The Sri Lankan armed forces continues to record impressive military victories. With the latest victory in Anandapuram (See David's Blacker's excellent analysis here) , LTTE is trapped along an estimated 100,000 civilians are trapped in a small area of land in the NorthEast of Sri Lanka.
There are increasing calls from the international community for the LTTE to lay down their arms, but the Tigers continue to hold civilians as human shields. There government has decided to pause the hostilities in view of the recent Sinhala/Tamil New Year in Sri Lanka, and some, most notably India has requested the government to extend the temporary halt on hostilities. The latter's interest in the Sri Lanka is amplified due to the elections in that country, and the need to appease the very large ethnic Tamils in India, who according to recent polls put the Sri Lankan issue among the top most election considerations.
A few important reports have also come out during the past few weeks. Most notably from UTHR (Jaffna), and International Crisis Group. Gruesome reality of civilians caught between the crossfire is being caught on camera and distributed by various sources. Human Rights Watch has an audio slide-show with some horrific images.
International media too take note of the situation, if only sparingly. The economist had a related piece recently and so did the New York Times and the Times in the UK.
With a few exceptions, most people in Sri Lanka seems to be adjusting to the reality of a post-LTTE Sri Lanka. Intellectuals are having their say, there seems to be a general consensus that there should be some form of devolution to address the larger dissatisfaction of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. Whether or not this form of devolution will sufficiently address the root causes of the conflict remains to be seen.
The Sri Lankan blogs and websites continue to be good sources for updated information. Apart from the usual suspects, Federal Idea is a good source for anyone interested in conflict-related video content. The channel features content from Young Asia Television, which in itself is a good source for quality video content.
Saturday 18 April 2009
Wednesday 15 April 2009
On the question of a ceasefire et al
See post by Rohini Hensman here on Kafila. My response to Rohini, and Nirmala Rajasingham's response to my comment, mine and Niran Anketell's response to Nirmala are compiled on my blog here.
Also see this post on Lines and this post by Ahilan Kadirgamar where in a response I seek to debate a position that people like Ahilan Kadirgamar, Nirmala Rajasingham take that the option of an armed struggle to the Tamil people's problem was pre-mature ill/poorly-conceived. I make reference to this and respond in my response to Nirmala on Rohini Hensman's article on Kafila. I will post something more detailed on this on my blog in the near future.
Also see this post on Lines and this post by Ahilan Kadirgamar where in a response I seek to debate a position that people like Ahilan Kadirgamar, Nirmala Rajasingham take that the option of an armed struggle to the Tamil people's problem was pre-mature ill/poorly-conceived. I make reference to this and respond in my response to Nirmala on Rohini Hensman's article on Kafila. I will post something more detailed on this on my blog in the near future.
Thursday 2 April 2009
April, in Sri Lanka
Dear Diary,
It's April already. In Sri Lanka this means a lot of holidays. After celebrating the official new year on the first of January like the rest of the boring earthlings, we Sri Lankans celebrate one more New Year in April. This time around, the "New Year Holidays" will be accompanied by a weekend and a few more holidays one for "Good Friday" and another for something else. One tend to loose track of these things. Anyway, all this is another excuse to go somewhere cool and get drunk in this island of hours, it's said that Sri Lanka has one of the highest consumption of alcohol and the highest number of holidays, most Sri Lankans enjoy both, except for the poor souls trapped in the North.
Ah yes, that little affair... Mainstream media in the west, seem to have all but forgotten the issue. According to media reports, the Sri Lankan Army have the LTTE encircled along with the civillian population in a very close area. Calls for a ceasefire from some quarters have been rejected by the president, who's determined to "finish it off". The government have however agreed for periodic "pauses" in the fighting so as to let the civilians flee into government controlled areas, and live the next few years of their life indetention camps welfare camps set up by the government.
As said before to you diary, the Sri Lankan media continue to harp the official government line and the only space for dissent continues to be on the web. During the past month, new sites have come up dissenting the official story sold by the warring parties.
One interesting site is JustDissent, which brings alternative view points about the conflict which does not find space in the mainstream media. Another site is warwithoutwitness and contains gruesome pictures and videos of what is (supposedly) happening in Vanni. Viewer discretion of the latter is highly advised.
Quite apart from all this dissenting, we are also seeing beginnings of citizens-led collectives to bring aid/medicine to the people affected. Trusts such as ActLanka have set up a website which enables people to get involved in the relief effort. First, they are focusing on the Vauvniya Hospital. One way people can help the situation is by donating their time and their money to causes such as this.
It's April already. In Sri Lanka this means a lot of holidays. After celebrating the official new year on the first of January like the rest of the boring earthlings, we Sri Lankans celebrate one more New Year in April. This time around, the "New Year Holidays" will be accompanied by a weekend and a few more holidays one for "Good Friday" and another for something else. One tend to loose track of these things. Anyway, all this is another excuse to go somewhere cool and get drunk in this island of hours, it's said that Sri Lanka has one of the highest consumption of alcohol and the highest number of holidays, most Sri Lankans enjoy both, except for the poor souls trapped in the North.
Ah yes, that little affair... Mainstream media in the west, seem to have all but forgotten the issue. According to media reports, the Sri Lankan Army have the LTTE encircled along with the civillian population in a very close area. Calls for a ceasefire from some quarters have been rejected by the president, who's determined to "finish it off". The government have however agreed for periodic "pauses" in the fighting so as to let the civilians flee into government controlled areas, and live the next few years of their life in
As said before to you diary, the Sri Lankan media continue to harp the official government line and the only space for dissent continues to be on the web. During the past month, new sites have come up dissenting the official story sold by the warring parties.
One interesting site is JustDissent, which brings alternative view points about the conflict which does not find space in the mainstream media. Another site is warwithoutwitness and contains gruesome pictures and videos of what is (supposedly) happening in Vanni. Viewer discretion of the latter is highly advised.
Quite apart from all this dissenting, we are also seeing beginnings of citizens-led collectives to bring aid/medicine to the people affected. Trusts such as ActLanka have set up a website which enables people to get involved in the relief effort. First, they are focusing on the Vauvniya Hospital. One way people can help the situation is by donating their time and their money to causes such as this.
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