Day: 11 May 2022

By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka’s tri-forces on Tuesday received shooting orders to “bring violence under control”, authorities said, amid a spate of retaliatory attacks targeting government members. “Defence Ministry has ordered the tri-forces to shoot at persons causing harm to life or involved in theft of property,” the Army said. On Monday, Rajapaksa supporters assaulted peaceful anti-government protesters, who have demanding that the ruling clan quit over a crippling economic crisis, at agitation sites in different locations. The violent mob attack in turn triggered violence by some anti-government elements, apparently…

Read More

Swamy mentioned, the burning of the home of even the prime minister, the mob firing on the lifeless MP signifies that the rioters don’t deserve any mercy. We (India) can’t enable one other Libya to be fashioned in our neighbourhood.’ Allow us to inform that in view of the growing violence in Sri Lanka (which incorporates setting hearth to the properties of the leaders of the ruling occasion and the members of the family of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa), the armed forces have precipitated private hurt or harm to the property…

Read More

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday called on India to send troops to chaotic Sri Lanka to restore ‘constitutional sanity’ and that ’the situation affects India’s national security.’ Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy India must send in the Indian Army to restore Constitutional sanity. At present anti-Indian foreign forces are taking advantage of people’s anger. This affects India’s national security, Sawmy tweeted. Swamy is an outspoken Indian politician, economist and statistician who served as a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, who is long term supporter of the Rajapaksa’s…

Read More

The Delegation of European Union, UN Resident Representative and Swiss envoy have separately issued condemnations on Monday’s violence against peaceful protesters in Sri Lanka and urged the Government to conduct an immediate investigation and hold perpetrators responsible for unleashing violence. The Delegation of European Union in Sri Lanka taking to Twitter condemned the vicious attack by the Government supporters on peaceful protesters at Galle Face and in front of the Temple Trees. https://www.ft.lk/news/Delegation-of-EU-UN-Resident-Rep-and-Swiss-envoy-condemn-attacks-on-peaceful-protestors/56-734654

Read More

A complaint was lodged at Police Headquarters by a group of lawyers yesterday (10), seeking the arrest of former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, MPs Johnston Fernando and Sanath Nishantha, and Western Province SDIG Deshabandu Tennakoon in relation to the violent SLPP mob attack on peaceful anti-Government protesters. The group of lawyers including Kamal Wijesiri, Thusitha Gunasekera, and Rajitha Lakmal in the complaint called for the arrest of Rajapaksa, Fernando, and Nishantha and to produce them in Court for offences including criminal intimidation and aiding and abetting the mob as contained…

Read More

Let the members of Parliament be urged to sink their political differences, and unite for the sake of the people who are in depths of despair lest both the economy and democracy should perish. Today, we have quoted Election Commission Chairman Nimal Punchihewa as saying that the time is not opportune for a general election, and the lawmakers should set up an interim administration to resolve the economic crisis. The government and the Opposition should take the EC Chief’s opinion on board and get their priorities right. Speaker Mahinda Yapa…

Read More

Sri Lanka is a nation capable of intense violence, even against its own people. Yet it is also a nation capable of healing and reconciliation. The problem with this country isn’t that it is devoid of options but that it’s let go of too many opportunities. Blaming all that on political elites is clearly not the solution. But then a large part of the solution lies in reforming those elites, in changing the structures that sustain them. Violence is not the way to go about it. Yet there comes a…

Read More

On October 22, 2007, a group of Black Tigers attacked the Saliyapura air force camp in Anuradhapura. Afterwards, the Sri Lankan forces stripped the corpses of the attackers (including of three women) and paraded them in the Anuradhapura town; many local people, instead of cheering, responded with embarrassment and even outrage. Two years later, the dead body of Vellupillai Pirapaharan, was stripped down to his underpants, and displayed to wild acclaim. There was no shame or embarrassment when pictures of captured Tiger cadres, including radio announcer Issipriya and Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s…

Read More

By Indrawansa de SilvaProfessor Emeritus It is fair to say that the fight against corruption is one of the drivers, if not the driver, of the current protest movement. We are all quite familiar with protesters’ claim that the present regime is corrupt to the core and the massive scale corruption and incompetency brought the country to a bankruptcy. Corruption charges, however, are not just directed at Rajapaksas and the governing party alone. As this newspaper reported recently, the JVP leadership gleefully announced that they are in possession of over…

Read More

The “#gotagohome” campaign that started a few weeks back demanding the President to step down from office, was escalated to “#gotagohome and give back our money”. The people are not merely wanting a regime change but demanding in one voice that the “national wealth stolen by the rulers be paid back”.  The questions that are looming in many a mind is how does one retrieve stolen assets? Is there a mechanism to bring back money that has been siphoned off?  Do we have adequate laws to engage in this exercise? Do…

Read More