Thursday, 25 July 2013 01:35
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More troops removed from Jaffna
Amid calls for demilitarisation and a return to civil administration in the north, the military yesterday said that it has further reduced troops from several parts of the Jaffna district and have transferred them to the Palaly Cantonment.
Army Spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said that a decision was taken to move troops from 13 small military camps located in the Walikamam sector in Jaffna district to the Palaly Cantonment. Other locations occupied by the military for which it was paying rent would also be returned to their owners, he said.
Govt. slams TNA
The Government has criticised the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) over the comments it has been making on the situation in the north. UPFA General Secretary Susil Premajayantha said yesterday that while the Government is engaged in developing the war ravaged areas, the TNA was attempting to destabilise those efforts.
He said that while the TNA talks so much about the Tamils in the north, they themselves are either staying in Colombo or their family members are overseas. “Some of these people are getting together with external forces and are attempting to reverse the peace established in the country,” he said. He said that a lot of people are talking about the 13th Amendment and if it should be 13 plus or 13 minus, but they forget that all this is possible only because the war came to an end.
Replacing Dayasiri
Nalin Nilantha Bandara will replace former UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera who controversially quit Parliament and his party yesterday. Bandara is the candidate on the Kurunegala electoral list to be next in line to enter Parliament based on his preferential votes.
Madeline Albright raps SL
A report compiled by a committee chaired by former US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright has criticised the international reaction to Sri Lanka during the final stages of the conflict despite embracing the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) concept. R2P focuses on preventing and halting genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
Released by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Institute of Peace and Brookings Institution, the report said that tens of thousands of Tamil civilians died at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war with little international outcry or effective UN response.
“Despite the high number of civilian casualties, the international community did little beyond issuing statements of concern.
The UN Security Council, High Commission on Human Rights and General Assembly held no formal sessions on Sri Lanka during this period. In Sri Lanka, both the Government and the rebels can be faulted for failing to protect civilians. However, the international community also neglected its responsibility to take timely action when it was apparent that violations of humanitarian law were taking place,” the report said.
(Colombo Gazette)
