10/09/2011
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Deccan Chronicle
Colombo, Oct. 9: A new Ceylon Transport bus bearing the Sinhalese symbol “Sri” was burned down in Jaffna in the Tamil-speaking northern province last week on the eve of the bus being put into operation, according to an official statement here today. The Tamil-Sinhalese symbol “Sri” on motor vehicles along with registration numbers.
05/24/2011
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TVO
The state of Sri Lanka: After two years, how are efforts progressing in the seemingly intractable conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamils? (features members of Sri Lankans Without Borders)
05/04/2011
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Groundviews
NO NEED TO DOWNLOAD FONTS: The official version of the report published by the panel constituted by the UN Secretary General to look into issues of accountability in Sri Lanka was released on 26th April 2011. It is highly unlikely the UN itself will produce Sinhala and Tamil translations of the report. Given the near complete absence of reporting in Sinhala media over the issues flagged in the UN Panel’s report, readers have only got to read commentary based on sections of the report, which is almost always virulently in opposition with very little reasoned debate. Groundviews through Vikalpa commissioned a translation of the Executive Summary of the official version of the report. We received another translation done by a third party today. We also received today a translation of the report into Tamil. We give below links to the three documents – two in Sinhala and one in Tamil.
05/03/2011
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BusinessWeek
In April, after reading about a leaked UN report on alleged war crimes by Sri Lanka's army against Tamil civilians, a 23-year-old engineer from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu set himself on fire. His suicide note said he hoped the state's next government's leaders would help their fellow Tamils in Sri Lanka.
04/24/2011
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Groundviews
Ensuring ‘accountability’ is important, but doing so is a complex task. Who is to ensure accountability, when, where, how? – are questions which have always aroused serious debate, and will do, in the future. While there may be no ‘independent/internal’ investigations, one need not be starry-eyed about ‘independent/international’ investigations. For example, ‘Nuremburg’ was an important start, but was never a suitable model. What, for instance, is ‘international’ and who decides the form and nature of this mechanism? Can we go with Chinese/Russian investigators, and if so, would they be independent? Can we go with US/UK investigators, and would they be independent? Also, can we simply investigate the ‘last stages’ of the armed conflict? What about India’s role in the conflict, and are we to forget the manner in which India nurtured armed groups hostile to Sri Lanka? Are we to investigate only the leaders (of the present regime) who defeated the LTTE, but not those of previous regimes who may have contributed to the prolongation of the armed conflict for so long?
10/17/2010
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The Sunday Leader
Over 80 ‘Sinhala’ families claiming to have lost their land during the war have returned to Jaffna asking for their land. The families in question have taken refuge in a railway station.
10/14/2010
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The Sunday Leader
The JHU has said that more than 150,000 Sinhalese families have been displaced in the North and East due to the war.
10/10/2010
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Sunday Times
Some 183 Sinhala families who claim they lived in the Jaffna Peninsula before 1983 want the authorities to resettle them in their former homesteads. However, Jaffna District Secretary Emelda Sukumar said yesterday these families did not have documents to prove land ownership. Hence, she was taking up the matter with the Presidential Secretariat while the families comprising about 500 people are staying in the Jaffna railway station area.
10/07/2010
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Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)
Over 800 persons who were displaced after the 1983 riots from Jaffna have returned to the area demanding from the authorities that they be resettled in the same areas.
The families,the majority of them Sinhalese who have been living in Madampe, Chilaw, Anuradhapura, Badulla and in the south have arrived in a group and taken shelter at the Jaffna Railway Station as well as outside the Durraiappah stadium.
They met with Government Agent Emelda Sukumar and handed over a memorandum.
Governor for the Northern Province, Major Gen (retd) G.A. Chandrasiri told local media he was unaware about any resettlement plans for these persons. (PCK)