The Sri Lankan police media unit was suspended by the ministry of law and order on Tuesday over its coverage of the apparent finding of a suicide vest in Chavakachcheri. The Daily Mirror cited sources in the ministry as saying the media unit had been ordered by the IGP Pujith Jayasundara to only issue written statements on the issue. However, the unit had defied such orders, issuing a verbal statement over the incident. See more here .
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader, R Sampanthan, marked World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday, calling on the present Sri Lankan government to protect press freedom immediately and investigate the killing of murdered journalists. "At a time when the freedom of press is being subjected to oppression worldwide, I request the Sri Lankan government to take all necessary steps to ensure the freedom and protection of press immediately in Sri Lanka," Mr Sampanthan said in a statement on Wednesday. "It is a matter of concern that Sri Lanka ranks 141st place among the list of press freedom of 180 countries." "It is is no secret that the previous governments turned a blind eye to many incidents of ill treatment, violence and murders that took place against journalists." "I urge the current government to conduct proper investigations of these incidents and bring the perpetrators before justice."
Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) arrested the leader of the ITAK youth wing over messages that he had reportedly sent to diaspora Tamils on Facebook. Subramaniyam Sivakaran was detained under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act last week, before being released on bail. Mr Sivakaran’s private Facebook messages with Tamils living outside of the island were reportedly cited by Sri Lankan police as why the youth leader was detained under anti-terrorism legislation. It is not yet known how the Sri Lankan police gained access to Mr Sivakaran's Facebook account or the number of social media accounts the government is monitoring.
The Sri Lankan government declared firearms amnesty to collect weapons that had gone missing after the military had recovered them from the LTTE, has so far retrieved 84 weapons from the South. Guns were collected from Puttalam, Ratnapura, Kandy, Matara, Galle, Kalutara, Gampaha and Colombo. None have been reported from the Tamil North-East of the island. Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi initially said that 900 weapons that had been recovered from the LTTE during the armed conflict had initially gone missing, with approximately 200 such weapons still yet to be...
Sri Lankan soldiers took part in a religious ceremony at a Tamil Hindu temple in Kilinochchi last month. As thousands of Tamil devotees came to the Kanakambikal Ambal Hindu Temple “troops assisted the conduct of the pooja,” said an official Sri Lankan military website . The commander of Sri Lanka’s Security Forces – Kilinochchi was also handed the first copy of a CD of Hindu prayers, in a ceremony held before other devotees. Sri Lanka’s military has been extensively involved in civil life in the Tamil North-East, including in temples and other places of worship.
Sri Lanka’s parliament erupted into a brawl after Sri Lanka’s former army chief claimed that a previous bomb attack that had been blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was actually staged-managed by Sri Lanka’s defence secretary at the time. Soon after the attack, the Sri Lankan government, withdrawing from the internationally supported ceasefire and peace talks, called on Norwegian peace facilitators to halt communication with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Sri Lanka’s former army chief and current minister Sarath Fonseka lead Sri Lanka’s army in the brutal onslaught...
The Sri Lankan military's civil security division enrolled pre-school children in Vanni, forcing children to wear uniforms bearing the Sri Lankan military emblem. Parents have been instructed they must send their children to school in that uniform, whilst being asked to pay 600 rupees towards the cost of it.
The former head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) intelligence wing in Batticaloa was arrested by Sri Lankan police officers on Monday in Eravur. Sri Lanka's Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) told the family of Krishnapillai Kalainesan, known as Lt. Col. Prabha that he was arrested in relation to an investigation of the alleged regrouping of the LTTE. Mr Kalainesan was arrested at his home on Monday at 6.30am and has now been taken to Kalmunai for further interrogation, his wife, Kayalvili told reporters. Following the end of the armed conflict in 2009, he was initially registered as disappeared, before reports emerged that he was in fact being held by the Sri Lankan military. In 2013 Mr Kalainesan was released after completing the government's 'rehabilitation' programme.
Sri Lanka’s Presidential Commission on disappearances made its final sitting in Kilinochchi last week, calling over a thousand witnesses to testify about their missing relatives. The wife of former LTTE member Kannan, alias Gnanaselvan Uthayarasa, testified after seeing a photo of her husband with other captive LTTE cadres stripped naked and alive at the hands of the Sri Lankan military. “My husband is an LTTE member that surrendered to the army on May 18, 2009. I and my two children witnessed it in person. Thereafter there is no information about my husband Under these circumstances I got photo evidences of war crimes telecast by Channel 4. There were photos of my husband taken while he was taken by the army in stripped condition, and was seen sitting near a ditch.”
Updated 2300 GMT Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has ordered Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran and other Tamil politicians to appear before it with regards to the resolution calling for a federal solution in a merged North-East passed by the NPC last week. The chief minister, NPC Chairman CVK Sivagnanam, Chief Secretary A. Paththinathan, and President of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and MP Maavai Senathiraja were asked to submit explanations. Officials must appear before the court after the 12th of May, according to Mr Sivagnanam. TNA MP M A Sumanthiran tweeted that the court had not issued a...