‘International Community Should Refer Sri Lanka to the ICC ‘

The international community should stop providing financial and other support to Sri Lankan government mechanisms such as the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) and instead refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court, writes J.S. Tissainayagam in International Policy Digest this month. “Meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in September, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s president, reiterated issuing death certificates for the disappeared in Sri Lanka,” said Tissainayagam.

Tamil Resistance Lives on Despite Sri Lanka’s Ban on Maaveerar Naal - J.S. Tissainayagam

Writing in International Policy Digest, J.S. Tissainayagam, highlights the continued defiance of Eelam Tamils, despite attempts by the Sri Lankan government to crackdown on Maaveerar Naal, a day to commemorate fallen Tamil cadres.

Tamils have not abandoned human rights for economic development – JS. Tissainayagam

Writing for the diplomat Tamil journalist, J.S Tissainayagam, rebukes the claim that Tamil’s are “moving away from regional Tamil-nationalist parties – focused on ethnic rights, wartime accountability, and power-sharing” and towards groups focused on “economic development”. Instead, he argues that contrary to this narrative, Tamil demands for rights and justice remains just as widespread and resolute as ever. Tamil politics since the end of the armed conflict In contextualising the post-war political landscape, Tissainayagam, notes that despite more than a decade passing since the end of the...

'Karuna Amman Exposes Sri Lanka’s Post-War Reconciliation Sham’ - J. S. Tissainayagam

Writing on Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan’s (aka Karuna Amman) recent boast, that under the LTTE he had killed “2,000 – 3,000 soldiers” during the attack on elephant pass, Tissainayagam notes that this statement “shattered an alternate reality Sri Lanka has tried to create about the country’s civil war” and its post-war order. For this constructed reality, Karuna had served two purposes, argues Tissainayagam; “As a symbol of purported national reconciliation, with a covert intention of promoting Sinhala interests, and to help build an alternate narrative about the civil war favourable to the...

‘Sri Lanka’s Expansion into Despotism Goes Unchallenged by Western Democracies’

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s President is “exploiting the novel coronavirus pandemic to undermine the few checks and balances remaining against authoritarianism and sharpening tensions” writes J S Tissainayagam for the International Policy Digest. “The Sri Lanka president’s rhetoric and actions to contain the pandemic will destabilise Sri Lanka and make him a poster boy in the expanding list of populist-led governments that Western democracies view as a threat.” Following the coronavirus outbreak on the island, Rajapaksa “undertook three sets of actions to sow discord between Sri Lankans...

‘UNP should not be allowed to hijack the Tamils’ struggle’

No matter what the result of Sri Lanka’s presidential election this weekend, neither of the leading candidates will meet Tamil demands for equal rights and accountability, writes journalist J S Tissainayagam in an article for the Asian Correspondent on Friday. Ahead of tomorrow’s polls, Tissainayagam says that “the choice for the Tamils is between an unsympathetic candidate and an apathetic candidate”.

Tamil politicians should join ‘extra-parliamentary agitation’

The Tamil political leadership should join the “extra-parliamentary” agitations across the North-East in order to achieve the political goals of power-sharing, accountability and demilitarisation, argued journalist J S Tissainayagam in an article for the Asian Correspondent last month.

‘US policy on Sri Lanka needs a reset’

US policy on Sri Lanka has over emphasised growing military relations “to the detriment of human rights accountability,” writes J S Tissainayagam in the Asian Correspondent this week. “The policy of western democracies – led by the United States – of over-emphasising military-to-military relations with Sri Lanka to the detriment of human rights accountability, has weakened their hand to play a constructive role in this crisis,” said Tissainayagam. “While Washington, with Europe and India were busy enhancing military relations, they lagged on persuading the Colombo to make good on its promises...

Sri Lankan government and TNA failed to address ‘roots of political conflict’ – J S Tissainayagam

Tamil voters in the North-East last week, as Sri Lankan security forces look on. Sri Lanka’s ruling parties and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have been “offering vacuous rhetoric on reconciliation instead of addressing the roots of the country’s political conflict”, writes J S Tissainayagam in the Asian Correspondent, leading to Sinhalese and Tamil voters to “distrust them as political actors”. “The voters conveyed just this at the polls” during last week’s local government elections, he continued. “ Resolution 30/1 adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in September...

Sri Lanka: Broken Promises again at the UN? - JS Tissainayagam

The international community should insist on course correction by Colombo through strong statements and continued monitoring after the high commissioner submits his final report in March 2017, writes JS Tissainayagam in the Asian Correspndent. Highlighting several instances of Sri Lanka reneging on its commitments to the United Nations Human Rights Cuncil JS Tissainayagam warns that “There is no doubt that this year too Sri Lanka’s UN delegation will embellish the sordid performance of its government with conciliatory words and artful phrases.” Full opinion produced below.

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