Category Archives: LTTE

May 8, 2016 · 9:45 am

Meeting Ex-Tigers and Addressing the Issue of Rehabilitation

Zarah Imtiaz, in Daily News,6 May 2016, where the title is “Rehabilitated LTTE cadres: No longer stuck in NO-GO ZONE”

I fought for eight years of my life, eight years that I cannot take back, said Kulandavel Thayaparan while enjoying the cup of tea arranged by the Commissioner, Bureau of Rehabilitation at ‘Ape Gama’ in Battaramulla. Thayaparan along with 34 other LTTE ex-combatants are being taken on a five day trip around the country starting from Nuwara Eliya to a 3D film in Bambalapitiya.A visibly excited Thayaparan however, is just happy to be out of the Anuradhapura Prison where he had served the last six years in custody. He is part of a recent batch of LTTE suspects or political prisoners who have been named for release after rehabilitation by the courts after 200 of them launched a hunger strike in October 2015, urging the authorities to expedite their cases.

rehab TIGERs 2016--DN

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May 8, 2016 · 6:45 am

Incipient LTTE Operations in Lanka Today? Jeyaraj’s Revelations and Ruminations

DBS COLUMNDBS Jeyaraj in the Daily Mirror, 7 May 2016, where the title is “Security Crackdown,” … with highlighting by co;our being the embellishments from The editor, Thuppahi

A widespread security crackdown has been underway in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. Over 20 former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organisation have been reportedly taken into custody over the past weeks in a staggered security operation spearheaded by the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID)of the Police. Almost all of the ex-LTTE cadres are being detained under provisions of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act(PTA). They are being reportedly interrogated by TID officials at Jaffna, Vavuniya, Boosa and Colombo. As is well known now that the current spree of arrests was triggered off by the detection of a mini-arsenal at a house on Pillaiyar Street  in Maravanpulavu in the Thenmaratchy sector of Jaffna district on March 29th 2016. 

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May 5, 2016 · 5:31 pm

II–Ben Bavinck’s Personal Stance: Extracts from his Diaries

Ben Bavinck pix  Needless to say these selections are interpretative acts, my choices. I was tempted to impose a further dimension of selectivity by highlighting some phrases or segments, but have decided against that step. Readers can form their own evaluations – noting that this item is just one in the series of “Motifs” that I have foreshadowed in my Introduction, viz., https://thuppahis.com/2016/05/05/ben-bavincks-testimony-within-the-crucible-of-war-1994-2004/. However, I have occasionally injected my thoughts via footnotes assembled at the end. Michael Roberts

Ben-1

20th April, 1995, Puttur

The Tigers attacked on 19th April. I was wrong. I had always thought that the Tigers would give more weight to the opinion of their own Tamil people and take into consideration international opinion; apparently that is not so. Last night, one hour after the ultimatum expired, they sank two navy vessels in the harbour of Trincomalee by using suicide divers. The attack resulted in 12 navy people killed and 15 wounded, then of course also the four Tigers, two boys and two girls. The same morning here in the papers the text of a letter was published written by Prabhakaran to President Chandrika, in which the Tigers announced that they are terminating the ceasefire and also withdrawing from all peace talks. The reason for this was that the government had not satisfied their demands and apparently had not taken the ultimatum seriously. I must confess, now that I have been witnessing this whole process at close quarters, I am amazed at the flimsiness of their arguments and their total indifference to all the suffering that this unilateral break can have for the Tamil citizens. All this happens while day after day they are harping on about the daily needs of the Tamil people. Appalling! Why not practice a little patience?                                                 (pp. 73-74) Continue reading →

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May 5, 2016 · 8:18 am

Ben Bavinck’s Testimony within the Crucible of War, 1994-2004

Michael Roberts

As a young teenager in the Netherlands Benjamin Bavinck (1924-2011) lived through the occupation of his country by the Nazi Germans. As he traversed the various war zones in Sri Lanka between 1988 and 2004, therefore, and recorded his experiences (in Dutch) in his diaries, he brought an experiential background that few other foreigners would have possessed. This pillar of experience was girded by two other sturdy characteristics: (1) what one can present as “Dutch phlegm” and (2) a commitment to the service of mankind that is a trait of those devoted to the helping professions.

Rajasinghamsin1990parentsofDrRajani Mr and Mrs Rajasingham Ben Bavinck pix

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May 3, 2016 · 2:08 pm

Failures in the Southern Political Leadership and Missed Opportunities in Jaffna,1963-1966

Neville Jayaweera, presenting here Extracts from Chapters 9 and 10 and Epilogue 1 of his book “Exorcising the past and holding the vision – an autobiographical reflection on the ethnic conflict”, covering the period when Jayaweera was the Government Agent of Jaffna in 1963-66 and the aftermath.... with the highlighted emphasis within the text being choices inserted by the author himself.

                  From chapter 9:  Nationhood and Leadership

 In the last week of December 1964, a cyclone of unprecedented ferocity devastated the Northern Province. The fishing villages of Myliddy, Kankesanthurai, Point Pedro, Nargakovil and several areas within the Jaffna District were reduced to a wilderness of sand dunes, stagnant salt water and windswept debris. In the Myliddy fishing village alone, several hundred lost their lives at sea. The Collector of Ramnad District in SE Tamil Nadu (India) contacted me to say that over 200 bodies had been washed ashore there and he had no alternative but to order mass cremations on the seashore to halt the spread of disease. Throughout the Jaffna District the Kalavoham crop (the main paddy crop) was wiped out and hundreds of fishing boats were reduced to matchwood. The distress was appalling.

Neville-Jayaweera

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April 28, 2016 · 8:45 am

Wallowing in Victimhood? Irish and Tamils Abroad

Padraig Colman at https://pcolman.wordpress.com/2016/04/28/mope-a-tale-of-two-diasporas/ where the title is “MOPE – a Tale of Two Diasporas”

Padraig-Colman-Colombo-Telegraph-150x150Four years ago, I posted a lengthy article on Groundviews which was prompted by a statement in May 2011 by MDMK chief Vaiko in Tamil Nadu. He said that the war for Eelam was not over; Prabhakaran was not dead and would emerge from hiding at the right time. According to Victor Rajakulendran, the LTTE remained a shining example, a “good history,” for all Sri Lankan Tamils to follow. For a very small number of Irish people the leaders of the Easter 1916 Rising remain a shining example. In her new book, The Seven, about the seven members of the Military Council who made the decision to rebel in Dublin, Irish historian Ruth Dudley Edwards, concludes: “By courting death for a cause that had no popular support, were the Seven different to Bobby Sands and his comrades who committed suicide by starvation? Or from the jihadis who these days joyously sacrifice themselves in suicide bombings? They shared a sense of their own absolute moral superiority as well as an ambition to achieve some kind of immortality”. Continue reading →

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April 25, 2016 · 2:45 am

The MISSING in the War Years: A Cumulative Bibliography as Aide

Michael Roberts

Let me begin with Rajasingham Narendran’s harrowing tale describing the moment when he returned to his home in the Jaffna Peninsula after the IPKF’s imperial occupation of the north in 1987: “My mother: 68-year old at the time of her killing. Slim build. Had been attacked by animals and crows and was in an advanced state of decay. My brother: 38-year old at the time of his death. neither obese or thin. Body intact though bloated. The gardener: Age approx. 60 years. Obese. All flesh had fallen off and the skeleton was clearly visible. A neighbour’s watchman: Age approx. 60 years. medium build. Only thigh bones-femurs and the skull remained. The rest of the body had been consumed or carried away by animals.”

   NARIYA 1 A jackal feeding on a buffalo carcass at Kumana -April 2014–Pic by Roberts missing= Photo by Eranga Jayawardena A Tamil lady in search of a missing kinswoman–Pic by Eranga Jayawardena in Groundviews

This is just one corpus of fact and tale that will have to be evaluated by the unit that is envisaged by the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms set up by the present government. If one visits the web site where the SCRM seeks submissions from the public, you will be led to “Boxes” where you can present ideas and/or information. The set of Boxes numbered 9 [nine] has this request: “The government has decided to set up An Office of Missing Persons. What measures should the office take to address the issue of the missing?” Continue reading →

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April 18, 2016 · 11:18 am

Antony Jesuthasan as “Dheepan” and Shobasakthi

Among the films being shown in Australian cities by the Alliance Francais Film Festival is that entitled DHEEPAN. The Tamil migrant and ex-Tiger fighter who inspired this tale and appears as the principal actor first burst onto the media pages as Shobasakthi …and the author of a book entitled Gorilla. The brief resume of the film is followed by a news item from 2008 .

DHEEPANDheepan is a major film event and the winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2015. This blistering slice of realism, entrenches director Jacques Audiard’s status as one of today’s greatest auteurs, with a unique presentation of the asylum seeker experience that will move audiences profoundly. Three strangers in conflict-ridden northern Sri Lanka band together as a makeshift family in order to flee to the suburbs of Paris: Dheepan, an ex-Tamil Tiger (Antonythasan Jesuthasan, author, activist, and former child soldier); lost young woman Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan); and orphan girl Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby). As they struggle to find stability, they are forced to improvise their relationships. Soon they find they must cope with new violence and intolerance in their adopted home.

Based on Antonythasan’s own experience, his journey of self-realisation is a powerful and visceral tale, told with a timeless classicism that marks the finest world cinema. As in A Prophet and Rust and Bone, director Audiard orchestrates creeping menace with an emotional punch and a complex social message. Continue reading →

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April 18, 2016 · 5:38 am

Reflections on Sri Lanka’s Experience in Defeating Terrorism

RAJIVARajiva Wijesinha, text of a talk at the ‘Afkar-e-Taza: Rescuing the Past, Shaping the Future’ Seminar, at Lahore, April 3rd 2016, where the title was “Defeating Terrorism: The Sri Lankan Experience” …with highlighting added by Thuppahi. Also available at https://rajivawijesinha.wordpress.com/2016/04/07/defeating-terrorism-the-sri-lankan-experience/

The world seems to be at boiling point at present given the increasing impact of terrorist activity. Civilian populations are subject to ruthless attacks in Africa, the Middle East and now both Europe and Asia. Typically, there is much less attention to what happens in our part of the world, which I believe may explain why there seems no adequate response to deal with the menace. Western powers engage in long distance operations that result in more civilian deaths in the less developed world, and the occasional claim that an identified terrorist has been killed. But the reach of the terrorist organizations seems only to grow in the face of such operations.

president-premadasa-on-may-dayPresident Prwemadasa on ! May 1993, a few minutes efore he was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber = https://blog.dzone.lk/2009/10/25/last-day-of-president-ranasinghe-premadasa/ Premadasa

There has indeed in recent years been only one unquestionable success in dealing with terrorism. In 2009 Sri Lanka defeated a terrorist movement that had pioneered suicide killings, with responsibility for several incidents where the victims had been numbered in hundreds. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had also killed two heads of government and destroyed several leading moderates of the ethnic group which it claimed to be liberating, namely the Tamils of Sri Lanka (Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India, President Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka, Messers Amirthalingam, Yoheswaran, Sam Tambimuttu, Neelan Tiruchelvam, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Mrs Sarojini Yoheswaran, Ketheswaran Loganathan, Alfred Duraiyappa, etc). Continue reading →

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April 6, 2016 · 7:00 am

Saving Talaivar Pirapāharan

  Michael Roberts, courtesy of the Colombo Telegraph, at https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/attempts-to-rescue-pirapaharan-et-al-in-2009/ — where the title is “Attempts To Rescue Pirapāharan et al in 2009″

         ONE: Saving Private Ryan[1]

Stephen Spielberg’s blockbuster film “Saving Private Ryan” was a fictional war film that was as dramatic as effective because of its realistic portrayal of the horrors of war, notably the D-Day landings. The realism was rendered feasible by the availability of solid accounts of the D-Day invasion that included film footage. In contrast any review of the efforts made to save the LTTE leader, or talaivar, Velupillai Pirapāharan (also presented as Prabhākaran) has to negotiate the murky world of international politics and its whispers.

TOM HANKS Fig. 1 =Tom Hanks as Private Ryan

SAVING PR Fig. 2= Scene from Saving Private Ryan

    PRABHA + Tiger  Fig. 3=an early image of Pirapāharan Continue reading →

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