Former Parliament Speaker Anura Bandaranaike, the younger brother of Sri Lanka's former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, died of heart attack on Sunday, officials said.
Extracted from,
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/16/content_7801483.htm
The employees of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini (SLRC) Corporation have asked President Mahinda Rajapakse to take immediate action to arrest those responsible for brutal attacks on Rupavahini employees and take legal action against them. They have demanded that Minister of Labour Mervin Silva should be removed from his ministerial post and all those who have been victimized should be compensated.
They have warned that if their demands are not met they would resort to strike action from Monday (tomorrow). Five employees of Rupavahini Corporation have been attacked by thugs since Minister Mervin Silva broke into the corporation with his team of thugs to intimidate a news director and were detained and treated to an ink bath by the employees of the corporation.
The latest attack was on Anurasiri Hettige, a SLRC trade union leader, who was beaten by an unidentified gang using iron rods. Mr. Hettige is undergoing treatment in Intensive Care Unit of the Colombo National Hospital.
Extracted from,
http://www.lankatruth.com/index.php?
The feasibility study for the proposed $450-million mega undersea power transmission link between India and Sri Lanka is slated to be ready shortly.
The 200-km submarine cable would enable India to export electricity to the island nation and is likely to be set up with a capacity to wheel around 1,000 MW of electricity, government officials involved in the exercise said.
The report on the HVDC (high voltage direct current) link between the two countries is being prepared by State-owned transmission major Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), which had earlier estimated that it can set up the link in around 40 months once all clearances are in place, officials said.
The link is likely to connect Madurai in Tamil Nadu and Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province.
Read more,
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/03/16/stories/
Sri Lanka has set an example to the whole world by fighting terrorism and establishing democracy in the war-ravaged Eastern part of the country, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka has said.
"The Government which overcame terrorism and established democracy (through the local bodies elections) in the East has set an example in this regard to the whole world," Wickramanayaka told a Pakistan delegation on Friday.
The Prime Minister said the people of the East had reposed their faith in the Government repudiating the LTTE's gun culture which was demonstrated in the just concluded elections.
A ten-member Pakistan delegation of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs is on a four-day visit to the Island country.
Read more,
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200803151550.htm
Sri Lanka's former President Chandrika Kumaratunga last night attended the Central Committee meeting of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party held at the Temple Trees. The meeting was chaired by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The committee meeting which started around 7 pm went till around 9 pm, during which time the CC passed two proposals. Among them was the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
Although all the members had agreed to pass the two proposals, former President has reportedly claimed that she was against the 13th amendment.
Extracted from,
A Sri Lankan couple and one Maldivian man have been arrested trying to smuggle Rf 12 million (US$1 million) worth of heroin into the country.
Maldives Customs Service says the four kilograms worth seized is the largest amount of narcotics ever intercepted in a single haul.
The two Sri Lankans were caught at Male' International airport after travelling from Colombo, Sri Lanka, according to police, but the narcotics are believed to have come from Pakistan.
Sameen Ummul Faumiyya, 56, and Mohamed Wasood Mohamed Bisthaami, 38, were caught after bags of narcotics, held in plastic bags in a false compartment in their luggage, were uncovered during a security check.
Read more,
http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=4242
Sri Lanka is in advanced talks with Russia over the procurement of five MiG-29 fighter aircraft, the head of the country's state-owned procurement agency has said.
Jayantha Wickramasinghe, chief executive officer of Lanka Logistics and Technologies Limited (the company created by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence in 2007 to procure equipment for the armed forces), said that the acquisition of four MiG-29SMs and one MiG-29UB was "well under way".
"Negotiations about these aircraft are continuing," Wickramasinghe told Jane's on 13 March. "We are discussing all possibilities."
The procurement follows the emergence of the air division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which used Zlin Z 143 light aircraft to bomb the airport and Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) base in Colombo in March 2007.
Extracted from,
http://www.janes.com/news/defence/jdw/jdw080314_1_n.shtml
about MiG 29,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_MiG-29
Mig-29 Fulcrum Video Gallery,
http://www.air-attack.com/videos/50/Mig-29-Fulcrum.html
INDIAN AIR FORCE---MiG-29 busting--PAKISTANI BUNKER
An LTTE training base was destroyed this morning (March 15) in an air raid carried out by SLAF fighter jets, North East of at Vishwamadukulama in Iranamadu, Mullaittiuvu.
According to SLAF sources the enemy target had been under constant surveillance and latest air reconnaissance information has revealed intensified terrorist activity in the area.
The LTTE training facility was left in rubbles as pilots returned following the precision air sortie at around 6.10.a.m.
The LTTE is yet to reveal casualty figures.
Extracted from,
http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080315_03
Recently, US Envoy Robert Blake voiced himself that the local elections to be held in the liberated East could not be free and fair. In fact I wrote a Paper which was published in The Asian Tribune of February 7, : “Our US Ambassador expressing doubts of forthcoming elections in Batticaloa” where I assured him that our Elections Service was far superior to that of the USA and that he could be assured of a free and fair election.
Now the elections to the nine local government councils in Batticaloa are history. Though the polling stations were manned to the hilt with soldiers guarding the precincts, there was not a single incident where anyone was marched to a polling precinct with a revolver held to one’s head.
There was not a single incident reported where anyone threatened a polling precinct presiding officer with a gun and stuffed ballots into the ballot boxes as happened many a time during elections held in the Eighties, under the UNP rule! In fact Professor Sunanda Deshapriya, the Co-convenor of the Center for Monitoring Election Violence has said that the election was peaceful in Batticaloa District except incidents of vote rigging in Valachenai.(Lanka e News 11/3/08).
The incidents of vote rigging were sporadic instances and nowhere near the stolen elections of the US President in both 2000 and 2004.
Read more,
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/10041
The Human Rights Watch report has as promised generated vast appeal. Its report titled “Recurring Nightmare – State responsibility for “disappearances” & abductions in Sri Lanka brought with it several other avalanches as well. It was only to be expected.
Having gone through the 498 cases of “abductions / missing” highlighted, there were a few questions that came to mind – would a 5 year old & an 8 year old be involved in terrorist activity to be “abducted” by the Sri Lankan Army & taken for questioning? Most unlikely, but then didn’t the UN file many reports exposing the LTTE of recruiting child soldiers – but reports apart, very little has been done to curb the LTTE’s child recruitment?
Then there were also 20 other such cases of names & it was most surprising that their families didn’t know how old they were (report says “age unknown”). Does this not raise more than a few eyebrows & question the credibility of the said document which should have no faults whatsoever if it is seeking to accuse a State Government & its army of targeted abductions & disappearances?
Read more,
http://www.sinhalaya.com/news/english/wmview.php?ArtID=14975
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama today (14th March 2008) called in the US Ambassador in Sri Lanka Robert Blake to register Sri Lanka's serious concerns about the recently released U.S. State Department's 2007 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka.
The report presents a distorted view of the actual situation in Sri Lanka during the year 2007 and is unfortunately a litany of unsubstantiated allegations, innuendo and vituperative exaggerations.
It was noted that there was a suspicious similarity between the comments made in the report and the views expressed by those deliberately seeking to denigrate the Government of Sri Lanka. While Sri Lanka had concerns with respect to human rights in the late 2006 and early 2007, the government had taken a range of positive steps to address these concerns.
The Government was confident that the situation will continue to improve. Human rights is an important issue for the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL).
The Minister who said the Foreign Ministry was in the process of preparing a detailed response on the issues raised in the U.S. State Department Report, went on to share Sri Lanka's objections to the conclusions of the State Department report.
Read more,
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080314_09
A Malton man charged in connection with a North American network that police allege provides weapons and other materials to a terrorist group in Sri Lanka has had a date set for his extradition hearing.
According to Justice Canada officials, Ramanan Mylvaganam, 30, will appear June 10 before a Federal Court judge as American authorities attempt to have him brought to the U.S. to face charges. Mylvaganam is expected to fight extradition.
Mylvaganam was arrested by RCMP on Aug. 22, 2006 at his Derry Rd. E. apartment. He was picked up on a provisional warrant at the request of U.S. authorities. One month later, he was granted bail.
"This whole ordeal has been a total shock to my family, especially my mother; she can't stop crying," Mylvaganam's brother, Raghu, said in an earlier interview.
Mylvaganam and four other Ontario men have been charged with one count each of conspiring to provide material support and resources to the Tamil Tigers, a political/military organization that has been waging war with the government of Sri Lanka since the 1970s. The group is trying to secure a separate state for the Tamil regions of the country.
In April 2006, the Tigers were added to Canada's official list of terrorist organizations.
In total, 12 men have been charged in the joint FBI-RCMP investigation into the alleged criminal organization.
The sweep also included arrests in Buffalo, San Jose, Seattle and Connecticut.
Read more,
http://www.mississauganews.com/article/12108
Sri Lanka has decided not to send women as housemaids to Middle East countries with effect from next year.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently advised the relevant ministries to implement this proposal from next year and send trained females as prospective nurses and attendants where they can earn more with due respect.
Currently, some thousands of Sri Lankan women are working as housemaids in the Middle East countries and most of them were subjected to harassments and physical abuses.
Extracted from,
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_08/March13161748JV.html
The latest target of the hunt down of Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation staff is Anurasiri Hettige, the Chairman of the trade union attached to JVP.
When Mr. Hettige was waiting at Kotokawaththa junction to go for duty around 7.30 AM today (14), a group of thugs attacked him with a sharp knife injuring his head. He was immediately admitted to Colombo General Hospital with severe bleeding from his head. Poddala Jayantha, the Secretary of the Working Journalists' Association who was in hospital said to 'Lanka-e-News' that the doctors were attending his injuries.
This is the fifth incident of the spate of violence the SLRC workers are facing since Minister Mervin Silva who trespassed the SLRC premises and assaulted the News Director was chased by the staff.
Media organizations joined with the main opposition launched a massive demonstration before the SLRC on March 11 against hunting SLRC staff. On that day, they declared that the SLRC would strike work continuously if another worker is attacked.
Extracted from,
http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=5546
