Delivered by the UK’s Human Rights Ambassador, Rita French, Geneva, June 19, 2024 Thank you Mr President, This statement is by the Sri Lanka Core Group comprising Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom and the United States. High Commissioner, Thank you for your recent report on accountability for enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
TRG Calls for Action and Accountability Following UNHRC Report
on Sri Lanka’s Enforced Disappearances by Tamil Rights Group, Markham, Canada, June 25, 2024 Markham, Canada – Over fifteen years following the end of Sri Lanka’s Genocidal war against Eelam Tamils, families of the forcibly disappeared are still searching for answers about the whereabouts of their loved ones. The recent UN Human Rights Office report released on… Read more »
Opening Statement of Elizabeth K. Horst, Nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka
by Senate Foreign Relations Commitee, Washington, DC, May 9, 2024 Video – Hearing: [2024-06-13] NOMINATIONS | United States Senate Committee on… (Sri Lanka starts at 1 hour, 13 minutes, plus the introductory statement by the Chair early on.) Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Rickets, and distinguished Members of the commitee, thank you for holding this hearing…. Read more »
Assessing Shortcomings in the State Dept.’s Foreign Assistance Grants Process
Money is Policy by U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight & Accountability, Washington, DC, June 4, 2024 Money is Policy: Assessing Shortcomings in the State Department’s Foreign Assistance Grants Process Statement of Robert A. Destro, Former Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) and Special… Read more »
Australian Company’s Multibillion Sandmining Project Mired in Mannar Protests
by Mimi Alphonsus and S. Rubatheesan, The Sunday Times, Colombo, June 16, 2024 Protests hinder progress towards mining licence Residents allege large-scale land robberies involving brokers working for company Environmentalists fear existential threats such as soil losing fertility and contamination of water sources Company representative downplays impacts of the project on people’s livelihood For over… Read more »
Israel and the Leahy Law
by Charles O. (Cob) Blaha, JustSecurity, June 10, 2024 [It has been something of a mystery why the US military has been able to cooperate with the Sri Lankan military despite the Sri Lankan’s war crimes and worse since the US supposedly has laws requiring rigorous vetting before such cooperation. The article perhaps has some… Read more »
Reflecting on Sri Lanka in the Shadow of Palestine
A Hierarchy of Grief and the Politics of Mourning by Tania Perera & Asha L. Abeyasekera, Polity.lk, Colombo, May 20, 2024 On 18 May, Sri Lanka marked the 15th anniversary of the end of war. In 2009, many Sinhala people in the South took to the streets to spontaneously celebrate what they imagined as a… Read more »
Ranil’s Election Fright & The TNA’s Election Strategy
by Rajan Philips, Colombo Telegraph, June 8, 2024 It is tempting to ask if Ranil Wickremesinghe can electorally survive the referendum fast one that he got his cop-turned politico Party Secretary to pull on his behalf. Will Mr. Wickremesinghe even contest? Might his effervescent mind think of another pre-election ploy? Such as a special referendum to consult… Read more »
Tussle Over Giving Lankan Tamils Devolution
Of power under the 13th. Amendment By Veeragathy Thanabalasingham, NewsIn.Asia, Colombo, June 13, 2024 Colombo, June 13: Many amendments have been brought to the Sri Lankan constitution in more than four and a half decades which were detrimental to democratic governance. But there has been no major controversy about them. But the 13th Amendment (13… Read more »
$29 Trillion Debt
That’s how much debt emerging nations are facing A decades-long crisis is getting worse, and now dozens of nations are spending more on interest payments than on health care or education. by Patricia Cohen, The New York Times, June 14, 2024 The Vatican’s meeting on the global debt crisis last week was not quite as celebrity-studded as… Read more »
Tribunal: ‘Horrified’ by Plight of SL’s Plantation Workers
Their wages remain far below the living wage required in the context of Sri Lanka’s current costs of living, following hyperinflation during the crisis, a recent study found by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, June 12, 2024 An international tribunal of former judges from the region said it was “horrified by the stark realities” of… Read more »
Like Sri Lanka Once Did, Israel has Turned ‘Safe Zones’ into Killing Fields
But there is one important difference between the two cases: The genocide in Gaza is not taking place in the dark. by Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini, Al-Jazeera, Qatar, June 11, 2024 While our eyes were on Rafah’s “Block 2371” – the small area in south Gaza which the Israeli military designated as a “safe… Read more »
India’s Modi, Humbled by Voters, Faces Potent Economic Struggles
With his grip on political power weakened, the Indian prime minister is confronting the same formidable challenge — how to generate hundreds of millions of jobs. byPeter S. Goodman, The New York Times, June 7, 2024 Before the Indian election results emerged this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was widely viewed as a charismatic and popular strongman… Read more »
TG: International Criminal Court and Beyond
Tamil Guardian editorial, London, June 2, 2024 Recent weeks have seen several senior politicians from the two leading opposition parties in the UK, reiterate the importance of ensuring Sri Lanka is referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Keir Starmer, the man widely tipped to become Britain’s next prime minister, called on the ruling government… Read more »
A View from the North
Presidential Elections by Groundviews, Colombo, May 27, 2024 For the first time, Sri Lanka’s presidential election in October will have three main contenders – President Ranil Wickremesinghe contesting under an independent symbol, the SJB represented by Sajith Premadasa and the NPP/JVP by Anura Kumara Dissanayake. There is speculation about a common Tamil candidate as well as rumours… Read more »
Middle-aged Politics?
by Nillanthan Maha, Jaffna, June 1, 2024 [translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate, with improvements by the Editor.] A friend who is a medical professional recently asked, “If my child asks why he should not go abroad, is there any valid reason for me to tell him why you should stay in the… Read more »
Am I A Settler Too?
Reflections of a Sinhalese from Sri Lanka after Gaza by Nalin Jayathunga, Polity.lk, Colombo, April 29, 2024 Mapping temporal and spatial lines between the past and the present, this reflection draws parallels between the Palestinian genocide and the Tamil genocide. It is premised on my moral conundrum of protesting the genocide currently unfolding in Gaza,… Read more »
Second Arrest inn UK’s Sri Lanka War Crimes Investigation
Police appeal for information by uknip427 (UK News in Pictures, June 5, 2024 Counter Terrorism detectives investigating allegations of war crimes linked to the Sri Lankan civil war in the early 2000s are appealing for anyone who might have information that could assist their investigation to contact police. The appeal comes after a second UK-based… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields Cast a Long Shadow
Impunity for crimes committed during the civil war has fuelled post-war repression in Sri Lanka. by Al Jazeera, May 18, 2024 By Madura Rasaratnam and Ambihai Akilan Published On 18 May 202418 May 2024 Today we mark the 15th anniversary of the bloody end of Sri Lanka’s three-decades-long civil war. This anniversary comes around at a critical historical… Read more »
HRW: Crackdown Over Civil War Anniversary
UN Report Calls for International Prosecutions for Enforced Disappearances by Human Rights Watch, New York, May 23, 2024 (Geneva) – Sri Lankan authorities have threatened and detained Tamils commemorating those who died or went missing in the country’s civil war, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 17, 2024, the United Nations human rights office issued a report calling… Read more »