Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Aug 22, 2008	Defense and Devolution
Just as it did at the moment of decolonization and independence, the visible post-war moment provides a rare historic opportunity for nation building and the construction of national identity. We missed the first chance, but must not miss the second. In his nationally televised dialogue with...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Jun 3, 2008	Much Ado about Eastern Democracy?
After one cease-fire, two formal peace talks, three wars, we wade deeper into Eelam war IV, and we’re back at square one. Or is it we never left? Over 2000 deaths post-2006. Post-tsunami, over 700,000 refugees upon a decimated Northeast bloated with bone and shades of displacement....... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  May 21, 2008	THE EASTERN PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS: A BRIEF POST-MORTEM
As the much hard-sold elections to the Eastern Provincial Council came to an unseemly and acrimonious conclusion last week, it was already becoming abundantly clear that its political and constitutional ramifications may well turn out to be anything other than what the government’s...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Apr 3, 2008	An education to die for
Mangalanath Liyanarachchi – Trincomalee The students of the Trincomalee campus face an uncertain future if government plans to move their campus to an insecure location are realized. Students of the Eastern University’s Trincomalee campus have begun protests against the government’s...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Feb 4, 2008	Eastern elections
In the backdrop of a country at war and democracy that’s hostage to the whim and fancy of a President and his coterie of murderous brutes, it’s hard to be even cautiously optimistic about the upcoming elections in the East. For the average voters in the South however, the fact that they are...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Jan 17, 2008	WHAT LIBERATION?
By Bhumi. Based on field trip from 10th – 14th December 2007. Introduction The East is ‘liberated’. It has been so since last June when the government requested it to be celebrated with ‘patriotic joy’. Over 300,000 civilians were displaced in the process and a majority...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Dec 9, 2007	TMVP Protest In Batticaloa Today
The TMVP is organizing a big protest at the Weber stadium in Batticaloa today. According to the Pillayan-led TMVP, it is against LTTE atrocities in the East and the TNA. The TMVP also wants solutions to problems faced by people being resettled in the East, for example in terms of lack of jobs,...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Nov 16, 2007	A requiem by Karuna: The death of sub-regionalism?
By Shanthi Sachithanandam Vakarai division, largely jungle tracts crisscrossed with 14 or so villages and little hamlets, situated along the northern border of Batticaloa District. The people of Vakarai are engaged in subsistence farming and fishing, with a small element of those who are...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Nov 15, 2007	Sri Lanka - Killing for Peace
Channel 4’s recent programme on Sri Lanka broadcast recently in England. As noted here , … the team making a documentary for Channel 4 was ordered to leave Sri Lanka’s embattled Jaffna peninsula on the orders of the country’s military [even though] reporter...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Sep 26, 2007	Karuna Leaves The Country
TMVP leader V.Muralitharan alias Karuna leaves country to Briton few days ago leaving Pillayan for TMVP administration says several sources. At the same time Moulana reappointed as TMVP spokesman in place of Mahesh. Karuna, Pillayan issue was big headache for government and other anti LTTE...... [view]

Posted By:  yajitha Posted On:  Sep 13, 2007	SMS news alerts during emergencies - The experience of JNW and the tsunami warning of 13th September 2007
Chamath Ariyadasa The coverage by the media of yesterday’s earthquake near Indonesia might be of interest to some readers, and as the editor of JNW , Sri Lanka’s first SMS news agency, I thought of penning my personal opinion and raising some issues that could be discussed...... [view]