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…
Trincomalee
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…
Sri Lanka’s IDP camp Manik Farm is what it is (but what is that?)
Most of the arguments about Manik Farm (and other transit camps in the North of Sri Lanka) seem to get stuck on definitions and comparisons. Is it a concentration camp? Is it…
MAN, OH (VANANGA) MAN!
Let me get this right. Two hundred and thirteen years since the first British colonial ships landed in Sri Lanka, a ship is setting sail from Britain, launched at an event with…
Einstein was a Refugee
Refugees are sometimes active have agency they Leave, Flee, Sneak Flow over boundary lines unchecked like rivers they Escape, Hide Cross territories they Flood places like unnatural disasters are associated with Asylum…
Where We Are and Where To?
“War is the highest form of struggle for resolving contradictions, when they have developed to a certain stage, between classes, nations, states, or political groups, and it has existed ever since the…
Your opinion on a war ‘over in 3 weeks’ and a ‘post-LTTE’ Sri Lanka?
A senior government minister claimed today that the war would be over in 3 weeks. Whether we believe him or not, commentators like Ahilan Kadirgamar (writing in , February 2009) have called…
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…
“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…
A thought for the stranded refugees in Vanni
I wish to draw wider public attention to the following extract appearing in “A short note from the Vanni” written by “Witness” and appearing in the Groundviews on September 30, 2008: “The…
Defense and Devolution
Just as it did at the moment of decolonization and independence, the visible post-war moment provides a rare historic opportunity for nation building and the construction of national identity. We missed the…
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.…
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…
An education to die for
Mangalanath Liyanarachchi – Trincomalee The students of the Trincomalee campus face an uncertain future if government plans to move their campus to an insecure location are realized. Students of the Eastern University’s…
Eastern elections
In the backdrop of a country at war and democracy that’s hostage to the whim and fancy of a President and his coterie of murderous brutes, it’s hard to be even cautiously…