Archive for the ‘Peace and Conflict’

“I want to continue to highlight the activities against the humanity” | Gnanasundaram Kuganathan

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“It’s a miracle that I survived. I was beaten almost to death. Many attempts have been made to kill me, so that my writing will come to an end!. I did not think that, I will survive. The God has saved me to serve the people through journalism. I am slowly recovering. Today, I am blessed to be alive. I have highlighted many issues in my writing. I want to continue to highlight the activities against the humanity, but I am not sure whether I will be able to hold the pen again, because my right hand fingers are frozen” emotionally shares Gnanasundaram Kuganathan (59) while tears filled his eyes. The News Editor of Uthayan ~  Tamil language daily newspaper Gnanasundaram Kuganathan (59) was brutally assaulted by unknown men on 29th of July 2011 at night at 7.30pm on Kasthuriyaar road in Jaffna, as he was walking back home for dinner from work. I met him in Jaffna recently, as…

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Thus Spake Gothabaya

Photo courtesy of Media Centre for National Development of Sri Lanka (www.development.lk)

[Editors' note: An edited version of this article appeared in the Daily Mirror today.]     “The existing constitution is more than enough for us to live together. I don’t think there is any issue on this more than that. “I mean this was given as a solution for the whole thing with the discussion of these people. I mean now the LTTE is gone, I don’t think there is any requirement. “I mean what can you do more than this? … Devolution wise I think we have done enough, I don’t think there is a necessity to go beyond that.” Thus spake the Defence Secretary to the Indian media organ Headlines Today. The significance of these remarks lies in their utterance by arguably the most powerful man in the country on the most important issue facing the country, if it is to move from a post-war to a post – conflict situation. Gotabaya Rajapaksha is the secretary to a…

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Who Killed Razeek?

Funeral of Pattani Razeek | Photo courtesy of Deutsche Presse Agentur

Mr. Pattani Razeek’s case is a rare instance where the body of a disappeared person has been found, based on information given by arrested suspects. The arrest of key suspects is itself a rare occurrence in the thousands of disappearance cases in Sri Lanka. It is even more unusual that people connected to a Minister in the ruling regime would be arrested for a serious crime. Razeek’s case had generated mass outrage in his home district of Puttalam. Since the disappearance, protests, signature campaigns, posters and leaflet campaigns were conducted. The family and local Muslim leaders played a prominent role in the campaign. Their efforts were supported at the national level by Razeek’s friends and colleagues, who monitored the investigation and court proceedings, the exhumation, post mortem process and the funeral. 62 Sri Lankan civil society activists including Buddhist and Christian clergy, senior lawyers, academics, media personnel and human rights defenders signed a statement calling for justice in this case….

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Another Failed Attempt at Justice or the Greatest Hope Yet for Reconciliation: What Can Sri Lanka Learn from Colombia’s New Victim’s Law?

Downtown Bogota, Plaza de Bolivar

At first glance, Colombia and Sri Lanka have little in common aside from a brutal history of violence. Nevertheless, the few but important similarities mean that by studying how the other moves towards national reconciliation and the reestablishment of Government legitimacy could prove to be beneficial. A case in point is the revolutionary new Victim’s Law approved by the Colombian Congress this past June that just might prove be an interesting case study for Sri Lanka. Civil War in the Andes Colombia is a vast country broken apart by soaring mountain ranges, sprawling grasslands and the depths of the Amazon jungle. For the past four decades a vicious war between peasant land movements, paramilitary armies, government forces and armed gangs have plagued the countryside leaving hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced. Fueled by drug money, Colombia’s war morphed overtime into a snake pit of drug lords, organized crime, and the markedly non-political remnants of once powerful movements. In 2002,…

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Darusman Deconstructed: Godfrey Gunatilleke’s Critique

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With the solitary, honourable exception of Sunday Times columnist Lasanda Kurukulasuriya, (‘Give a dog a bad name and hang him’, From the Sidelines, Sunday Times, Colombo, August 14, 2011), the Lankan media and Colombo’s commentariat completely missed the most important intellectual event in civil society in this post-war phase of our contemporary history. A media accustomed to lionising the less distinguished among our retired senior professionals and intelligentsia, was either ignorant of or chose to ignore a symposium held by the oldest among our independent think tanks, the MARGA Institute, precisely on the most pressing subject of the day, the Darusman report or more accurately the UNSG’s Advisory Panel Report. Worse, the media and our commentators seem unaware of the extended analysis of the Darusman Report by the doyen of Sri Lanka’s intelligentsia, one of our most refined literary critics, most distinguished civil servant, and among a handful of our globally most respected minds, Godfrey Gunatilleke. Entitled ‘Truth and Accountability:…

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Ground report: Widespread public perception of military links to ‘grease devils’?

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Image released by Police Headquaters which was saved allegedly in the phone of a 16 year-old who was arrested for a number of robberies in the Uva Province. As we post this article, there is a tense situation in Kinniya, spilling over from yesterday on the issue of ‘grease devils’. A Daily Mirror SMS update notes that, Daily Mirror SMS update – Hundreds of people in Kinniya surrounded the GA’s office demanding release of 25 people arrested last night (1)less than a minute ago via Twitter for Mac Favorite Retweet ReplyGroundviewsgroundviews Daily Mirror SMS update – Reinforcement forces called in – Sources – Daily Mirror (2).less than a minute ago via Twitter for Mac Favorite Retweet ReplyGroundviewsgroundviews As this Reuters report notes, “Historically, a “grease devil” was a thief who wore only underwear and covered his body in grease to make himself difficult to grab if chased. But lately, the “grease devil” has become a nighttime prowler who frightens and…

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Abuse, violence and bullying: Post-war Sri Lanka is indeed a peaceful place

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Photo courtesy JDS The idea of writing this note came to mind after watching the recent interview between an Indian media personality and Sri Lanka’s Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law and Order. A lot has been said about the information exchanged during this relatively short interview. A surface look at comments made by readers on articles on this interview, especially in places like Transcurrents, amply demonstrate what members of the Tamil community (especially the Tamil diaspora) think about the content of the interview and the interviewee. The present article does not intend to focus on the interviewee or the content proper of the interview as such. Instead, this writer views it essential to look at the bigger picture surrounding some facts exchanged, facts that could be deemed controversial or questionable in many a quarter. This writer distinguishes three main points over which the interviewee was apt at commenting: Firstly, Sri Lanka’s national sovereignty as a non-negotiable…

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Cutting down trees to make Colombo beautiful?

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Trees that have stood for decades are being wantonly cut down in Colombo today. Being a Poya Day, there’s not much of people and traffic in Colombo, which make the task of those around Independence Avenue easy. We received a flurry of SMS messages mid-day from people who at first didn’t believe what they were seeing. The Weeping Willows down Independence Avenue, which have been around since we are told the 1970′s, are being cut down today. View Independence Avenue in a larger map Currently they are cutting down the trees only on one side of the road, the side the National Library and Documentation Services Board is on. Groundviews spoke to the workers cutting down the trees under the supervision of Army personnel, who were present driving tractors bearing Army insignia and giving instructions on how to cut the trees down. The workers laughed when we noted that what they were doing was a joke and defacing Colombo, noting…

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TNA’s withdrawal from talks and the emerging political paralysis

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

R Sampanthan is a Member of Parliament and leader of the Tamil National Alliance andIllankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi. The recently concluded Local Government (LG) elections provided evidence, if evidence was needed, of a divided polity. Amidst accusations of violence, intimidation, and killings, the Tamil people voted, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) emerged triumphant, resilient, re-asserting its dominance in the North. The UPFA-led Government swept away the rest of the polls, as expected. Expected: lacks excitement, unexciting, stale news; given the absence of any serious opposition, given the resources at its command, given the power it wields. For those genuinely committed to democracy, the TNA’s victory is one which is most welcome, deserves celebration. For the Government, the outcome provides a wonderful argument: ‘there is multi-party democracy in post-war Sri Lanka.’ In a post-LTTE era, the electoral verdict in favour of the TNA especially in the North – once a proxy of the separatist-LTTE but one which has in recent times articulated the need for…

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No One, in the US or Sri Lanka, Should Be Above the Law

Mahinda with George Bush

Photo by Sudath Silva In a report released last month Human Rights Watch called on the US government to launch criminal investigations into allegations of detainee abuse authorized by senior Bush administration officials. The 107-page report, “Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees,” presents substantial information warranting criminal investigations of former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet, for ordering practices such as “waterboarding,” the use of secret CIA prisons, and the transfer of detainees to countries where they were tortured. Such acts violated the Convention against Torture, the Geneva Conventions, and other international treaties binding on the United States. President Barack Obama took a number of important steps to promote human rights when he took office, including banning the use of torture. But while the Obama administration has disavowed the Bush administration for the use of torture, it has not taken the necessary next step: investigating…

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Sri Lanka’s Tamil question: Justice, Lies and Videotape

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Sri Lanka’s thirty year war is now more of words than of guns, but it is no less bitter. RNW’s team in the country met with fierce resistance from the Sri Lankan government to the current calls for justice from the international community. But the problem is that the international community’s presence in the country is dwindling, a fact witnessed when travelling across the east of the island – where once there were distinctive white NGO vehicles on every corner, the sight is now rare. With the help of one remaining NGO which requested anonymity, RNW met nine freshly ‘reintegrated’ former Tamil Tiger guerillas who spoke of their desire for justice for all Sri Lankans. But people in the heavily militarized north and east live in fear of reprisal if they openly criticise the authorities – which is why a vociferous Tamil diaspora, the foreign media and a UN investigation have stepped in. The Sri Lankan government is now hitting…

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Programme to Develop Leadership Training and Positive Thinking: Perspective of a Participant

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Having participated in the “Leadership Training and Positive Skills Development Programme” I feel the need to give an account of my experience and views on the programme as there was much debate and disapproval among concerned parties regarding its necessity, its relevance and the manner of implementation of this programme. This is an attempt to give a first-hand account of what really took place during the three weeks of training, discuss if the course fulfilled its objective, and propose the way forward in conducting the programme for future batches of university students. Pre-Departure May 16 was chaotic. Rumor was that the Ministry of Education was sending out letters to local university entrants for the year 2011, asking them to report to one of some thirty army camps across the country, for a three week (military?) training course. “Naaah, they’ll never go through with it” was the general attitude we had at the beginning of May, following an announcement by the…

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The Role of Writers and Artists during Turbulent Political Times

Muruga Poopathy

I was requested to speak about the important role writers and artists play in the struggle against oppression and in the protection of democratic and human rights of the oppressed. We all know that writers and artists hold strong views on political matters, though they may not be vocal at times. Some of them are fighters. They are not afraid to make choices and decisions if they are popular or not. In Sri Lanka, some have had to sacrifice their lives and some had to go into exile, because of their dedication to certain causes, with which we may or may not agree. We had lived long enough to have experienced periods of the total abuse of democracy. In these periods we have witnessed writers, artists and intellectuals who try to push the envelope and make the world a better place. They are usually branded as troublemakers. Let us consider a recent example in the post-apartheid South Africa. Lebogang Mashile,…

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Heroes and Heroism: Osama Bin Laden and Prabhakaran

New 'bin Laden tape' threat

Photo: AP Osama Bin Laden. Dark avenging hero, Arabian knight, Arabic Lawrence of Arabia. Osama versus the USA: David versus Goliath, a hijacked airliner the stone from his slingshot. Not quite. David didn’t murder Goliath’s family in their tents, leaving Goliath only hobbling. Not every leader or dramatic figure is a hero, and not every force that takes on a much bigger foe is heroic. Not even when that foe has been guilty, as has the USA, of horrible crimes such as the sanctions which were responsible for the deaths of several hundred thousand Iraqi infants. This is not an argument for pacifism. Or moderation. Heroes are almost always extremists in one way or the other. They seem to seek out or get drawn into ‘extreme situations’ – in which they really come alive. They also ‘take it to the limit/one more time’. (The Eagles). They are not ‘one of ‘and do not comfortably ‘dwell among’. They are different from…

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Heroes of our ages

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1. The stuff of heroes Every yarn in the fabric of history is held together by a common thread. From the story of the light bulb to the grand history of nations, it is the colourful lives of its heroes and villains and dissensions between them, that keep the stories of our past animated and so compelling even today. Our study and understanding of history is therefore devoted to individuals on whose shoulders the direction of our civilization and evolutionary past pivots and turns; and on whose heroism our destiny is often secured and at times imperilled. History is a veneration of those mountainous giants whose lives have shaped its course through the valleys of time, carrying with it in myth and legend, a bountiful legacy that inspires us still. It is impossible to sustain the historical narrative without reference to the lives of those who shaped it. Even the history of science lends itself willingly to myths about apples…

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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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