Day: 29 March 2015

Missing…. Or Are They?

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Ask Mahinda or Gothapaya” says New Minister –Fate of nearly 12,000 LTTE cadres sent for rehabilitation are Killed. U.N. failed to protect civilians and ‘White Flag killing’ during … British newspapers expose cold-blooded killing of LTTE … By Waruni Karunarathne Families of the Disappeared (FoD) had several meetings last week with some key members of the government claiming that they have proof to say some of those reported missing are still alive. Activist Brito Fernando said that FoD is in fact not challenging the government but presenting the facts and…

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Rape in India: An Unspeakable Crime

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By Viruben Nandakumar On December 16th 2012, Jyoti Singh was gang raped by five men and eviscerated in a barbaric manner that outraged not only India but the entire world. Two weeks later she died, but her presence is felt on a global level. Just days after the attack thousands joined in a peaceful protest against not only this atrocity, but the abhorred abuse that women in India face on a regular protest. The government’s response was swift and harsh; police forces shot with water cannons, tear gas shells, beat…

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Former LTTE Females Face Social Rejection by Tamils in North.

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”None of the rehabilitated cadres, including the suicide cadres, has indulged in any crime or violence since release” General Wijetilleke COLOMBO:  In a startling revelation, the Sri Lankan Commissioner General of Rehabilitation Maj.Gen.Jagath Wijetilleke said that 6 to 7 percent of the 12,346 cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had surrendered to the Sri Lankan armed forces at the end Eelam War IV in May 2009, were members of the dreaded suicide squad called the “Black Tigers”. The squad contained females as well as males. “But the…

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Probe on missing persons will be completed within 6 months: PM says in Jaffna

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Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that there were no secret camps in the country. He also said that investigations with regard to missing persons would be completed within 6 months. The Premier made these statements at a meeting held with the MPs of all political parties of the Jaffna District at the Jaffna District Secretariat yesterday. The Prime Minister, who arrived in Jaffna yesterday for a three-day visit, first travelled to the Naga Viharaya and participated in religious activities. Later he participated in a nutritional program for pregnant mothers of…

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Sri Lanka road trip finds north and south still divided after civil war

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A water tank destroyed in the Sri Lankan civil war now stands as a memorial in Kilinochchi, along the A9 highway that links southern Sri Lanka with the northern areas that were the main battlegrounds of the conflict

The road from Colombo, Sri Lanka’s graceful seaside capital in the south, to the northern town of Jaffna has rarely been a straight shot. Most of the 250-mile journey follows the A9 highway, which slices through palm groves and green carpets of farmland that were the main battlegrounds of the country’s three-decade civil war. During the worst fighting between an army dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic majority and rebels from the mainly Tamil north, long stretches of A9 were closed to civilian traffic. As the main supply line for Tamil…

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Sri Lankan science mentor ”who left UK for better opportunities in the United States” felicitated by Obama

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An Indian-American and a Sri Lankan-origin scientist and teacher are among fourteen individuals and one organization named winners of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). Andhra University graduate Murty S. Kambhampati, a professor of biology at Southern University at New Orleans, and Sri Lankan origin Tilak Ratnanather, an associate professor in the biomedical engineering department of the Johns Hopkins University, Maryland will receive their awards at a White House ceremony later this year. “These educators are helping to cultivate America’s future scientists, engineers and…

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Wiggy snubs Ranil

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By Ananth Palakidnar Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran and the Northern Provincial Councillors boycotted a visit by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to Jaffna yesterday, following an exchange of views over the military presence in the North and the views expressed by the PM in an interview with an Indian TV station. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, State Ministers Rosy Senanayake, Vijayakala Maheswaran and V. Radhakrishnan are on a three-day visit to the North, beginning yesterday. Minister Maheswaran said Chief Minister Wigneswaran and the NPC Councillors should not have snubbed Wickremesinghe as…

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PM Refutes Claims On Secret Military Camps – Army killed all who surrendered with white Flag

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Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe on Friday (27) stated that there were no ‘secret army camps’ in the country at present. He made this observation at a discussion with local representatives in Jaffna. TNA Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran recently declared that there was a secret camp named ‘Gota Base’ within the Navy Camp in Trincomalee. Meanwhile, answering another question, Wickremasinghe added that the government hopes to end investigations on disappeared persons within six months. “We hope to establish a Truth Commission in order to build national unity and reconciliation with advice from…

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No extra funding for probe team

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The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was told that extra funding will not be required for the investigations team on Sri Lanka appointed by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as a result of the decision to postpone the consideration of the report on Sri Lanka. The Programme Support and Management Services of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the decision to postpone the submission of the Sri Lanka report will raise financial implications. These relate to the continuation of…

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