Photograph Tamilnet

Tamils from Maathakal, a coastal village in Jaffna, protested on Monday, against the Sri Lankan Navy occupation of their land, reports Tamilnet.

Protesters descended upon the civic body headquarters in Manipay, despite attempts by the Sri Lankan military and police to hinder their journey.

Despite being surrounded by army officers, protesters remained unperturbed and called for the TNA to intervene.

Having confiscated the Tamil villagers' lands, Sri Lankan armed forces have built an extensive naval base in Maathakal and begun issuing written notice of the transfer of land to the navy.

Photograph Tamilnet

See here for full article on Tamilnet.

Further Tamil protests were reported to have taken place in Colombo on Tuesday according to the Tamil language newspaper, the Virakesari.

	Photographs Virakesari

Following the abduction of a Tamil business man by the notorious white van groups.

Demanding his immediate release, Tamils staged a protest in the street adjacent to the man's commercial premises, blocking of the road and halting traffic.

See related articles:

Jaffna Students: Sri Lankan Government responsible for assault (17 Oct 2011)

Jaffna petitions pile up against army and police (07 Oct 2011)

Tamil lawyers protest against police impunity (22 Sep 2011)

Jaffna Uni students rise up in protest (08 Sep 2011)

The Terrorist Investigation Division of Sri Lanka is to investigate the victims of an attack by prison guards in Anuradhapura prison, for what the Daily Mirror described as “ an attempt by LTTE cadres in detention to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka internationally.”

The victims under investigation are 65 Tamil men, who were all left with injuries after being assaulted by the  prison guards, with 5 being admitted to hosital.

The investigation was ordered by Colombo Chief Magistrate Rashmi Singappuli after detectives claimed the victims of the attack had “injured themselves and photographed the injuries to be sent to the international community”.

The incident occurred on November 27th, a day of remembrance for Eelam Tamils worldwide, and left at least 65 Tamil prisoners injured and a Hindu temple inside the prison destroyed. According to JVP-associated group "We Are Sri Lankans", the guards were drunk at the time of the assault.

The injured prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest against the lack of protection and vulnerability to attack from the prison guards.

See our earlier posts:

Tamil prisoners launch hunger strike (Nov 2011)

Prison guards attack Tamil detainees over Heroes' Day (Nov 2011)

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse has revealed the government approved the setting up of 25 five star hotels across the island.

Rajapakse told media on Sunday, the government is to invite international hotel chains to invest and build the hotels on designated sites.

The minister also said 11 of the luxury hotels will be built in Colombo, 7 in Batticaloa, 7 in Trincomalee and 2 in Jaffna.

The Sri Lankan Government has confirmed that internally displaced people from Sampur will not be allowed to return to their homes, BBC Sandeshaya reports.

Trincomalle Government Agent Major General TTR de Silva told journalists on Sunday, that the Tamil inhabitants of the town cannot go back to the city, which is the site of a planned thermal plant.

Sampur was one of the first LTTE strongholds to be captured by the Sri Lankan Army after the breakdown if the ceasefire.

According to the UK newspaper, Independent, Bell Pottinger wrote Mahinda Rajapaksa's key address to the UN in 2010, after the original draft, written by Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry was ditched. 

Speaking to undercover reporters, chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Relations, David Wilson, said,

"We had a team working in the President's office."

"We wrote the President's speech to the UN last year which was very well received... it went a long way to taking the country where it needed to go."

The Independent reports that part of Bell Pottinger's remit was to specifically "influence the foreign media in favour of the Sri Lankan government".

During the speech to the UN, Rajapaksa described the military's treatment of the captured LTTE cadres as a "humanitarian" operation and promoted the LLRC as an enquiry where the "full expression to the principles of accountability" had been given.

Wilson however, allegedly criticised the LLRC when speaking to the undercover reporters, arguing that the LLRC had a "fundamental flaw in its remit in investigating what has gone on in the past, to try to bury the past".

Last year reports emerged that Bell Pottinger, headed by Lord Bell, had received over £3 million to boost Sri Lanka's post war image.

"I am not an international ethics body," said Lord Bell. "We do communications work. If people want to communicate their argument we take the view that they are allowed to do so."

See original reports in the Guardian (03 Aug 2010):

Does this picture make you think of Rwanda?

PR firms make London world capital of reputation laundering

The head of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has said he will boycott all government functions over the Christmas period, in protest over the arrest of a nun over child trafficking allegations.

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said last week’s police raid on a children’s home, founded by Mother Theresa, was carried out without proof.

"Our response to this is to stay away from any state functions or state-organised event in the month of December," the cardinal told reporters in Colombo.

"They (police) are now trying to fabricate a story."

Cardinal Ranjith denied allegations the home was being used to sell babies of unwed mothers.

Police spokesman, SP Ajith Rohana told BBC Sandeshaya that at least two underage pregnant women were found in the convent and it was a legal requirement to inform authorities.

The Church has also accused Sri Lankan media of stoking public anger gainst them.

Columnist, Emil Van Der Poorten writes in the Sunday Leader, Everything from Soup to Nuts: "Defenders of The Realm" in Sri Lanka (04 Dec 2012):

"I have in previous columns made passing reference to those whose well-remunerated task it is to defend the status quo in this country."

"Let me, on this occasion, make the attempt to differentiate between them and the tasks that they appear to shoulder for a government that sorely needs defenders of various kinds, given the manner of its governance."

"One of the “enabling factors” to the Armageddon that seems to await us is certainly a dearth of easily accessible information about what is really happening around us.  With the electronic and print media either completely controlled by the government or self-censoring itself into inconsequentiality (for reasons that should be obvious to anyone in this country), a citizenry that has no ambition to spend all its waking hours trying to get beyond the censorship of the Web is vulnerable in the extreme to the brainwashing that the state is indulging in."

[more]

Photograph www.dailynews.lk

Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, launched his book, 'Mahinda Rajapaksa Janadhipathidun Eda Parlimenthuwedi Negu Handa' this week at Temple Trees.

The book, 'Voice of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament', contains a litany of his speeches made in parliament, since his first speech in 1970, till 2005.

Since release, Rajapaksa has issued copies of his book to the Maha Sangha, religious figures from Christian, Hindu and Muslim faiths, to student debating teams at Colombo Nalanda College, Thusrstan College and Richmond College in Galle, as well as issuing copies to school students who achieved the highest results at grade 5, O-Level and A-Level examinations.

The book was published by the Presidential Information and Documentation Centre, a centre, which according to the pro-government news outlet, www.dailynews.lk, was set up to collect and preserve information related to all Presidents who ruled the country.

“We are discussing it. We wanted US$500 million in three years. Yet, we were promised it in the budget in five years. There is a gap in our financial requirement. To bridge that gap, a commercial borrowing will be considered.”

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Media Ministry's plans to ensure all wesbites covering news and information on Sri Lanka register with the ministry, on Friday. 

The ruling came during a case filed by the website, www.srilankamirror.com, who had been blocked by the government since 5th November.

The three-member panel of judges instructed the Media Ministry to continue with the programme of registering the websites and ordered the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) launch an enquiry into all websites operating in Sri Lanka and file a report in the Supreme Court on the 15th of this month with regard to websites that had filed petition against the government blocking their sites.

See related articles:

Media Ministry has "full authority" to act against websites (17 Nov 2011)

Sri Lanka orders news websites to register (06 Nov 2011)

See also: Supreme Court backs government's expropriation bill (08 Nov 2011)

The Sri Lankan Government has banned all forms of commemorations of the Tamil National Remembrance Day.

Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said today, Sri Lanka will urge other countries to follow suit.

The ban comes as the Tamil people in the North-East defiantly commemorated the National Remembrance Day in the face of increased militarisation and threats by Sri Lankan security forces.

Rambukwella also defended the attack of Tamil political prisoners by guards at Anuradhapuram prison on November 27, which resulted in injuries to several inmates.

According to the minister, if the guards didn’t stop the plans, Sinhalese prisoners would have attacked Tamil inmates.

“Fifty three hardcore LTTE cadres including two condemned to death were making surreptitious arrangements to hold ‘Maaveer Day’ at the Anuradhapura prison,” the minister said.

He claimed subsequent searches resulted in the find of mobile phones and posters of the LTTE.

See related articles:

Tamil defiance in the Eelam homeland (30 Nov 2011)

Jaffna uni students detail their defiant act of remembrance (29 Nov 2011)

Prison guards attack Tamil detainees over Heroes’ Day (27 Nov 2011)

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, asserted that Sri Lanka must take accountability for alleged war crimes seriously, and highlighted the "growing authoritarian trend".

Addressing the Commons foreign affairs committee on Thursday, Baird said,

"Two years after the civil war we've seen no meaningful attempt at reconciliation with the Tamil minority."

"We've also seen a growing authoritarian trend by the government in Colombo."

"Other countries have taken 10 years for reconciliation, other countries never reconcile. But it's incredibly important."

See related articles:

Harper 'skeptical' of Rajapaksa’s promises (30 Oct 2011)

Canadian MPs back call for action on Sri Lanka (28 Oct 2011)

Canadians turn up the pressure on Sri Lanka (29 Sep 2011)

"We've had a strong partnership with the Sri Lanka Air Force for more than 40 years."

"We look forward to continuing that relationship in the months and years to come".