The fallout of the Easter Sunday bombings has exposed deep fractures in Sri Lanka’s leadership by Thusiyan Nandakumar, The National, UAE, April 28, 2019 Politicians are playing the blame game and there are fears a security crackdown will create an environment of impunity once again Sri Lanka is in crisis. A week on from the horrific bomb… Read more »
Monthly Archives: April 2019
‘Collective Responsibility, Vital to Address Issues’
by Anuradha Kodagoda, The Sunday Observer, Colombo, April 28, 2019 A series of coordinated bombings on Easter Sunday shattered a relatively calm period in the country, threatening to restore factional tensions that fueled a three- decade civil war. The government has acknowledged major lapses in governance and its failure to prevent the dreadful Easter Sunday… Read more »
Unholy Tension in Lanka’s Muslim East
Different interpretations of Islam by Thawheed and traditional school divide the community by Chris Kamalendran, Asif Fuard and cameraman Saman Kariyawasam in Kattankudy, The Sunday Times, Colombo, August 9, 2009 The tiny coastal village of Kattankudy, a ten minutes drive from the eastern capital of Batticaloa, lies in a picturesque setting. Its boundaries hug the… Read more »
What Sri Lanka Needs Now
by Kitana Ananda and Mythri Jegathesan, CNN, USA, April 28, 2019 Since multiple blasts killed at least 253 people and injured hundreds more in Sri Lanka last Sunday, the government has declared a state of emergency, bringing back draconian anti-terrorism laws that will curtail civil liberties and increase militarization. Officials have begun to investigate, and though… Read more »
A Decade After Failing to Stop Massacres in Sri Lanka
What has the UN learned? by Richard Gowan, World Politics Review, March 19, 2019 When faced with a crisis, U.N. officials grapple with two imperatives. There is the moral compulsion to protect the suffering. And there is the equal, and frequently greater, need to balance the interests of the power players involved. While outsiders lionize… Read more »
The Best Books to Understand Modern Terrorism
After Sri Lanka by Iain Overton, The Guardian, UK, April 25, 2019 Though the first suicide bombing was in 1881, 40% of those killed by them have died in the last five years. Iain Overton picks the best books that explain why Terror is not a new phenomenon. The 19th-century invention of dynamite by a… Read more »
Cases Against Gotabaya Rajapakshe
Fighting for delayed accountability and justice by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Gotabaya Rajapakshe, who is a dual citizen of Sri Lanka and USA, flew back to Sri Lanka after the victory of Mahinda Rajapakshe as the President in 2005. He was appointed as the Defence Secretary… Read more »
What Happened in Sri Lanka? Here’s What You Need to Know
These attacks come at a precarious political moment. by Kate Cronin-Furman, The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, April 23, 2019 Bombs ripped through three churches and four hotels in a series of attacks in Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. The casualty count currently stands at more than 300 dead and more than 500 injured. What do we know about the… Read more »
There is a Thread Running Through Sri Lanka’s Cycles of Violence
Sri Lanka’s minorities – including its Christians and Muslims – have paid a high price for the state’s failure to protect them by Farah Mihlar, The Guardian, UK, April 23, 2019, modified April 24, 2019 As mass burials for some of the Christian worshippers killed in the Easter Sunday bombings take place today, claims that the… Read more »
The Sri Lanka Attacks: New Front, Old Wounds
The bombings will fuel inter-communal tensions in Sri Lanka, which still struggles with the legacy of its civil war. by Mario Arulthas, Al Jazeera, April 22, 2019 OPINION /SRI LANKA The attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday for many brought back memories of the long ethnic war, which came to a bloody conclusion 10 years ago in… Read more »
‘Why Kill the Innocents?’ Sri Lankans Mourn Bombing Victims
by Jeffrey Gettleman and Dharisha Bastians, The New York Times, April 22, 2019 NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka — The little room, like much of Sri Lanka, could not hold any more grief. All day Monday, through the steamy heat, mourners quietly stepped inside and paused in front of a sealed coffin containing what was left of… Read more »
Understanding the Easter Sunday Attacks – and the Risks Ahead
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, London, April 22, 2019 At time of writing, 290 people are confirmed to have been killed following a series of blast attacks at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. Hundreds more have been injured.[1] The Sri Lanka Campaign condemns the appalling crimes that took place yesterday and stands… Read more »
Understanding a State of Emergency
by Dr. Asanga Welikala, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, March 2018 Sri Lanka’s last state of emergency lasted for 28 years, and was terminated in August 2011, having continuously been extended by governments since it was first declared in 1983. On March 6th 2018, President Maithripala Sirisena declared a state of emergency in order to address and contain the violence… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Bloody Easter Puts Spotlight on a New Terror Threat
by Ishan Tharoor, Washington Post, April 22, 2019 A shocking, coordinated series of bombings on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka marked one of the world’s bloodiest terrorist attacks over the past half-decade. At least 290 people were killed and more than 450 others injured after suicide bombers exploded devices in three churches in the cities… Read more »
Attacks Evidence Sri Lanka Post-War but Not Post-Conflict Country
Ten years on from civil war, Sri Lanka has failed to reconcile religions and communities by Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan, ‘Irish Times,’ April 21, 2019 Sri Lanka’s past is one that is blood-soaked with violent chapters. On Sunday, another bloody chapter was added to the island’s history. A country of 21 million people, Sri Lanka shares many similarities… Read more »
For Christians in Sri Lanka, Violence is at Once Old and New
by Emily Tamkin, Washington Post, April 22, 2019 No group or individual has asserted responsibility for the attacks on churches and hotels that killed more than 290 people and injured more than 450 in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. But the suicide bombings on the holiest day of the Christian calendar, when churches see their highest attendance… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 10
Lord Soulbury and his soulless report by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 9 On August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber named Enola Gay, piloted by Paul W Tibbets, dropped the “Little Boy” – a uranium atom bomb, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where more than 140,000 civilians died. Three… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 9
British Concordance and concoctions By K.T.Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore, September 29, 2001 Chapter 1 Chapter 8 It became apparent that the British government had adopted a different agenda and new designs regarding the future of Ceylon to that which some people in the country desired. State Council member D S Senanayake was one of these,… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 8
Pan Sinhalese board of ministers – A Sinhalese ploy By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 7 The first State Council, which came into existence on July 7, 1931, was scheduled to be dissolved on June 23, 1935, but its life was extended until December 7 of that year. This was done… Read more »
Sri Lankans Accuse Him of Wartime Atrocities
California May Decide. by Mike Ives and Dharisha Bastians, The New York Times, April 19, 2019 In the decade since Sri Lanka’s civil war ended, a former wartime defense chief has successfully dodged accusations of crimes against humanity. He may soon run for president. But the accusations, which are supported by United Nations inquiries, recently caught up… Read more »