Posts Categorized: Politics

IMADR: Enforced Disappearances in Sri Lanka

Statement submitted to the UN Human Rights Council by International Movement against all Forms of Racism & Discrimination, September 12, 2017 Enforced Disappearances in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka has endured consecutive periods of violent insurgency and a 26-year-long armed conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam.[1] This conflict ended… Read more »

Sri Lanka Has Not Kept Pomises to UN – Franciscans International

 by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, September 12, 2017 Franciscans International said Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has not kept promises made to Tamil families of the disappeared or to the UN Human Rights Council and called on the global body to continue monitoring the situation on the island. Speaking at the 36th UN Human Rights Council… Read more »

India’s “Like-Minded” Partnerships to Counter China in South Asia

by Constantino Xavier, Center for Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, September 11, 2017 China’s inroads into South Asia since the mid-2000s have eroded India’s traditional primacy in the region, from Afghanistan to Myanmar and also in the Indian Ocean. As Beijing deploys its formidable financial resources and develops its strategic clout across the… Read more »

CM: Army Holding about 85,000 Acres in North

Calls for probe into SF’s allegations against Gen. JJ By Cyril Wimalasurendre, ‘The Island,’ Colombo, September 10, 2017 KANDY – Alleging that the army continued to hold about 85,000 acres of land in the North, Northern Province Chief Minister and former Supreme Court judge C.W. Wigneswaran, on Saturday, sought the intervention of most Ven. Tibbatuwawe… Read more »

The Hateful Monk

by Gavin Jacobson, ‘The New York Review of Books,’ August 31, 2017 Les Films du Losange Ashin Wirathu and his followers in Barbet Schroeder’s The Venerable W., 2017 Ma Soe Yein is the largest Buddhist monastery in Mandalay, Myanmar. A dreary sprawl of dormitories and classrooms, it is located in the western half of the city,… Read more »

A Question of Command Responsibility

by No Fire Zone,  August 19, 2017 An examination of the charges of command responsibility against general Jagath Jayasuriya https://vimeo.com/231070522

Interview with Gen. Jayasuriya

I didn’t know what was happening on the war front – Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya by  Sulochana Ramiah Mohan, ‘Ceylon Today,’ September 3, 2017 Tall and well-built, retired Army General, Jagath Jayasuriya, who was posted in Brazil as the Sri Lankan Ambassador, is back in town with mounted allegations against him related to his posts as… Read more »

Why a Sri Lankan Leader Might Be Tried for War Crimes in Brazil

By Kate Cronin-Furman, ‘The Washington Post,’ August 30, 2017 One of the mothers of the disappeared stands beside photographs of the missing in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, in July. (Kate Cronin-Furman) Early Tuesday morning, news broke that Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Brazil had fled the country. Sri Lanka’s government later announced that his departure was planned, and it… Read more »

Sri Lankan Ambassador, Accused of War Crimes, Leaves Brazil

by The Associated Press in ”The New York Times,’ August 29, 207 RIO DE JANEIRO — A former Sri Lankan general accused of war crimes by human rights groups has left Brazil, where until recently he was his country’s ambassador to six nations in South America, an embassy official said Tuesday. Jagath Jayasuriya left Brazil… Read more »

For the Rohingyas and Us

by Cheran Rudhramoorthy, on Facebook, August 31, 2017 (Also in Tamil) I abandoned my child, My God I cannot ask you anymore For forgiveness. Just three minutes Before killing the child you chopped off my hands. Amid pain, grief and wailing you will not have grace. When the spear was inserted softly into my child’s stomach, thinking… Read more »

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Holds Federation is Not Separation

Court dispels doubts By: Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond.] FCII, August 27, 2017 Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka President: Tamil Canadian Elders for Human Rights Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Priyasath Dep delivered a politically historical judgement on August 4, dispelling the doubts and paranoia of  some Sinhalese extremist… Read more »

The Sri Lankan Supreme Court’s on the Proscription of the Federal Party

More than meets the eye? By Dr Asanga Welikala, ‘ConstitutionNet,’ Sweden, 29 August, 2017 The Sri Lankan Supreme Court has determined that the advocacy of federalism is not tantamount to the advocacy of secession. In doing so, it has for the first time recognised the Tamil minority as a ‘people’ entitled to the right to internal self-determination…. Read more »

HRW: Recurring Nightmare State Responsibility for “Disappearances” and Abductions in Sri Lanka

by Human Rights Watch, March 5, 2008 2008 statement on report and at https://www.hrw.org/news/2008/03/06/sri-lanka-disappearances-security-forces-national-crisis Summary (see below) Who Is Responsible? Who Is Being Targeted? Unpunished Crimes The Government’s Response International Response Key Recommendations Note on Methodology II. Background The armed conflict History of “disappearances” in Sri Lanka III. Legal Framework Sri Lanka’s obligations under international law Sri Lankan… Read more »

Amnesty: “Disappearances & Political Killings: Human Rights Crisis of the 1990s’

A MANUAL FOR ACTION by Amnesty International, London, September, 1993 Amnesty 1993 disappearance murder as techniques of counterinsurgency asa370131993en Sri Lanka: “Disappearance” and murder as techniques of counter-insurgency EXTERNAL (for general distribution) AI Index: ASA 37/13/93 Distr: SC/CO/CC No. of words: 4700 ————————- Amnesty International International Secretariat 1 Easton Street London WC1X 8DJ United Kingdom… Read more »

Amnesty: Sri Lanka Must Deliver on its Commitments SET OUT BY HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL RESOLUTION 30/1

Set Out by Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 by Amnesty International, London, August 22, 2017 Index number: IOR 40/6975/2017 WRITTEN STATEMENT UN Human Rights Council Thirty-sixth session 11 – 29 September 2017 Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 sets out concrete steps to ensuring truth, justice, reparation and non-recurrence for human rights violations and abuses. Council resolution… Read more »

Voluntary, Safe and Sustainable Return

Support Needed for Sri Lankan Refugees by Mayuran Jeevarathnina, ‘Groundviews,’ Colombo, August 9, 2017 Editor’s Note: A version of this speech was delivered by the author at the UNHCR Annual Consultations with NGOs, held from June 14-16 at the  International Conference Centre in Geneva  “O our motherland, bid us a farewell We buried our smiles in… Read more »

Holding Sri Lanka to Account

A dream or a reality? By: Thambu Kanagasabai   LLM [Lond], Former Lecturer in Law University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s political and economic history from the day of independence in 1948 until 1956 was considered a role model for developing countries, even envied by the late Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kwan Yew.  Communal harmony… Read more »

Invoking Nuremberg in Colombo

The writer clearly has a distance to travel to understand what took place during & after the war in Sri Lanka.  Has she seen Channel 4’s ‘Killing Fields,’ read the OISL Report or the proceedings of the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka, or talked to anyone who was in Mullavaikkal at the end of the… Read more »

SR Counter-Terrorism & Human Rights

Video of SR Emmerson’s media conference at end of his visit https://lk.one.un.org/news/full-statement-by-ben-emmerson-un-special-rapporteur-on-human-rights-and-counter-terrorism-at-the-conclusion-of-his-official-visit/ Human rights and counter-terrorism: UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism concludes visit to Sri Lanka Preliminary findings of the visit to Sri Lanka Colombo (14 July 2017) – The United Nations Special… Read more »