A judge has ordered that the Sri Lankan soldier accused of raping a 14 year old girl in Mannar should be held in remand until September 5, after police said officials at the army base where he resides were obstructing their inquiries. Police filed a case regarding the incident at Mannar Magistrate Court on Friday, in the presence of Judge Ananthy Kanagaratnam, the Uthayan reports. The soldier is accused of raping a 14 year old girl in woods by the military base in Mannar. The soldier first met the girl, originally from the village of Panagakattukottu West, at Mannar hospital three months ago. He gave her his contact number on a phone registered under his wife's name, and proceeded to harass the girl, forcing her to speak with him, the paper went on to add.
Tamil National Alliance MP P Ariyanenthiran called for the release of Tamil labourers, held against their will in Kurdistan. Over 100 Tamils from Batticaloa were being held as hostages, he charged in the letter dated August 11, adding that family members of the men approached him about the issue. "[...] hundreds of employees [...] have been taken into custody as hostages by the Iraq forces of in Kurdistan Republic of Iraq where severe [clashes are taking place]," Mr Ariyanenthiran said in the letter. "Family members of the employees brought it to my notice that [hundreds] of employees from...
The police spokesperson Ajith Rohana confirmed on Thursday that a 14 year old girl in Mannar had been sexually assaulted by a Sri Lankan army soldier, reports BBC Tamil . The attack took place at the beginning of this month said Rohana, adding that a complaint had been filed with the police four days after. A medical examination by the legal medical officer confirmed the 14 year old had been sexually assaulted, he added. Locals reported the girl, who had gone to buy rotti (flat bread) from an army-run shop by the military camp in Mannar, was seen being taken away into the bushes by the...
Bones have been unearthed in farm land in Pandariyaveli in Batticaloa by the Kokkaddicholai police, reports Uthayan . According to the paper, the police are suspecting the discovery is that of human bones, with one fragment representing a bone in the wrist. A shirt, a burnt towel and a fisherman's identity card, with the name and photo illegible due to decay, were found along side the bones, the police said. Police also suspect that this discovery may be linked to a skull found previously in the same area.
Photograph Colombo Page Tamils in Sri Lanka must enjoy "equality, dignity, justice and self-respect" India's external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Friday in New Delhi. "She [Sushma Swaraj] stressed the need for a political solution that addresses substantially, the aspirations of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka for equality, dignity, justice and self-respect within a framework of a united Sri Lanka," the ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said during a weekly press briefing on Friday. The six member TNA delegation included leader R. Sampanthan and TNA MPs Mavai Senathirajah, M.A. Sumanthiran, Suresh Premachandran, Ponnambalam Selvarajah and Selvan Adaikalanathan.
Families of Tamil workers in Kurdistan continued to express concern over the welfare of the men, who the families say are being held against their will and forced to work for Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamic State militants. The families, many of whom reside in Pallaisuddi, Jaffna, have named 28 workers who they say remain in detention, and have been forced to carry out military activities, including the building of bunkers and fortifications and the unloading of arms. “My son and many others are still in Kurdistan. They were not sent back with the other men, as the government claims," the mother of one of the men told Tamil Guardian, speaking anonymously for fear of her son's safety. "He was beaten and hospitalised when he initially resisted. If they were well looked after as they claim, how does the government explain his injuries?” she added, stating that the men have only been in touch sporadically, calling in secret as they feared being beaten.
Satellite images show the Sri Lankan military has been consolidating its presence in the Tamil North-East of the island, increasing the number of permanent structures that it has built on land seized from Tamil civilians since the end of the armed conflict. Images released by the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at the request of the Sri Lanka Campaign, show the Valikamam High Security Zone (HSZ), located in the Jaffna peninsula, has seen a dramatic rise in the number of structures that have been constructed inside it. AAAS reports “there was a significant increase in structures between 2011 and 2014, with the total structure count rising by nearly 1,500 structures. The structure count includes all types of structures, including guard posts, military buildings, and individual, housing-sized structures.”
Three Tamil political detainees in Anuradhapuram Prison have been on hunger strike for 8 days, after ongoing mistreatment by Sinhala inmates, a source close to the family of one of the men told the Tamil Guardian. The source said Sinhala prisoners have been physically attacking and verbally abusing them, and have also taken their food portions on a near daily basis, adding that the Tamils have now been refusing to eat for 8 days, demanding to be transferred back to their original wing. The men, all being held without charge since May 2009, were transferred into a Sinhala wing of the prison,...
An Australian High Court is to hold a special hearing in October over the detention of asylum seekers at sea. The legal team representing 157 Tamil asylum seekers who were held at sea for over 4 weeks and then brought to a detention centre in Western Australia before being transferred to Nauru, have challenged the legality of such a detention. The hearing has been set for October 14 and 15 by Justice Kenneth Hayne. “What Australia does on the high seas does affect international law and the approach of other countries,” George Newhouse, a lawyer for the asylum seekers told the Guardian.
The Sinhala community will become a minority in Sri Lankan within a century warned the Sri Lankan minister Champika Ranawaka, the Asian Mirror reports. "It will take another 160 years to double the population of the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka," said Ranawaka, the minister for technology and research, and leader of the government's coalition partner, the JHU. Warning that the population rates amongst different ethnicities was asymmetrical, he stated that the growth of the Sinhala population was slowest. His comments echo that of Minister Mervyn Silva who said in June that the "Sinhala race is rapidly becoming a minority".