Wigneswaran Kannabiran Memorial Lecture Nov 2014 After brief intro in Tamil, CM – Justice CW Wigneswaran’s speech is in English.
Posts Categorized: Politics
These Are My Humble Requests To Gotabaya
*Speech made by R. Sampanthan on the 4th of November 2014 in parliament We are discussing today the Votes of the Ministry of Defence, the Minister of Defence being His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Secretary to the Ministry being his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who rumour has it will probably be a Member of… Read more »
Cosmetic Fixes
by Taylor Dibbert, ‘Foreign Policy,’ Washington, DC, October 31, 2014 SOUTH ASIA Sri Lanka’s twenty-six-year civil war was a brutal conflict that pitted the Sri Lankan government forces against the Tamil Tigers, a group that fought for a separate state in the country’s northern and eastern provinces. Though the government defeated the Tamil Tigers in… Read more »
CPA: Happy Sri Lankans
OHCHR Condemns Persistent Disinformation Designed to Discredit UN investigation on Sri Lanka
GENEVA (7 November 2014) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Friday criticized the continuing attacks by the Sri Lankan Government on the integrity of the UN Human Rights Office’s ongoing investigation into alleged grave human rights violations and abuses in Sri Lanka, and condemned the intimidation of human rights… Read more »
CBK Waged ‘Mother of All Wars’ – Rev. Dr. Emmanuel
Last week, The Island partly dealt with Rev. Dr. S. J Emmanuel’s thoughts on the collapse of talks between the government of the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, in April 1995. The priest blamed Mrs. Kumaratunga for the breakdown of talks. Rev. Dr. Emmanuel’s views, on the conflict, are relevant,… Read more »
Rev. Dr Emmanuel on Collapse of CBK-Prabhakaran talks
Rev. Dr. Emmanuel, who had occasionally provided to the writer valuable perception, as regards significant conflict-related events, made available to The Island his presentation at a conference organized by the International Alert, way back in July, 1997. Rev. Dr. Emmanuel dealt extensively with the Kumaratunga-Prabhakaran talks during 1994-1995 period…
“The government did not understand the LTTE as representatives of an aggrieved and oppressed people. Nor did they recognize the LTTE’s demands as the demands of the people.”
On The Rajapaksa Budget
By R. Sampanthan – ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ November 1, 2014 We tabled a Position Paper in January 2011 setting out our position. I table that Position Paper and kindly request that it be included at the end of my speech. The Position Paper defined the position of the TNA in regard to a political solution at the… Read more »
Tamils Were Not Fooled
By M. A. Sumanthiran – ‘Colombo Telegraph,’ November 3, 2014 You stop people of this country going to meet their very near relatives by placing travel restrictions. Is that not treating the North differently? This is also an attempt to pull wool over the eyes of people, not of the people of the North. If the… Read more »
Media Freedom in Sri Lanka
Watch this powerful talk by Lukshmee Saravanapavan on media freedom in Sri Lanka at the Amnesty International USA conference in St. Louis, Missouri on Oct. 25. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152822022459948&set=vb.682819947&type=2&theater or http://youtu.be/a72EU396Z_I —————- For more information on Amnesty’s concerns in Sri Lanka, please visit www.amnestyusa.org/srilanka
Tamil National Resistance and the Limits of Sinhala Liberal Intelligentsia
Since the conclusion of genocidal massacres in Mullivaaykkaal and the annihilation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sinhala chauvinist Sri Lankan state has taken unparalleled measures to criminalize the commemoration of national resistance and to destroy its symbols in a bid to eradicate the spirit of national resistance among the beleaguered Eelam… Read more »
Deadly Alliances Against Muslims
On his 79th birthday in July, the Dalai Lama appealed to Buddhist extremist groups in Myanmar and Sri Lanka to stop instigating attacks against Muslim minorities that have killed scores. Instead, in an affront to Buddhism’s core message of compassion, leaders of those groups announced an alliance to make common cause against Muslims. “The time… Read more »
NPC CM Wigneswaran Letter to SL President
Wigneswaran Letter to President – 10 October 2014
The Indo-Lanka 13A
There is an uptick on the TNA pronouncements lately about India and her role in the 13th Amendment to Sri Lanka’s constitution. A series of events perhaps contributed this: TNA delegation’s meeting with the new Indian prime minister and now the NPC Chief Minister’s letter to the Sri Lankan President invoking India’s role as a… Read more »
Video of Young Reporter at Uthayan
Amnesty Briefing on Sri Lanka for ICCPR Review
Amnesty UN INT_CCPR_CSS_LKA_18252_E Amnesty International has submitted a 40-page briefing on Sri Lanka to the U.N. Human Rights Committee in connection with the Committee’s review during this month of Sri Lanka’s fifth periodic report on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The briefing can be found at http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/LKA/INT_CCPR_CSS_LKA_18252_E.pdf INTRODUCTION Amnesty… Read more »
Radical Monk in Myanmar Pledges to Protect Global Buddhism
“This is not a multireligious country,” Bodu Bala Sena’s founder, Kirama Wimalajothi, said. “This is a Sinhalese country.”
Tamil Americans Urge Pres. Rajapaksa to Respect Sri Lanka’s Commitments to the United Nations
Today Sri Lanka’s President Rajapaksa spoke before the United Nations General Assembly on the status and future of Sri Lanka, yet overtly neglected to address the ongoing human rights abuses and limitation of democratic freedoms. USTPAC joins with others committed to human rights and calls on President Rajapaksa to honor Sri Lanka’s commitments to the United Nations and… Read more »
From Glasgow to Kashmir
by Jonah Blank, ‘Foreign Policy,’ New York, September 20, 2014 In Thursday’s vote, the people of Scotland did not opt for independence. But they may well have lowered the bar for separatists all around the world — not least among the countless ethnic groups of Asia. The Caledonian contest came down to the very end,… Read more »
Philippine Bill Would Give Muslims Autonomy
The Bangsamoro region would have local self-government, including locally recruited law enforcement officials — a critical demand by the rebels, given the allegations of human rights abuses in the region by the Philippine police and military, many of whom are Christians from the north. About four million people would live in the Bangsamoro region. Of the Philippines’ population of 107 million, about 5 percent are Muslim, most of them living in the south; about 80 percent are Roman Catholic.
The region would also retain most of the tax revenue generated from its natural resources. The central government would retain control over currency, foreign policy issues and national defense….Opponents of the agreement have said that it infringes on Philippine sovereignty, essentially creating a separate Muslim state in the south. A number of organizations have said they will contest the law’s constitutionality in the Supreme Court, and the rebels have said they will reject the measure if the court strikes down the main provisions dealing with autonomy or revenue-sharing.