Sri Lanka’s Military Aren’t Ready to be Peacekeepers

Given Sri Lanka’s history in Haiti, its treatment of Tamils on the island, and its history of impunity, its soldiers should not be allowed to wear the blue helmet, writes Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree. By Gary Anandasangaree, ‘The Star,’ Toronto, Nov. 3, 2017   The recent appointment of Robert Mugabe as the World Health Organization (WHO)… Read more »

Origins of English Education in Sri Lanka

by Mandalam’s Note, source & date unknown It should be recalled that amongst the many Colebrooke Commission changes, English was made the Official Language of the country in 1833. For reasons that have not been researched, large sections of the Tamils ended up in the barren North with poor rainfall once a year during the… Read more »

Second U.S.-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue

Joint Statement From the U.S. Department of State and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka on the Second U.S.-Sri Lanka Partnership Dialogue 11/06/2017 10:56 AM EST Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC November 6, 2017 The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of… Read more »

MGR Remembered – Part 40

Political Motive in the Case by Sachi Sri Kantha, November 1, 2017 Part 39 Testimony of Head Constable Lakshmanan One of the vital evidence in the MGR shooting case, which links the political angle of the case was a ‘letter’ or ‘report’ handed by M.R. Radha (prior to his admission to the Royapettah hospital) to… Read more »

From New Jersey to Pandatherippu

Dr. John Scudder and the First Western Medical Centre in South Asia By  Dr. D.C. Ambalavanar, Visiting Lecturer in Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Jaffna, October 29, 2017 On October 18th a public function was held by the Church of the American Ceylon Mission in the village of Pandatherippu in Northern Sri Lanka. This was the… Read more »

Map of Global Shipping

by Shipmap.org, accessed October 30, 2017 Access website for video of shipping movement.

Brazil Cannot be a Safe Haven for War Crimes Suspects

by Juana Kweitel and Sylvia Helena Steiner, Nexo Journal, Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 24, 2017 (translated from the original Portugese by Google Translate) Sri Lanka’s ambassador is suspected of having participated in the deaths of more than 70,000 people in his country. Itamaraty, however, gave him diplomatic immunity and did not publicly pronounce on denunciations… Read more »

What You Should Have Been Taught About Sri Lanka

by Natalie Samarasinghe, ‘Explore Parts Unknown.com,’ CNN, October 25, 2017 Sri Lanka bills itself as a tropical paradise, and this is not an idle boast. I have yet to find a country that matches its combination of sleepy beaches, ancient cities, lush vistas, and tourist-friendly package of relatively short travel distances and locals who speak… Read more »

Bourdain’s ‘Parts Unknown’ in Sri Lanka

by CNN, October 29, 2017 https://explorepartsunknown.com/destination/sri-lanka/                         partsunknowncnn Your guide to Sri Lankan cuisine   Spicy Fish Stew by Douglas Bullis and Wendy Hutton, October 25, 2017 Seer, or Spanish mackerel, is arguably Sri Lanka’s tastiest fish. Certainly, it is one of the most popular… Read more »

On Sri Lanka’s National Question – Part 2

By P. Sivakumar, October 27, 2017  In the first part of this article (http://sangam.org/sri-lankas-national-question/) I discussed about a section of the Sinhalese who are unable to differentiate between Federalism and Separatism. However, there are also enough of well-educated Sinhalese who know the difference very well but still oppose it. Their argument is that Ethno-federalism (federalism… Read more »

Ilankai Tamil Sangam USA Announces Lifetime Service Awards to Medical Team who Served the Civilians in the Last Phase of Civil War in Sri Lanka

Ilankai Tamil Sangam USA recognizes the medical profession team comprising doctors, nurses, technicians, ambulance drivers and other volunteers who have gone above and beyond in their service to the internally displaced and war-affected people during the final phases of the civil war in Sri Lanka.  During the times of war and great distress, they heroically… Read more »

Sri Lanka Must Step Up Progress on Transitional Justice, UN Expert Finds

by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, October 23, 2017 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22274&LangID=E GENEVA / COLOMBO (23 October 2017) – The Government of Sri Lanka has not made sufficient progress in fulfilling its commitments on transitional justice and related reform processes, a UN human rights expert has concluded after an official visit to the country…. Read more »

HRW: Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child

Concerning Sri Lanka by Human Rights Watch, New York, October 19, 2017 77th Working Group  This submission relates to Articles 28 and 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and focuses on the protection of students, teachers, and schools during armed conflict. In its 2010 Concluding Observations under the Optional Protocol on… Read more »

Comments on Articles on New Constitution

by Veluppilai Thangavelu, October 23, 2017 from Thamilvaddam discussion group # 4708 COMMENT on ‘Battling for a New Constitution’ In the first place Jayampathy Wickremaratne is not a Minister. He is an appointed MP. So why quote Jayampathy Wickremaratne and why not quote Mahinda Rajapaksa, former President, has said about the current constitutional process? That… Read more »

On Sri Lanka’s National Question

by P. Sivakumar, October 20, 2017 One of the tragedies of Sri Lanka is that the Sinhalese have never understood the meaning of federalism or they pretend not to understand. Most of them think a federal state means a separate country where the Sinhalese will be sent out. Federalism is not separation and it is the… Read more »

Battling for a New Constitution

And dashing the hopes of the Tamils by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.], Former Lecturer in Law , University of Colombo, President, Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Organization The Steering Committee consisting of twenty members of Parliament chaired by the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe has finally submitted its report for consideration by the Constituent Assembly on… Read more »

Adayaalam: Militarization of Mullaitivu

Normalizing the Abnormal by Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Jaffna & PEARL, Washington, DC, October 2017 Adayaalam Normalizing the Abnormal Militarization of Mullaitivu 2017 Table of Contents Executive Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1 Extent of Militarisation in Mullaitivu ……………………………………………………………………….. 3 (I) Oversized Military presence in Mullaitivu ……………………………………………………… 3 Breaking down the numbers ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3 Mapping the Military’s… Read more »

The Myth of Lazy Jaffna Youth

‘The Daily Mirror,’ Colombo, October 16, 2017 Not long ago, soon after the war, a common refrain about the Jaffna society was how hard working, thrifty and prudent its people were. But today, one often hears people decrying Jaffna society as having become lazy and spendthrift, landing itself in debt. It is true that Jaffna… Read more »