Posts Categorized: Politics

ITJP: : What Vetting of Sri Lankan Diplomats?

by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka & International Truth & Justice Project, February 7, 2018 ITJP JDS press-release-7-feb-2018 vetting SL diplomats Johannesburg: The UK, the UN and the international community have an obligation to step up their screening and vetting of Sri Lankan public and security officals for alleged involvement in atrocities during and… Read more »

ITJP: Brig. Priyanka Fernando in London

by Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka and International Truth & Justice Project, February 5, 2018 On Sri Lanka’s 70th Independence Day, 4 February 2018, Brigadier Fernando attracted attention by thrice making slitting throat gestures to a crowd of chanting Tamil protestors outside the High Commission in London. The video of him, in full military… Read more »

UNHRC Briefing Note

HRC_briefingnote_En The Human Rights Council (HRC or Council) is the only intergovernmental organisation responding to all human rights abuses across the globe by exposing violators and demanding change. Follow proceedings by webcast Feb. 26-March 23 at http://webtv.un.org Documents & other materials are at  http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session37/Pages/37RegularSession.aspx   Current Membership of the Human Rights Council, 1 January – 31 December 2018… Read more »

UNHRC February/March Session & Sri Lanka

by Thambu Kanagasabai  LLM [Lond], Former Lecturer in Law University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, February 5, 2018 The 37th UN Human Rights Council is scheduled to commence on 26th February 2018 and concludes on 23rd March. During this session, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is expected to present his written interim report on… Read more »

Caged Independence

by Thamil Ananthavinayagan, ‘Sri Lanka Guardian,’ Colombo, February 4, 2018 Introduction ( February 4, 2018, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The cherished Maya Angelou wrote once in her famous poem ‘Caged Bird’: [T]he caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for… Read more »

Inscribing the Victor’s Land

Nationalistic authorship in Sri Lanka’s post-war Northeast by Rachel Seoighe, ‘Conflict, Security & Development,’ Vol. 16, 2016, Issue 5 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14678802.2016.1219507?scroll=top&needAccess=true Abstract This article examines the nationalistic authorship of space in Sri Lanka’s post-conflict Northeast as part of the state’s nation-building strategy and as a continuation of a post-colonial process of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalistic revival. Exploring issues… Read more »

Nationalistic Authorship and Resistance in Northeastern Sri Lanka

by Rachel Seoighe, ‘Society and Culture in South Asia’ 2(1) 1–30, 2016 Nationalist Authorship Resistance in NE Sri Lanka 2016 Abstract Post-war Sri Lanka is defined by the logic of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism, glorification and expansion of the military, and the exponential growth of state-corporate economic projects. This article examines the performative politics of the state in mass… Read more »

Discourses of Victimization in Sri Lanka’s Civil War

Collective Memory, Legitimacy and Agency by Rachel Seoghe, ‘Social and Legal Studies,’ UK, January 8, 2016 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0964663915614097 Abstract This article explores the availability of discourses of victimhood to political actors who aim to justify violence and mass atrocity in the name of those victims. Arguing that the label of the ‘victim’ is equally available for… Read more »

Navy Officer in Charge of Dumping Dead Bodies at Sea Arrested

by Ramanan Weerasingham, Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, Europe, January  31, 2018 Probing the abduction of Tamil youth in the capital city of Colombo and its suburbs during the height of the war, Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested yet another Navy intelligence officer charging him of being in-charge of dumping dead… Read more »

Rajinikanth’s Aimless and Empty Political Gamble

by M.K. Eelaventhan, January 17, 2018 Member of Parliament of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.  Former Member of Parliament, Sri Lanka Rajiniikanth born in Karnataka State, India on December 12, 1950 and named as Sivaji Rao Gaekaward by his parents with Marathi as his mother tongue is a popular screen hero in Tamil Nadu with… Read more »

More on Yan Oya

Genocidal ‘development’ abetted by global partners seeks to wedge North-East by TamilNet, May 4, 2017 The occupying Colombo is trying to seize lands in the Tamil-speaking Kuchchave’li division of Trincomalee district in the Eastern Province to construct housing schemes for Sinhala settlers who have been moved out of their lands that were taken over by… Read more »

2007: A Proposal to Make Toppigala Victory Sustainable

Development of water resources in the Eastern province by G.T. Dharmasena, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, July 19, 2007 Former Director General of Irrigation and presently the Consultant to the United Nation’s Office for Project Services(UNOPS) At a moment the focus of all peace loving people of the country, irrespective of political divisions ,religions and races is… Read more »

Monks with Guns

Westerners think that Buddhism is about peace and non-violence. So how come Buddhist monks are in arms against Islam? by Michael Jerryson, ‘Aeon,’ London, Melbourne, New York, January 15, 2018 The recent violence in southern Thailand began on 4 January 2004, when Malay Muslim insurgents invaded a Thai Army depot in the southernmost province of… Read more »

False Promises

‘Tamil Guardian’ editorial, London, January 9, 2017 Three years after the election victory of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe’s ‘unity government’, the failure of meaningful progress on key issues must be confronted head on if visions for accountability, justice and lasting peace are ever to be achieved. While the government has succeeded in opening up… Read more »

Future of the displaced in Musali South

Territorializing the environment: The political question of land and the future of the displaced in Musali South by Sivamohan Sumathy, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, July 2, 2015 I have in the past few weeks attended two of Shahul Hasbullah’s excellently laid out map of the displaced in the Musali South area and the entanglement of that… Read more »

Wiggie Blasts Dilan over NPC Expenditure

by ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ December 23, 2017 Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) C.V. Wigneswaran has taken issue with a statement made by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Highways Dilan Perera with respect to NPC Expenditure. Wigneswaran, writing directly to Perera, refers to a news item in the Virakesari (December 21, 2017) which quotes… Read more »

UNWG: Sri Lanka Must End Arbitrary Detention

Sri Lanka must urgently implement reforms to end arbitrary detention, UN rights experts say COLOMBO / GENEVA (15 December 2017) – The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has identified significant challenges to the enjoyment of the right to personal liberty in Sri Lanka, resulting in arbitrary detention across the country. The experts recognize positive… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment Challenged

Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment Challenged at the UN by 1,705 Lawyers from around the World: TGTE Complaint cited terminology of “one undivided and indivisible country” & safeguards against secession in Article 2.2. of the New Interim Constitutional Report by Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), /EINPresswire.com/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, December 14, 2017 One thousand seven hundred and… Read more »

UN: Protectors or Watchers?

by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.], former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, January 1, 2018 The United Nations is a global organization that brings together its member states to confront common challenges, manage shared reponsibilities and exercise collective action in an enduring “quest for a peaceful world.”  One of the main purposes of the United… Read more »