Day: 15 August 2018

The Army will not close down camps in the North and East, but will shrink its deployment in a manner that will not jeopardise national security, Army Commander Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake said. “We are ready to release another 522 acres in the North and East but we have to adjust ourselves prior to releasing these lands to the owners. We have our own infrastructure requirements and for us to move, I have to now construct billets. Hence, I have requested money for this from the government and around Rs…

Read More

By Chaminda Silva Governor of the Northern Province (NPC), Reginald Cooray has asked NPC Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran to appoint a new board of ministers. The existing provincial council board of ministers has more members than the constitutionally prescribed number. The Constitution says the number of ministers must be limited to five, but there are six ministers in the NPC currently. The Northern Provincial Council had no legal authority to administer the province, Cooray told The Island. Given the situation, the best option was for the current ministers to resign…

Read More

By Shamindra Ferdinando For nearly a decade Sri Lanka neglected its responsibility to counter unsubstantiated war crimes allegations directed at its Army. War-winning Army, too, cannot under any circumstances absolve itself of its failure to address accountability issues. Having defeated the LTTE, in May 2009, the government and the Army never really bothered to examine war crimes accusations. Today, Sri Lanka accused of deliberately targeting the Vanni civilian population, with the Northern Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran alleging genocide. War-winning Army Chief, the then Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s entry into politics, in…

Read More

By Shamindra Ferdinando http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Navy-Sampath-arrested-154029.html A high profile-government inquiry into the alleged abduction and disappearance of 11 Tamil youth by the Navy during Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannaoda’s tenure as the Commander of the service has taken a dramatic turn with the arrest of Lt. Commander Prasad Chandana Hettiarachchi allegedly involved in the case. Police headquarters yesterday confirmed the arrest of the officer whose recent disappearance led the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to accuse the incumbent Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Ravi Wijegunaratne of having helped him to flee the country in…

Read More

By V. Thirunavukkarasu – Vallipuram Thirunavukkarasu Seventy years into Independence from British rule, it is apt to draw up a modest balance sheet, having regard to the different dispensations comprising the two ruling parties, viz., the UNP and the SLFP and their respective allies. Well, one of the first acts of the DS Senanayake-led UNP Government, was the decitizenising/disenfranchisement of the Plantation sector workers, ironically as Independence dawned. It was an anti-Tamil and anti-working class step, and was thus 2 birds with one stone. The Plantation workers , as is well known, were…

Read More

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is to question former President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the abduction of journalist Keith Noyahr. The CID has told Rajapaksa they will visit his home on August 17 to record the statement.  Last year six Army officers were arrested in the case over the abduction and assault of journalist Keith Noyhar but were later granted bail. Noyahr was abducted in May 2008 and was severely assaulted before being set free.  The former Associate Editor of The Nation newspaper fled the country with his family following the incident…

Read More