Posts Categorized: Military

Biswal in Colombo

“We fundamentally support efforts to create a credible domestic process for accountability and reconciliation,” Biswal noted…

The Assistant Secretary for Human Rights cautioned however that the Sri Lankan Government would be judged based on actions and not promises.
Both officials who also met with representatives of the Tamil National Alliance last morning acknowledged that the Government would have to build trust and confidence in the domestic process to investigate the alleged violations in war time, since domestic mechanisms had consistently failed or failed to take off.
“The failures of the past are very much on our minds,” Malinowski said, “which is why there is an emphasis on trust-building.”

Sirisena Visits Trincomalee Naval Base Amid Reports of Torture Sites

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday has visited the Trincomalee naval base, which has been widely and credibly accused to have housed secret torture camps, where hundreds of Tamils have been brutally tortured and raped during and after the war. According to President’s media unit, President Sirisena has made an “inspection tour” to the… Read more »

Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative

Ports & Power in the Indian Ocean How naval power, porting agreements, and access will shape the future of the Indian Ocean Map & more Colombo, Sri Lanka Today China has been involved in the construction of an artificial island near the Colombo South Harbor, to be known as Colombo Port City. After President Maithripala… Read more »

NPC Chief Minister Speeches in US & UK

Speech to Federation of Tamil Sangams in North America convention, San Jose, July 4, 2015 Transcript of speech in Tamil — CVWigneswaran-Speech-FeTNA-July042015 Transcript of speech in English — CVWigneswaran-Speech-FeTNA-July042015-TxEng   Speech in London hosted by International Association of Tamil Journalists, July 17, 2015

The American Stake in Myanmar and Sri Lanka

By Admiral Dennis C. Blair, ‘The Diplomat,’ Tokyo, July 14, 2015 Although many Americans would have a hard time finding Sri Lanka or Myanmar on a map, these two Asian countries are in the midst of major political transformations with important and uncertain outcomes. Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election on August 17 will determine whether the… Read more »

Tamil Women: Into Public Space

The political struggle of the Eelam Tamils began even before the end of colonialism in 1948. Over the following decades, this struggle gradually unified the Eelam Tamils who were fragmented until then. There is no evidence that women took part in this struggle until after the 1970’s. Another struggle took centre stage in the Tamil… Read more »

Seize This Opportunity for True Reform

Sri Lanka: Seize this opportunity for true reform Come September, the United Nations Human Rights Council will assemble in Geneva for its 30th session. This session marks an important date for Sri Lanka, the United States and the international community: the long-awaited release of the UN report on war crimes committed during Sri Lanka’s civil… Read more »

With Just 273 Political Prisoners in Custody, How Many Have Disappeared?

The recent revelation that only 300 prisoners remain in Government custody only confirms that the crimes committed by the Government are even more heinous than previously imagined. As such, no Sri Lanka government is going to facilitate the legal, administrative and political changes that domestic judicial institutions need to meet ‘international standards.’ The only way is for international justice to be dispensed by international courts.

Can Reconciliation Heal Sri Lankan War Wounds?

In the six years since the Sri Lankan army defeated the rebels, a measure of stability has returned…But Tamil leaders are not convinced that these efforts will be enough to unify the Tamil and Hindu north and east with the majority Sinhalese Buddhist south. They say that they are concerned that Sirisena’s moves are symbolic and don’t address issues such as the Tamils’ desire for greater autonomy and the withdrawal of troops.

The Blight of Militarisation

Maithripala Sirisena’s victory over Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Sri Lankan presidential elections in January 2015 was enabled by massive support from minorities in the country — the Tamils and Muslims. Clearly, the mandate was not just for a more accountable and democratic government that would reverse the creeping authoritarianism and family rule heralded by Mr…. Read more »

Only a Democratic South can Democratise the North

“Gotabhaya’s security state gradually expanded its tentacles to the South. He turned us into an unhappy and insecure people, who live in fear of the arbitrary powers of our own elected government. Our concerns were more intimate to us than the grievances of the North. However, they are an extension of a strategy that he experimented and later entrenched in the North.”

Why No Gazette Notification on Release of Lands?

by TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 May 2015, 23:18 GMT It’s not merely enough to allow the people to resettle in the lands that were seized from them by the previous regime, which applied the proviso to 38(A) of the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) under the guise of ‘public use’ in permanently converting the lands for the… Read more »

Minority Rights in Sri Lanka: Progress or Blind Spot?

sri_lanka_report_100days Minority Rights in Sri Lanka Progress or Blind Spot Many problems exist “regarding human rights of the minorities,” in Sri Lanka, concluded the Society for Threatened peoples (STP.) A report on the new regime’s 100 day reform plan, released on Thursday, noted several issues including those of intimidation of Tamil journalists, inadequate resettlement, excessive… Read more »

Military and Poverty

by Dr. S. Santhirasegaram, Developing Country Studies, 2013 Santhirasegaram Military and Poverty 2013 5. Conclusion Military forces employed by 97 percent of majority Singhalese has been getting more economic benefits from expansion of security forces. Social welfare expenditure from independent to 1980s in Sri Lanka biased to majority and made political unrest and violent which… Read more »

For Whose Desire that Chemmani Mass Grave Case was Closed

The Ghosts of Chemmani Investigations revealed that 18-year-old Krishanthi Coomeraswamy, a student of Chundikuly Girls’ High School, was abducted at the Kaithadi military checkpoint on 07 September 1996, gangraped and murdered. The suspects in this crime were several officers and a soldier of the Army. However, the entire blame was placed on the shoulders of… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Minority Grows Impatient With Just Promises

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — There may be no place more beautiful on the breathtaking tropical island of Sri Lanka than the white sand beaches along the Palka Strait, which is why building a luxury resort here made sense. Still, there are drawbacks to staying at Thalsevana Holiday Resort. Arrive without a reservation, and you could… Read more »

An Institutional History of the LTTE

LKA-geschichte-ltte-e [PDF in English] or https://www.bfm.admin.ch/dam/data/bfm/internationales/herkunftslaender/asien-nahost/lka/LKA-geschichte-ltte-e.pdf Preface Episodes of armed violence are often followed by countering claims and divergent accounts of past experiences. The Sri Lankan civil war is no exception. After 26 years of military operations and the official defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, controversies over the conflict and… Read more »