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Home » ColumnsJaffna gets its Yaal back
The near three-decade-long separatist war not only left thousands dead and a larger number maimed but also destroyed many historic items of cultural interest.In the North, one such example was a musical instrument that gave the capital the Tamil name “Yaal” (Yazh) – a harp. A museum that held the remnants of this instrument was [...]
Lanka-India finalise MOU for mega development projects
Joint investments to develop Trinco port, set up oil refinery, LNG plant and piped-gas projects Hambantota deal to be signed soon; AG’s Dept. says Ranatunga’s objections not valid Massive SLFP youth convention today as Sirisena prepares to give mid-term report at May Day rally Cabinet changes soon after National New Year; test of popularity at [...]
Clever moves
My dear Wimal sahodaraya, I thought I must write to you when I heard that you had begun a so-called ‘fast unto death’ at Welikada. On hearing the news, my first thoughts were to ask whether Lemon Puff had begun another advertising campaign but before I could say ‘Ban Ki Moon’, they say that you [...]
Costs and consequences of violent disruptive political protests
The Sri Lankan economy would have been vastly different if not for the series of violent eruptions throughout the post independent period. In the nearly seventy years after independence the economy was disrupted by the ethnic riots of 1958, the 1971 youth insurgency, the communal clashes of 1977, the ethnic riots of July 1983, LTTE [...]
Musings on a terrifyingly familiar counter-terror draft
Assessed even with the kindest eye, the potential of the proposed (and revised) new Counter-Terror Act (CTA) to legally validate intrusive acts of state officers is most worrying.If this version has been sent to the Legal Draftsman’s Department for conversion into the form of a Bill as we are informed, one can only hope for [...]
‘Whodunnit’ high noon duel between Gota and Fonseka
Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka fired the first shot. When CID detectives, probing the daylight killing of former editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, came to question him in January and obtain his testimony, he laid the blame squarely at the doorstep of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He claimed that a ‘death squad’ run by military intelligence but [...]
Making this palana mess even messier
They came bearing their gifts. No not the three wise men on the way to Bethlehem. Not even Greeks with gifts who Virgil had warned against in the Aeneid. They who came were two of the best, so much so that Sri Lanka can be proud of them for putting the country on the world [...]