The Problem with Karma: Notes from the Conflict in Sri Lanka

Amarnath Amarasingam

Doctoral candidate, Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada      Posted March 4, 2011 
Over the past month, there has been some speculation among members of the global Tamil community on whether Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Texas to obtain cancer treatment in secret. The story in itself is not particularly interesting, but it does have relevance for the post-conflict situation in Sri Lanka. Many reacted to the news not with sadness, but with a sense that cosmic justice was being meted out. Some argued that Rajapaksa, responsible for mass human rights violations during the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war, was now getting his just desserts. Although many nationalist Tamils profess to be atheist or secular, the reaction to the news was always framed in Hindu and Buddhist notions of karma, popularly defined in the West as "what goes around comes around.      Read Post
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Fr. Jim Brown and Mr. Vimalathas: Five years after disappearance, where are they and what has happened to the investigation?

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Fr. Tiruchelvam Nihal Jim Brown | Image courtesy of www.transcurrents.com

Fr. Jim Brown, a Catholic Priest from diocese of Jaffna in Northern Sri Lanka and his associate, Mr. Vimalathas, a father of five people, seem to be just two names and statistics in the long list of disappeared in Sri Lanka, particularly after the escalation of violence and war in the North since 2006.

Mr. Mr.Vimalathas

                                                                                                                             Parish of Mandaitivu-Allapidy, which was shelled in August 2006.  

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“I want to continue to highlight the activities against the humanity” | Gnanasundaram Kuganathan

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19 Aug, 2011 Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai

“It’s a miracle that I survived. I was beaten almost to death. Many attempts have been made to kill me, so that my writing will come to an end!. I did not think that, I will survive. The God has saved me to serve the people through journalism. I am slowly recovering. Today, I am blessed to be alive. I have highlighted many issues in my writing. I want to continue to highlight the activities against the humanity, but I am not sure whether I will be able to hold the pen again, because my right hand fingers are frozen” emotionally shares Gnanasundaram Kuganathan (59) while tears filled his eyes.

The News Editor of Uthayan ~  Tamil language daily newspaper Gnanasundaram Kuganathan (59) was brutally assaulted by unknown men on 29^th of July 2011 at night at 7.30pm on Kasthuriyaar road in Jaffna, as he was walking back home for dinner from work. I met him in Jaffna recently, as he is currently recovering from the severe injuries caused by the brutal assault.

“It was a Friday. On 29^th of July 2011, I was walking home for dinner from the office. I shouted “அம்மா”  “அம்மா” ~  Amma”, “Amma” (Mother, Mother) after the two young men hit me with iron rods on my head and right hand. I ran into my house, I was in critical condition, and later I was admitted to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital (Intensive Care Unit) by my fellow journalists. I was unconscious for three days at the intensive care unit of the hospital.

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Not so hidden dragon

Ashok Kumar Mehta, Hindustan Times
August 18, 2011

The forthcoming debate in Parliament will focus on the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils but the more important issue about the diminution of India's strategic leverage to China in Sri Lanka is likely to be lost. Hambantota rings the bell.
Famous for salt flats and arid and hot weather, the sleepy environs of Hambantota district are destined to become the primary port of call in Sri Lanka. Reason? As the political constituency of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, it is central to his Vision Document 2025. It has the world's first inbuilt harbour carved out of land, strategically located astride the busiest East-West shipping lane and poised to challenge the primacy of Singapore's port.
The port, of course, was made in China at friendship prices. Last month, just one ship was berthed in the harbour.      Full Story>>>
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What US Businesses Must Consider in Sri Lanka

Posted: 8/18/11 

Karunyan Arulanantham

The Sri Lankan government is in hot pursuit of US businesses, seeking to usher in more investment dollars to help rebuild the country following the end of the civil war two years ago. Jobs that help to grow the economy and benefit all Sri Lankans are welcome. But companies are on notice that the Sri Lanka government is following ethnically discriminatory policies, and those that favor only certain segments of the population -- wittingly or not -- are compounding the ethnic divides that caused the 26-year war in the first place.        Read Post 

Parliament to discuss Lankan issue

Headlines Today | August 11, 2011

Parliament is scheduled to discuss the issue of alleged
Sri Lankan army atrocities against Tamil civilians.

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War crimes push aimed at ousting Sri Lanka government: official

By Ranga Sirilal

COLOMBO | Thu Aug 18, 2011 4:08pm EDT

(Reuters) - A Western-led push for a war crimes probe into Sri Lanka's war to destroy the Tamil Tigers is motivated by a "hidden agenda" to oust President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government, the island nation's defense secretary said on Thursday.

Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the architect of Sri Lanka's destruction of the separatist Tamil Tigers in 2009 and the president's younger brother, also expressed frustration that post-war rehabilitation efforts were being ignored.

Sri Lanka's military crushed the Tamil Tigers to decisively end one of Asia's longest-running modern wars in May 2009, but since the waning months of the conflict the government has been under increasing pressure over accusations of civilian deaths.

A panel commissioned by the U.N. secretary-general in April said it had "credible evidence" both sides had committed possible war crimes, and in particular alleged the government had killed thousands of civilians.

"There is a hidden agenda behind these allegations. Their main requirement is to change the president and the government who are not fulfilling their desires," Gotabaya Rajapaksa told a forum organised by the Federation of National Organisations.

The United States and Britain have been at the fore of a call for an independent probe into the allegations, which Sri Lanka says first emanated from the Tamil Tigers' well-funded overseas propaganda arms and are false.

"No matter what we do there is no end to these allegations," he said.

The defense secretary has since 2009 acknowledged civilian deaths occurred, but rejects claims that tens of thousands were killed.

Casualty figures were routinely inflated by the Tigers. At the end of the war, the separatists kept some 300,000 people as human shields and had in the past used the threat of civilian harm to win ceasefires when they were at a military disadvantage.

There has been no definitive independent count of civilian deaths. An internal U.N. tally of around 7,000 deaths in the final months was leaked to the media during the war, but the world body later disavowed the figure as unconfirmed.

"We have proved that these figures they are talking about are wrong and cannot be justified. After the conflict, we have attended to most of the post-war challenges," he said.

Rajapaksa said the government had resettled nearly 300,000 displaced people, carried out de-mining, rehabilitation of former Tamil Tiger fighters and held democratic elections in the former war zone, evidenced by the fact the government lost to a the Tamil Tigers' former political proxy in some areas.

The government earlier this month released its own analysis of the war, which challenged the U.N.-sponsored report's findings and argued the military used only the necessary force required to defeat a well-armed enemy.

Western rights groups, which gave information to the U.N. panel, rejected the government report as a whitewash.

(Writing by Bryson Hull, editing by Rosalind Russell)

India leery of neighbor's new squeeze

Aug 16, 2011
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa would have returned from China a relieved man. The Chinese promised Sri Lanka more investment in infrastructure projects and to enhance two-way trade and strengthen cultural and personnel exchanges.

More important for Rajapaksa was Beijing's assurance of "fullest support in all necessary situations to Sri Lanka in international forums".

It means that the Sri Lankan president can count on the Chinese to come to his rescue should allegations of war crimes against his regime come up for consideration in international bodies like the United Nations Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). He can expect Beijing to use its clout to dilute resolutions unfavorable to Colombo or veto any possible UN security council resolution referring Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court.            Full Story>>>
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Thus Spake Gothabaya

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Dr. P. Saravanamuttu    18 Aug, 2011

Photo courtesy of Media Centre for National Development of Sri Lanka (www.development.lk)

“The existing constitution is more than enough for us to live together. I don’t think there is any issue on this more than that.

“I mean this was given as a solution for the whole thing with the discussion of these people. I mean now the LTTE is gone, I don’t think there is any requirement.

“I mean what can you do more than this? … Devolution wise I think we have done enough, I don’t think there is a necessity to go beyond that.”

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SRI LANKA: An Innocent man illegally arrested, tortured and charged with fabricated case by Sigiriya Police

Urgent Appeal Case : The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Wasantha Abeysinghe (43) of Air Force Road, Kimbissa in the Matale District was illegally arrested and severely tortured by police officers attached to the Sigiriya Police Station on 12 July 2011. Wasantha was an ordinary peasant engaged in agriculture farming and Chena cultivations. After his arrest he was severely tortured and later produced before the Magistrate of Dambulla and remanded. He was falsely charged with attempted murder charge which is a non-bailable offense. This prevents the court from granting bails making it easier for the police to cover up the torture. Wasantha is being detained him Remand Prison of Rajaveediya. Read More...

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Another Failed Attempt at Justice or the Greatest Hope Yet for Reconciliation: What Can Sri Lanka Learn from Colombia’s New Victim’s Law?

Downtown Bogota, Plaza de Bolivar

In Montes de Maria at an Independence Day Celebration organized by Accion Social and aimed at improving community cohesion. Montes is a community that suffered much violence in the 1990's and is now in the process of welcoming back returnees

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Downtown Bogota, Plaza de BolivarIn Montes de Maria at an Independence Day Celebration organized by Accion Social and aimed at improving community cohesion. Montes is a community that suffered much violence in the 1990’s and is now in the process of welcoming back returneesAt first glance, Colombia and Sri Lanka have little in common aside from a brutal history of violence. Nevertheless, the few but important similarities mean that by studying how the other moves towards national reconciliation and the reestablishment of Government legitimacy could prove to be beneficial. A case in point is the revolutionary new Victim’s Law approved by the Colombian Congress this past June that just might prove be an interesting case study for Sri Lanka.  Civil War in the Andes   
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