02/01/2012
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Caravan Magazine
***EDITOR'S PICK*** ON THE AFTERNOON OF 19 MAY 2009, at around 1:20 pm, a ration shop accountant named Sivarajan ran to the front of the winding lunch queue in the Anandakumaraswami Zone 3 refugee camp to serve rice and sodhi, a watery concoction of chillies and coconut milk. Swarna, a former militant, sat in her tent nearby, yelling at her mother for having told an
army man from the morning shift that their family belonged to Mullaitivu, on the northeastern coast, where the war between the Sri Lankan Army and the separatists—“Tigers,” she called them—was still raging.
At that moment, they got a text message on their mobile phones from the government’s information department. Addressed to all Sri Lankans, it proclaimed, in Sinhala—a language neither Sivarajan nor Swarna could read—that Velupillai Prabhakaran, the man who led a 26-year-long separatist battle for a Tamil Eelam (state), had been killed by the army in a lagoon just a two hours drive north of where they were. So when the news was announced in Tamil over a loudspeaker that evening, they did not believe it. When it finally sank in, they realised—neither with remorse nor relief, but mere wonder at its very possibility—that in an instant the war they had been born into had left their lives.
Nothing would ever be the same again.
08/17/2011
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Centre for Policy Alternatives
17 August 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka: According to a new survey conducted by Social Indicator, the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Sri Lankans are divided in opinion on the topic of reconciliation – about whether the government has done enough with regard to addressing the root causes of the conflict.
08/05/2011
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Le Temps
Sri Lanka’s government likes to proclaim that the country has put its bloody civil war behind it. But a visit to the Tamil stronghold reveals open scars everywhere.
08/04/2011
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BBC
Former Sri Lankan national team fast-bowler Ravindra Pushpakumara is scouting for young cricketing talent in the war-ravaged north of the country, reports the BBC's Charles Haviland.
08/03/2011
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www.sciencedaily.com
Residents of Sri Lanka who were internally displaced during the civil conflict that occurred in their country from 1983 to 2009 have a higher prevalence of war-related mental health conditions that include depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder, according to a study in the August 3 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights.
07/30/2011
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Groundviews
Jaffna: Two years ago, Sri Lanka’s three decade long war ended in May 2009. But, those who witnessed the brutality of the war are still suffering and struggling to forget the traumatic past.
07/29/2011
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Reuters
* Tamils say uncomfortable with post-war reconciliation
* Poll results show old ethnic divisions still strong
* Rajapaksa drags political solution
07/24/2011
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International Crisis Group
As South Africa knows better than most, a country cannot begin to overcome decades of internal conflict without a sustained effort at revealing the truth of the past and a committed push for reconciliation. If only Sri Lanka could learn that lesson.
07/18/2011
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International Crisis Group
Reconciliation will slip further out of reach if the government maintains its policies. As part of broader efforts to counter false narratives put forth by it and by Tiger apologists alike and to restore the badly damaged rule of law, Sri Lanka’s partners should take immediate steps. Aid money should not be delivered without firm knowledge of how it will be spent, which requires extensive monitoring. Assertions that the government is moving towards reconciliation must be tested against realities on the ground, which means insisting on access. The Rajapaksas’ authoritarianism must be challenged directly and publicly, with strong messages against retrograde constitutional changes and centralisation of power. An international inquiry into alleged atrocities by both the government and LTTE is needed; UN member states should actively work to establish one, unless the government shows by the end of 2011 that it is willing and able to ensure accountability on its own. Sri Lanka eventually should also have an independent, inclusive truth commission to examine injustices suffered by all communities. It requires a fair accounting of its violent history to avoid repeating it.
07/06/2011
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The Hindu
A prominent Sri Lankan political figure on Wednesday accused the British media of conducting a hostile campaign against the Sri Lanka Government singling out The Times and Channel 4 for what he described as their attempts to “falsify” facts.