Assoke Bandarage The Routledge Flier: Using careful historical research and analysis of policy documents, this book explains the origin and evolution of the political conflict in Sri Lanka over the struggle to establish a separate state in its Northern and Eastern Provinces. The conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the secessionist LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is one of the world’s most intractable contemporary armed struggles. The internationally banned LTTE is considered the prototype of modern terrorism. It is known to have introduced suicide bombing to the world, and recently became the first terrorist organization ever to acquire an air force. The book argues that the Sri Lankan conflict cannot be adequately understood from the dominant bipolar analysis that sees it as a primordial ethnic conflict between the Sinhala majority and the Tamil minority. The book broadens the discourse providing a multipolar analysis of the complex interplay of political-economic and cultural forces at the local, regional and international levels including the roles of India and the international community. Overall, the book presents a conceptual framework useful for comparative global conflict analysis and resolution, shedding light on a host of complex issues such as terrorism, civil society, diasporas, international intervention and secessionism.
Category Archives: JVP
Bloody Memories: The JVP Insurrection 1971
Zahrah Imtiaz, courtesy of Daily News, 5 April 2017, where the title reads “Sanguinary Memories: JVP Insurgence of 1971”
“The decision taken by the nine senior members of the JVP when they met at the Sangaramaya Temple of the Vidyodaya University on April 2, 1971, was to capture State power by attacking all the police stations in the country on the night of April 5, 1971.”– “Rohan Gunaratna: Sri Lanka: A Lost Revolution? The Inside story of the JVP”
From Prasad Premarathne… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKN82MSCutg
The plan was simple, the orders had come and all they had to do was to execute it. Rohana Wijeweera, the charismatic leader of the JVP was in prison in Jaffna, and via a message sent through Lal Somasiri, he had asked that, “Posters should be published and leaflets distributed calling for his release, and in the case of an attack, 500 comrades should be sent to Jaffna to secure his release.” He had also stated, “If you cannot obtain my release legally, you may create an island-wide struggle throughout the country and then send 500 men”. Continue reading
Filed under atrocities, caste issues, economic processes, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, JVP, law of armed conflict, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, social justice, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real
Discontent and Confrontational Violence in Sri Lanka, 1948-2009
Gerald Peiris, being Chapter 7 from his book Political Conflict in South Asia (2013, University of Peradeniya) — a chapter based on his previous writings [1]
The survival of the principle of representative government based upon universal adult franchise since its introduction to the constitution more than eighty years ago while ‘Ceylon’ was still a colony of the British Empire is a feature often accorded prominence in scholarly discourses on the political history of Sri Lanka. Over the first three decades after independence (1948) the regularity of peaceful transfers of power from one regime to another, based upon the will of the people as expressed at national elections, was also widely acclaimed as a feature that made Sri Lanka unique among the emergent nation-states of the post-colonial era. The radiance of that achievement has, of course, dimmed considerably in the more recent past, due mainly to the violation of democratic norms in affairs of governance, and the intense rivalry that features the sub-national disputes which often find expression in confrontational violence.
Scenes in Colombo from 1958 riots after OEG led crackdown
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, British colonialism, caste issues, communal relations, devolution, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, island economy, JVP, landscape wondrous, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, Muslims in Lanka, nationalism, politIcal discourse, population, power politics, prabhakaran, Presidential elections, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, working class conditions, world events & processes
Ranil and USA, 2001-06: Forerunner for USA and Ranil Today?
Reproduced below are the first three paragraphs of Jeffrey Lunstead’s “Introduction” within his “Executive Summary” in the official document The United States’ Role in Sri Lanka’s Peace Process, 2002-2006 (Asia Foundation, 2007). Its authors conceived of this survey as “A Supplementary Study to the Sri Lanka Strategic Conflict.” Lunstead himself was a career Foreign Service official from 1977-2006 who had been US Ambassador to Sri Lanka from August 2003 to July 2006 before moving to the position of Assistant Vice President of International Affairs at American University in Washington D. C. So, what one sees within these covers is a significant document.[1] Michael Roberts
Lunstead 
Wickramasinghe
Executive Summary: The United States has been deeply involved in the current phase of the Sri Lanka peace process since it began in late 2001. This is in distinct contrast to U.S. engagement in earlier phases of Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict since it erupted into armed conflict in 1983. While the U.S. was supportive of peacemaking efforts in the 1980s and 1990s, it played a relatively low-key role, deferring to India as the lead outside actor. With the end of the Cold War, U.S. interest in Sri Lanka waned. As recently as 2000, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was planning for significantly reduced development assistance levels. Continue reading
Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary Elections = Vote for Continuing Change
Jayadeva Uyangoda, courtesy of The Hindu, 19 August 2015
There are two significant political consequences following Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections. First, the majority of voters have given a verdict in favour of completing the partial political change that began with the presidential election of January 8 this year. Secondly, and no less important, it has dashed the hopes of the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to return to power as Prime Minister.
Parliament was dissolved on June 27 under some peculiar circumstances, although it could continue till April 2016. President Maithripala Sirisena and the coalition that backed him had promised during the election campaign to call fresh parliamentary elections after 100 days of assuming office. In any case, the new coalition was a minority government, with only about 65 members in the 225-member legislature. Regime stability required a parliamentary majority through fresh elections.
Chandrika in Lively Q and A with Lakshman Gunasekara
Lakshman Gunasekara in Sunday Observer, 28 June 2015: “I am now an activist for my country …[and] I’m ready to take to the streets [if the need arises]” says CBK
Celebrating her 70th birthday, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga reminisces about the past, and looks ahead to the future with a promise she will take to the streets to push through reforms: At 70 years age, she is still chubby-cheeked and grins mischievously or, scowls expressively as she recalls some politico’s annoying action. Press photographers loved her for her animated face that rendered her photogenic, like her equally famous mother.And it was by no means just photographers. Millions loved her while some either were disillusioned or even hated her – often because she did not live up to their expectations or ambitions or desires. After all, who wouldn’t glamorize her for her meteoric rise to political power and fame? ‘Meteoric’ because, after years in exile during the ‘terror’ of the second JVP insurgency and equally ferocious counter-insurgency, with her husband assassinated, she returned to re-build her mother’s party and successively defeat the government at provincial, parliamentary and, presidential levels. 
At her husband’s funeral Continue reading
Filed under authoritarian regimes, female empowerment, heritage, historical interpretation, JVP, life stories, performance, politIcal discourse, power politics, Presidential elections, Rajapaksa regime, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, unusual people, working class conditions, world affairs
The Poet Richard Murphy’s Account of Killings in the 1980s in Sri Lanka
Padraig Colman, Extracts from his “Rambling Ruminations of an Irishman in Sri Lanka,” at http://pcolman.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/richard-murphy-long-version/
………. I was surprised to learn that Murphy spent a great deal of his childhood in Ceylon where his father, Sir William Lindsay Murphy was the last colonial Mayor of Colombo (and first Municipal Commissioner from 1937 to 1941). Richard was taken to Ceylon at the age of six weeks, having been born in a damp, decaying big house in the west of Ireland. The young Richard Murphy spent holidays in Diatalawa, which is not far from my home. After leaving Ceylon, Sir William succeeded the Duke of Windsor as Governor of the Bahamas. Continue reading
Filed under atrocities, British colonialism, discrimination, ethnicity, governance, historical interpretation, JVP, Left politics, legal issues, life stories, literary achievements, meditations, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, riots and pogroms, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, working class conditions
The JVP Insurgency in the late 1980s and its Death Toll
Dharman Wickremaratne, in the Daily News, where the title is “JVP uprising II killed 396 undergrads, while 227 students disappeared”… http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/jvp-uprising-ii-killed-396-undergrads-while-227-students-disappeared
DJV Slogans calling for the death of President Jayewardene (“Let’s kill J.R.”) written on walls
The second JVP insurgency began in 1986. Two were killed on May 1, 1987 when the banned May Day was commemorated. The insurrection was baptized near the Bo Tree, Pettah on July 28, 1987. The first to die there was Moratuwa University Engineering student Clifford Perera. The writer saw him lying on the ground with fatal gunshot injuries. The two of us studied in the same school. A brilliant student in the engineering field he was drawn to the JVP by Sudath, a second year student of the Colombo University’s Medical Faculty. I remember in the same group were Hiranya, Asiri, and Godagampola among several others.
Clifford was dying. His last words were: “Motherland or death.” No one dared to rush to the spot because gunfire was heard from all directions. When I appealed to Pathegama Mathupala, the caretaker of the pro-JVP Samastha Lanka Trade Union Federation, he responded promptly. He carried Clifford with the help of another. The next moment a bullet struck Mathupala’s hand. As soon as our photographer Chandrasiri Weerasinghe took a photo of the scene, we left the place. Continue reading
Poetic Reflections against Violence: Burning, Nightmare, Trauma
Godfrey Gunatilleke…… Three poems from Time’s Confluence and other poems (Colombo, Unie Arts, 2014 … ISBN 978 -955-41102-0-5)
BURNING ……(Elegy on a body seen burning by the roadside during the violence in 1989)
There was no one, none at all to weep for him
Dead, lying by the roadside, quietly burning;
No friend, no brother, just some strangers, fearful
And silent. No love was left for mourning. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, atrocities, cultural transmission, ethnicity, fundamentalism, JVP, literary achievements, nationalism, political demonstrations, politIcal discourse, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, tolerance, unusual people, vengeance, world events & processes, zealotry
