366 days – Roadside Protests in Kilinochchi
366 days (as of 20th Feb) is a long time to be at a 24 hour roadside protest. That’s how long Tamil families of disappeared in Kilinochchi have been there. In the…
Author: Ruki Fernando
Ekneligoda, Sugirtharajan and 24th January
For several years, the Free Media Movement (FMM) of Sri Lanka and free expression advocates have dubbed January as “Black January”. This was in the context of a large number of journalists…
Mary’s Consent for Jesus’s birth: A Christmas reflection
Image courtesy Wikipedia Christmas is the story of Mary, a young unwedded mother, giving birth to a refugee child, Jesus, in a sheep shed. The central male character in this story is…
“We vehemently refuse to be deceived again”: Protests by families of disappeared, continuing abductions and empty promises
Photography from Above was the last line in a press release issued on 17th August, by Association for Relatives for Enforced Disappeared in Kilinochchi district, at a press conference in Colombo. It…
World Refugees Day and refugees from and to Sri Lanka
Photograph courtesy 20th June is World Refugee Day. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 65.6 million people have been forcibly displaced globally. I have heard that close to one…
In support of religious minorities, rule of law and Lakshan Dias
Image from Religious minorities in Sri Lanka – particularly Muslims and Evangelical Christians – faced serious persecution under the Rajapakse Government, which has continued even under the Sirisena-Ranil Government. The Catholic Archbishop…
Sellamma & her struggle to reclaim her house and land in Puthukudiyiruppu
Sellamma is 83 years old. She has a house in Puthukudiyiruppu (PTK) East, Ward no. 7, in the Mullaitivu district in the Northern Province. It’s opposite the PTK Divisional Secretariat (DS). But…
Refugee Jesus: Christmas & Refugees in Sri Lanka
Photo by Jessica Sallabank, from IRIN Jesus was born as a refugee child. When Mary, the pregnant mother on the move couldn’t find a place to give birth, it was poor shepherds…
Harassment of human rights defenders even under ‘yahapalanaya’
Photo courtesy Sampsonia Way Today, 1st Oct. 2016, I came the Bandaranayake international airport in Sri Lanka to travel to London. I was asked by the officer at the immigration counter to…
Remembering, celebrating and missing Sunila Abeysekera
Featured image courtesy the New York Times/Patricia Williams Ever since Sunila passed away 3 years ago, I have wanted to write about her, but found it difficult to articulate my experiences and…
Black July, Government promises and our future
I’m thankful to British Tamils Forum (BTF) for inviting me to share some reflections and thoughts on this occasion. Many of you gathered for this commemoration might be Tamils. Some may be…
Remembering Sivaram (Taraki)
Image courtesy Today’s event focuses on one man. Today morning, there was a protest in Colombo, organized by a coalition of media freedom groups and others, demanding accountability for Sivaram’s murder. It…
Disappearances in Sri Lanka & Role of Civil Society
Featured image courtesy ICMP It is significant for me to talk about civil society’s role on disappearances at an event organized by Law and Society Trust (LST) because it was at LST…
Solidarity Actions and Struggles for Justice in Sri Lanka
Image courtesy BBC On 28th December 2015, the Nuwara Eliya High Court delivered a historic judgment: two men were each sentenced to 23 years rigorous imprisonment and ordered to pay Rs. 200,000 in…
Disappearances in Sri Lanka and the visit of the UN Working Group on Disappearances
Picture from ICMP In the 35 year history of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (“WGEID”), Sri Lanka ranks number two, shamefully, in the numbers of disappearance cases…