And the International Community? by Kumarathasan Rasingam, May 31, 2018 The Sri Lankan State runs on Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism, the Maha Sanga and the Buddhist Clergy. The Sri Lankan State has to obtain the blessings of these people to enact any laws regarding devolution of powers to the Tamils in the North and East of Sri… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
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 »
Allocation of Funds to the OMP
Twice betrayed by Verite Research, ‘Sunday Observer,’ Colombo, May 20, 2018 Sri Lanka’s national budget for 2018 allocated Rs. 1.4 billion to the Office on Missing Persons (OMP).[i] The allocation was viewed as a positive step towards supporting reconciliation mechanisms in Sri Lanka. However, a closer look reveals that the allocation entails two betrayals. The… Read more »
The OMP and the Aspirations of Families
of the Missing and Disappeared But the provisions in the OMP Act make the body nowhere near what was expected in that Resolution. This reminds the writer of the concluding remark in the Final Report of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) invited by the previous Government to oversee the proceedings of the… Read more »
The Insistence of Memory
by Kate Cronin-Furman, The Los Angeles Review of Books, May 16, 2018 BY THE TIME I got there, the bones were gone. But eight years out from the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, everything else was still there, carpeting the beach where the final battle was fought. Suitcases half-buried in sand, battered metal… Read more »
PEARL: ‘Delayed or Denied?
Sri Lanka’s Failing Transitional Justice Process by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, Washington, DC, May 14, 2018 PEARL’s new report, “Delayed or Denied? Sri Lanka’s Failing Transitional Justice Process”documents Sri Lanka’s failure to fulfill its transitional justice commitments and the complacency with which its intransigence has been received by members of the international community…. Read more »
An Ethnic Conflict & an Accord
by Press Trust of India on Shruti TV, May 10, 2018 Discussion of T. Ramakrishnan’s book ‘Or Inapprachinaiyum Or Oppandhamum,’ ‘An Ethnic Conflict and An Accord’ at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. With Prof. V Suryanarayan, & Chandrahasan. Moderated by Col. Hariharan. Most interesting is the Q & A starting at 1 hr. 12+ min…. Read more »
Tamil National Question & Tamil Insurgency in Sri Lanka
by Imtiyaz Razak, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ May 14, 2018 On May 17, 2009 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) admitted the defeat in the war against the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lanka security forces and vowed to silence guns. In May 18, Sri Lanka security forces announced that the LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, who led the… Read more »
Is China a Colonial Power?
by James A. Millward, ‘The New York Times,’ May 4, 2018 Mr. Millward is a China scholar and historian of the Silk Road In a lesser-known novel, “Claudius Bombarnac,” Jules Verne describes the adventures of the titular foreign correspondent as he rides the “Grand Transasiatic Railway” from the “European frontier” to “the capital of the Celestial… Read more »
Hindutva Takes on Tamil Nationalism
by Ana Pararajasingham, ‘Asia Times,’ February 16, 2018 he south Indian state of Tamil Nadu has become a battleground for the proponents of Hindutva and the champions of Tamil nationalism. Hindutva is the rallying cry of the Bharathiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),a militant Hindu nationalist group that has for decades provided the… Read more »
ITJP: The Special Task Force
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, April 23, 2018 GATHERING EVIDENCE THE SPECIAL TASK FORCE This report on the Special Task Force (STF) is based primarily on the testimony of Sinhalese insiders who worked for the unit in the past and former Tamil paramilitaries. “This work in the white vanning unit… Read more »
State Dept: 2017 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report
by US State Dept., Washington, DC, April 24, 2017 State Dept 2017 Human Rights Report Sri Lanka EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sri Lanka is a constitutional, multiparty republic with a freely elected government. In January 2015 voters elected President Maithripala Sirisena to a five-year term. The parliament shares power with the president. August 2015 parliamentary elections resulted… Read more »
Hightime UN Acts on Sri Lanka
Hightime United Nations Acts on Sri Lanka Following March 2018 Session by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka The UNHRC’s March Sessions in Geneva conducted debates on Sri Lanka on the 19th and 20th of March 2018, focusing on Sri Lanka’s progress towards the 30/1 Resolution’s recommendations after a… Read more »
Reform Resistance in Sri Lankan Politics
by Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda, ‘Groundviews,’ March 27, 2018 One serious political question that emerges from Sri Lanka’s current political impasse is the following: why has a reformist democratic regime, with domestic popular support as well as international backing, begun to run out of its political energies, and political options, so early and is facing disintegration… Read more »
US Statement on OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/human-rights-council-37-joint-statement-on-sri-lanka by UK Mission to the UN, Geneva, March 21, 2018 This joint statement was delivered at the 37th Session of the Human Rights Council on behalf of Macedonia, Montenegro, the United States & the United Kingdom the during the UN High Commissioner’s report on Sri Lanka, held on 21 March 2018. This statement is on… Read more »
Deputy HC Statement on OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka
by Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore, March 21, 2018 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22875&LangID=E Moving now to our written update on progress in promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka (A/HRC/37/23) between March 2017 and January 2018. We welcome the Government’s constructive engagement with OHCHR and the human rights mechanisms, including its cooperation with visits of this… Read more »
VR: Res. 30/1 Implementation Monitor #3
UNHRC Resolution 30/1 Implementation Monitor: Statistical & Analytical Review No. 3 by Verite Research, Colombo, February 26, 2018 This is Verité Research’s latest study on the Sri Lankan government’s commitments on reconciliation and accountability. The ongoing UNHRC Session began on 26 February 2018, and will include a discussion on Sri Lanka’s progress in this regard. This report… 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 »