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…
IDPs and Refugees
Sri Lanka resumes deportation of asylum seekers
Photograph courtesy “Please save my family, please” was the message I received from a Pakistani friend last weekend. It was about her family of seven, including 3 children, who had fled Pakistan…
“What is the Question?” The Matter of Surrendees and Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Response
Meera Srinivasan, the Hindu correspondent in Sri Lanka, at the first press conference with Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked him what happened to the LTTE cadres and others who surrendered to the…
Beyond Borders: Statelessness and the People in Between
The United Nations Charter begins “We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…..” Yet, the structure and decision making of the United Nations…
A Threatened Refuge
June 20th is World Refugee Day. In the immediate aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks, Pakistani refugee families living in Negombo, faced intimidation and violence that forced them to leave their homes. The…
World Refugee Day and Refugees in Sri Lanka
June 20 is World Refugee Day, coinciding with a time Sri Lanka faces its most serious refugee crisis since 2014. Though not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967…
Keppapulavu: Land Struggle Reaches Boiling Point after 700 days of protest
700 days is a long time for a day and night protest outside an Army camp. Since March 1, 2017, the people of Keppapulavu, located in the Mullaitheevu district in Northern Sri…
Release Our Land As Promised: Displaced People And Supporters Write to President
Editor’s Note: The following is the text of a letter handed over to the President, Prime Minister and party leaders, asking for the release of land in the North and East to…
Challenging Occupation: Iranaitheevu Residents Mark 359 Days of Protest
“In the past, we never had to leave the island, even when we got sick. We would use our natural medicine. We used to grow everything here – ayurvedic medicine, fruits and…
Redefining Home: Experiences of the Jaffna Displaced
Many middle-aged displaced Tamils who have resettled in Colombo remain reluctant to return to their places of origin in Jaffna due to personal and professional reasons. This article explains how they have…
Iranaitheevu; a year of continuous protests to regain Navy-occupied land
After the election of the new government in 2015, the people of Iranaitheevu, forcibly displaced since 1992, finally thought they would be able to return home. Yet a flurry of letters and…
Clearing the minefields of Northern Sri Lanka: A task for survivors
Nine years after the end of the war, Sri Lanka is still working to address residual traces of conflict that linger in varying forms across the island, and concentrated in the Northern…
One Year in Keppapilavu
The gates of the 59 Division Mullaitivu Security Forces Headquarters dominate the view 10 kilometres inwards from the Nandikadal lagoon and the Eastern coast. The protest tent a few metres away appears…
The Rohingya in our midst: Learning from the vulnerable
Photo by REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain via A Reflection The Rohingya in our midst brought out the worst in some of us. The aggression of a mob that sought to intimidate and deny these…
Voluntary, Safe and Sustainable Return: Support Needed for Sri Lankan Refugees
“O our motherland, bid us a farewell We buried our smiles in our lips We buried our life in our bodies We are making a procession like empty skeletons….” This was the…
