“Dr. K. Vigneswaran, a member of the APRC Experts Committee, told us that Tamils do not believe that devolving powers to the district level will meet their aspirations. The concept of the merged Northeast Province speaks to their need for security and for proper representation, he said. Tamils fear that the Districts, whose heads are to be appointed by the President, will be subject to manipulation by the central government. Tamils believe that “colonization” of their traditional areas by Sinhalese would accelerate. Fur

The Role Of Religion In Reconciliation

At the outset I wish to thank Mr.Asanga Abeygoonesekera, Executive Director of Lakshman Kadirgamer Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies, for inviting me to deliver the Keynote address at this National Conference on “The Role of Religion in Reconciliation.”

I understand that this conference is the eighth in a series organized by the Institute where the subject of Reconciliation is being studied and discussed from a number of perspectives. For

Scholarly works on the Sri Lanka ethnic conflict suggest that communal riots in 1958, 1961, 1974, 1977 and 1983 in which Tamils were killed, maimed, robbed and rendered homeless were carefully designed by the Sinhala elites.This persistent pattern of violence set the stage for violent Tamil retaliation and efforts to secede.

The incident in 1983, known as Black July, is particularly well documented. Approximately two thousand Tamils were killed in July/August 1983 by Sinhalese mobs in an attempt to begin genocide (or at least

Friends, Sinhalese, countrymen, lend me you ears;

I come to bury the Nation of the Tamils and the People of the Vanni, not to praise them.

The evil that men do lives after them,

The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with the Nation of the Tamils and the People of the Vanni.  The noble Sri Lankan government and the noble Sri Lankan military

A tense situation is reported in Rawatawatta as protesting carpenters hurled water bottles at MInister Jeevan Kumarathnuge who visited the scene of protest.

 Heavy traffic is prevailing in the Rawatawatta and Moratuwa areas along the Galle Road due to a protest march by carpenters.

The Department of Registration of Persons says that the issuance of National Identity Cards for voters of the Northern Provincial Council Elections has been expedited.

Commissioner of the Department R.M.S Sarath Kumara said steps will be taken to issue NICs within one month of applying.

He added however that there has been a delay in applying for NICs.

Q:What was your role during the war?
Overall we had to coordinate with our main units involved in the war. We adopted small group operations, so there was no need to do a lot of planning. Main detail operations were done by the Divisions and the Task Forces.
They launch from a particular axis and manoeuvres. So controlling on a daily basis was done with proper coordination. Under me were all the divisional commands. So I had the 57 Division led by Major General Jagath Dias, 58 Division led by Major General Shavendra Silva and 5

School closed early today. Amma was looking very jumpy when she came to pick me up, but she wouldn’t tell me why. When we went to get Loku and Chuti, Chuti was nowhere to be seen. We walked all over school looking for him and finally found him running around with a chair in his hand looking to ‘hit someone’. Amma gave him a good scolding. Serves him right.

On the way home we saw a group of aiyas dancing around an uncle whose hands were tied to the lamp-post. They were pouring bottles of talcum powder on him,

'Justice Vigneswaran has consented to a media interview regarding growing threats against the judiciary.'

Editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunga, who was brutally gunned down in 2009, spoke of C.V. Vigneswaran's decision to talk to the media with some surprise. It happened close on the heels of a Supreme Court order to imprison S.B. Dissanayake for contempt of Court. None had the nerve, nor dared, to challenge the then Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva.

It was at such a time that Vigneswar

Perhaps the clearest test of a pluralistic outlook amongst Sri Lankans, to say nothing of basic decency too, is their response to the events of July 1983. Anyone fit to pass the test sees it as an aberration in Sri Lankan history, an outrage in which defenceless Tamils were systematically persecuted.

Those who offer excuses or play down the event seem to me morally repugnant. That is why, despite his comparative efficiency and honesty, I think Ranil Wickremesinghe would not be a suitable leader for Sri Lanka. His comment