Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who visited Sri Lanka last week and met President Mahinda Rajapakse and senior Sri Lankan officials, has said that India had been reassured over the Lankan government's efforts to return internally-displaced persons to their homes and also hopeful over a future political process to alleviate the lot of the Tamil-speaking community and other minorities.
We can expect to see more Chinese wolf warrior diplomats on the prowl, in India's neighbourhood, though its mailed fist is not so visible while dealing with India, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
A leading Washington, DC-based think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, notwithstanding the arrest of retired Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka who challenged President Mahinda Rajapakse at the recent elections, and the country's poor record on human rights and its treatment of several thousand internally displaced persons, has said that the United States cannot afford to disengage with the island nation.
Rajapaksa had accepted a 'joint' invitation from the Indian government and the event organisers, and would be flying to India on Wednesday, according to diplomatic sources and protocol officials in Delhi.
Under international flak for his handling of the Tamil issue, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Friday that nations who sympathise with separatism are bound to become the victims of terrorism, as Sri Lanka celebrated with pomp a year of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's military defeat.
In a letter addressed to the President, the 'Mahanayakes' or the Buddhist religious leaders said the monks' grouping 'Maha Sangha' has throughout its long history come forward to help resolve grave national issues, including conflicts among the rulers.
Sri Lanka said on Sunday that the relationship between New Delhi and Colombo was "strong," as it dismissed suggestions that there was "pressure" from New Delhi" for an early political solution to the Tamil ethnic problem during the visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
As street violence broke out in Colombo to protest the jailing of defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka on Wednesday announced the dates for snap parliamentary polls which will be held on April 8.
India plans to directly invite Sri Lankan ethnic parties, including the pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Tamil National Alliance, for parleys to resolve the Tamil issue in the country, a media report has claimed, prompting the main opposition party to seek a clarification from the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.
Sri Lankan Minister Douglas Devananda, whose visit as part of presidential delegation has come under controversy following reports that he is a proclaimed offender in India, on Thursday said all political leaders were pardoned as per the Indo-Sri Lanka pact but maintained that he was prepared to face legal action, if any.
Sri Lanka's new Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris, who visited Washington, DC last month, feels the tensions that existed in the United States and Sri Lanka during the height of the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, when Colombo refused to acquiesce to a ceasefire, have been repaired.
Tamil-actor-turned political leader Vijaykanth told rediff.com that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's announcement of demanding Indian citizenship for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees is helping the dream of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.
The Sri Lankan government hit back at defeated opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka on Thursday alleging that he had attempted to "assassinate" President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family.
President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday congratulated Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on his re-election and expressed confidence that the country would find lasting peace in which all communities would live with dignity and harmony.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed concern over the recent developments in Sri Lanka, including the detention of two UN staff members without charges.
The docking of two Chinese submarines at the Colombo harbour in 2014 had angered India, which said it undermined its security interests.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa helped the Congress-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alliance's performance in Tamil Nadu during last year's parliamentary elections by agreeing to halt the use of heavy weapons against the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam in the final stages of the civil war, a top Sri Lankan official has claimed.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) on Thursday won two more seats in Kandy and Trincolamee districts, but still fell short of two-thirds majority it was seeking to carry out constitutional changes.
"Sri Lanka has a sovereign government and all its administrative matters (of the army) are with the President and commander in chief (Mahinda Rajapaksa) and defence secretary," Defence Spokesman and senior cabinet Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told PTI.
A Sri Lankan military court on Friday stripped the country's war hero and former army chief Sarath Fonseka of his rank and medals after finding him guilty of dabbling in politics while in service. The General was convicted by a three-member military court which began deliberations five months ago. The court verdict has to be ratified by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his capacity as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the Sri Lankan media reported.
The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse made a surprise visit to the tamil dominated town of Jaffna, a week before elections are scheduled to be held in the country.
The Sri Lankan cabinet has failed to take a decision on the timing of the Presidential elections in the country, amid reports that the country's former top General may be the opposition candidate to challenge incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday called on Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and discussed with him bilateral relations and the issue of resettlement of the war displaced Tamils.
Keen to forge all-weather ties with India, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has lauded the developmental work undertaken by the country in the war-ravaged northern region and vowed not to allow his nation's soil to be used against it.
Elated after India's abstention at the UN Human Rights Council vote on Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday ordered the release of all Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan custody for poaching.
India has assured Sri Lanka of its support to the process of resettlement and rehabilitation of Tamil civilians displaced due to the war and pushed for a political solution to the decades-old ethnic question.
Dismissing reports that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was planning constitutional amendments to extend his term without holding elections, the Sri Lankan government said on Monday that he had no intention to be in power "beyond the period mandated by the ballot".
Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka, who presided over the military offensive on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, has been asked by the United States authorities to testify before them against Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse over allegations of widespread human rights abuse during the war.
"I have also urged upon the Sri Lankan president the need for reconciliation among communities in Sri Lanka and for practical arrangements, including devolution of powers, to enable all minorities in Sri Lanka, particularly the Tamil minority, to lead lives of dignity," Dr Manmohan Singh said in his letter dated June 10
The fallout of the spat between two headstrong and powerful personalities like Mahinda Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka does not augur well for this small and beautiful Island nation struggling to leave the ravages of war behind, writes Nitin Gokhale.
Official spokesman Lucien Rajakarunanayake said Rajapakse, who won re-election in presidential elections last month, signed a decree dissolving the national assembly with effect from midnight Tuesday.
General Sarath Fonseka, the defeated candidate in the recent Sri Lanka's presidential election and the country's former Army chief, has been arrested, BBC has reported.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised on Friday to seek a political solution to address the ethnic conflict in a post-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Sri Lanka, even as a top UN official pressed Colombo to begin process of national reconciliation by accommodating "legitimate" grievances of Tamils.
Concerned over the plight of civilians caught up in the ongoing fighting in Sri Lanka, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dispatched his Chef de Cabinet Vijay Nambiar, a former Indian diplomat, to the island nation to underscore his message for protection of civilians and resolution of the humanitarian situation there. Members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday expressed grave concern over the worsening crisis in northern Sri Lanka.
Over 100 personnel from Sri Lanka's elite Special Task Force on Friday raided the office of former army chief and defeated opposition presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka in Colombo."I don't know what they are looking for. They have also questioned the staff," said a close aide of Fonseka, who was trounced by incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January 26 presidential polls.
Defeated joint opposition candidate Gen Sarath Fonseka rejected the Sri Lankan government's allegations on Thursday that he had attempted to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapakasa, terming it as "trumped up charges" to arrest him.
Mahinda Rajapaksa's re-election as Sri Lankan president has come as a disappointment for the Tamil diaspora, which is still reeling from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels' defeat in the country's civil war last year. The influential community of Tamils living overseas now doesn't know about what role it should play in their homeland, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
Triumphant Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared on Thursday that emergency provisions in the country would be scrapped but not hastily and said he would soon unveil a political plan for the estranged Tamils. A day after his thumping victory in the presidential elections, 64-year-old Rajapaksa said he would come out with his plans after a dialouge with Tamil leaders.
The Sri Lankan army on Wednesday surrounded the Colombo hotel occupied by former army chief General Sarath Fonseka, who is the main opponent of President Mahinda Rajapakse in the presidential poll, counting for which began on Tuesday night.Heavily armed Lankan troops were deployed around the building following information that army deserters were among the 400 people present inside the lake-front luxury hotel in central Colombo.
'They wanted the army commander to arrest me and he told the air force commander to put air force people at their airport take over their airport they sent the army to all broadcasting stations and television stations... they sent all the people on leave; they had only some people and the army these were indications of a military coup,' Fonseka told television channel NewsX.
