ශ්රී ලංකා සටන් විරාම නිරීක්ෂණ කමිටුව (ශ්රීලසදුපි)
An interview with the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission on how the mission was set up after the ceasefire was signed — the president’s request to Norway, the LTTE’s agreement, the Norwegian government’s special envoy — on the narrowness of its mandate, on the United Nations’ view that its remit should be widened, and on the LTTE’s responsibility for the violent processions and the attacks on the forces and the police.
ඉදිරීය අවිනිශ්චිතයි
The president could go to a parliamentary election and win a majority before the confusion grows worse, and is stuck in a place where he cannot: he knows the JVP’s road leads nowhere and cannot let go of the JVP, and he is not ready to forget the support it gave him at the presidential election. Ivan’s warning is about what follows — attacks on Sinhalese in the east producing conditions in the south in which Tamils cannot live, and the ground laid for a communal massacre.
අරාජිකත්වයට ඉඩ නොදෙමු
Five headless bodies were found at Avissawella on the 27th, and the inspector general told the all-party conference that the killings had nothing to do with the ethnic crisis and were an underworld crime — but all four of the bodies identified so far are Tamils, from Armour Street, Wellawatte, Wattala and Vavuniya. Five students had already been killed at Trincomalee, and on World Press Freedom Day the Uthayan office in Jaffna was attacked and two people killed.
ශර්මන් පෙරේරා ඛේදවාචකය
In abnormal times there are always people who take their own advantage from them. When the JVP was being hunted, some settled scores with their enemies by branding them JVP supporters and telling the security forces; the number of innocent people killed on false information was large. The same period is coming back, Ivan writes, with branding a man an LTTE supporter as the easy revenge.
මානව හිමිකම් වාෂ්ප කිරීම
In a fundamental rights case about a work-to-rule at the port, the Supreme Court has ruled on the domestic validity of the international agreements Sri Lanka has made with the International Labour Organisation — that governments may enter such agreements but that the agreements are not valid until parliament legislates. That ruling belittles the standing of every international human rights agreement the country has signed.
එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ සංවිධානය සමග ගැටුමට යන ප්රතිපත්තියක් රටේ යහපතට හේතුවන්නේ නැත
Sri Lanka is being pushed towards a quarrel with the United Nations. Whatever its limits, it is the world body that represents the countries of the world; we are a member of it, we have signed its conventions, and staying a member carries the duty of respecting them. Rather than answer Allan Rock’s allegations against the army with anger, Ivan writes, finding out whether they are true and correcting the fault if they are would do the country’s honour more good.
ශ්රී ලංකාව අශීලාචාර දේශයක් ලෙස අභිෂේක කිරීම
The Supreme Court has delivered a judgment ruinous both to Sri Lanka’s standing abroad and to the fundamental rights of everyone in it. It came in the case of Nallaratnam Singarasa, a prisoner treated as a former LTTE supporter, who had complained to the Geneva human rights committee against the judgment that sentenced him. In striking at that committee, Ivan writes, the chief justice has struck at the institution that ruled against him twice.
ප්රශ්න විසඳා ගැනීමට තිබෙන හොඳම මග යුද්ධය ද?
The country has gone back into a full-scale war, and while India and the international community are troubled by the choice, international opinion plainly does not matter to either of the two sides fighting. The displaced numbered twenty thousand when the war began and a hundred thousand now, and the end of the count may be hundreds of thousands, or everyone in the country.
රට පතුලක් නැති අගාධයකට තල්ලු කිරීම
The Supreme Court has struck down the legal validity, so far as Sri Lanka is concerned, of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — a covenant made to protect the fundamental rights of the people of the world and one of the things the civilised world is respected for. That the court charged with protecting the people’s fundamental rights should be the one to take them away is a mockery of fate.
පොදු එකඟතාවේ ප්රතිඵල කෝ?
The public were dreaming pleasant dreams about what the understanding between the two main parties would bring the country, and it has brought not one good result, nor any sign of an effort to produce one. Ivan turns to Jaffna, where what he is told amounts to famine: the Bishop of Jaffna gives a kilo of rice at Rs 150, a kilo of wheat flour at Rs 150, a kilo of sugar at Rs 400 and a coconut at Rs 80.