The Deputy External Affairs Minister, Neomal Perara, has been accused of illegally aquiring land along Puttalam lagoon in order to create salterns, reports The Sunday Leader.

The Divisional Secretary of Kalpitiya, Ranga Fernando, said,

“The mangrove was completely bulldozed last year without taking any approval from the Forest Department. We got to know that Perera’s men were bulldozing the mangrove on a Sunday morning and immediately took an injunction order by the same evening. Hence we were able to stop further destruction to the mangrove."

"Later we found out that they have started illicit mangrove destruction from Friday evening – after all government departments closed for the weekend. We still cannot determine as to what the extent of this bulldozed area is since it is a large extent. I assume it could be several acres. We have to carry out a new survey now to demarcate the boundaries,”

During Chandrika Kumaratunge presidency, Perara reportedly aquired 150 acres around the Puttalam lagoon for a saltern on a lease agreement with the support of Gamini Jayawickrema Perara - who was the then chief minister of the North Western province.

However, a forest ranger in Puttalam, S.M.K.W. Kotuwegedara alleges that on two occasions Perera has ordered the illegal destruction of mangroves and has illegally aquired land to extend his salterns.

Kotuwegedara said,

“Perera, little by little he got the saltern extended illegally. As a result we have filed two cases against his company –St. Ann’s Salt (Pvt) Ltd in the Puttalam District Court,”

Government officials have denied allegations of land seizures by security forces, after protests by the TNA and other Tamil political groups in the North-East.

The Government Agent of Kilinochchi, Roopavathi Ketheeswaran said there was no truth in the allegations.

The Sri Lankan Navy has been accused of attacking four Indian fishermen and threatening them with life imprisonment, as they were fishing off the coast Katchathivu.

The fishermen were allegedly beaten with nylon ropes at gunpoint and had their fish confiscated after Navy patrol boats surrounded their vessels. The fishermen also stated that their catch was confiscated by the Sri Lankans and threatened to jail them for life if they strayed into Sri Lankan territory.

At least 15 families were forcibly evicted from their homes overnight, just 2 weeks after being ‘resettled’ back in their native village.

According to Journalists for Democracy, 10-15 heavily armed Navy personnel marched into the Vetriman Housing Scheme, located between Pesalai and Thalaimannar in the Mannar district, late Friday evening and demanded the villagers vacate their homes before midnight.

The families, including those with children and the elderly, were then left at night to seek shelter at the Catholic Church in Pesalai almost 5km away.

109 people have been rescued from a capsized boat north-west of Christmas Island according to the latest reports, but hope is fading for an estimated 90 asylum seekers still lost at sea.

The boat was thought to have been carrying over 200 men, with 109 having been rescued so far, including a 13-year-old boy. Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare stated that the chances of finding further survivors were "increasingly grim".

Mahinda Rajapakse has emphasised his commitment to the historical relationship between India and Sri Lanka to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The leaders spoke on the sidelines of the Rio+20 summit in Brazil and discussed issues such as the power plant in Sampur and the project to build 50,000 houses.

Rajapakse stressed that he would never let the relationship disintegrate, while both leaders agreed that during crucial periods, the countries should arrive at solutions through negotiations.

The Sri Lankan government announced it will be launching a fraud investigation into the media rights groups, Free Media Movement (FMM), reports Colombo Page.

Citing an apparent police complaint from a foreign country accusing the organisation of 'massive fraud', the government has alleged misappropriation of millions of rupees by the leaders of the organisation.

A boat carrying about 200 refugees from the island of Sri Lanka has capsized off Australia’s Christmas Islands on Thursday.

The spokesperson for Indonesia's search and rescue service which is coordinating the searcha at present, Gagah Prakoso, said the boat "coming from Sri Lanka and going to Christmas Island".

Writing on the online sit for Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), the Tamil journalist, J.S. Tissainayagam, criticised Rajapaksa's intentions on his recent trip to the UK.

See here for full article.

Extracts reproduced below:

Sri Lanka’s president hoped to enhance his image as an acceptable leader through his remarks at the Commonwealth Business Forum.

Rajapakse’s visit was therefore the use of diplomacy both as hard power and soft power.

As far as hard power went it would indicate to his enemies – especially the influential Tamil Diaspora in the UK – that he possessed the means to counter Diaspora activity because as Sri Lanka’s head of state he was essentially on par with the British monarch.

Therefore, Rajapakse went to the UK with an agenda and to use his power to influence certain outcomes. For the Tamil Diaspora this meant it had to not only to thwart Rajapakse’s agenda, but substitute it with its own.

While the objective of thwarting the Sri Lankan president’s agenda is understandable, why did the Tamil Diaspora choose the form of outraged street protests to do so? The display of outrage was partly because negotiations with British and Commonwealth authorities to prevent Rajapakse from attending the jubilee had failed. Further, outrage was the natural outpouring of sentiment from people whose brethren in Sri Lanka were killed and stifled from expressing their feelings or thoughts due to draconian control exercised by the Colombo government. Humiliating Rajapakse was to the Tamil Diaspora pay back to Sri Lanka’s president for the humiliation his government was heaping on the Tamils. Finally, outraged protests are good for the cameras.

The Tamil Diaspora’s campaign in the UK to thwart Rajapakse’s agenda has earned rich dividends. Autocratic leaders crave acceptance by association with symbols of legitimacy – the British monarchy, Oxford University – and strengthening themselves using hard and soft power potential of diplomacy. This, the Tamil Diaspora was able to overturn. Even a cursory glance of the British newspapers bear testimony to this.