US Continues to Vet Sri Lankan Soldiers

– But are war criminals being let in? by Tamil Guardian, London, August 2, 2021 The United States says that all Sri Lankan soldiers continue to be fully vetted for involvement in human rights abuses before being allowed to train in the country. Recent appointments however point to holes in the vetting process and raise… Read more »

Sea Cucumbers

Chinese sea cucumber farms back in operation in Kilinochchi by Dinasena Ratugamage, Sunday Island, Colombo, August 6, 2021 Two sea cucumber farms, managed by a Chinese company in Kilinochchi, recommenced its operations after fishermen’s associations in Jaffna and Kilinochchi said that they no longer opposed the farms. The operations of the two farms were stopped… Read more »

Oil and Gas Exploration in Mannar Basin Mapped

by Financial Times, Colombo, August 5, 2021 Energy Minister Udaya Gammampila in a gazette notification has published a map of blocks for joint exploration for oil and gas in the Mannar Basin. Titled ‘Hydrocarbon exploration block map of Sri Lanka,’ the map outlines the blocks for exploration licences, development licences and joint studies. The publication… Read more »

Sangam Global Program August 7

* Saturday, August 7, 2021 * 11:0am EDT (US & Canada) 4:00pm BST (UK) 8:30pm IST (India & Sri Lanka) * Live links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5X_6zoAG64 https://www.facebook.com/sangamglobal.live https://www.instagram.com/p/CSE0GUSA-5x/?utm_medium=share_sheet More at www.Sangam.Global

Reading the Southern Mothers’ Front with Malathi de Alwis

30 years later The report of the Commission of Inquiry for the Western, Southern and Sabargamuwa Provinces (CoI-WSS), the most detailed of all the reports, described the violence of 1988-1991 as a systemic and orchestrated phenomenon, in which those in political power and the law were deeply complicit. It is also unequivocal in concluding that… Read more »

Sri Lanka Sliding Down a Dark and Slippery Slope

Daily Mirror editorial, Colombo, July 14, 2021 Somewhere after defeating separatist terrorism in 2009, Sri Lanka missed a glorious chance of turning a destructive era on its head. In the aftermath of the near 3-decade-long separatist war, instead of pursuing a cherished dream of reconcilliation, our political leaders acted like Don Quixote who went tilting… Read more »

Debt-hobbled Sri Lanka Risks Running Out of Options

by Tom Arnold, Marc Jones, Reuters, August 3, 2021 LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka paid a $1 billion bond last week, but the alarming state of its finances suggests it may have been just another step towards its first sovereign default. All the tell-tale crisis signs are there: bonds at nearly half their… Read more »

AI: Authorities Falter on Accountability in ‘Navy 11’ Case

by Amnesty International, London, August 4, 2021 The Sri Lankan Attorney General’s Department today decided not to proceed with charges against  Wasantha Karannagoda, a former Navy commander, over his alleged role in the abduction of 11 Tamil youth in 2008 and 2009. The Sri Lankan Navy is alleged to have been behind the forcible disappearance of… Read more »

Racial Prejudice Rears Its Head in Singapore

Imperfect harmony The city state is less racially harmonious than its government likes to think by The Economist, London, July 31, 2021 DAVE PARKASH and his girlfriend were strolling down the street one evening in June when an irate man accosted them. Tan Boon Lee accused Mr Parkash of “preying” on his girlfriend, whom Mr Tan,… Read more »

L&ST: Understanding Rule of Law, Human Security & Prevention of Terrorism in Sri Lanka

by Ermiza Tegal, Law & Society Trust, Colombo, February 2021 Understanding_Rule_of_Law_Human_Security_and_Prevention_of_Terrorism_in_Sri_Lanka_English 6. Conclusion This report aimed to respond to three main questions (1) what are the international legal standards in relation to arbitrary arrest and detention particularly in the context of countering terrorism? (2) what is Sri Lanka’s domestic legal framework in protecting the rights… Read more »

Atrocities Cast Shadow on Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 Response

by J.S. Tissainayagam, Stanley Center for Peace & Security, Iowa, USA, May 17, 2021 Ranjini,* a housewife, lives in Kilinochchi, a town in Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Northern Province. Earlier this year, the government began vaccinating the public against COVID-19. But this has made her fearful: she is not sure if she will be injected with… Read more »

TG: Echoes of the Past

by Tamil Guardian, London, July 23, 2021 This year marks 38 years since Black July: the anti-Tamil pogrom where thousands of Tamils were killed by brutal state-supported Sinhala mobs. It was a week of violence that saw Tamils murdered, tortured and displaced. It remains a premeditated and meticulously coordinated act of genocide. The remnants of… Read more »

Yet Another Incident in July 1983

by Basil Fernando, TamilNet, July 24, 2008 A poem, based on an eye-witness account of an event during 1983 pogrom captures the determination of a Tamil father at the time of his agonising death. The poem by Basil Fernando, a Sinhala lawyer, encapsulates the impelling spirit of the Tamil struggle of the post-pogrom years. Mr…. Read more »

The Origins of the Great Divergence

A review of Peer Vries’ “Escaping poverty” by Branko Milanovic, his personal Substack, July 22, 2021 While the world is witnessing global convergence (essentially the catch up of Asia with the West), the debates  about the origins of the Great Divergence—the take-off of the West and absence of growth in the Rest—are going strong. I… Read more »

From Sachi’s Files – Chapter 18

An interesting overview by Prof. Shelton Kodikara of ‘Family Planning in Ceylon’ by Sachi Sri Kantha, July 20, 2021 Family Planning in Ceylon (1973) by Prof. S.U. Kodikara Prof. Shelton Upatissa Kodikara (1927-1994) was an authentic Sinhalese academic, whom I respected very much. Sadly, as of now, there is no Wikipedia entry about his contributions… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa Dynasty is Not as Secure as It Appears

by Banyan, The Economist, London, July 17, 2021 The family that runs everything is running out of cash Since winning the presidency in a landslide nearly two years ago, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has worried not that he has too many relatives in government, but that he has too few. One of the 72-year-old’s elder brothers, Mahinda, himself… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Falling Economy & Failing Good Governance

by Thambu Kanagasabai,  LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 21, 2021 President Gotabaya acclaimed as un uncrowned king of Sri Lanka after defeating the Liberation of Tigers in the genocidal war with the assistance of 22 countries particularly from India, Pakistan and China as confirmed by his brother Mahinda… Read more »