by Oakland Institute, California, September 12, 2024 —FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE— September 12, 2024; 6:00 AM PDT Media Contact: amittal /A_T/ oaklandinstitute /D_O_T/ org, +1 510-469-5228 As the 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) addresses the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, a new report details how 15 years after the brutal end of the… Read more »
Impact of the Lack of Justice and Accountability
What impact has the lack of justice and accountability for the end of the Civil War meant for Tamil people in the present Excerpt from “The Lingering Economic Consequences of Sri Lanka’s Civil War” by Devana Senanayake, People’s Alliance to the Right to Land, Colombo, September 6, 2024 This year marks 15 years since the… Read more »
Manifesto of the Tamil Candidate
Political Anguish of the Tamils . By S.V. Kirubaharan, Tamil Centre for Human Rights, France, September 13, 2024 . (So far, this manifesto has been published only in Tamil. Therefore, if there are any errors in the English terminology used, these must be excused.) . For over a year, the Tamil people have been united… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 77
Learning the Ropes in Governance during Morarji’s Tenure by Sachi Sri Kantha, September 13, 2024 Comments received from fellow MGR biographer R. Kannan about the contents in Part 76 of this series, were as follows: “Hearty congratulations on completing seventy-five chapters. I am touched by your most generous thank-you. It wasn’t required, and the sentiments are… Read more »
Last Chance for Lanka
As the island nation gears up for national polls on September 21 by India Today, New Delhi, September 2024 The presidential polls would give Sri Lanka another chance to make their fortunes with Sajith Premadasa and Ranil Wickremesinghe among the dozen other leaders in the fray for the polls. Video – https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/last-chance-for-lanka-as-the-island-nation-gears-up-for-presidential-polls-on-september-21/vi-AA1pM2wp?ocid=socialshare&cvid=dd3931ff002b40d799101966076a07e9&ei=24 Article – Last… Read more »
Ambassador Who Had Lankan Politics in His Blood
by K.M. de Silva, Sunday Times, Colombo, October 5, 2008 The death occurred on August 30 this year of W. Howard Wriggins, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from 1977 to 1979 and well-known scholar who specialised on Sri Lanka and the region during his years at Columbia University whose South Asian Institute… Read more »
Sri Lanka Nears Critical Election
by Michael Kugelman, Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief, Washington, DC, September 11, 2024 Sri Lanka is gearing up for a presidential election on Sept. 21. The Sri Lankan presidency is a powerful post, not a ceremonial one. The race is essentially between three leaders: current President Ranil Wickremesinghe; Sajith Premadasa, a former Wickremesinghe ally who… Read more »
UNHRC: 57th Session
September 9, morning: 1st Meeting – 57th Regular Session of Human Rights Council | UN Web TV ITEM 1: Opening of session ITEM 2: Oral update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights ITEM 2: ID on report of Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar ITEM 2: ID on OHCHR report on Sri Lanka September 9, afternoon:2nd… Read more »
PEARL: Sri Lanka’s Atrocities Against Tamils in 2009 Constitute Genocide
by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, Washington, DC Full report: Justice-for-Genocide-Sri-Lankas-Responsibility-for-Genocide-Against-the-Tamil-People-in-2009 For Immediate Release Comprehensive Legal Analysis Urges Genocide Recognition (Geneva, September 9, 2024)– The Sri Lankan government and military committed genocide against the Tamil people in 2009, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) said in a legal briefing paper released today…. Read more »
WikiLeaks: EPDP Sold Jaffna Children
Girls To Prostitution Rings And Boys To Slavery by Colombo Telegraph, September 13, 2013 “The children are sold into slavery, usually boys to work camps and girls to prostitution rings, through EPDP’s networks in India and Malaysia. Sunthararaj maintains that children are often smuggled out of the country with the help of a corrupt Customs and Immigration… Read more »
Post-War Sri Lanka: Exploring the Path Not Taken
by Rohini Hensman, Dialectical Anthropology 39, pp. 273-293, April 16, 2015 Introduction Almost immediately after Independence, the government of Sri Lanka enacted legislation depriving Hill-country Tamils of their citizenship and franchise; subsequent governments enacted laws and carried out policies discriminating against and persecuting all Tamil-speaking citizens, with the avowed intention of making Sri Lanka a… Read more »
Response to Indian Foreign Minister’s Remarks by US Tamils
by Tamil Diaspora News, September 1, 2024 The BJP once acknowledged the Tamil genocide, yet now urges support for those responsible. Voting for a Tamil candidate is far from a waste—just as Tamils in Tamil Nadu chose to support their own instead of the BJP. When minorities vote for their own candidates, it is a… Read more »
‘The DMK Years – Ascent, Descent, Survival’ by R. Kannan
Book Review by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 21, 2024 The DMK Years – Ascent, Descent, Survival by R. Kannan, Penguin Random House India, Gurugram, Haryana, 2024, 748 pp, 1,299 rupees. Year 2024 marks the 75th birth anniversary year of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party of Tamil Nadu AND the birth centenary year of Muthuvel Karunanidhi… Read more »
Is the IMF Setting Sri Lanka Up for a 2nd Car Crash?
by Theo Maret and Brad Setser, FinancialTimes, London, September 5, 20024 Theo Maret is a research analyst at Global Sovereign Advisory and writes a sovereign debt newsletter. Brad Setser is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Treasury Department official. Sri Lanka is bankrupt and restructuring its debts. But there’s a high… Read more »
External Actors Disrupted the Power Symmetry Between the Sri Lankan State and LTTE
TGTE Prime Minister Rudrakumaran Speaks on Norwegian Peace Talks on Peace Lawyering Podcast “External Actors Disrupted the Power Symmetry Between the Sri Lankan State and LTTE” – Rudrakumaran WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, August 26, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — On August 8, 2024, Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) Prime Minster Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran was interviewed on the… Read more »
The Bitter Fight Over the Meaning of ‘Genocide’
Debates over how to describe conflicts in Gaza, Myanmar and elsewhere are channeling a controversy as old as the word itself. by Linda Kinstler, The New York Times, August 20, 2024 Linda Kinstler is a junior fellow at Harvard’s Society of Fellows and the author of “Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust… Read more »
UNHCHR: Situation of Human Rights in Sri Lanka
Comprehensive report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Advance unedited version A/HRC/57/19 August 19, 2024 Summary In the present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 51/1, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights provides a comprehensive analysis of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, highlighting some concerning… Read more »
The China Hangover Is Here
by Michael Beckley, The New York Times, August 19, 2024 Opinion | Once the Global Economy’s Savior, China Is Now Its Biggest Threat – The New York Times (nytimes.com) In the 2000s, former President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela bet his country’s economic future on a rising China, securing tens of billions of dollars in investments and loans-for-oil… Read more »
From Jaffna to Malaya: The Unseen Architects of Modern Malaysia
by Sivananthiram Alagandram, Geneva, May 16, 2024 . Introduction The Jaffna Tamil community offers a compelling narrative of migration, showcasing a remarkable trajectory from agricultural origins in Jaffna to attaining middle-class status within just half a century in Malaysia. Yet, equally intriguing is their rapid ascent from clerical and junior civil service positions to prominent… Read more »
CPA: The Intersectional Trends of Land Conflicts in Sri Lanka
by Centre for Policy Analysis, Colombo, August 20, 2024 The-Intersectional-Trends-of-Land-Conflicts-in-Sri-Lanka.pdf (cpalanka.org) 15 years after the end of the Civil War, Sri Lanka continues to experience deep ethnic divisions and has failed to address the root causes of the conflict that halt moving to a post-conflict society. Unfortunately, the decades-long problem of land has continued in… Read more »