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Home » ColumnsAlleged killer Kamalendran refuses to quit NPC posts
Eelam People’s Democratic Party member and Northern Provincial Council Opposition Leader Kandasamy Kamalendran has rejected a request by his party boss Minister Douglas Devananda to resign from his office as a councillor and as NPC opposition leader. Mr. Kamalendran, now in remand custody, has said he wants to remain in office and asked his leader to [...]
As drug probe deepens, pressure mounts on PM
Sri Lanka’s largest drug bust is causing uncertainties over the future of Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, and in a sense, the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The latest call for his resignation has come from hardline members of the Buddhist clergy Sihala Ravaya. On Thursday, they laid a five-hour siege on Premier Jayaratne’s Office on Ernest [...]
Big log in Uncle Sam’s eye
My Dear Stephen Rapp, I thought I must write to you when I heard that you were visiting our Paradise Isle, as Uncle Sam’s ‘ambassador-at-large’ trying to find whether war crimes were committed when our war against terrorism ended almost five years ago.I am not sure whether you are aware, Stephen, but you are the [...]
Warning: Vicious debt trap ahead!
In spite of the Central Bank announcing that “Gross Official Reserves increased to US$ 7.1 billion (provisional) by end 2013″, the Government intends to borrow US$ 1.5 billion this year from international financial sources. External finances have been improving owing to increased export earnings, large amount of workers’ remittances and higher tourist earnings. Despite these [...]
‘After the heavy rains, some wetness remains’
The wholly reprehensible quotation which this column borrows for the title this week comes verbatim from the November 2011 report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). This is where it quotes the head of the government linked Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) when the LLRC questioned him in regard to specific allegations of [...]
Taking the rap for crimes not committed?
The US embassy website’s controversial Twitter post on Thursday showing a photograph of what it called a place where hundreds of families were killed by army shelling during the war, is a cause for serious concern in Sri Lanka for many reasons. The picture was taken during a tour of the North by Stephen Rapp, [...]
John the Dualist: Patron saint of junket MPs
As government ministers, its MPs and even its provincial members greet with glee the heaven sent news that their travels abroad at public expense will no longer face condemnation by the UNP opposition in Parliament, cast your glance this Sunday morn at the elevated figure of the newly sanctified John Amaratunga at the altar receiving [...]