Joint Tamil Civil Society Statement on Sri Lanka's Political and Economic Crisis with Archana Ravichandradeva

<p>SWANA Region Radio collective members David Lloyd and Soraya Zarook speak with <strong>Archana Ravichandradeva</strong>, Executive Director of <a href="https://pearlaction.org/about-us/" target="_blank"><strong>People for Equality and Relief in Lanka</strong></a>, or PEARL.&nbsp;</p> <p>In recent global news, much attention has been paid to the recent and ongoing protests in the city of Colombo in Sri Lanka, but mainstream news consistently ignores the much longer continuous protests that have taken place in Sri Lanka’s north-east, where Tamil families of the forcibly disappeared have marked over 2000 days--more than five years--of continuous protest demanding knowledge about their loved ones who were disappeared by the Sri Lankan government during a civil war that included two genocides of Tamil people, once in 1983 and again in 2009, at the war’s end. Tamil communities see no end to the impunity enjoyed by Sri Lankan government officials responsible for these war crimes and human rights abuses, and have consistently called on international entities to support their calls for information, justice and accountability.&nbsp;On this show, we discuss the demands of Tamil communities as summarized in the <a href="http://adayaalam.org/joint-tamil-civil-society-statement-sri-lankas-political-and-economic-crisis/" target="_blank">Joint Tamil Civil Society Statement</a> issued on July 14, 2022, gain some insight into the recent UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka, and learn more about the vital political advocacy work done by <a href="https://pearlaction.org/about-us/" target="_blank">PEARL</a>.</p> <p><strong>Archana Ravichandradeva</strong> is Executive Director of <a href="https://pearlaction.org/about-us/" target="_blank"><strong>People for Equality and Relief in Lanka</strong></a><strong> (PEARL)</strong> which was formed in 2005 by Tamil-American volunteers who went to Sri Lanka and witnessed the hardships of Tamil civilians affected by the conflict. Since then, PEARL has grown into a research and advocacy organization