Posted on April 25th, 2021
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen being taken to prison when he was arrested in October last year
All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) leader and ex-Cabinet Minister Rishad Bathiudeen is a prominent Sri Lankan politician, who is very often in the news for the wrong reasons.
The 48-year-old Bathiudeen hailing from Dharapuram in the Mannar District is an engineer by training. Known widely as Rishad, he was first elected to Parliament from the Northern Vanni electoral district in December 2001. He has been consistently elected as Vanni MP since then in 2004, 2010,2015 and 2020. Rishad has also served continuously from January 2007 to November 2019 as Cabinet Minister in the governments of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena. Currently his party the ACMC has 4 MP’s and 169 Local Authority Members.
(Excerpted from the memoirs of Senior DIG (Retd.) Edward Gunawardena)
A few months after the SLFP-led United Front Alliance headed by Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike was elected in 1970, information started trickling in that the JVP was planning an uprising against the government. Cells were formed island-wide and clandestine indoctrination classes conducted by trained cadres. Simultaneously there was a spate of bank robberies and thefts of guns from households were reported to the police from all parts of the island. Unidentified youths were collecting empty cigarette and condensed milk tins, bottles, spent bulbs and cutting pieces of barbed wire from fences to make hand bombs and Molotov cocktails. Instances of bombs being tested even in the Peradeniya campus came to light.
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by Dr Nirmala Chandrahasan
For some time now the Tamil political parties and the Tamil polity have been looking to the international community to settle their problems. Thus much reliance has been placed on the Human Rights Council’s resolutions and the Geneva processes. Although this is one avenue it is not the only one. The international processes are also dependant on geo politics and the national interests of the states that are represented in these organizations and hence one cannot always expect a favourable outcome. On the other hand, when the issues facing the Tamil speaking people are taken up by the people themselves and their representatives at the ground level it could have a better outcome, as the majority community and the country at large are made aware of the grievances and issues which are agitating the Tamil speaking part of the country. This requires that the print and electronic media give adequate coverage to these events so that the Sinhala and English readin
Sri Lankan magistrates across districts in the North-East issued bans and injunctions against civil society members, journalists and other individuals ahead of a ‘walk for justice’ organised by Tamil war victims’ families, civil society organisations and Tamil politicians.
The protest march, which mobilised around demands for the United Nations and international community to heed Tamil calls for justice and accountability, began today from Pottuvil despite the imposed restrictions, roadblocks and police interference.
The walk, which coincides with the Sri Lankan independence Day celebrations, has been named after the route from ‘Pottuvil to Polikandi’, delineating the two furthest ends of the traditional Tamil homeland, from Pottuvil in Amparai in the south, to Polikandi in Point Pedro at the northern tip.