by Victor Rajalingam, May 30, 2022 The Jaffna Library after it was burnt down. The burning of the Jaffna Public Library took place on the 31st of May, 1981, when an organized mob of Sinhalese individuals went on a rampage, burning the library. It was one of the most violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the 20th… Read more »
Monthly Archives: May 2022
Noolaham: Preserving Lanka’s Tamil Language Heritage Digitally
by Shannine Daniel, The Sunday Times, Colombo, May 29, 2022 The Noolaham digital library was initially a Tamil language “virtual library” which contained documents, books, manuscripts, videos, photos and other material in the Tamil language. Established in 2005, it has since expanded to include books and other documents in Sinhala, English, Sanskrit, Dutch and French…. Read more »
On Rajiv Gandhi’s Folly of Humanitarian ‘Air Drop’
Of 1987 by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 29, 2022 This is a sequel to my previously posted item of March 11, 2022, ‘On Rajiv Gandhi’s pretense for Eelam Cause: ‘Operation Flower Garland’ of 1987. I provide a 1987 anthology below, consisting of editorials that appeared in the New York Times (June 7, 1987) and the… Read more »
Behind the Lyrics of Rathna Sri Wijesinghe
by Yamu, Colombo, July 21, 2021 It was the early 80s. Born into a Sinhala, Buddhist family in the South, Vineetha Samarasinghe Gunasekara fell in love with Balasingham Nadesan, a handsome, young Tamil man from the North. https://youtu.be/y8gyYsgRpdw Poets are not always born, nor are lyricists. Therefore, it’s quite rare to come across someone who is a poet and a… Read more »
‘Prisoner #1056: A Survivor’s Story’
Why and how, I wrote Prisoner #1056 – The story behind the story by Roy Ratnavel, May 18, 2022 Book expected to be released by Penguin Random House on April 18th, 2023. Pre-order at https://www.amazon.ca/Prisoner-1056-Survivors-Roy-Ratnavel-ebook/dp/B09Z4JKCCV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2D3PVSCLYHW3V&keywords=roy+ratnavel&qid=1652886733&sprefix=roy+rat%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-1 ‘The Rise’ Keynote Address about the book, May 8, 2022, London on YouTube In my thirties, perhaps around the age… Read more »
Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka – Session III
Berlin Session by Permanent People’s Tribunal, Berlin, May 20-22, 2022 Following the Sessions held in Dublin (14-16 January 2010) and Bremen (7-10 December 2013), the third Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka will take place under the aegis of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on 20-22 May 2022 in Berlin. As was the case with previous sessions, this third session was requested by… Read more »
Journalist in Hiding After She Exposed ‘Unlawful’ Leader
by Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times, London, May 14, 2022, Tamil & Sinhalese translations of the English provided. (Sinhala version has not been verified) Gotabaya Unlawful Election The Times May 14 2022 ‘If they knew I was doing this, Rajapaksa’s thugs would take my children and send me their heads in a basket’ Journalist in… Read more »
13 Years Ago Today – A Massacre in Mullivaikkal
by Tamil Guardian, London, May 18, 2022 Photograph: A scene of devastation in Mullivaikkal pictured days after the Sri Lankan military had overrun the area. Marking 13 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, we revisit the final days leading up to the 18th of May 2009 – a date remembered… Read more »
Sri Lanka, the Bamboo Lounge
by Roy Ratnavel, May 15, 2022 Some people like to collect coins, first edition stamps, retro comic books or sports memorabilia. I collect spoken words. I hunt and gather these words when I overhear them on the street while watching movies, in my living room via television. These words of the mouth include cultural sayings,… Read more »
Notable Tamil Sycophants of Rajapaksa Rascals
by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 12, 2022 The dictionary definition for sycophant is revealing, “n. servile flatterer, toady, parasitic person. From French sycophante or from Latin > Greek sukophantes informer.” [The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 7th ed., 1983, pp. 1081-1082] Now that the stars and fortunes of the Rajapaksas have… Read more »
Amnesty: Trinco Five at GTOB
by Amnesty International USA, Apri, 28, 2022 On April 29, Amnesty International USA held its 2022 virtual “Get on the Bus” event, featuring speakers and actions on Sri Lanka, Tibet/China, Syria and Ukraine. The speaker for Sri Lanka was Thyagi Ruwanpathirana, Amnesty’s South Asia and Sri Lanka researcher. She spoke about the case of the… Read more »
An Ignored Genocide
Of Tamils at Mullivaikkal in Sri Lanka by Thambu Kanagasabai LLM London, Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 11, 2022 There cannot be any plausible reasons to deny the fact of a genocidal agenda initiated by the Sri Lankan Governments immediately after the independence in 1948 against the Tamils living in… Read more »
The Roots of Sri Lanka’s Crisis
by Michael, Kugelman, Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief, Washington, DC, May 12, 2022 For months, anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka have railed against skyrocketing inflation and an economic crisis that has nearly exhausted Sri Lankan foreign reserves. They have demanded the resignations of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda, who stepped down as prime… Read more »
Sri Lankan Protesters Dig in as a New Prime Minister is Named
by Gerry Shih, The Washington Post, May 12, 2022 Catholic nuns at a protest outside the Presidential Secretariat in Sri Lanka. (Chamila Karunarathne/European Pressphoto Agency) COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — As Sri Lanka emerged Thursday from days of street clashes and a military curfew, word spread that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had picked a new prime minister… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 66
Recognized Friends and Adversaries by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 9, 2022 Part 65 Fellow MGR biographer R. Kannan’s comments, on Part 65, received on April 1st, expanded a little on the conflict that Communists (CPI) had with DMK, in early 1970s. For the uninitiated, Karunanidhi is referred by his honorary sobriquet among DMK sympathizers: ‘Kalaignar’… Read more »
ITJP: Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Role in 1989 Mass Atrocities
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, May 10, 2022 ITJP_1989_mass_grave_report_v6_WEB This is a joint report from the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) and Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS). As Sri Lanka is enveloped in unprecedented anger directed at the Rajapaksa family, a new report reveals that the President,… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Dual Crisis
Ethnic Conflict & the Debt Economy Reimagining a pluralist Sri Lanka in the wake of the ‘Gota Go Home’ movement. by Nalika Gajaweera, Jamhoor, North America, May 4, 2022 “Except for the home crowd cheering for our national team at an international cricket match, it was the first time I was seeing Sri Lankans united… Read more »
Tsunami Disaster in the Island of Sri Lanka
by Tamil Centre for Human Rights, Paris, date unknown, but probably 2005 (info in 2nd & 3rd tables are as of March 10, 2005) Tamil Centre for Human Rights – TCHR Centre Tamoul pour les Droits de l’Homme Email : tchrgs /A_T/ tchr /D_O_T/ net / tchrdip /A_T/ tchr /D_O_T/ net Website : www.tchr.net A… Read more »
A Perpetrator State Demands Non-violence
In Sri Lanka By Vindhya Buthpitiya, Urban Violence, UK, May 3, 2022 Weeks of citizen-led protests in Sri Lanka have demanded that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ‘go home’. These protests began in early March, in response to the worst economic crisis the country has seen in decades. In this blog, Vindhya Buthpitiya (Associate Lecturer, University of St Andrews) reflects… Read more »
‘We Have Bitten Off More than We Can Chew’
Sri Lankan Finance Minister Sabry tells Parliament by Press Trust of India in Indian Express, May 4, 2022 Detailing the perilous state of the economy, Ali Sabry said Sri Lanka’s usable foreign reserves which were at around USD 7 billion in 2019, had dropped to less than USD 50 million now. “We have bitten off… Read more »