Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Warnings more Tamils will flee Sri Lanka



With the government facing continued pressure over asylum seekers, Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is in Colombo to seek a solution to what is a growing problem at home.

Foreign Minister Smith received assurances from the Sri Lankans that more would be done to crack down on people-smugglers and people movement from the minority Tamil community. But human rights advocates say the civil war has left the Tamils with little reason to remain in Sri Lanka, and unless something is done to improve the situation, Tamil asylum-seekers will continue to head for places like Australia.

Presenter: Michael Edwards
Speakers: Stephen Smith, Australian Foreign Minister; Jehan Perreira, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Court relaxes bail conditions on Vanni doctors



By T. Farook Thajudeen - Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi relaxed bail conditions imposed on two Doctors who were alleged to have canvassed false information of an alleged genocide of Tamils by the Sri Lankan forces to the international community.

At the outset of yesterday’s magisterial inquiry the CID informed court that they were investigating as to whether the doctors had been actively involved in any unlawful activity or had any connections to the LTTE movement and moved for a date to file the report.

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Talks fail, Sri Lankan unions decide to go for joint work-to-rule campaign



The unions of the four main state institutes, Petroleum, Water, Electricity and Ports have decided to commence its planned work-to-rule campaign from next Wednesday as the talks they held with the Treasury Secretary failed to produce any compromise.

The union leaders this evening met with Treasury Secretary Dr. P. B. Jayasundara to discuss over their salary increment, but the talks has ended without any success, said Ananda Palitha, the committee member of Joint Forum for Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) unions.

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Sri Lanka Says 164,000 War Refugees Remain in Northern Camps



By Paul Tighe - Sri Lanka said 164,000 civilians displaced by the civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels remain in camps in the north and the government intends to reduce the number to less than 50,000 by the end of January.

“We are now moving with incremental swiftness” to settle people from the camps, Rajiva Wijesinha, the secretary at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, said late yesterday, according to the government’s Web site.

More than 280,000 mainly Tamil civilians have been held in the camps since the army defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May, ending the group’s 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka’s north and east. The U.S. and United Nations are leading international calls for the swift release of the displaced people.

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Lankan workers stranded in Jeddah



Sri Lankan migrant workers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia say they have been living under a bridge seeking help from the authorities to come back home.

One Sri Lankan worker who wished to be anonymous told BBC Sinhala service that nearly 3000 migrant workers, including Sri Lankans, have been living under the Sharafiya bridge in the Saudi capital for months.

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