Letter re PTA May 2025 English Letter re PTA May 2025 Tamil Letter re PTA May 2025 Sinhalese 29th May, 2025 Secretary, Ministry of Justice and National Integration, Colombo 10 Re: The Repeal of the PTA – Do not replace with a new terror law We, as concerned peoples of Sri Lanka, respond to the… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Government
The Hindu: A Sri Lankan Anti-Terror Law That Needs Repeal
The Sri Lankan government must translate its pre-election rhetoric into reality, and end the Prevention of Terrorism Act by The Hindu, Chennai, April 30, 2025 In the many cycles of violence in Sri Lanka’s troubled history, “terror” has been a running theme. While the state — that has repeatedly demonstrated a majoritarian tendency — has… Read more »
Letter to Pres. Dissanayake re Land Settlement Ordinance Notice of March 28, 2025
by MP M.A. Sumanthiran, May 3, 2025 See page 6 for the Notice: 2025-03-28(III-0)E.pdf
MK Stalin Interview in Deccan Herald
The Tuesday Interview | BJP and its ideology should be opposed beyond elections: Stalin In an interview with DH’s E.T.B. Sivapriyan, Stalin criticized the AIADMK-BJP alliance as detrimental to Tamil Nadu, accused Governor R N Ravi of acting as a puppet of the Union Government, undermining democracy, and disregarding judicial verdicts. by ETB Sivapriyan, Deccan… Read more »
15 Years of Politically Informed Subnational Governance Reform in Sri Lanka (2005-2020)
Ride the Wind but Know the Tide by Gopa Thampi and Nicola Nixon, TWP Community of Practice, University of Birmingham & Asia Foundation, April 2025 TWP-CoP-TAF-Story-of-change.pdf 1. Introduction This case study provides an example of Thinking and Working Politically (TWP) in practice, by unpacking The Asia Foundation’s efforts to support reform of Sri Lanka’s subnational… Read more »
Open Letter to Sri Lankan President Anura K. Dissanayake
Since 1948 SL Heads of State have ‘relayed’ on the Ethnic conflict! by S. V. Kirubaharan, General Secretary, TCHR – Tamil Centre for Human Rights, France, May 7, 2025 William Shakespeare: “Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends”. Dear Mr President: First of all, our congratulations to you and the NPP – National People’s Power… Read more »
Al Jazeera: Who is to Blame for Sri Lanka’s Crises?
by Head to Head, Al Jazeera, London, March 6, 2025 When Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in 2022 – amidst mass protests and an economic crisis– parliament elected veteran politician and six-time Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. As President, Wickremesinghe negotiated the country’s biggest bail-out, but his critics say he is part of… Read more »
TG: Sri Lanka’s Budget: Funding Occupation
Tamil Guardian editorial, February 22, 2025 Sri Lanka’s new president unveiled a much awaited budget this week, his first since taking up office. The self-proclaimed Marxist leader pledged spending that largely aligned with conditions set out in a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout. But, as commentators have pointed out, the budget demonstrates several… Read more »
Impediments to Agricultural Livelihoods among Ethnic Minority Farmers in Post-War Sri Lanka
Displacement and degradation Sinhalese (Buddhist) farming households have more viable agricultural livelihoods than Tamil (Hindu) or Moor (Muslim) households. While all of the Tamil and Moor household in our sample reside in communities that were directly affected by the war, only a small subset of Sinhalese communities are within the former conflict zone. Notably, Sinhalese… Read more »
The Quandary of the National Policy on Land
Reinventing The Wheel? by Austin Fernando, Colombo Telegraph, January 12, 2025 Last week, news appeared titled ‘Inter-linked mechanism mooted for lands.’ The Deputy Minister of Lands and Irrigation Dr. Susil Ranasinghe was quoted in it. Ranasinghe rightly lamented the absence of a proper land policy that creates disorganization of institutions involved in land use, i.e.,… Read more »
The Genesis of the Sri Lankan Unitary State
and the Call for Eelam Tamil Self-Determination by Sahithyan Thilipkumar, December 2023 Master Thesis at University of Zurich’s Faculty of Law Master_Thesis_Sahithyan_Thilipkumar_ZORA 6. Conclusion Contemporary discussions on the conflict in Sri Lanka often start with the country’s independence or the beginning of the war. My thesis examined how the basis of the conflict was laid… Read more »
Thousands Still Living without Land Deeds in Mannar
by Tamil Guardian, London, August 7, 2024 The issues faced by the people in Mannar due to the occupation of land has left thousands feeling helpless, said Fr. S. Marcus, President of the Mannar Citizens Committee. “For the last five years, there has been much effort by various private companies to lay claim for a… Read more »
Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1983
by Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence (1981-1984), Vol.I (Report), Colombo, dated September 2002, published April 24, 2003 Commission appointed July 23, 2001 by President Chandrika Kumaratunge Commissioners: Suppiah Sharvananda, Esq. (retired Chief Justice) Sathyaloka Sasita Sahabandu Esq., President’s Counsel Mohammed Mohammed Zuhair Esq., President’s Counsel Part 1 For… Read more »
CPA: Elusive Justice and Emblematic Cases in Sri Lanka
by Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, March 2023 CPA Elusive-Justice-and-Emblematic-Cases-in-Sri-Lanka-March 2023 INTRODUCTION Bhavani Fonseka In February 2023, victims who had filed habeas corpus cases in the High Court in Vavuniya had a small victory in their case with the judge making an order for the military to produce their family members who had surrendered to… Read more »
Why Truth Is a Radical Proposition
The Office on Missing Persons in Sri Lanka by Chulani Kodikara, International Journal of Transitional Justice, olume 17, Issue 1, March 2023, Pages 157–172 Kodikara OMP in Sri Lanka 2023 ABSTRACT In 2016, the Sri Lanka Parliament passed the Office on Missing Persons Act (OMP) ‘to search for and trace missing persons.’ At the time,… Read more »
TRC – a Sophisticated Get Out of Jail Free Card?
by Yasmin Sooka & Frances Harrison, Tamil Guardian, London, January 8, 2024 A rally in Jaffna in 2021, where Tamils demanded Sri Lanka be referred to the International Criminal Court. Sri Lanka has published a bill to establish a Commission for Truth, Unity and Reconciliation. Though the bill superficially appears to tick several boxes for… Read more »
‘A Showpiece Gesture’: Strategic Legitimation and Commissions of Inquiry in Sri Lanka
by Moira Lynch, Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, Seoul, Korea, Vol.11, No.2, 2023 pp.1-25 Abstract The Sri Lankan government implemented commissions of inquiry between 1977 and 2010. Though several commissions of inquiry produced comprehensive accounts of the violence in Sri Lanka’s civil war, and offered thorough recommendations, they rarely resulted in policy reforms or accountability. What… Read more »
Wigneswaran Points Out the Root Cause of Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Conflict
Many Sinhalese consider Wigneswaran a racist and tend to ignore his views. But no matter how problematic it is, he points to the viewpoint prevailing in the Tamil society in general about the history of Sri Lanka. by P. Harshani Dias, Sri Lanka Guardian, Colombo, May 20, 2023 Colonial Architecture, Jaffna, Northern Province, Sri Lanka,… Read more »
President in the North, Governor in the East
by A. Nillanthan, January 13, 2024 [Translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate with improvements by the Sangam editor.] At the same time as the President visited the North to celebrate the New Year, his Governor in the East staged a huge cultural festival. The President met various people in the North: entrepreneurs, university… Read more »
In Defense of Sri Lanka’s Defense Budget
Reducing allocation for defense will require retrenching soldiers. Cutting loose angry youth with weapons skills is not what the crisis-ridden island needs now. [Sri Lanka has actually not done any de-commissioning since the end of the war 15 years ago, using exactly this excuse. Most of these impoverished soldiers have been deployed in the former… Read more »