Monthly Archives: August 2011

Sri Lanka says civilian war deaths unavoidable

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka acknowledged for the first time Monday that civilian casualties occurred in the final phase of its 26-year civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, but called the deaths unavoidable.
The government’s statement — issued a few months after a U.N. experts panel cited credible claims of human rights violations by both […]

By | Published on August 1, 2011 at 2:51 pm

Sri Lanka: Is This Ban’s ‘Never Again’ Moment?

We failed to prevent a massacre in Sri Lanka. We must not fail to seek justice for it.
‘Never again’ is the promise that has followed the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda and Srebrenica; issued each time with outrage and contrition, and, in recent years, a report on the failure of the international community to act. Kofi Annan
commissioned […]

By Edward Mortimer | Published on August 1, 2011 at 2:27 pm

Why a Right to Information? What is this right?

It has been reported that the President told the (selected) editors he had over for a meal and a chat that the Right to
Information (RTI) Law is unnecessary; they just had to ask for a file and he’d give it to them. Minister Navin Dissanayake, when asked about the refusal to allow the law […]

By Rohan Samarajiva | Published on August 1, 2011 at 12:53 am