Month: May 2018

Contribution by Hon Mark Field MP, Minister of State in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office with responsibility for Sri Lanka last week on the House of Commons. Please see Hansard below. “When he was a Minister, the right hon. Gentleman rightly spoke up at a time when the Sri Lankan Government were making international commitments, too many of which had not been fully and properly adhered to. He will recognise that there is also a need and desire at all times to bring countries within the international community so that we can try to work…

Brigadier that threatened Tamils no longer Sri Lanka’s Defence Attaché confirms UK minister

The Sri Lankan government formally ended the posting of its former Defence Attaché Brigadier Priyanka Fernando last month, confirmed a British minister, after he was caught on video threatening Tamil protestors in London . Mark Field, the current British Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific confirmed that “the former Defence Attaché’s posting to London was formally ended by the Government of Sri Lanka on 15 April”. “No successor has yet been appointed,” he added. Mr Field said he had also raised the issue of Brigadier Fernando with Sri…

Criticisms over Mullivaikkal remembrance event Jaffna:Student leader fires back

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan The remembrance event for the war dead held in Mullivaikkal on 18 May this year was attended by an unprecedented number of 5,000 people. The event, mainly organized by the student union of the University of Jaffna, however, received much criticism from various segments in the Tamil political sphere. Most of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members who participated in the event claimed they were sidelined by the students and only Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran, was given prominence. TNA Leader R. Sampanthan,…

Open Letter To HNB: Infringement Of Fundamental Rights Of Tamils & Insulting Tamil Culture

By Murali Vallipuranathan – Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan Mr. Jonathan Alles Chief Executive Officer Hatton National Bank PLC 479, TB Jaya Mawatha, Colombo-10 Infringement of Fundamental Rights of Tamils and Insulting Tamil Culture We are dismayed to learn that your bank had punished two employees of Kilinochchi Branch for commemorating the deaths of their relatives and beloved ones. Anniversary commemoration of the dead has been an important part of the culture of the Tamils and Sinhalese for several centuries. In fact one of the oldest Tamil moral text Thirukural dated 3000 years back…

Foreign Office’s action is designed to cover up the involvement of the SAS and MI5 in the training of Sri Lankan security forces

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) side-stepped the query whether documents that had been destroyed as reported in a section of the British and other media included diplomatic cables originating from the British High Commission in Colombo during eelam war IV. Asked whether the FCO consulted British HC in Colombo before the destruction/removal of files/documents and among them were diplomatic cables sent from British HC in Colombo during the eelam war IV (Aug 2006-May 2009), a FCO spokesperson said: “We do not accept any files have been wrongly destroyed. These files…

Former LTTE cadre called for TID inquiry after chairing Mullivaikkal event

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A former LTTE cadre has been ordered by Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division to the 3rd floor at its headquarters in Colombo for questioning after he chaired a remembrance event for the Mullivaikkal genocide in Kilinochchi on May 18. The father of three children who has one leg amputated, K Jayakumar was released in 2010 from government custody after undering the notorious ‘rehabilitation programme’. Mr Jayakumar, who lives in Kilinochchi with his family, runs a vegetable stall at the local market and heads a trade union in the district, as well…

Hatton National Bank suspends Tamil Employees for commemorating their relatives killed by Army.

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A boycott campaign has taken off in the North-East with customers of Sri Lanka’s Hatton National Bank (HNB) closing their accounts, after the bank suspended two employees at its Kilinochchi branch for holding a remembrance event on May 18. Across various social media platforms, customers of the bank have been posting letters they have written to their branch managers requesting their account be closed after the incident was reported earlier this week. “Your decision… shows your dominant attitude against innocent Tamil people,” read one letter written in English. “The whole…

Marine biologist from Sri Lanka wins at British Council’s first-ever Global Alumni Awards

Following prestigious national awarding ceremonies hosted by the British Ambassador/High Commissioner in more than 10 countries, and high-profile digital campaigns to celebrate 63 regional finalists, and 21 regional winners, the British Council has announced the names of three outstanding global award winners of the Study UK Alumni Awards. All are alumni of UK universities, representing three countries and four UK higher education institutions across the UK. They have been recognised for their outstanding achievements as professionals, entrepreneurs and social change makers. Winner of the Global Alumni Award for the Professional…

Death clues sought in players’ last trishaw ride

Police and forensic experts trying to solve the mystery of the deaths of two young British rugby players are seeking a three-wheeler driver who could shed light on the players’ last movements after they were picked up from a night club and dropped off at their hotel. After the tragedy: The British team conducting a rugger training session on Friday at the St. Aloysius’ College grounds in Galle Thomas Howard, 25, and Thomas Baty, 26, who died two days apart after experiencing breathing difficulties, were picked up outside the night…

Gota Is A Liar, He Owns Luxury Bungalows Around The Country

Although Gotabaya Rajapaksa claims he had no property in Sri Lanka except his wife’s house in Udahamulla, Colombo Telegraph can exclusively reveal that He had build a luxury house in his name in Kataragama. The luxury bungalow built at Wanaraja Pedesa, Depot Road, Kataragama was constructed by using Army soldiers as forced labour. The architecturally built bungalow is designed in such a way where the occupants of the house could wade into the the famous Menik Ganga river. It appears that all Rajapaksa brothers of the former regime have now built bungalows around the…

Journalists backing Rajapakshe are digging their own grave

SLPP run by ex-military group – PM …warns journalists backing SLPP digging their own grave by Shamindra Ferdinando Alleging that there were no new faces in the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) except for a group of retired military officers, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe warned a section of the media of dire consequences in case the new outfit won power. PM Wickremesinghe said so addressing a gathering at ‘Sirikotha’ after Minister Navin Dissanayake received his appointment as the National Organizer of the UNP. Wickremesinghe said that the UNP had a young…

Danger of space for dissent being captured by nationalists

BY Jehan Perera http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=184973 The rise in public manifestation of ethnic nationalism in the North was evident at this year’s commemoration ceremonies of the last phase of the war at Mullivaikkal of May 18, 2009. Several thousands of people attended the ceremony of remembrance held there at the monument erected in memory of the civilians killed in the war. This is the first time since the end of the war that a political event took place on May 18. Politicians from the moderate TNA who attended the event were not…

CM Wiggy criticizes Rajitha’s statement

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran yesterday (22) said that Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne should have visited the Mullivaikkal ground on 19 May 2018, to listen to the war widows, parents, siblings and children of those who died on 18 May 2009, who would have given him the exact story of what happened on the last days of the war, where he would have learnt from them how the military studiously took charge of the surrendees publicly and later denied taking charge of them. “It is…

Features Opinion Palaka’ni Photo Features TN Transcription Web feeds Feedback About us Genocide Remembrance evolves into logical uprising embracing emotions of people

Genocide Remembrance evolves into logical uprising embracing emotions of people [Fri, 18 May 2018, 23:09 GMT] Eezham Tamils in the island and the Tamil Diaspora marked 9th Mu’l’livaaykkaal Tamil Genocide Day with an ever-increasing emotional and logical uprising on Friday. While the people on the ground paid tribute, expressed their collective trauma, the younger generation contributed to safeguarding the collective memorialisation from the electoral politics of genocidal Sri Lanka paving the way for logical thinking taking precedence over rhetorics. Justice C. V. Wigneswaran has come with a diplomatically well-crafted speech,…

Gota should appear in Court, if not guilty – Mangala

Why is Gotabhaya Rajapaksa spending millions on lawyers to get injunction order to prevent his arrest? asked Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday. “If he is not guilty, he should appear in court,” he added. Responding to remarks made by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa that the former was scared of him, Minister Samaraweera said, “Yes I am and it is not only ‘I but many in this country are. I personally know what he is capable of”. Addressing a media briefing at his Ministry yesterday, the minister read the list…

‘Extortion Business’ by Government -Tamil businessmen were victims ! -A former intelligence officer discloses …