“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…
International Relations
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…
Alistair Burt: Archive of Twitter interview on Sri Lanka
Photo credit FCO [Editors note: Also listen to Interview with Alistair Burt on Sri Lanka] On 5th February 2013, UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt hosted a live interview session via Twitter….
Conflict dynamics and Islamic values from Mindanao to Sri Lanka: In conversation with Mehmet Rizal Derindag
Mehmet Rizal is a UN Ambassador For Peace and presently based in the Philippines. As noted in his biography, Rizal played a key role in bringing the Philippines government and Moro Islamic…
Eating properly and smiling: The evasive Valerie Amos on Twitter
On 18th December 2012, at around 10pm in Sri Lanka, Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator took to Twitter, ostensibly to answer questions related to the…