The American Policy of Ostensible Disengagement from Sri Lanka by Wakeley Paul, Esq., September 24, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/565.html American leaders and the American media have a tendency to distance themselves from ‘third world’ concerns. America’s daily worries probably sound like trivial squabbles to third world occupants. The heated debates over abortion and the right to life;… Read more »
Posts Categorized: International
International Community Can Help Forge Peace
by Ana Pararajasingham, September 23, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/562.html According to Satchithananthan Sathananthan (“International community sharpens its knives against Tamils“ published in sangam. org-), the primary aim of the international community is ‘to undercut the Tamils’ political support for the LTTE and emasculate the military power of the Tamil national movement’. In support of this argument he cites several… Read more »
Endless Struggle against Terrorism
Hallmark of new world disorder by Tom Plate / Syndicated columnist, Seattle Times, September 17, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/555.html The dialectic — who’s a terrorist? who’s a freedom-fighter? — is not merely academic. Some of the world’s hot spots may be susceptible to cooling down if we break away from straitjacketed thinking. A perfect example, in fact,… Read more »
US Blasts Sri Lanka on Religious Freedom
Just like the US State Dept.’s annual Human Rights Report, the Report on International Religious Freedom is a summary of events this government department has heard about from its embassy in Sri Lanka and other sources. Sri Lanka has been put on the list because of concern by Christians in the US for the well-being… Read more »
Mishandling Suicide ‘Terrorism’
Aside from an amusing ignorance about Sri Lanka, Scott Atran gives a level headed look at ‘suicide terrorism’ in an article in the Summer 2004 issue of The Washington Quarterly put out by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The gist of his argument is that, in order for community support for suicide attacks… Read more »
US Assistance to Lanka Against ‘Terrorism’
A Second Look by Taraki [aka D. Sivaram], The Daily Mirror, Colombo, September 15, 2004 Sinhala Buddhist nationalists do not count their blessings. They keep complaining that the world is not helping them in any concrete way to crush the LTTE. One of them recently asked the US, “Where’s the beef?” (Though it is unbecoming… Read more »
Build a State First, a Nation comes Later
This review of Fukuyama’s book shows the distinction between the concepts of state and nation. What Fukuyama does not deal with are the problems of imposing a state on top of two existing nations as in the case of Sri Lanka. — Editor by Janadas Devan, The Straits Times, Singapore, September 8, 2004 A nation… Read more »
The Sinhala Nation and Foreign Military Involvement
by Taraki [aka D. Sivaram], Virakesari and TamilNatham, Sri Lanka, September 5, 2004 An important question arises when we look at the military balance in SriLanka. Though the LTTE maintains its military strength on par with Sri Lankan Army (SLA), any military intervention by a foreign country which does not sympathise with the Tamils, can… Read more »
The International Community Sharpens its Knives Against Tamils
by Sachithanandam Sathananthan*, New Delhi, September 3, 2004 Sri Lankan Tamils took note of a newspaper article titled “Ending the regional drift,” published in India recently. Its author, Dr Raja Mohan, is a foreign policy analyst who is close to the Indian establishment, and he accurately reflects its thinking. He lauded “the muscular message” New… Read more »
Give the Chechens a Land of Their Own
by Richard Pipes, The New York Times op-ed, September 9, 2004 Does this call to give Chechens independence and America’s appeal to consider what is happening in the Darfur region of Sudan genocide – which legally obligates the international community to intervene – have anything to do with the actual situation in these countries or… Read more »
LTTE Critics Argue Against Continuing with Ceasefire
by Taraki, [aka D. Sivaram], Daily Mirror, Colombo, September 9, 2004 Heckles and jeers are sure to greet one if one were to say that the Tigers too face criticism and political pressure from a cross section of their supporters here and abroad for “futilely sticking to the peace process”. The hecklers and jeerers on… Read more »
A Global War: Many Fronts, Little Unity
Terror is not an enemy, but a method, used in different ways by different movements…But it is also a label that has been seized on by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel and, in various shades, by leaders from Italy to Pakistan to set their own agendas. It… Read more »
Countering Terror
by Rajeev Dhavan, The Hindu, Chennai, September 3, 2004 Where counter-terrorism violates human rights, it produces state terrorism directed against a nation’s own people. Both collectively and individually, nations across the world are obsessed with policies of counter-terrorism. This obsession is subversive of peace and good governance in ways that are beginning to dwarf the… Read more »
Self-Righteous Democracies
by Phar Kim Beng, Straits Times, September 2, 2004 Mr. Bill Clinton made the promotion of democracy the centrepiece of his foreign policy when he was president of the United States. President George W. Bush, especially after Sept 11, did the same, looking to democracy as a means of reforming Arab/Muslim societies and awakening them… Read more »
I Got Trapped in the Secret ‘No Fly List’ of the Transportation Security Administration
by Sachi Sri Kantha, September 1, 2004 I neither have the charisma of a Kennedy nor the celebrity status of Massachusetts’ senior Senator Edward ‘Teddy’ Kennedy. However, for the past 25 years, I have subscribed to the liberal democratic ideals for which the youngest males of the Kennedy clan (John F., Robert and Edward) have… Read more »
Diaspora Circulation and Transnationalism
As Agents for Change in the Post-Conflict Zones of Sri Lanka R. Cheran of the Dept. of Sociology and Refugee Studies of York University, Toronto has written a paper entitled “Diaspora Circulation and Transnationalism as Agents for Change in the Post Conflict Zones of Sri Lanka” which does exactly what sociology is supposed to: observe… Read more »
Good Government: You Can Put a Value to It
By Janadas Devan, Straits Times, Singapore, August 2004 WHY did Singapore succeed and so many other post-colonial states didn’t? The answer to that question often takes the form of a litany: Singapore got the fundamentals right – political stability, meritocracy, an incorruptible administration. It instituted the rule of law, ensuring the sanctity of contracts and… Read more »
Vaiko Reiterates Support to LTTE, Not to Seek Bail
by NewIndPress.com, August 4, 2004 CHENNAI: MDMK general secretary Vaiko on Wednesday reiterated his support to LTTE’s activities in Sri Lanka, stating that the Tigers were only fighting for a genuine cause in that country. Speaking to mediapersons outside the POTA Special Court at Poonamallee, he said, “The LTTE is the only organisation which has… Read more »
Sri Lankan Attack on Norway’s Peace Effort
by Brian Senewiratne, MA (Camb),MD(Lond),FRCP(Lond),FRACP(Lond), Consultant Physician, Brisbane, Australia , August 16, 2004 A group calling itself “The World Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka” is meeting on 20 August 2004 in Oslo to attack the Norwegian peace initiative in Sri Lanka. The behind-the-scenes hand of the Sri Lankan Government is clearly visible. If the flyer is anything… Read more »
WAPS’ Activities Expose Sri Lankan Government’s Duplicity
Vis-à-vis the peace process by Dr. Victor Rajakulendran, Sydney, Australia, August 18, 2004 After the Sri Lankan Security Forces (SLSF) experienced major setbacks in their efforts to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)in the ‘War for Peace’ strategy of President Chandrika Kumaratunge, both the President and the LTTE realised that the 20-year long conflict… Read more »