Category Archives: martyrdom

September 16, 2024 · 8:36 pm

A Muslim Militia in the East of Sri Lanka Sponsored by the State

Rajan Hoole, being Chapter 3 of his book “Sri Lanka”s Easter Tragedy: When the Deep State Gets Out of Its Depth”

  1. A State-sponsored Muslim Militia in the East

Mohamed Zahran Cassim, whose fate made headlines in Wahabi terror, was born in Kattankudy in 1986. In understanding his rise and death in a suicide blast of Easter, 21st April 2019, it is useful to keep in mind Velupillai Prabhakaran and how his terror machine subdued an entire people. Zahran’s zeal and ire were initially directed towards subduing the Sufi population of Kattankudy. We shall see that the patronage and protection afforded to him by a section of the Sri Lankan security establishment, changed course because of unexpected mishaps after he led an attack on Sufis on 10th March 2017. Despite efforts by his handlers, an independent magistrate issued an arrest warrant for him, making him a wanted person. Forced to leave Kattankudy, he was manoeuvred, as circumstances suggest, into becoming an instrument of suicide terror.

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September 8, 2024 · 10:34 pm

Face-to-Face in Admonishment: Drama at the Adelaide Oval, 23rd January 1998

Michael Roberts

Ashan de Alwis’s article in The Ceylon Journal Volume 1/1 published in mid-2024 is as readable and excellent an essay as anyone can wish for.[i] It focuses on the 50-over one-day cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka played at Adelaide Oval on the 23rd January 1999 and specifically on the no-balling of Muralitharan for throwing by umpire Ross Emerson and captain Arjuna Ranatunga’s unprecedented actions in challenging the umpire.[1] This account is supported by a graphic picture – as iconic as world-famous unusual. It does not fail to note that the Sri Lankan batsmen, batting second, did not let Murali or the fans down: led by a Mahela Jayawardene century, they reached the massive England total of 303 in the last over with the last man Murali at the crease.

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September 7, 2024 · 9:18 pm

Age-old Themes Imbricated within the Palestine-Israel Conflict

 Simon Sebag Montefiore, in The TIMES, 6 September 2024, where the title reads: “A conflict built on centuries of myth-making” … with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi **

‘Forever wars’ do not exist but bringing peace to the Holy Land is complicated by so much of its history being wilfully misunderstood.

There was a moment during the last significant negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, in May 2008, that is relevant today. Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian minister of negotiations, told the Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni: “It’s no secret we’re offering you the biggest Yerushalayim in history. But we must talk about the concept of al-Quds. We’ve taken your interests and concerns into account … ”

 

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August 30, 2024 · 7:52 pm

“Footprints in the Sands” – A Poetic Lament for Sri Lanka’s Politics

Revd Derrick Mendis, S.J.**

Politics in Lanka is a dirty game

Sans sense of honesty, honour or shame.

On election-campaigns that squander millions,

When in power, make illicit billions.

Copyright @CharithMania

Jayatilleka Hall, Peradeniya University … where Derrick & Groucho led the way

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June 24, 2024 · 6:29 pm

Hot Press! Terrorist Attacks on Russian Sites in the Caspian

Observer in a Black Sea Resort Town

On Sunday 23 June, which was the Orthodox holiday of Trinity, a public holiday in Russia, three coordinated attacks took place.

The first was a Ukrainian-US attack on a popular Black Sea resort near Sevastopol in Russia’s Crimea, which killed four, including two children playing on a beach. Over 150 people were wounded. In this Ukrainian-US strike, five ATACMS ballistic missiles–requiring American servicemen to operate them–were fired at a popular beach near Sevastopol. Four missiles were intercepted but the explosion of the cluster warhead in the fifth missile in the air resulted in many civilian casualties.

Attending to casualities yesterday in a Black Sea resort town near Sevastopol after cluster munitions from a US made ATACMS missile exploded above the beach resort.

 

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June 14, 2024 · 9:19 pm

A Successful Quest: The “QUEST” as Wreck Located

Campbell MacDiarmid in Ottawa, in The Guardian, 12 June 2024… with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

The vessel, which sank off the coast of Canada in 1962, was used by the explorer on his final voyage to the continent.

 

The wreck of the ship on which renowned Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton died has been found off the coast of Labrador, Canada, searchers have announced.

Locating the Quest – a schooner-rigged steamship which sank on a 1962 seal hunting voyage – represents a last link to the “heroic age of Antarctic exploration”, said search leader John Geiger. “Finding Quest is one of the final chapters in the extraordinary story of Sir Ernest Shackleton,” said Geiger, who heads the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Geiger was speaking from the bridge of Leeway Odyssey as the oceanographic research vessel returned to port in St John’s, Newfoundland, after locating the Quest in 400 metres of water 15 nautical miles from shore.

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June 10, 2024 · 4:30 pm

Commemorating D-DAY in Normandy, 2024

Item in The Economist, 30 May 2024 …. with highlighting imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi

Bob Fagan was a 21-year-old private from Texas when he plunged from his assault craft into the cold sea off Utah Beach in Normandy, under the rattle of Nazi machinegun fire and air bombardment. “The water was red with blood,” he later recalled. “There were bodies floating all around us.” A fellow member of the 299th combat battalion landing on Omaha Beach had a simpler description: “Hell.”

A beach landing by the Royal Marines of 47 Commando and civilians at Asnelles before their annual ‘yomp’ to Port-en-Bessin, in Normandy, France, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Picture date: Thursday June 6, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story MEMORIAL DDay. Photo credit should read: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

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May 20, 2024 · 2:49 am

A Lifetime Addressing Nationalist Political Currents & Zealotry

Michael Roberts

As I attend a friend’s funeral every now and then in Adelaide or receive mail conveying sad tidings re good friends and other acquaintances, I am reminded that I will disappear into the dust in due course relatively soon. So be it.

However there has been a lifetime of endeavour in various fields. One range of activity has been in the academic realm investigating socio-political events and processes in the world …. with particular attention directed towards my home-country Sri Lanka’s affairs.

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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 12, 2024 · 1:20 am

POIGNANT MOMENTS …. Remembering the Dead in War

 

In SRI LANKA 12 May 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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