Salaries for Sri Lanka’s Army, Navy and Air Force cost Rs 73.17 billion (US$ 560 million) in the year 2013 alone, stated a government minister on Friday. Responding to a question raised in the Sri Lankan parliament, Chief Government Whip, Water Supply and Drainage Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, defended the record amount being paid out, saying that the security forces were needed for the “protection of the country”. ColomboPage also quoted the minister as saying, "Even during the times of war we allocated funds like that and it was the reason for the victory of war. We strengthen the tri forces...
Defending Sri Lanka's opposition to the UN inquiry into mass atrocities, the country's minister of external affairs, GL Peiris, reiterated that Sri Lanka "will not kneel down before any powerful nation and compromise the national interests", reported the DailyMirror.lk . "During the last stage of the war, the foreign ministers of Britain and France arrived in Sri Lanka and asked the government to stop the military operations forthwith. However, we did not do it. By the time of their visit, the president was in Embiliptiya. The president, in fact, asked them to come to Embilipitiya to see him...
A twenty-one year old Tamil man has been reported missing by his father, after he failed to return home from Kilinochchi, the Uthayan reported. Thavarasa Tharshikan, a building mason from the Iyattaalai region of Varani, left home last Monday to travel to Kilinochchi for work. His father has reported the disappearance at Kodikamam police station.
One man has been killed and another injured during a hit and run incident near a Sri Lankan navy base in Mullaitivu, when a Sri Lankan military tractor crashed into a motorcycle on 2 August. The military personnel driving the tractor ran away from the scene immediately after the crash, reported the Uthayan newspaper. The deceased, a 24 year old father named Arugmugam Sivakumar, was found unconscious, trapped between the wheel of the tractor. He was admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital however succumbed to his injuries. The other man, also a 24 year old father named Parameswaran Sujeevan, has...
The legal wing of the AIADMK held a demonstration in Chennai today, protesting against the presence of a Sri Lankan government official at a conference in India. The protesters said that Deputy Director of Sri Lankan Agricultural Ministry, Chandrasiri, was at the event, despite Indian police officers alleging that no Sri Lankans were present. Led by R Sivasankar, the lawyers chanted slogans condemning Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and a recent derogatory article on the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence website about Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. See more from the Times of India here .
Sri Lanka's Cabinet spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella accused Western countries of “double standards” after several countries condemned the disruption of a meeting for families of the disappeared by a mob of Buddhist monks. Rambukwella accused Western countries, which he called “5 star” democracies, of being hypocritical in condemning the mob disruption, Colombo Gazette reports. The monks had violently disrupted the meeting, which was being attended by Tamil families from the North, and Western diplomats, accusing them of “selling our motherland for dollars.”
Students at Sabaragamuwa University, in the island's south, protest against arrest. Photograph BBC Tamil
Sri Lanka's Ministry of External Affairs blamed a row between two NGOs for the disruption of a meeting for families of the disappeared from the North on Monday, claiming that police had brought the alleged altercation under control. "According to reports, a meeting had been organized by the NGO 'Right to Life Human Rights Centre' involving families of disappeared persons from the North. However, another NGO, the 'Dead and Missing Person's Parents Front', had sought access to the meeting, demanding that their grievances be heard too. An ensuing argument had led to a tense situation which had subsequently been brought under control by law enforcement authorities," the Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Accusing the diplomats from western missions, who had been present at the meeting, of "being involved in a manner lacking objectivity", the Ministry said their behaviour had "led to the emergence of a pattern of such potentially volatile situations giving rise to the perpetuation of mistrust amongst communities at a sensitive juncture in the country’s history." The Ministry's account runs contrary to reports by journalists present at the meeting, who described an angry mob led by Buddhist monks entering the building and shouting at Tamils gathered to discuss the disappearances of their loved ones. See here .
Asylum seekers who were deported by Australia after their boat came into difficulty at sea as they fled Sri Lanka, have faced abuse with beatings and interrogations on return, the Guardian newspaper reports . The group of 41 asylum seekers, including children, were taken to a Sri Lankan navy camp, where almost 100 Criminal Investigation Division (CID) officials were waiting for them the newspaper reported. The four Tamil asylum seekers were separated from the rest of the group who were Sinhalese, before being beaten by officers accusing them of supporting the LTTE. One Tamil man told the...
The Sri Lankan navy is to appropriate 617 acres of land in Mullaitivu in order to build a navy base, the Northern Provincial Council's deputy speaker said this week. Despite locals holding land deeds for the area, an announcement stating the land is to be appropriated as the original owners have not been identified, Jeganathan said, appealing to the Chief Minister to act. "These are rich lands east of the main road in Paranthan, Mullaitivu. In this, 90% of the owners have the appropriate documentation [to prove ownership for the lands]. But ‘Notification [poster]’ has been posted by the...