Category Archives: refugees

August 7, 2024 · 12:37 am

THE CEYLON JOURNAL is launched: Seeking to Elucidate the Past & the Present

The Ceylon Journal is finally out

On August 2, 2024, the inaugural volume of The Ceylon Journal was launched at the Sri Lanka Medical Association Auditorium. This new publication by Heritage Publications is spearheaded by young historian Avishka Mario Senewiratne, features 15 articles exploring various facets of Sri Lankan history, including politics, architecture, folklore, and more. Inspired by Charles Ambrose Lorenz’s Young Ceylon, the journal aims to deepen understanding of Sri Lanka’s heritage and inspire progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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August 5, 2024 · 7:12 pm

Of All Places! Lankan Asylum Seekers stranded in Diego Garcia

News Item in The Island , 23 July 2024 … where the title reads “Urgent request to relocate Lankan asylum seekers from Diego Garcia amid escalating crisis”

Facing an urgent and escalating threat of harm to migrant children detained on Diego Garcia, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy requested their relocation to the UK on July 16th, as reported in the Solicitors Journal. This request to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper follows a warning from the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Commissioner, who reported severe living conditions and recent suicide attempts among the detainees....visit The Island web-ref for  photo of  this cluster of refugee boat people

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June 20, 2024 · 4:36 pm

ITIHAS Launched …. and Spreads Its Wings

Go to …. https://itihas.lk/contact/    … Note that the presentation here is a re-cast selection by The Editor of Thuppahi who has also imposed his colourings on the text

Mission:  What we hope to achieve

Itihas aims to equip Sri Lankan youth with the ability to think critically about their past, present, and future. It specifically aims to debunk mythological understandings of history that afford to particular ethno-religious groups a sense of superiority or authenticity over others. Rather than acting as a gatekeeper of knowledge, Itihas seeks to empower future generations of students, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to learn about, research, and make informed decisions on divisive issues such as conflict, discrimination and violence in a manner that advances a more inclusive Sri Lanka.

Photo by Tashiya De Mel

Itihas – Advancing history education reform in Sri Lanka

 

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May 22, 2024 · 10:59 pm

Lankan Military Personnel Mark Their Hard-Won Triumph in the Eelam Wars on Anniversary of the Final Moments

Kumar Kirinde & Co, 18 May 2024

Dear RAFOA Member,  Tomorrow, 18th May marks the 15th anniversary of the end of the armed conflict  between the GOSL and the LTTE. In remembrance of the efforts made by the SL armed forces and sacrifices made by tri-services personnel in bringing this conflict to an end, attached is a one page brief and an article done by two retired SLAF officers based overseas and a copy of an article written by a Sri Lankan defence analyst to an Australian defence journal (shared by a military history enthusiast also based overseas for the benefit of our RAFOA membership).

 

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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 7, 2024 · 8:11 pm

Stark Images of Ethnic Retribution & Violence in Colombo, late July 1983

Photos selected by Michael Roberts & Rendered Accessible by David Sansoni of Sydney

  Commencing with a ‘shot’ of passers-by and ordinary citizens assaulting and ridiculing a Tamil person at Galle Road in Colpetty

 

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March 21, 2024 · 6:14 pm

Experiences: Working on the Gal Oya Project in Ceylon, 1950-61

Andreas Szechowycz, presenting a Memoir-cum-Report entitled “Gal Oya Project (1950-1960): Dr. Roman W. Szechowycz & the Gal Oya Development Board”

Dr. Roman W. Szechowycz was employed by the Gal Oya Development Board from 18 July 1950 to 1961. He arrived in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) with his wife Sabina (nee Czekan) Szechowycz and their 3-year-old daughter Maria. I was born in October 1951 in Colombo. During the time in Sri Lanka, we lived in Inginiyagala next to the post office.

My parents were displaced people who after World War II ended were in Hanover Germany in the British Sector. My father’s home was in northwest Ukraine and my mother’s home was in southwest Poland. These areas were occupied by Russians after the conclusion of World War II.

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February 12, 2024 · 9:05 pm

Tamil Women at War as ‘Birds of Freedom’ in the LTTE Cause

Vindhya Buthpitiya: “How to Capture Birds of Freedom: Picturing Tamil Women at War,” Trans Asia Photography (2023) 13 (1)  … derived from ………………………………………… https://doi.org/10.1215/21582025-10365016 … with the aid of my Aloysian mate KK De Silva; whilr the highlighting is my imposition.

 Abstract: This article examines the uses of images of women fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during and after the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) to explore the contrasting mobilizations of visual representations of Tamil women cadres, focusing on the cultivation and framing of contradictory nationalist imaginaries by competing ethnic and state actors. In northern Sri Lanka, portraits of gun-bearing women fighters were wielded to signal revolutionary possibilities for the future of the Tamil nation-state as well as to inform the political socialization of its hopeful citizens. Meanwhile, images of Tamil women cadres were cast as gendered and ethnicized threats by the Sri Lankan state in what constituted a calculated form of visual ethno-political othering and weaponization. This article reflects on the ways in which such appropriations exacerbated the political precarity of and the denial of victimhood to Tamil women.

Malathy was the First Tamil Tigress to face death for the Tamiil for the Tamil Cause

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December 24, 2023 · 9:38 am

For the People of GAZA … “Little Drummer Boy”

Web Item conveyed by Dr Firazath Hussain of Wellawatte, Colombo

From Ramallah Friends School to the world, we share our version of the timeless “ Little Drummer Boy.” Our hearts come together in prayer for the safety of the children in Gaza. May our shared prayers echo for peace and justice, weaving a tapestry of hope that goes beyond borders, embracing the shared humanity we all hold dear……… 162,402 views Dec 4, 2023   ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsEbIVJy0Gg    

 

 

 

 

 

A NOTE from One Thuppahi, 24 December 2023:   

“I cried ….. tears came naturally …. especially when the WEB decided on its own to present a rendering of DANNO BUDUNGE sung by Kishani Jayasinghe …..  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plaKsOtC3b8    

….   then more tears welled.

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December 3, 2023 · 12:36 pm

Debating the Value of Tangential Historical Forays

Michael Roberts

 A FEW DAYS BACK, on 28th November 2023, I circulated this item among Lankan aficianado…. [ Let me add, here, that I was prompted to do this by the burgeoning world debate on the Palestinian-Israeli War that has been raging since August]. ………………………………………………………………….. https://thuppahis.com/2014/11/18/cartographic-photographic and -illustrations-in-support-of-the-memorandum-analysing-the-war-in-sri-lanka-and-propaganda

ROHANTHA GUNARATNA in Canada responded in critical fashion. …. So I circulated his Memo to some personnel  with this NOTE: “I encourage responses [to his Memo] from interested personnel – here, quite deliberately, reaching out beyond Lankans to Indians and Brits familiar with the Lankan scene in that period past.”

 

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