I got an invitation from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics( DAMTP) last week, to participate in the 50th anniversary celebrations. My thoughts went back to the days when I was a research student at DAMTP. I joined DAMTP, at the University of Cambridge in 1967. It was a relatively new department, though many distinguished scientists were involved in creating this department.

I saw Fred Hoyle in the tea room often, though he was not a member of our department. Sciama and Doughty were much respected figures even at that time. My supervisor was P.C. Clemov, a senior member of the Plasma Physics group. Senarath de Alwis, who was the other Lankan member of the department, reminded me recently that, Stephen Hawking, the reputed physicist was a research student with us at the time. "Hawking was at DAMTP during our time. Of course he was not as disabled as he is now but you may remember him coming into the tea room on crutches" he reminded me.

The floods that affected significant swathes of the expansive Menik Farm a week ago generated interesting responses from government. One of the most revealing was the deafening silence of the usually loquacious Rajiva Wijesinha, and the lack of any statement over the flooding by the Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe.

On July 22, Mahinda Samarasinghe noted during an adjournment debate on IDPs in parliament that;

The Foreign Affairs Ministry has now been marginalized like never before due to a government that does not have a fundamentally proper foreign policy to implement and accommodating a Minister who does not command respect in the Cabinet along with a Secretary who is destructive and unfriendly towards his officers as well as to the institution which he is heading.

My family like many Sri Lankan families is cricket mad. I am the exception. When Sri Lanka played Pakistan a few days ago, my family lived and breathed cricket and it seemed like the end of the world when Sri Lanka lost. Imagine my surprise when I read the editorial of a daily newspaper that revealed that most Muslims of Sri Lanka celebrated the Pakistani win! But then again was I that surprised?

We, Muslims look like any other Sri Lankans. We speak one of the two national languages and often both. Perhaps our feast day food is different, but no different than lumprai or yellow rice. On ordinary days we eat rice and curry like anybody else. For many years we dressed the same as other Sri Lankans but now I admit that many Muslim women wear the hijab. Other than that, no-one can say who is Muslim, Buddhist,

“We used to live very close to the Madhu Shrine and we long to go and pray at the feat of Our Lady of Madhu as we used to. But we are prisoners in this camp, and not allowed to go out freely” is what a father of two children, the youngest of whom is an infant of about one month, told me, when I met the family at the Sirukkandal camp, in Mannar last week. This family is from Pandivirichan, the parish adjoining Madhu Shrine. Hundreds of Tamils, including infants, pregnant mothers are being detained in this camp, some for more than a year. Thousands more are detained in other camps situated in the Diocese of Mannar, where the Madhu Shrine is located.

“We used to live very close to the Madhu Shrine and we long to go and pray at the feat of Our Lady of Madhu as we used to. But we are prisoners in this camp, and not allowed to go out freely” is what a father of two children, the youngest of whom is an infant of about one month, told me, when I met the family at the Sirukkandal camp, in Mannar last week. This family is from Pandivirichan, the parish adjoining Madhu Shrine. Hundreds of Tamils, including infants, pregnant mothers are being detained in this camp, some for more than a year. Thousands more are detained in other camps situated in the Diocese of Mannar, where the Madhu Shrine is located.

(Dear) kind and affectionate father, mother, elder sister, brother-in-law and children. (I wish to inform you that) currently we are well. How are you keeping?
I constantly pray to God that you forever enjoy a good life.

Further, having escaped the ravages of a cruel war, and overcoming unimaginable suffering and sorrow, and having seen horrific scenes which no human being should witness, thanks to the benevolence of the Gods we had prayed to in the past, we have managed to reach this place.

When we left Vanni we only had the clothes on our backs. We lost every bit of our possessions we had collected piece-meal over the years. Everyone here is in the same plight. Presently, Vavuniya (Location) Camp.

How do you describe the current situation in the IDP camps ?

President Mahinda Rajapakse’s own advisor Vasudeva Nanayakara referred to the IDP camps as Hell. Former chief justice Sarath Silva called these camps as open prison camps. They commented in Sinhala language. I am looking for more suitable terms beyond these descriptions. It is a fact that these camps are being maintained contravening all accepted national and international laws. These camps symbols of disgrace to our national history, cultural traditions and people.

The king is found to be without clothes, once again. All Kevattayas, including Siyambalapitiya and Cabraal, were spinning fairy tales about the state of the economy, non conditional gifts that would come from the IMF and money bags given by Christmas papas from the west and east. But the truth is out. All we have to do is to look at the IMF website to see Rajano shivering in the cold without even a loin cloth, the traditional dress of the Lions - the descendants of Sinhabahu.