In 1991, she was the last Indian journalist to interview Rajiv Gandhi and a few metres away from him when a female LTTE suicide bomber blew herself up and killed the former Indian Prime Minister. Twenty-five years later, Neena Gopal, the then young journalist, returns to the picture to tell a bigger story in her new book “The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi”, unearthing, among other matters, the role India’s intelligence arm, the Research and Analysis Wing, played in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict that dragged on for three decades. The Sunday Times today carries extracts from the book. Continue reading
Category Archives: sri lankan society
Tamils For Sri Lankan Unity speak out in Chennai
Special Correspondent, The Hindu, 20 August 2016
An atmosphere conducive to find a permanent political solution to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue is emerging now and it is the moral responsibility of the Tamil diaspora to join in reconstruction efforts, according to a group of Tamil MPs from the island nation. Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Sivagnanam Siritharan, Kilinochi MP, said that with the coming together of two major political parties and the efforts of several nations, including India, pointed to the emergence of an opportunity to find a permanent political solution to the Sri Lankan Tamil issue.
Making a case:(From left) Sri Lankan MPs Sivagnanam Siritharan, Charles Nirmalanathan and Velukumar —Photo: G. Moorthy
Filed under centre-periphery relations, democratic measures, ethnicity, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, life stories, LTTE, patriotism, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, rehabilitation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, tolerance, unusual people, world affairs
Exposed: Action Contre La Faim’s Nakedness at Muttur in August 2006
Manoli Jinadasa, in The Island, 24 August 2016. where the title is “ACF cruelly abandoned its workers and compensation, too. Response to Action Contre La Faim (ACF)”…. Note: highlighting emphases is the imposition of the Editor,Thuppahi
I refer to your news item (First Page – Sunday Island – 17.08.2016) which reports that the French Charity Action Contre La Faim (ACF) has urged the Sri Lankan government to hold a credible investigation into the killing of 17 of its aid workers in Muttur a decade ago, expressing the view that previous investigations into the ACF attack have been “inconclusive”.
Mourning the ACF dead
ACF, the employer of the 17 deceased aid workers, have periodically issued press statements of this nature, in an effort to promulgate an absolute misconception that there had not been a credible inquiry into this incident. There was indeed a full scale inquiry by a panel of eminent persons, at which ACF was found to have been negligent in respect of the safety of its employees, a fact which the ACF is attempting to hide by conveniently ignoring the Commission of Inquiry that successfully conducted a full scale inquiry and tendered a comprehensive report concerning this incident.
Filed under accountability, communal relations, historical interpretation, human rights, law of armed conflict, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, Muslims in Lanka, NGOs, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Maithripala Sirisena embroiled in 2011 Bribery Allegation in Australia
Nick McKenzie et al, in The Age,24 August 2016,where the title is “Australian companies linked to bribe scandals in Sri Lanka and Congo”
Two Australian companies are embroiled in bribery scandals that reach into the offices of the presidents of Sri Lanka and the Republic of Congo, as the firms sought to secure multi-million dollar contracts. Coming in the wake of foreign bribery allegations implicating Tabcorp, Leighton Holdings and BHP Billiton, the revelations will put pressure on the Turnbull government to reform Australia’s failing anti-corruption framework.
Hard to please … Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso, left, pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo: AP
Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena. 
Photo: AP
Aussie Border Protection: Six Lankans returned Forthwith to Sri Lanka
Rod Mcguirk, Associated Press, Canberra, 18 August 2016
Six asylum seekers who attempted to reach Australia by boat have been sent back to Sri Lanka in a demonstration that tough border enforcement measures had not softened since recent Australian elections, a Cabinet minister said Wednesday. A tip from the Sri Lankan government alerted Australian authorities that the boat was on its way, Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement. The six were returned to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, he said. “This return shows that there has not been, and will not be, any change to Australia’s robust border protection policies,” Dutton said. The government releases few details about such interceptions at sea, which have prevented any asylum seeker from reaching Australia by boat for two years.
Incursions. Beginning of International War Crimes Probe?
The Island Editorial, Friday, 18th August 2016, with this title “Beginning of international war crimes probe?”
The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) is making the most of the increasing impotency of the state to run a parallel government of sorts in the northern parts of the country; it is also working overtime to annex the Eastern Province to the North. Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran and others of his ilk are all out to gain legitimacy for their political project with the help of foreign powers. Hardly a day passes without a foreign dignitary visiting the North and entertaining appeals from the NPC members and doing a Dixit.
Filed under accountability, american imperialism, doctoring evidence, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, Responsibility to Protect or R2P, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, TNA, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, world events & processes
Facing Chand Wije, An Aggressive Sinhala Chauvinist
Michael Roberts
I happen to be a mostly silent ‘member’ of two or three internet clusters which indulge in avid debates on Sri Lankan and world affairs. Most seem to be migrants abroad. Vigorous debates on opposite sides of the governing order in Sri Lanka occur. The weightage is heavily Sinhala and often extremist. As such it can be a useful source for my purposes, though the volume of exchanges is such that I can rarely read all the comments. The chains also enable me to circulate articles, whether by myself or others, that have been presented in Thuppahi.
Anagarika Dharmapala vs 
Roberts?
Let me now present an interesting engagement in point form
A. Recently one “Chand Wije,” with email address cwije7@gmail.com – apparently a Wijewickrema and a Peradeniya graduate from the 1960s (?) – circulated an item in Sinhala entitled “The Historian Michael Roberts faces Anagarika Dharmapala.” Continue reading
Filed under cultural transmission, historical interpretation, life stories, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, racist thinking, Rajapaksa regime, reconciliation, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, truth as casualty of war, violence of language, world affairs
Sri Lanka’s Economic Malaise remains
Razeen Sally, courtesy of Daily FT, 12 August 2016
Expectations were high after the January and August elections last year. The incoming Government promised a new era of political liberalism, good governance, ethnic reconciliation and a balanced foreign policy. Not least, it stirred hopes of a more market-oriented economic policy that would, finally, make Sri Lanka achieve its long-heralded potential. What has changed in the last year-and-a-half?
Sally–srilankaeconomicforum.org
To begin with credits: The political atmosphere is freer; the 19th Amendment and a new constitution in the works promise more checks on arbitrary power. Corruption is smaller-scale and less brazen than it was under the Rajapaksas. Ethnic tensions are much lower; the right symbolic overtures have been made to the minorities. Foreign policy has been rebalanced. Despite initial bumps, China remains a firm friend, but relations have been repaired with India and the West. That said, there is no Yahalpalanaya: corruption and nepotism have returned to pre-Rajapaksa levels; they remain rife. And tangible solutions to inter-ethnic fissures – justice for human-rights abuses, land restitution, demilitarisation, devolution of power – remain some way off. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, economic processes, foreign policy, governance, island economy, modernity & modernization, performance, Rajapaksa regime, security, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, sri lankan society, the imaginary and the real, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Missing Persons: Institutionalization of Fact Finding via OMP
ONE. Mangala Samaraweera: “OMP, a mechanism to help truth finding,” http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2016/08/12/local/90327
The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) is not a judicial process and it cannot punish anybody, Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera said. He was addressing a press conference at the Parliamentary Complex yesterday following the passage of the OMP Bill. He reiterated the OMP is just a mechanism to help the truth finding and that would in no way betray war heroes.
Samaraweera said in reality, the OMP would be helpful to find information on the missing persons in the tri-forces too. “We will in fact protect the war heroes and will reinforce their reputation internationally,” he said. The minister said as the next step, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission would be appointed, adding that its legal framework would be finished by September. He said the public opinion for the TRC are now being taken. Continue reading
Filed under accountability, historical interpretation, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, the imaginary and the real, TNA, truth as casualty of war, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Sustaining Research at Peradeniya Arts Faculty: Pathways
Gerald Peiris, in a Talk entitled ‘For a Sustainable Tradition of Research in the Peradeniya Faculty of Arts’
The Chief Guest, Dr. R. H. S. Samaratunga; Vice-Chancellor, Professor Upul Dissanayake; Chairman, Professor Shantha Hennayake; distinguished participants of the conference, I thank the Vice-Chancellor and the organising committee for inviting me to make this presentation. Apart from the honour, any visit to the university is, to me, a sentimental journey down the memory lane stretching back almost exactly 60 years to July 1956 when I came here as a first-year student..
I should begin with a comment on the conference theme –‘Unleashing Minds to Create a Sustainable Future’– by stating that it would be prudent to make it more explicit with an addition of a few words for it to read: ‘Unleashing minds to create a sustainable future of peace and prosperity for the people of Sri Lanka’ to clarify that what we expect is not, say, a future of dependence and subservience to the global powers, not a future as a component of the Indian federation, not a future that discards our treasured cultural heritage, and not even a fancifully imagined future as “The Knowledge Hub” of Asia, or of South Asia or of the Indian Ocean periphery.
Filed under accountability, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, education policy, governance, historical interpretation, language policies, Left politics, life stories, literary achievements, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, world affairs
