A six-member Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) delegation representing the UK Parliament visited Sri Lanka last week, on the invitation of the Sri Lankan Government. However, they were disappointed that neither President Mahinda Rajapaksa nor Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, could meet them.

According the British High Commission, a meeting with the Defence Secretary was scheduled, but due to a ‘busy diary,’ the meeting had to be called off.

A science teacher in a leading school in close proximity to Ibbagamuwa, is in the habit of abusing his students in a brutal fashion, allegedly assaulting them mercilessly, despite parents of the children objecting to their children being subjected to corporal punishment.

Reportedly, Grade 7 students had recently been questioned on a particular topic, and as no one could come up with the correct answer, the science teacher had, got into a demonic rage and had brutally assaulted the students with a PVC rod. Some of them had been

Sri Lanka's major Tamil political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) says it will not accept the proposed Presidential Commission to probe the disappeared during the period of the war.

TNA parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran said that neither the TNA nor the Tamils would accept any commission or any reports on disappearances unless an impartial group of members are appointed to the commission.

He explained that the Tamil people needed to know the members of the commission since the likelihood was that the

In November 2009, around 26,400 army personnel manned the entire Jaffna peninsula. Today the strength is reduced to 13,200 personnel. They are largely confane (HSZ) and even the HSZ has shrunk in size,. It was earlier around13,680 acres in extent and by end November 2009 it reduced to around 6183 acres – almost to half.

Birth Certificates are normally issued before a week time after the child birth. K. Selvarani a resident of Vadamarachchi in Jaffna obtained her Birth Certificate last July 24th. She received this during the Mobile clinic jointly organized by the CaFFE organization, Centre for Human Rights and Research (CHR).

Disabled people are not a repercussion only due to war but due to natural disasters such as Tsunami. The duty of a civilized society is not to neglect such people but to uphold them with courage and confidence.

The Sri Lankan government has assured Abraham Mathai, Chief Security Advisor to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, that she could fly safely to any part of the country in fixed wing SLAF aircraft or in helicopters operated by Heli Tours an enterprise managed by the SLAF.

Authoritative sources told The Island that the assurance had been given by senior security officials late last week inn the wake of Mathai asserting that Pillai preferred to fly in privately managed local fixed wing aircraft.

Pillay

Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Vidanapathirana and seven of his associates will be shortly indicted, in the High Court of Colombo, for the 2011 Christmas Eve killing of British national Khuram Shaikh (32) and rape of his partner, Victoria Aleksandrovna Tkacheva (23).

Authoritative sources told The Island yesterday that the suspects would be charged on ten counts including murder, attempted murder and unlawful assemble. The Attorney General has given the green light for non-summary proceedings against them.

The venue for the sittings of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed to probe the Matale mass graves will no longer be the BMICH, but is to be shifted to the J.R. Jayawardene Centre in Colombo.

Attempts to secure a room at the BMICH were thwarted after it was brought to the attention of the Commissioners that the venue is being prepared for November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHGOM) in Colombo, the Sunday times learns.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has received over the police this year.

Human Rights Commissioner Dr. Prathiba Mahanamahewa has said that since January 1 this year the HRCSL has received 209 complaints from the public over harassment by the police.

Dr. Mahanamahewa has assured that the complaints are being investigated by the Commission and relevant parties have been summoned to the Commission to record statements.

The investigations are being conducted under the aut

This week we remember with deep regret, shame and sadness, the Black July of 1983, now chosen to be forgotten in history. Many factors paved the way for the incidents that took place during the 1983 Black July. We remember the intensifying hate campaigns, the terrorism and the ever increasing tensions between the ethnic groups that preceded black July and the thirty year war this led to.  During this long period of hate and war citizens of this country were subject to terror and unimaginable destruction was caused to life and