by International Crisis Group, Brussels, October 31, 2018 The return to power of controversial former President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka’s prime minister is unconstitutional and destabilising. International actors should make future security and economic cooperation contingent on parliament reconvening immediately to select a prime minister through legal channels What’s new? On 26 October, Sri Lanka’s President… Read more »
Posts Categorized: International
UN asks Sri Lanka to Repatriate Commander in Mali
By Edith M. Lederer | AP in ‘The Washington Post,’ New York October 19, 2018 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/un-asks-sri-lanka-to-repatriate-commander-in-mali/2018/10/19/6ae66914-d413-11e8-a4db-184311d27129_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5980d2323174 UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations asked the government of Sri Lanka on Friday to immediately repatriate the commander of its 200-strong contingent assigned to the U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali following a review of his human rights background. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric… Read more »
ITJP: UN Repatriates Sri Lankan Peacekeeper for His Role in 2009 War
by International Truth & Justice Project, South Africa, October 20, 2018 ITJP UN repatriates Sri Lankan peacekeeper for his role in 2009 war …During the final phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009 Amunupure was second in command of the 11th Sri Lanka Light Infantry which operated under the 58th Division. A UN Investigation… Read more »
MCC: Sri Lanka Constraints Analysis
by US Millenium Challenge Corporation, Washington, DC, 2017 https://assets.mcc.gov/content/uploads/constraints-analysis-sri-lanka.pdf We argue in this report that Sri Lanka faces the following three binding constraints to private sector investment and economic growth: (1) policy uncertainty (especially tax and tariff policy); (2) inadequate access to land; and (3) poor transportation and logistics… The state reportedly owns approximately 80… Read more »
Mollycoddling Sri Lanka Doesn’t Work
by Taylor Dibbert, ‘Financial Times,’ Colombo, October 18, 2018 Mark Field, Britain’s Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, recently penned a terrible op-ed in The Daily Mirror. The piece coincided with a visit to the country. “First, it is important to recognise the positives,” Field writes. He… Read more »
Transitional Justice Efforts in Sri Lanka Fall Short
by Meenakshi Ganguly, ‘Daily Financial Times,’ Colombo, September 20, 2018 The three-decade long civil war ended with a decisive Government victory against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009. Families of victims of enforced disappearances, frustrated by numerous Government commissions that provided no answers to the fate of their loved ones, have been… Read more »
TGTE Urges UNGA to Create an Int’l Independent Mechanism
to Bolster Sri Lankan Int’l Crimes Investigation RESPONSE TO SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT’S REQUEST TO THE UN TO APPROVE HIS “PLAYBOOK FOR IMPUNITY” UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, USA, September 27, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) released today its response (Link below) to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s September 25th speech before… Read more »
Trial of Guatemala Intelligence Chief for Genocide
Guatemala’s Former Intelligence Chief Acquitted of Human Rights Violations By Reuters, Sept. 27, 2018 GUATEMALA CITY — A Guatemala City court ruled on Wednesday that the crime of genocide had been perpetrated during the darkest hours of the country’s long civil war, but acquitted a former military intelligence chief of the killings. The verdict was the latest… Read more »
How Assad Made Truth a Casualty of War
by Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, ‘The New York Review of Books,’ September 7, 2018 Was Colvin’s sacrifice worthwhile? It is tempting to say no—that in an indifferent world, no story is worth dying for. But Colvin’s life is itself a rebuke to such pragmatism: she had risked her life before and saved many other lives as… Read more »
Sri Lanka Core Group Statement
by UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, September 11, 2018 This UK statement was delivered at the 39th session of the Human Rights Council during the Sri Lanka Core Group Statement This statement is delivered on behalf of Germany, Macedonia, Montenegro and the UK as members of the Sri Lanka core group. We welcome further recent… Read more »
In Idlib, Final Offensive in Syrian War May Come at Horrific Cost
by Margaret Coker, Hwaida Saad and Carlotta Gall, ‘The New York Times,’ September 2, 2018 BAGHDAD — On land, Syria’s government is mustering thousands of conscripts to bolster its depleted forces. At sea, a Russian naval flotilla is just offshore, ready to intervene with formidable firepower. In Idlib Province, millions of civilians are dreading what… Read more »
Myanmar Generals Should Face Genocide Charges Over Rohingya, U.N. Says
by Nick Cummings-Bruce, ‘The New York Times,’ August 27, 2019 GENEVA — Myanmar’s army commander and other top generals should face trial in an international court for genocide against Rohingya Muslims and for crimes against humanity targeting other ethnic minorities, United Nations experts said on Monday after a yearlong investigation. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing,… Read more »
Grassroots Leaders Provide the Best Hope to a Troubled World
Amid cruelty and suffering, there are heroes, says Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who steps down on September 1st The apparent powerlessness of those who suffer was also brought home to me in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, where Tamil communities dispossessed of their land by the military decades ago still… Read more »
Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on its isit to Sri Lanka
by Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, July 23, 2018 http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/39/45/Add.2 [Statement at end of Working Group visit] VI. Conclusions 73. The Working Group appreciates the willingness of the Government to submit itself to scrutiny through the visit, and considers that the findings in the present report offer an opportunity to support the Government in addressing… Read more »
The Dravidian Sun Sets
by A Kalaiyarasan & Karthick Ram Manoharan, ‘Economic & Political Weekly,’ Mumbai, India, August 8, 2018 When Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief and five-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Muthuvel Karunanidhi passed away on 7 August 2018, he had outlived most of his friends and all of his rivals. “Kalaignar,” as he was popularly known among… Read more »
The Man Who was Muthuvel Karunanidhi
DMK patriarch Muthuvel Karunanidhi, a champion of federalism, showed how a regional party leader can become indispensible in the national political sphere by Dharani Thangavelu, ‘LiveMint,’ India, August 7, 2018 Chennai: It was the morning of July 15, 1953. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) members had launched a protest against the renaming of Kallakudi to Dalmiyapuram, near… Read more »
UN SR Ben Emmerson’s Report on Sri Lanka
by UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson, July 24, 2018 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism on his mission to Sri Lanka Sri_LankaReportJuly2018.PDF A. Conclusions 59. In 2015, Sri Lanka seemed to have turned a corner. New elections brought to power a coalition government and with it the… Read more »
Protecting or Facilitating?
A review of the humanitarian response to IDP detention in Sri Lanka, 2009 All too often however, humanitarian organisations were poorly equipped with the time, skills and attitudes to address a situation where the state was not representing the interests of the population. In these cases, supporting the vulnerable means contesting state agendas, even where… Read more »
Sri Lankan ‘War Criminals’ Deployed as UN Peacekeepers
by Mark Townsend, ‘The Guardian,’ Manchester, July 21, 2018 The UN has been sending alleged war criminals to act as peacekeepers in conflict zones, a confidential report claims. The document, seen by the Observer, and sent to the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations last month, claims that senior Sri Lankan officers accused of war crimes have… Read more »
The United States’ Role in Sri Lanka’s Peace Process: 2002-2006
by Jeffrey Lunstead, Asia Foundation, 2007 A Supplementary Study to the Sri Lanka Strategic Conflict Assessment 2005 Lunstead US Role in SL Peace Process 2002-2006 Contents Acknowledgements About the Author Executive Summary 1. Introduction 2. U.S. Interests and Engagement in Sri Lanka 3. Enhanced U.S. Engagement 3.1 Enhanced U.S. Interest 3.2 U.S. Relations with the… Read more »