China launches Sri Lanka's first satellite as India watches ties grow

COLOMBO | Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:43pm IST

(Reuters) - Sri Lanka launched its first communications satellite on Tuesday in partnership with a Chinese state-owned space technology firm, the Sri Lanka partner said, adding to unease in neighbouring India about Beijing's growing ties with the island nation.

  

A man climbs up onto a roof to put up the Sri Lankan national flag ahead of celebrations of their 64th Independence day in Colombo February 2, 2012. Sri Lankans will celebrate their Independence day on February 4.

Credit: Reuters/Dinuka Liyanawatte/Files

COLOMBO | Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:43pm IS

The Sri Lankan government has emphasized the launch was a private effort, carried out by SupremeSAT (Pvt) Ltd and the China Great Wall Industry Corp. But Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa's youngest son, Rohitha, has been credited in domestic media as the creator of the satellite.

Vijith Peiris, chief executive of SupremeSAT, told Reuters in Colombo that the launch from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in western China was successful.

The joint launch marked the latest in a series of economic and military ties between the two countries, a relationship that is being closely watched by India.

"It reinforces the impression that Sri Lanka is getting slowly but surely closer to China," said Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.

"From a larger geopolitical perspective, it sends a message to India that a country in its own backyard is cozying up with China."

Economic and strategic rivals China and India fought a brief, high-altitude border war in 1962 and still have contested regions, though the defence relationship has improved.

Rhetoric flared anew recently after China issued a new passport with a map that shows two disputed border areas as Chinese territory. India responded by stamping its own map on visas it issues to holders of the Chinese passports.

China has been the largest lender to Sri Lanka, a $59 billion economy, since the end of a three-decade civil war ended in May 2009. China had provided military equipment to the Sri Lankan government to defeat ethnic Tamil rebels.

Since then, Sri Lanka has sought stronger defence ties with China, a fact that has irked India and the United States.

"NOT A CONCERN"

Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie visited Sri Lanka in September, offering grants to modernise Sri Lanka's military training. Liang said the ties were aimed at maintaining regional stability and were not targeted at any third party.

During a visit to China early this month, Sri Lanka Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, younger brother of the president, met Liang and agreed to consolidate bilateral cooperation.

China has also become involved in construction of a strategic sea and air port in Sri Lanka's southern district of Hambantota, also Rajapaksa's constituency.

It is also involved in a coal-fired power plant, expressways, railways and irrigation works.

India has not officially protested the increasing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka and has even said the latest corporation on space technology was not a concern.

"It's a commercial communication satellite. It's going to be in a Chinese (orbit) slot and not in a Sri Lankan slot. At that far, you can't do anything and it's not a concern for us," said an Indian diplomat based in Sri Lanka, speaking on condition of anonymity.

China, like other nations with the technical capability, has launched numerous satellites on a commercial basis for other countries.

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez in COLOMBO, Arup Roychoudhury in NEW DELHI, and Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by Ken Wills)

Ganja,Illegal Firearms And Ammunition Discovered Inside Opposition Lawmaker’s Vehicle

By Colombo Telegraph -

Ganja, illegal firearms and ammunition were discovered inside the vehicle in which UNP parliamentarian Dilip Wedaarachchi was traveling, police said today.

Dilip Wedaarachchi

Police Spokesman SSP Prasantha Jayakodi said the driver of the jeep was taken into the police custody. Police found one revolver, a 12-bore weapon, six of 3.8 type live bullets, twelve bullets for 12-bore weapons and 36 grammes of Ganja in the jeep, the spokesman said.

A pedestrian was killed while the Hambantota District MP and two others were injured and hospitalized after their jeep collided head-on with a SLTB bus this morning. The accident had occurred at around 3.25am near the 207km Post in Wadiyagala, Hungama.

The SLTB bus was traveling towards Colombo from Kataragama while the MP’s jeep was en route to Tangalle from Hungama. A 39-year-old pedestrian, who was waiting for a bus, was injured from the collision and succumbed to injuries after being admitted to the Tangalle Hospital. The three passengers of the jeep, including Wedaarachchi, are also being treated at the Tanagalle Hospital.

Weapons,ganja found in MP Wedaarachchi jeep TUESDAY, 27 NOVEMBER 2012

Two weapons, ammunition and Ganja were found by the police in the jeep in which UNP MP Dilip Wedaarachchi travelled and met with an accident in Ranna this morning, the police said.

Police Spokesman SSP Prasantha Jayakodi said the driver of the jeep was taken into the police custody.

Police found one revolver, a 12-bore weapon, six of 3.8 type live bullets, twelve bullets for 12-bore weapons and 36 grammes of Ganja in the jeep, the spokesman said.

Petition seeking suspension of Anura, Nimal, Dilan and Susil’s position in the Bar

Tuesday, 27 November 2012 

A group of lawyers are gearing to present a petition to the Supreme Court seeking a suspension of the attorney at law posts held by governing party lawyers and ministers Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, Nimal Siripala de Silva, Dilan Perera and Susil Premajayantha, who are also members of the parliamentary select committee (PSC) probing the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice, it is reliably learnt. The lawyers have made the decision following the failure by the PSC to adhere to a request made by the Supreme Court to suspend the sittings of the Committee until a determination is given on the PSC proceedings and the impeachment motion.

Documents are currently being prepared to file the petition against the head of the PSC, Yapa and other governing party members de Silva, Perera and Premajayantha who have spoken against the Supreme Court request.

However, opposition members in the PSC, R. Sampanthan, Lakshman Kiriella and John Ameratunge, who are also lawyers, had requested that the Committee’s proceedings be suspended when it met on the 23rd.

Every lawyer is sworn before the Supreme Court and all their work is carried out by the Court. The powers of appointing a lawyer, taking disciplinary action against a lawyer and finally suspending their office are vested with the Supreme Court. Even the Executive President cannot re-appoint a person as an attorney at law once it is removed by the Supreme Court.

President’s Counsel, Jayatissa Costa has informed the governing party members of the PSC that such a petition is being prepared by a group of lawyers.

TNA tells international community to halt aid to Lanka

by Saman Indrajith-November 26

 Tamil National Alliance yesterday called upon the international community, especially the US and India, to terminate their assistance to Sri Lanka until the government comes up with a political solution to the national problem.

TNA Wanni District Parliamentarian Selvam Adaikkalanathan, participating in the third reading stage debate on budget 2013, urged the international community, led by India and the USA, to force President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government to accelerate the finding of a solution to the national problem within the next year.

"The government has a two third majority in Parliament and the President has more powers, thus it is incumbent upon President to resolve this matter. We believe that he could do it. We came to the democratic path with a hope that our problems will be solved but it has not been realized as yet. Our people do not want development they want a solution. If they want development they would have surely voted for the government but they chose us instead," Adaikalanathan said.

He said even though people voted for him he could not do anything in return for them thus he was willing to sacrifice his own life to achieve a solution.

"I take this opportunity to pay my tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for a cause they believed worthwhile. Due to orders carried out from AC rooms members of the military too had to sacrifice their lives for the country. After all those sacrifices our people are yet to achieve a lasting solution. I was a militant and even during that time my life was safe even though there were instances when it came closer to death. Therefore, I believe am living on a bonus given by the God and it would be worthwhile if this life would be made a sacrifice in a bid to solve problems of my people," the MP said.

He threatened to launch a fast unto death campaign if the government failed to give a solution to the national problem next year.

Exclusive: Why Rajapaksa Opened Flood Gates For Revenue Fraudsters And Restriction On Transfer Of Vehicle Permits Removed

By Colombo Telegraph -November 27, 2012

“I write further to the instruction of the informant who claimed to have provided the credible information of a revenue fraud in which two companies namely LOLC and LB Finance are directly involved. This particular information has been given to the Deputy Director Mr. G.H.G.A.Lankadeva (Central Valuation), concerning importation of a large number of ‘permit cars’ by fraudulent means where the permits have been bought outright by  the aforesaid companies from the recipients of permits, including Power of Attorney and MTA6, making those who have bought permits de factoowners of the vehicles, an act which is prohibited under the law” Public Interest Litigator Nagananda Kodituwakku has written to Director General of Customs Neville Gunawardana.

PB Jayasundara

The three year restriction that was in place on transfer of duty free vehicles imported by public servants has been lifted with immediate effect by the Finance Ministry.

Confidential government documents obtained by Colombo Telegraphshows the reason behind the move. A government official, who declined to be identified, confirmed the documents were authentic. The Colombo Telegraph has been unable to reach Nagananda Kodituwakku for comment.

Board of directors of the two companies involved with this massive revenue fraud are highly influential and one such person is Dhammika Perera, the former Chairman/ Director-General of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Strategic Enterprises Management Agency (SEMA) and the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB). Another is Justice Suresh Chandra who served as the Deputy Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to United Nations in New York in 2009. President Mahinda Rajapaksa  appointed Justice Suresh Chandra as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in June 2010 and retired from that position in July 2012. He still serves as a Judge of the Supreme Court in Fiji since his appointment in Fiji in 2011.

Click here for Board of directors – LOLC

Click here for Board of directors - LB Finance

Public Interest Litigator Nagananda Kodituwakku wrote; “However, it is now learnt (or my client has reliably been informed) that these two cases would not be proceeded amidst strong opposition raised against the enforcement of law on the revenue fraudsters concerned. We wish to inform you that regardless of any unlawful directions you may be getting apparently from the ST, you are, being the General Superintendent of all matters relating to Customs, under duty to enforce the revenue protection provisions of the Custom Ordinance appropriately and our client’s interests in the instant case.”

Treasury Secretary repeatedly complaints about the lack of funds to maintain the essential services like education, health, transport and also to provide a decent salary for services funded by the government. Yet what he practices is completely opposite of what he preaches and surely against the public interest, particularly when it comes to the collection and protection of government revenue.

Facilitation of duty free car imports       Read More

Lankan army controls Jaffna Uni hostel

[ Tuesday, 27 November 2012, 02:02.17 PM GMT +05:30 ]

Due to the fear on Mahweerar day commemoration Lankan army has entirely controlled the hostel of Jaffna University, our correspondent said.

Military personals entered to the male and female hostels had shut down the rooms of the students and ordered to remain in their respective rooms. Military personals, police and the members of the intelligence unit has deployed in the university compound since 5.00 pm this evening. Security forces engulf Jaffna University Tamil Guardian 27 November 2012     Jaffna University is experiencing a disproportionately high presence of security forces today as troops and police flocked to the campus to prevent any commemoration of Remembrance Day. The forces extended their presence as far as the male's hostel as well as interrogating passers-by in the vicinity surrounding the campus. There have also been reports of unidentified motorcyclists threatening students at gunpoint to refrain from commemorating the day.

"We will rise and rise again" - Jaffna Students on Remembrance Day In another bold act of defiance by Tamil students in the North-East, posters commemorating Tamil Eelam National Remembrance Day were seen posted around Jaffna University's campus on the eve of November 27th. Photographs Uthayan The posters, which had been posted in various faculties, as well as the Student's Union and canteen read slogans such as: "The shape of the struggle may change but the goal of the struggle will never change." "No matter how many obstacles come our way, we have vowed to revive the ambitions of our martyrs." "We will rise and rise again after every fall. Does the valour of the tigers know any bound?" "We will stand in the path of our leader (Annan) to achieve Tamil Eelam." The posters were taken down shortly after being discovered. Similar posters of remembrance have also been seen at Vantharamullai Eastern university and Trincomalee reports LankaSriNews. The posters were taken down my military personnel the newspaper alleges. Photographs LankaSriNews

Where is Puthuvai ???

Avaaz.ORG

Created by 
Vanni P.Sri Lanka

To be delivered to:

Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director,Amnesty International USA

Why this is important

When will the truth revealed about Puthuvai Ratnathurai and many others surrendered to the army? Despite the government appointed LLRC panel giving directions for the release of the names of the captives, the government is not proving reluctant and playing its usual doggy game of dragging on its feet. Such process will not heal the wounds of the Tamils but will only exacerbate the anger and frustration of those concerned.

SIGN THIS PETITION

"My husband Yogi, Puthuvai Ratnadurai (in charge of the LTTE’s fine arts division) Lawrence Thilakar (in charge of the LTTE’s European division), Baby Subramanian and some others surrendered to the military at Vattuvahal on May 18, 2009…and they were all taken way in a bus. We have not heard from them since then," - wife of one time LTTE politburo member

Yogaratnam Yogi, / LLRC sessions ‛

පුදුවෛ අරන් ගිය බවට පැහැදිලි සාක්ෂි තියෙනවා. මනුස්සය කලා, සංස්කෘතික අංශෙ නායකයා. අවම වශයෙන් පුදුවෛ ඉන්නවද නැද්ද කියලවත් හෙළිදරව් කරන්න කියලා අපි ආණ්ඩුවට බල කරමු. පුදුවෛ දැවැන්ත කවියෙක්. හැම නිතරම තොරොම්බල් කෙරෙන ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය කියන වචනයෙ සංස්කෘතිය කියන කාරණාව කොටින්ම ඔය කියන ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය කවිය ගැන පුදුවෛ කියන නම…

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Tamil youth in Canada experiment with virtual cemeteries for Tamil heroes

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2012, 03:22 GMT]
"Exactly one year ago, we as youth adopted the Tamil Sovereignty Cognition as a basis for our initiatives in the Diaspora. We should continue to move forward and never compromise on the fundamental principles to which we pledged our allegiance,” Pamela Katheswaran, the president of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Tamil Students Association in Canada told TamilNet on Sunday, attending the Heroes Day remembrance event organised by the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO) in Toronto. The organisers had also launched an experimental web-based virtual replication of Eezham Tamils’ Heroes cemeteries (maaveerar thuyilum illam), razed down by the Sri Lankan military following the occupation of the country of Eezham Tamils. 


At Sunday’s united youth Heroes’ Day commemoration event organized by the Canada TYO, students inaugurated this new multi-media feature on the website www.maaveerarillam.com.

“While the Sri Lankan government has made a concentrated effort to erase all symbols and practices that represent national liberation to Eezham Tamils, we have taken it as a responsibility to resist this attempt to erase our national history and identity,” the organizers said.

Event organizers said that Sunday’s event, which was live-streamed, had viewership worldwide including from within the island. 

National Heroes Day is collectively organised in Canada under the banner of the Canadian Tamil Remembrance Organization on Tuesday.

WikiLeaks: KP Revealed $1 Billion

WikiLeaks: KP Revealed $1 Billion, US Is Fully Committed To Providing Assistance In Tracking Down LTTE Assets

By Colombo Telegraph -November 26, 2012

“Since the early August arrest of LTTE leader and financer Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP), the Sri Lankan military has interrogated KP about the LTTE’s financing network and overseas assets.Secretary of Defense Rajapaksa (the President’s brother) publically claimed that KP’s interrogation has revealed $1 billion in overseas assets and he called for foreign assistance to recover these monies. The Sri Lankan Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) would be in charge of requesting assistance from foreign FIUs to uncover the terrorist financing network and recover overseas assets. However, the Sri Lankan FIU has not received any information yet from KP’s military interrogations, so they do not have any outstanding requests for USG assistance.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

KP

A Leaked “CONFIDENTIAL” US diplomatic cable, dated August 26, 2009, updated the Secretary of State regarding the LTTE’s financing network and overseas assets. The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable was classified and signed by the US Embassy official Rebecca Cohn.

Rebecca Cohn wrote “Econ Cons met with FIU Deputy Director D.K. Wijesuriya and FIU Senior Assistant Director Sisira Ranasinghe (the new FIU director was out of the country), and they both assured him that the FIU is very satisfied with its cooperation with the United States, but they had no additional requests at this time. According to Wijesuriya, KP is being held under a military detention order and he is still being interrogated by the military intelligence officers. At some point KP will be transferred to the police (Wijesuriya did not know when) which is the point at which the FIU would receive KP’s information on the LTTE financing network and overseas assets. The FIU then may request assistance from their counterpart FIUs in other countries. Econ Cons reiterated that the USG would be pleased to provide assistance to track LTTE funds. Wijesuriya reported a strong working relationship with his U.S. Embassy coounterparts.”

“The delay in turning over KP’s information about the LTTE financing network is disappointing, since this information is time sensitive and the LTTE funds may have been moved subsequent to his arrest. The Sri Lankan FIU knows that the USG is fully committed to providing assistance in tracking down LTTE assets, and post will be proactive when called upon.” placing a comment Cohn further wrote.

Read the cable below for further details;

Related cables;

WikiLeaks: US On LTTE Fundraising Activities And Prabhakaran’s Monetary Board

WikiLeaks: ‘We Are Losing Credibility On Terrorism Financing Issues With The GSL’ – US Embassy Colombo

WikiLeaks: GoSL Had No Evidence Against Charles Gnanakone                 Read More