By Neville Ladduwahetty
From 2012, Reconciliation and Accountability have been the twin pillars of the series of Resolutions that emerged from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Perhaps, the thinking of those who developed the formula of linking Reconciliation with Accountability was guided by the notion that an effective accountability process that holds some members of the security forces and the associated leaders accountable and punished would somehow ease the humiliation of defeat, and make the painful processes of healing and eventual reconciliation more tolerable.
In general, this notion presumes that retributive justice would promote reconciliation. The presumption of such an outcome is not an assured given because the possibility exists for the positions of the parties hoping to reconcile to harden to a point of defeating the intended objective of reconciliation if retributive processes and their outcomes are perceived as being vindictive. Thus, the contemplated accoun
Member of Company of Master Mariners of Sri Lanka
This article is dedicated to Captain P A Virasinghe, who passed away recently. He was the first Sri Lankan to command the Ceylon Shipping Corporation (CSC) ships. Appointed the Master on Lanka Kanthi in 1972, he was instrumental in getting the things right and raising the bar for future deck officers and marine engineers.
The CSC, established about five decades ago, was thriving with a healthy bottom line; it continued to serve Sri Lanka with our own managers and seafarers to run our ships.
Although SL was self-sufficient in rice before the advent of colonialism, rice production gradually dropped, under the British occupation, due to the neglect of the major irrigation tanks built by kings. Rice had to be imported to meet the shortfall in supply. Shipping companies in the 1950s and 1960s increased freight rates, sending rice prices up, and that became a political issue as well. Labour unrest caused delays in loading and discharging
DDC polls in J&K recall an unsuccessful experiment in Sri Lanka four decades ago
Sri Lanka offered DDCs as a solution at a time when the Tamil polity was already radicalised. The DDCs became a reality but they did nothing for Sri Lanka’s relations with its Tamil citizens. Updated: December 12, 2020 9:05:10 am
A security personnel keeps vigil as voters stand in queue to cast their votes for the District Development Council elections, at the polling station in Pahalgam. (Express Photo: Shuaib Masoodi)
The ongoing District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu & Kashmir call to mind a similar exercise in Sri Lanka four decades ago, when that country’s political leadership tried to stanch Tamil demands for regional political autonomy with almost exactly the same kind of local government for which J&K is voting now.