The United Nations Human Rights Council released its report Wednesday on possible war crimes committed during the last years of the Sri Lankan civil war. As many as 40,000 Tamils were killed by the military during the final months of the conflict, which ended in 2009. Citing a “horrific level of violations and abuses” in… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
Statements at UNHRC on Sri Lanka Sept. 14
UNHCHR Zeid statement Six years ago, we were confronted with serious violations and loss of civilian life in the last months of Sri Lanka’s long civil war. This Council has been deeply engaged with the need for accountability, as a necessary step towards reconciliation in that country. On Wednesday I will release the report of… Read more »
FM’s Speech at UNHRC
Statement by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, MP Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka General Debate of the 30th Session of the UN Human Rights Council Geneva, 14 September 2015 Mr. President High Commissioner for Human Rights Excellencies Distinguished delegates I would like to begin by thanking you, and the members of the Council for the… Read more »
Minimum Requirements for an Accountability Mechanism in Sri Lanka
by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, September 2015 Minimum Requirements for an Accountability Mechanism Sri Lanka has a dismal record of achieving truth or justice through the various Commissions of Inquiry it has established in the past, with no accountability of any kind domestically for any past violations. The context of… Read more »
Sri Lanka Join the ICC
https://ciccglobaljustice.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/sri-lanka-give-all-victims-a-chance-for-justice/ Sri Lanka: Give all victims a chance for justice ⒸPeter Pawlowski/Flickr With its new leaders promising to put Sri Lanka on a path towards reform and reconciliation, justice for grave crimes must not be neglected. By joining the ICC, Sri Lanka can signal to its citizens and the international community that it is ready to… Read more »
US Stand on Sri Lanka Perverts International Justice
AT the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva next week, the US is to sponsor a resolution on war crimes in Sri Lanka, in collaboration with the Colombo government. This is despite wide recognition that Sri Lankan leaders are implicated in these war crimes. The resolution is said to ask for a domestic… Read more »
Sampanthan Interviews
I Am a Sri Lankan and Sri Lanka Belongs to Me – Sampanthan by ‘Ceylon Today,’ September 7, 2015 He as a Tamil Leader, keeping in mind the democratic rights of the Tamil people, will be concerned about a resolution to the Tamil Question. Stressing, however, that he is not confined only to the Tamil… Read more »
Why Small States Matter in International Politics
by Kadira Pethiyagoda, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, September 3, 2015 Editors’ note: This blog post is adapted from a longer article published in The Diplomat. Kadira Pethiyagoda argues that strategic small states—such as Sri Lanka—now have more options in their alliances with regional or global powers. Those powers, in turn, shouldn’t take small states for granted…. Read more »
Sri Lanka and its Democratic Revolution
After all, a constitutional settlement addressing the challenge of ethnic and religious pluralism, especially, has eluded Sri Lanka throughout its post-colonial history and political opportunities as historic and as momentous as the present one have been squandered repeatedly in the past. At a similar moment in American history, Lincoln invoked not only the value and values of magnanimity and charity, but also the need for what he called ‘firmness in the right’ in striving to ‘finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.’ If this challenge is to be met consistently with the democratic promise generated by the two elections of 2015, not only would Sri Lanka’s political leaders need to demonstrate an excellence of leadership they have never exercised in the past, but its civil society would have to continue to play the critical role it did in creating the conditions for the successful electoral revolution.
Promise of Justice
The visit by senior US officials, Nisha Biswal and Tom Malinowski this week, and the US’ endorsement of a domestic process of accountability into mass atrocities committed against the Tamil people during the end of the armed conflict in 2009 has been met with a sense of relief by the Sri Lankan government and was… Read more »
Sri Lankan Parliament Urged to Repeal Anti-terror Act
The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) has called upon newly-elected Members of Parliament to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), dubbed by human rights activists as draconian, in two months. ‘Dangerous laws’ In a statement, Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, Executive Director (CaFFE), termed the PTA as more dangerous than emergency laws and said… Read more »
Tamil Women in Post-War Sri Lanka
A white paper by Nimmi Gowrinathan and Kate Cronin-Furman, City University of New York Colin Powell School, August 28, 2015 Tamil Women in Post-War Sri Lanka Nimmi Gowrinathan Kate Cronin-Furman ABSTRACT In this report we document the negative impacts of 6 years of militarization on Tamil women’s lives in Sri Lanka. Based on over fifty… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Tangled Democracy
by Taylor Dibbert, ‘Foreign Affairs,’ New York, August 25, 2015 Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election is over, and the results are in. By capturing 45.7 percent of the votes and 106 seats in a vote held on August 17, the United National Party (UNP) has narrowly won. This is something of a defeat for Mahinda Rajapaksa,… Read more »
4 Post-election Challenges for Sri Lanka
by Mark Salter & Eric Solheim, ‘Open Democracy,’ August 31, 2015 Muscular Sinhalese nationalism was defeated at the polls in Sri Lanka. The dismantling of the security state, started in January, can now continue. And there is hope for progress on the very necessary process of post-war accountability and reconcilliation These are critical times for… Read more »
The Future of Sinhala Nationalism
The defeat of statist nationalism as project and ideology, which began at the ethnic periphery on January 8th, was extended into the heartland by August 17th. The defenses that remain standing in geopolitical terms are the two contiguous areas, the ‘Greater Ruhuna’ or the ‘Greater South’ (Kegalle, Ratnapura, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Moneragala) and in the heartland, Kurunegala-Anuradhapura. In a return to an ancient historical pattern, these are the ‘free territories’ of Sri Lanka; the liberated zones of the national resistance or national liberation movement.
Rare Opportunity for Meaningful Reconciliation in Sri Lanka
The Sri Lankan people deserve great admiration on the successful conclusion of the most free and fair parliamentary elections since May, 1970. The conclusion of the election has presented a rare opportunity to deliver meaningful reconciliation and a lasting peace. The U.S.-led international community should seize this historic opportunity, facilitating the required political climate to… Read more »
NPC: Resolution on the Need for an International Mechanism
NPC Resolution on Need for International Mechanism RESOLUTION ON THE NEED FOR AN INTERNATIONAL MECHANISM Acknowledging the long standing efforts of United States, India along with the international community in securing justice, rights, peace and security to this troubled Island Recognizing the efforts of the international community through the UNHRC process towards investigating and… Read more »
Finding Peace in Post-war Sri Lanka
Elite Fundraiser for Obama and Clinton Linked to Justice Department Probe
An FP investigation shows that Imaad Zuberi, who has bundled hundreds of thousands of dollars for leading Democrats, failed to disclose the extent of his ties to a foreign government.
Biswal in Colombo
“We fundamentally support efforts to create a credible domestic process for accountability and reconciliation,” Biswal noted…
The Assistant Secretary for Human Rights cautioned however that the Sri Lankan Government would be judged based on actions and not promises.
Both officials who also met with representatives of the Tamil National Alliance last morning acknowledged that the Government would have to build trust and confidence in the domestic process to investigate the alleged violations in war time, since domestic mechanisms had consistently failed or failed to take off.
“The failures of the past are very much on our minds,” Malinowski said, “which is why there is an emphasis on trust-building.”