by Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo, September 10, 2013 Significant changes have taken place in post-war Sri Lanka that have assisted the improvement in the lives of those affected by displacement and over 480,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have been able to return to their homes and communities. However, four years after the war displacement… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
M Karunanidhi Bats for Referendum in Sri Lanka
M Karunanidhi bats for referendum in Sri Lanka to end woes of Tamils CHENNAI: A referendum under the aegis of the United Nations alone would give a fresh lease of life to “beleaguered” Tamils in Sri Lanka, DMK chief M Karunanidhi said here today. “Tamils all over the world earnestly expect that the UN would come forward for such… Read more »
The Northern Election And Historical Stumbling Blocks
“Why,” the monitor asked the crowd, “wouldn’t you rather vote for the party that gave you new roads and buildings, the party that could continue to develop this region?” The answer from a Tamil resident of the North was succinct. “What is the point of new roads without dignity?”
Sri Lanka Tamils Demand Army be Confined before Key Vote
The TNA said the military continued to engage in civilian activities and were clearly trying to influence the 714,000-strong mainly Tamil electorate, and support candidates of Rajapakse’s UPFA.
Establish a Syrian War Crimes Tribunal
Smith: Switch gears, Mr. President. Fight to establish Syrian war crimes court &hold both Assad and the rebels who commit egregious crimes accountable There is a non-lethal way to help ensure that Bashar al-Assad and other perpetrators of atrocities in Syria are held to account not someday far in the future but beginning now. The… Read more »
Why is Land a Fundamental Issue to the Tamils?
Image courtesy DBS Jeyaraj Introduction President Jayewardene did not like the word ‘colonisation’. Instead, he preferred the terms ‘land settlement’. But the Land Settlement Ordinance uses ‘settlement’ to mean a settlement on claims over ‘land’. Item 18 of the Provincial Councils List of the 13th Amendment, reads as follows: 18. Land, – Land, that is to say,… Read more »
A Visual History of Guerrilla Warfare From 1775 to 2012
The Invisible Armies Insurgency Tracker presents a database of insurgencies from 1775 to 2012. It supplements the comprehensive historical narrative in Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present, by CFR Senior Fellow Max Boot. ‘Invisible Armies’ Insurgencies Tracker map & graphic http://www.cfr.org/wars-and-warfare/invisible-armies-insurgency-tracker/p29917# ————————————— … Read more »
Bad History Mars Indian Movie On Rajiv Gandhi’s Assassination
Divyakant Solanki/European Pressphoto AgencyDemonstrators in Mumbai, Maharashtra, demanding a ban on the film “Madras Cafe” on Aug. 22. The movie “Madras Cafe,” which opened in India and elsewhere in the world recently, seeks to chronicle the Sri Lankan civil war through the events leading up to the assassination in 1991 of former Prime Minister Rajiv… Read more »
TNA 2013 Northern Provincial Council Election Manifesto
The Mandate Given To The Tamil National Alliance The Tamil People overwhelmingly gave the TNA a mandate at the General Election held in April 2010. The TNA has continued to act in accordance with that political mandate and is now facing the Northern Provincial Council Election as a necessary step in the fulfilment of that… Read more »
UN May Intercede as Sri Lanka Regime Strong-arms Elections Opponents
As de-militarization was a prerequisite for elections, two resolutions — in 2012 and 2013 — moved by the United States at the UN Human Rights Council included such measures… The need for the military to occupy private land is partly explained by a more fundamental problem: There are “150,000 soldiers encamped in the Northern Province,” claims Premachandran. “That makes it one soldier for every four or five civilians.”
A Way Forward?
A Government in Difficulties Sri Lanka suddenly finds itself in a rather sticky situation, having shown insufficient progress on its own commitments to alleviate the deterioration in the human rights situation in the country. UK has warned that it will look for a strong and unified response at the UN HRC in Geneva if it… Read more »
Some Notes On Moors Religious Exlusivism
Dr.Imtiyaz Razak I would like to sketch some points about Moors to help readers to understand the trend. Note that I am neither hired by external forces, as some alledged, to criticize Moors nor do I hate my own community so I criticize it. As I pointed on my facebook wall “We need to be critical of… Read more »
Land Issues in Northern and Eastern Provinces
Mr. Deputy Speaker, my Adjournment Motion that I have proposed to move today deals with nine situations pertaining to land both in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces. Land issues are a matter of grave concern to the Tamil-speaking people, both the Tamil people and the Muslim people in the North and the East. We… Read more »
Business of (Tamil) Politics
“I got arrested 40 times during the ’60s, beaten, bloodied and unconscious, I’m not tired, I’m not weary. I’m not prepared to sit down and give up. I am ready to fight and continue to fight, and you must fight.”
“You cannot stand by. You cannot sit down. You have to stand up, speak up, speak out and get in the way. Make some noise. The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It’s the most powerful non-violent tool…”
Bloody Footprints on Sri Lanka
The bloody episode is cited as the latest example of violent repression that threatens to overshadow the Commonwealth leaders’ summit in Colombo in November.
Today Navi Pillay, the United Nations human rights commissioner, arrives in Sri Lanka, amid hopes she will address allegations that President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime has intimidated its opponents in the four years since the showdown with Tamil rebels that ended the civil war.
No Starting Point to Resolution
It is a wholly nonsensical debate: those who want to repeal the 13th amendment argue, quite misleadingly, that it significantly devolves land and police powers to the provinces. They also call for Parliament to be stripped of its powers to enable a merger of the North and Eastern provinces — when even the main opposition party (the United National Party) is against such a move. Just as misleading are attempts by those campaigning for the 13th amendment, including India and the TNA, to convey to the Tamil people that it is a good starting point to a political solution.
Police Powers and Land Under 13 A
Executive power lies with the President and his servants – and to the extent that a Chief Minister is not a servant of the President, the Constitution does not, and indeed cannot, vest executive power in the Chief Minister.
Sri Lankan Mosque Closed as Religious Tensions Mount
“Each one on its own is not a big issue, but taken together it seems to be part of a bigger picture in which the majority is increasingly intolerant.”
Locked Away: Sri Lanka’s Security Detainees
Amnesty – ‘Locked Away Sri Lanka’s Security Detainees’ 2012 [This report continues the practice of ignoring the ethnic aspects of the situation in Sri Lanka by NEVER mentioning the words ‘Tamil,’ ‘Sinhalese,’ or ‘Muslim.’ This practice seems to be weakening a bit with the attacks on Muslims. — Ed/] SUMMARY The Sri Lankan government won… Read more »
Sencholai Massacre – 7 Years On
by ‘Tamil Guardian,’ London, August 13, 2013 On 14th August 2006, four Sri Lankan Air Force jets flew over the Vanni, dropping sixteen bombs over the Sencholai children’s home in Vallipunam for orphaned girls. Fifty-three Tamil school girls and 3 staff members were killed, and over 150 injured. In a macabre warning of the attacks… Read more »