The report of the LLRC would count as amongst the most important public documents that investigates and analyses the causes of the ethnic conflict and problems of governance in the country. However, the TNA’s preliminary statement on it echoed that of international human rights organizations which strongly critiqued and rejected the LLRC report. Earlier they […]

 Dhanuka Bandara – Last Friday the march organised by the students’ union of University of Peradeniya was aborted by the police at the Galaha junction. The students intended to march to Colombo in protest against the pending ‘Private University Act.’ The university was under siege, surrounded by the police and military personnel and the latter […]

Pabodha Hettige –  Democratic People’s Front (DPF) leader Mano Ganeshan yesterday accused the government of failing to address the legitimate grievances of Tamil speaking people, though the conflict ended in May 2009. He said his party no longer believed in the UPFA’s promises to resolve the national issue.The DPF Leader said that the government had […]

Just few months ago, in response to a public outcry for more accountability and transparency in the use of public funds, the State Council, which is the Cabinet in the Chinese government, directed 98 public institutions including ministries to make public their budgets and expenditure on official receptions, official overseas visits and public vehicles. Why […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights CommissionAll Sri Lankans will wish that the coming year will not be like the last one and, in fact, that it be different from previous years also, years in which deep insecurity has been prevailing due to the failure of the political system, resulting in serious problems in […]

 Authorities have arrested the wife and children of Premakumar Gunaratnam alias Kumara Mahattaya, the JVP dissident group’s exiled leader.Defence authorities apprehended them at the Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake around 1.00 am today (Jan. 02). They are presently under interrogation. Kumara Mahattaya’s wife Champa Somaratne is a medical doctor and a citizen of citizen of Australia, […]

 [TamilNet] Pandemonium prevailed and Police was called to manage the altercation during a Jaffna Municipal Council meeting Friday when Nishanthan, an ex-member of the Eelam People Democratic Party (EPDP), and currently functioning under ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) label, accused EPDP of carrying out abductions, extortions, and gruesome killings that occurred in Jaffna after […]

 [TamilNet,] Activists of the Ilangkai Thamizh Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK) in Mullaiththeevu of Vanni, who were engaged in organizing party activities this week have been threatened with death by intelligence operatives of the Sri Lanka Army, sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet. The intimidation by the occupying SLA has come following the leading activists of the ITAK […]

 [TamilNet] Sri Lankan investigation officers claiming to be from the ‘Special Unit’ on Wednesday evening ransacked an apartment where a Tamil human rights activist from the East was residing in Colombo. The agents clad in civil and uniform entered the room of the human rights activist around 10:00 p.m. and took away documents and files […]

 –  Col R Hariharan– The Rajapaksa government should be happy with the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation (LLRC) presented to the Sri Lankan parliament on December 16, 2011 as it has not pinpointed responsibility on anyone (other than political and systemic weaknesses and the LTTE) for the mess Sri […]

Uditha Kumarasinghe – Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Minister Wimal Weerawansa said the approach adopted by the LLRC Report is of paramount importance for the Government’s reconciliation process. The Minister told the Sunday Observer that the need of the hour is to strengthen bilateral relations with friendly countries and also to win over […]

 (Kishali Pinto Jayawardene  ) A careful and sober reading of the Report of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) reveals its many complexities when weighed against the current political ethos. Gradually, the responses to this Report are bound to be far more measured rather than starkly divided between those who unhesitatingly support its […]

Tissa Ravindra Perera  –  Intelligence authorities have uncovered a plan to resurrect the LTTE through an attempt to register an organisation for displaced in Vanni targeting another armed conflict, highly placed intelligence sources revealed. They said the plan behind the move was to recruit rehabilitated LTTE cadres who were in LTTE’s military units back to […]

In these columns last week, I reported that matters arising from the military defeat of Tiger guerrillas in May 2009 would be one of the most difficult challenges staring in the face of the government in 2012 which begins today. This is particularly in the light of the final report of the Lessons Learnt and […]

Another cause for serious concern deals literally with Sri Lanka’s new generation, some 300,000 of them who sat the General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level) examination in August 2011. In an unprecedented crisis, the Department of Examinations has not been able to provide students the correct results. Consequently, students who planned studies abroad, those who […]

ST Political Editor – The New Year dawns with some dim forebodings for Sri Lankans in many spheres of activity. Two years and seven months after the defeat of terrorist violence, one of the sectors which revived by leaps and bounds was tourism. Arrivals rose and resorts are continuing to mushroom countrywide. Some of the […]

 Sinniah Gurunathan – Trinco corr. – Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader and Trincomalee district Parliamentarian R. Sampanthan paid his first visit to Sampur, after it was captured from the LTTE in April 2006. With the permission of the Defence Ministry, he went to Sampur, where he was received by Brig. Hettiarachchi of Trincomalee 22 Division […]

Malaka Rodrigo – The past year, 2011, was declared International Year of Forests by the United Nations. The message was sent out to all countries. Sadly, this message has not been taken seriously in Sri Lanka. Last year was not a good year for forests here, and the year ended with the news that yet […]

Pushpakumara Mallawaarachchi ) Police are probing whether a dispute in the underworld led to the killing of a UPFA Pradeshiya Sabha member in the Divulapitiya Police area. The Pradeshiya Sabha member identified as Indika Dinesh Chandrasiri Silva (28) and believed to have connections with the underworld, was found dead under a bridge in Diyagampola in […]

Chandani Kirinde –The Defence and Urban Development Ministry has been assigned with the task of monitoring and supervising of activities carried out by the Competent Authorities (CA) appointed to five institutions taken over under the Revival of Underperforming Enterprises and Underutilized Assets Act These include Chalmers Granaries (Pettah) Lanka Tractors Ltd (Pettah and Narahanpita), the […]

Member and founder Secretary General of Peace Secretariat for Muslims (PSM), A. Javid Yusuf has charged that various financial and other irregularities have taken place at the Secretariat, and alleged that its Board of Directors has done little to rectify them.In a letter to its President Shibly Aziz, he has questioned the expenditure of Rs […]

(Nimal Sanderatne  )Global economic conditions will determine to a large extent Sri Lanka’s economic performance in 2012. Although global economic developments are beyond the country’s control, appropriate responses could mitigate their adverse impacts.  However, more important than the country’s short-term economic performance is the longer view of the country’s development policies to ensure healthy economic […]

 (Sanjaya Nallaperuma) President Rajapaksa is to meet representatives of the constituent parties of United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) next week to discuss the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report. This comes in the wake of several constituent parties, including the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) making scathing comments […]

The government has not taken any action so far though the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has found damning evidence of financial irregularities in institutions totalling over Rs 500 billion, state sources said. The COPE report revealed financial irregularities in 229 government institutions. Chairman of COPE and Minister D.E.W Gunasekara who was asked as to […]

”Indeed we appear to have created two societies – the rich and ruling elite comprising less than 15 percent of the population but controlling more than 85 percent of the country’s wealth and resources while 85 percent of the people are struggling to manage with their monthly wages or are surviving on the poverty line. […]

”The report is a valuable document, but regarding the war’s terrible final weeks, it is largely an apologia for the army. The commission admits only that “civilian casualties had in fact occurred in the course of cross-fire,” and blames the Tigers for most of them. The commission asserts that the government was confronted with an […]

(Ravi Ladduwahetty)  The UNP yesterday dissociated itself from its Deputy Secretary General Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena’s view, expressed in an interview with this newspaper yesterday, that the government should either devolve police and land powers to the provinces in accordance with the constitutional provisions or scrap the 13th Amendment.UNP Chairman Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, when asked whether […]

(Disna MUDALIGE ) The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report sets the framework for practical reconciliation in Sri Lanka, said Australian Member of Parliament Telmo Languiller who is on a brief visit to look into the ground situation in post war Sri Lanka. Addressing a media conference in Colombo yesterday he welcomed both the […]

(B.M. MURSHIDEEN ) The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has expressed its disappointment over the statement by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the devolution of power.  TNA National List Parliamentarian M.A Sumanthiran now on an overseas visit told the Daily Mirror yesterday over the phone that President Rajapaksa was obviously going back on his words.“After the […]

(Tisaranee Gunasekara)  In October this year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka used his constitutional powers to grant a special pardon to a politician convicted of misusing public funds. The Appeal Court and the Supreme Court had upheld the conviction of Kesara Senanayake, a former mayor of Kandy. Rajapaksa’s timely pardon saved him from a […]