Police have fired tear gas this morning at Hulftsdrop to disperse two groups involved in a clash.
Meanwhile, JVP Colombo district MP Sunil Handunnetti said a peaceful protest that organized by joint opposition at Hulftsdrop today in front of court complex against the detention of Gen.Fonseka was attacked by a group of thugs having links with a Provincial councilor.
Posted in News
By Wijitha Nakkawita
*General Election on April 8
*New Parliament meets on April 22
President Mahinda Rajapaksa dissolved Parliament with effect from midnight yesterday under the powers vested in him under Article 70 (1) of Chapter 11 of the Constitution.
The present Parliament was elected in April 2004 defeating the then UNP regime led by Ranil Wickremesinghe.
The Parliament completes its tenure of six years in April this year. The UPFA came to power after defeating the UNP with 105 seats and the UNP winning only 82 seats. The Tamil National Alliance had 22 seats while the Jathika Hela Urumaya had nine seats. That election had a voter turnout of 75 percent.
Posted in News
By H. L. D. Mahindapala
Retired General Sarath Fonseka is one of those tragic Shakesperean heroes who is doomed because of a fatal flaw in his character. In short, Fonseka has been the main cause of his own downfall. In the last few days Fonseka was asking for it and he got it last night. He was challenging the government to arrest him if they have any charges against him and when the Military Police went to arrest him he resisted. He had to be dragged out initially though he walked the last steps to the van in which he was taken to security quarters at Sri Lankan Navy.
The irony is that Fonseka who was challenging the government to arrest him was refusing to walk out like a gentlemen and an officer to face his accusers. This is typical of Fonseka. He should have honoured his own words and, knowing the law, cooperated with the Military Police as there was no point in resisting arrest. He may have been putting up a show for Soma-hansa Amerasinghe, Rauf Hakeen, Mano Ganesan and a couple of retired officers but what good would that do to him?
Posted in Articles
By Shamindra Ferdinando
*Communal politics bane of the country
*KP’s replacement arrested abroad, brought to Colombo
*Army politicised, divided
*Lanka won’t give in to war crimes probe
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says the recently concluded presidential polls caused a sharp division among the armed forces and the people, though President Mahinda Rajapaksa secured a second term with an overwhelming majority. He says the damage is irreparable and punitive action needs to be taken against serving as well as retired officers regardless of their rank. He says the Military will investigate any aspect in relation to violation of its rules and regulation whereas the police handle other issues.
Posted in News
By Rafik Jalaldeen
Military Spokesman Major General Prasad Samarasinghe said the Sri Lanka Army will decide to hold a trial on the evidence against retired General Sarath Fonseka either at a Court Martial or Civil court after summary of evidence is forwarded to the Attorney General for his advice.
Addressing the media yesterday at the Media Centre for National Security, Defence Affairs Spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the former Army Commander and Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka was arrested by the Military Police on Monday at around 9.00pm on charges of committing alleged violation of Military law during his tenure as the CDS.
Posted in Articles
By Jeanne jayasinghe, President-SPUR
Democracy is safe in Sri Lanka. The recently concluded Presidential election in Sri Lanka proves this beyond a doubt. It was indeed a historic election, for many reasons. As everyone has pointed out, these are the first elections held islandwide in a country free of Tiger terrorism. Again as pointed out many times, the entire Tamil population of the country were free to cast their vote freely without hindrance.
The most important fact that makes this the most historic election of all is that the people of Sri Lanka have reached political maturity. The votes have been cast not along a party divide, but across party lines. Voting patterns show that electorates that were traditionally considered as belonging to one or the other of the opposition parties have voted overwhelmingly for the incumbent President.
Posted in Articles
By Malinda Seneviratne
devices; they did not win any votes and may have even turned off a few loyalists. Some of it was classy and even if they didn’t engineer defection nevertheless generated some laughs. I am thinking of the cartooned spoof of Saheli Gamage’s song ‘Maharajaneni’, praising President Mahinda Rajapaksa for comprehensively eliminating the terrorist threat posed by Prabhakaran and the LTTE.
The visuals could have been crafted better, but the lyrics, voice and music were perfect for the task. It got me thinking about the matter of ‘kingship’, royalty, the popularity of the song, the fact that the sentiments did not mesh well with the notion of participatory democracy (we are after all not a monarchy officially) etc.
Posted in Articles
It’s tempting to view the upcoming visit by India’s Home Minister P Chidambaram to Pakistan as a sign of positive change in South Asia. However, given the fickle nature and history of relations between the South Asian giants, we should perhaps tread with caution. For, the more things change between India and Pakistan, the more they seem to remain the same.
This is a tragedy considering all that the two countries share – language, culture, food, religion, sports, geography, history and much, much more. After all, not long ago they had been part of one country. But their violent separation in the Partition and subsequent wars and bickering over Kashmir have poisoned their ties, adding to their never-ending tensions and frictions.
Posted in Editorial
Sri Lanka Parliament is to be dissolved from today’s midnight according to the special gazette notification which was already sent to the Government Printer.
President Mahinda Rajapaksha who returned to the island today after concluding a three day official visit to Russia has signed the above gazette notification this evening, sources at Presidential Secretariat disclosed.
An open letter to Consular General of Victoria for Sri Lanka-Mr.Bandu Dissanayaka by Vajiragnana Wranakulasuriya, Melbourne, Australia.
Media abuse by incumbent governments is a popular slogan in everybody’s mouth in memoriam!
The other loosely used catchwords are corruption and nepotism. These two terms can be interpreted in different ways i.e. they are not necessary to be involved with money and family members. However people repeat these words as long as they are not involved directly with this sort of activity.
