2 lakh Tamils stranded in north, east Lanka: TNA

P K Balachandran

Express News Service

Last Updated : 15 Sep 2011 08:22:20 AM IST

COLOMBO: The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has claimed that nearly 2,00,000 war-displaced Tamils are yet to return to their homes in the war-hit northern and eastern provinces of Lanka.

Refuting Sri Lankan’s claims at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that significant progress had been made towards ethnic reconciliation in the nation, the TNA said in a statement on Wednesday that about 2,00,000 war refugees were either in transit camps or had been compelled to take shelter with host families. These include those displaced from Valikamam North in Jaffna, from Sampur in Trincomalee and from several other areas in the Wanni. “Those who have been permitted to go to their original places have been deprived of the aid they are entitled to in order to resettle and recommence their lives,” it said. State lands in the northern and eastern provinces were being given “exclusively” to persons of the majority Sinhalese  community, purportedly for development purposes, but without any public notification, it alleged. The party pointed to the settlement of persons from outside the north and east in different parts of the two regions, and more recently, in the coastal Mullaitivu and Vadamarachchi East areas, and charged that this was being done to change the demographic composition of those areas.

The TNA alleged that the destruction and desecration of Hindu and Christian places of worship and other cultural sites so as to transform the religious and cultural identity of these areas.

On the retention of the Prevention of Terrorism Act despite the lifting of the State of Emergency, the TNA said this ensured the seamless continuation of the Emergency rule.

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Press Conference at the American Center in Colombo

Remarks

Robert O. Blake, Jr.
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

Colombo, Sri Lanka

September 14, 2011

Question: There was a U.S. proposal to have a direct dialogue. Was this taken up with the President? And if so, what was the response?
Assistant Secretary Blake: I talked with all of the senior government officials about the need for the government of Sri Lanka to engage positively with the UN Human Rights Council. I know there’s already a delegation that is there right now led by Mahinda Samarasinghe. I hope that delegation can have the opportunity to brief members of the council, not only on the plans with regard to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, but also on the wider range of steps that the government is taking with respect to important matters such as its dialogue with the Tamil National Alliance and many of the other important issues of concern to Tamils here on the island.
Question: I have two questions. Do you think, does the United States of America recognize the LLRC? And in the [inaudible] report, will you recognize that as an adequate tool?       Full Story>>>
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Sri Lanka Buddhist monks destroy Muslim shrine

  

South Asia

 A group of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka led a crowd that demolished a Muslim shrine last week, the BBC has learned.

This incident took place on Saturday in Anuradhapura, an ancient Buddhist city and Unesco world heritage site.

The monk who led the group told the BBC he did it because the shrine was on land that was given to Sinhalese Buddhists 2,000 years ago.

A Sri Lankan news website showed photographs of a crowd including monks apparently reducing a small structure to a pile of rubble. 

But a prominent Muslim in the area said he was very sad and the sentiment was shared by many Sinhalese too.  Full Story>>>

IThe demolition has been denounced by both Muslims and Sinhalese (Photo courtesy: Sri Lanka Mirror)