RIGHTS: Sri Lanka’s Election Aftermath – Media Under Attack

Sri Lankan journalists, for whom intimidation, threats, assault and killings seem to have become unavoidable professional hazards, are bracing themselves for a fresh confrontation with the government as curbs on reporting intensify.

SRI LANKA: The Post-Election Road Ahead for President Rajapaksa

Sri Lankans witnessed one of the country's most contentious elections ever when President Mahinda Rajapaksa staved off the challenge posed by his former Army commander, Sarath Fonseka, and clinched more than 1.8 million majority votes during the Jan. 26 poll.

SRI LANKA: Gov’t Defends Detention of Suspected Tamil Rebels

Sri Lanka is rejecting claims that some 11,000 people who surrendered as suspected Tamil rebels just before the decades-long bloody conflict ended in May 2009 are being held incommunicado or risk being tortured.

SRI LANKA: Historic Election Results Dash Minority’s Hopes

Now that the electorate has given its verdict, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s victory in the just concluded presidential polls sends an ominous signal to the minority people of the island state.

Q&A: ‘Commissions for Human Rights Violations Have Failed’

Sri Lanka’s nearly three decades of civil war may be over, but questions about war crimes and gross human rights violations committed during the final stages of that battle in 2009 continue to haunt the South Asian nation.

SRI LANKA: Media Face Uncertainties in the Run-up to Elections

The string of events involving the Sri Lankan press over the past week has once again brought the embattled Fourth Estate into the limelight. This comes into sharp focus as the country eagerly awaits the upcoming presidential elections.

SRI LANKA: Country Heads Into Decisive Elections

Call it a novel election propaganda ploy.

SRI LANKA: A Nation Struggles to Forget a Tragedy

Waves hitting a train and carriages half submerged in water. Scores of men, women and children leaping above the water, hands outstretched, bodies strewn all over.

SRI LANKA: The Long Road to Normalcy in War-Ravaged Zones

Despite the recent accelerated return of tens of thousands of war-displaced civilians to their former villages in northern Sri Lanka and the impending relaxation of further restrictions, aid agencies say far more efforts are needed to help the civilian population regain normalcy lost to decades of conflict.

SRI LANKA: Plans to Release Tamils ‘Nothing But a Political Ploy’

By January 2010 they will be returning to their homes in war-torn areas.

SRI LANKA: Hopes High for Fresh Leadership as Election Looms

Political developments are rapidly unfolding as the public eagerly awaits the President’s announcement on Sunday of the date for the next presidential or parliamentary polls—an event widely expected to bring about a new leadership that could bring to fruition the people’s collective yearnings for a return to law and order as well as discipline.

SRI LANKA: Gov’t, EU in Back-channel Talks Over Fate of Trade Pact

Sri Lanka has reacted strongly to a European Commission (EC) probe on its human rights record, saying it is politically motivated.

SRI LANKA: Colombo’s Diplomatic Sparring Games with EU, U.S.

One thing that has set apart the current administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa from those of his predecessors is its diplomatic duels with international heavyweights.

Q&A: EU to Sri Lanka on GSP Plus Probe: ‘No Tit for Tat’

Despite acrimonious exchanges between Sri Lanka and the European Union (EU) over human rights violations on which rests the fate of continued tax-free exports to Europe, development assistance continues unhindered to the Indian Ocean island, according to Europe’s top diplomat here.

SRI LANKA: 25 Years On, Women Still Struggle for Their Rights

When Thamalini, leader of the women’s wing of Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger guerrillas, entertained guests at the women’s political wing office in northern areas once controlled by the rebels, the visitors were served tea and other refreshments by male aides.

SRI LANKA: Mixed Reactions to EU Threat to Cut Trade Concessions

When the European Union announced last year that it was seeking an investigation into alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka as a precondition for extending concessionary tariff rates for exports from the island state, the government promptly cried foul.

SRI LANKA: U.S. Govt Report Adds to Pressure for War Crimes Probe

The U.S. State Department released a report Thursday detailing possible violations of the laws of war in Sri Lanka during the first half of 2009, adding to pressure for an independent, international investigation into alleged atrocities committed by government forces and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists.

SRI LANKA: Newly Reopened IMF Office Launches Budget Probe

The International Monetary Fund’s new resident representative in Sri Lankan is likely to receive his baptism of fire once he settles into his new post this week.

SRI LANKA: Gov’t on a Roll Hints at Early National Elections

Well before 1.7 million voters trooped to 1,485 polling stations on Oct. 10 to elect the 55 members of the Southern Provincial Council, it was a foregone conclusion that President Mahinda Rajapakasa would easily lead his United People Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government as the clear winner.

RIGHTS: From War Zone to Double Deckers, Hope Returns to Orphans

The two double-decker buses were a rarity on the Avissawella-Colombo road. One usually does not see slow-moving old English buses on the highway about 50 kilometres out of the capital Colombo.

POPULATION: UNFPA Partners With Faith-Based Groups

The United Nations has realised that if it wants to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it will have to partner with like-minded faith-based organisations (FBOs).