The LLRC report and ‘accountability’ in Sri Lanka
Readers will find no big surprises after reading the final report of Sri Lanka’s . It is very much what most people were expecting. A document that looks to the future, exonerates the…
Politics and Governance
DISAPPEARANCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS & POLITICAL ACTIVISTS LALITH KUMAR WEERARAJ AND KUGAN MURUGAN ON 9TH DECEMBER 2011
Two Sri Lankan human rights defenders and political activists disappeared in Jaffna in the North of Sri Lank on 9th December 2011. There is still no credible news of their whereabouts and…
The LLRC Report: A Critical Reading
Photo credit For quite sometime, ever since the establishment of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the Government of Sri Lanka has been asking its critics not to pre-judge the work…
LLRC Recommendations: Can the Rajapaksa Regime Digest?
Photo credit Ada Derana Finally, the full report of the long awaited Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is in public domain, after it was presented in parliament on Friday (16 December,…
The official report of the LLRC
The official report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission was tabled in Parliament today. The official government site the report is available at is, at the time of writing, charitably put,…
A Public Memo to Members of Parliament representing the Tamil National Alliance from the Tamil Civil Society
Translation of original in Tamil and released on behalf of the signatories. Read in full screen here. A Public Memo to Members of Parliament representing the Tamil National Alliance from the Tamil…
What Killed The Consensual Agreements In The Past? How Not To Kill Our Political Dialogues?
The end of war did not envelope the country in peace nor is it practical to expect this to happen so soon after the termination of hostilities. Yet the expectation that the…
42 Political Activists and HRDs Detained and Prevented from Participating in Peaceful Protest in Jaffna Town on Human Rights Day
On December 10th 2011, a group of 42 HRDs and political activists from the South of Sri Lanka were detained by police in the Northern town of Jaffna and prevented from attending…
Bell Pottinger and Sri Lanka: A trail of spin doctoring and whitewashing
Aside from articles appearing last Sunday in the ran a story on how Bell Pottinger had written the President’s speech to the UN after the end of the war in 2009. The…
The singer might change but the song remains the same: A critical look at Roberts and Sarvananthan ‘outing’ Niromi de Soyza
John Ralston Saul[1] Edward W. Said[2] The job of a writer, especially one dealing with matters of historical import, is to make his or her agenda clear to the reader. Michael Roberts[3]…
It’s a long way to the Arab Spring in Sri Lanka. We are still stuck in the winter of our discontent!
Image from Ceasefire Magazine The Arab spring is fast becoming a global phenomenon in the sense that it is an inspiration and metaphor for branding the anti-government protestors around the world, reimagining…
Reflections on the ethics of violence: Just wars and morality
[World Philosophy Day is a UNESCO initiative to make philosophical reflection and spaces for the stimulation of critical thinking and debate, accessible to all. As part of a series of events organized…
Sri Lankan Women Human Rights Defenders: Linking Past and Present Challenges
As another year begins to draw to a close on post-war Sri Lanka, we can take stock of which changes, or the lack of change, we see around us. The full…
Reply to the Rebuttal of my article by the SJC87 Initiative
I welcome the statement by the SJC87 Initiative rebutting my aspersions about this charity. The primary focus of my research note was the contents and the publicity material of the book by…
Separating Fact from Fantasy on the ‘Research Note’ by ‘the Principal Researcher’ Mr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan
Editors note: Also read by Muttukrishna Sarvananthan. ### Mr. Sarvananthan’s so called ‘research note’ has seriously undermined the reputation of the SJC87 initiative and its ability to function as a non-political, non-profit charity…
