By Dayan Jayatilleke, Lanka Guardian, Colombo, June 11, 2020 http://www.ft.lk/columns/A-knee-on-the-neck-of-the-next-Parliament/4-701439 For the first time in our post-independence political history, we have a leader who does not regard it as necessary to appoint a Task Force that reflects to any extent, the composite reality of the area or citizenry concerned. It is a leadership that ignores… Read more »
Touring “Terrorism”: Landscapes of Memory in Post-War Sri Lanka
by Jennifer Hyndman & Amarnath Amarasingam, Geography Compass 8/8 (2014): 560–575, 10.1111/gec3.12149 Touring_Terrorism The Sri Lankan state’s power to narrate the war and characterize the enemy is an expression of “triumphalist nationalism” and is a selective remembering of war. Based on photographs taken during several field visits to these sites by both authors between December 2012 and… Read more »
What’s Wrong with the TNA?
by Mario Arulthas, Financial Times Colombo, June 5, 2020 A few weeks ago, Tamil news cycles were dominated by coverage of an interview given by the Tamil National Alliance Spokesperson M.A. Sumanthiran to a Sinhala media site. During the course of the interview, he made several comments which created controversy and outrage amongst… Read more »
TG Editorial: Mask Off
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, June 1, 2020 Even before they returned to power in Sri Lanka last year, the Rajapaksas never sought to cloak their brash espousal of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism. As defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa ran a ruthless offensive that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, which his brother Mahinda oversaw as president, with… Read more »
PTF on Archaeology in the Eastern Province has no Muslims or Tamils
Why the Presidential Task Force on archaeology in the Eastern Province has no Muslims or Tamils By P.K. Balachandran/Daily Express, NewsIn Asia, Colombo, June 5, 2020 Colouring a narrative to advance an ethno-religious political agenda Colombo: The Presidential Task Force for Archaeological Heritage Management in the Eastern Province, which was gazetted on 2 June, has… Read more »
Continuous Human Rights Violations
Uninterrupted & Continuous Human Rights Violations Against the Tamils in Sri Lanka by Kumarathasan Rasingam. – Secretary, Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Org., June 2, 2020 There is no denying of the fact that Tamils in Sri Lanka have been at the receiving end since 1948, when power was transferred to the majority Sinhala… Read more »
Battle of Elephant Pass: Twentieth Anniversary
When Tamil Tigers aimed for jugular at the Battle of Elephant Pass in 2000: Twentieth Year Remembrance by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 22, 2020 Sri Lankan President Gothabaya Rajapaksa made the following observations at the National Ranawiru Day commemoration held on May 19, 2020. Excerpts: “May 19th is a very important milestone in the history of… Read more »
ITJP: Alleged Torturer Heads Sri Lankan CID
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, May 26, 2020 https://www.itjpsl.com/assets/press/English-26-May-2020-Alwis-press-release.pdf Press Release Johannesburg: International assistance to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lankan police must be urgently reviewed now that a well known alleged torturer has been put in charge. Senior Superintendant of Police Adambarage Ruwan Prasanna Jayak De… Read more »
ITJP: No Vetting for Sri Lanka’s New Major Generals
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, May 22, 2020 https://www.itjpsl.com/assets/press/English-press-release-22-May-2020.pdf Press Release Johannesburg: On the eleventh anniversary of the end of the war in Sri Lanka, the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, intentionally promoted officers[1] to the rank of Major General who should have been vetted and screened out of any official position,… Read more »
ITJP: The President’s Inner Circle
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, May 5, 2020 https://itjpsl.com/reports/gotabayas-inner-circle Press Release Johannesburg: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka has appointed an alarming collection of alleged perpetrators of war crimes and bureaucrats previously accused of corruption to his new government, said the International Truth and Justice Project. The legal research organisation… Read more »
Keenie Meenie: A ‘Deniable’ Arm of Whitehall?
by Channa Wickremesekera, Groundviews, Colombo, May 19, 2020 Book Review – Phil Miller, Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who got away with War Crimes, (Pluto Press, 2020) Eleven years ago, in May 2009, the Sri Lankan security forces decisively defeated the military forces of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE). The LTTE’s leadership and… Read more »
Tamils Remember Genocide of Thousands on May 18
Tamils all over the World Remember the Genocide of Thousands on May 18, 2020 by Kumar Rasingam, May 12, 2020 Marking 11 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, we revisit the final days leading up to the 18th of May 2009 – a date remembered around the world as ‘Tamil… Read more »
The Dark Face of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka
by Thambu Kanagasabai – LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 8, 2020 The pandemic Covid-19 which originated in Wuhan province, China sometime in December 2019 made its cruel impact as a globally deadly disease in January 2020 and was declared as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. It then… Read more »
G. G. Ponnambalam (1902-1977): His Power and Plight as a Tamil Leader
by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 8, 2020 Front Note: My father Siva Sachithanantham (1923-2003) was a fan of G.G. Ponnambalam’s theatrics in the political platforms and legal arena. He developed this fascination during the 1930s (when he was a teenager, and ‘Ponnan’ was his first local political hero), when Ponnambalam first contested the Point Pedro… Read more »
SL State Continues Mega ‘Development’ Crime in Mannaar
Amidst COVID-19 curfew by TamilNet, May 7, 2020 Hundreds of Sinhala workers from South and Indian subcontractors are roaming free in Mannaar, between Oalaith-thoduvaay and Thoadda-ve’li, where Tamil villagers are struggling to cope with their livelihood due to COVID-19 curfew. Millionaire investors from the South and the occupying SL State abetted by Asian Development Bank,… Read more »
Still Searching for Stephen Sunthararaj
by Tamil Guardian, London, May 7, 2020 On this day 11 years ago, Stephen Sunthararaj, an activist who had exposed the trafficking of Tamil children into international prostitution rings, was abducted and forcibly disappeared in Colombo by armed men in military uniforms. Sunthararaj, was the Project Manager of the Centre for Human Rights and Development… Read more »
Dharmaretnam Sivaram: ‘Appa died doing what he loved most’
By Vaishnavi Sivaram, Vaitheki Sivaram & Andrew Seralaathan Dharmaretnam, Journalists for a Democracy in Sri Lanka, April 29, 2020 This year marks the 15th anniversary of our father’s death and to this day, no one has been convicted for his murder. We are not surprised by this and neither is our family looking for justice. The Sri… Read more »
Mr. Sri Pathe Thillaiampalam
April 21, 2020 Dear Sangam members, With deepest regrets, we inform you that Mr. Sri Thillaiampalam of Boston, MA passed away today peacefully due to natural causes. He was a founding member of the Eelam Tamil Association (ETA) in the late seventies, which pushed the passage of a resolution urging the US President and Congress to… Read more »
From Sachi’s Files – Chapter 14
90 Published Letters on Sri Lanka and Eelam by Sachi Sri Kantha Long before President Donald Trump promoted ‘fake news’ in 2016, Eelam Tamils suffered from the fake news promoted by the intelligence agencies of Sri Lanka and India, and the infamous Lake House (aptly ridiculed as Fake House) news organization in Colombo, since 1980s…. Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Dismal Political Achievements
by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 23, 2020 The Sri Lankan Government is claiming credit as the first country in the world to have successfully controlled the Corvid-19 virus spreading world-wide. However, it is to be noted that this claim is premature and has to be… Read more »