'In the days leading up to the elections for the North Central Provincial Council and the Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council, the Prime Minister and Government Ministers boasted that the armed forces were marching towards Kilinochchi and it would be a matter of weeks when Kilinochchi would be captured. Ministers promised that the leader of the LTTE, Prabhakaran would be captured dead or alive and that Prabhakaran’s only option would be to swallow Cyanide.'

'Our ‘No to Violence: Respect Life’ campaign is now going smoothly. The campaign started with a two day workshop where activists from 20 districts met to plan out the campaign. It was here that the main features of the campaign were outlined and agreements reached. At the outset, it was decided that the Foundation for Co-Existence, the Sahajeevana Centre and Prayathna, the People’s Movement would not own the campaign but that it should include all civil society organisations.'

'This initiative was taken up because of the widespread culture of violence in our society today. Abductions and disappearances are the order of the day. Reports indicate that many armed groups but also private gangs are engaged in abductions. Election violence is now endemic in our society and we cannot now talk about free and fair elections. Voters are intimidated and Citizens cannot exercise their right to vote in peace.'

'Mr. Wasudeva Nanayakkara, Expert person Mr. Nihal Sri Amarasekara, and Elmo Perera, Victor Ivan and distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman, Prayathna the legal services movement is pleased to celebrate the landmark judgement of the Supreme Court with a facilitation ceremony to the petitioner Mr. Wasudeva Nanayakkara, expert person M. Nihal Amarasekara, and Counselor Mr. Nimantharan.'

'Rights such as fundamental human rights, while being crystal clear to those who have drafted and fine tuned them, are either too vague or too obscure to others. Hence, when people are not educated about what exactly their rights are, any International Declarations, Conventions and other instruments, which States sign on behalf of their citizens, or enshrine within their respective Constitutions, become empty commitments.'

'In a recent letter to the editor in the Daily Mirror, in response to my article "Citizens must take the responsibility to make a change", Mr. D.H. Wanniarachchi charged me with wayward interpretations.'

'The 25th anniversary of Black July provides us with an opportunity to examine the sources of violence in Sri Lanka. Black July was a momentous event in the history of ethnic relations in Sri Lanka. It was a dark day for Sri Lanka when Tamils in Colombo and elsewhere were killed, assaulted and large numbers of houses attacked and looted.'

'After all these years, the conflict dynamics in the world have dramatically changed. In 1988, the SIPRI year book recorded 32 civil wars which were internal in character. Today, this figure has dropped to 16, with the others being resolved through negotiations.'

'These volumes are a product of my meanderings in the last 25 years in my effort to promote conflict prevention and peace building. It has been an exciting and eventful journey for me and these volumes represent some of my efforts in contributing to the field.'

'The lifetime work of Dr. Kumar Rupesinghe was published and launched at a ceremony organised by the Foundation for Co-Existence on June 25th at the BMICH.'