'Defenders of the Realm' in Sri Lanka

Columnist, Emil Van Der Poorten writes in the Sunday Leader, Everything from Soup to Nuts: "Defenders of The Realm" in Sri Lanka (04 Dec 2012) Extracts reproduced below: "I have in previous columns made passing reference to those whose well-remunerated task it is to defend the status quo in this country." "Let me, on this occasion, make the attempt to differentiate between them and the tasks that they appear to shoulder for a government that sorely needs defenders of various kinds, given the manner of its governance." "One of the “enabling factors” to the Armageddon that seems to await us is...

'And still we will go on, as yet more youth come forward' - TYO-UK

TYO-UK's address at Remembrance Day 2011 On this day, we, the Eelam Tamil nation, remember our heroes - our brave young men and women, who gave their lives to the struggle for Tamil Eelam. From the flowers and tributes made by us here in the diaspora, to the secret thoughts and silent prayers of our brothers and sisters living oppressed in our homeland, the hearts and minds of our nation across the world turn to our heroes. On this day, we remember how, on witnessing the genocide of our nation by Sinhala-Buddhist chauvinism, they rose to protect us from our aggressors, defend us from our...

'We are Eelam Tamil'

"All around us, people search to find their one true hero. In reality we, the Tamil nation, have thousands of heroes who have struggled for our freedom. Tonight is special. Tonight is the night that we as students are given the opportunity to come together and remember those heroes. For the first time, students from all across London have joined hands to remember those that have made the ultimate sacrifice. As youth, we are the future of our nation and in the face of genocide, I am proud to say we stand strong and united. This strong bond that we have forged is something that I hope we can...

The Figment of ‘Post-Conflict’ Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s present political predicament is already somewhat hastily being described as ‘post-conflict’ by both international and local actors, for example by both the Government of Sri Lanka and the IMF. However, there are very good reasons for remaining sceptical about the use of this terminology, not just because of the nebulousness of definitions of conflict (and a simplistically assumed opposition with peace), and its injudicious past use in places like Afghanistan, but also due to present dynamics in Sri Lanka which are being deliberately papered over and viewed through a skewed lens. Indeed, ‘post-conflict’ is a misnomer that flows from the predominance of a particular international common sense knowledge and the way it understands the power dynamics in the interface of the global and local that we find in Sri Lanka.

An open letter to ‘Shooty’

"Dear 'Shooty', I've just watched our Prime Minister talking about shared Commonwealth values in Perth. My mind turned at once to you and your solitary, late-night death in Villawood detention centre last week.” “At CHOGM, the high table of Commonwealth values, Sri Lanka went un-punished for atrocities against Tamils. But even when the Tamil human-shield civilians were being blasted at the end of the Sri Lankan war between the government and the Tigers, we all knew some people like you would inevitably come to Australia . Good old John Dowd, who is head of our local chapter of the...

Lost opportunities at the Commonwealth

"The second major issue for the meeting concerned the civil war in Sri Lanka and whether both the government and the Tamils had committed war crimes in the conflict's final years. The question, however, was virtually ignored ." "Indeed, there is now sufficient evidence to justify a full international inquiry into the actions of both sides, potentially leading to indictments before the International Criminal Court ." " This failure to debate what happened in Sri Lanka may have consequences for the Commonwealth down the line. Indeed, several weeks ago, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper...

No place for politics in crimes against humanity

“Last week Attorney-General Robert McClelland halted the possibility of the arrest and charging of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and in my view undermined similar ''citizens arrests'' of individuals against whom it could be said there is a prima facie case of crimes against humanity.” "McClelland took less than 24 hours to refuse to allow charges to be filed against Rajapaksa despite the fact that the person laying the charges was Jegan Waran, a 63-year-old man who claimed to have direct evidence of war crimes being committed against the Tamil people during the country's recent civil...

Don’t see Libya as a model for success in every conflict

Writing in the Times, former commander of British Forces in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp argued that while military intervention in Libyan by NATO is being hailed as a success, it should not form the basis for the same model to be applied in other conflicts. Examining the Libya campaign and the inital NATO-lead drive in Afghanistan in 2001, Kemp commented that while they were successful, the military option may not always be the best path to follow. "The best form of intervention in a foreign country is non-intervention. Or, at least, intervention that is so discreet as to be almost invisible to the naked eye — funding of rebel forces, covert supply of weapons, behind-the-scenes “advice” to opposition leaders. Even this carries risk. But the greatest risk comes from deploying conventional forces in strength. As we saw with such horrific consequences in Iraq and later in Afghanistan, however benign the intention, boots on the ground will inevitably come to be seen as occupying forces and will be attacked from all quarters."

Commonwealth at crossroads

Peter Kellner, chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, writing in the Trinidad Express on Monday. Commonwealth conferences used to matter. Their decisions helped to end Apartheid in South Africa and white rule in Zimbabwe. Their debates, especially during the Thatcher era, made big news. No longer. Apart from insiders and a few obsessives, who knows or cares what Commonwealth leaders decided two years ago in Trinidad, or what they will discuss this week in Australia? The institution is sleep-walking towards irrelevance. As chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS), a charity...

Doing the right thing

Writing in the Canberra Times, retired Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh called on Australia to reject the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe. Haigh, who has served as the Australian Deputy High Commissioner in Colombo, wrote as Admiral Samarasinghe, along with Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN Palita Kohona and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse are being investigated by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for allegations of war crimes. Extracts have been reproduced below. "Receipt of the submission presents the AFP with something of a dilemma. It...

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