Tamil National Alliance (TNA) says that the government has not initiated any of the recommendations by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

Responding to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s remarks on LLRC, at the independent day celebration, TNA parliamentarian, M.A.Sumanthiran said that they are yet to see implementation of these recommendations.

President Mahinda Rajapkasa in his independent day address said that the government has already started implementing what was in the Commission.

“The report was tabled in Parliament on December 17. [...]

Continued from last week

The Vellahla Hindus and Catholics believe that God is not only on their side but he belongs exclusively to them. By his disgraceful act Bishop Ryappah asserted that even Holy Mary belongs exclusively to the Tamil Catholics — and that too only to the Catholics who live in Evil-laam. In the traditional Jaffna culture the low-castes were not even allowed to drink water from Vellahla wells. V. Anandasangaree said that he had the right to protest against [...]

We were told that four prison officers and ten men  on remand over drug related offences have so far been identified by the intelligence units, as having been behind the recent riot in the Borella Magazine prison.  Police officials say that three prison officers had been seen encouraging the rioters. It is claimed that alleged drug traffickers, identified among those who led this revolt inside the prison, are Anthony Raj, Mohamed Shiran, Malik alias Kondaya, Army Thushara, Dematagoda Raja, Cake [...]

Now look who’s dividing the country!

In a most curious turn of events the military which battled to defeat the LTTE because of its separatist agenda is now the agency that is dividing Sri Lanka into two distinct portions. Persons who wish to travel to the north to campaign against the government are stopped, harassed and busloads are turned back. I ask you who is de facto dividing the country. What is wrong, in law, with holding meetings to raise public [...]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa states that ethnic communities have no separate regions and the entire country belongs to all ethnic communities.

Addressing the 64th National Independence Day celebrations in Anuradhapura, President Rajapaksa said that the government is engaged in the task of creating a stable peace and national unity after liberating the country from terrorism.

President Rajapaksa referring to the problem confronting the world economy called upon the nation to face the reality.

“We have to get together and work just as [...]

February 4th, the day Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) got so-called “Independence” from Britain in 1948, is a day for action, not regret or mourning. “The betrayal of the Tamils by the British cannot be ignored. If it is, then Britain must be reminded of its moral, legal and ethical obligations, to ‘do the right thing’, by the Tamils even belatedly,” says Dr. Brian Senewiratne in an article he has authored on the so-called independence of Ceylon on 04 February 1948. [...]

Displaced Sri Lankan refugees yearn for new home in Winnipeg

Winnipeg’s globe-trotting human rights lawyer David Matas is trying to help thousands of Sri Lankan refugees stuck in limbo in Indonesia and Malaysia, including a dozen families hoping to come to Winnipeg.

"If you had to start somewhere, I’d say get the kids out of jail and let them go to school," said Matas, who just returned from the southeast Asian countries where close to 5,000 Tamil refugees are stuck.

"It’s simple, [...]

President Mahinda Rajapakse marked Sri Lanka’s national day by appealing to the country to show "strength and courage" in the face of a worsening global economic crisis.

Rajapakse on Saturday said the problems confronting the world economy were also hitting the resort island nation of 20 million people who are emerging from nearly four decades of ethnic war after crushing Tamil separatists in 2009.

"It is important to be aware of the reality," Rajapakse said in his address to the nation on [...]

The national carrier of Sri Lanka, SriLankan Airlines is aiming to increase capacity on its Indian routes in 2012 by bringing in new aircraft. Lalith Peiris, Area Manager – Maharashtra, SriLankan Airlines said, “We are considering bringing in new aircraft to fly on the Mumbai route. We will replace the A320s currently in operation  with four A340s by March 2012. These aircraft will enable us to offer flatbed seats in business class as well as increase capacity in the economy [...]

(PTI) Pointing to a smear campaign against it by international rights groups, Sri Lanka on Saturday said it is confident of facing the UN Human Rights Council at its next session later this month as it has a clean slate.

Human rights envoy and minister Mahinda Samarasinghe slammed international rights groups for what he called were attempts to slander the image of Sri Lanka for political gain. Samarasinghe said the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has commenced a [...]

Reconciliation can be a protracted affair, and achieving it can take as long as getting out of a conflict. But paying lip-service to the notion of reconciliation while apparently enforcing a peace based on the terms of the victors ensures, in the long run, that the grievances which led to the conflict in the first place continue to simmer. This is the unfortunate path which the Rajapaksa regime in Sri Lanka seems determined to tread.

After having repeatedly stated that [...]

“It is the duty of all parties in the country to solve problems according to the people’s wishes by participating in this Parliamentary Select Committee rather than relying on imported solutions and utilising foreign influences,” Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said.

Addressing the nation at Anuradhapura, on the occasion of the Sri Lankan Independence Day, he said that Sri Lanka believed that the mechanism for solving the National Question is the Parliamentary Select Committee. “We are engaged in [...]

Keeping genocide-afflicted Eezham Tamils in sheds and shelters, occupying Sri Lanka plans to build massive ‘tourist’ hotels in Jaffna with Sinhala investment and management, eventually to create Sinhala business enclaves and colonies, news sources in Jaffna said. SL presidential sibling Basil Rajapaksa laid foundation for a 14-storey tourist hotel in the heart of Jaffna city on Friday. Mr. Milinda Moragoda, opposition leader, Colombo municipal council, is said to be closely associated with the investment carried out by a tourism corporate [...]

A group of British and Australian Parliamentarians have nominated the controversial Channel 4 video on Sri Lanka for the Nobel Peace Prize, a press statement said on Saturday.

British MP Siobhain McDonagh said that she and Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon have made a joint submission to the Norwegian Nobel Committee nominating the team at ITN and Channel 4 that produced the documentary film ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ for the 2012 Nobel peace Prize.

McDonagh said the Channel 4 team produced [...]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa says his government is taking the recommendations of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) seriously and will formulate a solution to the national issue through parliament.

Speaking at the 64^th Independence Day  celebrations in Anuradhapura this morning, the President insisted that the government will not accept any solution from outside the country and instead feels that all political parties in Sri Lanka should support a parliament select committee to discuss the political solution.

Full text of the [...]