UN Human Rights Council Engagement Remains Vital to Ensure Justice for Atrocity Crimes by Human Rights Watch, New York, January 29, 2022 (Geneva) – The Sri Lankan government’s proposed law to create another body to investigate wartime abuses replicates previous failed efforts, ignores the needs of victims, and falls far short of meeting Sri Lanka’s international legal… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
US Senate Res. 493 & House Res. 926
by US Congress, December 12, 2024 Resolutions are identical. Co-sponsored by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) & James Risch (R-ID) and Representatives Bill Johnson (R-OH) & Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) BILLS -118 senate res. 493 is 118th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 493 Expressing the sense of the Senate in support of the peaceful, democratic, and… Read more »
Ganguly 2018: Ending the Sri Lankan Civil War
by Sumit Ganguly, Daedulus 147 (1): 78–89., January 1. 2018 PDF Abstract The Sri Lankan Civil War erupted in 1983 and dragged on until 2009. The origins of the conflict can be traced to Sri Lanka’s colonial era and subsequent postcolonial policies that had significantly constrained the social and economic rights of the minority Tamil… Read more »
Wigneswaran Points Out the Root Cause of Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Conflict
Many Sinhalese consider Wigneswaran a racist and tend to ignore his views. But no matter how problematic it is, he points to the viewpoint prevailing in the Tamil society in general about the history of Sri Lanka. by P. Harshani Dias, Sri Lanka Guardian, Colombo, May 20, 2023 Colonial Architecture, Jaffna, Northern Province, Sri Lanka,… Read more »
Prof. Singer 1992: Sri Lanka’s Tamil-Sinhalese Ethnic Conflict
Alternative Solutions by Marshall Singer, Asian Survey, Vol. XXXII, No.6, (University of California Press), August 1992 Marshall R. Singer is Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh. This article is a version of a paper presented at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, April 1992, Washington, D.C. Warfare… Read more »
The Sri Lankan Civil War: Notes for UPSC Exam
by Byju’s Exam Prep, accessed January 22, 2024 UPSC is the arm of the Indian civil service which administers the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) exam. The war in Sri Lanka between the separatist Tamil forces and the government was a heavy one with a death toll of over 150000 from both sides including civilians. Starting… Read more »
President in the North, Governor in the East
by A. Nillanthan, January 13, 2024 [Translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate with improvements by the Sangam editor.] At the same time as the President visited the North to celebrate the New Year, his Governor in the East staged a huge cultural festival. The President met various people in the North: entrepreneurs, university… Read more »
Elections Cast a Shadow of Uncertainty
Over Sri Lanka’s economic recovery by Dushni Weerakoon, IPS posted in East Asia Forum, January 16, 2024 Nearly two years after announcing a debt default in the middle of a severe social and political crisis, the Sri Lankan economy is showing the first signs of recovery. Year-on-year inflation dropped sharply to a low of 1.5… Read more »
How to Evade Justice: Reconciliation without Accountability
by Ambika Satkunanathan, Financial Times, Colombo, January 2, 2024Inter-faith initiatives avoid addressing impact of Sinhala Buddhist majoritarianism on inter-community relations The lack of outcomes in previous processes is not due to the lack of truth, as there is plenty of truth in the reports of the past commissions, but due to the lack of… Read more »
The Fearlessness of Kanji
by Pallavi Pundir, Eater, New York, January 2, 2024 How a simple rice dish became a Tamil symbol of resistance in Sri Lanka Photography by Steephan Sansigan; Interpreter: Gowthami Thillainathan The plan for a surreptitious meeting had been in the works for weeks. On the morning of November 7, Mariyasuresh Eswari got in touch with a… Read more »
How Ideology Shapes Indian Politics
by Nicholas Haas & Rajeshwari Majumdar, Hindustani Times, December 25, 2023 The lack of attention to political ideology contrasts strongly with the recent ubiquity of ideological debates in Indian politics In the 2014 general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) notched a historic victory, becoming the first party to win an outright majority in the… Read more »
Why Stand-up Comedy has had a Slow Start in Tamil Nadu
This could be because satire is already deeply ingrained in the State’s popular culture. by Siddarth Muralidharan, Saatvika Radhakrishna, Frontline of The Hindu, Chennai, November 16, 2023 In May 2019, the BBC published an article titled “Nesamani: Who is he and why is the world praying for him?” The reason the #PrayForNesamani hashtag had become… Read more »
Rep. Don Davis’ Speech in Congress
by Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), US Congress, Washington, DC, December 12, 2023 Standing with the Eelam Tamil community in their struggle against oppression and injustice. We must find a permanent solution based on their right to self-determination that ensures stability and peace in the Indo-Pacific. pic.twitter.com/x2boQ4cek4 — Congressman Don Davis (@RepDonDavis) December 12, 2023 … Read more »
Echoes of Mullivaikal in Gaza
by Satya Sagar, Substack, December 6, 2023 The daily death and destruction in Gaza has evoked painful memories for Tamils everywhere of a similar carnage half a world away in Mullivaikal, the coastal village that became the scene of mass slaughter at the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009. The parallels between the… Read more »
The Broken Global Order Needs Mending
Who will take the lead? by Satya Sivaraman, TGTE Parliament joint session, December 1, 2023 TGTE Parliament’s Joint Session – YouTube Theme: New Mechanisms and Norms for International Peace and Justice Watching the horrific violence against civilian populations by the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza the memories of many Tamils around the world must have… Read more »
TGTE to Launch a Movement for New Norms for Peace & Justice
by EIN Presswire, October 26, 2023 Such a global campaign for peace and justice has become more urgent today due to the threat of the Israel-Palestine conflict spreading throughout Middle-East We need to keep evolving and creating other systems to create solutions to conflict.” — former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo NEW YORK, UNITED STATES,… Read more »
Palestine Israel War: Whose Side are the Tamils On?
by A. Nillanthan, October 21, 2023 In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the armed struggle of the Tamil people began to gain momentum, Tamil movements like EROS, EPRLF, PLOT etc. received military training in Palestine. Those who received such training were called “PLO Rainies” in the homeland. Some of them – Suresh Premachandran,… Read more »
IS the TNPF Throwing Rocks at a Wasp Nest?
by A Nillanthan, September 24, 2023 [Translated from the original Tamil by Google Translate with corrections by the Editor. Further corrections welcome.] A vehicle of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) was attacked in Trincomalee. The vehicle carrying Thileepan’s picture had first passed that way last year, but the vehicle was not targeted at that… Read more »
Congress Wants to Hold Sri Lanka’s Feet to the Fire on Human Rights
by Anusha Rathi & Jack Detsch, Foreign Policy, Washington, DC, September 21, 2023 Congress is calling on the Biden administration to formally hold Sri Lanka responsible for its human rights abuses and violation of international humanitarian law, including decades of torture, military abuse, and other “horrific crimes” carried out against the country’s minority Tamil population…. Read more »
Purse-seiners, Trawlers, and the Epic Fight over Fishing in Tamil Nadu
A ban on purse-seine fishing in Tamil Nadu has threatened thousands of fishers’ livelihoods – and they are refusing to give up without a fight by Jeff Joseph, Himal magazine, Colombo, September 7, 2023 “There were young people with degrees taking to purse seines because of the pay,” Karthi P said. “It was easy work.”… Read more »