by T. Sabaratnam; Colombo, April 13, 2004 Weekly Review Revolt Strengthens Pirapaharan Fled in a Hurry Karuna’s revolt is now history. It collapsed abruptly. Karuna fled Sunday night in a hurry with a group of about 15 of his confidantes and bodyguards. They escaped in two vehicles. They fled towards the Tharavai-Kudumbimalai region in the Thoppigala… Read more »
SWOT Analysis
by R Shanmugananthan; published April 14, 2004 It was a swift operation commencing Friday. By Monday it was all over. It took only three days to retake the entire liberated lands in Maddu-Amparai. In these three days an area comprising many thousand kilometres have changed hands with minimal disruption to civilian life. Once again the LTTE… Read more »
TNA MPs Pushed Around by SLA
by Surinamala; The Sunday Leader, Colombo, April 10, 2004 PM stakes and the war setting http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20040411/politics.htm ..[T]he events last week could well lead to a situation of a severe backlash from the LTTE given the conduct of the President and the security forces over the five TNA MPs from the Batticaloa and Ampara Districts considered loyal… Read more »
Collapse of Col. Karuna’s Chariot
by Sachi Sri Kantha; published April 13, 2004 Much to the dismay of his local and international handlers [stinking skunks, media-bite specialists and prattling wordsmiths included], Col.Karuna’s war chariot collapsed abysmally. These agents had derived much schadenfreude [a German word, which doesn’t have an appropriate equivalent in English; i.e.,malicious joy in the misfortune of others] pleasure during the… Read more »
Vanni Trip, Section V, Part I
by K. Mylvaganam; Tamil Circle, published April 13, 2004 We are back in the wilderness of concrete blocks and polluted air from the heavenly atmosphere of Vanni. We had a wonderful time with our people there. The place we put up our house is surrounded with hundreds of our boys and girls from the LTTE. They… Read more »
‘Another Fine Job, Well Done’
by Rajkumar Sivapatham; published April 13, 2004 As the new year is born, the situation in the eastern Sri Lanka has changed upside down. The so-called Karuna crisis is effectively over now, as predicted by the people who know the inside out of the Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka. However, for the past 5 weeks or… Read more »
Tribute to M.K. Eelaventhan
by Sachi Sri Kantha; published April 12, 2004 M.K.Eelaventhan – A Tribute to a Mentor It is gladdening to read in the TamilNet news of April 9th that Mr.M.K.Eelaventhan has been officially nominated by the Tamil National Alliance as one of the two national list parliamentarians, through the Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK). What a turn of events for… Read more »
Easter Message
by Father S.J. Emmanuel; Germany, April 11, 2004 Easter is the Feast of LiberationEaster is the greatest feast in the Christian calendar. It is the feast in which Christians rejoice over the Liberation which Jesus won for humanity. Jesus Christ, Christians believe, is the Son of God who became man, and through his suffering, death and… Read more »
Guru Paramarta: Second Story
by Fr. Costanzo Beschi; published April 9, 2004 The Stories of Guru Paramarta: Second Story of the Purchase of the Horse’s Egg by Fr.Costanzo Beschi [aka, Veera MaMuni] Front Note by Sachi Sri Kantha Now that Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga has anointed a new prime minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, for her government, foregoing the opportunity of… Read more »
Vaiko Clean!
by Press Trust of India; published April 9, 2004 POTA review committee gives clean chit to Vaiko In a boost to MDMK leader Vaiko ahead of the elections, the Central POTA Review Committee today gave a clean chit to him and 8 others, saying no prima facie case was made out for invoking POTA against them… Read more »
Geopolitics of South Asia
by Neville Jayaweera; Confluence, January 2004 The geo-politics of South Asia and Sri Lanka’s changing fortunes(Or why the USA and India will intervene in Sri Lanka) by Neville Jayaweera (formerly of Ceylon Civil Service and Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the Scandinavian Countries) Two dramatic developments in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict recently are the USA’s direct involvement… Read more »
Sinister Stratagems, Part 2
by Wakeley Paul; published April 9, 2004 SINISTER STRATAGEMS AND ODD ENTANGLEMENTS PART II In view of what passed for legal in 1972, everyone seems to assume that this idea of a Constituent Assembly is some magic mantra which enables parliament to do what it cannot legally do otherwise This is a myth and a fallacy… Read more »
Sinister Stratagems, Part 1
by Wakeley Paul; published April 9, 2004 SINISTER STRATAGEMS AND ODD ENTANGLEMENTS The situation in Sri Lanka seems so tenuous, that it is very likely that a vote of no confidence on a single major issue raised can lead to a toppling of the present government in the not too distant future. The present struggle is… Read more »
Pirapaharan, Chapter 36: Breaking Heads
by T. Sabaratnam; published April 7, 2004 36: ‘We are going to break heads’ Unguarded Remark David Selbourne was a British journalist who worked for the Manchester Guardian freelanced for many other journals. He had been at Oxford University with Lalith Athulathmudali. He visited Sri Lanka in June 1982 and was introduced to President Jayewardene, Gamini Dissanayake and… Read more »
Guru Paramarta: First Story
by Fr. Costanzo Beschi; published April 7, 2004 The Stories of Guru Paramarta: First Story of the Passage over the River by Fr.Costanzo Beschi Front Note by Sachi Sri Kantha Costanzo Giuseppe Beschi (1680-c.1746) was a Jesuit missionary, born in Castigione, Italy, who landed in Goa, India, at the beginning of the 18th century and spent… Read more »
Sri Lanka Scene: Peace Talks May Suffer
by T. Sabaratnam; published April 6, 2004 Weekly Review Peace talks may suffer under UPFA Buddhist Lobby The Buddhist lobby succeeded today in forcing President Chandrika Kumaratunga to dump her nominee and appoint its choice as the new prime minister, indicating the hurdles that lie ahead of her in taking forward the peace process. Kumaratunga wanted… Read more »
What’s Next
by Wakeley Paul; published April 6, 2004 Nostradamus, in a brilliant two part article in The Island in February, has exhibited outstanding insight into the long term future of Sri Lanka. His knowledge, analysis and perspicacity are almost impossible to emulate. In this article, I, by contrast consider what¹s in store for us in the immediate aftermath of… Read more »
Meaning of the Election Results
by Rajkumar Sivapatham; published April 6, 2004 What do the Election Results Mean to Tamils? It is strange that people inside and outside of Sri Lanka worry so much about the election results in Sri Lanka. The fact is the Sinhalese people have given their verdict and that is that. The Tamils on the other hand… Read more »
Sour Grapes Sangaree
by Sachi Sri Kantha; published April 6, 2004 Sour Grapes Sangaree: The Psyche of a Lone, Fence-sitting Fox First to a brief news item which appeared on the first day of March. “Mar 01, Colombo: Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree has rejected the TNA’s claim that the LTTE is the sole representative of… Read more »
Our Political Clown
by Neville Chinivasagam; published April 6, 2004 Sachi Sri Kantha’s “Bob Dylan Stares at Sri Lanka” (Tamil Sangam, Feb. 25 2004) most admirably and humorously stares at presidential politics enthused by Lakshman Kadirgamar. It is well known Kadirgamar is indescribably Ms. Kumaratunge’s mouthpiece, voicing her presidential imaginings to earn him the epitaph summed up by Sachi:… Read more »