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 »
There is a Thread Running Through Sri Lanka’s Cycles of Violence
Sri Lanka’s minorities – including its Christians and Muslims – have paid a high price for the state’s failure to protect them by Farah Mihlar, The Guardian, UK, April 23, 2019, modified April 24, 2019 As mass burials for some of the Christian worshippers killed in the Easter Sunday bombings take place today, claims that the… Read more »
The Sri Lanka Attacks: New Front, Old Wounds
The bombings will fuel inter-communal tensions in Sri Lanka, which still struggles with the legacy of its civil war. by Mario Arulthas, Al Jazeera, April 22, 2019 OPINION /SRI LANKA The attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday for many brought back memories of the long ethnic war, which came to a bloody conclusion 10 years ago in… Read more »
‘Why Kill the Innocents?’ Sri Lankans Mourn Bombing Victims
by Jeffrey Gettleman and Dharisha Bastians, The New York Times, April 22, 2019 NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka — The little room, like much of Sri Lanka, could not hold any more grief. All day Monday, through the steamy heat, mourners quietly stepped inside and paused in front of a sealed coffin containing what was left of… Read more »
Understanding the Easter Sunday Attacks – and the Risks Ahead
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, London, April 22, 2019 At time of writing, 290 people are confirmed to have been killed following a series of blast attacks at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. Hundreds more have been injured.[1] The Sri Lanka Campaign condemns the appalling crimes that took place yesterday and stands… Read more »
Understanding a State of Emergency
by Dr. Asanga Welikala, Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, March 2018 Sri Lanka’s last state of emergency lasted for 28 years, and was terminated in August 2011, having continuously been extended by governments since it was first declared in 1983. On March 6th 2018, President Maithripala Sirisena declared a state of emergency in order to address and contain the violence… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Bloody Easter Puts Spotlight on a New Terror Threat
by Ishan Tharoor, Washington Post, April 22, 2019 A shocking, coordinated series of bombings on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka marked one of the world’s bloodiest terrorist attacks over the past half-decade. At least 290 people were killed and more than 450 others injured after suicide bombers exploded devices in three churches in the cities… Read more »