‘Very Fair to Say SL Army Committed Genocide’

— Former UN staffer by ‘The Economic Times,’ India, from Press Trust of India, January 27, 2018 The atrocities committed against Tamils during the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka amounted to ethnic cleansing and even today a huge drive is underway to change the demography of the Tamil-dominated region, noted photographer and former UN… Read more »

Panel in Washington discusses Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka

by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, February 5, 2018 A panel event on mass atrocities discussed the lack of progress made by Sri Lanka in the realm of transitional justice, in Washington DC last week. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Ferencz International Justice Initiative and the National Endowment for Democracy held an event on promoting justice for… Read more »

ITJP: : What Vetting of Sri Lankan Diplomats?

by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka & International Truth & Justice Project, February 7, 2018 ITJP JDS press-release-7-feb-2018 vetting SL diplomats Johannesburg: The UK, the UN and the international community have an obligation to step up their screening and vetting of Sri Lankan public and security officals for alleged involvement in atrocities during and… Read more »

ITJP: Brig. Priyanka Fernando in London

by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka and International Truth & Justice Project, February 5, 2018 On Sri Lanka’s 70th Independence Day, 4 February 2018, Brigadier Fernando attracted attention by thrice making slitting throat gestures to a crowd of chanting Tamil protestors outside the High Commission in London. The video of him, in full military… Read more »

UNHRC Briefing Note

HRC_briefingnote_En The Human Rights Council (HRC or Council) is the only intergovernmental organisation responding to all human rights abuses across the globe by exposing violators and demanding change. Follow proceedings by webcast Feb. 26-March 23 at http://webtv.un.org Documents & other materials are at  http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session37/Pages/37RegularSession.aspx   Current Membership of the Human Rights Council, 1 January – 31 December 2018… Read more »

UNHRC February/March Session & Sri Lanka

by Thambu Kanagasabai  LLM [Lond], Former Lecturer in Law University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, February 5, 2018 The 37th UN Human Rights Council is scheduled to commence on 26th February 2018 and concludes on 23rd March. During this session, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is expected to present his written interim report on… Read more »

The Banality Of Evil

by Karthick Ram Manoharan, ‘Outlook India,’ February 5, 2018 The torture of incarcerated Tamils was not a betrayal of the Sri Lankan state’s Sinhala-Buddhist ideal, but that ideal being taken to its logical conclusion, writes Karthick Ram Manoharan. Excerpts from his afterword to Sri Lankan Tamil novelist Kuna Kaviyalahan’s ‘The Poisoned Dream’. Kuna Kaviyalahan’s The Poisoned… Read more »

Tales Of Lankan Tamil Diaspora

Narrated With Poignancy And Hilarity by Sreevalsan Thiyyadi, ‘Outlook India,’ January 28, 2018 It was on this date nine years ago that immigrant Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada intensified protest against a “genocide” of their community in the Northern Province of the island-nation. Appadurai Muttulingam’s stories take a kaleidoscopic view on their everyday lives—and beyond… Read more »

War, Denial and Nation-Building in Sri Lanka

After the End by Rachel Seoighe, Palgrave Studies in Compromise After Conflict, Palgrave MacMillan, Dec. 5, 2017 Abstract This book begins from a critical account of the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war, tracing themes of nationalism, discourse and conflict memory through this period of immense violence and into its aftermath. Using these… Read more »

Caged Independence

by Thamil Ananthavinayagan, ‘Sri Lanka Guardian,’ Colombo, February 4, 2018 Introduction ( February 4, 2018, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The cherished Maya Angelou wrote once in her famous poem ‘Caged Bird’: [T]he caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for… Read more »

Diaspora Joint Letter on Independence Day

Tamil Diaspora Joint Letter on Sri Lanka Independence Day 2018 February 3, 2018  Honorable Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland  Dear High Commissioner,  Tamil Diaspora Organizations call for action on the eve of Sri Lanka’s… Read more »

Remembering A. Sivanandan (1923–2018)

We Are Here Because You Were With Us by Virou Srilangarajah, ‘Ceasefire,’ UK, February 4, 2018 That he was still alive at the time, though in comparative retirement, makes that neglect even sadder.” So wrote Ambalavaner Sivanandan in 1980, commenting on the lack of acknowledgement by black political movements of the 1960s in the United States of the… Read more »

MGR Remembered – Part 42

Importance of Voice and Inspiration of Raja Sandow by Sachi Sri Kantha, Feb. 4, 2018 Part 41 Importance of Voice Nearby, I provide a question and answer item that appeared in the Thuglak weekly (around 1980 I guess, when MGR was Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister), edited by drama-movie actor and humorist Cho Ramaswamy (1934-2016). For… Read more »

Inscribing the Victor’s Land

Nationalistic authorship in Sri Lanka’s post-war Northeast by Rachel Seoighe, ‘Conflict, Security & Development,’ Vol. 16, 2016, Issue 5 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14678802.2016.1219507?scroll=top&needAccess=true Abstract This article examines the nationalistic authorship of space in Sri Lanka’s post-conflict Northeast as part of the state’s nation-building strategy and as a continuation of a post-colonial process of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalistic revival. Exploring issues… Read more »

Nationalistic Authorship and Resistance in Northeastern Sri Lanka

by Rachel Seoighe, ‘Society and Culture in South Asia’ 2(1) 1–30, 2016 Nationalist Authorship Resistance in NE Sri Lanka 2016 Abstract Post-war Sri Lanka is defined by the logic of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism, glorification and expansion of the military, and the exponential growth of state-corporate economic projects. This article examines the performative politics of the state in mass… Read more »

Discourses of Victimization in Sri Lanka’s Civil War

Collective Memory, Legitimacy and Agency by Rachel Seoghe, ‘Social and Legal Studies,’ UK, January 8, 2016 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0964663915614097 Abstract This article explores the availability of discourses of victimhood to political actors who aim to justify violence and mass atrocity in the name of those victims. Arguing that the label of the ‘victim’ is equally available for… Read more »

Navy Officer in Charge of Dumping Dead Bodies at Sea Arrested

by Ramanan Weerasingham, Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Europe, January  31, 2018 Probing the abduction of Tamil youth in the capital city of Colombo and its suburbs during the height of the war, Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested yet another Navy intelligence officer charging him of being in-charge of dumping dead… Read more »

HRW: Repeal Draconian Security Law

Failure to Meet Pledges on Accountability, Counterterrorism Reforms by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 29, 2018 HRW PTA report Jan 2018 The Sri Lankan government has failed to fulfill its pledges to abolish the abusive Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). For decades, the PTA has been used to arbitrarily detain suspects for months and… Read more »

HRW: One Step Forward, Two Back

Government Delays Implementing Rights Pledges to UN by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 18, 2018 (New York) – The Sri Lankan government stalled on its key pledges to provide justice for conflict-related violations and strengthen human rights protections, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2018. The government took some steps in 2017 to reduce… Read more »