Reconciliation

 [TamilNet] Expressing dismay at the “chauvinistic attitude” of the Sri Lankan state, former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Friday the international community was united in its criticism of Sri Lanka’s conduct in the north and east and that SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa would not be welcomed internationally unless conditions there improved.“I […]

” We have very clearly stated our position with regard to that. In our meetings with the Sri Lanka Tamil community in Canada and UK, Mr. Sampanthan has told them that our objective is to find a political solution within an undivided, united country and that we cannot be running two courses. This is our […]

Story and photos by N. Parameswaran There are still some 34.000 people, or 2,000 families, living in welfare centres or rented houses in the Jaffna district, close on two years after the conflict in the North and East ended. Another 7,100 displaced Jaffna residents are housed in refugee camps in India, as shown in the […]

An evaluation report by Norway of its peace efforts in Sri Lanka between 1997 and 2009 has named presidential advisor and Minister Basil Rajapaksa as the person through whom the LTTE leadership tried to negotiate a last-minute surrender deal before the entire hierarchy of the group was killed in May, 2009.“In the night between May […]

Jonathan Goodhand and Bart Klem and Gunnar SorboNorwegian peace efforts in Sri Lanka have been the subject of heated debate and controversy, ever since they became public in December 1999. This debate has spawned many different stories about Norway’s involvement in Sri Lanka, some of them very critical. The evaluation entitled “Pawns of Peace”, which […]

 AYESHA ZUHAIR The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) yesterday strongly defended its decision to hold political discussions with US State Department officials in Washington and said the TNA delegation had not discussed anything that had not already been stated by the party publicly in Sri Lanka.In an interview with Daily Mirror TNA parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran said, […]

(LBO) – A controversial new way to register land in Sri Lanka’s former war zones outside established procedure has been stayed by the island’s Court of Appeal with the state also not objecting, lawyers said.  In July 2011, Sri Lanka’s Commissioner General of Lands had issued a circular Regulating the Activities Regarding Management of Lands […]

Nita Bhalla(AlertNet) The packed buses hurtle along the once forbidden, dusty A9 highway from the Sri Lankan capital across the former frontline to the “liberated” north – a region held by the defeated Tamil Tiger separatists for the best part of a quarter of a century.Along the way, the buses stop and passengers descend into […]

Andrew Buncombe His name was Abi, he was six, and the last his family glimpsed of him was in the frenzied moments after deadly shells struck close to the bunker where they had been sheltering. His sisters were gravely injured, his mother too, and the young boy put his arm around her. “Mother,” he sobbed […]

 Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne This government is going along the path of destruction; that is looking from the side of the poor and the proletariat. Prices are rising, while incomes of workers are not rising to compensate for inflation. In reality, people have become poorer, as their buying power is becoming less and less.Art, music, drama and […]

Refugee agencies have blasted a ruling by a Swiss federal court backing the repatriation of rejected asylum seekers to post-civil-war Sri Lanka. The Federal Administrative Court said despite existing human rights concerns it was still safe to send asylum seekers back to all but one area of Sri Lanka – thereby upholding a decision made […]

 Sri Lanka will make public its report into the end of the civil war with the Tamil Tigers, the foreign minister said on Tuesday, seeking to allay concerns in the West, which has in the past pushed for an international probe into war crimes allegations. Seven diplomats, from Western nations, India and others, have told Reuters […]

The statue of Thanthai Chelva (SJV Chelvanayakam) located near the Sivan Temple at Thirugnaanasampanthar Street in Trincomalee was decapitated on Sunday night. People who were enraged to notice the desecration on Monday morning placed a cloth on the headless statue. Local people suspect genocidal elements occupying Trincomalee for timing the act, when the Tamil National […]

Sunanda Deshapriya Muammar Gaddafi was captured alive and killed thereafter. This is a fact that no one contests today. Even the killer himself accepted the responsibility in front of a mobile camera.  Once any individual is captured, in spite of the crimes allegedly committed by the person, whether victim or perpetrator,  due process and the […]

”A new human rights commissioner — the lynchpin of the reform report — is no longer needed in the form recommended, said Kamalesh Sharma, the Commonwealth’s secretary general.  That’s because a ministerial management group has been given new powers to enforce human rights abuses.” Bruce CheadleCommonwealth leaders have agreed to develop “one clear, powerful statement” […]

Shamindra Ferdinando Sri Lanka had thwarted an attempt by a minute section of the Commonwealth and the LTTE to humiliate Sri Lanka, at the CHOGM 2011, External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris said yesterday. Addressing the Sri Lankan media at the conclusion of the three-day biennial in Perth, Prof. Peiris said that Sri Lanka faced […]

The triple diplomatic triumph achieved by Sri Lanka at the just concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, is a veritable Vote of Confidence in this country by the majority of Commonwealth countries, and constitutes a high moment in this country’s international relations.External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris, who is quoted extensively […]

”According to TNA leader M.A. Sumanthiran, after May 2009, the defence forces have occupied more than 7,000 sq km of land owned by Tamil people. There is one member of the armed forces for approximately every 10 civilians in the Jaffna Peninsula. ”R. K. Radhakrishnan Even as Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and its diplomatic […]

”Every single survey from 2006 onwards was fully supportive of the President fighting the LTTE but equally supportive of a political solution, so one cannot accuse the Sinhalese of being racist.  Both the government and the TNA will have to recognise that there are extremists on either side who would prefer not to have a […]

Natasha Chaku  Disclosing that the next meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) will go ahead in Sri Lanka in 2013, Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd today said some nations may boycott it. “It will be a matter for individual governments how they then view matters unfolding in Sri Lanka between now and when […]

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today reiterated the importance of dealing with accountability issues as Sri Lanka continues to work towards national reconciliation following its long-running civil war. Mr. Ban stressed the point during a meeting at United Nations Headquarters with Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Special Envoy of the President of Sri Lanka on Human Rights. The meeting […]

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse has emphasized that no room should be left to nullify the freedom accorded to the country by the war heroes by eliminating tiger terrorism. He has said that pro-LTTE elements are still attempting to spread wrong opinions within the country and re-group once again.  He has emphasized that these attempts should […]

M.A. Sumanthiran 1. IntroductionOn 7th July 2011 I tabled a report in Parliament detailing the situation in the North and East, highlighting a series of urgent concerns. The following is an update to the previous report and discusses some of the most serious issues that have arisen since or continue to take place in these […]

”The physical and emotional pain that has been handed down through generations in Sri Lanka during the last five decades has mainly been the inevitable outcomes of past policies followed by the successive governments, based on discrimination and social exclusion. The players, particularly parties to the conflict, have continued their unceasing confrontational politics. The current […]

Robert MuggahThere is something rotten going on in Sri Lanka. More than two years after comprehensively dispensing with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elaam (LTTE), the government is at risk of losing the peace. Rather than reducing the presence of the armed forces in occupied areas and promoting a peaceful transition, the government is instead […]

The occupying Sri Lanka Navy in Jaffna has again introduced pass system for fishermen engaging in fishing in the Jaffna lagoon, fishing community leaders in Jaffna csaid. During the recent election campaign in the North, the SLgovernment had annonced that it was withdrawing the pass system which has been in practice for several years. However, […]

Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka Project Director and Senior Analyst, International Crisis Group speaks to Daily Mirror on its motives for screening the controversial Channel 4 documentary,’Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ in the European Parliament, the LLRC process and Sri Lanka’s process of peace.  Q: What was the ICG’s motive for organising the screening of the controversial […]

TamilNetThirty Sinhalese families have been allocated lands under the Mahaweli Development Land Distribution Scheme in a traditional Tamil village Oamadiyaamadu located in Koa’ralaippattu North DS division in Batticaloa district. This planned land grab in Batticaloa district is being carried out on the direction of Colombo government led by SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa.To a plea not […]

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and several other Tamil parties have commenced a protest in Vavuniya focusing on three main issues.,Vauniya MP Sivasakthi Anandan said that the protest began this morning and will continue till evening today. New Assistant Government Agent Divisions (AGAD) are being created within the Welioya AGAD in the Mullaitivu District and […]

A Sri Lankan Tamil party delegation today (Oct. 10) impressed upon visiting Indian foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai that finding an early solution to the ethnic question will be the only answer to many serious issues faced by their community.V. Anadasangaree, D. Siddharthan and T. Sritharan representing the Tamil United Liberation Front, PLOTE and EPRLF Pathmanabha […]