• Profiling Rajapaksa - The Observer

    Oct 26
    Leading up to the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting due to be held in Colombo next month, the Observer profiled Sri Lankan Presidet Mahinda Rajapaksa.

    Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here.
    "Mahinda Rajapaksa: Sri Lanka's saviour or war criminal?"

    "The summit is controversial. Rajapaksa, now in his eighth year of power, is much reviled – at least in the west. The chief charges against him are serious: that he ignored, condoned or even encouraged war crimes committed by Sri Lankan troops in the final bloody phases of the campaign to crush the brutal Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (popularly known as the Tamil Tigers); that he has again ignored, condoned or possibly even ordered a wave of repression directed at those who contest his or his government's authority; that he has made no serious effort to reach out politically to Sri Lanka's Tamil minority; that he aims to ensure that his family's grip on the island nation is without challenge for decades to come."

    "One problem for his critics is that, though elections are marred by intimidation, violence and the misuse of state resources, few deny that Rajapaksa's successive poll victories reflect a genuine mandate. Even his opponents in Colombo admit that he remains without a serious local political challenger. His heartland is rural, conservative, Buddhist and dominated by the Sinhalese majority."
  • Rajapaksa opens Chinese funded airport highway
    A Chinese funded highway was opened on Sunday by Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapakse.

    The 16 mile expressway links the capital Colombo to the country's main airport, in the south, and cost $292 million, mainly funded by Chinese loans.
  • Arrest for LTTE cemetery demands - Gotabhaya
    Sri Lanka’s defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse has threatened arrest for anyone suggesting rebuilding cemeteries for LTTE martyrs.

    Responding to Ceylon Today on the government’s reaction to demands for re-erecting memorials for LTTE cadres killed in the war, Gotabhaya said:
  • Gross underestimation of the ongoing danger in Sri Lanka: Melbourne Human Rights Law Center
    12.00

    Research undertaken by Melbourne's Human Rights Law Centre found that immigration authorities were grossly  underestimating the ongoing danger in Sri Lanka.

  • DMK chief urges Indian Prime Minister to boycott CHOGM
    12.00

     Responding to the Indian External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid's, assurance of his participation in the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the DMK party urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to announce India's boycott of the summit.

  • Will the real TNA please stand up?

    After reports that the TNA had decided to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the new chief minister of the Northern Provincial Council, CV Wigneswaran is said to have rejected the decision.

  • British Tamils protest as SL envoy addresses Pre-CHOGM Forum in London

    A Pre-CHOGM Forum entitled “The Commonwealth in Colombo: Prospects for the 2013 Commonwealth Summit” was held in Senate House last week, while T

  • Malaysian opposition calls for CHOGM boycott
    One of Malaysia's leading political parties, the Democratic Action Party, has called on the government to boycott the upcoming CHOGM due to the crimes committed by Sri Lanka against Tamils.

    DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng, had said in a statement,
  • TNA instructs Northern Province Chief Minister to boycott CHOGM

    The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) told its Northern Province Chief Minister, C.V Wigneswaran, to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) today.

  • Cameron to approach Sri Lanka with 'tough message'

    David Cameron  outlined, in a meeting with Burmese opposition leader Aung Suu Kyi, that he would travel to Sri Lanka with a “tough message” for the Rajapaksa regime.

  • Wigneswaran says Tamil people have rejected separatism

    The first Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council, CV Wigneswaran has said in his inaugural speech that people in the south need to understand that the Tamil people have rejected separatism.

  • Kurshid confirms attendance at CHOGM

    India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid has confirmed his attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka next month, despite a resolution passed unanimously in Tamil Nadu’s assembly, calling for an Indian boycott of the summit.

  • Development not a substitute for justice - Jaffna diocese
    The director of the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, Father Managalarajah, has written to the Holy See’s representative in Colombo, explaining that development alone has not helped to settle the “basic unresolved issues of the people in the North and East.”
  • Tamil Nadu ill-informed on plight of Tamils – SL envoy

    The Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, Prasad Kariyawasam, warned that India will be isolated if PM Manmohan Singh boycotts the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

  • Opposition backs Tamil Nadu resolution on CHOGM
    In an unprecedented show of political solidarity, parties within the Tamil Nadu state assembly and outside, all backed a resolution brought forward by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, calling for India to boycott the upcoming CHOGM.
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