What does the failed abduction attempt against Namal Perera of the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), which turned into a brutal assault on him and his friend Mahinda Ratnaweera , Political Officer at the British High Commission, tell us about the Rule of Law, human rights protection, the culture of impunity and law and order in Sri Lanka today ?   It took place in close proximity to a major security checkpoint, an army installation and ironically enough, the media ministry and not in the early hours of the morning or at dead of night, but in the evening on a busy road with considerable traffic.  

The sheer chutzpah and audacity of the attackers is a further reminder of the culture …

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In recent weeks, the public at large has been treated to the unseemly saga of the sacking, reinstatement, cancellation of visa and departure from the island of the Executive Director, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, Dr. Rama Mani.

What began as a internal problem of succession and transition within that organisation took on quite sensational and sordid proportions in the ways in which it was handled and in the way in which an internal problem within a premier and long standing civil society institution in this country of international repute, culminated in an alleged threat to national security associated with the concept of the Responsibility to Protect or R2P.

The internal problems of the ICES are not of concern here, except …

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The APRC has behaved as feared. It has delivered for the regime and not for the country. Clearly Professor Vitharana could not hold out – encomiums about his persistence notwithstanding. He obliged his president and produced the Interim Report of the APRC eighteen months after it was convened. The Majority Report and the Vitharana Report are all history – His Excellency demanded and determined and hey presto they produced a mouse, heralding in, in our inimitable way, the Chinese Year of the Rat, no doubt !

Why on earth did the APRC have to sit some sixty four times over eighteen months to recommend that less than the Thirteenth Amendment be implemented in the interim, whilst …

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The decisive year with terrible beginnings is also a year of anniversaries — 60 years of independence and 25 since the horrific pogrom of July 1983. It may be the case that the crucial push into the Wanni will begin in deadly earnest to coincide with the anniversary of independence, whilst if the pronouncements of the defence establishment are to be realised, it will be approaching final victory around the time of the anniversary of July 1983. There is some irony in this. Both these events are landmarks in the botched and bloody nation and state building exercise we have been engaging in.

Sixty years later in the one case and 25 in the other, on the key issues of national …

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The LTTE attack on the Saliyapura airforce base has reminded those who wanted to think otherwise, that a quick, cheap and/or certain military victory is by no means assured. The attempt to achieve one will take time and cost quite a lot more in human and other resources. In the meantime, the preoccupation with military victory is also underpinning the steady erosion of democracy. Take the last week for instance.

The Wamanan case and the shutting down of the ABC network constituted further assaults on media freedom. The former is an example of crude and shoddy intimidation in response to the exposure of corruption and the latter, one of over reaction prompted by embedded hostility towards media …

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The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is finally in the island, due, in no small measure, to the campaign of local civil society and international human rights organisations to get the government to invite her to Sri Lanka. This has happened despite the threat and invective directed against local civil society ranging from the perennial accusation of rubbishing the country abroad for pecuniary gain at home, to the more dangerous incitement to hatred — the vilification of local human rights defenders as traitors. .
Louise Arbour is in Sri Lanka because there is a serious enough human rights problem in this country that warrants her presence. Over the years, her office has received information about the full gamut of violations …

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The announcement by the United National Party (UNP) that it is “repositioning” itself on the issue of a political settlement of the ethnic conflict has been received with praise for pragmatism in certain quarters but mostly consternation, disappointment and confusion in others.

The UNP which in government was party to the Oslo Declaration of 2002 and the Tokyo Declaration a year after, will not now use or insist on the mention of the word federal or federalism but will stress the need for meaningful power sharing as the pivotal idea on which a solution best suited to the needs of the country will be founded. .

The repositioning of the party’s position is being presented as a constructive avoidance of semantic arguments …

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The diplomatic offensive of the government is in full swing even though there continues to be confusion as to who speaks authoritatively for it on the matters of war, peace and human rights – the Foreign Minister, other assorted cabinet ministers, the defence secretary, the foreign secretary, the secretary general of the peace secretariat or the ambassador in Geneva. It would not matter much if they all had their role to play in the communication of government policy as long as they all said the same thing. This though is not the case and it is not merely restricted to the dishing out of invective and verbal abuse to international officials a la Fernandopulle. There is also …

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Photo credit: Sam de Silva

The Neelan Tiruchelvam Lecture delivered by Gareth Evans, the former Foreign Minister of Australia and the current President of the International Crisis Group (ICG), was a lucid and incisive account of recent developments in the international humanitarian and human rights fields and their relevance to Sri Lanka. Titled the “The Limits of State Sovereignty: The Responsibility to Protect in the 21st Century” Mr Evans elaborated the thesis of state responsibility towards its citizens and the responsibility of the international community in the instances in which this responsibility was not being met. These ideas were initially developed by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty …

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The last column suggested that the tide of popular opinion may well be turning against the Rajapakse regime on account of the human rights and humanitarian situation, international censure and the rising cost of living.

The brutal slaying of the Red Cross workers was followed by the lodge evictions and the Supreme Court decision halting them.

The Independent International Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) who had been invited in by the President to observe the workings of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry submitted its first Interim Report to him and released two press statements.

The latter confirmed all the challenges and obstacles they face in the fulfillment of their mandate that local human rights groups had warned about when the idea of such …

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