A review of the humanitarian response to IDP detention in Sri Lanka, 2009 All too often however, humanitarian organisations were poorly equipped with the time, skills and attitudes to address a situation where the state was not representing the interests of the population. In these cases, supporting the vulnerable means contesting state agendas, even where… Read more »
Monthly Archives: July 2018
“In 1983, As Our Ship Left Colombo Port, I Saw Pettah Burning”
by Dimuthu Attanayake, ‘The Sunday Observer,’ Colombo, July 22, 2018 TNA Legislator M.A. Sumanthiran, recalls being 19 years old when communal violence rocked the capital city in July 1983. Packed off to Jaffna where the Government thought Tamil families residing in Colombo and other parts of the south would be safer, he recalls an arduous… Read more »
Sri Lanka Military Caught Red Handed While Misleading Public Inquiry
by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, July 18, 2018 Military authorities in Sri Lanka have been providing incorrect information about sexual abuse by its soldiers and officers while on a UN peacekeeping mission. A joint press release issued on Tuesday (17) by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) has… Read more »
Sri Lankan ‘War Criminals’ Deployed as UN Peacekeepers
by Mark Townsend, ‘The Guardian,’ Manchester, July 21, 2018 The UN has been sending alleged war criminals to act as peacekeepers in conflict zones, a confidential report claims. The document, seen by the Observer, and sent to the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations last month, claims that senior Sri Lankan officers accused of war crimes have… Read more »
PT: Missing Accountability for War Crimes
by Pasumai Thaayagam, Chennai, July 2018 PT-MISSING ACCOUNTABILITY-SriLanka-VNR Delivered to UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), 09 to 18 July 2018, New York. SUMMARY The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has submitted the Report of Sri Lanka Voluntary National Review (VNR) on 18 June 2018. The report will be presented at the HLPF… Read more »
How China Got Sri Lanka to Cough Up a Port
by Maria Abi-Habib, ‘The New York Times,’ June 25, 2018 HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka — Every time Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, turned to his Chinese allies for loans and assistance with an ambitious port project, the answer was yes. Yes, though feasibility studies said the port wouldn’t work. Yes, though other frequent lenders like India… Read more »
Sri Lankan Lawmakers Target Reporters in Times Investigation
by Maria Abi-Habib, ‘The New York Times,’ July 3, 2018 NEW DELHI — Angered by a New York Times investigation detailing how China seized ownership of a seaport in Sri Lanka, a group of Sri Lankan lawmakers denounced the newspaper on Monday, focusing their ire on two local journalists for the newspaper. On Monday night, the lawmakers,… Read more »
The Phenomenon of Disappearances in Sri Lanka
by M.C.M. Iqbal, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, July 2018 THE-PHENOMENON-OF-DISAPPEARANCES-IN-SRI-LANKA.pdf (humanrights.asia) 1.Introduction Since independence, emergency powers have been repeatedly invoked in Sri Lanka. Although the stated objective of imposing emergency rule is the maintenance of law and order, emergency powers have often enabled the police and the security forces to act with scant… Read more »
M.I.A. Documentary
by MATANGI / MAYA /M.I.A., July 19, 2018 Cinereach has released the trailer for the film today. You can watch here. https://www.miadocumentary.com/ Drawn from a cache of personal video recordings from the past 22 years, director Steve Loveridge’s Sundance award winning MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. is a startlingly personal profile of the critically acclaimed artist, chronicling her… Read more »
60 Anniversary of May 1958 Anti-Tamil Riots – Part 3
by Sachi Sri Kantha, July 8, 2018 Part 2 While Sinhalese polemicists like Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka and H.L.D. Mahindapala as well their Indian counterparts Dr. Subramanian Swamy and Narasimhan Ram pollute the Sri Lankan political literature by blaming Prabhakaran and LTTE as the descendants of the Aryan Nazis, Saumiyamoorthy Thondaman Sr. (with his stature as… Read more »
Political Confrontation will not Solve Humanitarian Issues
by Ananth Palakidnar, Ceylon Today, Colombo, July 15, 2018 Chairperson of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) Rev Fr. S.J. Emmanuel in a candid interview with Ceylon Today spelt out the shortcomings affecting the people in the North and East. He said as far as strengthening peace and reconciliation, apart from depending on politicians all right-thinking… Read more »
Progressive Hinduism and a New Movement Against Poverty
by Nooreen Reza, Kajal Magazine, New York, June 26, 2018 Fifty years ago this month, a movement for economic justice built upon racial solidarity was brought to a halt in the US national capital of Washington DC. That movement was the Poor People’s Campaign, created by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in December 1967. In… Read more »
Justification for a Referendum
For the Tamils of Sri Lanka by Thambu Kanagasabai, July 8, 2018 The current situation affecting the Sri Lanka’s Tamils fairly and justifiably need a referendum to decide their own fate to guarantee their existence in Sri Lanka, if they were to avoid their gradual extinction in a country where they being the original inhabitants… Read more »
What Chelvanayagam Envisaged
Prabakaran was determined to achieve by M.K. Eelaventhan, March 31, 2015 According to Rt. Rev. D.J. Ambalavanar, “Chelvanayagam died like Moses himself without reaching the promised land, but the vision he saw he leaves behind as the heritage and challenge of his people.” What Chelvanayagam Envisaged
The Office for Reparations
An empty shell? by South Asian Centre for Legal Studies, Colombo, July 4, 2018 A few days ago, the Office for Reparations Bill was gazetted. According to the Bill, the Office is expected to play a role in the formulation and implementation of reparations policies for violations of human rights and humanitarian law that have… Read more »
The Chronic and the Entrenched
Ethno-Religious Violence in Sri Lanka by Gehan Gunatilleke, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, 2018 http://ices.lk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/The-Chronic-and-the-Entrenched-Mr.-Gihan-Book-FINAL-WEB-PDF.pdf …This study set out to establish the hypothesis that ethno-religious violence in Sri Lanka is ‘entrenched’ within cultural, socio-political and state structures, and requires radical interventions to overcome. It first reflected on the nature of communal violence in Sri… Read more »
A Lingering Nightmare of the Past
and Perpetuation of Human Rights Abuses in a Post-Civil War Sri Lanka by DoYun Kim, Amnesty International USA Asia Advocacy and Government Relations Intern, ‘The Medium,’ July 5, 2018 On June 20, 2018, the House Foreign Affairs Global Human Rights Subcommittee hosted a hearing titled“Human Rights Concerns in Sri Lanka.” After the hearing, it is evident that… Read more »
Over 60,000 People Disappeared
Here Are the Families Trying to Find Them by Whitney Kimball, ‘Jezebel’ The Slot, New York, NY, July 1, 2018 If you pass a protest for “the Disappeared” today, it’s probably not referencing the migrant families separated by Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, but another massive population of people separated from their families whom we don’t hear… Read more »