Indian journalist arrested in Sri Lanka

New York-The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the immediate release of an Indian journalist and filmmaker who was arrested in Sri Lanka on Wednesday while allegedly filming and photographing a military base.

Tamil Prabhakaran was arrested by Sri Lankan security forces in the northern Kilinochchi district and is undergoing an investigation by the island nation's Terrorist Investigation Department on charges of violating visa regulations and taking pictures of a military installation, The New Indian Express reported.

Rift Between Wigneswaran, Guv Deepens in North Lanka

 P K Balachandran
The conflict between the Governor and the Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-speaking Northern Province is escalating with Governor Maj Gen G A Chandrasiri asking the police to investigate telephonic threats to Chief Secretary R Vijayalakshmi, who he had appointed in the teeth of opposition from Chief Minister C A Wigneswaran. On his part, Wigneswaran has been saying publicly that the Lankan government is commissioning a “former LTTE military commander to restart an LTTE outfit subservient to the powers-that-be,” with an aim of eliminating Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leaders. The CM reportedly said this both in his budget speech on December 10, and at a meeting of Sarvodaya workers in Colombo on December 21.

Colombo arrests Indian journalist touring Vanni

A young journalist from Tamil Nadu, Thamizh Mahapirapaharan, who was touring in the North was arrested by the occupying Sri Lankan military and the SL police Wednesday noon, while he was talking to the parish priest of St. Antony’s Church in Ponnavea’li, news sources in Vanni said. The Indian journalist visiting the island on tourist visa was together with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Sritharan, Northern Provincial Council (NPC) member S. Pasupathipillai and Karaichchi Piratheasa Chapai (PS) member S. Thayaparan during the detention, interrogation and arrest, the news sources further said.

Sri Lanka war dead count improper: Tamil party

World | Press Trust of India

inSh

Colombo:  Sri Lanka's main Tamil party today said a census to ascertain the number of dead and disappeared in the country's nearly three-decade-long civil war was not being conducted properly.
"We feel that the census is not being properly conducted," said M A Sumanthiran, a senior leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
TNA's grassroots representatives in the former conflict zone were of the opinion that the census was not being done in the right manner, he said.
In September, the TNA swept the first polls held in the Tamil-majority Northern Province after 25 years.

Freudian motive to Sri Lanka's notoriety in rape

While one may expect that the word "sex" may emerge as a heavily searched word in Google, what is surprising is that Sri Lanka has created a world record for topping the list of the countries with the most number of searches for this "word" viewed by philosopher Freud as the most important in the dynamics of the psyche of humankind. Sri Lanka has excelled in demonstrating this Freudian motive even while the Rajapakse family had over two years ago banned most such web sites about sex, preventing Sri Lankans in logging into those sites.

Sri Lanka: HRCSL should defend human rights, not the regime

 The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) had submitted to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, recommendations in order to enhance the powers and mandate of the Commission. The recommendations have envisaged to endow the Human Rights Commission with powers to enact its recommendations by submitting them to the High Court or the Court of Appeal; powers to enact interim orders; powers to conduct investigations into matters of national concern and authority to issue warrants bearing the signature of the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission in the face of warrants being ignored by individuals.

Sri Lanka: PPPR Recommends an Election Judge Should be Appointed to Investigate into Election Malpractices

Transparency International Sri Lanka’s Election Monitoring arm, ‘The Programme for Protection of Public Resources (PPPR)’ has recommended that an Election Judge should be appointed to investigate into election violations and malpractices with special focus on the misuse of public resources. As for offences against public property, presently only the Attorney General can go to courts on the misuse of public resources. This should be revised to entertain private plaints.

Sri Lanka: Official alleges Growth Rate massaged; 5.5 growth rate changed to 6

The Census and Statistics Department’s National Accounts Division Director H.S. Wanasinghe in a revelation made during an investigation, the report of which is now filed as a document in court and referred to in Parliament last week said the Department’s Director General had told him to inflate the economic growth rate initially computed by them to show a higher rate.

SL Police officer threatens rights activist Sundaram in Trincomalee

[TamilNet]
The Sri Lankan Police Inspector, who is in charge of the Trincomalee Police Station had threatened the head of the committee of missing persons, Mr Sundaram Mahendran, when he went there to make a complaint on the attack on him and the protesters on the Human Rights Day. A squad of masked men, allegedly operated by the intelligence wing of the occupying SL military, attacked the peaceful protest organized on December 10 as the SL police was watching the Sinhala squad’s assault on the demonstrators. Mr Sundaram was wounded in the attack and admitted to the hospital. 

Sri Lanka at UNHRC: Government To Reject Resolution;the army did not commit human rights violations.

The government says it will reject any resolution put forward by Britain on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) next March.
The British government said last week it was looking at co-sponsoring a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in March next year.

Sri Lanka: The TNA-Rajapaksa confrontation; It is time to call the regime’s bluff

Kumar David
"Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"

- Marx: Eighteenth Brumaire

New mass grave found in Sri Lanka four years after war

Agence France-Presse

inShare

olice tape closes off part of a mass grave, at the Matale hospital compound in central Sri Lanka. (File pic)

Colombo:  An unmarked mass grave has been found in Sri Lanka's former war zone, the first discovery of an unmarked gravesite since troops defeated Tamil rebels more than four years ago, police said on Sunday.

Construction workers in the coastal district of Mannar stumbled on at least 10 skeletal remains buried at a location where they were laying a new water pipe, said police spokesman Ajith Rohana.

Devanagala - Latest in the racist agenda to provoke Muslims

By Latheef Farook

Devanagala is a beautiful peaceful village in the central hills about six kilometers from Mawanella on the way to Hemmathagama. The village has been known for the rock called Devanagala Rock. There is a Buddhist temple and an inscription on the rock. According to those in the village Devanagala area was believed to have been the place from where Sinhalese kings dispatched garrisons to different places. Muslims in the village claim that they were settled there by Sinhalese kings to defend the Kandyan kingdom from invaders.

Sri Lanka: Wigneswaran fears new LTTE organised by the Govt

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran claims there is an attempt to form an new LTTE which will operate with the backing of the Government.
Speaking at the Sarvodaya Annual General Meeting on Saturday, Wigneswaran also said there are fears for his safety and security and that he may face the same fate as some Tamil politicians in the past.

Sri lanka: Revisions to HRCSL Act submitted to President

Niranjala Ariyawansha
Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), Dr. Prathiba Mahanamahewa, said revisions to the existing Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act, which contains five recommendations, had been submitted to the President as well as the Minister of Justice for their perusal, two weeks ago.

Rajapaksa calls for home-grown solution for Tamils issue

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited main Tamil party leaders, including Chief Minister of the northern province C V Wigneswaran, to join hands with him for national reconciliation rather than looking for a solution from a “foreign nation”.
“I invite Mr (R) Sampanthan (TNA leader) and northern chief minister Mr Wigneswaran to join hands for the sake of peace and national reconciliation,” Mr. Rajapaksa said in the Parliament during a debate on the 2014 budget yesterday.

UNP adopts four resolutions; No mention of the ethnic conflict

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) adopted four resolutions at the party convention held at the UNP headquarters in Sirikotha today.
UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake proposed the resolutions and party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe then called for a show of hands to have them approved.

The chief architect of the Galle Literary Festival Geoffrey Dobbs refused entry to Sri Lanka

Geoffrey Dobbs

The chief architect of the annual Galle Literary Festival, British born Australian Geoffrey Dobbs has been denied entry into Sri Lanka, opposition UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament today.
He said that refusing entry to someone in the caliber of Dobbs, who had opened some hotels down south and is also mentioned in leading travel magazines, could hurt Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.

Sri Lanka: 3 Mosques to be closed - Muslim MPs demand urgent action

Muslim Members of Parliament (MP) met Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, who is also the Minister of Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs, this afternoon and raised concerns over attempts to close three Mosques in the Dehiwala area.

First UN Resolution on the Protection of Women Human Rights Defenders

A Pakistan HRD 

We are pleased to inform you that the first UN resolution on the protection of women human rights defenders was adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly's Third Committee on 27 November 2013. More than fifty States co-sponsored this important resolution.

The resolution, inter alia:

-      expresses concern about systemic and structural discrimination and violence faced by women human rights defenders of all ages, and calls upon States to take all measures necessary to ensure their protection and to integrate a gender perspective into their efforts to create a safe and enabling environment for the defence of human rights;

Sri Lanka : It is too soon to define what any international investigation might consist of The UK Minister of State Hugo Swire

Hugo Swire

House of Commons – Questions on Sri Lanka, 17 Dec 2013: 
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress he expects the Sri Lankan government to make on an independent investigation into war crimes and human rights abuses before the UK decides not to pursue a resolution on an international inquiry at the UN Human Rights Council in Mar 2014.

Sri Lanka: Deputy Minister ( retired Navy admiral) calls for ban on TNA

Labour and Labour Relations Deputy Minister Sarath Weerasekera told Parliament yesterday that the government should ban the TNA, which was propagating the LTTE ideology of separatism even after the defeat of the terrorist organisation.

Sri Lanka: Statement Condemning the Arrest and Unlawful Detention of Seven Tamil Youth, and Calling for their Immediate Release

19th December, 2013
We the undersigned, strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest and illegal detention of Raveendran Kajeepan (21), Alfred Piratheepan (30), Murukaiya Ashokkumar (35) and Nageswarasri Yarsan (22) from Jaffna, and the arrest and continued detention of three other youth* from Mannar, by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) between the 25th and 27th of November, 2013. It has become common practice for the Government to arrest and detain Tamil youth under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) coinciding with the time of Mahaveerar Naal (LTTE Heroes Day). In November 2012 too, four Tamil students from the University of Jaffna were arrested and detained under the PTA, and released intermittently over the course of 3 months.

Villages gone, buildings razed to ground in SL military appropriated Valikamaam North

 

[TamilNet]
Almost all the buildings that were situated in the 6,400 acres of lands seized by the occupying Sri Lankan military in Valikaamam North in Jaffna have been completely bulldozed by the SL military, according to those who have witnessed the destruction in recent days. The entire area of fertile cultivation and residential lands now looks like single piece of desert land, they said. Except the buildings used by the genocidal military at the ‘forward line’ and the building at the rear, close to the Palaali military base, everything else has been razed to the ground.

Incredible but true! Mohan Pieris as lawyer, prosecutor, accused, Attorney General and Chief Justice related to a same case

Mohan Peris

 Lalith Kotalawala, a frontline businessman had been subjected to a miscarriage of justice whereby the prosecutor who filed the action against him had himself heard the case . This most depraved and deplorable judicial hearing involved the Attorney General (AG) Mohan Peiris who filed the charges then against Kotalawala, hearing the case now against Kotalawala the accused. When the case was heard on 18 Dec 2013 Peiris the former AG and present chief justice sat as the judge in this case.