SRI LANKA PRIMER
Covering Sri Lanka? Here are some sources and resources for you. Remember, no one source here can be considered exhaustive or definitive, although we have tried to point you in the direction of references we consider outstanding.
BBC Sri Lanka explainer:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1168427.stm
(this is updated on a regular basis)
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Some recent guests in our Sri Lanka series of webcasts are willing to talk to journalists.
You can listen to the webcasts here and here:
BRIEFING #1: http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/12/webcast-sri-lanka-the-.html
BRIEFING #2: http://www.sajaforum.org/2009/01/webcast-sri-lanka-briefing-2.html
EXPERTS FROM OUR WEBCASTS
V.V. Ganeshananthan, former SAJA vice president / current board member, and author of "Love Marriage," a 2008 novel set in Sri Lanka and the diaspora: writer[at]vasugi.com (Use subject line: SAJA LANKA QUERY)
Write to Ahilan Kadirgamar at ahilan [dot] kadirgamar [at] gmail [dot] com
See the Sri Lanka Democracy Forum here: http://srilankademocracy.org/
Write to Muttukrishna "Sarvi" Sarvananthan at sarvi[at]pointpedro[at]org
Write to Sanjana Hattotuwa at sanjanah [at] gmail [dot] com
See Groundviews here: http://www.groundviews.lk
Find the Centre for Policy Alternatives here: http://www.cpalanka.org/
Find the International Centre for Ethnic Studies here: http://www.icescolombo.org/
UPDATED 5/09: Find Lines Magazine, relaunched as a blog, here: http://lines-magazine.org/
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OTHER RESOURCES
Please note that these are external links and SAJA is not responsible for their content.
HRW-Sri Lanka
http://www.hrw.org/en/asia/
See particularly:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/02/19/war-displaced
Richard A. Boucher
Assistant Secretary
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
Washington, DC
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/61773.htm
Note particularly:
http://www.state.gov/p/sca/
Ambassador Robert Blake, Jr.
Embassy of the United States
Sri Lanka and Maldives
http://srilanka.usembassy.gov
http://srilanka.usembassy.gov/ambassador.html
Note particularly:
http://srilanka.usembassy.gov/
DBS Jeyaraj
http://www.dbsjeyaraj.com/
International Crisis Group-Sri Lanka
http://www.crisisgroup.org/
University Teachers for Human Rights, Sri Lanka
http://www.uthr.org
Note particularly:
http://www.uthr.org/BP/Content.htm
(online version of UTHR's best-known publication, The Broken Palmyra; N.B. that the online version does not provide access to the entire book, which is a 1990 account including some history, as well accounts of human rights violations by various parties to the conflict; see one review here: http://archive.peacemagazine.org/v07n6p28.htm)
UNOCHA Sri Lanka Humanitarian Portal
http://www.humanitarianinfo.
ReliefWeb Sri Lanka
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
World Bank-Sri Lanka
http://www.worldbank.lk/
International Monetary Fund-Sri Lanka
http://www.imf.org/external/
UNICEF-Sri Lanka
http://www.unicef.org/
The Economist-Sri Lanka
http://www.economist.com/
Daily Mirror
http://www.dailymirror.lk/
Lanka Dissent
http://www.lankadissent.com/
Reporters Without Borders-Sri Lanka
http://www.rsf.org/article.
FreeMediaMovement
http://www.freemediasrilanka.org/English/index.php
Genocide Prevention Project-Listings
http://www.preventorprotect.
Tamil Nation.Org
http://www.tamilnation.org
http://www.cpj.org/asia/sri-
Note particularly:
http://cpj.org/reports/2009/02/failure-to-investigate-sri-lankan-journalists-unde.php
World Health Organization Sri Lanka
http://www.who.int/countries/
The Sunday Leader
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/
Transcurrents
www.transcurrents.com
Amnesty International-Sri Lanka
http://www.amnesty.org/en/
TamilNet.com
http://www.tamilnet.com
(Note that mainstream Western media generally refer to this site as pro-rebel. However, its stories often focus on areas where other reporters' access may be limited. The site is blocked in Sri Lanka.)
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Older articles of note (this section will be updated and is not intended to be exhaustive):
Staring Down the Tigers—
The Sri Lankan civil war is playing out in Toronto’s Tamil media — and one local writer has the broken bones to prove it. Profiles in journalistic courage
Spring 2007—Ryerson Review of Journalism
by Meena Nallainathan
http://www.rrj.ca/issue/2007/spring/674/
Letter from Sri Lanka
Tides of War
Ater the tsunami, the fighting continues.
by Philip Gourevitch
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/08/01/05080fa_fact1
Special Issue on Sri Lanka
Himal Southasian
February 2009
http://www.himalmag.com/himaledition=2009-02-01
Top Sri Lankan: Cease-Fire Meaningless
by Matthew Rosenberg
The Associated Press (via The Washington Post)
Thursday, April 12, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041201226.html
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Easy links to current coverage:
NYTimes Topics: Sri Lanka
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/srilanka/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=sri%20lanka&st=cse
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See SAJAforum's collection of Sri Lanka-related posts since Aug. 2006 (including coverage of the assassination of government critic and newspaper editor Lasantha Wickramatunga):
http://www.sajaforum.org/sri_lanka
More resources to come. Post your comments and suggestions below.
