Monthly Archives: March 2013

Sri Lanka Census 2012

Population by ethnic group according to districts, 2012 SL Census 2012 Ethnic Group by District [PDF]   District Population Distribution – 2012 Ethnicity Sinhalese Sri Lanka Tamil Indian Tamil Sri Lanka Moor Burgher Sri Lanka 20263723 15173820 2270924 842323 1869820 37061 Colombo 2309809 1771319 231318 27336 242728 13304 Gampaha 2294641 2079115 80071 10879 95501 9898 Kalutara… Read more »

TfO: More Needs to Be Done

“Nothing except an international investigation is likely to produce an acceptable result, the letter concluded.”

Booklet on Sri Lanka

Booklet on Sri Lanka prepared for UNHRC March 2013 Booklet for UNHRC March 2013 C o n t e n t s Preface ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2 Executive Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3 UN Human Rights Council: 2012 Resolution on Sri Lanka …………………………………………… 5 Excerpts of speeches pertaining to the 2012 Resolution from select countries …….. 7 Excerpts of… Read more »

Tamil Nadu Assembly Passes Resolution on Sri Lanka

The Tamil Nadu Assembly has adopted a resolution asking the Centre to stop treating Sri Lanka as a friendly country. It also calls for a referendum on a separate Eelam among Tamils in Sri Lanka and Lankan Tamils abroad. The Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution urging the Centre to slap economic embargo on Colombo till the “suppression” of Tamils was stopped and those responsible for “genocide and war crimes” faced an international probe.

Resolution Another UN ‘Grave Failure’

While PEARL appreciates continued attention by the Council on Sri Lanka, we regret the resolution’s failure to establish an international Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sri Lanka.

A 1980 years-old Crucifixion and a Traitor

by Sachi Sri-Kantha, March 25, 2013 For multiple reasons, including the date of occurrence, calculating the exact age of Jesus at death, and the trauma inflicted to the body, scientists have been interested in the crucifixion of Jesus, which had been suggested to have occurred between AD 30 and 35. An associated event that preceded… Read more »

Genocides in Cambodia and Sri Lanka

Carter and his national security advisor Zbignew Brzezinski were more intent to normalize political and business ties with China, the major patron of the Khmer Rouge regime, than worrying about Cambodian peasants. Note that diplomatic relations between China and Uncle Sam were established on January 1, 1979, six days before the fall of Khmer Rouge regime.

The first two paragraphs of a commentary by John Pilger, in the Covert Action Quarterly (Fall 1997) with the caption, ‘The Long Secret Alliance: Uncle Sam and Pol Pot’, offers the following details:

“The US not only helped create conditions that brought Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge to power in 1975, but actively supported the genocidal force, politically and financially.

Geneva Resolution: Not A Victory For Tamils, But A Defeat For Sri Lanka

Geneva Resolution: Not a Victory for Tamils, but a Defeat for Sri Lanka PM – TGTE – Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran The resolution proposed by America at the Human Rights Council related to Sri Lanka was passed by a majority of 13 votes. Out of the Human Rights Council comprising of 47 member states, 26 voted for the resolution, 13 against… Read more »

TNA Actions

As Sri Lanka approaches the three-year mark since the end of the war, which lasted almost three decades, and though nearly six decades have lapsed since the commencement of exclusionary policies targetting the Tamil people, various pledges made by the Government of Sri Lanka with regard to human rights, accountability and evolving a political settlement have not been fulfilled. The post-independence history of Sri Lanka contains stark reminders of the disturbing ramifications of broken promises and recurring violence.

Amnesty: Sri Lanka’s UPR Review

On 15 March, the UN Human Rights Council adopted the Working Group report of Sri Lanka’s second Universal Periodic Review. Amnesty International delegates attended the session with Dr Manoharan, father of Ragihar Manoharan, one of five young men killed by Sri Lankan security forces in 2006. Dr Manoharan delivered a powerful statement on Sri Lanka’s… Read more »

The Political Economy of Prejudice

The post-war context in Sri Lanka offers significant scope for potential gains and conflicts over re-alignments of networks of patronage and clientelist redistribution, which along with ethno-religious relations was in many ways over-determined by the war. And the dominant players in this competition will only be too happy to align themselves with the so-called moral and spiritual regeneration of the body politic i.e. ethno-religious nationalism and extremism, if it will give them an edge in cementing their socio-political bases (perhaps better seen as multi-class factions?), economic privileges and crucially, reconfiguring the social and eventually even the socio-political and legal substance of citizenship itself.

Buddhists Targeting Sri Lanka’s Muslims

The Hardline Buddhists Targeting Sri Lanka’s Muslims Hardline monks and Buddhist groups are trying to outlaw halal certification After a series of attacks on mosques, wild rumours about animal slaughter and an attempt to outlaw the halal system of classification, the BBC’s Charles Haviland investigates how Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority is being targeted by hardline… Read more »

India’s ‘Rotten Diplomacy’

Both the Sinhalese and the Tamils now consider the various political parties of Tamil Nadu to be goading Sri Lanka’s ethnic strife from a safe distance so that they may milk it for electoral capital; this, too, is ineluctable…

It might be possible to argue – although this isn’t the place for it – that India’s foreign policy toward Sri Lanka has been the most disastrous such sustained policy it has ever run. Admittedly, these were, and are, deep and complicated waters. But India repeatedly made the cynical mistake of presuming that it could have it all. It resembled the gambler who backs every single horse in the race, and while that may minimize harm at the Kentucky Derby, it doesn’t quite work the same way in geopolitics.

A Lanka Lost?

Delhi now sees the sweet talk for what it is — classic Rajapakse doublespeak. It’s the method he employed to use India’s help to destroy the Tigers, knowing that once he had the LTTE out of the way, India would have no card left to play, no leverage to push for the 13th Amendment and the rehabilitation of the moderate Tamils, whom India want back in the political mainstream.

Sri Lanka Accused of Ongoing Torture

He said he had his toenails extracted and was then electrocuted, rendering him unconscious for three days. Now convicted, he has been sent to prison in the central city of Kandy, far from his home in the north. He has barely been permitted contact with his wife or son, who was born just months after his arrest.

The report also criticises a government rehabilitation programme for former Tamil Tiger soldiers that, it says, is also blighted by violence and, despite officially being classed as voluntary, is frequently used as a tool to prolong detention without trial.

USTPAC Gives Cautious Welcome to UNHRC Resolution

US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) Accords Cautious Welcome to the UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka USTPAC Press Release UNHRC22 Resolution Mar222013 The Geneva based UN Human Rights Council adopted a second resolution on Promoting Accountability and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka, putting Sri Lanka under close scrutiny for grave rights violations, but… Read more »

CTC: A Missed Opportunity

For Immediate Release  The United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka : A Missed Opportunity Geneva, Switzerland The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva today passed Resolution 22/L.1, on “Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka”, with 26 of 47 states voting in favour of the resolution. The resolution was proposed by… Read more »

CPA – Commentary on Land Circular 2013/01

 Commentary on Accelerated Programme on Solving Post Conflict Land Issues in the Northern and Eastern Provinces  In January 2013 the Government issued a new circular titled Accelerated Programme on Solving Post Conflict State Lands Issues in the Northern and Eastern Provinces- Land Circular 2013/01 (herein referred to as the Circular), which is the most recent… Read more »

Militarization & Reconciliation

Is it possible to secure the dignity, rights and well-being of a conflict-affected population by incorporating them into a military juggernaut that has quickly grown to dominate all spheres of life?