Archive for the ‘Trincomalee’

Mixed Messages and Bland Oversimplification in President Rajapaksa’s Independence Day Speech

37-Chicago_Maaveerar_Naal_USA1_21081_435

In a significant act of outreach the Independence Day ceremonies were held in Trincomalee, a provincial city with a pronounced ethnic mix; while President Rajapaksa presented one part of his message in Tamil, repeating what he had said earlier (in English?) and then reiterating the same points in Sinhala. In keeping with the occasion and location, he referred to the Dutch and British interests in Trincomalee during the imperialist past as a prelude to his argument that Sri Lankans “have had to face continued challenges to protect the freedom and independence of our motherland.” In line with this emphasis, he also reminded the UN and the West of the obligations within the UN Charter which enjoin member nations to refrain from “interven[ing] in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.” It is the latter emphasis which has attracted local newspaper headlines. However, to my mind what was more significant and heart-warming was his criticism of religious…

Continue reading »

Sri Lanka’s 65th Anniversary of Independence

84c318bfe21411a38243e8a30f44cb2a

Photo via NowPublic Greetings Lanka! Today marks the 65th Anniversary of Independence of our country. This year would also mark the fourth year anniversary of ‘defeating terrorism’. But, little has changed, and there is little to celebrate this year. The country is treading a catastrophic path and our future is a disaster waiting to happen. For the one who hath his eyes open, it would be obvious that we are gradually plunging into an abyss from which there will be no return. Even though we have been treading this path for quite a while now, over the course of last few months we have taken gigantic leaps in our journey. How did we get here? It would seem that the common attitude that binds the different peoples of this land is stupidity. The stupidity that gave life to three violent armed struggles; the stupidity that made the Tamils remain silent when thousands of Muslims were evicted from the North; the…

Continue reading »

Independence Day 2013

Sri-Lanka-Independence-Day

Image via Sri Lanka for 91 Days This Monday President Mahinda Rajapaksa will celebrate Independence Day in Trincomalee, under the theme Prosperous motherland and an affluent tomorrow. For weeks Trincomalee has been getting a facelift. Roads are being widened, buildings painted, and signs hung. A ‘red alert‘ (Editors note: this link to TamilNet article will not work if accessed in Sri Lanka) was issued by the Secretary of Defense, which has led to a dramatic increase of police and military presence. I’ve been told by a community leader that those with LTTE ties have been detained for the week; remember that in 2002 the LTTE claimed Trincomalee as their capital.  According to business owners, police or military have visited every store in town, telling them to close their shops on Monday. Schools in the area have been closed so that students could prepare their town, as well as to provide additional space to house military personnel. Buses full of students playing instruments could be heard around town Thursday….

Continue reading »
  • 24 Sep, 2012
  • 6 Comments
  • Human Security,
    IDPs and Refugees,
    Post-War,
    Trincomalee

Update on the struggle to go home in post war Sri Lanka: Manthuvil in the Mullativu district

Temporary shelter of one family-22Sept2012

In relation to the 6 families who were staying at Our Lady of Velankanni church, original article available here. Due to insistence of the families, the Army had agreed to vacate the lands they (Army) had occupied and allow all six families to go back to their own lands. However, around two acres of lands remains occupied by the Army. About one acre belongs to one family, while the rest comprises of about half acre each belonging to two other families. The Army is refusing to hand over these lands. The Assistant Government Agent for Puthukidiyiruppu had promised to provide alternative land, but no places or dates had been given. However, the people insist they want their own land back. All the families mentioned that they have Permits for these lands. The Army had not paid any rent or compensation for the land occupied, with the occupation estimated to be for more than three years. The families estimate that the…

Continue reading »

Eastern Province election: The big lie about shared power in Sri Lanka

460x

Photo courtesy AP/Eranga Jayawardena Justice Minister Hakeem was reported to have told during campaigning, he should not be made to look like a man taken hostage. Ministers Rambukwella and Premjayantha, invited TNA to form a “National” alliance for the Council in the East. Senior Minister and Communist Party leader DEW Gunasekera says he wrote to President Rajapaksa proposing a “National Council” that includes the TNA, for the East. Senior Minister and LSSP leader, Prof Tissa Vitharana backs a “non racial”, all included Council for East. A week gone by and the claim by President Rajapaksa – that his leadership paved for ten successive victories for the UPFA which by itself is a historic feat – is being severely challenged in the East. People are strangling the conscience of the SLMC leadership and the SLMC shopping list is being ignored by President Rajapaksa. To begin with, the PC elections were NOT free and fair in any way. After many violent clashes, two…

Continue reading »

The struggle to go home in post war Sri Lanka: Manthuvil in the Mullativu district

Discovery of explosives in resettled areas in Puthukudiruppu-14Sept2012

Last Friday, 14th September, I visited friends from Manthuvil and Puthukudiruppu, both in the Mullativu district who are trying to resettle in their own houses. One friend has a lovely house in four acres of land in Manthuvil, along the Puthukudiruppu – Mullativu road. He and I had both heard from separate sources that the area had been demined a long time ago. In fact, there are no signs warning of mines or explosives near his house, as I had seen in many areas in the North. However, the Army continues to deny my friend and his family permission to return to his home. He is desperate and yearns to return after being forced to stay away for many years. My friend says that the Army has persistently refused him and others in the area permission to return, without providing any official reasons for the restriction. In August, as most people around the area began to resettle, including on the…

Continue reading »

Provincial Council Election: Real-time updates

82027d123e17d4dd910754888ca7e6d1_XL

@mhmhisham is turning out the best updates on Twitter. #PCelectionsLK and #ep2012 are key hashtags aggregating all the tweets on the September 2012 Provincial Council elections. See below for aggregation and real time updates. Tweets about “#PCelectionsLK “ Tweets by @mhmhisham Tweets about “#ep2012″ Repost This Article

Continue reading »

Muslims and the Eastern Provincial Council Elections in Sri Lanka: Kingmakers or Pawns?

timthumb.php

Photo via Colombo Telegraph As the campaigning for the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) election concludes, there are only a few absolute certainties as to the outcome – most notably that there will be no outright winner.  Given the electoral system, the results of recent elections, the demography in the East and the general voting pattern along communal lines, it is more or less clear that neither the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) nor a possible Tamil National Alliance (TNA) –United National Party (UNP) combine will have a simple majority. In such a context it will be the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) which is contesting independently that will hold the balance of power. The strategic value of the Muslim vote is all too evident, not solely due to the SLMC having been the key focus of pre-nomination lobbying, but also that other political parties and alliances are attempting to shore up their Muslim votes. Once more, the Eastern Muslim polity,…

Continue reading »

Public Perceptions of the LLRC in Trincomalee

rajapaksa_llrc_report

Photo credit JDS President Mahinda Rajapaksha appointed the Lessons learnt and Reconciliation commission in May 2010 and after 18 months of sittings, the commission submitted its report to the President in November 2011. The report is not only about the effects of war but also about the need to depoliticize state institutions and foster good governance. However, at the time of writing, the report is not yet accessible in Sinhala or Tamil, even though it was reported in the media that Sri Lanka’s Central Bank had commissioned the translations. As Kishali Jayawardena argued, many commissions of inquiry in Sri Lanka have been political exercises rather than genuine attempts to reconcile a traumatized nation.[i] While there are many national level civil society discussions on the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), there seems to be very little discussion on what citizens say about the LLRC and its recommendations. However, there is widespread hope that public demands will create the space to implement…

Continue reading »

Tamil Civil Society Memo to the TNA regarding the Eastern Provincial Council Elections

Sampanthan, leader of the political proxy of the Tamil Tigers, the Tamil National Alliance, addresses reporters during a media conference in Colombo

Editors note: Also read A Public Memo to Members of Parliament representing the Tamil National Alliance from the Tamil Civil Society, published in December 2011. Tamils have consistently made it clear that a unitary constitution and a provincial council system within the confines of a unitary constitution are incapable of fulfilling their political aspirations. In this regard it is notable that Tamil political parties with a Tamil Nationalist dispensation had chosen to boycott the two provincial council elections that took place in our homeland in the past (1989 and 2008). There can be no doubt that a Tamil political party with a Tamil Nationalist dispensation can never run a provincial council autonomously, something that even Tamil parties aligned with the Government could not achieve. The Chief Ministers who ran the provincial councils subsequent to the elections of 1989 and 2008 have confirmed that nothing substantive can be achieved through the provincial council system which is in the firm grip of the…

Continue reading »

Troubled Waters: Corruption and Human Trafficking in Post-war Sri Lanka

1592096643380794-asylum-seekers

Photo courtesy Herald Sun Introduction Australia has recently been dealing with an upsurge of asylum seekers who have traveled by boat from elsewhere in Asia. The Jakarta Globe notes that, “While most boats originate in Indonesia, there has been a recent spike in attempted crossings from Sri Lanka.” In addition, over 250 Sri Lankans have been detained after having tried to leave the country illegally by boat.[1] The trafficking of people should be a concern for the State, especially in light of so many incidents being reported over the past few months. Points of Departure Through its interviews, TSA has discovered three points of departure: Udappu (Puttalam), Vettilaikkerni (Jaffna) and Salli (Trincomalee), all of which are Tamil areas. Regardless of where they depart from, most boats eventually go through Trincomalee Harbor. Some interviewees have made the distinction between “points of assembly” and “points of departure.” Salli has repeatedly been cited as the principal point of assembly. Here meetings about the…

Continue reading »

Growing concern over human smuggling and trafficking in Sri Lanka: Interview with ILO

Screen Shot 2012-07-18 at 9.12.57 AM

On 2nd July, the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) organised a panel discussion on preventing human smuggling and trafficking. The event was as much a forum to discuss the incredible increase in, despite ridiculous government denials, boats with asylum seekers from Sri Lanka heading to Australia as it was a panel that sought to address mainstream media misconceptions about the basics of human smuggling and trafficking. Mainstream media reportage following the press conference didn’t inspire confidence that the second goal was met. For example, Ceylon Today’s almost full page spread on 4th July got almost every conceivable fact from the press conference wrong, including the ILO’s representative’s gender. It included in the article a question about the financial architecture of smuggling and trafficking posed to the panel by us, but got the answer completely muddled up and attributed statements to the ILO representative actually made by others on the panel. Media coverage on this issue in Australia, as Asanka B…

Continue reading »

In Search of Something More than the 13th Amendment

image2png.php

Photo courtesy First Post During his recent visit to Sri Lanka, India’s External Affairs Minister, Mr. SM Krishna reminded that President Mahinda Rajapaksa was committed to a ‘13th Amendment Plus approach.’ This has been an old promise of the Government, one which was so prominently made in 2008-2009 as well. The timing of this promise seems perfect; the next session of the UNHRC in Geneva is around the corner. 13A: debate The debate concerning the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka has now been revived. A useful contribution made in recent times which contains important suggestions regarding the full implementation of the 13th Amendment is that of a principled advocate of federalism, Asanga Welikala (Groundviews, 12 Feb. 2012). Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka argues that the current deadlock can be broken by setting up an interim administration in the North (Transcurrents, 13 Feb. 2012). We remember the numerous contributions made in the past too. One particularly striking and lucid contribution…

Continue reading »

The Full Implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment: What Can Be Done?

Sri-Lankan-President-

Photo courtesy CNN. AP/Getty Images. There has been in recent weeks a revival of interest in the full implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment, as part of a broader on-going debate triggered by the publication of the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) about future constitutional reforms addressing the need for devolution and democratisation. As implicitly acknowledged by the LLRC, the salutary need for a new post-war constitution, or substantial reforms to the existing one, is a matter of pivotal importance in moving Sri Lanka from its ‘post-war present’ to a truly ‘post-conflict future.’ These fundamental reforms, however, will involve sustained negotiations among all stakeholders about details of process and substance, and are distinct from the set of issues with regard to how the implementation of the existing framework of devolution in terms of the Thirteenth Amendment might be undertaken. Without in any way foreclosing the need for more substantial reforms, the full implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment,…

Continue reading »

Land in the North and East of Sri Lanka: Concern and confusion over Government circular

Screen Shot 2011-09-23 at 8.51.28 PM

Image credit Jeremy Suyker, via Foto8 The Government recently unveiled a policy regarding land in the North and East through the introduction of a Cabinet Memorandum (memo) titled ‘Regularize Land Management in Northern and Eastern Provinces,’ which was subsequently followed by a Land Circular (circular) titled ‘Regulating the Activities Regarding Management of Lands in the Northern and Eastern Provinces’ (Circular No: 2011/04) issued on 22nd July by the Land Commissioner Generals Department in Colombo in order to operationalise the memo. Since then, there have been reports of notices and forms being issued in areas of the North and East for people to register their land under the Bimsaviya project to ensure title registration of their property. At the time of writing, it was unclear whether this specific process was the same as the one set out under the circular. Contradictory information was received from the different divisional secretariat units (DSs) where the forms were distributed; increasing confusion regarding the process…

Continue reading »
Page 1 of 712345...Last »

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!"

cezarneaga.eu