by P.S. Suryanarayana;The Hindu, Chennai, April 6, 2004 Marines and Malacca Straits P.S. SURYANARAYANA in Singapore The U.S. proposal to intervene in the Strait of Malacca in order to prevent any traffic of cargo relating to weapons of mass destruction raises the hackles of some littoral states. STRATEGIC game plans are the basic stuff of the… Read more »
Posts Categorized: International
UN Crop Mission to Sri Lanka
Does anyone have information on the areas missed in this report? Ed. Special ReportFAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assistance Mission to Sri Lanka May 10, 2004 5.3 North-eastern Province Eight districts, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Batticaloa and Ampara form the North-eastern Province. Following the signing of a ceasefire in February, 2002, many farmers… Read more »
Beware of RAW, not Sonia
by Wakeley Paul; published May 21, 2004 While the Sinhala press may have exulted over the prospect that Sonia may have sought to reek some misguided personal revenge against Prabakaran; and while we may breath a sigh of relief that she now will not; the underlying reality remains, that the lurking danger in our midst has… Read more »
Will the Poor be With Us Always?
by Neeraj Kaushal; Economic Times, India, April 27, 2004 The World Bank’s estimates released last week show that the number of people living in extreme poverty has declined by 350 million in the last two decades. In 1981, 1.45 billion people were in extreme poverty. By 2001, the number had declined to 1.1 billion. Tempting though… Read more »
CSIS: Election Shake-up
by Teresita Schaffer and Sean Farrell, South Asia Monitor, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, May 2, 2004 https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/media/csis/pubs/sam70.pdf Sri Lanka: Election Shakes Up Political Landscape Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election, held April 2, is likely to usher in a new phase of polarization and introspection in the country’s deeply divided politics. The new… Read more »
Security Council Resolution 1539 re Child Soldiers
Security Council resolution 1539 April 22, 2004 (see article re this resolution at end) “The Security Council, “Reaffirming its resolutions 1261 (1999) of 25 August 1999, 1314 (2000) of 11 August 2000, 1379 (2001) of 20 November 2001, and 1460 (2003) of 30 January 2003 which provide a comprehensive framework for addressing the protection of… Read more »
Tibetan Hunger Strike
by Daniel Wakin; The New York Times, May 1, 2004 Tibetan Hunger Striker Hospitalized On the 29th day of their hunger strike against China’s policies in Tibet, one of three Tibetans collapsed yesterday, and was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. The two other hunger strikers promised to keep fasting until their demands are met. The hunger… Read more »
What Does This ‘Peace’ Mean?
by Rajkumar Sivapatham; published April 23, 2004 For the past couple of years, the most commonly used word in the Sri Lankan affair is “peace.” Even before the MOU between the GOSL and the LTTE was signed, Chandrika and her military had been waging a war for “peace.” This war is even now justifiable to some… Read more »
Vaiko Clean!
by Press Trust of India; published April 9, 2004 POTA review committee gives clean chit to Vaiko In a boost to MDMK leader Vaiko ahead of the elections, the Central POTA Review Committee today gave a clean chit to him and 8 others, saying no prima facie case was made out for invoking POTA against them… Read more »
Geopolitics of South Asia
by Neville Jayaweera; Confluence, January 2004 The geo-politics of South Asia and Sri Lanka’s changing fortunes(Or why the USA and India will intervene in Sri Lanka) by Neville Jayaweera (formerly of Ceylon Civil Service and Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the Scandinavian Countries) Two dramatic developments in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict recently are the USA’s direct involvement… Read more »
‘Silent Waters’ in NYC & SF
This movie has a Sri Lankan producer. It is showing on Thursday and Friday in New York City, April 22 and 25 at the San Francisco Film Festival http://www.sfiff.org/fest04/titleDetail.asp?title_id=50, in Toronto in May and various other places around North America after winning many awards in Europe. Ed. MOVIE REVIEW | ‘SILENT WATERS’ The New York Timeshttp://movies2.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/movies/30WATE.html… Read more »
Terrorism Refined & Distinguished
by Wakeley Paul; published March 29, 2004 Those described by their enemies as ‘Terrorists’ who are engaged in a struggle for Independence from foreign domination, have often wound up as international heroes. Some obvious examples are Jomo Kenyata who defied the British in Kenya, Nelson Mandela who suffered imprisonment and humiliation at the hands of the… Read more »
UN Commission on Human Rights
INTERFAITH INTERNATIONAL A non-government organisation with ‘consultative status’ at the United Nations * * * * * * United Nations Commission on Human Rights – 60th session Item 5 – Right to Self-determination Intervention by Visuvalingam KIRUPAHARAN March, 2004 In 1918, President W Wilson used the term ‘self-determination’ in his speeches to Congress. He stated… Read more »
IMF 2003 Consultation with Sri Lanka
by International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC via ReliefWeb, March 5, 2004 IMF concludes 2003 Article IV consultation with Sri Lanka Public Information Notice (PIN) No. 04/20 Public Information Notices (PINs) are issued, (i) at the request of a member country, following the conclusion of the Article IV consultation for countries seeking to make known the… Read more »
Iraq & Sri Lanka: Compared, Contrasted
by Wakeley Paul; published March 12, 2004 IRAQ AND SRI LANKA: COMPARED, CONTRASTED AND ANALOGIZED Bernard Lewis, the scholar of Islam, wraps his political opinions on Iraq in a historical blanket. They have never had a democratic tradition, he argues, therefore democracy will be an ill advised imposition of a political system upon a people who… Read more »
Amnesty’s Concerns re Sri Lanka
TO: Ambassador Devinda Subasinghe, Embassy of Sri Lanka FROM: Jim McDonald, Sri Lanka Country Specialist, Amnesty International USA RE: UN Human Rights Committee’s concluding observations DATE: February 24, 2004 On December 1 of last year, the U.N. Human Rights Committee issued its concluding observations (the “Observations”) on Sri Lanka’s fourth and fifth periodic reports under… Read more »
Facts & Opinions About American Elections
by Wakeley Paul; USA, published March 9, 2004 SOME FACTS AND OPINIONS ABOUT THE ON COMING AMERICAN ELECTIONS: HOW DOES IT AND CAN IT AFFECT EELAM? I am sure my views do not meet with [the editor’s] approval and are therefore highly controverial from an average Tamil viewpoint. That is what makes it interesting. It should… Read more »
Iraq Shiites Fail to Sign Charter
by Dexter Filkins; The New York Times, March 6, 2004 Iraqi Shiites, in a Blow to U.S., Fail to Sign Temporary Charter The article in the temporary constitution now in dispute deals with the ratification of the permanent constitution, which is supposed to be written sometime next year. According to language agreed on this week, the permanent… Read more »
Pay Any Price?
by Janadas Devan; The Straits Times, Singapore, March 5, 2004 http://www.straitstimes.asia1.com/columnist/0,1886,145-238457,00.html? LAST year, as United States forces were conquering Iraq, Middle East expert Bernard Lewis attacked those who thought US plans to install democracy in Iraq were bound to fail. Janadas Devan They think Arabs aren’t ready for democracy, he said accusingly. He, on the other… Read more »
Lions vs. Tigers
by Kopel, Gallant & Eisen; March 3, 2004 What is particularly interesting about this article is that, because of the distinct ideological position of the authors – weapons in the hands of ordinary citizens are a requirement for freedom – , the conclusion reached is different from the usually monolithic Western viewpoint on the Sri Lankan… Read more »