Tag Archives: Genocide
Finding peace in post-war Sri Lanka
Tamil casualties in Sri Lanka, 2009
What’s being done to achieve reconciliation after war?
(AL JAZEERA) Between 1972 and 2009, at least 100,000 people were killed in conflicts between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Sri Lankan military. In 1983, clashes between the two groups escalated into war following a period known as Black July. The Tamil fight for a state independent of Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority fueled a war that lasted nearly three decades.
Topography of my soul
“Does that grey colour in your hair mean you’re going to die soon, mama?”
Nahida Izzat Global News Centre
(LONDON) The following poem is from Nahida Izzat, whose family was forced to flee Palestine during teh Six Day War in 1967.
When I was seven,
At gunpoint,
I was driven out of my land, Palestine
A Naksa, survivor, daughter of Nakba survivors
Eyes moist, gazing at the horizon
Fixated towards Jerusalem
Ever since
Human Rights: illness becomes wellness
occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com
Quote of the day: “When ‘I’ is replaced with ‘we’ even illness becomes wellness” Malcolm X
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh Global News Centre
(BETHLEHEM) Palestine Museum of Natural History Progress in the last week:
- You are invited today (Wednesday July 22) at 2 PM for a talk by Hodgkin the author of “A History of Mathematics From Mesopotamia to Modernity” and retired math professor from King’s College in London. His lecture is titled “Mathematics and justice: what is mathematics doing to us, and what could it do for us?” Earlier, we took a trip with Prof. Hodgkin to Artas because he is the grandchild of Mrs. Crowford (she and Louise Baldensperger were partners in the 1920s/1930s in studying Palestinian plants and folklore in that town)
Human Rights: thinking globally, acting locally
One thing about empires that people have to know: they do not last. They get the hubris to think they can last and that they can manage affairs of other people in perpetuity but this is an illusion.
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh Global News Centre
(BETHLEHEM) The first two paragraphs below are commentary/”thinking globally” followed by suggestions on “acting locally”. So you can skip the next two paragraphs if you like and go directly to actions.
Colombo intent on subjecting more Tamil GS officers to ‘military rehabilitation’
Ki’linochchi photo courtesy: misshelen.wordpress.com
While 6 Eezham Tamil Village Officers (GS) from Ki’linochchi, recently interdicted from their jobs by Colombo’s Ministry of Public Administration, are now forced to undergo ‘military rehabilitation’, the occupying Sri Lankan military, which seeks to retain its control on the civil affairs has instructed Karu Jayasuriya’s ministry to subject 12 more Tamil GS officers to the genocidal military rehabilitation, civil sources in Jaffna said. Mr T. Kanagarasa, the coordinator of SL Human Rights Commission in Jaffna said he had sent a letter to the SL ministry of Public Administration seeking clarification after receiving a complaint from a young mother, who has been interdicted from her work. In the meantime, Mr S. Varathan, the president of the interest organisation of the GS officers in Jaffna accused that the SL Government Agents have failed to protect the interests of the GS officers.
Global News Centre
[TamilNet) Five GS officers from Jaffna district and 4 GS officers from Mullaiththeevu district are among the other GS officers, who have been subjected to interdiction in recent days, the civil sources told TamilNet.
“What happens to a dream deferred?”
Injustices, that is, such as Israel’s oppressive military occupation of the Palestinian people, an occupation that began either in 1948 or 1967, however one wishes to measure the history of stolen land and stolen lives.
Dr. James Wall Global News Centre
(CHICAGO) What happens to a dream deferred?
The question comes from Langston Hughes’ poem, Harlem, which inspired Lorraine Hansberry to write her drama, A Raisin in the Sun, the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway.
Justice in Sri Lanka: With just 273 political prisoners in custody, how many have disappeared?
The haphazard arrests, detentions, killings, disappearances and the impunity that prevailed during the former President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government led families of the disappeared to live in ignorance as to whether their loved ones were dead or held incommunicado in Government custody.
By JS Tissainayagam
(ASIAN CORRESPONDENT) New questions about wartime and post-war disappearances in Sri Lanka emerged following a bombshell revelation that the Government hs only 273 political detainees in its custody. Families of the disappeared believed the numbers are much higher. This announcement also hardens doubts if a Sri Lankan-led judicial process into mass atrocities, such as disappearances, will bring justice to the victims.
Tax-exempt U.S. funds should not be building Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank
planetinvestigations.com
As young people ask questions about the meaning of life and seek to discover a meaning and purpose for their own lives, the place once occupied by the church is, more and more, now empty.
Allan Brownfeld Global News Centre
(WASHINGTON DC) For nearly half a century, Israel has occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem. During that period more than half a million Israelis have settled in these occupied territories. The U.S. Government, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, views these settlements as illegal. So does the United Nations and International law. U.S. policy has long called for a two-state solution, with an independent Palestinian state to be established on the West Bank. Israeli occupation of the land, however, makes the two-state solution unlikely. And Israel’s new government opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, with some members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government openly calling for annexation. In early June, at the Herzliya Conference, Israel’s premier security meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely declared: “I negate the idea of a two-state solution.”
Some advice to a desperate “Pope”
Busted! Good buddies Jorge Bergoglio (left) and Argentine Dictator Jorge Videla, 1982
Kevin Annett shares some words of advice for an embattled religious leader who used to be friends with a genocidal dictator and baby dealer.
Kevin Annett Global News Centre
(NAINAMO ISLAND, Vancouver) The following is a letter from Nobel Prize Nominee Kevin Annett, to Jorge Bergoglio, the Catholic “Pope” who was directly involved in a US-backed genocidal dictatorship in Argentina, where he is said to have marketed the infants of couples murdered by the government of Augusto Pinochet.
US Senator Patrick Leahy rejects local mechanism & local news
US Senator Patrick Leahy
“It is time for the armed forces to return land.” - US Senator Patrick Leahy
Visvanathan for Global News Centre
(CHENNAI) “A domestic mechanism to deal with issues of accountability in Sri Lanka will not be sufficient,” said a US Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, stressing the importance of accountability for potential war crimes. Impunity for serious crimes has been the norm in Sri Lanka.
Tamils still face genocidal agendas says TNA MP
The TNA MP was speaking at a local civil society event organised by a Jaffna University Student Kokilraj and the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) Kilinochchi youth leader Suren.
Global News Centre
(TAMIL GUARDIAN) Tamils are still having to deal with the ‘genocidal agendas’ said the Tamil National Alliance MP R Sritharan at a local civil society event in Kilinochchi last week.
Highlighting a prevalence of drug sales in the region, Mr Sritharan said, “it (the government) has planted poisonous seeds in the community. As a consequence the community is continuing to face cultural calamity.”
