Posts Categorized: Government

Sri Lankan Leader Frees Soldier Convicted in Civilian Deaths

by Associated Press in The New York Times, March 26, 2020 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s president on Thursday freed a soldier who was sentenced to death for killing eight civilians during the country’s civil war. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office said he pardoned Sunil Ratnayake and ordered the justice ministry to release him. Ratnayake… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic

A military mindset by Thusiyan Nandakumar, The Polis Project, London, March 2020 This is part of a series of conversations interrogating militarization of medicine and public health and its adverse effects as various communities deal with COVID19. You can watch the video of this conversation with Dr Thusiyan Nandakumar on our Instagram handle  In the… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment

a Violation of UN Charter and Fundamental Human Rights by Thambu Kanagasabai, PRESIDENT, The Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Organization Late President JR Jayewardene of Sri Lanka after allowing and being complicit in the massacres of Tamils in the 1977, 1983 pogroms and justifying them as a normal reaction of Sinhalese to take revenge… Read more »

Building the Tamil Eelam State

Emerging State Institutions and Forms of Governance in LTTE-controlled Areas in Sri Lanka by Kristian Stokke, Third World Quarterly, Vol.27, No.6, pages 1021-1040, 2006 Abstract Sri Lanka’s civil war has created a political–territorial division between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), where LTTE is engaged in a process… Read more »

Resettlement of Conflict-induced IDPs in Northern Sri Lanka

Political economy of state policy and practice by Chamindry Saparamadu and Aftab Lall, Centre for Poverty Analysis, January 2014 Resettlement of conflict-induced IDPs in northern Sri Lanka Executive summary Nearly three decades of civil war in Sri Lanka between the armed forces of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil… Read more »

Tsunami Disaster & the People in the Northeast

of the island of Sri Lanka by Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, December 29, 2004 Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation Media Release Press Conference at Swiss TRO Headquarters, Geneva “Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation has grave concerns that our ability to respond in a timely manner is being hindered by excessive administrative, bureaucratic and control requirements ”  Contact: Director, Disaster Management… Read more »

In Sri Lanka, Yet Another Chance at Post-war Recovery

by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, February 29, 2020 More than a decade after the civil war ended in Sri Lanka, the Tamil people in the Northern Province continue to emphasise the need for jobs, livelihoods, and a reliable market. The new government’s promise of development, they say, must come with meaningful reconciliation. Meera Srinivasan… Read more »

The LTTE and the 2002-2006 Peace Process in Sri Lanka

The Politics of Transformation by Suthaharan Nadarajah & Luxshi Vimalarajah, Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict Management, Switzerland, 2008 The_Politics_of_Transformation_the_LTTE Introduction The conflict in Sri Lanka is one of the world’s most protracted and multi-faceted. It has been aptly described as a conflict “where economic, political and cultural deprivation and grievances of a minority have… Read more »

What Lessons Are We Talking About?

Reconciliation and Memory in Post-Civil War Sri Lankan Cinema by Dinidu Karunanayake and Thiyagaraja Waradas, ICES Research Papers, Colombo, September 2013 What_Lessons_Are_We_Talking_About_Reconc The official end of the war coincides with the beginning of a markedly changed Sri Lankan cinematic aesthetic. The post-2009 period has seen a boom in ‘patriotic‘ film productions. Shedding light on Jean-Luc… Read more »

Devolution of Powers under the 13th Amendment in Sri Lanka

Fact or Fiction? by MCM Iqbal, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, July 19, 2009 (The writer was one of the secretaries of the first Provincial Council of the Western Province) 1. Introduction In the aftermath of the defeat of the LTTE in Sri Lanka, many expected the government to put forward the promised political solution to the problems of… Read more »

Sri Lanka Fast Becoming a Failed State

by Thambu Kanagasabai – LLM [Lond] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, December 9, 2019 A Failed state is one which is failing to function properly regarding its responsibilities, including an inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community. Ethnic conflicts and tension, violation of human… Read more »

The Fate of Sri Lanka’s Tamil National Anthem

What the past (and future) of the Tamil version of the national anthem tells us about minority rights in Sri Lanka. by Dishani Senaratne, ‘The Diplomat,’ Washington, DC,  November 22, 2019 Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former defense secretary and brother of ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, emerged victorious in Sri Lanka’s presidential election last Sunday. Gotabaya was largely backed… Read more »

Civil War Along Ethnoreligious Lines

by Berkley Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, August 1, 2013 This case study addresses the underlying ethnic and religious tensions behind the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983-2009), a conflict led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) on behalf of the Hindu Tamil minority against the Sri Lankan government and the Buddhist Sinhalese majority…. Read more »

Public Administration and Minority Language

The Case of District Administration in Amparai, Sri Lanka by Mohammad Agus Yusoff, Athambawa Sarjoon, Nordin Hussin & Azmi Awang, Public Administration Research; Canada, Vol. 4, No. 2; October 2015 ISSN 1927-517x E-ISSN 1927-5188 Abstract Even though minorities have gained international linguistic recognition, accepting and admitting minority languages in public affairs has been a contested issue in many countries. In… Read more »

World Bank: Making (De)centralization Work

by World Bank, Washington, DC, October 13, 2019 See Chief Economist for South Asia video summary here Full report here In a focus section, the report highlights how, as their economies become more sophisticated, South Asian countries have made decentralization a priority to improve the delivery of public services. With multiple initiatives underway across the… Read more »

Is Federalism a Solution?

by Bhimraj M, NUJS’ International Journal of Legal Studies and Research, Vol. 7, No.1, West Bengal, March 2018 Is Federalism a Solution Abstract The change of power in 2015 and Maithripala Sirisena becoming the President of Sri Lanka is said to have sowed hopes for a political solution to the ethnic conflict. But the President… Read more »

Reflection on the 13th Amendment

To the Constitution in light of settlement of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka by S. Dinesan, Jaffna, June 2016 Reflection on the 13th Amendment ABSTRACT Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, multi-religion and multi-language country even though it is a unitary state. The ethnic conflict is a major issue in the era. As with many civil… Read more »

ATC, CTC, BTF & USTAG: Sri Lanka’s Disappeared Must Have Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 30, 2019 Sri Lanka’s Disappeared Must Have Justice FINAL Sri Lanka’s Disappeared Must Have Justice Australian Tamil Congress (ATC), British Tamils Forum (BTF), Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) and US Tamil Action Group (USTAG) once again on the International Day of the Disappeared draw attention to the large number of enforced disappearances… Read more »

PEARL: International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances

by People for Relief and Equality in Lanka, August 30, 2019 International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances (Washington, D.C.; August 30, 2019) – Today we mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. We stand with Tamil relatives of the disappeared who today marked Day 922 of their years-long protest for answers… Read more »