Lanka News – Lanka Gazette – Sri Lanka News Portal

The Task Force held another consultation last week with regard to safeguards against torture. We had gone into this at some length at a meeting of all ministries particularly concerned with Rights Protection, and this had been followed by a discussion chaired by the Inspector General of Police, which had however also dealt with other matters such as the dissemination of information regarding Police duties and responsibilities.

It was thought best, following that meeting, to have a smaller consultation as to particular issues, and we were helped immensely by the presence of those in the Attorney General’s Department who had been dealing with torture problems for a long period, extending back to well before I became Secretary to the Ministry of Human Rights and began to study the problem, following the extremely helpful visit of Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.Unfortunately the former Attorney General, Mohan Pieris, could not attend the latter consultation. This was a pity because he had been full of good ideas at the meeting chaired by the Inspector General of Police, and agreement had been reached in a number of areas which he agreed to pursue to ensure quick action.

Continue Reading

The former News of the World CEO, a close friend of media moghul Rupert Murdoch, Rebecca Brooks, her husband and four of her close friends have been charged with plotting to hide evidence in the phone scandal saga.

She has angrily attacked Police for dragging her friends and family into the scandal which shocked the United Kingdom that led to the closure of the 167 year old newspaper, News of the World.

Continue Reading

I first visited Sri Lanka in 1997, shortly after a rebel bombing of the Central Bank headquarters had thrown the financial system into chaos. Military checkpoints made travelling around Colombo rather punishing, but the overwhelming impression was of a charming island and talented people trapped inside a seemingly endless civil war.

When I returned in 2011, the civil war had ended with surprising finality, and I took an extra day to see the country, including the huge territory that had been behind the lines of the Tamil rebels.

Continue Reading

Amarapala was tired. No, he was actually exhausted. He had a long journey home. Even though he had a chauffeur-driven office car – luckily he had that comfort, at least – his fatigue was simply too much. Amarapala’s wife returned home an hour earlier. She was also tired after another hectic day.

Their son was already home, chilling out as he liked. He had all the comforts with both parents attached to private firms earning their handsome bread. But they had a little time to be home to look after – or rather watch out – their only son. Their only correspondence was over the phone.

Continue Reading

At present, international schools decide the future of many schoolchildren. Therefore, all international schools should operate according to international standards. They should have a regulatory body, said Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena during an interview with the Daily News.

“This is accepted by the government, and relevant rules and regulations should be imposed through a new Education Act. It will help maintain the quality and standard of education,” the minister added.

Continue Reading

External Affairs Minister Prof G L Peiris, took part in a series of Capitol Hill meetings on Wednesday on the second of his four-day official visit to Washington, discussing with members of the House of Representatives Sri Lanka’s progress in post-conflict reconciliation and development, as well as reform measures that are designed to ensure lasting peace.

Prof Peiris first met with Representatives Chris Van Hollen (Democrat – Maryland) and Robert Aderholt (Republican – Alabama), to discuss recommendations made in late 2011 by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which examined Sri Lanka’s conflict against terrorism, which was successfully concluded three years ago.

Continue Reading

The Media Ministry is only acting according to judgments given by the Supreme Court in connection with registering websites. The Media Ministry merely requests websites to register with the ministry and has not banned any websites so far. Over 42 websites had been registered with the ministry, Acting Media Minister and Acting Cabinet Spokesman Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said.

Addressing the weekly Cabinet press briefing at the Government Information Department Auditorium yesterday, he said another 24 websites got registration later. “The registration included a code of ethics developed by journalists themselves. Nothing has been imposed by the Media Ministry on journalists or websites. The Supreme Court judgment made it clear that freedom of the wild ass cannot exist for websites.”

Continue Reading

The Victory Day parade organised for the third consecutive year will be held tomorrow at the Galle Face Green to commemorate the nation’s military victory over the world‘s most ruthless terrorist outfit and the dawn of peace in Sri Lanka after 30 years of bloodshed.

The Triforces, Police, Special Task Force and Civil Defence Force will join in the parade. Disabled soldiers of the war will also take part in the parade. The parade would be colourful with various cultural items. It would also exhibit the military ware and vehicles used in the humanitarian operation.

Continue Reading

"The ubiquitous nature of the word cholesterol can be attributed to giant pharmaceutical companies engineering medical conspiracies to indoctrinate the medical fraternity which finally trickles down as fright to gullible people", says my friend Dr. Mass R. Usuf, the Vice President of the Homoeopathic Medical Association of Ceylon, a versatile Naturopath and holder of a Doctorate in Acupuncture and a PhD in medical palm diagnosis.

During a recent discussion on the subject he expressed his views as follows:

Continue Reading

In several senses, the battle at the Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on May 26-27, 2009, was inextricably linked to our military victory on the ground on May 18-19. The West planned the resolution in the UNHRC as a means of securing a ‘humanitarian cessation’ of our final drive for victory against the Tigers.

It failed because we in the UNHRC prevented the obtaining of the requisite 16 signatures until the war was won. It remained one signature short for a week to ten days. The final signature was obtained shortly after, and the EU moved the Special Session on Sri Lanka. Much is made of the fact that the US was not a member at that time, but by the same token, nor was Sri Lanka (having lost its seat at an election held in New York) – which did not mean that we were not active protagonists and players.

Continue Reading