Archive for Ampara
July 18, 2010 at 6:30 am · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Foreign Relations, Jaffna, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, War Crimes | by Dayan Jayatilleka
When faced with challenging human rights and humanitarian law issues who should we seek out for advice but a celebrated former Vice President of the International Court of Justice? Faced with the task of peace building after a Thirty Years war, to whom should we turn to spearhead a state-aided national effort, or at the very least, for ideas and guidance, but the sole Sri Lankan to win the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education? If the Sri Lankan state and society have done neither, what does that say about us, where we are at and where we are headed?
One of the more refined gratifications in my life is the friendship of a few renowned intellectuals like Richard Falk, Emeritus Professor …
May 20, 2010 at 11:30 am · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Colombo, End of war special edition, Fiction / Creative Writing, IDPs and Refugees, Jaffna, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Post-War, Puttlam, Reconciliation, Trincomalee, Vavuniya | by V.V. Ganeshananthan
We regret to inform you that your condolences cannot be accepted at this time. At present, both our pain and our hope defy that word, which has been offered and denied us, which we need and do not need, and which in any case we cannot accept, because they (your condolences) will not reach from what has happened to what will come.
We find the word condolences stunning in its insufficiency for past and future.
We evacuated our homes in the light; we vanished from our homes in the dark; we walked away from our families, toward the weapons, and wished that we could turn around. Our bodies entered the earth in places we cannot now identify, and so we are everywhere, …
March 31, 2010 at 7:00 am · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Elections, Jaffna, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Trincomalee, Vavuniya | by Devanesan Nesiah
I remember visiting Jaffna in 1997. Local government elections were due. Several leading political figures had been assassinated in the preceding years, some by the LTTE, others by anti-LTTE groups. In the prevailing climate of fear, the Federal Party had reluctantly submitted nominations for elections for the Jaffna Municipal Council and one or two other local bodies. The LTTE was against the whole exercise, but the anti-LTTE gun carrying groups were contesting the elections. The Federal Party candidates showed great courage in contesting but minimized their risk by avoiding public meetings and house-to-house campaigning.
Many Federal Party supporters faulted the candidates for avoiding public visibility. They asked: how can we vote for those who are reluctant to publicly or privately ask …
December 26, 2009 at 2:45 pm · Categories: Ampara, Disaster Management, IDPs and Refugees | by Dushi
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou, 4 April 1928
Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai in Saainthamaruthu
Today is the 5th anniversary of a tsunami that devastated our country.Five years on, but how many of us still care for the people who suffered?
The tsunami hit the Indian Ocean, killing nearly hundreds of thousands in eleven countries and inundating coastal communities with waves unto one hundred feet. According to experts, it was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India were the hardest hit.
About thirty thousand people were killed in tsunami, millions injured and many more left homeless …
November 11, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Ampara, Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Politics and Governance | by Bradman Weerakoon
[Authors note: This is the text of my comment as a Panel discussant, delivered at the Institute of Public Management on 3rd November 2009]
My reflection will be in the context of the present situation. How are these two entities – the Public servant and the Politician relating to each other in today’s world. Not what the relationship was in a golden past or in a unlikely imagined future. And since my own view is that the relationship today is inherently unsatisfactory, how it could be improved or reformed to benefit the ultimate stakeholder, the public, which is the real object of the executive exercise.
Also my comments will be on what can be done immediately within the political, social and economic …
November 6, 2009 at 7:00 am · Categories: Advocacy, Ampara, Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Colombo, Districts, Galle, Gampaha, Hambantota, Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Jaffna, Kalutara, Kandy, Kegalle, Kurunegala, Mannar, Matale, Matara, Media and Communications, Moneragala, Nuwara Eliya, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Pollonnaruwa, Post-War, Puttlam, Reconciliation, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, War Crimes | by Dr. P. Saravanamuttu
Whilst it is not clear as to whether we would be voting in both the presidential and general elections on the same day, it is clear that we will be voting in at least one of them in the next three months, followed soon thereafter by the other. Most likely it will be the presidential elections since it is the president who has to decide and since he is much more popular than his party. Moreover, we have been told that he is willing to sacrifice, if necessary, two years of his first term in order to secure a second and a parliamentary majority nearest to the heart’s desire.
All elections are important and these will be no exception. It is worth …
June 3, 2008 at 10:47 pm · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Human Rights, Human Security, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Trincomalee | by rajeev sreetharan
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. Post-tsunami, over 700,000 refugees upon a decimated Northeast bloated with bone and shades of displacement. Unidentified gunmen, parcel bombs, white vans, lurk in every shadow. From Devakumaran to Senpathi, infants in Kayts to civilians in Dehiwala, the value of human life varies inversely with rising prices of petrol and rice, rates of inflation and centralization. And a panoply of issues like the 17th amendment or justice for 17 aid workers dangling a top Temple Trees’ to-do list, in the contemporary context, no more a blunt sword of Damocles, unable …
January 14, 2008 at 1:32 pm · Categories: Ampara, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict | by CHA
The field officer was on his usual rounds… visiting camps accommodating internally displaced personnel (IDPs). A young boy trots along and asks him what he is looking for. The field officer states that he had come to look into the welfare of the people and what he could do for him. The boy asked the field officer when this displacement would come to an end which is chaotic and scary. The field officer sat and listened to him……
The playful young boy said….. I am twelve years old and have been a victim of displacement. I am from Muttur and attended T/Ahathiyar Vidyualam in Kanguvelli. The conflict in Muttur displaced me from my original village and had to move into an …
December 31, 2007 at 12:00 pm · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Trincomalee | by CRep
It was reported today that an alliance of political parties plan to jointly contest local govt elections in Batticaloa, but a closer look is revealing.
The report http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=2606 stated the following:
“An alliance of Tamil political parties has been formed to contest the upcoming local council elections in Batticaloa, EPDP leader and Minister Douglas Devananda said yesterday adding that a final decision on the party symbol and other details would be decided upon within the next few days.
Minister Devananda said the alliance was formed between the EPDP, TMVP (Pillayan faction), PLOTE and EPRLF (Varathar faction) following an invitation extended by the EPDP and an agreement was reached to that effect at a meeting held in Batticaloa on Saturday. âThe alliance was formed …
December 10, 2007 at 9:47 am · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Trincomalee | by CRep
The TMVP is organizing a big protest at the Weber stadium in Batticaloa today. According to the Pillayan-led TMVP, it is against LTTE atrocities in the East and the TNA.
The TMVP also wants solutions to problems faced by people being resettled in the East, for example in terms of lack of jobs, all of which will go into a signed letter to be delivered to the President.
TMVP Spokesman Azad Moulana says they expect 25,000 people from three regions of the east to voice their protest and gather at the stadium, which is scheduled to start at 9.30am.
They may also try to bring together Karuna supporters to show their support for the above cause whether voluntarily or by some degree of …
October 30, 2007 at 7:28 am · Categories: Ampara, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict | by CHA
I do not have any words to express my agony and the untold hardship that I had faced in my village during the liberation of Seelavathrai, south of Mannar by the Sri lanka Army on 01.09.04. .Having woken up to the deafening sounds of the artillery, followed by gunfire, I peeped through the window. I saw total mayhem. People running helter-skelter dragging their children, not aware where they were heading. I thought I will die along with my family. My husband said that it would be best for all of us also to run away from the house as the firing was getting very much louder and closer. Along with our children we went out of the house to be …
September 26, 2007 at 11:37 am · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Human Rights, Human Security, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Trincomalee | by CRep
TMVP leader V.Muralitharan alias Karuna leaves country to Briton few days ago leaving Pillayan for TMVP administration says several sources. At the same time Moulana reappointed as TMVP spokesman in place of Mahesh. Karuna, Pillayan issue was big headache for government and other anti LTTE groups earlier, as well as inside the TMVP.
Few cadres were killed from both sides in last few months. Finally Pillayan controlled the Trincomalee District, while Batticaloa, Ampara was under control of Karunaâs faction.
The TMVP cadres were mentally tired regarding the deviation.
However Pillayan mostly focused on political wise as well as military from beginning. He received the goodwill and trust from the Tamil, Muslim communities and within the TMVP.
After the deviation few Karuna cadres created …
September 13, 2007 at 8:23 pm · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Colombo, Disaster Management, Galle, Hambantota, Jaffna, Media and Communications, Trincomalee | by Groundviews
Chamath Ariyadasa
The coverage by the media of yesterday’s earthquake near Indonesia might be of interest to some readers, and as the editor of JNW, Sri Lanka’s first SMS news agency, I thought of penning my personal opinion and raising some issues that could be discussed further.
My biggest concern at the moment, as a journalist, is getting access to the initial tip off from authorities on an impending disaster and the subsequent official news messages in a timely manner so that they can be passed on to the public as fast as possible.
There isn’t an email or SMS alert system in place, that I know of, that could easily meet this need. I know of the Met Dept website (http://www.meteo.slt.lk/Tswarn.html) …
September 12, 2007 at 6:45 pm · Categories: Ampara, Disaster Management, Galle, Hambantota, Jaffna, Kalutara, Puttlam, Trincomalee, Vavuniya | by Groundviews
12 Sep 2007 12:31:03 GMT
Source: Reuters
COLOMBO, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka issued a tsunami alert on Wednesday for its north, south and eastern districts following a major earthquake in Indonesia, the National Disaster Management Centre said.
“We have issued a warning for the south, north and east after the quake,” Keerthi Ekanayake, an official at the centre told Reuters. Sri Lanka was battered by the 2004 tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean rim.
- Reuters story ends -
Update #1 (7.00pm): Read the alerts issued on JNW and also visit their site for updates.
Update #2 (7.15pm): Reuters news alert SMS thru Dialog says “Small tsunami hit Indonesia’s Padang, Sri Lanka expects small tsunami by 7.30 – Disaster Management Centre”
Update #3: (7.34pm): …
August 29, 2007 at 9:06 am · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Puttlam, Trincomalee, Vavuniya | by Sanjana Hattotuwa
“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 …
August 14, 2007 at 5:12 pm · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Jaffna, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Trincomalee, Vavuniya | by Groundviews
Clearly, Groundviews seems to be doing something right in highlighting the plight of IDPs and refugees in the embattled North and East of Sri Lanka through stories such as I pray God that no one in this world should face the hardships, faced by my child and me and We are nobody’s children… and others.
The Divaina, a Sinhala daily published by the Upali Newspapers Group, had this to say on our recent story on IDPs in Trincomalee:
“මෙයට සමගාමීව කොටින්ට පකෂපාතී ස්වෙච්ඡා සංවිධාන අලුතින් අන්තර්ජාල වෙබ් අඩවි ආරම්භ කරමින් ත්රිකුණාමලයේ අවතැන්වූවන් අතිශය දුෂ්කර ජීවිතයක් ගත කරන බවට ප්රචාරයක් විකාශනය කර ඇත. මේ අන්තර්ජාල වෙබ් අඩවිය ආරම්භ කළ තැනැත්තා කවූරුන්දැයි දැන් හෙළි වී තිබේ.
ශී ලංකාවේ පූරවැසි මාධ්යවේදියා නමින් …
August 8, 2007 at 1:19 pm · Categories: Ampara, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Trincomalee | by CHA
“registration”
Eachchilampattai, Trincomalee Sri Lanka. IDP registration point.
this young girl and her family had to flee from their village. They had to walk 36 km to reach this school where hundereds other families are accommodated following escalation of violence last month in Trincomalee district.
Photo credit: Agron
The story of Mrs. Mathivathanan Ponmalar, IDP in Eachchilampattu
Following the suicide attack at Army Head Quarters, Colombo, our village in Eechalampattu was shelled with mortars and multi barrel rockets. We evacuated the village immediately at midnight without our belongings in the pitch dark amidst the deafening sounds of the artillery and mortar fearing for our lives and those of our children. We trekked through the jungle not knowing where we would …
July 28, 2007 at 4:27 pm · Categories: Ampara, Media and Communications | by rasika
ගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමනි. අධ්යාපන ඇමතිතුමනි විශ්ව විද්යාල ප්රතිපාදන කොමිසමේ සභාපතිතුමනි විශ්ව විද්යාලයට යෑමට සියලූ සුදුසුකම් තිබු මේ දැරීයට එය අහිමි වුයේ පදිංචි දිස්ති්රක්කය වැරදීම නිසාද? එය මකා දමා හෝ නැවත අයදුම් පතක් ගෙන්වා ගෙන හෝ මේ තරුණියව විශ්ව විද්යාලයට ගන්න යුතුකමක් අදාල නිලධාරීන්ට නොසිතුනේ මන්ද? මෙවන් දුප්පත් දරුවන්ට මේ රටේ ඇති එකම අවස්ථාව ඉගෙන ගැනීම නොවන්නේ ද? ගුරුවරු රැුකියාවට නොයන ඇගේ ප්රදේශයේ දරුවන්ට ඉගෙන්වීමට ඇයට හෝ අවස්ථාව නොදෙන්නේ වැලිකන්දේ ඊළඟ පරම්පරාවන් නුගත් කමේ ගිල්ලවත්නට ද? නො එසේනම් ඔවුන් අධ්යාපනය ලබා ලෝකය පිළිබඳව අවබෝධ වූ විට මේ රටේ බලධාරීන් ලෙස ඔබලා ඔවුන්ට කළ අසාධාරණය ඔවුන් තේරුම් ගත්හ නිසාද? මේ අහිංසක දැරිය වෙනුවට කාගේ හෝ හෙංචයියෙකුගේ නුසුදුසු කෙනෙකු අද විශ්ව විද්යාලය තුළ ඉගෙන ගන්නා බවද අපි දනිමු ඇයට ඔබලා සාධාරණය ඉටු කරන තෙක් …
July 27, 2007 at 1:34 pm · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Jaffna, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Puttlam, Trincomalee, Vavuniya | by Groundviews
ඉන්දු ලංකා ගිවිසුම (1987 ජූලි- 2007 ජූලි):
අවස්ථාවක්ද? බලහත්කාරයක් ද?
“ඉන්දු ලංකා ගිවිසුමෙහි දසවන සංවත්සරය අවස්ථාව පෙන්නුම් කරන්නේ එහි අරමුණ වු ජනවාර්ගික ගැටළුවට දේශපාලන විසඳුමක් සොයා ගැනීමෙහි ලා ශී්ර ලංකාව ඇදහිය නොහැකි තරම් ආපස්සට ගමන් කර ඇති අන්දම ය.”
In this article I go back in time and look at the Indo-Lanka Accord the the dynamics of State power against the LTTE that was the lasting result of it. I speak of the battles that followed, examine the constitutional dynamics of the Acoord and the resulting system of governance, the political regimes in the South who variously interpreted the 13th Amendment, the way the Accord influenced war and peace in Sri Lanka and finally, a series of lost opportunities in the past …
July 18, 2007 at 11:31 pm · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Colombo, Disaster Management, Galle, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Peace and Conflict, Puttlam | by sam
The 28 minute documentary “Wars and Waves: Sri Lanka’s internally displaced” that was produced by COHRE, and directed and written by me, is available online.
There was a small private launch a week ago in Colombo. COHRE plans to do a larger public screening followed by a discussion in the coming weeks.
The purpose of the film is to highlight Sri Lanka’s IDP issue. The film will be used by COHRE as an advocacy tool, and by its network partners to provoke discussion about the issue. It’s primarily aimed at an international audience.
Description of film:
In Sri Lanka, a natural disaster and ongoing conflict have displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Those who lost everything to …
Next entries »
