Former Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan and LTTE member alias Pillayan has been arrested by the CID for the alleged killing of Joseph Pararajasingham, a former TNA MP. He was shot dead at St. Mary's cathedral church in Batticaloa, while attending Christmas prayers early morning on 25 December 2005.
S. Chandrakanthan arrived at the CID to provide a statement on the murder of Former Parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham in 2005. He is also part of of Karuna Amman led Tamil Makkal Viduthal Pulihal (TMVP), at the time Pararajasingam was killied..
Nine-year-old Arunraj and his younger sister Rakshana are excited about their journey on Thursday. For the first time in their lives, they would be travelling by an airplane and both want to have a window seat.
The children, born to a Sri Lankan refugee couple in a special camp at Adiyanuthu in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu, are among the 73 who left the special camps for Sri Lanka with the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday, to start a new life on the island.
According to Sri Lankan Police Department, it has decided to recruit 1,500 Tamil youths of the North as Police Constables. The necessary initiatives have already been drawn up.
It has been decided to recruit 1500 Tamil youths as Constables with the intention of imparting an efficient Police Service to the Northern civilians. There is a dearth of Police Officers who are fluent in Tamil. As such it has been decided to undertake these recruitments.
In analysing any phenomena, whether it is a thing, event or a process philosophers usually consider three categories the Universal, the General and the particular. In other words they do not consider any phenomenon in isolation. They look at all its connections and inter-connections, thus observing both the external and internal factors that affect it.
Unfortunately this does not seem to be practice in Sri Lanka, especially in analysing political and social phenomena. Take for example the wide discourse that is unfolding on the issue of the Resolution passed last week by the United Nations Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka.
The US announced an additional USD 1.745 million for demining activities in Sri Lanka's Tamil-dominated former war zone today.
The additional fund was announced after a meeting between the US Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Atul Keshap, and minister of rehabilitation, resettlement and Hindu religious affairs D M Swaminathan.
The Jaffna High Court sentenced four soldiers who were charged with raping of a 27-year-old mother of two and sexually abusing a 37-year-old mother of five in the Vishvamadu area in Mullaitivu on the 6th of June 2010 with 20 years Rigorous Imprisonment (RI). High Court Judge M Ilanchelian ordered the convicted soldiers to pay compensation of Rs. 500,000 and fine of Rs. 25,000 for the gang raped victim. In the case of failure to pay the compensation they will serve two more years of RI. Failure to pay the fine will result in an additional year of imprisonment.
Former Minister and current Matale District United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP Janaka Bandara Tennakoon has been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in connection with a murder committed in 1999.
Issuing a media release, Police Headquarters stated the MP was taken into custody as part of an investigation into an incident that occurred on December 14, 1999 in Dambulgamuwa, Matale, where one person was shot and killed and another injured.
PMK MP Anbumani Ramadoss said he was ready to quit the BJP-led NDA alliance if his decision could help find a permanent solution to the problems of the Sri Lankan Tamils.
Reacting to TNCC president E.V.K.S. Elangovan who asked why he was continuing in the NDA when India supported the “diluted” resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for a probe into the war crimes, Mr Anbumani said the Congress leader was only diverting the issue.
Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Mahinda Amaraweera yesterday vowed to re-launch bilateral talks with Indian authorities urgently to resolve the long standing fishing dispute between Sri Lanka and India.
Amaraweera told The Island that he had already instructed his officials to explore the possibility of initiating government level talks soon to find solutions to the issue.
Thank You Mr.President
This is Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, Member of Parliament and former Health Minister, Government of India welcoming the OISL report on behalf of Pasumai Thaayagam.
I speak on behalf of the seventy-seven million people of Tamil Nadu in India, who are concerned about the welfare, rights and dignity of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.
A sudden rise in reports of child molestations, kidnappings and killings of children and women in the past two weeks and the brutality of the crimes, have created a fear psychosis among the people who doubt the law enforcement authorities ability to deal with the alarmingly increasing crime rate.
The rape and killing of four-year-old Seya from Kotadeniyawa, the brutal murder of a ten-year-boy in Athurugiriya and the killing of a 48-year- old woman, a tea plucker in Kahawatta, within the space of two weeks have jolted the people, into questioning what’s happening to our society.
Dr Daya Somasundaram, a social scientist and Psychiatrist living and working in Jaffna throughout the war has delivered the Anandarajan memorial lecture on 3 October 2015.
Political and human rights activists see his lecture as a well considered lecture on the issues relating to Tamil youth of today in the war affected parts of the country which contains valuable information to any government, be it Provincial or the Central, and the organisations in the Tamil diaspora could use, to develop meaningful projects to uplift the Tamil community in general and the youth in particular.
Following the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka Amnesty International said, “ crucial resolution adopted at the UN Human Rights Council today offers the victims of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict the prospect of finally getting the truth and justice they deserve”
Although far from perfect, if the resolution and the underlying commitments of Sri Lanka’s government are implemented in good faith it presents an opportunity for victims to finally get the truth and justice they have been waiting for. David Griffiths, Amnesty International’s South Asia Research Director
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted am amended resolution resolution titled ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’ without a vote. The resolution dealt with accountability issues in Sri Lanka during the period 2002-2009. It called for foreign judges and prosecutors to take part in Sri Lankan efforts to try those accused of serious crimes during and after the country’s civil war.
As the first nation to recognise the Eelam people’s long struggle over the national question, we have always welcomed India’s definitive interventions in Sri Lanka. Equally, we also repeatedly affirmed that without India’s strong intervention, a firm and definitive solution cannot be found to our national question. Therefore, at this present and very critical time too we strongly believe that no definitive change could occur without appropriate intervention of India.
President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventieth session.
After years of conflict, “a new era of democracy” dawned in Sri Lanka this year, ushering in justice, freedom and equality, the country’s President told the United Nations General Assembly today, reporting that his Government supports a “fresh universal approach” that deals honestly with the past while pursuing sustainable development.
Security of the traditional Tamil homeland of Tamil people in Kalmunai is questionable under the present circumstances due to the proposed new development project of Kalmunai town, said Ampara District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian A.K. Kodeeswaran in a memorandum sent to President Maithiripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Leader of the Opposition Rajavarothayam Sampanthan.
He has also said that justice should be meted to Tamils in the area, in seeing that Tamil people living in the area and their traditional history is not affected.
Global Diligence a legal advisory service engaged in public interest work has produced a resource material dealing with mass crimes in Sri Lanka.
This Resource Material is produced in connection to the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability, and Human Rights in Sri Lanka’(the ‘OHCHR Report’) and the accompanying ‘
Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (the ‘OISL Report’)
The oldest permanent school founded in the area of the Kingdom of Jaffna of the Portuguese Period, Jaffna Central College is to celebrate the Bicentenary of its founding, on the First of August 2016. It was founded by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in England. The Christianity of the day was evolved from the Roman Catholic Church. In due course, Rev. Martin Luther could not agree with certain practices of the Pope protested to such practices. Protestant Church was founded. Methodism is one of the major denominations in Protestant Christianity. Christians who adopted a methodical Christianity were called Methodists. English Education in Jaffna owes its obligation and debt to Protestant Christianity.
Well known novelist. cultural critic and public intellectual Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera yesterday filed a plaint in Colombo District Court seeking to get two declarations from Court against Subinay Nandy, United Nations representative in Sri Lanka.
Plaint filed through Attorney-at-Law, Kapila Gamage, plaintiff states that acts of United Nations Organization caused him dishonour and disgrace. Illegal acts of UNO are not covered by Immunities of Conventions on privileges and immunities of the United Nations.
Sri Lanka's prime minister today rejected a UN call for international involvement in an investigation into alleged war crimes.
Ranil Wickremesinghe said talks were under way to establish a credible domestic mechanism to investigate abuses during the decades-long conflict with Tamil separatist rebels that ended in May 2009.
"There is nothing to be got from abroad," Wickremesinghe said, after a damning UN report recommended Colombo allow international experts to assist its domestic investigation.
A high level delegation from South Korea assured President Maithripala Sirisena that they would provide assistance to Sri Lanka in several fields including finance, internal security, small and medium industries and employment, the President's Media said.
They made this assurance when they called on the President at the Presidential Secretariat today (September 21).
A New Book “Kurdistan and the Kurds under the Syrian Occupation” by the renowned scholar and a Kurdish politician Jawad Mella has been released recently. The 388 pages English book sheds new light on the plight of Kurds under the Syrian Occupation.
Since the end of World War I, the Kurds have had no national rights, and their country Kurdistan was divided and occupied by Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria and former Soviet Union as an international colony, and the Kurds have been prosecuted, massacred, assimilated and denied the very basic human rights.
The UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances or Involuntary Disappearances is to visit Sri Lanka from November 9 - 18, its chair, Ariel Dulitzky informed the UN Human Rights Council.
“The time for words and promises is over. It is now the time for action on behalf of relatives to support their fight for truth, justice, reparation and memory,” Dulitzky told the UNHRC session last Friday.
The long anticipated UN investigation report into alleged war crimes committed during the last phase of Sri Lanka’s war was released last week by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The investigation team has made strong indictments against both the government and LTTE forces for war crimes. The most contentious aspect of the report is likely to be its recommendation that the government should "adopt a specific legislation establishing an ad hoc hybrid special court, integrating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators, mandated to try war crimes and crimes against humanity, with its own independent investigative and prosecuting organ."
