rule of law

If the Government says that it is flawed as it has been quick to do, surely would not the simplest option have been to issue a sober and calm denunciation of its contents and findings without all this unseemly hysteria?   By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene Could anything have betrayed our desperation more clearly than the […]

By Saroj Pathirana The Attorney General (AG) and the police have been ordered to release all Tamils in custody for longer periods without charges says Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice (CJ). CJ Asoka de Silva said he has taken measures to provide relief to the Tamil detainees during his two-year tenure in the office. “We have […]

By Saroj Pathirana Efforts to reduce the sweeping powers of the executive president failed due to the actions of Sri Lanka’s opposition, says the chief justice. CJ Asoka de Silva said the status quo of the 1978 constitution that authorised the executive president to make all senior appointments to the judiciary was re-established by the […]

Sunday Leader that acting on instructions, votes for President Rajapaksa were polled a couple of hundred times from a single computer. This was then repeated from other computers too. By Maryam Azwer 1) Rain, South Korean pop star, 2) Jay Chou, Taiwanese director, singer, songwriter, 3) Susan Boyle, British singer, 4) Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of […]

Apr 23, 2011 (LBO) – A much respected retired Sri Lankan business executive, financial professional, Chandra Jayaratne, has written President Mahinda Rajapaksa to stop state plans to build a controversial pension fund by dipping its hands into the salaries of private sector workers.Jayarante has been actively campaigning to improve the liberties of all the people […]

20.April.2011After the Mannar Headquarters police took into custody three youths as suspects on a complaint made to the police by a female District Secretary that she was sexually molested, the Minister for Industries and trade, Rishard Badurdeen and his supporters had raided the police station and forcibly removed the three suspects in police custody and […]

The report on Sri Lanka which was submitted by the UN Expert Panel appointed by the General Secretary Ban Ki Moon was prepared under the influence of bribes by LTTE sympathizers according to the National Freedom Front Leader, Minister Wimal Weerawansa.  He claimed that according to information that has been received, the LTTE supporting Tamil […]

Finally, who ever has heard of Rain, the South Korean songster who takes precedence over our great leader in the Time Poll of the 100 most influential personalities in the world? An official government release on this stresses that the president is the leading politician in the poll. Now at number 2, he has seen […]

Basil FernandoCan there be development in the modern context without law? This is a relevant question in today’s context where is lot of talk of development on one hand but where there is lawlessness in the country. Can development and lawlessness co-exist? In answering this question it is better to have a glance at the […]

The politics of habeas corpus and the marginal role of the Sri Lankan courts under the 1978 constitution The protection of the freedoms of individuals and the functioning of public institutions are therefore deeply linked. The public institutions, if they are managed for the achievement of various goals of the government, such as development, national […]

Three senior police officers transferredSuspect left minister’s staff on Thursday – Press Secy By Lal Gunasekera Three top police officials have been transferred with immediate effect over their failure to take action against extortionists. Officers of the Colombo Crime Division on Sunday arrested Public Relations Minister Mervyn Silva’s Parliament Affairs Secretary Jayasena Mudiyanselage Buddhi and […]

By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene Very few thinking people in Sri Lanka will assert in all good conscience that the office of the Attorney General has been free from political controversy as a matter of historical fact. That last rider is important lest it should be thought by a misguided few that all the evil began […]

by Tisaranee Gunasekara “Though everyone bowed down before you,Saying virtue and wisdom lit your way,Striking gold medals in your honour,Glad to have survived another day,Do not feel safe…” Czeslaw Milosz (You who Wronged) Another emergency debate brought forth another apocryphal tale, to justify the unjustifiable. During the previous Emergency debate, the Prime Minister perorated portentously […]

The 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued by the US State Department includes serious violations of human rights in Sri Lanka.  It states despite Lanka being a constitutional, multiparty republic President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his family; two of the president’s brothers hold key executive branch posts as defense secretary and minister of economic […]

A motion presented by the JVP Member Wimal Piyatissa demanding the government to reveal names and places of detention of those persons detained on charges of taking part in LTTE activities during the war period and several other issues confronted by the people in the North was passed in the Eastern Provincial Councils on Wednesday. […]

Traditional seine-net beaches (Karaivalai-paadu) of Eezham Tamils in the coastal tracts of Mullaiththeevu district are grabbed and distributed among Sinhala fishermen from the south by a team of SL fisheries officials from the south. The excuse is that the local Tamil fishermen in the LTTE controlled areas did not register their seine-net stretches with the […]

2010 Human Rights Report: Sri LankaBureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices April 8, 2011 Sri Lanka is a constitutional, multiparty republic with a population estimated at 21 million. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was reelected to a second six-year term in January, and the parliament, which was elected in […]

    ‘If there was no evidence why did the AG file the charges?’The former Chief Justice (CJ) of Sri Lanka has questioned the legality of Attorney General’s (AG) withdrawal of murder and rape charges filed against government politicians. Sarath Nanda Silva, the former CJ who held the position for over ten years said that the […]

Dr. P. Saravanamutthu Over the last so many weeks and still continuing, there have been a number of critical reports on the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA)- the election monitoring body of which CPA serves as the Secretariat, the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (MEV), in particular – the National Peace Council (NPC), and Transparency […]

By Sandun A. Jayasekera Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development Dulles Alahapperuma said it was regrettable and a matter of shame that the development of the construction industry has been stunted due to corruption and quality failure while other countries have shown tremendous progress in this sector. Addressing a ceremony held after laying the […]

Devolution promised for N&E, disenfranchising South – Tissa Attanayakeby Zacki Jabbar The UNP is to institute legal action against a government move to convert five local bodies in Colombo into a Corporation.General Secretary of the UNP Tissa Attanayake told a news conference in Colombo yesterday, that they will move Court to ensure that the Mahinda […]

April 5th has significance to Sri Lanka due to the JVP uprising of 1971. The word uprising has been used for this event by way of an exaggeration. The exaggeration came mainly from the then-government and its propaganda machinery, supported also by UNP, who were the main opposition party, in unleashing unrestrained repression to suppress […]

Urgent Amnesty International Action/ Student fears for safety after deaths threatsA Sri Lankan student who complained that his law school’s final exams were being managed unfairly was abducted, interrogated and threatened with death before being released. On the morning of 4 March law student D.M. Thushara Jayaratne was waiting at a bus stop in the […]

 The London based human rights watchdog Amnesty International has expressed concern over the lack of proper investigation into the abduction of a whistle blower.DM Thushara Jayaratne, a final year Law College student was abducted, interrogated and threatened with death on 04 March, according the rights watchdog. The Human Rights Commission in Sri Lanka (SLHRC) has […]

By Sandun A. Jayasekera Changes in legislations are on the cards whereby the Elections Commission would be vested with the authority to fix dates for elections and make re-poll compulsory in the event of an annulment, sources said. These are the major proposals among others made to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms, (Committee) […]

By Tisaranee Gunasekara “….doing violence to the spirit of thousands of laws without actually running afoul of so much as a city ordinance.”— Kurt Vonnegut (The Sirens Of Titan) The campaign to replace popular sovereignty with Rajapaksa sovereignty swung into top-gear last week. The regime announced that the Colombo Municipal Council and four other local […]

The appointment of a convicted criminal to the Board of Commercial Bank by the government has raised eye brows among senior bankers in the country. Lakshman Hulugalle, the Director General, Media Centre for National Security has been appointed to the Board of Commercial Bank by the government. In 1989 Hulugalle was given a two year […]

“If you remember, when you came into power you said, about opening up the economy, that you saw no harm in letting the robber barons come. Now you are trying to make barons out of robbers.” Two days ago, Sam Wijesinha, former Secretary-General of Parliament, had reportedly given a talk at the Open University of […]

These days there is considerable discussion about investigations into some NGOs in Sri Lanka. The president himself is talking in public about this issue and already implying that there is some kind of wrong doing on the part of some NGOs. This has also been followed by several media channels. Therefore some simple reflections on […]

By Manopriya Gunasekara Questioning the Attorney General’s withdrawal of murder charges and acquitting the accused in the Nampamunuwa murder case – former MP Chandana Kathriarachchi and three others – lawyer J.C. Weliamuna, watching the interests of the deceased said that the action was illegal. Former MP Kathriarachchi and three others were charged for murdering a […]