30 September 2009

Sri Lanka May Create Bitterness by Holding Refugees, Ban Says

Sri Lanka risks creating bitterness if it fails to rapidly resettle Tamil refugees held in camps since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. Further suffering under harsh conditions in the camps may result in growing bitterness, Ban told Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake at a meeting yesterday in New York, according to the UN. A shooting at the main center in the north at the weekend, in which two children were injured, is a “sign of growing frustrations” in the camps, the UN cited Ban as saying. Sri Lanka’s military said people in the camp threw a grenade at soldiers who fired in the air to disperse an unruly crowd. President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government says the resettlement of more than 280,000 displaced people depends on ensuring security in the north and clearing mines from conflict areas. Sri Lanka earlier this month rejected an assertion by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay that the Tamils are detained under “conditions of internment.” The army defeated the last LTTE forces in a battle on the northeast coast in May that ended the group’s 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east of the South Asian island nation. While Ban acknowledged the efforts being made by the government since the conflict ended, he said Sri Lanka must win the trust and confidence of the population in the mainly Tamil north to achieve reconciliation.

Camp Unrest

The unrest at the weekend occurred at the Menik Farm camp at Vavuniya in the north. Soldiers were forced to fire in the air when people threw stones, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said two days ago. Two suspects were wounded when they tried to escape after throwing a grenade at soldiers, he said, adding they had links to Tamil Tiger terrorists. In the past two weeks, Lynn Pascoe, UN’s political chief, and Walter Kalin, the under secretary-general for human rights, visited the country to assess the needs of displaced people. Pascoe said the pace of the release of refugees is “too slow” and people are growing impatient to leave the camps. Wickremanayake told Ban, while the government is trying to meet its pledges to resettle all displaced people by January, it needs international aid, in particular for clearing mines, according to the UN. The international community should support Sri Lanka’s efforts to rebuild after its defeat of terrorism, the prime minister said in a Sept. 26 address to the UN General Assembly.

Overseas Funds

The LTTE enjoyed financial assistance from outside Sri Lanka and remnants of the group are continuing efforts to raise funds, Wickremanayake said. “Although we have been successful in defeating terrorism in Sri Lanka, we continue to urge our friends and partners in the international community to be vigilant and to continue to take action against the illegal acts of the LTTE on their soil,” he told the assembly. Sri Lanka is facing a conspiracy to devalue its defeat of the Tamil Tigers, Rajapaksa said earlier this month. Western nations should help reconstruction and stop criticizing the country over its treatment of displaced people and human rights, the president said.

EPRLF calls for Tamil coalition

The EPRLF (Pathmanabha group) an anti LTTE Tamil political party, said yesterday Tamil political parties should arrive at some consensus when it came to issues such as power devolution and the resettlement of displaced civilians.EPRLF leader R. Sritharan said it was time for Tamil political parties including the TNA and the EPDP to come under one umbrella while maintaining their individual identities.“There can be differences of opinions. But, it is advisable for us to act and work in unison when dealing with important issues such as power devolution and the resettlement of IDPs,” he said.He was responding to a request by the TNA which stressed the need for a common front of Tamil parties to resolve the national question. “I do not know what exactly the TNA meant. However, there should be a common understanding on certain issues,” he said.   However, EPDP leader and Minister Douglas Devananda said there was no need for them to talk to the TNA just yet.“When the LTTE was strong, the TNA called itself the sole representative of the Tamil people. I do not know what they say now after the elimination of the LTTE. They have a democratic right to make a request to us. In the same way, we have a right to decide whether to accept it or not,” he said.

Norway denies helping the LTTE establish links with Eritrea The Island stands by the expose

Apropos our front-page article headlined ‘Norway, Solheim helped establish LTTE-Eritrea links for arms deals’ in Monday’s issue, Norwegian Ambassador Tore Hattrem has issued the following statement: "[The article] alleges that Norway helped the LTTE to establish relations with Eritrea, which allowed LTTE to purchase arms from China. The article also claims that this was a tripartite understanding reached in Norway 2002-03, and was a conscious move on Norway’s part to strengthen the conventional fighting capability of the LTTE. Norway is also accused of promising the LTTE to develop ocean resources, both oil exploration and fisheries. Furthermore, the journalist claims that Norway has contacted the Maldivian Government in May 2007 to prevent the Maldivian Coast Guard to intercept a trawler carrying LTTE cargo.We hereby strongly refute all these accusations, as they are completely and utterly false. Norway has not established links between Eritrea and LTTE, and we have of course never in any way been involved in LTTE’s weapon procurements. Furthermore, Norway has never given promises to LTTE when it comes to utilisation of recourses in Sri Lanka. Our aim and intentions during our time as facilitator of the peace process was to act impartially in assisting both the Government and the LTTE towards reaching a negotiated political solution to the conflict. Finally, it is completely untrue that Norway contacted the Maldivian Government in 2007 about a trawler carrying LTTE cargo. We have never been in contact with the Maldives about any such issue, simply because we have never financed or been involved in LTTE’s military activity, which would have been going against all our values, as wells as Norwegian laws and regulations.We are surprised and disappointed that the Embassy was not contacted in advance before these accusations were printed. We were not given a chance to comment on the allegations, which is widely considered as normal and recognised procedure of responsible journalism."

Russian Colonel calls on Army Commander
   
Air and Naval Attaché to the Embassy of Russian Federation Colonel Vladimir K. Chernenko called on the Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya in his office at Army Headquarters Colombo, yesterday.The Russian diplomat during this first official visit to the Army Headquarters conveyed his greetings and best wishes to the Commander on his appointment as the new Commander.Lt. Gen. Jayasuriya and Colonel Chernenko exchanged views on matters of bilateral interest during the meeting and exchanged mementos towards the end of the discussion.

DMDK chief Vijaykant goes on fast for Lankan Tamils

Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam leader Vijaykant is observing a one-day token fast at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to express solidarity with the minority Tamil population in Sri Lanka Vijaykant, an actor-turned-legislator in the Tamil Nadu assembly, is known as the 'Black MGR' among his fans and followers.The DMDK leader slammed both the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam and the United Progressive Alliance government for not taking the plight of the displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka seriously. Thousands of Tamils, who fled their homes during the clashes between the Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, are still living in transit camps.Addressing his supporters in Tamil, the actor-turned-politician alleged that fishermen from Tamil Nadu were being kidnapped and killed, while they were out fishing on the high seas.If this continued, the UPA government should use its Navy to protect these fishermen, declared Vijaykant."We shall ensure that there is retaliation from Tamil Nadu," he thundered.Most of the party leaders at the meeting wore black caps as a mark of protest.Nearly 1,750 DMDK supporters attended the meeting, and several huge banners with the Black MGR's photographs were displayed at the venue. The DMDK managed to garner nine per cent of the total votes polled in Tamil Nadu in this year's Lok Sabha elections. Experts believe that the party played the 'spoiler' in the Parliamentary polls and was responsible for the defeat of Jayalalaithaa's All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam

Australia urged to pressure Sri Lanka on displaced Tamils

Four months on from the crushing defeat of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels, and nearly 300,000 people displaced in the last bitter months of the civil war are still detained in refugee camps. At the weekend, even as Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka told the UN he's making resettling the refugees a priority, government troops fired on a group of civilians trying to escape one of the camps, wounding two people. John Dowd QC is president of the International Commission of Jurists in Australia, and also heads ActionAid Australia. He has accused the Australian government of "enormous conceit" in its failure to pressure Sri Lanka into getting the civilians home.

29 September 2009

UN Chief pushes for commitment to pledges made on Lankan IDPs
   
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pushed for a commitment by the Sri Lankan government to the pledges it has made on the resettlement of the Internally Displaced People. This was conveyed by the UN chief at a meeting yesterday with a Sri Lankan delegation led by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe told reporters yesterday. Pascoe, who visited Sri Lanka recently, told reporters at the UN noon briefing in New York that the US does realize the idea of resettling all the displaced people by January next year is an “ambitious” plan but will yet continue to push for it adding that the UN will also urge transparency and accountability in the process.Pascoe said Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa were among the Sri Lankan delegation which met the UN Chief yesterday.

Muthuhettigama drops bombshell

Controversial UPFA Galle district provincial council candidate Nishantha Muthuhettigama yesterday dropped another bombshell saying he was working for the people of Galle and not for President Mahinda Rajapaksa whom he said could not act according to his own wishes but abide by party policies. “Our party has discipline. The President cannot do everything as he wishes. The UPFA Secretary tells me not to violate party discipline. I have not violated any such thing. It is he who has no discipline. I am really sad about that,” an angry Muthuhettigama said after appearing in the Galle Courts yesterday. Speaking to a group of media personnel, he said he wished to make an appeal to the President to allow him to work on the remaining 11 days before the elections for the people whom he  had served leaving aside his parents, wife and children . He vowed to do so even in the future. “I admire the President and respect him. I ask the President not to lose that respect I have for him.  I do not need Ministerial portfolios. I lost a Ministerial position last time because I was branded a Mahinda’s man,” he said. “I will accept a Ministerial portfolio only if the people bestow it on me. I serve the people with a sense of commitment. Our leaders do not know how much I have lost by way of finances running into millions of rupees in my bid to serve the people. That is not party money and not money that was robbed either. I have not robbed from Mihin Lanka nor have I earned through commissions by being in good books of the President. I have not earned by giving Quotas. All this is Nishantha’s hard earned money.” Earlier in the day, Mr. Muthuhettigama, told the Galle Magistrate that he trusted only the defence secretary and the legal system and not the police. He said he had recently received death threats from the Galle Harbour Police. When two cases (filed by the Galle Police and the Galle Harbour Police) were taken up yesterday before Galle Chief Magistrate Chamara Tennekoon, Mr. Muthuhettigama obtained special permission from Court and made this statement from the dock. Elaborating on his remarks, he said, after he was released on bail on September 18 and was on his way home, a group of men (who were not police officers but led by the OIC of the Galle Harbour Police) had assaulted him and his supporters. He said the entire attack had been recorded, and was now available on a compact disc. The complaints lodged against him at Baddegama and Udugama were false and had been withdrawn, he said. He said, although he had been ordered by Court to make a statement to the Harbour Police, he had not been able to do so due to threats he had received from them. In conclusion, the magistrate ordered the Galle Police to produce a comprehensive report on January 28, and the Harbour Police to submit their report on November 6.

40 suspected LTTE terrorists on hunger strike

40 suspected LTTE terrorists at the Anuradhapura Prison commenced a fast yesterday, calling on the authorities to file cases against them without delay or to release them immediately.They pointed out that top rung terrorist leaders like Daya Master and George Master were released on bail and wished to know why such relief was not granted to them. The fasting protestors have informed a high official at the Anuradhapura Prison of their grievances. It is learned that their petition had been forwarded, yesterday itself, to the Commissioner General of Prisons.

Troops recover UAV parts
   
MULLAITTIVU: Task Force-8 troops in Puthukkudiyiruppu made a startling discovery when they unearthed parts of an Unmanned Air Vehicle (CI 307 UAV) that had been buried by Tiger terrorists in Kappukulam before they were crushed by security forces in May. The troops located the UAV parts while conducting a search and clear operation in the area on Sunday and on digging the hiding place found a UAV engine, three sections of a UAV camera, two UAV wings, two front wheels, one small rear wheel, eight training bombs, three bombs, four bags with damaged UAV parts, one oxygen cylinder and one aircraft engine.Those spares would have been brought to the Wanni by former Tiger terrorists, mostly in parts to be used for their clandestine aerial assignments before they fled the area in the face of the advancing troops.  

28 September 2009

Post-war, India helps Sri Lanka rebuild Tamil areas    

From vocational training to mine clearing, India is providing sweeping help to Sri Lanka to rebuild vast areas after the end of a quarter-century-long Tamil separatist campaign.The process is expected to continue in the months to come.Already 2,600 tonnes of shelter material have gone to Sri Lanka, mainly to ensure that those displaced by fighting that ended in May 2009 get a roof over the head. It can also be used to refurbish damaged houses elsewhere in Sri Lanka's northeast where the military crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May, killing its entire leadership.Another equivalent amount of 2,600 tonnes of shelter material are to be sent soon.After the visit by a delegation of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) to Sri Lanka, the Railways hope to help Colombo lay at least two rail lines in the country's north.One will connect Talaimannar and the famed Madhu Church in Mannar district. Another will link Palai and Omanthai, which for long served as the de facto border between government and Tamil Tiger territory.'There could be other and bigger projects too,' a railway official told IANS only on condition of anonymity.A vocational training centre has come up at Puttalam, where thousands of Muslims settled after being driven out of Jaffna en masse by the LTTE in 1990.More vocational training centers are proposed in the region to provide young men and women skills that can fetch a decent income.India has also provided or proposes to give buses, 20,000 packs of badly needed farm equipment as well as books for schools in the north besides aid to refurbish a college and a cultural centre in Jaffna.Jaffna's Alfred Duriappah Stadium will be converted into an international sports stadium with Indian help.India is going to send more de-mining teams to help Sri Lanka remove thousands of landmines buried in Sri Lanka's north and east since the war erupted in 1983.Sri Lanka is one of the world's most heavily mined areas. There are no precise estimates regarding the number of mines the military and the LTTE buried. The mines have killed and maimed thousands.India is unhappy over the slow progress of the rehabilitation of the nearly 280,000 Tamil men, women and children kept in camps since the end of the war against the LTTE.Colombo has confined them in high-security camps saying it needed to check if they included suspected LTTE members.But as of now, registration of their names - the first step in the long path to rehabilitation - has not been completed in more than 50 percent of all cases.Under flak over the slow progress of rehabilitation, Sri Lanka has announced that the camp inmates can leave and stay with families and relatives.To thin the camps further, the government proposes to let the Tamils be with their friends if they are willing to host them.Colombo also wants to set up a system under which those in camps in Vavuniya district in the north can go during the day to work in the adjoining district of Mannar.However, two districts - Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, which is where the LTTE was mainly based - remain out of bounds for Tamils as well as Tamil MPs.This was conveyed to New Delhi by a team from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest Tamil grouping in Sri Lanka's parliament, when it visited India last week.

Sri Lanka 2010 budget may be delayed: report

The Sri Lanka government's budget for 2010 which is usually presented to parliament in November may be delayed till after elections expected in April, a media report said. The Sunday Times newspaper, reported deputy finance minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya as saying that spending permission for the first four months of 2010 will be sought from parliament through a 'vote-on-account'. The report said members of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of the ruling coalition had asked for a delay in the budget in view of elections to be held by April next year. There are expectations of a general elections and presidential elections in 2010. The submission of an annual 2010 budget is a structural benchmark under an International Monetary Fund letter of intent signed in July 2009. An IMF review is expected to present a report to the body's executive board in October following their review mission to the month, and a decision on Sri Lanka compliance expected by the second half of October. Sri Lanka is expected to sign a fresh agreement (letter of intent) with the IMF next month, hardening some of the indicative targets to performance criteria. Another IMF mission is due in November. It is not clear whether the 2010 structural benchmark for December 31, 2010 will be dropped in the new agreement. The IMF said next year's budget deficit is likely to be around 6.5 to 6.75 percent of gross domestic product when 0.5 to 0.75 northern reconstruction spend is built in. Some economists have recently expressed views that the administration, which is widely expected to sweep the polls, may adopt policies in the longer term interest of the people of Sri Lanka after the elections. In Sri Lanka short term policies that bring immediate political gains for a politically vociferous few, but damage the country and the common people in the longer term are popular with all political parties. So-called 'election budgets' usually expand spending and have minimal tax increases, resulting in money printing, high interest rates and macro-economic instability later. The leader of the opposition recently accused the government of not hiring more people into an already bloated public sector which do not pay income taxes, when state tax revenues have fallen and productive sectors are struggling. Minister Siyambalapitiya hit back saying 97,000 people have already been hired int the public sector this year.

Kouchner Milliband seek access to IDPs again

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his British counterpart David Milliband want to visit Sri Lanka again to access the situation at government-run welfare facilities for locally displaced persons in the north. Foreign Ministry sources said that a request in this regard was made when Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama met them in New York Foreign Minister Bogollagama met his French and British counterparts at the UN Headquarters in New York on Friday. The meeting was a follow up to the discussions which took place when Minister Kouchner and Foreign Secretary Milliband visited Sri Lanka in April this year at the invitation of Minister Bogollagama. The two Ministers  sought from the Sri Lankan side the progress made with regard to the conditions in the IDP welfare villages, resettlement of IDPs including clarification on whether returnees are being relocated to other closed facilities and the political agenda. 

Norwegian link in LTTE arms procurement revealed Eritreans reached understanding with LTTE in Norway

The Norwegian government had helped the LTTE to establish a relationship with Eritrea which allowed the group to purchase arms, ammunition and equipment from China on Eritrean end-user certificates-the documents needed to legally buy weapons, well informed sources said.Sources said that the tripartite understanding had been reached in Norway as far back as 2002-2003 when the Scandinavian country spearheaded negotiations aimed at ending the war in Sri Lanka. Sources said ongoing investigations had revealed that Norway facilitated the meeting between Eritrean representatives and the LTTE. Responding to The Island queries, sources said that the then Sri Lankan government had not been aware of the move to strengthen the conventional fighting capability of the LTTE. Sources added that some members of the LTTE negotiating team, too, had been involved with the Eritreans. Government sources said that the international community should investigate the Norwegian role in destabilizing a UN member state. The interrogation of Kumaran Padmanathan aka ‘KP’ captured by Sri Lanka over two months ago had confirmed the Eritrean deal. India is also seeking to interrogate ‘KP’ though New Delhi never allowed Sri Lanka access to LTTE terrorists arrested during eelam war IV. Over 90 per cent of all heavy equipment, including a range of artillery pieces and 14.5 mm four barrelled anti-aircraft guns captured by the army were of Chinese origin. Sources said ‘KP’, though unable to shed light on terrorist operations in Sri Lanka could help expose the vast international network of supporters, including the direct involvement of Norway in supporting terrorism. According to sources, the Norwegians, during bilateral talks with the LTTE had promised them to develop ocean resources. Discussions had centred on oil exploration as well as the fisheries sector, sources said adding that the far reaching Norwegian project was believed to have started as far back as the arrival of NORAD in Sri Lanka.Sources said that the LTTE had used Eritrean and also North Korean end-user-certificates to procure arms from China and smuggled in several consignments before the Sri Lanka Navy destroyed eight floating arsenals on the high seas between September 2006 and October 2007. Sources revealed that the Norwegian embassy in Colombo went to the extent of contacting the Maldivian government in May 2007 when the Maldivian Coast Guard intercepted a trawler carrying LTTE cargo. But the Norwegians failed to save Sri Krishna, belonging to Indian fishermen from destruction thereby providing SLN intelligence an opportunity to question captured LTTE cadres as well as the Indian Captain of the vessel.The then Chief Norwegian facilitator Erik Solheim had been directly involved in forming the Eritrean-LTTE relationship, sources said. An official said that the bottom line was that Norway had eyed Sri Lanka’s ocean resources and ministers, who had represented Sri Lanka in negotiations had been totally unaware of what was going on behind their backs.Sri Lanka recently decided to establish diplomatic relations with Eritrea. Although the former Navy Chief Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda revealed the LTTE relationship with an African country shortly after the killing of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon in May, in an interview with the ITN, we were the first to name the country.

Indian HC visits Menik Farm IDP centres

Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad, accompanied by a team of officers from the Indian High Commission in Colombo, visited the IDP camps in Menik Farm, Vavuniya, on Saturday. During his visit, the High Commissioner held discussions regarding the welfare of the IDPs with Vavuniya GA Mrs. Charles and Competent Authority for IDPs in the Northern Province Maj Gen Kamal Gooneratne. The High Commissioner was also briefed on the measures being taken by the Government authorities for the provision of various facilities in Menik Farm, especially to guard against possible flooding and water logging during the next monsoon. Developments regarding the IDP resettlement process to places of their native habitation were also discussed during the visit. The High Commissioner subsequently visited various zones of the Menik Farm and distributed educational kits donated by the India-Sri Lanka Foundation to nearly 100 schoolchildren. A total of 6000 such kits are being provided for the use of students studying at various schools in the camps. The High Commissioner also visited a temple in Kathirgamar Village (Zone 0) to offer prayers. He noted that India continued to remain concerned about the welfare of the IDPs in Northern Sri Lanka. He recalled that the Indian Hospital had recently left Sri Lanka after six months of service, out of which nearly four months were spent providing healthcare to over 50,000 IDPs in Menik Farm. Medicines worth nearly SLR 100 million had also been provided during this period to the Government. The High Commissioner said that, as a follow up measure, the Government of India had made a proposal to deploy an artificial limb fitment team from the famous Jaipur Foot organization of India for the treatment of those who might have lost their limbs during the conflict. The proposal was now with the the Government and India was awaiting a confirmation of the basic logistics that need to be provided for the project.

Don’t interfere: Lanka tells UN
   
Sri Lanka yesterday told the United Nations it should respect UN charter’s Article 2 (7) which states that the UN should not interfere in the internal affairs of another country.Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake in his address to the UN General Assembly asserted that multilateralism as found in the UN agenda was not about the UN responding only to the demands of a minority of powerful States, but it was also about defending the interests of the powerless majority. “It is imperative that the UN respects the prohibition specified in Article 2 (7) of the Charter, and stop interfering in the internal affairs of countries. The Charter must be our guiding principle, since it is the Charter that binds us together. Non interference in the internal affairs of states must be respected at all times,” the Sri Lankan Premier said.He said the reform of the United Nations and the UN Security Council must be given high priority and Don’t interfere,  Lanka tells UN the Sri Lankan delegation believed that the objective of the reform process should be to strengthen multilateralism and to promote greater democracy, transparency, effectiveness and accountability within a more democratic United Nations system. Premier Wickramanayake said that measures should also be taken to pursue the four pillars that were fundamental to the future as enunciated by President Obama.Sri Lanka also called for concerted and well-coordinated efforts by the international community to stop multifaceted criminal networks connected to terrorist organizations and the finalization of ongoing comprehensive negotiations of the draft convention on terrorism.Mr. Wickramanayaka also called for a revision of existing international laws pertaining to the boarding and searching of vessels in the high seas. Speaking in Sinhala in the presence of world leaders and a Sri Lankan delegation which included Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister noted that much of the funding the LTTE had received came from overseas through a complex range of criminal activities, amongst them, drug and human trafficking, arms procurement and illicit trade.  Prime Minister Wickramanayaka said significant development had taken place in Sri Lanka this past year, and that he took the floor with renewed hope and optimism for Sri Lanka.  “As terrorism was a transnational criminal network and a shared global challenge, this accomplishment not only meant peace and security for Sri Lanka but to all nations throughout the world. One of the highest priorities after the defeat of LTTE was to meet the humanitarian needs of the displaced civilians,” he said.The Prime Minister said from past mistakes and experiences, to ensure a safe and sustainable resettlement, Sri Lanka had learned that such programmes could not be rushed and that the time-consuming and meticulous process of de-mining of LTTE landmines and other explosives placed in civilian areas was under way.He said long-term peace and security would only be successful if reconciliation took place and  Sri Lanka was committed to taking all measures, according to international standards on human rights, and ensured such action was taken, and that he was pleased to note that in three months, significant progress had been made. The Prime Minister expressed disappointment at the little progress made with the implementation of resolutions regarding the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to statehood, but felt encouraged by President Obama’s remarks on the issue.  At such a critical time, he urged member states to mobilize the political will, to shed our differences and work in a spirit of cooperation, to respond effectively and swiftly to the challenges that confront us.

Ranil, Mangala: Let us get rid of brutal, corrupt Rajapaksa regime

UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, MP and SLFP dissident Mangala Samaraweera, MP yesterday said that an absolute military victory over the LTTE last May had not brought in its wake any tangible change to the long suffering people of Sri Lanka.Addressing a public gathering at the Viharamaha Devi open air theatre in support of a grand opposition alliance in the making, they said the Rajapaksas had failed to honour their pledge to revive the struggling economy and provide relief to the needy, once the armed forces brought the war to an end.The Opposition leader said that newly appointed organisers of the alliance would have to play a critical role in their campaign against the brutal Rajapaksa regime. He urged them to spearhead the polls campaign at the forthcoming parliamentary elections.Both Wickremesinghe and Samaraweera did not refer to the approaching presidential election now widely expected to be called ahead of parliamentary polls.Wickrekesinghe said that the government continued with the defence levy and recently increased the so-called Nation Building tax from 1 per cent to 3, though the war had come to an end. He that the government had urged the people to tighten their belts and stomach difficulties in support of the war effort though the Rajapaksas and their henchmen had been living in style. He accused the government of reducing special payments to the army, whereas the Rajapaksa family continued with their luxurious life style.He said that funds saved due to the war coming to an end should be spent to provide relief to all and also increase public sector salaries. He said that people could not afford even basic food items. The price of sugar, flour and dhal had sharply gone up again in the recent past, though the ruling family acted as if nothing was wrong with the economy.He challenged the government to reveal what it had done with funds obtained from foreign sources at high interest rates. He said that the government had been forced to obtain US$ 2.6 billion from the IMF to meet financial commitments caused by previous loans. A smiling Wickremesinghe asked whether funds obtained by Sri Lanka had disappeared while the President was listening to bana at Temple Trees. He said that the likes of junior Finance Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya could not respond to serious allegations levelled against the government in Parliament. Siyambalapitiya was nothing but a yes man, whose job was to please the President.He said that the Deniyaya police had arrested three journalists of Lanka to prevent revelation of another luxury mansion that was being built for the Rajapaksas. Referring to President’s Houses in several parts of the country and one or two new ones being built or in the pipeline, the UNP leader said that the ordinary people could not even afford to build a hut.Reiterating the allegation that there was a move to sell some of the gold belonging to the Sri Lankan government, he demanded the government to reveal the amount of gold seized from the LTTE. He said that several ministers and the Governor of the Central Bank, who initially disputed his claim had now stopped talking on the issue. “I want to know why they are silent,” he asked.Referring to massive waste, corruption and irregularities in the private sector as well as Parliament, Wickremesinghe said that an employee of the House had been detained by the police, alleging he stole three rolls. “See the absurdity of the situation. Here, a man is in police custody for taking three rolls because he was either hungry or wanted to share them with his family, whereas those who squander public money go Scot free,” he said. He also referred to the food waste in the House also highlighted by the Auditor General on several occasions.He challenged the government to reveal the names of Sri Lankans who had invested in Franklin Templeton Investments. He said that immense pressure had been brought on the media not to report on shady deals. Referring to the abduction and attack on Poddala Jayantha, he said that the government had now taken the job of shaving the beards of its critics. The plight of the press, he said, was very much similar to that of the internally displaced persons, now forcibly held at military-run camps in the north. Wickremesinghe said that the government was scared to face a parliamentary debate over what he called Templeton Investments for obvious reasons. He ridiculed Ranjith Siyambalapitiya for promising a debate after elections for the Southern Provincial Council on October 10.

LTTE para lights recovered from a well in Nittambuwa
   
Two para lights, which were believed to have been used by the LTTE, were found hidden in a well in Kalagedihena, Nittambuwa this morning, police spokesman Senior DIG Nimal Mediwaka said. The police spokesman said that the type of para lights recovered are typically used as a flare to signal when the enemy was approachingso it could safely be assumed that it belonged to the LTTE.  He said para lights had been found by a group of people who had been cleaning out an abandoned well in the area. Investigations are underway.

Second police station opened in former LTTE controlled Wanni 
   
IGP Jayantha Wickremaratne, on Sunday, opened a police station in Kanagarayankulam on the Jaffna-Kandy (A9) highway. This is the second opened in the formerly LTTE controlled area.Security sources said several LTTE administrative and intelligence offices had functioned In Kanagarayankulam during the period that the LTTE controlled the area. Kanagarayankulam comprises a divisional Secretariat and 5 Grama Sevaka Divisions. The first Police Station on the A9 highway was opened, by the IGP, at Puliyankulam. In addition to the second police station, the IGP had also opened a temporary Mankulam Police Superintendent’s office in Kanagarayankulam.The establishment of police stations and police check points should precede the resettlement of war refugees (under the patronage of Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa), which is progressing rapidly, said the IGP. Recruitments to the police service were now being perused without ethnic discrimination, the IGP added.Senior DIG Gamini Navaratne, Senior DIG Nimal Lewke, DIG Ravi Wijegunawardena, Brigadier Napagoda and several officers of the security forces participated at the ceremony.

Alok Prasad appointed as Deputy Nation Defense Advisor to India

Indian High Commissioner for Sri Lanka Alok Prasad had been appointed as the National Deputy Defense Advisor for India. According to this appointment he would be the main responsible officer to the Indian Nation Defense Assembly is according to information. It is pointed out the Nation Defense Advisor and Deputy Advisor positions are important posts in the Indian Central government.

27 September 2009

CM promises citizenship to all Sri Lankan refugees in TN

In a significant decision, the Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, on Saturday said he would take steps to ensure that the Centre  granted citizenship to the more than one lakh Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in the state if they desired so. He made the announcement at a function bringing down the curtains on the year-long centenary celebrations of C N Annadurai in Kancheepuram, the DMK founder’s birthplace. Earlier, the DMK passed a resolution requesting the party chief to take steps to ensure that the Tamil refugees in the state were given the option of citizenship under the Indian Citizenship Act. As many as 73,572 refugees have been staying in 115 camps across Tamil Nadu and more than 30,000 reside outside the camps in different parts of the state. Following the end of the Eelam war and defeat of the LTTE, there has been much apprehension among the refugees that they would be sent back home against their wish. The announcement comes as a relief, representatives of Tamil groups said.

Sri Lanka vows a new to resettle displaced Tamils quickly
        
Sri Lanka's prime minister vowed anew here Saturday that Colombo would quickly resettle civilians still in state-run camps after being displaced by the government rout of Tamil separatists.Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka told the UN General Assembly that a key priority for his government was to meet the immediate humanitarian needs of the roughly 290,000 Tamil civilians who "were liberated from the decades-long hold" of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).He said the resettlement would be carried out in cooperation with international partners.He however warned that "the stability and security that we have restored at great human cost cannot and must not be compromised, particularly when a large number of self-confessed ex-LTTE cadres continue to mix with the IDPs (internally displaced persons)."Sri Lankan government troops in April finally crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels who had been waging a guerrilla war for a separate homeland since 1972.Wickramanayaka said Colombo was "committed to complying with its international obligations" in the area of human rights and humanitarian standards and would push through "further domestic measures aimed at reconciliation and in the light of lessons learnt."Earlier this month, Lynn Pascoe, UN chief Ban Ki-moon's top political advisor, expressed concern during a visit to Sri Lanka over the prolonged detention of the civilians and urged Colombo to probe rights abuses during the final stages of the civil war.He complained that Sri Lankan authorities were not making sufficient progress in implementing a deal reached in May by Colombo and Ban to resettle the displaced civilians within six months.The Colombo government says the civilians cannot be allowed freedom of movement until the authorities screen them for remaining Tamil rebels.In his address, Wickramanayaka also urged the international community to crack down on "the so-called overseas representatives of the LTTE and their front organizations" who procured "funds and arms through a complex range of criminal activities," including terrorist financing, money laundering, drug and human trafficking."Although we have been successful in defeating terrorism in Sri Lanka, we continue to urge our friends and partners in the international community to be vigilant and to continue to take action against the illegal acts of the LTTE on their soil," he noted.

Menik Farm shooting: 3 wounded
 
At least three people, including an eight-year-old child, were wounded when soldiers opened fire at a group of internally displaced people who tried to escape from the Menik Farm at Chettikulam last night, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said. He said the soldiers were forced to open fire when the IDPs pelted stones. He also claimed that one of them tried to lob a grenade. The wounded were admitted to hospital. However, TNA parliamentarian Shivashakthi Anandan claimed that the IDPs were moving from one zone to another to collect firewood as they had to cook their own meals after the authorities stopped supplying cooked meals.Earlier this week IDPs in Vavuniya protested after soldiers assaulted a youth who sneaked out of the camp.

No-confidence motion against Hisbullah tomorrow

Reacting to allegations made against him and the no-confidence motion mooted against him by the UNP being taken up tomorrow, Eastern Province Health Minister M.L.M Hisbullah says the claims are unfounded and created with the intention of defaming him. “The allegations are baseless and I have the evidence to prove that I did not tamper with the appointments of the volunteers for the health service from the Eastern Province,” he said. “The appointments were decided and made in the year 2005, at a time when none of us were present at the Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) – it wasn’t implemented until later this year.” Minister Hisbullah said that ministers, including him, follow the Governor’s directives and those included the appointments as well. “These appointments were directives by the honourable Governor,” he said. “It was to be made in 2005, when the people first applied. Those seeking jobs registered themselves as volunteers; I had no hand in it.” He cited that an order was brought on by the Ministry of Finance requesting that all appointments in all provincial councils be halted. “We followed their request, but since it has been years since people applied, I tried to rally for this issue and sent several letters requesting whether the Eastern Province could proceed with the appointments,” he added. Minister Hisbullah’s calls were answered when the Treasury and the Finance Commission gave him permission to proceed with the appointments two months ago. “We were following the same list that was there in 2005,” he said. “But when we tried to make the appointments, the honourable Governor stopped it and asked us to provide him with extra information.” According to him, the Governor then referred details pertaining to the appointments to the Public Service Commission for approval – which is where he says the issue arose. “The Public Service Commission said that there needs to be a criteria for appointment and issued a gazette notification which dictated that applicants need to have at least an O/level result with six passes and two credits in one sitting,” he said. “But the notification did not emphasise if this was to apply for the volunteers also, for which we are still waiting for a clarification on.” The Minister added that all dealing with regards to the appointment have been through referrals by the governor and had been conducted in full transparency. “These allegations are politically motivated to defame me,” he said. “They are complete lies and I have the full support of my ministers including Chief Minister Pillaiyan on my side.” When asked if Minister Hisbullah will chose to defend himself tomorrow (28) when the no-confidence motion is said to be brought up he added that he had important events to attend to on that day and will prove his point when the matter arises.

SriLankan airlines crashes

An internationally reputed Audit firm, Ernst Young has shown in their audit report, (page 31 of the Final Accounts) how a profit of Rs.4, 420 million in 2008 has now turned to a Rs.9305 million loss for this year, for SriLankan airlines. Accumulated loss of the national airline, stands at of Rs.18.06 million from an accumulated profit of Rs.9,288 million in 2008, an audit report has revealed. This is entirely due to mismanagement in the current year, and the airline is now so precariously placed, only one alternative remains -- closure.A carried forward loss has been posted for the first time in ten years, according to the report.The company’s current liabilities are Rs.25,012 million and the current assets are Rs.16,852 million, resulting in liabilities exceeding assets by Rs.8160 million, which shows the precariousness of the financial situation of the airline. This kind of revenue picture points towards only one outcome —- the airline will very probably have to close down.The total assets have reduced from Rs.47,942 million in 2008 to Rs.34,341 million —— resulting in a loss of total assets by Rs.13,599 million, even after revaluation of certain capital items.One of the most alarming factors is that the total equity of the Company as per the Balance Sheet has deteriorated to Rs.6, 230 million from Rs.15,336 in 2008.There is a contingent liability of Rs.431.6 million for the hedging contract for oil which has not been taken into account for this year, the report says.A fixed deposit of Rs.6856 million has dissipated during the year, giving rise to the fear that the 12 aircraft that are on operating lease may embarrassingly be seized due to breach of contract —— whereby the Sri Lankan Limited., needs to maintain a minimum cash in hand for the operative lease to be in force.When UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera and UNP MP Ravi Karunanayke attempted to question the government about the sorry situation of the airline, the government did not allow questions on various pretexts.In the presentation of the final accounts, the Chairman and the CEO have made many fanciful statements that the Airlines is moving towards planet friendly flights, using the Motto “Earn, more, spend less and waste not”Repeated attempts to contact Sri Lankan officials and Aviation Minister Chamal Rajapaksa failed.

German Police bars massive pro-ltte demos in Berlin

A major demonstration organised by pro LTTE elements in Germany is to be held in front of the state Parliament in Düsseldorf, the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) today, as the country holds its 17th federal election to elect the members of the Bundestag, the federal parliament has been cancelled at the last moment by police.However, the planned demonstration will take place within the course of next week and another three day mega demonstration is planned to take place in Berlin organised by the recently formed Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS) from October 2. It was the JDS that provided the controversial video claiming to show Sri Lankan soldiers executing unarmed individuals first telecast by British Channel 4. According to sources in Germany, a group called “Lambbency Council of the Tamil People” also known as Tamil Makkal Elutchi Kulu is behind this demonstration which is expected to be attended by the LTTE de facto leader Rudrakumar, pro-LTTE south Indian filmmaker Seeman and several TNA members. According to them, propaganda placards have been distributed urging Tamil Diaspora in Germany to attend the event. “Those placards with the key slogan ‘We smash the blockade!’ calls on the Diaspora that it is up to them to gather together to save the lives of their brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka. These placards, mostly in Tamil, also say that they must unite in order to present the suffering and misery in the camps, to the outside world to the full extent.The exiled community and members of the TNA will meet at this event, to make this event a success,” sources from Germany alleged. They also said that there was a special note in the placards urging people to go early to cast the ballot or use postal vote as federal elections are being held on the same day.“The federal state of NRW has the highest population in Germany and also accounts for the largest Tamil Diaspora community. These Tamils are either allies or members of the alternative Green Party, which is sympathetic towards minorities. Almost half of the first generation Tamil people in Germany have taken the citizenship and the second generation known as the so-called German Tamils. The number is big and also increasing rapidly,” sources said while noting that this group has selected today for the demonstration as all the politicians are expected to gather at the state Parliament.

Elite Tigers received Ukrainian expertise to boosat fighting skills

The military said that the LTTE had received expertise of Ukrainian specialists to strengthen the Sea Tigers, particularly in underwater fighting skills. Well informed sources told The Sunday Island that foreign specialists had shared their experience with elite LTTE cadres shortly after the signing of the CFA brokered by Norway in February, 2002. The Ukrainian group had visited the Vanni during the 2002-2003 period, sources said adding Kumaran Padmanathan aka ‘KP’ was widely believed to be involved in arranging the programme.The navy said that the LTTE had planned to cripple their operations with the help of foreign advisors and newly introduced tactics. The LTTE had deployed their special units after the outbreak of large scale hostilities in the East but failed to bring the navy down to its knees.Had they succeeded, the navy would not have been able to maintain regular supplies to the Jaffna peninsula as well as deny freedom of movement of vessels bringing in supplies to LTTE strongholds north of Mannar and Mullaitivu.Sources said that the LTTE had also brought in a range of equipment, including some of East European origin to equip special units tasked with crippling the navy. Responding to our queries, intelligence sources said that among the items, which had been recovered on the Vanni front by the army was close-circuit diving equipment. Sources said that the LTTE had invested an enormous amount of money on obtain services of foreign advisors and procure equipment.The military said that during the short-lived UNP-LTTE honeymoon, the government had allowed foreigners unhindered access to the LTTE-held territory. Sources said that the LTTE had exploited the lethargic attitude on the part of the then government to bring in foreign advisors.We recently revealed (September 4, 2009) how a group of Japanese experts, who had arrived in the Vanni after the tsunami, helped the LTTE to launch a special project to launch submersibles. Sources said this transpired during interrogation of an important LTTE cadre now in custody. The Sunday Island learns that the Japanese embassy has raised this with the Sri Lankan government. Although, the embassy had not been aware of clandestine links between Japanese nationals and the LTTE, had they bothered to check on persons who had visited the Vanni after the tsunami in December 2004 culprits could be identified, sources said.Authoritative sources said that the Norwegians could not have been unaware of the Ukrainian and Japanese projects aimed at boosting Sea Tiger capability. A senior official said that isolating Jaffna could not have been achieved without crippling Trincomalee-KKS sea supply route. In the absence of an overland supply route since June 1990 and inadequate aircraft to maintain an ‘air bridge’, Trincomalee-KKS route had been the lifeline for over the forces deployed in the peninsula.

New name for JOH
 
The Joint Operations Headquarters (JOH) which was the unified apparatus of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Police will cease to exist by that name.The Government has re-named the body as the Office of the Chief of Defence Staff or OCDS.General Sarath Fonseka functions as the Chief of Defence Staff. The re-designation of the apex security organisation came as security establishments in the country were grouped into six different zonal units. They are Security Forces Headquarters in Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Wanni, East and South.The Security Forces Headquarters, South is the successor to the former 11 Division of the Army.

Foreign nationals trapped in IDP camps

Government statistics have revealed that 12 foreign nationals are still trapped amongst thousands of war displaced in IDP camps in Vavuniya.These foreign nationals of Tamil origin have been trapped in the IDP camps since the end of the war in May this year.A senior government official told The Sunday Leader that the foreign nationals included one British citizen, three Australians, one German, three Dutch, two Indians, one Canadian and one Norwegian.The official also said that representatives from the respective foreign missions in Colombo are in discussion with the Foreign Ministry officials, who in turn would take the matter up with the Defence Ministry, to secure the release of these foreign nationals.“These foreign nationals will be released when the Defence Ministry approves it after the screening process is concluded,” the official said.The issue of foreign nationals trapped in IDP camps in Vavuniya came to light in June this year and the government at the time said that the judicial process was on track with regard to these foreign nationals and that they would be released after being screened for links with the LTTE.Spokesperson for the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo, Rannveig Skoftland told The Sunday Leader that the embassy was trying to secure the release of the Norwegian national in the IDP camp acording to the laws of the Vienna Convention.She added that the embassy has been denied access to meet with the individual by the government.“We have requested the government of Sri Lanka to grant us access to meet the Norwegian nationals,” Skoftland said.Meanwhile, British citizen Damilvany Gnanakumar, who was recently released from the IDP camps in Vavuniya, released damning details about the plight of the IDPs and the camps to the media back in the UK.When asked if the government was apprehensive about releasing the other foreign nationals in the IDP camps following Gnanakumar’s actions, the official said Gnanakumar’s case was a unique one and that the others in the camps were not of that calibre.

Over 6,500 applications for PCs in North

An overwhelming response with 6,500 applications to recruit police constables in the North has been received in Jaffna, according to the Superintendent of police Jaffna, G. H. Marapana. According to Jaffna SP Marapana, applicants were called for interviews to recruit 500 police constables in the North on September 19. The response was overwhelming and there were over 6,500 applicants including 400 women. “The interviews for the police constables in the North will be held tomorrow and on Tuesday in Jaffna, Tellipalai, Kayts, Chavakachcheri and the Point Pedro police stations. DIG Recruitment Pinidiya, and Director Superintendent of Police Jayakody along with senior police and Government officials in Jaffna will conduct the recruitment test”, Marapana said. This is the first time in three decades that recruitment for the police force in Jaffna will be conducted. At the next stage applications will be called for sub inspectors as well, according to Jaffna SP Marapana.

26 September 2009

Hillary-Krishna discuss issue of displaced people in Sri Lanka  
   
US secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Indian Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna discussed touched on the situation in Sri Lanka during talks in New York where both agreed on the importance of resettling the almost 300,000 internally displaced people who remain in the camps, and resettling them as quickly as possible, US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert Blake told reporters in the US.The senior US official said that discussion between Krishna and Clinton also included cooperation between India and the US on higher education, referring to Indian Lok Sabha bill that will enable more foreign participation in the higher education sector."There are a number of American universities who are very eager to do more. So we’re very excited about that as well," he said. During the meeting, Clinton also briefed Krishna on the latest development on the Iran front and the stand taken up by the US along with Britain and France on Thursday morning an hour before the start of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh.

Indian delegation calls on Navy Commander 

A delegation from the Indian National Defence College 49th Course headed by its Senior Directing Staff Air Vice Marshall S.S.K. Karmakar called on the Sri Lanka Navy Commander Vice Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe at the Naval Headquarters in Colombo on Thursday. The delegation consisted of 10 Indian military officers (07 Brigadiers, 01 Commodore, 02 Air Commodores), 03 senior Indian Government officials, 01 Brigadier from the Nepalese Army and 01 Colonel each from the Kazakhastan Army, Afghan National Army and Myanmar Army respectively. The Commander of the Navy joined the visiting delegation for an interactive session held at the NHQ conference room where many senior Naval officers of the NHQ were also present. Later, the Commander of the Navy hosted the Indian delegation for lunch at the Western Naval Command Wardroom at SLNS Rangalla. The Indian National Defence College is a pioneer institution inaugurated in 1960 by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, for providing instructions to senior service and civil officers in wider aspects of higher direction and strategy of warfare. Today, NDC continues to provide future decision-makers with the necessary skills and background for filling senior positions in national security and associated fields. Senior Sri Lankan Security Force.

India awaits clearance from Lanka to probe KP
   
The Rajiv Gandhi assassination case is back under the spotlight. The Multi-disciplinary Monitoring Agency constituted in 1998 to probe the conspiracy angle in the case, and which got a fresh lease of life with the nabbing of Selvarasa Pathmanathan or KP by the Sri Lankan government recently is all set to despatch a team to Colombo to question the former chief arms procurer of LTTE, who tried to lead the remnants after the outfit's fall in May. A team will go to Colombo to question KP once we get the political clearance from Sri Lanka, said BN Misra, chief investigating officer of the MDMA based in Delhi. The earlier plan was to send a questionnaire to Lankan security agencies. But with growing concerns in India about possible threat perceptions from the rump of the LTTE and KPs role in it, India decided to send a team of top CBI and intelligence officials for deeper interrogation. On September 22, the top brass of the CBI and intelligence agencies met in New Delhi for a brain-storming session and to prepare the line of questioning. The team, besides interrogating KP on his role in Rajiv assassination and his possible involvement in the conspiracy, will also probe his links with foreign arms dealers. KP is a prime accused in the Tongnova case in which 14 have been accused. While 13 were tried and acquitted by courts in Chennai, KP remains an absconding accused, said Misra. In the November 1991 case, an LTTE-owned freighter, Tongnova, was intercepted in high seas and caught by the Indian Navy off the Karaikal coast.

US donates computers to start Jaffna training centre

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) provided computers to help establish a computer training centre and provide job skills training to youth in Jaffna. USAID, provided computers to the All Ceylon Hindu Congress Research and Study Centre in Jaffna to establish a computer training facility. The All Ceylon Hindu Congress is a training partner of the Unlimited Potential Partnership program (UPP), a project funded by USAID, Microsoft and Infoshare. With these new resources, the Centre will train disadvantaged and internally displaced students from Jaffna and the surrounding rural area in Information Technology (IT) skills, which are needed to increase their job opportunities, especially in media and tourism. Rebecca Cohn, USAID Mission Director stated, "USAID is pleased to support the new IT training centre in Jaffna, which will serve hundreds of young people, who are eager to develop better job skills. USAID remains committed to rebuilding conflict-affected communities and helping the youth in the North and the East to prepare for better jobs in the future." UPP provides IT training across Sri Lanka to support work force development in tourism, apparel industry, media, and agriculture sectors. This project partners with government and private training institutes to teach basic IT skills to over 11,250 youth from across the country by 2010. The Jaffna project will focus on training for the tourism and media sectors, where employment opportunities are most promising. UPP curricula will be used at the Centre, in partnership with the All Ceylon Hindu Congress.

Camp people are transferred to camps. Tamil National Alliance (TELO,TULF,EPRLF and ACTC)

Tamil National Alliance Parliament Member K.Sambanthan informed camp people without sending back to other camps, should be sent to their native places. 30,000 thousand to 35,000 thousand displaced people from the Vavuniya camps are transferred and detained in the camps located in Trincomalee and Jaffna district was mentioned by him. He gave an interview to the “Asian Tribune” website, stating this not the actual justice given to the displaced people in Sri Lanka. At the same time, he said “ It is much welcoming that about 2000 and more displaced people are handed over to the relations” . Sambanthan said he is much heart broken the assurance given by President at the meeting with the Tamil National Alliance members regarding the expediting the rehabilitation, is now has come to a standstill. He said regarding this issue, he would once again have discussion with President’s Senior Advisor Basil Rajapakse, and decided to meet President. But the dates for the meetings are not still decided was mentioned by Sambanthan.

CID investigating Daya Master’s and George’s activities

The CID filing a report before the Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi yesterday informed court that they were carrying out investigations to ascertain whether the LTTE suspects Daya Master and George had been involved in any provocative activities against the  government.When the matter was taken up for magisterial inquiry, the suspects Velayudhan Dayanithi alias Daya Master and Kumaran Pancharatnam alias George were present in court.Counsel Thilak Wijesinghe, appearing for the suspects, informed court that S. Ariyaratnam the surety for Daya Master would withdraw from being surety for Daya Master.  He said she suspect’s sister would stand surety for him instead.  He also submitted that  George’s surety would not be changed.Inspector Ranjan of the CID, filing the report in court,  submitted that the department was   questioning the LTTE suspects in the  IDP camps to find out whether the two suspects had incited the displaced people against the government or had intentionally concealed revolutionary activities of the LTTE. He moved for a further date to file his report on the investigations.Accordingly the Magistrate ordered the CID to file the report in court on October 30 and postponed further inquiry for that date.The CID investigations were initiated  to find out  whether the two suspects Daya Master and George had been  involved any activities to provoke the public against the government or had been intentionally secreted any  rebellious activities of the LTTE without disclosing to the forces  in accordance with Sections 120 and 199 of the  Penal Code.The two were arrested when they were  taking  asylum in IDP camps in the government controlled areas during the humanitarian  operations carried out by the forces in the North,. Later they were held in detention for four months and released on Rs  2.5 million personal bail. They were to be charged under the general law if their involvements transpire d for the offences.

BASL says criticism of Tissainayagam judgement unwarranted

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, said on Thudsday that criticism of the judgement in the Tissainayagam case, by sections of the local and foreign public was unwarranted. "Mr Tissainayagam was convicted by a court of law and has a right of appeal. The superior courts can and will reverse the verdict/sentence, in the event of an error of law. Whilst people have the right to constructively analyse judgements, the comments made do not amount to this. Thus such comments are unjustified and would prejudice the proper administration of law."The BASL, said that it was strongly committed to the Rule of Law and independence of the judiciary, but condemns statements which tend to undermine either of the aforesaid.

Interviews for police recruitment in Jaffna today 
   
Interviews to recruit Police Constables (PC), Women Police Constables (WPC) and Police Constable Drivers (PCD) to Police force in Jaffna are to be conducted today at several venues in Jaffna. The preliminary interview will be held in Jaffna, Kayts, Telippalai, Chavakachcheri and Point Pedro, Police Spokesman Senior DIG Nimal Mediwake announced. Short listed candidates are to face a second interview to be held on September 29 and 30 at the Jaffna police station. Those selected will be subjected to a medical examination.

Toronto Eelam  By: Dave Besseling

With the largest numbers of Sri Lankan Tamils outside the island, dreams of a separate Tamil homeland are still nurtured in Canada.In Toronto’s east end, Scarborough, what some call the ‘real capital of Eelam’, a few expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils continue to attach LTTE flags to their cars as others would a local ice-hockey team’s pennant. The LTTE was listed as a terrorist organisation in Canada in 2006, but flying its flag is not considered a criminal offence. “There is a fundamental difference between expressing freedom of speech under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and participating in, facilitating or providing material support to a terrorist group,” says Canada’s Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism  Minister, Jason Kenny.The last Tamil organisation in Canada to cross that line was the World Tamil Movement (WTM). Shortly after the 2006 designation by the Canadian government, the WTM was shut down for acting as an LTTE front. Tiger supporters made the news again in early 2007, this time for coercive fundraising in Toronto’s Tamil community during local events, notably at a music concert, as documented by Human Rights Watch (HRW). And as the WTM has disappeared from public view, HRW communications associate Brian Griffey confirms that his organisation’s members “haven’t received any recent report of extortion in the diaspora.” If the LTTE was still canvassing for support in Toronto, it had since gone underground – its flags, still seen often enough around the city, no more politically poignant than a Che Guevara t-shirt. Until this spring, that is. During the last phase of war in Sri Lanka in May, Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) spokesman David Poopalapillai became the most outspoken Tamil leader in Canada, commenting on behalf of the diaspora to just about every newspaper and TV station about Tamil self-determination. He accused the Mahinda Rajapakse government in Sri Lanka of “genocide”, as military forces closed in on the last Tiger holdouts in Mullaitivu, where many civilians were caught in the crossfire.‘Genocide’ was also on the lips of thousands when, according to the CTC, over ten youth groups of mostly Canadian-born Tamils merged and initiated the event that was eventually to spur Torontonians to re-examine the social boundaries of one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway is the lakeside artery that pumps rush-hour traffic from the city’s heart to its suburban capillaries. But on 10 May, it was not cars that caused jams, but thousands of protesters attempting to drive home the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils then trapped in the Sri Lankan northeast corner. What the news helicopters over the expressway witnessed was a sea of red flags – the fire engine red ensign of the LTTE held by many cross-stem with that of the Canadian Maple Leaf.  The impromptu act of dissent was the culmination of months spent demanding the Canadian government acknowledge the humanitarian crisis in the northeast of Sri Lanka. There had been a number of public rallies – sit-ins, stand-ins, human chains, marches – since January, and participating Tamil-Canadians saw Stephen Harper’s government’s silence as a deep affront. It would take something truly defiant, and also dangerous, for their adopted country’s government to address the horrors their families and fellow Tamils were experiencing in their cultural homeland.

200,000 and anxious

The Canadian diaspora is an integral ramification of LTTE activities over the past three decades. Prabhakaran and his army would settle for nothing less than an independent Tamil state in the northeast; their ambush of 13 government soldiers in 1983 not only started the ‘First Eelam War’, but also created a backlash of several hundred Tamil deaths. This also led to an exodus of several hundred thousand. Canada was granting refugee status to fleeing Tamils and other Sri Lankans as quickly as the LTTE soldiers were reloading clips.Consequently, Toronto today has the largest number of Tamils outside of Sri Lanka. With so many families directly affected by the May standoff, and finding themselves so far away and unable to help, simmering emotions had begun to boil over by 10 May. Protest rallies may be legal in Canada, but when the thousands-strong mass of demonstrators that day marched up the ramps of the Gardiner Expressway, blocking one of Toronto’s main highways for over three hours, typically mild-mannered Canadians were outraged. The traffic blockage was the indication of as an unspoken boundary having been overstepped. The CTC continued its role as the community organiser during the protests, working directly with the police to put an end to the disruption. Some took this to be actually a sign of complicity with militant elements, pigeonholing the CTC as being pro-Tiger. Last year, Poopalapillai was accused during a local television debate by Sri Lankan Consul General Bandula Jayasekera of sending money to the LTTE, allegedly for weapons purchases. The group itself claims a far more nuanced stance. “We don’t condone what happened on the Gardiner,” says CTC’s media coordinator, Manjula Selvarajah. “We are a voice of advocacy for all Canadian Tamils. Some support the Tigers, some not.”  She says the CTC’s main focus is the fact that “Tamils in Sri Lanka live as second class citizens…and they have the right to some kind of political power.” Selvarajah, along with countless other Tamil-Canadians, say that today they do not see the defeat of the LTTE as the death of Tamil Eelam – merely the death of the Tigers’ version of it. Yet has the LTTE really been extinguished? If Palitha Kohona, permanent secretary with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to be believed during his early-July interview with Himal, the group has had it. But with his admission that anywhere from USD 1 to 5 billion remains in Tiger bank accounts around the world, it is hard to believe so much cash will lie unused, anymore than the resentments that the nearly three-decade civil war has left behind. Toronto, meanwhile, was a major source of that funding. Before the April 2006 raid on the Toronto and Montréal offices of the WTM by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canadian officials estimated that anywhere from USD 9 to 11 million was making its way into Tiger hands from Toronto alone. It stands to reason, then, that embers could be hotter in Toronto than in many other parts of the world.An accurate tally of today’s Tamil-Canadian population is difficult. The 2006 census organised by Statistics Canada – the official government numbers department – sets it around 29,500. Yet in independent academic results, such as a survey by the University of Toronto, the total comes to roughly 200,000. Either way, most of these would appear to live in the Greater Toronto Area. The discrepancy, meanwhile, can be explained by the fact that studies such as the latter take into account illegal migrants or LTTE supporters, who, as Tamil Eelam Society of Canada (TESOC Multicultural Settlement Services) founder Sri-Guggan Sri Skanda Rajah says, “of course will not appear before the census enumerators to be counted.” If the figure of 200,000 Tamils living in Canada can be agreed upon, with some 89 percent in and around the Ontario provincial capital, this means that about the same number of Tamils currently living in Canada are being held in ‘internment’ camps in and around Vavuniya. And indeed, it was these displaced and not the LTTE, which ultimately sparked most of the rage on 10 May. The media debates following the protests were about the boundaries of public protest space, the police force’s reticence to make arrests for fear of ‘racist’ accusations, immigrant assimilation versus integration, and the protesters’ failure to respect ‘Canadian’ values – not to discount the ire of the Tamil-Canadians who wholly condemned the disruptive march onto the Gardiner. All that aside, the gamble paid off. Shortly after the protests came the first few million dollars of aid. First three, then five, and now Canada has pledged nearly USD 22 million in aid, seeking relief through UN-run initiatives and NGO support for the displaced. But spurring the Canadian government to act was only half the battle, and the complete victory sought by the demonstrations is still elusive. Until now, the situation of countless family members of Tamil-Canadians being held in the camps, along with four unnamed Canadian citizens, remains largely unknown. The vetting being conducted by the Colombo authorities has meant that very few outsiders have had access to the camps, rendering the Canadian government’s promise of accelerated refugee immigration to Canada ineffectual. “The possibility of a [Canadian] visa officer entering the camps is zero,” says Sri Skanda Rajah.

Their fight

At the same time, a move within the Canadian government to curb the number of Mexican asylum seekers may be affecting potential Sri Lankan refugees. Last month’s clampdown on the spiralling number of Mexican citizens claiming refugee status in Canada, which seems to be linked to Mexico’s deep recession, was described by Prime Minister Harper as “a problem with Canadian refugee law, which encourages bogus claims.” Whether Canada’s refugee dam could now be affecting a renewed stream of new Sri Lankan arrivals is not clear. Nonetheless, this time, Sri Skanda Rajah says, “very few people have arrived” compared to post-1983. “The [immigration] process has not been accelerated.” Minister Kenney is quick to note that Canada has the most open immigration policy in the G8 group of countries. And in fact, what seems to be affecting the process at the moment is the authorities in Colombo, where Canadian High Commission officials have come up against continued trouble accessing the refugee camps. The Colombo government did not make Canadian access to the displaced any easier when it first granted, then denied, entry in June to veteran Canadian politician Bob Rae, who has long been active in Sri Lanka-related affairs. He was asked on arrival by immigration officers to sign a ‘document’ admitting certain comments he had made were “ill-informed, or something like that,” and to disavow any support for the LTTE, he told the press, an action he called “Orwellian” after being put on a plane back home. This was purportedly due to his choice of words about the nature of the military’s final tactics in the war.Other Canadian officials seem to have had an easier time of it. In early August, Canadian International Cooperation Minister Beverly J Oda made a three-day visit to the former war zone. She was the only voice from the Canadian government, quoted in the Canadian press as saying that conditions in the camps “are acceptable.” Her comments are in opposition to reports from Amnesty International, which claims that camp residents live in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions and are not permitted to speak to outsiders or aid workers. It would appear that both of these situations and statements, as made by Rae and Oda, will only further fan the flames of frustration among Canada’s Tamil community. Today, many in this community continue to agree that the freedom fight advocated by the Tamil Tigers was their own, and that the current campaign for Eelam is one of diplomatic advocacy for cultural recognition and land rights for Tamils in Sri Lanka. This push, they say, begins with the release of the Tamils in the internment camps of Sri Lanka. Whether the vacuum of LTTE leadership will be filled, and as to whether Canada’s Tamils are still sending funds to offshore Tiger banks, neither the Tiger supporters nor the RCMP are talking. But as Sri Skanda Rajah says, “The dream doesn’t die with a person. An ideal is not vanquished in battle.” And though the candles lit for Eelam may be flickering, with such continued efforts by Toronto Tamils to achieve what they see as self-determination, the fire does not look set to burn out anytime soon.

25 September 2009

AI concerned about irregular places of detention
   
The human rights group, Amnesty International (AI) has expressed concerns about irregular places of detention including the Poonthotam Teachers Training College in Vavuniya from where a refugee was hospitalized after he tried to escape from the premises on Tuesday.  “The danger of serious human rights violations, including torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings increases substantially when detainees are held in locations that are not officially acknowledged places of detention and lack proper legal procedures and safeguards”, said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia Director.Detention centres such as the Poonthotham Teachers Training College are irregular places of detention. Since May 2009, an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 individuals suspected of ties to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) have been detained in irregular detention facilities operated by the Sri Lankan security forces and affiliated paramilitary groups, Amnesty International said.Amnesty International has confirmed the location of at least 10 places of detention in school buildings and hostels originally designated as displacement camps in the north. There have also been frequent reports of other unofficial places of detention elsewhere in the country. The International Committee of the Red Cross has no access to these detainees and there is no transparency about their registration and treatment.

LTTE sniper unit head arrested

Vavuniya Police yesterday afternoon arrested a youth suspected to be the leader of the LTTE’s sniper unit.Police said that after interrogating the suspect they were able to recover a sniper gun hidden in a jungle in Asikulam , Vavuniya.Identified as Radha, the suspect had arrived in Vavuniya from Kilinochchi in April this year, just prior to the last battle against LTTE in Mullaitivu. He had brought an expensive technologically advanced sniper gun with him when he arrived in Vavuniya, Police investigations had revealed.Police Constable Nalin (28796) arrested the suspect on information while the latter had been working in Vavuniya town, posing as a labourer.

Miliband, Kouchner to have "joint meeting" with Bogollagama 
   
UK foreign minister David Miliband told the Press at the UN General Assembly that he and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner will have a "joint meeting" with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama tomorrow, Inner City Press reported. Miliband said, "I am certainly having a meeting with the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister... Bernard Kouchner and I are jointly meeting him." Inner City Press asked what would be raised or asked for at the meeting and Miliband said “Kouchner and I when we went to Sri Lanka, got very clear commitments from the president of Sri Lanka, about IDPs and a host of related issues and we're following up those commitments."

Sri Lanka parliament passes Parliamentary Elections Amendment Bill

Sri Lanka parliament today passed the Parliamentary Elections Amendment Bill that sought to amend only the only the provisions relating to registration of political parties.Debating the proposed bill, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said the amendment is a timely need for accepting or delisting political parties that are not active. According to the Minister currently there are 59 political parties in the country but only around 24 are active.Under the current provision, secretary of a political party can make an application for the recognition of the party, except during the period when an election has been announced. The application is subjected to an inquiry by the Elections Commissioner to decide whether the party is organized to contest elections. The current law however does not specify the exact requirement that a political party should fulfill for recognition as a political party and how the Elections Commissioner should ascertain a party's suitability.The amendment to the parliamentary bill was proposed to eliminate these ambiguities and clarify the criteria to recognize political parties.During the debate the Minister stressed that the amendments do not prevent anyone from engaging in politics or contesting elections. The amendments also make it compulsory for political parties to give positions for women.The amendments to the bill have been based on the Elections Commissioner's recommendations to the parliamentary select committee on electoral reforms.

24 September 2009

US envoy in India discusses Lankan issue with Karunanidhi
   
The US envoy in India Ambassador Tim Roemer has discussed the situation concerning the internally displaced people in Sri Lanka, during a meeting with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today.Describing as a "high priority" the resettlement of Tamil people lodged in camps in Sri Lanka, Ambassador Roemer said the US was trying to make sure that the process happened in an "expeditious, humane and just fashion"."The US makes it a high priority to make sure that these people are moved out of the camps. We have invested close to USD 80 million in 2008 and 2009 to make sure that the process happens in a quick, expeditious humane and just fashion," US Ambassador Tim Roemer told reporters.Roemer said the US was also working on de-mining operations in Sri Lanka to make it safer there. It was also involved in rebuilding of schools in the country."It is also the priority for the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister (Karunanidhi), he said.

India launches seven satellites 
 
India has successfully launched seven satellites in a single mission, nearly a month after the country's inaugural Moon mission was aborted.The rocket was carrying an Indian remote-sensing satellite and six smaller ones, all of them foreign. The Indian satellite will help spot fishing zones in the sea by monitoring ocean temperatures. Observers say India is emerging as a major player in the multi-billion dollar space market. Wednesday's launch, from the Sriharikota space centre off India's east coast, is being described as another milestone for the country's 46-year-old space programme. This is the 16th mission for India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - a seven-storey-high, 230 tonne rocket. A spokesman for state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) S Satish told the BBC that the Indian satellite Oceansat-2 is carrying a new instrument which can measure wind speed over the surface of the ocean. He said the device will help track monsoons and cyclones. The rocket is also carrying six smaller satellites from Germany, Switzerland and Turkey. Wednesday's launch came as a boost to India's space scientists after the country terminated its inaugural Moon mission last month. Despite the termination of the mission, Isro chief G Madhavan Nair said that the project was a great success and 95% of its objectives had been completed. Last year India successfully launched 10 satellites in a single mission, boosting its capabilities in space. The country started its space programme in 1963, and has since designed, built and launched its own satellites into space. In 2007, India put an Italian satellite into orbit for a fee of $11m. In January 2008, India successfully launched an Israeli spy satellite into orbit. Correspondents say that the country is developing its rocket-launching capabilities to reduce its dependence on foreign space agencies, as well as to corner a share of the world's lucrative satellite-launching market.

Sri Lanka and India foreign ministers meet in New York

Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna net today on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss the displaced persons situation.Minister Bogollagama apprised the Indian Minister of Sri Lanka's plans to resettle the nearly 280,000 displaced persons who are now sheltered in the welfare camps in their original residencies in the North.'The two ministers exchanged views on the situation in northern Sri Lanka, particularly the efforts of the Sri Lankan government in rehabilitating and resettling IDPs from camps to their original homes, as well as measures to enhance bilateral cooperation in all fields," India's External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.India has agreed to assist the rehabilitation of the former combatants while pressing for speedy rehabilitation and resettlement of the others.Minister Bogollagama also briefed foreign ministers from Denmark and Jordan yesterday (September 22) on government's plans while emphasizing that screening and registration of the IDPs is imperative.

Textbooks to Jaffna via A9

The Education Ministry yesterday sent one million school textbooks worth Rs. 108 million to Jaffna via A9 after 28 years. As a result of the Government’s humanitarian mission, the A9 road can now be used for textbooks transportation to the North and East. Accordingly, another stock of 200,000 textbooks for 2010 will be sent to Jaffna using the A9 road. Earlier, the Education Ministry had to get assistance of the Sri Lanka Navy for transporting textbooks to Jaffna incurring great expenditure. “Naval transportation took much time. It took more than one month to transport the books. As a result of the peaceful situation in the country, the ground route can now be used for textbooks transportation,” the Education Minister Susil Premajayanth said. The Minister further pointed out that this is a significant event as this is the first time that textbooks were being transported by road after 28 years. The Government spends Rs. 3,000 million on printing and transportation of school textbooks for 2010. The Education Publications Department is engaged in printing and distributing school textbooks. The Education Publication Department has already distributed 12 million textbooks throughout the country. “The Department has planned to complete the distribution process by December 7, especially before the last day of the third school term when the textbooks will have to be handed over to school children,” the Educations Publications Commissioner W.M.N.J. Pushpakumara said. These textbooks will be handed over initially to the Education authorities in Jaffna today and they will make arrangements for a smooth distribution process among schools in Jaffna in time.

Civilians clash with SLA in Vavuniyaa internment camp

Additional police and Sri Lanka Army troops were brought into the College of Education internment camp in Vavuniyaa after clashes erupted between civilian inmates and Sri Lankan forces following the arrest and assault of a Tamil youth in the camp. Several civilians and armed personnel sustained minor injuries, sources in Vavuniyaa said. On Monday, a 31-year-old Tamil youth Paranchami Chandramohan, was taken by force by the SLA. He was severely assaulted and taken away. The inmates of the camp were inquiring the SLA and police on his whereabouts for the last two days. The civilian protestors who did not get any positive reply from the Sri Lankan forces tried to breach the fences and attempted to come out Wednesday morning. They were throwing stones. In return, the Sri Lankan forces also reacted in the same manner. The matter was brought to the notice of Vavuniyaa Magistrate A.G.Alexraja. He personally visited the camp and brought the situation under control. The youth is presently being treated at the Vavuniyaa hospital.

LTTE communication system is still working, says Sri Lankan Minister

Although the Sri Lankan government is able to control all international activities of the LTTE, the LTTE communication system is still functioning and continuing acts against the country.Sri Lanka's Minister of Export Development and International Trade, Prof. G.L. Peiris made these remarks today at a press briefing held in Colombo.The Minister said that the general public is always ready to support the government in its war against terror but some political parties try to let down war heroes who crushed the LTTE terrorism in the country."Pro-LTTE people still try to summon leaders of the humanitarian mission against the LTTE to the International Criminal Court," Prof. Peiris said.Recently a proposal to bring war crime inquiries against Sri Lanka has been submitted to the United States Congress, the Minister informed.Minister Peiris said the government has expedited the development work in the country after the conclusion of the war. Professor Peiris added that the government plans to hold a national level election after the upcoming Southern Provincial Council election.

23 September 2009

Send MPs to study Sri Lanka refugee crisis, PM and Sonia told

A group of cabinet ministers and MPs from Tamil Nadu Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to send a team to Sri Lanka where they said the military was 'mistreating' Tamils displaced by the war and interned in camps."We met the prime minister and the Congress president and appraised them about the plight of Tamil civilians living in refugee camps," said DMK leader and former cabinet minister T.R. Baalu. "We said that the displaced Tamil civilians were being mistreated by the Sri Lankan military officials. We told them that steps should be initiated to rehabilitate the displaced Tamils," Baalu told IANS. India, the delegation pointed out, should send a team of Tamil Nadu MPs to Sri Lanka to study the situation there, Baalu added. The MPs who called on Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi also included Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Communication Minister A. Raja, Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran, Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan as well as Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP and daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. Among the others were ministers of state S.S. Palanimanickam, S. Gandhiselvan and S. Jagathrakshakan (all DMK) as well as Congress leader K.V. Thangabalu. The detention in barbed wire camps in Sri Lanka's north of some 280,000 Tamil civilians since they fled Tamil Tigers territory before the military crushed the rebels has caused widespread concern. On Friday, Maran had separately called on the prime minister as an emissary of Karunanidhi to "highlight the plight of the displaced Tamils" in the Sri Lankan camps. Karunanidhi wanted Manmohan Singh to "exert diplomatic pressure at appropriate levels" on Colombo to end what he said was "untold suffering" of the displaced Tamils. Baalu alleged that the Sri Lankan government was not allowing the Tamil refugees to return to their native places, which were under the control of the LTTE before it was defeated. "We told the prime minister that Tamils are stranded in the refugee camps. Around 2,000 Tamil civilians who were allowed to move to their native places have not reached there," Baalu said. "We want to know what happened to them." The delegation also urged the prime minister to take immediate steps to stop attacks by the Sri Lanka Navy against Indian fishermen in the sea, Baalu said.

Indian assistance requested to renovate Kankesanthurai harbor

Sri Lankan Port Directive Board has forwarded a proposal to India to grant financial assistance to renovate the Jaffna Kankesanthurai Harbour. The drainage and road in the Kankesanthurai harbor should be restored as the conditions are bad was stated. 23 million American dollars is estimated to process with the said assignment. During the 2004 tsunami disaster the Kankesanthurai port was damaged and it is used for transportation by the Sri Lankan navy and government ships is according to sources.

UN worried about lack of freedom for Tamils

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), who live in government-run camps in Sri Lanka, lack the basic right of freedom of movement, according to a top United Nations official who visited the country recently. Under Secretary General for Political Affairs B Lynn Pascoe told a press conference in Colombo that the UN had not observed the progress expected in rehabilitating the IDPs after the end of the civil war between the Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.More than 280,000 IDPs now live in these congested camps in northern Lanka and Pascoe -- who visited some such camps September 17 -- said he was very concerned about the lack of freedom of movement for the inhabitants and the 'closed nature' of the camps.'People are not free to come or go and they are understandably upset,' he said. 'We picked up great frustration on this point in the camps that we visited. I was told by many -- and quite emphatically -- that they just want to go home.''We understand there are security concerns to be addressed. At the same time, this kind of closed regime goes directly against the principles under which we work in assisting IDPs all around the world,' he added.Pascoe urged the Sri Lankan government to allow those IDPs, who have completed the screening process, to leave the camps. For the remaining IDPs, the UN official suggested that they be allowed to move out of the camps during the day and freely meet with family and friends in other sites.On Friday, Pascoe had held talks with Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, senior government ministers, military officials, Opposition leaders, Tamil politicians and representatives of non-governmental organisations and other civil society groups.During the meetings, he discussed the situation of the IDPs as well as issues like human rights accountability and political reconciliation.Walter Kalin, the UN secretary general's representative on the human rights of IDPs, will visit Lanka next week, Pascoe said. But at the same time, he expressed his concern about the pace of the process of allowing IDPs to return to their former communities.'If there is more screening to do, it should be speeded up. It appears there are areas where de-mining is not a big concern. For those areas, families who have passed the screening process could be resettled without much further delay. More people should be allowed to stay with relatives and host families,' he said.The Lankan government assured Pascoe that it intends to provide day passes to allow people to go to work or visit family and friends. The administration also plans to aggressively publicise the option of accommodation with relatives and other host families for the IDPs.'Of course, this is not the ultimate solution to the problem of getting people home quickly, but it is an interim measure that reduces congestion in the camps,' Pascoe said, calling for the government to show more transparency and to consult more widely to allay the fears and concerns of the IDPs.He stressed that the IDP issue is particularly important because it provides Sri Lanka with an opportunity to move beyond simply ending the fighting towards solidifying the actual peace process.On a cautionary note, the UN official added, 'As the situation currently stands in the camps, there is a real risk of breeding resentment that will undermine the prospects for political reconciliation in the future".

A drama screened Prabakaran’s murder

“Lankadeepa’ newspaper has quoted a news item, that the murder incident of Tamil Eelam liberation tiger Leader Velupillai Pirabakaran is shown as a drama. The drama will be shown at the events organized in regard to the military forces 60 years completion. The Military forces has acted in a drama about the final struggle at Puthumathalavan. It would be shown at the Colombo Bandaranayake Memorial Conference hall was according to sources. Meanwhile information reveal 16 suicide bombers are still hiding in Colombo and suburbs area. Military high officer informed special military activities have commenced to arrest the said persons.

European Union spent Rs 300 million to reconstruct Vakarai school

Vakarai Maha Vidyalayam, the newly constructed education facility, will be the "pride of the East" as the most modern and technically advanced school complex in the Batticaloa District, an EU media release said.Over 700 students from grades 1-13 will benefit from this largest primary and secondary school, The school comprises a fully equipped library, science, computer, vocational and technology laboratories, language centre and sports facilities.The school which was destroyed by the 2004 Tsunami has now been reconstructed and stands as an inspiration to the students who had to overcome many challenges and hardships, the release said.The Vakari Maha Vidyalayam will be re-opened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the presence of Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha and Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Commission to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Beernard Savage and other dignitaries. This school was reconstructed by the European Union in collaboration with the Ministry of Education through the International Organization for Migration. The European Union's grant of EUR 1.88 million (approximately LKR 300 million) towards the reconstruction of the school was a component of the European Union's overall post Tsunami aid package for Sri Lanka of EUR 147 million (approximately LKR 24.2 billion). The EU-Tsunami aid programme covered not only affected districts in the South and East but also provided support to he affected districts in the North.

IMF warns Sri Lanka over borrowing

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday warned Sri Lanka against building foreign currency reserves by borrowing from foreign investors.Sri Lanka's central bank announced this month that foreign reserves hit a historic high of four billion dollars, sufficient to cover over four months of imports."We don't want Sri Lanka to borrow its way to build reserves," head of the IMF mission to Sri Lanka, Brian Aitken told reporters here after a two-week review of the island's economy.The bank said reserves were boosted by foreign investors buying rupee-denominated treasury bills and bonds and the government selling dollar bonds."The central bank has been building a war chest of reserves lately through debt. We would prefer if Sri Lanka built up reserves from exports and from remittances and not by borrowings," Aitken said.Central bank governor Nivard Cabraal said the bank raised more than 1.2 billion dollars in cash by selling government debt to foreigners.Sri Lanka's reserves fell to cover just over one month's imports earlier this year as security forces pushed their final offensive against separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.The island's reserves were also boosted by 322.2 million dollars, the first tranche of a 2.6 billion dollar IMF loan, in July, higher remittances and donor funds for ongoing development work.The dangerously low reserves earlier this year pushed the Sri Lankan government to ask for the IMF bailout to help stave off its first balance-of-payments deficit in four years. Colombo's foreign reserve stock depleted last year during the height of the global financial meltdown when foreigners withdrew over 600 million dollars invested in government bills and bonds.Aitken said it was encouraging that foreigners were back investing in government treasuries, especially long-term bonds.He said the second tranche of IMF funding was due by the end of October once the fund's executive board approved it.The Washington-based lender is also re-opening its offices in Colombo in October to keep a close watch on its lending programme there, after shutting down the office in January 2007 when there was no lending to the island.

Visa rejected for Lankan cycling team for military games

Thirteen prospective competitors from Sri Lanka for the cycling event at the World Military Games 2009 in Ireland have been refused visas by the Ireland embassy in India. Ireland had cited a number of reasons for not processing the applications of the Sri Lankan team.According to reports received by the Defense Forces Cycling Committee, a cycling team consisting of thirteen members, including 8 players and 5 officers from Sri Lanka had sent in their applications to the Ireland embassy in India for processing, to be sent for the World Military Games to be held in Ireland this year. The visa applications however had been refused by the Ireland embassy, which had cited the delay made by Sri Lanka in handing in the applications, the fact that none of the team members had ever been abroad before and the fact that Sri Lanka had not participated in the previous World Military Games, as some of the reasons behind the refusal.The Defense Forces Cycling Committee said that Sri Lanka was engaged in a civil war last year, when the games were held in Slovenia, hindering the team’s chance at taking part.

Two LTTE suicide cadres arrested, one takes her life

Acting on information received by the Galle police, a special police squad yesterday afternoon arrested two women suicide cadres at Ukkulankulam in the Vavuniya District.The police said that one of the LTTE cadres had taken cyanide though they managed to arrest her colleague. The police said that following information elicited from the suspect, investigators had recovered three explosives-packed suicide jackets, six kilos of C4 plastic explosives and ten detonators.

India issues notice against LTTE sympathizer from the US

The Indian government has issued a Look out Circular (LOC) against Dr. Ellyn Shander, an American doctor who is a known Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sympathizer.India's Home Ministry on Tuesday has issued the LOC against Dr. Sander, who was a close friend of ardent LTTE supporter in Tamil Nadu, Pazha Nedumaran is to address a meeting at India Islamic Culture Centre about the alleged genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.The Indian Home Ministry reportedly issued the notice despite Dr. Sander having a valid Indian visa. Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary, K S Sripathi has requested the LOC Indian media reports said.

22 September 2009

Troops will not face war crime charges: mr
   
President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday insisted that he would not permit Sri Lanka war heroes to be produced before an international war crime tribunal amidst an outcry by the global community calling for both the President and troops to face such charges. Addressing a group of women SLFP activists of the Galle district at Temple Trees yesterday, the President said: “Some elements are attempting to produce me and war heroes before an international war crimes tribunal, but I will not produce our war heroes, who committed to create a united country.” He said that the main objectives of those elements were to create an impression of the country by saying that Sri Lanka violated human rights. They used certain private media reports and statements made by pro-LTTE parties as evidence in this regard. Certain parties in the South help them by giving false information, he revealed. Reiterating that no one would be allowed to tarnish the image of the country, the President said nobody has the right to betray the country. “There should be a country for both present and future generations and therefore the government is committed for the betterment of the country,” he said. The President said that the government was now fulfilling the responsibility of creating a prosperous tomorrow for the country after eliminating terrorism. The government has also focused its attention on creating a moral society in the country and also develop the resources of the country. “It is the responsibility of the people in the southern province to teach a proper lesson to those elements who are engaged in conspiracy against the country,” the President said the gathering.

PTA detainees 'not political prisoners'
 
Tamil detainees held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), say that they should be treated as political prisoners. 266 detainees, arrested under PTA, handed over a petition following a hunger strike at Welikada Magazine Prison. They said “government should take immediate legal action.” “We should be produced before a court or released,” they added. Deputy Minister of Justice V. Puthirasigamani told BBC Sandeshya “these people who were held under detention orders are suspects of various terrorist activities". “Even though the prisoners claim they are political prisoners we cannot treat them as such”.

Daya and George

“George Master and Daya Master were released because they surrendered; they were released after they surrendered.” LTTE media co-ordinator, Velayudam Dayanidhi widely known as Daya Master and translator, Kumar Pancharatnam known as George Master who surrendered to Sri Lanka military in April were released on bail this month. Minister Puthirasigamani further stressed that the government will consider their appeal in the future.

Grand Alliance for presidential polls: UNP to invite JVP

As part of the on-going efforts to form a grand alliance of Opposition parties to contest the next Presidential election, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauff Hakeem has commenced separate discussions with Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sampanthan. He also invited the leader of the Democratic People’s Front, Mano Ganeshan MP for talks.According to UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, already nine rounds of talks have been held on forming a grand alliance. The meetings were held at Siri Kotha, the UNP headquarters and at the office of the leader of Opposition at Cambridge Place.The participants included Ranil Wickremesinghe, Tissa Attanayake, Ravi Karunanayake of the UNP, SLMC leader Rauf Hakeem, General Secretary, M. T. Hassan Ali, Deputy General Secretary Nizam Kariyappar, Democratic People’s Front leader Mano Ganeshan, General Secretary and WPC member Kumara Gurubaran, National Organizer and WPC member Prabha Ganeshan, SLFP(M) leader Mangala Samaraweera and General Secretary, Tiran Alles.According to informed sources, the discussions centered round the abolition of the executive presidency and the election of an Executive Prime Minister answerable to Parliament. "Almost 90 per cent of crucial matters pertaining to the grand national alliance have been thrashed out at several discussions and the symbol is not an issue", UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said.Discussions would also be held with the JVP to work out a common strategy of contesting the presidential election, Attanayake said.Attanayake told The Island yesterday afternoon that many political parties, including the Nava Sinhala Urumaya and several other civil organizations had expressed desire to join the alliance.A political solution for the national issue, restoration of law and order, strengthening of the economy, democracy and freedom of the press would be taken up at talks next week, Attanayake said.Meanwhile, asked for comment on the UNP’s invitation to the JVP to join opposition grand alliance, JVPGeneral Secretary Tilvin Silva told The Island last night the JVPwould never strike deals with the UNP. However, he said the JVP would consider supporting a recognised non politician as a common presidential candidate on the condition that he would undertake to abolish the Executive Presidency.

21 September 2009

“Tigers forfeited many an opportunity for peace” – TELO MP N. Sri Kantha

Though they outwardly deny being coerced by the LTTE in the past, now in the absence of the Tiger terror machine the Tamil National Alliance is increasingly behaving like a responsible and reasonable Tamil democratic party. The previous week for the first time they held direct talks with President Rakapaksa on outstanding issues, unlike in the past when they insisted that any talks should be with the LTTE. This week we spoke to one of the stalwarts of the TNA and TELO jaffna Parliamentarian N. Sri Kantha, who has some sound and constructive advice to the government

Q: There has been a definite change in the attitude of the TNA in recent days. Is it a case of it evolving into a reasonable Tamil democratic party?
A: I don’t think there is any change in regard to our political stand. We have been right throughout, insisting on the necessity to evolve a political solution with a view to solve the national question once and for all within the framework of a united country. That has been our consistent stand. It might be that there had been some voices among the ranks of the TNA and more particularly the TNA parliamentarians deviating from this stand in the recent past but as a party our stand has been very clear. Now that the war is over the pressing question with regard to all of us is the getting together, forgetting petty political and party differences and to involve ourselves seriously in a political process to solve the national question namely, the ethnic problem. That is how the TNA faces the present and looks into the future.

Q: Finally the realisation has come that what ever solution must come from within the country. Earlier TNA was seen going around the world making very disparaging remarks about the country. Now at least you all are willing to talk to the President…
A: We never advocated the creation of a separate and sovereign state out of Sri Lanka. We came into being in November 2001 and our stand has been very clear: the national question being a political issue can only be solved politically and not through war. In regard to your allegation that we have been going round the world and making aspersions on the country, I would like to deny that. If at all some of our members had been very forthright and to some extent fiercely critical of the government with regard to the war then in progress, I would say you have to understand it from the point of view of the Tamil people who were caught between the two contending military forces - the Security Forces on one side and the LTTE on the other. In fact, we have been stating that there was a third party to the conflict, the innocent civilians in the war zone, who were caught up between these two adversaries. So it is in the light of their suffering and hardships forced by the continuing war, one has to understand the actions on the part of some of our parliamentarians you are referring to.

Q: It was a very conciliatory gesture of TNA Leader R. Sambandan to swear in your newly elected local government members while the national anthem was being played.
A: It is not a question of our becoming more conciliatory. We have been always open for political negotiation and that is how we have been looking at the whole question In regard to the question you are referring to it’s nothing new. Whenever the national anthem was played in any part of the country, if anyone of us happen to be there we have always respected it. But in this instance not only the national anthem was played but also the Tamil anthem before that and at the beginning the anthem of the Urban Council of Vavuniya was played. So obviously and logically there should have been the national anthem. So that was how it was played.

Q: You all had the first round of talks with the President, what is the next?
A: We have agreed this meeting which was very cordial that we should follow it up with periodic meetings with senior personalities in the government and we have agreed to have discussions with Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, who is now heading the task force for the rehabilitation and resettlement in the North in regard to the problems and issues concerning the people of the area including, that is very important, the internally displaced persons numbering more than 250,000 at the moment. So we would carry this process forward.

Q: There is lots of reconstructions already going on in the East and if not for financial constraints, they would want to keep up the momentum in the North as well. Will you all be taking an active role in whatever the government is doing for the good of the people?
A: Definitely. That is in regard to every constructive effort from the Government or for that matter any other quarter the constructive cooperation for the TNA would be there. We will do our part without compromising on our basic stand.

Q: Leaving aside the Sinhalese, there are major issues between the Muslims and the Tamils. In the past you all have had talks even during Ashraff’s time without any breakthrough. What is being done to resolve those issues?
A: Well, the Tamil-Muslim equation which had always been healthy in the North-East and also through out the country got spoilt during the regime of President J.R. Jayewardene. When one of his senior ministers who is now no more and who was in charge of national security at that time went on arming some Muslim young men in the guise of fighting the Tamil militant groups including the LTTE in the aftermath of the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom. It was not a question of arming the villagers in the border villages. It was different. It was precisely and purposely with the objective of setting up an armed Muslim group to deal with the Tamil militants. So there were obviously clashes between the two that really spoilt the Tamil-Muslim equation. Many things have happened in the past - the LTTE, in fact ,did some barbaric acts in regard to innocent Muslim civilians and consequently Tamil civilians were subjected to the same treatment at the hands of some groups including the one known as Jihad. Now with the war over and everybody looking forward to a peaceful country, we have a duty as the representatives of the Tamil people to extend our hand of friendship to our Muslim brothers who are Tamil speaking and therefore having a very strong linguistic relationship with the Tamil people. We will do that. We have already started that and you would have seen that in the oath taking ceremony of the newly elected member of the TNA to the Vavuniya Urban Council whom you referred to a little while ago, the Muslim Congress member too was there. He too was administered the oath by our leader R. Sambandan and Muslim Congress was represented by Basheer Segu Dawood, one of the most senior leaders of their party on behalf of its leader, my good friend Rauf Hakeem. So now we have started this process. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress is the formidable representative of the Muslims in the Northeast. There cannot be any denying of that fact. And there are also others who seem to represent them and who too have a sizeable support among the Muslim community. So we would talk to all of them and see whether we can agree to have a common political stand in regard to the whole question of finding a solution

Q: But those fundamental unresolved issues that were discussed for a long time from the time of late SLMC leader Ashraff have to be resolved among yourselves first.
A: Yes. These are issues that have to be resolved between the Tamils and the Muslims and we will rise to the occasion. We will do it. We are confident of that and I would like to stress one point; if the Tamils cannot understand the grievances and apprehensions of the Tamil speaking Muslims who can be considered as the minority within a larger minority then how can we the Tamils expect our Sinhalese brothers and sisters to join hands with us in dealing with our own grievances and apprehensions? So therefore true to the proverb “Charity begins at home,” we will first do our part in evolving a common stand together with the Tamil speaking Muslims of the Northeast.

Q: What about the resettling of some 50,000 odd Muslims who were evicted from Jaffna in 1990?
A: We raised this issue with the President the other day when we met him. He too agreed that they should be resettled but at the same time he added that first the IDPs in the welfare camps in Vavuniya, Jaffna and other areas be settled, followed by the displaced Muslims who are now mostly in Puttalam. We are fully conscious of the issue and we would be glad to welcome our Muslim brothers back in Jaffna.

Q: Now it is an open secret that when the TNA was formed some of the reluctant people were coerced into it at the point of a pistol by a certain Tamil journalist, since deceased, who brokered the deal for the LTTE. He had reportedly told those who were reluctant that either they join or get the bullet and people simply joined. Now that such threat….
A: I can always laugh at what you have been telling. Nothing of the sort happened. You must be referring to Sivaram or Nadesan? Of course, both played a significant role in the formation of the TNA

Q: According to some of the other Tamil groups that was one of the reasons why Sivaram was killed.
A: I vehemently deny it. In 2001 four parties came together and formed the TNA. The LTTE was nowhere in the picture at the time in regard to our deliberations.

Q: When this accusation was levelled by others in the past it was not denied.
A: That is the problem in politics. Different people will say different things. So we have to dissect and have a clinical analysis on our own to find out the truth. I’ll leave it to you. Coming back to your question, for threats to go away, the threats should have been there in the first place. Take the case of the TELO and the EPRLF; we fought the LTTE for more than 15 years prior to the formation of the TNA in 2001. Please don’t forget that. Both these parties lost their top leaders at the hands of the LTTE. That was also the case with the TULF that lost its top most leaders Amirthalingam together with his colleague Yogeswaran at the hands of the LTTE. So there was no question of the LTTE trying to intimidate us. Even if they had tried that, for argument sake, it would not have worked. Then in 2001 the TNA was formed and we won 16 seats. Of course, the LTTE permitted us to do our campaigning in areas under their control in the East.

Q: And helped some to get elected by stuffing the ballot boxes.
A: No. Earlier it even prevented voters from coming to polling booths in government controlled areas. That was the situation in ’89, ’94 and 2000. That didn’t happen in 2001. So, this process gradually led to in 2004 with the accommodating some candidates from various civic organisations that had been operating in not only army controlled areas, but also in LTTE held areas. But it is true that the LTTE was, on and off, having discussions with the TNA parliamentary group. I won’t deny that, but we were not controlled by the LTTE. We were not, in fact, acting on the dictates of the organisation, but there was a consultative process because we had taken the clear stand as far back as 2001 general election that future political negotiations between the government and the Tamils should have the LTTE as the one and only representative from the Tamil side. Therefore given that position, one has to understand the relationship that existed between the LTTE and the TNA, but there were moments when we found that it was little uneasy. I admit that. But we were able to work continuously with a view to keep the LTTE at the negotiating table. We were disappointed when the war broke out again in mid 2006.

Q: Even TULF Leader Anandasangaree says he is very disappointed in you all especially because you all failed to say one word to the LTTE to relieve the plight of civilians held as human shield. Where was your independence?
A: That is the problem with Anandasangaree. He is a good friend of mine despite him being very senior to me. I respect him, but the people of Jaffna have given him a befitting reply for his political somersault when they only gave him one seat at the recently held election to the Jaffna Municipal Council which has a total strength of 23 members. Now coming back to these civilians caught up in the war zone, how many times we echoed and re-echoed their feelings in that we demanded a ceasefire in their interest, not in the interest of anybody else. The LTTE, even if we had requested or demanded the release of civilians in the war zone, it wouldn’t have released them. We knew that because the LTTE wanted them for its own interest. At the same time the LTTE was prepared for a ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations. So what we felt was that we should try what was possible and not aim at what was totally impossible and that too in the interest of the people concerned. So we demanded a ceasefire and the resumption of political negotiations. How can one say we never addressed this serious issue?

Q: With the best of intentions Ranil Wickremesinghe must have blindly entered the Ceasefire Agreement, but the LTTE had other motives from the beginning, using the CFA cover to arm itself and it is quite obvious they were never interested in peace, but were only getting ready for war.
A: Whatever we did vis-à-vis the LTTE, we did with good intentions, but there is something in what you say. In fact, we got thoroughly disappointed when the political negotiations failed prior to the resumption of military hostilities in mid-2006. There were number of opportunities, including the solid one offered by Ranil Wickremesinghe. So looking back, one can easily say that the LTTE should not have missed that opportunity. Even prior to Ranil Wickremesighe there were some opportunities, but it was very unfortunate that the LTTE failed to act wisely. That is the bane of our race. What else can I say? The LTTE had exploited these opportunities, including the one presented by Ranil Wickremesinghe. I would also say it could have dealt with the present President in a meaningful manner because they were in one way responsible for his election to the highest office in the land. There cannot be any denying of that. So they missed all these opportunities. Still, just because the LTTE failed to act wisely, we could not have acted in the same manner. That is exactly why instead of asking the LTTE to release the civilians we had been insisting on a ceasefire to which the LTTE was agreeable. So we tried what we thought was possible and we never thought of trying what was clearly an impossible one that is the LTTE releasing the civilians. We knew it wouldn’t have released them even if we had demanded.

Q: Since you all have started direct talks with the government, will the campaign abroad to tarnish the Sri Lankan state carried out by TNA parliamentarians like Sivajilingam and Adaikalanathan continue in parallel?
A: Please do not mention the name of Adaikalanathan because he is not involved in any political activity abroad. I can assure you of that. In regard to Sivajilingam and one or two other MPs you may have in mind I would deal with Sivajilingam first. I don’t think Sivajilingam had made any serious allegations in recent times after the conclusion of the war, but the general perception that some of the TNA MPs continue to engage in anti-government propaganda persists. We have already told our MPs that ‘you should conform to the political stand of the TNA and shouldn’t do anything to vitiate the atmosphere’. We expect our MPs to act with responsibility. If anyone does not conform, he cannot remain in the fold of the TNA and with elections round the corner next year any such MP will not be re-nominated. At the same time in regard to the civilian casualties in the war, particularly in the final phase, and also in regard to the indescribable suffering of more than 250,000 civilians in the IDP camps, which is an unprecedented situation in the history of this little island, you cannot expect our MPs, whether they are here or abroad to keep their mouth shut. They have to raise their voices in the interest of those people. But as you rightly said as elected representatives all of us have the great responsibility of acting with care, caution and discretion.

Q: Since the crushing of the LTTE, the government has even undertaken to rehabilitate more than 10,000 Tiger combatants, but yet there are continuing reports in the Western media about mass scale harassment, rape and genocide against Tamils in IDP camps here.
A: Please dismiss anything that has nothing to do with the truth. But the undeniable truth is that the camps are a hell. I have been to one of the IDP camps a few days ago to take charge one of my closest relatives who suffered there for more than four months with a 14-year-old young son. If I had wanted I would have taken them in the beginning, but I didn’t want to go through the back door. When our people are suffering I felt even my very close relative who was there should undergo the same suffering. But with the new scheme of relatives taking charge of the IDPs, I was able to get the two out of that hell. The government has been trying to do its utmost, there is no denying that, but it can’t cope with the situation. Therefore, I would suggest that rather than keeping these people there, to release everybody against whom the government has no suspicion of their having any links with the LTTE. Secondly, there are reports that more than 10,000 were able to get out of IDP camps through devious methods and there are also reports, I don’t think anyone has denied them, that among them were LTTE members. Those who had the means and the mind to bribe were able to get out, but others who conformed to the law are suffering inside. Please rest assured that out of the more than 10,000 who had fled the IDP camps in Vavuniya, there are hundreds of LTTE members. This is the tragedy. A sizeable section of the people who should be in has managed to get away. Out of the 250,000 odd who remain there, there might be a few thousand who may be rightly or wrongly suspected of LTTE connections. So keep them and release the rest.

Q: How can you just release them? Where can they go? Many of their houses would have been destroyed in the fighting.
A: Instead of keeping them as virtual detainees in sub-human conditions, if you release them, some of them will not be able to find shelter on their own. Those people can be kept in permanent buildings and not in makeshift sheds or tents. I would suggest if you bring in the scheme it might be about 50,000 to 100,000 who may remain since they will not be able to find shelter on their own. Then close down all schools in Vavuniya as you need to house these remaining people. The studies of students can wait for a few months in the interest of their kith and kin numbering more than 250,000 who are suffering in tents in IDP camps. My suggestion is bring in a scheme, whereby a sizeable section would be able to leave the IDP camps, while the rest would remain to be fed and sheltered by the government and they can be housed in permanent buildings like schools in Vavuniya particularly in the rainy season. I say this not only in the interest of the IDPs, but also in the interest of the government. The government is going to face a serious situation. It cannot, by any stretch of imagination, cope up with the IDP population once the rains set in.The low lying areas of Cheddikulam, where the IDP camps are situated will get flooded. So rather than waiting till the last minute I would appeal to the government to think about this scheme, whereby the burden of the government would be lessened in that it would be left to deal with at most 100,000 IDPs. Till the rains are over they can be housed in schools. As the government is telling us that the de-mining process is going on steadily and smoothly, in the New Year the government can embark on resettling those people in their respective villages.

Q: One of the key charges levelled against the TNA parliamentarians was that they did not have the welfare of their constituents in their hearts as most of the time they were abroad, except for some exceptions, with their families settled in foreign countries.
A: We have more than one million Tamils from the Northeast living in different countries of the world spread from Australia to Canada. So there is no point in accusing anybody from the TNA of having his or her family abroad. You all are now concerned about the Tamil diaspora. The term Tamil diaspora is now on the lips of everybody in this country. These are people who fled the country because of the post 1983 situation. It is not that every TNA MP is having his family abroad. There are number of exceptions. Out of our 22 MPs more than half of that number is having their families here. Some of us have been in politics right from our teens. I am going to turn 60 in a few days. Do you know that I came into politics when I was barely ten? I entered politics participating in the election campaign of A. Amirthalingam in the Vadukoddai electorate in the March 1960 election. I participated in the Satyagraha campaign of 1961 and Padayatra of 1963. Take Sambandan, he is now 76. He had been actively involved right from the time of the first general election, when the Tamil Congress was holding sway in the Northeast and more particularly in the North winning seven seats then in the parliament of 95 elected members and that included Sambandan’s own constituency of Trincomalee. Take the case of Senathiraja, he has put in more than 50 years in politics. Take the cases of Adaikalanathan and Premachandran. They came into politics as militants. All of us invariably have suffered and in consequence our families have suffered. So whenever there was an opportunity for our family members, including our young children to leave the country, that opportunity was made use of because our own families have suffered. Some of us have been living under the shadow of death for more than two decades and the threat emanated from very many sources, including the LTTE and from some who are now in the democratic mainstream. If peace is restored our children would love to come back and settle here and contribute to the welfare of our own people and by extension to our own country, this island. In regard to the Diaspora how can you expect them to keep quiet when the war was raging and the people were dying in large number?
At the same time I can tell you we the TNA would be listening to only the Tamils who are here. You can take my word on that. The Diaspora is entitled to voice its feelings and views. They are entitled to it, but as far as we are concerned our masters are not beyond the shores of this country. Our masters are our own people who are still living in this country and mostly in the northeast. There cannot be any remote control from any quarter whatsoever as far as the TNA is concerned. We would never allow that.

Q: During the CFA many Tamils, especially from the Diaspora invested heavily in real estate in and around Colombo to reap the benefit of those massive investments, they would have to help to revive the economy here and even invest more. Now that the war is over when do you think they will return to be active here once again?
A: Now restore law and order in effective terms in the northeast. Disarm all the paramilitary groups who are the running dogs of any government in power. Give a free hand to the Police who will do a fine job. Whoever violates the law; whoever is in possession of any unlicensed firearms should be brought to court and dealt with under the law. If they can ensure such a situation, the Tamil Diaspora will not only be investing in the south of Sri Lanka, but also in the northeast of the country. This is a serious issue. There is no question of our talking peace without the ordinary citizen feeling safe and secure in any part of the country and more particularly in the war ravaged northeast. We have made this request to the President at our last meeting.

Q: So how many armed military groups are still out there?
A: This is the problem. There are number of paramilitary groups who claim to function as political parties. They must choose now. Either they should function as political parties or as underworld groups. If they choose to be the latter, then they have no place in our society. When we allow members of any political party to possess illegal weapons and brandish them in a provincial or local government election, then we are in for a terrible situation. Our appeal is that every paramilitary group or any group whose members are armed in violation of the law should be disarmed. Take the case of Batticaloa, DIG there Edison Gunatillake, who is a good friend of mine has been successful in recovering weapons from a Muslim militant group. It shows that there had been one militant group that had been in existence and roaming about armed with weapons till now. There are number of others. All should be disarmed. Give an ultimatum and declare a moratorium period for them to surrender.

Q: About how many IDPs have been released to their relatives?
A: More than 10,000 have been released. Not only consequent to our meeting with the President. Even prior to that they were formulating some plans. The meeting added momentum to that. It is not only the TNA, but world over there is concern for IDPs. So we have to understand these developments in the right perspective. We are ready to work with the government in the humanitarian task of alleviating the suffering of the IDPs who are our own people.

Q: In any final settlement the sticky point appears to be not so much the land issue, but the devolving of police powers. It might not be a case of just one or two unruly Chief Ministers to contend with in such a situation in the future, but nine Chief Ministers running nine different police forces might make this tiny country ungovernable.
A: That could be a real problem. The division of the country into nine provinces is, in fact, British oriented. That is outdated. That is exactly why we want the devolution of power based on ethnicity. Instead of the present provinces we should have regions taking into consideration the reality, including those that led to a protracted military conflict in this country. Instead of having nine provinces and nine chief ministers let us have a reduced realistic number. If we are fully aware of the factors and the forces that led to Tamil youth losing faith in the democratic system commencing gradually from the early 70s, we’ll be able to deal with the whole question comprehensively and effectively.

Q: In light of recent experiences, the majority community entertains great fears. In the world we are a small minority and there is fear no one is interested in our welfare, except for a few close friends. So in other words even though we are a majority here we do have a minority mindset. So as an initial step Tamils should not expect everything all at once, but let things come gradually.
A: Yes. Let us be patient, but that does not mean that we can agree to a continuing process of dealing with the national question in a compartmentalised manner. We have got to evolve a political solution once and for all. That is the only way of doing that if you mean it seriously.

KP’s associate nabbed at BIA

An engineer of a private ship owned by LTTE’s foreign chief Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP, who arrived through Bandaranaike International Airport was nabbed by State Intelligence Services (SIS) last morning. The engineer identified as Ratnasekaram, a resident of Point Pedro had been a close associate of KP and had served as the engineer of one of the private ships belonged to a fleet of ships owned by the terror leader now in military custody. The SIS on information nabbed the engineer who had reportedly come from Singapore and had been handed over to the Terrorist Investigation Division for further questioning. He had reportedly told the authorities that he had come to visit one of his relatives in Colombo but police deny the existence of such person.

IDPs: India pressurizes Govt.
 
Serious concerns expressed by the Government of India over the continued holding of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in camps prompted the Government to carry out a review of the ongoing process.New Delhi’s concerns, the Sunday Times learns, were conveyed through two different channels to the Government. India’s High Commissioner Alok Prasad met President Mahinda Rajapaksa early this week. He was to convey a request from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that immediate measures be taken to expedite the resettlement of IDPs in their original homesteads. Indian media this week quoted Premier Singh as saying he had told Sri Lanka “in no uncertain terms” that the IDP issue should be resolved without delay. The other was a letter by India’s National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan to Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the President. He has also underscored Indias concerns. According to a diplomatic source, Mr. Narayanan has also expressed fears that continued presence of IDPs in camps could endanger the stability of the region. Matters arising out of the representations, the Sunday Times learnt, were discussed at last Wednesday’s weekly meeting of the National Security Council. However, details of what was discussed or decisions taken are not known. Taking part at this meeting, besides the regular participants, was Basil Rajapaksa, MP and Senior Advisor to the President. Army’s area commanders in the North, Wanni and the East were also special participants. On Friday President Rajapaksa re-iterated his commitment to India when he told visiting UN Under Secretary General Lynn Pascoe, that by end of January, the majority of IDPs would have been resettled. He had assured India that the Government planned to complete the re-settlement process within six months. A new scheme where IDPs, who are security cleared will be given “Day Passes” to engage in employment is also to be announced by the Government. The Government has already announced that some IDPs will be shifted to camps in the North and East in a bid to alleviate difficulties they face now. The move is also intended to ensure the IDPs overcome difficulties caused by the impending northeast monsoon.

Pillayan-Karuna clash intensifies in East
 
The government has imposed restrictions on Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan opening more political offices under the name of the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (Tamil People’s Liberation Tigers) in the Eastern Province.An attempt by Mr. Chandrakanthan to put up a TMVP board at an office in Trincomalee last week was prevented on the instructions of Defence authorities. A second attempt to convert a public relations office of the chief minister into a political office in Thirukkovil, Ampara has been opposed by loyalist of Cabinet Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan with a hartal campaign in the area.Minister Muralitharan who is also opposing moves to open new TMVP offices said it could lead to ethnic disharmony in the area. “People are worried about the presence of members of the Pilliyan faction as some of the previous cadres involved in criminal activities including sexual abuse are still with him. People do not want them to be in the area,” Mr. Muralitharan said.“It is my duty to as a minister of the government to bring this to the attention of the TMVP and preventing it from spreading anti-social activities in the province, he said.Mr. Muralitharan charged that though Mr. Chandrakanthan had contested under the UPFA, he was continuously criticizing President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government.“This type of activities can create doubt and mistrust among the people in the South. How can we win the rights for the Tamil people in the Eastern Province,” he asked.However, the Media Secretary for Mr. Chandrakanthan denied allegations that they were trying to create any ethnic disharmony.“We are only trying to establish our political mechanism in the east. It is our duty to educate people as to what we are doing. That is why we are trying to set up political offices in the east,” he said.“It is not we who created problems, but it is the close associates of Mr. Muralitharan who shot and wounded one of our close supporters,” he said. Supporters of Mr. Muralitharan have been carrying out a protest campaign for the past three days at Thirukkovil in Ampara over the opening of a political office of the TMVP.

Karuna escapes with minor injuries 
   
National Integration Minister Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna has escaped with minor injuries, when his vehicle and a passenger bus met with a collision at Cinnamon Gardens, in Colombo yesterday evening, an official said.A spokesperson for the National Integration Ministry told the Daily Mirror that the Personnel Security Officer and the driver of the Minister were also injured and admitted to the Colombo National Hospital.The spokesperson said that the minister was on his way to his official residence at Keppetipola Mawatha after touring Vavuniya, where a ceremony was held to resettle 5,000 more IDPs.The minister had flown in an Air Force helicopter from Vavuniya to the Army grounds in Colombo and later he had met with this accident while he was coming in a vehicle convoy by road.“The minister is resting at his home and he received a few injuries to his head,” the spokesperson said.

Chandrika skips Chennai visit, flies back home

Former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga today skipped a transit visit to the city following security concerns and had to spend about two hours at the airport here before flying to Colombo.Airport sources said that Kumaratunga, who was on a private visit to Kerala, arrived at Chennai at around 10.40 AM en route to Colombo.A room had been booked for her transit stay in a nearby star hotel, but she stayed back in the airport, following advice from security agencies, who apparently expected protests from pro-Eelam groups.She left for Colombo around 1 PM.

Indian Central government urged to ensure rehabilitation of Lankan Tamils

The traffic in NH47 was affected for more than two hours from Kalliyancadu to Collectorate after people belonging to Kottar, Thuckalay and Marthandam Roman Catholic Diocese took out a massive procession and held demonstration in front of the Collectorate on Saturday to urge the Government to ensure the rehabilitation of the internally displaced Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lankan Army controlled areas.The Bishop of Kottar Dioceses, Peter Remigius said that the innocent Sri Lankan Tamils were in a languished condition in the camps in different parts of Tamils dominated areas in Sri Lanka, without any basic amenities, food and water, after the Sri Lankan Armed forces captured the areas controlled by the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam.Lack of sanitation and medicines would lead the Tamils to an unhealthy and near-death state. A new lease of life should be provided to them and proper settlement should be ensured. The member of Lok Sabha, J.Helen Davidson, Rajan, M.L.A. took part in the demonstration.

Program to reintegrate ex-LTTEers into civil society

The Justice and Law Reforms Ministry is working closely with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to launch a $23 millin program for “Reintegrating ex-LTTE Cadres into Civil society, states a Justice Ministry press release. The Government of Japan, United Kingdom and the United States of America have pledged their support for the program. This initiative also involves a strong public/private partnership, with a number of Sri Lanka’s leading companies providing assistance both in cash and kind. These include Aitken Spence, Brandix, Ceylon Tobacco, Dilmah, Hayleys, John Keells, MAS Holdings, Unilever and Ajitha de Zoysa. In addition, Raj Rajaratnam, the Sri Lankan-born US-based investment manager with interests in a number of local companies, has also joined this private sector initiative in supporting the Government IOM Program with a grant of US$ 1 million. Other members of the Sri Lankan diaspora have also expressed interest in providing assistance. The program encompasses education, training and livelihood creation components. Justice and Law Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda said this initiative endorses President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s vision of co-operation between the Government, the private sector, the diaspora and the international community to build a prosperous future for all Sri Lankans.

Brows raised as Rajapaksa sends Premier to New York

The decision of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to skip the 64th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York commencing on Monday has raised brows in the diplomatic and political circles here. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake is leading the delegation.Observers here feel that his absence at the Summit of heads of state in New York would be highly conspicuous as since the military defeat of the LTTE in May Colombo has assiduously worked to market the message across the globe that terrorism could be defeated.“New York would have provided the ideal platform for Mr. Rajapaksa to show case the success of his country on the terrorism front. And yet Mr. Rajapaksa has taken a deliberate decision not to travel to New York and there must be some compelling reasons”, a senior western diplomat told The Hindu.The President’s office remained tight-lipped. “A combination of external and internal factors like concerns on security, the continuing deficit trust between Colombo and the West on the one hand and the U.N. on the other on a variety of issues like the pace of the re-settlement of the nearly 2.5 lakh war displaced and human rights and election to the Southern Provincial Council scheduled on Tuesday have contributed to the considered decision of Mr. Rajapaksa to depute his PM to New York,” said a senior official who did not want to be identified.The Foreign Ministry said Mr. Wickramanayake would address the General Assembly on September 26 on the “Strengthening of Multilateralism and Dialogue among Civilizations for International Peace, Security and Development” and meet Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.He will also address the Asia Society in New York on the theme “Sri Lanka’s Challenges ahead: Post LTTE Scenario and Ensuring Sustainable Peace”. He is being accompanied by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and senior officials.The Prime Minister would participate at the High Level Event on Climate Change and the 4th Summit of the Heads of States/ Governments of the Group of 15 (G 15) where Sri Lanka assumes the Chair.Mr. Bogollagama would lead the delegation to the Commonwealth Meetings of the Foreign Ministers, and on Terrorism, and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG).Mr. Bogollagama is also scheduled to hold a series of bilateral meetings with his South Asian counterparts from Bhutan, India and the Maldives. and meet High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy & Secretary General of the Council of the European Union Javier Solana, Commissioner for External Relations & European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Secretary General of the Commonwealth Kamalesh Sharma.In Mr. Bogollagama’s interactions with the United Nations, he is scheduled to meet Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe, Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Sir John Holmes, Under Secretary General & Special Representative for Children & Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy and the Executive Director General of the UNICEF Ann Veneman.“Special focus is envisaged on the developments relating to the post-conflict phase in Sri Lanka and the ways and means Sri Lanka’s friends in the international community could cooperate in the efforts of the Government’s endeavours in reconstruction, resettlement, rehabilitation and reconciliation,” said the Ministry.Separately, addressing a group of state bank officials at his official residence on Saturday, Mr. Rajapaksa said no soldier who heeded his orders as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces needs to worry as he was prepared to take the full responsibility of those orders and appear before any judiciary on their behalf.“The President reminded the gathering the two provinces which were under the jack boot of the terrorists by sacrificing the precious lives of 26,000 youth who were also wanted for the development of this country. He said in this heroic struggle another 5000 also lost their limbs,” said a report posted on the Defence Ministry website.The President said there was “conspiracy after conspiracy” to downgrade the feat achieved by the armed forces.Meanwhile, the government said arrangements were in place for the resettlement of another 3,000 war displaced, currently housed in government run relief camps in the north, in the next few days.

18 September 2009

India committed to welfare of displaced Tamils in Lanka: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India is committed to working on a 'priority basis' for the relief and rehabilitation of internally  displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka and New Delhi has conveyed its concerns on the issue to the island government in "no uncertain terms." "We fully share your concern for the welfare and well-being of the displaced Tamil population in Sri Lanka," Singh said in his reply to Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi who wrote to him last month voicing concern about the welfare of Tamils lodged in various camps in the island nation after the end of the war against the LTTE. Singh said, "We have conveyed these concerns in no uncertain terms to Sri Lanka on various occasions, stressing the need for them to focus on resettling and rehabilitating the displaced Tamil population at the earliest." India was committed to working on a "priority basis" for the relief and rehabilitation of internally displaced civilians in Sri Lanka, Singh said adding "our humanitarian assistance has been substantial."

UN envoy touring Sri Lanka camps 
 
A top UN envoy is touring camps holding hundreds of thousands of displaced Tamils in northern Sri Lanka.Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe has visited the camps in Jaffna and is now heading to the biggest camp, Menik Farm. Mr Pascoe is in Sri Lanka for talks with the government on the post-conflict situation in the country. He is expected to press the government to speed up the release of about 300,000 Tamils currently held in camps. Earlier, he said he would also urge the government to address allegations of human rights abuses during the fighting. Sri Lanka's civil war came to an end earlier this year after government forces defeated Tamil Tiger rebels. Mr Pascoe is scheduled to meet the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Friday. UN officials say Mr Pascoe will be holding talks on critical issues related to the aftermath of the armed conflict. The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says there are issues of great sensitivity. One is the resettlement of the Tamil internal refugees, most of whom are still not allowed to leave government-run camps in the north. Although the authorities are gradually letting some return to their villages, the UN wants to see faster progress. Aid agencies have also been warning that shelters may not easily withstand the monsoon. Another sensitive area is setting up what the UN calls a mechanism of accountability, for alleged human rights violations in the context of the conflict. Mr Pascoe will also have talks on political reconciliation.

HR probe: Lanka informed of US move

Robert O. Blake, Assistant Secretary, South and Central Asian Affairs has informed Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Washington Jaliya Wickremasuriya that a report on the conduct of government forces during the war against the LTTE would be submitted to the US Congress on Monday (September 21).Ministerial and Defence sources told The Island that this was expected as part of their strategy to pressure Sri Lanka on the human rights front. Sources pointed out that the US move preceded UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe’s visit to Colombo to discuss what the UN Office in Colombo called critical issues related to the aftermath of the conflict.According to the UN, talks would cover resettlement of internally displaced persons, political reconciliation and the establishment of a mechanism of accountability for alleged human rights violations. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday said that Sri Lanka was targeted by a section of the international community for being successful in her war against the LTTE, a group proscribed by India, US, UK and EU. In a brief interview with The Island, the veteran soldier said that a section of the international community and their local agents had conveniently forgotten the death and destruction caused by the LTTE. Referring to a spate of recent statements attributed to Opposition politicians, INGO/NGO activists and UN officials, he said that all this was part of a major propaganda campaign directed at the Sri Lankan government. Responding to our queries, he said that this threat was as serious as the one posed by the LTTE a year ago. A section of the media, too, had contributed to this strategy, he said urging the international community not to adopt double standards in dealing with the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, where US-led allied forces were fighting terrorists and Sri Lanka’s war. "Our successful war should be considered as part the global campaign against terror," he said.He emphasised the importance of investigating the LTTE international arms procurement network now that it had been militarily defeated.Government sources told The Island that in the run up to the last presidential election, an attempt had been to move a resolution in the US Senate to undermine the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s campaign. Sources said that the ongoing campaign on diplomatic and economic fronts was to destabilise the government ahead of the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena, MP, told a press conference on Wednesday that the elections would be held late this year or early next.

A senior sea tiger member arrested in Negombo

Police sector inform a Senior Sea tiger member of the Tamil Eelam Liberatin tiger movement was arrested in Negombo. The said person, had planned to initiate many attacks in Colombo during the war period, with a Muslim name is according to information. It is informed the said sea tiger member had been roaming as Abdul Raheem and he had attempted to travel by sea route to Australia by boat but he failed in his mission was stated. He was arrested while he attempted on the second time, to proceed to Australia. In recent times, government had been informing that many senior members of Tamil Eelam liberation tigers are being arrested.

Pillayan bitterly opposes President’s decision 
 
The decision of the President to extend the service of Eastern provincial council (EPC) Secretary V. Balasingham who has reached his 60th year has met with bitter opposition from EPC Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (Pillayan)Pillayan has sent a letter to the President expressing his resentment against his decision explaining that under the 13th amendment, it is the Chief Minister who should appoint the Secretary. Pillayan charges that Balasingham is acting only in accordance with the instructions of the EP Governor.

Rains go North

Vavuniya and Mannar experienced heavy rains from dawn yesterday (17).All wells in the area had gone dry due to the prolonged drought in these areas and people were supplied drinking water through bowsers and paddy farmers were unable to begin cultivation for the Yala season due to the drought.Residents of Vavuniya and Mannar said that this was the onset of the North-East monsson and expected it to prevail for a few more weeks.

New U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka

U.S. Ambassador Patricia Butenis presented her credentials as Ambassador to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka today to His Excellency, President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Patricia A. Butenis was nominated by President Barack Obama as the U.S. Ambassador to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the Republic of Maldives on May 27, 2009. She was confirmed by the Senate on August 4, 2009 and sworn in on August 19, 2009. She is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, rank of Minister-Counselor.Prior to this assignment, Ambassador Butenis served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2007-2009. From 2006-2007, she served as Ambassador to Bangladesh and from 2004-2006 as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.Ms. Butenis joined the Foreign Service in 1980. She has served as Vice Consul in Karachi, Pakistan (1980-1982); Vice Consul/Political Officer in San Salvador, El Salvador (1982-1985); Consul in New Delhi, India (1985-1988); El Salvador Desk Officer (1988-1990); and Consul (American Citizen Services Chief) in Bogotá, Colombia (1990-1993). She attended the National War College (1993-1994) and also served at the Visa Office, Field Liaison, in the Department of State (1994-1997). She then served as Consul General in Warsaw, Poland (1998-2001) and Consul General in Bogotá, Colombia (2001-2004).Ms. Butenis received a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in International Relations from Columbia University.

Matter raised with UK Press Complaints Commission

The Sri Lankan High Commission in London has lodged a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission, UK against Channel 4 TV. The complaint was lodged for not complying with its request to air an apology for the telecast of an unverified video footage, after the Government established in four separate investigations that the said footage was in fact a fake. Following the findings of the investigations on the video, sourced to 'Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka', an unknown organization based in Berlin, the Government wrote to Channel 4 requesting them to retract the footage. "We have not received anything substantial," Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said asked if there was any response from the News channel to this plea. He said the High Commission made a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission and Attorney General Mohan Peiris left for London from Geneva yesterday, after attending the UN Security Council Sessions, to meet with a local law firm. The Attorney General will have legal consultations as to the future course of action against Channel 4. The footage which claimed Sri Lankan soldiers shooting unarmed LTTE cadres was first telecast by Channel 4 and later picked up by many international media services provoking disturbing comments from several international figures including UN Special Rapporteur on summary killings Prof. Philip Alston who called for an international investigation. The reports of the forensic findings were submitted to UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon, Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay and others who made concerned remarks.

Protest against TMVP office in Ampara

Suspected loyalists of MP Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan (Karuna) set tyres ablaze across key roads in Ampara yesterday morning in close proximity to where the TMVP offices are located. The reason for this action is thought to be MP Muralitharan’s opposition to the opening of the new TMVP offices by the Chief Minister of Eastern Provincial Council Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan. The Special Task Force and police had to clear the roads this morning to ensure traffic was no disrupted as a result of this action.

17 September 2009

"Grant amnesty" for political prisoners 

Relatives of war affected called upon the government to grant an amnesty for political prisoners.The request was made from the government following a public meeting held in Colombo organised by the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC). The Sri Lankan government says that nearly 10,000 suspected Tamil Tigers are held in detention.CMC convener, Parliamentarian Mano Ganeshan recalled that senior Tamil Tigers George Master and Daya Master has already been released on bail. "If they can be released why are students been detained?" asked MP Ganeshan. LTTE media co-ordinator, Velayudam Dayanidhi widely known as Daya Master and translator, Kumar Pancharatnam known as George Master surrendered to Sri Lanka military in Puthumathalan in April. Many Tamils attended the meeting carrying photographs of their relatives who have dissapeared in the war.Addressing the meeting Sri Lanka freedom Party Mahajana wing leader said that over 10,000 have disappeared from war refugee camps in Vavunia. "Thirty to fourty disappear daily," said Mangala Samaraweera MP, quoting a high ranking official.Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe told the gathering that he does not see fault of informing the international community of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. "It was Mahinda Rajapaksa who initiated the practice of crying out to the world," added the opposition leader.  

SB ready to be joint Opp. candidate at Presidential election

UNP National Organiser S. B. Dissanayake yesterday said that the joint opposition candidate for the next presidential poll would be from the UNP and would contest under the elephant symbol. The working committee of the UNP had given its consent to reach an understanding with several political parties in this regard, he told a press conference, called yesterday, to announce the launch of ten books on Friday (September 18).Responding to The Island queries, he said that if he received an invitation to contest the presidential election, he would accept the challenge.He accused the Rajapaksa administration of shamelessly exploiting the armed forces’ success over the LTTE to win elections. He said that had there been a level playing field, the UNP could overwhelm the government.

Atmosphere of fear continue to stalk Lanka: Chandrika

There is an atmosphere of fear and lack of freedom in Sri Lanka even after the end of LTTE, the country's former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who survived an assassination attempt by the group, said today."Even I care for my life. It is a government of my party (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) that is in power. Still even I don't feel safe," Kumaratunga, who was on a personal visit to Kerala, told reporters here."Overall there is lack of freedom and an atmosphere of fear is prevailing in the country. Basic rights of the people and media freedom are restricted in Sri Lanka," she said.Asked about human rights violations, she said it was not appropriate for her to comment on it. "Let the Government say," she said.She was interacting with reporters before making a courtesy call on Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.

Major on-line credit card scam busted

Police yesterday busted a major on-line credit card scam following the arrest of a Sri Lankan near Colombo believed to be the kingpin of the operation. He and his associates have used stolen credit card numbers to purchase items on-line and Police believe that one of the stolen credit card numbers may belong to a popular British film actor, better known for his acting prowess in comedy films. According to Wattala Police OIC Janaka Karunasinghe the arrested person with the help of several associates is believed to have engaged in similar frauds for almost 12 years. He added that the Police were on the trail of several more suspects and had launched a thorough investigation into the incident.

Arrested Tigers now coughing out secrets: Dulles

Certain LTTE leaders now in custody have revealed that the Parliamentary Select Committee on the MiG deal demanded by the Opposition was part of an LTTE conspiracy to stop the Government’s transaction in this regard, Minister Dulles Alahapperuma said yesterday.The Minister said that the Government planned to purchase MiG 29 aircraft to blunt the military prowess of the LTTE at that time, so the Tigers had hatched a conspiracy through Parliament to force the Government to cancel this transaction.“If we replenish our arsenal with such fighter aircraft, it will be disadvantageous to the LTTE. Therefore, a plan was worked out to prevent the Government from proceeding with this deal. More details will be exposed to the media very soon,” he said.However, he said that this select committee met three times, but the UNP which demanded it did not participate. “Only a JVP MP participated in it representing the Opposition,” he said.He said that valuable information had been extracted from these LTTE leaders in custody, and they would have a media briefing at the appropriate time to reveal them.Mr. Alahapperuma also said an international conspiracy was now being hatched to destabilise the Government with two local politicians and a former foreign diplomat involved in it.“One politician is from the UNP and the other one does not belong to any political party at the moment. It is too early for us to reveal their names now. We will do it at the right time. They may launch their plan against the Government this week itself,” he said.

16 September 2009

Fresh boost for peace process

With war over, the crucial peace process appears to be back on track as several recent key developments giving a fresh boost to a permanent solution to multi-decade old conflict.UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe will be arriving in Sri Lanka today on a three day visit and is expected to meet with President Mahinda Rajapaksa for discussions regarding a political solution and resettlement of internally displaced people, according to the Foreign Ministry. The invitation was preceded by a telephone conversation between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday. In the backdrop of this visit UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe called on the President to publicly declare his stance on the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) proposals, which were handed over to him three weeks ago and commence discussions with other political parties before the end of this month. Speaking at the swearing in ceremony for Uva opposition provincial council members he noted that it was his belief that a “vast majority” of the suggestions in the APRC proposals were agreeable to the UNP and therefore could be subjected to discussions without further delay. “Even if these proposals do not achieve the goals of the UNP we are nonetheless keen to consider them carefully and present whatever support that is in our power to ensure peace. We must concentrate on the fact that an effort is being made in this regard and it is our duty as representatives of the people to evaluate the progress that has already been made. This is a step in the right direction and we must support it,” UNP leader Wickremesinghe said yesterday.In response APRC Chairman Prof. Tissa Vitharana told The Bottom Line that he applauded the sentiments expressed by the Opposition Leader but maintained that he was unaware of any response from the President or what the next step would be. “I’m very pleased with the comments the UNP Leader has made. However, the proposal that have been handed over to the President is rather extensive and he will need some time to carefully deliberate on them before he can make his stance clear. This will take time.” He emphasised that President Rajapaksa had not contacted him after the proposals were handed over and no further meeting was scheduled in this regard for the immediate future. “The President must now decide how these proposals should proceed,” Prof. Vitharana admitted expressing confidence that a response would be forthcoming, though it might take time. Meanwhile, UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe’s visit takes place against the background of ongoing cooperation between Sri Lanka and the UN on a number of post-conflict issues discussed during the visit of the UN Secretary General to Sri Lanka in May this year. Lynn Pascoe was a member of the UN Secretary General’s delegation on that occasion, noted a press release from the Foreign Ministry. The statement further said that during his visit Pascoe will hold discussions with a number of Ministers and senior representatives of the Government dealing with matters related to ongoing progress on post-conflict issues such as humanitarian assistance, resettlement of IDPs and the political process.  Pascoe is also expected to visit the IDP centers in the North. International media reports had quoted Pascoe at a press conference before he left as saying “We have been concerned about the pace of progress since the secretary-general was out there. We’re particularly concerned about the people in the camps, and getting them out, getting them home. The secretary-general said that he would like for me to go out fairly quickly to deal with follow-up issues and where they’re going. President Rajapaksa agreed and so I’ll be in Sri Lanka with a small team.”

"We Don't Want Development, We Want Our Rights!"

The message shouted from an elder woman inside Zone 2's internment camps in Sri Lanka was clear as she angrily harassed a humanitarian worker attempting to install latrines that would signal a longer, more permanent, residence in unlivable internment camps . It's a message that is perhaps best directed at the United Nations and donor countries who, in the case of Sri Lanka, have chosen "access" to hundreds of internally displaced civilians over "advocacy" in their best interests.With small pockets of civilians uprooted by a bloody end to Sri Lanka's protracted civil war resettled in their home districts, the majority of the 300,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) from the minority Tamil population remain in sprawling internment camps with dwindling supplies of fresh water, quickly spreading communicable diseases, and up to three families in one tent . The camps are, however, equipped with ATM machines -- reinforcing within the camps what has become obvious outside of the camps. Those with money have power.The actors with money: The Government of Sri Lanka (2.5 billion US$ wealthier after the approval of a recent International Monetary Fund loan), the UN, and donor countries (primarily China). Since they have neither the money nor the representation to influence their own destiny, Tamil civilians must rely on the UN as their voice. It is an option many in the camps trust less than the promises of a militaristic regime responsible for their captivity. Most of the animosity is directed at Secretary General Ban Ki Moon- who was notably silent as their loved ones perished in the final days of fighting. In a leaked memo, Norwegian Deputy Ambassador Mona Juul says of Sri Lanka, "the Secretary-General's moral voice and authority have been absent." Why the silence? Perhaps because discussions in the Security Council of Tamil civilian lives were relegated to the basement of the UN, as opposed to Darfurian lives which are allowed consideration on higher floors. Perhaps because Sri Lanka was never an item on the Security Council Agenda, despite having the votes necessary. Some speculate it is the hardline position of the Secretary General's advisors, bolstered by a Human Rights Council debate deeming the Sri Lankan war an "internal matter". Officially, the UN laments that its lack of leverage on behalf of the affected civilians is derived from the growing influence of China and India on the island. In broad macroeconomic terms the Asian powers, capitalizing on the ill-gotten gains of peace, are certainly engaged in a fiscal duel for dominance in Sri Lanka. However, in development aid, most of their funds are dispersed through the UN - and a quick survey of any of the camps will reveal that UN tents far outnumber those provided by the Chinese government. The omnipresence of UN staff on the ground should imply a natural mandate in the debates around resettlement, but it is a power the organization has been hesitant to embrace.It must be noted that in these internment camps there are sympathetic government soldiers (one lieutenant reportedly consistently siphons off food from rations to ensure children in his care are well-fed), and committed local UN staff -but all are beholden to a leadership which seems deaf to their concerns. While outside humanitarian groups are not (are never) entirely innocent, in Sri Lanka they too have been subsumed under the dominance of the UN (recently accused of not sharing crucial information). What is the message being conveyed by the actions of power players at the UN? That in a "post-conflict" environment, only a victor's justice is available to a marginalized constituency. Talking heads and a growing number of colored rubber bracelets have tried to convince us that "development" will solve all problems, ethnic or otherwise. But what happens when in order to maintain a presence in a country, and access to displaced civilians, the largest outside "development" actor forgoes its responsibility to advocate for rights guaranteed in the Geneva Convention? While the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are no longer the focal point for Tamil nationalism, separatist sentiments remain high among a population who will no longer accept the exchange of humanitarian aid for political rights.The assassinated Sinhalese journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga predicted in January of this year, "A military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the post-war era." As Tamils around the world are now being recruited into "power-sharing" discussions and "trust-building" exercises, it is important to recognize that a significant amount of power remains in the hands of the UN, an institution that the minority Tamils once trusted with their lives.The monsoon rains this fall are predicted to trigger a humanitarian crisis as every existing concern outlined by human rights groups (poor sanitation, collapsing tents, lack of medical care) will be exacerbated by massive flooding. Local and international NGOs have warned that no amount of money poured into the overcrowded camps will prevent the loss of thousands of civilian lives. Logistically, at least 100,000 (approximately 1/3) of the displaced civilians must be evacuated to their original homes in the Northern and Eastern districts before the onset of the rains. It seems that only when the international community recognizes the limits of "development" will Tamil civilians, inadvertently, be granted the most basic of rights- the right of return.

EU set to slap trade sanctions on Sri Lanka

Exports of Sri Lankan clothes and sportswear to Europe face being banned over allegations of human rights abuses, a diplomat from the country confirmed on Tuesday. Although the European Union has asked the Sri Lankan government to respond to the allegations of human rights abuses during the civil war this year, a London-based Sri Lankan diplomat said, "Their minds seem to be made up". "We are exploring alternatives," the diplomat told IANS, and replied in the affirmative when asked if he meant plans to marketing in India and elsewhere in Asia. "This will hit the people, not the government," he added. The European Union decided to withdraw trade benefits under the General System of Preference Plus after human rights consultants hired by it reported police torture, abduction of journalists and uninvestigated disappearances during the civil war against Tamil separatists ending in May. They alleged "complete or virtually complete impunity in Sri Lanka", and criticised the detention of nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamils in internment camps following the defeat of rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, The Times newspaper reported Tuesday. Sri Lanka had denied entry to an official EU human rights team. Cheap and good quality Sri Lankan-made garments are widely available in Europe, including British retail stores such as Next, Tesco and Marks & Spencer, under a duty free regime introduced to aid Sri Lanka's economic recovery after the 2004 tsunami. The Times said the EU move threatens to destroy the livelihoods of 250,000 workers. In addition, the garment industry indirectly supports up to a million Sri Lankans. It quoted an EU diplomat as saying, "Given how critical the [human rights] report is, and how Sri Lanka is likely to respond, it will now be very hard to extend it." President Mahinda Rajapaksa has formed a committee of four cabinet ministers to formulate Sri Lanka's response to the EU charges.

Tamil exiles to form 'government' 

Exiled political activists of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels say they will form an international government to pursue their political demands.They plan to hold elections across the Tamil diaspora within six months to form an international government. In a statement the activists claim this government would campaign for a homeland based on self-determination. It is the first major statement from the rebel group since the capture of their leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan. As before, they say they will set up what they call a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, based across the countries where there are diaspora communities. But they now also say they are planning elections to that government by next April, with a full electoral commission and country committees drawing up voter registers. They are highly critical of the situation inside Sri Lanka, saying they seek to end what they call the Sri Lankan government's "acts of revenge" on Tamils and its "plundering of the resources of [their] homeland". Their rhetoric is strong - they refer to the government's "Sinhala-Buddhist genocidal forces". But they have repeated that their new approach will be political, not violent. That is unlikely to soften the attitude of the government here, which has made it clear that it is now hunting the Tamil lawyer who has signed this document, Visvanathan Rudrakumaran. This statement does not make it clear how all their plans will be logistically possible. But the group is clearly still wedded to the idea of a separate homeland, which many observers consider to be defunct after their military defeat.

Britain further relaxes travel advisory on Sri Lanka
   
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has further relaxed the travel advisory on Sri Lanka. The British Acting High Commissioner, Mark Gooding said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office updated its travel advice for Sri Lanka to reflect Britain’s latest assessment of the current security situation in Sri Lanka.  “We have relaxed our advice such that we are now informing travellers that there is now a general (as opposed to high) threat from terrorism which means that there is some level of known terrorist activity in-country.  This latest change is a sensible precautionary measure that reflects the latest available information and is intended to help UK nationals make informed decisions on whether to travel to Sri Lanka. We continue to recommend strongly that UK nationals who are resident, working,

Protestors attack CWC office as plantation wage issue continues

The still unresolved plantation wage issue created yet another scene in Bogawantalawa town today (Sept. 15), with protestors stoning the CWC office as well as the police station there.They had also reportedly prevented CWC leader minister Arumugam Thondaman from visiting the area, accusing him of betraying their struggle.Police had to fire teargas to dispel the demonstrators who raised black flags in the area as a mark of protest, reports said.The CWC has previously agreed to employers’ proposal for a Rs. 405 wage for tea workers despite strong opposition from other trade unions involved in the union action that began on September 01.According to reports, even some disgruntled CWC supporters have joined the protestors, who demand a wage of Rs. 500.A few days ago, CWC supporters had reportedly attacked and injured several activists of a rival political party involved in the wage issue.Meanwhile, reports say that a majority of workers returned to their work at tea plantations and factories today.

US Congress to take up report on Lanka
   
A United States report on the Sri Lankan war is to be presented to the US Congress next week, US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues told the Time Magazine. “There are situations that have already been handed to us. There is a report from the State Department on the war in Sri Lanka due in Congress on Sept. 21. Additionally the office, together with the Secretary for Global Affairs and  the Secretary of State, has the responsibility to collect information on ongoing atrocities and it is then the responsibility of the President to determine what steps may be taken towards justice. Like the canary in the coalmine, we give the signal that something very serious is occurring,” Ambassador Stephen Rapp said in a response to a question posed to him by the magazine.

Lanka turns heat on Eritrea

With the LTTE’s influential propaganda machinery overseas flexing its muscles menacingly, and the arrested LTTE leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP, throwing light on the group’s still active international arms procuring network, the Sri Lankan government has decided to go on a diplomatic offensive to smash the Tigers’ overseas structures.On Sunday, Lakbimanews quoted Sh­anaka Jayasekara, a Sri Lankan researcher on terrorism, as saying that the LTTE had its presence in over 44 countries, with established structures in 12 of them. The weekly paper also reported that the Sri Lankan intelligence had intercepted several satellite phone calls made by Aiyanna, an overseas operative of the LTTE. The “Aiyanna Group” controls intelligence as well as funds-gathering in the West. Aiyanna, who contacted an LTTE sleeper in Colombo and another in Jaffna, had appealed to the former to prepare for the next phase of the struggle. He had, however, cautioned against rushing into attacks now, to avoid detection in the formative stage itself.Aiyanna had instructed the Tiger operative in Jaffna to resume fund raising in the peninsula.To check the influence of LTTE and its cohorts abroad, Colombo is planning to make a formal request to the US government to extradite the US-based lawyer, Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, who has become the convenor of the LTTE’s committee for the establishment of Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.

ENTRENCHED IN ERITREA: Colombo is to open a mission in Asmara, capital of Eritrea, a country in the Horn of Africa, which had been a major hub of the LTTE’s arms procuring network, local media reports say. An official of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, Major General Amal Karunasekara, is tipped to be Sri Lanka’s first envoy to Eritrea. There would be new missions elsewhere too, to keep a tab on the LTTE. According to a report of the US Foreign Relations Committee, dated December 2006, which KP confirmed that Eritrea had functioned as a trans-shipment base for the LTTE as well as a safe haven for its key operators of the arms smuggling network. The Lankan media reports say that most of the End- User Certificates (EUCs) the LTTE had got to procure arms were from Eritrea and Myanmar. KP also confessed that the LTTE had close contacts with the top brass in the Eritrean government. Prabhakaran had a special rapport with the Eritrean President, Isaias Afewerki, a former rebel leader, Jayasekara said.

LTTE funding lines intact, says NSA

The LTTE leadership may have been wiped out in a massive offensive by the Sri Lankan army, but the threat from the dreaded terror outfit  is far from over. National Security Adviser MK Narayanan on Monday warned that with the Tamil diaspora, which was the main source of funding for LTTE, spread far and wide, the threat of the outfit raising its head once again could not be ruled out. In his address to DGP/IGP conference here on Monday, Mr Narayanan said that the funding lines of LTTE were still intact and there was always a possibility that disgruntled elements in the Tamil diaspora across the globe could get together to help the terror outfit regroup and rearm. There was need to keep a watch for any such development and be prepared for any eventuality, he suggested. 

15 September 2009

UN concern over Sri Lanka displaced
 
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, says civilians displaced in the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka have been effectively detained under conditions of internment. the comments were published in her prepared address to the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva made available to the media.In the statement she said an intolerable number of people continued to live in the camps and restriction of access for aid agencies to these centres had threatened humanitarian work. More than a quarter of a million Tamil civilians have been kept for months in government-run camps in the north.

Internment camps

The Sri Lankan government, which describes the camps as welfare villages, says it intends to resettle most of the civilians by the end of this year. In the text of the speech, which is due to be delivered on Tuesday, the high commissioner say, "internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka are effectively detained under conditions of internment. Humanitarian agencies’ access to these camps remains restricted, and the mandates of relief agencies are increasingly coming under threat". In his speech to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday, Human Rights minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said the government had already released over fifteen thousand Internally displaced from the camps.

Police arrest 8 Menik Farm escapees

Tantrimale Police yesterday arrested eight persons said to have escaped from the Manik Farm Welfare Centre in Vavuniya.Police said they were aged between 25 and 45 years. Investigations are on to ascertain whether they were connected to the LTTE. Initial investigations had revealed they were from Jaffna, Vavuniya and Kilinochchi and it was suspected that they were planning to leave the country.A senior Police source in Anuradhapura said that the men were held in custody following a detention order and being interrogated.

Sri Lanka to offer oil blocks to India for exploration
   
Sri Lanka has said it will offer oil blocks to Reliance Industries Ltd. and Cairn Energy Plc for exploration. The island which is recovering from a three-decade old civil war, is expecting foreign investment to increase to $1 billion this year from $835 million in 2008."For exploration Cairns India took one block that was of $400 million and  if Reliance is coming it will be into that figure at least." Minister of Investment Promotion Navin Dissanayake speaking in India said  He said he would be visiting Mumbai tomorrow to meet senior RIL officials."We have identified couple of blocks exclusively for India," Dissanayake said, adding that RIL has shown interest in the Sri Lankan oil fields.On the size of the proposed deal with Reliance, he said, The oil blocks which Sri Lanka has offered to RIL are located in Mannar and Southern basins, the visiting minister said.He also said that his government was talking with Aditya Birla Group for setting up a plant for manufacturing of carbon black, a product used in tyre manufacturing. The Sri Lankan minister said that the proposed investment in the carbon black plant would be in the range of $40-50 million.The neighbouring country is also in talks with Mahindra group for setting up of an IT park with an investment of $70-100 million.The park with a capacity of 10,000 seats is likely to be set up at the outskirts of Colombo, Dissanayake said."... They will develop the park, which will have operations like BPO and high end data entry," he said.The minister has also sought investment from India in the sectors like IT, agriculture, tourism, textiles, gems and jewellery and infrastructure.

LTTE Bank manager further remanded

A strong  LTTE activist and the manager  of LTTE  Rural  Benefit Bank  of North  was further remanded till September 28 by the Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi yesterday.Keselwatte Police filing a report in court submitted that they will seek the  Attorney General’s advice about the LTTE activist T.H. Collins Ruben of Padamalai Polikanchi Jaffna. According to the Police the suspect had worked in the LTTE  controlled Bank named Rural Benefit Bank in the North as the manager and was  involved in  financial dealings with other international  terrorist   movements.The Police said his kith and kin had been involved with the LTTE movement and  his family had been  named as “Maha Viru family” by the LTTE.Keselwatte Police OIC W.M. Chandrathilaka said that the suspect was arrested at a lodge at Hulftsdorp Street on June 2 while conducting a search operation by Keselwatte Police and had been detained for three months   subsequent to his transfer to the remand  prison.The OIC said the suspect confessed to the Police over his involvements with the LTTE. Counsel   A. Chandranie Jagodaarachchi   appearing for the suspect informed that her client had been in remand and in detention for over three months without instituting charges and moved to grant him bail. The magistrate remanded the suspect till September 28. 

Australia boosts funds for Sri Lankan displaced

Australia is giving another $3 million towards the resettlement of thousands of Sri Lankans still in camps after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers by government forces earlier this year.The amount is on top of $2 million announced on the weekend.Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says Australia will watch the resettlement process and treatment of the displaced closely."It is now vital to move quickly, more quickly than has been the case to this point, to create the conditions for them to rebuild their lives," he said."Australia and the international community continue to watch closely to see how the Sri Lankan authorities treat people in camps for internally displaced people, how they manage their resettlement, and how they institute political reform and reconciliation. "Mr Smith has also backed the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF.A UNICEF spokesman in Colombo, Australian aid worker James Elder, had been threatened with expulsion over his complaints about a lack of international access to the Sri Lankans still in camps."I have looked at Mr Elder's reported remarks and they do not cause me any difficulty," Mr Smith said. "Indeed he has been making the point - as has the Australian Government - that we need to see unimpeded access by international agencies to the camps for internally displaced people."I take this opportunity to commend the work of UNICEF."Sri Lanka's government has since said it is reviewing the expulsion order.

President falls from chair at literary awards ceremony   
 
The President who was the Chief guest at a State literary awards ceremony at the President’s Secretariat yesterday (14) fell down from the chair that was assigned to him due to a fault in the chair. The President a little while later left the venue without addressing the gathering.The ceremony commenced at 10.35 yesterday morning at the Secretariat. The President however arrived at 11.25 a.m. Deputy Minister of Justice V. Puthrasigamany had by that time has distributed a number of awards and certificates to the recipients.The president who sat in a revolving chair fell down as it slid . The President who was offered a chair by a Minister who was seated close by. But, the President said something resentfully to the Minister . Although the Security Division provided him with a chair , he did not sit on that chair.Cultural and National Heritage Deputy Minister and President then took the stage , while President was asked to take the center stage. Though the President was requested to move to the replaced chair by the Minsiter , the President ignored this , and went forward beside that chair to hand over the lifetime ‘Sahitya Ratne ‘ award to Dr. Tissa Kariyawasam , Dr .Kandiah Kunarasa and Dr. Ashley Herath.But, when the names of the next awardees were being called , the President walked past the awardees wishing them , and left the premises without informing.According to an invitee , the President’s disappointment was writ large on his face when he was leaving without addressing the gathering .Wannier Udayanan and Mrs. Sunethra Rajakarunanayake were also among the awardees at the occasion.

KP met Taliban for arms running’

Sri Lankan experts on the LTTE have said that the outfit had a front company in Karachi to smuggle arms, and a safe house in Peshawar to liaise with the Taliban.According to Shanaka Jayasekara, a terrorism researcher based in Macquarie University, Australia, the LTTE’s arms procurer, Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP, had traveled from Bangkok to Kabul through Karachi, on May 19, 2001. He had meetings with Taliban officials on matters relating to the notorious “Sharjah Network”. The “Sharjah network” is an arms supply line run by the infamous Russian arms dealer, Victor Bout, who had operated three to four flights daily to Kabul to transport arms. Lakbimanews quotes Jayasekara as saying that the LTTE operated a cargo company Otharad Cargo in Dubai, 17 km from the offices of the Sharjah Network. Otharad Cargo is believed to have acquired several consignments of military hardware as part of consolidated purchase arrangements with the Taliban’s “Sharjah network”.Jayasekara claims that information recovered from a laptop computer of an LTTE procurement agent, now in the custody of a Western country, has provided detailed information on LTTE’s activities in Pakistan.According to Rohan Gunaratna, a Sri Lankan expert on terrorism with the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism, in Malaysia, the LTTE had links with Jehadis in the Pakistani frontier and it had a safe house in Peshawar.Pakistani Prime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, had said that the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, had told him in Libya recently, that elements in Sri Lanka were linked with terrorist events in Pakistan, including the gun attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.

I won’t be a mute spectator: Vijay  
   
I won't be a mute spectator to the sufferings of Tamils. I will join hands in future with a government that works for the welfare of the Tamils, popular Tamilnadu actor Vijay said.The actor, who called a press conference to clarify his position as the media predicted that he would join the Congress soon, said, "It is true that I met Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi. I was amazed by his dignified approach and he made kind enquiries about my film life."Vijay who said he discussed with Rahul the work of his 'People's Movement' and Tamil Nadu politics, however denied to elaborate further saying that it would not be appropriate to disclose details of the discussion."I am in no position to take a decision regarding politics. My priority is acting and I have no immediate political plans," Vijay said on Sunday.When asked to compare Congress and DMK, the actor refused to answer the question saying that he lacked the experience. He was assisted by his father, producer-director S. A. Chandrasekar.

'Released' IDPs still in camps
 
Displaced Tamil people released from the camps in Vavuniya are still in camps, local political leaders say.R Thurairatnam, a member of the eastern provincial council, told BBC Sandeshaya that 123 families released from Vavuniya camps are still kept in camps in Batticaloa. 360 people are currently kept in two schools, Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya and Kurukkalmadam Vidyalaya, in Batticaloa in early morning on Saturday. Correspondents say the internally displaced people (IDPs) earlier released from Vavuniya camps were allowed to go home or visit their relatives.

'Over 9000 released'

Nearly 300,000 IDPs are held in government run camps in Vavuniya. The government has recently released some of them, elderly and children are mainly among them. On Friday, nearly 2,000 or so people were allowed to leave the Menik Farm camp. The government said 9900 IDPs were released.“Among those released were 6838 to Jaffna, 2170 to Trincomalee, 683 to Batticaloa and 274 to Ampara,” a statement by the Defence Ministry website said. Mr. Thurairatnam, a member of the EPRLF, was told by officials providing security at the Batticaloa camps that the IDPs will be released within next few days after registration process is over. However, no reason was given for their continued detention, he said.BBC Sandeshaya could not contact Resettlement Minister Risath Badiuddeen, despite repeated attempts.

Action would be taken against TNA Parliament members residing in foreign countries : Government

Government inform, continuous leave cannot be granted to the Tamil National Alliance parliament members residing in foreign countries. Regarding their leave, it would be discussed with their party leaders, and very soon action would be taken was stated by the government. The “Lakbima” newspaper had quoted in a news item, the TNA members residing in foreign countries are involved in campaigning against the government. Hence the ruling party members have appealed that legal action should be taken against such Tamil National Alliance parliament members. More attention would be taken to cancel the parliament membership to those TNA parliament members for staying back in foreign countries, by availing long leave.

PC members not knowledgeable: Minister

Minister of National Integration Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna) yesterday said that the eastern provincial council members were incompetent and not knowledgeable.Addressing the North Eastern province government servants at the Batticaloa Teachers Training College yesterday morning, the Minister made this comment with regard to the recent media reports that the provincial council members were insisting the President on the removal of the Governor of the Eastern Province Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrema. “The governor is an honest, justifiable and straight forward person, the provincial council members want to remove him from his post of governor as he is opposed to their demanding money ranging from 50,000 to 500,000 from the provincial council to fill vacancies existing in the eastern provincial council health sector,” Minister Muralitharan said.He further said that the governor was appointed by the President. “Can the Provincial Council members remove him from his post and what rights have they got to ask the President for his removal?” he  asked.

14 September 2009

TNA for political solution within undivided Sri Lanka – Sampanthan
 
‘We will continue to work towards a political solution to the National Question within the framework of an undivided and united Sri Lanka. The TNA’s aim continues to be substantial political autonomy for the Tamil and Muslim peoples in the areas they historically inhabit in this country. It is our assessment that the Tamil-speaking people are strongly behind these aims. We want to engage in political activities which would emphasize this position’, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader and veteran Tamil politician R. Sampanthan said.Questioned by this journalist in an interview on Sept. 11, whether the Tamil people are continuing to be committed to the ‘federal option’ in these post-LTTE times, the TNA chief said that ‘there is no question about it’. He explained that ‘our people want to live in this country as equals with adequate self-rule’ and ‘ do not want to be treated as second class citizens; they do not want to be treated as subjects’. The TNA leader also said that his party’s Sept. 7 meeting with President Rajapaksa was focused on the situation of the IDPs. ‘Insofar as the activities of the government in relation to the IDPs are concerned, we are prepared to work with the government to alleviate the conditions of the IDPs and to facilitate their early resettlement’, he explained. However, the TNA would not be compromising its principles in the process of doing so, he said.

Excerpts of interview:

Q: It was reported that the TNA had recently met with the President for the purpose of working with the government. Does this have a factual basis?

A: The TNA met the President and some others in government on Sept. 7, in order to discuss the situation of the Internally Displaced Persons. In the camps in Vavuniya there are said to be some 280,000 people. There are reports that these people are undergoing a great deal of deprivation and suffering with the setting in of the monsoon. I have always stressed that these IDPs must be resettled in the lands from which they were displaced, at the very earliest. The government had made a commitment to India, the EU and the international community, that they would substantially complete resettlement of at least 80% of the IDPs within 180 days. At the meeting we pointed out to the President that already more than 90 days had elapsed since this commitment was made and that in our assessment not more than 10% of IDPs had left the camps. We said that this situation caused concern; because with the monsoon things would only become more difficult and we expressed concern whether the government’s resettlement programme could proceed in terms of the government’s commitment. A very substantial settlement is expected to be completed before the expiration of 180 days.

We also had other issues to raise in relation to the IDPs, such as landmines and screening, and so the meeting was really focused on the well being of the IDPs. Insofar as the activities of the government in relation to the IDPs are concerned, we are certainly prepared to work with the government to alleviate the conditions of the IDPs and to facilitate early resettlement. We told the President that we were unhappy with the mechanisms now in place to implement these tasks and we are not aware that there is a very clear road map or programme in regard to the settlement of the IDPs.

We said that that we substantially represent our people. Of the six Members of Parliament from Vavuniya, five are from my party. Of the nine MPs from Jaffna, eight are from my party. These MPs are prevented from visiting the camps and meeting the IDPs. These MPs have no say in the resettlement of IDPs. The Task Force set up to resettle IDPs consists of Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, Presidential Advisor, military and government officials from the national and district level and public officials from outside. We said that we are not satisfied with this mechanism and that it should be reconstituted and that we should play a greater role in it. The representatives of these people in Parliament, that is, should play a bigger role in their resettlement.

The President listened to us very carefully and said that he would get back to us in regard to these matters after he consulted with the Security Council.We also said that friends and relations of these IDPs who are prepared to accommodate them in their homes must be allowed to do so, in order to reduce the numbers in the camps. The government also seems to be thinking on these lines, particularly in view of the difficulties caused by the monsoon, and they said they would insert advertisements with some information in the Jaffna newspapers, to enable friends and relations of these IDPs to take steps to have them released and accommodate them in their homes until they are resettled in the lands from which they were displaced.

Another issue which was raised by us was the position of those persons who were detained by government troops from about January 2009 when civilians started coming from the conflict zone to government-controlled territory. These persons were taken into detention en route in Omanthai at the camps itself but there is no definite information available with regard to these persons. Who was being detained? Where were they being detained? When were they taken in? We said these were matters of grave concern to the relatives of these detainees and we insisted that the government should release a list of the names of these persons who have been detained to enable the families of these persons to know the real situation of those who have been detained.

We also gave the government a list of those areas, which according to our information, did not require demining or could do with minimal demining. We said that with regard to these areas, government could proceed with resettlement earlier than for other areas. We said that demining should be gone ahead with in terms of a programme which would facilitate early resettlement.

We also raised the issue of screening IDPs. We told the government that these persons are not armed and that they are in your custody. As long they are in your custody there is nothing they can do, we said. With regard to releasing them, it is easier for the authorities to decide who are not LTTErs so that they can determine who the LTTErs are. There is no need to be keeping everybody there until your screening process is complete. We said screening and demining could not be an excuse for the resettlement process to be delayed. These persons have been bearing the brunt of this war from 2006. The government has been claiming that it has been fighting the LTTE. But today there is no LTTE. Still these people are suffering. This is cruelty. They cannot be expected to suffer any longer.We told the government that this is a matter that should be dealt with, with the utmost seriousness. The government has to keep its commitment. We are not at all satisfied with the progress made thus far.

Q: How did the President respond to your views?

A: He said ‘we will settle it, we will settle it’. He said he would not have settled everyone by 150 days, but by the 169th day a lot would have been done.

Q: What’s the TNA’s future programme?

A: We told the President that three of our members have been killed. The government must ensure our security in the North-East. We said we want to engage in political activities in these areas. We should be enabled to freely engage in political activity, particularly with regard to the upcoming elections. That is our right.Government should disarm all paramilitary forces who are still around and ensure complete law and order. We pointed out that there is no need for the government to depend on them any longer.

Q: What will be the principal issues on which you would be grounding your politics?

A: We would be primarily working towards a political solution within the framework of an undivided, united country. The Tamil speaking people should be granted political autonomy to carry on their affairs in their areas of historical habitation. In our assessment, our people are very strongly behind these objectives. We want to engage in political activity which would make this position clear to everyone.

Q: Do you believe the Tamil people are still behind the federal option?

A: There is no question about it. Our people want to live in this country as equals with adequate self rule in areas they have historically inhabited. They don’t want to be treated as second class citizens. They want to live with dignity and self-respect.

Police teargas Minister Chandrasekeran’s protest march

Police fired teargas to disperse a protest march led by Upcountry People’s Front leader Non Cabinet Minister for Community Development P. Chandrasekeran in Hatton yesterday. The march kicked off from the Mallippuwa Junction and proceeded towards Hatton in defiance of police orders to stop compelling police to use tear gas. Minister Chandrasekeran and his supporters sat in the middle of the road in protest against the use of force by the police. Minister Chandrasekeran accused the CWC of having betrayed the workers’ struggle A senior officer of the Hatton Police said they had dispersed the procession to avert a clash between the supporters of the UPF and the CWC. The police had, he said, received information that both parties were readying for a showdown, a claim denied by the UPF.Vehicular movement between Hatton and Ginigathhena was disturbed from 12 noon to about 1.15 pm yesterday.

Lanka president cuts his army chief to size 

To win a quarter-century war four of his predecessors could not, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa did what none of them would: gave the military near-unlimited power.But now that he has claimed victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels in one of Asia’s longest-running wars, Rajapaksa has moved quickly to diffuse the military’s influence as he eyes another term in office and rejuvenating the war-hit economy.Analysts and officers say Rajapaksa is at once sharing the spoils of war and diffusing the military’s post-war power, ensuring there will be no threat to his plan to turn the war victory into an electoral one in a poll expected early next year.Barely three months after the war ended, Rajapaksa promoted his war-winning army chief General Sarath Fonseka to a newly created post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), which many analysts saw as neutralising the wide powers Fonseka had in wartime.“Fonseka was kicked upstairs to the ceremonial post before he will be made to retire,” said a serving military officer on condition of anonymity.Rajapaksa also sent senior officers to foreign diplomatic postings or top civilian jobs and made Lt-Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, who won a reputation for professionalism when dealing with aid agencies during the war, the new commander.A number of top officers are regular speakers at business leadership conferences in Colombo, imparting winning lessons.From the time the war started in 1983 until Rajapaksa took office in 2006, it was an axiom of Sri Lankan political leadership that the military not be given too much power, lest it pose a coup threat.“A military coup is not possible in Sri Lanka, but with over 100,000 in the force you can put pressure on the political system,” the officer said.Underscoring that reality, last month an e-mail circulated falsely attributed to Fonseka in which he declared his candidacy for president. The general quickly called it a hoax, and the government said it suspects an opposition hand in it. Fonseka, nearly killed by a rebel suicide bombing in April 2006, engineered the successful war campaign and won it in a 34-month offensive. That garnered him and the military tremendous popularity.Sri Lanka has never seen a top military leader enter politics, except for Major-General Janaka Perera. A popular member of the main opposition, Perera was killed by a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber last year.Fonseka, who on paper has oversight of the army, navy, and air force, in fact directly controls no troops and must clear all decisions with his former comrade-in-arms, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a retired army colonel who is the president’s brother.“The CDS position is overall a policy function and it is not a command function,” said Colonel R Hariharan, a security analyst who headed military intelligence for the Indian Peacekeeping Force in Sri Lanka in 1987-1990.Hariharan said the moves leave the president free to focus on politics and strengthening himself before a vote presidential allies say will happen around January, to be followed soon after by a parliamentary election.“The president wants to get a solid vote. I think he will put presidential polls first. So once the president comes with a big majority, it is psychologically an influence on the parliamentary polls,” Hariharan said.Rajapaksa’s moves come as Sri Lanka’s $40bn economy is showing a resurgence since the war ended on May 18 and now that a $2.6bn International Monetary Fund loan has come through to cushion the war-ravaged economy, which was also hard hit by the global slowdown.Since then, shares on the Colombo Stock Exchange have risen more than 48%, the central bank is holding the rupee steady, foreign exchange reserves have more than doubled to $4bn, and tourist inflows have climbed every month.Since the war’s end, Rajapaksa’s administration has been talking to investors directly and indirectly through central bank officials to persuade them to invest in Sri Lanka, amid a quiet intelligence war to nab remnant rebels and their international network.Under the IMF loan, the government has agreed to cut its budget deficit to 5% in 2011 from 7.7% in 2008, and many economists say that could make it difficult for his government to maintain some of its populist measures and a top-heavy cabinet.

LTTE communications equipment found
   
Army troops continuing their search and clear operations in the general areas of Adampan, Visuamadu, Alankulam, Puthukkudiyruppu, Vellamullivaikkal, Sugandhipuram and Kappukulam, on Saturday, recovered three T-56 weapons, one T-56 magazine, twenty-one pistols, one detonator, one Arul bomb, one 60 mm mortar bomb, three hand grenades, thirty-nine anti personnel mines, one claymore mine, two rocket propelled grenade (RPG) parts of local make, one PRC 1077 AC/DC power unit, one PRC 1090 PS unit, one PRC 1077 amplifier, one oscilloscope, one Vertex base station, nine I-com base stations, one Kenwood base station, nine Yeasu base stations, two F-880 base stations, one Diamond ANT cable, one MS micro radiocommunication set, one TERR 967/03 radiocommunication set, two PRM 4700 radiocommunication sets, three PRC 1077 radio communication sets, one Spectra radio communication set, one FT857 radio communication set, one IC229 radiocommunication set, one set of  radiocommunications monitoring equipment, one Kenwood antenna, six RM VHF amplifiers, one Diamond antenna mount, forty-two Yeasu communicatios sets, thirty I-com communications sets, five 1.5v battery cases, four I-com battery chargers, two Motorola hand mikes and one I-com hand mike. Meanwhile, troops operating in the East found sixty rounds of 7.62x39 mm ammunition, two RPG charges, seven RPGs, one pressure mine, one 25 kg pack of TNT explosive, five hand grenades, two anti personnel mines, one hundred and twenty-two anti personnel mine fuses, one electronic detonator and six detonator cords buried in the general area of Prtiyawadduwan the same day.

UNP-led alliance soon

The UNP-led alliance would be formed within a period of one month, and nine political parties and civil society organizations have agreed to join, UNP MP for the Puttalam district Palitha Range Bandara said yesterday. Mr. Bandara said that the policy document of the proposed alliance had been sent to the parties and groups willing to join hands with it.“Most likely, the alliance will be sealed by the end of this month. Our General Secretary has already sent copies of the policy document for perusal by the respective parties,” the UNP MP said.Among the political parties that have agreed to join the alliance are the SLMC, the Democratic People’s Front, the New Left Front and the SLFP (Mahajana Wing).“Besides, there are nine other civil society organizations planning to join us.  By the end of this year, we are planning to emerge as a political force of 19 parties and groups,” he said.Meanwhile, SLMC Leader MP Rauff Hakeem said that they had a meeting with the UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe two days ago on the formation of a grand coalition in view of the general election.  Mr. Hakeem said that his party had received a copy of the policy document, but there were certain shortcomings to be sorted out.“It will be better if we can get such a document endorsed by the UNP’s Working Committee,” he said.However, he said that there was no serious discussion on the presidential election.“If there is a presidential election, we have to take a policy decision on the presidency itself,” he said. 

Indian coast guard alert for possible LTTE infiltration
   
The police are on an alert along the coastal areas following intelligence inputs of possible infiltration by LTTE activists. The police have verified several Tamil-speaking people along the Kovalam - Vizhinjam belt.Hotels in the coastal areas are also alerted. The Coast Guard has also intensified patrolling in the sea off the Kovalam and Vizhinjam coast in view of the alert from the Intelligence Bureau.

13 September 2009

Colombo’s not taking steps towards a political reconciliation-Robert Blake

The United States this week criticised the Sri Lankan government’s continued internment of hundreds of thousands of Tamils and Colombo’s not taking steps towards a political reconciliation. “President Rajapaksa did meet on Monday with representatives of the Tamil National Alliance, but in general there have been few other concrete steps to re-unite the country and begin to heal the wounds of a long war in such a way that all Sri Lankans feel they enjoy equal rights and opportunities,” US Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake said Wednesday.

Below are extracts relating to Sri Lanka of an address by Mr. Blake at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

“I would also like to touch on recent events in Sri Lanka, which I’m sure many of you have been following closely. The United States welcomed the cessation of fighting in Sri Lanka in May of this year and the apparent conclusion to the country’s long-running conflict. Since then, the United States has encouraged Sri Lanka to heal the wounds of conflict by ensuring that the estimated 300,000 people displaced by the civil war are treated according to international standards and allowed to return to their homes as quickly as possible, and by working toward justice and reconciliation in order to build a democratic, prosperous, tolerant and united Sri Lanka.“With respect to the internally displaced persons still in the camps, the Government of Sri Lanka has made some progress easing camp congestion, and expanding access by humanitarian organizations, but we are concerned that those remaining in the camps still do not have freedom of movement. We have encouraged the Government of Sri Lanka to follow through on its pledge to return a majority of IDPs by the end of the year. Already this year, the U.S. has provided $56 million in humanitarian assistance, mostly food aid. Other significant programs are aimed at helping the Sri Lankans accelerate the return and facilitate the resettlement of IDPs, such as $6.6 million to international NGOS for demining, and DOD-funded, USAID-administered projects for vulnerable communities and reintegration of former combatants.“The Government of Sri Lanka has made only very modest progress on political reconciliation with Tamils and Muslims. To his credit, President Rajapaksa did meet on Monday with representatives of the Tamil National Alliance, but in general there have been few other concrete steps to re-unite the country and begin to heal the wounds of a long war in such a way that all Sri Lankans feel they enjoy equal rights and opportunities.“We have stressed to the Government of Sri Lanka that to achieve a lasting peace, it must promote justice and political reconciliation for all parties, including by ensuring accountability for past violations of human rights. We are also concerned about threats to press freedom in Sri Lanka, including the recent conviction of Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam on terrorism charges. A successful, united post-war Sri Lanka is not possible without freedom of expression.”

Pottu Amman monopolised access to Prabhakaran

The former head of the LTTE’s intelligence wing, Shanmuganathan Sivasankaran, alias Pottu Amman, had monopolised access to Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran to such an extent that the latter had no inputs on the military and political situation other than what Pottu Amman chose to give him. This system resulted in the entire LTTE structure, including its leadership, falling in a heap, says D B S Jeyaraj, an LTTE watcher.Over the years, Pottu Amman had made Prabhakaran paranoid about the Indian intelligence agency RAW. Later, the Deep Penetration Reconnaissance Unit of the Sri Lankan Army was added as a source of grave danger. Pottu Amman assiduously used the mounting paranoia to monopolise Prabhakaran and virtually dictate to him.In the last few weeks of Eelam War IV, Pottu Amman’s proximity to Prabhakaran, and the latter’s penchant for Pottu Amman, created dissensions in the organisation, triggering a witch hunt, which in turn led to the execution of scores of cadre. Dozens fled to Tamil Nadu, Jeyaraj says in an article in Daily Mirror.“Initially most intelligence department heads reported to Prabhakaran as well as Pottu Amman. Gradually Pottu Amman became the intermediary through whom everything was reported to the LTTE chief. Prabhakaran was virtually inaccessible to senior leaders. Only Pottu Amman could see the chief at any time while carrying arms,” Jeyaraj writes.

POTTU RESPONSIBLE FOR ULTIMATE CRASH: “Despite these proclaimed successes, Pottu Amman and his intelligence division failed to forewarn the Tiger hierarchy of the consequences of its myopic policies. Well meaning advice was spurned. Even Balasingham’s warnings went unheeded,” reported Daily Mirror. Pottu Amman remained faithful to Prabhakaran till the very end but there was much dissension within Tiger ranks.”

RAW, the bogey

RAW as well as the Deep Penetration Squads were greatly fear­ed, says Jeyaraj. The fear of the enemy within made a paranoid Prabhakaran grow increasingly alienated from Tiger leaders and cadre, he added. “The suspected RAW operation of staging a jailbreak at Vellore prison and sending the escapee ‘Kiru­pan’ to assassinate Prabhakaran, was one attempt allegedly foiled by Pottu and Kapil Amman”.

US group to use satellite images to prosecute officials for alleged war crimes 

A US based non-profit organisation is gathering war pictures taken via satellite in an attempt to prosecute Sri Lankan authorities for allegedly committing war crimes against Tamil civilians.Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) who are currently working on obtaining indictments against US citizen and Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and US Green Card Holder and former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka has announced that it will be using several images of the war area acquired from a satellite image vendor at different dates prior to and after May 18, when Sri Lanka’s war officially ended, and will be processing the data to collect evidence of the alleged massacre by Sri Lanka. “Times UK has alleged from aerial photos and using expert analysis that the number killed is close to 20,000 civilians. TAG has assembled a group of experts and volunteers to do the work, and have sought help from image analysis departments in two premier educational institutions for assistance,” the group said. TAG noted that as part of the effort, the team will attempt to correlate the documented attacks on hospitals in Puthukkudiyiruppu and those located inside the Safe Zone, using these images. Evidence will also show attacks allegedly carried out by the army on hospitals outside the Safe Zone.“TAG will document evidence from January to May/June this year, including satellite based analysis that covers several weeks prior to, and after, May 18. TAG believes that the evidence collected in this satellite project, and the evidence currently available from TAG’s previous work can be used in totality to file civil claims in the US, as well as courts in several other countries that have statutes allowing universal jurisdiction for alleged war crimes against these highly placed Sri Lankan government officials,” the group added. The US criminal code punishes genocide, torture, or war crimes perpetrated by United States nationals and non-nationals. Extra-judicial killings may also be sanctioned in US courts under the Torture Victims Protection Act.

More than 2,000 apply to take in IDP relatives

Vavuniya and Jaffna District Secretariats have received more than 2,000 applications from the relatives of the IDPs, after the Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Ministry informed the general public that the relatives of the IDPs can apply for the release of those residing in camps.“Many people have been handing forms over to us since September 10 and so far we have received approximately 1,000 applications,” said Vavuniya District Additional Government Agent T. Sampanthan. “These applications are readily available outside the District Secretariat office and in shops. Also, relatives can prepare them even at home,” he added.Sampanthan said that they will hand over the applications to the security forces, with their observations and recommendations as soon as possible. He could not give a timeline as to when these IDPs can be reunited with their relatives, since a thorough background check has to be carried out first. “After we look at the applications, we do background research and hand over the applications to the Security Forces Headquarters, Vavuniya with our remarks and the security establishment will take the final decision,” he said. Meanwhile, an official of the Jaffna District Secretariat told The Nation that they have also received around 1,000 applications: “There is a lot of enthusiasm about this,” he said.During the meeting between the President and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) early this week, the TNA MPs demanded the release of the IDPs before the coming monsoon rains and this step was partly taken in consideration of that. But, commenting on whether the IDPs can be released before the approaching monsoon rains, Sampanthan said he cannot give assurances regarding that. “I don’t know how long it will take to clear the IDPs and reunite them with relatives. It is a very systematic process. I cannot tell you whether we can do this before the monsoon rains, I can’t give any assurances,” he said.Army Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara also claimed that an exact date cannot be given regarding their release. “I don’t know the exact number of applications we have received, but the security forces will release these IDPs only after thorough investigations. This will take time, but we will do our best to get things done as early as possible,” he said. “We cannot release these IDPs haphazardly, so this will take some time and we can’t complete this in one or two weeks,” he added. Meanwhile, Jaffna District TNA MP Suresh Premachandran claimed that this step is inadequate and half-hearted and will take too much time to implement. He added that they put forward this proposal since the monsoon rains will occur in two to three weeks.“During our discussion with the President we reminded that the monsoon rains are coming and, therefore, the IDPs should be resettled quickly. We informed them that many of these IDPs can be sheltered in the homes of their relatives and they can be permanently resettled in their original villages later,” he said. “And the President promised that this can be done, but only after a thorough check whether these individuals have LTTE connections. And it seemed to be a very long process, because there are many officials involved, from the GA to the Grama Sewaka. Therefore, we don’t think that anything can be done before the monsoon season that would occur within two weeks,” he added. Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Ministry informed that individuals living in the Northern transitional relief villages can seek accommodation with their relatives residing outside these centres, after the President’s discussions with TNA MPs last week.

TNA- President talks to continue

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Secretary General Mavai Senathiraja MP told the Sunday Observer that their meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday was very constructive and they looked forward to meeting him again soon to review the situation with regard to the plight of over 275,000 IDPs now housed in welfare villages in Vavuniya, which was the main focus of their three-hour discussion. The President assured them that all requests on humanitarian problems of the IDPs put forward by the TNA delegation would be taken into consideration and remedial measures taken. The TNA, in turn, pledged support and cooperation to the Government in all its humanitarian relief, resettlement and rehabilitation programs, Senathiraja said. The TNA reiterated their stance on the early resettlement of the IDPs in their own homes and villages especially with the monsoonal rains expected in the second week of October. The question of the resettlement of the 26,000 families, consisting of about 100,000 persons, who became IDPs from Valikamam North consequent to the declaration of the High Security Zone in 1990 and a Supreme Court interim order issued one year ago on their resettlement was also placed before the President at the meeting, Senathiraja said adding that Valikamam North was his constituency. The TNA called for the resettlement of Northern Muslims living as IDPs for two decades in Puttalam, Gampaha, Kurunegla and other Southern districts.

Special Courts to try LTTE suspects

The Government has decided to set up special courts to clear the backlog of cases against thousands of LTTE suspects now under detention, Presidential Secretariat sources said yesterday."The idea is to dispose of these cases expeditiously as LTTE cadres who had surrendered have also added to the numbers", the sources said. "This means that there are thousands of cases to be cleared".President Mahinda Rajapaksa had granted permission for the setting up of special courts on a proposal submitted by the Minister of Justice and Judicial Reforms Milinda Moragoda, a Ministry spokesman said.A top level delegation led by Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and Judicial Reforms Suhada K. Gamlath and Attorney General Mohan Peiris, PC, are expected to visit the United States and the United Kingdom shortly to study the mechanism these two countries had implemented for the expeditious disposal of terrorism-related cases, the sources said.The delegation is due to meet with officials of the State Department, Pentagon and the Justice and Law Departments in the US to explore how they could overcome deficiencies in the present system in practice in Sri Lanka, before visiting the UK.At present there are hundreds of persons who had remained under detention over a long period of time for terrorism-related offences and in addition around 20,000 LTTE cadres had surrendered to the Government following the liberation of the Northern Province. It was only last month that the Government decided to make it mandatory for all investigations by the Police into grave crimes be referred to the Attorney General’s Department for direction and guidance to overcome lapses that may allow culprits to go unpunished.

Britain pleads, but Lanka says Elder must go

As the Government sent a second reminder to UNICEF Communications Director James Elder to leave Sri Lanka by September 21, Britain has made an appeal that the decision be reconsidered. British Foreign Secretary David Milliband telephoned Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama to appeal that the expulsion order on the UNICEF official be revoked. A Foreign Ministry official denied foreign agency reports that the matter was now being re-considered and declared there was no change. The second reminder, in the form of a letter from the Department of Immigration to Mr. Elder, the official spokesperson of UNICEF in Colombo, reminded him that he had to leave Sri Lanka before September 21. UNICEF officials reacted angrily to the second letter. A UNICEF official who did not wish to be named described it as an act “that bordered on sarcasm” and was “highly unwarranted.” However, Immigration Chief P.B. Abeykoon defended his department’s action. “This is routine procedure,” he told the Sunday Times. Mr. Elder is the highest ranking UN official to be expelled from the country. He had served with UNICEF for the past one year in Sri Lanka.Although no reason was given for his sudden expulsion, the UN believes that his interaction with the media, both local and foreign may be the main reason.Mr. Elder repeatedly commented on the bad conditions for Internally Displaced women and children in the welfare camps in Vavuniya. “After all, he was mandated to do just that and this may have annoyed the authorities,” a UN official said.

Senior leader of Tamil Eelam Liberation tigers “Arulmozhi” arrested from the camp.

One of the senior leader of Tamil Eelam Liberation tiger movement “Arulmozhi” was arrested from the internment camps. She was the leader of the tiger intelligence unit was according to information. It was stated she had been the secret information collector from the Tamil Eelam Liberation tiger leadership to the ordinary fighter. Investigations reveal, that the arrested “Arulmozhi” has been collecting information from the defence officers who had been arrested by the Tamil Eelam liberation tigers..

Sri Lanka to take legal action against fabricated video

Sri Lanka will take all possible measures against the Channel-4 TV of the UK which broadcasted a fabricated video purportedly showing a man in Sri Lankan Army uniforms summarily executing a naked man, and the people responsible for its creation.Director General of the Media Centre for National Security Lakshman Hulugalla told Sri Lankan media that investigations are now being carried out to bring the creators of the fake video footage to justice. The video was firstly published through a web site and it is revealed that few Sri Lankans were also engaged in the case, Hulugalla has told the SLBC adding that actions will be taken against the culprits according to the international law.The video created an uproar in the West and mostly Western leaders and the United Nation called for an independent investigation on war crime charges against Sri Lanka. Accordingly Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe will brief the UN when the Human Right Council starts its sessions on Monday in Geneva on the reality of the video.The government last week provided expert analysis from four independent analysts on the video showing that it was manipulated.According to the findings, the footage was not videoed using a mobile phone camera as was stated in the broadcast but rather by a device such as a digital camcorder and the audio track was clearly dubbed as the sound of the shooting was coming from a long distance rather than that of a gun from point blank as shown in the video.Channel 4 yesterday defended its decision to broadcast the unauthenticated video saying that they made it clear throughout the report that they could not verify its authenticity or veracity.Defence analysts however say that the damage is done even if it is proved fabricated and blames the Western media for sympathizing with the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora.

Hounslow Tamils ‘terrified to speak out’

A Hounslow Tamil is urging the Government to stop leaving his fellow islanders in limbo, after reports of Tamils being deported despite officials accusing Sri Lankan authorities of human rights violations. Former asylum seeker Rajsh Kumar, now a legal adviser at Hounslow Tamil Community Centre (TCC), said many Hounslow Tamils were still waiting for court dates to claim asylum, while others were terrified they would be deported if they could not prove their life would be in danger if they returned. He said: “These people are terrified to speak out. “They are often too scared to even speak to me. “A Tamil came to see me and he has been sleeping rough as he can not work because of his immigration status. He is drinking and has many social problems – all because he has been waiting for 10 years to find out about his status. “Many others are scared they will have to return. If they are sent back and arrested for so-called crimes they will just disappear because there is no legal system in Sri Lanka now. “You must remember there has been 40 years of fighting, they have been living with this for that long. “How can the Government say on one hand these people can not prove persecution while being critical of the situation in Sri Lanka? People are left in limbo, not knowing if they have to go back or when. “If the Government gave people a timeline to say you will go back in 2010 or 2015, there would not be such social problems.” In July, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called on all governments not to return asylum seekers from the north, as normality had yet to return, despite the end of the war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. Thavarani Nagulendran, of TCC, claimed the UK authorities deported at least 12 Sri Lankans, most of them Tamils, in July and said she knew of 50 Tamils facing deportation. The UK has been highly critical of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka as security forces intensified fighting against the rebels before declaring victory in May. A Home Office spokesman said it would not comment on individual asylum applications and each application was assessed on its individual merits. He added: “At the moment we are assisting with voluntary returns but we have not enforced the return of any failed asylum seekers.”

Pakistan too wants to grill KP

With India announcing its intention to send a team from its Central Bureau of Investigation to Sri Lanka this month to grill Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP over the “larger conspiracy” behind the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Pakistan too has sought access to question him.The Pakistani interest also comes in the wake of its Prime Minister announcing last Sunday that there are indications that the LTTE had been involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore in March this year.Yousaf Raza Gilani told reporters that investigators have got indications that the Tigers had financed the attack on March 3 when a bus carrying Lankan cricketers was fired upon by a dozen gunmen near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.Gilani said that he had met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Libya last week and had discussed the possibility of the involvement of the LTTE.Pakistan would soon send a team to Sri Lanka to share intelligence with Sri Lankan officials, he said.Indian reports claimed that KP was nabbed by Sri Lankan intelligence officials on August 5 on basis of the information received from Indian intelligence agencies. India has accused KP of criminal conspiracy, arms smuggling, and involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and also accused him of providing finances, arms, explosives, suicide vests and communication equipment to the suicide bomber Dhanu and her accomplice Sivarasan.“KP’s interrogation by Indian agencies and his extradition from Sri Lanka can unravel what the Jain Commission indicated as the larger international conspiracy behind Rajiv killing,” an Indian Home Ministry official has said.The multi-disciplinary monitoring agency (MDMA) under the CBI has been given an year’s extension by the Indian Home Ministry to focus on KP’s interrogation and ensure his extradition to India.

Tamil traders form Council for National Unity

A group of Colombo based Tamil traders have organised themselves into an association known as Council for National Unity (CNU), with the objective of seeking the support of leaders of Tamil Nadu and other foreign leaders to further strengthen the unity among all communities in the country. As a first step, a CNU delegation of 155 Tamil traders, mainly from Colombo met President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday at Temple Trees to inform the President of their future plans. The group was led by D. Eswaran, Chairman of Eswaran Group of Companies assisted by P. Sunderalingam, Chairman and Managing Director of Gold Medal Consortium Pvt. Ltd. Eswaran told The Nation that they received a favourable response from the President, who also agreed to meet them once in two months to discuss the issues faced by the Tamils. The group included the Tamil traders, mainly from Pettah and other areas of Colombo, representing major areas of trade such as hardware, textiles, jewellery and fruit business. Eassuwaran said that their intention was to expand the membership to include the Tamil traders from other areas as well. He said that during the war against the LTTE, there was much international criticism against the Government of Sri Lanka, and now they want to call upon the leaders of all countries to help the government to resolve the problems of the Tamils of Sri Lanka.Eswaran, who is also the Consul for Mauritius in Sri Lanka said that in a recent visit to that country he met its President and the Foreign Minister and found that they were totally misled by the international media with regard to the real situation of the Tamils of Sri Lanka. He said the Mauritian leaders were surprised when he explained them the humanitarian way the Sri Lankan Government was treating the displaced Tamils in the North and East.He said that one of the functions of the CNU would be to unite Northern, Eastern and Indian Tamils and to develop understanding with the government about the problems faced by the Tamils of Sri Lanka.

Defence Secretary visits Mullaitivu, Oddusudan

Secretary Defence Dr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa accompanied by Army Chief Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya paid a visit to Mullaitivu and Oddusudan on Friday. The delegates were received at the Security Forces Headquarters at Mullaitivu SFHQ (Mullaitivu) Commander, Maj. General Nandana Udawatte, followed by a guard of honour presented to Secretary Defence. Following the guard of honour presented by the 4 VIR infantrymen, Secretary Defence addressed the gathered ground commanders and troops at Mullaitivu. Appreciating the dedication, commitment and professionalism displaced by the valiant security forces, Dr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa emphasized the speedy continuation of the clearing operations facilitating government’s resettlement program for the rescued civilians from LTTE. “I give you my gratitude and also present compliments on behalf of the President for the triumph over terrorism. What was once defined as ‘distant’ and ‘impossible’ has now been achieved, and that due to the great sacrifices of our Security Forces,” Secretary Defence said. Dr. Rajapaksa also said that the government will continue with more welfare programs for the war heroes. The delegates also visited the liberated Farah-III cargo vessel which was extensively used by the LTTE as a shelter for its suicide attack craft. Later, Secretary Defence met with soldiers and officers at Mullaitivu. He issued further instructions for stringent security measures. After reviewing progress of the clearing operations at Mullaitivu, Secretary Defence also visited Task Force -2 troops at Oddusudan and the Mullaitivu Base hospital. Commander SFHQ (Kilinochchi) Major General Athula Jayawardene, 53 Division Commander Major General Chargie Gallage, Task Force- 2 Commanding Officer Brigadier Jayantha Goonerathne, TF-8 Commanding Officer Brigadier G.V. Ravippriya, TF-4 Commanding Officer Brigadier Nishantha Wanniarachchi, Colonel Lalantha Gamage, 4 VIR Commanding Officer Lt. Colonel Rohitha Aluvihare were also among the senior military officials present.

12 September 2009

WE ARE UNDER THREAT: TNA TELLS PRESIDENT
   
The Tamil National Alliance (TELO,TULF,EPRLF and ACTC) has complained to President Mahinda Rajapaksa that its members in the Kalmunai Municipal Council are under threat from a former LTTE member turned democrat who is now with the government.The TNA took up the issue when it met the President on Monday. TNA and TELO MP for the Jaffna district N. Sri Kantha said that his party had asked for police protection for six members of the council including opposition leader Henry Mahendran(TELO  Deputy President) The President had requested them to come with details for him to take action in this regard.Mr. Sri Kantha said that this person had asked the TNA councillors to come and see him as well. “Some goons have visited the residences of our members. What are they going to do with our members by calling for meetings?  If we have anything to discuss, we will take it up at the highest levels of the UPFA,” he said.He said that this member was abusive and had the support of the government. “We see this as an attempt to prevent the TNA from contesting the next parliamentary election in the Digamadulla district. Then, this big shot can secure his slot in Parliament in the absence of an effective opposition,” he said.The SLMC controls the Kalmunai municipality, and Mr. Sri Kantha claimed there is unity among political parties in the council for development work being carried out.

Another batch of IDPs resettled
 
The government, yesterday, released nearly 10,000 internally displaced persons from Menik Farm in Vavuniya, where they had been sheltered by the government since the conclusion of the war. The resettlement of the internally displaced persons is being spearheaded by Senior Presidential Adviser Basil Rajapaksa MP, who is also the chairman of the Northern Development Task Force. These IDPs were transported in state buses to their homes.Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Basil Rajapaksa said that Sri Lanka was ahead of other countries in the resettling of displaced people: “We will set an example to the world by resettling the displaced people as soon as possible,” he said.Of the above, 6838 were resettled in Jaffna, 2170 in Trincomalee, 683 in Batticaloa and 274 in Ampara. Ministers Rishard Badiutheen and Douglas Devananda were present on this occasion.

UN patience wears thin in S Lanka 

The UN says it cannot continue indefinitely to fund the main refugee camp in Sri Lanka where the government is keeping nearly 300,000 people.The Menik Farm camp holds the Tamils who fled the fighting in the months before the civil war ended in May. The UN refugee agency says that about 2,000 Tamil civilians have returned to their villages after being released from the camp. They are the first among a batch to leave over the coming days. A ceremony was held in the town of Vavuniya to see off those people whom the government has allowed to leave the Menik Farm camp, destined for their villages in the far north and the east. They included about 75 students from Jaffna University and many families. The government says they are part of a group of nearly 10,000 who will return in the coming days. The numbers are small compared with the 250,000 or so who remain at Menik Farm, unable to leave. But UN figures suggest they are the largest group so far released from the controversial camp, where the authorities say they are screening people for possible links to the Tamil Tigers. Most of those freed up to now have been children and the elderly, but there have been some who do not fall into such categories. The head of the UN in Sri Lanka has meanwhile told the BBC that civilians living in the camp should be allowed to leave as soon as possible. UN agencies help fund and run the camps but there are signs the UN is running out of patience. "The best solution is obviously that as many people leave as soon as possible," the UN's Sri Lanka chief, Neil Buhne, told the BBC. "And that the site can become - for the people who have no place else to go - that it becomes an open site."

Australia stops boat carrying 83 asylum seekers

A boat carrying 83 suspected asylum seekers was intercepted today off Australia's northwest coast after being spotted from the air by a  military patrol plane, officials said. The vessel was spotted around midnight about 80 nautical miles south of Ashmore Island and initially appeared to be in distress, said Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor. "The people on board the vessel are safe and have indicated that they wish to come to Australia," he said. "Initial indications suggest 83 passengers and four crew are on board." It is the 20th illegal vessel to be stopped this year. A small boat carrying seven suspected refugees was found in the same area on Monday. And a wooden boat carrying 56 Afghan migrants was intercepted by Indonesian officials yesterday as it made its way to Australia, with one claiming he had paid 7,000 dollars to a Jakarta middleman for the trip. Over 1,000 would-be refugees have landed in Australia this year and the government has warned that there were thousands more waiting in Indonesia, a key staging post for people smugglers. More than 1,000 migrants from countries including Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been caught there since November last year. O'Connor said international unrest was to blame for the surge in boat numbers, and not a softer refugee policy, as claimed by the conservative opposition .

LTTE’S DAYA MASTER AND GEORGE RELEASED ON BAIL

Former LTTE media spokesman  Daya Master  and interpreter George  were released on Rs 2,500,000 personal bail by the Colombo  Chief Magistrate   Nishantha Hapuarchchi yesterday. The magistrate further restrained the two suspects -- Velayudhan Dayanidhi (alias Daya Master) and Velupillai Kumaran Pancharatnam (alias George) -- from leaving the country, and ordered them to appear before the CID on the last Sunday of every month. Inspector Aruna Jayasinghe of the CID produced the suspects before the magistrate and stated that the suspects would be dealt with under general law, and that he did not object to bail.The CID officer said they had detained the suspects under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and conducted investigations on the presumption that they had helped the LTTE. The officer said he would not object to bail, as there was no indication that they had committed any offence covered by the Prevention of Terrorism Act.He said the two suspects had been arrested by the Army on April 23, 2009, during the humanitarian operations. They had been among the civilians arriving at the government controlled areas from the LTTE areas.They had later been handed over to the Ommathai Police who had identified them as LTTE members and subsequently handed them over to the CID for  further investigations.The CID said they had detained them as they had believed that the suspects would injure the cordial relationship that the forces had built up with the civilians. The CID had conducted investigations until July 20. The investigations had revealed that the suspects had not committed any offences under Sections 120 and 199 of the Criminal Procedure Code and consequently they would be dealt with under general law.The CID said, considering the health condition of the suspects, they would not object to bail.Considering the submissions of the CID, the magistrate released the suspects on bail and ordered the CID to file their progress in the case in court on September 25.A retired postmaster S. Ariyaratnam of Dehiwela stood surety for the two suspects.

ICRC denied access to Tiger suspects

Ms. Sarasi Wijeratne spokeswoman for the ICRC in Colombo said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sri Lanka had been denied access to rehabilitation centres where LTTE cadres who surrendered were being held.The United Nations Resident representative in Sri Lanka Neil Buhne speaking to the BBC was critical of the fact the ICRC was denied access to 10, 000 of the Tamils whom the government refers to as Tiger suspects.Ms. Wijeyratne said talks with the government to determine activities to be undertaken were ongoing after government had requested the ICRC to shut down its offices and operations in the eastern province since July this year.

If proper evidence is submitted, action against Uruthirakumar would be taken – America

America has informed if proper evidence is submitted, legal action against tiger Viswanathan Uruthirakumar would be taken.  Sri Lanka government alleged that Ruthrakumaran  has initiated activities in supportive of Tamil Eelam Liberation tigers. The Sri Lanka government has requested the American Officials to hand over the said person. Ruthrakumaran is the leader of Tamil Eelam sovereignty without any boarders was pointed out by government. “Diwayina” newspaper has quoted that America has mentioned, if proper evidence is submitted, action could be taken against Rudrakumaran.

Indian coast guard on alert for possible LTTE infiltration
   
The police are on an alert along the coastal areas following an intelligence inputs of possible infiltration by LTTE activists. The police have verified several Tamil-speaking people along the Kovalam - Vizhinjam belt.Hotels in the coastal areas are also alerted. The Coast Guard has also intensified patrolling in the sea off the Kovalam and Vizhinjam coast in view of the alert from the Intelligence Bureau.

No Chinese military bases in Indian Ocean, says Menon

Former Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon today dismissed the view that China plans to encircle India through military bases in the Indian Ocean, saying the 'string of pearls' is a "pretty ineffective murder weapon"."There are no Chinese bases in the Indian Ocean today, despite talk of the 'string of pearls, which by the way is a pretty ineffective murder weapon as any 'clue' aficionado will tell you," Menon said during a lecture organised by the National Maritime Foundation here.However, the former foreign secretary said there was extensive Chinese port development activities in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan and active weapons supply programme to these countries."The question is whether and to what extent this improved access and infrastructure will translate into basing arrangements and political influence in future," he said speaking on 'Maritime Imperatives of India's Foreign Policy'.

LTTE Immigration racket busted

Police intelligence raided an establishment in Sea Street Colombo, said to be involved in sending escapees from the Vavuniya Welfare Centres abroad.Police arrested six men along with a number of forged passports, visas and other documents.Investigations revealed that most of those who escaped from the Welfare Centres were LTTE suspects.The raid was sequel to the arrest of three suspected LTTE cadres who were detained at the Colombo Airport when they attempted to travel to Italy with forged travel papers, Police said.Investigations also revealed that one of them was an LTTE cadre and all three had escaped from the Menikfarm Welfare Centre.They were in possession of some pictures of Hindu deities and when the Police at the Airport examined the pictures they found visa documents hidden inside.On questioning the suspects arrested from Sea Street, it was revealed that some LTTE cadres had already left the country by securing forged passports and visas.

Protests Against Clothing 'Made in Sri Lanka' on September 12

On September 12, 2009 concerned consumers across the nation plan to stage protests in front of GAP and Victoria’s Secret stores to warn customers to check the label and say no to products made in Sri Lanka. US Tamil Political Action Council (USTPAC) welcomes this campaign by consumers who are advocates for human rights. A statement regarding this campaign released by USTPAC said: Sri Lanka is attempting to destroy the Tamil community on the island and this effort is being paid for by American customers who buy clothing 'Made in Sri Lanka.' We are asking Americans to say 'No to Garments for Genocide.'In 2009, the Sri Lankan armed forces killed over 20,000 Tamil civilians with indiscriminate attacks and starvation. While Western nations call for an investigation of war crimes, the Sri Lankan government continues to deny independent investigators and journalists access to war-torn areas. Currently 282,000 Tamil civilians are being held indefinitely in military-controlled internment camps in unsanitary conditions without adequate food and water, from which 4-5 young people are taken every day to unknown destinations. An estimated 1400 civilians die per week from preventable diseases, as humanitarian agencies are not being allowed to provide sufficient aid.While holding innocent Tamil civilians in internment camps and claiming insufficient funds to provide necessary food and shelter, the Sri Lankan government continues to recruit troops and build up its army to occupy the traditional Tamil homeland in the North East of the Island. To sustain such a highly militarized state, the Sri Lankan government depends on the garment industry, Sri Lanka’s largest source of foreign exchange. Recognizing Sri Lanka’s human rights violations, the European Union has indicated in the past week that Sri Lanka will likely lose its trade preferences for garments.Protestors hope that American corporations will begin to move their production of clothing to other countries that do not commit serious human rights abuses. GAP and Victoria’s Secret are two primary American corporations who purchase and sell garments made in Sri Lanka, thus helping the Sri Lankan government fund its military. Accordingly, these two corporations have been targeted as part of a larger boycott campaign against products made in Sri Lanka.Sri Lanka has tried to sell its garments under the slogan 'Garments Without Guilt' because of its labor conditions, but that slogan does not take into account the treatment of the Tamils on the island generally and the job discrimination against Tamils in the garment factories.Consumers who purchase products made in Sri Lanka enable the Sri Lankan government to continue to violate the basic human rights of its Tamil citizens. In order to call attention to Sri Lanka's brutal treatment of Tamils and prevent further violations, protestors are asking consumers to check the label and not purchase products made in Sri Lanka.

11 September 2009

Kohona hits out at EU over trade concession
   
Sri Lanka's top diplomat today hit out at the European Union for "punishing" the country, after EU investigators recommended cancelling a £1bn trade concession over the country's failure to honour human rights commitments.Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN, said the country would "handle the loss" of the export privilege, which allows businesses on the island to export 7,200 items to Europe duty free.The trade concession, known as GSP Plus, depends on compliance with human rights standards – and a damning 130-page review handed to the Sri Lankan government last month makes it clear that the EU should withdraw preferential treatment for the Indian Ocean nation.The report includes allegations that the government backed Tamil paramilitary groups who were involved in "child abductions, torture and killings of civilians".But in an interview with the Guardian, Kohona said the EU should consider whether it was interested in the past or the future. "Hundreds of thousands of people, especially women who work in the export sector, will be impacted in order to punish Sri Lanka for apparent human rights violations," he said. "This smacks of a cynical approach to the problem by the European Union".He said that Sri Lankan goods could find new markets in Asian economies. "We can handle [the loss]. Western countries should remember that economic power has shifted from the west to the east. New markets open up in the east. Our friends China, India, Japan, Korea, Iran … a whole range of countries [can help]."But Kohona admitted that the loss of EU trade would be a blow to the country that was "liberated" from Tamil Tiger rebels after a 26-year war ended in a short, bloody clash on a beach in northern Sri Lanka in May. "We won a war against terrorism … the EU should recognise that."It is estimated that between 7,000 and 20,000 civilians lost their lives in the last weeks of fighting and campaigners say dissent in Sri Lanka has been ruthlessly crushed, with journalists murdered and activists imprisoned.According to sources in Colombo, EU investigators found that there had been a "wholesale failure of the criminal justice system" when investigating murders by "state agents". The report condemns Sri Lankan security forces for "perverting the evidence and silencing witnesses, rather than conducting any real investigations".It also draws attention to the plight of nearly 300,000 Tamil refugees who are still being held in government camps, to which the media and aid organisations have restricted access. The report describes the situation where internally displaced persons have no freedom of movement as "unacknowledged detention".Sri Lanka's trade ministry has already conceded that the "report is very adverse and GSP Plus is very unlikely", but a final decision by Brussels will be taken in October.Western diplomats in Colombo say the Sri Lankan government is reconciled to the loss of the EU concession. "[The government] is trapped by their own rhetoric which means they can never be seen to give in to the west," said one.The EU, with strong backing from Britain, has supported calls by the UN human rights commissioner for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes by both the Sri Lankan army and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.In July, a number of countries, including the US and Britain, publicly abstained – an unprecedented move – when the board of the International Monetary Fund voted to approve a $2.6bn loan. If the EU does withdraw the trade concession it will mark a turning point in relations. There has been growing unease in the west about alleged human rights abuses during and after Sri Lanka's war against the rebels. But so far this pressure has been deflected by other countries which have used overwhelming military force to quell secessionist movements.Two large arms suppliers – China and Russia – backed Sri Lanka at the UN security council, blocking all attempts at censure.This week Britain's high commission in Colombo was caught in a media storm over its failure to issue a five-year, multiple entry visa to Kohona. The high commission said there was no "political bias".The Sri Lankan diplomat said he was unperturbed by "western pressure". "Sri Lanka has enough friends around the world. You have to realise that financial resources and power is no longer concentrated in one part of the world."

Fresh talks today

The Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) yesterday said they have not given instructions to their members to resort to Trade Union action or engage in unlawful activities in the Estates in the back drop of employers’ failure to come to an agreement over its demands for a salary hike. Addressing a press briefing in Colombo, CWC leader and Youth Empowerment and Socio Economic Development Minister Arumugam Thondaman categorically denied such a move and said any element involved in the disruption of day to day activities of the Esates would be punished by law. “Our Trade Union membership has exercised utmost restraint and they have not engaged in violent activities such as damaging Estate properties. The law enforcement authorities should take action if such things happen in the estates,” the Minister said. He said negotiations over the salary hike of estate workers entered a new phase with the Estate Employers’ Association agreeing to increase the daily wage of Estate employee from Rs. 260 to Rs. 360. “This is a positive development and we hope they will agree to our key demand to increase the daily wage from Rs. 260 to Rs. 500 soon,” he said. The Minister said the employers have invited them to discuss further this issue at a meeting scheduled today at 11.00 a.m,. “I am quite confident that this demand can be won. We are negotiating with the employers and are hopeful that they will agree to our key demand,” he said. “As politicians from the estate sector, we are also responsible for the appalling conditions in the estate sector. There should be an attitudinal change in the minds of the younger generation to uplift the conditions of the people in the estate sector.” The Minister said he has launched a number of projects aimed at eradicating poverty in the Estate sector and these projects are continuing uninterrupted.

JVP silent on emergency voting
 
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) abstained from voting for the extension of the state of emergency in Sri Lanka along with the United National Party.This is the first time that the JVP has not backed the emergency regulations since 2005.JVP parliamentarian K.D. Lal Kantha told parliament on Wednesday that their party is opposed to emergency regulation "meant to combat terrorism been employed to suppress democracy" even after the "end of war".

Arrest of journalists

The JVP had earlier accused the government of using emergency regulations against the one day token strike carried out recently by electricity workers, and to detain journalists of the pro-JVP Lanka Irida weekly. Journalists Daya Nettasinghe, Ravindra Pushpakumara and Shalika Wimalasena were later released on bail. The motion to extend the state of emergency for another month was passed in Parliament with a majority of 87 votes.One hundred parliamentarians voted in favour of extending the emergency.Thirteen members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) voted against. JVP parliamentarians were not present in the Parliament when the motion was tabled.

Large weapons haul recovered

Police unearthed a large stock of arms and ammunition from Vellaimullivaikkal on information provided by LTTE cadres, police spokesman Senior DIG Nimal Mediwake said. He said two LTTE suspects under police custody had divulged the information of arms and weapons hidden in Vellaimullivaikkal. Military Spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said Task Force VIII launched a substantial search operation in Puthukudiyiruppu and Sugandipuram areas on Wednesday and recovered a haul of arms. Police uncovered 18 T56 assault rifles, three dismantled T56 rifles, 8,000 T56 ammunition, three T56 magazines, four 0.22 weapons, a T81 rifle, three snipers, two 97 type weapons, a female suicide kit, a claymore mine weighing 15kg, six claymore stands, seven hand grenades produced by the LTTE, a body part of a 12.7mm barrel, an MPMG body group, 5,000 of 5.56mm ammunition, 4,600 MPMG ammunition, 425 of 12.7mm ammunition, 140 of 17.5mm ammunition, 32 of 9mm pistol ammunition and a 40mm grenade launcher bullet. Troops uncovered 200 GPMG ammunition, an FNC weapon, 134 FNC ammunition, two FNC magazines, 83 AP mines, an MPMG body part, 34 of 29.5 MT gas cylinder, 150 of 12.5 MT gas cylinder and five of 2.5 MT gas cylinder.

Indian government giving immense pressure to grant rights to the Sri Lankan Tamils : Rahul Ghandhi

Indian government is giving massive pressure towards the abandoned Sri Lankan Tamils in protecting their rights was stated by Indian Congress Party General Secretary Rahul Ghandhi Rahul Gandhi was on a visit to Tamilnadu, and on his participation at an event at Chennai he stated this Rights of Tamils is much important and it is the necessity to protect it, which Congress party is aware was mentioned by him. Meanwhile, the accusations made by some parties that Indian Central Government had not taken any action towards the Sri Lankan Tamils is totally false Rahul Ghandhi said Piranab Mukarjee and M.K.Narayanan was sent to Sri Lanka, to discuss the rights of Sri Lankan Tamils with President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Govt. warns of JVP hand in anti-forces conspiracy

Had a recently captured hardcore LTTE operative died after taking cyanide, the identity of two of the most important LTTE agents –– Lakshman Cooray and General Sarath Fonseka cook would have remained undisclosed. Although the terrorist had taken cyanide when detectives swooped on him, the medical staff at the National Hospital saved his life thereby giving investigators an opportunity to elicit vital information from him. An authoritative government official told The Island that the two LTTEoperatives could have caused enormous damage had they remained undetected. Cooray, who was widely considered one of the SLFP favourites as his father had been a ruling party Provincial Councillor could have joined the Presidential Security Division or some other State agency with access to key political and military leaders. At the time of his arrest, he had been attached to the Gampaha Police Division. Referring to a recent query raised in Parliament by the JVP with regard to the number of persons who had died while in police custody, the official said that this was all part of a plan. Minister Dinesh Gunawardena’s response on behalf of the government that 91 persons had died in police custody, too, would be construed as executions carried out by the police. Had the LTTE terrorist, who led investigators to Cooray and General Fonseka’s cook managed to commit suicide, he would have been counted as the 92nd person to die in police custody and nobody would have bothered about his true identity, the official said.Of the 91 deaths at issue, 12 had died of natural causes, 17 committed suicide and six succumbed to drug abuse. Eight had been killed by the LTTE and civilians while 48 died due to police action. The Defence Ministry had to intervene to ensure the best possible facilities at the National Hospital and rush urgently needed medicine from the Military Hospital to save the life of the terrorist concerned. "He is perhaps one of the most important men in our custody," a highly placed official told The Island. He had been directly in touch with Pottu Amman and knew almost every minute detail about major operations in the city and its suburbs. Responding to The Island queries, the spokesman said that the attack on police should be viewed in the backdrop of a well organised campaign to blame the Sri Lankan army of war crimes. The Channel 4 execution video, which had proved to be a hoax, he said, was all part of a strategy to paint a bleak picture of Sri Lankan armed forces. People accommodated in welfare camps in the Vavuniya region, too, had become part of their overall strategy, he said, adding that as Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad pointed out on Wednesday, any country would have found it a difficult task.Government sources said that a section of the international community, in spite of thier failure to save the LTTE on the military front, was bent on charging Sri Lankan forces with war crimes.

Sri Lanka Eastern coast in danger, Muslim party says

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader parliamentarian Rauf Hakeem today said that the certain parties have forcibly taken over the Eastern coast following the conclusion of war. Speaking at the parliament this morning MP Hakeem pointed out that if the government failed to prevent this action it would convert to a major crisis in the Eastern part of the country. He asked the government to take speedy actions to prevent those activities to protect the Eastern coastal line, one of Sri Lanka's most beautiful coasts, for future generations. However responding to this allegation, Minister of Tourism Promotion, Faiszer Mustapha stressed that there was a certain transparency when dealing with those lands.

Sri Lanka to open immigration and emigration offices in the North and East

The Sri Lanka government has decided to establish two offices to issue passports in the Eastern and Northern provinces.Controller of the Immigration and Emigration P.B. Abeykoon said that these two offices will be built in Trincomalee in the Eastern Province and Jaffna in Northern Province.He said that in the Sri Lanka's immigration and emigration history of 60 years, this is the first time that its offices are to be built in these areas.Issuing passports was mainly handled by the immigration and emigrations headquarters in Colombo.

Indian agricultural team to visit Sri Lanka next week

A team of agricultural experts from India will visit Sri Lanka next week to help in rehabilitation of displaced people in the north of the island nation, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said here Thursday."Recognising the importance of restoring livelihoods, we are also going to assist Sri Lanka to revive agriculture in the north," Krishna told the Editors' Guild. He said India's "immediate focus is to see that the process of resettlement and rehabilitation of more than 2.7 lakh internally displaced persons in their original homes is achieved as early as possible." Next week, he said, a delegation from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will visit Sri Lanka "to have extensive discussions with stakeholders in Sri Lanka on the specifics of our agricultural assistance". India has already allocated Rs.5 billion for the relief and rehabilitation of the displaced people and also assisted in de-mining former conflict areas.

Indian hospital for IDPs returns after six months of operation in Sri Lanka

India-run field hospital provided medical assistance to over 50,000 IDPs Medical supplies worth SLR 125 million given to Sri Lanka since January 2009 After six months of successful operation, providing medical assistance to over 50,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), the India-run field hospital in Manik Farm is returning to India. During the period, the hospital as part of its operation utilized medical supplies and drugs worth SLR 100 million. In addition, Government of India donated medicines and other medical supplies worth SLR 125 million to the Ministry of Health, Government of Sri Lanka. Appreciating India’s support, the Health Minister of Sri Lanka acknowledged that India’s response to the IDP situation was very timely and much needed medical assistance was provided in time of urgent need. To affirm its continued commitment towards the Government of Sri Lanka, India donated medicines and medical supplies worth SLR 25 million to Hon Mr. Nimal Sripala De Silva, Honorable Health Minister of Sri Lanka at a brief send off ceremony held at the capital today. “India is committed to supporting Sri Lanka in every way possible. We have worked very closely with the Ministry of Health and would like to place on record their wholesome cooperation without which this initiative of deploying a hospital would not have met with the measure of success that it did. India remains open to providing similar assistance in the future if required and is committed to providing continued assistance to the Government of Sri Lanka in all areas required for the speedy resettlement of the IDPs.” said H.E. Alok Prasad, High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka.Recognizing the need for providing medical assistance to the IDPs, the Indian Medical team arrived in Colombo on 9 March 09 and set up a 50 bed field hospital in Pulmoddai, within 72 hrs of its arrival in Sri Lanka. The Indian Field Hospital was later upgraded to include 115 beds, housing state-of-the-art medical facilities, including an operation theatre, trauma centre, laboratory, blood bank, ultra sound and X ray machines. Apart from providing medical assistance to IDPs ferried by the ICRC, onboard the vessel MV Green Ocean, the Indian medical team also rendered medical assistance to hundreds of residents of Pulmoddai. Some of them were referral cases from the local hospital doctors. After the ICRC assisted ship evacuation stopped, the medical team shifted its focus to providing medical assistance to the IDPs housed in three camps at Pulmoddai. Over the period, the team during its stay at Pulmoddai received a total of 21 ships and treated nearly 7,000 IDPs. The hospital continued operation for over two months at this location.In May 2009, the Hospital was moved to Manik Farm IDP Zone One in Cheddikulam to render much needed medical assistance to IDPs there. This was a larger hospital, which was designed to meet the needs of the much larger population residing in the IDP camps. A novel feature of the hospital were the five air-conditioned containerized cabins for housing various hospital facilities such as an operation theatre, a laboratory, a Blood Bank, X-Ray machines and Ultrasound facilities.The response from the IDPs was overwhelming. The hospital treated not only patients from its own zone but from other zones as well. The disease pattern included respiratory diseases, gastro intestinal disorders, skin infections, malnutrition, hepatitis, malaria and suspected enteric fever. Using an innovative approach, a full-fledged operation theater was set up in a 40 foot container which conducted about 500 major surgeries and over 3,500 minor surgeries. Besides this 4,500 patients were treated at the day care centre established at the hospital and over 500 patients admitted to the hospital. The laboratory was swamped with work and conducted over 22,000 investigations at the facility. More than 40,000 people, including women and children have been provided medical assistance by the Indian medical team during its operations at Manik Farm till 31 August 2009.Over time, this Indian hospital earned the reputation of being a very competent medical establishment, complete with all facilities and served as a single window to attend to most medical needs of the IDPs, including disbursing medicines prescribed by doctors. 

Lanka’s barbed wire

It is now three months since Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared the country “liberated” from Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels after a 26-year war. He said then that he wanted to settle most of the displaced Tamil civilians within 180 days — but today, with more than half that time elapsed, nearly 300,000 are still being held in “internment camps”, to which the media and humanitarian organisations have virtually no access. One person who was able to visit some of them in May was UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. He said: “I have travelled round the world and visited similar places, but these are by far the most appalling scenes I have seen...” In mid-August these camps were flooded by downpours which, according to The New York Times, “sent rivers of muck cascading between tightly packed rows of flimsy shelters, overflowed latrines and sent hundreds of families scurrying for higher ground”. “We all knew that the monsoon rain would come,” says Nimalka Fernando, a Sri Lankan human rights activist and lawyer. “Many alerted the authorities. The government should have evacuated the displaced people earlier.”

10 September 2009

UN chief criticizes Govt. over Elder’s expulsion 
   
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized Sri Lanka yesterday for revoking the work visa of a spokesman for the U.N. children's foundation UNICEF, whom Colombo accuses of spreading rebel propaganda. "The secretary-general strongly regrets the decision of the Sri Lankan government to expel Mr. James Elder, spokesman for UNICEF in Sri Lanka," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters. He said Ban would raise the issue with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa "at the earliest opportunity." Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said on Monday that Elder's visa had been revoked because he had spread Tamil Tiger propaganda. UNICEF denied the allegation. Last week U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice voiced "grave concern" about video footage aired by Britain's Channel 4 television showing what appeared to be the summary execution of unarmed, naked and blindfolded men in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka also said on Monday that it had analyzed the Channel 4 footage and determined it was faked in a way that was typical of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the rebels the Government defeated in May after a 25-year war. It was not immediately clear if there was any connection between the issue of the video footage, which has angered the Sri Lankan government, and the decision to force out Elder. Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said last week that he hoped the United Nations would open an investigation to determine whether Sri Lankan soldiers did in fact summarily execute Tamils, which would be a violation of international law. Ban has not called for a separate U.N. investigation of the Channel 4 video footage, though he did raise the issue with Sri Lanka's Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.Sri Lanka has repeatedly denied that it committed multiple human rights violations during the final months of its war against the LTTE, who had retreated to a narrow strip of coast in northeastern Sri Lanka along with hundreds of thousands of civilians. Western and U.N. officials said the Sri Lankan Army was using heavy artillery to shell the LTTE, even though it knew the rebels were using the innocent civilians trapped in the area as human shields. The Army rejected the charge. U.N. officials say that thousands of civilians were killed during the last months of the war.

A chairmanship to Gen. Fonseka 

The government is considering appointing Chief of Defense Staff Gen. Sarath Fonseka as a chairman of an institution that comes under the Ministry of Export Development & International Trade. According to government sources Gen. Fonseka first rejected the proposal to take over the chairmanship of an institution in the ministry that deals with foreign finances. However, later he has given his consent to take over the position.  Gen. Fonseka would be appointed to the relevant post soon say these sources.  

Rajitha confirms Presidential polls first by Shamindra Ferdinando

Construction and Engineering Services Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne yesterday said that the government would hold the presidential election ahead of parliamentary elections before April next year. Addressing a press conference, at the Mahaweli Centre, chaired by SLFP heavyweight Dallas Alahapperuma, Senaratne said that the presidential poll would follow elections to the Southern Provincial Council scheduled for October 10. He said that once the ruling coalition had bagged parliamentary electorates with an overwhelming majority, there would be no elections until 2015.Senaratne said that the UNP or the so-called joint Opposition would not be in a position to face either presidential or parliamentary elections following a series of heavy defeats at the hands of the ruling coalition. Rajitha, who switched his allegiance to President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January 2006, said that UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and his chief assistant Mangala Samaraweera, MP could not even find an opposition candidate. An attempt to rally the Opposition was nothing but a joke, he said.Dallas Alahapperuma, too, signalled that a lacklustre campaign spear headed by the JVP and Mangala Samaraweera calling for the abolition of the executive presidency would not produce any result. The Transport Minister said that the ‘bankrupt JVP’ had revived a 15-year-old slogan. The JVP campaign against the executive presidency was irrelevant, he said. He accused an influential section of the Opposition and the media of manipulating contentious issues, such as IDPs accommodated at welfare centres in the north and the spurious Channel 4 report on the execution of LTTE cadres by the Sri Lanka army to undermine the State and the Rajapaksa administration. He recalled an Opposition attempt a few weeks before the final battle on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon to politicise a presidential directive not to engage the LTTE with heavy arms. The Opposition depicted this as an Indian intervention similar to that of during Operation Liberation to clear Vadamaradchi in 1987.Had the armed forces gone all out regardless of civilian losses, the number of people, now accommodated at welfare centres would be very much fewer, he said.Mangala Samaraweera had been one of the harshest critics of Wickremesinghe though they were now on one side. "If you bothered to go through past newspapers, particularly in 2004 you could see what Samaraweera said about Wickremesinghe," he said.Minister Senaratne said that Wickremesinghe had made matters worse for him and the party by promoting the interests of his personal friends. He said that promoting Sagala Ratnayaka, MP over Justin Galappathy, Opposition Leader of the Southern Provincial Council had weakened the UNP in the Matara District. He said that there had been trouble also in the Kurunegala District due to Wickremesinghe’s support to Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, another favourite of the UNP leader. He also pointed out the absurdity of promoting Mangala Samaraweera at the expense of UNP National Organiser S. B. Dissanayake. This was another folly. By at the end of parliamentary elections early next year, Wickremesinghe would be left with only Mangala, Akila and Sagala, he said.

Sri Lanka happy with Congress administration
   
Sri Lankan Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva said today that he was glad to see the ruling Congress returned to power in India and that astrong administration was established after the recent general elections. “A strong India is a pre-requisite to stabilize South Asia,’ he emphasized. He said this while addressing a function held in Colombo this afternoon to felicitate an Indian medical team which was returning home after serving at the IDP camps in the north for six months.While thanking the Indian government for its friendly gesture De Silva said India has been helpful to Sri Lanka before and after the humanitarian operations and Sri Lanka would never forget it.

Congress can rule Tamil Nadu in five years, says Rahul Gandhi

The Congress will come to power in Tamil Nadu in five years if its youth wing works hard unitedly, party general secretary Rahul Gandhi said here Wednesday.'The Congress party is not in power (in Tamil Nadu) for the past 40 years. I am willing to visit Tamil Nadu any number of times in order to bring the Congress back in power in the state,' he told party cadres.Assuring that the party will be handed over to the youth, he urged the young cadres to work together so that it comes to power in five years.Earlier, addressing the students of the Anna University, he asked the youth to enter politics to root out corruption.Before coming here, Gandhi had toured Thanjavur, Vellore and Villupuram in the morning and met a cross-section of people. In Thanjavur, he promised to sort out the problems faced by farmers and exhorted young farmers to join the party, saying it was not just for the moneyed people.Speaking to the young doctors in the Vellore Christian Medical College, he emphasised the need for more medical colleges.At Villupuram, he said elections for the office-bearers of the party's youth wing will be held across the country, ending the system of nominating the leaders.He said he would take steps to protect the interests of Tamils not only in neighbouring Sri Lanka, but anywhere in the world.

US training and equipment to the Sri Lanka Army to assist de-mining efforts.       

The United States Pacific Command is providing training and equipment to the Sri Lanka Army to assist its de-mining efforts. This training will build additional army capacity to clear mines in the Northern Province and expedite the safe return of displaced people to their homes and livelihoods. The training is being conducted at the Sri Lanka School of Military Engineering at Embilipitiya. The U.S. team is sharing its experiences and best practices in humanitarian de-mining with Sri Lanka Army Engineer instructors who will then conduct de-mining training for the Sri Lanka Army. The U.S. also donated personal protection equipment and de-miner equipment. The total cost for the humanitarian de-mining program provided to the army is valued over 100,000 US dollars.

Britain refuses visa for Kohona

The British High Commission in Colombo yesterday refused visas to outgoing Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona and former Deputy Tourism Minister and MP Arjuna Ranatunga, government sources told Daily Mirror last night.According to well informed sources Dr. Kohona and Mr. Ranatunga had submitted their passports to the British High Commission for a visa to London but to their surprise the passports were returned without any valid reason for turning down their visa applications.The Foreign Ministry’s Chief of Protocol, through whom Dr. Kohona’s passport was forwarded to the British High Commission, later sought an explanation for returning the passport but a High Commission official had reportedly told the Foreign Office that the Foreign Secretary should be personally present at the High Commission to obtain the visa.However the Foreign Ministry had insisted that Dr. Kohona had no reason to be personally present at the High Commission to obtain the visa as he was the Foreign Secretary of the Country, government sources told Daily Mirror online.The Foreign Ministry had later again sought a visa to London for the Foreign Secretary, but the second attempt too was rejected with the High Commission saying there was not enough time to process the visa.An angry Foreign Ministry, which insisted that the application was given with 24 hours notice, had made several attempts to contact the British High Commissioner and his Deputy to seek their intervention but they could not be contacted over the telephone, the government said. The government is of the view the British High Commission had violated diplomatic protocols by rejecting a visa for the Foreign Secretary and parliamentarian Arjuna Ranatunga and felt this had further strained relations between Britain and Sri Lanka. Dr. Kohona left the country late last night to take up his new post at the United Nations as the Permanent Representative to Sri Lanka.Government sources said Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama was expected to summon the British High Commissioner Dr. Peter Hayes today to seek an explanation over the visa rejection, particularly to the Foreign Secretary. Earlier Attorney General Mohan Peiris was also inconvenienced by the British High Commission which asked him to appear in person for an interview to grant a visa. Attempts by Daily Mirror to contact the British High Commission spokesman for a comment on the incident were futile.

Journalists granted bail

The three journalists attached to the week end ‘Lanka’ newspaper who were taken into custody by the Terrorists Investigations Department (TID) were released on bail by the Morawaka Magistrate Udaya Ranatunga. The Magistrate directed the three journalists to furnish cash bail in a sum of Rs.3,000 and a bond of Rs.50,000 each. Granting bail they were directed to appear in court again on November 4. Police Headquarters Crime DIG Anura Senanayake, who appeared for the prosecution, submitted to court that the three journalists were taken into custody by the Deniyaya Police while they were taking pictures of the house of Thusitha Ranawaka and inquiring about the movements of the President on that day.

Police recover C-4 explosives in bus

The police said that 428 grams of C-4 explosives were recovered on Tuesday from a bus on a tip-off.The explosives were hidden under a seat cover at the Kandy bus terminal.  Meanwhile, the Special Task Force (STF) Commandant DIG K.M.L Sarachchandra said that 34 kilograms of bicycle razor-pellets were recovered in Bambalapitiya on Monday when a Tamil person was arrested on a tip-off. He also said that the suspect was remanded.On the same day the STF also recovered two claymore mines, 180 anti-personnel mines, and one 120 mm mortar bomb in separate search operations carried out in Batticaloa and Vavuniya, said Mr. Sarachchandra.  The commandant also said that search operations would be carried out all over the country and priority would be given to tip-offs.

Army to restore historic Jaffna Fort
   
The army is restoring the historic Jaffna Fort built by the Portuguese and later further improved by the Dutch, the army said.They said the Fort  was badly damaged and partly destroyed as a result of LTTE terrorist activities in the past three decades.The historic importance of this archeological monument was to be restored and brought back to its original position shortly under the guidance of the Jaffna Commander and  under the supervision of 51 Division Commander with the assistance of the Northern Province Governor's office, the army said. The Jaffna Fort which has a special place among archaeological sites in Jaffna was built as a small garrison by the Portuguese in 1618 under Philip De Olivera when the Portuguese invaded Jaffna. Later, on June 20, 1658 the Dutch captured it under Raiclop Van Goins from the Portuguese and expanded it further. The LTTE terrorists during the war used the historic site as their firing ground and caused extensive damages. Sri Lanka Army in 1996 liberated the entire Fort surroundings under Riviresa operation and brought it under them. By that time the terrorists had destroyed almost all ancient structures inside the Fort. With the intention of preserving this monumental site which can be turned to  a tourist attraction, the army is to restore this historic place on directives received from the office of the Northern Province Governor. The historic Fort housed a garrison parade ground, queen's house, sentry points, police quarters and a few other important buildings during the Portuguese era.

09 September 2009

Prosecution allowed to remove names of Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman

Colombo High Court yesterday permitted the prosecution to remove the names of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman from the indictment filed in connection with the former Foreign Minister Laksman Kadirgamar assassination case. Colombo High Court Judge Kumuduni Wickramasinghe allowed the removal of their names from the indictment after the Court was informed that those two were dead. The Court also allowed to amended the indictment by making Muttaiyah Sahadevan and Isithor Arokyanathan alias Babu the first and the second accused in the case. Former Foreign Minister Laksman Kadirgamar was assassinated in a sniper attack at his residence in Longden Place, Colombo on August 12, 2005. The Attorney General filed indictment against Velupillai Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman alias Shiva Shankar, Charles alias Charlis Master, Komadee Manimekala alias Madee, Muttaiyah Sahadevan and Isithor Arokyanathan alias Babu for conspiring with another LTTE member Vinothan to assassinate Minister Kadirgamar and committing the murder as a result of a conspiracy at Killinochchi and at Colombo between January 01, 2005 and August 12, 2005. The High Court removed the names of Charlis Master, Komadee Manimekala on May 13 from the indictment as the Court was informed by the prosecution those two were dead. Muttaiyah Sahadevan and Isithor Arokyanathan alias Babu are in remand custody. Deputy Solicitor General Kapila Vaidyaratne, Senior State Counsel Shanil Kularatne and State Counsel Shehan de Silva appeared for the Attorney General.

Sampur IDPs 'still in camps'
 
Over 6000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from the east are still in camps, a latest study reveals.Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) which carried out the study says these families are still living in transit camps in Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts. The government announced capturing all areas held by the LTTE in the east in July 2007.Meanwhile, a site in Sampur, Muttur east, is selected by the government for a coal power plant. It has led to authorities establishing a high security zone (HSZ) in their ancestral lands, IDPs representatives say.The Welfare Association for IDPs from Muttur East (WAIM) has expressed shock over government decision to establish the HSZ to protest a thermo power station to be built by India.

Paddy fields

WAIM president, K Nageswaran, told BBC Sinhala service, Sandeshaya that over 1600 families were displaced from Sampur during the conflict. “These people were cultivating over 3500 acres of paddy filed and there are over 600 acres of residential land in this area,” he said. Although the thermo power plant only requires 500 acres of land, Mr. Nageswaran said, a high security zone (HSZ) is established covering 9000 acres. “We urge the authorities to give our land back at least in areas other than where designated for the power plant,” he said.A parliamentarian representing the area said that nearly 7000 people have lost their ancestral lands as a result of government establishing the HSZ. “These people have lived here for over 2000 years. We have also raised this issue with the Indian government,” K Thurairetnasingam, MP, told BBC Sandeshaya. Minister for Power and Energy, John Senerviratne, admitted that some of their land will be given to the coal power plant.Although not every IDP will be resettled in their original lands, he said, many remaining IDPs will soon be resettled.However, the CPA points out that the government action amounts to relocating the IDPs according to UN definitions.

Displaced families: Govt. makes new offer responded positively to the TNA’s request

The government has decided to release displaced families to relatives willing to accommodate them in their places of residence, Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Rishad Bathiudeen said yesterday.The Minister said Grama Seva Niladharis, Divisional Secretaries and the Police must first confirm the identities of persons willing to get their family members released from welfare villages and camps. He said the IDPs would be released only if they had a mutual agreement with their relatives to live with them.“We can release them only if there is a mutual agreement between them and their relatives. The military will also screen persons asking for the release of their relatives from the camps,” he said. TNA leader R. Sampanthan also told Daily Mirror that his party brought up this matter at the meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday, and accordingly relatives could apply if they wished to accommodate their family members. Mr. Sampanthan said that his party urged the government to resettle the IDPs within its stipulated period of 180 days. The government had assured that this task would be substantially accomplished.“We wanted the government to minimize the difficulties of the IDPs. The government assured that de-mining work will be accelerated to enable the early resettlement of IDPs,” he said. He said that the government responded positively to the TNA’s request to allow them to visit the welfare camps and villages.“The President said that the government would get back to the TNA in this regard,” Mr. Sampanthan said. Meanwhile, the Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Ministry presented a supplementary estimate seeking Rs.350 million to provide welfare facilities to the displaced civilians now sheltered in camps in villages in Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee. This money is sought to provide basic needs of the IDPs such as food, drinking water and sanitation. There are 288,938 IDPs displaced in the fight against terrorism.

Pro-LTTE law students arrested in Madurai during Rahul visit
   
About 50 pro-LTTE law students were today arrested here when they held a demonstration against AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's visit to Tamil Nadu, police said. The students flayed Congress for being "indifferent" to the 'sufferings' of Sri Lankan Tamils, they said. They also demanded that the ban on LTTE be lifted and India recognise separate Tamil Eelam, police said.Kicking-off his three-day tour of Tamil Nadu to rejuvenate the party at the grass-roots level, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi had an hour-long interaction with the fishermen community in Nagarkovil today, promising to take up their woes with the Centre.

08 September 2009

Sri Lanka President holds talks with TNA(TELO,TULF,EPRLF and ACTC)

A delegation of Sri Lanka's major Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) met Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa Yesterday at the Temple Trees for discussions on the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). TNA said yesterday meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa progressed satisfactorily and addressed serious issues in a friendly atmosphere. TELO Jaffna District parliamentarian N. Sri Kantha who participated in the talks told that his party raised issues related to the displaced persons. Mr. Sri Kantha said the TNA put forward its proposals and suggestions to address welfare issues of IDPs and to resettle them. The party had also discussed the resettling of Muslim IDPS. However he declined to elaborate what transpired at the meeting. The Jaffna MP said his delegation also met MP Basil Rajapaksa who is the Chairman of the Taskforce overseeing resettlement and rehabilitation work in the North. Mr. Rajapaksa had also made a detailed presentation on the de-mining operation and how they had progressed. He had also explained the difficulties involved in the process during the meeting.Mr. Rajapaksa had reportedly pointed out that some areas were heavily mined. UPFA General Secretary and Minister Susil Premajantha said the meeting was cordial. This was the first one to one meeting between the government and the TNA after the LTTE was defeated.  Mr. Premajantha said this was a positive development in the post war period. In addition to President Rajapaksa the Government delegation included MP Basil Rajapaksa, Northern Province Governor Major General G. A. Chandrasiri, Ministers Susil Premajantha and Rishad  Bathiuddeen and Essential Services Commissioner S. Divaratne. The TNA delegation comprised party leader R. Sampanthan, Jaffna District MP Mavai Senathirajah,TELO MP N. Sri Kantha,EPRLF MP Suresh Premachandran, R. M. Imam, Sivasakthi Ananthan and  Thangeswari Kadiragamar.

SLAF to boost civilian flights with additional aircraft

The SLAF is planning to enhance its civilian flights to Palaly with the deployment of three AN 32 transport aircraft by October. It resumed civilian flights to both North and East close on the heels of the final battle on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Island that this was part of their efforts to help the civilian community until the re-opening of the Jaffna-Kandy A9 road.Wing Commander Dayal Wijeratne, the senior officer handling the operation yesterday told The Island that of the three AN 32s sent abroad for major overhaul early last year one had re-joined the SLAF fleet. "We’ll take delivery of the remaining aircraft late this month and early next," he said adding the deployment of the Ukrainian built aircraft would greatly enhance their capacity.Responding to our queries, he said the SLAF had deployed the available AN 32 during the Nallur festival along with smaller Chinese Y 12 transport last month. All three AN 32s would have to be modified (interior) to meet the requirements, he said.The SLAF inducted Y 12 and AN 32 aircraft in 1986 and 1995, respectively. Wijeratne said that there was a growing demand for SLAF flights. There were three flights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to Palaly and back as well as to China Bay and Sigiriya. Although, they had no scheduled flights to Vavuniya, charter flights could be arranged depending on the requirement, he said.SLAF spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara told The Island that both fixed wing aircraft and helicopters could be deployed depending on the requirement. UNP MP Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena said that people appreciated the services provided by the SLAF. Their entry would prevent unscrupulous elements from making a fast buck at the expense of civilians, the MP said. Earlier, Dr. Jayawardena called for Defence Secretary’s intervention to help stabilise the price of airline tickets to Jaffna on the basis that private operators had failed to lower the price though the collapse of the LTTE allowed them to take a much shorter route to Palaly thereby making substantial savings on fuel.Well informed sources told The Island that the price of airline tickets could be further brought down both by the SLAF and the private operators.

Lanka wants action on US Tiger

The Sri Lankan government wants the US to take action against the US based LTTE operative V. Rudrakumar, who is possibly the top most remaining active LTTE member following the recent arrest of the chief Tiger arms procurer K. Pathmanathan also known as KP. Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona, speaking to Daily Mirror online, said that the US government should ensure a member of a proscribed terrorist organization who espouses terrorism is made to face the full force of the law. “This will be consistent with the commitments of the US under international law,” Dr. Kohona said when asked to respond to concerns from some quarters that the US government might not take action against V. Rudrakumar owing to some constrains in the US legal system. The LTTE is a proscribed organization in the US and a recent attempt by a group in the US to seek the de-listing of the LTTE in America was rejected by a US court. It was reported that Rudrakumar was among the members of the Tamil Diaspora in the US who had met US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake recently to discuss their concerns over the plight of displaced Tamils who are in camps at Vavuniya. It was later reported in the media that the government had lodged a strong protest with the US Department of State over Robert Blake’s recent meeting with who the government said were the pro LTTE activists. Through the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington DC, the government had very effectively registered its anger with the US Department of State and Robert Blake’s role regarding Sri Lankan affairs, media reports had said. It is learnt that the government has clearly pointed out that so- called Tamil Diaspora groups are LTTE front organizations and that their activists are LTTE sympathizers. Rudrakumar is officially known as the legal adviser to LTTE and had attended Norwegian sponsored peace talks with the Sri Lankan government. He had also attended a rally in New York in April and openly endorsed the cause of the LTTE.

LTTE threat still alive - IGP
 
The threat of Tamil Tigers is still alive in Sri Lanka, the island's police chief said.Addressing a meeting in Minneriya, Polonnaruwa, IGP Jayantha Wickramaratne urged the public to be vigilant on 'secret activities' of the remnants of the LTTE. The IGP declared open a new police post in Minneriya, an area adjacent to eastern province, where the government declared the defeat of the LTTE nearly two years ago. The LTTE was militarily defeated by the government forces in May, this year. "The LTTE threat is not 100 percent defeated. There are still remnants of LTTE, hiding specially in these areas," IGP Wickramaratne said. It is the responsibility of the police, he said, to protect the law and order but police would need the support of the public to carry out their duties. "There is a possibility of those LTTE remnants carrying out terrorist attacks while pretending to be doing normal jobs," he said.

07 September 2009

TNA(TELO,TULF,EPRLF and ACTC) meets President at a Special meeting today.

A special meeting would be held between President Mahinda Rajapakse and Tamil National Alliance today evening at the Temple trees.  This is the first opportunity, after the defeat of terrorism the Tami National Alliance party has obtained the opportunity of meeting the President was according to information.Leader of Tamil National Alliance and Parliament Member R.Sambanthan informed that discussion would be regarding the rehabilitation of displaced people including the many problems faced by the northern Tamils. TNA would also give importance for the resettlement of Muslims who were forcibly evicted from the North in the early nineties. The Tamil National Alliance has 22 Members of Parliament from the North and the East. The TNA won the Urban Council, Vavuniya and became the Opposition Party at the Jaffna Municipal Council at the Local Government polls in the North recently. The party members decided last 4th, to have discussion with President by meeting him directly was stated by  TNA Leader Sambanthan.

Male Nurse officer treated Prabakaran arrested.

A male nurse in the higher position, who had been involved in treating Tamil Eelam Liberation tigers former leader Velupillai Pirabakaran had been arrested. He was identified as Balakumaran Shanmuganathan a native of Mullaitheevu. While he was attempting to proceed to Singapore, he was arrested by the Intelligence unit at the Bandaranayaka International Airport. The said person had been sheltered in the displaced camp at Vavuniya, and had escaped to Colombo by bribing one hundred thousand rupees, was according to investigation.

JVP reconsiders its stand on Emergency

The JVP said yesterday it would have to re think its stand on the extension of the Emergency when the motion is taken up in Parliament, considering the situation that had arisen after the arrest of three journalists attached to the party newspaper ‘Lanka’. JVP parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the party’s Political Affairs Committee would make the final decision prior to Thursday’s debate in the House. Mr. Dissanayake said there was a move to spread a fabricated story that the JVP was involved in a plot to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. He said a Minister had already stated publicly that the JVP was involved in such a plot but the party vehemently rejected this baseless allegation. Mr. Dissanayake said police officer Lakshman Cooray who had been arrested was the son of an SLFP member who contested for North Central Provincial Council and therefore the government should come up with the truth about this plot without arresting innocent people and without spreading falsehoods.He said the three Lanka newspaper journalists were arrested when they were taking photographs of  a private property where vehicles belonging to the ‘Maga Neguma programme were parked  and added that what the journalists wanted was to find out what was going on and it was in no way connected to any plot. “It is like arresting a journalist who is photographing the flyover at Peliyagoda for a feature article because the President travelled along the flyover regularly. “Today the situation is such that journalists are arrested merely on a on an assumption they were plotting to kill the president,” Mr. Dissanayake said.Mr. Dissanayake criticized the new procedure being followed by the government regarding journalists who cover presidential events and charged that a special form was given to journalists where they have to state whether any of their relations were actively involved in any political party. “This is to find out whether journalists have any connections to any other political party other than the UPFA,” he said. Referring to the conviction of senior journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, Mr. Dissanayake said those who were suspected to have had LTTE links were sent to jail while others who have directly participated in Terrorist Attacks have been given portfolios. “Government with any doubt would have labeled Vinayagamurthi Muralithran alias Karuna as a traitor if he had joined an opposition political party instead of joining the UPFA,” Mr. Dissayanake said.

Government destroying Tamil culture in Kilinochchi – Suresh Premachandran
 
Jaffna District parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran says the Mahinda Rajapakse government after claiming the displaced people in the north and east could not be resettled in their hometown due to landmine threats is in the process of destroying all constructions with Tamil cultural value in the Kilinochchi District and replacing them with Buddhist temples, statues and monuments for dead soldiers.Premachandran said that all constructions on the 150 yard stretch between Omanthai and Palali on the A9 have been destroyed by the government and that a massive Buddhist temple is being built in Elephant Pass to indicate the invasion of Buddhism in the area.The cultural hall, the Hindu Council building, the Palmyra handicraft shop and several other buildings of Tamil cultural importance in Kilinochchi have been destroyed by the government.  The parliamentarian also said that since the Tamil people would rise against the destruction of their culture if resettled in these areas, the government is considering the non resettlement of the displaced people in their hometowns.He said the area between the Ponnambalam Hospital where the Kandasamy kovil is situated and Karadipottu has been marked as a military complex and a high security zone.The parliamentarian further observed that landmines have not posed a problem to the government in taking these steps although it has been used as a convenient excuse as the reason for not resettling the displaced people in their hometowns.

Sri Lanka expels Unicef official 
 
Sri Lankan authorities have ordered a senior United Nations official to leave the country over comments he made during the war with Tamil Tiger rebels.James Elder's visa has been cancelled over his "propaganda in support of the Tigers", a spokesman told the BBC. Mr Elder, a spokesman for the UN children's agency, Unicef, regularly spoke to the media on the plight of children caught up in the conflict. Sri Lanka declared victory in its war against Tamil Tigers in May. Mr Elder had raised UN concerns over the fate of children and civilians regularly during the final stages of the government assault in northern Sri Lanka. In February, he said he had seen injuries suffered by the children, including "babies with shrapnel wounds, gun shot injuries and blast wounds". He also condemned the recruitment of young children by the Tigers.

'Propaganda'

P.B. Abeykoon, an official at the department of immigration, said Mr Elder's visa had been cancelled as of 7 September and he had been ordered to leave immediately. "But the UN appealed for more time and we extended until 21 September," Mr Abeykoon told AFP news agency. He said the government decision had been taken months earlier. Palitha Kohona, permanent secretary at the Sri Lankan ministry of foreign affairs, told the BBC Mr Elder had issued statements "which were not exactly based on facts, which were not researched, which were essentially reflective of the LTTE [Tamil Tigers'] perspective. "He was doing propaganda, in our view, in support of the LTTE." A Unicef official said on Sunday that James Elder had been "Unicef's voice advocating on behalf of those who do not have a voice - children and the most vulnerable". "We strongly feel that James Elder should be allowed to continue to act as an impartial advocate on behalf of Sri Lanka's women and children," Sarah Crowe, Unicef's regional chief of communications, told the BBC. The Sri Lankan government maintained tight control over media coverage of the fighting in the final stages of the war and journalists depended on the UN and other aid officials for information. Among others, Mr Elder spoke about issues like malnutrition among children in the refugee camps which attracted wide attention.

LTTE financed attack on Lankan team in Lahore – Pakistani PM

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Sunday that there are indications that the Tamil Tigers had been involved in attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore in March this year. Gilani told reporters that investigators have got indications to suggest that the Tamil Tigers had financed the attack on March 3 when a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers was fired upon by a dozen of gunmen near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Gilani said that he had met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Libya last week and had discussed the possibility of the involvement of the Tamil Tigers. He said that Pakistan will soon send a team to Sri Lanka to share intelligence with Sri Lankan officials. In June Tehrik-e-Taliban Punjab claimed the responsibility for the attack. The cricketers were on their way to play the third day of the second test against the Pakistani cricket team. Six members of the Sri Lankan cricket team were injured. Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed. Several cricket teams including the Australian cricket team canceled tours to Pakistan over security concerns. The International Cricket Council also canceled matches of the 2011 World Cup supposed to be played in Pakistan.

Karuna Amman should be honored as National Hero.

Ruling Party  and Galle District Parliament Member Chandima Weerakody informed, ruling party parliament member Karuna Amman should be honored as National hero for his utmost service to the country.He pointed out if President had not acquired the guidance and the advice from Karuna Amman, many complications would have cropped up, in defeating the Tamil Eelam Libeation tigers. While he was speaking at an event at Hathubarathuwa area, he stated this.He said the historical victories by the military is immense and appreciated the contributions of Karuna Amman.

Is China itching to wage war on India? By Brahma Chellaney

At a time when the global power structure is qualitatively being transformed, the economic rise of China and India draws ever more attention. But the world has taken little notice of the rising border tensions and sharpening geopolitical rivalry between the two giants that represent competing political and social models of development.China and India have had little political experience historically in dealing with each other. After all, China became India's neighbor not owing to geography but guns-by forcibly occupying buffer Tibet in 1950. As new neighbors, India and China have been on a learning curve. Their 32-day war in 1962 did not settle matters because China's dramatic triumph only sowed the seeds of greater rivalry.In recent months, hopes of a politically negotiated settlement of the lingering territorial disputes have dissipated amid muscle-flexing along the long, 4,057-kilometer Himalayan frontier. A clear indication that the 28-year-old border talks now are deadlocked came when the most-recent round in August turned into a sweeping strategic dialogue on regional and international issues. The escalation in border tensions, though, has prompted an agreement to set up a direct hotline between the two prime ministers. A hotline, however welcome, may not be enough to defuse a situation marked by rising military incursions and other border-related incidents as well as by new force deployments.A perceptible hardening of China’s stance toward India is at the hub of the bilateral tensions. This hardening became apparent almost three years ago when the Chinese ambassador to India publicly raked up the issue of Arunachal Pradesh, the northeastern Indian state that Beijing calls “Southern Tibet” and claims as its own. For his undiplomatic act on the eve of President Hu Jintao’s New Delhi visit, the ambassador actually received Beijing’s public support. Since then, the Indian army has seen Chinese military incursions increase in frequency across the post-1962 line of control. According to Indian defense officials, there were 270 line-of-control violations by the People’s Liberation Army and 2,285 instances of “aggressive border patrolling” by it last year alone. Other border incidents also are being reported, such as the PLA demolition of some unmanned Indian forward posts at the Tibet-Bhutan-Sikkim trijunction and Chinese attempts to encroach on Indian-held land in Ladakh.As a result, the India-China frontier has become more “hot” than the India-Pakistan border, but without rival troops trading fire. Indeed, Sino-Indian border tensions now are at their worst since 1986-87, when local military skirmishes broke out after PLA troops moved south of a rivulet marking the line of control in the Sumdorong Chu sector in Arunachal Pradesh. Those skirmishes brought war clouds over the horizon before the two countries moved quickly to defuse the crisis. Today, PLA forays into Indian-held territory are occurring even in the only area where Beijing does not dispute the frontier — Sikkim’s 206-kilometer border with Tibet. Chinese troops repeatedly have attempted to gain control of Sikkim’s evocatively named Finger Area, a tiny but key strategic location.In response, India has been beefing up its defensive deployments in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Ladakh to prevent any Chinese land-grab. Besides bringing in tanks to reinforce its defenses in mountainous Sikkim, it is deploying two additional army mountain divisions and two squadrons of the advanced Sukhoi-30 MKI bomber-aircraft in its northeastern state of Assam, backed by three airborne warning and control systems. To improve its logistical capabilities, it has launched a crash program involving new roads, airstrips and advanced landing stations along the Himalayas. None of these steps, however, can materially alter the fact that China holds the military advantage on the ground. Its forces control the heights along the frontier, with the Indian troops perched largely on the lower levels. Furthermore, by building modern railroads, airports and highways in Tibet, China is now in a position to rapidly move large additional forces to the border to potentially strike at India at a time of Beijing’s choosing.Diplomatically, China is content, long having occupied land at will — principally the Aksai Chin plateau, which is almost the size of Switzerland. Aksai Chin, an integral part of Kashmir long before Xinjiang became a province of China under Manchu rule, provides the only accessible Tibet-Xinjiang route through the Karakoram passes of the Kunlun Mountains. Yet Beijing chooses to press claims on additional Indian territories as part of a grand strategy to keep India under military and diplomatic pressure.Since ancient times, the Himalayas have universally been regarded as the northern frontiers of India. But having annexed Tibet, China has laid claim to areas far south of this Himalayan watershed, as underscored by its claim to Arunachal Pradesh — a state nearly three times the size of Taiwan. That Tibet remains at the core of the India-China divide is being underlined by Beijing itself as its claim to additional Indian territories is based on alleged Tibetan ecclesial or tutelary links to them, not any professed Han connection. Such attempts at incremental annexation actually draw encouragement from India’s self-injurious acceptance of Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China.At the center of the Chinese strategy is an overt refusal to accept the territorial status quo. In not hiding its intent to further redraw the frontiers, Beijing only highlights the futility of political negotiations. After all, the status quo can be changed not through political talks but by further military conquest. Yet, paradoxically, the political process remains important for Beijing to provide the façade of engagement while trying to change the realities on the ground. Keeping India engaged in endless, fruitless border talks while stepping up direct and surrogate pressure also chimes with China’s projection of its “peaceful rise.”But as border tensions have escalated, vituperative attacks on India in the Chinese media have mounted. The Communist Party’s mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, taunted India in a June editorial for lagging behind China in all indices of power and asked it to consider “the consequences of a potential confrontation with China.” Criticizing the Indian moves to strengthen defenses, it peremptorily declared: “China won’t make any compromises in its border disputes with India.” A subsequent commentary in the paper warned India to stop playing into the hands of “some Western powers” by raising the bogey of a “China threat.”The most-provocative Chinese essay, however, appeared on China International Strategy Net, a quasi-official Web site that enjoys the Communist Party’s backing and is run by an individual who made his name by hacking into United States” government Web sites in retaliation to the 1999 American bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Posted on August 8, the essay called for a Chinese strategy to dismember multiethnic India into 20 to 30 fragments. This is an old, failed project China launched in the Mao years when it trained and armed Naga, Mizo and other tribal guerrillas in India’s restive northeast.The strains in Sino-Indian relations also have resulted from sharpening geopolitical rivalry. This was evident from China’s botched 2008 effort to stymie the U.S.-India nuclear deal by blocking the Nuclear Suppliers Group from opening civilian nuclear trade with New Delhi. In the NSG, China landed itself in a position it avoids in any international body — as the last holdout. Recently, there has been an outcry in India over attempts to undermine the Indian brand through exports from China of fake pharmaceutical products labeled “Made in India.”The unsettled border, however, remains at the core of the bilateral tensions. Indeed, 47 years later, the wounds of the 1962 war have been kept open by China’s aggressive claims to additional Indian territories. Even as China has emerged as India’s largest trading partner, the Sino-Indian strategic dissonance and border disputes have become more pronounced. New Delhi has sought to retaliate against Beijing’s growing antagonism by banning Chinese toys and cell phones that do not meet international standards. But such modest trade actions can do little to persuade Beijing to abandon its moves to strategically encircle and squeeze India by employing China’s rising clout in Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.In fact, the question that needs to be asked is whether New Delhi helped create the context to embolden Beijing to be assertive and bellicose. For long, New Delhi has indulged in ritualized happy talk about the state of its relationship with Beijing, brushing under the rug both long-standing and new problems and hyping the outcome of any bilateral summit meeting. New Delhi now is staring at the harvest of a mismanagement of relations with China over the past two decades by successive governments that chose propitiation to leverage building. New Delhi is so slow to correct its course that mistakes only get compounded. For example: India is to observe 2010 — the 60th anniversary of China becoming India’s neighbor by gobbling up Tibet — as the “Year of Friendship with China.”Yet another question relates to China’s intention. In muscling up to India, is China seeking to intimidate India or actually fashion an option to wage war on India? In other words, are China’s present-day autocrats itching to see a repeat of 1962? The present situation, in several key aspects, is no different from the one that prevailed in the run-up to the 1962 invasion of India, which then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai declared was designed “to teach India a lesson.” Consider the numerous parallels:First, like ike in the pre-1962 war period, it has become commonplace internationally to speak of India and China in the same breadth. The aim of “Mao’s India war,” as Harvard scholar Roderick MacFarquhar has called it, was large political: To cut India to size by demolishing what it represented — a democratic alternative to the Chinese autocracy. The swiftness and force with which Mao Zedong defeated India helped discredit the Indian model, boost China’s international image and consolidate Mao’s internal power. The return of the China-India pairing decades later is something Beijing viscerally detests.The Dalai Lama’s flight to India in 1959 — and the ready sanctuary he got there — paved the way for the Chinese military attack. Today, 50 years after his escape, the exiled Tibetan leader stands as a bigger challenge than ever for China, as underscored by Beijing’s stepped-up vilification campaign against him and its admission that it is now locked in a “life and death struggle” over Tibet. With Beijing now treating the Dalai Lama as its Enemy No. 1, India has come under greater Chinese pressure to curb his activities and those of his government-in-exile. The continuing security clampdown in Tibet since the March 2008 Tibetan uprising parallels the harsh Chinese crackdown in Tibet during 1959-62.In addition, the present pattern of crossfrontier incursions and other border incidents, as well as new force deployments and mutual recriminations, is redolent of the situation that prevailed before the 1962 war. When the PLA marched hundreds of miles south to occupy the then-independent Tibet and later nibble at Indian territories, this supposedly was neither an expansionist strategy nor a forward policy. But when the ill-equipped and short-staffed Indian army belatedly sought to set up posts along India’s unmanned Himalayan frontier to try and stop further Chinese encroachments, Beijing and its friends dubbed it a provocative “forward policy.” In the same vein, the present Indian efforts to beef up defenses in the face of growing PLA crossborder forays are being labeled “new forward policy” by Beijing.Moreover, the 1962 war occurred against the backdrop of China instigating and arming insurgents in India’s northeast. Though such activities ceased after Mao’s 1976 death, China seems to be coming full circle today, with Chinese-made arms increasingly flowing into guerrilla ranks in northeastern India, including via Burmese front organizations. India says it has taken up this matter with Beijing at the foreign minister-level. While a continuing 12-year-old ceasefire has brought peace to Nagaland, some other Indian states like Assam and Manipur are racked by multiple insurgencies, allowing Beijing to fish in troubled waters.Finally, just as India had retreated to a defensive position in the border negotiations with Beijing in the early 1960s after having undermined its leverage through a formal acceptance of the “Tibet region of China,” New Delhi similarly has been left in the unenviable position today of having to fend off Chinese territorial demands. Whatever leverage India still had on the Tibet issue was surrendered in 2003 when it shifted its position from Tibet being an “autonomous” region within China to it being “part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China.” Little surprise the spotlight now is on China’s Tibet-linked claim to Arunachal Pradesh than on Tibet’s status itself.This is why Beijing invested so much political capital over the years in getting India to gradually accept Tibet as part of China. Its success on that score has helped narrow the dispute to what it claims. That neatly meshes with China’s long-standing negotiating stance: What it occupies is Chinese territory, and what it claims must be shared — or as it puts it in reasonably sounding terms, though a settlement based on “mutual accommodation and mutual understanding.” So, while publicly laying claim to the whole of Arunachal Pradesh, China in private is asking India to cede at least that state’s strategic Tawang Valley — a critical corridor between Lhasa and Assam of immense military import because it overlooks the chicken-neck that connects India’s northeast with the rest of the country.In fact, with the Dalai Lama having publicly repudiated Chinese claims that Arunachal Pradesh, or even just Tawang, was part of Tibet, a discomfited Beijing sought to impress upon his representatives in the now-suspended dialogue process that for any larger political deal to emerge, the Tibetan government-in-exile must support China’s position that Arunachal has been part of traditional Tibet. The plain fact is that with China’s own claim to Tibet being historically dubious, its claims to Indian territories are doubly suspect.Today, as India gets sucked into a pre-1962-style trap, history is in danger of repeating itself. The issue then was Aksai Chin; the issue now is Arunachal. But India is still reluctant to shine a spotlight on Tibet as the lingering core issue. Even though Tibet has ceased to be the political buffer between India and China, it needs to become the political bridge between the world’s two most-populous countries. For that to happen, Beijing has to begin a process of reconciliation and healing in Tibet.Internationally, there are several factors contributing to China’s greater assertiveness toward India as part of an apparent strategy to prevent the rise of a peer rival in Asia. First, India’s growing strategic ties with the United States are more than offset by America’s own rising interdependence with China, to the extent that U.S. policy now gives Beijing a pass on its human-rights abuses, frenetic military buildup at home and reckless strategic opportunism abroad. America’s Asia policy is no longer guided by an overarching geopolitical framework as it had been under President George W. Bush, a fact reflected by the Obama administration’s silence on the China-India border tensions.In addition, the significant improvement in China’s own relations with Taiwan and Japan since last year has given Beijing more space against India. A third factor is the weakening of China’s Pakistan card against India. Pakistan’s descent into chaos has robbed China of its premier surrogate instrument against India, necessitating the exercise of direct pressure.Against this background, India can expect no respite from Chinese pressure. Whether Beijing actually sets out to teach India “the final lesson” by launching a 1962-style surprise war will depend on several calculations, including India’s defense preparedness to repel such an attack, domestic factors within China and the availability of a propitious international timing of the type the Cuban missile crisis provided 47 years ago. But if India is not to be caught napping again, it has to inject greater realism into its China policy by shedding self-deluding shibboleths, shoring up its deterrent capabilities and putting premium on leveraged diplomacy.

TELO MP Sri Kantha meets fellow MP Kanagaretnam in detention

N.Sri Kantha, Jaffna district TELO parliamentarian Friday met with the fellow parliamentarian Mr. Sathasivam Kanagaretnam who is currently being detained under the Emergency Regulations (ER) in the sixth floor of Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), sources in Colombo said. Mr Kanagaretnam was arrested from a camp in Omanthai by CID officiers when the MP sought refuge after fleeing from Mullaitheivu in the last leg of military operation against LTTE. The TNA MP was trapped for several months in Mullaitheivu due to military operation. The meeting between the two MPs lasted for about twenty five minutes.Mr.Sri Kantha later told media that his continuous detention would be highlighted in the talks between a TNA delegation and Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse which is scheduled to take place on Monday evening at Temple Trees.After carrying out the final stages of military offensive without independent witnesses, the Sri Lanka Government has incarcerated potential witnesses fearing exposure of alleged war-crimes, several human rights groups have alleged. Besides holding 300,000 Tamil civilians who escaped from the conflict zone in military supervised internment camps, Sri Lanka authorities have detained five Tamil doctors, Mr Kanagaretnam, and several foreign citizens of Tamil origin. The doctors were recently released on bail after they recanted earlier statements of numbers killed. Status of Tamils with foreign citizenship, who are still held in internment camps, are not known. Western Governments, sensitive to Sri Lanka's war-crime exposure fears, are allegedly working behind the scenes to free their citizens, civil sources in Colombo said.

04 September 2009

TELO Appoints Interim Working Committee

An interim committee has been appointed by TELO. From 1st September the committee would be responsible for all political activities of TELO until its annual congress which it planned to hold before the end of November this year.TELO is in the process of organising district level committee elections and scheduled to take place prior to its annual congress. The committee elections will be held in the following districts: Jaffna, Vanni, Batticaloa, Amparai and Trincomalee.

The selection of committees overseas would take place immediately after the conclusion of annual congress. TELO invites its present and former members to participate in the entire proceedings.  A policy document would be released for discussion by TELO members.  

The committee which was appointed to guide political activities of TELO comprises a cross section of TELO membership and they are

Mr Selvam Adaikalanathan MP,
Mr MK Shivagilingam MP,
Mr N. SriKantha MP, 
Mr  Vino Noharathalingam MP,
Mr Kentri Maheindran (Opposition Leader Kalmunai District Council)
Mr Indirakumar  Presenna
Mr S Vinthan (MMC Jaffna)
Mr K. Thavanathan
Mr V. Rubaraja
Mr N. Vimalaraj
Mr K.N.G. Sampanthan (UK)  
Mr T. Rasa (UK)

President did not respond to the proposals submitted by All party Committee - Tissa Vitharana

APC Chairman Tissa Vitharana stated, the proposals submitted in the intention of finding a solution to the Sri Lanka’s national racial issue by the All Party Committee, President had not responded even though the   summary of the final proposals had been handed over  and one month has lapsed, but still  President had not given a positive reply was stated by him.In regard to this President would shortly process discussion was mentioned by him.  The activities of All party committee would resume after the  conclusion of discussions with President  was mentioned by Tissa Vitharana.

Sri Lanka opposition urges fast resettlement of refugees

Sri Lanka's main opposition on Thursday urged Sri Lanka's government to release nearly two-thirds of Tamil war refugees in military-run camps.More than 280,000 Tamils are being held in camps in the Indian Ocean island's north, after government forces defeated Tamil Tiger separatists and ended a 25-year civil war in May.Rights activists accuse authorities of illegally holding the displaced in the heavily guarded camps, but the government says it has to first weed out Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters and clear thousand of landmines before they can go home.The government says they have identified around 25,000 LTTE cadres or people who had close links with the LTTE, so what government should do is get the detention orders on them...and free the others," main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters.Wickremesinghe said 130,000 people had expressed their willingness to live with friends and families outside, while another 40,000 people said they were ready to resettle in their own villages."When you free these 170,000 people you reduce the congestion," Mr. Wickremesinghe said, warning that monsoon rains could start next month and cause flooding like that which sent raw sewage flowing through camps last month.The United Nations in August said around 1,925 shelters housing around 10,000 people were damaged or destroyed by sporadic rains which began on Aug. 14, ahead of the northeast monsoon which is due in September and can last three months. "The resettlement process is taking place gradually in a selective manner," said Douglas Devananda, minister of Social Services and Social Welfare. "The government is concerned whether there will be violence again due to expatriate Tiger supporters."

Canada condemns the punishment given to Journalist Tissanayagam

Canadian government has published its severe condemn towards the verdict given to Senior journalist Tissanayagam.  20 years rigorous prison sentence had been given to Journalist Tissanayagam by the Magistrate courts for being assisting the terrorist activities., but this verdict cannot be accepted was stated by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Laurence Kennan. He said, Canadian government is taking drastic attention towards the judgment given to Tissanayagam. In regard to the arrest of Tissanayagam many countries around the globe has condemned was stated.

France calls Sri Lanka to respect fundamental freedoms and rights

France expresses its dismay following the sentencing, by the High Court of Sri Lanka, of the journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, a member of the editorial team of the Sri Lankan Sunday Times daily newspaper and editor of an Internet site, Outreachsl.com, to 20 years in prison for “supporting terrorism.” A French Foreign Ministry statement said yesterday that J.S. Tissainayagam was given this harsh sentence simply for having carried out his job as a journalist. We will carefully monitor the appeal procedure which we hope will lead to the release of J.S. Tissainayagam.The statement further said attacks on the freedom of expression and the freedom of journalists to carry out their work represent a threat to democracy. France calls on the government of Sri Lanka to respect fundamental freedoms and rights.

EPDP and ACMC sign agreement over deputy mayor post of Jaffna MC

The Elam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) and the All Ceylon Muslim Congress (ACMC) today signed an agreement over the Deputy Mayor post of the Jaffna Municipal Council. The EPDP sources confirmed that according to this agreement the Deputy Mayor post of the Jaffna MC would goes to a Muslim member after a lapse of one year. In the first year it will be held by a Tamil member representing the EPDP. Both parties contested the recent election to the Jaffna Municipal Council under the betel leaf symbol of the UPFA. The agreement was signed by the ACMC leader Minister Rishad Bathiyudeen and the EPDP leader Minister Douglas Devananda.

Vigil for Tissainayagam in UK

A vigil is being held in London for the jailed Sri Lankan Tamil journalist, J.S. Tissainayagam.Tissainayagam was sentenced on Monday to twenty years in prison after being convicted on terrorism charges. The vigil, organised by the human rights campaign group, Amnesty International, is being held outside parliament. Attendees are putting black tape across their mouths in protest against what they say is a violation of freedom of expression. The sentence has been condemned by international and Sri Lankan media rights groups.

Media Minister orders ITN and Rupavahini Chairmen to take custody of video tapes amidst Channel 4 controversy

The Media Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa had ordered the Chairmen of ITN and Rupavahini that all video tapes on the war scenes in the North during the final phase be immediately taken into the custody of the Chairman.Incidentally , it was only the ITN and the Rupavahini the only two State Institutions which were permitted to cover these war scenes. This urgent order by the Minister to take into custody all tapes both telecast and not telecast has raised queries as to whether this action of the Minister has any connection with the airing of human executions in SL by men in military uniform by Channel 4 in Britain.

Rajapaksa rejects Western models of development

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that his country will develop its own model of economic development based on a strong agricultural sector and not follow the existing Western models in which industrial growth gets precedence.“We must have a Sri Lankan model. I prefer it to be agriculturally based. If you can be self-sufficient in food, then the industries will come,” he told Forbes magazine on August 28.Economic development rather than a conventional political settlement would ensure lasting peace in the island nation, which had just emerged from a 30-year armed rebellion by the Tamil minority, the President said. “Without development, there won’t be peace; we must develop the economy,” he stressed.econciliation with Tamil communities in the island’s north and east, he added, meant providing basic needs to them such as electricity, water, shelter, education. “They (the Tamils) want to start their paddy fields, go back to their farms,” he said.

REJECTS WEST’S DIM VIEW: Western institutions have a dim of Rajapaksa’s  Lanka. Transparency International had placed it between India and Pakistan as one of Asia’s most corrupt economies. The World Bank measured the ease of doing business around the globe and ranked Sri Lanka 102nd out of 181 countries, knocking  it for its tax regime, legal system and permit processing.On the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, Sri Lanka ranked 111th of 179, slammed for roadblocks to foreign investment, its financial system and opaque property laws. With scores of ministers and 10 to 15 per cent of the workforce employed by the government, Sri Lanka was one of the world’s most administered countries.But according to Rajapaksa even during the war, the Lankan economy grew by at least six per cent each year (though the global recession was cutting that to 3.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent in 2009). Inflation is now down to 1.1 per cent, from 11 per cent four years ago, according to Central Bank figures. And he noted that per capita income had risen from $1,200 to $2,000.

03 September 2009

TNA seeks bigger political clout

Some TNA MPs will bring a resolution at the party’s parliamentary group meeting tomorrow to register it with the Elections Commissioner as a separate political party immediately. The TNA, an amalgam of Tamil political parties, has remained as a loose alliance, and contested the elections under the ‘House’ symbol of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) or the Federal Party. In this alliance, there are four MPs belonging to the TELO, three to the TULF, two to the EPRLF and one to the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, In addition to two Nation List MPs, there are ten others in the TNA, who are not affiliated to any of these four parties, and they have been nominated for the elections by various groups.Party sources said that, in the aftermath of the conclusion of the war, some MPs believe that the TNA should assert itself as an established democratic representation of the Tamil people from the North and the East, and play a prominent role. They said that the TNA should become a well-knitted political entity for which the registration is a must. “This proposal has been put forward in the past. However, the party has not discussed it seriously. In the post-war period, the opportunity is being developed gradually for the democratic process, and the TNA should seize it,” sources said. Sources said that these MPs would propose that the party should have a well-defined constitution   with a high-powered committee with representation from various sections of the alliance. “The party should be formalized and legalized for cohesion and collective responsibility,” they said.

Pakiasothy questioned at the airport
 
Academic and Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamutte was detained at the Bandaranayaka International Airport upon his return to Colombo from an overseas trip early this morning and questioned by the Terrorist Investigations Department (TID) and later released.Dr. Saravanamuttu, who had just last month lodged a complaint with the police over a death threat, was not told why he was being detained but was only informed that TID officials had wanted him questioned.Airport authorities who initially detained Dr. Saravanamuttu at the airport had said the TID had wanted to question him since February this year and kept him at the airport till the TID had arrived. Upon arrival to the airport the TID officials questioned Dr. Saravanamuttu for several minutes before letting him go.

With love from Germany

The German government has donated food aid worth 4 m Euros (Rs 640 mn) for the benefit of people displaced and economically affected in the Vanni and Jaffna region. An embassy spokesperson told The Island that all assistance would be through the Relief and Recovery Operation "Food for Peace building and Recovery in Conflict-Affected Areas" by the WFP She said that the funds would be utilised to distribute 4,159 tons of rice, 897 tons of grain, 400 tons of vegetable oil, 800 tons of sugar, 2,500 tons of sugar-free corn soya blend among the IDPs.

LTTE lost war and diaspora - Ambassador

Sri Lankan Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya told a group of scholars and Asian experts Monday how the Sri Lankan military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as well as how the government will sustain peaceful reconciliation. Speaking before the Homeland Security Policy Institute of The George Washington University, Ambassador Wickramasuriya described a number of key developments that led to the Government's successful conclusion of the 25-year-long conflict with the LTTE. Those initiatives, he said, included a clear command to the military from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to destroy the LTTE while liberating civilians without harm. Other important developments, Ambassador Wickramasuriya said, included the President's efforts to engage LTTE leaders in the political process, and the work of Western government's to shut-down pro-LTTE fund raising abroad. "What is interesting about Sri Lanka's experience is not just how it fought and won a war against terrorists," Ambassador Wickramasuriya said, "but how we must now keep terrorism from returning." While ending the conflict was an important milestone, Ambassador Wickramasuriya said, "the Government knows that what is happening now is even more important. We are rebuilding our nation. We are repairing 25 years of ethnic hatred promoted by the LTTE. We are reconciling differences and rebuilding lives, he said." The foundation of that effort, the Ambassador explained, is a political process aimed at electing local Tamil leaders in Northern Sri Lanka, as well as an ambitious plan to rebuild homes, buildings, highways and rail lines. Bolstering the economy in the North, he said, will guarantee future security. During the address, Frank Cilluffo, the Homeland Security Policy Institute's director and a former White House advisor on terrorism and homeland security issues, asked about the fate of the internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka. Ambassador Wickramasuriya explained that more than 50,000 people have left the welfare centers since June, and that another 50,000 are expected to return to their homes or the homes of relatives by September 30. That will drop the number of displaced persons in the centers to below 200,000. The pace of resettlement, he said, has been determined by the need to screen civilians for the presence of LTTE cadres, as well as the need to rid the North of thousands of LTTE landmines. Those attending the Ambassador's address included Asian scholars, executives of U.S. companies, representatives of foreign embassies, administration and government officials.

Karuna lashes at Chief Minister Pillayan

The Minister of National Integration and Reconciliation Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna) yesterday insisted that the Chief Minister of Eastern Province Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan (Pillayan) should not make statements against the Government and the President on crucial issues.Speaking to the Daily Mirror Minister Muralitharan who is also the Vice President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party said the Chief Minister Chandrakanthan’s ‘unwanted’ statements would create problem in Eastern Province politics. He also said that he had no intention to form a separate political party and he only needed to work for the unity among all communities. Recently, Mr. Muralitharan invited all the minority political parties including the TMVP headed by Mr. Chandrakanthan to join the SLFP.  He also pointed out that the TMVP had no future in Eastern province politics.

Elders in the camps released

550 elders from the Vavuniya camps were today released. 300 elders from the released list were sent to Mannar, Thirukeetheeswaram Elder’s home and 250 elders were dispatched to Vavuniya elders home was according to information. The Social service and Social Welfare Centre had taken responsibility to maintain these displaced elders. Minister Richard Badihudeen informed, in the forthcoming 6th, three thousand and 500 persons would be rehabilitated in Trincomalee. Likewise in the forthcoming days, displaced people would be rehabilitated in Jaffna,Mannar, Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Amaprai districts.

An Important person, and a police officer in the Defense Sector had obtained salary from Tigers.

A police officer and an important person who was attached to the Defense Sector had obtained monthly salary of rupees 50,000 from Tamil Eelam Liberation tigers. The said involved person is absconding.The police officer who is missing, had given assistance by granting police uniforms to the tigers, and had initiated terrorist activities in a protective manner. Such information was obtained after interrogating a Tamil Eelam Liberation tiger member who was arrested recently in Wellawatte. It was stated the said person who had been arrested had close link with the Police officer who had been involved in providing   secret information to the liberation tigers,

U.S. voices "grave concern" about Sri Lanka video

The United States voiced grave concern on Wednesday about video footage that a Sri Lankan group says shows government soldiers summarily executing Tamil rebels in violation of international law."These reports are very disturbing, they are of grave concern," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told reporters. "We'd like more information as we formulate our own national response."Rice was reacting to video footage aired last week on British television which, according to a Sri Lankan advocacy group, shows government forces executing unarmed, naked, bound and blindfolded Tamils during the army's final assault to smash Tamil Tiger rebels earlier this year.The Sri Lankan government has dismissed the video as fake.Rice, who holds the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council during the month of September, said it was not yet clear whether the council would take up the issue."I'm not aware of a council member proposing that this be discussed on the council agenda but obviously these reports are very fresh and that could change," she said.Previous attempts to formally raise the issue of Sri Lanka's conduct during the final months of its 25-year war against the Tamil Tiger rebels met resistance from Russia and China, who opposed official council discussion of an issue they said was an internal matter for the Sri Lankan government.Philip Alston, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said on Tuesday he hoped the United Nations would launch an investigation to determine whether Sri Lankan soldiers did in fact summarily execute Tamils, which would be a violation of international law.Alston acknowledged there was no certainty the video was authentic. Britain's Channel 4 television said it got the footage from advocacy group Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka."There's nothing on the surface to indicate that it is not authentic and, if that's the case, it would raise very grave concerns," Alston told Reuters in an interview.

HUMAN SHIELDS

A spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations took all reports of serious human rights violations and war crimes with the "utmost concern" and that the Channel 4 video was "no exception".Sri Lanka's government has repeatedly denied that its forces were guilty of war crimes or human rights breaches during the last months of its war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whom it defeated in May.U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes has said several thousand civilians were killed during the final phase of Sri Lanka's war against the LTTE, when the rebels retreated to a narrow strip of coast in northeastern Sri Lanka.The rebels brought hundreds of thousands of Tamils with them, whom U.N. officials said were used as human shields.  U.N. and Western officials accused Sri Lanka of using heavy artillery to shell areas that it knew were heavily populated with civilians, killing many of them in the process. Colombo denied the allegation.

02 September 2009

TNA(TELO,TULF,EPRLF and ACTC) to meet President

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is to meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa next Monday. The President who is currently on tour in Libya will be meeting the TNA delegation headed by TNA Leader R. Sambandan on September 7 to discuss several key issues according to party member P. Ariyanendra. “There are two key issues they we wish to discuss with the President. One is the situation of the internally displaced people and about their resettlement in the north, which we feel is happening without due process and legal purview. The second point of discussion will be the issue of a political discussion that has been under consideration for a long time but has seen little of concrete importance emerge,” he said.

Fourth Doctor charged with LTTE links given bail

The fourth doctor in the group of five doctors charged with providing false information to the international media has been released on a surety bail of Rs. 200000 by Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi.Dr. Kankathurai Kedavan who allegedly operated from the Puthukudurippu Hospital during the final stages of the Government’s military offensive against the LTTE was charged with providing falsehoods and incorrect information to the international media which resulted in damaging the country’s image.Three other doctors charged on similar grounds were also provided with personal bail on August 24 and allowed to leave after it was established that they had made their statements in the Wanni following pressure by the LTTE. They were ordered to appear before the Vavuniya CID every Sunday.

Sri Lanka says likely to lose EU trade concession

Sri Lanka is likely to lose a lucrative European Union trade concession for its top export, garments, based on the initial findings of an EU probe into its human rights record, a senior government official said.S. Ranugge, secretary in Sri Lanka's Export Development and International Trade Ministry, said a preliminary report received a week ago highlights allegations of human rights violations and torture, stemming from a 25-year war with Tamil Tiger rebels.Garments netted Sri Lanka a record $3.47 billion from EU markets last year, and were the country's top source of foreign exchange, followed by remittances of $3 billion and tea exports of $1.2 billion.Since July 2008, the European bloc has warned Sri Lanka it may not meet the human rights standards required for access to the Generalised System of Preference Plus trade scheme, based on reports of human rights abuses in the final phase of the war."The report is very adverse and GSP Plus is very unlikely," Ranugge, who is the trade ministry's top civil servant, told Reuters. "If the report is favourable, you can keep hope. The reaction of the EU is not that favourable."The EU ambassador to Sri Lanka, Bernard Savage, declined to comment on the initial findings made by experts contracted to carry out the probe, but confirmed a report had been prepared."The full text of that has been made available to the Sri Lankan authorities. Once we have gathered all the reactions, particularly those of the Sri Lankan government, the report will be finalised within a short time," Savage told Reuters.Sri Lanka came under heavy pressure from Western nations, including European ones with large Tamil populations, because of civilian deaths in the final phase of the war against the Tamil Tigers, which ended with the separatists' defeat on May 18.In October, the government said it would not cooperate with the European Union's investigation nor allow investigators to come to the island nation. Sri Lanka estimates the loss of the concession will cost it about $150 million a year.The EU's official decision is expected by October and the $40 billion economy will be entitled to the trade benefits for six months thereafter, Ranugge said. The final decision is non-appealable.In 2008, the European Union was the largest export market for Sri Lanka, accounting for 36 percent of all exports, followed by the United States with 24 percent in 2008.Many fear the loss of the trade terms would force job cuts from a workforce of a million people, most from poor rural areas.

Major political trnsformation next year

SLFP General Secretary Minister Maithripala Sirisena said that the country would experience a major revolutionary Political transformation never witnessed before next year.It would follow the revelation of the UPFA Government’s national programme on political revival by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 58th Anniversary of the SLFP on November 15, he explained.Minister Sirisena said that though the party had announced former Chief Minister Shan Wijelal Silva as the Galle District Leader,Hemal Gunasekera as Matara district Leader and V.K.Indika as the Hambantota District Leader , the decision on the Chief Minister would be made after the elections. He said that on September 9 President Mahinda Rajapaksa would announce whether the Parliamentary elections would follow the Presidential election or vice versa.Sources said that the President who is keenly studying with senior aides the contents in the 18 page summary of the APRC proposal presented by APRC Chairman Minister Prof Tissa Vitharna a fortnight ago, would reveal his response to it soon.Meanwhile, President Mahinda Rajapaksa convened a meeting of the High Level Elections Operations Committee chaired by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake to discuss the strategy to be adopted for the forthcoming Southern PC elections. This, meeting was held at Temple Trees on Friday night.The other members of the Committee are SLFP General Secretary Minister Maithripala Sirisena, UPFA General Secretary Minister Susil Prenajayanth, Leader of House Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, SLFP Treasurer Minister Dulles Alahapperuma, MEP Leader and Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardena, JHU stalwart Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka and Leader of the National Freedom Front MP Wimal Weerawansa and Attorneys At Law W.A. Karunajeeva and Sumith Wijesinghe.

UN chief discusses Sri Lanka with Norway

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Monday held meetings in Oslo with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Norway and discussed Sri Lanka's situation, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Marie Okabe said at the daily press briefing.During a meeting with the members of Norway’s Parliament the Secretary-General further discussed Sri Lanka among other issues. Ban reiterated his assertion to the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa that though the fighting might be over, the displaced civilians must be allowed to return to their homes and that the President must reach out to minority groups.Responding to question about the Britain's Channel 4 video which allegedly showed a man in Sri Lankan Army uniform shooting a naked man purported to be a prisoner Ms. Okabe said the UN has always taken reports and information on human rights violations, including those related to war crimes seriously and the Channel 4 video is no exception.The Spokeswoman said However, the UN is not in a position to ascertain the authenticity of the video in question and has noted its rejection by the Sri Lankan authorities.The authenticity of the video, reportedly taken by a soldier with a mobile phone and smuggled to a group of journalists in exile, has been a controversy and the Sri Lankan government has rejected the video as a fabrication.The UN Spokeswoman added that the world body is in regular contact with the Sri Lankan Government regarding the implementation of the joint statement issued in May at the conclusion of UN Chief's visit to Sri Lanka. In his statement the Secretary-General underlined the importance of a comprehensive accountability process for addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The Government of Sri Lanka promised to take measures to address grievances of the victims of the conflict.

Rights group wants Sri Lanka reporter case dropped

A New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 11 Sri Lankan reporters were forced to flee the country in the past year, and Amnesty International said at least 14 Sri Lankan journalists and media workers had been killed since the beginning of 2006. A human rights group called on Tuesday for Sri Lanka to drop its case against an ethnic Tamil journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison for violating the country’s anti-terror laws. Mr J.S. Tissainayagam’s conviction on Monday sparked international criticism of the government, which has been accused of continuing a crackdown on the media even after it defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in May, ending a quarter-century-long civil war. The government has denied the allegations. The High Court said Mr Tissainayagam’s articles violated the law because they were aimed at creating communal disharmony. New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday the charges were a violation of freedom of expression and called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa to order the journalist’s unconditional release. “The Rajapaksa administration should drop the case against this well-respected journalist whose only ‘crime’ was to express his political views,” said Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director. The verdict “furthered the impression in Sri Lanka and abroad that Mr Tissainayagam’s prosecution is part of a government campaign of repression against independent media,” he said. Mr Tissainayagam’s conviction was the first time a journalist was found guilty of violating the country’s Prevention of Terrorism Act. President Barack Obama singled out Mr Tissainayagam during his World Press Freedom Day address in May as an example of journalists being jailed or harassed for doing their jobs. Amnesty International labelled him a prisoner of conscience. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 11 Sri Lankan reporters were forced to flee the country in the past year, and Amnesty International said at least 14 Sri Lankan journalists and media workers had been killed since the beginning of 2006.

‘Sophisticated camera used to shoot execution'

The controversial video footage showing Sri Lankan soldiers executing blindfolded Tamils in January this year was shot using a sophisticated TV camera and not by a soldier using a mobile phone, a Sri Lankan specialist in video coding claimed.“Looking at the footage, the first thing I found strange was the high quality of the video and lack of cascading effects and motion blur associated with mobile video coding,” said Siri Hewawitharana, former head of Research and Development in a Major British Broadcasting company, in The Island daily here on Monday.He said that he got hold of an original video that was on Quicktime format and another that was on AVI format, and decided to put them through various analysers to know the origin of the video. “I also found that Tamilnet (a pro-LTTE website) had tried to put this video on 3GPP format associated with mobile phones. This also gives some clues since mobile phones that are older are on 3GPP format, while all the new ones are of H-264 which is mpeg4 part 10,” the expert said.“The original video is from a good quality video camera and later someone has tried to transfer this to 3GPP QT format where we can see some cascading errors,” he claimed.

Millitary Commanders of America and Japan had requested training from Sri Lanka

“LANKADEEPA” newspaper has published a news item, Military Commanders from America, Japan including ten countries have requested training from Sri Lanka. Such request was in the intention of finding how; the Sri Lankan Military was able to eliminate the Tamil Eelam Liberation tiger terrorism in Sri Lanka. Military Commander Jagath Jayasooriya stated, such requests were made while military commanders participated at the Asian Pacific countries conference held in the capital city of Japan, Tokyo from last 24th to 27th. Military Commander Jagath Jayasooriya stated, all the countries appreciated him for eliminating terrorism in Sri Lanka.

Assistant of former LTTE leader arrested in Sri Lanka capital

Sri Lanka police have arrested a female LTTE cadre in Wellawatte area who has reportedly worked with the former LTTE political wing head S.P. Thamilchelvan. According to the Wellawatte police the suspected female was arrested while she was temporarily lodging in the area waiting to leave the country.She has disclosed to the police that her husband has been killed while fighting for the LTTE. The police are interrogating the suspect further.

Sri Lanka's abuse of press freedom

Winston Churchill wrote in his history of the Second World War that the first trait required of victors was "magnanimity." The Sri Lankan government would do well to remember that lesson in its treatment of its Tamil minority, whose insurgents it mercilessly crushed this past spring to end a 26-year civil war.So far, the government in Colombo has shown little if any magnanimity toward the vanquished Tamils. More than a quarter of a million of them remain in refugee camps from which foreign aid workers and international journalists are barred. Conditions in some of these camps are "desperate," according to the United Nation's High Commission on Refugees.Then on Monday, a Tamil journalist -- the quiet, slight J. S. Tissainayagam -- was sentenced to 20 years hard labour for alleged violations of Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act.While he is accused of having taken money from the outlawed (and brutal) Tamil Tigers to operate a website providing the Tamil version of facts about the civil war, Mr. Tissainayagam's main crime seems to have been writing two articles in the now-defunct Northeastern Monthly magazine in 2006 and 2007 criticizing the Sri Lankan persecution of the Tamils, who were seeking an independent homeland in the north-east corner of the island nation.Mr. Tissainayagam criticized wartime tactics employed by Sri Lankan leaders, including the alleged withholding of food, medicine and other essential items from Tamil areas as a way to strike back at the Tigers. He also complained that the Sri Lankan army was conducting extrajudicial executions -- murdering civilian Tamils as a warning to the Tigers that Colombo was not to be messed with and a caution to ordinary Tamils not to abet the Tigers.For this, the Sri Lankans -- who are mostly ethnic Sinhalese, not Tamil-- charged Mr. Tissainayagam with "causing communal disharmony," a serious offence under anti-terrorism laws there. His supporters, along with Amnesty International and the Asian Human Rights Commission, claim the evidence that he purportedly co-operated with the Tamil Tigers was fabricated. They claim he is a political prisoner and that the criminal charges against him were trumped up in order to silence his anti-government views.Sri Lanka has an abysmal record of press freedom. Not only is it keeping international reporters from its 30, soldier-guarded refugee camps for Tamil civilians, but over the course of the quarter-century-long civil war, at least 20 journalists critical of Colombo disappeared in a practice that became known as "white vanning." A white van would pull up next to a target as he walked down the street. Masked men would jump out, throw the journalist inside and he would never be seen again. The International Committee to Protect Journalists ranks only Iran, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Colombia as worse in their mistreatment of reporters.Throughout the final years of Sri Lanka's civil war, this newspaper was broadly sympathetic to the Sri Lankan government's goal of confronting and subduing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers. While the Tamil people had legitimate gripes against the Sinhalese majority government, nothing could justify the Tigers' tactics. The LTTE murdered civilians, including Tamils, to strike terror into the hearts of the Sinhalese and compel obedience from ordinary Tamils. They perfected the use of suicide bombers long before Palestinians employed the tactic against Israel. Tigers threatened the lives of Tamil families effectively held hostage within Tiger-held areas in Sri Lanka in order to extract war funds from expatriates worldwide.Still, it is clear the Tamils have been persecuted since Sri Lanka was granted its independence in 1948. The ruling caste when Britain ruled the island, the Tamils have since been legally denied government jobs and places in business merely because of their ethnicity. In 1983, hundreds of innocent Tamils were murdered by roving Sinhalese mobs in what became known as Bloody July.The U. S. State Department has urged Colombo to release Mr. Tissainayagam. U. S. President Barack Obama even singled him out for mention in his Press Freedom Day speech in May.Now that it is at peace again, Sri Lanka has an obligation to honour freedom of the press and of speech.

01 September 2009

TNA(TELO,TULF,EPRLF and ACTC) ready to support the President 
   
The most prominent Tamil parliamentary group in Sri Lanka says the party is prepared to help President Mahinda Rajapaksa to resolve the national issue. R Sambanthan, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), stressed the importance of resettling nearly 300,000 displaced people as soon as possible. Visiting British parliamentarian Liam Fox and the TNA agreed on the importance of the issue, he told BBC Sandeshaya.“There should be a solution based upon which all communities in Sri Lanka can live in harmony without dividing the country,” MR. Sampanthan said. He added that the TNA, widely regarded as a pro-LTTE political party, expressed its willingness to help the president to find out such a political solution. A senior leader of the conservative Party and a member of the British shadow cabinet has met the president and the TNA leader in Colombo. “Noting that the president has changed and made some progress, Mr. Fox requested us to help him to progress more towards resolving the national question. We said that we are prepared,” Mr. Sambanthan said. Liam Fox brokered a deal between Sri Lanka’s main political parties to share information on resolving the issue during Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga presidency. Expressing regret that it did not work out, Mr. Fox has observed that things might have been completely different had the parties honoured the agreement. He has, however, noted that the UK government is willing to help President Rajapaksa to resolve the national issue, according to the TNA leader.

Sri Lankan war critic gets 20 years' hard labor

A Sri Lankan court sentenced a journalist who wrote articles critical of a military offensive against the Tamil Tigers to 20 years' hard labor under anti-terrorism laws critics say are used to stifle dissent.Colombo High Court Judge Deepali Wijesundera found J.S. Tissanayagam guilty on three charges of conspiracy and violating the Prevention of Terrorism Act and powerful wartime emergency regulations that give the government wide powers of arrest.She gave him the minimum sentence under the law.Tissanayagam was arrested in March 2008 and accused of having links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), after writing articles in the Northeastern Monthly magazine about the impact of the government's offensive on civilians.The government accused him of accepting LTTE money to write propaganda in the magazine and sow dissent between minority Tamils and the Sinhalese ethnic majority. "The constitution itself gives freedom of press, but that doesn't allow anybody to spread false information to spur ethnic violence," prosecutor Sudarshana DeSilva told the court.The LTTE, until its defeat after a 25-year war in May, had fought to create a separate nation for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils, arguing that successive post-independence governments led by the Sinhalese majority had repressed Tamils.Western governments and press freedom groups condemned his arrest as symbolic of crumbling press freedom in Sri Lanka, where the Committee to Protect Journalists says at least eight journalists have been killed since 2007.Others have been beaten, harassed, detained and threatened with death. Tissanayagam, who is Tamil, signed a confession but later told the court he did so under duress."This is a good lesson for all journalists to be cautious when writing in future," defense lawyer Anil Silva said. "He lost his job in the '80s when talking about labor union rights. Now, he lost his freedom when talking about Tamil rights."Silva said his client would appeal.A main component of the Prevention of Terrorism Act is its proscription of ethnically divisive language, which critics say President Mahinda Rajapaksa's administration has used to clamp down on critical reporting.Rwandan President Paul Kagame came under similar criticism for his government's application of laws that bar ethnically inflammatory language, instituted after its 1994 genocide.

LTTE, not RAW, tried to kill Pak envoy’

It was LTTE and not India’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), that attempted to assassinate Bashir Wali Mohmand when he was Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka three years ago, claimed Sri Lanka sleuths.Interrogation of arrested LTTE cadre in recent weeks had revealed that the LTTE had set off the blast at Kolpitty junction on August 14, 2006, and that Mohmand was not a deliberately chosen target, reported the weekly Lakbimanews. The LTTE’s plan had been to attack any VVIP convoy taking that route at that time. The LTTE cadre came to know that the VVIP he had struck was the Pakistani envoy only after the blast, which killed seven Sri Lankan security men.On return to Pakistan after completing his term, Mohmand charged that India’s RAW was behind the attempt on his life in Colombo. The fact that the attack had taken place on Pakistan’s Independence Day led to some commentators looking at it from the India-Pakistan angle.In Sri Lanka, however, Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said that the Pakistani envoy was attacked because the LTTE was angry that Pakistan was arming the Sri Lankan security forces, when most other major powers, including India, had refused to sell arms to the island nation.

Escaped LTTE cadres could rebuild outfit: report

LTTE cadres, who escaped the final assault by the army in May, could give a new lease of life to the now vanquished outfit and are even trying to launch fresh attacks in Sri Lanka, according to a report."There were 30,000 members back then (during the final phase of the war) in the LTTE. Not all were armed, but all were organised. The army has lots of records listing who they are," international defence website Strategy Page said in a report."Most of these LTTE staff survived the final campaign, and the Sri Lankan government is looking for them. These are the people who could rebuild the LTTE, and who are even now trying to carry out terror attacks," says the article also posted on Sri Lankan government's official website.It said intelligence reports suggest that the cadres could rebuild the LTTE and are trying to carry out terror activities.Some of these information have been gathered from new LTTE leader Selvarajah Pathmanathan who is now under the custody of Sri Lankan government."Pathmanathan has the information on operational details and contacts of the LTTE as well as information on money collected from expatriate Tamils which were used for the terrorist activities of the LTTE," the article said.The 30-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka came to an end on May 18 with the death of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran. "Pathmanathan also has information on the organisation that only the senior leadership had. He is able to let the government know how large the organisation was in Sri Lanka before the final offensive," the article said.It said India is much more sympathetic to the Sri Lankan government on the LTTE issue as New Delhi "knows all about fanatical sects and political movements and was also subject to LTTE terrorism". 

Police 'attackers' identified
 
Victims of an alleged police abduction and assault case have identified five police personnel in parades held before a magistrate.Family members of a senior police officer, SSP Vaas Gunawardene, and other police officers are accused of abducting and assaulting a young student, Nipuna Ramanayake in Malabe. Mr. Ramanayake and his colleague, Chamila Seneviratne, have identified five suspects at six parades held before Kaduwela magistrate on Monday. Sub Inspectors (SI) Indika Pushpakumara and Shantha Vithanage and Constables Janith Priyankara, Ruchira Chandima and Dinesh Dayawansa were identified by the victims.

Secret report

Further identifying parades are to be held on Tuesday.All 12 suspected police officers and SSP Gunawardene’s wife, Shyamali Priyadarshani Perera, and their son, Ravindu Gunawardene, were ordered to further remand until Tuesday. According to Ramanayake, he was abducted at gunpoint by three armed personnel in plain clothes, a few metres away from the SLIIT campus about 30 minutes after earlier verbal threats by the son of the SSP. He says that he was taken to SSP Vas Gunawardana's residence and assaulted by armed police, SSP's son and the wife.The police headquarters has also handed over a secret report to the magistrate over whether SSP Vaas Gunawardene was personally involved in the incident. Former police spokesman, SSP Ranjith Gunasekara, earlier told BBC Sandeshaya that no evidence was found to suggest any involvement in the incident by SSP Gunawardene.

Tamil youth shot, injured in Ampaa’rai

An unidentified gang of men shot and injured Saturday a Tamil youth in Tambuluvil in Ampaa’rai district, according to a complaint lodged by his relatives with Akkaraipattu police. The injured youth is Yoganathan Suresh Kumar, 31.Suresh Kumar is warded in Akkaraipattu hospital.The armed had gang entered his house and fired at him and fled from the scene when neighbors shouted for help.

Jaffna soon a bustling business centre

Jaffna has the potential to become a bustling business centre in the country and this could be tapped. As industrialists we need to cater to this unmet demand, said Chairman, Shipping, Ports and Aviation Committee of the National Chamber of Commerce Sujeiva Samaraweera. It is important to introduce the ‘one stop shop’ concept in facilitating business opportunities. We want to be the catalyst and the coordinator between the relevant parties. There is vast potential in the areas of logistics, banking, industries, education, transport, warehousing, tourism and especially clod storing post harvest technology, he said. The National Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (NCCSL) will assist the Jaffna Women’s Chamber of Commerce under the Business Processing Fund, a grant by the Netherlands Government. The fund will provide machinery and equipment to start business and nearly 50 recipients have benefited from this scheme, he said. The fund will be used to upgrade production, create employment and contribute to the national economy. A delegation led by Deputy President of the NCCSL Asoka Hettigoda with 50 industrialists representing 25 companies visited Jaffna recently to hold a one on one meeting with the potential business community. The visit had resulted in progress towards developing business ventures. Steps should be taken to attract industrialists to the food industry, banking, industries and wholesale sectors, he said. “We could expect major development to take place once the A 9 road is fully opened. It is important to identify the potential business areas as a great deal of businesses were closed due to the war. We need to provide them grants to restart and regain the business ventures. This is where the Netherlands grant will help”, he said. The NCC also facilitates trade offers through its websites. The producers have the facility to advertise their products in the website and create trade links. We act as a match-maker, he said. The economic development should not only be confined to Colombo where at present it contributes nearly 50 percent to the economy. We need to spread to other parts too. We are very focused on providing assistance to other areas as well, he said. The Ministry of Industries is planning to set up an industrial zone in Jaffna. This will boost the industrial sector. Five-hundred- and-sixty thousand hectares of land is available for cultivation. There is potential for the wine industry and we have the best vineyards in Jaffna. All signs are that Jaffna will be developed in the agricultural and industrial sectors, he said. People in Jaffna are educated and hard working. Parents seek higher education opportunities for their children. We need to fill this vacuum. It is necessary to harness their talents and skills to develop our country, he said. The Army is doing a good job in providing security in Jaffna. The Army is human friendly and movies closely with the community. This would create a conducive environment for development, he said. “We also face constraints. There are practical difficulties such as the need for better access to the road network. We need to improve air and train transportation. Facilities should be provided for tourists to visit Jaffna. We need to address the issue of lack of accommodation. There are many opportunities for educational institutions for training and education, he said. It is essential to have proper logistics from Colombo to Jaffna. The development of the Kankesanturai Port will be a boost to the shipping industry. There needs to be Government offices such as Customs. A ferry service will be ideal to cater to the transportation needs. The fishing industry could be developed and we could set up an industry to export sardines to the global markets. The Government is doing a tremendous job. The fast track phase to develop Jaffna would enable its fast growth, he said.   

An important member from Tiger Charles Anthony troop had been arrested.

An important person from Tamil Eelam Liberation tiger’s Charles Anthony battalion had been arrested by the Police Sector. Senior leader who had been functioning in the Tamil Eelam Liberation tiger movement for the past 19 years, had been arrested from the Mt.Lavania area. The said tiger member was in the intention of proceeding to abroad, and was living in a lodge in Mt.Lavania. He was involved in seven important attacks initiated against the Sri Lanka military. It was informed that the arrested person had many gun shot injuries in many places in his body.

The steely hand behind demise of Tamil Tigers 
 
THE large posters signifying a tale of triumph against seemingly impossible odds can hardly be missed by anyone traveling the length and breadth of Sri Lanka, and that very much includes the battle scared north of the country which has equal reason to rejoice having been liberated from the evil grip of the bloodthirsty Tamil Tigers after three debilitating decades. Telling in narrative and touching in effect, the posters depict a gleeful Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa giving his somewhat bashful looking younger brother Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa a spontaneous hug gushing with affection and gratitude. Indeed, the Rajapaksa brothers Mahinda and Gotabaya have every reason to be proclaimed as the heroic poster boys of the momentous victory—an outcome no Sri Lankan at home or abroad (and even the circumspect international community) thought was ever possible—over one of the world’s most feared and brutally clinical terrorist outfits which devised and subsequently exported the barbarous knowledge of suicide vests and truck bombs to its comrades in death in theaters of secessionist war worldwide. For whilst the President played political hardball and made anyone who was willing to listen realize that the country could never defeat an enemy it wasn’t prepared to fight, his Defense Secretary—with a seriousness of purpose unmatched by any previous incumbent in that key office—mapped out and unwaveringly directed the definitive final chapter of the long running saga. Under the firm guidance of Defense Secretary Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan military did what the Tamil Tiger leadership least expected it to do—double its manpower and bring the fight direct to the enemy and inflict decisive psychological wounds. This was all-flanks engaged warfare based on common-sense and strategic insight. It was brilliant as it was simple, making many wonder why it hadn’t been instituted before. But to cast light on that quandary one needs to rewind recent history. While May 2009 was when the last remnants of the Tamil Tiger fighters, including its megalomaniac leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, were wiped out and the country’s freedom from terrorism declared, one has to go back to a warm night in November 2005 when the path to attaining that freedom was laid. Late on that day, when the votes in the presidential election were being tallied and then presidential candidate Rajapaksa realized that he was almost home and dry (and on the day of his 60th birthday at that) he asked his brother Gotabaya—then domiciled in the United States and had taken three-months leave from his job in an IT company to travel to his homeland to help with his brother’s campaign—whether he would consider staying put in Sri Lanka and taking up the post of Defense Secretary and helping him end the war. In what turned out to be the perfect birthday gift, Gotabaya agreed. Sitting behind his desk which is flanked by a tank full of fish swimming lazily and providing the perfect antidote to the stress-laden demands of his office, the iron-willed but soft-spoken (though he is known to erupt in volcanic rage when encountering mismanagement and incompetence) Defense Secretary Rajapaksa—who rose to the rank of colonel in the Sri Lankan Army before retiring and emigrating to the USA—acknowledges that the chemistry that came about by his appointment was unprecedented, and had a crucial bearing on the final outcome. He explains: “For the first time ever in the history of Sri Lanka we had the three commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force working with a Defense Secretary who had served alongside them in the battlefield during the early days of the conflict. And crucially, my brother was the President which meant I could cut out the bureaucratic red-tape and, more importantly, disregard the political interference that had previously crippled this office—and invariably the war effort—and go straight to the Commander-in Chief if and when the need arose.” Needless to say, it was a gilt-edged connection that shaped the conclusive stages of the war—especially when seeking the wherewithal to substantially boost the firepower. But in the final analysis it was Defence Secretary Rajapaksa’s depth of vision and not his scale of influence that mattered. “What I was able to do, with the help of the commanders, was to professionalize the three services and change the demoralizing culture where promotion was based more on political connections than merit. We instilled in our soldiers the importance of discipline and feelings of pride in wearing the uniform. We also made them understand that the cause they were fighting was a just one. In addition, we paid special attention to their welfare and that of their families. I believe all these aspects played a vital role in helping us gain the upper hand against the enemy,”says the man who narrowly survived an assassination attempt by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber who targeted his bullet proof vehicle killing several of his bodyguards. When asked if he felt his work was now done, the Defense Secretary (whose all encompassing brief also includes public security and law and order) notes: “To a certain extent it has. But now we have to put in place a good intelligence network to ensure that the security of our country is never again compromised by internal fighting forces. “And having been on a war footing for so long, we have to redefine the role of the Armed Forces now that peace has been restored. Also much of the police force will have to be re-trained and re-orientated to the requirements of law and order in a post-war community setting. “Beyond that, we also have to ensure peace and order in our society by disarming the many factions and individuals who, by nature of the threats they faced from the Tamil Tigers, were allowed to carry arms. We need to impress upon them that the state can now offer them adequate protection. “There are too many firearms in circulation, and if Sri Lanka is to enjoy the benefits of peace then it’s an issue that has to be addressed with a sense of urgency.” Fittingly, a microcosm of the peaceful Sri Lanka that Defense Secretary Rajapaksa helped pave can now be seen on a daily basis just across the road from his Defense Ministry office where sits one of Colombo’s most important landmarks, the Galle Face Green. An expansive stretch of green that looks seductively over the Indian Ocean, it has since it was built in 1865 been the place of choice for the capital’s residents from near and far to gather and relax late into the evening. Because of security concerns it has been closed to the public for several years and depicted an empty forlorn picture that was symptomatic of the depressive state of affairs in the country. But now it is open and buzzing again, with kites manned by young boys soaring and playfully flirting with each other in the evening breeze. While on terra firma bowling arms are exercised and batting stokes executed as makeshift cricket matches are in progress. And all around is a merry scene of families picnicking and lovers promenading. It’s a joyful tableau neatly encapsulating a remarkable turnaround in Sri Lanka’s fortunes, and something that for sure catches the eye of Defense Secretary Rajapaksa as he drives home from his office each day. For that, and a lot more besides Sri Lankans owe him an immense debt of gratitude. And President Rajapaksa would do well to ensure his brother Gotabaya stays around for a while yet to help build on the dividends of peace.