by Sanjana Hattotuwa, Groundviews, Colombo, August 17, 2013 Black July compressed from/derived from Remembering, to never again repeat: Launch of 30 Years Ago site The culmination of months of dedicated research, travel, challenging production work and curation, I am very pleased to launch 30 Years Ago. The project is an attempt to remember and probe Sri… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
‘A Moment of Opportunity’
Fall of Sri Lankan president raises victims’ hopes by Hannah Ellis-Peterson in Colombo and Rubatheesan Sandran in Jaffna, The Guardian, UK, July 29, 2022 Rights groups say they have a dossier of evidence against Gotabaya Rajapaksa – and a renewed appetite to bring him to account Tamil women holding a protest in Jaffna soon after… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Dual Crisis
Ethnic Conflict & the Debt Economy by Nalika Gajaweera, Jamhoor, South Asia, May 4, 2022 Reimagining a pluralist Sri Lanka in the wake of the ‘Gota Go Home’ movement “Except for the home crowd cheering for our national team at an international cricket match, it was the first time I was seeing Sri Lankans united together… Read more »
ITJP: Criminal Complaint against Sri Lankan ex-President in Singapore
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, July 24, 2022 ITJP Press-release-final-24-July-2022 Johannesburg: Lawyers from the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) have submitted a criminal complaint to the Attorney General of Singapore requesting the immediate arrest of former Sri Lankan President, Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, for war crimes. The 63-page complaint argues… Read more »
Diaspora Groups Call for Singapore to Investigate ex-President
by People for Equity & Relief in Lanka, July 26, 2022 20220726 Joint Press_Release_Request_to_Investigate_Gotabaya_Rajapaksa Press Release: Global Coalition of Tamil and Human Rights Groups Urge Singapore’s Attorney General to Investigate Gotabaya Rajapaksa Washington D.C.; July 26, 2022 — Seventeen Tamil and human rights organizations from around the world issued a joint letter today, urging Singapore’s… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Former President Must be Investigated for War Crimes
by Meenaksha Ganguly, Washington Post, July 22, 2022 (also available at Sri Lanka’s former president must be investigated for war crimes | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org) COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — There was satisfaction, and even glee, among many Sri Lankans when Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the widely unpopular president, fled the country by military jet in the dead… Read more »
Black July: The Unspoken and the Unspeakable
by Ambika Satkunanathan, Groundviews, Colombo, July 29, 2020 Photo courtesy of Sangam July. Referred to as Black July to mark the pogrom against Tamils in 1983 carried out by Sinhala mobs. Pogrom is a Russian word meaning ‘to wreak havoc, to demolish violently’, that has come to mean organized, state sanctioned violence that targets a certain… Read more »
Racial Discrimination a Bane to Progress
by Dishan Joseph, Daily News, Colombo, July 22, 2022 “It is not our differences that divide us, but our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences” – American poet Audre Lorde Our beautiful Motherland Sri Lanka is a nation embellished with centuries of recorded history. When we delve into this history we can see… Read more »
Amnesty: Authorities Must Refrain from Use of Military to Police Protests
by Amnesty International, London, July 14, 2022 “The recent escalation of the authorities’ response to protests by calling in the armed forces, firing at protestors and excessive use of tear gas which resulted in the death of one person yesterday is deeply worrying,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s South Asia Regional Director. The Sri Lankan… Read more »
Cycles of Violence in Sri Lanka
A Crisis of Accountability by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, July 12, 2022 Sri Lanka’s Accountability Crisis: Part 2 of 3 This is the second of a 3-part series of essays and reports which the Sri Lanka Campaign will be publishing in the coming weeks, ahead of the Office of the High… Read more »
The Treatment of Former Combatants in Post-War Sri Lanka
by Ambika Satkunanathan, from Routledge Handbook of Human Rights in Asia, December 11, 2018 The treatment of former combatants in post-war Sri Lanka | Ambika Satkunanathan – Academia.edu Abstract This chapter, which is based on interviews with those identified as former LTTE combatants, their families and lawyers representing persons detained under national security laws, aims… Read more »
Economic Crisis and Unregulated Alcohol Collide
by Vetrichelvi Chandrakala, Global Press Journal, Washington, DC, May 25, 2022 Civil war veterans, also grappling with the country’s imploding economy, fight to break their dependency on dangerous, illegal liquor. READ THIS STORY IN English தமிழ் MANNAR, SRI LANKA — Vijayakumar Velayutham fought for more than a decade in the Sri Lankan civil war. He… Read more »
HRW Submission to Sri Lanka’s 4th UPR
by Human Rights Watch, New York, May 31, 2022 On June 2, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Committee announced that its review of Sri Lanka had been postponed to the 136th Session (October 10, 2022 – November 4, 2022). Human Rights Watch will update this submission ahead of the postponed review. This submission provides… Read more »
Sri Lanka in Crisis
Why the Past Lives on in its Collective Future by Ambika Satkunananthan, 9Dashline, Europe, June 16, 2022 Sri Lanka is in the throes of an economic and political crisis not hitherto witnessed. The crisis has created instability and resulted in protests that began in March 2022. Citizens’ protests that are not organised by political parties… Read more »
TMVP Informant Spills the Beans
by Easwaran Rutnam, Daily Mirror, Colombo, June 24, 2022 Flees Sri Lanka fearing for his safety Reveals information on murders to UN Writes to key diplomatic missions Shares details on Easter Sunday attacks UN officials had recorded statements from the informant over a period of approximately 5 days An informant of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai… Read more »
All Talk & No Action on Repealing the PTA
by Kumarathasan Rasingam, Secretary, Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Org. June 23, 2022 [Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister GL Pieris told the UNHRC on June 13 that the PTA has been amended & there is a moratorium on arrests.1 There is no evidence of either action being taken. — Editor] The Prevention of Terrorism Act… Read more »
Avanka Lanka: An Apology
[Apologies of this sort are a long time coming. Pledges to help the marginalized are always welcome. However, where does this rather capitalist & imperialist statement originate? — “we believe that the Northern province nor the Eastern province cannot develop in isolation but needs to link up with the South and the rest of the… Read more »
‘We Want Justice, Not Fuel’
Sri Lanka’s Tamils on north-south divide by Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Rubatheesan Sandran in Mullaitivu, The Guardian, Manchester, UK, June 21, 2022 In the middle of a crippling economic crisis, demonstrating is a luxury the country’s Tamil minority cannot afford Women hold a protest in Mullaitvu, Sri Lanka, demanding the return of those who were disappeared… Read more »
TGTE: Sri Lanka Hiding Behind Economic Disaster
To Avoid Accountability For Atrocity Crimes Committed Against Tamils by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, EINPresswire, June 17, 2022 “Different Responses To The Protests In The Northeast And The South Reveal The Entrenched Racism In The Sinhala Polity” UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, June 17, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam… Read more »
U.S. State Dept Letter Leaked by 2009 Hillary Clinton Emails re IMF
IMF Supported War Crimes and Genocide in Sri Lanka by Tamils for Biden, EINPresswire, June 9, 2022 The IMF and World Bank desired that the Tamils be “completely defeated,” regardless of “any collateral damage inflicted” by the Sri Lankan government. EINPresswire.com/ — The IMF and World Bank desired that the Tamils be “completely defeated,” regardless… Read more »