January 2017

By Manekshaw The Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran returned to Colombo on Monday (16) after a hectic one week’s tour in Canada. Before heading to the airport, Wigneswaran addressed a public meeting attended by nearly 600 Lankan Tamil expatriates at the Scarborough University Pan Am stadium. Wigneswaran, in the last lap of his tour in Canada, which is under freezing conditions these days, was coughing while addressing the gathering and said that his restless hectic tour was the reason for his cough. At the end of his address he said he was returning to his motherland to continue with duties for his people. Wigneswaran twice earlier when he attempted to travel to Canada, was not given a visa by the Canadian High Commission in Colombo. […]

22 January 2017 Last updated at 00:17 GMT A vet has left behind her home in England to care for Sri Lanka’s street dogs. Janey Lowes from Barnard Castle, County Durham, has spent the past two years caring for the neglected animals. There are about three million street dogs on the island – about 60% of puppies born on the street do not survive to adulthood. The 28-year-old set up charity WECare Worldwide to raise money to buy the equipment needed to treat the animals and to set up her own clinic in Talalla. You can see more on this story on Inside Out on BBC One at 19:30 GMT on Monday. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38691375

By Chris Kamalendran Sri Lankan animal rights activists have come out strongly against local groups which are calling on the Tamil Nadu Government to lift a ban on the bull-taming sport popularly known as ‘Jallikattu’. The move came as local groups, mostly in the northern and eastern provinces staged protests to show solidarity with Tamil Nadu people who want the ban lifted. The ban was imposed by the Supreme Court in 2014 and upheld again in 2016. But the Indian Government, by an executive order, lifted the ban yesterday, allowing Tamils in Tamil Nadu to stage Jallikattu from today. Before the ban was lifted, protests were held in Colombo also yesterday at the Galle Face Green and Wellawatte. More protests were held in Point Pedro, […]

JAFFNA , SRI LANKA, January 17, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ — On Thai Pongal (January 14) the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) released a booklet outlining the TGTE’s Massive Action plan. The projects described in the Massive Action Plan have been formulated following the work of a group of experts. They are imaginative, ambitious and have nation building as a long term goal. For Participation, Ideas, and Advice: massiveaction@tgte.org For Online Financial Contribution: www.tgte-us.org For Correspondence: TGTE, 875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 906, New York, NY 10001, USA Details of a few selected Projects 1. Publications, Archives, and Documentation Centre: It is necessary to collect and protect the political, economic, social, cultural, and historical documents and data of the Tamil Nation with due care for […]

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP for the Jaffna District M.A. Sumanthiran, in an interview with the Daily Mirror, shares his views on the Constitution making and the way forward. He says his party remains optimistic about a positive outcome. Excerpts:   Q  How optimistic are you of the Constitution making process? Well, this is a one’s in life opportunity. It is, in fact, once in the life of a country opportunity. This problem has been with us ever since Independence. Every time, when the party in office makes any effort to resolve it, the party in the Opposition opposed. It happened in 1957, 1965 and went on like that. After many consequences, particularly large scale violence, there was a process from 1994 to 2000 to […]

There are some people who are afraid of change by nature. Some may be perennially conservative and lazy to undergo change. This laziness could easily come from the bureaucracy or the public servants and particularly the mandarins in the legal establishment/s. For a new constitution, they have to work hard. Their incompetency may get exposed. by Laksiri Fernando ( January 17, 2017, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) I have simply ‘plagiarized’ the title from the theme on which the People’s Power (PP) and the National Movement for a Just Society (NMJS) have organized a public meeting on this Wednesday, the 18th January at the Colombo Public Library. Whatever the speakers are going to say at that meeting, the theme is sharply accurate in capturing the questioning […]

The Head of the Political, Trade and Communication Section of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) in Sri Lanka Paul Godfrey yesterday denied that the European Union (EU) laid down any conditions as such to Sri Lanka – 58 conditions in total as some news reports have been suggestive of – to recommend GSP + to Sri Lanka. Godfrey said the European Commission in Brussels recommended granting GSP+ preferences for Sri Lanka to support the progress of the country’s commitment to ratify and effectively implement 27 international conventions on human rights, labor conditions, protection of the environment and good governance. Godfrey said on being asked by the Daily News if the government had agreed to comply with some 58 conditions laid down by it […]

The Joint Opposition yesterday slammed the Government for considering what it termed as conditions that would be harmful to the country to regain GSP+ and claimed diaspora communities were responsible for the European Union (EU) holding Sri Lanka to 27 international conventions. Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peremuna (SLPP) Chairman and JO Member Prof. G. L. Peiris charged that the EU was attempting to get involved in the internal matters of Sri Lanka and alleged it would be beneficial to the aspirations of Tamil diaspora groups. “The EU has presented 58 conditions towards Sri Lanka to obtain GSP+ and those conditions are comprised of rules which could undermine the victory of the war,” he told reporters. Prof. Peiris also charged that some conditions such as repealing […]

We will be able to export any product to the European market without any export levy or duty, with the European Union’s decision to remove significant import duties on Sri Lankan products by restoring GSP + trade access to Europe’s export market, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in Galle. “Last May, I went to Brussels with a delegation to initiate discussions with the European Union. The European Union has decided to remove significant import duties on Sri Lankan products and restore GSP + trade access to Europe’s export market.Now, not only garments, we can export any product to the European market without export levy or duty,” the Prime Minister said. “The proceeding week is going to be a very productive one.I could start the week […]

Removal of customs duties would be accompanied by rigorous monitoring and conditional on continued commitment to sustainable development, human rights and good governance. The Commission on Wednesday proposed that a significant part of the remaining import duties on Sri Lankan products should be removed by the European Union in exchange for the country’s commitment to ratify and effectively implement 27 international conventions on human rights, labour conditions, protection of the environment and good governance. These one-way trade preferences would consist of the full removal of duties on 66% of tariff lines, covering a wide array of products including textiles and fisheries. These preferences would come under a special arrangement of the EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences, known as GSP+. This arrangement is designed to support developing […]

The CID today (14) arrested Lt. Commander Anil Dhammika Mapa of the Navy on charges of the abduction, extortion and enforced disappearance of a Tamil resident of Kotahena in 2008. Evidence is also being gathered against the suspect for having taken apart a van owned by the missing man and selling same.  Abducted during the period of the war, the Tamil man was kept at Welisara navy camp and questioned. His van was taken apart at the same camp. Then, the parts were taken out of the camp and assembled. The CID has recovered the van. The Navy officer had also extorted money from the arrested man’s family. The CID is facing strong opposition from the Navy over the arrest. He is due to be […]