That is what I once used for a title of an article written eleven years ago and published in a daily newspaper. I owed the title to Peter Taylor, The Sunday Telegraph Foreign Editor who wrote immediately after CHOGM held in Bahamas. President J.R. Jayewardene, who represented Sri Lanka was very elated about the speech he made so much so when he stopped over in Paris for a week which I thought was to spend in my company, – I was his Ambassador to France and a number of other European countries – he wanted me to have the speech

On the request of investigators, micro-blogging site Twitter has suspended an account claiming to be that of the terror group Indian Mujahideen, which is suspected to have orchestrated the Bodh Gaya serial blasts.

Official sources said IP address of the tweet handle @IndianMujahidin was traced to Pakistan.

The account had claimed responsibility of the nine synchronised blasts that took place in Mahabodhi temple on July 7, leaving two monks injured.

In an interview with the UK’s Press Gazette this month, Lal Wickrematunge, brother of murdered Sri Lankan newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, lamented the self-censorship of his country’s press, and warned that UK hacks should fight for their own freedom of speech as an example to others, saying “Those who are in safer climates must keep the drum beating because these are the standards that other journalists in troubled areas look to.” Padraig Reidy writes

Reconciliation in its diverse forms is a necessary condition for social peace and political stability. Reconciliation is necessary when two or more parties have been or are in conflict with each other. Trade unions were established in capitalist societies to facilitate negotiation with the capital to win higher wages and better working conditions. The existence of legitimate organisations of professionals, businesses, students, teachers, consumers, citizens, journalists, etc. has enabled these groups to negotiate with parties that they a

As the Sri Lankan Government scrambles to address major outstanding issues of war-time accountability ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November and a scheduled visit of UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillay in August, a senior police official who allegedly spearheaded the murder of five students in Trincomalee in 2006 has been promoted as DIG and returned to the Eastern Province, Colombo Telegraph learns.

DIG Kapila Jayasekara who assumed office as Ampara District DIG in April this year serve

Q: The international community has been pressing Sri Lanka for a political solution to the ethnic issue and the 13th Amendment has been seen as one of the key facets to such a solution. Therefore what impact will the government’s attempt to curtail the powers of the Provincial Councils have on Sri Lanka’s relationship with the international community? Especially with regard to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that is scheduled to be held at the end of the year?
I don’t think there is necessarily a conne

  It has been four years since the guns fell silent in Sri Lanka’s northern Vanni region, after almost three decades of ethnic violence. Unfortunately peace does not mean the end of hardship for the most vulnerable people here: the women.


In general, life has improved for the Northern Province’s 1.2 million inhabitants. Of these, 467,000 are newly returned war displaced, most of whom fled the last bouts of fighting between the government’s armed forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil

The ruling in an important immigration case in Britain suggests that Sri Lanka’s human rights situation is far from improving, four years after the civil war ended.

Under new guidance issued by a British tribunal, a full investigation is now required if an asylum seeker is suspected by the government of Sri Lanka to have been a member of the Tamil Tiger rebel group. Several categories of people are now deemed to be at risk: Tamil diaspora activists, Tamil Tigers and their family members, journalists and human rights acti

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo and the Registrar today tried to prevent  the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) from holding a press conference at the University of Colombo Faculty Club, by deploying the university security services and Marshalls who prevented journalists from entering the premises.  The UGC circular that banned the media from entering university premises during last year’s FUTA trade union action was repealed according to an agreement reached between the Minist

Undergraduates staged protests opposite universities yesterday against what they called the suppression by the government of the student community.

Spokesman for the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) and Convener of the Medical Faculty Students’ Action Committee Najith Indika told The Island that undergraduates had protested opposite the Kelaniya, Sri Jayewardenepura, Rajarata and Visual and Performing Arts universities.