Angelina Jolie and British foreign secretary William Hague are hosted the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Luke MacGregor/Reuters Raj, a 25-year-old Tamil student, is watching a play, “Unlocked,” about three young male victims of rape. One of the actors is playing a character based on him. Even though he is in London, thousands… Read more »
Posts Categorized: International
Nigeria Mulling Sri Lankan Example to Fight Terror
Abuja (AFP) – Nigeria’s military indicated on Thursday that it could follow the example of Sri Lanka in fighting terror, to bring an end to an increasingly deadly insurgency by Boko Haram militants. Related Stories Nigeria military studies Sri Lankan tactics for use against Boko Haram Reuters A high-ranking military delegation from the South Asian island… Read more »
Text of CM Jayalalitha Memo to PM Modi
Text of the Memorandum presented by Selvi J Jayalalithaa, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 3.6.2014 II. SRI LANKAN TAMIL ISSUE There are very strong sentiments amongst Tamils and in Tamil Nadu on a range of issues relating to India’s relations with the present regime in… Read more »
With the Rohingya in Myanmar
The Rohingya gave us the names of some Buddhists who they said had been leaders in slaughtering Muslims, and we visited one of these men they named. A 53-year-old farmer, he denied any involvement in the violence, but it was an awkward, tense conversation, partly because the Buddhists are angry at aid groups and journalists for (as they see it) siding with Muslims. Their narrative is that Muslim terrorists from Bangladesh are invading the country, overpopulating so as to marginalize the Buddhists, and then being coddled by foreigners.
Modi’s Play on Sri Lanka
My assessment is that political ideology will not play much of a role in deciding Modi’s foreign policy towards Sri Lanka. The critical factor will be Modi’s policy towards US and China. If Modi wants to take India even closer to the US and be a part of the US ‘Pivot to Asia’ project then there is reason for Rajapaksa to be worried.
NPC Resolution Requesting Assistance on Teachers & MDs
SriLanka_NPC_Resolution_22May2014_English SriLanka_NPC_Resolution_22May2014_Tamil —- The recent resolution by the Northern Provincial Council requesting assistance from India and Tamil Nadu governments. The following resolution was tabled by the Council Member Hon M.K. Shivajilingam and adopted by the Northern Provincial Council in Sri Lanka on May 22, 2014 RESOLUTION Calling upon India to provide Tamil speaking doctors, and teachers for… Read more »
‘The Scene at First Light Was Devastating’
by Frances Harrison, ‘Huffington Post,’ Los Angeles, May 20, 2014 New photographs have emerged five years after the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka showing the aftermath of government attacks on a United Nations food distribution centre inside the war zone. The pictures, shot by a Tamil working for the media unit of… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Greatest War Criminal (Gotabaya) is a US Citizen
by Ryan Goodman, ‘JustSecurity.org,’ May 19, 2014 Monday, May 19th marks the five-year anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, which claimed the lives of 40,000 to 70,000 civilians in its “catastrophic” final phase. In 2009, Congress asked the State Department to report on the humanitarian law violations during the war, and those reports make for gruesome reading…. Read more »
We Betrayed Rwanda in Its Hour of Desperation
Yet events in Sri Lanka five years ago or in the Central African Republic today show that genocide has not been consigned to history.
5 yrs On: Remember to Remember
by Eelapalan, Finding Self blog, May 18, 2014 5 Yrs On. Global Tamils are remembering the 5th anniversary of the May 2009. While we mourn the lives lost, we should also remember to remember the truth. The Tamilnation website quoted the following prophetically and purposefully, when it shut itself down. “…A key psychology for leading… Read more »
The Slow Wheels of Justice and Change
In contrast, a principled yet strategic instrumentalization of international justice processes can offer promising rewards, provided also that this strategy is a part of a cohesive domestic strategy for meaningful political change. The success of the struggle for justice in Sri Lanka hinges on the choice between impulsive emotionalism and carefully calibrated rational politics.
The War That Wasn’t Live
There was no BBC or CNN inside the war zone, which is perhaps why Sri Lanka is one of the great untold war stories of this century. It is certainly one of the bloodiest…
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s legal advisers are, however, clear that “most civilian casualties in the final phases of the war were caused by government shelling,” which they described as “large scale.” They also accused the Sri Lankan Army of systematically, knowingly, and repeatedly shelling all hospitals in the war zone, depriving civilians of food and life-saving medicine, and attacking all safe zones it had declared for civilians…
Another reason that the world failed to take closer notice of the Sri Lankan civil war was Colombo’s successful rebranding of its decades-long ethnic-territorial conflict as part of the global “war on terror.” That meant the world signed off on the destruction of the rebels, wrongly assuming that without the troublesome Tigers there would be an equitable peace in Sri Lanka. The terror label made it easy to discredit all Tamils as Tamil Tigers, blurring the boundary between combatants and civilians. Scottish, Bangladeshi, Italian, and Australian eyewitnesses were denounced as “White Tigers” far too sympathetic to the “terrorists.” U.N. employees were intimidated, threatened, expelled, and spied on, with the result that the organization failed to speak up about war crimes its own staff had witnessed firsthand and failed to publicize the significant casualty numbers they had collected.
The Autumn of a Patriarch
Reading from a prepared script, Mr. Karunanidhi spoke for an hour, discussing at length the state of Sri Lankan Tamils and his dedication to the Tamil language.
These issues, emotive in the past, are now largely symbolic, of little electoral currency in this parliamentary election, and his speech was remarkable mostly for its omissions. Mr. Karunanidhi refrained from addressing the defining themes of this election: widespread disenchantment with corruption and dynastic politics. The audience heard him in respectful silence, but his remarks drew few cheers.
It was unusual to see a veteran politician like Mr. Karunanidhi straying so far from the popular pulse. But it was understandable, too, for the issues of corruption and dynastic politics are ones on which Mr. Karunanidhi and his party have long ceded the moral ground.
Vaiko is a Voice of the Eelam Tamils
by M.K. Eelaventhan, April 6, 2014 Eelam Tamils are in a crisis unprecedented in the history. We need a leader in crisis. In the present critical context, Vaiko alone is equal to the task of raising his voice on behalf of the Eelam Tamils. His voice is the voice of voiceless Tamils at home. Vaiko… Read more »
India Abandons the Tamils
India which voted for the earlier resolutions of the USA against Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council this time kept mum until March 27th, while enacting dramas of hopes for Tamils. To the shock and dismay of all Tamils internationally, the TNA, Human Rights groups including the USA, India somersaulted and abstained from… Read more »
UN Inquiry Just the Start of a Long Road to Justice
Sri Lankan human rights activists campaigned hard for an independent international commission of inquiry into war crimes during the end of the conflict in 2009. Last month members of the UN Human Rights Council did finally vote to set up an inquiry. To many governments it looks as if the issue of accountability is now… Read more »
ICJ: UN Investigation Offers Hope to Victims in Sri Lanka
The UN Human Rights Council resolution to establish an international investigation into allegations of human rights violations and abuses committed by both sides in Sri Lanka’s civil war gives hope to tens of thousands of victims who continue to be denied truth and justice. “The resolution sends a strong message to the Government of Sri… Read more »
US Official Comments on UNHRC Resolution on Sri Lanka
Secretary of State John Kerry 03/27/2014 10:09 AM EDT UN Human Rights Council Vote on Sri Lanka Reconciliation Press Statement John KerrySecretary of State Washington, DC March 27, 2014 Today’s vote in the UN Human Rights Council sends a clear message: The time to pursue lasting peace and prosperity is now; justice and accountability cannot… Read more »
UNHRC Resolution Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka
Human Rights Council Twenty- fifth session Agenda item 2 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Albania,* Austria, Belgium,* Bulgaria,* Canada,* Croatia,* Cyprus,* Denmark,* Estonia, Finland,* France, Georgia,* Germany, Greece,* Hungary,* Iceland,* Ireland, Italy, Latvia,* Liechtenstein,* Lithuania,* Luxembourg,* Mauritius,*… Read more »
Facing a War Crimes Inquiry, Sri Lanka Continues to Vex the U.N.
UNITED NATIONS — What to do with Sri Lanka? The island nation, triumphant after nearly three decades of war against ethnic separatists, has vexed the United Nations. Five years after the war’s brutal ending, the world body has been unable to address grave human rights violations committed by the warring parties, making Sri Lanka something… Read more »