නිදහසේ උභතෝකෝටිකය
On the 54th Independence Day, Ivan laments that freedom won without struggle left Sri Lanka without the attitudes or institutions to hold its communities together. Contrasting its record with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and India, he cites negative growth, 15 per cent inflation, war costs and some 100,000 deaths, and argues that no leader since 1948, Sinhala or Tamil, has won the respect of all communities.
ඇනීටා, ප්රභාකරන් හා චන්ද්රිකා
Prompted by Anita Pratap’s book Island of Blood, Ivan recalls his own part in the 1994–95 peace efforts: prison talks with Tamil detainees after 1971, his view that Chandrika Kumaratunga used the peace issue for Tamil votes, his attempt to broker trust between her and Ranil Wickremesinghe, and a March 1995 Jaffna visit where he helped secure the release of fifteen police prisoners. He also recounts learning from Anton Balasingham of a secret message she sent Prabhakaran through Pratap, and the resumption of war in April 1995.
Invasion of Jaffna inevitable
The Army Commander says Elephant Pass was given up on strategic grounds. What the LTTE had in fact done was bring the base to a point where the army could not get water or food into it — and a base abandoned for strategic reasons still proves that the means of holding Jaffna are gone.
වෙන්වීමක ඇතිවිම නොවැලැක්විය හැකිය
Ivan analyses the army’s withdrawal from Elephant Pass, the gateway to the Jaffna peninsula, and argues that the capture of Jaffna without securing a land route was always a trap. With some fifty thousand troops and police now with nowhere to retreat, he expects Jaffna to fall to the LTTE, sees no hope in Norwegian-facilitated talks short of confederation, and concludes that separation is unavoidable, citing Lee Kuan Yew on Sri Lankan leaders’ failure to manage ethnic passions.