The Need for Accountability in Sri Lanka’s Criminal Justice System

A Glance at Seven Emblematic Cases by Centre for Policy Analysis, Colombo, March 1, 2019 This report examines seven emblematic cases to evaluate the levels of accountability in the prosecution of cases of human rights violations within Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system. The report is structured in three parts. First, it establishes several recurrent trends… Read more »

West Point: The Taming of the Tigers

An MWI Contemporary Battlefield Assessment of the Counterinsurgency in Sri Lanka by Lionel Beehner, Liam Collins, Steven Ferenzi, Mike Jackson, Modern War Institute at West Point, New York, USA, April 2017 https://mwi.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/The-Taming-of-the-Tigers.pdf Executive Summary This report examines one of the few militarily successful counterinsurgencies of the modern era: The 1983–2009 war against the Tamil Tigers in… Read more »

Push Back: Sri Lanka’s Dance with Global Governance

by Judith Large, Zed Books, 2016 Paper ISBN: 9781783606542 After decades of conflict, the Sri Lankan government in 2009 proclaimed the decisive defeat of the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Elam. Since then, the state has proved resistant to attempts by the UN and other international bodies to promote postwar reconciliation. In this incisive new work, Judith… Read more »

Norway in Sri Lanka

by John Stephen Moolakkattu, ‘Cooperation & Conflict,’ Nordic International Studies Assoc. December 1, 2005 Peace_Facilitation_by_Small_States__Norway_in_Sri_Lanka ABSTRACT It is now four years since Norway formally embarked on the difficult task of facilitating negotiations in the protracted ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. With an international record in peace-making and development assistance, Norway entered the fray with unmatched… Read more »

Strawmanning Terror

Attempting to justify the Counter Terrorism Act By Mass Movement for Social Justice, ‘Daily FT,’ Colombo, February 27, 2019 The current President and Government were elected in 2015 on the promise of repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Since enactment in 1979, the PTA has been widely condemned for creating a draconian system featuring… Read more »

Master Plan for Economic Development in the Northern province Launched

by The Sunday Times, Colombo, February 22, 2019 The ‘Framework for an Economic Development Master Plan’  aiming to be a tool to create a ‘blueprint’ for  long-term growth and development of the Northern Province was launched today at the Finance Ministry. Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, addressing a gathering at the launch said during the last four… Read more »

Government and Politics in Sri Lanka

Biopolitics and security by A. R. Sriskanda Rajah, Routledge Studies in South Asian Politics, 2017 167 pages TCIN: 53075469 UPC: 9781138290976 Item Number (DPCI): 248-54-2218 The island of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) was one of the few Asian colonies in which the British Empire experimented liberal state-building in the nineteenth century, and where many British colonial officials predicted that… Read more »

Tribute to Chelliah Kodeeswaran

by MK Eelaventhan, February 24, 2019 See also https://www.sangam.org/articles/view/?id=66 Mr. Chelliah Kodeeswaran is not an ordinary individual but a unique personality.   He challenged the atrocious Sri Lankan government against the Sinhala Only Act.  By his legal action he has become part and parcel of history. Kodeeswaran passed away on February 15th 2019 at the age of… Read more »

ITJP: Ongoing Torture

by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, February 22, 2019 http://www.itjpsl.com/reports/ongoing-torture-update The ITJP has taken statements from 76 Tamils who say they were tortured – and in many cases sexually violated as well – in illegal detention from 2015-17 in Sri Lanka. More than fifty of these victims have been granted asylum now in the… Read more »

Freedom from Torture: Too Little Change

Ongoing Torture in Security Operations in Sri Lanka by Freedom from TortPosture, London, February 20, 2019 Ten years on from the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, Freedom from Torture has documented evidence of torture of its Tamil citizens in the context of ongoing security operations. This is despite the Sri Lankan government’s stated ‘zero… Read more »

ICJ: Written Statement to HRC

by International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, February 7, 2019 Full statement The ICJ has submitted a written statement on Sri Lanka to the Human Rights Council ahead of its 40th Session in Geneva. Almost ten years after Sri Lanka emerged from a period of conflict and massive human rights violations, the Government of Sri Lanka still… Read more »

NE Civil Society Letter to HCHR

by North East civil society, January 30, 2019 2019_january_tamil_mothers_to_michelle_bachelet Your Excellency, Re: Your Report to the UNHRC in March 2019 on Sri Lanka We the undersigned civil society groups, in particular from the North and East of Sri Lanka, members of war victims’ associations, other likeminded organisations and individuals concerned about the current state of… Read more »

MGR Remembered – Part 49

A Vibrant ‘Vaathiyar’ to the Illiterates by Sachi Sri Kantha, February 19, 2019 Part 48 Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was one of the pioneers in contributing to the origin of motion pictures. One of his quotes pertaining to this invention was, ‘I consider that the first mission of the motion picture is to make people happy,… Read more »

Reluctance Towards BJP Will Prevail In South

BJP’s simple majoritarian plank doesn’t work in the complex of southern India by Ramu Manivannan, ‘Outlook India,’ New Delhi, January 31, 2019 The BJP and its allies are in control of 22 states in India. This is a staggering proposition to boast vis-à-vis the Congress, notwithstanding the recent setbacks in assembly elections. Though the BJP’s… Read more »

Sri Lankan Poetry in English

Getting Beyond the Colonial Heritage by D. C. R. A. Goonetilleke, ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 21 : 3 , July 1990 THE CONTINUING AND growing vitality during the last three decades of Sri Lankan literature in English seems to be disproving the prophecies of gloom and doom made periodically about it. In 1964,… Read more »

ITJP: Shavendra Silva Dossier

by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, January 29, 2019 http://www.itjpsl.com/reports/shavendra-silva Full dossier (Sangam mirror) ENGLISH தமிழ் සිංහල This is a dossier on Major General Shavendra Silva – appointed Chief of Army Staff of the Sri Lankan Army in January 2019. Shavendra Silva was arguably the most important frontline ground commander in the 2008-9… Read more »

Amnesty: Flickering Hope

Truth, Justice, Reparations & Guarantees of Non-recurrence by Amnesty International, London, January 24, 2019, Index number: ASA 37/9715/2019 In 2015, Sri Lanka co-sponsored Resolution 30/1 at the UN Human Rights Council to demonstrate the newly elected government’s commitment to break with impunity for a past marked by serious human rights violations. While the Resolution was welcomed… Read more »

HRW: “Why Can’t We Go Home?”

Military Occupation of Land in Sri Lanka by Human Rights Watch, New York, October 9, 2018 https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/10/09/why-cant-we-go-home/military-occupation-land-sri-lanka Summary On April 29, 2017, the Sri Lankan navy high command announced it would release 100 acres of land that security forces had been occupying in the Mullikulam area since 2007 to the original owners. For the displaced… Read more »