Photo courtesy of Sri Lanka Brief Successive government have promised that none of Sri Lanka’s “war heroes” would be tried for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa went as far as pardoning a convicted murderer in flagrant abuse of the justice system. Another case that illustrates the blanket impunity given to offenders is the case of ...
Photo courtesy of The Asia Society The next two years will be crucial for Sri Lanka; a presidential election will be held in the latter part of 2024 and parliamentary elections will be held in 2025. If the president is to be believed, the postponed provincial council and local government elections will be conducted in 2025. At the same time, ...
Photo courtesy of The Asia Society The next two years will be crucial for Sri Lanka; a presidential election will be held in the latter part of 2024 and parliamentary elections will be held in 2025. If the president is to be believed, the postponed provincial council and local government elections will be conducted in 2025. At the same time, ...
Photo courtesy of Literary Hub Mosab, reading your post today of the dead from an airstrike in Khan Younis, cousins, uncles, aunts, six members of your extended family, six degrees that separate us, I felt at first I did not have words to console, but now these have come. They are not grand or clever but spring from the heart. ...
Photo courtesy of Literary Hub Mosab, reading your post today of the dead from an airstrike in Khan Younis, cousins, uncles, aunts, six members of your extended family, six degrees that separate us, I felt at first I did not have words to console, but now these have come. They are not grand or clever but spring from the heart. ...
Photos courtesy of Mahendra Dhammika A bright yellow road sign on a quiet suburban road, more than 20 km from Colombo, warns oncoming motor traffic of an unlikely pedestrian. This area has become an odd choice of home to a few herds of spotted deer. A subspecies endemic to the island these shy, spotted creatures have made their home in ...
Photo courtesy of Colombo Gazette The last few weeks witnessed a flurry of activity that brought to light a quiet initiative which has been progressing during the past year in terms of the post-war reconciliation process in the country. For close upon 15 years, after the end of the fighting in 2009, neither the effects nor the causes of the ...
Photo courtesy of Amnesty International It was one of the rare cases of justice being served – Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake was tried and convicted for the murder of eight civilians in Mirusuvil in Jaffna in 2000. Witnesses identified Sergeant Rathnayake as one of the killers; he was given a fair trial and found guilty. The sentence was death. He appealed ...
Photo courtesy of BBC When the Secretary General of the UN condemned the Hamas attack of October 7 and cautioned the world to see it in context, he came under harsh criticism from Israel. But he was right. It is misleading to enter a conflict in the middle of the story. The story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict begins around the ...
Photo courtesy of Twitter On December 14, 2023, the Supreme Court delivered a historic judgement, holding Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon personally responsible for torture. Before this judgement, there have been reports of Mr. Tennakoon being complicit in attacking peaceful protests, making death threats to a journalist, threatening and wrongfully arresting police officers, interfering with police officers ...
Photo courtesy of Twitter Coming from a Christian family, Christmas is one of the most important festivals for us. I was born in Navaly village in Jaffna to a wealthy Christian family. My grandparents celebrated Christmas by sharing home made food to the village people. My grandmother baked cakes. We shared the meal with neighbours and relatives on Christmas day. ...
Photo courtesy of Independent Nobody will mourn you, tyrant, when you’re gone, when the coffin lowers into the grave. Nobody will visit the memorial and there will need to be guards placed on each corner to avoid some unpleasantness, desecration of the holy word. The people will complain as well about the cost of upkeep, and they will ask what ...
Photo courtesy of Common Dreams “Hey, c’mon, come out, wherever you are We need to have this meeting, at this tree Ain’t even been planted yet.” June Jordan (Calling on all minorities) On August 14, 2006 the Sri Lankan air force bombed an orphanage in Vallipunam killing 61 schoolgirls. The Rajapaksa administration insisted that the location was a LTTE training ...
Photo courtesy of SETA “No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their own country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate.” Bertrand Russell The US-Israeli war in Palestine Gaza declared after October 7 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cover up the failure of ...
Photo courtesy of News Tube On December 8, 2023, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) determined that the Navy had violated my right to freedom of movement by blocking me from travelling to the remote Iranaitheevu island in Kilinochchi district on March 5, 2021. The HRCSL had recommended the Navy not to impose any restriction on Sri Lankan citizens ...
Photo courtesy of FT The math is simple. There are fifteen members of the UN Security Council. Five are permanent, the rest elected for two year terms. Together they represent the enforcement wing of the world body, carriers of the imperative to act, to intervene, to stop conflict. On December 8, sixty one days after Hamas attacks, and Israel responds, ...
Photo courtesy of Discover Beyond This article was prompted by a question I came across during some recent discussions. Does inequality matter? My immediate reaction was to point out that all types of social oppression such as caste, class, gender, problems of ethnic minorities and struggles against political elites have some form of inequality as their foundation. Then I realised ...
Photo courtesy of PBS Do you think we can put this aside, forget, go to the reading with books and introductions, nothing nagging in gut and mind? No vision of a baby wrapped in white clothes, buried quickly before the next bomb falls? No startling turn of the head to see the house built in 1948 bulldozed from the sky, ...
Photo courtesy of France 24 Today is Human Rights Day On December 10, 1948 the UN General Assembly adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Drawing on grim experience of how misuse of power caused massive destruction and suffering and reflecting diverse traditions, this included social, economic and cultural as well as civil and political rights, which are often ...
Photo courtesy of UCA News Today is International Anti-Corruption Day There are actors, arrangements, acts, laws, regulations and institutions responsible for combating corruption. There are circulars issued on matters starting from admission to Grade 1 of a school to buying a ship or an airplane. Every successive government has added to the existing legal arrangements, legislation and institutional structure to ...