Territorializing the environment: The political question of land and the future of the displaced in Musali South by Sivamohan Sumathy, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, July 2, 2015 I have in the past few weeks attended two of Shahul Hasbullah’s excellently laid out map of the displaced in the Musali South area and the entanglement of that… Read more »
Wiggie Blasts Dilan over NPC Expenditure
by ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ December 23, 2017 Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) C.V. Wigneswaran has taken issue with a statement made by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Highways Dilan Perera with respect to NPC Expenditure. Wigneswaran, writing directly to Perera, refers to a news item in the Virakesari (December 21, 2017) which quotes… Read more »
Democracy and Displacement in Colombia’s Civil War
by Abbey Steele, Cornell University Press, December 2017 ISBN-101501713736 ISBN-139781501713736 Democracy and Displacement in Colombia’s Civil War is one of few books available in English to provide an overview of the Colombian civil war and drug war. Abbey Steele draws on her own original field research as well as on Colombian scholars’ work in Spanish to… Read more »
Tamil Diaspora Organizations Redouble Efforts
Tamil Diaspora Orgs_New Year message 2018 For Immediate Release by US Tamil Political Action Council, People for Relief & Equity in Lanka, British Tamils Forum, Australian Tamil Congress, Canberra-London-Washington, January 01 2018 Tamil Diaspora Organizations Redouble Efforts to Prosecute War Criminals & Work for Lasting Peace in Sri Lanka On this New Year’s Day… Read more »
UNWG: Sri Lanka Must End Arbitrary Detention
Sri Lanka must urgently implement reforms to end arbitrary detention, UN rights experts say COLOMBO / GENEVA (15 December 2017) – The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has identified significant challenges to the enjoyment of the right to personal liberty in Sri Lanka, resulting in arbitrary detention across the country. The experts recognize positive… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment Challenged
Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment Challenged at the UN by 1,705 Lawyers from around the World: TGTE Complaint cited terminology of “one undivided and indivisible country” & safeguards against secession in Article 2.2. of the New Interim Constitutional Report by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), /EINPresswire.com/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, December 14, 2017 One thousand seven hundred and… Read more »
Tamil Refugee Still Says Nandri
Tortured by police, separated from his family for years, but Tamil refugee still says nandri – thank you Rescued after 22 hours in freezing water, Para Paheer applied for asylum in Australia. An extraordinary friendship with a Victorian woman helped ease the pain of waiting eight years to see his wife and son by Ben… Read more »
UN: Protectors or Watchers?
by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.], former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, January 1, 2018 The United Nations is a global organization that brings together its member states to confront common challenges, manage shared reponsibilities and exercise collective action in an enduring “quest for a peaceful world.” One of the main purposes of the United… Read more »
Amnesty: UPR Pledges Must Be Fully Implemented
SRI LANKA: UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW PLEDGES MUST BE FULLY IMPLEMENTED by Amnesty International, 20 December 2017, Index number: ASA 37/7630/2017 Eight years after the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka, the island nation’s human rights record was scrutinized again at the recently held Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland on 15th November… Read more »
Amnesty: Petition on SL Disappeared
Provide Accountability for the Disappeared in Sri Lanka by Amnesty International, December 15, 2017 https://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=75621 Up to 100,000 people have been made to “disappear” in Sri Lanka over the past 35 years. The Sri Lankan government must implement its promises to provide truth and justice to the relatives of the disappeared. Text of Petition: Message… Read more »
Sri Lanka Must Urgently End Arbitrary Detention
Sri Lanka must urgently implement reforms to end arbitrary detention, UN rights experts sayCOLOMBO / GENEVA (15 December 2017) – The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has identified significant challenges to the enjoyment of the right to personal liberty in Sri Lanka, resulting in arbitrary detention across the country. The experts recognize positive initiatives, including… Read more »
MGR Remembered – Part 41
Near Death Experience and its Aftermath by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 19, 2017 Part 40 Front Note by Sachi MGR’s 30th death anniversary falls on December 24. It has been five years since I began this series. Curtain will also fall on MGR’s birth centenary in less than two weeks. To the best of my… Read more »
British Police Are Training Riot-Cops Linked to War Crimes
Undercover Footage Shows British Police Are Training Riot-Cops Linked to War Crimes in Sri Lanka Foreign aid money is being spent on a paramilitary style unit notorious for its brutality and linked to extra-judicial killings. by Phil Miller, ‘Vice UK,’ December 7, 2017 A still from the footage provided by Yardstick films shows the STF… Read more »
Recent Pieces by N. Malathy
December 14, 2017 1. This website, TamilTigerwomen.com is the byproduct of the project to record women’s history in the LTTE. A translation of some of their writing. The project itself is not complete yet. 2. Peopling an Island – the case of Sri Lanka (appeared in the telesur site, April 2017) 3. Rape: Sri Lanka’s Weapon of Genocide (appeared in… Read more »
Shadow Prison(s) in Tamil Nadu
by N. Malathy, ‘Economic & Political Weekly,’ Mumbai, April 1, 2017 EPW-Shadow Prisons by N. Malathy April 2017 These Tamil Eelam refugees are categorised into three types—non-camp refugees, open camp refugees, and “special camp” refugees. Non-camp refugees are people with sufficient resources to live on their own in rented places. They have received little attention… Read more »
Sri Lanka Hands a Major Port to China
Sri Lanka, Struggling With Debt, Hands a Major Port to China by Kai Schultz, ‘The New York Times,’ December 12, 2017 NEW DELHI — Struggling to pay its debt to Chinese firms, the nation of Sri Lanka formally handed over the strategic port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year lease last week, in a… Read more »
Burying History
by Sanjana Hattotuwa,’ ‘The Island, Colombo, November 18, 2017 Over four years ago, I wrote an article on mass graves in Sri Lanka that could be seen using Google Earth imagery, serving as a solitary, virtual witness to what happened on the ground. The article focused in and around Nandikadal – the sliver of land… Read more »
On History Writing by Uncle Sam’s Gumshoes
by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 11, 2017 This is a rejoinder to Amit Barua’s commentary in The Hindu daily (Feb. 5, 2017), with the caption “JR: I was Forced into a Deal with India”. In my view, Barua has cherry-picked some items from the so-called declassified CIA documents. The items recorded by Barua are as… Read more »
Sri Lanka Doesn’t Need More American Bear Hugs
Washington’s current approach actually discourages reform. by Taylor Dibbert, ‘The Diplomat,’ Washington, DC, December 6, 2017 The U.S. and Sri Lanka recently held their second Partnership Dialogue. The first took place in Washington, D.C. last year. This one was held in Colombo. The meeting didn’t seem to feature any big surprises – which means that… Read more »
BTF and USTPAC Commemorate International Human Rights Day
by British Tamils Forum & US Tamil Political Action Council, December 10, 2017 For immediate release BTF and USTPAC Commemorate International Human Rights Day – 2017 On this day in 1948 the United Nations adopted a universal set of human rights values that apply to all of us. The British Tamils Forum (BTF) and the… Read more »