As concerns are raised about four Tamil Nadu fishermen who never returned home after setting off on Saturday night, fishermen in Tamil Nadu spoke to the Times of India, of the relentless alleged attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy. District Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Mechanised Boat Fishermen Association, B Jesu Raja, said , " The attacks have become commonplace nowadays and we are coping with them ," Whilst another leader of a fishermen's association said: "Their absolute goal seems to be to shun Tamil Nadu fishermen entering their borders for fishing. Unfortunately, our fishermen at Rameswaram...
Fourteen Tamil Indian fishermen were attacked yet again by the Sri Lankan Navy off Kodiakkarai on October the 17th. According to the Hindu , fishermen set off in two boats from Nagapattinam and were confronted by Sri Lankan naval craft which “opened fire” damaging boats and leaving three fishermen severely injured. The Sri Lankan navy also threw nets and GPS equipment belonging to the fishermen into the sea and are then accused of beating them. The severely injured fishermen received treatment at the Nagapattinam government hospital.
Adding to recent unsubstantiated claims by the Sri Lankan government that it is talking to the Tamil diaspora, the Minister Keheliya Rambukwella explained that it was a government strategy to use the recently freed former LTTE commander, Selvarasa Pathmanathan or KP to forge "constructive dialogue" with the Tamil diaspora. Rambukwella said : “We must take a positive view on the KP factor and use him for a constructive dialogue with the Tamil Diaspora and other detractors. We must compare the merits and demerits of using him as a tool to put an end to the proxy war against Sri Lanka by LTTE...
A high court complaint has been filed against two political detainees, allegedly ex-LTTE cadres, for the deaths of four soldiers, including two senior officers, in the Wilpattu National Park in 2007. According to Uthayan , the complaint, filed at the Anuradhapura High Court, accuses the detainees of a bomb attack and gunfire, killing two senior army officers and two further army personnel. The detainees have been identified as Iyan of Vasavilan and Sivaprakash Sivaseelan of Kondachi.
British authorities are set to deport 60 failed asylum seekers to Sri Lanka on Tuesday the 23rd of October, according to reports. A specially chartered plane is set to take the asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, departing from an undisclosed terminal at Heathrow Airport reported Ceylon Today . The scheduled deportation comes just days after the Foreign Affairs Committee released a report which called on the British government to take greater care in evaluating the risk of torture to deported asylum seekers returning to Sri Lanka. See our earlier post: UK Foreign Affairs Committee criticises asylum...
A court in Chennai has refused to revoke a non-bailable arrest warrant for Sri Lankan Minister of Traditional Industries & Small Enterprise Development, Douglas Devananda. Douglas is wanted in India for the shooting and killing of a lawyer in Chennai in 1986 and has been wanted for murder in the country since. He has recently approached the court and requested a cancellation of the warrant and said thare may be a risk to him if he enters the Tamil Nadu for the trial. Douglas proposed to hold the trial via video conference at the Indian high commission in Colombo, but Judge S Rajagopalan...
The JVP reiterated their stance that the 13th Amendment to the constitution will not provide a solution to the 'ethnic issue', reports Colombo Page. Vijitha Herath, named as the Propaganda Secretary by Colombo Page, stressed that the country should not accept any solution imposed on them by another country, and argued that the 13th Amendment had exacerbated the ethnic issue. Herath said: "The JVP realised this in 1987, but everyone protested against the party at the time." See also: Buddhist leader calls for abolishment of 13th Amendment (16 Oct 2012) Gotabhaya - repeal 13th Amendment without...
The Sri Lankan government has planned to introduce new laws that will monitor non-governmental organisations in the country, reported ColomboPage . The Director General of the Media Center for National Security (MCNS) Lakshman Hulugalla was quoted as saying that existing legislation was not adequate enough to monitor these organisations and NGOs were also guilty of supporting “terrorists”. It is unclear what the new legislation will enable, but ColomboPage stated that it would, “enable the government to probe their activities and take appropriate action against them wherever it is necessary...
110 families from Kepapilavu are to be resettled permanently in the Suriyapuram forest areas where they are currently staying, despite being promised that they could return to their own homes within two months , reported J affna news paper Uthayan . As the Suriyapuram forests belong to the government, procedures have begun to divide the land between the families, according to Mullaitivu’s District Government Agent, N Vethanayagan. The families were the last of the IDPs to leave the Manik Farm camp when it closed in late September, and were then moved to temporary shelters in the Suriyapuram...
In a meeting with a senior Sri Lankan Government official, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for a political solution that addressed the underlying factors behind the country’s civil war, despite the Sri Lankan official’s attempts to highlight that ‘progress’ had been made by the Sri Lankan government on resettlement issues. The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in March, called on the Government to take “all necessary additional steps to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans.” Sri Lanka’s progress in upholding human rights...