by Sachi Sri Kantha, Septermber 5, 2013 Farmer front pages Anniversaries are regularly celebrated and remembered for their impact on the society. Last month Americans remembered the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech. In November this year, another 50th anniversary (the assassination of President John F. Kennedy) will be commemorated…. Read more »
Stop Harassing Victims, Activists
by Human Rights Watch, New York, September 3, 2013 The Sri Lankan government should promptly investigate allegations that security forces harassed people who met with the visiting United Nations human rights chief, Navi Pillay, during her recent trip to the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, expressed concerns at… Read more »
Bad History Mars Indian Movie On Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassination
Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto AgencyDemonstrators in Mumbai, Maharashtra, demanding a ban on the film “Madras Cafe” on Aug. 22. The movie “Madras Cafe,” which opened in India and elsewhere in the world recently, seeks to chronicle the Sri Lankan civil war through the events leading up to the assassination in 1991 of former Prime Minister Rajiv… Read more »
Elephants Stroll Past Temples on Once-Forbidden Sri Lankan Coast
With the civil war now ended, the island nation’s east and north have opened up for the first time in a quarter century. St. Martin’s Seminary in Jaffna is shown here. Although Sinhalese Buddhists make up 74 percent of Sri Lanka’s population, Catholics are a significant minority. Photograph: Simon Norfolk/Bloomberg Pursuits “You’re going to… Read more »
TNA 2013 Northern Provincial Council Election Manifesto
The Mandate Given To The Tamil National Alliance The Tamil People overwhelmingly gave the TNA a mandate at the General Election held in April 2010. The TNA has continued to act in accordance with that political mandate and is now facing the Northern Provincial Council Election as a necessary step in the fulfilment of that… Read more »
Waves of War
by Andreas Wimmer, Cambridge University Press, 2013 Introduction of book at https://www.princeton.edu/~awimmer/WavesIntro.pdf Book review by G. John Ikenberry, ‘Foreign Affairs,’ New York, Sept./Oct. issue Beginning in the nineteenth century, cycles of violent upheaval and world war collapsed empires and dynastic kingdoms, while the nation-state spread to every corner of the globe. This ambitious book provides one… Read more »
Still No Human Rights Accountability in Sri Lanka
http://amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA37/021/2013/en/228da3d6-d328-426d-ace4-7c2fc5dcd04f/asa370212013en.pdf Amnesty No Accountability Aug 28 2013 Amnesty’s Live Wire blog film on “Sri Lanka’s Authorities Must Tell the Trut” 29th August 2013 Index Number: ASA 37/021/2013 UN Human Rights Council Twenty-Fourth Session 9th-27th September Item 4 Still no human rights accountability in Sri Lanka: still no end to serious human rights violations Sri Lanka… Read more »
UN Official Criticizes Sri Lanka over Human Rights
Video of UNHCHR’s speech, plus Q & A at http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/34698-signs-of-sri-lanka-moving-towards-authoritarianism-pillay.html Text of UNHCHR’s speech at http://un.lk/news/opening-remarks-by-un-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-navi-pillay/ COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The United Nations human rights chief chastised Sri Lanka’s government on Saturday, saying it is showing signs of becoming more authoritarian despite the end of the country’s long civil war more than four years ago. In a… Read more »
UN May Intercede as Sri Lanka Regime Strong-arms Elections Opponents
As de-militarization was a prerequisite for elections, two resolutions — in 2012 and 2013 — moved by the United States at the UN Human Rights Council included such measures… The need for the military to occupy private land is partly explained by a more fundamental problem: There are “150,000 soldiers encamped in the Northern Province,” claims Premachandran. “That makes it one soldier for every four or five civilians.”
Anna, Annachi, Annathe
by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 21, 2013 Recently I completed reading a wonderful biography on C.N. Annadurai (1909-1969), the founding leader of DMK, by R. Kannan. It’s title was simply ‘Anna’ – appearing palindromic in English. This led me to study the semantics of this endearing Tamil word. This essay is also a sort of… Read more »
Unnecessary Variable
There is a lesson for Tamils in the Syrian “great game”. Until recently Syrian regime was tolerated by the west and the Israel. Assad was seen as a known devil and in the name of stability, confrontation was avoided. If there was no public protests, they may have been content to maintain the status quo.
How did that policy change?
A Way Forward?
A Government in Difficulties Sri Lanka suddenly finds itself in a rather sticky situation, having shown insufficient progress on its own commitments to alleviate the deterioration in the human rights situation in the country. UK has warned that it will look for a strong and unified response at the UN HRC in Geneva if it… Read more »
‘Uncivil War’
Passionate, committed, and deeply humane, these poems bear witness with unflinching honesty to the horrific violence of the Sri Lankan civil war. “Indran Amirthanayagam is above all the poet of the bloody Sri Lankan conflict and division. His work honours the sufferings of the living and the injustices dealt the dead, and for any reader,… Read more »
Compilation of Material on IPKF
“The Satanic Force” http://ebook.yarl.com/ on the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in Sri Lanka 1987-1990 Vol. 1, Part 1 http://ebook.yarl.com/index1.html Vol. 1, Part 2 http://ebook.yarl.com/index2.html Vol. 1, Part 3 http://ebook.yarl.com/index3.html
Amnesty Media Advisory on Disappearances
Amnesty disappearances Aug 27 2013 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ADVISORY AI index: ASA 37/020/2013 27 August 2013 Sri Lanka: Navi Pillay’s visit and Day of the Disappeared Spokespeople and new case studies available On 30 August 2013, the world will mark the International Day of the Disappeared. In Sri Lanka, some 12,000 complaints of enforced disappearances… Read more »
Some Notes On Moors Religious Exlusivism
Dr.Imtiyaz Razak I would like to sketch some points about Moors to help readers to understand the trend. Note that I am neither hired by external forces, as some alledged, to criticize Moors nor do I hate my own community so I criticize it. As I pointed on my facebook wall “We need to be critical of… Read more »
Land Issues in Northern and Eastern Provinces
Mr. Deputy Speaker, my Adjournment Motion that I have proposed to move today deals with nine situations pertaining to land both in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces. Land issues are a matter of grave concern to the Tamil-speaking people, both the Tamil people and the Muslim people in the North and the East. We… Read more »
Business of (Tamil) Politics
“I got arrested 40 times during the ’60s, beaten, bloodied and unconscious, I’m not tired, I’m not weary. I’m not prepared to sit down and give up. I am ready to fight and continue to fight, and you must fight.”
“You cannot stand by. You cannot sit down. You have to stand up, speak up, speak out and get in the way. Make some noise. The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It’s the most powerful non-violent tool…”
Bloody Footprints on Sri Lanka
The bloody episode is cited as the latest example of violent repression that threatens to overshadow the Commonwealth leaders’ summit in Colombo in November.
Today Navi Pillay, the United Nations human rights commissioner, arrives in Sri Lanka, amid hopes she will address allegations that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime has intimidated its opponents in the four years since the showdown with Tamil rebels that ended the civil war.
Mullaitivu Falls to the Tamil Forces 210 Years Ago Today
At least as far as the records and anecdotal history go, there was no war of independence following Kaadu Rajah Vinnasythamby’s 1878 defeat anywhere in Vanni. According to the known history, Pariyari Velar was never captured alive but his son Kaadu Rajah Vinnayar was pardoned by the British authorities and he remained in obscurity following his defeat until his death. A century later his great-great-grandson took up arms and joined a liberation organisation which defeated the enemy and once again took over Mullaitivu in July 1996. The great-great-grandson of Kaadu Rajah was known by the nom de guerre ‘Major Curdles’ and was affectionately known as Kerdy to his fellow freedom fighters. The great martyr (Maveeran in Tamil) Mahalingam Thileepan, otherwise known as Major Curdles, is a cousin of the most illustrious freedom fighter Brigadier Theepan.