2nd August 2018

31 Years After The Signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord Signed By Rajiv Gandhi and J.R.Jayewardene on on July 29th 1987. By Pramod De Silva It is now exactly 31 years since the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed in Colombo on July 29, 1987, between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene amidst political turmoil in Colombo and military advances in the North. The Accord was signed “Attaching utmost importance to nurturing, intensifying and strengthening the traditional friendship of Sri Lanka and India, and acknowledging the imperative need of resolving the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka, and the consequent violence, and for the safety, well-being and prosperity of people belonging to all communities of Sri Lanka”. India always took a […]

US embassy Colombo sidesteps query on Haley’s assessment of HRC as UN’s ‘greatest failure’ Bogollagama praises previous govt arranging Paisley visits Nikki by Shamindra Ferdinando The US embassy in Colombo sent The Island a statement that reiterated US commitment to ensure the full implementation of the 2015 United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 on Sri Lanka in spite of the superpower finding fault with the Geneva-based UNHRC in June 2018. That statement was in response to The Island query: Against the backdrop of Geneva body addressing accountability issues and taking tangible measures in respect of Sri Lanka in accordance with 2015 Resolution spearheaded by the US (co-sponsored by Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration), don’t you think Ambassador Nikki Haley’s assessment of the UN agency is not fair? […]

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan Secretary General of Amnesty International (AI) Salil Shetty who stepped down from his post, recently, in the belief that leaders should not hang onto their posts, whether in Government, Corporations or NGOs, tells Ceylon Today, “While the war has ended, many feel the conflict has not.” The Amnesty has been using UN expert panel statistics which estimated that up to 40,000 Sri Lankan civilians were killed in the final, bloody months of the war. How do you defend this estimation as being correct compared to the Government’s stance that between 7,000 to 8,000 would have been killed according to Lord Naseby’s endorsement? Is the UNHRC still standing by those figures? A: This is a much-rehearsed question.  Let us remind ourselves that […]

Does Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Think His “Economic Empowerment” Solution Will Result in the Sri Lankan Tamils Giving Up Their Long Struggle For Political Equality and Rights? A leading English-language newspaper reported on Saturday, July 28, in a story entitled ‘Prez polls 2019’ that: “Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on Thursday (July 26) told Colombo-based senior Tamil print and electronic journalists that countrywide economic empowerment was the key to post-war stability…Rajapaksa said so when the Tamil media sought his views on a gamut of issues, ranging from the status of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution enacted consequent to the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord to the government responsibility in respect of squatters…V. Thanabalasingam, former chief editor of a popular Tamil Daily and currently consultant at another reputed Tamil language newspaper, tweeted […]

By Jehan Perera – Jehan Perera Military personnel stationed in the North are often perplexed when told that their continued presence is objectionable to the local population. Their experience is different. When they ask the people about their presence, the answer they say they receive is a positive one whether in term of preserving law and order or in terms of providing material assistance. The sceptic would point out no civilian population in a post-war setting would be willing to tell uniformed military personnel that their continued presence is objectionable. But this may not be the only truth of the matter. On a visit to the North we went to the northernmost point of the country in Point Pedro. A plaque there says that this area was […]

http://www.lankaenews.com/news/2780/en (Lanka e News -31.July.2018, 11.45PM) The search  for the arms and gold  hidden by the LTTE which is being  carried out by digging at various places. Though nothing was found these  operations are well planned and conducted by the pensioned military major General junta who are now  moving heaven and earth to propel Gotabaya to power. During the initial stages  following the good  governance government coming into power , based on  spurious information employing various individuals searches for  weapons and gold  of the LTTE were conducted in the North. It is specially noteworthy , this is now a futile  routine operation so much so it is being carried out weekly. The latest of this series of  excavation  was that conducted in the Ammankulam tank […]