The Tamil National Alliance has published their response to Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Report. They are predictably not too happy – they think that 1) the commission was flawed 2) that they almost blindly accepted government narratives 3) that war crimes were ignored and 4) that (vaguely) an international investigation is necessary. I half agree with them.
There are still a few common fears floating around Colombo. They are that the country will return to war, that the economy will collapse, and that we will descend into a totalitarian dictatorship soon. These are the traditional rallying cries of the disenfranchised elite, but I think they simply don’t apply any more. These fears are unfounded.
The Daily Mirror wrote a misleading headline saying “Tamils to blame for Lanka solution delay: Rajapaksa“. What the President seems to have said is that he blames the TNA, saying “There is no point blaming me, it’s the Tamil parties that are delaying the solution.” In the Colombo Telegraph, also, Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka has pointed to the intransigence of the TNA (the Tamil National Alliance).
Went thru the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’s report (PDF). It’s actually quite interesting. I skipped the parts on the ceasefire and jumped straight to the end of the war.
The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Report is out (PDF). Is it everything you imagined it to be? Probably not. The panel was tasked with investigating the cease-fire more than the war, and treats the final push to end the war as an overall good (which it turned out to be). They did visit the north, however, and got a lot of direct testimony about disappearances and death, which I hope the report reflects.
Very eloquent young man from Mannar, Elikah Hoole, speaking as a member of Sri Lanka Unites. I basically agree with everything he says and wish I could say it half as well myself. He calls himself Sri Lankan, but calls for a journey towards that identity. He calls for justice, but from the people of Sri Lanka, not from foreign investigations. He calls for a solution to our problems, not from politicians or the international community, but from the people.
The LTTE Great Heroes Day is coming up, and the JVP’s November Heroes Day just passed. Both groups terrorized, tortured and tried to kill their way to political change, and yet both feel that there is something to commemorate. While I support mourning the dead, I think it’s folly to say that they died for something more than sociopathic assholes promoting a corrupted cause.
Sri Lankans have an almost mythical belief in getting the kid to school. But how do you go to school when your father, mother, brother and two sisters are dead? This is a case study of Selvanayagam Vithushan, born on my birthday, 1999.
The Economist has an interesting take on hypocrisy and the west: The end of the war in Sri Lanka was marked by little of the celebratory tone that has marked some of the reporting of the death of Muammar Qaddafi this month… Over Libya, there was no such call for restraint in the battle for Sirte, and on Qaddafi’s death, Mr Obama was quick to hail “the end of a long and painful chapter for the people of Libya”.
The island has a great interview with Arun Tambimuttu. His father was killed by the LTTE but he’s got the guts to come back to Sri Lankan, and participate in politics again. He gives a very interesting interview, though the Island inexplicably leaves out his name.
