The former chief cricket writer for Australia’s The Age newspaper Trevor Grant has slammed leading Sri Lankan cricket player Kumar Sangakkara for his continued efforts to paint Sri Lanka as a ‘haven of peace and tranquility’.

See below for selected extracts of his article ‘Sangakkara, batsman and propagandist extraordinaire’.

Leading Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara is currently in Australia to play cricket but he also appears to be auditioning for a job in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s propaganda unit.

As he did on the England tour last year, Sangakkara takes every opportunity in Australia to suggest that his homeland has become a haven of peace and tranquility.

He did so again this week when sending a message to the protesters who plan to gather at the MCG on Boxing Day, calling for an Australian cricket boycott on future tours and matches against Sri Lanka.

British Tamils continue to be held in Sri Lankan jails without charge under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, despite pleas from parents to transfer them to British prisons if found guilty of any crime.

Heavy rains that began on 16th December have had a devastating effect on the North-East, with Batticaloa and Puttalam the worst affected, said IRIN on Friday.

The rains and ensuing floods have displaced at least 31,000 people and killed 39, according to the Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre.

The body of a four year old girl who went missing in Jaffna, was found on Friday evening, reported Tamilwin.

Suthanthini Surenthiran was reported missing by her parents on Thursday.

The Sri Lankan president Mahinda rajapakse has offered the services of a Sri Lankan doctor to ailing Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, saying that the doctor will be “significantly instrumenta” to his recovery.

“It is interesting that Jayasekara is being put forward as the Sri Lankan representative in Australia to defend the indefensible, an acknowledgement that the Sri Lankan high commissioner, Thisara Samarasinghe, has singularly failed to get his message across.”

”Australians are quite used to weighing the facts, they saw through the propaganda of the South African apartheid regime, the lies over East Timor and weapons of mass destruction and it is only a matter of time before the truth will out on the treatment of Tamils and the political enemies of the corrupt Rajapaksa regime.”

The president of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF), Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, has received a summons by the Terrorism Investigation Division of Vavuniya and a note written entirely in Sinhalese, instructing him to present himself at the TID office on 29th December at 11am.

The TNPF leader is reported to be outside the island at present.

Several hundred Australians gathered outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground to protest against Sri Lanka’s cricket tour of Australia, calling on cricketing authorities to boycott the country.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division arrested 45 former LTTE cadres, it was announced on Wednesday.

The arrests occurred as part of search operations in Jaffna reported Sri Lanka’s police.
Superintendent Prishantha Jayakodi stated that,

The government of Iran has expressed its willingness to further boost links with Sri Lanka, by looking to expand ties in the judicial fields.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauf Hakeem went to meet Iranian Justice Minister Seyed Morteza Bakhtiari  in Iran earlier this week, with Bakhtiari stating that he hoped to transfer Iran’s legal experience over to Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Army has completed the construction of another hotel, this time on the shores of the Nanthikadal Lagoon.

The Lagoon’s Edge is a luxury hotel, built entirely of teak and was built in a "place where thousands of war heroes, terrorists and others died", according to Sinhalese newspaper Mawbima.

Christmas came to Kilinochchi this year courtesy of the Sri Lankan Army.

Photographs of the festive joy are reproduced from off the Ministry of Defence (and Urban Development) website:

In addition to an 80 ft Christmas tree, the Tamil women recruited into the Sri Lankan army sang Christmas carols.

The Russian ambassador to Sri Lanka says that countries criticise Sri Lanka’s human rights violations, while ignoring their own record.

“Sometimes people point at a speck in the others eye without knowing a whole lot about the board in theirs,” Alexander Karchava said in an interview to the Daily News.