by Maya Jayasinghe Abeywickrama in Daily News, Monday, 11 October 2004 Note by the Sangam member who sent us the article: This is by a Sinhala western music teacher who was in Jaffna as a school girl in 1961-63 ( I was there during that time, just returned from university abroad. Col Udugama lead the… Read more »
Posts Categorized: History
Reporting from Vanni: A Melancholy Episode
by K. Mylvaganam, October 17, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/605.html Part 1 I wrote in my earlier insertion that I was giving classes for the boys and girls in the LTTE cadre. This has enabled me to get to know them quite well. With time they, too, are more relaxed with me, unlike the reservations they exhibited at… Read more »
Let the Tamils Go
Make Up Your Mind Forthwith to Let the Tamils Go by V. Navaratnam, Daily Mirror, Colombo, October 7 and 8, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/594.html People used to cite the trio: Professor G. L. Peiris, President Bill Clinton, and Premier Bob Rae, all contemporary Rhodes Scholars at Oxford, as examples for high level of intellectual calibre among national… Read more »
Reporting from Vanni, Part 1
by K. Mylvaganam, October 6, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/584.html I was back in heaven (Vanni) for three wonderful months. Only those who have been here will understand what I mean. You are in a homely atmosphere listening to Tamil music and Tamil being spoken everywhere. The only time I did not enjoy this music is when the… Read more »
Inspiration and Hope: The Youth of Sri Lanka
by Greg Buie, October 5, 2004 sangam.org/articles/view2/580.html As I prepared for my summer adventure in my comfortable Southern California home, I had a hard time imagining what sorts of experiences I was in store for in Sri Lanka. Yet, in a state of unchallenged enthusiasm and naiveté, I excitedly boarded the plane to this country,… Read more »
Top-aide Says LTTE May Not Have Killed President Premadasa
by P K Balachandran, Hindustan Times, September 8, 2004 Bradman Weerakoon, International Affairs Advisor to former Sri Lankan President, R Premadasa, has cast doubts on the popular notion that it was the LTTE which assassinated the President In his racy book entitled “Rendering Unto Caesar” (Sterling Publishers, New Delhi, 2004) Weerakoon says that there are… Read more »
Pirapaharan 2, Chapter 14: JR’s Three Track Policy
by T. Sabaratnam, September 3, 2004 (Volume 2) Building a Military Machine President Jayewardene, his fans and critics readily admit, was a grandmaster in political chess. He schemed three moves ahead when his opponent planned only two. He played the same game with Indira Gandhi. He countered her double track policy with three. Jayewardene’s three tracks… Read more »
Pathirana Group helps Tamil Students in 1983 Pogrom
Dear Editor, I am reading The Pirapaharan Biography very keenly. Please convey the attached message to Sabaratnam. Thanks Bala M. ———————————————————————————————————— Dear Mr. Sabaratnam, Thank you for writing Tamils’ History. As you have mentioned in your introduction I feel you are writing this biography without any bias. I also think you are the right person to write… Read more »
Vignettes on Three Black Tiger Heroes
In the Battlefield by Sachi Sri Kantha, August 17, 2004 After the posting of my review of the Sooriya Puthalvargal 2003 Memorial Souvenir in the Sangam website [June 23, 2004], I received two appreciatory emails for the details I had provided on Black Tigers. One was from American academic Dr. Robert Pape, Associate Professor in Political Science,… Read more »
Black July – The Ghosts of Chemmani
Review – From Pogroms to Massacres and Mass-Graves by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Sunday Leader, June 20, 1999 [Editorial comment: Tamils have endured a multitude of atrocities under the rule of the majority in Sri Lanka. It is critical to review these historic events (massacres and mass graves) since the latent emotions – based on myths or… Read more »
Black July – Riots That Led to War
Twenty years on by Frances Harrison, BBC, July 23, 2003 BBC correspondent in Colombo Twenty years ago, this week, saw the outbreak of anti-Tamil riots in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo that changed the course of the nation’s history The riots, triggered by the killing of a group of soldiers in the Tamil north of… Read more »
Black July – Culture of Silence
The Accomplice in Crime The Shameful Shadows of Macabre July ’83 By Oswald B. Firth OMI, July 29, 2004 Director, Centre for Society and Religion Editor Social Justice How could a community of people, steeped in the traditional values of compassion and ‘ahimsa’, ever break loose into uncivilised behaviour? “We shall have to repent in… Read more »
Black July – The Politics of Apology
A Personal Reflection by Reverand BJA (UK), July 29, 2004 Without restorative justice there is no constructive peace. As a teenager then, I remember hearing the words of Kasi Anandan: ‘ We can’t trust the Sinhalas. They will never give us our rights. The change of government is like the snake shedding its skin. But the… Read more »
Black July – Editorials on Black July 1983
by Sachi Sri Kantha, July 27, 2004 Now, after 21 years, only one of the ten editorials [that which appeared in the Economist, August 6, 1983, under the caption ‘Not just the Tamils’] stands apart from the rest for its clarity of thoughts and time-withstanding precision. The editorialist presented four pragmatic options to solve the… Read more »
Black July – Broader Vision of the Massacred Political Detainees
[On 24 February 1983, Nadarajah Thangathurai, one of the first Tamil freedom fighters incarcerated by the Sri Lanka government, was sentenced to life imprisonment. On the first of March 1983, he made a statement from the dock of the courthouse, which to this day remains one of the best testaments to the Tamil sentiments in… Read more »
Black July – An Exodus to the Homeland
by Anonymous, July 26, 2004 People rush to their homes for security when they are threatened. As is obvious, their homeland is the land where their home is located. Their homeland, or country, nourishes them, providing for their economic and cultural sustenance. Is it that simple, or do we need a legal and anthropological analysis? Multiple workshops… Read more »
Black July – Eyes Of Kuttimani
A Tribute to a Brave Leader by Thanjai Nalankilli, July 25, 2004 Kuttimani (photo – center), a nominated member of Sri Lankan parliament… was forced to kneel in his (prison) cell by his assailants and ordered to pray to them. When he refused, he was taunted by his tormentors about his last wish… He had… Read more »
Black July – Prison Massacres
THE WELIKADE PRISON MASSACRES OF 1983 by S.A. David, President of the Gandhiyam Movement, July 25, 2004 An Eye-Witness The Sri Lanka government rounded up hundreds of Tamil Activists resisting the government attempt to establish a mono-ethnic-mono-religious [Sinhala-Buddhist] state in Sri Lanka. Most of them were engaged in non-violent programs to provide alternate opportunities to… Read more »
Black July – Pogrom in a Divided Country
By Richy Markandu, July 25, 2004 23rd-24th of July are the dates unforgettable in the minds of Tamil ethnic minority of Sri Lanka. These are the days when political member gangs of Sinhalese ethnic majority with the help of government armed forces chose to vengefully attack Tamils ethnic minority, their businesses, homes, temples in south… Read more »
Black July – A Colombo Student Recollects
My experience on July 24th, 1983 – a Colombo Student Recollects by Bala, July 24, 2004 [We urge the readers to write down the facts known to them so that future researchers may be able to use them to evaluate the events that shaped the history of the Tamil people. We must realize that we… Read more »