Month: December 2015

BY Mirudhula Thambiah Former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian and Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) Leader K. Suresh Premachandran said it is Leader Sampanthan and member Sumanthiran who have broke away from the policies of the coalition TNA, and not Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran. “Sampanthan and Sumanthiran are going against the basic policies of the TNA. They have broken away from the policies. It is not correct to say that the CM is against the party,” he said. Following are excerpts: ?: It is said in criticism that…

Why Mahinda worried about Prageeth, Lasantha murder investigations Today this column records the true story of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s recent photograph released to the Facebook by his son Namal in which Mahinda was seen standing on his head. Namal uploaded this photograph to show that his 70-year-old father was still fit as a fiddle. On the contrary, the common man in society viewed it in a more practical social and political perspective because it was only a few days before this photograph went viral on the social and print media, Mahinda…

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recently arrested another Army Officer attached to the State Intelligence Service in connection with the abduction and murder of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda. CID sources said he is a member of the gang who abducted Eknaligoda in 2010. According to sources Abeyratne was a Sergeant during the period when Eknaligoda was abducted and later promoted to the Lieutenant rank. He was previously questioned by the CID in connection with the incident and released after having recorded several statements. In his previous statements, he had said that…

No one in the Tamil People’s Council (TPC) came through the back door, Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister and the co-chairman of the Council C.V.Wigneswaran said. He made this remark addressing the second session of the controversial TPC held in Jaffna on Sunday (27). “There has always been a wide gap between political principles and politics in practice. So, there must be a movement to monitor such conduct. Our people are prone to the thinking based on whether this party or that party, whether this leader or that leader. We…

Several weeks ago, Chandrika Kumaratunga announced that Sri Lanka would set up a special court to deal with alleged wartime abuses. Kumaratunga is the chairperson of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR); she served as President of Sri Lanka from 1994-2005. The news about a special court came as a surprise to many people. When the initial announcement was made, Kumaratunga stated that the court was expected to begin its work by late December or early January. Yet it remains unclear if that’s still the case. There are…

( December 26, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The arrest of a main suspect in the Wasim Thajudeen murder case has been temporarily put off over the influence of a government bigwig, political sources say. The bigwig who had urged not to make the arrest during the Budget 2016 vote proceedings, had promised a SLFP bigwig to make the arrest after the final vote on Dec. 19. However, that too, had ended as a broken promise. Death penalty? However, Cabinet spokesman minister Rajitha Senaratne says that several prominent figures in…

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 December 2015, 16:14 GMT] Colombo’s colonial Governor to Eastern Province, Austin Fernando, who is a former Defence Secretary of the occupying Sri Lankan military, is working behind the scene to settle Sinhala colonisers in Batticaloa district. A settlement is being schemed close to the railway station at Punaa’nai. The nearby ‘Sinhapura’ military camp situated on Batticaloa – Colombo Road is being transferred into a Sinhala military cantonment. Additional lands to the extent of 1,500 acres have been seized for this military purpose. Both the sides of the…

by Vikramabahu Karunaratne ( December 26, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Nava Sama Samaja party anniversary will be held at New Town Hall, Colombo on December 30 starting from 2 pm. Party believes that participation within the democratic mass struggle to evict fascistic Mahinda regime is a great experience. This anniversary conference will be an opportunity to explain the united action front experience and how it could be compared to other fronts Sama Samajists have entered in the course of several decades of Sama Samaja history. Our experience is a…

COLOMBO: The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran, has clarified that the Tamil Makkal Peravai (TMP), which he has floated, is not a rival to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), but is a non-partisan, civil society watchdog meant to see that the basic interests of the Lankan Tamils are upheld by their leaders and not compromised for petty gains. Speaking at the second formal meeting of the TMP in Jaffna on Sunday, Wigneswaran said that given its broad-based, grassroots character, the TMP will help the…

Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) officials have initiated an inquiry on the former Judicial Medical officer of Colombo, Ananda Samarasekera who performed the first autopsy on the remains of ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen, after they received a court order, Medical Council chairman Professor Carlo Fonseka said. Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peris directed the SLMC to inquire into the previous report submitted by former JMO Prof. Ananda Samarasekara and the committee members who participated in the investigations. The probe will look into why the former medical officer took two and half years…