The Sri Lankan government is apparently abandoning the garment sector if press reports over the weekend are to be believed. Given that the EU has withdrawn its GSP+ concession and the US is investigating its version of GSP, this is perhaps just the government accepting that garments are going to be hard to sell if the country's human rights record is not improved.
We live in an era when the Sri Lankan state is callously trying to eradicate the Tamil nation and its identity within the borders of Sri Lanka , first through mass killings and now the forced Sinhalisation of Tamil homelands. At this time, those of the Tamil nation residing outside the clutches of the island’s government play an essential role in safeguarding the nation and vocalising its stifled aspirations for an endurable peace – a two state solution. Sri Lanka ’s bullying of the Tamil diaspora is more than an authoritative state tightening its grip on civil liberties - it is the ruthless...
Over the past year, the cracks in Sri Lanka’s façade of liberal democracy have started to show. Filling them with money, be it through direct aid, encouraging trade or international loans, has obvious appeal. Sri Lanka’s lack of liberalism however, is not due to economic hardship; precisely why economic development will not lead to its salvation. In Sri Lanka money is merely used by the state to pursue its own fascist agenda. Several months after the government claimed victory in the war with the Liberation Tigers, civilians continue to languish in camps or in temporary shelters with no...