April 18, 2012
Does one need to possess foreign citizenship to practice basic rights of life, liberty and free expression in Sri Lanka?
By Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena -
Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena
Does one need to possess foreign citizenship to practice basic rights of life, liberty and free expression in Sri Lanka?The meaning of national sovereignty
This question has become particularly relevant given steeply increased abductions and disappearances in recent months. If Frontline Socialist Party’s Premakumaran Gunaratnam (aka Noel Mudalige) had not claimed Australian citizenship, what would have been his fate or for that matter, of his co-abductee Dimuthu Attygalle? We do not need to search far for this answer. The still unknown whereabouts of other disappeared individuals, including a detainee who was abducted from the court premises itself, stares at us in response. This column has said more than once; the Government cannot simply shrug off these incidents and profess to a bland denial of the same. In the heavily monitored and militarized society that Sri Lanka has become, despite the ending of active conflict three years ago, bare denials do not suffice. They merely become acutely laughable.
