Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations

Friday, October 28, 2011

Tamils want Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa arrested

Herald Sun

TAMIL protesters have demanded that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa - in Perth for the Commonwealth leaders' meeting - be arrested and charged with war crimes.

Around 60 members of Perth's Tamil community took centre stage at a rally of hundreds of diverse protesters before they all marched to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), opened by the Queen today.

Tamil speaker Yogan Tharma said Mr Rajapaksa had been given a "red carpet welcome" to CHOGM, but he was a war criminal who should be arrested.

"His place is not in the parliament, it's behind the barb wire," he shouted to the crowd.

"Please Australia, put him into jail, don't send him back home."

Mr Tharma, standing in front of a grisly banner showing dead and mutilated Tamil children, said he had lost 79 family members in the Sri Lankan civil war.

A Tamil woman, who only wanted to be known as Ajanthy, said the Commonwealth "does have teeth" which had been used to suspend four member nations - Nigeria, Fiji, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

"The crimes committed in Sri Lanka are far more serious and much larger in scale than those attributed to the four members who faced suspension," she said.

Ajanthy said genocide had taken place against Tamils in Sri Lanka, with nearly 500,000 killed and one million displaced out of the country.

"We need Australians to support suspension of Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth, we need to stop the genocide of Tamils and support the independents of Tamils," she said.

Earlier this week, Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland moved to quash a court case brought by a Melbourne man against President Rajapaksa, which alleged he had committed war crimes and human rights violations.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard met Mr Rajapaksa in Perth earlier this week in the lead-up to CHOGM.

CHOGM backs human rights action plan

28 Oct 2011
AAP

Commonwealth governments in danger of violating human rights and the rule of law will face earlier intervention under a plan approved at a meeting of former British colonies in Australia.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd presented a report on Friday to the first session of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth on ways to deal with countries veering toward breaches of democratic values, as occurred in Fiji.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said all 35 reform proposals of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) report were adopted, which she described as CHOGM's first concrete action.

Full Story>>>

Commonwealth leaders must stop Sri Lanka hosting key summit

Thousands trapped in camps were injured or killed in the last days of Sri Lanka's war

The Commonwealth risks becoming 'irrelevant' if its leaders allow Sri Lanka to become its next host, Amnesty International said today ahead of the organization's biennial summit.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) begins in Perth, Australia on Friday, with Sri Lanka due to chair the next summit in 2013 despite an appalling human rights record.

"It's absurd to even consider allowing Sri Lanka to host CHOGM as long as it fails to account for alleged war crimes," said XX of Amnesty International.

"Today Commonwealth leaders are faced with a choice – reform the Commonwealth so that it can effectively address human rights violations by its members, or risk becoming irrelevant."

Sri Lanka, along with India, is reportedly trying to block the proposal to establish a human rights envoy aimed at making the Commonwealth more effective on human rights.

A report by an advisory group of 11 Commonwealth countries makes over 100 recommendations aimed at reforming the organization, including bolstering the organization's ability to tackle violations of its core principles by member states.

The document, which was supposed to be discussed at this weekend's CHOGM, is still officially secret, but leaks suggest it proposes a new human rights monitor.

"Sri Lanka and India's pre-emptive attack on these reforms - before they've even had a chance to be discussed - shows they would have a lot to lose if their human rights records were open to scrutiny," said XX.

In the final weeks of Sri Lanka's war with the Tamil Tigers, some 300,000 people were trapped by the fighting in government declared ‘safe zones’. They were deprived of basic facilities and systematically bombarded by the army’s heavy artillery, leaving more than 10,000 dead.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has publicly pledged to resist any international efforts to prosecute Sri Lankan ‘war heroes’.

Time is of the essence

Friday, 28 October 2011

The primary focus of Australian diplomacy towards Sri Lanka is to prevent Tamils from getting onto boats and coming to Australia. To that end there is an AFP presence at the Australian High Commission to liaise and work with the Sri Lankan navy, army and police.

How will they explain these activities at CHOGM? How will Australia explain that its sole cause of concern for the ravaged and defeated Tamils in the north of Sri Lanka is to prevent them seeking refugee status? It is not a good look for a country chasing a seat on the UN Security Council.

However the Australian narrow self concern is surpassed by that of the Sri Lankan government. Two years after the end of the war and all indicators are that Tamils are being pushed to the margins of survival. Full Story>>>

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Do not let global supporters of genocide look like saviours of Tamils

By Jude Lal Fernando

In the second part of his discourse on Sri Lanka, Sinhala academic Jude Lal Fernando traces the political history of the island nation and dispels the theory that British favoured the Tamils. The first part of this article appeeared last week.

Mute spectators: Jude refuses to buy the theory that the ‘major powers’ including the US and the UK were unaware of the massacre of Tamils by the Sri Lankan army (Photos:www.warwithoutwitness.com)

Every nation in the world wants to appease Sri Lanka because of its strategic location in the Indian Ocean. The Tamil struggle fell a victim to this appeasement

Lest we forget: The deaths of thousands of civilians in the brutal war could have been averted had the major powers intervened at the appropriate time

Read Part I Read Part II

Full Story>>>

75 acres Sanctuary land around Yodha wewa unlawfully appropriated for Basil’s Hotel project –legal action unavailing

thursday 27 of October 2011

(Lanka-e-News -27.Oct.2011, 6.30PM) 75 acres of forest land around the land of Yoda Wewa is being cleared for a Hotel project of Minister Basil Rajapakse. As this was unlawfully carried out, the Wild life conservation Dept. filed legal action against it. But , lo and behold ! , the Minister Basil himself has takien care of the legal process against him! - the most vexatious and treacherous part of this unlawful project .

This 75 acres forest land is situated around the Yoda wewa in the Manthe district secretarial division of Mannar ,and it has been now exposed that this project under the Irrigation and Water management Ministry is illegal. After obtaining permission purportedly to release the water of the Yoda wewa , this Hotel project had been illegally begun by clearing 1.5 kilometers length and half meter breadth strip of the forest land. This action has been taken by the Engineer , S M A Nelugolla of the Irrigation Dept . Murunkan ,under his monitoring .

Legal action had been filed by the Wild life conservation Dept. against this unlawful clearance of the forest under case No. A R 173 in the Magistrate court ,in which legal case , S M A Nelugolla , the Irrigation Dept.Engineer is the respondent. But it is revealed that this action has been distorted to suit the aims and objectives of Basil Rajapakse under the ‘uthuru wasanthaya’ program. Consequently , the attendance of court and filing of answer in this case by the respondents are being ignored .The engineer is now engaged in efforts to unlawfully keep away from courts and take no notice of filing an answer which is incumbent on him. It is learnt that this forest has been cleared without proper legal approval for a Hotel project of the Minister Basil Rajapakse.

This land around the Yoda wewa extending in 4330 hectares had been declared as coming under the Animals and trees protection Ordinance of 24-09-1954, and is recognized as a most special and precious wild life habitat.

This gross violation of the provision 7 ( c) of the Animals and Trees protection Ordinance 1937 (2) as amended last by 2009 section 22 enacted by the State, by the Govt. itself is a serious ‘crime ‘ against the State amounting to treason. The clearance of this forest area by the Govt. is therefore absolutely unlawful and not permissible under any circumstance. According to the gazette notification No. 869/14 published on 23 Feb. 1995 under the National environment Act as amended in 1980 (47) , within 100 meters of or immediately outside the boundary of a sanctuary , if any development project is to be commenced , a written approval based on environment shall be obtained. All these regulations and laws have been completely ignored and cast aside on the intense pressures exerted by Minister Basil Rajapakse on the Irrigation and water management Dept.

Sri Lanka spurns war crime claims

October 28, 2011

Daniel Flitton and Michelle Grattan

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Photo: Reuters

SRI Lanka's President has hit back against allegations of war crimes and continuing abuse of the country's Tamil-minority, saying the ''eradication of terrorism'' was the basis of Sri Lanka's prosperity.

Mahinda Rajapaksa defied calls for Colombo to be stripped of the right to host the next Commonwealth leaders' meeting, telling a gathering in Perth yesterday that reconciliation after Sri Lanka's brutal civil war was well under way.

''When the next CHOGM is held in Sri Lanka, it is my firm belief that it will be a memorable experience for you, my dear friends,'' he told the Commonwealth Business Forum.

Greens leader Bob Brown yesterday said that Australia should boycott the 2013 CHOGM in Colombo if Sri Lanka did not adequately address issues of human rights and democracy.

Senator Brown said the government should follow Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has threatened that Canada will stay away unless Sri Lanka acts. He said the Commonwealth was trying to make itself relevant - and Sri Lanka was a big challenge to that relevancy. ''If CHOGM is held in Colombo with nothing done about the war crimes and civil rights, that could be the end of the Commonwealth,'' Senator Brown said.

''It would raise a big question mark over the Commonwealth if it can't bring Sri Lanka to do the right thing.''

More than 7000 people are estimated to have been killed in 2009 in the final months of the three-decade conflict with the separatist Tamil Tigers.

But despite a UN finding that credible allegations of war crimes should be answered on both sides, Mr Rajapaksa defended the military crackdown.

''An end to terrorist violence was absolutely essential to moving the country forward along the path of economic and social development. We suffered for 30 years,'' he said.

Sri Lanka has refused to allow an independent investigation of the conflict, leading Canada to threaten to pull out of the 2013 CHOGM summit.

Colombo has set up its own inquiry on the conflict with a report expected next month.

Mr Rajapaksa said almost 11,700 of 12,000 captured Tamils had been released after time in rehabilitation camps.

Mr Rajapaksa said the Sri Lankan economy had grown 8 per cent annually and war-torn regions in the north and east of the country had grow by 22 per cent.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called on Australian politicians not to make his country part of the domestic political crossfire. Mr Najib, who met Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday, said that the ''Malaysia solution'' had been unfairly characterised because ''it's actually a Malaysia-Australia solution''.

He said that the ball was now in Australia's court, ''but please don't make Malaysia part of your crossfire''. Hopefully, the government would get enough support in Parliament for the arrangement to go through, he said.

He also had a swipe at criticisms from the Coalition. ''I'm not against the opposition per se, but as leader of the country I have to set the record straight - that asylum seekers and refugees are treated well in Malaysia and that's a fact recognised by the UN.''

■Last night, Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma played down the prospect of CHOGM adopting the Eminent Persons Group's proposal for a commissioner for human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

India against new rights group at Commonwealth

New Delhi says the 54-member group should focus more on development challenges instead of human rights

27 October 2011 Iftikhar Gilani New Delhi

India has said that the proposal to inspect human rights violations in Sri Lanka or elsewhere is ill-timed given the Commonwealth funding problems

As India seems set to block an attempt by some countries to constitute a human rights monitoring group at the 54th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), international human rights groups have taken a strong exception to New Delhi’s stance.

The summit begins in the Australian city of Perth o Friday. Vice-President Hamid Ansari left for Perth on Thursday to lead the official delegation at the summit, which includes an executive session where leaders would make formal statements and a retreat during which they would interact informally without the presence of aides. Full Story>>>

Controversies in Perth CHOGM & Commonwealth’s response to Sri Lanka

CHOGM Heads of State

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Published: 26 October 2011

PERTH – The Commonwealth road show is in town. What with Australia being the next chair of the Commonwealth and the Queen visiting there is some, if muted, excitement.

Usually a humdrum affair of quiet consensual meetings that produce little beyond routine rhetoric, this time the Heads of Government Meeting at Perth has some very big issues to discuss. All relate to its future relevance. Full Story>>>

Bharatha killing, drugs and CSE 'linked'

Bharatha killing, drugs and CSE 'linked'


	The TNL has noted 'a link between the illegal drugs market and the stock exchange'

There seems to be a link between Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE), illegal drugs and the recent murder of a presidential advisor, says the owner of a private media network.

Shan Wickramsinghe, the owner of the TNL media network, told BBC Sandeshaya that he received death threats after his network discussed the alleged link in a talk show.

The link was “exposed” after the killing of presidential advisor on trade unions, Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra allegedly by the supporters of Duminda Silva, MP.

Media reports said there has been a short supply of drugs after the incident in which Duminda Silva also received serious head injuries.

“Reports said the stock market had collapsed while there was no illegal drugs in the market,” Mr Wickramasinghe explained.

'Secret talks'

“When we were exploring this, we noted that there was a link between the illegal drug market and the stock exchange,” he added.


	'Duminda Silva, his brother Reno Silva, Waruni Amunugama, and Dilith Jayaweera share a suite in Intercontinental Hotel'

The head of the private media network says they investigated how the CSE, which is hailed by the government as the best in Asia, suddenly falls due to short supply of illegal drugs such as heroin.

“We found out that Duminda Silva, his brother Reno Silva, Waruni Amunugama, and Dilith Jayaweera share a suite in Intercontinental Hotel in Colombo and I revealed what they recently discussed in that suite,” said Mr Wickramasinghe.

While Ms Amunugama and Mr Jayaweera are co-owners of the Ada Derana network, Reno Silva is the owner of ABC media network.

After the revelation, says the TNL owner, senior officials at the TNL have received threats over the phone.

“In a separate call, Waruni Amunugama has told my daughter that I will not be allowed to see the day light again,” said Mr Wickramasinghe.

The TNL owner, who has lodged a complaint with the police regarding the death threats, has sent a copy of the complaint to the foreign embassies.

There was no immediate response from the government for the allegations made.

SRI LANKA: Perpetrators of a brutal attack on a student of Jaffna University have not been arrested

October 27, 2011

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION-URGENT APPEAL PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-223-2011

SRI LANKA: Perpetrators of a brutal attack on a student of Jaffna University have not been arrested

ISSUES: Extrajudicial killing attempt; torture; right to assembly; denied investigation and justice; impunity; rule of law

Dear friends,

Mr. Rajavarothayan Kavirajan (27) of Nalloor, Punarin in Kilinochchi District, a final year student of Art Faculty of the Jaffna University was severely assaulted by members of an unknown group, who are believed to be of the country's military intelligence units, in Jaffna on 24 October 2011. Rajavarothayan was seriously injured, and was admitted to the Kilinochchi General Hospital and then on the next day considering the severity of the condition he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Rajavarothayan organized many protests against the attack on his fellow student and the President of the Jaffna University Student Union on 16 October 2011. None of Sri Lanka's law enforcement agencies have begun a transparent investigation into the incident. The fate of a civil rights activist is in danger. Thavapalasingham's relatives and the rest of Sri Lankan civil society are waiting for the perpetrator to be caught and justice to be appropriately delivered. This case is yet another illustration of the exceptional collapse of the rule of law in the country.

Scars of genocide to serve culture of imperialism

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 October 2011, 12:42 GMT]
“When the emissary of India, a country that backed Sri Lanka in its genocidal campaign against the Tamil people, marks out an artist to promote ‘cultural revival’ in their homelands, can this act and the performance be devoid of politics,” asks Mr. RM Karthick, a social science researcher from Tamil Nadu working in a British university, commenting on the recent ‘cultural tour’ of Chennai based Carnatic singer T M Krishna in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The Hindu on October 23 carried an article by Krishna on his visit to Jaffna, saying the performance went ‘beyond the scars’. “Artistes don't stand for elections, don't fight on the battlefield but we offer to everyone the very breath of life —happiness,” Krishna said in The Hindu article.

Full text of the article by Mr. RM Karthick, a research scholar studying Political Theory at University of Essex, UK., follows:

ART IN THE TIME OF GENOCIDE
The recent cultural tour of T.M. Krishna, a Chennai based Carnatic singer, in the Northern areas of the occupied territory of Tamil Eelam, was praised by quite some in the Indian media and the Sri Lankan media. It was reported that there was a substantial turn out in Jaffna, where the artist had performed solely in Tamil. While observing the “conflicting images” in the Tamil homelands and asking some moral questions to himself, the singer concludes with an apolitical message in an article published later in The Hindu that “Artistes don't stand for elections, don't fight on the battlefield but we offer to everyone the very breath of life —happiness.”

Full story >>

Australia Network - Newsline - Archives

War crimes

Kate Arnott speaks to the former UN spokesman in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss, about efforts to bring about war crimes charges against Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapakse, who is in Perth.

Sri Lanka slams advanced economies

October 27, 2011AAP

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has taken a swipe at advanced economies, saying they urgently need to get their act together because the Asia Pacific region is propping up global stability.

Leaders in advanced economies had done "too little, too late" to address shaky confidence in their financial markets, so they needed to take urgent action or risk derailing global stability, Mr Rajapaksa told the Commonwealth Business Forum in Perth on Thursday.

He pointed to high unemployment in advanced nations, which had resulted in the first signs of political and social unrest in those societies.

"Such situations, if allowed to escalate unchecked, could give rise to more serious political problems, which would further threaten global economic stability," Mr Rajapaksa told delegates.

"It is thus imperative that the more advanced nations respond quickly and efficiently to deal with rising inequalities and unemployment levels in their society, without allowing a situation of unacceptable proportions."

Mr Rajapaksa, said he was concerned that confidence, the bedrock of the economic system, was going to slide further.

"If confidence levels decline, economic activity that we take for granted is damaged at the very foundations.

"It is essential that world leaders search for proper responses and act decisively to restore confidence.

"It is ... time for advanced economies to respond to the growing crisis and do so quickly ... otherwise they will find that the situation will become much worse and perhaps even reach a point of no return."

He also said Sri Lanka, the next host nation for CHOGM, had been successful in maintaining confidence over the past six years "because we have been able to provide a political consistency".

Economic growth in the north and east regions, which had previously been affected by conflict, was growing by 22 per cent, he said.

Unemployment had fallen from eight per cent to 4.3 per cent, inflation had dropped from 28 per cent to six per cent and debt-to-GDP levels were down from 103 per cent to 79 per cent.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday raised directly with the Sri Lankan president the issue of human rights abuses during the country's civil war that ended in 2009.

Mr Rajapaksa, who has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the country's civil war, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

He has reportedly been cited in a separate brief of evidence compiled by the International Commission of Jurists' Australian section.

SRI LANKA SAYS WAR CRIMES ALLEGATIONS 'PROPAGANDA'

YAHOO!7 NEWS

October 27, 2011

Perth, Australia, Oct 27, 2011 (AFP) - - Sri Lanka's government on Thursday sought to dismiss war crimes allegations as propaganda from its defeated rivals, as it came under further pressure ahead of a Commonwealth summit.

A spokesman for Sri Lankan President Mahendra Rajapakse described the heavy focus on the issue in the lead-up to Friday's gathering of leaders from the 54-nation Commonwealth bloc in the Australian city of Perth as "unfair".

"This is the well-oiled propaganda machinery of the LTTE rump," spokesman Bandula Jayasekera told the ABC news network, in reference to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and its diaspora overseas.

Sri Lankan government forces are accused of committing atrocities against the Tamil Tigers during a final push that defeated the separatists in 2009, with accusations that the military killed tens of thousands of civilians.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard raised the issue with Rajapakse during talks in Perth on Wednesday, and it is expected to be high on the agenda during the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

"This is hearsay. These are mere allegations... we have ended 30 years of terror," Jayasekera said.

Rajapakse also repeated at a Commonwealth business forum in Perth on Thursday his government's insistence that it crushed a "terrorist" organisation when defeating the Tamil Tigers.

"An end to terrorist violence was absolutely essential to move the country forward along the path of economic and social development," Rajapakse said.

The next CHOGM summit is due to be held in Colombo in 2013, and Amnesty International chief Salil Shetty criticised Commonwealth nations Thursday for allowing Sri Lanka to have hosting rights with the war crimes issue unresolved.

"Commonwealth countries share a commitment to basic values including democracy, freedom, peace and rule of law," Shetty wrote in an opinion piece for The West Australian newspaper.

"Allowing Sri Lanka to head the Commonwealth runs contrary to these values and threatens to derail the organisation's commitment to human rights."

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Military accused of attack on Jaffna Uni. students

October 26, 2011,

by Dasun Edirisinghe

Undergraduates yesterday alleged that the military deployed in Jaffna was responsible for attacking Jaffna university students. One student was still warded with head injuries.

Convener of the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) Sanjeewa Bandara told The Island that there were 55,000 military personnel deployed in the Jaffna area, but they were not able to prevent attacks on students.

"The Students’ Council of the university protested on Oct. 17 against attacks on undergraduates four days back," he said adding that in return the President of the Students’ Council was attacked on Oct. 25 around 7.30 p.m.

The undergraduate, P. Kaviraj, is still undergoing treatment in Ward No. 28 of the Jaffna teaching hospital, Bandara said.

Criticizing the security forces in the peninsula, he said that the Jaffna police failed to act on their complaint and arrest anyone.

According to him, the military was not allowing even a peaceful demonstration to be conducted in the Jaffna area.

"We will launch a countrywide protest campaign against these attacks from next Monday," Bandara said adding that the government must stop targeting student leaders who shout against its corruptions and malpractices.

When contacted by The Island for comments, military spokesman Brigadier Nihal Hapuarachchi denied that the security forces were involved in the incident.

He said that the students pointed a figure at the security forces, but they did not complain to the police.

"After a proper complaint, if police ask for an investigation the Army could hold it," Hapuarachchi said.

The Minor offences branch of the Jaffna police said that the undergraduate was injured in a clash between those who support ragging and those against it.

A police officer said however, they investigate the complaint made by students and one student surrendered to the police in connection with the attack.

"We produced him in Court," he said.

When The Island contacted the Director of Jaffna hospital to inquire about the condition of warded student, she referred us to Consultant surgeon of the ward, but he was not available for immediate comments.

Duty Medical Officer of the Ward No. 28 refused to comment on the injured undergraduate.

Over 50 Ministers turn against regime! Basil takes the steering wheel: a Ministerial group in discussion with foreign countries

(Lanka-e-News -26.Oct.2011, 11.00PM) Following the recent cold blooded murder of Presidential advisor Bharatha Lakshman , the resentment and rifts within the Govt. rank and file had escalated. The rift between the SLFP’s patriotic group and the regime’s loyalists have gravely widened.

During these days when the regime chief is out of the Island , Minister Basil Rajapakse is busy building up support for the SLFP’s patriotic group with a view to be at its helm in this campaign, according to reports reaching Lanka e news. Before the return of the regime chief to the Island , Basil Rajapakse is going pell -mell to carry out a number of projects to suit his fancy. Among them are the petroleum and telecom projects whose costs exceed Rs.2000 million dollars. (Details of these projects will be published in a subsequent article) .

No sooner the Regime chief left the country than Basil Rajapakse , held a media briefing on the 24th which was very much akin to that of how a country’s leader conducts it.
According to inside sources of the Govt. there are over 50 Ministers of the ‘SLFP’s patriotic group’ who are against the regime’s loyalists. All these patriotic Ministers are aligned behind Basil . Consequently , Gota the paranoia afflicted gorakaya has been pushed into the kennel of the canine category, the only place he fits into. The regime chief perhaps has also fallen into no better a position than that.

As these portents and dangerous trends are staring ominously in the face of Gota , the latter in his desperation, sought the help of the Rajapakse loyalists backing media . In the ITN program he participated on the 24th , his frustration and fear were writ large on his face, the SL patriotic group pointed out.

The SLFP’s patriotic group claim that the country has been plunged into a chaotic disarray with lawlessness and corruption reigning supreme , and the murderous clan ruling the roost. For all these and the evil trends created , paranoid Gota is absolutely responsible, they say. Therefore it is important that the country shall be put back on track. Many front line Ministers of this patriotic group have started discussions with several foreign Governments with a view to progressing towards their new goals, and have sought their assistance. They have received the green light from most countries with whom they have had discussions, according to reports reaching Lanka e news.

CENSORED WEBSITE’S EDITOR TALKS ABOUT MEDIA CONTROL

PUBLISHED ON WEDNESDAY 26 OCTOBER 2011.

Reporters Without Borders deplores the action of two Sri Lankan Internet Service Providers in blocking access to the independent news website Lanka-e-News and calls on them to explain themselves. If they are doing it at the government’s behest, they have become accomplices to state censorship. The site has been inaccessible since 18 October.

“This decision by Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and Dialog Axiata PLC to block the Lanka-e-News site reflects the increase in censorship in Sri Lanka,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge these ISPs not to discriminate against news sites that are critical of the government and to restore access to Lanka-e-News. The government must also stop pressuring ISPs and guarantee their independence.”

The hounding of Lanka-e-News has intensified this year. An arson attack on its headquarters in the Colombo suburb of Malabe in the early hours of 31 January gutted most of the building including the rooms housing its computers and library and forced it to suspend all activities.

The Lanka-e-News political journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda is meanwhile still missing. He disappeared on 24 January 2010 (See the support campaign).

Several other sites, including the Sri Lanka Guardian, are permanently blocked. Groundviews and its partner site Vikalpa were temporarily blocked on 20 June, like the Transparency International site.

Lanka-e-News editor Sandaruwan Senadheera, who fled into exile a year ago, has been interviewed by Reporters Without Borders about the current state of media freedom and freedom of information in Sri Lanka: Full Story>>>