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By Rajani Iqbal

Today we are assembled here to commemorate the International Women’s Day that falls in March, 2012. I wonder whether the women in the war affected parts of Sri Lanka today would be happy to commemorate this day or whether they would look at it in despair due to the sad plight in which they find themselves, following the conclusion of the war in 2009.

Thamakkenni, Kilinochchi: These women are part of a group of 15 who have just completed their training in Palmyra product making. Initiated under UNDP’s Vanni Rehabilitation Project of the Transition Recovery Programme, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the training aims to facilitate the sustainable resettlement of returnees and reduce tension within and between target communities by improving their socio-economic conditions-Sep 2011- pic: UNDP Sri Lanka

It is not enough to just look at their plight with sympathy and say “Oh my God ! How sad! ” and continue to mind ones business. Instead, it would be better if each one of us could ask ourselves the question, what can we do to uplift these women from the plight in which they find themselves.
Continue reading ‘How Tamil Women in UK can Help War-Affected Women in North – East Sri Lanka Through Thrift and Credit Co-operatives’ »

Frank Sinatra is the entertainer featured on the 2012 Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) poster for this April’s global celebration-pic courtesy: VOA News

By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

“I see, these books are probably law books, and it is an essential part of the justice dispensed here that you should be condemned not only in innocence but also in ignorance.” - Franz Kafka in “The Trial”.

April is here and it’s spring time now. My thoughts turn to Paris . They say that the seasonal charm of Spring is best embraced during April in Paris . I remember the old Frank Sinatra song about Paris in April.

“I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
I never missed a warm embrace”

“Till April in Paris , chestnuts in blossom
Holiday tables under the trees
April in Paris , this is a feeling
That no one can ever reprise”

However much, the residents of Paris are to be envied during spring, there is one person there for whom these days of April seem to have no charms. For Sri Lanka ’s official representative in France, Dayan Jayatilleka , April has dawned in a rather cruel, unkind way.
Continue reading ‘Is Dayan Jayatilleka the target of a witch-hunt?’ »

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

This article was first written on April 10th 2009 under the heading”Top Tiger Leaders killed in a major debacle for LTTE”.Subsequently it was updated,revised and posted under the current heading. “It is being posted here again to commemorate the third anniversary of the decisive battle of Aananthapuram that concluded on April 5th 2009. As I wrote then the Aananthapuram battle was indeed the defining moment of the on going war from an LTTE perspective-DBS Jeyaraj

“Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods, – Thomas Babington Macaulay

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization has experienced many major setbacks during the course of its 33 year old history.
Continue reading ‘Anatomy of the LTTE military debacle at Aanandapuram’ »

By Dianne Silva

Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Paris Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka has come under scrutiny in recent days for his controversial remarks in the aftermath of the passing of the United States sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council Sessions, last month. Certain remarks that were misconstrued as having compared Sri Lanka to Myanmar, a call for reform of Sri Lanka ’s foreign policy strategy and his unorthodox independent style of functioning have put him in the spotlight and opened his actions up for criticism.

Mar 8, 2012: Minister Baird Delivers Certificate of Honorary Canadian Citizenship to Aung San Suu Kyi | Le ministre Baird remet à Aung San Suu Kyi un certificat de citoyenneté canadienne honoraire-pic: Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT)

Media reports claimed that he was to be recalled on charges of mismanagement of the Embassy in Paris and that he was being targeted as a wider conspiracy to overhaul the power structure within the Ministry of External Affairs. However, later the Ministry denied the speculations of a recall.
Continue reading ‘‘I Used Myanmar As An Example, Just As Others Have Used Israel And Cuba As Examples’– Amb. Dayan Jayatilleka’ »

Velayuthapillai Bhagheerathakumar alias Theepan

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

Hello Friends

Today April 4th is the third death anniversary of Velayuthapillai Bhagheerathakumar alias Theepan of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE). He died in the decisive battle of Aananthapuram along with several frontline commanders and hundreds of cadres of the tigers in that confrontation.

Theepan like Balraj was a fearless fighter and admirable tactician. He was holding the title of “Vadamunai Thalapathi” or Northern point commander at the time of his death.

Theepan refused to retreat from the battlefront without his comrades at arms and opted to face death along with them rather than escape from the front like Col Bhanu. Even the Sri Lankan armed forces were impressed by Theepan’s heroic courage. Complimentary references were made to him in the Defence ministry website then.
Continue reading ‘Theepan of the LTTE: Heroic saga of a Northern warrior’ »

By Latheef Farook

In times of crisis in Sri Lanka, Muslims countries have always come to the island’s rescue with no strings attached. This friendly gesture was demonstrated once again by Muslim countries when they voted against the US sponsored United Nations Human Rights Council resolution against Sri Lanka.

Protest in Colombo on March 15 – pic by Charles Haviland-courtesy of: twitter.com/cfhaviland

While the European countries as a whole sided with the US, almost every Muslim country either supported Sri Lankan or abstained.

For example Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bangladesh Maldives, Mauritania and Indonesia voted against the resolution defying the US.
Continue reading ‘UNHRC vote in Geneva shows that Muslim countries were Sri Lanka’s sincere friends’ »

Letter dated March 30th 2012 sent by Mr.W.A.S. Prasanna, Actg Director General (Overseas Administration) states thus:

“Instances of administrative and financial irregularities resulting from your administration of the Sri Lanka Embassy in Paris have come to the attention of this Ministry. In this context, while noting the following instances, explanations on the same are hereby requested:

1. Renovation of the Chancery Building
Continue reading ‘Text of Letter sent to Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka by Ministry of External Affairs’ »

Book Review by Prof.V.Suryanarayan

Rebellion, Repression and the Struggle for Justice in Sri Lanka – The Lionel Bopage Story (Written by Michael Colin Cooke) (Agahas Publishers, Colombo, 2011), pp. 566, Price US Dollars 25/-

Known to the Arab travelers as Serendib (The island of happy fortune), Sri Lanka, in the post-independence years, was neither happy nor fortunate. The island and its peoples have experienced “a home grown version of internal colonial rule, complete with a ruling class, a caste system and an impoverished peasantry and an ethnic scapegoat”.
Continue reading ‘‘An Insiders Account of the JVP’ By Lionel Bopage’ »

by Gibson Bateman

Sri Lanka’s Minister of External Affairs, G.L. Peiris, has recently given one additional reason for the passage of a resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva: “collective commitments.”

Evidently, Mr. Peiris had been informed by one of his European counterparts that certain members of the European Union (EU) were unsupportive of the resolution, but were compelled to vote in favor of it, since a group decision had been taken by the EU.
Continue reading ‘Distressingly for Rajapaksa administration ‘Accountability’ will be the elephant in the room’ »

by B.Kolappan

Ever since he arrived in Chennai in August 1983 after violence broke out against Tamils in Sri Lanka, S.C. Chandrahasan and his family lived with the hope that in three months they would be back in their motherland.

S.C.Chandrahasan,Attorney-AT-Law,Treasurer OfERR (Organisation for Ealam Refugees Rehabilitation) – Photo: K.Pichumani

History proved otherwise and his status was reduced to what he called “a person with no permanent address”. His three children received their education in Chennai and got married. Finally, when he landed in his hometown Tellipallai in the Jaffna peninsula in February 2011, 27 years had elapsed.
Continue reading ‘SJV Chelvanayagam’s Son Chandrahasan will return permanently to Sri Lanka after 27 years in India’ »