Day: 1 November 2015

Families of political prisoners seek TNA response

Karu

The families of Tamil political prisoners have written to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) seeking clarity on their stand on the Tamil prisoners. In a letter to TNA leader R. Sampanthan, the families of 217 Tamil political prisoners who launched a fast recently, have said they want to know the stand the TNA has taken with regards to the issue before November 7. President Maithripala Sirisena had assured a solution to the prisoners before November 7 which resulted in the prisoners suspending their recent fast. There were reports that some…

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Swaminathan Contradicts Military

Karu

by Waruni Karunarathne The Military contradicts the claims made by Minister of Rehabilitation and Resettlement D. M Swaminathan on the army having business ventures. In an interview with The SundayLeader, Minister D. M Swaminathan said the Sri Lankan Army has given him assurance last week that they are going to demilitarise the commercial ventures they run. “The Army has given me assurance last week that they are going to demilitarise the commercial ventures they run. At the moment, there are only six commercial ventures that the Army run which they…

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Ex-commander Karuna Now Blames Prabhakaran Sting for Leaving LTTE

Karu

COLOMBO:Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, who was Special Commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the eastern Sri Lankan districts of Batticaloa and Ampara, says that the rift between him and LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran took place in December 2002 when the Tiger chieftain accused him of “betrayal” of the kind Mahendrarajah alias Mahatthya was accused of in the early 1990s and executed. Karuna Amman Prabhakaran was livid with Karuna for persuading his chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, to sign the December 5, 2002 “Oslo Declaration” which had…

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Foreign Ministry says not yet presented any formal nomination for SL HC post in London

Karu

The government has not as yet presented any formal nomination for the post of Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the Court of St. James, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said last week. Clarifying The Sunday Island story headlined “Foreign Secretary new SL’s HC in London”, the Ministry said that Mrs. Chitranganee Wagiswara has not been nominated to head the mission in London. Note by our London Correspondent Sujeewa Nivunhella: As the SL High Commission in this key European capital still remains headless for more than one year (since the resignation of…

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Defence Ministry reviews banned LTTE front organizations

Karu

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan The Defence Ministry will be submitting a review report on the 16 banned LTTE fronts and the names of over 400 individuals accused of supporting terrorism, to the Foreign Ministry this month (November) in a prelude to a possible lifting of the ban on them. Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiaarachchi told Ceylon Today that the Defence Ministry and Foreign Ministry are jointly reviewing the banned LTTE front organizations and 400 individuals whose names were gazetted last year (2014) under the Rajapaksa regime. ” The Defence Ministry is in…

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No graves for Sri Lanka’s disappeared

Karu

S.M. Premasilee commemorates All Souls’ Day but is not sure whether she should or not. That’s because she doesn’t know if her husband and two brothers are still alive or dead. The 61-year-old Tamil woman nonetheless travels more than 250 kilometers to pay homage at a specially erected monument for those who have no tombs — people like her relatives, who disappeared at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces in the late 1980s. The monument, erected in 2000 with about 600 photos of Sinhalese and Tamil people who disappeared,…

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