Yearly Archives: 2017

Sri Lanka Among Asia’s Most Undernourished Countries

by ‘Sunday Times,’ Colombo, September 14, 2017 Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Afghanistan,  and Pakistan have the highest rates of undernourishment in Asia, according to the Asian Development Bank. In a statement by Data Leads which quoted the ADB report , almost 27 per cent of the population of Timor Leste remains undernourished, and more than… Read more »

CM: Army Holding about 85,000 Acres in North

Calls for probe into SF’s allegations against Gen. JJ By Cyril Wimalasurendre, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, September 10, 2017 KANDY – Alleging that the army continued to hold about 85,000 acres of land in the North, Northern Province Chief Minister and former Supreme Court judge C.W. Wigneswaran, on Saturday, sought the intervention of most Ven. Tibbatuwawe… Read more »

The Hateful Monk

by Gavin Jacobson, ‘The New York Review of Books,’ August 31, 2017 Les Films du Losange Ashin Wirathu and his followers in Barbet Schroeder’s The Venerable W., 2017 Ma Soe Yein is the largest Buddhist monastery in Mandalay, Myanmar. A dreary sprawl of dormitories and classrooms, it is located in the western half of the city,… Read more »

A Question of Command Responsibility

by No Fire Zone,  August 19, 2017 An examination of the charges of command responsibility against general Jagath Jayasuriya https://vimeo.com/231070522

Sri Lankan Leader Will Protect General Accused of War Crimes

by The Associated Press in ‘The New York Times,’ September 3, 2017 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s president on Sunday vowed to protect his former ambassador to six South American nations, an ex-army chief accused of crimes in the bloody final phase of the country’s civil war. “I state very clearly that I will not… Read more »

Interview with Gen. Jayasuriya

I didn’t know what was happening on the war front – Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya by  Sulochana Ramiah Mohan, ‘Ceylon Today,’ September 3, 2017 Tall and well-built, retired Army General, Jagath Jayasuriya, who was posted in Brazil as the Sri Lankan Ambassador, is back in town with mounted allegations against him related to his posts as… Read more »

Gen. Jayasuriya Involved in Misdeeds:Field Marshal Fonseka

by ‘Daily News,’ Colombo, September 2, 2017 Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka yesterday, said that he was aware that former Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya was allegedly involved in wrongdoings. “I was determined to take action against him after the war on terrorism was over,” Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka added. Fonseka added that he received many complaints… Read more »

Why a Sri Lankan Leader Might Be Tried for War Crimes in Brazil

By Kate Cronin-Furman, ‘The Washington Post,’ August 30, 2017 One of the mothers of the disappeared stands beside photographs of the missing in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, in July. (Kate Cronin-Furman) Early Tuesday morning, news broke that Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Brazil had fled the country. Sri Lanka’s government later announced that his departure was planned, and it… Read more »

Sri Lankan Ambassador, Accused of War Crimes, Leaves Brazil

by The Associated Press in ”The New York Times,’ August 29, 207 RIO DE JANEIRO — A former Sri Lankan general accused of war crimes by human rights groups has left Brazil, where until recently he was his country’s ambassador to six nations in South America, an embassy official said Tuesday. Jagath Jayasuriya left Brazil… Read more »

For the Rohingyas and Us

by Cheran Rudhramoorthy, on Facebook, August 31, 2017 (Also in Tamil) I abandoned my child, My God I cannot ask you anymore For forgiveness. Just three minutes Before killing the child you chopped off my hands. Amid pain, grief and wailing you will not have grace. When the spear was inserted softly into my child’s stomach, thinking… Read more »

MGR Remembered – Part 39

Producer M.M.A. Sandow Chinnappah Thevar by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 29, 2017 Part 38 Sandow M.M.A. Chinnappah Thevar (1915-1978) was a colorful personality in the Madras movie world for nearly three decades, after he produced his first movie featuring MGR as the hero. It’s title was ‘Thaikku Pin Thaaram’ (1956; Wife after Mother). He was… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Holds Federation is Not Separation

Court dispels doubts By: Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.] FCII, August 27, 2017 Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka President: Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Priyasath Dep delivered a politically historical judgement on August 4, dispelling the doubts and paranoia of  some Sinhalese extremist… Read more »

The Sri Lankan Supreme Court’s on the Proscription of the Federal Party

More than meets the eye? By Dr Asanga Welikala, ‘ConstitutionNet,’ Sweden, 29 August, 2017 The Sri Lankan Supreme Court has determined that the advocacy of federalism is not tantamount to the advocacy of secession. In doing so, it has for the first time recognised the Tamil minority as a ‘people’ entitled to the right to internal self-determination…. Read more »

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 »