Posts Categorized: Politics

Sri Lanka Turns to China Rather than IMF

To avoid default Relations with US-led multilateral lender strained by past misadventures by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Nikkei Asia, October 12, 2020  Sri Lanka’s government led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa desperately needs cash to service over $15 billion in foreign debt. (Source photos by Reuters)  COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s ultranationalist government looks set to receive a financial lifeline from China… Read more »

Justification for Self-Determination

Tamils in the North & East of Sri Lanka by Kumarathasan Rasingam, October 20, 2020 When the United Nations was created after the World War II, one of its purposes was spelt out in Article 1 [2] of the UN Charter as: “To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principles of… Read more »

Crucial Time for Urgent Actions

By UNHRC, UN, international community & diaspora Tamils by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, October 19, 2020 It need not be detailed again to list the grievances of Tamils which commenced in 1948 and continue to pile up and accumulate with no redress in sight from the… Read more »

Assessment of FaceBook’s HR Impact in Sri Lanka

by Chloe Poynton, Article One, San Francisco, May 12, 2020 In 2018, Article One partnered with Facebook to conduct two country-level human rights impact assessments (HRIAs) in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Today, Facebook published the executive summaries of both reports, a step we applaud and hope to see more of. Understanding how online engagements can… Read more »

Human Rights Half Measures: Avoiding Accountability in Postwar Sri Lanka

by Kate Cronin-Furman, Cambridge University Press’ World Politics journal, Vol. 72, Issue 1, November 11, 2019 Abstract Why do repressive states create human rights institutions that cost them money and political capital but fail to silence international criticism? The academic literature assumes that states engaging in disingenuous human rights behavior are hoping to persuade (or… Read more »

Kamala Harris and the ‘Other 1 Percent’

Long before the Democratic vice-presidential candidate became a national figure, India played a role in American politics by Dinyar Patel, The Atlantic, New York, October 2020 In a few weeks, the United States might elect its first vice president of Indian heritage. Kamala Harris’s rise mirrors the fortunes of Indian Americans, a wildly successful community whose… Read more »

Nonviolent Action in Myanmar

Challenges and Lessons for Civil Society and Donors by La Ring; Khin Sandar Nyunt; Nist Pianchupat; Shaazka Beyerle, US Institute for Peace, Washington, September 18, 2020 Full report at https://www.usip.org/publications/2020/09/nonviolent-action-myanmar-challenges-and-lessons-civil-society-and-donors The National League for Democracy’s decisive victory in Myanmar’s 2015 elections inspired hopes of a full transition from military rule and an opening of civil… Read more »

Amnesty on Enforced Disappearances

by Amnesty International statement to US Congress’ Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing on Latin America, October 1, 2020 https://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/government-relations/advocacy/amnesty-lantos-statement-enforced-disappearances/ … Sri Lanka:  Sri Lanka has one of the world’s highest number of enforced disappearances, with estimates ranging from 60,000 to 100,000 arising in connection with internal armed conflicts since the late 1980s. One emblematic… Read more »

Rajapaksa Shifts Up a Gear

Tamil Guardian editorial, London, September 28, 2020 Sri Lanka’s president has wasted little time in getting to work. Within weeks of his party sweeping parliamentary polls, Gotabaya Rajapaksa rapidly produced the long-promised 20th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution, which seeks to further concentrate power into the executive presidency he occupies. As expected, there are few checks… Read more »

India-Sri Lanka Joint Statement on Virtual Bilateral Summit

by NarendraModi.in, September 26, 2020 1. Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka H.E. Mahinda Rajapaksa held a Virtual Summit today in which they discussed bilateral relations and regional & international issues of mutual concern. 2. Prime Minister Modi congratulated Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on his assumption of office… Read more »

How ‘Jakarta’ Became the Codeword for US-Backed Mass Killing

by, Vincent Bevins, The New York Review of Books, May 18, 2020 Suspected communists under armed guard, Jakarta, Indonesia, December 1, 1965 In May 1962, a girl named Ing Giok Tan got on a rusty old boat in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her country, one of the largest in the world, had been pulled into the global… Read more »

Remembering Thileepan’s Sacrifice 33 Years On

by Tamil Guardian, London, September 26, 2020 Today marks 33 years since the death of Lt Col Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE who fasted to death, in a protest appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people. Thileepan began his fast on the September 15, 1987, with 100,000 people… Read more »

Transitional Justice at the UN Security Council

International Community Commits to Nuanced, Comprehensive Transitional Justice at UN Security Council Open Debate by International Center for Transitional Justice, New York, September 21, 2020 As the world continues to grapple with the deadly coronavirus pandemic and a global economic downturn, United Nations (UN) member states will convene this week for the annual General Assembly,… Read more »

A New Domestic Process in Sri Lanka

Will not bring reconciliation and justice Sri Lanka Campaign, London, Sep 25, 2020 At the 45th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) last week, the Government of Sri Lanka tried dismiss calls for greater international action on Sri Lanka, saying that it is committed to a domestic process to deliver reconciliation and justice. But how could… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Boiling Tamils

And failing Tamil political leaders by Thambu Kanagasabai: LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, September 21, 2020 There is no denying of the fact that the Tamils in Sri Lanka have been at the receiving end by the successive Governments in power and targeted in the agenda of GENOCIDE including structural GENOCIDE… Read more »

UNHRC Session 45

High Commissioner for Human Rights opening statement, September 14, 2020 In Sri Lanka, I am troubled that the new Government is swiftly reneging on its commitments to the Human Rights Council since it withdrew its support for resolution 30/1. Among other developments, the proposed 20th amendment to the Constitution may negatively impact on the independence… Read more »

Return of Executive Presidency

Threatens to undermine Sri Lanka’s pact with minorities The Tamil people opposed the Executive Presidency both for its centralisation of power and also for its corrupting influence on democracy. by M A Sumanthiran , Indian Express, New Delhi, September 14, 2020 9:04:46 am There is no doubt that the 20th Amendment to the Constitution Bill… Read more »

Pres. Gotabaya’s Forward March towards an Exclusive Sinhala-Buddhist State

by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [London] Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, September 3, 2020 President Gotabaya’s throne speech on August 20, 2020 as expected does not spring any surprise or disappointments to the minorities particularly Tamils as it is a frank and forthright speech which is crowning Buddhism and Sinhalese and expressing… Read more »

Tamils Have Not Abandoned Human Rights for Economic Development

Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority remains committed to both, but not one at the expense of the other by By J. S. Tissainayagam, The Diplomat, Washington, DC, August 24, 2020 Sri Lanka’s August 5 parliamentary election results are being interpreted by some as an indication that the Tamils of the country are moving away from regional Tamil-nationalist parties… Read more »