Category Archives: sri lankan society

April 18, 2016 · 4:02 am

Mass Graves: Failures of Judicial Investigation, 1971-2015

Basil Fernando, in the Sunday Observer, 17 April 2015 where the title is “Why investigations into mass graves have failed so far”

Sri Lanka is a place where very many mass graves have been discovered.  The Chemmani and Matale mass graves are the only two instances in which some progress was made in terms of a judicial inquiry to discover their backgrounds. However, even in those two instances, after the beginning of some initial steps mainly due to expressions of public interest from local as well as international sources, the process has stopped. Reasons given for such stoppages are basically of a technical nature.

Close scrutiny: However, close scrutiny of these circumstances clearly indicate that there are far more serious obstacles to investigations into mass graves than those which are merely technical. Those ‘obstacles’ are based on political considerations which should not be factors in inquiries about serious crimes which may possibly be involved in the secret burial of many human bodies in a mass grave. Seemingly, the criminal justice system has allowed for measures to be approved by a government and carried out by law enforcement agencies which result in the creation of mass graves.

Mass-Grave-MAANNAR Mass grave at Mannar=Pic from www.firstpost.com

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April 17, 2016 · 1:20 pm

Richard Gabriel: A Personal Perspective

Srilal Fernando from Melbourne

Richard Don Gabriel died peacefully surrounded by his extended family on his 92nd birthday. He was the last of the original group of Artists called the 43 Group. Thus ended an era of profound importance in the Art of Sri Lanka. This article is neither an exhaustive exercise about the Group or of Richard Gabriel’s Art. I shall leave this to more capable and knowledgeable writers. Mine is a personal perspective.

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April 11, 2016 · 1:57 pm

Harsha de Silva’s Missionary Move Takes Off: Emergency Ambulance Service initiated in Two Provinces

Economy Next, 9 April 2016, http://www.economynext.com/Emotional_Sri_Lanka_minister_invites_philanthropists_to_back_life_saving_EMT_service-3-4709.html

Sri Lanka’s Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva invited businesses to help expand an island-wide paramedic service started with support from India, breaking down at nationalist opposition to an initiative to save the lives of the sick and wounded. De Silva is driving an initiative to build a country-wide network of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who will travel in ambulances to stabilize accident or heart-attack victims before rushing them to hospital. India is giving a 7.5 million dollar grant to set up the services in Colombo and Galle as a first step. The training will be provided by GVK Emergency Response Institute, a non-profit organization that is operating the service in India as a public private partnership.

HarshaHarsha de Silva,

But nationalist elements have opposed the move saying Indians will run ambulances in Sri Lanka, despite the fact that it will save lives, especially of poor people. The service however will run with Sri Lankan technicians and India’s GVK will only train workers and provide technical support and skills so that it can be operated independently. Continue reading →

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April 10, 2016 · 5:12 pm

Ranil’s Entourage in Kow Tow and Homage in China: As Abject as Intelligent

I present four news items preceded by my own Preamble and followed by Rajan Philips’s appraisal as essential reading.

  • China grants 500mn Yuan symbolizing Sino-Lanka friendship
  • Yuan to enter Colombo
  • Ranil appoints top-level committee to facilitate Chinese investments
  • Economic strategies between Sri Lanka and China finalized
  • Ben Blanchard: “Sri Lanka requests equity swap for some of its $8 billion China debt”
  • Rajan Philips: “PM’s China visit: Two-timing diplomacy for Indo-China investments

Ranil ++ 11Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang welcomes the Sri Lankan Premier.

I. Preamble by Michael Roberts

The term kow tow has been an act of Chinese penetration, so to speak, into the English language,[1] being a corruption of the Cantonese Chinese term kau tau (koutou in Mandarin Chinese) which denotes the act of deep respect shown by prostration, that is, kneeling and bowing so low as to have one’s head touching the ground. In the early 15th century the Ming  Emperor despatched a huge fleet under Cheng Ho – one that would have simply dwarfed the ships and numbers under Columbus – across the Indian Ocean and captured Vira Alakesvera, the King of Kotte, and transported him to China in order to instill China’s “tributary overlordship” over the island. So, kow-towing, or what we would call dakum, obeisance from inferior to superior, was forcibly imposed on that occasion. DAKUMA  Dutch ambassadors in däkuma before King of Sihalē, 1785…https://thuppahis.com/2013/10/09/tributary-overlordship-and-cakravarti-figures-in-pre-british-lanka/

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April 10, 2016 · 3:37 am

Sri Lanka Now: A Luxurious Tour

Claire Wrathall,  at Departures Autumn Travel issue, p 68-71  and http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e9e994a6-c369-11e5-808f-8231cd71622e.html where one of the titles is “A taste of luxury in Sri Lanka”

A homegrown hotel group is hoping to rival the international chains at the very top of the market
A young male elephant in the adjacent Yala National Park©Alamy…A young male elephant in the adjacent Yala National Park

Offered the chance to ride shotgun in a helicopter, I leapt at the opportunity. As anyone who has ever negotiated the roads in Sri Lanka knows, driving can be slow. The journey from Colombo to Ulagalla, 175km north-east of the airport, had taken almost five hours; the place we were moving on to was almost 350km south. A chopper seemed the way to go. It was raining, but even so the views were sensational. We glimpsed a column of elephants, their backs like great grey boulders, lumbering through the verdant landscape, then circled the ancient citadel of Sigiriya, which sits atop a 200 metre-high column of rock, before landing, unexpectedly, at a military airport, swooping down past what appeared to be an open missile silo in order to refuel. It was only after we were airborne again that the bad weather really set in. The cloud descended until visibility was negligible. And then the screen on the dashboard turned orange and began to flash “TERRAIN ALERT”. The pilot’s concern was palpable. There was nothing for it but to alter course away from the mountains and land, alighting several long minutes later on the worn wicket of a waterlogged cricket pitch in a remote town called, we learnt later, Dehiattakandiya.

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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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April 6, 2016 · 3:39 am

Lotus Tower to dominate Colombo’s Skyline

Harry de Sayrah

lotus tower COLOMBO Continue reading →

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April 6, 2016 · 2:39 am

Sarvananthan sparks Financial Investigation of ICES

Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, courtesy of Colombo Telegraph, https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/ices-in-sri-lanka-is-under-investigation/, where readers will find a burgeoning  series of comments

In response to the exposes in the Colombo Telegraph during the latter half of January 2016(see below for titles and the web links) and a formal complaint lodged with the Counter Fraud and Whistleblowing Unit (CFWU) of the Department for International Development (DfID, United Kingdom) by this author, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada) has launched a forensic audit of the financial accounts of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES, Colombo, Sri Lanka) pertaining to the Safe and Inclusive Cities (SaIC) and Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) programmes co-funded by the Department for International Development (DfID, UK) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada) and managed by the latter. In fact, 70% of the total funding for the GrOW programme is by the DfID.

   a-SARVI Sarvananthan   MARIO GOMEZMario Gomez

An international audit firm has been hired by the IDRC to undertake a forensic audit of the accounts pertaining to the aforementioned two projects at the ICES in Colombo. Accordingly, personnel from this multinational audit firm were in Colombo during the week March 14 – 20, 2016 and met this author on March 18, 2016.Their report to the IDRC is due before the end of April 2016. The ICES is probably the only NGO in Sri Lanka that has been subjected to forensic auditing by a grantor to date.  Continue reading →

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April 6, 2016 · 1:19 am

The Indian Factor in Sri Lankan Politics and its Ambassador’s Bullishness

Major General (Retd.) Lalin Fernando, courtesy of the ASIAN TRIBUNE, 3 April 2016, where the title is “Lalin’s Column: Indian Gifts” … with highlighting being insertions by Thuppahi.

When a bearded Indian President was searched on suspicion at an US airport and later an Indian woman diplomat was stripped searched by US police, many in SL sympathized with them. That may not be the case hereafter with Indian High Commissioner in SL, YK Sinha’s most undiplomatic forays into SL’s politics. After observing the growing opposition to the ETCA with India, Mr. Sinha has gratuitously passed on his wisdom to the former Minister of Justice and the former President telling them what to do with themselves. He has asked Dr. GL Peiris to go back to law lecturing or something as cheeky as that. He has forgotten the adage that “manners maketh the man.”

AA-SINHA- YK Sinha-–Pic from in.news.yahoo.com

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April 5, 2016 · 9:26 am

Lest We Forget: A Letter to the President of Sri Lanka from an Infantry Officer, Gemunu Watch

Hiran Halangode, in a commemorative essay written in June 2015 in memory of the security personnel killed by the LTTE in the East in June 1990

It is 25 years since the series of unfortunate events took place [see Halangode: “Besieged; Confronting the LTTE Assaults in Batticaloa  Province…,”  https://thuppahis.com/2016/03/28/besieged-confronting-the-ltte-assaults-in-mid-1990-in-batticaloa-province-an-infantry-officers-tale/ . As I pen these few lines as a tribute to all those gallant warriors of our country, I pay my humble respects to all those fallen heroes in this terrible conflict. However if we are to benefit from the experience, it is important that the lessons learnt are not forgotten or swept under the carpet. I kindly request the President that action be initiated and a study made of our past, before embarking on the future national security policy which should be based on these and similar experiences.

Firstly. ensure we have a granite stone marker as a grim reminder recording the incident at the locations in Kiran, Wellawadi, Kallady, Kalwanchikudy and Kalmunai to remember those who sacrificed their lives for our motherland and for future generations to know their efforts were not in vain. We must make similar markers at all such locations that history will not be erased by the unpatriotic elements in society for their own convenience and hidden agendas. These pictures of the present locations of Kiran and Wellawadi detachments 25 years on provide ample proof.

DSC08381 Kiran camp in June 2015 pic 1Kiran camp well 2015                   wellawadi beach 2015Wellawadi Beach                      Continue reading →

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