by Sunday Times, Dec. 25, 2022 Carrots tossed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the form of release of a few Prevention of Terrorism (PTA) political prisoners and return of lands to displaced owners in the North and East have given rise to unseemly jubilation on the part of Sri Lanka’s Tamil political leadership or what… Read more »
Monthly Archives: December 2022
The TGTE: Past Present and Future
by Usha Sriskandarajah, December 20, 2022 For the TGTE, Tamil Eelam is not a mere dream or aspiration or yearning or passion alone, it’s a commitment, an explicit, unequivocal and results-oriented goal that’s to be pursued and achieved using every peaceful means possible Text of the Keynote Address delivered by Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah, Member of… Read more »
All Party Conference, Division among Tamil Politicians & the Ethnic Question
by C.V. Wigneswaran, Colombo Telegraph, December 20, 2022 A Journalist from Colombo asked me: There seems to be a polarisation among you Tamil Politicians after the President invited you for discussions on the ethnic question. Some have condemned you “Et tu Brute” for attending the Conference. Do you think apart from dividing the Tamil politicians anything… Read more »
Policy in Tamil National Politics – A Public Challenge?
by J. Jathindra, Facebook post, July 19, 2022 [translated from the Tamil original by Google Translate with corrections by the editor.] It has been 16 years since the death of LTTE leader Anton Balasingham. December 14th was his sixteenth death anniversary. On that day, an all-party meeting led by Ranil Wickresinghe was held on the… Read more »
Everyone Hitched to a Slipping Horse?
by Nillanthan Maha on his blog, December 17, 2022 [translated from the Tamil original by Google Translate with corrections by the editor.] From the Ramanathan brothers to the Sambandars, they have been deceived by the Sinhala leaders. It is [the Tamil] political experience of almost a century. During the past one century, the talks, meetings… Read more »
Views Expressed at All-Party Conference on Ethnic Issue
by Morning.lk, Colombo, December 15, 2022 President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently emphasised that all political parties should come to a common agreement to provide a solution to the ethnic problem by the upcoming 75th Independence Celebration. President Wickremesinghe reiterated this at the All-Party Conference held at the Presidential Secretariat on Tuesday (13). The President convened this… Read more »
SL Parties Agree to Find Solution to Ethnic Question by Feb 4, 2023
Analysis by P.K. Balachandran, Eurasia Review, December 14, 2022 There was agreement on the full implementation of the 13th Amendment first, and on the finalization of the contours of a new constitution with maximum devolution, by the 75th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s independence On the strong urging of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the All-Party Conference (APC)… Read more »
The ‘Pirabhakaran Phenomenon’ Book
by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 25, 2022 Pirabhakaran Phenomenon, by Sachi Sri Kantha, 2005 Seventeen years had passed since my analytical biography ‘Pirabhakaran Phenomenon’ on Velupillai Prabhakaran (1954-2009) was published in a print version. This biography was first serialized in the Sangam site for two years from May 2, 2001 to Feb 19, 2003. Though… Read more »
US Sanctions Another Sri Lankan War Criminal
Sri Lanka Prabath Bulathwatte (Bulathwatte), former head of a clandestine Sri Lankan Army platoon, known as the “Tripoli Platoon,” Pursuant to Section 7031(c), the Department of State is designating Bulathwatte for his involvement in a gross violation of human rights, namely torture and/or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of Sri Lankan journalist, Keith… Read more »
Will the Tamil Parties’ Talks with the Lankan President Bear Fruit?
by P.K.Balachandran, Daily Mirror, Colombo, December 7, 2022 Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will be meeting the Tamil parties of the Northern and Eastern Provinces on December 11 to find a solution to the longstanding Tamil issue. But the chances of a solution emerging look extremely dim given the fact that the gulf between the… Read more »
Tamil Nationalist Parties and a Power Sharing Arrangement
Based on the Federal Idea by DBS Jeyaraj, Daily FT, Colombo, November 23, 2022 Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism has been primarily reactive in nature. The Tamils thought of themselves as being on par with the Sinhala people as co-founders of the modern nation of Ceylon. Universal franchise and territorial representation reduced them to a principal… Read more »
The Untold Story of Ancient Tamils in Sri Lanka
by by Prof. Bertram Bastiampillai, Sri Lanka Guardian, March 31, 2008 “And history may need to rewritten in the light of new evidence and argument. Much about Tamils needs to be unraveled and examined according to the author who is convinced and tries to convince that Tamils had been in the island from early years… Read more »
Sinhalization of the North-East
by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, March 2022 State-Sponsored-Sinhalization-of-the-North-East-March-2022 Executive Summary This report outlines the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL)’s multi-pronged Sinhalization efforts in the North-East through the use of state-aided Sinhala settlements and irrigation schemes, economic marginalization and land appropriation by Sri Lankan state bodies, “Buddhisization,” and repression of memorialization of important… Read more »
Uprooting People from the Land
Land Grabbing: Current Status and Trends in Sri Lanka by Sri Lanka Nature Group & People’s Alliance for Right to Land – PARL, June 2012 Uprooting People from the Land Land Grabbing Current Status 2012 Abstract This study was carried out to determine the present status and trends of land grabbing in Sri Lanka. The… Read more »
Abandoned to Their Fate, Northern Villagers Battle to Survive
by Minoli de Soysa, Groundviews, Colombo, November 29, 2022 They are a small, tight knit community held together by their shared suffering and insurmountable difficulties. Ever since the start of the 1983 civil war, their lives have been marked by tragedy and misery. The 22 families who live in the village of Kanchanamutti in the… Read more »
Thaainilam – Land Grabbing
The Real Pandemic for the Tamils in Sri Lanka – Documentary Film Youth Panel Discussion Sept.25, 2021 on ThaaiNilam: Land Grabbing Documentary at Film Premiere
No Space for Memory?
Monuments, Memorials and the Residues of the War in Sri Lanka’s North by Lia Kent, Arena Quarterly, Australia, May 29, 2020 The monuments are impossible to miss. Rising from the flat and otherwise featureless Vanni—the broad, scrubby northern region so different from the dense, fertile vegetation of the island’s south—these official markers to the end… Read more »
The Massacres in Sri Lanka during the Black July Riots of 1983
by Eleanor Pavey, SciencesPo Mass Violence and Resistance – Research Network, France, May 13, 2008 A. CONTEXT The 1983 massacres in Sri Lanka are best understood within the context of the post-independent state of affairs that prevailed in the country at that time. Having obtained independence from its British colonial rulers on February 4, 1948,… Read more »