By Tisaranee Gunasekara “The illusion of destiny extracts a remarkably heavy price”. — Amartya Sen (Identity and Violence) The mysterious leaking in Colombo of the Darusman (UN) Report was accompanied by a carefully choreographed outbreak of patriotic-hysteria. The President, in...

Extracts from report on Sri Lanka by advisory panel appointed by Ban Ki moon 2. Violations in the IDP Camps (a) Arbitrary detention of IDPs in closed camps 154. Civilians emerging from the conflicts zone were initially housed in a...

The UK vs. Wijesinha By Vimukthi Yapa The British High Commission in Colombo last week told The Sunday Leader they had no idea what ‘note’ UPFA MP Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha was talking about when he told the BBC Sinhala Sandeshaya Service that the former defence attaché at the BHC had handed

The BBC Sinhala Service, in asking for comments on the 2010 US Report on Human Rights in Sri  Lanka, gave me little notice, and suggested I could just glance through the synopsis with which the report began. As it happened, I was able to look through some of the rest, which was good, because I ...

BBC News A court in Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka has granted bail to the editor of a news website critical of the government who was arrested last month. Police said that Bennett Rupasinghe, editor of LankaeNews.com, was arrested for...

BBC Sandeshaya Police in Sri Lanka say that they have arrested four people suspected on an attack following a the protest threat by a cabinet minister. Superintendent of Police Prishantha Jayakody told BBC Sandeshaya that the suspects were remanded until...

Cricket may be, as the sociologist Ashis Nandy wrote in 1983, “an Indian game accidentally discovered by the English,” but India took a long time to take control of it. by Huw Richards For Sachin Tendulkar, it was “the proudest...

BBC correspondents in India and Sri Lanka describe scenes of rejoicing and dejection after India beat Sri Lanka in the cricket World Cup.

April 2, 2011 The mounting pressure begins to affect Sangakkara, whose second-string bowlers cannot provide adequate support for Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan against the fourth-wicket duo...

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defense has refused permission to BBC Colombo correspondant Charles Haviland from attending cultural festival in Jaffna, sources in Colombo said. The "Jaffna Music Festival organized to celebrate the diverse traditional folk arts for three days from 25th 27th March 2011

By BBC News Hundreds of people have protested against Western-led air strikes in Libya outside the United Nations headquarters in Sri Lanka. Protesters chanted slogans against the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon - pic DailyMirror.lk...

by Prof.Michael Roberts Sri Lanka’s comprehensive victory over New Zealand in the last match for Group A at Mumbai was marred by a controversial third umpire decision that reprieved Mahela Jayawardene when he was in his twenties. This verdict certainly...

By Izeth Hussain After quite some time allegations have once again surfaced that some Muslims have supported the Pakistan side against all others, including the Sri Lankan one at the recent World Cup match. I have been sent newspaper material...

Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based rights organization, called on countries worldwide to boycott a conference to be held in Colombo between 31 May to 02 June labelled "Defeating Terrorism Sri Lankan Experience aimed at sharing Sri Lanka's war experience, BBC reported. What we are telling

US state department spokesman PJ Crowley has resigned after calling the treatment of the man accused of leaking secret cables to Wikileaks "stupid," BBC reported. "It is with regret that I have accepted the resignation of Philip J. Crowley as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. PJ

A new military headquarters in northern Sri Lanka has been built on the site of a Tamil Tiger graveyard earlier flattened by the army, it has emerged.

by By Charles Haviland BBC News, Colombo A new military headquarters in northern Sri Lanka has been built on the site of a Tamil Tiger graveyard earlier flattened by the army, it has emerged. The construction has come in for...

Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch, NY has remarked via twitter on reports of Libya's Gaddafi calling President Mahinda Rajapaksa as follows: Kenneth Roth [on twitter.com/KenRoth] "Bad news: BBC reports Libya's Gaddafi called SriLanka Pres Mahinda, known for indiscriminate...

by Tisaranee Gunasekara "When heads of state do not pay attention to the needs of their nation, the people take over”. Turkish Presiden Abdullah Gul (During the February 2011 visit to Iran) “As he launched a series of murderous attacks...

A state-run television station has made an “unconditional apology” to national cricket team, says the chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), BBC reports. .

Vice captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team Mahela Jayawardene is considering legal action against state owned Independent Television Network (ITN) in response to commentary which implied he was guilty of match-fixing, the BBC has reported today. The report states that a state television broadcast

Sri Lanka vice captain Mahela Jayawardene is considering legal action in response to commentary which implied he was guilty of match-fixing. A state television broadcast suggested Jayawardene deliberately played badly for financial gain in Saturday’s cricket World Cup defeat by Pakistan, BBC

BBC News Sri Lankan police have arrested 24 Indian fishermen, adding to the 112 already in custody for allegedly straying into Sri Lankan waters. The Indians were seized by a group of local fishermen and handed over to police....

By Tisaranee Gunasekara “But these were monstrous times. So, naturally Jennie turned monstrous”. Klaus Mann (The Turning Point) Neither President Mahinda Rajapaksa nor his administration can be faulted for the calamitous weather conditions afflicting Sri Lanka. Global warming is a global phenomenon, an environmental malaise to which the entire world (and each one of its people) has cont...

The Galle Literary festival is a haven of civilised values in a country that is no stranger to strife by Robert McCrum Associate editor, The Observer, UK [Click for more pictures] Ever since the Hay festival set up shop overseas...

Hundreds of millions paid to British PR Firm for  2018 Commonwealth Games bid The Indian government spent $ 8.5 billion to host the Commonwealth Games, which turned out to be a national disaster By Frederica Jansz The Sri Lankan government is reportedly paying a top British PR firm about 3 million sterling pounds (Rs. 545,880,000) ...

In an interview with the BBC Tamil service, Dr Kasippillai Manoharan, father of Ragihar, one of the five students extra-judicially executed by Sri Lanka's military at the Trincomalee beach on January 2nd, 2006, said that Sri Lanka's judicial system is not capable and unwilling to provide justice

By Dr. S. Narapalasingam PART I The baffling moves and actions on the political front of the potent government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, since the war ended conclusively mid May 2009 have been considered discretely by many analysts, ignoring...

by Gamini Weerakoon Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the deposed Tunisian president was described as being ‘ubiquitous’ by an AP report last week. Like all Third World strongmen he had his picture plastered all over the country. As the second president of Tunisia, he ruled the country undisturbed for 23 years. But like most dictators or strong men of the Third World, the day came when he had to ...

By Tisaranee Gunasekara “And appetite, an universal wolf, So doubly seconded with will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey….” — Shakespeare, Troilus And Cressida Impunity is to a country what cancer is to a body; it creeps in unnoticed and spreads with gathering-speed, inexorably annihilating everything healthy and functional in its path. Impunity never completely spares any...