[Editor's note: Devanesan Nesiah provides a rejoinder to Tissa Devendra's vehement response to his article 'Rebuilding Sri Lanka' that was published first on Groundviews and then later in the Island.]

The venomous response of Devendra in the Island of 16th March does not merit a reply but I need to set the record straight. As I said in my original entry, “The primary fault is with neither the visitors nor the locals” which is very different to what Devendra seeks to imply. He takes offence over my citing the critical observations of a very distinguished Sinhalese. Rebuilding Sri Lanka requires self-critical acknowledgement of the damage done to the Sri Lankan nation over the decades by the racist policies of Sinhalese, Tamil …

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A perceptive and sensitive Sri Lankan has noted;

“It is reported that the people of the North, especially in the Jaffna district, have developed a feeling of dissatisfaction, disaffection and contempt towards the people of the South, who post the end of the war are now engaging in pilgrimage and sightseeing related visits to the North in large numbers, and in the process totally disregarding the need for privacy, encroaching on meagre infrastructure resources and services of the district, causing significant negative impact on the environment/cleanliness and pollution in the area, and behaving in a manner unacceptable by the cultural and religious values of the Northerners.

These negative feelings are expressed in relation to the following issues highlighted in support of the …

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Aachcharya writing from Jaffna

I wrote on the 30th of December in a post to Groundviews (and republished in the Daily Mirror) that the assertion that the Tamil people would be deciders in the Presidential election would be a myth. There was nothing brilliant or extraordinary about what I said at that time, but it was contrary to public perception that was prevalent all over the country and in international media circles. What I suggested was that for the Tamil people to be deciders two conditions have to be fulfilled. I wrote:

“For the Tamils to be the deciders in the election (like they could have been in the last) they have to vote as a whole, to one candidate …

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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 …

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If you look at Batticaloa District on a map, you’ll see that in a sense there are two Districts.

The first is the coastal strip, where you find Batti, Kattankudy, Valachchenai, and other towns and villages.  I’m only guessing, but it seems to me that some 90% of the Districts’ population lives in this narrow band of land.

As you will see on your map, a long sinuous lagoon separates most of the coastal strip from the interior, which makes up the bulk of the District.  The interior is sparsely populated and there are no real towns to speak of; at best you could call them small villages or hamlets.

I am most familiar with Mamunai West Division, which is located directly opposite …

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The following is an except from a letter I wrote about the recent Tsunami Early Warning Test last week.  I hope the readers of Groundviews find it interesting. I have to preface this by saying I am a Westerner, one of the few, living in Batticaloa, where I have been since shortly after the 2004 tsunami.

The excerpt:

The second exciting and panic-inducing event was the botched Tsunami Early Warning Test last Thursday, the 10th.  The papers had announced that the new warning towers would be tested on the 19th, so you can see the first problem.  Second, no one I talked to knew where these towers were.  Turns out that there are three in the District: one in Kallady, about a …

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I settle into my seat for the ride from Kalmunai to Colombo. There is a fifty rupee premium for reserving it. I always want window seats, be it flying or riding along. In my head, I can hear Daniel Powter’s Bad Day, or She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5 being played when the scenery is just a blur. Ever since I first heard them, it’s always those two songs. Nothing else.

This time, I’ve got an aisle seat.

The person next to me says hello. I say hello back. In my head, this seems a lot like a late night flight to nowhere. Most of the passengers came to the bus stop alone. It was cold outside, and it’s colder inside. …

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“We can’t send them back to a place where there are just jungles.” (President Mahinda Rajapakse, in an interview to the Hindu, 6th July 2009, referring to resettlement of people displaced from the North)

Perhaps the President is unaware that even as he cites the above as reason for delays in resettling people displaced from the Vanni, his government has started to dump displaced people in the East into remote jungle areas infested with wild elephants, against the wishes of the concerned people.

Savukady
Savukady is a small village near Chenkalady, a few kilometers inside from the A4 main road to Batticaloa from Chenkalady. Most of displaced people in Savukady have been displaced several times.

On 18th June …

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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 the victims.

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 bestuck in an ‘event horizon’ inside them. While the authorities paint quite a rosy picture of it, their detractors seek to discredit the claim. Assuming that the truth is half way between them, I wish to offer a few suggestions on how to improve the ground situation, depending on my past experience of working for the displaced in the North.

The main complaint is about the conditions in the camp. The tents in which the refugees are housed are reported to be too small, too low and uncomfortable. The …

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English transcript of an exclusive interview with the Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (alias Pillayan) conducted by Vikalpa.

Have all the powers in the 13th amendment been given to the Provincial Councils?
It is not possible to say that. It should have been implemented fully as soon as it was enacted. Unfortunately, the North Eastern PC stopped functioning and the PCs in the other parts of the country didn’t care- this could be the reason why PCs did not work. The current govt has established the Eastern PC and is going to est the Northern PC. The govt needs to …

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Exclusive video footage taken by Vikalpa YouTube Channel team on the handing over of weapons by the TMVP in Batticaloa on 7th March 2009, including footage from the press conference.

A related story on Vikalpa in Sinhala can be read here.

With the position of spokesperson for, and sole representative of the Tamil community set to become vacant upon the projected defeat of the LTTE, one would hope that space would be created for the emergence of democratic, plural and dissenting Tamil voices within the community and the polity at large. However, the vacuum is most likely to be filled by Tamil politico-armed groups battling each other to be the ‘sole alternative’ to the LTTE and gain the favoured position of the ‘authentic’ Tamil voice that is accepted and supported by the government. The escalation of internecine violence in the Eastern Province is illustrative of the failure of non-LTTE Tamil leadership and political groups to provide a viable alternative to the …

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The Kattankudi Jamiyyathul Ulama had requested all the newly elected Muslim members of the Eastern Provincial Council to boycott its inaugural session to highlight the demand of strengthening security of the Muslim community in the east. Ethnic violence has flared in the east between the Tamil and Muslim communities since the EPC polls were conducted and tense situation prevails in the east putting into question the government claim of having liberated the east from the clutches of the LTTE. Political analysts indicate several possible reasons for the above situation.

1. An LTTE attempt to regain control of the eastern province through inciting ethnic violence.
2. Karuna cadres’ plan to capture power authority in the east.
3. Opposition politics drive to gain political benefits.
4. Government security systems.

The LTTE …

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The IDPs from Trincomalee District are scattered, in the Ampara District. There are few from the Mannar District too. Some are willing to return to their original places, some do not. These families prefer to live here. Some have bought small pieces of lands. These families need to be assisted to construct permanent houses here.

Few organizations are assisting for the construction, still a section of families are left off. Those who are living with friends or relations face this problem. If assistance is provided their participation in completing the house is very appreciate able.  There livelihood is another problem they have to contest with the local labour. Most of  them have been cultivators, they do not have any land to …

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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 …

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As the much hard-sold elections to the Eastern Provincial Council came to an unseemly and acrimonious conclusion last week, it was already becoming abundantly clear that its political and constitutional ramifications may well turn out to be anything other than what the government’s triumphalist claims would have us believe.

Perhaps the most disturbing political upshot of these elections was the sharp and violent polarisation of ethnic and religious communities in this most pluralistic of provinces. Electoral politics was conducted unashamedly as a form of antagonistic communal competition and outbidding, paralleling without much overstatement that nonpareil of political disintegration, the general elections of 1956. In the years before the watershed of 1956, the gross ineptitude of Sir John Kotelawala’s UNP with regard …

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Image courtesy Mannar Diocese website

The sacred shrine of Madhu is being violated.

What right has the LTTE to encroach on the Pilgrim Reservation Area gazetted under the Pilgrimage Ordinance in 1982? The LTTE has violated International Conventions relating to War in entering the Church or its environs and converting it to  a battle zone. The International Community should condemn this action of the LTTE. Only cowards hide in places of worship because they are unable to face the enemy in the battlefield. The International Community must call upon the LTTE to forthwith vacate the Madhu Church Reservation Area or face international condemnation. They must remove all mortars and other military equipment from the Reservation Area.

As for …

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This video clip contains a brief interview with A.L Thavam – Chairperson of Akkaraipattu Pradeshiya Saba (local government).

It is presented here as is, without analysis or comment.

Summary of the interview.

• Feels that Batticoloa election was successful because of the lack of incidents, and says therefore Government has been successful in liberating the Eastern Province.
• Acknowledges there may have been ‘little incidents’ but says these do not carry significance when the bigger picture is considered.
• Says that if the people did not want to vote, they could have made a mark on the ballot paper and submitted it – in effect, just pretended to vote. But says the number of these …
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By K. Ratnam

It is as if the city of Batticaloa has become a red hot furnace due to the scorching sun. Yet at high noon there is a pall of gloom that hangs over the city. People who have come to attend to their requirements are wandering about hither and thither in a mighty hurry to get back as if a storm were expected any time.

It is likely their only objective is to achieve their needs and leave the city as fast as possible.

What is happening in Batticaloa these days?
If the Government is asked this question, a probable response would be: “these days we are sowing the seeds of democracy.” In other words, they hope to widen the limits of …

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