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Letter of Demand sends Letter of Demand to Wijedasa

Danuna Tilakaratne, son-in-law of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, today (13) sent a Letter of Demand (LoD) to justice minister Wijedasa Rajapakse, it was revealed at a media briefing.

The LoD is against Danuna’s bank accounts being still in the minister’s custody, although courts had acquitted him in the Hicorp case and ordered the release of his passport.

Danuna told the media that since the time he had sent the minister a letter, requesting the release of the money, Rajapakse has summoned a media briefing and tarnished his image by alleging black money was in these accounts and that it should be investigated as to whether it was the commission money Fonseka had received during the period he was the Army commander.

Rajapakse continues to sling mud at him, without responding to his request although three months had elapsed, Danuna said, adding that the Rs. 88.6 million in these accounts was neither commission money nor black money.

He said he had earned the money cleanly, being a consultant to a satellite company in the US.

A Rs. 25 million compensation would be sought at courts after sending a LoD to the justice minister within 14 days for the insulting remarks he had made, Danuna added.

Politician Who Forced Teacher To Kneel Down Invited As Chief Guest

he Ceylon Teachers' Union calls on the Education Ministry to hold an inquiry into an incident where the politician who forced a teacher to kneel down at Nawagaththegama Navadya School was invited to the same school as a chief guest.

Former UPFA Provincial Council member Ananda Sarath Kumara was invited to the school as the Chief Guest of the sports meet yesterday, the Union said.

The whole teaching sector has been forced on its knees by this gesture shown to the politician, CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said.

Ananda Sarath Kumara was given a suspended prison term for his action. The teacher who faced the incident has obtained a transfer to another school.

MR opens new political office

The new political and public relations office of Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was opened at Nelum Mawatha, Battaramulla this morning (12)

Vijayakala denies refusing to hoist national flag

State Minister of Child Affairs Vijayakala Maheswaran today categorically rejected as “completely untrue” reports claiming that she refused to hoist the Sri Lankan national flag at a function in Jaffna.

Speaking to Ada Derana, the State Minister said that neither was she invited to hoist the national flag nor did she refuse to do so.

She charged that such news is being created to espouse racism and blamed certain “racist” MPs in parliament over the issue.

Maheswaran stated that she would deliver a statement in Parliament in the near future regarding the controversy.

Various newspapers and websites had reported that the UNP Jaffna District MP had refused to hoist the national flag at an event held on Monday (8), which she had attended as the chief guest.

Girl sexually abused in children’s home

KANDY – The warden of a Children’s Home and her husband were arrested by Talatuoya police following complaint that a ten-year-old girl had been sexually abused.

The girl had been at the home since her mother left for a job abroad following a break-up of her family.

Talatuoya police after inquiring into the complaint of the aunt of the girl took the warden and her husband into custody on Wednesday.

According to the complaint lodged by the victim’s aunt the husband of the warden of the children’s home had sexually abused the victim several times since November 2015.

Wild elephant kills man in Ambalantota

A 38-year-old died after being subjected to a wild elephant attack in Ambalantota police division last night, Police Media Unit said.The deceased was a resident of Ambalantota, Police added. His remains are placed at the morgue of Ambalantota Hospital. The post mortem examination is to be conducted today.Ambalantota Police is carrying out further investigations into the incident.

Govt. attempts to cover up the reality of Geneva resolution

The President and Prime Minister have given the UN Human Rights Commissioner an assurance that last year’s UN Human Rights Council resolution against Sri Lanka will be implemented, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said today (11).

Issuing a statement, he said that having accepted the Geneva resolution, the government is now adopting various strategies to convince the public that it will not be harmful to the country. 


“There is now an attempt to portray this UNHRC resolution as a great diplomatic victory for Sri Lanka. But in reality, it was a great betrayal comparable to the Kandyan Convention of 1815,” it said.

The statement added, ‘The President and Prime Minister have given the UN Human Rights Commissioner an assurance that last year’s UN Human Rights Council resolution against Sri Lanka will be implemented. This UNHRC resolution was accepted and co-sponsored by the Sri Lankan government and passed by the UNHRC without a vote. The UNP led government accepted the Geneva resolution with the same carelessness with which they entered into the ceasefire agreement with the LTTE in 2002. Though our Ambassador in Geneva tried to negotiate different terms, that was deliberately stopped by the government which insisted on accepting the US sponsored resolution just as it was. There is now an attempt to portray this UNHRC resolution as a great diplomatic victory for Sri Lanka. But in reality, it was a great betrayal comparable to the Kandyan Convention of 1815.

The people should once again be reminded about what exactly has been undertaken by accepting this resolution. In operative paragraphs 1, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 12, the present government has accepted the report of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights which said that war crimes including the killing of civilians, torture, and the deliberate starvation of people had been committed by our armed forces and they have agreed to set up a war crimes tribunal manned by foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators and funded directly from overseas to try our war heroes for these alleged crimes. Furthermore they have agreed to remove through administrative action members of the armed forces who are suspected of having committed war crimes but against whom there isn’t enough evidence to place before the war crimes tribunal. They have also agreed to make amendments to the Public Security Ordinance and to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

In operative paragraphs 16, 18 and 20, the government has undertaken to devolve power in order to bring about a political settlement Sri Lanka and to do everything undertaken in the resolution under the supervision of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR). It should be borne in mind that the OHCHR that has come in for  heavy criticism by the UN Human Rights Council itself. The UNHRC passes every year (with more than a two thirds majority) a resolution calling upon the OHCHR to end the domination of that office by Westerners and to reduce its dependency on Western funds. The government has thus agreed to place Sri Lanka under the supervision of an institution that is facing criticism by the UNHRC itself for its Western bias.

Having accepted the Geneva resolution, the government is now adopting various strategies to convince the public that it will not be harmful to the country. We saw the President and Prime Minister in recent days expressing to the international media what seemed to be contradictory views on the participation of foreign judges in the proposed war crimes mechanism. But this was just a drama for public consumption.  It became clear from the President’s Independence Day speech that there is no difference in the stands taken by him and the Prime Minister on the Geneva resolution. The President not only endorsed the decision of the government to implement the Geneva resolution but also accused those opposed to it of misleading the public. He further said in his Independence Day speech that the implementation of the Geneva resolution will only result in promoting democracy, reconciliation and respect for our armed forces. Subsequently, on 6 February the Daily Mirror reported that the SLFP had officially announced at a press conference that the UNP and the SLFP had jointly agreed on the implementation of the Geneva resolution.

The war was won by an SLFP government led by me. It is a matter of profound regret to me that our party has been subordinated in this manner to the UNP which tried to sabotage the war effort at every turn. Many would recall the manner in which the UNP even tried to stop the war by defeating the government at the budget vote in 2007. When that did not work, members of the UNP ridiculed the war effort by saying among other things that ‘any ox can fight a war’ and that ‘while claiming to be advancing on Alimankada the army was actually moving towards Pamankada’. It is not surprising to see such people now trying to exact revenge from those who won the war.

However, I am profoundly saddened to see that a section SLFP has also joined the UNP in this great betrayal. The UNP may be deriving a great deal of satisfaction by thus getting a section of the SLFP which won the war to underwrite every traitorous they commit. I call upon the people of Sri Lanka to unite and resist this attempt by the government to betray the country and our war heroes.”

Colombo port achieves historic growth in daily TUEs handling volume

The Port of Colombo has recorded its first ever highest daily container handling volume to 22, 422 TUEs on Tuesday (09) February 2016, Sri Lanka Ports Authority(SLPA) revealed yesterday.

However the previous highest volume 22,186 containers were reported by SLPA on 28 of April 2015 volume.The recorded containers volume was received to the port from 22 vessels while 10 of them had been operated under SLPA.

The data further shows 9, 875 TUEs handled at Colombo port out of total 22,422 TUEs has been carried out by SLPA.

Minister of Ports and Shipping Arjuna Ranatunga said that he was to introduce overall development plan to three terminals to carry out their operations towards the development of Colombo port.

 He said the plan would be developed while keeping the uniqueness of the (Jaya Container Terminal) JCT terminal operates under SLPA.

 “Colombo port operations are carried under three terminals while the JCT run under SLPA. Other two terminals are owned by the private sector. We hope to introduce a strategic business plan for all these terminals to carry out their business operations towards the development of Colombo port. We will highly consider about the uniqueness of JCT operations when develop the strategy to boost the operations of the port. The contribution of our employees and the team was paramount to achieve the set targets. We hope to continue our progress,” the minister said.
                        
The data further shows during January 2016, the TUEs handled at Colombo port by SLPA increased to197, 228 TEUs by pointing to a positive change of 3.6% against same period of 2015. Minister said the changes in the administration of SLPA boosted the development process of Colombo port.