Sri Lanka – Page 4

Indian fishermen will be shot if they venture into Sri Lankan waters: Ranil Wickramasinghe

March 7, 2015 by Nasheman

Colombo: Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has justified Lankan Navy’s actions against Indian fishermen saying that that the law creates provisions for a man to ‘shoot’ an intruder in his home.

In an interview to Thanthi TV, a Chennai based news channel, Wickremasinghe said his government was willing to make a ‘reasonable deal’ with India with respect to the fishing rights.

“If someone tries to break into my house, I can shoot. If he gets killed…Law allows me to do that… On the fishermen issue, As far as I’m concerned, I have very very strong lines. These are our waters…Fishermen of Jaffna should be allowed to fish. We stopped them from fishing, which is why the Indian fishermen came in. They are willing to have a deal…Let’s have a reasonable deal… But not at the expense of the income of the Northern Fishermen,” the Sri Lankan PM said.

Wickremasinghe further said that the issue was between the fishermen of both nations and thus had to be worked out between the two parties. He, however, was adamant that Indian fishermen could not be allowed to trawl.

“It’s an issue between Tamil Nadu fishermen and Sri Lankan fishermen…They have got to sit down and we have to work this out. There can be no bottom trawling. There can be no solution that permits the Indian fishermen to do bottom trawling. These are basically Sri Lanka waters…What would you have done if all our fishermen went into the Indian waters and started fishing there…? Now what you are claiming is, we want to come there, we want to fish in your water and we want to bottom trawl in your waters,” he said.

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister further conceded that have been instances of the Sri Lankan Navy shooting innocent fishermen, but denied that it was a violation of human rights.

“At that time, LTTE was running arms… Whether Sri Lankan Fishermen or Indian fishermen, they had to stop, when the Navy asks them to stop. There also have been instances of the Sri Lankan Navy shooting innocent fishermen. We have not said no to it. In some instance they have to shoot because they were poaching on Sri Lankan Waters. Why are you coming into our waters? Why are you fishing in our waters…? Stay on the Indian side… There will be no issue…No one will shoot anyone else…You stay on the Indian side, Let our fishermen stay on the Sri Lankan side… Otherwise don’t make accusations of Human rights violation by the Navy. You came in there,” he said.

“You be on to that side, we be on that side. Why do you all pick up the Italian sailors…? You say you are friendly with Italy, show that same magnanimity to Italy that you want us to show. If you want us to show that magnanimity to your fishermen, India should show the same magnanimity to Italian sailors,” he added.

Wickremasinghe’s statements comes at a time when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is visiting the neighbouring country to strengthen the relations between the two countries.

Swaraj on Friday called on Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on the first day of her trip to set the stage for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country, the first bilateral tour by an Indian premier in over 25 years.

PM Modi’s visit from March 13-14 will be the first bilateral trip by an Indian prime minister since Rajiv Gandhi visited the island in 1987 to sign the Indo-Lanka Accord.

PM Modi will be the first Indian prime minister to travel to war-ravaged Jaffna in Tamil-dominated Northern Province and Trincomalee in the Eastern Province.

India-Sri Lanka relations had seen tensions during last few years of the rule of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was voted out of power, as China had expanded its footprint in the country by building ports, highways and participating in other infrastructure projects.

(Agencies)

Cricket World Cup 2015: England thrashed by Sri Lanka

March 2, 2015 by Nasheman

by Stephan Shemilt, BBC Sport

England slipped to a third crushing defeat in four World Cup games as Sri Lanka comfortably chased 310 to win by nine wickets in Wellington.

Lahiru Thirimanne hit an unbeaten 139 and Kumar Sangakkara 117 not out to seal victory with 16 balls to spare.

Earlier, Joe Root made 121 as England accelerated late on to post 309-6.

If opening defeats by Australia and New Zealand and victory over Scotland were expected, then this fixture was supposed to be the best indicator of England’s chances of progressing far into the World Cup.

As it turned out, a third one-sided reverse at the hands of Test opposition leaves England clinging to their hopes of reaching the last eight.

But Sri Lanka showed that to be nowhere near enough and England will almost certainly be eliminated if they lose either of their final two games against Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Indeed, if Bangladesh beat Scotland on Thursday, then England will go out if they lose either of their remaining group games.

While their previous game in Wellington, an eight-wicket thrashing by New Zealand, was humiliating for its rapid nature, this latest loss was perhaps more dispiriting.

England put in their best batting display of the tournament thanks to Root’s accumulation and creativity and Jos Buttler’s late power.

But Thirimanne and Sangakkara made a mockery of the chase as England’s pace-dominated attack struggled to make chances on a sluggish wicket.

When they did create opportunities, they were not taken. Thirimanne was dropped on three by Root at slip, although the edge off Stuart Broad should have been claimed by wicketkeeper Buttler.

The left-hander also had a let-off on 98, Moeen Ali failing to take a low chance in the covers off James Anderson.

After that, Thirimanne, whose innings was laced with classy cover drives, became the fourth Sri Lanka batsman to score a hundred in this World Cup.

He shared an unbroken stand of 212 with Sangakkara, who moved third on the list of World Cup run scorers with a 70-ball century, scoring through 360 degrees.

On the completion of the chase, Sri Lanka – 10-wicket winners against England in the quarter-finals of the last World Cup – became only the second team to overhaul a score of 300 or more with nine wickets in hand.

It also cemented England’s unwanted record of being the least successful of all the Test nations when defending a target in excess of 300.

That Eoin Morgan’s side posted their highest total of the tournament came as a result of 24-year-old Root becoming the youngest England batsman to score a World Cup century.

Given a good start by Ian Bell’s 49, England were pegged back as Sri Lanka’s attack improved by taking pace off the ball, Tillakaratne Dilshan having Gary Ballance caught and bowled to extend the left-hander’s poor sequence to only 36 runs in four innings.

At 101-3 in the 21st over, Root arrived to stabilise the innings with Morgan, with the Yorkshire batsman – dropped on two at slip – then dominating a stand of 98 with James Taylor.

Strong square of the wicket, Root reached a fourth ODI hundred at a run a ball, then accelerated by inventively reverse-sweeping the seamers.

After Root fell, England were pushed past 300 by Buttler. Their total seemed competitive, Thirimanne and Sangakkara proved that it was not.

Cricket World Cup: Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh

February 26, 2015 by Nasheman

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara scored hundreds as Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 92 runs in their World Cup Pool A clash in Melbourne.

by BBC Sport

Dilshan (161 not out) and Sangakkara (105 not out) shared a partnership of 210 as Sri Lanka made the most of some poor fielding to post 332-1.

It was Dilshan’s 21st ODI ton and Sangakkara’s 22nd, in his 400th match.

Bangladesh were dismissed for 240 in 47 overs, Sabbir Rahman top-scoring with 53 and Lasith Malinga taking 3-35.

Sri Lanka have two wins and one defeat from three matches, while Bangladesh have one win, one defeat and one no result.

Bangladesh were dreadful in the field, reprieving Sri Lanka opening batsman Lahiru Thirimanne three times before he was finally dismissed for a charmed 52.

The Tigers’ wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim was particularly culpable, missing a stumping chance to dismiss Thirimanne and a run-out chance when Dilshan was well short of his ground in the 43rd over.

Sangakkara was dropped twice on his way to his hundred, which came from only 73 balls. Dilshan’s 161, which came from 146 balls, was his highest score in ODIs.

In reply, Bangladesh lost opener Tamim Iqbal from the second ball of the innings when he was bowled by seamer Malinga.

Shakib Al Hasan gave his team faint hope but after he was dismissed for an entertaining 46, Bangladesh’s challenge petered out.

Sabbir’s maiden ODI fifty came from 60 balls but Malinga did for him and Taskin in successive balls to wrap up the Bangladesh innings.

Sri Lanka’s next match is against England in Auckland on Saturday, while Bangladesh face Scotland in Nelson on Wednesday.

India, Sri Lanka ink nuclear deal

February 17, 2015 by Nasheman

New Delhi: India and Sri Lanka have signed a civil nuclear deal, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday.

“The bilateral agreement on civil nuclear cooperation…It is the first such agreement which Sri Lanka has signed,” said Modi after holding talks with visiting Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena at the Hyderabad House here.

India and Sri Lanka are committed to “unlock the vast potential of our economic cooperation”, said Modi.

He said India is pleased to be Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner. “We have expressed support for more balanced growth in both directions,” he said.

(Agencies)

Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena begins first India visit

February 16, 2015 by Nasheman

Maithripala Sirisena being welcomed P Radhakrishnan on his arrival at the ceremonial lounge at IGI Airport T3 in New Delhi on Sunday. (PTI)

New Delhi: In his maiden foreign trip after assuming charge, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena arrived in Delhi on Sunday on a four-day visit during which he will hold talks with the Indian leadership on the entire gamut of bilateral ties including ways to further enhance cooperation, peace and the reconciliation process in the island nation.

Mr Sirisena, who had dethroned Mahinda Rajapaksa from his 10-year rule after a bitter Presidential poll, has already indicated that he wants to have a closer relationship with India and chose it for his first foreign visit. The Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold today during which they are likely to deliberate on all major issues such as devolution of power to the Tamil community and the fishermen issue.

India has been hoping that the new Lankan government will develop ties on the “foundation of genuine and effective reconciliation” creating harmony among all sections there.

India has also been pressing for implementation of the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution.

The amendment that followed the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord of July 1987 signed between the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Sri Lankan President JR Jayewardene envisaged the devolution of powers to the provinces in the midst of the island’s bitter ethnic conflict.

In the evening today, Mr Sirisena will meet President Pranab Mukherjee who will also host a banquet in the honour of his Sri Lankan counterpart.

Mr Sirisena is leading a delegation that includes Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Resettlement Minister DM Swaminathan, Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka and Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapaksha.

The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister visited India last month on his first foreign trip soon after assuming charge during which he held talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

In the meeting between Ms Swaraj and Mr Samaraweera, both sides agreed to re-engage on repatriation of refugees from India, besides holding talks on a raft of crucial issues, including political reconciliation process and the sticky fishermen issue.

According to official figures, more than 1,00,000 Sri Lankan refugees are in Tamil Nadu, out of which some 68,000 are housed in over 100 government-run camps.

Last week, the Spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry had said both the countries were looking at “substantive talks”.

The Sri Lankan president will travel to Buddhist pilgrimage site Bodh Gaya and the temple in Tirupati on February 17 before returning home on February 18.

(PTI)

Cricket World Cup 2015: New Zealand beat Sri Lanka in opener

February 14, 2015 by Nasheman

Co-hosts New Zealand got off to a winning start with a 98-run victory over Sri Lanka in the opening match of the World Cup in Christchurch.

by James Gheerbrant, BBC

Captain Brendon McCullum struck 65 off 49 balls as the Black Caps put on a rapid 111 for the first wicket.

Kane Williamson added a composed 57 before Corey Anderson blasted 75 off 46 balls to help the hosts to an imposing total of 331-6 from their 50 overs.

In reply, Sri Lanka subsided to 233 all out, with Daniel Vettori taking 2-34.

New Zealand, who play England next, are one of the favourites for this tournament, and this powerful performance underlined why they are so highly-rated.

Put in under grey skies, the hosts immediately attacked the Sri Lanka bowlers with some explosive hitting in the first powerplay.

Williamson recorded his 13th fifty in his last 17 ODIs, before Anderson, playing in his home city, helped New Zealand to add a crucial 102 in the final 10 overs.

Sri Lanka reached the final of the last World Cup, but they will have to improve on this performance in order to challenge at this tournament.

Influential seamer Lasith Malinga was disappointing, conceding 84 runs in 10 wicketless overs.

Sri Lanka’s chase began well, with opener Lahiru Thirimanne hitting 65, but was soon derailed by the pace of Trent Boult and the spin of Vettori.

They collapsed from 124-1 to 168-6, with Boult, Adam Milne and Vettori, who reversed his retirement from ODIs last year, capturing two wickets each, and their innings never recovered.

They will hope for a rapid return to form when they face Afghanistan on Saturday.

Did RAW's Colombo chief play a role in Mahinda Rajapaksa's poll defeat?

January 19, 2015 by Nasheman

Photo: AP

Colombo/ New Delhi: Sri Lanka expelled the Colombo station chief of RAW in the run up to this month’s presidential election, political and intelligence sources said, accusing him of helping the opposition oust the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman denied any expulsion and said that transfers were routine decisions. Rajapaksa, voted out of office in the Jan 8 election, told Reuters he did not know all the facts while the new government in Colombo has said it is aware of the reports but cannot confirm them.

But several sources in both Colombo and New Delhi said India was asked to recall the agent in December for helping gather support for joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena after persuading him to ditch Rajapaksa’s cabinet.

A sketchy report in Sri Lanka’s Sunday Times newspaper on December 28 said that “links with the common opposition” had cost India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) station chief his job in Colombo.

India has often been involved in the internal politics of the small island nation off its southern coast — it sent troops there in 1987 in a botched effort to broker peace between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Rajapaksa’s unexpected defeat after two terms in office coincided with growing concern in India that it was losing influence in Sri Lanka because of the former president’s tilt toward regional rival China.

The concern turned to alarm late last year when Rajapaksa allowed two Chinese submarines to dock in Sri Lanka without warning New Delhi as he should have under a standing agreement, the sources said.

Sirisena, the new president, has said he will visit New Delhi on his first foreign trip next month and has said India is the “first, main concern” of his foreign policy.

An Indian official said the RAW agent was recalled after complaints that he had worked with Sri Lanka’s usually fractious opposition parties to agree on a joint contender for the election. Then, he was accused of facilitating meetings to encourage several lawmakers, among them Sirisena, to defect from Rajapaksa’s party, the official said.

The agent was accused of playing a role in convincing the main leader of the opposition and former prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe not to contest against Rajapaksa in the election and stand aside for someone who could be sure of winning, said the officer and a Sri Lankan lawmaker who also maintains close contacts with India.

The agent was also in touch with former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, who was a key player in convincing Sirisena to stand, said the officer and the lawmaker, who also confirmed that the agent had been asked to leave.

“They actively were involved, talking to Ranil, getting those things organized, talking to Chandrika,” the lawmaker told Reuters.

Wickremasinghe, who is now prime minister again in Sirisena’s government, met “two or three times” with the man identified as the agent in the months before the vote, as well as with the Indian high commissioner, or ambassador, the prime minister’s spokesman said.

“They discussed the current political situation,” Wickremasinghe’s spokesman said, but he denied that the Indians had advised him. “He does not know if he advised other politicians.”

It was not clear if Wickremasinghe was aware at the time that he was meeting with an intelligence official. India’s RAW officers are usually given diplomatic posts when assigned to foreign missions.

Former president Kumaratunga did not respond to requests for comment.

Rajapaksa declined to confirm the involvement of India in the campaign against him.

“I don’t know, I won’t suspect anybody until I get my real facts,” he said at his party headquarters.

“There are certain things you don’t talk about,” a close associate of the Rajapaksa family said, but added that “there were clear signs of a deep campaign by foreign elements.”

Sri Lanka’s then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa — a brother of the former president — complained about the agent’s activities to Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in November when Doval was visiting the island nation for a defence seminar, the Indian official said.

Another Indian official, who monitors the region for security threats, said New Delhi had been watching Beijing’s growing influence and heavy investments in Sri Lanka under Rajapaksa, who visited China seven times since becoming president in 2005.

But India was stunned and angry last year when the Chinese submarines docked in Sri Lanka on two separate occasions, a step New Delhi saw as part of Beijing’s “string of pearls” strategy to secure a foothold in South Asia and maritime access through the Indian Ocean.

“The turning point in the relationship was the submarines. There was real anger,” the Indian security official said.

Indian military officials said that New Delhi reminded Sri Lanka it was obliged to inform its neighbours about such port calls under a maritime pact, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with Rajapaksa at a meeting in New York.

In a possible sign of shifting allegiances, India’s top envoy in Colombo, high commissioner YK Sinha, presented Sirisena with a large bouquet of flowers just hours after the results were announced on Jan 9. China’s ambassador was only able to meet the new president six days later.

(Reuters)

Newly elected Sri Lankan govt to investigate Rajapaksa's 'coup plot'

January 12, 2015 by Nasheman

Photo: AP

London: The newly elected government of Sri Lanka has said that it will investigate what it claims was a coup attempt by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa after he lost the presidential elections on Friday.

Top presidential aide Mangala Samaraweera remarked that people thought it was a peaceful transition of power but it was anything but “peaceful,” reported the BBC.

Rajapaksa’s spokesman said that the allegations were “baseless.”

He had endured a “shock defeat” to Maithripala Sirisena , the main opposition candidate who was a minister in his government just two months ago.

Before losing the presidential elections on Friday, Rajapaksa was South Asia’s longest-serving leader and had initially been widely praised for conceding defeat to Sirisena before the results were made public.

(ANI)

Sri Lanka votes in tight presidential poll

January 8, 2015 by Nasheman

President Rajapaksa faces Maithripala Sirisena, a former ally who defected from the ruling party to run against him.

by Al Jazeera

Millions of Sri Lankans are voting in a tightly fought presidential election, as incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa faces a former ally who has promised to root out corruption and political decay.

Around 15 million people are eligible to vote in Thursday’s election, as Rajapaksa faces Maithripala Sirisena, a former Health Minister who defected from the ruling party to run against him.

Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from Colombo, said there were long queues at polling stations, with many voters calling for a change in leadership.

The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence, based in the capital of Colombo, said on Thursday that a loud explosion was heard outside a polling station in northern Sri Lanka – the heartland of Tamil minority.

Voting proceeded with few hitches elsewhere, but in Colombo the chief election commissioner visited a state-run television station to demand it correct a report that a prominent opposition leader had defected to Rajapaksa’s camp.

The election observer group have said that there had been “unparalleled misuse of state resources and media” by Rajapaksa’s party and that police inaction had given free rein to election-related violence.

The Sri Lankan president said he was confident of a “resounding victory” and promised a peaceful post-election period as he cast his ballot.

Opposition candidate said “my victory was in sight”. “There is support for us everywhere. From tomorrow, we will usher in a new political culture,” Sirisena said after casting his vote in the eastern town of Polonnaruwa.

He quit as one of Rajapaksa’s ministers in November, triggering a flood of defections from the government.

The defection turned Rajapaksa bid for a third term into a referendum on the president, and the enormous power he wields over the island nation.

Tight race

With more than 25,000 domestic and about 70 foreign monitors observing the vote, the election commission said it was confident the poll would be free and fair.

There are no reliable opinion polls, but many analysts believe Sirisena will benefit from a popular yearning for change after a decade under Rajapaksa.

Sirisena’s election campaign focused on reining in the president’s expanding powers, and accused Rajapaksa of corruption, a charge the president denies.

The opposition candidate has pledged to abolish the executive presidency that gave Rajapaksa unprecedented power and hold a fresh parliamentary election within 100 days.

Rajapaksa appeared assured of victory on Thursday, despite his second term being dogged by accusations of corruption, including undermining the independence of the judiciary and lining the pockets of political cronies through lucrative contracts.

“We will have a resounding victory. That is very clear,” he told reporters.

After his landslide election victory in 2010, Rajapaksa jailed his opponent and used his overwhelming parliamentary majority to scrap a constitutional two-term limit for the president and give himself the power to appoint judges, top bureaucrats, police officials and military chiefs.

He also orchestrated the impeachment of the country’s chief justice and replaced her with a trusted adviser.

Rajapaksa’s political power grew immensely after he crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, ending the country’s 25-year civil war.

More than 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed, including 40,000 mostly Tamil civilians in the closing months of the conflict.

Shame on Salman Khan for supporting Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa

January 6, 2015 by Nasheman

It is the actor and those who support him in this act of insensitivity who need to be condemned.

Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa with Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez. (AFP Photo)

by Shobha Shakti

The Sri Lankan government and President Mahinda Rajapaksa have for several years denied the fact that foreign citizens who enter the country with tourist visas have been a part of political meetings and discussions in Lankan media forums. Previously, many Tamil sympathisers, including poet VIC Jayabalan, a citizen of Norway, and journalist Maha Tamil Prabhakaran, were arrested and deported by the Sri Lankan government. Also, Kumar Gunaratnam, a leader of one of Sri Lanka’s leading parties – the Frontline Socialist Party – was clandestinely arrested, imprisoned and deported on the grounds of being an Australian citizen. Senior Tamil professor, A Marx, who was scheduled to deliver a speech at a public gathering in Colombo, was arrested by policemen, even before he could begin. I have always considered such actions by the Sri Lankan government anti-democratic.

But now, Mahinda Rajapaksa has brought Salman Khan, a foreign citizen into the country, to campaign for him in the forthcoming polls. Kumar Gunaratnam, who was deported three years ago, has also been brought back into the country under a tourist visa, and I see the prime reason behind this to be his capability to affect the Opposition party’s performance. Having said that, it also holds true that no one campaigning in support of the Opposition party is allowed to enter the country, even if he/she is of Sri Lankan origin under a tourist visa. Doing so could lead to his/her arrest and deportation.

While I agree that Salman Khan has the right to express his views at any forum, joining a political campaign in support of a man who has been accused of war crimes and genocide, is condemnable for me and anyone who is also a supporter of democracy. On one hand, when the democratic forces and minorities of the country are together striving to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa and get his government out of power, this act by Salman Khan is insulting, endorses discrimination and neglects the insensitivities that have occurred on this soil.

CommentOne of the groups protesting against Salman Khan in Mumbai – the Naam Tamilar Katchi – had in the past attacked a group of Buddhist monks and pilgrims visiting India from Sri Lanka. While such acts of violence can never be justified, a calm, democratic protest being carried out against the actor is fair to the freedom of people. It is Salman Khan and those who support him in this act of insensitivity, who need to be condemned, and not the ones voicing their angst against it in peaceful objection.

Shobha Shakti is a former LTTE child soldier who now lives as a refugee in Paris. The English translation of his second novel, Hmm…, is forthcoming from Penguin India.