Day: 4 December 2015

Aravindan Balakrishnan: the Maoist cult leader who used brutal violence and rape to strip women of their dignity Maoist cult leader sexually assaulted followers and kept daughter as slave for 30 years, court hears A Maoist cult leader who used violence, fear and sexual degradation to control women he held captive has been found guilty of a string of sex assaults. Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, raped two followers and falsely imprisoned and mistreated his daughter for more than 30 years in a commune in south London. He told his followers he…

Read More

India and the United States gave intelligence information to the navy to help fight the LTTE at sea, the Government revealed in Parliament today. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that he obtained intelligence assistance from overseas to defeat the LTTE and former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and also former President Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to obtain such intelligence assistance. The Prime Minister said that countries like America, China, Pakistan and India helped Sri Lanka a lot during the war. He said that after 2005 the former Government was determined to defeat the LTTE and…

Read More

Opposition Leader R.Sampanthan told Parliament yesterday that they will make their maximum contribution to bring peace and harmony to the country. He made this observation joining the Committee Stage Debate on the Budget proposals for the 10th allotted day. “We are not on the path of promoting conflict and all Sri Lankans should get together as aunited nation irrespective of their ethnicity. We strongly urge the government not to be influenced by the selfish reasons aroused by some groups to prevent the release of the prisoners taken into the custody…

Read More

President Maithripala Sirisena today said appointing former LTTE member Vinyagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman as a minister and as a SLFP Vice President was the right decision. He said instilling ethnic extremism in the minds of the people is a dangerous move. The President made this point by stating that extremism is being inflicted in the minds of the people by certain forces that make false allegations against the government on the steps it had taken to release those who are held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and…

Read More

TORONTO — The Ontario Progressive Conservatives said they were unaware that a guest they entertained at Queen’s Park last week was being deported for being a member of a terrorist organization. Last Thursday, MPP Jack MacLaren stood in the Ontario legislature to welcome a group of “friends and guests” he said had come to hear him read a statement about those killed during the Sri Lankan civil war. But he was apparently not informed that the Canada Border Services Agency had been trying to deport one of them for being…

Read More

by Zacki Jabbar  The government said yesterday that the Opposition group led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was criticising it for the steps taken to address post war issues and forge permanent peace, but the Rajapaksas had even released members of the LTTE’s dreaded suicide and intelligence units. Cabinet Spokesman and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, addressing a news conference in Colombo, recalled that in early 2010 the then UPFA government had freed 95 LTTE cadres including some who belonged to the dreaded Tiger suicide and intelligence units despite serious charges…

Read More

By Shamindra Ferdinando Ports and Shipping Minister Arjuna Ranatunga yesterday alleged that a section of the media had received regular payments from Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) over a period of time. Former national cricket captain Ranatunga said nearly a dozen journalists had been on SLPA’s payroll and at least two of them for a long time according to the secure-to-pay process software they use. The minister was on live Sirasa political programme Pethikada hosted by Bandula Jayasekera. Ranatunga claimed that those who had fiercely attacked him over Arjuna…  his…

Read More

After May 2009 a youth from the Tamil Community has taken his life for a ‘cause,’ according to Tamil politicians and Tamil media. Rajeswaran Senthuran, a 17-year-old student of Kokkuvil Hindu College in Jaffna had allegedly committed suicide by jumping in front of an express train from Colombo on November 26, a sentimentally important day for many Tamils in the north, since LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran’s birthday falls on that day. A note had reportedly been found in Senthuran’s school bag containing a demand for the immediate release of the…

Read More

A young boy from Jaffna takes his life to highlight the plight of Tamil political prisoners: by Rukshana Wizwie Funeral of 18-year-old Rajeswaran Senthuran in Jaffna Despite assurances by the Attorney General’s Department of the swift release and rehabilitation of detained Tamil prisoners, several remain behind bars with no conclusive dates of their release. The AG’s Department said that it would complete formalities to release a batch of Tamil prisoners who were detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. A decision to release 20 such prisoners was taken last week…

Read More

The Government today insisted that there are no new secret detention centers operating in Sri Lanka under the NEW Government. The thousands of Tamils held in these secret camps by the previous government under Rajapaksha were possibly killed soon after Rajapaksha lost the election which he was confident of winning. It was reported on press that Rajapaksha was angry that the Tamils who overwhelmingly voted against him and he believes that it was the reason he lost the election. More than 1000 LTTE Leaders and their family members who surrendered with White…

Read More

NEW DELHI: Seven convicts undergoing life term imprisonment for assassinating former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi are to remain in jail as the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the Tamil Nadu government cannot unilaterally remit their sentences. A constitution bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu said that consent of central government is a must in cases probed by a central agency and Tamil Nadu must take consent of the Centre before remitting their jail term. The apex court had earlier stayed the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to remit…

Read More

Political arena ablaze with 2012 death of Wasim Thajudeen When speaking about murder, the Mahinda faction got into a major commotion and said do not exhume the body, it is unnecessary and that there is no evidence. Think about this, when a car crashes into a lamp-post, will a rugby player stay asleep while it catches fire. Petrol and diesel in Sri Lanka does not explode. Why wasn’t an investigation conducted, why wasn’t a medical examination conducted?”…………… continue Magistrate Nishantha Peiris, who was taking swift action to solve the Thajudeen…

Read More