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Home » ColumnsDisgraced US diplomat’s case reveals more deals of Mahinda-era lobbyist
Muna Habib, a Pakistani journalist who had an affair with disgraced US diplomat Richard Olson while he was Ambassador in Islamabad, got money to study at the prestigious Columbia University from a shady American lobbyist who also had ties with the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration. This week, Olson was sentenced to three years of probation and [...]
We wait, with bated breath…
My dear Dasun and the cricket team, I am writing to you to wish you well tonight, as you take on our mighty neighbouring big brother in a game of cricket that will determine who will be the kings of Asian cricket. It is what you have done on the way to that game that [...]
Killing of justice by commissions and committees
The Sri Lankan Government’s deft recourse to Commissions and Committees of Inquiry to investigate extraordinary human rights violations in shifting the focus away from the penal thrust of the criminal law is truly villainous. The political skill-set in play The very latest is President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s appointment of a committee of inquiry this week to [...]
Tragic death of commuter: Railways must ensure passenger safety at all times
With the country preoccupied with the Channel 4 documentary on the Easter Sunday attacks, the disturbing tragedy, in which a youth travelling on the roof of a train fell to his death, did not receive the attention it deserved. The strike launched by the Locomotive Engineers Union resulted in hundreds of commuters travelling on the [...]
Lanka sings in defiant tone against HRC’s hostile mood
The Lankan Government stood in the dock this week in Geneva before the UN’s Human Rights Council accused by its Commissioner for failing to have a continuous accountability record toward ‘war crimes, corruption, human rights violations, and for abuse of power, which are vital to address if Lanka is to move forward.’ “More than a [...]
Political loose talk stifles real challenges to Channel 4
How strange. Is there nothing called order and respect in this government of many hues and even more wagging tongues? Shortly after the Channel 4 documentary on the Eastern Sunday massacre caught the government completely unawares, and its parliamentary forces started shooting wildly like in the days of the American Wild West, President Wickremesinghe advocated [...]
Channel 4 conundrum compounded as Govt. takes contradictory stands
President appoints committee to probe claims which Defence Ministry under him slams as “false allegations” Probe panel lacks legal authority to summon witnesses; told only to examine veracity of claims; Channel 4 likely to be invited to submit evidence UNHRC chief calls for international investigation on Easter Sunday massacres; President’s office says former AG’s claim [...]
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