The Sri Lankan military continued with its militarisation of the North-East this month, holding a seminar for schoolchildren in Trincomalee.

 

The Sri Lankan army reported that it had recovered the body of a Tamil man, who was reported missing by his wife.

The man, identified by the Sri Lankans as 42-year-old Kanagaiyya Udayakumar, was reported missing by his wife earlier this month.

The military claim the man died after he had “fallen victim to an unprotected electric wire”.

The Tamil National People’s front held an event in Jaffna today to honour the families of those who gave their lives in the Tamil armed struggle.

<p>Supporters of Mahinda Rajapaksa have targeted Tamil National Alliance MP M A Sumanthiran across social media in recent days, accusing him of misleading the UNP.</p> <p>SLPP councillor Senani Samaranayake accused Sumanthiran of being the “new boss” of the UNP and tweeted a video of him in parliament, claiming that he had used “filth” when speaking to the UNP’s Ranil Wickremesinghe and Lakshman Kiriella.</p> <p>Both Kirella and Sumanthiran dismissed the accusation, with the TNA MP telling Colombo Telegraph that the video showed him explaining the electronic voting system in parliament.</p>

<p>Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa reiterated his call for parliamentary elections in a speech delivered earlier today, calling for the public to support him as they did during the height of a military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.</p> <p>Rajapaksa, who is currently vying for control of the prime minister’s office, warned that “the fate of our country and the futures of our younger generation was at stake”.</p>

The words of the LTTE leader, V Prabhakaran were remembered through posters displayed across the University of Jaffna. 

The posters, which were put up anonymously inside the premises, feature a photograph of Prabhakaran with a quote. 

A cake was also cut by students in secret as the clock struck midnight to mark his birthday on November 26. 

<p>The key witness in the case of the abduction and killing of 11 Tamil youths between 2008 to 2009 has been threatened by supporters of Sri Lanka's Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, LankaDeepa reports.&nbsp;</p> <p>The details of the incident remain unknown however reports within Colombo press varying from severely assault to a possible shooting.&nbsp;</p> <p>Sri Lanka's former finance minister tweeted that the witness had been "severely assaulted in front of CDS who is also a key suspect."&nbsp;</p>

Final preparations for Maveerar Naal, the Tamil national remembrance day for fallen LTTE fighters, are underway in thuyilum illams (LTTE cemeteries) across the Tamil homeland.

<p>Sri Lanka's president, Maithripala Sirisena said he had made his decision to sack Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister due to mounting public dislike of his economic policies and political vision, UNP corruption and the assassination plot against him.</p> <p>In an interview with the Sunday Times, Sirisena said he had confronted Ranil about this on two previous occasions.&nbsp;</p> <p>"After the outcome of the local government elections on February 10, I told him that the people had rejected his economic policies and political vision. Some 1.5 million state sector employees had voted against the government. The majority of the armed forces personnel and Police too had voted against. So had a vast section of the Buddhist clergy. I asked him to step down as Prime Minister and hand over the office to someone else. This was the first time I told him such a thing. I invited Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to be Prime Minister. He rejected it. I also asked Sajith Premadasa. He was not agreeable. I experienced a conflict of policies, which were opposed to our own manifesto. They revolved around misuse of state property, lopsided economic policies, lack of political vision, growing corruption and arbitrary decisions."</p>

Parents of Maaveerar, fallen LTTE fighters, were honoured in Batticaloa on Saturday.

Photographs of 100 fighters were displayed at the event in Vellaveli. Each family placed lit lamps and flower garlands on the image of their fallen loved ones.