India said it was still interested in a bridge or undersea tunnel link between India and Sri Lanka after signing a road transport agreement with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Speaking to press, India’s roads minister Nitin Gadkari, said, “When I met Asian Development Bank (ADB) officials (in June), the told me to look at a connectivity project between the Indian mainland and Sri Lanka as well. They said they would finance it. They proposed a bridge between Rameswaram and Sri Lanka.” Adding examples of existing overseas connections, Mr Gadkari said, “When I recently visited Rotterdam, I visited an immersed tunnel connecting Rotterdam and Belgium. So it could be an immersed tunnel or a bridge. We are looking at it.” Sri Lankan government ‘not interested’ in bridge to India states Minister (31 Dec 2015) See our editorial: Sri Lanka’s Indophobia (07 Aug 2015)
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has offered to assist the government families of those reported missing reports ColomboGazette. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with the ICRC delegation in Sri Lanka have held a meeting to discuss an ICRC meeting entitled ‘Needs of the Families of Missing Persons in Sri Lanka: Living with Uncertainty.’ Chairing the meeting, the Deputy Foreign Minister said that Sri Lanka recognised the importance of dealing with the issues related to the families of missing persons. The Head of the ICRC delegation in Sri Lanka Claire Meytraud said...
President Maithripala Sirisena said Sri Lanka was overcoming obstacles internationally, while some are making baseless accusations. Speaking at an event in Polonaruwa, Mr Sirisena said that the government was not being influence, despite of what political opponents were saying. The president also claimed that he can save former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and those who engaged in the war from the electric chair.
Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said his government was not averse to international participation in the country's touted accountability mechanism, however stressed that "final judgement will be made by the internal judicial system". The prime minister, who was visiting a temple in Guruvayur, said officials from neighbouring countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh would be able to participate in discussions on war crimes, alongside representatives from the US and human rights organisations. Mr Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka wanted to ensure that those responsible for civilian deaths are held to account, whether they were from the military or the LTTE, adding that the UN said it was possible that up to 40,000 people were killed in the last phase of the war.
Photograph: Sunday Times Sri Lankans in the United Kingdom protested against the prosecution of Sri Lankan soldiers for war crimes, at a demonstration in London on Friday. Holding signs in Sinhalese and English, the protestors called on the Sri Lankan government not to “betray our war heroes” and “we don’t need international war crime tribunals”. The protestors, who numbered up to 200 people and waved Sri Lankan flags according to the Sunday Times , also held signs criticising the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, saying he should “go to the USA for war crimes”. Sri Express reported that...
A former cabinet minister under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime was appointed as the Governor of the Northern Province on Sunday, reports Colombo Page. Reginald Cooray, was sworn in at President Maithripala Sirisena’s office on Sunday with his appointment to be effective from February 16th. The position of Governor of the Northern Province which is appointed by parliament in Colombo, has sparked criticism and discontent within the Northern Province Council due to the overruling powers granted to the appointed Governor.
Representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will visit Sri Lanka next week for a joint ‘Forensic Audit’ on development projects that amount to US $250 billion launched by the former Rajpaksa regime. Government Minister Sarath Amunagama told media that the consensual government was in a dilemma as to how capital investment could be raised for the projects, as the previous regime had commenced the project without full financial backing. “The entire programme amounting to billions of rupees just before the presidential election was a gimmick to hoodwink voters. The consensual...
Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa set up a coordinating office in the wake of announcing that a group of MPs loyal to him will form a new political party. A large number of parliamentarians loyal to Mahinda Rjapaksa reportedly met at his residence this week to discuss the final details of the new party and finalised the name and party symbol reports Colombo Page. The office is expected to facilitate the coordination of political affairs and public relations. This week parliamentarians loyal to Mahinda Rajapaksa protested in parliament after the speaker refused to acknowledge them...
The Sri Lankan government on Friday launched a consultations process, the 'Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms'.
The chief minister of the Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa, on Firday urged the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to take action over the arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy, after the latest arrest of 12 fishermen took place this week. There is an "urgent and imperative need" to find a lasting solution to the situation she wrote in her latest letter to Mr Modi, the PTI reported. "My Government stays committed to ensuring and upholding the traditional rights of fishermen from Tamil Nadu to fish in their traditional fishing waters of Palk Bay," her letter read.