That Gathering at Trinco towards Setting Up the ICES ….in Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neelan is standing on the extreme right, with CR de Silva on his right and Sam Samarasinghe nex to him

This NOTE is part of Professor KM de Silva’s Account of the Process leading to the Formation of the ICES: ” The Taita Hills conference [in Kenya] was followed by a second cross-national workshop held on 7 March 1982; this time at the then Hotel Club Oceanic in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.”

“The photographs attest the considerable cross-national support for this enterprise, albeit wholly weighted towards  the West in the context of world political alignment then. …” Michael Roberts (while anticipating a Memo or essay from Professor Donald Horowitz which will provide other threads in the processes leading to the setting up the ICES).

Robert Goldmann

 

 Myron Weiner  

the web photos of Donald Horowitz resisted copying

Let me note here that I have profited for five decades from (A) the library services provided in the two branches of the ICES in Colombo and Kandy; and (B) its organisation of seminars on a wide range of topics; and (C) the occasional moments when I presented talks and received challenging feed back. I will be composing a tale of my own on the ICES — one dedicated to the memory os ‘Sam’ Samarasinghe and Neelan Tiruchelvam. I anticipate that Radhika Coomaraswamy will cap this dedication to an institution that has been a stimulating spark and serviceable pillar of intellectual engagement within the island’s turbulent politics.

That Neelan Tiruchelvam was assassinated by a Tamil Tiger hand on the 29th July 1999 some hundred yards from the entrance to its facilities is perhaps an  indication of the weight that it carried — though there can be no doubt that the main target was Neelan and the strand of moderate Tamil politics he stood for.**

** SEE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neelan_Tiruchelvam

** https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-death-of-neelan-tiruchelvam-a-grave-loss-to-the-tamil-people/

** https://thuppahis.com/2012/07/23/remembering-neelan-tiruchelvams-intellectual-legacy/

** https://thuppahis.com/2021/01/01/two-horrendous-assassinations/