Archive for the ‘Puttalam’

Sri Lanka on tsunami alert after Indonesia quake (Updated)

12 Sep 2007 12:31:03 GMT Source: Reuters COLOMBO, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka issued a tsunami alert on Wednesday for its north, south and eastern districts following a major earthquake in Indonesia, the National Disaster Management Centre said. “We have issued a warning for the south, north and east after the quake,” Keerthi Ekanayake, an official at the centre told Reuters. Sri Lanka was battered by the 2004 tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean rim. – Reuters story ends – Update #1 (7.00pm): Read the alerts issued on JNW and also visit their site for updates. Update #2 (7.15pm): Reuters news alert SMS thru Dialog says “Small tsunami hit Indonesia’s Padang, Sri Lanka expects small tsunami by 7.30 – Disaster Management Centre” Update #3: (7.34pm): Reuters news alert SMS thru Dialog says “Disaster management center lifts tsunami warning, says no effect; US Geological Survey increase earthquake magnitude to 8.2″ Also see Reuters web update here.

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Voldemort rising

“If humanitarian intervention is indeed an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica – to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect every precept of our common humanity?” Kofi Anan, former UN Secretary General At the time of writing, news of the liberation of the East and the resulting celebrations have captured headlines and the public imagination in Sri Lanka. Not much analysis though as to what it all means and answers to questions such as what now, and whether the fall of Thoppigala is any guarantee of animating a hitherto non-existent capacity of this government to articulate an enlightened approach to the ethnic question. Careful to not arouse the wrath of those who in power volubly state that to call to question the liberation of the East is to defile those who died for the protection of national sovereignty and undermine the morale of the troops, many analysts tread a…

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We are nobody’s children…

Interview with Mrs. Alisa S. Mirza, Palaviya, Puttlam This camp occupies approx. 70 families evicted from Jaffna in 1990. For the past 17 years we have been completely ignored. If I am to talk about the plight of many families, a book could be composed on this behalf. In Jaffna we had self employment and there were many resources, but here almost all men are laborers and even the small children have become bread winners trying to make ends meet in many families. There aren’t enough toilets for the site, same with the shelters; you would find cases of 4 to 5 families living under one small roof. The sanitary facilities and the hygienic conditions are at a very sad situation. There would be instances when we actually have to pay to get a bucket of drinking water. Most women travel as far as 60km per day for labour work, and they are given Rs:200 per day, out of which…

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The Indo-Lanka Accord – Some reflections 20 years hence

ඉන්දු ලංකා ගිවිසුම (1987 ජූලි- 2007 ජූලි): අවස්ථාවක්ද? බලහත්කාරයක් ද? “ඉන්දු ලංකා ගිවිසුමෙහි දසවන සංවත්සරය අවස්ථාව පෙන්නුම් කරන්නේ එහි අරමුණ වු ජනවාර්ගික ගැටළුවට දේශපාලන විසඳුමක් සොයා ගැනීමෙහි ලා ශී‍්‍ර ලංකාව ඇදහිය නොහැකි තරම් ආපස්සට ගමන් කර ඇති අන්දම ය.” In this article I go back in time and look at the Indo-Lanka Accord the the dynamics of State power against the LTTE that was the lasting result of it. I speak of the battles that followed, examine the constitutional dynamics of the Acoord and the resulting system of governance, the political regimes in the South who variously interpreted the 13th Amendment, the way the Accord influenced war and peace in Sri Lanka and finally, a series of lost opportunities in the past two decades alone to bring about a transformation of violence and an end to violent conflict in Sri Lanka. Please read my article in full here.

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Wars and Waves: Sri Lanka’s internally displaced

The 28 minute documentary “Wars and Waves: Sri Lanka’s internally displaced” that was produced by COHRE, and directed and written by me, is available online. There was a small private launch a week ago in Colombo. COHRE plans to do a larger public screening followed by a discussion in the coming weeks. The purpose of the film is to highlight Sri Lanka’s IDP issue. The film will be used by COHRE as an advocacy tool, and by its network partners to provoke discussion about the issue. It’s primarily aimed at an international audience. Description of film: In Sri Lanka, a natural disaster and ongoing conflict have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Those who lost everything to the December 2004 tsunami still wait for permanent housing. Families evicted from the North of Sri Lanka in 1990 continue to live in temporary shelters. And now the recommencement of the war is forcing people to flee their homes once more towards refugee…

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Homeless in one’s homeland

Photo credit: Agron, from Portraits of Displacement Worldwide, those rendered homeless and destitute by violent conflict is growing. According to UNHCR statistics, the figure of Internally Displaced Persons stood at over 32 million at the end of 2006. In Sri Lanka’s case, many of those displaced by the tsunami were communities already displaced by war. This double displacement exacerbated their trauma and continues to date. My article end with impressions of a photo exhibition of refugees and IDPs by Gemunu Amarasinghe. Read my article here.

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  • 25 May, 2007
  • 5 Comments
  • Disabilities,
    Peace and Conflict,
    Puttalam

An encounter in Puttlam: Peace as seen by two youth who served in the Army

My article is based on an encounter with two Sinhalese youth in Puttlam recently. Both had served in the Army. Both had lost limbs, though we didn’t find this out till much later. We listened silently as we sat on the bund and they recounted their stories of war, and their aspirations for peace. When so many are clamouring for war and violence in Colombo, these two youth offered us a different viewpoint. Instead of hatred and violence, having seen enough of both perhaps, they told us they were sick of war and just wanted to live in peace. It’s a simple message, but are we listening? Read my article in Sinhala here.

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The flipside of Islamic fundamentalism in Sri Lanka

Reproduced with the kind permission of the author, and first published in the Hindustan Times. The flipside of Islamic fundamentalism in Sri Lanka PK Balachandran Kattankudy (Eastern Sri Lanka), April 24, 2007 Islamic fundamentalism in Kattankudy in the Eastern Sri Lankan district of Batticaloa, is multifaceted. It has both regressive and progressive aspects, though to the naked eye of the fleeting visitor, only the former is visible. Fundamentalism has united previously disparate entities while creating new barriers. It has infused intolerance of some types, but at the same time, liberated sections of society from the thraldom of traditional practices and ideas described as “outdated”, “un-Islamic” or “superstitious”. Strange though it may seem to outsiders fed on Afghanistan’s medieval Talibani fundamentalism, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Kattankudy has given a boost to women’s education and empowerment and narrowed the man-woman gap. Opportunities in West Asia for employment and the impoverishment of the Tamils due to militancy and war from the…

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Theeban’s murder: An epitaph in Sinhala

In my recent contribution in Sinhala to Mawbima, I explore the murder of Thillainayagam Theeban as first reported by Nalaka Gunawardene in this forum. An interesting footnote is that not a single one of the 3 Police Stations or 7 Policemen I spoke to in order to find out more information about Theeban was aware of any developments in the hunt for his killers. Sadly, he is just another number for them – and the numbers just keep piling up in Sri Lanka. I also translate into Sinhala a particularly important excerpt from the recent UTHR(J) Information Bulletin No. 44, “The Race for Infamy in Sri Lanka’s North-East“. Read the full article here.

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Double standards?

A post here points to a powerful new report on the dangers on humanitarian aid work in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. Reports in Groundviews, both from Citizen Journalists as well as news snippets from JNW featured on the site, clearly indicate growing concerns about the security and safety of aid workers, increasingly assaulting, vilified and killed for being perceived to be partial to non-state actors, biased towards operations of terrorists and / or acting to undermine the “national security” of the State. This is the first report I’ve read that comprehensively debunks the myth that local INGO / NGO / staff and humanitarian aid workers are any less vulnerable to attacks. As it notes: Humanitarian organisations have largely failed to fully consider the ethics of transferring security risks from expatriate staff to national staff or local NGOs. One of the core assumptions of remote management approaches is that national workers are at less risk than their international counterparts. But this…

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Seeing mobile phones as a basic human right

Communication rights remain for most of the world’s people a vision and an aspiration. They are not a reality on the ground. On the contrary, they are frequently and systematically violated. Governments must be constantly reminded that they are legally required under the human rights treaties they have ratified to implement, promote and protect communication rights. Communication rights are the expression of fundamental needs. The satisfaction of these needs requires a strong political will and the allocation of substantial resources. Lack of commitment to such resources serves only to deepen the global distrust of political institutions. News that mobile phone users in the North & East of Sri Lanka are once again cut off is a disturbing trend in the erosion of fundamental rights, including Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression and opinion; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive…

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The Costs and Consequences of ‘Clearing’ the East

From Morning Leader – 10th January 2007 Last week this column ended with the statement that there was a lot to be learnt and unlearnt in 2007. The new year is now with us and with it the unfolding of an endgame. As to who will be left standing and how and as to how long it will take remains to be seen. The point about the learning and unlearning remains, however. Last year saw an escalation of violence resulting in civilian misery through death, displacement and abduction that put us down there in the catalogue of human suffering with Darfur, Palestine and Lebanon. Presidential commissions, international eminent persons, food consignments from Colombo and Chennai, pseudo -patriotic vitriol and diatribes against the Norwegian facilitators, the SLMM, Ambassador Alan Rock, NGOs and INGOs cannot erase or obscure this fact. The war began and with little regard for human rights and basic humanitarian norms. And on the evidence of the indiscriminate bombing…

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Human displacement

Two posts on DBS Jeyraj’s blog highlight aspects of the humanitarian crisis in the North and the East already flagged here. Civilians in Vaakarai face death and starvation Displaced Tamils face difficulties in B’caloa Coupled with the severe displacement of civilians on account of the recent landslides in the Hill Country, Sri Lanka in 2007 seems ill-geared to handle human displacement of this magnitude. Important to remember however, is that while landslides are natural disasters, the current displacement in the North and East is the result of a botched peace process, which shows no signs of resurrection this year.

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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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