Christmas During the Civil War
Coming from a Christian family, Christmas is one of the most important festivals for us. I was born in Navaly village in Jaffna to a wealthy Christian family. My grandparents celebrated Christmas…
Peace and Conflict
Mourning Children, Tyrant
Nobody will mourn you, tyrant, when you’re gone, when the coffin lowers into the grave. Nobody will visit the memorial and there will need to be guards placed on each…
A Politics of Conscience
On August 14, 2006 the Sri Lankan air force bombed an orphanage in Vallipunam killing 61 schoolgirls. The Rajapaksa administration insisted that the location was a LTTE training camp and the victims…
US, Israel, Gaza and Oil
The US-Israeli war in Palestine Gaza declared after October 7 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cover up the failure of Israel’s security apparatus to take action on intelligence warnings from Egypt…
To Pledge Again
The math is simple. There are fifteen members of the UN Security Council. Five are permanent, the rest elected for two year terms. Together they represent the enforcement wing of the…
Nyet…Yahu
Do you think we can put this aside, forget, go to the reading with books and introductions, nothing nagging in gut and mind? No vision of a baby wrapped in…
75 Years On, UDHR’s Relevance in Sri Lanka and Beyond
On December 10, 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Drawing on grim experience of how misuse of power caused massive destruction and suffering and reflecting…
Downgraded to Repressed: Assessing Sri Lanka’s Ever Shrinking Civic Space
The CIVICUS Monitor, an organization that tracks the status of civic space around the world, has downgraded Sri Lanka’s civic space in 2023 to repressed from obstructed due to authorities attacking protesters,…
Children are the First Victims of Every Conflict
Children have always been the most vulnerable and innocent casualties of any conflict. Past conflicts have had a devastating impact on children’s lives and ongoing conflicts continue to perpetuate their suffering. The…
Understanding Kissinger
For 30 years if not more, Henry Kissinger, who died this week aged 100, shaped the course of US foreign policy and in one sense defined global politics. A Nobel Prize Laureate…
The Mylanthanai Massacre: A Continuing Cycle of Impunity
Nallasera Nallamma was cooking lunch when the soldiers stormed into her remote village of Mylanthanai, one hour northwest of Batticaloa town, on August 9, 1992. They rounded up the villagers, separating the…
Kill the Families
When I set off for Columbia University to become a foreign correspondent, to cover wars and peacemaking, famine, floods, murders, kidnappings, larceny on a global scale, I never imagined that…
Remembering the Dead
As a Catholic, I start November with All Souls Day remembering our departed loved ones; as a Tamil, November ends with remembering the Tamil militants who sacrificed their lives for a Tamil…
Three Poems for Palestine
APOCALYPSE The thunder of horses’ hooves No longer evokes terror This comes from the skies Life limps amidst the craters, The suffocating smoke, Brimstone would be a welcome manna from heaven…
“Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Absence”
The title of the article comes from a comment made by Donald Rumsfeld when he was US Defence Secretary for President George Bush and when they learnt that the UN Monitoring, Verification…