Yearly Archives: 2016

Nothing Can Be Done

V. V. Ganeshananthan interviews Anuk Arudpragasam, ‘LA Review of Books,’ October 6, 2016 IN HIS DEBUT NOVEL, The Story of a Brief Marriage, Anuk Arudpragasam achieves something remarkable: he shows us a consciousness reshaped by the possibility of imminent death. How do we inhabit the body when we think we may be leaving it behind?… Read more »

Tribute to Ainkaran – A Unique Artist from Tamil Eelam

  by ILankai Tamil Sangam, October 2016 Sivaaingaran Chelvadurai, a tech-supervisor turned impressive stage singer, who performed on equal footing with renowned playback singers over three decades and who was born and raised in Tamil Eelam, emerging from a family of social activists and intellectuals, passed away at age 55 in Columbia, Tennessee, USA. Ultimate… Read more »

SL HRC Letter re Proposed Amendment to Criminal Procedure Act

The passage of the new Bill will hinder the efforts of the Government which has expressed its determination to stop torture in Sri Lanka. by Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, September 21, 2016 HRC SL Letter-to-PM-on-21.09.2016 Proposed Amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure Act Depriving Suspects of Access to Lawyers until their Statements… Read more »

Why Referendums Aren’t as Democratic as They Seem

The Interpreter By Amanda Taub & Max Fisher, ‘The New York Times,’ October 4, 2016 The voters of the world have had quite a year: They rejected Colombia’s peace deal; split Britain from the European Union; endorsed a Thai Constitution that curtails democracy; and, in Hungary, backed the government’s plan to restrict refugees, but without… Read more »

Why Some Wars Get More Attention Than Others

But when the world asks why America has forgotten Yemen and other conflicts like it, that has the situation backward. The truth is that inattention is the default, not the exception. Conflicts gain sustained American attention only when they provide a compelling story line that appeals to both the public and political actors, and for… Read more »

India’s Disturbing Oscar Entry Takes on Police Torture

by BBC, London, September 28, 2016 A thriller in Tamil language has been chosen as India’s official entry to the Best Foreign Language Film at next year’s Oscars. Sudha G Tilak writes on an unusually gritty crime drama on police brutality and corruption. A homeless young man is walking down a street after watching a… Read more »

M.I.A.’S Provocative Pop

In recent years, her controversies have been more vital than her music. by Carrie Battan, ‘The New Yorker,’ September 12, 2016 Later this month, the inaugural London offshoot of Afropunk Fest—the forward-thinking musical event, held annually in Brooklyn, that explores race, identity, and visual art in black counterculture—will take place. Initially, the headliner was to… Read more »

Political Justice is Not Enough to Rebuild Sri Lanka

by Timothy Ryan, Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC, September 28, 2016 For Sri Lanka, gender equity will be fundamental to a stable, peaceful and equitable futureThe civil war that raged for 26 years in Sri Lanka was always about more than political grievances. The politics were rooted in economic and social disenfranchisement of the Tamil minority by the Sinhala… Read more »

“Reconciliation” and Government’s “Sinhala Silence”

by Kusal Perera, on his blog, September 27, 2016 Tamil politics took a new turn last Saturday not given much political attention in Colombo. The Tamil People’s Council (TPC) called for a mass protest on that day (24 Sept) under the banner”Ezhuga Tamil” (Let Tamils Rise) demanding early answers for their pressing problems. Jaffna district… Read more »

The President at the UN

  Political appointees of the President perceive political appointees of the PM as their enemies, and independent of any direct order or edict, block, manoeuvre and curry favour with scant regard for actual policy development, implementation or reform. This results in scenarios very far removed from the roseate picture of Sri Lanka painted at the… Read more »

Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions)(Amendment) Bill

So it is tens of thousands in numbers who have met with this fate. In amending the Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions) Act, now, there is provision to issue a different kind of certificate and that is a certificate of absence. This is a most welcome move; one about which we would congratulate the Government… Read more »

Why International Law Still Matters

Sands allows his extraordinary book to revolve around a simple question: Do we need the crime of genocide? Does the category add anything to the power and effectiveness of crimes against humanity? “The term ‘genocide,’ with its focus on the group,” Sands writes, “tends to heighten a sense of ‘them’ and ‘us,’ burnishes feelings of… Read more »

OMP – Upholding or Denying Justice?

by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.], FCII, September 25, 2016 Sri Lanka ranks second in the list of countries after Iraq to record the largest number of disappearances with unofficial estimated numbers of about 90,000 since the 1980s. Out of these disappearances, enforced or involuntary disappearances are reported to be around 65,000. Enforced Disappearances always involve state… Read more »

USTPAC Deeply Disturbed by Sri Lankan Justice Minister’s Statement

USTPAC Press Statement_Justice Minister War Crimes_160923 WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In an interview with BBC Sandeshaya, Sri Lankan Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe categorically rejected all allegations of war crimes committed by Sri Lanka’s armed forces and stated the government would take legal action against anyone who alleges the armed forces committed war crimes.  Furthermore, he said that anyone who… Read more »

Making and Unmaking Nations

by Scott Straus, Cornell University Press, 2016 In Making and Unmaking Nations, Scott Straus seeks to explain why and how genocide takes place—and, perhaps more important, how it has been avoided in places where it may have seemed likely or even inevitable. To solve that puzzle, he examines postcolonial Africa, analyzing countries in which genocide… Read more »

AI: Keep Victims at the Centre of Justice, Truth and Reparation Efforts

by Amnesty International, London, August 29, 2016 Amnesty ASA3747212016ENGLISH Amnesty ASA3747212016TAMIL Amnesty International’s written statement to the 33rd session of the UN Human Rights Council (13 – 30 September 2016) … Public consultations, the bedrock on which Sri Lanka’s transitional justice process must be built, are underway. However, implementation has been undermined by lack of… Read more »

Report of Working Group on Enforced Disappearances

Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on its mission to Sri Lanka 9 to 18 November 2015, Geneva, July 8, 2016 Report of WGEID on mission to Sri Lanka_A-HRC-33-51-Add.2 Introduction … 6. Enforced disappearances have been used in a massive and systematic way in Sri Lanka for many decades to suppress political dissent,… Read more »

Building More Viharas In The North-East Will Negate Reconciliation Efforts

by Thangavelu, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ September 6, 2016 On August 23, 2016 the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) passed a resolution during the 56th sitting unanimously condemning the building of a Buddhist vihara by Sri Lankan troops on land belonging to a Hindu temple in Kilinochchi. The resolution was moved by NPC member Subramaniam Pasupathipillai. “The Kanakambikai… Read more »