The Lanka News Web news website has been banned in Sri Lanka by the government.
2009-07-12 | 7.30 PM
Sri Lanka Telecom and two other service providers operating within Sri Lanka, who hosted the news website, have stopped hosting the site with immediate effect following a request made by the government from them. The management of the website had not received an official communication stating the banning of the site.
LIOC urges govt. to amend import duties on petroleum
2009-07-12 | 7.30 PM
The Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) has called on the government to amend import duties on petroleum stating the Rs.1.2 billion loss incurred by the company in the first quarter of 2009 was due to an import duty hike.
LIOC Chairman S. V. Narasimhan has reportedly said an increase in import duty on petrol imposed on the firm and higher value added tax (VAT) reduced the company’s profit margins.
“The total impact of duties on petrol consequent to the revision is nearly 65%,” he has said.
The country’s strained relations with the Western communities have resulted in a decline in fresh aid commitments received by Sri Lanka for this year.
The country has recorded a sharp decline in foreign aid commitments in the first five moths of this year with traditional Western donor countries not making any fresh commitments for 2009.
An official government report has revealed that Sri Lanka has received US$ 147.7 million as aid commitments in the first five months of 2009 as opposed to the US$ 1,049 million received during the corresponding period last year.
The Government has requested the United Nations (UN) to review its figures of civilian casualties it alleges took place during the past few months of fighting between the Government and the LTTE in the north.
The government request has come in the wake of statements made by several doctors who served in the area stating they were forced by the rebels to give bogus figures.
“They (UN) must review the figures in the light of what the doctors are saying because they were quoting them as the source of that information,” Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has reportedly said.
Sri Lanka’s failure to provide scientific proof to the death of Tiger leader gives way to blind nationalism
2009-07-11 | 9.00 PM
Sri Lanka is failing to provide concrete proof of the death of Velupillai Prabakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and Pottu Amman, the intelligence chief of the outfit who are wanted by India to wind up the case regarding the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The sources say that Sri Lankan authorities are unable to provide scientific proof for the deaths of these Tiger leaders. Although a corpse said to be of Prabakaran's was displayed as the government declared he was killed on May 18. No corpse of Pottu Amman's was shown so far.
Prabhakaran’s youngest son killed by dashing on the ground
2009-07-11 | 9.00 PM
Reports from army personnel who were engaged in the final battle in the north have said that the youngest son of the LTTE leader, Balachandran, was taken to a different area after being captured and dashed on the ground before shooting him at close range with a T56 weapon.
The photographs show Balachandran’s remains after he was killed.
During the last stages of the final battle against the LTTE rebels photographs of the remains of LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s eldest son Charles Anthony and photographs as well as video footage of the remains of Prabhakaran himself was shown in the media.
A shower of stones for Namal from the IDPs in Menik Farm
2009-07-11 | 9.00 PM
Sources from the Menik Farm IDP camp told Lanka News Web that President Mahinda Rajapakse’s eldest son, Namal Rajapakse, was received by a shower of stones when he visited the Menik Farm camp along with representatives of several media institutions.
Namal had visited the camp as the head of the NGO formed by him, Tharunyata Hetak, to inquire into how best they could assist the displaced persons in the camp.
Although the attack on Namal by residents in the camp was recorded on tape by the media crew that accompanied him, he had ensured that all recordings were deleted before they left the camp.
Presidential advisor says IDP camps in deplorable conditions
2009-07-11 | 8.50 PM
Presidential Advisor Vasudeva Nanayakkara says the war displaced living in IDP camps in the north are faced with a worse situation than death.
Nanayakkara has said that these displaced people who are living in parched land in tents with only half the required water supply were not suspects detained in remand on detention orders.
He has noted that while about 6,000 children suffered from malnutrition in the IDP camps, about 1,000 of them were in serious condition, adding that if serious attention was not paid to the issue, it would result in the death of these children.
Labour Department sources say that they are receiving requests from industrialists to close down their respective factories due to financial constraints and decline in orders from the export market.
A factory in the Katunayake free trade zone employing about 750 workers has received permission from the Department to temporarily close down the factory due to the decline in orders and an agreement has also been reached with the workers to pay them 51% of their salaries during the period of the closure.
Dinesh requests not to hold parliamentary sessions on the 22nd due to bad planetary movement
2009-07-11 | 2.05 PM
Chief Government Whip, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has made a proposal at the party leaders meeting held at the parliamentary complex not to hold parliamentary sessions on July 22, as there was going to be an astrologically dangerous planetary movement that day.
Gunawardena had made the proposal on behalf of the government at the party leaders meeting presided by Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara. Hearing the proposal, a JVP representative at the meeting had questioned if it was a comment made as a joke. Gunawardena has however said the statement was made with full responsibility.
Weerawansa’s wife creates a commotion in girl’s school
2009-07-11 | 2.05 PM
National Freedom Front (NFF) Leader and parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa’s wife had reportedly entered the Ratnavali Girls School in Gampaha and created a stir there on Wednesday (8).
According to reports, Weerawansa’s wife had visited the school with NFF parliamentarian Piyasiri Wijenayake’s wife and met with the principal. Weerawansa’s wife had then created a commotion claiming an A/Level student in the school was sending short messages (sms) to her husband’s mobile phone and that she wanted to speak to the relevant girl immediately.
Former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, who is currently facing a political vendetta unleashed by the President, is expected to make a special public statement shortly, sources from Kataragama said.
Silva, who was recently in Kataragama attending religious observances, has told confidants that he would be compelled to reveal several issues if the President continued to attack him.
ICRC presence in Sri Lanka must continue- UK Minister
2009-07-11 | 2.05 PM
Britain has said that although the conflict in Sri Lanka has ended, it did not mean that the presence of the ICRC ceases to be necessary as significant challenges still remained, particularly in relation to the IDPs in camps.
A statement by British Foreign office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown said, “I am aware that the Government of Sri Lanka has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to scale back its operations in country, and that consequently the ICRC is in the process of reviewing its operations. The importance of the ICRC's work in conflict and post-conflict situations is recognised throughout the world.
Doctors’ orders Colombo’s order to the Red Cross to cut back its work at Tamil internment camps is an outrage. The world must boycott Sri Lanka until it starts releasing detainees
Tamil death toll ‘is 1,400 a week’ at Manik Farm camp in SL
2009-07-11 | 10.45 AM
(Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images)
A Tamil girl at a refugee camp in the northern district of Vavuniya
About 1,400 people are dying every week at the giant Manik Farm internment camp set up in Sri Lanka to detain Tamil refugees from the nation’s bloody civil war, senior international aid sources have told The Times.
The death toll will add to concerns that the Sri Lankan Government has failed to halt a humanitarian catastrophe after announcing victory over the Tamil Tiger terrorist organisation in May. It may also lend credence to allegations that the Government, which has termed the internment sites “welfare villages”, has actually constructed concentration camps to house 300,000 people.
A public official sent on compulsory leave appointed as deputy amabassdor
2009-07-10 | 3.55 PM
A senior Foreign Ministry source told Lanka News Web that the country’s Foreign Service has been subject to much degradation by appointing a public official who was sent on compulsory leave for his alleged involvement in fraud and corruption as a deputy ambassador for Sri Lanka in a foreign mission.
The former Colombo Municipal Commissioner, Dr. Jayantha Liyanage has been appointed as Sri Lanka’s deputy ambassador at the embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Soldiers who were injured and disabled in the war against the terrorists and being treated at the Army Hospital are faced with many difficulties, Army Hospital sources said.
While the Army Hospital in Colombo has around 800-900 beds, many injured and disabled soldiers are currently receiving in-house treatment. Due to the large number of solider receiving in house treatment at the hospital, there is currently a shortage of beds for about 300 wounded soldiers.
The recently appointed new Chief Justice (CJ) in Sri Lanka says he is ready to reform the way judicial services are administered in Sri Lanka.
In the first ever interview with the media since taking office last month, new CJ Asoka de Silva told BBC Sandeshaya that he will soon announce reforms to the Judicial Services commission (JSC) that controls transfers and disciplinary action within the judiciary.
“I am planning few reforms to the JSC and you will know within the next few weeks what those reforms are,” he said.
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said on Thursday Sri Lanka assured India that it would soon start an inclusive political process of dialogue and devolution with Tamils in the island nation. He said India would continue to help Sri Lanka in the rehabilitation of people displaced by war.
In a suo motu statement in Parliament, Mr. Krishna said, “We have been assured by the Sri Lankan government of its intention to pursue a political process that envisages a broader dialogue with all parties, including the Tamil parties, the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan
“We knew they would never lay down arms and start negotiating” One thing I never did was to underestimate the LTTE: Mahinda Rajapaksa.
2009-07-10 | 1.45 PM
PRESIDENT RAJAPAKSA: If I was the leader of the LTTE, I would have gone underground and I would have been in the jungles — fighting a guerrilla fight.
In this second part of an extended interview to The Hindu at Temple Trees in Colombo on June 30, President Mahinda Rajapaksa answers N. Ram’s questions on his outlook on the LTTE, his approach to it in peacetime and in armed conflict, and his assessment of its fighting capabilities and of Velupillai Prabakaran’s strategy during the endgame. The first part was published on July 6.
Prof. Anuradha Seneviratna (70) Senior Professor in the Department of Sinhala, University of Peradeniya passed away last night after brief illness at the General Hospital in Kandy.
Prof. Anuradha Seneviratna earlier has served in the University of Colombo and the Institute of Aesthetic Studies as its Director. He wrote and published nearly seventy books in Sinhala and English on various aspects of Sri Lanka’s culture and civilization. His most popular books were the publications by the Archaeological Survey Department and the publications of the Central Cultural Fund on various Archaeological monuments and sites in Sri Lanka.
Jayasundera files a petition against former Chief Justice
2009-07-09 | 9.00 PM
Former Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera yesterday filed a motion in the Supreme Court seeking a nullification of an undertaking made by him to courts in the Lanka Marine Services Limited case heard by former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva. Following Silva’s order, Jayasundera agreed not to hold any public office in future.
In his petition, Jayasundera has stated that the affidavit given by him promising not to hold any public office is preventing him from agreeing to a request made by the President asking Jayasundera to accept the public offices he held earlier including the posts of Treasury Secretary and Finance Ministry Secretary.
Govt. asks ICRC to scale down operations in Sri Lanka
2009-07-09 | 8.00 PM
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said it has been ordered by the Sri Lankan government to scale down relief operations in the country.
The ICRC has been helping the war displaced in the north.
The ICRC said today it was withdrawing expatriate staff from the north and east.
Lasantha’s last call was made to me – the President
2009-07-09 | 8.00 PM
President Mahinda Rajapakse has said that The Sunday Leader Editor-in-Chief, Lasantha Wickrematunge who was assassinated six months ago had made his last telephone call to him.
The President had made this comment in an interview with The Hindu newspaper Editor, N. Ram, which was published on the 8th.
Colombo/Geneva (ICRC) – Following the cessation of active hostilities between the Sri Lankan State and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the government of Sri Lanka has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to scale down its operations in the country.
The ICRC has had a permanent presence in Sri Lanka since 1989. Its role in the country has evolved over the years, always in response to changing needs. The ICRC first responded to the needs resulting from an uprising in the southern part of the country in the late 1980s. Later, in connection with the conflict between government forces and the LTTE, it carried out humanitarian activities which continued until earlier this year.
Operation launched to challenge former CJ’s orders
2009-07-09 | 1.35 PM
An operation has been launched to challenge the court directives considered unfavorable given by former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva with regard to cases involving groups and individuals with close affiliations to the government. Petitions challenging two orders delivered by Silva were filed before the Supreme Court yesterday (7).
Sources from the Justice Ministry say that the operation against Silva has been launched with the consent of the President and guidance of several senior legal luminaries.
NEW DELHI: India Wednesday said it is still waiting for a formal response from Sri Lanka confirming the death of Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and promised continued assistance to Colombo to rehabilitate Tamils displaced by the conflict.
"In connection with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, a formal request for an official confirmation of the deaths of Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman, the chief of the intelligence wing of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), has been made to the government of Sri Lanka," External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told parliament, when asked whether India had sought the death certificate of Prabhakaran.
[AHRC Article] SRI LANKA: The law is a dangerous thing
2009-07-08 | 6.20 PM
FOR PUBLICATION AHRC-ART-034-2009
July 8, 2009
A dialogue on investigations, written for the occasion of the commemoration of six months after the assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge, a Sri Lankan journalist, on 8th January 2008 by Basil Fernando from the Asian Human Rights Commission.
SRI LANKA: The law is a dangerous thing
This is a discussion among several imaginary characters. These imaginary characters do not represent any living persons.
Pottuvil police has received a complaint of two Tamil persons being abducted by an armed group in a white van.
The armed group had abducted two brothers Arumugam Navaratna and Arumugam Manoharan from the Valam Denera Omari area in Pottuvil. Arumugam Navaratna’s wife had lodged the complaint with the police.
When the armed group had tried to abduct Navaratna, his wife and children have tried to protect him. The group had then attacked them before dragging away the brothers.
President loses his cool at Samurdhi officers’ meeting
2009-07-08 | 6.20 PM
A Samurdhi officer on the basis of anonymity told Lanka News Web that the President lost his cool and lashed out in filth at the Samurdhi officers’ meeting at Temple Trees on yesterday (7).
During the meeting, a Samurdhi officer had said they had raised an issue on the non receipt of a file bag promised by the Samurdhi Commissioner General. The President had then called upon the Samurdhi Commissioner General to give an explanation. The Commissioner General had said the delay was due to the non acceptance of the file bag provided to the officers earlier.
When the Commissioner General was giving his explanation, several Samurdhi officers seated behind the President had said the statement was a lie. Losing his
Petition filed seeking compensation from former Chief Justice
2009-07-08 | 6.20 PM
A petition seeking compensation amounting to Rs. 100 lakhs from former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva for allegedly misusing his high office to remand a person has been filed before the Supreme Court.
The petition has been filed by one Abhaya Padmasiri Balasuriya from Kandy.
The Obama administration's top diplomatic nominee for India has praised the country's role in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
"I would like to say with respect to the Indians and Afghanistan that they have provided a very helpful role to the United States and to Afghanistan and to the region," Tim Roemer, the nominated US Ambassador to India, told lawmakers at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
JVP accuses India of meddling with Sri Lanka’s affairs
2009-07-08 | 12.30 PM
The JVP has warned of India’s involvement in Sri Lanka’s affairs and asked the government not to cave in to pressure from its neighbour.
JVP spokesperson and parliamentarian Vijitha Herath yesterday accused India of meddling in Sri Lanka’s internal matters.
“We have to be cynical about the cunning intentions of India,” Herath said during the emergency debate.
New Media Collective formed by eliminating organizations that have been suppressed
2009-07-08 | 12.30 PM
Several media organizations claiming to create a joint forum to fight against the suppression of the media has formed a Media Collective eliminating two media organizations that have been direct victims of media suppression. The Media Collective is to hold a conference today to discuss the threat against media.
It is learnt that this media junta has been created without the Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association, which has the largest membership of journalists in the print and electronic field and the Federation of Media Employees Union that is the largest trade union representing media personnel.
After providing medical services to thousands displaced by war, Indian soldiers will now go to Sri Lanka to help de-mine areas once held by the Tamil Tigers, it was announced Monday.
The military personnel will be part of Indian experts who will assist authorities in Sri Lanka to detect and defuse thousands of mines laid by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told the media here.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka has said security forces would play a key role in the country’s development drive, even as Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree, in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday, said what the people of the north “want is real ‘spring’ and not an agency rule”.
A specialist doctor at the Vavuniya Hospital has said that several IDPs currently residing at the welfare camp have died due to meningitis.
Specialist doctor at the Vavuniya Hospital, Dr. Maheswaran Umakanthan has told the BBC Tamil service that of the 64 patients admitted to the hospital with meningitis, 34 have died within a period of 3 months. He has said that a majority of them were war displaced from the north living in the IDP camps.
National Freedom Front (NFF) Leader Wimal Weerawansa told the media that either members of the government who are expressing contradicting views on the 13th amendment should keep quiet or the President needed to silence them.
He said there was no need to make comments that would put the government on an unstable footing by speaking about an amendment that is no longer valid.
Thilanga attacks Ranawaka to score Brownie points from President
2009-07-07 | 12.35 PM
A senior official attached to the Presidential Media Unit told Lanka News Web that Western Provincial Councilor Thilanga Sumathipala, who is currently on a bad wicket with the President due to the revelation of a secret discussion he has had in Kandy with former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva on bringing him to politics, was trying to earn Brownie points from the President by attacking Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka.
The official said that the relevant news item was published in Sumathipala’s Lakbima newspaper with the consent of JHU legal advisor and Western Provincial Council Minister Udaya Gamanpila.
JHU members and Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka has left the country to avoid the media operation launched by several members of the government with the consent of the President, party sources said.
Ranawaka is currently in London on tour for a few days.
Ministers Dullas Alahapperuma, Mervyn Silva, Prasanna Ranatunga and Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena launched an attack against the JHU, which is a key ally in the present administration, with the President’s consent.
Sri Lanka has always been suspicious of foreign aid groups
2009-07-06 | 7.30 PM
Sri Lanka has always had a tricky relationship with the foreign aid groups that have helped it through natural disasters and 26 years of civil war with the Tamil Tigers.
The hostility has been rooted in suspicions that aid groups secretly backed the Tigers, because most of them worked in rebel territory.
Concerned over the plight of the displaced people in Sri Lanka’s northeast, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday announced Rs.500 crore ($100 million) for the rehabilitation and relief of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the island nation.
While expressing concern over the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, Mukherjee announced an allocation of $100 million for the welfare of the around 300,000 Tamil civilians housed in various camps in Sri Lanka following the end of the decades-long insurgency.
Eastern Muslims return weapons given for protection against Karuna Amman
2009-07-06 | 6.30 PM
Head of the Meera Muslim Mosque in Kattanakudy, M.I.M. Subair has said the Muslim youth were now ready to disarm themselves as there was no need for them to carry weapons for protection against the LTTE.
Subair made this comment at the ceremony held at the mosque to hand over the weapons to the security forces. On August 3, 1990 over 103 Muslim devotees were massacred at the mosque where the ceremony was held. The devotees were killed while attending prayers and the massacre was carried out on orders given by former LTTE member and present SLFM member and Minister Vinayagamoorthy Murlitharan.
A key ally in the present administration, the JHU, is split over its stance on the full implementation of the 13th amendment, political sources said.
JHU members and Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka is of the view that supporting the full implementation of the 13th amendment would be a betrayal of the Sinhalese Buddhists in the country, the party’s parliamentary group leader, Ven. Athuraliya Ratana Thero and party spokesperson, Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe are two key members who support Ranawaka’s stance.
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has told several foreign diplomats in Colombo that Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka might lose his portfolio soon, diplomatic sources said.
Bogallagama it is learnt has also said the President was opposed to Ranawaka’s stance on the 13th amendment and that even members of the JHU were not supportive of Ranawaka’s stance. He has also observed that since the National Freedom Front (NFF) has agreed not to oppose any decision arrived at by the President, there was no objection to the full implementation of the 13th amendment.
Moneragala SLFPers unhappy with Shasheendra Rajapakse
2009-07-06 | 1.00 PM
The failure of senior SLFP members and electoral organizers in the Moneragala District to support the campaign of the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the Uva Province, Shasheendra Rajapakse has prompted the President to decide on attending four key rallies in the district to boost the party’s campaign, sources from Temple Trees said.
It is learnt that the SLFP membership in the Uva Province is disgruntled over the decision to appoint a person living in the Southern Province as the paty’s chief ministerial candidate for Uva. As a result many ministers have been sent to carry out the party’s campaign in the province from Colombo.
I have a political solution in mind but I want to get that from the people: President Rajapaksa
2009-07-06 | 1.00 PM
‘Every square centimetre has been mined by the LTTE and de-mining has to be certified by the U.N. If something happens, I am responsible.’
President Mahinda Rajapaksa highlighted his determination to re-settle “as soon as possible” the close to 300,000 Tamil civilians displaced by the conflict with the LTTE. In an extended interview given to The Hindu in Colombo, he laid out his road map of what needed to be put in place to ensure the safety and meet the basic needs of those who are to be sent back to their villages. He also sketched his vision of reconciliation and development, which emphasised that in post-conflict Sri Lanka there was no place for “racism” and anything that “creates a disturbance among our three
