ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION-URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM Dear Friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding Mr. Andige Lakshitha Piyumal Peiris (26), a permanent resident of the Trincomalee District. On 6 July 2017, Piyumal was illegally arrested by Police Officers attached to the Kantale Police Station. He was accused of assaulting two Police […]

By Adela Lin and  Anusha Ondaatjie  Courtesy Bloomberg Sri Lankan police have arrested two people after a Taiwanese bank said hackers stole about $60 million and wired the cash to accounts in Asia and the U.S., the latest cyberheist to afflict the global financial system.   Far Eastern International Bank’s computer systems were attacked by malware that […]

By Malinda Seneviratne Courtesy The Daily Mirror In 1988, not too long before the United National Party was to lose the five-sixths Parliamentary majority it enjoyed (and therefore more than the two-thirds required to amend the constitution, barring of course those which required in addition a referendum) courtesy the anti-democratic referendum of 1982 which too was […]

By Amrit Muttukumaru Courtesy The Daily Mirror Will the mandate of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) into the Alleged Central Bank Bond scam be allowed to lapse without key witnesses being called? This is arguably one of the largest financial scams to have taken place in the post-independence history of Sri Lanka. For sheer impunity […]

Dr. Palitha Kohona Courtesy Ceylon Today The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted the resolution entitled ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’ on 1 October 2015, Resolution 30/1. (After a resolution promoted by the European Union (EU) was defeated in 2009 and a resolution tabled by Sri Lanka was adopted by an […]

P.S. MAHAWATTE Colombo 05 Courtesy The Island October 11, 2017, 10:33 pm What we are witnessing today is what the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe could not achieve in 2002/2004. Signing of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with LTTE’s Prabhakaran, without even the knowledge of either President Chandrika Kumaratunga (CBK) or parliament! PM RW even […]

By C. A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island Dr. Jayampathy Wickremaratne has been trying to allay anxieties of concerned citizens about the new constitution that he is involved in drafting. He claims that there will be a special constitutional provision against secession. What he is referring to is the following provision in the recently released interim report […]

CourtesyThe Daily Mirror The team of counsel of the Attorney General’s Department, who were led by Senior Additional Solicitor General Dappula De Livera today in an uncharacteristic manner said that they have no questions to ask from the three witnesses (Minister Kabir Hashim, Minister Malik Samarawickrama and former EPF dealer Saman Kumara) when the Commission […]

Dr Sudath Gunasekara 11.10.2017. Prevention of the presentation of the draft new Constitution on the 30th of this month to Parliament is the only way open to defeat this treachery and save this country and the Sinhala Buddhist Nation. In the first place this Government has no mandate to go for a new Constitution. Therefore […]

Shenali D Waduge We are being repeatedly told by some ‘smart patriots’ that we don’t understand the demands of the Tamils. Who are these Tamils that ‘smart patriots’ are referring to – Tamil politicians, Tamil political parties, Tamil terrorists, Tamil Terrorist Diaspora groups, Tamil Nadu politicians, Tamil Nadu political parties, Tamil high castes, Tamil low […]

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission ඉහතකී කෙටුම්පත සම්බන්ධයෙන් සිදුකරණු ලබන කරුනු දැක්වීමකි. ඉහත සඳහන් කෙටුම්පතේ රීතීන්ට අනුව ඕනෑම අගතියටපත් පුද්ගලයෙකුට හෝ එම පුද්ගලයෙකු විසින් බලය පැවරූ තැනැත්තෙකුට පොලිස් නිලධාරියෙකු හෝ පොලිස් සේවය විසින් ඔවුන්ගේ නිල කටයුතු වලදී සිදුවු කිරaනියාවක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් පොදු පැමිණිලි පරීක්ෂේණ අංශය වෙත පැමිණිල්ලක් ඉදිරිපත් කොට ඒ සඳහා සහන ඉල්ලා […]

by Garvin Karunaratne( Ph.D. Michigan State University) When my first book exposing the sinister actions of the IMF: Micro enterprise Development: A Strategy for Employment Creation and Poverty Alleviation in the Third World: The Way out of the IMF Stranglehold was published in 1997, a full half a decade before the Argentina Crisis of 2002, […]

Author: G. H. Peiris Several articles by Dr Dayan Jayatilleke published in The Island during the past few days indicate that he is very definitely the most articulate and, arguably, the most “intermestic” exponent of the notion of the ’13th Amendment’ (implemented more comprehensively than at present with all powers and functions referred to in […]

Press Release Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka The Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka (INSSSL) held its Threat Lens on The Illicit Flow of Drugs and its Impact on Sri Lankan Youth” on October 3rd to coincide with World Temperance Day. The event was held at the Ministry of Defence in Colombo with the presence of […]

Dr Sarath Obeysekera   Litro Gas Chairman Shalila Moonasinghe was arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) today in connection with the alleged transferring of USD 1.1 million from Far Eastern International Bank of Taiwan to his personal account in Sri Lanka, CID sources said. 2017-10-09 20:03:08 Can you imagine such people heading a prime […]

S.S.Selvanayagam Courtesy The Daily Mirror Former Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva today told the Supreme Court that the Attorney General was guilty of misleading Parliament through his opinion on the amendments introduced to the Provincial Councils Amendment Bill during the committee stage of its passage. Making submissions as a citizen of the country in support of […]

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග  සමාජ පරිවර්තනයකට අත ගැසිය යුත්තේ එහි වගකීම් හිස දරාගෙනය , නන්දා / සුනිල් ආරියරත්න මේ වගකීම් දැරුවේ නැත. ධනාත්මක සමාජ පරිවර්තකයන් ලෙස බොබ් ඩිලන් , වික්ටර් හාරා , බොබ් මාලි , ව්ලැදිමීර් විසෝස්කි යන ගායකයන් ගේ සහ ලංකාවේ නන්දා මාලිනී ගේ දෙබිඩි පිළිවෙත  ගැන මීට වසර 5 කට පමණ පෙර මා විසින් […]

By Namini Wijedasa Courtesy The Sunday Times (LK) Just three days after last year’s presidential election, someone predicted the Perpetual Treasuries Ltd (PTL) bond issue on an online website for stock market investors. The man wrote on Sri Lanka Equity Forum:Perpetual Treasuries owned by Free Lanka Capital Holdings owners will mostly get a large amount of […]

By Sanchith Karunaratna  Courtesy adaderana Leader of the National Freedom Front Wimal Weerawansa stated that the decision made by the people on the proposed constitutional amendments will change the fate of Sri Lanka. Speaking to the media at Mattegoda, Wimal Weerawansa stated that the current government is in the process of formulating a constitution that is detrimental […]

By Dr Kamal Wickremasinghe Courtesy The Island October 10, 2017, 8:58 pm Since breaking the yoke of colonialism, Sri Lanka has shown an undue interest in ‘playing around’ with constitutions. With the exception of the 16 May 1972 constitution that officially proclaimed independence as a republic, such manoeuvres have been motivated by cynical political objectives portrayed […]

by Rev. Fr. Vimal Tirimanna, CSsR Courtesy The Island October 10, 2017, 9:12 pm Although there are more burning issues that deserve to be discussed in the public forum at the moment (such as the Bond Scam, the undemocratic postponement of the local and provincial Council elections,…etc.) local media as well as the local political arena […]

By Sumanasiri Liyanage Courtesy The Island October 10, 2017, 9:10 pm A couple of weeks ago Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, tabled in Parliament the recommendations of the steering committee on constitutional reforms. Prior to that six committee reports had been tabled. It is good that all these documents in all three languages are now available on […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island October 10, 2017, 8:57 pm Time was when this country was known the world over as ‘the Pearl of the Indian Ocean’ and ‘the Granary of the East’. No longer are such monikers used. Today, it has earned notoriety as a rogues’ paradise. Many thought the 2015 regime change would pave the […]

Xinhua COLOMBO — Over 200,000 Chinese tourists had arrived in Sri Lanka till September this year with over 18,000 arriving last month alone, statistics released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Ministry showed here Monday. Over 1.5 million tourists have arrived in the country so far this year with the government recently announcing they were expecting […]

BY MARCUS BARTLEY  Courtesy   Blogs World Bank Two years ago, we started counting how many Sri Lankan agencies were involved in trade facilitation processes such as issuing permits and managing the movement of goods in and out of the country.  We counted at least 22 agencies in this assessment, and today, the Department of Commerce estimates that […]

By Ranjith Kumara Samarakone Courtesy  Ceylon Today Minister of Higher Education and Highways, Lakshman Kiriella says, “Tamil parties did not get involved in preparing the ’71 Constitution. They did not join in ’78 either. It is now that they are joining in. In ’71 and ’78, the Constitution was prepared in secret. This is not how […]

By rajiva Wijesinha Ceylon Today Features Amongst the more endearing explanations offered by Ranil’s friends for his involvement in the Bond Scam is that he was taken for a ride. The response then to the question why he defended Mahendran so vociferously is that Mahendran also was taken for a ride. Then the answer to the […]

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror The joint opposition said today it would inform the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) next week about funds amounting to Rs.792 billion remaining unused from the 2016 Budgetary allocations. JO MP Bandula Gunawardena said Rs.3,898 billion was allocated through the 2016 […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Parliamentarians Namal Rajapaksa, D.V. Chanaka, Prassanna Ranaweera and three others who were arrested this evening were remanded till October 16, police said. They were arrested this evening by the Hambantota Police in connection with the recent protest in Hambantota, Police said. They were summoned by the Hambantota Police to record a […]

Shenali D Waduge Political opportunism and opportunist politics has been a curse to the country. Looking back we can only conclude that our politicians have failed the people and the nation with their opportunism and greed to remain in power at any cost. Sadly, another trait is that there are no lessons learnt and mistakes […]