‘No protests says Daily Mirror’, from Ravaya newspaper, 1st August 2014

Ravaya flags today that Daily Mirror threatened its own journalists to not participate in a media protest held on 31st July, noting that they would lose their jobs if they did so. See English translation of the article here –

via: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qKUCeRXbBqZdYsuTn-6RHwYpevkPjEIuOBV1_8F43V0/edit

“‘පිට අයයි ගැහුවේ’ අලුත්ගම සිංහල හා මුස්ලිම් වැසියෝ” by BBC

Eyewitnesses talk to the BBC about violence in Aluthgama

you can read more under the video—

Eyewitnesses talk to the BBC about violence in Aluthgama

you can read more under the video here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/sri_lanka/2014/06/140616_aluthgama_video_villagers.shtml

source: BBC

Report “Attacks on Places of Religious Worship in Post–War Sri Lanka” by CPA

Four of Sri Lanka’s most senior hardline Buddhist monks appeared in court Monday accused of insulting the Koran, in the first such case following a spate of religious hate attacks.

Read full story via http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/news/sri-lanka-buddhist-monks-in-court-accused-of-insulting-koran/842681624

Since the end of the war there have been high-profile incidents such as the attack on the Mosque in Dambulla in April 2012, however other incidents, have received little or no public and media attention. This has resulted in a limited understanding of the scale and nature of these incidents.

This report published on 09 March 2013 documents incidents of attacks on places of worship in Sri Lanka since the end of the war in May 2009 and discusses the broader context of such attacks.

Read report here – http://www.cpalanka.org/attacks-on-places-of-religious-worship-in-post-war-sri-lanka/

Download the report in Sinhala here.

Download the report in Tamil here.

source: http://www.cpalanka.org/attacks-on-places-of-religious-worship-in-post-war-sri-lanka/

“‘Census on human and property damages due to conflict’: Critical points, translation & scanned version” by Social Indicator

The Census on human and property damages due to conflict – 2013.

Download the full questionnaire in Sinhala and Tamil as a PDF or high-resolution images, the only English translation of it at the moment in the country and a critique of significant shortcomings here:

http://groundviews.org/2013/12/07/census-on-human-and-property-damages-due-to-conflict-critical-points-translation-scanned-version/

source: www.groundviews.org

Clearing up inconvenient Hindus and laundrymen in Colombo (Groundviews)

A recent short-form video (in Sinhala) produced by Vikalpacaptured, for the first time, the voices of these laundrymen speaking about their lives, families, work, memories and experiences. Vikalpa‘s video and accompanying photos highlight the extreme hardship of lives so easily erased, trammelled and forgotten – now being moved en masse because, post-war, there are too many SUV’s coming to see Sri Lanka’s President.

Via http://groundviews.org/2013/07/02/clearing-up-inconvenient-hindus-and-laundrymen-in-colombo/

sources: Groundviews and youtube

“Le Trésor” (Nidhanaya) retrouvé

Le chef d’oeuvre cinématographique de Lester James Peries, Nidhanaya (Le Trésor), présenté en 1972 et dont il n’existait que des copies usagées, va pouvoir être restauré, grâce à un double du négatif retrouvé au service des archives cinématographiques nationales indiennes de Pune, alors que l’exemplaire conservé à Sri Lanka était gravement détérioré. Ce film avait obtenu le Lion d’Argent à la Mostra de Venise en 1972. Sous-titré en français, il a été présenté à plusieurs reprises en France par la Cinémathèque et au festival de Deauville (2001), ainsi qu’à la télévision, et figure parmi les films étudiés dans les écoles françaises de cinéma. Il s’agit du plus original et du plus achevé des films du grand réalisateur sri-lankais, qui vient de fêter ses 94 ans.
On peut lire le récit de cette redécouverte dans http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/19565

Basic safety tips and security guidelines for Facebook and web based social media

Basic safety tips and security guidelines for Facebook and web based social media, now with Tamil and Sinhala translations.

Access via https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J_7qk9yi32uTERRzLHKKXbQLb9XnSzlel5us83RpIPc/edit?usp=sharing

No copyright. Please share widely.

Source: Groundviews

“What Lessons Learnt? An accessible, thematised summary of the LLRC report” by ICES

The International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) is pleased to announce the release of ‘What Lessons Learnt?’, a summary of the key recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. This summary is available in English, Sinhala and Tamil.

 

The report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was made public on 16th December 2011.The objective of the commission was to inquire into and report on issues related to the Sri Lankan civil war between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The aim of this summary is to present the LLRC recommendations in a way that is accessible and comprehensible, and that will help to expel the myths, misunderstandings and misconceptions about the LLRC. In turn it is hoped that the summary will stimulate informed discussion amongst diverse groups, including those individuals and communities who have been excluded from the mainstream debates and dialogue on the report’s findings, enabling them to become active participants in the national dialogue on post-war justice, development and reconciliation.

 

This summary was written by Lewis Garland, translated into Sinhala by Kasun Pathiraja and into Tamil by Vishalini Jeyashankar.
 

Download via Scribd (Facebook required for downloads):
EnglishSinhalaTamil

Download via Box:
EnglishSinhalaTamil

source: ICES

 

“දෙමළ රැඳවුම්කරුවන් ලිංගිකව දූෂණය කිරීම: ශ්‍රී ලංකාව” by Human Rights Watch

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ආරක්ෂක හමුදා දෙමළ ඊලාම් කොටි සංවිධානයේ (LTTE), සාමාජිකයන් හෝ ආධාරකරුවන් බවට සැක කෙරෙන පිරිස් වද හිංසා කිරීමට ඔවුන්ව ලිංගිකව දූෂණය කරන බවත් වෙනත් ආකාරයේ ලිංගික ප්රචණ්ඩත්වයන් භාවිතා කරන බවත් අද නිකුත් කළ වාර්තාවකින් Human Rights Watchසංවිධානය කියා සිටියේය. 2009මැයි මාසයේදී අවසන් වූ සන්නද්ධ ගැටුම් කාලය තුල අත්අඩංගුවේ සිටියවුන් දූෂණය කිරීම බහුලව සිදු වූ අතර දේශපාලන දිරිගැන්වීම් මත පොලිසිය සහ හමුදාව ප්රචණ්ඩත්වය අද දක්වාම සිදු කරන බව Human Rights Watch ට දැනගන්නට ලැබුණි.

link to read the article: http://www.hrw.org/si/news/2013/02/26-0

source: www.hrw.org

Petition: Free Jaffna Student’s Leaders

The Petition

Following a protest campaign held at Jaffna University, Sri Lanka, government security forces, on the 30th of November 2012 arrested several student activists including office bearers of Student Council of the same university. Still two of them were not released. These two student leaders are V. Pawananth (President of JUSU) and K. Janamajeyan (President of Arts Faculty Students’ Union,Jaffna University).   They were not produced at a magistrate which is not an act according to the prevailing law in Sri Lanka. They were taken to custody under the provisions of Prevention of Terrorism Act, held under the directive of Defence Secretary, but still no particular reasons or accusations given. Even the authorities have not stated accusations they were publicly labelled as terrorists.
It is clear that the aim of this authoritarian act is to suppress the student activities n the Jaffna University and to set an example to the general public in northern part against any public action against government control. This is clearly an act of suppression and intimidation. So we hereby demand the government of Sri Lanka to release the two student activists forthwith.
We also support the people of Sri Lanka, in their struggle to achieve democratic rights.

To sign this petition clic on this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free-jaffna-students-leaders/
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2012 නොවැම්බර් 30 වැනිදා යාපනය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ පැවැති උද්ඝෝෂණයකින් අනතුරුව ශිෂ්‍ය නායකයින් සහ ශිෂ්‍ය ක්‍රියාකාරකයින් ගණනාවක් රජයේ ආරක්ෂක අංශ විසින් අත්අඩංගුවට ගත් අතර ඒ අතරින් ශිෂ්‍යයින් දෙදෙනෙකු එනම්, මහා ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමයේ ලේකම් පරමලිංගම් දර්ශනාත් සහ ශාස්ත්‍ර පීඨ ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමයේ සභාපති කනකසුන්දරස්වාමි ජනමේජෙයන් යන ශිෂ්‍යයින් මේවනතෙක් මුදාහැර නොමැත.
නීතියට අනුකූලව ඔවුන් මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරයෙකු හමුවට ඉදිරිපත් කර නොමැත. ත්‍රස්තවාදය මර්දනය කිරීමේ පනත යටතේ ඔවුන්ව අත්අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඇති මුත් මේ දක්වාම කිසිදු චෝදනා ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමකින් තොරව ආරක්ෂක ලේකම්වරයාගේ නියෝග මත ඔවුන් රදවාගෙන සිටීමට ආණ්ඩුව කටයුතු කර තිබේ. කිසිදු චෝදනාවක් ඉදිරිපත් කර නැති මුත් ආණ්ඩුවේ බලධාරීන් ඔවුන් ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් යැයි අවලාද නගමින් සිටී.
මෙම අත්තනෝමතික ක්‍රියාමාර්ග ගැනීමේදී ආණ්ඩුවේ අරමුණ යාපනය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ශිෂ්‍ය ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය සහ පොදුවේ උතුරේ සිදුවන මර්දනයට එරෙහි ජනතා ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වය බියවැද්දීම හා මර්දනය කිරීම බව පැහැදිලිය. එබැවින් මෙම ශිෂ්‍යයින් දෙදෙනා වහාම නිදහස් කරන ලෙස ආණ්ඩුවට බලකරන අතරම ලංකාවේ ජනතාවගේ ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රනවාදී අයිතීන් දිනාගැනීම සදහා වූ අරගලයට සහය පළකරමු.

To sign this petition clic on this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free-jaffna-students-leaders/
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2012 நவம்பர் 30ம் திகதி யாழ் பல்கலைக் கழகத்தில் நடைபெற்ற ஆர்ப்பாட்டத்தின் பின்னர் மாணவர் தலைவர்கள் மற்றும் மாணவர் செயற்பாட்டாளர்களை அரசாங்க பாதுகாப்பு படையினர் கைது செய்தனர் அவர்களில் நான்கு பேரில் அதாவது கனகசுந்தரஸ்வாமி ஜனமேஜயன் மற்றும் விஞ்ஞானபீட மாணவர் சங்கத்தின் உறுப்பினர் சண்முகம் சொலமன் ஆகிய  இரு மாணவர்கள் விடுதலை செய்யப்பட்டுள்ள நிலையில் பலகலைக்கழக மாணவர் ஒன்றியத்தின் செயலாளர் பரமலிங்கம் தர்ஷனாத், தலைவர் வேலுதுரை பவானந்த்,   இதுவரை விடுதலை செய்யப்படவில்லை.
சட்டத்திற்கு ஏற்ப அவர்கள் நீதியரசரின் முன்னிலையில் ஆஜர்படுத்தப்படவில்லை. பயங்கரவாத தடுப்புச் சட்டத்தின் கீழ் அவர்கள் கைது செய்யப்பட்டிருந்தாலும் எவ்வித குற்றமும் சுமத்தப்படாமல் பாதுகாப்பு செயலாளரின் உத்தரவிற்கமைய அவர்களை தடுத்து வைக்க அரசாங்கம் நடவடிக்கை எடுத்துள்ளது. எந்தக் குற்றமும் சுமத்தப்படாவிட்டாலும் அவர்கள் பயங்கரவாதிகள் என அரசாங்க அதிகாரிகள் கூறுகின்றனர்.
இந்த தான்தோன்றித்தனமான நடவடிக்கையின் மூலம் அரசாங்கத்தின் நோக்கம் யாழ்பல்கலைக்கழக மாணவர் செயற்பாடுகள் மற்றும் பொதுவாக வடக்கில் நடைபெறும் அடக்கு முறைக்கு எதிரான மக்கள் செயற்பாட்டை அச்சுறுத்துவது மற்றும் அடக்கும் செயலாக இருப்பது நன்றாகத் தெரிகிறது. ஆகவே இந்த 2 மாணவர்களையும் உடனடியாக விடுதலை செய்யுமாறு அரசாங்கத்தை வற்புறுத்துவதோடு இலங்கை மக்களின் ஜனநாயக உரிமைகளை பெற்றுக் கொள்வதற்கான போராட்டத்திற்கு ஆதரவு கொடுப்போம்.

To sign this petition clic on this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/free-jaffna-students-leaders/

Trade union island wide general strike on 28/09/2012 to show solidarity with FUTA

Collective trade union representative conference held on spetember 13th 2012 took a pledge to have a island wide one day general strike on september 28th to show solidarity with FUTA’s demand for 6% of GDP for education

This is a link toward Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri’s speech, in sinhalese, from the conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXkDwYLQ0V0&feature=plcp