&Lsquo;If We Don&Rsquo;T Tell Our Stories, Who Will?&Rsquo; They Were Ordinary People&Mdash;Farmers, Fisherfolk, Businessmen, Pensioners, Housewives And School Children&Mdash;Until A Relentless War Machine Invaded Their Lives. These Are Their Stories&Mdash;Stories Of Intense Suffering, But Also Of Great Courage, Resilience And Dignity. Nirupama Subramanian, A Journalist Who Spent Seven Years Reporting The Vicious Face-Off Between Sri Lanka&Rsquo;S Government And The Separatist Ltte, Criss-Crossed The Towns And Villages Of A Beautiful But Ravaged Island To Uncover These &Lsquo;Little Histories&Rsquo; As She Calls Them&Mdash;Of Children Forcibly Recruited Into Tiger Training Camps; Of Parents Waiting For Mass Graves To Reveal Their Bleak Secrets; Of People Fleeing Their Homes In War Zones Only To Become Prisoners In Refugee Camps; Of The Families Of The Missing Who Still Wait And Hope; Of Women In The Maid-Trade Bonded In Virtual Slavery In Foreign Lands. Woven Into These Narratives Are The Larger Stories&Mdash;Of A President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Elected With A Massive Mandate For Peace But Trapped In A War So Intense That She Was Unable To Make Good Her Promise; And Of Tiger Supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran, Trapped Too, But In A Cage Fashioned Out Of His Own Egoism And Ruthlessness&Mdash;One He Never Dare Leave. As Sri Lanka Searches For An Elusive Peace, Read This Book To Understand The Price That Sri Lankans Have Paid For A War That Has Raged For Over Twenty Years. &Nbsp;

Have we reached an end to the era of peaceful third party intervention in conflict management and resolution? In the 1990s, with the ending of the Cold War, the intervention of third parties as a non-violent means of negotiating settlements of intra-state conflicts gained prominence but the emphasis in the twenty-first century has been increasingly on military responses. Peaceful Intervention in Intra-State Conflicts: Norwegian Involvement in the Sri Lankan Peace Process is an in-depth, impartial discussion on the background, decision making processes and procedures and related actions in the Norwegian facilitated peace process in Sri Lanka that gradually shifted towards a military solution. It provides the reader with evidence based comprehensive analysis on the attempts of peaceful third party intervention in a complex ethno-separatist intra-state conflict.

This book offers a comparative survey of 18 contemporary peace processes conducted by leading international scholars. There is no standard model of peace processes and all will vary according to the context, type of conflict, timing, national and global economic climate, and factors like natural disasters. Therefore, making comparisons between peace processes is difficult, but it is beneficial – indeed, imperative – and is the principal motivation behind this volume. What works in one context may not work in another, but it can be modified and adapted to fit another context. The book is structured to maximise comparison between processes, and the case studies chosen are topical and span the major regions of the world. The concluding chapter systematically compares the case studies around 11 variables that cover the conflict context, peace process procedures, the responsiveness of the peace process to demands, and levels of participation and inclusion. Each peace process is then given a numeric score according to each of these variables, and the book thereby reaches judgements on whether each case can be termed a ‘success’ or a ‘failure’. This book will be essential reading for students of peace studies, conflict resolution, war and conflict studies, security studies, and IR.

The definitive guide to one of the world’s most beautiful islands, with the most in-depth coverage available to the country’s superb beaches, magnificent wildlife, verdant tea plantations and majestic Buddhist remains. The guide’s wealth of practical information includes the best maps of Sri Lanka in any guide, the full rundown on getting there and around, plus meticulously researched reviews of all the very best places to stay, eat, drink and shop, in all price categories, from serene oceanside Ayurveda retreats to atmospheric colonial-era tea estate bungalows. Introductory sections on food, drink, health, cultural customs, outdoor activities and specialist tour operators will give you all the practical info you need to know to plan your visit, and there’s also extensive expert background on everything else you need to know about Sri Lanka, from the history of the ancient Buddhist kingdoms through all the lowdown on the contemporary political scene. Helpful inserts on tea, Buddhism and the island’s highlights round out the coverage, fleshed out with awe-inspiring photography.

Terror and Reconciliation explores the English language literature that has emerged from Sri Lanka’s quarter-century long ethnic conflict. It examines poetry, short fiction and novels by both diasporic writers and writers resident in Sri Lanka. Its discussion of resident Sri Lankan writers is particularly important because it calls attention to a rich and ambitious body of work that has largely been ignored in the Western academy and media until now. The book outlines the ways in which a wide range of resident and diasporic writers have sought to represent the conflict, mourn the violence and terror associated with the conflict, and present options for reconciliation in the conflict’s aftermath. The writers discussed grapple with issues of terrorism, human rights, nationalism, war, democracy, gender, ethnicity, and reconciliation, making this a study of profound interest for students and scholars of South Asian literature and culture, postcolonial studies, race and ethnic studies, women’s studies, and peace studies.

The fall of Kilinochchi, LTTE's bastion for over a decade, in January 2009 is a landmark in the military campaign by the Sri Lankan government against the rebel group. This turning point in one of the world's most brutal intra-state conflicts needs to be analysed in the wider context of the developments in the country since the initiation of a ceasefire in Decenber 2001. Ths book focuses on the political vicissitudes of Sri Lanka since the initiation of this ceasefire which sought to end the violent confrontation between the LTTE and the armed forces of the government. The main theme is the peace process of Sri Lanka and the developments associated with its collapse. The book is both a detailed documentation of events that followed the ceasefire and an exercise in synthesis and analysis. The underlying argument is that sustainable peace cannot be achieved through negotiations until the Tigers disarm and abandon terrorism. It forecasts, with guarded optimism, that the recent battlefield defeats of the LTTE could be considered the final phase of the 'Eelam War' that began twenty-five years ago.

This book offers an anthropological account of Sri Lanka’s Eelam Wars III and IV. It is based on the life-narratives of ex-servicemen who fought on the frontlines. The volume approaches militarism as a practice of masculinity. It explores the sense of embattlement that young recruits feel, which stems from the inner war between notions of bodily deference instilled in childhood and having to conduct offensives on the battlefield. Thus though they wish to move smoothly into the assault techniques learnt in combat-training, they sometimes find their bodies are acting-out a different trajectory; engaging in acts of spectacular violence or simply running away. It traverses themes such as masculinity and Sinhala society, British martial masculinity vs the composed body in Sinhala discourse, combat-training and the battlefield. The author traces the ways in which troops tried to negotiate the thin line between valour and violence in a context in which the enemy’s suicide fighters engaged in the more extreme code of sacrificing-the-body, which derided the very manliness of soldiers who couldn’t prevail against them. She argues that the Sri Lankan experience has resonance for soldiers on battlefields everywhere, who become embattled when confronted by adversaries whose practice seems to diminish their own manliness. Rich in ethnographical narratives, this book will be interest scholars and researchers of war studies, gender studies, masculinity studies, peace and conflict studies, ethnic studies, political science, international relations, sociology, social anthropology, cultural studies, and South Asian studies, especially those concerned with Sri Lanka.