The displaced people in the North will be resettled in their original homes soon after the mines were cleared in the respective areas to integrate them into the national development process, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Speaking at the bicentennial celebrations of the Sri Lanka Customs Department, President Rajapaksa said the Government has faced an enormous task of clearing mines in the area which was once occupied by terrorists.

Sinhala and Tamil language training to elected government officials and staff from 11 local government authorities in Eastern Province to help them provide better services to the multi-ethnic communities they serve, is provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

CHENNAI: K Palaniappan, an industrialist, had to shelve a business collaboration when the insurgency broke out in Sri Lanka in the latter part of the 70s. He had not had a chance to visit the island nation since then. This August, he grabbed the first opportunity he had to visit the country and travel to tourist spots popular long before the war.

A US Court has ruled against an attempt to de-list the LTTE by an organization which had challenged an executive order issued by President George W. Bush in 2001 which allowed the US government to designate groups as terrorist organizations, freeze their assets and block aid, the US media reported.

A Cheque for an amount of Rs.7.6 Million, contributed by the Eastern Province Council Employees, has been donated for the welfare of IDPs by Chief Secretary of the Eastern Province. The Cheque has been handed over to H.E the President by Chief Secretary Mr.V.P.Balasingham. Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, Mr. Sivanesaturai Chandrakanthan,Governor of the Easten Province Mr.Mohan Wijewickrama also participated at the event.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama stated that Sri Lanka is the hub of the Asian Region and Kenya is the hub of African region and that both the countries have a great potential to enhance their commercial and business ties and also develop their economies. This was conveyed during his visit to Nairobi where he met with His Excellency Kalonzo Musyoka, Vice President of Kenya, and Hon. Moses Wetangula, the Kenyan Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Around 5,700 children from Welfare villages and IDP camps in Vanni sat for the Grade Five Scholarship exam yesterday. The scholarship exam was held in 42 centres and the Government provided all facilities. Students who sat for this exam at the Punthottam College of Education Centre at Vavuniya were provided biscuits and milk.

Measures have been implemented to uplift the health care facilities of the people in the Jaffna district.

Sri Lanka to enable IDPs to resume their normal lives within the shortest possible space of time  

Statement by Hon Mahinda Samarasinghe MP, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights on the occasion of the Adjournment Debate on the Situation in Internally Displaced Person’s Camps in Vavuniya Parliament of Sri Lanka, Sri Jayawardenepura-Kotte Wednesday, 19  August 2009

Dr Dayan Jayatilleka leaves Geneva for Colombo this weekend, having served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, since June 1^st 2007. Thursday, August 20^th 2009 was his last day of service in that post

Kenyan Deputy President, Kalonzo Musyoka welcomed Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama to Kenya on the 20^th of August and congratulated the Sri Lankan Government for laying a solid economic and political foundation for sustainable peace having defeated the LTTE terrorism.  Deputy President Musyoka  briefed the Sri Lankan delegation on the severe drought and the consequent food shortages affecting Kenya and the surrounding African countries and explained that Kenya was taking steps to overcome this situation.

(Colombo-Lankapuvath-August 20) – Minister of Disaster Management and human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe said that the main target of the government is to resettle the displaced people in relief villages in their own villages before the end of this year.

He said that the President is keen to achieve this objective soon.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has underscored the importance of enhancing economic and trade ties between his country and Sri Lanka. He made this call at a discussion with the new Sri Lankan Ambassador to Brazil, A.M.J. Sadiq, who presented his credentials to the President in Brasilia last Friday (14^th August 2009).

People of the Sabaragamuwa province felicitated President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the war heroes at the Sumana Saman Devalaya in Ratnapura today afternoon on 18th August.  

Venerable Maha Sanga, Defense Secretary Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Chief of Defence Staff and former Army Commander Gen Sarath Fonseka, former Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, many politicians and Sabaragamuwa people were participated the colourful ceremony.

The Bahraini Prime Minister His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa has announced a cash donation of US$ 1 million to Sri Lanka to be utilized for the resettlement and rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North.  The donation together with a letter from Bahrain Prime Minister to President Mahinda Rajapaksa were handed over by the Bahraini Ambassador Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa to the Sri Lankan Ambassador Sarath Dissanayake at the Bahrain Embassy in Kuwait on 16^th August.

The Government yesterday said more than 15,000 IDP families from the Jaffna district will be resettled in their original homes soon.  

The authorities have already identified more than 15,000 displaced families who claim themselves to be the residents of Jaffna and their details have been forwarded to the authorities in the Jaffna district, said Relief Services Minister, Rishad Badiudeen.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa participated at the 3rd remembrance arms giving of Late Mr. Alick Aluwihare, Former Minister of UNP Government and MP at his Matale residence on 16 August 2009. UNP Deputy Leader Mr. Karu Jayasooriya, Mr. S. B. Disanayake(Opposition Leader CPC), Parliamentarians Tissa Aththanayake, Mrs. Renuka Herath, Mrs. Amara Piyaseeli, Matale District SLFP Organizer, Mr. Laxman Perera, wife of late Mr. Aluwihare, and his three sons, Mr. Wasantha Aluwihare, Mr. Ranjith Aluwihare, Mr. Daljith Aluwihare and family members participated on that occasion.

The International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank will provide concessionary additional credit of Rs. 2,760 million (US$ 24 million) for Health Sector Development Project (HSDP) with particular emphasis on the special health needs in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Aug 12 marked the fourth anniversary of the death of Lakshman Kadirgamar 

By Dayan Jayatilleka

The killing of Lakshman Kadirgamar illustrates why warfare is sometimes necessary. There are totalitarian forces so evil (in the sense that Hannah Arendt wrote of fascism), that they have to be contested, combated and prevailed over by the use of violence. Yet, how does one wield that violence in the struggle against political evil? How does one prevail over the external evil one combats while constraining the evil potentially within oneself? How does one prevent the moral and ethical erosion that always threatens, when one wields the weapons of death and destruction? The Geneva Convention has laid down in successive conventions dating back to the 1860s, the humanitarian norms to be observed in warfare.

Secretary to the Treasury Sumith Abeysinghe, signed two financing agreements relating to the construction of the Colombo – Katunayake Expressway and the Hambantota Bunkering Project with the Vice President Zhu Xinqiang, of the Exim Bank of China on 6^th August 2009.  He is currently on a 4 day visit to Beijing to discuss future bilateral development assistance programme to Sri Lanka.