Monthly Archives: August 2017

HRW: Recurring Nightmare State Responsibility for “Disappearances” and Abductions in Sri Lanka

by Human Rights Watch, March 5, 2008 2008 statement on report and at https://www.hrw.org/news/2008/03/06/sri-lanka-disappearances-security-forces-national-crisis Summary (see below) Who Is Responsible? Who Is Being Targeted? Unpunished Crimes The Government’s Response International Response Key Recommendations Note on Methodology II. Background The armed conflict History of “disappearances” in Sri Lanka III. Legal Framework Sri Lanka’s obligations under international law Sri Lankan… Read more »

Amnesty: “Disappearances & Political Killings: Human Rights Crisis of the 1990s’

A MANUAL FOR ACTION by Amnesty International, London, September, 1993 Amnesty 1993 disappearance murder as techniques of counterinsurgency asa370131993en Sri Lanka: “Disappearance” and murder as techniques of counter-insurgency EXTERNAL (for general distribution) AI Index: ASA 37/13/93 Distr: SC/CO/CC No. of words: 4700 ————————- Amnesty International International Secretariat 1 Easton Street London WC1X 8DJ United Kingdom… Read more »

Amnesty: Sri Lanka Must Deliver on its Commitments SET OUT BY HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL RESOLUTION 30/1

Set Out by Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 by Amnesty International, London, August 22, 2017 Index number: IOR 40/6975/2017 WRITTEN STATEMENT UN Human Rights Council Thirty-sixth session 11 – 29 September 2017 Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 sets out concrete steps to ensuring truth, justice, reparation and non-recurrence for human rights violations and abuses. Council resolution… Read more »

Myanmar’s Enemy Within: The Illusion of Diversity and the Spread of Fear

by Francis Wade, August, 2017 Publisher: Zed Books Ltd ISBN: 9781783605279 Number of pages: 304 [Manufacturing the ‘other’ sound like Sri Lanka, anyone? Ed/] Book review from South China Morning Post here. From the Prologue: …These communal fissures weren’t entirely new, but to man outside observers, they were unknowns.  And before a deeper analysis of their causes began… Read more »

Case Involving Navy in Abductions Takes Dramatic Turn

Secret Navy Team Behind White Van Ransom Abductions (see below) All websites accessed 8/28/17 […] the abductors had wanted one of the students- Rajiv Naganathan’s parents to cough up a Rs. 10 million ransom which had been negotiated down to one million rupees. The abductors had told the Naganathan family that the money is required… Read more »

Mahaweli & Demographic Change

1. Sri Lankan president to issue 10,000 deeds to Mahaweli settlers by ‘TamilGuardian,’ London, August 10, 2017 Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena is to issue 10,000 deeds to settlers this week under the Mahaweli development project, a controversial scheme that Tamils have criticised as Sinhala colonisation. According to the official President’s Media Division, deeds are to… Read more »

‘King Poet’ Kannadasan at 80

Random Thoughts (part 1) by Sachi Sri Kantha, July 28, 2017 Kavi Arasu [King Poet] Kannadasan’s 80th birthday passed by on June 24, 2017.  While serializing the biography of his contemporary MGR in this website, I have long wondered how their friendship, cooperation, conflict and rivalry in both cinema and politics, stimulated their creativity.  Both… Read more »

Adayaalam: Understanding ‘Dealing with the Past’ and ‘Transitional Justice’

by Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Jaffna, June 30, 2017 ACPR designed a short 10-page introductory booklet on ‘Dealing with the Past and Transitional Justice’ building off of ACPR’s previous ‘Introduction to Transitional Justice’ booklet. The booklet was commissioned by activists in the North-East working on running introduction to transitional justice workshops for grassroots communities…. Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Latest Counter-terrorism Proposals

Old wine in new bottles by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, Jul7 21, 2017 https://www.srilankacampaign.org/old-wine-new-bottles-sri-lankas-latest-counter-terrorism-proposals/ http://fhr.org.za/files/3914/9760/6825/FHR_ICLA_-_Review_of_the_PLFCTA_13_June_2017_FINAL.pdf Last Friday, the UN Special Rapporteur (SR) on Human Rights and Counter Terrorism, Ben Emmerson QC, issued a statement of findings upon the conclusion of his visit to Sri Lanka. You can read it in full here…. Read more »

One-eyed ex-Tiger Rebel Sees a Future through Social Work

  by ‘Daily Mirror,’ Colombo, August 9, 2017 Memories of the gruesome ethnic conflict would never fade away. While two ethnicities fought for their own freedom, there were those who viewed the conflict with much vengeance and some who supported it. But the stories of those who supported it are seldom heard of. This is… Read more »

Voluntary, Safe and Sustainable Return

Support Needed for Sri Lankan Refugees by Mayuran Jeevarathnina, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, August 9, 2017 Editor’s Note: A version of this speech was delivered by the author at the UNHCR Annual Consultations with NGOs, held from June 14-16 at the  International Conference Centre in Geneva  “O our motherland, bid us a farewell We buried our smiles in… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s War Widows Trafficked

as slaves to Gulf “People who have not gone through a conflict will not understand how difficult it is to take care of young children on your own. We suffered during the war and we are suffering now” – by Amantha Perera, Thomson Reuters Foundation, August 9, 2017 Tamil தமிழ்  JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Aug 9 (Thomson… Read more »

Holding Sri Lanka to Account

A dream or a reality? By: Thambu Kanagasabai   LLM [Lond], Former Lecturer in Law University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s political and economic history from the day of independence in 1948 until 1956 was considered a role model for developing countries, even envied by the late Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kwan Yew.  Communal harmony… Read more »