Day: 22 June 2015

”Ranil OUT & Mahinda IN” says Maithiri

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President Maitripala Sirisena to work with Mahinda  President Maitripala Sirisena, addressing the Nuwara Eliya district committee of the SLFP yesterday, said that he would strive to form a government led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and include former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in it.  How come Maithri Nominate Mahinda as the prime ministerial candidate when the vast majority of people have voted against him for not adhering to good governance, rule of law and the unprecedented corruption that prevailed under his rule He said he would team up…

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Sri Lanka to recover GSP+ after Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva: PM

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June 22, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will regain the GSP plus trade concession after the Human Rights Council sessions which are to be held in Geneva in September, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe said. The European Union withdrew the concessions in 2010 expressing deep concern over alleged human rights violations said to have occurred during the last stage of Sri Lanka’s 30 year civil war. “We earlier thought that the concession applies only to apparel industry but eventually the fish products were also included in the tax concessions,” Wickramasinghe said.…

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There cannot be two leaders in a country – President

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Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday said there cannot be two leaders in a country. “A country should be governed by one leader and he should be allowed to run its administration” the President said addressing an SLFP meeting in Nuwara Eliya yesterday. He further said he wishes to unite all groups in his plan to bring the change demanded by the public and that he will not entertain factions in the SLFP. “Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga strove to bring out reforms through peaceful measures. She even became a…

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Mangala-GTF talks split tamil Diaspora

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Mangala-GTF talks split tamil Diaspora – TGTE says GTF has no mandate to represent the rest – ‘Sumanthiran does not have full support of TNA’ Rasika Jayakody Eric Solheim Suren Surendiran V. Rudrakumaran Talks between Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) have caused a split among leading Tamil Diaspora organisations. In response to the discussions between the Foreign Minister and GTF Spokesman Suren Surendiran in the presence of several other parties including former Norwegian peace envoy Eric Solheim, the Senate of the Transnational Government of Tamil…

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BTF and Hearing on disappearance of LTTE leaders and 18,000 Tamil Civilians

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Relatives of LTTE leaders, including Nadesan and Pulitheven, will explain the circumstances that led to their surrender and their subsequent disappearance at a meeting to be held in Geneva on June 24. The meeting has been jointly organised by Pasumai Thayagam, founded by PMK leader S. Ramadoss, along with British Tamil Forum (BTF) and the United States Tamil Protection Council (USTPC). PMK spokesperson K. Balu and Arul of the Pasumai Thayagam will participate in the meeting. Mr. Balu said a 18,000 Tamils and their leaders surrendered in 2009 and even…

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Jayalalithaa seeks Modi’s intervention to get 31 TN fishermen released from Sri Lankan custody

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CHENNAI: A day after 17 Nagapattinam fishermen were apprehended by the Sri Lankan navy, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally intervene to secure the release of all the 31 Tamil Nadu fishermen who have been in the custody of the Sri Lankan authorities. “This is to bring to your notice one more unfortunate incident in which 17 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu, along with their two fishing boats, have been apprehended and detained by the Sri Lankan navy. It has been…

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Tamil Fest to showcase art, music and cuisine at Scarborough event

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Festival next step in community’s growth, says Mayor John Tory Tamil Fest 2015 Staff photo/MIKE ADLER Toronto Mayor John Tory and other dignitaries join a group of performers during the launch of Tamil Fest 2015 on Tuesday at the Markham Convention Centre in Scarborough. The street festival to be held on Morningside Avenue Au. 29-30 will be hosted by the Canadian Tamil Congress. Scarborough Mirror By Mike Adler Greater Toronto’s Tamil community is now grown up, and this August 29 and 30, the rest of us can say, “Vanakkam” –…

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I Invited Canadian LTTE to taste Sri Lankan tea

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We continued to organise and strengthen the Consulate General’s Office. We tried to maintain close contact with the Controller of Immigration in Colombo and strict controls were put in place with regards to the issuance of emergency travel documents as LTTE supporters were known to use them to enter Sri Lanka. There was also close coordination with the Indian Consular Service to prevent LTTE members from entering Sri Lanka via India. I met with representatives of SLUNA (Organisation which jointly led the battle against LTTE in Canada. More will be…

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Neither I Nor My Community Will Do Anything To Betray The Country – Rishard Bathiudeen

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The issue of resettling the Muslim people that LTTE expelled from the North in 1990 remains unresolved. Many of them still live outside their original residences.  Meantime, various allegations have been directed at Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishard Bathiudeen that he was encouraging the people to encroach on the Wilpattu National Park – however later it was alleged that internally displaced Muslims were resettled by encroaching on Kal-Aru forest which is in the buffer zone of the Wilpattu National Park. While such allegations are still being made, speaking to…

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A mortgaged media! media!

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A mortgaged media! media! The immediate outcome of the January 8 election has been a fillip to freedom of expression in the media, but behind the euphoria of the moment trails a three-decade-long record of a press under siege. There may be a nostalgic colouring to this, but well into the 1980s it seemed there was a vibrant public intellectualism in force in Sri Lanka that engaged with the ethnic question in a reasoned, bold and fair-minded manner. Scholars like Kumari Jayawardena, Karthigesu Sivathamby, Charles Abeysekara, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Sunil Bastian…

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Anti Muslim Sentiment In Sri Lanka: Hate Incidents – January To April 2015

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The outcome of the presidential election of January 2015 created expectations of change, hope and reform among considerable sections of Sri Lankan society. For Muslim communities, who played a pivotal role in the election, the change in Government was willed into being in part due to the insecurity and violence suffered by Muslims particularly in the South of the country over the last two years. As indicated by the compilation of incidents carried out by the Secretariat for Muslims (SFM) from 2013 onwards, Muslims faced a hate campaign that has…

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