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 »
CPA 2008: Essays on Federalism
by Rohan Edirisinha & Asanga Welikala, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, 2008 Essays on Federalism in Sri Lanka is a new collection of essays and articles on the Federal idea in Sri Lanka, edited by Rohan Edrisinha and Asanga Welikala. CPA has since its inception been at the forefront of the advocacy of federalism as a… Read more »
Does Sri Lanka Need a Truth and Reconciliation Mechanism?
by Mirak Raheem, Groundviews, Colombo, November 26, 2022 Groundviews on Instagram: “In 2018, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government laid the groundwork for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Its…” In the lead up to the September session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) the Government of Sri Lanka floated the proposal of establishing… Read more »
‘Satygraha: Freedom Movement of Tamils in Ceylon’
by S. Ponniah, 1963 68740.pdf (noolaham.net) Satyagraha by S Ponniah 1963 Transcribed by Satchi Sri Kantha with commentary Satyagraha of February 1961 in Eelam Satyagraha of March 1961 in Eelam
Right-sizing the Sri Lanka Army
by Major General Boniface Perera, Ph.D., Daily Mirror Opinion, Colombo, November 29, 2022 [Also Time to make the Sri Lanka Army leaner and meaner – Hard talk | Daily Mirror] The prime responsibility of the Army is to provide protection to the citizens and safeguard territorial Integrity and Sovereignty The veteran Indian diplomat turned security… Read more »
Murugeysen Tiruchelvam and Koneswaram Issue
by DBS Jeyaraj, Daily Mirror, Colombo, November 19, 2022 Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader and Trincomalee district MP Rajavarothayam Sampanthan wrote a politically important letter to President Ranil Wickremesinghe on September 14, 2022. In that detailed missive, the veteran Tamil MP pinpointed several measures being enacted under the current regime affecting the Tamil people…. Read more »
Sri Lanka at Brink of Humanitarian Crisis
Financial Partners Should Support Basic Needs, Promote Respect for Rights by Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch, New York, November 24, 2022 The dramatic fuel shortages that accompanied mass protests in Sri Lanka earlier this year may have eased, but for millions of Sri Lankans the economic crisis is worse than ever. This month, the United… Read more »
The Struggle of Memories against Oblivion
by Nillanthan Maha, November 27, 2022 [translation by Google Translate, with some corrections by the editor] This is the 14th Heroes’ Day since 2009. For the last 13 years, Heroes’ Day has been celebrated in one way or another, secretly and openly. Remembrance for the Tamil people has deeper dimensions than just crying and grieving…. Read more »
A Powerful Display of Tamil Nationhood and Collective Defiance
by People for Equality & Relief in Lanka (PEARL) Washington D.C.; November 27, 2022 — Today, on Maaveerar Naal (Tamil National Remembrance Day), thousands of Eelam Tamils will gather together by makeshift cemeteries and memorial plaques around the world as they remember those who gave their lives and futures for the liberation of the Tamil nation… Read more »
Revisiting the Academic Fraud of Epigraphist Senarat Paranavitana
by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 5, 2022 Guruge’s conclusion was, “…at some point in the pursuit of this goal of filling gaps in history,…Paranavitana stepped beyond the thin line which separates reality from the imaginary.” Introduction Oct 4th marked the 50th death anniversary of Senarat Paranavitana (1896-1972), renowned Sinhalese epigraphist and the former archeological commissioner… Read more »
Sinhalese Settlements and Forced Evictions of Tamils in the North-East Province
by Dr. Chelvadurai Manogaran, TamilNation, UK, June 1, 2000 The planned settlement of Sinhalese peasants in the North-East Province has threatened the economic, social and cultural future of Sri Lanka’s Tamils and undermined the political power they have wielded in the province where they have a long-established history of settlement. Don Stephen Senanayake, the first… Read more »