By Charles Haviland BBC News, Colombo Hundreds of Sri Lankans have held a demonstration in Colombo, demanding to know the whereabouts of two activists who disappeared two years ago. Lalith Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganathan organised rallies against political disappearances before being apparently abducted in the north of the country. The rally was held on the […]

By Ashwin Hemmathagama The Mahinda Rajap-aksa International Cricket Stadium at Sooriyawewa became the subject of heated debate in Parliament yesterday after the United National Party charged that the Government had stopped repaying loans borrowed to construct what he called a white elephant stadium. UNP MP Ravi Karunanayake said four mega development projects in Hambantota opened […]

The European Union (EU) Delegation in Sri Lanka today urged the Government to take further action to implement the recommendations in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission Report in order to ensure justice and meaningful reconciliation.Issuing a statement in agreement with the EU Heads of Mission in Sri Lanka to mark world human rights day, […]

Hulugalle: war for secrete life Businessman claims Hula’s affair with wife Another event of significant embarrassment to the UPFA Government was the sudden closure of the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) retrospectively from November 1, thus evicting, unceremoniously, its Director General Lakshman Hulugalle. He was, however, adamant that his position still remains though the […]

EPDP leader and Rajapaksha A pre-emptive strike by President Mahinda Rajapaksa appears to have saved his Government from one more accusation before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva — last week’s murder of Daniel Rexian (42), Chairman of the Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) in Delft, the furthest inhabited island off the northern Jaffna peninsula.Accusations, including […]

The killings in November make up a total of 450 killings, a drop by 15 per cent when compared with the previous year that saw around 646 cases, according to police and military statistics. However, the killings this year were of a more brutal nature where the killers went on to wipe out entire families […]

A 20-20 Human Rights Vision Statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay for Human Rights Day, 10 December 2013  Twenty years ago, a historic document was adopted in Vienna. It crystallized the principle that human rights are universal, and committed States to the promotion and protection of all human rights for […]

Meera SrinivasanIt has been a long while since the Jaffna school lost its building to the Sri Lankan army — which uses it for its High Security Zone (HSZ) — in 1990.Between classes on Friday, their last working day before Christmas break, a few children at one of the oldest public schools in Jaffna were […]

Prime Minister D. M Jayarathne should immediately resign or he should be arrested immediately if he fails to divulge the name of the official who had asked for the clearance of a container which had 131 Kg of heroin, the Jathika Hela Urumaya said. Leader of the JHU Ven. Omalpe Sobhitha Thera yesterday said that the […]

85-year old parliamentarian, who is four years older than the Indian premier calls him ‘nakiya’ UPFA National List MP J.R.P.Suriyapperuma hurled abuses at Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament yesterday calling him an old man (nakiya) and a fool who will soon be thrown out of power by the Indian people. Eighty five year-old Mr. […]

National Peace Council With the passing away of Nelson Mandela the world has lost one of the greatest and most extraordinary human beings of modern times who showed that change that improved the lives of all around was possible. As the first post-apartheid era President of South Africa, he led the transformation of his country […]

Uhuru Kenyatta President Mahinda Rajapaksa will head to Kenya for talks, at a time the Kenyan leadership is facing a trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).President’s spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said that President Rajapaksa will first travel to South Africa to pay his respects to the late South African President Nelson Mandela.From there he is […]

Press Release This is to notify the public that their right to information and social dialogue that can only be safeguarded through uninterrupted, free and independent functioning of media that now extends into web sites with access to internet, is being severely obstructed by the Rajapaksa regime that claims it stands for freedom of expression, […]

Establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) modeled on the South Africa (SA) experience, viewed by Sri Lanka backers as an urgent need to mitigate possible strong actions by the International Community against Sri Lanka over its rights violations, appears as an imminent outcome from the recently concluded Commonwealth Meeting [CHOGM]. But a Sri Lanka […]

 The Chief Minister of the NPC called  for international action against the Sri Lankan government’s program of settling Sinhalese families on Tamil-owned land forcibly appropriated by the military.He said he had done everything possible to appease the Sinhalese and win back Tamil rights and he had reached the end of his journey. Now he calls […]

by Niran Anketell Reconcilation & conflict resolution    As the dust settles on the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Colombo, the press has reported that Sri Lanka may be considering the establishment of a South Africa style Truth and Reconciliation Commission with the assistance of the Commonwealth and South African government.The South African TRC (SA […]

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) today offered active support to the government to address the accountability issue if the government meets certain conditions.Among the conditions, the TNA said is the need for the government to agree to make an honest effort to address the issue with an open mind and work with the international community […]

Ahmed Kathrada “Mdala” – “old man”, as Nelson Mandela and I used to call each other on informal occasions – was, like all human beings, not free of weaknesses and failings. He was an uncommon amalgam of the peasant and the aristocrat; the democrat par excellence, but not without a touch of the autocrat; at […]

The DMK has issued a notice seeking a discussion, under Rule 193 in the Lok Sabha, against the human rights violations and war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan defence forces against Tamils during the civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).DMK parliamentary party leader T.R. Baalu, who issued the notice to […]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has cleared the latest edition of the popular political satire ‘Pusswedilla’ to be staged after the Colombo Gazette had reported that the censor board had banned the new comedy. The Director of Pusswedilla, Feroz Kamardeen, told the Colombo Gazette that the President had contacted him today and inquired about the censor board ban.According […]

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has requested the government not to extend the validity of gazette notification 1817/331, whereby the armed forces may be called out to maintain public order in all parts of the country.“The said Gazette appears unnecessary, disproportionate and imprudent and could lead to great abuse as was evident from […]

India is planning to host Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Justice C. V. Wigneswaran next month. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid had extended an invitation to Wigneswaran when he met him in Jaffna in October. In his October 28 letter to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Wigneswaran wrote: “We had the fortune of […]

Dead body of a killed suspect The explanation given by the police regarding the death of three suspects who were under police custody arrested in connection with the killing of a police officer and his wife at Kamburupitiya, is unacceptable and the whole incident smells of another case of extra judicial killing. The explanation that the […]

(Johannesburg) – The death of Nelson Mandela on December 5, 2013, is a tremendous loss, not only for South Africa, but for the world.  Mandela, who led the decades-long struggle against apartheid in South Africa, was jailed for 27 years for his activism. Released in 1990, Mandela became South Africa’s first post-apartheid president in 1994. […]

FMM PRESS RELESE The Free Media Movement expresses its concern that the police and the pro government violent gangs are continuing to violate the people’s inalienable right to peaceful assembly in Sri Lanka disrupting and threatening them. On 2nd December 2013 a peaceful protest of women’s groups against the hate speech churn out by the […]

Colombo has instructed Tamil health officials in Ki’linochchi district to obtain ‘affidavits’ from women who were subjected to a controversial coercive population control in three coastal villages of the district. The women are being approached to sign a document stating that they received subdermal implants on their own request for contraceptive protection. The latest move […]

Rajapaksha abd Zuma Upul Joseph Fernando  Mahinda seems to have hit upon the idea of a new strategy to counter the looming threat of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), adopting another damaging resolution at its upcoming March 2014 sessions. This new strategy is to accept the involvement of South Africa in the reconciliation […]

Katchatheevu DMK would demand a resolution for an independent inquiry into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka and raise the issue of retrieving Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka in the winter session of Parliament. Briefing reporters after an all-party meeting convened ahead of the winter session of Parliament here today, DMK Parliamentary leader T R […]

Charles HavilandDM Jayaratne DM Jayaratne said that that police investigations into the heroin seizure are continuing Sri Lanka’s prime minister has ordered staff not to write letters in his name, after drug traffickers obtained a letter written by a secretary in his office to authorise a heroin shipment. DM Jayaratne said that action would be […]

Dr. Beyani Ananth PalakidnarChief Minister of the Northern Province, C.V. Wigneswaran, had urged the United Nations to assist in removing the obstacles created due to the heavy military presence in the Northern Province, when he met the on IDPs, Dr. Chaloka Beyani. He is on a five-day tour in Sri Lanka.Dr. Beyani who arrived from […]