News

22 June 2011 The CID has questioned the ‘Divaina’ journalist who had written an article for the newspaper’s June 13 issue regarding the arrest of a drug dealer.Commercial crimes OIC Anura de Silva had gone to the newspaper office yesterday (June 21) and said that he was investigating a complaint made by UPFA Colombo district […]

 registration documents 22 June 2011 People Dissatisfied – GTN reporter Registration activities in the Jaffna peninsula continue without any changes, despite Jaffna. Commander Major General Hathurusinghe’s announcing that registration activities in the peninsula are suspended.It is reported that registration activities continue in Valikamam, Vadamaraachchi and in many other areas. Though registration procedure has somewhat lessened […]

photos – http://vikalpa.org  SB is ideally fit to be in charge of Pig sty not as Higher education Minister Dr. Prabhath Jayasinghe speaking at today’s University academic staff public meeting in Colombo said, if Sri Lanka is to be made Asia’s central educational Headquarter , the present higher education Minister , S B Dissanayake is […]

Douglas and Basil As Minister Douglas Devananda announced his candidature for the Chief Ministership of the Northern Province yesterday, the government intensified efforts at shutting down the potential opposition. Thursday night the army moved into a private TNA meeting of the leadership with its Local Government candidates in Alaveddy, assaulting all and sundry. About 60-75 […]

by Amarnath AmarasingamDoctoral candidate, Wilfrid Laurier University   While the government response was predictable, another line of argument has recently gained some fanfare. This peculiar position, as most recently articulated by Amjad Mohamed-Saleem in Groundviews, argues: 06/20/11,As my doctoral dissertation deals with Sri Lankan Tamil activism in Canada, I was asked by a few people why […]

20.June.2011There had emerged another grave report from Matara today (20) about the Rajapakse regime’s militarization of the South in addition to the North. Early morning today (5.15 a m.), a group of Army officers who descended on the Matara municipal council had made the health protection workers to line up . They have also summoned […]

UN leaves war z one Chamikara WeerasingheThe Sri Lanka Army yesterday said the video of alleged extra judicial killings telecast by Channel 4 on British television is doctored and that its footage may have been invented by some self-exiled Tamil citizens seeking asylum in the UK. Army spokesperson Major General Ubhaya Medawala yesterday said the […]

20 June 2011,The Communist Party of India (CPI) in its National Council Meeting at New Delhi on 18-19 June, passed a resolution, demanding the Indian government to take into account the resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu State Assembly on war crimes investigation and economic sanctions against Sri Lanka. Accusing Sri Lanka Army for violation […]

will he act? By DAVID MILIBAND and BERNARD KOUCHNER  / Published: June 20, 2011In April 2009, we travelled together as foreign ministers to Sri Lanka, as 25 years of fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers neared its end. The remaining fighters were trapped in the northern most part of the country […]

A multiple choice question for Gotabaya: Why do you wear clothes ?  Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse referring to the channel 4 documentary which charges that an LTTE leader of the East Colonel Ramesh was killed after he was arrested by the Army , stated as follows at a Nugegoda meeting:‘In the channel 4 documentary it […]

A number of user reports from Sri Lanka indicate that Groundviews is now blocked on Sri Lanka Telecom ADSL broadband Internet connections. It also appears that Vikalpa, our partner site that publishes critical content in Sinhala, is also blocked. Further, the website of Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) is also blocked. Content and comments published […]

Channel 4 News revealed that one of the victims was a high profile member of the Tamil Tigers – but claimed she was just a journalist rather than a direct fighter as a result of a heart condition. Issipriya was born in 1982 in Jaffna and was subsequently recruited by the LTTE and underwent military […]

20 June 2011,“In a grotesque perversion of humanity, the military had considered the mechanics of human grieving and come up with a novel way to kill tens of thousands: they would drop an initial shell on a village, usually killing those too old, weak or young to take shelter in time. Then they would wait […]

Reporters Without Borders interviewed Bashana Abeywardane, a representative of Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), an association of Sri Lankan journalists and human rights activists in exile, above all in Europe, which was created with the aim of informing the international community about thehuman rights situation in Sri Lanka. Nowadays it is a close […]

Lankan students have to undergo rigorous workout to get into varsitiesby Chandani KirindeSalvage a heavy vehicle stuck in mud, complete a 5-km march in 45 minutes and do push ups and run obstacle courses. This is not part of the curriculum for those training to join the Sri Lankan military or the police, but a […]

Last week  the NGO secretariat took over the control of the Puttalam based non governmental organization, the Community Trust Fund (CTF) over alleged mismanagement and corruption. NGO secretariat comes under the defence ministry This is the first time an  non Tamil NGO has been taken over by the NGO secretariat/defense ministry  over allegations, without any […]

by Mangala Samaraweera The ineptitude of the present regime in the face of intensifying and relentless international pressure is driving Sri Lanka further and further into isolation and is likely to have devastating effects for this country’s prospects for rebuilding and reconciliation in the post-conflict phase. The release of the Channel 4 documentary on Sri Lanka, […]

War crimes: Tyrants are right to fear the new technology witnesses There was much in the documentary to commend. Its recognition that Tamil Tigers were prepared to use as pawns the civilians they claimed to represent; the forensic way it explored the UN’s unconscionable retreat as the conflict worsened; the wide range of experts interviewed […]

19 June 201165 percent of the participants in an opinion poll conducted in Tamil Nadu this month by Centre for Public Studies of the Loyola College in Chennai said that an independent Tamil Eelam is the appropriate permanent solution for the question of Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka. 70 percent of them said […]

ITUC to agitate membership protest, demands Govt. immediately withdraw Pension Fund BillAn international grouping of trade unions has vehemently hit out at the recent unrest at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (KFTZ) that left a worker killed and scores injured, calling upon its 300 plus membership to launch individual protests against the Government of Sri […]

By Hiran Priyankara JayasingheThe NGO Secretariat which comes under the Defence Ministry has named an interim body to take control of a non-governmental organisation plagued with allegations of corruption and malpractice.The three member interim body comprises Brigader Jayashantha Gamage, Brigade Commander of the 143 Division in Puttalam, Assistant District Secretary W.A.R. Wickremesinghe and an accountant […]

“Naked prisoners shot in the head; the dead bodies of women who had been raped, dumped on a truck; the immediate aftermath of a shell landing on a hospital – images caught on mobile phones of the atrocities committed in the final months of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war, left most of us shell-shocked” Every […]

Sri Lanka has accused Britain’s Channel 4 Television of not providing the government with a copy of the video titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ but assured that it is ready “to constructively engage” with the UN Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.The offer to engage with Rapporteur Christof Heyns was made when Minister Mahinda […]

TAMILS TREATED AS ABOROGINES IN LANKA NOWVeerasingham Anandasangaree, the TULF president and  a long standing Tamil politician  was perhaps the most vocal critic of the LTTE,  among the old school Tamil political leadership, even during the hey days of the LTTE. Anandasangaree, once hailed by the government, as a ‘moderate’ Tamil voice, now cautions that […]

 By Gayan Kumara WeerasingheThe CID in its investigations have determined that when the police said that they had opened fire to save Senior DIG Ravi Wijegunawardena, who was being attacked allegedly by FTZ workers on May 30, the DIG was in fact in hospital.The police fire occurred after DIG Wijegunawardena had been admitted to the […]

2011-06-19 Several Tamil political prisoners in the Kandy Bogambara prison was severely attacked by the prison officials on 14.06.2011 and admitted in the prison hospital.According to the sources, prison officers who came to prison to investigate about the clash between two groups of Sinhala prisoners for allegedly engaging in the drug smuggling in the prisons compound […]

By Frederica JanszSri Lanka Cricket also known formerly as the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka is in a financial melt down due to political interference, large scale corruption and short-sighted management policies. Cricket  has become a passion for almost every Sri Lankan.  Sadly the gentlemen’s game has been swamped by high finance, leading […]

Govt. says not ruffled by decision18 June 2011/By Susitha R. FernandoA United States Federal Court has issued summons on President Mahinda Rajapaksa in connection with three civil cases filed under the Hague Convention claiming monetary damages under US Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) over alleged extra-judicial killings, the Justice Ministry sources said. Sources said the […]

“We still live under military rule. Unless the President takes any action, we will seriously think about co-operating with the government on anything. The military should not interfere in such political matters.  Only, the police must be empowered to do so.” – TNA 17 June 2011/By Kelum BandaraThe Tamil National Alliance (TNA) today sought intervention […]

15 June 2011 / Despite having a court order preventing civilians in the North from being forcefully registered, groups of Army men in civics have taken photographs of people in the Kalviyamkadu area in the North and obtained details regarding their families.The Army men in civics visited residences in Kalviyamkadu on the 13th to photograph […]