The Sri Lankan navy pelted Indian fishermen with stones and bottles as they were fishing in the Palk Strait on Monday, reports Business Standard . A group of fishermen from Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu were fishing near Katchatheevu in approximately 250 boats, before the Sri Lankan navy approached. The Sri Lankan navy personnel proceeded to threaten the fishermen, hurling stones and bottles at them. There were no reported injuries from the attack.
Photographs: Tamil Guardian Hundreds of people in Jaffna joined demonstrations against government inaction to tackle ground water contamination in Jaffna, on Tuesday.
Talks held in Singapore this weekend between Tamil and Sri Lankan groups on promoting reconciliation and strengthening democracy in Sri Lanka, faced criticism this week over a lack of transparency over the process. "The fact that the above initiative is shrouded in secrecy raises serious concerns whether the legitimate aspirations and long term interests of the Eelam Tamils will be addressed by the above initiative," said the International Council of Eelam Tamils (ICET), a network of 14 Tamil diaspora groups worldwide, on Tuesday, stating that the meeting also lacked proper Tamil representation. See full statement here . "[It is] important to note that we did not try to get a full comprehensive representation of Tamil diaspora to the meeting," Ivor Jenkins of the South Africa based dialogue promotion group, In Transformation Initiative (ITI) which organised the meeting in conjunction with the Swiss government, told Tamil Guardian on Tuesday, when asked which organisations were present at the meeting.
Over 2000 Sri Lankan army deserters took up the government's offer last month of general amnesty and reported to their regiments, the Ministry of Defence said. The amnesty, which is due to end on April 16, allows deserters to obtain legal discharge from duty. Related article: Amnesty for Sri Lankan army deserters (25 Mar 2015)
Children of Sri Lankan military personnel who were killed or severely injured were given scholarships on Monday, in a ceremony at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRS) in Colombo. One hundred and two children received such scholarships at the event, which organised by the Ranaviru Seva Authority, chaired by the wife of the former army general, Sarath Fonseka.
Sri Lanka signed six agreements with Pakistan on Monday, aimed at increasing bilateral cooperation. The agreements were signed by Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif and the Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena, who is currently in Islamabad on a three day state visit.
Highlighting that the former ruling coalition and opposition parties were now both in the new government, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said that it was the largest party in parliament outside of government, on Sunday. “The UPFA is part of the government now. So we are the largest party in the opposition,” the TNA leader R Sampanthan, told journalists. The United National Party (UNP) and the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) had jointly formed the new government meant that with 13 MPs, the TNA was the opposition party with the greatest number of members, said the TNA leader.
Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe, was criticised by members of the Northern Provincial Council for dismissing the chief minister, C. V. Wigneswaran during a recent three day visit to the North. Speaking to the New Indian Express on Sunday, a member of the NPC said: “This is an affront to the elected provincial council. He has devalued the NPC and the office of CM."
The chief minister of Tamil Nadu, O Panneerselvam, urged the Indian prime minister to ensure a "firm, clear, unequivocal and unambiguous" response to Sri Lanka's recent arrest of 37 fishermen, reports The Hindu . In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, Mr Paneerselvam wrote: “It is unfortunate that this incident has taken place immediately after the third round of fishermen-level talks which were held at Chennai on March 24."
Photograph Tamilwin The body of a Vanni school girl who was gang-raped and died on February 27 was exhumed on Monday, as sent for a post-mortem in Colombo, reports Colombo Mirror .