Archive for Mannar
June 7, 2010 at 2:54 pm · Categories: Human Rights, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, War Crimes | by MCM Iqbal
The recent discovery of mass graves at Ganeshapuram in Kilinochchi and at Nachchikuda in the Mannar Districts has been very much in the news during the past weeks. Such finds need not surprise anyone. Following an analysis of satellite images taken during the height of the war, the American Association for the Advancement of Science has already reported that on 19th April , 2009 the images showed the roads in the ‘Civilian Safe Zone’ to be mostly deserted. The images taken on the 24th April, 2009 showed a large grave yard in the same area. The report adds, that
the analysis identified three different graveyards, counting a total of 1,346 likely graves. The satellite images …
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 2, 2010 at 3:00 am · Categories: Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Jaffna, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Vavuniya | by Devanesan Nesiah
Sri Lanka has been increasingly the scene of much ethnic violence. The Northern Muslims are the victims of the earliest large scale act of ethnic cleansing in our history. Close to 80,000 persons, constituting the entire Muslim population of the five Northern Districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi were summarily expelled from the province by the LTTE on one fateful day in October 1990 at a few hours notice. The details of the constraints imposed on the victims varied from location to location depending on the degree of brutality of the local LTTE leadership, but nowhere were those evicted able to sell, transfer or otherwise secure or dispose of their property or to take with them cash or …
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 …
August 12, 2009 at 12:33 pm · Categories: Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Post-War, Reconciliation | by Ruki
“We used to live very close to the Madhu Shrine and we long to go and pray at the feat of Our Lady of Madhu as we used to. But we are prisoners in this camp, and not allowed to go out freely” is what a father of two children, the youngest of whom is an infant of about one month, told me, when I met the family at the Sirukkandal camp, in Mannar last week. This family is from Pandivirichan, the parish adjoining Madhu Shrine. Hundreds of Tamils, including infants, pregnant mothers are being detained in this camp, some for more than a year. Thousands more are detained in other camps situated in the Diocese of Mannar, where the …
May 9, 2008 at 12:32 am · Categories: 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: 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: Human Rights, Human Security, Mannar, Peace and Conflict | by Ruki
View Larger Map
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, 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: 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: 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, 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 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 11, 2007 at 7:21 am · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Mannar, Peace and Conflict, Puttlam, Trincomalee, Vavuniya | 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, 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 …
March 9, 2007 at 8:46 am · Categories: Anuradhapura, Colombo, Galle, Hambantota, Kalutara, Kandy, Kegalle, Kurunegala, Mannar, Matale, Matara, Moneragala, Nuwara Eliya, Peace and Conflict, Pollonnaruwa | by Pradeep Peiris
The latest survey conducted by the Social Indicator, the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives reveals that Sri Lankans express mixed opinion on the recent crossover by the 18 UNP parliamentarians along with 6 Muslim Congress MPs. 37% of people approve of this move while the same percentage disapproves. Interestingly, a quarter of Sri Lankans are either unaware of the crossover or do not have an opinion on whether to approve or disapprove of it; despite the chaos it has triggered in many corners that is yet to be settled.
In the wake of numerous interpretations and reinterpretation of the present political situation as a result of the recent crossover by the political elites, the authors of …
March 5, 2007 at 12:40 pm · Categories: Ampara, Batticaloa, Human Security, Mannar, Peace and Conflict | by Dilrukshi Handunnetti
Sri Lankaâs Muslims have long kept quiet while Tamil militancy has made its own demands. Now they are becoming restive, fearing that silence may have cost them too much.
By | Dilrukshi Handunnetti
If you were to go by the international headlines, the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict appears to engage only the two main communities, the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Yet when the conflict exploded into war in 1983, and in the more than two decades following, it was not just the two communities locked in battle that suffered. The impact of the internal war on the islandâs Muslim community has been massive â and severely overlooked.
In Colombo, when issues of politics or peace deliberations arise, the âMuslim questionâ has long been …
