Peace for the World

Peace for the World
First democratic leader of Justice the Godfather of the Sri Lankan Tamil Struggle: Honourable Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Thank You Sir, May We Have Another?

The government has not renewed Emergency Regulations, which is right and good. The draconian Prevention Of Terrorism Act, however, preserves much of the same powers, including search without warrants and detention without charge.
Since the government so boldly defeated terrorism years ago, it is only fitting that the PTA, too, be repealed.
Emergency Regulations gave the President special powers to call out the armed forces, order curfews and gave the central government power to detain people without charge. It seems that he still has the former powers and the latter is a right given to the Minister of Defence under the PTA. That Minister can detain people for three months at a time without charge, up to a maximum of eighteen months. Who is that Minister? Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his brother is the Secretary.            Read More »
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TNA submits memo to Manmohan

WEDNESDAY, 31 AUGUST 2011
By Kelum Bandara 

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has with the help of some Lok Sabha members had submitted a memorandum to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to prevail upon the Sri Lankan government to remove the military camps in the North, TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran said today.

He said the TNA delegation, which participated at the Delhi summit organized by the Indian Congress Party of India had highlighted various other issues confronting the Tamil-speaking people in the North and the East.

“We interacted with a number of Lok Sabha MPs from the ruling party and the opposition and submitted this memorandum to Dr. Singh through them,” he said and added that the dismantling of High Security Zones was another key demand highlighted in the memorandum.

“There are restricted areas in the North and the East. People should be allowed to resettle in these areas in a normal atmosphere,” he said.

“We have not heard anything from them so far,” Mr. Premachandran said when asked whether there was any response.

The TNA held eight rounds of talks with the Sri Lankan government to evolve a political solution but the talks are now at a stalemate over some demands by the TNA.

“We are awaiting the government’s response to our demands,” he said.