SRI LANKA: UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW PLEDGES MUST BE FULLY IMPLEMENTED by Amnesty International, 20 December 2017, Index number: ASA 37/7630/2017 Eight years after the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, the island nation’s human rights record was scrutinized again at the recently held Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland on 15th November… Read more »
Monthly Archives: December 2017
Amnesty: Petition on SL Disappeared
Provide Accountability for the Disappeared in Sri Lanka by Amnesty International, December 15, 2017 https://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=75621 Up to 100,000 people have been made to “disappear” in Sri Lanka over the past 35 years. The Sri Lankan government must implement its promises to provide truth and justice to the relatives of the disappeared. Text of Petition: Message… Read more »
Sri Lanka Must Urgently End Arbitrary Detention
Sri Lanka must urgently implement reforms to end arbitrary detention, UN rights experts sayCOLOMBO / GENEVA (15 December 2017) – The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has identified significant challenges to the enjoyment of the right to personal liberty in Sri Lanka, resulting in arbitrary detention across the country. The experts recognize positive initiatives, including… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 41
Near Death Experience and its Aftermath by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 19, 2017 Part 40 Front Note by Sachi MGR’s 30th death anniversary falls on December 24. It has been five years since I began this series. Curtain will also fall on MGR’s birth centenary in less than two weeks. To the best of my… Read more »
British Police Are Training Riot-Cops Linked to War Crimes
Undercover Footage Shows British Police Are Training Riot-Cops Linked to War Crimes in Sri Lanka Foreign aid money is being spent on a paramilitary style unit notorious for its brutality and linked to extra-judicial killings. by Phil Miller, ‘Vice UK,’ December 7, 2017 A still from the footage provided by Yardstick films shows the STF… Read more »
Recent Pieces by N. Malathy
December 14, 2017 1. This website, TamilTigerwomen.com is the byproduct of the project to record women’s history in the LTTE. A translation of some of their writing. The project itself is not complete yet. 2. Peopling an Island – the case of Sri Lanka (appeared in the telesur site, April 2017) 3. Rape: Sri Lanka’s Weapon of Genocide (appeared in… Read more »
Shadow Prison(s) in Tamil Nadu
by N. Malathy, ‘Economic & Political Weekly,’ Mumbai, April 1, 2017 EPW-Shadow Prisons by N. Malathy April 2017 These Tamil Eelam refugees are categorised into three types—non-camp refugees, open camp refugees, and “special camp” refugees. Non-camp refugees are people with sufficient resources to live on their own in rented places. They have received little attention… Read more »
Sri Lanka Hands a Major Port to China
Sri Lanka, Struggling With Debt, Hands a Major Port to China by Kai Schultz, ‘The New York Times,’ December 12, 2017 NEW DELHI — Struggling to pay its debt to Chinese firms, the nation of Sri Lanka formally handed over the strategic port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year lease last week, in a… Read more »
Burying History
by Sanjana Hattotuwa,’ ‘The Island, Colombo, November 18, 2017 Over four years ago, I wrote an article on mass graves in Sri Lanka that could be seen using Google Earth imagery, serving as a solitary, virtual witness to what happened on the ground. The article focused in and around Nandikadal – the sliver of land… Read more »
On History Writing by Uncle Sam’s Gumshoes
by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 11, 2017 This is a rejoinder to Amit Barua’s commentary in The Hindu daily (Feb. 5, 2017), with the caption “JR: I was Forced into a Deal with India”. In my view, Barua has cherry-picked some items from the so-called declassified CIA documents. The items recorded by Barua are as… Read more »
Sri Lanka Doesn’t Need More American Bear Hugs
Washington’s current approach actually discourages reform. by Taylor Dibbert, ‘The Diplomat,’ Washington, DC, December 6, 2017 The U.S. and Sri Lanka recently held their second Partnership Dialogue. The first took place in Washington, D.C. last year. This one was held in Colombo. The meeting didn’t seem to feature any big surprises – which means that… Read more »
BTF and USTPAC Commemorate International Human Rights Day
by British Tamils Forum & US Tamil Political Action Council, December 10, 2017 For immediate release BTF and USTPAC Commemorate International Human Rights Day – 2017 On this day in 1948 the United Nations adopted a universal set of human rights values that apply to all of us. The British Tamils Forum (BTF) and the… Read more »
The Controversy of Wilpattu
Are administrative authorities in slumber while nature is at stake? Controversially, the deforestation accusations are aimed at State agencies and the issue is further ethno-politicized due to the accusations made at Muslim communities engaging in forest clearing and illegal land settlement, particularly aimed at the Minister of Trade and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen’s alleged patronage for… Read more »
JR: I was Forced into a Deal with India
Jayewardene told U.S. envoy by Amit Baruah, ‘The Hindu,’ Chennai, February 5, 2017 Former Sri Lanka President claimed his troops refused to take Jaffna, reveal declassified papers Sri Lanka was forced into making a deal with India as its own armed forces had twice refused to “take Jaffna”, then President J.R. Jayewardene has been quoted… Read more »
Sri Lanka Keeps Accountability & Justice at Bay
In the UPR sessions in Geneva By Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.], December 3, 2017 Sri Lanka has scored yet another diplomatic success at the UN Human Rights Council UPR Sessions in Geneva which conducted the Universal Periodic Review for Sri Lanka on November 15, 2017. “Universal Periodic Review [UPR] is a unique process which involves a… Read more »
A Hollow Attempt to Re-write History and Deny Justice
Lord Naseby’s ‘revelations’ by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, December 5, 2017 In October, a member of the House of Lords took to their feet in Parliament to argue that the UK Government, and other members of the international community, should abandon their long-standing and hard-fought push for accountability in Sri Lanka. Over half… Read more »
Ten Tamil Fools – Revisited
by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 25, 2017 Twelve years ago, I wrote a commentary entitled ‘Scholarship on Fools – Inspiration from Orrin Klapp and poet Kannadasan’. In it, I also provided the electronic version of the classic paper of Orrin Klapp (1915-1997), entitled, ‘The Fool as a Social Type’ [American Journal of Sociology, September 1949,… Read more »