Posts Categorized: Economy

HRW: “Why Can’t We Go Home?”

Military Occupation of Land in Sri Lanka by Human Rights Watch, New York, October 9, 2018 https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/10/09/why-cant-we-go-home/military-occupation-land-sri-lanka Summary On April 29, 2017, the Sri Lankan navy high command announced it would release 100 acres of land that security forces had been occupying in the Mullikulam area since 2007 to the original owners. For the displaced… Read more »

Release of Land

 Sri Lanka Army had released over 69,000 acres of land in North and East since 2009  by ColomboPage, December 17, 2018 Sri Lanka Army said over 69,000 acres of land that was used by the Army in the North East following the end of the war had been released since 2009. The Army said since… Read more »

Entrepreneurs in Jaffna?

Take a look in Ammachi! by Jekhan Aruliah, ‘LankaBusinessOnline,’ November 26, 2018 Soon after I moved to Jaffna in 2015 I heard rumours of this fantastic food court run by war widows. Friends driving North from Colombo said they found it somewhere on the A9 near Killinochchi in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. It was a… Read more »

Indo Sri Lankan Fishery Dispute

Solving the problem in a win win situation by Punsara Amarasinghe, ‘Countercurrents.org,’ May 12, 2018 Co-Written by Punsara Amarasinghe & Eshan Jayawardena Also posted in Indian Defense Review on May 21, 2018 entitled ‘India, Sri Lanka must solve fishery dispute bilaterally.’ The Palk Bay, a narrow strip of water separating the state of Tamil Nadu… Read more »

90,000 Northern Families in Shanties or Homeless

What happened to Govt. promised housing? Opinion by Jekhan Arulian, ‘LankaBusinessOnline,’ September 26, 2018 In October last year I had the privilege of participating in the blessing of a new water well in the Killinochchi District of the Northern Province. Its construction had been funded by the UK based charity Child Aid Lanka. The family on… Read more »

MCC: Sri Lanka Constraints Analysis

by US Millenium Challenge Corporation, Washington, DC, 2017 https://assets.mcc.gov/content/uploads/constraints-analysis-sri-lanka.pdf We argue in this report that Sri Lanka faces the following three binding constraints to private sector investment and economic growth: (1) policy uncertainty (especially tax and tariff policy); (2) inadequate access to land; and (3) poor transportation and logistics… The state reportedly owns approximately 80… Read more »

CPJ: Mahaweli Land Grabbing & Related Issues

edby Commission for Justice and Peace of Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, August 30, 2018 Mahaveli Development 180830 Condemnation of the Land grabbing by the Mahaveli-Development Authority and some other related issues The Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna strongly condemn all the measures taken by the Mahaveli-Development Authority to acquire the… Read more »

Water Resources and Agriculture Development Strategy North East Province

Volume 1 & 2 Special Emphasis on Irrigation Project in North by Saravanamuttu Subramaniam Sivakumar, Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna, February 2015, 2nd edition, 10.13140/2.1.3996.4961 Go to publication Download Abstract 2. Status of Water Resources With the increase in population, industrialization and urbanization, demand for water has increased. Population has increased from 1.9 million in… 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 »

Misery as Strategy

The Human Cost of Conflict by International Crisis Group, Brussels, May 31, 2018 In conflicts across the world, levels of displacement and hunger are increasing. The tactics used by leaders, governments and non-state armed groups have much to do with that misery. From Syria to Yemen, from South Sudan to Venezuela, war and political crisis… Read more »

Police, Indian Conglomerate in Spotlight

After protesters gunned down by Ana Pararajasingham, ‘Asia Times,’ Bangkok, May 28, 2018 On Tuesday, May 22, 13 protesters were killed by police in the south Indian city of Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, shocking the public. The protest, which was peaceful but persistent, was directed at Sterlite Copper, a company owned by UK-based Vedanta Ltd, founded… Read more »

HRW: Police Fatally Shoot Copper Plant Protesters

by Human Rights Watch, May 23, 2018 Investigate Alleged Use of Excessive Force Authorities in India’s Tamil Nadu state should conduct a prompt, impartial, and transparent investigation into the police shooting of protesters against a copper plant that left at least 12 dead and 80 injured, Human Rights Watch said today. Television news video footage shows two plainclothes… Read more »

Economic Push Needed

by T. Ramakrishnan, ‘The Hindu,’ May 28, 2018 India must help the development of Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern provinces The discourse on fundamental issues concerning Sri Lankan Tamils continues to revolve around political settlement, the two key components of which are greater devolution of powers to provinces and the merger of the Northern and… Read more »

Tamils to Remember the Dead in Mullivaikkal

by Meera Srinivasan, ‘The Hindu,’ Chennai, May 17, 2018 Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran urges them to unite on the ‘tragic’ Remembrance Day Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran has called upon Tamils to set aside their differences and participate in the ‘Remembrance Day’ event, remembering those who were killed in Sri Lanka’s civil… Read more »

Colombo Unleashes Dangerous Scheme

Colombo unleashes dangerous scheme of demographic genocide choking North-East by TamilNet, March 21, 2018 The Mahaweli Authority of the occupying State of genocidal Sri Lanka has schemed a new plan to destroy the territorial integrity of the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils by changing the demography of 13 km long narrow coastal stretch from the… Read more »

Anti-Muslim Riots Signal a New Social Fissure

by ‘The Economist,’ London, March 8, 2018 Sinhalese nationalists may be looking for an enemy COLOMBO: THE trigger was supposedly a road-rage incident, said to have involved members of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority, near the popular tourist destination of Kandy. A lorry driver from the country’s biggest ethnic group, the Sinhalese, ended up dead. Angry… Read more »

It’s the Tamil Economy, Stupid

by J.T. Janani, Tamil Guardian, October 29 – November 12, 2008 [originally posted December 1, 2008 at http://www.sangam.org/2008/12/Tamil_Economy.php?uid=3174] A 2 part series looking at the economic drivers behind the Sri Lankan state’s genocide of the Tamils ‘The Economist’ of August 6th 2003 summarised the genocide of Black July 1983 thus: “Two weeks ago Tamils owned 80% of the… Read more »

The State of Jobs in Post-conflict Areas of Sri Lanka

by David Locke Newhouse & An Rudra Silwal, World Bank, Washington, DC, February 26, 2018 Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 8355 World Bank WPS8355 State of Jobs in Post Conflict Areas ABSTRACT Although Sri Lanka has made significant progress in social and economic development over the past decade, the Northern and Eastern provinces that… Read more »

Sri Lanka: 2017 Review

by Kithmina Hewage, ‘South Asian Voices,’ Stimson Center, Washington, January 5, 2018  The current coalition government of Sri Lanka was elected in 2015 with a mandate to implement broad political and economic reforms. Unfortunately the young government struggled to provide a uniting vision of reform to its coalition partners, which slowed the reform process considerably. Even though… Read more »