09/11/2011
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Sunday Times
By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
On the A-9 road from Kandy to Jaffna, bullet scarred palmyrah palms that once lined long stretches where intense fighting between government troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had taken place, are no longer to be seen. Many of these dead or dying trees have been chopped down, accentuating an unforgettably arid landscape that has seen enough death and destruction for decades to come.
08/14/2011
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Sunday Times
Alongside a picturesque stretch of coastline between Akkaraipattu and Pottuvil in Sri Lanka’s East Coast, a tire burning brightly in the centre of the road is etched starkly against crisp morning light. Given Sri Lanka’s history, when bodies burning on top of tires were once a common sight across the country, this was an unsettling reminder that the past is inclined, more often than not, to repeat itself.
08/29/2010
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Sunday Times
Some months ago, a grizzled and soft spoken gentleman somewhere around in his mid sixties told me bluntly in Batticoloa that the people in his area did not 'believe' in the National Human Rights Commission and the National Police Commission.