Monthly Archives: May 2012

Sri Lanka faces impatience in US over rights record

Sri Lanka is looking to ease growing friction with the United States, but it faces exasperation from policy makers who see little progress on concerns three years after a bloody civil war ended.
Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris was to meet yesterday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after a week of talks in Washington that […]

By AFP | Published on May 19, 2012 at 8:19 pm

Sri Lanka grants bail to ex army chief Fonseka

COLOMBO 18 May 2012: A court granted bail for Sri Lanka’s ex-army chief yesterday, a move seen as a step toward a full pardon for the man credited with ending the country’s long civil war but who later was jailed after challenging the president in elections.
Sri Lanka’s High Court set Sarath Fonseka’s bail at $8,000 […]

By | Published on May 19, 2012 at 8:17 pm

‘This agony is unbearable’ – Relatives of surrendered and disappeared

Collective Appeal
Kilinochi, Mullaitheevu District
2012.05.15
The Relatives of the Surrendered and Disappeared Persons
We, the members of the above organization, humbly make the following submission to you:
The arms of the LTTE were brought to silence on 16th May 2009. On 18th May 2009, hundreds of LTTE cadres surrendered to the army of Mullaitheevu under the guidance of Reverend […]

By | Published on May 18, 2012 at 9:59 pm

Rumours of Freedom: Whither Fonseka now

“I think there is one higher office than president and I would call that patriot” – Gary Hart
The grapevine has been rife with many a gossip and rumour over the last couple days about the impending pardon/release of General
Fonseka. The reasons adduced and scenarios imagined for this atmosphere are many and diverse. However, the electricity that […]

By Vishnuguptha | Published on May 18, 2012 at 9:21 pm

SRI LANKA: Thousands missing three years after war end

COLOMBO, 18 May 2012 (IRIN) – Three years after the government of Sri Lanka declared an end to decades of civil conflict with separatist rebels, thousands of people are still missing, according to the UN and Sri Lankan activists.
The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) of the UN Office for the High Commissioner […]

By | Published on May 18, 2012 at 8:28 pm

‘Journalists failed to tell the story of war crimes in Sri Lanka’

“No intrepid journalists smuggled their way into rebel territory as they did in Syria, even though an erratic bus service ran across the frontline until mid January 2009” – Frances Harrison

“Every journalist has heard of Srebrenica. But how many have heard of Mullivaikkal where just as many perished?” – Frances Harrison

Today marks three years since the end […]

By Frances Harrison | Published on May 18, 2012 at 5:50 am

Newsweek: Obama Is ‘The First Gay President’

President Barack Obama’s unplanned, sudden endorsement of gay marriage may pose potential political challenges for him in the upcoming months, but at least one news organization is proclaiming the married father of two the nation’s “first gay president.”
Newsweek on Sunday released the cover of their next issue, which features Obama with a rainbow halo and […]

By | Published on May 15, 2012 at 2:40 am

Amidst the victory parades remember the victims of war: Permit public mourning in the North

15.05.12
The third anniversary of the end of the war will be celebrated in the coming week. In the past two
years this has taken place with victory parades and with public commemorations of war heroes by the Government although many people would say it was not appropriate after a civil war when citizens of the country […]

By National Press Council | Published on May 15, 2012 at 2:25 am

Sri Lankan military behind slaying of Canadian Tamil says Toronto Sun report

MONTREAL – The Sri Lankan military is thought to be involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen of Tamil origin, according to
journalists in Sri Lanka.
The founding editor of a nationalist Tamil news organization told QMI Agency Sunday that his journalists on the ground in northern Sri Lanka reported that the Montreal man was murdered […]

By Giuseppe Valiante - QMI Agency | Published on May 14, 2012 at 9:05 pm

A picture of the North three years after war’s end

First green shoots of new life are emerging after a long period of drought in the north of the country, parts of which were not under
government control for close on three decades, and where a terrible war was fought to its bitter end three years ago. Visiting the Vanni after a year it was wonderful […]

By Dr. Jehan Perera | Published on May 14, 2012 at 8:44 pm