Sri Lanka Black July 1983, Remembrance day, Panel discussion by BTF in association with All Party Parliamentary group for Tamils (APPGT-UK).  Black July 1983 Remembrance Day was hosted by BTF in association with APPGT-UK, on the 23rd of July 2018 at the UK parliaments committee room. Opening the panel discussion, Ms.Shievanie Sabesan made a presentation on ‘’ CYCLES OF VIOLENCE & IMPUNITY’’ in Sri Lanka.  On her presentation, she provided historical evidences chronologically from 1958, 1977,1983 anti- Tamil programs and moved on to the recent emblematic cases sighted by the UN report on Sri Lanka. She provided further evidence for the culture of violence and impunity from the internationally known cases of Trinco five students massacre, Mutur massacre of Action contre la Faim (ACF) INGO staff, assassination […]

All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) leader Gajan Ponnambalam, in an interview with the Daily Mirror, shares his views on the political developments of the north. Mr Ponnambalam, whose party made significant gains at the local government elections, speaks about Federalism. The following is what he shared:   Tamil people are not going to ask for an armed struggle If there is going to be an armed struggle, it is the Sinhalese who are pushing them to it UNHRC has been used as a political tool UNHRC resolutions not aimed at addressing accountability issues here They are aimed at regime change in Sri Lanka only TNA is part of the government Law and Order was good in LTTE controlled areas There is nothing controversial about Vijeyakala’s statement Q As […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando A furious Kurunegala District UNP MP Thushara Indunil Amarasena yesterday accused his party of not taking advantage of the much-hyped adjournment debate on Chinese funding in support of the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s 2015 re-election bid. Amarasena expressed deep disappointment over the way, his party allowed the Joint Opposition (JO) to force the Chair to call off the debate last Thursday (July 19). Amarasena said that he couldn’t believe that the UNP neglected its duty to ensure that the House had a quorum. Responding to another query, Amarasena alleged that President Maithripala Sirisena’s parliamentary group had not been supportive of the debate. The UNP, SLFP parliamentary groups comprises 133 lawmakers. Amarasena said that the required quorum of 20 could have been ensured […]

ECONOMYNEXT- Security officers and vehicles of the state-run airline had been used in the 2015 presidential campaign of Mahinda Rajapaksa, a witness said at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry investigating irregularities at the national carrier. “Security officers and vehicles were used for election work. This was for the campaign of Mahinda Rajapaksa,” SriLankan Airlines Security Officer Hasantha Yasaratne said. He said that these were used for campaigning in the Kolonnawa Electorate. Group Head of Security P. Chandrawansa had authorized the use of company resources, the witness said. Yasaratne said that company rules and regulations prohibit SriLankan employees from taking part in political activities. Only trade union activities are allowed. Nishantha Wickramasinghe, a brother-in-law of then President Rajapaksa, was Chairman of SriLankan Airlines until Rajapaksa lost […]

In response to investigations against British MPs including Ian Paisley by the House of Commons over his visit to Sri Lanka during the former rule, then External Affairs Minister Prof.G.L. Peiris said today that the government of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had to bribe British MPs with FREE Holidays and other benefits so to counter adverse propaganda being carried out by the pro-LTTE elements. A Sri Lankan parliamentarian claimed that the former regime in Colombo bribed at least five more British MPs today, after the UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards suspended British parliamentarian Ian Paisley Jr for not declaring trips worth up to £100,000. “There are at least five other British MP’s who similarly were bribed by the Rajapaksa regime to make statements supportive of it,” claimed UNP […]

The damning report comes after a UN visit to the country at the request of the government There is “little evidence” that the hope of reform, inclusiveness and justice in Sri Lanka after the country’s transition to a coalition government in 2015 is materialising, the UN concluded in a new report published on Tuesday. The damning report came after a UN visit to the country at the request of the government. It was issued three years after the country appeared to be on the cusp of major progress with the election of a unity government following decades of civil war. Ben Emmerson QC, the UN rapporteur on countering terrorism, met with senior Sri Lankan officials on his visit but concluded that progress towards a fair justice […]

Exclusive : “Mahinda Rajapaksa Paid Money to LTTE to Become President JVP, JHU demand action against Emil Kanthan A key witness in the controversial RADA case yesterday told the Colombo High Court that they were asked to move out of the Mavil Aru area by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa since they were negotiating with Emil Kanthan, the LTTEer. Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) Western Provincial Councillor Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe said he and a group including Ven.Athuraliye Rathana Thera, Akmeemana Dayaratne Thera who reached the Mavil Aru area to open the Mavil Aru anicut sluice gate from the clutches of LTTE were told to move out of the area by the then President and Defence Secretary. Warnasinghe, the first witness in […]

A member of the Northern Provincial Council has sent a petition to the Ministry of Defence against the provision of a pistol to NPC Minister Ananthi Sasitharan, alleging that it was against the law to give her a firearm. The petition, dated July 22 and signed by NPC member Mohamed Ashwin, states that Minister Sasitharan does not have a threat to her life. The councillor alleges that the defence authorities have not conducted a threat perception study before giving Provincial Minister Sasitharan a pistol. Sasitharan’s husband was a frontline leader of the LTTE and she, too, had connections with the LTTE, the council member says in his petition. Minister Sasitharan has accused the army of abducting and killing her husband and has filed a case […]

Colombo Chief Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake has once again ordered the Chairman of the Hatton National Bank (HNB) to supply the details regarding certain cheques, be provided to the Police Special Detection Bureau (PSDB) regarding offences committed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, in the case where a sum of Rs 1,250 million has been encashed from several banks and given to a few officials at the Temple Trees and to certain others in the run up to the last Presidential Poll. The Colombo Chief Magistrate gave this order to the HNB Chairman after the PSDB informed the Court that the HNB had refused to submit the said details as per a Court order given on 2 July. The PSDB representing the prosecution told the […]

I can still remember vividly that fateful day in July 1983 when a Nation’s hopes for peace literally went up in smoke. My schoolmates and I were halfway to school when we saw buildings burning in Colombo and the driver of the school bus turned back because it was not possible to continue the journey. On the way home, we saw mobs armed with knives, swords, clubs and machetes going from house to house. Some of them were carrying petrol cans. The destruction was incomprehensible to my young mind. I asked my mother and father what it was all about and with tears in her eyes, mother told me that some bad people were attacking Tamil people. By then I was well aware that there […]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he joined with the Tamil-Canadians and members of the Tamil community around the world to mourn families and friends lost during Black July in 1983, in Sri Lanka. “On this day, we remember the victims of the 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka that took thousands of lives and displaced so many from their homes. We join Tamil-Canadians and members of the Tamil community around the world to mourn families and friends lost during Black July, and to reflect on the enduring human cost of the conflict in Sri Lanka, Prime Minster Trudeau said in a statement on the 35th anniversary of Black July “Black July was a week of destruction and horrific violence that followed decades of […]