‘We are bracing ourselves’ by Thusiyan Nandakumar, Tamil Guardian, London, May 4, 2021 Amidst a devastating wave of coronavirus in India, across the Palk Strait in Sri Lanka infections have also been rapidly rising, with newly diagnosed cases breaking records every day. Clusters are now appearing across the island, sparking fears not only of a… Read more »
Monthly Archives: May 2021
Amnesty: Assessment of Outcomes of 46th Session of UNHRC
And recommendations for follow-up by Amnesty International, London, April 22, 2021 IOR4039142021ENGLISH.PDF (amnesty.org) SRI LANKA We welcome the adoption of landmark resolution 46/1 on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, which is an important step forward and offers renewed hope of long-awaited justice for victims of the country’s 30-year civil conflict. The… Read more »
HRW: Reject ‘Political Victimization’ Findings
Government Seeks to Absolve Allies for Abuses, Prosecute Officials Pursuing Justice by Human Rights Watch, April 30, 2021 (New York) – Sri Lanka’s parliament should reject a resolution to exonerate officials implicated in human rights abuses and to prosecute police and prosecutors investigating them, Human Rights Watch said today. Adopting the resolution, brought before parliament on… Read more »
Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in India
Conceptual Framework of Repatriation Success by Miriam George, Anita Vaillancourt, and s. Irudaya Rajan, Refuge, Vol. 36, No.3, 2016 Sri Lankan Refugees in India Repatriation Success 2016 Abstract Repatriation to Sri Lanka has become a primary challenge to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in Indian refugee camps, and a matter of significant public discussion in India… Read more »
‘Pirapaharan,’ Volume 1 & 2 by T. Sabaratnam Reposted
From the Editor Mr. T. Sabaratnam wrote a two-volume historical biography of Velupillai Pirapaharan and his time from 2002-2005 that was posted on the Sangam website. This history is of the period before the war began and of the early stages of the war. It dwells on the root causes and the background of those… Read more »
India Today 1986: ‘Profile of a Tiger
by India Today, 1986
Sri Lanka’s Muslims Face Backlash
Two Years After Easter Attacks Sri Lankan government ramps up restrictions on minority community. by Jumaina Siddiqui, Melissa Nosell, US Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, April 29, 2021 Two years after the Easter Sunday attacks that left 269 dead and injured more than 500, Sri Lanka’s Christian community is still waiting for justice while its… Read more »
Inside Camps, Outside Battlefields
Security and Survival for Tamil Women by Nimmi Gowrinathan, St Antony’s International Review, 9, no. 1 (2013): 11-32, Oxford, UK Gowrinathan Inside Camps Outside Battlefields 2013 Abstract In May of 2009, images of displaced Tamil people trapped behind the barbed wireof internment camps flashed across the world. “Everybody wanted to get out of those camps, but they… Read more »
From Sachi’s Files – Chapter 17
My Participation at the Madurai Tamil Research Conference (January 3-11, 1981) by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 1, 2021 Front Note Forty years ago, I made my first (and as of now, only) trip to India, as a Sri Lankan Tamil delegate to the 5th International Tamil Research Conference, held in Madurai, between Jan. 5 and… Read more »
Myanmar’s Ethnic Divisions Soften After Coup
‘Now We Are United’ Very much wishful thinking going on in this article!! — Editor by Hannah Beech, The New York Times, April 30, 2021 Amid the resistance to military rule, some are saying that democracy can’t flourish without respecting the minorities that have been persecuted for decades. The Myanmar military’s disinformation was crude but effective…. Read more »