“UPFA Admits To Massacres And Use Of Cluster Bombs In The Last Phase Of War” by Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

“Both Douglas Devananda and EPDP MP Chandrakumar, during public speeches, virtually admitted to the massacres of and use of cluster bombs on civilians during the last phase of the war in Mullivaikal.

Responding to President Rajapakse’s claim to fame for ending the war, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga had countered that she had been the one to capture 70% of LTTE territory. Claims of being responsible for winning the war have also been made by General Sarath Fonseka who had been army commander during the last phase.

via: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/upfa-admits-to-massacres-and-use-of-cluster-bombs-in-the-last-phase-of-war/

“2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: how Aceh recovered, and Sri Lanka declined” by Damien Kingsbury

The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that left almost a quarter of a million people dead and led to the world’s largest emergency aid program had a profound impact on two wars being fought in the region.

In Aceh, Indonesia, it contributed to the end of three decades of bloody conflict; in Sri Lanka, the tsunami ultimately led to the deaths of tens of thousands.

via: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/29/2004-indian-ocean-tsunami-how-aceh-recovered-and-sri-lanka-declined

“Something Tells Me Mahinda May Pull It Off” by Marlon Dale Ferreira

“Those opposing President Mahinda Rajapaksa should stop for a moment and perhaps reflect on a few good things that he has done so far in office.

He no doubt has got more than what it takes to be just another politician and let’s be honest here, he pulled off the 2005 Presidential Elections when the whole country felt that Ranil Wickremesinghe was going to win. The abstention of the Tamil vote was at the end of the day a brilliant stunt he pulled off with the help of Vellupilai Prabhakaran the then Tamil terrorist leader.

Four years later in May of 2009, he got the support of the entire nation behind him and sent everyone into ruptures of delight, lighting fireworks, moreover when announcing that peace is here to stay at last.

This is when he pulled the wool over the eyes of the ‘Tiger Head’ and annihilated him and his entire terrorist army of soldiers in manner, vanquishing any thought of them taking up arms ever again.

Then again in the run up to the next Presidential Elections in 2010, when every mother hen and goose said that they had voted for Sarath Fonseka to be the next President, lo and behold he pulled off another stunner. ‘Computer Jilmart’ or not, he pulled it off and did not relinquish his seat continuing to remain in power.”

via: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/something-tells-me-mahinda-may-pull-it-off/

“Remembering the tsunami, 10 years on” by Tamil Guardian

“Ten years ago today, over 35,000 people perished during the catastrophic tsunami that hit the coasts of the North-East and South of the island of Sri Lanka. The United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said five days after the disaster that almost two thirds of those killed were in the Tamil homeland of the North-East. “The North-East is the region worst affected by the tsunami,” the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) said in a joint report.”

via: http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=13250

“Sri Lanka elections: Sirisena pledges war crime inquiry” by The Hindu

Sri Lanka’s main opposition presidential candidate said the country cannot be charged with war crimes in the International Criminal Court, but he will launch a domestic inquiry if he wins a January election.

via: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/sri-lanka-elections-sirisena-pledges-war-crime-inquiry/article6708104.ece

“True Nature Of The Relations Between The Government / LTTE Has Been Exposed: Champika” by Colombo Telegraph

JHU General Secretary and a front-liner of the common Opposition movement, Patali Champika Ranawaka today challenged the Rajapaksa regime to clarify the crimes that are being probed and punishments that would be meted out on those found guilty of war crimes by the Presidential Commission on Disappearances.

via: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/true-nature-of-the-relations-between-the-govt-ltte-has-been-exposed-champika/

“Religions et politique au Sri Lanka à l’ère post-coloniale” par Eric Meyer

Afin de décrypter comment religions et politique interagissent au Sri Lanka, Eglises d’Asie a reproduit une étude d’Eric Meyer parue dans l’ouvrage Politique et religions en Asie du Sud : Le sécularisme dans tous ses états ? Historien, professeur émérite à l’INALCO, Eric Meyer est un spécialiste reconnu du Sri Lanka.

via: http://eglasie.mepasie.org/asie-du-sud/sri-lanka/2014-12-19-pour-approfondir-religions-et-politique-au-sri-lanka-a-l2019ere-post-coloniale

“The war in Sri Lanka and propaganda debates: An analysis for the OHCHR in Geneva” by Michael Roberts

As a Sri Lankan Australian and academic I have been collecting and analysing the material on the last phase of the war in Sri Lanka for six years now. I come across new evidence regularly in the midst of misinformation and dis-information that is a facet of the propaganda war that has been sharpening since the LTTE began to retreat in 2008. Since the volume of data is huge, a thorough investigation calls for assiduous work by a team which includes those who are culturally competent and able to discern manipulation. They must transcend the clever tactics of misinformation and fabrication from both sides, with the additional awareness that the Tamil migrant networks outdo the government (GSL) on this front by a proverbial mile.

Via http://groundviews.org/…/the-war-in-sri-lanka-and-propagan…/

“European Union court annuls sanction on LTTE” by post.jagran.com

“The court said the declaration of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation in 2006 was based on “imputations derived from the press and the Internet”, the statement said. The court observed that the “Indian authorities cannot be regarded as a reliable source of information since they have adopted a ‘biased position’ in the conflict between the LTTE and the Government of Sri-Lanka.”

via: http://post.jagran.com/european-union-court-annuls-sanction-on-ltte-1413465793

“Ising and Ramaswamy showcase works at Faculty Writers Read event” by thisweekincas.com

English instructor Daniel Ising read two short stories or pieces of fiction writing while English professor Anushiya Ramaswamy recited her translations of a Sri Lankan refuge writer’s narratives.

Ramaswamy’s translations of Sri Lankan writer Shobasakthi describe how the Tamil Tiger militants publicly punished prostitutes during the 1980s.

According to Ramaswamy, one of the ways the Tamil militants promoted themselves as society builders was by killing women they regarded as prostitutes.

“They made them into public women and then killed them saying that these are social ills and that they are so good for the community because, look, they have gotten rid of these prostitutes,” Ramaswamy said.

Ramaswamy will release her latest translations, “The MGR Murder Trial and Other Stories” in December through Penguin publishers in India…

via: http://thisweekincas.com/2014/10/05/ising-and-ramaswamy-showcase-works-at-faculty-writers-read-event/

“Fundamentally Freund: Defeating terrorists: From Sri Lanka to Gaza” by Michael Freund

Michael Freund, a former official in Bibi’s government, argues for the application of the “Sri Lankan model” of counter-insurgency in Palestine. Whether to laugh or cry?

via: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Fundamentally-Freund-Defeating-terrorists-From-Sri-Lanka-to-Gaza-371428

“Nigeria, Boko Haram and the ‘Sri Lankan Model’ of Counter-Insurgency” by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice

“How do you end an armed insurgency?

In 2009, this question was answered by the Rajapaksa regime with a display of overwhelming brute force against LTTE-held areas in the North East of the country. Driven by an unwavering commitment to the total elimination of the enemy at any cost, an open disregard for international opinion, and a strong emphasis on the control of information from the battlefield, the ‘Sri Lankan Model’ of counter-insurgency as it is now known, has been a decisive factor in shaping Sri Lanka’s recent trajectory. Though drawing to a close the decades long civil war with the LTTE, its role in the commission of war crimes on a mass scale has also precipitated a new era in Sri Lanka’s history, marked by ongoing human rights abuses, impunity, authoritarianism, international isolation and a deeply unstable political settlement.”

via: http://blog.srilankacampaign.org/2014/07/nigeria-boko-haram-and-sri-lankan-model.html

“Malaysian Tamils’ lurch towards ethnic radicalism” by Ceylon Today

“The recent arrest of three top Sri Lankan Tamil members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Malaysia on the charge that they were collecting funds and doing propaganda to revive the LTTE ‘internationally,’ has also brought into focus a growing tendency among Malaysian Tamils to get swayed by the militant and separatist ideology of the LTTE as part of a general lurch towards ethno-religious nationalism.

The Malaysian Tamils’ pan-Tamil sentiment and their endorsement of the LTTE line, appear to stem from the social, religious and economic conditions in Malaysia. Tamils, who constitute 81% of the Malaysian Indian community, are at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. Quintessentially, the Tamils who are 8% of Malaysia’s population, are the hewers of wood and drawers of water. Malaysia has been growing economically, but the Tamils have been left behind.
Since the Tamils constitute the bulk of the Indian community in Malaysia, statistics for the ‘Indian’ population are basically those of the Tamils. Therefore, in this piece, the term ‘Indian’ used in the media, and official statistics, will be deemed to be equivalent to ‘Tamil’.”

via: http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-65893-news-detail-malaysian-tamils-lurch-towards-ethnic-radicalism.html

“Touring Terrorism: Landscapes of Memory in Post-War Sri Lanka” by Jennifer Hyndman and Amarnath Amarasingam (Centre for Refugee Studies, York University)

Abstract

The Sri Lankan state’s power to narrate the war and characterize the enemy is an expression of “triumphalist nationalism” and is a selective remembering of war. Based on photographs taken during several field visits to these sites by both authors between December 2012 and January 2014, we analyze the relationship of war and tourism and how a particular Sinhala nationalist remembering of the war and landscape of memory are being constructed in post-war Sri Lanka. Today, Sri Lanka is a former war zone where the Government’s troops defeated the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) and ended 26years of violent conflict in May 2009. The end of the war came at a huge cost to civilian life in the northern part of the country ; the UN estimates that over 40,000 people were killed, most of whom were Tamils who form the majority in Northern Sri Lanka. Despite the end of military conflict, war continues by other means, and its representation encapsulates anationalist politics of victory that at once vilifies the defeated LTTE “terrorists” and excludes Northern Tamils from the Sri Lankan polis. The LTTE’s former hideouts, training facilities, weapons, and vehiclesare now tourist sites on display for public viewing.

“Kattankudy Mosque Massacre Documentry 2012” by Kannan Arunasalam

Kattankudy Mosque Massacre took place in August 1990 by LTTE. more than 147 Muslims were killed while on Prayer in two mosques in Kattankudy on 03rd August 1990 at night. Also more than 200 has been wounded and lose their ordinary lives. One of remarkable massacre in the world war history especially in Srilankan Civil War. On the 22nd Anniversary of this event in a post war era in Srilanka, this fantastic documentary was made by Mr.Kannan Arunasalam and shared in their Website www.groundviews.org

via: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJPEW2rS44g