The track to Baker’s Falls, in Sri Lanka’s hill country, was an “undulating” walk, according to our guide Thushara. I reminded him of that adjective as I hauled myself up an almost vertical and very muddy hillside.
“If this is undulating,” I muttered, pausing to grab another tree branch for support, “I’d hate to see what you […]

This week the UN Human Rights Council has an opportunity and a duty to help Sri Lanka advance its own efforts on accountability and reconciliation. Both are essential if a lasting peace is to be achieved. In doing so, the
council will not only be serving Sri Lanka, but those worldwide who believe there are universal […]

Britain and the US are preparing for a bitter showdown with Sri Lanka as they attempt to pass an international resolution rebuking Colombo over alleged war crimes said to have been committed
during military operations against ethnic rebels.
A resolution calling upon Sri Lanka to investigate fully who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Tamil […]

A prophet spoke at the UNESCO in Paris this week, though he joked that having lived for 90 years, he had written thirty pages and found he had been turned into ‘a rock star’.
Stephane Hessel, born in Germany in the year of the Russian revolution, is 95 years old. Anti-Nazi Resistance fighter, concentration camp survivor, […]

Sri Lanka expects crude imports from Iran to drop by at least 10% this year due to a range of inflation-fighting policies that should cool demand, potentially helping it find a way around US sanctions, a government official said yesterday.
The Indian Ocean island nation is facing one of the biggest squeezes from the impending sanctions, […]

In May, 2003, I travelled around Iraq reporting on its oil industry. Before reaching Baghdad, I got in touch with Marie Colvin, who was there covering the war and its aftermath for the Sunday Times, where I worked from 1986 to
1993. She wrote back to say that she was staying at a hunt club in […]

Brussels, 23 February 2012: The EU believes that the end of the conflict has offered a historic opportunity to achieve a peaceful and stable future for the people of Sri Lanka. Genuine reconciliation among all groups and communities in this country is essential and this requires justice and accountability for past events. The EU notes the […]

A top UN peacekeeping committee on Wednesday ( March 22) barred a Sri Lankan general accused of carrying out a military onslaught against civilians.
But Major General Shavendra Silva still attended the first meeting Wednesday of a special advisory panel to UN leader Ban Ki-moon. He sat in the room but no other member spoke to […]

Marie Colvin was always getting into jams as a foreign correspondent, covering war zones and acquiring an eye patch after an ambush in Sri Lanka, recalls her brother William Colvin. The retired NYPD detective says his big sister always had stories when she would come home to visit about how she managed to find her […]

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s speech to the nation on Independence Day provided an indication of his two major concerns for the future. One concern was the persistent international pressure on
his government on human rights issues during and after the end of the war. The other concern was the efforts to destabilize the government through mass agitation […]