For the first time in SL’s history the police Force is being run without an officially appointed IGP !

(Lanka-e-Newss -26.June.2011, 11.55P.M.) According to reports reaching LeN , this is the first time in Sri Lanka , the police Force is being run without an IGP having been officially appointed. The reason for this is , after the resignation of former IGP Balasooriya , the acting IGP N K Ilangakoon has still not been appointed officially as the IGP . If Ilangakoon is to be officially appointed , the Cabinet approval is necessary , but so far , the necessary Cabinet power in this regard has still not been presented to the Cabinet.        Full story >>  
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President MR is overtly and loudly campaigning for against heroin (mathata thitha) but is covertly and silently working affinity for heroin (mathata hitha)

(Lanka-e-N ews -25.June.2011, 11.55PM) Police anti Narcotics unit Director SP . K U P Jayasinghe who arrested the millionaire kudu (heroin ) distributor for Colombo kudu Lalithra along with Rs. 40 million worth kudu in his possession and kudu Ruwan alias Ruwan Chamila ,(a close aide of Duminda Silva , MP and defense Ministry monitor in charge) who was arrested in Chilaw while smuggling kudu from India , had been transferred from the unit immediately.

Jayasinhe has been transferred as a personal assistant to DIG Sabaragamuwa where he will wield no important tasks.

Might we recall that LeN reported that after the arrest of Lalithra , the Colombo kudu distributor along with his Rs. 40 million worth heroin , by SP Jayasinghe and Police officer Rangajeewa who conducted the raid , they received death threats , and on two occasions Duminda Silva had phoned Jayasinghe and exerted pressure to release those arrested. We also reported that the Prado vehicle No. 7046 belonged to Duminda Silva which fled and escaped from being taken into custody when heroin was being transported at Chilaw .                  Full story >>       

Posted by Thavam

Who, Us, What?

A documentary collates the horrors from the final war against the LTTE

Satarupa Bhattacharjya

Video grabs from Channel 4’s documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’. Shown here are images of blindfolded LTTE men being shot dead in cold blood by, presumably, Lankan soldiers.

“Are you still afraid to kill a terrorist?” asks a man, most likely a soldier, in Sinhala to the one standing next to him, with his gun pointed at three blindfolded people, their hands bound, naked and kneeling on the ground. Gunshots are heard, the three prisoners flop to the ground, their heads drenched in blood. Gruesome images emerge in quick succession—naked and possibly sexually abused dead women being dumped into a trunk, heaps of dead bodies of child soldiers of the LTTE, streams of blood flowing out of hospitals located in no-fire zones which the Sri Lankan government forces allegedly shelled, repeatedly and deliberately, killing countless civilians. To this carnage the LTTE too contributed, its suicide bombers detonating amidst civilian crowds or maniacally shooting at people trying to escape its control.    

Who, Us, What? Full Story>>>  

Grassroot Tamil Nadu gathers to remember genocide, rise for Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Monday, 27 June 2011, 02:18 GMT]

Keeping aside party identities, religions and castes, more than 30,000 people of grass root Tamil Nadu gathered in Marina Beach of Chennai on Sunday to remember the genocide committed on Eezham Tamils and to call for independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam, sending a strong message to New Delhi and to the international community. The congregation organised by Mr. Thirumurukan Gandhi of May 17 Movement, received massive support and participation of leaders cutting across party lines, similar grass root movements, civil society organisations, artists, social workers and the common public that has come with families bringing even their children.
                                                                                        Full story >> 

Govt. disowned by international masters

Sinhala heroes are on the run. The Goliath who protected them from the international enemies has turned against them. Delhi leaders, who gave orders to annihilate the Tamil insurrection and to bring the head of Prabhakaran to their feet, now want to pacify the Tamil bourgeoisie. The internationalization of the Tamil national issue has created a pressure unexpected. Tamil national problem was taken over by the international left organization and effected social democracy everywhere. Left in Lanka should be glad that has happened, and the sacrifice made was beneficial. The local workers struggle too created a condition that diluted the image of Sinhala chauvinism. The killing and injuring of workers that fought on economic issues had a devastating effect on the reformist workers who half heartedly joined the campaign. Thousands came out to give a blow to the government that made it drop the bogus pension bill and retreat rapidly. However there is something shady about this police attack on workers. LakbimaNews reported “According to information received, the CID has reason to believe that the police had deliberately opened fire on the protesters. The investigations have also revealed that police had broken open doors of FTZ factories, before firing in every possible direction although many protesters had dispersed by then.” Does that mean a secret hand is operating to put Mahinda in trouble?  If so, then it should be a hand of somebody powerful and close to the defence ministry.
Secretary Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on 17 June made a peculiar statement. He said ‘Heroic efforts of our War Heroes are belittled by some interested parties, by claiming that our armed forces have committed war crimes. As a nation who salvaged this country from scourge of terrorism, it is our duty now as patriots to rise to the occasion and defeat those international attempts, meant to bring discredit to the country.’
Full Story>>>

Govt. rejects our right to know

Govt. rejects our right to know

 

Long-delayed Freedom of Information Bill defeated in parliament, chink in Rajapaksa regime's armour exposed Bill would have strengthened democracy amidst allegations of oppression and human rights violations

By Our Political Editor

Weeks ago, Deputy Speaker Chandima Weerakkoddy was in the chair at a party leaders' meeting that discussed Parliamentary business in the days ahead. A heated debate ensued when Karu Jayasuriya, co-deputy leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), announced he would move a Private Member's Bill on Freedom of Information. Ministers Basil Rajapaksa and Dinesh Gunawardena strongly objected. They said in one voice that the government would not allow the Bill to become law 'under any circumstances'.   read more..

Indian civic rights activist Aruna Roy who campaigned for a Right to Information Act in India explaining the merits of such legislation especially in eliminating corruption in the state sector as she delivers a lecture at the Sri Lanka Press Institute in July 2009
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President insists solution only through PSC

By Our Political Editor The proposed Parliamentary Select Committee would determine whether the 13th Amendment should be part of a settlement for Tamil grievances, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has re-iterated.
He told the main opposition United National Party’s co-deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya on Friday that this was the UPFA government’s official position. He said the government wanted Parliament to come out with a settlement endorsed by all political parties.      read more..  
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C’wealth Secretariat joins the chorus

Channel 4 Documentary

By Our Diplomatic Editor

The Commonwealth Secretariat in London has expressed concern over the contents of the recent British Channel 4 television programme that showed alleged Sri Lankan soldiers killing suspected terrorists in the final stages of the military campaign against the LTTE in May 2009 – despite a member-nation of the Commonwealth (Sri Lanka) challenging the authenticity of the footage in the programme. read more..

Chinese to build luxury port city off Galle Face

Govt gets US$ 700 million offer for 500-acres of sea land

By Bandula Sirimanna

China which has been increasingly involved in Sri Lanka’s economy, has secured another lucrative deal — creating a new 500-acre, port city on reclaimed land on the sea off the Galle Face Green. A top Government source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the deal, said the government had agreed to the US$700 million offer from a Chinese investor. The offer has been channelled through Chinese authorities. The securing of the investment was itself announced by Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) Chairman Priyath Wickrama at a public forum on shipping earlier this week in Colombo but he didn’t disclose the identityotheinvestor or the country of origin. Army HQ being cleared for Shangri-La and CATIC. Pic by Mangala Weerasekera             read more.. ====================================== Still No Houses Or Land To Return To Sunday, June 26, 2011 By Maryam Azwer Two years after the war ended, and still at Menik Farm The Resettlement Ministry says that the primary delay in resettling the approximately 17,000 IDPs remaining at Menik Farm is due to the ongoing de-mining process in Mullaitivu and certain parts of Kilinochchi. This delay in resettlement isn’t the only concern facing the IDPs, however – the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has claimed that some IDPs are not being allowed to return to their original lands, and have been asked to find alternate locations. What’s more, they claim that they have reason to believe these lands in the North have been picked out especially to carry out construction of housing units for the families of military personnel.    Read More »        ======================================= Gas Oil Story: USD 500 Million Purchase Concluded By One Man Titus J: Solitary Man with power to spend US$ 500 Million alone By Faraz Shauketaly Susil Premajayantha, Titus Jayawardena, Cabinet Memorandum authorising purchase AND ENOC offer dated 2 days before cabinet approval In an astonishing revelation, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Industries, Titus Jayawardena, has signed off on an order for the supply of Gas Oil which has a staggering price tag of US$ 500 Million. It could well be the single largest value business transaction ever carried out by a solitary official. The new port of Hambantota cost the government US$ 360 Million and the new airport in the South is costed at US$ 310 Million. Both these projects had a long and detailed procurement process complete with the usual checks and balances, as is the norm when the government embarks upon spending vast sums of monies. Neither of these projects was left to be decided upon by one, solitary man.    Read More »

CHNNEL 4 STANDS BY ITS SRI LANKA COVERAGE

Saturday, June 25, 2011  Fair and Balanced

By Faraz Shauketaly

Channel 4’s Ben de Pear

Growing international concern at what exactly went on during the closing stages of the war against the LTTE, was brought sharply into focus by Britain’s Channel 4 TV network. Since 2009 Channel 4 has covered the war situation in Sri Lanka’s north and matters came to a head with the broadcasting of the film, “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” on June 14th.         Read More »   
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Land Acquisition of Kalpitiya Islets Continues

Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Government is continuing to acquire land to carry out the Kalpitiya Tourism Development Project.
There are 31 islands in Kalpitiya. The Ministry of Economic Development has signed lease agreements for the islands Vellai I, 2, 3 and lppantivu through the Sri Lanka Tourism Authority. In addition, a survey is ongoing to find potential investors for 10 islands: Baththalangunduwa, Palliyawatta, Uchchamunai, Eramutivu, Mutuwal (Dutch Bay ), Periya Arachchalai , Sinna Arachchalai, Sinna Eramutivu , Eramutiv West, and Kakativu 1, all vested with the Tourism Development Authority. The land acquisition process is underway for the remaining I7 Islands, namely Lamputivu alias Pambativu, Kilitivu, Neduntivu Mattutivu, Ambanttativu, Pullupitiya alias Somativu Nariya Kutti, Pasikudah alias Maripututiv, Odayapitiya alias Udayurputi, Kakativu 3 and three (03) more islands with no identified names.        Read More »  

Lawyer To Represent MR In US Court

  Saturday, June 25, 2011

By Indika Sri Aravinda

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Despite telling the local media that Sri Lanka will not respond to the summons issued on President Mahinda Rajapaksa by a US court, the government has now decided that a lawyer in the US will watch the interests of the President.
Justice Ministry Secretary Suhada Gamlath told The Sunday Leader that the Attorney General’s Department will retain a lawyer to oversee the President’s interests in the US District Court which had issued the summons on Rajapaksa
.A US-based Tamil lobby filed the case claiming damages from the President as commander-in-chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces for the alleged killing of Raghiar Manoharan.
The Justice Ministry said last week that it had received the summons but said the government would not respond to it.
“Under our laws, the President has immunity,” Gamlath had told the media last week.
“We don’’t have to respond to such summons and I have written to the District Court of the Southern District of Columbia of our legal position,” Gamlath had said.
The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly argued that it has been unfairly criticised for ending a conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives amid regular suicide bombings of government targets.
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Lanka's war of blame

Sutirtho Patranobis, Hindustan Times
Colombo, June 25, 2011
President Mahinda Rajapaksa could have expectedly felt reassured last week after meeting friends, Hu Jintao and Dmitri Medvedev, at an economic forum in St Petersburg, Russia. No one can blame Rajapaksa for feeling a little hot lately under the collar of his starched white shirt and customary red stole The last three months have been particularly hard on Rajapaksa's reputation of being a strongman and meeting powerful friends is one way of snapping out of a dark, diplomatic corner where he was pushed into on human rights issues.    more »             

NCPA warns of trafficking threat

25 June, 2011
By Swaminathan Natarajan
BBC Tamil service

	The NCPA is worried that trafficking may rise as a result of surge in tourism

A government-appointed official in Sri Lanka has appealed to families in the north to protect under-age girls from sex traffickers.

Anoma Dissanayake of the National Child Protection Authority warned parents to be wary of strangers who offered to find their daughters jobs.

Women from the north of Sri Lanka, which is in desperate need of development, were particularly vulnerable, she said.

Earlier this week, nine women, including two under-age girls, were rescued from a brothel in the capital, Colombo.

She says two of them were teenagers, while others include divorcees, widows and young mothers.

One underage girl is a Tamil national from Mullaitivu and the other a Sinhala girl from Bandarawela, she said.

Three suspects were arrested in connection with the abuse.

The trafficking was busted when a teenage girl came to health facility to undergo family planning procedure.

Mrs Dissanayake also says government is worried that trafficking within the country may rise as a result of surge in tourism.
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Teen call-girl racket from North busted Police raid brothel on tip off by runaway girl; National Hospital doc and midwife involved in preventing unwanted pregnancies By Damith Wickremasekara Trafficking in girls, including underage children from the North, for prostitution, under the guise of employment in Colombo, has been unearthed by the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA). The breakthrough came when a 16-year-old girl ran away from the National Hospital in Colombo where she had been warded for an operation to prevent pregnancy. “The girl had run away to the police and related her story, and she was handed over to us,” said NCPA Chairperson Anoma Dissanayake. She said that, based on the information provided by the runaway girl, police raided a brothel in Maradana and found eight girls between the ages of 16 and 24 being used as prostitutes. The Maradana building where the Police rescued nine teenage girls from a brothel Of the nine girls in custody, six are from the Northern Province and one from the east. When the police raided the location, it appeared to be a lodge with nothing suspicious, but the girl in custody, who was aware of the layout of the building, had pointed out a cupboard, telling the police to push the cupboard aside, where they found an opening into another room. Police found eight more girls – two of them underage, huddled in a room. Among the other items recovered from the room were 1,500 condoms. The girl who first reported the incident to the police was from the Mullaitivu district and had been brought to Colombo by a broker. She claimed that she had been used as a prostitute in other locations by the same manager of this brothel, and paid amounts varying between Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000. Another 18-year-old girl who had been displaced in the final stages of the conflict, had initially lived in a camp for the displaced in Vavuniya, and brought to Colombo by a broker, promising her employment. Ms. Dissanayake said the girls in the brothel had been looked after by a midwife of the Colombo National Hospital. “She was in charge of giving them contraceptives and looking into their medical needs. She had the assistance of a doctor as well,” Ms. Dissanayake said.   Read more...

‘Politics not possible in militarised North’ - JVP/TNA

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Sunday 26 June 2011

The continuous intimidatory tactics of the security forces have made campaigning in the North almost impossible claim the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP.) The candidates of both parties have been questioned and sometimes detained by military intelligence in a bid to cripple their election activities geared towards the July 23 Local Government elections.
“On Friday one of our organizers of the Karachchi Local Council was detained in an abandoned building by military intelligence officers. Almost all our candidates in the North have been questioned and their campaign activities have been obstructed, daily,” said JVP propaganda secretary, Vijitha Herath.   
Meanwhile the TNA claims that there is no freedom of movement, expression or peaceful assembly in the North where military rule still prevails. The police have not yet taken any concrete action regarding the alleged attack on their meeting in Alaveddy which raises serious concerns about law enforcement in Sri Lanka said TNA MP A. Vinayagamoorthy.
“There are no civil and political rights here. These are fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution. The government wants to somehow win the elections in the North and they are lashing at what they see as threats.”
Meanwhile, Jaffna Security Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe told LAKBIMAnEWS that law and order prevails in the North and the fundamental rights/political freedoms of the people are assured.
“There is no problem. We do not discriminate against or support any political party and everyone can canvass peacefully.”
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Left Front protests against SLA attack on TNA in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 25 June 2011, 12:47 GMT]
The Left Front, led by Vickramabahu Karunaratne, on Friday staged a protest in Colombo against the attack on Tamil National Alliance election meeting in Jaffna. The attack on TNA meeting, carried out by an SLA contingent that was led by a Sri Lanka Army Colonel and two Major rank officers, was a “planned attack with a political directive from the top,” Dr. Karunaratne alleged. United Socialist Party, Socialist Party, Democratic Peoples Front (DPF) of Mano Ganesan and the Tamil National Alliance took part in the protest.
“The workers in the south are now prepared to fight back. There are struggles in all sectors including the university professors,” Dr. Karunaratne said.
The demonstrators carried placards against what they labelled as “martial law in North”.
The elections in Jaffna are going to be held under martial law. It is therefore important to fight back, calling to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) and Emergency Regulations, the demonstrators said.

Tamil and Sinhala politicians in demonstration organised by the Left

Posted by Thavam