Day: 29 July 2015

Sri Lanka justice: leaked UN document casts doubts

Karu

A leaked UN document raises concerns over the prospects for genuine justice for the Sri Lankan victims of alleged war crimes, writes Callum Macrae. Channel 4 News has been supplied with the leaked document which critics claim could pre-empt and undermine September’s Human Rights Council discussion on a UN’s long-awaited investigation into crimes committed at the end of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war. According to the UN tens of thousands of Tamil civilians died in the closing stages of the Sri Lankan military’s war against the LTTE, also known as…

Read More

MAHINDA and UPFA Losing Steam In The South?

Karu

By Nirmala Kannangara in the Southern Province – Pictures by Lalith Perera The Southern Province is yet to feel the election heat with the three main political parties in the province conducting their campaigns on a low profile. Politicians in the Hambantota district have set an example for their counterparts in other districts on how to conduct an election campaign without displaying large cutouts and banners. The situation in Matara and Galle districts are not the same as there were a few hoardings and cutouts in the town centers. Most of the…

Read More

I am pleased to meet you in the courts to tell you the plunders you committed – Anura challenge Mahinda

Karu

JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that he is pleased to face the court case filed against him and five of his colleagues if the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa alleges to send a demand notice for slandering him. He said if there is a court case filed that he will get an opportunity to tell the former president’s face about his robbing of public funds. Anura Kumara said “The former president is telling that he is going to file a court case. I am too waiting for that opportunity to…

Read More

Mahinda’s racist cat jumps out of its pouch

Karu

Reports reaching us confirms that a Lankadeepa photo journalist has been taken into custody by the security personnel of the Kurunegala district parliament contestant Mahinda Rajapaksa for taking pictures of the Buddhist singhalese flags raised during an election campaign in Yatinuwara. The incident was published in the Lankadeepa website as below “Well build security personnel held one of our photographer by his shoulder and took him to a group of securities and took the custody of the camera until the flags were removed from the posts. They pretended they are from the police…

Read More

135 racketeers including former (Mahinda’s) Parliamentarians involved in smuggling or trading in heroin

Karu

Former UPFA Ministers, MPs and other politicians under Mahinda had connections with the heroin mafia  Awaiting a call from President Maithripala Sirisena to hand over 135 Drug smugglers list to him NO one on the mafia list got nomination from the United National Front for Good Governance. Tragically, the smuggling or trading in heroin and other narcotics has become a key  issue in the campaign for the crucial general election on August 17. The National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB) Chairman Dr. Nilanga Samarasinghe has emerged as a heroic figure…

Read More

The government is dedicated to developing the North just as much it is dedicated to develop the South

Karu

Boundaries can’t cause divisions in country – President Chamikara Weerasinghe President Maithripala Sirisena said in Kilinochchi yesterday that demographic descriptions like the North, South, East and West exist only on maps and that all should move forward bearing in mind that we live in one country. “Neither law nor boundaries can cause divisions in the country,” the President said. He was speaking at a ceremony held in Kilinochchi town to open a modern supermarket-style Sathosa Mega Complex for the district. “Every citizen shall have the right to live freely with…

Read More

Several key UPFA figures dodge election manifesto launch with Mahinda

Karu

Several key figures of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) ‘dodged’ the launch of the party’s election manifesto yesterday, informed party sources told the Daily News. Among them were Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala de Silva, UPFA Ratnapura District Leader John Seneviratne, Kandy District Leader S.B. Dissanayake several other district leaders and senior ex-Pariamentarians. When asked about the party’s senior-most members being absent at the launch of the election manifesto, a senior spokesman of the party said they were busy with election campaigns in their respective districts. However, party sources said…

Read More

Left, Vaiko on Same Page on Lanka Issue

Karu

CHENNAI:  Strong supporters of Tamil Eelam, including MDMK leader Vaiko and VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, on Monday, arrived at a common consensus on the sensitive issue, for the common agenda of their People’s Welfare Protection Movement. The CPM, which was not in favour of an international inquiry into the massacre of Sri Lankan Tamils and had been insisting on a local and credible probe, made a major climb down by agreeing to fight for bringing the culprits of the massacre before an international court for rendering justice. The stand of…

Read More

Corrupt political system barrier to progress

Karu

Sri Lanka’s prevailing corrupt political system did not provide an effective environment to privatize or listing of State owned enterprises (SOE’s) , Marxist People’s Liberation Front (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told Ceylon FT. This was revealed, by the JVP leader at the briefing arranged for the business community at the Grand Oriental Hotel Colombo, on the 27th July. The JVP leader said that, “Our state sector is full of corruption, inefficiencies and nepotism.” In this scenario, allowing at least a partial listing is a major risk,” “Successive governments have…

Read More

Mahinda was a dictatorship. Now there is law and order!

Karu

Ousted Sri Lankan Leader Angles for a Comeback Ex-President Rajapaksa leads ethnically charged campaign, vows closer ties to China Former Sri Lankan president and parliamentary candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa greeted supporters during the launch of his party election manifesto in Colombo on Tuesday. PHOTO: LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH   NAULA, Sri Lanka—Flanked by saffron-robed Buddhist monks, former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa exhorted a crowd of more than a thousand supporters at a weekend election rally, saying: “We saved this country. Don’t let it be divided again.” The…

Read More

Sri Lankan nation will not be gulled by the demagogues and racists again

Karu

Seeking Victory By Default One thing that strikes anyone with any experience of participating in and/or running political campaigns of any description in any part of the world is the ineptitude of the UNP’s strategists during the days since the writ was dropped for a general election. When/if the Ranil Wickremesinghe/UNP coalition, whose long title escapes me at this time, wins the forthcoming election it will be due to one or both of two factors: the public’s monumental distaste for all that Mahinda and his Minions stand for and did…

Read More