Category Archives: law of armed conflict

May 28, 2024 · 12:51 pm

Ranil Wickremasinghe’s Dilemma

Jehan Perera in Colombo Telegraph, May 2024 where the title reads “President’s Commitment for Economic Reform is Model for Reconciliation” … & is reproduced here with underlining imposed by the Editor, Thuppahi

On numerous occasions President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said he was elected president to get Sri Lanka out of its economic morass and will do his utmost to fulfill that obligation. This has led to much speculation regarding the president’s intentions with regard to conducting presidential elections prior to achieving economic success. The truth of the president’s utterances with regard to his commitment to resolving the economic crisis is to be plainly seen in his determination to push ahead with unpopular economic policies. He has been unrelenting in sticking to higher tax rates than the masses of people can afford and to the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Both of these policies are unpopular to the point of jeopardising his bid to be re-elected at the forthcoming presidential election, but the president has stuck by his convictions.

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May 16, 2024 · 7:20 pm

Be Tamil Bibliography…….For Sri Lanka 2003/04

Michael Roberts

 About the time that I retired from my teaching duties at the Anthropology Department at Adelaide University in 2003/04, the topic of “suicide terrorism” was attracting a lot of attention in academic circles through books and articles. As I dwelt on this topic within the alternative title of “Sacrificial Devotion,” I also had, perforce, to dwell on the grievances espoused by the Sri Lanka Tamils.

Through happenchance, today, I came across an old Word File entitled “Be Tamil Bibliography.” Its entries suggest that it was drafted circa 2003/04 – so the temporal sweep is restricted. It lists academic books and articles on the ethnic contretemps in Sri Lanka as well as the Tamil world of Sri Lanka and India. Thus, the authors marked include such personnel as Zvelebil, Schalk, Kenneth David and Hellmann-Rajanayagam as well as the local Tamils Chelliah Manogaran, Valentine Daniel, Sivathamby, Somasundaram and Sivaram …. to name a few.

Tamil demonstrators invade the pitch during a Cricket World Cup, Group B, match between Australia and Sri Lanka at the Oval, London, 11th June 1975. Australian opening batsman Alan Turner (foreground) turns his back on the protest while his teammate Rick McCosker looks on. Australia won the match by 52 runs..…Photo by Dennis Oulds/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

 

 

 

 

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May 14, 2024 · 12:19 am

Devastating Israeli Assaults on Rafah

  Observer in a Black Sea Town … writing on 7/8th May 2024 after Israel’s devastating assault began the day before.

Israel has just launched its devastating attack on the densely populated city of Rafah promising to use extreme force against 1.4 million Palestinian citizens. The Wankers of the White House, may shed crocodile tears for the slaughtering of Palestinans and they will wank on about it not being a good idea, but the fact remains that the US did absolutely nothing to prevent it, which means they condone it.
Smoke billows from n Israeli bombardment in Rafah, Gaza, May 6, 2024 ©  AFP

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May 12, 2024 · 1:20 am

POIGNANT MOMENTS …. Remembering the Dead in War

 

In SRI LANKA 12 May 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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May 11, 2024 · 2:44 am

Blatant Double Standards towards Israel & Sri Lanka pursued by UN Watchdogs

Shenali D. Waduge, in Lankaweb, 9 May 2024, ….where the title reads “UN/UNHRC/US & Allies hypocrisy – comparison of Sri Lanka & the Gaza Conflict”  ….

[My title and this article does not seek] to present a notion that Israel is right or wrong, or that Sri Lanka is right or wrong, but [seeks] to question UN’s treatment of Member states & the applicability of the UN Charter & the principles of equality & non-discrimination to Member states. UNGA has condemned Israel over 120 times. UNHRC has condemned Israel over 40 times. US has vetoed over 40 Resolutions against Israel but is spearheading resolutions against Sri Lanka in connivance with the UN. How fair is this to Sri Lanka?

 

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April 23, 2024 · 3:02 pm

Epitome of British Perfidy: Piers Morgan Laid Bare

Camel Rider **

Listen//See https://youtu.be/aelzcw0Q3QE?si=GyB80oZknUfG71Fk

When you see the level of stupidity, arrogance and incompetence, as part of a massive disinformation campaign coming from the British mainstream media today (as illustrated in this interview by Piers Morgan) we can have absolutely no confidence whatsoever in anything the Western mainstream media says. In this interview, Professor Marandi’s explanations were correct. His analysis of Iran’s response to Israel’s destruction of the Iranian Embassy was correct. Iran responded by mounting three interrelated operations.

Piers Morgan 

P rofessor Marandi

The first was a Psychological Warfare operation. Here, Iran delayed their retaliatory strike by two weeks in order to sow fear among the Israeli population and to undermine confidence in the Israeli Government.

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April 12, 2024 · 1:41 pm

Gross Misrepresentation in Bolt’s Analysis of Penny Wong’s Position on Palestine

Adrian Bishop

Let me deconstruct Bolt’s disinformation about Penny Wong, Hamas and Israel in his item in the Herald Sun 11/4/2024. …. A little analysis of Bolt’s disinformation about Penny Wong, Hamas and Israel. It was published in the Herald Sun 11/4/2024. [THE ITEM had this headline: “Wong’s Palestine plan a win for Hamas” …]

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March 29, 2024 · 8:14 pm

The LTTE Bomb Attack on the Central Bank Building in the Heart of Colombo, 31 January 1996

Michael Roberts

Colombo in the 1990s was a rather different world from the city today because its heartland centred around the Fort with its venerable shops (Cargills, Millers) leading mercantile offices, three premier hotels and the huge Central Bank building looming on the horizon. The expansion and transformation of the Port of Colombo and many other developments have transformed the city since then and the ‘weight of the Fort’ has diminished considerably since then.

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March 17, 2024 · 11:46 am

Western Imperial Dominance: Aggressive Intervention from Kosovo then to Kienen Island now

 Mr X ... with the title as well as highlights being imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi 

 In the West, a narrative has been built up that China is an “aggressor” – an important word in international law because if Country A can frame a narrative that convinces the world Country B is “an aggressor” then Country A is well on the way to providing justification for war or even toppling Country B’s government, which is precisely what US Government has been doing for the past seven decades. The illegal wars in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yugoslavia are recent examples.

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February 24, 2024 · 4:37 pm

From “Tribalism” to “Fascist Nationalism”: Ethical Musings

Brian Victoria* … in Informed Comment  … https://www.juancole.com/2024/02/judaism-tribalism-universalism.html…. where the title read thus: “The Battle for the Soul of Judaism: Tribalism, Amalek and the Axial Age Universalism of Isaiah”

 

Viewers of Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with Vladimir Putin may have been surprised by Putin’s lengthy reference to the historical founding of Russia. What does that have to do with Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine one might ask.

Yet, as any student of history, let alone a diplomat, will testify, conflicts between nations cannot be understood, let alone resolved, without an understanding of their historical roots. Could this also be true of the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinians?

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