Battleground Geneva: The Special Session of the HRC on Sri Lanka
“Sri Lanka forces West to retreat over ‘war crimes’ with victory at UN” – The TIMES (London), May 28, 2009 “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends …Mmm,…
Year: 2009
NORMALISING THE EXCEPTION: THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IN PEACETIME
In response to a call by the Opposition and civil society to lift the state of emergency and to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in consequence of the end of…
An After Thought by an Inside Outsider
After a war is won, there is always the after thought. Leaders from conflict parties, either dead or living, will be portrayed either as martyrs, heroes, traitors, terrorists….the list is endless. Which…
Holding Out For a Hero
Well it’s not exactly a hero. What we are really holding out for is a statesman – but that wouldn’t have made a catchy title. Yet it is a statesman that is…
THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY, JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY IN SRI LANKA
This year marks the twentieth death anniversary of Rajini Thiranagama, doctor, lecturer, feminist and human rights defender, and the first death anniversary of human rights lawyer and political activist Maheshwari Velauthan. The…
Monster
The degree of denial of Prabhakaran’s death within the expatriate Tamil consciousness is the best evidence of the pathology of Tamil ultra-nationalism. Rohana Wijeweera’s followers were fanatics, but when their leader was…
India, Sri Lanka and the Minority Question
Spontaneous street parties broke out, fireworks crackled in the air and strangers offered flowers to soldiers to celebrate the news in Colombo – Asia’s Idi Amin was no more! One of the…
The Sinhala conquest of the Tamil nation
[Editors note: by Martin White, read over 900 times to date, elicited a number of responses among which were those of Nicolai. It is Nicolai’s last response that Martin White takes up…
Big Game
A group of men are standing in an outdoor location. They are grinning and laughing and are triumphant but most importantly of all, they exude an air of victory. The camera pans…
What are we celebrating? Questions to ponder
On the 19th of May 2009, the Sri Lankan president announced that the 27 year old civil war was finally over, that the LTTE as a military entity ceases to exist. This…
Can we End this Cycle of Hatred?
I am amazed at the mobilization of young people from the Tamil Diaspora around the world to protest against the Sri Lankan government’s purported human rights violations. When often the younger generation…
Why I was disappointed by the Sri Lankan President’s speech heralding the end to war
At the outset let me say this. I am neither moved to tears of joy that would prompt me to fly a flag and light fire crackers nor tears of absolute sorrow…
The end of one man and the legacy of another: We cannot glorify death
Yesterday we were given a body whose death left me strangely numb. While it was a man whose brutality I condemned, it was not a death that I could celebrate. It was…
End of the LTTE and future of the Tamil Struggle
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which claimed to be the sole representatives of Tamil people, one of the most feared and considered as one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations…
Interview with a leading Buddhist priest on whether the LTTE is really finished and the war over in Sri Lanka
Vikalpa Video asked Ven. Prof. Bellanvila Vimalarathana Thero for his opinion on whether the LTTE was really finished and the war over in Sri Lanka. Ven. Prof. Bellanvila Vimalarathana Thero is the…
