Features

Remembering an April half a century ago

Published

2 years ago

2024/04/21

Rohana Wijeweera and Lionel Bopage

The month of April 1971. Fifty three years ago. Never to be forgotten by the older of us. Ceylon that year was embroiled in anarchy and the country was on the brink of being taken over by insurgents. We were still known as Ceylon then since the name change to Sri Lankan was in 1972.

1971 JVP Insurrection

I need not detail or even refer to most of what happened in 1970 and 71. ‘Kill’ was the operative word; youth to the forefront; rivers turned red with human blood; smoking tyres with bodies inside fouled the air and dread, dread an utter uncertainty prevailed. Names in the forefront on the government side were Srimavo Bandaranaike, PM; Felix Dias Bandaranaike, Minister of Justice; Sepala Attyglle, Army Commander; SA ‘Jungle’ Dissanayake, former IGP brought back as Addl. Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs and Defense. The top person in the JVP was of course Rohana Wijeweera, with Wijesena Vidanage, Somawanse Amarasinghe and a couple of others his next tier leaders.

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s ruse to transfer messages to its cadres distributed almost all over Ceylon was unique – fictitious obituary notices printed in newspapers and announced over Radio Ceylon, indicating times of meetings, more importantly attacking police stations, and which. Four missions were planned and assigned to the nationwide 5 April attack, main responsibility devolving on the Student Wing called the ‘Red Guard.’ Targets were: the Panagoda Army Cantonment, RCyAF Katunayake, abduction of the PM, capture of the city of Colombo, Welikada Prison, Radio Ceylon, Sravasti and burning of houses of govt VVIPs. Also, attack of police stations to obtain arms and ammunition.

Unfortunately for the JVP and with destiny’s blessings for the country and its people, the Wellawaya police station was attacked prematurely, the JVP leader there mixing directions. Thus began the apprehension of insurgents from all over and mass killings. The PM had to give the order – KILL – but the police rounded up innocent youth and thus the rivers red with blood and bodies strewn all over. Several countries came to Ceylon’s aid. The insurgency was crushed but damage caused was immense. The JVP was proscribed; many of its leaders apprehended until Prez JRJ in 1977 released Wijeweera from his Jaffna prison. They regrouped to rise in revolt and create worse disaster in the late 1980s.

Personal narrative

Detailed accounts of the 1971 insurgency, the JVP, the then government are available aplenty on Internet and in print form. Memories of those who lived through those years as adults are fresh still, indelibly inscribed in their minds, facts pertaining to the nation and individually to each of them,. I am haunted even now, 53 years later, by my clearly etched remembrances of the disaster faced by the nation and even more so by my personal suffering as a mother.

The Avurudhu season was beginning when the JVP were stymied in their huge undertaking of taking over the rule of the land. Stocks of essentials were low in homes and difficult to come by. Queues had to be positioned in to get the bare needs of rice, dhal, milk powder et al. My husband and I were in separate queues when our cook/ child minder came hurriedly to say our son had developed patches on his skin. He had developed a temperature the previous day and because of curfew at 3.00 pm and general uncertainty, we had seen our GP, Dr TDD Perera, who said it was flu. We hurried home to find the 11-year old with a high temperature. A fourth year medical student in the neighbourhood diagnosed it as meningitis and recommended his removal to the Lady Ridgeway Hospital. The patches were capillary bleeding. We phoned Dr Perera, who booked us a room at Sulaiman’s Nursing Home in Grandpass, promising the best medical care; which proved to be true.

And thus my staying a full three weeks from April 10 with my son in hospital with not even a visit home; completely separated from what was going on outside and barely hearing the news of the country. Dr Stella de Silva came immediately we settled the sick child in the nursing home. I must note here that I never dilly dally when illness is the issue, but in this case everything was done in double quick time which was essential and a godsend in this particular illness. He had a severe headache the first night but not one moan or groan. The deep anxiety and searing emotional suffering were soon lessened because my son responded well to treatment given. We soon settled down to hospital routines, me cut away from the unrest and urgency outside, except experiencing it with visits of doctors and husband and relatives.

Doctors

Dr Stella de Silva, that marvelous and totally dedicated pediatrician, used to visit twice at the beginning and then reduced her visits to once in the afternoon and that at around 2.15 pm. She’d make herself comfortable on my son’s bed and play soldiers with him and comment on his drawings of the day. I palpitated as the minute hand got closer to 12. I intruded by saying curfew time was drawing close. Her reply: “But I must get this child well.”

The army officers on duty were very severe in having the public observe curfew times. One story that went around was handsome neurologist specialist being challenged as he drove just after 3.00 pm. Ordered to get out of his car and raise both arms, he was asked to identify himself. He did with the answer “neurosurgeon.” Raised was the army officer’s gun to shoot because his limited English twisted the answer to insurgent. Mercifully his finger on the trigger hesitated!

A young medical officer wore miniskirts but retained dress decorum with her below the knees white coat. She was met outside the hospital minus her doctor’s coat and had trouble lifting both arms when ordered to. One was tugging down her skirt. The two soldiers desiring seeing more, shouted: both arms up.

Three women doctors were house officers at Sulaiman’s. One was Dr de Zoysa who I later came to know was Richard’s mother – that brilliant actor on stage, writer, activist and super human being who was abducted and murdered and dumped in the sea on February 18, 1990 to be lost forever. But his body washed ashore at Lunawa and thence his mother, Dr Manorani Saravanamuttu’s work with distressed women.

Manorani asked me to accompany her to visit a seriously ill patient one morning. I was naturally reluctant but she insisted. I went with her to a room and there was the bed laden with Indian saris – a magnified kaleidoscope spread out.

Another house officer, Zaiboon, was an ex-classmate of mine driving her white Benz and absolutely glamorous. She’d change her hairstyle daily. I commented. “Oh they are wigs. I lost my hair after a recent attack of typhoid.” Stunned, I was rudely brought back to the reality of life.

Much was going on outside my temporary haven, a haven now with my son much better. Could we take him home, my husband asked after 15 days. Dr Stella asked whether it was economics. No, we replied. “Why give ladders to prancing monkeys?” she asked in its Sinhala translation. We understood she meant the best for the recovered child was a longer period of convalescence within hospital discipline.

Those three weeks I thought of myself as a pebble, buffeted by worry but now assured of my son recovering and me lying quietly as the river of life beside me flowed smooth in the routine of the hospital. I hardly heard the thunder of the outside white waters as armed forces’ trucks sped around; soldiers and police swarmed all over and yet the smoking tyres, the red water of rivers, fear and searing wails of mothers losing their teenagers to a cause they could not comprehend.

1971 and 1989

The JVP reared its bloody head and rose even more viciously to drown the island in chaos, murder, torture and fear, around 18 years after its first failed insurrection. Everyone was affected. In the earlier uprising the people themselves were not involved unless of course family members were in the movement or as teenagers, caught and killed by police and armed forces.

The second uprising had hastily scribbled notes of warning sending shops and businesses closing; patients with attached tubes leaving hospitals and general mayhem. Schools and universities closed; teenagers needed protection from JVP conscription; burning and destruction all over; restrictions like no lights, no watching TV and forced entry to homes in search of guns. FEAR ruled the centre and south of the island while the north was held captive by the LTTE.

Ranjan Wijeratne was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and State Minister of Defence by President Premadasa and he, aided by commanders of the three forces and police, brought the parlous situation under control. Rohana Wijeweera was caught; he ratted on the second tier of command in the JVP; and was executed in Kanatta, Borella. The backbone of the violent JVP was broken asunder.

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Features

The hard challenge of clinching a political settlement in the Middle East

Published

22 hours ago

2026/07/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

Bruised hearts: Displaced Palestinian civilians in the Gaza.(Photo by Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Despite some sections of the Trump administration persisting with the view that the possibility could not be entirely ruled out of there being a diplomatic solution to the current US-Iran hostilities in West Asia, the skeptic could not be blamed for thinking otherwise. The intensity, scale and frequency of the tit-for-tat strikes by the antagonists over the past few days against selected military targets and civilian infrastructure in particular in West Asia make the adoption of this stance excusable.

The continuing hostilities render the mentioning of the MOU signed between the warring parties in mid-June a laughable matter. While it could very well be that the foes are wishing privately for a cessation of hostilities before long, what seems to be uppermost on their minds right now is to negotiate with each other from a position of strength. This strategy compels them to incapacitate each other militarily to the extent possible, lest they have to concede too much to each other during negotiations. Hence the stepped-up hostilities.

However, even on the question of there being a negotiated political settlement in the West Asian theatre in the longer term, the skeptic could come to be seen as scoring over the optimist. Developments on the ground account for this.

At the time of writing Israel’s Netanyahu government is going ahead in fairly care-free fashion with the establishment of more Jewish settlements in the Gaza and the West Bank, and it’s all happening under the apparently complacent gaze of the US. In fact, some quarters estimate that Israel is in control of some 65% of the Gaza Strip. Ethnic cleansing, that is, is being drastically stepped-up.

Accordingly, in terms of the power relations of West Asia, the world is almost back to the status quo of the late forties of the last century when the state of Israel was established and the Palestinians were reduced to a microscopic minority in the land they came to inhabit. Therefore, even the impartial observer would be compelled to ask: ‘Will a negotiated peace be ever possible in the Middle East?’

The humanist in the observer would prefer to answer this question in the affirmative and it is indeed the ideal stance to adopt considering the staggering human and material costs of the conflict. But the way ahead to peace could be expected to be highly hazardous and arduous. Among other odds, it would also prove an uphill endeavour to win minds and hearts.

The US’ Trump administration would need to be counted out in this pursuit. This is on account of the fact that it has been far too wayward in its management of West Asian affairs in particular over the past couple of years. Given its unpredictable character it is a matter for conjecture whether it could be counted on to live up to its commitments.

Moreover, Israel could be expected to ‘go it alone’ in the Middle East regardless of whether US help is coming or otherwise. It has indicated as much in recent times and Israel could be doubted on this score only at the doubter’s peril. Because time and again Israel has demonstrated that it could steadfastly defend its interests even single-handedly in the Middle East. History bears this out.

However, a durable alliance with the US would stand Israel in good stead. On the matter of military and intelligence assistance, for example, the US’s help proved invaluable for Israel in the past and going forward this is bound to be so as well. Moreover, it is unlikely that the Trump administration would give up on Israel, considering that a strong Israel is crucial for the furtherance of the US’ strategic and economic interests in West Asia.

But whether the above factors would have a considerable bearing on the question of working out a durable solution to the West Asian tangle is an entirely different matter. Israel, as in the case of the Palestinian enclaves, is acutely security conscious and would need to satisfy itself fully that it could live in a security environment that would guarantee its complete safety, going forward.

The Middle East is badly in need of another peace effort on the lines of the Oslo Accords of the mid-nineties that brought the key actors together and helped hammer out a solution that addressed some of their notable concerns. To be sure, that process did not prove to be the ideal answer to the tangle, but it yielded some respite to the region and drove home that one-time sworn foes could indeed negotiate with a degree of success. The West Bank authority, although falling short of fulfilling some key Palestinian aspirations, is testimony that a degree of success is possible if the intent is right.

Given the current realities of West Asia, peace-making is bound to be an uphill challenge. The violence faced in recent times by the Palestinian community, in particular, has been nothing less than mind-numbing. Merciless has been the violence visited on them by the Israeli side. In such circumstances, durable peace in the region could smack of an idealist’s dream.

Nevertheless, there needs to be urgently, a meeting of minds over the divides. The US would need to be counted out as an honest broker in bringing the sides together but the rest of the West would do well to step up to the challenge.

In this exercise the onus would be on the world’s democracies to take the initiative and doggedly stay the course. An acceptable combination would be the EU and the UN. Given their credentials, the main sides in West Asia ought to find them the least controversial.

Even if the relevant institutional and political arrangements could be shored up to take a reconciliation process forward, winning hearts and minds for the peace drive would prove a grueling challenge. Over the past few years in particular tens of thousands of hearts and minds on both sides of the divide have been bruised badly in the runaway murderous violence that has come to define the Middle East.

These badly scarred personalities would need to experience healing without much delay. It is therefore a multi-faceted challenge that is at hand. Since wide-ranging expertise would be needed in the healing process, people’s participation in peace-making, ranging over the divides, would need to be made a durable reality. It will be a time for enthroning humanity and ensuring the rejection of all forms of violence and coercion.

Features

Amazing Thailand …right here in Colombo

Published

22 hours ago

2026/07/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

For many Sri Lankans, Thailand is the go-to holiday — beaches, temples, food, and that famous warm hospitality.

In fact, I’ve been to Amazing Thailand 24 times myself, and was honoured with the Friends of Thailand International Media Award by the Tourism Authority of Thailand for promoting Thai tourism.

The good news I have for you today is that you don’t even need a passport to get a taste of Amazing Thailand.

The Royal Thai Embassy, in Colombo, is bringing a vibrant slice of Thailand, to the city of Colombo, with Thai Festival 2026 — a cultural experience like never before.

Whether you are an avid enthusiast of Thai culture, a total novice, or simply just interested in exploring foreign cultures, Thai Festival 2026 is going to be the perfect opportunity for you to get more than just a glimpse into one of the most celebrated cultural heritages in South East Asia. And ENTRANCE IS FREE.

The festival will be held on the 1st and 2nd of August, 2026, at Siam Nivasa, 43, C.W.W. Kannangara Mawatha, Colombo 7, and the East Parking Area, of the Colombo Municipal Council, from 11:00am to 5:00pm.

Both days will be full of live entertainment, and dispersed throughout with Thai cultural displays, including exhilarating traditional dance performances and breathtaking Muay Thai demonstrations.

Exploring art and craft specific to Thailand, tasting irresistible authentic Thai cuisine, and playing arcade games, are just a few more fun-filled events available for visitors at the festival premises.

An array of Thai products will also be available for purchase.

While at the festival, you will find Sri Lankan Alumni from Thai universities sharing their experiences with you and willing to answer any questions you might have, related to studying abroad in Thailand.

You can also register for the Muay Thai workshop that will be happening on the 7th and 8th of August, 2026, in Colombo.

Irresistible authentic Thai cuisine

Visitors can also stand a chance to win traditional Thai souvenirs, get exclusive photo opportunities, and, the big one — to enter the raffle draw, at the end of each day, for the grand prize of an all-inclusive round trip to Thailand.

Be sure to avail yourself of this exceptional opportunity and add a cultural spin to your weekend.

To keep up with the latest updates on Thai Festival 2026, head over to the Thai Festival official social media pages.

The Royal Thai Embassy in Colombo official webpage:

https://colombo.thaiembassy.org

Official social media:

Facebook: @RTEColombo

Instagram: @thaiembassysrilanka

Thai Festival official social media:

Facebook: Thai Festival in Colombo

Instagram: @thaifestival_colombo

TikTok: @thaifestival.incolombo

Features

Thicker, stronger hair …

Published

22 hours ago

2026/07/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

Hair fall, in this heat, can be so frustrating, and noticing a thin patch is even more worrying. The good news is … yes, with a little care and kitchen ingredients, you can nourish your scalp and support healthy regrowth.

Try these four easy home remedies … even our grandmothers trusted:

* Coconut Oil and Curry Leaves Tonic:

Warm 04 tablespoons of coconut oil, with a handful of curry leaves, till the leaves turn black. Cool, strain, and massage into scalp 02-03 times a week. Leave for 01 hour, or overnight.

Why:

Coconut oil deeply nourishes, while curry leaves help strengthen roots and add shine.

* Onion Juice for Spot Treatment:

With cotton, dab the juice of 01 small onion, directly on the thin/bald patches. Leave for 20-30 minutes, and then wash with a mild shampoo. Use twice a week.

Why:

Rich in sulfur, onion juice helps boost blood circulation to the scalp.

* Aloe Vera and Castor Oil Mask:

Mix 02 tablespoons of fresh aloe vera gel and 01 tablespoon castor oil and apply to the scalp, focusing on thinning areas. Leave for 45 minutes, and then rinse with cool water.

Why:

Aloe vera soothes the scalp, while castor oil coats hair to make it look thicker.

* Fenugreek and Curd Strengthening Pack:

You will need 02 tablespoons fenugreek seeds, soaked overnight, and 02 tablespoons plain curd.

Grind to a paste, apply to scalp for 30 minutes, and then wash.

Why:

Fenugreek strengthens strands and reduces breakage.

Extra Tips for Healthy Hair:

Avoid tight hairstyles that pull on the scalp.

Eat iron and protein rich foods: greens, dhal, eggs, fish.

Use lukewarm water, not hot.

Be gentle when brushing and drying.