Month: October 2019

By C.V. Wigneswaran – C.V. Wigneswaran Someone asked: “I saw your thirteen demands. As a minority group how could you demand a division of the Country? It seems presumptuous on the part of the five Tamil Political Parties to demand so. Your comments?” My Response was: They were our sincere and essential requests not demands. These need to be considered by those who aspire to rule this Country as President. The Sri Lankan Tamils are not minorities. They are the majority in the North and East even from pre Buddhistic times. The recent…

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Britain says it is always ready to assist Sri Lanka to establish democracy in the country. Head of the South Asia Department at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, Fergus Auld OBE said that the slow change in the Northern Province would strengthen confidence in Sri Lanka’s democracy. He expressed these views at a meeting with the Governor of the Northern Province Dr. Suren Raghavan at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. During the meeting, the Governor briefed Fergus Auld on the activities that are being carried…

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Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Minister Rauff Hakeem  SLMC Leader and City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education Minister Rauff Hakeem reproached the Opposition for condemning the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) Report, in a meeting in Kurunegala, this week.  Minister Hakeem stated that the Opposition raises doubts about the Select Committee Report because they fear that if the Easter Sunday carnage matter is further investigated, the alleged surreptitious activities of the State intelligence and the way they got mishandled by certain covert sources will come to light. This is the…

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The Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development and Youth Affairs yesterday announced that the Government has undertaken a series of major interventions in the Jaffna district.  Handing over of housing program at Kallundaai Village at Sandilipay DS Division As a priority intervention, the Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Northern Province Development and Youth Affairs is rapidly implementing 10,000 Brick and Mortar type housing program with the funding of Government for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Refugee Returnees in the…

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Five Tamil political parties who met today with regards to the Presidential election further postponed their stand on the issue and told Tamils to vote for any candidate they like during the postal voting tomorrow (Thursday). The parties met for talks today in an attempt to reach a final decision on who they must support at the election. However, as Presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa has yet to release his election manifesto the Tamil parties decided to postpone their final decision. They however decided to tell Tamils to vote for anyone…

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The issue blew up on the social media with several Tamils pouring anger against what they termed as ‘racist’ conduct by Peppermint Café.  The eatery might have, perhaps, ignored all that criticism from the minorities but then there was the Minister’s threat to have the Languages Commission, which comes under him, to launch action against it. Chennai: An interesting controversy over the use, or rather the boycott, of Tamil has erupted in Sri Lanka as prominent Tamil leader Mano Ganesan, who is the country’s Minister for National Integration, Official Languages,…

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KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 — A total of 10 Malaysians were today charged in separate courts nationwide with several counts of terror-related criminal offences connected to a now defunct Sri Lankan militant group. They were accused of either supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in charges framed under Section 130J(1)(a) of the Penal Code, or possession of material related to the separatist group under Section 130JB(1)(a) also of the same criminal law. The LTTE had been active in Sri Lanka until it was officially defeated in 2009. It…

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Nobody is funding us. We don’t have money to even air an advertisement on TV. We barely managed to put up a newspaper advertisement after my manifesto was presented The PSC report has been submitted and you can check if my name has been mentioned anywhere. Before the incident I made several requests to the Inspector General of Police to arrest Zahran We have seen how two major parties have worked for their own benefit. Why should a country have religiously motivated political parties? If there’s one country, there should…

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Gotabaya promises to rehabilitate remaining LTTE suspects but has no answer about the Thousands who surrendered and missing. SLPP Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, campaigning in Vavuniya, yesterday, urged the Tamils to repose their faith in him. They should be not be cheated by politicians unlike in the past, he said stressing that he was focusing on doing his utmost for the welfare of the people. He said he would rehabilitate 274 former LTTE cadres still held in custody and reintegrate them into society under his rule. Details of the 274 held are…

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Incidentally, the shed above the erected old borewell where Sujith was stuck is completely covered without even a peephole. By JAYAKUMAR MADALAExpress News Service In heartbreaking news coming in wee hours of Tuesday morning, 2-year-old Sujith, who was trapped inside a borewell, has been declared dead after 80 hours of non-stop rescue efforts. Tamil Nadu Revenue Principal Secretary J Radhakrishnan confirmed the news at 2.15 am. At around 1 am on Tuesday morning, a heavy police force was deployed at the rescue spot. While the drilling work was still going on, ministers…

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An application has been filed before the President of the Court of Appeal seeking an order to vacate the Interim Order issued by the Court of Appeal which stayed summons requiring Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa to appear before the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court over the disappearance of human rights activists, Lalith and Kugan. On September 24, 2019, Court of Appeal Justice Deepali Wijesundera issued an Interim Order staying summons requiring Gotabaya Rajapaksa to appear before the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court on September 27. Justice Deepali Wijesundera had…

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Rajan Philips “Hold Me in Contempt” is the title of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake’s memoir on the saga of her impeachment by parliament under the Rajapaksa regime. It is a reminder of the past that presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa cannot easily hide. He may not have been directly associated with the impeachment of the former Chief Justice, but he cannot plead even partial dissociation because he is now the official flag bearer of the Rajapaksa political enterprise. That enterprise generated quite a few ‘firsts’ in Sri Lanka’s political and…

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Rajan Philips “Hold Me in Contempt” is the title of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake’s memoir on the saga of her impeachment by parliament under the Rajapaksa regime. It is a reminder of the past that presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa cannot easily hide. He may not have been directly associated with the impeachment of the former Chief Justice, but he cannot plead even partial dissociation because he is now the official flag bearer of the Rajapaksa political enterprise. That enterprise generated quite a few ‘firsts’ in Sri Lanka’s political and…

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A senior State Department official told a Congress Sub Committee last Tuesday that Washington had made clear to President Maithripala Sirisena and other senior officials that Lt Gen. Shavendra Silva’s promotion to Commander “will significantly curtail bi-lateral co-operation with the Sri Lanka Army under the US law.” The reference was made by Alice G. Wells, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of South and Central Asia in the State Department. She was testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. She and another official said accountability…

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Only a fraction of US$ 6.5mn–nearly Rs 1bn in today’s rates–paid by the previous regime in 2014 to an American fixer named Imaad Zuberi was spent on lobbying the US Government on behalf of the Sri Lankan Government and a massive 87 percent of the fee was spent by the agent on himself and his wife, according to court papers filed this week. In July 2014, the Sunday Times exclusively exposed that the Government had engaged Mr Zuberi, who purported to be a lobbyist. The payments were so covertly done that neither…

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Two high ranking suspects in the gruesome kidnapping for ransom racket run by the Sri Lanka are heavily involved in election activity in the Eastern Province and campaigning for the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna while being in active service, Colombo Telegraph learns. Both officials were given promotions Commander Sumith Ranasinghe and Commodore D.K.P Dassanayake, both officers who were based in Trincomalee during the time the abducted boys were being illegally detained in the Gun Side Prison and were arrested as main suspects in the abduction racket, have been active in…

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Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa once more vowed to release Sri Lankan troops accused of rights abuses and pledged to ensure the end of “foreign… interference” as he launched his election manifesto for next month’s presidential polls on Friday. Rajapaksa claimed that his government had taken steps “to pardon, rehabilitate and release 13,784 Tiger members who surrendered with arms” and lamented how that process was not in place for Sri Lankan soldiers accused of war crimes. His manifesto says that his government would “systematically rehabilitate and reintegrate” Sri…

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A team of Sri Lankan army special forces were in the UK last week, where they took part in various military exercises with British troops, despite Sri Lankan troops still not being held accountable for human rights abuses committed against Tamils. The exercise came just a week before British parliamentarians from all major parties spoke on Tamil genocide recognition and called for accountability for massacres committed by Sri Lankan troops. Nevertheless, the exercise was just one of many that Sri Lankan troops have been actively partaking in since 2015, when…

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SLFP senior adviser, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge is due to return to the island today (26), political sources said. Following her return may pave the way for a lot of political toppling in the SLFP. The SLFP is divided into several groups. The group of MPs is directly supporting Gotabaya Rajapaksa and is preparing to form a SLFP-SLPP alliance in future. Meanwhile, a group of SLFP organizers have come forward to support Sajith Premadasa, along with a group of SLFP rural level leaders and former local councilors. Meanwhile, another…

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Prime Minister and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne will join members of the Civil Society and Trade Union Collective today (26) at 7 pm at the Independence Square to mark the triumph of democracy over President Maihripala Sirisena-JO leader Mahinda Rajapaksa attempt to grab power unlawfully. A spokesman for the grouping said that those who joined the UNP and the civil society to defeat the Oct 26, 2018 constitutional coup could join the Independence Square vigil. According to him, the SLPP presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa was…

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