Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

The Sri Lankan navy has seized an Indian vessel carrying economic refugees and bared a clandestine operation meant to help Sri Lankan refugees living in India to obtain political asylum in Australia.

The navy was acting on information received from a third party. The detection was the first of its kind since Sri Lanka and Australia reached an agreement on anti-human smuggling operations.

Australia has vowed not to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka over allegations of human rights violations, despite mounting calls not to attend.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said it would be counter-productive to skip the summit in the Sri Lankan city of Colombo in November.

`Any suggestion of a boycott would be counter-productive. It would simply isolate the country and render it defiant of international opinion,` he told ABC television late Friday.

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader Vaiko has called for an independent international investigation into war crimes allegations agaisnt Sri Lanka and also demanded that the Tamils in Sri Lanka should be allowed a referendum to decide their fate according to online ANI report dated April 7.

`There should be an independent international investigation about the crime of genocide committed by Sri Lankan government of Mahinda Rajapakshe. And the settlements of the army and police who`re deployed in the traditionally Tamil areas should be thrown out,` the agency quoted Vaiko as having said.

DMK, which quit the UPA over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, on Sunday (March 31) slammed the Centre for adopting discriminatory approach in protecting fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who have been suffering at the hands of Sri Lankan Navy.

While the Centre initiated series of diplomatic and legal steps when two Italian Marines killed two fishermen from Kerala, the same approach was lacking when Tamil Nadu fishermen were battered by the Island nation`s Navy, DMK chief M Karunanidhi said in a letter to his partymen. Karunanidhi, while focusing on the plight of Tamil fishermen, questioned the Centre with a poser, What has the Indian government got to say over the arrest of 19 Tamil fishermen who are lodged in a Lankan prison and whose remand has now been extended till April 11?

NEW DELHI, March 27: Leading Indian newspaper The Hindu has lambasted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa for barring Sri Lankan cricketers from playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches in Chennai, and the IPL management for meekly submitting to her diktat.

NEW DELHI, March 22: A renowned American military historian has advised India to keep its neighbours happy so that they don`t look for defence and political alliances elsewhere. In particular, India must be the most friendly with Sri Lanka because of the latter`s strategic location in the global maritime route.

Edward Luttwak, renowned American military strategist and author of `The Rise of China vs the Logic of Strategy,` said China is quarrelling constantly with its neighbours. India should avoid doing that for its own long term interests in the region, he said in an interview published in The Economic Times today.

The US resolution on accountability and reconciliation, which was moved at the UNHRC on Thursday, was directed at the Rajapaksa government and not Sri Lankans, the UNP said yesterday.

Senior Vice President of the UNP, Lakshman Kirielle told a news conference in Colombo that the US had only called on the government to implement the recommendations of its very own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). The UNP had also said the same thing since the release of the LLRC Report nearly a year ago. But the Rajapaksa regime had dismissed it as being traitorous and unfairly accused the UNP of promoting the interests of the Tamil Diaspora.

The US is not moving a resolution on Sri Lanka because it feels that the rights of the Tamils, Sinhalese or Muslims are at stake but rather because it has a strategic interest in the region, Former Lankan Permanent Representative to Geneva Tamara Kunanayakam stated.

Addressing a forum on issues pertaining to Sri Lanka and International Relations, she said that the interest the US and its allies have shown in Sri Lanka has nothing to do with our people nor our interests nor our human rights.

In view of continuing violence directed against Sri Lankans, particularly the Buddhist monks in Tamil Nadu, the Defence Ministry yesterday decided to direct tour operators to cease organized tours to the South Indian state until further notice.


A senior Defence Ministry spokesman told The Island that the government had no option but to discourage Sri Lankans from visiting Tamil Nadu or flying via Tamil Nadu airports to prevent further untoward incidents. However, those keen to visit places of religious worship in India could visit other Indian states, the official said, adding that the LTTE rump had been successful in manipulating an influential section of Tamil Nadu politicians. Violence against Sri Lankans had been instigated by those wanting India to throw its weight behind the second US resolution moved against Sri Lanka at the ongoing United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva.

Tigeress the desperate pelam rodent has posted how a Monk is attacked in India.. and very happy abt it! By the way She/he says

[Me too, i do not agree with this kind of beatings... ]

LOL! ROFL! So I posted how her peedung fighters killed very young child monks in Aranthalawa!

Five young men have been arrested in connection with the rape of a Swiss tourist in central India, the police said Sunday.

A woman, 39 and her husband were attacked on Friday night by a group of men in Madhya Pradesh, a state known for its medieval temples and palaces. They were camping in dense forest about 400 yards from a road after visiting the temple town of Orchha when they were attacked by seven or eight men, police said. The woman was raped by several of them, police said.

Amy Poirier Island New York 10301
Secretary of State John Kerry
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

March 9, 2013

Dear Secretary Kerry,

I am writing as an American who knows firsthand the greatness of our country. I know the great ability and strength that America has not only within our own country but throughout the world at large. At the present time there is a resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC over the allegations of human rights violations with the focus on the end of Sri Lanka Civil War.

The US Embassy in Colombo has expressed concern over US Marines Corps inviting Sri Lanka Deputy Permanent Representative in New York Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva to deliver a lecture at the prestigious Marine Corps University in South St. Quantico, New York recently.

The lecture was conducted last week.

Well informed sources told The Island that the US Embassy had raised the issue with the State Department while asserting that the Colombo mission should have been consulted.

It was a near miss yesterday afternoon for a school van, which crept through a closed rail gate near the Dematagoda police station. People in the area shouted and helped to avert a great tragedy by bringing the van to a halt just before the train passed the location. On left is the passing train and at centre background is the van.

PS: Picture is by one gentleman called Ranjith Wimalasiri

NEW DELHI, February 7: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President Muthuvel Karunanidhi has slammed Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for ruling out autonomy for the island`s minority Tamils.

In a statement issued in Chennai on Wednesday, the former Tamil Nadu chief minister said India should wake up at least now and understand

Rajapaksa`s true colours and motives.

India should take the help of international organisations and secure the right to life, livelihood and democratic rights for Sri Lankan Tamils, Karunanidhi said.