As we approach VESAK I am readying myself to witness first hand the hypocrisy of this nation. Led by the government of Sri Lanka and the totally abhorrent laws concerning alcohol its sale and consumption the public led by those with ecclesiastical authority pay scant regard for the laws of Sri Lanka. On the one ...

Time for India to re-examine the Issue | by Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah ( April 30, 2012, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is hard for a man to keep a straight face and tell a lie but President Rajapakse manages to do it every time he has to face the Indians and the International community

By Samanmalee Unanthenna This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it”. Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address, 1861 Several months ago, in an article I wrote, ...

Best of a bad situation The Sri Lankan government attempted to make the best of a bad situation by pointing to the narrowness of its defeat at the UN Human Rights Council last week. Out of the 47 countries on the Council, 15 of them supported Sri Lanka and voted against the resolution on Sri Lanka ...

Sri Lanka, which is known as the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’, has drawn worldwide attention due to its geographical location in the Indian Ocean, says Times of Oman. The newspaper reported that Sri Lanka had been a popular international trade centre for many centuries and traders

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Canada Chithranganee Wagiswara has said that it is the Sri Lankans who suffered immensely for decades due to terrorism. She emphasized that they are further being tormented in the face of baseless and false allegations made by the International community.The Sri

With the recent relaxing of the rupee exchange rate and subsequent increase in fuel prices, trade unions and the opposition parties are conducting protest campaigns against the Government, demanding a reduction in oil prices and the cost of living. This article investigates the living conditions of citizens in the recent past and present, quality and ...

ITN launched its operation of revealing to the world about so-called journalists who are depending on dollars of the LTTE betraying the motherland. The Sri Lankan expatriate community is sending information on the treacherous activities this media clan is launching against Sri Lanka from Europe

By Uvindu Kurukulasuriya Last week several thousands of government supporters shouted “Hands off Lanka” protesting on the streets across the country against the US-sponsored Resolution. Protests were held throughout the island slamming the US move at the UN Human Rights Council as interference in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. The most ridiculous thing was the acting Minister of ...

By Uvindu Kurukulasuriya Last week several thousands of government supporters shouted “Hands off Lanka” protesting on the streets across the country against the US-sponsored Resolution. Protests were held throughout the island slamming the US move at the UN Human Rights Council as interference in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. The most ridiculous thing was the acting Minister of ...

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of ousted President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed has insisted that early polls be held and vowed to continue with the nightly protests until a date is announced for the election. However, President Mohamed Waheed has said that, if an early date for elections is to be announced, then all parties should agree to sit down for discussions. While his predecessor ...

Last week was one that President Mahinda Rajapaksa wished  had never come by. The years of telling the West to “go fly a kite” had come home to roost. It is the way of the international community. They do not have a gallery to play to. The powerful and influential “watch lobbies” bide their time, ...

Reuters: China has no intention of ‘buying up’ or ‘controlling’ a debt-ridden Europe that it still has confidence in, and any help Beijing may offer will be for purely economic reasons, a top state-run newspaper said on Monday ahead of a China-EU summit. While Chinese

By Tisaranee Gunasekara “It is so depressing to think we suffer because we arefools” Bertrand Russell – (Sceptical Essays) The February-March session of the UN Human Rights Council will be a trying time for the Rajapaksas. A US sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka is expected to come up in Geneva, if the regime fails to ...

Colombo Telegraph last week unearthed another WikiLeaks cable. According to the cable Major General Prasad Samarasinghe the former Military Spokesman and Director, Directorate of Media in the Army, has been passing highly sensitive information to the US Embassy in Colombo on a burning issue – Abductions. Many of those abducted were believed to have been ...

By Jyoti Malhotra Business Standard (New Delhi): India’s promise to sell two Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) to Sri Lanka, during their first-ever defence dialogue in New Delhi last week, as well as the recent agreement to build an electricity transmission line from Madurai to Trincomalee and connect the electricity grids of the two countries, is ...

An Open Letter to Minister Keheliya Rambukwella Mr. Minister, I don’t know whether you have seen the film called ‘my name is Khan. In it, the main character played by popular actor Shah Rukh Khan repeats the lines ‘My name is Khan. I am not a terrorist’ at different points in the film, in order to affirm ...

Further repression of media, civil society, minorities (New York) – The Sri Lankan government in the past year failed to advance justice and accountability for the victims of the country’s 26-year-long civil conflict, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012. While Sri

New York 23 January 2012:The Sri Lankan government in the past year failed to advance justice and accountability for the victims of the country’s 26-year-long civil conflict, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012. While Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged north and east

If the Governor of Central Bank has an urge to enter politics, he should come to Parliament without playing politics inside the CB, charges United National Party Parliamentarian and well-known Economist Dr. Harsha de Silva. Dr. de Silva notes that Governor Nivard Cabraal should respect the sanctity of the Central Bank and therefore if Cabraal ...

On the third death anniversary of a slain newspaper editor his widow has called on the international community to exert pressure on Sri Lanka government to hold an independent investigation into his murder.

8 JANUARY 2011:Today  marks the third death anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge a human rights journalist from Sri Lanka who fought fearlessly for the freedom of the press and relentlessly pursued what he believed was right. On January 8, 2009 he was brutally murdered by the Sri Lankan authorities for his journalism. Three years after Lasantha’s brutal murder ...

This editorial was published in The Sunday Leader on October 5, 2008 when Lasantha Wickrematunge was Editor. We are reproducing this inmemory of Lasantha Wickrematunge who was killed three years to the date, on January 8, 2009. Lasantha was a strident critic of the former Army Commander as illustrated in this Editorial. “Army Commander Sarath ...

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday that he would consider a formal request to pardon the jailed former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka if such a request is presented to him properly. Meeting with the newspaper editors yesterday, the President said it would be a futile attempt to seek

A British Public Relations firm has claimed it wrote President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s speech delivered at the United Nations last year. Britain’s ‘Independent’ newspaper said that senior executives at the PR firm Bell Pottinger told undercover reporters that it’s speech was given preference

By Uvindu Kurukulasuriya In November 2005, in recognition of her service to the country and the world, then-President of Sri Lanka Chandrika Kumaratunga conferred on Radhika Coomaraswamy the title of “Deshamanya” a prestigious national honour. She is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. In this capacity, she serves ...

Amidst some attempts to sabotage the initiative by internal elements opposed to him, opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe  last week took the lead in organising a massive demonstration in Colombo against the continued incarceration of former army Commander General Fonseka, . In parliament Last Tuesday the UNP leader removed his tie bearing the logo of the Commonwealth Parliamentary ...

Since the end of its civil war against the ruthless Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in 2009, the Sri Lankan regime’s own reputation for ruthlessness has grown. At its heart are the three Rajapaksa brothers – President Mahinda, defence secretary Gotabhaya (“Gota”) and Economic Development Minister Basil - controlling a formidable military force that has quashed all resistance ...

The Editor and the journalists of this newspaper, The Sunday Leader, continue working under death threats. Having already murdered its former editor Lasantha Wickrematunge there are factions in this country which continue to threaten journalists working on this newspaper – unable to understand

Five energetic young professionals, representing Rotary International District 3220 Sri Lanka will fly to Osaka, Japan for a Group Study Exchange (GSE) programme in November. Led by a Rotarian Past President Pubudu de Zoysa, a member of Rotary Club of Colombo, the team includes Rukshi Liyanage