How to Deal with Racism
Photo courtesy The Platform/Raashid Riza The Lord Buddha once said “When someone fires an arrow into you, you don’t try and find out who fired the arrow and what they are all…
Year: 2013
The Sinhalese…
[The triple gem of Anuradhapura; Abhayagiriya facing north and its synthesis of Theravada and Mahayana represents the spiritual values of balance and integration; Ruvanweliseya in the western corner symbolizes caution, orthodoxy and…
Mullikulam: Restrictions on fishing, cultivation, access to the church and school continue
The continuous appeals and campaigns carried out by the people of Mullikulam, the Bishop of Mannar, Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph and members of the clergy and civil society seems to have…
Travails of the Women in the Vanni
Photo courtesy Amantha Perera / Perambara All of us remember the day the war ended in Sri Lanka. While those in the rest of the country rejoiced, to the Tamils, many of…
It’s about Justice, stupid!
Image via DBS Jeyaraj.com My faith is not threatened by the faith of others whose beliefs are different from my own. Neither my race nor my culture is under threat of being…
Appeal from the 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…
The Numbers Never Lie: A Comprehensive Assessment of Sri Lanka’s LLRC Progress
Download the report in full here, or view in inline here. ### Introduction Nearly four years since the end of the country’s civil war, Sri Lanka remains a divided, post-war society, as…
Police detains families of disappeared from Northern Sri Lanka and prevents peaceful protest and petition to the UN
[Editors note: See our earlier report, .] March 5th, 2013, Vavuniya On March 5th, 2013, at about 8.30pm, the Police blocked about 600 persons, comprising families of the disappeared and civil society activists…
‘Kerosene’ by Kannan Arunasalam wins international documentary award
in 2011. First screened in Colombo and subsequently featured on the critically acclaimed Moving Images website, ‘Kerosene’ and his two other short films generated the most feedback and engagement given their unique,…
Impeachment of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice and its impact: What do you think?
Photo courtesy Euronews Just a few weeks since the impeachment of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, no one is really talking about it anymore. Interviews conducted by and featured on at…
Police impeding the movement of Tamils
11.14PM, 5th March 2013: Families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka, traveling to attend a demonstration in front of Colombo UN office, were detained in Vavuniya by the Police. Eleven buses with…
An Allegory For Sri Lanka’s Sad Communalism
Photo by Aufidius, via The recent debate around the anti-halal movement, with its echoes of anti-Tamil sentiment of the post-independence period (‘Tamils get more government jobs,’ ‘Tamils have access to better education…
Grievances of Muslims in the North
“It is not only inhumane to be expected to live under such terrible conditions, but these conditions are also a breeding ground for mosquitoes and the spread of other communicable diseases. If…
Nalanda Sahayogaya
Image from Wikimedia Commons Grappling and struggling With this constructed reality Where everyone wants to succeed But so few do Why don’t we try and forge Our own reality? I find it…
Lies, Damn Lies and Mahinda Samarasinghe at the UN HRC
Image courtesy JDS Sri Lanka Campaign has just released a very good compilation of rebuttals to points made by Min Mahinda Samarasinghe’s address to the UN Human Rights Council yesterday, which can…