Reconciliation

Image courtesy of http://fgulen.com. The draft 20th Amendment to the constitution is a tribute to the faith placed in President Gotabaya Rajapaksa by the members of the government and the general population. This proposed change in the supreme law of the country will provide him with virtually unfettered powers and dominance over parliament and all […]

Image: The 13th amendment was brought up as part of Indo-Sri Lanka accord in 1987 and provincial councils were set up as part of devolution of powers, particularly for Tamil minorities. After the Rajapaksas’ win in the November 2019 presidential polls and the August 2020 general election, the spotlight has fallen on two key legislations […]

File photo courtesy of the Toronto Star. Armed with a two-third majority in Parliament, the Rajapaksas may not be content only with bringing in the 20th Amendment. The fear, especially among the Tamil minorities is that the 13th Amendment will go too. The 13th Amendment was a consequence of the Indian intervention in Sri Lanka […]

Mario Arulthas and Madura Rasaratnam. The Rajapaksa family’s recent resounding electoral successes appear at first sight to mark a decisive break in Sri Lanka’s post-war politics. Led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, former president and now Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the family rode to victory on a platform castigating the previous administration’s economic […]

In different parts of Sri Lanka, families of the disappeared came together to hold events to commemorate the UN Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30. In Digana (Central province), families held a fair at a Catholic church. In Jaffna (Northern province), families from across the North joined a protest march. In […]

The general elections of 2020, conducted in the midst of the ongoing crisis of COVID-19 and a global economic recession imminent, marks yet another turning point in our political history. Two issues under girded the campaign; nation building ideological platforms and economic considerations in the name of progress, development and welfare of the people. It […]

The “Mathiya Seyal Kuzhu” (central working committee) of the Ilankai Thamil Arasuk Katchi(ITAK) also known as the Federal Party will be meeting today (Aug 29) in Vavuniya. The committee is generally referred to as “Mathiya Kuzhu”(Central committee). The Central Working committee is the key representative body of the ITAK. It comprises representatives elected by each […]

The long awaited 2020 Parliamentary Elections has concluded with a 71% Voter turnout despite the difficulties imposed by the COVID -19 Pandemic threat. Appropriate health procedures were followed by the authorities with the enthusiastic cooperation of the people. Voter feedback is generally positive about the efficient manner in which the polls were conducted. The Independent […]

Image: Xi Jinping waves next to Mahinda Rajapaksa, pictured in September 2014: there is a real possibility that Sri Lanka will rely on Chinese loans to avert a macroeconomic crisis.   © Reuters Razeen Sally is visiting associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is author of […]

If Tamils demanded devolution then “a river of blood will flow in the North and East,” warned a group of extremist Sinhala Buddhist monks as they reacted to the release of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) manifesto. “Devolution means secession,” said the monks, in remarks reported by Kalaikathir. “It means a separate state. A solution […]

“Considering growing concerns over shrinking space for dissent domestically, the Council remains effectively the only forum where Sri Lankan civil society has the possibility to engage openly in dialogue with the Government and other States on human rights concerns in Sri Lanka and the Human Rights Council needs to take a more robust approach on […]

Image courtesy of Tamil Guardian. In July 1995 the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Navaly, Jaffna, was filled with displaced Tamils seeking refuge and safety from the war. People in Navaly, including members of the church youth club, were helping the displaced by providing them with food and setting up temporary toilets. According […]

Image: Sri Lanka flag at UNHRC., Geneva. Making a statement at the 44th session of UNHRC  UK’s International Ambassador for Human Rights, Rita French, delivered this statement on behalf of Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Montenegro and the UK, the Core Group on Sri Lanka and expressed their profound disappointment over Sri Lanka’s withdrawal from the […]

Image: On the memorial wall,  International day for the disappeared 2019, Colombo, Sri Lanka. In a televised statement issued on 28 June 2020 Prime Minister Rajapaksa called for a strong mandate to defeat domestic and foreign conspirators and to overturn the Office for Missing Persons and national laws related to international Convention Against Enforced Disappearances. […]

When globalisation was the dominant concept for looking at the world, pandemics were discussed as a global security issue. The objective was to see how pandemics have an impact on global security, and how to prepare for them. Now that one is happening, it is interesting to look at the response. It is clear that […]

A. Conclusions 90. While Sri Lanka has made valuable democratic strides in the last five years, a prevailing apprehension exists among civil society, who fear there could be rollbacks on these gains in the future. Sri Lankans fear the dismantling or undermining of fragile yet important institutions that safeguard their democratic rights, and a shift […]

“From now until the elections, we will not know when, and where, and how the fireball will fall on us, and what the nature of that fireball will be.” Arundathi Roy (Election Season in a Dangerous Democracy – The New York Review of Books – 3.9.2018) The Eastern province is the most ethno-religiously pluralist slice of […]

Image: Families of Sri Lanka’s missing thousands fear the government is aiming to curb investigations into unsolved civil war disappearances. (COLOMBO/thenewhumanitarian) Rights groups are warning of a crackdown on dissent and rising authoritarianism in Sri Lanka, raising fears for the future of long-stalled civil war reconciliation efforts. Since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office after November elections, […]

The events of 39 years ago set the stage for Sri Lanka’s civil war – and still echo today. By Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan. It was May 31, 1981 when early signs of the looming civil war broke out on the Jaffna peninsula of northern Sri Lanka. An organized Sinhala mob carried out an arson attack on […]

Executive Summary. This report [by INFORM, Colombo,Sri Lanka] records 95 incidents that had been reported during the 90 days period. The average number of incidents per day reported prior to the covid-19 curfew is slightly higher than the number of incidents reported during the curfew. There were a high number of incidents related to legal, […]

Most of the victims of horrific Easter Sunday bombings were Christian, majority killed inside three churches, and the bombers were Muslims. Immediately after the attacks, many Muslims unreservedly condemned the attacks and offered support and solidarity to mostly Christian survivors and families of victims. As churches across the country closed in the aftermath of the […]

PARL Statement on recent developments in Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya: Misuse of land acquisition laws and the military. The People’s Alliance for Right to Land (PARL) is deeply disturbed by the military intervention in civilian land administration in the Pottuvil Muhudu Maha Viharaya area in Ampara, and the reported moves to attempt legal acquisition of […]

  Image: An indefinite, nationwide curfew has been imposed in Sri Lanka, where over 200 people have tested positive for coronavirus (AFP Photo/Ishara S. KODIKARA). (AFP•April 12, 2020) Sri Lanka made cremations compulsory for coronavirus victims on Sunday, ignoring protests from the country’s minority Muslims who say it goes against Islamic tradition. Of the seven […]

Image: None of Ismail’s household could attend the funeral. He was buried at Kemnal Park Cemetery in Chislehurst, south east London.  ( photo courtesy of news.sky.com/) “When we face such a grave public health crisis there is a need to ensure that the mental health of our population is also given due attention. In this […]

H.E. Gotabaya Rajapaksa President of the Republic of Sri Lanka Presidential Secretariat Colombo 1 Your Excellency, Granting of a Presidential Pardon to Former Army Corporal Sunil Ratnayake The Human Rights Commissions of Sri Lanka expresses it deep concern on the reported grant of a Presidential Pardon to Corporal Sunil Ratnayake who was convicted of eight […]

Condemning the pardoning former army Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake by president Rajapaksa, the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research says that   “the pardon of Ratnayake in the context of  highly militarised environment combined with the unconditional respect and admiration that the military enjoys from the majority Sinhala Buddhist community in Sri Lanka is simply President Rajapaksa consolidating […]

Image courtesy of Amnesty International. On March 26, 2020, President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa granted a presidential pardon and released convicted death row prisoner and mass murderer, former Army Staff Sergeant R. M. Sunil Rathnayake. While the country is on lockdown due to COVID-19, the President has seized this opportunity to deal a lethal blow to the […]

Image: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, second from left, has been accused of war crimes from his time as defense secretary, when he oversaw the last bloody years of the country’s civil war.Credit…Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters. By Maria Abi-Habib and Dharisha Bastians. Rights groups accused President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of taking advantage of the global chaos to free a soldier convicted of killing […]

The ICJ today condemned the Presidential pardon granted to murder convict Sunil Ratnayake, Former Staff Sergeant of the Sri Lankan Army. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pardoned Former Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake who was convicted in 2015 for the murder of eight Tamil civilians, including three children, in Mirusuvil in December 2000. The conviction and […]

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Spokesperson and former MP, M.A.Sumanthiran, has reacted sharply to the Presidential pardon given on Thursday to Sri Lankan Army Sergeant R M Sunil Rathnayake, who was sentenced to death for killing in cold blood, eight Tamil captives including a child at Mirusuvil in Tamil-speaking North Lanka in 2000. Sumanthiran pointed out […]