Sunday, January 29, 2012

Rajapaksa Sons Among Top 15 Shareholders Of Ascot Holdings


In Sri Lanka, Eknelygoda asks that humanity trump cruelty

Sandhya Eknelygoda and sons Sanjay and Harith. (CPJ)

Sandhya Eknelygoda and sons Sanjay and Harith. (CPJ)Atputhamalar Subraminiyam

Sandhya Eknelygoda and sons Sanjay and Harith. (CPJ)
Resettled Tamil woman's body recovered near SLA bund in Thenmaraadchi
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Rajapaksa Sons Among Top 15 Shareholders Of Ascot Holdings


Colombo Telegraph


Rajapaksa Sons Among Top 15 Shareholders Of Ascot HoldingsPresident Rajapaksa’s two elder sons, Namal and Yoshitha, are listed among the top fifteen shareholders of Ascot Holdings PLC according to the company’s interim financial statements. According to this list, Y.K. (Yoshitha) Rajapaksa owns 100,000 shares and L.N. Rajapaksa (Namal) 92,000 shares as at Sept. 30, 2011. Nimal Perera, financial advisor to Dhammika Perera and on the boards of companies controlled by him, is also in Ascot’s Top fifteen list with 269,200 shares. Total assets of the company as at September 2011 were Rs. 1.25 billion and liabilities approx. Rs. 600 million. The directors of the company are Messrs. V.P. Malalasekera, Chairman, Rohan Iriyagolle, N.D. Gunaratne, N.A. de Mel, Chanaka de Silva and D.J. Gunaratne.

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Incident Date 29 January, 2008 , SNE Ki'linochchi Email To Friend Print Version

On 29 January 2008, a bus carrying mainly school children and teachers came under a claymore attack near the Madhu church complex in the Mannaar district. Twenty people in the bus were killed and a further twenty one, seventeen of them seriously, were injured. Among those killed are thirteen school children and a school principal. All the 13 students who died were aged between 10 and 16. This report records the details of the people killed and injured. It also presents some comments made by those close to the victims.

Also important is the identification of the culprits behind the claymore attack. Mannaar has seen a large number of claymore attacks from 2006 onwards. It is also common knowledge among the people of Mannaar that all of these claymore attacks are carried out by the Deep Penetration Unit of the Sri Lanka military. People have many stories of sighting small teams from this unit in the vicinity of many of these attacks a day or so earlier. Items left behind by the culprits also give clues to the identity of the culprits. Often the attackers will have to wait in hiding for long hours for their target to arrive. They therefore leave many basic items behind as they run away after the attack that sometimes give clues to the identity of the culprits.

There have been twenty two claymore attacks on civilian targets up until the attack on the school bus.

NESoHR Report: Claymore attack on School bus
The map shows the location of these 22 claymore attacks all of them lying near the border dividing the areas under the control of the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE. A total of 62 civilians, including a catholic priest, an assistant director of education, a medical doctor, two school principals, a teacher, twenty two school students, and five nurses were killed in these 21 claymore attacks.

On that fatal day of 29 January 2008, the children and others from the displaced community that has taken refuge in the Madhu church complex were returning home, most of them from the Mannaar Sinna-Pa'ndivirichchaan Government Tamil Mixed School (GTMS), which is 5 Kms away. Both the children and the public take the same bus that plies between Madhu and their school as there is no school bus service. Around 2.30pm as the bus was nearing the Madhu church the claymore exploded.

Fr.Emiliyaspillai of Madhu church: “All the people in that bus had sought refuge at the church from the constant military offensives and shells falling in their homes. Many had displaced to elsewhere. These are the few who were still seeking refuge at the church. We buried all the dead in one grave just like the way it was done eight years ago when twenty seven were killed in the church premises.” Mrs.S.Sebastian, Director of Eductaion Madhu Division: “Within one year since February 2007 we have lost two principals, two teachers, an Assistant Director of Education, 25 of our other employees and fifteen students in my Education Division.”

Anton Constantain Mary Consitra, a student with both legs injured: “We are displaced from Ezhuvaitheevu. Three of us from my family were in the bus. I was injured and was unable to move. I saw one of my brother’s injured face. Later I leant that both my brothers have died.” Mother of two claymore victims: “We came to the refugee camp in Thadcha'naamaruthamadu from Periyapa'ndivirichchaan.
My daughter Rahini and I were injured by the shells that fell nearby. My son Jeneestan and daughter Shobana came to see us at the hospital. While they were returning to Madhu the bus came under claymore attack. When I heard this I went to see them. Shobana was injured but my son’s sight was unbearable. My son died later.”