News

Priyamvatha/Rajesh Sundaram  The UN says over 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed during the last stages of the 30-year civil war in Sri Lanka. NGOs put the figure at over a lakh and fifty thousand. The UN also says that the Sri Lankan military committed war crimes. But the Lankan government is in denial with defence […]

Shihar Aneez (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday started a four-day state visit to China, with support against a Western war crimes push and deeper economic ties on his agenda.Here are some facts about Chinese’s financial cooperation and investment in the Indian Ocean island nation:OVERALL: China was Sri Lanka’s largest lender in 2009 […]

  “We support a full and credible and independent investigation of alleged violations of international human rights and law and international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka. We want to see the Sri Lankans do this themselves in a way that meets international standards. So what I would say to Sri Lankan critics is take your […]

Kalana SenaratneThe recently concluded Local Government (LG) elections provided evidence, if evidence was needed, of a divided polity. Amidst accusations of violence, intimidation, and killings, the Tamil people voted, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) emerged triumphant, resilient, re-asserting its dominance in the North.The UPFA-led Government swept away the rest of the polls, as expected. Expected: […]

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu The collapse of the Government –TNA talks has an air of inevitability about it for no other reason than the central one of the seriousness and commitment of the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime towards a political settlement, its rhetoric notwithstanding.We are back to the APRC, albeit by another name and back perhaps, to another protracted […]

 D.B.S. JeyarajSri Lanka Tamil issue likely to be raised in India’s Upper&Lower houses of Parliament&Tamil Nadu legislative assembly today August 11th 2011.Tamil Nadu politicians in well-coordinated moves plan to raise the Sri LankanTamil issue in the central&state legislatures simultaneously. D.Raja of Communist Party of India (CPI) has given notice to raise this issue in the […]

Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole, the unsuccessful candidate for the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jaffna supported by a section of pro-Rajapaksa elements, had to flee Jaffna as well as the island in the wake of a defamation case filed by SL minister Douglas Devananda in the Kayts court, news sources in Jaffna said adding […]

Major General Shavendra Silva, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, tells Daily Mirror that despite repeated attempts by paid activists of the LTTE failing to discredit the government and the forces, the agenda will continue to block the path of development and peace on the ground. ‘Channel-4 or another LTTE funded media outlet may […]

The EC has decided to reduce the number of seats allocated to Jaffna districtThe biggest Tamil political party in Sri Lanka has objected the decision to reduce the number of parliamentary representatives from Jaffna district. In a special statement to parliament, leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) described the decision by the elections commissioner […]

Millions affected by violence against health-care personnel and facilities10-08-2011 News Release 11/191 Geneva (ICRC) – Assaults on health-care personnel, facilities and vehicles in conflicts and violent upheavals leave millions around the world without care just when they need it most. This is the key finding of a new report presented by the International Committee of […]

PRESS RELEASE/9th August 2011Weeks after local government elections in Jaffna we remain concerned about the state of democracy, protection of human rights, and the political polarisation that troubles the North in particular and the entire country in general.  We unequivocally condemn the brutal assault on Gnanasundaram Kuhanathan, news editor of the Tamil-language daily Uthayan on […]

The United States said Tuesday that if Sri Lanka does not “quickly” investigate “in a way that meets international standards” allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the final months of the island’s war in 2009, “there’s going to be growing pressure from the international community for exactly the kind of international action […]

In a world exclusive report aired Tuesday, India’s Headlines Today (HT) television broadcast eyewitness accounts of mass slaughter, the use of chemical weapons and cluster bombs, and torture, rape and sexual humiliation in internment camps by Sri Lanka’s military. The accounts were gathered inside Vanni from survivors of the catastrophic violence of 2009 by one […]

Sara Nics   “If you are not with the government, you become an instant traitor to the country. They said I should be killed; very clearly, they said I should be killed.” In his 30-year career as a reporter and editor in Sri Lanka, Sunanda Deshapriya says he was non-political, but his reporting on the 25-year […]

Priyamvatha  | Vanni (Sri Lanka)The closing stages of the Sri Lankan civil war were a story of extreme brutality against civilians by the army. Despite being widely documented, Colombo remains in denial about atrocities on Tamils in the country’s north and the east.The survivors of the war still live in fear, in one of the […]

An interview with M.A. Sumanthiran MP The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) last week gave an ultimatum to the government to respond to its set of proposals on finding a solution to the ethnic question.TNA MP, M. A. Sumanthiran speaks to The Nation on the reasons for giving an ultimatum at this juncture and on the […]

”Whether committed by the US or Sri Lanka, by government officials or separatist groups, serious human rights abuses should be investigated and perpetrators held to account.”  by Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch In a report released last month Human Rights Watch called on the US government to launch criminal investigations into allegations of detainee abuse authorized […]

 Sumanasiri LiyanageAt the time of writing, it appears that the talks between the UPFA government and the Tamil National Alliance are on the verge of collapse. It has been reported that the TNA wants the government to address some issues if the latter is willing to continue talks. The government’s argument varies.Some Ministers have said […]

The United States on Monday called again for a “transparent accounting of Sri Lanka’s actions” during the final months of the island’s war. Addressing reporters State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the UN panel of experts is a mechanism “that should be taken advantage of” and that “an international mechanism to look at these is […]

New Delhi-based news channel, Headlines Today, which has brought wide media focus in India on Sri Lankan war crimes after broadcasting the Channel 4 documentary, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, followed with a debate recently, on Monday said it was to broadcast an exclusive documentary of its own on Tuesday, titled “I witnessed Genocide: Inside Lanka’s […]

Uthayan News Editor, Gkanasundaram Kuganathan, is not the first of his kind to end up on a hospital bed — nor will he be the last. Like his predecessors who had to go beyond the boundaries of hospitals and into their graves, and even go missing without a trace, Mr. Kuganathan would soon be just […]

Susitha R. Fernando The newly appointed Law Commission which was appointed after a one and a half years delay is to give priority to some vital and controversial laws including the Freedom of Information Act, a senior Law Commission official said. Law Commission Secretary Ms. Lakshmi Gunasekera said 12 important draft laws including the Freedom […]

Supun DiasA Special Task Force (STF) camp will be set up in each of the country’s administrative districts on the orders of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa to combat and tackle illegal activities which the police find difficult to handle, the STF Commandant said yesterday. “The setting up of camps is the first step by the […]

Trade union leaders representing workers of the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) has called on the authorities to publish the report of the presidential commission that investigated recent unrest in the FTZ.President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed one-man commission chaired by retired judge Mahanama Thilakaratne after a young FTZ worker was shot dead by the police. The killing […]

An ally of the governing UPFA, the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), has called for the devolution of land and police powers to the provinces.The ACMC is led by Industries Minister Rishard Bathiudeen. ACMC General Secretary Y.L.S. Hameed has told the media that the Muslim community was concerned over the central government handling all these […]

Mr  Rajapaksa also told Headlines Today that Sri Lankan would not devolve any more powers to the minorities in spite of the promises it made in the past.  “If they are interested in the welfare of (Tamil) people, it is useless calling for international investigation,” Rajapaksa said in an interview in Colombo. “What does that […]

The National Trade Union Center (NTUC) has organzied a unique poster campaign today (8) demanding a Rs. 10,000 salary increase for the working masses. The NTUC has organized the poster campaign on a human wall as a mark of protest against the removal of posters demanding a salary increase by the police. The poster campaign on […]

Police in Chennai, South India have instructed hotels in the city not to accommodate pilgrims from Sri Lanka after two attacks on visitors from the island.The knee-jerk reaction by the police has led to pilgrims cancelling their plans to visit the Maha Bodhi Society in Chennai, Deccan Chronicle reports. “A few hotels and lodges in […]

Rohan AbeywardenaTamil National Alliance Leader R. Sampanthan in the aftermath of last Thursday’s somewhat tough stand taken with the government in giving it ten days to respond to the devolution proposals the TNA had put to the government about five months ago sat with The Island for a long interview and insisted that they had […]

 Kelum Bandara Fresh after the reiteration by India that Sri Lanka should do away with the state of emergency immediately, the government has decided to lift it from next month, a senior government minister said yesterday.Last week in Lok Sabha, India’s External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna, making a suo motu statement, said that he […]