NPC Resolution on Tamil Genocide_v2 This resolution provides an overview of the evidence demonstrating successive Sri Lankan governments’ genocide against Tamils, and respectfully requests the ongoing United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) to investigate the claim of genocide and recommend appropriate investigations and prosecutions by the… Read more »
Yearly Archives: 2015
Sri Lanka’s Duty on War Crimes
It was just one month ago that Sri Lanka surprised the world by electing opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena as president, rejecting the authoritarianism, corruption and dynastic politics of the administration of the incumbent, Mahinda Rajapaksa. President Sirisena has moved swiftly to usher in a new chapter of hope for Sri Lanka. So as not to… Read more »
President Sirisena’s 67-year Question and the 100-Day Plan
“We have failed in the essential task of nation building,”…
President Sirisena’s 67-year question speaks most of all to the deterioration in the areas of governance and of political relationships between the different communities after independence. The two (bad governance and poor inter-ethnic relationship) are interconnected and have fed on each other.
Statement of Sen. Leahy On A Return to Democracy
Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) On A Return to Democracy in Sri Lanka February 5, 2015 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, for hundreds of millions of people around the globe, including in countries whose governments are allies of the United States, democracy and human rights are aspirations that seem beyond reach. According to a recent… Read more »
Sri Lankan Leader Calls for Unity Amid Ethnic Divide
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka has failed to heal its deep ethnic divide since the end of the nation’s civil war five years ago, the president acknowledged Wednesday in a major speech calling for national reconciliation. President Maithripala Sirisena’s Independence Day speech was a sharp departure from those of his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who… Read more »
An Institutional History of the LTTE
LKA-geschichte-ltte-e [PDF in English] or https://www.bfm.admin.ch/dam/data/bfm/internationales/herkunftslaender/asien-nahost/lka/LKA-geschichte-ltte-e.pdf Preface Episodes of armed violence are often followed by countering claims and divergent accounts of past experiences. The Sri Lankan civil war is no exception. After 26 years of military operations and the official defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, controversies over the conflict and… Read more »
Is Terrorism an Existential Threat?
by Scott Stewart, ‘MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal,’ February 5, 2015 President Barack Obama has said terrorism can’t upset the world order, and he is mostly correct. In an interview aired on CNN on Feb. 1, Fareed Zakaria asked U.S. President Barack Obama to respond to charges that he is downplaying the threat of terrorism to… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s New Government Hopes to Revisit Past on Its Own Terms
UNITED NATIONS — Sri Lanka’s new government, whichswept into power in January on a platform of national reconciliation, is lobbying to quash — or at least defer for a few months — a landmark United Nations inquiry into war crimes set to be released in March. That presents a delicate problem for United Nations officials… Read more »
US Asst Sec Biswal’s Statements in Sri Lanka
Statement by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Biswal Colombo – Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka February 4, 2015 http://srilanka.usembassy.gov/pr-4feb15.html It was a privilege to visit Colombo to witness for myself the sense of excitement and optimism that the Sri Lankan people have ushered in through the historic… Read more »
Tribute to Rasipuram Krishnaswamy (R.K.) Laxman
by Sachi Sri Kantha, February 1, 2015 Millions of Laxman fans were saddened to hear the news that the ace cartoonist R.K. Laxman (1921-2015) had died on January 26, at the age of 93. As a tribute to his career, I present (1) four of his biting cartoons on the Sri Lankan scene, and (2)… Read more »
Parliament Briefed over Judiciary
The Government today informed Parliament that it needs to convince the world that it has a judiciary that is competent, independent and impartial which can rank among the best anywhere in the world Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that it needs a good judiciary in order to convince the international community that Sri Lanka is quite capable of dealing with… Read more »
Learning Lessons from Political Discourses of the Past
The last advice of the late Professor A.J. Wilson, a highly respected academic who had the closest connections with the hierarchy of the government echelons from time to time, and who was an optimist genuinely believing the possibility of Tamils and Sinhalese co-existing, was that the Tamil academics and professionals should not let themselves to… Read more »
Tamil Sripavan Appointed Sri Lanka’s Top Judge
Sri Lanka’s president has appointed a Tamil judge as the new chief justice – the first member of the minority community to hold the post in decades. Judge Kanagasabapathy Sripavan, 62, was sworn in in the capital Colombo. President Maithripala Sirisena, from the majority Sinhalese community, has sought reconciliation with Tamils after the separatist war… Read more »
A Chance for Justice in Sri Lanka?
Decisions like these are often premised on a misguided belief that, in post-conflict environments, it is necessary to choose between justice and peace. But this is a false choice. Sri Lanka must deal with the deep and languishing divisions created by past human right abuses. A policy of impunity does the opposite and would be a grave mistake.
TNA Reiterates its Call for an International Investigation for Tamil Killings
COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, January 28, 2015 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Main Tamil political party in Sri Lanka, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) reiterated its call for an international investigation for the mass killings of Tamils during the last phase of the war that ended in mid-2009. Mr. Suresh Premachandran, Member of Parliament and spokesperson for TNA made… Read more »
Sri Lanka Is Ready to Take Center Stage
by Richard Armitage, Kara Bue, & Lisa Curtis, ‘The Wall Street Journal,’ January. 28, 2015 12:29 p.m. ET 3 COMMENTS Editor’s note: The following op-ed was contributed by Richard Armitage, Kara Bue and Lisa Curtis. Mr. Armitage was deputy secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. Ms. Bue was deputy assistant secretary of State for… Read more »
Building Credible Mechanisms for Domestic Accountability and Transitional Justice
However, given the Sri Lankan State’s persistent unwillingness and inability to credibly address impunity, those who wish to see a meaningful process of righting wrongs in Sri Lanka must demand that the Government make tangible commitments and progress towards addressing victims’ demands for justice.
A mere commitment to conduct a credible process without the necessary legal, institutional and policy reforms must not be accepted at face value. This article outlines the key reforms necessary to ensure that the Government’s promise of a credible domestic process results in a break with the past.
An opportune moment for the Government to make these commitments formally may be at the sessions of the Human Rights Council where the report of the international inquiry on Sri Lanka will presented.
HRW: Rajapaksa Legacy of Abuse
by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 29, 2015 The Sri Lankan government stepped up pressure in 2014 on human rights activists and journalists, particularly those urging justice for past war crimes, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2015 released today. A new government, elected in January 2015, should order investigations into arbitrary… Read more »
‘A Cartoonist of His Times’
Readers – We need help locating the citation for the booklet of cartoons entitled ‘A Cartoonist of His Times,’ probably published in 1994. An established publishing house would like to publish one of the cartoons in the booklet & will not do so without permission, so we need to identify the artist who drew the… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 24
Part 23 In the previous chapter, I had observed that charismatic persons can be identified with following primary traits. (1) Originality in deeds, (2) humility in action, (3) Apportioning due credit to fellow associates, and (4) risk taking attitude. Subsequently, I located an interesting article by Ken Rea in the New Theatre Quarterly journal, published… Read more »