Sulochana Ramiah MohanBishop of Mannar, Dr. Rayappu Joseph, in an interview with Ceylon Today says he has always been accused of being an LTTE supporter by senior ministers of the government and adds that he thinks Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, who recently accused him of being a spokesperson for the LTTE, is misusing his position as […]

Tamil Nadu journalist Tamil Prabhakaran arrived in Chennai on Saturday after the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) handed him over to the Immigration Department for deportation.The TID had apparently concluded after interrogation that he had no terrorist links and had not indulged in terrorist activity, and that the only fault was that he had […]

Focus-Logo At the close of a year that has proved to be disastrously negative for Sri Lankan democracy, Sri Lankans should look to the Indian people to see the manner in which democracy is defended by bold action on the ground.Lessons from across the Palk StraitThis Saturday, India’s unassuming anti-corruption activist Arwind Kejriwal assumed office […]

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has deported an Indian journalist arrested on a charge of working in the island’s former war zone without media credentials, police said.The 24-year-old, who was working for a magazine based in the Indian city of Chennai, was arrested on Christmas Day for photographing military installations in Sri Lanka’s north, police spokesman Ajith […]

A Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will go to Geneva to push for an international independent investigation into alleged war crimes abuses committed during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka.TNA MP Suresh Premachandran said that the party will also brief foreign diplomats on the situation in Sri Lanka ahead of the UN Human […]

New York-The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the immediate release of an Indian journalist and filmmaker who was arrested in Sri Lanka on Wednesday while allegedly filming and photographing a military base. Tamil Prabhakaran was arrested by Sri Lankan security forces in the northern Kilinochchi district and is undergoing an investigation by the […]

 P K Balachandran The conflict between the Governor and the Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Tamil-speaking Northern Province is escalating with Governor Maj Gen G A Chandrasiri asking the police to investigate telephonic threats to Chief Secretary R Vijayalakshmi, who he had appointed in the teeth of opposition from Chief Minister C A Wigneswaran. On […]

A young journalist from Tamil Nadu, Thamizh Mahapirapaharan, who was touring in the North was arrested by the occupying Sri Lankan military and the SL police Wednesday noon, while he was talking to the parish priest of St. Antony’s Church in Ponnavea’li, news sources in Vanni said. The Indian journalist visiting the island on tourist […]

Sri Lanka war dead count improper: Tamil party World | Press Trust of India inSh Colombo:  Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party today said a census to ascertain the number of dead and disappeared in the country’s nearly three-decade-long civil war was not being conducted properly.“We feel that the census is not being properly conducted,” said […]

While one may expect that the word “sex” may emerge as a heavily searched word in Google, what is surprising is that Sri Lanka has created a world record for topping the list of the countries with the most number of searches for this “word” viewed by philosopher Freud as the most important in the […]

 The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) had submitted to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, recommendations in order to enhance the powers and mandate of the Commission. The recommendations have envisaged to endow the Human Rights Commission with powers to enact its recommendations by submitting them to the High Court […]

press Transparency International Sri Lanka’s Election Monitoring arm, ‘The Programme for Protection of Public Resources (PPPR)’ has recommended that an Election Judge should be appointed to investigate into election violations and malpractices with special focus on the misuse of public resources. As for offences against public property, presently only the Attorney General can go to […]

The Census and Statistics Department’s National Accounts Division Director H.S. Wanasinghe in a revelation made during an investigation, the report of which is now filed as a document in court and referred to in Parliament last week said the Department’s Director General had told him to inflate the economic growth rate initially computed by them […]

[TamilNet]The Sri Lankan Police Inspector, who is in charge of the Trincomalee Police Station had threatened the head of the committee of missing persons, Mr Sundaram Mahendran, when he went there to make a complaint on the attack on him and the protesters on the Human Rights Day. A squad of masked men, allegedly operated […]

The government says it will reject any resolution put forward by Britain on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) next March.The British government said last week it was looking at co-sponsoring a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in March next year.The UK Minister of State, Foreign […]

Kumar David“Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living” – […]

New mass grave found in Sri Lanka four years after war Agence France-Presse inShare olice tape closes off part of a mass grave, at the Matale hospital compound in central Sri Lanka. (File pic) Colombo:  An unmarked mass grave has been found in Sri Lanka’s former war zone, the first discovery of an unmarked gravesite […]

By Latheef Farook Devanagala is a beautiful peaceful village in the central hills about six kilometers from Mawanella on the way to Hemmathagama. The village has been known for the rock called Devanagala Rock. There is a Buddhist temple and an inscription on the rock. According to those in the village Devanagala area was believed to […]

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran claims there is an attempt to form an new LTTE which will operate with the backing of the Government.Speaking at the Sarvodaya Annual General Meeting on Saturday, Wigneswaran also said there are fears for his safety and security and that he may face the same fate as some Tamil […]

Niranjala AriyawanshaChairman of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), Dr. Prathiba Mahanamahewa, said revisions to the existing Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act, which contains five recommendations, had been submitted to the President as well as the Minister of Justice for their perusal, two weeks ago.The recommendations submitted for the reversal of […]

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited main Tamil party leaders, including Chief Minister of the northern province C V Wigneswaran, to join hands with him for national reconciliation rather than looking for a solution from a “foreign nation”.“I invite Mr (R) Sampanthan (TNA leader) and northern chief minister Mr Wigneswaran to join hands for […]

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) adopted four resolutions at the party convention held at the UNP headquarters in Sirikotha today.UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake proposed the resolutions and party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe then called for a show of hands to have them approved.All four resolutions were eventually approved by the party members attending […]

Geoffrey Dobbs The chief architect of the annual Galle Literary Festival, British born Australian Geoffrey Dobbs has been denied entry into Sri Lanka, opposition UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament today.He said that refusing entry to someone in the caliber of Dobbs, who had opened some hotels down south and is also mentioned in leading […]

Muslim Members of Parliament (MP) met Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, who is also the Minister of Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs, this afternoon and raised concerns over attempts to close three Mosques in the Dehiwala area.Ministers A.H.M. Fowzie, Rauff Hakeem, Rishad Bathiudeen and Deputy Minister Faizer Mustapha as well as MPs Hassan Ali were among those […]

A Pakistan HRD  We are pleased to inform you that the first UN resolution on the protection of women human rights defenders was adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee on 27 November 2013. More than fifty States co-sponsored this important resolution. The resolution, inter alia: –      expresses concern about systemic and structural discrimination […]

Hugo Swire House of Commons – Questions on Sri Lanka, 17 Dec 2013: Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress he expects the Sri Lankan government to make on an independent investigation into war crimes and human rights abuses before the UK decides not to pursue a resolution […]

Labour and Labour Relations Deputy Minister Sarath Weerasekera told Parliament yesterday that the government should ban the TNA, which was propagating the LTTE ideology of separatism even after the defeat of the terrorist organisation. Participating in the third reading stage debate, on budget 2014, under the expenditure heads of 23 ministries and the Secretariat for Special […]

19th December, 2013We the undersigned, strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest and illegal detention of Raveendran Kajeepan (21), Alfred Piratheepan (30), Murukaiya Ashokkumar (35) and Nageswarasri Yarsan (22) from Jaffna, and the arrest and continued detention of three other youth* from Mannar, by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) between the 25th and 27th of November, 2013. […]

  [TamilNet]Almost all the buildings that were situated in the 6,400 acres of lands seized by the occupying Sri Lankan military in Valikaamam North in Jaffna have been completely bulldozed by the SL military, according to those who have witnessed the destruction in recent days. The entire area of fertile cultivation and residential lands now […]

Mohan Peris  Lalith Kotalawala, a frontline businessman had been subjected to a miscarriage of justice whereby the prosecutor who filed the action against him had himself heard the case . This most depraved and deplorable judicial hearing involved the Attorney General (AG) Mohan Peiris who filed the charges then against Kotalawala, hearing the case now […]