Archive for February, 2009

The LTTE – A Spent Force?

A side issue arising from Professor Michael Roberts’s Dilemmas at War’s End: Clarifications & Counter-Offensive According to Professor Roberts, dissident SL Tamils are of the view that the LTTE has passed its use-by date and a new leadership is needed to fight for their rights. He thinks these dissident Tamils have a far better understanding of the immediate priorities of the Tamil people. Is he referring to the ones now in positions of power because they claim they have accepted the democratic process? If so, has their record to date in upholding these democratic norms stood up to scrutiny? Or, is the hope a thousand flowers will bloom as soon as the LTTE leader Pirapaharan is dead? Or, could there be other reasons? The argument that the LTTE has reached its use-by date is also debatable. The numbers do not seem to add up. If all the civilians trapped in Vanni are LTTErs, if a significant number of Tamils living…

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Resonating the interests of chauvinism? – My response to the two articles by Prof. Michael Roberts

I would like to preface my response to Professor Michael Robert’s two articles (Dilemma’s at Wars End: Responding to Hard Realities and Dilemma’s at Wars End: Clarifications and Counter-offensive). By writing this, I have no wish to devalue my friendship with Professor Roberts. For at the end of the day both of us stand for an inclusive Sri Lanka that recognizes the pluralist nature of its society comprising Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. I am completely with Professor Roberts when he emphasizes this as a central plank in addressing the current conflict. Disregarding the many allegations raised in the new article, I still cannot find grounds from the two articles to resile from the position I have taken. In Professor Robert’s view, we are caught between two evils; the fascist LTTE and the populist Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) with fascist tendencies. By implication the GOSL is the lesser evil. Both the GOSL and outsiders (i.e., Sinhalese) consider these Tamils as…

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Heroes for peace: A video against war

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Government and LTTE differ on value of life

by Global Citizen for Banyan News Reporters Colombo, Sri Lanka: Researchers at the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence and their counterparts at the LTTE Humanitarian Research Institute at Puthukkudiyirippu (formerly based in Kilinochchi and which did not at any time have a hospital) have been competing for months to produce the most accurate calculation of the value of life. The Defence Ministry spokesman who leads the government research team revealed their preliminary findings several months ago through the Media Centre for National Security. Speaking to Journalists, he reported that eight soldiers had died in battle the previous day, when the actual body count of security forces personnel killed in battle was thirteen. He assured that according to his scientific calculator, the given numbers indicated the value of a soldier’s life was approximately 0.6153846153846. Based on these figures, he said that 36.92307692307 valiant soldiers laid down their lives for the motherland when their busses came under terrorist attack a couple of weeks…

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THE TIGERS’ TICKING TIME BOMB

Velupillai Prabhakaran is about to be defeated but he has left a time bomb hidden in plain sight which must be defused if he is not to wreak a posthumous revenge. This is the time bomb placed under a strategic four lane intersection, that between the Sinhalese and the Tamils and Sri Lanka and the world.  The time bomb can be seen in the epidemic of demonstrations by the Tamil Diaspora and the statements critical of Sri Lanka that flood the international media. Prabhakaran is hoping that the time bomb will go off in time to save him, his army and his project. It is unlikely to do so, though we must not take that for granted and must crush the LTTE before external political trends especially those in the neighborhood, turn hostile. However, even if we defeat the LTTE militarily before the external turns unpropitious, we still have to defuse the time bomb. Things become clearer when we think…

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  • 22 Feb, 2009
  • 2 Comments
  • Colombo,
    Satire

LTTE offers tax break to Sri Lankan businesses

by a Special Foreign Correspondent for Banyan News Reporters London (February 21st) – Two Grammy Award winning paper planes of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) crashed in Colombo last night, killing two people and injuring 58 others according to our sources in Sri Lanka. The first plane exploded into the Inland Revenue Department building while the other one was reportedly shot down near Katunayake when its pilot’s identity was mistaken for a prominent journalist. Moments after the attack, the pro-LTTE web media quoted Alan Greenspillai, the finance secretary of the banned terrorist organisation, who claimed that their mission was to give Sri Lankan businesses a tax break. “We want to encourage small and medium businesses to reinvest their tax savings on capital infrastructure and productivity gains to boost to the lagging economy during these tough economic conditions” he said. The government defence spokesman pointed out that, with the tiger air-threat almost certainly entirely eliminated, citizens of Sri Lanka now have…

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An “unpatriotic” appeal for a UN mechanism to protect civilians

These are difficult times for all. The GoSL is fighting a humanitarian war to liberate innocent civilians from the scourge of man-eating Tigers and claims that the safety and welfare of these “innocent civilians” is foremost in its agenda. The UN claims that the GoSL is cooperating with it, and vice versa. (Atleast that’s what it seems to some of us, as the majority are deafened by the roar of Lions and unable to hear anything else but the roaring) INGOs are being approached by the GoSL to help with the problem of vast numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs). However, to quote a helpless INGO worker, “this is a Catch22 – total loose-loose situation…. Us humanitarian organisations have been put up for a huge dilemma; do we support the IDPs coming out from Vanni on the GoSL’s terms, or let them go without support? Do we let ourselves be co-opted, or let the IDPs suffer more?” Report after report…

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Air raids and airports

I had just posted The psychopathology of the LTTE suicide bombers here when the first JNW SMS news alert came of an LTTE air raid in the environs of Colombo. A friend called in to say that air defences had been activated and my wife called to ask whether I had electricity. All of Colombo was in darkness, but beyond the Nugegoda junction there was power. Packed hurriedly and gave a call to Airport Express to advance my pick up time by an hour. Gave the following update to a friend at around 11pm. I am typing this on my Blackberry en route to the airport. Around an hour ago, the LTTE launched an air raid on Colombo. One bomb suspected to be dropped in the heart of the city. No casualties reported yet. One plane shot down near international airport and body of pilot found. Flights grounded. Hopefully will be able to make it off the ground. For a while,…

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The psychopathology of the LTTE suicide bombers

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. There’s a hole in the world tonight. There’s a Cloud of fear and sorrow. There’s a hole in the world tonight. Don’t let there be a hole in the world tomorrow. Eagles   The LTTE suicide killing is one of the most bizarre forms of political action adopted by its authority via glorification of death and violence. For the LTTE this action is not cleanly a military tactic or reprisal. It is a mass ritual as well as an action beyond death. The LTTE suicide carders better known as Black Tigers (or in Tamil: Karum Puligal ) are psychologically motivated to kill and get killed. The selection of a member for a suicide mission is a complex process. They are handled and trained by experienced personnel. There are number of issues that have to be taken in to consideration before the selection. The selected member’s loyalty to the organization, psychological makeup, group identity, suicidal ideation…

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Architects of a military junta in Sri Lanka?

In this article, my objective is to focus on a crucial area of Sri Lankan political life, where significant developments have taken place: military successes against the LTTE coupled with the development of a culture of ruthless impunity. This can be described as the result of a mixture of very dangerous elements: 1.     Rise of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism 2.     A sentiment of intense ‘fear’ of the state and the military establishment 3.     A military force marked by impunity and immorality. These three factors are complemented by acts of assault, imprisonment and murder of journalists and, and a policy of zero tolerance of any dissenting voices. Insights into the situation can be glimpsed from the ideologies that tend to dominate within the island nation’s defence establishment. Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka , Sri Lanka’s Army Commander, publicly affirms that the ethnic minority groups of Sri Lanka are not citizens enjoying equal rights as the ethnic majority the Sinhalese. (See here. Accessed 15…

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A recent trip to Vavuniya: For the future looks dark and gloomy

Though I have been following the news about the war in Vanni, and the damages made to human lives and properties, I never thought it would be so bad until I went in person. I got a call from one of our parish members from one of the interim camps saying our foster son Rev. Daniel was killed in the war. The first time I experienced the steps in grief, which I had lectured several times to my students. “No, No, it can’t be” I cried. I straight away went to the Anglican Bishop’s office. I couldn’t control my tears when I saw Rev. Nesakumar. They told me that he was safe and is in one of those camps. The next day I booked the seat and took the train to Vavuniya. I started early morning and reached Vavuniya in the afternoon. My foster daughter was waiting for me at the station. We straight away went to the camp. Nobody…

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What undue humanitarian concerns? – Responding to Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts in an article published on Groundviews recently suggests that in the context of “an uncertain number of Tamil ‘civilians’ trapped within the beleaguered and shrinking LTTE territory…emotion and humanitarian concerns have eclipsed realism and factuality”.  Are humanitarian concerns ever undue?  In fact Michael’s position is lacking not only in ‘humanitarian concerns’ but also in ‘reality and factuality’. The objective of the proposed ceasefire is, surely, not to postpone the defeat of the LTTE (which will not help the LTTE or the trapped Tamil civilians) but to negotiate arrangements for urgent relief to those trapped and to facilitate the evacuation of those who wish to cross over (this would be the large majority of those trapped).  Such arrangements, under international supervision, would greatly reduce civilian casualties and relieve suffering, i.e. serve humanitarian concerns. The World War II situations cited by Michael are of little relevance to the civil war in which we are caught up.  Humanitarian concerns are relevant in…

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What’s wrong with Michael Roberts’ enthusiasm for a “knock-out blow?”

Vasantha Raja, Editor, www.lankaeye.com   After reading Michael Roberts’ “Dilemmas at wars end” and his subsequent “Clarifications & Counter-offensive” my curiosity above all was to find out what kind of logic could have led an academic of his calibre to end up in prescribing in effect to the world to be patient until the government’s Sinhala forces (my adjective) annihilate the Tigers’ “conventional fighting machine” (I shall use double-quotes to indicate Roberts’ words.) even at the risk of sacrificing thousands of Tamil civilians. [Presumably, the adjective “conventional” above seems to allow for the possibility of Tigers’ future existence as a guerrilla fighting machine, which in my view would be the more likely scenario. Perhaps, it would be in the government’s interest to kill as many civilians as possible as a pre-emptive act to eradicate future guerrilla-material – Roberts admits “most of the people within de facto Eelam” do provide “considerable support for the LTTE”.] Let’s turn to the crux of Roberts’ argument…

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  • 18 Feb, 2009
  • 0 Comment
  • Colombo,
    Human Rights,
    IDPs and Refugees,
    Jaffna,
    Peace and Conflict

Detailed response to Jeevan Thiagarajah’s ‘Settling conflicts after the war and doing what is right’

When I read Jeevan Thiagarajah’s piece published on Groundviews a few days ago several questions sprung to mind. Why is the article trying so desperately to be apolitical? How can we solve conflicts if we cannot even acknowledge that certain groups, i.e. the government, the LTTE, the paramilitaries, are responsible, in different ways, for the humanitarian emergency and rights violations we are faced with? The author mentions preventable deaths- how would he define them? By speaking of preventable deaths, are we as ‘caregivers’ subscribing to the logic of the state and the LTTE that some civilians will have to be sacrificed as collateral damage, i.e. are expendable?   It is unclear what the author means when he states ‘it requires a willingness on the part of the community representative of CHA to seek to lead people in peril to safety and security.’ Is he speaking of the potential role of the CHA in protecting civilians? I however am more interested in…

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Wanted for the Tamils: An Ashroff or a Thondaman

Now that the armed conflict of the LTTE is supposed to be approaching its end, it behoves those concerned with the future of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, to reflect seriously on the options available to redeem their future. In that context, the speech delivered at the seminar organized by NIPU on December 21, 2008, by Sumanasiri Liyanage on“Reformist Perspective on Constitutional Change“, assumes relevance and significance. The text of the speech has been reproduced in Groundviews on February 10, 2009. The Incrementally Progressive Approach Liyanage sums up his preferred option for the Tamils as follows;  ‘My submission here is if the advocates of pluralist democratic constitutional order adopt a strategy of gradual and incremental reforms, it may produce better results. Thirteenth and Seventeenth Amendments notwithstanding their limits provide with options that would facilitate the journey towards a new constitutional order”. In his article on “Tamil politics tomorrow: Options, challenges and pitfalls“ published in the Groundviews on February 5, 2009, Dayan Jayatilleka makes the following observation:  “The tragedy of…

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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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