• UK says trade with Sri Lanka goes 'hand in hand' with human rights

    Dec 12
    The British government continued to call on Sri Lanka to co-operate with a United Nations investigation into mass atrocities on the island and stated that the UK's trade with Sri Lanka goes “hand in hand” with its commitment to human rights.

    Speaking during a debate in the House of Lords on Thursday, Lord Livingston, the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills & Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said,
    “Trade is important not only to the prosperity of the UK but to Sri Lanka and its people. However, the UK’s commitment to free trade goes hand in hand with our commitment to human rights. That point has been made volubly.”
    “We continue to urge Sri Lanka to co-operate and ensure the protection of those providing evidence to the investigation, and to implement the recommendation of its own internal commission on resettlement and rehabilitation.”
    The question of whether the British government would deploy sanctions against Sri Lanka was raised during the debate, with Lord Livingston saying,
    “The UK Government’s position on this is that it is premature to do anything more prior to the UN reporting on the matter, and we are expecting the UN’s report in March 2015. When we receive it, it will be appropriate for the Government to take a view of which, if any, of those recommendations should be taken up.”
  • Tamil man returns home after 25 years in detention
    A Tamil man, who was assumed to be dead, returned to his home in Jaffna on Friday, after being detained without charge for 25 years in a Sri Lankan detention centre.

    S. Vairavanathan was arrested in Colombo after a bomb blast in 1990. He was 28 years old at the time. Following his arrest, Vairavanathan was held in a detention camp in Hambantota for 25 years without being charged.
  • SL Air Force plane crash kills 4 officers
    A Sri Lankan military plane crashed near the capital city of Colombo on Friday morning killing four officers and injuring one more.

    The Antonov-32, a plane purchased from Ukraine in 1996 and repaired in Russia last year, crashed on route from Katunayake to Ratmalana in the island's south.
  • Sri Lanka trade deficit widens by 141.7 percent
    Sri Lanka’s trade deficit widened by 141.7 percent over the past year, the Central Bank said in its External Sector Performance review released on Friday.

    The trade deficit in October 2014 widened to US $851.7 million compared to US$ 353.3 million in October 2013.
  • Senior JHU official joins Mahinda camp

    The deputy general secretary of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) has declared his support for incumbent, President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the presidential election next month.

    Speaking at the SLFP headquarters earlier today, Udaya Gammanpila said he could not support the attempts by the UNP to regain power as he feels they will divide the country.

    Gammanpila said he will resign from the JHU and join Rajapaksa’s SLFP as he could not support some of the pledges made by the common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena.

  • ICC ‘enquired about army’s command chain’ warns Rajapaksa

    Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa has claimed that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked about the chain of command in the Sri Lankan armed forces.

    Speaking at his first election rally in Anuradhapura, Rajapaksa said this gave a “strong indication” that some sections of the international community were attempting to prosecute officials in Sri Lanka’s military.

    Rajapaksa will face the opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena at the presidential election next month and both camps have used the rejection of the international probe into war crimes as a key tenet of their campaign.

    The president said he would never allow any member of the security forces to be taken to the ICC.

    "Sri Lankan government will not bow down for foreign interventions in the matter of the war victory," Rajapaksa said, adding that he will not permit a “foreign force” to jeopardise the political stability in Sri Lanka.

  • SL Navy arrests 27 Tamil Nadu fishermen
    The Sri Lankan navy arrested 27 fishermen from Tamil Nadu on Wednesday night, on alleged poaching charges, reports DNA Analysis.

    The 27 were arrested along with six boats. According to the Assistant Director of Fisheries Department, Sekar, the Sri Lankan navy personnel destroyed the fishermen's nets.
  • Buddhist monks invoke blessings for Sri Lanka 'war heroes'


    Over 300 Buddhist monks came together to invoke blessings for the Sri Lankan army, air force and navy, at a meeting attended by the Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday.

  • Sirisena denies pact with TNA amid reports of private endorsement
    The common opposition presidential candidate, Maithripala Sirisena, this week denied that he had entered any pact with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), as both sides attempted to distance themselves from the Tamil political party ahead of the election on January 8.

    "We signed only one agreement at the Viharamahadevi Park and all other understandings are based on it," Sirisena told media heads, adding that he had not signed any individual agreements. Stating that he had met with members of the TNA to discuss the election, Sirisena stressed that no pact had been made.

    Reports of the TNA leadership having decided to endorse the common opposition candidate continued on Thursday however, with sources close to the TNA leadership stating that the party's endorsement of Sirisena was deliberately being kept private.

    "The TNA will only go public about their support of Sirisena 2-3 days before the election," a source told the Tamil Guardian on Thursday evening.

    "A Sirisena-TNA pact would mean the Sinhalese will vote for Mahinda, like they did last time," he added. 

  • Rape, land grabs and militarisation destroying Tamil life in North-East - Chief Minister
    The Tamil people in the North-East face genocide the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister warned that Tamils face genocide, at a youth conference in Jaffna on Wednesday, the Uthayan reports.

    Speaking at the Weerasingham hall in Jaffna, despite military attempts to stop youth from attending the conference, CV Wigneswaran said, that rape, sexual assaults, land grabs, and military interference in the economy were destroying the everyday lives of Tamil people in the North-East.  

    Condemning the state destruction of Tamil identity, he added that religious and cultural sites for Tamils in the North-East were being destroyed and replaced by religious sites. The new religous sites were only relevant to the military that was stationed in the area, added the chief minister.

    Commenting on allegations that he had prevented the Northern Provincial Council from passing a resolution calling for an end to the genocide of Tamils, the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister, said,

    "I was accused of preventing NPC members from passing a motion regarding genocide, but the reason for that is not that I deny that it is happening."

  • NGOs call on Australia to halt deportation of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka
    Amnesty International, the Human Rights Law Centre and Human Rights Watch called on foreign governments to pressure Sri Lanka into releasing a group of 37 refugees who were forcibly deported by Australian authorities.

    In a joint press release, the non-governmental organisations also stated the international community should urge Australia to monitor the safety of the deported asylum seekers, stating that it had “violated its obligations under international law.”

    Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch, said “Australia’s actions in the Indian Ocean show the yawning gap between its practices and international legal principles... Australia shouldn’t ignore the well-documented and politically motivated torture, rape, and ill-treatment of many men and women detained by Sri Lankan security forces.”

  • Thousands of Tamils killed 'under our eyes' says UN Genocide Prevention advisor
    The UN Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, said that the killing of thousands of Tamils during the end of the armed conflict in 2009, was the "failure of the international community", during a press briefing on Tuesday.
  • Tamil women's rights crucial for liberation struggle says TNPF


    The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) called for an end to violence against women and gender equality within Tamil society as crucial for the struggle for the Tamil nation's liberation from Sri Lankan state oppression to succeed.

    Endorsing the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, the TNPF together with local civil society organisations called for the Tamil nation to look introspectively and address prevalent issues of gender based violence, such as domestic violence.


    "We will only be able to succeed in our struggle for liberation, the day we treat Tamil women as equals," said the TNPF President Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam.

  • Tamils outside Sri Lanka will not be allowed to cast votes – Minister

    Sri Lankan Minister of Youth Affairs Dullas Allaha told journalists on Tuesday that Tamils who have migrated will never be granted the opportunity to cast votes in the election, as they would help to grow the LTTE movement in the country.

  • Tissa Attanayake warns of Maithripala pact with 'extremist' TNA

    The former General Secretary of the UNP, Tissa Attanayake, has warned that the common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena has signed an agreements with the Tamil National Alliance, despite its “extremist” policies, reported the DailyMirror.

    “I have serious doubts about the MOUs signed with different extremist groups such as the TNA, JHU and the JVP. The common opposition will be obliged to satisfy the extremist Tamil groups and the Tamil Diaspora. These pledges are extremely dangerous for the national security and the sovereignty of the country. We do not know what the opposition has promised but we have a right to know,” Attanayake said.

    “The opposition was a coalition of strange bedfellows who profess different extremist policies. I do not understand how the JHU, TNA and the JVP can campaign to achieve a common objective.”

    Attanayake, who is backing Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presidential election next month, says he joined the incumbent’s camp to “save” the UNP from those who had “hijacked” his party.

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