Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa alleged that large scale foreign funding of NGOs operating in Sri Lanka would be inimical to ongoing post-war national reconciliation efforts hence, such projects should be resisted.

The government was seriously concerned about a fresh NGO onslaught in the wake of Western powers working overtime to destabilize the country, he said. Obviously, the ongoing 22nd sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva were a rallying point for anti-Sri Lankan elements, an irate R

Family members of 21-year-old Free Trade Zone employee Roshen Chanaka who was killed  when police fired at a protest rally in 2011 yesterday expressed concern over the  failure on the part of the Government to publish the findings of the Mahanama  Tillakeratne Commission on the tragedy.

The FTZ employees were protesting over the setting up of the private sector pension  bill, which they claimed would have been disadvantageous to the workers.

The government is planning to pass 21 Bills within two days this week, though not a single of those Bills had been tabled until Friday night, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna alleged.

The leader of the JVP Parliamentary Group, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, said though it is the tradition of Parliament to table a Bill several weeks prior to it being taken up for debate, the tradition has been observed in the breach.

The LTTE rump is making every effort to destabilise Sri Lanka. Their latest platform is the ongoing UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, Hindu-Buddhist Association in Zurich president T Logeswaran said.

He said LTTE remnants have gathered in their numbers in Geneva and were influencing member countries and other stakeholders through misleading propaganda.

Logeswaran said this false propaganda contributed to the anti-Lanka approach adopted by some western powers at the ongoing UNHRC sessions. He said the only

No reasonable person will seek to dispute what British lawmaker Simon Danczuk, who was here the other day, has said of how the murder of Khuram Shaikh is being handled. Khuram was killed and his female Russian companion brutally assaulted on Christmas Day in Tangalle in 2011. The main suspect, UPFA Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Vidanapathirana and several others were arrested and bailed out.

The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society spent Rs 20 million to provide relief to drought affected in seven districts during the last three months, Deputy Director General Sudath Madugalle said.

Under this programme 5,000 families were provided safe drinking water through improved water storage through water tanks and containers, he said.

Around 100,000 children in 250 schools were provided safe drinking water, Madugalle said.

Meanwhile, 1,400 families received Rs 10 million for livelihood support, he said.

While the country's civil war ended four years ago, and roads have been rebuilt, human rights protections are getting weaker. The personal tragedies of the conflict's victims have yet to be acknowledged and accounted for. The climate required for reconciliation does not yet exist.

The UN Human Rights Council, whose new session has just begun in Geneva, has a unique opportunity to pressure Sri Lanka's authorities into meaningful action. In doing so, it would preserve the hope for accountability and reconciliation ha

Presidential Human Rights Envoy and Plantations Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe says the government has followed international best practice in addressing issues concerning human rights and accountability. “Our main motivator is the creation of conditions of normality for all our people – North, South, East and West – who have suffered or been affected in some way over the past three decades,” he observed adding that while the government has done a lot in relation to concerns raised by the international commu

In what seemed to be a harmless act in the public interest the Secretary of Defence and Urban Development Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has engaged himself in a controversial move that is likely to have far reaching implications.

On Saturday March 9th 2013, the Presidential sibling regarded widely as the second most powerful man in Sri Lanka was the chief guest, ceremonially opening an institution linked to the Ethno Religious Fascist movement known as the “Bodhu Bala Sena” meaning Buddhist Power Force.

Domestic politics will tell on external affairs as much as fine principles and strategic interests. In the context of the draft resolution on human rights violations in Sri Lanka now before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, India will have to factor in domestic political exigencies alongside long-held principles and long-term interests while firming up its stand. Last year, India voted for a resolution asking Sri Lanka to investigate abuses by its military during the final phase of the war with the separatist LTTE.