Monthly Archives: September 2011

Sri Lanka and Kashmir: Are they ready for truth and reconciliation?

would a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) work in South Asia? A Sri Lankan and an Indian discuss whether Sri Lanka and Kashmir/India are ready for truth, whether forgiveness trumps justice and whether their countries will ever accept that all must accept responsibility if they are to move on from entrenched conflicts.
The idea for such […]

By Dheera Sujan | Published on September 30, 2011 at 8:30 pm

Canada threatens to boycott 2013 CHOGM in Sri Lanka over human rights issue

Stephen Harper’s government, which alienated many Tamil-Canadians in the last days of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009, is aggressively
campaigning to pressure Sri Lanka on human rights and political reconciliation.
It’s a dramatic shift in the Conservative approach to Sri Lanka’s fractured politics. For years they vilified the separatist Tamil Tigers as terrorists, and didn’t vocally […]

By Campbell Clark | Published on September 30, 2011 at 7:21 pm

Looking Ahead: U.S.-India Strategic Relations and the Transpacific Century

Thank you so much for inviting me to speak at the National Bureau of Asian Research’s launch of their heralded Strategic Asia volume. I am
particularly pleased to have this opportunity given that this year’s title is Strategic Asia 2011-12: Asia Responds to Its Rising Powers – China and India.
I want to salute the National Bureau […]

By Robert O. Blake, Jr | Published on September 30, 2011 at 6:56 pm

Protection of Human Rights in Sri Lanka: Duplicity of the British

Who made thee ruler and judge over us?
‘The West won the world not by superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non Westerners never do.’ Samuel. P. Huntington as quoted by J.B. Muller in his dissertation Anglophiles, Eurocentric Arrogance and […]

By Lakshman Indranath Keerthisinghe | Published on September 26, 2011 at 12:49 am

Reconcile sooner rather than later

Disregarding summons
President Mahinda Rajapaksa disregarded the threats of legal summons to the United States when he went there to attend the UN General
Assembly meeting. The President had an opportunity to meet several world leaders during the official sessions of the General Assembly and also on the sidelines of the official events. He stated his case […]

By Dr. Jehan Perera | Published on September 25, 2011 at 11:17 am

Good bye Joe: A great actor and a greater humanist, we’ll miss you

In the final interview that Gamini Fonsekagave the press before he passed away on September 30, 2004 he was asked one last question:
“Including yourself, who do you think is the best actor that Sri Lanka produced?” Gamini did not hesitate even a second. He came out with the answer: “Joe Abeywickrama”. Gamini Fonseka was never […]

By Vishnuguptha | Published on September 25, 2011 at 9:57 am

Ban stresses need for accountability process over end to civil war

UN News Centre, 24 September 2011– Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed the need for a “credible national accountability
process” over actions in the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka during a meeting with Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country’s President.
Mr. Ban reiterated the need for such a process as envisaged in the joint statement he […]

By | Published on September 24, 2011 at 7:04 pm

Dishonesty of Sri Lanka’s government revealed as draconian laws reintroduced

23 September 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) condemns the government’s decision to perpetuate a number of the most widely used Emergency Regulations, such as those relating to detainees, purported ‘surrendees’ and local authorities, in the form of regulations under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). We believe that the reintroduction […]

By Centre for Policy Alternatives | Published on September 24, 2011 at 2:24 am

Sri Lanka’s women deminers clean up legacy of Asia’s longest war

MANNAR, Sri Lanka, Sept 23 – Wearing a visor and a protective vest over grey fatigues tucked into black military boots, former housewife S. Dishanty crawls on her hands and knees through dense bush, slowly inching forward and methodically scanning the ground.
A year ago, this 23-year-old Sri Lankan woman was looking after her elderly parents […]

By Staff Correspondent | Published on September 23, 2011 at 8:30 pm

UN report declares internet access a Human Right

A United Nations report said Friday that disconnecting people from the internet is a human rights violation and against international law. The report railed against France and the United Kingdom, which have passed laws to remove accused copyright scofflaws from the internet. It also protested blocking internet access to quell political unrest.
While blocking and filtering measures deny users access to […]

By Staff Correspondent | Published on September 21, 2011 at 8:14 am