Posts Categorized: Human Rights

No Justice for ‘Trinco 5’

Joint statement by Amnesty International, London & Human Rights Watch, New York, July 9, 2019 A magistrate in the northeastern town of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, acquitted all 13 defendants in the execution of five ethnic Tamil students on January 2, 2006, known as the “Trinco Five” case, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. On… Read more »

Time for Recognition of Sri Lanka’s Genocide

by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, July 9, 2019 Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, including structural genocide, commenced in 1948 soon after the independence. As defined in the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948, genocide includes “ killing members of the group, or causing serious bodily… Read more »

Shifting the Blame

by Harini Amarasuriya, Himal, Colombo, June 20 2019 A minority is framed again to cover Sri Lanka’s fault lines, in wake of the Easter attacks. Photo: Francisco Anzola / Flickr Much has been and continues to be said and done, since the Easter Attacks in Sri Lanka on 21 April, that killed over 250 individuals…. Read more »

13 STF Members Acquitted of Trinco Five Killings

by Tamil Guardian, London, July 3, 2019 Trincomalee Chief Magistrate, M.Hansa, delivered the verdict today acquitting 13 Special Task Force members who were suspected of executing five Tamil youth whilst they spent an afternoon at Trincomalee beach on 2 January 2006. Fifteen charges were filed against suspects and they were released due to the lack… Read more »

Amended US Complaint on Torture

by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Hausfeld & Co., LLP, Washington, DC, June 27, 2019 Rajapaksa-First-Amended-Complaint-Docket-No-35-6.26.19 27-June-2019-press-release on Amended Complaint TEN SRI LANKANS SUE PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL GOTABAYA RAJAPAKSA FOR HIS ROLE IN TORTURE (Johannesburg, South Africa/Washington, DC) – June 27, 2019 Sri Lanka’s presidential hopeful, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, faces ten new… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Strategic Use of Sexual Violence Against Tamils

by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, June 19, 2019 International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict: Sri Lanka’s Strategic Use of Sexual Violence Against Tamils (Washington, D.C.; June 19, 2019) – On the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, PEARL condemns Sri Lanka’s ongoing conflict-related sexual… Read more »

Pursuing Accountability for Atrocities

by Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, Washington, DC, June 13, 2019 Announcement Please join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a hearing to examine accountability for mass atrocities, with a focus on the tools and mechanisms available to the United States government. “Mass atrocities” are defined as large-scale, deliberate attacks against civilians, and include genocide, crimes… Read more »

Canadian House of Commons Passes Motion re Genocide of Tamils

by Canadian Parliament, June 19, 2019 https://openparliament.ca/debates/2019/6/19/cheryl-hardcastle-1/ (halfway down page) Sri Lanka Oral Questions June 19th, 2019 / 3:15 p.m. Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and I am hopeful that if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move: That the House, (a) extend its… Read more »

Lessons from Sri Lanka’s War

by VK Shashikumar, Indian Defence Review, Issue Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date : 19 Nov , 2014 http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/lessons-from-the-war-in-sri-lanka/, accessed June 19, 2019 Conduct of Operations This is how the Sri Lankan government described (through a Ministry of Defence Press Release) the war strategy of its defence forces on May 18, 2009 after the annihilation of the… Read more »

Sergei De Silva-Ranasinghe’s Review Of Eelam War IV

Reflections by Michael Roberts, Colombo Telegraph, Sept. 17, 2016 DeSilva-Ranasinghe’s article – how-sri-lanka-won-the-unwinnable-war Asia Pacific Defence Reporter Sept 2009 This article – https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sergei-de-silva-ranasinghes-review-of-eelam-war-iv-reflections/ ADDENDUM, 14 September 2009 In analyzing historical issues over the years, I came to the conclusion that a multiplicity of factors generates the events that are understood to be major transformations – so… Read more »

Nine Decisions that Helped Lanka Beat LTTE

by V K Shashikumar, Indian Defence Review, October 2009 Not available in 2019 on Indian Defence Review website, but copied at http://www.sify.com/news/nine-decisions-that-helped-lanka-beat-ltte-imagegallery-0-international-kexv2Lbdede.html , accessed June 19, 2019 What we don’t see Will a good number of soldiers, tanks and artillery ensure victory in a war? These are outward aspects of a war which alone are… Read more »

Lessons from the War in Sri Lanka

by VK Sashikumar, Indian Defence Review – July – Sept 2009 – Vol 24(3) Lessons from Sri Lanka’s War – Indian Defence Review 2014 version, PDF http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/lessons-from-the-war-in-sri-lanka/0/ “The news about the killing of Prabhakaran sparked mass celebrations around the country, and people poured into the streets of Colombo, dancing and singing. Looking back at the… Read more »

Sri Lanka, MSF Amidst All-Out War

by Fabrice Weissman, Academia.edu, accessed June 2019 In Claire Magone et al. (ed.), Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed. The MSF Experience, London, Hurst & Co, 2011. Sri_Lanka_MSF_Amid_All-Out_War 2011 On 18 May 2009, the Sri Lankan government’s crushing victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) put an end to twenty-six years of civil war. Described by… Read more »

Tamils Are Haunted By Hope For Relatives’ Return

In War’s Aftermath by Laura Beltran Villamizar, National Public Radio, Washington, DC, June 2, 2019 https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2019/06/02/651883770/in-wars-aftermath-tamils-are-haunted-by-hope-for-relatives-return In the past 30 years, some 60,000 to 100,000 Sri Lankans have disappeared, Amnesty International reports. Ethnic and religious tensions have always been a part of Sri Lanka’s history, which includes a decades-long war between government security forces and… Read more »

Island of Racial & Religious Extremism

With culture of impunity by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond. Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka], May 28, 2019 April 21st attacks on three Churches and three star Hotels by radicalized Muslims surprised Sri Lanka’s Government, its citizens and the world. They were well pre-planned and co-ordinated to unleash the killings on worshippers… Read more »

U.S. Should Not Repeat its Post 9/11 Counter-terrorism Mistakes in Sri Lanka

by Ronnate Asirwatham, ‘Medium,’ May 28, 2019 The U.S. government’s hurried moves to expand military-to-military cooperation with Sri Lanka to fight terrorism after Easter Sunday’s bomb blasts is ill-advised because, Colombo’s counter-terrorism policies are shambles. Sri Lanka targets ethnic communities for acts of terrorist groups, and its military, enjoying impunity, uses torture as the main… Read more »

What the Holocaust Can’t Teach Us about Modern-Day Genocide

Never Again? by Andrew Stroehlien, International Crisis Group, December 2, 2009 (originally published in ‘Foreign Policy’) It was cold, misty, and miserably wet the day we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, but no one wished for better weather. My companions — mostly midlevel diplomats from more than a dozen countries around the world — all seemed to agree… Read more »

The Men Now Patrolling Sri Lanka

by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Europe & International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, May 2019 http://www.jdslanka.org/images/documents/2019_may_the_men_%20now_patrolling_sri_lanka_itjp__jds.pdf On Easter Sunday 2019, a series of coordinated bomb blasts struck hotels and churches in Sri Lanka killing more than 250 people, including many tourists. The targets were churches in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa… Read more »

A State of Disorientation

Dispatch from Sri Lanka after the Easter Bombings by Anuk Arukpragasam, TIME, May 22, 2019 Anuk Arudpragasam is a novelist from Colombo and is the author of The Story of a Brief Marriage. In Colombo, as though there is war once more, the ominous presence of heavily armed soldiers is everywhere. Ever since the Easter Sunday bombings,… Read more »