Justice C.V. Wigneswaran A dialogue on governance, development and vulnerability Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister, Northern Provincial Council delivered the opening address at a discussion on “Democratizing the North: A Dialogue on Governance, Development and Vulnerability on January 10th at the Green Grass Hotel Jaffna. The dialogue was organized by the International Centre for Ethnic […]

A prayer centre in a home in Pitipana, Homagama has been set on fire by an unidentified group early last morning (Jan. 12).Members of the house has been present when the event took place around 2.00am, police say.On Jan. 11, a ‘final warning’ signed by a certain ‘Sinha Senankaya’ has warned to stop Buddhists being […]

Eranga Jayawardena / the ASSOCIATED PRESS Attacks on mosques in Sri Lanka have stirred anew religious tensions in this country, where about 9 per cent of the population — 1.4 million — practise Islam. Here a Muslim woman walks past a police barricade outside a mosque vandalized in Colombo in August, 2013. Cellphone cameras captured […]

Chaminda Priyantha Kumara, 32, was tortured over a period of two days at Kalutara South Police Station Critics decry brutal, corrupt criminal justice system Chaminda Priyantha Kumara, a 32-year-old amputee, was about to begin a 130 km journey to deliver heart medication to his wife when he was surrounded by men at a bus stop […]

A protest was staged in Hikkaduwa by monks and area residents today against Christian churches operating in the area. The protesters blocked a section of the Galle – Colombo road during the protest and our reporter in the area said that some property was also damaged. The monks who led the protest said that two […]

Focus-Logo ‘After the heavy rains, some wetness remains’ The wholly reprehensible quotation which this column borrows for the title this week comes verbatim from the November 2011 report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). This is where it quotes the head of the government linked Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) when the LLRC […]

Econ-Logo Increasing foreign debt burden despite improved external finances In spite of the Central Bank announcing that “Gross Official Reserves increased to US$ 7.1 billion (provisional) by end 2013″, the Government intends to borrow US$ 1.5 billion this year from international financial sources.External finances have been improving owing to increased export earnings, large amount of […]

Add caption The government of the United States today encouraged the government of Sri Lanka to seek the truth over alleged human rights abuses through independent and credible investigations, and where relevant, have prosecutions.The US Embassy in Colombo said that the US Ambassador-at-Large at the Office of Global Criminal Justice, Stephen J. Rapp, during his recent […]

Stanley SamarasingheThe Lawyers’ Collective held a media conference, at the Nippon Hotel in Colombo yesterday, to mark the first anniversary of the impeachment of the 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake.They named the day as ‘Black Friday’. One year ago today the Parliamentary Select Committee report, on the charges set out in […]

Gotamini Hathurusinghe It can be safely said that 5 years after the war many villages, well over 60% have no basic utilities supplied to them by the government. There are huge implications for the well being and safety of these people as a result. The following are excerpts of a list of GNDs only in Vavuniya […]

Senior Minister Amunugama tells SAARC PCSCsDon Asoka WijewardenaMost low income groups in Sri Lanka are eking out an existence on just one and a half dollars a day and poverty is common among some local social segments, Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation and Deputy Finance Minister Sarath Aminugama said.Addressing the 3rd Conference of the […]

The Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention/January 2014  1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe risk of mass atrocities in Sri Lanka reached a critical threshold from January through May 2009, when the government of Sri Lanka intensified efforts to militarily eliminate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983. […]

Ranga Jayasuriya The US Embassy yesterday reiterated the calls for ‘an independent and credible investigation’ into allegations of war crimes during the final phase of the war as US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice, Stephen J. Rapp, toured the former war zones and met with the survivors.Rapp’s visit came […]

Shamindra FerdinandoEven though the US recommended that the Sri Lankan government swiftly acquire cluster bombs to target the LTTE, the country never felt the need to do so, an authoritative official told The Island.The US made the recommendation in the wake of the Oslo arranged Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) between the then Premier Ranil Wickreme-singhe and […]

Rapp Shamindra Ferdinando Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday alleged that the US was undermining the post-war reconciliation process by strengthening the hands of those who had been propagating unsubstantiated war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka. The US had made common cause with them for some strange reason at the expense of US-Sri Lanka relations, Defence […]

Members of the Federation of National Organization (FNO) gather in front of the U.S. Embassy during a protest in Colombo January 9, 2014. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte Members of the Federation of National Organization (FNO) gather in front of the U.S. Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal | Reuters  By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO (Reuters) – […]

Anuradha SamuelThe progeny of a large number of parliamentarians – both in the government and the Opposition – will be contesting at the upcoming Southern and Western Province elections. Representing the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) will be novices Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga’s daughter Malsha Kumaratunga, Minister Kumara Welgama’s son Senal Welgama, and Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena’s […]

KRISHAN FRANCIS , Associated Press  COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Roman Catholic bishops in Sri Lanka’s former war zone have called for an international war crimes investigation into the country’s civil war including whether government forces used cluster munitions and chemical weapons in densely populated areas. Rev. Rayappu Joseph and Rev. Thomas Saundaranayagam made the request […]

WATCHDOG This is a summary of a longer report. Please read it download it as a PDF from here or read it online here. All photos taken and provided by the author. Introduction According to Article 7, paragraph 2(i) of the Rome Statute[1], an Enforced disappearance is defined as “…the arrest, detention or abduction of persons […]

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) has produced a table that contains basic information pertaining to Commissions of Inquiry (CoI) and committees appointed by the Government since coming into power in November 2005. Section I of the table examines the CoI and Section II contains information pertaining to key committees established during the specific time […]

Lasantha Wickrematunge may have been killed, but his spirit lives on in those he left behind. Lasantha’s tribe, some of them exiled in far off lands, others – brow-beaten, hunted and still pushing the boundaries at home, continue to be a thorn in the side of the rulers and remain keepers of the flameOn 12 […]

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL), the national chapter of the global anti-corruption movement,has requested Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa and all the party leaders to take immediate action to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate allegations against the accuracy and genuineness of national socioeconomic data released by the two official agencies of the government, the Department […]

Dilrukshi HandunnettiFive years is a long time, when one waits for justice. But all of us have waited – family, friends, colleagues, citizens, readers, the rights groups and many others. It had been one painful wait, more so, because within the deep recesses of our hearts, we are aware of the identities of the wrongdoers. There […]

KeheliyaThe Government says it is ready to face any resolution the US presents on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in March this year.Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that the Government is aware the US is in the process of gathering information on Sri Lanka and how such information is being collected.He said […]

[TamilNet]Six more human skeletons were exhumed at the genocidal mass grave at Thirukkeatheesvaram in Mannaar on Tuesday, in addition to the already exhumed 26 skeletons since December 20. The exhumation will resume on 16 January Thursday, legal sources in Mannaar said.   The exhumation of the mass grave was being carried out at the presence of […]

The United States (US) will be submitting a new resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva in March, a US official has said.Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran said that the visiting US Ambassador-at-Large at the Office of Global Criminal Justice, Stephen J. Rapp had mentioned this when […]

Sri Lanka is not covering a syllabus which a school Principal has handed over to his teachers, in terms of its activities pertaining to implementing the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations, Deputy External Affairs Minister Neomal Perera said yesterday.Asked about the visit of US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the office of […]

Ambassador-at-Large of the Office of Global Criminal Justice of the United States, Lawyer Stephen J. Rapp, appeared puzzled yesterday when he saw the website of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), and questioned what “Ongoing, Ongoing” as stated on the site, in the Action Plan of the LLRC, meant. When Rapp had asked what the […]

The Bishop of Mannar, Mgr Rayappu Joseph has called for an international investigation to ascertain the truth about alleged war crimes. He said: “Given that most of the Tamils in the north and east of the country no longer have confidence in an internal process. This will contribute to reconciliation”.Bishop Rayappu Joseph, pointed out that […]

Michael Roberts Amidst the obfuscations and cumulus clouds of propaganda that have subsumed reviews of the last stages of Eelam War IV, it has taken time for some remarkable feats to emerge. The affidavit provided by Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah on 10th May 2012 with assistance from a British solicitor reveals astounding medical relief work by […]