A couple of days ago (26th), I travelled along the South Coast, leaving Colombo early in the morning. I was with a friend who had come here to film some stuff relating to the second year since the tsunami. A translator also accompanied us.
Our first stop was Peraliya – that place where the wave got the train killing some 1,200 people. To mark the second anniversary, a giant Buddha statue (based on the one that was blown up by the Taliban) was going to be ‘opened’ by the President and other digniteries. We didn’t want to hang around, and kept heading down the coast.

Around 9am, we came across a small church. They were going to hold a …

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I would like to throw out a few ideas for those who come from a peacebuilding paradigm for discussion if possible.

My recent chat with a long-time supporter of the JVP, now aged about 50, driver of a three-wheeler who had two children, helped me see more clearly his point of view.

After working at a ceramic factory for 20 years, where he progressed to being a skilled operator of the kiln, he was layed off along with everyone else at that plant with little compensation. He received a salary of under Rs10,000 a month at the time he was layed
off.
He didn’t find an opportunity to use his skills elsewhere and after being treated badly by another employer, he resorted to driving …

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Inspired in part by Sanjana’s speech in early December, I wrote a column for Ravaya on human rights in Sri Lanka, from the perspective of a citizen.

This article is in Sinhala and is available by clicking on A Citizens Notes.

From time to time at various forums and speeches the idea of promoting a single Sri Lankan identity has been put forward as a factor in finding a solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka. Rarely though, these sometimes passionate pleas to build a common Sri Lankan identity have proven to be anything more than lip service, or speech enhancers. Given the historic context of the evolution of the post-colonial Sri Lankan state, and its monumental mistakes of the post-independent era, there is a need to institutionalize or at least put in place institutional enablers which could prosper a common identity.
For lessons in cultivating a common national identity we need not look much further than across the Palk Strait and …

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After the tension situation (aug 11th) all the mobile phone connections cut by security forces in Jaffna for security reasons. From 25th the mobile phones working again in Jaffna. The mobile phone companies sent the bill for the cut period also. Only Dialog and Mobitel is workin in Jaffna.

The curfews which were imposed in the Jaffna peninsula have been relaxed this week from 11.p.m to 4.a.m unlike last month when it was declared between 6.pm and 5.am and the 18 hour curfews per day in August. The power cuts have also been eased from the 18 hour duration to 4 hours from 12 midnight to 4am.

ஏகாதிபத்தியற்கெதிரான பண்பாட்டு வெடிகுண்டு

அதிகாரம் பல்வேறு தளங்களில் பல்வேறு வடிவங்களில் தொழிற்படும் யுகம் இது. இதனால் அதிகாரம் பற்றிய பல்வேறு, மதிப்பீடுகள்,சிந்தனைகள் முன்வைக்கப்படும் காலமாகவும் இது மாறியுள்ளது. அதிகாரத்தை கேள்விக்குட்படுத்தும் சிந்தனைகளோடு கடந்த நூற்றாண்டில் அறிமுகமாயிருக்கும் பின்-நவீனத்துவம் சர்வதேச அளவில் புலமையாளர்களின் கவனத்தையீர்த்த கோட்பாடாகும் அதிகாரம் தொழிற்படும் நுண்களங்களைக் கூட நுட்பமாக தோலுரித்துக் காட்டியதில் பின்-நவீனத்துவத்தின் பங்கை யாரும் குறைத்து மதிப்பிட முடியாது எனும் கருத்து விமர்சனபூர்வமாக அணுகப்பட வேண்டும் என்பதே எமது கணிப்பு.

புpன்காலனிய இலக்கியமும் பின்-நவீனத்துவத்தின் அதிகாரம் பற்றிய பார்வையின் பின்னணியிலேயே வைத்து விளக்கப்படுகிறது. மேற்கு தமது காலனித்துவத்தின் ஊடாக மூன்றாம் உலக நாடுகள் மீது மிக மோசமான சுரண்டல் நடவடிக்கைகளில் ஈடுபட்டதோடு மட்டுமன்றி அவர்களின் தனித்துவ சமூக, பொருளாதார, அரசியல், கலாசாரப் பாரம்பரியங்களையும் பெறுமனங்களையும் சிதைத்து தனது கலாசாரக் கூறுகளை திணித்ததே காலனித்துவ யுகத்தின் வரலாறாகும். இந்த காலனித்துவ காலத்தில் தங்களின் இறந்த காலத்தை பறிகொடுத்த மூன்றாம் உலக மக்கள் அதனை மீண்டும் கைப்பற்றும் முயற்சியில் ஈடுபடத் தொடங்கினர். அவர்களின் இலக்கியங்களிலும் இம்முயற்சிகள் பிரதிபலிக்கத் தொடங்கின.

மேற்கினால் தங்கள் மீது திணிக்கப்பட்ட அந்நிய சமூகப் பொருளாதார, அரசியல் மாதிரிகளை அதற்குள் …

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Every time I look at an OCHA map of Sri Lanka, the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis is made really clear. For here, we have entire regions, districts of Sri Lanka suffering under multiple humanitarian crises. There are swathes of land without access, thousands of families without adequate food, water, shelter. The OCHA map also paints a picture markedly different to that of the Government’s rosy image of returning normalcy.

Who can these communities turn to? Caught between a Government more interested in a witch-hunt against NGOs, an LTTE that’s hell-bent on Eelam through even more bloodshed and violence, mysterious armed groups that appear and disappear overnight, and all manner of other travails and hardships that we …

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While Sri Lankan tea is considered one of the best teas in the world, people of Jaffna get to taste the worst tea. The reason is a shortage of tea in Jaffna. After the land route closed, there is a shortage of all things including tea. The worst tea is selling in Jaffna for Rs1200.00 per Kg. People also don’t have any alternatives at the moment.

The SLMM in a statement on Dec 12 said they are concerned over the alarming situation in Vakarai. They pointed to the LTTE failing to protect civilians by restricting their movement, and the SLMM being refused access by the army due to security reasons.

People are questioning whether there is human security in Sri Lanka, especially in North-East war affected areas, where civilians live as human shields, whether they are willing to or not. Behind this there are many political issues for both the government and LTTE.

In the past, the UN, SLMM, and human rights organizations have failed to take effective steps to stop this. They only issue statements condemning both parties some times. Closure of A9 highway to Jaffna and …

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More than hundred thousand people have been affected by Chikenguniya in the Jaffna District. Some students sitting for the Ordinary Level examinations were reported to have fainted in examination halls. Deputy director of Health Services Dr.R.Ketheswaran said seventy thousand patients took treatment in government hospitals and that private hospitals were also full patients sufferring from it.

There is also a shortage of staff in government departments since 80% of the staff have also been affected. Due to the shortage of Paracetamol, prices of this painkiller have risen to 5.00 Rs per tablet.

A few days ago I was looking through old newspapers – clippings from the late 80s.

Back then, the JVP were referred to ‘subversives’ and the terrorists were – um – I guess they must have  been fighting the IPKF and the SL Army.

But the JVP were the ‘subversives’ and in late 1989, their leadership was hunted down and killed. In the next couple of years, the Army and so-called vigilante groups killed tens of thousands of young men and women. A whole generation was wiped out.

I guess the violence by the State put an end to the violence being committed by the JVP. And now, the JVP are in the political system.

So, when the JVP advocate a military solution to …

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The unsurprising minority report of the APRC Experts Panel is a lawyerly representation of 1956-style Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. It is the legal prototype of the JVP/JHU political rhetoric. As such, it is also, in substance and philosophy, the mirror image of that other set of constitutional propositions emanating from ethno-nationalism: the ISGA proposals of the LTTE.

An odious comparison no doubt for either group of authors, but hermeneutically both documents point to the same political ontology of ethno-nationalism that is the source of such ‘patriotic’ inspiration for both. Ethno-nationalism translated into legal language is concerned primarily with political power, and the constitutionalisation of power in a way that enables control of politics. Such a conception of power is also necessarily partisan, …

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Dayan Jayatilleke in the Lanka Academic has attempted a rather more refined apologia for the discordant cacophony that passes for government in respect of conflict resolution and peace nowadays, than the government itself has been capable of. He says that the President’s speech to the nation last week and the majority report of the APRC Experts Panel represent two complementary strands of a cogent response by the government to defeat the LTTE’s terrorism and meet the aspirations of Tamils. He is not only sycophantic, but also fundamentally wrong. If this is a strategy, then it sounds remarkably like CBK’s disastrous ‘war for peace’ policy.

The majority report is to be welcomed as a rare voice of reason in an otherwise miasmic …

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I first met him in 2004 and liked him immediately. His storytelling was a joy to experience. On our journeys up to Jaffna, the 10 hours would fly as he shared his stories from his salad days with my cousins at St Johns, his work for Home for Human Rights or his take on this politician or that.

The story that sticks in my mind is of how he entered politics. When he had to attend the funeral of his former colleague and at the same time to throw in his lot with mayoral politics in Jaffna, his mother refused to let him leave the house. The mother’s anxiety over her son’s decision was understandable. He …

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From my visit to Kantale I can say that Sinhalese people from Seru Nuwara Division are facing human security problems due to artillery and motor strikes from LTTE-controlled Vaharai area.

Also over 30,000 people in ‘Vaharai’ are under house arrest, because the LTTE is not allowing them to go to a safe place. The people are facing lots of problems. They don’t have enough food, medicine, education, government services and basic needs. Most of them are living in refugee camps.

Already, retaliation of government force to LTTE motor, artillery attack is affecting civilians. The situation is affecting both communities of Sinhalese and Tamils. On Dec 8 the LTTE started retaliating against government strike. On the first day a Sinhala school was targeted …

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The Lessons We Never Learn
 
The second commemoration of the tsunami disaster is around the corner. In the past month or so, I have come to know of many organizations and collectives scrambling to put together all nature of commemorative activities, be they reports, workshops, evaluations etc. While some of these activities will be better, more sincere, more useful than others, across the board, all the exercises are bound to carry a few common traits. They will grossly exaggerate their own achievements, grossly underplay their own failures and most importantly, convince their audiences that they take full credit for everything that had gone well and are not to blame for everything that hasn’t.  It will be a collective exercise of whitewashing …

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I have NGO contacts in Sri Lanka and I understand that the advice from the World Health Organisation http://w3.whosea.org/EN/Section23/Section1108/Section1835/Section1864_8658.htm is not being followed. This includes teams coordinated by USAid. (Further reference to the risk of asbestos debris being recycled http://w3.whosea.org/EN/Section23/Section1108/Section1835/Section1864_8700.htm.)Asbestos products are still manufactured and used extensively in Sri Lanka. The situation is likely to be the same in other countries in the affected area. These products were banned in the UK in 1999, where there is considerable controlling legislation (see references for health and safety information).

Failure to follow this advice will lead to further tragic consequences. Those exposed to damaged or abraded asbestos or in reconstruction will need to seek medical advice and likely to need a …

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A few days before I arrived, friends told me the roads of New Delhi were blocked. No, it wasn’t a parade for Mahinda or Chandrika or Ranil. It was a a rally “to condemn the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka”.

Posters like the above were easily found in the city.

Now, I don’t know much about the MDMK or Vaiko – but from Google-glancing, it appears like they are quite supportive of the LTTE.

Now, India is a big place and the people I spent time with didn’t seem to give a damn about Sri Lanka. It just didn’t feel like a priority. But maybe it is for the Indian Government, especially if there’s voices …

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