25 people killed in Sri Lanka as construction explosives stored at police station for safety explode by accident

Three containers filled with explosives meant for road construction accidentally detonated outside a police station in eastern Sri Lanka this morning, killing 25 people.

Most of the victims were policemen, but the death toll fell from an initial estimate of 60, according to military spokesman Major General Ubaya Medawala.

Images of the blast on Maharaja Television showed the police station reduced to rubble.

A nearby agriculture office crowded with farmers who had come to buy fertilizer was also completely destroyed and power to the area was cut off.

There was a big blast and smoke all over, that's all. I didn't know what was happening,' said S. Vathany, 42, a farmer.

The containers were stored by the police station in the Batticaloa district for safety reasons.

The explosives, believed to be dynamite, were intended for blasting out rocks for a road construction project being carried out by a Chinese company, Mr Medawala said.

From time to time, workers came to the police premises remove small amounts of explosives from the containers.

The blast occurred when the workers were taking out some of the explosives, Medawala said.

The blast killed 16 policemen and nine civilians - including two Chinese citizens - and wounded 52 others, he said.

Among the civilian casualties were farmers visiting the agriculture office and passers by.

Thyagendra Senthuran, a doctor at Chenkalady hospital near the blast site, said he has received 15 dead bodies and 20 wounded people, many with severe head wounds.

'Still we are receiving bodies,' he said.

K. Arasaratnam, a 49-year-old farmer, told reporters that he was at the agriculture office when he heard a loud blast.

'Many people near me fell down and after some time I realized that I too was bleeding. Later ambulances came and brought us to hospital,' he said.

Government spokesman Lakshman Hulugalla ruled out any possibility of sabotage.

The site of the blast, Karadiyanaru, is a small town in the former conflict zone in the east.

The government has initiated a major construction drive there to build roads, reservoirs and other infrastructure following the end of the war with the Tamil Tiger rebels last year.

The area was once controlled by the now-defeated rebels, who carried out hundreds of bombings against government and civilian targets.

Nails removed from 'abused' maid in Arab Saudi

A Saudi couple tortured their Sri Lankan maid after she complained of a too heavy workload by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead, officials said on Thursday.

Nearly 2 million Sri Lankans sought employment overseas last year and around 1.4 million, mostly maids, were employed in the Middle East. Many have complained of physical abuse or harassment.

L.T. Ariyawathi, a 49-year old mother of three, returned on Friday after five months in Saudi Arabia.

Sri Lanka launches new port built with Chinese loan

Sri Lanka flooded a new port on Sunday, built with Chinese assistance as part of a $6 billion (RM19 billion) drive to rebuild the island nation’s infrastructure after a quarter century of war.

The Hambantota port, built at an estimated cost of US$1.5 billion on the southern coast, will begin handling ships from November, officials said.

“This is part of making this country an emerging wonder of Asia,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa said after launching the port.

Hambantota is one of four ports being built or upgraded under Rajapaksa’s plan to renew the country’s US$42 billion economy by returning it to its old and lucrative role as a trading hub.

Built to handle 2,500 ships annually in the first stage, the new port is located along the East-West shipping lane and is ultimately meant to challenge Singapore’s status as a regional shipping hub.







Sri Lanka now handles around 6,000 ships annually in its only port in Colombo on the western coast, which requires ships plying the East-West shipping lane to divert course.

Rajapaksa vowed to transform the island’s economy with a series of infrastructure projects, soon after crushing a 25-year insurgency by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam last year.

“It is not sea water that will fill this port but the future prosperity of our nation. From this port will emerge our true economic independence, “ he said in a speech.

China’s involvement in the building of the port had raised concerns in India, but analysts said Rajapaksa had successfully handled Indian pressure. Security analysts in India worry that the port was part of Beijing’s String of Pearls strategy to build a network of ports across the Indian Ocean.

Beijing has loaned over US$425 million for the first phase of Hambantota project including the bunkering facility. Colombo is negotiating for a further US$800 million loan for the second phase.

In addition to cargo handling, Hambantota will have a fully fledged bunkering facility and a tank farm project.

The port will operate 14 tanks with a total capacity of 80,000 MT. Eight tanks will be utilised for bunkering while six will be used for aviation fuel and LPG.

Except bunkering, all other activities including bulk cargo handling, storage facility, warehouses, transshipment have been opened for offshore investors.

Detained opposition leader in Sri Lanka parliament -Defeated Sri Lankan presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka has been released -Jayaratne -- the simple rural touch to Sri Lankan premiership-Sri Lankan new PM Sworn in

New Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Jayaratne (L) hugs with former P.M. Rathnasiri Wikramanayake in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka, April 21, 2010. Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Jayaratne was sworn in here as the 20th prime minister of Sri Lanka Wednesday evening




The general strongly denies corruption allegations


Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse (L) administers the oath of office to new Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Jayaratne (R) in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka, April 21, 2010. Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Jayaratne was sworn in here as the 20th prime minister of Sri Lanka Wednesday evening

Defeated Sri Lankan presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka has been released from detention to appear in the opening session of parliament.

The general, who is being court martialled, called for the "rule of law" in an attack on his arch-rival, President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

His comments were his first remarks in public since his detention on 8 February on corruption charges.

He travelled under escort from military custody to take up his seat.

Gen Fonseka fell out with the president after the defeat of Tamil Tigers rebels last May.

He was beaten by Mr Rajapaksa in presidential elections of January 2010.



Soundly beaten

"What the country needs is democracy, rule of law, personal freedoms and media freedom," Gen Fonseka told parliament.

His leftist Democratic National Alliance (DNA) party won seven seats in the elections of 8 April.

The assembly is dominated by the United People's Freedom Alliance led by the president.

Mr Rajapaksa's coalition is just short of the two-thirds majority required for the government to rewrite the constitution, which debars the president from standing again when his second term ends in 2016.

Gen Fonseka - who won his parliamentary seat while in detention - has been allowed to attend the opening but will be returned to detention afterwards, government officials said.

His court martial, on charges of allegedly engaging in politics while in uniform and involvement in corrupt arms procurement, was adjourned on Tuesday for two weeks.

The general denies all the accusations, saying they are a politically motivated attempt to silence him.

The main opposition United National Party was soundly beaten in the parliamentary elections, winning just 60 seats, while the main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, came third with 14.

On Wednesday, President Rajapaksa appointed DM Jayaratne, a former teacher in his 70s, as prime minister.

Mr Rajapaksa is working out who will be in his new cabinet.

Senior Sri Lankan politician Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Jayaratne was sworn in here as the 20th prime minister Wednesday evening before President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Known also as Dimu, Jayaratne is a veteran in Sri Lankan politics.

A man from Gampola in the rural heartland in Central Province, the 79 year-old is a favourite among the majority Sinhala community rural folk.

Being the oldest person ever to win the island's premiership, the long wait has been rewarding for the ever smiling and unassuming grassroots politician.

The premiership was just reward for his sticking with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) through and through -- its best and the worst times.

He became a member of the SLFP on its founding day of Sept. 2, 1951. So no living rivals to his seniority in the party.

He stood with the party during its difficult days in the opposition between 1977 and 1994.

Internal squabbling among party factions saw most of its seniors leaving the party to either form other parties or to join the rival United National Party (UNP).

Jayaratne never left the party and carried its flag almost single handedly in Central Province.

His first entry to parliament was in May 1970 in the SLFP's landslide win.

Jayaratne was a government backbencher until 1977 when the SLFP was crushed in the rival UNP's landslide electoral win.

In 1993 Jayaratne having elected to parliament as an opposition frontliner in the election held in 1989, was made the general secretary of the broader opposition front -- People's Alliance (PA) .

The PA won the election in 1994 by ending the UNP's 17 year rule.

He was rewarded with the cabinet position of Agriculture and Lands.

Subsequently he held senior cabinet positions of Food, Posts and Telecommunications.

The father of two daughters and a son, Jayaratne is known for his Sinhala oratory.

His parliamentary speeches feature witty banter and off-the- cuff remarks which take his opponents off-guard.

A simple rural politician, Jayaratne champions the cause of the downtrodden masses.

Sarath Fonseka claims assassination plot as Mahinda Rajapaksa wins poll

President Rajapaksa: "From today onward, I am the president of everyone, whether they voted for me or not"


Mahinda Rajapaksa, the incumbent President of Sri Lanka, was declared the winner of a presidential election today even as his main challenger, surrounded by troops in a luxury hotel, contested the results and accused the Government of trying to have him assassinated.

Mr Rajapaksa, who took power in 2005 and presided over the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels in May, won 57.8 per cent of 10.4 million votes in the first peacetime presidential poll in almost three decades, according to the final results.

General Fonseka, the former army chief who led the campaign against the Tigers before falling out with the President and joining the opposition, won 40.2 per cent of the vote on the Indian Ocean island.

"I announce that Mahinda Rajapaksa has won this presidential election," Dayananda Dissanayake, the independent Elections Commissioner, told reporters as the President’s supporters cheered and let off firecrackers in the streets.


The emphatic result dashed opposition hopes that General Fonseka could split the vote of the ethnic Sinhalese majority and win enough support from minority Tamils and Muslims to unseat Mr Rajapaksa.

It came amid high melodrama in Colombo, the seaside capital, with heavily armed soldiers surrounding the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel, where the General and his team are staying, since the early hours of the morning.

Even as the results were being announced, General Fonseka told reporters in the hotel that he rejected them and had sent a letter to Mr Dissanayake asking him to nullify the election because of vote-rigging and abuse of government resources.

"They have distorted the election result," he said, adding that he would launch a legal challenge through the courts.

"Victory has been grabbed away from us by the Government," he said. "There is no democracy here."

In the letter, he accused Mr Rajapaksa of using the state media to attack him, misappropriating public funds for his campaign and preventing Tamils displaced by the war from voting.

Mr Dissanayake appeared to agree with many of those complaints, but is unlikely to review the result as he has publicly announced that he intended to retire the day after the elections.

Just before announcing the results, he pleaded again to be allowed to resign, saying thst state media violated his guidelines and other government institutions behaved in a way that embarrassed him.

"I request to be released," he said. "I cannot bear this anymore."

General Fonseka also accused the Government of putting his life in danger by asking him to give up the security detail of 70 soldiers who have been guarding him from attack by the remaining Tamil rebels.

"I can't stay in this hotel indefinitely because it's very expensive," he said. "This is an exercise which is aimed at assassinating me."

General Fonseka denied making specific plans to leave the country, but said that he might have to seek temporary shelter overseas if the Government did insist on taking back his security detail, which also includes ten vehicles.


The general has residency rights in the United States, having won a Green Card through a lottery system, and has two daughters studying in Oklahoma.

He declined to say where he would seek shelter if necessary.

Earlier, one of his key supporters sparked talk that the general might head to India when he said he was meeting a foreign diplomat "from a neighbouring country" to negotiate safe passage. The Indian Foreign Ministry told The Times it could neither confirm nor deny that.

The Sri Lankan Government denied trying to arrest or intimidate the general, but accused him of gathering 400 supporters in the hotel, including armed military deserters, to make plans for a possible coup.

"They have booked 100 rooms," Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, an army spokesman, said. "They are highly trained military people. We are suspicious about their gathering."

The general denied having any deserters with him and handed over several people he said were retired soldiers working in his security detail.

There were no signs of protests to support him and the general said that he had refrained from calling his supporters on to the streets because they were "tired" and "confused" by the election.

Analysts said that there were no precedents for Sri Lankans disputing election results through mass unrest and the opposition alliance was too diverse to have the necessary organisational structure.

Soon after the results, President Rajapaksa said that he wanted a new mandate to bless his plans to develop Sri Lanka by exploiting its geographically strategic position astride air and sea lanes, rebuilding infrastructure and encouraging foreign investment.

"After this election, everyone should now join together in building the country," he said. "From today onward, I am the president of everyone, whether they voted for me or not."
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