Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Sri Lanka set a plethora of records during their massive first innings total of 706 for seven declared against India in the first Test in Ahmedabad, on Thursday.

They obliterated England`s record of 652 for seven declared to register the highest total against India in India.

Mahela Jayawardene, who scored his sixth double century in Tests with a sparking knock of 275, registered the highest individual innings against India in India, going past Younis Khan`s 267.

LTTE`s EP leader Ram recaptured by Hemantha Randunu

The LTTE Eastern province leader Ram, who had escaped from Army, was arrested yesterday. The Army nabbed him following a massive search operation conducted in the Minneriya jungles.

Ram had been under interrogation in an army camp in the Giritale Area in Polonnaruwa, when he fled last Saturday (7).

With the escape of the LTTE Eastern Province leader, the Army commenced a search operation with over 3,000 soldiers deployed to trace him down.

By Kelum Bandara and Yohan Perera

In what was widely seen as a new political development , the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) yesterday commended in Parliament efforts by Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa and Resettlement Minister Rishard Bathiudeen in resettling displaced civilians in the North.

Speaking during the debate on the Vote on Account, TNA MP N. Srikantha said it would be politically hypocritical for his party not to praise the efforts by these two members in the resettlement process.

by Saman Indrajith
India`s Andaman Islands will come within the area which Sri Lanka is hoping to claim in keeping with its sea bed rights from the UN Commission on the limits of the continental shelf.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama yesterday told parliament that Sri Lanka`s claim would be discussed with India before making final submissions to the UN Commission. He was responding to a query raised by UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake.

Navy refutes claims of indian fishermen



Chinese nationals on navy ships

By Achala Dissanayake

The Sri Lanka Navy had refuted Indian media reports, which quoted Indian fishermen as claiming that Chinese nationals were patrolling the seas along with the Sri Lankan Navy.

Navy Spokesperson Commander D.K.P Dassanayake, speaking to Daily Mirror, stressed that there were no Chinese nationals aboard Sri Lankan Navy ships and insisted that there was no need for any Chinese to be among the Sri Lankan Navy either.

Chinese men sighted with Lankan Navy
Nov 02 (ENS) RAMANATHAPURAM- If reports given by fishermen, that Chinese men in Lankan fatigues are jointly patrolling the seas with the Lankan navy are true, then India`s security seems to be at threat. According to the fishermen from Ramanathapuram district, who have been attacked by the Lankan navy at mid sea, the Sinhalese are being accompanied by men who have Chinese features and who talk in a different language.

In an operation similar to the one conducted in the East with the support of breakaway LTTE cadres headed by Karuna, the government is now using Vanni Tiger cadres to quell a fresh attempt to revive the LTTE.

Although the circumstances under which the Vanni cadres are deployed are very much different from the eastern operation, the on-going `police work` has produced positive results.

A small group of ex-LTTE cadres, including battle hardened ones are now working with the Northern Range Police to apprehend hard core LTTE cadres taking refuge among civilians accommodated at welfare centres and ascertain exact involvement of those who had already acknowledged their role in the organisation as well as `sleeping` cadres.

500 SLA dead bodies recorved and 5000 SLA has been arrested by Tamil Eelam army, Unconfirmed Reports says. WAITING FOR THE OFFICIAL REPORT FROM WANNI, TAMIL EELAM FOR MORE NEWS.

Ferociously heavy battles ensued between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan Security Forces (SF) in Mulaitivu causing heavy casualties among the combatants. SF troopers` number of Sri Lankan heavy tanks and artilleries were bog down in the ensuing fighting, according to the sources in Vanni.

Chinese people are now paying the price of quick economic boom without environmental safeguards.

COLOMBO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Two baby elephants under five years old were taken away from their mothers, sparking anger in a world-renown elephant orphanage in central Sri Lanka, a local English newspaper said on Monday.

The Island said the two baby tuskers were forcibly separated from their mothers by the Diyawadana Nilame Pradeep Nilanga Dela, the chief custodian of the Temple of the Tooth, on Saturday night at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, about 80 km northeast of the capital Colombo.

You have have seen this before. But, what the heck?

(Lanka-e-News 09.July.2009 4.00PM) A few days after Tamil Nadu chief minister, Mr M Karunanidhi told the state Assembly of a story of a hero`s escape on a horseback with none in the know of his whereabouts inferred here to mean LTTE leader V Prabhakaran, a close associate of the elusive LTTE leader who has known him for decades, Mr P Nedumaran, today said that Prabhakaran was alive.

The government of Sri Lanka announced that Mr Prabhakaran was killed. They also said that they had completed a DNA test on the body and then burned it in a hurry. First Sri Lanka does not have the facility to do a DNA test. And none of his blood relatives have been subject to the sampling for the test, Mr Nedumaran who was invited to speak on the topic of the challenges facing Tamils in Sri Lanka now, said.

Another rally is planned for this Saturday
A 73-day protest involving thousands of people demonstrating over the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka has ended.

The protest featured hunger strikes, mass sit-ins blocking central London roads and people throwing themselves into the River Thames.

One of those involved, Ambi Seevaratnam said: `After 73 days, nothing has worked. The Tamils have been betrayed by the international community.`

Protesters have at times clashed with police in Parliament Square.

Will a person with a skin disease ever want to consult, let alone follow the advice of, a dermatologist with a massive rash, scratching himself like mad? We don`t think so. (We hope good skin specialists won`t take umbrage we are only trying to drive a point home.) Likewise, champions of global democracy with a deplorable human rights record cannot expect others to take them seriously.

Sri Lanka is being hauled over the coals--nay, an attempt is being made to barbecue it at the UN--for what the western bullies call `war crimes`. Some of the knights in shining armour joined forces in Geneva the other day to burn Sri Lanka at the human rights stake, albeit in vain. They pretended that they had been shocked by what happened in the run up to the final battle in Mullaittivu. Even thought a group of countries comprising over four billion people torpedoed a move to pillory and harass Sri Lanka in the name of human rights, some countries and UN bigwigs with Tiger links have not yet given up their vilification campaign.

David sent Goliath reeling in Geneva on Wednesday. Little Lanka, preening herself on defeating terrorism on home soil, scored an impressive victory over `diplomatic terrorism` in a hostile terrain. At the UNHRC special session, her resolution to counter an attempt to confer pariah status on her was carried with a majority of 17 votes - 29 for, 12 against and 6 abstaining. Nobody expected her to crush terrorism. Similarly, not many thought it would be able to floor the powerful western bloc.

The 29 nations that stood by Sri Lanka represent about 4 billion people while the opposing countries are home to only 0.5 billion. That is the world has overwhelmingly backed Sri Lanka vis- -vis a dastardly attempt by the western bloc and its hangers-on to hang her. David Miliband, Bernard Kouchner and others will need much bigger fig leaves than Sri Lanka`s human rights record to cover their nakedness.