யாழ் திரைகடலோடி

17/11/13 Warning: Graphic details TORONTO — A Toronto family is calling for a war crimes investigation into the death of a relative after a video emerged suggesting she was executed by Sri Lankan troops on the last day of the country’s civil war. The footage shows Shobana Shoba being captured alive by soldiers on May 18, 2009. Photos taken later that same day show her near-naked body splayed on the ground, hands bound behind her back. After seeing the video, broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4, Ms. Shoba’s aunt Rangini Ravi, a Toronto nurse, was “100 per cent sure she was executed,” and said an international investigation was needed. Allegations of…

November 18, 2013 The BBC has removed it’s Sinhala Service programme on the investigative report by former BBC correspondent in Colombo Frances Harrison. Writing to Colombo Telegraph the BBC said; “There was a serious editorial lapse in a programme on the BBC Sinhala Service on Friday 8 November. Responding to Colombo Telegraph story BBC Sinhala Head Suspended: Non Sinhala Bosses Appointed, Liyanage’s Reports On Frances Harison’s Documentary Removed From BBC Web , the BBC World Service spokesman Paul Rasmussen said; “There was a serious editorial lapse in a programme on the BBC Sinhala Service on Friday 8 November. We have removed the story from our websit…

16 November 2013 A film of alleged war crimes … how I became Sri Lanka's most hated man Callum Macrae: The reaction of the people I met in Sri Lanka is at odds with the intimidation against me engineered by a despotic government. A film shot in January 2009 allegedly shows a Sri Lankan soldier executing a Tamil Tiger prisoner. Photograph: Journalists For Democracy/AFP/Getty Images They haunt our every move, on their motorbikes in their silver hatchback and on their tuk tuks. Sri Lanka's intelligence officers are a tenacious lot, but there's another group perhaps even more tenacious in their pursuit of us: "spontaneous", pro-government demonstrators. …

17 November 2013 The international community must keep up pressure on the Sri Lankan government to address its human rights crisis, Amnesty International said as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo draws to a close. “Sri Lanka may well regret having hosted the Commonwealth summit which has proved a PR disaster for the government. Most of the focus has rightly been on the country’s appalling human rights record," Steve Crawshaw, Director of the Office of the Secretary General at Amnesty International, said from Colombo. “The challenge for the international community is now to keep up the pressure on the Sri Lankan government. Those r…

I definitely detected a delicious sense of schadenfreude from among you brave – but mischievous - Sri Lankan journalists, over the relentless harassment of me and my Channel 4 colleagues by state intelligence, police and immigration officers. I’m not referring to the ranting rottweiler “reporters” who do the regime’s clunky propagandist bidding, although I have no doubt that they enjoyed it too. Read more: Sri Lanka, ‘impossible journalism’ and Channel 4 News http://www.channel4.com/news/channel-4-news-sri-lanka-mahinda-rajapaksa-chogm-summit I’m talking about those of you who live with such harassment yourselves, day in, day out, and don’t – or can’t - complain. …

17 November 2013 As the controversial Chogm in Sri Lanka comes to an end, Channel 4 News Editor Ben de Pear reveals why he is pulling his team of the country in the face of intimidation. Channel 4 News Editor, Ben de Pear (@bendepear) writes: Today, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa closed what has been a controversial Chogm summit. The final communique avoided any mention of human rights - one of the central principles of the Commonwealth - instead agreeing to cooperate on a number of issues, including poverty reduction, trade and youth affairs. Tonight there will be no report from Channel 4 News on this important summit from Colombo, as despite hav…

Mr Hague made the comments while attending the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has said he believes it is possible for the Sri Lankan government to establish a war crimes inquiry before March. It comes after PM David Cameron called on president Mahinda Rajapaksa to set up an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes - or face a UN probe. Sri Lanka's government has rejected Mr Cameron's call for an international probe. Mr Hague said that Britain would be pursuing the issue. He made the comments to the Colombo-based Sunday Times while attending the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka. Mr Hague told the paper that it…

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa rejected British concerns Leaders of Commonwealth nations are to issue final statements at the end of a summit in Colombo overshadowed by a row over alleged human rights abuses. A call by British Prime Minister David Cameron for an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes was criticised by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mr Cameron left the summit in the Sri Lankan capital early. On the final day, leaders are expected to make joint statements on issues like debt management and climate change. Malta has been chosen to host the next summit, in 2015, says the BBC's James Robbins, in Colombo. Mauritius,…

Canadian Students and Youth Groups Condemn CHOGM in Colombo Thursday, November 14, 2013 For Immediate Release Canadian Students and Youth Groups strongly condemn the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to take place in Colombo, Sri-Lanka. CHOGM has been a venue for world leaders to discuss global and Commonwealth issues including good governance, human rights, international peace and security and equality. Sri Lanka’s track records show complete dissent to the principles and values Commonwealth vows to uphold. The Sri-Lankan Government is accused of the most execrable war crimes and crimes against humanity of our recent history. As part of a sys…

14 November 2013 Sri Lanka's civil war is officially over, but people are still being "disappeared" - vanishing without a trace, often, allegedly, in the state's unmarked "white vans. After Iraq, Sri Lanka has the highest number of enforced disappearances in the world, the United Nations has said. The latest report from the UN's working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances, set up in 1980, says that there are 5,676 outstanding cases of enforced disappearances, though the actual number of disappeared could be much higher. The majority of cases date back to Sri Lanka's civil war between the government and the LTTE, commonly known as the Tamil…

One of the largest corporate donors to Britain's Conservative Party, and a key sponsor of the Commonwealth business event in Colombo this week, has been shown to have close links to the family of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. According to Corporate Watch, Hastings Trading e Serviços Lda, a company owned by the Lyca Group, bought a 95% share in a dormant firm registered with Rajapaksa's nephew, Himal Lalindra Hettiarachchi as reported by the Sunday Leader in 2009. The company went on to receive a key license to operate cutting-edge wireless broadband frequencies in Sri Lanka, forcing the state-owned telecoms company to merge. Lycamobile has donated over £…

The Law Society of South Africa called on President Zuma and the South African Government to consider boycotting the CHOGM. Issuing a statement today the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) expresses its grave concerned that members of an International Bar Association Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) high-level delegation have been denied entry into Sri Lanka during this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo. The delegation included the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, and the first UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Param Cumaraswamy. Entry for th…

Sri Lanka: would you holiday at a mass grave? The white sand of Sri Lanka's beaches is a lure for thousands of tourists every year - but dig a little deeper and there are many unanswered questions hanging over the country's tourist industry. Tourism is big business in Sri Lanka. Receipts from tourism nearly doubled between the end of Sri Lanka's civil war and the end of 2011 - up to $1.4bn. The direct contribution of tourism is estimated to be 3.8 per cent of Sri Lanka's total GDP, and is forecast to rise by 7.8 per cent in 2013. And the Sri Lankan government has big plans ahead for the industry. In the country's five-year plan for the sector it lists …

Chasing the ghosts of Sri Lanka’s disappeared I’m in seat 67, carriage B on the 0650 train from Colombo Fort station to Kilinochchi, the erstwhile rebel capital of the vanquished Tamil Tigers. My Channel 4 team are scattered around me. For the next six hours we’ll trundle north, crossing coffee-brown rivers, past villages set among clusters of coconut palms, past emerald rice paddies, wading water buffalo and egrets. We saw a long snake swimming across a drowned field. The doors and windows are open and there’s a good draft. Outside, it’s hotting up. Three rows in front, in seats 54 and 55, are the state intelligence agents – or, at least, the men we’re all p…

Interview with Lee on her detention in Sri Lanka and CHOGM

Updated 13 November 2013, 2:07 AEST Mauritius PM joins Canada and India in refusing to send key leader to Sri Lanka Commonwealth meet. The prime minister of Mauritius announced Tuesday he will stay away from this week's Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka because of the host's poor human rights record. Mauritius joins India and Canada in refusing to send a premier to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is accused of widespread human rights abuses against its Tamil minority and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians during its 2009 defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels. "This is a decision taken by a sovereign Mauritius in the face of the absence of progress in Sri L…

12 November 2013 Students from Loyola College in Tamil Nadu remained steadfast in their call for a complete boycott of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo by the international community, and continued to call for Sri Lanka to be suspended from the Commonwealth. In an interview from Chennai, Joe Britto from Loyola College said to the Tamil Guardian, "We, the students of Tamil Nadu, we strictly condemn that - that conference shouldn't be happening in Sri Lanka, and we will protest on the streets, and we will raise our voice against the Sri Lankan Commonwealth conference." "There is only one resolution for our Tamil people, that sho…

11th November 2013 The Tamil Youth Organisation UK strongly condemns the decision taken by the Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron, to attend the Commonwealth Summit hosted by the genocidal, chauvinist state of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan state is known to have committed crimes of genocide on the Eelam Tamil nation since its independence. After the supposed end of the ‘civil war’ in Sri Lanka, in May 2009, Sri Lanka continues to perpetrate acts of genocide on the Tamils. In the name of reconciliation once again the Tamil nation’s political aspirations and basic rights are being suppressed by the Sri Lankan state, which is sadly supported by the UN. The end of the civil…

Will Canada's CHOGM boycott make a difference? - video As Canada boycotts the Commonwealth conference in Sri Lanka over the host country's human rights record, C4 News asks Canada High Commissioner Gordon Campbell whether the move will achieve anything. <object id="flashObj" width="370" height="260" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=2824251435001&playerID=69…

OLD VIOLATIONS IN THE NO FIRE ZONE The CHOGM must seek a way between the world’s discomfort with Sri Lanka’s rights abuses and the need for reconciliation, writes Rudra Chaudhuri “Our guilt is killing us,” argued a middle-aged and self-described Tamil-British woman. She lost 17 members of her family to what she claimed were targeted disappearances, an all-too-familiar feature in Sri Lanka’s post-war landscape, at least according to the many Tamil, Sinhala, and Muslim journalists and activists both within and outside the Island state. The lady in question was the last to make her plea. She was one of 200-odd attendees at the London premier of No-…

Published Sunday, November 10, 2013 9:51PM EST Last Updated Sunday, November 10, 2013 9:58PM EST CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia's prime minister was under mounting pressure Monday to join his Indian and Canadian counterparts in boycotting a British Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka this week over concerns about the island nation's human rights record. India announced Sunday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be the second leader after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to boycott the Nov. 15-17 meeting. There are 54 members of the Commonwealth, a loose association of former British colonies. Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon called on Prime Mi…

http://youtu.be/9WV7YtmHEuw http://youtu.be/efomqKJuUfY Rob Ford considering treatment, says lawyer Coun. Doug Ford says his brother 'needs to go away for a couple of weeks' CBC News ► Doug Ford says Rob 'needs to go away' for awhile Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is considering treatment for substance issues, according to his lawyer, Dennis Morris. "It's an option he has to consider and he will be …

Countries With The Highest And Lowest Taxes Taxes have always been a major issue in American politics. In the late colonial era, when the revolution was about to erupt, anti-British sloganeers shouted, "No taxation without representation."Today, several major groups of tax proponents advocate different ways to handle America's taxes, in all its many varieties: income tax, capital gains tax, foreign revenue tax and so forth. TUTORIAL: Personal Income Tax Guide: Basic Concepts One group wants a reduction of the income tax, to stimulate business investment and, thus, solve the country's unemployment problem. A second group proposes an increase in taxes on the w…

I only watched ‘No Fire Zone’ by chance. But its revelations about Sri Lanka are surely unmissable How can it be that the message of this documentary hasn't got through? By Memphis Barker Monday 4 November 2013 About two minutes in to No Fire Zone and holding the remote control I asked my mum if she wanted to change the channel back to Was It Something I Said, the comedy quiz show the family sometimes takes in after Homeland on Sunday nights. The answer was no. As a result, we watched this report on how in 2009 Sri Lanka’s government ushered Tamil civilians into “safe zones” – before subjecting them to sustained fire from heavy weaponry. Neither of us had heard …

How the United Nations failed Sri Lanka By: Rosie DiManno Mon Nov 04 2013 (Injured civilians are seen in a make-shift hospital in this photograph released by the pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) group "Mercy Mission to Vanni" April 20, 2009 showing what they say are wounded that were fleeing from an area still controlled by the LTTE in the "No Fire Zone" near the village of Putumatalan in Puthukkudiyirippu, northeastern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly accused the LTTE and its sympathisers of trying to manufacture a civilian crisis to build international pressure on a cease-fire, especially when the Tigers are suffering military…