Posts Categorized: Politics

What is Local Governance?

[This article is interesting because it is by a Sinhalese author.  Tamils have been advocating for more decentralized government since independence, to no avail.  Note that in the early 1980s the Sri Lankan government proposed District Development Councils to counteract calls for more autonomy for the North and Eastern Provinces.  The Tamils were not in… Read more »

Can a Corporation Be Complicit in War Crimes?

Sweden Is Trying to Find Out by M. Gessen, Opinion Columnist, The New York Times, Dec. 30, 2025 At the end of the 1990s, a Swedish company called Lundin Oil started drilling in a war-torn region of what was then Sudan. To secure the drilling sites, the company contracted with the Sudanese government. Over the… Read more »

HRW: Sri Lanka Struggles in Aftermath of Devastating Cyclone

Longstanding Discrimination Against Marginalized Communities Worsens Catastrophe by Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director, Human Rights Watch, New York, December 11, 2025 Sri Lanka is suffering a series of floods and landslides brought upon by Cyclone Ditwah this past November. Climate experts believethe intensity of seasonal storms, which also recently devastated Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, are likely… Read more »

The Great Flood

by B. Skanthakumar, Polity, Colombo, December 5, 2025 Cyclone Ditwah ripped through Sri Lanka between 27 and 29 November. The toll is devastating. Seven days later, the official count is 486 deaths and 341 missing. To which should be added five navy and one air-force officer killed in rescue operations; and an electricity board technician… Read more »

Ten Jolting Takeaways from Trump’s New National Security Strategy

by Rick Landgraf, War on the Rocks, Washington, DC, December 5, 2025 The new National Security Strategy is out, and it’s a shock to the system. It is not just the latest public articulation of principles, ambitions, and priorities around which the United States organizes its foreign policy. Instead, it reads like a manifesto for a radically… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Bloody Past is Re-emerging from the Soil

A blue schoolbag in a mass grave by Helen Regan, Kumanan Kanapathipillai, Kunal Sehga, Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Atlanta, GA, USA, November 29, 2025 https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/05/world/video/sri-lanka-mass-grave-hanako-montgomery-digvid . . EDITOR’S NOTE:  This article contains images and descriptions that some readers may find distsurbing. Two human skeletons lie entangled on the rough earth – the arms of one wrapped… Read more »

Essential Jaffna Tamil

by N. Malathy, November 12, 2025 Sociological study of Jaffna Tamils is not extensive. We have not had a well-known academic among us in this area. Karthikesu Sivathamby’s books (“யாழ்ப்பாண சமூகத்தை விளங்கிக் கொள்ளல்,” கார்த்திகேசு சிவதம்பி, 1990; “Sri Lankan Tamil Society and Politics”, Karthikesu Sivathamby, 1995) about us are the best I have seen. All are… Read more »

War Crimes Indictment Reveals a Hard Road to Justice for Syria

Prosecutors say a Syrian security official accused of torture hid in plain sight in Europe for years, protected by Israeli and Austrian intelligence agents. By Carlotta Gall and Saad Alnassife, The New York Times, Nov.12, 2025, updated Nov. 14, 2025 Our reporters traveled all over Europe, including to Vienna, to interview survivors of torture who will… Read more »

UNHRC 2025 Resolution on Sri Lanka

UK Core Group Statement to introduce Item 2 Resolution on Sri Lanka. Delivered by the UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN, Kumar Iyer. From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Kumar Iyer CMG Delivered on: 6 October 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered) Thank you, Mr. President. I have the honour to… Read more »

ABC: More than 200 Skeletons Uncovered in Mass Grave

In Sri Lanka, exposing its haunting history by Nicholene Canisius, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, October 4, 2025 Saaratha Iruthayanathar was six years old when she last saw her father leaving to get groceries, during the Sri Lankan civil war. To this day, she still does not know whether he is dead or alive. While travelling by… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s President Surprises with Pro-Market Pivot

by Uditha Jayasinghe and Krishna N. Das, Reuters, London, September 23, 2025 Summary President Dissanayake’s government plans fresh steps to boost investment after 2022 economic collapse Power tariffs raised, state-run electricity board being broken up despite union protests $100 mln in cannabis-based medical oil projects expected for export to US and Europe Analysts say strong… Read more »

US State Dept.: 2024 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report

by US Department of State, Washington, DC, August 12, 2025 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report US State Dept 2024 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY After the widely contested September 21 presidential elections and November 14 snap parliamentary elections, civil society groups called on the first voter-elected presidential administration since 2022 to build on the demands for good governance… Read more »

From Thileepan to Today

Tamil Guardian editorial, London, September 29, 2025 Remembering Thileepan’s sacrifice 38 years on | Tamil Guardian An unprecedented number of events took place across the North-East last week. Hunger strikes were staged. Flames were lit and garlands laid. The elderly and children gathered together. A kavadi even procession took place, with hooks piercing the flesh… Read more »

Two Steps Backwards

Tamil Guardian editorial, , London, September 15, 2025 To call the latest draft resolution from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva disappointing would be far too kind. It is not simply a missed opportunity, but a disastrous step backwards in the long and painful struggle for justice for the Tamil people. Sixteen years… Read more »

How did Nepal Become a ‘Hindu Rashtra’?

[B]oth Nepal and Sri Lanka offer sobering reminders that in the Indian subcontinent, the forced imposition of a religion, whether ‘dharmic’ or not, inevitably creates more problems than it solves. by Anirudh Kanisetti, ThePrint.in, September 25, 2025 Nepal called itself ‘world’s only Hindu kingdom’ for much of the previous century. However, for most of history,… Read more »

Born in India, but Not Indian

‘Stateless’ man fights for citizenship by Saradha V, BBC, London,  September 24, 2025 Bahison Ravindran says he always believed he was Indian. Born to Sri Lankan refugee parents in the southern Indian Tamil Nadu state, the 34-year-old web developer had studied and worked there, and held several government-issued identity documents, including an Indian passport. But… Read more »

ICG: Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power Faces the Legacy of Civil War

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his National People’s Power government are struggling to build a more stable, inclusive political culture in Sri Lanka. A mix of bold action and political skill will be needed. Support from the UN Human Rights Council can help.  by Alan Keenan, International Crisis Group, Brussels, September 5, 2025 The election… Read more »

UN Human Rights Council 60th Session

Geneva, September/October 2025 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) oral report based on his written report, September 8, 2025 https://youtu.be/u_hebwD0fRE?si=BMN-_48S-QVsKH1Q Full interactive dialogue on Sri Lanka, September 8 HCHR, plus statements of country groups, starting at 2hrs, 57min, 54sec – 1st Meeting – 60th Session of Human Rights Council | UN Web TV Country statement,… Read more »

ITJP: Killing of Journalist Nimalarajan Mylvaganam

Killing Sri Lankan Journalists by International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa, September 7, 2025 Full report in English (Tamil & Sinhala also available) KILLING-SRI-LANKAN-JOURNALISTS_THE-CASE-OF-NIMALARAJAN-MYLVAGANAM_Final_ENGLISH_Web_compressed Press Release: Sri Lanka Has Shielded Killers of Journalists, Finds New Report Examining Investigation Failures in BBC Reporter’s Murder. Johannesburg – Sri Lanka has systematically shielded the killers of journalists… Read more »