Photo courtesy of ICRC Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict Almost every conflict around the world from Bosnia…
Breakfast for three, hundred and fifty rupees. A trail of tea travelling through cups of steel, One held over another. Trees burdened by what they’ve…
May 18, 2021 marks 12 years since the end of the war. It must be an occasion for us as Sri Lankans to assess progress…
Photo courtesy of Kumanan Kanapathippillai Over three decades of civil war has touched the lives of Sri Lankans of all ages, all races and all…
Image Courtesy of Amalini de Sayrah The first five months of 2009 brought immense and unprecedented pain to the people of northern Sri Lanka, and…
Calling a civil conflict or a civil war, a war itself, is very misleading. Wars are fought with external enemies. However, civil conflict or a…
Thennamaravadi is an isolated rural village some 65 kilometres north of Trincomalee on the Pulmoddai Road. The inhabitants rely mostly on farming and fishing to…
Today is International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action A protracted war leaves behind many legacies – grieving families, shattered limbs, destroyed…
Iranaitheevu has been in the news this month after residents steadfastly opposed a government decision to use the island to bury COVID-19 dead bodies. On…
Three years ago, the villagers of Mullikulam in the Mannar district left behind their brick homes with water, toilets and beds to camp out in…
Image Courtesy of Colombo Gazette In Sri Lanka, the challenge to achieve transitional justice lies not in the process alone but also in coming to…
Photo courtesy of The Statesman Maaveerar Naal, otherwise known as Heroes day, is celebrated on November 27 to remember those who lost their lives fighting…
It is increasingly evident that the lasting impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic will not be merely health related. In the early stages of government efforts…
Photo courtesy of Abdul Khaleq “And home isn’t here and home isn’t there” – Deborah Landau, The Last Usable Hour Every story of ethnic cleansing…
Photo Courtesy of Selvaraja Rajasegar On 18 May 2009, this mother traveled to the army-controlled area via Mullivaikkal Vattuvakal. There she handed over her 33-year-old…
Photo courtesy of Aleena Cader It was a dramatic moment: a tall, well-built young man dressed in white with a black band tied across his forehead…
Today is International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. “I am the luckiest mother in Sri Lanka. I got my son’s body back. There…
Photo courtesy of People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka Until recently, the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) was housed in a magnificent colonial…
Photo Credits: Munira Mutaher It has been 37 years since the anti-Tamil pogrom of July 1983, a riot that set the country ablaze and sparked…
Photo courtesy of Sangam.org July. Referred to as Black July to mark the pogrom against Tamils in 1983 carried out by Sinhala mobs. Pogrom is…
Photo courtesy of themorning.lk I was a PhD student in London when the carnage of July 1983 erupted and thank God for the bravery and…
Image courtesy of srilankatwo.wordpress.com In July 1995 the St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Navaly, Jaffna, was filled with displaced Tamils seeking refuge and…
The Catholic Church in the tiny village of Iranapalei in the Mullaitheevu district was lit up with 1000 lamps yesterday, 18th May. The thousand lamps…
Book Review – Phil Miller, Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who got away with War Crimes, (Pluto Press, 2020) Eleven years ago, in May 2009,…
Although the war ended a decade ago, the ethno-political and social fractures from violent conflict endure. On no other day are they more apparent than…
Although the war ended a decade ago, the ethno-political and social fractures from conflict endure. On no other day are they more apparent than on…
Photo courtesy Towards Data Science This month Institute of Economics and Peace released the 2019 Global Terrorism Index (GTI). The report measures the direct and indirect impact of…
Photo courtesy Foreign Policy In the aftermath of the 2019 Presidential Elections which concluded another era of the Sri Lankan political journey, it is necessary to…