WikiLeaks: Nambiar Brought Limited Progress, Indian’s Tone Is Much Tougher Than Ever – Blake

Colombo TelegraphMARCH 12, 2012

By Colombo Telegraph 

“The visit of the UN Secretary General’s Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar brought limited progress, with some prospect of a working-level UN mission to try to negotiate the release of greater numbers of civilians from the LTTE-controlled ‘safe zone.’”the US Embassy informed Washington.

While it is incumbent on the LTTE to release all civilians and IDPs under their control, the Government of Sri Lanka cannot be oblivious to the evolving human tragedy and the fate of the Tamil civilian population caught up in the so-called No Fire Zone. There is no reason not to continue with the pause in military actions in the NFZ

“UNSYG Chief of Staff Nambiar reported to Co-Chair Ambassadors limited progress with senior Sri Lankan officials on obtaining a lengthier cease fire and time for diplomacy to persuade the LTTE to lay down arms and let civilians go. The President and his brother, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa, opposed any longer pause on the grounds it would only help the LTTE regroup, forcibly recruit more civilians, and train them to fight the Sri Lankan military.” the US Embassy Colombo updated the Secretary of State.

The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable was written on April 17, 2009 by the US Ambassador to Colombo, Robert O. Blake.

The US Ambassador wrote “The UN resident coordinator in Colombo reported that secretary general Ban Ki-Moon had discussed Sri Lanka on April 16 with both the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Solana and US Perm Rep Susan Rice. A priest who had been serving the population in the LTTE-control area until two weeks ago briefed us on conditions in the safe zone. He noted that nearly all the civilians in the LTTE-controlled area would leave if they could. He said the LTTE had pushed back an attempt by the Army to penetrate into the safe zone and split it.”

Blake wrote “R. Sampanthan, the leader of the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) led a delegation of four TNA MPs to Delhi for meetings April 16-17 with Indian National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. A member of the delegation, MP Premachandran, stated: ‘We told the Indian government that the military operations (in Sri Lanka) must be stopped.’ Explaining what the TNA expected from New Delhi, he added, ‘India must tell Sri Lanka that if it cannot protect civilians, then it (India) will have a responsibility to do so.’”

“The Indian High Commission made us aware of the following statement issued in New Delhi by the External Affairs Ministry. (Comment: in tone and substance, much tougher than the comparatively rare statements on the Sri Lankan situation we have seen before. End comment.)” Blake further wrote.

Indian’s wrote; “We had welcomed the announcement by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse of a cessation of hostilities for the Tamil and Sinhala New Year over the last two days. The Government of Sri Lanka must extend this pause in hostilities to prevent further casualties and enable trapped civilians to leave the area to secure locations. Continuation of precipitate military actions leading to further civilian casualties at this time would be totally unacceptable. While it is incumbent on the LTTE to release all civilians and IDPs under their control, the Government of Sri Lanka cannot be oblivious to the evolving human tragedy and the fate of the Tamil civilian population caught up in the so-called No Fire Zone. There is no reason not to continue with the pause in military actions in the NFZ.”

Read the cable below for Indian’s statement and for further details;

LLRC-based resolution extremely disappointing: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2012, 11:37 GMT]
The US-tabled resolution at UNHRC, based on the fundamentally flawed LLRC recommendations, is extremely disappointing and counter-productive, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, leader of Tamil National People's Front (TNPF), in a press meet held at the party office in Jaffna on Saturday. The resolution envisages an accused in the violation of international humanitarian law to become the investigator of the crime. If the LLRC findings are going to be the ‘starting point’ for any future prospects, chances of progress are difficult. Rather than keeping the expectations of the grieved party at the bare minimum, the resolution should begin with the UNSG panel report. What need investigation are the genocide of 60 years culminating into the war and the on-going structural genocide. Justice could come only from independent international investigation, he said. 



Our position is that what is happening in Sri Lanka is a systematic genocide. It has been happening for the last 60 odd years. What happened in the last stages of the war was taking that genocidal project to its extreme.

It has been three years since the war ended. There are several steps that are being taken currently that carry on the structural genocide of our people. What is happening in Sri Lanka and particularly to the Tamil nation in the island of Sri Lanka is the dismantling of the existence of the Tamils as a distinct nation of people. That is what is happening and it is that what has to be investigated and our belief is that if there is any prospect of justice to be met, it can only happen through one international independent investigation. Nothing short of it was advised, Gajendrakumar said in the English session of the press meet.

TNPF officials: [L-R] Mr. Jeyasingam Jeyarooban, Mr. Manivannan, Mr. Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam, parliamentarian Mr. S. Kajendren and Ms. Pathmini Sithamparanathan

The translated summary of Gajendrakumar’s detailed press session in Tamil follows:
Full story >>

Criminal white van record of Rajapakses exposed: culprits released unlawfully –hereunder are the startling facts

-Murderous Rajapakses try to kill their own Mayor Idi Amin style using the Army para group

(Lanka-e-News-11.March.2012, 11.45PM) It has now come to light that the Rajapakse regime criminals with the white van who were for the first time caught by the people and handed over to the Wellampitiya police comprised two Captains, a Lieutenant and a Corporal. These criminals associated with the raging white van murder syndrome had been freed from the police custody unlawfully and taken away by Western zone seiner DIG Anura Senanayake who had arrived at the police station early morning at about 4.40 yesterday . Anything of this most lawless Idi Amin style operation had not been recorded in the police registers. Lanka e news wishes give details of these four white Van criminals ; they are : 1. Army Captain Jayasena Saluge Sampath Pushpa Kumara 2. Army Captain Wijekoon Mudiyansalage Chaminda Wijekoon 3. Army Lieutenant Thal Arambalage Gedera Dhanushka Dineth Wijetunge 4. Army Corporal Sinhabahu Mudiyansalage Saman Kumarasinghe. A civilian has been the driver of the white Van No. W P CC 8649 . His name is Samaratunge Mudiyansalage Samaratunge. This is a vehicle that had been acquired by the Govt. These four Army officers are attached to the Army Headquarters , Colombo without any specific duties. Recently they have been transferred to the 13th Corps of the Vavuniya Army Headquarters. However , they perform their duties following instructions from the Army Headquarters , Colombo. These criminal white Van operations are carried out under Army chief of staff division, Director General , Major Gen. Jagath Alwis following directives from President Rajapakse and defense Secretary Gotabaya . Lanka e news exposed these details in its article on the 10th of January 2012 under the caption ‘ operators of the new white van culture and dimension exposed’ (http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=12605) The photographs and video clips of the four murderers associated with the white van who were for the first time caught by the people and handed over to the Wellampitiya police are now in the possession of Lanka e news. The Mayor of Kolonnawa UC , Raveendra Udaya Shantha who was lucky enough to escape in the white Van abduction attempt explained to Lanka e News how the white Van criminals were surrounded by the people and handed over to the police….. Full story >>

'Western agenda used' for Sri Lanka war crimes

'It is important to recognise that the international community demands highest standards from a government which claim to be a democratically elected, legitimate government' The director of a British documentary on last stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war has accused the West and the UN of failing to take any “effective action” to prevent alleged war crimes by the country’s security forces. Callum Macrae, the director of “Sri Lanka Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished” said that many allegations against Sri Lanka government have been confirmed through leaked UN documents, US embassy cables revealed by Wikileaks and an interview former senior UN official John Holmes. “The international community has an obligation of duty to protect which is a fundamental principal under international law. That duty was not carried out; the international community has failed on that,” he told BBC Sinhala service, Sandeshaya. Mr Macrae says there were two major reasons for the “failure” by the international community to prevent Sri Lanka continuing with war crimes. 'Shelling UN workers' “The climate this was allowed to happen was that Rajapaksa regime used the Western Agenda global war on terror to justify what they were doing,” he said. The killing is a clear proof of a systematic pattern of executions, says Mr Macrae The film, to be released next week in UK by the Channel4, also figures harrowing details of the killing of Rasmachandran Prabhakaran, 12, the younger son of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Mr Macrae said the footage, recorded by a member of Sri Lankan armed forces, has been carefully examined by video experts to confirm that it was authentic. “The forensic pathologist analysed and the moment of death from the nature of the wounds and it is clear that he was executed in cold blood,” he added. The killing, together with other incidents of alleged executions by the security forces, is a clear proof that there was a “systematic pattern of executions of leading LLTE figures and fighters.” The film alleges that orders for the alleged executions as well as “deliberate targeting of civilians” have come from the most senior commanders, including President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Commander of Sri Lanka Army, Gen Sarath Fonseka.   The men who have most frequently claimed direct control of the war were President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabhaya   Callum Macrae “The Sri Lankan military is very very disciplined and very organised. The men who have most frequently claimed direct control of the war were President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabhaya,” he said. The film reveals, says Callum Macrae, how a group of UN workers were fired upon by the Sri Lanka military after the workers informed their GPS coordinates to the military. “There were systematic shelling of the UN bunker and the area around it. When they protested about it, they were told were sent directly by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseksa,” he said, adding that it shows the highest command was aware about the attacks into the no fire zone. “Those men bear direct commanding responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.” The director said nobody would deny that the Tamil Tigers were also responsible for serious war crimes including the using civilians as a human shield in the war zone. “The war crimes committed by the LTTE are clear and documented and are not challenged,” said Mr Macrae. “However, it is important to recognise that the international community demands highest standards from a government which claim to be a democratically elected, legitimate government.”

No action against Janaka Ratnayake’s corrupt deals

Monday, 12 March 2012 

Legal action is yet to be instituted on the internal audit inquiry carried out by Bank of Ceylon on irregular dealings carried out at the Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka (MBSL), which a subsidiary of Bank of Ceylon, during the tenure of former MBSL Chairman, Janaka Ratnayake, it is learnt. The investigation was initiated two years ago.

Ratnayake has been accused of misusing stocks of The Finance Company, irregular land transactions, payments made to Computer Island Limited for providing software to computers, increasing the payments to board members and getting his salary increased on several occasions.

Computer Island Limited is a company that is privately owned by Ratnayake.

The internal audit report had been released on September 10, 2010 and neither Bank of Ceylon Chairman Gamini Wickremasinghe nor the Central Bank has taken any action against Ratnayake based on the contents of the report.

Dr. Manoharan rejects Colombo's proposal, demands release of CoI report

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 March 2012, 01:39 GMT]
Dr Kasippillai Manoharan, the father of Ragihar, one of the student victims of the Trinco-5 killings, rejected Colombo's proposal in Geneva that Colombo would reopen investigations into the 2006 killing of five students in Trincomalee and 17 aid workers at Muthoor saying that Colombo's assurances are another ploy to buy time to sidestep incriminating the alleged killers, the Special Task Force (STF). Dr Manoharan added that, while there were serious flaws in the Commission of Inquiries that completed investigations of the Trinco students killing, Colombo, before attempting to mislead the world again, should first release the CoI report that might contain useful details into the identity of his son's killers. 

• Amnesty: 20 years of Make-believe, Sri Lankas Commission of Inquiry

Dr Manoharan said it has been nearly three years since the CoI completed its investigations into the students murders in Trincomalee, and Colombo has done nothing to identify the killers. 

"The climate of impunity and the politicized judicial system in Sri Lanka are well recognized by the international community. The death threats to witnesses and journalists have seriously undermined "due process" for ordinary citizens," Manoharan said, adding, his son's case in Trincomalee high court has been dragging on for more than five years with little progress in Police investigations, and that he has absolutely no faith in the law enforcement agencies or the political leaders to deliver justice to his son.

Dr Manoharan added that two key participants in the current delegation to Geneva for the 19th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Minister of Human Rights and Disaster Management, Mahinda Samarasinghe, and former Attorney General, Mohan Peiris, have been politically close to the Trinco-5 killings and likely have intimate knowledge of his son's killers. 

• Witess drops bombshell on Trinco-5 killing

Dr Manoharan, during his testimony to the Sri Lanka President appointed Commission of Inquiries (CoI) through video conference in2008 dropped a bombshell by alleging that Samarasinghe, after accepting the security forces may have made a mistake [in killing the students], offered Dr Manoharan a house in Colombo and school admissions for his surviving children in return for his silence.

Former AG, Mohan Peiris, has been accused by human rights organizations for being the individual who made the functioning of the CoI ineffective through conflict of interest. Rights organizations also opposed his inclusion in the LLRC panel questioning his suitability.

Dr Manoharan is currently a plaintiff in a legal action against Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse in U.S. Courts. The case was dismissed recently due to Obama administration's intervention suggesting Head of State Immunity, but Dr Manoharan said that he is working with his attorney to lodge an appeal.

MaRa regime’s white van criminals caught red handed when trying to abduct Kolonnawa UC chairman

(Lanka-e-News-10.March.2012, 11.30PM) For the first time , the Rajapakse regime white Van criminals had been caught red handed by the people. Bayagotha’s armed group is now moving heaven and earth to get them released.

According to reports reaching Lanka e news , the white Van episode in this case is as follows :

A group of 4 criminals had arrived in a white Van at about 10.00 p.m. tonight and tried to abduct the Kolonnawa local council Chairman, Raveendra Udayashantha, when he was in Meetotamulla area . Udayashantha who had somehow escaped has with the support of the people of the area surrounded the criminals and not allowed them to escape. The criminals had been handed over to the Wellampitiya police. The number of the vehicle in which the criminals have arrived is W P CC 8649.

Later , an army truck that came to the police station where the white van is held in custody , is taking every step to get the white Van inmates released . Meanwhile the people have surrounded the police and are demonstrating strongly against these criminal activities of the regime.

The telephone No. of the Wellampitiya police is 011 2572222.

Incidentally , some time ago , the brother of the Chairman Udayashantha was similarly abducted in the white Van at Meetotamulla. Until today , his whereabouts are not known.

Read: http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=12658

Without international investigation accused will become judge: CPI

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 March 2012, 22:25 GMT]
The Tamil Nadu Assistant Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Mr C. Mahendran in an interview to Junior Vikatan this week, rejected a statement by the Marxist Communist Party (CPM) central committee member and parliamentarian, TK Rangarajan saying that there is no need for an international investigation on Sri Lanka. Mr Rangarajan’s statement has found opposition even inside his party. Commenting, Mahendran said, he was surprised and he didn’t understand that in what sense Rangarajan had made the statement. Rangarajan should realise that expecting Sri Lanka to conduct the investigations is like appointing the murderer as the judge to deliver justice, Mahendran said. 

• C. Mahendran's comment on CPM in Junior Vikatan

When the communist ideology argues for the right of even recalling elected representatives, Rangarajan rejecting the idea of conducting a referendum among Eezham Tamils, is contradictory and surprising, Mahendran said.

What is happening in Sri Lanka is a historically continuing genocide. Annihilation of the identity of Tamils is the long-term agenda of the Sinhala chauvinists. It started with the disenfranchisement of plantation Tamils immediately after the independence.

C. Mahendran, the Tamil Nadu assistant secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI)

Tamils in the island have been fighting through peace means for 35 years and deploying militancy in the next 25 years, just for their fundamental political rights. 

In the last days of the war alone, 40,000 were killed in a war without witnesses. How come Rangarajan, a parliamentarian, is unaware of it?

The argument that a genocide crime has to be resolved internally could never be accepted. The international organisations like the UN, International Court of Justice and the UNHRC have been created just to see no state should breach the limits. The international communist movement played an important role in the creation of these institutions.

One could come out with ample evidence to prove why Sri Lanka will not resolve the crisis. If every country were left to resolve issues domestically, many of them would go back to the times of savagery. TKR rejecting international option is surprising, Mahendran observed.

* * *

Why the CPM is on record for opposing the liberation of genocide-affected Eezham Tamils is a puzzle for many.

Those who theoretically explain the phenomenon cite its Stalinist orientation that favours Indian imperialist solutions rather than liberations inside and in the neighbourhood. They cite at the stand of the party on the North Eastern Frontier nations in India and on the war in the tribal belt.

But there are the others who cite at the social structure of the party that is paranoid especially at the national question of Eezham Tamils.

The CPM strongholds are in the states of West Bengal and Kerala in India.

In Kerala the undivided Communist Party came to power in 1957 itself. 

After the Russia–China divide of 1960s, the CPM was long dominating the State of West Bengal. It was the ruling force that took up the issue of the liberation of Bengalis in Bangladesh in 1971.

People of Kerala in the long run will be much benefited and will find conducive milieu in the neighbourhood, if on their own they take an articulating stand supporting the universally righteous question of Eezham Tamils, revolting against their own elite in New Delhi and parties like the CPM, is a strong opinion in Tamil Nadu.

The CPM polity is very close to The Hindu establishment in Chennai, is widely known in the circles of political observers.

India to get oil well as payment for support in Geneva

It is learnt that India has set a condition to the Sri Lankan government that it should allocate the oil exploration blocks in the Mannar Basin to India in order to extend its support to Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva.

A revelation made in The Hindu newspaper on the 6th stated that the Indian government had expressed its dissatisfaction at other countries getting involved in oil exploration activities in Sri Lanka.

India has been allocated two out of the nine blocks allocated for oil exploration in the Mannar Basin. India’s Cairns Company has already carried out exploration work in one of the blocks and has reported that they have found oil in the block.

Although block number M8 has been allocated to China, India has expressed its dissatisfaction to the move.

Since oil has been found in the Cauvery Basin, it is learnt that India has set a condition that it would support Sri Lanka in Geneva if the blocks would be allocated to the country.

The Petroleum Ministers of the two countries are to hold discussions on the matter later this month. It is also learnt that the reason to get a progress report on the matter by next October was due to India’s opposition to interference by other nations in Sri Lanka.

First Synthetic Lawyer Namal comes up with another ‘first’- legal advice illegal Co.

(Lanka-e-News-12.March.2012, 3.30PM) Namal Rajapakse the first synthetic Lawyer of Sri Lanka and the only ‘spurious Perakadoruwa’ possessed of a license though , is to launch a legal advice service , according to reports reaching Lanka e news. This advisory Company named ‘ N.R. Consultancy’ is to be launched in the early part of next month. It is learnt that via this service , he is aiming at converting ‘black money’ into ‘white money’ – in other words , money laundering. The huge illicit commissions collected and earned by the Rajapakses on the so called massive development projects can be converted into ‘white money’ via this Company as ‘legal fees’. Luminaries of the legal profession are having a hearty laugh over the efforts of this raw fledgling of a ‘Lawyer’ trying to give counsel even before turning into a genuine Lawyer after shedding the synthetic professional character . It is the theme of discussion in the legal sphere that Namal who is noted for having not even passed the law exam duly and therefore acquired the rare ignominious distinction as the first ‘synthetic Lawyer’ or ‘hora Perakadoruwa’, seeking to give legal advice is to mask the illegal money laundering activities secretly proposed via his ‘NR consultancy’.

A Government With Blood On Its Hands

 Sunday, March 11, 2012

By Frederica Jansz

According to a WikiLeaks cable this statement was made by Basil Rajapaksa, brother of and Advisor to the President, to then US Ambassador in Colombo Robert. O. Blake. Jnr.
The cable is classified as “CONFIDENTIAL” and recounts details of a meeting Blake had with Basil Rajapaksa on October 04, 2006. (See Cable)
Rajapaksa was referring to the murder of five Tamil students in Trincomalee on January 2, that year. (Read The Terrible Truth of the Trincomalee Tragedy by D. B. S. Jeyaraj elsewhere on these pages for a detailed account of what took place).

Speaking with remarkable candor to Robert Blake, Rajapaksa had in this instance admitted that members of Sri Lanka’s security forces namely the Special Task Force (STF) carried out an utterly diabolical extrajudicial killing of five young people.

The names and dates of birth of         the five students killed on Janu        ary 2, 2006 in Trincomalee are:

Manoharan Ragihar
22.09.1985

Yogarajah Hemachchandra         04.03.1985
Logitharajah Rohan
07.04.1985

Thangathurai Sivanantha
06.04.1985

Shanmugarajah Gajendran
16.09.1985

Read More »

Sri Lanka: A child is summarily executed

SUNDAY 11 MARCH 2012 CALLUM MACRAE
Footage of atrocity committed at the end of the government's war with the Tamil Tigers is revealed 

It is a chilling piece of footage that represents yet another blow for the beleaguered Sri Lankan government in its attempts to head off a critical resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva this week
.The short clip dates from the final hours of the bloody 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the secessionist rebels of the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE.

A 12-year-old boy lies on the ground. He is stripped to the waist and has five neat bullet holes in his chest. His name is Balachandran Prabakaran and he is the son of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. He has been executed in cold blood. Beside him lie the bodies of five men, believed to be his bodyguards. There are strips of cloth on the ground indicating that they were tied and blindfolded before they were shot – further evidence suggesting that the Sri Lankan government forces had a systematic policy of executing many surrendering or captured LTTE fighters and leading figures, even if they were children.

The footage – dating from 18 May 2009 and which seems to have been shot as a grotesque "trophy video" by Sri Lankan forces – will be broadcast for the first time on Wednesday night in a Channel 4 film, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished – a sequel to the controversial investigation broadcast last year which accused both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Last year, a special panel of experts appointed by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, suggested that as many as 40,000 civilians died in the last few weeks of the war – the vast majority as a result of government shelling, much of which was targeted on so called "No Fire Zones" set up by the government itself. But as international concern grew over the emerging evidence of appalling crimes against civilians, the Sri Lankan government, headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his powerful brother, the Defence Minister, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, launched a counter-offensive. At its heart was a special inquiry appointed by the President, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

This, they insisted, would answer the international criticisms. When the LLRC finally reported last December, it did make important concessions – not least an admission that considerable numbers of civilians had died (a fact denied by the government until then). But it specifically denied that civilians had been targeted and rejected allegations of war crimes by the government. It thus failed entirely to deal with the evidence of blame pointing to the political and military leadership.

Full Story>>>

SL must learn right lessons from Geneva

Sunday March 11, 2012

US presents milder amended draft; but UNHRC supervision if vote is passed HR affairs on three-track mess: Hardline by GL, softline by Samarasinghe and demos by government

By Our Political Editor

The SOS message arrived after Sri Lanka's 52-member delegation -- which was a heavy burden on the country's purse -- returned to Colombo early this week from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva. The breather from the on-going 19th sessions was in the belief that the United States-backed resolution on Sri Lanka would be moved only later this month. So much so, the delegation leader, the President's human rights special envoy and Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe chose to undertake a visit to Japan, return to Colombo and later get back to Geneva. That visit was connected to issues over tea in his capacity as Minister of Plantation Industries. This was whilst the Minister of External Affairs continued his South African safari -- an odyssey that has turned out to be a tragi-comedy in the conduct of Sri Lanka's foreign policy. More chapters unfolded this week. Tamara Kunanayakam, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, rang the alarm bell. The United States had sprung a surprise. As revealed exclusively in these columns last week that it would happen come Wednesday, the official text of the US-backed resolution was handed over to the conference secretariat on that day for inclusion in the agenda. That, however, seemed a shock and surprise for the Sri Lanka mission, which shows how out of touch it was with the happenings around it. The next day, (Thursday), the United States Ambassador for Human Rights Council, Eileen Chamberlain Donahue, called an 'informal consultation' to which all Geneva-based missions and UNHRC delegates were invited. In the light of this, Mohan Peiris, legal advisor to the Cabinet, hurriedly boarded a flight to Geneva on Wednesday. read more..

The Biggest Fraud In Sri Lanka

The Commonwealth Games Bid
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Sri Lanka spent around US$ 8 million (approximately SLR 880 million) for the recent Hambantota 2018 bid to host the Commonwealth Games.
This included hundreds of millions spent on PR firms,  which represented Sri Lanka for the Commonwealth Games bid, and on the 120 strong delegations to St. Kitts and Nevis, while Australia sent only 20 representatives.
Although official figures have been given for the expenses of the delegation, it is said that the price of an air ticket to St. Kitts was Rs. 150,000 which means, that nearly Rs. 16.5 million had been spent solely on air travel.Read More »

16 TN fishermen injured in mid-sea attack by Lankan navy

Mar 11, 2012    Agencies
Rameswaram Sixteen fishermen from this island were injured in an alleged mid-sea attack by Sri Lankan naval personnel while fishing near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in Palk Strait, police said today.

The Lankan naval personnel yesterday attacked the fishermen with wooden logs, stones and bottles, resulting in bone fracture of a 25-year-old youth and serious injuries to others, they said.

Mathiazhagan, who suffered the fracture, has been admitted to a government hospital here, while several other fishermen, whose back were swollen with weals and bruises, were being treated at private hospitals, police said.

The youth said it was a "brutal" attack by the Lankan navalmen who surrounded 25 boats of the fishermen. "They damaged the boats, snapped the fishing nets and lashed out at us with logs and pelted stones," he said.

Meanwhile, a Fisheries Department official described the attack as a violation of human rights.

Local fishermen association leaders Sesu and Devaraj said the Sri Lankans, who had come in a Naval ship, intimidated and frightened the fishermen.

The two slammed the Centre for remaining "mute spectator" to recurring attacks on fishermen of Tamil Nadu.

Referring to the prompt action taken in recent incidents of killing of two fishermen offKerala coast by marines on board Italian oil tanker and the hit-and-run case involving a Singapore flagged ship, they sought to know "why the government is silent even after 300 fishermen had been killed by the Lankan Naval men (over the recent years)?"

They also demanded that the government take steps to recover the fish catch seized by Sri Lankan navalmen and also file a case for attacking "innocent" fishermen.