An official visit of a three-member top level delegation of the Government of Sri Lanka to India is scheduled to leave Colombo on August 25 for high level talks and not on August 15 (Sunday) as earlier fixed, Tamilnet reports.
Basil Rajapakse, Economic Development Minister and a brother of Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse, is to lead the delegation.
Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse and the President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga are the other members of the delegation.
The visit has been postponed to August 25 due to the request by the Government of India.
The Sri Lankan delegation is tipped to meet top officials of the Indian government including the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister.
Separately, a group of 23 representatives of the fisheries societies in Northern Sri Lanka are meeting their counterparts in Tamil Nadu to discuss matters including the illegal invasion of Indian fishing trawlers into the seas of Northern Sri Lanka and the escalating attacks by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) on Tamil Nadu fishermen.
The group, led by S. Thavaratnam, are holding discussion from 14 to 22 August, fisheries society sources in Jaffna said.
Though a similar meeting had been arranged two years ago it had to be abandoned as Sri Lanka Defence Ministry and the Indian High Commission to Sri Lanka had not permitted the meeting to take place.
Representatives of the major fisheries societies in Tamil Nadu and the representatives of the fisheries societies in the districts of Jaffna, Ki’linochchi and Mannaar are participating in the meeting.
The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has tightened the restriction on fishermen of Thalaimannaar imposed during the war time, for the past fortnight.
They have been instructed by SLN authorities to obtain ‘pass’ (permission) from the SLN before going to sea for fishing, according to fisheries society officials in Mannaar.
The fishermen, hampered by the new restriction, are undergoing hardships to engage in their livelihood of fishing.
Meanwhile, the fishermen were earlier allowed to rest on sand banks in Thalaimannaar Sea in the midst of their routine fishing.
Now, SLN has instructed them not to rest on the sand banks and had chased them while doing so.
SLN has piled firewood on the sand banks preventing fishermen resting on them.
Fisheries societies in Mannaar have complained to Fisheries Department and their elected representatives of Mannaar district.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Deputy minister of resettlement Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, alias Karuna, said during his recent visit to Jaffna that the uprooted Muslims located in other parts of Sri Lanka, including Puththa’lam, living in houses given to them by Sri Lanka government, should hand them back and the relief measures to them will be stopped if they choose to resettle in Jaffna.
This has caused anger among the Muslims uprooted due to war and the president of one of their associations took the matter to Northern Province Governor at his Jaffna residence last Thursday.
Maulavi Suffian, the president of the association of uprooted Muslims, urged Governor Major General G. A. Chandrasiri that Muslims should be allowed to resettle in Jaffna without any restriction.
He further requested the governor to evict the persons occupying the shops and properties of uprooted Muslims in Jaffna and Chu’n’naakam.
The uprooted Muslims resettled in Jaffna have not been given any assistance by Sri Lanka government.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Vanni has instructed the resettled families not to allow anyone other than the family members to stay with them and not to offer food.
The restriction causes great difficulty for the relatives and friends of the resettled families who come a long way from Vavuniyaa, Jaffna and other places to visit them.
A large number of army uniforms had gone missing recently in one of the SLA camps in Mullaiththeevu district in Vanni.
Many relatives and friends of the resettled families who had come from the refugee camps in Vavuniyaa and Jaffna had been sent back by the SLA.
SLA soldiers announced the new instructions using loud speakers fitted to their vehicles in villages in Vanni where resettlement had been permitted.
SLA soldiers manning the check posts and sentry points in Vanni also instruct residents not to entertain any others other than their family members in their dwellings.
Sri Lanka Police early on Thursday morning conducted a cordon and search operation in Kotahena in Colombo district for several houses from 4:30am.
Police personnel engaged in the operation instructed Tamil residents to register their presence in the location with the police immediately.
Some Tamil residents argued with the police personnel that there was no need for them to register their presence with the police as the clause to the effect had been withdrawn from the Emergency Regulations now in force.
But the police personnel told these Tamil residents that the registration had been re-introduced to check LTTE cadres entering the Colombo city.
Heated argument ensued between the police and Tamil residents thereafter.
The Police immediately took some of the Tamil residents who vehemently protested against the police instruction, to the police station for further inquiry.
l Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse last Saturday authorised the sentence imposed by the 1st Court Martial on the former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Sarath Fonseka.
The first Court Martial Friday sentenced Sarath Fonseka which strips him of all military ranks, being found him guilty of involvement in political activity while in service.
Rajapakse has now authorized the sentence to be carried out with immediate effect, acting Military spokesman Colonel Duminda Gamage told media.
Months after Mahinda Rajapakse was elected the Executive President, Fonseka was appointed the Commander of the Army on 6th December 2005.
He was promoted to the Rank of a General on 18th May 2009 immediately after the conclusion of the war on the Tamils.
On 14th July 2009, he was appointed to the post of Chief of Defence Staff and he retired from the service on 14th November 2009.
He unsuccessfully contested the last Presidential Election held in January this year against the incumbent head Mahinda Rajapakse.
He was arrested following his defeat at the election.
