Groundviews and surrender of terrorists

One factor that emerged during the recent seminar on Defeating Terrorism were the very different interpretations of the concept of surrender. David Kilcullen declared at one stage that the strategy adopted by our forces ‘gave the Tigers no opening to surrender’. Rohan Guneratne pointed out that this was not the case, and indeed early on, in February, when the Co-Chairs of the Peace Process called on the Tigers to surrender, the government would have certainly accepted this. What government was insistent on, having repeatedly requested the LTTE to return to Peace Talks, was that any surrender be unconditional.

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A note on the making of a chess icon in Sri Lanka

Way back in the early eighties, at a time when no one in the chess world considered Vishwanathan Anand’s someone who might one day become the strongest player on the planet, the strength-difference between players in the subcontinent was marginal. India was of course had the better players, of whom two, Manuel Aaron and Ravikumar were International Masters, but the gap between India’s best at the time (Ravi Sekhar) and Sri Lanka’s top players (such as Harsha Aturupana, Chandana Goonetilleka, Arjuna Parakrama and R.D. Gunaratne) did not seem insurmountable.

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Readiness for a solution to the conflict

“The Tamil people have understood that there is no alternative but to wage war to win the right to take our own decisions. By self-decisions it is meant that our right to decide freely, only by ourselves, without any external interference on matters that affect our political life.” Velupillai Prabhakaran made this statement in his last Mahaviru Day Message in 2008. On whatever grounds attempts were made to hold discussions with them, the Tiger’s demand was clear. He emphasized by “Right to decide freely by ourselves without any external interference” was a ‘Confederation’ or ‘United’ status. Or else with the right to exist as two separate nations in one country.

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