India’s Volte-Face: Winners and Losers
India’s hasty decision to support the United States of America led Resolution on Sri Lanka came as a big surprise. While a few rumours flagged the possibility of an India “for”…
War Crimes
Sri Lanka and the UNHRC: Implications for India and for Human Rights
Image courtesy India Ink blog by New York Times/Rajanish Kakade, Associated Press As the 19th session of the Human Rights Council progresses, the discourse on Sri Lanka with reference to Human Rights…
What is the bigger lie? US resolution in Geneva or number of people in Vanni in 2009?
Image from Wikimedia Commons “One of the rankest untruths in the public domain today is that the US resolution is innocuous and unobjectionable…” said Amb. Dayan Jayatilleka in his article THE BIG…
A Realistic Look at the Draft Resolution by the US on Sri Lanka at the UN HRC
Placard in Sinhala reads ‘Barack, you’re a burden for us’. Photo courtesy Priyantha Wickremarachchi/Ceylon Today The US recently tabled a draft resolution against Sri Lanka is so incredibly weak that President Mahinda…
THE BIG LIE ABOUT THE US RESOLUTION
Image from The Nation It is almost a crime to lie to the people and mislead them on a matter of vital national interest. When it is committed by politicians it is…
Post 9/11 world: Compromises with war crimes and accountability
The President looking at war crimes in Vietnam. Courtesy Defence.lk A mapping of differences amongst and alliances within member States of the UN Human Rights Council, reduced to 46 with Libya not…
Some thoughts on Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished
Like so many diasporic Sri Lankans I watched it, even staying up late (by my currently low standards that is). Did I think that the first programme was a good thing? Yes.…
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished: Unofficial video now online
Channel 4’s new documentary on Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished aired for the first time in the UK last night. Before it is even available on Channel 4’s…
Sri Lanka and its ‘Geneva-problem’
The year 2009 was when the Western group of States at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) made a serious diplomatic blunder, by attempting to pass a resolution against Sri Lanka. The…
Why Sri Lanka must ‘win’ at UNHRC
The following is an excerpt from a statement recently made by Ambassador Eileen Chambarlain Donahoe JD PhD, top US diplomat to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC): The case of Sri…
LLRC REPORT: REASON, REFORM, ROADMAP
Photo, courtesy JDS, is of Sri Lanka’s President reading the LLRC report on a ‘‘ at his official residence. Though not without flaws and lacuna, the long awaited LLRC report does not disappoint, and…
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…
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,…
Post-war situation in Northern Sri Lanka & Prospects for Reconciliation
Changes since the end of the war: 30 months after the end of war, more people travel between the once off limits North[i] and the South and many of the travel restrictions…
CHOGM-2011: HOW DIPLOMATIC VICTORIES END IN DISGRACE
[Editors note: As noted by the author below, an example of the distressingly bad propaganda of the Sri Lankan Government, attributed in some websites to the Director General of the President’s Media…