An Indian firm, Narayan Titanium Industries Ltd., has proposed a US $300 million project of a titanium ore (ilmenite) processing plant in Pulmoddai, Trincomalee, the Sunday Times reported . The plant would process the raw mineral ilmenite from Pulmoddai and Mullaitivu into the commercially lucrative pigment of Titanium Dioxide.
The Tamil National Alliance said in a brief statement Saturday its discussions this week with the South African envoy, Cyril Ramaposa, had been "very fruitful". "We look forward to continued engagement with the Special Envoy especially during his impending visit to Sri Lanka," TNA said. The statement did not elaborate on the content or conclusions of the discussions in South Africa. A delegation, led by R. Sampanthan, included Suresh Premachandran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and M.A. Sumanthiran, took part in discussions which began on April 9th and are due to end today. Speaking to Tamil Guardian...
Reports have emerged of the detention and torture of Tamil women arrested by Sri Lankan security forces who have accused the women of having 'terrorist links'. A report, published in Groundviews said: "Recently there are several females in Boosa. Two of them are above the age of 60. Kanapathipillai Yogarani 61 years of age was arrested in latter part of March. The only allegation against her is that her son residing in a foreign country has been sending her money periodically.
Condemning the Sri Lankan government's refusal to participate in the upcoming investigation by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Canada's Shadow Foreign Minister, and Liberal MP for Westmount-Ville-Marie, Marc Garneau, said that the " Sri Lankan regime’s attempt to silence legitimate criticism " through the proscription of Tamil diaspora groups who were supportive of the international investigation, was " unacceptable ", urging the Canadian government to consider "additional measures" if Sri Lanka did not lift the proscription. "We also condemn attempts by the Sri Lankan government to silence organizations and individuals pressing for such an investigation – including a number of Tamil-Canadian groups based in Canada – by designating them as terrorists and threatening to freeze their assets and financial resources," said Mr. Garneau in a statement issued on Friday.
A Tamil woman and her teenage daughter were arrested on Wednesday night, reports BBC Tamil. Sasikaran Thavamalar, aged 42, and her 16-year-old daughter Yathurshini of Aasikulam, Vavuniya were arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID), becoming the most recent in a line of women and girls detained under accusations of terrorism. Reports have recently emerged of the torture and mistreatment of Tamil women detained for having ‘terrorist links’.
Sri Lanka’s military said Friday troops had shot dead three men being sought for attempting to revive the LTTE, including ‘Gopi’ described as the leader. Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said the incident took place when troops surrounded them in jungle near Padaviya in the Nedunkerny area, Vavuniya. “Three armed suspects who attempted to escape the area confronted the troops in the cordon. All three were killed,” he said in a press release .
A cross-party trip by British MPs to Sri Lanka was called off at the last minute Thursday night after Labour members of the delegation pulled out due to party pressure, reported Channel 4 News . The all-expenses-paid trip, funded by former cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan’s charity Foundation of Goodness, would have seen MPs, and some of their partners, travel to the island for a ‘fact-finding’ visit, which would have included a meeting with senior Sri Lankan ministers and officials and President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who stands accused of command responsibility for war crimes. The Labour MPs pulled out after intervention from a senior frontbencher who “strongly objected” to the visit, Channel 4 said. That prompted the Conservative MPs to also abandon the trip.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Chairpersonship of the Commonwealth again drew critical attention this week in the wake of his government’s categorical refusal to cooperate with the UN investigation into its mass atrocities and rights abuses On Thursday the matter was raised in Britain’s parliament when Foreign Secretary William Hague was asked by his opposition counterpart Douglas Alexander whether, in the light of the UN probe, he had asked President Rajapaksa to resign as Chairperson. Mr Hague replied any decision on the Chair-in-Office role is for all Commonwealth Heads of Government to take by consensus.
Reacting to revelations that a trip by British MPs to Sri Lanka was cancelled at the eleventh hour on Thursday, the British Tamil Forum (BTF) urged UK politicians to be wary of being co-opted by the Sri Lankan government into whitewashing its rights abuses. “ It is important that the UK politicians realise the serious nature of the crimes that Sri Lanka is trying to cover up by using them in its propaganda ,” BTF representative S.A.N Rajkumar told Tamil Guardian. “I am not surprised that the trip has been called off – the MPs have had a narrow escape as their visit would have been a propaganda coup for the government ” at a time of intense international attention on Sri Lanka’s rights abuses , he said.
Sri Lankan police have arrested 65 Tamils over the past month on accusations of attempting to revive the LTTE, a spokesman told reporters in Colombo on Thursday. See reports by AFP and Daily Mirror . Speaking in Sinhala, Police spokesperson Ajith Rohana said that five of those arrested have been released, and the remaining 60 detainees, including 10 women, are being held at the notorious Boosa detention camp in the south and another in Vavuniya in the north.