Development of water resources in the Eastern province by G.T. Dharmasena, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, July 19, 2007 Former Director General of Irrigation and presently the Consultant to the United Nation’s Office for Project Services(UNOPS) At a moment the focus of all peace loving people of the country, irrespective of political divisions ,religions and races is… Read more »
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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 »
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 »
by Francis Harrison, ‘Huffington Post’ The Blog, Los Angeles, March 30, 2017 Tired and in shock, he leans on her shoulder as if it were his mother’s. His reddened eyes keep on closing as he nods off, drained by sleepless nights spent reliving the past. Seeing the two of them together – both torture survivors… Read more »
by Senel Wanniarachchi, ‘The Sunday Leader,’ Colombo, November 6, 2016 Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, one of the world’s most protracted and destructive conflicts of our time was brought to a bloody, military end in May of 2009. Seven years have passed since, but the communities in the country remain divided along narrow ethno-religious lines. In… Read more »
by Thambu Kanagasabai, October 9, 2016 The ‘Eluga Tamil rallies held in Jaffna on September 24, 2016 received overwhelming response and ended with astonishing success beyond the expectations of many, belying the pessimists. The success of this event was due to the undaunted efforts of Tamil Peoples’ Council spearheaded by Northern Province Chief Minister Wigneswaran,… Read more »
Cookbook Tells The Story Of Sri Lanka’s Civil War Through Food
by Vidya Balachandar, ‘NPR,’ Washington, DC. October 9, 2016 Even if you knew nothing about Vijaya, her haunting portrait would likely give you pause. She peers out of the page, unsmiling, her silver hair pulled back and her eyes conveying an unspoken anguish. From the accompanying narrative, we learn that a few years ago, almost… Read more »
by US Embassy, Colombo twitter feed, September 6, 2016
by Kumar David, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ July 31, 2016 My essay two weeks ago (“What Options for Jaffna Economic Revival?” on 17 July) was on the whole grim and pessimistic and it followed discussions outside the Northern Province with a NGO types, small investors and a potential venture capitalist. I had the good fortune a week… Read more »
by Kumar David, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ July 17, 2016 Industrial and agricultural development prospects seem bleak: What options for Jaffna economic revival? Sometimes countries rise phoenix like from the ashes of devastation and war; the best known are Germany and Japan after WW2. Others like post-crisis Central African basket-cases remain depressed basket-cases. The Northern Province, unlike the… Read more »
UNHCHR: Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka
by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, June 28, 2016 Advance copy of UNHCHR oral report on Sri Lanka’s compliance with UNHRC Resolution 30/1 A_HRC_32_CRP_4_EN This oral update is presented pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, which was adopted by consensus with the… Read more »
by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 28, 2016 In the recently concluded 2016 general election to the Tamil Nadu State Assembly, the DMK party leader Muthuvel Karunanidhi (b. 1924) lost his chance to topple Jayalalitha (the AIADMK leader), his bete noire for the past quarter century. He will reach 92 in June 3rd. When 2021 comes… Read more »
In hundreds of witness interviews, the CIJA found consistent patterns in interrogation practices across all branches of the security agencies. People were detained following the Crisis Cell’s policy. Besides identifying “new targets,” the results of these interrogations were shared among the agencies. Detainees were routinely kept in inhumane conditions for months or years without entering the judicial system…
Hamada’s account of atrocities at Hospital 601 was later corroborated by approximately fifty-five thousand photographs, smuggled out of Syria by a military-police officer known by the name Caesar, an alias. Before the war, Caesar and his colleagues had documented crime scenes and traffic accidents involving military personnel in Damascus. He uploaded pictures to government computers, then printed them and stapled them to official death reports. Beginning in 2011, however, the bodies were those of detainees, collected each day from security branches and delivered to military hospitals…
Between Caesar’s photographs and the CIJA’s case, Stephen Rapp told me, “when the day of justice arrives, we’ll have much better evidence than we’ve had anywhere since Nuremberg.”…
Last year, when Assad was asked about the Caesar photographs during an interview with Foreign Affairs, he said, “Who said this is done by the government, not by the rebels? Who said this is a Syrian victim, not someone else?”
Land is a key issue for reconciliation in Sri Lanka. Reparations including the restitution of land, if implemented in the correct manner, can contribute to long-term peace building efforts and prevent further marginalisation of people who were affected by the war. With promises by the government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) to initiate reforms including with… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s fledging transitional justice process is in trouble already. It’s getting impossible to paper over embarrassing public differences between the country’s President and its Prime Minister on the issue of war crimes. Sceptics of course say neither man really acknowledges the gravity and scale of the atrocities committed. The most immediate crisis is over… Read more »
MGR Remembered Part 32 Additional details on MGR’s 1965 trip to Ceylon After reading Part 32, my friend and fellow MGR biographer R. Kannan had shared with me the information which had appeared in the DMK party’s organ Murasoli daily during October 1965, from Murasoli archives. I provide below the material he had extracted: “The… Read more »
In October 2015, the Sri Lankan government took a giant stride towards reconciliation when it co-sponsored a historic resolution at the Human Rights Council. Despite howls of protest from fringe elements within the Sinhala and Tamil community who opposed it, the Resolution was defended stoutly by mainstream members of both ruling parties, the SLMC and… Read more »
by Sachi Sri Kantha, December 24, 2015 Part 31 First and Only Visit to Ceylon in late 1965 Last October marked the 50th anniversary of MGR’s first and only visit to his land of birth. I don’t have much primary materials with me now, about this visit. The blame lies on my mother. This is… Read more »
by Sumit Bisarya, Lawyers for Justice in Libya, December 24, 2015 Sumit Bisarya International IDEA www.idea.int/ Constitutions cannot build roads or bridges. They cannot cure disease, educate children or put food on the table (at least directly). A few countries, such as the United Kingdom, seem to get by perfectly well without a written Constitution… Read more »
2013 TEDx talk on social activism — Shanthi Sachithanandam – Visionary Of Social Change & Beautiful Human Being By Visakha Tillkeratne, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ August 29, 2015 You went too soon………….. Shanthi, was the quintessential human being, multi-talented, multi-faceted and multi-tasking. A sparkling jewel, in looks and thought. A mother who had time to bring up… Read more »