by Ronnate Asirwatham, ‘Medium,’ May 28, 2019 The U.S. government’s hurried moves to expand military-to-military cooperation with Sri Lanka to fight terrorism after Easter Sunday’s bomb blasts is ill-advised because, Colombo’s counter-terrorism policies are shambles. Sri Lanka targets ethnic communities for acts of terrorist groups, and its military, enjoying impunity, uses torture as the main… Read more »
Monthly Archives: May 2019
What the Holocaust Can’t Teach Us about Modern-Day Genocide
Never Again? by Andrew Stroehlien, International Crisis Group, December 2, 2009 (originally published in ‘Foreign Policy’) It was cold, misty, and miserably wet the day we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, but no one wished for better weather. My companions — mostly midlevel diplomats from more than a dozen countries around the world — all seemed to agree… Read more »
Mervyn de Silva on Prabhakaran and Tamil-Muslim Antipathy
by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 17, 2019 Front Note by Sachi Since the last April 21st Easter Sunday’s multiple suicide attacks by the Muslim participants on Christian Churches and hotels in Colombo, there have been lopsided comparisons by ignoramus journalists and knee jerk commentators covering the major media outlets to the LTTE’s separatist war with… Read more »
Congressional Caucus Briefing May 1 2019
by Congressional Caucus on Ethnic & Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka, Washington, DC, May 1, 2019
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 17
Assassination of Bandaranaike by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 16 Bandaranaike, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias (1899-1959), the prime minister of Ceylon (1956-59), whose election marked a significant change socially and ethnically in the political history of modern Ceylon, was born on January 8. His father was the only son of Gate… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 16
‘Honorable wounds of war’ by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Tribune,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 15 “If Sinhalese lips will not speak the Sinhalese language, who else is there to speak? How is a nation to be lifted out of error, reformed and advance into plains of higher knowledge, except by its own language?” These were… Read more »
The Men Now Patrolling Sri Lanka
by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Europe & International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, May 2019 http://www.jdslanka.org/images/documents/2019_may_the_men_%20now_patrolling_sri_lanka_itjp__jds.pdf On Easter Sunday 2019, a series of coordinated bomb blasts struck hotels and churches in Sri Lanka killing more than 250 people, including many tourists. The targets were churches in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa… Read more »
A State of Disorientation
Dispatch from Sri Lanka after the Easter Bombings by Anuk Arukpragasam, TIME, May 22, 2019 Anuk Arudpragasam is a novelist from Colombo and is the author of The Story of a Brief Marriage. In Colombo, as though there is war once more, the ominous presence of heavily armed soldiers is everywhere. Ever since the Easter Sunday bombings,… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 15
Turbulence in any language By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 14 When the Western colonial powers, the Portuguese, Dutch and British, captured the littoral regions of Ceylon, they administered the North and East, the traditional habitat of the Tamils, as a single, whole and distinct unit, keeping intact the homogeneity and… Read more »
Statements by US Congress on 10th Year after End of War in Sri Lanka
Rep. David Price (D-NC), Co-Chair House Democracy Partnership — Rep David Price Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day 2019 Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH), Co-Chair of the Caucus on Ethnic & Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka —https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZYKeC4uMvc&feature=youtu.be Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Chair, Asia & Pacific Subcommittee — Rep. Brad Sherman statement end of war May 16 2019 &… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 14
Post-colonial realignment of political forces By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 13 The Minister of Trade and Commerce, C. Suntheralingham, the independent Member of Parliament representing Vavuniya and the long time associate of D.S. Senanayake, walked out of the Parliament chamber when a division was called on the second reading of… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 13
A nightmarish British legacy By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 12 In Britain, according to Brooke Bond Tea survey, people drink nearly 187 million cups of tea per day. It is understood that they normally drink the best – Ceylon Tea. A recent survey disclosed that, drinking at least one cup… Read more »
Sri Lankan Conflict Mapping Report
by Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Ltd., Sydney, Australia, May 14, 2019 Sri Lankan conflict mapping report highlights work to be done for transitional justice Media Releases Project highlights A decade since the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, a landmark report has been released detailing thousands of examples of reported human rights violations in… Read more »
Joint Statement on Sri Lanka by UN Special Advisers on Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect
Joint Statement by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Karen Smith, United Nations Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, on attacks against religious minorities in Sri Lanka (New York, 13 May 2019) Recalling their recent statements against violent extremism and hate speech, the United Nations Special Adviser on… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 12
Tryst with independence by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 11 The first-ever parliamentary general election in Ceylon was held in 1947, under the territorial representative system, but electioneering was conducted, out and out, on a communal basis. However, at the election propaganda meetings, D S Senanayake declared that he wishes to… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 11
On the threshold of freedom By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore, October 20, 2001 Chapter 1 Chapter 10 The Soulbury commissioners, after completion of their mission in Ceylon, left for London on a Royal Air Force flight on April 7, 1945. Subsequently, the Secretary of State for Colonies announced the rejection of the Free… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 51
About the Plagiarism charge on Karunanidhi Part 50 by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 5, 2019 In Part 48, I commented on MGR’s own selection of his best movies. Among the 14 movies, the second in his list Marutha Naatu Ilavarasi (The Princess from Marutha Nadu,1950; produced by G. Govindan & Co.) was in the news… Read more »
Land Grab & Colonization
by M.K. Eelaventhan, date & source unknown ‘The first prime minister of Sri Lanka, D.S. Senanayake, when inaugurating the Padaviya scheme of colonization openly and with no qualms stated the objective of his government as follows: “Today you are brought here and given a plot of land. You are men and women who will carry… Read more »