A brief history of 200 years of involuntary migration, imposed statelessness, exploitation and marginalization of Upcountry or Malaiyaha Tamil tea plantation workers. by SALAM & Maynmai, Jamhoor, India, June 6, 2024 View fullsize Tea Estate, Ceylon. Image: 1891 collection, V&A 200 years ago, the British empire brought Tamil plantation workers against their will from southern… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
Sri Lanka’s Uncomfortable Relationship With Its Disappeared
Over three decades, more than 30 mass graves have been found, but answers to many questions remain elusive by Kris Thomas, New Lines Magazine, USA, April 29, 2024 Kris Thomas is a Colombo-based writer and journalist In 2018, when the second-largest mass grave was discovered in Mannar, a Tamil-dominated coastal town in Sri Lanka, investigators… Read more »
HRW: Authorities Target Religious Minorities
Renewed UN Resolution Needed to Counter Government’s Divisive Campaign by Human Rights Watch, New York, July 28, 2024 (New York) – Sri Lankan authorities are conducting a campaign to deny Hindus and other religious minorities access to places of worship and other property and redesignate locations as Buddhist sites, Human Rights Watch said today. Government agencies, including the… Read more »
HRW Briefing Note on Human Rights in Sri Lanka
by Human Rights Watch, New York, June 21, 2024 Introduction Resolution 46/1 was adopted by the Human Rights Council in 2021 and is due for renewal in September 2024. It mandates the OHCHR Sri Lanka Accountability Project, which gathers evidence of international crimes for use in future prosecutions, as well as ongoing reporting by OHCHR. Renewing the… Read more »
UK PM to PM Jayawardene re Black July 1983
by British Prime Minister, London, November 28, 1983, thanks to Mario Arulthas, July 26, 2024 https://x.com/MarioArul/status/1816552074169008428
Black July 1983: 40 Years On
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, London, July 2023 An overview of the events of the Black July Pogrom of 1983, and its relationship to Sri Lanka’s continued cycles of violence and impunity. SLCPJ 2023-July-Black-July-40-Years-On Introduction Forty years ago today, on 23rd July 1983, a mass anti-Tamil pogrom broke out in Sri Lanka,… Read more »
UNHRC 56: Sri Lanka Core Group Statement
Delivered by the UK’s Human Rights Ambassador, Rita French, Geneva, June 19, 2024 Thank you Mr President, This statement is by the Sri Lanka Core Group comprising Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom and the United States. High Commissioner, Thank you for your recent report on accountability for enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka… Read more »
TRG Calls for Action and Accountability Following UNHRC Report
on Sri Lanka’s Enforced Disappearances by Tamil Rights Group, Markham, Canada, June 25, 2024 Markham, Canada – Over fifteen years following the end of Sri Lanka’s Genocidal war against Eelam Tamils, families of the forcibly disappeared are still searching for answers about the whereabouts of their loved ones. The recent UN Human Rights Office report released on… Read more »
Israel and the Leahy Law
by Charles O. (Cob) Blaha, JustSecurity, June 10, 2024 [It has been something of a mystery why the US military has been able to cooperate with the Sri Lankan military despite the Sri Lankan’s war crimes and worse since the US supposedly has laws requiring rigorous vetting before such cooperation. The article perhaps has some… Read more »
Reflecting on Sri Lanka in the Shadow of Palestine
A Hierarchy of Grief and the Politics of Mourning by Tania Perera & Asha L. Abeyasekera, Polity.lk, Colombo, May 20, 2024 On 18 May, Sri Lanka marked the 15th anniversary of the end of war. In 2009, many Sinhala people in the South took to the streets to spontaneously celebrate what they imagined as a… Read more »
Tribunal: ‘Horrified’ by Plight of SL’s Plantation Workers
Their wages remain far below the living wage required in the context of Sri Lanka’s current costs of living, following hyperinflation during the crisis, a recent study found by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, June 12, 2024 An international tribunal of former judges from the region said it was “horrified by the stark realities” of… Read more »
Like Sri Lanka Once Did, Israel has Turned ‘Safe Zones’ into Killing Fields
But there is one important difference between the two cases: The genocide in Gaza is not taking place in the dark. by Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini, Al-Jazeera, Qatar, June 11, 2024 While our eyes were on Rafah’s “Block 2371” – the small area in south Gaza which the Israeli military designated as a “safe… Read more »
TG: Nowhere to Hide
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, June 9, 2024 Britain’s Metropolitan Police made a significant announcement this week; only the second of its kind. A man accused of committing war crimes in Sri Lanka was arrested in South London. Though this is just a single person being investigated it sends a powerful message to those in Colombo… Read more »
TG: International Criminal Court and Beyond
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, June 2, 2024 Recent weeks have seen several senior politicians from the two leading opposition parties in the UK, reiterate the importance of ensuring Sri Lanka is referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Keir Starmer, the man widely tipped to become Britain’s next prime minister, called on the ruling government… Read more »
Burning of the Jaffna Public Library
43rd anniversary remembrance by British Tamils Forum, London, June 1, 2024 June 1st evokes the scar of the Burning of Jaffna Public Library in 1981, the irreplaceable asset of Tamil people. This calculated arsenic destruction was one of the major cultural genocides against Tamil people masterminded by Sri Lankan state to destroy historic evidence of Tamil… Read more »
Second Arrest inn UK’s Sri Lanka War Crimes Investigation
Police appeal for information by uknip427 (UK News in Pictures, June 5, 2024 Counter Terrorism detectives investigating allegations of war crimes linked to the Sri Lankan civil war in the early 2000s are appealing for anyone who might have information that could assist their investigation to contact police. The appeal comes after a second UK-based… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields Cast a Long Shadow
Impunity for crimes committed during the civil war has fuelled post-war repression in Sri Lanka. by Al Jazeera, May 18, 2024 By Madura Rasaratnam and Ambihai Akilan Published On 18 May 202418 May 2024 Today we mark the 15th anniversary of the bloody end of Sri Lanka’s three-decades-long civil war. This anniversary comes around at a critical historical… Read more »
Recognising Genocide
by Tamil Guardian, London, May 25, 2024 Tamils across the world marked the 15th anniversary of the massacres at Mullivaikkal last week. Thousands gathered, en masse in public commemorations and in private ceremonies at homes, to pay tribute to those who were killed by the Sri Lankan state. As they did so, they were clear… Read more »
Amnesty: Fifteen Years After the End of War, Victims Still Await Justice at Mullivaikkal
by Amnesty International, London, May 18, 2024 Victims still await justice at Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka (amnesty.org) Speaking at a commemoration marking the 15th anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s internal armed conflict on 18 May 2009, which culminated in the brutal Mullivaikkal offensive where countless civilian lives were lost, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty… Read more »
The Burden of War Widows
Gendered consequences of war and peace-building in Sri Lanka by Karen Brounéus, Erika Forsberg, Kristine Höglund, Kate Lonergan, Third World Quarterly, Pages 458-474, Received 26 Aug 2022, Accepted 16 Aug 2023, Published online: 09 Sep 2023 Burden of War Widows Third World Quarterly Sept 2023 Abstract Research shows that war affects various groups of survivors… Read more »