by Tatiana Medvedeva, Leiden University, May 2013 Abstract World’s cultural centre, Paris has been a transnational global village since centuries. In recent two decades, a new space of confrontation of global and local appeared on the capital’s landscape. The so‐called “quartier indien ” also known as “Little Jaffna”, situated in between the Gare du Nord… Read more »
The LTTE and the 2002-2006 Peace Process in Sri Lanka
The Politics of Transformation by Suthaharan Nadarajah & Luxshi Vimalarajah, Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management, Switzerland, 2008 The_Politics_of_Transformation_the_LTTE Introduction The conflict in Sri Lanka is one of the world’s most protracted and multi-faceted. It has been aptly described as a conflict “where economic, political and cultural deprivation and grievances of a minority have… Read more »
Remembering Chidambaram S. Jayaraman (1917-1995)
by Sachi Sri Kantha, January 31, 2020 In Tamilnadu, there have been three renowned musicians with the name Jayaraman. D.K. Jayaraman (1928-1991), singer and the younger brother of Carnatic music diva D.K. Pattammal, Lalgudi Jayaraman (1930-2013), one of the leading Carnatic music violinist, and Chidambaram Sundaram Jayaraman (1917-1995) – chronologically the senior among the three…. Read more »
Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got Away with War Crimes
Book Review by Joe Glenton, ForcesWatch.net, January 29, 2020 That Britain outsources aspects of her habitually violent foreign policy is no revelation. The wars in Afghanistan and Libya, but perhaps most especially Iraq, saw a veritable mercenary gold rush as the unregulated hard men of disaster capitalism, mostly ex-soldiers, flooded into the lawless zones created… Read more »
From SAS to Merciless Mercenaries
A new book tells the story of an elite band of ex-special forces who wreaked havoc around the world. Their calling card? A live grenade in a wine glass by Neil Tweedie, Daily Mail, UK, February 1, 2020 Private military company KMS operated behind the scenes in the 1970s and 80s It did jobs that would… Read more »
Tamil Civil Society Forum Statement on Disappearances
by Tamil Civil Society Forum, Jaffna, January 28, 2020
Amnesty 2019 Report on Sri Lanka
by Amnesty International, London, January 29, 2020 Index number: ASA 01/1354/2020 https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa01/1354/2020/en/ ASA0113542020ENGLISH Sri Lanka
HRW 2019 Report on Sri Lanka
by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 2020 https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/sri-lanka On April 21, Easter Sunday, Islamist suicide bombers attacked churches and hotels in Colombo and two other cities, killing over 250 women, men, and children and injuring hundreds more. For the following four months, the government imposed a state of emergency. Hundreds were detained without charge under the… Read more »
HRW: Repeal Abusive Counterterrorism Law
Uphold Pledges to United Nations, European Union by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 10, 2020 (New York) – The Sri Lankan government should abide by its commitments to replace the abusive Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) with legislation that respects its international human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said today. The cabinet of President Gotabaya… Read more »
Question of Genocide in Sri Lanka
Justifying a Referral to International Court of Justice by Thambu Kanagasabai LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 27, 2020 The International Court of Justice [ICJ] is the principal organ of the United Nations and was established in 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations. This Court is located… Read more »
Atrocity and Proto-Genocide in Sri Lanka
by Christopher Powell and Amarnath Amarasingam, article in ‘Understanding Atrocities: Remembering, Representing, and Teaching Genocide’ eidted by Scott W. Murray, February 2017 Introduction This paper discusses the concept of “proto-genocide.” This concept adds clarity to studies of cultural genocide by helping to distinguish between situations where a collective identity is under violent attack and situations… Read more »
PEARL Applauds World Court Decision Order to Prevent Rohingya Genocide
by People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka (PEARL) (Washington, D.C., January 23, 2020) Today, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Myanmar to enact measures to halt the ongoing genocide against the Rohingya in a case filed by The Gambia pursuant to the Genocide Convention. PEARL welcomes this legally binding ruling, which is… Read more »
Tamil Resistance & Resilience in the Face of Genocide
by People for Equality & Relief in Lanka (PEARL), date not specified, but probably 2019 https://pearlaction.org/inthefaceofgenocide/#swgkblyvtrgzeqbzcbmzscidvodmjwsbkpln
‘The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company’
Book review by Thomas Gidney, London School of Economics Review of Books, January 16, 2020 In The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, William Dalrymple gives a new character-driven account of the ascent to power of the East India Company following the collapse of the Mughal Empire and the resulting ‘anarchy’ that followed. Tracking the… Read more »
What Lessons Are We Talking About?
Reconciliation and Memory in Post-Civil War Sri Lankan Cinema by Dinidu Karunanayake and Thiyagaraja Waradas, ICES Research Papers, Colombo, September 2013 What_Lessons_Are_We_Talking_About_Reconc The official end of the war coincides with the beginning of a markedly changed Sri Lankan cinematic aesthetic. The post-2009 period has seen a boom in ‘patriotic‘ film productions. Shedding light on Jean-Luc… Read more »
‘The Struggle for a Multilingual Future’
Youth and Education in Sri Lanka by Christina P. Davis, 21 January 2020, Oxford University Press 212 Pages | 10 illus ISBN: 9780190947484 Oxford Studies in the Anthropology of Language Demonstrates the challenges of promoting peace and interethnic tolerance through multilingual language policies in post-civil war Sri Lanka Explores how power inequalities and ethnic conflict… Read more »
From Sachi’s File – Chapter 12
Eelam Advocacy in Tokyo during 1980s by Sachi Sri Kantha, January 18, 2020 After completing my Ph.D at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, I arrived in Tokyo in January 1986. Thirty four years had passed. Then, there were four English language print dailies; namely, Japan Times, Daily Yomiuri, Mainichi Daily News and Asahi Evening News…. Read more »
Review of ‘Sri Lanka: A Victor’s Peace: 2009 to 2019’
by Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan, Berlin, January 13, 2020 Ana Pararajasingham, Sri Lanka: A Victor’s Peace: 2009 to 2019, Sydney, 2019. Read online at https://bookmate.com/books/cib47ArH What follows is not a review of this collection of thirty-two, very perceptive, essays but a sharing of a few thoughts arising from the book, particularly from its title. The phrase… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s New Government “Unleashing a Chilling Process of Repression”
by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, January 13, 2020 ITJP-JDS Press – English ITJP-JDS Press – Tamil Credible Information gathered by the International Truth and Justice Project – Sri Lanka (ITJP) and JDS reveals how the new government of Sri Lanka under a majority Sinhala hardliner has embarked on its strategy to militarise… Read more »
Shouldering of Responsibility to Save Desperate Tamils in Sri Lanka
by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 11, 2020 There is no denying of the fact that Tamils in Sri Lanka have been at the receiving end since 1949, when power was transferred to the majority Sinhala Government. Successive Sinhala Governments continued and still continue the marginalisation… Read more »