The Constitutional Crisis: A Round Up
On October 26, news broke that the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) had withdrawn from the coalition government. Shortly after, SLPP MP Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as Prime Minister by President…
On October 26, news broke that the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) had withdrawn from the coalition government. Shortly after, SLPP MP Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as Prime Minister by President…
On September 5, Colombo was nearly empty even during the after-school rush hour. The reason was the Joint Opposition’s Jana Balaya rally, the location of which remained under wraps until the last…
Featured image by Raisa Wickrematunge At the heart of this discourse lies the notion of apekama – loosely translating as ‘ourness’, or the idea that there are things that are authentically Sinhala…
One of the greatest challenges facing Sri Lanka today is the failure to bring about communal reconciliation in the island. Hate has grown, gone rampant and viral. On a recent visit to…
In March 2018, mob violence visited pockets in an East to West arc from 5-20 kilometres North of Kandy. The state is obligated to ensure the safety of its citizens and it…
Featured image courtesy dbsjeyaraj.com This June marks four years since Aluthgama and three months since Kandy. The perpetrators of Aluthgama were never prosecuted. Some perpetrators of Kandy are under arrest, though not…
‘How do you explain this to an eight-year old, and do you explain it at all?’ Nusra asks. Two of her three children watched their grandfather’s shop set on fire by people…
10 April 2018 Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dear Mark, In solidarity with and support of a letter signed by leading civil society organisations from Myanmar addressed to you recently, we, the undersigned,…
‘I rode back home that day watching fires burn the places I knew and loved. I watched mobs hunt for petrol. A curfew on the streets meant some areas were deserted, by…
Image courtesy Madness against Muslims The shameful acts of violence against the Muslim community in the Kandyan hills, were possible because the violence unleashed against the Muslim community in Ampara and…
As the debris settles in Kandy and Ampara, Sinhala Buddhists are faced with yet another moment of reckoning: how do we change the ways in which we think about citizenship and belonging…
We write to condemn ongoing violence against Sri Lanka’s Muslim community, especially the brutal attacks perpetrated over the past week. We are outraged that the government has failed to act speedily and…
A man belonging to the majority ethnic group was attacked by a youth from the minority ethnic group. Two days later, the mortally wounded man succumbed to his injuries and dies. Within…
Photo courtesy Asian Mirror Even as I write these words, Kandy is burning. Muslims, their homes and their properties are being targeted in the name of Buddhism, within shouting distance of the…
Gintota is a grim warning. The abyss is still with us. We remain a country where a private dispute can be interpreted as a religious issue and used to ignite a violent…