Softly, softly on Sri Lankan boat-people

This country enjoyed a warm glow early in the life of the previous Government when it relieved Australia of some of the so-called Tampa refugees. Green MP Keith Locke believes we should do it again, this time for asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka who have been picked up by an Australian customs vessel and returned to Indonesia , where they are refusing to disembark. This country needs to be careful as well as compassionate. It must do nothing to undermine Australia 's legitimate efforts to control its borders. With a vast, empty coast facing Asia and the Indian Ocean , Australians naturally...

End of Whose History?

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has just been celebrated. For many, that momentous event marked the so-called end of history and the final victory of the West. This week, Barack Obama, the first black president of the once-triumphant superpower in that Cold War contest, heads to Beijing to meet America’s bankers — the Chinese Communist government — a prospect undreamt of 20 years ago. Surely, this twist of the times is a good point of departure for taking stock of just where history has gone during these past two decades. Let me begin with an extreme and provocative point...

Treat Tamil asylum seekers by the book

Canada's immigration minister is talking tough over the disposition of 76 Sri Lankan men who were intercepted off the B. C. coast

Children in Sri Lanka’s Concentration Camps

Children held in "welfare camps".

A view framed by barbed wire

The fate of a quarter of a million interned Tamils is poisoning Sri Lanka’s hopes of ethnic reconciliation

Behind the Sri Lankan bloodbath

Colombo's victory over the Tamils shows India's power on the wane.

The road to stability in Afghanistan runs through Pakistan and India

Examining the role of Pakistan and India in stabilising Afghanistan

Why peace seems elusive in Sri Lanka

Four months after crushing the Tamil Tigers, the Sri Lankan government is still unable to define peace, even as it has embarked on the further expansion of an already-large military.

War's over, but what about peace?

Lakhdar Brahimi and Edward Mortimer examine the prospects for peace in Sri Lanka

Colombo risks squandering Sri Lanka's hard-won peace

If Sri Lanka is to become a tropical paradise again, it must build enduring peace. This will only occur through genuine interethnic equality, and a transition from being a unitary state to being a federation that grants provincial and local autonomy.

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