‘Paradise Poisoned’ interestingly carries a cover photograph of LTTE child soldiers, an issue which the international community has unsuccessfully lobbied and failed so far to elicit a positive response from, on the part of the LTTE . Recently the UN Security Council announced that it will take measures to impose strictures on organisations such as the LTTE which continues to induct child soldiers -- but the LTTE has not shown that it is undergoing any change on this score. “Protracted deadly conflict and terrorism are preventable’’ says a blurb touting Richardson’s book, but there does not yet seem to be any antidote found towards alleviating -- leave alone preventing -- such things as induction of child soldiers by the LTTE.

At the launch, a comment on the book will be made by Bradman Weerakoon, the former Secretary to the former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the latter who was accused by the present government of pandering to the Tigers on issues such as child soldiers, even though it is the ceasefire that he signed with the LTTE that is still holding. “Prevention is better than cure’’ seems to be the theme of Richardson’s book on terrorism and conflict, with Sri Lanka as the model -- but certainly as far as Sri Lanka is concerned, there is still no ‘cure’ in sight... Published: Mon Mar 21 13:19:24 EST 2005