Human Rights Watch has determined based on verified video and witness accounts that Israeli forces used white phosphorus in military operations in Lebanon and Gaza on October 10 and 11, 2023, respectively. The videos show multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.

White phosphorus, which can be used as a smokescreen or a weapon, has the potential to cause civilian harm due to the severe burns it causes and its lingering long-term effects on survivors.

Its use in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law that parties to the conflict take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life. It also highlights the need to reexamine the status and adequacy of Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), currently the only international law dedicated to governing incendiary weapons.

Continue reading ‘Israeli Forces Used white phosphorus in military operations in Lebanon on October 10 and Gaza on 11, 2023, States Human Rights Watch: videos show multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.’ »

In a static decades-long conflict that has rotted for the past 20 years, it can be hard to believe that real change is possible. Be in no doubt, however, that Hamas’s murderous assault has blown up the status quo between Israel and the Palestinians. The coming weeks will determine whether war in Gaza sinks the Middle East deeper into chaos or whether, despite Hamas’s atrocities, Israel can begin to create the foundations for regional stability—and, one day, peace.

Change is inevitable because of the gravity of Hamas’s crimes. More than 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, many of those women and children, were murdered in their homes, on the street, in kibbutzim, at a music festival. Perhaps 150 more have been dragged to Gaza and shut in makeshift dungeons. Israel’s belief that it could indefinitely manage Palestinian hostility with money and air strikes crumpled early on October 7th, as the first Hamas bulldozer breached the security fence. Hamas has chosen mass murder and there is no going back.

Gaza is now awaiting a huge Israeli ground offensive. Its extent and success will determine the legacy of Hamas’s bloody assault. So will the fundamental choice that Israel’s politicians face after the worst catastrophe in their country’s history: do they unite or continue to exploit divisions for their own advantage? A third factor is the choices of Israel’s Middle Eastern neighbours, including Iran.

Continue reading ‘If Israel destroys Hamas in Gaza and pulls out, who knows what destructive forces will fill the vacuum left behind?The only way to eradicate Hamas is for Israel and its Arab allies to create stability—and, one day, peace. -The Economist’ »

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By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

Kathiravelu Nythiananda Douglas Devananda is a senior Sri Lankan Tamil political leader. The Secretary-General of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party(EPDP) has been continuously representing the Jaffna district in Parliament since 1994. Devananda known generally as Douglas , has served as a cabinet minister in different Governments for more than 15 years. He is currently the minister of Fisheries in the Government headed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Douglas Devananda is one of the few Tamil political leaders who has been courageous enough to oppose the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) in politico-military terms in the past. Though many Tamil politicos who fell foul of the LTTE were killed by the tigers, Douglas Devananda is one of the few Tamil frontline leaders who has escaped death at the hands of the tigers. There were many assassination attempts by the LTTE, but the doughty Douglas survived them all.

It is against this backdrop that this column focuses on an attempt on Devananda’s life 25 years ago. This attempt on 30 June 1998 was quite peculiar in the sense that it was different to the usual modus operandi adopted by the LTTE. In this case Devananda then a MP was set upon by Tamil prisoners held at the Kalutara jail and brutally attacked with crudely fashioned improvised weapons. He had gone there on a goodwill mission to end a hunger strike by some Tamil detenues. The attackers were suspected hard core LTTE members. Devananda was seriously injured but survived miraculously. One of his eyes suffered permanent impairment.

When the Kalutara attack happened President Chandrika Kumaratunga was in power. The prisons department came under the purview of the Justice Ministry then. The minister of Justice was Prof.G.L.Peiris. The EPDP headed by Devananda had nine MPs in Parliament then. The EPDP supported Kumaratnge’s Peoples Alliance(PA) Govt in Parliament while being in the opposition. Though having MPs in Parliament, the EPDP was also a para-military outfit collaborating with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the war against the LTTE. As such the LTTE branded the EPDP as traitors and tried in many ways to assassinate the EPDP leader Devananda.

Continue reading ‘The Brutal Attack on EPDP Leader Douglas Devananda by LTTE Suspects at the Kalutara Jail.’ »

Jamila Husain

Sri Lanka’s political circle has gone into a quandary after information has spread that moves are underway to abolish the executive presidency before the Presidential Election next year as no candidate or political party will be able to secure an over 50 percent win at the polls.

The Daily Mirror learns that discussions to this effect have already been held by President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has already drafted a cabinet paper to change the electoral system.

This cabinet paper is part of the step which might eventually lead to a public referendum being called to see if the Executive Presidency should be abolished and Parliament being further strengthened with an executive prime minister.

However the main political parties, after hearing of such moves have already begun holding internal discussions with most of them stating that they will object to such a move when it is raised in Parliament.

Continue reading ‘President Ranil Wickremesinghe Engages in Discussions to Examine the Question of Abolishing the Executive Presidency Before Scheduled Presidential Elections newx year; a Referendum on the abolition of the Presidential system being Mooted.’ »

Meera Srinivasan

Several Foreign Ministers, including those of India, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Iran, Malaysia and South Africa, will participate in the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of Ministers meeting in Colombo on October 11, 2023, according to the Sri Lankan government, which is preparing to take over as Chair of the regional grouping this week.

The Council of Ministers meeting in Colombo will see the participation of 16 Ministers, including the Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh, India, Iran, Mauritius, Malaysia and South Africa as well as ministerial and senior level participation from Australia, Comoros, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen (member countries) and from China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russia, Turkiye, the United Kingdom and United States of America (dialogue partners), a statement from President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said.

Continue reading ‘Several Foreign Ministers Including India’s S.Jaishankar in Colombo to Participate in IORA Council of Ministers Meeting Even as Sri Lanka takes over as Chair of Indian Ocean Rim Association’ »

In the 18 years since withdrawing from the Gaza strip, Israel has invaded it twice.

A third ground invasion, in response to the massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza, is imminent. It looks likely to be larger, longer and more violent than anything that came before.

Air strikes and artillery, including missiles launched from land and sea, are already pounding Gaza. This is taking place on a massive scale and with less deliberation and advance warning than in previous campaigns.

Israeli officials say that the IDF is no longer applying its policy of “roof knocks”, whereby the air force would give warning of air strikes by first launching a harmless round on the targeted building. At least 900 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have so far been killed, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.

Israeli political leaders are now considering the scope of their ground offensive.

One option is a shallow incursion of the sort which occurred in 2014, when the idf captured territory adjacent to the border with the aim of closing tunnels used to smuggle food, fighters and arms. It stuck to the outskirts of main towns to avoid urban warfare. Another is a deeper invasion to occupy larger tracts of the Gaza strip, a densely packed area of more than 2m people, including entering cities, as in 2009. Yet these past approaches may seem inadequate to Israelis given the widespread revulsion at Hamas’s atrocities.

“The scope of this is going to be bigger than before and more severe. It’s not going to be clean…We are going to go very, very aggressively against Hamas,” Israel’s military spokesman, Richard Hecht, told reporters on Tuesday morning. “We should all change the paradigm.” Israeli leaders have promised to “destroy Hamas”, rather than simply weaken it, as in the past.

Continue reading ‘Ultimately, Israeli leaders are caught between the maximalist rhetoric of eliminating Hamas and the implausibility of re-occupying Gaza.- The Economist’ »

The attack by Hamas was as unexpected to ordinary people in Gaza as it was in Israel. The Jewish state was horrified not just by videos of black-clad gunmen taking women and children hostage, murdering hundreds of unarmed civilians and overrunning military bases. It was also shocked that its intelligence and military forces had so misjudged the intentions of Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza.

Before this attack Israel and Hamas had fought four major wars and had a number of smaller clashes since the Islamist group took control of Gaza and its 2m people in 2007. These cost thousands of lives, most of them Palestinian. But since the end of a two-week-long battle in 2021, Hamas has avoided escalating the conflict and has indeed restrained other Palestinian militants when they fired rockets into Israel.

Many Israelis believed the Islamist group was more interested in maintaining a ceasefire in order to focus on rebuilding the impoverished and overcrowded coastal strip than in sparking another bloody and pointless war.

The Israeli government hoped that allowing thousands of Palestinian labourers to work in Israel so long as calm prevailed would provide a further incentive to keep the peace.

And some officials hoped that Hamas itself could be co-opted into a long-term truce. Its brutal attack on October 7th shattered that illusion. “Once a terrorist group, always a terrorist group,” says Yaakov Amidror, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council.

Yet for some time there have been signs that Israel might have been misreading the situation in Gaza. For years, Israeli officials have shrugged off warnings that living conditions in the enclave were so dire that the frustrations they caused could spark an explosion.

Continue reading ‘Hamas’s militants are now preparing for the Israeli ground invasion they assume is imminent -The Economist’ »

The vicious success of Hamas, the Islamic movement that controls Gaza, in launching a massive terrorist attack on October 7th against communities in southern Israel, leaving at least 800 dead within Israel, without their plans being unveiled is matched by the astounding failure of Israeli intelligence at every level. Officials are in shock that an assault that must have required months of planning and that entailed a significant military buildup escaped their notice.

That will surely be the subject of multiple investigations once the fighting in Gaza is over. But it is already clear that the failures came in two forms: one of intelligence-collecting and the other of assessing and interpreting that intelligence.
First, Israel was let down by its extensive array of electronic sensors, surveillance systems and old-fashioned human intelligence in the form of agents on the ground. These are all the responsibility of the army’s intelligence branch and Shin Bet, the domestic security service which is tasked with covering Gaza and the West Bank.

Second, the information that they did manage to collect which now, with hindsight, could have pointed to an impending attack, was misinterpreted or ignored leading to the wrong assessment of Hamas’s intentions.

It is a failure which resonates with Israelis 50 years after the Yom Kippur War. That began with an attack by the Egyptian and Syrian armies that caught Israel’s intelligence agencies and armed forces unawares and which is still to this day called “the failure” by Israelis. In that assault, too, crucial intelligence was misinterpreted.

The first may be explained by what was evidently a high level of operational security by Hamas. Those who knew about the operation in advance would have been limited to an extremely tight circle of senior operatives who did not risk using phones or any other form of electronic communication that Israel would have intercepted given that it monitors all communications in Gaza.

Continue reading ‘Hamas’s textbook military operation attack was an Israeli intelligence failure on multiple fronts -The Economist’ »

Israelis woke on October 7th, Simchat Torah, the Jewish festival which celebrates the end of the yearly cycle of reading the Torah, to a hail of more than 2,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians’ tiny coastal enclave. But soon reports began filtering through of a much more devastating attack.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist organisation which runs Gaza, had launched a series of attacks within Israel. The fortified border fence between Israel and Gaza was breached by trucks and bulldozers laden with explosives while fighters in motorised gliders flew over the fence. Hamas fighters also used boats to attack an Israeli coastal base.

The footage of the attacks, shared by both Hamas and Israeli citizens on social media, was shocking for Israelis hunkered down in their bomb-shelters who are used to their military dominance. Videos showed Palestinian fighters in jeeps and on motorcycles firing on civilians on the streets of small Israeli towns and kibbutzim near Gaza. Shooting was reported within the Israeli military’s main divisional headquarters for Gaza. Palestinian militants killed and wounded dozens at a music festival.

As civilians, off-duty soldiers and police officers battled on their own, special-forces units were being rushed south. In the evening of October 7th, Israel’s emergency rescue service said that at least 200 had been killed.

Even more worrying for Israelis are the videos published by Hamas of captured Israeli soldiers and civilians being hustled across the border into Gaza. Hours after the attacks began, Israel’s chief military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, acknowledged that the fighting was still continuing and said that Israeli authorities were working on the assumption that members of Hamas were still in Israel in the area close to the border with Gaza.

“We are at war,” announced Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, in a statement to the nation. It was not, he continued, a military operation or an exchange of fire, but war. Mr Netanyahu promised that Israel will “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known. The enemy will pay an unprecedented price.” Israeli defence officials said that they had ordered dozens of air strikes in response.

Continue reading ‘Israel reels from Shock as Hamas launches a spectacular and bloody offensive on Simchat Torah, the Jewish festival celebrating the end of the yearly cycle of reading the Torah’“We are at war,” announces Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister’ »

Kishali Pinto -Jayawardene

If the Bard once said in a somewhat excessively sentimental aside that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, we can only remark that Sri Lanka’s counter terrorism or anti-terrorism bills emanate a distinctly unpleasant odour, irrespective of whatever ‘name’ it possesses.

Risk of imperilling national security

To be clear, this is not to join the chorus of optimistic spirits who believe that terrorist offences can be dealt with under the ordinary penal law. On the contrary, a specifically focused anti-terror law is needed but with a narrowly drawn scope, outlining precise offences that do not overlap into the realm of the (mundane) criminal law.

Ignoring that fundamental distinction raises the risk of confusing the public and law enforcement officers alike.

The end result is that national security is more likely to be imperilled than not. It is not simply a matter of parroting, as the Minister of Justice did some time ago, that if any person has a problem with Sri Lanka’s Anti-Terrorism Bill, the Supreme Court can be appealed to. The Minister must remind himself that judicial review takes place within a circumscribed intent to check if the restriction of liberties is constitutional.

The result thereto also depends on the vagaries of a particular Bench, the liberal or conservative leanings of the Justices who constitute the same as jurisprudential realists would warn for good measure.

Quite apart from anything else, this also depends on the competencies of those arguing the matter as well those hearing the same. In short, the responsibility of the Government in making sure that a good law is drafted goes beyond deflecting the responsibility to the Court.

Continue reading ‘Govt’s deliberately poised pincer moves with the Online Safety Bill and the Anti-Terrorism law poses the greatest threat to Sri Lanka’s national security, quite apart from internal or external threats as the case may be.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

The first part of this article was published in the “Daily Mirror”of 16 September 2023 under the heading “Who is Hanzeer Azad Maulana the Whistleblower on Channel 4?”. The focus of that piece was Mohammed Mihilar Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana who appeared on a documentary aired on 5 September 2023 by the UK’s Channel 4 TV. A lot of detais about the man who identified himself as Hanzeer Azad Maulana in the film was disclosed in the first part of this article .

The former aide to Thamil Makkal Viduthalaip Puliga l(TMVP) leader and Batticaloa district MP Shivanesathurai Santhirakanthan made several allegations in the documentary concerning the April 2019 Easter bombings and the murders allegedly committed by the Govt sanctioned killer squad “Tripoly Platoon”.

Hanzeer Azad Maulana was the main whistleblower featured in the Channel 4 documentary. Azad Maulana made some startling revelations against former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, State Intelligence Service head Maj-Gen Suresh Salley and Rural Road Development State Minister Santhirakanthan known widely as “Pillayaan”. Gotabaya,Suresh and Pillayaan have denied the allegations.

Maulana has been accused of concocting a false story to help him gain political asylum abroad. He reportedly fled Sri Lanka more than a year ago and sought asylum in a European Country. In this second part, the focus would be on how and why Azad Maulana left Sri Lanka and became a refugee in the west.

It must be emphasised at the outset that all allegations made by Azad Maulana are yet to be verified and authenticated. Moreover they have been denied as falsehoods by those whom the allegations were levelled against especially Maj-Gen Salley. The charge made against Salley by Maulana hinges around an alleged meeting at Karadippooval in Puttalam between the intelligence chief and Zahran Hashim the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) leader and livewire behind the Easter bombings.

Maulana’s allegation as stated in the documentary is essentially conjecture and inference based on that meeting. However it must be said in fairness to Suresh Salley that he has denied being in Sri Lanka at the time the meeting allegedly happened. If that is substantiated by Salley, ,Azad Maulana’s main allegation would become a “terminological inexactitude”. His credibility would be eroded thereafter.

Continue reading ‘How and Why “Whistleblower” Mohammed Hanzeer Alias Azad Maulana Suddenly Fled From Sri Lanka and Sought Asylum in Europe.’ »

By

Lakmal Sooriyagoda

The Supreme Court in a landmark judgment today determined that the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress’ decision to expel Minister Nazeer Ahamad from the party membership is legally valid.

With this Supreme Court judgment, Nazeer Ahamad’s expulsion will lead to the loss of his parliamentary seat.

Continue reading ‘Environment Minister Nazeer Ahamed will Lose His Parliamentary Seat Following Three Judge Bench Supreme Court Ruling that the Batticaloa District MP’s Expulsion from Party by the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress *SLMC) is Legally Valid’ »

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

Ramzi Razeek was arrested in the early days of the pandemic when knowledge of the virus was sketchy and myths filled the gaps. The Rajapaksa regime had militarised a health crisis. The army commander was running the show. Patients were treated like enemy aliens, entire communities forced into poorly-prepared quarantine centres literally at gunpoint by soldiers often without even facemasks.

As the ‘enemy-invasion’ narrative of the pandemic solidified, so did the nature of the enemy; Muslims, naturally. Online commentators started accusing Muslims of birthing the virus and calling Muslim patients ‘suicide bombers.’

Razeek, a retired Government official and social media commentator, criticised this hatemongering on social media, advocating an ideological jihad (struggle) for justice and democracy. The struggle should be waged with pen and keyboard, he wrote, and on behalf of all Lankan citizens.

Sri Lanka was still living in the long aftermath of the Easter Sunday massacre. The word Jihad was a red rag. Within hours, Razeek began receiving online-threats. He complained to the police. Then the CID arrived, not to investigate the threats, but to arrest him for violating ICCPR and Cyber Crimes acts.

Two of the officers assaulted him, he would subsequently claim. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded. Taking into consideration his health condition, the magistrate ordered the police to take him to prison hospital or general hospital. The police took 25 days to obey that order. In the interim, Razeek was held in Negombo’s Pallansena Prison with no medicine or medical attention.

During the first wave of the pandemic, if anyone violated the ICCPR, it was the likes of General Shavendra Silva and Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage – by inciting Muslim-phobia. The General led the way, telling Derana, “Yesterday, a patient was discovered from Akurana… Then we discovered another person from Puttlam… He is a Muslim. In both places they are Muslims.”

The Minister followed, opining at a talk-show, again on Derana, “Today, 20 patients were identified. Of these, 19 were of Muslim faith. 19!” In April 2020, if anyone violated the Cyber Crimes Act, it was those who threatened Razeek online. Yet all of them remained as free as uncaged birds while Razeek spent 161 days behind bars. Arrested on 9 April 2020, he was finally bailed out on 17 September.

Last month, the court released him from all charges at the request of the AG’s Department. As in the case of writer Shakthika Sathkumara, the authorities had failed to find even a shred of evidence against him.

Another chapter in life thus ended, Razeek wrote on his social media. But for the country, a chapter of even greater persecution might be beginning.

Continue reading ‘If the proposed Online Safety Bill becomes law, Sri Lanka will have a stringent blasphemy law on the books. Without mentioning the word blasphemy even once, the Bill will make religious repression legal – and frighteningly real.’ »

By

Kshama Ranawana

Ranil Wickremesinghe just dug himself into a hole!

In attempting to outsmart Deutsche Welle’s Martin Gak during an interview, President Wickremesinghe said that there had been no external involvement in the 2019 Easter Sunday massacre.

Claiming that the Sri Lankan government will not entertain an international inquiry, Wickremesinghe said he forgot to tell Dak of the ‘FBI report which says that no one outside was involved.” He added, ‘We had the FBI, we had the British police, we had the Australians, the Indians, the Chinese, the Pakistanis…” “… those secret service agencies have given reports. You are talking nonsense.”

In September, former head of the CID, Ravi Seneviratne, too, told the TNL Janahanda programme, that foreign intelligence agencies had come in 2019 to determine ISIS involvement, and found no evidence.

Wickremesinghe who bragged he knows better than Gak, as he has been in the ‘game’ for long, also accused the interviewer of taking the recent Channel 4 exposé on the Easter bombings as the “Gospel truth.”

What began as a friendly chat soon turned nasty, the minute Gak posed a question regarding the Channel 4 documentary.

Continue reading ‘President Ranil Wickremesinghe gets embroiled in Verbal Clash with Deutsche Welle’s Martin Gak During Interview; friendly chat turned nasty when a question regarding the Channel 4 documentary was posed’ »

BY

Kesara Abeywardena

In recent times, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been making headlines with his candid and outspoken remarks on critical geopolitical issues during his foreign visits.

His latest interview with DW News in Germany, although more of a verbal sparring match than a usual run-of-the-mill television interview, shows a stance against what could be termed as biased narratives perpetuated by Western ‘woke’ media.

In a world filled with carefully scripted diplomatic exchanges and guarded statements, President Wickremesinghe has been quite notable with his frank comments.

The President’s recent assertiveness on the world stage has been surprising many, particularly his critics, as he fearlessly addresses vital issues.

In a discussion few weeks ago at the Carnegie Centre in New York regarding the geopolitical aspects of the Indian Ocean region, he unequivocally expressed his views on AUKUS, labelling it as a mistake. He also rationalised China’s activities in the region, emphasising the need for constructive engagement rather than antagonism.

During the Berlin Global Dialogue, President Wickremesinghe boldly declared that the current global financial architecture was outdated, advocating for a new global financial order.

He stressed the importance of dialogue between the West, particularly the United States and China, acknowledging the reality that we must engage with China without alienating them.

Continue reading ‘President Wickremesinghe’s recent Remarks on the International stage Showcase his Resilience in the face of Biased Questioning and Emphatically Present a Counter Viewpoint.’ »

By

Ruki Fernando

Today, 4th October will be 5000 days since the disappearance of cartoonist, journalist and human rights defender Prageeth Ekneligoda. It is also nearly 5000 days since I first met his wife Sandya Ekneligoda, in the initial days of her struggle to search for Prageeth and to hold those responsible accountable.

The Ekneligoda case

As far as I know, not a single person has been convicted for very serious crimes against journalists in Sri Lanka, including killings and enforced disappearances. Only two cases have reached the prosecution stage.

In one of them, media reported that the Attorney General had instructed the courts not to continue the case against the suspects in 2021. The only case that is continuing is that of Prageeth, with several army personnel being arrested and indictments being filed against the nine accused.

Most of the case’s progress was made under the Sirisena government, but the return to power of the Rajapaksa family in November 2019 presented new obstacles with the Rajapaksa government pledging not to prosecute ‘war heroes’ (military personnel).

A top investigator on the case went into exile and the chief overseeing the investigations was arrested and detained, before being released on bail by a higher court and going into retirement.

Although a Trial at Bar was appointed to hear Prageeth’s case, judges have changed and there’s long delays in court hearings, Witnesses have changed their testimony after the return to power of Rajapaksa’s and defied court orders to testify before a government appointed Commission of Inquiry.

I recall that present President Ranil Wickremesinghe has used Prageeth’s name in highlight state of media freedom, impunity in Sri Lanka as an opposition politician and called for information about the progress on investigations when he was Prime Minister between 2015-2019.

But now, under his presidency, there are signs the prosecution’s commitment to ensure justice is weakening. Even the minimum progress is largely due to Sandya’s efforts, and she continues to fight to keep alive the search for truth and justice, in courts, on streets, in media and internationally.

Continue reading ‘The Enforced Disappearance of Cartoonist-Journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda 5000 Days ago and his Remarkable Wife Sandya Ekneligoda’s Long Search and Relentless Pursuit of Justice.’ »

By

Dr.Radhika Coomaraswamy

More than any other religion Buddhism has the capacity to capture the imagination of many people born to other faiths. Its intellectual clarity, its appeal to reason and foresight has appealed to those not born into the tradition.

Being an outsider allows you to forsake the ritual and customs that parochialise all religions.

The intellectual tradition of Buddhism is hard to resist and many the world over are drawn to its teachings. Shyam Selvadurai is one such person. He came to appreciate Buddhism after he was, ironically, traumatised by “security personnel” belonging to a state that is ostensibly dedicated to the practice of Buddhism. Western approaches failed him in dealing with this trauma and other aspects of his existence. It was Buddhism with its emphasis on “impermanence” and “dukka” that finally broke through his wall of suffering. Mansions of the Moon is this tale told through a novel of epic proportions.

The novel begins slowly as Shyam lays the philosophical bases for his novel. It soon turns into a page turner, a novel in the grand tradition. The first thing to remember is that this is a work of fiction. It is the work of the imagination.

Those of us brought up on the tales of Buddhism as told by orthodox religion and mythology may at first be wide eyed at the tale he weaves. Although the broad outlines remain the same, the story he tells is full of the cares, passions and responsibilities of individuals of this historic period as imagined by one of Sri Lanka’s greatest novelists.

The beautiful language makes the tale irresistible and the Buddhism that emerges fully recognises human failing and aspiration. His description of his characters, their inner and outer worlds, makes them vivid and alive. The visceral experience of the novel through evocative language is its strength. No matter how great the plot, it is the language that finally embeds you in the book.

In the book, Shyam introduces us into the world of 500 BCE, perhaps the greatest epoch of world history. In India, he brings to life the intellectual turmoil and debate that would define the world for centuries to come. An atmosphere of cerebral quest in a world of courtesans, wealthy merchants and rule by empire permeates the novel.

Continue reading ‘Shyam Selvadurai’s “Mansions of the Moon” ia Novel of epic proportions.The beautiful language makes the tale irresistible and the Buddhism that emerges fully recognises human failing and aspiration.’ »

BY

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

(Article Commemorating Sivaji Ganesan’s 95th Birth Anniversary on October 1st 2023)

Sivaji Ganesan, M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) and Gemini Ganesan comprised the triumvirate that dominated Tamil cinema in India from the fifties to the seventies of the 20th century. The most senior of the trio was M.G.Ramachandran who was born in 1917. MGR passed away in 1987. Gemini Ganesan born in 1920 breathed his last in 2005. The youngest of the three was Sivaji Ganesan, born in 1928 and died in 2001.

Though Sivaji, MGR and Gemini were hailed as the ‘Moovaenthar’ (Three Kings) of Tamil cinema, it was widely acknowledged that Sivaji Ganesan was the finest actor among the three. He was called “Nadigar Thilagham,” meaning ‘Doyen of Actors’. It was the Tamil film journal “Paesum padam” which bestowed upon him the honorific.

Sivaji Ganesn’s acting career, which began at the age of eight, could be divided into three phases -1936 to 1952, when he acted only on stage; 1952 to 1974, when he acted for the big screen and also gave stage performances; and 1974 to 1999, when he acted only in films.

From his first film ‘Paraasakthi’ in 1952 to his last film ‘Pooparikka Varugiroam’ in 1999, Sivaji Ganesan acted in 307 movies in all. Of these 296 were in the Tamil language; six were in Telugu; two each in Hindi and Kannada, one in Malayalam. 20 of these roles were done free of charge in an honorary appearance (Gaurava Nadigar). At a time when the success of a film was gauged by the number of days it was screened at a stretch in theatres, 178 of his movies ran for more than a 100 days in cinema halls; 16 of these ran for 25 weeks or more celebrating silver jubilees.

Despite achieving stupendous success on the screen, Sivaji remained faithful to his first love; the stage, and acted in plays for decades. Essentially a creature of the stage when he entered films, Sivaji Ganesan brought that baggage with him and superimposed it effectively on the film medium. Yet his brilliant acting made this so-called violation of screen norms the accepted norm of his film acting.

Continue reading ‘Many Tamils earnt to appreciate the beauty and power of the Tamil language because of Sivaji Ganesan . He made many Tamils love their language more.’ »

By

Kishali Pinto -Jayawardene

Four months ago, President Ranil Wickremesinghe was quick to retort to his detractors, (friendly or otherwise), who were outraged by the Broadcasting Regulatory Commission Bill that he is a media ‘defender’ and, as such, had abolished criminal defamation laws in Sri Lanka.

Presidential assurances and UK precedents

Apparently stung by strident public criticism of badly framed laws, the President rebutted with a deceptively devious attempt at diversion. Reassuring his captive audience at the Homagama Divisional Secretariat, he said that the Government’s (innocent) aim is merely to bring laws that will ‘assist those who are harmed by the media.’

Towards that end, his officials were informed to look at the laws and practices prevalent in the United Kingdom (UK). The Attorney General had been instructed ‘to present the Bill in UK terms because we can obtain precedents in making decisions there’ (See ‘After repealing the criminal defamation law, President firmly vows to uphold the right to freedom of expression, ensuring that it remains intact,’Presidential Secretariat, June 15th 2023).

Certainly, the tortuous language of the President’s media team in framing that sentence for public release left much to be desired.

Nonetheless, the Broadcasting Bill was withdrawn ostensibly for public consultations. However, what gives the lie to those easy Presidential reassurances in Homagama are the actions of his Cabinet thereafter. Take the obnoxious Online Safety Bill for example, following close upon the heels of the Broadcasting Bill and in a far worse form.
Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka’s Draconian Online SafetyBill seeks to protect the Wickremesinghe Government which is apparently ‘frightened out of its skin’ by the possibility of another ‘aragalaya’ (mass protest).’ »

Ravana

Foreign Minister Ali Sabry has needlessly poked his finger into the Canada-India row. Sri Lanka has nothing to do with the Khalistan issue. The Canada-India row is purely a bilateral issue, where Sri Lanka has no status to get involved in a dispute outside her political spectrum.

Minister Sabry was going on at a tangent, attacking Trudeau, even though he may not know why this verbal diatribe by a foreign minister of another country is totally out of context.

The objective appears to be to retaliate against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his remarks on Sri Lanka during the Tamil genocide week held in Canada.

If Sabry wishes to take on Canada on account of Trudeau’s remarks on Sri Lanka, he has to do so separately without making a foray into bickering between two other countries. These are the diplomatic etiquettes expected of a high-profile minister, but notwithstanding all that, he acted like a novice.

Sabry should realise that an organisation acting against the interests of one country does not fall into the same category as a terrorist group in another unless they commit offences under their law on their soil. In other words, they are precluded from being a terrorist outfit in a third country.

Different countries have different definitions of what constitutes a terrorist group, and some countries may not consider a good few organisations as terrorists. For instance, the US may consider a group to be a terrorist group, while another country may not.
However, our concern is whether Sabry has put his foot in his mouth by making such an inappropriate statement which will not augur well for the country in the long run and for Sri Lankan expatriates there. Sabry has already become a laughing stock among foreign affairs analysts here and elsewhere.

In these circumstances, Sabry’s statement is seen as an attempt to gain political mileage by appealing to certain elements of society. His comments are seen as irresponsible and intendedto cause a diplomatic rumpus. His actions have been widely seen as inappropriate and unwanted.

Continue reading ‘The Diplomatic Buffoonery of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry’ »

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By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

Remembering the Tiger “Martyr” Thileepan on his 36th Death anniversary -Part Two

Rasiah Partheeban alias Thileepan engaged in a fast unto death protest on 15 September 1987. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE )stalwart died after 12 days of fasting on 26 September without even drinking water.

Thileepan’s 36th death anniversary was on 26 September 2023. This column focuses on the LTTE “martyr” Thileepan in this two-part article. The first part published last week was on Thileepan the person and his role in the LTTE. This second part is about his death – fast and its aftermath.

The Indo -Lanka accord of 29 July 1987 signed by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President JR Jayewardene and the deployment of Indian soldiers as the Indian Peace Keeping Force(IPKF) in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka was widely welcomed by the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. Tamil eyes smiled at the end of war and prospects of an enduring peace underwritten by India. The chief Tamil political party at that time the Tamil United Liberation Front(TULF) was fully supportive of the accord.

The premier Tamil militant organization the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) too fell in line reluctantly. The LTTE mindset was illustrated vividly by tiger supremo Veluppillai Prabhakaran’s historic “We Love India” speech at Sudhumalai on 5 August 1987.

However as the days progressed the LTTE began feeling insecure and increasingly unhappy. Many of the promises given by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to LTTE leader Veluppillai Prabhakaran were not being implemented speedily opined the LTTE. The tardy progress as well as other acts of omission and commission by Indian authorities made the LTTE resentful. Covert machinations by the JR Jayewardene Govt were also suspected.

Moreover the overwhelming affection and goodwill displayed by the Tamil masses towards the Indian army in the initial stages of deployment also irritated the LTTE. The tigers felt the ungrateful Tamil people had forgotten the sacrifices made by the LTTE and were gravitating towards “Mother India”. The LTTE was beginning to feel threatened by this. The “thinking” sections of the LTTE were troubled and concerned.

Chief among tigers of this mindset was Rasiah Partheeban alias Thileepan the political head of the LTTE. Thileepan felt something had to be done to both jolt India as well as the Tamil people. Thileepan knew that a violent response to India was to invite disaster as the Tamil people themselves would not be in favour of it. So he decided to adopt a non-violent course of action against India by undertaking a fast unto death.

Continue reading ‘Rasiah Partheeban Alias Thileepan Weaponised Non-violence Through his Death Fast.’ »

Meera Srinivasan

A district judge from Mullaitivu in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province has resigned and fled the country citing threats to his life, Tamil media in Sri Lanka reported on September 29.

In a letter that several publications reproduced in their news reports, Mullaitivu District Judge T. Saravanaraja — who recently ruled on two cases pertaining to a religious site in Kurunthurmalai and a remembrance event to commemorate LTTE member Thileepan — had written to the Secretary of Sri Lanka’s Judicial Services Commission last week, on his decision to resign owing to “threat of my life and due to lot of stress”.

In July, the judge also visited a mass grave site in Kokkuthoduvai with the police and ordered excavations. Fourteen years after the civil war, Mullaitivu, in the island nation’s war-affected, Tamil-majority Northern Province has been witnessing many contestations, as its residents navigate huge losses suffered during the strife, and seek truth and justice.

Continue reading ‘“The Judiciary is under severe stress and challenge today. For the first time ever, a judge is said to have fled the country fearing for his life, for having made a judicial order,” – MA Sumanthiran PC’ »

By

Siva Parameswaran

A senior Tamil Judge in the war-torn district of Mullaitheevu has resigned from his post and has fled the country fearing for the safety of his life.

Mullaitheevu District Judge and Magistrate T. Saravanarajah has said his life is under threat in his letter of resignation sent to the Judicial Services Commission on 23 September.

“I hereby inform you that I resign my post of District Judge, post of Magistrate, post of family court Judge, post of primary court Judge, post of small claims court Judge, post of Juvenile court Judge due to threat of my life and due to lot of stress”.

The judge is no more in the country, according to journalists in the Wanni. This is the first judge in recent years to flee the country.
He has been continuously hounded by racist comments and intimidating remarks from hardline Sinhala MPs in particular Sarath Weerasekara from the Sri Lanka Podujana Party led by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Justice Saravanarajah was summoned by the Attorney General to his office on the 21st of September and pressurized to amend his judgments regarding Kurunthoormalai, say unconfirmed sources from the region familiar with the case.

Continue reading ‘Mullaitheevu District Judge and Magistrate T. Saravanarajah Resigns and Flees Country in Fear after Threats made to his Life;Official Security was Reduced; Attorney -General Exerts Pressure on Judge to Revise his earlier rulings on the Kurunthoormalai temple/Vihara Issue’ »

Mullaitheevu District Judge T. Saravanarajah has tendered his resignation from his posts due to threats on his life and a lot of stress, the Mullaitivu District Magistrate said.

His resignation letter was sent to the secretary of the Judicial Services Commission on September 23.

According to the letter, he resigned from the post of District Judge, the post of magistrate, the post of family court judge, the post of primary court judge, the post of small claims court judge and the post of Juveniles court judge.

However, it was reported that the threats and pressure stem principally from his involvement in the contentious Kurunthoormalai archaeological site cases.

Courtesy:Daily Mirror

By Anusha Rathi and Jack Detsch

Congress is calling on the Biden administration to formally hold Sri Lanka responsible for its human rights abuses and violation of international humanitarian law, including decades of torture, military abuse, and other “horrific crimes” carried out against the country’s minority Tamil population.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and obtained by Foreign Policy, 12 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle urged the State Department to follow Article 30 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and hold Colombo, which has “consistently failed to make tangible progress toward justice and accountability,” responsible.

“In our view, the impunity enjoyed by Sri Lankan perpetrators, which has also enabled Sri Lanka’s economic and political crises, is counter to America’s commitment to upholding human rights and democratic principles and must be stopped,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), who are calling on the State Department to hold Sri Lanka legally accountable to the U.N. convention on torture.

Since the Sri Lankan Civil War broke out in 1983, the country has been marred with sectarian violence between the majority ethnic Sinhalese and minority ethnic Tamil population at the hands of the armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a rebel group that aimed to establish an independent Tamil state. During the three-decade insurgency, which ended in 2009, the Sri Lankan military carried out deadly attacks on civilians, sexually abused hundreds of Tamil women and girls, and forcibly disappeared thousands of Tamil people who remain unaccounted for still. Four decades later, the families of victims and witnesses of the atrocities are still calling for justice.

While successive governments have tried to establish independent commissions—more than 15 have been set up since the 1970s—to carry out criminal investigations into the country’s dark past, including one by the current administration led by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, none have achieved success in doing so and continue to play deaf to the pleas of the Tamil community.

Continue reading ‘12 Members of US Congress Write to Secretary of State , Anthony Blinken,Urging the Biden Administration to Hold Sri Lanka Responsible for Violations of International Humanitarian Law; “would like to see the Biden administration take the case all the way to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague”’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

The first part of the article titled “Who is Hanzeer Azad Maulana the Whistleblower on Channel 4? Was published in these columns last week. Even as I was writing the second part of the article, I received some interesting information about an event in Geneva relating to the Channel 4 TV documentary and Hanzeer Azad Maulana the chief whistleblower featured in the film.

While the UN Human Rights Council sessions were underway in Geneva, the documentary aired on Dispatches by Channel 4 on 5th September titled “Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings” was screened by the Universal Human Rights Council(UHRC) on the evening of Thursday 21 September. The venue was the Octagon Campus 2, Chemin du Pavillon 1218 Grand Saconne. The screening was sponsored by the ”Geneva Times.”

The documentary director and producer Mr. Thom Walker and executive producer Mr. Ben de Pear were present at the screening which commenced after a brief introduction. There was a discussion after the screening. Prior to the discussion, copies of a detailed statement issued by Hanzeer Azad Maulana was distributed to those present. Azad Maulana who was not present physically answered questions via Video.

The statement issued by Hanzeer Azad Maulana was a clarification and amplification of the comments made by him in the documentary. The information he divulged in the film was placed in perspective by provided more details in the statement. However it must be noted that the two important persons against whom allegations have been made by Azad Maulana – SIS director Maj-Gen Suresh Salley and State Minister Shivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias “Pillayan – have both denied the accusations.

Hanzeer says in the statement that he fled Sri Lanka and sought asylum abroad in fear of his life. He says that he fears abduction or assassination. Hanzeer also alleges that his mother and sister in Sri Lanka are being harrassed. He also states that he and his family are being attacked on social media.

Hanzeer Azad Maulana also says that he is witness to several attacks, assassinations and abductions and that he is prepared to testify before an independent international investigation.

Continue reading ‘Channel 4 Documentary Whistleblower Hanzeer Azad Maulana Discloses More Info About Easter Bombings at Geneva Screening Event.’ »

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By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

The twenty-sixth of September has become an important day in Sri Lanka ever since the then Prime minister Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike (SWRDB) was assassinated in 1959. Bandaranaike who was shot by Talduwa Somarama Thera on 25 September, succumbed to his injuries the following day.

September 26th however is of particular significance to a substantial number of Sri Lankan Tamils also . For it was on this day in 1987 that a senior member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Thileepan died in Nallu after undertaking a fast unto death.

Although the Tigers have lost thousands of cadres during the many years it waged war against the Sri Lankan State, the death of Thileepan was entirely different from the deaths of other LTTE fighters Thileepan’s demise was not due to direct violence but due to non-violent direct action. He engaged in a fast unto death protest on 15 September 1987 and died after 12 days of fasting without even drinking water. This was after the Indo-Lanka accord of 29 July 1987. The Indian army referred to as the Indian Peace Keeping Force(IPKF) was stationed in Jaffna then.

Thileepan’s fast and death has been etched into the collective memory of Tamils over the years. His death is commemorated on a wide scale every year. The period between Sep 15 and Sep 26 is marked with acts of memorialisation in many parts of Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka and also in many countries where there are substantial concentrations of Tamils.

Thileepan’s 36th death anniversary falls this week on 26 September 2023. It is against this backdrop that this column focuses on the LTTE “martyr” Thileepan in this two part article. The first part will be about Thileepan the person and his role in the LTTE. The second will be on his death – fast and its aftermath.

Continue reading ‘Remembering the Tiger “Martyr” Thileepan on his 36th Death anniversary.’ »

Meera Srinivasan

Following India, the U.S. has raised concern with the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration, over the scheduled visit of a Chinese research vessel to Sri Lanka in October, Colombo-based media has reported.

In a recent meeting with Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland took up the coming visit of Chinese research vessel Shi Yan 6 to Sri Lanka, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Monday. Reportedly, Mr. Sabry reassured the American official that Colombo would adhere to a “Standard Operating Procedure” that the government has recently finalised, for all foreign vessels intending to call at a Sri Lankan port.

New Delhi had recently raised the matter with a top Sri Lankan official, Colombo-based sources told The Hindu.
Continue reading ‘USA Joins India in raising Concerns with President Wickremesinghe’s Govt over led ScheduVisit of “Chinese geophysical scientific research vessel Shiyan 6” to Sri Lanka in October’ »

By
B.Kolappan

As the country gears up for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the political discourse in Tamil Nadu is highly polarised. An opinion on any issue in the news is expected to be in favour of either the Hindutva ideology or the Dravidian ideology; a middle path is viewed with suspicion from those on both sides of the divide.

Personal attacks have been taking place frequently. Leaders long gone have been dragged into debates to prove a point. People keep attempting to find out whether the narrative of their rivals is shaped by caste and/or religion.

Leaders who remain silent and organisations which refuse to take any stand on an issue are branded as the ‘B team’ or ‘sleeper cell’ of their political rivals.

When an issue triggers a debate, leaders and their supporters form teams and launch a no-holds-barred attack on those holding a different point of view.

Continue reading ‘Political Discourse in Tamil Nadu gets Highly Polarised Between Hindutva Ideology and Dravidian Ideology; Middle Path Viewed with Suspicion by Both sides’ »

By

Bhuvanesh Chandar

Greta Lee’s Nora turns her back to Teo Yoo’s Hae Sung and to a life she could no longer even daydream, and walks back to John Magaro’s Arthur, a life she was gifted with. The rain outside as I watched the scene might just be the tears of all star-crossed souls. And hours after watching Past Lives, a romantic could only sigh at the cinematic wonder and whisper, “How could something seem so effortless?”

Back home, meanwhile, a believer in Tamil cinema raises a suspicion, of what seems like a growing distrust in exploring niche conflicts in a relationship, with creators always opting for a more mainstream approach to silver screen romances.
The death of old-school romance

With creators struggling to understand the sensibilities of Gen Z audiences who are quick to conclude any old-school displays of emotions, like love, as ‘cringe-worthy,’ the long-gone but still dampening fatigue for old-school romance has evidently affected the way creators look at relationship dramas.

It is as if they no longer see value in exploring the vastness that is a human’s affair with another. While we have seen many love stories this year that sometimes teased a niche conflict such as in Dada, Good Night, and segments of Modern Love: Chennai, it becomes apparent that even though good love stories are in regular supply, there has been no mainstream attempt to evaluate if there’s an audience for a Normal People-like series, even on streaming platforms.

Often, ‘niche’ is relegated to only a doomed romance or a well-fought-for relationship between two starkly different characters, but seldom in the last few years have creators tapped into the crevices that divide two people, of eight billion, who carry billions of dreams and desires that make them.

Continue reading ‘Why is Tamil cinema so reluctant to explore varied shades of romance?’ »

By

Kishali Pinto -Jayawardene

It takes a Government wholly insensible to public opinion to be audacious enough to gazette two Bills grievously impacting on constitutional liberties of citizens literally within a few days apace.

Doom for Sri Lanks’s constitutional governance

Or maybe this was precisely the intent, deadly and clear in its message. First, the so-called Anti-Terrorism Bill is presented purportedly in revised form but with unacceptably overbroad and vague definitions of what constitutes an ‘act of terrorism’ left undisturbed. The second is a grievously mistitled ‘Online Safety Bill’ which should read rather as, the ‘Safety of Government’ Bill.

The third in this abysmal trilogy is the Broadcasting Regulatory Commission bill hurriedly withdrawn by a mumbling Justice Minister after public protests.

These three Bills spell doom for civil governance and democratic space. One important preliminary observation is called for. Overall, the Government seems to have abandoned even paying lip service to the concept of ‘independent oversight’ as these Bills ruthlessly demonstrate.

There is an immediate paradox here. President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s oft heard boast is that he reversed the ravages of the 20th and 18th constitutional amendments effected under the Presidencies of the Rajapaksa brothers by bringing in the 21st constitutional amendment. If so, why is his administration bringing Bill after Bill that does away with independent oversight bodies, substituting ‘the President’s bodies’ instead? Let us take specific examples to establish this point.

Continue reading ‘While President Wickremesinghe talks the sweetly reasonable language of debt equity, climate change and what not to the world, his regime is busy drawing an anti-liberties net over Sri Lankans.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

Britain’s Channel 4 TV aired the documentary “Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings” in its “Dispathes” program on Tuesday 5 September 2023 at 11:05pm. Prior to the telecast, Channel 4 Dispatches stated that the documentary has “exclusive interviews with high placed whistleblowers who allege that some Sri Lankan government officials were complicit in the bombings.

Who or what is a whisleblower?

The Oxford dictionary defines a Whistleblower as a “source who makes public information about alleged wrongdoing, typically by or within the organization in which they are employed. A person blowing the whistle to journalists”

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says a whistleblower is “one who reveals something covert or who informs against another”.

The Cambridge dictionary describes a whistleblower as “a person who tells someone in authority about something illegal that is happening, especially in a government department or a company.”

According to Collins dictionary a whistle-blower “ is someone who finds out that the organization they are working for is doing something immoral or illegal and tells the authorities or the public about it.”

In this context the Channel 4 documentary featured three “whistleblowers”. One was Hanzeer Azad Maulana the former aide of Tamil Makkal Viduthalaip Puligal (TMVP) leader and Batticaloa district MP Sivanesathurai Santhirakanthan alias “Pillaiyaan” who is currently the state minister. for Rural Road Transport.

The second was Ex-police officer Nishantha Silva the Police sleuth who probed the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge and who in the process of doing so interrogated Gotabaya Rajapaksa intensively.

The third was another top Sri Lankan Govt official who remained anonymous without his image being shown. Both Azad Maulana and Nishantha Silva are reportedly living in Europe now.

Star Whistleblower

Although three whistleblowers were featured in the documentary, the star among them was Hanzeer Azad Maulana. The allegations levelled by him against persons such as Ex-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, State Intelligence Service chief Suresh Salley and State minister Pillayan helped the documentary film makers to make out a strong case. The importance of Maulana’s role in the documentary was acknowledged by Gotabaya himself.

Continue reading ‘Who is Hanzeer Azad Maulana, the Whistleblower Featured in the Channel 4 TV Documentary on Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings?’ »

In a damning report released in Geneva, coinciding with the 42nd regular session of UN Human Rights Council, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) has named 58 from the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lankan police as those involved in systematic brutal torture and sexual violence against men and women.

Seventy-three survivors

In 24 cases, detailed dossiers have been prepared on the individuals identified.

ITJP’s latest report is the first to examine the extensive use of torture over the last decade by the TID.

The report is based on the testimony of 73 survivors of torture, both Tamil and Sinhalese, interviewed in five different countries, says ITJP.

“The indifference to repeated allegations of police torture is shocking and makes a mockery of Sri Lanka’s stated commitment to security sector reform, let alone transitional justice,” said the ITJP’s Executive Director, Yasmin Sooka.

Continue reading ‘New ITJP Report released in Geneva Names 58 Sri Lankan Policemen Including High Ranking Officers as being Allegedly Involved in Systematic Brutal Torture and Sexual Violence against Men and Women; Report Based on Testimonies of 73 Tamil and Sinhala Survivors of Torture’ »

(Text of Jaffna District MP M.A.Sumanthiran’s Speech in Parliament on 21.09.2023)

Thank you presiding member for the opportunity to say a few words.

The previous speaker concluded by saying there is Karma and those who caused this carnage will suffer eventually. His words have already come true. The former President who is supposed to have engineered this and come to power was chased away by the people of this country from that seat in an unprecedented way. So karma does perhaps follow according to his belief.

Many people who said we cannot allow any International Investigation – that’s a violation of the sovereignty of this country – are now calling for International investigation. That is also a turnaround. When we said an International investigation would be the only independent inquiry into the excesses that were said to have been committed during the civil war, then they said “no, our Constitution doesn’t allow it”.

Constitution says nothing about that. In fact, the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs when he was in the opposition presented a private member’s bill in which he provided for International judges to inquire into allegations against Superior Court Judges. He did not think that that was unconstitutional at that time. Many today do not think that it is unconstitutional.

It is not unconstitutional. In any case with regard to the Civil War, there have been international inquiries. There was a panel of experts report and there was an OISL inquiry and those reports are available. Government also agreed to a Hybrid Court in 2015, and later, resiled from that endorsement and said we are withdrawing our co-sponsorship.

I’m reminding these matters because even in a matter where the state and another party were involved in a battle, the only possible independent inquiry can be an international one because the state was one side to the conflict. Of course there have been many inquiries as I said, but there has to be prosecution stemming from that.

Continue reading ‘MA Sumanthiran Refers in Parliament to Azad Maulana’s Allegation in Voice Clip about Alleged Judicial Impropriety in the Release of State Minister Pillayan from Imprisonment in the Joseph Pararajasingham Murder case ; serving judges have been party to this great betrayal of the people[s trust says MP’ »

For years, India objected to Western strategists lumping it together with its violent and chaotic neighbour in the phrase “Indo-Pakistan”. Now recognised as a fast-growing giant and potential bulwark against China, India claims to have been “de-hyphenated”.

Yet the explosive charge aired this week by Justin Trudeau suggests that diplomatic recalibration may have gone too far. Canada’s prime minister alleges that Indian agents were involved in the murder in Vancouver of a Canadian citizen sympathetic to India’s Sikh separatist movement.

India has long been accused of assassinating militants and dissidents in its own messy region; never previously in the friendly and orderly West. And while India calls the victim, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a terrorist, he had rebuffed Indian allegations that he was linked to separatist violence.

India denies everything. But Canada is reported to have shared intelligence about the murder with its allies in the “Five Eyes” intelligence pact. None appears to have questioned it.

Shortly after Mr Trudeau levelled the charge in Canada’s parliament, America and Britain released cautiously supportive statements, urging India to co-operate with a Canadian probe. The assassination, by two unknown gunmen outside a Sikh temple in June, follows a recent spike in both Sikh separatist activity and at times heavy-handed Indian suppression of it.

The squabble, which has involved tit-for-tat expulsions of Indian and Canadian diplomats, could escalate. Mr Trudeau faces domestic pressure to reveal evidence of Indian involvement in the killing. A criminal investigation is under way.

Continue reading ‘“If India ordered a murder in Canada, there must be consequences. Western countries have for too long acquiesced to the Indian government’s abuses”- The Economist’ »

On the evening of June 18th Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh leader whom India considered a terrorist, was sitting in his truck in a car park outside a gurdwara (a Sikh temple) in Vancouver when two masked men shot him dead. They escaped through a park and disappeared.

On September 18th Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, told lawmakers in Ottawa that “credible intelligence” from the country’s security services linked India to the killing. It is a highly unusual accusation for the leader of one democracy to make against the government of another.

Mr Trudeau said that he had discussed the allegation with Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, on the sidelines of a g20 meeting in Delhi on September 10th, and that he would push India to co-operate with an investigation. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he told Parliament.

The accusation marks a new low in the already frosty relationship between the two countries. Shortly after Mr Trudeau’s remarks, Canada’s foreign minister announced the expulsion of the head of India’s intelligence agency in Canada.

But India’s foreign ministry categorically denied the allegation, calling it “absurd” and politically motivated, and declared the reciprocal expulsion of a Canadian diplomat. It accused Canada of sheltering “Khalistani terrorists and separatists”, a reference to those who seek an independent homeland for Sikhs in the state of Punjab and other parts of northern India.

In India, right-wing media and supporters of Mr Modi echoed the government’s line, accusing Mr Trudeau of pandering to terrorists.

Continue reading ‘The devastating accusation by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau against India Leads to a Row between Canada and India that could draw in America and Britain”- The Economist’ »

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on September 19 said he was not looking to “provoke” India or “escalate” tensions, but urged New Delhi to take the killing of a Sikh separatist leader with the “utmost seriousness”.

Mr. Trudeau’s comments came hours after Canada and India expelled a senior diplomat each following his allegations about the involvement of “agents of the Indian government” in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.

He said the Indian government needs to “take this matter with the utmost seriousness”.

“We are doing that. We are not looking to provoke or escalate,” he told reporters. “We want to work with the government of India to lay everything clear and to ensure there are proper processes.” Nijjar, 45, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) and one of India’s most-wanted terrorists who carried a cash reward of ₹10 lakh on his head, was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen outside a gurdwara in Surrey in the western Canadian province of British Columbia on June 18.

Continue reading ‘Canada not looking to ‘provoke’ India, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; urges New Delhi to take killing of separatist Sikh leader Nijjar seriously’ »

Nishantha Hewage

In 1816, American missionaries founded the American Ceylon Mission (ACM) in Jaffna. The ACM established missions in other parts of the Jaffna peninsula too.

As a result, on July 22, 1823, the Batticotta Seminary was established in Vaddukoddai to educate students on the peninsula. However, it was closed in 1855.

The alumni of the Batticotta Seminary and other local Christians led a campaign to re-open the seminary and in 1872, Jaffna College was opened on the former seminary site as a successor to the Batticotta Seminary.

Since its inception, Jaffna College has been contributing immensely to the educational advancement, cultural development and economic growth of Jaffna.

To this day, its journey remains a legacy for its role in producing eminent scholars, academics, doctors, engineers, lawyers, civil service administrators, business leaders, and two bishops,

Continue reading ‘From Batticotta Seminary to Jaffna College, Vaddukkoddai: Bicentenary Celebrated Grandly With Alumni from 12 Countries Participating’ »

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Canada is investigating possible links between the Indian government and the assassination of Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. The Canadian government also said that it has expelled a top Indian diplomat as a consequence.

Mr. Trudeau said in Parliament Monday that Canadian intelligence agencies have been looking into the allegations after Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was gunned down on June 18 outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia.
Mr. Trudeau told Parliament that he brought up the slaying with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G-20 last week, that he told Mr. Modi that any Indian government involvement would be unacceptable and that he asked for cooperation in the investigation.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said the head of Indian intelligence in Canada has been expelled as a consequence. “If proven true this would be a great violation of our sovereignty and of the most basic rule of how countries deal with each other,” Joly said. “As a consequence we have expelled a top Indian diplomat.”
“Over the past number of weeks Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Mr. Trudeau said.

Mr. Trudeau said Canada has declared its deep concerns to the Indian government.
“Last week at the G-20 I brought them personally and directly to Prime Minister Modi in no uncertain terms,” Mr. Trudeau said. “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
Mr. Trudeau said his government has been working closely and coordinating with Canada’s allies on the case.
“In the strongest possible terms I continue to urge the government of India to cooperate with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter,” he said.
Mr. Trudeau said he knows there are some members of the Indo-Canadian community who feel angry or frightened, and he called for calm.
Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said if the allegations are true they represent ”an outrageous affront to our sovereignty”.
The Khalistan movement is banned in India, where officials see it and affiliated groups as a national security threat. But the movement still has some support in north India, as well as beyond, in countries like Canada and the United Kingdom which are home to a sizable Sikh diaspora.

Courtesy;The Hindu

By
Tisaranee Gunasekara

“It isn’t knowledge as a product or commodity that we need…but a qualitatively different knowledge based on understanding rather than on authority…It is not fact but how facts are connected to other facts…how one is to judge the relationship between truth and interest, how to understand reality as history. These are only some of the critical issues we face, which can be summed up in the phrase/question, how to think?”
– Edward Said (quoted in Arab Human Development Report 2003)

It was the spring of infatuation. Millions of Sinhala voters saw Gotabaya Rajapaksa the way he saw himself, a colossus among men, a king reborn. He and his acolytes had spent much time and more effort crafting that image. Yet from the beginning, cracks showed, signs that the image was not of iron or even solid clay but of illusions. Almost seven million voters opted not to see the signs.

While the voters wallowed in delirious joy dreaming their dream, the newly minted president began his work. The timeline is instructive. He was elected on November 17 and sworn in on November 18. On November 21 he formed the government with Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister. On November 22, he began hunting the CID.

Seasoned investigators were transferred out to be replaced by reliable neophytes. SSP Shani Abeysekara, legendary investigator and director CID, was made assistant to a provincial DIG. Inspector Nishantha Silva, head of the Organised Crime Investigation Unit, was transferred to Negombo. ASP Tissera was sent to police Field Force Headquarters. The CID was placed under the obedient thumb of a SSP who had been in charge of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s security.

Upending the CID was an omen of what the Rajapaksas would do the economy in the next two plus years. Yet, the country didn’t even notice.

The punishment transfers didn’t appease the wrath of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His grudge was personal, its main target the man who had prosecuted him for misusing state funds to build a museum for his parents. On November 24 at a temple ceremony he gave voice to his fury. “Shani Abeysekara investigates according to his thinking. Non-governmental organisations don’t ask questions about that. To jail those who waged the war, officials, and navy commander, to jail intelligence agencies, to jail me”.

Three quarters of the Channel 4 programme on the Easter Sunday Massacre is introduction and prologue. It deals with the Rajapaksas’ blood-caked history, including the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge. The findings of the CID investigation into that crime, including of the existence of Tripoli platoon, were known to the voting public before the presidential election of 2019.

Equally known was the possibility of a relationship between truth and interest regarding Easter Sunday bombing. The Parliamentary Select Committee (which the Rajapaksa-led joint opposition boycotted) in its report wondered “whether those with vested interests did not act on intelligence so as to create chaos and instil fear and uncertainty in the country in the lead up to the presidential election.”

Continue reading ‘The Rajapaksas are only a part of the problem. The interrelated issues of Sinhala-Buddhist supremacism and minority extremisms would remain even if the Sri Lankan electorate banishes the Rajapaksas to political wilderness forever. The real problem is us, the gullible unthinking people.’ »

By

Kishali Pinto – Jayawardene

The Sri Lankan Government’s deft recourse to Commissions and Committees of Inquiry to investigate extraordinary human rights violations in shifting the focus away from the penal thrust of the criminal law is truly villainous.

The political skill-set in play

The very latest is President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s appointment of a committee of inquiry this week to look into allegations by the British based Channel Four network of a ‘grand conspiracy’ by sections of the pro-Rajapaksa inclined intelligence establishment in manipulating local Islamists to launch terror attacks in Sri Lanka in 2019. Perhaps we may term this, the ‘Channel Four Commission’ forsooth?

Mind you, I am not being facetious in saying this. Very soon we will run out of names for these bodies, confuse them with one another, tangle up their recommendations and lapse into helpless if not hopeless fury. But that may be no bad thing given the sheer uselessness of these exercises, meant to obfuscate, fatigue and frustrate the proper working of the law. This is the single farcical objective, let us be quite clear.

The flair and the speed with which Presidents and Prime Ministers resort to the favourite face saving excuse of ‘Committees and Commissions’ showcases two factors.

First, the contempt for the Sri Lankan public who are perceived as ‘gullible beyond measure.’ Secondly, the strongly held belief that they are impervious to legal accountability. Villainous is the only fitting word to describe these political skills practised with consummate finesse.

Continue reading ‘Certainly the Channel Four allegations have taken a scathingly ironic turn. But we cannot behave as if that barbarity occurred in a rare bubble. The sooner that the good Cardinal and his supportive flock recognises this fact, the better.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

State minister of Rural Road Development and Batticaloa district Parliamentarian sSvanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias “Pillayan”figured prominently in the recent documentary “Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings” aired by Britain’s Channel 4 TV in its “Dispathes” program on Tuesday 5 September 2023 at 11:05pm. The 47 minute long documentary that is making waves pointed the finger at Pillayan as being implicated in the dastardly “terror”bombings of 19 April 2019.

Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan is the leader of the political party “Thamil Makkal Viduthalaip Puligal”(TMVP) meaning Tamil People Liberation Tigers. As is well known Pillayan was associateds with former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) eastern regional commander Vinayagamoorthy Muraleetharan alias “Col”Karuna in breaking away from the LTTE and forming an east -based party. Subsequently Pillayan ousted Karuna and became chief of the TMVP.

Chief among the whistleblowers featured in the Channel 4 film was Azad Maulana, the former spokesman of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), Pillayan’s political party. Maulana disclosed in the documentary that he had at the behest of Pillayan , arranged a meeting between former military intelligence chief Suresh Salley and members of the radical Islamic movement National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) in 2018. He alleged that the April 2019 bombings were done to create a climate of fear to facilitate Gotabaya Rajapaksa getting elected as president.

Maulana claimed that after the meeting between NTJ and Salley was over “Suresh Salley came to me and told me the Rajapaksas need an unsafe situation in Sri Lanka, that’s the only way for Gotabaya to become president,” Maulana alleged that Pillayan and Salley engineered the release of NTJ members from prison before he arranged for Salley to meet them. “The attack was not a plan made in just one or two days, the plan was two, three years in the making,” stated Maulana in the documentary.

Pillayan responded to Azad Maulana’s accusations by castigating his former aide severely in Parliament. Pillayan also issued a statement in Tamil that was sent to the media and also posted on his facebook. The TMVP chief also gave media interviews denying involvement in the Easter Sunday bombings. A demonstration was also staged in Batticaloa condemning the documentary and Azad Maulana.

It does seem to appear that Pillayan is like a cat on a hot tin roof after the Channel 4 TV documentary was telecast. However being in hot water is nothing new for Pillayan the former child soldier of the LTTE. Chief among the troubles he encountered in the past was nearly five years of incarceration over the killing of former Tamil National Alliance(TNA) Parliamentarian for Batticaloa Joseph Pararajasingham. Provisions of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) were used against him. After a protracted legal proceedings Pillayan was eventually acquitted and discharged

It is against this backdrop that this week’s column – with the aid of earlier writings – revisits the Joseph Pararajasingham murder and the arrest, detention,release and acquittal of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan. A short trek down memory lane is necessary to comprehend what happened then.

Continue reading ‘How and why TMVP Chief “Pillayan” was Arrested and Indicted for the Batticaloa MP Joseph Pararajasingham Murder and Released After 5 Years of Imprisonment’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

Today (16 September 2023 ) is the 23rd death anniversary of Mohammad Hussein Muhammad Ashraff, the legendary leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC). He was the Cabinet Minister in charge of Shipping, Ports, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation in the Government of President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at the time of his death. He, along with 14 others, was killed in an air crash on 16 September 2000.

M.H.M. Ashraff had on that fateful morning boarded a Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Mi-17 helicopter at the Police grounds in Bambalapitiya at about 9:30 am. Nine SLMC party officials and three bodyguards accompanied Ashraff. There were also two crew members from the SLAF. The flight destination was Ampara/Amparai.

Forty-five minutes later Air Traffic controllers lost radio contact with the helicopter being flown by squadron leader Shiran Perera. It was later discovered that the chopper had crashed over the Urakanda mountain range in the Aranayaka area in Kegalle District of Sabaragamuwa Province.

Fifteen charred bodies were recovered from the burning wreckage. Ashraff’s funeral was held late night on the same day at Colombo’s Jawatte Muslim burial ground. He had earlier told family members that he should be buried within hours of his death.

Two decades and three years have passed since his death but there is no denying that the demise of Ashraff has created a vacuum in Muslim politics that is yet to be filled. Even 23 years later the memory of Ashraff and the impact of his legacy continue to exert significant influence over the politics of Sri Lankan Muslims in general and the Muslim Congress in particular.

Continue reading ‘Remembering M.H.M. Ashraff, the legendary leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress who was always close to the Tamil language and its ethos.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

Distressful memories of the Easter Sunday suicide killer bombings of Churches and Hotels on 21 April 2019 were revived for many this week when the British TV Channel 4 aired a documentary in its “Dispatches”program on 5 Sep 2023.

For some of us it fanned into poignant flames, the embers of memory regarding our friend and colleague Lasantha Wickrematunge who was brutally assassinated on 8 January 2009.

The “revelations”made in the TV documentary by Hanzeer Azad Maulana and Nishantha Silva have alleged that the clandestine killer squad “Tripoly Platoon” murdered Lasantha Wickrematunge on the purported instructions of then Defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Azad Maulana is the former aide of Tamil Makkal Viduthalaip Puligal(TMVP) leader Sivanesathurai Santhirakanthan alias Pillaiyaan who is currently a state minister. Moulana says that he arranged a meeting between former military intelligence chief Suresh Salley and members of the radical Islamic movement National Thowheeth Jamaath(NTJ) in 2018. He alleges that the April 2019 bombings were done to create a climate of fear to facilitate Gotabaya getting elected as president.

Moulana claims that after the meeting between NTJ and Salley was over “ Suresh Salley came to me and told me the Rajapaksas need an unsafe situation in Sri Lanka, that’s the only way for Gotabaya to become president,” Maulana alleges that Pillayan and Salley engineered their release from prison before he arranged for Salley to meet them. “The attack was not a plan made in just one or two days, the plan was two, three years in the making.” states Moulana in the documentary.

Ex -police offcer Nishantha Silva is the Police sleuth who probed the murder of Lasantha and interrogated Gotabaya intensively. He states that his investigations revealed that members of the Tripoiy platoon were at Lasantha’s murder scene. Both Azad Maulana and Nishantha Silva are reportedly living in Europe now having fled from Sri Lanka fearing their safety.

Continue reading ‘Zahran Hashim Alias ”Al Ubaida” was the Linchpin in 2019 Easter Bombings.’ »

By

Kshama Ranawana

The Channel 4 documentary on the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings did not reveal much information that was not already known, but it has certainly caused a stir amongst all and sundry.

Politicians of all hues; activists, journalists, Buddhist clergy and of course the Catholic church are all weighing in on the issue.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the man who benefitted most from the bombings, broke his long silence to defend himself and Major General Suresh Sallay, the current Director of State Intelligence, who has been identified by several others too, as being involved in the Easter bombings.

Sallay has long sought to disassociate himself from the allegations and has even claimed damages of Rs 50 million from Fr Cyril Gamini Fernando for connecting him to the Easter bombings during an online discussion two years ago.

Despite that, Azaad Moulana the whistleblower featured in the documentary claims that the plot was hatched with the assistance of former LTTE member Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilliayan, who instructed him to facilitate a meeting between Sallay and the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) group led by Zaharan Hashim, the Easter Sunday bombers.

Moulana claims Pillayan who was at the time in prison in connection with the assassination of Joseph Pararajasingham, introduced him to Zaharan’s brother who was also in jail at the time, telling him the latter was a religious extremist. The brother was released from jail soon after, and Moulana states he then arranged the meeting between Sallay and the NTJ.

In the run-up to the 2019 Presidential election, which brought Gotabaya to power, Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Pillayan in prison. In early 2021 the Attorney Generals Department withdrew charges and Pillayan was released from jail. For long, Pillayan has enjoyed a close relationship with the Rajapaksa’s and is currently State Minister for Rural Road Development.

Continue reading ‘Sallay, Nilantha Jayawardena, Deshbandu Tennekone and others whose names have cropped up in connection with the investigations should have the grace to step down from their posts until an investigation is over. That’s what Officers and Gentlemen do!’ »

By

Meera Srinivasan

India on Tuesday (12 Sep 2023) said the progress made by Sri Lanka, on its commitment to fulfill the Tamils’ aspirations, was “inadequate” and urged the island nation to “work meaningfully” to keep its promises.

“We have taken note of reaffirmation by the Government of Sri Lanka on implementation of its commitments. However, progress on the same is inadequate and we urge the Government of Sri Lanka to work meaningfully towards early implementation of its commitments to ensure that the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all its citizens are fully protected,” India’s representative told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva at its ongoing 54th session. The position was consistent with New Delhi’s remarks last year, that voiced concern over the “lack of measurable progress”.

Continue reading ‘“We hope that the Government of Sri Lanka will fulfill the aspirations of Tamils for equality, justice and peace and its commitment to implement the Thirteenth Amendment and conduct Provincial Council Elections to ensure a life of respect and dignity for Tamils in Sri Lanka,” – India at the UNHRC in Geneva’ »

President Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a three-member committee to thoroughly investigate the allegations aired by British broadcaster Channel 4 in its recent documentary.

The committee is chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice S.I. Imam with retired Air Force Commander A.C.M. Jayalath Weerakkody and Harsha A.J. Soza PC.

This committee’s primary mission is to investigate the serious allegations recently brought to light by Channel 4 in a broadcast video.

Continue reading ‘President Ranil Wickremesinghe appoints three-member committee chaired by retd Supreme Court Judge S.I. Imam to thoroughly investigate the allegations aired by British broadcaster Channel 4 in its recent documentary.’ »

Former Ambassador Sarath Kongahage has accused British television network ‘Channel 4’ of ‘completely distorting’ his comments during the interview in their latest documentary on Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings of 2019.

Speaking to the media in this regard on Tuesday (12 Sep.), Kongahage revealed that nearly one year ago, during the anti-government protests, Sri Lankan media personality and British citizen Faraz Shauketaly had requested the ex-diplomat for an interview, claiming that it was for the Independent Television News (ITN), a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company.

Continue reading ‘Former Ambassador Sarath Kongahage accuses Channel 4 TV of Completely Distorting his Comments in the Documentary aired on 5 Sep 2023; says he gave TV interview to UK’s Independent Television News (ITN) During “Aragalaya”Protests last year’ »

(Text of Editorial appearing in the “Daily FT” of 12 September 2023 under the Heading “MoD,the tail wagging the dog?”)

The only thing more shocking than the allegations made by UK’s Channel 4 last week was the hyperbolic rebuttal issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Channel 4 claims that Sri Lanka’s intelligence apparatus had links with the Easter Sunday bombers who killed over 260 people in April 2019.

A documentary released last week revealed that current head of the State Intelligence Service, Major General Suresh Sallay met with several of the suicide bombers several months before the attacks and that military intelligence attempted to derail several investigations into the Islamic terrorists, before and after the Easter attacks.

Within 48 hours of the broadcast, two important developments have taken place. Firstly, President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that he will appoint a retired Supreme Court judge-headed committee to probe allegations made by Channel 4. Earlier minister Manusha Nanayakkara informed Parliament that a select committee will be appointed to investigate the allegations made in the recent documentary.

The second development last week is that the MoD “vehemently denounces the accusation of orchestrating the attack and assisting the bombers against a dedicated senior military officer who has served the nation for 36 years.”

“On behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Defence hereby categorically refutes these false allegations and reiterates the Government’s unwavering commitment to the truth, justice and the well-being of the Nation,” the MoD statement concludes.

Continue reading ‘Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?If the Ministry of Defence on Behalf of the Govt can Deny Beforehand the Accusations in the Documentary Against the Intelligence Apparatus , then What is the Use of Presidential Commissions or Parliamentary Select Committees being Appointed to Investigate?’ »

(Text of Editorial appearing in the “Sunday Island”of 10 September 2023 under the heading “ Channel 4 – Why now? Why not?)

The latest Channel 4 documentary on Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings is claimed to be an exposure, but while there’s nothing dramatically new in it, it seems to have is set the cat among certain pigeons. Allegations that the military intelligence was involved with Islamic extremists involved in the Easter Sunday carnage is not new. In fact, three investigations have already linked the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and the State Intelligence Service (SIS) to the bombers.

What the new allegations in the Channel 4 documentary against the current SIS chief and former DMI officer, retired Major General Suresh Sallay, are aimed at is connecting the dots to the Rajapaksa family, and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in particular. The video suggests there was a conspiracy to bring the Rajapaksas back to power in 2019.

The bombing certainly helped Gotabaya to clinch the presidential candidacy at a time when the country clamoured for a strong leader who could fight terrorism. Within two days of the April 21, 2019 bombing, Gotabaya came out declaring that he was the national security candidate who could wipe out Islamic extremists.
It should be clear even to those not familiar with local political chicanery that Gotabaya Rajapaksa benefited from the attack, but there is no proving beyond reasonable doubt that he organized the carnage.

So what is the new Channel 4 video about? On the face of it, it is an attempt by the British public broadcaster (Channel 4 is a British government-owned network) to find the “truth” behind the Easter attacks, a campaign spearheaded by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and the Catholic Church. The Vatican too had weighed in with the Pope himself urging Sri Lankan leaders to establish who was behind the most audacious terror attack even for a country used to decades of senseless violence.

Continue reading ‘Strangely, Gotabaya Rajapaksa remains silent on the devastating allegation made by Whistleblower Azad Moulana in the Channel 4 Video that Gota wanted the editor of the Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunge killed, ASAP (As Soon As Possible).- “Sunday Island”’ »

In an interview given to Hiru TV on September 4, 2023, the day after the Channel 4 documentary on the 2019 Easter bombing in Sri Lanka was aired in the UK, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, a former Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, France, UNESCO and Russia, said that investigations into the Easter bombings have raised more questions than answers and that the latest documentary released by Channel 4 succeeds in creating “reasonable doubt” in the minds of the viewers that the official investigations may not yet have revealed the whole truth.

The Channel 4 documentary he said, would accumulate over time a potentially huge global audience— 2.5 billion Christians, including 1.4 billion Catholics— who would be concerned at allegations that a former Sri Lankan intelligence official and current head of the SIS, had met with members of the group that eventually carried out the attack on Easter Sunday, at a secret location.

The shocking allegation of the whistle-blower that this officer had told him that an “unsafe environment” in Sri Lanka was required to ensure the electoral victory of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whether truthful or not, needs an urgent, comprehensive and clarificatory response from the GoSL, he said.

If it wants to prevent possible action in other, non-Lankan jurisdictions, the government should remove the sense of opacity that surrounds security officials’ non-response to vital foreign intelligence, their surreal behaviour on the day of the attack and their intervention during subsequent investigations.

Continue reading ‘The argument that ‘Islamic religious extremists will never engage in suicide missions to bring a Sinhala Buddhist President to office’, will not suffice,since the plotting and manipulation as distinct from the execution, could have been done by someone other than the bombers themselves States Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka in TV Interview’ »

By the “Sunday Times” Political Editor

President Ranil Wickremesinghe will appoint a retired judge, possibly from the Supreme Court, to probe controversial revelations made by Britain’s Channel 4 television.

The Sunday Times learns that it will be a prelude to the appointment of another Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) if it is found that the matter requires further investigation.

Already, a Parliamentary Select Committee and a Presidential Commission of Inquiry have probed the incidents. However, this makes clear that President Wickremesinghe will not heed calls for an international investigation.

Nevertheless, it acknowledges the need for a deeper probe despite vehement denials of those principally implicated in the disputed disclosures.

An indication of a proposed appointment of a PSC came early this week when Minister Manusha Nanayakkara declared that the Cabinet of Ministers had decided on such an appointment.

However, his remarks were contested by government spokesperson and media minister Bandula Gunawardena. He declared that no matter outside the agenda was discussed at last week’s ministerial meeting. Nanayakkara also issued a statement together with his ministerial colleague Harin Fernando to say they had spoken much earlier about the revelations in the Channel 4 broadcast. That appears to be an endorsement of the report.

Continue reading ‘President Ranil Wickremesinghe will appoint a retired judge to probe controversial revelations made by Britain’s Channel 4 television,: a fresh Parliamentary Select Committee Probe is also likely but President will not heed calls for an international investigation.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

The Tamil cinema firmament has produced a galaxy of stellar comedians over the years. Arguably the greatest comedian ever seen in Tamil cinema was Nagesh. This legendary actor known as “Nagaichuvai Mannan Nagesh” (King of Comedy – Nagesh) ruled the comic roost of Tamil cinema as an uncrowned monarch for many many years.

At his zenith, Nagesh had a huge following of fans in Sri Lanka from all ethnicities. Several Sri Lankan actors tried to model themselves on Nagesh. Nagesh’s 90th birth anniversary will be celebrated on 27 September.

It has been the practice for this column to devote the first Saturday of each month to an article on films, film personalities or film-related matters. It was not possible to do so in August due to certain reasons. Several readers have expressed their disappointment and requested that I continue to write a “filmy” article in the first week of every month. As such this column focuses this September on Comedy king Nagesh with the aid of earlier writings.

Nagesh was the undisputed king of comedians in Tamil cinema from the early sixties to mid-seventies of the previous century. After a “lull” the versatile actor re-entered Tamil cinema in a new “avatar” playing character and villain roles. Even during his stint as comedian, Nagesh acted in quite a few lead roles too.

Continue reading ‘Comedy King (“Nagaichuvai Mannan”) Nagesh Ruled the Comic Roost of Tamil Cinema.’ »

(Text of Press Release Issued by the Ministry of Defence on 9th September 2023 under the Heading “ MINISTRY OF DEFENCE: OFFICIAL REBUTTAL TO CHANNEL 4’S REPREHENSIBLE ALLEGATIONS REGARDING THE EASTER SUNDAY ATTACK”)

In the face of a heinous and merciless assault that shook the world – the Easter Sunday Attack of 2019 – which claimed the lives of nearly 270 innocent souls, including children and foreigners, Sri Lanka and the International Community watched in horror. In the wake of this catastrophe, the Sri Lankan Government, its Law Enforcement Agencies, Security Forces and international investigation agencies launched exhaustive investigations.

Over the years, these investigations, both local and international, have consistently pointed to ISIS-affiliated group members led by Zahran Hashim as the architects of this horrifying tragedy.

However, it is with unwavering resolution and an unyielding commitment to the truth that the Ministry of Defence wishes to respond to the recent documentary produced by British Channel 4 television on 5th September 2023. This documentary audaciously shifts the blame of the Easter Sunday Attack onto Military Intelligence and Major General Suresh Sallay, the present Director General of the State Intelligence Service of Sri Lanka.

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence emphatically asserts that Channel 4 will be held unequivocally accountable for any unforeseen actions or repercussions stemming from their unfounded, malevolent, and poorly substantiated claims made in the video documentary.’ »

Meera Srinivasan

(Fourteen years after the civil war, Tamils in Sri Lanka’s north and east are confronted with a new conflict. There are growing contestations over land, sparked by Buddhist structures springing up in a ‘restoration’ drive. Meera Srinivasan reports on how archaeological excavations are the latest manifestation of a lingering ethnic conflict)

It takes barely 10 minutes to reach the Kurunthurmalai hilltop, but the climb requires some manoeuvring of the uneven, slippery slope. Clutching the thick, white rope tied to tree trunks along the path is a safer option to get to the solitary spot that has now turned into a site of fierce contestation in Sri Lanka’s northern Mullaitivu district.

Tamils from the surrounding Thannimurippu area, who have frequented the location for years to offer prayers to Aadi Aiyanar (their local Siva deity), have been contending with disruptions to their regular prayers by Sinhalese mobs led by Buddhist monks, and increased security and surveillance. The latest episode was in August, during a special pongal prayer ceremony.

Bhaskaran Susilathevi, 57, a resident of Thannimurippu, is appalled by the turn of events. “A Buddhist vihara has been built there. The Sinhalese want to come and worship at Kurunthurmalai, but we are not allowed to go to our temple. We have a majoritarian government that is not afraid to violate a court order,” she says, her voice reflecting both rage and resignation. Her terse summary echoed the prevalent sentiment among Tamils who have returned to their homes after being displaced by the war.

For many like Susilathevi, intimately familiar with the terrain around the Siva temple, the rapid structural changes on the premises are disorienting. An imposing, unfinished brick-stone stupa stands a few yards from the Hindu place of worship. A plaque on dull-grey granite is installed beside it, with a note on the “Kurundi stupa’s glorious history” and its lotus-shaped design.

The inscription credits the Bauddhaloka Foundation, the chief incumbent of the local Buddhist temple; the Department of Archaeology; and the “effortless contributions” of the Sri Lanka Army and Civil Security Force for the “excavation and conservation”. It mirrors the state apparatus as Sri Lanka’s minorities know it, neatly framing government authorities, the Buddhist clergy, and the military together in stone.

Continue reading ‘Buddhist Clergy,Archaeology Dept and Security Forces Defy Court Order by Erecting “Kurundhi Stupa” on Kurundhur Malai Hilltop in Mullaitheevu District where Tamil Hindus Had Been Worshipping Trident of “Aadhi Aiyanaar” Siva Deity’ »

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay, in his present capacity as Director, State Intelligence has told Channel 4 Television that he was not in Sri Lanka for the whole of 2018 as he was in Malaysia as Minister Counsellor of the government of Sri Lanka.

Therefore, the accusation that he met several members of the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) including Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran in Karadipuval, Puttalam in Feb. 2018 was baseless, he has said.

The intelligence officer has asked the British television station to verify his claim with the Malaysian authorities.
Maj. Gen. Sallay has also told Channel 4 that on April 21, 2019, the day of the Easter Sunday blast, he was in India, where he was accommodated at the National Defence College (NDC). That could be verified with the Indian authorities,

Maj. Gen. has said, strongly denying Channel 4’s claim that he contacted one of Pilleyan’s cadre’s over the phone and directed him to pick a person outside Hotel Taj Samudra.

According to Sallay, during his entire assignment in Malaysia from Dec 2016 to Dec 2018, he had been to Colombo only once for one week in Dec 2017 to assist in an official inquiry.

Continue reading ‘State Intelligence Director Maj-Gen Suresh Sallay tells Channel 4 TV that he was not in Sri Lanka for the whole of 2018 as he was in Malaysia as Minister Counsellor of the government of Sri Lanka; Therefore accusation that he met several members of the National Thowheeth Jamaath (NTJ) in Puttalam on Feb. 2018 was baseless says Sallay’ »

In the wake of the UK’s Channel 4 documentary uncovering details about the Easter Sunday attack of 2019, Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, during a Parliamentary session yesterday, called for an International inquiry into the incident.

The Opposition leader urged the Government to permit such an investigation without causing any additional offence to the Archbishop of Colombo and the Catholic community in Sri Lanka.

Continue reading ‘Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa calls for an International Investigation into the on Easter Sunday bombings of 19 April 2019; Says it is embarrassing that a foreign TV like channel 4 has to push for a probe to reveal who the masterminds were.’ »

(Text of Statement issued on 7 September 2023 by Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in response to the recent allegations made by UK Channel 4 News regarding the 2019 Easter bombings,)

“The central allegation made in the latest film on Sri Lanka broadcast by Channel 4 is that the Easter Sunday suicide bombings of 21 April 2019 carried out by Islamic extremists had been deliberately facilitated in order to create the conditions to get me elected to power in November 2019.

This charge hinges on claims made by one Hanzeer Azad Maulana, an applicant for political asylum in Europe, that he had introduced Maj General Suresh Sallay (who is best known for his past role as the Director of Military Intelligence) to the principal suicide bomber Zaharan and his brother Zainee Moulavi in February 2018.

Maj Gen Sallay has been described as one of my loyalists. However, he is a career military officer who has served under many Presidents and all military officers are loyal to the State and not to private individuals. I too was a former army officer, and like him, I too served under different governments. After leaving the position of Defence Secretary in 2015 and until I was elected President, Maj Gen Sallay and I had no contact at all.

Continue reading ‘Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says the latest Documentary on the 2019 April 21 Bombings by Channel 4 is primarily an anti-Rajapaksa tirade aimed at blackening the Rajapaksa legacy from 2005 onwards;film is filled with lies, much like previous films aired by the same Channel states Gota’ »

By

JACK SEALE

On Easter Sunday 2019, six suicide bombings hit Catholic churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka, killing 269 people. Quickly, the perpetrators were identified as domestic religious extremists the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath), claimed by Islamic State as their own.

The wider world, pausing to note that the perceived threat of Islamic fundamentalism helped the controversial Rajapaksa family regain the Sri Lankan presidency a few months after the bombings, chalked it up as yet another terrorist atrocity about which nothing much could be said or done and moved on.

Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings, a new Dispatches investigation, makes serious new allegations about the attacks, based on whistleblower testimony. While the accusations are startling, they are straightforward: the charge is that allies of the Rajapaksas had associations with the NTJ, and that they made it hard for law enforcement to arrest its leaders prior to the bombings or to fully investigate the massacre afterwards.

Such information does not fill an hour of television; the programme is three-quarters done before the bombings take place. But, while the programme may feel like a 15-minute news report with a 45-minute preamble, that context is fascinating.

Continue reading ‘Hanzeer Azad Maulana Alleges in Channel 4 “Dispatches” that he was in the room when Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered the founding of the clandestine death squad called Tripoli Platoon; Ex- police officer Nishantha Silva Alleges in Documentary that Lasantha Wickrematunge Killing Investigations by him Revealed Tripoly Platoon Members were at the Murder scene’ »

Sri Lanka’s government will appoint a parliamentary committee to investigate allegations made in a British television report that Sri Lankan intelligence had complicity in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people.

A man interviewed in the Channel 4 videos released on Tuesday said he arranged a meeting between a local Islamic State-inspired group and a top state intelligence official to hatch a plot to create insecurity in Sri Lanka and enable Gotabaya Rajapaksa to win the presidential election later that year.

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka’s government will appoint a parliamentary committee to investigate allegations made in the Channel 4 British television report that top Sri Lankan intelligence Officials were complicit in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 269 people.’ »

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Myth is a value. Truth has no guarantee for it; nothing prevents it from being a perpetual alibi” – Roland Barthes (Myth Today)

Generals are always preparing to fight the last war, goes an enduring proverb. The Ranil Wickremesinghe Government and its many opponents are forever preparing for the last uprising. Aragalaya’s eternal recurrence is their common hallucination. Blinded by this irrational preoccupation, they are ignorant of – or ignore – the daily deepening of ethno-religious fault-lines in this violence-prone land.

On 28 August a protest was held against the Government’s taxation and domestic debt restructuring policies. Organisers expected affected citizens to turn up in their tens of thousands. The Government was ready, with court orders, riot police, water cannons… The crowd was a fraction of what the organisers desired and the Government feared. The demonstration ended without incidents.

Almost 150 miles away, in Trincomalee, another sort of protest was hatched, with no fanfare or pre-warning. On 28 August, a group of monks and lay devotees marched to the Trincomalee District Secretariat where a district development council meeting was being held under the aegis of the provincial governor.

When denied admittance, they occupied the road. After a brief standoff, four monks were allowed in. The leading monk strode in declaring, “The Governor will not be allowed to leave. I will go to the DDC and throttle him.”

He and other monks sat on the floor refusing to leave until the governor rescinded his order to pause new construction near the ancient Boralukanda temple.

Eventually the governor gave in.

In a land where the rule of law prevails, these unruly monks would have been detained and charged for their act of lawlessness. In Sri Lanka, a child is arrested and punished for stealing a few coconuts; but occupying a State institution and threatening State officials are permissible, if the perpetrators are shielded by a saffron robe. So the law-breaking monks remain free – to wreak more havoc.

Continue reading ‘Buddhism was born in a land with no Sinhalese. Long before Buddhism became a Sinhala property, it was a Tamil religion as well. But this history does not fit in with the narratives tenaciously held by extremists of both sides of the ethno-religious divide.’ »

(Text of Editorial Appearing in “The Morning”of 4 September 2023 under the Heading “The latest Easter attacks ‘conspiracy”)

This week, the United Kingdom (UK) based media outlet Channel Four announced that it is planning to make some shocking revelations about the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks in a programme titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings – Dispatches’ which is scheduled to be broadcast today (5). It has already sparked debate among the people, as the trailer broadcast, describes what it is about to reveal implicates an official inside the Sri Lankan Government linked to the Easter Sunday attacks.

The UK based newspaper The Times had reported that in the said Channel 4 programme, a highly placed insider claims that he allegedly set up a meeting in 2018 between the State Intelligence Service Chief Suresh Salley and the Islamic State linked Easter Sunday bombers to orchestrate a plot to destabilise Sri Lanka and to thereby facilitate the Rajapaksas’ return to power.

It is reported that this informant is Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) Leader and former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militant Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan’s ex-aide, Hanzeer Azad Maulana. While Salley is reported to have denied these allegations as false in a letter to Channel 4, it is also reported that neither Pillayan nor the Rajapaksa family had responded to the Channel 4’s requests for comment.

While it is only a matter of hours until the said Channel 4 programme is to broadcast, most of what the Channel 4 report seems to contain is not new to Sri Lankans. The alleged involvement of the Rajapaksa family in the Easter Sunday attacks, especially former Presidents Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and also alleged support extended by high ranking officials to carry out and cover up the attacks have remained in the Sri Lankan society more as rumours since the attacks in 2019.

Continue reading ‘“The alleged involvement of the Rajapaksa family in the Easter Sunday attacks, especially Mahinda and Gotabaya and the alleged support extended by high ranking officials to carry out and cover up the attacks have remained in Sri Lankan society as rumours since the attacks in 2019.”’ »

By

Catherine Philp – “Times” Diplomatic Correspondent

Sri Lankan officials loyal to the Rajapaksa family were complicit in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed more than 250 people, including eight British tourists, whistleblowers have alleged.
One highly placed insider claims in an interview with Dispatches, to be aired in the UK on Channel 4 tomorrow, that he set up a 2018 meeting between a senior military intelligence official, Suresh Salley, and Islamic State-affiliated bombers to hatch a plot to destabilise Sri Lanka and facilitate the Rajapaksas’ return to power.

“The meeting finished, Suresh Salley came to me and told me the Rajapaksas need an unsafe situation in Sri Lanka, that’s the only way for Gotabaya to become president,” Hanzeer Azad Maulana, the whistleblower, claims.

“The attack was not a plan made in just one or two days, the plan was two, three years in the making.”

Salley was promoted to head of military intelligence when Gotabaya Rajapaksa won power on a promise to restore security six months after the Easter Sunday attack.

Continue reading ‘TMVP Leader Pillaiyan’s ex-aide Hanzeer Azad Maulana Alleges that he set up meeting in 2018 between Gotabaya Loyalist Suresh Salley and ISIS linked Easter Sunday Bombers in Interview to UK Channel 4 TV ; SIS chief Salley writes to Channel 4 denying allegation saying “I have no connection whatsoever in the Easter Bombing,”’ »

By

Krishnan Guru Moorthy -Presenter

On Easter Sunday 2019, Sri Lanka was hit by a series of suicide attacks.

Channel 4 Dispatches has exclusive interviews with high placed whistleblowers who allege that some Sri Lankan government officials were complicit in the bombings.

Watch Dispatches: Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings on Channel 4 on Tuesday 5 September at 11:05pm.

Courtesy:Channel 4.com

By

D.B.S. Jeyaraj

Jeyaraj’s Jottings

Tharman Shanmugaratnam whose grandparents are from Urelu in the Jaffna district of Northern Sri Lanka made history on September 1st 2023 by getting elected as President of Singapore. Generally referred to as Tharman, the 66 year old London School of Econimics,Cambridge and Harvard educated economist is also the first “Ceylon Tamil” to be elected as Singapore president. He has earlier served as Singapore’s deputy Prime Minister and Finance minister.

Tharnan Shanmugaratnam registered a landslide win in Singapore’s first Contested vote in more than a decade for the largely ceremonial post of President. He obtained 70.4% of the vote to win the six-year term presidency.

His main rival Ng Kok Song, a former chief investment officer of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, which manages the country’s foreign reserves, conceded after winning only 15.7% of the vote.
“The result is clear,” he told reporters, adding Mr. Shanmugaratnam “has indeed earned a mandate from the people of Singapore.”

Another candidate, former insurance executive Tan Kin Lian, 75, had gained the support of several opposition leaders but only picked up 13.88% of votes.

“I’m humbled by this vote. It is not just a vote for me, it is a vote for Singapore’s future.” “I believe that it’s a vote of confidence in Singapore. It’s a vote of optimism for a future in which we can progress together and support each other as Singaporeans,” said Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Continue reading ‘Tharman Shanmugaratnam of Jaffna Ancestry becomes first Singaporean of Sri Lankan Tamil Ethnicity to be Elected as President of Singapore; Wins 70.4 % of votes in Landslide Victory.’ »

By

Col R.Hariharan

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is caught between a rock and a hard place, both externally and internally. Externally, t[he Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is getting turbulent with the big power confrontation between the US and its allies on the one hand, and China on the other.

It threatens to spill over beyond Asia-Pacific. The sparring between the two global powers is turning bitter every day around Taiwan and accidental triggering of skirmish cannot be ruled out.
The four-nation ‘Quad’ – quadrilateral framework of India-the US-Japan-Australia, apparently a non-military alliance, is gaining relevance. It is ushering in close cooperation in manufacturing, logistics and political issues, that will strengthen their military posture.

The AUKUS – Australia-US – military alliance is poised to introduce the nuclear triad in the Indo-Pacific theatre. The most unlikely trilateral alliance of the US-Japan- South Korea has come into being; it is unabashedly against China and its protégé North Korea, flaunting their military strength in their vicinity.

Chinese economy is five times larger, with a GDP of $17.7 trillion versus India’s GDP of $3.5 trillion China’s economy that went down in the wake of President Xi Jinping’s mishandling of the lock downs during the Covid pandemic disrupting the supply chains is yet to recover. The economic fall out of the Ukraine war has made it worse. The Chinese Yuan has fallen to its lowest level in 16 years.

On the other hand, India’s economy is growing at 6.5 percent. Under these circumstances, China’s first option will be to expand its trade in South Asia, particularly with India despite its soured relations. Their two-way trade has grown to a whopping $130 billion in 2022.

Continue reading ‘President Ranil Wickremesinghe is caught between a rock and a hard place, both externally and internally. Overall, the President is in an unenviable hot seat, likely to get hotter.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

The first part of this article was published last week under the heading “How and why the LTTE helped Mahinda defeat Ranil in Nov. 2005”. In this second and final part, the focus would be on how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) enforced a boycott of the November 2005 Presidential elections through violence and intimidation to bring about the defeat of Ranil Wickremesinghe at the presidential elections.

The enforced boycott in the Tamil areas of the North and East deprived Wickremesinghe of a large number of potential Tamil votes. This helped his rival Mahinda Rajapaksa win as the LTTE calculated. Ultimately the LTTE’s boycott boomeranged because the advent of Mahinda resulted in an escalation of the war and eventual military defeat for the LTTE.

Re-visiting the LTTE enforced boycott of the 2005 Presidential poll and the consequential military defeat of the LTTE known popularly as the tigers is currently of significant relevance.

Continue reading ‘2005 Presidential Election Boycott: Did Secret Financial Deal Involving Basil and Tiran Enable Mahinda Defeat Ranil ?’ »

(Text of Press release Issued by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)on 30 August 2023)

On 22 August 2023, Sarath Weeresekera, a former Minister and a Member of Parliament belonging to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, the country’s ruling political party, made an inflammatory speech with racist undertones in Parliament, referring to T. Saravanaraja, the Mullaitivu Court’s Magistrate repeatedly as “a mentally ill person”, and criticizing a court order Judge Saravanaraja had made, while making personal remarks about him, including a mention of his wife.

Judge Saravanaraja has been the target of this invective following an order he made upholding the right of religious worship of Hindu devotees at a Hindu shrine on Kurundur Hill, a contested religious site in the North of the country.

With respect to this, Sarath Weeresekera also stated that the Mullaitivu Magistrate should keep in mind that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist nation, that there is a limit to the patience of Sinhala Buddhists, and if any racial violence were to occur it was the judge and Tamil politicians who should bear the burden. He urged the Judicial Services Commission and the Bar Association to replace the judge.

Sarath Weeresekera delivered his attack against the judge in violation of standing order 83 of the Sri Lankan Parliament — according to which the personal conduct of any person “engaged in the administration of justice shall not be raised except upon a substantive motion” — during a parliamentary debate on tourism.

Continue reading ‘International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) Condemns Sarath Weerasekera Making an Inflammatory Speech in Parliament with Racist Undertones Criticising Mullaitheevu Magistrate Saravanarajah’s court order and for Offensive Personal remarks against him and his wife.’ »

(Text of speech made in Parliament on 30 August 2023 by Jaffna District MP, Mathiaparanan Abraham Sumanthiran )

This particular convention deals with enforced disappearances. The scourge that has affected our country, much more than it has affected many other countries of the world. There are other countries also that have suffered from this kind of crime, but Sri Lanka has had a long history of disappearances.

One must understand the serious nature of disappearance. It is worse than even the crime of murder, for in murder the next of kin know the fate of the person who’s been murdered, or, who is missing; they know what has happened to that person.

But in the case of disappearances, they live in constant hope that the person is living somewhere and will return one day. And the numbers of these disappeared persons, or who have been made to disappear is enormous in Sri Lanka.

During the second JVP uprising in 88, 89, it has reported that more than 60 odd thousand people went missing, officially, I think around 30,000 was acknowledged but it is believed that more than sixty thousand youth went missing.

Now, people can’t just go missing. They are not objects that fall between cracks and can’t be found later. They are made to disappear and subsequently during the long armed conflict that raged in the North and the East and particularly during the last phase, tens of thousands have gone missing.

Continue reading ‘“People cant just go missing. They are made to disappear.During the long armed conflict that raged in the North and the East and particularly during the last phase,tens of thousands have gone missing” -MA Sumanthiran MP’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

Sri Lanka’s one and only Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka is very much in the news lately. The Gampaha district MP and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) chairman launched a “People’s Revolution”protest campaign against waste, corruption, irregularities and mismanagement on 11 August 2023. This has led to strong speculation that the former Army Commander and ex-chief of Defence staff will act independently and throw his hat into the forthcoming presidential election ring.

The possibility of Sarath Fonseka being a presidential contender has revived memories of the 2010 Presidential election. It may be recalled that Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka then a four star General retired from the Army and challenged the then incumbent president Mahendra Percy Rajapaksa at the 2010 presidential poll as the common opposition candidate. It was as if Bernard Montgomery had contested against Winston Churchill after World War 2 or Sam Manekshaw had competed with Indira Gandhi after the Bangladesh war!

After a hectic elections campaign marred by allegations of fraudulence, abuse of state resources and violence, the poll was held on Jan 26th 2010. Mahinda Rajapaksa came first with 6,015,934 or 57.88% of the vote Sarath Fonseka came second with 4,173,185 votes, or 40.15%. Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed office again as executive president.

Barely two weeks later on the night of February 8th 2010 , the former army commander was forcibly arrested by members of the very same army he had led only a few months ago.

When Sarath Fonseka was arrested there was very little media publicity about the manner and mode in which he was arrested. Though information was scanty at the time of the arrest, this writer was then the first to report the circumstances of the ex-army chief’s arrest in English. This irritated the powers that be and their acolytes very much then.

Revealing the stark details of how soldiers arrested their erstwhile army commander and how the valiant soldier resisted arrest, exposed the cruel irony of the army being utilised as an instrument to persecute the retired army commander who had dared challenge the then ruling Rajapaksa clan by contesting as the common opposition candidate. It is against this backdrop therefore that I am revisiting in this week’s column – with the aid of earlier writings – the arrest of Sarath Fonseka 13 years ago.

Continue reading ‘“Operation Fonny”: Shameful Arrest of Ex-Army Chief Sarath Fonseka by the Army he had Commanded.’ »

(Text of Statement by Marc-André Franchethe UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances – 30 August 2023)

As the world marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, our thoughts turn to the victims of this heinous crime and those who have suffered the anguish of not knowing the fate of their loved ones. This day resonates deeply in Sri Lanka, where many families and communities across the country have endured years of uncertainty and suffering, forced to live in the shadows of unanswered questions.

Enforced disappearances have left a painful scar on the nation’s history and continue to shape the lives of thousands of Sri Lankans who exist in a state of ambiguity, where their loved ones are neither present nor definitively absent. With little progress in the last decades, families in Sri Lanka are struggling more than ever to learn the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. Their relentless pursuit for answers has often exposed them to further victimization – intimidation, stigma, and marginalization.

Continue reading ‘Enforced disappearances have left a painful scar on the nation’s history and continue to shape the lives of thousands of Sri Lankans who exist in a state of ambiguity, where their loved ones are neither present nor definitively absent.’ »

IT industry leader Mano Sekaram has been appointed as Norway’s Honorary Consul General to Sri Lanka. After three decades of operation, the Government of Norway made the decision to wind up operations in Sri Lanka, as of 31 July. This comes as part of a reform initiative.

“To continue preserving the strong ties between Sri Lanka and Norway, our very own Mano Sekaram has been officially appointed Norway’s Honorary Consul General to Sri Lanka.

Continue reading ‘Mano Sekaram, Founder and CEO of 99X , Appointed as Norway’s Honorary Consul General to Sri Lanka.’ »

Meera Srinivasan

What do musician TM Krishna, writer Perumal Murugan, historian AR Venkatachalapathy, and publisher Kannan Sundaram have in common with audiences in Jaffna? Their shared interest in all things art, literature, and history. During their recent visit to this northern Sri Lankan town, it was hard to miss both, their connection with the audience, and the camaraderie among themselves.

Literature buffs and students gathered last week at the Kailasapathy auditorium — named after the renowned Sri Lankan Tamil journalist-turned-scholar — at the University of Jaffna, to listen to academics discuss Krishna’s book Maraikkapatta Mrudanga Sirpigal – Sebastian Kudumba Kalai, the Tamil translation of his acclaimed Sebastian And Sons: A Brief History Of The Mridangam Makers. The Tamil translation, by DI Aravindan for Kalachuvadu Publications, was not unfamiliar to many in the audience.

“TM Krishna’s different writings are part of our syllabus now. His perspective as a practitioner and researcher of the sociology of the arts offers an important entry point to our histories,” said T Sanathanan, who heads the University’s Fine Arts Department.

The speakers touched upon various facets of the book, endorsing Krishna’s insider argument on the erasure of the identity and labour of the makers of the mridangam, a percussion instrument integral to the Carnatic concert stage. They pointed to the underlying exploitation and oppression in the making of the mridangam, that Krishna foregrounds in the book.

Continue reading ‘Historian AR Venkatachapalathy, musician TM Krishna, Kalachuvadu publisher Kannan Sundaram and writer Perumal Murugan from Tamil Nadu Engage in Stimulating Discussions with Jaffna Audiences about Art,Literature and History’ »

By

Meera Srinivasan and Dinakar Peri

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka over the coming weekend, defence sources confirmed. The visit comes at a time when the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry is considering a fresh request from China to allow the visit of a research ship.

The Defence Minister is scheduled to go on a two-day visit to the island nation, two defence sources confirmed. As per Sri Lankan media reports, Mr. Singh is expected to visit Trincomalee where India is jointly investing in the joint development of Oil Tank farm, under an agreement signed in January 2022.

Last week, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry acknowledged receiving a request from the Chinese Embassy. The research vessel Shiyan-6 is expected to arrive in October. This request comes shortly after a Chinese warship docked at the Colombo Port from August 10 to August 12, exactly a year after the visit of a Chinese vessel ‘Yuan Wang-5’ caused a major diplomatic showdown between New Delhi and Colombo.

Continue reading ‘Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be in Sri Lanka this week-end on a Two -day Trip; expected to visit Trincomalee where India is jointly investing in the joint development of Oil Tank farm’ »

By

Sunil Tantirige

Flashback to September 2021:

In September 2021 my sister texted me. “Sunil Perera of Gypsies has been readmitted to the ICU.” He had contracted covid-19 about a month ago and had been discharged from the hospital a couple of weeks ago. “This is bad.” I texted my sister back. Just few minutes later came the bombshell text from her. “It was just announced. Sunil is dead.”

I felt as if a family member had passed on. He was not just Sunil Perera of Gypsies. He was “sunil ayya” to so many of us, who knew him only from his songs and his performances. My sister, who is older to him, still calls him Sunil ayya. He was larger than life. Many celebrities disappoint you when they come under public scrutiny. Not him. What you saw was what you got.

He and his band of brothers came to our attention in early seventies. I grew up in Mount Lavinia. His family was from the neighbouring town of Moratuwa, so we would see them in Mount, Ratmalana, Moratuwa areas frequently. I remember one evening I was at the Mount beach with a bunch of friends. Close to us was another small group of boys our age. We were doing our thing; they were doing theirs.

Suddenly one of my friends recognized them. “Hey guys, those are the Gypsies. Let’s go and say hi.” We walked over and talked with them for few minutes. Sunil was there, but he did not say a word. That was the first time that I came face to face with someone who would be a legend among us.

Continue reading ‘Going Down Memory Lane : A Few Thoughts about Sunil Perera of the Gypsies’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

There has been in recent times a spurt of Ranil bashing in Sri Lankan Tamil circles. Many Tamil politicians as well as significant sections of the Tamil media are being highly critical of President Ranil Wickremesinghe these days. What fuels Tamil criticism of Ranil is his allegedly duplicitous conduct on the question of implementing the 13th Constitutional amendment. He is being accused of not being sincere in this and is merely paying lip service. Some even allege unfairly that the president’s hidden agenda is to stultify the provincial councils in practice.

The irony in this is that President Wickremesinghe is being attacked by self -styled Sinhala ultra-nationalists over the same 13th Amendment issue. Only in this case Ranil is being accused of dancing to the Tamil tune and attempting to implement the 13th Amendment in full. This according to the Sinhala hawks will lead to the establishment of Tamil Eelam and negate the gains of the military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE). It appears that the adherents of “Gota Chintanaya” are trying to make a political comeback by thumping chauvinist drums again.

While Wickremesinghe is being condemned for betraying the Sinhala nation by persons claiming to be Sinhala patriots, the so called Tamil nationalists charge him of craftily undermining Tamil interests. Ranil is frequently described as a “Nariththanthirasaali” ( person with foxy cunning). It is stated that the former LTTE political adviser Anton Balasingham had referred to Ranil as a “Kullanari” or cunning fox in the past.

Ranil Wickremesinghe was compared to a fox by Balasingham in 2005 when the LTTE enforced a boycott of the 2005 Presidential elections by Tamil voters in areas controlled by it. This enforced boycott too is being referred to constantly in the current anti-Ranil campaign. It is being repeated ad nauseam that the “mighty”LTTE had correctly identified Wickremesinghe as being duplicitous and had therefore ensured his defeat at the 2005 Presidential elections.

The November 2005 Presidential poll was the last presidential election in which Ranil Wickremesinghe contested. He lost to Mahinda Rajapaksa in that tussle. This was mainly due to the LTTE’s enforced boycott. Why I keep referring to it as “enforced boycott’is because the Tamil people did not refrain from voting voluntarily. Most of them were forced to do so by the LTTE through the forcibly enforced boycott.

What happened in 2005 was that the LTTE and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) together called openly for a boycott of the 2005 presidential poll in the predominantly Tamil areas. However the LTTE as was typical worked behind the scenes and enforced the boycott through violence and intimidation. Several lakhs of Tamil voters kept away or were kept away from the polling booths. In a fair and free election the bulk of these votes were likely to have been in favour of Ranil. As a result Wickremesinghe was deprived of around 250,000 to 300.000 Tamil votes.

Continue reading ‘How and Why the LTTE Helped Mahinda Rajapaksa Defeat Ranil Wickremesinghe in November 2005 Presidential Election.’ »

Tharushi Weerasinghe

The opening of a new charcoal factory in Arambekema, Thanamalwila has been halted following outrage from villagers who claim that it is in violation of a few environment protection laws and the terms of its contracts with the state. The company claims everything is approved by the state.

The charcoal factory, a Board of Investment project with 20 clay furnaces, belongs to Reitech Trading Pvt Ltd. According to the site manager, it is a 60/40 Sri Lanka-China partnership that is planning on exporting charcoal to Japan, China, and Korea primarily. Each furnace produces 1 ton of charcoal for every 4.5 tons of wood burned.

Site manager ‘Sajith’ who refused to give another name told the Sunday Times last week that the wood they would burn for charcoal would come from discarded wood from neighbouring wooded areas and gardens.

According to ‘Sajith’ the necessary Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) approvals had been obtained and the company also had an agreement with the DWC to use the waste wood from national parks near the charcoal factory, including Udawalawe National Park which is within eyesight from the factory site. This has also raised an issue of whether or not the charcoal factory was set up in the national park’s buffer zone, which the law stipulates is within a radius of 1 km from any park under the DWC.

Continue reading ‘People of Thanamalwila Protest Strongly Against Charcoal Factory in Arambakema; BOI Approved Lanka-China Project to Burn 4.5 Tons of Wood to Produce 1 Ton of Charcoal for Export to China.Japan and Korea.’ »

By

Kishali Pinto -Jayawardene

The Supreme Court’s striking down of Clause 2 (e) of the ‘Contempt of a Court, Tribunal or Institution’ Bill (gazetted on 26th June 2023) which had inexplicably brought in safeguarding ‘public order, public health and morals’ as an object of the Bill, is a relief.

Why are obviously bad clauses included in Bills?

This is so given that law-making in Sri Lanka seems to have been consigned to the devil’s playground. In its determination communicated to the Speaker recently, the Court found, quite sensibly, that no rational nexus could be established between ‘public order, health and morals’ and the purpose of the Bill. It was observed that this over-expanded the scope of the Bill, making the whole ambiguous. That is to state the obvious, I might say.
But the question arises as to whose bright idea was to include these completely inappropriate grounds in the first place? What if, for example, by some natural happenstance, the Bill had not been challenged in the Court? We would have had these nonsensical clauses passed into law in the House. This is not an unlikely scenario, to be clear. For example, many clauses in the country’s Personal Data Protection Act, No 9 of 2022 might have benefited from a meticulous scrutiny by the Court.

Unfortunately, the moment passed with no challenge to that Bill filed within the constitutionally prescribed time limits. These are the evil consequences that ensue when civic action/media groups and public interest litigators are caught yawning in circumstances where judicial oversight is of the utmost importance. As a result, we are inflicted with laws which cannot be rectified later for Sri Lanka has not conceded the power of judicial review to its courts.

Continue reading ‘The Supreme Court’s striking down of Clause 2 (e) of the ‘Contempt of a Court, Tribunal or Institution’ Bill, which had brought in safeguarding ‘public order, public health and morals’ as an object of the Bill, is a relief.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

The conduct and pronouncements of some prominent Sinhala Buddhist monks have in recent times contributed greatly towards the deterioration of inter-ethnic amity and inter-faith relations in this country. It is indeed a matter of grave concern that the “antics” of these “patriotic” Buddhist monks have created a very negative image of the Buddhist clergy among the Island’s non -Buddhists in general and North-eastern Tamils in particular.The disproportionate coverage provided by sections of the mainstream media to these politicised Bhikkus has created an impression that the Buddhist clergy in Sri Lanka is totally opposed to the Tamil people.

This negative perception is not true. There have been many Buddhist Monks who interacted amicably with the Tamil people in a spirit of friendship and goodwill. These members of the Buddhist clergy who rarely got involved in politics earned the trust, respect and devotion of the Tamil people with whom they enjoyed a cordial relationship.

It is in this context therefore that this column focuses this week on a Buddhist prelate from the “Sinhala South” who was much loved by the Tamil people in a Northern Island. I am of course referring to the Venerable Brahmanawatte Dhammakiththi Tissa Mahanayaka Thera , the former Viharadhipathi of the Nagadeepa Raja Maha Vihara in Jaffna. The respected Mahanayake Thera who was the Nagadeepa Viharadhipathy for 55 years, passed away on 15 April 2003. This year marks the 20th death anniversary of the beloved Buddhist prelate who was much adored by the Tamil people of the northern Island known in Tamil as Nainatheevu.

Continue reading ‘The Nagadeepa Buddhist Prelate who was Much Adored by the Nainatheevu Tamil People.’ »

By Krishantha Prasad Cooray

Today, it is hard to open a newspaper or watch a newscast without cringing at how little has changed in our political psyche since the rout of Gotabaya Rajapaksa just over a year ago. Of course, with Rajapaksa himself out of power, Sri Lanka is no longer careening towards the edge of a cliff, but things could be so much better if only our political class learned any lessons from the Aragalaya.

Across both sides of the aisle, we see the same faces, giving the same stump speeches, making the same demands, and remaining obsessed with eking out more votes. To borrow a phrase from James Freeman Clarke, they are obsessed with the next election, and unconcerned about the plight of future generations.

Nowhere is this clearer than the petulance with which most political parties have responded to President Ranil Wickremasinghe’s recent call to give serious consideration to the devolution of executive power to the provinces of Sri Lanka.

The nationalists are clutching their pearls at the very idea of power sharing. When they hear “provinces”, they think “Tamils and Muslims”. Some of them say “we” won “the war”, and so power can stay where it is. Others take the position that no matter how much a policy helps the Sinhalese, it should not be done if it could also help minority communities to thrive.

As boneheaded and myopic as the nationalist stances are, at least they have a stance.

Liberals, such as those in the SJB whose leader and party platform have consistently stood for a full implementation of the 13th amendment in writing, seem unable to rise to the moment and articulate a stand in support of their own policy, seeing instead an opportunity to undermine a President who stuck his neck out by taking a bold and perhaps unpopular position.

Continue reading ‘If we had serious provincial government, Mangala Samaraweera would encourage every promising young leader to become a chief minister or provincial minister instead of hovering around Colombo.’ »

By

Ranga Jayasuriya

The rallying cry in political circles nowadays is a call for snap elections as if that would produce a magic wand to solve the economic crisis. This coterie of newly minted champions of electoral rights comes in all hues, many of whom do not see eye to eye on many issues.

By extension of their argument, the current government does not have a political mandate to fix the country’s broken economy, implement the IMF program or pursue debt restructuring.

Similarly, ultra-nationalist monks and usual race baiters argue that the president has no mandate for the full implementation of the 13th amendment- irrespective of the fact that the 13A is already part and parcel of the Constitution.

What percentage of the Sri Lankan population considers elections as the immediate priority is unknown. Opinion polls that survey the blatantly obvious- such as whether the public is unhappy with the country’s current status- have not asked whether the people want snap Parliamentary elections or provincial council elections.

Would a fresh electoral mandate provide a semblance of legitimacy, coherence and efficiency to implement the economic reform agenda?

Never mind, ousted Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected in a landslide.

Most destructive of his economic policies, such as sweeping tax concessions and his carbonic agricultural policy, were taken right off from his election manifesto.

The stubborn fact is that Sri Lankans historically have never voted for economic reforms or to drag the country out of its persistent subpar economic performance. Like it or not, they have voted against it.

Continue reading ‘Though Ranil Wickremesinghe prefers to shoot from the mouth, he is neither Pinochet nor Lee Kuan Yew and would chicken out at the sight of one big orchestrated protest against life-saving economic reforms.’ »

By

Tisaranee Gunasekara

“On this earth there are pestilences and there are victims – and as far as possible one must refuse to be on the side of the pestilence.” – Camus (The Plague)

“Patriotism,” wrote Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary is “The combustible rubbish ready to the torch of anyone ambitious to illuminate his name.” Patriotism is not the last refuge of the scoundrel, as Samuel Johnson famously said, Bierce added, it is the first.

In Sri Lanka, a group of politicians and political monks are making a concerted effort to inflame Sinhala-Buddhist “patriotism” to regain relevance. A chilling case in point for this pyromaniac politics is what didn’t happen in Kurundi on August 18.

On August 16, parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila (who once upheld Gotabaya Rajapaksa as a composite of Vladimir Putin, Jawaharlal Nehru, Fidel Castro, Mahathir Mohammad and Lee Kuan Yew) called a media conference and proclaimed that Tamil politicians were planning to build a kovil in Kurundi on August 18.

Posters went up exhorting Sinhalese to wake up and save Kurundi in bald red letters. The goal was obvious – rile up enough Sinhalese and make them congregate in Kurundi on August 18 to save this essential piece of motherland from the modern day descendants of Kalinga Maga.

Mr. Gammanpila’s story about a plan to build a kovil on August 18 was a barefaced lie. A group of Tamil residents had been permitted by the Mullaitivu magistrate court to hold a Hindu religious ceremony in Kurundi under conditions imposed by the Archaeological Department. That was all. But facts would have been irrelevant if the plan to enrage Sinhala-Buddhists had succeeded.

Had thousands of Sinhala-Buddhists descended on Kurundi, had they tried to prevent Tamil residents from holding their court sanctioned and Archaeological Department permitted religious ceremony, an outbreak of violence might have ensued. In this age of social media, a tsunami of rumours would have followed with bloodcurdling tales of how venerable monks and pious devotees were attacked by marauding Tamils. Monks led mobs would have appeared in the East and the South, willing to kill and burn for the motherland.

Continue reading ‘What the Sinhala-Buddhist supremacists want from judges is not even – handedness but bias. A judiciary that will always rule for Sinhala-Buddhists is their idea of an ideal judiciary.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

Lakshman Kadirgamar’s 18th death anniversary was observed last Saturday. The former foreign minister fell victim to a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) sniper in Colombo on 12 August 2005. Kadirgamar was one who defined himself first and foremost as a Sri Lankan. This endeared Kadirgamar to a very large number of Sri Lankans. However the fact remains that he was by ethnicity a Tamil and a Christian by religion. His parents hailed from Jaffna.

I have written extensively about Lakshman Kadirgamar over the years, so much so that his only daughter Ajita has stated in her book about her father that D.B.S. Jeyaraj has written about LK possibly more than any other journalist. Ajita Kadirgamar’s eminently readable book about Lakshman Kadirgamar is titled “The Cake That Was Baked At Home.”

According to Ajita, the book has 78 references to lines and passages from my articles. She even says on one page that she ‘would almost term me as ‘LK’s unofficial biographer’. It is against this backdrop therefore that I write on Lakshman Kadirgamar drawing on some of my earlier writings also. This article focuses on Lakshman Kadirgamar’s Jaffna Tamil Christian heritage.

Continue reading ‘The Jaffna Tamil Christian Heritage of Sri Lanka’s Former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.’ »

By

Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene

For the starry-eyed among us, it must be repeated with force that President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s sharp admonition to the Supreme Court recently (ie; Parliament has powers over public finance, orders or instructions will not be tolerated from ‘anyone else’) is not a chance political remark tossed into public debate.

Going beyond debt restructuring priorities

Rather, this is a specific message with dire undertones for the people and the judiciary alike. As such, it cannot be taken lightly or shrugged away casually. For that reason, we return to this Presidential messaging with intent to examine its ramifications beyond the present context of Sri Lanka’s domestic debt restructuring. As was observed in these column spaces last week, the President’s remarks must be read in tandem with the Speaker’s ruling soon after.

That was to the effect that the 1st July 2023 parliamentary resolution on domestic debt restructuring is ‘beyond the jurisdiction of the Court.’ The ruling was in the context of fundamental rights petitions filed to the apex court, particularly challenging the impact that the debt restructuring will have on worker funds (EPF/ETF). That reasoning proceeded on the basis that ‘a parliamentary proceeding’ cannot be questioned by the Supreme Court.

In what a wit might characterise as irony of the most palpable kind, the ruling was delivered on the same day (and before) the Court dismissed some of the petitions so filed before it. In its wake, the question was asked in genuine puzzlement as to how and in what way, does the act of filing a fundamental rights challenge per se, constitute ‘‘impeachment’ or ‘questioning’ of a parliamentary resolution or a ‘proceeding’?

Continue reading ‘.Colombo’s elite seems to Opine that President Wickremesinghe is the only one who can deliver us from this economic devastation and therefore therefore he must be given full leeway.’ »

By

Meera Srinivasan

China has pledged help for Sri Lanka’s debt challenge yet again,even as theRanil Wickremesinghe government tries to finalise the terms of restructuring its foreign loans with bilateral creditors.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday “vowed that China will help Sri Lanka effectively address the challenges of financial debt”, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, who was the chief guest at the ongoing China-South Asia Exhibition in Kunming, in China’s southern Yunnan Province.

Mr. Wang “vowed that China will help Sri Lanka improve its capacity for independent development, get rid of the poverty trap and the trap of non-development, accelerate its industrialisation process and agricultural modernisation.” Mr. Gunawardena, who earlier called China a “decisive global leader”, thanked the government for its “firm support” for Sri Lanka in “safeguarding its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for its timely and effective assistance” to Sri Lanka in times of difficulty, the PM’s office said on Thursday.

Continue reading ‘China reiterates support for Sri Lanka’s debt relief ahead of crucial IMF review but Sri Lanka and bilateral lenders are yet to reach agreement on a debt treatment plan’ »

By

Meera Srinivasan

Some in the group had walked over 200 kilometres, before they reached Matale last weekend. Their feet were visibly sore, but their spirit was intact. They sang, danced, and chanted slogans, as they converged at the Muthumariamman Temple in the hilly town, where their ancestors arrived 200 years ago.

While some members covered the entire walk, spanning 16 days and about 250 kilometres, others joined the group for select stretches. The church and various civil society groups supported the march along the way, apart from local communities that lined up along road margins to welcome the group with snacks and beverages.

Through the long march — from Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province to Matale in the Central Province —members of the Malaiyaha [Hill country] Tamil community sought to symbolically retrace their south Indian ancestors’ arduous journey, when the British brought them to Sri Lanka’s northern borders by sea, to work in coffee, tea, rubber, and coconut plantations in the central and southern parts of the island.

Continue reading ‘Members of Sri Lanka’s Malaiyaha Tamil community Complete Symbolic March from Thalaimannar to Matale: walked over 250 km in a fortnight to mark 200 years since their ancestors’ arrival from South India in Sri Lanka’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

18th Death Annivwrsary on 12 August 2023.

Sri Lanka’s finest Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated in Colombo by a suspected sniper of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on 12 August 2005. His death was mourned by the nation at large as a tremendous loss to the country. The void caused in Sri Lanka’s foreign affairs sphere after the demise of this great statesman was never filled properly.

I have written extensively about Lakshman Kadirgamar over the years, so much so that his only daughter Ajita has stated in her book about her father that “D.B.S. Jeyaraj has written about LK possibly more than any other journalist.”

Ajita Kadirgamar’s eminently readable book about Lakshman Kadirgamar is titled ‘The Cake That Was Baked At Home’. According to Ajita, the book has 78 references to lines and passages from my articles. She even says on one page that she ‘would almost term me as “LK’s unofficial biographer”’.

Lakshman Kadirgamar’s 18th death anniversary is being commemorated today (12 Aug 2023 )It is against this backdrop therefore that I write on Lakshman Kadirgamar again drawing on some of my earlier writings also. The focus would be more from a personal angle.

Continue reading ‘Lakshman Kadirgamar was Sri Lanka’s Finest Foreign Minister.’ »

By
ZIYA US SALAM & ILANGOVAN RAJASEKARAN

BACK in 1979, when Sridevi marked her entry into Hindi cinema as the female lead in Solva Sawan (a remake of the path-breaking 16 Vayadhinile in Tamil) opposite Amol Palekar, no one thought she had a ghost of a chance in Bollywood. Hers was far from the dream girl image of Hindi film audiences, who liked their heroines to be “fair and beautiful”.

Solva Sawan was a flash in the pan, and Sridevi went back to south India where she had carved a niche for herself in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada cinema. But for anyone to have a truly pan-Indian popularity, Hindi cinema had to be captured. Leaving aside her nuanced performances in Tamil, Sridevi chose the rumbustious, almost ribald, Telugu cinema as her vehicle to the Hindi heartland.
Hindi movie audiences then were divided between those who watched Amitabh Bachchan films and those who did not. Sridevi catered to the latter audience. Thus came about director K. Raghavendra Rao’s Himmatwala , a 1983 remake of Ooruki Monagadu in Telugu. With songs such as “Nainon mein sapna” and “Taki o taki” in it, the film gave her more than a foothold in the industry. It gave her an identity, a tag. Thenceforth, Sridevi was the quintessential sex symbol.

As Tohfa , Mawaali , Maqsad and Majaal had their voyeuristic appeal, nobody suspected Sridevi of having a Lamhe in her, which showcased her talent as a seasoned actor.

Incidentally, in all these films, fellow south Indian actor Jaya Prada was her co-star. Unlike Sridevi, Jaya Prada came as a dancing sensation in K. Viswanath’s Sargam and found immediate acceptance.
While Jaya Prada appealed to family audiences, Sridevi wooed male audiences with her charm. Such was her sex appeal that when other south Indian actors such as Rambha and Bhanupriya entered Hindi cinema in subsequent years, publicists sought to capitalise on Sridevi’s popularity with catchphrases such as “She is not Sridevi. She is Rambha.” There could only be one Sridevi.

In almost all of her early films, the heroes were much older and well past their prime, thereby ensuring that the heroine got a fair footage in them. Thus the likes of Jeetendra, Rajesh Khanna and Dharmendra starred opposite Sridevi in many Hindi films in the evening of their careers.

Continue reading ‘Iconic Actress Sridevi’s Memorable Performances were with the Three Bbhishmas” of Tamil cinema, Balachander, Balu Mahendra , Bharathiraja and Mahendran.’ »

By
Kamal Haasan

(Kamal Haasan is an actor-turned politician and founder, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM)

Our nation, a mosaic of religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural plurality, celebrates its modern rebirth today. This journey has been filled with love and hate, pain and joy, and highs and lows. And yet we march on. Our tryst with destiny continues.
In 1947, the western world gave only a little chance for India to survive as a democracy. How would India feed itself? How would a country so diverse remain integrated? How would a largely illiterate population function as a democracy?

The East is awakening

What the West failed to realise then was a reawakening of a civilisation with a cultural history that dates back millennia. In the 21st century, as western civilisations decline, an epoch is fading. And in its place the civilisations of the east, finally unshackled from the chains of bondage, are awakening.

The journey of modern India has not been without its ebbs and flows. What the West considered our Achilles heel, i.e., our diversity, has proven to be India’s greatest strength. South and west India became the manufacturing hubs of the country, the east its resource repository, and the north its bread basket.

The founding fathers of our republic had the foresight to establish a constitutional scheme which harnessed the power of our diversity. Secularism, federalism, universal franchise, and the freedom of speech and religion created a spirit of fairness and justice that accommodated our linguistic, regional, religious divides under the rule of law.

Continue reading ‘“At our core we are a just, spiritual and peace-loving people. We are the children of Buddha and Ashoka, Ambedkar and Gandhi, Thiruvalluvar and Periyar” – Kamal Haasan.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

The Jaffna Municipal Council elections held on 29 January 1998 resulted in Sarojini Yogeswaran of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) being elected as the first Mayoress of Jaffna. Sarojini, the widow of former TULF Jaffna MP Vettivelu Yogeswaran assumed duties as Jaffna’s fourteenth mayor on 11 March 1998. The first woman mayor of Jaffna was murdered in cold blood by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) on 17th May 1998.

Sarojini Yogeswaran whom I called Saro Akka (elder sister) was a sensitive soul. She and her husband Yoges Annan were quite fond of me. I had partaken of Saro Akka’s kind hospitality on many occasions in Jaffna and Madras (now Chennai). When she was killed in 1998, I wrote two articles for “The Island” edited by Gamini Weerakoon and “The Sunday Leader” edited by Lasantha Wickrematunge. In this article I will be re-visiting the killing of Sarojini Yogeswaran with the aid of those writings in a bid to denote the 25th anniversary of the death of Jaffna’s first Mayoress.

The first lady of Jaffna was at her residence in Nallur on that fateful Sunday morning. Paramasivam a retired Co-operative dept employee was with her. He was the administrative assistant of the Jaffna mayoress. Sarojini Yogeswaran was discussing with Paramasivam ,her intended relocation from her house in the interior to another one on the main Kandy road. The reason being to facilitate greater interaction with the residents of Jaffna.

Continue reading ‘Jaffna’s First Mayoress Sarojini Yogeswaran was a True Heroine of the Tamil People.’ »

Veteran Sri Lankan journalist, Srimal Abeyewardene, passed away at the age of 79 last week in Toronto, Canada.

He leaves behind a legacy that spans five decades in the media industry and has significantly impacted the Sri Lankan community in Canada and beyond.

Over the course of his long career, Abeyewardene’s main achievement was the founding of The Sri Lanka Reporter, an award-winning English newspaper that catered to the Sri Lankan community in Canada.

In Canada, Abeyewardene bridged ethnic divides as he expanded the publication that fostered community unity.

Continue reading ‘Veteran Journalist Srimal Abeyewardene , Founder -Editor of “Sri Lanka Reporter, Passes awayat the age of 79 in Toronto,Canada’ »

By

Kishali Pinto -Jayawardene

Hammer blows seem to be coming swiftly and cruelly from core points of political power in Sri Lanka, impacting hard on the country’s apex court.

Was all this hot air warranted?

First, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has resorted to his favorite tom-tom beat by warning the courts off interfering into what he thinks is just and good. This sentiment, fast evolving into an alarming stamp of this Presidency, was phrased in veiled terms, (ironically) to a forum of coconut growers who may have been justly bewildered as to this brouhaha had to do with the besieged coconut industry and their own plight.

The President was thoroughly miffed that petitions had been filed in the Supreme Court by opposition political parties challenging aspects of the restructuring process. Sri Lanka’s domestic debt restructuring process is a matter for Parliament which has sole control over public finance, he said, adding that ‘we cannot take orders or instructions from anyone else.’ There is little doubt as to who this ‘anyone else’ may be.

But as much as the coconut growers in question would have been bewildered by all of this, the bewilderment transcends that space. We are also gripped by that same confusion. It is a fact that Parliament has sole control over public finance. That does not require special Presidential emphasis. Instead, President Wickremesinghe may have been better advised to have spoken about the abdication of that ‘sole control’ over public finances by the House during the past few years.

Continue reading ‘The President was thoroughly miffed that petitions had been filed in the Supreme Court by opposition political parties challenging aspects of the restructuring process. Regardless, was it reasonable for the President to lash out in this way?’ »

By
Meera Srinivasan

A Chinese warship that arrived in Colombo on August 10 will be docking at the Colombo Port until August 12, the Sri Lankan Navy has said, exactly a year after the visit of a Chinese vessel caused diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Colombo.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy warship ‘Hai Yang 24 Hao’ is at the port of Colombo on a “formal visit”, according to a media statement from the Sri Lankan Navy. The 129 metre-long-ship is manned by a crew of 138 members, and is helmed by Commander Jin Xin, the Navy said, amid local media reports of “initial resistance” from India.

The Colombo-based newspaper Daily Mirror on August 11 reported that Chinese authorities had sought permission for the vessel’s visit earlier, “but Sri Lanka delayed permission because of resistance from India.”

Continue reading ‘Chinese warship ‘Hai Yang 24 Hao’ docks at Colombo Port; “India is fully aware of the vessel’s visit and has not expressed any concern over It” says Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence spokesman Col. Nalin Herath sman Col. Nalin Herath’ »

By
Bharathy Singaravel

Leave logic at home, go for the Rajinism. Director Nelson Dileepkumar and the Superstar offer a film that may have gaping plot holes, but you wouldn’t really care. Jailer is an undiluted adrenaline rush for the diehard Rajini fan. The star brings his trademark larger-than-life mannerisms into Nelson’s quirky storytelling: a combination that works like a perfect charm.

The film opens with an idol smuggling ring that Muthuvel Pandian’s (Rajini) son Arjun (Vasanth Ravi), a dedicated cop, is trying to bring down until tragedy strikes. Rajini’s clash with the smuggling ring builds up to a heist thriller reminiscent of Nelson’s Sivakarthikeyan-starrer Doctor (2021), only Jailer manages to top it.

The villains, with Malayalam actor Vinayakan in the lead, swing between cartoonishly ridiculous to manically bloodthirsty. Bullets, blood, and bodies fly.

Rajini makes mass entry after mass entry. Anirudh’s music frequently spirals into frenzied guitar riffs and pounding percussion. The cameos of Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar, and Jackie Shroff will be immensely satisfying to their respective fans.

Continue reading ‘The Combination of Superstar Rajinikanth and Director Nelson Dileepkumar works out Perfectly in their film “Jailer” to Provide Fans with an Undiluted Adrenaline Rush’ »

By
D.B.S.Jeyaraj

The Political struggle of the Sri Lankan Tamils to have their grievances redressed and lost rights restored has brought forth many “quiet” heroes. I say quiet because these persons never sought publicity or praise. They gave up their comfortable existence and served their community in many ways. Many of them refused to kowtow before authoritative Governments as well as autocratic armed groups. Some of them paid the supreme price for their courageous defiance. Sadly the sacrificial contributions made by such people is unacknowledged and even forgotten.This week’s column focuses on such a person. A man who accomplished much for his people but was cruelly abducted and killed 35 years ago by the armed Tamil group EROS (Eelam Revolutionary Organization )

Kandiah Kanthasamy was a Jaffna-born lawyer who enjoyed a lucrative practice in Colombo. Yet he turned his life around by transforming himself into a human rights lawyer and human rights activist. He also dedicated himself to a life of service that attempted in many ways to alleviate the suffering of thousands of Tamils displaced by the anti-Tamil violence of 1977,1981 and 1983 and also during the military conflict in the North and East of Sri Lanka. Kandasamy also strove in multiple ways to highlight the racist discrimination and human rights violations targeting Tamils and draw international attention.

Among the many organizations and institutions he set up or played a key role in setting up were the Tamil Refugees Rehabilitation Organisation (Colombo, later Jaffna), Central British Fund For Tamil Refugees (UK); Theepan Research Institute (Jaffna); New Era Publication Ltd, publishers of Saturday Review of (Jaffna), Home For Human Rights (Jaffna) , Tamil Information Centre (UK) Tamil Information Centre, later Tamil Information and Research Unit (Madras), Tamil Information Centre (Madurai); Movement For Integration Of Refugees and Repatriates (Madurai). He was also engaged in the process of establishing in Jaffna an institute for Communication Research and another Institute for Development Research when he was abducted and killed by the Tamil militant group Eelam Revolutionary Organization (EROS). The 35th anniversary of his demise was observed last June.

Why then did the EROS abduct and kill Kanthsamy a man who did so much for the Tamil people?Likewise why did Tamil militant groups at different times kill so many Tamils who served the Tamil people to the best of their ability? The standard answer to these questions is – the wrong course adopted by those involved in the Tamil armed struggle!

Continue reading ‘The Abduction and Killing of Human Rights Activist and Lawyer K.Kanthasamy by the EROS 35 Years ago.’ »

(Text of Special statement delivered by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament on August 9th 2023)

The provincial council system was introduced in 1987 through the 13th Amendment to the constitution. This system has been operational in our country for 36 years. Nevertheless, numerous issues surround the implementation of the 13th Amendment, as well as the functioning of provincial councils.

If our nation is to progress, these problems must be addressed. The 13th Amendment needs to be implemented in a manner that aligns with our country’s development and future. This can only be achieved if all parliament members come to a consensus after thorough and open-minded discussions. To facilitate this, we recently organized an all-party conference, which saw participation from representatives of various political parties, for which I am appreciative.

However, during the conference, we couldn’t arrive at a comprehensive agreement on power devolution. Divergent perspectives on a specific national decentralization program were evident. It became apparent that certain political parties were hesitant to share their ideas, possibly due to past negative experiences from prior all-party conferences.

It’s time to change this situation. We should shift away from the convention of viewing the opposition’s role solely as criticizing the government’s actions. Let’s also abstain from making decisions without considering opposition viewpoints. We must act with assurance and accountability. Our country’s progress hinges on collective advancement along a new path. Let’s work towards establishing this new approach.

I want to reiterate a point I consistently emphasize: instead of dwelling on the past, let’s focus on the future. Yes, we’ve encountered challenges in the past, but let’s refrain from debating them and instead concentrate on envisioning the country’s future. With genuine intentions, let’s unite and make joint decisions that consider the nation’s future.

Have we achieved success in implementing the provincial councils through the 13th Amendment over the past 36 years? Or has it been a failure? What factors have contributed to either outcome? Let’s engage in a discussion on this matter. Let’s delve deeper, examine new global trends, and explore cases worldwide.

Continue reading ‘“The devolution of power within provincial councils is governed by the 13th Constitutional Amendment, which holds the status of the highest law of our nation. We cannot afford to disregard it. Both the executive and the legislature are obligated to execute its provisions.”- President Ranil Wickremesinghe’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

Jeyaraj’s Jottings

The fifth death anniversary of former Tamil Nadu chief minister and Dravidian Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) party leader M.Karunanidhi was commemorated on Monday 7 July 2023. Karunanidhi’s son and current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin led a peace march in memory of his father. Stalin was joined by his sister Kanimozhi, son Udhayanidhi, cabinet colleagues and scores of party workers.Stalin led the peace march on the Wallajah Salai here, and it culminated at the former CM’s memorial at the Marina Beach.

Muthuvel Karunanidhi, known to the Tamil-speaking world as “Kalaignar” (artiste), passed away at the age of 94 in Chennai on 7 August 2018. Karunanidhi was a versatile, multi-faceted personality. In his eventful life “Kalaignar” was a journalist, editor, dramatist, stage actor, film script writer, short story writer, novelist, literary commentator, poet, lyricist, film producer and TV channel proprietor. He has written the story or screenplay without dialogues for 11 other films.

Continue reading ‘Fifth Death Anniversary of Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Leader “Kalaignar” Karunanidhi Commemorated on 7 August 2023.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

This special three -part article denoting the 40th the “Black July” anti-Tamil pogrom concludes this week. The first part of this article published on 12 July 2023 titled “Black July: Anatomy of an Anti-Tamil Pogrom” was a brief overview of the horrific anti-Tamil violence that engulfed the Sri Lankan nation in July 1983. The second part of this article published on 19 July 2023 focussed primarily on how “Black July” began in 1983 and its consequences.This week’s article strikes a personal note by narrating the experience of my family and I during the dark days of Black July in 1983.

This week’s “political pulse” column in a sense is a “first” for me. Although I have written extensively about Black July in the past, I have never written about those happenings from a personal perspective. As a Sri Lankan Tamil journalist, Black July did have an effect on me in both personal and professional capacities. Furthermore my family – like thousands of other Tamil families – was also affected and displaced during those turbulent times.

Yet, I have refrained from writing about the impact of Black July on our family for two reasons. Firstly I was spared the full blast of that violence because I was not in Colombo then. I was on assignment to cover the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) party convention in Mannar. Secondly my family members though affected were fortunate in not having to undergo suffering or suffer losses on the scale of what some other Tamil families underwent then.

My family was forced to abandon home in Ratmalana and hide among bushes in a marsh infested by Kabaragoyas and snakes to avoid a mob. Both my father and brother were caught up in a mob on the infamous “ tiger Friday” on 29 July 1983 and escaped miraculously. My mother and two sisters were compelled to relocate to Jaffna. Nevertheless our family felt blessed in the sense that none of us were killed or physically hurt. As such I never wrote about July 1983 from a personal angle because I thought my family’s experience did not warrant it. Also I did not want to revive those painful memories.

What changed my mind was the exceptionally large volume of responses I have been receiving – from persons known and unknown to me – since the publication of the first and second parts of this article. Most of these responses were about their own experiences during Black July. Many asked me specifically about my personal experience.

When I responded briefly, I was asked by many, to place this on record as other Black July victims had done and were doing. A particularly dear friend to whom I related some details insisted “write all this David. Every single thing”.It is against this backdrop therefore that I write this week on “My Family’s Experience of Black July Forty Years ago”. Much of what I write is what I heard from my family members about their ordeal.

Continue reading ‘My Family’s Experience of “Black July” Forty Years ago.’ »

By

Col R Hariharan |

President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s July 20-21 visit to New Delhi ended with India and Sri Lanka jointly evolving an economic partnership vision to speed up Sri Lanka’s economic recovery. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs released the India-Sri Lanka Economic Partnership Vision document on July 21, 2023 after the visiting President met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The document titled “Promoting Connectivity, Catalysing Prosperity: India-Sri Lanka Economic Partnership Vision” shows that both countries have agreed upon promoting multilateral connectivity for catalysing Sri Lanka’s economic recovery.

In the media statement released after the vision document was adopted, Prime Minister Narendra Modi summed up the vision – ‘to strengthen the maritime, air, energy and people-to-people connectivity’ between the two countries. The vision is to accelerate mutual-cooperation in tourism, power, trade, higher education and skill development. It said the vision was India’s long-term commitment towards Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka, the Vision statement is likely to be welcomed particularly the decision to allow the use of Indian rupee for trade settlement between the two countries and operationalising UPI based digital payment system.

However, some of the decisions like facilitating investment from India in the divestment of Sri Lankan state owned enterprises and discussing an Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement are likely to provoke the opposition protest.

Continue reading ‘Indian PM Narendra Modi is determined to win over the voters from Tamil Nadu in the 2024 parliamentary election. Resolving the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka will give him a huge leg up in the election, at least in BJP’s reckoning. President Wickremesinghe should not underestimate Premier Modi’ »

Ranga Jayasuriya

The All-Party Conference on the 13th Amendment convened last week (26) ended in predictable discord, but that was not so much for the hypocrisy of the convener, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as you might have already heard from a horde of lawmakers.

Hypocrisy was pervasive on all sides, but probably more so on the opposition, even more on the Tamil political representatives, the latter having harped on the inadequacy of the 13th Amendment throughout its existence, suddenly found a sense of urgency to hold provincial council elections and dismissed a rare opportunity that had brought together Southern political parties to explore the full implementation of the 13th Amendment.

That’s the kind of hypocrisy not called out by your usual NGO captains and other sections of chattering classes, whose criticism, don’t be naïve, is not about undermining Ranil Wickremesinghe as a person. If that is the case, that is all fine. But that is more about undermining the Sri Lankan state at one of its most feeble moments. That makes it not just hypocritical but also sinister.

On his part, President Wickremesinghe offered to negotiate the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, with amended police power and enhanced power in certain other areas, such as the powers granted to provincial councils to open universities, schools, industrial parks etc.

That is a bold gesture for a man who does not command the support of the Sinhalese majority. Generally, Southern leaders do not broach the topic of devolution from a position of weakness. Nor does it make them strong. The historical practice has been to retreat to Sinhala Buddhist nationalism to prop up their ranks.

To call Mr Wickremesinghe indulging in a political gimmick design to win Tamil voters is cheap talk. His detractors of the opposition allege that Mr Wickeremesinghe being sure that he would get Mahinda Rajapaksa’s nationalist votes, is now throwing breadcrumbs to Tamils to win the North.

Continue reading ‘TNA’s Political hypocrisy in rejecting the opportunity Provided by the All-party Conference to negotiate a substantial devolution of powers is to keep the Toxic Pot Boiling.’ »

By

D.B.S. Jeyaraj

History was made on 26 July 2023 when Sri Lanka born Gary Anandasangaree was appointed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Mniister of Crown –Indigenous Relations to his cabinet. Sathiyasangary Anandasangaree – who abbreviated his first name to Gary – will go down in Canadian history as the first Sri Lankan Tamil to become a Cabine tminister. Gary is the son of veteran Sri Lankan Tamil politician Veerasingham Anandasangaree.

Gary was one of seven new ministers inducted into the cabinet in a re-shuffle by Canada’s liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau. It is noteworthy that Gary placed his hand on the classical Tamil text “thirukkural”( sacred couplets) while being sworn in as a minister. The Thirukkural is a book of lofty maxims and is regarded by many Tamils as the “Thamizhmarai” or Tamil scripture.

Gary Anandasangaree has been a member of the Canadian Parliament (House of Commons) since 2015. He has been elected thrice on the Liberal Party ticket from the federal electoral district of Scarborough -Rouge Park in the province of Ontario.Prior to being appointed to the cabinet, Gary served as Parliamentary Secretary to three different ministers at different times.

The minister of Crown –Indigenous Relations is basically in charge of the affairs of Canada’s indigenous people and the lands reserved for indigenous people. The indigenous people are Inuits,Metis and the First Nations.There are 634 different bands or groups classified as First Nations.

The ministry’s mandate is to”renew the nation-to-nation, Inuit-Crown, government-to-government relationship between Canada and First Nations, Inuit and Métis; modernize Government of Canada structures to enable Indigenous peoples to build capacity and support their vision of self-determination; and lead the Government of Canada’s work in the North”.

In addition to being Canada’s first Sri Lankan Tamil cabinet minister , Gary is also Canada’s second Hindu cabinet minister. The first Hindu cabinet minister is Anita Indira Anand who was appointed by PM Trudeau as the federal minister of public service and procurement in 2019.She is currently the President of the Treasury board in the cabinet. Anita Anand is of Tamil -Punjabi parentage. Both parents are medical doctors from India. Her father V.Anand is from Tamil Nadu while her mother is from Punjab.

Even though Gary is the first Tamil cabinet minister, he is not the first Sri Lankan Tamil member of Parliament. That laurel went to Sri Lanka born Rathika Sitsabaiesan in 2011. She was elected to Parliament from the Scarborough -Rouge river constituency on the New Democratic Party (NDP) ticket. In 2015, she contested the Scarborough North riding and lost.

Veerasingham Anandasangaree

Gary Anandasangaree is the youngest son of former Kilinochchi and Jaffna MP and secretary-general of the Tamil United Liberation fFont (TULF) Veerasingham Anandasangaree. The veteran Tamil political leader has a son and two daughters by his first wife. After her demise, Sangaree married Gary’s mother Satgunawathie known widely as Yogam.

Gary was initially named Sathiyasangary. He shortened it to Gary later. Gary’s father and his male siblings were all named Sangaree by their father Veerasingham a respected school principal. Each one’s name ended as Sangary or Sangaree. This practice was followed by Veerasingham master’s sons also. They named their sons Sangaree/ry. Hence Gary was named Sathiyasangary and his elder brother who also lives in Canada was named Jeyasangary .Likewise other male cousins also have names ending as Sangarees or Sangary.

Sathiyasangary was born in Jaffna on 14 October 1972. He had his primary schooling in Atchuvely. In fact Gary’s “Aedu Thuvakkal” (an auspicious ceremony for a child commencing studies) was conducted by his paternal grandfather Veerasingham himself. However Gary’s parents got estranged after some years and split up in 1980. Gary’s mother relocated with him to Ireland where she had relatives.

Mother and son planned to return to Sri Lanka in July 1983. The eruption of “Black July” altered their life drastically. Young Gary had his first taste of a political demonstration at the age of ten. Along with his mother, other Sri Lankan Tamils and sympathisers, Gary participated in a demonstration in Dublin. He distributed leaflets and carried a placard condemning the anti – Tamil pogrom of July 1983

With hopeful plans of returning home to Sri Lanka being shattered by Black July and fearfully anxious about the future, Mrs.Anandasangaree and son Sathiyasangary decided to seek refuge in Canada. They arrived in Canada on 31 August 1983.

New Life in Canada

Seeking a new life in Canada was an uphill task.Yogam worked hard as a “single mother” to raise and educate her son. Sathiyasangary transformed himself into Gary and studied earnestly. Graduating from High school, Gary entered Carleton University in Canada’s capital city ,Ottawa. He obtained a BA (Hons) degree in Political Science in 1996. Returning to Toronto, Gary qualified as a registered estate agent and engaged in real estate business.

After a while he enrolled at the Toronto Osgoode Hall Law School which is the Law faculty of York University. After obtaining a LLB degree,Gary Anandasangaree was called to the bar in 2006. Gary received the Osgoode Hall Law School “One to Watch” Gold Key Award in 2005.

Retiring from Real Estate, Gary set up his own law firm ‘ Gary Anandasangaree and Associates’ in Scarborough,Ontario.The firm specialized in commercial , real estate legal matters, and international human rights law. As an ardent champion of human rights, Gary regularly represented Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada at the United Nations. He also served as a strong advocate for local youth, intervening in cases of wrongful student expulsion and suspension. Gary was the recipient oft he South Asian Bar Association’s Young Practitioner Award.

Apart from law, Gary involved himself in community welfare activities also.He has served as Chair of the Canadian Tamil Youth Development Centre, President of the Canadian Tamils’ Chamber of Commerce, and counsel to the Canadian Tamil Congress. He was also a board member of the Youth Challenge Fund, a member of the Toronto Police Chief’s Advisory Board, and a member of the United Way Newcomers Grant Program.

In honour of his devotion to community service and local advocacy, Anandasangaree has received both the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. He has also been awarded the TREB Award and Henry Marshall Tory Award for Service.

Scarborough-Rouge Park

Being interested in politics from his student days, Gary Anandasangaree joined Canada’s Liberal Party. He sought nomination from the party to contest the newly created riding (electorate) of Scarborough-Rouge Park. The constituency in the eastern part of Scarborough contains the neighbourhoods of Morningside Heights, Rouge, Port Union, West Rouge, Highland Creek, West Hill (east of Morningside Avenue) and Malvern (east of Neilson Road). Around 15% of the population is Tamil speaking.

Gary Anandasangaree was the Liberal Party candidate for Scarborough – Rouge Park in the 2015 Federal elections. He won polling 29,913 (60.24%)votes. Gary repeated his performance again at the 2019 elections by getting 31,360 (62.2%)votes. He won for the third time in succession at the 2021 elections garnering 28, 102 (62.8%) votes.

What is significant about Gary’s hat trick victory in Scarborough -Rouge park is that he polled more than 60 % of the vote in all three elections. Moreover 85 % of the constituency are non -Tamils. Therefore it is obvious that Gary has got support from all ethnicities and not Tamils alone. Ironically several Tamils claiming to be Ultra- Tamil nationalists backed the Conservative party candidates unsuccessfully against the liberal candidate Gary in all three elections.

Though Gary Anandasangaree became a cabinet minister only a few days ago, the Scarborough -Rouge Park MP has previously served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism (Multiculturalism).

Harini Sivalingam

Gary Anandasangaree is married to Harini Sivalingam a lawyer herself. She is the daughter of N.Sivalingam a former President of the Tamil Eelam Society in Canada. They have two daughters named Bhairavi and Sahana after two classical Ragas in both Carnatic and Hindustani music.

Gary and Harini belong to the second generation of Sri Lankan Tamils in Canada. Both have been extremely concerned about the plight of fellow Tamils in Sri Lanka. They are Tamil Canadians who ardently campaign against the alleged violation of Human rights in Sri Lanka..

When Gary Anandasangaree sought nomination as a Liberal party candidate , he issued a statement about himself and what he stood for. The statement addressed Tamil Canadians in general and Scarborough -Rouge Park voters in particular. It summarised Gary’s political philosophy and goals. Here are some relevant excerpts –

To the Tamil Community

“The past few weeks have been rough—to say the least. When I announced my intention to seek the federal Liberal nomination in Scarborough Rouge Park last October, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I have a young family, a 3 and 5 year old; but the desire to contribute to the development and growth of this country is what drove me to enter public life. I also knew that while I have worked hard on many social issues in Canada, my defining link would be to the Tamil community. I write this note now to the members of the Tamil community, to explain to you my vision for the future.”

“I am a Tamil Nationalist”

“I am a Tamil nationalist—through and through. I don’t have to say it—I have lived it. I have worked on issues of Tamil rights since I was ten years old, when I used to distribute flyers for protests. I led demonstrations in Ottawa in the 1980’s. I have organized hundreds of meetings to educate other Canadians on issues relevant to our community, both here and abroad. In my adult years, I became an advocate on every major issue relating to Tamils in Canada – labeling us as terrorists, gang violence, negative portrayal in the media, challenges in the workplace, refugee issues, demonstrations, and justice and accountability in Sri Lanka.”

“I fundamentally believe that Tamils living in the North and East of the island require a new political framework. This framework must be decided by Tamils who live in the North and East, and which includes many options, including a federal structure, a confederate structure, or a free independent state.”

“ I also believe this project should never again deteriorate into violence—it must be achieved within a democratic political framework. I have many close friends and family members who have died to achieve these aims; I routinely attend commemorations to honour those who died fighting for the Tamil nation, including my own family members. To honour them, we must find other ways to advance our issues.”

In 2009, Tamils around the world fell into a collective depression watching our kith and kin die—die for just being Tamils. We also saw the whole world watch the unfolding genocide with a careless disdain. The LTTE was defeated, but then what of the 300,000 people that were interned? What about crimes committed? What would happen to the Tamils? How do they, and we, get justice?

Letter to the UN

“After thinking about this for weeks, my wife wrote a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights—a letter that changed the course of my life. As a result of this, we went to Geneva in March of 2009. We invited several other Tamils from different parts of the world to attend this meeting. We made our case to the UNHRC Chief, Navi Pillai. Over the course of the next five years, I went to Geneva regularly—sometimes, both Harini and our toddler and I would go. “

“We went for one singular reason—we could do more in Geneva with our skill sets than anywhere else. Yes we could protest—and we have. We could write blogs. We could get on every stage with hundreds or even thousands of Tamils and convince ourselves that we are on the right track. We could organize conferences, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, we could do radio shows and TV shows, do call-ins, and just speak to and amongst the Tamil community. Maybe we should have done more of that. But we didn’t.”

Accountability

“Instead, we focused on the issue of international accountability and were relentless. No one person can take credit for the resolutions in Geneva. Some have said that even if I hadn’t taken part, these resolutions would have gone through. And they are likely right. However the point is, over the course of 30 odd visits to the UNHRC, we were pursuing what we believe to be the right path—that is to seek accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Tamil peoples.”

Genocide

“ I have been mischaracterized on the issue of genocide. It is true that I have not said the word genocide with every other breath—I have used the term strategically. However, the fact that the current investigation includes an investigation into genocide speaks for itself—and this did not happen by accident. I have written and said that genocide took place against Tamils in Sri Lanka, and I have also explained the challenges in proving it from a legal standpoint, yet that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. To all those who have singularly pointed out that I deny genocide took place, you have either been lied to, or are lying yourself and abusing an important issue for your own political ends.”

we must build a vibrant, strong, and powerful community that commands respect from others, contributes greatly to society and to this country and advocates for justice for Tamils around the world, including both within Canada and the North and East of Sri Lanka. We need to build, and expect, leaders who are informed, articulate, and strong.”

Path of Non-violence

“We need to follow a path of non-violence and express solidarity with others who share similar struggles. We need to challenge all our latent ism’s—sexism, racism, casteism, classism, homophobia, and so on. We need to stop being only outside barricades—and be also at the table where decisions are made. All of us need to be part of this. We need to stop promoting someone just because they are Tamil—but support them because they are competent”.

Be Part of Canada as Tamil Canadians

“For those who believe that we can proudly be part of Canada, and at the same time, be Tamil-Canadians, please join me as I seek the Liberal Party Nomination in Scarborough-Rouge Park. Let’s built a new vision for our community and our country!

Committed Campaign

Gary Anandasangaree’s committed campaign to seek accountability for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Tamils in Sri Lanka seemed to have succeeded to some extent in Canada in May last year. Canada’s House of Commons (Parliament) unanimously adopted a motion recognising May 18 as “Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day” making it the first parliament in the world to do
so. It is indeed noteworthy that the motion was passed unanmously bu Govt and Opposition. Such unanimity required intensive lobbying and there is little doubt about who the key person in this campaign would have been. Incidently Gary was refused a Visa to vist Sri Lanka some weeks ago.

Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day

The motion about Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. stated that “this House acknowledges the Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and recognizes May 18th of each year as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day”.

Gary Anandasangaree who brought forward the motion tweeted then – “Today, the Canadian parliament unanimously passed a motion to recognize May 18th as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day.On this very important day, Canada becomes the first national parliament in the world to recognize May 18th of each year as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day.”

“This is the culmination of years of hard work and advocacy by so many members of the Tamil community, survivors, family members of survivors, and the many jurisdictions that recognized the genocide of Tamils,” stated Gary Anandasangaree, in a press release.
Speaking at a press conference shortly after the motion was passed, Gary Anandasangaree said “This a very historical day for the Tamil community, not just in Canada but around the world. This motion today, a unanimous consent motion brought forward to the House, acknowledges the genocide of the Tamil people and recognises Tamil genocide Remembrance Day,It is the first recognition of its kind anywhere in the world.”

D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj@yahoo.com

This is an updated version of the “DBS Jeyaraj Column”appearing in the “Daily Mirror”of 29th July 2023.

https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Gary-Anandasangaree-Canadas-First-Sri-Lankan-Tamil-Cabinet-Minister/172-264168

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

“In the two months since February the two leading parties, the NPP/JVP and SJB, have experienced substantial declines in support…with the share of voters saying they would vote for other minor and unnamed parties increasing by 17 points to 28%. …support for the UNP seems to be plateauing at one in ten likely voters, neck and neck with support for the SLPP.” –
IHP Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) June 2023

Last week, the Wickremesinghe administration was busy restoring Lanka’s sundered relations with Japan. Since Independence, Colombo’s interactions with Tokyo have been friendly, productive, and relatively uncomplicated – until the Gotabaya-Mahinda Rajapaksa administration’s unilateral and unmannerly termination of the Japanese-funded Light Rail Transit project. Japan reportedly first heard about the termination via media reports. The economically-damaging decision was widely regarded as an outcome of the regime’s extreme pivot to China.

President Wickremesinghe’s consistent wooing of Japan is indicative of the vast gap between his foreign policy and that of his predecessor. Wickremesinghe is careful not to say anything that might irk Beijing’s sensitivities. Yet there’s little doubt that he is slowly extricating Sri Lanka out of China’s orbit.

Last week’s visit by the Japanese foreign minister marks a milestone in this new path. “Sri Lanka is a key partner in a Tokyo-led initiative aimed at building security and economic cooperation around the Indo-Pacific,” Hayashi reportedly said, as well as “countering an increasingly assertive China” (AP – 29.7.2023).

Last week, the dual power dynamics between President Wickremesinghe and the Rajapaksas spilled into Lanka’s foreign relations as well. Jayanath Colombage, retired admiral, professor, and Lanka’s ambassador to Indonesia had an ‘official’ powwow with the Taliban without Colombo’s sanction (Colombage was the man handpicked by President Gotabaya to be his foreign secretary). Had the Foreign Affairs ministry in Kabul not tweeted news of the meeting (accompanied by a picture of Colombage posing with two Taliban officials against a Lankan flag) Colombo might have remained ignorant of the antics of its envoy.

Continue reading ‘If current trends continue, the coming presidential and parliamentary elections will turn into four-way battles structurally incapable of producing clear winners or working majorities.’ »

(Text of Media Release Issued by the Tamil National Alliance on 31 July 2023)

This statement is being issued in order to clarify our position with regard to the political solution for the Tamil National Question, the 13th amendment to the constitution, the conduct of the long delayed provincial council elections and the All Party conferences convened by President Ranil Wickramasinghe.

The Tamil People have, since 1956, consistently given the Tamil political parties a mandate to work towards a political solution to the Tamil National Question by means of a federal arrangement in the North-East, which was recognized as the ‘historical habitation’ of the Tamil speaking people in the Indo-Lanka Accord that was signed on the 29th of July 1987, which provided for a measure of devolution to the provinces, including land and police powers.

Continue reading ‘TNA Position on the Political Solution to the Tamil National Question, 13 A, Provincial Councils and All Party Conferences Convened by President Wickremesinghe Clarified by Jaffna MP Sumanthiran.’ »

By

Kishali Pinto-Jayawardene

The ‘arrest’ of a young journalist, Tharindu Uduwaragedera recorded by onlookers this Friday being forcibly dragged out of a three wheeler, grabbed by his hair and roughly manhandled by a posse of police officers before being whisked away in a police vehicle, is a chilling warning to Sri Lanka’s dissenters.

Savages in uniform violating the law

The question here is not whether one agrees with the politics of his dissent or not. Or whether he possessed his ‘media ID card’, as per the police response to his repeated shouts that ‘I am a journalist, I came here to film trade union protests in Borella.’

In fact, it is not even if he was a journalist or not. Simply put, the police cannot just pounce on a citizen without specifying the reasons for arrest and brutalize him or her, with no accountability.

This is constitutional law at its most basic, as constantly affirmed by the Supreme Court. Certainly this particular social media (youtube) channel run by Uduwaragedera may have raised the hackles of Government politicians and their supporters for its abrasive and no holds barred content. That could conceivably be the reason for the treatment meted out to him.

But even disagreeable speech has to be tolerated. As the Court said in the seminal Ratawesi Peramuna case (1994), ‘vehement, caustic and unpleasantly sharp attacks on the government, the President, Ministers, elected representatives or public officers are not per se unlawful…’ In short, this is what Voltaire profoundly articulated centuries ago when he said, ‘I may disapprove of what you say but will defend to the death, your right to say it.’
Is police ‘abuse’ the criterion for ‘favored status’?

That right to ‘say it’ is, of course, limited by the Constitution and statute as I must add. But all of that does not entitle the police to act as brutes in uniform which was plainly evident this Friday despite a few calling out, ‘do not hit him.’

Continue reading ‘Young journalist, Tharindu Uduwaragedera being forcibly dragged out of a three wheeler, grabbed by his hair , roughly manhandled by a posse of police officers and whisked away in a police vehicle, is a chilling warning to Sri Lanka’s dissenters.’ »

By
D.B.S. Jeyaraj

In a significant poitical development last week, some influential members of Tamil civil society in the northern and eastern provinces of sri Lanka took the initiative to write directly to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking India’s help in urging the Sri Lankan Government to hold Provincial Council elections as early as possible.

The letter signed by a number of respected religious leaders, academics, educationists and professionals including journalists has sought the Indian Prime Minister’s assistance to persuade the Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe to conduct elections to Provincial councils without further delay.

The letter addressed to the Indian PM was handed over to diplomats at the Indian consulate in Jaffna a few days ahead of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s two day visit to New Delhi scheduled for 20 and 21 July. The Tamil civil society missive has been duly forwarded to New Delhi for the Indian premier’s attention.

It has been the usual practice in Sri Lankan Tamil politics for Tamil political partoes to write letters of a political nature to Indian political leaders seeking their help to exert pressure on their counterparts in Sri Lanka regarding issues concerning the Tamil national question in the Island.

In this instance, key members of Tamil civil society have written directly to the Indian PM asking for his aid to bring about early provincial elections in general and the northern and eastern councils in particular. The Tamil people are the dominant entity in the Northern province and the single largest community in the Eastern Province. . Provincial councils ceased to function in the East in 2017 and the north in 2018.

A remarkable aspect of the Tamil civil society letter is its open criticism of contemporary Tamil political leaders over elections not being held to the Northern and eastern PCs for many years.

Continue reading ‘Sri Lankan Tamil Political Leadership Criticised by Tamil Civil Society in Letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Seeking Early Provincial Council Elections to the North and East.’ »

By

Ranga Jayasuriya

During his last week’s visit to New Delhi, President Ranil Wickremesinghe signed a host of agreements, which, if followed up earnestly, would interlock the Sri Lankan economy with the world’s fastest-growing large economy.

Proposed collaboration in renewable energy, bidirectional energy trade, ports and acceptance of the Indian Rupee as a designated foreign currency would foster interdependence and make Sri Lanka a more palatable destination for Indian investment.

Though India may not be the most laissez-faire economy- not unusual for a country that was shackled by the Licence Raj for four decades, the spillover in even a smaller measure of the newfound economic dynamism of India could simply turbo-charge the Sri Lankan economy.
For an economy that is too small and uncompetitive to be enticing for global business, enhanced economic interdependence with India provides a way out of the prevailing stagnation. That could also be the prelude to greater economic openness and increased competitiveness.

Interestingly, India’s much larger bundle of geopolitical interests in its neighbourhood should make it overlook at least some of the deficiencies of the Sri Lankan economy.

In contrast, the same fallacies are a turn-off for most other large States and their multinationals. In fact, so much for all the hyperbole of advantages emanating from Sri Lanka’s strategic position that you hear in conference circles, the economic involvement in Sri Lanka by the rest of the major states is designed as a nominal presence not to miss out against the growing Chinese power.

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka should make rising India a pillar of its economic calculations and recalibrate itself to ride piggyback on Indian growth. The President’s India visit should be hailed for exploring those opportunities.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

The first part of this article published last week titled “Black July; Anatomy of an Anti-Tamil Pogrom” was a brief overview of the horrific anti-Tamil violence that engulfed the Sri Lankan nation in July 1983. The second part of this article being published this week will focus primarily on how “Black July”began in 1983. This detailed article is written with the aid of earlier writings to denote the 40th anniversary of the 1983 July anti-Tamil violence.

As stated earlier the anti-Tamil violence of July 1983 was not a spontaneous mass uprising of the Sinhala people against the Tamil people. Prior to the outbreak of violence, there existed a pre-planned conspiracy to launch a widespread attack against Tamil life, limb and property on a massive scale. All it required was a powerful incident to be the provocative pretext to justify such an attack.

The ambush of an Army patrol in the north on the night of Saturday 23 July by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) resulting in the killing of 13 soldiers by the Tigers provided the excuse to trigger off the violence , beginning from Sunday 24 July. The LTTE’s attack itself had been in the pipeline and was expedited due to a successful Army attack on 15 July that resulted in the death of a key Tiger operative. The violence in July 1983 was in a sense a tale an attack on the LTTE by the army and an ambush of the army by the tigers followed by an Anti-Tamil pogrom.

Continue reading ‘Beginning of “Black July “; 15 July Meesalai Army Attack and 23 July 23 Thinnavely LTTE Ambush.’ »

By

D.B.S.Jeyaraj

“All changed, changed utterly” is a powerful line from ‘Easter, 1916’, the famous poem of William Butler Yeats. The poem by W.B. Yeats was about the Irish Easter uprising in 1916, its cruel suppression and how all changed utterly in Ireland. In Sri Lanka “all changed” and “changed utterly” for the Tamil people 40 years ago.The catastrophic events of July 1983 drastically altered the lives of large numbers of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

As is well-known , widespread anti-Tamil violence erupted forty years ago during the fourth week of July in 1983.Although the tragic history of post-independence Sri Lanka records that the Tamils of Sri Lanka were 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 horrible of them all.

Around 3500-4000 Tamils and some Muslims -mistaken for Tamils- were killed. Thousands were injured. Some of the injured were killed in hospitals. There were over 200,000 displaced persons as a result. 130,000 were housed in makeshift refugee camps. More than 2500 business enterprises ranging from huge factories to petty boutiques were damaged or destroyed. The number of houses and dwellings damaged or destroyed has not been fully estimated yet.

The mass scale deaths, destruction, displacement, deprivation and despair suffered by the Tamils both Sri Lankan and Indian made them characterise those days in July as a dark period in their lives.The extent to which the Tamils were diminished in that month made them call it “Black July”.

The tragic happenings remain vividly etched in memory even after 40 years as the “Black July” of 1983. I have written about the dark events of July 1983 extensively in the past. However, I intend re-visiting the events of that cruel month with the aid of such writings in these columns to denote the 40th anniversary of the”Black July” terrible pogrom.

Continue reading ‘“Black July”:Anatomy of the July 1983 Anti-Tamil Pogrom.’ »

BY
BY TISARANEE GUNASEKARA

“…the narrow exclusive, bigoted, simplistic attitude that reduces identity in all its many aspects to one single affiliation, and one that is proclaimed in anger… this is how murderers are made – it’s a recipe for massacre. – ”Maalouf Amin (In the Name of Identity – Violence and the need to belong)>

Half a century ago, it was higher education, saving universities from Tamil encroachment. Today it is Buddhist heritage, saving archaeological sites in the North and the East from Tamil encroachment.

Tomorrow another bone of contention would be found from some nook of the country’s distant past or cranny of its troubled present.

Kurundi could become a Lankan Ayodhya, the locus of a future where yesterday’s ruins will be consecrated by tomorrow’s blood.

As the relatively unknown ruin became a bone of contention between visiting monks and area politicians in 2018, the Mullativu court issued an injunction against all new construction until a case filed by a group of local residents is concluded.

Once Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president, the rule of law became replaced again by the law of the rulers. And the construction of a new chaithya on the old ruin began with the help of the military. Last year, the court issued another injunction against further construction.

On July 4, 2023 Mullativu magistrate T. Saravanaraja visited the site to determine whether the court order was being observed or not just as a group of monks and politicians were preparing to carry out a religious ceremony. When the magistrate ordered the ceremony to be stopped, parliamentarian Sarath Weerasekara tried to intervene. The magistrate pointed out that as this was a judicial proceeding, only lawyers could speak, not parliamentarians or religious leaders or politicians.

A few days later Mr. Weerasekara, hiding behind the rampart of parliamentary privilege, attacked the magistrate in racial terms like Donald Trump’s 2016 attack on judge Gonzalo Curiel for his “Mexican heritage”.

Reading from a prepared speech, Mr. Weerasekara said, “We cannot be at all satisfied about the orders and decisions of the magistrate in charge of that area…A few days ago, this Tamil magistrate came to Kurundi viharaya on an observational tour. I was also there…We must remind this magistrate that this is a Buddhist country…Not just separatist Tamil politicians but also magistrates with such attitudes are responsible for creating conflict between races and religions.”

Continue reading ‘Given Mr. Sarath Weerasekara’s antecedents both in and out of uniform, his incendiary remarks are hardly surprising. What is surprising and worrying is the inadequacy of political or societal reaction to his racist outpouring. That silence is telling.’ »

By

Kishali Pinto – Jayawardene

It is only in singularly paradoxical Sri Lanka that Parliament can proudly announce its ‘unanimous’ passing of the country’s newest anti-corruption law while blithely counting in its ranks, a gold-smuggling parliamentarian and others on both sides of the political divide in regard to whom multiple allegations of gross corruption have vanished miraculously into thin air.

Leaving the Bill to the tender mercies of the House

Citizens cannot be blamed for looking a tad askance at this ‘IMF driven anti-corruption effort’ as the media bluntly puts it. The exact amendments to the Bill have been left to the tender mercies of a House at which the people look with more than the usual degree of scepticism, remain to be disclosed. But at the minimum at least, President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s boast that the country will soon have the best anti-corruption law in Asia must be corrected.

We have said this several times and say this again with force. It is not the law that is to blame when a nation continues for decades to be endemically corrupt as Sri Lanka is. The focus should be the collapse of the detection, investigation and prosecutorial process, no more and no less.

Can it be claimed, with the passage of this Bill, that these highly subverted systems, struggling helplessly with ‘political capture’ by Governments of all shades and colours, will right themselves, with a magical flourish as it were? Certainly not!

Continue reading ‘President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s boast that the country will soon have the best anti-corruption law in Asia must be corrected.’ »

(Text of Speech made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at New Delhi on 21 Jult 2023 during the official visit of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe to India)

I warmly welcome President Wickremesinghe and his delegation to India. Today, President Wickremesinghe is completing one year in office. On this occasion, on behalf of all of us, I convey my heartiest greetings to him. The past one year has been full of challenges for the people of Sri Lanka. As a close friend, like always, we stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Sri Lanka in this hour of crisis. And I heartily congratulate the people of Sri Lanka for the courage with which they faced these challenging circumstances.

Friends,

Our ties are as ancient and extensive as our civilisations. Sri Lanka has an important place in both, India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy and “SAGAR” vision. Today we shared our views on bilateral, regional and international issues. We believe that the security interests and development of India and Sri Lanka are intertwined. And therefore, it is essential that we work together keeping in mind each other’s safety and sensitivities.

Continue reading ‘“We hope that the Govt of Sri Lanka Will fulfill its commitment to implement the 13th Amendment and conduct the Provincial Council Elections. And will ensure ,justice,peace and a life of equality, respect and dignity for the Tamil community of Sri Lanka”.- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe’ »