News

2011-06-14 In any military conflict injured and captured fighters are supposed to be treated in a dignified manner according to international law and Geneva Conventions. Injured fighters are supposed to have been given medical attention without any undue delay. However Sri Lankan military personnel seem to have disregarded all international law, humanity and abused dead and […]

Once you’ve got past its annoying ‘take me seriously’ tics, Luther is pure escapist TV drama He’s deep, he’s troubled and he doesn’t play by the rules. It’s the generic tag-line for every maverick cop show and Luther (BBC1) is no exception. At the end of the last series, Luther’s wife had been killed by […]

The government presented a bill to the parliament on 2011.05.08 allegedly to grand pension benefits to employees in the private sector. It is clear that by this retirement benefit bill, the government is aiming to gradually prune the   EPF, ETF and Gratuity Benefits and to get control of these funds to gain economic benefits out […]

What new footage and new evidence of war crimes is in the Channel 4 documentary?•    Previously unaired mobile phone footage of point-blank extrajudicial executions of three people, including a woman.  •    Previously unaired mobile phone footage of dead Tamil Tigers, including women,,that suggests sexual abuse.•    First video testimony of a Tamil woman who says she […]

 Basil Fernando,This is a discussion on the serious crisis of law in Sri Lanka. 33 years of the promulgation of the present Constitution, what is legal and what is not has been obliterated in Sri Lanka. As an illustration of the crisis of law, three incidents are discussed:• The killing of young Chanake Roshanne; a […]

 V. Anandasangaree, D. Sitharthan and T. Sritharan met the Indian Delegation at the India House on 11th Saturday at 11.30 hrs and the TULF Leader submitted a memorandum, the contents of which are as follows:- Without allowing things to go out of control, the delegates should explore the possibilities of persuading the Government to agree […]

13 June 2011/ by Nirmalan DhasIn General, The imposition of this leadership training program or any training program on the human community – with the exception of programs that train people to resist programming – is likely to interfere with the free evolutionary development of human being and therefore deserves to be resisted.The education system […]

 13 June 2011 The Police Department has launched an awareness campaign via local newspapers informing the public that they would able to get details of detainees and those who are already released from detention by the Terrorist Investigation Division. Accordingly, “…a round-the-clock mechanism has been established in the following  locations from 01.04.2011, to provide details […]

Creating waves on her first visit to the national capital after her landslide victory, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister arrived here on a two-day visit, ostensibly to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss problems concerning her state.However, within two hours of her landing here, the chief minister made it a politically high-profile visit as she […]

| IANS –  Jun 13, 2011 New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) Sri Lanka is treating people in its Tamil-majority northeast as ‘aborigines’, a Tamil delegation told a team of Indian officials in Colombo. ‘It is very unfortunate that the (Sri Lankan) government does not allow people and officials of the north and east to manage their […]

June 13, 2011/by Norman Palihawadana The CID probing the May 30 police attack on employees of the Katunayake Export Processing Zone (EPZ) claims that it has identified, through video images, several youth from outside the zone and among them are undergraduates who attacked the police with stones and poles. Police sources said that when they […]

Sutirtho Patranobis,/ June 11, 2011     India has conveyed to Sri Lanka that it was up to the island nation’s government to change the 13th Amendment to bring in a suitable political resolution that will enable all communities in the country to live together. The 13th Amendment to the Lankan Constitution was made in 1987 as […]

 11 June 2011,/ By Janith AranzeSince the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) viewed Channel 4’s startling documentary Killing Fields, depicting Tamil prisoners being summarily executed by Sri Lankan soldiers, the government refuses to acknowledge the documentary as a credible source.Jon Snow will present “Killing Fields” on June 14 – pic: Guardian.co.uk However, an extensive […]

Excerpt of the letter handed over to the UN High Commission for Human Rights – Ms. Navaneetham Pillai.As an organization which consistently pays careful attention to realities in Sri Lanka, we would like to present our observations below for your kind consideration.During the 16th session of the Human Rights Council, Sri Lanka Minister, Mr. Mahinda […]

 12 June 2011Taking part in a meeting organized by a London based Tamil media association in Southall in London on Saturday, celebrated writer Arundhati Roy termed the war on Eezham Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka as genocide that was allowed to happen by the world. “The most horrific things I have seen and […]

12 June 2011A 41-year-old Sinhala policeman from Ki’linochchi police station was found beaten to death at Umaiyaa’lpuram in Paranthan in Vanni Sunday morning. The dead body in civil, with beaten injuries on face and chest, was first believed to be a civilian and was taken to the mortuary at Ki’linochchil hospital. Later, the body was […]

R. K. RadhakrishnanTaking into consideration “the tendency of the major Opposition parties to blame the government for all problems,” Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance have lobbed the ball back at the Opposition on what kind of autonomy the Northern Province should get.Mr. Rajapaksa had earlier stated that he […]

 Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne read his script with dutiful assiduity, requesting the parliament to support the Emergency, because ‘the security authorities are continuing to hunt for LTTE remnants in the South’. By Tisaranee Gunasekara“Any excuse will serve a tyrant” Aesop (Fables)It was the time of the month to conjure the Tiger from the dead, […]

By Dr. Vickramabahu KarunaratneMany decades ago in1947 June 5, comrade Velupillai Kandasamy a young member of the GCSU, was killed while participating in a demonstration. He was a clerical officer of the department of health and sanitary services and was killed by police firing ordered by the British police superintendent Robins. He was participating in […]

11 June 2011 Visiting Indian National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said that it is up to the Sri Lankan government to find a political solution which it is comfortable with and India is not interfering in the matter.Mr. Menon stated that India would refrain from interfering in the matter which was “up to the Sri […]

Colombo, June 12Sri Lanka has told India it will not concede key land and police powers to provincial councils under a New Delhi-initiated political plan aimed at resolving the long-drawn Tamil issue, a media report said today, warning that it could bring the two sides on ”a collision course.” President Mahinda Rajapaksa told a visiting […]

The Sri Lanka government is accused of ordering police attack against the FTZ workersA group of powerful trade union federations representing workers in the apparel industry and the health sector have complained to the United Nations seeking an intervention against the restrictions imposed by the government on trade union activity.In a complaint to the International […]

By Namini Wijedasalobal politics is notoriously skewed. Large, powerful, white governments get away with murder even when it is committed on the territories of other countries. Sri Lanka does not have this luxury.We already knew that. We are always bleating about it. But unless Sri Lanka has a formula up its sleeve that will cure […]

Devananda advocates Select CommitteeTraditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development Minister and General Secretary of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party, Douglas Devananda presented a proposal to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the visiting Indian delegation that a Parliamentary Select Committee be appointed to find a speedy solution to the national question in the country.Minister Devananda has proposed […]

President conveys decision to Indian officials, collision course fearedBy Our Diplomatic EditorPresident Mahinda Rajapaksa told a high-powered Indian delegation yesterday his government was not able to concede land and police powers to provincial councils in accordance with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.The move, the Sunday Times learns, follows strong opposition from constituent partners of […]

 11 June 2011/ By Yohan Perera Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardene and UNP National Organizer Ravi Karunanayake had a show down in Parliament yesterday over the payment of salaries to security personnel working for a state owned security firm, ‘Rakna Arakshana Lanka Ltd’.Mr. Karunanayake, during question time in the House, raised a supplementary question and […]

by Basil Fernando Five hundred days after the disappearance of journalist and cartoonist, Prageeth Eknaligoda, the family and friends of Prageeth as well as media organizations and human rights organizations took to the streets to demand for inquiries into his disappearance. A serious transformation has taken place in the criminal justice system of Sri Lanka. […]

June 9, 2011/ by Dasun EdirisingheThe Inter Company Employees’ Union (ICEU) has written to the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), in Athens, about the police attack on a workers’ protest, which killed one employee and injured more than 300 at the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Katunayake.General Secretary of the ICEU Janaka Adikari said […]

In the Hague, the International Criminal Court had issued arrest warrants on Libyan leader Gaddafi and his son for crimes against humanity. Both, whom the emergent Rajapakse dynasty in Lanka had been cultivating, had their assets frozen. 9 June 2011,/By Darini Rajasingham SenanayakeThe Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,Moves on: nor all your Piety nor […]

10 June 2011In order to absolve the Sri Lanka Army occupying the Tamil country from international accusations, but at the same time to continue terrorisation and subjugation of Tamils, genocidal Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has formed a private army in the north consisting of military intelligence personal and some members […]