The Indian Coast Guard yesterday said it had apprehended ten Sri Lankan fishermen for allegedly entering Indians waters illegally and fishing last month and their two boats in August and handed them to Tamil Nadu Police. In a statement issued in Chennai, the Coast Guard said its ship Viswast, while on patrol, around 4.20pm apprehended a Sri Lankan fishing boat on August 31 with five crew members and 155 kg fish catch.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Tuesday claimed that UN human rights chief Navi Pillay's visit to Sri Lanka was influenced by propaganda from elements of the LTTE that was defeated in a civil war in 2009.
Gotabhaya, said the "re-emergence of terrorism is still a threat" despite the end of the country's nearly three-decade ethnic war.
New Zealand and Sri Lanka have agreed to develop the Asian country's dairy sector in an attempt to build bridges after a safety row involving Fonterra milk powder. Sri Lankan regulators hit Fonterra with a two-week ban on selling and advertising its products last month, after the country's food safety authority claimed it had detected the agricultural chemical DCD in milk powder.
Sri Lanka today accused UN rights chief Navi Pillay of transgressing her mandate during her week-long fact-finding mission in the country to probe alleged war crimes committed during the ethnic conflict with the Tamil Tigers.
"The High Commissioner's observation that Sri Lanka is showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction is a political statement on her part, which clearly transgresses her mandate and the basic norms which should be observed by a discerning international civil servant," Information Department said in a statement.
There was panic in the corridors of power that Navi Pillay, the UN Human Commissioner for Human Rights, was going to scatter flowers on the Nandikadal lagoon in memory of those who had lost their lives in the last stages of the war against the LTTE, reports the Sri Lamnkan National weekly Sunday Times. The reports were to cause a flurry of activity, both at the External Affairs Ministry and the Ministry of Defence.
On July 3rd 2013, President Mahinda Rajapaksha published a gazette that authorized the armed forces to engage in “the maintenance of public order”. Last week, he announced a new ministry under the title “the Ministry of Law and Order”. By these two acts, the Sri Lankan civilian police have been virtually reduced to nothing, and their function – which is to maintain law and order – has now been handed over to the armed forces, says the Asian Human Rights Commission, the non-governmental organisation which seeks to promote greater awareness and realisation of human rights in the Asian region.
At least 35 Indian fishermen have been arrested and their four boats have been seized for violating the international maritime boundary line, according to Sri Lankan Navy. Naval spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said the fishermen were arrested and their four trawlers were seized last night off Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka's west coast. They will be charged for violating the international maritime border line.
The 50th Annual Conference of the Methodist Church, Sri Lanka meeting in Colombo, 24th to 27th August 2013, expressed its deep shock and sadness over the violent response of the armed forces during the recent protest by villagers of Weliveriya - Rathupaswala against the alleged contamination and pollution of water by a local factory.
The controversial film “Madras Cafe” was shunned because the film sparked protests across the world as Tamils claimed that the film portrays the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as terrorists and it is “anti-Tamil”. In Chennai, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, theatres have been permitted to screen both the Hindi and Tamil versions of 'Madras Cafe', but the film was avoided being shown fearing protests from Tamil activists.
