BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI(AP)Japan wants Sri Lanka to publicize a report on alleged wartime abuses and implement its proposals to end bitterness from a decades-long civil war, an envoy said Wednesday.   Japanese government’s representative Yasushi Akashi said during his talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa he reiterated the need to adopt measures for reconciliation between ethnic communities for […]

TNA MP Mavai Senathirajah called for a debate on the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee’s (LLRC) report in Parliament. He questioned what the government is doing about the LLRC report.DM

The ‘protest march’ of the Socialist Youth Union’ was subjected to attacks of tear gas and high pressure water canon by the police a little while ago.  Five protest marchers have been injured due to the baton charge carried out by the police say reports.The ‘protest march’ was organized to protest against the budget presented […]

It is our right to protest that no government or political party can investigate past decisions and actions of the former Chief Justice or else the next victim will be the incumbent chief justice and the government will take steps to appoint a new person. This has become a threat for judges to act independently. […]

 [TamilNet] Colombo government has been planning to Sinhalicise about fifteen to twenty thousand acres of lands located along the border Tamil villages in the Batticaloa district from the administration of Batticaloa district to Ampaa’rai district secretariat, according to local district officials in Batticaloa.As a first step in the plan, six villages with vast natural resources […]

Subha Wijesiriwardena As another year begins to draw to a close on post-war Sri Lanka, we can take stock of which changes, or the lack of change, we see around us. The full scope of human rights is still not available to civilians living in formerly-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controlled areas, now tightly controlled […]

[TamilNet] A student of the University of Jaffna, 27-year-old Vetharaniyam Latheesh, was missing after he left the gents hostel (Balasingham Hostel) of the University of Jaffna in Thirunelveali by 6:45 pm, Sunday evening. The student, studying at the Siddha Medicine department of the university located at Kaithadi, and used to stay in the hostel there, […]

Adjusted for inflation, the real wages of the services and industrial sector have grown substantially this year while real wages in the agriculture sector declined along with public sector wages, with real wages of teachers seeing the biggest dip, the Central Bank said.The wages of public sector employees increased by 6.7 percent in nominal terms […]

Professor Sisira Jayasuriya ,This is a book that documents the life story of Lionel Bopage, who was one of the highest ranking leaders of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP- the Peoples’ Liberation Front) and a major figure in the JVP led youth insurrection of 1971 in Sri Lanka, drawing on a series of personal interviews […]

“Are you aware of the internationally accepted ‘Command Responsibility’, that all those all the way to the top, be they military leaders or civilians (such as your President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Secretary of Defence,. and some of these military men including yourself, could be held […]

Prisoners say they were stripped naked before taken out and assaulted At least 65 Tamil prisoners in Anuradhapura are on a hunger strike seeking proper protection.The prisoners have launched a protest after being assaulted by the prison officials on Sunday, former Jaffna district parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam told BBC Sandeshaya. Most of the prisoners subjected to […]

(Srilankamirror) – Lawyers were prevented from meeting the 65 Tamil inmates at Anuradhapura Prison, who were reportedly beaten up yesterday (Nov. 27).  A team of lawyers and representatives of the organization ‘We Are Sri Lankans’ tried to meet them today. The organization’s representative Udul Premaratne said the prisoners were stripped and beaten up, but no one […]

Norman PalihawadanaThe police are investigating the death of a suspect taken in for questioning in connection with his alleged involvement in a series of robberies in the Jaffna peninsula.  Responding to a query by The Island, sources said that they were inquiring into the circumstances, under which the suspect, Skandarajah alias Sumanan had died in […]

According to the prevailing law, the culprits can be punished and jailed for five years, but no one has been jailed up to five years due to practical difficulties. In a stunning revelation it has been found that 70% of females between 15 and 45 have been subjected to sexual harassment in public transport and […]

Lakshman Indranath Keerthisinghe “Our challenge is strongly to encourage the Sri Lankan government to embrace reconciliation,accountability, and respect for human rights, while trying not to push the country towards Burma-like isolation from the west” Patricia A. Butenis Former US Ambassador in Sri Lanka as revealed in Wikileaks cables. The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) […]

Maryam AzwerWhen The Sunday Leader interviewed R. Sampanthan a week ago, the TNA leader claimed that of the 50,000 houses the Government of India had donated to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka, only 50 had been fully completed.“According to our sources, when the Indian Foreign Secretary visited last month, only 50 houses had […]

JVP leader admitted that Sri Lanka troops committed war crimes An opposition party in Sri Lanka that supported the government’s war against the Tamil Tigers has called for an investigation into alleged war crimes.Somawansa Amerasinghe, the leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) says it supports the recent statement by the defence secretary that accountability will […]

(Srilankamirror)The wife of missing journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda has written to the UN Committee Against Torture regarding a statement the former attorney general Mohan Peiris had made before the Committee.Sandya Ekneligoda has sent the letter to UN-CAT secretary Joao Nataf over the fate of her husband, who went missing on 24 January last year.Text of the […]

Shamindra Ferdinando The UPFA alleges the US embassy is increasingly interfering in domestic political issues, thereby undermine the government.  The SLFP-led coalition believes that the US is trying to cause a rift in the government over the imprisonment of defeated presidential candidate, former Army Chief, Gen. Sarath Fonseka.The party was responding to US Ambassador Patricia Butenis […]

Ranga Jayasuriya Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga last week delivered a scathing attack on the government’s handling of the former IDPs at a discussion held in the South Asia Policy Research Institute in Colombo.“You may be satisfied with it (reconciliation process), but I am not,” she said responding to Professor Rohan Gunaratna, who was the guest speaker.Prof. […]

 [TamilNet] Attackers believed to be from the Sri Lanka Army opened fire and lobbed grenade and petrol bomb on the house of the head of the civic council (Piratheasa Chapai) of Kaarainakar, Mr Anaimukan Velayutham, a TNA member and a leading trader in Jaffna in the early hours of Saturday, causing minor injuries to his […]

Latheef Farook Where are the Muslim parliamentarians and what about the burning issues facing the Muslim community? This is the question raised in many Muslim circles following reports of talks between the government and the Tamil National Alliance aimed at solving the problems of Tamils. However, Muslim politicians, it appears, have not even woken up […]

 Chandani Kirinde Deepali Wijesundara, President of the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar that convicted former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka to three years imprisonment in the “white flag” case spoke to the Sunday Times on the threats she faced during the trial , after the judgment and other matters. Excerpts: You have spoken of threats to your […]

(ST)Govt. takes action on LLRC recommendations; report in parliament early next month  The Government will announce details of an investigative mechanism to probe incidents as recommended by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission when the report is tabled in Parliament early next month.According to the government’s current thinking, the probes into matters relating to post-war […]

Former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka’s wife Anoma said yesterday she would need a new court directive to ensure that her husband received medical treatment in hospital after the authorities had not permitted him to get such treatment recently.“We tried to get our lawyers to intervene to get my husband to hospital but the authorities didn’t […]

Security in and around the Jaffna peninsula and the North has been tightened as the military has received information that a group was planning to paste posters in the area to mark  the birthday of Velupillai Prabhakaran.Jaffna Security Forces Commander Major General Mahinda Hathurasinghe noted that no celebration or activity will take place in the […]

[JURIST] Sri Lankan Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa [official profile] stated on Thursday in a speech [press release and transcript] that the government has begun counting the number of civilian deaths from its 26-year civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) [JURIST news archive]. The counting was initiated to counter several allegations […]

‘‘Notwithstanding the new circumstances prevailing since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the end of the military conflict that has consumed the country for nearly 30 years, and the State party’s public commitment to the Committee that it has a zero-tolerance policy on torture as a matter of State policy […]

1.   The Committee considered the combined third and fourth periodic report of Sri Lanka (CAT/C/LKA/3-4) at its 1030th and 1033rd meetings, held on 8 and 9 November 2011 (CAT/C/SR.1030 and 1033). At its 1050th, 1051st and 1052nd meetings, held on 22 to 23 November 2011 (CAT/C/SR.1050, 1051 and 1052), it adopted the following concluding observations. […]

‘Mr Jayantha had denied that he ever made a statement requesting investigations to be stopped’ A media watchdog in Sri Lanka has accused the government of misleading the United Nations over the plight of missing and tortured media personnel.The Free Media Movement (FMM) says the former attorney general (AG) Mohan Peiris, who represented Sri Lanka […]