The right moves in Jaffna

(The New Indian Express Editorial, 11 Mar 2010) - The news that India will soon open a consulate in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, is to be welcomed. It has been a long time coming, more than eight months after the crushing of the Tamil Tigers. Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said the consulate would help the Tamils living on the peninsula and it would restore full connectivity with south India. The last is perfectly true, for apart from everything else that …

March 11, 2010 | Comment | Read More »

LOSS OF TAMIL EELAM LEVERAGE – DELHI’S (INDIA) GEO-POLITICAL DISASTER

(by Vssubramaniam, Ground Report, March 05, 2010 ) - Ironically the Narayanan ‘trio’ played up the China factor to justify Delhi (in the loop’) overt support for the Sinhala Sri Lanka (SL) genocide destroying the Tamil Eelam struggle and with it the Tamils cause. Though China has openly announced its strategic plans ‘to balkanize India’ Delhi’s ‘over-appeasing’ SL that has strongly ‘drifted towards China’ is sadly misplaced.
Soon after Nehru-Chou En Lai NAM honeymoon years an ‘over appeased’ China invaded …

March 6, 2010 | Comment | Read More »

Fonseka’s arrest is testimony to the fate of those who earn the wrath of the Rajapaksa brothers

(By Satheesan Kumaaran, 17 02 2010) - “Not every country has a Nelson Mandela”… Bishop Desmond Tutu. Only Sri Lanka can have a Mahinda Rajapaksa - The arrest of the former Sri Lankan army commander who also contested in last month’s presidential election, Maj. General Sarath Fonseka, shows that the Sri Lankan State apparatus will be activated to its fullest to ruthlessly crush anyone who dares oppose Mahinda and Co. While in his Colombo office Fonseka was arrested …

February 17, 2010 | Comment | Read More »

The Malvana Convention of 1598, and other historical conventions

(By By Anthony Hensman, Daily Mirror, 15 February 2010) - Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke’s letter of 4th July in the Daily Mirror captioned ‘The Defence Dimension of Devolution’ opens up an interesting line of enquiry to the historian and politician alike, as it begs the question as to why the 13th Amendment and only the 13th Amendment? What is there so innately sacrosanct about that piece of legislation drafted under Mr. J.R.Jayawardene with input from Mr. Rajiv Gandhi …

February 17, 2010 | Comment | Read More »

Crackdown Provokes Fears for Sri Lanka’s Democracy

(By LYDIA POLGREEN, The New York Times, February 16, 2010) - NEW DELHI — In a part of the world better known for the interruption of democracy than its stubborn endurance, Sri Lanka has always been something of an oddity. A small country that suffered through one of the world’s nastiest recent wars, it nevertheless remained for the most part a vibrant multiparty democracy.

Last spring the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa decisively defeated the Tamil Tiger insurgency that had terrorized …

February 17, 2010 | Comment | Read More »

Messy politics in Sri Lanka

(By Ashok K Mehta, The Pioneer, February 17, 2010) - Sri Lanka is in a royal mess just 10 months after a brilliant but brutal military campaign which vanquished the deadly Tigers fighting for a Tamil Eelam. Rather than consolidating peace, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, spurred by his brother Gothabaya Rajapaksa, the powerful Defence Secretary and former Colonel, has got embroiled in an ugly fight with a former Army Commander, Gen Sarath Fonseka, whom he had arrested on February 8 while …

February 17, 2010 | Comment | Read More »

A Missed Opportunity for Sri Lanka

(By Brad Adams, WSJ, FEBRUARY 16, 2010) - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s plans sound good on paper (”Sri Lanka Looks to the Future,” op-ed, Feb. 4), but until his government and the international community address the dire human-rights situation, the deterioration of the rule of law, and legitimate Tamil grievances, Sri Lanka will remain mired in turmoil. More …

February 17, 2010 | Comment | Read More »

Quashing a conciliator

(The Globe and Mail Editorial, Feb. 14, 2010) - After his re-election at the end of January, Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa sought to rebuild his country’s reputation with an optimistic and magnanimous-sounding submission to The Wall Street Journal. “My new government will address the genuine grievances of all communities and bolster the enforcement of equal rights for all,” he wrote of his country’s new post-civil-war era. The recent arrest of the president’s main political rival suggests Mr. Rajapaksa’s soaring …

February 14, 2010 | Comment | Read More »

QUESTIONABLE SOURCE

(By Bruce Haigh, The Canberra Time, 13 02 2010) - Australia is dependent on the Sri Lankan Government for advice on whether a Tamil asylum seeker is or was a member of the LTTE and therefore, in the eyes of the Australian Government, likely to constitute a threat to our national security. Advice from the Sri Lankan Government is prompt and usually negative.

The Sri Lankan Government is guilty of murdering suspected members of the LTTE in Colombo and other centres. …

February 14, 2010 | 1 Comment | Read More »

Sri Lanka’s endless wars

(Toronto Star Editorial, 14 02 2010) - For Sri Lanka, 2009 was its Year of Living Dangerously. Now, 2010 is shaping up as the country’s Year of Living Dictatorially.

After first vanquishing his Tamil Tiger enemies on the battlefield last year, and then trouncing his main electoral opponent last month, President Mahinda Rajapaksa might have been expected to show a measure of magnanimity. Yet his post-election impulses have tended toward revenge, not reconciliation. More …

February 14, 2010 | Comment | Read More »
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