The main minority Tamil political party in Sri Lanka said on Tuesday that moves aimed at reaching a political solution to the ethnic issue in the country remained deadlocked. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) legislator M.A. Sumanthiran told Xinhua that his party leader R. Sampanthan and the leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Ranil Wickremesinghe had met over the weekend in an attempt to look for a way forward.

Following the end of a 30-year war between the Tamil Tiger rebels and the military three years ago the government and the TNA began talks aimed at reaching a political solution.

However the talks were suspended late last year after the government insisted that the TNA take part in a parliament process involving all the political parties to reach a political solution.

The TNA refused to be part of the process known as the Parliament Select Committee (PSC) until an agreement is reached at direct talks between the government and the TNA.

"Mr. Sampanthan met Mr. Wickrememesinghe and discussed several issues regarding the PSC. But there is still no decision or progress. Our position remains that we will join the PSC only once an agreement is reached in bilateral talks with the government. However the government does not seem keen to resume bilateral talks," Sumanthiran said.

Sumanthiran also said that there was an attempt made by the UNP leader to push the government to have bilateral talks with the TNA while also going ahead with the PSC but the government had failed to respond positively to the request.

Amidst pressure from its allies the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has refused to have talks only with the TNA on the basis that they are not the sole representatives of the Tamils.

However the UNP has refused to take part in the PSC until the government reaches an agreement with the TNA to join the process.

As a result the PSC has also remained deadlocked despite pressure from Sri Lanka's biggest neighbor India which wants the government to reach a speedy political solution which is acceptable to all the communities in the country.

About 1,473 petitioners, from Achchuveli, Palali, Jaffna yesterday applied to the Court of Appeal seeking permission to add to their writ application that the proposed acquisition of their land, in Palali was to be acquired by the State speedily. The petition said the State had decided to take over 6,813 acres, to construct a Defence Headquarters building in Palali.The petitioners requested the Court to restrain the respondent Minister of Lands and Land Development from going ahead with the proposed mala-fide acquisition.

India's National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is all set to ink an agreement for the execution of the proposed 2 x 250 MW Sampur power project in Trincomalee in Sri Lanka by early next month, as the differences over operation and maintenance charges and issues relating to gross heat rate in the power purchase agreement have been sorted out. "NPTC is all set to take up the project in right earnest. We have deputed a senior official to be posted in Sri Lanka for the project. All issues have been resolved and we are hopeful that a formal agreement will be signed in the first or second week of June," a senior official, who refused to be identified, told The Hindu .

UNP MP Sajith Premadasa says his father gave one group in the LTTE weapons in order to try and create a split in the LTTE. Speaking to the BBC Sandeshiya, Sajith Premadas said that former President Ranasinghe Premadasa had given weapons to an LTTE click led by Mahattaya. "There were allegations my father gave weapons to the LTTE. What my father did was give weapons to an LTTE click he could trust. The LTTE click led by Mahattaya was given weapons to strengthen them and create an uprising against Prabhakaran within the LTTE," he said. Gopalaswamy Mahendraraja also known as Mahattaya was eventually reportedly killed for leaking secrets to India's RAW.

UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake today claimed that a ship carrying fuel designated for Sri Lanka is reportedly lost at sea and that he doesn't believe Petroleum Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa will be able to locate it. He stated that despite having a total of 9 oil storage tanks in Orugodawatta and Sapugaskanda, the CPC waits till all 9 tanks run dry to import crude oil again. Attanayake further said that the Sapugaskanda oil refinery solely depends on Iranian crude oil and the fact that crude oil for the country was only ordered from a ship which was in international waters is "startling." He stated that as a responsible government food and oil sufficient for the next 3 months should be kept in stocks, however due to the ruling government's "Eda Wela Tours" policy the people are facing grave hardship.

The strike against the increase of electricity tariff hike was launched today (21) with the participation of government and private sector trade unions. Several protests were conducted extending support for the strike. The protest organized by the university lecturers were held at Nugegoda Junction, while the employees of Sri Jayewardenepura General Hospital staged a protest in front of the hospital.

Crime branch officers in India on Sunday arrested a 35-year-old Sri Lankan, who was an operative of banned outfit Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), when he was attempting to catch a flight to Nairobi. Interestingly, the accused, an electronics engineer, initially told cops that he entered India by air, but after sustained interrogation, revealed that he took a boat from Sri Lanka and got off at the coast of Tamil Nadu. He ran out of luck as the Sri Lankan government issued an Interpol notice against him, due to which he was nabbed at Mumbai airport. The arrested person, identified as Theva Satesh Kumar, was born and brought up in Jafna in Sri Lanka, which has been an LTTE-dominated area.

Indian Minister V Narayanasamy today said that only the Congress party is "genuinely" interested in ensuring welfare of the Tamils in Sri Lanka while other political parties in Tamil Nadu were shedding "crocodile tears" on the issue. "It is indeed shocking that the political parties who have not done anything for welfare of the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees staying in Tamil Nadu are feigning to be their champions and making criticisms against Congress and the party-led UPA government at the Centre on the Tamils issue," he said. Both ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and former Congress ally DMK have frequently expressed concern over attacks on fishermen from the state, allegedly by Sri Lankan Navy, besides flaying Centre for failing to put pressure on Colombo on the issue.

It is reported that BBS is planing to build a huge public opinion against the 13th Amendment. BBS did not make any official comment on their opinion on the 13th Amendment so far and is said to be making it officially at the tomorrow's media briefing. However, since the beginning, the group ironically opposed a devolution of power. BBC program coordinator Mr.Dilantha Withanage has expressed his views to the Asian Tribune web site recently by saying that the BBS is not supporting the 13th Amendment.

The US State Department says intolerance of, and discrimination against, Muslims by some Buddhists saw an increase in Sri Lanka last year. The International Religious Freedom Report for 2012 released by the US State Department on Monday, also said that last year, U.S. embassy officials conveyed U.S. government concerns about religious freedom, particularly attacks on churches, to government leaders and urged them to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators. The report which looks at religious freedom, or the lack of it in all countries for 2012, noted that in certain instances, local authorities in Si Lanka failed to respond effectively to communal attacks, including attacks on members of minority religious groups.

Voicing concern over attacks on Indian fishermen, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today asked the Centre to take urgent steps for the retrieval of Katchatheevu islet, ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974, besides redrawing the International Maritime Boundary Line. The 1974 Agreement signed between India and Sri Lanka had determined Katchatheevu as a part of Sri Lanka, and it was ceded by the Indian Government unilaterally without obtaining the approval of both Houses of Parliament for a constitutional amendment, she said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "The stand of the Tamil Nadu Government is that Katchatheevu has always been a part of India, geographically, culturally and historically and needs to be retrieved, keeping in view the livelihood interests and security of thousands of Indian fishermen," she said.

A group of Govt MPs have informed Minister Basil Rajapaksa that they are not going to support the 19th Constitutional amendment bill if it attempts to hinder the Provincial council powers or make any suggestions regarding the Executive Presidency. Govt sources say that under these circumstances the Govt has faced a problem of rallying a 2/3 majority in the Parliament as this has caused a 8 MP shortage. Lanka News web site reports that although the Govt had previously planned to call upon a Presidential election on March next year after bringing in the 19th Constitutional amendment, changing the Presidential election time period from 4 years to 3 years and changing its period of office from 6 years to 5 years, due to the lack of majority, it has faced trouble.

The eldest daughter of the former JVP leader, Rohana Wijeweera was arrested by the police after a complaint was filed against her by her mother, Police Spokesman SP Buddhika Siriwardena stated. Rohana Wijeweera has four daughters and a son while the arrested daughter was the eldest. She is due to be presented to courts for allegedly assaulting her mother, police further stated.

Articulating right demands and slogans in Genocide Remembrance events is crucial at a time when the Eezham Tamils in their homeland are barred from even silently mourning their heroes and civilians who sacrificed their lives in the culmination of the genocidal war at Mu"l"li-vaaykkaal, said a Tamil political activist from Jaffna commenting on the slogans used by protestors at the May 19 event at Marina beach in Chennai. Civil society activists, artists, political leaders and ordinary people had participated a mass gathering near the Kannagi statue in the honour of those Eezham Tamils who perished in Sri Lanka"s genocidal war despite dissuasion by the police. Speaking to TamilNet from the gathering, Umar, an activist from the May 17 criticized the failure of UN in preventing the genocide, stating that Sri Lanka must be hauled in the UNSC.

Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Minister Douglas Devananda, an advocate of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, yesterday said the delegation of land and police powers to the provincial councils should be held back for the time being when constituting to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC). In an interview with Daily Mirror, Minister Devananda said there appeared to be dissension in the south over the delegation of such powers to the Provincial Council (PC) and therefore, it should be held back till an understanding between the two major communities - Sinhalese and Tamils - was built up. "If there is no delegation of such powers when forming the Northern Provincial Council, the Tamil people will be concerned. Likewise, Sinhala people will be concerned if these powers are delegated. Therefore, it is advisable to hold it back for the moment until there is understanding," he said.

Respect for basic rights and liberties has declined in Sri Lanka in the four years since the government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). This week marks the fourth anniversary of the brutal civil war's end. Since the end of the 26-year-long civil war, the Sri Lankan government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has resisted taking meaningful steps to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes by government forces and the LTTE, end the crackdown against the independent media and human rights activists, and stop ongoing abuses against suspected LTTE supporters. Government pledges to address the concerns of the ethnic Tamil population have gone unfulfilled. "Four years after Sri Lanka's horrific civil war ended, many Sri Lankans await justice for the victims of abuses, news of the 'disappeared,' and respect for their basic rights," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead, the Rajapaksa government has rejected investigations, clamped down harder on the media, and persisted in wartime abuses such as torture."

Protests by the fishermen community and political parties have yielded result with the Sri Lankan government ordering the release of the 26 Karaikal fishermen on Monday. The fishermen who are in the custody of the Sri Lankan government will be released after being produced before the Lankan court, said Union Minister of State V Narayanasamy. "Orders for the release have been issued after the intervention of Union Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid, Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan Ministers of Tamil origin," Narayanasamy said. As the relations between India and Sri Lanka were not good due to agitations against Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu, securing their release took lot of time,he added.

Former Colombo Deputy Mayor Azath Salley who shot to fame as a result of his arrest, today said President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the ideal person to bring about proper peace and reconciliation. Mr. Salley told a news conference that President Rajapaksa's own family comprised members of different religions and ethnic groups who lived peacefully. Therefore he said it would be easy for the President to establish peace in the country in the same way he had maintained peace among his own family members. The Former Deputy Mayor thanked the Ministers in the government, several countries and opposition politicians who played a role in securing his release from prison. He recalled that many had worked towards his release, although he was not even a member of a local authority.

Vanni district parliamentarian Sivasakthi Anandan has received a written order to report to Criminal Investigation Department (CID) regarding a function held at the Vavuniya Town Council Hall on May 18th to commemorate the war victims. Mano Ganeshan, the leader of People's Democratic Front has stated that by ordering Sivasakthi Anandan to report to CID the government has violate the public right to commemorate dead which is recommended in a report in the Presidential Commission. Speaking to 'BBC Sandeshaya' he has stated "the provisions in Learned Lessons and Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) report clearly indicates that the public must be provided with an opportunity to commemorate dead. However the government has not allowed it. The MP who was involved in the commemoration has been ordered to report to CID".

The Russian Federation has requested Sri Lanka's support to win the bid for hosting EXPO 2020, the Government Information Department reported. The Head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independence States-Russia, Konstantin Kosachev when he met Sri Lanka's Prime Minister D.M.Jayarathna has emphasised how important the vote of Sri Lanka is for Russia to host EXPO 2020. Russia is competing for the votes of 162 countries along with Thailand, Turkey, Brazil and UAE. Kosachev has briefed the Sri Lankan PM that Russia expects to conduct this exhibition in Yekatennburg which links Asian and European countries and around twenty million people from foreign countries are expected to attend this exhibition. Kosachev has reiterated that it would help Sri Lanka to meet its goal of attracting 2.5 million tourists.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Sri Lanka has commenced recording statements from the family members of people disappeared in the Matale area during the 1988-1989 insurrection of the Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The CID has so far recorded the statements from the families of 13 persons who had claimed that their loved ones were among those killed and buried in the Matale mass grave. The mass grave in Matale was unearthed at the Matale Hospital premises last November and 154 skeletal remains were exhumed from the grave. It is believed that the skeletal remains unearthed from the Matale mass grave were of insurgents from the JVP killed during the 1988-89 violence. Matale magistrate and additional district judge Chaturika de Silva earlier this month ordered the CID to record statements from the relatives of the missing persons.