Black July: The Unspoken and the Unspeakable
July. Referred to as Black July to mark the pogrom against Tamils in 1983 carried out by Sinhala mobs. Pogrom is a Russian word meaning ‘to wreak havoc, to demolish violently’, that…
Human Rights
The Significance of 1983
I was a PhD student in London when the carnage of July 1983 erupted and thank God for the bravery and foresight of my mother and sister, my family was saved from…
The Night on the Horizon
Phillip Larkin (Going) That was Fort magistrate Ranga Dissanayake speaking in open court, on June 24th 2020. The pictures the CID officials wanted to show possible witnesses just before an identity parade…
Navaly Church Bombing – 25 Years On
In July 1995 the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Navaly, Jaffna, was filled with displaced Tamils seeking refuge and safety from the war. People in Navaly, including members of the…
Rights Lawyers Under Fire in Sri Lanka
Last month (May 2020) a Magistrate in Jaffna had withdrawn quarantine orders against the organizers of end of war commemorations, based on appeals by lawyers.[1] At least three lawyers have faced reprisals…
Scapegoating the Muslims: From Aluthgama to Post-Easter Sunday to COVID-19
Photo via To date in Sri Lanka 9 persons are said to have died of Covid-19 and out of these 4 are Muslims. At least 02 of these victims’ families believe their…
Ramzy Razeek: An extraordinary struggle for an ordinary life of service upended by an arrest
Image courtesy Ramzy Razik was arrested on April 9, 2020 at his home off Katugasota in Kandy by the CID. The next day, he was produced before the Colombo Magistrate where the…
The Rights of Minorities under Extraordinary Circumstances
Image courtesy Quartz India The Muslim community in Sri Lanka has been engaged with the government in a debate to allow persons who died after contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19) to be buried…
Poignant Short Stories
Image courtesy The following two short stories were sent in by Tara Kumarasinghe. She is “writing on behalf of the ‘invisible demographics’ in an attempt at social commentary to ensure corona doesn’t…
Pardoning Sunil – A response
Two significant incidents took place on 26 March 2020. Sri Lanka recorded 102 confirmed Covid-19 patients; and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa granted a presidential pardon to Sunil Rathnayake, former Army Staff Sergeant and…
Justice in the Time of a Pandemic
‘What physicians say about consumptive illness is applicable here: that at the beginning, such an illness is easy to cure but difficult to diagnose; but as time passes, not having been recognised…
Releasing Prisoners to prevent spread of COVID-19 in prisons
26th March 2020 To: H.E. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka Hon. Jayantha Jayasuriya, Chairman of the Judicial Services Commission, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of…
Protecting Prisoners from Coronavirus
There have been no deaths due to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sri Lanka. The number of confirmed cases per day went down the last two days (20th and 21st March)[1]. But tragically,…
The Colombo Declaration
Image Samya Arif/Medium Read the full article on The Hindu. Click here to access the full text of the Colombo Declaration, an excerpt of which is below: Whereas on the occasion of…
Digana: Two years later
5th of March 2018 marked the beginning of a series of violent mob attacks against the Muslims in the central parts of the country, perpetrated by the ethno-nationalist Sinhala Buddhists. A personal…