The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Columns

Political Column

UN Panel report: Much at stake for Sri Lanka

'Manufacturers' are busy turning out scores of effigies of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Some are depicting him as a 'bakamoona' punning on his name. Placards decrying him and his organisation are coming off in hundreds at printing presses. Floats depicting the UN headquarters are being built. Provincial Councils and local authorities have been asked to adopt resolutions. Pro-government groups are busy collecting signatures to mass petitions.

5th Column

Give us a break, we’re No. One!

My dear Ban Ki moon,

I thought I must write to you because you seem to be the most talked about person in our country these days, though I won’t go so far as to say you are the most popular. Why, some are even enquiring about your maternal relatives!

The Economic Analysis

The challenge: Sustaining economic growth

Can the Sri Lankan economy sustain its high growth of 8 per cent achieved in 2010 this year too? The Central Bank thinks the rate of economic growth could be enhanced to a somewhat higher growth of 8.5 per cent this year. This expectation is perhaps based on the 8.6 per cent growth rate achieved in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Lobby

Not issued on this week

Focus on Rights

The losing of collective sanity on an advisory report

Could anything have betrayed our desperation more clearly than this shrill caterwauling that we hear from the Government on the possible (formal) emergence of the report on Sri Lanka by the Advisory Panel of the United Nations Secretary General (UNSG)?

Talk at the Cafe Spectator

‘Diplolunacy’ in dealings with UN panel

Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative at the United Nations, Dr. Palitha Kohona, a former Foreign Secretary, wined and dined with the panel that probed alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. The panel hints that Dr. Kohona even agreed for them to visit Colombo to meet Government officials besides members of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

From the sidelines

UNSG’s report: The thin end of the wedge in Sri Lanka’s reconciliation process?

There are no major surprises in the leaked report by the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka, going by the sections of it that have been published in a newspaper. The bias in it was entirely predictable, considering the manner in which the Panel was set up and the circumstances in which it worked.