Thursday, January 28, 2010

Government to take action against General Fonseka



Anbarasan Ethirajan - The Sri Lankan defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that the government is considering taking action against the opposition presidential candidate and former army chief General Sarath Fonseka for allegedly divulging sensitive information to the public.

His comments came just a day after the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa was announced the winner of the presidential elections.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

STATE TELEVISON EMPLOYEE ASSAULTED



A media employee attached to the state controlled TV broadcaster Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation has been assaulted by a person claimed to be a coordinator of Sri Lanka's president.

Ravi Abeywickrama, the Organizer of the Program Producers Union in the state TV corporation was reportedly assaulted by the official close to the president Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presence of corporation's chairman, Ariyarathna Athugala

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

"I was forced to remove Competent Authority from state media": Polls Chief



“The two state media organisations did not comply with the relevant regulations of the election. Although the two heads of those media houses assured the Competent Authority (CA) appointed by me that they would comply with the CA's guidelines, it simply did not happen forcing me to remove him,” said the Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake yesterday.

Addressing a media briefing last evening at the Elections Secretariat at Rajagiriya to announce that Mahinda Rajapaksa had been elected as the President of the country according to the provisions of the Constitution, the polls chief spoke of instances where several regional leaders had disturbed his staff; District Returning Officers being unable to take control; several Deputy Elections Commissioners coming under verbal abuse; election officials of one polling station being chased out, etc.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sri Lanka: General Fonseka under House Arrest



Although the Army allowed General Sarath Fonseka, who contested the last Presidential Elections as the Common Opposition Candidate to go home from Hotel Cinnamon Lakeside, we reliably inform the readers that he is being kept under an unofficial House Arrest.

His house on Queens Road, Colombo 03 is encircled by soldiers of the Special Task Force and Gajaba Regiment of the Army, a reliable source informed Lanka News Web.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

"I will set your newspaper on fire" - SL Defence Secretary threatens JVP leader



“ I will set your Lanka newspaper on fire – be warned” were the words of Defence Secretary and brother of the President, Gotabaya Rajapakse to Somawansa Amarasinghe, leader of the JVP. The Defence Secretary made this call this morning to Mr Amarasinghe’s mobile phone. The conversation was witnessed by the JVP leader’s driver and members of the staff.

“ Around 9.21 am this morning, I received a call from the mobile no 077 – 3501626 which is the Defence Secretary’s number. He threatened me with death but I told him that one dies only once. He then asked me if I had not lived abroad and I said yes, I have but so have you. He next threatened to set Lanka newspaper press on fire.” Said Mr Amarasinghe at a press conference held in Pelawatte.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

"If Prageeth is not missing, government should prove it" - SLWJA



A number of Sri Lankan web newspapers are blocked by Sri Lanka authorities in the run up to the presidential polls, a press freedom watchdog claims.

Lankaenews, Lankanewsweb, Infolanka and Sri Lanka Guardian websites were blocked in Sri Lanka hours before the results of the presidential elections announced, Paris based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sri Lanka's defeated presidential candidate in hiding



Sri Lanka's defeated presidential candidate who failed in a bid to unseat incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse was in hiding Thursday in Colombo after warning of possible attempts on his life.

Former four-star general Sarath Fonseka was resoundingly defeated in the country's first post-war election and was then stripped of his 80-strong state security team which he said he needed to keep him safe.

"We have moved to a house in Colombo, but I can't tell you the location for obvious reasons," one of Fonseka's bodyguards told AFP late Wednesday.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sri Lanka: President’s New Term Time for Accountability



United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and key international actors should take steps to bring accountability for Sri Lanka's grave human rights violations so that the thousands of victims will not continue to be denied justice during President Mahinda Rajapaksa's second term, Human Rights Watch said today.

The human rights situation in Sri Lanka deteriorated markedly during Rajapaksa's first term, and he failed to hold perpetrators accountable. During the final months of the 26-year-long war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended with the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, both government and LTTE forces committed numerous serious violations of international humanitarian law, in which more than 7,000 civilians died in what the UN called a "bloodbath."

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Opposition leaders fear arrest



By Yohan Perera - Opposition party leaders who backed General Sarath Fonseka for the presidency yesterday charged that some of them might be arrested.

UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya told journalists they had received information on being harmed and therefore decided to move out of their homes on the eve of the election.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sri Lanka's poll opens a new political divide



If Australians think about Sri Lanka in other than cricketing contexts, it will most likely be in connection with the island's bitter civil war and the flow of asylum seekers unleashed by the end of that conflict. The seaborne asylum seekers whose desperate plight last year revived contention about refugee policy in this country were Sri Lankan Tamils, which gives Australians - whatever stance they take in the so-called ''border protection'' debate - a particular interest in the outcome of Sri Lanka's presidential election.

In counting yesterday President Mahinda Rajapaksa had established a commanding lead over his main rival, former army chief Sarath Fonseka, after a poll in which more than 70 per cent of eligible Sri Lankans turned out to vote. The acrimonious and sometimes violent campaign preceding the election was evidence - were any needed - that the end of war is not the same as the beginning of peace. The new enmity between Mr Rajapaksa and Mr Fonseka, who worked closely together during Sri Lanka's war against the insurgent Tamil Tigers, suggests that the balance of Sri Lankan politics began to tilt in this election, the first in 26 years not to have been fought against the backdrop of war. That change may ultimately prove to be of greater consequence than the election result itself.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sri Lanka: Hopes and fears after election



By Sara Sidner - Sri Lanka has held its first presidential election since government forces put down a 26-year insurgency by Tamil Tiger rebels.

CNN's Sara Sidner looks at the election, claims of vote rigging from political rivals who were war-time allies, and what the future may hold for Sri Lanka.

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Fonseka rejects Sri Lanka election win for Rajapaksa



Charles Haviland, Colombo - President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been declared the winner of Sri Lanka's presidential poll but the outcome was immediately rejected by his challenger.

Gen Sarath Fonseka promised a legal challenge to the outcome of the ballot, the first since Tamil Tiger rebels were defeated after 25 years of civil war.


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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Asian election monitors calls for voter registration audit



By Sumaiya Rizvi - Asian election monitors are calling for a voter registration audit if claims by local elections monitors of fraud in the counting of votes and disfranchisement of voters are true.

Foreign observer and Mission Director of the Asian Network for Free Election (ANFREL), Ichal Supriady told Daily Mirror online that the accepted methodology of proving that the voter list is clean or dirty would be sorted by a voter registration audit.

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