By Sujeeva Nivunhella in London

Canadian special envoy to the Commonwealth Senator Hugh Segal said Canada will not boycott the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka.

PM Harper visits Yellowknife to announce a devolution agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories, Mar 11, 2013-pic: PMWebPhotos

Senator Segal, who will be arriving in Colombo tomorrow morning, on a fact-finding mission, talking exclusively to the Sunday Island in London said that there will be a Canadian delegation in Colombo for CHOGM and “Canada is sorting out as we speak the level of that delegation”.

Segal, who was in London, to attend the Commonwealth Day celebrations, however, said that the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not attend the summit.

Continue reading ‘Canada Will Not Boycott The Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka But Prime Minister Harper Will Not Attend It’ »

By
C.A.Chandraprema

The original draft of the US resolution that was circulated to members of the UNHRC had a number of provisions which no country will accept. The very delay in finalising this draft is an indication of how unacceptable they are (or were depending on whether they have been revised by the time this reaches the reader). The UNHRC Independent Expert on the Promotion of an Equitable International Order stressed in his interim report that there should be ‘a renewed commitment to the UN Charter’ as the constitution of the modern world and ‘rigorous respect’ for Articles 1 and 2 of the Charter. The Independent Expert also called upon the UN General Assembly to ‘reclaim’ leadership in asserting the values that underlie the UN Charter.

Continue reading ‘Original Draft of US Resolution on Sri Lanka at UN in Geneva has Several Provisions Which No Country can Accept’ »

By AMY KARAFIN

As soon as I arrived at the temple, an old man caught my eye and directed me to the inner sanctum. It was hot outside, and the sun was strong. But it was even hotter in the temple, where hundreds of festivalgoers had gathered.

Naguleswaram Shiva Temple.

Once I walked beyond the crowds and entered the dark, smoky chamber, the air was cooler, though, with scents of burning ghee and faded coconut. The Hindu god Murugan, popular among the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, was in his alcove, garlanded in flowers and lighted by dozens of tiny oil lamps. I’m not a Hindu and tend toward agnostic, but my mother was sick, and the vibes here were strong. So I prayed.
Continue reading ‘Temples, Islands and Surreally Beautiful Landscapes of Jaffna’ »

by

Shamindra Ferdinando

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday said that a section of the Tamil Nadu fishing fleet had been propagating lies against the navy at the behest of interested parties, while poaching and causing immense damage to fishery resources in the country’s northern waters.

The Defence Secretary said that much publicised claims of recent attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen were lies timed for the ongoing United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva. “They are working overtime to show us in bad light. Ongoing protests in Tamil Nadu are part of their overall strategy,” the outspoken official said.

Continue reading ‘Tamil National Alliance Must Take up Cause of Our Fishermen with Indian and Tamil Nadu Govts says Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’ »

By

A Special Correspondent

Movie Star Khushboo, now a member of DMK with and DMK Leader Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi in January 2013

The DMK on Friday night threatened to quit the UPA government unless the U.S.-sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka in the United Nations Human Rights Council was strengthened with a firm demand for an independent international probe into war crimes.
Continue reading ‘Karunanindhi Says DMK will Quit Central Govt Unless India Strengthens US resolution at UN with Firm demand for Probe on Sri Lankan War Crimes’ »

By

K. Balchand

Amid the diplomatic parleys to chalk out India’s stand at the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has categorically said the stress will be on an impartial and transparent enquiry into allegations of atrocities against them.

Continue reading ‘India for Impartial and Transparent Probe into Allegations of Atrocities by Sri Lanka -Indian Foreign Minister’ »

The government has asked 438 arts and science colleges in Tamil Nadu to be closed immediately till further orders as student organisations across the state gear up to organise massive protests from Monday.

The students are demanding that India vote against Sri Lanka on a resolution expected to be moved at a meeting of the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in Geneva this month.

Continue reading ‘Tamil Nadu Govt of Jayalalithaa shuts down 438 Arts and Science colleges to prevent student protests against Sri Lanka’ »

(Compiled from Indian News reports in Indian Print and electronic Media)

Protest by the student community expressing solidarity with Eelam Tamils gathered pace in the central region on Thursday with agitations reported across Tiruchi and neighbouring districts. However, there were no arrests.

Students of Ambedkar Law University staging a protest against the Sri Lankan Government in Chennai on Monday. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan-courtesy of: The Hindu

Even as close to 1,000 students of Bharathidasan University, including a large section of girls, commenced their two-day fast in front of the main entrance along the Tiruchi-Pudukkottai Highway, a group of students of a couple of government colleges attempted to lock the head post office and the main branch of the State Bank of India, before proceeding to the Railway Junction and detaining two trains.
Continue reading ‘Widespread Student Protests in Tamil Nadu Over Sri Lankan Tamil Issue Gather Increasing Momentum’ »

By
Frances Harrison

Hugh Segal

Canada’s special envoy for the Commonwealth Hugh Segal is on his way to Sri Lanka as pressure mounts to relocate the Commonwealth’s heads of government meeting being held in Colombo later this year because of concerns over deteriorating human rights.

Canada’s Prime Minister has said he has no plan to attend the meeting if it’s held in Sri Lanka. Britain says it has yet to decide, though a parliamentary foreign affairs select committee recommended the Prime Minister stay away and there are unconfirmed reports that the Queen, who heads the Commonwealth, will not attend.
Continue reading ‘Canadian Special Envoy for Commonwealth Hugh Segal on his Way to Colombo for Discussions on Commonwealth Summit 2013’ »

by
New Delhi Bureau

Amid uproar in Parliament, the Centre summoned the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner to South Block and demanded speedy release of 53 Indian fishermen arrested by the island Navy. (Nineteen were arrested on Wednesday and the rest on Thursday)

With irate parliamentarians from Tamil Nadu attacking the government for its feeble response, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and his deputy Preneet Kaur made statements in either House promising a lasting solution.

Continue reading ‘India Summons Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner to South Block to Demand Speedy Release of 53 Fishermen Arrested for Poaching in Sri Lankan Waters’ »

By
A Special Correspondent

Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa

Reacting strongly to the arrest of Tamil Nadu fishermen in the last two days by the Sri Lankan navy, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa demanded on Thursday that the island nation’s envoy be summoned urgently to lodge India’s strong protest and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intervene to ensure their early release.

Continue reading ‘Jayalalithaa Demands That Sri Lankan Envoy be Summoned Urgently to Lodge Protest Over Arrest of Tamil Nadu Fishermen by Lankan Navy’ »

By

Phil Miller

In a hotel by the tranquil shores of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam is catching his breath from the relentless repression faced by Tamil activists in Sri Lanka.

Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam – pic: twittter/tnpforg

He is here to attend the UN Human Rights Council’s 22nd session, which will examine the situation in his homeland this month.
Continue reading ‘Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam Got Into Trouble With The Sri Lankan Govt For Trying to Travel Abroad’ »

by

Rajpal Abeynayake

Why isn’t your government implementing its own LLRC recommendations?

That’s the refrain of those who have made the Geneva UNHRC sessions an article of faith, to coax the Sri Lankan nation to take cognizance of reconciliation issues after the war.

In pursuance of that task, they say that there are so many recommendations in the LLRC report which have been itemized in the National Action Plan, that have not been implemented.

Continue reading ‘Why Should We Implement All the Recommendations of “Our Own LLRC”Report?’ »

By

Vishwaguptha

“An emancipated society, on the other hand, would not be a unitary state, but the realization of universality in the reconciliation of differences.” – Theodor Adorno

G.G.Ponnambalam & S.J.V.Chelvanayagam

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), led by R. Sampanthan and his Party, Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), do not seem to realize the gravity of serious politics, essential features of which include, among others, hard bargaining, postures one should adopt when confronted with an adversary who is backed by an overwhelming majority of people, the fine art of negotiating from a position of weakness, how not to antagonize the majority by being dogged and inflexible and the whole enchilada of political survival in harsh and unsympathetic conditions.

R. Sampanthan

The Party that began its turbulent journey 64 long years ago and whose origins and birth belonged to a totally bygone era that was dominated by a totally different class of politicians and statesmen, has carved out an image of an ‘elitist and educated clan’ representing an unsuspecting people. And the people too had been reposing their unqualified faith and confidence in a successive set of leaders, who first established their political party in the early 1940s as the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC).
Continue reading ‘Why Tamils and Tamil National Alliance are Bogged Down in Deep Pothole Today’ »

By

Sagarica Rajakarunanayake

In seeking better understanding between Buddhists and Muslims we welcome the fact that issues hitherto considered highly sensitive and not subject to question, such as halal products and halal certification, have now come out in the open.

pic courtesy: Knowledge Box-Ceylon Chamber of Commerce

Even while we write this piece we learn that the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) and the Buddhist clergy, after considerable discussion, have amicably resolved the issue of halal certification.
Continue reading ‘Buddhists and Muslims Must Act Together to Put an End to The Atrocious Cruelty and Corruption in the Meat Trade’ »

By

Indrajit Coomaraswamy

Lasith Malinga should not have behaved in the manner he recently did in relation to the media. However, there is a consensus among those who know him well that he is a very decent person. (I must concede I have never met him.)

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – DECEMBER 07, 2012: Lasith Malinga of the Stars bowls during the Big Bash League match between the Melbourne Renegades and the Melbourne Stars at Etihad Stadium on December 7, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images) 2012 Getty Images- pic via: facebook.com/Lasith.malinga.99

It is important, therefore, to ask the question what could have made him behave in this manner. The answer that comes to my mind will not be very palatable to sections of the media or the cricketing public.
Continue reading ‘Criticising and Questioning Lasith Malinga’s Commitment to National cause is Totally Unfair’ »

by

N Sathiya Moorthy

It has been heartening to see the eternally divided Indian polity standing as one in both Houses of Parliament on any issue -thrice in the past year. Yet, their election-driven agendas could not be hidden when the ‘UNHRC vote issue’ spilled over to the streets of the national Capital this time.

Existing alliances and election calculations dictated their participation, if at all, presence (in terms of minutes spent) and position on the ‘TESO seminar’.

Continue reading ‘Sinhalese Language has Borrowed Extensively From Sanskrit, Pali and Almost Every Other Language or Dialect in India’ »

by

Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Is there no asylum safe enough from your insane and blinded fury?” – Schiller (The Bride of Messina)

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was the Chief Guest at the opening of Meth Sevana, the Buddhist Leadership Academy of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS). In his speech Mr. Rajapaksa said that he decided to attend the event “after realising its timely importance”; according to him, “these Buddhist clergy who are engaged in a nationally important task should not be feared or doubted by anyone” (Sri Lanka Mirror – 10.3.2013).

Secretary Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ‘Methsevana’ opening – pic courtesy of: defence.lk

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s decision to publicly associate himself with the BBS is of inestimable significance. Anti-minoritism is the creed of the BBS, cowing the minorities its raison d’être. Igniting an anti-Muslim Black July seems to be its ‘nationally important task’. When the über-powerful Defence Secretary, the man who controls the police and the military, gives a character certificate to such a violently divisive organisation, it is not a happy portent.
Continue reading ‘Igniting an Anti-Muslim “Black July” Seems to be “Nationally Important Task” of Gothabaya Rajapaksa Endorsed Bodu Bala Sena’ »

By
Dharisha Bastians

The heavy Police guard at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo early Monday morning created the impression that there would be VIP movement at the hotel premises that day.

pic courtesy: Knowledge Box-Ceylon Chamber of Commerce

Instead of politicians, it was a large contingent of senior Buddhist monks that alighted at the entrance and made their way towards the hotel’s Ivy Room. There, the monks took their seats alongside Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chief Susantha Ratnayake and senior Muslim clerics to address a massive joint media conference, where they proudly announced a win-win compromise on the Halal controversy that has been sweeping across the country.
Continue reading ‘Enmity and Social Segregation Propagated by Bodu Bala Sena Monks Find no Resonance or Comparison in the Teachings of the Buddha’ »

Minister Mervyn Silva

If anyone is attempting to stir religious hatred and out to destroy unity and peace, its is a warning to desist from doing so otherwise it would not be possible to escape him’ says the Minister for Public relations, Mr. Mervyn Silva. The minister was speaking at a ceremony at the Sri Wardanarama Temple in Katana.

He said that monks should act and speak in the manner of normal laymen adding that they should be more exemplary conduct.

Continue reading ‘Public Relations Minister Mervyn Silva Warns”Any one Attempting to Stir Religious Hatred will not Escape Me”’ »

By

Sathya Liyanasuriya

Duminda Silva MP

For the past two years, controversial parliamentarian Duminda Silva has rarely been away from the spotlight even though away from the public eye. Last week, he hit the headlines again with a sudden return to the country.

Silva had been undergoing treatment in Singapore for injuries he sustained in a shooting incident at Kolonnawa on October 8, 2011 during the local government elections. Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) stalwart and Presidential advisor Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra was killed in the incident.

Since then, Silva has caused some embarrassment to the ruling United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) for a variety of reasons in addition to being involved in a clash which killed a party colleague. That is because of the various legal issues that arose as a result of the event.

Continue reading ‘Retention of MP Seat Through Periodic Extensions of Leave Indicate Govt is in no Mood to Abandon Duminda Silva’ »

Dr.Shirani Bandaranayake

Ousted Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake was requested to be present before the Commission to Investigate Bribery and Corruption on March 18.

Meanwhile the Lawyers Collective, who vociferously defended the ousted Chief Justice said the government has started ‘it’s much practiced witch hunts of those who do not submit’ to them
Continue reading ‘Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake Asked to Appear Before Bribery and Corruption Commission on March 18th’ »

By

Uditha Jayasinghe

Ranil Wickremesinghe

The time has come to decide whether the Rajapaksa regime or country is more important insisted the main Opposition Leader yesterday, calling for the Government to implement key accountability processes including holding elections in the north before the island is labelled as a “pariah State” by the international community.

Taking an impassioned stance, United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe requested the Government to hold a meeting with Opposition parties before the second US-backed resolution on Sri Lanka is passed at the ongoing United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) insisting that “it is still not too late”.

Continue reading ‘“Time has come to Decide Whether the Rajapaksa Regime or Country is Important”-Ranil Wickremesinghe’ »

By Damian Thompson

Jorge Mario Bergoglio (b: 17 December 1936) Pope Francis

Pope Francis I, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, is a priest of holinesss and tremendous modesty of manner – a man who, until now, has taken the bus to work. His challenge is clear. He needs to learn from Benedict XVI’s greatest success – and his greatest failure.

The success was the restoration of reverent, mystical worship to the centre of Catholic life, an achievement that has inspired a dynamic generation of young Catholics. The failure was Benedict’s inability to reform the corrupt structures of the Roman curia, which should be recognised as the rotten core of the abuse crisis, and which is likely to have loomed large as an issue in the conclave. The historic decision to choose a Pope from the New World will perhaps make that task easier. Almost his first words as Pope were that he is “from far away”.
Continue reading ‘Pope Francis I: A Humble Man from the New World whose First Challenge is to End the Scandals and Reform the Church’ »

By Nick Squires in Vatican City

pic: News.va

Tonight he was to first return to the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the spartan but comfortable “hotel” within the walls of the Vatican where all the cardinals have stayed during the conclave.

He will have a celebratory dinner with his brother cardinals, their ranks now reduced from 115 to 114 in the wake of his election.

Continue reading ‘Pope Francis: What Next for the New Pontiff?’ »

By Damien McElroy, and Donna Bowater

pic via: News.va English

(The first man outside of Europe in more than a millenium to be elected Pope, the first Jesuit, and a humble man who cooks his own meals – who is Pope Francis? Damien McElroy and Donna Bowater profile the Pope)

At the outset of the conclave, few Vatican watchers were even ranking Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergogio as the top Argentine candidate. The 76-year old had been overshadowed by his fellow countryman Leonardo Sandri, 69, a Vatican diplomat.

But having trailed second in every ballot to Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires triumphed at the fifth ballot to chose his successor, becoming the first ever Jesuit to ascend to the throne of St Peter as well as the first from outside Europe.
Continue reading ‘Argentina’s Jorge Mario Bergoglio Elected as the New Pope Francis’ »

By
Dharisha Bastians

facebook.com/sinhalarawayapage

Firing from all cylinders, the Bodu Bala Sena yesterday hit back against Monday’s much-welcomed and harmonious compromise on the Halal controversy and its architects, with the monk-led group claiming it would not rest until the Islamic certification is completely banned.

The hard-line group which started the anti-Halal agitation through the country said the logo was merely the final stamp of a process that was abhorrent to the Sinhalese Buddhist majority in the island. The group said the Halal debate must continue and Sinhalese must continue to boycott Halal products.
Continue reading ‘Bodhu Bala Sena Claims Sales in Muslim Owned Enterprises Have Dropped by 50% Due to Campaign About Creeping Muslim Extremism’ »

by

Jayantha de Silva

Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, PC admonished two Attorneys-at-Law who staged a walk out before the issuance of an order at yesterday’s resumed hearing of the petition filed by residents of Slave Island in the Supreme Court against their relocation attributed to a development project. The Chief Justice ordered the two counsel, UNP parliamentarian Sujeewa Senasinghe and Farman Cassim appearing for the petitioners to be called back and he told them to “sit down”.

He then proceeded to warn them by observing “Do not repeat these types of acts. This is the last time the Bench is going to tolerate such conduct. On this occasion the Bench is not going to issue a ruling on the incident.’

Continue reading ‘Chief Justice Mohan Peiris in Open Court Admonishes Lawyers Appearing for Slave Island Residents in Case Concerning Defence Secretary’ »

By

Upul Joseph Fernando

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tour of Japan was scheduled for an earlier date. But because of the sudden political upheaval and change of government in that country, he had to postpone the trip. He is now making the tour at a crucial juncture when America has presented a resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council, and India is supporting it.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa gift Amara and Vidura~Sri Lanka’s gift to people of Japan-pic courtesy of: twitter.com/bundeljayse

At the same time, it is also reported that some weeks ago Japan’s Ambassador to the United Nations along with envoys of several other countries had met UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon and handed over a report in favour of Sri Lanka. Some media referred to this as a report to ‘whitewash’ Sri Lanka.
Continue reading ‘Difficult to Speculate Whether Mahinda Rajapaksa is Seeking Japan’s support to Change Stern Stance of USA Towards Sri Lanka’ »

(Text of an Editorial Appearing in the Newspaper”Ceylon Today”)

The pressures exerted on the government by one of its fringe elements ultimately got its dividends. The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU), the unwitting villains in the halal saga, backed down in the interest of defusing communal tension with the announcement that halal certification would henceforth be an optional process for products sold in the local market.

Showcasing that the Ulamas could be ‘magnanimous’ when backing down, the ACJU also announced that the certification would be provided free of charge for the exporters. The government’s apprehension that the removal of halal labels for such export products could lead to a sudden and considerable decline in sales overseas, is well founded and their concern is manifest in the exceptions made.
Continue reading ‘Global Consequences of Hate Campaign Launched by Buddhist Clergy and Extreme Nationalists Targeting Muslim Community Would be Immeasurable.’ »

by Shamindra Ferdinando

Having refused to negotiate with the US on the text of the forthcoming second US resolution targeting Sri Lanka before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, the government is now faced with the possibility of asking for a vote on the resolution in spite of certain defeat.

The UNHRC is divided into five regions, comprising 47 countries.

Well informed sources said that the failure to go for a vote meant the adoption of the US resolution without a division. That would be inimical to national interests, sources said, adding that even though the result was certain to be worse than the defeat last year, the government would have no option but to seek a vote.

Continue reading ‘Govt to ask for a Vote on the US Resolution Against Sri Lanka at UNHRC in Geneva in Spite of Certain Defeat’ »

By

Kath Noble

Pressure for a war crimes investigation continues to mount. With the sessions of the UN Human Rights Council entering their second week, activists descended on key national capitals, urging governments to pass a resolution that calls for international action.

As usual, India has been the site of the most extreme interventions. As Karunanidhi’s DMK held a meeting of the Tamil Eelam Supporters’ Organisation in Delhi and called for a general strike in Tamil Nadu, a member of Seeman’s NTK self-immolated and eight students of as yet unidentified affiliation launched a fast-unto-death in Chennai. Then a group of thugs ransacked an office of Mihin Lanka in Madurai, and Vaiko’s MDMK laid siege to the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission, burning effigies of Mahinda Rajapaksa and shouting about genocide.

Continue reading ‘Mahinda Rajapaksa is Far Too Wily a Politician to Have Ordered any War Crimes, but Wont Give up Anybody who did Either.’ »

By

Dr.Vickramabahu Karunaratne

The Families of the Disappeared, a joint organisation led by Brito had organised a protest in Colombo on March 6. Political leaders too were invited to participate in this event to be held opposite the Colombo Municipality near Viharamahadevi Park. The large convoy of family members of the disappeared, nearly 1000, which travelled from the North were stopped by the military in Vavuniya, and not allowed to proceed to Colombo. Hence the military rulers of the Tamil homeland stopped them taking part in the scheduled protest.

The plan of the organisers was to hold a public meeting and submit a petition to the United Nations office in Colombo. These Tamil family members of the disappeared were traveling in 11 buses, all of which were stopped in Vavuniya on the night of March 5.Apparently they were told it was not safe for them to travel further. If they continued to do so, there were people who would be pelting stones at them. And, the military would not be able to do anything.

Continue reading ‘Today a Tamil Mother of a Missing son Cannot Travel From Jaffna to Colombo and Protest the Disappearance’ »

By

Susitha R. Fernando with Additional reporting by Lahiru Pothmulla

The British Labour Parliamentarian, Simon Danczuk who visited Sri Lanka last week in search of justice for one of his constituents Khuram Shaikh, a Red Cross worker who was cruelly murdered in Tangalle on Christmas eve, 2011 raised the issue relating to the importance of improving the rule of law and a speedy justice system in the country. The British MP for Rochdale expressed his distress over the response of senior government politicians to his request to meet them to discuss the murder case and also warned that if a quick remedy was not provided to ensure justice, the country’s hard-won peace and potential tourism targets were at stake.

Q:How did you get involved in this case of Khuram’s murder and fight for justice for his family?

I got involved in this case from the day one. I remember Khuram was ruthlessly murdered on Christmas day 2011 and I became aware of that within about 24 hours because his family contacted me. This was to assist and help them to get the body back… and I have been involved since then.

Q: You seem to have gone the extra mile on a single constituent to see that justice is done in this case?

It is usual for a British parliamentarian to accompany one of his constituents abroad in this way. I think it is the right thing to do. Because it is a special case and it is a tragic case. I met Khuram’s father just before Christmas to discuss the case with him. He was emotionally upset and they were grieving and that gave me a reason to represent them. And that’s why I am here.

Continue reading ‘” British will NOT go for Holidays to Sri Lanka Because it is a Dangerous Place”-Labour MP Simon Danczuk’ »

By

Tasha Manoranjan

(Ms.Tasha Manoranjan made the following statement at the UN Human Rights Council session today Tuesday March 12th 2013 on behalf of Pasumai Thaayagam Foundation. Tasha is also a member of USTPAC)

Thank you Mr. President.

Ms.Tasha Manoranjan of United States Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) at UNHRC Sessions, Geneva on Mar 12, 2013

The ongoing human rights crisis in Syria has reached a catastrophic level with an estimated 70,000 people killed. The apathy and inaction by some in the international community has allowed the Assad regime to commit crimes against international law with impunity.

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka’s Long History of Impunity is Structurally Institutionalized’ »

By

Rohantha Athukorala

Sri Lanka was just a $ 40 b economy around three years back and today, it is touching a $ 60 b with the landscape of change in high gear, be it the condominiums in Colombo, the new industrial zone coming up in Atchchuvely, or the planned launch of Mattala Airport, just to name a few.Last week I received the latest report from the Department of Census and Statistics and the data was very interesting given that for the first time in 30 years or more we are seeing some statistics from the north of Sri Lanka.

The report highlighted that Kilinochchi had registered the highest percentage of people below 15 years in the whole of the island at 33.1%, which may mean that the future of the north can be Kilinochchi if properly architectured and groomed.

Continue reading ‘Kilinochchi can be The Future of the North If Properly Architechtured and Groomed’ »

By

Kartiga Thavaraj

Statement made by Ms. Kartiga Thavaraj at the UN Human Rights Council on March 11th 2013 on behalf of Pasumai Thaayagam Foundation in Geneva)

Thank you Mr. President.

Ms. Kartiga Thavaraj at UNHRC in Geneva, on Mar 11, 2013

Pasumai Thaayagam welcomes the report of Mr. Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The act of torture represents one of the gravest forms of abuse of power by a state. In his latest report, Mr. Mendez affirms the state’s imperative role in ensuring freedom from torture, and particularly stresses that special protection be afforded to minorities and marginalized groups. A state’s obligation is not simply to refrain from inflicting torture, but to prohibit, prevent and redress torture within its borders and by its agents.
Continue reading ‘UN Special Rapporteur on Torture must Visit Sri Lanka to Document On Going Acts of Torture’ »

BY

DESMOND TUTU & MARY ROBINSON

Absence of war is not peace: the saying is true of Sri Lanka today.

While the country’s civil war ended four years ago, and roads have been rebuilt, human rights protections are getting weaker. The personal tragedies of the conflict’s victims have yet to be acknowledged and accounted for. The climate required for reconciliation does not yet exist.

Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson ~ pic courtesy of: OXFAM

The UN Human Rights Council, whose new session has just begun in Geneva, has a unique opportunity to pressure Sri Lanka’s authorities into meaningful action. In doing so, it would preserve the hope for accountability and reconciliation harboured by all Sri Lankans. The present culture of impunity must end.
Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka Offers UN Human Rights Council the Test of Holding Govts Accountable Even When Global Attention has Turned Elsewhere.’ »

By

David Miliband

David Miliband with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Apr 29, 2009 – in Colombo

In early 2009, as foreign secretary, I travelled to Sri Lanka with Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, so that we could see for ourselves the situation at the end of the brutal 26-year civil war. We met the president and his ministers in Colombo, and then travelled to refugee camps further north. I will never forget what I saw, and in particular the pleading of Tamil women carrying slips of paper with the names of their husbands and sons who had been taken away for “screening”.

The last phase of the government offensive involved squeezing anything up to 330,000 people into the Vanni region, south of the Jaffna peninsula. A report in March 2011 by a special UN panel laid bare the scale of human suffering. Tens of thousands had been killed by government shelling, which had targeted no-fire zones, UN food distribution lines and hospitals. The report also detailed appalling behaviour by the LTTE, the “Tamil Tigers”, alleging that civilians were prevented from escaping and used as hostages. The UN report found credible allegations of serious violations of international law by the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Continue reading ‘Britain Must Back Canada’s Call to Change Sri Lanka as Venue for Commonwealth Summit’ »

The Sri Lankan Government vehemently rejected the new resolution the United States tabled against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday in Geneva, saying that the resolution is “substantive, intrusive and political in nature,” and far from a procedural resolution.

Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka at the UN Ravinatha Aryasinha says that the resolution is unfair biased, unjust and contrary to the principles of cooperation genuine dialogue and the founding principles of universality.Stressing that the Sri Lankan Government does not recognise the previous resolution 19/2 sponsored by the US and adapted by the UN last year, the Sri Lankan Envoy to the UN said the new resolution was far from a “procedural resolution,” as it was originally claimed.

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka Rejects US Resolution at UN in Geneva as “Intrusive and Politicised”’ »

By Chrishanthi Christopher

Hirunika Premachandra

Hirunika, daughter of the slain government politician last week expressed satisfaction at the turn of events in the Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra murder case that brought politician Duminda Silva under arrest.

Last month the case entered its watershed when the Magistrate’s Court indicted UPFA Member of Parliament Duminda Silva and 12 others, who were charged with the murder of Presidential Adviser and former Parliamentarian, Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and three others. In a sudden move, the CID last February filed four counts of charges on 19 February against 13 suspects, including Duminda Silva before the Magistrate’s Court. Following an indictment order from the Magistrate’s Court to produce the suspects in Court, the case that had been dragging on for 18 months ground to a sudden halt.
Continue reading ‘“We Really Dont Know Whether Duminda Silva is Sick but I want Justice”-Hirunika Premachandra’ »

By Ranga Jayasuriya

“A policeman put a pistol into the mouth of a driver and threatened that he would not return to Vavuniya alive if he takes us to Colombo,” Brito Fernando, a human rights activists who was among the family members of the disappeared Tamils, and who had been prevented from coming to Colombo by the police last week, said.

Seven hundred people, all of who were family members of the disappeared youth, who had planned to arrive in Colombo to handover a petition to the UN Mission, were on Tuesday prevented from leaving Vavuniya and herded into the Urban Council grounds of Vavuniya, where families were forced to spend most of the night without food, water or sanitation.

Continue reading ‘Policeman Put Pistol into Mouth of Bus Driver at Vavuniya and Threatened him not to Take Families of Disappeared Persons to Colombo’ »

By Dilrukshi Handunnetti

An academic, economist, author and politician, Dr. Subramanian Swamy is the President of the Janata Party of India and takes strong opposition to what he terms as the ‘leaning politics of Tamil Nadu.’In an exclusive interview with Ceylon Today, the Harvard scholar and former Indian Cabinet Minister who has lately taken up the cause of regional security, insisted Sri Lanka would come out of the Geneva sessions unscathed, exposing pro-Tiger lobbyists and the Western bias to the world and be able to stand out as a country that had withstood international pressure and tackle terrorism on its own terms.

Dr.Subramanian Swamy meeting President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa-pic courtesy of: facebook.com/Swamy.39

Excerpts:
Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka Should Implement 13th Constitutional Amendment and Devolve Power-Dr.Subramanian Swamy’ »

By

Vishnuguptha

“I’d be glad of a retaliation that wouldn’t recoil on myself; but treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends: they wound those who resort to them, worse than their enemies.” ― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Treachery plays a very significant and decisive part in all human endeavours. Its play is sometimes shaded by its own momentum, dependent more on the person at the receiving end rather than the one committing it. That’s the sad irony of it.
Continue reading ‘Treachery has been Practised,Plotted and Exhibited by Rulers in Sri Lanka from the Dawn of its History’ »

By
Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai

Mahasivarathri or ‘the great night of Lord Siva’ is a celebration of Siva’s spirit, celebrated by Hindus the world over.

Hindus around the world celebrating “MahaSivarathri” today – pic by: Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai

It falls on the fourteenth day of the lunar fortnight and is considered the most important day for Siva worshippers and marked with special celebrations.
Continue reading ‘“Maha Siva Rathri”: The Great Night of Lord Siva’ »

By

M.A.Sumanthiran M.P.

In his book ‘Sri Lanka – What Went Wrong: J.R. Jayewardene’s Free and Righteous Society, writer and political commentator V.P. Vittachi refers to a mode of speech he describes as ‘plonking’. Quoting from Stephen Potter’s ‘Lifemanship’ he says,

“For maximum irritation remember, the tone of voice must be ‘plonking’…What is Plonking? If you have nothing to say, or, rather, something extremely stupid… say it, but in a plonking tone of voice – i.e. roundly, but hollowly and dogmatically.”(Vittachi, Sri Lanka – What Went Wrong: J.R. Jayewardene’s Free and Righteous Society, New Delhi, 1995, p. 50)

Vittachi then goes on to say that ‘the era of plonking as an instrument of high government policy had arrived.’ (p.51)

The ‘plonking’ of the Sri Lankan government today is all too apparent in its response to the upcoming resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
Continue reading ‘Achieving Reconciliation is only Possible if Truth is Uncovered Through Impartial and Transparent Process’ »

By
C.A.Chandraprema

As the UNHRC sessions heats up, one of the questions in the minds of most members of the public is whether the UNHRC can initiate a war crimes probe against Sri Lanka. There are only two ways in which a war crimes trial can take place. One would be for the Security Council of the UN to institute a war crimes tribunal as had been done in the case of the special Tribunal on Yugoslavia (ICTY) or the Special tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR). The other way is for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to initiate proceedings against Sri Lanka. There are three ways in which the ICC can commence a probe against a country. The first way is for the UN Security Council to refer a matter to the ICC in which case, the ICC will have the authority to act even if the country concerned is not a signatory to the Rome Statute which set up the ICC. The other methods by which the ICC can initiate a probe is if any member of the ICC moves a motion calling for a probe against any other member state. The Prosecutor of the ICC can also recommend that a probe be initiated against a country if he is satisfied that there are sufficient grounds for doing so.

Continue reading ‘Even if UN Human Rights Council Asks UN Security Council to Impose Sanctions on Sri Lanka Veto Power of Russia and China will Negate it’ »

By
C.A.Chandraprema

If the Lok Sabha debate last Thursday is anything to go by, the Indian government is acutely aware of the implications of this process that the USA has initiated in the UNHRC in relation to Sri Lanka, for India as well. The debate on ‘The plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka’ began around noon last Thursday.

In her preliminary remarks the Speaker cautioned the members of parliament that the subject matter is a neighbouring country with which India has close and friendly relations and urged members to refrain from saying anything that may adversely affect India’s relations with that country.
Continue reading ‘US Resolution on Sri Lanka at UN in Geneva has De-Stabilised New Delhi more than Colombo’ »

By

Shamindra Ferdinando

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa alleged that large scale foreign funding of NGOs operating in Sri Lanka would be inimical to ongoing post-war national reconciliation efforts hence, such projects should be resisted.

The government was seriously concerned about a fresh NGO onslaught in the wake of Western powers working overtime to destabilize the country, he said. Obviously, the ongoing 22nd sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva were a rallying point for anti-Sri Lankan elements, an irate Rajapaksa told The Island yesterday.

The Defence Secretary was responding to a US State Department decision to fund two special projects, to the tune of USD 500,000 each, one for increasing support and the other for safety of journalists and facilitating post-war reconciliation in the country.

Continue reading ‘Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Opposes Large -Scale Foreign Funding for NGO’s Operating in Sri Lanka’ »

By

Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Whatever is that distant rumble that I dimly hear?”
Christopher Hitchens (Arguably: Essays)

It is now a virtual certainty. Barring some last-second, utterly unforeseeable, development, India will vote for the new US resolution on Sri Lanka. The original resolution has been amended to take on board Indian concerns. Indian worries would range from a reactive lurch by Colombo in Beijing’s direction to the impact an intrusive resolution might have on Delhi’s own ‘freedom of action’ in Kashmir and elsewhere.

The Indian input ensures that any international investigation into alleged human rights violations by the Rajapaksa administration will happen “only in consultation with and with the concurrence of Colombo…. The provision for taking the Lankan government into confidence was part of the US resolution of March 2012 as well. It had been included at India’s insistence….” (The New Indian Express – 9.3.2013). Though the 2013 resolution is far more critical of Colombo than the 2012 resolution, it is equally toothless; just a slightly harder tap on the knuckles, nothing more.

The Rajapaksas will be irked if India votes for the US resolution, however watered-down. Tamil Nadu would be irked that an international investigation into war crime allegations was rendered effectively impossible by India’s input. Delhi, in its desperate efforts to satisfy both Colombo and Tamil Nadu, may end up by satisfying neither.
Continue reading ‘New Delhi, Geneva and the Hambantota Commonwealth Summit’ »

By N. Sathiyamoorthy

Coupled with media reports that there may be a ‘consensus resolution’ on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC this time round, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s reiteration of a September deadline for Provincial Council polls in the Northern Province, may be a silver-lining on the otherwise cloudy and confused ethnic front.

Mullivaaikkal – May 13, 2009

Together, they could mean that the clock could still be set back on the ‘political solution’ to the ethnic issue to the days prior to the stakeholders nearer home going on to the ‘UNHRC mode’ well ahead of last year’s vote that Sri Lanka lost.
Continue reading ‘Ghosts of Tamil Civilians Killed in War Haunting Sri Lankan Nation on the Whole’ »

(DR DAYAN JAYATILLEKA INTERVIEWED BY RANGA JAYASURIYA FOR CEYLON TODAY-SUNDAY EDITION)

Q: You had been successful in pre-empting an EU backed adverse resolution on Sri Lanka in 2009 by getting a favorable resolution on Sri Lanka passed at the UN Human Rights Council.

Kassym Jomart Tokayev (right ) Director General United Nations Office at Geneva with Navy Pillay (left ) United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights during the High Level Segment of the 22nd Session of the Human Rights Council. 25 February 2013 – Photo by Jean-Marc Ferré

However, since then a resolution against Sri Lanka was passed last year and we are about to face another adverse resolution and chances are high that we would lose it. What did go wrong since our initial success at the UN Human Rights Council?
Continue reading ‘Ruling Elite Does not Seem to Understand that Sri Lanka is only a Part of a World System-Dayan Jayatilleka’ »

by P.K. Balachandran

A Sri Lankan Hindu activist is campaigning to create awareness about the ancient Nandi (sacred bull) flag and revive the practice of hoisting it at religious functions and temple festivals. “Muslims raise the Islamic flag, the Buddhist raise theirs, but Hindus do not hoist any though they have the Nandi flag,” says Sinnadurai Dhanapalaa, senior vice president of the Colombo branch of the World Saiva Council.

“Over the years, the practice of hoisting the Nandi flag at temples in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu has been discontinued. The significance of the Nandi (the sacred bull) and the Nandi flag is not appreciated enough,” Dhanapalaa told IANS.
Continue reading ‘Reviving Practice of Hoisting ‘Nandi’ (Crouched Bull) Flag As Hindu Festivals and Functions’ »

By

Bill Van Auken

Chávez in January 2006-pic: wikipedia

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans filled the streets of Caracas to accompany the casket of President Hugo Chavez to the military academy where he began his career and where his body lay in state before today’s funeral.
The former paratrooper lieutenant colonel had been in power for 14 years, and the outpouring reflected popular support for the undeniable, albeit limited, improvements in social conditions for the country’s most impoverished layers under his presidency. This includes a halving of the poverty rate, which still remains above Latin America’s average.

In Washington, the Obama administration issued a cautious statement calling Chavez’s demise a “challenging time” and declaring its hope that the change in leadership in Caracas would promote “a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government.”

Republican leaders in Congress openly celebrated the Venezuelan leader’s death. Typical was Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who declared, “Good riddance to this dictator.”

Continue reading ‘Hugo Chavez was a Bourgeois Nationalist Whose Government Rested Firmly on the Military From Which he Came’ »

By
Krishantha Prasad Cooray

In recent years, there has been less and less to cheer about in Sri Lanka. Few things bring anything but despondency and frustration to the hearts of young and old. We live in a strange age. What should be a time of national triumph and unity has been transformed into an age of fear and repression, political corruption and public apathy and the unprecedented arrogance of power.

Perhaps more than anything else, we live in a country today in which no relationship is equal. Patronage and servility are the two basic ingredients for survival in present day Sri Lanka. To speak out against injustice, to fight for the freedoms and rights of another is too great a risk to take. Expediency has taken precedence over preserving all that was great about Sri Lankan society. The political comedy of errors has pervaded every aspect of social life, with both sides of the political divide providing plenty of entertainment but no true redress.

Continue reading ‘134 and Still Batting On: The Enduring Legacy of the Royal-Thomian “Big Match” Tradition’ »

“Haunted by her yesterdays” is a new film by The Social Architects. There will be selected screenings on Friday to mark International Women’s Day, after that we will be working to make sure as many people as possible can see it.

Haunted by her yesterdays

This documentary tells a story of silent agony, trapped screams and repressed mourning. A story of women forced to deny their identity – who are trapped in between a government which sees them as “Tigers,” and a society whose norms they are no longer deemed worthy of.
Continue reading ‘“Haunted by her Yesterdays”: A Documentary About the Plight of Former Female Fighters of the LTTE.’ »

By

Vishnuguptha

Lasantha Wickrematunga

In the days of television, internet and cellular phones, a period spanning four years seems like an eon as far as the number of events that occur during a 24-hour period is concerned. Life-cycles of events get shorter and so do their memories; the advent of television has brought about a revolution in dissemination of information so much so that folks have got used to morning news-shows on television before they leave for their jobs. The news websites on the internet have added a further impetus to this trend.

The four years that have passed since Lasantha’s demise, have witnessed many changes in his profession and an apathy bordering on fear seems to have set in on the minds of the average journalist. This is most evident and manifest in the self-censorship that the journalists have imposed on themselves. When fearless, bold and honest reporting is the call, our journalists seem to have settled down to a comfort-zone from which they seem terrified to emerge. They seem to have found lasting contentment in indulging in various nuanced arguments and theories, instead of attacking the targets that deserve attack.

Continue reading ‘With Lasantha Wickrematunga Died the Purest Form of Investigative Journalism in Sri Lanka.’ »

In a move that would embarrass the Government of Sri Lanka, the second draft of the US-sponsored Human Rights Resolution on Sri Lanka has welcomed calls by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay for an independent international investigation into war crimes, while also ‘reiterating’ that the government initiate an independent investigation into alleged violations of international law.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ( Right ) with Navy Pillay ( left ) United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights during the High-Level Segment of the 19th session of the Human Rights Council. 1 March 2013. Photo by Jean-Marc Ferré

The second draft, which is currently being circulated among UNHCR members, has also welcomed the report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which has been highly critical of the government for the slow pace in the implementation of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
Continue reading ‘2nd Draft of US Resolution on Sri Lanka at UNHRC “Welcomes” Calls by Navi Pillay for Independent International Investigation into War Crimes’ »

By

Rajavarothayam Sampanthan M.P.

Rajavarothayam Sampanthan M.P and Callum Macrae at Global Tamil Forum Third Anniversary Conference, Feb 27, 2013-pic by: Geoff Wilson ©2013 courtesy: facebook.com/GTFOnline

(STATEMENT MADE BY MR. R SAMPANTHAN M.P., LEADER TAMIL NATIONAL ALLIANCE AT THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE, 2013, LONDON, OF THE GLOBAL TAMIL FORUM IN COMMITTEE ROOM 14 AT THE UK PARLIAMENT ON WEDNESDAY, 27TH FEBRUARY 2013)

Sri Lanka’s immediate post independent history was marked by discriminatory policies on vital issues such as citizenship, language, alienation of state land, employment, education and economic opportunity. These features characterised the inception of majoritarian rule and the denial of the legitimate aspirations of minority peoples.

The abrogation of the Soulbury Constitution of 1947, under which the country attained independence, removing the minimum safeguards for minority peoples contained therein, the abrogation of the BANDARANAIKE – CHELVANAYAGAM pact (1957), the DUDLEY SENANAYAKE – CHELVANAYAGAM pact (1965), entered into between successive Prime Ministers, and the democratically elected Tamil Leader particularly to terminate State aided land settlement of majority Sinhala people in the North and East, the enactment of the 1972 Republican Constitution giving the majority religion and language, privileged positions, and the installation of a majoritarian structure of governance, perpetrated majoritarian hegemony which was further entrenched under the 1978 Constitution. These new features contributed towards ensuring that majoritarianism became the vehicle to political power.

Continue reading ‘Appropriate Action Necessary to Ensure that Sri Lanka Complies with its International Commitments and Obligations’ »

By
The Watchdog

March 5th, 2013, Vavuniya

Families of Disappeared Persons in Vavuniya – March 5, 2013 – pic: TamilWin

On March 5th, 2013, at about 8.30pm, the Police blocked about 600 persons, comprising families of the disappeared and civil society activists from the North, from traveling from Vavuniya to Colombo to attend a protest organized by the ‘Association of the Families Searching for the Disappeared Relatives’ the following day (6th).

Following the protest at Viharamaha Devi Park, in Colombo, the families had planned to march to the UN office in Colombo and hand over a petition. This protest was meant to be part of a larger campaign organized by the families of the disappeared to know the truth about their loved ones, and to lobby the international community to intervene on their behalf by calling on the Sri Lankan Government to provide them with truth, justice and accountability. As a result of this obstruction however, the planned protest could not be held.
Continue reading ‘How the Police Prevented Families of Disappeared Persons from Demonstrating Peacefully in Colombo and Petitioning the UN’ »

By
Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Only hate was happy….”
Auden (In Memory of Sigmund Freud)

On Tuesday, around 700 Tamils – mostly elderly women – set off from Jaffna. As Lankan citizens, they were exercising their constitutional rights; as family members of the war-disappeared, they intended to participate in a demonstration against extra-judicial killings, outside the UN office in Colombo.

They never made it out of Vavuniya. “The military said the protesters were stopped for their own safety after reports their vehicles were been attacked…… In the end, the mainly elderly women protested in Vavuniya, where they had been halted…..holding pictures of their relatives….” (Colombo Page – 6.3.2013).

The demonstration, organised by Mano Ganesan, was aimed at drawing the attention of the UNHRC, currently in session in Geneva, to the very real problem of the war-disappeared. Since the regime allowed the protest in Colombo to go ahead, its real problem was not with the demonstration per se but with the participation of Jaffna Tamils in it.
Continue reading ‘Bodu Bala Sena is Obviously a Rajapaksa – Pawn Used by the Siblings for Their Dynastic Project’ »

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa will open the new Buddhist Leadership Academy on March 09.

The Academy will be located in the picturesque premises of ‘Meth Sewana’ premises in Ranchawala, Galle.

According to Bodu Bala Sena the intention of establishing the particular academy is to improve the leadership qualities in Buddhist clergy, other Buddhist leaders and Buddhist youth activists.

The academy will be under the supervision of the Buddhist Cultural Center in Nedimale and Bodu Bala Sena.

Bodu Bala Sena further says that the academy will be further developed into a university.
COURTESY:MIRROR.COM

By

Ramanan Veerasingham

Families of Disappeared Persons in Vavuniya-Mar 6, 2013-pic: tamilwin

A 39-year old man in the war-torn northern Jaffna peninsula has gone missing from March 3, as the Sri Lankan police blocked dozens of buses carrying hundreds of Tamil families of the disappeared people, to stage a protest rally in the heart of the Colombo.

An official source from the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jaffna told the JDS via phone that P. Rajendran, a father of three, has gone missing from Sunday afternoon in Kalviyankadu in Jaffna.

“According to his family members, Rajendran, who was once kidnapped by men in white van, but was released later in 2006, has not returned after he left home in the afternoon hours of March 3,” the HRC source said.
Continue reading ‘Police in Vavuniya Obstruct Families of Disappeared Persons Attending Demonstration in Colombo’ »

By
J.Balaji

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that Delhi’s decision on the draft resolution to be tabled by the United States at the ensuing session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva would depend on its content.

“..Our decision will depend on the substance of the final text,” Dr. Singh said in the Lok Sabha, replying to the debate on the motion of thanks for the President’s address to the joint parliament session.

Continue reading ‘Indian PM Manmohan Singh says New Delhi will Decide on Voting After Seeing Text of Resolution on Sri Lanka at UNHRC in Geneva’ »

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA-Stepping up pressure on Congress-led UPA Government, its key southern ally DMK on Tuesday demanded that India support the US-sponsored resolution at the UNHRC against Sri Lanka as over 4,000 people staged a protest against Colombo’s alleged war crimes.

DMK leader M.K. Stalin being arrested during a protest against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Chennai on Tuesday. Photo: M. Vedhan-courtesy: The Hindu

The resolution at UNHRC “will certainly succeed. Our strong demand is that India should also cooperate,” DMK chief M. Karunanidhi told reporters.
Continue reading ‘DMK Leader Karunanidhi’s Son MK Stalin and 4000 Party Cadres Arrested for Demonstrating Against Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai’ »

By

B. Kolappan

Seeking to dispel the impression that the Congress is indifferent to popular sentiment in Tamil Nadu on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, party MPs and Union Ministers have briefed AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi about the need to participate in the Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) conference to be held in Delhi on March 7.

The meeting of Congress Ministers and MPs from the State with Mr. Gandhi came a few days after DMK Parliamentary Party leader T.R. Baalu and Rajya Sabha member MP Kanimozhi met him.

Continue reading ‘Tamil Nadu Congress MP’s Want Rahul Gandhi to Attend Tamil Eelam Support Conference in New Delhi’ »

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA-Amid sustained pressure by political parties from Tamil Nadu, Government on Wednesday agreed to have a discussion on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

“The issue is planned to be discussed on Thursday. It will be discussed on Thursday,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath told the House.

The assurance came when AIADMK leader M. Thambidurai raised the matter during Zero Hour.

Continue reading ‘Indian Parliament to Discuss Sri Lanka Issue Due to Sustained Pressure from Tamil Nadu Political Parties’ »

By
A Special Correspondent

The Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) called for a general strike in Tamil Nadu on March 12, demanding that India support the resolution to be moved by the U.S. against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council for rights violations in the last phase of the war.

A meeting chaired by DMK president M. Karunanidhi adopted a resolution for the dawn-to-dusk (6 am to 6 pm) general strike and called upon the public, traders, workers, students, supporters of Tamil cause and government employees to support it.

Continue reading ‘TESO Meeting Chaired by DMK Leader Karunanidhi Calls for General Strike in Tamil Nadu on March 12th in Support of US Resolution Against Sri Lanka at UNHRC’ »

By
Dharisha Bastians

Gotabaya Rajapaksa

Hard-line Sinhala groups like the Bodu Bala Sena essentially have a singular objective. They aim to spread fear and suspicion about communities and people whose customs and way of life are alien to most. Once upon a time, before a separatist struggle tore the country apart, it was the Tamils. Post-war, their rage has been directed at the Muslim community.

The Bodu Bala Sena now has a Special Investigations Unit and two emergency hotlines for the public to call in order to spur the unit into action.
Continue reading ‘Bodu Bala Sena and its Affiliate Groups are Engaged in a Campaign to Spread Fear and Mistrust About the Sri Lankan Muslims’ »

By

Geoffrey Robertson QC

The Commonwealth is sleepwalking towards a human rights disaster, if it goes ahead with November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, where it will be presided over by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Perhaps emboldened by getting away with murder – the army slaughter of some 40,000 Tamil civilians in 2009 – his government has now moved to destroy the independence of the Judiciary. It has sacked the Chief Justice for a decision that it finds inconvenient.

Ex Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, former dean of Colombo Law School and the first woman to be made a Supreme Court judge, is a highly respected jurist.

Continue reading ‘Commonwealth Summit 2013 Venue Should be Moved From Sri Lanka to the Exemplary Democracy Mauritius.’ »

By

Dilrukshi Handunnetti

Balachandran – Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son

Progress reports often tend to have a feel-good effect – at least for those reporting on the so-called achieved progress. Hopefully, the Sri Lankan Government also has some sense of honest achievement. After all, we are now in Geneva to defend the country’s human rights record (yet again) and armed with a progress report.

On 26 February, just the day after the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) met in Geneva to commence its 22nd session, Sri Lanka’s Progress Report on the Implementation of the National Plan of Action (NAP) was widely circulated. NAP was drawn, ironically, to give expression to the 285 recommendations-filled, Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Report, mandated to propose specific actions to achieve reconciliation.
Continue reading ‘Problem with Colombo is its Human Rights Record is far from Satisfactory Irrespective of What Govt and Sympathisers Say’ »

by

Zacki Jabbar

Ranil Wickremesinghe

Having supported the establishment of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2006, with a mandate to examine, monitor and publicly report on human rights situations in member countries, the Mahinda Rajapaksa government was now looking for scapegoats, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.

It was the current crop of leaders who had gone to the UN in 2006 and backed a resolution which not only installed the UNHRC as a replacement for the UNCHR, but also endorsed the role to be played by Non-Governmental Organisations in promoting and protecting human rights, the UNP leader said, addressing party activists at Sirikotha.

Continue reading ‘Could Forthcoming Sinhala and Tamil New Year be Celebrated in an Atmosphere of Brotherhood? Asks Ranil Wickremesinghe’ »

by
Shamindra Ferdinando

Sarath Fonseka waves towards the public during his visit to Jaffna, Jan 2010

Accusing President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government of failing to counter the growing threat on the human rights front in Geneva, Democratic Party Leader General Sarath Fonseka yesterday said that there was absolutely no basis for allegations directed against the military.

However, the observations and the recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) appointed by the President had aggravated the situation, the outspoken General said.

Addressing the media at party office at Kotte, Sri Jayawardenapura, the former Army Commander and Chief of Defence Staff said that his troops hadn’t been responsible for rights violations during the final phase of the conflict. Commenting on specific allegations regarding mass rape of surrendered LTTE women cadres, the war veteran insisted that it was nothing but a lie.

Continue reading ‘Sri Lankan Army was Disciplined During his Tenure says Former Military Commander Sarath Fonseka’ »

By

Gordon Weiss

In the past few years, I’ve largely avoided junkets from Sri Lankan diaspora groups, for fear of being tarred with various brushes.

Gordon Weiss at Global Tamil Forum Conference-pic by: © 2013 Geoff Wilson ~ via: facebook.com/GTFOnline

The two exceptions (not junkets of course) were from Toronto’s Sri Lankans Without Borders , a group dedicated to building common ground between all of Lanka’s communities, and now the Global Tamil Forum, who persuaded me to travel to London for their third annual conference. Sunday I was laying in the sun in Australia, trying to heal a herniated disk in my back. That evening, I decided to catch a plane the next morning.
Continue reading ‘Approach of Current Sri Lankan Govt has Presented Tamil Diaspora with Golden Opportunity’ »

By

Frances Harrison

Frances Harrison at The Global Tamil Forum Conference – pic by: ©2013 Geoff Wilson ~ courtesy of: facebook.com/GTFOnline

Publishing a book about a highly charged ethnic conflict in which tens of thousands have died is no path to a peaceful life. You only need to look at the racial abuse and filthy language in the comments sections of online sites frequented by Sri Lankans to see how intense the emotions still are.

Like anyone who writes on Sri Lanka I’ve had my share of abuse from both sides. I’ve been told I am covered in the blood of the babies who perished in the killing fields, that I’ve been making money out of the dead, and am a terrorist or “white Tiger” not to mention, a hysterical liar.

Continue reading ‘Writing and Talking About War Crimes Every Day is Corrosive and Soul Destroying’ »

By

Sathya Liyanasuriya

Minister Maithripala Sirisena

Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) General Secretary and Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena found himself in the limelight last week in rather unpalatable circumstances, when his son was involved in an incident of alleged assault of a senior police officer’s son while holidaying in Pasikudah.

The usually affable and mild mannered Minister found himself being compared to his more notorious cabinet colleague Mervyn Silva, whose son also made similar headlines some months ago when he allegedly assaulted an Army officer.

In the incident involving Sirisena’s son, there are two very different versions of the event. The alleged victim maintains that he was assaulted by the ministerial offspring and his associates who, it is alleged, were intoxicated and attempted to take lewd photographs.

Continue reading ‘Maithripala Sirisena in the Limelight Under Unpalatable Circumstances’ »

By
Upul Joseph Fernando

“If the LTTE chooses to abandon peace, however, we want it to be clear they will face a stronger more capable and more determined Sri Lankan military. We want the cost of a return to war to be high.”

Jeffrey Lunstead, former US Ambassador,
American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka
11.01.2006

“You have probably seen the headlines expressing our government’s concern over the impeachment of the Chief Justice. Action that undermines an independent Judiciary in Sri Lanka may also undermine Sri Lanka’s ability to attract foreign investment.”

Michele J. Sison,
US Ambassador
Matara, Chamber of Commerce
17.01.2013

Quoted above are two excerpts of addresses made by two American Ambassadors to Sri Lanka, at two different Chambers of Commerce events in Colombo and Matara. Though the addresses were delivered years apart, they are nonetheless substantially and uncannily identical in content. The first statements was made by Jeffrey Lunstead, the then US Ambassador, while addressing the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka in 2006, and the other was made by the current US Ambassador, Michele J. Sison, while addressing the Matara Chamber of Commerce in 2013.

Both statements are in no uncertain terms, warnings; the first of which was directed at Prabhakaran and proved to be prophetic, in hindsight.
Continue reading ‘Mahinda Rajapaksa Making same Mistake as Veluppillai Prabhakaran in not Taking Warnings by the USA Seriously’ »

By

Prof.Rajiva Wijesinha M.P.

There is a very strange game being played out in Geneva, the implications of which decision makers in Colombo have not understood – or else, having understood, they simply do not care.

Though the motivations of those attacking us vary, their aim is clear, namely to undermine national sovereignty. The mandarins, or perhaps I should say the rickshaw pullers, in our Ministry of External were sanguine earlier about what they saw as a bland US resolution. The fact that it requires monitoring of our activities, in particular with regard to accountability, should worry them, but I suspect they no longer understand the basic principles on which the UN should operate.

Continue reading ‘Games Being Played in Geneva Along with a Series of “own goals” by the Ministry of External Affairs’ »

By Madura Ranwala

Hirunika Premachandra

In the wake of Parliamentarian Duminda Silva’s arrest and the Colombo Magistrate handing Silva to prison guards at the Nawaloka hospital, Hirunika Premachandra, daughter of slain Presidential Advisor Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra yesterday told The Island that the fight against injustice would begin from now on.

When asked why she said so, Hirunika said that she never thought that the prime suspect in her father’s assassination would be arrested in this manner as he had political influence.

Continue reading ‘Hirunika Premachandra Praises Attorney-General for Action Taken Against Duminda Silva’ »

by Mike Andree and Madura Ranwala

Duminda Silva MP

UPFA Parliamentarian Duminda Silva, who returned to the country early yesterday morning, was remanded till March 14 by the Colombo Magistrate, in connection with the killing of presidential advisor Baratha Lakshman Premachandra.

Silva, who was in Singapore for treatment for severe head wounds, received in the October 2011 Mulleriyawa shooting incident, which culminated in the death of Premachandra, returned to Sri Lanka, accompanied by a surgeon from the Mount Elizabeth hospital, Singapore, on an Emirates flight. He was taken out of the airport on a wheelchair and immediately admitted to the Nawaloka hospital for treatment.

The CID arrested him at around 10.00 a.m. and after taking his statement, informed Court that he was in police custody in hospital.

Continue reading ‘Duminda Silva Returning to Sri Lanka is Admitted to Nawaloka Hospital Where he is Remanded under Police Custody’ »

By
Dhamayanthi Rajendra

(Statement by ms.Dhamayanthi Rajendra of United States Political Action Council (USTPAC)at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 4th 2013)

Mr. Vice President & Madam High Commissioner.

The High Commissioner’s report recognizes that the failure of the international community and the UN to understand and address the causes of widespread violence and conflict in certain countries, such as in Syria and Mali, leads to prolonged suffering for those caught in such violence, and widespread impunity.

We are encouraged by the High Commissioner’s focus on combating impunity. Combating impunity is quintessential to sustainable peace. We applaud the increasing use of commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions to investigate allegations of serious violations.
Continue reading ‘Violations of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Sri Lanka Require Establishment of Independent International Investigations’ »

By
Vani Selvarajah

(Canadian Tamil Congress board of director Ms. Vani Selvarajah made the following statement on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council TODAY (Monday March 4th 2013) on behalf of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada)

Thank you Mr. President,

Madam High Commissioner, on behalf of Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada and the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), we welcome your annual report, and thank you for your continued resolve to protect human rights around the world.

The situation in Sri Lanka is deteriorating, with an increased level of militarization, suppression of free speech, the breakdown of the rule of law and the loss of any democratic space. The Tamil people are living under army occupation.
Continue reading ‘War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Sri Lanka Must be Investigated by a Neutral Party’ »

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF REPORT COMPILED BY SLB AND WATCHDOG TITLED “HUMAN RIGHTS IN NORTHERN SRI LANKA IN 2012

Repression and human rights violations in the North remained under-reported throughout 2012. This report attempts to highlight some key incidents and trends facing the Tamils in the North, while recognizing the violations and repression faced by all communities across the country, such as in the East and in the plantation sector.

Forty five months following the end of the war (May 2009 to date), Sri Lanka is still unsafe for the minority Tamil community and dissidents of the State. With abductions arrests and intimidation still continuing, there exists a general sense of lawlessness rampant across the country. This is much worse in the North, with heavy military presence and control. To date, people are asked the question “are you Sinhala or Tamil” at military checkpoints in the North.

Continue reading ‘Militarisation and Imposition of Sinhala Buddhist Culture on the North has Gone on Unabated in 2012’ »

by Chitra Weerarathne

Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake

Former Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake, in a motion filed in the Supreme Court yesterday, has said that she is still the Chief Justice of this country.

In reply to notice issued by the Supreme Court, regarding a special leave to appeal application, she has said that she will not participate in the case proceedings as a respondent.

Continue reading ‘Dr.Shirani Bandaranayake Files Motion in Supreme Court Stating she is the Chief Justice Still as her Impeachment is Null and Void.’ »

By

R.M.B. Senanayake

Recently, some persons, including some Buddhist monks, carried out a hate campaign against members of the Muslim community through public meetings and on the Internet. Several mosques have also been attacked and some Muslim traders have been targeted by unruly crowds calling upon them to close their businesses.

Continue reading ‘Hate Campaign Against Members of the Muslim Community Through Public Meetings and On the Internet’ »

by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha M.P.

I was in Singapore last week when a couple of my former students sent me messages that I had been attacked on Swarnavahini by Wimal Weerawansa. It seems he claimed I had made some reforms to the education system that were not practical. One student thought I should respond, another suggested that I give up politics and return to the university system. Hearteningly, he noted that ‘We know your contribution to the education as we were unable to make a simple sentence before entering to the university.’

Therein perhaps lies the rub. I believe I have done more since Kannangara for introducing equity in education, but this has been largely with regard to English. While the pre-University General English Language Training programme was started by someone else, I was involved from the start, in producing readers for the course that students responded to with ease. After I took on the course, along with the best instructor in the University English Units in those days, we transformed the course, and produced text books that were later prescribed for Indian universities – though perhaps that too would be anathema to Mr Weerawansa. Together with that, I was responsible for English courses at the Affiliated University Colleges, initially the diploma course but then, at the request of the UGC, General courses which were mandatory at all Affiliated Colleges.

Continue reading ‘Mr.Weerawansa may Enjoy Electoral Success by Sniping at Forward Looking Policies but the Sri Lankan People Deserve Better’ »

By
Jack Healey

V. Rudrakumaran, Prime Minister, TGTE

Imagine a global nation of people stretched into a diaspora that numbers perhaps 80 million people, more than five times the global Jewish population. Have you heard of the Tamils? They are in South India, Malaysia, Canada, Sri Lanka and around the world. Mostly Hindu, there is a substantial Christian and Muslim population.

You’re probably familiar with the work of A.R. Rahman from Slumdog Millionaire and M.I.A. from “Paper Planes.” You’ve likely been entranced by the work of film director M. Night Shyamalan and have laughed at the comic timing of Aziz Ansari on Parks and Recreation.
Continue reading ‘Sri Lankan Tamils Transforming from Tigers Into Lambs’ »

By

Ranjan Mathai

I hope to suggest some ideas to take stock of where the [US-India] relationship is. I am part of the squad called upon to sustain the remarkable transformation that has brought the US and India closer together than we have ever been in the past. It is worth emphasising that the nature of this change has been unprecedented.

Decorative US-India flags in Washington DC during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to The White House in Nov 2009-pic: K.T Kumaran

The centrepiece was the India-US civil nuclear arrangement and all that went into it and has since emerged from it.
Continue reading ‘US and India Closer Together Than we have Ever Been in the Past-Indian Foreign Secretary’ »

By
A Staff Reporter

Over 570 persons, including MDMK chief Vaiko and Tamizhar Desiya Iyakkam leader P. Nedumaran, were arrested on Monday for attempting to picket the Sri Lankan mission here stressing that India should support the US-sponsored motion against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council. They were later released.

MDMK Chief Vaiko with members of various political parties during a protest against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Madras High Court premises in Chennai on Monday-pic: PTI

Around 11 a.m., several protesters, including those from Tamizhar Desiya Iyakkam, MDMK and Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangam gathered near the Tank Bund Road and raised slogans against Sri Lankan government. They demanded that the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner be removed.

Continue reading ‘Over 570 Including Vaiko and Nedumaran Arrested for Protest Demonstration Against Sri Lankan deputy High Commission at Nungambakkam in Chennai’ »

By
A Special Correspondent

L.Mani

L. Mani (48), belonging to the fishermen community at Nallavadu near here, who attempted immolation in front of the Cuddalore Collectorate on Monday afternoon and suffered over 70 per cent burns, died in the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital in Chennai at night.

Earlier, he had been taken to the Cuddalore headquarters government hospital for first aid and then referred to the Chennai hospital.
Continue reading ‘48 Year old L.Mani Dies in Hospital of Burns Sustained in Self-Immolation Attempt at Cuddalore Collectorate for his Tamil Brethren in Sri Lanka’ »

(Text of Appeal Letter Issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission)

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Varnakulasingham Arulanandam was rearrested by the Terrorist Investigation Division after he was released by a court of law for lack of evidence. He has been severely tortured, his wife has only been allowed to visit him twice and there is no indication as to when he will be formerly charged and brought before a court of law. This case is yet another illustration of the exceptional collapse of the rule of law in the country.

Continue reading ‘Varnakulasingham Arulanantham Released by Courts for Lack of Evidence Re-Arrested by Police Terrorism Investigation Dept and Tortured under Detention’ »

By Vishnuguptha

“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.” ~ Khalil Gibran

Every major religion in the world is facing this threat; not from outside but from within. The original teachings of every religion preach love, kindness, compassion and tolerance. Yet, more blood has been shed in the name of religion than any other human cause. In pursuit of religious conversions, an untold number of millions of human lives have been sacrificed. Families torn apart, children dismembered, workplaces set ablaze, villages massacred, all for the sake of religion and faith. If there was one religion that did not depend on such morbid behaviour of humanity for its spread among non-believers, it was Buddhism. There is no evidence that Buddhism was spread at the point of a gun or dagger.

Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity have all fallen prey to this human folly. Yet it was never the intent of the founders of these religions that any member of the human community ought to be converted into a particular religion by way of coercion or force.

Continue reading ‘Our Religion Buddhism Needs to be Protected in Sri Lanka from Members of the Buddhist Clergy’ »

By
Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka at UNHRC special session on Sri Lanka, in Geneva on May 26, 2009.-pic courtesy: Getty images

The major challenges Sri Lanka faces in Geneva this month are threefold: the possibility of a vote and losing that vote; the possibility of getting fewer votes or losing that vote by a larger margin than a year ago in March 2012; the possibility of an unfair or imbalanced compromise which is actually a capitulation, which affects our vital interests such as national sovereignty.

I hope that it is possible for Sri Lanka to ward off these dangers, but I confess I am rather pessimistic, just as I was in the run-up to the vote in March 2012. I hope that we do not get fewer votes than last year, where in March 2012 we saw a reversal of the dramatic diplomatic victory we had obtained in the same diplomatic arena, the UNHRC, in late May 2009. I hope that the vote does not give our enemies — the Tamil Eelam separatist networks in the Diaspora and Tamil Nadu — evidence that our international standing is growing weaker by the year.
Continue reading ‘When the Tigers Forced us out of Elephant Pass in 2000 Did Prabhakaran and LTTE Think they Would be Encircled in Nandhikadal in 2009?’ »

By

Shamindra Ferdinando

Presidential Human Rights envoy and Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe has caused quite a diplomatic stir in Geneva by skipping a meeting called by United Nations Human Rights Commissioner (UNHRC) Navi Pillay, following a swipe he had at her in Geneva last week.

The reason for his decision to keep away was not immediately known. Asked whether he had obtained the government’s nod for skipping Pillay’s meeting, sources answered in the negative.

Continue reading ‘Mahinda Samarasinghe Causes Stir in Geneva by not Attending a Meeting Called by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay’ »

by Chitra Weerarathne

A nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, today, will take up the fundamental rights violation applications and the special leave to appeal application filed in respect of the former Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake’s impeachment.

The fundamental rights violation applications have alleged that the Parliamentary Select Committee, appointed under standing order 78A, was illegal and hence that committee’s findings were bad in law.

Continue reading ‘Full Bench of Nine Supreme Court Judges Under Shiranee Tilakawardene Will hear all Cases Regarding Chief Justice Impeachment and Issue a Single Judgement’ »

By
Charitha Ratwatte

The Divi Neguma Act which was certified into law on 11 January 2013 and published in the Gazette of the same day is designed to promote a development intervention based on the community. The Act creates two basic institutions at the community level (see Organigram of Divi Neguma). In Part II of the Act sections 9 to 14, it creates the Divi Neguma Community Based Organisation. By Part VI, sections 25 to 28 the Divi Neguma Community Based Banks are created.

Community is defined by the Interpretation Section of the Act, Section 45, as follows: ‘community’ means plantation, urban or industrial sectors of the public. It is an accepted general principle in the law relating to the Interpretation of Statutes that when the word ‘means’ is used in describing what an entity is, it limits the application of the meaning to the exact same words that follow. In other words the use of the ‘means’ is a limitation of a definition. It excludes the inclusion of any other entity into the category. On the contrary, when the word ‘includes’ is used, it is taken to mean that nothing is excluded, the entities that follow the word ‘includes’ and as well as other entities of the same or generic type can be included.

Continue reading ‘Are Agriculture,Fisheries and Rural Sectors Defined as Community for Divineguma Act to be Applicable?’ »

By

Harim Peiris

Former Royal Rugby captain CR (Bulla) De Silva, the Attorney General and loyal friend of President Rajapaksa, must indeed be a puzzled man, even as a whole host of senior officials from the Attorney General’s Department, which he headed in the not too distant past, take wing to Geneva, to play defence, where the US is sponsoring a resolution in the UNHRC, regarding Sri Lanka and its post war reconciliation track record.

CR De Silva, chaired and together mostly with other distinguished former Sri Lankan State officials, were commissioned by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to report on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) after the end of Sri Lanka’s bitterly polarising and devastating three decades long ethnic conflict. This appointment came after the UN Secretary General appointed his own panel of experts to advise him on similar matters on Sri Lanka. After over a year of countrywide public hearings, written representation and field visits to the former conflict areas, the LLRC issued its final report and recommendations.

Continue reading ‘World is Telling Sri Lanka in Geneva to Implement Letter and Spirit of LLRC Recommendations Speedily,Fully and Completely’ »

By
Dr.Vickramabahu Karunaratne

Let’s put things in perspective. Whatever the Geneva Resolutions bring, whoever votes against Mahinda’s regime, whatever embargoes are imposed, Mahinda expects to rally round chauvinist Armed Forces, because they remain the only power to repress the opposition movement. Following other global powers, the Indian Government is not bothered to win the popularity contest of Lankan people.

To the Delhi elites, what the people of Lanka feel about them is immaterial so long as they can get its wish lists secured from the men holding office in Lanka, who easily succumb to every demand. No previous government had given to India stakes in Lanka’s strategic national assets, as the present Government had done. Records reveal that India now holds stakes in every province of Lanka.
Continue reading ‘We Cannot Underestimate the Lengths to Which Indian Rulers will go to Make Sri Lanka do as it Sees Fit’ »

By

Robert Amsterdam

This week the United Nations Dispute Tribunal handed down a decision finding several officials from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the UN Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe in 2008 involved in grave misconduct concerning the inhumane treatment of the former Head of Office in Zimbabwe, Dr. Georges Tadonki, whose urgent warnings in early 2008 about the unprecedented political violence, the resulting large scale crisis and the closure of humanitarian access were ignored by his superiors.

Continue reading ‘UN Disputes Tribunal in Landmark Case Finds UN Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe and UN Humanitarian Agency Officials Involved in Grave Misconduct’ »

By

W.A Wijewardena

Asoka Handagama, mathematician turned central banker turned quantitative economist turned rural developer turned artiste of numerous genre, has sought to kill two birds with one stone, a stone in the style of a Sri Lankan ‘Oscar’ this time.

His first bird is to support the ailing external sector of the country. His second bird is to give a ‘rebirth’ to the already dead, according to Handagama, Sri Lankan cinema industry. He did so in a public lecture he delivered to a packed audience at the Central Bank’s Centre for Banking Studies last week on the very long theme ‘Sri Lankan Cinema: More than a Dream; A Strategic Idea to Develop Cinema Industry as a Part of Overall Development Plan’.

Handagama, who is famous for creating ‘adults only’ artistic work, sent his audience to laughter in an ironic twist of humour at the beginning that his lecture will also be for adults only, meaning that it is for serious consideration.

Continue reading ‘“Oscars” and Film Festival in Sri Lanka:Asoka Handagama’s Strategic Ideas to Develop Cinema Industry’ »

BY
DR DAYAN JAYATILLEKA

THE LEFT AS POLITICAL ACTOR (PART 2)

This year and month mark the 130th death anniversary of Karl Marx. 2013 also marks the 60th anniversary of the assault on Moncada led by Fidel Castro and of his address ‘History Will Absolve Me’. It is then an appropriate year for any Left party to take a long hard look at the road it has travelled and the path ahead.

The past returns to haunt political movements just as they do individuals. In this sense the past is part of the fabric of the present. This is why an accurate evaluation of one’s past is as important for a political movement as it is for a person. It seems that neither the JVP nor the breakaway FSP have an entirely accurate diagnosis of their collective past, without which their present and future standing is negatively affected.

Under pressure perhaps from the FSP breakaway, the JVP has concluded that its support for Gen Sarath Fonseka at the Presidential election was an error. Though it was arguably an error for Gen Fonseka to have contested the first post-war Presidential election against a popular incumbent President, instead of focusing on the correct target of entering parliament and making his presidential bid the next time around, it is less obvious that, given the choices available, the JVP erred in supporting him. The JVP’s error was perhaps in leaving the ranks of the ruling coalition before the war had been won. Karu Jayasuriya probably made the same mistake. This permitted the monopolisation of the legitimacy of the historic military victory.

Continue reading ‘There is in Sri Lanka Today a Huge Opportunity for the Left if it Gets its Politics and Optics Right’ »

By

Yohan Perera

United National Party (UNP) and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday stressed the need for sharia law to instill discipline in the rank and file of the party.

“We will have to deal with those who sabotage the current UNP membership drive in the way that the Muslims deal with those who disobey the teachings of Islam,” he said addressing a meeting in Galewala last evening.

Continue reading ‘Ranil Wants to Deal with UNP Members Sabotaging the Party in the way Muslims Deal with Those who Disobey the Teachings of Islam’ »

By

Dharisha Bastians

The Joint Opposition laid the blame for rising anti-Muslim sentiment squarely on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s shoulders yesterday, after the Bodu Bala Sena held a massive anti-Halal demonstration in Weeraketiya, in the Hambantota District on Saturday (2).

Continue reading ‘Bodhu Bala Sena Stages Massive Anti-Muslim Rally at the Rajapaksa Family Stronghold Weeraketiya in Hambantota District’ »

By
Frances Harrison

The stocky Tamil man twisted himself nervously inside his thin black anorak, ill suited to one of the iciest days of winter, as he explained how he turned informer, betraying the very man he was supposed to protect, in order to save his own life. We endured the bone-chilling cold sitting outdoors on a deserted verandah sipping coffee in a café in Victoria Station, interrupted occasionally by the peremptory platform announcements. Indoors it was warm but there were too many people who might be listening; after all, we were talking about summary execution.

Kumaran, who doesn’t want to give his real name out of fear, had once been a Tamil Tiger rebel fighting for a separate homeland in north-eastern Sri Lanka. Now a refugee in a land where he doesn’t speak the language, he still exudes the confidence that might come from having once carried a gun. This was a man trusted enough to be the bodyguard of the political leaders of the Tamil Tigers.
Continue reading ‘Eye-Witness Accounts of How the Sri Lankan Army Executed LTTE leaders who had Already Surrendered’ »