2nd lead Photograph @UKinSriLanka The British Deputy High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Laura Davies, said "very little has changed" for Tamils living in the Sabhapathipillai refugee camp over the past year. Visiting Jaffna on Wednesday, the Davies met with the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C. V. Wigneswaran, the NPC member Gajatheepan, government officials, civil society activists as well as displaced persons. "Very little has changed for the community in the Sabhapathipillai camp in the year since PM Cameron's visit," she tweeted . Residents told Davies of the difficulties they had faced over the past 24 years, and continue to face, appealing to her to help resolve their displacement, the Uthayan reported.
The Sri Lankan military has dismissed the No Fire Zone documentary, as “rubbish”, in response to the International Emmy Awards nomination the documentary received earlier this week. Spokesperson, Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya said the movie, directed by Callum Macrae was 'nothing but a sensational piece of falsehood,' Ceylon Today reported. "I am not an artiste to view his piece of 'art' but all what is can say it's a piece of rubbish work and he is nominated for it with a vested interest,
The Sri Lankan president’s handing over of 20,000 flawed land permits to families in the North-East is an act of bribery, warned the Tamil National Alliance MP M Sumanthiran. The 20,000 displaced families had been selected to receive their land deeds several years ago and had instead only been given land permits months before presidential elections, noted Sumanthiran. The TNA MP told the Colombo Telegraph that Rajapaksa's Land Development Ordinance land permits were bribes for votes and failed to restore full land ownership to the families.
A workshop for journalists organised by Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) threatened organisers via text messages and posters. Photograph: @AzzamAmeen Posters were thrown into the Janaki Hotel hosting the TISL event, warning it not to let LTTE in to the building whilst journalists attending the workshop were threatened by texts reading “We will attack u if u attend.”
The body of a male has been found in a hotel in Vavuniya on Tuesday, reports the Uthayan . Ponnuchchami Manoharan, a 33 year old from Chithamparapuram in Vavuniya, had been staying at the hotel on 1st Cross Street. His body was discovered in the toilet of his room by the hotel cleaners. On the day of his death, and the days leading up to it, he had received visits from an unidentified persons commented the hotel manager. Vavuniya police are reportedly investigating the incident.
An Indian national has been arrested in Kalmunai by Sri Lankan police over alleged visa violations. The 45 year old man has been accused of selling clothes in Mandirippu in Kalmunai, reports the Sri Lankan government's news site, News.lk . He was arrested on Sunday and produced before Kalmunai's Magistrate's Court on Monday.
Lawyers representing a Tamil asylum seeker from the North-East of Sri Lanka who was detained at sea for 4 weeks along side 156 others by the Australian authorities, told a court on Tuesday that such a detention was illegal. Ron Merkel QC, one of the lawyers acting for the asylum seekers, said the conditions on the boat, where Tamils were unable to move around on the vessel, was a "deprivation of liberty". Arguing that the Australian government's attempt to deport the 157 asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, or return them to India, from where they had fled, was also illegal, the lawyers told the high court that authorities did not seek to ascertain if the asylum seekers faced persecution.
An Indian fisherman has filed a private complaint against the BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy accusing him of causing damage to property due to the damage inflicted on Indian fishing vessels by the Sri Lankan navy. R. C. Kuppan, a fisherman from Nochikuppam filed the complaint on Monday, seeking Rs 100 crore in compensation on behalf of the 102 boats owners. “I was assuming that the Sri Lankan government was solely responsible for the attacks. But while watching a debate on a Tamil TV channel, I saw Swamy himself confessing that it was he who advised the Sri Lankan government to seize the boats...
Speaking in Kilinochchi on Sunday, the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa said if Tamil groups gave up their desire for independence then he would consider removing the executive presidency. "Some people are asking a separate state and divide the country. Even the Tamil National Alliance is supporting that concept. Some sections of the Tamil Diaspora are also trying to divide the country. If those parties stop demanding Eelam in Sri Lanka I will consider removing the Executive Presidency," Rajapaksa said. He added that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had met with Tamil diaspora groups...
The European Commission announced a ban on imports of fisheries products from Sri Lanka, its second biggest importer in the sector, in order to "tackle the commercial benefits stemming from illegal fishing”. Sri Lanka received a “yellow card”, a stern warning, in November 2012, as the country was not complying with international rules on illegal fishing and had inadequate control systems. European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki said that not much had changed since then, despite intense dialogue. “The same problems are still there and are even getting worse. Sri Lanka is now authorizing huge vessels to fish in the Indian Ocean without marine GPS (VMS). This renders control totally impossible.” “Sri Lanka is the second biggest exporter of fresh and chilled swordfish and tuna to the EU (74 million € of imports in 2013). In those circumstances we cannot tolerate not to know whether the fish they import into the EU was caught sustainably or not. EU citizens have the right to know what lands on their plate.”