With the result of next month’s parliamentary election almost a certainty, the focus has shifted to the floods of candidates overwhelming voters at the ballot box. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruling party is expected to romp to victory in the poll, which will see a total of 7,520 contestants v... [More]

I have always argued that the deepest division in Sri Lanka is not the so-called ethnic divide but the split between supporters of democracy and supporters of totalitarianism, and the presidential elections proved this point. Bitter arguments within the Sinhalese community generated by the candidacy... [More]

Even before the war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan Government came to an abrupt end in May last year, serious allegations of war crimes were flying thick and fast between both sides. Dateline reporter, Ginny Stein, recently travelled to Sri Lanka and to New York to test the claims of ... [More]

Source: International Crisis Group (ICG) Date: 23 Feb 2010  Full_Report (pdf* format - 2.9 Mbytes) Asia Report Nº186 23 February 2010 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For the past quarter-century the Tamil diaspora has shaped the Sri Lankan political landscape through its financial and ideological su... [More]

Time is running out for the beleaguered opposition in Sri Lanka as it readies for the April 8 general election. For all their promises of bringing in good governance and better economics, opposition parties are now preparing to fight each other then putting up an united stand against the ruling Unit... [More]

The Temporary Care Project for refugees at Chettikulam has taken in 232 lone children to date and we have successfully reunified 56 children with their families. At present there are 176 children left living with us on the project. We are doing our very best to provide these children with some sort... [More]

Sri Lanka's tortured politics shifted into a new and murky phase after the re-election of the country's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in January. Rajapaksa soundly defeated retired Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the battlefield commander who helped destroy the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam last year, end... [More]

Indian visas for peace activists among other participants from Pakistan, China and Bangladesh invited by NGOs to conferences here could become harder to get after the home ministry was reported on Friday to have asked for all applications to be referred to it. “As per the revised procedure, the sec... [More]

This week, Sri Lankan voters go to the polls to elect a new president. No matter the victor, neither of the two main candidates is likely to provide the justice and closure that Sri Lanka's thousands of war victims deserve. In 2007-8, I was a member of an independent international advisory group ob... [More]

Thirty officers of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s elite personal guard have completed an advanced two-month training course at the Haryana Police Academy at Madhuban near Karnal. Ranging in rank from assistant inspector to superintendent of police, the Lankan officers were imparted VVIP p... [More]

From North to the South, West to the East, the skies of Sri Lanka are now filled with the empty and virtual deceptive promises of two desperate presidential candidates. While the Sri Lankan politicians are beating their drums, While the so called war heroes of the nation are busy launching mudslingi... [More]

President Barak Obama has urged newly re-elected President Mahinda Rajapaksa to lead Sri Lanka towards national reconciliation in the post-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) era and heal the divisions created by conflict. The reconciliation, the US President added, should have the essential ele... [More]

The northeast Tamil heartland must not be left out of post-election development, one of Sri Lanka’s top Buddhist monks says. “Special interest should be taken for the reconstruction of tanks and the reservoirs in the war-torn areas of the north and east. The people in all parts of the country shou... [More]

Aachcharya writing from Jaffna I wrote on the 30th of December in a post to Groundviews (and republished in the Daily Mirror) that the assertion that the Tamil people would be deciders in the Presidential election would be a myth. There was nothing brilliant or extraordinary about what I said at th... [More]

Sri Lanka’s election commissioner declared incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse the winner of the Jan. 26 election for executive president. However, opposition candidate and retired army commander General Sarath Fonseka rejected the results as false due to the prevalence of violence, electoral frau... [More]

[AFP] SRI Lankan authorities have withdrawn the visa granted to a Swiss reporter covering the island's fiercely fought presidential vote and asked her to leave the country within 48 hours. Karin Wenger of Swiss Public Radio said she was sent a letter by the immigration controller saying she must le... [More]

Defeated Presidential candidate, former army general Sarath Fonseka has been alleged of planning to eliminate president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family. The startling revelation was made by the Sri Lanka defence ministry officials at a press conference in which they said they have evidence to prov... [More]

  A new video sent be a viewer to Headlines Today shows Lankan soldier stripping LTTE female cadres and dragging them out of their hide outs.             [DIVIDER] http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Video/80947/43/New+video+of+Lanka+war+crimes.html

Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe The defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam last May has breathed new life into the democratic process for once marginalised groups in Tamil politics, says Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe. And, as Sri Lankans prepare to head to the polls, he says a new optimism is emergi... [More]

A HEAVILY pregnant asylum seeker says she is prepared to have her baby on board the crowded vessel where about 250 Sri Lankans have been engaged in a stand-off with authorities at the Indonesian port of Merak. After more than month living in the jungles of Malaysia waiting for a boat, and then more... [More]