Tamil newspaper ransacked in Toronto

The office of a prominent Tamil newspaper here was ransacked Saturday night for covering the talks of a local Tamil leader with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Kula Sellathurai, president of the United Tamil Council of Canada and the Canada-India Business Council, had recently met Rajapaksa in Colombo to discuss the Tamil issue and hand over funds raised for the orphans of the war. His talks with the Sri Lankan president were covered in the Uthayan newspaper edited by his friend Logan Logendralingam.

The coverage earned the newspaper the ire of many sections of Tamil Canadians. Before the newspaper office was ransacked overnight, the editor got a call from the attackers, chiding him for covering the talks of his friend with the Sri Lankan president.

'Your friends went and met the president, now you go and see what happened to your store (office)," Sellathurai told a local newspaper quoting the attackers telling his editor friend.

When the editor reached his office Sunday morning, he was shocked to see its front portion totally smashed.

Condemning the attack, Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) leader David Poopalapillai said, 'We are against all acts of violence to resolve differences. Everybody has a right to free expression, and we respect that right."

However, he expressed its strong opposition to any talks with the Sri Lankan president 'who is a war criminal declared by many human rights bodies."

He described the Tamil leader who met the Sri Lankan president as an agent of the Sri Lankan government. 'Sellathurai is a stooge of the Sri Lankan government which is trying to divide the Tamils. People like him are falling into the government's trap," Poopalapillai said.

Victorious Rajapaksa calls for unity after landslide win

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called for all Sri Lankans to work together to rebuild the war-torn nation in the wake of his re-election victory.

Mr. Rajapaksa spoke on Wednesday in his first comments since he was declared the winner in a hard-fought presidential election. His challenger has rejected the results.

He said that no matter who people voted for, he would work as the president of the whole nation.

Polling in presidential election opens in Sri Lanka

Polling in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections opened on Tuesday morning in the first national election to be held in the country since the defeat of the Tamil rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May.

Voting began at 7:00 am (0130 GMT) in some 11,000 polling stations with 14 million people registered to vote. Polling is to end at 4:00 pm (1030 GMT).

Sri Lanka poll campaign winds up; both contenders confident

As the curtains fell on the official campaign for the January 26 Sri Lankan presidential election, the two chief contenders - President Mahinda Rajapaksa and common opposition candidate retired General Sarath Fonseka - wound up their nearly two-month-long campaign with mammoth rallies in and around Colombo.

A general sense of unease prevails in the island nation ahead of what has been billed one of the most exciting and crucial elections in the post-independent history of Sri Lanka. Mr. Rajapaksa ended his campaign with a huge rally at Piliyandala, near here. Though considered to be a stronghold of the main opposition United National Party, the campaign managers of the President had managed to put up an impressive show of strength and enthusiasm among the people was evident. Mr. Rajapaksa sounded confident amid repeated applause from supporters.

The retired General ended the campaign with a gathering dominated by Muslims. Charging the government with attempting to rig the mandate, the General told his attentive supporters that he would certainly be occupying the most powerful office.

As it could be expected in any electoral do or die battle, charges flew thick and fast. Notwithstanding the apprehensions of violence and malpractices, it would not be easy for any party to indulge in brazen violations for two reasons. First, the poll has generated unprecedented interest among the people and the voter turn-out is expected to be high.

Second, the presence of 40 foreign election observers. At a news conference here on Friday, they said they would monitor the elections in all districts including the northern and eastern provinces where the LTTE was militarily defeated in May 2009 after 34 months of war. They would release a report on January 28.

As per a local NGO monitoring the campaign, so far over 800 election-related incidents of violence including five deaths had been reported since the election was declared late November. Earlier in the day at a news conference General Fonseka accused the President of getting ready to rig the polls. “I began this campaign with no political background and today I am confident that [a] overwhelming majority of the people are with me. We know for a fact that 90 per cent of the votes in the postal vote are in our favour.”

Main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP), ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) leader Somawansa Amarasinghe and chief of Democratic People’s Front (DPF) Mano Ganesan declared that they would take to streets if the Rajapaksa government attempted to rig the election.

In contrast to the aggressive tone, Mr. Rajapaksa invited every one to join him in his vision to build the nation irrespective of party politics. He promised to launch a development phase after January 27 with the people who love the country.

A report by Mr. Rajapaksa’s campaign office quoted him as saying, “He said that everyone should unite to build the country irrespective of party politics. The President invited everyone to join for this purpose from January 27. The President made this observation while addressing a massive public rally at the Sanath Jayasuriya Stadium in Matara. Actress Malini Fonseka, cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya and people’s representatives also addressed the rally.”