By Hemanthi Guruge from Batticaloa 

National Integration Minister Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman said yesterday that efforts by the remaining LTTE leaders overseas to create a provisional transnational government would not succeed.

by Dayan Jayatilleka

Prof. Senaka Bandaranaike discerns a pattern in Sri Lankan history of being ahead of the rest of the subcontinent but never being able to achieve a decisive breakthrough and sustain it. This happened at least three times, he once said in a lecture I attended. We now have a second chance. It is as if we have obtained a second Independence, when we were ahead of the game in the rest of Asia but we then blew it. Let’s not blow it yet again.

Jorge Heine

Lakshman Kadirgamar, the former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, was one of the most incisive legal minds of his generation. A former president of the Oxford Union, he made significant contributions to the ILO and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, among other entities. Whoever met him, as I did, could not help but be impressed with his knowledge of international affairs, his passion for peace in his homeland, and his razor-sharp intellect.

By Dayan Jayatilleka

As Paul Berman once wrote, "somewhere in the world it is always 1941". There comes a time in the life of every society when it is faced with an existential threat or challenge. It is the social forces or elements that rise up to this challenge and successfully overcome this threat that then have the power as well as the legitimacy to place their stamp on what comes after. Those who stood on the wrong side of history, or never rose to the occasion, or who abandoned the struggle partway, or simply failed; the defeated enemy, the collaborators, the appeasers and the fence-sitters — and these are not one and the same — all forfeit the chance to place their values, ideas and programs as the leading ones of the social order that follows the great test.

UNITED NATIONS, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka on Thursday called on the international community to correct the defects of the existing world financial system in order to support sustainable economic development and international market stability.

The statement came as G.L. Peris, Sri Lankan minister of export development and international trade, was addressing the high-level UN meeting on the current world financial and economic crisis and its impact on development.

Chris DHAMBARAGE 

Sri Lanka is planning to send the largest ever contingent for the 16th edition of the Asian Games which will be staged in Guangzhou, China next year. 

The Sri Lankan delegation will be over 150 competitors and officials and will be vying for honours in 15 sports disciplines including the latest entry into the Games Twent20 cricket.  

COLOMBO, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan government officials have reiterated that the government is commitment to resettle in six months all Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) now staying in relief centers in the north, the presidential office said on Thursday in a statement.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama will pay an official visit to China from July 1 to 5 at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang made the announcement here Thursday at a regular press conference.

In the aftermath of war, a lost generation of Sri Lanka’s youth is seeking rehabilitation, writes TOM FARRELL in Ambepussa, Sri Lanka

 RANJENDRAN HAS the acne and somewhat awkward gait of many a 17-year-old schoolboy. He has already completed is O-Levels and is studying for his A-Level examinations, the local equivalent of the Leaving Certificate. He says he would like to be a teacher in the future, an aspiration that possibly comes from having his own childhood brutally cut short.

The importance of bilateral interests as opposed to multilateral compulsions in shaping relations between two countries was underscored by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama during his discussion today (25.06.2009) with Miklavz Borstnik, Charge d’ Affaires of Slovenia, who is on a two day visit to Sri Lanka coinciding with the National Day of Slovenia. The Minister observed that strong bonds of friendship within the international community would be sustainable when derived from bilateral ties. In this context he pointed out that Sri Lanka looked forward to further strengthening links between the two countries.

By Paul Tighe 

June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka is lifting travel alerts for the country after the defeat of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as it wants to attract tourists to the South Asian island, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

“We have ended the need for travel advisories that crippled tourism,” Rajapaksa said in the capital, Colombo. “With terrorism defeated after three decades, our people can now travel freely. Tourists should have no fear to visit our attractions.”

NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka on Wednesday assured India that it would ensure that Tamils, displaced during the military operations against LTTE, return to their homes after their camps are dismantled within six months.

The assurance was conveyed by a high-level Sri Lankan delegation which included Basil Rajapaksa, President's Special Envoy and G B Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary, which met foreign minister S M Krishna here.

NEW DELHI (AFP) — A Sri Lankan official delegation visiting India said on Wednesday Colombo was working to resettle tens of thousands of civilians displaced by fighting on the island.

The team said Sri Lanka was also working for the "democratisation" of the country's north, where fierce fighting earlier this year led to the rout of the separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

New look and feel in keeping with the repositioning strategy

His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa declares 2011 as “Visit Sri Lanka Year”

Click the photo to view the video

Sri Lanka Tourism officially launched its new logo and tagline “Sri Lanka Small Miracle” today, ushering in a new era for Sri Lanka Tourism.

The rebranding is an integral part of the repositioning strategy of Sri Lanka Tourism, and comes at an opportune time with the dawning of a new era of peace in Sri Lanka, where there are much expectations and opportunities in the tourism industry.

The entire humanitarian and Military operation was conducted in accordance with international norms and standards governing the conduct of internal armed conflicts, Deputy Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda said in his right of reply at the 11th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The following letter was sent to the British Medical Journal in response to an article by a Dr. Shiamala Suntharalingam, which provided much misleading information as to the situation in the North. 

The Editor - British Medical Journal

Dear Sir

I write with reference to the article entitled ‘Sri Lanka: health as a weapon of war?’ by Shiamala Suntharalingam, which appeared recently in your columns. Her article is replete with inaccuracies and misleading preconceptions, so I would be grateful if you would allow me space to refute her claims.

Efforts to develop small hydro and other renewable energy projects in Sri Lanka through private sector involvement are to be helped by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

IFC, part of the World Bank Group, plans to help boost renewables in Sri Lanka through a package valued at US$15M to support the activities of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon.  

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday directed Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka to present a cheque of $70,000 to the Sri Lankan government for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Sri Lanka. The donation would be made from the Special Assistance Programme for South Asia (SAPSA) Fund. The aid would be used for providing medical supplies to the IDPs. The Sri Lankan government had requested the international community for assistance to address the humanitarian crisis caused by the armed conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the country’s north.

courtesy: dailytimes.com

Washington (PTI): The World Bank on Wednesday approved a $ 24 million IDA credit to Sri Lanka to help it provide health service delivery programme, with particular emphasis on the special health needs in north and east arising out of the recent conflict.

 Twelve million dollars will go to the Northern and Eastern Provinces to help the Sri Lankan Government meet their special health needs arising from the conflict in the region.

By Quintus Perera – Asian Tribune

Colombo, 23 June, (Asiantribune.com): United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has come in on a strong way to help the Eastern Province farmers with Post harvest machinery worth Rs 100 million to increase productivity under the accelerated development programme.