யாழ் திரைகடலோடி

Leader of the Democratic Party (DP) and former Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka yesterday said that depriving him of his right to exercise his franchise by the Elections Commissioner with a presidential election on the horizon demonstrated that President Mahinda Rajapaksa was scared of facing him in a presidential contest. Addressing a news conference at Kotte, the war winning general challenged President Rajapaksa to face him at the forthcoming presidential election. "The Democratic Party will not give in to the repressive action of the President and his cohorts and there are persons in our party who could garner more votes than I and we will take a dec…

01 January 2014 In its new year message, the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), called on all members of the international community "to back the demand for an independent, international inquiry" and "to support the initiation of a comprehensive political settlement." Adding that a 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission' was suggested with a "clear intent to hoodwink the international community," the GTF asserted that "President Rajapaksa’s regime should be given no further allowances at the 25th Session of the UNHRC in March 2014 to subvert, deliberately prolong or undermine the accountability and reconciliation processes". See full statement here http://www.tamilguardian.c…

And then they came for the judges HIS foes accuse Mahinda Rajapaksa of many sins during his seven years as Sri Lanka’s president. They blame him for the savagery that cost so many civilian lives as his army defeated the rebel Tamil Tigers in 2009. They bridle at how he has carved up the government among his brothers, like a thriving family-run conglomerate. They resent the amendment of the constitution pushed through in 2010 to remove the limit on his tenure of two six-year terms, and to give himself legal immunity and the final say in appointments to the civil service, the judiciary and the police. And they suspect his regime of connivance in the beatings, disap…

Inside a hijack: The unheard stories of the Pan Am 73 crew IMAGE SOURCE,PAN AM CREW FACEBOOK PAGE Image caption, The crew of Pan Am Flight 73 (three of whom are pictured here with their colleagues) were all in their early to mid 20s at the time of the hijack. By Megha Mohan BBC News Nearly 30 years after the hijack of Pan Am Flight 73 at Karachi airport, six of the plane's crew have spoken to the media for the first time. …

Sri Lanka And The US: A Pogrom And A Black Death At The Hands Of A White Policeman: Salutary Lessons Lionel Bopage on 06/20/2020 The Scene The morning of July the 25th 1983 is etched in my brain. I saw a group of people running or walking very fast away from the environs of Colombo. On enquiring I found they had shut up their shops and were escaping the riots that were taking place. Later in the day I saw the suburbs of Borella and Maradana ablaze. I witnessed mobs looting and burning properties belonging to Tamils and assaulting the inhabitants of those properties with impunity. Lorries a…

[size=4][size=6]’There would be replacement of every dead LTTE cadre as long as the idea of Eelam remained’[/size][/size] [size=4][size=5]“There would be prompt replacement of every dead LTTE cadre or leader as long as the idea of Eelam remained,” Brigadier (retd) Ravi Palsokar quotes Lt Gen AS Kalkat, who commandeered the IPKF in Sri Lanka as having said, in ‘Ours Not to Reason Why’.[/size][/size] [size=4][size=5]Pune-based Palsokar, who raises questions on the operational goals of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) 25 years after it was sent to Sri Lanka as part of the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord (ISLA) comments, “Do I detect a hint of exasperation and frustrati…

Ceylon Today (17.04.2020) had a story headlined “Gen Election 2020. Could be held in May.” We all know that since this date has been suggested by government sources. What is alarming however are the following three extracted paragraphs from the body of the article: “According to sources at the Election Commission (EC), with the approval of both Director General of Health Services, Dr. Anil Jasinghe and Head of the National Operation Centre for the Prevention of the spread of the coronavirus, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, the postponed General Election could be held on the last week of May. […] “The meeting is scheduled to be held on Monday, 20 April, with…

மன்னிக்கவும் தமிழில் மொழி பெயர்ப்பு செய்ய நேரம் போதவில்லை. “How Ceylon/Sri Lanka Mishandled the Tamils” in the words of Lee Kuan Yew he founding father of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew will be laid to rest today. He had first travelled to Sri Lanka in 1956and remembered his stay at the Galle Face Hotel in his autobiography ‘The Singapore Story’. During his stay in Colombo he had dined with S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and also played golf with Dudley Senanyake. He remembered interacting with Sirimavo Bandaranaike and described the world’s first woman Prime Minister as a tough person. Lee had also visited the University of Peradeniya and played golf in Nuwara Eliya staying at ‘Th…

BEIRUT, Dec 31 (Reuters) - The death toll in Syria's civil war has risen to at least 130,433, more than a third of them civilians on both sides of the conflict, but the real figure is probably much higher, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. The conflict in Syria began in March 2011 as peaceful protests against four decades of rule by President Bashar al-Assad's family, but turned into an armed insurgency whose sectarian dimensions have reverberated across the Middle East. The anti-Assad Observatory, based in Britain but with a network of sources across Syria, put the number of women and children killed in the conflict so far at 11,709. It said …

The United Nations released a report Wednesday saying Sri Lanka cannot rely on its own justice system and instead should use a special court to achieve accountability for violations that took place during the country's 26-year civil war. The recommendation came as part of a report on what the U.N. Human Rights office said were possible war crimes and crimes against humanity during the conflict that pitted government forces against rebels seeking independence for the nation's Tamil minority. The fighting killed up to 100,000 people, according to widely accepted estimates. Sri Lanka, the report said, should look to the way other countries have used international judges…

Russia And China Challenge The U.S. Dollar's Global Reserve Status If you’ve blinked over the last month, you may have missed it… China and Russia are taking their shot at the U.S. dollar. And as often happens with consequential news in the United States and the West, no one seems to notice or even care. Since the beginning of the year, I have been writing about the possibility of Russia and China challenging the US dollar’s global reserve status. Now, it’s happening. Source: Quoth The Raven It shouldn’t be any surpri…

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit has scheduled March 8th, 9:30 am for the oral argument in the appeal case against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse for civil damages on war-crimes charges filed by three Tamil plaintiffs whose relatives were extra-judicially executed or unlawfully killed under the "command responsibility" of Rajapakse. "The key legal issue in this case is whether the U.S.'s Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) deputed the Executive Branch with authority to extinguish TVPA claims against sitting heads of state based on professed foreign policy concerns," plaintiff-appellants' attorney, Bruce Fein, said. Judges Merr…

Holding Pakistan to Account The Obama administration’s decision to suspend $800 million of its $2 billion in annual security aid to Pakistan inevitably raises the question of why the United States should continue to give Pakistan any military aid at all. The White House acted after Osama bin Laden was found living near Pakistan’s leading military academy and Pakistan then expelled American military trainers. Islamabad should see this as a serious warning that Washington has all but run out of patience with its double games. Both sides will pay a high price if this goes on too long. Ending all military aid would be a serious mistake. This country tried tha…

Sri Lanka has failed to honour promises to investigate serious rights abuses and allegations that thousands of civilians were killed in the final stages of its ethnic war, a UN report says. The report by human rights experts, which was submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Monday, found that investigations by local authorities were inconclusive and were not independent or impartial. "The steps taken to investigate allegations of serious violations of human rights have been inconclusive, and lack the independence and impartiality required to inspire confidence," according to the report seen by AFP on Wednesday. The document, compiled by …

The Occupation of Water The legacy of Israel’s 50-year occupation of the Palestinian territories has been systematic human rights violations on a mass scale. One of its most devastating consequences is the impact of Israel’s discriminatory policies on Palestinians’ access to adequate supplies of clean and safe water. Soon after Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, in June 1967, the Israeli military authorities consolidated complete power over all water resources and water-related infrastructure in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). 50 years on, Israel continues to control and restrict Palest…

Sri Lanka economy in crisis as debt mounts, reserves dwindle.. (Sri Lankan daily waged laborers transport a cart load of imported garlic during restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus at a wholesale market place in Colombo) Sri Lanka has cut back on imports of farm chemicals, cars and even its staple spice turmeric as its foreign exchange reserves dwindle, hindering its ability to repay a mountain of debt as the South Asian island nation struggles to recover from the pandemic. Toothbrush handles, venetian blinds, strawberries, vinegar, wet wipes and sugar are among the hundreds of foreign-made goods that were banned or made subject to…

Gary Anandasangaree The images of young children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border over the past several years was a shocking revelation of the cruelties faced by migrants, asylum seekers and those seeking a better life than the ones they were born into. The anguish they faced and their desperate cries for help made us weep for the world and the times we are living in. But not too long ago, Canada was at the centre of this cruelty. Since we never saw these stark images on our TV screens or Twitter feeds we did not think this could exist in our country, or so we believed. We are, by all accounts, a reasonable peop…

Indian authorities in the northern state of Punjab have quarantined around 40,000 residents from 20 villages following a Covid-19 outbreak linked to just one man. The 70-year-old died of coronavirus - a fact found out only after his death. The man, a preacher, had ignored advice to self quarantine after returning from a trip to Italy and Germany, officials told BBC Punjabi's Arvind Chhabra. India has 640 confirmed cases of the virus, of which 30 are in Punjab. However, experts worry that the real number of positive cases could be far higher. India has one of the lowest testing rates in the world, although efforts are under way to ramp up capacity. …

இந்த கட்டுரையை Colombo telegraph ற்காக எழுதியவர் போராசிரியர் அசோக எக்நாயக்கே. சிங்கள வாக்காளர்களை 5 வகையாக பிரித்தும் அவர்களது மனநிலைகள் எப்படியானது எனவும், இப்போது ஏற்பட்ட நிலையால் போராடும் இவர்கள் எதிர்காலத்தில் இதயசுத்தியுடன் செயற்படுவார்களா என்ற கேள்வியை தகுந்த உதாரணங்களுடன் கேட்கிறார். ஊழல் தொடர்பான அலட்சிய போக்கு, சுயநலம் என்பன தொடக்கம் சிறுபாண்மையினர் தொடர்பான இனவாத செயற்பாடுகள் எப்படி இன்னமும் செயற்படுகிறது என கட்டுரையில் எழுதப்பட்டுள்ளது. இக்கட்டுரை, நாங்கள் சிங்களவர்களின் தற்போதைய நிலையை நம்பி ஏமாறக்கூடாது என்பதை கூறுவதாகவே நான் நினைக்கிறேன். The Millions Who Hurt Without A Change Of Heart Asoka N.I. Ekanayaka 2 weeks ago …

தமிழ் மக்களின் பிரதிநிதித்துவத்தை குறைப்பதற்கு அரசாங்கம் முயற்சி - சுரேஷ் பிரேமச்சந்திரன் எம்.பி. குற்றச்சாட்டு [செய்தி பதிவுசெய்யப்பட்டது : 2010-12-26 07:40:58| யாழ்ப்பாணம்] மக்கள் முழுமையாக மீள்குடி அமர்வதற்கு முன்பாக வாக்காளர் பதிவுகளை மேற்கொண்டு நாடாளுமன்றத்தில் தமிழ் மக்களின் பிரதிநிதித்து வத்தை குறைப்பதற்கு அரசாங்கம் முயற்சிப்பதாக தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பின் நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் சுரேஷ் பிரேமச்சந்திரன் குற்றம் சாட்டினார். இலங்கையில் போர் முடிபடைந்து மக்கள் முழுமையாக மீள்குடியேற முன்பாக வடக்கு மாவட்டங்களில் வாக்காளர்பதிவுகளை மேற்கொண்ட அரசாங்கத்தின் நடவடிக்கையானது தமிழ் மக்களுக்கு பாதகமான ஒன்றே என்று தமிழ்த் தேசிய கூட்டமைப் பின் நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினரான ச…

UNP creates broad front while UPFA leads a retreat to the past by Harim Peiris - on 07/14/2015 Photo courtesy Fatalnews As nominations closed earlier this week, the contours of the battle lines for the general election to Parliament became clear. The two major political formations in the country, the UNP and the UPFA are vying for a parliamentary majority and with it effective control of the next government. The UNP spent an useful weekend, creating a broad political front, styled the United National Front for Good Governance, (UNFGG) which will contest the elections under the UNP’s elephant symbol and be registered as a party after the elections. The UNFGG is a b…

Sri Lanka may face a tight situation at the April meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) in London with the likelihood of the country being included in the Agenda for the meeting, informed sources said yesterday. As a preemptive measure External Affairs Minister G.L Peries met Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma on Tuesday in London with the intention of warding off such an inclusion. However, he received no confirmation from Mr. Sharma that Sri Lanka will not be included in the agenda. The situation has worsened for Sri Lanka because of heightened pressure from Canada, which is part of the present cycle of the CMAG and the threat …

‘If the generals are counting tunnels, it suggests things are not going well’ Yehuda Kfir, an expert in underground warfare, says the IDF can’t keep bombing buildings and infrastructure to locate Hamas’s tunnels: ‘We need to dig from our side to theirs’ By TAL SCHNEIDER 19 December 2023, 4:38 pm 27 Soldiers stand in a large Hamas tunnel found near the Erez border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, in a handout image published December 17, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces) This week, the Israel Defense Forces publicized what it said was the biggest Hamas terror tunnel uncovered to date, built under the stewardship of…

How do Astronauts Live Eat Sleep and use the Bathroom... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=557318091039341