Banking on the “structural changes” in the economy to “provide the momentum for the economy to grow by about 8 per cent in 2012, even in the midst of the slowdown in global economic activity,” the Sri Lankan Central Bank’s January Monetary Board, in its meeting on January 10, decided not to touch any of the interest rates.

“The Monetary Board is of the view that the present policy framework does not require any adjustment and accordingly, at its meeting [...]

The next round of talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an umbrella association of Tamil political parties, is set to commence in Colombo on January 17, to continue discussions on the contours of a political solution to accommodate Tamil hopes and aspirations.

The three-day talks commence soon after Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who arrives here on January 16, meets Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the TNA leader R. Sampanthan. Observers here [...]

Set up industrial training and engineering institutions: G. Parthasarathy

In the present-day world where politics is invariably trumped by economics, India has to have a drastic rethinking of its policy in favour of economically empowering the Tamils in Sri Lanka as a sustainable solution for their rehabilitation, former diplomat G. Parthasarathy said on Sunday.

In a lecture on ‘Personal Recollections of Relations with Sri Lanka — the IPKF and Beyond,’ hosted by The South India Heritage Programme, Mr. Parthasarathy said while [...]

There has been virtually no investigation into this crime, says his wife

Three years after the day-light murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor of Sunday Leader newspaper, “there has been virtually no investigation into this crime,” his wife has alleged. She wants an international investigation into the murder.

Wickrematunge was gunned down when he was on his way to work on January 8, 2009. Seventeen army personnel and a few others were taken into custody, but the case did not progress much beyond [...]

Fishermen of about 950 mechanised boats had kept off sea in Rameswaram on Saturday in protest against the detention of five fishermen in Sri Lanka.

Though the decision to strike work was taken immediately after the detention of eight fishermen with two boats, the protest was modified to seek the release of five others held in Sri Lanka on November 28. The detained boats, with eight fishermen, have been released from Sri Lanka and they are expected to reach [...]

After a series of delays at various levels, false-starts, slip-shod trial and error experimentation at the Indian and Sri Lankan capitals, the massive Indian housing project for the displaced Tamils is set to take off.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, and his team that deals directly with the project, including the Joint Secretary (BSM) Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Adviser Raghavendra Shastry, will review the project on the ground, once they arrive here on January 16. They will be assisted by the [...]

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre to place before it the report of Prime Minister-appointed expert panel on the feasibility of building an alternative shipping channel through Dhanuskodi instead of Ram Sethu around the country’s southern tip.

A bench comprising justices H.L. Dattu and C.K. Prasad also asked the government to supply the report of the panel, headed by noted environmentalist R.K. Pachauri, to the various parties for and against building of navigational sea route around the country’s southern [...]

The fishermen were stranded in Jaffna because of bad weather conditions

The Sri Lankan Navy pulled out six more Tamil Nadu fishermen on December 31 from its waters in the north, and handed them over to the state authorities for further action. With this, the total number of fishermen rescued by the Sri Lankan Navy in the past fortnight has gone up to 35.

All the fishermen are stranded in Jaffna because of bad weather conditions along the Tamil Nadu coast. “The [...]

If you are visiting Sri Lanka from the New Year, you have to log-in ahead online and have a travel authorisation. The era of visa-on-arrival comes to end on Saturday night.

After a lot of deliberations, Sri Lanka has decided to go ahead with the proposed electronic travel authorisation scheme, which requires a tourist to register and pay a fee ahead of arriving in the country.

Only two countries – Singapore and The Maldives – are exempted from the rule since they [...]

Brutally honest and emotionally raw, Leena Manimekalai speaks about her controversial and acclaimed film ‘Sengadal’ and her life’s many missions

She has constantly taken the side of the oppressed, fought the system, gone against the tide and continues to rebel, mincing no words to express what she feels. Brutally honest, emotionally raw and naturally poetic, 30-something independent filmmaker Leena Manimekalai is a real-life heroine battling the odds to fight for her artistic freedom and a passionate activist whose heart bleeds [...]

Colombo asked to go beyond 13th Amendment for“meaningful devolution of powers and national reconciliation”

India wants an “independent and credible mechanism…to investigate allegations of human rights violations” during the end stages of Eelam War IV. This needs to be done in a “time-bound manner,” India has told Sri Lanka.

Belatedly commenting on the Sri Lankan Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee report, tabled in Parliament on December 16, the Indian External Affairs spokesperson said: “The present situation provides a great window of [...]

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) has criticised Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission Report for failing to provide “the thorough and independent investigation of alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law that the UN and other partners of Sri Lanka have been asking for” during the Eelam War IV.

It called upon the international community – through the U.N. Human Rights Council – “to establish an independent international investigation in 2012. Without such an investigation, accountability for [...]

The talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an umbrella group of Tamil political parties representing the Northern Tamils, is headed for another trough, with both sides levelling a series of allegations against the other.

It began soon after the TNA expressed its views on the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission on Monday. The TNA said the LLRC report “categorically fails to effectively and meaningfully deal with issues of accountability” and called for the establishment of [...]

Calling upon the international community to establish a “mechanism for accountability” to bring to book the perpetrators of war crimes during the last stages of the Eelam War that ended in May 2009, the Tamil National Alliance on Monday said the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission report “categorically fails to effectively and meaningfully deal with issues of accountability”.

Recalling that many Tamil civilians, direct victims of the war, deposed before the LLRC, TNA leader R.Sampanthan said “the findings of [...]

Braving the first serious challenge since he took over as party president, Ranil Wickramasinghe was re-elected leader of the United National Party (UNP) on Monday. He defeated the rebel group candidate, Karu Jayasuriya, by a margin of 48 votes. In a secret ballot held on Monday, Mr. Wickramasinghe polled 72 votes while Karu Jayasuriya received 24 votes.

UNP, Sri Lanka’s oldest party which is now the main opposition force, has been facing internal trouble following electoral defeats at the [...]