Three Sri Lankan karate fighters, due to participate in an international karate tournament in India, were asked to return to Sri Lanka by event organisers on Sunday amid protests by activists in Tamil Nadu, reports NDTV.

Appealing to event organisers, activists protested against the inclusion of Sri Lankan karate fighters in a sports tournament, when the Sri Lankan government continued to oppress Tamils in the island.

According to the Indian police, the Sri Lankan participants had just arrived in Chennai when organisers asked them to leave.

The tournament was to take place in Pollachi, a town 43km from Coimbatore.

“Today the situation has come to a point where the functioning of the judiciary has become almost impossible. The judges complain of warrants not being executed by the police. The police in turn complain of being brought under the thumbs of politicians and therefore being unable to enforce the law. The people, in turn, complain that there is complicity between the police and the criminals and the criminals and the politicians.”

“The crisis the judges, lawyers and the very legal system itself are facing now is the result of a prolonged crisis beginning, particularly with the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka. The very purpose of this Constitution was to undermine the parliament and the judiciary and to place the executive president above the law. As a result of this Constitution all the public institutions such as the civil service, the police, the office of the Election Commissioner, the Attorney General's Department and other commissions such as the Human Rights Commission and the National Police Commission have all lost their independence.”

Published 23:15 BST

Marching in Stratford, by the site of the London 2012 Olympics, London Tamils remembered the events of Black July 1983 and protested against Sri Lanka's inclusion in the Olympics on Sunday.

The protest also marks the beginning of a 21-day hunger strike by activist, Gobi Sivanthan, by Stratford High Street station.

The protesters were also joined by Akif R. Wan of the Kurdistan National Congress and Dr Andrew Higginbottom a lecturer at Kingston University. Speaking to Tamil Guardian, Wan said, "It [Sri Lanka] should not be taking part until it improves its human rights record".

Event organisers, the Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC), are to submit a petition asking the International Olympic Committee to suspend Sri Lanka from the Olympics.

"Sri Lanka's participation in the Olympics, which gives legitimacy to a state engaged in the crime of genocide, is a political abuse of sport and is an infringement of the Olympic Charter," read the petition.

Organisers warned of a further protest on Friday 27th July, the day of the Opening Ceremony.

Known for his “Walk for Justice” from London to Geneva, the hunger Sivanthan pledged a hunger-strike vigil until the 12th August, in remembrance of Black July and to protest against Sri Lanka’s participation in the 2012 Olympics, land-grabbing in the North and the deportation of Tamil asylum seekers. Sivanthan called for an independent war crimes investigation and the release all Tamil prisoners of war detained without charge.

Protester begun his hunger strike at 20:20 (BST)

Tamil doctors monitor his health.

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According to an article published by LankaTruth on 18th July, when asked by a Sri Lankan newspaper about white van abductions, Sri Lanka's no nonsense defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, replied that 'only criminals are abducted by white vans'.

Clarifying the definition of "criminal", Gotabhaya explained 'only those who had raped ten or fifteen women has been taken in white vans'.

Incredulous that the government could be blamed for the removal of such "criminals", Gotabhaya asked, 'if people find that removing criminals too is a crime how could anyone find solutions for such issues he had asked.'

The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE), an election monitor in Sri Lanka has accused the ruling UPFA and its ally the SLMC, and the main opposition UNP of violating election laws, by campaigning from vehicles on the final day of nominations, reported ColomboPage on Friday.

According to CaFFE, supporters of the UPFA travelled in vehicles, including buses owned by the Ceylon Transport Board, in a procession from Akkaraipattu to Amparai.

"Sri Lankan authorities now look forward to the continued close engagement with the IMF and intend to discuss the possibility of financial support for its economic development agenda.”

"Sri Lanka runs into frequent balance of payments crises due to contradictory exchange and monetary policy involving manipulating interest rates by the Central Bank in the wake of excessive state spending, usually to manipulate energy prices."

"The IMF program which began with a BOP crisis ending in 2009, helped push growth to above 8.0 percent for two years and more importantly helped keep inflation to single digits until early 2011. But a failure to tighten monetary policy in time, in the face of massive state spending to manipulate energy prices from mid 2011 plunged the country to another balance of payment crisis from around August 2011."

"Sri Lanka lost more than two billion US dollars of reserves until February 2012 with more than 200 billion rupees of money printed from around August 2011. From February foreign reserve losses started to tail off as sterilized foreign exchange sales reduced, though inflation rose due mainly to currency depreciation."

“The slowdown in economic activity and declining imports are adversely affecting fiscal revenues, while interest payments on government debt are higher than budgeted. The authorities are committed to meeting their 2012 deficit target by restraining expenditure, but a redoubling of effort to strengthen revenue administration is needed. Furthermore, continued structural reforms are required to put state-owned energy enterprises on a sound financial footing."

The Ministry of Defence have announced their latest “commercial venture”, opening up catering services in the south of the country, as the military continues to expand its role in civilian affairs.

Having opened in Battaramulla on Thursday, Rakna Lanka Catering Services is looking to expand and open many more outlets.

The CEO of the 'Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Ltd', retired Major General Egodawele said that the idea for the business was the “brainchild of Secretary Defence [Gotabaya Rajapaksa]”, who was also the Chief Guest at the opening ceremony.


The military is involved in a whole host of other activities in Sri Lanka, already running restaurants and shops along the A9 highway to Jaffna, selling vegetables, running holiday resorts in the North-East, maintaining cricket stadiums, constructing buildings, running domestic flights and even have their own reality TV show.

See our earlier posts:

Military does public health (12 May 2012)

Army opens yet another holiday resort in Jaffna (11 Jan 2012)

Army on standby to sell and distribute vegetables (13 Dec 2011)

Army to build a 5-star hotel (06 Nov 2011)

Militarising Cricket (04 Nov 2011)

Sri Lankan military expands commercial arm (01 Oct 2011)

The Sydney Morning Herald examines why hundreds of Tamil asylum seekers are risking their lives and fleeing Sri Lanka.

See here for full report, extracts reproduced below:

Kajan [a villager on a remote stretch of Sri Lanka’s west coast] insists that, three years on from the end of Sri Lanka's brutal separatist civil war, the country still offers Tamils no chance ''to make a good life''. ''No job, no education, we have trouble from the police and army. We are desperate people,'' he says.

The Herald has chosen not to name this isolated Tamil-dominated fishing village, its location or the names of those spoken to. The people speak only on condition of anonymity. They fear government reprisals, against them or against their family members.

Economic opportunity, real or perceived, is the major driver that puts people from this village onto leaky boats bound for the other side of the ocean. But some leave here because they face serious, systematic and sometimes terrifying persecution.

The ''white van'' abductions - where people are grabbed from the street by plain-clothed men driving unmarked vehicles, to disappear for days, weeks or sometimes forever - are less common this far from the big cities. But people are regularly hauled in by police and face prolonged, sometimes violent, interrogation.

People [from this village]... claim they are targeted simply because they are Tamil.

''It doesn't matter if you did nothing, if you don't know anything, you are under suspicion always,'' Gadin says.

''Anyone can be accused,'' Gadin says, ''we are all guilty to them.'' But leaving often makes the situation worse for those left behind. Police arrive unannounced at people's homes, demanding to know why they left and who took them.

See also: Diaspora groups seek to work with Australia on asylum seeker deaths (19 Jul 2012)

The body of a middle-aged man was found washed up on Mathakal beach in Jaffna, reports Uthayan.

The body, believed to be that of man aged between 50-55 and wearing a blue saram, was found by local residents on Friday morning.

It was taken away by Sri Lankan police officers for further investigation.

Locals believe it is that of an Indian fisherman.