‘The net is tightening around the Myanmar military and civilian leadership.’ by Emmanuel Stoakes, The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News), UN, November 21, 2019 CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand A burst of legal action across the globe this month has provided fresh impetus for efforts to examine atrocity crimes allegedly committed by Myanmar against its Rohingya minority…. Read more »
Posts Categorized: Human Rights
Victory of Rajapaksa- What It Means to Tamil Polity?
Paper No. 6515 by Prof. Ramu Manivannan, South Asia Analysis Group, Delhi, November 24, 2019 http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/node/2540 The victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa was much anticipated in the recently held 16th November presidential elections in Sri Lanka given the course of national politics after the evaporation of false euphoria over… Read more »
Sri Lankan Critics Fear a Crackdown Is Underway, and Some Flee
A Swiss Embassy employee was abducted and asked about asylum applications and investigators were banned from leaving just days after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected. by Maria Abi-Habib & Sameer Yasir, The New York Times, November 27, 2019 Fears of a potential crackdown on critics of the newly returned Rajapaksa political dynasty in Sri Lanka are… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Front-Runner Strikes Fear
Among Tamils Who Blame Him For Disappearances by Lauren Frayer, National Public Radio, Washington, DC, November 14, 2019 <iframe src=”https://www.npr.org/player/embed/778638245/779041626″ width=”100%” height=”290″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” title=”NPR embedded audio player”></iframe> On a roadside in northern Sri Lanka, a dozen women in bright-colored saris squat in the shade of an open canvas tent, waving tattered photographs at passing… 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 »
A Belated Recognition of Genocide by the House
For too long, Turkey bullied America into silence. Not anymore. by Samantha Power, The New York Times, October 29, 2019 On Tuesday, by a vote of 405 to 11, the House of Representatives defied the Turkish government’s intimidation and, for the first time in 35 years, passed a resolution that recognized the Armenian genocide. In acknowledging… Read more »
Sinhalization of the North-East: Kokkilai
by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), October 16, 2019 Sinhalization of the North-East: Kokkilai – People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (pearlaction.org) The south-east of the Mullaithivu District has been a target for state-sponsored Sinhala settlements for decades. As with Pulmoaddai, the Kokkilai region of Mullaithivu lies on the strategically important… Read more »
Sinhalization of the North-East: Pulmoaddai
by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), September, 2019 Sinhalization of the North-East: Pulmoaddai – People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (pearlaction.org) Pulmoaddai is a majority Tamil-speaking, Muslim town in the Trincomalee District. The town, part of the Kuchchaveli Divisional Secretariat, is located on the border to the Mullaithivu District, occupying the… Read more »
Sri Lanka Presidential Hopeful Says Won’t Honor Deal with UN
by Krishan Francis | AP in The Washington Post, October 15, 2019 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A former Sri Lankan defense chief who is a front-runner in next month’s presidential election said Tuesday that if he wins, he won’t recognize an agreement the government made with the U.N. human rights council to investigate alleged war crimes during… Read more »
Ignorance and Populism Puts Sri Lankan Muslims in the Crosshairs
by Farzana Haniffa, East Asia Forum, Australia, October 4, 2019 There is no locally-relevant social or communal cause that could explain the Easter Sunday 2019 attacks in Sri Lanka. Christian–Muslim relations are largely cordial. Mobilisation of Buddhists through anti-Muslim rhetoric after the war’s end in 2009 led to several incidents of anti-Muslim violence with large-scale… Read more »
ITJP: The Sri Lankan Navy
A Collective Blind Eye by International Truth and Justice Project, South Africa, October 20192019 http://www.itjpsl.com/reports/thenavy-a-collective-blind-eye ITJP_navy_reportfinal-2-SINGLES This report on the Sri Lankan Navy’s alleged involvement in torture and enforced disappearances compares documents from a decade-long police investigation inside Sri Lanka into the disappearance of 11 men in the Trincomalee naval base, with eyewitness testimony from survivors and… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Implementation of UNHRC Res. 40/1
Sri Lanka’s Defiance & Delaying Tactics in Implementing UNHRC Resolution 40/1 by Kumarathasan Rasingam, Secretary, Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Org. Tamils in Sri Lanka have undergone grave injustice: Pogroms, Torture, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Forced Disappearances and Genocide. Tamil mothers in Sri Lanka fight daily to learn what happened to their missing… Read more »
Follow-up on the visits of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
to Peru and Sri Lanka https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/42/40/Add.1 Summary This document contains information supplied by Governments, authorities, civil society and other stakeholders, relating to the follow-up measures to the recommendations made by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, following its visits to Peru and Sri Lanka in 2015 (A/HRC/33/51/Add.3 and A/HRC/33/51/Add.2. II. Sri Lanka Follow-up… Read more »
UK Delivers Core Group Statement on Sri Lanka
UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French outlined that the UK remains steadfast in its commitment to help Sri Lanka deliver peace, reconciliation and prosperity for all communities. Published 10 September 2019 From: UK Mission to the United Nations Geneva The Human Rights Council takes place in Geneva. This statement is on behalf of… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Tamils Need Genocide Recognition
And Innovative Justice Mechanisms by Anji Manivannan, ‘Opinion Juris’ Emerging Voices, New York, August 15, 2019 [Anji Manivannan is the Legal Director at People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and a Senior Programs Officer at the World Federalist Movement – Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP).] Introduction May 18th marked the tenth anniversary of the end… Read more »
Identity Conflict in Sri Lanka
A Case of Tamil Tigers by Sehar Mushtaq, International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, August 2012 Abstract Identity has been basic source of resentment during various ethnic conflicts. Political and economic discrimination based on Identity is a key factor underlying these conflicts. Sri Lanka being religiously and ethnically heterogeneous country faced an identity conflict… Read more »
JDS & ITJP: Time for Sri Lanka to Come Clean on Cluster Munitions
Time for Sri Lanka to come clean regarding cluster munitions ITJP_JDS_cluster_munitions_report 28 August 2019 Johannesburg: As members of the Convention on Cluster Munitions meet 2- 4 September 2019 in Geneva , the President of the organisation needs to come clean on its own record with these devastating weapons. For the last year Sri Lanka has led… 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 »
Investigating Truth re Enforced Disappearances
Investigating The Truth Of What Happened To Enforced Disappeared Tamils In Sri Lanka International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, August 30, 2019 – TGTE’s Call for International Action The necessity for international action, to investigate what happened to enforced disappeared Tamils in Sri Lanka, has become that much greater and more urgent now…. Read more »