A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will be travelling to New Delhi to meet with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 23, The Hindu reports.
The delegation will be headed by the TNA leader R. Sampanthan, and will include five senior members.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding a meeting tomorrow to explore a solution to the repeated arrests of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, according to reports.
"The PMO has called a meeting tomorrow to deliberate on India-Sri Lanka fishermen issues like illegal poaching and welfare of Indian fishermen among others."
Frequent attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy has led to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalithaa writing several letters to the Prime Minister, expressing her concern and calling for a “strong and robust" response to the arrests.
The Prime Minister's announcement that he will discuss the issue comes as 11 fishermen associations in Tamil Nadu declared they would “lay siege” to Pamban road, which connects Ramneswaran to mainland India. The fishermen are protesting against the continued detention of Indians by the Sri Lankan government and demand that their boats, which the Sri Lankans are refusing to release, be given back to them.
The number of suicides in Jaffna has increased since the end of the armed conflict in May 2009, according to statistics compiled by the Professor of Psychiatry at Jaffna University.
Data gathered by Dr Daya Somasundaran showed that in 2009, when the armed conflict was at its peak, the suicide rate in the Northern Tamil peninsula was 15 per 100,000. However, since the armed hostilities ended, the suicide rate has risen sharply to 25 per 100,000 in 2011. The figure dipped slightly in 2012, but by 2013, was back at its highest level.
The New Indian Express that Dr Somasundaran said during the war there was “a strong social support system” as “under the Lankan military siege, civilians clung together”. Since the end of the fighting though, “social cohesion and social support systems began to wear thin as families got splintered.”
Somasundaran reportedly went on to add that collective rehabilitation was needed for the Tamil population, since they experienced the trauma of war as a collective. Acts such as mourning, he added, had to be done collectively.
Sri Lanka's Defence Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said groups linked to the LTTE were attempting to "create further problems in Sri Lanka" and pose a potential terrorist threat, the Business Standard reports.
"Some of these groups are trying to reorganise within Sri Lanka and mobilise people to once again take up their extreme left wing causes. There is information that some of these groups have started to establish ties to LTTE-linked agents to create further problems in Sri Lanka," he was quoted as saying.
"Some of their activities include radicalising students and encouraging them to take to the streets in various protests. Though such activities are still in their early stages, they pose another serious national security concern that must remain a consideration," he added.
The BBS leader told the Sri Lankan president to ‘not pander to multi ethnic obscenities’ and understand ‘the roots of the country and the value of the nation and who it rightfully belongs to,’ to gain the support of nationalist organisations, reports Colombo Page.
The Sri Lankan Minister of External Affairs said that international pressure on Sri Lanka to probe human rights violations and foreign funding for 'capacity building' were harmful to the country, reports Colombo Page.
"Because of the intensity of this pressure there is a disincentive to engage in earnest in a domestic process. Because of the conviction that far more is forthcoming by the application of pressure at an international level. And that is why this international pressure is not only not helpful, but is absolutely harmful," said GL Peiris at a Ministry of Defence seminar, on Monday, in Colombo.
Sri Lanka will deny visas to investigators from the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights due to conduct the UN inquiry into mass atrocities in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan President said on Tuesday.
“We will not allow them into the country,” said Mahinda Rajapaksa when speaking to the Foreign Correspondents Association, whilst adding that the domestic investigation panel had been strengthened to carry out its own investigation, reports Reuters.
Disregarding any future findings from the UN investigation, Rajapaksa, said,
“I don’t think anybody will take it [the UN investigation] seriously, other than the people who want it.”
Muslims near a historic mosque by Trincomalee have accused the Sri Lankan army of demolishing the mosque, which was already in a dilapidated condition due to lack of renovation.
The mosque, now encompassed within the military's High Security Zone, is believed to be over 400 years old, say locals.
The army denies demolishing the mosque, which they say was destroyed due to heavy rains and winds.
The Sri Lankan Commander of the Army stated that national security on the island was “stronger than ever” as he addressed a military conference being held in Colombo this week.
The Commander, Lieutenant General Daya Ratnayake, said that even though the island now had the “incentive of peace... this should not be interpreted in any way as letting down our guard.”
He went on to add,
“Our national security is stronger than ever... Today we are much smarter, more vigilant and possess greater responsive capability to deal with threats to national security.”
In his opening address at the seminar, reportedly attended by representatives from over 50 countries, Ratnayake also said Sri Lanka had learnt “the value of national security and the will to pursue it at any cost.”
The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has once again reiterated the government's stand against the devolution of police powers to provinces on the island.
Colombo Gazette reports that when meeting with a group of foreign correspondents on Tuesday morning, Rajapaksa “insisted that police powers will not be devolved to the provinces under any circumstances.”
