Category Archives: life stories

January 15, 2014 · 12:40 am

Sarath Munasinghe’s Account of his Eelam Wars

Chandani Kirinde, courtesy of the Sunday Times

On the night of July 23, 1983, when Army intelligence officer Sarath Munasinghe, serving in the rank of Major drove in the dead of night towards Thirunelveli junction in Jaffna from his camp at Gurunagar to investigate an explosion that had taken place a short while earlier, he had no idea that the scene had been set for the dawn of the darkest days in the country’s recent history. When he reached the scene of the explosion, a colleague with whom he had shared a cigarette a short while earlier lay dead on the road with several other soldiers. In all the Army dead were 13 and the incident set off the worst race riots in the country.  Continue reading →

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January 14, 2014 · 2:36 pm

Wigneswaran’s ICES Lecture in Jaffna: “Democratizing the North”

Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, Chief Minister, Northern Provincial  Council delivered the opening address at a discussion on “Democratizing the  North: A Dialogue on Governance, Development and Vulnerability on January 10th  at the Green Grass Hotel Jaffna. The dialogue was organized by the International  Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES).

WI8GNESWARAN 11New Year 2014 is starting well for us. The War had got us into a  cocoon in which we managed howsoever we could, not really appreciating the  changes taking place locally and globally all around us. We failed to appreciate  the nuances of political or administrative terminology too. We are thankful to  ICES for coming forward to help us to get out of our niche by introducing to us  the processes that are functioning in the field of Governance and Development  not forgetting to identify areas of vulnerability. Continue reading →

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January 14, 2014 · 1:23 pm

Dayan Jayatilleka reflects upon Sri Lanka’s past struggles and future security

Dayan Jayatilleka speaks to Sergei De Silva-Ranasinghe about the security situation in Sri Lanka … courtesy of POLICY,  Autumn 2013, vol. 29/1: 53-56 where the title reads “In the security of Sri Lanka”

DAYAN Jayatilleka

In Australia, Sri Lanka continues to dominate headlines about allegations of war crimes and the influx of asylum-seeking refugees, but comparatively little is known about Sri Lanka’s history and politics. Dr Dayan  Jayatilleka is among Sri Lanka’s leading and most respected political commentators. A prolific writer, he has published several books, including  The Travails of a Democracy: Unfinished War, Protracted Crisis (1995); Fidel’s Ethics of Violence: The Moral Dimension of the Political Thought of  Fidel Castro (2007), and Long War, Cold Peace: Conflict and Crisis in Sri Lanka (2013). In addition, and until recently, he was Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva (2007–09) and ambassador to France, Portugal and UNESCO (2011–13). In March, he spoke to defence analyst Sergei De Silva-Ranasinghe about Sri Lanka’s political future; the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE); allegations of war crimes against the Sri Lankan state; the causal factors of Tamil secessionism; Sri Lanka’s evolving relations with the United States, India, Pakistan and China; and its future strategic options. Continue reading →

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January 13, 2014 · 12:30 pm

Walter Keller: A German with Lanka in his flesh and bones

I: “From people to places, the bond will always bring him back” – by Duvindi Illankoon in the Sunday Times

Walter-kellar-at-exhibition-pic-300x180 Walter Keller (in middle) at on of his photographic exhibitions

Back in 1977, Walter Keller-Kirchhoff was a 25-year-old Economics student fulfilling a young and carefree impulse to travel. He came to Sri Lanka on a little Volkswagen aboard a ferry, imagining it to be just another stop on his Asian tour. Life has a way of surprising us and Keller was no exception-almost four decades later he sits in an office down Jawatte Avenue on a sweltering Colombo morning, asking us if he can turn down the air conditioner because “it’s a little cold”.

_DSC0969 - CopyPerhaps some would recognize Walter more for his colourful photographs of the island, so often exhibited in its galleries. Most would draw the connection between the 62-year-old and his work with the GIZ (German Development Cooperation) in Sri Lanka. Yet there are those individuals who would simply remember him as the sudu mahattaya who helped them find a footing in the world. Whichever way you look at it and however you may know him, there’s no denying that Keller was a live spark within his circles. Continue reading →

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January 12, 2014 · 2:19 pm

Facing Disease & Famine in the British Colonial Era

Saman Kelegama, reviewing Meegama’s new book

FamineFeversAndFearThis book explores some aspects of the roots of modern Sri Lanka through the social history of health during the period when it was a British colony. The author charts out the impact of colonial policies on peasant agriculture, food availability, and the living conditions of the common people. Bringing together rarely documented facts, backed by data from surveys, government reports, and entries in diaries of officials, the author writes of the devastation wrought by famine, new diseases, and volatile epidemics and the consequent fear generated among the subject peoples. Continue reading →

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January 12, 2014 · 2:12 pm

Migrants All. Sri Lankan Diaspora

 

EncyclopediaHappy New Year and wish you the best for the year ahead. I am happy to inform you that The Encyclopedia of the Sri Lankan Diaspora was sucessfully launched on 21 November 2013 during the South Asian Diaspora Convention (SADC) hosted by the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS). The book was lauched by the President of Singapore, Dr. Tony Tan Keng Yam. The Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Minister of Finance, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, was also present during the book lauch. For information and images pertaining to the SADC, kindly visit the following website: http://www.southasiandiaspora.org/sadc2013/photo-gallery.html   Continue reading →

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January 8, 2014 · 3:16 pm

Dedicated Medical Work Amidst the Heat of War, Death and Propaganda: In the Vanni Pocket, 2009

Michael Roberts, …… courtesy of Groundviews where the essay carried a different title. In presenting the article here I have embellished it with images, maps.  It also has a few more hyperlinks.

Amidst the obfuscations and cumulus clouds of propaganda that have subsumed reviews of the last stages of Eelam War IV, it has taken time for some remarkable feats to emerge. The affidavit provided by Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah on 10th May 2012 with assistance from a British solicitor reveals astounding medical relief work by a body of doctors, nurses, attendants and administrative aides during the Tamil peoples’ enforced retreat and crucible of battle in 2009. This statement has been deployed by a collective named ENGAGE SRI LANKA in the course of its criticism of Channel Four’s video reportage and the claims of “Vany Kumar” (Gnanakumar Thamilvani in name,[i] who also presented herself under such aliases as “Damilvany” and “Vany Kumar”). As such, it is an element in the ongoing propaganda war – one which no public document can rise beyond. Continue reading →

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January 5, 2014 · 1:16 pm

Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah’s Affidavit Description of Conditions in the Vanni Pocket in Refutation of Channel Four

Dr.-V.-Shanmugarajah-s - times[1]This item is taken from Engage Sri Lanka: Corrupted Journalism,  2013, Appendix 2, pp. 203-14. The pictorial illustrations are the Editor’s additions.

I, Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah, Medical Superintendent , Mullaitivu General Hospital, being a Hindu, honestly , sincerely and solemnly swear and MAKE OATH as follows:

1. I  am Dr.Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah, presently Medical Superintendent ,Mullaitivu.  I was born on 11 June 1968 and am presently 44 years old. I am a graduate of Jaffna University’s faculty of Medicine, and hold the qualification of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. I have had additional training in obstetrics and gynaecology and anaesthesia. I have worked as a Medical Officer at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, the District General Hospital in Killinochi and the Mullaitivu General Hospital. I was the Medical Superintendent at Mullaitivu General Hospital and the acting Medical Superintendent in charge of the obstetrics ward at the hospital. I am married, and have three children aged 13, 10 and 4. Continue reading →

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January 2, 2014 · 2:14 am

Kate Adie of BBC: reporting on war & women at war

ADIE KATE ADIE 22 Kate Adie recently presented a talk at the National Press Club in Australia which was featured on ABC television where there was a riveting Q and A session as well. It is highly recommended viewing not least because ADIE is a formidable personality.

A summary here can do no justice to the spread of her talk. The contentions that have been imprinted on my mind are the following HOT SPOTS.

  • Today’s TV and news coverage is oriented towards the “live spot” and featured by “live instant journalism” organised by “whizzy technology.”
  • So it is “headline led.”
  • The coverage is controlled by the media barons, mostly men and men are, unlike the past, are personnel who have not  cut their teeth as young reporters.
  • In USA coverage of war is subject to informal governmental control and subject to the strict “accreditation” process exercised by their armed forces.
  • In all Western countries certain motifs are edited out because they are deemed unsuitable: for instance, captured enemy POWs and corpses.
  •  There is difference when reporters (and their d editors) are covering “our war” and “our troops” – as distinct for wars between two forces that are not in alliance with one’s own country. Continue reading →

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December 30, 2013 · 1:48 pm

Witnesses to “the War without Witnesses” … Voiceless? Buried Foreign Reporters?

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, where there will be interesting blog-commentary

I commence here with the whole lot of close-up images snapped by Kanchan Prasad of Prasar Bharati at the Last Redoubt in mid-May and passed on to me at some point in 2010 or so. Picture 103--Survivor 1 Picture 106

Picture 105--Survivor 2  Picture 104 Picture 107--Survivor 3

Survivors: There may be others but these are the close-ups in my stock – where they are part of other photographs with more sweeping views of the flotsam and jetsam of the Last Redoubt between Nandikadal Lagoon and the sea. As far as I can work out the women and children photographed above Continue reading →

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