BY SHIVANTHI RANASINGHE Courtesy Ceylon Today The disabled servicemen have taken to the streets in protests yet again. This would make it their fourth attempt to get a proper pension. One would have thought an issue for disabled servicemen to take to the streets would be volatile enough to make the government shake in their shoes. […]

PK Balachandranis Special Correspondent in Colombo Courtesy  bdnews24.com. Despite heavy lobbying by human rights groups against giving any reprieve to Sri Lanka, the South Asian island nation is likely to be let off the hook at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) due to exigencies of international politics, diplomats stationed in […]

ලංකා සී නිවුස් හිටපු ජනාධිපති චන්ද්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග විසින් ජාත්‍යන්තරය ඉදිරියේ මෙරට සන්නද්ධ හමුදාවලට අවලාද නැගීම සම්බන්දයෙන් හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා විරෝධය පල කරයි. තම විරෝධය සදහන් කරමින් ඒ මහතා විසින් නිකුත් කර ඇති නිවේදනය මෙසේය. මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය චන්ද්‍රිකා කුමාරතුංග මැතිනිය ජාත්‍යන්තරය ඉදිරියේ අපේ සන්නද්ධ හමුදාවලට අවලාද නැගීම යුද්ධය නිසා උතු‍රේ වැන්දඹු තත්වයට පත් වූ […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror  Former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s allegations that war widows face sexual exploitation by members of the army among others should be condemned publically by President Maithripala Sirisena, former president and MP Mahinda Rajapaksa said today. Issuing a statement, he said Ms. Kumaratunga’s allegations were a matter of grave concern and the […]

Raquel Carvalho South China Morning Post ‘I don’t know what they would do, because they are cruel,’ says father of two The asylum seekers who sheltered former US intelligence contractor turned whistle-blower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong have said they fear for their safety, after reports that Sri Lankan police had been in the city looking […]

South China Morning Post Family of four and individual from Sri Lanka are worried about their safety given reputation of investigators for human rights abuses, lawmakers say Two local lawmakers are calling on the police to investigate claims that Sri Lankan police investigators were in Hong Kong looking for the asylum seekers from the country […]

PRESS RELEASE: 22 February 2017 On 28 February 2017, the Monitoring Accountability Panel (MAP”) will issue its Second Spot Report, which will coincide with the 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council (the ‘HRC’) scheduled for 27 February to 24 March 2017 in Geneva. In the 27-page report, the MAP’s international legal experts will outline their […]

ලංකා සී නිවුස් කොටි සංවිධානය පරාජය කිරීමේ යුධ ජයග‍්‍රහණයේ මුල් ගෞරවය හිමිවුය යුත්තේ හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාට බව හිටපු නියෝජ්‍ය ඇමති විනයාගමූර්ති මුරලිදරන් (කරුණා අම්මාන්) පවසයි. දෙරණ රූපවාහිනියේ 360 වැඩසටහනට එක්වෙමින් ඔහු කියා මේ බව කියා සිටියේය. මහා යුද විරුවා තමන් යයි ඇමති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා යයි සිදු කරන ප‍්‍රකාශයන්ට ප‍්‍රතිචාර ලෙස ඔහු කියා සිටියේ […]

තාරක වික්‍රමසේකර උපුටා ගැන්ම සිළුමිණ Sunday, 19 February 2017 පසුගිය සතියේ දේශපාලන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ වැඩි වශයෙන් කතා බහට ලක් වූ චරිතයක් වූයේ නැවත පදිංචි කිරීම් පිළිබඳ හිටපු නියෝජ්‍ය අමාත්‍ය විනයාගමූර්ති මුරලිදරන් හෙවත් කරුණා අම්මාන් ය. දෙමළ ජනතාව වෙනුවෙන් නව දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක් පිහිටුවීම නිසා දේශපාලන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේද ඔහු සම්බන්ධව විවිධ කතා බහ ඇති විය. ඔහුගේ නව දේශපාලන පක්ෂය හා […]

 සමන් ගමගේ උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින පෙනෙන්නට ඇති පරිදි නම් යහපාලනයට දැන් ලැඡ්ජාවක්‌ බයක්‌ ඇත්තේම නැති සේය. රටේ නීතිය, සමාජ සාධාරණය සහ යුක්‌තිය අතුරුදන්ව ගොසිනි. යුතුකම්, වගකීම් සහ ජනතාවාදී විය යුතු රාජ්‍ය සේවය ඇත්තේ සක්‌වල ගලින් එපිටය. මේ හමුවේ අනේ කාලේ වනේ වාසේ කියනු හැර වෙන කියන්නට දෙයක්‌ නම් අපට ඉතිරිව නැත. “රටට සෙනෙහෙ පුදන.. ලෙයින් මසින් […]

Editorial The Island February 19, 2017, 9:28 pm The CID has woken up like Rip Van Winkle. It has arrested three military intelligence personnel including a major over the abduction of the then Associate Editor of The Nation newspaper, Keith Noyahr, way back in May 2008. The suspects have been remanded. We have been urging […]

කීර්ති වර්ණකුලසුරිය උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින කොටි සංවිධානය සිදු කළ යුධ අපරාධ 340 කට අදාළ තොරතුරු ජිනීවාහි සිටින එක්‌සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ඇමරිකානු නව තානාපතිනි නිකී හේලි සහ මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය හමුවේ ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට හිටපු නාවික හමුදා මාණ්‌ඩලික ප්‍රධානී රියර් අද්මිරාල් සරත් වීරසේකර මහතා ජිනීවා බලා යනු ඇත. ඔහුට මෙරට ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ නීතිවේදීන් දෙදෙනකුද සම්බන්ධ වේ. ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් සමුළුව […]

BY GAGANI WEERAKOON President Maithripala Sirisena instructed officials to provide an allowance of Rs 10,000 per month for all farmers who are affected by the prevailing dry weather and also instructed relevant authorities to appoint a committee comprising District Secretaries, Grama Niladharis and Samurdhi Officials to collect comprehensive information on affected families. After getting the […]

Courtesy Adaderana February 19, 2017  12:05 am Sri Lanka Army (SLA) today denied the allegations made by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga that the country’s Tamil war widows continue to face widespread sexual exploitation by members of the armed forces. The Army Headquarters has noted with dismay a recent statement, alleged to have been made by the […]

Ruwan De Silva. Courtesy The Island February 16, 2017, 9:47 pm A news headline in a morning daily under the caption “Ex Navy Chief Highlights US Role against LTTE” intrigued me, because U.S. Ambassador Blake’s every public announcement throughout his eventful diplomatic assignment in Colombo, at this country’s worst time of long internal insurrection against successive […]

BY S VENKAT NARAYAN Our Special Correspondent NEW DELHI, February 11: Months before then Sri Lankan President Junius Richard Jayewardene signed a controversial agreement with then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in July 1987 in Colombo to disarm the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), he had ordered his own troops twice to take Jaffna […]

Courtesy jurist.org The Sri Lankan [official website] Foreign Minster [official website] said Wednesday that the country will petition the UN for more time to investigate the allegations of war crimes occurring during the country’s 26-year-long civil war [BBC country profile]. Sri Lanka promised the UN in 2015 to investigate the estimated 65,000 missing peoples from […]

Amit Baruah Courtesy The Hindu  Former Sri Lanka President claimed his troops refused to take Jaffna, reveal declassified papers Sri Lanka was forced into making a deal with India as its own armed forces had twice refused to take Jaffna”, then President J.R. Jayewardene has been quoted as saying in a declassified document, nearly 30 years […]

By D. B. S. Jeyaraj Courtesy The Daily Mirror What was your first military operation”? was a question posed to Veluppillai Prabhakaran in a media interview many years ago. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader replied Alfred Durayappah”. Prabhakaran was of course referring to the popular former Mayor and ex-MP Alfred Thangarajah Durayappah who […]

Arun Ram| TNN Courtesy The Times of India CHENNAI: An influential businessman who had secret links with Sri Lanka-based Tamil radicals was helping forest brigand Veerappan with information and, probably, arms. What’s more, the same man, when threatened with exposure over his Lankan links, helped the Special Task Force trap and gun down the bandit 12 […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island The Norwegian embassy refrained from responding to serious accusations that a Norwegian or Norwegians of Sri Lankan origin had been involved in an alleged assassination attempt on Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran in January, this year. Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka has alleged that […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island February 1, 2017, 9:58 pm Alleging that five former LTTE cadres arrested in connection with an alleged attempt to assassinate TNA lawmaker M.A. Sumanthiran had been produced before the Kilinochchi Magistrate and District judge and remanded till Feb 13 on a charge of possessing explosives and narcotics instead of under […]

Courtesy The Hindu Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has accused the Sri Lankan government of dropping its guard on the LTTE by scaling down intelligence operations in the island’s Tamil-majority north and east. Commenting on the recent arrest of four ex-LTTE members, for allegedly plotting to assassinate Tamil legislator M.A. Sumanthiran, the two-time President said: They […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island January 27, 2017, 9:21 pm POST-CONFLICT APPLICATION of IHRL and IHL The position originally adopted by some participating in the e-mail exchange was that IHRL and IHL concurrently apply in Armed Conflict. Since then they have conceded that the Law applicable to Armed Conflict of a non-International nature is IHL […]

By D. B. S. Jeyaraj Courtesy The Daily Mirror Nallavan” (not his real name) is a Tamil youth living in a Northern village. He was a former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization who had surrendered to the armed forces in May 2009. He was incarcerated for a period of time and […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island January 26, 2017, 9:47 pm During the course of an e-mail exchange, the question as to which Laws should guide issues relating to Sri Lanka’s Armed Conflict became a contentious topic. The opinion of some was that International Human Rights Laws (IHRL) and International Humanitarian Laws (IHL) should operate concurrently […]

Courtesy Adaderana The views of US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May on matters of national security offer a window of opportunity” to the Sri Lankan government to re-negotiate the September 2015 UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on it, says Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka, former Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UN in Geneva […]

By Yatish Yadav  |  Express News Service  | Courtesy The New Indian Express NEW DELHI: ‘Insider Knowledge’ can be roughly defined as real-time intelligence that shapes the events and gives us a peep into situation room to highlight why decisions were made by then government. But, blunders will be too many and difficult to count if the ‘insider knowledge’ […]

සමන් ගමගේ උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින ඉතිහාසයේ සිටම මේ රටට විනයක්‌ වූ කල්හි ඊට එරෙහිව බලමුළු ගොඩනගමින් පෙරට ගියේ අපේ මහ සඟරුවනය. එදා වීර පුරන්අප්පුලා, ගොංගාලේගොඩ බණ්‌ඩලා සේම වීර කැප්පෙටිපොළ ලා වැනි වීරයන් සුදු අධිරාජ්‍යවාදයට එරෙහි දිවි කැපකරමින් සටන් වැදුනේද මහා සංඝරත්නයේ ආශීර්වාදය සමඟය. දුර ඈත ඉතිහාසයේ සිටම මේ රටත්, රට බේරාගත් රණවිරුවනුත් වෙනුවෙන් සෑම තැනකදීම පෙරට […]

Stewart Bell | January 16, 2017 5:22 PM ET  Courtesy National Post TORONTO — An alleged fundraiser for Tamil rebels who has been fighting deportation from Canada for more than two decades has lost a key court battle after a federal judge dismissed his appeal. The Federal Court upheld the deportation of Manickavasagam Suresh on the […]