Reconciliation

This is the text of an official communique released by the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA), India on December 25 th2011- In response to a question the Official Spokesperson (MEA) said:    The report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), was tabled by the Government of Sri Lanka in its Parliament on 16 December. While […]

”It is not always possible to release to the public, all matters that take place in our talks with the Government. Our talks are however so structured to ensure that any political solution will be reasonable, workable and durable, and that it will conform to the aspirations of the majority of our people.  We are […]

Zacki JabbarThe government said yesterday that it was not prepared to adopt the Indian devolution model in Sri Lanka.  Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwalle,addressing the weekly cabinet press briefing in Colombo,said that ITAK which claims to represent the Tamil people,was trying to create a de-facto state by laying down conditions such as the re-merger of the […]

 R.K. Radhakrishnan The talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an umbrella group of Tamil political parties representing the Northern Tamils, is headed for another trough, with both sides levelling a series of allegations against the other. It began soon after the TNA expressed its views on the Lessons Learnt […]

Dr Rifai Recently chairman of the lesson learnt and reconciliation commission C. R.De Silva and his team published their report recommending many reconciliation steps to build a peaceful communal relationship between different communities in Srilanka. Some daily news papers have already begun to publish this report in series so that public will know what is […]

Dr Kumar DavidThe LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission) appointed by President Mahinda Rajapakse has submitted its report and it is now in the public domain. I do not intend to summarise the 460-pages but only to give my evaluation in a few paragraphs. I will follow this up with a short closing section in […]

Neville Ladduwahetty,While the subject of reconciliation is addressed in Chapter 8 of the LLRC report, recommendations as to how issues pertaining to reconciliation are addressed are contained in Chapter 9. There is bound to be disagreement as to the validity and relevance in respect of the totality of the recommendations. However, there has to be […]

”These events have left women and girls vulnerable at multiple levels. In the Vanni in particular, their housing is inadequate, and they have limited means of transportation and employment opportunities. Many do not have sufficient funds to feed their families, let alone to care for those who were maimed or disabled in the war. The […]

Jehan Perera  The initial reaction to the long awaited report of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission from the international human rights organizations was one of rejection.  They expressed their lack of satisfaction with the commission’s findings, some even going to the extent of calling it a white wash’.Their response would have been shaped […]

UPFA Parliamentarian Sajin Vass Gunawardena yesterday emphasized that any final solution to the Tamil question will only be through the PSC process. MP Gunawardena who is the Secretary of the committee appointed to have discussions with the TNA said there was no deadline agreed to or even discussed as to the committee proceedings. He was […]

 Kusal Perera Finally, the full report of the long awaited Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is in public domain, after it was presented in parliament on Friday (16 December, 2011) by the Leader of the House, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva. He in fact sounded very certain the recommendations would be carried out to […]

Saman IndrajithThe Lessons learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) has called for a joint declaration of apology from leaders of all sides to the country’s citizens who have suffered as a result of the 30 year long conflict. “Leaders of all sides should reach out to each other in humility and make a joint declaration, extending […]

Melani Manel PereraAlmost three since the end of the civil war, the northern peninsula has one one soldier for every 11 civilians, that is 40-50,000 troops out of a population of 600,000. About 39,000 war widows and 200,000 internally displaced people are still waiting. Tamils too are waiting for the government to provide housing, jobs, […]

On December 10th 2011, a group of 42 HRDs and political activists from the South of Sri Lanka were detained by police in the Northern town of Jaffna and prevented from attending a protest to mark international human rights day in Jaffna. Events to mark Human Rights Day including protests in other parts of Sri […]

Sumanasiri LiayanageAlthough I took up this and related issues many a time before, the current impasse in talks between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has compelled me to address those issues once again as, in my view, the resolution of the national question would be key to Sri […]

 Shamindra Ferdinando The JVP on Saturday (Dec. 10) said that those held for their alleged involvement with the LTTE should have been tried before Tamil speaking judges.  Launching a special political campaign in the Northern Province, the JVP lambasted the UPFA government for keeping LTTEsuspects in the dark as to what was going on in courts. […]

 [TamilNet] The Sri Lankan Police in the city of Mannaar has been backing a 10-member gang to fuel communal hatred among the sections of Tamil speaking people in Mannaar, legal sources in the city told TamilNet Tuesday. The ploy has come to light after the gang leader with Muslim name, allegedly a convert from Hindu […]

Land Issues in the Northern Province: Post-War Politics, Policy and Practices by Senior Researchers Bhavani Fonseka and Mirak Raheem at the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) is the most recent endeavour by CPA to critique and provide alternatives to land and related issues in the post-war Northern Province in Sri Lanka.Download the report as a […]

(The Hindu) Reiterating the commitment of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to continue the talks aimed at arriving on an amicable political solution for the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the TNA on Saturday urged the government “to honour the mutual agreement reached and not to place new impediments to achieving an acceptable political solution that […]

R. K. Radhakrishnan Work on translating the voluminous report of the committee that had studied the years since the collapse of the truce with the Tamil Tigers in 2002 to the end of the war in 2009 is set to begin soon. One official in the know said the report prepared by the Lessons Learnt […]

Maryam AzwerWhen The Sunday Leader interviewed R. Sampanthan a week ago, the TNA leader claimed that of the 50,000 houses the Government of India had donated to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka, only 50 had been fully completed.“According to our sources, when the Indian Foreign Secretary visited last month, only 50 houses had […]

Security in and around the Jaffna peninsula and the North has been tightened as the military has received information that a group was planning to paste posters in the area to mark  the birthday of Velupillai Prabhakaran.Jaffna Security Forces Commander Major General Mahinda Hathurasinghe noted that no celebration or activity will take place in the […]

 [TamilNet] Genocidal Sri Lanka occupying the country of Eezham Tamils continued for the third year in militarily preventing people observing the Heroes Day week ending on Sunday. SL military’s paranoia or arrogance of oppression has gone to the extent of ordering temples not to toll bells or light lamps during the week. Military is also […]

The Sri Lankan Government has decided to declare year 2012 as the Year for a Trilingual Sri Lanka aimed at motivating the people to acquire trilingual skills.A paper presented by president Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Cabinet suggests that far-seeing initiatives are  needed  to be taken to prevent the resurgence of terrorism which ravaged the country […]

Maryam AzwerLeader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Rajavarothiam Sampanthan, says the Tamils in the country are still not treated as equal citizens and have lost their dignity and self respect.  In an interview with The Sunday Leader, R. Sampanthan also spoke on Sinhalese settlement in the North and East, as well as local and […]

Srilankamirror – The TNA says the party’s aim is to conclude discussions with the government on finding a political solution to the ethnic issue by the end of the year.  Requests made by the TNA from the government to set a deadline to the discussions in order to make it more effective had not received […]

WATCHDOGs Changes since the end of the war: 30 months after the end of war, more people travel between the once off limits North[i] and the South and many of the travel restrictions have been eased. The dreaded Medawachiya checkpoint is no more, and since 2010, we have not taken a flight or ship to […]

(Srilankamirror) – TULF leader is advising president Mahinda Rajapaksa in good faith that no satisfactory permanent solution can ever be found to the national question under a unitary system of governance.   In a letter to president Rajapaksa, the TULF leader says, “I had been repeatedly saying that only the Indian Model will be acceptable to […]

 [TamilNet]Colombo government has recently given instructions to Ea’raavoor Urban Council chairman Ali Zahir Mowlana to bring 7 Tamil villages under his administration using the Urban Council, informed sources told reporters in Batticaloa. The villages Aa’rumukaththaan-kudiyiruppu, Tha’lavaay, Chavukkadi, Mayilampaave’li and wards No 1, 4 and 5 in the Ea’raavoor under the Ea’raavoor Chengkaladi Piratheasa Chapai (PS) […]

 M.R. Narayan Swamy (IANS) A prominent Sri Lankan politician who played a key role in the peace process says his country stands at ‘a critical point’ when decision makers need to make choices to help heal the wounds of a war that ended two years ago.‘We stand at a critical point. We have an opportunity […]