Witnessing Two Genocides Happening Now
As part of the Kolamba Kamatha Festival, Stages Theatre Group presented , two powerful plays of remembering, witnessing and refusing to look away. In , playwright Ruwanthi De Chickera distills the complexity…
Search Results for: torture
Sri Lanka’s Response to the UK Sanctions
Last year, I studied in some depth perceptions of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and the National People’s Power (NPP) after the consequential presidential election and again after the even more significant…
Sanctions: A Step in the Right Direction to Combat Impunity
The UK government has announced sanctions on three top former war time military commanders and a former LTTE commander accused of serious human rights violations and abuses such as extra judicial killings,…
UK Sanctions Former Military Commanders and Karuna
The UK government has imposed sanctions, which include UK travel bans and asset freezes, on three former military commanders and a Tamil paramilitary leader accused of serious human rights violations and abuses…
The Anatomy of a Debasement
Let’s begin with a story. Once upon a time, the prime minister of an island nation was plagued by an outbreak of labour unrest. He summoned the police chief and ordered him…
Sentiment Analysis of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Al Jazeera Interview with Mehdi Hasan
Renowned journalist Mehdi Hasan interviewed the former president Ranil Wickremesinghe on a programme of Head to Head, produced by Al Jazeera. The programme was released to YouTube and first broadcast on March 6….
Tackling Extra Judicial Killings
The incidents of extra judicial killings are on the rise again with several suspects being killed while allegedly trying to escape or dying while in police custody. The police are identified as…
The Re-gathering
“ In 2009, Mahinda Rajapaksa conquered Sri Lanka. In 2010, he set out to conquer the world with an address to the Oxford Union. Although the visit was a private one, a…
Rani: The Mother Who Wouldn’t Disappear
After armed men stormed into her house in the middle of the night and dragged her son Richard de Zoysa away, Dr Manorani Saravanamuttu made frantic phone calls pleading with the authorities…
The Ghosts of Constitution Hill
I sense I’m standing on hallowed ground. A place searing with warnings, some heeded, many forgotten. Here the weight of history lays heavy on me, the solemn, searching, haunted visitor. I’ve never…
The Year That Was a Turning Point for Sri Lanka
In 2024 Sri Lanka elected its first leftist head of state and government, giving rise to hope that the system change desired by its citizens would become a reality in the future….
Christmas, Palestine, Rohingyas and Sri Lanka
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Palestine, during a time of colonization and political and economic oppression by Roman imperialism. Those who dared to call for freedom and justice were brutally crushed….
Open Sesame for War Criminals?
In the second decade of the 21st Century, genocide is being televised. , the channel promises Israeli audiences “exclusive content from Gaza” – gory videos of death and destruction visited on Palestinians…
Bringing Perpetrators of Gross Human Rights Violations to Task
The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), an independent NGO working since 2013 to protect and promote justice and accountability in Sri Lanka, has submitted more than 60 sanctions and visa ban…
SL Faces International Pressure to Set its Human Rights Record Straight
Kumanan Sri Lanka is wrestling with deep-rooted human rights challenges despite pledges for reform. Accountability, civil liberties and governance issues remain stubbornly unresolved, casting a long shadow over the nation’s future. The…
