U.S. Secretary John Kerry who is currently on an official visit to Sri Lanka met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera today (May 2). The transcript of their remarks issued by the U.S. Department of State is appended below.
FOREIGN MINISTER SAMARAWEERA: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It has been a great honor and our privilege […]

US Secretary of State John Kerry who visited Sri Lanka at the invitation of Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera concluded his two-day visit to the country on Sunday, 3rd May 2015.
During the visit which was the first official visit by a US Secretary of State in 43 years, Secretary Kerry called on President Maithripala Sirisena at […]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who undertook an official visit to Sri Lanka from May 2-3, 2015, addressed a public event in Colombo on Strengthening the U.S.-Sri Lanka Partnership for Human Rights and Lasting Peace. The event was organized under the auspices of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies on May […]

The Governor of the Central Bank was summoned to the Bribery Commission and grilled for six hours. A three-month travel banwas imposed on him. That one incident demonstrates how far we have progressed since January 8th.
The journey away from Rajapaksa Rule towards democracy, accountability and the rule of law has been far from perfect; it has […]

“I think I’ll call it morning….”
Gil Scott-Heron[i]
Neither their dire warnings nor our nightmarish fears materialised. The election ended as it should, in a peaceful change.
A large chunk of credit for that unexpectedly felicitous end should go to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Had he tried to resist the results illegally and unconstitutionally, as some of his […]

07 January 2015
His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa
President of Sri Lanka
Presidential Secretariat
Colombo 1
Dear Mr President,
The Importance of January 8th – Lasantha Wickrematunge’s murder
The irony of the presidential election being fixed for the sixth anniversary of the day on which my husband and your ‘friend’, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was assassinated, may have escaped you. It has not escaped me.
Lasantha […]

Gagging the media
The full extent of the outrage committed in Weliweriya unfolds slowly but surely, in spite of crude attempts to gag the
media. Grisly details continue to emerge from the countless testimonies of the bereaved, the assault victims, their relatives and the rest of the community. It’s unlikely that dozens of village people would […]

“The human dilemma is not whether to do right or wrong but rather to do right when it matters the most and wrong when it matters the least.”- Unknown writer
They are dead
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) are dead. The war was won and the guns have fallen silent. But the drums keep beating and
clarion […]

“That is a slave’s lot – not to be able to speak one’s mind” — Euripides (Ion)
In Turkey, an attempt to uproot a public park and build a shopping mall ignited a tidal-wave of protests which is yet to abate.
No balls to stand up an condemn
In Saudi Arabia, innumerable Islamic sites are being annihilated in […]

Former GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul insisted on Tuesday that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is not a traitor, but he fears the U.S.
government may send drones or a cruise missile to kill the 29-year-old, who has fled the United States.
“I don’t think for a minute that he’s a traitor,” Paul told Fox Business’ Melissa Francis.
“Everybody’s […]