A senior lecturer at the University of Colombo warned of "impure groups in the country are joining foreign forces to snatch back the freedom won in 2009". Speaking on Wednesday at a ceremony in Colombo, the lecturer, Dhamma Dissanayake called on everyone, particular the younger generation should "come forward against this threat", reported the state news agency, SLBC . Fellow senior lecturer at Colombo university, Suranga Silva, said Sri Lanka's "intellectual community should take the appropriate measures against this group, which is trying to move the country backwards." "It is imperative to...
Unidentified gunmen shot dead a former member of the LTTE Police Department in Vellankulam in Mannar district on Wednesday night. The victim, 34 year old Naguleshwaran Krishnasuwamy, was in his own backyard working towards constructing his own home when the gunmen entered his house and shot him at 8.30pm, his wife, Kavitha said. Naguleshwaran served as a police officer in the LTTE Police Department in the LTTE run defacto state of Tamil Eelam. Following the assassination, security has been tightened and patrols increased. The A32 was also closed off for a few hours. The incident has sparked...
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said the party would only endorse a common opposition candidate to run against President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who would demilitarise the North, resettle displaced Tamils in Valikaamam North and Sampur, and end land grabs by the state and military. "It may be Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge, Ranil Wickremesinghe or Karu Jayasuriya, they should assure that they would resettle the people who are yet in welfare centres in the North and East, vacate the military from the North and stop illegal acquisition," TNA MP Suresh Premachandran said on Monday, speaking at the memorial event of the assassinated TNA MP Nadarajah Raviraj. "These assurances can be rarely given by any of the candidates who are in the list," he added, reports Ceylon Today .
Pope Francis and representatives of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCCU) met with Evangelical community leaders in Sri Lanka to discuss matters concerning matters of religious freedom and justice last week. The General Secretary of the NCEASL Godfrey Yogarajah outlined concerns of rising restrictions and violence against Christians worldwide and in Sri Lanka, announced the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) in a press brief on Thursday.
The Sri Lankan government says that President Mahinda Rajapaksa did not grant a pardon to the Indian fishermen sentenced to death last month, contrary to an announcement made by a deputy minister on Tuesday. Speaking to The Hindu , presidential spokesperson Mohan Samaranayake said, “Until now, no decision has been taken to that effect.” Sources told the Indian daily that Rajapaksa only spoke of possibly commuting the death sentence to life. Deputy Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology Prabha Ganesan told media on Wednesday that the men will be unconditionally released in...
The UN has given Tamil refugees, who were languishing in a United Arab Emirates port for over two years, a permanent home in Brazil, The National reported. The 7 refugees were the remainder of a larger group of 45 Tamils who were rescued when the ship they were fleeing Sri Lanka in ran into trouble on the way to Australia. “I feel like I am being reborn,” said Ramanan Gunaseelan, 37, who will board a flight to Brazil, accompanied by his wife Meera and their daughter Tharanika, 5. The refugees expressed their fear of life in Sri Lanka but said they will always long to return to their homeland. “We fled Sri Lanka because we were scared for our lives and our safety. Now we can finally hope for peace.
The leader of the opposition United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremesinghe, revealed that he had called for the European Council to appeal against the European Court of Justice decision to lift sanctions against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Wickremesinghe further criticised the Sri Lankan government for failing to appear at the European Courts to argue a case for keepin sanctions on the LTTE, reports Colombo Page . "The governments of Britain and the Netherlands appeared in court but the government of Sri Lanka did not," he said. EU court annuls LTTE anti-terror measures...
A delegation from India's Army War College called on the Commander of the Sri Lankan army Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake this week, said the Sri Lankan military in order to learn from Sri Lanka's warfare experiences. Ratnayake stated that the visiting delegation praised the Sri Lankan military, with India's Brigadier Sandhu reportedly saying India was “using Sri Lankan experiences in the warfare in their training modules and other programmes”. The Sri Lankan Commander went on to thank India for the training opportunities that it has provided Sri Lankan troops. “It is the Indian Army that...
A Sri Lankan government coalition partner slammed criticism of the country by the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on Tuesday, accusing Zeid of distorting the truth. Speaking at a press briefing, the spokesperson for the National Freedom Front (NFF) said Zeid's condemnation last Friday of Sri Lanka over its refusal to cooperate with the UN inquiry into mass atrocities against the Tamil people, were 'distortions of the truth', reports Colombo Page . The spokesperson, Mohammed Muzammil, accused the UN Human Rights Council of drawing a conclusion ahead of the publishing of the OHCHR Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL) report, which is due in March 2015.
The UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) condemned Australia's treatment of asylum seekers in the country's off shore detention centres as effectively "cruel, inhuman and unlawful punishment", during the second day of Australia's review at before the UN panel in Geneva. “Healthcare services are not denied to asylum seekers,” the Department of Immigration and Border Protection told the UNCAT on Tuesday. “International Health and Medical Services are required to deliver healthcare that is the best available in the circumstances and broadly comparable with the health services within the Australian community," he said, adding that Papua New Guinea and Nauru were legally responsible. On Monday however, the UNCAT's chairperson, Claudio Grossman rejected Australia's claim of lack of responsibility.