Devolution

V. Suryanarayan and Ashik Bonofer The results of elections to local bodies, held on March 17, 2011 and July 23, 2011 and subsequent comments made by Sinhalese and Tamil leaders clearly indicate that the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka is getting sharpened. Two years after the decimation of the Tigers the Government is determined to impose […]

Text of a press release issued by Mr.Sajin Vass Gunewardane MP& Secretary of the Committee after suspension of talks with Govt by the TNAAt the meeting which the government delegation had with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Thursday 4th August 2011 the TNA announced that they would not agree to set a date for […]

Are they western or universal values?“You see why human rights and democracy are dying in Sri Lanka. It is because they are western values. What is wrong with Gotabhaya ? ” – India asked Sri Lanka GuardianA scholarly debate has begun in the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka after the last official visit by […]

The TNA said yesterday that they would not agree to set a date for the next round of talks with the government and that their willingness to continue participation in discussions with the government would be conditional, UPFA MP Sajin Vas De Gunawardane said in a statement.After a meeting between the TNA delegation and the […]

Indian External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna made today a statement to the Indian Parliament on the Situation in Sri Lanka in which he said the  sooner Sri Lanka can come to a political arrangement within which all the communities feel comfortable, and which works for all of them, the better. Here is the full text of the […]

”Now the country is struggling to convince U.N. and western-American power bloc with the support of Socialist and Marxist power block led by Russia and China. If they were against us still we would have take refuge of Western-U.S power bloc. We cannot rule out Western-U.S. power blocs would make sure that they will carve […]

”Time and again Colombo turned the tables on Delhi whenever the latter tried to be intrusive. It cannot be otherwise in the unfolding scenario. In geopolitical terms, India’s priority ought to have lied on regional stability rather than the cut and the thrust of the US-led ‘new great game’ in the Indian Ocean”. by M.K. […]

”Now it is the Indian public, especially the Tamil Nadu public that has to take care of the New Delhi establishment, political observers in Chennai commented.- Tamil Net ” In a Suo Motu statement in the Indian parliament, Indian foreign minister SM Krishna viewed that Sri Lanka’s problem for three decades was ‘terrorism’. “Sri Lanka […]

Underlining that the welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka is of utmost importance, India Thursday urged Sri Lanka to pursue a lasting political settlement that provides for harmonious co-existence of all communities, including minorities, in the island-nation.Making a suo moto statement in the Lok Sabha on “The Situation in Sri Lanka”, External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna […]

LSSP leader, minister Prof. Tissa Vitarana says the results of the recent local government polls in the north are an indication that the people are not satisfied by solutions to economic issues only. He was speaking today (Aug. 03) at the swearing in of the newly-elected LG members in Colombo.  The LSSP leader added that the […]

The government should think beyond the 13th amendment to the constitution and give self-autonomy for the people of the North, said minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara. He has made the remark to ‘Virakesari’ newspaper which asked him for a response to a resolution adopted by Communist Party of India (Marxist) regarding self-determination for Tamils in Sri Lanka. Minister Nanayakkara […]

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that the existing constitution is more than enough for the people to live unified.He made this comment during an interview with Headlines Today, an Indian network. “We are a sovereign nation, and we have a very good legal system and which has been left by the British. We have the […]

”I think a political solution means you have to do a lot of things. We are doing a lot of things. This Constitution of Sri Lanka is far more advanced than any other Constitution in the world. TNA is  trying to bring back the same environment, the same fear psychosis.”Will your government ever produce a […]

by Chandani KirindeTamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan spoke to the Sunday Times after his Party secured a landslide victory in the local government elections in the North, despite widespread use of state power by the ruling party that pulled out all stops to secure a win there.Mr. Sampanthan said the Government […]

By Manjula FERNANDOA fearless critic of LTTE atrocities, the leader of Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) Veerasingham Anandasangaree has spent most of his days, during the LTTE’s bloody years, behind closed doors of his tightly secured house in Colombo.A veteran Tamil politician who took to politics in 1950s and entered Parliament contesting Kilinochchi district in […]

 Karat with Suresh Premachandran  CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Saturday made a strong case for demilitarisation and ending of emergency laws and regime in the North and East of Sri Lanka, saying the failure of Colombo to dismantle the military regime and apparatus was hindrance to a political solution. “The security architecture […]

TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran’s call for a change of attitude on the part of the Tamil Diaspora in the West on the question of the TNA engaging with the Lankan state on working out a solution to the conflict is most timely and we hope it would be given some consideration. Besides, the MP has […]

Dr.P.SravanamuttuThe results of the second phase of the 2011 local government elections reveal a north/ south divide with the ruling UPFA winning comfortably outside of the north and east and the TNA capturing the overwhelming majority of local bodies in those areas.  These results need serious analysis by all political parties as an indication of […]

 ”For this one needs to operate within a political framework of democracy and individual freedoms and the free and full participation of all citizens in the development process.  In the absence of this, government would soon deteriorate into dictatorship or anarchy and development into a farce, enacted to further the ends of a powerful few.”by […]

Prominent women’s rights activists in India in a statement this week said that they had stopped believing in Colombo’s periodic pledges to bring about reconciliation in the country, reports Indian Express. “We no longer believe the empty promises of the Sri Lankan government to bring peace and reconciliation, and strongly demand immediate action that will […]

The TNA demands Q:    The Tamil National Alliance(TNA) which secured 18 local councils yesterday insists on the devolution of police and land powers without which they claim a political solution could not be reached, emphasizing that ‘lasting peace, justice and democracy’ in the North depends on such devolution. Then the President has a bigger mandate […]

NCC president K V Thangkabalu today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that those responsible for alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka against Tamil civilians during the last phase of the offensive against the LTTE in Sri Lanka faced action. Calling on the Prime Minister at his residence in Delhi, Thangkabalu referred to […]

R. K. RadhakrishnanSri Lankan voters walk to polling stations as a policeman stands guard in Jaffna on July 23, 2011. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the umbrella organisation of Tamil political parties, recorded convincing victories in local body elections in Sri Lanka’s north and east.AP Sri Lankan voters walk to polling stations as a policeman […]

by Dr. Paikiasothy SaravanamuttuThe results of the second phase of the 2011 local government elections reveal a north/ south divide with the ruling UPFA winning comfortably outside of the north and east and the TNA capturing the overwhelming majority of local bodies in those areas.These results need serious analysis by all political parties as an […]

The 65 results disclosed in the mini election reveals a one party domination in the South (UPFA) and the North (ITAK). The call is close only in the constituencies that do not have a Tamil domination where a keen contest was seen between the UPFA and the ITAK. It is not the defeat that should disturb […]

By Kelum BandaraFollowing the local government elections which ensured a victory for the TNA in the North and East, the government will have its next round of talks with the TNA next Monday as part of its plan to evolve a political solution, the party said yesterdayTNA MP Suresh Premachandran told the Daily Mirror that […]

By Sandun A. JayasekeraThe Tamil National Alliance(TNA) which swept the board in Saturday’s local council elections in the North said yesterday it would be impossible to reach a political solution and bring about lasting peace, justice and democracy in the North without the devolution of police and land powers.Jaffna district parliamentarian and TNA spokesman Suresh […]

”The Tamil people’s demand is that they exercise full powers of self-rule within their homeland consisting of a merged North and East. Once again, the Tamil people have declared that they will not relinquish their political aspirations for any amount of giveaways or on account of any level of intimidation by ensuring the victory of […]

By Jehan Perera Defeats suffered by the ruling alliance at the local authority elections in the North would have come as a disappointment to the government, which registered its accustomed victories elsewhere in the country. For the past month a formidable array of government ministers, said to be as many as 40, are reported to have […]

By Charles Haviland/BBC News, KilinochchiThe dirt road leading south-west from Kilinochchi town is pale red, the colour of the soil of the Vanni, the northerly extreme of the Sri Lankan mainland. It is a land that lost all its people. They retreated with the Tamil Tigers as the civil war swept through Kilinochchi more than […]