Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 23

Srimavo’s constitutional promiscuity  by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Tribune,’ Singapore, accessed October 17, 2017 Chapter 1 Chapter 22 “The Tamil-speaking people of Ceylon believe that only a federal type constitution would enable them to look after their own affairs alone and would safeguard them from total extinction. Only under such a constitution, the Tamil-speaking people… Read more »

Lessons from Sri Lanka’s War

by VK Shashikumar, Indian Defence Review, Issue Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep 2009 | Date : 19 Nov , 2014 http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/lessons-from-the-war-in-sri-lanka/, accessed June 19, 2019 Conduct of Operations This is how the Sri Lankan government described (through a Ministry of Defence Press Release) the war strategy of its defence forces on May 18, 2009 after the annihilation of the… Read more »

Sergei De Silva-Ranasinghe’s Review Of Eelam War IV

Reflections by Michael Roberts, Colombo Telegraph, Sept. 17, 2016 DeSilva-Ranasinghe’s article – how-sri-lanka-won-the-unwinnable-war Asia Pacific Defence Reporter Sept 2009 This article – https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sergei-de-silva-ranasinghes-review-of-eelam-war-iv-reflections/ ADDENDUM, 14 September 2009 In analyzing historical issues over the years, I came to the conclusion that a multiplicity of factors generates the events that are understood to be major transformations – so… Read more »

Nine Decisions that Helped Lanka Beat LTTE

by V K Shashikumar, Indian Defence Review, October 2009 Not available in 2019 on Indian Defence Review website, but copied at http://www.sify.com/news/nine-decisions-that-helped-lanka-beat-ltte-imagegallery-0-international-kexv2Lbdede.html , accessed June 19, 2019 What we don’t see Will a good number of soldiers, tanks and artillery ensure victory in a war? These are outward aspects of a war which alone are… Read more »

Lessons from the War in Sri Lanka

by VK Sashikumar, Indian Defence Review – July – Sept 2009 – Vol 24(3) Lessons from Sri Lanka’s War – Indian Defence Review 2014 version, PDF http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/lessons-from-the-war-in-sri-lanka/0/ “The news about the killing of Prabhakaran sparked mass celebrations around the country, and people poured into the streets of Colombo, dancing and singing. Looking back at the… Read more »

Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 22

 ‘Only God Can Save the Tamils’  By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 21 “Aandavan than aeni Tamilarai Kappatra Mudyum” – Only god can save the Tamils – were the prophetic words of S J V Chelvanayakam, the leader of the Thamil Arasu Kadchi. Chelvanayakam sensed the gathering storms in the context of… Read more »

Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 21

A further lack of perspicuity  By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 20 Dudley Senanyake was sworn in as the prime minister for the fourth time on March 25, 1965. A few weeks after resuming office, he was again afflicted with his peculiar stomach ailment. The pain affected him to the point… Read more »

Sri Lanka, MSF Amidst All-Out War

by Fabrice Weissman, Academia.edu, accessed June 2019 In Claire Magone et al. (ed.), Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed. The MSF Experience, London, Hurst & Co, 2011. Sri_Lanka_MSF_Amid_All-Out_War 2011 On 18 May 2009, the Sri Lankan government’s crushing victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) put an end to twenty-six years of civil war. Described by… Read more »

MGR Remembered – Part 52

Concepts on Humor and Comedians by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 9, 2019 Part 51 Correspondence with Kannan on Karunanidhi For additional clarification on the theme covered in Part 51, I provide the email correspondence (4 items) I had with fellow MGR biographer Kannan. I reproduce these below with his permission. Item 1: From Kannan to… Read more »

Tamils Are Haunted By Hope For Relatives’ Return

In War’s Aftermath by Laura Beltran Villamizar, National Public Radio, Washington, DC, June 2, 2019 https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2019/06/02/651883770/in-wars-aftermath-tamils-are-haunted-by-hope-for-relatives-return In the past 30 years, some 60,000 to 100,000 Sri Lankans have disappeared, Amnesty International reports. Ethnic and religious tensions have always been a part of Sri Lanka’s history, which includes a decades-long war between government security forces and… Read more »

Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 20

Tamil leadership lacks perspicuity By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore, December 22, 2001 Chapter 1 Chapter 19 This is a story of another agreement. This time between S J V Chelvanayakam, the leader of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi and Dudley Senanayake, the leader of the United National Party. In short, another agreement entered… Read more »

Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 19

Anguish and pain  By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore, December 15, 2001 Chapter 1 Chapter 18 The government led by Srimavo Bandaranaike, issued a Treasury circular No 560 of December 1961, which stated that government servants appointed since 1956, should obtain minimum proficiency in the official language – Sinhala, to retain their posts, as… Read more »

Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 18

Srimavo – Weeping arrogance  By K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 17 The defeat in the parliamentary elections of March 1960, clearly indicated that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party needed a popular leader, who could put the party back in the saddle. Accordingly, the SLFP stalwarts, on May 24, 1960, elected Sirimavo… Read more »

Island of Racial & Religious Extremism

With culture of impunity by Thambu Kanagasabai, LLM [Lond. Former Lecturer in Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka], May 28, 2019 April 21st attacks on three Churches and three star Hotels by radicalized Muslims surprised Sri Lanka’s Government, its citizens and the world. They were well pre-planned and co-ordinated to unleash the killings on worshippers… Read more »

U.S. Should Not Repeat its Post 9/11 Counter-terrorism Mistakes in Sri Lanka

by Ronnate Asirwatham, ‘Medium,’ May 28, 2019 The U.S. government’s hurried moves to expand military-to-military cooperation with Sri Lanka to fight terrorism after Easter Sunday’s bomb blasts is ill-advised because, Colombo’s counter-terrorism policies are shambles. Sri Lanka targets ethnic communities for acts of terrorist groups, and its military, enjoying impunity, uses torture as the main… Read more »

What the Holocaust Can’t Teach Us about Modern-Day Genocide

Never Again? by Andrew Stroehlien, International Crisis Group, December 2, 2009 (originally published in ‘Foreign Policy’) It was cold, misty, and miserably wet the day we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, but no one wished for better weather. My companions — mostly midlevel diplomats from more than a dozen countries around the world — all seemed to agree… Read more »

Mervyn de Silva on Prabhakaran and Tamil-Muslim Antipathy

by Sachi Sri Kantha, May 17, 2019 Front Note by Sachi Since the last April 21st Easter Sunday’s multiple suicide attacks by the Muslim participants on Christian Churches and hotels in Colombo, there have been lopsided comparisons by ignoramus journalists and knee jerk commentators covering the major media outlets to the LTTE’s separatist war with… Read more »

Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 17

Assassination of Bandaranaike  by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Times,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 16 Bandaranaike, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias (1899-1959), the prime minister of Ceylon (1956-59), whose election marked a significant change socially and ethnically in the political history of modern Ceylon, was born on January 8. His father was the only son of Gate… Read more »

Sri Lanka: The Untold Story, Chapter 16

‘Honorable wounds of war’ by K T Rajasingham, ‘Asian Tribune,’ Singapore Chapter 1 Chapter 15 “If Sinhalese lips will not speak the Sinhalese language, who else is there to speak? How is a nation to be lifted out of error, reformed and advance into plains of higher knowledge, except by its own language?” These were… Read more »