Well ! What do you know!
Category Archives: war crimes
John Pilger’s Overview of the Deeper History of Western Intervention in Afghanistan
John Pilger in Consortium News, Volume 26, Number 240, 28 August 2021, with this title ““The Great Game of Smashing Nations”
More than a generation ago, Afghanistan won its freedom, which the U.S., Britain and their “allies” destroyed.
Outside the gate of the Arg, the presidential palace, in Kabul, the day after the Saur revolution on April 28, 1978. (Cleric77, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
As a tsunami of crocodile tears engulfs Western politicians, history is suppressed. More than a generation ago, Afghanistan won its freedom, which the United States, Britain and their “allies” [then] destroyed.
Filed under accountability, Al Qaeda, american imperialism, authoritarian regimes, British imperialism, conspiracies, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, Indian Ocean politics, insurrections, Islamic fundamentalism, life stories, military strategy, politIcal discourse, power politics, security, self-reflexivity, slanted reportage, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, zealotry
The Sri Lankan Government and the Media within the Crossroads of War 2006-09
Palitha Kohona ,in The Sunday Observer, 28 June 2020, with this title “Managing the media on the road to Nandikadal – Part 1″ ….http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2020/06/28/news-features/managing-media-road-nandikadal-part-1
The conflict with the terrorist LTTE dragged on for over two decades causing widespread death and destruction with no obvious end in sight. The Government, after the election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, recognised, perhaps for the first time, that carefully managing the media, both domestic and international, was an important factor if this endless struggle were to be ended successfully. President Rajapaksa, a consummate politician, accepted the profound value of a non-antagonistic media and carefully orchestrated initiatives to secure this objective. As the world knows, the bloody conflict was eventually ended on the banks of the Nanthikadal Lagoon on May 18, 2009, through the colossal efforts and sacrifices of the security forces.
Tony Birtley of Al Jazeera at the warfront in late 2008 and Ranil Wijayapala in ??
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, Eelam, ethnicity, foreign policy, fundamentalism, governance, historical interpretation, human rights, insurrections, island economy, language policies, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, suicide bombing, Tamil civilians, Tamil migration, Tamil Tiger fighters, terrorism, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, violence of language, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, women in ethnic conflcits, world events & processes
Stalag Luft III and Its “Great Escape” Tunnel: An Archaelogical Treasure
The Great Escape Tunnel
Untouched for almost seven decades, the tunnel used in the Great Escape has finally been unearthed. The 111-yard passage nicknamed ‘Harry’ by Allied prisoners was sealed by the Germans after the audacious break-out from the POW camp Stalag Luft III in western Poland. Despite huge interest in the subject, encouraged by the film starring Steve McQueen, the tunnel undisturbed over the decades because it was behind the Iron Curtain and the Soviet had no interest in its significance.
Filed under architects & architecture, art & allure bewitching, ethnicity, historical interpretation, Hitler, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, security, self-reflexivity, the imaginary and the real, travelogue, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, World War II
Lord Naseby on Global Britain and Its Sri Lanka Relations
House of Lords: The Rt Hon Lord Michael Naseby spoke in the Queen’s Speech Debate on Wednesday May 19, 2021 …. [with highlighting emphais here being the work of The Editor, Thuppahi]
My Lords, I welcome the gracious Speech. My comments will be on global Britain, specifically the Indo-Pacific tilt. My own background is that I have lived and worked in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and I know the rest of ASEAN quite well. I will specifically address Sri Lanka, and I declare an interest as joint chair of the All-Party Group (on Sri Lanka).
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, citizen journalism, communal relations, discrimination, foreign policy, gordon weiss, historical interpretation, human rights, IDP camps, legal issues, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, NGOs, Paranagama Report, politIcal discourse, power sharing, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Where Cricketers outshine Politcoes …. In Every Field
Lakshman Kadirgamar
“Ladies and Gentlemen, let me see whether politics and cricket have anything in common. Both are games. Politicians and cricketers are superficially similar, and yet very different. Both groups are wooed by the cruel public who embrace them today and reject them tomorrow.
Filed under accountability, centre-periphery relations, communal relations, conspiracies, cultural transmission, education, ethnicity, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, LTTE, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, terrorism, the imaginary and the real, unusual people, vengeance, war crimes, world events & processes
Sustaining Memory as a Central Facet of Transitional Justice
Gehan Gunatilleke: “The Right to Memory: The Forgotten Facet of Transitional Justice* with highlighting emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting — Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979)
Introduction
Memory does not explicitly feature among the four pillars of transitional justice: truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence. Hence the precise role memory plays within a transitional justice process is often left to those negotiating the contours of the process. Memory is a vital ingredient in ascertaining the truth and in securing evidence to ensure justice for victims and survivors. Moreover, memorialisation of loss has a place in the symbolic initiatives owed to victims and survivors under the reparations pillar. Meanwhile, public memorials commemorating man-made tragedies contribute towards a society’s collective commitment to non-recurrence. Thus memory often becomes the lifeblood that preserves and binds the traditional pillars of transitional justice.
Filed under accountability, atrocities, centre-periphery relations, cultural transmission, democratic measures, education, European history, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, meditations, nationalism, patriotism, politIcal discourse, power politics, Rajapaksa regime, security, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, slanted reportage, social justice, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, the imaginary and the real, trauma, truth as casualty of war, UN reports, unusual people, war crimes, war reportage, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Ilse Weber: Two Lullabies
Tony Donaldson
Apropos of your item on Jewish lyrics and compositions from the depths of misery in Nazi concentration camps, I convey herewith two lullabies by the composer Ilse Weber who was sent with her family to Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942. She worked as a nurse in the camp, wrote poems and songs, and performed her songs accompanying herself on the guitar. Here are two songs – a quiet moving lullaby called Wiegala, and the song Ich wandre durch Theresienstadt (I wandered through Theresienstadt). It is said that she sang the song Wiegala while facing her death. She died in Auschwitz in 1944.
Songs and Music from Auschwitz and Other Concentration Camps
Meagan Flynn, in Washington Post, 17 April 2018, where the title runs thus: “How thousands of songs composed in concentration camps are finding new life”
Ilse Weber 1903-1944
Ilse Weber, a Jewish poet, was imprisoned at the concentration camp at Terezin in German-occupied Czechoslovakia when she wrote a song called “When I Was Lying Down in Terezin’s Children’s Clinic.” The song was about caring for sick children at the camp where Weber worked as a nurse. She had little-to-no medicine available. But she had her poetry and her music — some of which her husband managed to salvage by hiding the written verses in a garden shed after her death at Auschwitz in 1944.
Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, ethnicity, Fascism, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, Hitler, human rights, landscape wondrous, life stories, literary achievements, martyrdom, meditations, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, trauma, travelogue, unusual people, war crimes, war reportage, world events & processes, World War II
