Sri Lanka and the death of Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi was captured alive and killed thereafter. This is a fact that no one contests today. Even the killer himself accepted the responsibility in front of a mobile camera. Once any…
War Crimes
Waiting for the end of the LLRC
Image courtesy LLRC Another session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva has come to an end. Sri Lanka has emerged unscathed, even though considerable pressure is being exerted on the…
Channel 4’s ‘Killing Fields’: Journalism, Advocacy or Propaganda?
Image from Channel 4 Introduction The UK based Channel 4 documentary, “Killing Fields”, possesses an interesting characteristic. It has the power of accentuating the prejudices and biases of viewers. The reaction found…
Human Rights in Sri Lanka: Impunity against Accountability and Justice
Image credit AP, via BBC News “There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.” – Lord Buddha : When I was a…
13th Amendment: Plus? Or Minus?
Introduction Leader of National Freedom Front (NFF) and the Minister of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing & Common Amenities, Hon Wimal Weerawansa delivered a public lecture on the 7th of September 2011 on…
Libya, Sri Lanka and Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Libya is the model of the new interventionism and is the latest, successful mode of application of the doctrine of R2P says Paddy Ashdown, writing in August 26, 2011). Influential individuals in…
War Crimes Investigations in Sri Lanka: An Unpopular View
“In trying to do good, we have been living beyond our moral resources and have fallen into hypocrisy and self-righteousness” — William V. Cannon, commenting on the Vietnam War, , February 6,…
Thus Spake Gothabaya
[Editors’ note: An edited version of this article appeared in the Daily Mirror today.] “The existing constitution is more than enough for us to live together. I don’t think there…
Darusman Deconstructed: Godfrey Gunatilleke’s Critique
With the solitary, honourable exception of completely missed the most important intellectual event in civil society in this post-war phase of our contemporary history. A media accustomed to lionising the less distinguished…
No One, in the US or Sri Lanka, Should Be Above the Law
Photo by Sudath Silva In a report released last month Human Rights Watch called on the US government to launch criminal investigations into allegations of detainee abuse authorized by senior Bush administration officials.…
Sri Lanka’s Tamil question: Justice, Lies and Videotape
Sri Lanka’s thirty year war is now more of words than of guns, but it is no less bitter. RNW’s team in the country met with fierce resistance from the Sri Lankan…
Heroes and Heroism: Osama Bin Laden and Prabhakaran
Photo: AP Osama Bin Laden. Dark avenging hero, Arabian knight, Arabic Lawrence of Arabia. Osama versus the USA: David versus Goliath, a hijacked airliner the stone from his slingshot. Not quite. David…
Why Government Rhetoric and Propaganda Might Divide Sri Lanka
In an interview Professor Rajiva Wijesinha gave concerning government responses to international pressure, he remarks that “people believe what they want to believe”. Wijesinha’s ironically astute observation sheds light on why government…
EXCLUSIVE: Interview with TNA MP Suresh Premachandran on the LG elections, Parliamentary Select Committee and Political Solution
caught up with TNA Member of Parliament Suresh Premachandran, who spoke to us about the nature of election violations that occurred in the Northern Province prior to the 23rd of July and…
Holes in the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts Report: Examining the Probable Alternate Events
Last week, I attended a seminar conducted by the Colombo-based Marga Institute, a think tank devoted to studying and influencing human development in Sri Lanka. Marga is in the process of putting…