Month: February 2016

Are Maithri and Ranil in fear of military coup? It was reported that the Commanding Officer in Jaffna, Major General Chagi Gallage, was transferred to Army Headquarters in Colombo last week, following a heated argument with Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera. The Major General was transferred to Colombo following the Foreign Minister’s refusal to include two military officers in the committee proposed by the Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The minister’s refusal led to a heated argument between the duo, reports stated. Gallage is an officer who earlier served in the…

Torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including sexual violence, continued in 2015 found Amnesty in international Noting that Tamils continued to be detained, the Sri Lanka section of Amnesty International’s report, added that “suspicious deaths in police custody continued to be reported.” The report further noted that sexual violence may have been used against Tamils, adding that ‘impunity for alleged crimes under international law’ and other rights violations ‘persisted’. See full report here.

It has been a confusing couple of weeks for those following Sri Lanka’s delicate progress back towards peace. Sri Lanka’s President gave two perplexing interviews in which he made troubling and factually inaccurate statements about how Sri Lanka is intending to deal with the past. His Prime Minister also made public comments, firstly seeming to contradict him, then seeming to support him. In the midst of all this, a visit from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights came and went with surprising smoothness. Now that the dust has…

The Colombo Magistrate’s Court today ordered the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to arrest those responsible for the death of Sri Lankan rugger player Wasim Thajudeen, since it appears to be murder. After announcing the results of the postmortem examination hhent he case was taken up, the Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris instructed the CID to arrest the suspects and produce them before the court. The additional magistrate stated that Thajudeen’s cause of death has been observed as injuries sustained in the chest area and that a motor vehicle accident cannot…

Thiruwana stone (not gem) given as guarantee and loans taken by Rajapakses and henchmen – daylight robbery at Lanka Putra bank ! (video) (Lanka-e-News- 23.Feb.2016, 9.00PM) How the state bank- Lankaputra bank  was allowed to be robbed without let or hindrance during the Mahinda Rajapakse corrupt brutal reign by his henchmen and lickspittles was revealed at a recent media briefing by minister Ranjan Ramanayake while having the chairman of Lanka putra bank as witness via the phone. It was disclosed that during the corrupt and criminal reign , Rs. 5…

A report on the state of human rights around the world has urged Sri Lanka to translate its promises of accountability into action. Amnesty International noted that the UN Human Rights Council resolution in September on an investigation into atrocities committed during the conflict offers a ray of hope to victims and family members, but precious little has happened since. “There have been some marked improvements on human rights in Sri Lanka during the year, notably on freedom of expression. People are not as afraid to speak out anymore as…

EROS to work with TNA By S.Gurunathan Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS), a former Tamil militant organization has decided to work closely with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the future Tamil political activities. EROS said in a proclamation released last Sunday (21) at an event held at Batticaloa Focus Hall presided by EROS Chairman Arular Arulpragasam. Activists of EROS in the North and East and upcountry met at Batticaloa last Sunday held discussion with a view to reorganize the party. It was decided at the meeting to work…

A hartal was staged in Vavuniya today in protest over the rape and murder of a teenager last week. An autopsy conducted on the teen found dead in a house in Vavuniya revealed that she was raped and murdered. The 14 year old girl was found hanging from the neck with the help of a saree inside the house last week. Investigations into the death had been launched and a post-mortem examination was conducted on the body of the victim. The post-mortem examination found that the teen had been sexually abused…

Voice clip uncovers evidence of conspiracy The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday told the Homagama Magistrate’s Court that the first voice clip with regard to the abduction of journalist Pradeep Ekneligoda has uncovered evidence that the suspects attached to the Giritale Army camp had conspired to abduct and kill Ekneligoda. The court was informed that the first consipiracy to abduct and kill Ekneligoda has taken place on August 27, 2009 and the second suspect of the case has participated in this conspiracy. The CID official told that the conspiracy to…

Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, son of the former president responded to the many allegations thrown against the Rajapaksa regime.          Q It’s a very  bad time for you, isn’t it? It is the nature of politics. Politicians do not have power for ever; it comes intermittently.  When Mahinda Rajapaksa was in power there was not a trace of revenge on political  opponents. But today even the children of opposition members are subjected to revenge. This happened whenever the UNP came into power. They even  deprived Madam Sirimavo of…

Formation of a new political party to centralise all ‘Mahinda Supporters’ who want former President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned to power has suffered a delay due to the postponement of Local Government elections, Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Leader Udaya Gammanpila said yesterday. Speaking at a media briefing he said the Joint Opposition would also establish a separate alliance comprising new political forces including the SLFP’s new party. However he said the formulation process of the new alliance has been delayed due to the postponement of Local Government elections. Majority of SLFP MPs who…

The Attorney General’s Department is examining 25 files relating to misappropriation of public funds by powerful politicians and top officials of the previous regime including former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and former Treasury Secretary P.B. Jayasundera. The Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) has completed investigations into these 25 cases and has submitted relevant files to the AG’s Department for necessary action, sources from the AG’s Department said. The investigation into the misappropriation of a sum of Rs. 5.7 million at the Tourism Promotion Bureau has been completed with the alleged…

DIGs removed incriminating pages in CIB BY ANANDA WEERASURIYA Two former Deputy Inspectors General of Police have removed pages from books which included notes regarding investigations carried out into the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge. It is said that notes on a number of important sections of information revealed in connection with the persons who had been given the contract to murder Wickrematunge, which were contained in certain pages of the Crime Investigation Books (CIB), collected during investigations have been removed. Since these two top Police officials had got down the…