Urges further investigation into conduct of final stages of the war Pillay on Sri Lanka by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, 26 April 2011 GENEVA (26 April 2011) — The High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Tuesday welcomed the public release of the report of the Secretary-General’s Panel… Read more »
Monthly Archives: January 2022
Indian Ocean Strategic Studies Newsletter
by Indian Ocean Strategic Studies, New York, January 2022 Indian Ocean Strategic Studies newsletter January 2022 Mission of the IOSS Indian Ocean is at the heart of international geo-politics. Some 80% of the world’s maritime oil trade flows through three narrow passages of water, known as choke points, in the Indian Ocean. This includes the… Read more »
Providing Facilities to Tamils
President’s new panacea to solve their 72 years of ethnic problems by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo. Sri Lanka, January 26, 2022 Sri Lankan President’s opening speech on January 18, 2022 detailing his commitments and acceptance of the current volatile situation is welcome on paper, but whether they would… Read more »
India Stays in the Game Facing a Pushy China
by Indrani Bagchi, Times of India, January 21, 2022 China will never “bully” its neighbours in the South China Sea, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi promised the Philippines this week. Instead, he preached: “Stressing only one side’s claims and imposing one’s own will on the other is not a proper way for neighbours to treat… Read more »
Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict
Practicing Bharata Natyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka by Ahalya Satkunaratnam, Wesleyan University Press, April 7, 2020 Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict is a groundbreaking ethnographic examination of dance practice in Colombo, Sri Lanka, during the civil war (1983–2009). It is the first book of scholarship on bharata natyam (a classical dance originating in India) in Sri Lanka,… Read more »
‘Sovereignty, Space and Civil War in Sri Lanka’
Porous Nation by Anoma Pieris Routledge, 2019 9781351246347 Analyses of the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) overwhelmingly represent it as an ethnonationalist contest, prolonging postcolonial arguments on the creation and dissolution of the incipient nation-state since independence in 1948. While colonial divide-and-rule policies, the rise of ethnonationalist lobbies, structural discrimination and majoritarian democracy have been… Read more »
The Bharatanatyam Dancer as Transnational Interpreter
At home in the world? by Janet O’Shea, TDR: The Drama Review, UK, 2003 Bharatanatyam Dancer as Transnational Interpreter The stage lights come up gradually as a bharatanatyam dancer, costumed in a tailored silk sari and beautifully adorned in jewelry, walks out from backstage. In a manner neither formal nor completely relaxed, she walks downstage… Read more »
HRW: Minorities, Activists Targeted
Actions Contradict Pledges of Legal Reform by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 13, 2022 The Sri Lankan government in 2021 suppressed minority communities, harassed activists, and undermined democratic institutions, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022. The government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa failed to carry out legal reforms promised to its international partners… Read more »
Review: ‘You People’ by Nikita Lalwani
The limits of compassion by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, The Guardian, Manchester UK, April 1, 2020 A London pizzeria staffed by undocumented migrants is the setting for a moving exploration of how to be kind in an unkind world Nikita Lalwani’s 2007 debut Gifted, the story of a maths prodigy raised by her Hindu parents in Cardiff… Read more »
Memoriam: Professor Margaret Trawick (1948 – 2022)
by Sachi Sri Kantha, January 23, 2022 Among Eelam Tamils, a few Tamil women academics such as Dr. Rajani Thiranagama (1954-1989) and Radhika Coomaraswamy (b. 1953) wrote anti-LTTE tracts, for their personal glory as beacons of human rights. But, Professor Margaret Trawick (1948-2022), though not being born as a Tamil, contributed her energy as an… Read more »
China’s Bare-chested Turn to Sri-Lankan Tamils is India’s New Headache
by Shrey Khanna, The Print, New Delhi, January 17, 2022 Anti-China sentiment among the Sinhalese allows China to influence the Tamil north. This time, through the fishermen crisis. The arrest of more than 60 Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy last month created a political stir in Tamil Nadu. The state’s fishermen are continuing their indefinite strike from 19 December,… Read more »
China Sits on the Sidelines of Peace Efforts
Despite High Stakes in Ethiopia by Joseph Sany, Ph.D. & Thomas P. Sheehy, US Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, January 19, 2022 Since November of 2020, Ethiopia has been suffering from a deadly internal conflict that has claimed an estimated 50,000 lives and displaced over two million. The United States, the African Union and others… Read more »
Friend or Foe? China Ventures into the Tamil Homeland
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, December 24, 2021 Last week China’s ambassador to Sri Lanka made his first visit to the North-East, in an interesting venture to the Tamil homeland. Qi Zhenhong went to great lengths to ingratiate himself with the Tamil people. The ambassador’s efforts ranged from visiting the historic Jaffna Library where he donated laptops and… Read more »
A United Voice for a Referendum for Eelam Tamils
by Kumarathasan Rasingam, Secretary, Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Org., January 21, 2022 “A people who are subjugated by an alien people have the inherent right to free themselves from such alien subjugation” It is the right which is the right of self determination – A right which has today become a peremptory norm… Read more »
Taking the Military to Task with International Sanctions
by Groundviews, January 17, 2022 Interview with Ms. Yasmine Sooka, head of International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa While Sri Lanka grapples with an inevitable economic meltdown, the international community has not forgotten the country’s obligations to move towards a reconciled society through the process of transitional justice. One of the requirements for sustainable… Read more »
Did You Come with the Pongal Package, Brother?
by Nillanthan in his blog, January 16, 2022 [translated from the Tamil by Google Translate with some edits] Sajit Premadasa had arranged a meeting in Jaffna last Tuesday. The meeting was organized by the National Organization for Professionals and the Intellectuals Forum in support of the United People’s Power Alliance. Scholars from the University of… Read more »
Sri Lanka on the Edge as Debt Burden Mounts
Explainer by Uditha Jayasinghe, Reuters, January 17, 2022 COLOMBO, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka is facing its most serious financial crisis in years, raising doubts about its ability to pay its creditors. On Tuesday, the island nation will repay $500 million towards an international sovereign bond, the first tranche… Read more »
About the Chinese Gumshoe Activities
Record of a Recent Digital Duel Now connect the dots please: LTTE turncoat K.P – Kapila Hendawitharana – Chinese gumshoes. Hence, this note. by Sachi Sri Kantha, January 4, 2022 As one who enjoyed the sword fencing duels – MGR vs. Veerappa or MGR vs. Nambiar – in old Tamil movies in my teenage years,… Read more »
2022 – Tamil Eelam Politics?
by Jathindra, Samakalam, January 2, 2022 [translated from the Tamil by Google Translate with some edits] There is a claim in Naladiyar (a Tamil poetic anthology written 100 CE) “All the days that pass are your lifetime.” Does this apply to our politics? Because in a political struggle – as the years go by, people… Read more »
Seven Tamil Parties Seek Modi’s Help for Implementing 13-A in Full
by DBS Jeyaraj, Daily Mirror, Colombo, January 8, 2022 In a significant political move, seven political parties mainly representing the Sri Lankan Tamils of the Northern and Eastern provinces have written a joint letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his help to fully implement the provisions of the 13th amendment to the Constitution…. Read more »