Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Unbeaten Sri Lanka thrashed Japan by 110-08 as they remain as the top contenders to retain their title at the 8th Asian Netball Championship which is being worked off at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo today (28).

Sri Lanka won all the quarters by scoring 29-00, 27-01, 30-02 and 24-05 as they continued their good form to reach the hundred mark figure for a successive second time in the competition.

Romila`s story

`Abduction`, `broad daylight disappearances`, `armed death squads`, `white-vans` and `sheer intimidations` were constant malicious propaganda stunts orchestrated by a few vicious individuals/ groups that were left hapless, following the historic defeat of LTTE - the finale of a three decade prolonged tragedy in the island nation.

`Thinakkural` and `Walampuri` newspapers published in Jaffna and `Athirvu` website revealed the latest `abduction` case about Romila who had lived in Chunnakam in Jaffna on 04th August 2012. According to the news Romila, a young girl was abducted by an unknown group when she was on her way to Katunayaka air port to leave for France.

Sri Lanka Naval Ship Ranadheera attached to the Northern Naval Command on routine patrol arrested 03 Indian fishermen found poaching in the seas north-west of Kovilum on 11th February 2012. They had painted letters NAVY on the roof top of their fishing trawler to disguise their illegal act. The arrested Indian fishermen and their fishing boat bearing the registration number TN/08/MSB 300 were brought to Kankasanthurai Harbour and handed over to KKS Police for onward action on completion of the preliminary investigations.

Controversial diplomat snares Gillard role

A TOP Australian diplomat heavily criticised for her role in ``rehabilitation`` ceremonies for alleged Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka has been rewarded with a job in Prime Minister Julia Gillard`s department.

Kathy Klugman will become head of the international division in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, a key foreign policy job.

Ms Klugman, who was high commissioner in Colombo until this month, was condemned by rights groups in October for handing out certificates to Tamils after they were held for two years in a detention camp by the Sri Lankan government.

Alliance Air pilot mistakes Kochi for Kozhikode

CHENNAI/ KOCHI: About 32 passengers from Thiruvananthapuram on board an Alliance Air flight were shocked to find themselves at Kochi airport on Monday after the pilot announced that they had landed at Kozhikode.

Air traffic controllers are flummoxed by the pilot`s statement that he thought he had reached Kozhikode and that there was some navigational error.

A spokesman of the airline, meanwhile, said the flight landed in Kochi because of a last-minute change in the crew`s duty timing.

By Indi Samarajiva

There are still a few common fears floating around Colombo and the pages of this newspaper. They are that the country will return to war, that the economy will collapse and that we will descend into a totalitarian dictatorship soon. These are the traditional rallying cries of the disenfranchised elite, but I think they simply do not apply any more. These fears are unfounded.

Will Sri Lanka Return To War?

No. People have waited almost two years to see if the war would reemerge, and it has not. Why not? For one thing, the numbers simply are not there for more insurrections. In the 1980s there was a significant youth bulge, with the vast majority of the country being under 35 years. Today`s demographics are much more balanced. The classic recipe for revolution is young people, unemployment, and oppressive governance. Sri Lanka simply does not have the ingredients to bake that cake.

A fanatical terrorist has escaped being thrown out of the UK because it would breach his human rights.

Hate-filled Siraj Yassin Abdullah Ali, graded the highest possible risk to the public, was released after serving just half of his nine-year sentence for helping the July 21 bombers.

He now mingles freely among the Londoners his co-plotters tried to kill six years ago.

Government officials are desperate to deport the Islamic fundamentalist back to his native Eritrea but have been told they cannot because he could face `inhumane treatment or punishment`.

Michael Roberts, 21 August 2011

I began reading de Soyza`s Tamil Tigress in a relaxed moment while at tennis and was captivated by its readability and the author`s capacity to create atmosphere. I was fascinated by its casting, that is, her skill in crafting the work. De Soysa begins with a striking incident where she is introduced to the world as a neophyte fighter in an incident marked as Ambush where she is lucky to survive even while ten comrades, including platoon leader Muralie, perished. De Soysa then plunges her readers back in time by moving to her autobiographical family history and its various ethnic, intra-ethnic and caste tensions. Each chapter ends on a note of suspense and/or moment of change in life world, so that the readers are kept on their toes so to speak.

SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: SEVEN CIVILIANS INJURED IN VIOLENT PROTEST IN NORTH

1. (U) SUMMARY: Seven civilians were injured when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers fired on a violent protest led by students affiliated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern district of Jaffna on December 19. In Colombo on December 17-18 security forces arrested and released over 100 suspects in neighborhood sweeps for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspects. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) declared the LTTE guilty of gross violations of the Cease-fire Agreement (CFA) after the December 14 shooting at a Sri Lanka Air Force helicopter in the eastern district of Ampara (Ref B). The CFA continues to hold--but under obvious and increasing pressure. End summary.

Sarath N. Silva A Wolf In Sheep`s Clothing

Frederic Jansz

The origin of corruption is when someone thinks power is for him, his family and his henchmen, said former Chief Justice Sarath N. de Silva speaking last week at the launch of the website `Voice Against Corruption`
That Sarath Nanda Silva was a Chief Guest at this ceremony is not only ironical but laughable. It only personifies the ridiculous depths to which civil society will sink or choose willingly to adopt a comfortable state of amnesia.

THREE refugees who used credit card details skimmed in the UK to steal thousands from Australian banks have been sentenced.

All three were handed jail terms, but a Victorian judge has suspended the prison terms for two of the Sri Lankan men, who survived torture, beatings and other atrocities before fleeing to Australia.

The global fraud scheme involved card numbers stolen in Britain being emailed to Australia and encoded onto blank Coles Myer and Crown cards, which were then used to withdraw cash at ATMs.

The remains of Adolf Hitler`s deputy Rudolf Hess have been exhumed and his headstone destroyed early Wednesday morning. German officials decided to cremate Hess`s remains and bury the ashes at sea.

Buring in a cemetery in the town of Wunsiedel, Germany in the Bavarian state, the grave-site was occasionally used as a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis. German officials moved the body to end this practice.

Hess killed himself in a Berlin jail in 1987. As requested by in his will, he was buried in Wundsiedel, where his family had a summer home. Hess`s epitaph read `I dared.`

Periodically, when the state of affairs in India looks really bleak, something happens that restores our faith in humanity, the government (!), and the democratic process.

Last Wednesday was one such day. The Supreme Court of India decreed that the Salwa Judum, a special police force created by the government, armed and given licence to kill supposed Naxals or Maoists (extremist forces as per government definition) is illegal.

In the wave of political change in the Arab world, Libya clearly stands apart. Unlike his counterparts in Egypt or Bahrain, Muammar Gaddafi`s power does not seem to be slipping out of his hands, and there`s a reason for it.
Gaddafi`s resilience looks really strange, when you start considering it. His domestic opposition is armed with machine guns, not stones and Molotov cocktails. Even after a period of thaw, his international reputation is still on a par with Kim Jong-il with all the airliner bombings, killing of police officers in St. James` Square and a WMD program in his bag. Now he even has an international military force in his backyard, which without doubt could take control of Libya in a matter of days, if such a decision was made.

US officials had evidence of widespread torture by Indian police and security forces and were secretly briefed by Red Cross staff about the systematic abuse of detainees in Kashmir, according to leaked diplomatic cables.

The dispatches, obtained by website WikiLeaks, reveal that US diplomats in Delhi were briefed in 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the use of electrocution, beatings and sexual humiliation against hundreds of detainees.