The Geneva Sri Lankan Ambassador Failed: A Response to Dayan

By Sunethra Karnasuriya -April 28, 2013 

I have read carefully the essays The Colombo Telegraph (CT) recently carried on Sri Lanka’s foreign policy after May 2009. Whatever Dayan Jayatilleka’s (DJ) failures may be, and there are many as the commentators in the CT have graphically expressed, a lack of cunning is not among them .He has chosen only to comment obliquely ( ‘First Failure in Geneva,: Trap, Blunder or Model?’) on the long essay of Tissa Jayatilaka(TJ) that appeared in the CT (“Absence of ‘Balance’ in Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy After Kadirgamar”).

DJ tries to conceal facts by attempting to make out that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s foreign policy is better thanJ.R. Jayewardene’s. This reminds us of that old Sinhala saying, koheda yanne, malle pol. Nowhere in TJ’s is a such a comparison attempted. TJ’s point is that tactics used in 1987 at the Commission on Human Rights had more diplomatic finesse than those used at the Human Rights Council (HRC) in 2009. To the extent that TJ refers to Jayewardene foreign policy, it is to underscore its failure by moving away from the ‘balance’ maintained by his predecessor.

Dayan Jayatilleka

DJ in his oblique response does not let the reader know that the Mervyn de Silva who edited the LankaGuardian(LG) was his late father. DJ wrote to the LG under his own name as well as under several pseudonyms. DJ was the Anuruddha Tilakasiri in theSunday Observer when that dreadful H.L.D. Mahindapala was its editor during the Ranasinghe Premadasa years. So could Susantha Dias of the LG be one of DJ’s assumed names? Interestingly that essay of Susantha Dias (whoever he maybe in real life) published in the LG on April Fool’s Day in 1987 is found in Tamilnation.org.Even more interestingly, in the latter publication is also found Tamara Kunanayagam’s(TK) intervention at the CHR in Geneva in 1987. This was in one of Kunanayagam’s’s previous incarnations as she had intervened as a human rights crusader under World Student Christian Federation auspices. The many somersaults made by DJ and TK are not too dissimilar.

A more accurate way of judging the diplomacy exercised in 1987 by the professionals of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka in 1987 is to have the full text of the 1987 Geneva resolution and compare it with the much harsher and more damaging original draft proposed by Argentina before that ‘hostile’ resolution was made ‘benign’ to borrow words from TJ’s quote. Such a comparison will bring out the essential difference between Sri Lankan diplomacy during Geneva 1987 and Geneva 2009. Quiet, patient, and professional diplomacy in 1987 as opposed to loud, flamboyant and non-professional posturing in 2009.

The ‘victory resolution’ of 2009 was introduced at a Special Session focused on Sri Lanka and not a Regular Session of the HRC. To have a Special Session focused on a country at the HRC is the ultimate insult to that country. This resolution, however, was touted as signifying a ‘victory’ in order to mislead the tax-paying general public of Sri Lanka and to hide the fact that the then Sri Lanka Ambassador in Geneva failed to prevent the summoning of the Special Session of the HRC on Sri Lanka in 2009. Whatever the excuses and elaborate explanations made, the stark truth is that the Ambassador failed to lobby effectively to ensure that the sponsors of the Special Session did not secure the requisite number of signatures to convene a Special Session of the HRC. Had Sri Lanka succeeded in preventing a Special Session being held, Sri Lanka could have sent a strong message to the western sponsors of the Special Session that the generality of the HRC membership was unwilling to grill Sri Lanka. If there was no Special Session, the question of any resolution on the war against the LTTE would not have arisen except at a Regular Session of the HRC later on. According to records, the required majority for the holding of a Special Session was achieved by a majority of one signature, that of a HRC member country from Latin America. This is considered the first time Sri Lanka was subjected to the diplomatic humiliation of a Special Session on Sri Lanka at the HRC or any other inter-governmental body. No other country in our region has suffered such monumental diplomatic disgrace.

Our 2009 delegation in Geneva was caught napping and was thereby outsmarted. In fact, the Sri Lanka Ambassador at the time did not know, or did not care, that the sponsors for a Special Session were lobbying for weeks and months to get the 17 signatures necessary for that session to be held, until the HRC circulated the ‘Request for a Special Session’ initiated by the Czech Republic in mid-May 2009. Mauritius was a co-signatory and that country does not attempt to do any multilateral work without the blessings of India! And then we walk into this trap and ‘reward’ India for their 1987 atrocities in Sri Lanka! No wonder the Indians voted in favour of Sri Lanka’s ‘victory resolution’.

An examination of Sri Lanka’s short-lived ‘victory resolution’ of 2009 will lay bare the fact that it was an awful long-term blunder so far as Sri Lanka’s national interest goes. The following points serve to bring into focus the high price Sri Lanka has paid for this ‘victory’:

• Unwise entrenchment of the 13^th Amendment ( a bilateral imposition on Sri Lanka) in amultilateral institution at a time when the Government of Sri Lanka was struggling to come up with an alternative to the devolution model which, together with the north and east merger, was forced down our throat by India in 1987.

• Reportedly India was quite livid that DJ was transferred out of Geneva because of his advocacy of the 13^thAmendment and its inclusion in the ‘victory resolution’. It is not for nothing that DJ let it be known to all and sundry that it was his love of the 13^th Amendment that cost him his job in Geneva.

• Analysts have argued, with good reason, that this multilateral and UN blessings to the Indian atrocities inflicted on Sri Lanka in the 1980s which included the 13^th Amendment( ‘naked aggression’ as the Government of Sri Lanka described it officially in its submissions to the UN) undermined or even denied the Government of Sri Lanka an opportunity to build a consensus on a different grassroots devolution model, an opportunity that was presented to Sri Lanka by the military defeat of the LTTE.

• UN Secretary General and President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s joint statement affirmed domestic nature of accountability concerns. This delicate issue was unwisely placed in the multilateral domain by reference to it in the operative section of the ‘victory resolution’. Both these uncalled- for multilateralisations may have got us a few more votes in support of the ‘victory resolution’ but they compromised Sri Lanka’s fundamental national interests as pointed out above.

• The ‘victory resolution’ may have served short term self-promotional attempts of a few individuals but not the long term national interests of Sri Lanka as was shown by the subsequent Geneva counter-resolutions and in the pointed rhetoric of the Darusman Report about the need to re-visit the ‘victory resolution’ of 2009.

As pointed out earlier, true national interest would have demanded that we try to prevent a Special Session of the HRC being convened and stay off the multilateral radar range. In both of these areas, the Geneva Sri Lankan Ambassador failed. Polemics about an alleged ‘victory’ in regard to Sri Lanka’s 2009 resolution is not good or large enough a fig leaf to cover this huge and costly failure. Nor is it a sufficient fig leaf to cover the failure of the same Sri Lanka Ambassador when he moved to Paris. He failed badly in his attempts to persuade the Government of France not to vote for the Geneva Resolutions of 2012 and 2013.

Reporting genocide in Sri Lanka

28/04/2013

"Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s hidden war" by Frances Harrison

Reviewed by Manny Thain, first published in Socialism Today, magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)

This book recounts the horrific experiences of Tamils in the last few months of the conflict between Sri Lankan armed forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared victory on 18 May 2009. Frances Harrison, a BBC correspondent in Sri Lanka for a number of years, describes her book as follows: “It is not a history of the whole war… It is an account of the victory from the perspective of the defeated”.

Each chapter tells the story of a particular individual and his or her closest family. As their stories run concurrently, and follow people forced down a narrow corridor of northeast Sri Lanka, the narrative can be repetitive. It is harrowing and hard to stomach, but it does drive home the hellish conditions as the Tamils struggled desperately to flee the carnage. It emphasises the relentless, murderous offensive by the Sri Lankan armed forces – and the subsequent merciless, systematic repression of the Tamil population. It also points to the failed strategy of the Tamil Tigers who, for a number of years, controlled the north-eastern quarter of the island.

Despite their grim, heart-rending stories, the book is at its best when quoting directly from the Tamils. There is little analysis, although there are a couple of pages of useful facts at the end of each chapter.

Harrison begins with the United Nations (UN) withdrawing its aid workers from the war zone, under orders from the Sri Lankan regime, in September 2008. For many Tamils, this was seen as the turning point. It meant there were no international agencies or journalists in the area to report on the massacres or intervene.

The UN consistently danced to the Sri Lankan regime’s tune. In mid-April 2009, the UN secretary-general praised Rajapaksa’s regime for observing a temporary truce – when Tamils were cowering from incoming shells. The UN Security Council allowed a £1.2 billion International Monetary Fund loan to Sri Lanka to go ahead at the end of April, as the war entered its most brutal stage.

At the start of the offensive, people fled their homes with whatever they could carry, loading up tractors, rickshaws or motorbikes with food, spare clothes, tools, blankets, photo albums, radios, laptops. Under the relentless bombardment, they were forced into and through a succession of small villages, and into designated, so-called ‘no-fire zones’. Their possessions got fewer and fewer. Monsoon rains lashed down. Crops could not be harvested. The regime controlled the food supplies, sending in a fraction of what was needed. By February 2009 there were no vegetables on sale, by March no fish. A bag of rice could cost a car. Saris were turned into sandbags.

Even here there were great acts of solidarity. ‘Korben’ (not his real name), a wheelchair bound charity worker, recounts how fishermen, who spent hours trying to land a catch amid the bombardments and navy patrols, would give away half the fish to the injured.

Food was hard to get even for those with a bit of money, like Korben. He had savings in the LTTE’s Bank of Tamil Eelam. In a surreal episode, Korben explains how the bank continued to function out of a hut, made of sandbags and coconut-tree trunks, on the narrow spit of sand onto which they had all been corralled. The bank staff had print-outs of the customer accounts and, according to Korben, they disbursed money very quickly to those in credit.

As the Sri Lankan armed forces advanced, the Tamils were herded into the ‘no-fire zones’, where they were shelled and bombed, trapped between the army and the LTTE. The numbers of injured soared. The bloated corpses of human beings lay side-by-side with dead cattle. Doctors in makeshift field hospitals were reduced to using butchers’ knives to amputate children’s limbs, without anaesthetic.

A doctor, ‘Niron’, estimates that 2,000 shells landed on or around Uddayarkattu hospital as fighting intensified at the end of January 2009. Whenever they relocated the field hospital, they painted a red cross on the roof, and GPS coordinates were forwarded to the Red Cross to pass on to the Sri Lankan army. Every time, they were bombed – deliberately targeted. Others describe ‘heaps’ of wounded women and children when a queue for milk powder was shelled. Most estimates for the total of Tamils killed range from 40,000 to 100,000.

After the final battles (16/17 May), tens of thousands of people were desperately trying to surrender. Families became separated in the panic. They had to cross a lagoon, up to their chins in water, wading past dead bodies. Once across, they were forced into queues, to be checked by armed forces personnel and masked Tamil rebels who had switched sides. Their job was to identify LTTE fighters but others, such as doctors, were seen as important witnesses who also had to be silenced. It was a completely arbitrary procedure.

A massive camp, Manik Farm, had been set up and it quickly swelled to become the largest refugee camp in the world, holding 282,000 Tamils. It was run with UN aid and international money. Huge posters of Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers were displayed all over the site, grinning down at the defeated.

Conditions in the camp were unimaginably bad, with negligible healthcare, and starvation rations of rotten vegetables, the soya meal crawling with weevils. There was no sanitation to speak of. Gang-rape by Sri Lankan troops was commonplace. People were in a state of absolute terror, struggling to stay alive, too afraid to speak out.

International aid agencies and a small number of local charities were permitted only the most restricted access. Journalists were only allowed in for occasional, carefully choreographed guided tours. Some people were able to bribe their way out with the help of friends or relatives from outside but that, too, was fraught with danger, often involving travel to the capital, Colombo, then arranging flights out. All the while, there was the risk of being picked up by the Criminal Investigation Department or paramilitary forces which acted with impunity.

In Harrison’s concluding chapter, she points out that the Sri Lankan military has grown by 100,000 troops since the end of the war. It has taken over land and businesses in the north and east, which is now a militarised zone with one Sri Lankan soldier for every eleven citizens. People from the Sinhalese majority are being brought in to settle traditionally Tamil areas.

The US Agency for International Development reported that 89% of Tamil families did not have a single member with a job or income in the northeast. In Kilinochchi, a former LTTE stronghold, a quarter of families live on less than half the official poverty line. Secret detention sites operate in the region. Torture and rape have persisted. Sri Lanka comes second in the world in the number of disappearances – after Iraq.

A UN panel of experts recommended a review of the UN’s actions during the war, and that it should hold its own investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka. It has done neither. Major-general Shavendra Silva, a brigade commander in the final offensive, has been made deputy ambassador to the UN. This gives him immunity from prosecution. The UN deploys Sri Lankan troops around the world as peacekeepers. In other words, the UN has effectively endorsed Rajapaksa’s genocidal policies, and backs his corrupt, nepotistic regime. It is an utter betrayal of Tamil-speaking people the world over.

Meanwhile, the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka has worsened. In fact, the conditions which have fuelled their despair, bitterness and anger – and which led to the failed strategy of guerrilla warfare in the past – remain.

Tamils were not the ‘favoured’ under British colonialism: Theva Rajan

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 April 2013, 23:44 GMT]
It is noted that D S Senanayake advised the British to grant independence to Ceylon early, citing that the Tamils will be problematic as they were followers of Gandhian principles led by the Jaffna Youth League that agitated for full independence, writes Mr. A Theva Rajan in New Zealand, commenting further on a TamilNet feature last Saturday that refuted a repeatedly told myth about British colonialism favouring Tamils. The feature, “Tehelka report misled on British treatment of Tamils,” challenged a recent statement by Ms Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga that the frustration of Tamils was due to lost privileges they had enjoyed under British favouritism aimed at ‘divide and rule’. The myth, constructed by Sinhala polity to justify State-conducted genocide in the island has misled a recent report by Tehelka too. 

Mr A. Theva Rajan said that he was adding the following points to the TamilNet feature by an academic in Jaffna that appeared on 20 April:

Mr. A Thevarajan, New Zealand [Image courtesy: Vanitha Prasad, Western Leader]

When the three Kingdoms – (the Jaffna Kingdom, the Kadyan Kingdom and the Kotte (which included Ruhunu Ratta also) were brought under a unified administration – not a unification of the Kingdoms because the status quo of each Kingdom including laws, land rights and social and cultural practices were written into the law and maintained intact.

It became necessary for the Government of Britain to reduce overhead expenses in their Colonies and as a first step they introduced English education into the Colonies and in Ceylon, the Christian Missionaries took the opportunity to resort to conversion as a step towards Government employment for those who gained English education.

The aim was to produce locally the low and middle level administrators and stop British Staff to whom British level salary had to be paid.

Though Jaffna was not the first place where Christian Missionaries landed, English education was not much resorted to in Batticaloa, Chilaw, Galle and Matara where the first contacts were made, because the soil was fertile with regular rains (except Batticaloa) and people preferred to continue with their agricultural pursuits in main. 

Because the Jaffna soil was barren, mainly rocky or stone laden, people had to toil and sweat very hard to eke out a living (In Chilaw until His Lordship Marcus Fernando became the Bishop in the seventies, the Church also did not encourage education). 

They did not want their children to toil like them. They mortgaged their farmlands or even sold them to give their children English education. Even Ivor Jennings the first Vie Chancellor also has commented on this. The most successful of those who came up in the different competitive Examinations were selected according to requirements.

In addition, the American Mission too helped in the development of English education.

There were quite a number of Sinhalese who emerged as successful administrators, and professionals like Engineers, Doctors and Lawyers etc., during this period.

The Sinhalese also had a special advantage - a singular advantage, over the Tamils. 

When smallholdings were introduced, quite a number of Sinhalese became owners. 

Thus, in terms of economy, and socio–economic mobility the Sinhalese were in a relatively superior position. 

There was no economic development in the North and East during the entire British period – not even infrastructures like Link-Roads and easing of travel and transport because the North and East did not come within the purview of the colonial economy of the British.

Though the KKS Cement Factory, the Paranthan Chemical Factory and Valaichenai Paper Factory were the initiatives of the British, the implementation had been delayed by the War and came in after independence. There is a Sessional Paper on this project.

It is noted that D S Senanayake advised the British to grant independence to Ceylon early, as the Tamils will be problematic as they were followers of Gandhian principles led by the Jaffna Youth League which agitated for full independence – the sign of unadulterated faithfulness of the coastal Sinhalese to the British Masters.
TNA Leader denies reports of a rift

2013-04-27 TNA Leader, R. Sampanthan, has denied reports of a split within the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). Speaking at the S.J.V. Chelvanayagam memorial event on Friday (26), he said: "There is much speculation in the media, some of which is unfortunately mischievous, in regard to dissension within the TNA. I wish to categorically say there is no dissension whatsoever, within the TNA on any matter of policy, pertaining to the future of the Tamil people. Every constituent party of the TNA is committed to work in unity, towards a future for the Tamil people marked by equality, self respect, dignity and the fulfilment of their legitimate aspirations." He added, the written submissions made by the TNA for a political solution, which had been rejected by the government were within the framework of a united and undivided Sri Lanka. The proposals are in consonance with proposals made under the auspices of successive governments including the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government, he stressed, charging that though the government had agreed in March 2011 to respond in writing to the proposals of the TNA, the government has up to date failed to do so. An agreement arrived at between the government and the TNA with regard to the structure and the process relating to the talks had been recorded in the minutes of the said bilateral talks. The TNA had never deviated from the said agreements. "The government defaulted in attending bilateral talks fixed for the 17, 18 and 19 January 2012, in violation of the said agreements," he said, adding the government has not reacted positively to efforts to overcome the impasse. "The government's biggest impediment is it does not speak with one voice and the voices of those who speak in public in the name of the government, are generally negative," he said, adding the government was solely responsible for the current stalemate on the talks.

2013-04-27

The Rally For Unity And The Reluctant Infidels

By Laksiri Fernando -April 28, 2013 

Dr. Laksiri Fernando

I was delighted to see the story item in the Colombo Telegraph (27 April 2013) last night about the ‘Rally for Unity’ organized by some ‘unknowns’ on the general slogan “Hate has No Place in Sri Lanka” to be held at Green Path (in few hours’ time from now) and then saw this commendable movie “The Reluctant Infidel” on SBS One at 9.30pm, Sydney time. The connection was too obvious.

The organizers of the ‘Rally for Unity’ declared that the purpose is “to show that moderates are strong and united against hate and are committed to promote understanding about the strengths of diversity and unity.” This was exactly the purpose of the movie I saw.

The movie was initially called in Britain just ‘The Infidel.’ The Australian producer added ‘reluctant’ in between for attraction or precise meaning. The writer David Baddiel thought that people are generally and irrationally obsessed and even terrified about their religion and race/ethnicity. When they go into identity crisis on these matters what they should actually do is to ‘step into the other one’s shoes’ and take a deep breath and laugh. It was with these thoughts that he wrote the script.

The rally organized today is not however a laughing matter. We still have to see how the law enforcement agencies, obviously on the government instructions, would treat the peaceful protesters. They were rough and in fact ‘unlawful’ at the last candle light vigil. As the organizers have emphasized, the effort is completely “non-partisan and a non-violent awareness campaign” organized by a “voluntary movement of concerned Sri Lankans from various institutions, professions and industries” who are opposing the “recent hate speech and the marginalization of minority communities in general.”

There is obviously a new type of protests emerging in Sri Lanka, a new social movement (NSM), so to say, among those who are against hate speech in this instance but could embrace many other injustices in the future. I first saw this phenomenon emerging during the Tsunami calamity in December 2004. Some youngsters came to the University of Colombo, obtained permission to hold a candle light vigil at the sports grounds to collect funds for the Tsunami victims and within hours they organized the event through SMS etc. with the participation of hundreds of people at that time. They were ‘Colombans’ from appearance but some of them came from remote rural Sri Lanka working in the private sector in Colombo. The expansion of the service sector is the backbone of these social sections.

The Movie

Let me get back to the movie, ‘The Reluctant Infidel.’

Mahmud Nasir is a successful small business owner in a London suburb, who always fights with his Jewish neighbor, Lenny Goldberg. Lenny is a taxi driver. After his mother’s demise, Mahmud discovers an adoption certificate among old documents which reveals that he was adopted from a Jewish family and his original name was Solly Shimshillewitz.

Mahmud although, or being, a funny man by nature goes into deep identity crisis with sleepless nights, frequent tantrums and virtual absent mindedness. His behavior has gone topsy-turvy. He tells his wife that he has to reveal ‘something about himself’ but doesn’t tell. Wife thinks that he is probably gay and even informs the local Imam for advice. Mahmud approaches his old adversary, Lenny, and he is most willing to offer help being an infidel himself and feeling amused about his Muslim adversary becoming a Jew now. This leads to more suspicions about his gayness, his new friend Lenny being a bachelor.

Mahmud’s son, Rashid, is engaged to Azma, the stepdaughter of a devout Muslim cleric, Arshad Al-Masri. When Mahmud reveals that he was a Jew (not he is), the engagement breaks down. Mahmud’s family also leaves him.

Mahmud finds his biological father Izzy Shimshillewitz in a Jewish old care center through Lenny. But he cannot see his father before latter’s death prevented by the Rabbi in charge, not believing the connection. How can you believe a Muslim son of a Jewish father! Izzy has given Soli for adoption in two weeks of his birth when Izzy’s wife dies at the child birth. Izzy has known that his son is a Muslim. Mahmud slowly overcomes his identity crisis, realizing that ‘he was a Jew,’ but now ‘he is a Muslim,’ although not a fanatic. He keeps friendship with the newly found Jewish friends. Both Lenny and Mahmud are ‘infidels.’

Mahmud finally manages to bring his son, Rashid, and Azma together by exposing the cleric, Arshad Al-Masri. Arshad in fact had been a rock star in the name of Gary Page whose original parents were scientologists. The movie ends with the interfaith wedding of Rashid and Azma attended by both Muslism and Jews.

The movie reveals the ‘impermanence’ of all categories of religion and race/ethnicity. Both should be taken in moderation. The unity in diversity is the best option for multiethnic and multi religious societies like Sri Lanka as the participants of the Rally for Unity will signify. Hate has no place in a civilized society. As one poster for the rally says, ‘Racism Stops with Me.’

Rally for Unity: Standing up for an inclusive Sri Lanka

Rally for Unity: Standing up for an inclusive Sri Lanka

28 Apr, 2013
Groundviews strongly endorsed a rally held in Colombo on Sunday to reaffirm the fact that Sri Lanka is not only a Sinhala-Buddhist country. As the movement’s Facebook event page noted, this non-partisan, non-violent awareness raising rally aims to empower the silent majority of moderate Sri Lankans to stand up for an inclusive Sri Lanka.

At its peak, Groundviews was told the rally had around 500 walking from point to point.

View Rally for Unity in a larger map

In the lead up to the rally, the organisers produced and released a number of videos in support of the rally and the larger movement behind it. All the videos can be viewed here, and interestingly, they feature high-profile individuals and MPs with the Government, those who have represented and defended the Government diplomatically in the past, a World Cup winning doyen of cricket, a well known actor, a senior member of the UNP and senior members of the Buddhist clergy.

Groundviews archived all the tweets from Sunday, and leading up to the rally, under the hashtag #rallyforunity. At the time of writing, the archive had over 1,500 entries, including retweets. Search through the complete archive by clicking here or the image below.

Interact visually with the entries in the archive by clicking here or on the data visualisation below.

Photos from the rally can be seen below, taken by Anushan Selvarajah.

Because of the high-profile nature of the turnout, Police didn’t breakup the gathering brutishly as they did in the recent past with a smaller vigil held on similar grounds. And yet, as expected, the pro-Bodu Bala Sena elements were around, and distributed leaflets towards the beginning of the rally, noting that it was “an international conspiracy”. The leaflets were printed to look as if they were from the organisers.

For higher resolution images, click here.

Groundviews was sent photographs of the individuals who were distributing this leaflet, before they were rounded up and sent packing.

Groundviews live tweeted the event, and also retweeted updates from those at the rally. A full list of these tweets follow. Click here to view it in a much larger, and easier to read format.

ANTI-HATE PROTEST IN COLOMBO…

April 28, 2013  

A peaceful protest march was held from the Nelum Pokuna Roundabout to the Public Library roundabout, calling for an end to racism and religious hatred in the country. Protestors holding placards which read “hate has no place in Sri Lanka” and “racism stops with me” urged the people to make a commitment to end hatred and violence and to act against individuals spreading disharmony by reporting them to the police. A large number of religious leaders, politicians and activists joined in the protest. (Pic by Sanjeewa Lasantha)

Gotabaya’s high security zone Hotel reserves room welcoming Boston terrorist bomber !

(Lanka-e-News-28.April.2013, 12.30PM) The UNP team that is touring the north had proved that the Rajapakse regime’s heavy security zone melodrama in the north which is a prohibited zone for those who are in the political opposition respecting Democracy , is in fact a Rajapakse regime national zone that welcomes the Boston bombing terrorists with garlands.

The Forces on the instructions of Mahinda Haturusinghe the Commander in chief of the north , has refused to grant permission to the touring UNP team and the UNP leader to visit the heavy security zone on the ground that without the defense Ministry permission , entry into the zone cannot be allowed. 

The UNP team had then spoken on the phone to the ‘Thal Sevana’Hotel within the zone that is being run by the defense Ministry, to book a room. When the Hotel authorities had inquired from them ‘on whose behalf is this room being reserved?’ , the UNP team had given the name of terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston bomber about whom the whole world is currently talking , and added that the room is for Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his elder brother. Manori ,the Hotel officer who answered the call had gladly said ‘ yes, you can’ , and to pay the charges of Rs. 5000/- by depositing the amount to the People’s Bank account in the name of ‘Thal Sevana’. She has also given the account No. and told , the room that has been reserved for them is ‘Lilly’. 

When she inquired about the vehicle by which they will be arriving at the Hotel , they had given a three wheeler No. GY 8766 going along the road. 

In other words , this Hotel which is situated in the high security zone under the SL defense Ministry which is so cautious , even not to allow the opposition party politicians to enter this security zone had without any issue or hesitation reserved the room to welcome the Boston terrorist bomber and his elder brother !!

So this is Sri Lanka under a Rajapaksha regime where a defense secretary gladly welcomes notorious foreign terrorist bombers into his high security zone , but strictly declines permission to the sons of the soil just because they are in the opposition political camp . Mind you these opposition politicians are elected representatives of the people unlike this buffoon of a secretary who is just a government servant (not a ‘ government master’) though he parades as the high and mighty of the land after fleeing for life to the US to become a ‘yankee doodle do’ during the SL war for traitorous reasons , but now after returning when the war is won by others for him and his regime, is conducting himself as ‘ anything I can do’ , riding the high horse - only to have a heavy fall sooner or later.

In a nutshell , with this defense secretary , even a world notorious terrorist foreigner can reserve a room in the hotel run by his Ministry in the so called high security zone.

It is a pity that this defense Secretary’s buffoonery , and the Medamulana moronic regime’s tomfoolery stand exposed clearly by the unlawful and high handed conduct of Gota- baya , the puny government servant.

The Nation must thank the opposition MPs including Ravi Karunanayake for being able to demonstrate to the SL nation and the world via this episode what treason and treacheries this Medamulana regime and its omnipotent defense Secretary are indulging in directed against the motherland.

Archiving ‘Her Stories’: In conversation with Radhika Hettiarachchi

Archiving ‘Her Stories’: In conversation with Radhika Hettiarachchi

Radhika Hettiarachchi from Young Asia Television on Vimeo.-28 Apr, 2013

Groundviews

Her Stories, a unique archive of oral history, was conceived of and curated by Radhika Hettiarachchi. We begin by Radhika going in to what the archive is, and how it came about. Featuring 240 stories of mothers, the archive’s website avers,

These histories or ‘Herstories’ showcase a shared history and highlight how we Sri Lankans are rooted in multiple identities, multiple histories, and different experiences. Through the narratives of many, this project also highlights a sense of fundamental humanness that transcend boundaries. These ‘Herstories’ will not only add to the culture of oral tradition and story telling in Sri Lanka, they will contribute to bringing diverse groups together through the lives of others.

Radhika notes that the age of the subjects in the archive ranged from those in their early 20′s to those around 65. In the interview Radhika reasserts the importance of looking at women’s voices which are often lost or marginal to history as recorded by men. She also says she focussed on mothers because they give a composite view of society and their communities. When asked as to why it is important to record these stories in the manner that Radhika has, she answers that it is vital to create a more textured history to that which decades hence Sri Lankans may read, see and hear about the time we now live in. The voices of people – in this case, as a start, the voices of women – help create this texture, she noted, through subjective, personal accounts that capture aspects of life, society, politics, gender and work that would not otherwise have been recorded.

After going into how the women were chosen for the initiative, Radhika goes on to explain how the women were guided in the process of writing down, in various forms, the story of their lives, and what was important to them in the past, the present and into the future. Radhika notes that the stories which were the most ‘striking’ – in terms of their story telling prowess or skill in narration – made it to the archive.

Radhika then explores the question as to whether projects of this nature that generate and capture stories (of women in this instance) around the trauma of war, and the resulting loss of lives and livelihoods, actually exacerbates conflict rather than helps in healing. Radhika notes that this was never a concern in ‘Her Stories’, where the women really wanted to have their story recorded and were grateful for the opportunity to do so.

Radhika then goes into why she decided to digitise the entire archive and put it up on the web, and notes that ideally, she would have also liked to produce a printed anthology of all the stories. She also notes that the original content was given over to the National Archives, which hitherto had no section for or content on women’s archives.

When asked as to whether there were any leitmotifs and commonalities in the stories of the women featured in the archive, Radhika notes that repeatedly, the women made reference to how happy they were the war was over, wanted a better future for their children, and basic socio-economic rights.

Radhika then answers a question on whether this kind of archive actually helps build empathy or just serves, inadvertently, a more voyeuristic purpose. Radhika notes that while it is impossible to engineer the construction of empathy to an archive such as this, the purpose of it is to actually raise awareness among people who may not have otherwise known about the hardships these mothers have gone through to recognise there is more to history than what they usually consume and acknowledge.

‘Her Stories’ and Radhika herself came under fire over Twitter after the archive’s first public showing in Colombo recently. Radhika answers the most pertinent criticisms directed against the archive and her towards the end of the interview, and in particular addresses the concern that the archive in no way helps reconciliation in post-war Sri Lanka.

Noting that the exhibition will travel to Galle, Kandy, Jaffna and Anuradhapura, Radhika notes that all the 240 stories will be incrementally added to the website as well.