Weekly Review by T. Sabaratnam, September 15, 2004 Norwegian special peace envoy Erik Solheim is back in Colombo. “I’m here mainly to stabilize the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA),” he told media in Colombo. Stabilizing the CFA was the main subject Solheim discussed in Colombo and Jaffna since his arrival on Monday night. That will be the… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Military
Mishandling Suicide ‘Terrorism’
Aside from an amusing ignorance about Sri Lanka, Scott Atran gives a level headed look at ‘suicide terrorism’ in an article in the Summer 2004 issue of The Washington Quarterly put out by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The gist of his argument is that, in order for community support for suicide attacks… Read more »
US Assistance to Lanka Against ‘Terrorism’
A Second Look by Taraki [aka D. Sivaram], The Daily Mirror, Colombo, September 15, 2004 Sinhala Buddhist nationalists do not count their blessings. They keep complaining that the world is not helping them in any concrete way to crush the LTTE. One of them recently asked the US, “Where’s the beef?” (Though it is unbecoming… Read more »
ISGA : Dead-end or Historic Opportunity?
No author given, The Sunday Observer, Colombo, September 12, 2004 The Interim Self-Governing Authority – ISGA – proposals of the LTTE present a challenge as well as a historic opportunity to advance towards a genuine democratic settlement to the national crisis. They represent the first and only proposals the LTTE has officially presented as a… Read more »
The Sinhala Nation and Foreign Military Involvement
by Taraki [aka D. Sivaram], Virakesari and TamilNatham, Sri Lanka, September 5, 2004 An important question arises when we look at the military balance in SriLanka. Though the LTTE maintains its military strength on par with Sri Lankan Army (SLA), any military intervention by a foreign country which does not sympathise with the Tamils, can… Read more »
The International Community Sharpens its Knives Against Tamils
by Sachithanandam Sathananthan*, New Delhi, September 3, 2004 Sri Lankan Tamils took note of a newspaper article titled “Ending the regional drift,” published in India recently. Its author, Dr Raja Mohan, is a foreign policy analyst who is close to the Indian establishment, and he accurately reflects its thinking. He lauded “the muscular message” New… Read more »
LTTE Critics Argue Against Continuing with Ceasefire
by Taraki, [aka D. Sivaram], Daily Mirror, Colombo, September 9, 2004 Heckles and jeers are sure to greet one if one were to say that the Tigers too face criticism and political pressure from a cross section of their supporters here and abroad for “futilely sticking to the peace process”. The hecklers and jeerers on… Read more »
A Global War: Many Fronts, Little Unity
Terror is not an enemy, but a method, used in different ways by different movements…But it is also a label that has been seized on by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel and, in various shades, by leaders from Italy to Pakistan to set their own agendas. It… Read more »
Countering Terror
by Rajeev Dhavan, The Hindu, Chennai, September 3, 2004 Where counter-terrorism violates human rights, it produces state terrorism directed against a nation’s own people. Both collectively and individually, nations across the world are obsessed with policies of counter-terrorism. This obsession is subversive of peace and good governance in ways that are beginning to dwarf the… Read more »
I Got Trapped in the Secret ‘No Fly List’ of the Transportation Security Administration
by Sachi Sri Kantha, September 1, 2004 I neither have the charisma of a Kennedy nor the celebrity status of Massachusetts’ senior Senator Edward ‘Teddy’ Kennedy. However, for the past 25 years, I have subscribed to the liberal democratic ideals for which the youngest males of the Kennedy clan (John F., Robert and Edward) have… Read more »
Tamils Alone in Hostile World
Tamils Should Realise They Stand Alone in a Hostile World An Editorial from Northeastern Monthly Every few months or so, accusations of human rights violations are flung at the LTTE by various local and international actors whose concern for human suffering knows no bounds when it gives them an opportunity to cause the Tiger rebels discomfiture…. 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 »
Building Peace on Shifting Sands!
By V Gunaratnam, July 11, 2004 Try building peace on shifting sands. That’s what the Tamils and the LTTE are being asked to do with the Sri Lanka government. Ranil Wicremesinghe laid the groundwork for the peace process, and things were taking shape for negotiations to start on the ISGA when Chandrika Kumaratunga took power… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s Covert Military Activities in Maddakalappu
by R. Shan Former Maddakalapu –Amparai LTTE women wing leader Nilavini went to Colombo with Karuna, escaped and rejoined LTTE in Maddakalapu. Speaking to the BBC Tamil service on Sunday( 20/6/04) she said: “Initially we were all together in Colombo under Sri Lanka n Army(SLA). Later Karuna moved to a separate place.” She and four… Read more »
A Review of the ‘Sooriya Puthalvargal’ 2003 Memorial Souvenir
Homage to the Black Tigers by Sachi Sri Kantha, June 23, 2004 LTTE leader Pirabhakaran has been assigned the [un]flattering accolade as one of the ‘pioneers’ of suicide bombing warfare, by his adversaries and quite a few academic turkeys. In my opinion, quasi scholars like Rohan Gunaratna or, for that matter, Yoram Schweitzer [currently affiliated… Read more »
Kumaratunga Prepares to Unleash the Sinhala Army
THE ACTION GROUP OF TAMILS (TAGOT) Kotte, Sri Lanka Email: tagots /A_T/ hotmail /D_O_T/ com”>tagots /A_T/ hotmail /D_O_T/ com PRESS RELEASE 15 June 2004 Kumaratunga prepares to unleash the Sinhala army The current political developments and war preparations in Colombo flow naturally and logically from the Sinhala President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s unparalleled anti-Tamil jingoism during her first… Read more »
Karuna Facing Defector’s Dilemma
by Sachi Sri Kantha; published June 3, 2004 There are two books adjacently placed in my study, since their titles share an affinity. The first is ‘The Oldest Profession – A History of Prostitution’ (1993 print) of an English translation of a German language original by Lujo Bassermann. The second is, ‘The Second Oldest Profession – Spies… Read more »
Sri Lanka Scene: Killings Unite Tamils
by T. Sabaratnam; published June 2, 2004 Weekly Review Killings Unites Tamils; India’s Policy Changes The foul Murder Iyathurai Nadesan is dead. The cause he espoused, Tamil Nationalism, has received fresh vigour. The entire northeast ground to a halt in unity today (Wednesday); not merely to mourn the death of a 49 year-old Tamil journalist who… Read more »
Thinking the Unthinkable
by V. Gunaratnam; published May 10, 2004 Power to change Power springs from the people, not a piece of paper that is a country’s constitution. When power becomes an instrument of oppression by the tyranny of the majority, as against the Tamils of Sri Lanka, the need for justice empowers those oppressed to seek such remedies… Read more »
ANZAC Day and the Eelam Tamil
by Sabesan (Melbourne); TamilNaatham, April 26, 2004 ANZAC Day and the Eelam Tamil“Anzac Day mirrors the soul of our nation, And shows the price it was willing to pay, To secure our freedom, knowing if it was lost, That soul would sicken, and would wither away” (Bernard Sprunt) ANZAC Day – 25 April – is probably… Read more »