Features

President to meet trade union representatives By Yohan PereraAs several trade unions are gearing up to launch a protest against the proposed private sector pension scheme, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to hold discussions on the matter with all trade union representatives on April 25. Several trade unions including the Ceylon Mercantile Union (CMU), Ceylon […]

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is studying an expert report into thousands of deaths during Sri Lanka’s 2009 military drive against Tamil rebels, as calls grow for an international probe. Ban has given himself just days to decide on recommendations made by a panel of experts which handed its report on […]

 Amnesty International Media Release (Washington, D.C.) A United Nations (U.N.) report on accountability for war crimes committed in the Sri Lankan armed conflict must be made public, Amnesty International said today as a panel of experts submits their findings to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. “Sri Lankans must be allowed to see the panel’s findings. […]

Photos of the dead bodies with gunshot wounds of LTTE political wing leader B.Nadesan and S. Pulithevan who were killed by the military after surrendering with white flags at the last stage of the war have been published by the Tamil websites worldwide. The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly said that no LTTE leader who […]

Three senior police officers transferredSuspect left minister’s staff on Thursday – Press Secy By Lal Gunasekera Three top police officials have been transferred with immediate effect over their failure to take action against extortionists. Officers of the Colombo Crime Division on Sunday arrested Public Relations Minister Mervyn Silva’s Parliament Affairs Secretary Jayasena Mudiyanselage Buddhi and […]

H. M. G. S. Palihakkara, LLRC, When domestic processes fail to find solutions to internal problems, external forces find space to advocate or even impose solutions for their own political or strategic convenience. Sri Lanka is no exception. Leadership failures since independence by all governments and mainstream political parties contributed to externalizing the conflict from […]

By Sandun A. JayasekeraThe Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said yesterday it had told the government that considering the present security situation in the North and the recent Supreme Court ruling there was no longer a necessity for High Security Zones (HSZ). A TNA delegation comprising party leader R. Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah and Suresh Premchandran met […]

(New York, April 7, 2011) – The Sri Lankan government should account for everyone who was taken into custody at the end of Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long armed conflict in May 2009 and are feared to have been “disappeared,” Human Rights Watch said today. Despite numerous requests from families for information about their relatives, the authorities […]

By Sandun A. Jayasekera Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development Dulles Alahapperuma said it was regrettable and a matter of shame that the development of the construction industry has been stunted due to corruption and quality failure while other countries have shown tremendous progress in this sector. Addressing a ceremony held after laying the […]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said Tuesday that future cooperation with Sri Lanka depended on improvements in its human rights record and an accounting of the bloodshed at the end of the island’s civil war. With its strategic location and contributions to global peacekeeping, Sri Lanka “is poised to be a capable and willing […]

Reaffirming India’s support for the Sri Lankan Tamils, Congress president and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said New Delhi would continue to press Colombo for constitutional amendments to ensure equal rights and status to ethnic minorities in the island nation. “In our neighbourhood, there is no issue closer to our heart than the Sri […]

The appointment of a convicted criminal to the Board of Commercial Bank by the government has raised eye brows among senior bankers in the country. Lakshman Hulugalle, the Director General, Media Centre for National Security has been appointed to the Board of Commercial Bank by the government. In 1989 Hulugalle was given a two year […]

“If you remember, when you came into power you said, about opening up the economy, that you saw no harm in letting the robber barons come. Now you are trying to make barons out of robbers.” Two days ago, Sam Wijesinha, former Secretary-General of Parliament, had reportedly given a talk at the Open University of […]

By Mel Gunasekera COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s appearance in Saturday’s cricket World Cup final offers a rare if fleeting moment of unity for a nation that remains deeply fractured despite the end of its decades-old ethnic conflict. President Mahinda Rajapakse, who will attend the final against India in Mumbai, has promoted the game as a […]

By Azra Ameen Around 1,299 schools or nearly one million school children and around 200,000 families in the island do not have access to toilets, Deputy General Manager of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, Deepthi Sumanasekera said following a survey conducted by the National Water Supply and Drainage Board. Nearly 1,860 schools have […]

India has instructed Sri Lanka’s main Tamil political party, The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to go beyond the 13th Amendment when they hold discussions with the Sri Lanka government on power devolution. Jaffna District TNA Parliamentarian Mavai Senadhirajah said however, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has categorically informed that the police powers would not and could not […]

KILINOCHCHI, 23 February 2011 (IRIN) – Former female combatants in northern Sri Lanka face a tough time returning to civilian life, with fewer marriage, education and job prospects due to stigma, say aid workers and activists. “Former female child soldiers are just not being perceived positively by society,” said Thaya Thiagarajah, a senior official with […]

By Wilson Gnanadass TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran said the mandate the party has obtained from the people is to find an immediate solution based on a federal system and this fact must now be honoured by the present government. The TNA that had been branded earlier as the ‘LTTE’s proxy’ won 12 councils of the […]

Alan Keenan   1. The need for an international investigation The International Crisis Group, like others concerned with a sustainable and just peace in Sri Lanka, has been calling for the establishment of an independent and international commission to look into the many credible and well-documented allegations of war crimes in the final months of Sri Lanka’s […]

By Chris KamalendranThe Tamil National Alliance wants the Government to grant the Northern Province police powers besides the right to manage land and forest reservations. This request will be placed before President Mahinda Rajapaksa through a government committee in the course of periodic consultations. The TNA points out that these subjects are already listed in […]