by Thambu Kanagasabai,, LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law – University of Colombo Sri Lanka President, The Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Organization, Toronto, Canada, September 26, 2017 The current hot topic which has generated fire and heat among the military’s high ups and dragging the Sri Lankan government also to answerability is the war… Read more »
Monthly Archives: September 2017
Catalans Are Not Alone. Across the World, People Yearn to Govern Themselves
by Neal Ascherson, ‘The Guardian,’ UK, September 23, 2017 Globalisation was supposed to bring widespread uniformity and benefit. But it hasn’t addressed old grievances Comments 831 It could end really badly in Catalonia. Running out of their own ideas, the Spanish government in Madrid seems to be begging advice from ancestral Castilian spirits. And the ancestors… Read more »
Catalans and Kurds Discover the Hard Truth About Secession
by Max Fisher & Amanda Taub, ‘The New York Times,’ September 29, 2017 When does an independence movement get to form its own nation? For decades, a set of unstated but well-known rules has supposedly decided that. But those rules include a number of contradictions. And as the Catalans in Spain and the Kurds in… Read more »
Ongoing UNHRC session: What’s in store for Sri Lanka?
by SUNANDA DESHAPRIYA GroundViews 09/25/2017 The term ‘painfully slow progress’ has become a standard descriptor for Sri Lanka’s overall pace of implementation of UNHRC resolution A/HRC/30/1 in Geneva. It has been two years since Sri Lanka cosponsored the resolution “Promoting democracy, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka” pledging in the meantime to implement a comprehensive… Read more »
[US] Learning to Live With a Changing World Map
By JOSHUA KEATING The NY Times SEPT. 22, 2017 (Print Edition on Sept. 25, 2017 has the title: The U.S. Likes the World Map the Way It Is.) (Sangam’s Observation: Any reference to Tamil Freedom struggle for Eelam in Sri Lanka is missing. Internationally assisted genocide of more than 140,000 Tamil civilians to suppress independence… Read more »
HRW: 2 Years On, Scant Progress on UN Resolution
Human Rights Council Should Seek Timeline for Action by Human Rights Watch, New York, September 13, 2017 (Geneva, September 14, 2017) – United Nations member countries at the Human Rights Council in Geneva should press Sri Lanka to promptly meet the targets of the council’s October 2015 resolution for transitional justice, Human Rights Watch said today…. Read more »
IMADR: Enforced Disappearances in Sri Lanka
Statement submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by International Movement against all Forms of Racism & Discrimination, September 12, 2017 Enforced Disappearances in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka has endured consecutive periods of violent insurgency and a 26-year-long armed conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam.[1] This conflict ended… Read more »
Sri Lanka Has Not Kept Pomises to UN – Franciscans International
by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, September 12, 2017 Franciscans International said Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has not kept promises made to Tamil families of the disappeared or to the UN Human Rights Council and called on the global body to continue monitoring the situation on the island. Speaking at the 36th UN Human Rights Council… Read more »
India’s “Like-Minded” Partnerships to Counter China in South Asia
by Constantino Xavier, Center for Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, September 11, 2017 China’s inroads into South Asia since the mid-2000s have eroded India’s traditional primacy in the region, from Afghanistan to Myanmar and also in the Indian Ocean. As Beijing deploys its formidable financial resources and develops its strategic clout across the… Read more »
Sri Lanka Among Asia’s Most Undernourished Countries
by ‘Sunday Times,’ Colombo, September 14, 2017 Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have the highest rates of undernourishment in Asia, according to the Asian Development Bank. In a statement by Data Leads which quoted the ADB report , almost 27 per cent of the population of Timor Leste remains undernourished, and more than… Read more »
CM: Army Holding about 85,000 Acres in North
Calls for probe into SF’s allegations against Gen. JJ By Cyril Wimalasurendre, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, September 10, 2017 KANDY – Alleging that the army continued to hold about 85,000 acres of land in the North, Northern Province Chief Minister and former Supreme Court judge C.W. Wigneswaran, on Saturday, sought the intervention of most Ven. Tibbatuwawe… Read more »
The Hateful Monk
by Gavin Jacobson, ‘The New York Review of Books,’ August 31, 2017 Les Films du Losange Ashin Wirathu and his followers in Barbet Schroeder’s The Venerable W., 2017 Ma Soe Yein is the largest Buddhist monastery in Mandalay, Myanmar. A dreary sprawl of dormitories and classrooms, it is located in the western half of the city,… Read more »
A Question of Command Responsibility
by No Fire Zone, August 19, 2017 An examination of the charges of command responsibility against general Jagath Jayasuriya https://vimeo.com/231070522
Sri Lankan Leader Will Protect General Accused of War Crimes
by The Associated Press in ‘The New York Times,’ September 3, 2017 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s president on Sunday vowed to protect his former ambassador to six South American nations, an ex-army chief accused of crimes in the bloody final phase of the country’s civil war. “I state very clearly that I will not… Read more »
Interview with Gen. Jayasuriya
I didn’t know what was happening on the war front – Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya by Sulochana Ramiah Mohan, ‘Ceylon Today,’ September 3, 2017 Tall and well-built, retired Army General, Jagath Jayasuriya, who was posted in Brazil as the Sri Lankan Ambassador, is back in town with mounted allegations against him related to his posts as… Read more »
Gen. Jayasuriya Involved in Misdeeds:Field Marshal Fonseka
by ‘Daily News,’ Colombo, September 2, 2017 Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka yesterday, said that he was aware that former Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya was allegedly involved in wrongdoings. “I was determined to take action against him after the war on terrorism was over,” Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka added. Fonseka added that he received many complaints… Read more »
Why a Sri Lankan Leader Might Be Tried for War Crimes in Brazil
By Kate Cronin-Furman, ‘The Washington Post,’ August 30, 2017 One of the mothers of the disappeared stands beside photographs of the missing in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, in July. (Kate Cronin-Furman) Early Tuesday morning, news broke that Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Brazil had fled the country. Sri Lanka’s government later announced that his departure was planned, and it… Read more »
Sri Lankan Ambassador, Accused of War Crimes, Leaves Brazil
by The Associated Press in ”The New York Times,’ August 29, 207 RIO DE JANEIRO — A former Sri Lankan general accused of war crimes by human rights groups has left Brazil, where until recently he was his country’s ambassador to six nations in South America, an embassy official said Tuesday. Jagath Jayasuriya left Brazil… Read more »
For the Rohingyas and Us
by Cheran Rudhramoorthy, on Facebook, August 31, 2017 (Also in Tamil) I abandoned my child, My God I cannot ask you anymore For forgiveness. Just three minutes Before killing the child you chopped off my hands. Amid pain, grief and wailing you will not have grace. When the spear was inserted softly into my child’s stomach, thinking… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 39
Producer M.M.A. Sandow Chinnappah Thevar by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 29, 2017 Part 38 Sandow M.M.A. Chinnappah Thevar (1915-1978) was a colorful personality in the Madras movie world for nearly three decades, after he produced his first movie featuring MGR as the hero. It’s title was ‘Thaikku Pin Thaaram’ (1956; Wife after Mother). He was… Read more »