Archive for Diplomacy
July 20, 2010 at 3:11 pm · Categories: Colombo, Diplomacy, International Relations, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, War Crimes | by Kalana Senaratne
Dr. Lakshman Marasinghe (Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Windsor) in an article titled ‘Some Random Thoughts on the UN International Advisory Panel’ (Daily Mirror, 14 July, 2010), makes a serious suggestion to the Government; i.e. to obtain an Advisory Opinion (AO) from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, to determine “whether it was within the power of the Secretary-General to appoint an Advisory Panel mandated as he has when appointing it.” He admits that he is “unable to suggest a political solution” to what he considers to be a matter which raises an “interesting point of international law.”
Dr. Marasinghe’s suggestion, in turn, raises greater problems, and is a risk that Sri Lanka cannot afford to take …
July 1, 2010 at 11:30 am · Categories: Colombo, Diplomacy, International Relations, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Dayapala Thiranagama
Indo- Sri Lanka relations made a dramatic and unprecedented change with the beginning of the Eelam war. This change contributed to bringing about far reaching military and political consequences within Sri Lanka and its two destructive wars. The JVP led anti-devolutionary Sinhalese rebellion had been the direct result of the changed Indian policy. The most destructive Eelam war was the other. These developments have fundamentally shaped the future course of Sri Lankan politics. Since 1983 India had begun supporting the Tamil militant groups to train and arm its cadres for military confrontations with the Sri Lankan state. Their bases in Tamil Nadu provided a rearguard and they could retreat safely to these bases after mounting deadly attacks to the Sri …
July 1, 2010 at 10:15 am · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Development, Diplomacy, Economy, End of war special edition, Foreign Relations, Gender, Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Identity, International Relations, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Poetry, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation, War Crimes | by Groundviews
Download the 162 page compilation of content as a PDF in high quality (25.4Mb), or low quality (3.7Mb). The low quality version is good enough to read, but the photos will look and print much better in the high quality version.
From 19 – 27 May 2010, Groundviews ran a special edition on the end of war in Sri Lanka. Over this week alone, the site received over forty thousand readers and exclusively featured over eighty thousand words of original content, one video premiere, over a dozen photos, generating over one hundred and fifty thousand words of commentary. Tens of thousands more have read …
April 21, 2010 at 3:35 pm · Categories: Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Diaspora, Diplomacy, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Sanjana Hattotuwa
Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu is the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. I begin this interview with a pointed question, asking Dr. Saravanamuttu to flag anything the government has done well since it assumed power in 2005, in the domains of governance and human rights. I go on to ask Dr. Saravanamuttu why it is that what he sees as enduring challenges to human rights, peace, development and governance are not issues the majority of voters agree with, or are able to discern.
We also talked about the nature of economic activity and development in the North and the East, …
January 22, 2010 at 7:00 am · Categories: Colombo, Diplomacy, War Crimes | by Shakya Lahiru Pathmalal
There has been much debate about the issue of war crimes in Sri Lanka. Both major political parties contesting the elections have used the issue for political leverage, each accusing for the other of betraying the country and the armed forces to the international community. (I will not speculate on what may or may not have happened during the last stages of the war.) There has also been much debate about the authenticity of Channel 4 video footage. There have been many versions of what transpired during these last few weeks–some have been favorable to the armed forces and some have not. This article will attempt to assess whether Sri Lanka is in fact in danger of being held accountable …
January 13, 2010 at 10:35 am · Categories: Colombo, Diplomacy, Elections, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War | by Kumar David
I can’t understand this, so will someone explain it –please.
It is being reported in the local press and local electronic media that the Rajapakses have gained popularity among Sinhala voters in recent days because the UN Special Reporter Philip Alston, the UN Secretary General, and the Western press, have reinforced their accusations of human rights violations and war crimes against the Rajapakse regime. UN and other agencies and officials, and the press, in many countries, now say that the Channel-4 execution video is authentic, and that it conforms to a larger pattern of violations.
The accusers are not LTTE extremists and only the mentally retarded will suggest that these parties and persons are in the pay of the LTTE, or that …
December 31, 2009 at 11:43 am · Categories: Colombo, Diplomacy, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance | by Dayan Jayatilleka
[Editors note: This is a response by Dayan Jayatilleke to a recently published article by Prof. Peter Schalk of Uppsala University, Sweden, who identified four western educated individuals hired by the Government of Sri Lanka to defend Colombo's decisions and criticisms from the West, labelling them "mercenary intellectuals". In the spirit of engagement, Groundviews invited two of the four mentioned in the article, no strangers to regular readers of this site, to respond. One politely declined. Prof. Schalk's article on Tamilnet is here. If you are in Sri Lanka, where Tamilnet continues to be blocked by all ISPs, click on the proxy here to read the article.]
Prof Schalk should spend his time analysing how the armed movement and the leadership …
