‘Tamil Guardian’ editorial, London, April 24, 2018 A stinging new report from the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) has underscored the urgent need to clamp down on impunity in Sri Lanka. There is now abundant evidence that troops from the Special Task Force (STF), a foreign trained paramilitary unit, have committed atrocities, complete with… Read more »
Monthly Archives: April 2018
‘War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka’ Book Launch
by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, April 30, 2018 Rachel Seoighe launched her book ‘War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka’, which explores how political discourse has been utilised to deny and re-engineer state violence in Sri Lanka, at an event in London last week. “People were dying in their hundreds, we still don’t know how many people… 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 »
60th Anniversary of May 1958 Anti-Tamil Riots – Part 1
by Sachi Sri Kantha, April 20, 2018 In 1958, I was a five year old, living in Mullaitivu town with my parents and younger sister Kanchana. Then, I was in my first grade. That my father was affiliated to the Base Hospital, Mullaitivu, in the government clerical service explains the situation why I was there…. Read more »
Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Chap. 2, Going in for a Revolver
by T. Sabaratnam, 2003 Volume 1, Chapter 1 Original index of series Original Chapter 2 Conviction Reinforced Venugobal master’s arguments that parliamentary democratic methods would yield no result reinforced Pirapaharan’s childhood conviction that hitting back is the only option available to the Tamils. The 14–year boy placed his trust on armed struggle and the separate state…. Read more »
Risotto from Sri Lanka is Just as Good
by Roger Cohen, ‘The New York Times,’ April 6, 2018 AGAZZANO, Italy — If you’re tired of reading terrible things about immigrants — how they never integrate, how they rape and steal, how they deal drugs, how they create “no-go zones” in European cities — here’s a success story to ponder. I’d say there are… 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 »
Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Chap. 1, Why Did He Not Hit Back?
By T. Sabaratnam, 2003 Volume 1, Introduction, Part 2 Original Chapter 1 Why didn’t he hit back? “Why didn’t he hit back,” was Pirapaharan’s reaction when he heard from his father, Thiruvenkadam Velupillai, about the burning of the Panadura Pillayar Kovil priest. His father, an admirer of the Federal Party Leader Samuel James Velupillai Chelvanayakam, had… Read more »
The Anti-Tamil Gal Oya Riots of 1956
by Prof. Stanley J. Tambiah, posted in Thuppahi’s Blog, February 2, 2017 My own first hand and indelible experience of ethnic riots happened in June 1956, when as a twenty-seven-year-old social scientist, recently returned from graduate studies in the United States, I took a team of thirty three students (twenty-six Sinhalese and seven Tamils) to conduct… Read more »
Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Intro., Part 2
by T. Sabaratnam, 2003 Volume 1, Introduction, Part 1 Original Vol.1, Intro, Part 2 The Language Tamil youths had been radicalized by the late 1960s. Language is a matter that touches the heart of every Tamil. They are proud of the antiquity and richness of their language, and linguistic nationalism is part of the psyche of every… Read more »
T. Sabaratnam: Pirapaharan, Vol. 1, Introduction
From the Editor Mr. T. Sabaratnam wrote a history of V. Pirapaharan from 2003-2005 that was posted on the Sangam website. This history is of the period BEFORE the war began and its early stages. The history dwells on the root causes and the background of those involved. As most of this material is not… 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 »
Colombo Unleashes Dangerous Scheme
Colombo unleashes dangerous scheme of demographic genocide choking North-East by TamilNet, March 21, 2018 The Mahaweli Authority of the occupying State of genocidal Sri Lanka has schemed a new plan to destroy the territorial integrity of the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils by changing the demography of 13 km long narrow coastal stretch from the… Read more »
Buddhism, Politics, and Violence
If You Meet the Buddha on the Road by Michael Jerryson, Oxford University Press, May 2, 2018 It is said that the famous ninth century Chinese Buddhist monk Linji Yixuan told his disciples, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” The deliberately confounding statement is meant to shock people out of complacent… Read more »
Buddhist Extremists and Muslim Minorities
Religious Conflict in Contemporary Sri Lanka Edited by John Holt, Hargrave Press, October 31, 2016 Proposes an alternative view of Muslims where, unlike in the Middle East, they are the victims of majoritarian politics Discusses events that invert the common stereotypes of Buddhists as pacifists and Muslims as violent jihadists 254 Pages | 5 illus. 6-1/8… Read more »