OPINION

Opinion

Latest news from and about the homeland

  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…

Remember those who fled within

Currently there are 750,000 IDPs in Sri Lanka. And the humanitarian situation is critical and worsening by the hour.

Cafe d’ APRC - exclusively for foreigners

The attitudes amongst the Sinhala community is cause for cynicism amongst those attempting to bring about a new constitution and thereby find a solution to the protracted ethnic conflict.

Rajapaksa the liberator?

The President’s victory celebrations are contributing towards the further polarisation of Sri Lankan society along ethnic lines.

Beyond federalism?

Liberalism’s challenges in Sri Lanka.

I am not a terrorist

July '83 may have been the 'start' of the war, but the freedom struggle and the oppression it resists pre-dates that moment.

Why Tamils’ suffering is inconsequential

The international community wants to be seen to be ‘concerned’ - but without hindering the Sri Lankan government from carrying on with its war against the LTTE.

Only ceasefire agreement can save Sri Lanka - Tamilselvan

The international community has not taken any concrete measures to end state violence against the Tamil people.'

What the Co-Chairs want

The EU, US, Japan and Norway urge Sri Lanka to give up push for a military solution.

And Then They Came For Me...

Secular Sinhalese hung their heads in shame last week as government storm-troopers rounded up the Tamil citizenry of Colombo and herded them into busses, to be taken to God knows where. Young and old, shy and bold, they were equally affected: no one was spared. Grandmothers separated from their grandchildren, sisters separated from their brothers, diabetics separated from their insulin. In scenes reminiscent of the Final Solution, the Mahinda Chinthanaya swung into action, leaving no one in doubt that Sri Lanka's is a government of the racists, by the racists, for the racists.

From democracy to farce

“…there is no room anymore to assist terrorism directly or indirectly, and talk about democracy. This is because they use this democratic space to design the destruction of the entire society. The democracy that creates an opportunity for terrorism is a joke. It is no simple joke but a deadly joke.” - The President, Address to the Nation, 6th December 2006
 
The President’s statement is a chilling reality of what democracy is in Sri Lanka today. There is no cognition of diversity in the timbre of democracy, or what passes for it, in Sri Lanka today.