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  • Sri Lankan Parliamentary Elections 2004 - I: A Factual Overview
    N Manoharan.    ·   03 Mar, 2004    ·    #1324    ·    Commentary    
    Poll Date: 2 April 2004 Previous Election: 5 December 2001 No of Seats: 225 (196 directly elected plus 29 nominated) No of Voters: 12,899,032 No of Electoral Districts: 22 Parties in Fray: 24 r ...
  • Sri Lanka: Parliamentary Elections 2004
    Mohan K Tikku.    ·   13 Feb, 2004    ·    #1306    ·    Commentary    
    Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s decision to dissolve Parliament and order fresh elections had been expected for some time. The President’s decision clearly was influenced by the fact that after protracted talks the Sri Lank ...
  • Fence Eating the Crop: Army Deserters of Sri Lanka
    N Manoharan.    ·   30 Dec, 2003    ·    #1260    ·    Commentary    
    Attention! Desertion in the Sri Lankan Army is a serious issue for the island’s security. As of October 2003, there were 49,143 deserters, including 623 officers, in the island; this constitutes one-third of the Sri Lankan Army’s t ...
  • Crises in Sri Lanka – Prospects and India’s Options
    N Manoharan.    ·   12 Dec, 2003    ·    #1242    ·    Commentary    
    Speakers: Dr P Sahadevan, Jawaharlal Nehru University Mr Narayan Swamy, News Editor, IANS Maj Gen Dipankar Banerjee, Director, IPCS ...
  • Prabhakaran’s Hero’s Day Speech – A Critique
    N Manoharan.    ·   08 Dec, 2003    ·    #1234    ·    Commentary    
    The much awaited annual “Hero’s Day” speech of the LTTE chief Prabhakaran was delivered on 27 November 2003. The speech forms a significant document in outlining the Tigers’ views on important issues. This year’s domin ...
  • Sri Lanka-Bangladesh Free Trade Agreement
    Anand Kumar.    ·   12 Nov, 2003    ·    #1210    ·    Commentary    
    Bangladesh and Sri Lanka agreed in principle to stitch up a free trade agreement (FTA) in Dhaka on November 2 after a two-day joint secretary level meeting. The modalities of this FTA would be finalized in January 2004 when both sides meet in Colom ...
  • Constitutional Crisis in Sri Lanka: One Move, Many Stalemates
    N Manoharan.    ·   10 Nov, 2003    ·    #1205    ·    Commentary    
    Plebiscitary politics has once again come to the fore in the Island’s politics. Citing the “security of the country”, President Chandrika Kumaratunga sacked three ministers of the present UNF government, prorogued Parliament and i ...
  • The War in Sri Lanka
    Maj. Gen. Dipankar Banerjee.    ·   10 Nov, 2003    ·    #1204    ·    Commentary    
    War has broken out in Sri Lanka. No, not in the north and east, but, the south and west of the Island centred on Colombo. A low intensity conflict had begun weeks before parliamentary elections in end 2001. It is now an open war. There will be adva ...
  • Indo-Sri Lanka Trade Ties
    .    ·   03 Nov, 2003    ·    #1197    ·    Commentary    
    On 29th December 1998, India and Sri Lanka signed a landmark agreement to establish a bilateral free trade area to promote economic cooperation which became operational in March 2000. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was expected to spur Indo-Sri Lan ...
  • Child Soldiers – III: ‘Baby Brigades’ of the LTTE
    N Manoharan.    ·   21 Oct, 2003    ·    #1184    ·    Commentary    
    The LTTE has a long record of recruiting children for combat. Irrespective of gender, children as young as nine years are conscripted mostly by coercion; the average child recruitment age stands at 14 to 17 years. Though the exact number of child s ...
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