UNHRC Resolution: A Threat or an Opportunity? In his book ‘Sri Lanka – What Went Wrong: J.R. Jayewardene’s Free and Righteous Society’, writer and political commentator V.P. Vittachi refers to a mode of speech he describes as ‘plonking’. Quoting from Stephen Potter’s ‘Lifemanship’ he says, “For maximum irritation remember, the tone of voice must be… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Politics
Observation of the Progress of National Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Sri Lanka
David L. Phillips, Director of ISHR’s Program on Peace-building and Rights, released a statement at a briefing organized by the Mission of Japan to the UN for Member States noting the Government of Sri Lanka’s failure to conduct a credible domestic investigation into violations of international humanitarian law and calling for independent investigation of alleged… Read more »
Britain Must Stand Up for Human Rights in Sri Lanka
Our government should back UN calls for justice by urging the Commonwealth to move its summit elsewhere The Queen shakes hands with Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting last year. Photograph: Wpa Pool/Getty Images In early 2009, as foreign secretary, I travelled to Sri Lanka with Bernard… Read more »
March in Canberra for Tamil Justice
In 2009, we as Tamils stood united and desperately called for the world to save our people, the world decided to turn a blind eye. Today, a mountain of credible evidence exists… Read more »
Appeal from Tamil Civil Society
Appeal from Tamil Civil Society to the International Community regarding the upcoming resolution in the UNHRC on Sri Lanka This appeal, signed by civil society activists who live and work in the North and East of Sri Lanka, seeks to state our position with regard to the resolution on Sri Lanka to be tabled at… Read more »
Hope and Reconciliation
by Desmond Tutu & Mary Robinson, ‘Times of India,’ New Delhi, March 11, 2013 Absence of war is not peace: the saying is true of Sri Lanka today. While the country’s civil war ended four years ago, and roads have been rebuilt, human rights protections are getting weaker. The personal tragedies of the conflict’s victims… Read more »
Infographic on Sri Lanka Situation
Sri Lanka: A False Peace Page 1 Page 2
TfO: Demand Congress Party Support for International Investigation for Sri Lankan War Crimes
Tamils for Obama to Karunanidhi: Demand Congress Party Support for International Investigation for Sri Lankan War Crimes Tamils for Obama said to DMK chief Karunanidhi in a letter that he had a unique opportunity to push Congress Party in the right direction in support of an International Investigation of war crimes committed by Sri Lanka… Read more »
Khurshid Promises Best Possible Decision on Sri Lanka in Geneva
Demanding an impartial inquiry into the “genocide” in Sri Lanka, the former External Affairs Minister said there should also be a clear commitment from Colombo that the guilty would be punished.
The Truth Unravelling
The Rajapaksa government enjoys the support of the Sinhalese population when it comes to withstanding war-related international pressure. But when Gossip9 posted the photo feature of Balachandran’s death, around 30 percent of the comments were against the cold-blooded killing of the young boy. Usually, comments on war-related stories are anti-LTTE and full of praise for military action. The innocence of the young boy seems to have made the difference.
Survey: Sri Lanka’s LLRC Progress
Sri Lanka has long had a problem with disappearances. Accordingly, the LLRC sought to address this issue in its final report, which includes the following two recommendations:
Recommendation 9.46: Investigate allegations of abductions, enforced or involuntary disappearance; bring perpetrators to justice.
Recommendation 9.51: “…the Commission recommends that a Special Commissioner of Investigation be appointed to investigate alleged disappearances and provide material to the Attorney General to initiate criminal proceedings where appropriate.”
Yet the GoSL’s record on disappearances continues to be a concern. Appallingly, 25% of TSA survey respondents have had a family member disappear. And that individual was usually the principal incomer earner of the family.
Sri Lanka Has No Capacity To Hold Any Credible Investigation
The Human Rights situation in the North and the East, and indeed in all parts of the country continues to deteriorate. Not holding anyone accountable for the grave crimes committed during the last stages of the war, has its heavy price.
LLRC Summary
What Lessons Learned? An accessible, thematised summary of the LLRC report LLRC summary IEC 2012 The key objective of this summary is to present the key recommendations of the LLRC report in a way that is both accessible and comprehensible to those individuals and communities who have, to date, been excluded from the mainstream dialogue on the report’s… Read more »
ICG: Sri Lanka’s Authoritarian Turn
Sri Lanka is faced with two worsening and inter-connected governance crises. The dismantling of the independent judiciary and other democratic checks on the executive and military will inevitably feed the growing ethnic tension resulting from the absence of power sharing and the denial of minority rights.
Sri Lanka’s Squandered Opportunities
Mr. Rajapaksa had promised to expand that local autonomy as a way of addressing the legitimate interests of Tamils, who form a majority in parts of the north and east. But this month he celebrated Sri Lanka’s independence day by delivering a speech that reneged on the pledge. The government is now signaling that it may repeal the constitutional provision on local rights.
Last Hours of Prabhakaran’s Son
Sri Lanka has always insisted it did what it could to ensure no civilians were killed during its operation against the LTTE. Yet a team appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon found that up to 40,000 civilians may have been killed. The team said there were credible allegations both sides committed war crimes.
Don’t Let the Rajapaksas Ruin Sri Lanka
Yet there was hope of peace with the victorious government’s offer to cede autonomy to the country’s ethnic Tamil minority, most of whom live in the north and east. Unfortunately, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa now intimates that he has no intention of following through on that offer.
Broken Dreams: The Truth about SL
The government’s talk about a military drawdown lacks merit, especially in the Northern Province. “We are living under military occupation,” notes one community member living near Jaffna. Even though several checkpoints have been removed, a large number of them have been converted into shops – such as grocery stores and cafés – that are run by the military. The ubiquity of military personnel does not leave people feeling safer; ordinary citizens feel more vulnerable and the country’s continued militarization has contributed to a host of widespread social problems including alcohol abuse, sexual violence and rape.
The Middle Managers of Ethnic Cleansing
But after observing the role played by the native bureaucrats within the colonial administrations of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was realized that it was also possible for a bureaucracy to go against the very interests of its own class or nationality… They were actually described at that time as the ‘steel frame of the British Empire’…
The rise of the Nation-State, which at all times “seeks to homogenize its population in order to consolidate its power”, posed new problems for minority Nations, and governance in general. Here also, the discriminatory policies in sharing of resources and opportunities, changing demography through State sponsored colonization schemes and land alienation policies, all were implemented by the bureaucracy. In most cases, by a bureaucracy belonging to the group that was being systematically marginalized and annihilated. This universal characteristic is all the more apparent in the Tamil speaking areas of the North and East in Sri Lanka. There, no writ can be carried out without the collaboration of the Tamil and Muslim bureaucrats.
TNA Statement on Visit to South Africa
In this context we are acutely aware that the GOSL will seek to show the world that some progress has been made, by pointing to the current visit by the TNA to South Africa. Therefore, we wish to make it clear that our engagement with the South African initiative is NOT a process that we have commenced with the GOSL and that appropriate action at the UNHRC is absolutely necessary to persuade the GOSL to comply with the said resolution and to discontinue with its harmful agenda against the Tamil People of Sri Lanka.