Sri Lanka News : InfoLanka News Room

Jan 21 (LNP) Major General Prasanna Silva says that a section of the international community not only rejected Sri Lanka s calls for arms, ammunition and equipment but also prevented aircraft carrying urgently needed items from flying over their airspace. The former GOC of the 55 Division said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa s government had bought in the required armaments to bolster the army s firepower in spite of obstacles. more..

A re-poll in the offing?

Jan 21 (DM) A news alert that reached quite a few people last morning read that X camp was going to bomb its own meeting in Kurunegala yesterday in order to put the blame on Y camp and draw sympathy votes. If the bomb really went off, who should be held responsible? X or Y. Quite a tricky question. All kinds of conspiracy theories started making their rounds after the text message. more..

'Taboo on State media leads to bias charge'

Jan 21 (DM) The State media were not allowed to cover the events of General Sarath Fonseka and that was the reason the State media looked biased, Udaya Gammanpila, alleged yesterday. Wimal Weerawansa, who was present on the occasion, said that Fonseka would do anything to get the sympathy of the people, including blaming the Government for bombs planted at his meetings and news conferences by his own supporters. more..

Meditating for peaceful elections

Govt. up to ‘dirty tricks’, to create confusion: UNP

Jan 21 (DM) The UNP yesterday charged that the Government is up to various tricks to create confusion in the minds of the people and win votes at the last moment. UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said that that obtaining a stay order from the courts by the police to cancel common opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka’s rally in Puttalam town yesterday because of a funeral in Anamaduwa, was a part of this plan. more..

'Sri Lanka graduates above IMF low income status'

Jan 21 (LBO) Sri Lanka has moved out of the countries eligible for financing from the International Monetary Fund's poverty reduction and growth facility with greater access to capital markets and higher incomes, the Central Bank said. "Accordingly, Sri Lanka will now be recognised as a country with a middle income emerging market status," the Central Bank said in a statement. more..

CID finds eyewitness to Lasantha Wickrematunga killing

Jan 21 (CT) The CID informed the courts today (Jan. 21) that an eyewitness to the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunga, the editor of 'The Sunday Leader', has been found. Mt. Lavinia chief magistrate Harsha Sethunga, who took up the case, was told that the witness’s identity could not be made public due to possible threats to his personal safety. more..

Fonseka says tanks moved to Colombo

Jan 21 (Island) Opposition presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka said that the government had moved 20 armoured fighting vehicles to Colombo on Monday this week. Addressing a propaganda meeting at Makandura, Matara, Fonseka said that the either the government was scared or planning to cause trouble after the January 26 presidential polls. more..

'Fonseka has old wine in new bottles'

Jan 21 (GDI) JHU member and Western Provincial Minister, Udaya Gammanpila today scoffed at Gen.Sarath Fonseka's manifesto and cracked that it looked a repetition of the policies of Chandrika Kumaratunga and Ranil Wickremasinghe who pledged to wipe out corruption but had to vacate office after corruption reigned peak during their administrations. more..

'Join together to build the nation'

Jan 21 (GDI) President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited the entire nation to join in nation building for the benefit of the future generations. The President made this statement while addressing a mammoth public rally at “Thopa Wewa” public stadium in Polonnaruwa. The President said peasants in Polonnaruwa rendered a yeoman service providing food for the people of the country when more..

Events might lead to military rule - JVP

Jan 21 (AD) Through government action it is clear that if their candidate is not elected to go for a military rule, Presidential Candidate Rtd. Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s joint spokesman JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake said today. He added the suspicion is solidified by the use of military leaders to make political statements on electronic media that are favourable to the government. more..

Why do Tamils in India hurl slippers at Lokubandara but Tamils in Sri Lanka garland Rajapakse and Fonseka?

Jan 21 (TC) Two news items appearing in the Island of Monday, January 11, 2010 took me by surprise. One read, "Members of pro-Eelam organizations hurled slippers at the convoy of Sri Lankan Parliament speaker W J M Lokubandara and tried to attack him when he was visiting the Vaitheeswaran Temple (in India) on Saturday. more..

Karuna rejects UNP hand in split

Jan 21 (DM) Minister of National Integration Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan, asserted that UNP leader Ranil Wickremasingha was not behind the split of the LTTE in 2004 although the UNP supported him after his defection. He said “it is was my decision to defect from LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabakaran but the government at that time which was the UNP made me some offers after I left the LTTE outfit” more..

Not all Sri Lankan refugees 'deserving'

Jan 21 (Age) Sri Lankan's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama says his Government wants access to asylum seekers who leave his country illegally for countries such as Australia because they may have been involved in serious crimes including terrorism. He has also urged the United Nations not to rush the process of assessing refugee status for Sri Lankan asylum seekers. more..

Opposition alleges post-poll coup plan

Jan 21 (AFP) Sri Lanka's main opposition said Thursday it feared President Mahinda Rajapakse would use the military to remain in power if he was defeated in next week's elections. Opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka accused the government of pushing senior army commanders to appear on state-run television to express their public support for Rajapakse. "By getting very senior officers to side with the president, the government is more..

VIDEO: US want to replace failed President with General – Bahu

Jan 22 (AD) The US that lost faith in President Rajapaksa who could not confront the massive strikes in the petroleum sector and the port that came in the wake of the plantation sector strike have decided to replace him with a new leadership said Presidential Candidate Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne. Bahu said that international masters have decided to replace Rajapaksa who failed in the face of workers with another man who was in the same camp, General Fonseka. more..

Debrief News - 21. 01. 2010

Sri Lanka to study nuclear power feasibility

Jan 22 (LBO) Sri Lanka is seeking Korean help to study the feasibility of starting a nuclear power plant in the island, power and energy ministry secretary M M C Ferdinando said. "We are discussion with the government of Korea (South) to implement nuclear power in Sri Lanka," secretary Ferdinando told reporters Wednesday. "This kind of study can't be done instantly so we are looking at a 20 year plan to get it implemented." more..

Maldivian woman arrested in Sri Lanka for drugs

Jan 22 (HO) A 53-year-old Maldivian woman arrested in Sri Lanka for allegedly possessing nine kilo drugs, official confirmed on Wednesday. Ali Hussain Didi, Maldivian high commissioner for Sri Lanka said the Sri Lankan police have officially informed the case to the high commission. He explained the woman, whose identity withheld is married to a 30-year-old Sri Lankan, who is also under police custody. more..

Shattered Tamil city braces for crucial poll

Jan 22 (BBC) The fishing boats seem to chase each other out in the lagoon. A flock of seabirds rises, glorious against the blue sky. Calm has returned to Jaffna's waters after decades of turbulence. It is still a tense peace. The bay where they repair their boats is cordoned off, guarded by the military. Parts of the shore are lined with razor-wire. But as the vessels crowd into the wharf by the fish market, there is a real buzz in the air. more..

Promising the moon to lure the voters is dangerous for the economy

Jan 22 (GV) The country is being told some dangerous lies by both main candidates contesting the Presidential election. The manifestoes put by both main candidates with much fanfare are ignoring economic realities. MR wants to give us more of the same when he has failed to resolve the problems of the economy or run any public service satisfactorily except the war where he had the horse sense to pick the right man in SF. more..

Grave concerns for a free and fair presidential election and the rule of law

Jan 22 (TC) The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is deeply concerned by the developments this week that suggest the remainder of the election campaign and the presidential election itself would not be conducted according to the legal procedures and limitations established by the Constitution and the law. The Commissioner of Elections appears to have given up on his attempts to enforce the law in terms of his powers under more..

Sri Lankans split ahead of polls

Towards an unfree election

Jan 22 (LG) The presidential election claimed its first victim last Tuesday, in the Rajapaksa stronghold of Tangalle. A bus on its way to a UNP meeting came under gunfire, killing 55 year old Kusumawathie Kuruppuarchchi, a mother of five. On the same day, an exasperated Election Commissioner threatened to withdraw from presidential poll duties, if his orders continue to be ignored by the powers that be. These two incidents are symbolic of a portentous acceleration in electoral violence and malpractices. more..

Tamil émigrés follow the election campaign with jaundiced eyes

Jan 22 (Economist) In the dingy back office of a Sri Lankan grocery shop in Harrow, north-west London, sales assistants pore over a Tamil newspaper, while a customer says he is going home to follow events on the internet. Having watched from afar as the Sri Lankan army crushed the LTTE in 2009, British Tamils are again transfixed by a campaign on the island—this time for an election. more..

Between a rock and a hard man

Jan 22 (Economist) The presidential election in Sri Lanka on January 26th should have been a cakewalk for the incumbent. Last May, when his government defeated the LTTE, bringing an end to a bloody 26-year insurgency, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s popularity among the island’s Sinhalese majority knew no bounds. As for the Tamil minority, thwarted of the independent homeland for which the Tigers had been fighting, more..

Astrologer analyses planetary event on 26 January 2010

Jan 22 (GV) The occult of warrior Mars and royal Jupiter on 26th January will dominate the planetary motions in our heads, guts, backsides and wallets for the next six years. The official Banyan News astrologer Mr Ahasrahas analyses the implications of the above cosmic event to determine the extent to which we will get screwed in the next phase of this rather predictably catastrophic cosmoastropoliticosociomasochistical cycle. more..

Sri Lanka to sign coal plant deal with India after elections

Jan 22 (LBO) The wrapping up of a joint venture deal to build a coal power plant in Sri Lanka's eastern coast by India's National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has been put off till presidential polls are over, an official said. NTPC and Sri Lanka's state-run Ceylon Electricity Board has been negotiating for three years to build a 500 MegaWatt coal plant in Trincomalee in Sri Lanka’s eastern coast. more..

Sri Lanka north promised development bank

Jan 22 (LBO) A bank specializing in lending to Sri Lanka's war torn north of the island will be set up Central Bank governor Nivard Cabraal told a forum in the island's Jaffna peninsular. I will give assurance today we will have a development bank for the north," Cabraal told a group of students in Jaffna. "This will get done in the future." Cabraal was responding to a question from Vahini Vidyananthan a student at more..

Art exhibition by Sudarshana Bandara at the American Center

Jan 22 (USE) The American Center is currently holding an art exhibition featuring the work of Sudarshana Bandara, the head of the Fine Arts Faculty at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy. The paintings typically show local subjects—such as Buddhist monks—depicted in a style that shows the influence of Cubism, expressionism, and surrealism. The more recent work incorporates physical objects—such as fans and children’s shoes—into the canvases. more..

The two elections in 2010: End of history for the NE Tamils or, A fresh beginning?

Jan 22 (TC) "War does not determine who is right: it just determines who is left," wrote Bertrand Russel. The NE Tamils (who include those from this region living elsewhere in the island), never had it so bad. Toronto and London had replaced Jaffna as the two largest population centres of the NE Tamils. For twenty years, the NE had undergone de-development, becoming the most backward part of Sri Lanka (worse than Uva) under more..

JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake on YaTV

Uncovering Sri Lanka's war crimes

Jan 22 (Guardian) Despite verbal acrobatics reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, Sri Lankan officials have been unable to dismiss a shocking mobile phone video from last January purportedly showing Sri Lankan soldiers summarily executing naked and bound captives. The government has consistently claimed the video is fake, without providing any evidence that the gruesome scene was staged or the footage tampered with. more..

Sri Lanka eye bank gives sight worldwide

Jan 22 (JT) The headquarters of the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society is housed in an unpretentious three-story building in the heart of Colombo's residential Cinnamon Gardens district, where the gift of sight is flown to many parts of the world. Today, its International Eye Bank is one of the world's biggest, supplying human eyes to restore vision to people in as many as 57 countries. "We have supplied nearly 56,000 donor corneas to 117 cities in 57 countries — over 9,000 to Japan," more..

Cong reacts cautiously over reports of Nalini's early release

Jan 22 (PTI) The Congress today reacted cautiously over the issue of the premature release of Nalini, sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. "These are extremely sensitive legal matters. There is nothing official which is in the public space or which is known to us. And I think it is absolutely inappropriate in the absence of any formal intimation for the Congress party to be reacting to it," more..

Muslim presidential candidate supports TNA, SLMC decision

Jan 22 (TN) M. S. Iliyas, former Jaffna parliamentarian and one of the presidential candidates, said that he welcomed TNA and SLMC decision to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa by supporting Sarath Fonseka in the presidential election, in a press meet held Thursday in Jaffna Veerasingham Hall. Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims and various political parties of the country have decided to bring in a change of government despite their differences, he added. more..

SLA harass relatives, friends visiting resettled IDPs in Ki’linochchi

Jan 22 (TN) Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers restrict and harass the relatives and friends of the small number of Vanni IDPs allowed to resettle in Ki’linochchi, the IDPs said. SLA soldiers inspect the National Identity Cards of the relatives and friends of the IDPs visiting them besides registering their particulars. Meanwhile, the soldiers subject the IDPs to severe interrogation after the visitors had left and more..

Police harass Wickramabahu supporters in Jaffna

Jan 22 (TN) Chu’n’naakam police arrested Manicakasothy Abimanasingham, the Jaffna District organizer of presidential candidate Dr. Wickramabahu Karunaratne and three of his supporters Thursday around 8:00 a.m in Chu’n’naakam while distributing campaign pamphlets. Meanwhile, three other supporters of the candidate had been assaulted by police earlier, the sources added. more..

Muslims will support President - Basil Rajapaksa

Jan 22 (GDI) MP Basil Rajapaksa has expressed confidence that the Muslim community would join to support the President to express their gratitude to him for enabling them to live in brotherhood and in a peaceful environment. He made this statement while speaking at a function organized the Badriya Jumma Mosque at Kattankudy in Batticaloa. The event was organized to pledge support to the President. more..

Increase in foreign direct investments

Jan 22 (GDI) A six fold increase is witnessed in foreign direct investrment due to the vibrant economic policies of the UPFA government. International Trade and Export Promotion Minister, Prof.GL Peiris said the practical policies towards the economy launched by President Mahinda Rajapaksa had attracted a large number of foreign investors into the country. more..

Devananda rejects charge of signing pact with government

Jan 22 (GDI) Minister of Social Services and EPDP leader, Douglas Devananda rejected an opposition charge that he signed a pact with the Rajapaksa government. He said he never signed such pact with any government of the past or present as claimed by the opposition. The minister said he was confident that the government would meet the needs and aspirations of the minorities in the country. more..

'Sri Lanka best country to visit now'

Jan 22 (GDI) President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that massive changes were taking place in the country and ‘the Economist’ has selected Sri Lanka as one of the 31 top destinations to be visited in the world. He made this statement after he declared open the International Sports Complex at Diyagama in Homagama. President said that the foundation stone for the sports complex was laid by him at the time when the war was being waged against terrorism. more..

Forged ballot papers in favour of Sarath Fonseka detected

Jan 22 (GDI) Pettah Police had recovered two parcels containing 22,000 forged ballot papers with the marking of General Sarath Fonseka's symbol Swan, Senior DIG of Police (Elections) Gamini Navaratne said at a media conference held at the IGP's headquarters yesterday evening. He pointed out that these two parcels containing forged ballot papers were detected by two Police personnel attached to the Pettah Police, which were ready for dispatch to the Puttalam District. more..

'Separatism will not be allowed'

Jan 22 (GDI) President Mahinda Rajapakse assured to protect the motherland safeguarding its unitary state. He pointed out that sections of the Tamil National Alliance used votes cast for the opposition at this month’s polls to obtain the assistance of international forces aiming to divide Sri Lanka. "They are preparing to use the percentage of vote as a mandate to separate the country", he pointed out. more..

Fonseka's manifesto has no future for the country - University Professionals

Jan 22 (GDI) Professionals from universities today claimed that opposition candidate Gen.Sarath Fonseka has presented a manifesto which has no future for the country. They said that Gen.Fonseka was totally ignorant of the country's economy. Professor Gunadasa Hewavitharana said, "According to Mahinda Chinthanaya, we hope to gain 8% of rapid economic growth and distribute the dividends among the civilians by more..

No liquor on Jan.26 & 27

Jan 22 (GDI) All wine stores and liquor outlets will be closed on January 26 and 27 in view of the Presidential election, the Department of Excise Department announced. Public liquor bars too will remain clsed on these two days and the Police will be vigilant to raid anyone violating the law. The government has taken this decision to ensure law and order before and after the election. Those who violate the law would be arrested by the police and produced before court.

Defence Secretary unfolds Tale of War Victory

Jan 22 (MoD) Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has stressed that the people should not permit this country to be betrayed and led it towards a blood bath. The Defence Secretary made this observation while addressing seminars held at Kotapola and Hikkaduwa titled " Tale of victory - Today and Tomorrow". He pointed out that attempts were being made to reverse the victory achieved, using individuals who entertain hatred in their hearts, more..

Special SLTB bus services for elections period from today

Jan 22 (LT) Sri Lanka Transport Board will operate a special bus service from today for the convenience of the public who are travelling during the Presidential Elections period. The busses will assist the commuters to travel in order to cast their votes. He said that a fleet of 200 busses will be added to the transport service and will operate during the election period. Meanwhile Chairman of the Western Province Passenger Transport Authority Piyasena Dissanayaka said that measures are taken to add extra busses if necessary.

'Freedom to air views necessary for free, fair polls'

Jan 22 (LP) The Catholic Bishops Conference issuing a statement said that an atmosphere of freedom should prevail to express differing views on matters of policy if there is to be a free and fair election. The President of the Conference, Most Rev. Bishop Vianney Fernando, issued the following statement: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference wishes to express its grave concern at the alarming escalation of election violence being reported from many parts of the country. more..

Vote for Wije Dias, SEP presidential candidate

Jan 22 (wsws) The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) calls on workers and youth to vote for Wije Dias, its presidential candidate in the January 26 elections. Dias is the only candidate advocating a socialist program and fighting for the interests of the working class. The two leading bourgeois candidates—incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse and his opponent General Sarath Fonseka—for all the bitterness of their rivalry, have the same fundamental program. more..