Rajiva Wijesinha Courtesy Island Rajiva Wijesinha was one of the main figures in the yahapalana coalition that overthrew President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January this year. Before former chief justice Sarath N.Silva began to speak up against the yahapalana government, Rajiva was the most prominent yahapalana intellectual to openly express his discontent at what the new government […]

By Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha In the course of the frenetic travel programme I had set myself before the usual budget period, I had just two days in Sri Lanka last week. They were packed, with Parliament, and an overnight stay with a cousin visiting after several days, and the 92nd birthday of my most distinguished aunt, […]

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha October 11, 2014 in Enemies of the President’s Promise | Tags: C R De Silva, Darusman, G L Peiris,H. M. G. S. Palihakkara, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Ministry of Human Rights, Mohan Pieris, National Human Rights Action Plan, Rohan Perera, study group, UN, UN Secretary General, Walter Kalin,Wimal Weerawansa Enemies of the President’s Promse: […]

By PROF. RAJIVA WIJESINHA Courtesy Ceylon Today In May 2009, Sri Lanka seemed on top of the world. Under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan Government and forces had defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which had dominated Tamil politics in Sri Lanka. It had survived conflict with not just successive Sri Lankan Governments, but […]

By Prof. Rajiva  Wijesinha Courtesy Ceylon Today GL’s appointment as Minister of External Affairs, in 2010, was generally welcomed. Bogollagama had lost the election, which made the President’s task easier since, given his complaisant approach to those who supported him, he would have found it awkward to replace Bogollagama. The only other serious candidate was Mahinda […]

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, MP Courtesy The Daily Newsƒ”š‚  One of the sadder aspects of Tissa Jayatilaka’s celebration of American values and conduct with regard to Sri Lanka is his suppression of the change that took place in American policy with the change of government at the beginning of 2009. While many of us thought that, […]

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, MPƒ”š‚ Courtesy The Daily Newsƒ”š‚  With regard to the collapse of relations with India in the eighties, the reasons are clear enough. If anyone doubted the corrosive effect of President Jayewardene’s Cold War adventurism, the Annexe to the Indo-Lankan Accord makes crystal clear what India feared. At the time the Liberal Party regretted […]

Prof Rajiva Wijesinha Some weeks back I was sent, by a friend in England, a book entitled The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media. It was by someone called Lila Rajiva, but doubtless that was not the only reason to assume it would interest me. I took some time to start on […]

Prof. Rajiv Wijesinha-Courtesy The Daily News When I was asked recently, in fulfillment of my work on the Human Rights Action Plan, to assist the Ministries of Justice and of Child Development and Women’s Affairs to finalize the draft of an act to replace the Children and Young Person’s Ordinance, I was struck by the […]

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha–Courtesy The Island A couple of days back I predicted that the FUTA strike would soon be resolved by yet another increase in the salaries of university staff, with no correctives with regard to the grave problems now facing our education system. Recent reports in the papers suggest that this will indeed be […]

by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, MP-Courtesy The Island March 22, 2012, 8:44 pm In dealing with the allegations made by Channel 4, one needs to look carefully at what they present as their most damning evidence, the pictures of the dead body of Prabhakaran’s son. The killing of a child is always shocking and, unlike the […]

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Presidential Adviser on Reconciliation, In a statement from Geneva, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Presidential Adviser on Reconciliation, responded to claims in the latest Channel 4 film on Sri Lanka. Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha is currently Chair of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats and was re-elected leader of the Liberal Party of Sri […]

Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, MP I was deeply shocked by various pronouncements in the recent debate in the House of Commons on what was termed the issue of Human Rights on the Indian Subcontinent. Much of the debate was about Kashmir, and several MPs weighed in against India in what seemed a very unfair and biased […]

Prof Rajiva WIJESINHA, MP I have not yet seen the full report issued by the panel appointed by Ban ki Moon, but the Sunday Island of the 17th carries a fascinating extract – “In the early morning hours of January 24, hundreds of shells rained down on the NFZ. Those with access to the United […]

By Prof Rajive Wijesinha -MP Sri LankaParliament I am writing, as Head of the Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat in 2009, to correct some errors in the opinion piece on “ƒ”¹…”The Drum’, reproduced it seems from ABC News. It seems best to make annotations direct on the published text, though I hope you will also reproduce […]

Rajivaƒ”š‚ Wijesinha In discussing the votes of the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr Speaker, we should look at the situation in which Sri Lanka found itself five years ago, and what we have now. In those days, we seemed to be wholly dependent on what called itself the international community, so much so that representatives of […]

Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Sri Lanka is disturbed by the intervention of a single Non-Governmental Organization that detracted from the generally high standard of debate under this Item in pursuing its relentless vendetta against the Sri Lankan state. In the present context of seeking reconciliation however it seems best not to respond […]

Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Sri Lanka appreciates the concerns about Sri Lanka expressed by countries participating in this debate and records its appreciation, with regard to our efforts to recover from the damage caused by terrorism, of the support and assistance of our neighbours and friends who stood by us in our […]

Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Sri Lanka regrets the disinformation purveyed by some Non-Governmental Organizations in the course of the debate on Item 4 of the Agenda of the Human Rights Council. Sadly we seem to have abandoned traditional values, or rather Christian values and the Ten Commandments, but the Prophet Moses would […]

Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Sri Lanka welcomes the Report of the Joint Inspection Unit on the requested follow up to the management review of the Office of the High Commissioner. The Report makes it clear that follow up has in fact been minimal. Recalling that the Review took place in 2003, one […]

Rajiva Wijesinhaƒ”š‚ ƒ”š‚  Secretary Generalƒ”š‚ ƒ”š‚  Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process The international community was horrified by news reports in the Times of London on July 9th 2009 that over 1400 people were dying each week in Welfare Centres in Sri Lanka. The Times continues to conceal its sources. This time the allegation is attributed to […]

Prof Rajiva Wijesinha Secretary General Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process The above headline is clearly an exaggeration, but it is based on the style of reporting adopted recently by the Times of London in its coverage of Sri Lanka. Following its extraordinary assertion, at the end of May, that over 20,000 had been killed […]

Secretary General Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) Prof Rajiva Wijesinha Secretary General Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) Prof Rajiva Wijesinha has written to The Toronto Star in response to its coverage of the decision to prevent Canadian politician Bob Rae from entering Sri Lanka last week. His letter is published below. […]

Prof Rajiva Wijesinhaƒ”š‚  Secretary Generalƒ”š‚  Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process 16 June 2009 Having just written an article on the pronouncements of the so-called independent media, I was not entirely surprised to discover that the Associated Press had deliberately misrepresented my answer with regard to the winding up of the Commission of Inquiry into […]

Prof Rajiva Wijesinha Secretary General Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process 15 June 2009 The University Teachers for Human Rights has issued yet another report on the situation in Sri Lanka which, as with its previous reports, merits serious attention. I have always admired their commitment and effortsƒ”š‚  at objectivity and, even when I disagree […]

Response of Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights 12 June 2009 Response of Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, in responding to an intervention by United Nations Watch in the General Debate on the Universal Periodic Review Process. Mr President, the […]

Intervention on behalf of Sri Lanka by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Intervention on behalf of Sri Lanka by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, in the General Debate on the Universal Periodic Review Sri Lanka wishes, Mr President, to […]

Prof Rajiva Wijesinha Secretary General Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process The appalling behaviour of the West since we started to succeed in our war against terror has been deeply upsetting. In order to deal with it successfully however, we must cease to be sentimental about our old friends and patrons, and analyse why they […]

Rajiva Wijesinha Secretary General Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process Setting the Stage Last week, the Times of London announced that 20,000 civilians had died altogether in the course of this year because of the operations in the North. This claim was not surprising since, as I had just pointed out, the British were determined […]

Rajiva Wijesinha Secretary General Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process For many years we indulged the LTTE, in part because we felt sorry for the Tamils of Sri Lanka and believed the LTTE slogan that Tigers were Tamils and Tamils were Tigers, in part because we thought the Tigers would win out and would provide […]