By Nimalka Fernando, Sivaram Memorial Lecture, Zurich, June 06 2011 - Where do we go from here? Experiences of people who were affected by the war both directly and indirectly forms the basis of this report (UN Panel report). To me this is an opportunity accorded to us as citizen’s of Sri Lanka to ask a simple question. Do we want to continue to be governed and live hearing all these things happening around us. We saw our sons and daughters disappearing in 1989 in the South, now families in the North have also reported to say the same things after 3 decades of the conflict. Husbands have disappeared, we found the body of Sivaram very close to the temple of democracy- the Parliament building on that fateful day. Ang Sun Sukii in her writing say `a country that fails to be the refuge to its own people can not be called a country’. How many have left Sri Lanka. We have the displaced and the refugees all over the country and outside. Surely some where we have failed. It is time we collectively begin to address the challenges before us – we have to move away from partisan political positions to develop high idols of politics and democracy, of dignity , justice and equality.

04 May 2011 - It is wrong to review the UN expert committee report from a racist angle, said Nimalka Fernando in an interview . This is a translation of an interview of Nimalka Fernando published in the Sunday RAVAYA dated 24/4/2011