Former external affairs minister, GL Peiris, has complained of “harassment” from the Criminal Investigations Department, who questioned him on the alleged coup former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his allies are suspected to have planned. “In the overall context of the current strident emphasis on good governance, I expressed deep regret that I was subjected to this harassment without any semblance of justification,” Mr Peiris said in a statement . The former minister said Mr Rajapaksa instructed his secretary to facilitate the handover to the new president and “not one word” was uttered about a coup.
Sri Lanka's new government announced it would recommence inquiries into the assassination of two Tamil politicians during the former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa's reign - Joseph Pararajasingham, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for Batticaloa district, who was shot and killed by two gunmen on December 24 2005, whilst he was attending Christmas prayers at the St Mary's church in Batticaloa town, and Nadarajah Raviraj, a TNA MP and human rights lawyer who was assassinated in Colombo by an unidentified gunmen in November 2006. The assassinations of both politicians, which occurred as the official ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was still in place, were widely suspected to have been carried out by government forces, led by the then president, Mr Rajapaksa. The killing of Tamil political figures, many who were assassinated before Mr Rajapaksa's presidency, remain uninvestigated, including that of the prominent human rights lawyer and leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), Kumar Ponnambalam. Mr Ponnambalam was assassinated in a busy Colombo suburb on January 5 2000, during Chandrika Kumaratunge's government. His killers have never been brought to justice.
Locals protesting against the leakage of waste heavy fuel oil by Chunnakam power plant in the Jaffna peninsula, continued their hunger strike into the third day today, demanding immediate action against the contamination of local water supplies. The hunger strike, which included over 60 local doctors, teachers, university lecturers, village groups and Tamil politicians from both main parties, took place by the Chunnakam Sivan Kovil. "For the last three years, almost 400,000 litres of oil has been leaking from the Chunnakam thermal power station and seeping into local water supplies," one of the organisers, Dr Senthuran told Tamil Guardian.
The brother of Sri Lanka's new president, Kumarasinghe Sirisena, has been appointed as the new chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom, reported Ceylon Today . Mr Sirisena, has served in state institutions previously, including being the CEO of the State Timber Corporation from 2006 till last month, when he was sacked from his post after his brother and the newly elected president, Maithripala Sirisena, defected from the ruling Rajapaksa regime and launched his own presidential campaign. President Sirisena won the presidency pledging a new era of good governance and an end to the corruption and...
The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) latest 'Country of Concern' report on Sri Lanka said that there was "no overall improvement in the human rights situation" during the end of last year and "concerns continued around the situation in northern Sri Lanka". The updated report, which examined the period of September to December 2014, covering issues such as investigations into abuses during the conflict, counter-terrorism measures, unlawful use of force, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, and persecution of journalists and human rights defenders, highlighted the ongoing detention of prominent human rights campaigners, including Balendran Jeyakumari.
Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa denied allegations there was an attempted coup by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, as it became clear he would lose on the night of the election. Mr Rajapaksa admitted the attorney general, alongside the head of police and military commanders, were present at the president’s residence at Temple Trees on election night, but claimed they discussed whether measures needed to be imposed to ensure a calm post-election environment. “Yes, the attorney general was called to Temple Trees but that was to discuss the matter of maintaining law and order such as whether it was necessary to impose a curfew, etc. because the opposition had publicly stated that it will surround Temple Trees. That was a situation that needed to be addressed,” he said in an interview with Daily Mirror .
Fishermen from India and Sri Lanka have been released and handed over to their respective coastguards at their countries’ maritime border. The release of the men, fifteen Indians and ten from Sri Lanka, is the first since the new government has come into power and comes soon after External Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s visit. According to an Indian Coast Guard spokesperson, India had repatriated 1,112 Indian fishermen with 165 fishing boats and 423 fishermen from Sri Lanka with 60 fishing boats during 2014. India urges ‘political reconciliation’ of Tamils in Sri Lanka (19 January...
The Sri Lankan government announced it intends to request assistance from the World Bank, the IMF and the Reserve Bank of India to trace billions of dollars, which have been allegedly taken abroad by people close to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Cabinet spokesperson and minister for health Rajith Senaratne told media his government was aware that people who held high positions had hidden "billions of dollars" in foreign accounts. "We will go after the foreign assets of Sri Lankans. Billions of dollars have been stolen and taken out of the country. We are taking steps to bring them back," Mr Senaratne told reporters.
President Obama must use his trip to India to send a unified support for an “independent international accountability process,” in Sri Lanka and take a lead in mediating a “permanent and durable political solution” to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, said USTPAC in a press release on Thursday. Full Statement reproduced below.
Tamils protest outside the army camp in Aanaikkoddai (Photo: Tamil Guardian) Tamil land owners protested outside a Sri Lankan army camp in Jaffna, demanding that the land on which the camp was built be returned to them immediately. Residents said the army camp, situated in Aanaikkoddai within the Jaffna peninsula, was built on land seized by the military. Earlier this month, the government issued a gazette notification, declaring that the camp of the army regiment’s 11th Battalion will be made permanent on this day, denying the Tamil families any possibility of return to the land and houses they own. Due to objections by the land owners the government had temporarily halted the permanent transfer of the land to the military, however refused to return it to its rightful owners, said protest organisers, the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF).