Photo courtesy: ashokferrey.com
IANS | News Track India
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Islands breed their own kind of somnolence. People would rather stand at their gates watching life pass by than read a book, says contemporary Sri Lankan writer and popular television arts show host Ashok Ferrey of his country.
'Sri Lanka does not have enough people to read. They would rather read to clear the A-level examination than read a book for pure pleasure,' Ferrey told IANS at a recent literature conclave here.
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By Stewart Bell | The National Post
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They are the faces of the vanquished. The captured Tamil rebels are young and barefoot. They are handcuffed to bus seats. Some are bandaged. All have the downcast faces of prisoners awaiting an uncertain fate.
Photos and videos recently smuggled out of Sri Lanka offer a rare glimpse of what happened at the end of the bloody civil war between government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.
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By Sudeep Chakravarti | Live Mint
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In 2005, when he became president of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa issued a document titled Mahinda Chintana, or Mahinda’s Vision. In it he proclaimed: “I will not permit any separatism.” This he held true to, corralling a brutal rebellion by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The nearly 30-year war ended in May 2009 after the decimation of the LTTE and the death of its chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
(The killing of its protégé-turned-pest stabilized India’s warped policy towards this neighbour. Indian support to Sri Lanka’s government and military for the final push against the LTTE also shored up India’s geopolitical and economic ambitions in this island nation.)
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By Matthew Russell Lee | Inner City Press
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Three years after the government of Sri Lanka killed 40,000 civilians, nearly all of them ethnic Tamils, the country's former attorney general on June 6 admitted he had mislead the United Nations Committee on Torture when he claimed that he knew that journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda was alive, and not as some press freedom groups assert, disappeared by the government.
Meanwhile a group of Tamil prisoners complained, with little traction with the UN or international media, of illegal transfers "to the notorious Boosa detention camp from various prisons in Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Colombo, where they are currently being held for a long period of time as political detainees without any charges being brought against them."
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R.K. Radhakrishnan | Frontline
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The war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended in an emphatic victory for the Sri Lankan forces in May 2009 at Nandikadal, a narrow stretch of land in north-eastern Sri Lanka. But the main hero of that effort, Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, had to keep on fighting a different battle in various courts in Sri Lanka to reclaim his liberty and rights. He walked out of the high-security Welikada Prison at 5 p.m. on May 21 into a crowd of waiting supporters, but his political future is full of uncertainties.
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By Jerome Taylor | The Independent
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Further evidence has emerged of the brutal treatment of Tamils by Sri Lankan soldiers during the closing stages of the country's civil war. Video footage obtained by The Independent shows soldiers gloating over a pile of more than 100 Tamil corpses, including dozens of women who have been deliberately stripped of their clothes to expose their breasts and genitals.
The videos are part of a growing body of evidence which has emerged over the past two years – much of which was recorded by Sri Lankan soldiers – revealing how many Tamils were tortured, summarily executed and often humiliated after their deaths for the entertainment of their victors.
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By Indo Asian News Service | Yahoo! News
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India and the US have agreed to provide enhanced training facilities for military personnel from Sri Lanka, it was announced Tuesday.
This followed meetings Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had with General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Indian Defence Minister A.K. Anthony here.
The meetings took place on the margins of the Shangri-La Dialogue.
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By Charles Haviland | BBC News
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A senior Sri Lankan official has said that he has no idea about the whereabouts of a disappeared journalist seven months after saying he believed the man was alive and living abroad.
Human rights activists say that the remarks of former Attorney-General Mohan Peiris betray insensitivity to the plight of missing people.
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By Jonathan Miller | Channel 4
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A meeting in the City of London, due to have been addressed on Wednesday morning by the president of Sri Lanka, has been cancelled, owing to concerns over policing amid the threat of large demonstrations by Tamil rights groups.
But Mahinda Rajapakse – whose presidency has been tainted by persistent allegations of war crimes committed by Sri Lankan armed forces – will still attend a lunch for the Queen, hosted by the Commonwealth secretary general at Marlborough House on Pall Mall.
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By Shiv Malik | The Guardian
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The British government is forcibly deporting asylum seekers who are then tortured in Sri Lanka, according to the testimony of one victim who was left scarred and suicidal after a brutal two-week ordeal.
The victim told the Guardian he was tortured over the space of 17 days after being deported from the UK last year. His torturers accused him of passing on to British officials information about previous beatings at the hands of state officials and other human rights abuses, to ruin diplomatic relations between the two countries.
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