Sri Lanka: War remembrance, reconciliation and non-violent resistance

May 2014 marked the 5th year of the brutal end of the armed conflict in the island of Sri Lanka. The foremost stakeholders of the final phase of the war, the Tamil nation, the Sinhala nation and the international community seem to have different interpretations of the disturbing developments, unfolding since the last phase of the war. In its narrative, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) keeps obstinately insisting that they liberated the Tamil people from the grip of terror. Though, this year marks the 5th year of the cruel end of war, what it actually means for the Tamil people and the reality on the ground totally contradicts the GoSL narrative....

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Is South Africa’s Model Of TRC A Trap Or Trajectory For Sri Lanka?

Background Three days after the armed conflict in the island of Sri Lanka came to a bloody end, the UN Secretary General visited parts of the war zone. At the end of his visit he told the media, “I have traveled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen.1”  In a joint statement with the President of Sri Lanka, he also underlined the importance of an accountability process for addressing violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL)2. At the time, many international stakeholders from the West also claimed they believed the end to...

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