Archive for the ‘Batticaloa’

Forcible resettlements in East

“We can’t send them back to a place where there are just jungles.” (President Mahinda Rajapakse, in an interview to the Hindu, 6th July 2009, referring to resettlement of people displaced from the North) Perhaps the President is unaware that even as he cites the above as reason for delays in resettling people displaced from the Vanni, his government has started to dump displaced people in the East into remote jungle areas infested with wild elephants, against the wishes of the concerned people. Savukady Savukady is a small village near Chenkalady, a few kilometers inside from the A4 main road to Batticaloa from Chenkalady. Most of displaced people in Savukady have been displaced several times. On 18th June 2009, the Divisional Secretary (DS) together with the Police and Military had forced around 57 families to resettle in Pullumalai area. I met a woman who had fainted and had to be hospitalized. Eyewitnesses had seen crying women pushed inside buses, youth…

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Thought for the day

We are reading about war crimes and ethnic cleansing on an unimaginable scale. I wonder when these artillery shells will stop raining upon our people and whether there will be justice for the victims. Repost This Article

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A thought for the IDPs in the camps

It is hard for those who have no access to the camps in the North to form a realistic opinion on the plight of the over 65,000 refugees who are supposed to bestuck in an ‘event horizon’ inside them. While the authorities paint quite a rosy picture of it, their detractors seek to discredit the claim. Assuming that the truth is half way between them, I wish to offer a few suggestions on how to improve the ground situation, depending on my past experience of working for the displaced in the North. The main complaint is about the conditions in the camp. The tents in which the refugees are housed are reported to be too small, too low and uncomfortable. The material with which the tents are built is said to be unsuited to the hot climate and to make matters worse, the trees that would have provided some cooling shade have been removed by bulldozers. Understandably, what has been…

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An exclusive interview with Eastern Province Chief Minister Pillayan after the TMVP’s arms decommissioning

English transcript of an exclusive interview with the Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (alias Pillayan) conducted by Vikalpa. Have all the powers in the 13th amendment been given to the Provincial Councils? It is not possible to say that. It should have been implemented fully as soon as it was enacted. Unfortunately, the North Eastern PC stopped functioning and the PCs in the other parts of the country didn’t care- this could be the reason why PCs did not work. The current govt has established the Eastern PC and is going to est the Northern PC. The govt needs to fully implement the 13th amendment and even go beyond it. It is only by doing this that the govt will be able to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people. We are running the PC in the belief the govt will fully implement the 13th amendment. You asked for land and police powers which haven’t been bestowed…

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Video footage from TMVP weapons decommisioning

Exclusive video footage taken by Vikalpa YouTube Channel team on the handing over of weapons by the TMVP in Batticaloa on 7th March 2009, including footage from the press conference. A related story on Vikalpa in Sinhala can be read here. Repost This Article

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From the ‘sole representative’ to the ‘sole alternative’: Justice for, and within the Tamil Community

With the position of spokesperson for, and sole representative of the Tamil community set to become vacant upon the projected defeat of the LTTE, one would hope that space would be created for the emergence of democratic, plural and dissenting Tamil voices within the community and the polity at large. However, the vacuum is most likely to be filled by Tamil politico-armed groups battling each other to be the ‘sole alternative’ to the LTTE and gain the favoured position of the ‘authentic’ Tamil voice that is accepted and supported by the government. The escalation of internecine violence in the Eastern Province is illustrative of the failure of non-LTTE Tamil leadership and political groups to provide a viable alternative to the Tamil people. Instead, Tamil politico-armed groups are awaiting the demise of the sole representative to claim the mantle of sole alternative (to the LTTE), the result of which would be the continued suppression of plural and dissenting Tamil opinion. The…

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Impact of the Batticaloa Conflict and the situation of Muslims

The Kattankudi Jamiyyathul Ulama had requested all the newly elected Muslim members of the Eastern Provincial Council to boycott its inaugural session to highlight the demand of strengthening security of the Muslim community in the east. Ethnic violence has flared in the east between the Tamil and Muslim communities since the EPC polls were conducted and tense situation prevails in the east putting into question the government claim of having liberated the east from the clutches of the LTTE. Political analysts indicate several possible reasons for the above situation. An LTTE attempt to regain control of the eastern province through inciting ethnic violence. Karuna cadres’ plan to capture power authority in the east. Opposition politics drive to gain political benefits. Government security systems. The LTTE lost their power in the east after losing their final bastion in the east at ‘Thopigala’. It was a big draw back for the LTTE. However the situation in the east calmed a little with…

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War IDPs

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The IDPs from Trincomalee District are scattered, in the Ampara District. There are few from the Mannar District too. Some are willing to return to their original places, some do not. These families prefer to live here. Some have bought small pieces of lands. These families need to be assisted to construct permanent houses here. Few organizations are assisting for the construction, still a section of families are left off. Those who are living with friends or relations face this problem. If assistance is provided their participation in completing the house is very appreciate able.  There livelihood is another problem they have to contest with the local labour. Most of  them have been cultivators, they do not have any land to cultivate here. One person from Mannar had been a fisherman, now he works as a labour, as he had not worked as a labour he finds it very difficult to work, as per his wife he works two or…

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Much Ado about Eastern Democracy?

After one cease-fire, two formal peace talks, three wars, we wade deeper into Eelam war IV, and we’re back at square one. Or is it we never left? Over 2000 deaths post-2006. Post-tsunami, over 700,000 refugees upon a decimated Northeast bloated with bone and shades of displacement. Unidentified gunmen, parcel bombs, white vans, lurk in every shadow. From Devakumaran to Senpathi, infants in Kayts to civilians in Dehiwala, the value of human life varies inversely with rising prices of petrol and rice, rates of inflation and centralization. And a panoply of issues like the 17th amendment or justice for 17 aid workers dangling a top Temple Trees’ to-do list, in the contemporary context, no more a blunt sword of Damocles, unable to slice even warm butter.  Meanwhile, the slide to war and isolationism continues.  The opposition is unable to soften the hard line. Support for war continues to reinvigorate the ontology and ideology of a defensive Tiger. Newly empowered minorities…

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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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  • 19 Apr, 2008
  • 3 Comments
  • Batticaloa

Violating the Madhu Sancuary – Some brief thoughts

  Image courtesy Mannar Diocese website   The sacred shrine of Madhu is being violated. What right has the LTTE to encroach on the Pilgrim Reservation Area gazetted under the Pilgrimage Ordinance in 1982? The LTTE has violated International Conventions relating to War in entering the Church or its environs and converting it to  a battle zone. The International Community should condemn this action of the LTTE. Only cowards hide in places of worship because they are unable to face the enemy in the battlefield. The International Community must call upon the LTTE to forthwith vacate the Madhu Church Reservation Area or face international condemnation. They must remove all mortars and other military equipment from the Reservation Area. As for the Army it too should respect the law of the land. It is the State that declared the Madhu Church Reservation in 1982 under the Pilgrimage Ordinance.  How can the Armed Forces of the same state violate the law. Let not the…

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From Akkaraipattu

This video clip contains a brief interview with A.L Thavam – Chairperson of Akkaraipattu Pradeshiya Saba (local government). It is presented here as is, without analysis or comment. Summary of the interview. Feels that Batticoloa election was successful because of the lack of incidents, and says therefore Government has been successful in liberating the Eastern Province. Acknowledges there may have been ‘little incidents’ but says these do not carry significance when the bigger picture is considered. Says that if the people did not want to vote, they could have made a mark on the ballot paper and submitted it – in effect, just pretended to vote. But says the number of these kinds of votes were very little, so feels that most people voted for who they wanted to. Also says (not on the video clip) that only “two or three seats were there for the Muslim community” and therefore the theory that the Tamils voted in order to prevent…

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Elections in the East: The dawning of democracy or fostering of violence?

By K. Ratnam It is as if the city of Batticaloa has become a red hot furnace due to the scorching sun. Yet at high noon there is a pall of gloom that hangs over the city. People who have come to attend to their requirements are wandering about hither and thither in a mighty hurry to get back as if a storm were expected any time. It is likely their only objective is to achieve their needs and leave the city as fast as possible. What is happening in Batticaloa these days? If the Government is asked this question, a probable response would be: “these days we are sowing the seeds of democracy.” In other words, they hope to widen the limits of democracy by arranging for an election in Batticaloa. However the residents in and around Batticaloa are under a reign of terror, the only difference is the one who wield the weapons. They live in a state…

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Elections in the East

There is much hype by the government spokesmen about how they held an election in the East for local authorities and restored democracy. Now the government is holding a Provincial Council election. They argue that however imperfect the democracy it is a step in the right direction. But how valid is this viewpoint. The basic premise of democracy is that the people decide who will be their rulers. But this choice must be freely exercised. If there is no freedom of choice then it can’t be considered as an expression of democracy. The former Soviet Union held regular elections to decide on the members of the Parliament. But no one considered such elections a free exercise of choice. Why? Because freedom to choose requires that here should be several candidates o choose from. Since in a modern state candidates are picked by political parties and then presented to the voters for election there must be freedom for the political parties…

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  • 21 Feb, 2008
  • 3 Comments
  • Batticaloa,
    Peace and Conflict

Batticaloa: Despair of the displaced and disappeared and the euphoria of elections and “liberation”

“Return my husband you abducted before you ask for my vote” (Plea to the TMVP-UPFA, from a Batticaloa women) The government had claimed it had “liberated” the East, completed a 180 days development program and had decided to hold elections as if to prove all is well there. Reports from the ground seemed otherwise. The Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC), comprising UN and NGOs active in humanitarian work, reported on their 11th February update that “armed groups continue to operate in the area”. In their previous report of 5th Feb. 2008, the IASC had reported that the “The situation remains tense and that the looting of humanitarian assistance materials is leading to delays in programme implementation, with some agencies informing that they have suspended some work due to continued loss of material.” In a recent visit to Batticaloa with a group of friends and colleagues going to Batticaloa, I was able to see for myself, although what can be seen…

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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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