Posts Categorized: Military

Army Top Brass Accountable for Violations Further Up the Ladder

by Athula Vithanage, Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Germany, June 18, 2018 The Sri Lankan government, which continuously avoid probing military implicated in committing serious human rights violations, has once again rewarded them with plum posts. Brigadier Deshapriya Gunawardena and Major General Duminda Keepetiwalana are those most recent recipients of military promotions. Brigadier Gunawardena appointed… Read more »

Sri Lanka is an Open Door to the Indian Ocean

by Major Nicholas R. Nappi, US Marines, Proceeding Magazine of US Naval Institute, September 2017 U.S. maritime engagements with India can be best described as a security cooperation courtship that never gets past the first date. On the surface, this budding partnership looks promising. The U.S. and Indian militaries participate in executive steering groups (ESGs),… Read more »

The Reverberating Effects of Explosive Weapons

When the bombs fall silent by Action on Armed Violence, May 29, 2018 The long-term impact of explosive violence is known to be devastating, but is still relatively poorly understood. With civilian deaths from explosive weapons increasing each year, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) conducted research into the reverberating effects of manufactured explosive weapons, so… Read more »

Adayaalam: Tamil Political Prisoners

Suggestions for a Comprehensive Legal Policy Approach by Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, Jaffna, May 7, 2018 Issue Brief #3 ACPR-Issue-Brief-No.3-Tamil-Political-Prisoners-Suggestions-for-a-Comprehensive-Legal-Policy-Approach-1  I. Introduction Mr. Satchithanantham Ananthasuthakaran, sentenced to life under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in 2017, was given three hours on the 18th of March 2018 to take part in his wife’s funeral at their residence in… Read more »

Tamils to Remember the Dead in Mullivaikkal

by Meera Srinivasan, ‘The Hindu,’ Chennai, May 17, 2018 Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran urges them to unite on the ‘tragic’ Remembrance Day Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran has called upon Tamils to set aside their differences and participate in the ‘Remembrance Day’ event, remembering those who were killed in Sri Lanka’s civil… Read more »

AI: Release Lists of the Forcibly Disappeared

by Amnesty International, London, May 18, 208 On the ninth anniversary of the end of the war, Amnesty International calls on the government of Sri Lanka to provide information to the families of the disappeared, with detailed lists and information of persons who surrendered to the armed forces in the final phase of the war…. Read more »

New ITJP Website Lists 280 Names of Enforced Disappearance in Sri Lanka

All in one day by International Truth and Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, May 15, 2018 ITJP Press-release-Disappearance-15-May-2018-english Johannesburg: Sri Lanka’s Office of Missing Persons is duty bound to question war-time military leaders over hundreds of cases of enforced disappearance that took place on the final day of the civil war in 2009 if… Read more »

280 Lankan Tamils, including 29 Children, Disappeared in One Day

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) website has listed 280 names of enforced disappearances of people in Sri Lanka which included at least 29 children, a release from the ITJP said. by Press Trust of India in ‘Indian Express,’ Mumbai, May 16, 2018 About 280 Tamils, including 29 children, who had surrendered before the… Read more »

SL’s OMP Urged to Probe Star Generals

by Athula Vithanage, ‘Jounalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Europe, May 15, 2018 Sri Lanka has been urged to probe two of its highly decorated commanders for the inauguration of the much delayed Office of the Missing Persons (OMP). The OMP that plans to “address the suffering” of a multitude of disappeared commenced meeting victims on… Read more »

PEARL: ‘Delayed or Denied?

Sri Lanka’s Failing Transitional Justice Process by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, Washington, DC, May 14, 2018 PEARL’s new report, “Delayed or Denied? Sri Lanka’s Failing Transitional Justice Process”documents Sri Lanka’s failure to fulfill its transitional justice commitments and the complacency with which its intransigence has been received by members of the international community…. Read more »

ITJP: The Special Task Force

by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, April 23, 2018 GATHERING EVIDENCE THE SPECIAL TASK FORCE This report on the Special Task Force (STF) is based primarily on the testimony of Sinhalese insiders who worked for the unit in the past and former Tamil paramilitaries.   “This work in the white vanning unit… Read more »

Sri Lanka Bans Cluster Munitions

The transparency now required of Sri Lanka as a state party to these treaties could help to formally answer questions about past cluster munition and land mine use. ITJP Universal Jurisdiction Combatting Impunity in Sri Lanka March 15 2018 by Mary Wareham, Human Rights Watch, New York, March 14, 2018 Sri Lanka has become the 103rd country to join… Read more »

Why Civil Wars Are Lasting Longer

Although the norm of negotiation has not died, countervailing norms have emerged around non-negotiation with terrorists, militarily defeating terrorist organizations, and prioritizing stabilization over democratization, even if that means bolstering authoritarian rule. Across today’s battlefields—in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Sudan, and Yemen—external actors are… Read more »

Securitisation and its Discontents

The End of Sri Lanka’s Long Postwar? by Jonathan Spencer, ‘Contemporary South Asia,’ UK, Volume 24, July 5, 2016 Securitization and its discontents the end of Sri Lanka s long post war Abstract In the 5 years after the 2009 defeat of the secessionist insurgency by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Sri Lankan… Read more »

PEARL: Remembering the Kumarapuram Massacre

by People for Relief and Equality in Lanka, Washington, DC, February 11, 2018 22 years ago today, in a small Tamil village in the North-East of Sri Lanka, a group of soldiers murdered 26 people, left 24 others injured, and gang-raped a 15-year-old girl. Twenty years after the Kumarapuram massacre, on July 27, 2016, an… Read more »

‘Very Fair to Say SL Army Committed Genocide’

— Former UN staffer by ‘The Economic Times,’ India, from Press Trust of India, January 27, 2018 The atrocities committed against Tamils during the 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka amounted to ethnic cleansing and even today a huge drive is underway to change the demography of the Tamil-dominated region, noted photographer and former UN… Read more »

Panel in Washington discusses Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka

by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, February 5, 2018 A panel event on mass atrocities discussed the lack of progress made by Sri Lanka in the realm of transitional justice, in Washington DC last week. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Ferencz International Justice Initiative and the National Endowment for Democracy held an event on promoting justice for… Read more »

ITJP: : What Vetting of Sri Lankan Diplomats?

by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka & International Truth & Justice Project, February 7, 2018 ITJP JDS press-release-7-feb-2018 vetting SL diplomats Johannesburg: The UK, the UN and the international community have an obligation to step up their screening and vetting of Sri Lankan public and security officals for alleged involvement in atrocities during and… Read more »

ITJP: Brig. Priyanka Fernando in London

by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka and International Truth & Justice Project, February 5, 2018 On Sri Lanka’s 70th Independence Day, 4 February 2018, Brigadier Fernando attracted attention by thrice making slitting throat gestures to a crowd of chanting Tamil protestors outside the High Commission in London. The video of him, in full military… Read more »