The International Crime of Genocide: The Case of the Tamil People in Sri Lanka by Lutz Oette, Tamil Information Centre, London, March 1998 Dr. Lutz Oette is today Counsel at REDRESS, a human rights organisation that helps torture survivors obtain justice, www.redress.org and Lecturer in Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)… Read more »
Monthly Archives: December 2012
Tamil Nation Library: Eelam
“…There are victims, there are executioners, and there are bystanders… Unless we wrench free from being what we like to call ‘objective’, we are closer psychologically, whether we like to admit it or not, to the executioner than to the victim…” Howard Zimm quoted by David Edwards in ‘The Difficult Art of Telling the Truth’,… Read more »
Go After the Terrorists!
Eventually, the guerrillas sued for a ceasefire that was turned down, after which they were completely wiped out. This is how living nations deal with armed insurgencies on their soil.
In sharp contrast, the insurgents in Pakistan have been treated with kid gloves during the last decades. Since they professed to be religious, they’ve acquired many admirers and supporters. Perhaps, that is one of the reasons why a national consensus on defeating the militants could not emerge.
No Husband, No Home and No Future for Their Children
Women-headed families: no husband, no home and no future for their children In the Eastern Province, some women head their household all alone without a job, sometimes without a home, or without doors and sanitary facilities, unable to send their children to school. Their husbands died in war or disappeared into the hands of police…. Read more »
Briefing: Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Problem
While moderate lawmakers from both ethnic groups express willingness to reconcile, they are far outnumbered by hardliners, who enjoy strong support outside of cities, especially the rural south, which is the president’s home area. Criticism of the ruling party’s human rights record and lack of progress on ethnic reconciliation has been limited to educated urbanites in Colombo, a scant percentage of the country.
Sitar Maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar (1920-2012)
by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 18, 2012 Unlike the tone taken by many facultative memoirists who had poured out their sentiments on the recent death of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar on December 11th to the Hindu (Chennai) newspaper, strictly I avoid their style of presenting their reminiscences on how they had a brief (or lengthy)… Read more »
Sampanthan’s Parliament Speech
Out of the 20 divisions in the Sri Lankan Army – according to the information I have – 15 divisions are in the North, two divisions in the East and three divisions in the rest of the country. I am told that if there are 15 divisions in the North, that would mean that there at least 150,000 soldiers in the Northern Province…
Armed forces are being used in my submission by their large presence in the Northern Province in particular, to achieve political objectives. That must not be allowed… The war is over.
That is a very very large number of soldiers, given the fact that the number of people in the Northern Province is probably in the region of 600,000, which means that you have one soldier for every four civilians. This is not acceptable, Sir.
Sri Lanka’s Genocidal War -’95 to ’01
“…Against partisans backed by the entire population, colonial armies are helpless. They have only one way of escaping from the harassment which demoralizes them …. This is to eliminate the civilian population. As it is the unity of a whole people that is containing the conventional army, the only anti-guerrilla strategy which will be effective is the destruction of that people, in other words, the civilians, women and children…” Jean Paul Sartre’s Statement ‘On Genocide’
The Disappearance of an Academic
Six years after, for many, it’s a forgotten matter shrouded in the past. But for his family, the pain endures. The following article was written one month after he was abducted.
Amnesty’s appeal follows.
U.S. Relations With Sri Lanka
Fact Sheet U.S.-SRI LANKA RELATIONS Relations between the United States and Sri Lanka are based on mutual interests and a shared commitment to the ideals of democratic governance. U.S. policy toward Sri Lanka is characterized by respect for its independence, sovereignty, and moderate nonaligned foreign policy; support for the country’s unity, territorial integrity, and democratic… Read more »
One Hundred Thousand Tamils Missing After Sri Lanka War
The leaked World Bank spreadsheets broken down by village for the north of the island estimate numbers of returnees to the former conflict area in mid 2010. The Bank also cites Statistical Handbook Numbers for population in 2007 – before the fighting intensified. The two sets of data reveal 101,748 people missing from Mullaitivu District – the area that bore the brunt of the final fighting…
Nearly four years on there is no agreed death toll, even to the nearest ten thousand lives. That’s why an international investigation is required to establish the truth about what may be one of the least reported but worst atrocities of recent decades – both in terms of the speed and the scale of the killing.
“Killings at End Stage of Lanka Civil War Unprecedented’’
Quoting a World Bank document, she said one lakh persons were missing between 2006 and 2010 and there had to be an explanation on where these people are.
ICG Silently Withdraws Mischief on TamilNet
“If an open apology is not forthcoming from the ICG, TamilNet may have to seek justice from the law of the countries where the ICG is registered.”
MGR Remembered, Part 1
Escapist? MGR protested. His films were certainly not escapist, he said. He recognized the link to Fairbanks. But ‘Fairbanks, great as he was, is now forgotten’. An acting career, said MGR, must now have a political dimension, and he himself had found that in the Dravidian movement.
Pressing the Case for Reconciliation
The United States will invariably look to strengthen military ties with Sri Lanka. Strategically speaking, it would be unwise for Washington to further antagonize Colombo and lose an ally in a region where it intends to maintain a significant presence in the coming decades. Sri Lanka is not a top tier foreign policy priority for the United States, but the Obama administration will be reluctant to cede all influence there–especially as China’s foreign policy agenda continues to expand…
With Obama currently looking at major shifts within his foreign policy and national security team, few decisions about Sri Lanka are likely to be made until 2013.
Court Convicts a Bosnian Serb General of Genocide
He and some of the four witnesses he called in his defense variously argued that the Serbian forces near the United Nations enclaves were there to fight “terrorists” who were using the zones as bases from which to attack Serbs. Some said only several hundred people were killed during the operations, rather than the more than 7,000 whose bodies have been identified. Muslims in the area were not persecuted, the defense argued, but left voluntarily.
AI: Urgent Action re Student Arrest
The arrests came after several days of student protests following efforts by the security forces to suppress peaceful commemorations of Maaveerar Naal (Heroes Day), a day of remembrance established by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)…
20 Incidents Against “Uthayan” Newspaper
20 violence incidents in 28 years only against “Udayan” newspaper. Pointed out in parliament yesterday. Continuous methods of repression are unleashed against the “Udayan” newspaper and 20 violence incidents have been unleashed was pointed out by Tamil National Alliance parliament member P.Ariyanenthiran yesterday in parliament. During the group discussion regarding the authorized ministries to the… Read more »
The Sri Lankan Silk Road
The confluence of the militarized economic development, widespread corruption, alleged war crimes, the concentration of all powers in the executive presidency, and family members easily getting elected to parliament, along with the arrogance and jubilant aftermath of the Eelam War, has presented a negative international image of the once-Buddhist and democratic nation.
Sumanthiran Speech on Rule of Law
Several mentions have been made in this House in the last couple of weeks with regard to sovereignty of the people. In our Constitution the people are sovereign. It is not the Parliament that is sovereign. It is the people who are sovereign.