Month: April 2021

By Sirimantha Ratnasekera The powerful doctors’ union, the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), yesterday urged the government to take immediate action to replenish oxygen stocks if it wanted to avoid a serious calamity similar to that in India, where hundreds of thousands of families and patients are pleading for oxygen outside hospitals and victims are dying unable to breathe without it. GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr Naveen de Zoysa, in answer to a question, said that the latest variant of COVID virus was spreading fast at an alarming speed and the…

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Retired Air Force Commander Air Marshal Sumangala Dias, who was first named as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Canada, will now go as Ambassador to Italy.His name was cleared by the High Post Committee (HPC) of Parliament to take up the posting in Rome. Dias’ name was approved last November to take up the top post at the Sri Lanka Mission in Ottawa but Canada delayed giving agrément to his appointment, following which he was named to head the Embassy in Rome.  Meanwhile, P.M. Amza has been named as Ambassador…

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By Kumar David – Prof. Kumar David This may appear to be a bold title just two months after the 1 February a coup in Burma but it’s true. For starters the Burmese junta is in a tight spot – the army opened fire in 40 locations on Saturday; Rangoon saw dozens of deaths and killings were recorded from Kachin in the north to the far south; more than 400 protesters have been killed by army since the coup and there is no sign that the surge of public anger will subside.…

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By Daya Gamage –  Biden administration’s decision last Friday – April 2 – to reverse previous Trump administration decision last year to prevent officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arriving in Washington to investigate U.S. alleged atrocities in Afghanistan could be signal to Sri Lanka that it could not prevent UNHRC team from arriving in Colombo to get a firsthand knowledge of rights abuses. President Biden revoked President Donald J. Trump’s executive order authorizing sanctions on top officials at the ICC, reversing the decision. The move comes after the…

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By Daya Gamage – Daya Gamage It was a known fact that Gotabaya Rajapaksa got a speedy and unfettered renunciation of his US citizenship having known his role in the handling of the Eelam War as defense secretary which was exposed to global criticism. It is also a known fact that some of those who led the ground battle during the offensive against the LTTE between August 2006 and May 2009 under Mr. Rajapaksa’s command, have been declared by the U.S. State Department as alleged war criminals barring their entry to the U.S., then…

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Launches stunning verbal attack on former President In a stunning verbal assault, Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith yesterday (4) called for action to be initiated against former President Maithripala Sirisena without further delay and asked whether the former President has no shame. “The question arises whether some politicians who have been named as being responsible for the attacks are shameless enough to go before the people once again. I heard that the former President is seeking re-election? How can somebody who knew about the deaths and went…

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LUXEMBOURG: The EU’s top court removed Sri Lankan separatist rebels from its terrorism blacklist on Wednesday.Judges at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) — the top EU court —  ruled that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka, or the Tamil Tigers, should be removed from the EU’s terrorism list.The court said that EU had not produced any evidence to show that there was a risk of the Tamil Tigers carrying out attacks after its military defeat in 2009.“The Court of Justice therefore confirms the annulment of…

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