( Guns should not allow tho dictate politics) The immediate cause of the fracas in the east involving the chief minister, governor and naval officer was personal pique. That incident has been sought to be politicized by an opposition that is ever mindful of the power of inter-ethnic mobilization of nationalism. They have warned of […]

(Image: EU Ambassador HE Mr David Daly speaks at a  Media Conference in Colombo) Joint Press Release following the meeting of the Working Group on Cooperation between the European Union and Sri Lanka on 30 May 2016. Colombo, 30 May 2016 – The Working Group on Cooperation under the framework of the European Union-Sri Lanka […]

Sri Lankan police on Saturday shot at a Tamil man in Mullaitivu after he demanded to see an arrest warrant. Police in civil pictured with the gun used to shoot at the Tamil man The 27 year old man, Vivekanandan Thijeevan was at home in the highly militarised Keppapilavu mode village when two police officers […]

( CM Nazeer Ahamed; Ceylon News Image) The letter sent by the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province to the president Sirisena and PM Wickremasinghe: Sampur Maha Vidyalaya is a school under the Eastern Provincial Council. It is not a national school. A well- known business organisation in Colombo had volunteered through the Sri Lanka […]

( Floods in Kilinochchi; Tamil Guardian Image) by Easwaran Rutnam. Several families affected by the recent floods in Kilinochchi are looking at ways to survive after losing their crops. Jaffna based civil society said that most families in Kilinochchi depend on their paddy to earn a living. However the heavy rain flooded the paddy fields […]

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s military commanders banning controversial chief minister of the eastern province and announcing a boycott of his events has caused serious anguish in the political establishment. Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi conveyed the military diktat to the media last week as the military’s response to Chief Minister Naseer Ahamed publicly upbrading a navy […]

(Photo caption: A Sri Lankan Budhist monk takes pictures of an unseen Sri Lankan airlines Airbus A-340 which transported President Mahinda Rajapakse who became the first passenger to go through the facility at the new Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Mattala, in the southeast of the island on March 18, 2013.  AFP PHOTO/Ishara S. KODIKARA) […]

Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission has issued detectives for arresting and detaining persons under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The directives are based on directives issued by previous heads of state and binding international human rights law standards. If implemented properly these directives are bound to improve the human rights in Sri Lanka and police […]

(Waiting for justice:Photo: Amantha Perera/IRIN) Another step towards implementing the UNHRC resolution was taken by Prime Minister Wickremesinghe last Tuesday. He obtained ministerial approval for a two-page cabinet memorandum for “the Establishment of Office on Missing Persons (OMP).” His memorandum was accompanied by an 18- page draft law for the setting up of this office. […]

(A general view of the final conflict zone in Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009 -Image sbs.com.au) The United National Front Government’s final position on the UN mandated probe on allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka was spelt out on Thursday by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. He told senior Army officers that the judicial […]

Izeth Hussain. Problems like everything else under the sun have a protean character. They don’t have an unchangeable essence, they keep changing over time, and our ability to handle them depends largely on how we perceive them and conceptualize them, on whether those perceptions and conceptualizations are reasonably accurate or wildly inaccurate. Until the other […]

(Officials welcome Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena (L-2) after he arrived at Chubu Centrair International Airport in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, 25 May 2016.) Full statement ofPresident Maithripala Sirisena on ‘Stability and Prosperity in Asia’ at theOutreach Sessions of the G7 Summit. On 27th May 2016 in Japan Hon.Shinzo Abe -Prime Minister of Japan […]

(PM Wickremasinghe: yet to take action) Issuing a statement Colombo based think tank Centre for Policy Alternatives says that  it has has previously cautioned the government that unless it demonstrates its previously stated commitment to good governance and declared “zero” tolerance of corruption, the democratic gains of January and August 2015 risk fatal compromise and […]

( Speed, what the people want in democratic reforms in Sri Lanka) In October 2015 the government surprised virtually everyone regardless of political spectrum, and friend and foe, when it co-sponsored the resolution on Sri Lanka by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. From the time that the war ended in 2009 onwards Sri […]

( Thousands of persons have gone missing in Sri Lanka in past four  decades) Ratification of Convention Against Enforced Disappearance Important Step. (New York) – The Sri Lankan government ratified the Convention against Enforced Disappearance but in the same week created an Office of Missing Persons without promised consultations with families of the “disappeared,” Human […]

(Eastern Province Chief minister, Naseer Ahamed |P.K.Balachandran) By P.K.Balachandran.     COLOMBO: The on-going conflict between Eastern Province Governor Austin Fernando and Chief Minister Naseer Ahamed, which has led to the Sri Lankan armed forces declaring an indefinite boycott of the Chief Minister, is rooted in the way Centre-Province relations have developed in Lanka and […]

New York. May 26, 2016–The NGO Committee of the United Nations voted today to deny the Committee to Protect Journalists consultative status with the Economic Social Council (ECOSOC). Without such status, CPJ is unable to access U.N. bodies and processes, notably the Human Rights Council in Geneva, where accredited NGOs can deliver a counter-narrative to […]

(Calling for Justice for the disappeared in Sri Lanka (c)sunanda deshapriya) The Cabinet of Ministers on Tuesday the 25th  approved the establishment of an Office for Missing Persons. The Office will help several thousands families of missing persons across Sri Lanka to discover the fate of their loved ones, and the circumstances under which they […]

Homagama court was told on 23rd May that a report obtained from the Army Commander giving details of the soldiers who visited the Akkaraipattu army camp and left on January 25,2010 had gone missing reports the Island. This information was divulged by that CID SP Shani Abeysekera, making a statement before court. Homagama Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake […]

( Chief Minster Wigneswaran ) Northern province Chief Minster Wigneswaran has attacked NGOs working in the province for not obtaining permission form him or provincial council headed by him. According to a report in the HIndu ‘Mr. Wigneswaran has taken on NGOs, voluntary organisations and foreign agencies for seeking to implement several of their schemes […]

(Helen Clark is one of the leading candidates to succeed Ban Ki-moon, but critics inside Turtle Bay say she’s weakening the U.N.’s promotion of human rights.) By Colum Lynch. Helen Clark, the U.N.’s development czar, has emerged as a front-runner in the race for U.N. secretary-general, inspiring international hopes that a powerful woman could lead […]

(Nisha Desai Biswal) Testimony of the Nisha Desai Biswal, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, Washington, DC at  on 2017’s budget priorities. Sri Lanka. I will now turn to Sri Lanka, where our bilateral relationship has been transformed over the […]

(By Rasika Jayakody) Yahapalanaya, in Sri Lanka, is a thing of fluctuating fortunes. Soon after the new Government came to power in January, it established the Financial Crimes Investigations Division (FCID) to probe into alleged acts of bribery and corruption under the previous administration. On the other hand, the Bribery Commission was strengthened under the […]

Civil Society activists are up in arms against the appointment of former Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka Director General Anusha Palpita as an Additional Secretary of the Home Affairs Ministry, when he is facing charges of allegedly misappropriating over Rs. 600 million for the distribution of Sil Redi on the eve of the last […]

( Chief Minister Nazeer Ahamed in black suit) Defence Ministry Secretary Karunasena Hettiarchchi said today he had not received any complaints about an incident where Eastern Province Chief Minister Nazeer Ahamed was alleged to have rebuked a naval officer at an event at the Sampur Maha Vidyalaya on Friday. A video showing the Chief Minister […]

Vice-Chancellor and Colleagues, I want to begin by thanking all of you for being present today. You all have also endured bad weather. I feel delighted to see so many friends from all faculties, other universities, and from civil society outside the university as well. I am also glad that Nirmal, Mahesh and Pradeep, and […]

Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC), which should be in the forefront of the current emergency response with floods and storms ravaging the country, is facing a crisis of its own. Its “disaster emergency hotline 117 (as stated in the website)” doesn’t work. There is no answer, zero sound when one calls this number as […]

By P.K.Balachandran COLOMBO: Buddhist heritage is emerging as a major plank in Asian diplomacy. South, South East and East Asian countries are using Buddhism and their Buddhist heritage to build bridges with each other, going beyond traditional parameters like geographic proximity and strategic and economic necessity. India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first […]

( Senanayake being taken to prison) Former senior DIG Anura Senanayake was taken into custody by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) today in connection to the murder of former Sri Lanka national rugger player Wasim Thajudeen. He was produced in court and remanded till May 26. Senanayake was arrested after being questioned earlier in the […]

A man, who was remanded on charges of threatening President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe via social media, today pleaded guilty at the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court. Colombo Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya discharged the suspect, Sumal Lakmana, a resident of Yakkala after stern warning. Lakmana was remanded for 25 days after he was […]