Another six human remains were found yesterday at the site of the mass grave at Thirukketheeswaram at the Mannar mass grave, reported the Uthayan newspaper. The latest discovery brings the total count of bodies so far to 32. See here for more on the story.
A member from the Sri Lankan National Freedom Front (NFF) party, a constituent of the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition, today stated that heightening calls to remove army camps from the North-East were ‘redundant.’ Piyasiri Wijenyaka, a key figure in the NFF, further claimed that the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister’s continuous attempts to highlight the need to demilitarise the North-East were only fulfilling the needs of the diaspora. “The Chief Minister went to Jaffna from Colombo and he did not even feel the war. It was the people in the North that lived...
Sri Lanka has strengthened its relationship with Palestine following a Sri Lankan delegation visit, led by Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday. The Sri Lankan President met with Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the State of Palestine, at the Presidential Palace in Ramallah where he was awarded the ‘Star of Palestine’ , the highest honour award by the Palestinian state. A Sri Lankan press release described the meeting as “friendly and warm”, and went on to quote Abbas as telling Rajapaksa, "I am honored to receive you… Our two countries maintain good relations and I wish it will improve more and more".
Photograph Tamilwin A further eight human remains were discovered at the site of the mass grave at Thirukketheeswaram in Mannar on Monday, reported Uthayan and Tamilwin (See Tamilwin for more photographs). The skeletons included that which appeared to be of a six year old child, reported the Uthayan. The findings today, brings the total to 26 human remains. The mass grave was first unearthed when construction workers. On December 20th, construction workers found two human skeletons when digging in Thirukketheeswaram. The following week, a further four skulls were unearthed , with more...
More and more rape victims are being murdered in Jaffna, reports Uthayan newspaper. According to a legal official at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, rape and sexual abuse is increasingly being followed by murder. The official expressed that he believed that victims, mostly women, were being killed to protect the perpetrators from implication.
A tropical storm struck the North-East in the early hours of Sunday morning, battering the area with sustained winds and causing evacuations from coastal areas. Picture: Tropical Storm Risk The tropical storm “One” has led to families lviing within 100m of the sea across Jaffna, Mullaitivu and Mannar to be evacuate from their homes, as winds of around 46 mph swept through the region. The US Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Centre earlier forecast that the storm would strike Jaffna, withing warnings that sea levels could rise above 3 metres. See more from the Tropical Storm Risk here .
India’s Union Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan has reiterated his call for India not to train Sri Lankan forces. Talking to reporters in Chennai he said that India should never enter into an agreement with Sri Lanka for providing training to the country’s armed forces, said The Hindu . Vasan also said he hoped that a solution for the ongoing dispute about the arrests of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan security forces, at a meeting planned for later this month. “The Ministry of the External Affairs is preparing agenda for the meeting slated to be held on January 20,” he said. India should not train...
Addressing crowds on their world tour, at a concert in Melbourne, the world renowned hip-hop rap duo Dead Prez, condemned the death of 'almost 100,000' Tamil civilians at the hands of the Sri Lankan government in 2009 and pledged solidarity with the Tamil struggle for liberation. Brandishing the Tamil national flag, the rap duo, who have sold hundreds of thousands of albums worldwide, expressed solidarity with organisations who fought and were currently fighting for the freedom of the Tamil people in their land.
The Sri Lankan Army’s commander for Jaffna, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, will take up a new post from Monday. Delivering some departing remarks , Hathurusinghe claimed that the army did all they could to “meet the urgent needs and aid development” in Jaffna, despite the fact that the people saw the military as a “destructive” force. Hathurusinghe celebrated the “good relationship” the army had built with the people, but lamented not learning Tamil during his time in Jaffna. Hathurusinghe also said that the number of soldiers in Jaffna had more than halved since the beginning of his...
Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, warned that the Tamil diaspora was misusing the "freedom to arrive in Sri Lanka on a tourist visa". (See here for report published on Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence website). "At present, it is very difficult to obtain a visa to go to Western countries such as Canada and the United States of America. In contrast, foreigners have the freedom to arrive in Sri Lanka on tourist visa and enjoy their visit. However, we can observe that the Tamil Diaspora is trying to misuse this freedom ," said Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Adding that there 'people involved in terrorism and manufacturing of bombs, who are now trying to speak about human rights', he said, " We cannot allow people to go about projecting false propaganda on human right violations against the country. These people don't even know the meaning of the term human rights ."