Photographs have emerged of Sri Lankan military banners calling for unmarried Tamil women to join the army. The banners, thought to have been photographed earlier this year, ask for Tamil women, aged between 18 and 24, with a height of at 5 ft 3 inches and offer a monthly salary of Rs 30,000. The women would be joining nine brigades in the Mullaitivu district.
The two Indian Premier League matches that were due to be played on the 18th and 22nd of May have been moved out of Chennai, The New Indian Express reported. According to a Supreme Court judgement, the stadium in Chepauk had stands that were illegally constructed, but several Tamil groups had also protested against the match that was to be played on the 5th anniversary of the massacres and end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. Prominent Sri Lankan cricket player and government supporter Muttiah Muralitharan was due to play with his team, the Royal Challengers Bangalore, against the Chennai...
Four Palestinians, who were detained at Katunayaka Airport, face being deported to a Syria refugee camp, reported Al Jazeera . The men, who fled refugee camps in Syria, have been in detention in a military prison for the past four weeks and were treated inhumanely according to a Palestinian rights organisation. "They were directly taken to the military prison, where they described the treatment as inhuman," spokesman for the Palestinian League for Human Rights – Syria , Salim Salamah, told Al Jazeera.
Photograph MIT Kogularamanan Suntharalingam, a young Tamil academic from London, has been awarded the 2014 Dalton Young Researchers Award in Chemistry by the Royal Society for Chemistry for his contribution to the design, development and understanding of new metallo-pharmaceuticals. Kogularamanan, known as Rama, currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. "In the near future I hope to return to the UK as an assistant professor," Rama told the Tamil Guardian via email from the US. He received a first class MSci and a PhD in Chemistry from...
Photograph MIT Kogularamanan Suntharalingam, a young Tamil academic from London, has been awarded the 2014 Dalton Young Researchers Award in Chemistry by the Royal Society for Chemistry for his contribution to the design, development and understanding of new metallo-pharmaceuticals. Kogularamanan, known as Rama, currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US. "In the near future I hope to return to the UK as an assistant professor," Rama told the Tamil Guardian via email from the US. He received a first class MSci and a PhD in Chemistry from...
Lecturers at the University of Jaffna protested yesterday, condemning the order to close the university during the time of May 18th and posters that accused students and staff of reviving terrorism, Uthayan reported. Photographs Uthayan The lecturers, part of the University of Jaffna Teachers' Association, demonstrated outside the university grounds holding banners reading: "Aren't death threats and harassment, terrorism?", "Ensure the independence of the university", "Is university an educational institution or a killing field?", "Jaffna university's greatest weapon is the tip of pen not a gun point", "Is closing the university whenever you wish the student centric education?", and "Asia's wonder - killing university teachers?".
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya, yesterday rejected reports of the Ministry's involvement in the closure of the university. "This claim is false. We did not produce such orders, we do not get involved in education affairs," the Uthayan quoting him as saying. "The education ministry may have decided after discussing with the University administration," he added. Also rejecting reports that the MoD had banned the commemoration of the dead Brig Wanigasooriya said , “We did not issue such ban, there is no ban to commemorate the dead. No problem in...
The UK's Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander has raised concerns over the presence of the Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Commonwealth Games set to take place later this year in Glasgow. In a letter addressed to Foreign Secretary William Hague on Thursday, Mr. Alexander warned the "world-class sporting celebration risks being overshadowed by questions raised by the possible attendance of Sri Lanka's president in his capacity as Chairperson-in-office of the Commonwealth." President Rajapaksa was appointed Chairperson of the Commonwealth following Sri Lanka's hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the end of last year. Reiterating Sri Lanka's failure to meet the demands of the British government to investigate allegations of human rights abuses and its subsequent rejection of the international investigation mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, Mr. Alexander called on the British Foreign Secretary to clarify President Rajapaksa's possible attendance and role in the games. Mr. Alexander wrote: "I would like to ask what steps you are able to take to work constructively with the Games organisers to help ensure that this world-class sporting celebration is not overshadowed by questions raised by the possible attendance of Sri Lanka's President. In addition I would ask you what formal advice you have given to the Commonwealth Secretariat, Glasgow 2014 Ltd and the Commonwealth Games Federation, regarding any possible role that President Rajapaksa may play at the Gamers in his capacity as Chairperson-in-office of the Commonwealth?" See full letter here .
The Ministry of External Affairs played down comments made by Prime Minister Dm Jayaratne that Sri Lanka supports Vietnam in the ongoing dispute with China regarding maritime claims in the South China Sea. Jayaratne, who was in Vietnam to celebrate the Buddhist Vesak festival, said that Sri Lanka supports Vietnam’s demand that China adhere to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and withdraw its drilling rig out of Viet Nam’s exclusive economic zone. Sri Lanka’s Ministry of External Affairs later attempted to play down the comments, saying that the dispute needs to be settled through...
A senior Japanese official has told media that the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka was unhelpful, reported the Colombo Gazette . Speaking after meeting President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo, Japan’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Seiji Kihara said that Japan will not accept “biased reports” by international organisations. “We considered whether the Resolution on Sri Lanka moved in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva would help Sri Lanka. We decided it will not. That is why we abstained when the vote was taken.” “We are not ready to accept biased reports prepared by international bodies...