Las Vegas, NV – WEBWIRE – Wednesday, October 4, 2017 A desire to achieve a common objective is a force that motivates a strong leadership. Success is the outcome of a well-organized plan. Author Daya Gamage, who was a public affairs assistant and political specialist of United States Department of State, shares his own insights on Washington’s overt […]

By Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today On 2 October 1987, the Sri Lanka Navy received a tip off about a boat seen in the Palk Strait and that it may be carrying a large stock of arms. The follow up action by the Navy resulted in the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), that came to Sri […]

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today Confronting us is the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Bill (ICPAPED). If the provision of this bill is incorporated into local law, we give foreign governments jurisdiction over our own citizens – namely the agents of the State, which may be political or military. […]

Editorial Courtesy The Island September 29, 2017, 12:00 pm The UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Colombo has issued a clarification as regards its reference to suicides in a previous statement on the prevailing drought here. It says that though it in the first media release attributed two suicides to the drought, now it has learnt that […]

by Dr. Palitha Kohona Courtesy The Island September 26, 2017, 8:47 pm (Continued from yesterday) On April 25, General Sarath Fonseka, the Commander of the Army, was targeted by a pregnant suicide bomber who had managed to infiltrate the military hospital compound in Colombo. He barely managed to survive and had to be airlifted to Singapore […]

Dr Palitha Kohona Courtesy The Island Sri Lanka is a rare case where a brutal terrorist challenge to the state was comprehensively defeated, substantially through its own efforts, despite all the advice, reservations and fears publicly expressed to the contrary. Unfortunately, the elimination of terrorism has won it few plaudits internationally. Instead, the tables have been turned […]

by C.A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island September 20, 2017, 10:46 pm It is not the policy of this newspaper to comment on articles published by other newspapers or websites. However given the importance of the ‘Bill to introduce into local law the provisions of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced isappearance’, […]

by SANJA DE SILVA JAYATILLEKA Courtesy The Island   [The writer is author of ‘MISSION IMPOSSIBLE-GENEVA: Sri Lanka’s Counter-Hegemonic Asymmetric Diplomacy at the UN Human Rights Council’, published by Vijitha Yapa and now available at the International Book Fair, BMICH.] September 14, 2017, 9:21 pm The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance […]

Northern Province Chief Minister C.W. Wigneswaran: Army holding about 85,000 acres in North By Cyril Wimalasurendre Courtesy The Island September 10, 2017, 10:53 pm KANDY – Alleging that the army continued to hold about 85,000 acres of land in the North, Northern Province Chief Minister and former Supreme Court judge C.W. Wigneswaran, on Saturday, sought the […]

by Lakshman I. Keerthisinghe Courtesy  Ceylon Today As for the ways by which rulers over others may become implicated in their crimes, there are two …tolerance and protection…we must hold that a person who knows of a crime and is able and bound to forbid it and does not do so, himself commits a crime … […]

BY FAIZER  SHAHEID Courtesy Ceylon Today A new trajectory has been carved leading into the already existing list of war crimes allegations against the Sri Lankan Army that seeks to reroute the investigations to hold Sri Lanka as a whole accountable. The war crimes charges were filed by South America based International Truth and Justice Project […]

Courtesy The Island Joint Opposition leader Dinesh Gunawardena will raise the LTTE backed Tamil Diaspora move against General Jagath Jayasuriya following Regional Development Minister Field Sarath Fonseka alleging that the wartime Security Forces Commander, Vanni had committed crimes and he continued violations of human rights after becoming the Commander of the Army in July 2009. […]

Mail on Line A human rights group has filed two cases against retired general Jagath Jayasuriya (C) over his role as a senior army officer during and after the island’s long ethnic war Sri Lanka’s president Sunday defended his ambassador to Latin America who faces war crimes allegations over his role as a senior army […]

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan Courtesy  Ceylon Today Tall and well-built, retired Army General, Jagath Jayasuriya, who was posted in Brazil as the Sri Lankan Ambassador, is back in town with mounted allegations against him related to his posts as a military man and an ambassador. He said that although he was the Vanni Commander, he was […]

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island September 2, 2017, 7:37 pm Former Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya completed his stint as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Brazil and arrived in Sri Lanka last week. It would appear that just as he was leaving Brazil, some international human rights groups had filed war crimes lawsuits against him in Brazil and […]

Lahiru Pothmulla Courtesy The Daily Mirror Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Brazil, General (Retd.) Jagath Jayasuriya yesterday rejected the war crimes allegations levelled against him and said the then Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka in a written document had exempted him from responsibilities of all military operations. Speaking exclusively to Daily Mirror he said: After all, […]

By Upali de Saram and Norman Palihawadane Courtesy The Island September 1, 2017, 11:04 pm Regional Development Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka yesterday said he was ready to give evidence against his successor in the army, General Jagath Jayasuriya if the latter was tried for war crimes. Field Marshal Fonseka said he had received information that […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින දෙවියකුගේ වෙස්‌ගත් කොටි යක්‍ෂයා පසුගිය 12 වැනිදා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී රාජ් රාජරත්නම් නමැත්තකු ගැන ප්‍රකාශයට පත්විය. රාජරත්නම් ළඟ සේවය කළ ඉන්ද්‍රජිත් කුමාරස්‌වාමි අද මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපති ලෙස ක්‍රියාකරන බවද පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදී හෙළිදරව් කෙරුණි. එහෙත් කවුද මේ රාජ් රාජරත්නම්? ව්‍යාපාරිකයෙක්‌ද, එසේත් නැත්නම් අහිංසකයෙක්‌ද, එසේ නොවේ නම් තක්‌කඩියෙක්‌ද යන්න මෙරට ජනතාව නොදනී. අද අපි හෙළිදරව් කරන්නේ රාජ් […]

Ranjith Soysa  To:US Secretary of State. <secretary@state.gov>, US Embassy Sri Lanka <colomboacs@state.gov> Dear Sirs According to Tamil Guardian of 17 Aug 2017, US State Dept International Religious Freedom report for 2015 has reported that the Buddha statues inNorth and East of Sri Lanka creates the perception of  Sinhala Buddhist imperialism! The above conclusion is not […]

by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island August 18, 2017, 11:12 pm Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, PC, yesterday said foreign judges couldn’t be accommodated in domestic judicial mechanisms in accordance with the Constitution. He said so when The Island asked him whether he, would as a former Attorney General, in addition to his newest responsibilities look into […]

BY Rathindra Kuruwita Courtesy Ceylon Today War is thus more than a mere chameleon, because it changes its nature to some extent in each concrete case. It is also, however, when it is regarded as a whole and in relation to the tendencies that dominate within it, a fascinating trinity (wunderliche Dreifaltigkeit). – Carl von Clausewitz […]

satp.org The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundera during a discussion held with the religious leaders and civil society organizations at the Auditorium of the Jaffna Police Station in Jaffna District on August 1 said terrorism had not been eliminated completely from the country and the attempts made by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil […]

පියසිරි අජිත් ලියනගේ අටවැනි දිනට යෙදෙන සෙන්පති ඩෙන්සිල් කොබ්බෑකඩුව 25 වැනි ගුණසමරුව නිමිත්තෙනි මම අවුරුදු 23 ක සේවා කාලයක්‌ අවසන යුධ හමුදාවෙන් විශ්‍රාම ලැබුයෙමි. එම සේවා කාල පරාසය තුළ මට නා නා විදිහේ ගති පැවතුම් ඇති නා නා පන්නයේ නිලධාරීන් සමඟ සේවය කරන්නට අවකාශ ලැබිණ. තම උරහිසට නායකත්ව සංකේතයක්‌ ලද විට එය තමන් සතු බූදලයක්‌ […]

Courtesy  The Island The UNHRC which has passed many now well-publicised strictures on Sri Lanka, two of them more recently, with the active co-sponsorship of the present government, is once again in the news. The so-called Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (with a small contingent of 15 M.P.s supporting him, which itself is a […]

Mahinda Gunasekera, 84 Tambrook Drive, Agincourt, Ontario, Canada  M1W 3L9 July 26, 2017 His Excellency, Maithripala Sirisena President of Sri Lanka, Colombo 1, Sri Lanka Copy to: Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, Prime Minister Your Excellency, Honourable Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and Elected MPs, Confusion prevailing in respect of Reconciliation, Constitutional Changes and UNHRC Resolution The messages […]

Courtesy The Indian Express  BRUSSELS: The European Union’s top court on Wednesday annulled a court ruling to remove the Hamas militant group from the EU terror blacklist. The court, however, removed Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from the 28-member bloc’s terror list, BBC reported. The Court of Justice of the European Union […]

Courtesy The  Deccan Chronicle Chennai: DMK Working President M K Stalin on Wednesday welcomed European Union lifting the ban on LTTE and asked the Sri Lankan Government to ensure meaningful share” of power to Eelam Tamils. In a statement, Mr Stalin said it is a moment of elation as EU’s highest court has removed LTTE from […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island July 24, 2017, 8:22 pm The Bill states that it seeks “to give effect to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.” The Convention that was ratified by Sri Lanka on May 3, 2016 came into force on June 24, 2016. The Bill neither specifies […]

By C.A. Chandraprema Courtesy The Island =The Island Special Report precipitates reopening of probe in Ukraine = Key witness gives statement to Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office July 16, 2017, 8:42 pm Following The Island’s three part Special Report on ‘The Rajapaksa Govt.’s controversial MiG deal’ in mid-May this year, we reliably learn that the Ukrainian authorities […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando July 18, 2017, Ben Emmerson, QC, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, while countering terrorism, is fully cognizant of Sri Lanka’s long and complex history of ethnic tensions and the tremendous security challenges this has generated. For almost 26 years, Sri Lanka dealt with […]