Sri Lanka’s Tamils who are “concentrated in the country’s north say the area still suffers from a lack of development, despite promises by its new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa,” Charles Stratford reports for Al Jazeera. A decade on from the end of the armed conflict, “government promises of investment have all failed to materialise.” Gotabaya is “deeply distrusted” by Tamils due to his role as the Defence Secretary in 2009, where he oversaw the military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils. “Tamils voted overwhelmingly against Rajapaksa in the November election and are trying to...
The election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President of Sri Lanka “sent shockwaves across the Tamil-dominated northeast - where memories of his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa's brutal presidency, marked by mass atrocities and enforced disappearances, remain fresh,” writes Mario Arulthas, Advocacy Director at People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL), in a piece for Al Jazeera this week. “Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims went to the polls in large numbers, with the vast majority of the northeastern vote going to Premadasa. But it was not enough for his victory. His opponent, Gota, swept the...
Since the Sri Lankan civil war ending ten years ago, “there has been little progress in tracing those who disappeared during and after the violent end to the war,” the BBC reports. In a video report, the BBC states that around 20,000 Tamils are estimated to still be missing. “Many believe their relatives are alive and in the hands of the security forces - a view rejected by the government. These families meet and hold daily vigils to protest and to keep their relatives’ memories alive.”
Writing in the Tamil Guardian on November 27th, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks on his work with British Tamils and his party's commitment to human rights and justice.
Writing in the Tamil Guardian on November 27th, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson speaks on genocide recognition, justice for mass atrocities and her party’s commitment towards supporting British Tamils.
Newly elected President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has begun concentrating power in his own family by appointing his brothers Mahinda and Chamal as ministers, writes Hannah Ellis-Peterson, in an article for The Guardian. Gotabaya's "win marked a return to power for the Rajapaksa family, which has been one of the most dominant political dynasties in Sri Lanka for over a decade. Their previous time in power was marked by human rights abuses, disappearances and a stranglehold over the judiciary and police." "His brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president from 2005 to 2015, with Gotabaya...
While there has been jubilation in much of the Sinhala south, Tamils and Muslims across the North-East fear that the return of a Rajapaksa regime means further rights abuses, wrote Thusiyan Nandakumar, Tamil Guardian’s editor-in-chief in The National this week. “For communities such as Tamils and Muslims, there is now an overwhelming sense of fear and trepidation,” said Nandakumar.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, won the recent Sri Lankan Presidential election "on the basis of Sinhala chauvinism," writes Chris Slee for the Green Left. Gotabaya was defence secretary in 2009, when the Sri Lankan armed forces massacred tens of thousands of Tamils in the final stages of their war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE were fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka. Slee points out that Sajith Premadasa, the New Democratic Front's presidential candidate was not much better than his opponent, Gotabaya. "The...
The election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka’s new president only adds to the suffering of Tamil families searching for their loved ones, writes Aaron Fernandes for SBS News.
Angad Singh, journalist at Vice News, writes that Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings made Gotabaya Rajapaksa, an alleged war criminal, a front runner in the upcoming Presidential election.