Time may be running out for meaningful reforms, and transitional justice remains just out of reach. by Alan Keenan, ‘The Diplomat,’ Tokyo, February 1, 2017 Sri Lanka’s Transition to Nowhere – Alan Keenan – Diplomat – Feb 2017 The momentum of the early months soon slowed, as deep political dysfunctions reasserted themselves in the face… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Military
Only 5.2% of Sri Lankan Military Occupied Land has been Released to Tamils
by P.K. Balachandran, The New Indian Express, December 11, 2016 COLOMBO: The Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, C.V.Wigneswaran, has said that out of the 67,000 acres of private lands of the Tamils seized by the Sri Lankan armed forces during the war, only 3,500 acres have been returned so far. Since the war… Read more »
‘Pride of the Pacific’ Trains New Sri Lankan Marine Corps
By: Matthew L. Shehl, ‘Marine Corps Times,’ December 4, 2016 Video at https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/articles/pride-of-the-pacific-trains-new-sri-lankan-marine-corps Camp Pendleton Marines wrapped up the first official training mission with the newly created Sri Lankan marine corps last week, the latest sign of the U.S. military stepping up engagement in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. Sri Lanka stood up its new naval infantry this year… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s War Cost US$ 200 Billion
by News.in Asia, Colombo, December 12, 2016 Colombo, December 13 (The New Indian Express): Sri Lanka’s internal war which ended in May 2009, had cost the country around US$ 200 billion according to India’s former National Security Adviser and Foreign Secretary, Shivshankar Menon. In his book Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy ,… Read more »
Remembering and Rebuilding
by Tamil Guardian, London, November 27, 2016 Today, Tamils across the globe will collectively light candles, lay flowers and bow heads in memory of those who gave their lives resisting state oppression. Marking the legacy of these heroes has become an integral moment of solidarity for the entire nation. In the Tamil homeland, commemorations have… Read more »
Adayaalam: Student Killings, Aava Gang and Securitisation of Jaffna
by Adayaalam, Jaffna Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research releases its first Situation Brief: Student Killings, Aava Gang and Securitisation of Jaffna You can read the full brief here or acpr-2016_november_situation_brief_no_1 Follow Adayaalam’s work on their facebook page and on twitter.
US Navy at Galle Dialogue 2016
US Policy and Objectives in Building Strategic partnership with Navies in the Indo-Asia-Pacific by US Admiral Harry B. Harris, Galle, November 28, 2016 USN, Commander US Pacific Command adm-harris-galle-dialogue-2016 All speeches at http://galledialogue.lk/index.php?id=53 Thanks, Admiral Wijegunaratne for that kind introduction. In addition to being an expert in asymmetric naval warfare and special boat operations, the… Read more »
USS Somerset Supports Exchange with Sri Lanka Marines
By 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Pacific Command, Hawaii, November 28, 2016 TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka – U.S. Marines and Sailors of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked aboard amphibious transport dock USS Somerset (LPD 25) recently arrived in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, for a theater security cooperation (TSC) exchange with the Sri Lankan Navy’s marine forces, Nov. 23-25…. Read more »
Five Takeaways from the UN Torture Review
by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, London, November 18, 2016 Five takeaways from the UN Committee Against Torture review of Sri Lanka This week saw the conclusion of the UN Committee Against Torture’s review of Sri Lanka, a regular process of expert-based scrutiny designed to monitor implementation of the Convention Against Torture. The… Read more »
Counter Terror Smarter
By Michael German, US News & World Report, October 26, 2016 The counterterrorism debate is again playing out like so many times before. As soon as police identified a Muslim-American, Ahmad Khan Rahami, as a person of interest in a bombing attack in New York City, policymakers automatically inferred links to international terrorist groups and… Read more »
Erasing the Past: Memorialization
by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, November 2, 2016 Erasing the Past: New Report Documents Repression of Memorialization in North-East Sri Lanka PEARL’s latest report examines government obstruction of memorialization among Tamils in the North-East (Washington, DC; November 1, 2016) PEARL’s new report, “Erasing the Past: Repression of Memorialization in North-East Sri Lanka,” documents… Read more »
Wickramasinghe Deploys ‘Shadow War’ Intelligence Squads in Jaffna
by TamilNet, October 26, 2016 Ranil Wickramasinghe, the prime minister of genocidal Sri Lanka has deployed more than one hundred high-level intelligence operatives in Jaffna district to step up and coordinate a shadow war on Eezham Tamils as in the mid 1990s under the rule of Chandrika Kumaratunga when the SL military seized the entire… Read more »
Why Just Counting the Dead in Syria Won’t Bring Them Justice
A full tally of the war’s horrific violence requires estimates, models, and sophisticated pattern analysis to understand who’s responsible and why. by Patrick Ball, ‘Foreign Policy,’ Washington, DC, October 19, 2016 Nearly 18,000 people died in Syrian government prisons between March 2011 and December 2015. My colleagues and I at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group(HRDAG)… Read more »
TAG Briefing Note – Fresh Evidence of Cluster Munitions
by Tamils Against Genocide, London, October 17, 2016 The new draft of the counter terrorism policy in Sri Lanka further demonstrates the government’s willingness to disregard the civil liberties of its people. This, unfortunately, casts further doubt on the new administration’s ability to formulate a credible strategy for transitional justice. Any strategy will also have… Read more »
Land Grabbing & Accountability
by South Asia Centre for Legal Studies, Colombo, September 27, 2016 Despite land grabbing being a common feature of many armed conflicts and an integral part of discriminatory policies against minority groups, it is insufficiently addressed in post-conflict or transitional justice accountability processes. While truth-commissions, in particular the Truth Commission in El Salvador, have highlighted… Read more »
Sri Lankan Army KIA, 1981-1999
by Dr. Paul Staniland, PaulStaniland.com, October 10, 2016 Below I posted about a source I’d found with micro-data on SLA combat fatalities. The OCR-ing has proven more of a challenge than I had hoped, but the information on date and place is inputted for all observations, though we still need to add many of soldiers’ names and… Read more »
Oakland Institute at UNHRC: Militarisation and Land Grab
by Anuradha Mittal, UN Human Rights Council side event, Geneva, September 22, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0hZU-WmVM0&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
Building More Viharas In The North-East Will Negate Reconciliation Efforts
by Thangavelu, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ September 6, 2016 On August 23, 2016 the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) passed a resolution during the 56th sitting unanimously condemning the building of a Buddhist vihara by Sri Lankan troops on land belonging to a Hindu temple in Kilinochchi. The resolution was moved by NPC member Subramaniam Pasupathipillai. “The Kanakambikai… Read more »
Court Refuses to Lift Overseas Travel Ban on ex-Navy Spokesman
by ‘Ceylon News,’ Colombo, September 6, 2016 A Sri Lankan court on Tuesday refused to lift the overseas travel ban on war-time navy media spokesman Captain D.K.P Dassanayake as he remains a wanted person in connection with the abduction of 11 school children in Colombo during the height of the war. A group of Sri… Read more »
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Charged with Corruption
by BBC, August 31, 2016 One of Sri Lanka’s most controversial politicians has been charged with corruption involving the illegal transfer of state-owned weapons. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is charged with allowing a private firm to establish a floating armoury. It is claimed the move deprived the state of more than $75m (£57m). Mr Rajapaksa, who denies… Read more »