Day: 1 November 2014

“Injured” Malaka Silva Arrested By Police For Assaulting A British Couple

Karu

Minister Mervyn Silva’s son Malaka Silva has been arrested by Police in connection with assault on a foreign couple at a night club in Bambalapitiya early this morning.  Police sources told Asian Mirror that Malaka Silva has been remanded till Tuesday.  However, following the incident, Malaka Silva was admitted to hospital by his friends claiming he was assaulted by a Scottish national. One of his friends also lodged a complaint with the Police saying the Minister’s son was assaulted at the night club.    Speaking to Asian Mirror reporters, the…

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Families fast demanding Sri Lanka release fishermen on death row

Karu

Rameswaram: Families of five fishermen sentenced to death by a court in Sri Lanka for alleged drug trafficking on Saturday observed a one-day fast to press the government to take immediate steps to bring them back home. The families wore black badges at the venue in this coastal town. Local people, as also about 3,000 activists of various political parties joined them at the spot, shouted slogans against the court verdict and urged government to do everything possible to get the fishermen back. Leaders of political parties, including Suba Thangavelan…

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Salute a True Father Dr Manoharan

Karu

Truly he deserves praise for his unrelenting efforts to get Justice for his murdered Son. Dr. Manoharan, speaking to TamilNet from his UK residence, said he would not rest until he obtains justice for his son. Ragihar would have qualified as a doctor, like his father, had the Sri Lankan soldiers resisted from pulling the triggers on the highly accomplished students on that fateful day in 2006. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpmqE-jWi4U Twenty-year-old Ragihar Manoharan was among five Tamil students killed by the Sri Lankan security forces in Trincomalee on January 2, 2006. To…

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”Donate monthly salary to landslide victims” Opposition ‘MP’s says YES and Government MP’ ssays ‘NO’

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Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga said that Ministers and MPs should donate one month’s salary to provide relief to victims of Koslanda landslide disaster. But the government said that they have enough money to support the effected and the the Government MP’s will NOT donate their one month salary.   MP Amaratunga speaking soon after Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera made a ministerial statement on Koslanda disaster in Parliament yesterday, said: “Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe is visiting the landslide hit areas and people at the time I am addressing…

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Govt. appeals against EU Court Order

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By Ravi Ladduwahetty The Government has appealed against the lifting of the restrictions on the LTTE by the European Union Court of.Justice, Cabinet spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told the weekly news conference yesterday. He said that the government did not do it directly but it was through some “other sources” which he did not divulge. He also said the LTTE being proscribed was mere eyewash. Some of the Western countries, which had proscribed the LTTE, did not utter a whimper at the time the pro-LTTE members carried placards…

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President instructs officials to get EU ban on fish exports removed

Karu

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday (30) has instructed the relevant officials to do a thorough study on the European Union’s ban of Sri Lanka’s fishery products exports and get the ban removed. The President also instructed the Navy to assist in preventing illegal fishermen entering the Sri Lankan seas and to curb the use of illegal equipment for fishing. He gave these instructions at a discussion held with the representatives of Fishermen Associations at Temple Trees on Thursday. The fishermen’s representatives at the meeting have presented their grievances to the…

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Missing Persons Commission needs MORE TEETH

Karu

Missing Persons Commission needs  By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan The United Nations Human Rights Committee, in its fifth periodic report on Sri Lanka, adopted that the State should ensure the rights of families to know the location or status of disappeared persons, by ensuring that the Presidential Commission to Investigate Complaints regarding Missing Persons and other relevant bodies are provided with adequate legal powers as well as human, technical and financial resources to operate in an independent, timely and effective manner, that ensures adequate witness protection. The Committee released its concluding…

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Cosmetic Fixes: Sri Lanka’s Poor Progress on Human Rights

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THE SOUTH ASIA CHANNEL Cosmetic Fixes: Sri Lanka’s Poor Progress on Human Rights Sri Lanka’s twenty-six-year civil war was a brutal conflict that pitted the Sri Lankan government forces against the Tamil Tigers, a group that fought for a separate state in the country’s northern and eastern provinces. Though the government defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009, Sri Lanka’s post-war situation is headed in the wrong direction. Since that time, the international community’s engagement with the island nation has been variegated. Unfortunately, much of the criticism Sri Lanka has…

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