Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

There`s a huge Union Flag flying proudly outside Deva Kumarasiri`s house and it`s been there so long the edges are tattered and torn.

Nearby, another one flutters from the back of his favourite Land Rover as he drives to work as the local cornershop postmaster.

In case it`s not immediately clear, the Sri Lankan born father of two - who fulfilled a dream to come to this country 17 years ago and took citizenship to make his life here - is proud to be British.

LTTE. Followed by a bitter parting with rebel chief V Prabhakaran. Subsequently, floating a Tamil political party. Last week, rather ironically, appointed as minister of National Integration and Rebuilding in the Sinhala-majority ruling coalition -- Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, popularly known as Colonel Karuna, has indeed had a chequered career. In between, he spent also eight months in a British jail for allegedly traveling on forged documents.

Police authorities in eastern Sri Lanka say that a suspect arrested on alleged abduction and rape of a six-year old schoolgirl was shot dead as he tried to escape.

Superintendant of Police (SP), Trincomalee, Vaas Gunawardene told BBC Sandeshaya that suspect Mervyn Niroushan was shot by a police sergeant as he attempted to escape from the police vehicle while being transported to hospital to investigate whether he was responsible for raping the girl.

Judy Mary Varsha, a schoolgirl from Palaiyuththu, Trincomalee was found dead on Friday after she went missing on 11 March.

By Jeevani Pereira

The body of the six-year-old girl who was abducted on Wednesday afternoon from her school in Trincomalee was discovered early yesterday in a canal running through a densely populated residential area of the town.

Residents who noticed a bad smell coming out of a sack discovered the body of Warsha Jude Regi inside the sack with her hands and legs tied, eyes blindfolded, badly beaten and strangled, with distinctive burn marks on her body.

Residents said the sack was seen floating in the canal since Thursday but had ignored it believing it to be a bag of garbage.

Cherry S18
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China`s largest independent carmaker Chery Automobile rolled off its first plug-in electric car this week.

The all-electric car, S18, can go up to 150 kilometres (93 miles) on one charge and has a maximum speed of 120 kilometres (72 miles) an hour, the company said in a statement.

The battery can be fully charged within six hours using a 220-volt home outlet, while 80 percent of the battery can be charged within 30 minutes, it said.

`The price will be very suitable for families,` Yuan Tao, vice president of Chery said, without offering details.

Some pictures are worth a million words - Mr. Brown

His problem was that in Sri Lanka the doctors said they would be able to operate on his daughter only after two years.

Hospitals

I visited all the hospitals in the country and the doctors said it would take them at least two years, as a result of which I lost hope, Mr. Siva Sathyaseelan said.

That was not all. Mr.Sathyaseelan with his Sri Lankan Rs. 3,000 monthly salary could not afford treatment elsewhere for his three-month-old S. Brinda.

By T, Farook Thajudeen
A young inventor, who made claims through the media that he had made a device to convert petrol vehicles to run on water as fuel, was remanded yesterday by Colombo Additional Magistrate Ravindra Premaratne, till October 28, for allegedly defrauding several people of their money by promising to venture into a lucrative business to manufacture the device.

The suspect, Mohotti Arachchilage Thushara Priyamal Edirisinghe of Athurugiriya, was arrested by the Kirulapone Police after investigation of a complaint by Dadallage Nalaka Silva on October 13, that the suspect had defrauded him of Rs. 1,104,693.72 by promising to start a business involving the conversion of petrol cars to water powered ones.

WE Tamils founded the first `Racial` political parties, when it was IN OUR OWN INTEREST, as a minority, to NOT to let the racist genie to come out of the bottle. The racist Genie was let out of the bottle in the 1930s by G. G. Ponnambalam, as a means of wresting power from the turbaned elites like Arunachalam Ramanathan.

by Sebastian Rasalingam

(October 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Dr. Winston Panchacharam, writing in Tanscurrents, almost a month ago, argued that `first-class` Tamils are NOT `first-class` citizens of Sri Lanka, and bemoaned his experience in the Ceylon Medical Service in 1969. He claims that we have to act to avert genocide perpetrated on the Tamils, by the Sinhalese.

September 30, 2008 (AFP) - Government troops have captured a runway operated by Tamil Tiger rebels inside the guerrillas` mini-state in the north, Sri Lanka`s defence ministry said Tuesday.

`Troops have captured the second LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) runway, which is 500 meters long and 50 meters wide in the Panikkankulam area,` the ministry said. It gave no further details.

`The creator of art no doubt needs total freedom of imagination but he has to work within a frame of probability particularly when working on critical and sensitive areas such as history. Unless probability is thus established he cannot relate to his audience in a meaningful manner.`

by Prof. N. A. de S. Amaratunga

(September 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Aba is a brilliant production as could be expected from its exceptionally capable director Jackson Anthony - a man held in high esteem for his many and varied talents. Yet the film carries a few distortions of historical probabilities that needs to be critically evaluated. These relate mainly to Pandukabaya`s ancestry and the character Cittaraja and therefore this note will be confined to those aspects of the film.

The National Police Commission (NPC) yesterday said that Police Headquarters needed to take tough action against sex maniacs in the department to ensure an already bad situation from getting worse.

A shocked K. C. Logeswaran, Secretary to the Commission yesterday told The Island that a report would be called from Police Headquarters on the alleged sexual assault on a teenage boy by M. G. Chandrasiri, Officer-in-Charge of Hakmana Police. He expressed shock and regret that a cohesive strategy hadn`t been adopted to discourage sex offenders even after the Officer-in-charge of Kalutara (North) Police Jakson was interdicted recently on a rape charge, pending a court inquiry. He is alleged to have raped a 14-year-old girl.

30 August 2008
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SRI LANKA: Alleged assault and ill treatment of a woman by police and jailors

ISSUES: Ill treatment assault corruption legal assistance administration of justice
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the ill-treatment of a woman by police officers and jailors in late June 2008. The lady was involved in a private argument with another woman whose husband is a high ranking government officer. This case shows how this officer abused his official position by influencing other officials and is yet further evidence of miscarriage of justice.

Close to 2.00 min on the video, you can see a 5 year old kid dancing Kandyan. His body movements are very impressive. His name is Ashan Chathuranga and from Pollonnaruwa.

A young man is now in the Colombo Eye Hospital having permanently lost his sight in one eye due to acid being thrown in his face while he was in police custody. The police, acting in connivance with a truck driver, arrested him and beat him severely while the truck driver threw the acid at his face. He was kept for several days at the police station with his injuries unattended despite of all attempts by the family to have him taken to a hospital. The eye injury could have been reduced if he was given timely medical treatment. This is yet another case of illegal arrest, illegal detention, torture and allowing a third party to throw acid on a person who was in police custody.