Asylum Seekers: the next wave of ‘invaders’?
Image courtesy Zimbio Teaching Selvam (not his real name) even the rudiments of English pronunciation is not easy. He only completed his primary school and is now in his mid 40s. In…
International Relations
Sri Lankan diplunacy: Stray dogs, pricks, tigresses and CHOGM 2013
Photo courtesy Transcurrents / by Tony Ashby, AFP Bandula Jayasekara (@bundeljayse) is currently one of Sri Lanka’s highest-ranking diplomats, as Consul General in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia and former Consul…
India and Sri Lanka: The Road Not Taken
Photo courtesy “…Sri Lankan foreign policy must be centred on a non-hostile relationship with India…Choice is the essential question; not only the choices open to us, but the choices likely to be…
“Standing Man” and new wave of protests in Turkey
“Get up stand up, stand up for your rights”, a song made famous many years ago by Bob Marley is being brought to life by the “Standing Man” and many others who…
Sri Lanka’s Global Vulnerability & the Devolution Conundrum
Photo courtesy The Hindustan Times/AP A society or state that demonstrates repeated violent convulsions over a fairly prolonged period such as decades does so because of a deep underlying problem. In the…
Sri Lanka at a critical crossroad: JHU and the 13th Amendment
Udaya Gammanpila, Senior Member of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), courtesy FT.lk The country stands at a crossroad. A parliamentary victory for the JHU bill will complete the negative process which commenced…
First Failure in Geneva: Trap, Blunder or Model?
However bad Sri Lanka’s foreign policy is and external relations are, they have yet to hit the nadir that they did under President Jayewardene in the 1980s. The first ever resolution on…
Of Foreign Policy Failures, Geneva Resolutions, Double Standards and other excuses for Non-Reconciliation in Sri Lanka
Reminiscences of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy triumphs spearheaded by the late lamented Lakshman Kadirgamar are fresh in my mind given that it was only the other day (12 April) that we marked…
Sri Lanka and Indian / American Agendas
Having read a post by HE Jaliya Wickramasuriya, our Ambassador in the USA, titled “A Role for Sri Lanka in US Pivot to Asia”, I thought it may be ideal to understand…
Interview with Nimalka Fernando: The UN HRC resolution and beyond
Nimalka, now we’ve seen that the council voted for the resolution on Sri Lanka. What is your initial impression? It’s a serious voting pattern. Because if you look at the resolution, the…
UN HRC 22nd Session | Resolution ‘Promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka’
An archive of material around the Resolution titled ‘Promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka’ passed at the UN Human Rights Council today. Final text below, and available as PDF here, and…
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…
Stratfor and Sri Lanka: An initial study of ‘The Global Intelligence Files’
and Wikileaks was a more specific piece, that looked at the drafting process of official statements in general by the US Government and in particular, a statement by the US State Department…
A former Ambassador speaks out: Interview with Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
In his first interview for public television in Sri Lanka upon his return to the country after his stint as Ambassador to France and UNESCO in Paris, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka talked about…
Interview with Alistair Burt on Sri Lanka
The BBC’s Charles Haviland interviewed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs Minister Alistair Burt on 1st February 2013, during an official visit to Sri Lanka which saw the Minister…