Posts Categorized: Military

Army Bigwigs Have Made Shameful Attempts to Bury the Truth

by Vellupillai Thangavelu, Colombo Telegraph, March 1, 2023 The quote “Wheels of justice grind slow but grind fine” is credited to Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War, an influential work of military strategy, But in Sri Lanka this quote should be taken with a pinch of salt. Cases filed in courts gets… Read more »

A Soldier’s Dream

by A. Nillanthan, March 4, 2023 [translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate, with some improvement by the Editor.] The soldier said on the last day that Buddha had appeared in a dream to him in a army camp in Nilavara on the island of Sri Lanka. As Rauf Hakeem once said, the statues… Read more »

Disappeared Tamil Babies of Sri Lanka

by Association for the Relatives of the Enforced Disappearance (North and East Provinces), October 1, 2019 Disappeared Tamil babies of Sri Lanka 2019 by Mothers of the Disappeared Sri Lanka stands out as the only country in the world where babies, as young as eight months old, have enforcedly disappeared by a Government. All these… Read more »

Elite Capture and Corruption of Security Sectors

by United States Institute for Peace, Washington, DC, February 17, 2023 Executive Summary Closing the Effectiveness Gap The objective of US security sector assistance is to help build effective, accountable, responsive, transparent, and legitimate security sectors in partner nations to address common security risks. Such action ultimately benefits US national interests, as when the United… Read more »

RTI Produces Varying Accounts of the Final Stages of War

by Buddhika Samaraweera, The Morning.lk, Colombo, January 30, 2023 Military previously noted in writing that those who surrendered during the last period of war surrendered not to the Army but to the Government While the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has stated that no members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) surrendered to the… Read more »

India: The Last Battle of the American Revolutionary War

by John L. Smith, Jr. ‘Journal of the American Revolution,’ July 8, 2015 The next time you’re in a trivia contest and the question comes up, “What was the last battle of the American Revolutionary War?” the judges will probably be looking for the predictable answer of “Yorktown.”[1] That’s the neat and tidy answer, but… Read more »

Conflict Forced Them From Their Homes

Now the Military Is Occupying Their Land “Future looks bleak. Unless the Tamils get their lost land back, the Tamil areas would soon be colonised by Sinhalese.” by Jeevan Ravindran & Kumanan Kanapathippillai, VICE, New York, January 16, 2023 JAFFNA, Sri Lanka:  Using a bat made of coconut tree bark, 15-year-old Gunasekaram Shatheeskumar was playing… Read more »

US Sanctions Another Sri Lankan War Criminal

Sri Lanka Prabath Bulathwatte (Bulathwatte), former head of a clandestine Sri Lankan Army platoon, known as the “Tripoli Platoon,” Pursuant to Section 7031(c), the Department of State is designating Bulathwatte for his involvement in a gross violation of human rights, namely torture and/or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of Sri Lankan journalist, Keith… Read more »

Uprooting People from the Land

Land Grabbing: Current Status and Trends in Sri Lanka by Sri Lanka Nature Group & People’s Alliance for Right to Land – PARL, June 2012 Uprooting People from the Land Land Grabbing Current Status 2012 Abstract This study was carried out to determine the present status and trends of land grabbing in Sri Lanka. The… Read more »

Thaainilam – Land Grabbing

The Real Pandemic for the Tamils in Sri Lanka – Documentary Film Youth Panel Discussion Sept.25, 2021 on ThaaiNilam: Land Grabbing Documentary at Film  Premiere 

Right-sizing the Sri Lanka Army

by Major General Boniface Perera, Ph.D., Daily Mirror Opinion, Colombo, November 29, 2022 [Also Time to make the Sri Lanka Army leaner and meaner – Hard talk | Daily Mirror] The prime responsibility of the Army is to provide protection to the citizens and safeguard territorial Integrity and Sovereignty The veteran Indian diplomat turned security… Read more »

Remembering 2nd Lt. Maalathy

by Tamil Guardian, London, October 10, 2022 Today marks thirty-five years since the death of 2nd Lt. Maalathy, the first female fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to lose her life in the Tamil armed struggle. Across the world, the day is being commemorated as Tamil Women’s Day, an opportunity to honour women’s involvement in the… Read more »

Photos of Menik Farm Detainees 2009

From the files of Nagalingam Ethirveerasingam. Ph.D. (Cornell) Do we know where all these detainees are?  Can UNHCR confirm they were all released? Photo_FemaleYouthDetainees_MenikfarmMovie6 Photo_MaleYouth Detainees_Menikfarm_Movie7 Where are the pictures of all the other detainees? From Dr. Ethirveerasingam: These photos were sent to me by a UN Refugee official monitoring the Vavuniya camp. I think… Read more »

The Military Still Runs the Show

In Sri Lanka The international community has a part to play in ending its culture of impunity. by Viruben Nandakuman, Foreign Policy, Washington, DC, August 4, 2022 Viruben Nandakumar is an editor at the Tamil Guardian. In the early hours of Friday, July 22, hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers marched through the country’s capital. They… Read more »

Federalism: Myths and Realities

by Rohan Edrisinha – Faculty of Law, University of Colombo and Centre for Policy Alternatives, The Sunday Observer, Colombo, January 18, 2004 Excerpts of a speech delivered at the Executive Seminar on Human Rights for senior officers of armed forces on Saturday, January 10. The agreement reached between the Government of Sri Lanka and the… Read more »

Diaspora Groups Call for Singapore to Investigate ex-President

by People for Equity & Relief in Lanka, July 26, 2022 20220726 Joint Press_Release_Request_to_Investigate_Gotabaya_Rajapaksa Press Release: Global Coalition of Tamil and Human Rights Groups Urge Singapore’s Attorney General to Investigate Gotabaya Rajapaksa Washington D.C.; July 26, 2022 — Seventeen Tamil and human rights organizations from around the world issued a joint letter today, urging Singapore’s… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Former President Must be Investigated for War Crimes

by Meenaksha Ganguly, Washington Post, July 22, 2022 (also available at Sri Lanka’s former president must be investigated for war crimes | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org) COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — There was satisfaction, and even glee, among many Sri Lankans when Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the widely unpopular president, fled the country by military jet in the dead… Read more »

Amnesty: Authorities Must Refrain from Use of Military to Police Protests

by Amnesty International, London, July 14, 2022 “The recent escalation of the authorities’ response to protests by calling in the armed forces, firing at protestors and excessive use of tear gas which resulted in the death of one person yesterday is deeply worrying,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s South Asia Regional Director. The Sri Lankan… Read more »

Economic Crisis and Unregulated Alcohol Collide

by Vetrichelvi Chandrakala, Global Press Journal, Washington, DC, May 25, 2022 Civil war veterans, also grappling with the country’s imploding economy, fight to break their dependency on dangerous, illegal liquor. READ THIS STORY IN English தமிழ் MANNAR, SRI LANKA — Vijayakumar Velayutham fought for more than a decade in the Sri Lankan civil war. He… Read more »