Category Archives: women in ethnic conflcits

August 20, 2019 · 5:34 pm

UN Aid Workers in the Crucible of War, 1989-92: William Clarance’s Fascinating Account

Michael Roberts, in SOUTH ASIA¸ Sept 2008, 31: 394-96 reviewing Ethnic Warfare in Sri Lanka and the UN Crisis (London: Pluto Press, and Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2007), 296 pp.

This is an unusual book and essential reading for those interested in the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. William Clarance was head of UNHCR’s relief mission in Sri Lanka from 1989 to 1992. He kept a diary and has waited until he had left the arena of international administration before recounting his riveting experiences in the field. 

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June 25, 2019 · 8:57 am

The Force of the Moors. Reflections Historical and Ethnographic

Wilfrid Jayasuriya

“The Portugese, the Saviours of our Culture?” = This is the title of a scholarly article written in the Ceylon Historical Journal in the 1950s by B. J. Perera BA (History) University of Ceylon who was our teacher in the University Entrance class. It was of course “dead against” the version given by nationalist historians after independence. However his interpretation simply put was that the Mughals had conquered Hindu India and ruled it for a couple of centuries and converted a large part of the Hindu population to the Muslim religion as had happened in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia and the Maldives, which had been either Hindu or Buddhist. The evidence in Bali and Java of the existence of Buddhist and Hindu relics supports this view.

Mattayaas in the Gal Oya and Eastern Province interior

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May 21, 2019 · 11:43 am

Fighting LTTE Women …. Looking Back from 2016

Kim Wall and Mansi Choksi, in Longreads, May 2018 where the title is “A Chance to Rewrite History: The Women Fighters of the Tamil Tigers” …… How during a brutal, 25-year civil war in Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers failed the women soldiers who sacrificed everything to fight for a sovereign state for the Tamil minority [with a NOTE from the Editor, Thuppahi at the end]

“We went on our first reporting trip together to write about an emerging Chinatown in Kampala in 2015,” says Mansi. “And then the next year, I moved to New York, where she was living, so we would spend our afternoons working together.” Mansi and Kim traveled to Sri Lanka in 2016. Mansi recalls Kim’s dedication to telling the story of the women who fought with the Tamil Tigers during Sri Lanka’s brutal, 25-year civil war. “Kim genuinely fell in love with the women we were writing about,” says Mansi. “You can hear it in her voice, in the tapes of our interviews.”

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May 10, 2019 · 12:57 am

Sharpening Politico-Religious Divisions in Sri Lanka

Dear Rohan,

Your thoughtful note has provoked this set of comments — comments that range far and wide. I will. of course, welcome your reactions and hope that others will chip in with both comments and data.  Michael

One:  Note this segment in Ameer Ali’s important essay: ” The Islamist creep was manifested in several ways. For example, the cry Allahu Akbar announced the opening and close of every public gathering organised under the banner of SLMC. Quotations from the Holy Quran and the Prophet’s Hadiths added a tone of religiosity to political speeches. Even hand clapping in some instances was substituted by shouting Allahu Akbar to appreciate a speaker’s oratory.”  One can speculate that Ameer Ali is writing as a Sri Lankan Australian first and a Muslim second ….. But the point is the inside information conveyed by that observation — data which our Muslim MPs and others have not conveyed to their non-Muslim colleagues — perhaps not having grasped the implications of Wahhabism for inter-communal life in Sri Lanka.

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May 8, 2019 · 6:02 am

Shihara Farook assails Extremism. A Biography and Counter-Current of Significance

Shihara Farook

After three days of crying and being angry I am going to start speaking my heart to all of you. You are free to share this as much as you want and with whom you want. I was born a Sri Lankan Muslim in a town called Gampola very near Kandy Sri Lanka. I was born into a multilingual household and have been trilingual from birth. In that town we had a Muslim majority. There were several mosques and my very large extended family lived sprawled all over the town.

Irfadha Muzammil ….. from https://www.yamu.lk/blog/contemporary-powerhouse-women-in-sri-lanka

At pre school age I was sent to a preschool in a local church . I observed the nuns quietly (Leon Chan and I were friends there as tiny tots) the nuns preferred to call me Fathima as it was a name of a Christian saint as well. They were peaceful kind and so calm! I had the most wonderful time of my life there! They ran an orphanage had some rabbits and made us all smile .

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April 30, 2019 · 9:49 am

A Muslim Lankan’s Thoughts on the Atrocities and Their Implications

Irfan Husain, in Sri Lanka Guardian, 29 April  2019, where the title is “Jihadis in Sri Lanka”

Whenever there’s a terrorist attack anywhere, I pray that Muslims weren’t involved. And if they are, I cross my fingers and wish none of them were Pakistanis. In the horror stories emerging from Sri Lanka, I seem to have got my second wish. However, this is scant consolation for the mayhem unleashed by a little-known Islamist group, the National Towheed Jamaath (NTJ), backed by the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

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April 26, 2019 · 11:24 am

Mother of Satan Explosives and Wellampitiya Copper Factory

News Item Daily News, 25 April 2019,

The explosive triacetone triperoxide, dubbed ‘Mother of Satan’ by Al Qaeda for its destructive power, which was supposedly used in Sunday’s attacks, was allegedly made in a copper factory owned by one of the suicide bombers. The factory in Wellampitiya belonged to ‘calm and devout’ Inshaf Ahamad, who is understood to have blown himself up at the Cinnamon Grand, the UK’s Daily Mail Online reported.

Inshaf’s brother-in-law said the businessman drove a brand-new white Land Cruiser and came from a middle-class background. Speaking to MailOnline, Ashkhan Alamdeen (29) said he had brought shame on their family. “They have ruined our family and taken the lives of hundreds of people from all over the world,” Alamdeen said. “We had no idea what they were planning. If we had, we would have immediately told the police.” Continue reading →

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April 2, 2019 · 3:22 pm

A Bibliography from TAMIL PERSON and STATE

Michael Roberts

TAMIL PERSON and STATE. PICTORIAL appeared in 2014 in Colombo under the imprint of Vijitha Yapa Publications. …. ISBN  978-955-665-231-4. The biliography probably covers most of the articles in the companion piece, TAMIL PERSON and STATE. ESSAYS; but it is possible that there are other bibliographical items listed at the end of each article in ESSAYS. Though new material on Eelam War IV continues to turn up all the time, my present research led me to consult the works listed in these volumes and reminded me of material I had forgotten about. I believe that assiduous readers and investigators will find it useful to have the listing at their digital fingertips: hence its reproduction here.

ALSO SEE

* http://thuppahis.com/2014/09/15/tamil-person-and-state-pictorial-images-listed/

* http://thuppahis.com/2014/09/14/tamil-person-and-state-essays/

LRTTE Pic 50 in TPS. Pictorial –presenting senior LTTE commanders –probably circa 2003/05. Continue reading →

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March 5, 2019 · 10:57 am

A Sri Lankan-Australian Experience on Stage

SEE https://youtu.be/WTudekMX91U ….. and LISTEN TO S. SHAKTHITHARAN in conversation with Richard Mockler

against a background of scenes from the play “COUNTING and CRACKING” ….. clarifying the making of  The Sri Lankan-Australian experience in Counting and Cracking | The Mix

The playwright contends that it has been moulded as “a cautionary tale” and that he would love to take the ensemble to Sri Lanka. The play was four years in the making and has a cast of 16 (sixteeen) from six different countries.
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February 22, 2019 · 2:13 pm

The Shamima Begum Dilemma: A Muslim Brit and Other Voices

ONE = Dr SLM Rifai: “The Dillemma a of British Muslims,” 21 February 2019

The primary objective of this short article is to examine and evaluate the social impacts and legal consequences of Shamima Begum’s case. It has been reported that Home Office has already sent a letter to the family of Shamima saying that it has decided to revoke British citizenship of Shamima. According to INDEPENDENT newspaper “The Government has deprived Shamima Begum of her British citizenship, allegedly making her stateless and violating international law” (19/2/19). Yet, her new born baby has been given every right to settle in the UK. However, the secretary for justice has said that Shamima Begum has right to return to UK, but she should face the court of law in this country. This contrasting view has created some legal debates in the UK about this issue.

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