ITJP: Criminal Complaint against Sri Lankan ex-President in Singapore
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, July 24, 2022 ITJP Press-release-final-24-July-2022 Johannesburg: Lawyers from the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) have submitted a criminal complaint to the Attorney General of Singapore requesting the immediate arrest of former Sri Lankan President, Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, for war crimes. The 63-page complaint argues… Read more »
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, July 10, 2022 On July 9, thousands of protestors stormed the residence of Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in what appeared to be the climax of months of protest over the economic crisis on the island. Photos and videos that quickly made headlines around the world showed demonstrators rummaging through his wardrobe, working… Read more »
by Thayalini Indrakularasa, Global Press Journal, Washington, DC, June 19, 2022 When Sri Lanka banned agrochemicals last year, the law’s impact on the island’s ability to feed itself was immediately evident. READ THIS STORY IN English தமிழ் CHEDDIKULAM, SRI LANKA — Sellan Yogarasa returned to Sri Lanka in 2014, after more than two decades of… Read more »
by Thayalini Indrakularasa, Global Press Journal, Washington, DC, May 8, 2022 The country’s tropical climate makes it dependent on wheat imports, but an economic crisis at home and conflict abroad have upended the supply. READ THIS STORY IN English தமிழ் CHEDDIKULAM, SRI LANKA — Early morning sunlight streams in the windows as Thankaiya Mageswaran divides… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Tamils on north-south divide by Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Rubatheesan Sandran in Mullaitivu, The Guardian, Manchester, UK, June 21, 2022 In the middle of a crippling economic crisis, demonstrating is a luxury the country’s Tamil minority cannot afford Women hold a protest in Mullaitvu, Sri Lanka, demanding the return of those who were disappeared… Read more »
A nationwide experiment is abandoned after producing only misery. by Ted Nordhaus & Saloni Shah, Foreign Policy, Washington, DC, March 5, 2022 Faced with a deepening economic and humanitarian crisis, Sri Lanka called off an ill-conceived national experiment in organic agriculture this winter. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised in his 2019 election campaign to transition the… Read more »
Why and how, I wrote Prisoner #1056 – The story behind the story by Roy Ratnavel, May 18, 2022 Book expected to be released by Penguin Random House on April 18th, 2023. Pre-order at https://www.amazon.ca/Prisoner-1056-Survivors-Roy-Ratnavel-ebook/dp/B09Z4JKCCV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2D3PVSCLYHW3V&keywords=roy+ratnavel&qid=1652886733&sprefix=roy+rat%2Caps%2C115&sr=8-1 ‘The Rise’ Keynote Address about the book, May 8, 2022, London on YouTube In my thirties, perhaps around the age… Read more »
by Tamil Guardian, London, May 18, 2022 Photograph: A scene of devastation in Mullivaikkal pictured days after the Sri Lankan military had overrun the area. Marking 13 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, we revisit the final days leading up to the 18th of May 2009 – a date remembered… Read more »
by Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch podcast, April 28, 2022 https://undispatch.com/category/podcast APPLE PODCASTS | GOOGLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | PODCAST ADDICT | STITCHER | RADIO PUBLIC Transcript lightly edited for clarity How Has Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis Affected Its Citizens? J.S. Tissainayagam [00:02:59] Sri Lanka’s problem today stems basically from a failure of accountability when wrong decisions are made. This has led to both… Read more »
On Rajiv Gandhi’s Pretense for Eelam Cause: ‘Operation Flower Garland’ of 1987
by Sachi Sri Kantha, March 11, 2022 35 years will pass on June 4, 1987, when the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi executed his machismo pretense for the Eelam Cause by providing relief air-drop to Jaffna Tamils, who were suffering from the Sinhalese military onslaught. At that time, every Sinhalese politician, pundit, and journalist… Read more »
A Multispecies History of the Ceylon Pearl Fishery 1800–1925
Seeing like the sea by Tamara Fernando, Past & Present, Volume 254, Issue 1, February 2022, Pages 127–160, https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtab002 Published: 21 September 2021 PDF Abstract The pearl fishery of Ceylon was a lucrative source of pearls as well as a theatre of colonial power. But instead of narrating a story of abstracted governmentality, this paper dives below… Read more »
Despite High Stakes in Ethiopia by Joseph Sany, Ph.D. & Thomas P. Sheehy, US Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, January 19, 2022 Since November of 2020, Ethiopia has been suffering from a deadly internal conflict that has claimed an estimated 50,000 lives and displaced over two million. The United States, the African Union and others… Read more »
by Groundviews, January 17, 2022 Interview with Ms. Yasmine Sooka, head of International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa While Sri Lanka grapples with an inevitable economic meltdown, the international community has not forgotten the country’s obligations to move towards a reconciled society through the process of transitional justice. One of the requirements for sustainable… Read more »
by Thambu Kanagasabai – Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 26, 2022 The 1987 13th Amendment, a conceived and delivered baby of India under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 for adoption by Sri Lanka, has been lying in the constitution of Sri Lanka partly implemented and mostly ignored by the… Read more »
‘Manthiri Kumari’ (1950) movie – revisited by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 21, 2021 Fellow MGR biographer R. Kannan’s comments to my previous part 62, received on October 4th, was as follows: “You have discussed two difficult issues related to MGR. Annaism brought much flak. Most of what it said about nationalization and the right to… Read more »
by Anuradha Srinivasan, Sri Lalitam Trust, Pondicherry, December 6, 2021 Rows of unlit lamps dot both sides of the street, all the way to the village temple tank. Women dressed in colourful silk saris, draw intricate geometric patterns, or kolams, at the entrance to their house. In the centre of each kolam stands a kuthu… Read more »
Of pre-1943 period translated by Sachi Sri Kantha, October 25, 2021 Front Note by Sachi 40th death anniversary of King Poet Kannadasan (1927-1981) passed by on October 17th. Among his numerous books, two autobiographical memoirs, Vana Vaasam (1965, 376 pp) and Mana Vaasam (1980, 228 pp) stands out. Vana Vaasam covers the period of Kannadasan’s… Read more »
Chinese sea cucumber farms back in operation in Kilinochchi by Dinasena Ratugamage, Sunday Island, Colombo, August 6, 2021 Two sea cucumber farms, managed by a Chinese company in Kilinochchi, recommenced its operations after fishermen’s associations in Jaffna and Kilinochchi said that they no longer opposed the farms. The operations of the two farms were stopped… Read more »
A review of Peer Vries’ “Escaping poverty” by Branko Milanovic, his personal Substack, July 22, 2021 While the world is witnessing global convergence (essentially the catch up of Asia with the West), the debates about the origins of the Great Divergence—the take-off of the West and absence of growth in the Rest—are going strong. I… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa Dynasty is Not as Secure as It Appears
by Banyan, The Economist, London, July 17, 2021 The family that runs everything is running out of cash Since winning the presidency in a landslide nearly two years ago, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has worried not that he has too many relatives in government, but that he has too few. One of the 72-year-old’s elder brothers, Mahinda, himself… Read more »