by Ambika Satkunanathan, Groundviews, Colombo, March 29, 2020 ‘What physicians say about consumptive illness is applicable here: that at the beginning, such an illness is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been recognised or treated at the outset, it becomes easy to diagnose but difficult to cure.’ The… Read more »
Monthly Archives: March 2020
Arbitrary Release of a Convicted Military Officer Calls for a Rethink
On international strategies on Sri Lanka by Global Tamil Forum, March 28, 2020 PRESS STATEMENT 28 March 2020, London Arbitrary release of a convicted military officer calls for a rethink on international strategies on Sri Lanka The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) strongly condemns Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s decision to pardon and release Sunil Ratnayake, an… Read more »
Pardoning of Convicted Soldier Further Proof of Necessity for Internationalized Justice
by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), March 27, 2020 (Washington D.C., March 27, 2020) On 26 March 2020, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pardoned former Sri Lankan army Staff Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake, who was convicted in 2015 of participating in the December 2000 massacre of eight Tamil civilians, including a five-year old… Read more »
TGTE: Sri Lanka Pardons a Soldier Sentenced to Death for Killing Tamil Civilians
by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, New York, March 27, 2020 Sri Lanka is the first country to take advantage of Coronavirus crisis to persecute a community.” — Visivanathan Rudrakumaran NEW YORK, USA, March 27, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ — While the World Reels from the Coronavirus, Sri Lankan President Instead Focuses on Perpetuating Immunity for Int’l… Read more »
OHCHR Press Briefing Note on Sri Lanka
Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Rupert Colville Location: Geneva Date: 27 March 2020 Subject: Sri Lanka We are troubled by reports that the convicted perpetrator of the Mirusuvil massacre, in Sri Lanka, has received a Presidential Pardon and was released from jail this week. Former Army sergeant Sunil Ratnayake was sentenced in 2015… Read more »
Sri Lankan Leader Frees Soldier Convicted in Civilian Deaths
by Associated Press in The New York Times, March 26, 2020 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s president on Thursday freed a soldier who was sentenced to death for killing eight civilians during the country’s civil war. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office said he pardoned Sunil Ratnayake and ordered the justice ministry to release him. Ratnayake… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic
A military mindset by Thusiyan Nandakumar, The Polis Project, London, March 2020 This is part of a series of conversations interrogating militarization of medicine and public health and its adverse effects as various communities deal with COVID19. You can watch the video of this conversation with Dr Thusiyan Nandakumar on our Instagram handle In the… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment
a Violation of UN Charter and Fundamental Human Rights by Thambu Kanagasabai, PRESIDENT, The Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Organization Late President JR Jayewardene of Sri Lanka after allowing and being complicit in the massacres of Tamils in the 1977, 1983 pogroms and justifying them as a normal reaction of Sinhalese to take revenge… Read more »
OEF: Bay of Bengal Study
Notes development disparity between North-East and South by TamilNet, March 19, 2020 https://stableseas.org/publications/stable-seas-bay-bengal-maritime-security All the successive regimes in Colombo have focused on improving the economy of the Sinhala South after the onslaught on Eezham Tamils in 2009. The Sri Lankan State, which deploys ‘development’ coupled with geopolitics to sustain the protracted genocide against the nation… Read more »
The Securitization of Fear in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka
[This article is very relevant to the current crisis. – Ed] The production of crises, including the fear and xenophobia they instill, remains a pressing concern because they legitimate grounds for exceptional interventions (Agamben 1998; Mountz 2004). States produce crisis and fear to obtain consent for securitization measures. Probing the ways in which fear is… Read more »
Islam, Politics and Violence in Eastern Sri Lanka
by Bart Klem, Journal of Asian Studies, August 16, 2011 Islam Politics and Violence in Eastern Sri Lanka Abstract This article bridges Sri Lankan studies and the academic debate on the relation between contemporary Islam and politics. It constitutes a case study of the Muslim community in Akkaraipattu on Sri Lanka’s war-ridden east coast. Over… Read more »
Biloela (பிலொ-ஈலா) Tamil Family Symbolizes Our Plight
by N. Malathy, March 16, 2020 We are ONE but We are Many From all the Lands on Earth We come We’ll share a dream and sing in one Voice I am, You are, WE are Australians A verse by a supporter of the Biloela family. Nades and Priya arrived by boats in Australia seeking… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 55
Ulagam Suttru Vaaliban [The Globe Trotting Youth] by Sachi Sri Kantha, March 17, 2020 Part 54 [Front Note: For continuity with the previous chapter, I omit the political events, including the Bharat award (July 1972) to MGR and his expulsion from the DMK in October 1972 that preceded the release of Ulagam Sutrum Vaaliban movie… Read more »
A Qualitative Analysis on Historicizing Nationalist Discourse
of the Origins of the Communities of Sri Lanka among the Contemporary Sinhalese by Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan, University of Vavuniya, Melbourne Australia Nov 29-30, 2017, 19 (11) Part XIV A_Qualitative_Analysis_on_Historicizing Abstract— In the post-war reconciliation context, the Sri Lankans need to develop constructive discourse on political harmony, cohesion and co-habitation to make a positive impact on… Read more »
Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Chap.10 The Mandate Affirmed
by T. Sabaratnam, September 2003 Volume 1, Chapter 9 Original index of series| Original Vol. 1, Chapter 10 Chapter 10: The Mandate Affirmed Vaddukoddai Resolution Nine days after Pirapaharan founded the LTTE, the Tamil United Front held its first national convention at Pannakam in Vaddukoddai in the Jaffna Peninsula. It passed the historic ‘Vaddukoddai Resolution’… Read more »
Piraparaharan: Vol.1, Chap.9 TNT Matures into the LTTE
by T. Sabaratnam, September 2003 Volume 1, Chapter 8 Original index of series| Original Vol. 1, Chapter 9 Chapter 9: TNT matures into the LTTE The need for a Veeran The Duraiappah murder delivered the message Pirapaharan wanted to convey: a new force prepared to hit back had entered the Tamil scene. That created a… Read more »
Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Chap. 8 First Military Operation
by T. Sabaratnam, September 1, 2003 Volume 1, Chapter 7 Original index of series| Original Vol. 1, Chapter 8 Pirapaharan Returns Pirapaharan did what Sivakumaran failed to do. He killed Alfred Duraiappah. Sivakumaran’s death was one of the factors that induced Pirapaharan to return to Jaffna, the scene of action. With the death of Sivakumaran, the… Read more »
Pirapaharan: Vol. 1, Chap. 7 The Cyanide Suicide
by T. Sabaratnam, 2003 Volume 1, Chapter 6 Original index of series| Original Vol. 1, Chapter 7 Sivakumaran The death of nine spectators during the closing ceremony of the Fourth International Tamil Research Conference ended all the efforts Sirimavo Bandaranaike government had been making in 1973 to pacify the Tamil United Front. The deaths pained… Read more »
Pirapaharan: Vol.1, Chap.6 Birth of Tamil New Tigers
by T. Sabaratnam, August 15, 2003 Volume 1, Chapter 5 Original index of series Original Volume 1, Chapter 6 Pirapaharan entered the freedom struggle in the role of a leader of an armed group when he was 17 years old. He led a bomb attack on 17 September 1972 at the carnival held at Duraiappah… Read more »
Post-Tsunami Reconstruction Needs Assessment for the NorthEast
by Planning & Development Secretariat, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Kilinochchi, January 2005 Post-Tsunami Needs Assessment for the NE Jan 2005