Archive for May, 2008

An Eye for an Eye, a Bomb for a Bomb

A bomb on a train in Dehiwela killed 9 civilians, including a pregnant woman. The Sri Lankan government blames the LTTE; they deny it. Three days earlier, a claymore attack on van deep in LTTE territory killed 16 civilians, including 5 children. The LTTE blames the Deep Penetration Unit of the Sri Lankan army; they deny it. In February, a bomb on a bus in Dambulla killed 20, while a bomb at the Colombo Fort railway station killed 12, including 8 children from the baseball team at D.S. Senanayake College and a 12-year-old girl. The LTTE was blamed for both attacks; they denied it. A few days earlier, a claymore mine attack on a bus in the LTTE-controlled area of Madhu killed 20 children. The LTTE blamed the Sri Lankan army; they denied it. And on and on it goes. Life in Sri Lanka seems to follow the Old Testament of the Bible: “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand…

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  • 27 May, 2008
  • 1 Comment
  • Colombo,
    Human Security,
    Peace and Conflict

Victim, eye-witness and first responder accounts of Dehiwela train blast

For more videos visit the Vikalpa YouTube Channel. Repost This Article

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Jaffna: Retrospect and Prospect

Most of what I reveal below has been lying concealed in my notes and diaries deposited in the Government Achieves. I have decided to focus on them out of my belief that they may throw some light as we grope through the darkness covering our arduous trek towards national reconciliation. Read between the lines with insight, they may perhaps point the way to peace and prosperity. I started my career in the then Ceylon Civil Service in 1957 as a Cadet in the Jaffna Kachcheri. My thoughts of Jaffna are nostalgic, prompted by the happy life I led among a hospitable, and peace-loving people, nurtured in the best traditions of a noble culture. I always looked forward to returning the ample help and courtesy I received from them in whatever little way I could. The opportunity came my way unexpectedly, soon after the “Riviresa Operation”. I was suddenly summoned to Temple Trees to see the President immediately. The Lady told…

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THE EASTERN PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS: A BRIEF POST-MORTEM

As the much hard-sold elections to the Eastern Provincial Council came to an unseemly and acrimonious conclusion last week, it was already becoming abundantly clear that its political and constitutional ramifications may well turn out to be anything other than what the government’s triumphalist claims would have us believe. Perhaps the most disturbing political upshot of these elections was the sharp and violent polarisation of ethnic and religious communities in this most pluralistic of provinces. Electoral politics was conducted unashamedly as a form of antagonistic communal competition and outbidding, paralleling without much overstatement that nonpareil of political disintegration, the general elections of 1956. In the years before the watershed of 1956, the gross ineptitude of Sir John Kotelawala’s UNP with regard to any notion of nation-building on the cusp of independence, coupled with S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike’s miasmic, if highly equivocating, opportunism gave rise to a situation in which politics came to be fundamentally dominated by a hysterical and…

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EU withdrawal of GSP+ to enforce Human Rights – Part 2

I received a comment from one Mr. Perera from Cairo, who lamented about my opinion on the EU and the GSP+ issue published on Groundviews. Fortunately for him he is in Cairo and not here. Had he been here he would know about the breakdown of the Rule of Law – the abductions, the extra-judicial killings, the disappearances taking place. The victims are largely Tamil civilians and even if they were LTTE sympathizers we don’t expect the State to act like the LTTE and deal with them according to the law of the jungle. Who does these things we don’t know for sure but only have suspicions. But they are done with impunity and the state law enforcement agencies have failed to investigate and charge a single suspect. Lawless acts committed by Dr. Mervyn Silva on Rupavahini employees show that the victims will not be confined to Tamils & Muslims but anybody who runs foul of the powers that be. The…

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  • 16 May, 2008
  • 28 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Media and Communications

The Island newspaper promotes pedophilia, sex and fellatio for children

The Island

The Island newspaper in Sri Lanka is already known for its Editorial blunders. Yesterday however, it sunk to a new low when it published the following in the children’s section of its daily edition (Page 2, The Happy Island).  Click here for a larger image that places this section in the context of the page.  Clearly The Island has a very different idea to most parents on nursery rhymes for children.  What do you think? UPDATED 17 May 2008 Ravana says that The Island claims someone hacked into their computer and replaced what was originally supposed to go up, an explanation as outrageous and incredible as the “nursery rhymes” they published.  Also see some of the other hilarious comments on the posts made here, here and here. You can also see this blogger’s post on how the Editor of The Island is dealing with this issue and the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). Repost This Article

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TO THE TAMILS IN THE NORTH: WHY DIDN’T YOU VOTE?!

By Under Dog   Amidst the bombs, the war, the white vans, and the checkpoints, I look back with fond memories of the ceasefire. It brought four glorious years of peace and prosperity, and also did what the naysayers said could never happen—it split the LTTE in two. Karuna, the LTTE’s fiercest combat commander, and an incessant thorn in our side during the ill-fated Jayasikurui operation, decided he wanted out. Perhaps he wanted a bigger share of the spoils from the LTTE money machine, perhaps more authority, or perhaps he had a lover’s quarrel with Prabhakaran (when the Dear Leader asked ‘do I look fat in this?’ he shouldn’t have recommended changing the uniforms to vertical stripes). Anyway, the truth is we will never really know, but then rumours of internal strife within the LTTE have been rife for years: Tamilselvan vs. Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman vs. Prabhakaran, Tamilselvam vs. Pottu Amman etc. No smoke without fire, so we can assume…

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Old Truths and Old Men

Stupid Old Men I don’t want to end up being a stupid old man Just look at what they have done to our world in vain What’s the big deal in going to the moon As he yet settles score by inflicting pain War on terror, crusade or witch hunts Stupid old men run scared to ruin Peace on earth has little chance to shine I wonder whether it’s the testosterone drain that give men the jitters when age is on the gain I need to wise up and control this mind game Or else I will end up a stupid old man Dig not my heals in the old men’s club When science of Descartes takes the quantum leap Calling it mumbo jumbo quackery they oppress The new magic of now you see and now you don’t Prophesies are fulfilled with the power of belief Believe love and happiness, we get well Believe hate and sadness, we get sick…

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EU withdrawal of GSP+ to enforce Human Rights

Economic sanctions have been used for foreign policy objectives since the time of Ancient Greece. The idea that economic sanctions might be an alternative to the use of force received attention after the First World War, largely owing to President Woodrow Wilson’s advocacy. Since World War II, Economic sanctions have been employed to promote democracy and human rights, to end civil war, to stop drug trafficking, to fight terrorism, to combat weapons proliferation, and to promote nuclear disarmament. Since the creation of the United Nations in 1945, the Security Council has imposed sanctions in fifteen cases: Southern Rhodesia (1966), South Africa (1977), Iraq (1990), former Yugoslavia (1991), Liberia (1992), Libya (1992), Somalia (1992), Angola (1993), Haiti (1993), Rwanda (1994), Sudan (1996), Sierra Leone (1997), Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/Kosovo (1998), Afghanistan (1999), and Ethiopia and Eritrea (2000). The UN charter explicitly allows for the imposition of sanctions. We are now faced with the possible withdrawal of GSP+, a trade preference allowed to us…

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Bus Terrorism and Justice

It was a busy afternoon on the Galle Road in Moratuwa and I stopped my vehicle at a pedestrian crossing to allow a few women and children cross the road.  The vehicle on the left lane also stopped and the people were now more than halfway across when a Matara bound Leyland bus squeezed through the left and overtook both vehicles along the curb, barely missing the people crossing the road.   The bus then cut across to the right lane and nearly missed another bunch of people about to cross at another pedestrian crossing and sped away.  The above scenario is a common site on our roads, but no one takes any action, so the unsociable behaviour from the bus drivers continue. I took it upon myself to follow and stop the bus and to give the driver some feedback on his bad behaviour.   Unfortunately, my temper had got in the way and I could not string my words together…

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Fate of the Displaced – Mannar

As soon as the security forces arrived at Arrippu, in September 2007, we were escorted out of our villages, some with personal belongings many with only what they were wearing. We sheltered at Nanattan School for 15 days. We made a request to the area commander through our GA Mn & DS Nananattan to resettle us in our native place. First they said that they would allow us to go to our village with in a month. Then they said after 06 months. Finally they said that they would resettle us when The Defense Ministry would give an order only they would allow us to go. We still remain IDPs unable to go back to our villages. Since we engage in fishing at Achankullam Nannattan, we temporarily settled down there. On 22.04.08 our sons Mr. Rongalin age 20 & Mr.Sutherson Peries age 22, went to Nannattan to take photo graphs for navy identity cards around 3.30 pm. While they were…

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  • 3 May, 2008
  • 12 Comments
  • Peace and Conflict

Peace in Northern Ireland – Lessons for Sri Lanka?

There appears to be renewed interest in Northern Ireland (NI) and the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) within policy circles here.  The GFA is certainly unique because it fundamentally reconstituted the state and politics in NI. Republican and unionists expectations on a number of issues were diametrically opposed to each other, but major concessions were made on both sides in order to reach agreement. Sinn Fein (SF) and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) eventually agreed to a settlement which did not grant them their primary political aspiration – a united Ireland.  The unionist agreed to share executive power with the Catholic community, an idea resisted by them for decades. The GFA has many lessons for Sri Lanka, and it is equally important to understand what made the GFA and its slow but eventual implementation possible. I want to argue that four factors played a crucial role in resolving the conflict in NI.   Firstly, the SF/PIRA and the British Government…

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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