The Sri Lankan Navy has towed a vessel carrying 70 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka to the southern port of Galle, after the boat on which they were attempting to flee on developed engine trouble and sent out a distress signal.

The group of asylum seekers, which included 17 women, 14 children and 42 men was stranded 215 miles south-west of Sri Lanka. According to the Sri Lankan Navy, the asylum seekers were

Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the UN, Palitha Kohona has been elected as the chair of the sixth (legal) committee of the United Nations General Assembly, after overwhelming support from the Asia-Pacific group.

The committee considers legal questions for the General Assembly in New York.

Canada’s foreign minister John Baird criticised the decision on Twitter, saying that it was ironic for Sri Lanka to be elected after it sacked its own Chief Justice.

A previously derelict statue of Queen Victoria will also be renovated and moved to a prime location in Colombo.

Last week, three young Tamils from Toronto, Montreal and London, published a piece on the website Tumblr, listing the 'privileges' of being Sinhalese. Since then, the piece entitled 'Check your Sinhala privilege', has sparked widespread praise, criticism and passionate debate online.

Tamil Guardian caught up with the writers, Ram, Ahila and Sinthujan, via Facebook, to find out more..


Tamil Guardian: What inspired you to write this piece?
 
Sinthujan:

We were just speaking about the concept of privilege in general, unrelated to Sri Lanka, and som e of the problematic things some of our friends would say. Even though many of them are well-intentioned and well-educated, they often neglect to see the issues in some of their statements. Most of them similarly don't see the ways the social, political, and economic arrangements of any given society are what systematically produce  existing inequalities between different social groups.

This neglect is especially prominent in discussions of Sri Lanka, for instance, when civil conflict is simply explained in terms of “ethnic hatred” rather than through a close examination of the ways societal arrangements in Sri Lanka have benefited some ethnic groups relative to others.

Tamil asylum seekers who have been deported from Christmas Island have stated that they would be willing to risk it all to flee from Sri Lanka once more, according to a report by ABC News.

A deported Tamil man, ‘Murali’ in Jaffna, had earlier paid over $3,000 to be smuggled out of Sri Lanka in a fishing boat packed with 80 people, to make the treacherous journey to Australian shores. He told ABC news,

The Supreme Court will hear a case filed against the Tamil National Alliance election manifesto, later this month.

The decision was taken after when summoned to court today, the TNA failed to argue why the case filed against the manifesto was illegitimate.

"When the President came here to Kilinochchi to open a railway, he said in Tamil, 'from now on, the Tamil people should not vote for policies, they only should vote for development'.

What kind of thoroughly dishonest person must he be?! *crowd cheer loudly*

How unfortunate a country must this be? That this country must have a leader, dishonest enough, who tells people they must not vote for policies?! *crowd cheer loudly*

This is a leader, who doesn't realise that we are a people - that for our policies - gave our lives... relinquished all our possessions... and that we are a people who are yet still prepared to give more!!

Was it just for development that we came this far?!

Was it just for development that for over sixty years we gave up everything apart from our self-respect? There is nothing else left to give now! But he [Rajapaksa] did not know that. Perhaps if he had been Tamil, he would have known that to Tamils value self-respect above life itself! But he isn't, so he doesn't have that feeling!

The US State Department has said in a press release on the outcomes of the 24th UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva that it welcomes High Commissioner Navi Pillay’s report.

It highlighted restrictions on freedom of expression, attacks on human rights defenders and journalists, and interference with the judiciary as areas of concern and said the US “also noted the High Commissioner’s assessment that, absent meaningful progress on post-conflict accountability, calls for an international inquiry will persist.”

Two Tamil journalists of the Yarl Thinakkural have been harassed by individuals claiming to be from the Terrorist investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lankan security forces, reported TamilNet.

The chief editor of the paper, V Atputhananthan complained to the regional branch of the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission in Jaffna, saying that Punitharuban Vinslow and Tharmabalan Vinojith were being inquired about by the individuals, who visited the office of the paper and the areas where the journalists live.