OTHER NEWS LTTE aircraft sighted A series of protest campaigns against recent EP polls Pillayan- first chief minister for Eastern Province Pillayan - new CM EP    Advertisement Print Version | Email to friend RSF condemns Sri Lankas preventive censorship moves 02-05-2008 The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders organisation has condemned moves to prevent the media obtaining information following violent clashes in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, which inflicted heavy casualties to both sides. The media watchdog charged that the government was trying to win the news war by doing the utmost to keep journalists away from combat zones and medical facilities and that it was also trying to influence the editorial stance of both local and national newspapers. “The clashes and the evident losses have pushed the military authorities into establishing ‘preventive censorship,’ such as preventing photographers and reporters from reaching hospitals and morgues to establish the death toll,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “The contradictory statements by those involved and constant pressure from the government, which only wants to see the most patriotic articles, shows the urgent need for independent coverage of events currently shaking the region,” it added. On April 24, soldiers prevented photographers from entering a Colombo hospital in which wounded soldiers were being treated. The media watchdog said that in one of the most violent engagements in the Jaffna peninsula in recent years, security forces battled LTTE fighters, leaving losses apparently much heavier than those reported by either side. Each side claimed to have killed around 100 troops. While the Defence Ministry said on the day of the battle that 43 soldiers had been killed and that 33 others were missing, unofficial military sources said the Army had lost 185 men and that 20 were missing. The Army also claimed to have killed more than 3,000 LTTE fighters since the start of 2008, which corresponds to the figure for the total Tiger force provided by the military command six months earlier. Courtesy Lanka Tribune - Award Winning UK SriLankan Newspaper Print Version | Email to friend

LTTE aircraft sighted Fri, 16-05-2008 04:00:00 An LTTE air craft was detected by the air defence system yesterday evening over the LTTE built Iranamadu runway, military sources said. A senior Air Force official told media that the air defence system had detected the LTTE aircraft soon after, it was airborne. �However it immediately disappeared from the radar system, as it went down,� the official said. ... |FULL STORY|

A series of protest campaigns against recent EP polls Fri, 16-05-2008 19:00:00 UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake , said , this Govt. has no capacity to do anything legal and honest ,whether it is administration, development or in the conduct of elections. It thrives only on murder, mayhem, corruption and malpractices. The Eastern Provincial Council elections bore all those hallmarks, he added. At the last Presidential elections it entered into a pact with the LTTE paying them billions of rupees betraying the country, and won. This time it entered into an allianc... |FULL STORY|

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Pillayan- first chief minister for Eastern Province Fri, 16-05-2008 18:00:00 Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan was sworn-in as the Chief Minister for the Eastern Province before President Mahinda Rajapaksa this evening. Three other provincial councilors also took their oaths, as cabinet of ministers despite M.L.A.M Hisbullah was absent. They are T.Navaratnarajah, Wimalaweera Dissanayake and M.Uduma . After swearing in ceremony Minister Athaullah welcomed the newly appointed Chief Minister. Chandrakantha obtained the highest number of preferential vo... |FULL STORY|

Pillayan - new CM EP Fri, 16-05-2008 14:00:00 Mr.Pillayan took oaths as the Chief Minister of the Eastern Provincial Council in a short while ago.... |FULL STORY|

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