Monday, January 25, 2010

Political reporter and cartoonist missing in Colombo on eve of election - RSF



Reporters Without Borders urges the security forces to assign more personnel to the search for journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, who sent missing last night in Colombo. A senior police official told the press freedom organisation he was too busy with tomorrow’s presidential election to make the case a priority.

Eknaligoda, who writes political analyses for the Lankaenews website, left work at about 9 p.m. but did not arrive home and has not contacted any family members or friends. He had told a close friend he thought he had been followed for the past few days.

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Monday, January 25, 2010

MEDIA PERSONNEL MISSING SINCE SUNDAY



Prageeth Ekneligoda and independent media personnel and a political analyst has disappeared from Sunday night (24)

Ekneligoda is an independent media personnel and a political analyst. He lives at Homagama. People of the area have seen a white Van sans number plate stationed around his house yesterday. It is reported that he has disappeared after leaving the office at Lanka e news for home at about 9.00 p.m. From yesterday night around 9.30 p.m. his phone is not functioning. It is learnt that when he received a call on his phone at about 9.30 .p.m. from a friend of his, he had answered ‘I am not going towards Koswatte’

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Monday, January 25, 2010

War President versus war general in Sri Lanka



Sri Lanka’s contemporary heroes clash tomorrow in violence-marred polls that pit the victorious war President against his popular former army commander.

Should the challenger prevail, the island nation could be staring at a period of uncertainty, analysts said.

President Mahinda Rajapakse called the presidential poll two years ahead of schedule, seeking to cash in on an immense popularity surge gained from ending a quarter-century-long civil war. While he fashioned the victory with determined diplomacy and political support, the instrument of victory was General Sarath Fonseka a brilliant and ruthless soldier, who now stands opposed to him.


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Monday, January 25, 2010

Sri Lanka Vote Hinges on Tamils



By Matthew Rosenberg - This country's presidential vote Tuesday pits two chief architects of the country's defeat last year of Tamil separatists, underscoring the political divide that remains after 26 years of ethnic strife.

The leading contenders among the field's 22 candidates are President Mahinda Rajapaksa, elected five years ago on a promise to crush the Tigers, and retired Gen. Sarath Fonseka, who oversaw the rebels' battlefield annihilation in May. Most Sri Lankans view them as war heroes. They are seen as war criminals by the country's minority Tamils, who could end up deciding the outcome of a vote observers say is too close to call.


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Monday, January 25, 2010

General Puts Up a Fight in Sri Lanka’s Election



By Lydia Polgreen - When President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced late last year that he would move the presidential election up by two years and seek a fresh mandate from Sri Lanka’s war-weary electorate, he seemed like a shoo-in.

Having vanquished the fearsome Tamil Tiger insurgency in May with a no-holds-barred assault on its last stronghold, Mr. Rajapaksa enjoyed widespread adulation. The opposition parties were fractured and in disarray. No one, it seemed, could match the president’s popularity, despite deep unease about what seemed to be the increasing concentration of power in the hands of his family and rising corruption.


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Monday, January 25, 2010

Sri Lankan presidential election sparks fears of rising violence



Mark Tranand Dinuk Samarasinghe - Sri Lanka will on Tuesday hold its first presidential elections since the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, amid allegations that the ruling party is planning to stir up violence in a desperate attempt to cling on to power.

The increasingly bitter election campaign came to an end this weekend with final rallies for the two main candidates, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sarath Fonseka, the former head of the army.


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