By Nirmala Kannangara Accusations have been leveled against the Higher Education Minister and the University Grants Commission (UGC) by the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) for granting the degree awarding status to a ‘boutique’ where substandard health science is taught. Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake has come under severe criticism by the GMOA for offering ...

President Rajapaksa begins his official tour of China. He was accorded a very warm welcome on his arrival in China. The President who left the island on a four-day official tour of China arrived at Beijing International Airport early this morning. Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Zhang Zhijun and Deputy Director General ...

President Rajapaksa arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing early this morning on an official visit at the invitation of the Chinese government. Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Zhang Zhijun warmly received the President and the Sri Lankan delegation at the Airport. President Rajapaksa is on a four-day official visit to ...

Russian and Chinese state leaders have assured President Rajapaksa their full support to Sri Lanka at any time. They said they will leave no room for unnecessary international interference. The two leaders gave this assurance during discussions with the President after the state leaders Session’s of the International Economic Forum which commenced at Saint Petersburg. ...

A true blue SLFPer, Abalang Ruhunuputra, was resting his weary limbs and shredded vocal chords after the exhaustive march from Campbell Place to the Town Hall lawns on Sunday when he received an invigourating shot of adrenaline from the TV screen. Barack Obama himself delivered a personal message: American commandos had raided Osama bin Laden’s ...

The report of the UN Advisory Panel was finally released and the government moved into top gear to get the country behind the regime. The government informed the state media of a press conference on Thursday last week. The Ambassador for Russia in Sri Lanka was agreeable to grant an interview against the Ban panel ...

from THE ECONOMIST IN RECENT years the default mode for Sri Lankan diplomats has been a posture of affronted national dignity beneath a mask of outraged, sanctimonious innocence. This week, after the publication of a report by a panel of...

The External Affairs Minister briefed the Ambassadors and High Commissioners in Sri Lanka on the Darusman Report. Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris took the initiative of summoning all foreign diplomats in Sri Lanka to the External Affairs Ministry this morning and appraising them about the Report. The External Affairs Ministry said the foreign diplomats that ...

by Upul Joseph Fernando UN Organization sources say that there are a number of similarities between the report of the panel appointed by Ban Ki-moon to investigate war crime charges in Sudan where there was a conflict, and that of...

By Gomin Dayasri Sri Lanka can crush the Ban Kin moon-ies (includes Tamil Diaspora, International NGO community, remnants of the UN system, ‘white’ western nations and Sri Lanka’s elite civil society) comfortably but not by living in isolation like a...

By Kalana Senaratne Ensuring ‘accountability’ is important, but doing so is a complex task. Who is to ensure accountability, when, where, how? - are questions which have always aroused serious debate, and will do, in the future. While there may...

I read a bit of the UN Panel’s leaked report on Sri Lanka. It’s a bit of an un-report in that it tells you nothing that a scan of TamilNet or even Groundviews wouldn’t tell you, but it’s good that it’s written down. TamilNet is an LTTE organ, by the way, but even a stopped ...

by Upul Joseph Fernando Some foreign media were of the view that the Sri Lanka (SL) Government had trapped Ban Ki moon in relation to the UN war crime panel. They presumed, like how the SL Govt. which is very...

By Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu The Secretary General’s Advisory Panel Report on Allegations of War Crimes by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in the last phase of the war has been handed over to the Government of Sri...

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday lashed out at the UN experts panel report on the conduct of the Sri Lanka government and armed forces during the last stages of the war against the LTTE in 2009, saying there was an...

by Dayan Jayatilleka Behind its splendid stone facade, the Acadamie Diplomatique Internationale has been in existence from the early decades of the last century, and according to its head, was discussing Western military intervention in the Middle East then as it was that very day last week when a team from the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), o...

By Colum Lynch At U.N. headquarters, regime change has long been viewed as a toxic phrase. Under former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the U.N. brass cringed when American politicians and diplomats, both Republican and Democratic, revealed that their true...

by Dr.Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu A lot has been written and said about the popular uprisings in the Arab world and some have opined on the possibility or lack thereof of similar events in Sri Lanka. Suffice it be said that the...

by Namini Wijedasa There is no gainsaying that Libya has a friend in Sri Lanka. Not only do diplomatic relations between the two countries stretch back several decades, President Mahinda Rajapaksa since assuming power in 2005 has carefully cultivated ties...

The Director of the London School of Economics has stepped down over his association with the Libyan regime. Sri Lanka’s President, however, has no problem associating with repressive leaders from Libya, Iran, Burma, Russia and China. In the days of hypocritical realpolitik this may have made sense, but in a new era of real political ...

by Jayantha Dhanapala (Text of Keynote Address titled Cultural Diplomacy and Soft Power- Sustainable Smart Power at the Opening Plenary of the South and Central Asia Fulbright Regional Workshop, Hilton Hotel, Colombo, 26 January, 2011.) I think it is necessary...

For every successful South Sudan, there are several suppressed Chechnyas. And every leader like Putin who aspires to crush secessionist movements has been looking with awe at Sri Lanka and its leader, Mahinda Rajapaksa. by John Feffer Co-director, Foreign Policy...

by Upul Joseph Fernando The website of Wimal Weerawansa, a Minister of the Government who staged a fast against UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s panel of experts stated recently that the report of Moon’s panel will not be compiled in disfavour of Sri Lanka (SL), and the panel will be whittled away. It is not known whether this enunciation of his was to falsely please his followers ...

by M.D. Nalapat That old habits die hard is clear from the way in which the functionaries of the European Union seek to influence the developing economies on the best way to manage their nations. And woe betide those leaders...

By Malathi De Alwis On 18 May 2009, Sri Lanka officially declared the end of a 30-year civil war fought between. Sri Lankan government forces (GoSL) and Tamil militants, namely the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). Such a sea...

by Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka “The contest is never over, the field never quite ours.”- Dave Robicheaux in James Lee Burke, ‘The Tin Roof Blowdown’ (2007) Is it only me, or is not sad that there is no review in the Sri Lankan public space, of the first decade of the 21st century and the new millennium? Should we not be looking back at the road that has been travelled by the world, by our co...

Foreign Navy Commanders and representatives of 21 navies arrived in Sri Lanka to participate in the Sri Lanka Navy’s 60th anniversary celebrations. War ships from China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Thailand and Russia arrived in the island to take part in this historic event. Sending of their ships for this event by the two veto holding nations, Russia and China, was a significant fea...

The Defence Secretary inspected a ceremonial Sail Past of the ships belonging to the international Naval forces off the Galle Face coast. The Sail Past was held yesterday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Sri Lanka Navy. Eight international ships that symbolized the Silk Route depicting the relations Sri Lanka had with foreign countries ...

President Rajapaksa reviewed the international warships at the Colombo Port. The Presidential Fleet review was held under President Rajapaksa’s patronage on the sidelines of the Diamond Jubilee of the Sri lanka Navy. War ships from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Thailand, Iran and China took part in the Presidential Fleet review while the Sri Lankan warship ...

Report from The Human RIghts Watch: Liu Xiaobo, one of the most outspoken critics of the Chinese government, spent a year and a half in prison after the 1989 Tiananmen Square peaceful protests, and in 1996 was imprisoned for three...