• Modi to meet TNA delegation

    Aug 19
    A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will be travelling to New Delhi to meet with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 23, The Hindu reports.

    The delegation will be headed by the TNA leader R. Sampanthan, and will include five senior members.
  • Indian Prime Minister to discuss solution to fishermen issue
    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding a meeting tomorrow to explore a solution to the repeated arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, according to reports.

    A senior government official told PTI,
    "The PMO has called a meeting tomorrow to deliberate on India-Sri Lanka fishermen issues like illegal poaching and welfare of Indian fishermen among others."
    Frequent attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy has led to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalithaa writing several letters to the Prime Minister, expressing her concern and calling for a “strong and robust" response to the arrests.

    The Prime Minister's announcement that he will discuss the issue comes as 11 fishermen associations in Tamil Nadu declared they would “lay siege” to Pamban road, which connects Ramneswaran to mainland India. The fishermen are protesting against the continued detention of Indians by the Sri Lankan government and demand that their boats, which the Sri Lankans are refusing to release, be given back to them.

    See more from the Hindu here.
  • Suicide rate in Jaffna increases since end of armed conflict
    The number of suicides in Jaffna has increased since the end of the armed conflict in May 2009, according to statistics compiled by the Professor of Psychiatry at Jaffna University.

    Data gathered by Dr Daya Somasundaran showed that in 2009, when the armed conflict was at its peak, the suicide rate in the Northern Tamil peninsula was 15 per 100,000. However, since the armed hostilities ended, the suicide rate has risen sharply to 25 per 100,000 in 2011. The figure dipped slightly in 2012, but by 2013, was back at its highest level.

    The New Indian Express that Dr Somasundaran said during the war there was “a strong social support system” as “under the Lankan military siege, civilians clung together”. Since the end of the fighting though, “social cohesion and social support systems began to wear thin as families got splintered.”

    Somasundaran reportedly went on to add that collective rehabilitation was needed for the Tamil population, since they experienced the trauma of war as a collective. Acts such as mourning, he added, had to be done collectively.
  • LTTE groups' encouraging students to protest says Gotabhaya
    Sri Lanka's Defence Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said groups linked to the LTTE were attempting to "create further problems in Sri Lanka" and pose a potential terrorist threat, the Business Standard reports.

    "Some of these groups are trying to reorganise within Sri Lanka and mobilise people to once again take up their extreme left wing causes. There is information that some of these groups have started to establish ties to LTTE-linked agents to create further problems in Sri Lanka," he was quoted as saying.

    "Some of their activities include radicalising students and encouraging them to take to the streets in various protests. Though such activities are still in their early stages, they pose another serious national security concern that must remain a consideration," he added.

  • Government should not 'pander to multi-ethnic obscenities' to gain support - BBS
    The BBS leader told the Sri Lankan president to ‘not pander to multi ethnic obscenities’ and understand ‘the roots of the country and the value of the nation and who it rightfully belongs to,’ to gain the support of nationalist organisations, reports Colombo Page.
  • International pressure for human rights probe harmful to Sri Lanka - GL Peiris
    The Sri Lankan Minister of External Affairs said that international pressure on Sri Lanka to probe human rights violations and foreign funding for 'capacity building' were harmful to the country, reports Colombo Page.

    "Because of the intensity of this pressure there is a disincentive to engage in earnest in a domestic process. Because of the conviction that far more is forthcoming by the application of pressure at an international level. And that is why this international pressure is not only not helpful, but is absolutely harmful," said GL Peiris at a Ministry of Defence seminar, on Monday, in Colombo.

  • Sri Lanka will deny visas to UN investigators says President
    Sri Lanka will deny visas to investigators from the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights due to conduct the UN inquiry into mass atrocities in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan President said on Tuesday.

    “We will not allow them into the country,” said Mahinda Rajapaksa when speaking to the Foreign Correspondents Association, whilst adding that the domestic investigation panel had been strengthened to carry out its own investigation, reports Reuters.

    Disregarding any future findings from the UN investigation, Rajapaksa, said,

    “I don’t think anybody will take it [the UN investigation] seriously, other than the people who want it.”

  • Elderly Tamil woman found dead in Batticaloa

    A 75-year old Tamil woman, who has been missing for nearly 2 weeks, was found dead on Monday morning, reports Battinews.

  • Body of Kaaththankudi female discovered

    The body of a 33-year old woman from Kaaththankudi, Batticaloa, was discovered on Sunday.

    Mother of three, M Siththi Nazheeba, was found dead in a house in the town. The cause of death is not yet known.

  • Historic mosque near Trinco destroyed, locals blame army
    Muslims near a historic mosque by Trincomalee have accused the Sri Lankan army of demolishing the mosque, which was already in a dilapidated condition due to lack of renovation.

    The mosque, now encompassed within the military's High Security Zone, is believed to be over 400 years old, say locals.

    The army denies demolishing the mosque, which they say was destroyed due to heavy rains and winds.
  • Government appoints 5th expert to commission after rejecting UN inquiry
    The Sri Lankan government has appointed a 5th international expert to its commission on disappearances, a law expert from Pakistan, Ahmer B Soofi.
  • National security is stronger than ever' – Commander of the Army

    The Sri Lankan Commander of the Army stated that national security on the island was “stronger than ever” as he addressed a military conference being held in Colombo this week.

    The Commander, Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake, said that even though the island now had the “incentive of peace... this should not be interpreted in any way as letting down our guard.”

    He went on to add,
    “Our national security is stronger than ever... Today we are much smarter, more vigilant and possess greater responsive capability to deal with threats to national security.”
    In his opening address at the seminar, reportedly attended by representatives from over 50 countries, Ratnayake also said Sri Lanka had learnt “the value of national security and the will to pursue it at any cost.”
  • Rajapaksa says no to devolving police powers... again
    The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has once again reiterated the government's stand against the devolution of police powers to provinces on the island.

    Colombo Gazette reports that when meeting with a group of foreign correspondents on Tuesday morning, Rajapaksa “insisted that police powers will not be devolved to the provinces under any circumstances.”
  • Northern and Eastern Provincial Council members call for UN to investigate genocide
    Thirty-three members of the Northern and Eastern Provincial Council have written to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), calling on the investigative team to examine the mass killings of Tamils from at least 1974 onwards and explore the charge of genocide against the Sri Lankan state.

    In a letter sent to the OHCHR offices in Geneva, the provincial council members stated that “there were several major incidents of massacres of Tamils” and that “none of them were properly investigated by the Sri Lankan government.”

    The letter went on to add,
    “The Tamil people strongly believe that they have been, and continued to be subjected to Genocide by Sri Lanka. The Tamils were massacred in groups, their temples and churches were bombed, and their iconic Jaffna Public Library was burnt down in 1981 with its collection of largest oldest priceless irreplaceable Tamil manuscripts.  Systematic Sinhalese settlements and demographic changes with the intent to destroy the Tamil Nation, are taking place. We request the OHCHR investigative team to look into the pattern of all the atrocities against the Tamil people, and to determine if Genocide has taken place.”

  • Peiris: UN inquiry is a 'travesty of justice'
    Sri Lanka's minister of external affairs reiterated the government's refusal to take part in the UN inquiry into mass atrocities stating that the OHCHR Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL) was a "travesty of justice".
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