Posts Categorized: Politics

What do Imaginations of Haunted Landscapes Tell us about Everyday Politics?

by Erol Saglam, Takhayyul, University College London, Sept. 7, 2022 How should we then make sense of this two-dimensional engagement with the past, that is one denying the historicity of the societal violence and its destructive aftermath and the other reminiscing it discreetly and in transfigured ways? I could not help but ask whether, alongside… Read more »

A Poisoned Chalice

How international aid bolstered Sri Lankan despots by Viruben Nandakumar, Tamil Guardian, London, September 7, 2022 “I was born into a debt-free nation”, claimed Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe as he accepted yet another loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on behalf of the island. This will be the seventeenth time since independence that… Read more »

Letter to Core Group at UNHRC

by Tamil politicians and civil society, Sri Lanka, August 28, 2022 August 28, 2022 To: Foreign Ministers of the Sri Lanka Core-Group at the UN Human Rights Council Dear Foreign Ministers, Since you take the lead on Sri Lanka as members of the Sri Lanka Core-Group at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), we from… Read more »

The Politics of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA)

and PTA Reform by Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, March 2022 Politics of PTA and PTA Reform Mar 2022 Keenan PDF Why does Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) matter? What do we know about how the current Sri Lankan government is using the PTA as a tool to maintain… Read more »

Sri Lanka at Critical Juncture

UN report urges progress on accountability, institutional and security sector reforms by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, September 6, 2022 GENEVA (6 Sept 2022) – Sri Lanka’s new Government should embark on a national dialogue to advance human rights and reconciliation, a UN report urges today, calling for accountability and deeper institutional reforms… Read more »

HCHR: Situation of Human Rights in Sri Lanka

by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, September 6, 2022 A_HRC_51_5_AdvanceUneditedVersion-4 Advanced Unedited Edition A/HRC/51/5 Human Rights Council Fifty-first session 12 September–7 October 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 Summary Sri Lanka is experiencing… Read more »

The IMF’s Staff-Level Agreement with Sri Lanka

by Meera Srinivasan, The Hindu, Chennai, September 5, 2022 What are the pre-requisites IMF laid down before the Sri Lankan government? How has India reacted to the agreement? The story so far: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on September 1 announced a staff-level agreement with Sri Lanka, months after the island nation’s economic crisis intensified… Read more »

The Root and the Hour

by Vajra Chandrasekera in his blog, September 4, 2022 The “Sinhala nation” does not exist, and yet the state is designed in its service, and all politics revolves around its fears and desires. This is how we got where we are. This is not the need of the hour, you might say: we were talking… Read more »

A Desperate Smokescreen

Tamil Guardian editorial, London, August 28, 2022 As the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council nears, Sri Lanka’s Sinhala leaders scramble to present the country as on the verge of a democratic breakthrough. Plans to reform Sri Lanka’s draconian counter-terrorism legislation, decriminalise same-sex relations, and delist select Tamil diaspora organisations have been met… Read more »

What’s in Store for the Ninth?

by Nillanthan Maha on his blog, August 6, 2022 [translated with Google with edits] General Sarath Fonseka had warned that people would take to the streets on the coming ninth day. It seems that the people did not accept what he said. There was an allegation that Sarath Fonseka was trying to “hijack” the protests…. Read more »

US Congress on Sri Lanka July 2022

by Reps. Danny Davis & Bill Johnson, Co-Chairs, Caucus on Religious & Ethnic Freedom in Sri Lanka 20220719 Johnson Davis letter to Sec Blinken *** by Senator Sherrod Brown JULY 20, 2022 BROWN STATEMENT FOLLOWING SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENT VOTE WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) issued the below statement after the Sri Lankan… Read more »

Black July

by Sanjana Hattotuwa, Groundviews, Colombo, August 17, 2013 Black July compressed from/derived from Remembering, to never again repeat: Launch of 30 Years Ago site The culmination of months of dedicated research, travel, challenging production work and curation, I am very pleased to launch 30 Years Ago. The project is an attempt to remember and probe Sri… Read more »

‘A Moment of Opportunity’

Fall of Sri Lankan president raises victims’ hopes by Hannah Ellis-Peterson in Colombo and Rubatheesan Sandran in Jaffna, The Guardian, UK, July 29, 2022 Rights groups say they have a dossier of evidence against Gotabaya Rajapaksa – and a renewed appetite to bring him to account Tamil women holding a protest in Jaffna soon after… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Dual Crisis

Ethnic Conflict & the Debt Economy by Nalika Gajaweera, Jamhoor, South Asia, May 4, 2022  Reimagining a pluralist Sri Lanka in the wake of the ‘Gota Go Home’ movement “Except for the home crowd cheering for our national team at an international cricket match, it was the first time I was seeing Sri Lankans united together… Read more »

ITJP: Criminal Complaint against Sri Lankan ex-President in Singapore

by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, July 24, 2022 ITJP Press-release-final-24-July-2022 Johannesburg: Lawyers from the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) have submitted a criminal complaint to the Attorney General of Singapore requesting the immediate arrest of former Sri Lankan President, Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, for war crimes. The 63-page complaint argues… Read more »

Diaspora Groups Call for Singapore to Investigate ex-President

by People for Equity & Relief in Lanka, July 26, 2022 20220726 Joint Press_Release_Request_to_Investigate_Gotabaya_Rajapaksa Press Release: Global Coalition of Tamil and Human Rights Groups Urge Singapore’s Attorney General to Investigate Gotabaya Rajapaksa Washington D.C.; July 26, 2022 — Seventeen Tamil and human rights organizations from around the world issued a joint letter today, urging Singapore’s… Read more »

Request to Singapore to Investigate Gotabaya

by 17 NGOs, July 26, 2022 Request-to-Investigate-Gotabaya-July-26-2022_FINAL-1-1 People for Equality and Relief in Lanka Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research Australian Centre for International Justice Center for Justice and Accountability Centre de Protections des Droits du Peuple Tamoul Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America Global Rights Compliance Human Rights Watch International Commission of Jurists International… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Former President Must be Investigated for War Crimes

by Meenaksha Ganguly, Washington Post, July 22, 2022 (also available at Sri Lanka’s former president must be investigated for war crimes | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org) COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — There was satisfaction, and even glee, among many Sri Lankans when Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the widely unpopular president, fled the country by military jet in the dead… Read more »

Racial Discrimination a Bane to Progress

by Dishan Joseph, Daily News, Colombo, July 22, 2022  “It is not our differences that divide us, but our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences” – American poet Audre Lorde Our beautiful Motherland Sri Lanka is a nation embellished with centuries of recorded history. When we delve into this history we can see… Read more »