Manus amid anti-terror laws by James Bennett & Stephen Dziedzic, Australian Broadcasting Corp., July 19, 2017 Australia will need to find an alternative home for a large number of Tamil asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus expected to be denied entry to the United States under sweeping anti-terror laws. Key points: 9-11 anti-terror legislation, the… Read more »
Invoking Nuremberg in Colombo
The writer clearly has a distance to travel to understand what took place during & after the war in Sri Lanka. Has she seen Channel 4’s ‘Killing Fields,’ read the OISL Report or the proceedings of the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka, or talked to anyone who was in Mullavaikkal at the end of the… Read more »
SR Counter-Terrorism & Human Rights
Video of SR Emmerson’s media conference at end of his visit https://lk.one.un.org/news/full-statement-by-ben-emmerson-un-special-rapporteur-on-human-rights-and-counter-terrorism-at-the-conclusion-of-his-official-visit/ Human rights and counter-terrorism: UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism concludes visit to Sri Lanka Preliminary findings of the visit to Sri Lanka Colombo (14 July 2017) – The United Nations Special… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Difficulty with Truth
Half a year later, the Sri Lankan Government has let this important initiative languish. Although officials travelling abroad boast about the consultation process and herald it as a signal of the Government’s determination to abide by the Human Rights Council resolution, it has completely ignored the report domestically. Foreign governments watching Sri Lanka’s progress on… Read more »
Thirumurugan Gandhi on Self-Determination & Autonomy
https://youtu.be/CFAQ7etGNYQ UNHRC Side Event on March 17, 2017 in Geneva in English.
Navy Officer Arrested in Case of 11 Missing Youth
Note: The Government of Sri Lanka has acknowledged 65,000 missing. See Reuters at https://www.yahoo.com/news/sri-lanka-admits-65-000-missing-war-insurrection-170723940.html and Hindustani Times at http://www.hindustantimes.com/world/sri-lanka-to-recognise-around-65-000-people-missing-since-civil-war-as-dead/story-z9fUgfnEEiT74RXUmisHwK.html. Also see TCHR http://sangam.org/2007/11/Killed_1956_2007.php?uid=2619 — Editor by The Associated Press posted in ‘The New York Times’ Asia section July 12, 2017 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka police on Wednesday arrested a senior navy officer in connection with… Read more »
India, U.S. and Japan Begin War Games
and China Hears a Message By Hari Kumar & Ellen Barry, ‘The New York Times,’ July 10, 2017 NEW DELHI — The navies of India, Japan and the United States began a set of war games on Monday with a particular target: submarines capable of sliding unannounced into the deep waters of the Indian Ocean, silently taking positions… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Current Political Impasse
Some additional thoughts by Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, July 4, 2017 Editors note: Read in conjunction with Sri Lanka’s deepening political crisis: Not losing an opportunity to lose another opportunity by the same author. Sri Lanka has entered another phase of political crisis. It is a three-fold crisis. The first is at the level of the… Read more »
Ex-Diplomat Carne Ross: the Case for Anarchism
How a high-flying diplomat and Middle East adviser lost his faith in western democracy – but put his trust in people power by Andrew Anthony, ‘The Guardian,’ UK, July 9, 2017 If you were to play a game of word association with the term “anarchism” what would be the likely responses? Perhaps the anarchy sign,… Read more »
Audacity of Hope in a Broken City
by Devin Jayasundera, ‘Echelon,’ Colombo, June 28, 2017 THE NORTHERN PROVINCE IS IN A STATE OF ECONOMIC ISOLATION. WHILE THE STATE IS IN A POLITICAL DREADLOCK, ORDINARY PEOPLE HAVE TAKEN CHARGE For the last three months, Kamalnath*, 26, has been arriving to work in Chunnakam two hours late, leaving two hours early and spending his free… Read more »
Kurupasiddi July 8
Kurupasiddi Toronto July 8 2017
An Uphill Battle Ahead for India
to Sustain Strategic Ties With US by Constantino Xavier, ‘TheWire.in,’ July 3, 2017 The failure to address the clash between ‘Make in India’ and ‘America First’ policies, and any changes in the narrow business interests of the US in China could prove problematic for India. Contrasting with the optimism with which US President Donald Trump’s election… Read more »
A Birth Centenary Biography on MGR
by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 28, 2017 Book Review: R. Kannan, MGR – A Life, Penguin Random House India Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon, Haryana, 2017, 495 pages, 599 Indian rupees. The influence of movie stars as popular heroes has been a theme of academic study in America since the second half of last century. For… Read more »
Northern Provincial Council – A Boiling Pot
by Thambu Kanagasabai, Toronto, June 27, 2017 Northern Provincial Council is [NPC] a creation under the Indo-Ceylon Accord of 1987 and the 13th Amendment to the constitution, all of which are of Indian and Sri Lankan Government’s making without the backing and endorsement of the large majority of Tamils and the leadership of the Liberation Tigers… Read more »
TNA – Is It Taking the Tamils for a Ride?
by Kumarathasan Rasingam, June 25, 2017 Tamil National Alliance [TNA], a loose group of four parties, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi [ITAK] Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization [TELO], People’s Liberation of Tamil Eelam [PLOTE] and Eelam People’s Liberation Front [EPRLF] was formed in 2001 with the blessings of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE} leadership. TNA… Read more »
Rajendra Theagarajah’s Canada speech
Need access to markets, not handouts from expatriates by LankaReporter, Colombo, June 9, 2017 Rajendra Theagarajah, Vice Chairman of Cargills Bank who was the guest of honour at the Canadian Tamils’ Chamber of Commerce gala and awards ceremony with CTCC President Ajith Sabaratnam. (Picture by Gnane Gananedran) Partner with us in Sri Lanka, not to… Read more »
‘The Barrier’
by Shankari Chandran Also author of ‘Song of the Sun God’ From the author’s website: The Barrier is a fast-paced literary thriller, set in a world destroyed by a virulent strain of Ebola and religious wars. It is 2040 and the surviving nations have been reorganized into the Western and Eastern Alliance. One side subjugates… Read more »
Netherlands-Funded CEPA Project Wages Political ‘Counter-Insurgency’
On Diaspora, elected NPC Colombo Establishment and its global backers are trying to isolate the Northern and Eastern provincial councils by intervening through Colombo-based authorities, ministries and departments coming under the Central Government. Certain NGOs operating in Colombo also operate in the same manner. There is also a hidden agenda of diverting ‘post-war development assistance’,… Read more »
TIC: The Role of Diaspora Tamils in Promoting Human Right & Peace
in Sri Lanka by Tamil Information Centre, London, June 9, 2017 TIC has a large number of monographs (papers) on important topics about Eelam Tamils from the mid-1980s on available for sale at http://www.ticonline.org/monographs.php?page=14
HRW: Minister Threatens Defender of Minority Rights
by Human Rights Watch, New York, June 19, 2017 Investigate, Prosecute Attacks on Muslims, Christians (New York) – The Sri Lankan government should immediately repudiate statements by the country’s justice minister threatening to disbar a prominent lawyer for speaking out against attacks on religious minorities, Human Rights Watch said today. The incident highlights the government’s… Read more »