Local Features

Listening to people talk since the vote in the Human Rights Council, anybody would think that Sri Lanka’s approach to international relations was now clear. Newspapers have been full of praise for Dayan Jayatilleka and the principles he has been advocating. If they were genuinely convinced, I’d be delighted. I’ve always believed that a foreign policy based on solidarity with …

I refer to Demos’ comment under the above heading in the Island of June 22 on my article and that of Kath Noble in The Island of June 15 and 17 respectively. There has been much confusion about what has been meant by what came to be called megaphone diplomacy. It referred to statements made both by bureaucrats and politicians …

The concept of Responsibility to Protect has triggered resistance in many countries of the Global South precisely because of its potential misapplication to situations such as the Sri Lankan one. Lakshman Kadirgamar, the former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, was one of the most incisive legal minds of his generation. A former president of the Oxford Union, he made significant contributions …

I recently returned from one of my regular Pastoral visits to our Congregations (Churches) and Schools in Jaffna . Such visits are always educative and humbling. What was immediately noticeable was the pre-occupation with routine in the lives of the people; simply because there seems to be little else to look forward to. People went about their daily business and …

The timeliness of this book review is underlined by these words of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the people of Sri Lanka on May 19, on the occasion of the country’s ‘30 year war’ coming to a close: “We have removed the word minorities from our vocabulary three years ago. No longer are the Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays and any others …