Month: January 2017

by Rohini Mohan “Gripping and profoundly moving … an astonishing feat of reportage.” – NPR Guide to 2014’s Great Reads For three decades, Sri Lanka’s civil war tore communities apart. In 2009, the Sri Lankan army finally defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers guerrillas in a fierce battle that swept up about 300,000 civilians and killed more than 40,000. More than a million had been displaced by the conflict, and the resilient among them still dared to hope. But the next five years changed everything. Rohini Mohan’s searing account of three lives…

By Dharisha Bastians Borrowing several battle-cries from the opposition campaign that ousted his administration two years ago, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressed a massive political rally in Nugegoda yesterday, accusing the national unity Government of corruption and vowing to recover stolen state assets when he regains political power. The Government was guilty of treason, Rajapaksa said, accusing them of selling off state institutions, property and harbours to foreigners. The ex-President turned Member of Parliament for the Kurunegala District also issued a tacit warning to all those looking to invest in…

By D.B.S.Jeyaraj “Nallavan” (not his real name) is a Tamil youth living in a Northern village. He was a former member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization who had surrendered to the armed forces in May 2009. He was incarcerated for a period of time and released after undergoing a process of rehabilitation. Life in a post-war Northern environment was painfully difficult because Nallavan could not get gainful employment anywhere. Neither did he have adequate financial resources to go abroad. Nallavan lived with an aged aunt and engaged…

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan The Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) said it has made no substantial breakthrough in any of the 200 plus high profile overseas financial corruption cases they had filed in Court within the last two years. An FCID official told Ceylon Today that they have written to nearly 70 countries including Ukraine, USA, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, UAE, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius, ……the Caribbean Islands including Jamaica and Panama, to name a few, but only 10 countries even acknowledged the letters which asked them to…

Higher Education and Highways Minister Lakshman Kiriella yesterday in parliament demanded to know from ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa as to how he and Joint Opposition oppose the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine now after giving 600 million rupees to set up the SAITM during the last government. Minister Kiriella said: Mahinda Rajapaksa government gave 600 million rupees to Dr Neville Fernando to commence the SAITM. That is good. Now we all could legalise private university education. Those who started the SAITM today oppose it. How and why are you…

There is no water to drink, no land to build homes, no jobs and very little hope. This is the situation facing hundreds of displaced people who returned to Mannar to find their lives have gone from bad to worse. Many families fled Mannar in the Northern Province in fear of Tamil terrorism 26 years ago to Puttalam, but they came home to find hopelessness, they say. A visit to the village Silawathura in the Musali division reveals the extent of their problems. In Musali, there were 3,044 families made…

By Manekshaw Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera opening the Foreign Ministry’s Regional Office in Jaffna and the Indian Consulate celebrating the 67th Republic Day of India took place on Thursday (26) in the backdrop of the family members of the disappeared persons and the political prisoners staging their hunger strike in Vavuniya. The fast unto death hunger strike by the family members of the disappeared persons and political prisoners in the North which commenced on Tuesday (22) in Vavuniya is the first to be staged with the dawn of this year.…

By C.V. Wigneswaran – C.V. Wigneswaran – Northern Chief The tremendous expectations and hopes our people placed in Your Excellency seem to be eroding in recent times and Your Excellency must take note of their feelings not only for political reasons but also for ethnical and humanitarian reasons. His Excellency Maithripala Sirisena President Presidential Secretariat Colombo 1 Fasting unto death at Vavuniya Your Excellency, You may be aware of the Fast undertaken by the relatives of those who are Missing and those Political Prisoners in incarceration opposite Vavuniya Police Station.…

By Vishwamithra1984 – “Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”  ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms Kadiresan woke up early morning, a couple of hours before sunshine, looked up towards the starless skies and let out a deep sigh; he knew it was going to be another scorching,…

A visibly displeased leader of the Nava Sama Samaja Party Dr Vickramabahu Karunarathne, has expressed his dissatisfaction after the Kaduwela Magistrate ordered for the bail of a man, who recently vilified him and called him a traitor who should be killed for selling the country to Tamils and Muslims. The culprit had racially discriminated Karunarathne at a restaurant late last year. Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne Detailing the incident, Karunarathne said that in last November when he was having dinner with two of his friends at a restaurant in Thalawathugoda, a man…

Following submissions made by the counsel of slain TNA MP Nadaraja Raviraj’s family, the Court of Appeal which dismissed the appeal against the Colombo High Court judgement, today reinstated the appeal against the judgment. Raviraj On January 20, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal against the verdict delivered by the Colombo High Court filed by the victim’s wife Shashikala Raviraj on grounds that the plaintiffs were not present in court when the case was taken up for consideration. However today, when the counsel of Raviraj’s family, M. A. Sumanthiran…

By Shamindra Ferdinando Sri Lankan cricketer, Kumar Sangakkara earned the wrath of the war-winning President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government for his hour long “Spirit of Cricket” lecture at the July, 2011, Sir Colin Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s. Some politicians and officials depicted the lecture as a frontal attack on the then government. Those who had resented Sangakkara, for being critical of their conduct, cleverly deceived President Rajapaksa. They propagated the lie that the cricketer was challenging the government and was working with the Opposition. Sangakkara received an invitation from the MCC…