by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Europe & International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, May 2019 http://www.jdslanka.org/images/documents/2019_may_the_men_%20now_patrolling_sri_lanka_itjp__jds.pdf On Easter Sunday 2019, a series of coordinated bomb blasts struck hotels and churches in Sri Lanka killing more than 250 people, including many tourists. The targets were churches in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa… Read more »
A State of Disorientation
Dispatch from Sri Lanka after the Easter Bombings by Anuk Arukpragasam, TIME, May 22, 2019 Anuk Arudpragasam is a novelist from Colombo and is the author of The Story of a Brief Marriage. In Colombo, as though there is war once more, the ominous presence of heavily armed soldiers is everywhere. Ever since the Easter Sunday bombings,… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 15
Turbulence in any language By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 14 When the Western colonial powers, the Portuguese, Dutch and British, captured the littoral regions of Ceylon, they administered the North and East, the traditional habitat of the Tamils, as a single, whole and distinct unit, keeping intact the homogeneity and… Read more »
Statements by US Congress on 10th Year after End of War in Sri Lanka
Rep. David Price (D-NC), Co-Chair House Democracy Partnership — Rep David Price Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day 2019 Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH), Co-Chair of the Caucus on Ethnic & Religious Freedom in Sri Lanka —https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZYKeC4uMvc&feature=youtu.be Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Chair, Asia & Pacific Subcommittee — Rep. Brad Sherman statement end of war May 16 2019 &… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 14
Post-colonial realignment of political forces By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 13 The Minister of Trade and Commerce, C. Suntheralingham, the independent Member of Parliament representing Vavuniya and the long time associate of D.S. Senanayake, walked out of the Parliament chamber when a division was called on the second reading of… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 13
A nightmarish British legacy By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 12 In Britain, according to Brooke Bond Tea survey, people drink nearly 187 million cups of tea per day. It is understood that they normally drink the best – Ceylon Tea. A recent survey disclosed that, drinking at least one cup… Read more »
Sri Lankan Conflict Mapping Report
by Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Ltd., Sydney, Australia, May 14, 2019 Sri Lankan conflict mapping report highlights work to be done for transitional justice Media Releases Project highlights A decade since the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, a landmark report has been released detailing thousands of examples of reported human rights violations in… Read more »
Joint Statement on Sri Lanka by UN Special Advisers on Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect
Joint Statement by Adama Dieng, United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Karen Smith, United Nations Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, on attacks against religious minorities in Sri Lanka (New York, 13 May 2019) Recalling their recent statements against violent extremism and hate speech, the United Nations Special Adviser on… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 12
Tryst with independence by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 11 The first-ever parliamentary general election in Ceylon was held in 1947, under the territorial representative system, but electioneering was conducted, out and out, on a communal basis. However, at the election propaganda meetings, D S Senanayake declared that he wishes to… Read more »
Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 11
On the threshold of freedom By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore, October 20, 2001 Chapter 1 Chapter 10 The Soulbury commissioners, after completion of their mission in Ceylon, left for London on a Royal Air Force flight on April 7, 1945. Subsequently, the Secretary of State for Colonies announced the rejection of the Free… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 51
About the Plagiarism charge on Karunanidhi Part 50 by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 5, 2019 In Part 48, I commented on MGR’s own selection of his best movies. Among the 14 movies, the second in his list Marutha Naatu Ilavarasi (The Princess from Marutha Nadu,1950; produced by G. Govindan & Co.) was in the news… Read more »
Land Grab & Colonization
by M.K. Eelaventhan, date & source unknown ‘The first prime minister of Sri Lanka, D.S. Senanayake, when inaugurating the Padaviya scheme of colonization openly and with no qualms stated the objective of his government as follows: “Today you are brought here and given a plot of land. You are men and women who will carry… Read more »
Deep Fractures in Sri Lanka’s Leadership
The fallout of the Easter Sunday bombings has exposed deep fractures in Sri Lanka’s leadership by Thusiyan Nandakumar, The National, UAE, April 28, 2019 Politicians are playing the blame game and there are fears a security crackdown will create an environment of impunity once again Sri Lanka is in crisis. A week on from the horrific bomb… Read more »
‘Collective Responsibility, Vital to Address Issues’
by Anuradha Kodagoda, The Sunday Observer, Colombo, April 28, 2019 A series of coordinated bombings on Easter Sunday shattered a relatively calm period in the country, threatening to restore factional tensions that fueled a three- decade civil war. The government has acknowledged major lapses in governance and its failure to prevent the dreadful Easter Sunday… Read more »
Unholy Tension in Lanka’s Muslim East
Different interpretations of Islam by Thawheed and traditional school divide the community by Chris Kamalendran, Asif Fuard and cameraman Saman Kariyawasam in Kattankudy, The Sunday Times, Colombo, August 9, 2009 The tiny coastal village of Kattankudy, a ten minutes drive from the eastern capital of Batticaloa, lies in a picturesque setting. Its boundaries hug the… Read more »
What Sri Lanka Needs Now
by Kitana Ananda and Mythri Jegathesan, CNN, USA, April 28, 2019 Since multiple blasts killed at least 253 people and injured hundreds more in Sri Lanka last Sunday, the government has declared a state of emergency, bringing back draconian anti-terrorism laws that will curtail civil liberties and increase militarization. Officials have begun to investigate, and though… Read more »
A Decade After Failing to Stop Massacres in Sri Lanka
What has the UN learned? by Richard Gowan, World Politics Review, March 19, 2019 When faced with a crisis, U.N. officials grapple with two imperatives. There is the moral compulsion to protect the suffering. And there is the equal, and frequently greater, need to balance the interests of the power players involved. While outsiders lionize… Read more »
The Best Books to Understand Modern Terrorism
After Sri Lanka by Iain Overton, The Guardian, UK, April 25, 2019 Though the first suicide bombing was in 1881, 40% of those killed by them have died in the last five years. Iain Overton picks the best books that explain why Terror is not a new phenomenon. The 19th-century invention of dynamite by a… Read more »
Cases Against Gotabaya Rajapakshe
Fighting for delayed accountability and justice by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Gotabaya Rajapakshe, who is a dual citizen of Sri Lanka and USA, flew back to Sri Lanka after the victory of Mahinda Rajapakshe as the President in 2005. He was appointed as the Defence Secretary… Read more »
What Happened in Sri Lanka? Here’s What You Need to Know
These attacks come at a precarious political moment. by Kate Cronin-Furman, The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage, April 23, 2019 Bombs ripped through three churches and four hotels in a series of attacks in Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. The casualty count currently stands at more than 300 dead and more than 500 injured. What do we know about the… Read more »