by United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif, UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, June 21, 2023 Sri Lanka: promoting reconciliation, accountability and rights 53rd session of the Human Rights Council Oral update on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka Statement by Nada Al-Nashif United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for… Read more »
Posts Categorized: International
Defence Sector Claims Nearly Half of State Salaries
by PublicFinance.lk, June 2, 2023 According to the 2023 Budget Estimates, 15% of total recurrent expenditure of the government will be spent on salaries for government employees for the year 2023. As of 2023, the defence sector is estimated to claim nearly half (48%) of state salaries. Here is a breakdown of the estimated sector-wise… Read more »
Deja Vu ‘Truth and Reconciliation’ in Sri Lanka?
by Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene, Sunday Times, Colombo, June 3, 2023 Truth and Reconciliation is now again in the air, we are sublimely told by the Government of Sri Lanka. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, along with his merry men and women in Parliament in the Pohottuwa ranks are singing to the eminently hypocritical refrain of truth and reconciliation commissions… Read more »
‘Politics of Hate’ Review
Two thoughtful contributions by Sri Lankan academics Neil DeVotta and Gehan Gunatilleke show how majoritarianism’s relentless othering is less about the majority’s imagined ideal minority-free state, and more about the satisfaction derived from blaming, punishing and depriving the “others” — the Sinhala Buddhist majority’s first target was the Indian Tamils. by Nirupama Subramaniam, Indian Express,… Read more »
Kilinochchi Maveerar Thuyilum Illum, February 2023
by N. Ethirveerasingam, May 17, 2023 I took these pictures in Kilinochchi Maveerar Thuyilum Illum during a visit in February 2023. * When Kilinochchi fell in 2008 the army bulldozed about 4 acres of gravestones – a war crime. Other LTTE graveyards in the North met the same fate. * I was there at the… Read more »
The Current Financial & Political Crisis and Possibilities for Fundamental Change
by Fr. Emmanuel Sebamalai, US Congressional Caucus briefing on Sri Lanka, May 11, 2023 First of all, I sincerely thank Congressman Bill Johnson and Congressman Danny Davis for organizing this event. I am privileged to air my grievances on behalf of the Tamils living in Sri Lanka and abroad. For Tamils, May 18 is the… Read more »
CSST: Interview with Prof. Mark Cogan
Sri Lanka has been seen as one of China’s string of pearls by Centre for Strategic Studies – Trincomalee, May 24, 2023 China is turning its attention to the Tamils in the north, using some of the same tactics previously employed during the Rajapaksa era to slowly win the trust of the Tamil minority. That,… Read more »
Rep. Nickel’s Statement for the Record May 18
by US Rep. Wiley Nickel, May 18, 2023 Video address on twitter
HRW: Still No Justice on Sri Lanka War Anniversary
UN Pursues Accountability in Response to Government Inaction by Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, Human Rights Watch, New York, May 16, 2023 On May 18, Tamils in Sri Lanka will mark Mullivaikkal Memorial Day, in remembrance of those who died in the final stages of the country’s brutal civil war that ended in 2009. Thousands… Read more »
USCIRF Recommends Sri Lanka for Special Watch List
by US Commission on International Religious Freedom, May 1, 2023 USCIRF Annual Report 2023 – Sri Lanka RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ■ Include Sri Lanka on the Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA); ■ Direct U.S. Embassy officials to… Read more »
America’s Bad Bet on India
New Delhi Won’t Side With Washington Against Beijing by Ashley Tellis, Foreign Affairs, New York, May 1, 2023 For the past two decades, Washington has made an enormous bet in the Indo-Pacific—that treating India as a key partner will help the United States in its geopolitical rivalry with China. From George W. Bush onward, successive… Read more »
Confronting the Truth about Sri Lanka’s Post-war ‘Rehabilitation’ Program
A reply to an academic whitewash by Sri Lanka Campaign for Truth & Justice, London, Nov 1, 2019 In a recent article published in World Politics Review, academic Jocelyn Belanger argued that the Sri Lankan experience of ‘rehabilitating’ Tamil Tiger (LTTE) militants at the end of the country’s long civil war in 2009 offers a valuable model… Read more »
Sudan is at Risk of Unravelling from Decades of Injustice
by Azza Ahmed Abdel Aziz, Middle East Eye, April 25, 2023 The civil war raging in Khartoum is a culmination of the violence to which the Sudanese state has subjected its citizens over many years )n 13 April, I happened to send a family member based in the UK a short WhatsApp video of a… Read more »
Myanmar’s ‘Forgotten War’ Lurches Deeper into Horror
by Guy Dinmore, InterPress Service, April 17, 2023 KAYIN STATE, Myanmar, Apr 17 2023 (IPS) – Food is passed around a campfire, and a guitar strums as cool night air tumbles down mountain cliffs, relieving the jungle of its heat. A dozen or so young Myanmar activists – some having just travelled long distances evading military… Read more »
Analyzing Patterns of Violence in Colombia Using More than 100 Databases
by Valentina Rozo Ángel, Human Rights Data Analysis Group, California, US, September 20, 2022 In 2016, the Colombian Government and the guerrilla group “Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP)” arrived at a peace agreement, which included the creation of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-repetition (Truth Commission;… Read more »
Canadian MP Gary Anandasangaree on IMF Bailout of Sri Lanka
by Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree, Ottawa, Canada, March 21, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/live/bVp5wnT83mo?feature=share On Parliament Hill, Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree discusses the International Monetary Fund’s bailout program for Sri Lanka to help bolster the country’s struggling economy. He is joined by Ahrabi Rajkumar (advocacy lead for People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka), Madura Rasaratnam (associate… Read more »
British Mercenary’s £4M Fortune Revealed
A former SAS commander whose mercenary business in Sri Lanka is under investigation for war crimes has left millions of pounds in his will. by Phil Miller, Declassified UK, March 14, 2023 One of Britain’s most rapacious mercenaries amassed a fortune worth £4m before his death in 2008, an investigation by Declassified UK has found. The soldier… Read more »
IMF Approves Sri Lanka’s $2.9bn Bailout
by Agence-France Press in The Guardian, UK, March 20, 2023 President vows to get economy back on track through ‘prudent fiscal management and ambitious reform agenda’ The International Monetary Fund has approved Sri Lanka’s request for a $2.9bn bailout, raising hopes for an easing of its economic crisis. The IMF’s board confirmed it had signed… Read more »
The Politics Behind the CIA Controversy in Sri Lanka
by A. Jathindra, Eurasia Review, USA, March 16, 2023 Blaming foreign conspiracies engineered by the CIA, RAW and MI6 is commonplace in local politics. The nationalists in the Sinhala and Tamil camps invoke this trite trick when they find themselves with something of a hot potato. On Feb 22, former SLPP mouthpiece and leader of… Read more »
The Elusive Political Solution in Sri Lanka
by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, India, March 9, 2023, undated March 10 Early February, a group of saffron-clad Buddhist monks gathered near the Sri Lankan Parliament and burnt a copy of the 13th Amendment. They were registering their rage and protest after President Ranil Wickremesinghe vowed to implement the law in full. He had… Read more »