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 »
Posts Categorized: Demography
A Hollow Attempt to Re-write History and Deny Justice
Lord Naseby’s ‘revelations’ by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, December 5, 2017 In October, a member of the House of Lords took to their feet in Parliament to argue that the UK Government, and other members of the international community, should abandon their long-standing and hard-fought push for accountability in Sri Lanka. Over half… Read more »
Early Inhabitants and the Rulers of the Island
By P. Sivakumar, November 8, 2017 During the early historic period (6th century BC to 3rd century AD), Lanka/ilankai (as first mentioned in the Ramayana) was a part of South India separated by a shallow sea and was only a walking distance before the sea levels rose. Even today, one of the ancient bridges that… Read more »
The Myth of Lazy Jaffna Youth
‘The Daily Mirror,’ Colombo, October 16, 2017 Not long ago, soon after the war, a common refrain about the Jaffna society was how hard working, thrifty and prudent its people were. But today, one often hears people decrying Jaffna society as having become lazy and spendthrift, landing itself in debt. It is true that Jaffna… Read more »
The Legacy of Indian Migration to European Colonies
[Note that Indian Tamils brought by the British to work in the coffee, rubber & tea estates of Sri Lanka are not included in the discussion below. This community joined the indigenous Tamils already on the island for milennia. /Ed.] http://indianexpress.com/article/research/indian-tamils-and-sri-lankan-tamils-here-is-the-difference-4654435/ One hundred years since servitude by ‘The Economist,’ London, September 2, 2017 A century after India… Read more »
Sri Lanka Among Asia’s Most Undernourished Countries
by ‘Sunday Times,’ Colombo, September 14, 2017 Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have the highest rates of undernourishment in Asia, according to the Asian Development Bank. In a statement by Data Leads which quoted the ADB report , almost 27 per cent of the population of Timor Leste remains undernourished, and more than… Read more »
Mahaweli & Demographic Change
1. Sri Lankan president to issue 10,000 deeds to Mahaweli settlers by ‘TamilGuardian,’ London, August 10, 2017 Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena is to issue 10,000 deeds to settlers this week under the Mahaweli development project, a controversial scheme that Tamils have criticised as Sinhala colonisation. According to the official President’s Media Division, deeds are to… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Missing People
This is one set of numbers re casualties from Sri Lanka’s war. The 65,000 missing number comes from those reported to various official Sri Lankan commissions & officially accepted by Pres. Sirisena’s government in 2016. Accurate figures of casualties are one of the biggest challenges of the war. The numbers for civilian casualties in this… Read more »
The Women Left Behind
by Devon, Haynie, US News & World Report, May 18, 2017 Sri Lanka’s civil war ended eight years ago today, but for its 90,000 war widows, the battle continues. VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka — It was midnight in 2008 when several members of Sri Lanka’s security forces barged into Rajendran Geetha’s house and took her husband,… Read more »
Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) and Women Development Innovators (WDI), May 11, 2017 *** Sri Lanka: Issues of land and sea grabbing on minorities brought to UN In order to reflect the current situation of minorities in Sri Lanka, IMADR, Minority Rights Group International (MRG)… Read more »
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues
Report of the Special-Rapporteur on minority issues on her mission to Sri Lanka Feb 2017 Contents I. Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 II. Minority rights: legal, political and institutional framework………………………………………………… 4 III. Overall challenges for minorities …………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 A. Governance and political participation ……………………………………………………………………… 6 B. Linguistic rights …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6… Read more »
Immediately Release Land of the People of Keppapilavu
Statement by Civil Society Feb 17 Civil Society Statement re Keppapilavu – Final We, the undersigned civil society organizations, write this statement to express solidarity with protestors of Keppapilavu and condemn the Government’s lack of appropriate and timely response or action towards releasing their land from military occupation. 1 For over two weeks, villagers from… Read more »
Migration and Labour Shortages in Asian Countries
Where workers will be needed in the region, and where they could come from by The Data Team, ‘The Economist,’ London, February 10, 2017 Graphic detail THE Asian “model” of migration tends to be highly restrictive, and often appears more dedicated to stemming immigration than to managing it. The continent′s governments frequently curtail entry… Read more »
On Keppapulavu
by Groundviews, Colombo, February 9, 2017 Residents of Keppapulavu, in Mullaitivu, have been protesting, demanding the return of their land, which is currently occupied by the Air Force. The families have now been protesting outside the airforce camp for 9 days. The struggle for the return of their land however has been ongoing for years…. Read more »
Even Fish Have an Ethnicity
by Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), Colombo, January 31, 2017 Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) cordially invites you to a CEPA Cafe event presenting Even fish have an ethnicity… : a study on how ethnic identities mediate livelihoods in a fishing community in post-war Sri Lanka While discussions on ethnicity and tensions based on ethnic… Read more »
Demographic Genocide at Entrance to Jaffna
by TamilNet, 30 January 2017 Colombo proves State recognition for demographic genocide at entrance to Jaffna The Colombo regime of Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe has officially donated 50 houses on Monday through ‘National’ Housing Development Authority (NHDA) to the Sinhala colony, that has been created by the occupying Sinhala military and Sinhala-Buddhist extremist ‘Sinhala… Read more »
Demographic Genocide Against Ancient Tamil Villages in Trincomalee
by TamilNet, 27 January 2017 Sirisena wages demographic genocide against ancient Tamil villages in Trincomalee The unitary State of genocidal Sri Lanka, particularly its president who hails from the North Central Province, is slowly and silently annexing lands of the ancient Tamil village Thamapalakaamam, an agricultural village, which is also a suburb of Trincomalee city… Read more »
Only 5.2% of Sri Lankan Military Occupied Land has been Released to Tamils
by P.K. Balachandran, The New Indian Express, December 11, 2016 COLOMBO: The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, C.V.Wigneswaran, has said that out of the 67,000 acres of private lands of the Tamils seized by the Sri Lankan armed forces during the war, only 3,500 acres have been returned so far. Since the war… Read more »
Why Just Counting the Dead in Syria Won’t Bring Them Justice
A full tally of the war’s horrific violence requires estimates, models, and sophisticated pattern analysis to understand who’s responsible and why. by Patrick Ball, ‘Foreign Policy,’ Washington, DC, October 19, 2016 Nearly 18,000 people died in Syrian government prisons between March 2011 and December 2015. My colleagues and I at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group(HRDAG)… Read more »
Land Grabbing & Accountability
by South Asia Centre for Legal Studies, Colombo, September 27, 2016 Despite land grabbing being a common feature of many armed conflicts and an integral part of discriminatory policies against minority groups, it is insufficiently addressed in post-conflict or transitional justice accountability processes. While truth-commissions, in particular the Truth Commission in El Salvador, have highlighted… Read more »