Archive for Mannar
May 9, 2008 at 12:32 am · Categories: English, IDPs and Refugees, Mannar, Peace and Conflict | by CHA
As soon as the security forces arrived at Arrippu, in September 2007, we were escorted out of our villages, some with personal belongings many with only what they were wearing. We sheltered at Nanattan School for 15 days. We made a request to the area commander through our GA Mn & DS Nananattan to resettle us in our native place.
First they said that they would allow us to go to our village with in a month. Then they said after 06 months. Finally they said that they would resettle us when The Defense Ministry would give an order only they would allow us to go. We still remain IDPs unable to go back to our villages.
Since we engage in fishing …
April 28, 2008 at 8:54 pm · Categories: English, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Mannar, Peace and Conflict | by CHA
My mother in law, age 55 is from Kalliyaddy, Mannar, (an LTTE controlled area) came to live with her daughter, who is married to me in Sinnakarishal, Pesalai on 15.01.08. Kalliyady is in LTTE controlled area with around 500 families. Life there has been extremely difficult for her and during the latter stages even more difficult. It is mandatory that a member of a family join the LTTE in their struggle. However, my mother in law managed to get her daughter out of the LTTE controlled area and gave her in marriage to me.
She was adamant that she will not give her other daughter to join the LTTE and thought it was best to flee Kalliyaddy with her 25 year …
April 9, 2008 at 8:51 am · Categories: English, Human Rights, Human Security, Mannar, Peace and Conflict | by Ruki
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Ruki Fernando of the Law and Society Trust speaks about the present situation in Mannar, Sri Lanka.
Click here for the video in Sinhala and here for more videos from Vikalpa Video.
For more articles by Ruki on the embattled North and East of Sri Lanka, click here.
March 28, 2008 at 1:05 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Human Security, Mannar, Peace and Conflict | by CHA
An armed group abducted my younger brother this month. He was 25 years old. They came in a van in early February at around 8.30 in the night.
I am the eldest son in my family and I returned to Mannar after my marriage. After one year I told my parents to come down to Sri Lanka since a ceasefire agreement was signed between LTTE and the government. They returned to Mannar after 12 years from India.
As soon as he was abducted I informed the ICRC, FCE, Citizen Committees and CHA. My abducted brother is the youngest in our family. He neither knows nor has any connection with any militant group.
Yet he was abducted.
We searched all over but we could not …
March 28, 2008 at 12:44 pm · Categories: English, IDPs and Refugees, Mannar, Peace and Conflict | by CHA
I am the director of a convent in Madhu. Our convent was shifted from Adampan to Madhu at the end of January this year due to the heavy shelling & aerial attacks by the security forces. There were 25 school children with me in the convent in Madhu including 300 families also sheltered at the Church compound. The students at the Madhu Church used to travel in the bus that used to set off at Madhu at 7.30am toward Thadchanamadhu School.
On 28th January this year, I had to go to Killinochchi to get a pass. I told the convent children not to go to school in my absence. Only one student from my convent went for basketball practice. On the …
December 6, 2007 at 9:52 am · Categories: English, IDPs and Refugees, Mannar, Peace and Conflict | by Ruki
âWe were not poor, we had our own house, we earned a reasonable income to feed ourselves and our children, but now, we have been forced to be poor and depend on others to feed our children and ourselves, and have no place to stay, our village is occupied by the Sri Lankan armed forcesâ was the comment of one women who was amongst the thousands forced to vacate their homes and livelihoods by Sri Lankan armed forces in their quest to seek control of land.
When I visited Mannar with some friends and colleagues more than a month after yet another âhumanitarian operationâ by Sri Lankan armed forces, this time in Mannar, it became clear that civilians remains the only …
August 8, 2007 at 1:19 pm · Categories: Ampara, English, 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 27, 2007 at 1:34 pm · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Colombo, Constitutional Reform, Jaffna, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Puttlam, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, සිංහල | 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 11, 2007 at 7:21 am · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Puttlam, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, සිංහල | by Janith Vipulaguna
Photo credit: Agron, from Portraits of Displacement
Worldwide, those rendered homeless and destitute by violent conflict is growing. According to UNHCR statistics, the figure of Internally Displaced Persons stood at over 32 million at the end of 2006. In Sri Lanka’s case, many of those displaced by the tsunami were communities already displaced by war. This double displacement exacerbated their trauma and continues to date. My article end with impressions of a photo exhibition of refugees and IDPs by Gemunu Amarasinghe.
Read my article here.
April 25, 2007 at 4:20 pm · Categories: Colombo, English, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Puttlam, Trincomalee | by groundviews
Reproduced with the kind permission of the author, and first published in the Hindustan Times.
The flipside of Islamic fundamentalism in Sri Lanka
PK Balachandran
Kattankudy (Eastern Sri Lanka), April 24, 2007
Islamic fundamentalism in Kattankudy in the Eastern Sri Lankan district of Batticaloa, is multifaceted.
It has both regressive and progressive aspects, though to the naked eye of the fleeting visitor, only the former is visible.
Fundamentalism has united previously disparate entities while creating new barriers. It has infused intolerance of some types, but at the same time, liberated sections of society from the thraldom of traditional practices and ideas described as “outdated”, “un-Islamic” or “superstitious”.
Strange though it may seem to outsiders fed on Afghanistan’s medieval Talibani fundamentalism, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism …
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