20,000 Identities/Cases confirmed by War Without Witness, Australia, June 13, 2009 http://www.warwithoutwitness.com/SLCasualityReport/VictimsofSriLankanGovernmentsGenocidalWar20,000IdentitiesorCases_WWWReport_13thJun2009_FullReport.pdf Also available at https://sangam.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/VictimsofSriLankanGovernmentsGenocidalWar20000IdentitiesorCases_WWWReport_13thJun2009_FullReport.pdf Reporting as of March 23, 2009: https://sangam.org/2009/03/Civilians_Killed.pdf?uid=3380 This “War Without Witness” report is based on firsthand information obtained from Government Hospital authorities, Government Officials, Police and Judiciary sources in Vanni and Sri Lanka, The North East Secretariat of Human Rights, Aid… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Demography
SL Crisis Deepens Uncertainty for Tamil Refugees in TN
by Mayilvaganan ‘Times of India,’ Delhi, November 15, 2018 CHENNAI: It is a political paradox. In the power struggle among three Sinhala leaders, the Sri Lankan Tamils — not just those in the island nation but also on other side of Gulf of Mannar — appear to be victims. Confined to the 100-odd refugee camps,… Read more »
What, to the Minority, is Democracy?
by Qadri Ismail, ‘Groundviews, Colombo, November 3, 2018 Maithripala Sirisena violates the constitution, stands to destroy democracy itself. Liberals, overwhelmingly Sinhalese, are aggrieved, appalled, aghast. As a minority, I laugh. Not the happy laughter of someone enjoying a good joke. But the bitter, mirthless cackle of someone forced to read this script many times before… Read more »
Indo Sri Lankan Fishery Dispute
Solving the problem in a win win situation by Punsara Amarasinghe, ‘Countercurrents.org,’ May 12, 2018 Co-Written by Punsara Amarasinghe & Eshan Jayawardena Also posted in Indian Defense Review on May 21, 2018 entitled ‘India, Sri Lanka must solve fishery dispute bilaterally.’ The Palk Bay, a narrow strip of water separating the state of Tamil Nadu… Read more »
90,000 Northern Families in Shanties or Homeless
What happened to Govt. promised housing? Opinion by Jekhan Arulian, ‘LankaBusinessOnline,’ September 26, 2018 In October last year I had the privilege of participating in the blessing of a new water well in the Killinochchi District of the Northern Province. Its construction had been funded by the UK based charity Child Aid Lanka. The family on… Read more »
MCC: Sri Lanka Constraints Analysis
by US Millenium Challenge Corporation, Washington, DC, 2017 https://assets.mcc.gov/content/uploads/constraints-analysis-sri-lanka.pdf We argue in this report that Sri Lanka faces the following three binding constraints to private sector investment and economic growth: (1) policy uncertainty (especially tax and tariff policy); (2) inadequate access to land; and (3) poor transportation and logistics… The state reportedly owns approximately 80… Read more »
Tamil Women’s Day
Honoring Strength & Resistance in the Face of Oppression by PEARL, Washington, DC, October 10, 2018 PEARL_Press_Release_Women_s_Day_2018 On Tamil Women’s Day, PEARL remembers the women who participated in the Tamil struggle for rights and self-determination, and honors the ongoing fight against oppression. October 10, 1987 marked the death of 2nd Lt. Malathy, the first LTTE… Read more »
CPJ: Mahaweli Land Grabbing & Related Issues
edby Commission for Justice and Peace of Catholic Diocese of Jaffna, August 30, 2018 Mahaveli Development 180830 Condemnation of the Land grabbing by the Mahaveli-Development Authority and some other related issues The Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Jaffna strongly condemn all the measures taken by the Mahaveli-Development Authority to acquire the… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Population
by World Population Review, accessed August 23, 2018 Sri Lanka Population by Year (Projections) Year Population % Male % Female Density (km²) Growth Rate 2020 21,084,042 47.94% 52.06% 321.35 x 0.00% 2025 21,349,942 47.75% 52.25% 325.41 0.25% 2030 21,474,701 47.56% 52.44% 327.31 0.12% 2035 21,491,895 47.40% 52.60% 327.57 0.02% 2040 21,397,716 47.27% 52.73% 326.13 -0.09% 2045… Read more »
Misery as Strategy
The Human Cost of Conflict by International Crisis Group, Brussels, May 31, 2018 In conflicts across the world, levels of displacement and hunger are increasing. The tactics used by leaders, governments and non-state armed groups have much to do with that misery. From Syria to Yemen, from South Sudan to Venezuela, war and political crisis… Read more »
Tamils to Remember the Dead in Mullivaikkal
by Meera Srinivasan, ‘The Hindu,’ Chennai, May 17, 2018 Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran urges them to unite on the ‘tragic’ Remembrance Day Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran has called upon Tamils to set aside their differences and participate in the ‘Remembrance Day’ event, remembering those who were killed in Sri Lanka’s civil… Read more »
Colombo Unleashes Dangerous Scheme
Colombo unleashes dangerous scheme of demographic genocide choking North-East by TamilNet, March 21, 2018 The Mahaweli Authority of the occupying State of genocidal Sri Lanka has schemed a new plan to destroy the territorial integrity of the traditional homeland of Eezham Tamils by changing the demography of 13 km long narrow coastal stretch from the… Read more »
Anti-Muslim Riots Signal a New Social Fissure
by ‘The Economist,’ London, March 8, 2018 Sinhalese nationalists may be looking for an enemy COLOMBO: THE trigger was supposedly a road-rage incident, said to have involved members of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority, near the popular tourist destination of Kandy. A lorry driver from the country’s biggest ethnic group, the Sinhalese, ended up dead. Angry… Read more »
Sri Lanka Imposes Emergency to Quell Communal Riots
by Times of India, March 6, 2018 HIGHLIGHTS Sri Lanka on Tuesday declared a nationwide state of emergency to quell anti-Muslim riots that have killed at least two people and damaged dozens of mosques and homes in the central district of Kandy. Here’s what led the Maithripala Sirisena government to take the extreme measure: *… Read more »
The State of Jobs in Post-conflict Areas of Sri Lanka
by David Locke Newhouse & An Rudra Silwal, World Bank, Washington, DC, February 26, 2018 Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 8355 World Bank WPS8355 State of Jobs in Post Conflict Areas ABSTRACT Although Sri Lanka has made significant progress in social and economic development over the past decade, the Northern and Eastern provinces that… Read more »
More on Yan Oya
Genocidal ‘development’ abetted by global partners seeks to wedge North-East by TamilNet, May 4, 2017 The occupying Colombo is trying to seize lands in the Tamil-speaking Kuchchave’li division of Trincomalee district in the Eastern Province to construct housing schemes for Sinhala settlers who have been moved out of their lands that were taken over by… Read more »
2007: A Proposal to Make Toppigala Victory Sustainable
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 »
Yan Oya Project
[Not sure why Ariyawansha brings up all the Tamils & Muslims in Trinco, when the real subject is Sinhalese protest at having their land taken without proper compensation. Also interesting is that it is accepted by one senior official that the project was originally started ‘to maintain borders’ in the 1980s, but now is necessary… Read more »
Future of the displaced in Musali South
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 »
The Controversy of Wilpattu
Are administrative authorities in slumber while nature is at stake? Controversially, the deforestation accusations are aimed at State agencies and the issue is further ethno-politicized due to the accusations made at Muslim communities engaging in forest clearing and illegal land settlement, particularly aimed at the Minister of Trade and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen’s alleged patronage for… Read more »