Officials from the French navy said that it was time to start a "solid" partnership with Sri Lanka, the Daily Mirror reported. “This is a good time to start the partnership between our two nations,” Captain Laurent Machard De Gramont, the Commanding Officer of the French Naval Ship ‘Aconit’, which arrived in Colombo on Friday, said. “After six years, this is the first visit by a French ship to Sri Lanka and more visits are to follow,” he further said. The navy delegation will take part in several programmes organised by the Sri Lanka Navy to strengthen mutual relations during their stay in...
Attempts are being made to acquire 551 acres of private land in Kilinochchi from the Tamil people, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, S Sritharan said this week. Writing a letter to the TNA leader, R Sampanthan and to the president, Maithripala Sirisena, Mr Sritharan called for the land grabs to be halted. Private land is also be acquired for the use of the army in six places in Jaffna, as well as 42 places having been earmarked for the use of the navy. Highlighting the strong opposition from the Tamil land owners and politicians, Mr Sritharan also pointed out the land of 817 families in...
The Vavuniya Citizens Committee, together with the Mullaitivu Citizens Committee and the Forum for Searching, Handed, Kidnapped and Forcibly Disappeared Relatives - Tamil Homeland), called for a public remembrance event on May 18th to mark the genocide of the Tamil people in 2009. Reiterating the need for justice, the three groups urged people to come to Mullivaikkal to make their demand for justice heard.
The chief minister of the Northern Province on Friday rejected concerns that the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) was trying to divide the country by calling a federal system. Speaking to journalists in Sinhala, Mr Wigneswaran said such a system would unite the country. “The country is not divided by a Federal system as claimed by some people. Politicians have reiterated for years that a federal system leads to division of the country and the people have been forced to believe that. This system is being practised in several countries such as India, America, Canada and Switzerland,” he was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying.
Tamil National Alliance leader R Sampanthan challenged the Sri Lanka state to hold a referendum in the North-East to decide on whether the Tamil people wanted a power sharing mechanism on the island. Speaking to the Daily Mirror in a wide ranging interview, the TNA leader was questioned on whether proposals for federalism had the backing of the Tamil people of the North-East. “People want genuine power sharing,” said Mr Sampanthan. “Have a referendum in the North and the East and decide.”
Sri Lankan police have intercepted at least two attempts to smuggle cannabis across the Tamil North-East in the last week, as drug dealing continues to rise across the former conflict area. Tamil Diplomat reports that over 200 kilograms of cannabis was seized by Sri Lankan police after they searched two vehicles travelling from Mannar last week. Meanwhile another smaller seizure of 8kg was also made in the district, in the Talaimannar islet. The coastal town has become an increasingly popular route for drug smugglers to deliver packages of narcotics which are thought to be produced across the Palk Strait in Southern India. Smugglers have also looked to smuggle drugs to Jaffna, with Sri Lankan police stopping a fishing boat which was returning to Point Pedro on Sunday. A M Jaffar, Assistant Superintendent of Police for the Kankesanthurai region, though confirmed no drugs were found on the boat. Acting on a tip off, Sri Lankan police raided the vessel but only found a sack of tamarind and a motorcycle. All 4 men aboard the boat have since been arrested.
Three people believed to have been abducted in Vadamaradchi are being detained by anti-drugs police in Trincomalee. Mr Jeffrin, George Rasanayagam and V. Michael were believed to have been abducted as they were seized in vans by unidentified individuals and their families uninformed. The three men were reported missing by their families to Palai and Kilinochchi police and the case reported to the Human Rights Commission. The inquiries by the Commission led to the discovery that the three men had been arrested by a special drugs force from Trincomalee, despite no record of their arrests being...
Sri Lanka's CID officers arrested a man on Thursday for allegedly threatening the president, Maithripala Sirisena on the social media site, Facebook, reported the Daily Mirror . The man had been deported from Malaysia as he had been staying there without an adequate visa. The man was arrested at Bandaranaike International airport and brought before Colombo's chief magistrate court. He will be remanded in custody till May 6th.
An agreement was reached on Friday between Sri Lanka and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $1.5 billion bailout in order to rectify its finances and evert a balance of payments crisis. "The Sri Lankan authorities and the IMF have reached a staff-level agreement on a 36-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF)," the IMF mission chief for Sri Lanka, Todd Schneider, said in a statement. The three-year loan is the second bailout from the IMF since the end of the armed conflict in 2009, and will be depend on Sri Lanka implementing financial reforms including the reduction of the deficit.
Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Karunasena Hettiarachchi said the TID's arrest of former LTTE commanders is in relation to the reported finding of a suicide vest and unexploded explosives in Jaffna. In an interview with the BBC, Mr Hettiarachchi said he could not make any comment until the investigation was over. "After the investigations over and a reports are submitted only we can make a statement," he was quoted by Colombo Page as saying. Denying there was any threat to national security, he added, "we currently do not have such a threat but if there is such a situation we will be vigilant."