Day: 23 July 2018

“Black July”: Thirty-fifth Anniversary of 1983 Anti-Tamil Pogrom. By D.B.S.Jeyaraj One of the darkest chapters in the sphere of Sri Lankan ethnic relations was the widespread anti-Tamil violence that occurred thirty – five years ago during the fourth week of July in 1983. Although the tragic history of post – independence Sri Lanka records that the Tamils of Sri Lanka were subjected to mass –scale mob violence in the years 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983, the anti-Tamil violence of July 1983 was the most horrible of them all. It remains…

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BY S VENKAT NARAYAN     Our Special Correspondent NEW DELHI, July 21: Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will visit New Delhi in September to speak on India-Sri Lanka relations, the Sunday Island has learnt. Disclosing this, Dr Subrahmanyam Swamy, a member of the Rajya Sabha and a senior leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told this correspondent: “I have invited him to visit New Delhi to speak on relations between our two countries on September 12.” Rajapaksa will speak on peace and security in South Asia and bilateral relations…

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Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said the Government has offered tax relief for 300% of the income from capital investment to entrepreneurs who start business enterprises in the Northern Province to boost the local economic growth. The Premier said the Government’s aim is to restore the lucrative commercial economy the North had before the war, and the Government is committed to assisting the local entrepreneurs to invest in the region. “We want local entrepreneurs investing as well as bringing enterprises to the region from outside,” he said. Speaking at an…

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Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran said it was difficult for him to gauge the role of India in resolving the ‘Tamil National Question’ in Sri Lanka because that country seemed to be adopting a non-interference attitude. In an interview with the Daily Mirror, the Chief Minister said Sri Lanka would have to submit its report on the progress made in this regard to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva in March 2019. Asked about the kind of influence of South Indian parties, he said Tamil…

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TNA Legislator M.A. Sumanthiran, recalls being 19 years old when communal violence rocked the capital city in July 1983. Packed off to Jaffna where the Government thought Tamil families residing in Colombo and other parts of the south would be safer, he recalls an arduous four-day journey in a small cargo ship, with no food provisions on board. The memory of the communal riots has left a lasting legacy – the feeling that such attacks could happen at any time, because they were Tamils. Sumanthiran explains in a poignant interview…

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Bribes to British MPs: Probe calls in Sri Lanka parliament ECONOMYNEXT – Disciplinary action against a British MP who admitted accepting luxury holidays from Sri Lanka has triggered an investigation into five other UK legislators who were allegedly bribed by the former regime. Government MPs told the Sri Lankan parliament on Friday that an admission by Ian Paisley, who faces suspension from the House of Commons for 30 sittings, has opened a can of worms at the foreign ministry. “There are at least five other British MP’s who similarly were…

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