Thursday, July 21, 2016

To My Dear Jaffna University Friends

By Pratheep Kunarthnam –July 20, 2016

Pratheep Kunarthnam

My dear university friends,

I am not interested in discussing here what happened at the university on Saturday or how the media and social media reported and responded to it in great haste. I would like to stand away from such exaggerated descriptions as “They raised sticks,” “They pelted us with stones,” “We were injured,” “The Police came,” “We said Sinhalese,” “We said Tamils.” Now it is time for discussion and dialogue.

Riding my bike down the Ramanathan lane last night, I could sense graveyard like silence around the University. The place was cordoned off by the Police. What happened in the morning, the distorted media coverage of those happenings, what I heard on the streets had all overcome my reason. As soon as I reached home, I put up a status post on my Facebook wall only to take it down after 10 minutes. I felt tensed; an emotional crisis was brewing inside me. Many of you would have felt the same last night. But let’s think now and teach our hearts there should be no room for hatred in them.

The ethnic conflict of the long years has made us take refuge in our emotions. The media, many who wrote on the social media and bloggers approached the situation with a divisive agenda. Many want someone or some group to carry arms and stand before them. That is all they want. Such is their desire for revenge.

Those diaspora people inside their safe zones and those with political power want us to take up arms and fight. There are plenty of such selfish folks among all communities.

This is a problem that has occurred at our university. Both Tamil and Sinhala media are using it to fan the flames of narrow-minded politics. In analyzing it carefully, one sees that there are only a few people who are involved in the problem: the ones who succumbed to their emotions and raised their arms first and those who raised their arms in retaliation. Some of them belonging to these two groups are still roaming the campus.

These folks did not emerge all of a sudden. Posters sprang up on the walls calling for the construction of Buddhist temple. The Nandi statutes were recently demolished. The stone benches where enamored couple spent their leisure hours were destroyed. The fuming volcanoes finally exploded on the 16th of July. There was no sudden reason for the violence that shook us yesterday. It was an explosion triggered many sub-events.

The posts that appear these days in the media and social media sound as though their authors want the students to divide themselves into Tamil and Sinhala groups and kick start a war. They want to scapegoat the students to feed their greed for sensational news and racism. Abhorrent men.

There is no question that all communities have the right to articulate their culture-based identities via cultural events and performances. But what we need to ask is when and in what context such articulations happen. When it takes place in a context where the state and majoritarian chauvinism attempt to oppress a community, it will have adverse consequences. Isn’t it ironic that none has pointed their finger at the Buddhist statues that are mushrooming outside the University? Let’s try to understand that there is some force operating behind all of these happenings.

2016-07-20

The sudden visit made to Sri Lanka by Nisha Biswal, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, was not without reason because reports received at her desk at the US State Department pertaining to the Maithri-Ranil government during the last several months have not been savoury.

Specially, the file relating to the cold war that prevailed between Maithri and Ranil over the issue of Central Bank Governor, Arjuna Mahendran, may have been given precedence by the South Asia Division of the State Department because the Obama government is reposing immense faith in the Maithri-Ranil administration of Sri Lanka.

The Secretary of State to the US Government once said the victory of democracy in Sri Lanka via the people's vote is a model for the whole world. At the first United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting after the Maithri–Ranil government was installed in power, it was to demonstrate to the world that the US is reposing hope in Sri Lanka that the US made a proposal jointly with Sri Lanka. It is hence impossible to imagine the US will be ready to destroy that hope.

When the international human rights organizations were exerting pressure that Mahinda, Gotabaya and Fonseka and the officers of the Forces who ordered war crimes should be meted out punishment, by an international war crimes tribunal, the US provided a road map to extricate the Maithri–Ranil Government from the trap of an International Court for war crimes. It was according to that road map that a Tamil national became the Chief Justice, Sampanthan became the Leader of Opposition and another Tamil national became the Central Bank Governor.

When the international human rights organizations were demanding the pound of flesh from Sri Lanka in connection with war crimes, the US declared a tough policy cannot be followed in regard to war crimes as the future is optimistic. At that juncture what happened to the US was akin to what India faced in 1987. India, which incited the Tamil rebels including the LTTE against the government of JR after JR agreed to sign the Indo Lanka Peace Accord, undertook the task of taming the Tamil rebels including the LTTE on behalf of Sri Lanka.

The US which inflamed the international human rights organizations against Sri Lanka during the tenure of office of ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has now undertaken the task of silencing their voices before the Maithri-Ranil government.

A change of US policy
Perhaps, the US intervened in the Arjuna Mahendran issue, in order to endorse the appointment of a Tamil national Arjuna Mahendran as Central Bank Governor and to avert the Maithri-Ranil Government driving itself into conflicts. Indeed, Biswal's visit too was to strengthen the government. She said, if permanent peace is to be established in Sri Lanka, its economy should be resuscitated, which stance of Biswal clearly indicated a change of US policy. Although, after the conclusion of the war, what took top priority in the political agenda of US policies was human rights, that has now changed into an economic agenda. This constitutes a victory for Sri Lanka.
When Nisha Biswal paid a sudden visit to Sri Lanka to convey this message; the Chinese Foreign Minister had already arrived in Sri Lanka on the sly. The Chinese Foreign Minister's visit was so secretive that it was not known even to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister.
When Ranil takes decisions in relation to China, he keeps the Foreign Minister at arm's length, because the pro-Mahinda groups are dominating the Foreign Ministry. In fact Ranil planned his tour of China too, at the Temple Trees without the Foreign Ministry's involvement.

The preparation of agreements to hand over the Hambantota Port, Colombo Port and Mattala Airport improvement projects to China were done secretly without the knowledge of the Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Minister of China arrived in Sri Lanka via that secret China-Lanka route of Ranil . Though China was angered at the beginning over the stoppage of the Hambantota Port project by the Maithri- Ranil Government, and remained aloof, the visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister now is a signal that China desires to continue with its friendly ties with Sri Lanka. Just before Biswal announced the economic agenda for Sri Lanka, the Chinese Foreign Minister who virtually came running to Sri Lanka said, China is still a main economic partner of Sri Lanka.

Biswal's visit was known to India, but the Chinese Foreign Minister's visit was a secret, which perturbed India. India's worry was all the more because India provided the necessary information to the Sri Lanka Government about a fraud in relation to a land deal in Sri Lanka involving Krrish Co., a prominent establishment in India, which led to the arrest of Namal Rajapaksa. The government could garner data from the Krrish Co. only with great difficulty. The successful gathering of information regarding the fraud was a great victory for the Maithri-Ranil Government. Hence, maintaining the balance with India, as with China, should be Government of Sri Lanka's goal.

Army sergeant major Udalagama the Lasantha murder squad leader makes shocking confessions..! Maithri - Ranil lives are in peril..!!

(Lanka-e-News - 20.July.2016, 8.35PM) It was army sergeant major Premananda Udalagama (now in remand custody) the leader of the murder squad responsible for the killing of Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickremetunge who had organized the protests staged recently demanding the release of the group of army suspects including Lieutenant Colonel Shammi Kumararatne who was then the chief at the Girithale camp , and Lieutenant Colonel Prabhoda Siriwardena who are now in remand custody based on charges of abducting journalist Prageeth Ekneliyagoda at Rajagiriya . Udalagama had made this above disclosure to the CID after his arrest , and this is stated in the confession made by Udalagama himself .

In addition , on the day notorious Galagoda Aththe Gnanassara was arrested on charges of contempt of court for making a huge hue and cry on the court premises disturbing the court on behalf of the forces and to pedestal them , and when Gnanassara was remanded after being produced before the Nugegoda court , it was Udalagama who organized the unruly demonstration before the courts, Udalagama has confessed. There was a group of intelligence division officers too with him on that occasion Udalagama had further stated in his confession.

My we recall ,on the 29 th of January Lanka e news reported ,''20 officers of intelligence division of the forces were among Gnanassara supporters in court''

Moreover , it is this same Udalagama who had threatened the state counsel Dileepa Peiris appearing in the Ekneliiyagoda case with death , and pasted posters around his home .

A most dangerous and portentous situation prevails

It is attorney at law Shiraj Noordeen who is appearing on behalf of Udalagama who is in remand custody following his arrest by the FCID. This lawyer is none other than the classmate of T. Suresh Salley , the Director of army intelligence division. What’s more ? it is Salley who has entrusted the contract to Noordeen to appear on behalf of brutal criminal Udalagama , a suspect in a number of criminal cases. The fee paid to Noordeen in this regard is out of a secret account of the intelligence division . This is high treason and is what makes the whole situation most shocking and suspicion ridden!

The army commander had revealed that though this account is a secret it is no secret to him. Hence , the army commander cannot be unaware of the fact that permission is being granted to waste public funds on behalf of criminals. It is absolutely unlawful to meet the legal expenditure of a government servant who has turned criminal , and a suspect , out of public funds. It is therefore a very clear inference that the army commander Krishantha De Silva is involved in a most criminal and unlawful offence.

In the midst of these revelations , clearly grave issues have proliferated revolving around Suresh Salley who was appointed as director Intelligence division during the Gotabaya era , and who is still holding that post.

Maithri and Ranil have put the noose around their necks

If Salley is aware that it is Udalagama who led the squad that murdered Lasantha , then Salley has committed a most heinous crime and violated the laws of the country brazenly by providing assistance and facilities even after the advent of the government of good governance, to a criminal who committed a most heinous crime.

On the other hand if Salley says he does not know that Lasantha was murdered by a group led by Udalagama , Salley definitely is only admitting he is not fit to be the chief of the intelligence division , because despite being the chief he had not known under his very nose there is a top level murderous criminal , who is in addition a close friend of Salley.

These lapses so called are no trifling issues.

It is an indisputable fact that murderous Rajapakse regime was thrown out lock, stock and barrel via the Rainbow revolution because the people wanted the Rajapakse regime ousted , and therefore this is a matter which concerns and impacts on the life and death of those victorious leaders.

It is only in Sri Lanka an intelligence division chief of a deposed murderous government is continuing in that post even under the new government that captured power surmounting most unlawful obstacles created by a lawless , murderous , despotic and blood- letting regime.

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(We publish again a report of ours posted at the time Suresh Salley was appointed as army intelligence division Director by Gotabaya Rajapakse , that is as far back as 2 nd February 2013 . If our readers hark back to that time it would become clear to them how far our warnings and prophecies have turned true , and how many of the dangers we forewarned , had successfully been overcome by the Rainbow revolution . The readers can arrive at their own conclusions.)

Unsuitable Muslim Colonel appointed as Director of Gota intelligence division to create Muslim-Buddhist conflict

(Lanka-e-News-02.Feb.2013, 10.30PM) The Rajapakse family has been carrying out a campaign for a long time most craftily and insidiously creating conflicts between the Muslim community and the Buddhist people . Towards this end, Gotabaya Rajapakse with a far sighted conspiracy in view had appointed a Muslim, T . Suresh Salley an inefficient unsuitable temporary Colonel as the Director of the intelligence division of the Forces , according to Lanka e news inside information division reports.

Suresh Salley is a SL citizen and is of the Malay race. Though he is a Muslim by name , he has no religion or scruples. Being an opportunist, his only pursuits are accumulating money and craving for positions, and achieving them by hook or crook. His number is 0/61101 when he joined the Army .Currently he is an Army Colonel on a temporary basis. Ordinarily , at least a Brigadier ought to be appointed as the Director of the intelligence division . But in this case , a temporary Colonel had been appointed for the first time in SL.

His antecedence had been most putrid. Individuals like him who knew Tamil language in the Intelligence division painted a false picture during the period of the war.. They gobbled up large sums of monies under the pretext of supplying information. But these swindles cannot be exposed. They are state secrets. He and those of his swindling category in the intelligence division who were exploiting the unaccounted funds were divested of the intelligence division responsibilities by former Army Commander Gen. Sarath Fonseka after he took over in the final phase of the war , as they were found to be of no use or worth to the intelligence division.

Since all the information regarding the war operations were being passed to the LTTE by these swindlers , they were swept out , the intelligence division was given a complete clean up ,and the division was brought under the charge of Major Generals Dhammika Liyanage and Amal Karunasekera ( after the arrest of Fonseka, both Liyanage and Amal were sent on compulsory retirement and dismissed from the army. It is noteworthy their pensions had not been paid until today ) . Until the time of the death of Prabhakaran, the intelligence division operations were carried out by them , and not by Salley who was not even allowed to come into the vicinity .

We revealed the unsavory and lurid details of Salley’s history for an important reason : he was linked to the murders of the members of the army intelligence unit itself since when he was the lackey of Hendavitharane.

The chief reason allegedly for the fall of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Govt. was : with the peace agreement , room was created for the LTTE to kill the Army intelligence unit officers. But the true picture was otherwise : all the intelligence unit officers at that time and those providing information were murdered on the orders of Hendavitharane by Suresh Salley and the group linked to his brother.

Suresh Salley’s brother is an officer of the STF, a contemporary and friend of murderer Sylvester . When this group was executing the orders of Hendavitharane , another Muslim officer , Major Muthalif, known for his honesty , efficiency and law abiding qualities got wind of the conspiracies and wrong doings of this evil group . While Muthalif was probing into them , he was murdered. It was not LTTE alone that was responsible for it . Hendavitharane and Salley brothers gave full support towards it , for they feared that their plots and crimes would come to light.

Based on these grounds , Gen. Fonseka evicted not only Hendavitharane but also the Salleys from the intelligence division , and led the country to victory in the LTTE war.

We are now trying to reveal today’s foolish conspiracy hatched by Gotabaya Rajapakse using Hendavitahrane and Suresh Salley

The conspiracy is to stoke a Muslim – Buddhist conflict.

Rajapakses are preventing a Muslim – Buddhist conflict based on several grounds :

1.To exploit the Muslim antagonism against the Western world and US with a view to subdue the opposition against the Rajapakses based on the war crime charges leveled against them2. To disperse the Muslims who are a majority in the Capital city of Colombo to other districts , and to create a Buddhist majority in Colombo.

3. The most important of them all is to divert the attention of the people in the face of huge public resentment that is growing by the day against the Rajapakse regime.

While there is no Buddhist extremism in the country, under Gotabaya , a Bodhu Bala Sena terror group had come into operation. As revealed in our previous news reports , these operations via the officers of the Army and Navy intelligence divisions are directly under Gota. We have cogent and confirmatory evidence to substantiate this.

At the discussion recently among a restricted number of officers of the army and the navy intelligence divisions held secretly even without the knowledge of the state intelligence service (SIS) , Gota had said, ‘now the Buddhist religion side is over and it must be started from the Muslim religion side’ . He had by that implied , the Buddhist extremist ‘ Bodhu Bala sena ‘ had been commenced and finished . Bodhu bala sena, Gota’s group says , there is also a suicide squad in that Bodhu Bala Sena. It had not been possible to create violence according to their plans because the Muslims have no violence prone group like the Bodhu Bala sena to spark trouble and trauma. Hence , what Salley the murderous Director who had been appointed over the army intelligence unit is going to do is , spawn a Muslim violence group.

It is learnt that preparations are being made in the present climate of racial tension that is already taut , to attack the Buddhists as though it was launched by the Muslims and arouse racial violence. Salley has been appointed based on the theory – using a wild forest tree to set fire to the very forest.

Lanka e news is hoping by exposing this conspiracy that has leaked out before it is executed , it can be foiled.

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by (2016-07-20 15:33:39)

The Fundamental Reasons Behind The Jaffna University Brawl

By V. Kanthaiya –July 20, 2016

Note – I have a special message to those self-proclaimed guardians of justice and law, who call for an independent investigation of the Jaffna University brawl. Please lie down on your back. Make sure there is no wind. Spit on the air and experience the outcome. Think about the thousands of Tamil Civilians massacred in the War against Tamil Terrorism and remember, this country is not even ready to investigate those massacres.

This country has seen so much of violence. No need to tell you about the 1956, 1977, 1983 July and the subsequent massacres, both by the Tamil militants and by the democratically elected governments of Sri Lanka. The latest one to join this enormously long list of violence is the brawl in the Jaffna University on 16th July. The incident took much concern in the social media and other print and electronic media except those of the state. Since, the outline and the setting of the brawl has been extensively disclosed to the public, I believe it is a good time to initiate an open discussion about the causes of the brawl which is of ethno-religious nature and find solutions, to prevent the occurrence of such acts in the future.

Well, various political scientists and columnists would view this incident from their own perspective. For example, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka (Dr.DJ) will call this a result of shift in the strength of the ethno-nationalistic factors (only the God and Dr. DJ know what they are), which have roots in the balance of the equilibrium of the USA-India-Zionist alliance against that of the neo-communist china and the sovereign third world countries. On the other hand, Izeth Hussain would call this the result of the ‘Tamil Castiest Racism’, which is the second most serious threat to the global security and stability after Wahhabi Fundamentalism (readers are asked to keep in mind that Islam and Wahhabism are two completely different concepts and again asked to keep in mind that this is not a joke). But being continuously identified as a Tamil in the Sri Lankan society and my association with the Tamil community since by birth, I would like to present my views to the readers. I believe the roots of the recent Jaffna University brawl in specific and the ethnic conflict of Sri Lanka in general, are deeper than what is thought by our political scientists and columnists.

And miles to go…

The clashes at the University of Jaffna indicate that the process of national reconciliation may be progressing far too slowly

Student clashes at the University of Jaffna last weekend underscore the complexities and uphill battles inherent to Sri Lanka’s reconciliation project

Thursday, 21 July 2016

This month Sri Lanka marked the 33rd anniversary of one of the darkest periods in the island’s history. Sparked by a LTTE ambush of soldiers in the North on 23 July 1983, anti-Tamil riots swept across the country, tacitly sponsored by the state; the legacy of a past steeped in discrimination, resentment and majoritarian policymaking that would herald a brutal and bloody future over the next three decades.

The pogrom gave birth to an extreme form of Tamil nationalism that could go head-to-head with Sinhalese nationalist forces and made a strong case in Tamil-dominated regions and sections of the international community for a separate Tamil homeland that would free the minority community from discrimination and excess at the hands of the Sinhalese majority.

Unable to guarantee the safety of Tamils in southern parts of the country including the capital Colombo, the Government adopted mass evacuation procedures, sending Tamil residents by the ship and plane load to the North and East where they would have safety in numbers.

In a memorable speech in Parliament on 23 July 2013, the year which marked the 30th anniversary of Black July, Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran spoke of how the Government had been unable to protect him and his family in the capital Colombo during the ethnic pogroms of 1977 and 1983. Sumanthiran’s description of his evacuation from Colombo during the riots, once by air and once by sea, was poignant in reflecting both the personal impact of the persecution and the tragedy that was befalling a nation as a whole.

“Twice in my student days, I was taken away from the capital city, once by air, once by ship, totally at the cost of the Government of Sri Lanka to the North. The Government, being unable to protect me in its own capital, thought that I would be safe in my home and sent me to my homeland….But for me having grown up in the cosmopolitan city here, the capital of this country, that was an acknowledgement by the Government at two different times that this was not my home. That my home was in the north. That it was in my homeland that I would be safe,” the TNA lawmaker told the House in his July 2013 speech.

Sumanthiran was of course making an argument for the right to self-determination and political autonomy for Tamil people in the North and East, given the Government’s own acceptance of the distinctive demographic in those regions. But there is something heartbreaking in an acknowledgement by the state that a section of the citizenry was in mortal danger in parts of a country they called home. Evacuation is alienating, isolating and gives rise to ethnic ghettoisation. The idea that a citizen of Sri Lanka is only safe among his or her own ethnic group is dangerous – it erodes trust between communities and hinders national reconciliation.

Last Saturday’s clashes at the University of Jaffna were unsettling for several reasons, but most distressingly because the violence ended in Sinhalese students at the university being evacuated from the North in buses escorted by the Special Task Force for security.

They were sent back to their hometowns in the island’s south for safety. While the student clashes last weekend and the consequent evacuation can hardly be compared to 1983 without gross exaggeration, the TNA in its statement issued on Sunday, one day after the clashes broke out, was quick to recognise the parallels, inviting Sinhalese students back to the Jaffna University and calling on Tamil students on campus to ensure their protection.

In retrospect the evacuation last Saturday may have been an overreaction on the part of the authorities, but over the decades, it appears to have become the first resort of state officials in the face of violence and communal tensions to prevent reprisals against those who have already been victimised. The fear for authorities was that the continuing presence of the Sinhalese students in the North could lead to further violence that could spark a wave of communal tension across the island. In the face of that frightening prospect, the Government and university authorities chose to err on the side of caution.

Defusing tactics

In its reaction to the student clashes, the Government chose to downplay the communal aspects, preferring to call the incident a fight between two student groups. While the Government response was viewed by the Sinhalese nationalist fringe as a burying their heads in the sand tactic, the conscious decision of the state and the country’s main Tamil party to defuse tensions rather than fan the flames of impassioned nationalist sentiment on both sides of the ethnic divide must be commended.

In the parallel universe that existed in Sri Lanka only 18 months ago, the story of the Jaffna University clashes would have ended in a very different way. Retribution would have been swift under the former Defence Secretary’s directives, a crackdown on Tamil student representatives inevitable and a strong military and intelligence presence within the university purportedly to ‘preserve the peace’ but in reality to intimidate and subjugate would have been non-negotiable. Instead the Government acted with maturity, making a collective decision to refrain from stoking nationalist fires, promising to bring miscreants to book, choosing to use the police instead of the military to address the violence and urging calm on all sides.

Moderate voices on every side of the political spectrum prevented the situation from escalating or spreading to other campuses or regions of the island. The clashes served as a reminder of the very different country Sri Lankans live in since the January 2015 elections.

Naturally, last weekend’s incident in the Northern campus did not occur in isolation. It was the manifestation of years of simmering tensions within the student community, ethnically and politically polarised and thrown together within the institution of higher education after years of isolation.

In the war years, out of fears for their safety, students from the South were not given placements within the Jaffna University, widely held as an institute of academic excellence, with medical and science faculties to rival any university in the island’s south.

Since 2010, the situation altered. The Government deemed it safe for students from the south to pursue a tertiary education in the north. For 26 years the LTTE, fighting for a separate homeland in the North and East, made every effort to cut the people of the North off from the people of the South. The lost rail connections, large swathes of no man’s land and heavily guarded borders disconnected northerners from southern communities, making it easier for the Tigers to demonise the south and keep interactions with the majority community down to the bare minimum.

For post-1983 generations in the north and the south, the country effectively ended in Anuradhapura and Vavuniya. Post-war reintegration therefore, is believed to be key to bridge building and reconciliation.

This was the Government rationale for the swift reconstruction of arterial roads linking north to south and the resumption of rail services between Jaffna and Colombo. Presumably, it was also the rationale for placing students from the South in Northern and Eastern universities. The more sinister theory was that the Government was actively seeking to change the ethnic demographic in the North and East, along with a subtle colonisation program that was taking place in many parts of the North.

Grievances on both sides

For the local community, the ongoing military presence in the north that served to impose all the trappings of conquest and Sinhala-Buddhism on the Tamil-Hindu dominated region has rankled over the past six years.

For a section of the student community in the Jaffna University, the elaborate Vesak and Poson celebrations, the alleged attempts to construct a Buddhist Temple inside the campus and the large numbers of students enrolled from parts of the country outside the Northern Province (60% of Science Faculty students at the University of Jaffna are Sinhalese, according to some statistics) have been irritants.

While the real story behind the welcome ceremony for new entrants to the Science Faculty remains elusive, it appears that the inclusion of the Kandyan dance routine – whether it took place by force or was agreed upon in the event planning stages - was viewed by a section of the students as a kind of cultural imposition; an extension of the tactics the Rajapaksa Government had used for five years since the war ended to suppress and supersede with its own culture, the cultural, religious and linguistic identity of the North.

The Sinhalese students association at the University of Jaffna has grievances of its own. Over the years this section of the student populace has complained about official university communications being issued only in the Tamil language despite several appeals to have them translated into English, they have protested the continued refusal of the campus authorities to register the association and the alleged destruction of Poson decorations painstakingly erected by Buddhist students studying at the university. So in a strange role reversal, the concerns of the Tamil student population mirror the insecurities of the Sinhalese community in the South, while the grievances of the Sinhalese student community reflect the discrimination and the feeling of being outnumbered that the Tamil community in Sri Lanka has experienced for decades.

The grievances are real. Exacerbated by youthful passions and perceptions of injustice on both sides, the tensions were bound to spill over at some point, university watchers observed. The violent manifestation of these grievances could also be strong indication that the process of reconciliation and reckoning with a brutal past may be happening much too slowly. Clearly the Government and university authorities have shown little foresight by failing to put integration and cultural sensitization programs in place to unite an ethnically diverse student community.

In other universities across the island, the class struggle is predominant and race takes a backseat. In those campuses, students rally against the establishment and unions seek to equalise the student population by imposing language and attire codes. The Jaffna University case is unique; the fault-lines are different and friction too easy. The reintegration of that campus warranted greater thought and attention; clearly, after years of rancour, allowing things to settle down naturally was never going to work.

A minority in Jaffna

And while the concerns of both factions of students must be acknowledged, there are other indisputable facts that call for the condemnation of the clashes. The same yard-stick applied to the Aluthgama riots, the Weliweriya attack and the alleged civilian massacre in Mullivaikal must be applied, albeit to a less serious degree – in this instance.

In each of those cases, the fundamental question was ‘who held more power?’ In Aluthgama it was the Bodu Bala Sena supporters who had active state patronage; in Weliweriya it was the gun-wielding military brigade shooting unarmed protestors; in the No Fire Zone it was a military armed to the teeth with long range guns and airpower against 300,000 civilians in a shrinking stretch of beach with Tigers in their midst. In such cases, the ‘who started it’ question becomes irrelevant.

Similarly at the Jaffna University, perceptions of state support notwithstanding, the Sinhalese students are undoubtedly a minority on campus. Ethnic cleansing by the LTTE has whittled the Muslim and Sinhalese communities living in the North down to virtually nothing. For many of the new entrants to the Science Faculty being welcomed last Saturday, it was the first time they had set foot in the Northern peninsula. Their first experience of the unfamiliar region was needlessly, avoidably horrific.

Hailing from a community that has suffered the evils of majoritarianism for the better part of 60 years, this was a poor performance by Tamil students on being confronted by a minority in their own region. And while a case is being made by the Tamil political leadership for the re-merger of the North and East, such incidents do nothing to allay the fears of the Sinhalese and Muslim communities living in the East who remain deeply wary of a merged North-East.

The clashes have also given the pro-Rajapaksa Joint Opposition and its social media warriors an opening to showcase the perils of ‘leniency’ in the North and make a strong case in the island’s south against de-militarisation, long acknowledged by rights activists as crucial to reconciliation and normalisation in the formerly embattled province.

The Jaffna youth, who have suffered oppression over generations, had an opportunity to act more graciously. The Sinhalese students were the outsiders. And they were outnumbered. The provocation that sparked off the clashes do not matter. Reverse this situation for one moment, and much of the grey areas become black and white. What if Tamil students had been beaten up and injured at the Ruhuna University, where they were a clear minority? What if they had to be evacuated in buses back to the North under police protection? Condemnation from all sections would have been swifter; the historic weight of that crime would have demanded it.

The Jaffna University clashes have provoked a much more measured response – perhaps in part because of the murkiness of the information surrounding them. But the incident calls for introspection, it requires confrontation and understanding about how much more difficult and complex the task of reconciliation is going to be, and how inter-generationally the threads of ethnic conflict are woven. And violence against a minority anywhere in the country must be condemned, in the strongest possible terms.

The liberals who stood against Aluthgama and Weliweriya, who boldly refused to cheer while the war was ending in a bloodbath in 2009, have the moral legitimacy to condemn racism and violence against the vulnerable and the marginalised anywhere.

Elephant in the room

On a more controversial note, the Jaffna University clashes have also opened the door to address an elephant in the room that has been increasing in size over the past few years. A creeping problem of aggressive Tamil nationalism at the Jaffna University has remained largely unchallenged. It is increasingly a hot-bed of extremism, as evidenced as recently as 18 May this year, when the memorial event held within the campus was the most overt pro-LTTE commemoration held in the Northern Province.

The university routinely, but on a smaller scale, commemorates the Tigers’ Heroes Day on 27 November, a day the LTTE set aside during the war years to memorialise the ‘martyrs’ or fallen in its cause. But the extreme ideology taking root within sections of the campus has also manifested in more subtle ways.

In April last year, the Jaffna University Vice Chancellor refused to permit a discussion on Rajan Hoole’s new book ‘Palmyra Fallen: From Rajani to War’s End’ within the university premises. In September 2014, the university revoked approvals for an event to commemorate the life and work of Tamil rights defender Rajani Thiranagama, on the 25th anniversary of her killing by the LTTE.

Thiranagama is best known for her work with the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR), a Jaffna-based organisation that documented atrocities committed against Tamil civilians by the military and the Tigers, and her co-authorship of the book Broken Palmyra. Thiranagama was gunned down in Jaffna in 1989 by the Tigers, whose cause she once supported before she grew disillusioned by their tactics and their crimes against the Tamil people whose freedom they claimed to be fighting for.

Thiranagama was an academic at the University of Jaffna, working in the University’s Anatomy Department at the time of her death. There was no reason for the university to refuse to host a commemoration for the human rights icon, unless her anti-LTTE credentials had threatened to cause problems for the university authorities from factions at the campus still sympathetic to the Tigers’ cause.

Extreme positions

Ironically, the greatest sympathy for the ideology of separatism within the Northern Province comes within the ranks of its successful professionals. The Jaffna doctors, lawyers and academics, many of whom have built lives outside the war-torn region, have been the strongest opponents of TNA moderates and the Tamil party’s support for the Government’s reconciliation and accountability processes.

It is from within these ranks that support has built for Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, a man handpicked by TNA Leader R. Sampanthan for his moderate credentials, whose positions on the ethnic question have hardened alarmingly and are at great odds with his party over the past two years.

The influential community actively supports hardline Tamil politicos including Gajen Ponnambalam, Shivajilingam and Ananthi Sasitharan and strongly oppose attempts by moderate sections of the TNA to build bridges between the community of the North and the rest of the island.

These factions, backed heavily by hardline sections of the Tamil Diaspora, responded viciously when the TNA called on the Northern Provincial Council to pass a resolution apologising to the Muslims for the expulsion of that community from the Northern Province by the LTTE in October 1990.

They responded in similar fashion when in September 2015, the TNA called for introspection by the Tamil people about crimes committed in their name, after the release of the OHCHR report that detailed atrocities committed by the LTTE as well as Government forces. And while the continued influence of these groups is not only detrimental to national reconciliation project overall, the spread of this hardline ideology within the precincts of a university has dangerous implications for post-war security.

Youth is easy to whip up against perceived injustice, easy to incite to violence and extreme measures. This is a lesson learnt once already in the Northern Province, with devastating effect.

The TNA must be hailed for its refusal to be drawn into ethno-centric, nationalist politics on the back of the Jaffna University clashes, even while its political rivals chose to exploit the incident, much like their nationalist counterparts in the south.

The TNA must continue to remain the adult in the room, leading the Tamil community against all odds, on a difficult journey of reconciliation. The Government must strive to do the same with the Southern constituency. Sri Lanka is living through an unprecedented time, when the centre is more moderate than it has ever been, on both sides of the ethnic divide. It is a time to take on difficult tasks, a time to change the mood in the north and the south and take control of the post-war narrative. The university clashes last weekend have underscored the desperate need to confront the demons of the past and lay them to rest within this generation.

University stories are supposed to be more idyllic than this. They should be about romantic revolutions against injustices by ‘The Man’ and lifelong romances that begin on secluded campus lanes. The Jaffna University may not have a mountain or a river to base its love stories on. But it has the makings of something much more wonderful. The stories written there have the potential to mirror the story of Sri Lanka’s post-war future. And hopefully that story will have a happy ending.

Appoint Commission To Probe Jaffna Varsity Fracas: Wigneswaran and Thavarajah

Giving their understanding of the underlying causes, Wigneswaran and Thavarajah said that frustrations have been accumulating among Tamils, students as well as non-students, over certain developments in the Northern Province. | Express Photo Service

By P.K.Balachandran-20th July 2016

COLOMBO: C.V.Wigneswaran, Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Tamil majority Northern Province, and S.Thavarajah, Leader of Opposition in the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), have together asked the Lankan government to set up a “full-fledged” Commission of Inquiry to conduct an in-depth probe into last Saturday’s clash between Tamil and Sinhalese students in Jaffna University saying that the fracas was a manifestation of deeper problems faced by the Tamils of North Lanka.

In a joint letter released on Wednesday, Wigneswaran and Thavarajah said that the incidents in question should not be viewed from a purely criminal law standpoint.

“We must first try to understand the underlying causes that led to their violent behavior. Thereafter, we must determine ways and means of dealing with such underlying causes and implement them. This would ensure that such incidents will not be repeated,” they said.

After the war, the demographic pattern of North and East Lanka is being consciously changed. The independent 'War Crimes' Inquiry is being dragged on indefinitely. Students from other Provinces are being admitted in large numbers in Jaffna University. Such entrants are bent on forcing their arts and cultural on Jaffna soil. There is reluctance and delay on the part of the powers in delivering a political solution that would allow the Tamils to look after their political affairs in their areas of historical habitation. There is a tendency to retain in the Province a military force far in excess of the need, seven years after the war.

“All these activities must be considered by such a Commission in consonance with the recent violence, to determine whether all such activities added fuel to the behavior of the students. The appointment of such a Commission would prevent the racialists in the South from trying to make political capital out of such incidents,” Wigneswaran and Thavarajah said.

“We both have come together to issue such a joint statement to show the world that the Northern Provincial Council views such incidents beyond the mundane political differences that usually engulf us,” they added.

Jaffna Campus Rumpus Requires Our Serious Attention

By Harini Amarasuriya –July 20, 2016

Dr. Harini Amarasuriya

A few days ago, there was a clash between Tamil and Sinhala students at the Freshers’ Party, at the Science Faculty of the University of Jaffna. There has been an avalanche of responses to this event. Most have expressed self-righteous outrage, some are gloating in a kind of ‘we told you so – Tamil Tigers are alive and well’ way and a few (too few) have reflected on the seriousness of this event and what it means in terms of reconciliation and community relations.

Nationalisms of all shapes and sizes give rise to ugliness – not just in our society but everywhere. Should the Sinhala students have been allowed to include the Kandyan dancers in the staff procession? Of course, yes. Should the university authorities have made more attempts to anticipate such tensions and put in place mechanisms to build bridges? Also, yes. Let us not ignore the fact that the Jaffna University Science Faculty has 60% Sinhala students – living in a predominantly Tamil society just emerging from 30 years of violent conflict surrounded by constant reminders of being the ‘losers’ in the war; not least the many monuments celebrating war victory, continuing presence of the military and an ever increasing presence of symbols of Sinhala Buddhist culture.

While discussing this incident with friends and colleagues from Jaffna, I was struck by their frustration. Frustration that this incident was now being treated (predictably by some political groups) to claim that Tamil nationalism and therefore naturally, Tamil terrorism was alive and well. Frustration at being branded racists despite the years of quiet work that has gone into managing multiple difficult situations that have naturally arisen as a result of a sudden expansion of the student community at the university after years of isolation. Frustration that once again the Tamil community is expected in a sense to ‘prove’ that they are ‘good’, law abiding, patriotic citizens of this country, who have ‘learned the mistakes of the past’ and are prepared to move forward in a united and peaceful Sri Lanka. Frustration at the consternation at the realisation that moving forward and belonging is not easily achieved and that Tamil society may not even be ready for it at this moment in time and may indeed have their own views on how this should happen.

Of course, there is no doubt that Tamil nationalism is alive and well in the University of Jaffna. Of course it is disappointing that there isn’t more tolerance of difference and dissent within the university. I experienced this first hand when in 2014, I was at the University of Jaffna for the launch of Dr Rajan Hoole’s book, Palmyra Fallen and university administrators initially refused to allow the book launch to be held inside the university. But let’s not pretend that the excess of nationalism or the intolerance of difference and dissent is unique to Jaffna. It was hardly a week ago that students reacted angrily and yes, violently, to a play performed at the famous Sarathchandra Open Air Theatre at Peradeniya, because they apparently felt that the drama was culturally and morally inappropriate. In universities all over the country a dress code is imposed on first year students by their seniors as part of the ‘rag’ in what one assumes is an effort to teach students the importance of conformity to group values. Our universities have a long way to go in terms of becoming places of tolerance, sharing and freedom – and even maturity. Our society has a long way to go before we can claim such values. It wasn’t so long ago that there was huge outrage that the National Anthem had been sung (heaven forbid) in Tamil! It was not long ago that the BBS threatened a repeat of the Aluthgama riots. So let’s get a bit of perspective and tone down the sense of righteousness with which we are condemning the Jaffna university incident.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Jaffna University Clash: Student leader released on bail

2016-07-20

Jaffna University Students' Federation President T. Sasidaran was today released on bail by the Jaffna Magistrate after he surrendered to Court in connection with the recent clash among two student factions at the Jaffna University.

He surrendered to Court through his Attorney, TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran after the Police launched an investigation based on the statement provided by a student who was seriously injured in the clash.
Jaffna Magistrate Sinnathurai Sathiswaran granted bail with two sureties of Rs.200,000 each.

Several students were injured and property damaged during a clash between two student groups on July 16. (Romesh Madushanka)

JAFFNA UNI CLASH: FUTA CALLS FOR BRINGING CULPRITS TO JUSTICE

19/07/2016

The Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) yesterday urged the university authorities to take all possible steps to identify the perpetrators of violence in the Science Faculty of the Jaffna University on Saturday and to bring them to justice.

FUTA President Dr. Rangika Halwathura said, in a statement, that they condemned the attack.

“We do not accept or endorse any form of violence including student clashes within universities,” he said.

Dr. Halwathura however said the FUTA had noticed that there had been such occurrences in the recent past.

FUTA attributes them to the negative ramifications of the prevailing system creating a culture of violence which affected the quality of education in Sri Lanka.

The senior lecturer said the university teachers believed that a constructive, long standing dialogue should be created among authorities, academics and students to eradicate all forms of violence which existed in Sri Lankan universities.

Dr. Halwathura said FUTA also vehemently condemned the attempts of certain individuals to misuse the situation for their personal and political gains and re-direct the country towards disaster.

All Sri Lankans had been unfortunate victims of brutality, ethnic conflicts and violence for nearly four decades and they did not expect such in the future, he said. “Therefore, we urge the university community and the entire citizenry to be vigilant and stand united against all forms of racism to ensure harmony,” he said.

FUTA strongly believed that such situations could only be addressed through open, positive and constructive discourses which would lead to understanding among varied communities, he said.

“We offer our unconditional support for such dialogues and ushering in harmony within the University of Jaffna,” Dr Halwathura added.

By Dasun Edirisinghe
The Island

Joint Opposition’s Shadow Cabinet; A Malignancy Beyond Cure

By Vishwamithra1984 –July 20, 2016

“Our civilization survives in the complacency of cowardly or malignant minds — a sacrifice to the vanity of aging adolescents. In 1953, excess is always a comfort, and sometimes a career.”~ Albert Camus

The Joint Opposition has knowingly thrown a challenge at the morality of all decent men and women in Sri Lanka. Announcing a ‘Shadow Cabinet’ that consists of those who once occupied the most rewarding portfolios of the defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa-regime and whose many dealings are being questioned at various commissions and committees today is simply preposterous and pathetic. The bare audacity to challenge the intelligence of the average voter is further proof of their appalling logic of judgment on the one hand a ridiculously impudent sense of cynicism on the other. The political bloodshed that they are attempting to draw at this crucial juncture of transition from a rogue government to a budding Yahapalanaya state is palpable and the consequences of their attempt could be profoundly damaging to the mindset of the nation. The consequences could be damaging because it would legitimize all the criminal activities alleged to have been committed by the bigwigs of the last regime. Making such criminal behavior and acts to look like regular and normal would be dangerous to the socio-political character of the nation.

It would be futile to analyze the individuals named in that so-called ‘Shadow Cabinet’ one by one. Thanks to the Proportional Representation (PR) system, these political ruffians managed to get into parliament. Yet their collective psyche that is intensely warped and inflated has driving them to a state of perpetual denial. In the interest of safeguarding their ill-gotten wealth and redeeming their lost glory, they continue to amaze the average mind of the people by engaging in campaigns claimed to be on behalf of the masses. When they could not deliver when they held the reins of unbridled power for almost twenty years, they now proclaim as if our people are either totally deficient in memory power or shockingly stupid. There again, the extent to which these politicians have underestimated the intelligence of the average Pathmasiri and Pathiraja by itself is worthy of a separate study on human behavior. Misreading the mind of the voter is the most irredeemable blunder a politician could commit. The closeness of the results in the 2015 Presidential Elections, they might argue, speaks of an electorate whose separation is remarkably thin. But in the absence of any maneuverings of a coup de grâce either in parliament or at a higher level of power, one cannot see a game-changing political intrigue in near future. For all obvious reasons, the Rajapaksas’ sole purpose seems to be an aversion of terribly embarrassing allegations of corruption and crimes of both white and black shades.