KAMALIKA PIERIS Instead of keeping the UN as a skeleton organization servicing the needs of member states and acting as a meeting place for them, the western powers have piled more and more tasks on the UN system and then funded these activities, creating a great dependency on them to keep the system going. The […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The UN started to take an interest in the Eelam war from Eelam War III onwards.  Eelam War III was from `1995-2002 and Eelam War IV was 2006 -2009 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (not to be confused with UNHRC) was in Sri Lanka in 1987, invited by the Sri Lankan Government […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 26.12.21 The North and East was a part of the   Buddhist civilization of the Anuradhapura kingdom. It was part of the Rajarata and came directly under the rule of the Sinhala king.   Inscriptions show that Abhayagiri had monasteries outside Anuradhapura. Abhayagiri had monasteries at Kantarodai in Jaffna, and at Nedunkerni and Ottimalai […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Tamil Separatist Movement says it is entitled to self determination and has the right to set up a separate state. The Tamil Separatist Movement cites the often repeated UN statement which says All peoples have the right to self-determination and by virtue of that right to freely determine their political status and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The Tamil Separatist Movement said that the north and east of Sri Lanka was the homeland of the Ceylon Tamil. The historical reasons for this were examined and dismissed by KM de Silva and GH Pieris in two writings dated 1995 and 1991 respectively.   These two writings completely demolished the homeland argument […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Language became an important element in the formation of new states in Europe in the 19th century. The emphasis was to be on the mother tongue, the language spoken in the home. The first International Statistical Congress of 1853 raised the question of including language in the    Census and the 1873 Congress recommended […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The   Tamil politicians had planned to achieve a separate Tamil state in Ceylon, long before Independence or Sinhala Only. The words Tamil Eelam” was used for the first time in 1923, by Ponnambalam Arunachalam when he spoke before the Tamil League. In this speech he spoke of the ‘desire to preserve our individuality […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Tamil Separatist Movement says it is entitled to ask for a separate state because the Ceylon Tamils are a separate nation”. The concept “nation’ is not a legally recognized concept, nor is it recognized in international law. International law only recognizes the sovereign state. International law does not recognize imaginary nations either. The […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS  SIR JOHN KOTELAWALA Sir John Kotelawala was Prime Minister of Ceylon from 1953 to 1956. He was strongly pro-USA.Nayani Melegoda records that the USA Secretary of State had visited Ceylon when Sir John was Prime Minister, date not given.  Sir John was firmly anti communist. He banned communist books and periodicals from arriving […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS This series contains snippets of information on the Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka collected while researching into social issues. It is a by-product of my main research. The essays include bouquets as well as brickbats. D.S. SENANAYAKE D.S. Senanayake (1884-1952) was the first Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.   DS’s father, Don Spater prospered […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The first census of Ceylon of which there is a record is the census of 1824. That was an incomplete census which grouped the population by caste.  The first complete population census   of Ceylon was the census of 1871.  This census left out ‘caste’ and introduced ‘race’ and ‘nationality’,   two European   concepts which […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The government of Sri Lanka took much trouble over the development of the north after the Eelam war ended. The government called it development initiatives to improve the quality of life for conflict affected returnee communities in the North.” Mahinda Rajapaksa initiated many improvements such as houses, roads and bridges. 15,000 wells were […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Throughout the thirty year period of the Eelam war, the aid coming into the country was exclusively for the north and east. This was well known.  Once the war ended, the north became the favored community with the blessings of the government.  Foreign countries offered assistance. These offers accelerated during the Yahapalana period […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The army took care to remove all possible LTTE monuments once the Eelam war was over. They knew that otherwise these monuments would become shrines. The only LTTE ‘monuments’ at the time were the LTTE cemeteries such as the cemetery at Chaaty Beach near Jaffna. The army bulldozed all of them. The Tamil […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 25.10.21 Tamil Separatist Movement got a new lease of life under Yahapalana rule of 2015 – 2018. Tamil Youth Organization and Canadian Tamil Congress hoisted Eelam flag and homage to Prabhakaran on internet in 2015.  ‘Tamils for Obama’ and ‘American Tamil Forum’, asked Washington to arrest Gotabaya Rajapaksa who is visiting the […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 25.10.21 The Tamil Separatist Movement is very much in existence today, in the Pohottu period. The webinar Sri Lanka: Quest for Justice, Rule of Law and Democratic Rights”, co-hosted by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice – New York University, Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 25.10.21 The government of Sri Lanka did not follow up on the victory and as a result, the Tamil Separatist Movement   continued, with greater strength than before. Eelam War IV crushed the LTTE but not the Tamil Separatist Movement. The TNA said, this is not the end of Tamil Separatist Movement, thought […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The government of Sri Lanka     defeated the LTTE and declared victory on 19. May 2009.  The military victory in the final war was total, said analysts. However, Sri Lanka did not follow through after the victory. The government did not declare the Eelam war as a civil war and it did not take […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The government of Sri Lanka issued a new gazette on elephants in 2021. It is titled    Fauna and Flora (Protection, Well-being and Regularization of Registration of Tamed Elephants) Regulations No. 01 of 2021”. This replaces Registration and Licensing of Tuskers and Elephants Regulations, 1991 published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 662/4 of 14. […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Elephant activists in Sri Lanka say keeping elephants in captivity in private premises is a form of animal cruelty. What they have in mind is Buddhist temples and devales. They plan to take legal action if elephants in custody are returned to temples. They point out that countries like the USA and UK […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised   12.10.21 There is a strong pro-elephant lobby in Sri Lanka which says the elephant must not be domesticated. It must be left alone, to wander in the forest. There are no forests left for it to wander in, since those forests were converted to tea estates during British rule.  Therefore the elephant […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 12.10.21 Certain elephant NGOs have focused exclusively on the perahera elephant. It was reported in 2044 that the donation of mature male elephants to selected temples had met with loud protests from NGOs. Ven. Deranagama Kusaladamma of Sri Sambodhi vihara, Colombo said the Viharaya has been prevented from holding its seventh annual […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Regulations on the registration of tame elephants were first issued in the Registration and Licensing of Tuskers and Elephants Regulations, 1991 published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 662/4 of 14 May 1991 in accordance with Sections 71 and 22a of the Wildlife Conservation Ordinance. In this gazette elephants are not allowed to be […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS In 2021, to the dismay of the anti-Buddhist NGOs, there was a reversal.  Pohottu government issued a gazette, the Fauna and Flora (Protection, Well-being and Regularization of Registration) of Tamed Elephants Regulations No. 01 of 2021 which allowed for the registration of un-registered elephants. The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) then informed the Colombo […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The elephant features prominently in the annual Perahera conducted by Buddhist temples all over the island. The biggest perahera is the Esala perahera conducted by the Dalada Maligawa in Kandy. Well over a hundred elephants used to participate in this Perahera. . There are similar Peraheras in many provincial towns, during Esala. However, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS The elephants in the Esala Perahera got star billing in an entertaining piece published by two animal rights NGOs in August 2016.  The essay is full of howlers and is probably the silliest piece ever written on the subject. Are you planning to go and see the Kandy Esala perahera, the NGOs wrote, […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Revised 12.10.21 Jayewardene carried out a survey of domesticated elephants in 1997. This survey revealed that there were about 214 domesticated elephants in Sri Lanka at that time. Of these, 107 were males and 107 were females. There were domesticated elephants in 15 of administrative districts in the country. The districts that had […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 12.10.21 When British rule ended and Sri Lanka became independent, the elephant regained its position as an important animal in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) was recognized as one of three subspecies of the Asian elephant and native to Sri Lanka. The elephant became a protected animal, once […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS revised 12.10.21 In the Udarata kingdom, the forests in the central highland were a protected reserve where elephants lived undisturbed. British and European writers have given us information on these habitats. The districts, in which the elephants most abound, are all hilly and mountainous, they said. There was not a mountain or a […]

KAMALIKA PIERIS Dhanesh Wisumperuma has researched into Religious Use of Elephants in Ancient Sri Lanka (Gajah 37 (2012) 16-21). He provides the following information. Elephants were first used in Buddhist ceremonial processions, to receive and transport Buddhist relics from one place to another.  King Devanampiyatissa   used the state elephant to carry   relics to be enshrined […]