Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the UN, Palitha Kohona has been elected as the chair of the sixth (legal) committee of the United Nations General Assembly, after overwhelming support from the Asia-Pacific group.

The committee considers legal questions for the General Assembly in New York.

Last week, three young Tamils from Toronto, Montreal and London, published a piece on the website Tumblr, listing the 'privileges' of being Sinhalese. Since then, the piece entitled 'Check your Sinhala privilege', has sparked widespread praise, criticism and passionate debate online.

Tamil Guardian caught up with the writers, Ram, Ahila and Sinthujan, via Facebook, to find out more..


Tamil Guardian: What inspired you to write this piece?
 
Sinthujan:

We were just speaking about the concept of privilege in general, unrelated to Sri Lanka, and som e of the problematic things some of our friends would say. Even though many of them are well-intentioned and well-educated, they often neglect to see the issues in some of their statements. Most of them similarly don't see the ways the social, political, and economic arrangements of any given society are what systematically produce  existing inequalities between different social groups.

This neglect is especially prominent in discussions of Sri Lanka, for instance, when civil conflict is simply explained in terms of “ethnic hatred” rather than through a close examination of the ways societal arrangements in Sri Lanka have benefited some ethnic groups relative to others.

Tamil asylum seekers who have been deported from Christmas Island have stated that they would be willing to risk it all to flee from Sri Lanka once more, according to a report by ABC News.

A deported Tamil man, ‘Murali’ in Jaffna, had earlier paid over $3,000 to be smuggled out of Sri Lanka in a fishing boat packed with 80 people, to make the treacherous journey to Australian shores. He told ABC news,

The Supreme Court will hear a case filed against the Tamil National Alliance election manifesto, later this month.

"When the President came here to Kilinochchi to open a railway, he said in Tamil, 'from now on, the Tamil people should not vote for policies, they only should vote for development'.

What kind of thoroughly dishonest person must he be?! *crowd cheer loudly*

How unfortunate a country must this be? That this country must have a leader, dishonest enough, who tells people they must not vote for policies?! *crowd cheer loudly*

This is a leader, who doesn't realise that we are a people - that for our policies - gave our lives... relinquished all our possessions... and that we are a people who are yet still prepared to give more!!

Was it just for development that we came this far?!

Was it just for development that for over sixty years we gave up everything apart from our self-respect? There is nothing else left to give now! But he [Rajapaksa] did not know that. Perhaps if he had been Tamil, he would have known that to Tamils value self-respect above life itself! But he isn't, so he doesn't have that feeling!

The US State Department has said in a press release on the outcomes of the 24th UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva that it welcomes High Commissioner Navi Pillay’s report.

Two Tamil journalists of the Yarl Thinakkural have been harassed by individuals claiming to be from the Terrorist investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lankan security forces, reported TamilNet.

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, GL Peiris, stressed today that his government has no obligation to answer for the reported deaths of thousands of Tamil civilians at the end of the 2009 conflict.

The Madras High Court has called upon the Indian Government’s Cabinet Secretary to answer three queries, regarding the sale of two war ships to Sri Lanka.

The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), a member of the ruling coalition in Sri Lanka, accused demands of the TNA as a violation of the Sri Lankan constitution.

The Sri Lankan government has reiterated their rejection of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s March 2014 deadline for the government to credibly investigate and prosecute those guilty of human rights abuses.

Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunatilaka Amunugama however stated,

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid met at the UN in New York and discussed developments in several countries in India’s periphery, including Sri Lanka and Burma.

Ban Ki-moon is reported to have stressed India’s regional role and the importance of dialogue, inclusiveness and reconciliation, reported the Colombo Gazette.