Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

Lawyers for Sri Lankan migrants whose ship landed on the West Coast last month grilled Singapore-based terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna Thursday on his claims about the men, questioning his sources, connections to the Sri Lankan government and the reliability of the information that he publishes on a terrorism database.

The issue is the unverifiable nature of the sources you use when you refer to `closed` or intelligence sources, Lorne Waldman, a lawyer who represents several of the detainees, said at the Immigration and Refugee Board hearing at which Prof. Gunaratna answered questions via speakerphone from Singapore.

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes has confirmed that more than half the Tamils who were in refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka have now left them.

The camps were set up to house Tamils who fled the final stages of Sri Lanka`s 25-year civil war which ended in May.

Mr Holmes, who has just visited the area, said fewer than 135,000 people now remained in the camps.

The government had been under pressure to speed up their resettlement.

Mr Holmes said it was an extremely welcome development, and that it was clear those who had been able to go home were glad to be going back to their villages.

Nov 18, Colombo: The United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Sir John Holmes visited the welfare centers in Northern Sri Lanka today.

The UN official first visited Menik Farm camp in Chettikulam, Vavuniya this afternoon where he was warmly welcomed by the Vavuniya Government Agent P.S.M Charles and the Vanni Security Forces Commander Major General Kamal Gunaratne.

Holmes later visited the Kadirgamar, Arunachalam and Ananada Coomaraswamy relief villages to observe the living conditions of the welfare camps in Vavuniya.

Ranil`s wild goose chase

Stipulating conditions for the `common candidate` who would contest from the newly formed United National Alliance at the forthcoming presidential election, UNP and Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW),is reported to have said in an interview with the Editor of the Sudar Oli newspaper that the alliance`s `common candidate` hopeful, former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Sarath Fonseka (SF), should `clarify certain issues concerning the Tamil people and the Tamil National Alliance and the TNA should endorse that Fonseka`s clarifications were acceptable to the Tamils.`

by Shamindra Ferdinando

While the government and a section of the Opposition clashed over denial of Opposition MPs` right to visit IDP facilities in the Northern and Eastern Province, particularly in the Vavuniya region, UNP MP Sajith Premadasa has launched a novel project to help the war displaced re-build their lives.

Addressing a press conference at Sucharitha, yesterday, the Hambantota District MP and the founder of Janasuwaya, an NGO active in the South criticised the government for not giving them direct access to IDP facilities. Responding to The Sunday Island queries, the MP emphasised that he would not be deterred by government action. `I am not going to wait until they give us an opportunity to visit IDPs. Instead of complaining, I launched a project of my own with the financial support extended by a Japanese NGO with vast experience in relief operations,` he said.

Fonseka, who was criticised last year for accusing Sri Lankan minorities like the Tamils of demanding `undue things`, echoed opposition and Western calls to free hundreds of thousands of Tamil war refugees held in military-run camps.

`Your Excellency`s government has yet to win the peace in spite of the fact the army under my leadership won the war,` he wrote. `There is no clear policy to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people, which will surely ruin the victory attained.`

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday accepted Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka`s resignation letter. Accordingly, Gen. Fonseka will cease to be CDS with effect from Dec. 01, 2009.

Gen. Fonseka informed the President of his desire to resign at a one-to-one meeting on Wednesday, where they were expected to iron out their differences. Cordial as the meeting was, President Rajapaksa said he had no objections to Gen. Fonseka`s resignation or his decision to enter politics. `I have instructed my Secretary to accept you resignation letter immediately, should you tender it,` the President told Gen. Fonseka.

Opinion by B. V. Singh

The dates were set and changed many times, if only one has the memory to count. The Sinhala Chieftains auspicious time to hoist their Lion flag over the conquered Tamil homeland has come and gone many times. First it was just few kilometers to Killinochi then it is a matter of few hours of `a kissing distance`. Leave alone the controlled local media which orchestrated parties and parades in the Sinhala land - the band wagon was filled with foreign journalists and news organizations to catch the so called final saga of the Tamil self rule and death of an autonomous homeland.

By Anusha Ondaatjie


Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund said the release of a second payment in its $2.6 billion loan to Sri Lanka indicates a strong performance and fiscal commitment from the South Asian island economy.

The Washington-based lender expects the government to meet its 2009 budget deficit target of 7 percent of gross domestic product, Koshy Mathai, the IMF`s resident representative for Sri Lanka, said in a conference call today.

With the prospect of a presidential election early next year, Sri Lanka`s Chief of Defence Staff, General Sarath Fonseka, is emerging as the likely common candidate of the opposition parties to challenge President Mahinda Rajapakse. The backing for Fonseka underscores the degree to which the entire political establishment in Colombo depends on the military.

WASHINGTON The International Monetary Fund said Friday its executive board approved the release of 329.4 million dollars to Sri Lanka, the second portion of a loan to help the country weather the economic crisis.

The IMF said the board completed the first review of Sri Lanka`s economic performance under a 20-month standby loan.

This allows the immediate disbursement of the second tranche, bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to 658.8 million dollars.

(AFP) 3 hours ago

COLOMBO The leader of a boat of Sri Lankan asylum seekers held in Indonesia is a known people smuggler previously deported from Canada, the government said Friday, a charge he has strongly denied.

Alex, who emerged as the spokesman for the 255 Sri Lankans whose boat was detained last month en route to Australia, is Kulaendrarajah Sanjeev, a 28-year-old who worked out of a base in India, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

CHENNAI: In a gruesome honour killing, a 21-year-old woman was brutally murdered by her father and relatives in Tirupur district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday for marrying a Dalit youth.

Sripriya, who belonged to the backward Kallar community, had fallen love with A Badhrakali, while she was doing an internship for her B.Ed course.

The couple eloped and got married in Salem on September 29. Police and relatives said Sripriya`s father Srinivasan and two relatives came to Madathukulam, near Udumalpet in Tirupur district, on Wednesday. The newly-wed couple was staying with Badhrakali`s sister in Madathukulam. Srinivasan asked Sripriya to come to Trichi to visit her mother who was ill.

The Immigration and Refugee Board has ordered a Sri Lankan Tamil migrant to remain in custody after agreeing that the young man - one of 76 who sailed into Canadian waters last month - could have ties to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, viewed by Canada as a terrorist group.

The Canada Border Services Agency had been arguing that the men must be held until their identities are verified. Now, it has switched tactics, arguing that the migrants must be kept in custody while investigators determine whether some have links to the Tamil Tigers.

The Tamil Tigers organization hopes to use Canada as a strategic base to continue the fight against the government of Sri Lanka, according to an authority on the alleged terrorist group.

`I cannot think of any other country that is more important for the Tamil Tigers as Canada, to regroup and continue their campaign against Sri Lanka,` said Prof. Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, a Singapore-based think-tank.