GANDHI UNITY-PROGRESS PARTY

APJ.ABDUL KALAAM: Unique You...!!!

2012-01-27T02:47:00.004+01:00

Unique You
January 25, 2012, 7:51 pm

Former President of India,
Dr. Abdul Kalam’s Address at University of Moratuwa
Colombo

22 January 2012

I am delighted to address and interact with the Students and Faculty Members of the University of Moratuwa in this beautiful environment of Colombo. My greetings to all of you. I found that the University has chosen the motto "Vidyaiwa Sarwadhanam – meaning Wisdom is all Wealth". This has an important and powerful message to all the students and faculty members. The study of the website of the University indicates that the University has a vision "To be the most globally recognized Knowledge Enterprise in Asia". With this vision, the University has a mission "produce world class graduates in technological fields who will be relevant nationally and internationally". I am happy to know that the students of the university are self confident, flexible, highly employable and are trained to become "employment creators" instead of being "employment seekers". I congratulate the pioneers both present and past who have created and nurtured a robust educational system in the University of Moratuwa during the last 33 years. Today, I would like to share few thoughts on the topic "Unique You".

First let us see the ten unique personalities,.

Unique You

Dear friends, Look up, what do you see, the light, the electric bulbs. Immediately, our thoughts go to the inventor Thomas Alva Edison, for his unique contribution towards the invention of electric bulb and his electrical lighting system.

When you hear the sound of aero-plane going over your house, whom do you think of? Wright Brothers proved that man could fly, of-course at heavy risk and cost.

Whom does the telephone remind you of? Of course, Alexander Graham Bell.

When everybody considered a sea travel as an experience or a voyage, aunique person questioned during his sea travel from United Kingdom to India. He was pondering on why the horizon where the sky and sea meet looks blue? His research resulted in the phenomena of scattering of light. Of course, Sir CV Raman was awarded Nobel Prize.

Do you know an Indian Mathematician who did not have formal higher education but had inexhaustible spirit and love for mathematics which took him to contribute to the treasure houses of mathematical research – some of which are still under serious study and engaging all-available world mathematicians’ efforts to establish formal proofs? He was a unique Indian genius who could melt the heart of the most hardened and outstanding Cambridge mathematician Prof G H Hardy. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that it was Prof. Hardy who discovered a great mathematician for the world. This mathematician was of-course Srinivasa Ramanujan for whom every number was a divine manifestation.

Do you know the scientist who is famous for Chandra Limit which describes the maximum mass (~1.44 solar masses) of a white dwarf star, or equivalently, the minimum mass for which a star will ultimately collapse into a neutron star to black hole following a supernova. Two of his students got the Nobel Prize before him. It is of-course the famous Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhar Subrmaniam .

Friends, there was a great scientific lady who is known for discovering Radium. She won not one, but two Nobel Prizes, one for physics and another for chemistry. Who is she? She is Madam Curie. Madam Curie discovered radium and she was doing research on the effect of radiation on human system. The same radiation which she discovered, affected her and she sacrificed her life for removing the pain of human life.

Do you know about a great human being with a spirit of service, who also won a Nobel Prize for her contributions? She said and practiced, "Give, give and give, until it hurts". She is Mother Teresa.

Do you know the Sri Lankan Physicist, academician and economist who had worked on energy, sustainable development and climate change and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Mr Al Gore in 2007? Of course he is the great Prof. Mohan Munasinghe.

Arthur Clarke, the visionary in space communication who made Sri Lanka his home revolutionized the world with his concept of geostationary communication satellites

Do you know the cosmic ray scientist who transformed into institution builder of institutions like Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad – Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Indian Space Research Organisation? Of course he is the visionary Prof Vikram Sarabhai.

When I described to you young friends, these historical ten events, you all jumped. The scientist, technologist and great human being, who created the event, are unique personalities. Young friends, can you join such unique performers of scientific history? Yes, you can. Definitely, you can. Let us study together, how it can be made possible?

Friends, I have, so far, met 12 million youth in a decade’s time. I learnt, "every youth wants to be unique, that is, YOU! But the world all around you, is doing its best, day and night, to make you just "everybody else". At home, dear young friends, you are asked by your parents to be like neighbours’ children for scoring good marks. When you go to school, your teacher says "why not you become like the first five rankers in the class". Wherever you go, they are saying "you have to be somebody else or everybody else".

The challenge, my young friends, is that you have to fight the hardest battle, which any human being can ever imagine to fight; and never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place, that is, a UNIQUE YOU! Friends what will be your tools to fight this battle, what are they: have a great aim in life, continuously acquire the knowledge, work hard and persevere to realize the great achievement.

Dear friends, when I see you all, I am thinking how you can achieve what you envision in your life?

Criteria for achievement for youth

How does achievement come? There are four proven steps; having an aim in life before 20 years of age, acquiring knowledge continuously, hard work towards the aim and perseverance to defeat the problem and succeed. In this connection let me recall famous verses of 13th century Persian Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi:

Wings to Fly

"You were born with potential.

You were born with goodness and trust.

You were born with ideas and dreams.

You were born with greatness.

You were born with wings.

You are not meant for crawling,

so don’t, you have wings.

Learn to use them to fly."

- Jalaluddin Rumi

- 13th Century Persian Sufi Poet

My message to you, young friends, is that education gives you wings to fly. Achievement comes out of fire in our sub-conscious mind that "I will win". So, each one of you assembled here and elsewhere, will have "Wings of Fire". The Wing of Fire will indeed lead to knowledge which will make you a great technologist, or an Engineer, or a designer, or a teacher, or a political leader, or a bureaucrat or a diplomat or you would like to walk on the Moon and Mars or anything you want to be. I would like to assert that "No youth today need to fear about the future". How? The ignited mind of the youth is the most powerful resource on the earth, under the earth and above the earth.

System design, system integration and system management

Since I am in the midst of students being prepared for techno-managerial expertise, I would like to give my experience with a teacher who taught me system design, system integration and system management in an integrated learning environment.

While I was studying Aeronautical Engineering in Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Chennai, (1954-57), during the third year of my course, I was assigned a project with five other colleagues, to design a low-level attack aircraft. I was given the responsibility of system design and system integration by integrating the team members. Also, I was responsible for aerodynamic and structural design of the project. The other five members of my team took up the design of propulsion, control, guidance, avionics and instrumentation of the aircraft. My design teacher Prof. Srinivasan, the then Director of MIT, was our guide. He reviewed the project and declared my work to be gloomy and disappointing. He didn’t lend an ear to my difficulties in bringing together data-base from multiple designers. I asked for a month’s time to complete the task, since I had to get the inputs from five of my other colleagues without which I cannot complete the system design. Prof. Srinivasan told me "Look, young man, today is Friday afternoon. I give you three days time, by Monday morning if I don’t get the configuration design, your scholarship will be stopped." I had a jolt in my life, as scholarship was my lifeline, without which I cannot continue with my studies. There was no other way out, but to finish the task. My team felt the need for working together round the clock. We didn’t sleep that night, working on the drawing board skipping our dinner. On Saturday, I took just an hour’s break. On Sunday morning, when I was near completion, I felt someone’s presence in my laboratory. It was Prof. Srinivasan studying my progress. After looking at my work, he patted and hugged me affectionately. He had words of appreciation: "I knew I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline. You have done a great job in system design".

Through this review mechanism of Prof Srinivasan, I was injected the necessity of understanding the value of time by each team member and brought out the best from the system design team. I realized that if something is at stake, the human minds get ignited and the working capacity gets enhanced manifold. That’s what exactly happened. The message is: whatever be their specialization, the students should be trained to systems approach and projects, which will prepare them for new products, innovation and undertaking higher organizational responsibilities. A great teacher inspires the young students like Prof. Srinivasan.

I am confident that the University of Moratuwa will break all the inter-disciplinary barriers and promote inter-disciplinary research among the students and faculty members.

-------------------------------

Friends, we live in an era of convergence; the future of innovation would lie at the interface of science and engineering. It is estimated that in the life of a scientist or an engineer, he or she will come across and work in at least seven new areas which are born out of convergence of multiple science and technologies. Such convergence has made the border between areas completely porous.

Let me discuss some examples.

Convergence of Technologies : bio-info-nano-eco ecology

The information technology and communication technology have already converged leading to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Information Technology combined with bio-technology has led to bio-informatics. Similarly, Photonics is grown out from the labs to converge with classical Electronics and Microelectronics to bring in new high speed options in consumer products. Flexible and unbreakable displays using thin layer of film on transparent polymers have emerged as new symbols of entertainment and media tools. Now, Nano-technology has come in. It is the field of the future that will replace microelectronics and many fields with tremendous application potential in the areas of medicine, electronics and material science. When Nano technology and ICT meet, integrated silicon electronics, photonics are born and it can be said that material convergence will happen.

With material convergence and biotechnology linked, a new science called Intelligent Bioscience will be born which would lead to a disease free, happy and more intelligent human habitat with longevity and high human capabilities. Convergence of bio-nano-info technologies can lead to the development of nano robots. Nano robots when they are injected into a patient, my expert friends say, it will diagnose and deliver the treatment exclusively in the affected area and then the nano-robot gets digested as it is a DNA based product. I saw the product sample in one of the labs in South Korea where best of minds with multiple technology work with a target of finding out-of-the-box solution.

My experience in Harvard University: Convergence of science is reciprocating. Let me give an example. Recently, I was in the Harvard University where I visited laboratories of many eminent professors from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. I recall, how Professor Hongkun Park, showed me his invention of nano needles, which can pierce and deliver content into individual targeted cells. That’s how nano particle sciences is shaping the bio sciences. Then I met Professor Vinod Manoharan, who showed on the other hand bio sciences is in turn shaping nano material science as well. He is using DNA material to design self assembling particles. When particular type of DNA is applied on a particle at the atomic level, he is able to generate a prefixed behavior and automatic assembly from them. This could be our answer to self assembly of devices and colonies in deep space without human intervention as envisioned by Dr K Erik Drexler. Thus, within a single research building, I saw how two different sciences are shaping each other without any iron curtain between the technologists. This reciprocating contribution of sciences to one another is going to shape our future and industry needs to be ready for it. The curriculum designers of University of Moratuwa, may like to take this aspect into account while formulating new courses.

Now, a new trend is emerging. The aspect being introduced is that of Ecology. Globally, the demand is shifting towards development of sustainable systems which are technologically superior. This is the new dimension of the 21st century knowledge society, where science and environment will go together. Thus the new age model would be a four dimensional bio-nano-info-eco based.

21st century University Vision

Friends, I have in the last ten years met more than 10 Million youth and faculty from more than 150 universities in India and 37 universities in abroad. Based on these interactions, I wish to formulate a 21st university vision for your consideration.

* The universities have to prepare citizens of the future with a global outlook and be capable of serving his/her nation or nation of his/her choice.

* Science and technology and public policy are interrelated for mutual benefit and ushering in human kind’s development. This link has to be solidly built in the university education.

* Good teachers can be in any part of the world. The university has to bring in this resource through innovative content generation in virtual class rooms.

* Technological connectivities among universities have to be pursued vigorously using cost effective virtual class rooms.

* Cost effective continuing education possibilities are essential for citizens to be in tune with time.

* Can university education lead to sustainable development of the nation?

* With the world population increasing and resources dwindling, a mindset has to be developed for conserving and sharing the resources and look for new research for abundant resources. This calls for a "noble spirit" as well as a "research spirit"

In summary, the 21st century university education is about developing enlightened citizenship for a knowledge society for peace and prosperity of nations and the world. 21st century University has to be the incubator of world knowledge powerhouse.

Conclusion

Finally, I would like to ask you, what would you like to be remembered for? You have to evolve yourself and shape your life. You should write it on a page. That page may be a very important page in the book of human history. And you will be remembered for creating that one page in the history of the nation – whether that page is the page of invention, the page of innovation or the page of discovery or the page of creating societal change or a page of removing the poverty or the page of fighting injustice or a page of finding innovative cost-effective healthcare system both preventive and curative or a page of how you have facilitating establishment coastal PURA or Hill PURA in any part of Sri Lanka. I am sure, you would like to do something different – out of box missions. I will be very happy if you could write this page. And if you mail to me your dreams, I can correspond on your out of box ideas and thoughts. (apj@abdulkalam.com).

My best wishes to all of you for success in your mission of igniting the energy and ability of youth to achieve accelerated societal transformation in Sri Lanka and become an enlightened citizen of the world.

May God Bless you.

Oath for Students

1. Engineering, Technology, healthcare and Management is a life time mission. I will work, work and work and succeed.

2. Wherever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. That is what process or product I can innovate, invent or discover.

3. I will always remember that "Let not my winged days, be spent in vain".

4. I realize I have to set a great technological goal that will lead me to think high, work and persevere to realize the goal.

5. My greatest friends will be great scientific/technological minds, good teachers and good books.

6. I firmly believe that no problem can defeat me; I will become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed.

7. I will work and work for removing the problems faced by planet earth in the areas of water, energy, habitat, waste management and environment through the application of science and technology.

8. I will work and work for making Sri Lanka a granary of south-east Asia.

9. I will be a good member of my family, a good member of the society, a good member of the nation and a good member of the world.

Concluded

UPALI NEWSPAPERS (PVT) LTD
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If there is will there is a way. If we achieve these and work towards bringing out a united country where democracy& respect for the rule of law,HR.!

2012-01-15T22:08:00.005+01:00

From war to negative peace and to that haven of freedom

Delivering the Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam Commemoration lecture this week in Colombo, Prof. N. Selvakkumaran, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, says there is a necessity for major constitutional and legal reforms in the post-conflict Sri Lanka so that the negative peace that is prevailing now can be transformed into a positive one. Excerpts from his widely-hailed speech.
We are gathered here to cherish the memory and 159th birth anniversary of a great statesman and distinguished personality this country had produced. The late Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, of whose birth and life that we remember today, was born in 1853 to a very well-known and highly respected family in Manipay, Jaffna. Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam was the youngest of three equally eminent brothers, who left an indelible mark in various facets of life in this beautiful island.

Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam's signal contributions in the legislative, executive and judicial spheres as well as in political, social and religious domains had been illuminating and constructive. It will require a lot of time and energy to capture his achievements and contributions to the mankind in general and to the betterment of Sri Lanka in particular. As you all will agree, that cannot be done in a short time and at a function like this. That has to be reserved for a separate time and event, which I would urge the Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam Trust to undertake in earnest please. The Trust should invite researchers to delve into the invaluable contributions made by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam in different spheres of the Sri Lanka's life.

Let me take this occasion to reflect upon some contemporary events that took place in the country which are related to some of the ideals which the late Sri Ponnambalam Arunachalam stood for and strived to carry out in his days. The miserable and violent occurrences that unfolded in the last thirty years or so in this island would surely have grieved the heart and soul of Sri Ponnambalam Arunachalam. He would not have ever imagined or accepted, on any ground whatsoever, the bleeding of this nation in such a ferocious and barbarous manner as it endured in the recent past. However, the past is past and now is an opportunity for us to go forward and ensure that this Pearl of Indian Ocean becomes a vibrant and resplendent place to live in. That should be achieved in the shortest possible time while ensuring that the country and its people will not suffer a relapse of what they endured in their recent history.

The release of the Report by the Presidential Commission, viz., the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, recently too provides a welcome and desirable opportunity in this respect. It requires the powers that be to take a hard and serious look at the present state of affairs in the political, legislative, executive, judicial, economic, social and other spheres; it also calls for chartering a course which will make our present and future generations to remember us with gratitude and pride, but not to curse us for failing them and the country abysmally.

The LLRC Report is a point of departure as its release provides a golden opportunity for the people of this country, in particular their representatives in the Executive and the Legislative arms of the government, to shape the future of this tiny nation to great, if not greater, heights.

Missed were many opportunities in the recent times when adversities - natural and man-made - provided window of opportunities for winning peace in the country. It is of great relief that the violent armed conflict had been brought to an end with the decimation of the ruthless LTTE and its violent activities in the country. Although there linger some issues of accountability raised about the final stages of the war, it is time for the people and powers that be to consider and act decisively as to how the country could go forward as a united nation upholding respect for democratic values, human dignity and the rule of law.

Various factors have contributed to the pathetic and sorry state to which the country fell in or sunk in the recent past. It is not my intention or wish, or is it necessary, to delve into the past minutely and engage in a blame game. That alone will not take us forward in any meaningful manner.

If we are strongly perched in the past we are sure to lose the future. While there is immense value in learning lessons from the past and addressing vital concerns that led to the failures of humanity, we need to engage ourselves collectively, as responsible citizens of this country and members of the world of human beings, in an exercise which will enable us to go forward to turn this country as a resplendent land in the world where peace and happiness will permeate the people who inhabit it.

The successful termination, almost three years ago in May 2009, of the war waged by the LTTE against the government did not bring about an enduring positive peace in the country. It is so at least in the minds of the minorities of the country. What was achieved is an absence of war and armed hostilities in the country, which is referred to as negative peace in the words of conflict resolutionists.

It is true that achieving negative peace was not an easy exercise given the ruthless and elusive nature of the LTTE. Considering the cost of achieving negative peace which was huge in terms of the loss of human lives and limbs and other damages and destruction suffered, it is essential and imperative that the negative peace achieved must be converted to sustainable positive peace, if this land were to be a peaceful country.

There are a lot of things to be done to achieve endurable positive peace in the country. Similarly there must take place attitudinal change in the minds of people. The report of the LLRC adverts to some of these important issues in making its recommendations. The report provides valuable food for thought as well as worthy suggestions; if those recommendations are properly understood and implemented efficiently, I venture to state that the negative peace achieved in the country could be made positive and permanent. It is in this context that I wish to place some of my thoughts for your reflection. In support of my views, I draw from the Report of the LLRC where it is appropriate.

The Sri Lankan society is polarized and divided at the present time. It has been so for some time now. The polarization has come about mainly due to political and economic reasons. Alleged acts of discrimination by the government against minority communities, or acts so perceived by the minority communities, have contributed to this polarization.

Some of the legislative, executive and judicial actions of the state had not evinced an approach of inclusive nation-building on the part of the post-independence governments. On the other hand, some of the actions and pronouncements of political parties of the ethnic divide had not helped the situation either. The three-decade long civil war has not done anything good towards creating an environment conducive for these societies to live harmoniously. To the contrary, it has taken a heavy toll on the minds of the people which was inevitable and unavoidable given the dynamics of armed hostilities. In addition to the direct consequences of armed conflict, the violent strife fought fiercely and savagely, with scant respect for human dignity but with its attendant ethnic dimension, has brought about indirectly many negative effects upon the communities. It is the ordinary people and civilians who have suffered the most.

The prolonged war has hardened the young minds of the ethnic divide against each other and they were moulded and coloured by the antagonism that was generated by the hostilities and their fall outs. Their sentiments and attitudes towards the others and their take on the future of this country and themselves are mainly coloured by their bitter experiences of the war which they were made to suffer during this long period of time.

The people have wounds in their minds; they have developed prejudice against one another; seeds of prejudice, hatred and antagonism are sown in their minds at an early age; there was a lack of opportunity for them to interact in a friendly and harmonious way; they feel bitter about others; they look at others with suspicion; they are not at peace with others; they are not at peace with themselves as well. In certain cases, their dealing with members of other communities had been with personnel from the armed forces or the police force. They had hardly met any civilian members of the other communities. ...
The end of the war and the consequential opening of the A9 road and the free flow of transport between the north and the rest of the country have made the situation better for people to move about with ease. However, this is not sufficient to erase the mind-set of people who have entertained negative attitudes about others to change them on their own. The government should take positive and proactive steps to create opportunities and space for interaction between young people from these communities from 'the north and the south'.

The money spent on these pro-peace activities would be worthy investment in the long run. They would create a sense of understanding and a feeling of being inclusive in the minds of young people. They will create a window of opportunity for the people of the south to see, learn and understand the traditions and culture of the north; conversely the people of the north will also see, learn and understand the traditions and culture of the south. Facilitating a better understanding of each other is a must for harmonious living in the country and peace to prevail in the country.

This apart, the people who suffered immensely due to the war - by loss of their loved ones - have deep-seated wounds in their minds. Some of them do grieve a lot in silence; others grieve openly and at times in moods of anger and hate; some of them are unable to get over their wounds as they do not know what had happened to their loved-ones. There have to be some genuine efforts to heal these wounds. Allowing them to fester is not going help in fostering a harmonious and united nation in the country. These people do not know the whereabouts of their relations. They do carry a great burden in their hearts. They know that there are large numbers of detainees who have been detained after the end of the armed hostilities. These parents and family members do not know whether their children and loved ones are amongst those who had been detained by the government or they had perished in the war or come up with their end in one way or another.

The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission provided opportunities for people to make representations and relate their 'stories of grief and victimization'; it did not, however, provide opportunities for truth telling as how the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission did after the collapse of apartheid. While it is irrefutable that a system which worked in one country and in one context may not apply equally to another context or country, the scope of the mandate given to the LLRC was not meant to be or sufficient enough to provide an occasion for truth telling and unburdening the hearts of victims or perceived victims.

The government should seriously think about providing some space for people to relate their tales and learn the truth of what happened to them or their family members so that it will provide genuine effort at reconciliation. Otherwise there would be a sense of injustice to those who perceive that they had been wronged and that no opportunity was provided to seek redress for their injustice or perceived injustice. Transitional justice provides opportunities for people to get over their psychological trauma in a collective manner without necessarily imposing criminal sanctions on others for telling the truth.

There are different shades of systems of transitional justice. What is necessary is to make people to come to terms with the past and get along with their future; if it could be done without being burdened by the past which prevents them from going into the future in a meaningful manner that will facilitate genuine reconciliation. This is necessary if those people are to contribute positively for the future wellbeing of the country and its people.

Some of the recommendations made by the LLRC with regard to political power sharing and upholding the rule of law in the country are very valuable and instructive. Their inherent value is to promote and foster a united democratic Sri Lanka ensuring justice and fair play to all the people living in the country with respect for human dignity and rights of people. The LLRC notes in its report that "

Along with an independent Judiciary and a transparent legal process a strict adherence to the Rule of Law is a sine qua non for peace and stability which is of the essence, if there is to be any meaningful reconciliation. A democracy must assure a fair system of governance under the Rule of Law rather than the rule of men. The Commission reiterates that the lack of governance and non-observance of the Rule of Law would result in the creation of tension between communities. Respect for the rights and freedoms of the citizens of a country is the very essence of the concept of the Rule of Law. It was stated that lack of good governance, and non-observance of the Rule of Law coupled with a lack of meaningful devolution were causes for creating tension between communities." [vide para 8.185]

It is the view of the Commission that making visible progress on the devolution issue is of critical importance to ensure the success of any process of lasting and sustainable reconciliation.
It is my humble view that the thirty year war has made the life of the minority communities very weak and feeble. Although the war has affected the country as a whole and others as well in one way or another, comparatively it is the members of the minority communities who are most affected by the war and conflict. Their economic and social structure has got so weakened that they need to concentrate on rebuilding those fabrics. They have been displaced internally a number of times; internal displacement has followed them with regular frequency. As a consequence, they do not enjoy their civil, cultural, economic and social rights in any meaningful way.

In addition, due to the protracted and violent conflict over allegedly ensuring their political rights, members of the Tamil minority community have lost their peace of mind and have become very weak and war-weary. What they immediately need is to get along with their life economically and socially.
They need to have development in their day to day life - to improve it in a meaningful manner. Their representatives must pay attention to improve their living conditions and to develop their areas. The physical infrastructure of the north and east needs urgent development. In keeping with the development drive that has been taking place in other parts of the country, the north and east must also receive concerted effort to boost the infrastructure development and economic development.

The elected representatives of the people of those areas should not ignore the urgent needs of those people - they need development and progress in the spheres of health, education, housing, transport, roads, security, law and order, economic activities, etc. The commitment to represent matters for political power sharing and political rights on the part of their representatives should not be a hurdle with regard to achieving economic and social rights of those people.

Enjoyment of these rights will help them to get over the scars of war and be amenable to sustainable reconciliation. This is the urgent need of the hour!

Conclusion

I have tried to highlight some of the shortcomings that prevail in the country which do not facilitate genuine reconciliation between various communities that have made this island their home. The country's constitutional and legal framework needs change - this should result in the way the legislature, the executive and the judiciary function in our plural democracy; there is a necessity for some institutional change; political parties and activists need attitudinal change; media and civil society organizations need to reflect upon their responsibilities and look at things from a broader perspective; they do require change in their dealing with issues.

These are not unachievable! If there is will there is a way. If we achieve these and work towards bringing out a united country where democracy, and respect for the rule of law, human rights and human dignity hold sway we will convert this tiny island into a resplendent land!

That will be our genuine respect and service to the memory of the late Sir Ponnambalm Arunachalam who stood for a united and democratic Sri Lanka.

SUNDAYTIMES.LK

Mahinda blames TNA and Tamil diaspora for delaying reconciliation.!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO APC.??? NOW PSC..???!!!

2011-12-30T12:14:00.004+01:00

Mahinda blames TNA and Tamil diaspora for delaying reconciliation
December 29, 2011, 9:32 pm

By S Venkat Narayan Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, December 28: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has squarely blamed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil diaspora for the delay in finding a political solution to the ethnic problem even 31 months after the three-decade-long bloody civil war ended.

In an interview to The Asian Age newspaper published here today, Rajapaksa said the TNA has the same attitude as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "They demand impossible things: merger of the North and the East, land policy and police."

The president said: "The TNA seems to be driven by the Tamil diaspora, which does not want peace and political settlement because they fear that their host countries might then send them back home."

The TNA cannot represent the same separatist agenda of the LTTE, which will not find acceptance with the majority population. "I want to work towards a solution but the TNA is not cooperating," Rajapaksa complained.

In his opinion, the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) is a good approach to what has been a vexed problem because, in a democracy, it is Parliament that will ultimately have to agree to any solution.

"Unfortunately, the TNA has not named its representatives to the PSC. We are keen on a sustainable political settlement. But it must have wide acceptance, especially in the context of the post-conflict situation."

Regional autonomy, he said, was a slogan used by the terrorists and their apologists. "The need is for strong unity in diversity, for which regional autonomy is not the only way. A better approach would be equality of opportunity, and the spread of democratic freedom and rights, together with speedy economic development of the north, in tandem with other regions of the country."

Answering a question on devolution, the president explained: "We have already elected provincial councils in all provinces other than the North. It will be established there, too. There must be discussions on how the provincial administrations could be strengthened and improved, with greater economic and development activity devolved. This is a process of democratic expansion, in which all communities and political groups, as well as the key economic players, should participate."

Asked why provincial council elections are not being held in the North, he said: "Elections will certainly be held in the near future. But one must realise the importance of the elections to a provincial council, which gives genuine opportunity to the people to participate. It is no secret that in the parliamentary elections that were held during the conflict, the people of the North were not allowed to exercise their franchise.

"The LTTE acted against such democratic expression. Another fact is that the voting was on an old and outdated register, which makes the TNA’s success not as big as it seems. The LTTE prevented the conduct of a census in the north. Once proper electoral registers are prepared, we can hold election to the northern provincial council," he added.

Q: The Tamils are complaining that the North remains highly militarised even now. There are over 100,000 troops policing about 300,000 people. It is said that the Army’s permission is required even to hold a library association meeting or a school function. When do you propose to bring down Army’s involvement in the civil administration there?

The president: There are more than 300,000 Tamils in the north. The military presence is not worked out in proportion to the population but the security needs of the region. The presence of the military in an area that has seen brutal armed conflict for nearly three decades does not amount to militarisation.

He went on: "The military is playing a significant role in building infrastructure as the locals lack skills. Also, large sections of the north are yet to be de-mined. It is not true that school functions or library meetings and such activities require the permission of the military. But there could be cautious surveillance, knowing the nature of the defeated enemy. We are still getting hidden arms caches of the LTTE. The presence of the military will be phased out in keeping with security needs."

Responding to a query on the Tamils’ fears that their lands are being taken over to set up new Army camps or to be given to Sinhalese businessmen, Rajapaksa said it is the LTTE rump which spreads these canards. The armed forces and their camps are present throughout our country. This is necessary to ensure Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity and to protect its sovereignty.

The president pointed out that there were many Muslims and Sinhalese in Jaffna before the LTTE chased them away by committing the first ethnic cleansing. "Whether it is the Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims, anyone who has been chased out of their traditional homes must be given their lands back. The majority status enjoyed by the Tamils in the northern province will not be changed by any actions of the government," he declared.

(Muslims had accounted for about nine percent and Sinhalese a little over one percent of the Jaffna peninsula’s population till the early 1970s. The LTTE had conducted a sustained brutal campaign to drive the Muslims and Sinhalese away from the North. The two-decade-long ethnic cleansing ended in October 1990, when the Tamil Tigers gave just a few hours to all Muslims in the North to leave LTTE-controlled territory, forcing 75,000 of them to flee south into government-controlled towns and villages).

Asked how he plans to deal with the Western countries’ demand for a probe into "war crimes" in Sri Lanka during the last stages of Eelam War IV in early 2009, he claimed that the LTTE remnants in these countries are bringing pressure on political leaders there to raise baseless issues against Sri Lanka.

He said Western countries talk about Kashmir and Sri Lanka in their Parliaments, but keep mum about what they did in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and so on.After the 1880 uprising in Ceylon’s Uva (in the south), the British rulers killed every male aged above 14, and destroyed all water reservoirs to force the people into starvation. They took away land. They did that in India, too. And they talk of human rights now!

The president declared: "The West wants me to be their lackey, and I refuse to be that!"

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Yes... I was a Tiger cadre..!!! NOW ACTOR...!!!

2011-12-05T19:30:00.004+01:00

GOKULAN...MANJULA.G...SANSAYA.L.
Ex LTTEer reborn in Selvam:

Gokulan takes to acting
By Shanika SRIYANANDA

He held her soft hands. A chill ran down his spine and he started to shiver. He was transfixed for a moment and she was reluctant to believe that the young man in front of her wasn't 'dangerous', and surveyed him with suspicion.

The rough hands, which only held deadly T-56 weapons and was only used to killing whoever who crossed their path, had never felt the softness of a woman's hand. Brainwashed to hate people, the young man was unaware of the magic of love and care.

After much persuasion and guidance, 'Pushparaja' gradually transformed into his innate youthful nature, which was hidden, when he was made to become a killing machine. Ask him... he will reply saying "Ovu mama kotiyek' ( Yes... I was a Tiger cadre)".

But the truth is that Pushparaja is not a Kotiyek any more. Without covering his past, he has several reasons to be proud today. Yes ... he was a Tiger cadre but let's call him a 'rehabilitated Tiger', who is now a completely changed youth due to warmth, love, care and respect that was shown to him by the people of the South, whom he hated barely three years back.

What is common in Pushparaja and Gokularajan is that both were terrorists and were rehabilitated to be non violent. Pushparaja is the ex-LTTEer in the film 'Selvam' and Gokularajan is the ex-LTTE cadre, who acts as Pushparaja and most probably the only terrorist in the world who has turned out to be an actor.

"Mage dream eka lankawe honda naluwek venna (My dream is to become a good actor in Sri Lanka)" Shanthalingam Gokularaja (24) fondly called Gokulan by his friends said in fluent Sinhala. For youth like Gokulan and over 12,000 Tamil youth whom were brainwashed to kill and bomb and virtually lived in a blood soaked land, all their dreams were distant dreams as they were living on the edge of death since childhood.

Though Gokulan's father, Shanthan, the famous Singer in the North, was Prabhakaran's favourite singer, who sang at LTTE functions, the teenager didn't have any escape, when the terror outfit ran out of manpower. One day, when Gokulan was returning from school - Mankulum Maha Vidyalam - he was dragged by the LTTE Police and trucked away into a thick jungle training camp for weapons training. The boy who just started attending Advanced Level classes, was then attached to the political wing of the terror outfit after a one-month military training. While working in the political unit as he was singing well he was assigned to the 'Vidarshana' Unit which is the LTTE's musical unit which wrote songs and films to boost the morale of cadres. He also formed a band.

His two older brothers - one was a LTTE captain known as Praviraj- were killed in previous battles with the Army and his younger sister was among the teenagers whom the LTTE conscripted during the final stages of the end battle.

"I had no hope for life. I always thought I would die soon. Lots of my friends died while fighting and the LTTE had taught us that there was no value in our lives. They always said that those who sacrificed their lives for Eelam would be venerated", Gokulan, who learnt 'Karnataka music upto his Ordinary Level, said.

Until he met soldiers at the Rehabilitation Centre, the picture about the Sinhalese and the Army that was painted in his mind by the LTTE, was scary. " From my infancy I heard that the Sinhalese were our enemies and they are trying to wipe out Tamils. The LTTE taught us to take revenge from the Sinhalese. They told us that half of this country belong to Tamils and the LTTE would create Eelam for us", he said.

But.... it didn't take years for him to realise the truth - that the Sinhalese are there for the Tamils to share their happiness and sorrow as well. Gokulan who was recruited to the LTTE's baby brigade and ended up as a well-experienced LTTEer dreamt of becoming a popular and gifted singer like his appa.

Those dreams were shattered due to LTTE terror but are now surfacing in Gokulan's mind.

His sister who was given only five-days training also surrendered to the Army was rehabilitated at the Poonthottam centre for female ex-LTTE cadres. Now, united with his family in Mankulam, Mullaithivu, he dreams of building his house and earning a decent salary to help his 53-year-old father who still sings to make a living while being a diabetic. Working as an assistant at the Abinawa Academy run by the veteran film actress, Anoja Weerasinghe, it's amazing how fluently he speaks in Sinhala, which he learnt during his stay for one and a half years at the rehabilitation centre.

Not only was he able to change his life but thousands of youth like Gokulan are moulded to be valuable assets to the country through the well-designed rehabilitation process. " Instead of enemies, we found our parents .... brothers .... friends and true human beings at the rehabilitation centre. They tapped our skills and talents and always guided us on the correct path. We should pay our gratitude to the soldiers at the Rehabilitation authority for directing us in the correct path. If not for Lt. Col. Manjula Gurusinghe, there would be no actor known as Gokulan", he said.

Gokulan said he wants to do his best for the country and bring honour to Sri Lanka with his acting. " I want to learn music and acting. Anoja madam is the one who taught us to improve our talent in dancing and acting during the course where we were given voice training, meditation and yoga to improve our self confidence.

I am lucky to be guided by her and Sanjaya Sir. We all must thank army officers such as Lt. Col Manjula who filled the void of a father, guided and tapped our talent from the beginning and directed us to suitable paths to brush up our skills", Gokulan said.

He said he was surprised that he was selected for the film. Gokulan sought his father's advice before taking to acting and his father was in favoaur.

"I was so scared of the Sinhalese and thought they would harass me. But I met people who loved and took care of me during filming", Gokulan, was inspired to read more about Mahathma Gandhi.

Gokulan is one good story that goes to prove how uniformed men taught ex-terrorists to be non-violent by teaching them human values.... giving them respect and erasing their bitter past while tapping their hidden talent.

Gokulan, who sang and danced at the ceremony held to reintegrate 1,000 ex-LTTE cadres at Temple Trees in the presence of President Mahinda Rajapaksa two months ago, said he had a sleepless night as he had to perform before the leader who gave them the opportunity to surrender and secured for them a better future. Among his dreams now is to talk to the President to thank him for saving their lives.

" I found my life and I feel how lucky I am to see this beautiful world", Gokulan smiled.

How many gifted youth like Gokulan had breathed their last without ever blooming ?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lt.Col Manjula Gurusinghe
Rehabilitation co-ordinator for Vavuniya:

"In this rehabilitation process, where nearly 12,000 ex-terrorists were rehabilitated, we didn't have barriers but we had strong bonds with them. We never asked them about their past, unless they came up with their stories under the LTTE and their involvements. Except the initial inquiries about their involvements with the outfit at the stage of profiling them, we never interrogated them.

When the first Commissioner General of Rehabilitation Maj. Gen. Daya Ratnayake designing the process we found all the categories of cadres from fighters to cooks to barbers. First we categorised them according to their skills and designed the programs to brush up those skills so that they could stand on their own feet once they are reintegrated.When they surrendered and were brought to us, they never trusted the soldiers and the Government. Everyone of them thought they would be killed the next day. It was a daunting task for us to convince them that they would be taken care of by soldiers. We wanted to create bonds within us and we tried to become their parents, friends and treat them like our own sisters and brothers. Basically we created a home for them. We ate... played and learned together.

It was very hard to erase their past as the terrible incidents were haunted them. They pleaded with us to help them to forget their past. We started religious programs, meditation and yoga and also lots of recreational activities to keep them active to forget their past.

We always reminded them that they were assets to the country though they mistakenly took up arms.

We found some talent in each and every one. There are many who excel in their fields. Gokulan is the best example of Lanka's success story on rehabilitation of former terrorists

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sanjaya Leelaratne, Director of Selvam
'Selvam' has won two awards at the Kuala Lumpur U.D.C Film Festival in Malaysia and bagged the awards for the best Asian film for 2011 and also the award for Best Upcoming Director.

'Selvam' in Tamil means prosperity and that is what our country, which suffered and was backward for decades long terrorism needs. LTTE terrorism caused untold damage to human lives, unity among communities and also the future of the country. I wanted to direct a film to do a post mortem of that deadly terror.

'Selvam' is all about that", Leelaratne said." There were over 40 youth who were undergoing rehabilitation, who were selected and out of which had to be chosen the actor for 'Selvam' to do the role of a rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadre.

These groups were trained by Anoja and at that time they had undergone a good training on how to adjust their lives and also their talents in singing and dancing. We selected Gokulan to be the actor and he is a talented youth.

"At the beginning feared to face the outside world as he was a former LTTE cadre. The day he was to commence acting he was warmly welcomed by the film crew. The very first moment when he was to hold the hands of actress Shalini Tharaka who plays the role of 'Medhavi' he was frightened and had a pale pallor.

I had to 'brainwash' him saying the past is over but that he was someone who had talent. We had to inspire self confidence to face the outside world. We were able to bring him back to normal in three-days. Gokulan is just one talented youth whose future would have been shattered with Prabhakaran's terror.

For the last three decades the unique talent of thousands of youth in the North and East were buried under the terror-filled regime.

The only 'award' they got was the cyanide capsule hung on their necks.

Gokulan was a talented guy and we honed that talent. A lump of clay will not make a sculpture unless the sculptor carves and reshapes it carefully to make it unique. That's what these talented youth, who were made to be rough, needed to brush up their skills"

"I am fortunate to be able to direct a terrorist to become maybe the first terrorist to take to acting.", he said.

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The SINHALA Govt is dealing with war affected TAMIL People Crying to have their Lives Back.!!!

2011-11-27T18:12:00.004+01:00

Rajapaksa Government and the Tamil Diaspora:
Will the twain ever reconcile?
November 26, 2011, 5:36 pm

by Rajan Philips

On Nov. 13 I wrote about the intersecting trajectories of the Commonwealth and Sri Lanka. The Tamil Diaspora is entangled with both. Although the Diaspora is of recent origin, the Sri Lankan Tamil problem is as old as Sri Lanka’s independence and its association with the post-colonial Commonwealth. Early days, as I said last week, were halcyon days. The Tamil problem seemed permanently settled, at least going by the results of the 1952 election, when the UNP and the Tamil Congress, both part of the incumbent government, won spectacularly in their respective domains.

"The UNP is good enough for the country for twenty five years and that is good enough for me,"G.G. Ponnambalam had earlier told Colvin R. de Silva. "Many a plan of men and mice go astray", rued Colvin and he would be proved right, not for the last time! Colvin’s more ominous prophesy came later: Two languages, one country; one language, two countries. Again, he was not heeded and again he was proved right.

By the time the Rajapaksa regime defeated the Tigers and put an end to the breakup of Sri Lanka, large numbers of Tamils had left the island. The Tamil Diaspora was born, early inductees to the era of trans-nationalism when a visa is less of a problem than earlier times, when a permanently on-the-run revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, famously wrote in his diary, "landed on a planet without a visa!"

Trans-nationalism and the
Tamil Diaspora

Trans-nationalism is the other ingredient that should be added to the mix of nation-sates, sovereignty and citizens in the cauldron of globalization that defines our time on this planet. Trans-nationalism began with the proliferation of multinational corporations, the global spillover of industrial reservoirs that were, as Trotsky saw them, the foundations of nation states. The social and political sides of trans-nationalism emerged after the 1980s when citizens of one country began migrating to many different countries without severing ties to their country of origin. The movement of people is primarily from the young and populous countries of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and lately from Eastern Europe, to Western countries with ageing populations and, what seemed to be until the Great Recession, growing job markets.

Transnational migrants, unlike migrants in earlier times, are intimately associated with more than one country, and are part of the social and political processes in more than one country. At the social level, extended families that once made up villages are now globalized. Thanks to instant modes of communication and air transport expansion, family ties have not only survived spatial separation but are also being reinforced and renewed. South Asians and Sri Lankans know full well how their extended families are now far flung spanning continents. They are among the beneficiaries of multicultural and family reunification programs in Australia, Canada, UK and the US.

At the political level, trans-nationalism takes a narrower meaning to describe the immigrants’ articulation of the politics of their country of origin and the politics of the country of their living. While not every immigrant community does politically articulate, the reasons for those who do are generally comparable. The political circumstances in the country of origin that triggered the out-migration of people are an important reason. Their alienation in the countries of arrival is an equally important reason. The upshot of the two has been the galvanizing of immigrants, even those who have not been actively involved in politics in the countries of origin, to determined political action in pursuit of political goals in their old countries.

The political aspect of the diaspora experience of the Tamils needs elaboration. The common and also convenient misconception in Sri Lanka is that diaspora Tamils are "economic refugees" who should not have left Sri Lanka in the first place. This dismissive arrogance is part ignorance based on the outdated concept of a political refugee as someone who has suffered or been threatened with physical harm on account of one’s political beliefs or activities. It is also part denial of the circumstances of 1977, 1981 and 1983 that opened the floodgates for Tamil migration. Many Tamils also left the country to escape harassment and conscription by armed Tamil groups. The government never misses an opportunity to recall the misdoings of the LTTE (all the other groups including prominent ex-Tigers are now, in one way or another, part of the government); but the government loses credibility when it feigns amnesia about the bigger part of the Sri Lankan political reality.

While there can be no migration or relocation without involving economic considerations, the pattern of migration of Sri Lankan Tamils shows a clear distinction between the migration during the colonial period and the first two decades after independence, and the migration after the late 1970s. Jaffna society, given its economic constraints, is a good example of an out-migration society, with people mostly leaving the peninsula and hardly anyone moving to Jaffna other than those who are returning. But there was no politics, only economics, in the out-migration of Tamils to work as government servants in British colonies. It was the same in the out-migration of mostly professionals, not only Tamils but also Sinhalese, in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s. If there was politics, it was the politics of language, the effect of Sinhalese becoming the only official language relegating both Tamil and English to unofficial status.

The out-migration after 1977, especially after 1983, however, has had a great deal more to do with politics than economics. This was also the time when the politics of trans-nationalism became one of the forces of globalization. The Tamil migrants after 1977 are also different from their predecessors with respect to their large numbers, their political experience, the many countries they have settled in, and their determined involvement in transnational politics in the countries where they live.

The dilemma of trans-nationalism

Transnational politics goes beyond immigrant communities, and it involves both governments and societies in the countries of origin and settlement as well as international agencies. The involvements of immigrant countries and international agencies are part of the background to the growing global concern over democracy and human rights that I discussed in my previous article. The involvements of governments and societies in the countries of origin, on the other hand, produce an opposite reaction based on the assertion of national sovereignty and critical of western interventions. In effect, transnational politics while internationalizing domestic political crises may not always be conducive to resolving those crises in the places of their origin. Herein is the dilemma involving the Rajapaksa government and the Tamil diaspora.

It has often been said that the main source of support for the Rajapaksa government within Sri Lanka is its lack of support outside Sri Lanka. Put another way, opposition to the government will boil over within the country, if detractors outside the country would severely leave the government alone for a few months. This is a copout argument by government supporters who are not happy with the government’s actions but do not want to say it publicly. It is their failure to criticize the government not merely from within the country but from inside the government itself, that creates the rationale for outside criticism. Without outside criticism, the government will be thoroughly off the hook especially on the Tamil Question.

Although the government has been clever by half in using the criticisms from outside to rally its base within the country, it cannot go on playing this game forever. For diaspora Tamils, while trans-nationalism has enabled them to do what they were not able to do from within Sri Lanka, they cannot do in Sri Lanka everything they want to do. The defeat of the LTTE has shown the limitations of Tamil trans-nationalism. Just as the government cannot go on insisting on a homegrown solution to a problem that has now outgrown its home, Tamil trans-nationalists cannot expect the world to deliver Tamil Eelam as a gift of self-determination.

To recall my previous discussion, the two year window between now and the 2013 Commonwealth Summit in Colombo, provides an opportunity for the Rajapaksa government and the Tamils to break the logjam of their dilemma. As I argued last week, TNA parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran’s long list of concerns on the situation in the Northern and Eastern Provinces provides a practical framework for the government to take the initiative in breaking the postwar deadlock. There cannot be any greater priority in Tamil politics now than addressing the concerns over militarization, state brutality, loss of livelihood, resettlement, evictions and land grabs, creation of Sinhala settlements, social issues, and legal issues facing the Tamils and Muslims in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

The government must sincerely recognize the importance of addressing these matters and give priority to address them rather than undertake out-of-proportion public infrastructure projects or promote profit-seeking private businesses such as prawn farming. The northern fishermen do not require fancy inland fish farming; they are only asking to be resettled in their homes and be given the freedom to go back to their sea and restart the fishing industry that has been debilitated for decades. Similarly, conditions should be made conducive for inland farmers to restart agricultural production. Infrastructure development should be undertaken only as it is appropriate to supporting livelihood and economic activities, and not as inappropriate and ill-timed capital projects. Homes, schools and local security are more important than investment in tourist hotels. The government is dealing with war affected people crying to have their lives back. Their lives are not a curiosity that is marketable to tourists.

Equally, Tamils everywhere must realize that the Tamil question in Sri Lanka cannot be conclusively addressed or resolved without simultaneously dealing with the democratic and governance deficits in the south. Many of the concerns listed in Sumanthiran’s list are relevant to the situation in the south in general and Colombo in particular: militarization, state brutality, evictions and land grabs, social issues, and legal issues. The list of concerns provides a practical framework not only for government action but also for others to hold the government accountable,

As always, events even though they are the government’s own making, are overtaking the government. The government is playing catch-up on every initiative that has been wrong headedly undertaken. Fresh from his failure to sell Hambantota as the venue for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the Governor of the Central Bank has forayed into mitigating the mess that the Expropriation Act has created. The Central Bank should have no business in either fiasco. The High Court conviction of Sarath Fonseka and the commotion that followed turns the old precept about justice and appearance on its head: injustice must not only be not done, it must also not appear to be done.

As Sarath Fonseka goes to jail, the country waits for the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. The allegedly leaked excerpts from the report that are doing the rounds on the internet should not dampen the expectations for the release of the official hard copies of the report. The government will have its hands full for the next two years.

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Sri Lanka: Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture..!!!

2011-11-26T19:48:00.002+01:00

Sri Lanka: Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture .

Saturday, 26 November 2011 10:48 Lanka News Web Hits: 139 . .1. The Committee considered the combined third and fourth periodic report of Sri Lanka (CAT/C/LKA/3-4) at its 1030th and 1033rd meetings, held on 8 and 9 November 2011 (CAT/C/SR.1030 and 1033). At its 1050th, 1051st and 1052nd meetings, held on 22 to 23 November 2011 (CAT/C/SR.1050, 1051 and 1052), it adopted the following concluding observations.

A. Introduction

2. The Committee welcomes the submission of the combined third and fourth periodic report of Sri Lanka, which generally follows the Committee’s guidelines for reporting. However, the Committee regrets that the report lacks statistical and practical information on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention and that it was submitted two years late. The Committee appreciates the dialogue with the delegation, the answers provided orally during the consideration of the report and the additional written submissions.

B. Positive aspects

3. The Committee welcomes that, in the period since the consideration of the second periodic report, the State party has ratified or acceded to the following international instruments:

(a) Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, in September 2006;

(b) United Nations Convention against Transational Organized Crime, in September 2006.

4. The Committee notes the efforts undertaken by the State party to reform its legislation, including:

(a) The adoption in 2005 of the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act No. 34, which provides for protection orders to safeguard both children and women;

(b) The adoption in 2006 of the Penal Code (Amendment) Act No. 16, which inter alia made it a penal offence to engage and recruit a child for use in armed conflict and in child labour, child trafficking and child pornography.

5. The Committee also welcomes the efforts made by the State party regarding ongoing policies and procedures, including:

(a) The adoption of a National Plan of Action for Children (2010-2015);

(b) The consultations with civil society organisations regarding the elements to be incorporated in the draft National Action Plan on Human Rights, which would include a focus area on the prevention of torture;

(c) The establishment of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in May 2010.

C. Principal subjects of concern and recommendations

Allegations of widespread use of torture and ill-treatment

6. Notwithstanding the new circumstances prevailing since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the end of the military conflict that has consumed the country for nearly 30 years, and the State party’s public commitment to the Committee that it has a zero-tolerance policy on torture as a matter of State policy and practice, the Committee remains seriously concerned about the continued and consistent allegations of widespread use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of suspects in police custody, especially to extract confessions or information to be used in criminal proceedings. The Committee is further concerned at reports that suggest that torture and ill-treatment perpetrated by state actors, both the military and the police, have continued in many parts of the country after the conflict ended in May 2009 and is still occurring in 2011 (arts. 2, 4, 11 and 15).

As a matter of urgency, the Committee calls upon the State party to take immediate and effective measures to investigate all acts of torture and ill-treatment and prosecute and punish those responsible with penalties that are consistent with the gravity of their acts. It calls upon the State party to ensure that torture is not used by law enforcement personnel and members of the military. In addition to these measures, the State party should unambiguously reaffirm the absolute prohibition of torture and publicly condemn practices of torture, accompanied by a clear warning that anyone committing such acts or otherwise complicit or participating in torture will be held personally responsible before the law for such acts and will be subject to criminal prosecution and appropriate penalties.

The Committee recalls the absolute prohibition of torture contained in article 2, paragraph 2, of the Convention, stating that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture”, as well as the statement by the representative of the State party reaffirming this.

Fundamental legal safeguards

7. While noting the information provided by the State party on the content of the Presidential Directives of 7 July 2006 (reissued in 2007) and the Rules with regard to Persons in Custody of the Police (Code of Departmental Order No. A 20), the Committee expresses its serious concern at the State party’s failure in practice to afford all detainees, including those detained under anti-terrorist laws, with all fundamental safeguards from the very outset of their detention. The Committee is concerned that, despite the content the 2006 Presidential Directives, criminal suspects held in custody still have no statutory right to inform a family member of the arrest or to have prompt access to a lawyer of their choice. The Code of Criminal Procedure also lacks other fundamental legal safeguards, such as the right to have a lawyer present during any interrogation and to be assisted by an interpreter and the right to confidential communication between lawyer and client. The Committee notes with concern that access to a doctor is left to the discretion of the police officer in charge of the police station. It also expresses concern about reports that police fail to bring suspects before a judge within the time prescribed by law and that accused persons are often not adequately informed about their rights. The Committee also expresses its concern at the absence of a State-sponsored legal aid programme; and, at the variety of institutional, technical and procedural obstacles rendering the writ of habeas corpus ineffective (art. 2).

The State party should take prompt and effective measures to ensure, in law and in practice, that all detainees are afforded all legal safeguards from the very outset of their detention. These include, in particular, the rights of each detainee to be informed of the reasons for his/her arrest, including of any charges against him/her; to have prompt access to a lawyer and to consult privately with him/her and, when needed, legal aid, as well as an independent medical examination, if possible by a doctor of his/her choice; to notify a relative and to be informed of his/her rights; to have a lawyer present during any interrogation by the police and to be assisted by an interpreter; to be brought promptly before a judge and to have the lawfulness of his/her detention reviewed by a court, in accordance with international instruments.

The State party should ensure that, when suspects are produced before the courts by the police, magistrates always inquire whether the suspect was tortured or mistreated by the police while in custody. The State party should ensure that public officials, in particular judicial medical officers (JMO), prison doctors, prison officials and magistrates who have reasons to suspect an act of torture or ill-treatment, record and report any such suspected or claimed act to the relevant authorities.

Secret detention centres

8. Notwithstanding the statement of the Sri Lankan delegation categorically denying all allegations about the existence of unacknowledged detention facilities in its territory, the Committee is seriously concerned about reports received from non-governmental sources regarding secret detention centres run by the Sri Lankan military intelligence and paramilitary groups where enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings have allegedly been perpetrated (art. 2 and 11).

The State party should ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention centres, as these facilities are per se a breach of the Convention. The State party should investigate and disclose the existence of any such facilities and the authority under any of them has been established. The State party should also ensure that the results of the investigation are made public. It should abolish any such facilities and any perpetrators found responsible should be held accountable.

Enforced disappearances

9. While welcoming the State party’s Supreme Court judgement in Kanapathipillai Machchavallavan v Officer in Charge Army Camp Plaintain Point, Trincomalee and Three Others (2005), according to which enforced disappearance could constitute a violation of Article 13(4) of the Constitution, the Committee notes with concern that this reasoning has not been reflected in more recent decisions. It also notes that that enforced disappearance is not a separate offence under Sri Lankan criminal law and that such acts are charged under other crimes in the Penal Code, including kidnapping, abduction and wrongful confinement. The Committee expresses its concern that 475 new cases of enforced disappearance were transmitted by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to the State party under its urgent procedure during the period 2006-2010, and the claims that military, police, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and paramilitary groups are the alleged perpetrators. It is also concerned at reports suggesting that the sweeping powers granted under anti-terrorist legislation contributed to the large number of new disappearances (arts. 2, 11, 12, 13 and 16).

The State party should:

(a) Take all the necessary measures to ensure that enforced disappearance is established as an offence in its domestic law;

(b) Ensure that the cases of enforced disappearances are thoroughly and effectively investigated, that suspects are prosecuted and those found guilty punished with sanctions proportionate to the gravity of their crimes;

(c) Ensure that the any individual who has suffered harm as the direct result of an enforced disappearance has access to information about the fate of the disappeared person, as well as to fair and adequate compensation;

(d) Adopt measures to clarify the outstanding cases of enforced disappearances and comply with the request to visit by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (A/HRC/16/48, para. 450).

The Committee furthermore calls upon the State party to consider ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

Anti-terrorism measures

10. While noting the State party’s decision to lift the long-standing state of emergency on 31 August 2011, the Committee expresses concern that 24 hours before it ended new regulations were decreed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act No. 48 of 1979 (PTA).The Committee is concerned about the sweeping nature of these PTA regulations, which unduly restrict legal safeguards for persons suspected or charged with a terrorist or related crime, as pointed out by the Human Rights Committee and the Special Rapporteur on Torture. The Committee notes that the President continued to invoke Section 12 of the Public Security Ordinance (Chapter 40) to allow the armed forces to retain policing powers in all 25 districts (Presidential Order of 6 August 2011).[i] In this connection, the Committee notes with concern that with the lapsing of the state of emergency, the limited safeguards contained in Emergency (Miscellaneous Provisions and Powers) Regulation, No. 1 of 2005, which applied when arrests were made by armed forces, apparently are no longer in effect under the new PTA regulations (e.g. a person arrested by a member of the armed forces had to be handed over to the police within 24 hours) (arts. 2 and 16).

The State party should ensure the respect for fundamental legal safeguards and take all necessary measures to ensure that its legislative, administrative and other anti-terrorism measures are compatible with the provisions of the Convention, especially with article 2, paragraph 2.

Coerced confessions

11. While noting the clarification given by the State party in respect of the inadmissibility of evidence obtained through torture under the Evidence Ordinance Act 1985, the Committee remains concerned by the fact that the PTA allows all confessions obtained by police at or above the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) to be admissible (sect. 16) placing the burden of proof on the accused that a confession was obtained under duress (sect. 17(2)). The Committee is also concerned at reports that in most cases filed under the PTA the sole evidence relied upon is confessions obtained by an ASP or an officer above that rank The Committee further notes with concern reports documenting individual cases of torture and ill-treatment where the victims were allegedly randomly selected by police to be arrested and detained for what appears to be an unsubstantiated charge and subsequently subjected to torture or ill-treatment to obtain a confession for those charges (art. 2, 11, 15 and 16)

The State party should explicitly exclude any evidence obtained as a result of torture and ensure that legislation, including anti-terrorism legislation, concerning evidence to be adduced in judicial proceedings is brought in line with the provisions of article 15 of the Convention.

The State party should also ensure that all detainees are asked by the judge whether or not they were ill-treated or tortured in custody. The State party should ensure that judges order independent medical examinations whenever a suspect requires one in court and that prompt and impartial investigations are conducted whenever there is a reason to believe that an act of torture occurred, especially in cases where the sole evidence presented is a confession. The judge should exclude such statements if the suspect so requests in court and the medical examination sustains the claim. Detainees should receive a copy confirming their request for a medical report and a copy of the report itself.

Registration of all detainees

12. The Committee notes that according to the State party’s core report, more than 80,000 persons were imprisoned annually between 2000-2005, of whom more than 60,000 were unconvicted. Furthermore, according to the additional written information provided by the State party’s delegation, 765 persons are detained in Sri Lanka under administrative detention orders as of 11 November 2011 but there is no central registry on detentions carried out under the PTA. The Committee recalls with concern that, in response to the Committee’s confidential inquiry under article 20 of the Convention (April 1999 - May 2002, A/57/44, paras. 123-195), the State party informed it that a computerized central police registry had been established, yet now reveals this has not happened (arts. 2, 11 and 16).

The State party should:

(a) Ensure that all suspects under criminal investigation are registered promptly from the moment of apprehension and not only upon formal arrest or charging;

(b) Establish immediately a central register for all persons in official custody, inter alia, persons in prisons, police stations and “rehabilitation centres”, as well as those detained under the PTA.

(c) Publish a list of all detainees and places of detention;

Human rights defenders, defence lawyers, journalists and other civil society actors at risk

13. The Committee expresses its concern at reports that human rights defenders, defence lawyers and other civil society actors, including political activists, trade unionists and independent media journalists have been singled out as targets of intimidation, harassment, including death threats and physical attacks and politically motivated charges. It regrets that, in many cases, those allegedly responsible for acts of intimidation and reprisal appear to enjoy impunity. The Committee notes with regret that the State party was unable to provide adequate information on the specific incidents about which the Committee had inquired, including the cases of journalists, such as Poddala Jayantha, Prageeth Eknaligoda and J. S. Tissainayagam, and lawyers, such as J.C. Welliamuna and Amitha Ariyarantne. This resulted in a number of submissions to the Committee by some of the individuals concerned containing contradictory information. The Committee is also concerned about information received according to which the Ministry of Defence has published articles on its website implying that lawyers defending individuals are “traitors” to the nation. The Committee is concerned about the fact that one of these articles, entitled “Traitors in Black Cloaks Flocked Together”, included the names and photographs of five lawyers, putting them at of risk of attacks (art. 2, 12, 13, 16).

The State party should:

(a) Ensure that all persons, including those monitoring human rights and combating torture and impunity are protected from intimidation or violence as a result of their activities;

(b) Take prompt and effective measures, including investigation and prosecution, to address concerns regarding the extremely hostile environment for human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and other civil society actors in Sri Lanka.

Conditions of detention in police stations and prisons

14. The Committee is concerned at the deplorable levels of overcrowding and poor conditions prevailing at police stations and prisons, especially the lack of hygiene, inadequate medical care, the non-separation of convicted and remand prisoners and the failure to keep adult detainees and juvenile offenders separate, as reported by the Special Rapporteur on torture (A/HRC/7/3/Add.6 and A/HRC/13/39/Add.6). In this respect, the Committee regrets the absence of information provided by the State party on measures taken to improve conditions of detention for those held on remand and for convicted persons (arts. 11 and 16).

The State party should:

(a) Ensure that conditions of detention in the country’s prisons are compatible with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules, adopted by the General Assembly resolution 2010/16 of 22 July 2010);

(b) Increase its efforts to remedy prison overcrowding, in particular by instituting alternatives to custodial sentences;

(c) Continue to expand the prison infrastructure and the remand centres, including those for juvenile offenders;

(d) Take effective measures to improve the adequacy of health-care resources in penitentiary institutions, and ensure that the medical assistance given to detainees is of high quality.

Deaths in custody

15. The Committee is concerned at reports from non-governmental organisations on deaths in custody, including police killings of criminal suspects in alleged staged “encounters” or “escape” attempts.[ii] The Committee notes with concern that the State party only reported two cases of death in custody, where the cause of death was determined to be suicide, for the entire period 2006-2011, while for a similar period between 2000-2005 the State party had reported in its core document approximately 65 annual deaths in custody from all causes (HRI/CORE/LKA/2008, p. 87).

The Committee urges the State party to investigate promptly, thoroughly and impartially all deaths of detainees assessing any possible liability of law enforcement officers and prison personnel, and provide, where appropriate punishment of the perpetrators and compensation to the families of the victims.

The State party should provide comprehensive data regarding reported cases of deaths in custody, disaggregated by location of detention, sex, age, ethnicity of the deceased and cause of death.

Monitoring detention facilities

16. While noting the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka’s (HRCSL) broad inquiry powers to investigate human rights violations vested in Section 11 of the Human Rights Commission Act No 21 of 1996, the Committee is concerned about its reported inactivity, the lack of cooperation from the police and the government and the limited resources and challenges to its independence and impartiality as a result of the 18th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, which places the appointment of its members solely in the hands of the Head of State. The Committee is also concerned that, contrary to the information provided by the State party, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is not allowed to visit the “rehabilitation centres” or facilities holding LTTE suspects yet to be formally charged. The Committee notes with concern that during 2009 the military administration in closed internment camps for IDPs denied access to humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations and the ICRC (arts. 2, 11, 12, 13 and 16).

The Committee calls upon the State party to establish an independent national system to effectively monitor and inspect all places of detention, including facilities holding LTTE suspects and closed IDP camps, and to follow-up on the outcome of its systematic monitoring.

The State party should take necessary measures to support work of HRCSL, ensuring its recommendations are fully implemented. It should also provide detailed information on the action taken on the recommendations made by the Commission on its visit to Mount Lavinia police station on 15 August 2011.

The State party should strengthen the capacity of non-governmental organizations that undertake monitoring activities and adopt all appropriate measures to enable them to carry out periodic, independent and unannounced visits to places of detention.

The Committee strongly encourages the State party to consider the possibility of ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, with a view to establishing a system of regular unannounced visits by national and international monitors, in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL)

17. The Committee is concerned that the new appointment process set out by the 18th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution (September 2010), which ends Parliament’s role in approving appointments, undermines the independence of the HRCSL. The Committee is also concerned about the difficulties the HRCSL has had in carrying out its function owing in part to the lack of cooperation from other State party institutions, limited human and financial resources, which has reduced its ability to investigate specific incidents and make recommendations for redress, and failure to publish the reports of its investigations (art. 2 and 12)

The State party should ensure that the HRCSL effectively fulfils its mandate and receives the necessary resources for that purpose. It should also ensure that the Commission is able to initiate as well as carry out independent investigations into alleged and possible cases of torture and ill-treatment, including those concerning military premises, as well as “rehabilitation centres” and other government-controlled facilities such as “welfare centres”, and to publish the results. The State party should establish a transparent and consultative selection process to guarantee its full independence in line with the Paris Principles.

Impunity for acts of torture and ill-treatment

18. The Committee remains concerned about the prevailing climate of impunity in the State party and the apparent failure to investigate promptly and impartially wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed. It also notes the absence of an effective independent monitoring mechanism to investigate complaints of torture. The Committee expresses concern over reports that the Attorney General’s office has stopped referring cases to the Special Investigations Unit (SUP) of the police and the large proportion of pending cases still outstanding. The Committee is also concerned at numerous reports concerning the lack of independence of the judiciary (arts. 11, 12, 13).

The State party should:

(a) Ensure that a prompt and impartial investigation is made into all complaints of torture or ill-treatment. In particular, such investigation should be under the responsibility of an independent body, not under the authority of the police;

(b) Establish an independent complaints system for all persons deprived of their liberty;

(c) Launch prompt and impartial investigations spontaneously and wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed;

(d) Ensure that the Attorney General’s office fulfils its responsibilities to refer cases to the SUP;

(e) Ensure that, in cases of alleged torture, suspects are suspended from duty immediately for the duration of the investigation, particularly if there is a risk that they might otherwise be in a position to repeat the alleged act or to obstruct the investigation;

(f) Ensure that, in practice, complainants and witnesses are protected from any ill-treatment and acts of intimidation related to their complaint or testimony;

(g) Bring to trial the alleged perpetrators of acts of torture or ill-treatment and, if they are found guilty, ensure sentences with penalties that are consistent with the gravity of their acts. In this connection, legislative measures should be taken to guarantee the independence of the judiciary.

Witness and victim protection

19. The Committee remains concerned at the absence of an effective mechanism to ensure the protection of and assistance to witnesses and victims of human rights violations and abuses, which has a negative impact on the willingness and ability of witnesses and victims to participate in investigations or to testify in proceedings. In this regard, the Committee is concerned about the impunity in the cases of attacks against witnesses and victims, as illustrated in the case of Gerald Perera and those allegedly involved in his murder following his allegation of torture against several police officers. The Committee notes with concern that a bill on witness and victim protection has been on the parliamentary agenda since 2008. The Committee regrets the scant substantive information provided by the State party regarding the case of Siyaguna Kosgodage Anton Sugath Nishantha Fernando, a complainant in a torture case before the Supreme Court, who was killed by unidentified gunmen on 20 September 2008. The victim had repeatedly requested protection measures for himself and his family against alleged perpetrators (arts. 2, 11, 12, 13 and 15).

The Committee reiterates its earlier recommendation (CAT/C/LKA/CO/2, para. 15) that the State party should ensure that witnesses and victims of human rights violations are effectively protected and assisted, in particular by ensuring that perpetrators do not influence protection mechanisms and that they are held accountable.

Internally displaced persons

20. The Committee notes that near the end of the armed conflict in 2009 over 280,000 people fled from the northern LTTE-controlled areas to government-controlled territory in Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna and Trincomalee districts, where the vast majority of them entered closed military-run internment camps. While noting the information provided by the State party regarding the substantial efforts undertaken to respond to the influx of displaced persons, the Committee remains concerned at the situation of IDPs in the country, especially those who remain in “welfare centres”. According to the State party, IDPs were initially provided with “a secure environment and cared for while they were screened to identify terrorist cadre[s] who had infiltrated the civilian population that was rescued at the conclusion of the armed conflict”. The Committee, however, remains concerned about consistent allegations of torture and ill-treatment during questioning of camp residents by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID). The Committee is concerned that these allegations have not been investigated outside the context of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) process and that no judicial action has been taken. The Committee is also concerned at reports of massive overcrowding, poor hygienic and sanitary conditions, malnutrition, inadequate medical and psychological assistance and lack of freedom of movement for camp residents during and after the final stages of the war (art. 2, 11 and 16).

The State party should:

(a) Adopt the necessary measures to guarantee the physical integrity and address the specific needs of internally displaced persons, in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2), including the medical care and psychological attention they require;

(b) Ensure that investigations are carried out into the alleged cases of torture, including sexual violence, against camp residents and that perpetrators of such acts are brought before the courts;

(c) Provide mandatory in-service training programmes on human rights, internal displacement and gender-based violence for members of the military and law-enforcement officials serving in the camps;

Accountability process and the Lessons Learnt Reconciliation Commission (LLRC)

21. The Committee notes that there have been a number of ad hoc commissions of inquiry looking into past human rights violations, including the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate serious cases of human rights violations that occurred since 1 August 2005, which according to the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) did not meet international standards of independence, witness and victim protection and transparency. The Committee notes the information on the mandate, composition and working methods of the Lessons Learnt Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and the Inter-Agency Advisory Committee (IAAC), established in May and September 2010, respectively. The Committee notes the assurances by the delegation of the State party that the LLRC has the faculty to channel the complaints received “with a possibility of immediate investigation and remedial action”, and that the Attorney General is “empowered to institute criminal proceedings based on the material collected during the course of the recommendations made by the LLRC”. The Committee, nevertheless, regrets the apparent limited mandate of the LLRC and its alleged lack of independence. In addition, it regrets the lack of information provided by the State party on the investigations undertaken into allegations of serious violations of international human rights law, such as torture, including rape and enforced disappearances, and other forms of ill-treatment that allegedly occurred during the last stages of the conflict and in the post-conflict phase, as reported by numerous sources, including the Special Rapporteur on torture, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka. The Committee notes that the State party asserts that the LLRC “has taken cognizance of all the allegations”, but regrets that has not received any such information. The Committee notes that the State party “(…) will await LLRC’s report before considering further action” and that a “comprehensive answer will be submitted” to this Committee on the establishment of programmes to assist victims of torture and ill-treatment that occurred during the course of the armed conflict “once the LLRC’r report is finalized and public” (arts. 2, 12, 13, 14, 16).

Following the LLRC initiative, the State party should promptly launch impartial and effective investigations into all allegations of violations of the Convention, including torture, rape, enforced disappearances and other forms of ill-treatment, occurred during the last stages of the conflict and in the post-conflict phase, with a view to holding accountable those responsible and providing effective redress for victims of such violations.

The State party should consider also the possibility of accepting an international investigatory body, which would address past concerns over the lack of credibility of previous investigations and any outstanding concern about the LLRC.

Violence against women, including sexual violence

22. The Committee notes with concern reports about a growing number of cases of violence against women, including sexual and domestic violence, as well as the insufficient information provided by the State party in this regard. It also notes with concern that domestic violence and marital rape are recognized only following a judge’s legal recognition of the separation of spouses. The Committee is also concerned about reported cases of war-time rape and other acts of sexual violence that occurred following the end of the conflict, in particular in military-controlled camps.(arts. 2, 12, 13 and 16).

The State party should ensure prompt, impartial and effective investigations of all allegations of sexual violence and should prosecute suspects and punish perpetrators.

The Committee reiterates the recommendation made by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW/C/LKA/CO/7) that the Staty party should extend criminalization of marital rape regardless of judicial acknowledgement of separation.

The State party should provide the Committee with information on the investigations of cases of war-time rape and other acts of sexual violence that occurred during the last stages of the conflict and in the post-conflict phase, and the outcome of such trials, including information on the punishments meted out and the redress and compensation offered to the victims.

Sexual exploitation and abuse of children by peacekeepers

23. The Committee expresses its grave concern over the alleged sexual exploitation and abuse of minors by military members of the Sri Lankan contingent of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) that occurred in 2007. While noting the information provided by the State party’s delegation that the troops in question were repatriated and dealt with under military law, the Committee regrets the lack of information available regarding any specific charges or punishments faced by the 114 members of the Sri Lankan contingent who were repatriated on disciplinary grounds (arts. 2, 5, 12 and 16).

The State party should conduct investigations into the allegations of incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse by military members of the MINUSTAH’s Sri Lankan contingent and report their findings and measures taken in response, including the resulting number of indictments, prosecutions and convictions, and measures taken to prevent further occurrences. The Committee encourages the State party to pursue its cooperation with the relevant UN departments to ensure progress in this matter.

Human trafficking and violence against Sri Lankan migrant workers

24. While noting the adoption in 2006 of the Penal Code (Amendment) Act No. 16, the Committee is concerned about persistent reports of trafficking of women and children within the State party for the purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation, the low numbers of convictions related to human trafficking and the detention of trafficking victims. The Committee is similarly concerned at the reported abuses of many Sri Lankan migrant workers, especially women, who travel abroad and subsequently face conditions of forced labour or other abuse in the host country, as alleged by the representative of the State party. In this regard, the Committee notes with interest the statement of the representative of the State party that the draft National Action Plan on Human Rights contains a section devoted to the protection of Sri Lankan migrant workers (arts. 2, 12 and 16).

The State party should:

(a) Increase its efforts to combat trafficking in human beings by taking effective measures to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible and by further strengthening international cooperation with countries of origin, transit and destination;

(b) Review legislation and practices to prevent victims of trafficking from being prosecuted, detained or punished for the illegality of their entry or residence or for the activities they are involved in as a direct consequence of their situation as victims of trafficking;

(c) Instruct consular or diplomatic authorities to provide protection and assistance to Sri Lankan migrant workers to protect their rights to be free from violence, confinement and abuse in violation of the Convention;

(d) Consider the possibility of ratifying the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

Definition of torture

25. The Committee reiterates its view that the definition of torture included in Section 12 of the 1994 Convention against Torture Act (hereinafter, CAT Act) does not entirely reflect the internationally agreed definition set out in the Convention. It restricts acts of torture to “any act which causes severe pain, whether physical or mental”, while the Convention definition refers to “severe pain or suffering”. It thus does not cover acts that are not violent per se, but nevertheless inflict suffering (arts. 1 and 4).

The Committee reiterates the recommendation made in its previous concluding observations (CAT/C/LKA/CO/2, para. 5), that the State party should amend the definition of torture included in Section 12 of the CAT Act in order to expand the definition of torture to all acts of torture, including those causing severe suffering, in accordance with article 1 of the Convention. In this regard, the Committee draws attention to its general comment No. 2 (2007), which states that serious discrepancies between the Convention’s definition and that incorporated into domestic law create actual or potential loopholes for impunity (CAT/C/GC/2, para. 9).

Jurisdiction over acts of torture

26. While noting the information provided by the State party on the implementation of articles 5 to 8 of the Convention, the Committee regrets the lack of clarity on the existence of the necessary measures establishing the State party’s jurisdiction over acts of torture. While the 1994 CAT Act provides for jurisdiction over alleged perpetrators of torture present in the territory of the State party, whether or not citizens, it is unclear whether the law provides for the establishment of universal jurisdiction or this remains at the discretion of the High Court, as implied in Section 4(2) CAT Act. Furthermore, Section 7 CAT Act appears to require the rejection of an extradition request before the requirement that the case be submitted to the relevant authorities. The Committee recalls its jurisprudence on the content of the obligation to extradite or prosecute (aut dedere, aut judicare), that the State party’s obligation to prosecute the alleged perpetrator of acts of torture does not depend on the prior existence of a request for extradition (arts. 5, 6, 7 and 8).

The Committee reiterates its previous recommendation (CAT/C/LKA/CO/2, para. 10) that the State party should ensure that its domestic legislation permits the establishment of jurisdiction for acts of torture in accordance with article 5 of the Convention, including provisions to bring criminal proceedings under article 7 against non-Sri Lankan citizens who have committed acts of torture outside the territory of the State party, who are present in the territory and who have not been extradited.

Refugees, non-refoulement

27. The Committee notes with concern the absence of domestic legislation or national policy that guarantees the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers in the State party and persons who require international protection. The Committee regrets the lack of information provided by the State party on the number of cases of refoulement, extradition and expulsion carried out during the reporting period and on the number of instances in which it has offered diplomatic assurances or guarantees (art. 3).[iii]

The State party should adopt a national policy, as well as the necessary legislative and administrative measures, to guarantee protection for refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons.

The Committee encourages the State party to consider the possibility of ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

Training

28. The Committee notes the information on human rights training for members of the police and the army contained in the State party’s report and the responses to the list of issues. It, however, regrets the lack of information on the evaluation of those programmes and in reducing the incidence of torture and ill-treatment, as well as the lack of specific training of medical personnel in detention facilities to detect signs of torture and ill-treatment (art. 10 and 11).

The State party should:

(a) Continue to provide mandatory training programmes so as to ensure that all public officials, in particular members of the police forces and army personnel, are fully aware of the provisions of the Convention, that breaches are not tolerated but investigated, and that the perpetrators are brought to trial;

(b) Assess the effectiveness and impact of training programmes and education on reducing the incidence of torture and ill-treatment;

(c) Support training on the use of the manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Protocol) for all relevant personnel, including medical personnel.

Redress, including compensation and rehabilitation

29. The Committee notes the State party’s explanation that, under the fundamental rights jurisdiction, the Sri Lankan courts may grant compensation (529 cases have been filed against police officers since 2006), that there have been a number of instances in which the Supreme Court has awarded pecuniary compensation for torture and that compensation can also be obtained through a damages suit in the District Court. However, the Committee notes reports that compensation amounts are inconsistent. In this regard, the Committee regrets the lack of information contained in the State party’s report on Supreme Court and District Court decisions awarding compensation to victims of torture and ill-treatment, or their families, and the amounts awarded on those cases. The Committee also notes with concern that there is no provision in the 1994 CAT Act, or the penal law, for compensation or other forms of reparation for torture victims. Finally, the Committee regrets the insufficient information provided on the treatment and social rehabilitation services, including medical and psychosocial rehabilitation, to all victims of torture (art. 14)

The State party should strengthen its efforts to provide victims of torture and ill-treatment with redress, including fair and adequate compensation, and as full rehabilitation as possible.

The Committee reiterates its previous recommendation (CAT/C/LKA/CO/2, para. 16) that the State party should ensure that appropriate rehabilitation programmes are provided to all victims of torture and ill-treatment, including medical and psychological assistance.

Corporal punishment

30. The Committee notes that, while corporal punishment is prohibited as a penal sentence under the Corporal Punishment (Repeal) Act No. 23 of 2005, it is not prohibited as a disciplinary measure in penal institutions for juvenile offenders, in the home or alternative care settings, under article 82 of the Penal Code. The Committee also notes with concern that, despite the issuance of Circular No. 2005/17, by the Ministry of Education in 2005, stating that corporal punishment should not be used in schools, there is no prohibition in law and its use is still widespread. (arts. 10 and 16)

The State party should consider amending its Penal Code, with a view to prohibiting corporal punishment in all settings and raising public awareness.

Required documentation on compliance

31. Despite its previous recommendation that the State party provide the Committee with detailed statistical information on a variety of basic criminal issues and other statistical matters (CAT/C/LKA/CO/2, para. 19), the Committee is concerned that this was not provided either in the State party’s periodic report, its reply to the list of issues or written supplementary materials. The absence of comprehensive and disaggregated data on complaints, investigations, prosecutions and convictions in cases of torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials, military and prison personnel, including enforced disappearances, rape and violence against women, and other forms of torture and ill-treatment, hampers the identification of abuse requiring attention and the effective implementation of the Convention (arts. 2 and 19).

The State party should compile statistical data relevant to the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention at the national and local levels, disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, age, geographical region and type and location of place of deprivation of liberty, including data on complaints, investigations and prosecutions of cases of torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials, military and prison personnel, and on enforced disappearances, rape and violence against women.

32. Noting the voluntary commitments made by the State party in the context of the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council in May 2008 (A/HRC/8/46, paras. 90, 108-110) the Committee recommends that the State party consider adopting the draft bill on witness and victim protection and the draft bill on the rights of internally displaced persons; improve and upgrade detention facilities; and, improve the capacity of police in carrying out investigations, with additional training in interrogation and prosecution.

33. The Committee recommends that the State party consider ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention.

34. The Committee recommends that the State party consider making the declarations under articles 21 and 22 of the Convention.

35. The Committee invites the State party to consider ratifying the core United Nations human rights treaties to which it is not yet a party.

36. The State party is encouraged to disseminate widely the reports submitted by Sri Lanka to the Committee and these concluding observations, in appropriate languages, through official websites, the media and non-governmental organizations.

37. The State party is invited to update its common core document (HRI/CORE/LKA/2008), in accordance with the requirements of the common core document contained in the harmonized guidelines on reporting under the international human rights treaties (HRI/GEN.2/Rev.6).

38. The Committee requests the State party to provide, by 25 November 2012, follow-up information in response to the Committee’s recommendations related to (1) ensuring or strengthening legal safeguards for persons detained, (2) conducting, prompt, impartial and effective investigations, and (3) prosecuting suspects and sanctioning perpetrators of torture or ill-treatment, as contained in paragraphs 7, 11, 18 and 21 of the present document. In addition, the Committee requests follow-up information on remedies and redress to the victims addressed in those paragraphs.

39. The State party is invited to submit its next report, which will be the fifth periodic report, by 25 November 2015. To that purpose, the Committee invites the State party to accept, by 25 November 2012, to report under its optional reporting procedure, consisting in the transmittal, by the Committee to the State party, of a list of issues prior to the submission of the periodic. The State party's response to this list of issues will constitute, under article 19 of the Convention, its next periodic report.

- www.srilankabrief.org

Once I decided to bring in the PLOTE to oust Gayoom, I moved to a PLOTE base in Vavuniya, where I underwent military training for several weeks..!!!

2011-11-11T01:37:00.005+01:00

How Luthufee moved SAARC venue from Male to Addu
Exclusive

November 10, 2011, 10:07 pm

Part 1 and II published on Nov. 3 & 4

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Had it not been for me, the 17th South Asian Summit for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) would never have been held in the southern island city of Addu, says Abdulla Luthufee, who spearheaded an armed attack on Male targeting the then President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Nov. 3, 1988.

Gayoom would never have shifted the venue from Male to any other island, Luthufee said in an exclusive interview with The Island.

"Male was Gayoom’s world and he simply didn’t have time for those living in other parts of Maldivian territory. In fact, Gayoom sought to restrict boat movements to and from Male as part of his security measures. The bottom line is that Maldivians living in islands needed special permits to visit Male until I struck Gayoom’s base," Luthufee said.

Although the raid on Male carried out by Indian trained PLOTE, one of the most powerful terrorist groups active in Sri Lanka in the 80s failed to oust Gayoom, it shook the dictatorial administration and set the stage for Mohamed Nasheed’s ascent to power. Nasheed succeeded Gayoom in 2008, 20 years after Luthufee’s courageous bid.

The Maldivian expressed delight that the 17th SAARC summit was being held in a once neglected island. The meeting of the Standing Committee comprising SAARC Foreign Secretaries took place on Nov. 7-8.

The Foreign Ministers of the SAARC countries met on Nov. 9.

Luthufee said that he was glad Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had saved the country from LTTE terrorism, was in Addu for the summit. The two-day summit began at the newly-built Hithadhoo Convention Centre yesterday.

The one-time rebel emphasized that those in power needed to address the grievances of the people. The vast majority of people living in eight SAARC countries live in abject poverty, he said. "Although those in power promise grandiose plans at various international conferences, they don’t pursue policies, which can bring relief to the poor struggling to make ends meet. What we need is not talk shops, but tangible poverty alleviation measures. The SAARC grouping, too, is yet to embark on projects beneficial to ordinary people. Giving scholarships to officials and their henchmen or holding conferences in five-star comfort and expensive meals cannot help the poor."

Why did you choose Sri Lanka to mount an armed raid on Male? "I was just 14 when I first arrived in Colombo in a boat. It took three days to reach Colombo. Since then, I have been visiting Colombo and in the mid 80s, I set up the first foreign venture by a Maldivian here, a duck farm at Kadawatha before I got in touch with the then PLOTE commander, Uma Maheswaran and reached an agreement on a sea-borne assault on Male. Had we succeeded in Male, the rest of the Maldivian territory would have quickly accepted my action. Colombo was the ideal place. The availability of well trained PLOTE personnel experienced in combat operations gave me the much needed wherewithal to take on Gayoom. The then President’s security personnel couldn’t have matched the fighting skills of PLOTE personnel. Gayoom’s men were thugs, who derived sadistic pleasure by inflicting pain on innocent people,. They were only good at assaulting and torturing unarmed prisoners. Had India looked the other way, we would have succeeded."

Commenting on his prison life, Luthufee said, "After surviving Gayoom’s plan to do away with me and my three key supporters, ex-Maj. Abbas Ibrahim, ex-Corporal Abdulla Shahid and Ahamed Nasir, Gayoom went out of his way to inflict maximum possible pain on us. Exactly 10 years after our abortive bid to seize power, the four of us were moved to Maafushi prison. We were held along with about 700 other prisoners, including drug addicts and common criminals. In our section alone, there had been about 175 detainees. The Maldivian National Security Forces had been in charge of the notorious torture facility. For the slightest provocation on the part of the detainees, Security Forces tortured groups of men. Torture was Gayoom’s policy. They enjoyed what they did. Some of them used to give cigarettes to selected prisoners and when they were caught smoking, both smokers and non-smokers were taken to an open ground and punished."

Luthufee said that at the time Gayoom had him and his three associates moved in Nov. 1998, they were the only political prisoners at the Maafushi prison. "In the following year, Gayoom targeted the Sandaan group, which used the internet to attack the Maldivian regime. Four Sandaan group members were brought to Maafushi prison. They were there for life. Also in the same year, they detained four others, who were accused of making a bomb to assassinate Gayoom. Except for my group, the remaining eight political prisoners were there for life."

"Inmates were ordered not to use freshwater to wash their bodies. Anyone caught violating this particular directive was punished. As captives of Gayoom’s democratic regime, which had the support of all SAARC countries, we suffered at the hands of Maldivian thugs until the death of an inmate, Hassan Evan Naseem by security personnel at Maafushi prison on Sept. 19, 2003 forced Gayoom to change his style. A section of those held at the prison forced open their cells and advanced towards the prison headquarters to protest against the killing of Nazeem, a drug addict. At the behest of Gayoom, security forces fired at those advancing on the prison headquarters, though they didn’t pose a direct threat. The murderous government alleged troops had no option but to open fire to thwart an attempt by the prisoners to seize arms and ammunition."

Luthufee alleged that Gayoom ordered a crackdown on the premise that those held for the Nov. 1988 coup were responsible for the Sept. 19, 2003 protests at Maafushi prison. ‘We weren’t involved in anyway. We kept our distance from those protesting as we knew Gayoom would exploit the situation to finish us off. Soon after realizing his folly, he ordered an inquiry and punished some of those who fired at unarmed prisoners and the man in charge of the detention facility.

"Soon after that inmates launched a protest campaign demanding freedom. Gayoom feared organized trouble. In a bid to neutralize the threat posed by the prison community, Gayoom ordered a small section of them released, while some had their prison terms reduced. The lucky ones were placed under house arrest. But Gayoom was very slowly losing control. Ex-Maj. Abbas Ibrahim and ex-Corporal Abdulla Shahid were moved from Maafushi to their homes and finally released in 2007. I along with Ahamad Nasir, were moved to our houses in 2006 on medical grounds."

Why did he let you go? "Gayoom wasn’t a compassionate man, but the rapidly changing political scene in the Maldives forced him to adopt new tactics. Nasheed, who had been held with me at the same prison facility was spearheading a strong campaign forcing Gayoom to take precautions. Gayoom probably felt that he could come to some sort of understanding with us and focus on Mohamed Nasheed’s campaign. But Nasheed kept his pressure until Gayoom’s defeat in 2008."

Do you regret taking up arms against an elected government? " Once I decided to bring in the PLOTE to oust Gayoom, I abandoned my lucrative business in running a duck farm. I moved to a PLOTE base in Vavuniya, where I underwent military training for several weeks, alongside PLOTE cadres to embark on the sea-borne assault."

Luthufee said that he was glad and would have done the same again to oust a dictator. But to the credit of Gayoom, the dictator took a series of measures to improve the situation in Male soon after hearing what I had to say to Indian and the Maldivian authorities interrogating me. Luthufee said that Gayoom realized that he had been blind to the shortcomings in every sphere experienced by the Maldivians. Gayoom did away with a mechanism, which prevented those living in islands other than Male from coming to the capital city without obtaining a special pass. It was nothing but a visa. Gayoom’s promise to fight corruption was restricted to setting up of an office."

In spite of Gayoom not being at the helm, Luthufee is still not a free man. A few years of his 25-year prison term imposed by the Maldivian courts at the behest of Gayoom still remained to be spent in exile. Though Gayoom is no longer in control, those jealous of Luthufee for what he had achieved through his courageous action seems to be an obstacle for the former fighter’s return to Male.

island.lk

GR: Unfortunately Diplomatic community & IC are very keen to go very fast to release detainees/rehabilitees & resettle them & take SLA from NESL SOON!

2011-10-29T13:44:00.013+02:00

‘I don’t want to be the Prime Minister. I am not interested in that’ - Gotabhaya Rajapaksa
Wednesday, 26 October 2011 10:38 Sri Lanka Mirror Editor

An Interview with Shakuntala Perera for “Hard Talk”.

QUESTION:
Is there a conspiracy behind Baratha Premachandra’s death? His family alleges against a move to obstruct justice from within the government, with a finger pointed directly at the President?

ANSWER:

These are political rivalries. I don’t know what this big conspiracy is; they should explain what this is. It’s not like he was a national leader.

These are purely political mudslinging moves by those who are disgruntled. Now that the President is moving very smoothly politically, there are those who will use these to distract the people. And also understandably Baratha’s family must be pained to think this way.

But those others are using this to create a misunderstanding among the people; some of these are really those who criticised him when alive-some even had court cases against him but are trying to take advantage of this. This is a very unfortunate incident that no one can approve of. These happen because of the present political system. People fight within a Party for preferences.

QUESTION:

How do you respond to claims by his family that requests made for security following threats to his life in February this year have gone ignored by the government?

ANSWER:

But nobody has written to me. He was in touch with people within the Defence ministry but he has never mentioned anything of this. He’s always with the President-in fact his office is in the Presidential Secretariat-he could’ve mentioned this. I don’t think he has ever written to the President. That is a very wild allegation. If he had a problem there was no issue of contacting anybody.

QUESTION:

Were you aware of the increasing levels of polls related violence between the two factions in the run up to the polls?

ANSWER:

This rivalry between these two groups was known-I’m not politically interested but the Party hierarchy knew this was going on. But because of this system this happens all over.

Unfortunately due to the environment of this area; where the underworld existed with a gun culture, it was not unknown that the politicians working there would have such connections. The politics they have to play in this area is such that they have no choice in it. If you looked at some of the representatives you can see this. But unfortunately they are the ones that can get the votes from these areas. That is the ground reality.

Question:

Is Duminda Silva a suspect in this case?

Answer:

That is not something even I should say anything about. This is a serious case-a high profile case. You have to allow the investigation to take place. Not only the CID, but also forensics, the Govt. Analyst have all to come in to this. I’m even thinking of getting foreign assistance in this. Once the real picture is there only can you talk about it. Till then no one can say. Someone supporting Baratha will say one thing-the other side another, but an independent person will say something different. We have to put this together-let them do that. But whatever assistance they need I will give.

Question:

Were you aware that a key underworld leader Dematagoda Chaminda was with Duminda Silva at the time of the shooting?

Answer:

When they said this Chaminda was involved in the shooting I asked the CID where he was and why he was not taken in. They said he had fled the country. I got angry for their failure to take precautions and I called the necessary people as well as the Indian authorities and got their help to arrest this man. They used over 60 people there to do this and by 10th evening they traced him there, and by 11th morning we had him here and handed him to the CID. I did that personally. This is the extent I go to for this. If I didn’t do that we couldn’t have got him. Then I deployed the army and the STF to arrest anyone else responsible.

Question:

You are not protecting Duminda?

Answer:

I’m not! Why should I?! I’m not protecting anybody but the truth must come out. Not what something someone wants to against someone but the truth. People question my visit to see Duminda-why shouldn’t I? I’m not a human being if I didn’t. The very previous day he was assisting me in this development work. So when I used him why shouldn’t I go and see him? In fact the first call I got about this incident was from Duminda’s phone by someone taking him to the hospital informing me of the shooting.

I knew Baratha for a longer period than Duminda because he was a close supporter of the President. I still wanted to go for his funeral but how could I?

When hooligans were shouting there, I didn’t want to get involved in that. In fact the President called me to go there, I said I couldn’t get involved. Duminda was an MP, why isn’t anyone going to see him? Till the truth comes out what prevents them from going? They are frightened. Of what I don’t know. They have things to hide. They don’t want to face the truth. They are weak people. I’m not a weak person-I do what I think is right in my heart. I don’t know whether Duminda is misunderstood-but the fact remains that he’s an MP, elected by the people. How can you just throw various allegations without proof? Until you are proven guilty why are they in a hurry to do this? These same people associate with certain MPs of TNA who threatened the sovereignty of this country. This shows poor quality of people.

Question

Were you aware of the use of personal armies like those used by Silva by politicians with such a large amount of arms?

Answer:

That is wrong. I’ve always said that was wrong. I always took action against this-this is a huge problem for the police. Not just MPs but businessmen keep such groups. Some even take them dressed in black suits to the Courts-this is very common thing.

But no one criticises it when the opposition Members do it. We try hard to stop this. I have given strict orders to stop this-but it is not an easy thing.

QUESTION:

Were you aware of his connections with Dematagoda Chaminda, a known underworld kingpin?

ANSWER:

Nobody has told me about this. Mind you I have done many operations without any soft pedalling anyone. If ever there was any allegation I have given the fullest cooperation to the police, the STF and the Army. I have never stopped investigations. I’m the one who gave my fullest backing to them.

Nobody can say that I haven’t taken any action-irrespective who’s who they were I have carried out this work. I have told the police, CDS and the IGP to this effect. No one can say I’ve tried to prevent such investigations. In fact I was the one pushing them with a clear focus. No one can say I protected anybody. I never protected anyone. That’s not how I do things. When I’m given a task I do it right.

QUESTION

What is your connection to Duminda?

ANSWER:

The beautification of Colombo is secondary to me-my primary concern is the security of this country. Maybe for the public and the politicians the concerns ended with the end of war but not for me. Day and night I work hard to prevent the LTTE from coming back. I’m not collecting preferences-I work for the country-no one knows the work I do.

I have a huge task in re-orienting the war time military machinery to suit the peace times. I have to keep the forces active-this is a serious challange. I have immense pressure from the international community to reduce military presence in the NE, or remove Emergency regulations. Creating a balance while bringing normalcy is a huge challange.

These are things I face daily. Those who pose these difficulties with ulterior motives must understand this. I’m not interested in politics-I will never get involved in these contests. Its not my line of thinking-so no one has to get worried about me! If they harm me it is the country they harm. Ultimately it is the country and these politicians who are benefitted by the work I do. It is very unfair to target me-maybe to harm the President, but who suffers in the end?

I don’t think even the Ministers know the work I do. This is a very minor area-but if they start attacking me on a hypothetical situation like this it’s unfair by me. I do things without propaganda because I’m not interested in that. But dragging me in to these is purely to sling mud with ulterior motives. People may be doing this thinking I have other motives-I don’t. I don’t want to be the Prime Minister-I’m not interested in that. If somebody has any fear they must remove those from their minds. I’m not a threat to anybody. My agenda and work is different.

Everyone was trying to remove the shanties, but I realized that unless you solved it immediately you couldn’t do it. You can’t do it with 100 houses a year-you have to build at least 25000 houses to have an impact. Yet, again the politicians started spreading rumours for petty political gain-this is why I had to get involved in this. This is where Duminda come in-this is where I used Duminda-for nothing else!

QUESTION:

But the claim is that an MP who functioned as a Monitoring MP of your Ministry is now alleged to have had drug and related dealings?

ANSWER:

Again this is a wrong picture given. That was wrong-he was a supervisory member for this UDA project. If someone tries to deny that then you have to go into detail and say if he has ever got involved in anything to do with the military or the police. Has he sat with me on any of these conferences? No! He had nothing to do with the military or the police.

Similarly he was not the only person. Keheliya was given the task of working with the media during the war-he had nothing to do with the Defence Ministry. Mahindanana was from war times given the task of handling the Civil Defence Committees.In fact Mr. Lokubanda’s son was also appointed with Duminda to this job of explaining to the people our development work. That was all they were to do-so it was not only Duminda. Now the people are trying create a different story to sling mud. They are trying to hide the truth. This is wrong.

QUESTION:

But were you aware of the drug issues that Baratha was reportedly trying to bring attention to in the area?

ANSWER:

There are so many allegations against so many people. There is however no concrete evidence against anybody on this issue. There are allegations against both these people-but nothing is proven. But nobody has told me anything against anybody directly. These rumours that go on must be because of these associations with these people-but as far as I’m concerned my association with Duminda is purely official.

I’m not a friend-to be a friend he must be of my age group! I started associating him after he joined the Presidential campaign this time. Beyond that I don’t have a friendship with him. I associated him as an elected MP-he’s not a known underworld king pin or some drug dealer! He’s an elected MP-elected by the people. If I can’t work with him as an official as an MP then there’s something wrong with the democracy exercised! Then don’t blame us blame the politicians and change the system.

Let me give an example-when Ambassadors come and I explain our difficulties with working with some in the TNA due to their links with the LTTE, they speak of them being elected by the people! Then why the double standards? This is nonsense!

This is a person elected with a huge majority by the people and why I had to work with him was because after I took over Urban Development, my biggest focus was building houses to replace shanties. And in this there were issues I had to deal with politically-I had to counter misinformation spread by the Opposition.

Duminda was someone who worked directly with these people-he’s the person I had to use as a politician to go to the people. It was a completely official relationship. I don’t think anyone can blame me for that. Am I to select between MPs now-on what basis and principle

QUESTION:

There are fears that the Colombo development plan under your authority will face logistical difficulties before the CMC now under the UNP. Are you concerned?

ANSWER:

Municipality is at the lowest level but with a bearing on the peoplecleaning drains, collecting garbage etc. But utilization of land or town planning all are under the UDA-It is under me. No one can stop these things.

These are legally my functions. What is the meaning of UDA? They have to understand that the primary authority of this is under the UDA. They have to coporate with me-if they don’t they are working against the people, not me.

This is just politics-they must stop doing that and start working like me. This is under the UDA and I’m going to continue with it. The people have nothing to worry about.

I have within a short time removed the garbage that no one including the CMC could. The beautification and renovation of old neglected building for commercial use was started. From the time of JR Jayewardena people were complaining that the Army headquarters was in a wrong place but no one could do it. I leased it for a good hotel company for the correct value, while building a good defence complex in Battaramulla.

QUESTION:

How much a threat does LTTE International remain to the peace and development moves in Sri Lanka?

ANSWER:

It is a big challenge. No one sees the work we do to counter this. We are confident of that but we can’t sit and wait. Nothing happens by itself-we are doing it. Although immediately after the war the morale of the LTTE died, over these past two years they started their funding and regrouping. Slowly they are collecting the remnants of the LTTE. If you sit doing nothing there is a huge threat. We are working very hard to counter this. We didn’t stop the work after killing Prabakaran-we captured KP and started dismantling the LTTE.

Politicians have forgotten this-both with the Party and outside of some fear! They must support me-I’m not a threat to them. Again if Duminda has used his position it is not my businessit is his business.

But purely because of that our people who know what I have done are trying to undermine what I have done by using this little thing over everything I have done. It is very unfair by me personally, and especially unfair when those within our own Party are trying to do this. It is very unfair to project this small thing as a big thing.

QUESTION:

What are the challenges faced by you now that the Emergency has been removed?

ANSWER:

This is a huge challenge-this is where we need to create a balance. There is a requirement to do this. Unfortunately the diplomatic community and the international community are very keen to go very fast to achieve these things. They want to release the detainees and rehabilitees, or resettle them and, and take the military out of the security operations as soon as possible.

These are pressures coming from one direction. But it is those doing this who know the difficulties in doing these. It is only I and the President who know the difficulties in doing this. Even the government politicians are in an urgency to do all these things without understanding the challenge for the security.

We have to understand that though we have defeated the LTTE it was an organisation that was there for 30 long years and it hasn’t only a local component but also the international. It has a Diaspora a huge financial base.

(Courtesy: srilankaMirror.com)

OH MY FELLOW HUMANS..!!! WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU..? READ THIS.!!! YOU REALISE THAT.!!!

2011-10-13T13:20:00.001+02:00

OH! MY MOTHER! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR MILK,FOOD,CLOTHS,PROTECTION &LOVE IN NEED!
OH! MY FATHER! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING ME EDUCATION,GUIDANCE,ADVICE AS YOUNG!
OH MY SISTERS &BROTHER! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR AFFECTION,TRUE CRITISM &HAPPINESS!
OH MY WIFE! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR AFFECTION,CARE,PROTECTION,TOLERANCE&TASTY FOOD
OH MY CHILDREN! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR LAUGHTER,PROGRESS,AFFECTION & COURTECY!
OH MY UNCLES & AUNTS! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR ADVICE,LAUGHTER,FRIENDLINESS&SMILES!
OH MY FRIENDS &RELATIVES! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR JOKES,LAUGHTER,HOSPTALITY,SMILE!
OH MY POLITICAL,RELIGIOUS,SOCIAL,SPRITUAL,MENTORS!HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR COURAGE!
OH MY VILLAGE! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVELY NATURE,GREEN VIEWS & LOVELY TEMPLES!
OH MY JAFFNA! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR GREAT-HISTORY,EDUCATION,CULTURE&HOSPITALITY!
OH MY LANKA!HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR NATURAL-BEAUTY,SEA,NICE FOOD & WARM CLIMATE!
OH MY NORWAY! HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME&MY FAMILY PROTECTION,SAFETY,LIFE& CARE!
OH MY WORLD!HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR YOUR REGULAR DAY&NIGHT;SUMMER&WINTER CIRCLE SAFELY!
OH MY SUN!HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR LIGHT/HEAT FOR ALL!NOT COME CLOSER OR GO FAR AWAY!
OH MY UNIVERSE!HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING HARMONY!NOT DESTROYING LOVELY WORLD!
OH MY GOD!HOW CAN I THANK YOU FOR THIS LOVELY WORLD/UNIVERSE&MY HEART WORKING SO FAR!

SHAN NALLIAH...DRAMMEN, NORWAY 13-10-2011

MEETING WITH HON.KRISTIN HALVORSEN, MINISTER OF EDUCATION/NORWAY WITH NEW IDEAS..!!!

2011-10-13T12:26:00.000+02:00

DURING THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN AT FJELL SKOLE,DRAMMEN, I MET HON.MINISTER OF EDUCATION: KRISTIN HALVORSEN & SPOKE AT THE PUBLIC MEETING WITH 3 NEW IDEAS OF URGENT NEED:LOCALLY: 1 YEAR JOB TRAINING TO YOUTHS+IMMIGRANTS;NATIONALLY:MONITORING CITIZEN COMMITTEES IN EACH STREET REGARDING NAZI/EXTREME GROUPS/ENVT PROTECTION;INTERNATIONALLY:GON's ACTIVE VOICE & INVOLVEMENT IN HR,JUSTICE,FREEDOM,POLITICAL SOLUTIONS,ENVT PROTECTION IN ASIA,AFRICA &LA.I EXPLAINED THE SITUATION IN SRILANKA/TAMIL SUFFERINGS AS WELL AS NEED OF NORWAY'S ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT EVEN DURING POST-WAR PERIOD TOO! ......NSP

What lankans ...sinhala,tamil,muslims think about present situation in srilanka ...???

2011-08-21T19:05:00.003+02:00

What Sri Lanka really thinks – Dr. Dayan Jayatileka
August 20, 2011, 4:40 pm

"Seek truth from facts" (Deng Xiaoping)

There is an extensive survey of public opinion, the results of which will up-end all conventional assumptions about what the Sri Lankan people think and therefore how they are likely to act or react.

This is the Survey on Democracy in Post-War Sri Lanka, Topline Report July 2011, conducted and published by the Social Indicators unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), in association with the Friedrich Neumann Stiftung of Germany. Headed by Dr Paikiyasothy Saravanamuttu, a well-known civil society critic of the administration, the CPA is and has been a trenchant critic of government policy. Therefore, its findings cannot be tainted by association with government. Those findings will, to put it colloquially, blow your socks off.

Significantly, the statistics show a remarkable degree of congruence between Sinhalese and Tamils on key issues, and a surprisingly positive opinion being held by a fairly large percentage of Tamils on the most contentious and polarising issues.

"On the subject of the general security situation in the country, majority of Sri Lankans think that it has got better in the last two years. 68.2% said it has got a lot better while 23.1% said it has got a little better. When comparing the opinions of respondents across the four communities, it is mostly the Sinhala community (77.5%) and Upcountry Tamil community (57.8%) who said that the security situation has got a lot better. "

The solid commitment of the Sri Lankan citizenry to democracy as a system, and rejection of any suggestion of military rule as a form of government, comes through unambiguously in the Survey data. Furthermore, the commitment to democracy is one major issue on which there is NO significant ethnic differentiation, let alone polarisation. "A majority from all four communities (Sinhala – 68.2%, Tamil – 70.3%, Upcountry Tamil – 70.8%, Muslim 87.8%) stated that democracy is preferable to any other kind of government. 52.7% of Sinhala respondents, 76.3% of Tamil respondents, 71.1% of Upcountry Tamil respondents and 70.1% of Muslim respondents strongly disagreed with the suggestion of having the army rule a country."

Interestingly it is the Sinhalese who disagreed most with the notion of a strong, yet undemocratic leader, even if the situation necessitated it.

"Having a strong leader who does not have to bother with parliament and elections – Respondents from all four communities mostly disagreed with this statement with 50.7% of the Sinhala community, 44.2% of the Tamil community, 41.7% of Upcountry Tamil community and 40.3% of the Muslim community strongly disagreeing... Having a democratically elected political leader – Around 80% of those from Sinhala and Tamil communities and around 85% from the Upcountry Tamil and Muslim communities agreed with this type of leader governing a country. 72.7% of urban respondents and 70.5% of rural respondents said that they strongly agreed with having a democratically elected political leader." (pp 21-22)

The advanced character of the civic consciousness of the Sri Lankan people is demonstrated by their preference for a non-military, non-theocratic, civilian, elected democratic leadership, with a more meritocratic, expert driven decision making /policy process.

"Having experts, not government, make decisions according to what they think is best for the country – Agreement was high for this form of governance, with more than 62% of respondents from all four communities agreeing with this statement." (pp 21-22)

The people, irrespective of ethnic identities, feel that Sri Lanka is more, not less democratic in the post war period. "Most respondents from all four communities believe that Sri Lanka is now more democratic, with 31.2% of Sinhala, 20.8% of Tamil, 32.8% of Upcountry Tamil and 33.8% of Muslim respondents stating that Sri Lanka is much more democratic." Furthermore, the people of all ethnic communities believe that their vote counts, irrespective of all propaganda about vote rigging and stolen elections. The Survey says that "It is noteworthy that most respondents from all four communities believe that their vote has an impact on the outcome of an election."

Notwithstanding a noteworthy degree of alienation among the Tamil citizens of the Hill Country — most respondents in the Upcountry Tamil community (41.2%) believe that they have no say in what the government does—"most in the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities disagreed and believe that they do have a say in what the government does".

What about the freedom of expression? "When asked if in Sri Lanka they are free to express their feelings about politics, irrespective of where they are and who they are with, most of those from the Sinhala community (50%) and Upcountry Tamil community (38.8%) believe that they are completely free to do so, while a much smaller percentage of the Tamil and Muslim communities believe the same."

What do the majority of our citizens say about democracy during the administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa? "58.8% of Sri Lankans think that the country has been the most democratic under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s period. This view is shared by 69.9% of Sinhalese respondents. On the other hand, only 23.6% of Tamil respondents, 13.1% of Upcountry Tamil respondents and 21.9% of Muslim respondents concur."

Which political party do most Sri Lankans feel closest to? What is the picture in the South and North respectively? The results are striking, stark and massive.

"Respondents were asked about which political party (specific party, not alliance) they felt that they are close to. 74% of Sinhalese respondents said the Sri Lanka Freedom Party while 19.8% said the United National Party. 53.9% of Tamil respondents said they felt close to the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi party while 22.4% said the United National Party."

Meanwhile the TNA is not as hegemonic among the Tamils as the SLFP is among the Sinhalese, but it has emerged clearly ahead, and is far more popular among the Tamils than the UNP is among the Sinhalese.

On the problem of a political solution and reconciliation, social opinion does seem divided. "On the topic of a political solution for Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem, 29.7% of Sinhala, 59.1% of Tamil, 30.8% of Up country Tamil and 53.5% of Muslim communities agreed that the Constitution should be changed based on recommendations made by an all party committee to produce a political solution to the country’s ethnic problem. However, 17.6% Sinhala, 4% Tamil, 11.1% Up country Tamil and 14.2% Muslim communities said that there is no need for a political solution as the LTTE was completely defeated militarily. Most respondents from the Tamil (40.9%), Up country Tamil (32.5%) and Muslim (42.9%) communities agree that power needs to be devolved to the Provincial Councils while reducing the power of the central government. Only 15.3% of the Sinhala community concur...On the topic of reconciliation, 32.3% of people from the Tamil community are of the opinion that the government has done nothing with regard to addressing the root causes of the conflict which resulted in thirty years of war. On the other hand, 41.1% of people from the Sinhala community believe that the government has done a lot."

Though this is an extract from the CPA’s ‘Key Points’ summary, the body of the main text provides the real ‘key’ to the solution: "...On the other hand, 31.3% of Sinhala and around 20% of Tamil, Upcountry Tamil and Muslim communities stated that it is alright to decentralise certain powers but powers of the central government should not be reduced. Once again, 37% of Sinhala and around 20% of Tamil, Upcountry Tamil and Muslim respondents said that they have no opinion regarding this." (pp.23-24)

Paradoxically, the CPA statistics make it easier to formulate a political settlement, because the parameters of the possible are brought into sharp relief.

The cold, hard facts revealed by the CPA Survey prescribe the avoidance of Constitutional change drastic enough to reduce, or be credibly perceived (before the Supreme Court, in the first instance) as reducing the powers of the centre and therefore necessitating a referendum. Logic and reality combine to dictate that any political settlement must be limited to that which averts a Sinhala veto at a referendum, i.e. it must remain within the overall framework of the Constitution and must be limited to the actual implementation of its existing provisions for devolution of power to the provinces with perhaps a degree of ‘stretching’ by way of re-adjustment in the list of powers shared concurrently between centre and provinces

In another surprising development, there is a broad consensus cross cutting ethnic fault lines, and belying the critique by oppositional economists, that the Rajapaksa administration is doing a good job on the macro economy. This of course narrows the political space for the UNP, whose strong suit has been economic growth and development. The Survey states that "Looking at the assessment of the economy, most of the respondents from all four communities believe that the government is doing a good job...50.4% of Sinhala, 49.2% of Tamil, 54.4% of Up country Tamil and 60.6% of Muslim communities agree that the government is doing a good job in managing public services. 71.7% of Sinhala, 74.4% of Tamil, 55.9% of Up country Tamil and 64% of Tamil respondents who said that the Government is doing a good job in managing public services also stated that this favourable opinion increased since the end of war. 5.5% of Sinhala, 2.3 of Tamil, 20.3% of Up country Tamil and 7.9% of Muslim respondents said that it has decreased."

This does not however, mean that the people, including the Sinhala people have no clearly identifiable problems, criticism and grievances. The big issues are those of Human Development or Physical Quality of Life including unemployment, inflation and poverty. The big three are the Cost of living, corruption and unemployment. "65% of Sri Lankans, mostly from the Sinhala community, do not think that corruption can be ignored...According to a majority of the respondents, the most important area the Government needs to pay attention to is the cost of living. When it comes to the second most important area, respondents in the Tamil and Upcountry Tamil communities said it should be reducing poverty while the Sinhala community said agriculture and the Muslim community said unemployment. When asked about the main results that people would like to see from the current development process, once again cost of living ranks as the top priority for respondents in all four communities. For the Sinhala community, improved infrastructure is the second result they would like to see while for the other three communities it is addressing unemployment and the creation of more jobs. "

Public opinion is enlightened, across the ethnic communities on the need to prioritise the development of the former conflict areas. "Most respondents from all four communities believe that priority should be given to rebuilding conflict affected areas, with the Tamil (73.6%) and Upcountry Tamil (65.2%) being the highest among the four communities who think so when compared to the 49.6% of Sinhala respondents and 46.1% of Muslim respondents who believe the same. ``The Sri Lankan citizenry displays the same pragmatic enlightenment on two important civic issues, namely women’s representation and the role of the news media. "72.6% said that the news media should constantly investigate and report on corruption and the mistakes made by the government while only 5.6% said that too much reporting on negative events, like corruption, only harms the country... Support for the idea of allocating a fixed quota for women candidates per district at the elections was high among respondents from all four communities."

Lenin once said that "serious politics begins where tens of millions of people are". It is therefore very difficult to take seriously, those who try to do serious politics or urge serious political change with no awareness of or respect for the opinions of tens of millions of Sri Lankan people. Perhaps things are simpler still. The best known injunction of the man who launched China’s economic miracle, Chairman Deng Xiaoping, was ‘seek truth from facts’.

Island.lk

Eventhough muslims were with sinhalese during the separatist war, they treat muslims as foreigners..!!!

2011-08-21T17:17:00.003+02:00

Muslim Fear Psychosis?
August 20, 2011, 4:44 pm

BY Izeth Hussain

Just before I started writing this article I had an email from a usually reliable and well-informed Muslim friend stating that a campaign has been going on trying to turn the Sinhalese Buddhists against the Muslims. In that connection he provided some supporting details, but I don’t want to go into them because what seems to me important is to find out why Sinhalese-Muslim relations are too often troubled. There could be several reasons for that fact, not just Sinhalese racism as many Muslims tend to assume. In this brief article I will comment on two possible reasons: one is the Muslim fear psychosis, and the other is the tendency of Muslims to immure themselves apart from the mainstream of national affairs.

I can provide a very convincing illustration of the Muslim fear psychosis based on what has been told to me by my friend Nawaz A. Rahim. Sometime in the early fifties, he and other devotees who used to go for prayers at the Wellawatte mosque were disturbed by a Buddhist procession which halted in the vicinity and engaged in drumming precisely at the hour of prayer. It was obviously meant as an act of hostility towards the Muslims. I must clarify that in those days there was no loudspeaker call to prayer, nor were traffic problems caused outside mosques, which later became familiar irritants to non-Muslims. What Nawaz and the others were experiencing was therefore entirely unprovoked gratuitous hostility towards the Muslims.

Nawaz and a group of Muslims therefore went to meet Sir Razik Fareed to request him to intervene in the matter. I must explain that at that time Sir Razik had the reputation of being the only Muslim leader who was prepared to speak out on Muslim grievances. The other Muslims with a politically representative capacity were for the most part notorious for their silence on Muslim grievances, which was the consequence of both selfishness and the Muslim fear psychosis. But Sir Razik would have nothing to do with the matter. He held that it was precisely the problem of a Buddhist procession going past a mosque that led to the 1915 anti-Muslim riots. He was factually right about that, but he was deliberately ignoring the context in which those riots took place, about which I cannot go into details here. Suffice it to note that he was clearly displaying the Muslim fear psychosis.

But Nawaz and his fellow devotees were not content. They went to see Dr Colvin R. de Silva who was at that time a Parliamentarian. After listening to them Colvin said something like this, "Nothing is more important than religion in this country," meaning more important politically. That surprised and pleased those Muslims because for most of them Marxism had to be anathematized as a godless creed. He next proceeded to telephone the OIC of the Wellawatte Police Station who happened to be a Malay Muslim by the name of Miskin, and after faulting him for not being aware of the problem, requested him to go to the Buddhist temple in the area and on Colvin’s behalf request the Chief Priest to take action to stop the nuisance. Colvin expected a reply within half an hour and a positive response from the Chief Priest came quickly. Colvin then told those Muslims that if nevertheless the nuisance continued they should come to him, and he would personally lead a mass demonstration to stop the nuisance. Those Muslims decided among themselves that they would attend Colvin’s funeral when it took place. Only Nawaz did so, because the others had passed away or were not in Colombo.

Was Sir Razik in the wrong in refusing to intervene? Many Muslims will still hold that he was quite right because his intervention would have complicated matters whereas the intervention of Colvin, a prominent Sinhalese politician, led to an immediate solution. It is an outlook that still persists widely – how widely I don’t know – as I have found in writing about alleged anti-Muslim racism in cricket etc. Many Muslims believe that I am only aggravating a difficult situation, while others are strongly supportive. The obvious question to be asked is this: if the Muslims themselves fail to speak up on discrimination against them, how can corrective action ever be taken? In indulging their fear psychosis they are not serving their own legitimate interests, nor are they making any contribution to the promotion of ethnic harmony and nation-building. In effect, they are self-declared aliens. It was a realization of that fact that led to the formation of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress in the eighties. It is significant that it quickly established itself as a force to be reckoned with in our national politics, though its performance has been well below potential because of its internal divisions.

I will now provide a very convincing illustration to show that speaking out on anti-Muslim discrimination can have very positive results. From the seventies to part of the nineties there was a widespread perception among Muslims that the press was strongly prejudiced against them, even to the extent that that they were not allowed the right of reply when unfavorable material about the Muslims was published. Some Muslims went to the Press Council and got redress. Siddiqe Ghouse for instance told me that on a decision of the Press Council several of his rejected articles had to be published by a prominent newspaper. After 1994, that is after the return to power of the SLFP, such complaints ceased, or rather they became far less insistent and persistent. There are still complaints, as for instance over a recent superb article which could not find publication. But I believe that anti-Muslim prejudice is not the major factor leading to such complaints. It is rather the constraints imposed on the "free media", here and all over the world, by governments, the advertisers, special interest groups etc.

It may strike many readers as extremely odd that I should make out a case at all to establish the efficacy of speaking out against anti-Muslim discrimination. After all, everyone knows that throughout history and all over the world the underprivileged – such as the blacks, the feminists, the gays, some ethnic minorities – have got their rightful place under the sun only by speaking out against discrimination and campaigning for their legitimate rights. Why have the SL Muslims been allergic to doing so? The reason of course is the Muslim fear psychosis, But that fear psychosis is excessive as it cannot be warranted by the facts. The average Sinhalese may be ethnocentric and have prejudices like every ethnic group under the sun, but he is not innately anti-Muslim and is surely appreciative of the fact that the Muslims stood by the Sinhalese in the struggle against separatism. The crucial fact is this: the Muslims have no claim to a homeland and cannot ever take to separatism, and consequently they can never pose a serious threat to the legitimate interests of the Sinhalese.

We now have to seek an explanation for the excessive fear psychosis. I must add parenthetically at this point that the Sinhalese racist, just like racists everywhere, is nasty, brutish, and almost totally impervious to reason in relating to the Other. But he is in a minority, and the fear psychosis is therefore excessive. I believe that it had its origin in the 1915 riots, but the memory of those riots has largely faded over the decades. By the time of Independence there was a Muslim perception that D.S. Senanayake and other Sinhalese leaders were out to push Sinhalese interests at the expense of the minorities, but at the same time there was a Muslim perception that those leaders were essentially decent, humane, and well-meaning people, and there was a basic confidence that the Muslims could live happily in Sri Lanka in reasonable accommodation with the Sinhalese. But that confidence has been eroding in subsequent decades, mainly I believe because of the root-cause underlying most ethnic problems: the mass aspiration for upward mobility and the struggle for scarce resources. After 1983 a Muslim fear arose as a consequence of assiduously promoted covert propaganda that it would be the turn of the Muslims next. That fear is being revived at the present moment.

But what I am describing above are familiar features of most ethnic problems, which cannot explain the excessive fear psychosis. For that I have to turn to another paradigm: the tendency of Muslims to immure themselves apart from the national mainstream. It is a complex problem requiring another article. In the meanwhile I will refer to a visit paid to me around 1980 by the late Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe to discuss what he saw as the essential Muslim problem. He had extraordinary prescience about the ethnic horror that was to descend on us, and was therefore holding meetings to promote ethnic understanding. He said that he was struck by the fact that Muslim participation in the meetings was of a perfunctory order with no real commitment to the process. A Tamil representative, he said, saw that as an expression of Muslim selfishness, whereas I would see it as an expression of their fear psychosis. Anyway, Bishop Lakshman forecast that the tendency to hold themselves apart would result in the Sinhalese coming to see the Muslims as no different from the Tamils, as people who did not belong to the nation. Retrospectively it seems to me that he was right.

izethhussain@gmail.com

Island.lk

The healthiest option is peace building & reconciliation through a political solution in which ALL CAN DECIDE ABOUT PAST MISTAKES & FUTURE SOLUTIONS!

2011-08-09T12:02:00.006+02:00

No meeting point of the two war narratives?
August 8, 2011, 6:35 pm

By Jehan Perera

There are two narratives of the end phase of the war that are battling for dominance. The first is that of the Sri Lankan government that emphasizes the victory over the LTTE and terrorism and the securing of the country’s unity and sovereignty. It also asserts that the war was conducted according to international law with a policy of minimising civilian casualties. The other is the account of the expert panel appointed by the UN Secretary General, which is a severe indictment of the Sri Lankan government’s lack of adherence to international norms in the conduct of the war. This report has drawn on the information available within the UN system and also the reports of human rights organizations.

The UN panel report, also known as the Darusman report in deference to its chairman, is over 200 pages in length. It was issued to the public in March this year. Although well written, not many would wish to labour many hours to read it unless especially motivated as students of the Sri Lankan conflict or as advocates of a position. This is not the case with the UK Channel 4 video titled "Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields" that made its appearance in June this year. It is of one hour’s duration and provides a graphic account of what is presented as the last days of the war. It is readily accessible on the internet to those who wish to see it, if they are prepared to brave its warning that it contains scenes that could be very disturbing.

The Sri Lankan government’s response to the UN expert panel report and to the UK Channel 4 video has, from its inception, taken the form of denials and denunciations. The material in them is described as fabricated, biased and ill motivated by a desire for revenge at the defeat of the LTTE. The sources of information are also accused of being tainted, being either NGOs or Tamil Diaspora. As a result, the notion of an international conspiracy has a wide acceptance within Sri Lanka.

In such a situation of opposing versions of the same event, the solution would seem to be a third report of an in independent group. The government has, however, sidestepped the increasingly vociferous international demand for an independent international investigation into the alleged human rights violations and war crimes by referring to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission it has appointed.

BOOK LAUNCH

The Sri Lankan government has presented the LLRC as a legitimate and viable mechanism that precludes the need for an international investigation at this time, and even in the future. This is on the basis that international remedies are only necessary when national ones have failed. The LLRC has already issued an interim report and its final report is expected in November this year. The US government has given importance to the LLRC by officially informing the Sri Lankan government through a diplomatic note that it expects the LLRC’s final report to be presented for discussion next year at the UN’s Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

However, with the LLRC’s final report yet to be published, the government has taken additional action to counter the UN expert panel report and the UK Channel 4 video at the international level. Last week’s government launch of a book titled "Humanitarian Operation A Factual Analysis" and a video titled "Lies Agreed Upon" was the government’s reply to the UN expert panel report and the UK Channel 4 video. They were both launched at a large gathering in which high ranking members of the Sri Lankan security forces were present in large numbers.

In addition, a sizeable number of foreign diplomats and media were also present. There were also a few NGOs also present who had previously been excluded from government events that had anything to do with national security and counter terrorism. Their presence could be taken as evidence of a greater willingness on the part of the government to positively engage with other perspectives in a more accommodative spirit.

The government’s report and video provide an opposite perspective to that found in the UN expert panel report and the Channel 4 video. They focus on the LTTE and on its brutal methods. The government narrative goes back in time to cover the period in which the LTTE first engaged in acts of terrorism. It does not start where the international narrative starts from, which is the last phase of the war. As a result the government narrative provides a context in which the ferocity of the war in its last phase can be better understood from the nature of the LTTE which took a population of over 300,000 hostage during that period. It is worth noting that the government’s willingness to concede that civilian deaths were unavoidable and did occur during the last phase of the war has come along with the release of this report and video.

LOCALLY DOMINANT

There is no doubt that the government narrative will be the one that dominates and prevails within Sri Lanka. It will prevail regardless of the content and quality of the government report and video. This is because most people within the country experienced at first hand the fear of the LTTE’s brutal terrorism even if they did not suffer directly at its hands. The government report and video will further strengthen the feeling of people within the country that the international community is biased and anti-Sri Lanka in its targeting of the government. This will lead to a further hardening of anti-Western sentiment as it is generally perceived that the West that is seeking to punish the government for ridding the country of the LTTE.

On the other hand, that section of the international community that is urging an independent international mechanism to investigate the last phase of Sri Lanka’s war is not likely to change its position either. The government report focuses on the LTTE, its methods and actions over the years. There is no mention at all of the excesses of the government’s counter terrorism strategy of which there were so many, and also of the impunity, elements of which continue to the present time The politically partisan nature of the government report can also be seen by its failure to even mention the break-up of the LTTE by the defection of its eastern commander during the period of the much maligned Ceasefire Agreement which was signed by the present Leader of the Opposition and was brokered by the Norwegian government.

So what remains are two narratives, one that dominates internationally and the other that is dominant within the country. These two narratives are at loggerheads with each other and appear to have no meeting place. Neither of these narratives is going to be a vehicle for reconciliation in the future, as each will be fiercely resisted and debunked by the other. Therefore it is unlikely that there will be peace building and reconciliation by going down the road of trying to prove whether or not war crimes took place.

In this context of polarization, the healthiest option is peace building and reconciliation through a political solution in which Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others of smaller ethnic and religious communities, such as the Burghers, Malays and Borahs decide together what to do about the past and what the country’s shared future should be. This is what the government together with the opposition political parties ought to be working hard at achieving.

www island.lk

SINHALA GOVT of Sri Lanka has spent a staggering Rs. 2.5 bn on the rehabilitation of TAMIL ex-LTTE cadres since the conclusion of the conflict in 2009

2011-08-06T15:01:00.005+02:00

Rehab of ex-LTTE cadres costs Rs. 2.5
August 5, 2011, 12:00 pm

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The government of Sri Lanka has spent a staggering Rs. 2.5 bn on the rehabilitation of ex-LTTE cadres since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009.

Commissioner General of Rehabilitation Maj. Gen. Sudantha Ranasinghe yesterday said that in spite of constraints, the government had provided the funds needed for post-war rehabilitation process.

Responding to a query, the official said that the first year (May 2009 to May 2010) had cost the Sri Lankan taxpayer Rs. 1.8 bn and about Rs. 700 mn since then.

With the release of 150 ex-LTTE cadres, the total number released so far would exceed 8,000 with some 2,000 LTTEmembers, including about 100 women still undergoing rehabilitation.

Maj. Gen. Ranasinghe alleged that those shedding crocodile tears for the ex-LTTE combatants hadn’t supported the rehabilitation project, though some foreign governments and INGOs were backing the government’s efforts.

The rehabilitation Chief said that at the beginning of the programme there had been 11,664 personnel at 24 rehabilitation facilities and those who accused the military of war crimes should talk to former members of the LTTE and ascertain their views. He said: "We have over 11,000 witnesses who either surrendered or were captured and then released following rehabilitation. Besides them, there are some 300,000 civilians.Unlike faceless men in fake videos produced by Channel 4 News, we have over 300,000 witnesses."

"At one time we brought 1,500 of those undergoing rehabilitation to Colombo and its suburbs. No one tried to escape as they knew no other army would have treated them the way we did," the official said.

Asked whether ex-LTTE cadres would be given an opportunity to support reconstruction and rehabilitation similar to the projects undertaken by the military, the Major Gen. said that two weeks ago former combatants had helped villagers at an isolated village in the Kilinochchi District. The official expressed confidence that ex-LTTE personnel could play a pivotal role in rehabilitation and reconstruction projects.

Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Ubaya Medawela emphasised that the military had a crucial role to play in the post-war development plans. Although some interested parties had expressed concern over their involvement, the military would continue with projects undertaken in the northern and eastern provinces. "Our troops built over 7,000 new houses and repaired about 10,000 others since the end of the war," the outgoing military spokesman said. He estimated that the SLA had completed projects worth approximately Rs 6.3 bn and more projects were in the pipeline.

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She knows that forgetting the past is the best remedy, but sometimes bitter memories continue to haunt her. Erasing those painful memories is serious!

2011-08-06T13:17:00.006+02:00

Sunday, 31 July 2011

A new lease of life for former LTTE cadre
By Shanika Sriyananda

She likes fashion just like any young girl. Newly applied red nail polish shines on her nails and her handbag matches her outfit - the shalwar. The new pair of high heels she wears still makes her slightly uneasy. Used to a rough life since 2004, Devakumari Esmini needs time to adjust to her new life as a normal youth.

Devakumari

She knows that forgetting the past is the best remedy, but sometimes bitter memories from the past continue to haunt her. Erasing those painful memories which are firmly buried in the back of her mind is as serious to her as her struggle to find a job suitable for what she had learnt.

Devakumari forces herself to smile when she recalls her story, but tears make her vision blurred. It was on a fateful day in 2004 that terrorists dragged her away; she had just returned from school - Udayarkattu Maha Vidyalayam. The pleas of her Amma had fallen on deaf ears. The white van, where eight girls in school uniforms had been packed in, carried them to the Puhalini Training Base at Wattakachchi, Ampakamampuram, where over 175 children were being given weapons training.

Devakumari was hand-picked for the special two-months training at the Kutti Sri Mortar Brigade under the leadership of Bavanithi. She was deployed to a base in Pallai and after a one-month stay she was sent to Nagar Kovil.

The ill-trained cadre, especially child soldiers, died every day on the battle fields. The same way the LTTE had brought us for the training, they had abducted many small children since 2008 as the government had intensified attacks on the LTTE. The LTTE had to fight in several fronts and there was a severe shortage of man-power to fight. Some parents who came in search of their children were threatened and some were shot dead”. Devakumari who was deployed in Mannar in 2008 to prevent the military thrust, said.

The girls and boys with special training were deployed in batches. Devakumari was injured twice - in Mullankavil and Thewapuram. Her services as an LTTE child soldier were discontinued when she got a serious leg injury.

During the final months of the last battle in 2009, when the LTTE kept nearly 300,000 displaced people as hostages in a small stretch of land - Puthumathalan, Devakumari who was isolated by the LTTE, found her family. She says even when all the people were running for their lives, the LTTE continued to snatch small children who could hold a gun or throw a grenade, to fight with the Army.

Ready to fight
“We had to obey our group leader; if she deploys us to fight, the cadre should be ready to fight. If we refused we would be either punished or assaulted. Those who continued to be stubborn and refused to go to the battle front would be killed. Or else, they would be dropped at the Forward Defence Lines to fight. Those poor children did not want to fight. They were not trained enough to face the trained Army soldiers. But in fear of death, they fought despite knowing only how ti gikd a T-56. Whenever they got a chance to abandon the LTTE, they surrendered. But many who were caught while trying to run away were killed by the LTTE police”, she explains.

Devakumari says many children starved as there was a severe shortage of food. “We never ate three meals a day. We got only one meal with dhal curry, but during the final months the LTTE completely neglected us. When the small children cried in fear of going to the battle front or in hunger, the LTTE hit them with wooden poles. Some were not given food to eat and treatment for their wounds”. Devakuamri who still aspires to make her childhood dream - to become a teacher - a reality one day, says.

Her mother, Thewakumar Ranjani weeps when she listens to her daughter’s ordeal. She loses her voice for a moment. Tears gush down her face. After a pindrop silence, she says she did not know that her child had undergone such risks. “I pleaded with them not to take her, but they threatened me that they would take my other children. We really thought that she was dead and prayed to the gods to save my other children. But my family is lucky, we got reunited, Ranjani says.

Ranjani says all mothers, like her, now have a common wish and pray for to the gods. It is, not to leave space for a future Prabhakaran to be born to destroy the future of their children. “We don’t want such a dark era again.

We want peace for our children and we are now happy as there is no one to snatch our children,” she says.

Devakumari brushed up her skills on sewing while undergoing vocational training at the Thellippalai centre for rehabilitation of ex-cadre in Vavuniya.

After a one and a half year stay at the centre, she returned home to Iyattalai, Varani in Jaffna, with a novel challenge - sitting for the Advance Level examination. Now she is fully engaged on catching up her missed lessons.

She says there is no chance for the LTTE or any similar organisation to make a comeback. “We were misled by the LTTE. They from the school to the training centre, created hatred towards the Sinhalese and the Sinhala Army. We the schoolchildren did not know why we were fighting with the soldiers. They told us that soldiers are coming to capture our land, to rape girls and kill boys as the Sinhala government want to sweep out Tamils from the country. So they asked us to fight for a separate land which they were going to create for Tamils,” she says.But, Devakumari says, like her, thousands of other Tamil youth felt that they were misled by the LTTE towards an unwanted cause and they lied to them about the Army soldiers. “For over one and a half years, I was at the centre run by the Army. They save us when we were running for our lives. They never harmed us. We were well looked after by the soldiers and they taught us about the value of living and saving lives,” she says adding the ex-cadre in the North are now looking forward to a better future and knows the value of peace.

Devakumari who used to wear oversized shirts and trousers in combat, now wears fashionable shalwars and kurthas and gold jewellery. A gold pendant - with the letter “T” on her chain. It seems her young heart which had forcibly shut out love is gradually opening up. She smiles shyly.

Pic: Thilak Perera
SUNDAYOBSERVER.LK

That’s why Sri Lanka has been so dismissive of international criticism.!!!

2011-08-04T09:17:00.003+02:00

May 2, 2009

Chinese billions in Sri Lanka fund battle against Tamil Tigers

Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent

On the southern coast of Sri Lanka, ten miles from one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, a vast construction site is engulfing the once sleepy fishing town of Hambantota.

This poor community of 21,000 people is about as far as one can get on the island from the fighting between the army and the Tamil Tiger rebels on the northeastern coast. The sudden spurt of construction helps, however, to explain why the army is poised to defeat the Tigers and why Western governments are so powerless to negotiate a ceasefire to help civilians trapped on the front line.

This is where China is building a $1 billion port that it plans to use as a refuelling and docking station for its navy, as it patrols the Indian Ocean and protects China’s supplies of Saudi oil. Ever since Sri Lanka agreed to the plan, in March 2007, China has given it all the aid, arms and diplomatic support it needs to defeat the Tigers, without worrying about the West.

Even India, Sri Lanka’s long-time ally and the traditionally dominant power in South Asia, has found itself sidelined in the past two years — to its obvious irritation. “China is fishing in troubled waters,” Palaniappan Chidambaram, India’s Home Minister, warned last week.

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The Chinese say that Hambantota is a purely commercial venture, but many US and Indian military planners regard it as part of a “string of pearls” strategy under which China is also building or upgrading ports at Gwadar in Pakistan, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Sittwe in Burma.

The strategy was outlined in a paper by Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher J. Pehrson, of the Pentagon’s Air Staff, in 2006, and again in a report by the US Joint Forces Command in November. “For China, Hambantota is a commercial venture, but it’s also an asset for future use in a very strategic location,” Major-General (Retd) Dipankar Banerjee of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in Delhi said.

The British Navy used the Sri Lankan port of Trincomalee as its main regional base until 1957 and still shares a naval base with the US on the nearby island of Diego Garcia. China has no immediate plans for a fully fledged naval base but wants a similar foothold in the Indian Ocean to protect its oil supplies from piracy or blockade by a foreign power, analysts say.

Beijing sent three ships on an unprecedented anti-piracy mission to the Gulf of Aden in December, and in January a Chinese defence White Paper said that the navy was “developing capabilities of conducting co-operation in distant waters . . .”

China has cultivated ties with Sri Lanka for decades and became its biggest arms supplier in the 1990s, when India and Western governments refused to sell weapons to Colombo for use in the civil war. Beijing appears to have increased arms sales significantly to Sri Lanka since 2007, when the US suspended military aid over human rights issues.

Many of the arms have been bought through Lanka Logistics & Technologies, co-headed by Gotabhaya Rajapksa, the Defence Secretary, who is also the President’s brother.

In April 2007 Sri Lanka signed a classified $37.6 million (£25 million) deal to buy Chinese ammunition and ordnance for its army and navy, according to Jane’s Defence Weekly.

China gave Sri Lanka — apparently free of charge — six F7 jet fighters last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, after a daring raid by the Tigers’ air wing destroyed ten military aircraft in 2007. One of the Chinese fighters shot down one of the Tigers’ aircraft a year later.

“China’s arms sales have been the decisive factor in ending the military stalemate,” Brahma Chellaney, of the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi, said. “There seems to have been a deal linked to Hambantota.”

Since 2007 China has encouraged Pakistan to sell weapons to Sri Lanka and to train Sri Lankan pilots to fly the Chinese fighters, according to Indian security sources.

China has also provided crucial diplomatic support in the UN Security Council, blocking efforts to put Sri Lanka on the agenda. It has also boosted financial aid to Sri Lanka, even as Western countries have reduced their contributions.

China’s aid to Sri Lanka jumped from a few million dollars in 2005 to almost $1 billion last year, replacing Japan as the biggest foreign donor. By comparison, the United States gave $7.4 million last year, and Britain just £1.25 million.

“That’s why Sri Lanka has been so dismissive of international criticism,” said B. Raman of the Chennai Centre for China Studies. “It knows it can rely on support from China.”

© Times Newspapers Ltd 2010 Registered in England No. 894646 Registered office: 3 Thomas More Square, London, E98 1XY

According to Norway tender document, in the first phase,(1997-99)an agreement was made between the Norwegian and the SL-govt..!!!

2011-07-28T15:40:00.005+02:00

Norwegian ‘peace evaluation’ delayed
July 27, 2011, 9:11 pm

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Norway seems to be reluctant to make public a costly evaluation of its unsuccessful peace efforts in Sri Lanka.

Although Norway initially planned to unveil the final report in the first week of April 2011, ahead of UNSG Ban Ki-moon’s unsubstantiated ‘war crimes’ report, an influential section in the Norwegian government is concerned about the outcome.

Sources told The Island that in view of a spate of revelations made by WikiLeaks with regard to the Norwegian-led peace process since February 2002 the interested parties would not be able to manipulate the Norwegian evaluation. The Norwegian government may not want the report to cause further embarrassment to its allies by exposing sharp discrepancies in the UNSG’s report.

Last Friday’s massacre carried out by 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, son of a retired Norwegian diplomat couldn’t have come at a worse time for those behind the peace evaluation. International news agencies quoted Norwegian authorities as having said that the assassin’s primary grouse had been the failure on the part of Europe to tackle illegal migration.

Norway in supporting the LTTEwent to the extent of providing secret passage to wanted Sri Lankans to reach Norway.

The Norwegian report is expected to shed light on some key issues, including the LTTE walking away from the negotiating table during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure as the Prime Minister, assassination of the then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and an attempt to save the lives of top LTTE commanders and their families.

Discrepancies between the Norwegian report and the UNSG’s panel on the final phase of the war on the Vanni east front could place those targeting Sri Lanka on the human rights front in an embarrassing position, sources said.

Christian Michelsen Institute (CMI) based in Bergen, a major recipient of Norwegian funds, led the evaluation of four separate peace efforts by Norway from 1997 to 2009. A nine-member evaluation team comprised CMI’s Gunnar Sorbo, Jonathan Goodhand of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and seven others, including four Sri Lankans. The identities of all members are not yet known. SOAS is part of London University (UK).

The joint bid by the CMI and SOAS was chosen out of six international ones.

The CMI receives funding through Research Council of Norway (NFR), which in turn is funded by the Norwegian Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.

Gunnar M. Sorbo, who had held several positions in several Norwegian institutions, including NFR and the Agency for International Development now heads the CMI.

The evaluating team interviewed European, US and Indian officials and Sri Lankans. Although the Sri Lankan government declined to assist in the Norwegian inquiry, the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met Sorbo in Oslo several months ago.

Much as all four Norwegian attempts were inter-connected, the focus of the evaluation was on the third bid (2002 to 2006) supported by the "Tokyo Co-Chairs", comprising the US, EU, Japan and Norway.

According to the tender document calling for the evaluation of the Norwegian role, the total Norwegian development cooperation with Sri Lanka amounted to approximately NOK 2. 5 billion from 1997 – 2009. Out of this, approximately NOK 100 million was allocated to activities aimed at directly supporting the peace process, including the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the peace secretariats of the parties, meaning the LTTE received a substantial amount of funds.

The Norwegians have divided their engagement here into four phases: 1997-1999, 1999-2002, 2002- 2006 and 2006-2009.

According to the Norwegian tender document, in the first phase, from 1997 to 1999, an agreement was made between the Norwegian and the Sri Lankan government that Norwegian development cooperation should support a negotiated solution to the conflict. Norway had quiet contact with the parties to the conflict.

In the second phase, from 1999 to 2002, the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government requested Norway to be the facilitator. A ceasefire agreement was negotiated. The Nordic civilian monitoring group, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), was established under Norwegian leadership.

In the third phase, from 2002 to 2006, Norway was the facilitator between the parties in six rounds of negotiations, which among others resulted in the parties agreeing to explore a federal solution within a united Sri Lanka.

In the fourth phase, from 2006 to 2009, the escalation of the war put an end to an active Norwegian facilitator role.

www island.lk

Influence can still be seen across SEA region - in the Tamil influences in the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia & in the Ganesh Gods that guard homes !

2011-07-26T09:11:00.005+02:00

Clinton's Southern India Sojourn

Tridivesh Singh Maini
23 July 2011

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's India sojourn went much as expected. There was an emphasis on increasing US-India engagement in numerous spheres, talk of a greater role for India on the world stage, a clear noting of the fact that both countries are natural allies, and also public recognition that their common interests and values outshine the differences between the two countries.

But there were two particularly interesting things about Clinton's stay. First was how this round of US-India engagement has been so dominated by women. Clinton met with Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha Jayaramand Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, while India's ambassador to the United States, Meera Shankar, has played an active role in arranging the visit.

The second interesting point is that the only other placeClinton visited aside from New Delhi was Chennai. Clinton's key engagements included a lecture at the Anna Centenary Library, where she lauded Tamil Nadu for its commendable progress, especially in the realm of education and industrialisation. She also spoke about broader issues, such as the Indo-US partnership, the situation in neighbouring Sri Lanka and the role India can play in stabilising South Asia.

Interestingly, while talking about a larger role for India in the Asia-Pacific region, Clinton invoked Chennai's geographical location and Tamil Nadu's historical links with Southeast Asia.

'There is no better place to speak about Asia-Pacific than Chennai, which looks out onto the Bay of Bengal. Indian traders have sailed these waters for thousands of years and their influence can still be seen across the region - in the Tamil influences in the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia and in the Ganesha gods that guard homes in Indonesia,' she said.

So why is the Chennai visit noteworthy? For a start, it recognises a new dynamic in India's foreign policy, namely the increasing role of provinces in India's conduct of foreign policy. While once it would have seemed odd for a foreign dignitary to discuss bilateral relations with a third nation with the chief minister of a state, Clinton did precisely this when she discussed the Sri Lankan issue with Jayalalitha.

Second, Clinton's visit to southern India clearly underscores the increasing clout the region has, both economically and politically. No longer is there a sense that foreign policy is framed exclusively through a north Indian way of thinking.

Finally, Clinton's visit was also a reminder of the challenges of tackling the increasing friction between the United States and Pakistan, a reality that's bound to have an impact on the soon to be held foreign minister level talks between India and Pakistan. The arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai, head of the Kashmiri American Council, by the FBI has only exacerbated the tensions between Washington and Islamabad. This comes on top of Pakistani anger after the US halted $800 million of military aid to Pakistan.

India certainly therefore has its task cut out to ensure that tits cosying up to Washington doesn't impact it's engagement with Pakistan, progress on which is imperative for stability in the region. Achieving this will likely mean that Indian decision makers will have to rely more on instinct than conventional intelligence.

As Otto von Bismarck once stated:

'The best a statesman can do is to listen to the footsteps of God, get hold of the hem of his cloak, and walk with him a few steps of the way'.

(Tridivesh Singh Maini is an Associate Fellow with Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi)

Courtesy: the-diplomat.com

© 2009 Observer Research Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

In the first place did we ever ask you for anything except out dignity and freedom? What you have taken away from us is our dignity and modesty.!!!

2011-07-26T08:08:00.003+02:00

worldclasstamil.com Moderator to Massey

The message is clean, clear, crisp and loud

The elections in Jaffna and Vanni despite throw aways and threat has sent a very clear message to Rajapaksa and his thieves. We Tamils and ourdignity are not for sale. By the way when you are begging for money from othernations how you can invest money for us, Tamils. In the first place did we ever ask you for anything except out dignity and freedom? What you have taken awayfrom us is our dignity and modesty. That is all you have to give us.

We don’t need your rice and parippu; give them to the poor Singhalese peoplewho voted for you. Secondly what is your reputation? You are known as a criminaland a murderer in the world circle. And they also know that you are the onebehind all these crimes which you committed for personal and politicalpurposes.

You can only fool the world so much and you have done enough of it tobe listed in the hall of great hoaxes and notorious impostors, forgers,swindlers, robbers, and con artist throughout the history. But you have aspecial place in taking over the government of nation, which Al Capone, HowardHughes or John Gotti could not do it. That was incredible.

You and your cronies have openly abused world class institutions. Thattouches the very root of civilization which depends on it. Calling people namesis different from calling institutions as wrong and unethical.

Twenty-Eight Years Gone And Still With “Sinhala Nittaewo”...!!!

2011-07-25T08:34:00.003+02:00

Twenty-Eight Years Gone And Still With “Sinhala Nittaewo”

Writing about “Nittaewo” of Ceylon, Fredrick Lewis said, they were more human-like in appearance, short and powerful with large hands and long, hooked nails similar to the talons of an eagle. Hugh Nevill wrote, the Nittaewo lived in small groups of 15 to 20, were savage and they tore into the belly of the prey with their talon like claws. They took away children of the Veddahs and was thus wiped out by Veddahs, say both writers.

Twenty eight years ago this Sunday, most considerate and large hearted Sinhala people, had a harrowing week to begin with, providing shelter and security to the Tamil people who for decades lived in the South, but were pursued by the Sinhala Nittaewo. In marauding groups of 15 to 20, they tore into the belly of the Sri Lankan society, led by Industries Minister Cyril Mathew of President Jayawardena’s UNP government, as popularly claimed.

As architect of Sinhala Buddhist racism in post independent Sri Lanka, Cyril Mathew had by then gone on record saying, [quote] “Any person who reads this book with care will realise that there is a systematic growth of Tamil forces in this country, in opposition to the Sinhala Buddhist culture and the political and economic background of Sri Lanka. As matters now stand, it would be useless to merely say ‘let there be peace.” [unquote] From the book, Sinhalayage Adhisi Hathura (The Unseen Enemy of the Sinhalese) by Cyril Mathew.

Twenty eight years ago, two weeks before the pogrom on Tamil people, President Jayawardena told Ian Ward of the London Daily Telegraph on 11 July 1983, [quote] “I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people now… Now we cannot think of them. Not about their lives or of their opinion about us… The more you put pressure in the North, the happier the Sinhala people will be here…really, if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy…” [unquote]

Gamini Dissanayake, the Mahaweli Minister was happy speaking the same language. [quote] “Even today, Thondaman has spoken in parliament supporting Mr. Amirthalingam and the struggle of the people in the North for their rights. Our Buddhist priests and Sinhala youths have been enraged by this. We have calmed them with great difficulty. Who attacked you? Sinhalese. Who protected you? Sinhalese. It is we who can attack and protect you.” [unquote] September 5, 1983, addressing the executive committee of the Lanka Jathika Estate Workers’ Union at Siri Kotha.

That was the crude mindset of these Sinhala Nittaewo, who led the pogrom on Tamil people and left a trail of bleeding and putrefying destruction that helped the armed Tamil militancy to justify their claim for a separate Eelam State. They consciously ‘force bled’ the Sri Lankan society to create a Tamil Diaspora in Western countries and a large refugee presence in Tamil Nadu. For 26 years, a formidable segment within this fractured and humiliated Tamil society, expected the LTTE to establish a separate “Thamil Eelam State” to regain their dignity.

It should have been a “lesson learnt” for the Sinhala South, that brute force and arrogant politics, are no answers for political conflicts, when Sri Lanka was pushed into a long, protracted war. That it is the Tamil Diaspora which helped and funded the LTTE, in its armed insurgency, that sought to establish a separate “Thamil Eelam State,” with equally brutality. That it is this same Tamil Diaspora which keeps the war crimes and crimes against humanity as steeled demands against this Rajapaksa regime, the international community can not now trash.

Hillary Rodham Clinton thus became the first US Secretary of State to make an official call on a Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on July 20, and to discuss politics of its neighbour. At the Anna Centenary Library in Chennai, she made it very clear why the US pays so much interest in India.

She said, “We understand that much of the history of the 21st century will be written in Asia. And much of the future of Asia will be shaped by decisions not just by the Indian government, but by governments across India and by the 1.3 billion people who live in this country.” India, according to Madam Clinton, had increased its trade with the US by 20 percent over the past year. India therefore, is in every way an important geo-political ally for the US, in a new emerging Asia. A new Asia, the US would play cautious with China that funds all rogue States in the world.

Jayalalitha as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, within the political equation that has New Delhi and Colombo on either side, with US pressed to take a position, thus become important to the US in striking a compromise with the New Delhi administration. Madam Clinton therefore told the large and diverse audience at the Anna Centenary Library, “India’s diverse and democratic system can serve as a model for Sri Lanka.

In Chennai and in Tamil Nadu, you can see how much society can achieve when all citizens participate in political and economic life. Every citizen of Sri Lanka deserves the same.” The long and loud applause she received for that single statement on Sri Lanka, explains the sentiments on which Jayalalithaa would now have to work, having made her election rhetoric, an official resolution of the TN State Assembly.

Most unfortunately, all of them, the US, New Delhi and Jayalalithaa have to work with a Sri Lankan regime and a Sinhala majority polity, that do not give much credence to the polemic, “a society can achieve when all citizens participate in political and economic life.” They don’t seem to want to learn lessons from the past and from anywhere else, to seek a secure future. President Rajapaksa himself does not want to prove Prabhakaran right either, by being the “pragmatic Sinhala leader,” Prabhakaran said Mahinda Rajapaksa could be reckoned as, in his “Mahaveer Day” speech on November 27, 2005, just eight days after Rajapaksa was first sworn in as President.

This regime thus continues on “Jayawardene thinking” that is no different to “Mahinda thinking.” Not thinking of the Tamil people. Not thinking about their lives or of their opinion about the Rajapaksa regime. Putting more pressure in the North and making the Sinhala people happier. That’s what President Jayawardene said in 1983 he would start doing and that’s what President Rajapaksa is doing right now. Yet with a difference.

Very much different in war to all Presidents and all regimes from Jayawardene to Kumaratunge, this Rajapaksa regime put in place a brutal war plan that totally uprooted and dislocated people from their villages, beginning from around 2007 July and August, for 22 months. With heavy shelling, mortar and MBRL fire, people from all villages in the West coast in Mannar were collectively driven to the East coast in Mullivaikkal, in Mullaitivu, over this 22 month period. During this period, all the shells, mortars and bombs that rained over Mannar, Killinochchi and Mullaitivu districts, sanitised all that land and left over 280,000 people, old, young and infant, men and women, “caged” as Gordon Weiss says, behind barbed wire camps as “IDPs”. The war had been declared over on May 19, 2009, as a “humanitarian war” with “zero civilian casualty”.

This Sinhala society accepts it as a “liberating war” and the Rajapaksa regime wants it just that way. Therefore, two years after the war, when TNA national list MP, Sumanthiran tables in parliament, a comprehensive report on how the Tamil people are still ill treated, despite what the Rajapaksa regime tells the world on its supposed efforts in “social reconciliation”, the main Opposition parties, the UNP and the JVP do not want to debate and discuss it. They prefer not to even see it. Hence they are yet to make any reference to the Sumanthiran report, in public.

The mainstream media does not want to touch those people’s issues either. There was no front page coverage, no editorial on this human report that talked about the lives of thousands in the North – East, though a single army deserter in Kahawatte, who was killed for blood thirst, had many front page accounts, continuously for days. MP Sumanthiran’s situation report on the plight of the Tamil people in the North and East thus falls far short of the Kahawatte serial killer and goes unseen and unnoticed by the Sinhala South.

None of the issues he records where the security forces, the militarised administration and political complicity robs people of their ancestral land, displaces them of livelihood, continues to keep them under intelligence surveillance and even tinkers with their cultural life, is good enough for the South to talk of. Never good enough for media reporting too. It’s the extension of the “Sinhala Nittaewo” mindset in this whole South, still living after 28 years, with more Mathews, Jayawardene’s and Dissanayake’s holding this regime together.

How far this political power, nurtured on a crude ‘Nittaewo’ mindset could survive, is nevertheless a gnawing question. Hugh Nevill wrote the Veddahs finally decided to corner the ‘Nittaewo’ in a cave and blocked its entrance for many days with a huge fire. Their children had to live for the future, the Veddahs decided. Somewhere, some time, something tips the scales. Marx called it the subjective factor. In the modern Arab world, it was termed the “Arab Spring.” And then, history is written anew.

SUNDAYLEADER.LK

Rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadres return to their future empowered with skills and confidence.!!!

2011-07-25T01:06:00.001+02:00

Born again into a life worth living for
Rehabilitated ex-LTTE cadres return to their future empowered with skills and confidence
By Chandani Kirinde

Twenty-two-year-old Ramachandran Dushani is days away from leaving the rehabilitation centre for female ex-combatants of the LTTE, at Poonthottam in Vavuniya. She’s happy to be reunited with her parents and sister after more than two years, but her joy is mixed with a feeling of apprehension about how accepting society would be of her, once she returns to her home in Wattakachchi in Kilinochchi.

“I don’t know what to expect when I go home, but I am eager to recommence my studies,” she said. Dushani was taken away forcibly by the LTTE in September, 2007, while she was studying for her Advanced Level examination at Ramanathan College in Kilinochchi.

Commissioner of Rehabilitation, Maj. Gen. Sudantha Ranasinghe. Pic by Gemunu Wellage Rehabilitation Cooperating Officer, Vavuniya, Lt. Col. Manjula Munasinghe
She like many other conscripts, underwent a hurried training of a month-and-a-half, during which, they learnt to use an automatic weapon and homemade bombs, before being deployed on route-clearing operations, as well as to man defence lines in the Mugandi-Vishvamadhu area.

With the war drawing to an end, she crossed over to Government controlled areas, along with her family members, and made her way to the welfare camp in Vavuniya. Later, she surrendered to the security forces, spent three months at Boosa, and two more months at Welikada prisons. She then joined the rehabilitation and reintegration programme, which she will complete by the end of this month.

Dushani says she learnt English, took part in cultural activities and made new friends at the Poonthottam centre. “I want to first do my ALs, then think of what I will do after that,” she said, nervously touching the thin gold chain that has replaced the cyanide capsule that adorned her neck during her days in the LTTE.

For Commissioner of Rehabilitation, Maj. Gen. Sudantha Ranasinghe, it has been a rewarding experience to witness the transformation of battle-hardened combatants into law-abiding citizens of the country.

“Initially, when they came in, it was not very easy, but we were very patient. We were able to bring down their level of radicalisation within three months of starting the programme,” Maj. Gen. Ranasinghe said.
The programme is based on a six-pillar model starting with spiritual, religious and cultural programmes, followed by educational, vocational, livelihood and sports programmes.

“It’s an entirely Sri Lankan model to suit our special situation. It is designed to suit the cultural and religious ethics and norms of the Tamil speaking people of the country. This will not suit even the south,” he said.

Of the 11,664 ex-combatants placed under the rehabilitation and reintegration programme starting with the defeat of the LTTE in May, 2009, 7,969 have returned to their homes, while the remainder are scheduled to end their training programmes in the next few months.

The majority of the LTTE cadres who underwent this programme, had come in with a voluntary surrendee statement and a declaration of their willingness to go through a rehabilitation process. It includes a one-year mandatory programme, extended up to a maximum period of another year, depending on the degree of radicalisation of the cadres.

This picture drawn by a rehabilitated cadre apparently depicts the Tamil diaspora as the dragon trying to destroy a united Sri Lanka. Pic by Lakshman Gunathileke
The programme has afforded many of the former combatants, opportunities they missed because of being drawn into the rebel movement at a young age.

Sri Ranga Rani (38) from Jaffna, had joined the LTTE at the age of 18, while still studying for her ALs. She decided to join the movement after having heard of the harassment, members of the Tamil community were undergoing at the hands of the armed forces. “I worked at the political office of the LTTE and helped publish a newsletter for women,” she said. She briefly left the movement in 1998, only to rejoin in 2000, and stayed on till the war ended in 2009.

Despite her personal losses, having seen her sister, brother-in-law and nephew die during the heavy fighting in the final days of the war, Rani is hopeful of a stable future when she returns to her parent’s home. “Sometimes I feel I did a service being in the LTTE, but sometimes I feel many years of my life were wasted,” she said. She hopes to utilise the skills she’s learnt at the rehabilitation centre when she returns.

“Many of them tell us that this is the first time they have been really free in their lives. There is no animosity among us anymore,” said Rehabilitation Cooperating Officer, Vavuniya, Lt. Col. Manjula Munasinghe said.

While it’s a personal struggle for the thousands who have left the rehabilitation centres to adjust to life in a postwar situation, the programme has been hugely successful in integrating the former LTTE cadres back into society, having geared them with the necessary skills to restart their lives.

The programme has also been extended to the community to create awareness. “We request them to take these people back and accept them by forgetting the past,” Maj. Gen. Ranasinghe concluded.

© Copyright 1996 - 2011 | Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.Colombo. Sri Lanka. All Rights Reserved

GOSL is now fully awake to the ugly reality of communal violence&would make sure it would not happen again by offering Tamils a political solution.!!!

2011-07-25T00:27:00.009+02:00

The trauma of black July Monday, 18 July 2011 00:00

By Gamini Akmeemana

In July 1983, I was working in a Middle Eastern country. When I heard about the anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka, I was aware of a catastrophe, even though I was too politically immature then to grasp the full nature of the tragedy and its implications for Sri Lanka in the years to come.

My sympathies for the victims were heartfelt and deep. In 1983, though, I was a very naïve, well-meaning Sinhala Buddhist young man who believed that a limited war could contain the LTTE, and that the government was now fully awake to the ugly reality of communal violence and would make sure it would not happen again by offering the Tamils a satisfactory political deal.

Twenty eight years later, I know better. Let’s not start another round of blame games.

Whatever terrorists do, governments are duty bound to protect their citizens. What I failed to realise back then was that the government shouldn’t have let Black July happen in the first place. After returning home in 1984, I remember telling a Tamil tenant in my neighbourhood how bad I felt about the whole thing. He didn’t even smile. Giving me a blank look, he quickly disappeared indoors.

I felt puzzled then by his behaviour, though now I know that, in his place, I would have done exactly the same thing. But I belonged to the majority, brought up with centrist, conservative political views, well-meaning but complacent, and hardly in a position to put myself in the lot of a persecuted minority, of someone who has had a family member hacked to death and the house burnt down by a ranting mob.

Now I know better. Even though I was never politically connected to any group that could even be remotely called subversive, and lived in the relative safety of central Colombo during the dark years of the 1987-90 terror and disappearances, I learnt then what it was like to be caught up helplessly between warring factions bent on annihilating each other, what it was like to have a friend abducted and disappeared by a death squad (who turned out to be policemen working for presidential security). I learned the hard way that the locked doors of your own house provided no safety if someone has your name in their list purely by mistake as part of a personal vendetta.

There was a period of relative complacency in the 1990s, when Chandrika Kumaratunge became president, vowing to deliver peace and prosperity. Now we all know better.

Especially over the past six years, I have again lived with that lurking fear in the guts, mainly because of my profession of journalism because the grey areas which always existed in freedom of expression have become so murky as to be unfathomable. Being a member of the majority is no longer an insurance policy against wanton personal destruction at the hands of others. That has been my political education over the past thirty years. You are safe as long as you toe the line, but only just so.

When I returned to my home in Colombo Eight in 1984, Borella town and its environs still bore many scars of July 1983. There were gutted houses and buildings along Cotta Road and many of the narrow lanes with whimsical names from the colonial days. The biggest scar was the gutted BCC building with its stricken clock facing Borella town centre. This building was one of the first to be torched by the mob heading from the General Cemetary (or Kanatta, where the cremation of thirteen soldiers killed by the
LTTE in Jaffna sparked off the riots (in reality, not a spontaneous burst of anger but a well-planned ‘pogrom’ involving several top ministers to rid Colombo of its Tamils) towards Maradana through Borella town. The clock bore mute testimony to the tragic hour for many years. Incredibly, no one thought of removing it right into the newmillennium, until the building was finally repainted a few years ago and the old scar of the stricken clock finally removed.

I think that is a perfect symbol of the majority’s insensitivity towards the horrible events of July 1983, of our inability to learn lasting lessons from it. Of the millions who passed Borella town in the intervening years, I wonder how many knew what that clock signified. The symptoms of the malaise are evident when you talk to long-time residents and shop keepers of Borella. Talking to me, none of them has ever mentioned this horrific event, let alone express any regrets.

Then there is the Borella bus stand, another eyesore in an irritatingly bland town without any pretensions to culture (the Punchi theatre down Cotta Road looks like a happy accident). Shared uneasily between the private bus mafia and the decadent state bus service, this rundown bus passenger terminal was the infamous venue of a famous photograph taken in July 1983 – that of a naked Tamil man sitting on the cement step leading to it, covering his face with both hands, while a smiling Sinhala patriot is about to kick him viciously.

This is a remarkable photograph because, as far as I know, no other such bleak photographic evidence of man’s inhumanity to man during Black July exists. Pictures only showed gutted buildings and vehicles. This is because photographers themselves were prime targets of the mobs, and inconspicuous devices such as mobile phone cameras were unknown. This black and white photo was taken in fading light with a flash gun.The man who took it was Chandragupta Amarasinghe, an obscure photographer working for the Communist Party newspaper Aththa at the time.

No one seems to remember him today. Though his photograph has been reprinted many times (though not in the mainstream media), I have never seen him given credit in print.I remember him as a young man with a scraggly beard who went in slippers, carrying his battered old SLR camera in a ragged cloth bag. It may he his sorry appearance which spared him the mob’s wrath. No one knows his wherabouts today, but his unique, brave photograph is as powerful in its own way as Francisco Goya’s famous painting of Napoleon’s soldiers executing Spanish civilians in Madrid or any of those photographs from the days of civil rights struggles in the US or apartheid in South Africa.

But can we be sure that this dark history won’t repeat itself?

courtesy to 'dailymirror.lk'
Copyright © 2010 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.

Tamil people fear none, vote TNA, at the first sign of any violence we will activate our campaign machinery to get the attention of the world.!!!

2011-07-20T07:31:00.004+02:00

ELECTIONS IN SRI LANKA

MAHINDA RAJAPKASA-Is he a murderer, criminal, state terrorist or con-artist?

“Tamil people fear none, vote TNA, at thefirst sign of any violence we will activate our campaign machinery to get theattention of the world and world leaders, it is just click away”

In this election Tami people have to consider one, more of the abovequalities of Mahinda Rajapaksa. This election is watched by all nations to seewhat Tamil people have to say and it is paramount important that the Tamilpeople in North and East vote against this tyrant and his tyranny. Yourvote will decide if economic sanctions will be imposed and he is dragged to theInternational criminal court.

He may promise you the Sun. the Moon and the Stars but he cannot fulfilthem. He needs hard currencies to pay off some debts that have come due and arecoming due. So he has to show the world that Tamil people are with him. As oflast week his foreign reserve is zero, that means hecannot pay foreign suppliers. The Standard Bank, the City Bank and DeutscheBank are hounding for unpaid monies.

What Tamil people must decide is do you want Rice and prippu (lentils)now or freedom and human rights. That choice is you and only you can make it.The choice now you make decide your generations to come. But think this way wehave brought your freedom struggle to the United Nations and to the minds ofthe International community. We are humbly requesting you to give us littlemore time till we bring this tyrant to his kneels at the International tribunal

We know that you have to make practical choices, but do not fear themoment some thing violent happens the UN and the International community willintervene. Our advice is being careful, vote for the TNA candidate so that theyhave leverage at the bargaining table.

Remember that Mahinda Rajapaksa is at your mercy, like how he was atthe mercy of Ranil Wickremesinghe when he was about to be arrested for murders.So he has his weaknesses. He is an insecure and wounded man licking his wounds.He is caught in the snare and only people who can get him off the trap are youand only you.

You have made tremendous sacrifices; this is the moment you are thepeople to make sure that our effort at the international stages continues. Everyone is watching, South India is watching,Tamil Diaspora is watching, Hillary Clinton is just 20 kilometres awaywatching. Therefore fear none, vote with confidence to TNA.

Every Tamil can, with the click of the mouse, make a big difference,Please do it, forward to all who you know

worldclasstamil.com Moderator

info@worldclasstamil.com

».................
Massey Subra

massey@tidolcorp.com

SL:The danger of moving back from devolution.! If the govt is truly interested in coming out with acceptable solution to the ethnic conflict..!!!

2011-07-19T12:18:00.005+02:00

The danger of moving back from devolution
July 18, 2011, 12:00 pm

A soldier in the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, SPLA, raises the South Sudan flag at the independence ceremony of South Sudan in Juba, South Sudan, on Saturday July 9, 2011. South Sudan celebrated its first day as an independent nation Saturday, raising its flag for the first time before tens of thousands of cheering citizens elated to reach the end of a 50-year struggle. (AP)

By Jehan Perera

Last week South Sudan became the world’s 193rd independent country and entitled to a seat at the United Nations. The break-up of Sudan came about 55 years after the country became independent of colonial rule. During the colonial period, the north of the country was ruled by Egypt and the south by the British. The fissure between the Arab-majority north and the non-Arab south was one that time did not heal. Soon after Sudan became independent, power to rule the country became vested in the Arab majority north, where more than 75 percent of the country’s population lived. An armed separatist movement began in the south, with the slogans of self rule and independence. South Sudan emerged from long civil war after the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) in Nairobi in January 2005 between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement. This eventually led to a referendum in January this year, at which 98.3% of the population of Southern Sudan voted in favour of secession.

Although most Sri Lankans would have an aversion to separatist wars, the country’s government sent senior minister Prof. Tissa Vitarana as its representative to attend the Independence Day celebrations in Juba, the capital of the new country. It is significant that Prof. Vitarana presided over the longest internal Sri Lankan process aimed at achieving a political consensus regarding a political solution to the country’s ethnic conflict. He headed the All Parties Representative Committee that had been established by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to obtain a consensual political solution in 2006. This body met over a hundred times and came up with an elaborate scheme of power sharing and devolution of power that could have satisfied majority and minority ethnic communities. But with the end of the war in May 2009, this report has been off the national radar and perhaps in one of the President’s cupboards.

Unlike the Sudan government, the Sri Lankan government prevailed militarily over its separatist opponent. This has given it the space and time in which to recover, develop economically, achieve reconciliation and put the past behind it. It has also given it the illusion that a political solution that is acceptable to the ethnic minorities as much as to the ethnic majority can be avoided. South Sudan has mass poverty, only 15 percent literacy and its basic infrastructure is in shambles or non-existent. The country it broke away from, Sudan, is also in poor shape with inflation soaring, as food prices rise, and it will have lost about three fourths of its oil income through the loss of South Sudan. By way of contrast, Sri Lanka has a relatively high growth rate of 8 percent, has reached the level of a middle income country, and is trying to boost economic growth still further with ambitious infrastructure development projects. However, the issue of a political solution to the ethnic conflict is no longer being emphasized.

Electoral test

The forthcoming local government elections that will be held in 18 local authorities in the north will provide an indication to the government of its success in winning popular support from the northern Tamil electorate, and one that will negate the need for a political solution. So far the government has failed to obtain this support. At both the Presidential and General elections held after the war victory of May 2009, the government was not successful in obtaining the support of the majority of northern Tamil voters. It failed again at those local authority elections that were held earlier this year in March as well. At a time when the government has come under international scrutiny due to accusations of violations of international law committed in the north in the course of the war, it will be very useful to the government if it is able to show that there is popular support for it from amongst the people in the north.

The importance of the northern electoral verdict explains why the government is giving so much of importance to the elections there in contrast to the other parts of the country where the balance 47 local authority elections are taking place. Several powerful government ministers have been campaigning in the north for days, and the President has also campaigned there. Speaking on the campaign trail, Economics minister Basil Rajapaksa said that the government was spending billions of rupees to develop infrastructure in the north and on clearing land that had been taken over by the military as High Security Zones, but which are now being returned to the people. According to the government media, President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself distributed a large number of water pumps, spray guns, sewing machines, school uniforms, educational material, squatting pans and agricultural equipment to resettled people as immediate livelihood assistance.

At the same time opposition parties campaigning in the north have complained that the government is utilizing the security forces to intimidate their supporters. There was a very bad incident at the very beginning of the election campaign when army personnel in uniforms broke up a meeting of TNA parliamentarians and beat up their government-provided security guards. The JVP has also been complaining that its members have been arrested without legitimate reason by the army and subsequently released due to intervention by the police. The government needs to be concerned that interfering with elections in such a manner can deprive them of their free and fair character, as occurred most infamously at the District Development Council elections of 1981. While electoral victory at any cost might seem a pragmatic calculation to those in power, and an endorsement of the policy of centralization rather than devolution, the past experience of the country should warn against it.

Continuing importance

South Sudan is an example of the problem posed by an ethnic minority which will not go away through the centralization of power. During the period 1972 to 1983, there was a regional autonomy agreement that granted a measure of self-rule to the south. But this was abrogated by the central government which centralized power. It was this act of withdrawing regional autonomy that led to the formation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement army, which was gradually able to wrest military control over the south. A similar sequence of events can be seen in the case of Eritrea, which separated from Ethiopia in 1993 following long years of war. There too, the autonomy arrangements were unilaterally revoked by the central government. The lesson is that the withdrawal of autonomy that is given to regional and ethnic minorities invariably leads to a strengthening of the separatist impulse.

Thus, even if the government does succeed in winning the elections in the north, it would be dangerous and counter-productive to assume that this gives it the license to abolish or reduce the autonomy already provided to the provinces through the 13th Amendment and the provincial council system. In the context of the international pressures that are relentlessly mounting on the government in regard to human rights violations and war crimes, it would be unwise for the government to seek to undermine the 13th Amendment in any way rather than to strengthen the autonomy arrangements within its mandate. In addition to the long expressed desires of the Tamil people to enjoy greater rights of self-determination in their political lives, it must not be forgotten that the 13th Amendment and provincial council system is an Indian legacy. Today’s Indian government is led by the widow and son of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who pushed for the implementation of the provincial council system in Sri Lanka. India is a key ally of Sri Lanka in facing up to any imposition by the international community.

The visit of Prof. Tissa Vitarana to South Sudan takes on significance because he was the chief architect of the final report of the All Parties Representative Committee. When the government searches for a viable political solution to the ethnic conflict that promotes rather than reverses the devolution of power, this is the document that could form its basis. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been talking about setting up a Parliamentary Select Committee to work out a political solution, but this idea has been criticized as a likely time buying exercise in futility. It has been pointed out that this could lead to another several years of protracted discussion without consensus. If the government is truly interested in coming out with a mutually acceptable solution to the ethnic conflict, it could request the Parliamentary Select Committee it convenes to consider the APRC report as its base and give it a short time frame of three or four months in which to come out with its political solution.

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British TV documentary & United Nations-commissioned report have confirmed long-standing Tamil allegations that the SINHALA Army committed WAR CRIMES!

2011-07-12T18:24:00.004+02:00

Sri Lankan atrocities exposed: 'It's like Israel and Palestine'

2011-07-12

Tamils mourn the dead in Jaffna.

A British TV documentary and a United Nations-commissioned report have confirmed long-standing Tamil allegations that the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) committed large-scale war crimes in the course of its May 2009 victory over the pro-independence Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Atrocities perpetrated by the army during and after its recapture of the rebel-held areas of Tamil Eelam (Tamil areas in the north and east of Sri Lanka) included shelling civilians, depriving civilians of access to food, water and medicine, executing and torturing prisoners of war, systematic rape and holding civilians in concentration camps.

The Channel 4 documentary, screened in Britain on June 14, catalogued how the army declared “no fire zones” ― areas behind rebel lines that they undertook not to attack if civilians gathered there ― and then bombed them relentlessly when they were overcrowded with displaced people.
Hospitals were targeted after Red Cross workers had supplied the army with their coordinates.

The program included gruesome “trophy footage” shot by Sri Lankan soldiers on their mobile phones. An edited version of some of this footage, showing the beating and shooting of bound, blindfolded prisoners ,was released by Channel 4 in December.

Other footage showed the naked corpses of victims who had been raped and tortured.

Even more shocking than the graphic images was the soundtrack, such as light-hearted banter between soldiers about their rape of women whose corpses they were loading onto a truck.

The documentary’s maker Callum Macrae described it as “probably the most horrific ever to have been broadcast on mainstream television”.

Channel 4 defended screening the footage by pointing to the lack response by Western governments to the UN report, released on April 25, which documented the same war crimes.

In Australia, the documentary was screened by ABC TV’s Four Corners program on July 4.

When Four Corners screened footage two weeks earlier of livestock being kicked and beaten, the revelations were considered serious enough to demand a government response that created widespread economic dislocation in northern Australia and strained Australia’s important trading relationship with Indonesia.

The government’s response to the abuse of Tamils has been more muted, although foreign minister Kevin Rudd did tell ABC radio’s PM on July 5: “No-one watching this program could emerge from that undisturbed and we don’t either.”

Thiru Thiruchchothy, president of Maison du Tamils, the democratically elected council representing France’s 100,000-strong Sri Lankan Tamil community, condemned the UN panel’s report as belated.

He told Green Left Weekly: “The UN can have a report of 250 pages, or whatever it is, but they should first answer why they didn’t do anything when they knew they were about 400,000 people in that territory.

“After two years, UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon, because of pressure from human rights organisations, opened the panel. But he opened a trap for himself because the people can ask: Why did you not stop it?

“He did the same thing in Gaza ... With Gaza he waited untill the end and in Sri Lanka he waited untill the end … This UN report was made just to satisfy the human rights groups.

“But don’t think the human rights groups are going to stop with that. Because the journalists who are really working, like Channel 4, are bringing the truth out.”

Thiruchchothy also criticised the UN report because, like the Goldstone report into Israel’s 2009 assault on Gaza, it tried to even-handedly share the blame for war crimes between the states involved and armed movements resisting them.

This ignores the fact that in both conflicts the state actor killed a much higher number of people than the non-state state actor, as well as the fact that international law holds states more accountable.

“The UN panel put the blame on both sides … But what we feel is that the UN should not criticise the LTTE because the LTTE is not part of the UN, it didn’t sign the UN charter,” he said.

“Sri Lanka is a UN member state. Sri Lanka signed the UN charter … If the UN wants to take action against the LTTE, there should be two countries.

“At the moment there is only one country and that country is Sri Lanka … but as in Gaza they blame both sides. They just want a way out.”

He pointed out that the LTTE emerged in response to state violence. “If these people took up arms, it is because they were pushed to take up arms. They did not do it just like that …

“All these videos that are coming out show that the government did a lot of human rights abuses … They shot people. They raped people. There is proof.

“What happened in 2009 … changed the way the world was seeing the problem. But the problems of the Tamils did not start today, or yesterday, or 30 years before. The problems have been there since independence.

“It was there in 1956, in 1977, before the armed struggle. But the world did not look into it,” he said, referring to two violent government-instigated anti-Tamil pogroms since Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948.

An even more violent pogrom in 1983 drove the Tamil population to generalised armed rebellion.

“The UN says the Tamil diaspora aided Tamil nationalism that pushed the Singhalese [the dominant ethnic group in Sri Lanka] to become nationalist ― it is not true. Singhalese nationalism started in 1915, when they started killing Tamils.

“Singhalese nationalism made Tamils become nationalist. Tamils for a long time were going for a federal system … but Singhalese governments have been adamant since long ago to have one country for one people, one religion, one language.

“We can both live together, side by side. The problem in Sri Lanka is the [Singhalese] Buddhist monks and other groups of people who think it’s their land and no one else's.”

Thiruchchothy’s two brothers were killed in 2009. Surviving family members were among the 300,000 Tamils held in concentration camps after the conflict.

Like 90% of those in the camps, they since been released, but they have been left destitute in Jaffna, the capital of Tamil Eelam, forbidden from returning to their home village where they have farm land.

Thiruchchothy said this experience is typical because the government was settling demobilised soldiers on Tamil land.

“The government is building houses for soldiers. It’s a new method of colonisation.

“They have 100,000 soldiers. If they send them home and say ‘we have no jobs for you’, that would be another problem for the government in the south. They would have to find work for them.

“It easier to give them land in the north and it’s a way of colonising Tamil lands. It’s like with Israel and Palestine.”

- Courtesy Green Left

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TAMILS ARE not provided with adequate resources to restart their war destroyed lives! TAMIL DIASPORA Encountered many obstacles by MR-Govt.!!!

2011-07-12T01:06:00.013+02:00

Pluralism of Tamil diaspora gives opening for positive inputs
July 11, 2011, 7:15 pm

Tears roll down the cheeks of a Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil woman as she holds a photograph of her “abducted” family member during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, June 30, 2011.

by Jehan Perera

Day after day the news that invariably grabs the media headlines is the effort of the Tamil Diaspora to put the Sri Lankan government into more and more difficulty in the international arena on the issue of war crimes. Scarcely a day passes without an account of a big event in which leading politicians in foreign countries get together with the Tamil Diaspora to put pressure on the Sri Lankan government. The most recent such event was an Indian television show that pitted Indian intellectuals and human rights activists, mostly based in Tamil Nadu state in debate with the army spokesman General Ubaya Medawala. Others who featured in the debate included retired Indian army officers, and former Indian and British Foreign Ministers, including David Miliband who has written against the Sri Lankan government’s stance on the last phase of the war.

The matter that was debated on Indian television was the Channel 4 video, for which the government has categorically blamed the Tamil Diaspora. This creates an impression that the Tamil Diaspora in an active and powerful force abroad. The high degree of prominence given in the local media about the activities of the Tamil Diaspora and the threats posed by it, have created an image of a public enemy that threatens the country. The more successful that the Tamil Diaspora is in discrediting the government internationally, the more public support that the government is able to mobilize internally, as it presents itself to be unfairly victimized by some sections of the international community.

There is a perverse sense in which both the Tamil Diaspora and the Sri Lankan government reinforce and strengthen each other as enemies. The Tamil Diaspora leaders who are engaged in anti Sri Lanka activism abroad, continue to find a relevant role in their society that enables them to address the larger society in their countries. The LTTE no longer exists as a military power to give the hope of achieving an independent state of Tamil Eelam. But the determination of the Tamil Diaspora to bring the charge of war crimes against the Sri Lankan government gives them a continued purpose. At the same time, the Sri Lankan government is able to use the international threat posed by the Tamil Diaspora to justify its own restrictions on democratic freedoms on the ground of national security considerations.

Unfortunate reality

It is unfortunate that while the government and Tamil Diaspora duel on the issue of war crimes, the plight of the survivors of the war living in the former war zones does not receive equivalent attention by either party. The energies expended by the Tamil Diaspora on bringing the Sri Lankan government to international justice does not carry over to easing the desperate struggle of the war victims to get on with their lives with even their basic needs satisfied. The plight of these people can be illustrated by the fact that, at the present time, most of them would not ask for political rights, and only for food, clothing, shelter and education for their children. This is in accordance with the basic needs theory of Abraham Maslow, who argued that basic needs have to be satisfied first, before people ask for higher level needs, including political rights. Although the government has ensured the resettlement of most of the war victims in their original places of residence, they have not been provided with adequate resources to restart their war destroyed lives.

There are many factors that would appear to have delayed the recovery process of the war affected people. One is the shortage of resources and the misapplication of the country’s limited resources. The government is cash strapped due to its priorities and unable to grant long promised salary increases to government sector employees, including university teachers who have resorted to trade union action. Although this is no excuse for failing to cater to the most needy section of the country’s population, the government has apportioned little or no resources to channel to the war destroyed areas.

At the same time, the government has strictly limited non governmental agencies, both local and international, from going into the war destroyed areas to help the people. This is on account of its mistrust that non-governmental initiatives will aim at stirring up trouble among the people and put various anti national ideas into their heads. Any non-governmental group, whether NGO or ordinary people, who wish to provide resources directly to the war victims living in the north of the country, cannot do so without obstacles. Instead they have to go through a complicated and time consuming process of getting governmental permission even to do good works for those who desperately need help.

Meeting diaspora

At a recent meeting with a section of the Tamil Diaspora in Europe they expressed the sentiment that they really wanted to support the war victims and war destroyed areas of the country with their financial resources and technical expertise. The main point they wished to stress was that the Tamil Diaspora is not a monolithic one, with one opinion. On the contrary it is a plural society based in different countries and containing within itself a whole range of ideas, just as is the case with the different ethnic communities in Sri Lanka itself. There are some who want above all to punish the Sri Lankan government leaders for what happened in the war, but there are others who want to help those who have been the victims of the war.

The group I met with was a group that was opposite to the stereotype of an anti Sri Lanka Diaspora. They wished to focus on the future as their contribution to the country of their birth. They said they were about as large in numbers as those who were extreme in their Tamil nationalism, though not as well organized. However, they also complained that when they tried to provide assistance to Sri Lanka, they encountered many obstacles put in their path by the government. They referred to the need to get special approval for any project by the Presidential Task Force for the North, which has been criticized in the past for not having any Tamil members on it. The government only partially rectified this problem by appointing two Tamil government servants to this regulatory body.

Today, and especially in the Vanni and eastern districts there is a category of people that is especially weak and marginalized. They have relatively few of their family or relatives living abroad to supply them with economic resources at regular intervals, as is the case with those living in Jaffna or Colombo. As most of them have no access to personal resources, they are in need of official or organizational assistance. At the present time, the official assistance they are receiving is very meager. The war victims need much more if they are to rebuild their lives. But two years after the end of the war, they continue to be left in the lurch.

The Tamil Diaspora would be one important source of economic and human resources for the empowerment of the war victims. They have the resources and the motivation. But for them to be mobilized into action on a large scale, as opposed to a small scale, the enmity between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Diaspora needs to end, which is something still in the indeterminate future. On the other hand, even small scale support by the Tamil Diaspora will be better than nothing for the war victims and needs to be explored by the liberal minded elements on both parties.

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Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe flatly denied the Army’s involvement in the alleged attack on a political meeting of the Tamil National Alliance in Jaffna.!!!

2011-07-10T12:52:00.005+02:00

Sustainable peace, most important - Major Gen. Hathurusinghe

By Shanika SRIYANANDA in Jaffna

Jaffna, despite a few politically motivated incidents, is peaceful. People are busy attending to their day-to-day activities, while Government officials and soldiers are busy rebuilding Jaffna, which was destroyed by the LTTE.

The Army, which knows the value of peace, after fighting for over 30 years with the world’s most ruthless terrorists - the LTTE- has now become the protectors of the Tamils. “The Army is now on a mission to maintain the hard earned peace. The soldiers know the value of peace more than anyone else. What is important in the post-war scenario is sustainable peace”, Security Forces Commander of Jaffna Maj. Gen. Mahinda Hathurusinghe said.

In an interview with the Sunday Observer, he explained the need for a new political leadership within the people of Jaffna and the Army’s efforts to restore normality, helping to rebuild lives and reducing the crime rate.

“The Army is changing its image. Earlier, our image was that of a fighting army, but now we are the protectors”, he said, adding that the most important and biggest challenge for the Army is to change people’s perceptions as the extremist ideology, though the LTTE was defeated, still prevails in Jaffna.

Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe flatly denied the Army’s involvement in the alleged attack on a political meeting of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Jaffna.

Following are the excerpts of the interview:

Q: How do you describe the situation in Jaffna?

A: If I put it into one sentence, I can say Jaffna is as peaceful as Colombo. You can enjoy the same peace, harmony and tranquillity found in the South in the North too. It differs with regard to how people pursue it. That definitely varies because 30 years of war against terrorism have provided us many definitions for peace. In my definition, there are two sides to peace - negative peace and positive peace. Negative peace is when people fight each other and you contain it. There you see a state of ‘no war’. There you have peace, but it is not sustainable and needs to be converted to positive peace. That is what the Government is doing at the moment. Positive peace is achieving total peace where the parties to the conflict and those who suffered due to that conflict enjoy equal levels of peace and harmony, which prevailed 30 years ago.

We are now gradually moving into positive peace, but it is not easy as it has many areas such as political, social, religious and ecological. The military, post-war, has a major contribution to make in achieving positive peace. We play a role in all spheres to normalise the lives of people, their livelihood, education and religious activities. Our responsibility at the moment is to help the Government achieve positive peace, making sure it is sustainable peace. Here the Army’s role is vital as we have the organisational and leadership capabilities, technical know-how and human resources to help the Government achieve sustainable peace, which leads to sustainable development.

Definition of peace
Q: What are the challenges the Army is facing in maintaining sustainable peace?

A: When you talk about the North, it is Jaffna. Of the over one million population in the North, over 617,000 people live in Jaffna. When you talk about its people, Ponnambalam Ramanathan, Ponnambalam Arunachalam, Amirthalingam, Prabhakaran and many other prominent Tamil personalities lived in the North. We find intellectuals, university students and a high standard of education in Jaffna. Although we have defeated the LTTE, its ideology still remains and the biggest challenge is changing that mindset.

It is a tedious and difficult process. This is where we are now getting into the process of changing people’s perceptions, their approach towards the Government and the Security Forces and how positively these organisations can help change this picture.

The second challenge is their militant attitude. Although we have successfully completed the rehabilitation of ex-LTTE cadre, the militancy remains as some people have not been exposed to rehabilitation. The latter day battles were fought in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu and there was no serious battle after 1995 in Jaffna. The militant mindset has not been fully tackled. I think time is the best healer and the people need to see the change to believe it.

Today, they are aware of what is going on in Jaffna and what the Government is doing to develop Jaffna and uplift the lives of its people by spending massive amounts of money to develop and restore infrastructure, housing, education, health and livelihoods. I want to say that the suffering these people went for over three decades was not due to the fault of any government, but owing to wrong ideology and wrong initiatives.

We have started changing mindsets among the young population - school and university students - through interaction sessions and programs to mix with children and youth in the South and also by bringing children from the South to the North.

We have to address the educated people in Jaffna. These people have seen the conflict and need to build confidence. They need good political leaders to emerge within them. There is a vacuum for young leaders, who are educated and with a new line of thinking. It is time for them to come forward.

The other challenge is to get the support of religious leaders who can influence the people more towards positive peace. In this sphere, Buddhist and Hindu religious dignitaries can play a major role.

Present situation
Q: If you compare the present situation with that of two years ago, to what extent have the mindsets of people changed?

A: Yes, there is a great improvement. I took over as the Security Forces Commander in December 2009 and we launched a program in March 2010 to engage in civil affairs. Since then, we have carried out many welfare activities for the people.

In 2010, we wanted to gauge the pulse of the people and organised an essay competition in two categories - one for university students and the other for schoolchildren. We received over 250 essays and a team of academics evaluated them. We got them translated to understand the message because the theme was ‘In peace and harmony what we could do’. The response was amazing, how the youth came out with their ideas. They had come out with expressions such as we do not want a separate country’, ‘Teach us Sinhala’ and Colombo must learn Tamil’, ‘Live together’, ‘Give us opportunities to rise’ and ‘We don’t want war any more’. These show that there is a need to get to know each other in the South and the North.

Then we started a Sinhala language teaching course with 80 students. There was a great demand to learn Sinhala, but due to constraints we could accommodate only 80. They had realised that a section of the Tamil diaspora had painted a different picture to them, but now they know that this is their country and they should live together in unity. This is the thinking of the average Jaffna person. Any time at night people can go here and there and nothing extraordinary happens here. The peaceful environment in the South now prevails in Jaffna.

Q: Despite all these positive stories, the crime rate in Jaffna was high a few months ago. Why?

A: Yes, most of the crimes were theft-related. Even people in the smallest houses here have two or three gold sovereigns. Here, the thieves mainly rob gold. We have found that some thieves had come to Jaffna from other areas in Wanni.

According to the Police, there were four robberies, two murders, one case of sexual harassment and nine suicides reported from the Jaffna peninsula.

The Government believes that law and order should be maintained here by the police like in any part of the country. We reduced the number of soldiers providing security in Jaffna. We never wanted the Jaffna town to look like a garrison town. The end result was the rising crime rate. Then people started requesting the Army to come back. The Bishop of Jaffna made a personal request to re-deploy the soldiers. He said he had been checked by soldiers more than five times while travelling, but still he was happy as they helped maintain peace in Jaffna without leaving room for any illegal activities.

Open for investors
Q: Jaffna is now open for investments and some members of the Tamil diaspora are keen to invest their money and knowledge in developing the North. Compared to their contribution to the LTTE, how significant is their contribution now to uplift the living standards of their own people?

A:Yes, I think they can do more for their people. The Tamil diaspora members that I met spend money on their families; they do not invest money here for a common goal. As they are not concerned about helping their own people, the Government is helping these people. The Government spent millions to develop Jaffna earlier and is again pumping a massive amount of money to rebuild the peninsula which was destroyed by the LTTE.

The best example is the water tank and hospital in Kilinochchi which were destroyed by the LTTE. The Government had invested in infrastructure facilities in the North twice or thrice during the past two decades. There is a limit to the support the Government can give to the North, but with all these constraints, the Government is pouring in money to look after the Northern people.

Sections of the Tamil diaspora, which sold false stories on genocide and hegemony to get asylum, send money monthly only for their familiy members here in Jaffna. Other than that, there is no major contribution from them to uplift the lives of the people here.

If they get together, they can make more investments for the betterment of the people of Jaffna. Though they now claim to have paid the LTTE as it was complusory, we have information that some volunteered to fund the day-dream of Prabhakaran. There are a few individuals who prepared forged letters for asylum seeking, charging over Rs. 500,000 per letter.

The Army, who fought hard to restore peace, knows the value of peace better than any one. Therefore, each and every soldier wants to maintain and preserve that hard-earned peace.

If the Jaffna Tamil diaspora really wants to support Tamils, they can invest more in sectors such as education, health, housing and livelihoods.

Q: One major complaint is that the Army still holds properties inside the High Security Zone (HSZ). What is the progress of handing over houses in the HSZ to their legitimate owners?

A: Since March, while the HSZ was in existence, we gave the people access to Thelippalai Hospital, temples and schools including leading schools such as Mahajana College and Union College. There was a HSZ in the Jaffna town which has also been dismantled. Over 40 percent of the HSZs have been released to the people. The remaining areas including the Eastern section of the HSZ will be released soon. We want to ensure that all areas are mine-free before releasing them to the people.

Financial assistance
Q: Those who have resettled in the HSZ request the Government to provide them financial assistance. Is there any plan to look into this request?

A: The Army helped people build houses and clear the overgrown vegetation in Wadamarachchi East and Thannikilappu in the HSZ, but due to various constraints the Army can’t play a major role in Thelippalai in helping them other than clearing the earth bunds that we built earlier. Compared to other areas, people here have rich family members abroad so they don’t want us to get involved in these activities. Most of them want to rebuild their old mansions, but it is not possible for the Army to help them financially. However, the Government is giving them the basic infrastructure facilities and basic grants. This area was released to the public recently and there is time for us to get involved to help them.

Resettling IDPs in Jaffna went on successfully. The Army is playing a major role in constructing houses for them, but not by using money from the Army. We collect money from friends and well-wishers in Colombo to build houses in the HSZ. In a nutshell, people want the Army to be with them.

Q: As the Security Forces Commander, you say that people want the Army to be with them, but there are complaints about the high presence of the Army in Jaffna. What do you have to say?

A: Yes, I agree. I myself thought the Army’s presence was heavy and that outsiders would see Jaffna as a garrison city. It was for this reason that we reduced the Army deployment in Jaffna. The outcome was, as I explained earlier, the crime rate going up and the Police being unable to handle them alone. Though some complain about the high presence of the Army, the majority of Jaffna people want the Army around them as they are used to having soldiers for decades. They are aware of what the Army can and cannot do. That is why the Bishop, all Kurukkals and the Vicar General requested the Army to remain in Jaffna and protect the people.

Role of Army
Q: While ordinary people commend the role of the Army, an allegation was made against the Army for attacking a political meeting of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). How do you say that the Army doesn’t have any involvement in this incident?

A: Yes, this needs a good clarification. This is not the first time the TNA had meetings in Jaffna. If the Army wants to attack them, we could have done it before. A committee has been appointed to look into the incident. As soon as this incident was reported, I ordered the General Officer Commanding of Jaffna Maj. Gen. Walgama to look into it. His initial investigation revealed that no politician was attacked and no one was injured. Not a single vehicle was damaged. I reiterate that there is no involvement of the Army in this incident.

Q: The Government is being accused of Sinhala colonisation in Jaffna by resettling Sinhala families. What is the truth?

A: I strongly refute this allegation. When you consider the population in Jaffna, which is over 617,000, there are only 67 Sinhalese families. This accusation too is absolutely baseless. But some Sinhalese sought their ownership saying that they were displaced in 1983 and need their original land. Those who criticise these actions should come and see the reality.

SUNDAYOBSERVER.LK

The Sinhalese, to see what has been done to citizens of their country.!!!

2011-07-10T10:02:00.004+02:00

BRIAN SENEWIRATNE POBox 5006
MA(Cantab), MBBChir(Cantab),MBBS (Hons) (Lond) Mt Gravatt East 4122

MD(Lond), FRCP(Lond), FRACP tel (office) 0412114020

Consultant Physician tel (myself) 0419335334

23.2.2011

Sri lankan Killing Fields – CH 4 Video

I wonder whether the outstanding documentary put together by UK Ch 4 can be subtitled

a) In Sinhalese for the members of my community, the Sinhalese, to see what has been done to citizens of their country. Although it might appear otherwise, the Tamils are citizens of that country.

Although I am a Sinhalese, a cousin of the former President, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, coming as I do from the dreadful Bandaranaike family (my paternal grandmother was Sir Solomon dias Bandaranaike’s sister), I can neither read nor write Sinhalese. So can someone else do this essential work and do an even more difficult job of circulating it in Sri Lanka, or as it likes to be called, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka? It is crucial that my people see what their government has done in their name. there might be an outrage. I am not sure about this because although my people are not all ethnoreligious chauvinist bigots, they are certainly are moving in that direction as an alarming rate. They MUST see this video and see it in a language they can understand (93% of Sinhalese cannot speak or read English. So subtitles in English is a waste of time.

They have not only got to see the atrocities but also hear the language – ‘mother-fucker’ in particular. As a recipient of this ‘title’ at least twice a week from ‘patriotic’ Sinhalese, there is a particular resonance in me. I am called not only a ‘mother-fucker’ but a ‘mother-fucking Tamil tiger’.

This is not an accurate description of me. I do not (nor have I ever) indulged in this activity, my mother is dead and while she was alive was not subjected to this. I am not a Tamil tiger. If I am, the so is my cousin, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. She cannot be a ‘Sinhala patriot’ and I a ‘Tamil Tiger’. This is genetically not possible. I will be putting a more detailed analysis of the language used in the CH 4 video and on me personally in thousands of hate-mail I have received in the many years I have campaigned for the right of the Tamil people to live with equality, dignity, safety, and now to live at all in the country of their birth – which is what this struggle is all about. if that makes me a Sinhala traitor or a mother-fucking Tiger, so be it.

I have politely informed the thousands of Sinhalese who abuse me daily at all times of the day and night and by email, who have accused me of this activity, that if this is what they do to their mothers, then they have a problem and should call my office for an appointment to see me –medically, I mean, and I will refer them to the appropriate people who deal with such behavior.

This medical service is being provided by me free

2) Into Tamil – NOT for the Tamils in the N&E of Sri Lanka (who have witnessed this first hand and do not need a dvd, subtitled or not, to apprise them of what has happened. You need this tamil subtitling for the Sri Lankan Tamils in the Sinhala South, and most importantly, for the Tamils in ami Nadu – the crucial group who can derail the bunch in Delhi.

3) Into Chinese - so that they can see what their government has done to the Tamils by supplying the heavy weapons to commit the atrocities that the Sinhala army did, which is now in full view, thanks to some very dedicated people in UK CH 4. How the hell you are going to get this into China is another problem but to up-load it is one way. A huge number of Chinese have computers and will soon pick it up.

What else we can do with the CH 4 info I will deal with in a separate article which will appear shortly on tamilcandaian.com and sangam.org – the usual ‘troublemakers’.

Although the CH 4 video is fantastic, there is in fact more in info on the dvd recorded by me “Sri Lanka. Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, Violation of International Law” and the outstanding book, just released, ‘Genocide in Sri Lanka’. The dvd you can have for free (just send me your postal address), the book you will have to pay for because it is not mine to give, although I do have some 25 copies, with more if I need them. We have all the evidence to hang the lot including a critical LTTE fellow who assassinated 600 Sinhalese policemen who surrendered to him in the East – a war crime if ever there was one. He is a fellow called Karuna Amman currently a Cabinet Minster in The Hon Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government. The Honourable Mr Karuna can be, and must be, charged – like all his fellow cabinet ministers and boss. It is our business to see that that is done. Done it will be, done it must be.

Brian Senewiratne

Australia

Wars are now commodities, fought and supplied with outsourced labor." Is Sri Lanka outsourcing its women to pay off its debts?

2011-07-10T00:25:00.003+02:00

Outsourcing Sri Lankan Citizens
July 9, 2011, 4:00 pm

By Padraig Colman

In a recent article, I wrote about suicide being linked with family breakdown, alcoholism and sexual abuse. In our village a Muslim girl committed suicide after being gang-raped while working in the Middle East. Another Muslim family we know well seems to be heading for major problems because the mother is always in Dubai. In the seven years we have lived here we have rarely seen her and her daughters have grown up without her. She sends money home, but the husband disappears with the cash and the girls are left to run wild. Her son took poison after an argument with the father at one of his rare encounters with him.

In the June 6 issue of the New Yorker there was a report by Sarah Stillman, in which she described how workers were being recruited under false pretences for attractive jobs away from their homeland. We have often read of unscrupulous people-traffickers linked to mafias in Russia, Albania and Kosovo, traffickers who often take large sums of cash from desperate migrants who end up being forced into slavery and prostitution.

Stillman begins the article with the description of a recruitment drive in Fiji. A number of women, who already had jobs and families, were tempted by the prospect of earning much more in a luxury hotel in Dubai. In fact, they were not bound for Dubai but Iraq and Afghanistan. They had been duped into signing on for what Stillman calls the "Pentagon’s invisible army". The mafia involved in this human trafficking is the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES).

Seventy thousand cooks, cleaners, construction workers, fast-food clerks, electricians, and beauticians from the world’s poorest countries are employed to make sure that U.S. bases are comfortable enclaves providing personnel with "tastes of home". Accountability is hard to establish because contracting chains in Iraq and Afghanistan involve sometimes as many as five or six tiers of subcontracts. These sub-contractors are financed by the American taxpayer but often operate outside the law.

Foreign workers servicing the US military are called TCNs (third-country nationals). Many of them told Stillman that they had wages stolen or withheld, had been injured without compensation, subjected to sexual assault, and held in indentured servitude by their subcontractor bosses. Living quarters were often unventilated container trucks. There have been riots in Pentagon subcontractor camps, some involving more than a thousand workers. At a KBR (formerly Halliburton) subcontractor camp in Baghdad, Ziad Al Karawi, described how a thousand Indian and Sri Lankan men under his supervision slept on crowded floors: "rats and flies attacked us. . . . We had no beds to sleep at or tables to eat at. . . . No communication, no TV, no soap to wash or bathe, no visits from anyone from the company or KBR." "We thought the journalists would come," Imtiyas Sheriff, a thirty-eight-year-old bus driver from Sri Lanka, said. "They call this Operation Iraqi Freedom, but where is our freedom?"

In a question and answer session with Stillman about her article Mark Ratledge remarked that what she described reminded him of British Navy press gangs in the eighteenth century.

Travelling by air to and from Sri Lanka, via Dubai, one often shares the aircraft with armies of Sri Lankan women migrant workers. Sometimes, one notices a disdainful attitude towards them from middleclass Sri Lankan travellers. Nevertheless, the nation glories in the money that these women earn - and remit to their homeland.

It is now the norm for remittances from migrant workers to bear the main burden of containing Sri Lanka’s fiscal deficit. Remittances from migrant workers represent more than nine per cent of GDP. Sri Lanka receives US$ 526 million more in remittances than it does from foreign aid and foreign direct investment combined. These remittances are now a greater source of revenue than tea exports.

Migrant women workers are treated as an export commodity that is marketed to wealthy, oil-producing countries where demand is high and human-rights protection is virtually non-existent. A former Finance Minister, said on the BENCHMARK TV program: "There is no way that we can go on relying on the hard-earned money of three categories of women: the poor women working in the Middle East as well as other countries and remitting their funds, women who work in garment factories and women working on tea estates. The Sri Lankan economy is run by women: they are the money earners for Sri Lanka - the men are just gobbling it up!" The minister has been promoted to a position where he has no influence.

An academic paper (written by a woman) which I had the job of editing, pushed a very positive view of the empowering nature of migration for women. It was a good example of how one can spin statistics to back up an argument. More than one-third of women sampled wanted to work overseas again, which was cited as supporting a positive view of migration. The numbers who suffered ill-treatment were played down; but of those sampled, physical ill-treatment led over 17% to return home, while 6% returned because of excessive workloads and underpayment of wages.

You could say two-thirds (a majority) did not want to work overseas again and almost a quarter suffered ill-treatment or exploitation. The paper did acknowledge the downside of migration - such as higher divorce rates, disruptions to family life, lasting repercussions for children’s personality development (there is evidence of sexual abuse of children who are left without a mother), increased alcoholism and gambling among the men folk.

Where is the female empowerment here?

There is an abundance of evidence provided by organisations such as Caritas’s Mental Health Clinic, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Lebanese NGO Forum, that rape and suicide are serious issues among migrant female workers. The Sri Lankan Government reports that 50 migrant domestic workers return to Sri Lanka "in distress" each day and embassies abroad are flooded with workers complaining of unpaid wages, sexual harassment and overwork.

The number of suicides is increasing. Over a four-year period, 45 Filipinas, 50 Sri Lankans and 105 Ethiopians killed themselves. A pathologist says that in many cases, the corpses were covered in bruises, bites or burns.

HRW says that the Government of Sri Lanka "deserves credit for initiating important steps to manage the outflow of migrant workers and to start providing protections". The Government set up an institutional structure, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, in 1985, to help workers migrate through legal channels, and to minimise corruption and exploitation by recruitment agencies.

Is this enough? Is it working? Should a nation’s livelihood depend on the sufferings of a group of its citizens? Should a state manage its finances by depending on poor women who are being exploited and their family lives disrupted? If the state is to benefit, it should ensure that its benefactors are well -protected from abuse- and also respected for their contribution.

In the question and answer session with Sarah Stillman, Mark Ratledge commented: "Wars are now commodities, fought and supplied with outsourced labor." Is Sri Lanka outsourcing its women to pay off its debts?

www island.lk

GR/DS: We never interfered with the UNICEF-led Family Tracing and Reunification (FTR) project.!!!

2011-07-10T00:14:00.005+02:00

Most missing Tamil children were recruited by LTTE : UNICEF
July 9, 2011, 6:49 pm

Ex-LTTE child soldiers

by Shamindra Ferdinando

A study spearheaded by UNICEF in collaboration with the Northern Provincial Department of Probation and Child Care and Government Agent of Vavuniya has revealed that the majority of complaints received from Tamil speaking parents related to children forcibly recruited by the LTTE.

Of 676 complaints regarding missing children, about 64 per cent related to ex-LTTE child soldiers. UNICEF has facilitated re-unification of 78 children with their families.

UNICEF says it launched the project in Dec. 2009 in response to a spate of tracing requests received since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009. It believes in spite of difficulties in tracking down those listed missing, more children could be found and re-united with their families.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Island expressed satisfaction that the UN agency had received the required assistance from the Northern Provincial administration. Those shedding crocodile tears for their personal and political gain should throw their weight behind the UNICEF effort to track down missing children, he said.

"We never interfered with the UNICEF-led Family Tracing and Reunification (FTR) project," he declared.

The following are excerpts of the interview:

Q: Who called for the inquiry?

A: UNICEF initiated the project in response to pleas by those trying to locate their children. Recently I had an opportunity to discuss the FTR project with the Colombo-based head of the UNICEF. We really appreciate their intervention and help to locate missing children over the years. In spite of a large scale poster campaign in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, UNICEF received 2,564 tracing applications, including 676 regarding missing children. The rest were adults. There’s no doubt that some of the missing adults were LTTE cadres.

Q: Did those looking for missing children come across any evidence to suggest they fought for the LTTE?

A: According to a UNICEF analysis, the vast majority of those listed as missing were between 16 and 18-years old. But the most important factor is that 64 per cent of those seeking to locate their children alleged the LTTE took them away during war.

Q: Had there been any cases investigated by the UNICEF relating to children missing before eruption of Eelam War IV in Aug. 2006?

A: Had there been a genuine attempt by international and local sponsors of the LTTE at least after the Norway arranged CFA came into operation in Feb. 2002, lives of thousands of children could have been saved. A case in point is the story of a girl and her younger brother taken away by the LTTE from the East to Vanni during Eelam War IV. After the killing of their father in May 2005 in Batticaloa, the LTTE had handed over the children to an orphanage as their mother was away in the Middle East. As the LTTE retreated from the East, it had moved the children to Sencholai before being taken to Vanni East. After the collapse of the LTTE in May 2009, UNICEF had helped their mother, who returned from overseas, to find her children accommodated at orphanages at Vavuniya and Mannar.

Responding to another query, the Defence Secretary said that that the gradual transformation of the LTTE from a hit and run outfit to a conventional fighting formation largely depended on massive recruitment of children to its fighting ranks. Although the UN had raised the issue with the LTTE following protests by Tamil families as well as successive governments, the global community never succeeded in stopping this strategy until Sri Lanka finished off the LTTE in May 2009.

"Child recruitment continued even weeks before the conclusion of the conflict,’’ the Defence Secretary said.

He said that for want of punitive action as well as negligence on the part of those responsible for children’s welfare, the LTTE had an opportunity to build a fighting force comprising of over 30,000 personnel at the onset of Eelam War IV.

"Although during a visit to Sri Lanka in 1998, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, obtained an assurance from the LTTE that gave hope for an improvement in the situation of children, the LTTE continued to recruit children in the ensuing three years,’’ Rajapaksa said.

``On a visit to North in Feb. 2001, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Andre Roberfroid met senior representatives of the LTTE to express the UN’s growing concerns. But the LTTE continued recruitment.’’

The Defence Secretary said that the Norwegian arranged CFA backed by the US, EU and Japan, gave the LTTE an opportunity to step up child recruitment under the very noses of Nordic truce monitoring mission.

Those attacking Sri Lanka on the human rights front could easily obtain data relating to complaints received by the Norwegian-led monitoring mission, he said.

"As far as I remember, there were thousands of complaints regarding children and young adults abducted by the LTTE, though they couldn’t intervene," the Defence Secretary said.

Referring to how a European country had intervened to save the life of an EPRLF MP years ago, though the LTTE subsequently killed him and his wife in Colombo, the Defence Secretary said that the bottom line was that those wanting to haul up Sri Lanka before an international war crimes tribunal never wanted to deny the LTTE wherewithal to wage war.

"What Prabhakaran couldn’t have achieved with 100 rounds of heavy artillery he realized by using a brain-washed child suicide cadre. Had the international community brought enough pressure on the LTTE by taking punitive action against its overseas network, which raised funds for procurement of arms, ammunition and equipment, the LTTE would have been forced to scale down child recruitment,’’ Rajapaksa said.

The Defence Secretary suggested that those targeting Sri Lanka on accountability issues, too, should be investigated for their complicity in the LTTE build-up.

Commenting on post-war rehabilitation of ex-LTTE cadres, the Defence Secretary said that Sri Lanka was grateful to International Organization for Migration (IOM) for assisting ex-LTTE cadres. Appreciating assistance extended by the international community in this regard, the Defence Secretary said that Tamil Diaspora should support the project aimed at helping those who once fought for the LTTE. Unfortunately they weren’t interested in helping ex-LTTE cadres but destabilizing post-war Sri Lanka, he said.

Those seeking war crimes investigation here should make a genuine effort to establish the total number of LTTE cadres killed in action during the conflict, including the deployment of the IPKF from July 1987 to March 1990, he said.

They should also establish the number of Tamil speaking people killed in fighting among various Tamil groups.

A section of the international community and the Tamil Diaspora were making a desperate bid to portray all Tamils killed in the conflict as civilians.

"The question is whether the world want us to believe we lost 6,000 officers and men killed and some 30,000 wounded during Eelam War IV fighting civilians," Rajapaksa asked.

www island.lk

The unjust dishonour of the public servants of the Sinhalese community has been the subject of much comment and dissatisfaction in Ceylon.!!!

2011-07-09T23:39:00.003+02:00

A vignette of British Justice in Colonial Ceylon
July 9, 2011, 4:35 pm

This quotation from the book "Riots and Martial Law in Ceylon 1915’’ by Sir P. Ramanathan, K.C., C.MG pertains to the dismissal of Adigar S. N. W. Hulugalle by the British Government during the 1915 riots. P.B. Herath, his son-in-law who was the first Kandyan Civil Servant, was also dismissed and Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan refers to that act of injustice and the sequence leading up to it in the same book. (CS)

"The unjust dishonour of the public servants of the Sinhalese community has been the subject of much comment and dissatisfaction in Ceylon. I would refer to one or two typical cases.

Mr. S. N. W. Hulugalle is a most respected member of the Kandyan Sinhalese community. He began service in 1868, was appointed Ratemahatmaya in 1875, was chosen to represent the Kandyan Sinhalese in the Legislative Council in 1900, and retired from that seat in 1907. In 1903 the rank of Dissawe was conferred on him, and the "still higher rank of Adigar in 1906, while holding the office of Ratemahatmaya, from which he retired in 1913, owing to ill-health and old age. Having served the Government for forty-seven years loyally and efficiently, he was held in the highest esteem by his countrymen.

Soon after the riots ceased, the Government Agent for the North-Western Province requested Adigar Hulugalle to immediately explain why he left the district on or about the 2nd June, and made no attempt to assist the present Ratemahatmaya in keeping order, or to communicate with him (the Government Agent) as to the offer of his services.

The Adigar explained that, when he left Hulugalla on the 30th of May there was not the slightest indication of any disturbance there; that as he had retired from the Government service, and was suffering from the infirmities of old age, no one had requested his aid; that having received an invitation to a wedding at Balapitiya in the Southern Province, he visited, on the way, Mr. Charles de Soysa, at Moratuwa, and attended the wedding on the 1st June; that he signed the marriage register as a witness, returned with Mr. Charles de Soysa to Moratuwa on the 2nd, and proceeded on the 3rd to his daughter’s residence at Vanduragala; that he remained with his daughter till the 13th instant, met the Government Agent on that day, and, in response to his wishes, remained at Maho to help the Ratemahatmaya in preparing returns connected with the riots; and that after that work was over, he went to his daughter at Vanduragala on the 17th June, as her time of parturition required his presence there.

The Government Agent, by his letter of 4th September, 1915, informed him that, as he was absent from the scene of the riots in the Kurnegalle District between the 1st and 13th June, and had failed to assist in suppressing the disturbances, His Excellency the Governor had decided to deprive him of the rank of Adigar. A notification to that effect appeared in the Government Gazette.

Mr. Hulugalle fell a victim to the utterly groundless theory that he was a conspirator with the rioters. Did he leave the district for a fortnight for the purpose of denying to the rioters the pleasure of his presence at the scene of the riots? The Government and its Agent had no eyes to see the absurdity of the suggestion nor the completeness of the reason assigned by Mr. Hulugalle for his absence. He left the district upon an invitation to a marriage fixed months before, was present at it, and signed the marriage register, and stayed at his daughter’s house during her confinement, and readily responded to the call of the Government Agent to go and help the Ratemahatmaya in making up the papers connected with the riots. In the face of this complete explanation, and of the fact that a man close upon seventy years of age, and made more infirm by illness, could not go amongst a band of ruffians and take an active part in the quelling of their disturbances, he was deprived of the great rank which he had earned as a just reward for his lifelong devotion to the King and the Government. What confidence can the people have in Government Agents or Governors who are prepared to depart from justice and righteous judgment without the least concern for truth?

The case of Mr. P. B. Herat, of the Ceylon Civil Service, is also worth mentioning. He was the Police Magistrate of Avissawella, and as such had much to do with the rioters and the Police.

One Mr. Gunawardane, who was the Vidane Arachchi (rural police officer) of Kaluaggala, being charged before a Court Martial with treason and riotously damaging a mosque, some Muhammadan witnesses for the prosecution swore that he came in a motor-car, and gave to the second accused a parcel wrapped in a paper, and went away, and that the second accused distributed the contents of it to some persons in the crowd, who bored holes, and that thereupon some explosions were heard and a mosque was injured. The suggestion was that the first accused handed a packet of dynamite. He denied this in toto, and narrated how he was occupied throughout that day in the work of suppressing the riots. He cited Magistrate Herat and other witnesses to prove his innocence.

The Court Martial rejected the evidence for the defence and found all the four accused guilty, and sentenced them to death. Subsequently, the Governor, upon further enquiry, commuted the death sentences on the second, third and fourth accused to rigorous imprisonment, released the first accused, and directed the prosecution of the four Muhammadans who gave evidence against them for perjury.

But before this remarkable reversal of the case for the prosecution happened, the Government Agent for the Western Province reported to the Governor, on 7th of July, 1915, that all the damage done by the rioters at Puwakpitiya, Avissawella, Talduwa and

Napagama, amounting to Rs. 50,000, was, in his opinion, due to Mr. Herat not dispersing by a timely use of force by the Volunteers and Police, the crowd who caused the damage. Mr. Fraser added, "His constant associations on these days with Proctor de Mel, who is proved to have attended meetings held by Jayatilaka, and such like people, is suspicious."

But Mr. de Mel is the leading lawyer in the district, commanding a great influence over the people by reason of his high character, independence and proficiency in Sinhalese. Mr. Herat explained that there was no other gentleman in the district so powerful for good as he to confer with, and to help him, who was a stranger in Avissawella and carried no weight with the people except that of a Magistrate; and Mr. Jayatilaka is a distinguished Barrister practising in Colombo, whom the Mayor of Colombo had chosen to go and address the people who were coming from Avissawella to Colombo, via Hanwella, for the purpose of helping their fellow-religionists; who were reported to be in fear of massacre by the Muhammadans.

Mr. Herat explained to the Government how he did his very best to pacify the rioters, and how impossible it was with only five armed constables to oppose a crowd of over a thousand persons, whose passions were aroused against the Muhammadans on account of their intolerance and aggression. He said that, if he had ordered the five men to fire on the crowd, they would have clubbed them to death before they could reload their guns. He explained that, to avoid useless provocation and irritation he asked them to put away their guns, and did not think it advisable to let the European planters, who had enlisted as Volunteers, to use their guns; that in doing so, he followed the example of the Police Officers in Colombo; and that Mr. Jackson, the officer in command of the European Volunteers at Avissawella, agreed with him, that, as there was no disturbances at Avissawella that night, and no crowd present, it was not necessary to make a display of armed force.

He further explained that he ordered the release of certain men, who had been arrested as rioters, because he found that the Police could not possibly keep the rioters in confinement without drawing upon themselves the danger of being attacked and done to death by the crowd, and without the police station itself being wrecked. In this order of release, too, he was following the example of the Colombo Police, as reported in that very morning’s newspapers which he had read.

On the 9th of October, 1915, the Colonial Secretary wrote to Mr. Herat as follows;-

"I am directed to state that the Governor in Executive Council has carefully considered the evidence and charges against you, your reply thereto, and the report of the Committee of the Executive Council before which you were examined.

"His Excellency regrets that he has been compelled to come to the conclusion that you have shown yourself to be unfitted for Government appointment, and that it is, therefore, impossible to retain you in the public service.

"In these circumstances he is prepared to accept your resignation, if tendered within seven days. In the event of your not taking advantage of the opportunity now offered to you, it would be necessary to take other steps to terminate your employment under Government. "

Mr. Herat tendered his resignation without prejudice to his cause, and begged for a copy of the report of the Committee of Inquiry of the Executive Council, which the Government however refused to give. .

If the conduct of Mr. Herat deserved the forfeit of his office on the ground that he could have prevented, by the timely use of force by the Volunteers and Police, the damage done by the rioters in the Avissawella District, why has not the Government meted out the same punishment to Mr. Fraser and his Assistant Agents, and to other Police Magistrates, and the Inspector-General of Police, for not dispersing the crowds in other places by timely using the methods prescribed in the eighth chapter of the Criminal Procedure Code."

www island.lk

“Why is Sri Lanka so special?” Kulasegaran said..!!!

2011-06-26T23:13:00.004+02:00

Date: 25 June 2011 18:52
Subject: FW: Malaysia's Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar disallows debate on Sri Lanka’s 'internal affairs'.

Dear All, please see below FYI. Our Malaysian Hindraf M. Manoharan MP visited Sri Lanka with his fellow MPS in May 2011. They filed a notice to debate in respect of appalling situation in Sri Lanka after the civil war. However, the Malaysian Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar disallows debate on Sri Lanka's "Internal Affairs. Thank god, our British Prime Minister, David Cameron MP have requested a full investigation into the death of 400,000 innocent civilians during the war after seeing the recent Chanel 4 Panorama by Mr. John Snow.

Kind regards,

Ano Rao.
HREC,HCUK,BHTT,HPA.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: anorau@hotmail.com
To: anorau@hotmail.com; samyanu@hotmail.co.uk
Subject: Malaysia's Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar disallows debate on Sri Lanka’s 'internal affairs'.
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:27:27 +0100

Appalling situation, baffling rejection

Patrick Lee
| June 22, 2011

Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar disallows debate on Sri Lanka’s 'internal affairs'.

Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar disallows debate on Sri Lanka’s 'internal affairs'.
M Kulasegaran (DAP- Ipoh Barat) noted that Parliament had even passed resolutions against other countries, such as Israel, and Johari Abdul (PKR-Sungai Petani) pointed out that the Dewan Rakyat had often discussed the issue of Palestinians and the Rohingyas of Burma.
“Why is Sri Lanka so special?” Kulasegaran said as he and Johari spoke to reporters in the Parliament lobby.

Johari, who filed the notice for the debate, said that he, along with M Manogaran (DAP-Teluk Intan) and Senator S Ramakrishnan, visited Sri Lanka early this month and found that the situation in the northern part of the island nation was “appalling”.
He said many Sri Lankans experienced untold suffering during the 26-year war that ended in 2009.
In his notice to the House Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia, he said nearly 300,000 of them were now living in camps for Internally Displaced Persons and that they included thousands of Muslims.

He added: “Eighty thousand women there are widows. Five thousand Tamil fighters who have surrendered are nowhere to be found. Many women and children have been raped.”

It is estimated that more than 100,000 people perished during the war between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.Kulasegaran said the Dewan Rakyat used to be more willing to discuss Sri Lanka, recalling that he raised the subject of the civil war in 2004.

“The Home Minister, Syed Hamid Albar, personally replied that he had visited Sri Lanka and had asked the government there to find a final solution.“If this could happen in 2004, why is it not allowed in 2011?”

The diary of an extraordinary human being.. A Review of Ben Bavinck’s "Of Tamils and Tigers"

2011-06-25T16:46:00.001+02:00

The diary of an extraordinary human being
A Review of Ben Bavinck’s "Of Tamils and Tigers"
June 24, 2011, 12:00 pm

NOTEBOOK OF A NOBODY
by Shanie

"This is a time of reflection for the Tamil community; a time for refashioning its politics. Even though the Tamil nationalist vision for a separate state met with a decisive military defeat in 2009, the politico-military decline of the LTTE had begun far earlier, with the convergence of multifarious set of political developments, both local and international, that began the downward spiral at a time when seemingly the LTTE was at its strongest.....

This time of reckoning is not just for the Tamils but also for the majority Sinhala community....Today, after the end of the war, the minorities fear that history is being rewritten. They fear that injustices meted out to the minorities are being written off that there is an unwillingness on the part of the majority community, even after years of destruction and polarisation in the country, to ...understand and acknowledge the history that pushed the Tamils to the edge, into the arms of the Tigers, (to understand) the uneasy relationship that ordinary Tamils had with the LTTE …...(and) that the demands for democracy and accountability are being brushed aside by an arrogant authoritarian state."

Rajani Thiranagama, an academic attached to the Medical Faculty of the University of Jaffna, was brutally shot and killed allegedly by an LTTE cadre in 1989. It was she, along with a few of her colleagues in the University of Jaffna who formed the University Teachers for Human Rights which became well known for the courageous stand they took against violations of human rights by the different actors in the Thirty Years War. Because of the principled stand the UTHR took, Thiranagama was gunned down and the other leaders like Rajan Hoole and Sritharan were driven underground. But despite these setbacks, the UTHR continued to publish their bulletins at regular intervals. These bulletins came to acquire a reputation for reliability in investigative reporting. They were able to do this because they obviously had a network of trusted informants which they cross-checked for accuracy before publication. It was this independence and integrity that made the UTHR bulletins become so very reliable, leading to the UTHR receiving the Martin Ennals Award as brave defenders of human rights.

A group of people who shared the vision and thinking of Thiranagama and the UTHR formed the Rajani Thiranagama Memorial Committee to remember the twentieth anniversary of Thiranagama’s assassination. The Committee continues to function and has taken the initiative in publishing, in collaboration with Vijitha Yapa Publications, the diaries of Ben Bavinck, a Dutch church worker, who was both a teacher of Thiranagama and a close friend of the founders and leaders of the UTHR. The diaries are published under the title ‘Of Tamils and Tigers - a journey through Sri Lanka’s war years’. The book was launched in London recently and the quotation at the head of this column is from the Introduction to the Diaries written by the Rajani Thiranagama Memorial Committee. Whereas the UTHR bulletins were based on investigative reporting by the authors, Bavinck’s dairies are personal reflections by the author during the period covered which is from 1988-1994. (A second volume covering the years 1994-2004 is under preparation.) The bulletins and the diaries therefore complement each other in providing the only accurate and independent recording of the events of that period in our country’s troubled past.

Bavinck’s diaries were originally maintained in Dutch (for understandable reasons) and have been translated into English for publication. They are frank and written in a style that makes for easy reading. It will be an indispensable tool for anyone researching the political and social history of Sri Lanka during the war years. Although it is essentially about the North and East, there are many references to the happenings in Colombo and elsewhere in the South as Bavinck operated from Colombo during this period as the relief co-ordinator for the National Christian Council. Like the UTHR bulletins, Bavinck’s diaries are balanced and the sensitive concern of the diarist for peace and justice comes through very clearly. As Professor Valentine Daniel says in his Foreword, in the hands of the lesser man, the years covered in the diary could have been given to a selective recording of the vilest and the most hateful aspects of the period, a journal dedicated solely to the pornography of violence. "It is not so with Ben Bavinck, who sees moments in the midst of war of acts of humanity and shared human concerns on both sides, and even when he witnessed the worst, he was capable of envisioning the possibility and promise of it being otherwise."

The Diary

A sample of the entries will show the depth and the fairness of the diarist’s recordings:

!3th September 1988 (following a JVP declared Hartal the previous day): "I found that the success of yesterday’s Hartal has really shocked people. A few men with guns can apparently start a rule of fear. Would it be possible to break this by refusing and resisting on a mass scale? Does a whole society give in too easily? It looks as if the Jaffna story has started here too. How will it ever end?"

20th September 1988: "I feel tired and lethargic. But I decided nevertheless to walk around the Beira Lake. While walking, I was thinking about the situation in the North, where one finds an atmosphere of cynicism about the Indian proposed ceasefire. "It will not lead to anything!" and "How can our ‘boys’ trust the Indians?" It is important to break through this cynicism and not to forget that this is one of the few chances we have got to bring an end to the violence and misery. And we should not forget that neither the Indians nor the Sinhalese have much reason to trust the Tigers. It is necessary to have a positive attitude which is willing to take risks. But actually one so often comes across a cynical mindset, which can only lead to the disintegration of this island."

8th July 1989 (following President Premadasa’s wooing of the LTTE to oppose the IPKF): "One of the most amazing and incomprehensible developments is the total reversal in Sinhalese opinion about the Tigers. Of course, one can notice this in Premadasa’s appeal to the IPKF not to attack the Tigers. But the most amazing example of this changed attitude was at a meeting of our own Rehabilitation Committee where a Sinhalese pastor said, ‘The Indians must stop killing our boys.’ Our boys! Who are these boys? They are the Tigers! Really unbelievable!

1st August 1989: "The murders by the JVP continue. Now a popular Sinhalese TV personality, Mr Guruge, has been killed. I heard that when Mrs Guruge had found her badly wounded husband and wanted to take him to hospital, all cars simply drove on....Fear demoralises people and the community as a whole. One has to pray that one will not, like the priest and the Lebvite in the parable of the Good Samaritan, just pass by when suddenly a fellow human being in desperate need lies at one’s feet."

1st October1989: "On Sunday morning I cycled from Vaddukoddai to Jaffna to visit the Rajasingham family, the parents and sisters of Rajani. My old colleague Rajasingham was very downcast, and he wondered whether Rajani had not been too audacious. But he felt that the urge to stand up for justice and human rights came from deep within her being. He asked me to speak at the meeting in the university in her memory the next day. He mentioned that I had been her teacher, and that my stories about the Second World War and about resistance to the Nazis had influenced her. I also talked to Rajan Hoole. He was practically sure the ‘the striped animals’ had done this, but didn’t want to speak about this at this time, so as not to disturb the ceremonies in commemoration of Rajani. He told me that Rajani had been shot from behind as she was cycling home from the university, by someone on a bicycle."

2nd October 1989: "In the morning, I finished preparing my speech and proceeded to the university. There we heard that the procession through the town, in the morning, had been attended by 3000 people, including the Vice-Chancellor if the University, Prof Thurairajah. The Kailasapathy Auditorium was also filled completely when the meeting started under the chairmanship of the vice-chancellor. There were twelve speakers. I spoke about that sentence from the Gospel, which says that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it will not bear fruit. Self-sacrifice as a vocation, which only the best among us dare to accept."

21st February 1990: "Back in Colombo, I attended the funeral of Richard de Zoysa, a well-known TV journalist, age 35, who in the night had been taken out of his house and killed. His body had been founded the next day by a fisherman as it was floating in the sea. There are suspicions against the Police, but a top minister, without offering any proof, coolly blamed RAW, the Indian Secret Service."

20th August 1990: "This morning I heard that the unfortunate Methodist pastor who was trapped with his lorry at Iyakachchi had still not been relieved. Another Methodist convoy had been attacked by a helicopter resulting in Rev Govindaraj being wounded in the back of his head. Going to Vaddukoddai, I met Principal Jebanesan also on his bicycle. He told me that Vaddukoddai had been bombed just then. We cycled there quickly and found that two dive-bombers had indeed been busy dropping four bombs. One destroyed the Primary school of Jaffna College by the side of the church, another fell behind the church near the boys’ home, which was badly damaged. The boys had all been in a bunker and were not hurt, but some teachers had sought refuge under a water tank. One of them was killed by a piece of shrapnel which had penetrated his abdomen. One bomb fell on a Co-op Store and another fell on a private house, where four people were killed, two of them children of 11 and 8 years. Totally incomprehensible why this bombardment took place. Were they under the impression that small arms factories were operated here by the Tigers?"

15th April 1994: "Sri was here. He told me about a Tamil friend Manoranjan, who writes very good Sinhala and regularly contributes a column to the organ of MIRJE, called Yukthiya, in which he describes the situation in Jaffna and the feelings and perplexities of people there. Apparently this column provokes many reactions from Sinhalese people, often even from persons in the armed forces. Many of these reactions show much understanding and compassion. It confirms the idea that the ordinary Sinhalese person is very friendly and capable of tolerance and understanding for others. The intolerance is found among the more educated Sinhalese. Sri also told me ...a Tamil university professor had reproached the UTHR (J) that it was all the time criticising the Tigers. He seemed to feel that we should not speak about the failings and misdeeds of the Tigers while the fight was still on."

Need for critical assessment

Bavinck, who lived and worked in Sri Lanka for a total of thirty three years, in two almost equal spells, had a sensitive mind that enabled him to reflect with understanding on the conflict in Sri Lanka. He lived in his native Netherlands during the Nazi occupation in the Second World War and says that that experience had a profound impact on him, creating a deep abhorrence of authoritarian fascist rule. He was publishing his diaries in the hope that it would ‘help the Tamils as well as the Sinhalese to strengthen a critical assessment of the policies and actions of their own government/movements/armed forces during the period covered. This may be of value in the ongoing search for a lasting peace in Sri Lanka.’ Even after the war has ended now, that critical assessment is still needed, Even more, a critical self-assessment is needed by everyone in Sri Lanka to reflect if we have shown any real understanding of the pain and suffering of ‘the other’ and instead become mere apologists for the failings and misdeeds of the government/armed militants/armed forces in our country’s tragic past and present.

As Professor Valentile Daniel states in his Foreword, Bavinck’s Diary entries are ‘a record of what he had seen and has now witnessed; an emotionally charged landscape that was at once subtle and plain, complex and transparent, objective yet interpreted. This diary is a gift, not only to the historian and research scholar, but to every (Sri Lankan) citizen, whatever be the state with which he or she chooses to identify himself/herself with.’ In addition to Ben Bavinck, we have to be grateful to the Rajani Thiranagama Memorial Committee and Vijitha Yapa Publications for making this Diary available to a wider readership.

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The Tamil Nadu Resolution: Jayalalitha secures Chennai stopover in Delhi-Colombo shuttle diplomacy

2011-06-19T11:08:00.001+02:00

The Tamil Nadu Resolution: Jayalalitha secures Chennai stopover in Delhi-Colombo shuttle diplomacy
June 18, 2011, 4:33 pm

Rajan Philips

The Tamil Nadu State Assembly resolution of June 8, 2011, apart from provoking conflicting emotions among Sri Lankan Sinhalese and Tamil nationalists, served notice on the Union government that Chennai is to not to be by-passed in future shuttle diplomacy between Colombo and Delhi. Delhi would appear to have heard the message loud and clear. A day after the resolution, the Indian troika of National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar stopped in Chennai en route to their pre-scheduled meetings in Colombo. Mr. Menon met with Chief Minister Jayalalitha and assured her that he would raise in Colombo her concerns regarding Tamil Nadu fishermen and the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Whether Sri Lankan officials will emulate the favour and visit Chennai on their way to Delhi remains to be seen. It would be good diplomacy if not anything else notwithstanding ministerial musings in Colombo that sovereign Sri Lanka would only deal with sovereign India and not its minion states. Sri Lanka might be the world’s uniquely unitary state but we must not be innocent about how federal systems work in the rest of the world.

The Tamil Nadu resolution on Sri Lanka is not very different in the substance of its concerns from the concerns raised by India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna in his Joint Statement with Minister G.L. Peiris. The main difference is that the resolution does not use any code words unlike the Joint Statement, and it explicitly refers to the UN Secretary General’s Experts Panel Report and calls on the Indian government to vigorously follow up on the report including an economic blockade of Sri Lanka.

In my earlier comment on the Joint Statement (Sunday Island, May 29) I focused on the current global and regional context as key to understanding the possibilities for a new, post-war, Indo-Sri Lanka engagement. The Tamil Nadu resolution has added an explicitly internal Indian dimension to this context. There is an intriguing part to the resolution that seems to have been less noticed in Colombo, and that is the directive to the Tamil Nadu Government to implead in a Supreme Court case that ultimately intends to retrieve the islet of Katchatheevu that India ceded to Sri Lanka under bilateral agreements in 1974 and 1976.

The case was filed in 2008 by Jayalalitha, as leader of the AIADMK, while in Opposition. Her contention is that the Union government did not have the authority to cede territory without a constitutional amendment and approval by both houses of the Indian parliament. It is part politics in that it is an explicit accusation that Karunanidhi, as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, did nothing and failed to take legal action to stop the 1974 & 1976 agreements. It is also a constitutional matter because of a Supreme Court ruling in a similar situation in the 1950s that declared null and void the Union government’s action to cede Beru Bari in Bengal to then East Pakistan. The successful court action at that time was initiated by B.C. Roy, West Bengal Chief Minister, against the Union government.

Where all this will end, no one knows. As Colonel Hariharan, the Chennai based commentator and formerly of the Indian army, has noted Katchatheevu is irretrievable after more than three decades, but by coupling the Sri Lankan Tamil issue and Katchatheevu, Jayalalitha has made it impossible for Delhi to ignore her in its dealings with Sri Lanka. The question is if it would make sense for Colombo to start dealing with Tamil Nadu both directly and in tandem with New Delhi. There is no shortage of misconceptions in Colombo about the status of Tamil Nadu in the Union of India, but there is no appreciation of the potentials for Sri Lanka given its geographical proximity to Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu, to say the obvious, is the closest human settlement, economic entity and political jurisdiction that Sri Lanka has. Do the two need to be so close, and yet so far apart?

Tamil Nadu and the Indian Union

There is a perception in Colombo that Tamil Nadu is being allowed to throw its weight around too much and that New Delhi should put the southern state in its place and let it know that foreign policy is not its business. No other Indian state, one pundit has opined, interferes in India’s foreign policy as does Tamil Nadu. The latter assertion is simply not true for there are nearly a score of Indian states bordering neighbouring countries and are implicated in India’s foreign policy in relation to those countries. V. Suryanarayn, Chennai academic and commentator, has listed them in a recent article: India-Pakistan relations have implications for Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat; China policy affects Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Jammu and Kashmir; policy towards Nepal has consequences for Bihar, Sikkim, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh; India-Bhutan relations impact West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim; relations with Myanmar affect Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur; India-Bangladesh relations will impinge upon West Bengal, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Assam. In this continuum, Sri Lanka’s relationship with India has implications for only one Indian state, Tamil Nadu.

The perception that Tamil Nadu is being allowed to throw its weight around is also not correct. The 1964 Sirima-Shastri pact repudiated previous Indian positions on the citizenship status of the plantation workers in Sri Lanka and ignored opposition to the pact across the entire political spectrum in what was then the State of Madras. Similarly, the 1974 and 1976 agreements ceding Katchatheevu did not go down well in Tamil Nadu, especially among the fishing communities along the southern coast, even though the DMK government at that time chose to remain mute on the matter. Thirty five years later Ms. Jayalalitha is mounting a legal challenge against the agreements in the Indian Supreme Court.

Even in regard to what Suryanarayn has called the "twists and turns" in India’s policy and initiatives on the Sri Lankan Tamil question, it is a moot question whether New Delhi used Tamil Nadu for its purposes or has been wagged around by Tamil Nadu. There is no point trying to find a conclusive answer to this question because the files on the matter are still open in all three places – Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu and India, not to mention many other countries in the world. The point of my discussion is that the Jayalalitha government in Tamil Nadu is insistent on making Tamil Nadu count in India’s relationship with Sri Lanka in a more formal and powerful manner than any previous Tamil Nadu government has done. And it would be a mistake to attribute this insistence to the straddling Tamilness across the Palk Straits on electoral imperatives. There are other matters too that merit consideration.

For starters, Tamil Nadu has never been a hotbed of separatism. It has certainly been in the vortex of Tamil cultural nationalism long bandied by the DMK. But that nationalism is so systemic in the Tamil Nadu of today that it requires no specific political expression or extra-constitutional assertion. Chief Minister Jayalalitha has no truck with the cultural nationalism of the DMK and Mr. M. Karunanidhi might be its lone surviving relic. Not even his children who are in politics seem to bother about the nationalist aspect of their father’s legacy. They seem to be creating new legacies of notoriety of their own.

The enabling environment for the de-politicization of Tamil nationalism has three primary sources: India’s federal political system of which Tamil Nadu is a highly satisfied constituent partner; a thriving state economy that has made Tamil Nadu rank among the top three or five Indian states with respect to every economic indicator; and the egalitarian achievements of the DMK and the AIADMK governments that have significantly benefited every caste group that has been historically marginalized in South Indian Tamil society. These sources have helped Tamil Nadu raise its specific weight and status within the Union of India in a positive, durable and influential way. In other words, Chief Minister Jayalalitha has stronger props to stand on in her encounters with Delhi than the Tamilness of Tamil Nadu and electoral blackmailing.

The lessons for Sri Lanka should be quite obvious. The Sri Lankan government must rid itself of the chimera of Tamil separatism, especially the notion that Tamil Nadu, India and, God forbid, many others in the world want to foist on Sri Lanka a separate state that they do not want on their own soil. There is no rational basis for this delusion. It is in trying to prevent such an imaginary monster that conditions of oppression and retaliation are perpetuated. Instead, Sri Lanka should try to take advantage of its proximity to Tamil Nadu and its vibrant economy using the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) and CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) framework of that is already in place. This will create an entirely different dynamic for a new triangular engagement involving (in the alphabetical order) Chennai, Colombo and Delhi.

www island.lk

Two years ago in the euphoria of war victory the Rajapaksa regime soared high - only the Tamils, defeated in war.!!!

2011-06-11T22:16:00.004+02:00

Tamils, universities, capitalists and now workers battle government - Sinhala petty-bourgeoisie: Government’s last rampart
June 11, 2011, 7:31 pm

by Kumar David

Two years ago in the euphoria of war victory the Rajapaksa regime soared high - only the Tamils, defeated in war, snivelled and whined in an obscure corner. Internationally too the regime was in luck when India, China and Russia closed ranks around their protégé to defeat critical voices in international human rights lobbies. One year ago it comfortably won presidential and parliamentary elections and in March 2011 the regime did well (shedding just 5% of its peak vote in the Sinhalese community) in local government polls. True some tension was mounting among university students but the thuggish minister in charge seemed able to bash troublemakers and though there were signals from the university teaching community that unhappiness was brewing the president brushed it aside. Small concessions may be necessary to buy off grumbling lecturers and the plot to run down public universities and start up a private system may need fine tuning, but no way was the Rajapaksa regime in any serious trouble.

I don’t claim to own the world’s clearest crystal ball but the one I have, my cranial orb, now alerts me that a fork in the road was reached unexpectedly, and the government is now sliding downhill. The cause is a confluence of international and local happenings in the last two months. The trouble started with the Darusman Report, then came the Jayalalitha election victory in Tamil Nadu followed now by an open confrontation with the working class. The clash with the workers can only get worse, or it can force the government into a humiliating retreat on pension funds. These are still trends; let us watch the international and local stage for a month or two more for the fog in the crystal ball to clear.

The Sinhala petty-bourgeoisie

In countries at the stage of development corresponding to Lanka the petty-bourgeoisie, the petty-bourgeois class, is the most numerous and of course the Sinhalese portion is the largest among our ethnic groups. As a ball park figure we could say the Sinhalese are 75% of the total population and the Sinhalese petty-bourgeoisie about two-thirds thereof, that is say half the population. There is some confusion in the careless use of the categories middle-class and petty-bourgeoisie interchangeably; there is overlap but the two should more appropriately be used to point out differences. Strictly speaking the middle-class belongs in the modern economy; good examples would be those young fellows in starched white shirts in private sector companies, professionals, civil servants and corporate managers. Culturally, middle-class means English speakers who prefer to blend with a Westernised outlook. The petty-bourgeoisie is more numerous and dominated by the rural mass which is not wage labour in a capitalist production process, but self-employed on the land. The petty-bourgeoisie, neither bourgeois nor working class, and not positioned in the modern capitalist economy, includes the self-employed, the informal economy, small traders and sangha, guru, veda types. Of course there is overlap with the modern middle-class proper, mainly in the shape of mixed families, but the distinction is significant, especially culturally and politically. Middle-class people are less nationalistic and a larger proportion vote UNP. (A goodly portion of the upper layers of traditional rural society too, of course, votes UNP, otherwise it couldn’t have an assured 25-30% vote bank)

The petty-bourgeoisie, even after such careful delineation, is a fairly broad-brush category and social scientists refine it with a finer comb. I do not need to do so for my discourse today; but I do need to make one split between two parts of the Sinhalese petty-bourgeoisie political base of this government. There are two distinct components; one is the rural mass, the village folk, the phalanx of SLFP support in the deep-south and other areas. There is also quite a different component in what I call the Anagarika Dharmapala (AD) belt, a more ideologically Sinhala-Buddhist petty-bourgeoisie deep-set in regions encircling the metropolis – Maharagama-Kotte (think JHU and Wimal), Dehiwala-Ratmalana and Gampaha; the exception is the Catholic north, in and beyond the city. These two distinct components are the legs on which this government stands.

Having said so much about class ideology of the Sinhalese petty-bourgeoisie I can’t let it go without one last point. The less privileged, poorer, caste disadvantaged, and under or unemployed younger elements of this class, both in the rural hinterland and in the AD-belt, constitute the JVP’s core constituency.

Shifting categories

OK, let’s get back to business. My point in this article is that disaffection with the government has spread from Tamils and university types to the working class and further. The bourgeoisie proper, that is the capitalist class and the higher echelons of the Westernised society (the elite upper middle-class), never liked this government because of corruption and sheer misrule. It is this coming together of several disparate social forces at this moment in time when the regime’s international standing is strewn in tatters that makes my nose twitch. I smell trouble; it’s not for nothing that my buddies disrespectfully call me the prophet!

Look at some of the signs blowing in the wind. IGP Balasuriya has been kicked out unceremoniously; all his years of craven stooging bought him no reprieve. German envoy Jens Ploetner sent off an insolent missive to Defence Secretary Gotabhaya telling him to keep his uniformed thugs off the premises of German FTZ companies. The regime had to grin, cringe and bear; it dare not kick out the German Ambassador. Rajapksa directs the BOI to hand over a million rupees to the family of the worker murdered by the police in a desperate gamble to trick his kin into disallowing political speeches at the funeral. The JVP is on the offensive and the government is on the run; the state simply cannot risk violence on the streets. Dictators across the world are taking their cue from the travails of Gaddafi, Syria’s Assad junior and Yemen’s Saleh. The other piece of gloomy news is that Delhi will do nothing to provoke tough talking Jayalaitha, so Rajapaksa’s chief benefactor has gone dumb. There is a confluence of national and international events that shoves the regime into a tight corner – excellent if you agree that checking authoritarianism is a priority.

Does this mean that matters will simply keep getting worse and it’s only a matter of time before it is curtains for the regime? No that’s too linear a projection and too simple an analysis; I think the outcome is still a little open ended. The decisive factor will be the bloody Tamils again; not that they have the remotest wherewithal to start a fight; the problem comes from another angle. Rajapaksa is caught by the short and curlies regarding whether and what kind of a deal to cut with the Tamils. ‘Damned if I do and damned if I don’t’; that’s his predicament. If he does nothing his equation with the international community, already troubled, will descend into a spiral of hostility.

But he can’t devolve or go 13A plus or minus either! I belong to the section of public opinion which believes the Rajapaksa regime will not grant substantial concessions to the Tamils nor "solve the national question". More important, and this is the crux, I believe the reason is not because the leadership is plain cussed and chauvinist (it is but that’s not my point), the reason is that it cannot make concessions and continue to survive in power. The B-C Pact buckled and the Dudly-Chelva deal was nipped not because the two premiers were spineless (though they were) but because racially prejudiced sentiment whipped up on the streets, in society, and in the temple, was too powerful for the government of the day to withstand. Rajapaksa faces a no less sombre imbroglio. Whatever the pressure from Delhi, the odds are Colombo will be stubborn in its "No". Otherwise Wimal will be on hunger strike whipping up rabble, Champika’s party will walk out, some Mahanayakes could well call on the faithful to rise up, and that familiar story will replay. Rajapaksa cannot stand against such forces. The Sinhala-Buddhist rampart is Rajapaksa’s last line of defence; it is also the cage that confines him.

Three months ago the JVP seemed to be moving in a progressive direction on the national question; then last month Tivlin dismissed all thought of devolution and Tamil collective rights. These mixed signals raise fear that if Rajapaksa makes concessions to the Tamils, say under pressure from Delhi, the JVP may swing back to its1989 petty-bourgeois ideology and opportunist line.

The final rampart

Hence, most likely the government will lean on its nationalist Sinhala petty-bourgeois base since the two think alike; it’s the ideology with which the regime is most comfortable. Then regime and extremist Sinhala-Buddhism will hang together. The mass rural and small town petty-bourgeoisie however is a different story because these classes are closer to and considerably overlaps the urban and semi-urban working class. For example there are reports of parents coming from rural areas to collect their worker daughters from the FTZ and rumour that Mahinda Rajapaksa cut-outs are being torn down and despoiled. When the chips are down there is little doubt where mass loyalties will lie. Therefore, if the worker protest movement grows and confrontation with the government multiplies on pensions, salaries or whatever, the rural masses will go along with it. The more extreme nationalists in the AD-belt however will keep faith with Rajapakse so long as he does not soil his hands by granting concessions to the nationalist’s arch historical enemy, the Tamil.

The working class and the ultra nationalists will then, at last, part company. The former will find absolution and expiation from the hideous ideological cancer that overcame it during the race-war and in the euphoria of war victory.

When polarisation reaches extremis this is the way the cookie will crumble says my crystal orb.

www island.lk

Instead, open discussion is now completely discouraged & the primary democratic reqt for transparency in law-making has become a disastrous joke...!!!

2011-06-09T00:00:00.006+02:00

Bulldozing bills into law
June 8, 2011, 12:00 pm

By Dr A. C. Visvalingam
President, CIMOGG
www.cimogg-srilanka.org

In a newspaper article contributed by the Citizens’ Movement of Good Governance (CIMOGG) in early October 2007, it was argued that, other than in the case of a declaration of war or some other major emergency, a Green Paper or a White Paper should invariably be published outlining and explaining every significant new Government proposal so as to encourage members of the public to come up with their own views on such proposals (see the book "Good Governance and the Rule of Law - A.C.Visvalingam - April 2011"- p83). It was emphasised that virtually all Government bills are intended to deal with problems which have been known for years and years and that there could be no genuine justification for treating any of these as "urgent", or in maintaining secrecy regarding their contents, or delaying the printing and sale of the relevant Gazettes, about which there have been many complaints in Parliament over the years. Instead, open discussion is now completely discouraged and the primary democratic requirement for transparency in law-making has become a disastrous joke. In the aforesaid article, CIMOGG went so far as to state that it was not aware of a single bill that was rushed through in a hurry since Independence that could not have benefited from some months of considered public scrutiny. Adding weight to our contention, the Constitution, too, carries the exhortation that "the State shall strengthen and broaden the democratic structure of Government and the democratic rights of the People ... by affording all possible opportunities to the People to participate at every level in ... Government".

Why we raise this matter again is to state regretfully that, if the Government had set out for adequate public discussion its proposals for the now temporarily aborted Private Sector Pensions Bill, there would have been less violent challenges to its provisions. The impatience shown by the Government in this instance cannot by any measure be considered untypical. Any moderately discerning person would have to conclude that the Government has some additional undeclared agenda as well, and was determined to leave no time or space for concerned persons and institutions to study the Bill in depth and have it amended suitably. Had there been complete openness shown in this exercise, there would have been no anti-Bill demonstrations, violence, disruptions to the movement of the public at large, or the other adverse repercussions on the scale seen recently - including, not least of all, the much-lamented death of a young man and severe injuries to others.

For possibly inappropriate comic relief, there is also the perception that the Inspector General of Police has been nominally and conveniently "sacrificed" to cover up the Government’s folly and disregard in riding rough-shod over every objection and all objectors. The IGP’s gesture was devalued instantly when it was revealed that he had only a few days left to retire anyway. It would not surprise us if, after a brief interval, he is given a foreign office posting as compensation for his unprotesting acquiescence.

An equally important reason why Government actions will tend to encourage resort to various degrees of explosive turmoil is the more basic issue of the existence of the 18th Amendment, which has reduced Sri Lanka to a pitiful constitutional dictatorship. At the time of its hurried passage through Parliament, there was not even a pretence that the fundamental requirement for a distinct separation of powers was going to be given any place at all in the Government’s plans. In 2001, Parliament, including the then MP Mahinda Rajapaksa, had voted unanimously for the 17th Amendment - although some MPs later claimed that this amendment was faulty because it had been passed in haste! In late 2010, Parliament abandoned the 17th Amendment and replaced it far more hastily with the 18th Amendment, not unanimously but with only a two-thirds majority. Hence, every MP who voted for the fiendish 18th Amendment may be deemed to have opted to go voluntarily into political slavery, abdicating his or her independence, and unquestioningly agreeing to be subject for ever to the President’s unbounded authority. The terrible result of their actions is that we now have a system of government where the People are compelled to accept without dissent the decisions of one all-powerful person. However persuasively such decisions are paraded before the public by highly paid public relations experts as having been arrived at by the Cabinet and a free Parliament, the truth is otherwise. The factual position is that the People, having delegated their legislative, executive and judicial powers to their representatives, now find their representatives have been converted into puppets who are compelled to do what they are told - and no more and no less. This is surely a prescription for the People to turn to extra-legal methods of protesting to have their voices heard.

Even though 18th Amendment has coloured the sky a deep dark grey against the free exercise of the People’s rights, it is important that the People should not wait to act until another fierce confrontation with the forces of law and order arises. While things are calm, voters should get together into small "neighbourhood" groups and write politely but forcefully to their District MPs, with copies to the freer newspapers, making known their own views regarding the issues of importance to them. Even though one can be almost certain that there will be no acknowledgment or reply, the writing of petitions, done on a more or less regular basis, will definitely have a beneficial impact on our lawmakers’ attitudes in respect of their accountability to the People. If large numbers of voters sign these petitions, even the most thick-skinned MPs will find that these pinpricks swell greatly to become something far more painful. The People’s representatives may thereby be stirred into joint action with their equally power-deprived colleagues to play a more proactive role for the good of the Country.

Readers are probably curious about what exactly could be the reasons, other than the arrogance of power and contempt for the public, which might necessitate keeping the People in the dark about the full details and implications of the Private Sector Pensions Bill. Reading between the lines of newspaper comments on the Bill, the following may be matters which are sought to be kept hidden from the public; but one cannot be sure because they are secrets after all!

One idea is that foreign financial institutions and governments are willing to assist Sri Lanka only provided it increases savings and reduces consumption. A new Pensions Fund would be a step in this direction because the contributions made to it would leave a little less spending money in the hands of the all private sector employees and thus help to swell the State’s coffers. Presumably it would be embarrassing to admit to the public that this is the price to be paid to secure the help that is being sought from the very same IMF, World Bank and the many western powers that get bashed by our "patriots" day in and day out. The second scenario is that, when large sums of money become available to the Government, it would be so exhilarating to be able to splash out freely on the numerous prestigious projects that are in the queue for financing, leaving the next generation of Sri Lankans to pick up the burden of paying back the capital and interest. Thirdly, of even more interest, perhaps, is that the law could be appropriately formulated so as to permit the moneys collected in the Pension Fund to be invested in public-quoted firms in such massive amounts that it would enable those in power to appoint relatives, friends and sycophants to key positions in these companies and secure for them high emoluments, generous perquisites and extensive undervalued shareholdings, thus strengthening and retaining their loyalties. It may be that all three reasons are simultaneously valid.

So, start writing to your District MPs without just moaning, groaning and complaining!

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Tamils of this country were considered most docile and law abiding compared to other communities.!!!

2011-06-05T17:11:00.003+02:00

Never again a civil war in Sri Lanka!
June 4, 2011, 4:37 pm

By Dr.M.A.Mohamed Saleem

We learn from the media that External Affairs Minister G. L. Pieris, speaking to a select group of journalists in New Delhi recently declared… "There is never going to be another civil war in Sri Lanka. Never again" (The Sunday Island May 22). Although it is indeed comforting there are many, inside and outside this country, who would have asked the same question that was raised by one from audience – how could he be sure? And, also find the Minister’s answer less convincing.

No one in Sri Lanka, given its size, could have even dreamt that our country will ever go to war with anyone. This country cannot afford to earn anyone’s enmity, and the best course for it therefore is non-alignment, and that is what was adopted by the early leaders all along. Unfortunately, the very leaders had discounted emotional sensitivities of the various groups of people in this country, and for the minorities, some government policies were discriminative and meant to marginalize them from the mainstream. In the eyes of many therefore, this country did not belong to everyone. That incited some to agitate for a separate homeland and pushed the extreme militant Tamil fringe to take up arms to fight for it although, at one time, Tamils of this country were considered most docile and law abiding compared to other communities.

No doubt, the group that terrorized this country for three decades has been decimated, and some other collaborators with that movement are still detained for further investigation or have been released after a crash rehabilitation programme. Most of the civilians held in camps have returned to their villages for resettlement. Minister Pieris is an experienced diplomat; he is fond of articulating peace and reconciliation, and has done it on various occasions holding brief for different ruling parties. At one time he marketed that autonomy to the merged Northern and Eastern provinces under a federal arrangement with Prabaharan at the helm was the way to peace and reconciliation in this country. At that time he was representing Ranil’s government. Now that Prabaharan is no more, the minister seems to believe that (although Northern and Eastern Provinces are now demerged and pursuing different democratic courses) … "ongoing dialogue between government of Sri Lanka and the representatives of the Tamil parties … a devolution package, building upon the 13th amendment, would contribute towards creating the necessary conditions for such reconciliation…" and therefore made him to declare that, under these conditions, there is not going to be another civil war.

Independently, another group calling itself the North East Interfaith Forum for Reconciliation (NEIFR), constituted by coming together of some religious leaders representing Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians from the war affected parts of this country, had adopted a strong position early in January 2011 that resorting to war should never be an option for resolving problems of any form in this country. For this to happen, NEIFR has premised that the country needs a new vision "…based on love, compassion, moral and spiritual principles enriched by all religions that are practiced on this land…" which will create "a new environment and enable a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in this country in which all citizens can co-exist and enjoy equality, justice, human rights and security". NEIFR’s stand is that "…all human beings are born free, equal in dignity and rights and have the potential to contribute constructively to development and well being of a society…" and "…ethnic diversity of this country should be valued, enjoyed, accepted and embraced as a permanent feature enriching our society…". Therefore, NEIFR calls for national policies that will:-

* make dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred an offence punishable by law

* introduce vigilance and deterrence (through establishment of Committee of Conscience at each administrative level starting with the village) to discourage individuals, groups and organizations from disseminating racial superiority or hatred and treat these as acts of violence or incitements to commit such acts

* enable a facilitation unit for healing and reconciliation through which people of every locality can take charge of development and, in the process, create a space for mediation, expressing regrets, remorse and apology at individual levels

* provide globalization spin off opportunities and benefits evenly to all people rather than to individuals and groups selected on political or ethnic criteria.

The power that controls this country seems to project (as Minister Pieris did in Delhi) that trickledown from administrative amendments through 13 plus or 13 minus, infrastructure reconstruction and new economic opportunities will lead to national reconciliation. Unfortunately, little is realized that such dispensations, with whatever good intentions attached to them, seem immaterial to the ones who are returning to their villages from the refugee camps to pick up the broken pieces and restart life.

Free interaction with the war affected returnees reveals that emotional and psychosomatic wounds they sustained over the long years of conflict remain not only open but are beginning to fester and, as long as they are unattended to, national reconciliation will be a distant goal. A common feeling among them is that there is no willingness or serious effort by anyone to help in healing their wounds and, they are let to remain in this plight by a (government) policy design. At every turn of life the war victims are being bureaucratically and militarily blocked and the given excuse is security risk. For anything they wish to do to restart life, even to collect and resell thrown away scrap materials, an invisible someone’s approval is required but, approval is not a barrier or easily granted to anyone from Southern provinces who wish to be involved in the same trade. What is needed is an opening for these war victims to stretch out and make a free choice of how they wish to restart their lives. Ingredients for reconciliation are situation specific, and they cannot be generalized under one package.

Regardless of whatever different situations may demand, reconciliation has to ultimately work through the hearts of individuals who harbor pains from the long years of their inability to meet basic human aspirations or from loss of loved ones and properties as they became innocent victims of calculated and indiscriminate violent attacks between fighting forces. Constitutional amendments and projected development that the enlightened minister talked about cannot make hearts to forget or forgive. This has to be done at a different level, through a process of spiritual counseling and persuasion. If wounds are not healed and social inequities and disparities are allowed to multiply consciously or unconsciously they will turn to be the harbinger of another cycle of fear and violence. Certainly we in this country do not want this to happen. This is a choice for those in power to make. It is gratifying that, at least, NEIFR has realized dangers from people with unhealed wounds, and that is why it has taken upon itself to find redress through reconciliation at the spiritual level which is within NEIFR’s own forte.

www.island.lk

SINHALA Govt is duty bound to give some priority to TAMIL people who have been the worst victims of the war. So far it has not.!!!

2011-05-24T19:11:00.005+02:00

Absence of people-centred development within Vanni
May 23, 2011, 7:54 pm

By Jehan Perera

The second year anniversary of the war’s end was overshadowed by the 2600th anniversary of the Buddha’s Enlightenment which fell on May 17. The Sambuddhattva Jayanthi celebrations organized by the government were on a scale that was hitherto unprecedented. Military personnel from the armed forces were deployed to put up lanterns and other decorations along the main roads in Colombo and other important towns, including Jaffna. So did many households including my children who created their own decorations to put up and be part of the larger celebration. Together with thousands of people from out of Colombo who thronged to the capital city to see the sights, they joined in the Vesak spirit of sharing, partaking of the free food at the dansalas, especially the ice cream dansalas.

However, the grim reality of the costly thirty year war shadowed the Sambuddattva Jayanthi celebrations. After the main celebrations were over, the government announced that the month commencing May 19 to be War Heroes month. This was to commemorate the sacrifice of the Sri Lankan soldiers, including those tens of thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives to safeguard the country’s unity. Among other activities, the government announced that Ranaviru flags would be sold, and the proceeds used to support the lives of those families of soldiers who had lost their lives and to uplift the lives of those who had been disabled in the war.

In the north of the country, the spirit of celebration was less spontaneous, with less light and joy than in Colombo and other southern towns. Although the military had decorated the streets of Jaffna with the support of sections of the business community and people, the enthusiasm came more from the outside in the form of thousands of pilgrims from the south. Jaffna’s Nagadeepa is host to one of the most sacred sites of Sri Lankan Buddhism.

Commemoration ceremonies for those who lost their lives in May 2009 were held with circumspection this year in the north. Last year when they were held, the government and military saw these ceremonies as attempts to remember the LTTE and took action to prevent them. This time when such commemoration ceremonies were held the organizers made specific mention that it was not to support the memory of the LTTE, but of the kith and kin who had died in the war in its last phase.

Mixed element

The month of May 2009 in which the war came to an end has a mixed element for the people of the north. For many of them, particularly those from the four districts of the Vanni—Mannar, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu—the month of May would have been the worst one of their lives. They were held hostage by the LTTE as human shields in the face of the approaching Sri Lankan army. The grief and terror of personal loss would have been accompanied by relief when the war ended. Those who have experienced war at first hand would not wish for it to continue but would want it to end.

The subject of civilian casualties in the last phase of the war is a matter of dispute today. Sections of the international community are taking the position that as many as 40,000 civilians or even more could have lost their lives in the last phase of the war. The government position is that civilian casualties were minimized through its strict policy of zero tolerance for civilian casualties. During a recent visit to two districts of the Vanni region I was able to speak to about ten families, all of whom said that they had lost a family member, some even more. But this cannot be taken as a norm. A community leader gave another example of a village of about 150 families where 35 had died which in that case worked out to about one casualty for four families.

The roads within the Vanni were in very poor shape, highly uneven gravel roads for the most part, which made a 40-kilometre drive take around three hours and which gives an idea of the poor state of the infrastructure. Hardly any buildings were intact and most of the people were living in temporary shelters. It was difficult to talk to them about the war. Invariably when I asked them what had happened, there would be moist eyes and faraway looks and it seemed unfair to continue to question them along those lines when there was nothing I could do to directly assist them. So I asked them what they wanted most to happen next.

Economic problem

Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ is a well known motivational theory in psychology that argues that while people aim to meet basic needs, they seek to meet successively higher needs in the form of a hierarchy. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has often been represented in a hierarchical pyramid with five levels. The four levels (lower-order needs) are considered physiological needs, while the top level is considered growth needs. The lower level needs need to be satisfied before higher-order needs can influence behaviour.

In response to my query what they wanted most to happen as a next step none of the people I met said that they wanted punishment of wrongdoers on either side of the divide. One person said that both sides had done wrong and now it was time to move ahead. Nor is there any evident desire to glorify the LTTE or see its resurrection. In fact one community leader said several rehabilitated LTTE cadre who had gone back to their villages in Jaffna had decided to leave along with their families to start a new life in the Vanni, because their home village people mocked them.

It was the economic problem of survival that was uppermost in the minds of the people I met. All of them said they want jobs to look after their children. This was their main request. There were large extents of land that were uncultivated and needed to be cleared. But many families did not have enough males of working age to do the work. They also did not have the capital to invest, either in seeds or in fertilizer, or to hire tractors for land clearing purposes. They also said that they did not receive assistance from the government to restart their livelihoods. According to all of them I spoke to, they had only received a cash grant of Rs. 25,000 at the time they were taken from the welfare centres and brought back to their home villages. They were also provided with asbestos sheets for temporary shelter.

The much-talked-about Northern Spring economic initiative of the government seemed to consist of government buildings in the process of construction. There was one road that I saw being constructed with concrete at its base, and there are others that may be following. The government is talking about Rs. 270 billion to be invested in the north in the near future. This may be the government’s infrastructure-centred development, but it is not people-centred as most people in those areas do not even know what the buildings are for. There is a clear need for consultation with the people of the area or with their elected representatives when the government makes decisions regarding northern development projects and indeed this is true all over the country.

But there is also a difference. The people of the Vanni are particularly disempowered and poor, and they are marginalized and cut off from the mainstream of social and political life. Although living in the north, they are differently situated from even from the people of Jaffna who have relatives abroad who can support them, and have access to infrastructure facilities that war has not destroyed. Even without much government assistance, Jaffna is a constantly developing city, with private investment coming in, which is transforming its appearance. But the Vanni requires special attention.

At a time when the government has spent millions to light up Vesak for the Sambuddhattva Jayanthi and is prepared to spend billions for the bid to host the next Commonwealth Games in the President’s hometown of Hambantota, surely the government is duty bound to give some priority to this section of its people who have been the worst victims of the war. So far it has not.

www island.lk

A lasting political solution through power-sharing..!!!

2011-05-10T13:01:00.002+02:00

A lasting political solution through power-sharing
May 9, 2011, 12:00 pm

By M. A. Sumanthiran
BSc (Physics), LLM (Internet and Electronic Law), Attorney at Law, Member of Parliament.

I consider it a great honour to have been asked to deliver the Thanthai Chelva memorial oration this year. Last year, too, I had the honour of delivering the key-note address at the annual commemoration ceremony held in Jaffna on the 26th of April. Today, I am doubly delighted since Thanthai Chelva’s true disciple Mr Sampanthan presides over this event. I am truly humbled by this singular honour bestowed on me.

Some years ago, at a ceremony to unveil the bust of Dr Colvin R de Silva at the Colombo Law Library, Colvin’s junior-most junior, Ms Chamantha Weerakoon Unamboowe recounted an anecdote. One day Colvin was greatly worried about a criminal appeal that he was going to argue before the Supreme Court that day. Chamantha had told him, "Sir, why are you so worried; half the criminal law of this country was made by you", to which Colvin is supposed to have replied: "And the other half was made because they did not listen to me"!

I think it would be right to say that the state of our country is what it is today, because they did not listen to Thanthai Chelva. Ironically, it was Colvin who eventually did not listen in the Constituent Assembly in the early 1970s, after having himself prophesied in 1956: "Two languages – one country; one language – two countries".

The first Republican Constitution of 1972 gave the last rites to the slow death for ethnic coexistence in this country that started when a unitary constitution was handed to us by the departing British. Having earned the distinction of being the first Asian country to enjoy universal suffrage, we buried all the benefits of democracy to this island by ignoring the rich diversity of its Peoples and their different heritages, and treating it like a homogenous society.

In my view, fundamentally what really suffered was democracy itself, since the system of government that was enacted in 1948, undermined the very essence of it.

Wikipedia has the following definition for Democracy:

"Democracy is a form of government in which all citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal (and more or less direct) participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law. It can also encompass social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political selfdetermination."

It continues later, "[M]ajority rule is often listed as a characteristic of democracy. However, it is also possible for a minority to be oppressed by a "tyranny of the majority" in the absence of governmental or constitutional protections of individual and/or group rights… It has also been suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of individuals to participate freely and fully in the life of their society."

This is perhaps why, Thomas Jefferson, in his inaugural address, on 4th March 1801, stated that, "Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; the minority possess their equal right which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression."

This is also the reason why when Britain granted Dominion Status to the island of Ceylon, a prohibition was placed on the legislature on passage of any bill that disadvantaged one community or granted a privilege to one community over the others. According to Section 29(2) of the Ceylon (Constitution) Order in Council, Parliament was not competent to pass laws that,

a) Prohibit or restrict the free exercise of any religion;

b) or make provisions of any community or religion; or make provisions of any community or religion liable to disabilities or restrictions to which persons or other communities or religions are not made liable; or

c) confer on persons of any community or religion any privilege or advantage which is not conferred on persons of other communities or religions; or

d) alter the constitution of any religious body except with the consent of the governing authority of that body.

Any law that might be passed which conflicted with these four provisions was expressly declared to be null and void and of no legal effect.

Lord Pearce on behalf of the Privy Council described this prohibition in the case of The Bribery Commissioner v. Ranasinghe in this way:

"[Article 29(2)] represents the solemn balance of rights between the citizens of Ceylon, the fundamental conditions on which inter se they accepted the Constitution: and these are therefore unalterable under the Constitution."

Professor Lakshman Marasinghe says that the Privy Council may have had the benefit of a plethora of background material to have been able to come to the conclusion that Section 29(2) was an unalterable, entrenched feature of the Soulbury Constitution. These may include the following:

During the debate on the Ceylon Independence Bill in the House of Commons in November 1947, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. Creech Jones declared:

"I should perhaps also mention that the Government of Ceylon, while able in the future to amend their own Constitution, has felt that the provisions of the existing Constitution safeguarding minorities should be retained.

"(The Government of Ceylon) would obviously not wish to provoke any controversy on these issues in Ceylon. Thus… the provision barring discriminatory legislation will be retained by the Ceylon Government."

This was in reply to the concern raised by Mr Gammans, from the Conservative opposition when he said:

"The Second danger which Ceylon faces is one which the right Hon. Gentleman, the Secretary of State for the Colonies has not mentioned except very shortly today. It is that Ceylon is not a single racial unit. There were two races in Ceylon, the Sinhalese and the Jaffna Tamils, who are in the northern part of the Island, and number 1,500,000, out of a total of 6,500,000. They differ from the Sinhalese race, language, religion, and to a large extent, in background. They are extremely capable and intelligent people. I have had a lot to do with them because they played a very large part in development of Malaya. It was the Jaffna Tamils who came over in large numbers and started the railways and Government services. Where there is a racial minority in the country the danger is that it may become a permanent political minority, Ceylon’s evolution on a democratic basis is bound to fail."

Many years later, in 1963, Lord Soulbury, writing the foreword to B H Farmer’s Ceylon: A Divided Nation, himself regretted that his Commission did not recommend the entrenchment of guarantees of fundamental rights, on the lines enacted in the constitutions of India, Pakistan, Malaya, Nigeria and elsewhere.

Around the same time the founding father of Singapore, and former Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew commented as follows: "When Ceylon gained independence in 1948, it was the classic model of gradual evolution to independence. Alas, it did not work out. One-man-one vote did not solve a basic problem. The majority of some 8 million Sinhalese could always outvote the 2 million Jaffna Tamils who had been disadvantaged by the switch from English to Sinhalese as the official language."

This then was the real ‘ethnic’ problem that has besieged this country – the problem being that a significant section of the citizenry was excluded from exercising any meaningful democratic choice in respect of all matters in which they rivaled the major community. The problem was that of a permanent minority that could not have a say in respect of their political destiny in this island. This did not only afflict the Tamils; a very important section of the country – the Burghers – left Sri Lanka in great numbers. The safety-valve in the form of Section 29(2) did not work; it was a failed experiment by the British who thought that an entrenched prohibition to safeguard the People who were inferior in number would solve the issue of ensuring full and inclusive citizenship to all the Peoples who inhabited the island. Full and equal access to political power for all citizens could not be achieved within the unitary model constitution that was granted to us.

Instead of such a unitary model, the British Government utilized the model of the linguistic States and other different forms of federations, in countries where different linguistic and ethnic communities live. Those models have largely contributed to neutralizing ethnic tensions and rivalries. Unfortunately, however, in Ceylon the call for a federal structure of governance by the Ceylon Federal Party (ITAK) fell on deaf ears. Within two years of independence, on 18-12-1949, Thanthai Chelva made this call at the inaugural meeting of the ITAK held at the Government Clerical Services Union building in Maradana.

It is pertinent to state here that although the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) did not make such a demand prior to independence the Kandyan League and notably S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike mooted the federal idea. Bandaranaike wrote six letters to the Ceylon Morning Leader in 1926 seeking to introduce the idea of federation. In his famous Jaffna lecture on 17th July 1926 he openly advocated a federal system of government for Ceylon and stated that the model of federation obtaining in Switzerland afforded a better example for Ceylon.

To be continued tomorrow

www island.lk

If we are wise, we should first put our own house in order before we challenge the UN. Doing so would in fact take the wind off of sails of protest.!!

2011-05-03T01:20:00.002+02:00

Bitter fruits of procrastination
May 2, 2011, 7:10 pm

UNSG with his three-member panel

The Darusman Report has caused much embarrassment to us and made our motherland a target of international bickering. The legitimacy, the propriety, and the logic of the report are under scrupulous scrutiny. But I do not propose to enter that arena here. My purpose is to draw attention to the fact that things might not have come to the present catharsis if diligent attention was paid to the real problems of the Tamils soon after the end of the war.

It is an open secret that there is widespread disappointment and disillusionment about the inordinate delay in implementing urgent measures to bring about national reconciliation, as promised at the victory celebrations. This lethargy has caused much loss of face to the Government, nationally and internationally and resulted in substantial material loss to the country. The credibility gap created by the inaction is widening day by day. Lip service alone cannot bridge it convincingly. What is needed is prompt action.

The nitty-gritty of reconciliation

Although the authorities have done much to assuage the physical deprivations of those who were affected by the fighting, nothing has been done so far to address the core issues of national integration that have led to the strife, such as language, education, employment and decentralization in line with the rest of the country. This hesitation appears to stem from a fear psychosis on possible majority reaction to the reforms. But it is clear from the statements of the diehard champions of the Sinhala Cause that they have no quarrel with the granting of fundamental rights to the minorities as far as language, education and employment are concerned. In fact they are themselves perturbed about the delay in settling these pestering issues.

The real bone of contention is the power structure. The resistance is to devolution. Decentralization is less controversial. This controversy arises only when decentralization is planned from top to bottom. Nobody objects to the 'Grama Rajya' concept where the pyramid of power is built up from the grassroots with the village as its base. Even though the authorities declare to be enthusiastic about the idea, they have so far not moved a finger to lay the foundation for it. If a beginning is made promptly at the village level, the chances are that growing mutual confidence would progressively remove distrust about the resulting pyramid of power.

Inaction reigns supreme even in the implementation of minority rights written into the Constitution by JR, without protest. Institutional decay has resulted in observing these concessions in the breach but the Government has failed to attune the state machinery to deliver them as provided for in the 1978 Constitution. This responsibility is assigned to the Ministry of National Integration which is too peripheral to have an effective and visible impact on the implementation of the declared policies of integration.

The news is that a committee of high ranking officials has been appointed to oversee this shortcoming but there is no visible improvement even after its appointment. Committees of otherwise occupied top bureaucrats have never been known to produce tangible results in a hurry. Nor do they have the clout to make a revolutionary change in lethargic performance that has become routine over the years. The task of implementing policies that are to make a regime change in inter-racial relations calls for nothing less than a Presidential Commission composed of outstanding men and women of action.

A house divided

This frozen inaction in providing for and implementation of national integration has left us high and dry at this moment of crisis. The support we get is mostly sponsored. Even that is marred by the cheers of the TNA for Darusman. The situation would have been quite different if the Government had made an honest and timely effort to talk to the TNA and win them over. In that scenario their reaction to the situation would have been far less damaging and far more constructive. Their alienation at this crucial moment has not only prevented us from speaking in one voice but also provided ready fodder to the critics. Let us not forget the proverbial truth that a starved cat shits on the home fire.

It is true that the TNA was elusive during the fighting for obvious reasons. But after the end of hostilities they have been more willing than Barkis to talk. All that we read in the papers is that they talk to the President and run away to talk another day. That day is often postponed and there is reference to a draft package being prepared by the TNA. That draft appears to be taking longer than Penelope's web in the making. Why all this hide and seek? Why cannot the two sides talk to a finish as the issues are clear and the limitations are known? The hamstrung APRC has at least succeeded in focusing on these issues and possible solutions. Matters would have been resolved by now if the ARPC script was used for the talks with the TNA, unless a new script was called for to delay the première deliberately.

Making tools out of weapons

The Stage Manager of the tragedy is known to be the Tamil Diaspora which is supposed to use the 'Neo-imperialists' and the TNA as their dramatis personae. The Diaspora has no personal stakes here. They are motivated by what they consider to be the wrongs done to their kith and kin they have left behind. But they are bound to transform themselves to a national asset, if we could satisfy them that we were genuinely interested in nation building. Unfortunately the Government's failure to get on with the task of national reconciliation and its Hamlet-like, handling of the issue has begun to demolish what it has already attained with blood and sweat. Nearly two years after the end of terrorism, national integration is still where it was when Prabakaran's corpse was brought ashore at Nandi Kadal.

If we are wise, we should first put our own house in order before we challenge the UN. Doing so would in fact take the wind off of sails of protest. Getting the cultivation committee of Palugama to pass a resolution condemning 'Moon's servility to the rapacious West" produces only a comic effect. There will be many more landmines on our way as long as we keep the nation divided. Doubtlessly, the long term solution is to unite the dissident segments of our siblings. That calls for vision, integrity, commitment, valour and large-heartedness.

It is not yet too late to begin. The mission needs a powerful Presidential Task Force for National Reconciliation. Such a Force can cut the ground from under the feet of the ongoing controversy and many more to be expected.

Somapala Gunadheera

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Ban's most senior adviser: chief of staff Vijay Nambiar, whose role in the so called white flag murders at the end of the conflict has been described!

2011-04-19T12:16:00.005+02:00

On Sri Lanka, UN Withholds Report Which Was Leaked "Shortly After" Gov't Got it For Review by Adviser Nambiar

2011-04-19

Ban depicted in camp with gun, full report still not shown

Three full days after portions of the Sri Lanka war crimes report was leaked, presumptively by the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, to The Island newspaper, the UN still at its Monday noon briefing did not release the full report.

Inner City Press asked acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq why the report was not being released, whether the Panel of Experts would take questions as took place for example on connection with the UN's report on the murder of Benazhir Bhutto of Pakistan, and for the UN's view of Rajaksa's call for a mass protest of the report on May 1.

Inner City Press also asked who the UN thought leaked the report.

Haq said that “it did leak to a Sri Lankan newspaper, and... shortly after we gave the report to the government of Sri Lanka.”

While the UN says it is hoping, and was waiting, for a formal response from the Sri Lanka government, Mahinda Rajapaksa has already called for mass protests against the report on May 1. On this, Haq said that the UN called on the government to abide by its responsibility for the safety of UN staff.

Haq did not answer about any press conference or Q&A with the Panel of Experts. His explanation of the non-release of the report was that “the Secretary General and the Senior Advisers are reviewing” the report.

One of Ban's most senior advisers is his chief of staff Vijay Nambiar, whose role in the so called white flag murders at the end of the conflict has been described, among other places, in a filing this year with the International Criminal Court about which Inner City Press has repeated asked the UN.

Inner City Press has asked if Nambiar would be recused from consideration of the Sri Lanka war crimes accountability report, and the reply was that the decision on the report would be by Ban himself. But now, as stated at Monday's noon briefing, the senior advisers -- which includes Nambiar - are also involved in the review.

Since even the portions leaked to The Island criticize Ban Ki-moon's Secretariat for not release casualty figures during the conflict, Inner City Press asked Haq to respond to that. He said no, there will be no response until after Ban and the Senior Advisers -- including Nambiar -- review the report. Watch this site.

Even as leaked, the report says that

“During the final stages of the war, the United Nations political organs and bodies failed to take actions that might have protected civilians. Moreover, although senior international officials advocated in public and in private with the Government that it protect civilians and stop the shelling of hospitals and United Nations or ICRC locations, in the Panel’s view, the public use of casualty figures would have strengthened the call for the protection of civilians while those events in the Vanni were unfolding....

“Considering the response of the United Nations to the plight of civilians in the Vanni during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka and the aftermath.. The Secretary-General should conduct a comprehensive review of actions by the United Nations system during the war in Sri Lanka and the aftermath, regarding the implementation of its humanitarian and protection mandates.”

But how is this Secretary General, with a chief of staff whose role in the so called white flag killings in Sri Lanka, and who withheld his own Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs casualty figures which were subsequently leaked to and published by Inner City Press, to credibly “conduct of comprehensive review” of his own behavior, and that of his senior advisers?

Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb .26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

lick here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

- By Matthew Russell Lee [Inner City Press]

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TNA urged MR regime not to miss the opportunity to "constructively engage in a process which would result in true democracy,equality & justice.!!!

2011-04-19T11:00:00.006+02:00

TNA urges GoSL not to miss theopportunity to engage in equality process

[Tamil Net, Monday, 18 April 2011, 18:38 GMT]

R. Sampanthan, the parliamentary group leaderof the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in his response to the leaked recommendations of the UN Panel, on Monday said that the TNA urged the Rajapaksa regime not to miss the opportunity to "constructively engage ina process which would result in all the Peoples of Sri Lanka being the beneficiaries of genuine democracy, equality and justice."

“The TNA on its part has always been committed and continues to becommitted towards achieving a genuine political solution that recognizes SriLanka's ethnic diversity and a full and inclusive citizenship of all itsPeoples, including Tamils as a foundation for permanent peace and stability inthe country,” Mr. Sampan than said in his response.

Full text of the statement by Mr. R. Sampanthanfollows:

We have read the disclosure made by the media, said to be the Executive Summaryof the Report submitted by the Advisory Panel to the United Nations SecretaryGeneral (UNSG).

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), as the democratically electedrepresentatives of the Tamil People of the North East, who have been the worstaffected victims of the recently concluded war, we consider it our duty torespond to same, while reserving a fuller response to the full Report after itbecomes available to us.

We recall here with deep anguish, that for over the past half a century, wehave consistently urged an acceptable and reasonable political solution toaddress the root causes of the ethno-nationalist conflict in the country andthe exclusion of the Tamil People from meaningful powers of governance. It isthe failure on the part of successive governments of the Sri Lankan State todeliver on such a political solution that has been the primary cause for theexacerbation of the conflict and the consequences thereof. The Sri Lankan Statehas over the years, systematically and continuously unleashed violence againstunarmed Tamil civilians in order to suppress and subjugate them and to deny anddeprive them of the realization of any legitimate power-sharing.

We have consistently emphasized that the Sri Lankan government had a duty toensure that unarmed Tamil civilians are protected and not harmed in the courseof whatever military operations the Government conducts against armedcombatants. However, the Sri Lankan government has persistently bombed civilianpopulated areas, used heavy artillery and multi-barrel rocket launchers in suchareas, carried out attacks by deep penetration units resulting in the death ofand serious injury to tens of thousands of unarmed Tamil civilians, displacedhundreds of thousands of such Tamil civilians from their homes, destroyed theirhomes and all their occupational equipment and other assets, reducing them to astate of destitution, deprived such unarmed Tamil civilians of shelter, food,medicines, drinking water and other essentials, shelled hospitals and relief centresand prosecuted their military operations with scant regard for the safety,well-being and dignity of the unarmed Tamil civilians in conflict areas. Theextra-judicial execution and enforced disappearance of unarmed Tamil civiliansand the scourge of the white vans has continued unabated. These and otheraccounts of horrendous incidents were contemporaneously placed on record inParliament by the TNA and brought to the notice of all concerned.

We observe that the Report of the Advisory Panel to the UNSG confirms the truthof what happened to the unarmed Tamil civilians in the course of the conduct ofthe recently concluded war and is an irrefutable confirmation of the accountsof the events as reported by us to Parliament as and when they occurred. Wewelcome the finding by the panel that "credible allegations, which ifproven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of internationalhumanitarian law and international human rights law were committed both by theGovernment of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimesand crimes against humanity. Indeed, the conduct of the war represented a graveassault on the entire regime of international law designed to protectindividual dignity during both war and peace."

Especially the Panel has also found credible allegations associated with thefinal stages of the war and that the Sri Lankan Army’s military campaigninto the Vanni using large scale and widespread shelling caused large numbersof civilian deaths. The Panel states that this campaign constituted persecutionof the population of the Vanni, of around 330,000 civilians. TheGovernment’s estimate of the population in the Vanni at this time wasonly 70,000. The Panel also asserts that these credibly alleged violationsdemand a serious investigation and the prosecution of those responsible. ThePanel also notes that "the Government’s notion of accountability isnot in accordance with international standards." The Panel also requiresthat the Government genuinely addresses the allegations of violations committedby both sides and to place the rights and dignity of the victims of theconflict at the centre of its approach to accountability, if its measures arenot to fall dramatically short of international expectations. In this context,the Panel has recommended certain measures, which as a whole, it hopes willserve as a framework for an ongoing and constructive engagement between theSecretary-General and the Government of Sri Lanka on accountability. We welcomethe recommendations made by the Panel and trust that they will be honestlyimplemented.

Most importantly, the Panel has observed that an environment conducive toaccountability which would permit a candid appraisal of the broad patterns ofthe past, including the root causes of the long-running ethno-nationalistconflict, does not exist at present. It would require concrete steps towardsbuilding an open society in which human rights are respected, as well as afundamental shift away from triumphalism and denial towards a genuinecommitment to a political solution that recognizes Sri Lanka's ethnic diversityand a full and inclusive citizenship of its entire people, including Tamils asa foundation for the country's future.

The TNA on its part has always been committed and continues to be committedtowards achieving a genuine political solution that recognizes Sri Lanka's ethnic diversityand a full and inclusive citizenship of all its Peoples, including Tamils as a foundation for permanent peace and stability in the country. We therefore urgethe Government of Sri Lanka not to miss this opportunity and to constructivelyengage in a process which would result in all the Peoples of Sri Lanka beingthe beneficiaries of genuine democracy, equality and justice.

R Sampanthan,
Parliamentary Group Leader
Tamil National Alliance

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2011-04-14T11:17:00.000+02:00

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The Hindu : Opinion / Interview : The behaviour of guilty men: Julian Assange

2011-04-13T19:25:00.000+02:00

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The Hindu : News / National : ‘It means he has a habit of reactively covering up allegations of corruption’

2011-04-13T19:16:00.000+02:00

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Those who supported the Tigers are in sorrow & shock; those who opposed them (wishing and wanting a democratic way of life) feel cheated & BITTER.!!!

2011-04-11T13:16:00.004+02:00

“Hatred“?......................PROF.CS

How many civilians died in the last phase of the war? Was it 20,000 or 30,000 or 40,000? You’ll know better. Numbers, statistics, but the difference between zero and one is eternity and the whole world - when that one digit represents a much-loved individual. The past cannot be recalled, and that particular human being will not ever live again. Since thousands died, it follows that thousands of Tamils live with loss and grief that are life-long. Perhaps all Tamils know, at the least, someone who knows someone who has lost a dear relation or friend; someone gravely injured, deeply traumatised or driven into exile. There was no need to proceed with the onslaught because the Tigers were ringed with steel so tight that hardly the air could have escaped. The heedless haste to press on, callous to the civilian cost, was based not on military strategy but political calculation with an eye to gaining election-winning popularity. It is yet another example of shutting the gates of mercy on humankind, and wading through slaughter to power,

It was an appalling price but some Tamils (including those within the Island but outside the conflict zone) thought that that massacre and the end of the Tigers would mark the beginning of a new Sri Lanka, one of freedom, equality and dignity for all: a “baptism”, bloody but necessary for a new birth. They now feel disabused, deceived and disillusioned. People who visit the North describe the state of the region and the reality of daily life for its people. (You are aware, for you travel regularly in connection with the humanitarian work you do.) After all, one of the reasons proclaimed for waging the war was to free Tamils from Tiger tyranny. But tyranny, whether exercised by an armed group or the state, makes no difference to the hapless victims of untrammelled power. Power, like alcohol, goes to the head. And the longer one is drunk (has power), the more habituated - and worse - one becomes. Tamils, irrespective of age, sex or status in the community, can be, and are, rudely handled, humiliated, assaulted, even eliminated – all with complete immunity. And it’s not only the Sinhalese (be they in uniform or not) but Tamils also: a friend told me of being mistreated recently by a uniformed “boy” (in age to him) who later turned out to be a member of a Tamil group working in collaboration with, and under the protection of, the government. (Is it a case of the dogs of the king enjoying a higher status than ordinary humans?)

Your write that “the hatred” on both sides is very “deep”, and I try to explain why Tamil feelings are excruciatingly “raw”. Those Tamils who supported the Tigers are in sorrow and shock; those who opposed them (wishing and wanting a democratic way of life) feel cheated and bitter at what victory has brought. As for continuing (emphasised) hatred by the Sinhalese, you – not only a Sinhalese but someone close to “grass roots” - are better placed to analyse and explain. The Tigers have been decimated, and there is no threat or danger of organised Tamil violence. Yet there’s “hatred” which leads to the wish to dominate and subordinate. Why, when the head has been cut off, hack at the arms and legs of the corpse (Shakespeare)? On the other hand, there is inter-ethnic friendship (but see, ‘Racism and exceptionalism’, The Sunday Leader, 17 January 2010), and even marriage. Much is shared between Buddhism and Hinduism: indeed, some Sinhalese Buddhist commentators have observed that Sri Lankan Buddhism is now more Hinduism than the doctrine preached by the Buddha. There are links but, apparently, not strong enough to overcome pervasive, often unconscious, feelings of division.

I am neither a psychologist nor a sociologist, but there is in us, human beings, an innate wish and struggle to understand. I therefore offer, tentatively, an explanation. If a man wrongs someone, he may feel contrition. But it is also possible that, on the contrary, he develops a dislike for the victim of his injustice - because that person makes him feel “uncomfortable” with himself and his actions. An inner unease is displaced and projected outward: blame him so that I don’t have to blame myself. It is necessary to see that person as unworthy or guilty in order to justify to one’s self (and to what may be called the ethnic or collective self) one’s actions. I cannot accept the full humanity of another; his or her equal worth as a human being, and then proceed to discriminate or subordinate. Anger and hatred not only precede but must follow unjust action. Does it make sense to you? This letter is as much an attempt to clarify matters to myself as to respond to your comment.

The emotional divide is not beyond comprehension. But the existence of this chasm shows how necessary and urgent, important and necessary is the work to be done. There are many Tamils who have no interest, time or concern at all; Tamils who are quite happy getting on with their private and professional, familial and social, lives. But there are also several Sinhalese and Tamil active in various spheres, be it in politics, economics or the arts. Their work and effort can be seen as little tributaries which, I hope, will go to create the much needed, and longed for, river of change. They are “the salt of the earth” (Matthew, 5:13).

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2011-04-02T08:24:00.000+02:00

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