Yearly Archives: 2018

Yan Oya Project

[Not sure why Ariyawansha brings up all the Tamils & Muslims in Trinco, when the real subject is Sinhalese protest at having their land taken without proper compensation. Also interesting is that it is accepted by one senior official that the project was originally started ‘to maintain borders’ in the 1980s, but now is necessary… Read more »

Discrimination in 2018

by Sanjana Hattotuwa on his blog, January 14, 2018 It’s the little things that matter the most. Google in Sri Lanka now defaults to Sinhala. Whenever you access a Google Form, the interface by default is in Sinhala. Whenever you use Google Maps, road, place and now even names of famous buildings, are rendered in… Read more »

Monks with Guns

Westerners think that Buddhism is about peace and non-violence. So how come Buddhist monks are in arms against Islam? by Michael Jerryson, ‘Aeon,’ London, Melbourne, New York, January 15, 2018 The recent violence in southern Thailand began on 4 January 2004, when Malay Muslim insurgents invaded a Thai Army depot in the southernmost province of… Read more »

False Promises

‘Tamil Guardian’ editorial, London, January 9, 2017 Three years after the election victory of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe’s ‘unity government’, the failure of meaningful progress on key issues must be confronted head on if visions for accountability, justice and lasting peace are ever to be achieved. While the government has succeeded in opening up… Read more »

Future of the displaced in Musali South

Territorializing the environment: The political question of land and the future of the displaced in Musali South by Sivamohan Sumathy, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, July 2, 2015 I have in the past few weeks attended two of Shahul Hasbullah’s excellently laid out map of the displaced in the Musali South area and the entanglement of that… Read more »

Wiggie Blasts Dilan over NPC Expenditure

by ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ December 23, 2017 Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) C.V. Wigneswaran has taken issue with a statement made by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Highways Dilan Perera with respect to NPC Expenditure. Wigneswaran, writing directly to Perera, refers to a news item in the Virakesari (December 21, 2017) which quotes… Read more »

Democracy and Displacement in Colombia’s Civil War

by Abbey Steele, Cornell University Press, December 2017 ISBN-101501713736 ISBN-139781501713736 Democracy and Displacement in Colombia’s Civil War is one of few books available in English to provide an overview of the Colombian civil war and drug war. Abbey Steele draws on her own original field research as well as on Colombian scholars’ work in Spanish to… Read more »

Tamil Diaspora Organizations Redouble Efforts

Tamil Diaspora Orgs_New Year message 2018 For Immediate Release by US Tamil Political Action Council, People for Relief & Equity in Lanka, British Tamils Forum, Australian Tamil Congress, Canberra-London-Washington, January 01 2018   Tamil Diaspora Organizations Redouble Efforts to Prosecute War Criminals & Work for Lasting Peace in Sri Lanka On this New Year’s Day… Read more »

UNWG: Sri Lanka Must End Arbitrary Detention

Sri Lanka must urgently implement reforms to end arbitrary detention, UN rights experts say COLOMBO / 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… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment Challenged

Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment Challenged at the UN by 1,705 Lawyers from around the World: TGTE Complaint cited terminology of “one undivided and indivisible country” & safeguards against secession in Article 2.2. of the New Interim Constitutional Report by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), /EINPresswire.com/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, December 14, 2017 One thousand seven hundred and… Read more »

Tamil Refugee Still Says Nandri

Tortured by police, separated from his family for years, but Tamil refugee still says nandri – thank you Rescued after 22 hours in freezing water, Para Paheer applied for asylum in Australia. An extraordinary friendship with a Victorian woman helped ease the pain of waiting eight years to see his wife and son by Ben… Read more »

UN: Protectors or Watchers?

by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.], former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, January 1, 2018 The United Nations is a global organization that brings together its member states to confront common challenges, manage shared reponsibilities and exercise collective action in an enduring “quest for a peaceful world.”  One of the main purposes of the United… Read more »