Two children were killed by a landmine blast in Pazhai, Jaffna on Wednesday. Thamilkumaran Mukunthan, 4, and his 2 year old brother Thanujan were killed after playing with a unexploded ordnance found near their house. One child died on the spot and the other died on the way to hospital. The children and their family recently resettled in Pazhai after it was declared free of mines by the government. Meanwhile a leading Danish de-mining group is winding up its operations in Jaffna, sparking complaints by civil groups. Read full report on TamilNet .
A Sri Lankan army soldier attacked and attempted to rape a 16 year old Tamil girl in the Nedungeeni area of Mullaitheevu district on Monday, reports Tamilwin. The incident took place at around 10:30am, when the girl's parents were at work and her younger sister, at school. T he soldier, who has been deployed to that locality to conduct government registration, entered the house. The soldier then reportedly wrote his phone number on a calendar and threatened to kill the girl's youngest sister unless she contacted him. As the girl screamed for help and tried to run out of the house, the Sri...
No sooner had the cross-party Indian delegation, led by the opposition Lok Sabha leader Sushma Swaraj, left Sri Lanka than the Sri Lankan government began refuting Indian press reports that the president had assured Swaraj of implementing the 13th Amendment and going beyond. On Monday, the pro-government newspaper, The Island, published an article asserting that Sri Lankan government sources rejected such claims , and that the president had not given such assurances. Instead during a meeting at Temple Trees, Rajapaksa had in fact recalled how India had forced the 13th Amendment on Sri Lanka's...
Sri Lankan Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya has backtracked from statements made by him at an event in Kurunegala. According to the Daily Mirror the headquarters of the Sri Lankan Army has said there was an error on the Sri Lankan Army website in regards to his speech and has amended it accordingly. Jagath Jayasuriya was first reported to have said that President Rajapakse personally gave him a call instructing him to 'complete the operations as planned'. See both paragraphs below: Original: “I still remember, the President, personally giving me a call instructing me to pursue the operations...
Sri Lanka's security and intelligence agencies launched a search operation in the Eastern province looking for 'ex-LTTE cadres' who had returned from overseas, the Daily Mirror reports . Authorities have stated that individuals that had not gone through the government's 'rehabilitation' program would be detained, questioned and their details registered.
President Mahinda Rajapakse ‘personally’ instructed the Sri Lankan military to pursue the military operations in 2009, despite enormous international pressure, the army commander has revealed. Speaking to soldiers at an event in Kurunegala, the head of the Sri Lankan Army Jagath Jayasuriya said President Rajapakse was ‘determined’ to see the operations through till the end. “ President Mahinda Rajapaksa was determined and did not give in to pressures of the international community to suddenly stop the military operations when the Wanni humanitarian operations were entering a decisive phases...
Last Friday a mob of about 2,000 Sinhalese, led by a group of Buddhist monks, stormed into a mosque in Dambulla. The mosque and a Hindu temple have been long standing in an area now designated a sacred Buddhist site. The above video of the incident, some of which was broadcast on TV, shows leading members of the Buddhist clergy (Sangha) engaged in the violence. The security forces, as ever, stand by. The incident ends with speeches to the mob by the monks ... and a bit of worship and chanting. This article on groundviews.org offers a commentary on the incident and a translation of the Chief...
Addressing the UK House of Commons last week, the Labour MP for Mitcham and Mordem, Siobhain McDonagh, questioned the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs’ decision not to declare Major General Prasanna Silva persona non grata. McDonagh said, "Three months ago a dossier about war crimes committed by the defence attaché at Sri Lanka’s high commission in London, Major General Prasanna De Silva, was sent to the Foreign Office. However, the Foreign Secretary has reportedly refused to strip him of diplomatic immunity so that he can be questioned about these terrible accusations ." "I hope we can have a debate about the case and about the abuse of diplomatic immunity, because if the attaché is allowed to leave without being questioned, that will undermine Britain’s proud reputation for not tolerating war criminals ." " If we are soft on Sri Lanka, other shady regimes will surely also begin to regard us as a refuge for people who commit atrocities ."
The Sri Lankan government has decided to demolish a mosque and a Saiva temple located in a Buddhist sacred area. Thousands of Singhalese, led by Buddhist monks, attacked the mosque in Dambulla on Friday, calling for its destruction as it was constructed illegally. The protest only dispersed after officials promised an answer by Monday. Videos show Buddhist monks addressing the crowds saying the campaign against the mosque was a success for "those who love the race, have Sinhalese blood and are Buddhists" . The BBC’s Charles Haviland reported a monk was seen exposing himself against the mosque...
Responding to the Indian delegation currently visiting Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa said it would be " unreasonable " to expect Sri Lanka to remove the military from Northern province. Rajapaksa retorted , " Can I send them to India? " It was "deployment in Sri Lanka, not on foreign soil," he added. Rajapaksa's remarks come less than a month after a resolution was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council specifically calling for the demilitarisation of the North, as documented in the government's own inquiry, the LLRC.