யாழ் திரைகடலோடி

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 A demonstration was held by Colombo’s Fort Railway Station on the 19th of September to highlight the fact that it had been 200 days since Jeyakumari was detained and to call for her release: It received coverage in the Hindu, Lanka Focus, and in Vikalpa (and again). Appallingly no mainstream Sri Lankan media covered the event. Several senior members of opposition political parties and civil society were in attendance, including: Gajen Ponnambalam – President, Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) Siritunga Jayasuriya – General Secretary, United Socialist Party (CWI in Sri Lanka) M.A. Sumanthiran – MP, Tamil National Alliance (TNA)…

High Commissioner Nonis Quits After Assault By Sajin Vaas Sri Lanka High Commissioner in United Kingdom, Chris Nonis has resigned after he was assaulted mercilessly by Sajin Vass Gunawardena, the Monitoring MP for the Ministry of External Affairs at a house in New York. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who returned to Colombo from New York, after attending the UN has ordered the state and private media to blackout the news and not report anything on this matter. He personally spoke to everyone concerned. The incident took place at the house of Dilan Ariyawansa, who is now Director of Sri Lankan Airlines in New York. He has thrown a dinner for many members of Rajapaks…

Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o's Speech On Beauty That Left An Entire Audience Speechless

12.09.2014 The University of Sydney has withdrawn invitations for two Sri Lankan human rights organisations to an international conference at the request of the Sri Lankan military, angering campaigners. The university is due to host a two-day event in Bangkok from Monday along with the University of Colombo, which will see delegates from around the world discuss the enhancement of human rights in the Asia Pacific region. Delegations from the Sri Lankan military and the Sri Lankan police are expected to attend the conference. Leaked correspondence, seen by Guardian Australia, shows that these delegations had originally requested that all non-government organis…

In an appeal to the Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Shinzō Abe, the Prime Minister of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran has urged the Japanese leader to raise with Sri Lankan President the issue of protection for witnesses who will be testifying before a UN inquiry for the mass killing of Tamils. Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Shinzō Abe begins his visit to Sri Lanka on September 7, 2014. The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein will also emphasize this issue during his upcoming address to the current UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva on September 8, 2014. Advance copy of his statement sent by OHC…

Saturday, September 6, 2014 By Chris Slee The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. The group was formed in response to discrimination against the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan government, after peaceful protests had been repeatedly met with violent repression. It waged an armed struggle for nearly three decades. The LTTE was militarily defeated in 2009, and no longer exists. Yet people are still being penalised for alleged links with the group. This is happening in Sri Lanka, in Australia, and in other countries. In Australia, Tamils who have been officially re…

A Catholic priest who narrowly survived the final phase of the war in Sri Lanka has been questioned by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) over a book of Tamil poetry he wrote called 'Uyirpathivu' which literally translates as, “Life Records”. The priest was allowed to be accompanied by a colleague and was questioned on Wednesday (03) by three officers from TID in the Jaffna Bishop’s house. The interrogation focused on aerial bomb attacks on churches and schools that the priest witnessed during the last months of the war in 2009 and wrote about in his poems. The significance of an aerial bombing is that it can only have been carried out by the Sri Lankan gover…

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Iceland Volcano Fears: Airlines On Alert Authorities monitoring the Bardarbunga volcano say there is the threat of "significant emission of ash into the atmosphere". http://news.sky.com/story/1323762/iceland-volcano-fears-airlines-on-alert

Realising that our struggle has long been used by powers in their engagements with the island, we as a nation must work towards a concerted foreign policy, although we don't have State, said Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) leader Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam in an interview to TamilNet on Saturday. In meeting the challenge of achieving this, we should incorporate Tamil Nadu in creating a power centre in a geopolitical sense and the dynamics will change very quickly. Compared to the Congress, the BJP is little bit more blunt and more strident in containing the nationalist nature of the struggle. This is the carrot to the Sri Lankan State and the TNA is a co-partner. …

UNHRCThe Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has strengthened its investigation on the war in Sri Lanka by adding more clauses to the terms of reference which includes a clause on the assistance expected for foreign governments and the basis under which findings of the investigation will be accepted. The new clauses note that consistent with the practice of other United Nations fact-finding bodies, the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) will base its findings on a "reasonable grounds to believe" standard of proof. The terms of reference states that there are reasonable grounds to believe that an incident or pattern of violations or…

A Tamil diaspora group based in the US says it will stage a protest during the scheduled visit to New York by President Mahinda Rajapaksa next month to address the UN General Assembly (UNGA). The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) led by V. Rudrakumaran has written to UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon urging him to publicly censure the Sri Lankan government for denying direct access for the victims of international crimes in the island of Sri Lanka to UN investigators. The TGTE said it will also be organizing a protest rally outside the UN in New York on September 25th to protest against the Sri Lankan Government. "It is time for the UN Secr…

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today had talks in New Delhi on Tamil concerns.A TNA delegation led by party leader R. Sampanthan had urged Swaraj to ensure India gets fully involved in the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. The Indian media quoted Sampanthan as saying the TNA delegation had also raised concerns over Sinhalese settlements in Tamil areas. TNA MPs Mavai Senathirajah, M.A. Sumanthiran and India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Y.K.Sinha also took part in the talks. The TNA is to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow as part of the official visit to India. The TNA is expected to push for the…

The on-arrival visa facility for visitors has been suspended, with regard to four African countries, with immediate effect. This has been done as a precautionary measure to prevent the entry of Ebola virus, the External Affairs Ministry said. External Affairs Ministry Public Relations Officer Satya Rodrigo said the privilege to obtain visas on arrival will not be offered to the four African countries- Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia until further notice. He said this decision had been taken in order to reduce the likelihood of persons infected with Ebola virus from entering the country. This action is consequent on a request by the Health Ministry. 'But people c…

In a paper published in the latest issue of the US Defence Department's journal 'Prism', Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has reiterated his belief that Islamic terrorism poses a threat to Sri Lanka. Since the LTTE's defeat, some of the Muslim groups in Lanka have begun to engage in activities that go 'far beyond self-protection', he said in the journal brought out by the Center for Complex Operations (CCO). 'There is information that some of these groups have even tried to link up with global Islamic terrorist organisations. This is a situation that requires careful monitoring,' Gotabaya said. 'Some Islamic groups in Lanka have started to…

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) has made a grave error by supporting the 18th Amendment when it was introduced by the government, Hasan Ali, General Secretary of the party told Ceylon Today. He said the SLMC has to accept that grave error, adding that the party's stance to support the Amendment, was not made clear to most of the members. "Our Party made the gravest mistake by supporting the 18th Amendment, and there were some members who were compelled to support the Amendment. Therefore, we had no other choice than to support it," he said. Ali added that when important matters, and important decisions were taken; it was not discussed with party member…

Although Swiss embassies abroad can no longer grant asylum requests, they can award humanitarian visas. But only 48 visas were awarded between September 2012 and mid-June 2014, the cabinet said on Thursday in response to a parliamentary interpellation. The possibility of applying for asylum at a Swiss embassy in a foreign country was discontinued on September 29, 2012. Between January 1, 2009, and September 29, 2012, almost 20,000 asylum requests were granted to persons whose lives or physical integrity were deemed to be seriously threatened. At the time the option of applying for asylum abroad was discontinued, 16,425 applications were pending. Of those, 4…

The years of toil have paid off and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on the ascendance in Tamil Nadu, looking at bright yet challenging days ahead. Propelled by the "Modi wave", the party used the support base of six regional players it had aligned with as a launch pad to perform creditably in the Lok Sabha election. BJP's pre-poll alliance with the DMDK, PMK, MDMK, KMDK, IJK and NJP raked in 19% of the votes polled and the coalition picked up two Lok Sabha seats. The remaining 37 seats went to the AIADMK, while the Congress and the DMK drew a blank. The BJP, which contested 18 seats in 2009, more than doubled its vote share from 2.34% to 5.48% in 2014 d…

Leaders of Sri Lanka's main Tamil party are to push their case for full implementation of the contentious thirteenth amendment to the Constitution during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) delegation leaves for India today for their first meeting with the new Indian government. The delegation is expected to meet External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday and hopes to meet Modi on Saturday. Senior TNA parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran said the party will urge India to ensure Sri Lanka fully implements the 13Amendment as the Sri Lankan government had earlier given that assurance to India. Under the 13A amendment…

Former Chief justice Sarath N. Silva said today it was illegal and unconstitutional to grant one million US dollars to Palestine without following the proper procedure to do so. Mr. Silva said spending of one million US dollars by the Finance Ministry Secretary and the President as the Finance Minister had violated Section 148 of the Constitution. 'This amount of money had been spent outside budgetary allocations. If the government was spending any money beyond the budgetary allocations or appropriation Bill, they need to submit a special supplementary Bill in parliament. But in this instance the Finance ministry has not followed that procedure,' Mr. Silva said. …

The United Nations may become involved in the case of the Tamil asylum seekers who were detained on an Australian customs boat, with a court hearing to take place in Canberra in October. A brief high court directions hearing in Melbourne on Thursday resulted in Justice Kenneth Hayne setting a date of 14 October and 15 October for the full court case. The legal team representing the asylum seekers indicated that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Australian Human Rights Commission were looking to intervene in the case. George Newhouse, a lawyer for the asylum seekers, said the UN and other human rights organisations were 'following the cas…

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has cancelled his visit to Pakistan that was scheduled for later this week due to the political unrest in the Pakistani capital city of Islamabad, Pakistani Foreign Office has said. During the Sri Lankan President's visit to Islamabad which was scheduled for August 22, the President was to meet the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, President Mamnoon Hussain and Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif. President Rajapaksa was to accompany a delegation of 20 government officials and a30-member private sector business delegation to Islamabad. A Joint Press Statement issued on the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Foreign…

India's foreign policy is very clear and will not agree to any foreign power interfering in Sri Lanka's internal matters, a senior leader of India's governing Bharatha Janatha Party (BJP) Dr. Subramanian Swamy said. Speaking at the last day sessions of Sri Lanka's three-day defense meet, Defense Seminar 2014, at the Galadari Hotel in Colombo on the topic 'India - Sri Lanka Relations' , Dr. Swamy said India's 'national interests' are the most prioritized and India will not favor one particular ethnic group. "India's foreign policy is very clear and will not agree to any foreign power interfering Sri Lanka's internal matters, nor it will intervene in any such…