Country

Another group of rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadres was handed over to their parents and guardians at the Deyata Kirula venue at Anuradhapura yesterday (Feb. 8).

Accordingly, forty (40) ex-LTTE cadres who underwent a rehabilitation programme at centres run by the Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Ministry entered normal life with the assistance of the Government.

According to the Department of Rehabilitation 10, 490 ex-LTTE cadres have now been rehabilitated and reintegrated into society so far.

By Rebecca Zerzan

NEW YORK, USA, 9 February 2012 – The global economic crisis continued to be felt at the UNICEF Executive Board’s annual pledging event, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

“Inadequate core resources pose a serious challenge to UNICEF,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

He emphasized the need for predictable funding to reach children in the most remote areas and facing the most difficult circumstances – particularly as the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals draws near.

The three decade separatist war in the country deprived many of our fellow brothers and sisters, especially in the Northern Province, of their lives and many others with their limbs, sight and speech.

However, with the defeat of terrorism in Sri Lanka, these fellow citizens who were deprived and disabled due to no fault of theirs but merely because they got in the way of some one else's war, have found new hope under the caring and generous wings of the Ministry of Social Services.

By Amantha Perera

KAPARATOTTA, Sri Lanka (AlertNet) - When they headed out into shallow waters that evening, the fishermen of the small village of Kaparatotta didn’t notice anything to cause alarm. The sky was a little cloudy, and the sea its usual boisterous self - not safe for a swim, yet nothing seasoned fishermen couldn’t handle.

But around 9 pm on Nov. 25, 2011, the ocean suddenly turned vicious. Within a few minutes, the small wooden boats with outboard engines, trolling just 1 to 2 kilometers from shore, were being battered by waves as high as 25 feet.

AHRC-ART-007-2012

JC Weliamuna

This is the question of the day. This is raised nationally and internationally and answers contrast for different reasons. In this article, I endeavor to briefly answer this question from a governance perspective, keeping in mind the present socio-political realities in Sri Lanka.

COLOMBO, 6 February 2012 (IRIN) - Landmine clearance in Sri Lanka's conflict-affected north could take more than a decade, experts say.

"It is expected to take [in] excess of 10 years to fully mitigate all remaining contamination in Sri Lanka," the Mine Action Project of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka told IRIN, citing a lack of resources coupled with the difficult nature of the work.

President of the SLRCS Jagath Abeysinghe handing over a rescue boat to the Divisional Secretary of Thawalama

18/01/2012 – Galle, Sri Lanka: According to Early Warning System audit reports, it is evident that the knowledge on risk reduction is very low among communities, those who are living in disaster prone areas in the Gin ganga basin.

Around 98 percent of the nearly 300,000 Internally Displaced People (IDP) in the North have been resettled so far.

The Minister of Resettlement Gunaratne Weerakoon told media that the resettlement process had made a commendable progress since the Humanitarian Operation ended in May 2009.

According to the Minister 724,135 people or 216,412 families have been resettled in their original abodes in the cleared areas of the Northern Province.