Archive for the ‘Jaffna’

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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DILEMMAS AT WARS END: CLARIFICATIONS & COUNTER-OFFENSIVE

My essay DILEMMAS (note the plural) was also sent to a circle of friends and has appeared in other outlets, viz., http://sacrificialdevotionnetwork.wordpress.com and the Island, 11 February 2009. I thank all those who have provided cyber comments as well as email responses: both sets, as it happens, are quite polarised, with some highly critical and others strongly supportive. Groundviews was my first choice. One reason for this decision was the fact that I had aired my political position previously in this outlet (notably Roberts, 2008a, b and c) and could reasonably expect one part of the readership to read this piece within that broader framework (mistaken here). Dilemmas was (is) also constrained by space because it was well above the standard length of 800-1500 words permitted by most media sites. To elaborate my position: I hold that we are caught between two evils that I shall set out as inter-related points. A. At the broader level we are sandwiched on…

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  • 16 Feb, 2009
  • 5 Comments
  • Jaffna,
    Satire

Sri Lankan government admitted to the proctology ward of General Hospital

by Global Citizen for Banyan News Reporters Colombo, Sri Lanka: Our sources revealed that the Sri Lankan government was admitted to the proctology ward of the General Hospital in Colombo late last week after it complained about acute abdominal dysfunction. Leading British proctologist, Doctor Des Browne was hurriedly pushed in to examine the Sri Lankan government even before the patient was consulted. Dr. Browne later told reporters that he was unable to examine the patient due to an abnormal tightening of its anal sphincter – a muscle controlled by the patient’s nervous system to keep out uninvited poking in inappropriate places. It is believed that the Sri Lankan government first reported these symptoms as it was trying to purge the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam out of Sri Lanka’s digestive system. Local and foreign media nurses who have been poking around the patient’s anal sphincter have diagnosed that the most severe pains were reported in the appendix where close to a hundred thousand…

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  • 15 Feb, 2009
  • 2 Comments
  • Jaffna,
    Peace and Conflict

Settling conflicts after the war and doing what is right

Amidst night cricket, world records, 20-20 cricket, and Deyata Kirula in another part of the country a grim battle rages. Caregivers have lost faith in justice and seek to die with those trapped than watch the horror. Some feel we are profiting on their misery. Many are tortured, scarred and traumatized by their experiences. Thousands are unable to make it out on their own freewill and will need to be led to safety in the next few days or many will die. This is in addition to the thousands recorded and unrecorded who have already paid with their lives.  Our primary duty is to prevent any more preventable deaths, disability and suffering. It requires a willingness on the part of the community representative of CHA to seek to lead people in peril to safety and security. The failure to do so will be an inheritance of curses, accusations of illegitimacy to speak of humanitarian imperatives and complicity in destruction of…

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A response to Michael Robert’s Dilemma at Wars End: Thoughts on Hard Realities

This is a response to Michael Robert’s article published on Groundviews recently titled Dilemma at Wars End: Thoughts on Hard Realities. I am disappointed that a historian of Dr Michael Roberts’ stature and humanitarian sensibility is seduced by the triumphalist rhetoric of the current Sri Lankan government. There are countless examples currently and in the historical records that show that questions of competing identities and nationalities are only resolved when the issues fuelling such questions are addressed; otherwise they fester and deform the body politic of a nation state. Dr Roberts’ article seems a pure academic exercise in isolation of the material realities of the world. One cannot discuss the issue of bombing a civilian population out (however small that could be) in isolation. Dr Roberts unfortunately takes an extreme position and alleges that advocates of all other views as do-gooders. In doing so, he casts himself firmly in the camp of the war-mongers and extremist nationalists. His arguments justify any actions…

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Open Letter to His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka and the leadership of the LTTE

The undersigned are (a) citizen/s of Sri Lanka who are/is extremely concerned about the current plight of over one hundred thousand civilians trapped between the security forces of the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. We appreciate the Government’s right and duty to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka and its people. We understand that the Government considers its current military initiatives integral to the fulfilment of this right and duty. We also understand that the Government has stated that a primary objective of its ongoing military initiatives is the liberation of the civilian populace in the conflict zones. We also note that a primary stated intention of the LTTE in carrying out its armed initiatives is the securing of self-determination for the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. In this context, we write on behalf of the civilians presently trapped within the conflict zones – because they are all Sri Lankans and fellow citizens who have…

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DILEMMA’S AT WAR’S END: THOUGHTS ON HARD REALITIES

With an uncertain number of Tamil ‘civilians’ trapped within the beleaguered and shrinking LTTE territory, Sri Lankan Tamils in the island as well as across the globe are understandably concerned about the fate of their brethren. Even those who are hostile to the LTTE have responded emotionally to this situation. The issue I raise is whether emotion and humanitarian concern have eclipsed realism and factuality. Humanitarian concern, tinged with some emotion too, has led non-partisan Western observers and statesmen to intervene as well with requests for a ceasefire and end of warring. Two questions develop from such requests: (A) would a delay in defeating the LTTE necessarily reduce civilian casualties if (and when) the war resumes in, say, a month’s time after some (imposed) ceasefire; (B) will the desired ceasefire give the LTTE a reprieve and enable it to be a party to any settlement thereafter? That is, will it provide a lifeline to the existing leaders of an organisation…

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  • 8 Feb, 2009
  • 9 Comments
  • Jaffna,
    Satire

Cutting edge scientific research in Sri Lanka

by Global Citizen for Banyan News Reporters Colombo, Sri Lanka: With the drawn out military campaign against terrorism in its last phase, the Sri Lankan government has taken a decision to divert the country’s defence budget to fund science & technology, education and research. Economists point out that the move will power the Sri Lankan economy out of it’s recent set-backs and place Sri Lanka right at the centre of the world map – a position it had secured millions of years ago thanks to a geological phenomenon called ‘plate tectonics’. In its fresh forays into the world of high energy particle physics, the Sri Lankan military boxed up the LTTE in a 10km X 20km area in the country’s northern Vanni region. Their mission was to carry out a literal re-enactment of a thought experiment proposed by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935 that is widely known as “Schrödinger’s cat”. V Prabhakaran – the leader of the LTTE was chosen to…

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Aftermath of the Victory: whither Sri Lanka?

Heartland of Eelam is fallen. LTTE is now cornered to a narrow strip of land and in near future whole bulk of 65, 610 km2 of land would be under the control of the Government of Sri Lanka. Glory of the victory would be with the Sri Lankan Army and the politicians as always would reap the harvest at the cost of the Sri Lankans. We’re practicing representative democracy. Though not futuristic as the President is, a fraction of me believes that the Independent celebrations might be held in Kilinochchi. The government has announced a rapid development plan for Kilinochchi with the hope of creating an endogenous return of the displaced civilians. Well done! Development discourse follows with a tender cry for a political solution. India nominates full implementation of the 13th amendment as the solution, GoSL seconds and re-iterates it. In 2008, we saw the liberation of the East. A huge development plan was implemented under the banner of…

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The future of the LTTE in Sri Lanka: Kumudini Samuel

Prominent civil society activist Kumudini Samuel shares her views on the future of the LTTE in Sri Lanka. Kumudini Samuel is the founder of the Women’s and Media Collective and a member of the Gender Sub Committee established during negotiations with the LTTE under the ceasefire agreement (CFA). For more short videos that look at the future of the LTTE in English, Sinhala and Tamil, click on Vikalpa’s The future of the LTTE: What next? playlist. Repost This Article

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“There is a right way and a wrong way to use violence”: Interview with Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

“There will be times when organised violence has to be exercised as a last resort. People will resist with violence. States will use violence against various foes. But there is a right way and a wrong way to use violence.” Watch Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka‘s first video interview, conducted over Skype, after presenting his credentials as Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland on 6th June 2007. Topics discussed in our interview ranged from future scenarios arising from the capture of Killinochchi last week and media freedom to international relations and the timbre of democratic governance in Sri Lanka today. You can download the video in full here. Noting that Dayan is open to and regularly engages with comments very critical of his writing and worldview on Groundviews, I allowed Dayan to respond at length to each of my questions without any interruption. Readers are encouraged to engage with Dayan’s comments…

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Achievement 2008, Challenge 2009

Sri Lanka closes out its 60th year of Independence, though in the strictest sense it lasts till the beginning of next February when we celebrate our 61st Independence Day. It is a moment to take stock.  Due to all the wrong turnings we took and the right ones we did not at and since our Independence six decades ago, we have spent a quarter century commemorating our independence in conditions of a separatist civil war. This will in all probability be so next year too. However it may not be so the year after, and from then onwards, because of what we have achieved this year. And I do mean “we”: the leadership, the government, the military, the vast majority of people, the dissident Tamils.  What has been the balance sheet of 2008? It is that we are winning but have not yet won. Victory is on the horizon but it has not yet been achieved. 2008 was the year…

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Human rights – What human rights?

By Metis   We never had human rights in the past, at least not in the sense we know it today. We probably had a better record of animal rights in our glorious past before 1505 when foreign aggressors corrupted our ancient culture. True those other countries too had practiced similar or even worse forms of torture. But the difference is that they don’t glorify their past. The Human Rights declaration of 1948 was signed by the members of the UN. We signed it but with what commitment. Oaths, affirmations and treaties are signed to be routinely violated. The first serious violations were in the 1980s. But Human Rights- original definition which animated HR movement centered on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals find their purest expression in the belief that all human beings have the elemental rights to free speech and a free press, to worship in the manner of their choice…

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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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