekend to engage in negotiations with the European Union to restore lost trade concessions. “I am traveling to Brussels on Saturday to begin talks on restoring GSP plus,” Ranil Wickremesinghe told the World Export Development Forum in Colombo on Wednesday. “Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were given GSP plus around the same time but we gave it up,” he added, noting that “Bangladesh kept it and experienced fast export growth”. Mr Wickremesinghe was reportedly furious over the conditions agreed to in order to regain the...
The Sri Lankan government announced that a draft version of proposed new counter terrorism legislation has been forwarded to the “Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security” for further discussions. Sri Lanka’s cabinet of minister has reportedly approved the draft, which was drawn up by Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to report the much criticised Prevention of Terrorism act (PTA). Thousands of Tamils have been held under the decades-old PTA, which allowed arrest without charge. Hundreds of prisoners are reported to still be languishing in Sri Lankan jails. “We need the...
Sri Lanka is to sign an agreement to lease 15,000 acres of land in Hambantota in order to creat a Special Economic Zone in the region, Colombo Page reported. Announcing the proposed agreement, the State Finance Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena told reporters in Colombo on Tuesday, the economic zone would create millions of jobs. See more here .
The Sri Muthumari Amman temple in Anuradhapura was attacked by men carrying knives and clubs on Monday evening as Tamil devotees celebrated the Hindu festival of Navarathiri. One devotee, a father of one, Prabu was attacked by the thugs and is currently being treated at hospital for lacerations. Temple authorities said six men of Sinhala and Muslim identity together with one Catholic Tamil speaker forcibly entered the temple around 5.30pm on October 10th. The men proceeded to destroy the Karumari Amman statue, followed by the Murugan statue, before descrating all the pooja items. The attack...
Sri Lanka’s President Mathripala Sirisena announced that retired army officers would be given posts as Technical Officers at the Presidential Secretariat, which works on formulating the national development plan reports Colombo page. Stressing that the government was committed to protecting the dignity of the armed forces, Mr Sirisena said, “Though some groups make various complaints stating that the government is not treating the war heroes well, the current government is acting for their welfare unlike any former government. The government is committed to protect their dignity.” Sri Lanka’s...
A former Sri Lankan Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) is alleged to have covered up evidence in the case of murdered Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam “Taraki” Sivaram, reports The Sunday Leader . Sarath Lugoda, the former DIG and the ex-director of the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD), is alleged to have concealed evidence that the murder may have been ordered from authorities high up in the Sri Lankan government, and released the main suspects accused of the assassination. The Sunday Leader says that he is to face questioning shortly. Mr Lugoda responded by denying the allegations and...
Today marks the 29th anniversary of the death of Lt Maalathy. Maalathy was the first female fighter in the armed struggle against the Sri Lankan state oppression to lose her life. Malathy was killed at the age of 20, on the 10th of October 1987, during a confrontation with the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) in Jaffna. The following account is told by a cadre that was by her side. "We were in our bunkers firing at the (Indian) army. Hundreds of Indian troops had jumped out of their vehicles and were firing as they moved towards us. Mortar shells were exploding everywhere. We knew the army...
Sri Lanka’s Minister of Defence said his government would not allow the release of land in the North-East currently occupied by the military, if it meant land would be returned to “LTTE supporters”. "There is no requirement to provide lands to LTTE supporters or to reduce security in the North and East,” said Ruwn Wijewardene at a press conference on Friday. “We are only providing required land for the people living in the area". Thousands of Tamil families across the North-East remaind displaced, awaiting resttlement in their native land. Many have been waiting for years, some displaced for...