The Daily Mirror on 29 August 2007 reports a high-level meeting at Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) between state and business leaders of Sri Lanka and a state delegation representing trade interests in Myanmar. The vice chairman of the CCC is reported to have addressed the visitors with the words, “This is an opportunity to extend our friendship for a fruitful partnership”. I wondered if those attending realized who they were befriending, and the possible consequences of this attempted friendship.

Myanmar is the new name for the country that has been better known as Burma. It is a country of about 47 million people who are predominantly Buddhist and, along with Sri Lanka, an important centre …

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Exhausted after reading too many verbose analysisez of Sri Lanka’s conflict?
Ashamed of having to recite “Namo tassa, bhagavato arahato, samma sambuddhasa” over and over again?
Bored with the mediocrity of your surroundings?
Then, open your ears and eyes to some tunes and video clips from Maya Arulpragasam aka MIA.
I am no reviewer or critic - so this is not a review or critique.
I stumbled across MIA’s music at the start of 2005 when a friend was interviewing her for an article. Back then, she was about to launch her first album Arular - the alias name of her PLOTE activist father.
There was something very exciting about discovering music that sounds completely different to what I had been listening to. It stands out …

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Shanthi Sachithanandam

“Nation, is the geo-social entity
providing maximum security for the survival of a community,
Nationalism, is that fundamental desire
For the assurance of a Nation
Nations uniting and dividing
Of their own volition, is the
Expression of their urge for that assurance
Alas, as usual, this time too
Our Nation lost the basis of its existence

V.I.S Jeyapalan

Bathed in the glare of the media and a high-pitched war rhetoric, the military operations in the East were the visible war efforts to most of us in this country and abroad during the past few months. But simultaneously, elsewhere in the East, the government had stealthily opened up another war front away from all the publicity and …

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Monks of War is Al Jazeera’s second news feature on Sri Lanka aired in August. As noted on their site:

To many of us, Buddhism, with the sacred principle of non-violence, is the most peaceful religion of all. But in Sri Lanka a group of radical monks who say they represent the Singhalese majority are urging the government to take a hard-line, pro-war stance against the Tamil Tiger rebels.

To make their voices heard in the political arena the monks have even set up their own political party - the JHU - which participated in the 2004 elections and secured nine seats in parliament.

They are monks, they are political and they are not shy of controversy. Their belief that only a …

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By Air Vice Marshal Harry Gunetilleke (Rtd)

Come around mid-July this year, there were victory celebrations with much euphoria, if not in the North and North East of Sri Lanka, with some enthusiasm certainly in the rest of the country, at the behest of the State which gave the lead with a colourful military parade at Independence Square, reminiscent of the yearly Independence day celebrations, on the occasion of the conquest of Thoppigala, even before the powder ran dry.

Here, it must be noted that the military hierarchy desired another week or two for mopping up operations but the power that be would have none of it perhaps, wanting to put up a great show before the other big event of the …

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In his Mahaweera Day speech in 2005, Vellupillai Pirapaharan, the LTTE leader, depicted Ranil Wickremesinghe as a calculating fox who tried to deceive everyone by entering into a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE. Ranil Wickremesinghe has once again shown his foxy behaviour in his comments on the capture of Thoppigala by the security forces of the Government of Sri Lanka. His initial position was that capturing Thoppigala would be a useless exercise as it is worthy only for collectors of fire-wood.

However, at the signing of a MoU with the SLFP (M), Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed that under the Wijetunga-Wickremesinghe regime, Thoppigala was captured by the security forces. Did he mean that Thoppigala was strategically important then but not now? As I …

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Groundviews was the first to review the new Al-Jazeera documentaries on Sri Lanka (Mistaking Night for Day in the New Dawn of the East: A Review Article of the al-Jazeera Documentaries, ‘How the East was Won’ and ‘Monks of War’).

You can now watch this documentary online. See the Groundviews video channel for Al-Jazeera’s previous videos on Sri Lanka (including a previous People Power documentary titled Tiger Tax - Part 1 and Part 2) and more.

Part One:

Part Two:

“If humanitarian intervention is indeed an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica - to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect every precept of our common humanity?”
Kofi Anan, former UN Secretary General

At the time of writing, news of the liberation of the East and the resulting celebrations have captured headlines and the public imagination in Sri Lanka. Not much analysis though as to what it all means and answers to questions such as what now, and whether the fall of Thoppigala is any guarantee of animating a hitherto non-existent capacity of this government to articulate an enlightened approach to the ethnic question. Careful to not arouse the wrath of those …

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By Bellanvila Sudaththa Thero and Cecil J. Dunne

Before we discuss what Theravada Buddhism says about homosexuality, it is important to understand that in Buddhism people are encouraged to look inwardly when seeking guidance or a solution to a problem. In the words of the Lord Buddha himself “be a lamp to yourself” which simple means do not search for wisdom outside of yourself, rather you should let your conscience be your guide and it is here that the teachings and scripts of Lord Buddha can be of assistance.

Generally speaking Lord Buddha did not anything specifically about homosexuality because it has never been an issue, however this is not to say that that there was no homosexual activity in the time …

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I am originally from Trincomalee. Now I am living in a Tsunami, temporary shelter, in Alayadivembu which is in the Ampara District. My home town is Thoppur, Munampodivattai. We initially became internally displaced in 1990 and continue to be displaced. The present displacement was due to the recent conflict in the East. My family is displaced and I have lost one of my children.

In June 2005, following dinner, my husband, four of my children and I were at home in our village. I was asleep with two of my children and my husband was in conversation with the other two. Suddenly we heard the unmistakable sounds of the aircraft followed by aerial bombardment. My husband and I grabbed the children …

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The 14th of August was an eventful day. According to the Sinhala media, the Police “discovered” claymores and explosives at the Ideal Lodge in Wellawatte on this day. As was discovered later, Ideal Lodge is also where 7 of the petitioners in the Supreme Court case against the unlawful and reprehensible eviction of Tamils from Colombo by the Chief of Police and this government reside.

Several interesting aspects of the Sinhala media coverage of this incident are evident to the keen reader. As noted in my article in detail through direct quotes from headlines, the reporting was overwhelming sensational. Four leading Sinhala dailies stated that the LTTE was responsible for the explosives that were “discovered” without quoting a single source. What …

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Security forces are issuing a Special Military ID again in Jaffna. After 1996 when the troops captured Jaffna the forces issued a special ID for Jaffna people. After the CFA they stopped this identity card issue.

Now they started again issuing the special ID.

On 24th evening security forces announced in Jaffna town area by a three wheeler that those who completed 10 years, they must be take this ID.

All of our politicians says Sri Lanka is a one country and solve the ethnic problem within one nation but they treat Tamils like citizens from another country. One Jaffna Journalist was recently invited for the SAFMA (South Asian Free Media Movement) meeting held recently in Colombo. But Jaffna people who wish to leave Jaffna must take clearance from the Security forces MOD.
He went to the Gramasevaka’s office, and the gramasevaka said come with your ration card, so that then he would recommend to take the application form. He got the application from the AGA’s office and filled everything gone to the gramasevaka’s office again to get it signed from the gramasevaka.

The gramasevaka instructed that he takes 4 photo copies …

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Following heavy shelling and bombardment in Point Pedro, we had to evacuate the village leaving all our belongings behind. While we were running for shelter from our home, sounds of artillery were deafening we ran and ran hoping that we would find a place where we could rest for a while and without knowing where to go, we walked along the Point Pedro road fearing that at any time an artillery shell would fall on us and kill us, we left everything at home in Thurayamoolai where we were living peacefully. We left our livestock and poultry which were giving us an income to run my family without any financial difficulties throughout the year we also left household items, agriculture …

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Copyright: The Economist

Recently our Chief Justice averred that one does not need intelligence to get into Parliament.

I fully agree.

But I have a further point to make to the Chief Justice.

Read it on Vikalpa.

VOR Radio interviews Heshma (grand-daughter of Chitrasena and Vajira) and Rukshana, a senior dancer at the Chitrasena - Vajira Dance Foundation. The conversation deals with Kumbi Kathawa (Ant Story) - a children’s ballet - the challenges facing the Foundation and the state of theatre in Sri Lanka in general.

Please read the related article here and listen to the podcast here.

“We give you something that is very traditional and something that at the same time is not. This is discipline. You can’t do this without thinking”

Chitrasena, quoted in Bandula Jawayawardhana’s essay “The Meaning of Chitrasena” published in Nŗtya Pūjā: A Tribute to Chitrasena 50 years in the dance

To witness first and then attempt to write about a production by the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya is a humbling and daunting experience. It is humbling because the writer soon realises the inadequacy of verbal and written expression to capture the exhilaration of dance performed with a vigour and technical precision not often found with such effortless abundance elsewhere. It is daunting because one attempts to capture a movement so mellifluous, …

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What can we learn as Sri Lankans from this excellent Chadian film that deals so profoundly with the social and personal consequences of civil war, difficulties so similar to our own?

With all the ‘solutions’ offered for Sri Lanka being top-down technical fixes; the piles of bodies, the traumatised population and the sufferings of individuals and their communities remain largely ignored. Persistent ultra-nationalist political propaganda and a feudal obedience to the directives of their rulers appear to have hypnotised much of the population and deprived them of independent thought. Fantasies about ‘peace building’ that were never grounded in practical political mobilisation have not prevented the slow slide back into civil war for over a year now, albeit not …

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Reporter, Juliana Ruhfus, Director, Dom Rotheroe and Researcher, Aloke Devichand, have two films scheduled for broadcast on the al-Jazeera network which will be of interest to all those with an abiding interest in Sri Lanka both within and without the country. The first, “How the East Was Won” deals with the contemporary context and consequences of claimed military victory over the Eastern Province and the second, “Monks of War”, focuses on the political ascendancy of the JHU and the resurgence of the Sinhala Buddhist nationalism which has been the central ideological legitimation for the return to a military solution to the ethnic conflict.

In that sense both documentaries are mutually illuminating of the political crossroads that Sri Lanka currently finds itself …

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The UTHR(J) is not known for its love towards the LTTE. It’s one time leader and revered academic Rajini Thiranagama was killed by the LTTE. Even today, it’s present leadership lives in fear and in hiding in light of the threats by the LTTE who are opposed to that which the UTHR9J) regularly publishes as reports on the human condition in the embattled North and East of Sri Lanka. These reports are some of the best and most impartial accounts of the conflict I have read and have a wide international recognition.

Their recent report, Can the East be won through Human Culling? Special Economic Zones – An Ideological Journey Back to 1983, is important in this regard. Often, the …

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