Sudan has expelled the head of a UN agency and accused her of interfering in domestic affairs, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. Pamela DeLargy, an American who headed the UN’s Population Fund office in Sudan (UNFPA), “was asked to leave,” AFP quoted ministry spokesman Abubakr al-Siddiq as saying. “She was not abiding by the […]

By A. Abdul Aziz.     (Given below is an excerpt of one of the recent Friday Sermons of Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Supreme Head of the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam, delivered on 4th April, 2014, at ‘BaithulFuthuh’, London, U.K. gave a discourse Essence of True Love for Allah. Ahmadiyya Supreme Head – Ameer-ul-Mumineen spoke […]

Shenali D Waduge  In what has sent shockwaves across the world, LTTE Diaspora & supporters both local and international are now a worried lot. Legally, they are cornered. Their propaganda machinery has now been checkmated with a UN Security Council Resolution that is both mandatory and binding. With the declaration of LTTE and 16 LTTE […]

Shenali D Waduge When a country not just votes for Sri Lanka against the tides but goes the extra mile to eloquently deliver a speech giving reasons why they are voting against the US sponsored Resolution, that country and in particular the head of that delegation needs to be thanked and felicitated far before thanking […]

By Bandu de Silva  There has been no overall response in Sri Lanka to India’s stand this time over the voting on the US sponsored Draft Resolution (D/R) at UNHRC session in Geneva despite President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s spontaneous response to release the Indian fishermen in custody and a thank you letter since despatched to the […]

By Garvin Karunaratne, Former Government Agent, Matara District, When the dust of the storm created by the Superpowers at Geneva settles down it is necessary to take stock of our strengths and weaknesses and to decide what we should do. Let us not forget that we are a sovereign country. We have to go it […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy Island April 7, 2014, 10:11 pm Sri Lanka will not cooperate with the proposed war crimes investigation undertaken by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, though the government remains committed to work with the United Nations as well as other international agencies, such as the International […]

Asada M Erpini Sri Lanka’s win in the 2014 T20 World Cup is an apt response to the individuals, the groups and the countries that view the term Sri Lanka as being synonymous with war crimes, deprivation of human rights, lack of democracy, discrimination of Tamils and other minorities and the ‘dictatorship’ of one family […]

Dr Hector Perera   London Sinhalese New Year, generally known as Aluth Avurudda (Sinhala: à¶…ලුත් අවුරුද්ද) in Sri Lanka, is the new year of the Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka. It is a major anniversary celebrated by not only the Sinhalese people but by most Sri Lankans.  The timing of the Sinhala New Year coincides with the New Year celebrations of many […]

Shenali D Waduge Immediately following the end of World War 2 the Allied Troops carried out a policy of Denazification. The objective was to totally eliminate any ideology associated with Nazism and to ensure Germany would never destroy European peace. Denazification of Germany began in 1946 and ended only in 1958. US, UK, France and […]

By Dr Noel Nadesan Courtesy COLOMBO_TELEGRAPH  The war radicalized Jaffna and it was inevitable that we could never again return to the good old Jaffna we knew.  There were signs of a new Jaffna emerging imperceptibly even during the war years. I have visited Jaffna 13 times in the last five years.  But nothing signified the change […]

SINHALA AVURUDDHA CELEBRATIONS PROGRAM IN KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA  Sunday, April 6, 2014                      Maha Sanghika Dana @ 12 noon                                                                 Venue: Buddhist Maha Vihara, Brickfields                                                                                 Sri Lanka Buddhist Temple, Sentul Sunday, April 6, 2014                      Annual Merit Offering Ceremony @ 5pm                                                                 Venue: Sinhala Buddhist Cemetry, Jalan Loke Yew Monday, April 14, 2014                  Avuruddha Blessings […]

වම් ඉවුර –Courtesy Divaina ඉකුත් සඳුදා ලිපියේ ලංකාවේ පළාත් සභා ඡන්දය ගැන ලිවà·à¶¸à¶§ සිදුවූ නිසා ඊට කලින් මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය තුළ සිදුවූ ඡන්ද විමසà·à¶¸ ගැන කිසිවක්”Œ කà·à¶¸à¶§ නොහැකි විය. අද විපක්”à·‚ිත පාර්ශව වලින් ඇසෙන කතා වලින් ගම්”à¶º වන්නේ ආණ්”Œà¶©à·”à·€ ජිනà·à·€à·à·„ිද෠පමණක්”Œ නොව ලංකාවේදà·à¶­à·Š පරාජය ව෠විනාශයේ අභිමුඛ සිටින බවකි. ජිනà·à·€à· වල නම් ලංකාව පැරදුන බව […]

By Janaka Alahapperuma The National New Rice Festival (Aluth Sahal Mangalyaya) – 2014 was held near the historic Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The New Rice Festival or the ‘Aluth Sahal Mangalyaya’ is considered as thousands of years old ancient tradition which was launched with the arrival […]

Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. Abstract The study investigated combat related PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and psychosocial problems among Army servicemen who fought in the Eelam War in Sri Lanka. A total of eight hundred and twenty four (824) Sri Lankan Army servicemen of the infantry and services units who were referred to the Psychiatric […]

Senaka Weeraratna Attorney at Law – Courtesy The Daily News The term ‘bias’ is defined as an inclination of temperament or outlook to present or hold a partial perspective and a refusal to even consider the possible merits of alternative points of view. An individual may be biased towards or against another individual, a race, […]

By Manjula Fernando Courtesy The Daily News Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr. Palitha Kohona said the proscription of 16 organisations under the UN resolution 1373 which called for international cooperation for suppressing terrorism financing, was what required now after years of patient tolerance of the actions of these fronts. Sri Lanka’s […]

The Canadian Tamil Congress Last month, United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 25/1 mandated the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct an independent investigation into, “serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka,” which was seen internationally as a victory for human rights […]

 Shenali D Waduge An article titled ‘Church’s Perseverance in Sri Lanka pays off’ written by Anto Akkara claims that the UN has decided to investigate possible war crimes because of a request made by the Sri Lankan Catholic Church. The writer perhaps is unaware of the ties between the LTTE and the Church over the […]

චන්ද්”à¶»à·ƒà·šà¶± පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි අප්රේල් විරුවණි, ඔබ හැම එදා එක්වුණේ, අධිරාජ්”à¶ºà·€à·à¶¯à¶ºà¶§ විනාශය-ජනතාවට විමුක්තිය; යන සටන් පාඨය යටතේයි. ජාතික හා ජාත්”à¶ºà¶±à·Šà¶­à¶» ”à¶¯à·šà·à¶´à·à¶½à¶± තලයේදà·à¶¯à·, මෙයට වඩා අගනා සටන් පාඨයක් ඇත්තේම නැත. සතුරා, වර්ෂ 1505 සිට විවිධ වෙස්ගෙන, ශත වර්ෂ 5 ක් පුරා මෙරට ජනතාව පෙලන ලදà·. ඒ අධිරාජ්”à¶ºà·€à·à¶¯à·à¶±à·Šà·€ මේ මාතෘභූමියෙන් පන්නා දැමà·à¶¸ යනු, මෙරට ජනතාව මත ඇති ගැටළු […]

Courtesy The Daily News Several Asian, Latin American and African countries including Asian giants Russia and China yesterday condemned the High Commissioner for the United Nations Human Rights Council for exceeding her mandate in calling for an International investigative mechanism for Sri Lanka and for policticising the UNHRC to cater to the geo-polical interests of […]

Shenali D Waduge  LTTE and 15 other LTTE fronts have been banned by the GOSL under UN Security Council Resolution 1373 w.e.f 1st April 2014. The order signed by External Affairs Minister Prof. GL Pieris based on recommendations by the Secretary Ministry of Defence and Urban Development as the Competent Authority will hereafter regard persons, […]

By Malinda Seneviratne For Sri Lanka, the only relevant resolution at this year’s UNHRC sessions is the one tabled by the United States of America.  It is relevant because it was on (read ‘against’) Sri Lanka.  If, however, the world is serious about the UNHRC and therefore whatever resolutions are tabled, voted on, adopted or […]

Palitha Mapatuna  According to the newspapers, a resolution had been passed in March, 2014 in Geneva to request the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) to undertake an investigation into a domestic matter of Sri Lanka.  Accordingly, questions had arisen whether an investigation into an internal matter of a sovereign state would […]

Mal Munasinha Canada April 3rd, 2014   Hon. Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada House of Commons Ottawa, ON   Honourable Prime Minister   Motion Passed against Sri Lanka   It is with outrage, that I find in the Hansard, the motion that was passed on the 26th of March, 2014, against the Sri Lankan […]

Dr.Tilak Fernando “All politicians are great bluffers, hood-winking the people all the time” wrote a member of the blood line of Colvin as a feed back immediately after reading my last week’s column under the heading ‘Trotskyites Sang Sai Bajans’! He (name withheld) remembers “how protests organised by N.M always ended up smashing all the […]

The Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka held its 7th Annual Research Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences on 27th, 28th and 29th March 2014 at the Mahaweli Centre for which nearly 400 papers was submitted. The chief guest was Prof. Kshanika Hirimburegama, Chairperson of the University Grants Commission. Others in the photo are Prof. Ranjith Senaratne, Vice Chairperson of […]

Shenali D Waduge  At this important juncture of Sri Lanka’s post-independent history there are some factors that need to be reminded to all citizens of Sri Lanka. Some of these hometruths may not be palatable to people but these need to be said and recorded.  Reverse Discrimination : Empathy towards Sinhalese Let us for a […]

By Janaka Perera  April 3, 2014 marks the 85th death anniversary of Dr. Charles Alwis Hewawitharana who was the first Sinhala Buddhist to become a Doctor of Medicine (MD – Medicinae Doctor) in the British Colonial era after graduating from medical colleges in England and Scotland. He was also a brother of Buddhist revivalist Anagarika […]

චන්ද්”à¶»à·ƒà·šà¶± පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි  à¶¸à·à¶­à·’වරණයක අවසානයේදà·,  ලබාදෙන ප්රථිපලය විසින් නිර්මානය කරන්නේ, අපූරු පින්තූරයකි. මේ පින්තූරය, එක් පක්ෂයක හෝ එක් කණ්ඩායමකට උරුම වූ පින්තූරයක් නොවේ. මෙය මුලුමහත් සමාජයේම නිර්මාණයක් බැවින් සමාජයම සතු වස්තුවකි. මේ වස්තුව, සැබෑ ලෙසම; සියලු දෙනාටම වස්තුවක් වන්නේ, ඒ දෙස බුද්ධිමත්ව බලා අවබෝධ කර ගන්නා කරුණු මතය. වර්තමානයේදà·, ලබාදෙන මැතිරණ ප්රතිපලය, සියලුම දේශපාලන පක්ෂ […]