OPINION

Opinion

Latest news from and about the homeland

From Visionary to Bystander: How ITAK has forgotten its historic roots
  Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), the largest Tamil party in Sri Lanka and once a pioneer of Tamil nationalism in the first decades after the independence of Ceylon, has strayed far from its historic mission. Founded in 1949 as the Federal Party, ITAK was born out of the necessity to challenge the Sinhala-Buddhist majoritarianism that sought to dismantle the political and cultural…

‘Meaningful political reform and reconciliation should be an urgent priority’

Mar 9, 2010
A copy of the speech given at the GTF launch by the shadow foreign secretary, Rt Hon. William Hague MP.

‘If history is buried then reconciliation never happens’

Mar 9, 2010
A copy of the speech given at the GTF launch by the UK Foreign Secrretary, Rt Hon. David Miliband MP.

Uncovering Sri Lanka's war crimes

Feb 23, 2010
Peter Bouckaert

Despite verbal acrobatics reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, Sri Lankan officials have been unable to dismiss a shocking mobile phone video from last January purportedly showing Sri Lankan soldiers summarily executing naked and bound captives. The government has consistently claimed the video is fake, without providing any evidence that the gruesome scene was staged or the footage tampered with.

 

Freedom under threat in Sri Lanka

Feb 23, 2010
As one drives towards Sri Lanka’s war-torn northern Jaffna Peninsula on the A9 Highway, the island’s main north-south arterial road, the landscape takes on echoes of the Somme, the French battlefield of the first world war.

Tragic triumphalism in Sri Lanka

Feb 23, 2010
Mahir Ali
A YEAR ago, as Sri Lanka’s long and agonising civil war entered its endgame phase, there was little indication that the bloody denouement would make way for the healing and reconciliation that the island-nation so desperately needs.

Sri Lanka has proven that it's unwilling to ensure accountability for serious violations

Feb 23, 2010
Arthur Dewey
Writing just before the Sri Lankan Presidential polls, the author, who served on the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, argues that the chances for true investigation into war crimes allegations in the country is remote.

General Fonseka and the challenges to Sri Lankan democracy

Feb 23, 2010
Vidya Cumaraswamy
President Rajapakse’s crackdown on political opponents, including the arrest of the defeated opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka, is not as unexpected or as surprising as many commentators are suggesting.

Shaping Western policy on Sri Lanka

Feb 23, 2010
Gajan Raj

Following the end of decades of armed struggle in May last year, western states, led by the United States of America and the European Union, are reviewing their policy on Sri Lanka.

Trampled Tamils lack election appetite

Jan 12, 2010
Suren Surendiran
As a video prompts UN calls for an inquiry into war crimes by Sri Lankan troops, Tamils are in no mood to play kingmaker

These candidates are largely to blame for destroying our people

Jan 12, 2010
As far as we Tamils are concerned, this is not the right time for any sort of election, regardless of who the candidates are.
‘Meaningful political reform and reconciliation should be an urgent priority’
‘If history is buried then reconciliation never happens’
Uncovering Sri Lanka's war crimes
Freedom under threat in Sri Lanka
Tragic triumphalism in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has proven that it's unwilling to ensure accountability for serious violations
General Fonseka and the challenges to Sri Lankan democracy
Shaping Western policy on Sri Lanka
Trampled Tamils lack election appetite
These candidates are largely to blame for destroying our people
‘Meaningful political reform and reconciliation should be an urgent priority’
‘If history is buried then reconciliation never happens’
Uncovering Sri Lanka's war crimes
Freedom under threat in Sri Lanka
Tragic triumphalism in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has proven that it's unwilling to ensure accountability for serious violations
General Fonseka and the challenges to Sri Lankan democracy
Shaping Western policy on Sri Lanka
Trampled Tamils lack election appetite
These candidates are largely to blame for destroying our people