3 years after the end of war: Official statements vs. reality
Sri Lankan Army soldiers march during a Victory Day parade rehearsal in Colombo on May 16, 2012. Sri Lanka celebrates War Heroes Week with a military parade scheduled for May 19. PHOTO/…
Jaffna
Three years after the war in Sri Lanka: To celebrate or mourn?
Photo courtesy For the 3rd successive year, the Sri Lankan government has made elaborate arrangements to celebrate the end of the war in Colombo. This year, May was declared as “war hero’s commemoration…
Extra Time
The latest news from the family-run, once independent island, is the appointment of a presidential committee to decide upon which recommendations to adopt regarding the erstwhile ethnic question, which has been subsumed…
Cluster bombs in Sri Lanka: From denial to discovery
Ravi Nessman from Associated Press has broken what’s perhaps the most important story on the war, since it ended three years ago. In a story published by AP a few hours ago,…
Sri Lanka’s Census 2012: What should have been asked? What could have been done better?
Conducting a census is an important activity for any country as the data gathered from it would serve as the foundation for policies, development related activities and future planning of not only…
Co-operatives: A better option to channel relief to war victims in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy Sampath Wijenayake It is no secret that many members of the Tamil diaspora are actively involved in helping the victims of the war in Sri Lanka in some way or the…
Horrible rise of disappearances in post-war Sri Lanka continues unabated
Image from Transcurrents [Editors note: ] Twenty nine disappearances (including an attempted abduction) have been reported in Sri Lankan media between February and March 2012. There have been fifteen in March and…
The rape of a 13 year old and paramilitary presence in Jaffna
March 3, 2012 marked a very dark ebb in our society as it saw the horrific rape and murder of little Jesudasan Lakshini (13), allegedly at the hands of former EPDP cadre,…
Fishing in Turbulent Waters
Introduction Newly initiated development projects in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in post-war Sri Lanka are expected to open new avenues towards ethnic reconciliation, as proclaimed not only by government media but…
The Geneva II debacle
Photo courtesy Vikalpa, from protest against US resolution in Colombo, 27 February 2012 The US-sponsored resolution at the UNHRC had to be defeated. It was not. 24 in favour, 15 against, 8…
Defending the Country
They cry foul in that cauldron of a news room, saying these human rights defenders are traitors, publishing their names and photographs, inciting fears of death squads preparing to drive white vans…
After the UNHRC Resolution Vote: Don’t Hold Your Breath for Truth, Justice or Reconciliation
Photo courtesy JDS/Guy Calaf, Agence France-Presse By the time this article is published, the votes on the hotly-contested UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka will have been cast and counted….
Counter-productive propaganda and human rights in Sri Lanka
As the three Sri Lankan human rights defenders who have come most under attack by the state media in Sri Lanka in the past week, because of our active involvement with the…
Off the Field
In the end we have only ourselves to pick up from the grass, the bed, the gymnasium floor. The dead will have their say in dreams, and fond ones too, how the…
A question Sri Lanka’s leaders keep dodging: Where are the disappeared?
Photo courtesy Avaaz I’d been in Sri Lanka just three weeks when I first heard of someone disappearing. It was May 2009 and I got an anonymous email telling me that Stephen…
