Sri Lanka

The Mild-Mannered Man Who Could Solve Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Strife

The Mild-Mannered Man Who Could Solve Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Strife By GEETA ANAND and DHARISHA BASTIANS, New York Times 12 May 2016 Image: President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka in his office in Colombo, the capital. He has pledged to persuade his Sinhalese people to support a new Constitution that devolves the powers of the central government that they dominate. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Leaders

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Sri Lanka Lays Out Plan for Reconciliation

Sri Lanka Lays Out Plan for Reconciliation Nick Cumming-Bruce, New York Times 14 September 2015   Image: Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera of Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council in Geneval on Monday. Credit Jean-Marc Ferre/United Nations, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images GENEVA — Sri Lanka’s new government said Monday that it would set up a truth, justice and reconciliation commission and draft a new constitution to stabilize

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U.S. to Support Sri Lankan Plan on War Crimes Inquiry

U.S. to Support Sri Lankan Plan on War Crimes Inquiry Dharisha Bastians, New York Times 26 August 2015   Image: Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe, walks past former President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his swearing-in ceremony in Colombo on August 21, 2015. Shortly after the brief ceremony, a section of opposition MPs loyal to President Maithripala Sirisena’s SLFP entered into a formal agreement with Wickremasinghe’s

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Meet the feminists changing the world for girls from Kenya to Egypt

Meet the feminists changing the world for girls from Kenya to Egypt Ellie Mae O'Hagan, The Guardian 13 April 2015   Sri Lanka Sarah Soysa: ‘Young feminists are considered to be an evil, scary threat’ Feminism is needed for teenage girls in Sri Lanka. Women, young people and transgender people are harassed and disempowered. Opportunities are taken away from them. Sri Lanka has a particularly high teenage pregnancy rate. A Unicef study found

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Sri Lanka’s Tamil Minority Grows Impatient With Just Promises

Sri Lanka's Tamil Minority Grows Impatient With Just Promises Gardiner Harris, New York Times 15 March 2015 JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — There may be no place more beautiful on the breathtaking tropical island of Sri Lanka than the white sand beaches along the Palka Strait, which is why building a luxury resort here made sense. Still, there are drawbacks to staying at Thalsevana Holiday Resort. Arrive without a reservation, and you could be arrested. Stroll

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Pope Francis Calls for a Look at War Crimes in Sri Lanka

Pope Francis Calls for a Look at War Crimes in Sri Lanka Associated Press 13 January 2015   COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Pope Francis brought calls for reconciliation as well as justice as he arrived Tuesday in Sri Lanka at the start of a weeklong Asian tour, saying the island nation can’t fully heal from a quarter-century of ethnic civil war without pursuing the truth about abuses that were committed. In a show of ethnic coexistence, the pope’s

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Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka: The Second Session

Sri Lanka 131210 Permanent Peoples Tribunal on Sri Lanka Judgement: Full Document Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka  07-10 December 2013 In the First Session of the Permanent People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka, held in Dublin in January 2010 it was established that War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity had been committed by the Government of Sri Lanka and were continuing up to the moment of the judgment. The first Tribunal noted: “Although

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Sri Lanka president adamant on barring U.N. war crimes investigators

Sri Lanka president adamant on barring U.N. war crimes investigators ByShihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal, Reuters 19 August 2014  COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka will deny visas to United Nations’ investigators probing accusations of war crimes as it strengthens a domestic panel looking into allegations related to its 26-year war, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Tuesday.  Rajapaksa’s first direct comments on the topic come a week after UN

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Deadly Religious Violence Erupts in Sri Lanka

Deadly Religious Violence Erupts in Sri Lanka By Dharisha Bastians and Gardiner Harris, The New York Times  16 June 2014   ALUTHGAMA, Sri Lanka — In some of the worst religious violence in Sri Lanka in decades, three people have been killed and 78 injured in riots between Buddhists and Muslims in this southwestern coastal town after months of rising tensions, officials said Monday. The riots on Sunday followed a protest march by a hard-line Buddhist

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Political solution acceptable to Tamils needed to stop genocide agree Conservative MPs

Political solution acceptable to Tamils needed to stop genocide agree Conservative MPs Tamil Guardian 9 June 2014   British Conservative MPs condemned the genocide faced by Tamils in Sri Lanka, pledging to work towards a political solution that would end the oppression, at the first Conservative Party community event of the 2015 election campaign. Speaking at a summer fundraising event held by the British Tamil Conservatives on Friday, the MPs addressed

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