August 04-11

Sri Lanka government announced that Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva has been removed from his post in the government following a disciplinary inquiry held this evening over his recent conduct.

Government sources further added that Silva has also been removed from the membership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Silva tied a Samurdhi officer to a mango tree last week over the failure by the officer to attend a dengue prevention programme in Kelaniya.



Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission started public hearings at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Centre, Colombo on this week. The eight-member Commission will record evidence from diplomats, intellectuals and prominent figures in society for seven days. Former embassador to US and Chief of Peace Secretariat Bernard Goonatilake was the first to give evidence before the commission. He said that offspring of Sri Lankans who left the country have never come to their Motherland and they are in the forefront of agitation against Sri Lanka. He was of the view that these younger members of the expatriate community could be radicalized by the groups in such countries and Sri Lanka will have to face the repercussions. He stressed on a viable mechanism that ensures constant engagement with Sri Lanka's expatriates. Goonatilake opined that there are countries where separate ministers have been appointed to look into the welfare and make constant engagement with their expatriates abroad. Commission Chairman C.R.De Silva PC. Members Dr. Amrith Rohan Perera PC, Prof Karunaratne Hangahawatte, Chandripal Chanmugam, HMGS Palihakkara, Manohari Ramanathan, Maxwell Parakrama Paranagama and Commission Secretary S.M. Samarakoon were present.


Two more Tamil Members of Parliament from the opposition UNP met today Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees and joined the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance .
According to the President's media unit, the DPF National Organizer and the UNP MP for Colombo electoral district Praba Ganeshan and the Nuwara Eliya district MP Palani Diagmbaram from National Workers Congress met this morning President Mahinda Rajapaksa and joined the ruling party.

Over a year after Sri Lanka won the war against LTTE, the US still suspects that the international financial support network of the Tamil Tigers remains largely intact. However, the State Department, noted that the network likely suffered a serious blow with the arrest of Kumaran Padmanathan, who is alleged to have controlled the arms network of the now vanquished terror outfit.

In its Congressionally-mandated 'Country Reports on Terrorism for the year 2009', the State Department said: "In spite of losing the war on the ground in Sri Lanka, the LTTE's international network of financial support was suspected to have survived largely intact."

"As the military recaptured the remainder of the LTTE-held territory, the LTTE reverted increasingly to more asymmetrical tactics, including suicide bombers and other terrorist attacks, some of which caused serious civilian casualties," it said.

The report said the Sri Lankan government effectively dismantled much of the LTTE, after cornering remaining LTTE fighters and several hundred thousand civilians in the northeast of the island.

"Though the government declared victory on May 18, in completing this military campaign, both sides suffered heavy losses," it said adding that earlier in the year, the LTTE carried out a number of attacks, including suicide bombings and an air raid on Colombo, but no further attacks occurred following the end of the war.

Former Minister of Mahinda Rajapakse government and MP Mangala Samaraweera joined the main Opposition United National Party (UNP) embroiled in its worst internal crisis in decades. But opposition is likely to lose more MPs to the Government, political sources said.

With the cross over of two Opposition MPs Prabha Ganeshan of Democratic People's Front and P. Digambaram of the National Workers' Front on Thursday, the Government is just short of five MPs to obtain its two-third majority in Parliament.

UNP MPs Abdul Cader and Range Bandara have already expressed their support to President Mahinda Rajapaksa in public, but only snag for their crossover seems to be the understanding reached between the President and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe at their recent meeting, not to entertain any more crossovers from the UNP, political observers said.

Wickremesinghe has already vowed that he will not engage in any further talks on the proposed Constitutional changes with the President, if he entertains UNP MPs who cross over.

Following the one-to-one meeting between Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe last month, it was announced that an understanding was reached to introduce a system of executive premiership elected by the people, to replace the current executive presidency. These developments took place in the face of Government's earlier proposal to remove the term limit on the current executive presidency not receiving the expected support from within the ranks of the governing coalition.

Sources said, Digambaram and Ganeshan cannot be called UNPers, even though they contested under the party banner, as they belong to two different minority parties.

The next move, according to Government sources, would be to get a few more dissatisfied minority party MPs to cross over to the Government as was evident by the cross over of Ganeshan and Digambaran last week.
High on the list are about three MPs from the SLMC and one or two from the TNA, the sources said. With these developments and a solution to the UNP's internal crisis not being visible in the foreseeable future, political observers say that the Government's ambition of securing a two-third majority in Parliament is not a dream anymore.

A group of US lawmakers are urging the Obama administration to push for an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes that occurred during Sri Lanka's civil war.

In a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the members of Congress called for such a probe saying panels set up by the Sri Lankan government to probe the allegations "lacked the needed credibility."

These panels have "also delayed criminal investigations and in several instances members of these commissions have resigned in protest at the government's interference," the letter said, citing Amnesty International.

The letter was signed by some 57 members of the US House of Representatives.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his opposition rival Ranil Wickremesinghe met to continue their talks which began last month, presidential officials said.

The two had met on July 10 to initiate the process of constitutional reform.

Both sides had agreed to change the present executive presidential system into an executive prime minister headed system.

"Our leader wanted to probe the government stance on the proposed reforms", Kabir Hashim, a spokesman for Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) told reporters.

The talks came under a cloud with Rajapaksa's move to welcome into government fold some two parliamentarians from the UNP last week.

Wickremesinghe also came under pressure from his party to withdraw from talks in view of Rajapaksa's luring of opposition legislators - an act to further weaken the opposition.

Hashim, the spokesman said that Wickremesinghe in addition to discussing the changes to local government elections system, had sought an opportunity to meet with Rajapaksa in the company of the same UNP team which had met him in the first meeting held last month.