New York 23 January 2012:The Sri Lankan government in the past year failed to advance justice and accountability for the victims of the country’s 26-year-long civil conflict, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012. While Sri Lanka’s war-ravaged north and east became more open, the government deepened repression of basic freedoms throughout […]

One of the outcomes of the visit to Sri Lanka by the Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has been the resurrection of the concept of “13th Amendment Plus.” Speaking to the media at the conclusion of his visit, the Indian Minister said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had pledged to improve on the devolution […]

Dr Dayan Jayatilleka’s book, Fidel’s Ethics of Violence: The Moral Dimension of the Political Thought of Fidel Castro, is a significant contribution towards understanding one of the enduring intellectual dilemmas in the theory and practice of politics: the ethics of the use of violence. Dayan’s ambitious project in this book
is to offer a comprehensively worked […]

It’s December 2010, and two young law students are sitting for their exam.
The one is in a hall full of students, who are being monitored closely by the examiner to make sure they’re following the rules: no phones, no electronic devices, no
cheating.
The other, meanwhile is taken to a private air conditioned room with a computer […]

Bloomberg:President Barack Obama is considering nominating Lawrence Summers, his former National Economic Council director, to lead the World Bank when Robert Zoellick’s term expires later this year, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Summers has expressed interest in the job to White House officials and has backers inside the administration, including Treasury Secretary Timothy […]

A TOP Australian diplomat heavily criticised for her role in ”rehabilitation” ceremonies for alleged Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka has been rewarded with a job in Prime
Minister Julia Gillard’s department.
Kathy Klugman will become head of the international division in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, a key foreign policy job.
Ms Klugman, who was high […]

BREAKING NEWS: 18 January 2012: The US District Court has granted Plaintiffs’ time till February 3 to respond to the suggestion of immunity document filed by the US Department of Justice, in the War Crimes case against President Mahinda Rajapakse.
Plaintiffs in this case Kasippillai Manoharan et al; have sought judgment under the Torture Victim Protection […]

I look at the issue of accountability primarily as a political scientist and from a comparative politics point of view. And I am struck by the fact that what I consider to be an exemplary progressive democracy, Brazil, headed by Dilma Rousseff, who was herself an guerrilla and a political prisoner, tortured by the military […]

“Lasantha could not be straight-jacketed, could not be chained. Lasantha, in paying my personal tribute to you, let me say that at the Holy Grail of Journalism, none will fail to weep over your blood, to pay unreserved homage. And should your medal of glory cast some soft hued shadow, it will be the shadow […]

BREAKING NEWS:The United States today (January 13) filed a Suggestion of Immunity in the War Crimes case against Sri Lanka’s
President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The US said in a status report filed today it recognized the immunity of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is the President and sitting head of state of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
Determination […]