Reconciliation

As most of you are aware India’s minister of External Affairs SM Krishna is currently in Sri Lanka. Krishna is a Kannadiga and a former chief minister of the South Indian state of Karnataka.  A highlight of the Indian foreign ministers Lankan trip was his visit to the Northern Province where many Tamils reside. Krishna […]

The Sri Lankan Army has warned ex-LTTE rebels that joining any groups looking to destabilise the country will result in their arrest.  Commissioner General of Rehabilitation Major General Chandana Rajaguru, speaking to The Sunday Leader, explained that any former LTTE cadre who is found to be involved with groups looking to destabilise the country will […]

Tiger fascism and Sinhala supremacism: two inimical but mutually sustaining extremisms which have been the bane of post-independence Ceylon/Sri Lanka. Sinhala supremacism created a language issue, prevented its resolution and enabled its metamorphosis into an ethnic problem.  Tiger fascism rendered a negotiated settlement of the war impossible and murdered many Sinhala and Tamil moderates who […]

Control over territory was central, to the LTTE’s futile battle for a separate homeland. Now, nearly three years after the war ended, ownership of land in the north and east remains a complicated, controversial and tangled mess.  Two new reports shed light on serious disputes related to property throughout the north and east. Much of […]

 Javid Yusuf  – With the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, space has opened up for consideration, in an open and dispassionate manner, of the core issues that gave rise to the conflict. However, realisation has dawned on most people that this is not merely an opportunity for such an exercise, but also that, […]

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement on the final report of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission: “Canada notes the public release of the report of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. Although we are still studying the report, the commission has addressed and provided recommendations in some areas […]

An advisor to the Sri Lankan president has suggested setting up a temporary ministry to fast-track the reconciliation process following the end of the dragging ethnic conflict. Rajiva Wijesinha, the advisor on reconciliation to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said a separate ministry for reconciliation, with responsibilities of implementing the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt […]

In the present-day world where politics is invariably trumped by economics, India has to have a drastic rethinking of its policy in favour of economically empowering the Tamils in Sri Lanka as a sustainable solution for their rehabilitation, former diplomat G. Parthasarathy said on Sunday.In a lecture on ‘Personal Recollections of Relations with Sri Lanka […]

”Despite all these achievements since the restoration of peace, the LTTE cadre, activists and sympathisers in foreign nations do their best to portray a bleak picture about Sri Lanka today. Unfortunately, their efforts to discredit Sri Lanka’s progress are sometimes helped by individuals and groups within Sri Lanka whose actions are governed by petty politics. […]

Uditha Kumarasinghe – Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Minister Wimal Weerawansa said the approach adopted by the LLRC Report is of paramount importance for the Government’s reconciliation process. The Minister told the Sunday Observer that the need of the hour is to strengthen bilateral relations with friendly countries and also to win over […]

(Disna MUDALIGE ) The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report sets the framework for practical reconciliation in Sri Lanka, said Australian Member of Parliament Telmo Languiller who is on a brief visit to look into the ground situation in post war Sri Lanka. Addressing a media conference in Colombo yesterday he welcomed both the […]

(B.M. MURSHIDEEN ) The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has expressed its disappointment over the statement by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the devolution of power.  TNA National List Parliamentarian M.A Sumanthiran now on an overseas visit told the Daily Mirror yesterday over the phone that President Rajapaksa was obviously going back on his words.“After the […]

Tamil United Liberation Front(TULF) Secretary – General and former Parliamentarian Veerasingham Anandasangaree has in a letter written to President Mahinda Rajapaksa stressed that a solution to the Ethnic problem is needed immediatelyHere is the text of the TULF leader’s letter: 2011.12.26 His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa,President of the Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka,Temple Trees,Colombo – 03 […]

Brushing aside the criticism that he is nowhere near delivering a political solution even 30 months after ending the Eelam war, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has blamed Tamils, within the country and outside, for the delay by refusing to participate in the consultative process authored by him.“The parliamentary select committee [PSC] is a good […]

The Russian Government on December 22, said that the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) will help accelerate the national reconciliation process and strengthen peace in Sri Lanka.Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich in a statement said the commission has made serious work on all aspects of the conflict that ended in […]

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 […]