October 2014

By Zacki Jabbar The UNP on Wednesday accused the government of using a recent picture of UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe meeting some members of the UK UNP branch in London, to allege that they were LTTE’ers. General Secretary of the UNP Tissa Attanayake MP said that the four persons in the photograph with Wickremesinghe were Harsha Kannangara, Roshan Samantha, Dharsahan Daniel and Indika Kumara, all office bearers of the UNP UK branch. The Rajapaksa regime was so bankrupt that it was disseminating blatant lies to shore up its dwindling vote base in the run up to the Presidential Election, he noted. The MP pointed out that it was the UPFA government that had helped the LTTE by not challenging its appeal against a 2006 European Union(EU) ban […]

Don’t blame the Koslanda victims“The minister said the Plantation Industries Ministry Secretary has already taken measures to find out why these plantation workers failed to follow the instructions of the NBRO….” But, the question that begs an answer from the Minister is where the poor workers were supposed to go? If, the NBRO, three years ago, had forewarned that the disaster area was landslide susceptible, what did the government do to alleviate the situation? Did they take measures to provide those plantation workers with alternate accommodation in safe areas? Did they also, if they had made such arrangements, also ensured, that not only their lives, but their livelihoods would also be protected? If such arrangements were made, why didn’t those victim plantation workers move across […]

 Bishop of Badulla decries bid to blame Koslanda victims Heavy rains disrupt search for Sri Lanka landslide survivors by Saman Indrajith The government could make excuses but it should accept the responsibility for its failure to save the lives of people who perished in the Koslanda disaster, Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga said in Parliament yesterday. Chief Opposition Whip, addressing Parliament soon after the Chief Government Whip and Water Supply and Drainage Minister made a special statement on the scope of the disaster and the action taken by the government, said that the Opposition wished to convey sympathies to those who had lost their near and dear ones on Wednesday. He said that it was the first time a landslide had destroyed so many lives […]

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) says it is ready for conditional talks with President Mahinda Rajapksa to reach a political solution to the Tamil issue. TNA leader R. Sampanthan told Parliament today that his party is ready to negotiate with the President based on three statements the President had made following the end of the war. The three statements include one made following a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when the latter had visited Sri Lanka. In the joint statement President Rajapaksa had expressed his firm resolve to proceed with the implementation of the 13th Amendment, as well as to begin a broader dialogue with all parties, including the Tamil parties in the new circumstances, to further enhance this process and to bring […]

The Court of Appeal today dismissed a writ application filed by a resident of Nugegoda who sought a writ of mandamus order directing the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the attorney General (AG) to take legal action against 33 members of Northern Provincial Council (NPC) and Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) for urging former UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navanidan Pillai through a letter to determine if genocide has taken place in Sri Lanka. Bench comprising Justices Vijith K. Malalgoda (President) and A.H.M.D. Nawaz maintained that petition cannot be entertained because a police complaint has not been made against the respondents.The petitioner Polwatta Gallage Ravindra Niroshan of Nugegoda stated that he was genuinely concerned for the continued safety of the security of the country particular […]

BY Ruwan Laknath Jayakody The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) charged the approval process required for travel to the North as yet another inhuman and unjustified attack on the minorities. “This is an irritant and will cause a lot of national and international problems for the government. When the task is to get these communities into the mainstream and integrate them, such moves will only create further divisions,” BASL Standing Committee on Rule of Law Chairman and Lawyers for Democracy Convenor Lal Wijenayake told Ceylon Today. Describing the move as an economic blockade, he questioned the re-establishing the Colombo-Jaffna Yal-Devi train operation when free movement had been curtailed.  These enforced regulations would create and aggravate the already established view, among the international community, that […]

By Dr Jehan Perera The government spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has announced that Presidential Elections will be held in January. He has also said that he knows the date but will not reveal it. In not giving the date of the election the Minister is only following proper procedure. The Minister would be privy to government thinking and decision making with regard to the holding of elections as soon as possible. But the choice of date of election is legally vested in the Election Commissioner who is expected to act independently.  Previous experience of dates selected for presidential elections shows that they have been called between 52 and 61 days after the incumbent President gave notice that elections will be held. This puts the prospective […]

By Mirudhula Thambiah and Menaka Indrakumar More than 350 persons went missing and six bodies were found, following a massive landslide, at the Koslanda Estate in the Meeriyabadda area of Haldummulla in the Badulla District, yesterday morning. The landslide occurred at around 7:30 in the morning burying more than 150 line room housing units, according to the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) Spokesman, Pradeep Kodippili. “Line houses from No.7 -12 collapsed, including three houses of estate supervisors. Two Hindu temples, two garages, four grocery shops, a house of an estate midwife, the estate ward and two government office buildings were completely damaged and buried underneath the mud,” he said. He added that two teams from Colombo were sent to the crisis hit area, and a team from […]