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 …

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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. “The alliance was formed …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 Karuna’s 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 …

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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) …

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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): …

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“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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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 …

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“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 …

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