May 2014

By N Sathiya Moorthy India’s Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi, has set a healthy precedent for all of South Asia to follow by inviting all neighbourhood leaders for his inauguration, including Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sri Lanka’s President should be more than willing to accept the invitation. In doing so, President Rajapaksa could be expected to wave away reservations, if any, from within, citing Modi’s outgoing Congress predecessor, Manmohan Singh, boycotting CHOGM last year, after raising hopes and controversies through the long run-up. If it came to that, he can be expected to silence those critics by pointing to the unprecedented new regional initiative, which the Sri Lankan Government has been pressing even for addressing domestic concerns like the ‘ethnic issue’ in the country. In […]

By Dr Dayan Jayatilleka Five years after the thirty years war we are in a time of transition to a termination. It can go either way: tenuous equilibrium and a modus vivendi or a bloody tragedy as finale. The foreseeable future of Sri Lanka will depend on the Mahinda-Modi equation. There are at least two broad scenarios. Scenario I: Soft Landing The Sinhala/Southern Establishment seizes the opening provided by an incoming Modi administration with a shared or compatible ideological morphology, comprehends that a strategic rapprochement with Delhi represents the last chance of stopping an externally driven or backed separation of the North and East, and pays the minimum price for such a rapprochement in the form of the full implementation of the 13th amendment within […]

Here are two letters that speaks volumes for itself to show how desperate Rajapaksa is. The moment Narendra Modi gave invitations to all South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) members for his inauguration as the Prime Minister of India, Rajapaksa was the first to grab it. It was not as easy as the land grabs he is carrying out in the Tamil Homeland. This caused such an uproar in Tamil Nadu, that it put Tamil Nadu politicians and Modi into confrontation. This would have caused merriment in the Rajapaksa camp, as they wanted a continuation of Sonia’s policies in Sri Lanka. That would be a day dream. In the first place inviting SAARC members for this auspicious function is only a formality with no […]

by S. V. Kirubaharan( May 25, 2014, Paris, Sri Lanka Guardian) Soon after a resolution was successfully passed on Sri Lanka in the 25th session of the Human Rights Council – HRC, I wrote an article in April, titled, “Successful Resolution And Sabotage By Tamil Stooges!” In a website, there were 63 responses. Some of these were by people with such names as “KnowYourGamesKirubh ; buggeroff ; FOFF ; dieyouasspora,” etc. Beyond doubt all these and many other comments were written by an individual who lives in Columbus-land. This person is non-grata among the diaspora and writes nasty remarks with bogus names, especially when the author is known to him. He suffers from an inferiority complex, jealousy and guilt and is a disgrace to Tamils. […]

By Easwaran Rutnam The Norwegian Government played a key role in mediating between the Government and the LTTE during the war, including under the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government. However as soon as the LTTE was defeated the Norwegians were accused by many within the Government of playing into the hands of the LTTE and being biased towards the rebels. The man who took center stage as Norwegian mediator is former Minister Erik Solheim. Yet active on expressing his views on Sri Lanka, Solheim told The Sunday Leader, he is still fully convinced the peace process could have succeeded. Here are excerpts from the interview: Q: Sri Lanka is this week celebrating five years since the end of the war. As a former mediator in the Sri […]