By David Brooks, The New York Times, August 25, 2005 This constitution gives each group what it wants. It will create a very loose federation in which only things like fiscal and foreign policy are controlled in the center (even tax policy is decentralized). Oil revenues are supposed to be distributed on a per capita basis,… Read more »
Posts Categorized: International
U.S. Can Learn from Unrest in Sri Lanka
by Lloyd Chapman, Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon, USA, August 24, 2005 Sri Lanka is again in the throes of unrest. The foreign minister and two popular radio announcers were assassinated recently, ending a week that saw half a dozen people killed on the nation’s east coast. This island nation near India has been here before. Who… Read more »
Burgher Emigration – a Clarification
by J. B. Muller, Daily News, Colombo, August 24, 2005 The person who referred to the Burghers as “so-called Burghers’ is still with us and he has a theory why the Burghers emigrated from as far back as 1942. Adverting to the reason for the mass emigration of the Burghers to other parts of the world… Read more »
US State Dept. Description of Sri Lanka’s ‘Communal Crisis’
Communal Crisis “Historical divisions continue to have an impact on Sri Lankan society and politics. From independence, the Tamil minority has been uneasy with the country’s unitary form of government and apprehensive that the Sinhalese majority would abuse Tamil rights. Those fears were reinforced when S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike triumphed in the 1956 elections after appealing to… Read more »
LA Times: A Disaster’s Peace Dividend
by Los Angeles Times editorial, August 22, 2005 Editorial comment — Much of the information in this editorial is correct, so it is surprising the conclusion the editor ends with. One tip-off that the writer does not really know what he is talking about is his assertion that there has been a cease-fire in Sri Lanka for… Read more »
Letter to the ‘National Post’ 2
by Mak. S. Makenthiran, Vice-President, Senior Tamils Society of Peel, Canada Re: ‘Why does Ottawa turn a blind eye to Tamil terrorists?’ An article entitled as above in your issue of August 15, 2005 was brought to my notice. The above title is very misleading and racist as it gives the idea that Tamils are terrorists. … Read more »
Assassination Threatens to End Sri Lankan Cease-Fire
by Somini Sengupta, The New York Times, August 14, 2005 The government of Sri Lanka and its Tamil separatist foes traded accusations yesterday over the killing of the country’s foreign minister, with rebels denying responsibility, government officials brushing off their denials and the country’s fragile peace process falling ever deeper into crisis. The assassination late Friday… Read more »
Turkey’s Prime Minister Pledges Further Reforms for Kurds
Admits Past Mistakes by Voice of America, August 13, 2003 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Turkey’s troubled Kurdish region Friday where he pledged to address the Kurds’ long running grievances through further democracy and social reforms. As Amberin Zaman reports for VOA, Mr. Erdogan’s remarks are seen by some observers as signaling… Read more »
Sri Lanka Tense After Sniper Kills Kadirgamar
by Tamil Guardian, London, August 13, 2005 Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was shot by a sniper outside his home in Colombo on Friday and died in hospital after emergency surgery, raising fears for the island’s increasingly shaky ceasefire. Kadirgamar, 73, died at the National Hospital in Colombo where he had been admitted in serious… Read more »
After 29 Years, an Aceh Peace Pact
The Aceh accord, to be signed on Monday, feels like a major gamble on the part of GAM, based on what we know from Sri Lanka. In return for giving up their quest for a separate state and disarming, GAM may or may not be able to form a local party and take part in… Read more »
Report to UN ECOSOC Subcommission on Human Rights
by Liberation, UK, August 4, 2005 UNITED NATIONS Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights Fifty-seventh session 04-08-2005 Agenda item 4 – Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Liberation welcomes the preliminary report of Sub-Commission member Mr. Marc Bossuyt on the issue of non-discrimination in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. While still early in… Read more »
All the World’s a University
by Janadas Devan, The Straits Time, Singapore, December 2004 WHEN Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested by the British in 1942, he traipsed off to prison clutching, among other things, Plato’s Republic and Marcel Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu (in the original French, of course). This Indian freedom fighter was nothing if not inward with high European culture. He… Read more »
Revisiting Rwanda’s Horrors
With an Ex-National Security Adviser By JOHN DARNTON, The New York Times, December 20, 2004 It was “shameful,” he added, that his administration refused to employ the term “genocide” for a period of six weeks. “It was based on the belief that if you used the word, then you’re required to take action,” he said…. Read more »
Human Rights Watch and Tamil Children
by S. Makenthiran, B.A., FCCA, Canada, December 19, 2004 There have been some reports by interested parties about the so-called seminar held on December 12, by Human Rights Watch in Toronto. It is made to appear that those who spoke out at the Seminar were Tamil Tigers. It was nothing like that. Many of us… Read more »
Talking with Tigers
Negotiations with suicide bombers can end violence, as Sri Lanka demonstrates Jonathan Steele in Kilinochchi, The Guardian, UK, Friday December 17, 2004 Come to Elephant Pass to witness a rarity: a place where the contradictions of the “war on terror” have not produced the usual regression. In most of the world the fight against “international… Read more »
India’s Sri Lanka Policy: Need for a Review
by Ana Pararajasingham, South Asia Analysis Group, Delhi, December 13, 2004 It is only natural that India, the regional power, should have an abiding interest in the manner in which the conflict in the Island of Sri Lanka is resolved. The Tamil National Alliance MP, Mr Gajendra kumar Ponnambalam’s declaration that the Tamil Nation has… Read more »
Child Soldiers and Sunny Beaches
by Ravi Gowribalan, December 16, 2004 Many Tamils once believed that the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) play an important role in helping the people in the war-affected areas of Tamil Eelam. During the ceasefire, we have seen a dramatic upsurge in the number of international NGOs in Tamil areas and their interest in Tamil affairs… Read more »
The International Community & Tamils
The True Face of the International Community & a Rational Response from the Tamils of Eelam by Siva Muthulingasamy, UK, December 16, 2004 The International Community(IC) is all united by just one common objective, a World Trade monopoly. They work in partnership with the US, like “the good cop bad cop” duo in a Hollywood… Read more »
Seminar on The Indian Subcontinent: The Global Perspective
World Tamil Organization proudly presents a seminar loaded with much for serious and curious minds on Saturday, December 11th, 2004 All Day Event from 11:00 AM at Center Hall, Busch Campus Center Rutgers University 604 Bartholomew Rd, Piscataway, NJ 08854 Participants: Keynote Address by Durai. Raja, New Delhi Mr. Raja is the current national (central)… Read more »
A Rigged Dialogue with Civil Society
by Charlemagne, The Economist, London, October 2004 Does any of this sound familiar from the NGOs that comment and try to influence ‘ethnic’ affairs in Sri Lanka? — Editor How independent are the civil-society organisations beloved by the European Commission? THE European Commission knows it has an image problem. To try to fix things, it… Read more »