Embarking from Vellapallam, India. By JIM YARDLEY VELLAPALLAM, India — Drifting on the strait between India and Sri Lanka, an Indian fisherman named Sakthivel cowered in his boat. A Sri Lankan naval officer, who took the man’s photograph, delivered a warning: If we find you in Sri Lankan waters again, you will never leave.   In […]

Escorting Sri Lankan pilgrims on Sept. 3, 2012 in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu – AP photo By JIM YARDLEY Last week, while traveling down the coast of Tamil Nadu for my article about the fishing wars between India and Sri Lanka, I noticed pilgrims walking along the side of the road. They trudged along, […]

A Sri Lankan pilgrim cries as he waits to leave after arriving from Tiruchy in India, at Katunayake airport in Colombo, September 5, 2012. The Rajapakse regime has wronged Sri Lankan Tamils on many counts. India should boycott the island nation till it brings war criminals to book, says Meena KandasamyA visiting football team sends […]

By R. HariharanIntroduction Sri Lanka is undergoing catharsis after a resurgent Sri Lankan army ended, on 19 May 2009, the twenty-five-year-long national ordeal at the hands of Velupillai Prabhakaran and the LTTE. Since 1983 Sri Lanka had waged war against the LTTE in three spells that ended in a stalemate. The final victory came only […]

By Jayadeva Uyangoda If we were to count on the repeated denials issued by the Ministry of External Affairs during recent weeks, there would be no South African mediation effort in Sri Lanka to bring about a political settlement to the ethnic conflict. The official statements however suggest that the Sri Lankan government has responded […]

< a href=”http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article3859475.ece?textsize=large&test=1″ title=”Large Text Size” >T+</a> · <a href=”http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article3859475.ece?textsize=small&test=2″ title=”Small Text Size”>T-</a> Sri Lankan pilgrims inside Tiruchi airport amidst tight police security on Tuesday. Photo: M.Srinath Sri Lankan pilgrims inside Tiruchi airport amidst tight police security on Tuesday. Photo: M.Srinath Lankan pilgrims sustain minor injuries after miscreants attack buses For Joseph from Chilaw in […]

By Bob Dietz/CPJ Asia Program Coordinator When I first met Sandhya Eknelygoda in May 2010 in her home outside Colombo, she was a distressed mother of two young boys whose husband had gone missing. He was last seen four months earlier, just prior to the elections that returned President Mahinda Rajapaksa to power after the […]

It is reported that SLMC has filed a petition in Supreme Court against Senior DIG at Ampara. The petition filed by two members of SLMC including its Secretary General Parliamentarian Hassan Ally states the action of the Senior DIG has become an obstacle for holding a free and fair election. The Senior DIG, Ampara and […]

Displaced by the Navy The occupying Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) personnel in uniform and civil clothes, numbering around 70, went amok on the temporary settlement of Muslims at Maraikkaar village in Musali division setting fire to 15 huts and smashing another 10 huts Monday evening around 7:00 p.m., residents said. The SL Navy has ‘warned’ […]

Sri Lanka, which was censured over its human rights record in March, is set to welcome a team of technical experts led by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to check on the country’s resettlement programmes. The team is to arrive on September 14 to offer advice and technical assistance to the […]

Mobs target SL pilgrims Sri Lankan pilgrims were targeted for the second day today with three buses carrying them to the Tiruchirapalli airport attacked by activists of Tamil outfits.Sticks and stones were hurled by the activists near Kattur at three of the seven buses carrying 178 pilgrims on their way to fly back home, leaving […]

Expressing concern over “hostility” against Sri Lankan visitors in Tamil Nadu, the CPI (M) on Tuesday said nothing should be done to disturb people-to-people relations whatever be the Lankan government’s approach towards the Tamil issue. “Whatever the differences and opposition that exists regarding the Sri Lankan government’s approach to the Tamil question in Sri Lanka, nothing […]

UPFA logo Almost all the 352 complaints received by the Complaints Centre of the Elections Commissioner’s Department up to yesterday (3) are against UPFA candidates or supporters. Among the complaints are 287 cases of election law violations and 53 incidents of violence.One hundred complaints of polls law violations have been reported from the Anuradhapura District, […]

By M.R. Narayan Swamy Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa appears dead set on taking on the ordinary Sinhalese for her inability to influence the Indian government to pursue a Sri Lanka policy of her choice.It is plain ridiculous to suspend an officer of Chennai’s Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium for allowing the use of the […]

A public appeal:Existence of a free public healthcare system in the country for many many years has indeed proved to be a great relief to the whole nation. Thanks to it, people beset by inflation get treatment and medicines absolutely free of charge. But because of rampant corruption, frauds and the commissions & kickbacks game […]

Iranmadu Army Camp By Nadarajah KuruparanIranamadu and the Iranamadu Tank region of the Kilinochi district, in which important army camps are based, have become strategically significant places in the North. During the period of the Tigers too, they had established a runway near the Iranamadu Tank and maintained it as a strategic point.  Now that […]

Tilvin Silva The President lies and deceives the voter to face the election saying interest would be reduced for loans for cultivations and regarding bank loans says the general Secretary of the JVP Tilvin Silva. Whatever the President says the normal procedure of cultivation loans is to recover the loan at the next harvest said […]

More than one thousand men sent under the instruction of SL Presidential sibling and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse have been engaged in intimidating Tamils and Muslims in the three districts of the eastern province namely Ampaarai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee that they would face serious consequences if they fail to vote for the ruling United […]

Commission meeting Mannar muslims Statement from the Citizens’ Commission on the Expulsion of Muslims from the Northern Province. The Report of the Citizens Commission on its Mission to Mannar on the 8th and 9th of August has received an inordinate amount of press lately – and while the Commission feels that the coverage provides space […]

Press ReleaseThe Government of Sri Lanka regrets the increasing number of instances of intimidation of Sri Lankan nationals visiting Tamil Nadu for the purposes of tourism, religious pilgrimages, sporting and cultural activities and professional training. These visits are a reflection of people to people contact between the polity of two countries which are bound by […]

Opposition Deputy Leader Julie Bishop says Sri Lankan asylum seekers should be deported. Photo: Opposition Deputy Leader Julie Bishop says Sri Lankan asylum seekers should be deported. (Alan Porritt: AAP) The Coalition says the Federal Government should no longer grant refugee status to people from Sri Lanka because the country’s civil war is over. Deputy […]

Minister Mervyn Silva with his band of thugs Vishnuguptha “Crime and bad lives are the measure of a State’s failure, all crime in the end is the crime of the community.” -H.G. WELLS, A Modern UtopiaIt was reported that the police had arrested 40 politicians and instituted legal action against them during the past 12 […]

silenced voices: Pictured: Journalist Sonali Samarasinghe in "Silenced Voices," a documentary by Beate Arnestad. Photo Credit: Beate Arnestad. All Rights Reserved. Sonali Samarasinghe Sandra Bertrand Lasantha Wickrematunge is probably not a name most people in the Western World would recognize. His martyrdom as the editor-in-chief of Sri Lanka’s critical newspaper, The Sunday Leader was, unlike […]

In line with her strident stance against Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today ordered sending back a Lankan football team home and suspension of a state official for allowing them to play a friendly match here. Jayalalithaa’s action came two days after the team from Royal College, Colombo, played a match against Customs […]

Whole country comes under Divinaguma by Namini Wijedasa The Supreme Court last week took up three petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Economic Development Ministry’s Divineguma Bill. The court’s determination will be conveyed to Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa on Thursday. The three-judge bench that heard submissions comprised Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake and Justices Priyasath Dep and S.E. […]

UNHRC resolution on SL is being implemented Written statement to the 21st session of the UN Human Rights Council (10-28 September 2012)Sri Lanka’s failure to account for serious violations of human rights has created a climate of impunity where arbitrary detentions, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, and custodial killings continue unchecked.More than three years […]

Susantha Premakumara, 33, a money lender of Moragahahena, off Horana, was on his motorcycle going to his ancestral home in the same village, last Sunday, accompanied by his wife and four-year-old daughter Nawanjana, when, less than 100 metres from his destination, he was ambushed by two gunmen who opened fire at him at point-blank range, […]

Dr Nalaka Godahewa By Faraz ShauketalyThe appointment of Dr Nalaka Godahewa as Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission far from putting the controversy surrounding pump and dump and market manipulation at the Colombo Stock Exchange at rest, has caused an uproar amongst seasoned investors. The uproar has been fuelled by Dr Godahewa’s links to Dilith […]

Elections observers will be bound by a code of conduct which will strictly require them to act impartially and have no affiliations with any political party or group. The Code of Conduct has been laid down by Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya. This is the first time such guidelines have been put in place for observers and […]

The Sri Lanka delegation to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in late October will be headed by the country’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva and not by a minister, a senior official said yesterday.  External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunatillake Amunugama said the delegation headed by […]