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Nasheed’s family in Sri Lanka

The Sunday Leader.lk — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:32:23 +0000

The family of former Maldivian President Mohammad Nasheed arrived in Sri Lanka last night and sought refuge following the unrest in the Maldives.

Sources at the President’s office said that Nasheed’s wife Laila Ali had spoken to President Mahinda Rajapaksa over the telephone after arriving in the country.

President Rajapaksa had then telephoned the newly appointed Maldivian President Mohammed Waheed Hassan and urged him to ensure the safety of Nasheed who was arrested after he staged a protest in the Maldivian [...]

Boyle: Appointing alleged war-criminals to UN posts, a violation of UN Charter

TamilNet — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:16:00 +0000

While Ban Ki Moon’s spokesman Martin Nesirky insisted that Ban is powerless to stop the proposed appointment of alleged war-criminal Shavendra Silva to an UN adviser position, Professor Boyle, an expert in international law, said, "U.N. Secretary-General has a Charter obligation to determine that the terms of article 101(3) have been satisfied before he appoints someone to the Staff irrespective of any alleged recommendation by the General Assembly," and therefore, "Ban to appoint a presumptive war criminal to his Staff [...]

Eezham Tamils await dividends to come from Mahendran’s book

TamilNet — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:11:03 +0000

“It is not a mere documentation sharing opinion, but it is on the demand for justice by the genocide-surviving Eezham Tamils, the plight of whom has not been experienced by any other society in the world,” writes Communist Party of India stalwart C. Mahendran, in the introduction to his book on the Vanni War. He encapsulates the global shame in a nutshell when he says “Mu’l’li-vaaykkaal is the heroes’ land in the 21st century world, where life was the weapon [...]

Rajapaksa double-speak holds Sri Lanka captive to its history – Firstpost

MISC — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:48:58 +0000

The modern history of Sri Lanka, centered around the politics of its Tamil minority population and its umbilically bound relationship with India, is one of broken promises, linguistic chauvinism, mutual distrust – and all-round treachery.

The annihilation in May 2009 of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which waged a bloody 30-year campaign for a separatist Tamil homeland and was in its time arguably the world’s most ruthless killing machine, gave rise to hopes that Sri Lanka might just be [...]

US diplomats head to S. Lanka for civil war talks

AFP — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:15:39 +0000

The United States said Monday it would send two senior diplomats to Sri Lanka this month, for talks expected to address alleged killings of civilians by troops during a war with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Maria Otero, Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights, and Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asian Affairs, will be in Colombo from February 12-14.

The trip is part of a regional tour for the pair — Otero will [...]

SRI LANKA Jaffna: IDPs since 1990, the government forgets thousands of people – Asia News

MISC — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:17:02 +0000

(by Melani Manel Perera) 100 families living in the Udduppidi refugee camp, 52 in that of Sinnaweli. For a year the government considers these people "resettled" and does not send more flour, rice, lentils, coconut oil and sugar. Displaced people: "Without dignity, we want to be citizens of our country."

Jaffna (AsiaNews) – "War and expropriations have robbed us of our dignity as human beings. When will we be citizens in our country?”, ask for hundreds of families, originally [...]

Can GOSL Implement LLRC Recommendations?

Groundviews — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:47:34 +0000

Photo credit Ada Derana

This is the question of the day. This is raised nationally and internationally and answers contrast for different reasons. In this article, I endeavor to briefly answer this question from a governance perspective, keeping in mind the present socio-political realities in Sri Lanka.

The President appointed the Commission of Inquiry on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliations (LLRC) on 15^th May 2010 with a broad mandate to inquire into and report on specific matters, in terms of the Commissions [...]

Tamil journalists blocked from attending Rajapaksa’s meetings in Jaffna

TamilNet — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:28:15 +0000

The wards of the Chaavakachcheari hospital, renovated with help from Red Cross societies from Finland and Ireland at different stages and that were already declared open, were declared once again opened by SL president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday. The ‘hijack’ move projected as a part of ‘grand opening’ under Rajapaksa’s Vadakkin Vasantham (the spring of the North), was exposed by the local journalists, who discovered that the initial inaugural plaques with the names of foreign donors were hastily removed Sunday [...]

Gotabaya denies north Sri Lanka is militarised

Deccan Chronicle — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:04:50 +0000

Sri Lankan defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has stoutly denied he was militarising the northern region and insisted troops “are maintaining absolutely essential presence” and were spread across all 22 districts on the island.

He was responding to the charge by Tamil parties and the diaspora that army camps flooded the north even after the government won the war over 30 months ago and no civilian activity — not even family celebrations — could happen without the presence of an [...]

US diplomats heading to S. Lanka for civil war talks

AFP — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:02:56 +0000

Three American diplomats will travel to Sri Lanka for talks about alleged killings of civilians by government troops in their campaign to defeat the Tamil Tigers, an official and report said Sunday.

The visit comes ahead of a United Nations human rights council meeting in Geneva, which starts later this month, where Washington hopes to move a resolution pressing Sri Lanka to probe alleged war crimes.

A government source in Colombo, who declined to be named, said US Assistant Secretary of [...]