Posts Categorized: Politics

The Insistence of Memory

by Kate Cronin-Furman, The Los Angeles Review of Books, May 16, 2018 BY THE TIME I got there, the bones were gone. But eight years out from the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, everything else was still there, carpeting the beach where the final battle was fought. Suitcases half-buried in sand, battered metal… Read more »

PEARL: ‘Delayed or Denied?

Sri Lanka’s Failing Transitional Justice Process by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka, Washington, DC, May 14, 2018 PEARL’s new report, “Delayed or Denied? Sri Lanka’s Failing Transitional Justice Process”documents Sri Lanka’s failure to fulfill its transitional justice commitments and the complacency with which its intransigence has been received by members of the international community…. Read more »

An Ethnic Conflict & an Accord

by Press Trust of India on Shruti TV, May 10, 2018 Discussion of T. Ramakrishnan’s book ‘Or Inapprachinaiyum Or Oppandhamum,’ ‘An Ethnic Conflict and An Accord’ at Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.  With Prof. V Suryanarayan, & Chandrahasan. Moderated by Col. Hariharan. Most interesting is the Q & A starting at 1 hr. 12+ min…. Read more »

Tamil National Question & Tamil Insurgency in Sri Lanka

by Imtiyaz Razak, ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ May 14, 2018 On May 17, 2009 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) admitted the defeat in the war against the Sinhalese dominated Sri Lanka security forces and vowed to silence guns. In May 18, Sri Lanka security forces announced that the LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, who led the… Read more »

Is China a Colonial Power?

by James A. Millward, ‘The New York Times,’ May 4, 2018 Mr. Millward is a China scholar and historian of the Silk Road In a lesser-known novel, “Claudius Bombarnac,” Jules Verne describes the adventures of the titular foreign correspondent as he rides the “Grand Transasiatic Railway” from the “European frontier” to “the capital of the Celestial… Read more »

Hindutva Takes on Tamil Nationalism

by Ana Pararajasingham, ‘Asia Times,’ February 16, 2018 he south Indian state of Tamil Nadu has become a battleground for the proponents of Hindutva and the champions of Tamil nationalism. Hindutva is the rallying cry of the Bharathiya Janata Party and   Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),a militant Hindu nationalist group that has for decades provided the… Read more »

ITJP: The Special Task Force

by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, April 23, 2018 GATHERING EVIDENCE THE SPECIAL TASK FORCE This report on the Special Task Force (STF) is based primarily on the testimony of Sinhalese insiders who worked for the unit in the past and former Tamil paramilitaries.   “This work in the white vanning unit… Read more »

State Dept: 2017 Sri Lanka Human Rights Report

by US State Dept., Washington, DC, April 24, 2017 State Dept 2017 Human Rights Report Sri Lanka EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sri Lanka is a constitutional, multiparty republic with a freely elected government. In January 2015 voters elected President Maithripala Sirisena to a five-year term. The parliament shares power with the president. August 2015 parliamentary elections resulted… Read more »

Hightime UN Acts on Sri Lanka

Hightime United Nations Acts on Sri Lanka Following March 2018 Session by  Thambu Kanagasabai,  LLM [Lond.]  Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka The UNHRC’s March Sessions in Geneva conducted debates on Sri Lanka on the 19th and 20th of March 2018, focusing on Sri Lanka’s progress towards the 30/1 Resolution’s recommendations after a… Read more »

Reform Resistance in Sri Lankan Politics

by Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda, ‘Groundviews,’ March 27, 2018 One serious political question that emerges from Sri Lanka’s current political impasse is the following: why has a reformist democratic regime, with domestic popular support as well as international backing, begun to run out of its political energies, and political options, so early and is facing disintegration… Read more »

US Statement on OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/human-rights-council-37-joint-statement-on-sri-lanka by UK Mission to the UN, Geneva, March 21, 2018 This joint statement was delivered at the 37th Session of the Human Rights Council on behalf of Macedonia, Montenegro, the United States & the United Kingdom the during the UN High Commissioner’s report on Sri Lanka, held on 21 March 2018. This statement is on… Read more »

Deputy HC Statement on OHCHR Report on Sri Lanka

by Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore, March 21, 2018 http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22875&LangID=E Moving now to our written update on progress in promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka (A/HRC/37/23) between March 2017 and January 2018. We welcome the Government’s constructive engagement with OHCHR and the human rights mechanisms, including its cooperation with visits of this… Read more »

VR: Res. 30/1 Implementation Monitor #3

UNHRC Resolution 30/1 Implementation Monitor: Statistical & Analytical Review No. 3 by Verite Research, Colombo, February 26, 2018 This is Verité Research’s latest study on the Sri Lankan government’s commitments on reconciliation and accountability. The ongoing UNHRC Session began on 26 February 2018, and will include a discussion on Sri Lanka’s progress in this regard. This report… Read more »

Anti-Muslim Riots Signal a New Social Fissure

by ‘The Economist,’ London, March 8, 2018 Sinhalese nationalists may be looking for an enemy COLOMBO: THE trigger was supposedly a road-rage incident, said to have involved members of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority, near the popular tourist destination of Kandy. A lorry driver from the country’s biggest ethnic group, the Sinhalese, ended up dead. Angry… Read more »

Sri Lanka Imposes Emergency to Quell Communal Riots

by Times of India, March 6, 2018 HIGHLIGHTS Sri Lanka on Tuesday declared a nationwide state of emergency to quell anti-Muslim riots that have killed at least two people and damaged dozens of mosques and homes in the central district of Kandy. Here’s what led the Maithripala Sirisena government to take the extreme measure: *… Read more »

US Embassy Statement

by US Embassy, Colombo, March 6, 2018 March 6, 2018 – COLOMBO:  Rule of law, human rights, and equality are essential for peaceful coexistence.  It is important that the Government of Sri Lanka act quickly against perpetrators of sectarian violence, protect religious minorities and their places of worship, and conclude the State of Emergency swiftly, while… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Political Crisis a Threat to Reconciliation

Danger government will backtrack on commitments to Tamils after opposition SLPP sweeps most seats in local elections by Quintus Colombage & Niranjani Roland, ‘UCA News,’ Bangkok, March 1, 2018 In Sri Lanka is disturbing the economy and threatening the reconciliation processnearly a decade after the island nation ended a bloody 25-year civil war, political analysts said… Read more »

Why Civil Wars Are Lasting Longer

Although the norm of negotiation has not died, countervailing norms have emerged around non-negotiation with terrorists, militarily defeating terrorist organizations, and prioritizing stabilization over democratization, even if that means bolstering authoritarian rule. Across today’s battlefields—in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Sudan, and Yemen—external actors are… Read more »

Annadurai, the Champion of the Eelam Tamil Liberation

by  M.K. Eelaventhan, February 3, 2018 Critical estimate of Anna’s contribution to Tamil and the Tamils. Annadurai’s 50th Death Anniversary fell on February 3, 2018                       Mr. C.N. Annadurai, the beloved disciple of Periyar, owes a lot to Periyar who shaped his multifarious career.  If is not for Periyar, Annadurai may not have attained this unique position…. Read more »