Issuing  a statement The Asian Human Rights Commission has condemned in the strongest terms the killing on the evening of 29 January 2017 of prominent lawyer, constitutional expert and advisor to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Ko Ni. It says it  and joins with the thousands who attended his funeral to extend sincere condolences […]

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Moneragala, Kumbukkan Oya Reservoir Project held on 28th January president Sirisena said that he will never allow the ones who destroy the democracy of this country, those who made whole country fearful of their white van culture, those who robbed Billions while country is facing 90,000,000 million debt, […]

Image: A diaspora group march carrying LTTE flags. Jathika Hela Urumaya national organiser, Media Spokesman Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe has said that the the alleged plot to assassinate Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M.A.Sumanthiran that was uncovered recently signals the regrouping of the LTTE and the possibility of terrorism raising its ugly head once again in […]

Recent decision of the government not to proceed with legal reform that decriminalizes homosexuality as both disappointing and a setback to a culture of protecting minority rights in general says the National Peace Council. “The presence of archaic laws does not reflect positively on either the Sri Lankan legislature or on the cultural enlightenment and […]

After obtaining the President Sirisena’s  green light  seven Provincial Chief Ministers loyal to him  met with former President  Rajapaksa last Sunday the 22nd. Their main objective was to forge a united alliance of the two SLFP factions, one backing Sirisena and the other Rajapaksa, to contest the Provincial Council (PC) elections as one. Senior SLFPers […]

Image: Mrs. Manouri Muttetuwegama presented the report of the “Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms” to  chair of the SCRM Chandrika Kumarathunga. Issuing a statement the National War Heroes Front says that  report of the “Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms” (CTFRM) set up on 26.1.1916, & chaired by Mrs. Manouri Muttetuwegama is a most […]

Image: Rajapaksa at Nigegoda rally. (C)Daily News. Speaking at public rally held in Nugegoda on 27 this month former president Rajapaksa said that “We will oppose this fraudulent new Constitution. The motive of the new Constitution is to appease the Tamil minority in their quest for political independence.”  ( Mahinda Rajapaksa  face book) Further he […]

Image: Coal workers in India. The Auditor General has recommended that a formal and practical Annual Procurement Plan be put in place to avoid malpractices in coal purchases by the Government. This comes after an audit probe found estimated losses amounting to more than Rs. 4,145.43 million due to irregularities in coal purchases between 2009 […]

Image: Pro- LTTE diaspora demonstration in Europe. “Nallavan” (not his real name) is a Tamil youth living in a Northern village. He was a former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization who had surrendered to the armed forces in May 2009. He was incarcerated for a period of time and released […]

Image: MP Sumanthiran. By P K Balachandran  |  Express News Service  | KILINOCHCHI: The Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) of the Sri Lankan police  has so far arrested four former cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for allegedly plotting to assassinate the moderate Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, M.A.Sumanthiran, in Marudankeni in Jaffna […]

Image: Maj. Gen. Kapila Hendawitharana, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Field Marshal Fonseka. by Nirmala Kannangara. Fonseka pointed the finger directly at former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa;   Gotabaya Rajapaksa directly centralised and supervised all security and intelligence operations in and around Colombo. The investigation into the murder of founding editor […]

The Government will go for a “technical rollover resolution” or, a procedural extension that will allow it more time to implement its undertakings– when Sri Lanka is taken up at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) next month. This was revealed by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera while taking questions at Chatham House earlier this month. […]

Media Statement from the People’s Movement against the Port City. People’s movement against the port city at its meeting held on the 22nd of January at No. 64 Chilaw Rd, Negombo decided to vehemently protest the continued mining of sand less than 10km from shore by the CHEC with flagrant disregard to the undertaking by […]

Image courtesy of @uthayashalin: In Jaffna people came out supporting the campaign. By DHARISHA BASTIANS and GEETA ANANDJAN. COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Seated on a platform outside a regional post office in Sri Lanka’s former war zone, about 150 miles north of the capital, Colombo, a mother whose son has been missing for seven years […]

Image: Is Sirisena a lair? Health Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne, apparently contradicting what President Maithripala Sirisena said on Wednesday that he threw away a cabinet paper aimed at legalising homosexuality in Sri Lanka, yesterday told Parliament that there was never such a move. “There was never a move to legalize homosexuality or prostitution,” the minister said responding to a […]

Image: “The people are sick of this, they are sick of all of you!” Sampanthan tell both!! Sampanthan warns of nexus between corruption and dictatorship, termination of democracy. When it comes to corruption, the country’s two main political parties are hand in glove, Opposition Leader Rajavarothiam Sampanthan told Parliament on Tuesday, as he issued a […]

Image: Tamil mothers stage hunger strike in Nalloor in support of relatives of disappeared. By P K Balachandran | Express News Service | COLOMBO: Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament that as per police records, there is no information relating to persons who had allegedly disappeared during the ethnic conflict. However, they may […]

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will have its Sixty-sixth session on 13 February-3 March 2017 and Sri Lanka wiill be reviewed on 22nd February. The Committee has now published on line all related documents, including  the list of issues in relation to the eighth periodic report of Sri Lanka. The UN CEDAW […]

By Basil Fernando. The Amnesty Intentional has published a collection of poems titled ‘ Silenced Shadows’. It’s a collection of 15 poems and translations of the said poems into all three languages, Sinhalese, Tamil and English. Originally, Amnesty International called for poems on enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka and selected 15 poems for publication. Five […]

Image: Juan E. Méndez , a UN photo. ” Sri Lanka needs urgent and comprehensive measures to ensure structural reform in these institutions to eliminate torture and ensure that all authorities comply with international standards. A piecemeal approach is incompatible with the soon-to-be-launched transitional justice process and could undermine it before it really begins.” says […]

There was a time when we were too ashamed to admit that we voted for Mahinda Rajapaksa. Even though we believed in all he stood for and the path he wanted to create toward a new Sri Lanka when we did vote for him. Just over a month ago a General Physician, whom I had […]

Sri Lanka ranked at 95 in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2016, dropping down the rank by 12 slots when compared to 2015. The report released by Transparency International, the global movement against corruption, ranks countries according to the perceived level of public sector corruption. Sri Lanka was ranked at 95 out of 176 counties […]

Image: In this Monday, Jan. 23, 2017 photo, Sandya Ekneligoda, wife of disappeared journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda, turns pages of their wedding album while speaking to the Associated Press at her residence in Homagama, on the outskirts of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Hope is fading fast for the families of journalists who were killed or disappeared during […]

Image: The Habeas Corpus petition was filed on 19 February 2010 by his wife Sandhya Eknaligoda and his two children S.S Bandara Eknaligoda and H.D. Sooriyia Eknaligoda. The Court of Appeal yesterday (23) vacated its Stay Order on the Homagama Magistrates’ Court proceedings in respect of the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda. The bench comprising […]

The Court of Appeal bench, which dismissed the appeal against the judgment of TNA Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj’s murder trial, reinstated the appeal today after considering the submissions made by the late MP’s counsel M.A. Sumanthiran reports Daily Mirror.

Image: People protest to end SC ban on Jallikattu. (File | EPS). By P.K Balachandran COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s largest selling Tamil daily Virakesari has, in an editorial on Monday, called for a Jallikattu type non-partisan, peaceful, world-wide mass struggle in support of the Sri Lankan Tamil cause. Expressing amazement at the way Tamils in Tamil […]

Speech delivered at the International Conference on Federalism, Mount – Tremblant, Canada, 7 October 1999. “What we are now contemplating is the changing of that unitary structure to admit of a degree of power sharing, which is generally associated with quasi-federal structures. Now the question that is asked is: we are all familiar with the […]

The European Investment Bank will provide EUR 50 million to support improvement and expansion of sewage networks across the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. The new loan will help Colombo Municipal Council to achieve its goal of providing full sanitation coverage to benefit people living and working in the greater Colombo area. The new EIB loan […]

The dismissal of the appeals on the 19 th filed in the appeal court by the relatives of murdered  ex M.P. Nadaraja Raviraj ,against the judgment delivered in the case which acquitted  all the accused, and exonerated them of all charges after hearing the trial until late in the night (a most queer  unprecedented hearing […]

By Mangala Samaraweera. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera says that ” Today Sri Lanka has  a choice between impunity, conflict, corruption, extremism and poverty, or the rule of law, accountability, equality, multiculturalism, openness and trade. We have a choice between conflict and poverty, versus peace and prosperity.” He has said that speaking at a  […]