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Conservatives woo Tamil diaspora vote Election manifesto highlights David Cameron’s Jaffna visit

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to Jaffna during his presence in the Island for the 2013 CHOGM has been highlighted in the Conservative Party’s election manifesto with the party’s commitment towards finding a political settlement to the Lankan Tamil issue.

Addressing in a manner attracting the Tamil diaspora in Britain the Conservative Party’s election manifesto was released on 14 April along with other priorities of the Conservatives. According to the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers, the Conservative Party manifesto has expressed its commitment to the UN investigation into Sri Lankan atrocities and pledged to work towards a political settlement for Tamils in Sri Lanka.

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19th amendment only half way measure to abolish executive presidency in Sri Lanka

A key amendment adopted by Sri Lankan parliament last week is only a halfway measure towards abolishing executive presidency as only 60 to 65 per cent of powers of the top post have been reduced, according to an architect of the legislation. 

“The government itself has gone public saying that it could not go the full distance,” Jayampathi Wickramaratna, a constitutional lawyer who was involved in drafting the 19A, said. 

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Five jailed in The Hague for supporting LTTE

Five Dutch nationals of Sri Lankan origin have been jailed in The Hague for between 19 months and six years three months for raising money for the Tamil Tigers, Dutch News.nl web reported yesterday.

 

It said: The Tamil Tigers have been on the EU’s official list of terrorist organisations since 2006. The group has been fighting for what it calls Tamil Eelam, an independent state for Tamils on the island of Sri Lanka, since the 1970s. The appeal court ruled the five, who range in age from 43 to 60, were members of the LTTE and had raised money for the terror group between 2003 and 2010. This involved threatening people who refused to make donations and organising illegal lotteries, the court said. A lower court in 2011 found the five guilty of membership of a criminal organisation but not guilty of being members of a terrorist organisation.

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Post 19A Political Scenario: Parliamentary elections and after

There was a struggle against the model of 19A first presented by Ranil Wickremesinghe, but there was no struggle against 19A as such—by which I mean the idea that the executive presidency required downward readjustment. The UNP-CBK-TNA-JVP Quartet had envisaged decapitation of the Executive presidency while the masses, the SLFP-UPFA and JHU envisaged trimming; downward revision.Thus, there was no struggle against 19A; there was a struggle over 19A; its scale and scope.