வலைப்பூவில் சூர்யாவின் வலம்.

VIDEO: Raj Patel's The Value of Nothing

2010-03-19T02:30:00.000-07:00

Try them or release them

2009-11-22T01:55:00.000-08:00

Relatives of Tamil political prisoners staged a protest opposite the Welikada prison this morning against alleged abuses faced by the prisoners at the hands of prison officials and urged the authorities to either try the prisoners for the charges filed against them or release them.

Courtesy:
Dailymirror.lk

புலம்பெயர் தேசத்தில் 'புலன்பெயர்ந்த' துரோகங்கள்

2009-11-21T07:20:00.000-08:00

புலிச்சின்னத்தைப் பயன்படுத்தி மாபெரும் துரோகம்

மீண்டும் தனப்பேய்கள் கைவரிசை

போராட்டத்திற்கெனச் சேர்ககப்பட்ட பலகோடிப் பணங்களை முடக்கி, தமிழீழப் போராட்டத்தைத் தோற்கடித்தும் இறுதி நேரத்தில் தேசியத் தலைவர் மேதகு வே.பிரபாகரன் அவர்களால் நியமிக்கப்பட்ட பிரதிநிதிகளை சிங்களப் புலனாய்வுத்துறைக்குக் காட்டிக் கொடுத்து, உண்மையைக் கூறியவர்களைத் துரோகிகளென்றும் உண்மையைக் கூறும் ஊடகங்களைத் தொடர்ந்து அச்சுறுத்தியும் தங்கள் பணம் பறிக்கும் நோக்கை நிறைவேற்ற இந்தக் கழுகுகள் மீண்டும் புலம் பெயர்ந்த மண்ணில் பொய்யுரைகளை பல இணையங்கள் மற்றும் பிற ஊடகங்கள் மூலம் மக்கள் மத்தியில் விதைக்கின்றன. இவர்களிடம் எச்சரிக்கையுடன் இருக்குமாறு உலகத்தமிழர் அறிவுறுத்தப்பட்டுள்ளனர். உதவியை நேரடியாக தாயக மக்களுக்கு வழங்குமாறு கேட்டுக் கொள்ளப்படுகின்றனர். தாயகத்திலிருந்து களத்தில் தொடர்ந்தும் தீரத்துடன் நிற்கும் தளபதிகள் இதுபற்றி விரைவில் அறிக்கை விடுவர். சகல அரசியல், இராஐதந்திர முன்னெடுப்புக்களுக்கும் கட்சி, பிரதேச வேற்றுமைகளைக் களைந்து ஒருமுகமாக ஜனநாயக ரீதியில் அந்தந்த நாட்டுச் சட்டங்களை மதித்து தமிழினத்தின் விடிவிடிற்காக தொடந்து உழைக்கமாறு உலகத்தமிழர் வேண்டிக் கொள்ளப்படுகின்றீர்.

நன்றி:
மின்மடல்

மாவீரர் நாள் /Maveerar Naal/ Heroes' Day

2009-11-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

Let us all remember the fallen heroes of ours.

The fight 4 freedom is still on; we shall never give up.

These men and women gave their lives selflessly.

Let us all take a vow that we will never eva forget'em

we honour these souls; they died to free Mother Eelam

and know that they've become angels in the heavens.

The memory of them will live on forever

We will carry their dreams in our hearts.

They are among the clouds; will vist us with the breeze.

So as long as last Thamil alive; they will be remembered.

We will hold them in our hearts; will treasure their memories.

As long as we can breathe; our heroes will never be apart.

So as we buried you with honor; we will grieve, then heal & pray.

Even though we'll miss them, we are united in the name of our heroes

- Surya-

மணம் வீசும் பூக்கள்!

ஈழம் எங்கள் நாடடா, ஈன்ற அன்னை தமிழடா!

நாடு எங்கள் கண்ணடா, வீரம் எங்கள் நெஞ்சடா!

மானம் காத்த மறவர் எங்கள் மடிவில் நூறு கதையடா!

வானம் கூட எம்மைக்கண்டு வியந்த காலம் உண்டடா!

கானகமும் எம்மை காத்த கதைகள் உண்டு கேளடா!

எங்கள் மண்ணில் நாங்கள் வாழும் வாழ்க்கை கண்ட பேரடா

வாழவேண்டும் ஈழவன் போல் எண்று சொன்னதுண்டடா!

எம் இனத்தின் ஆணி வேரை அறுத்து விட எண்ணியே

சிங்களமும் சிந்தை கொண்டு செய்த பாவம் நூறுடா!

பார்த்துப் பார்த்து அன்னை ஈன்ற பிஞ்சுகளை கூடடா

சிங்களம் தன் காலில் போட்டு கசக்குவதும் உண்டடா!

எம்மை காக்க அவதரித்த உத்தமன் நம் அண்ணண்டா!

அண்ணண் வழி பாதையிலே அண்ணண் அக்கா பலரடா!

வீரம் எண்ற வார்த்தை கூட இவரை கண்ட பின்னடா

வீறு கொண்டு வேங்கையாக வாழ்த்து சொன்னதுண்டடா!

இவர்தனை போல் பாரதநில் தியாகி உண்டோ சொல்லடா!

மெழுகுவர்த்தி கூட எங்கள் அண்ணண் அக்கா முன்னிலே

நெஞ்சுருகி தலை சாய்த்து நன்றி கூறும் கேளடா!

இவரைக்கொண்ட எமது மண்ணை நாம் இழக்கக் கூடுமோ?

இவரைக் கொன்ற அரக்கர்த்னை நாம் மறக்க கூடுமோ?

இறக்க வில்லை நீங்கள் எங்கள் உயிர்கள் அண்ணண் அக்காவே!

புதைய வில்லை நீங்கள் மண்ணில் விதைக்கப்பட்ட விதைகளே!

மலரும் வரை ஈழம் எங்கள் பாதை உங்கள் பாதையே!

மலர்ந்த பின்னும் மனதில் நீங்கள் மணம் வீசும் பூக்களே!

எங்கள் மனம் தேடும் பூக்களே! வீர உரம் போடும் நூல்களே!

வாழ்க தமிழ்! மலர்க தமிழ் ஈழம்!

நன்றி:

மனம் வீசும் பூக்கள்!

இவன்

ஈழன் இளங்கோ

சிட்னி, அவுஸ்திரேலியா.
http://www.facebook.com/Eelan.Elanko?v=app_2347471856&ref=profile

மாவீரர்கட்கான உங்கள் நினைவெட்டுக்களை இணைத்துக் கொள்ளுங்கள்.

pls leave ur remembrance messages in the comments box @
http://tamilcause.blogspot.com/2009/11/maveerar-naal-heroes-day.html

Sri Lankan military leaders to be banned from Europe

2009-11-09T01:46:00.000-08:00

According to reliable sources from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the European Union is taking steps to impose travel ban on Sri Lankan military leaders and their immediate families. This is one step closer to preparing a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would prevent Sri Lankan military leaders and their families crossing any international frontier.It is understood such a move in the UN would have full backing from the US. The US State department recently released a congressioinally

mandated report on Sri Lanka that was highly critical of the Sri Lankan army for carrying out shelling in the no-fire zone set up by the Sri Lankan government. It was alleged that more than 20,000 innocent civilians died in the final phase of the war againt the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE waged a war for more than three decades to create a separate State for the Tamils who claim that they are being discriminated by the Sinhalese majority. The report calls for both parties to the conflict to be investigated for war crimes.

Courtesy:
http://lankanewsweb.com/news/EN_2009_11_06_001.html

சித்திரவதைக்குள்ளாகும் தலைவரின் பெற்றோர்

2009-11-05T05:20:00.000-08:00

இதுவரை வெளிவராத...இலங்கைச் சித்திரவதை! நாலாவது மாடியில் பிரபாகரன் பெற்றோர்!

பிரபாகரனின் பெற்றோர் திருவேங்கடம் வேலுப்பிள்ளையும், பார்வதியம்மாளும் இப்போது சிங்கள அரசின் முரட்டுச் சித்திரவதைகளில் அவதிப்பட்டு வருவதாகக் கடல் கடந்து வரும் தகவல்கள்தான் உலகம் முழுவதும் உள்ள தமிழர்களின் மனங்களில் வேதனை வலியைப் பரவ வைத்திருக்கிறது. இவ்வாறு தமிழக வார சஞ்சிகை ஆனந்த விகடன் தெரிவித்துள்ளது.
'மே, 1968...

அர்ச்சகரின் மீதுதான் தவறு!' - அந்த இளைஞனின் உதடுகளில் இருந்து உஷ்ணமாக வெளிப்பட்டன வார்த்தைகள். கோபம் அனலாகத் தெறிக்கும் தன் மகனின் முகத்தை விநோதமாகப் பார்த்தார்கள் பெற்றோர் இருவரும்.

'என்ன நடந்தது எனத் தெரிந்துதான் பேசுகிறாயா? தமிழரான அந்த அர்ச்சகரை சிங்களவர்கள் என்ன செய்தார்கள் தெரியுமா?' - பதில் கோபத்துடன் திருப்பிக் கேட்டார் அந்த இளைஞனின் தந்தை.

'தெரியும், சிங்களவர்கள் கொளுத்திவிட்டார்கள். அவர்கள் கொளுத்தும் முன்பே அர்ச்சகர் அவர்களைக் கொன்றிருக்க வேண்டும்' - கோபம் குறையாமல் அந்த இளைஞன் சொல்லவும் கூடுதலாக அதிர்ச்சி தந்தைக்கு!

'தேவாரத்தையும், திருவாசகத்தையும் சொல்லிக்கொடுத்து, திருவாசகத்துக்கு உருகார் ஒரு வாசகத்துக்கும் உருகார் எனப் படித்த உன்னிடம் இருந்தா இப்படிப்பட்ட வார்த்தைகள் வருகின்றன? தவறு, பகைவனிடம்கூட நாம் அன்பு பாராட்டத்தான் வேண்டும். அன்பே சிவம், அன்பே கடவுள், அன்பே உலகம்!' எனப் பதிலுக்கு அழுத்தி அழுத்தி அந்த இளைஞனுக்கு அன்பைப் போதிக்கிறார் அந்தத் தந்தை!

30 ஆண்டு காலமாக ஈழத் தமிழர்களுக்காக இராணுவம் கட்டிப் போராடிய பிரபாகரன்தான் அந்த இளைஞன். பிரபாகரனுக்கு அன்பை அழுத்தி அழுத்திச் சொன்னவர் தந்தை திருவேங்கடம் வேலுப்பிள்ளை. சிங்களப் பகைவனுக்குக்கூட அன்பு பாராட்ட வேண்டும் எனப் போதித்த பிரபாகரனின் பெற்றோர் திருவேங்கடம் வேலுப்பிள்ளையும், பார்வதியம்மாளும் இப்போது சிங்கள அரசின் முரட்டுச் சித்திரவதைகளில் அவதிப்பட்டு வருவதாகக் கடல் கடந்து வரும் தகவல்கள்தான் உலகம் முழுவதும் உள்ள தமிழர்களின் மனங்களில் வேதனை வலியைப் பரவ வைத்திருக்கிறது.

இலங்கை வல்வெட்டித்துறையில் நன்கு அறியப்பட்ட நடுத்தரவர்க்கக் குடும்பம் திருவேங்கடம் வேலுப்பிள்ளையினுடையது. இலங்கை அரசாங்கத்தில் மாவட்டக் காணி அதிகாரியாகப் பணிபுரிந்தவருக்கு பிரபாகரன், ஜெகதீஸ்வரி, விநோதினி என மூன்று குழந்தைகள். மகன் பிரபாகரன் தேர்ந்தெடுத்த பாதையை மாற்ற ஆரம்பத்தில் எவ்வளவோ முயற்சித்தவர்.

பின்னாட்களில் மகனுக்குப் பின்னால் திரண்ட போராட்ட வீரர்களைப் பார்த்து, தவிப்புடன் ஆசி வழங்கி போராட்டத்துக்குத் தத்துக் கொடுத்தார் மகனை. அதன் பிறகு சிங்கள அரசுக்கும் பிரபாகரனின் படைக்கும் பல முறை போராட்டங்கள் நடந்தபோதெல்லாம் முதலில் பாதிக்கப்படுவது வேலுப்பிள்ளைதான். வேதனையும் பயமும் உள்ளுக்குள் நொறுக்கினாலும், மகனின் வீரப் போராட்டத்துக்காக எதையும் வெளிக்காட்டாமல் வெள்ளந்தி மனிதராக வாழ்ந்தவர்.

ஒரு கட்டத்தில் இரண்டு மகள்களுக்கும் திருமணம் முடித்துக் கொடுக்க... மூத்த மகள் ஜெகதீஸ்வரி கணவருடன் கனடா சென்றுவிட்டார். இளைய மகள் விநோதினி திருச்சியில் தங்கி விட்டார்.

மரபுவழி இராணுவப் போர் உக்கிரமாகத் தொடங்கிய காலத்தில் பிரபாகரன், தன் பெற்றோரை வற்புறுத்தி 83-ம் ஆண்டில் இந்தியா அனுப்பிவைத்தார். திருச்சி இராமலிங்க நகரில் இருந்த விநோதினியின் வீட்டில் தங்கியிருந்தபடி மருத்துவச் சிகிச்சைகளை மேற்கொண்டு வந்தனர் இருவரும். பின்னர், விநோதினியும் கனடா சென்றுவிட, தங்களுக்கு மருத்துவம் பார்த்த முசிறி டாக்டர் இராஜேந்திரனுடன் முசிறியிலேயே தங்கி இருந்தனர்.

அமைதி ஒப்பந்தம் நடைமுறையில் இருந்த காலத்தில் 2003-ம் ஆண்டில் தமிழீழம் கிளம்பிப் போனார்கள். அதன் பிறகு கடைசி வரை பிரபாகரனுடயே இருந்தவர்களை இறுதிக்கட்டப் போரின்போது தமிழகத்துக்குச் செல்லும்படி எவ்வளவோ கூறி இருந்திருக்கிறார் பிரபாகரன். 'வாழ்வோ, சாவோ... இனி உன்னோடுதான்' என்ற உறுதியோடு இருந்தவர்கள், சிங்கள இராணுவத்தின் கைகளில் சிக்கியது காலத்தின் கோலம்தான்.

''போர் பாதிப்பின் அடையாளமாக எஞ்சிஇருந்த மிச்சசொச்சம் தமிழ்ச் சொந்தங்கள் சொந்த தேசத்துக்கு உள்ளேயே நாடு கடத்தப்பட்ட அகதிகளாக இராணுவத்திடம் சரண் அடைந்திருந்தனர். அந்த மக்களோடு மக்களாக மெனிக்பாம் அகதிகள் முகாமில் தஞ்சம் அடைந்திருந்தனர் பிரபாகரனின் பெற்றோர்.

அவர்களைத் தேடி வந்த இராணுவத்தினர் ஏனைய மக்களைச் சித்திரவதைக்கு உள்ளாக்கியபோது, தாங்களாகவே முன்வந்து 2009, மே 20-ம் தேதி தங்களை ஒப்புக் கொடுத்தனர் பிரபாரனின் பெற்றோர்.

வவுனியா இடைத்தங்கல் முகாமுக்கு இருவரையும் அழைத்துச் சென்ற இராணுவம், அங்கு தனிமையில் வைத்திருந்தது. 76 வயதான வேலுப்பிள்ளையும், 71 வயதான பார்வதியம்மாளும் உடல்நிலை மோசமாகி மிகவும் சிரமப்பட்டபோதுகூட, அவர்களுக்கான மருத்துவ உரிமையைப் பறித்தது இராணுவம்'' என்று இப்போது சொல்லும் சில ஈழத் தமிழ் பிரமுகர்கள்,

''60 வயதுக்கு மேற்பட்டவர்கள் தங்களுக்கு உதவியாக உறவினர் ஒருவரை வைத்துக் கொள்ளலாம் என்ற பொது விதியைக்கூட பிரபாகரனின் பெற்றோருக்கு அவர்கள் மறுத்துவிட்டனர். ஒரு மாத காலம் வவுனியா முகாமில் இருந்தவர்களை, பின்பு சிங்கள இராணுவம் எங்கோ கொண்டு சென்றது. இதுவரை விவரம் தெரியாமல் இருந்தது.

இப்போது, அந்த அப்பாவி முதியவர்கள் இருவரும் 'போர்த் ப்ளோர்' எனப்படும் 4வது மாடியில் இலங்கை மத்திய குற்றப் புலனாய்வுத் துறை அலுவலகத்தில் இருப்பதாக வரும் செய்திகள் கேட்டு நடுங்கிப் போயிருக்கிறோம்'' என்கிறார்கள் உள்ளார்ந்த பதைபதைப்புடன்!

நாலாவது மாடி என்ற வார்த்தையைக் கேட்டு ஏன் பதைபதைக்க வேண்டும்?

அது அப்படித்தான்! ஜெ.ஆர்.ஜெயவர்த்தன ஆட்சிக் காலத்தில் கொழும்பு கொள்ளுப்பிட்டிப் பகுதியில் உள்ள கட்டடத்தின் நான்காவது மாடிக்கு மெள்ள மெள்ள அப்படியொரு 'புகழ்' சேரத் தொடங்கியதாம்! இலங்கை மத்தியக் குற்றப் புலனாய்வுப் பிரிவு அங்கே ஹிட்லரின் சித்திரவதைக் கூடத்தைவிட பயங்கரமான நிகழ்வுகளை அரங்கேற்றிக் காட்டுவது வழக்கமாம். அரசுக்கு எதிரான முக்கிய தமிழ்முகங்கள் சிக்கிவிட்டால்... அவர்களை சிறுகச் சிறுக நொறுங்கவைத்து இரகசியங்களைப் பிடுங்க முடிவெடுத்துவிட்டால்... இந்தநாலாவது மாடிக்கு கொண்டு போய்விடுவார்களாம்.

''இங்கே போய் உயிரோடு திரும்பியவர்கள் மிக அபூர்வம்தான்! அப்படி உயிரோடு திரும்பி வருபவர்களும் வாழ்நாள் முழுக்க நிம்மதியாத் தூங்க முடியாது. கனவிலும் மிரட்டும் கொடுமைகள் அப்படி! சுவர் எங்கும் தெறித்து விழுந்த இரத்தக்கறைகளும், ஓயாத மரணவலி ஒலங்களும் அந்த நான்காம் மாடியில் ஒலித்துக்கொண்டே இருக்குமாம். அந்த இடத்தை 'சாத்தானின் மாளிகை' என்றும் 'பிசாசுக் கூடாரம்' என்றும் விவரம் தெரிந்த தமிழர்கள் சொல்வது வழக்கம்'' என்று விளக்கம் கிடைக்கிறது.

விசாரணைக்காக வரும் நபர்களை வகைப்படுத்தியே சித்திரவதை தொடங்குவார்களாம். ஆடைகளைக் கழற்றி, பனிக்கட்டிகள் நிரம்பி இருக்கும் ஓர் அறையில் நடுங்கும் குளிரில் உறையவைப்பது... கேட்கிற கேள்விக்கு 'திருப்தி'கரமான பதில் வராவிட்டால், குளிருக்கு நேரெதிரான பாஸ்பரஸ் ட்ரீட்மென்ட் நடக்குமாம். பாஸ்பரஸை உடலில் தடவி, கொதிக்கிற மின் தகட்டைக் கையிலெடுத்து... மேற்கொண்டு கேட்டால், இளகிய மனங்கள் துடிதுடித்துப் போகும்.

தலைகீழாகத் தொங்கவிடுவது... பிறகு, பி.வி.சி. பைப்புகளில் மணலை நிரப்பி அடித்து நொறுக்குவது... தலைகீழாகத் தொங்குபவரின் தலையில் முழுக்க பெட்ரோல் நிரம்பிய ஒரு பொலித்தீன் பையை மாட்டுவது... மூச்சுவிட முடியாமல் அவர்கள் பெட்ரோலை மெள்ள மெள்ளக் குடிப்பதையும்... அதன் நெடி மிகுந்த காற்றைச் சுவாசிப்பதையும் ரசிப்பது!
விதவிதமாக நீள்கின்றன இந்த சித்திரவதைப் படலங்கள்.

வாய் வழியே பெட்ரோல் சென்று அரை மயக்க நிலையில் ஆழ்ந்த பிறகும், கேட்ட கேள்விக்குப் பதில் வராவிட்டால் வாய்க்குள் தீக்குச்சியைக் கொளுத்திப் போடுவார்களாம் குரூர அதிகாரிகள்! இதில், உடலின் உள்ளுறுப்புகள் தீயினால் வெந்து பொசுங்கிவிடும்.

உயிர் ஊசலாடிக்கொண்டு இருக்கும்போது, நான்கைந்து பேர் மட்டுமே கால்நீட்டி அமரக்கூடிய ஓர் அறைக்குள் 20-க்கும் மேற்பட்ட நபர்களை நின்ற நிலையில் அடைத்து விடுவார்களாம். துளிகூட வெளிச்சம் புகாத அந்த இருட்டறைக்குள் முனகலும், மூச்சுவிடும் சத்தமும் மட்டும்தான் துணையிருக்கும். மற்றபடி எல்லாமே அந்தகாரம்தான்!

மனநிலையை உருக்கி, உண்மைகளை வாங்குவதற்காக இப்படி உணவு, தண்ணீர் தராமல் பலநாட்கள் இருட்டுக்குள் வைத்திருப்பது உண்டு என்றும் இலங்கைத் தமிழ்ப் புள்ளிகள் மத்தியில் பரவிக்கிடக்கிறது சேதி.

''பெண்களின் நிலைமையோ எழுத்தில் வடிக்க முடியாது'' என பயம் பரவ நாலாவது மாடி பற்றி விவரிக்கிறார்கள் இலங்கைத் தமிழ் நிருபர்கள் சிலர்.

''இத்தகைய ஓரிடத்தில் கடந்த நான்கு மாதங்களாக விசாரணை என்ற பெயரில் பிரபாகரனின் தாய் - தந்தை வைக்கப்பட்டு இருப்பதாக அறிகிறோம். வேலுப்பிள்ளைக்கு சர்க்கரை நோய், உயர் இரத்த அழுத்தம், பக்கவாதம் போன்ற பாதிப்புகள் உள்ளனவாம். தாய் பார்வதியம்மாளுக்கும் சர்க்கரை, உயர் இரத்த அழுத்த பாதிப்பு உண்டாம். அவர்களுக்கு அங்கே என்னவிதமான மருத்துவக் கண்காணிப்பு அளிக்கப்படுகிறது என்று தெரியவில்லை. அவர்களிடமிருந்து சிங்கள அதிகாரிகள் என்ன தெரிந்துகொள்ள விரும்புகிறார்கள் என்றும் புரியவில்லை!

இருவரையும் தனித்தனியே பிரித்து தனிமைச் சிறையில் அடைத்து வைத்திருப்பதாக துளியளவு இரக்கமுள்ள சில அதிகாரிகள் மூலம் தகவல் வருகிறது. முதுமையில் தனிமையின் பயம் எத்தகைய மனக் குழப்பங்களை உண்டாக்கும் என்று சொல்லத் தேவையில்லை. உணவுக் கட்டுப்பாட்டுக்கும் வழியில்லை அந்த நோயாளித் தம்பதிக்கு!

இந்திய எம்.பி-க்கள் குழு இலங்கை சென்றபோது 'பிரபாகரனின் பெற்றோரைப் பார்க்க வேண்டும்' என வேண்டுகோள் வைத்திருக்கிறார் திருமாவளவன். இதற்கு மறுப்புத் தெரிவித்த அதிபர் ராஜபக்ஷவின் சகோதரரான பசில், பிரபாகரனின் பெற்றோர் நலமுடன் இருப்பதாக மட்டுமே தெரிவித்திருக்கிறார். ''அவர்களை வெளியில் விடுவதற்கு எங்களுக்கு எந்த ஆட்சேபணையும் இல்லை. ஆனால், அவர்கள் இந்தியாவில் தங்குவதாக இருந்தால் மட்டும்தான் வெளியில் விடுவோம். மற்ற வெளிநாடுகளுக்குப் போனால், அவர்கள் எங்களுக்கு எதிராகப் பேட்டிகள் கொடுப்பார்கள். இப்படித்தான் டாக்டர் தமிழ்வாணியை நாங்கள் வெளியில் விடச் சம்மதித்தோம். ஆனால், லண்டன் போனவர் எங்களையே விமர்சித்தார். அந்த மாதிரி பிரபாகரனின் பெற்றோர் செயல்படக் கூடாது அல்லவா?'' என்று பசில் ராஜபக்ஷே, திருமாவளவனிடம் சொன்னதாக எங்களுக்கு ஒரு தகவல் இருக்கிறது'' என்கிறார் இலங்கை தமிழ் பத்திரிகையாளர் ஒருவர்.

இலங்கைத் தமிழ் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பின் தலைவரான சம்பந்தன் மற்றும் எம்.பி. சேனாதிராஜா ஆகியோரின் உதவியுடன் பெற்றோரை மீட்டுத் தமிழகம் கொண்டுவரும் நடவடிக்கைகளைத் தொடங்கியிருக்கிறாராம் பிரபாகரனின் சகோதரி விநோதினி. இதற்கு இலங்கை அரசாங்கம் எந்தளவு ஒத்துழைக்கும் என்பது இன்னும் சில வாரங்களில் தெரிந்துவிடும்.

அமெரிக்க நாடாளுமன்றத்தில் இலங்கை குறித்த போர்க் குற்ற அறிக்கை தாக்கலாகி இருப்பதைத் தொடர்ந்து, இங்கிருந்து யாரையும் இனி வெளிநாடுகளுக்கு அனுப்ப இலங்கை சம்மதிக்காது என்கிறார்கள் கொழும்பு பத்திரிகையாளர்கள்!

''பிரபாகரனின் பெற்றோருக்கு உண்மையில் என்ன நடந்தது, அவர்களது இப்போதைய நிலைமை என்ன என்பதை அதிகாரபூர்வமாக அறிவிக்க வேண்டும்'' என்று தமிழீழ ஆதரவு அமைப்புகள் கோரிக்கை வைக்கத் தயாராகி வருகின்றன.

இலங்கையின் சித்திரவதை அத்தியாயம் இப்போதைக்கு முடிவதாகத் தெரியவில்லை!

நன்றி :
ஆனந்த விகடன்

Sri Lanka, the Gulag Island .

2009-10-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

The sea is not calm behind your house.

Motherland turns into a ‘murder land’. The sea is not calm behind your house when you have a president who is a war criminal, Ministers who behave worse than Mafias, Armed forces undisciplined and Police force which does not respect any Laws of the land. Sri Lanka is turning into a cruel land towards its own children.

The concept of the gulag, first used by Aleksandr Solzhenisyn it in the Gulag Archipelago 1918 – 1956, has come to mean a particular system of repression imposed on a whole country, and which has some definite characteristics.

The loss of the meaning of legality within a particular country;

A predominant position played by the security apparatus;

The emergence of a propaganda apparatus that is not bound by any rules relating to truth or falsehood;

The emergence of a superman controller who manipulates all the three elements mentioned above in any way that he wishes;

A doomed citizenry reduced to zero status;

The position on which this article is based is that Sri Lanka is now such a gulag. All the above mentioned characteristics are now quite prominently visible within Sri Lanka.

More powers for bad cops in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan government has announced that all national public functions will require permission from the Ministry of Defense; all regional events will require approval from the nearest police station. This will have disastrous effects.

Most worrying is the granting of additional powers to local police that are already a serious problem to the population due to widespread corruption. The new powers, which make police the arbiters on the type of functions that can be conducted, are likely to provide more opportunities for corruption accompanied by all forms of harassment.

A recent volume of Article 2, a quarterly publication of the Asian Legal Resource Center, describes the use of powers of arrest and detention by the police in several Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, for the purpose of making money.

Many cases cited in the volume detail how people are arrested and detained and charges fabricated against them by the police, solely to obtain bribes. Victims that fail to pay bribes are exposed to torture or illegal imprisonment on the basis of fictitious charges levied on unbailable offenses.

The unbridled power police have acquired over a long period of time allows them to arrest and detain people either to make money or to serve petty political purposes in support of local politicians of the regime, or to suppress politicians of the opposition. Such practices have become commonplace in several countries, among which Sri Lanka figures prominently.

This capacity to abuse power with impunity makes many police officers, particularly those in charge of local police stations, close allies with criminal elements and the underground. Often, the officer-in-charge of a police station is perceived more as a kind of warlord than a law enforcement officer.

One case given in the publication illustrates in detail how an innocent civilian can be trapped and destroyed if caught in this web, where police officers play a key role in suppressing the law.

A local businessman, Sugath Nishanta Fernando, bought a vehicle from a police inspector for a relatively large sum of money. The inspector appeared to be the owner of the vehicle and Fernando bought it on that understanding.

However, the police inspector failed to transfer the vehicle ownership because he, in fact, was not the owner. It was a stolen vehicle sold by the inspector, using his official position to create the impression that there was no illegality involved in the transaction.

When Fernando eventually found that the police inspector had cheated him, he complained. Filing a complaint against a police inspector created not just one enemy but a whole gang of enemies – all the officers of the Negombo Police Station.

In the following months Fernando and his entire family were tortured. Charges were fabricated against him and he was constantly harassed as well as threatened with death many times. Finally, on Sept. 20, 2008, he was assassinated.

To date no one has been arrested for his murder. His widow and two children are living in hiding without protection. Unable to obtain protection from her own government, the widow has filed a petition with the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

In addition to continuing threats against her, her lawyer was also threatened and his office premises burned down on Feb. 8, 2009. He too is in hiding now. Furthermore, a human rights organization that supported the widow has also received repeated death threats. It has had to take precautions to safeguard its staff from possible attacks by the officers of the Negombo Police Station.

This case is just one of thousands being reported constantly from many parts of the country concerning the abuse of police powers of arrest, detention and the filing of charges contrary to the law and legal procedures.

A Tamil man of unsound mind had allegedly been throwing stones at passing trains and vihicles in Bambalapitiya on Oct 29, 2009. He had been chased into the sea and beaten with poles by Sinhala police. He had drowned as his assailants had prevented him from reaching the shore.

VIDEO: Tamils get no mercy at the hands of SIN-HELL-A police

Policeman wanted for youth’s forced drowning surrenders @ Yahoo! Video

A policeman attached to the Bambalapitiya Police who was wanted in connection with the forced drowning of a youth at the Bambalapitiya beach yesterday surrendered to the Bambalapitiya police this afternoon, police said. The Colombo Crime Division (CCD) has taken custody of the policeman and is carrying out further investigations over the incident.

see also:
Sri Lanka outcry over police brutality

By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Colombo
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8314118.stm

VIDEO: African Lankans(Kaffirs) - The forgotten people.

2009-10-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

The Kaffirs (cafrinhas in Portuguese, කාපිරි kāpiriyō in Sinhala, and காப்பிலி kāpili in Tamil) are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka who are partially descended from 16th century Portuguese traders and the African slaves who were brought by them.

The Kaffirs spoke a distinctive creole based on Portuguese, the Sri Lanka Kaffir language, now extinct. Their cultural heritage includes the dance styles Kaffringna and Manja.

Video about Kaffirs life 'n culture in Sri Lanka

kaffir culture from Kannan Arunasalam on Vimeo.

VIDEO : More calls to investigate Sri Lanka war

2009-10-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

Human Rights Watch is calling for an urgent investigation following a US State Department report about possible violations of the laws of war in Sri Lanka.

The report criticises the actions of the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers during the final months of the 26-year civil war.

Foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller said the report was significant "because it is the first time that a government has actually spelt out some of these allegations of possible war crimes by both sides."

A State Department official in the US has told Channel 4 News that the government of Sri Lanka has a responsibility for accountability.

Jonathan Miller said: "In the absences of any Sri Lankan investigation, any serious Sri Lankan investigation into what happened in the latter stages of the war, or indeed a UN investigation - and that was kiboshed at the UN recently by effective Sri Lankan lobbying - human rights groups, Human Rights Watch, say this report shows the need for a real independent international investigation.

"The Sri Lankan government has dismissed this who report as unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence, but, interestingly, a lot of the stuff that's in it is corroborated by reports from, not only media sources, but by other governments and humanitarian and human rights groups on the ground.

"This report compiles a list of incidents. It doesn't jump to any conclusions about the legality. For example, with the Tamil Tigers, it talks about how they recruited children allegedly; it talks about how they used civilians as human shield.

"On the government side there are detailed allegations of indiscriminate shelling and, for example, they show satellite imagery of a hospital which was filmed in late January, and you can see all the buildings intact on the ground. And then six weeks later in mid-March [images] show the damage to these structures - this was a hospital.

"The State Department will now be relying on the Congress Appropriations Committee which decides on where money goes, to determine what happens next. They will deliberate on this.

"Military aid to Sri Lanka from the US has already been frozen. What could happen is there may be further financial restrictions on dealings with Sri Lanka.

"Whatever happens, though, the Sri Lankan government is not going to like this."

Courtesy:
Channel 4 news

Will these children's miseries ever end?!

2009-10-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

Do YOU NOT have EYES?! PLEASE HELP these innocent CHILDREN!!!

If you do NOT have a kind heart, you will NOT want to see their plight. If you have one, you will see these sufferings and will do something to STOP THIS NOW.

This year alone more than thousand children killed, many thousands injured & many more orphaned.This will curse not only Mahinda but also the Sinhala nation who backed this murderer for generations to come.

15/10/09 ABC TV Report

A Song - When are we gonna rise up?!

Footage from Vanni April'09

Orphaned children are taken to South & given Sinhala names. This silent & systematic Genocide over the period of 50 years has to be stopped

what crime has he committed?! Would you be kind enough to help children like him?!

Horrors unfolding inside 'SAFE ZONE' March '09
http://www.tamilkathir.com/news/1279/58//d,view_video.aspx

**********************************************************************
BBC, Wednesday, 18 March 2009

The conflict in Sri Lanka has killed hundreds of children and left many more injured, the United Nations' children's agency, Unicef, has said.

Moreover, thousands of children are at risk because of "a critical lack of food, water and medicines", the agency says.

Intense fighting is going on between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in north-eastern Sri Lanka.

The Tigers have been driven from most of the territory they held by the army.

They are now cornered in a small patch of jungle and coastal area in Mullaitivu district.

"Children and their families caught in the conflict zone are at risk of dying from disease and malnutrition," Unicef executive director Ann Veneman said in a statement.

"Regular, safe access for humanitarian agencies is urgently required, so that life-saving supplies can be provided, and civilians must be allowed to move to safe areas where essential humanitarian support is more readily available.

The army says it close to delivering a 'final blow'

"The rights of children caught in the conflict must be fully respected and every effort should be taken to prevent civilian casualties," Ms Veneman said.

A statement released by the aid agency, Care International, said that one of its humanitarian workers was killed on Tuesday in the military-designated "safe zone" in the conflict zone which is not supposed to come under fire.

In the latest fighting, the army said it had killed at least 18 Tamil Tigers, while the pro-rebel TamilNet website said that 52 civilians had been killed in army shelling in the "safe zone".

Quoting rebel sources, TamilNet also says that hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers have recently been killed.

Independent journalists are not allowed by the government into the war zone, so it is impossible to verify the claims of either side.

The army says that the rebels are now cornered inside a 30 sq km (12 sq mile) area of the north-east, and that it is on the verge of delivering a "final blow" to their 25-year separatist rebellion.

But tens of thousands of civilians remain trapped inside rebel territory, most of them in a narrow coastal strip which forms the "safe zone".

Government health officials in the north-east say that hundreds of deaths due to wounds and serious diseases could be prevented if more medical supplies and facilities were made available.

A letter to the health ministry written by the regional health directors for Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi districts says that they have been forced to move their treatment centres because the Tamil Tigers are making the civilian population flee with them whenever the army advances.

"More than 500 civilian deaths, either on or after admission, have been registered at the hospitals and thousands of civilian deaths could have gone unrecorded as they were not brought to the hospitals," the letter said.

The health ministry confirmed the letter's authenticity to the Reuters news agency and conceded that there may be a drugs shortage because of the difficulty of bringing in supplies by a system of ferries and smaller boats.

The Tamil Tigers have fought for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority since 1983.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the war, but that figure could now be far higher because of intensified fighting in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the condition for civilians in the north was "deteriorating by the day".

"The area is affected by shelling every day, and the cramped conditions and the lack of water and proper sanitation are putting people at risk," an ICRC statement said.

courtesy:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7949814.stm

Kural 956

குடிப்பிறந்தார் கண்விளங்கும் குற்றம் விசும்பின்
மத஧க்கண் மறுப்போல் உயர்ந்து.

Prose
The faults of men of noble race are seen by every eye,
As spots on her bright orb that walks sublime the evening sky.

Translation
The defects of the noble will be observed as clearly as the dark spots in the moon.

aslo visit

http://stop-the-vanni-genocide.blogspot.com/

8 months old unborn child

More than 1,000 children died and many thousands injured in last 3 months of Sinhala armed forces brutality.

T.R. Baalu to be given an honorary citizenship in Sri Lanka?

2009-10-15T10:39:00.001-07:00

Local and foreign human rights organizations and civil society organizations have expressed their displeasure to the Central Indian government over the manner in which T.R. Baalu, who headed the delegation of Indian parliamentarians to Sri Lanka on a observation tour, handled the task assigned to him and his biased actions, Lanka News Web learns.

The delegation that arrived in the country on the 10th had commenced their tour by visiting Jaffna to witness the present situation in the area. They had then visited the Menik Farm camp in Vavuniya and Vavuniya District Secretary P.S.M. Charles had assisted them during their visit to the camp.

When returning from Menik Farm camp, several members of the delegation had requested Charles if she could make the necessary arrangements for them to visit vocations training centers and farms that are operated along with the camps. Charles had then inquired from her official seated in the front of the vehicle if the necessary arrangements could be made for the

delegation to visit the requested sites. An angry Baalu had however shouted at Charles in a threatening manner and said that as the head of the delegation he would decide on the sites to be visited and it was not the prerogative of the District Secretary.

During a meeting of social leaders held in Jaffna when the delegation visited the area, Baalu had also snapped at the Jaffna University Vice Chancellor who tired to pose a question to the Indian parliamentary delegation by saying he was aware of the question and the Vice Chancellor therefore should sit back on his seat and keep silent. Baalu’s dictatorial actions had been criticized by members who participated at the meeting.

Last October, T.R. Baalu handed his letter of resignation to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi claiming he would resign from all posts held by him if the Central Indian government did not intervene to stop the genocide of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan government.
Political analysts say that Baalu who was given an opportunity to witness for himself the situation in Sri Lanka one year after he claimed of genocide of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka was acting bias towards the Sri Lankan government in order to safeguard his future business interests in the country.

T.R. Baalu is considered one of the most corrupt political figures in South Indian politics and his name was also featured in relation to the irregularities that took place in the Sethusamudram project. However, the caliber of this politician was clearly witnessed when he asked parliament to point out what was wrong in handing over gas quotas to two companies that belonged to two of his wives and sons when a question on the matter was posed to him in parliament.

It is therefore clear that Baalu’s actions in Sri Lanka is directly involved in scoring Brownie points with the President in order to receive state patronage in his future business endeavours in Sri Lanka.

A political analyst said the Sri Lankan government has fallen to such low depth that it is now dependent on Indian jokers such as the one mentioned above to receive approval on the country’s human rights situation.

Thalaikottai Raajuthevar Balu is a firm believer of numerology. He changed his name to Baalu following numerology.

courtesy:
Lankanewsweb

காணொளி: கேணல் கருணா அன்று புலியாக இருந்தபோது...

2009-10-13T14:46:00.000-07:00

பகுதி 1

பகுதி 2

பகுதி 3

பகுதி 4

பகுதி 5

பகுதி 6

பகுதி 7

இயற் பெயர் : முரளிதரன் விநாயகமூர்த்தி,
வயது : 42
பிறப்பிடம் : மட்டக்களப்பு
1983ல் புலிகளில் இணைந்தார்.

இராணுவத் தேர்ச்சி : இணைந்து சில ஆண்டுகளிலேயே உயர்மட்ட கொமாண்டர் ஆனார்.
ஜெயந்தன் படையணியை உருவாக்கியவர்.
1997 - 98ல் ஜெயசிக்குறு இராணுவ நடவடிக்கையை முன்னின்று நடத்தியவர்.

ஈழப்பெண்ணை அழவைத்த தி.மு.க சிங்க(ம்)ளவன்.

2009-10-12T02:45:00.000-07:00

சீரமைக்கப்பட்ட யாழ்ப்பாண நூலகத்தில் நடைபெற்ற இக்கூட்டத்தில் டி.ஆர். பாலு பேசியதாவது:

"இலங்கை நட்பு நாடு. அந்த நாட்டுடன் உறவு தொடர வேண்டும். ஒருவருக்கு இரு கண்கள் இருப்பது அவசியம். அவற்றில் ஒன்று பழுதுபட்டாலும், ஒட்டுமொத்த பார்வைக்கு பாதிப்பு ஏற்படக்கூடும். அதுபோன்று இந்தியா -இலங்கை உறவு பாதிப்பு ஏற்படாமல் தொடர வேண்டும்."

வவுனியா சென்ற திமுக - காங்கிரஸ் எம்.பிக்கள் குழுவின் தலைவர் டி.ஆர்.பாலு கடும் குரலில் கண்டித்துப் பேசியதால் வவுனியா பெண் கலெக்டர் பி.எஸ்.எம்.சார்லஸ் அழுது விட்டார். இதையடுத்து அருகில் இருந்த கனிமொழி, டி.ஆர்.பாலுவை தடுத்து அமைதிப்படுத்தினார். பின்னர் பாலு தவிர அனைவரும் பெண் கலெக்டரிடம் மன்னிப்பு கேட்டுக் கொண்டனர்.

திமுக - காங்கிரஸ் எம்.பிக்கள் குழு இலங்கை சென்றுள்ளது. தமிழர் பகுதிகளின் நிலை குறித்து அவர்கள் ஆராய்ந்து வருகின்றனர். நேற்று காலை யாழ்ப்பாணம் சென்ற அக்குழுவினர் மாலையில் வவுனியா சென்றனர்.

அப்போது வவுனியா மாவட்ட பெண் கலெக்டர் பி.எஸ்.எம்.சார்லஸ், குழுவினருக்குத் தேவையான ஏற்பாடுகளைச் செய்திருந்தார். அப்போது அவரது செயல்பாட்டால் கோபமடைந்த டி.ஆர்.பாலு, தனக்கே உரித்தான கடுமையான குரலில், நீங்கள் யார் எங்களது விஷயங்களில் தலையிட, உங்களுக்கு என்ன அதிகாரம் உள்ளது என்று கண்டிப்புடன் கேட்டாராம்.

இதுகுறித்து பி.எஸ்.எம்.சார்லஸ் ஆங்கில நாளிதழ் ஒன்றுக்கு தொலைபேசி மூலம் அளித்த பேட்டியில், குழுவினரின் நடவடிக்கையில் தலையிட நீங்கள் யார், உங்களது தகுதி என்ன என்று கடுமையான குரலில் கேட்டார் டி.ஆர்.பாலு.

அவரது கோபமான பேச்சால் நான் அழுது விட்டேன். இத்தனைக்கும் நான், தமிழக குழுவினரின் விருப்பத்திற்கேற்பதான் ஏற்பாடுகளைச் செய்திருந்தேன். ஆனால் அவர் கண்டிப்பான குரலில் பேசியதால் நான் மனம் உடைந்து அழுது விட்டேன்.

இதையடுத்து அருகில் இருந்த கனிமொழி தலையிட்டு பாலுவை அமைதிப்படுத்தினார். அவரும், மற்றவர்களும் என்னிடம் மன்னிப்பு கேட்டுக் கொண்டனர். ஆனால் நான் பேசியதை மறந்து விடுங்கள் என்று மட்டுமே பாலு என்னிடம் கூறினார் என்றார் சார்லஸ்.

இந்த சம்பவம் இலங்கையில் பரபரப்பை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளது.

கண்ணீருடன் வரவேற்ற முகாம் தமிழர்கள்...

முன்னதாக டி.ஆர்.பாலு தலைமையிலான திமுக -காங்கிரஸ் கூட்டணி கட்சி எம்.பிக்கள் வன்னியில் உள்ள முகாம்களுக்குச் சென்று அங்குள்ள தமிழர்களைச் சந்தித்தனர்.

அவர்களிடம் அகதிகள் கண்ணீர் மல்க தங்களது துயர நிலை குறித்து விவரித்தனர். கழிவு நீர் வசதி இல்லை, சுகாதாரமான குடிநீர் கிடையாது. ஒரு நாளைக்கு ஐந்து பேர் கொண்ட குடும்பத்துக்கு 30 லிட்டர் குடிநீர்தான் தருகிறார்கள்.

ஐந்து நாட்களுக்கு ஒருமுறைதான் குடிநீரும், குளிக்கும் நீரும் தரப்படுகிறது.முகாம்களுக்கு குடிநீர் தர உதவி வரும் ஆறு வறண்டு போய்க் கிடக்கிறது. அரிசி மட்டும் அரசு தருகிறது. ஆனால், எண்ணை, காய்கறிகள் உள்ளிட்ட பிற பொருட்களை அதுத ருவதில்லை.

மழைக்காலம் நெருங்கி வருகிறது. ஆனால் இங்கு துப்புறவு சுத்தமாக இல்லை. மழைக்காலத்தில் இந்தப் பகுதி பெரும் நரகமாகி விடும் அபாயம் உள்ளது. நோய்கள் பரவும் ஆபத்தும் அதிகமாக உள்ளது என்றனர்.

விடுதலைப் புலிகளுக்கான எதிரான போரின் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்ட ராணுவ நடவடிக்கை குறித்து அகதிகள் எதுவும் கூறவில்லையாம். ஒரு வேளை பயம் காரணமாக அவர்கள் கூறாமல் இருந்திருக்கலாம் என்று தெரிகிறது. அதேசமயம், முகாமில் உள்ள அனைத்துக் குறைகளையும் கொட்டித் தீர்த்தனராம்.

பெரும்பாலான அகதிகள் கண்ணீருடனேயே பேசினராம். எங்களை விரைவாக இங்கிருந்து மீட்க முயற்சியுங்கள் என்றும் திமுக-காங்கிரஸ் கூட்டணி எம்.பிக்களிடம் கேட்டுக் கொண்டனராம்.

இந்தியக் குழுவின் விஜய ஏற்பாடு தமிழர் தரப்பில் பெரும் அதிருப்தி! உள்நோக்கம் குறித்தும் சந்தேகம்

இலங்கைத் தமிழர்கள் தரப்பில் பெரும் அதிருப்தி தெரிவிக்கப்படுகின்றது.

வவுனியாவில் முட்கம்பி வேலிகளுக்குப்பின்னால் சிறை வைக்கப்பட்டிருக்கும் சுமார் மூன்று லட்சம் அகதிகளின் நிலைமையை நேரில் கண்டறிவது மற்றும் அவர்களை விரைந்து விடுவித்து மீள்குடியேற்றுவதற்கான வாய்ப்புகள் குறித்து ஆராய்வது ஆகிய இலக்குகளுடனேயே இக்குழு இலங்கை வந்துள்ளதாகக் கூறப்பட்டாலும் அதை விட வேறு உள் நோக்கங்கள் இக்குழுவுக்கு இருக்கலாம் என்றும் தமிழர் தரப்பில் சந்தேகம் எழுப்பப்படு கின்றது.

இந்தக் குழுவினரின் வருகைக்கான ஏற்பாடுகள், ஒழுங்குகள், நடைமுறைகள் தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்புக்கு அடியோடு பிடிக்க வில்லை என்று தெரியவந்தது. சரியோ, பிழையோ இலங்கை நாடாளு மன்றத்துக்குத் தெரிவுசெய்யப்பட்ட வடக்கு, கிழக்குத் தமிழர்கள் 23 பேரில் 22 பேர் தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பைச் சேர்ந்தவர்கள்.

இன்று சிறைவைக்கப்பட்டிருக்கும் சுமார் மூன்று லட்சம் வன்னித் தமிழர்களை நாடாளுமன்றில் பெருமளவில் பிரதி நிதித்துவப்படுத்துபவர்களும் கூட்டமைப்பினரே.

இந்த மக்களின் அவலநிலைமையை உண்மை நிலைவரத்தை கண்டறிவதாயின் அதற்கான ஏற்பாடுகளை அந்த மக்களின் பிரதி நிதிகளுடனேயே செய்ய வேண்டும். ஆனால் இந்திய எம்.பிக்கள் குழுவின் வருகை பெரும் மூடுமந்திரமாகவே வைக்கப் பட்டது. தமிழ்க் கூட்டமைப்பினருடன் ஒரு சுமுகமான தொடர்பாடலைப் பேணாமலேயே இந்த விஜயம் முன்னெடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

ஆக, கூட்டமைப்பினருடன் ஒரு சந்திப்பு குறுகிய கால முன்னறிவித்தலுடன் ஞாயிறன்று முன்னெடுக்கப்பட்டது. அதுவும் ஒன்றே கால்மணி நேரத்துக்குள் அவசரமாக முடிக்கப்பட்டது. சந்திப்பின்போது இந்திய எம்.பிக்கள் தரப்பில் பிரதிபலிக்கப்பட்ட கருத்துக்கள் கூட்டமைப்பு எம்.பிக்களை அதிர்ச்சிக்குள் ஆழ்த்தின என்று கூறப்படுகின்றது. இலங்கைத் தரப்புடன் ஓர் உடன்பாடு கண்டு, அதனடிப்படையில் சில விடயங்களை ஒப்பேற்றவே இந்த எம்.பிக்கள் குழு இலங்கை வந்துள்ளது என்ற எண்ணம் தங்களுக்கு ஏற்பட்டிருப்பதாக அந்தச் சந்திப்பில் கலந்துகொண்ட கூட்டமைப்பு எம்.பி. ஒருவர் "உதயனு" க்குத் தெரிவித்தார்.

காங்கிரஸின் மூத்த எம்.பி. சொன்ன காரணம்

"இந்த அகதிகளை மீளக் குடியேற்று வதை இலங்கை இராணுவம் கடுமையாக எதிர்ப்பதாகத் தெரிகின்றது. அதையும் மீறி அகதிகளை மீளக் குடியேற்ற ஜனாதிபதி மஹிந்த ராஜபக்ஷ முயன்றால் அவருக்கு எதிராக இராணுவம் கிளம்பும் சாத்தியம் உண்டு. அத்தகைய நிலைமை ஏற்பட்டால் அதில் இராணுவத்துக்கு சார்பாக சீனா தலையிடும் சூழல் உண்டு. இதை யெல்லாம் நாம் கணக்கில் எடுக்க வேண்டி உள்ளது.'' என்ற சாரப்பட இந்தியாவின் காங்கிரஸ் கட்சியின் மூத்த எம்.பி.ஒருவர் இந்தச் சந்திப்பில் கூறியிருக்கின்றார். இது, இக்குழுவினரின் உள் நோக்கம் குறித்து தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்ட மைப்பினர் மத்தியில் பலத்த சந்தேகத்தைக் கிளப்பியுள்ளது.

மேலும், இந்தச் சந்திப்பில் அகதிகளின் நிலைமை குறித்துப் பேசி முடிப்பதற்கிடையிலேயே நேரம் போய்விட்டதாகக் கூறி சந்திப்பு முடித்துக் கொள்ளப்பட்டு விட்டது. "தமிழர்களின் பிரச்சினைகளைக் கண்டறிய வந்தவர்கள் தமிழர் தரப்பின் முக்கிய பிரதிநிதிகளுடன் விரிவாகக் கலந்து யாடாமல் முடித்துக் கொண்டமை முறித்துக் கொண்டமை வேறு உள்நோக்கம் கொண்ட நிகழ்ச்சி நிரலுடன் இக்குழுவின் விஜயம் அமைந்துள்ளது என்ற கருத்தையே எமக்குத் தந்துள்ளது.'' என்றார் கூட்டமைப்பின் இன்னொரு எம்.பி.

தமிழர்களின் அவல நிலைக்கு இந்தியாவே காரணம் என்பதை அவர்களுக்கு உணர்த்த வேண்டும்.

"ஈழத் தமிழர்களின் இன்றைய அவல நிலைக்குப் பிரதான காரணகர்த்தாக்களில் இந்தியாவும் ஒன்று. அவர்களால்தான் இந்த அவல நிலை இலங்கைத் தமிழர்களுக்கு நேர்ந்துள்ளது. இதை இக்குழுவினருக்கு உணர்த்த முன்னரே சந்திப்பை நேரம் போதாது என முடித்துவிட்டார்கள். யாராவது ஒருவர் இதை அவர்களுக்குத் தெளிவாக அறிவுறுத்த வேண்டும்.'' என்றார் இன்னொரு தமிழ்த் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பின் எம்.பி.

யாழ்ப்பாண மாவட்டத்தைப் பிரதி நிதித்துவப்படுத்தும் ஒன்பது நாடாளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர்களில் எண்மர் தமிழ்த்தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பினர் ஆவர்.ஆனால் யாழ்ப்பாணத்துக்கான இந்தக் குழுவினரின் விஜயம் எஞ்சியுள்ள ஓர் எம்.பியான அமைச்சர் டக்ளஸ் தேவானந்தாவின் அரசியல் திரு விழாவாக நடத்திக்காட்டப்பட்டுள்ளது. இதற்கெல்லாம் எடுபட்டு, இக்குழுவினர் இலங்கை அரசு சார்பானவர்களாகவே செயலாற்றும் அவலம் ஏற்படும் என்று தமிழ்க் கூட்டமைப்பின் மற்றொரு எம்.பி. முற்கூட்டியே எச்சரிக்கை செய்துள்ளார்.

இக்குழுவினரின் இலங்கை வருகைக்கான பிரதான நோக்கம் வவுனியாவில் முடக்கி வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ள மூன்று லட்சம் தமிழர்கள் பற்றியதே. எனவே, அவர்களின் வருகையில் கணிசமான நேரம் அந்த அகதிகளுடனான சந்திப்பாகவே அமைந்திருக்க வேண்டும். ஆனால் அது நேற்று மாலை சில மணி நேரத்துடன் முடிந்து விட்டதாகக் கூறப்படுகின்றது. எல்லா அகதி முகாம்களுக்கும் இந்தக் குறுகிய நேரத்துக்குள் சென்று விடயத்தை முடித் துக்கொள்ளலாம் எனக் கூறுவது அபத்தமாகும். தமிழகத்தின் ஒட்டுமொத்த அரசியல் அகதிகளையும் இணைத்துக்கொண்டு வராமல், தமிழகத்தின் ஆளும் தி.மு.க. கூட்ட ணியில் உள்ள கட்சிகளின் எம்.பிக்களை மட்டும் அதுவும் இந்திய மத்திய அரசின் தூதுக்குழுவாக அல்லாமல் தமிழக முதல்வரின் தூதுக்குழுவாக அனுப்பி வைத்திருக்கின்றமையும் பலத்த சந்தேகத்தைக் கிளப்பியிருப்பதாகத் தமிழர் தரப்பில் கூறப்பட்டது.

திமுக - காங்கிரஸ் கூட்டணி எம்.பிக்களின் வருகை தங்களுக்கு மகிழ்ச்சி அளித்துள்ளதாகவும், அதேசமயம், தங்களுக்கு உதவினால் மேலும் மகிழ்ச்சி அடைவோம் என்றும் அவர்கள் கூறினராம்.

மாணிக் பார்ம் முகாம் வளாகத்தில் உள்ள 1 முதல் ஐந்தாவது மண்டலம் வரையிலான பகுதிகளில் திமுக - காங்கிரஸ் கூட்டணி எம்.பி்க்கள் சென்று பார்த்தனர். ஐந்து மணி நேரம் நீடித்த இந்த ஆய்வை முழுமையாக வீடியோவில் படம் பிடித்தனர். பலர் அகதிகளின் பேச்சை குறிப்பு எடுத்துக் கொண்டனர்.

பின்னர் குழுவினர் பல்வேறு பிரிவுகளாகப் பிரிந்து சென்று முகாம் தமிழர்களைச் சந்தித்துப் பேசினர்.

தமிழக எம்.பிக்களைப் பார்த்த தமிழர்கள் , ராணுவத்தினர் குறித்த பயமே இல்லாமல் தைரியமாக அருகில் வந்து மனம் விட்டுப் பேசியதைக் காண முடிந்ததாக கூறப்படுகிறது.

நன்றி:
உதயன்
thatstamil

கலைஞர் செய்வது சரியா? சுப.வீரபாண்டியன்

2009-10-12T02:20:00.000-07:00

கலைஞர் கருணாநிதி செய்வது சரியா? சுப.வீரபாண்டியன் அளித்த நீண்ட பதில்கள்

நன்றி:
குமுதம்
தமிழ்நாதம்

VIDEO: M.K. Narayanan wants to crush uprising of Tamil Diaspora

2009-09-21T23:39:00.000-07:00

Anti-Tamil policy maker and India's national security advisor , M K Narayanan, turns his eye on Tamil Diaspora

It is no secret that Narayanan's policies and advice have caused genocide of several thousands of Eelam Tamils and destruction of Tamil homeland from the 80's.

Addressing Director Generals and Inspector Generals of Police Monday, India’s National Security Advisor and one of the architects of Indian Establishment’s policy towards Eezham Tamils, M K Narayanan, told them of the need to keep watch against Tamil diaspora reviving the LTTE and cautioned them to be prepared for any eventuality. “The funding lines of the LTTE are still intact and there is always a possibility that disgruntled elements in the Tamil diaspora across the globe could get together to help the terror outfit regroup and rearm,” said M K Narayanan, according to The Economic Times, Tuesday. His fear stems from his own policy 'haunting him back,' commented Tamil circles in the diaspora.

M K Narayanan“Narayanan’s policies designed to serve the thinking, ‘human beings cannot forgive,’ has caused the genocide of several thousands of Eezham Tamils and the incarceration of hundreds of thousands. The policies have put India for the first time in the list of uncivilised countries of the world. They have made India isolated in the event of attacks by her traditional enemies. They have made the people of a big state in India to simmer with anger,” points out a Tamil journalist in Colombo.

India behind Lanka's victory : Book

The Sri Lankan president, Indian PM and senior government ministers of both countries have repeatedly denied causing a single civilian death in what the government had desginated a "no-fire zone."

"It is most sure that the numbers without limbs are over 20,000. Most of the injuries causing loss of limbs were from shelling," he said. The doctor alleged that conditions in the camps for displaced people around Vavuniya, are poor and that malnutrition and disease are rife.

"We were all gathered together recently by the government and we were told that if we told the figures of the sick and why people are dying to the foreign NGOs that we will be killed for doing this."

The army dismissed that figure as an exaggeration and repeated the Government’s assertion that not a single civilian was killed by government forces in the final assault on the northeastern conflict zone.
Sri Lanka faced new calls for a war crimes inquiry after an investigation by The Times revealed that more than 20,000 civilians were killed – mostly by the army – in the last days of the war against the Tamil Tigers.

VIDEO : Unlock the Camps in Sri Lanka - Campaign by Amnesty International

Even as it publicly refused to give Sri Lanka any offensive weapons for the war against LTTE, India had a "hidden hand" in the success of the island nation's campaign over the terrorist outfit, says a new book.

Although in the initial days he was advised to seek a negotiated settlement with the Tamil Tigers, New Delhi saw merit in Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's argument that the LTTE was only biding its time to regroup and rearm itself and that war was inevitable sooner than later, says Sri Lanka, From War to Peace, by journalist Nitin Gokhale.

Defence and Strategic Affairs Editor with a television news channel, Gokhale covered the 33-month Eelam War in Sri Lanka.

The Mi-17s that India 'quietly gifted' to Lanka were in addition to a Sukanya class offshore patrol vessel also gifted by the Indian Coast Guard to the Sri Lankan Navy in 2002. The choppers played a major role in several daring missions launched by the Sri Lankan Air Force to rescue the army's deep penetration units and injured soldiers from deep inside LTTE-held territory, the book says.

"Hampered by domestic compulsion, New Delhi could not go beyond such meagre and clandestine transfer of military hardware. Publicly all India was willing to acknowledge was the supply of low-flying detection "Indra" radars to the Sri Lankan Air Force since this equipment was considered a defensive apparatus," the author says.

Gokhale quotes senior Sri Lankan army officers saying that thanks to the Mi-17s, the soldiers operating behind enemy lines functioned with a greater degree of confidence since they knew these choppers were always at hand to come to their rescue whenever necessary. This surely was the key factor in our Special Forces delivering spectacular results.

Not wanting to annoy its Tamil Nadu allies like the DMK unnecessarily, New Delhi had a 'politically most important message' conveyed to Colombo to try and conclude the war against the LTTE (called Eelam War IV) before the summer of 2009 when India was expected to hold the general elections, Gokhale says.

"The Rajapakse regime was nothing if not shrewd". Aware of dynamics that determined India's Lankan policies, it was also conscious of India's anxiety in losing strategic space in Sri Lanka. The Rajapakse brothers were pragmatic enough to realize that Lanka needed India's support in war against the LTTE, total support from China and Pakistan notwithstanding".

Colombo could ignore India but only up to a point, the author says.

So Mahinda Rajapakse hit upon an idea of an informal exchange mechanism between New Delhi and Colombo. He nominated both his brothers - Basil (MP and Presidential advisor) and Gotabaya, the Defence Secretary along with his own secretary Lalith Weeratunga.
India too reciprocated immediately. The Indian team comprised National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh.

Colombo may have been ambivalent about meeting Indian requests to end the operations before the general elections but the Sri Lankan leadership once again gratefully acknowledged the Indian Navy's contribution in locating and destroying at least 10 'floating warehouses' owned by the LTTE that were used by the Tigers to store arms, ammunition and even armoured personnel carriers.

Well-coordinated operations by the two navies between 2006 and 2009 actually broke the backbone of the Sea Tigers, Gokhale says.

Also, under an agreement between the two countries, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard frequently sent out ships to patrol the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar. Presence of warships and Indian patrol vessels acted as firm deterrence against the Sea Tigers, the book says.

The book also notes the transformation of the Sri Lankan Air Force and Navy into lethal forces that played vital roles in victory over the LTTE. "The Sri Lankan Air Force had indeed come a long way from its inglorious days in the 1990s when it lost three aircraft to the LTTE's ground fire in the assault on Jaffna".

"What is not so well known is that the Sri Lankan Air Force jets almost killed Prabhakaran in one of the air raids on his hideout in Puththukudirippu. But as luck would have it, Prabhakaran had left the base minutes before the bombs rained on the target," the book says.

Gokhale also says that if the Indians quietly helped the Sri Lankan Navy transform itself, the Lankan Air Force got a big boost from the Chinese and the Pakistanis. Pakistani personnel helped the Lankans in training and maintenance while the Chinese supplied them with vital equipment at a critical time. The Chinese gifted four F7 GS fighter planes which are the most sophisticated jets in Sri Lanka's arsenal today with in-built air interception radar and carry four heat seeking missiles, he said.

After a successful campaign against the LTTE, President Rajapakse's biggest challenge would be to win the peace by sparking reconciliation between its majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil ethnic populations, healing a rift that looks unbridgeable, Gokhale says. Rajapakse will have to restore to their homes and livelihoods some 300,000 Tamils in the North who fled the fighting only to be housed in camps.

"President Rajapakse and his team must avoid triumphalism to spoil the enormous goodwill that they have earned by winning the war. They must ensure that the death of one Prabhakaran does not lead to birth of another. Therein lies Mahinda Rajapakse's test," the book says.

“Narayanan now seems to realise well that despite going against all sensibility, the policies have not brought in any positive results in resolving the crisis in the island and are not going to bring in any solution in near future. His lack of confidence that his policies would concede political justice to Tamils is what causes the fear that is very similar to that of the Colombo regime,” the journalist commented.

“While keeping Tamils incarcerated, India is now engaged in grabbing land and economic interests in the Tamil homeland, and in dictating Tamil political leaders to accept formulas of subjugation. Narayanan’s statement reflects the paranoia of an aggressor and it only indicates that a continued partnership of Colombo and New Delhi, refusing Tamil national aspirations, is going to escalate the crisis in the island,” observed diaspora Tamil circles.

According to them what is needed is a simple political move from India: recognition of the sovereignty of the Eezham Tamil nation and its self-determination in the island. This would put everyone at ease, would expedite democratisation of the situation and would pave way for wider regional and global cooperation.

Meanwhile, apparently concerned over Chinese incursions into Ladakh, Narayanan convened a meeting of the China Study Group, last Thursday. The cabinet secretary, secretaries of defence, home and external affairs, chiefs of the three armed forces and chiefs of intelligence outfits attended the meeting.

Act before the World is silenced by nature.

2009-09-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Inspired Protagonist recently came across this 1992 speech by then 12-year-old Severn Suzuki, who with three friends founded the Environmental Children's Organization and raised money to attend the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro. Her fierce speech received a standing ovation and her group also addressed delegates at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

These days she is an environmental activist, speaker, television host, and author. Her speech is as resonant today as it was 16 years ago.

Severn's father is David Suzuki, the Canadian geneticist and environmental activist. Click here to read about the Inspired Protagonist's meeting with Mr. Suzuki.

VIDEO: UN “extremely frustrated” with lack of progress in Lanka

2009-09-17T02:01:00.000-07:00

UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes says the United Nations was “extremely frustrated” with the lack of progress in various areas since the end of the conflict in Sri Lanka, particularly with regards to what has been happening to the internally displaced persons.

He says the organization was concerned about the civilian nature of the camps, the lack of freedom of movement, and lack of progress with regard to early return, political reconciliation and the process of accountability.

He also expressed concern that United Nations staff were being held without charge, and added that Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe's mission to Sri Lanka was a reflection of how serious the United Nations was taking those issues.

VIDEO: UN fails to act on 'Human catastrophe' and continuing misery of Tamils in concentration camps.

2009-09-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

VIDEOS: UN ignores continuing misery of Tamils in concentration camps.

New film appears to reveal the victims of Sri Lanka's war suffering poor conditions in UN-funded camps.

They are among the victims of Sri Lanka's civil war, living in camps funded by the UN.

Now footage has come to light apparently showing how bad conditions are in the camps - patients on intravenous drips lying on mud floors, a man so weak he is unable to brush the flies from his face.

The mobile phone footage, from the group War Without Witness, was reportedly shot two weeks ago in Vavuniya, in northern Sri Lanka, where 200,000 displaced Tamils are being held.

The continuing IDP crisis in Sri Lanka - YOUNG ASIA TELEVISION

VIDEO : Unlock the Camps in Sri Lanka - Campaign by Amnesty International

Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne on IDP concerns

Channel 4 News shows footage claimed to show Sri Lankan forces executing Tamils earlier this year.

Two months after Aljazeera compiled a dossier of information highlighting what the broadcaster described as “shocking and disturbing” conditions in Sri Lanka’s militarised internment camps, nothing has changed. Reporting in late July, Aljazeera noted that what the Colombo government calls “welfare camps”, critics have called “the world’s biggest open air prison”.

Aljazeera report in July

Sri Lanka faced new calls for a war crimes inquiry today after an investigation by The Times revealed that more than 20,000 civilians were killed – mostly by the army – in the latter stages of the war against the Tamil Tigers.

VIDEO: UN chief warns Sri Lanka against 'triumphalism'

Justice is dead in Sri Lanka

2009-08-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

J.S. Tisssainayagam sentenced to 20 years

Statement by Asian Human Rights Commission:

The Asian Human Rights Commission is saddened, disappointed and shocked but not surprised at the judgment of the High Court of Colombo in sentencing J.S. Tisssainayagam to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for a simple piece of writing which he had done and which was interpreted as aiding and abetting terrorism.

The AHRC is not surprised by this judgment because at the very inception of this case the AHRC pointed out that this is purely a political case, the first of its kind in which the accused, Mr. Tisssainayagam’s guilt or innocence was not an issue but an opportunity to send a message to society on the changed circumstances of the country where freedom of expression does not matter at all. That was the real aim of this case. It is the sort of prosecution that could have happened under the regime of Joseph Stalin through the prosecutor, Andrei Vyshinsky.

In Vyshinsky’s trials the outcome was predetermined. The trials of the 1930s were known worldwide as show trials. Those actually accused were not really the targets of the proceedings. The accused were mere exhibits to be advertised before the rest of Russia in order to pass a message to the people about the fundamental beliefs that Stalin wanted to impose on society. Vyshinsky’s biographer Arkady Vaksberg writes that the “purpose of the trial had not been to disgrace or, indeed, to annihilate some of the accused but to create a precedent and pave the way for a psychological attack on the population.”

Tisssainayagam has been selected for a show trial where there was not even any evidence to base a charge on. The particular passages which were arbitrarily selected from his writings did not represent any attempt to raise feelings of racism or to instigate people to violence on the basis of race. The text was selected as the pretext and there was no genuine thought in this prosecution at all.

What the case points to is the illusions of the liberals both in Sri Lanka and abroad who fail to see a persecution staged as a show trial. The illusion that somehow things may turn out and that there would be a fair trial was the comfort zone in which many people were resting, unwilling to accept that justice is dead in Sri Lanka and that the executive can manipulate and get whatever verdict it wants.

The greatest loser in this case is not J.S. Tisssainayagam it is the justice system and the judiciary in Sri Lanka that has suffered the greatest loss which would be hard for it to overcome. Even this is not a huge surprise for most people in Sri Lanka. They know that justice has been dead for a long time in their country.

The Tisssainayagam case will also remain the most glaring proof of the absence of freedom of expression in Sri Lanka. The memory of this case will shame so many journalists and media men in the country who have found it possible to lick the very feet of the executive which has completely destroyed the freedom of expression in the country. Some have fought back and lost their lives and some finally fled for their own safety. But this has also created a paradise for those who live by their contribution to misinformation and suppression of freedoms.

We urge the local and international community to condemn the judgment and the sentence in Tisssainayagam’s case and to call for his unconditional release. We also urge the local and international community to grasp the reality that justice is dead in Sri Lanka and the freedom of expression and the media which has also been killed.

Justice and media freedom in Sri Lanka is like the phantom limb; a dream of an amputee who still believes that his limbs are intact. The reminder of the Tisssainayagam case should always be associated with the image of the phantom limb.

CAMPAIGN "KEY": Unlock the internment Camps and Unlock the hearts & minds of the IC

2009-08-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

Marking 100 days since the end of the bloody conflict in Sri Lanka and the imprisonment of over 280,000 Tamil
civilians in deplorable ‘concentration camps’, British Tamils Forum launched an unprecedented “Key” campaign.

The launch event, attended by UK Parliamentarians, human rights activists, councillors and members of
community organisations, was held at the Boothroyd Suite, Portcullis House in Westminster on Thursday, 27
August from 4pm.

In an effort to raise awareness of the plight of the Tamil civilians who remain incarcerated in military-run camps,
the UK Tamil Diaspora launched a “continuous

campaign”, vowing to take action until all the illegally detained people are freed and resettled in their own homeland.

The safety and security of these civilians guarded by military personnel has come in to grave questioning following Channel 4’s airing of disturbing footage obtained from Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, depicting the extrajudicial execution of Tamils by government forces, underscoring international probe calls.

“Unlock the Concentration Camps in Sri Lanka” campaign slideshow presentation was followed by Siobhain McDonagh MP chairing the proceedings. Joan Ryan MP, Virendra Sharma MP, Neil Gerrard MP, Andrew Pelling MP and Cllr Pete Pattisson all participated in the launch event offering their continued support and joining international calls for an independent inquiry into all war crimes evidence.

Minister of State, Department for International Development, Gareth Thomas MP, said “there needs to be full access for UN, Media to the camps” and reiterated that the Government of Sri Lanka must “use this victory to deliver justice and perfectly legitimate aspirations of self determination to Tamils”.

Steven Pound MP voiced his concerns for the missing, the disappeared, and the murdered, highlighting that the main priorities are an “investigation into war crimes” and for Tamils to have some form of dialogue with the Sri Lankan government.

Cllr James Allie from Brent expressed great resentment at the “double standards” towards the Sri Lanka crisis, “Camps need to be cleared. Of all other places Europe has history of concentration camps. Europe knows there is no justification.”

VIDEO: Documentary about 'Thiyaga Theepam' Thileepan

2009-08-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART5

PART 6

A TRIBUTE SONG for THILEEPAN ANNA

VIDEO: Tamils were naked, bound and shot by Sri Lankan soldiers

2009-08-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

New evidence of Sri Lankan war crimes.

By Jonathan Miller

Channel 4 News shows footage claimed to show Sri Lankan forces executing Tamils earlier this year. Jonathan Miller reports.

Just three months after the Sri Lankan government declared the country liberated from the Tamil Tigers, video footage has emerged apparently showing government troops summarily executing Tamils.

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka, which obtained the material, said it was filmed in January - when the international media were prevented by the Sri Lankan government from covering the conflict zone.

Tonight, the Sri Lankan High Commission denied the government had carried out atrocities against the Tamil community. A Sri Lankan army spokesman also called the video a "fake". Read the response here.

The Sri Lankan government launched a large scale military offensive in January capturing the Tamil Tiger held town of Kilinochchi. The army then steadily pushed the rebels into an small area of the north-east.

Be warned - there are extremely disturbing scenes in this report from our foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Miller.

Sri Lanka High Commission response

"The High Commission of Sri Lanka categorically deny that the Sri Lankan armed forces engaged in atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamil community. They were only engaged in a military offensive against the LTTE.

"The High Commission has noted that in many instances in the past, various media institutions used doctored videos, photographs and documents to defame the Sri Lankan government and armed forces. Therefore, we request you to verify the authenticity of the video footage before the telecast".

Courtesy : CHANNEL4 NEWS, UK

India gave full support to the massacre of an estimated 100,000 Eelam Tamils in the final war

2009-08-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

India behind Lanka's victory : Book

The Sri Lankan president, Indian PM and senior government ministers of both countries have repeatedly denied causing a single civilian death in what the government had desginated a "no-fire zone."

"It is most sure that the numbers without limbs are over 20,000. Most of the injuries causing loss of limbs were from shelling," he said. The doctor alleged that conditions in the camps for displaced people around Vavuniya, are poor and that malnutrition and disease are rife.

"We were all gathered together recently by the government and we were told that if we told the figures of the sick and why people are dying to the foreign NGOs that we will be killed for doing this."

The army dismissed that figure as an exaggeration and repeated the Government’s assertion that not a single civilian was killed by government forces in the final assault on the northeastern conflict zone.
Sri Lanka faced new calls for a war crimes inquiry after an investigation by The Times revealed that more than 20,000 civilians were killed – mostly by the army – in the last days of the war against the Tamil Tigers.

VIDEO : Unlock the Camps in Sri Lanka - Campaign by Amnesty International

Even as it publicly refused to give Sri Lanka any offensive weapons for the war against LTTE, India had a "hidden hand" in the success of the island nation's campaign over the terrorist outfit, says a new book.

Although in the initial days he was advised to seek a negotiated settlement with the Tamil Tigers, New Delhi saw merit in Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's argument that the LTTE was only biding its time to regroup and rearm itself and that war was inevitable sooner than later, says Sri Lanka, From War to Peace, by journalist Nitin Gokhale.

Defence and Strategic Affairs Editor with a television news channel, Gokhale covered the 33-month Eelam War in Sri Lanka.

The Mi-17s that India 'quietly gifted' to Lanka were in addition to a Sukanya class offshore patrol vessel also gifted by the Indian Coast Guard to the Sri Lankan Navy in 2002. The choppers played a major role in several daring missions launched by the Sri Lankan Air Force to rescue the army's deep penetration units and injured soldiers from deep inside LTTE-held territory, the book says.

"Hampered by domestic compulsion, New Delhi could not go beyond such meagre and clandestine transfer of military hardware. Publicly all India was willing to acknowledge was the supply of low-flying detection "Indra" radars to the Sri Lankan Air Force since this equipment was considered a defensive apparatus," the author says.

Gokhale quotes senior Sri Lankan army officers saying that thanks to the Mi-17s, the soldiers operating behind enemy lines functioned with a greater degree of confidence since they knew these choppers were always at hand to come to their rescue whenever necessary. This surely was the key factor in our Special Forces delivering spectacular results.

Not wanting to annoy its Tamil Nadu allies like the DMK unnecessarily, New Delhi had a 'politically most important message' conveyed to Colombo to try and conclude the war against the LTTE (called Eelam War IV) before the summer of 2009 when India was expected to hold the general elections, Gokhale says.

"The Rajapakse regime was nothing if not shrewd". Aware of dynamics that determined India's Lankan policies, it was also conscious of India's anxiety in losing strategic space in Sri Lanka. The Rajapakse brothers were pragmatic enough to realize that Lanka needed India's support in war against the LTTE, total support from China and Pakistan notwithstanding".

Colombo could ignore India but only up to a point, the author says.

So Mahinda Rajapakse hit upon an idea of an informal exchange mechanism between New Delhi and Colombo. He nominated both his brothers - Basil (MP and Presidential advisor) and Gotabaya, the Defence Secretary along with his own secretary Lalith Weeratunga.
India too reciprocated immediately. The Indian team comprised National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh.

Colombo may have been ambivalent about meeting Indian requests to end the operations before the general elections but the Sri Lankan leadership once again gratefully acknowledged the Indian Navy's contribution in locating and destroying at least 10 'floating warehouses' owned by the LTTE that were used by the Tigers to store arms, ammunition and even armoured personnel carriers.

Well-coordinated operations by the two navies between 2006 and 2009 actually broke the backbone of the Sea Tigers, Gokhale says.

Also, under an agreement between the two countries, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard frequently sent out ships to patrol the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar. Presence of warships and Indian patrol vessels acted as firm deterrence against the Sea Tigers, the book says.

The book also notes the transformation of the Sri Lankan Air Force and Navy into lethal forces that played vital roles in victory over the LTTE. "The Sri Lankan Air Force had indeed come a long way from its inglorious days in the 1990s when it lost three aircraft to the LTTE's ground fire in the assault on Jaffna".

"What is not so well known is that the Sri Lankan Air Force jets almost killed Prabhakaran in one of the air raids on his hideout in Puththukudirippu. But as luck would have it, Prabhakaran had left the base minutes before the bombs rained on the target," the book says.

Gokhale also says that if the Indians quietly helped the Sri Lankan Navy transform itself, the Lankan Air Force got a big boost from the Chinese and the Pakistanis. Pakistani personnel helped the Lankans in training and maintenance while the Chinese supplied them with vital equipment at a critical time. The Chinese gifted four F7 GS fighter planes which are the most sophisticated jets in Sri Lanka's arsenal today with in-built air interception radar and carry four heat seeking missiles, he said.

After a successful campaign against the LTTE, President Rajapakse's biggest challenge would be to win the peace by sparking reconciliation between its majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil ethnic populations, healing a rift that looks unbridgeable, Gokhale says. Rajapakse will have to restore to their homes and livelihoods some 300,000 Tamils in the North who fled the fighting only to be housed in camps.

"President Rajapakse and his team must avoid triumphalism to spoil the enormous goodwill that they have earned by winning the war. They must ensure that the death of one Prabhakaran does not lead to birth of another. Therein lies Mahinda Rajapakse's test," the book says.

Get ready for sacrifice, Tamils urged.

2009-08-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

CHENNAI: Tamil Eelam is the only solution for the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and the Tamil Diaspora should be prepared for any sacrifice to achieve it, declared leaders of the Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement (SLTPM).

The ‘Eelam Tamil livelihood - World Tamil Convention’ read out by the leaders of SLTPM here on Thursday said that the setback to the movement to achieve self-determination in Sri Lanka was temporary. It was due to the joint conspiracy hatched by some nations, it alleged.

“To carry forward the Tamils Eelam liberation struggle and to achieve the goal of self-determination, we vow to sacrifices any thing for the cause,” MDMK general secretary Vaiko declared. The gathering lapped it up.

The leaders further urged the human right organisations, democratic powers, and socialist leaders across the globe to support the cause of Tamil Eelam.

“Tamils living in various countries should take steps to mobilize the support of the people in their respective countries and governments for the cause of Tamil Eelam,” the leaders said.

The Sri Lankan army officials under the guidance of the elected representatives of their country violated the human rights and committed atrocities against Tamils. They should be tried for war crimes at the international court as war criminals, they said.

Vaiko, PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss and Eelam Tamil Protection Movement Convener P Nedumaran condemned Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s statement that normalcy had returned in the Lanka.

Taking the dig at the CM’s earlier stand on the Tamil Eelam issue, Ramadoss recalled that Tamil Eelam Support Organisation conference was organised by Karunanidhi along with Nedumaran in 1983.

“Karunanidhi had then said Tamil Eelam was the only solution. But now he says normalcy has reached in Lanka when lakhs of Tamils were killed in the war and still lakhs undergoing torture at the hands of Lankan Army,” he alleged.

He further urged the Tamils across the globe to get ready for staging the protest movement on the streets in support of Tamil Eelam in the near future.

Courtesy :
ENS

NATURE is a 'TERROSIST' too in Sri Lanka.

2009-08-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

Tamils in Lanka are treated worse than animals. Yet another proof.

HOW LONG THE CIVILIZED WORLD CAN KEEP MUM?!

Sinhala government won't give a damn about innocent Tamils' sufferings. They may blame the rain itself for sufferings caused in the IDP camps and won't hesitate to call the nature a terrorist too. Rajapakse may send a white van to kidnap the 'Lord of rain'. This is simply yet another proof why Sihala and Tamils can't live together.

***********************************************************************************

Flooding of Vavuniya IDP Camps-Possible outbreak of Epidemics: PUCL demands immediate intervention of Gov.of India and International Community

PUCL expresses concern about reports from the IDP (Internally Displaced People) Camps in Vavuniya area housing Sri Lankan Tamil about severe flooding of the camps following heavy rains for the last 2 days. PUCL apprehends that the IDP camps will turn into `death traps’ unless urgent measures are taken to safeguard lives of the 300,000 inmates.

Zones 2 (Ramanathan Camp), 3 (Ananda Kumarasamy Camp), 4(No name) of Menik Farm Camps house 65,000, 43,000 and 41,000 inmates respectively. These camps are enclosed by barbed wire from which none can leave without permission of security forces. The camps are constructed in low lying areas susceptible to flooding. Toilets for the inmates are not only inadequate but are also temporary structures oftentimes being mere huge pits dug into the soil. Due to the rains the toilet pits have caved in. As though this is not bad, the toilets have also become full and there is severe water contamination. Flood waters mixed with toilet slush is reportedly flooding the living areas.

Zone 0 and 1 alone are the model zones shown to visiting journalists and diplomats. The habitations are built with tin roofs. Housing in Zones 2,3,4,5 and 6 are made from UN supplied tents shared by 2-3 families, with no privacy.

Supply of cooked food stuffs have been stopped two weeks back. The inmates of these camps have to depend on dry rations and have been forced to have individual kitchens. Due to the rains, the firewood have become wet and unusable. Families are therefore starving.

The red soils of the area have made the camps slushy and unlivable. It is reported that the flood waters are waist deep in some parts posing severe threat to personal safety, health and hygiene. Due to the poor road conditions vehicles are unable to move in the area and thus supply of essential commodities has stopped.

The situation of children and elderly is appalling. Equally horrible is the plight of the injured and handicapped people who are unable to compete with able bodies camp inmates for a share of essential commodities and toilet facilities.

Most NGOs are running out of money and unable to supply food to camps. It is informed that World Food Programme (WFP) is planning to close down its operations in these areas soon.

Epidemics and illnesses due to the poor conditions in the camps and flooding will kill as many as the war did unless the international community steps in and initiates remedial steps on a war footing. The world governments, especially the Government of India have a moral duty to the victims Tamils to ensure that all possible safety measures are initiated.

Government of India has announced that they are going to allocate another tranche of Rs. 500 crores. As members of Indian civil society PUCL demands on behalf of other human rights community that Government of India insist that the IDP camps are shifted to a safer place and all possible remedial measures be undertaken under supervision of Indian groups including experts and independent experts. If this is not done, PUCL fears there will be numerous deaths of Tamils and immense suffering.

Under the circumstances, PUCL urges the Government of India and the International Community to immediately intervene in the administration and running of the IDP camps in Vavuniya region of north Sri Lanka housing close to 300,000 Sri Lankan Tamils affected by the war.

Released to the Press in Chennai by Dr. V. Suresh, President, PUCL (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry)

VIDEO : Unlock the Camps in Sri Lanka - Campaign by AI

2009-08-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

This video accompanies a global online action which allows thousands of people from all over the world to come together.

Public pressure on governments, political bodies, companies and intergovernmental groups can help to exert influence on them to remember the people whose rights are violated and to take action to stop it happening.

Watch the video and take action on Facebook, via the AICrisisApp. Add it to your profile. Share it with your Facebook friends and ask them to take action.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/how-you-can-help/share/widgets/sri-lanka

http://apps.facebook.com/aicrisisapp/sites/aiis-en

Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the recent war in North East Sri Lanka and living in camps are being denied basic human rights including freedom of movement, said Amnesty International as Secretary General Irene Khan today launched the Unlock the Camps campaign at the start the organization's International Council Meeting, a gathering of international delegates in Turkey.
Two months after the end of the fighting, the Sri Lankan authorities are still not addressing properly the needs of the newly displaced. The camps are overcrowded and unsanitary.

In addition, these are effectively detention camps. They are run by the military and the camp residents are prevented from leaving them; they are denied basic legal safeguards. The government's claim that it needs to hold people to carry out screening is not a justifiable reason to detain civilians including entire families, the elderly and children, for an indefinite period.
Displaced people have even been prevented from talking to aid workers. With no independent monitors able to freely visit the camps, many people are unprotected and at risk from enforced disappearances, abductions, arbitrary arrest and sexual violence.

According to government figures, the fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) displaced over 409,000 people. At least 280,000 are displaced from areas previously under LTTE control. A dramatic influx of people fleeing the fighting and crossing to government controlled areas took place from March 2009. The displaced people, including at least 50,000 children, are being accommodated in 41 camps spread over four districts. The majority of the displaced are in Vavuniya District where Manik Farm is the biggest camp.

When United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited some of the camps in May, he said: "I have travelled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scene I have seen."

While some progress had been made on providing basic needs, much still needs to be done on the right to health, food, water, family reunion and access to relatives.

Amnesty International has also called on the government of Sri Lanka to end restrictions on liberty and freedom of movement; ensure that camps are of a truly civilian nature and administered by civilian authorities, rather than under military supervisions; and give immediate and full access to national and international organizations and observers, including aid agencies, in order to monitor the situation and provide a safeguard against human rights violations.

The Sri Lankan government said on 21 May that the displaced will be resettled in 180 days. But very few have so far been allowed to return to their homes or to join friends or family elsewhere, and people remaining in the camps are not at liberty to leave camp premises. Amnesty International is calling on the Sri Lanka government to end its policy of forcibly confining people to camps, which amounts to arbitrary detention. The Sri Lankan government must allow persons who require temporary shelter in these facilities to come and go freely.

With assistance and support from the international community and the involvement of displaced people themselves, the Sri Lankan government must set up clear benchmarks and timelines to ensure that displaced people can safely return home or find other durable solutions (such as relocation) as soon as possible.

As part of the Unlock the Camps campaign Amnesty International is posting a video on Facebook, calling on the Sri Lankan government to allow freedom of movement and on the Government of India to monitor the aid pledged to the Sri Lankan government and to press for the immediate transfer of the management of the displaced people camps from the military to the civilian authorities.

The world must boycott Sri Lanka - The Times, UK.

2009-08-10T18:14:00.000-07:00

Colombo’s order to the Red Cross to cut back its work at Tamil internment camps is an outrage. The world must boycott Sri Lanka until it starts releasing detainees

There is something despicable about forcing doctors to lie about war crimes. By their calling, doctors are committed to relieving human suffering, to helping the sick and preventing disease. It is therefore particularly disturbing to see the five doctors who remained with the besieged Tamil civilians as the Sri Lankan Army closed in being paraded before journalists to deny their earlier casualty reports. Men who risked their lives to save lives are now being forced to take part in a political charade to cover up the appalling suffering two months ago — suffering that is still being inflicted on 300,000 Tamils interned in detention camps in northern Sri Lanka.

As the army squeezed the Tamil Tigers into an ever smaller strip of beach, the doctors were the only source of news about the slaughter caused by the military’s indiscriminate shelling. The United Nations found that more than 7,000 civilians were killed between January and May. Subsequent aerial photographs of beach graves, revealed in The Times, suggested that the figure was more than 20,000. World outrage embarrassed the Colombo Government. The doctors were swiftly arrested and nothing further was heard of them until Wednesday.

Their recantation, clearly made under duress, was as ludicrous as it was humiliating. Mechanically rehearsed but clearly nervous, they drastically reduced the death toll estimates, denied that a key hospital had been shelled and insisted that they had been forced to exaggerate the totals by Tiger fighters. In response the UN yesterday asserted tersely that it stood by its figures.

Few people will be fooled by Colombo’s crude attempt at a propaganda victory. For the Government took a far more sinister and callous step yesterday when it ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross to scale back its operations in Sri Lanka, leave the camps where it has been monitoring conditions and halt its aid programmes. The need for expatriate assistance was much less now than before, the Government asserted. Sri Lankans were fully able to meet all the needs of those detained in “welfare villages”.

The claim is an outrageous lie. Senior international aid figures said yesterday that about 1,400 people a week are dying at one of the big internment camps. Tamil civilians, rounded up after the government victory on the pretext of a security need to weed out former fighters, are suffering from hunger, disease, insanitary conditions, overcrowding and the enforced separation of families. The Government has taken almost no steps to free them. Indeed, a former Sri Lankan foreign minister has accused it of a policy of deliberate “ethnic cleansing” to change the population balance.

Colombo’s order puts the Red Cross in a difficult position. Historically, it has rarely spoken out — even about Nazi concentration camps — so as not to jeopardise access to those in greatest danger. It was the only aid agency allowed inside the war zone in the final stages of the conflict. But its few statements angered the Government. Sri Lanka wants no witnesses to what is now being done in these modern concentration camps.

If the Red Cross is forced to withdraw, however, the outside world should step in. The Sri Lankan Government is awaiting a $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to address its balance-of-payments crisis and postwar development. None of this money should be paid until independent aid agencies are guaranteed access to the Tamil camps and until Sri Lanka starts to release those detained. Other world bodies — the Commonwealth, the United Nations and even world cricketing organisations — should boycott Colombo until reconciliation begins. A nation cannot run concentration camps and expect the world to look away.

Courtesy : The Times, UK
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6676993.ece

A lesson we, Tamils, must learn from Sinhalese.

2009-08-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

They may be rivals on the political arena but all that was put aside during a felicitation ceremony at the BMICH this evening for the new Catholic Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith. President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former President Chandrika Kumaratunga are seen here at the ceremony about to light the traditional oil lamp while opposition leader Ranil Wickramasingha looks on.

Ranil, Chandrika & Rajapakse are bitter rivals on political arena. At times harsh words were exchanged between them. Still they can go to a common function shake hands & talk like good old friends. I have NOT seen a single event among our Tamil politicians in Eelam or even in Tamilnadu. When Eelam Tamils were dying in thousands, the Parties in Tamilnadu could not unite to save the Tamils & they did separate demonstrations. Even well known Eelam Tamil supporters like Vaiko and Thiruma could not find a same platform as they aligned with opposing parties AIADMK & DMK respectively. When did Karunanithi and Jeyalalitha ever attend a function together? I do not remember any occasion. I may be wrong. In Eelam if you have differences of opinion, you are a Traitor. You will be hunted down and shot dead without any mercy. Only option left with weaker party/group is to join the enemy and work with them to keep you alive. There was no tolerance among the supporters of any party or groups in Eelam. Traitors are not born, they are made. Most of the TNA leaders one time called as traitors. Last person to be called as a traitor was KP. After he got arrested, suddenly he has become a hero for us all. This attitude has to be changed. Otherwise Tamils will never unite in million years. We must build a culture of tolerance and respect for other’s point of views.

Rajapakse is known for killing innocent Tamils in thousands, committing war crimes, killing of aid workers, media personal and so on. I do not have any love for Rajapakse. I hate him for what he did for innocent Tamils in Vanni. But I was amazed to see these pictures. Even though Sinhala leaders are not perfect, they have the decency to greet each other and behave like civilized human beings when they meet in a public function. We, Tamils, are way behind on this. It shows that among Sinhala politicians the democratic political culture still prevails. Their political culture seems far better than that of Tamils. We call Sinhala political elite as Modar/Modaya/fools & so on. But are they really? When did Tamil leaders ever shake hand with other politician/group with opposing views or stance? Have we ever succeeded in working together?

I can only hope no one gonna call me a Traitor for posting this?:)

Amnesty International Launches special campaign over plight of Wanni IDP's

2009-08-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Displaced Sri Lankan Tamil civilians at Kadirgamar camp in Chettikulam

Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the recent war in North East Sri Lanka and living in camps are being denied basic human rights including freedom of movement, said Amnesty International as Secretary General Irene Khan today launched the Unlock the Camps campaign at the start the organization's International Council Meeting, a gathering of international delegates in Turkey.

Two months after the end of the fighting, the Sri Lankan authorities are still not addressing properly the needs of the newly displaced. The camps are overcrowded and unsanitary.

In addition, these are effectively detention camps. They are run by the military and the camp residents are prevented from leaving them; they are denied basic legal safeguards. The government’s claim that it needs to hold people to carry out screening is not a justifiable reason to detain civilians including entire families, the elderly and children, for an indefinite period.

Displaced people have even been prevented from talking to aid workers. With no independent monitors able to freely visit the camps, many people are unprotected and at risk from enforced disappearances, abductions, arbitrary arrest and sexual violence.

According to government figures, the fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) displaced over 409,000 people. At least 280,000 are displaced from areas previously under LTTE control. A dramatic influx of people fleeing the fighting and crossing to government controlled areas took place from March 2009. The displaced people, including at least 50,000 children, are being accommodated in 41 camps spread over four districts. The majority of the displaced are in Vavuniya District where Manik Farm is the biggest camp.

When United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited some of the camps in May, he said: “I have travelled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scene I have seen.”

While some progress had been made on providing basic needs, much still needs to be done on the right to health, food, water, family reunion and access to relatives.

Amnesty International has also called on the government of Sri Lanka to end restrictions on liberty and freedom of movement; ensure that camps are of a truly civilian nature and administered by civilian authorities, rather than under military supervisions; and give immediate and full access to national and international organizations and observers, including aid agencies, in order to monitor the situation and provide a safeguard against human rights violations.

The Sri Lankan government said on 21 May that the displaced will be resettled in 180 days. But very few have so far been allowed to return to their homes or to join friends or family elsewhere, and people remaining in the camps are not at liberty to leave camp premises. Amnesty International is calling on the Sri Lanka government to end its policy of forcibly confining people to camps, which amounts to arbitrary detention. The Sri Lankan government must allow persons who require temporary shelter in these facilities to come and go freely.

With assistance and support from the international community and the involvement of displaced people themselves, the Sri Lankan government must set up clear benchmarks and timelines to ensure that displaced people can safely return home or find other durable solutions (such as relocation) as soon as possible.

As part of the Unlock the Camps campaign Amnesty International is posting a video on Facebook, calling on the Sri Lankan government to allow freedom of movement and on the Government of India to monitor the aid pledged to the Sri Lankan government and to press for the immediate transfer of the management of the displaced people camps from the military to the civilian authorities.

Video: "Wherever you are, come home to me" - Cry of a Tamil woman

2009-08-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

Voting is underway in parts of northern Sri Lanka - areas once held by the Tamil Tiger rebels, until their defeat by the government in May.

But thousands who fled their homes during the fighting will not be able to cast their ballot because they are still living in government-run camps.

Al Jazeera's David Chater reports

PTGTE requests the Malaysian Govt to announce the details surrounding the abduction of Pathmanathan

2009-08-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

In the case of Mr Pathmanathan's abduction, the rule of law has once again been violated by international actors with respect to Tamils. The proper procedure would have been to secure the extradition of Mr. Pathmanathan if he had broken any law, rather than taking action outside the law and seizing a person in a manner that could be compared to those performed by bounty hunters, posses or even criminal gangs. Those who have seized Mr. Pathmanathan in such a gangster?like fashion are interested in hindering the political transformation process that has just commenced, the media release on Saturday by the committee for the formation of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam on the illegal abduction of Mr Pathmanathan said.

It further request the Government of Malaysia to announce the details surrounding the abduction of Mr Pathmanathan, if he was indeed abducted with the help of Malaysian authorities

The media release said, "On behalf of Tamil people all around the World, we request the Government of Malaysia to announce the details surrounding the abduction of Mr Pathmanathan, if he was indeed abducted with the help of Malaysian authorities."

If the Government of Malaysia does not have any information on the matter, we demand an inquiry into the whole episode. If Mr. Pathmanathan has been brought to Colombo, as claimed by the Government of Sri Lanka, we call upon the international community to become involved in this matter in order to assure the safety and security of Mr. Pathmanathan according to international standards, and to facilitate access to legal representation.

Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam in its media release Saturday said:

It is reported in the Sri Lankan and international media that Mr. Selvarasa Pathmanathan of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been ‘arrested’ in Thailand and brought to Colombo, citing Sri Lankan officials. Mr. Pathmanathan has been leading the new politico?diplomatic path of the LTTE in recent months.

The Government of Thailand, however, has denied that any such arrest has been made in the territory of Thailand. Furthermore, some media reports suggest that Mr. Pathmanathan has been abducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Based on information collected through various sources within the Tamil community, including sources close to the LTTE, we suspect that the ‘abduction’ has taken place at the Tune Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We further suspect that this was an illegal act carried out by the Sri Lankan Military Intelligence with the support of certain sections of the Malaysian defence or intelligence establishment.

Though Selvarasa Pathmanathan was on the Interpol wanted list, we strongly believe that any acts of abduction or “arrest” that involve international agencies and states should be done in accordance with international law and internal domestic procedure. Notably, Mr. Selvarasa Pathmanathan is entitled to the protection of Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture, which prohibits removal of a person to a country where it is more likely than not he would be tortured. In this case, the rule of law has once again been violated by international actors with respect to Tamils. The proper procedure would have been to secure the extradition of Mr. Pathmanathan if he had broken any law, rather than taking action outside the law and seizing a person in a manner that could be compared to those performed by bounty hunters, posses or even criminal gangs.

We wish to point out that Mr. Selvarasa Pathmanathan has been actively engaged in a process of political transformation of the LTTE, and was leading the Tamils’ struggle for self?determination onto a new path – a struggle through politico?diplomatic means. Even though he was facing tremendous challenges in his recent work, he continued with conviction and determination to keep the process moving toward a better political future for the Tamils of the island of Sri Lanka. We also wish to point out that he was supporting the process of building up a democratic leadership for the Tamil freedom struggle by endorsing the formation of Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam as a ‘bottom up’ democratic institution that will elect members through popular vote. Those who have seized Mr. Pathmanathan in such a gangster?like fashion are interested in hindering the political transformation process that has just commenced. The Tamil national project for the realization of the right to self determination of the Tamil people, however, does not depend on the skills and dedication of just one person and will continue through the service of innumerable committed individuals until its successful accomplishment.

On behalf of Tamil people all around the World, we request the Government of Malaysia to announce the details surrounding the abduction of Mr Pathmanathan, if he was indeed abducted with the help of Malaysian authorities.

If the Government of Malaysia does not have any information on the matter, we demand an inquiry into the whole episode. If Mr. Pathmanathan has been brought to Colombo, as claimed by the Government of Sri Lanka, we call upon the international community to become involved in this matter in order to assure the safety and security of Mr. Pathmanathan according to international standards, and to facilitate access to legal representation.

We call attention to the fact that Sri Lanka is already holding over 300,000 Tamil civilians indefinitely in Nazi?like concentration camps. We fear for their safety as much as we fear for the safety of Mr Pathmanathan and ask the international community to secure a speedy solution to the plight of the 300,000 civilians, as well as to ensure that Mr Pathmanathan receives the protection of all international norms.

Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran,
Coordinator,
Committee for the formation of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam

VIDEO: Al Jazeera - Riz Khan - Normalising Sri Lanka?

2009-08-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

Now that the civil war between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority has ended, will there ever be true reconciliation that allows Sri Lanka to develop as a normal country?

About 10 percent of the Tamil population almost 300,000 people are still being detained in 30 military-guarded camps, with no end in sight. This only feeds Tamil suspicions that they are destined to remain second-class citizens.

And after decades of media repression by the government during the war with the Tamil Tigers, in the name of national security, will things improve for freedom of speech and criticism?

Rajapakse regime declares war on Tamil Diaspora

2009-08-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

Because of the fragmented Tamil society KP was successfully kidnapped in a foreign land by Sinhala state's secret agency. It won't be the last. We are at a war with Sinhala state sponsored terrorists. They have plans to do more like these in order to crush the Tamils' uprising and the support among Tamil Diaspora to free Eelam land and the people. Will the Tamil Diaspora stand united to defeat Sinhala state's terrorism abroad?!

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“Operation KP”: Extraordinary rendition of New Tiger Chief

By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias “KP” a.k.a. Kumaran Pathmanathan is currently in the custody of Sri Lankan officials at a secret location. A team of terrorism investigators is interrogating the man who was designated last month as head of the re-structured Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Earlier Foreign secretary Palitha Kohona confirmed KP’s arrest to the “Daily Mirror”.Cabinet minister Keheliya Rambukwella did the same to “Rupavahini”. Presidential siblings Gotabhaya the defence secretary and Basil Rajapakse the presidential adviser also confirmed the arrest to BBC and “Hindustan Times” respectively.

Controversy surrounds the circumstances of KP’s arrest. While some news reports state that KP was arrested in Thailand other reports say he was apprehended first in Malaysia and then brought to Colombo via Bangkok. Another report says he was arrested in Singapore.

Pathmanathan or KP as he is generally known married a Thai national in 2003. He was residing in suburban Bangkok. In recent times KP was traveling between Malaysia and Thailand frequently.

Apparently KP found Kuala Lumpur (KL) a convenient venue to meet with people in connection with his new role as Global tiger chief.

The former chief arms procurer of the tigers was appointed by Velupillai Prabhakaran as head of the LTTE’s newly created International relations department in January this year.

LEADERSHIP

After Prabhakaran’s demise in May this year KP donned the mantle of LTTE leadership as he was the senior most tiger alive. This move was opposed by some sections of the tigers overseas led by Perinpanayagam Sivaparan alias Nediyavan.

After protracted intra-tiger discussions an accord was reached last July.KP was to be “Thalaimai Seyalar” (Chief secretary/secretary general) and head the organization. Nediyavan was in charge of administering overseas LTTE branches as chief of the Diaspora affairs department. An executive committee was also formed.

KP’s leadership was recognized indirectly in an official press release by the re-structured LTTE which stated as follows:

“We, theExecutive Committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, wish toofficially let our beloved Tamil people and the international communityknow that Mr Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who had been appointed as Headof International Relations by our National Leader, will lead us into thenext steps of our freedom struggle according to the vision of our esteemed leader.”

CABAL

Despite this agreement there was an influential cabal within the Diasporic tigers that refused to accept KP’s leadership. This cabal continued to oppose and obstruct KP within the movement. It was suspected that Nediyavan was backing this cabal in a conspiratorial bid to topple KP.

It was against this backdrop of an internal hostile environment that KP set about consolidating his leadership. Since KP himself was proclaimed as wanted by the Interpol and also due to health reasons KP had begun avoiding international travel.

As a result many members of the Tamil Dispora had to visit Malaysia to inter-act with the global tiger chief. Even a TV crew from “Channel Four” in Britain went to KL to interview the new tiger supremo. KP himself shuttled between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.

On Wednesday August 5th KP who was in KL went around noon to the “First Tune Hotels” at 316 Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman road in the heart of KL city. His mission was to meet with two visitors from London, England

View Larger Map

VISITORS

Apparently KP has a few guys with him who function as aides, chauffeurs and bodyguards. But when he goes out to meet people he trusts, KP travels with only the driver of his vehicle.

On the day in question KP had gone to the Tune Hotel with his driver a man called “Appu”. KP went up to the hotel room with his visitors who were waiting for KP outside the hotel building. Appu parked the vehicle and stayed inside it.

One of the British visitors was Balasingham Balendran, the younger brother of former tiger political commissar Balasingham Mahendran alias Nadesan. The other was Nadesan's own son who had gone to London some years ago and was staying with his paternal uncle.

The trio was engaged in amiable conversation when a friend called KP on his cellular phone at about 2 pm. KP removed his glasses and laid it on a table and began chatting. At one point KP had signalled to Balendran and nephew that he was going out to the corridor to talk and went out with the telephone.

The British visitors waited inside the room for about 15 - 20 minutes. Nadesan’s son then went out but could not see KP anywhere. Uncle and nephew then began searching for KP but the veteran tiger leader had vanished.

There was no sign of KP’s vehicle or Appu either. A much worried Balendran began calling his Tamil contacts to relate the tale of KP going missing suddenly.

PERTURBED

Meanwhile the friend who had telephoned KP was also perturbed. This trusted confidante had been engaged in conversation with KP when he heard a sudden “thud” sound and a noisy commotion.

Then KP’s phone went dead. The agitated friend kept on ringing KP but there was no answer and then the mobile was switched off.

This friend too began alerting KP’s contacts and aides in KL about the incident. They went to the place KP was staying in thinking that KP may have gone back suddenly for some reason.

Tune Hotel - KL

But there was no KP. But KP’s insulin, syringes and other medical items were in his room. KP being a diabetic never travelled around without his insulin.

Now KP’s aides were worried as they knew the boss wouldn't have gone anywhere far without his insulin. When the British visitors informed KP’s aides of what they knew it was possible to surmise what had happened by comparing notes.

KP’s friends and aides realised that the new LTTE leader had been seized or abducted by some persons. Naturally they suspected the Malaysian authorities of having a hand in this. But the finger of suspicion also pointed to Sri Lanka and India also. As the story of the missing KP went buzzing on the global Tamil grapevine there was a lot of suspense and speculation about what had exactly happened.

VERSIONS

The news began breaking out “semi-officially”. Newspapers and news agencies began reporting that the new LTTE chief KP had been arrested in Thailand.Army spokesperson Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara told Reuters that KP had been arrested in Bangkok and that was all “we knew at the moment”.But things were not so simple as that.

There were two conflicting versions about what had happened.According to one account KP and Appu were transported to Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur by his “abductors”. An impression was then created that KP was arrested in Thailand. A Police team from the terrorism investigation dept in Sri Lanka went to Thailand and brought KP to Colombo by a special flight rom Bangkok.

The second version however states that the Sri Lankan team had gone to Malaysia. They had taken custody of KP in Kulala Lumpur and brought him to Colombo by air. The special flight had tarried in Bangkok briefly.

But according to a Thailand News Agency report, Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had said on Friday (7th) that he has ordered the country’s security agencies to provide details following a news report that the head of Sri Lanka’s recently defeated Tamil Tiger separatists was captured in Thailand.

The French news agency Agence-France-Presse (AFP) earlier reported that Selvarasa Pathmanathan, a foreign-based leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was returned to Sri Lanka on Thursday for questioning after being arrested in Thailand.

The Thai premier said that he was informed of the matter late Thursday (6th) night and that he had assigned the security agencies to seek more details.

Acting Government Spokesman Panitan Wattanayakorn said that an initial report said that Pathmanathan had travelled in and out of Thailand but it was not identified where he was arrested.

Mr Panitan, however, noted that Mr Pathmanathan reportedly was married to a Thai and lived in the northern part of the country.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s Special Branch police chief Theeradej Rodphothong said that the LTTE head was captured in Singapore, not in Thailand.

Lt-Gen Theeradej noted that Thailand was mentioned in the news report becuase the LTTE head formerly had a Thai wife and he usually moved among three Southeast Asian countries-Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

From this news report it was possible to figure out that Thai officials were concerned about reports that KP was arrested in Bangkok. Reading between the lines it appeared that Thailand was uncomfortable about the publicity regarding KP’s alleged arrest in Bangkok. Apparently he was not arrested in Thailand and the story about KP being arrested in Bangkok amounted to “fiction” propagated by Colombo to shift focus away from the Kuala Lumpur connection.

CONFIRMATION

Though information about the mode and manner in which KP was arrested or was brought to Colombo is yet hazy there is confirmation from informed sources at Katunayake that two persons were seen being whisked away in vehicles with tinted glassesby officials in plains clothes. The faces and heads of both handcuffed men were covered with masks. This was after nightfall.

The two men in official custody were presumed to be KP and Appu. They had been taken to a secret location for interrogation.Subsequently Basil Rajapakse told “Hindustan Times” that KP was being questioned in Colombo. There was no mention of Appu.

Two years ago in September 2007 there was much excitement in Sri Lanka when KP was detained by authorities in Thailand. It was expected that KP would be deported to Sri Lanka or India.But nothing further materialised and KP was soon “free”. But this time there seems to have been a difference

Two developments are to be noted in the “capture” of KP in Malaysia.

DEVELOPMENTS

Firstly the request made by Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on May 29 to Malaysian Defence Minister Dr Ahamd Zahid bin Hamidi YB Dato Seri to hand over ‘KP’to facilitate ongoing investigations into LTTE operations overseas.The appeal was made on the sidelines of the 8th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. A Foreign Ministry press statement on Bogollagama’s meet with his Malaysian counterpart didn’t refer to Sri Lanka's call for KP’s extradition though it said Sri Lanka had urged Malaysia to proscribe the LTTE.

Secondly, Sri Lank a had recently appointed Brigadier Udaya Perera as Deputy High Commissioner to Malaysia to meet the new threat posed by the LTTE. Subsequently promoted as Major-General, G.V. D. U. A .Perera is the first serving army officer to receive a diplomatic appointment. The appointment followed after Perera impressed foreign ministry mandarins at a special meeting called to brief top envoys of several countries in the run up to the final battle.It was also understood that Gen. Udaya Perera’s prime yet unpublicised assignment was “operation KP”.

It had become obvious that KP was using Malaysia for key LTTE operation s for quite some time. In recent times KP’s presence in KL became noted after the Norwegian envoy in Colombo went up to Malaysia to meet him. Another person who confessed to meeting KP in Malaysia was the “disgraced” Lt. Colonel from the Sri Lankan army in custody for alleged LTTE links. Senior UN officials had also contacted KP in Malaysia.

Though details are scanty there is reason to believe that Sri Lanka with the aid of “intelligence officials” from other countries had accomplished the feat of seizing and transporting KP from Kula Lumpur to Colombo. It is also assumed that the exercise amounted to an “extraordinary rendition” on the lines of what the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been doing in the aftermath of the twin towers assault on September 11th 2009. More details about “Operation KP” are likely to be revealed in the near future.

CAPTURE

Another factor in the KP capture is the fact that the overseas LTTE is hopelessly divided. The venomous attacks on KP in sections of the tiger media abroad indicate a very high level of hostility towards KP. Given the familiar tiger trait of betraying their own to the “enemy” for selfish purposes there is strong suspicion that valuable “inside” information about KP’s moves was leaked out.

Another puzzling aspect is KP’s reckless disregard for his safety. He had two warrants issued against him by Interpol yet KP was brazenly going public. He met with people openly, granted print, TV and Radio interviews, wrote regularly in his own blog and engaged in telephone conversations on a global scale. This made him highly vulnerable as far as law-enforcement officials were concerned.But he did not play safe and adopt a low key profile .

According to circles close to KP the reason for his confidence was due to the “protection” he enjoyed from a very powerful “Agency”. It was this “agency” that had rescued KP when he was arrested in 2007. It was this “agency” that had extended its protective umbrella over him. But what had happened now? Had KP outlived his usefulness to the “agency”? or had “operation KP” outsmarted even this powerful entity? The answers may be forthcoming in the days to come.

There is jubilation in many circles that the last of the great tigers has been caught. But in another sense KP’s arrest could be a major setback to the cause of peace. Though KP had not abandoned the Tamil Eelam goal he wanted to do away with the armed struggle. KP’s stated ambition was to transform the LTTE into a democratic, non-violent organization. It was this which caused resentment among the hard-liners surrounding nediyavan. With KP gone the chances of the LTTE making this much-needed transition seem remote.

MYLIDDY

The man known as KP was born on April 6th, 1955 in the northern coastal town of Kankesanthurai (KKS). His name was Pathmanathan and his father’s name was Selvarasa. Though he was known by a number of names and aliases in his later life, KP's real name was Selvarasa Pathmanathan.

KP, though born in KKS, was a native of Myliddy, also a coastal area in the Valigamam north region. Myliddy was essentially an agriculture cum fisheries area but also had a proud tradition of rearing the finest racing bulls. Myliddy carters used to win almost all ‘vandil chavaris’ (cart races) held in Jaffna during more peaceful and prosperous times.

Pathmanathan was one of eight children. His father was a fisherman from Veeramanickthevanthurai in Myliddy. The traditional occupation of the people here was fishing but they were not originally of a fishing caste.

The place derives its name from a Maravar Chieftain named Veeramanickathevan from Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, who settled in Myliddy with his clan centuries ago. The Maravars are of the Mukkulathor warrior caste and the people of Veeramanickthevanthurai also trace their lineage as being Kshatriya.

Pathmanathan had his education at Nadeswara College, KKS and Mahajana College, Thellipalai. He was involved in the politics of the Federal Party (FP) and later the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). Pathmanathan's radicalisation was mainly through another native of Myliddy, Pushparajan, who succumbed to cancer some years ago.

Pushparajan was one of those who pioneered the Tamil Ilaingar Peravai or Youth Front in the 70s and was detained without trial for many years then.

Pathmanathan's pet name at home was Kutty (pup or cub). This was the name most Myliddy people called him as well. During his childhood he was very thin and as a result, he was nicknamed ‘oosi’ (needle) in school.

Pathmanathan was not a very bright student and required more than one attempt to qualify for his O/L and A/L examinations. He entered the Jaffna University in his 20s but did not complete his degree.

It was during his campus days that the letters ‘KP’ attached on to him. Apparently there were two Pathmanathans in the same batch and in order to differentiate among them, he became KP. Since he was also known as Kutty, the K in Kutty and the P in Pathmanathan became KP. The tall, light-skinned, handsome KP was a big hit with the girls.

MILITANCY

While at the Jaffna campus, KP was attracted to Tamil militancy. Initially he joined the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) led by the legendary Thangathurai and Kuttimani. KP doubled up as a TELO militant while being an undergrad. His nom de guerre in the TELO was Kumaran. Kumaran participated as a lookout in the Thinnevely Bank robbery where Rs. 1.08 million was robbed.

There was a major split in the original LTTE in 1980. Kandiah Umamaheswaran broke away with a large number and formed the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). The residual cadres under Velupillai Prabhakaran were a dejected lot. For about two years the LTTE under Prabhakaran tied up with the TELO under Thangathurai-Kuttimani. It was then that KP began interacting with Prabhakaran.

The Neervely robbery on March 25, 1981 was a watershed in the history of the Tamil militant movement. The People’s Bank van was collecting hard cash from the branches in the Vadamaratchy sector and returning to Jaffna along the Jaffna-Point Pedro Road. It was waylaid at Neervely and a massive sum of Rs. 8. 1 million rupees was robbed.

This was a combined TELO-LTTE operation. KP’s role in this was to ride a motorcycle behind the People's Bank van and its escort police vehicle. There were no walkie-talkies or cellular phones then. At one point KP had to speed up ahead of the vehicles and alert the militants lying in wait that the target was approaching. KP did his part and sped away. He did not participate in the robbery directly.

But suspicious officials had noted down the motorcycle number, which actually did not belong to KP but to a fellow undergrad, who had absolutely no idea that KP had borrowed it to use in a robbery. The motorcycle was traced and the innocent owner arrested. This led to a massive varsity demonstration demanding his release, but KP had flown.

INDIA

In what was perhaps the first of his many escapes from the law, KP simply abandoned everything and fled to India. He was then staying at 180, KKS Road in Jaffna. KP was then in his final year but was compelled to give up his studies. He never completed his degree.

After fleeing to India, KP dropped out of Tamil militancy for a while. He teamed up with smugglers cum racketeers in Bombay (now Mumbai), on the fringes of the Tamil militant movement. Some other militants like Sellakkili also joined this group. One motivating reason was survival as they had no funds. This life came to an end after the July 1983 pogrom.

Sellakkili had returned earlier to LTTE folds and was killed in the Thinnevely attack on July 23 that triggered off the island-wide anti-Tamil violence. KP went down to Madras, now Chennai, and enlisted himself in militant ranks again. This time he joined the LTTE and not his former outfit, TELO.

Since Thangathurai and Kuttimani were no more and the TELO was under Sree Sabaratnam, KP preferred to join the LTTE as he had struck up good rapport with Prabhakaran. KP had come down to Madurai once in 1982 with Sellakkili and stayed for some days with Prabhakaran during which period the LTTE Leader had invited him to join the Tigers whenever he wanted.

After inducting KP into the LTTE, Prabhakaran did not make him take up formal arms training. Prabhakaran recognised that KP's talents lay elsewhere. KP was asked to use the contacts and experience he had gained to raise funds and buy arms for the LTTE.

Together with helpers from the LTTE as well as the Indian underworld, KP began acquiring arms and equipment for the LTTE. Some of these clandestine acts were done without even Indian authorities knowing about them. Some of KP’s original aides in India were Vakeel, Radha, Thavam, Eesan, Kumar, Ranjith and Shankar.

As time progressed KP’s duties began expanding. He was required to travel to many countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Australia, North America and South East Asia and meet Tamil expatriate groups to mobilise funds. This was a time when several Tamil militant groups were active and competing for expatriate funds so it was indeed a formidable task to generate funds.

OVERSEAS

The overseas fund raising also involved the setting up of LTTE branches and the appointment of Tiger representatives abroad. This too became KP’s responsibility. In the ’80s and ’90s it was KP who controlled and coordinated the LTTE overseas branches. His objective was to garner as much funds as possible and utilise it for purchase of arms.

In addition to raising funds and administering the overseas branches, KP also had the daunting task of scouring the international illicit arms bazaars and shops. He travelled to many parts of the world and bought up arms and armaments. He also had to make arrangements to ship them clandestinely to India first and later directly to north east Sri Lanka.

There was no beaten track or set procedures. It was a case of playing it by ear. KP was a pioneering pathfinder as he had to improvise and evolve on the job. Much of the early accomplishments were through trial and error.

It was astounding that Pathmanathan, a man of humble origins from Myliddy, had metamorphosed into KP, the transnational purchaser and transporter of arms. It is amazing to think that this ex- undergrad was now dealing successfully with dangerous arms merchants in many parts of the globe.

“DONKEY”

Selvarasa Pathmanathan is now widely known as KP. But within the upper echelons of the LTTE there is another name for him. It is ‘Kazhuthai,’ or Donkey. This was a name bestowed affectionately on KP by Prabhakaran himself. The donkey is an animal that carries loads on its back. KP is a man whose efforts resulted in loads of arms being supplied to the LTTE. Hence, the name Donkey.

As chief procurer of arms for the LTTE KP had made himself almost indispensable for the LTTE then. He, like Prabhakaran, was responsible in a large way for the growth of the LTTE.

It was his ambition after becoming the new LTTE leader to transform the LTTE and take the tigers in a new direction.But that is not to be and he is now detained in Sri Lanka.

KP is a man whose knowledge and information would be of great value not only to Sri Lankan authorities but also to intelligence agencies of several countries.

DBS Jeyaraj can be reached at dbsjeyaraj2005@yahoo.com
Courtesy : DBSJ blog

TNA coming out with political formula soon – R. Sampanthan

2009-08-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is coming out with a political formula soon attaching importance to self-determination, distinct and comprehensive autonomy to the historical homeland of Eelam Tamils to solve the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.

Addressing the press today (Tuesday) at the ITAK office located on Martin Road in Jaffna veteran Tamil politician and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan said a political formula to resolve the ethnic question of Eelam Tamils is being drafted and it will be presented soon to Sri Lankan government, Indian government and to the International Community.

He said they are hopeful about getting India’s support to their political formula.

“All powers such as land, agriculture, industries and security powers should be in hands of Tamils,” the TNA leader said, adding, “financial management including authority to raise funds inside and outside of the island are also crucial.”

Mr. Sampanthan told the press that Tamil diaspora is keen to invest in the North and East and the TNA is communicating with the interested persons. He said they are also engaged in planning with foreign governments.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has thrown all formulas such as the 13th Amendment, 13+, 13++ etc. to the dustbin but because of intense international pressure Mr. Rajapaksa sometimes talk about considering 13th Amendment as a beginning.

The President is not interested in it anymore as pressure on him from JVP and other Sinhala parties is mounting everyday, Sampanthan said.

The TNA leader said in a recent meeting with the Indian Foreign Minister they had expressed their willingness to work along with the Indian government and the Indian FM has reciprocated by assuring his government’s cooperation, Mr. Sampanthan said.

This is the first time the TNA is coming out with its own political formula to resolve the ethnic conflict.

Sampanthan, Mavai Senathiraja, Suresh Premachandran, Gajendrakumar Ponnampalam, Pathmini Sithamparanathan, Solemon Siril and Thuraratnasingham were present at the press conference.

In the press conference Mavai Senathirajah said some quarters are trying to misguide people through false propaganda that there is dissention in the TNA.

“There is no division in TNA and it is the one and only political alliance that cannot be broken through conspiracy,” Mr. Senathirajah said.

Sri Lanka executes Tamil POWs

2009-08-03T13:49:00.000-07:00

Sri Lanka's government death squads kill 100's of POWs

Information filtering through highly restricted government sources confirms that number of LTTE leaders arrested in the IDP camps immediately after the defeat of the LTTE have been killed after severe torturing in the prisons in the southern Sri Lanka.

‘Over one hundred odd LTTE men have been silently and systematically wiped out by the government death squads’ said one source. The sources said LTTE’s Balakumar (former EROS head), Yogaratnam Yogi, Karikalan and Poet Puthuvai were some of those being killed. They were arrested in the IDP camps and taken to Colombo for interrogation.

‘The government is maintaining dumbfounded silence about their arrests and whereabouts and only revealing the situation faced by Thaya Master and Suba Thamilchelvan’s interpreter George to sidetrack the massacre’ said another source anonymously.

The sources further said that the government failed to report the arrests and whereabouts of the LTTE men to the ICRC.

The TNA parliamentarians too are maintaining silence and this is causing disquiet and further fuelling concerns.

Courtesy:
SriLanka Guardian

VIDEO: Silent & Systematic Genocide ignored by IC

2009-07-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

Video embeded at the bottom of this page

Film: Tamil
by Jason Parkinson

Tamil: Part One
Video embeded at the bottom of this page

The two-part film Tamil has been released on the Internet and Reel News this week, covering the six months of protest in London.

Tamil: Part Two
Video embeded at the bottom of this page

The Tamil people called on the US, UK, United Nations and the international community to intervene in the final surge of the Sri Lanka war and halt the mass killings of the innocent Tamil people caught in the middle of the brutal 40-year civil war with the Tamil Tigers.

Scene From Tamil: Part One

From January to June 2009 the UK Tamil population headed into the streets of London for some of the largest and most powerful protests seen in many years. Over the months the protests massed from 125,000 to 250,000. Regular peaceful road blockades around the Houses of Parliament shut down major sections of London's infrastructure.

Scene From Tamil: Part One

Sri Lanka did eventually come under international scrutiny, after being accused of using chemical weapons and cluster bombs, bombing safety zones, hospitals and indiscriminately killing tens of thousands in the final six month assault against the Tamil Tiger rebels, who were listed on the international prescribed terrorist list.

Scene From Tamil: Part Two

During the making of this film another side of the story began to emerge from those who had seen first-hand the destruction of the Tamil people. Aid worker Tim Martin, recently returned from Sri Lanka, went on hunger strike for 21 days outside parliament, to highlight the atrocities he witnessed.

Scene From Tamil: Part Two

The ruling Sri Lankan government stood accused of genocide, concentration camps and using the tsunami aid money for weapons, as well as multimillion dollar deals in oil and gas exploration off the north-west coast of Tamil-controlled areas in Sri Lanka.

Scene From Tamil: Part Two

As the death toll rose by thousands every day, the police response increased against the peaceful road blockades. But it was not just the protestors who came under fire.

Scene From Tamil: Part Two - Peacestrike Campaigner Maria Gallastegui

The film also tackles the confusion by UK authorities over the national Tamil Eelam flag, which many protestors were arrested for displaying, including Peacestrike campaigner Maria Gallastegui, who was detained as a terror suspect on at least two occasions.

The flag is listed as a symbol of the Tamil Tigers, a prescribed terrorist organisation in the UK. But the real flag was white, not red, as is the national Tamil flag.

Scene From Tamil: Part Two

In the end, it seemed that very few did anything to halt the huge numbers of civilian casualties, and the world seemed to stand aside as the refugee camps of barbed wire, no food, no water and no medical aid went up.

But when the UK was caught selling weapons to Sri Lanka to the sum of £13.9 million and British Gas already owned the seismic survey information on one of the potential oil and gas blocks, it comes as no surprise that the UK government, bar a few individual politicians, failed to act on what will go down in history as one of the worst genocides of the 21st century.

PART - 1

PART - 2

Courtesy:
http://jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com/

jasonnparkinson@gmail.com

BLACK JULY 1983 - An Act of Genocide

2009-07-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

STATE TERROR - BLACK JULY OF 1983 REVISITED

By Ana Pararajasingham

In late July 1983, Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital literally burst into flames as angry mobs of Sinhalese went on a rampage burning, looting and terrorising the occupants of Tamil homes in an orgy of violence unparalleled in the Island’s history.

The Government line was that this was a spontaneous backlash by the Sinhalese people to the killing of thirteen Sinhalese soldiers in the north by Tamil guerrillas (LTTE -Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,) fighting for an independent state of Tamil Eelam comprising the North and Eastern parts of the Island.

Although, a low-intensity conflict between the Tamil guerrillas and the Sri Lankan security forces had been under way since the late 1970’s, never before had so many soldiers been killed in such a single incident! It was a spectacular victory for the LTTE guerrillas who at that time numbered not more than thirty, and were poorly armed. However, the Government claim, that the attack on Tamil civilians was a spontaneous backlash by ordinary Sinhalese, was hardly supported by the behaviour of many ordinary Sinhalese who risked their lives to save Tamil neighbours and friends from the marauding mobs. On the other hand, the evidence pointed to considerable advance planning and organisation behind the “spontaneous” action.

To begin with, the marauding Sinhalese mobs had little difficulty in locating Tamil homes as they were armed with electoral lists in which Tamil households had been clearly marked. The attacks on Tamil homes were systematic and in the early stages of the pogrom, only those who resisted or chose to stay in their homes were killed. Those who chose to flee were more often than not permitted to leave, provided they did not take any valuables with them. This, however, did not last long as the mobs, drunk with violence and alcohol became increasingly ugly as time went on.

Nine months after the event, in March 1984, following his fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka, Paul Sieghart, the Chairman of the British Section of the International Commission of Jurists had this to say,

“Clearly this was not a spontaneous upsurge of communal hatred among the Sinhala people. It was a series of deliberate acts, executed in accordance with a concerted plan, conceived and organised well in advance.”

Such a conclusion was hardly surprising given that state-sanctioned anti-Tamil violence had become a common feature in the Island’s post-colonial political landscape. Such violence had in fact preceded the emergence of Tamil militancy by about twenty years. According to Stanley Tambiah, professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and curator of the South Asian Ethnology at the Peabody Museum, between 1958 and 1983 there have been “seven occurrences of mass violence unleashed by segments of the Sinhalese population against Tamils”.

These attacks were not only reminiscent of the anti-Jewish pogroms of Europe, but also each more violent than the preceding one. As such, the events of July 1983 (in which an estimated three thousand Tamils were killed and thousands forced to flee the Island) was only a culmination of this series of organised violence against the Tamils.

Writing immediately after the first serious anti-Tamil pogrom of 1958, Sinhala journalist Tarzie Vittachi, (who was later to become a regular columnist with Newsweek) , ended his book “Emergency 58”The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots” [i] leaving his readers pondering the question “Have the Sinhalese and Tamils reached the parting of the ways?”

Then onwards state-condoned attacks on Tamils living in the Sinhala region were to occur with alarming regularity in attempts to intimidate the Tamil people whose political demands were anathema to the Sinhala political establishment. There was, however, an ugly qualitative change in the nature of the violence from the 1970s. Until then, the violence, though condoned and sometimes even encouraged by the Sinhala politicians in power, did not involve direct participation by the armed forces. The armed forces generally remained independent of the government, often intervening on their own to bring an end to the violence. Since the mid 1970’s this was to change with the armed forces and police becoming directly engaged in perpetrating anti-Tamil violence. These bouts of Sinhala army-and police-aided anti-Tamil violence were to occur in rapid succession from 1977, culminating in the climactic violence of July 1983.

In the anti-Tamil pogrom of July 1983 thousands of Tamils were killed by mobs which waylaid them. Vehicles suspected of carrying Tamils were set ablaze with the occupants inside, Tamil pedestrians were killed on sight, and entire Tamil neighbourhoods were torched. Within days Colombo came to resemble a war zone, as Tamil-owned factories shops and homes were burnt to the ground, and the skyline marked by pillars of smoke. The violence soon spread to other cities.

There was of course, no attempt on the part of the authorities to stem the violence and it soon became impossible to persist with the canard that the violence was a spontaneous backlash to the killing of thirteen soldiers by Tamil guerrillas in the north. It was soon apparent that the anti-Tamil violence was a blatant attempt by the authorities to indicate to the Tamil guerrillas the vulnerability of Tamils in the south. The speeches made by parliamentarians belonging to the ruling UNP just prior to and soon after the attack, the findings by several independent agencies, and eyewitness accounts, leave little in doubt. The violence was nothing less than a state-orchestrated pogrom.

Just two weeks before the attacks on Tamil people and property, President J R Jayawardne was quoted by the (London) Daily Telegraph of 11 July 1983 as saying

“I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people.. now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion ... Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy”.

Nothing was heard from the President for 5 days into the pogrom, and when he appeared on television it was to say that the attacks were “not a product of urban mobs but a mass movement of the generality of the Sinhalese people and that “the time had come to accede to the clamour and the national respect of the Sinhalese people”.

According to Professor Stanley Tambiah, [ii]

“On the same television program in which the President had bowed to the action of the generality of the Sinhalese people, Lalith Athulathmudali, who was later to be appointed Minister of security, nearly wept with ponderous histrionics over a sight that he never dreamed he would see-lines of Sinhalese people waiting to buy food as a result of the violence. He had not a word to say in sympathy for the frightened Tamils crowded in indescribable conditions in refugee camps”

Industries Minister Cyril Matthew[1] whose anti-Tamil views were well known and who controlled the powerful UNP-run labour union called the Jatika Seveka Sangamaya (JSS), was widely suspected of being the ‘master mind” behind the violence. According to India Today of 31st August 1983, Cyril Matthew was involved in pin pointing Tamil-owned shops and factories.

The Review, a publication of the International Commission of Jurists said:

“The evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the Sinhala rioters on the Tamils amounted to acts of genocide”

Paul Seigart of the International Commission of Jurists was to echo the same sentiments in a much more detailed report entitled “Sri Lanka: A Mounting Tragedy of Errors” by stating,

“Clearly this (attack in July 1983) was not a spontaneous upsurge of communal hatred among the Sinhala people - nor was it, as has been suggested in some quarters, a popular response to the killing of 13 soldiers in an ambush by Tamils Tigers on the previous day, which was not even reported in the newspapers until after the riots began. It was a series of deliberate acts, executed in accordance with a concerted plan, conceived and organised well in advance”

The active support given by the army, the police and the navy to the mobs engaged in the attack was clearly visible. Although there was little coverage of these events in the Sinhala-owned local media, the foreign media carried several reports highlighting the role played by the Island’s armed forces and the police in the attacks.

The correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph reported on the 26th of July how “several army vehicles drove through the city, packed with troops shouting encouragement to the rioters”.

The Irish Times of 29th July reported the attack on (Tamil) shops and homes by 130 sailors who had broken out of their barracks on Monday, 25th July.

The Observer of 31st July 1983, reported security forces joining the rioters in the looting and burning in Trincomalee and other cities.

The London Times of 5th August reported how “…Army personnel actively encouraged arson and the looting of Tamil business establishments and homes in Colombo” and how “absolutely no action was taken to apprehend or prevent the criminal elements involved in these activities. In many instances army personnel participated in the looting of shops.”
According to John Elliott of the London Financial Times, “Troops and police either joined the rioters or stood idly by.”

India Today reported how a jewellery mart (Fifty yards from the Indian High Commission, right next to a police station’) was ransacked with army assistance. “The shops in this block had heavy grille doors” recalled an eye witness, “ so an army truck was used as a battering ram to break through them, then the soldiers sprang in with Sinhala battle cries to claim the lion share of the loot”

During this time, the bloodstained hand of the authorities was clearly exposed in the brutal slaughter of 52 Tamil political prisoners held in the maximum-security prison at Welikade in Colombo. The killing of these political prisoners was carried out over two days. Thirty-five of them were killed on 25th July around 2.30pm when Colombo was supposedly under a curfew.

According to an eyewitness (K Devanadan a survivor of the prison massacre), Airforce helicopters hovered over the jail while the killings took place under the supervision of the deputy jail superintendent, aided and abetted by the army and security guards. After the killings the blood-soaked bodies were piled in front of a statue of Buddha in the jail courtyard and, in a macabre ritual the assailants offered the blood of the Tamil victims to the statute of Buddha.

S.A. David,[2] another survivor of the prison massacre recalled that the murdered included two political prisoners (Kuttimani and Jegan) whose eyes were gouged by their attackers.

The Madras Hindu of 10th August 1983 reporting on this said,

“Selvaraja Yogachandran, popularly known as Kuttmuni, a nominated member of the Sri Lankan parliament who was one of the 52 prisoners killed in the maximum security Wellikade prison in Colombo two weeks ago, was forced to kneel in his cell, (where he was under solitary confinement), by his assailants and ordered to pray to them. When he refused, his tormentors taunted him about his last wish, when he was sentenced to death. (He had willed that his eyes be donated to someone so that at least that person would see an independent Tamil Eelam.) The assailants then gouged his eyes. He was then stabbed to death and his testicles were wrenched from his body. That was confirmed by one of the doctors who had conducted the post-mortem on the first group of 35 prisoners.

According to S.A David,[iii] the thirty-five Tamils were then heaped in front of the statue of Gautama Buddha in the yard of the Welikade prison and when some yet alive raised their heads they were clubbed to death.

The second round of killings on July 27 was lead by Sepala Ekanaike, undergoing life imprisonment for the hijacking of an Alitalia plane on its flight from Delhi to Bangkok a year previously. Sinhalese prisoners convicted of murder, rape and burglary charges were handpicked by the warders, who after plying them with liquor, let them loose on the remaining Tamil political prisoners. Seventeen prisoners were killed on this occasion.

A Norwegian tourist Mrs. Eli Skarstein and her 15-year-old daughter, Kristen, witnessed an equally harrowing mass murder as a mini bus full of Tamils was stopped by a Sinhala mob, petrol poured and the bus set on fire, after ensuring that the doors were locked. The eyewitnesses reported that over a hundred spectators watched as twenty Tamils were burnt to death.[iv]

Apart from the two events of mass murders, which were widely reported, there were thousands of other incidents in which people were maimed, killed or rendered homeless.

Several refugee camps came to be established as Tamils, driven out of their homes, sought sanctuary in numbers by crowding into schools, temples and churches. The exact nature and scale of the attacks came to be known only when Tamils in these refugee camps began to share their experiences.

The Methodist Church in Kollupitya (an affluent suburb in Colombo) was one such camp. The church was hurriedly converted into a refugee camp by Sinhalese Christians, many of whom risked their lives in the subsequent days to save hundreds of Tamils who had lost their homes or were driven out of their homes and were on the run from marauding mobs.

In this camp alone, which accommodated around 500 displaced Tamils, there were many who had their own tales to tell. It included a severely traumatised young girl in her teens who related (with no sign of any emotion) how her father and brother were killed as she looked on, a senior executive with a multinational company who had watched his home burnt to the ground, a young man who had narrowly escaped being burnt alive (after being doused with petrol) when the lighter failed, giving him just the opportunity to escape, an eighty-year old woman who had scaled a ten foot wall when hunted down by a mob; a middle-aged lawyer who had to plead with a mob to spare the lives of his family; a young couple whose child had suffocated to death when the mother had attempted to keep the child quiet when on the run and several others who had equally harrowing stories to tell.[3]

According to N Sanmugathasan,[v] the General Secretary of the Ceylon Communist Party:

“In Colombo at least 500 cars some with drivers and passengers inside were burnt. Tamil-owned buses, running between Colombo and Jaffna were burnt. Tamil patients in hospitals were attacked and killed. Some had their throats cut as they lay in their beds”

The official figure for the deaths, according to the Sri Lankan government, was 358 while the Tamil survivors’ estimate was “well over three thousand”.

On 28th July, Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister telephoned the Sri Lankan President to express her concern about the fate of the Tamils and convey her decision to send her External Minister, Narasimha Rao on a fact finding mission. It was a veiled threat designed to show that India would not remain unconcerned in view of its own substantial Tamil population, which was becoming increasingly restive by the events in Sri Lanka. In the light of the Indian role in Pakistan’s civil war in 1969, resulting in the birth of Bangladesh, the Sri Lankan government could ill-afford to ignore this message from its powerful neighbour.[4]

Francis Wheen wrote in The London Times of 30th July 1983:

“When presented with evidence that the army had committed atrocities against the Tamils, the Government has reacted with a shrug of the shoulders”.

The London Guardian in its editorial of 1st August 1983 referred to the Sri Lankan President as someone who has “increasingly come to resemble a dictatorial and racist third World autocrat”.

The Australian Government announced a relaxation of its immigration laws, permitting Tamils affected by the troubles to migrate under a Special Humanitarian Program and the Canadian government threw its doors wide open to any Tamil who could get across to Canada.

The burning, looting and killing were to go on for two weeks before the authorities intervened to bring an end to the violence. Faced with the growing condemnation by the international community (as reflected by newspaper articles, and the decision of the Australian and Canadian governments to grant sanctuary to the Tamil victims) and India’s veiled threat, the Sri Lankan regime found it could no longer permit events to go unchecked.

The Government touted various conspiracy theories in a hurried and clumsy attempt to shift the blame, and distance itself from the perpetrators of the violence. Government spokesmen thereafter spoke of an anti-Government plot, a communist conspiracy, and foreign involvement, to explain the unchecked anti-Tamil violence of the previous weeks. Ananda Tissa de Alwis, a prominent member of the government saw in the violence, the hand of the KGB, while the President spoke of the possibility of the events being engineered by sections of the armed forces, and of a Naxalite plot, at the same time. The virulently anti-Tamil and anti-Indian Cyril Matthew saw only “the dirty hand of India”.

All of these theories were quickly dismissed in the face of irrefutable evidence.

The evidence included the systematic manner in which the attacks were carried out, the use of electoral lists to identify Tamil homes, the commandeering of state-owned vehicles to transport the goons and the direct participation by the armed forces. Several Tamil-owned businesses of whatever type - grocery shops, small kiosks, hotels etc., were gutted in the presence of the armed forces. The attacks were similar and in many cases the attackers exhibited a perverse discipline which again indicated that this was no spontaneous backlash.

The goon squads were organised in two ways. There was the first group under the command of UNP youth leaders and well-known local thugs often used by UNP politicians as their local militia. Then there were the more organised squads drawn from the pro-government trade union called the JSS-Jathika Seveya Sangaya. These squads had come into existence early during the UNP regime and were under the control and command of Minister Cyril Mathew who was a cabinet minister in the Jayewardene Government.

Mathew had been conducting a semi-official anti-Tamil campaign long before the violence of July. He was responsible for the propagation of several extremely chauvinistic pamphlets enumerating privileges being enjoyed by Tamils at the expense of the Sinhala Buddhists. He was a fervent advocate of the “bhumi putra” concept which saw the Sinhalese as the only true sons of the soil who deserved a “lion’s share” of the country’s wealth, and was openly critical of the “privileges” enjoyed by the Tamils. In the parliamentary debate shortly after the July 83 massacres, Mathew justified the pogrom by implying that the destruction of Tamil property was long overdue and only a spark was needed to make it happen and that the spark fell on 24th July.[5]

In May 1981, Mathew was widely suspected to have been responsible for instigating the violence by Sinhala policemen that led to the burning of the Jaffna Public library which held over 95,000 manuscripts.

Amirthalingam, the TULF leader was unequivocal in identifying Mathew as the chief perpetrator. In a letter to the President on 10th August 1983 Amirthalingam was to say

“The attack on the Tamil people is pure ethnic violence planned well ahead and executed with ruthlessness by forces close to the Government. These forces include the armed forces for whom Mr Cyril Mathew always holds a brief in Parliament.”

Professor Wilson, the author of “The Break-up of Sri Lanka” [vi] provides further evidence of the Government’s role in the planning that went into the July 1983 pogrom. He quotes a letter written to him by George Immerwahr, a United Nations civil servant and a US citizen who had worked in Sri Lanka in the late 1950s. The letter dated 13 February 1985 said:

“ ... the most shattering report came from a friend who was a civil servant; he told me that he had helped plan the riots at the orders of his superiors. When I heard him say this, I was so shocked I told him I simply couldn’t believe him, but he insisted he was telling the truth, and in fact he justified the Government’s decision to stage the riots. When I heard this, I telephoned an official in our own State Department, and while he declined to discuss the matter, I got the impression that he already knew from our embassy in Colombo what I was telling him.”

“Black July 1983” was in fact the last of the pogroms. It had claimed 3,000 Tamil lives within two weeks. Thereafter, state-terror against the Tamil people was unleashed under the guise of fighting “terrorism”. This has so far claimed another 60,000 Tamil lives.

[1] It is a view widely held by Tamils that it was at the instigation of Cyril Mathew and his cabinet colleague Gamini Dissanayake that the Public Library in the Tamil City of Jaffna was burnt down in 1981. The Public Library contained over 95,000 volumes, many of which were irreplaceable and historical documents. Both these ministers well known for their virulent anti-Tamil stance were in Jaffna at the time of the burning. Tamil suspicions were confirmed many years later when the Sinhala President, Ranasinghe Premadasa implied that the ministers were responsible for this act of vandalism. According to Harvard professor Stanley Tambiah, " This book burning by the Sinhala police has come to signify to many a Tamil the apogean barbarity of Sinhalese vindictiveness that seeks physical as well as cultural obliteration. "

[2] S A David is a qualified architect who now lives in South India having escaped from captivity two months after the massacres when Tamil militants freed the surviving prisoners in a daring bloodless operation. The breakout occurred two months later (on 23rd September 1983) after the surviving prisoners had been transferred to another prison in the Tamil City of Batticaloa. David himself played a vital role in the escape by drawing a sketch of the prison building which was then passed onto the militants.

[3] The writer was an inmate of this refugee camp and was privy to these and many other accounts.

[4] A counter threat was made by Minister Gamini Dissanayake, 5 weeks later on 5th September 1983, at “ Sri Kotha (The Head Quarters of the ruling UNP)..Addressing the UNP-controlled labour union , "Sri Lanka Jathika Estate Workers Union", the minister said referring to any attempt by India to intervene on behalf of the Tamils, " It will take 14 hours to come from India. In 14 minutes, the blood of every Tamil in the country can be sacrificed to the land, by us.

[5] Based on the Notes & Documents on Human Rights Violations in Sri Lanka per the September (Summer ) 1984 issue of the journal Race & Class .(Race & Class is a publication of the Institute of Race relations, UK) Summer 1984.

[i] Vittachi T, Emergency '58-The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots, Andre Deutsch (London) 1958.

[ii] Tambiah S.J., Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy, The University of Chicago Press (Chicago), 1991.

[iii] David S.A., Detention Torture & Murder in Sri Lanka , a pamphlet published by the People's Liberation Organisation of Thamil Eelam (November 1983)

[iv] London Daily Express, 29th August 1983.

[v] Shanmugathasan N., in an article entitled Sri Lanka : the story of the holocaust in “Race & Class ( Vol: XXVI; Summer 1984) a journal of the Institute of Race Relations, UK.

[vi] Wilson A.J., The Break-Up of Sri Lanka, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1988.

About the Author: Ana Pararajasingham is the editor of the “Tamil Monitor”. His articles have been published in the Canberra Times, Green left weekly, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The New Zealand Herald and The West Australian. He has also presented papers on the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka at several conferences. These include, a paper entitled “Sri Lanka: Will the Facts Speak?” at a conference on “The Media, Ethnic and Racial Conflicts" organised by the International Conflict Resolution Centre, University of Melbourne in November 1996, a paper on “Political Buddhism” at a conference in Canberra on “Peace with Justice” co-sponsored by the Australian Human Rights Foundation, a paper on the “The militarisation of Sri Lanka: causes and consequences” at a conference of the Asia-Pacific Anti-Militarisation Forum in March 1997 and a paper “Sri Lanka:The Untold Story” at the Asia-Pacific Solidarity Conference in April last year. He is the author of the booklet, Sri Lanka: One Island, Two Nations and the Secretary of the Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations-an umbrella organisation of Tamil associations in the Australasian region.

Mahitler Rajapakse celebrates yet another victory by showing the picture of dead 13 year old boy

2009-07-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

Sources from the Menik Farm IDP camp told Lanka News Web that President Mahinda Rajapakse’s eldest son, Namal Rajapakse, was received by a shower of stones when he visited the Menik Farm camp along with representatives of several media institutions.

Namal had visited the camp as the head of the NGO formed by him, Tharunyata Hetak, to inquire into how best they could assist the displaced persons in the camp.
Although the attack on Namal by residents in the camp was recorded on tape by the media crew that accompanied him, he had ensured that all recordings were deleted before they left the camp.

Mahiter Rajapakse

விடுதலைப் புலிகளின் தலைவர் வேலுப்பிள்ளை பிரபாகரனின் இளைய மகன் பாலச்சந்திரன் கைது செய்யப்பட்ட பின்னர் எவ்வாறு படுகொலை செய்யப்பட்டார் என்ற செய்தி வெளிவந்த "லங்கா நியூஸ்" சிங்கள இணையம் இலங்கை அரசாங்கத்தால் தடை செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது. அத்துடன், செட்டிகுளம் மெனிக் முகாமில் ஆத்திரத்திற்குள்ளான இடம் பெயர்ந்த மக்கள் அங்கு விஜயம் செய்த ஜனாதிபதியின் மூத்த மகன் நாமல் ராஜபக்சவுக்கு கற்களால் எறிந்து, சேற்றைத் தூரி வாற்றிய சம்பவம் பற்றி படங்களுடன் விளக்கியிருந்தது.

அரசாங்கத்திடமிருந்து விடுக்கப்பட்ட வேண்டுகோளை அடுத்து இலங்கையில் இணைய சேவை வழங்குனர்களான இலங்கை ரெலிகொம் நிறுவனமும் ஏனைய இரண்டு தனியார் இணைய சேவை வழங்குனர்களும் உடனடியாகவே நடைமுறைக்கு வரும் வகையில் இணையத்தள இணைப்பை வழங்குவதை நிறுத்தியுள்ளன.

இணையத்தளத்தின் மீதான தடை இலங்கையில் நீண்டகாலமாக ஊடகங்கள் மீது மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டு வரும் தொடர் ஒடுக்குமுறையின் இன்னொரு சம்பவம் எனலாம்.

பிரதான பத்திரிகை ஒன்றின் ஆசிரியர் சுட்டுக் கொல்லப்பட்டதை அடுத்தும், ஊடகவியலாளர்கள் இனம் தெரியாதவர்களால் அச்சுறுத்தப்படும் சம்பவங்கள் ஆற்று வெள்ளம் போல் பெருகி வருவதை அடுத்தும் மாற்றுக்கருத்துக்கள் மீதான சகிப்புத்தன்மை இன்மை காரணமாக இலங்கையின் ஊடகத்துறையின் எதிர்காலம் அச்சத்துக்குள்ளாகியுள்ளது.

இணையத்தளம் வெளியிட்ட இவ்விரண்டு செய்திகளும் தவறானவை என் நிரூபிக்க முடியாததால் தான் அரசாங்கம் மீது சட்ட நடவடிக்கையை மேற்கொள்ளவில்லை என்றும், மறைமுகமாக மேலும் இவ்வாறான உண்மைகள் வெளிவராத வகையில் அந்த உண்மைகள் மக்களைச் சென்றடையாத வகையில் மறைமுகமாக அதனை முடக்கும் நடவடிக்கையை மேற்கொண்டுள்ளதாக கொழும்பிலுள்ள ஊடகச் செயற்பாட்டாளர் ஒருவர் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

இதேவேளை அரசாங்கத்தின் மனித உரிமைகளை மீறும் சம்பவங்களையும் ஊடக உரிமைகளை ஒடுக்கும் சம்பவங்களையும் சுட்டிக்காட்டும் விமர்சிக்கும் ஊடகவியலாளர்களையும் ஊடகங்களையும் புலிப்பினாமிகள் என அரசாங்கம் நேரடியாகவும், தனது பினாமி ஊடகங்கள் மற்றும் இணையத்தளங்களூடாகவும் முத்திரை குத்தும் நடவடிக்கைகளை மேற்கொண்டு வருவதும் இங்கு குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

குறிப்பாக சண்டே லீடர் ஆசிரியர் லசந்த விக்ரமதுங்க படுகொலை செய்யப்படுவதற்கு முன்னர் அவர் ஜனாதிபதியாலும், அமைச்சர்களாலும் அரசாங்கத்தின் கட்டுப்பாட்டில் உள்ள ஊடகங்களாலும் புலிப்பினாமி எனக் குற்றஞ்சாட்டப்பட்டிருந்தார்.

புலம் பெயர் நாடுகளில் உள்ள இலங்கையின் தூதுவராலயங்கள் மூலமாக வாரியிறைக்கப்படும் பணத்தைக் கொண்டு புற்றீசல் போலக் கிளம்பியிருக்கும் இணையத்தளங்களும் அரசாங்கத்தின் நடவடிக்கைகளை விமர்சிப்பவர்களை இவ்வாறு புலிப்பினாமி எனக் குற்றஞ்சாட்டத் தவறவில்லை.

மாற்றுக்கருத்தின் பெயராலும், மார்க்சியத்தின் பெயராலும் அரசாங்கத்தின் உரிமை மீறல் நடவடிக்கைகளை விமர்சிப்பவர்களை புலிப்பினாமிகள் எனக் குற்றஞ்சாட்டும் இந்த ஊடகங்கள் தாம் நேரடியாகவோ அன்றி மறைமுகமாகவோ அரசாங்கத்தின் நடவடிக்கைகளை ஆதரிப்பதைப் பற்றி அக்கறைப்படுவதில்லை.

மக்களுடைய உரிமைகளை மறுப்பதற்கு ஒடுக்குமுறையாளர்கள் எந்த வழிமுறையையும் பாவிப்பதற்குத் தயங்குவதில்லை என்பதை இலங்கையின் வரலாற்றை அறிந்தவர் அறிவர்.

Telling truth is a crime in the 'Terror Island'

2009-07-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

The Time of Judgement has arrived to the Land of Terror

“International legal systems have so far failed to bring the Sri Lankan War Criminals to justice. It is time for the average Joe, an ethical shopper to say No to “Holiday Packages to Sri Lanka”, No to “Sri Lankan Airlines”, No to “Sri Lankan Cricket”, No to “Ceylon Tea”, No to “Garments or any other products made in Sri Lanka” and No to any “Organisations having commercial interests in Sri Lanka” until Sri Lanka stop the killings of the innocents with it’s death squads, until the last person is set free from the death camps of Sri Lanka, until the people of Sri Lanka start to live without the fear of abductions, torture, rape and murder by the Sri Lankan State and its armed forces, Until Sri Lanka starts to treat all its citizens equally with dignity and give them the rights they deserve”

“Money goes into the hands of Sri Lanka are now used to destroy individuals, families and communities therefore, it is rational, ethical, sensible and right to stop supporting a country that is determined continue with its genocide agenda, despite calls from the international community”

Death and destruction in a Terror Island

Fifty thousand innocent men, women and children were brutally murdered on the sandy beaches and in the jungles of Sri Lanka, by the Sri Lankan Military while the whole world stood back and watched.

Three hundred thousands are now locked up in the death camps of Sri Lanka. Men are tortured, Women are abused and raped, Children are psychologically tormented, foreign media is banned, aid workers are blocked and the Tamils are now let to die like flies without proper food, medicine and water. Dead bodies are thrown outside the tents and let to rot while the young and old stand in the hot sun for hours to beg for food.

They are let to languish behind barbed wires

Times UK has recently reported that fourteen hundreds are dying every week in the horror camps manly due to water Bourne diseases and many preventable illnesses. The rate at which people are dying now, the whole camp will be empty just in three years time. Many who are prisoned in these camps have relatives and friends living in other parts of the country and overseas, who are willing to help.

Sri Lankan government is so adamant that it is not helping the dying Tamils and also not letting others to help.

Purpose of these Nazi style camps is to cause death and maximum destruction to an oppressed and vulnerable Tamil community that is now pleading to the Nations for help. Few camps are purposefully built for propaganda purposes in order to deceive the international community.

Horrors in Sri Lanka are sending shock waves across the World

Torture, murder, rape, forced starvation, and all kind of human rights violations in the concentration camps of Sri Lanka, are now sending shock waves across the world.

Deportations of Western reporters, Journalists and Politicians from the Sri Lankan Airport and denial of access to the death camps of Sri Lanka for aid workers are showing the face of rebellious country that is willing go to any extent to defy international humanitarian laws.

Western countries have recently been pressurising Sri Lanka to stop the abuses and State sponsored killings. US, Britain and France including many other European countries are taking all the necessary measures to send strong messages to Sri Lanka.

US $1.9 Billion IMF loan to this country is now delayed. Sri Lanka had been denied a seat on UN Human Rights Council. US are delaying aid to the displaced people till the Sri Lankan government give free access to the camps.

There are also talks about suspending Sri Lanka from the commonwealth

Can an average Joe make a difference?

I have written few articles on the subject of Sri Lankan civil war. One of the popular questions, I received from the readers was “What can the average Joe do other than writing a letter to the local MP?”

While our international legal systems are still failing to bring the culprits to justice, Average Joe might probably be in a better position to send a powerful message to countries like Sri Lanka. Joe should see and understand the bigger picture of what is happening in Sri Lanka before start doing anything about the injustice done against the innocents.

Joe living in the West is a consumer just like many other millions around the world. Any marketing professional would know about the Power of a Consumer. Joe is an ethical shopper, who has the freedom to choose where to go on a holiday, which airline to fly with, where to buy his cloths and who to bank with. Joe can meet up with many like minded people and persuade his government to stop playing sports with countries that are persecuting its people. Joe is now on the net. He has access to email, facebook, twitter and many other social networking sites. He can share his views with millions around the world.

Even a great nation like China needs to sell its products in the world market in order to feed its people. Sri Lanka that is acting arrogantly with many countries should know, that it can’t keep on killing the innocents and expect the people to buy their products and services that are covered in blood.

Joe along with millions around the world should be able to convince the People of Sri Lanka that they are not safe in the hands of corrupt regimes that are even prepared to sell the soul of a nation to satisfy the cravings of the Sinhala Buddhist extremists whose only goal is to wipe out Tamils.

“Sri Lanka for Dummies” is a simple Introduction to Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan war for the average Joe to get an understanding of the man made humanitarian crisis in this little island.

Sri Lanka for Dummies

1) Sri Lanka in a Nutshell

2) Tamil Rebellion against State Terrorism in Sri Lanka

3) War in the Vanni land that had revealed the face of the devil

Sri Lanka in a Nutshell

Sri Lanka is a tiny tropical island that was known as the pearl of the Indian Ocean and paradise on earth. This country was once very popular among the tourists but not any more.

Rulers of this country have made this place as one of the most dangerous places to visit and live on the planet. The US has recently given serious warnings to its citizens about the dangers of travelling to Sri Lanka. Westerners are no longer welcome there. Journalists and high profile diplomats are regularly deported back from the Colombo international Airport. The recent victims were Channel 4 TV journalists and Bob Rae who was once the Premier of Ontario Canada. Western embassies are frequently attacked by angry local mobs. British and Canadian High commissions became the latest targets.

Sri Lanka is a graveyard for the journalists. Sri Lankan Government is using underground Mafia and death squads to abduct, torture and kill journalists, aid workers and any individuals who are critical of the government. Doctors and journalists are locked up in prisons but the evil ones are rewarded and let to roam around the streets with knives and guns.

Journalist Tissainayagam in chains. Telling the truth is a crime in Sri Lanka

Tamils are the prime targets but even foreigners, Sinhalese and Muslims are not the exceptions. This country is now at the bottom of the list in terms of human rights.

Sri Lanka has murdered fourteen journalists in the last few years. More than twenty journalists have been forced out of the country. Many are locked up in jails. Newspapers are burned, TV stations are attacked, and News web sites are blocked. Even BBC and CNN had received warnings in the past from the controversial defence secretary of the country. Sri Lanka only allows reporters who write well about the government.

Senior editor and Journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga was brutally murdered by the government backed mafia

Five medical doctors, who are praised as real heroes by the international community for their tireless work during the Sri Lankan war, are now locked up in Sri Lankan jails for speaking the truth from the war zone. Sri Lankan rulers have recently paraded these doctors in front of television cameras and forced them make false statements to support the government. This is another foolish attempt by a murderous regime to hide the war crimes it had committed .We all know how Al Qaeda had paraded western hostages on TV in the past and forced them to say things that were not true.

In Sri Lanka, People disappear from their homes, schools, work places and hospitals like flies. It is not the fulfilment of rapture that is taking place according to the book of Revelation in the Bible. But the Sri Lankan regime has mastered the art of using white vans to abduct and kill anyone who is dare to question the conducts of the government.

Half burned dead bodies with hands tied at the back is a typical scene, one would be able to see quite often in Sri Lanka. Killer demons regularly come on mysterious white vans without number plates on them.

A typical Sri Lankan leader would talk like he has the whole world under his feet and he doesn’t care about outside opinions. Many of us remember the controversial Sri Lankan defence secretary of Sri Lanka who appeared on many TV channels across the globe and thundered that he had the right to bomb hospitals and schools. He had indeed ordered to bomb several hospitals in the recent war in Sri Lanka. This short tempered leader and the current military commander of Sri Lanka are directly responsible for thousands of killings in Sri Lanka.

Some of the ministers from the Jumbo cabinet of Sri Lanka have degrees from western universities. They wear crisp clean suits and speak in Queens English. But what comes out of their mouth don’t reflect the real situation in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan rulers no longer tell the truth. According to them, the Sun raises in the West and the rooster crows only in the evenings. While murdering civilians with heavy weapons including tanks and missiles with unconventional war heads, Sri Lanka was lying to the world that they were only using light weapons.

Sri Lanka is the most militarised among the South Asian countries with 13000 military personnel per one million population. Every street corners of Sri Lanka are guarded by armed soldiers. Sri Lanka has 266K active armed personal (Total Troops 374K) which is much higher than many developed countries. [Australia (54k), Canada (65K), South Africa (56K), Norway (28K), United Kingdom (188K), Germany (248K), France (260K), Italy (230K)].

Sri Lanka has no foreign enemies. Multi barrel Rockets were used to kill thousands of Tamils in the recent war

In terms of military expenditure as percentage of GDP, Sri Lanka spends the most in South Asia. The figure is 6% in Sri Lanka which is much higher than the amount spent by its neighbours. (3.5% in Pakistan; 2.5% in India and Nepal; and 1.5% in Bangladesh).

Sri Lanka is now planning to recruit fifty thousands more for its armed forces.

Sri Lanka has now become like another Myanmar in the region. Close associations with nuclear armed China and Pakistan and friendships with Iran, Libya, and Myanmar are already giving the danger signs. Iran has indicated that it is willing to share nuclear technologies with Sri Lanka for peaceful purposes. Those who follow the current trend in the world, very well know what these peaceful purposes are.
Sri Lanka is trying to get hold of nuclear technology (to supplement its power needs). Having been turned away by India, Sri Lanka is turning to States like Iran to fulfil its nuclear ambitions. This is why Sri Lanka always backs Iran’s nuclear program

It may not be well known that Sri Lanka was instrumental in Iran acquiring nuclear technology. Some Sri Lankan businessmen and engineers are among those whose names appear in a United States blacklist over the alleged involvement in the world’s worst illicit nuclear proliferation racket, the British media reported recently.

Although, Sri Lanka is a democratic country, the majority Sinhala people support Nazi Style right wing parties. Racist politicians and military leaders are looked upon as heroes and saviours of the country. Tamils who once had their own nation are now considered as aliens and invaders even though the majority of the Tamils are the original inhabitants of this land. Politics is driven by the powers of ignorance, greed, lies and deceptions.

Today, three hundred thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka are locked up in concentration camps and the rest live in homes that are heavily guarded by the Sri Lankan military. People who once lived dignified and prosperous lives are now treated like stray dogs. Tamil women are raped by the Sri Lankan army and young Tamil men are tortured and killed.

Tamil Rebellion against State Terrorism in Sri Lanka

Tamils, who are one of the most oppressed communities in the world, have been fighting to free themselves from the evil regimes of the country. But they have so far failed to achieve their goals. Tamils initially fought through democratic means. Democracy no longer works in favour of Tamils because the majority prefers the Tamils to be wiped out from the country.

Tamils were slaughtered in thousands with swords and knives in the buses, trains and in their own homes in the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties. Frustrated Tamil youth took arms to fight against fascism. Armed rebellion has now been crushed with the help of China and India.

Tamil rebels were initially functioning like how IRA did things in the eighties but from the early 2000s they did manage to build a well disciplined conventional force with their own Air force and Navy. According to the former Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, who retired only few weeks ago, Tamil rebels were better in honouring the laws of the land than the government of Sri Lanka. For instance, Seven Sri Lankan soldiers who were prisoners of war in the rebel camps were set free by the rebels without any scratches, even at a time when Sri Lankan forces were murdering Tamil women and babies in cold blood.

Tamil Rebels and the Sri Lankan government signed a ceasefire in 2002, after the Sri Lankan forces had suffered a heavy defeat in a conventional war between both parties. Negotiations were taking place between the Tamils and the Sri Lankan government for five years, with the help of the mediators from EU, Norway, Japan and US.

Sri Lankan government suddenly withdrew from the ceasefire unilaterally in 2007, and launched a war against the rebels with help of India and the weapons it got from China and Pakistan. War broke out at a time when there were signs of peace becoming materialised in Sri Lanka according to the former Norwegian mediator Eric Solheim, who is now the Minister of Environment.

Sri Lankan army did manage to slaughter more than fifty thousand Tamil civilians including women and children within few months time. Banned weapons like cluster bombs and phosphorous bombs were used against the innocents.

War in Vanni, that had revealed the face of the devil

Vanni is a Tamil land in the north eastern region of Sri Lanka that was once flowing with milk and honey. People prospered in every thing. Many of them did farming and deep sea fishing. They were not poor. Their barns were filled with grains throughout the year. These people ate a very healthy diet and lived in homes that were located in unpolluted areas. In our terms, people of Vanni ate organic grains, vegetables, fruits, meat and fish all their lives.

Few months ago, all of a sudden, Skis of Vanni became darkened. Children stopped playing. Dancing was turned into mourning. Chinese F7s, Russian MIGs f lied over Vanni and bombed homes, hospitals, schools and farms. Cluster bombs, phosphorous bombs and other banned weapons were used against innocent civilians

They were slaughtered in their own homes

Men, women and children were hiding inside the bunkers without adequate food and medicine for months. More than fifty thousands innocents were slaughtered. Thirty thousands were injured. Thousands of children became orphans. Wounded and maimed crawled on mud and dirt to search for water and food.

Children were hiding inside the bunkers for weeks and months

Thousands of surrendered and wounded rebels were brutally murdered. Military tanks rolled over the dying and the golden beaches of Sri Lanka were turned into red carpets with the blood of the innocents.

There were no more mourners left in the land of Vanni to mourn for the dead. Lands of the living didn’t send any comforters to the land of the dead. Hearts of the world became stones and the so called leaders of the world had once again revealed their ugly faces.

Nobody came to mourn for the dead

Number of people massacred on the beaches of Sri Lanka is almost ten times of the people died in the Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

If the war was conducted fairly according to the international laws, the outcome of the war would have been much different. Sri Lankan army defeated the rebels by using unconventional banned weapons that had caused thousands of civilian causalities and deaths.

Chemical weapons were used against the Civilians and Rebels

After killing so many thousands, the Sri Lankan government has sent the remaining to Nazi style concentration camps. Now they are dying in the death camps of Sri Lanka with lack of food and medicine. Tamil women are abused and raped by Sri Lankan military in these horror camps. Men are tortured and killed.

Although China, India and Pakistan are helping the Sri Lankan rulers, Genocide is being carried out with the complete freewill of this Nation. Sri Lankan leaders have made this beautiful country into a half naked prostitute in the India Ocean. Ministers of this country regularly fly to China and India to meet the political and military leaders of those nations. Sri Lanka has become a puppet of these superpowers with its own sweet will.

Sri Lanka is facing destruction by its own masters

People of this world are becoming more and more tolerant. Many colours and races are learning to live together in Europe and America. American people have even elected a Black president with a Muslim middle name to give a powerful message to the world.

Nations that have systems based on racial and religious supremacies should know that they are heading for isolation and destruction if they continue with their racist policies.

Here we see a country that has gone out of control and acting weirdly in the Indian Ocean. Beaches of Sri Lanka are stained with the blood of thousands men, women and children who were slaughtered by the cruel rulers of this country. There is no more media freedom. Local and foreign journalists are intimidated, prisoned and killed. Arrogant leaders of this country are confronting individuals, organisations and even nations that are opposing the killings.

Average Joe has the tools to send a message to Sri Lanka who are deliberately failing from the duties to protect its people.

Joe is conscious of the environment. He makes sure that papers, cloths and empty bottles end up in recycling bins. He is very concerned about the people living in the poorest countries on this earth. He buys fair trade tea and coffee that are produced in countries that need our help.

Joe takes his family for holidays at least once a year. As a matter of conscience, Joe will not be holidaying on the blood stained beaches of Sri Lanka where thousands of innocent men, women and children were brutally murdered by Bombs and shells. Joe will not be buying garments that are made in Sri Lanka, a country that has locked up three hundred thousands Tamils including babies, pregnant women and disabled in barbed wired concentration camps

People of Vanni, who once lived prosperously, are now left to wander like vagabonds with skin and bones in the death camps of Sri Lanka. Family ties are broken, their dignity is destroyed, and thousands of children are psychologically tormented. Many thousands have already become mental.

Money goes into the hands of Sri Lanka is used to wound and kill innocent Civilians. It is time to say "No"

Fourteen hundreds dying in the death camps of Sri Lanka in a week is a clear proof that Sri Lanka is still mass murdering Tamils. These people are not terrorists but men, women and children who also have dreams and have every right on this earth to live with dignity. They were not born to die of starvation, torture and deliberate medical negligence in the hands foolish and arrogant rulers.

Sri Lanka should know that they can’t do business with the world while slaughtering the civilians. No country prospers with the blood of the innocents. Agents of the Sri Lanlan regime who live overseas are still justifying the killings of Tamils. They should learn to show respect the follow humans because they themselves enjoy equal rights in foreign countries.

People of this world, no matter what their religion, race, colour and culture are, they all have the freedom to live without the fear of intimidation, torture rape and murder.

Time has for the international community say No to “Sri Lankan package Holidays”, No to “Sri Lankan Airlines”, No to “Sri Lankan Cricket”, No to “Ceylon Tea”, No to “Garment made in Sri Lanka” and No to “Any organisation that has commercial interests in Sri Lanka” until the killings stop and Sri Lanka come with clean hands.

We give money for Cancer Research, Save the Children, Christian Aid, Tear Fund and many other leading charities because we very well know that our money is used to protect, build and heal lives

What goes in the hands of Sri Lanka is not used to build lives but to destroy lives therefore, it is rational, ethical and sensible to stop supporting a country that is continuing with its genocide agenda with arrogance.

Sri Lanka is already facing isolation and there will be serious consequences if the leaders of this country continue to orchestrate abductions, torture, rape and killings in order to suppress the voice of the oppressed.

Destroying individuals, families and communities will eventually lead to the destruction of the whole Nation of Sri Lanka by its own masters.

Courtesy :
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/richarddixons/blog/2009/07/12/the_time_of_judgement_has_arrived_to_the_land_of_terror
Richard Dixon
RichardDixons@googlemail.com

Tamil death toll ‘is 1,400 a week’ at Manik Farm camp in Sri Lanka.

2009-07-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

A Tamil girl at a refugee camp in the northern district of Vavuniya

Rhys Blakely in Mumbai

About 1,400 people are dying every week at the giant Manik Farm internment camp set up in Sri Lanka to detain Tamil refugees from the nation’s bloody civil war, senior international aid sources have told The Times.

The death toll will add to concerns that the Sri Lankan Government has failed to halt a humanitarian catastrophe after announcing victory over the Tamil Tiger terrorist organisation in May. It may also lend credence to allegations that the Government, which has termed the internment sites “welfare villages”, has actually constructed concentration camps to house 300,000 people.

Mangala Samaraweera, the former Foreign Minister and now an opposition MP, said: “There are allegations that the Government is attempting to change the ethnic balance of the area. Influential people close to the Government have argued for such a solution.”

News of the death rate came as the International Committee of the Red Cross revealed that it had been asked to scale down its operations by the Sri Lankan authorities, which insist that they have the situation under control.

Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, said: “The challenges now are different. Manning entry and exit points and handling dead bodies, transport of patients, in the post-conflict era are no longer needed.”

Last night, the Red Cross was closing two offices. One of these is in Trincomalee, which had helped to provide medical care to about 30,000 injured civilians evacuated by sea from the conflict zone in the north east.

The other is in Batticaloa, where the Red Cross had been providing “protection services”. This involves following up allegations of abductions and extrajudicial killings, practices that human rights organisations say have become recurring motifs of the Sri Lankan Government.

The Manik Farm camp was set up to house the largest number of the 300,000 mainly Tamil civilians forced to flee the northeast as army forces mounted a brutal offensive against the Tigers, who had been fighting for an ethnic Tamil homeland for 26 years.

Aid workers and the British Government have warned that conditions at the site are inadequate. Most of the deaths are the result of water-borne diseases, particularly diarrhoea, a senior relief worker said on condition of anonymity.

Witness testimonies obtained by The Times in May described long queues for food and inadequate water supplies inside Manik Farm. Women, children and the elderly were shoved aside in the scramble for supplies. Aid agencies are being given only intermittent access to the camp. The Red Cross was not being allowed in yesterday.

Experts suggest that President Rajapaksa, the country’s leader, is yet to make good his victory pledge to reach out to the minority Tamil community. “The discourse used by the Government is of traitors and patriots,” Paikiasothy Saravanamuthu, of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Sri Lankan analyst, said. “There is no indication that this mode of thinking is slipping.”

Mr Rajapaksa is known for not tolerating dissent; a trait that human rights organisations say was demonstrated this week when five Sri Lankan doctors who witnessed the bloody climax of the country’s civil war and made claims of mass civilian deaths recanted much of their testimony.

The doctors said at a press conference on Wednesday that they had deliberately overestimated the civilian casualties. As government officials looked on, they claimed that Tigers had forced them to lie.

The five men added that only up to 750 civilians were killed between January and mid-May in the final battles of the war. They were then taken back to prison, where they have been held for the past two months for allegedly spreading Tiger propaganda.

The number was far below the 7,000 fatalities estimated by the United Nations. An investigation by The Times uncovered evidence that more than 20,000 civilians were killed, mostly by the army.

The doctors denied other former testimony, including the government shelling of a conflict-zone hospital in February for which there are witnesses from the UN and the Red Cross.

The statements met with scepticism from human rights campaigners. Sam Zarifi, the Asia- Pacific director for Amnesty International, said that they were “expected and predicted”. He added: “There are very significant grounds to question whether these statements were voluntary, and they raise serious concerns whether the doctors were subjected to ill-treatment.”

Courtesy:
The Times, UK.

news link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6676792.ece

Setting up a Sinhala Buddhist Dictatorship Masquerading as Democracy

2009-07-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

by Vasantha Raja

Sri Lanka’s present administration is a “dictatorship masquerading as democracy” observed Prof. John Neelsen from the Institute of Sociology in Tuebingen, Germany. His judgement is not far from the truth. In this paper I shall argue that a virtual ‘Sinhala-Buddhist dictatorship’ has emerged in Sri Lanka as the outcome of the brutish military campaign that resulted in a humanitarian tragedy of scandalous proportions. Also, I shall show the colonial connection, particularly the British rule that sowed the seeds for the present political impasse in Sri Lanka.

Let me start with a brief description of the war that culminated in the destruction of the Tamil Tiger leadership along with its Tamil mini-state in Sri Lanka’s Tamil habitat.

Successive administrations in Sri Lanka succeeded in branding its nearly thirty-year war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as war on terrorism. This formula worked well in getting the foreign countries - to which hundreds of thousands of Tamils fled for protection - to ban the Tiger Movement and choke the flow of funds to the Tigers. Following the ‘9-11’ US tragedy, Sri Lanka nicely touted its war as part of Junior Bush’s ‘global war on terror’.

The Sinhala nationalist movement in Sri Lanka, on the contrary, correctly identified the Tiger leadership as the zenith of the Tamil minority’s struggle to establish its own Tamil state in the north and east.

The Sinhala/Buddhists saw the island as rightfully theirs. For them, the Tamil struggle is a continuation of the historic Sinhala/Tamil wars in a new form. The army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, in a recent interview articulated the Sinhala perception as follows: “I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese; but, there are minority communities and we treat them like our people…we being the majority of the country, 74%, we’ll never give in and we have the right to protect this country…They can live in this country with us. But they must not try to, under the pretext of being a minority, demand undue things.” [My emphasis]

In a similar tone, the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said: “In any democratic country the majority should rule the country. This country will be ruled by the Sinhalese community which is the majority representing 74% of the population.” In the same vein, Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa, seeing the onrushing victory, said: “Soon the lion flag [VR: Effectively, the emblem of the Sinhala Buddhists] will fly from every house-top from Point Pedro to Dondra Head, from Colombo to Trincomalee.”

All three quotations above - from interviews and public speeches made by the top most personalities of the Sri Lankan state just prior to the final military victory – reflect the general mindset of Sri Lanka’s majority community that has primarily been fuelling the war all along, not terrorism. Terrorism was just a symptom both sides resorted to during the conflict.

Victory celebrations began to spread like wildfire in the Sinhala south shamelessly displaying the hubris of annihilating the Tamil separatists, rather than terrorism. Chief monks within the Buddhist clergy and the Sinhala press were openly referring to Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Sinhala king who should rule the country for good. Some are even suggesting turning the country formally into a Sinhala-Buddhist kingdom. Any sociologist who would study the post-war celebrations in the ‘Sinhala south’ would clearly see an entrenched supremacist mindset in action, nothing less.

All pre-war talks of ‘devolving power to the Tamils’ had vanished. The president was calling upon the people to discard the concept of ‘ethnic minority’ altogether and see everyone as a citizen of Sri Lanka.
However attractive this slogan may seem on the surface let me explain why this approach fails to appreciate Sri Lanka’s social realities; and how in practice this would amount to the defence of Sinhala/Buddhist domination in Sri Lankan politics.

The fundamental fallacy in the Sinhala-Buddhist perception results from the failure to distinguish between ‘ethnic minorities’ and ‘minority nations’. The fact is: Tamils in Sri Lanka are a minority nation trapped within the post-colonial straitjacket of a unitary state. [Later I shall show there can be forms of unitary structures that are capable of accommodating trouble-free coexistence of more than one nation.]

Tamils are in many ways similar to Scots in Scotland or Welsh in Wales. Tamils don’t see themselves as an ethnic minority living in the Sinhala/Buddhist country, just as Scots don’t see themselves as a minority living in the English country. Both Scots and Welsh perceive Britain as a voluntary arrangement by three nations for mutual benefit. The English-dominated state, for instance, conceivably cannot ban the separatist Scottish National Party driving them underground, send an English army to crush Scottish separatism and hoist the English flag all over Scotland. Why not? Because, the political value systems in the west have evolved too far for that; the atmosphere isn’t conducive to such behaviour.

The Tamils have a very long history along with the Sinhalese, though the latter has been the dominant political and cultural force through out Sri Lankan history. When the western colonialists arrived in Sri Lanka [formerly, Ceylon] over four centuries ago there existed one Tamil kingdom and two Sinhalese kingdoms in the island which the colonialists systematically dismantled. The British finally defeated the last Sinhala kingdom in Kandy and imposed a unitary state structure uniting the island for administrative purposes. [Ironically, the last king of the Sinhala kingdom, Sri Vikrama Rajasinghe, who confronted the British forces, was a Tamil; and that indicates the present extreme form of the supremacist mindset is essentially a post-independence phenomenon.]

During the Colonial rule both Sinhala and Tamil cultures were brutally suppressed, and parallel revivalist movements erupted independently of each other in the 19th century – in the Sinhala south to protect Buddhism and Sinhala culture while in the Tamil north to defend Hinduism and Tamil culture. These movements eventually snowballed into powerful anti-imperialist campaigns for freedom.

Unfortunately, these social realities and the robust aspirations of two nations were not reflected in the British-imposed state-structures at Sri Lanka’s independence. On the contrary, the British introduced a rigid unitary system paving the way for Sinhala domination that immensely contributed to future conflicts. There were no mechanisms for the Sinhalese politicians to fulfil the Sinhala-Buddhists’ justifiable economic, political and cultural aspirations without antagonizing the Tamils. [The so-called 29th Clause of the first post-independence constitution to protect the ‘minorities’ - which was contemptuously discarded by the Sinhala majority eventually – was pathetically inadequate to protect the Tamils from discrimination.]

The post-colonial political system, in effect, motivated the Sinhala politicians to whip up anti-Tamil sentiments as the easy way to secure the majority’s vote base. This factor along with the dragging feudal consciousness in Sri Lanka proved to be a lethal combination.

The latter point, I think, deserves a brief explanation: In countries like Sri Lanka, capitalism did not organically evolve from feudalism. Unlike in Europe - where capitalism grew within the womb of feudal society systematically challenging all aspects of feudal consciousness and institutions - Sri Lankan capitalism was arbitrarily imposed by colonialists on a feudal society. Therefore, the feudal consciousness continued to persist in various forms. The Sinhala politicians’ pathological failure to politically solve the Tamil Question, I believe, is partly a result of that.
True, for a developing nation - battered by imperialism for centuries - the glorious memories of a bygone past may be useful to sustain a nation’s badly needed self-confidence. But, they could easily turn into a toxic force, as happened in Sri Lanka, when mixed with political structures that encourage racism.

In fact, the language and the symbolism used during the post-war victory celebrations could, I believe, provide fertile fields for anthropologists to study a very important social phenomenon. Virtually everyone in the Sinhala/Buddhist ‘camp’ - including the president, military leaders and government ministers - perceived the Tamil Tigers’ demise as the modern version of the historic defeat of the Tamil king Elara at the hand of the Sinhala/Buddhist king Dutugemunu.

The real content of the Tamil struggle, the war and the eventual Tiger defeat, however, is vastly different. As I have already explained, it is very much to do with Sri Lanka’s post-colonial state-structures’ inflexibility to even-handedly deal with the political, economic and cultural aspirations of two nations emerging from colonial oppression.

Clearly, the unitary state has been instrumental in pushing the two communities towards head on clash, rather than helping them to see the benefits of coexistence. The successive governments’ one-sided efforts to promote Sinhala language and Buddhism, for instance, turned out as blatant anti-Tamil discrimination. The Sinhala-dominated state’s biased approach against the Tamil regions in infrastructure development is visibly clear. Just like the colonialists who were only interested in developing their central economic hub, Colombo, and related areas, the post-independence governments also neglected the crucially important north and east in the distribution of national wealth. Consequently, the Tamil regions remained undeveloped forcing the Tamil youth to migrate to the Sinhala south for jobs, businesses and prosperity. Thus, the poverty-ridden Sinhala majority increasingly began to perceive the Tamils as a threat to their jobs and businesses. Accordingly, communal riots and anti-Tamil pogroms became a striking feature of Sri Lanka’s post-independence history.

Tamils’ non-violent campaigns for a federal state were brutally crushed by the successive Sinhala governments – a trend culminated in the banning of Tamil representatives from the parliament using draconian laws. The Tamil armed-struggle for a separate state was a direct result of the Sinhala state’s violent efforts to put down Tamils’ Gandhian campaigns. Tamil Tigers’ determined venture to build a Tamil mini-state and militarily protect it was a logical development in response to the Sinhala state’s violent approach.

Now that the Tamil Tigers’ mini-state strategy has been defeated, the Tamils internationally have responded with their new strategy to create a “transnational government” based on the numerically and financially strong Tamil Diaspora that may eventually raise a formidable ‘global’ challenge to the Sinhala state. Whatever the viability of the Tamil leaders’ high sounding objectives abroad, at least a solid movement could emerge to consolidate the Diaspora’s unprecedented energy erupted in response to the war. Thus, it may prove to be a powerful counterpart to the political developments in Sri Lanka itself.

Does the Sri Lankan government have the vision to handle the new developments by politically solving the Tamil question? Highly unlikely, I should say.

After the Tamil Tigers’ military defeat, Sri Lanka’s president Mahinda Rajapaksa made it amply clear that he is not going to devolve power to the Tamils as a separate unit living in the north and east of the island. As mentioned earlier, for him there are ‘no ethnic minorities’ in Sri Lanka to devolve power along ethnic lines. Tamils grievances could be addressed within the existing unitary structures, he said.

However, the Rajapaksa-friendly Tamil politicians - who are getting discredited among the Tamils by the day - and the international community keep pressurizing the government to give in on this issue. [Reportedly, at the recent UN vote on a ‘possible genocide probe’, the government has covertly hinted its readiness to implement an improved version of the 13th amendment – the brainchild of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 - as a devolutionary package to the north-east Tamils. However, such misleading signals appear to be part of Machiavellian tactics to hoodwink the UN. The harsh reality is that the president is struggling hard to avert the devolution issue altogether paying lip-service to a possible ‘home-grown’ solution in the ‘near future’]

President Rajapaksa’s post-victory speeches indicate a pluralist vision of the Sri Lankan society in which members of diverse social groups develop their traditional cultures or special interests within a common civilization. Thus, he seems determined to avoid any solution along ethnic lines

This approach seems attractive to many Sinhala intellectuals too, because of its obvious modernist connotations, as opposed to outdated nationalist prejudices. But, in a country like Sri Lanka with a ‘minority nation’ of highly evolved nationalist aspirations, the pluralist vision has many pitfalls as its post-independence experience has graphically illustrated to its detriment.

Even in an economically advanced country like Britain pluralism has not worked. How imprudent it is to believe pluralism to be the answer in a poor country like Sri Lanka after decades of brutal war to crush a minority nation.
Perhaps, it is time to learn a lesson or two from the architect of Sri Lanka’s unitary setup, Britain. How did Britain deal with Scottish and Welsh separatism? The London parliament offered a Scottish Parliament and a Welsh Assembly, both explicitly based on Scottish and Welsh right to self-determination. [The British proposals were put to the Scottish and Welsh people separately in the form of referendums for their approval]

Of course, Sri Lanka cannot copy the British answer to separatism from word to word. Sri Lankan situation is quite different. In Britain, for instance, the central administration is far more advanced than its counterpart in Colombo; therefore, whether the British Prime Minister is English, Scottish or Welsh is irrelevant where as in Sri Lanka, at present, a Tamil or a Muslim President is an unthinkable quantity. Also, still the English majority has not strongly felt the need to rush for a regional English Parliament, though the existing lopsidedness of the British state structures is widely being acknowledged.

Thus, the British solution cannot fit the Sri Lankan situation like a glove. What is important is to learn at least the general principles of a democratic approach to somewhat similar problems.

Let’s have a brief look at some relevant demographic and geographical features of the present day Sri Lankan society: Although the Tamils identify much of the northern and eastern provinces as their traditional homeland there are hundreds of thousands of Tamils, including the Tamil plantation workers in the upcountry, live among the Sinhala majority. [Note that the Muslims also use Tamil as their first language.] Also, a substantial section of Sinhalese and Muslims have been living in the Tamil regions for generations. Therefore, considering the deep rooted prejudices prevalent on both sides, it would be in the interest of all concerned to have radical changes in the central administration. In this sense, power devolution to the Tamil regions would be of lesser significance relative to the changes at the centre.

Moreover, geographically Sri Lanka should be seen as a single unit. The water distribution, for instance, is uniquely intertwined. The rivers that fertilize Tamil lands of the north and east originate from the hills located in the Sinhala midlands. Even the climatic zones of the island are distributed as parts of a single whole Culturally too there have been close interactions between the two peoples that have mutually enriched each other through out history. Virtually in all Buddhist temples there are shrines for Hindu gods. Most Buddhists are devotees of Hindu gods too.

Consequently, all communities’ long term interests would be better served by designing an island-wide political transformation whatever the shortcut measures needed to solve the immediate problems. Two hostile political entities side by side would be counterproductive for both.

Thus, a realistically creative solution, in my view, should have a mechanism for Sinhala and Tamil people to fulfil their cultural aspirations in their own regions through two regional parliaments while the highest level institutions of the economy, judiciary, defence, foreign affairs etc., are secured in an equality-based centre. In more simple terms, there should be a democratically-transformed Supreme Parliament to deal with issues related to the country as a whole, while two regional parliaments look after the Sinhala/Tamil cultural and other interests in their own regions. [For, clarity’s sake I shall avoid dealing with the special interests of Muslims and other tiny communities here.]

How to transform a Sinhala-dominated supremacist centre into a democratic and equality-based Supreme Parliament is the trillion dollar question. This is the key issue to be negotiated with the Tamil political leaders. The Europeon Union, for example, has been going through valuable experiences on similar issues, and if so many nation-states can continue to build mutual confidence on such a vast scale then a tiny island with a few races should be able to do that far more easily. But, without discarding the chauvinist mindset the whole thing is a non-starter.

To start with, the government will have to abandon the “no minorities” delusion. The truth is: with entrenched nationalist aspirations and prejudices of a post-colonial society the ‘pluralist solution’ will only amount to a reinforcement of the Sinhala Buddhist domination that continues to provoke the Tamil struggle to re-emerge in a new form.

Devolution of power to a separate Tamil Unit without touching the centre could also, in my view, further deepen the ethnic divisions along dangerous lines, particularly in the context of the growing regional rivalries between China and India. There is a serious possibility of the Sinhala-dominated centre turning into a Chinese puppet-state while a northern Tamil administration gets swamped by India’s regional interests. If this were to happen, the chances of Sri Lanka becoming a playground for regional power-politics are very real indeed.

But, is it realistic to expect the Sinhala political elite to change its Mahavamsa mindset and go for a radical transformation of the state-structure along the lines I have suggested earlier? I don’t think so. The government seems determined to stick to its militarist agenda of violently demolishing the Tamils’ cry for freedom. Therefore, all fascistic trends the government has been showing in the south so far are likely to grow worse in the coming period.

Alternatively, will the government – under international pressure – go for an asymmetric devolution of power to Tamils in the north and east as being demanded by the mainstream Tamil politicians in parliament? Such a move, in my view, is highly unlikely, because that could anger the southern Sinhala-Buddhist movement that perceives it as a Tamil tactic to split the country. The People’s Liberation Movement (JVP) with a strong base on the Sinhala side has been warning against any such move. This would amount to a betrayal of thousands of Sinhala soldiers who sacrificed their lives in defence of the country’s integrity, the JVP claims.

There are major problems with the 13th Amendment which the anti-Tiger Tamil politicians might like to resolve. The North-East provincial council that existed until 2006 was just one of several councils in the country that exist at the mercy of the Sinhala-dominated centre. The centre can abolish them at will. Also, there are controversial areas such as policing - which the centre wants to keep in its hands ignoring the anti-Tiger Tamil politicians’ request. Clearly, the 13th Amendment is worthless unless asymmetrical power devolution to the Tamil Unit with extra laws to protect it from arbitrary central interventions is secured. Already, the centre has demonstrated its domination over the provincial councils by abolishing the north-west council on one occasion. Also, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has recently nullified a cornerstone of the 13th Amendment, i.e. the merger of the two Tamil-majority provinces, as unconstitutional. Thus, a fundamental aspiration of the Tamils, i.e. to unite northern and eastern provinces, is already in jeopardy.

Moreover, the Sinhala side firmly believes that an asymmetrical devolution of power to Tamils of north & east would only be a steppingstone for a Tamil state. This was a major factor in the deepening distrust between the two sides all along. And, now that the Tamil Tigers’ mini-state project has been militarily wiped out, it might be futile to expect the Colombo administration to create a north-east council free from centre’s control. President Rajapaksa’s constant lip-service to a ‘home-grown’ solution may well be a cover to dodge the mounting international pressure to devolve power to Tamils.

However, there are at least three reasons why the government would loose its nerve unless an acceptable political solution for the Tamils is presented soon

Firstly, the government is increasingly becoming conscious that the military victory does not mark the end of the Tamil struggle. The government has succeeded in demolishing the Tigers’ ‘mini-state project’ only to pave the way for a changed form of struggle. Consequently, the security nightmare that plagued the country for so long is nowhere near ending. And the government will go on ‘disappearing’ every Tamil showing any sign of freedom-sentiments. This will only drive the politically conscious Tamils underground, making the situation increasingly difficult to tackle.

Secondly, Sri Lanka’s dithering economy - already overwhelmed by mounting debts - is showing signs of grave problems, and the potential for social unrest in the south is very real indeed. This could turn the post-war exuberance into its opposite in no time.

Thirdly, the presently raging debate within the Sinhala intelligentsia and the left movement as to the hollowness behind the military victory seems to be gathering momentum. It may well become the catalyst for a new awareness away from the mainstream supremacist mindset. And, there are politically conscious Tamil campaigners who see the significance of relating to the Sinhala progressives. A potentially formidable unity between the rising Tamil movement and the Sinhala progressive forces would be the last thing the Rajapaksa administration would like to see happening.

There’re good reasons for the growing frustration in the south. Many thought the Tigers’ military defeat would bring peace in a perceptible way. But, in the midst of victory celebrations the military commander Sarath Fonseka in a TV interview said he was going to expand the army by 50%, surprising everyone who couldn’t understand why peace needs more soldiers than the war. Also, extending the draconian anti-terrorist law in the parliament was one of government’s immediate steps in the post-war Sri Lanka. In brief, the military victory does not seem to have brought security to the country in a tangible way.

The developments within the Tamil community both inside and outside Sri Lanka are not conducive for peace at all. Inside Sri Lanka the Tamil anger seems to be reaching boiling point by the day. Perhaps, it’s worth quoting the Vavuniya Tamil legislator Suresh premachandra’s account given on June 14 in some length.

“250,000 Tamil civilians are held in camps. Over 1000 were killed. A large number was injured. Children have no parents. Mothers have lost children. Wives have lost husbands. Pregnant mothers and others lack healthcare. No houses; no water. Bathing is limited once in four days. No food; no toilets. One cannot go out since a Sinhala Army has surrounded them. No connection with the outside world. How can the people be happy?” he said. “In Jaffna, we cannot get out of the houses. Checkpoints are everywhere. 600,000 Tamils are ruled by 40,000 Sinhala Army. One cannot come to Colombo at least for an emergency. An air ticket is Rs. 20,000. A-9 road is closed. Roads in Jaffna are closed at any moment the Army patrols on them. Tamils are suppressed day by day.” And in a warning tone he added, “Both sides have the patriotism.”

In a mood of utter frustration he said: “Youths are arrested from camps. Parents cannot go to complain to police. Human Rights organizations are denied access. We cannot do anything. We are also not allowed. Six MPs including MP Srikanthan wrote a letter seeking permission to visit camps. But no reply. MP Kishore sought the President’s permission over the phone. Then the President asked him to join the government. I cannot go at least to my birth place. I cannot look into the welfare of people that voted me. This government is engaged in an opportunist politics violating the human rights and democracy.”

The Tamil MP was describing the situation in the Tamil north. The government says there’re thousands of Tigers at large in the south. Also, there are hundreds of thousands of Tamils in the south who live in fear, as second class citizens, and in constant worry about their relatives suffering in the detention camps. Thus, the question is: how long this state of affairs is going to last without blowing up?

There is no sign of pacification within the Tamil Diaspora either. Quite apart from the protests and lobbies, the think-tanks are busy debating the ways of rebuilding the Tamil campaign on a global scale. As already mentioned, the some Tamil leaders abroad have already begun forming the ‘transnational government’ and strengthening their global campaign. They may try and manoeuvre India’s growing nervousness over China’s systematic encroachment into her outskirts using Sri Lankan state’s predicament. On the other hand, even China – with its ‘global-superpower’ ambitions - may want to build its moral-image globally, and put pressure on the Colombo administration to get its act together.

Also, there are others who encourage the Tamils in the country to join progressive Left parties en masse and compel the Tamil political parties to come to a united front with the Left, anticipating a socio-political turmoil worse than the recent Iranian crisis. The deteriorating economic conditions in Sri Lanka, they think, would be the additional factor.

This last point needs some elaboration:

Sri Lanka is a tiny part of the global economy that is almost entirely dependent on exports and imports for its survival. There’s no viable internal market for capitalists to thrive on. Its foreign exchange earnings have been primarily centred on tourism, tea, garment/textile exports and the ‘export’ of labour mainly to the middle-east for the inflow of foreign exchange remittances – all of which have been drastically affected by the global recession. During the past few decades, easily available global credit facilitated Sri Lanka’s economic and political survival. The global credit crunch has badly affected the major pillars of the Sri Lankan economy causing unexpected problems for the economic pundits.

The war cost has been totally beyond the capacity of a poor country like Sri Lanka. The coffers are empty and the government is totally dependent on foreign loans and aid. The war forced the government to borrow untold quantities of domestic credit too that kept the central bank’s printing machines very busy indeed. Colossal amounts of paper money now circulating within the economy can be seen forcing the living costs to rise uncontrollably while the foreign exchange reserves have slumped to dangerous levels. The dragging global economic doom is not helping the situation at all.

Thus, the continuing triumphalist conceit could soon run out of steam. Economic catastrophe, social unrest and political dissent may well be on the cards. In such a scenario, I think, the spectre of possible link up of Sinhala/Tamil aspirations on a common platform, could become more real than many appreciate at present.

In conclusion, let me briefly mention the essence of the analysis: The post-colonial state-structure - initially floated by British imperialism - was the albatross that reinvigorated a dormant mindset. The political process since has now reached its logical end: a virtual Sinhala-Buddhist dictatorship. However, it has also created the conditions and the potential for a social revolution that could eventually bring about the real democratic transformation Sri Lanka is crying for.

Courtesy:
Transcurrents

கரும்புலிகள் நாள் - யூலை 5

2009-07-05T04:32:00.000-07:00

உயிரையே ஆயுதமாக்கி எமக்காக விதையாக வீழ்ந்த வீரர்கள்.

பகைவருக்குள் வாழ்ந்து,
அவர்கள் உயிர் சாய்த்து,
உயிர் எறிந்த உறவாய்,
முகம் மறைத்த புலியாய்,
உணர்வுகள் புதிராய்,
வாழாது வாழ்கின்ற இவர்களை
நினைவு கூருவோம்.

கரும்புலிகள் நாள் - யூலை 5

R.I.P ALL FALLEN SELFLESS HEROES

உயிரையே ஆயுதமாக்கி எமக்காக விதையாக வீழ்ந்த வீரர்களை நினைவு கூர்ந்து அவர்கள் கனவு மெய்ப்பட ஒன்றுபட்டு உழைப்போம் எனச் சத்தியம் செய்வோம்.

இதயத்தில் ஈரம் உள்ளவனே தன்னுயிரையும் ஈகம் செய்யும் ஆற்றல் படைத்த வீரனாகலாம்.

A tribute & salute to black tigers - July 5th.

“பலவீனமான எமது இனத்தின் பலமான ஆயுதமாகவே நான் கரும்புலிகளை உருவாக்கினேன்” என்று கூறினார் தமிழீழத் தேசியத் தலைவர் வே.பிரபாகரன் அவர்கள்.

இன்று கரும்புலிகள் நாள்!

தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் போராட்டத் தேரின் நகர்வுப் பாதையில் – இறுமாப்போடு எழுந்து நின்ற தடைகளை எல்லாம் தகர்த்து எறிந்தவர்களுக்கான நாள்.

எம்மை விழுங்கக் காத்திருந்த விசப் பூதங்களை எல்லாம் அகற்றி எமது விடுதலைப் பாதையினைச் செப்பனிட்டுத் தந்தவர்களுக்கான நாள்.

தரை, கடல், வானம், தமிழீழத்திற்கு உள்ளே, தமிழீழத்திற்கு வெளியே என எங்கெங்கு எல்லாம் எமது பகைவர்கள் வீற்றிருந்தார்களோ – அங்கங்கு வைத்தே அவர்களின் ஆணிவேர்களைப் பிடுங்கியவர்களுக்கான நாள்.

தமிழரது அரசியல் தாகத்தை இந்த உலகின் முற்றத்தில் முரசறைந்து சொன்னவர்களுக்கான நாள்.

எமது இனத்தின் அதிசயங்கள் அவர்கள்; எமது திமிரின் அடையாளங்கள் அவர்கள்.

நியாயபூர்வமான எமது இனத்தின் அரசியல் வேட்கையினது குறியீடுகள் அவர்கள்.

அரசியல் விடுதலையை வென்றெடுப்பதில் எமது இனத்திற்கு இருக்கும் உறுதிப்பாட்டினதும், அர்ப்பண உணர்வினதும் வெளிப்பாடு அவர்கள்.

அவர்கள் இல்லாமல் போனவர்கள் அல்ல; எம்முன் எல்லாமுமாய் நிறைந்தவர்கள்.

நேற்று வரை மட்டுமல்ல; இன்று முதலும், எமது விடுதலையை நாம் வென்றெடுக்கும் வரையும்… அதற்கும் அப்பாலும் அவர்களே எங்கள் நெஞ்சுரம்.

யாழ்ப்பாணம் நெல்லியடியில் 1987, ஜூலை 5 ஆம் நாள் – கரும்புலி கப்டன் மில்லர் தொடக்கி வைத்த இந்த வரலாறு, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் போராட்டத்தின் ஒரு தனியான – தனித்துவமான – அத்தியாயமாகப் பதிவாகிவிட்டது.

அன்று முதல் – கடந்த 22 வருடங்களில் – உரிமை கோரியும் உரிமை கோராமலும், தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள் நடத்திய தாக்குதல்களில் – 700 வரையான கரும்புலி மாவீரர்கள் தமிழீழம் என்ற எங்கள் ஆன்ம தாகத்தின் வெளிப்பாடாக தமது உயிர்களைத் தந்தார்கள்.

தேசியத் தலைவர் அவர்கள் கூறியதனைப் போல – “அடுத்தவர்கள் இன்புற்று இருப்பதற்காக தம்மை இல்லாது அழித்த தெய்வீகத் துறவிகள் அவர்கள்.”

அந்த தெய்வீகத் துறவிகளின் நினைவுடன்… அவர்கள் தந்து சென்றிருக்கும் துணிவுடன்… அவர்கள் ஊட்டிச் சென்றிருக்கும் உறுதியுடன்… – அவர்கள் செப்பனிட்டுச் சென்றிருக்கும் பாதை வழியே… – எல்லோரும் வாருங்கள்… போராட்டத் தேரை இழுத்து எங்கள் தேசத்தை விடுவிப்போம்.

முதல் கரும்புலி கப்டன்.மில்லர்

http://www.vakthaa.tv/play.php?vid=4613

ஈரமும் வீரமும்...

http://www.vakthaa.tv/play.php?vid=4618

முதல் பெண் தரைக்கரும்புலியின் வாழ்வியல் பதிவுகள்...

http://www.vakthaa.tv/play.php?vid=4614

புதிய திசையொன்றின் புலர்வுதினம் - புதுவை இரத்தினதுரை கரும்புலிகள்நாள்

http://www.vakthaa.tv/play.php?vid=4617

நினைந்துருகி - பாடல் சங்கமம் கரும்புலிகள் நாள்

http://www.vakthaa.tv/play.php?vid=4615

பாடல் - பாடும் அலையே... யூலை -5 கரும்புலிகள் நாள்

http://www.vakthaa.tv/play.php?vid=4616

யார் இவள் - முகமறியா பெண்கரும்புலி

http://www.vakthaa.tv/play.php?vid=4619

POEM : A cry of a humanitarian volunteer worker from IDP camps in Vanni

2009-06-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

By Sumathy.R.
( worked for few days as a humanitarian volunteer worker for IDP camps in Vanni)

Do I know what it means…
To stand in the queue as a mere 13 year old,
Collecting charity for my younger brother
and widowed and aching mother,
a wound in my stomach which hurts and oozes.
With no one to care for the pain
To live on, not knowing why or the reason or meaning of hope.

Do I know what it means..
To be orphaned-a helpless little child playing with others like myself,
Without a family-but accas and annas who took care of me,
And to be separated-as I hear they will be with me no longer
plagued with the memory-of making it over rounds (gun fires) and shells and fallen bodies.

Do I know what it means…
To know neither the results of the exam I sat,
Nor my index number to look them up later .
What kind of world is it ?
…that refuses me schooling,
…demands that I bury my fears,
And uses my strength and will to care for other younger children and elderly people?

Do I know what it means…
To have my son taken away for questioning-
Miss my husband or my brother-and wonder if I will ever see them again?
To fearfully hide away the son I treasure in a bunker,
To save him from LTTE recruitment and raining shells
To ‘lose’ him now in custody of the army,
being rehabilitated I am told-for uncommitted sins.

Do I know what it means…
To be an old man or woman in trying conditions alone,
Not able to tell my children where I am or what I went through,
My aches and pains and wounds from the war adding decades to my age,
Talking about yester years, in this tent where I am, till I know not when.

Do I know what it means…
To throw myself into the work of mass cooking with rations received,
Organizing the wounded in body and heart to donate their labour for others,
Solving the problems of water, cooking pans and grumblings from fellow block-mates,
While stifling the pain of losing my own two daughters.

Do I know what it means...
To stand in long queues just for a plate or a bucket,
Standing in the scorching sun, despite my wounds, fever and limps,
Or else receive my meals in a shopping bag
And run the risk of spilling out my family’s precious meal

And do I know to what it means..
To marry the man I love,
running for our lives through what feels like fire and hell,
Just so we may stay as man and wife before either or both of us fall
And now, thankful to be together
at Menik farm.

Courtesy: DbsJ

VIDEO : Sri Lankan cricket Team & Tamils' plight

2009-06-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

VIDEO : Fresh claims over Tamil casualties

2009-06-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

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by Jonathan Miller

A doctor working with injured and displaced Tamils in northern Sri Lanka tells Channel 4 News that there may be as many as 20,000 amputees among those who fled last month's routing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Eyewitnesses interviewed during a week-long undercover investigation for Channel 4 News, told of thousands of civilian deaths as government forces advanced on the Tigers' final stronghold.

The deaths, they said, were the result of government shelling.

The Sri Lankan president and senior government ministers have repeatedly denied causing a single civilian death in what the government had desginated a "no-fire zone."

International aid agencies believe as many as 100,000 civilians may have been trapped inside, under a fierce bombardment.

"I think every day a thousand people were killed," one of the very last to escape the tiny enclave told us. He was referring to the final two weeks of the conflict, during which the Sri Lankan government claimed not to have used heavy artillery.

"There were continuous shelling attacks," said the eyewitness. We have verified his identity as a man in a position of authority, but we are unable to reveal it.

Members of Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese majority also expressed deep misgivings about the fate of the island's Tamil minority now that the Tamil Tigers have been so decisively defeated. Despite severe restrictions on access to camps for displaced civilians, evidence is emerging of maltreatment, despite a promise made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his "victory speech" to Sri Lanka's parliament.

Speaking in the Tamil language, the president promised equal rights for Tamils and took "personal responsibility" for protecting them.

"Our heroic forces," he said, "have sacrificed their lives to protect Tamil civilians." A senior Roman Catholic priest, who has worked with the displaced in the heavily militarised northern town of Vavuniya, said the triumphalism of Sinhalese was "very sad" to witness.

"There is no one to represent the aspirations of the Tamil community," he said. "They have a very uncertain future. It means they will live as a subjugated community, like under a foreign ruler."

One of the few senior members of the Tamil Tigers to have survived, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, its head of international relations, said yesterday that the rebels' struggle for a separate Tamil homeland would now continue from exile.

"The legitimate campaign of the Tamils to realise their right to self-determination has been brutally crushed through military aggression," said a statement, released from an unspecified location. Sri Lankans expressing concerns about the welfare and treatment of Tamil civilians -- or questioning the army's version of its final assault on the Tamil Tigers -- are branded unpatriotic, even traitorous.

Dr Wickramabahu Karunarathne, a left-wing politician and one of the few dissident voices in the Sinhalese community said: "The state media, every day, radio, papers, they classify us as traitors and they are rousing people against us."

Dr Karunaratne was the only interviewee prepared to talk openly on camera without having his face obscured and voice changed. One prominent Sinhalese journalist, Podala Jayantha, who had campaigned for greater media freedom, was abducted and severely beaten by unknown assailants, two weeks ago.

Amnesty International says that since 2006, 16 Sri Lankan journalists have been murdered, 26 assaulted, and many more detained. Foreign journalists have had their movements severely restricted and last month, our own accredited Asia Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh was deported.

Journalists and all independent observers were banned from the no-fire zone, during and after the fighting, so no independent assessments have been made of government claims not to have killed civilians. It has blamed any deaths on the rebels.

Journalists have also been unable to enter the hospital in Vavuniya, where thousands of wounded civilians are being treated. Channel 4 News successfully smuggled a small camera into Vavuniya and interviewed a Tamil doctor there.

"It is most sure that the numbers without limbs are over 20,000. Most of the injuries causing loss of limbs were from shelling," he said. The doctor alleged that conditions in the camps for displaced people around Vavuniya, are poor and that malnutrition and disease are rife.

"We were all gathered together recently by the government and we were told that if we told the figures of the sick and why people are dying to the foreign NGOs that we will be killed for doing this."

Response from the Sri Lanka government

Courtesy :
Channel 4 news, UK

VIDEO : Sri Lanka's Rajapakse regime says most of the free media including CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, CH4, New York Times are unfit to report

2009-06-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

Sri Lanka's brutal Rajapakse regime,which is accused of most horrible war crimes of 21st century, says that most of the free media including CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, CH4, New York Times are unfit to report.

VIDEO: India’s seabed claim may lead to dispute with Sri Lanka

2009-06-12T19:50:00.000-07:00

Even as the general election was on in May, India quietly staked claim to nearly half a million sq. km of seabed that contains potentially large reserves of oil, minerals, metals and gas hydrates.
In the next few weeks, it’s likely to vie for another half a million sq. km, some of which may conflict with a similar claim by Sri Lanka on the unmarked seabed.

“There could be some dispute with Sri Lanka,” said a top government official involved in preparing India’s claim, “primarily because some regions that Sri Lanka has claimed are simply over-ambitious. We can definitely prove them wrong.”

The claims arise from an international, United Nations (UN)-facilitated agreement that allows a coastal country to stake claim over seabed that extends beyond its exclusive economic zone.

To do so, the country has to prove that the seabed is part of its continental shelf, defined as a continuous sloping chunk of rock that connects the seafloor and the mainland.

Currently, a country is allowed rights to mine waters within 200 nautical miles (322km) of its coastline.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), as the agreement is called, allows nations to extend their claims to a maximum of 150 miles more.

On 12 May, India staked claim to large swathes of seabed under the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, which a government scientist involved with the survey process pegged at “approximately 0.6 million sq. km of continental shelf”.

Though a perusal of maps indicating seabed area claimed by Pakistan and Sri Lanka indicates no conflict with India, it’s India’s second claim, expected later this month, that can fall foul of Sri Lanka.

That’s because some regions that India will claim will include portions already claimed by Sri Lanka.

A scientist affiliated to the ministry of earth sciences said the “disputed” region was likely to be a stretch of seabed to the west of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Though he didn’t identify the exact region involved, he said this was a “major” chunk of the remaining 0.6 million sq. km India is looking to claim.

courtesy:
Live mint

Deportation of Bob Rae: Some Fundamental Questions

2009-06-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

University Teachers for Human Rights ( Jaffna ), Sri Lanka

Date of Release: 11th June 2009

Deportation of Bob Rae: Some Fundamental Questions for the future of Minorities and the Erasure of Democracy

The recent denial of entry to the Canadian Parliamentarian Bob Rae, a long time champion of democracy, requires particular attention by those who care about the future of Lanka. His deportation reflects the paradox of continuing internal repression and unhealthy xenophobia despite the end of the war. It reflects a mindset that bodes ill for the minorities and the democratic rights of Sinhalese. It is a government that wants everyone else to conform to its own agenda and is hostile to discussion of any kind based on rights.

In our recent report, released on 10th June 2009, we highlighted the character of present government and its leadership, which is using the euphoria following on military success against the LTTE to promote a majoritarian agenda along with increasing authoritarianism. If this trend is not challenged, the country will be hijacked by those who will do irreparable damage to the long term interest of the country. The UTHR(J) has experienced and challenged the negative aspects of narrow Tamil nationalism, which permitted the rise of LTTE and its ability to paralyse the community through internal terror and created an illusion of strength among the Tamil community founded on transient military success. In the absence of broader humanity, it failed miserably in uniting the people.

Many people from the all the different communities hoped that end of the war would bring goodwill to the fore. They hoped for reconciliation and reconstruction in the context of a just political process. It should also have been the time to restore democratic governance and accountability and bring an end to the culture of impunity. But during the last stages of the war, the bankruptcy of the political leadership and its majoratarian schemes were becoming clear. The dominant section of the government shows utter contempt for the emergence of a Tamil democratic culture and is only interested in using the armed elements within Tamil community that are willing to toe the ruling SLFP’s narrow interests. In this context the denial of entry to Bob Rae clearly exposes the mindset of the present government and those who control its decision making.

When entry is barred to a Canadian parliamentarian, a former premier of Ontario and one of the leading figures in the Opposition Liberal Party after being granted a visa with the full knowledge of its purpose by Sri Lanka ’s High Commissioner in Canada , it is much more than a gaffe. It reflects the atrocious diplomacy into which the country is being driven by a clique that is usurping the due functions of other arms of the state.

How different sections of the state acted tells its own story. Daya Perera PC, High Commissioner in Canada was frankly apologetic. Controller of Immigration P.B. Abeykoon told the Daily Mirror, ‘We denied him entry to Sri Lanka and detained him after State intelligence services warned that Mr. Rae’s visit was not suitable’ indicating that he was taking instructions from the Defence Ministry. Someone at the Mirror tried to be clever by inserting a box item comparing Rae’s deportation to that of Charles de Gaulle from Canada in 1967 after his expression of support for Québec separatism. The state-owned Daily News in saying Rae was involved in pro-LTTE political activities in his home country, was repeating parrot-like something about which it knew nothing. The Island simply described him as an LTTE-supporting Canadian MP.

The Army spokesman as reported on its web site said not only that Rae ‘relentlessly supported Tiger terrorists and their supporters in Canada’, but went on to put words into the mouth of poor Mr. Abeykoon: ‘He was held by Immigration and Emigration authorities at the airport on charges of aiding and abetting terrorism while working against the interests of Sri Lanka.’ The related Defence Ministry web site was strangely silent or had on second thoughts taken down its posting. It is clear where the action came from.

To begin, we set the record straight. Far from being a supporter of the LTTE, Bob Rae played an important role in helping Tamil dissidents in Canada to find their voice. It was owing to active moral support from people like him, that the LTTE’s monopoly over the lives of Tamils in Toronto began to crack in 2004. In December 2004 he chaired a Human Rights Watch meeting in Toronto launching a report looking into the LTTE’s recruitment of children. It was his commitment to Tamil children that led him to take a strong stand on the child soldier issue even as pro-LTTE activists attempted to disrupt the meeting.

Bob Rae’s commitment to Tamil dissent and a united Sri Lanka is clear from his participation at a memorial meeting in London , UK in March 2007 for his friend and colleague Kethesh Loganathan, who was labelled a “traitor” and assassinated by the LTTE. Kethesh Loganathan, a long-time activist, spent the last months of his life working in the Government’s Peace Secretariat to take forward the political process. In his keynote address, Bob Rae stated: “This has been the central question in Sri Lankan politics for the entire 20th century. How to create a country that reflects pluralism, that reflects diversity, that reflects the differences, that reflects the collective personalities of Tamils, of Hill Country Tamils, of Muslims, of Sinhalese. And that gets rid of this pathology of an excessive nationalism which never recognises the dignity and the difference and the personality of the other.”

Bob Rae was firmly on the side of human rights, a committed opponent of violations by the LTTE and its conscription of children. Like most Tamil dissidents and many enlightened Sinhalese he supported a federal political settlement in Lanka and at no time supported separatism in Lanka.

It is a sad comment of the section of the elite in Lanka close to the President, that once the Government started on a no-holds-barred military course, they became nervous about any criticism of violations by the government forces and by minions of the Defence Ministry. Any criticism was branded as support for terrorism and hence for the LTTE. This was the route by which Bob Rae is being labelled a Tiger supporter in the minds of this clique.

The quality of intelligence on which the Defence Ministry deemed Bob Rae an LTTE supporter raises a very fundamental question. Beginning with the killing of five students on the Trincomalee sea front in January 2006 through the thousands of extra-judicial murders over which the Defence Ministry presided were based on the premise that the victims were LTTE supporters. These were heinous acts based on the intelligence of paranoid minds. They cry out for a thorough investigation that will never come from the Sri Lankan Police.

For the Press too there are some fundamental questions. This government has assaulted, threatened and killed persons in the media who refused to feed off its trough. It is hard for anyone to work under these conditions and keep their sanity. They know there would always be the next incident where a tragedy would befall a journalist whose understanding of patriotism does not conform to the norms set by those in the top rungs of the Defence Ministry. They must constantly worry about crossing the line unawares. Playing safe imposes a conformity into which people slip in by slow degrees. That is what the LTTE relied on. Its effect in the South is reflected in how even the independent media have covered Bob Rae’s deportation. Once facts cease to matter, journalism dies. One day perhaps, they would understand that Bob Rae was their friend and a true friend of Lanka.

Bob Rae’s deportation is reflective of the arbitrary abuse of power, clamp down on dissent and the lack of space for dialogue within Lanka. Such openness is particularly necessary for peace and reconciliation, and this attack along with recent attacks on journalists critical of the military and the relentless abductions are reflective of a continuing war mentality of the military establishment. Over the last twenty years we have documented the deterioration of the Sri Lankan state and its various institutions. Such deterioration was in many ways a consequence of the overwhelming role of the military leadership in the affairs of both state and society. At the current moment, the President in continuing to give unwarranted licence for his brother, the Defence Secretary and the military establishment, is undermining the international goodwill that is necessary for Sri Lanka to rebuild and more importantly inhibiting the ability for ordinary people to begin democratic life having suffered the onslaught of the war.

It is high time the Government, the President, the ruling SLFP and the other political parties stop acquiescing to the military leadership. The rank and file and many of the high ranking officers over the decades have shown considerable professionalism in the face of politicisation. The people of Lanka have a strong democratic ethos. Now, democracy should roll in the entire country. To delay movement towards peace and reconciliation due to the personal whims and ambitions of the Defence Secretary and the military establishment would be a historic tragedy.

also watch Video: Rae talks to reporters

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VIDEO : Former Ontario Premier Bob Rae 'dumbfounded' after Sri Lanka denies him entry

2009-06-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

also watch Video: Rae talks to reporters

Sri Lanka Wednesday denied entry to former Ontario Premier Bob Rae, a prominent Canadian politician outspoken in his criticism of Colombo’s military campaign and then Chair of the Forum of Federations, the constitutional NGO advising the Norwegian peace process during 2002 and 2003. Sri Lanka’s Immigration Commissioner P. B. Abeykoon said “intelligence reports” meant Mr. Rae should not to be admitted and was therefore detained when he arrived at Colombo airport and put on a leaving flight.

"We got some intelligence reports on this gentleman and the instructions were not to allow him into the country, so he is detained at the airport and he will be deported by the next available flight," Mr. Abeykoon told Reuters.

Sri Lanka's intelligence services deemed Mr. Rae's visit "not suitable" and former Ontario premier was forced to leave on another flight, AP said.

Mr. Rae said he was stopped on Tuesday night when he reached the immigration counter in the company of two Canadian High Commission officials.

"The government of Sri Lanka knew my views, and granted me a visa," he said in an emailed statement. "I have flown a very long way only to be told the door is firmly shut."

In April, Mr. Rae had called on Canada to be more outspoken in its criticism of Sri Lanka's recent offensive against the Tamil Tigers that left 20,000 Tamil civilians dead.

“The world can't just sit back and let this death and destruction happen,” he said in April as Sri Lankan artillery continued to kill and wound hundreds of Tamil civilians every day.

“This is a humanitarian disaster and must be met with a concerted response.”

Mr. Rae said in April Canada should be working with a group of like-minded countries to press for a complete ceasefire and a return to full-scale negotiations on the constitutional future of the country.

According to his office, his recommendations included that the LTTE had to abandon terrorism and that the government of Sri Lanka had to accept the need for a political response to the crisis rather than a simple military one.

Mr. Rae has advised and worked on federalism and constitutional matters in Sri Lanka, Sudan and Iraq.

Origin of the Sinhala Language - Are the Sinhalese really Aryans?

2009-06-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

As even as late as the 6th century A.D., there was no Sinhala language, the Great Chronicles were written in the Pali language. Monk Maha Nama hatched the Vijaya myth to dub the Buddhist converts as Aryans, projecting them as descendants of Bengalis.

Maha Nama did not know that the Bengalis were Mongoloid Dravidians. The average Sinhala man will decline to believe that prince Siddhartha, as a Nepalese, was not an Aryan. No king of Lanka during the 200 years history of Lanka, claimed that he was of Aryan Dynasty.

How then can the populace claim that they are Aryans? With the mixture of Tamil, Pali and Sanskrit languages, evolved that Sinhala language during 8 A.D. It was not Pali or Sanskrit, but the Tamil language that helped in the formation of the Sinhala alphabets. The alphabets of the Sinhala language are round in shape like the alphabets of the other Dravidian languages. Telugue, Malayalam, Kannadam and proto-Tamil. In the 10th century. Tamils changed the shape of their alphabets to the square shape.

According to Dr. C.E. Godakmubara, the Sinhala Grammar Sidathsangarawa was based on the Tamil Grammar Virasolium in the 11th A.D. The term `Sihala (Lion in Pali) is seen for the first time in Sri Lankan sources in the Dipa Vamsa (4-5 A.D.) and in that chronicle, that term occurs only once, and in that cryptic verse it is stated that the Island was known as `Sinhala` on account of the Lion - `Lanka Dipo Ayam ahu sihena sihalaitu`. In the maha Vamsa the term `Sihala` - occurs only twice. In the epic Ramayana 420 B.C., this island was known as Lanka much earlier.

[Rev. S. Gnanapiragasam - `There are more than 4,000 Tamil words in the Sinhala vocabulary. If the Sinhala vocabulary is stripped of all the Tamil words there will be no Sinhala language.`]

There were no Sinhalese in Lanka or in any part of the world until the Dipa Vamsa for the first time, referred to the descendants of Tamil (Hindus) who embraced Buddhism in 246 B.C. as Sihala on account of the Lion (no relevance). There is no culture called Sinhala culture. It is the Tamil culture that is projected as Sinhala culture. The 14th day of April is observed as New Year, day only by the Tamils and Sinhala people throughout the world.
This fact is strong evidence that the Sinhala people inherited this practice from their Tamil ancestors who embraced Buddhism in 246 B.C.

It is stupid to deny that fact. When there was no Sinhala language in Lanka or in any part of the world before 8th A.D., it is thuggery to claim that there were Sinhala people in Lanka prior to the 8th century A.D. Just as the descendants of Tamils who embraced Buddhism in 246 B.C. claim they are Arya Sinhalese Tamils of the Western Coast, from Ragama to Kalpitiya, after adopting Sinhala as their mother tongue, (after the introduction of free education) claim thy are Arya Sinhalese. In Sri Lanka any person who adopts Sinhala as mother tongue ipso facto is an Aryan.

That is Sri Lankan logic, Yes, in Sri Lanka a leopard can change its spots. Wilhelm Geiger - `not what is said, what is left unsaid, is the besetting difference of Sinhala history`.

[The borrowing process]

Tamil loanwords in Sinhala can appear in the same form as the original word (e.g. akkā ), but this is quite rare. Usually, a word has undergone some kind of modification to fit into the Sinhala phonological (e.g. paḻ i becomes paḷ i(ya) because the sound of /ḻ /, IPA: [ɻ ], does not exist in the Sinhala phoneme inventory) or morphological system (e.g. ilakkam becomes ilakkama because Sinhala inanimate nouns (see grammatical gender) need to end with /a/, IPA: [ə ], in order to be declineable).

These are the main ways Tamil words are incorporated into the Sinhala lexicon with different endings:

[Sinhala ? Tamil Words and Meaning in English ]

ā dā yama - Income - ā tā yam- Profit
akkā - Elder sister - akkā Elder sister Kinship
ambalama - Way-side rest- ampalam Public
ämbäṭ ṭ ayā - Barber ampaṭ ṭ aṉ - Barber Trade
ā ṃ gā ṇ iya - Stall (in a market) aṅ kā ṭ i - Market Trade
ā ṇ ḍ uva - Government ā ṇ ṭ ā ṉ - Ruler,Admin,Rich man with many slaves
appā - Father (regional/colloquial) - appā - Father Kinship
ā ppa Hoppers - Appā ppam Hoppers Food
araliya -Oleander - arali- Oleander
ayyā - Elder brother - aiyā (see also Ayya) Sir, father
caṇ ḍ iyā - Bandit, rowdy- caṇ ṭ iyar Bandit
cī ttaya - Chintz - cī ttai Chintz
ediriya- Opposition, hostility- etiri Opponent, enemy Military
galkaṇ ḍ uva- Sugar-candy - kaṟ kaṇ ṭ u Sugar-candy Food
iccā va- Flattery- iccakam Flattery
iḍ ama- Site, land - iṭ am Place, site Construction
ī ḷ a ? Asthma- ī ḷ ai Asthma Daily
ilakkaya ? Target- ilakku Target Military
ilakkama- Number- ilakkam Number
iḷ andā riyā - Young man- iḷ antā ri Young man
iḷ avuva - Death, funeral - iḻ avu Death
iranavā - To saw, to tear- iṟ u- To break, to destroy
iraṭ ṭ a - Double, even number - iraṭ ṭ ai Double, even number
jā ḍ iya- Jar - cā ṭ i - Jar
jō ḍ uva- Pair- jō ṭ i/cō ṭ i Pair
kaḍ adā siya - Paper - kaṭ utā si Letter, paper
kaḍ alē - Chickpea - kaṭ alai (paruppu) Chickpea Food
kaḍ asarakkuva- Spice, curry stuffs- kaṭ ai + sarakku Shop + Goods
kaḍ aya ? Shop- kaṭ ai - Shop
kaḍ inama - Haste - kaṭ iṉ am Difficulty
kaḍ iyā ḷ ama Bridle- kaṭ ivā ḷ am Bridle Military
kaṃ kā ṇ iyā - Overseer- kaṅ kā ṇ i- Foreman Administration
kalanda- A small measure of weight- kaḻ añcu Weight of 1.77 grams
kalavama- Mixture, blend - kalavai Mixture
kā laya- Quarter - kā l- Quarter Tr
kaḷ udäävā - Donkey- kaḻ utai - Donkey
kambiya - Wire - kampi - Wire
kā ndama- Magnet - kā ntam - Magnet
kaṇ isama- Size - kaṇ isam- Size, amount
kaṇ ṇ ā ḍ iya - Mirror, spectacles- kaṇ ṇ ā ṭ i - Mirror, spectacles
kappama - Tribute - kappam- Tribute
kappara - Small ship- kappal- Ship
kappi - Grit, bruised grain- kappi - Coarse grits in flour
kā ppuva ? Bracelet- kā ppu - Bangle
kärapottā ? Cockroach- karappottā ṉ - Cockroach (
karavaḷ a - Dried fish- karuvā ṭ u- Dried fish Food
kā siya- Coin kā cu - Small change, coin
kasippu- Illicit liquor kacippu- Illicit liquor
kaṭ ṭ umarama - Catamaran kaṭ ṭ umaram- Catamaran
kayiyeliya- Cloth with coloured border kayili - Multicoloured cloth worn by Muslims
keṇ ḍ a - Calf - keṇ ṭ ai(kkā l)- Calf
keṇ ḍ iya Pitcher- keṇ ṭ i Pitcher Daily
kiṭ ṭ u Close, near - kiṭ ṭ a Close, near Daily
koḍ iya - Flag koṭ i- Flag
kollaya - Plunder, pillage koḷ ḷ ai - Plunder Military
kombuva- Name of the sign- kompu (lakaram) - Name of the sign
kō n- Part of a name - kō ṉ (ar) Name pertaining to members of the Iṭ aiyar caste (`shepherd, king`)
kō ṇ ama- A loin cloth for men- kō vaṇ am - A loin cloth for men
koṇ ḍ aya - Plait/bun of hair- koṇ ṭ ai Bun/plait of hair
koṭ ṭ amalli - Coriander - koṭ ṭ amalli- Coriander Botany
koṭ ṭ aya- Pillow koṭ ṭ ai- Nut, round shape, pillow
kō vila- Hindu temple - kō yil - Temple Daily
kuḍ ē - Umbrella - kuṭ ai - Umbrella
kū ḍ ē ? Basket- kū ṭ ai - Basket Daily
kū ḍ uva- Nest, cage - kū ṭ u- Nest, small box Daily
kulala/kuḷ ala- Pipe - kuḻ al - Tube, musical pipe Daily
kulappuva ? Confusion- kuḻ appu- to confuse Military
kurumbā - Young coconut- kurumpai - Young coconut Food
kuliya ? Rent- kū li - Rent, pay Administration
Malaya- Hill country malai- Hill Place name
Mā mā - Maternal uncle mā mā - Maternal uncle Kinship
Marakkalaya- Boat, Ethnic Moor, Sampan marakkalam- (Sailing) Boat Fishing

Source(s)
wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinhala_words_of_Tamil_origin

courtesy:
lankanewspapers.

VIDEO: UN chief warns Sri Lanka against 'triumphalism'

2009-06-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday warned the Sri Lankan government against "triumphalism" after its recent defeat of the Tamil separatist insurgency and urged it to "heal the wounds" of the bitter conflict.

"I would like to take this opportunity to warn against the risk of triumphalism in the wake of victory," Ban told reporters after he briefed the 15-member Security Council on his visit to ethnically divided Sri Lanka last month.

"It is very important at this time to unite and heal the wounds, rather than enjoy all this triumphalism," he added, after the Sri Lankan army last month crushed the 30-year-old separatist rebellion by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)."

Ban reiterated that the purpose of his visit was to press for unimpeded humanitarian assistance to the more than 300,000 Tamil civilians displaced by the fighting and for their speedy resettlement,

But he stressed that for the longer term the priority was to help the Sri Lankan government reach out to minority Tamils and Muslims.

Tamils make up 12.6 percent of the 20 million population of the Sinhalese-majority island but have long complained of discrimination and restriction of movement.

Ban said he had been told by Colombo that "conditions have improved since my visit and restrictions have been eased."

But he also said that the "challenges still remain huge" and "this requires international assistance."

The UN boss also called on Colombo to "recognize international calls for accountability and transparency."

"Whenever and wherever there are credible allegations of violations of humanitarian law, there should be a proper investigation," he noted.

Earlier Friday, Amnesty International urged the Security Council to probe war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka.

The London-based rights watchdog said the Security Council should also demand full humanitarian access to state-run camps where the 300,000 people who fled Sri Lanka's war zone are being held.

Earlier this week, Ban rejected charges that the UN had deliberately underestimated the death toll in the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

Press reports cited confidential UN estimates that more than 20,000 civilians were killed by Sri Lankan army shelling.

The Amnesty statement also cited reports of young men being taken away from the displacement camps by pro-government paramilitary forces and said they risked being tortured or even killed.

Among those detained by the military are six foreign nationals of Sri Lankan origin and three doctors who worked inside the war zone and provided information about civilian casualties.

The Sri Lankan government is also detaining some 9,000 suspected Tamil Tigers without legal safeguards or notice to their families, Amnesty said.

"We are doing a great wrong to these people" - Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva

2009-06-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

BBC Sandeshaya reports CJ Sarath Nanda Silva has said that the war displaced are living under appalling conditions in camps in Vavuniya.

Full report from BBCSinhla.com as follows:

Over two hundred thousand people in refugee camps are not treated according to the law of the land, says the Chief Justice (CJ) of Sri Lanka.

CJ Sarath Nanda Silva says that the war displaced are living under appalling conditions.

The chief justice was speaking at the ceremonial opening of the new court complex in Marawila.

[Civilians are seen near tents in an internally displaced person (IDP) camp which are seen through a plane window in the northern Sri Lankan town of Vavuniya Tuesday, May 26, 200-gettyimages]

"While we build new courts, ten people live in one tent in these camps. They could stand straight only in the centre of these tents. Their necks will break if they move to a side of the tent".

The CJ who visited the refugee camps in Vavunia on the 14th of May spent a whole day in a camp talking to the refugees.

Not protected by law

He said that he could not explain the pathetic situation the people undergo.

He said, "IDPs are seen waiting in queues, extending for 100 yards to take their turn to use a toilet where there is only one pot hole at the end of it".

The Chief Justice say the refugees does not the jurisdiction of the courts. "They live outside the protection of the law of the country. I am saying this in public, and ready to face any consequences. We are doing a great wrong to these people" says CJ Sarath Nanda Silva.

The Chief Justice is to retire from his post at the end June. He was attending to one of his last official events.

VIDEO : MIA Hits Out At 'Concentration Camps'

2009-06-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

[Singer M.I.A. has called on European governments to do more to help the Tamil people and has given her backing to Jan Jananayagam, an independent British candidate in the current Euro elections.]

MIA, who used to live in Sri Lanka and experienced the war, told Sky News: "Three hundred thousand people have been put into concentration camps and they (the authorities)have taken all the rights away from these people.

"They have no food and access to the media and aid. No freedom of speech or freedom of press."

She said the European council has been "undecided on the issue" and she said Britain and other international governments should step in and help.

"We're still getting stories from the Sri Lankan governent fed to us. We're not celebrating, we're not in the streets setting off firecrackers and having a great time and celebrating the end of a war.

"We still don't have answers about these people that are stuck in the barbed wire fences. They're dying of diseases. Some 60% of the population in these camps are wounded and have no medical attention."

courtesy:
Sky News

India's Silence on Sri Lankan Bloodshed

2009-06-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

Civilians stand behind the barbed-wire perimeter fence of the Manik Farm refugee camp located on the outskirts of the northern Sri Lankan town of Vavuniya, May 26. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon toured Sri Lanka’s largest war refugee camp, home to 220,000 refugees, pressing for wider humanitarian access to the camps which have become overcrowded since the government declared victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels after a 25-year war. / AP-Yonhap

by John Smith Thang

India, the world's largest democracy, refrained from interfering in the Sri Lankan bloodshed and turned a deaf ear by keeping out of the conflict. Usually, India states it is the regional power, and has declared its position to protect the South Asia region.

But, here is testimony to its ineptitude. The India government didn't take any concrete steps and didn't put any pressure on the Sri Lankan government.

Even India's media rarely posted news about this bloodshed conflict. Even though smoke was rising next to her home, at the bottom of its map, in a neighboring country, India was ``kow-towing'' and keeping silent.

Casualties

The conflict in Sri Lanka escalated terribly over the last several weeks before the government declared an end to the long civil war against the separatist Tamil Tigers.

Thousands of lives were lost and thousands of people are suffering in the conflict zone. According to a U.N. press statement on May 13, at least 188,000 people were internally displaced in Vavuniya alone.

Some 1,700 have been wounded and some 50,000 or more are still trapped in the conflict zone. The news from Agence France-Presse (AFP) is that 70,000 people are dead and 250,000 had fled the war zone as internally displaced persons to date.

Due to the lack of free access for rights workers, aid groups and journalists it is difficult to collect accurate casualty figures and it is assumes that actual numbers will be higher.

The pictures, circulated online by Arundhathi Roy (Booker prize winner), show the headless body of a boy and the dead body of a pregnant woman with her baby spilling out of her womb.

Many body parts were scattered here and there among dead bodies and spilled blood. Children and women are the biggest victims of this tragedy ― a cruel and inhumane act. Probably it is the biggest ``holocaust'' in Sri Lanka's civil war.

Sri Lanka's Democracy?

When democracy in Sri Lanka was hijacked by an extremist group among the majority Sinhalese, the result was the marginalization of small communities and minority groups on the island nation.

Sri Lanka is dominated by Buddhist Sinhalese as a majority, while Hindu/Christian Tamils are an ethnic minority in the country.

The country is led former movie star, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who won the presidential election through populist votes. But his actions against the Tamil ethnic group were totally unfair and heartless.

It is true that Sri Lanka has the right to defend its country. However, the government deliberately chose violence instead of a peaceful political solution.

In the case of a peaceful political solution, Sri Lanka's government must provide the Tamil ethnic minority with political rights, such as a self-autonomous administration system preserving its language and culture.

Such a provision and mutual agreement would be fair and acceptable as it is a reflection of the democratic spirit.

Conclusion

The Sri Lankan government's action was a cruel and inhumane act, and it should immediately stop deliberate attacks upon innocent people.

On other side, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) must not use innocent people as human shields, and should quickly return to the negotiating table with the government.

Furthermore regional involvement is necessary to prevent additional bloodshed. Here in South Asia, India is the most appropriate nation to do this, as the international community will be likely to join and support the end of bloodshed.

Of course, India also had committed similar human rights violations in the past ― the genocide of the Muslim minority in Gujarat and the Christian minority in Orissa. So it is uncertain what the Indian reaction to bloodshed within its own sphere of interest would be.

Undoubtedly, it is a man-made disaster ― a crime against humanity.

In conclusion, the most urgent thing is to provide emergency humanitarian aid to people victimized by the civil war. They are tormented and dying due to its effects.

John Smith Thang is a Burmese human rights activist based in Korea. He can be reach at cdhrn.kr@gmail.com.

courtesy:
Korea Times.

இன்றைய நிலைக்கு அன்றே தலைவர் பதில் சொல்லி விட்டார் WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

2009-06-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

The leader of the LTTE, Mr V. Pirapaharan delivered his annual Maaveerar Naal (Hero's Day) speech on Thursday 27 November 2008.

VIDEO : Calls for war crimes inquiry over 20,000 civilian deaths in Sri Lanka- The Times, UK.

2009-05-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

Sri Lanka faced new calls for a war crimes inquiry today after an investigation by The Times revealed that more than 20,000 civilians were killed – mostly by the army – in the latter stages of the war against the Tamil Tigers.

The army dismissed that figure as an exaggeration and repeated the Government’s assertion that not a single civilian was killed by government forces in the final assault on the northeastern conflict zone.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, declined to say how many civilian deaths had been confirmed, but insisted that they had all been caused by the Tigers, also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

“This is an exaggerated story. Whoever has put up this report has been paid by the LTTE,” he told The Times.

“There can’t be any civilians killed by government forces in that area. How can the UN know about this? It had no people on the ground.” The UN, however, described its figures as “well-informed estimates”, adding that it did not have “precise, verifiable numbers” because of a lack of access to the conflict zone and the camps holding refugees from the area.

“The UN has publicly and repeatedly said that the number of people killed in recent months has been unacceptably high and it has shared its estimates with the Government as well as others concerned,” said Elisabeth Byrs, of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“The point is the UN has not been shy about the scale of human suffering and civilian casualties,” she said. “It has been ringing the alarm bells for a long time.”

Sri Lanka officially declared victory in its 26-year civil war with the Tigers early last week after killing almost all of their leadership, including Velupillai Prabhakaran, their founder, in a tiny patch of coconut grove on the northeastern coast.

Backed by China, Russia and other allies, Sri Lanka also easily defeated a proposal for a war crimes inquiry at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The new civilian death toll figure has prompted new calls for an inquiry, which could still be ordered by Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, or by Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Managala Samaraweera, a former Foreign Minister who left the Government to become an opposition politician in 2005, told The Times that an inquiry was the only way for Sri Lanka to repair the damage to its international reputation. “As Sri Lankans, we’re extremely concerned about what happened during the last stages of the conflict,” he said. “The Government must immediately initiate an independent inquiry. Only by doing so will Sri Lanka be able to clear up its good name.”

Human rights groups, aid workers and numerous civilian witnesses have accused the Tigers and government forces of repeatedly firing on non-combatants in violation of international humanitarian law. The Tigers have also been accused of using civilians as human shields and recruiting children forcibly, while the army has been accused of deliberately shelling hospitals in the conflict zone.

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, told The Times: “There’s no doubt there’s a need for a war crimes inquiry. The whole operation has been done in secret and the scale of deaths is so large that it has to be investigated. This is not going to go away.”

The UN and the Red Cross also complained today that the Sri Lankan Government was still refusing to provide aid workers with full access to the former conflict zone despite a direct appeal by the UN Secretary General.

courtesy :
The Times, UK

VIDEO: Debate on Sri Lanka - Aljazeera

2009-05-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

NY Times: No Victory in Sri Lanka

2009-05-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

Even after declaring victory in Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, the country’s leaders seem unable to distinguish between the enemy — the brutal but apparently vanquished Tamil Tiger separatists — and innocent bystanders. Despite appeals from Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, and from others, the government has not given international aid organizations full access to government-run camps, where an estimated 280,000 civilians are said to be in desperate need of food, water and medical care.

The Tamil Tigers have a history of using civilians as human shields and the government claims it must screen out rebels hiding in the camps. But aid workers suspect other motives, including a desire to deny access to witnesses who may have seen abuses by government forces. In the last months of the fighting, President Mahinda Rajapaksa callously rejected international pleas for a cease-fire to let civilians escape the war zone, while his troops shelled the area.

We support the call by Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, for an international investigation into possible war crimes committed by both sides. The United Nations Human Rights Council is debating the issue this week in Geneva.

After killing most of the rebels, including the Tigers’ ruthless leader, the government is now offering reconciliation with the Tamil minority. We hope this is more than just lip service.

It must be prepared to forge a political settlement that gives Tamil civilians, who make up about 12 percent of the population, more autonomy in provinces where historically they have lived. It must also end all abuses, including restrictions on movement, and politically motivated killings. And it must work swiftly to resettle civilians back in their villages.

The government has asked for international help to rebuild. Foreign donors should make clear that any support is dependent on an agreement to open up the camps to international aid workers.

Some experts fear that President Rajapaksa and his government view all Tamils — long oppressed by the Sinhalese majority — as supporters of the Tigers. Most were driven to the guerrillas as a desperation move after decades of abuse. Until the government treats all of its citizens fairly, there is no chance for the peace that President Rajapaksa has promised his country.

courtesy:
NY Times