Sri Lanka intensifies its crackdown on dissenters, the U.K. decides to stop all direct aid to South Africa by 2015 and …
sri lanka
Peer Pressure: Will Another U.N. Resolution Change Sri Lanka?
A draft U.S. resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council aims to pressure Sri Lanka to implement recommendations made by the postwar Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. But it may not work
A Lack of Swordsmen May Lead Saudis to Abolish Beheadings
Saudi Arabia is considering the abolishment of execution by beheading in favor of death by firing squad
Sri Lanka’s Elephant Shortage
In Sri Lanka, elephants perform an important role in a range of traditional religious ceremonies. But dwindling numbers of pachyderms in captivity have led to a surge in illegal kidnapping of baby elephants
Must-Reads from Around the World, June 6, 2012
Beijing Impasse — The Washington Post provides a comprehensive look at the challenge China’s economic slowdown is presenting to Communist Party leaders seemingly unsure how to proceed. “Unlike in past slowdowns, Chinese …
Three Years After War’s End, Sri Lanka Is Only Beginning to Make Peace
When war returned to the Vanni, the vast swath of land in Sri Lanka’s north, it came quickly and left just as fast. For over three decades as Tamil militants fought successive Sri Lankan governments seeking an independent Tamil …
May Day Protests Around the Globe
Thousands around the world are marching through city streets in observance of May Day, the international workers’ holiday, shouting demands for greater equality and an end to government-imposed austerity measures.
Asia Reacts to Earthquake and Tsunami Threat
A 8.5 magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia’s Sumatra island prompting an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami alert.
U.N. Sri Lanka Vote Redefines India’s Regional Role
In the early months of 2009 when Sri Lanka’s war was reaching its final crescendo, frantic calls were made to Colombo by Sri Lankan diplomats at the United Nations headquarters in New York. According to a top Sri Lankan diplomat, some calls were directly to Mahinda Rajapaksa himself, warning the Sri Lankan president that the U.S., …
Why Sri Lanka Remains Defiant Against New Allegations of War Crimes
“They didn’t believe that anyone in the international community was willing to stop them, and they were right.” That is the lucid explanation offered by John Holmes, the British diplomat and former chief of the U.N.’s …
Why We Should Be Talking About Sri Lanka
As 47 countries meet in Geneva to take stock of the world’s human-rights performance, Sri Lanka finds itself in the dock, haunted by the legacy of a fierce civil war that spanned two and a half decades and came to a violent end …
The Real Lessons of Sri Lanka’s War: A Global Power Shift and the End of Human Rights
The grandly named “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission” submitted its final report to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday. The document is meant to account for the failure of a 2002 ceasefire and the events leading up to the end of the country’s 26-year-long war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil …
Fox Outfoxed: Fresh Revelations Force U.K. Defense Secretary to Quit
Liam Fox must have realized he could not outrun his fate. And so on Oct. 14 Britain’s Secretary of State for Defense delivered a letter to 10 Downing Street. “I have repeatedly said that the national interest must always come before personal interest,” he wrote. “I now have to hold myself to my own standard.”
Fox’s resignation …
