By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
(CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK)
QUESTION: Thank you for relating these details about these important events of the recent past. Your input provides fresh insight into these matters. But now I want to ask you about the present.
Gotabhaya Rajapakse ~ pic courtesy: businesstoday.lk
Let me start with your relationship with this government particularly the Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse.
Continue Reading August 27th, 2010
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
(CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK)
Question: What happened finally to your plan of rescuing Prabhakaran and his family by helicopter? Why did the plan not take off?
Answer:
It’s a very sad story………
After Prabhakaran’s son Charles Anthony asked me to rescue his family members by air I devised a plan and made preliminary arrangements. I arranged for a ship to be kept waiting at a far –off port beyond the reach of the Sri Lanka navy. I also made arrangements to buy a second-hand helicopter from an Ukrainian contact.
Continue Reading August 20th, 2010
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
(continued from last week)
Question: So how did the return occur? How and why did you re-join the movement?What was your role during the last days of the war?
Answer: That’s another long story.
I was now out of the movement and leading a quiet life in Thailand with my family.I had no idea of returning to the movement though my wife felt that I would always go back if asked by Prabhakaran himself.
Continue Reading August 13th, 2010
By D.B.S.Jeyaraj
(Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was killed on August 12th 2005. This article written in August 2005 for “The Sunday Leader” is reproduced here to commemorate the fifth anniversary of his death.It has been shortened)
Lakshman Kadirgamar ~ (April 12, 1932 – August 12, 2005)
Independence dawned for Sri Lanka then Ceylon on February 4th 1948. The union jack was lowered and the national flag raised at the stroke of midnight. Even as the flag fluttered proudly four young athletes carrying flaming torches entered the square and ran up the steps of Independence hall. Together they lit the lamp of freedom.
Continue Reading August 11th, 2010
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
It was one year ago on August 5th 2009 that Thambiaiya Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias “KP” was taken into custody in Kuala Lumpur at First Tune Hotel on 316 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman road.The former chief arms procurer of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) was brought to Colombo the following day.
Continue Reading August 6th, 2010
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
The Conclusion of the long drawn out war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization has been welcomed by all sections of Sri Lankan society in particular and the international community in general.
Even as war ravaged Sri Lankans breathe a collective sigh of relief and attempt to get on with their lives in a post – war scenario ,it is important to note that the armed conflict’s end does not necessarily mean the national question generally referred to as the “Tamil problem” has been satisfactorily resolved.
Continue Reading July 30th, 2010
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
The tragic history of post – independence Sri Lanka records that the Tamils of Sri Lanka have been subjected to mass –scale mob violence in the years 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983. The anti-Tamil violence of July 1983 was the most terrible and horrible of them all. It remains etched in memory even after 27 years.
Continue Reading July 24th, 2010
By D.B.S. Jeyaraj
Fifty years ago on 21 July 1960, Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike was sworn in as Prime Minister of Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then). The 44-year-old widow of Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike made history on that day as the world’s first woman Prime Minister.
Continue Reading July 23rd, 2010
by D.B. S. Jeyaraj
Hello Friends
Today July 21st is the 50th anniversary of Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike becoming Prime Minister of Sri Lanka then known as Ceylon. Needless to say she made history then as the world’s first woman prime minister and put the Island nation on the global map.
I thought of remembering on this historically important date this remarkable woman who made a lasting impact on the fate of her country.
Continue Reading July 21st, 2010
by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
The South Indian state of Tamil Nadu has a robust Film industry. From it’s nascent stages ,film- making in the state has been inclusive in nature. Artistes and technicians from various parts of India have worked and continue to work in Tamil films. Many non –Tamils employed in the film sector have chosen to live in Chennai.
Asin Thottumkal looks up during a news conference, about her new film “Ready” which is being shot in Sri Lanka, in Colombo June 30, 2010.~ Reuters pic
Sri Lanka’s film industry too has had historical links with Tamil Nadu. The first Sinhala film produced by SM Nayagam a Tamil was shot in Madras as Chennai was known earlier. Several other Sinhala films in the forties and fifties were made in India.
Continue Reading July 16th, 2010
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