Day: 3 November 2014

Mayuri Inoka, the wife of a disappeared husband, Madushka Haris De Silva, was herself abducted on 1 November 2014. According to Mayuri, her abductors threatened her not to engage in any activities calling for the recovery of her husband. Mayuri’s husband disappeared in September 2013, and remains missing. Issuing a statement the Asian Human Rights Commission says; On 27 October 2014, Mayuri spoke at a public gathering in front of the “Monument for the Disappeared” at Raddoluwa, Seeduwa, during the annual commemoration ceremony for disappeared persons. The persons who abducted Mayuri…

The Tamil National Alliance has today refused the allegation that TNA officials are involving in a scheme to provide fabricated evidence to the OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka through the distribution and collection of forms. Issuing a statement TNA said; “Whether or not the allegations of blank signed forms being found on the recently arrested Mr. Krishnarasa are true, the TNA does not support the collection of evidence for the OHCHR investigation through the distribution and collection of specimen forms, not least because the evidential value of information collected in this…

The landslide that buried an entire village on Meeriyabedda Estate in Haldamulla, a tea plantation in Sri Lanka’s central hills is a tragic reminder of a marginalized ethnic minority and the failure of the democratic political system to address their needs. The plantation Tamil people have been discriminated against from the time of Independence from British colonial rule when they were denied their citizenship and continue to suffer from that legacy. The wealth they have produced has gone into the coffers of state and plantation companies, but inputs to upgrade…

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is maintaining a strong stance with regard to the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU),says a senior government minister. The minister added that the President has recently told several ministers that he would not be intimidated by the threats of the JHU, firmly adding that it would not be an issue even if the party decides to leave the coalition government. Meanwhile, the JHU says that the government is yet to respond to their proposal presented recently. By now, all discussions held with regard to the proposals have also ended.…

By M. A. Sumanthiran – You stop people of this country going to meet their very near relatives by placing travel restrictions. Is that not treating the North differently? This is also an attempt to pull wool over the eyes of people, not of the people of the North. If the people of the North were fooled, they would have voted for the UPFA. They were not fooled by any of the roads, the bridges, the mega projects or the gifts you gave from election platforms. They were not fooled. This…

A tense situation has arisen in and around Aluthgama after a private altercation between a Sinhalese and Muslim last evening. Following the altercation, a rumour had been spread to the effect that the Sinhalese person was assaulted on his way back from the temple resulting in Sinhalese crowds gathering to the Aluthgama town. The incident had allegedly taken place in Dharga town which was subject to racial violence in June this year. There has been no reported violence yet, with Special Task Force troops deployed in and around the area.

Rajapaksa pet project of building airports in Kandy and Nuwara Eliya must be abandoned. Twenty per cent of the country’s land area has been identified as prone to landslides  What is critically absent is neither money nor manpower but political will. If some astrologer sounded these warnings, politicians may have heeded them, But the warnings came from professional scientists, so they were ignored.  Plantation sector, which has an abnormally high concentration of the poorest of the poor. By Tisaranee Gunasekara – “Throughout recorded history, actions or inactions by self-absorbed kings,…

By Nirmala Kannangara  – Pictures by Lalith Perera Following last week’s Haldummulla catastrophe where more than 100 is believed to have buried alive leaving more than 75 children vulnerable and five deaths, accusations have now been leveled against the Haldummulla Divisional Secretary and Maskeliya Plantations for not taking action against the, landslide warning report submitted in 2005 by the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) that cautioned earth slip at Koslanda Meeriya- Bedda Estate, Haldummulla in the Badulla district. Although the earth slips warning has been given to both Divisional Secretary…