Beauty
What beauty in camps? I sit in my favourite chair listening to Beethoven’s last sonata, slient breezes in time. to the music. My world creates a sonata The other shatters all possibility…
Vavuniya
An eye-witness account of IDP camp conditions in Sri Lanka
[Editors note: The dire conditions of internment in camps that are home to well over a quarter of a million fellow citizens are unknown to many. Fears of inflammatory and inaccurate journalism,…
The IDP situation in Sri Lanka: Let’s keep things real and a response to Rohini Hensman
[Editors note: This article was published in , also on Sunday. Update – Rohini Hensman’s response to this article is now featured on here.] Rohini Hensman is absolutely right when she asserts…
Why are the Vanni civilians still being held hostage?
Image courtesy Throughout the last stages of the civil war, the government of Sri Lanka claimed to be engaged in a hostage rescue mission on behalf of civilians in the Vanni who…
End of the LTTE and future of the Tamil Struggle
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which claimed to be the sole representatives of Tamil people, one of the most feared and considered as one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations…
Memories of War, Dreams of Peace
The long and bloody Sri Lankan war is over, and not a moment too soon. I really want to believe it. The alternative is too depressing to consider. Of course, there is…
Prabhakaran is dead – join debates on what next for Sri Lanka
From the Ministry of Defence website: LTTE defeated; Sri Lanka liberated from terror Sri Lankan armed force have militarily defeated the LTTE and freed the nation from three decades of terror, Army…
Aiyo!
Isn’t it horrible to watch people being killed like this? Pictures of dead bodies strewn all over the place flood my mind. What a damned war this is! What a curse on…
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…
Would killing 50,000 civilians to finish off the LTTE bring peace?
[Editors note, 6 January 2011: This specific post and the debate that ensued is referred to and featured in by Prof. Michael Roberts. Read more here.] ### This is a verbatim excerpt…
It is a hostage crisis, stupid!
Image courtesy The Sri Lankan military is dealing with probably the largest hostage crisis in world history. Sri Lanka and its present leadership will be forever remembered for how it handles this…
Ape Lankawe: The Great NGO Pantomime!
For anyone concerned with the plight of innocent civilians, the reports from the North are depressing. The latest ‘avalanche (!?) is yet to be fully screened, searched, scrubbed and bleached for any…
Let this be the moment that defines us
For over three decades, we have bombed and shot each other, split our tears and shed them only for ‘our own’, split our joys and celebrated as ‘their’ mothers, wives and children…
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…
