யாழ் திரைகடலோடி

The British Government, in a statement issued by the British High Commission in Colombo, said that land issues continue to prevent some communities from rebuilding their lives in Jaffna. British Deputy High Commissioner Laura Davies visited the Jaffna town and called on Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, District Secretary Suntharam Arumainayagam and Bishop Thomas Saundaranayagam and also visited the Sabapathipillai Welfare Centre, the British Council and the Jaffna Public Library. Laura Davies said: “My first visit to Jaffna was an opportunity to see how infrastructure developments – including the Yaal Devi train – have the potential to bring real economic b…

Although the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) was pushing extremely hard for an international war crimes probe into the alleged accountability issues in Sri Lanka, with a major conference in the UK parliament scheduled for Feb. 27, the Canadian government had emerged as the leading campaigner against Colombo, ministerial sources told The Island. The target of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s campaign was the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in November this year, Foreign Service sources said last night. Responding to a query, they said that unlike the GTF campaign, the Canadian action had brought tremendous pressure on…

The foreign minister of Sri Lanka has confirmed that the support of United States of America was key to defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a war that ended with the massacre of at least 70,000 civilians. Tamil Tigers being proscribed in the European Union in 2006 was 'the biggest blow to the LTTE,' said Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in an open letter to the country's former president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mangala Samaraweera had previously held the foreign ministry portfolio under Rajapaksa from 2005 to early 2007, before been appointed as foreign minister by President Maithripala Sirisena in 2015. "It was also thanks to my predec…

A judge has ruled that the U.N. refugee agency unfairly punished one of its investigators for documenting a rape case in Sri Lanka a decade ago. U.N. Dispute Tribunal Judge Coral Shaw says former investigator Caroline Hunt-Matthes lost her job at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees due to retaliation and suffered other damages after she collected evidence in 2003 that an agency employee had raped a refugee in Sri Lanka. Wednesday’s twin rulings, which can be appealed, are critical of the U.N.’s accountability system, including its ethics office, and award Hunt-Matthes a year’s salary and benefits, plus $58,000 for her damages and suffer…

16 August 2006 21:04 Sri Lankan army warns children can be targets By Justin Huggler, Asia Correspondent Published: 16 August 2006 The Sri Lankan government has defied growing condemnation and declared that it considered children and young people killed in an air strike to be combatants and legitimate targets. "If the children are terrorists, what can we do?" said a military spokesman, Brigadier Athula Jayawardana. The government claimed that children killed and injured in the bombing on Monday were child soldiers conscripted by the Tamil Tiger rebels. The United Nations children's organisation, Unicef, condemned the air strike as "shocki…

By Jonathan Power Foreign affairs columnist for the International Herald Tribune for 20 years and guest columnist for New York Times Not since the early Cold War days, when the US and NATO effectively encircled the Soviet Union, feeding Stalin’s paranoia, has America moved to be so profoundly counterproductive. It is now beginning to encircle China - at least that is how China is seeing it. Of course “encircling” is a bit of an exaggerated notion since the Soviet Union was too large ever to be totally encircled. Likewise today China is content with the state of affairs on its long Russian, Mongolian and North Korean borders. But “encircling” does suggest a proces…

BEHIND THE WALLS

The Tamil diaspora is planning to field Lyca Mobile owner Subaskaran Allirajah as a candidate at the next presidential election. Allirajah, an international businessman with Sri Lankan origins, has already bought a plantation political party, ‘Arunalu People’s Alliance’. Its chairman and general secretary is Dr. A.R. Krishan. Allirajah is to launch his media campaign next month. (deshaya.lk) https://english.theleader.lk/news/7156-subaskaran-allirajah-to-contest-for-presidency இங்கு விசாரித்தபோது செய்தி உண்மையில்லை என்கிறார்கள் இரண்டு மூன்று நாளில் உண்மை தெரியும்தானே .

Democracy in crisis in Asia's killing fields- AHRC Saying that "Sri Lanka has been the stage of one of the most brutal killing fields," the Asian Hurna Rights Commission (AHRC) in a media release issued Wednesday said, "the problem Sri Lanka faces is much worse than a mere escalation of violence. A country that is already facing a collapse of its basic institutions and living at the lowest ebb of the rule of law is now plunging deeper into an abysmal crisis in all areas of life...crisis in Sri Lanka is a crisis of democracy, with its roots in the authoritarian style of rule that arose as a result of the 1978 Constitution." Full text of AHRC's media release follows:…

In the Tigers' lair Nov 20th 2008 | COLOMBO From The Economist print edition The martial mood intensifies INDEPENDENCE DAY is not celebrated until February. But flags are flying from buildings and lamp posts in Colombo in a show of public support for the government’s military campaign against the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. On November 15th, as his government faced a crucial parliamentary vote on the budget, President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced on national television that troops had seized the Tiger-held town of Pooneryn for the first time in 15 years. His generals are calling this a “turning-point” in the 25-year war. It places the entire west…

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. …

ISIL pounded as Iraqi and Kurd forces advance Peshmerga and Iraqi forces say they have retaken key areas in Iraq's north and south, supported by 22 US air strikes. Peshmerga forces are continuing to counter ISIL's offensive in northern Iraq [Reuters] Ground offensives by the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces, backed by a barrage of US air raids, have forced ISIL fighters from several key towns in the north and south of Iraq, officials said. Kurdish peshmerga forces said on Saturday they had recaptured several towns and villages held b…

His Excellency John Kerry Secretary of State United States of America Excellency, I wish to extend my warm congratulations to Your Excellency, on your appointment as the Secretary of State of the United States of America. You bring to your office the wisdom and experience gained during a long and distinguished political and professional career. I am confident that your pragmatic outlook, particularly having been the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will stand in good stead in steering the foreign relations of your country in these challenging times. I recall with pleasure that Sri Lanka has…

President Must Disown Tamil Paramilitary Groups | by Rajasingham Jayadevan ( March 1, 2013, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) My recent visit to Jaffna stretched once again (like in January 2012) a trip to the north-west coastal islands due to my visiting relatives wanting to worship at the Shree Nagapooshani Amman temple in the Islet of Nainativu. A contingent of fifteen relatives went to the islet. Paramilitary Leader Minister Douglas Devananda It was a very bumpy drive on the pothole and patchwork road. The drive did not give any impression that there is any major roadwork plan for the narrow lagoon road. The intermittent pothole patchwork undertaken …

CNN)President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he has "granted a Full Pardon" to former national security adviser Michael Flynn. "It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!" Trump tweeted. Flynn, who was Trump's first national security adviser, pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition. Trump said in March …

President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Lal Wickrematunge three times that his brother Lasantha, the founding editor of The Sunday Leader newspaper who was assassinated in January 2009 was killed by Former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka, exiled Sri Lankan Journalist Uvindu Kurukulasuriya told UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay in London yesterday. Pillay who delivered a lecture at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on Friday on the Freedom of Expression and Hate Speech: What International Human Rights Law Says was informed of this publicly by Kurukulasuriya following her speech. Kurukulasuriya said that Lal Wickrematunge had informed him that …

Sun May 27, 2:52 AM ET COLOMBO (AFP) - A new wave of air and naval combat is likely in Sri Lanka as government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels step up battles that have killed more than 5,000 people since peace talks collapsed, analysts say. ADVERTISEMENT Defence officials say the military is planning to buy MiG-29 supersonic jet fighters, Mi-24 helicopter gunships and bigger guns for navy fast attack craft to counter growing threats from the rebels at sea and in the air. "There is very little chance of reviving the peace process," said Sunanda Deshapriya, a director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, describing the February 2002 truce as al…

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…

The person who gave information to US Embassy about the EPDP ‘s child trafficking rings in Jaffna was abducted on May 07, 2009 and since then, no information has been obtained concerning him. He told US Embassy Colombo on March 26, 2007; “The children are sold into slavery, usually boys to work camps and girls to prostitution rings, through EPDP’s networks in India and Malaysia. Sunthararaj maintains that children are often smuggled out of the country with the help of a corrupt Customs and Immigration official at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo.” Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa “Sunthararaj’s story was partially verified b…

One year forward for Rajapakse, twelve years backward for Sri Lanka [by Admin , Nov 25,2006] As he completes his first year as President, Mahinda Rajapakse has taken the country back to its bad and dangerous past that many of us thought ended for good in 1994. The People’s Alliance victory in 1994, after a decade of war and violence, had signaled a sea change in the Sinhala political leadership. The change was best exemplified by President Chandrika Kumaratunga who demonstrated a sincere readiness to address the Tamil question through a constitutional change. Alas, the sincerity and readiness could not be translated into peace as fighting between the army a…

Pentagon cautions on China military might CHINA'S military build-up could be "potentially destabilising" in the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon said as it released its annual report on the country's military, which estimates the nation's annual spending on its armed forces at $US160 billion ($153bn). The unprecedented military modernisation project by Asia's most powerful country has already seen the emergence of its first aircraft carrier and stealth fighter jet this year - but cyber warfare is rising as a critical issue. "China's 2010 defence white paper asserts that China's future and destiny have never been more closely connected with those of t…

Sri Lankan forces 'target church' Attacks have been on the increase since the end of the ceasefire Sri Lankan forces have been accused of targeting a church in the north-western district of Mannar. The government denies this, but eyewitnesses described how the military attacked the church. An international aid worker has confirmed it. One woman was killed and more than 40 people injured in the incident. It comes after early-morning clashes in Mannar between the Sri Lankan navy and Tamil Tiger rebels, in which more than 30 people were said to have died. Some 200 people had been sheltering at the church when a grenade was thrown in, causing d…

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…