Two weeks after Myanmar armed forces and their murderous thugs led by saffron butcher Ashin Wirathu began ethnic cleansing Rohingya Muslims, the United Nations Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said on 11 September that “the situation in Myanmar is a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
With the view of enhancing the participation of females in politics, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) is currently engaged in conducting educational awareness campaigns for Muslim women, men and the clergy for the purpose of getting more females to contribute nationally.
The SLMC is currently reorganizing the Party at the grass root level and the youth arm of the Congress and the ladies congress of the Congress are to be pivotal in this regard for them.
Victims of bogus employment related defrauding residing in the Northern Province will be filing a petition including against a prominent politician of the area with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) within two weeks. The Association for Friendship and Love (AFRIEL), a Vavuniya based youth organization with a
The Joint Opposition yesterday announced that several United National Party stalwarts will desert the government, and join them in the opposition in the near future.
Speaking to NewsRadio, Kalutara District United People’s Freedom Alliance Parliamentarian Rohitha Abeygunawardena stressed that he is confident that no one from the JO will crossover to the government.
The Writ Application (CA/Writs/254/2017) initiated against the Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya by the rights activist Nagananda Kodituwakku, for his failure to charge Ravi Karunanayake, the former Finance Minister was taken up yesterday for support before the President of the Court of Appeal Justice L T B Dehideniya and Justice A L Shiran Gunaratne. Originally Ravi Karunanayake had been charged on an indictment for his connivance in a
At least 150 remand prisoners, sentenced to death and serving life imprisonment in the Welikada Prison, launched a hunger strike yesterday, Prisons Spokesperson Thushara Upuldeniya said.
This follows close on the heels of a hunger strike launched by around 50 inmates of the Bogambara Prison on Thursday (14).
Minister Lakshman Kiriella says an interim report on the draft pertaining to the proposed new Constitution will be tabled in Parliament on the 21st of September.
Addressing a gathering in Kandy Minister Kiriella said all aspects in the report will be debated in the House.
Minister Kiriella said the government we will table an interim report on the draft pertaining
This has extra special significance for Sri Lanka where in January 2015 the people elected a new government which said its main aim would be to restore democracy and the rule of law, transparency, accountability and other virtues of a just society.
There are positives and negatives on the extent to which the National Unity Government has progressed with the main complaint being the failure to bring to justice former VIP
Former Minister of Education and Sports of the North Western Province Sandhya Kumara Rajapaksha said he was not disappointed by the decision to remove him from his post claiming he was expected to politicize the Education Ministry.
The President’s Media Division said the Chief Minister of the North Western Province Dharmasiri Dasanayake has been assigned with the Education Ministerial portfolio.
A pindapatha (alms begging) tour organized by several Buddhist clergy members to raise funds in aid of former President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and former Director of the TRC Anusha Palpita who were convicted over the ‘sil redi’ case began earlier today (15).
The tour began at the Sambuddhaloka Viharaya on Lotus road amidst the chanting of ‘seth
The Ministry of Hindu Religious Affairs has made a financial allocation of Rs 10 million to restore 50 kovils island-wide. Granting financial assistance for the restorations of kovils was carried out on Wednesday (13) under the patronage of Minster of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation and Hindu Religious Affairs, D.M. Swaminathan. Representatives of 50 kovils, selected from around the country, participated in the function conducted by the
The United States Senate Committee on Appropriations last week approved the FY 2018 Department of State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill with $51.35 billion for diplomatic and humanitarian programs that strengthen U.S. national security and support American values abroad.
Despite the Trump administration’s soft-peddling of American values abroad – democracy promotion, good governance, human rights, and rule of law etc. – the Senate Appropriations
‘If you want to become rich, you will have to build the road first’, so goes the traditional Chinese saying. In other words, it is reference to the infrastructure development as the solid basis to propel or boost economic growth. In the analysis of things in this context, it became apparent that China, under its ambitious ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) has stepped in to develop the Hambantota Port and the industrial park integrated with it.
The Ministry of Defence will receive the biggest budgetary allocation amounting to a massive Rs.1,583,507,600 or Rs.158.83 billion in the 2018 Budget, which would be presented in Parliament by Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera on November 9.
This amount is in addition to the budgetary allocations for the three armed forces.
The leader of the National Congress ALM Athaullah charges that attempts are being made to combine the Northern and Eastern Provinces based on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution.
Addressing a media briefing Athaullah said the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the Tamil National Alliance are also of the same view
National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa said today the government was planning to pass the Bill on the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances in parliament on September 21, which would endanger the lives of the security forces.
He said according to the 11th clause of the convention, the government was bound by law to
The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) has raised serious concerns over the issuing of a Gazette notification, signed by President Maithripala Sirisena, as Minister of National Integration and Reconciliation, last Tuesday (12) operationalizing the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), saying that it was in violation of the Constitution.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says he seeks to develop the economy through a new path.
Speaking at an event held at the Temple Trees today, Premier Wickremesinghe said it is also the main objective of the unity government.
He said for the first time in history, two political parties united and formed a government
The sun shone through the windows of my elementary school. It was the fourth grade, and lunch time had just rolled around. Hungry, I pulled out a thermos full of last night’s dinner out of my lunch bag. The lunch was rice with an assortment of curries, which wasn’t an uncommon meal for a brown girl like myself to have. However, when I opened the thermos lid, it hit me. An eye watering stench from the spices wafted in the air. I was horrified, and
Acknowledging shortcomings in delivering justice to meet public expectation, the State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne yesterday provided reassurance that the Government was still committed to establishing a rules-based society.
He also claimed that the upcoming budget would seek to rectify the resource shortages currently experienced by the Judiciary which are causing delays in the legal process. “The law will apply to everybody equally. The Government has performed below public
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, on Monday (Sept 11) expressed frustration over the "slow pace of reforms" in Sri Lanka and said the absence of action, on accountability meant exercising universal jurisdiction was "even more necessary".
Speaking at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council session, in Geneva, the human
President Maithripala Sirisena, in his capacity as the Minister of National Integration and Reconciliation, yesterday signed a gazette notification to operationalise the Office on Missing Persons, the Ministry of National Integration and Reconciliation revealed.
In a statement, the ministry said: “The Office of the Missing Persons (establishment, administration and discharge of functions) Act No. 14 of 2016 and amended by Act No. 9 of
Former Presidential Secretary K.H.J. Wijedasa during a recent interview aired his views on issues pertaining to the allegations made against war heroes, war crimes and the response of Sarath Fonseka with regard to Jagath Jayasuriya. Here are excerpts of the interview.
‘We need a united country and not a unitary one’, said the Chief Minister, Northern Provincial Council C.V. Wigneswaran after calling on the prelate of the Asgiriya-headed Supreme Council of the Sangha on Sunday (10) afternoon.
Under unitary rule, the majority community had the supremacy and the minorities did not have the freedom of administration, the Chief Minister told the media.
The committee for protecting rights of prisoners staged a demonstration yesterday in front of Welikada Prison to stress the government on protecting the rights of the prisoners and to immediately enforce the law against those involved in the Welikada prison shooting in 2012.
They said that the government has failed to implement the law for five years since the shooting at the prison which killed 27 inmates.
