News

Christy Mahesh SilvaIndia will appoint a special representative who would work with the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration directly regarding a political solution to the North and East. This representative who is expected to be appointed soon is to visit Sri Lanka and may be based here on a long term basis. “The Indian government is not […]

DIG Ravi Wijewardena has been given the authority to purview and speed up the dengue eradicating programme covering all parts of the country.DIG Wijewardena is also in charge of the Puttalam District. His task is to use the police environment protection units and ‘Praja Police’ units to coordinate and speed up eradication programmes implemented in […]

by S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole This is the text of a Statement by Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole regarding Minister Douglas Devananda’ complaint to the Kayts Police on his article “Pitfalls in the President’s Alliance with the EPDP–A Visit to Kayts on Elections Day” (posted on Transcurrents on July 24th 2011)and the Police Questioning him about […]

The CPI(M) today demanded that the Sri Lankan government take specific measures for granting autonomy to Tamil-speaking areas in the northern and eastern regions of the island country.“The measures are essential for enabling the Tamil people to live a life of dignity and as equal citizens within a united Sri Lanka,” the CPI(M) said in […]

”Today’s Lanka is characterised by public cynicism, fear and institutional decay: fear among journalists of crossing invisible lines; cynicism about the country’s rulers and general disbelief in what they say; and the progressive decay of institutions that should protect human rights.”Rajan Hoole and Kopalasingham Sritharan, UTHR (Jaffna)“What is truth?” said jesting Pilate, and would not […]

 Dayan JayatillekaThe threatened suspension of talks by the Tamil National alliance benefits no one, the Tamils or the Sinhalese, the TNA or the government, the North or the South. Or if I may amend my statement immediately, it would benefit only the extremists on both sides of the ethnic fault lines, within and outside the […]

4th August 2011/This is the text of a press release issued by the Tamil National Alliance The TNA has received information that at a meeting held yesterday at Mullaitivu, attended by senior civilian and military officials, the following decisions have been arrived at:That the Internally Displaced Persons from the villages of Puthumathalan, Mullivaikkal West, Mullivaikkal East, […]

Sunday Times Political Editor The clock is ticking away for the Government of Sri Lanka. It is still debating whether or not to respond to a call by the United States for what it terms an “Interactive Dialogue” before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva beginning next month.That is through a discussion […]

Sri Lanka’s major Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) says that it has reached to a situation where they are unable to continue further talks with the government on political reforms.TNA parliamentarian M.A.Sumanthiran told BBC Sandeshaya that they are awaiting a response to three issues; the structure of governance, the subjects and functions allocated […]

V. Suryanarayan and Ashik Bonofer The results of elections to local bodies, held on March 17, 2011 and July 23, 2011 and subsequent comments made by Sinhalese and Tamil leaders clearly indicate that the ethnic divide in Sri Lanka is getting sharpened. Two years after the decimation of the Tigers the Government is determined to impose […]

Sri Lanka’s genocidal soldiers making lewd comments on the naked bodies of female victims killed in the war, suggesting that they were killed after rape has been documented in the Channel 4 documentary. While denying the documentation as fake to Headlines Today this week, Sri Lanka’s defence secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made a […]

Sri Lanka’s thirty year war is now more of words than of guns, but it is no less bitter. RNW’s team in the country met with fierce resistance from the Sri Lankan government to the current calls for justice from the international community.  But the problem is that the international community’s presence in the country […]

In an interview with ‘Lanka’ newspaper Media Minister, Mr Keheliya Rambukwella has said that the continuous assaults on media men are only minor incidents. The following are the excerpts of the interview with the questions and answers given by the Minister:‘What were the steps taken by you as the Media Minister on the assault on ‘Udayan’ […]

Text of a press release issued by Mr.Sajin Vass Gunewardane MP& Secretary of the Committee after suspension of talks with Govt by the TNAAt the meeting which the government delegation had with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on Thursday 4th August 2011 the TNA announced that they would not agree to set a date for […]

Society for Threatened People and TRIAL, two advocacy groups based in Europe, requested the Swiss Attorney General today to pursue war crimes charges against Jegath Dias, SriLanka’s deputy ambassador to Germany and former major general in Sri Lanka’s armed forces. The groups allege that Dias’s division was “responsible for massive bombing of civilians and hospitals,” […]

Lumbini KarandanaThe Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) alleged yesterday that a student who was selected for the university had died soon after undergoing the government leadership programme as a catarrhal problem of hers had worsened during the programme.ISUF Convener Sanjeewa Bandara told a media briefing that this student who was from Thennakongama, Welimada (in Badulla […]

Are they western or universal values?“You see why human rights and democracy are dying in Sri Lanka. It is because they are western values. What is wrong with Gotabhaya ? ” – India asked Sri Lanka GuardianA scholarly debate has begun in the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka after the last official visit by […]

Ranmali BandarageMonthly ‘visiting hours’ at the female ward of Sri Lanka’s notorious Welikada Prison are as traumatic for the inmates as they are for their family and friends. A tiny room, measuring 10 feet by seven feet, is divided in half by a mesh counter. On one side, mothers, fathers, children and relatives jostle for […]

The TNA said yesterday that they would not agree to set a date for the next round of talks with the government and that their willingness to continue participation in discussions with the government would be conditional, UPFA MP Sajin Vas De Gunawardane said in a statement.After a meeting between the TNA delegation and the […]

Indian External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna made today a statement to the Indian Parliament on the Situation in Sri Lanka in which he said the  sooner Sri Lanka can come to a political arrangement within which all the communities feel comfortable, and which works for all of them, the better. Here is the full text of the […]

”Now the country is struggling to convince U.N. and western-American power bloc with the support of Socialist and Marxist power block led by Russia and China. If they were against us still we would have take refuge of Western-U.S power bloc. We cannot rule out Western-U.S. power blocs would make sure that they will carve […]

”Time and again Colombo turned the tables on Delhi whenever the latter tried to be intrusive. It cannot be otherwise in the unfolding scenario. In geopolitical terms, India’s priority ought to have lied on regional stability rather than the cut and the thrust of the US-led ‘new great game’ in the Indian Ocean”. by M.K. […]

”Now it is the Indian public, especially the Tamil Nadu public that has to take care of the New Delhi establishment, political observers in Chennai commented.- Tamil Net ” In a Suo Motu statement in the Indian parliament, Indian foreign minister SM Krishna viewed that Sri Lanka’s problem for three decades was ‘terrorism’. “Sri Lanka […]

Picture of murdered aid workers Human Rights Watch has accused the Sri Lankan government of lacking the will to prosecute the security forces for the killings of 17 aid workers in 2006.There was widespread revulsion following the murders of the 16 Tamils and one Muslim in the north-eastern town of Muttur during the civil war.European […]

By JOHN HEILPRIN GENEVA — Two advocacy groups asked Swiss authorities Thursday to pursue war crime charges against a former Sri Lankan army commander now serving as a European diplomat, reflecting still-simmering Western concerns about the South Asian island nations’ human rights record. The Swiss-based groups Society for Threatened Peoples and TRIAL said they filed a […]

Underlining that the welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka is of utmost importance, India Thursday urged Sri Lanka to pursue a lasting political settlement that provides for harmonious co-existence of all communities, including minorities, in the island-nation.Making a suo moto statement in the Lok Sabha on “The Situation in Sri Lanka”, External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando “Decision in line with recommendations by JRJ’s Delimitation Committee’Polls Chief Mahinda Deshapriya yesterday defended his decision to reduce the number of elected members allocated to the Jaffna electoral district in line with the latest electoral register.Deshapriya emphasised that the reduction of elected MPs from 9 to 6 had been effected in keeping with […]

The two men who had assaulted chief news editor of the Jaffna based Uthayan newspaper, G. Kuganathan were still at large, police said.Police had deployed several teams into the area to arrest the two men who had arrived on a motorbike to assault the news editor. Inspector General of Police N.K. Ilangakoon has handed over […]

84 Sri Lankan pilgrims had come under attack in Chennai yesterday by goons describing themselves as ‘black tigers,’ family members of the Sri Lankans said.The Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai had transferred the pilgrims to a hotel in a safe area. Three of the 84 had been injured.     A relative of one of […]

Thousands of civilians died in the conflict Sri Lankan rights activists say the Defence Ministry report released on 1 August, acknowledging for the first time civilian deaths in the final days of the war, is a step forward, but caution that much depends on the government’s next move. “It’s a step in the right direction, […]