Calling for the creation of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam, based on Vaddukkoadai Resolution was the last spontaneous and definite mandate by Eelam Tamils in a totally free and democratic atmosphere.

After successfully defeating the LTTE, the Sri Lankan army is ready to play a significant role in the development of the country, Sri Lankan Army Chief of Staff Major General Mendaka Samarasinghe has said.

Under international pressure as the monsoon looms, the Sri Lanka government is hastily engaged in relocating some of the displaced Tamils being held in militarised internment camps in Vavuniya.

A senior political official of the United Nations arrived in Sri Lanka to amidst international concern over human rights violations committed by Sri Lanka during its war against the Tamil Tigers and the continued detention of tens of thousands of Tamils in barbed wired camps.

Noting that "hundreds of thousands of innocent Tamils displaced by the military offensive are living in camps in appalling conditions. Moreover, foreign media channels have reported horrifying evidence of the worst violations of human rights, including starvation, rape, killings and torture.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has dismissed western models for development that give precedence to industrial growth and outlined a strong agriculture based development model influenced by traditional Sinhala Buddhist doctrine.

“We must have a Sri Lankan model,” he told Forbes magazine in an interview on Friday, August 28.

“I prefer it to be agriculturally based. If you can be self-sufficient in food, then the industries will come,” Rajapakse said.

India is willing to share its nuclear technology with Sri Lanka for power generation using Thorium as the main source of energy according to Sri Lanka’s Science and Technology Minister Tissa Vitharana.
The news of India’s willingness to share nuclear technology comes as both countries are in the process of finalising a joint venture to build coal power plant at Sampur in Trincomalee.

The European Union is unlikely to renew GSP+ concessions to Sri Lanka, a leaked report suggested.

A confidential 130-page report obtained by The Economist concludes that Sri Lanka has “failed to honour important human-rights commitments, and is ineligible for GSP Plus.”

The United States State Department is preparing a report on war crimes committed by Sri Lanka to be presented to the US Congress next week, local media in Colombo reported quoting US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp.
Stephen Rapp, US's ambassdor at large for War Crimes Issues (WCI) told Time magazine that his office is responsible "to collect information on ongoing atrocities... [and] give a signal [when] something serious is occuring."

Sri Lankan officials have responded angrily to reports that the European Union may withdraw the GSP+ concessions that Sri Lanka is currently entitled to.

“Western countries should remember that economic power has shifted from the west to the east,” said Palita Kohona, Sri Lanka’s new ambassador to the UN.

“New markets open up in the east. Our friends China, India, Japan, Korea, Iran … a whole range of countries [can help]," he was quoted as saying.

Chief of Communications for UNICEF in Sri Lanka, James Elder's visa to continue to remain in Sri Lanka was refused earlier this month by Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration without giving any reasons.

News of Elder’s eviction was followed by news of another senior UN diplomat expelled from Sri Lanka in July for providing details to the international community of mass killings of civilians during the final battles against the Tamil Tigers, also emerged.

As we entered the premises of the Nallur Kandasamy temple we were confronted by a sea of people seated on the white sands under the blazing sun.

Sanctions compel people to change their government's conduct.