After a delay of nearly six months, the 268-page long report of the UNHCR on alleged ‘war crimes’ in Sri Lanka was released during the ongoing thirtieth session of the Commission. Broadly, the report deals with human rights violations during the
1. In my earlier article on the Sri Lankan General Elections (‘Curtain Raiser’, VIF 07-2015) various possible out comes of the elections were out lined. As was mentioned therein, the electoral contest was mainly between the two key alliances na
Will it be fourth time lucky for Ranil Wickramasinghe? Sworn in as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on Friday afternoon, Ranil Wickramasinghe is not new to the post. He has been PM in the past--1993-94, 2001-04--and since January this year when he and Pre
This is in continuations with series of previous articles where the political situation in Sri Lanka was assessed. Now the crunch time as it were has arrived for the political leaders and parties to not only test their own respective strengths on the
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The most significant news of last one week from Sri Lanka was not only the dissolution of its Parliament and fresh elections, but also the public declaration of intent by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) to mark his political re-entry. Address
After delivering on many of his pre-election promises relating to issues of governance in the ‘hundred day action plan’, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena is currently grappling with the issue of holding mid-term elections after dissolvi
Indo – Lanka economic relations are on the cusp of a transformative leap forward. Mr. Modi’s bilateral visit to Sri Lanka, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 28 years, highlighted the role India can play in boosting Sri Lanka’s developmen
The euphoria generated by results of the January 2015 presidential polls in Sri Lanka has gradually evaporated. The country is heading towards a complex political situation not originally envisaged by any of the principal actors. The focus is now on
Newly elected President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena’s visit to India from Feb 15-18 had justifiably raised hopes and expectations, both in Colombo and in New Delhi, of a major‘course correction’ that could mark the onset of a new, vigorou
Perhaps Mahinda Rajapaksa had seen the rapid decline in his popularity much before others did. That and apparently advice of astrologers who told him his propitious time was fast running out, forced Rajapaksa's hand in calling for elections two year