The Marga Institute and Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) launched the publication – “Issues of Truth and Accountability – Narrative 3 (The Last stages of the war in Sri Lanka), on the 15th of August at the BMICH. As a follow up Marga Institute is organizing a Colloquium which will be held on the 29th of August 2014 at the BMICH Committee Room D at 4.30 pm. Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke Chairman Emeritus of the Marga Institute will be making the initial presentation which will be reviewed by a panel. Members of the Panel are: Dr. K. Vigneswaran Dr. Kumar Rupesinghe Mr. Chandra Jayaratne Professor Rajiva Wijeysinghe Madam Tamara Kunanayakam Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka For invitations please contact amar@margasrilanka.org or call on 0714203828 

International rights groups have demanded protection for potential Sri Lankan witnesses at a UN-mandated war crimes investigation into the island’s ethnic war which ended five year ago.  Six organizations in a joint letter expressed alarm over alleged intimidation, threats and reprisals against those likely to engage investigators probing the bloody finale to Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatists war. The letter published on the website of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists urged “meaningful steps” to protect those who cooperated with the war crimes probe which was approved by the UN Human Rights Council in March. “Human rights defenders in Sri Lanka face widespread intimidation,” the letter said adding that it could intensify ahead of the presentation of an update on the investigation at the council’s September […]

by Upul Joseph Fernando   ( August 28, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mahinda’s sudden visit to Houston in America has stirred the curiosity of many Sri Lankan watchers of the developing political scene. In January 2011 also Mahinda went on an unscheduled visit to Houston quite suddenly raising a whole host of speculations. To an inquisitive media the government sources at the time disclosed that the President was on a private visit to see his brother Dudley Rajapaksa who was an American citizen living in Houston. Later it transpired Mahinda had been actually visiting former American President George Bush. He had advised Mahinda when he met him in 2006 on the sidelines of UN General Assembly Sessions that year, not to trust terrorists under any […]

Sri Lanka’s Secrets” is published by Monash University Publishing with a foreword by eminent human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC. Grant said that the motivation to write this book came out of life stories that he kept hearing from Tamil asylum-seekers in Australia. “I work closely with these people as a convenor with the Tamil Refugee Council, helping torture victims, presenting the Tamil Manifest show on Melbourne radio 3CR and driving a van to deliver clothing, food and furniture to those struggling to exist under Australia’s heartless refugee policy. In my travels I heard horrendous tales about the precarious existence for Tamils in their traditional homeland, before, during and after the war,” he said. “I have been a journalist in the mainstream Australian media for […]

Following Sri Lankan President’s gloating comments last week on barring access to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) investigators into the country, the New York Times has noted the remarks have placed Sri Lanka right alongside North Korea and Syria. In a strongly worded editorial published on Friday titled “Sri Lankaís Intransigence”, it has been pointed out that refusing access to the UNHRC investigations carrying out the probe on Sri Lanka has placed the country in the company of North Korea and Syria – two countries that also barred access to UN human rights investigators. The editorial board has expressed doubts on the comments by President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka being able to handle the inquiry on its own, as it was the failure to do so ,that prompted […]