• Displacement and deaths as heavy rains and flooding continue in East

    Dec 25
    Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre has reported rising displacement in the Eastern Province amid ongoing heavy rains and flooding in Batticaloa, Amparai, Mannar and Trincomalee.

    The Centre stated on Thursday that it was facing significant difficulties in sheltering those affected by the floods and providing them with temporary accommodation.

    In Mannar, 8,979 people including 2,434 families have been displaced, reported the Jaffna based newspaper Uthayan. Thirty-nine temporary welfare centres have been set up.

    The water level in Kattukarai lake in Mannar has risen by 12.5 feet.

  • TNA calls on government to assist flood victims in East
    The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) called on the government to help families in the Eastern Province affected by the floods and heavy rains over recent days.

    "According to the government’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) over 660,000 people have already been affected as a result of flooding – with over 80,000 displaced - and the number of victims continues to rise as rains persist,"     the TNA said in a statement on Friday.

    "The DMC also notes that only nine percent of those affected are now in safe locations. Two-thirds of those affected are in the Batticaloa district – which was also devastated by the Tsunami ten years ago."

  • TNPF appeals for humanitarian relief for flood victims in Trinco, Batticaloa, Amparai
    The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) made an urgent appeal for humanitarian relief for the thousands displaced by extensive flooding and heavy rains across the East.

    "Thousands of people have been affected in many parts of Sri Lanka by the heavy rains in the last few weeks. Particularly, in the southern Tamil Eelam districts of Tricomalee, Batticaloa and Amparai, thousands of people have left their lands and sought refuge in public places due to the heavy rainfall," the TNPF said in a statement on Tuesday.

    "The people of Sampoor, in Trincomalee who have been denied resettlement after displacement from their lands since 2006 due to the war and are now living in displacement camps in Muthur have been largely affected."

  • Jaffna University lecturers forced to endorse Rajapapksa

    Lecturers at Jaffna University have condemned attempts to force them to sign a letter to incumbent Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, wishing him success at the upcoming presidential elections.

  • Modi's social media team linked with Rajapaksa election campaign
    An expert behind the Indian prime minister’s social media campaign will aid the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s re-election campaign, reports the Hindu.
  • North-East remembers victims of 2004 tsunami


    Events were held across the North-East today marking the 10 year anniversary of the tsunami, which left thousands dead as it swept across the coast.

    At churches, temples and public memorials, Tamils gathered to remember those who had perished.

  • Canadian Tamils remember Boxing Day tsunami

    Almost one hundred Tamils came together in Toronto to mark the 10 year anniversary of the tsunami which killed thousands of people across the North-East of the island, and hundreds of thousands more across South Asia and parts of Africa.

    “The holiday season is a time when we showcase our noblest emotions: love, generosity, caring and compassion,” said the Canadian Tamil Congress. “For many Tamil Canadians, while this holiday season is marked by a patchwork of sentiments, our thoughts inevitably turn to less joyous images, namely of those who lost their lives in the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004.”

    People lined up and laid down flowers in front of a memorial in remembrance of the victims, at the event in Scarborough, Toronto.

    Amongst them was tsunami survivor Jebnesan Ratnam, who lost his two nieces and aunt in the disaster. Hear his account of the tsunami in a report by CityNews Toronto below.

  • A very military Christmas in Kilinochchi
    The Sri Lankan army's 57th Division held a Christmas event in the Tamil region of Kilinochchi on Monday, aimed at "promoting religious reconciliation and peace among all communities in Kilinochchi area", the army said on its website.


    Military arrange Christmas programme in Kilinochchi included a dance with Tamil children lighting candles before a large cut out of the whole island, with the words: "WE ARE SRI LANKANS".

  • Armed men burn down Maithripala's Eravur office


    The newly established office of the common opposition's presidential candidate in the predominantly Muslim town of Eravur in Batticaloa district was burnt down by unidentified men in the early hours of Thursday morning.

    Over twenty armed men arrived at the office at 12:30am local time and began smashing up the posters and banners, before setting the place alight with petrol and running from the scene.

  • Tamils celebrate Christmas in Batticaloa despite heavy rains and flooding
    Photographs BattiNews


    Tamils on the island of Puliyentheevu in Batticaloa gathered today to celebrate Midnight Mass despite heavy rains and flooding causing mass displacement across the East.

  • OIC postpones visit to Sri Lanka due to election
    A visit by the head of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation has been postponed due to the presidential election on January 8, reported Arab News, citing sources within the Sri Lanka embassy in Saudi Arabia.
  • Assassinated TNA MP Joseph Pararajasingham remembered in Batticaloa 9 years on
    Photograph Tamilwin


    The late Tamil politician Joseph Pararajasingham, who was shot dead on Christmas Eve by armed government paramilitary men in 2005, was remembered today in a memorial service held at the Ilangai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) office in Batticaloa to mark the 9th anniversary of this death.

  • Sri Lanka's electoral dysfunction
    All contesting parties in the presidential polls “have effectively shut Sri Lanka’s Tamil and Muslim minorities out of the upcoming election” said JS Tissainayagam on Wednesday.

    Writing in Foreign Policy, award winning journalist, JS Tissainayagam warned that the international community should demand that a dialogue with the Tamils and Muslims be pursued by whoever wins the Sri Lankan presidential elections.

    Highlighting that both the ruling party and common opposition had rejected  international justice mechanisms, Tissainayagam added,
    “International justice aside, Sirisena and the joint opposition naively believe that Sri Lanka can achieve peace and political stability without satisfying the political aspirations of the Tamils and the Muslims.”

  • Tamils should freely exercise their franchise' at presidential election says GTF
    Stating that the Tamil people had "continuously lost their rights under a flawed majoritarian electoral system", the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) nevertheless urged the Tamil people "to use every vote carefully during the January 8 presidential election", in a statement released on Wednesday.

    "Tamil people have a long history of voting based on principled considerations. The upcoming Presidential election is no different," the GTF said.

    Adding that the organisation was "fully aware that in the post-independent Sri Lanka, Tamil people have continuously lost their rights under a flawed majoritarian electoral system," the GTF said that the Tamil people's "desire to have a degree of control in the Tamil majority areas was never granted, despite repeated democratic expressions of their wishes through all available electoral means."

  • UN Sec Gen reiterates call for cooperation with inquiry
    The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, reiterated his call for Sri Lanka to cooperate with the UN inquiry into mass atrocities committed against the Tamil people.

    "The Secretary-General has always encouraged the Government of Sri Lanka to comprehensively address the post-war agenda and the Secretary-General has also echoed the calls made by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, for the Government to cooperate with the ongoing human rights investigation," the spokesperson for Ban Ki Moon, Stephane Dujarric, was quoted by PTI as saying on Tuesday at a daily press briefing.

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