Category Archives: accountability

Justin Trudeau Rapped on Knuckles for Statement on Victims of Eelam War

When Justin Trudeau issued a brief statement on the 18th May 2020 expressing sympathy for all the victims of Eelam War IV in the course of his request for an accountability purpose, he was clever. There was no slant towards Tamil victims. But there was a reference to “the last phase of the war at Mullivaikal” …. and this, together with the focus on accountability, implied that he was supporting Sri Lankan Tamil and HR claims alleging mass killings.

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Friendly Fire: Gotabaya’s Ranaviru Address under Amiable Criticism

ONE: Tamara Kunanayakam, 20 May 2020, responding to the statement made by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday https://www.newsfirst.lk/2020/05/19/wont-hesitate-to-withdraw-sri-lanka-from-bodies-which-target-soldiers-president-rajapaksa/

The President is most likely referring here to the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The statement indicates he is either wrongly advised about the UN or [is pursuing] plain politics, which could go against Sri Lanka at a time it desperately needs international support precisely to protect its war heroes. The statement has been widely picked up by Western media agencies, which have a global influence.

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Standing by the Victory in May 2009: Gotabaya confronts the Western UN Caucus

A Staff Writer, News First,  19 May,2020:Won’t hesitate to withdraw Sri Lanka from bodies which target soldiers: President Rajapaksa”

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said on Tuesday addressing the war hero’s ceremony at the war memorial at the Parliament grounds that he will not hesitate to pull out Sri Lanka from any international organization that unfairly target the country’s war heroes.

Pix from The Hindu

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The Covid’s Mutations: An Entry Point for Our Demolition Battle?

Inayat Singh in CBC News,  May 15, 2020, where the article is entitledThe coronavirus is mutating — and that can help us track it”

Sequencing the coronavirus’s RNA is providing researchers with valuable information about the strains of the virus in Canada and how to stop its spread. The novel coronavirus has very simple personal goals. Its main purpose in life is to replicate, something it has done with alarming efficiency, causing havoc around the world.

And in this process of replicating itself, it is leaving behind tiny genetic markers of its spread that are being picked up by researchers hot on its trail.

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Passionate Praise of the Armed Forces Triumph in 2009 in New Zealand

Chula Rajapaksa’s Impassioned Dedication to the Ranaviru: New Zealand Internet Live Streaming 6.30pm NZ Time ….. Ranaviru Commomeration 19/5/20 ……   https://www.facebook.com/srilankans.nz

Thank you for affording me the privilege of being able to reinforce for the 11th  consecutive year, our  deep debt of gratitude to the Ranaviru for having liberated Sri Lanka from three decades of Tiger terror and even more for the life and limb that some lost in the process.

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Overwhelmed by W. Dahanayake … A Few Insights into the Politics of Yesteryear

Bevis Bawa ... writing way back in an article entitled “And the “Brook” overflowed” .… a wonderful erudite title that I should perhaps have retained

A person I have wanted to write about for quite a while is our effervescent Daha known to some as “The Voice”. And to others, long ago, as the “Bibile Brook” and now Doctor of Literature [Honoris Causa”].

 

Last week I ran him down to earth in the corridors of the House. “Hullo Bawa”, he boomed in his rasping voice which sounds like gravel being thrown on a windowpane. “So now you are a journalist!”.

He led me to the dining saloon of the ship- I mean the restaurant of the House, so like a ship’s saloon [pale blue, grey, and concealed lights in the ceiling]. He ordered tea. Continue reading

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Raina, A Lass From Lanka, at Sydney’s Pandemic Frontline

Helen Pitt, in Sydney Morning Herald, May 2020, where the title runs “Professor of Lankan descent now one of world’s top infectious disease specialists”

Professor Raina MacIntyre, one of the world’s leading emerging infectious diseases experts, has barely budged from the bedroom of her Wahroonga home since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia.

Raina MacIntyre as a medical student in 1984

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Colossal Kills on All Fronts in 1944/45, World War II

Michael Roberts

In venturing into reflections on VE Day commemorations, by pure chance I stumbled on You Tube reviews of the ways in which German POWs were dealt with in Britain during and after the war. This data base also provides partial information on the enormous loss of life on the various moments in the Western front as the Allied forces advanced on Germany after D Day in June 1944.

 Hitler Germany’s greatest reach 1942

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Ivor Jennings and Peradeniya University in Two Excursions

ONE:  Varman’ = “Jennings and the Old Galaha Road”

In 1952 we lived on Old Galaha Road.  That was the last year we lived there.  The government of the day compulsorily acquired our house and the land for the campus of the new University of Ceylon at Peradeniya.  Much against our wishes, we were on orders to quit our home.  The order to vacate, after the property was compulsorily acquired by the government, came from the Vice Chancellor’s office, the new owner of what was our beloved property.

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Velupillai Pirapāharan’s Biography related by DBS Jeyaraj

DBS Jeyaraj, in Daily FT, 13 May 2020, where the title is “Tale of a Tiger: Facets of LTTE Chief Prabhakaran’s life” ++

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed 11 years ago in combat with the armed forces of Sri Lanka on 19 May 2009. The longest war in South Asia came to an end after the military debacle of the LTTE on the shores of Nandikadal Lagoon in the Mullaitivu District of northern Sri Lanka.

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