September 9, morning: 1st Meeting – 57th Regular Session of Human Rights Council | UN Web TV ITEM 1: Opening of session ITEM 2: Oral update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights ITEM 2: ID on report of Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar ITEM 2: ID on OHCHR report on Sri Lanka September 9, afternoon:2nd… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
WikiLeaks: EPDP Sold Jaffna Children
Girls To Prostitution Rings And Boys To Slavery by Colombo Telegraph, September 13, 2013 “The children are sold into slavery, usually boys to work camps and girls to prostitution rings, through EPDP’s networks in India and Malaysia. Sunthararaj maintains that children are often smuggled out of the country with the help of a corrupt Customs and Immigration… Read more »
Post-War Sri Lanka: Exploring the Path Not Taken
by Rohini Hensman, Dialectical Anthropology 39, pp. 273-293, April 16, 2015 Introduction Almost immediately after Independence, the government of Sri Lanka enacted legislation depriving Hill-country Tamils of their citizenship and franchise; subsequent governments enacted laws and carried out policies discriminating against and persecuting all Tamil-speaking citizens, with the avowed intention of making Sri Lanka a… Read more »
Response to Indian Foreign Minister’s Remarks by US Tamils
by Tamil Diaspora News, September 1, 2024 The BJP once acknowledged the Tamil genocide, yet now urges support for those responsible. Voting for a Tamil candidate is far from a waste—just as Tamils in Tamil Nadu chose to support their own instead of the BJP. When minorities vote for their own candidates, it is a… Read more »
Is the IMF Setting Sri Lanka Up for a 2nd Car Crash?
by Theo Maret and Brad Setser, FinancialTimes, London, September 5, 20024 Theo Maret is a research analyst at Global Sovereign Advisory and writes a sovereign debt newsletter. Brad Setser is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Treasury Department official. Sri Lanka is bankrupt and restructuring its debts. But there’s a high… Read more »
The Bitter Fight Over the Meaning of ‘Genocide’
Debates over how to describe conflicts in Gaza, Myanmar and elsewhere are channeling a controversy as old as the word itself. by Linda Kinstler, The New York Times, August 20, 2024 Linda Kinstler is a junior fellow at Harvard’s Society of Fellows and the author of “Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust… Read more »
UNHCHR: Situation of Human Rights in Sri Lanka
Comprehensive report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Advance unedited version A/HRC/57/19 August 19, 2024 Summary In the present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution 51/1, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights provides a comprehensive analysis of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, highlighting some concerning… Read more »
The China Hangover Is Here
by Michael Beckley, The New York Times, August 19, 2024 Opinion | Once the Global Economy’s Savior, China Is Now Its Biggest Threat – The New York Times (nytimes.com) In the 2000s, former President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela bet his country’s economic future on a rising China, securing tens of billions of dollars in investments and loans-for-oil… Read more »
CPA: The Intersectional Trends of Land Conflicts in Sri Lanka
by Centre for Policy Analysis, Colombo, August 20, 2024 The-Intersectional-Trends-of-Land-Conflicts-in-Sri-Lanka.pdf (cpalanka.org) 15 years after the end of the Civil War, Sri Lanka continues to experience deep ethnic divisions and has failed to address the root causes of the conflict that halt moving to a post-conflict society. Unfortunately, the decades-long problem of land has continued in… Read more »
Aragalaya and Accountability
Daily Financial Times editorial, Colombo, August 20, 2024 Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh for 15 years, fled the country on 5 August, marking the pinnacle of a student-led protest campaign that ousted a well-entrenched regime. Since taking charge on 8 August, the interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel peace laureate and… Read more »
‘Himalayan Declaration’ Lays Bare Deep Divide Among Sri Lankan Tamil Groups
Diaspora groups have slammed the Global Tamil Forum for not including them in a recent dialogue with a Buddhist delegation. by Mark S. Cogan, The Diplomat, Arlington, VA, USA, January 3, 2024 Almost 15 years after the Sri Lankan civil war ended, there appears no end to the political divisions, not only between the Sinhalese majority… Read more »
Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence 1983
by Presidential Truth Commission on Ethnic Violence (1981-1984), Vol.I (Report), Colombo, dated September 2002, published April 24, 2003 Commission appointed July 23, 2001 by President Chandrika Kumaratunge Commissioners: Suppiah Sharvananda, Esq. (retired Chief Justice) Sathyaloka Sasita Sahabandu Esq., President’s Counsel Mohammed Mohammed Zuhair Esq., President’s Counsel Part 1 For… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Complex Dance of Sinhala and Tamil Nationalist Politics
With mainstream Sri Lankan parties feeling compelled to pander to Sinhala Buddhist voters, Tamil-led parties have been pushed to take more hardline positions to address Tamil voters’ frustrations – historically and today by Uditha Divapriya, Himal, Colombo, July 30, 2024 At present, the Sri Lankan government is caught in a tricky situation. Elections are slated… Read more »
Tamil Politics in Sri Lanka after R Sampanthan
The elder statesman who never was Sampanthan’s death prompted glowing tributes from Colombo but relative indifference in the Tamil community, which gained nothing from his and the Tamil National Alliance’s compromises with the Sri Lankan state by Mario Arulthas, Madura Rasaratnam, Himal, Colombo, July 10, 2024 “I will make my people ungovernable!” Rajavarothiam Sampanthan exclaimed,… Read more »
HRW: Authorities Target Religious Minorities
Renewed UN Resolution Needed to Counter Government’s Divisive Campaign by Human Rights Watch, New York, July 28, 2024 (New York) – Sri Lankan authorities are conducting a campaign to deny Hindus and other religious minorities access to places of worship and other property and redesignate locations as Buddhist sites, Human Rights Watch said today. Government agencies, including the… Read more »
UK PM to PM Jayawardene re Black July 1983
by British Prime Minister, London, November 28, 1983, thanks to Mario Arulthas, July 26, 2024 https://x.com/MarioArul/status/1816552074169008428
Harris’s Indian Heritage Is Deeply Felt
If Little Advertised Many Indian Americans see Kamala Harris as another example of the diaspora’s success and influence. by Anupreeta Das, The New York Times, July 24, 2024 Reporting from New Delhi To most who saw the quotation being circulated this week as a meme, it was just something funny that Kamala Harris said in a… Read more »
Who is Kamala Harris?
A look at her Tamil roots by Tamil Guardian, London, July 21, 2024 As US President Joe Biden dramatically dropped out of the upcoming presidential race earlier today, he announced his support for current Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee for the US 2024 presidential election. If nominated, she would be the… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Pre-Presidential Election Politics
Uncertainty or Turmoil? by Jayadeva Uyangoda, Polity.lk, July 7, 2024 The coming few months have the potential to produce major political changes in Sri Lanka. The presidential election is constitutionally due to be held on a date decided by the Election Commission between 17 September and 16 October. It will certainly mark a crucial moment… Read more »
Building Entrepreneurship: Nation Building
by Nillanthan Maha, June 22, 2024 [Translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate with some corrections by the Editor.] On the 16th in Jaffna, an award ceremony was held at a tourist hotel located at Pungakulam Junction. It was the event for the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards of the Tamil Nadu’s Virudhu Nagar Rotary… Read more »