Features

Apr 23, 2011 (LBO) – A much respected retired Sri Lankan business executive, financial professional, Chandra Jayaratne, has written President Mahinda Rajapaksa to stop state plans to build a controversial pension fund by dipping its hands into the salaries of private sector workers.Jayarante has been actively campaigning to improve the liberties of all the people […]

2011-04-23 The killing of four more Indian fishermen during the last month by the Sri Lankan Navy is yet another gory reminder that things have not changed in Sri Lanka. In fact the evidence of torture on the decomposed bodies of the dead fishermen provides further proof, if proof was indeed necessary, of the sadistic […]

Weiss says that with the release [leak] of UN report on Sri Lanka’s war crimes, the parallel, with the mass execution of 8000 Muslim boys and men by the Bosnian Serb army and how the horror reached the world from David Rohde, an US reporter, who had hiked through front lines to reach the outskirts […]

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Friday expressed hope that the Centre would take appropriate steps without any delay after the United Nations report on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka is officially released on April 25. In a statement here, he rejected AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa’s charge that his […]

PTI, CHENNAI:AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa on Friday demanded that the government take ‘immediate steps’ to make Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa stand trial for alleged war crimes during the conflict between the Lankan armed forces and the LTTE following a UN report. “The UN Panel report is very clear. It lists out the war crimes of […]

April 22, 2011/By Sivanendran The end of the three decade old civil war that pitted the government against the LTTE and divided the population created a reasonable expectation that Sri Lanka would be able to reach reconciliation and healing, which would pave the way for rapid economic progress. But alas the country appears to be […]

: Acid Test for UN and International Community to Act Decisivelyby Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah (April 21, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) In the light of the UN Panel of Expert’s report, with a view to moving forward with its recommendations, a convergence of opinions from the international community, in support of an international independent mechanism, leading […]

Sri Lanka’s government has launched a petition campaign against the UN making public an expert panel’s report on war crimes committed during the final months of the island’s war. The campaign, launched Thursday by Sri Lanka’s Minister of Private Transport Services, C. B. Ratnayaka, aims to collect one million signatures. It comes two days after […]

By V Suresh Will a UN report lie? Will an Expert Panel specially set up by the UN Secretary General to examine allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity be biased, partisan, project half truths and deliberately malign a state? The questions may be startling to many of us; but to the Government of […]

By S.L. GunasekaraIF Mahinda Rajapaksa had heeded the ‘demands’ (couched as requests) made by Moon, Clinton, Miliband and Kouchner etc and declared a ceasefire while we were on the point of victory, the terrorist Prabhakaran would still have been alive and terrorism would have thrived in the country. IF Mahinda Rajapaksa had heeded those demands:- […]

Former Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala on behalf of ‘Friday Forum’, a collective of concerned citizens calls upon all parties to act with restraint in responding to the Secretary General of the United Nations over the UN advisory committee report. Full text of the statement: The Friday Forum is deeply concerned over the initial reactions to the […]

Suraj A Bandara Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) expressed its disapproval on the allegations made against the Government in the three-member experts panel report of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on civilian casualties during the last stages of the humanitarian offensive against the LTTE. SLFP General Secretary Minister Susil Premajayantha rejected the findings of the […]

by Dasun Edirisinghe Students who qualify for university education will have to undergo leadership training at a military establishment, Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayaratne said. The new scheme would come into effect from May 23 for the next academic year and it would be compulsory for all students, he said. The training programme […]

The Island newspaper continues to publish leaks from the report produced by the Panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to look into post-war accountability in Sri Lanka. Groundviews has covered in detail the Executive Summary and Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the leaks. The Island published today Part 4, which focusses on the […]

The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) said that the report compiled by the panel of experts appointed by the UN Secretary General, is his personal diplomatic terrorist operation. The JHU expressed this view at a media briefing convened yesterday. “The opinions voiced against Sri Lanka were defeated at the United Nations General Assembly. At such a […]

The report on Sri Lanka which was submitted by the UN Expert Panel appointed by the General Secretary Ban Ki Moon was prepared under the influence of bribes by LTTE sympathizers according to the National Freedom Front Leader, Minister Wimal Weerawansa.  He claimed that according to information that has been received, the LTTE supporting Tamil […]

By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, April 19 — The scanned portion of the UN Panel of Experts report on Sri Lanka war crimes leaked, presumptively by the government, to The Island newspaper has been obtained by Inner City Press and is being put online here. It shows that the Panel’s three members signed off […]

Finally, who ever has heard of Rain, the South Korean songster who takes precedence over our great leader in the Time Poll of the 100 most influential personalities in the world? An official government release on this stresses that the president is the leading politician in the poll. Now at number 2, he has seen […]

The UNP said today that the government should turn the UN report into a  favorable one by implementing some of the recommendations made by the panel  in their report. UNP Deputy Chairman Lakshman Kiriella told a news conference today that  the government should follow Israel which adopted a similar approach when  they were charged of […]

  The handing over on 12 April, 2011, of the report on presumptive war crimes in Sri Lanka during the last phase of the war in the Vanni, by the 03 member advisory panel of the United Nation’s Secretary General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon, with no official public disclosures, compels us as the Centre for Social […]

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) announced that it will take steps to counter Sri Lankan government’s plans to organize several activities against the UN Panel Report on Sri Lanka. TGTE will create an Expert Panel to counter Sri Lanka’s anti-UN report and will meet different governments to counter Sri Lanka’s propaganda against UN report. […]

By LYDIA POLGREEN  A United Nations panel investigating allegations of war crimes by Sri Lankan troops at the end of the bloody battle against Tamil rebels in May 2009 found credible evidence that government soldiers made civilians a target, shelled hospitals and attacked aid workers, according to an unauthorized copy of the panel’s report. Sri […]

by Zacki Jabbar A united stand was required if the UN report, on the conduct of Sri Lanka’s security forces during the war against the LTTE, affected the country’s sovereignty, the UNP said yesterday. Harin Fernando MP, addressing a news conference in Colombo said that the UNP was yet to make a detailed study of […]

Groundviews  The Island newspaper continues to publish leaks from the report produced by the Panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to look into allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka. Groundviews flagged key points and placed in context what is widely acknowledged to be the executive summary of the report, published in The Island […]

“On that basis, the UN report may be important to global level investors in the issues of racial equality and war crimes which are naturally connected in the case of Sri Lanka. It is the duty of such Global participants to ensure that it does not cause further damage to the little that is left […]

“Just as Russia opposed any Council discussion of Sri Lanka during the final, bloody stages of the conflict in 2009, on April 18, 2011 in the Council Russia raised a number of “procedural” objections, sources told Inner City Press afterward.“ By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, April 19 — Sri Lanka and the UN Panel […]

18 April 2011 Question:  A couple of questions.  Number one, on this Sri Lankan report, this report is now available all over in Sri Lanka by the Sri Lankan newspapers, who are reporting it.  The Secretary-General had made a position that he will wait for the reply from the Sri Lankan Government on the report […]

by Rajasingham Jayadevan Why ‘The Island’ newspaper best source to leak? The report was published with typographical errors causing embarrassment for the UN panel and the UN media Inner City Press has highlighted these errors in its news. Some of them are so material, distorting the very meaning of the comments. In a country where […]

By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, April 18 — Three full days after portions of the Sri Lanka war crimes report was leaked, presumptively by the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, to The Island newspaper, the UN still at its Monday noon briefing did not release the full report. Inner City Press asked acting Deputy Spokesman […]

In an interview with Radio Australia, Gordon Weiss, a former UN spokesperson who accused Sri Lankan Government earlier of killing 10,000 to 40,000 Tamil civilians by discriminate shelling during the final stages of war, said that the real impact of the UN-panel’s report “really in its absolute clarity that grave crimes were committed and that […]