Monday, January 9, 2012

“Rethink policy to empower Sri Lankan Tamils economically”

January 9, 2012

The HinduG. Parthasarathy, former diplomat delivering a lecture in Chennai on Sunday. Photo: N. Sridharan

Set up industrial training and engineering institutions: G. Parthasarathy

In the present-day world where politics is invariably trumped by economics, India has to have a drastic rethinking of its policy in favour of economically empowering the Tamils in Sri Lanka as a sustainable solution for their rehabilitation, former diplomat G. Parthasarathy said on Sunday.

In a lecture on ‘Personal Recollections of Relations with Sri Lanka — the IPKF and Beyond,' hosted by The South India Heritage Programme, Mr. Parthasarathy said while politics was important for the international pressure on Sri Lanka to keep its commitments, it was eventually the economic empowerment of the Tamils that would make them wealthy and influential.

An alumnus of the College of Engineering, Guindy, Mr. Parthasarathy suggested setting up industrial training and engineering institutions in the North and East of Sri Lanka that would, within a generation, result in the economic integration of the markets in these areas with that of Tamil Nadu—something that Sri Lanka could be persuaded to see as not beneficial merely for Tamils but for the greater common good.

“There has to be a basic rethink in Delhi to see in economic terms our neighbours as an extension of the Indian market,” he said. Such a rethink was hardly out of place against the backdrop of the bilateral FTA and the move towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, he said.

The former diplomat provided an overview of the 1987 India-Sri Lanka Agreement, the tumultuous stand-off between the Sri Lankan Army and the militant LTTE, the dilemma of the Indian Peace Keeping Force —under pressure from every quarter trying to maintain peace without getting involved in a civil war-like scenario and the escalation of the situation into a bloody no-holds barred battle in which “every side is guilty of excess” and “the psyche of which was such that people went haywire.”

‘TOUGH OUTFIT'

While Mr. Parthasarathy paid tributes to the LTTE as an outfit that was “tough, motivated and ruthlessly singular” in pursuit of its objectives—“the word of the leader was law to which even human life was secondary”—his assessment was that the LTTE's bravery was not tempered with the wisdom that a guerrilla outfit never fights a conventional battle.

The outfit's disastrous mistake was in engaging in a conventional warfare against a conventional Army.

On why the line of thought about condemning Sri Lanka for human rights violations should be abandoned, Mr. Parthasarathy reasoned that while the Europeans might support India, the US was wavering while Beijing and the Islamic world —or for that matter the Asian bloc which holds sovereignty supreme —would vote against us.

Recalling an incident when he was instructed by the PMO to call on then Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran, who was convalescing at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Mr. Parthasarathy found it remarkable that MGR was even during hospitalisation up to speed on developments in Tamil Nadu and quite self-assured about handling the situation.

ANECDOTE

He also shared an anecdote about Murasoli Maran asking him when LTTE supremo Prabhakaran would do a Yasser Arafat after the Palestinian leader had declared that he recognised Israel's right to exist in peace and security.

Keywords: Sri Lankan Tamils, India Sri Lanka ties

Accused Rwandan war criminal to receive deportation ruling

Man suspected of inciting Rwandan genocide has fought deportation for 15 years

Leon Mugesera, seen here with his wife in 2005, is accused of inciting bloodshed in a speech he gave in 1992. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)An accused Rwandan war criminal is making a last-ditch effort to avoid deportation.
Leon Mugesera will be in Federal Court in Montreal Monday to argue for a stay of the deportation order calling for him to leave the country on Thursday.
Mugesera has lived in Quebec since 1993 and was granted permanent resident status.
However, in 1995, the Canadian government learned of allegations that Mugesera gave a speech three years earlier at a political meeting in Rwanda, inciting party militants to kill Tutsis. According to court documents, killings took place the next day.
Mugesera's name appears on a list prepared by the U.S. State Department of those implicated in the genocide in Rwanda.
He has been fighting and delaying orders for his deportation for more than 15 years.
Laval University law professor Fannie Lafontaine said Mugesera's chances of a successful appeal are uncertain.
“It's hard to know exactly in what kind of legal channel he's in right now,” said Lafontaine.
If deported on Thursday, Mugesera would be the first refugee claimant sent back to Rwanda to face charges for war crimes.
In early December, Canada’s Immigration Ministry handed down an 80-page decision that stated Mugesera’s life would not be in danger if he was returned to his home country to stand trial.
It came six years after the Supreme Court restored the decision to return Mugesera to Rwanda, citing reasonable grounds to believe he committed a crime against humanity.
However, the deportation wasn’t immediately enforced because he could have faced the death penalty in his own country.
Rwanda dropped the death penalty for convicted war criminals in 2007.
Lafontaine said that if the deportation goes ahead, Canada's responsibility doesn't end there.
“We need to make sure, considering the current political context in Rwanda, that Mr. Mugesera is not just sent back to have a kangaroo court trial,” said Lafontaine.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Who Is Sarath Fonseka

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Has everybody forgotten who Sarath Fonseka really is? Clearly the bankrupt United National Party has. It is this same party and its current leader Ranil Wickremasinghe who accused Sarath Fonseka of the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge. Today, Wickremasinghe and the UNP are flirting once more with Fonseka hopeful that his colourful track record will help revive an ailing party of chauvinistic stooges.
Wickremasinghe in January 2009 pointed the finger for the assassination of Lasantha (and other crimes) at a team within the military-intelligence wing, albeit one operating independently of government control. “Today it is the opposition and the media who are the targets,” Ranil Wickremasinghe said in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Wickrematunge. “But a similar fate can befall the government and the cabinet tomorrow. I am talking on behalf of the entire House now,” he said.

Sarath Fonseka, Lasantha Wickrematunge, Taraki Sivaram and Keith Noyahr

It is three years to the day since Lasantha was brutally murdered as he drove himself to work on Thursday, January 8, 2009.
Elsewhere on our pages, today, we reproduce in memory of Lasantha, an editorial he carried on October 5, 2008 – three months before he was murdered where he smacked Sarath Fonseka hard for his assertions of Sinhala supremacy. At the time Army Commander, Fonseka told Canada’s National Post newspaper, “I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese. But there are minority communities and we treat them like our people.” Gracious of him, you must admit. The Tamil and Muslim communities must be touched.Read More »

India’s Krishna in Lanka for TNA-Govt. talks

Sunday January 08, 2012

By Chris Kamalendran

Indian External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna will be meeting the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and government officials within the next two weeks, in a move seen as ensuring continuity in talks to finding a political solution to issues in the North.
Mr. Krishna arrives on Monday, January 16. His visit coincides with the next round of talks between the four-member government delegation and the TNA delegation. The talks will take place over three successive days, during which Mr. Krishna will be in the country.
On arrival, Mr. Krishna will meet TNA delegation leader R. Sampanthan, and the following day he will meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The Indian Minister will also visit Jaffna, where he will hand over 45 houses built under an Indian grant to resettle displaced persons. He will then visit Kilinochchi, where he will hand over 10,000 bicycles to residents in the area.
Meanwhile, talks between India and Sri Lanka on fishing issues will likely take place after Mr. Krishna’s visit, a Fisheries Ministry official told the Sunday Times. On Thursday, the two countries conducted a 20th International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) meeting on board the Indian coastguard ship “Vajra”, on the Indo-Sri Lanka Maritime Boundary Line, off Kankesanthurai.
“The meeting is held every six months to discuss maritime security, as well as fishermen’s problems”, Navy spokesman Commodore Kosala Warnakulasuriya told the Sunday Times. The Sri Lankan delegation, comprising Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Coast Guard officials, was headed by Commander Northern Naval Area, Rear-Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne. The Indian delegation, also comprising Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard officials, was headed by Naval Officer in Command at Tamil Nadu, Commodore A. K. Mahadevan.

Rajapaksa Dynasty And Their Education Qualification Saga

Sunday, January 08, 2012By Uvindu Kurukulasuriya

Mahinda Rajapaksa and Brother Basil

In 1999, the Ravaya published an article under the byline Mahinda Rajapaksa which analyses the provincial council elections results. The late Jeyaraj Fernandopulle asked me who wrote that. I said it was Mahinda Rajapaksa, and he laughed heartily. Everyone around us were very curious about that and asked, “Why are you laughing?” He asked MPs and journalists who were in the parliament corridor at that time to come near him and said “listen! listen! Uvindu says that the Ravaya article was written by Mahinda, how could he analyse statistics since he managed to fail even his Ordinary Level maths! Don’t be stupid, I know his capacity he was with me in the Law College, I even know how he passed the law exams, Karunajeeva or Sunimal Fernando must have written this article for him.”
Now, last week Colombo Telegraph published a story based on WikiLeaks which says; Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa did not complete his advanced level exam. The cable which is classified as “CONFIDENTIAL” details biographic details on Sri Lanka’s fifth President Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa. The cable was written on November 21, 2005 by the US Ambassador to Colombo, Jeffrey J. Lunstead.Read More »

TNA to discuss Tamil issue with ANC

08 January, 2012

The TNA says it will discuss Sri Lanka's Tamil issue with the ANC

TNA delegation leader R Sambandan, MP, received by Minister Roy Padayachie in Bloemfontein

The major Tamil party in Sri Lanka says it will urge South Africa's ruling party to help resolve the national question.

A delegation of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is in South Africa to attend the centenary celebrations of the African National Congress (ANC), a leading liberation movement and the party that holds power in South Africa.

TNA leader R Sampanthan is leading a four member delegation to the ANC centenary celebrations.

TNA parliamentarian MA Sumanthiran told BBC Sandeshaya that it hopes both the TNA as well as Sri Lanka government could learn from the ANC's experience.

"We are trying for a political solution that recognises Tamils as a nation and South Africa's help will be vital for both the TNA and the government in achieving that," he said.

Govt 'boycott'

In a recent visit to Sri Lanka, he said, a South African minister held discussions with the government as well as the TNA.

We are trying for a political solution that recognises Tamils as a nation and South Africa's help will be vital for both the TNA and the government in achieving that

MA Sumanthiran, MP

Mr Sumanthiran said Global Tamil Forum (GTF) representing Sri Lankan Tamils worldwide is also among the invited delegates for the centenary celebrations.

The Sri Lankan government has boycotted the celebration, for which over 40 heads of states and government taking part, in protest over the participation of the GTF, according to Sunday Times published in Colombo.

GTF spokesman Suren Surendiran said that seven delegates from several member country organisations in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Malaysia, Germany including its President Rev S J Emmanuel is representing the Tamil Diaspora.

African and world leaders, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and African-American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, are also in Bloemfontein for the celebrations.

They attended a gala dinner on Saturday night, and an interfaith service on Sunday at the Wesleyan Church in Mangaung, just outside Bloemfontein, where chiefs, church leaders and other prominent people gathered on 8 January 1912 to create the liberation movement.

Kelaniya PS members on Mervyn

SUNDAY, 08 JANUARY 2012

Members of the Kelaniya Pradheshiya Sabha accused Minister Mervyn Silva of extortion and requested the President to appoint a commission to probe the actions of the controversial Minister. At a press conference held today at the PS premises the Chairman of the PS requested businessman not to pay any ransom to any individual.Pix by Kushan Pathiraja

‘Asia’s miracle’ of MaRa is indeed becoming miraculous ! – three teenage girls raped yesterday alone !!

(Lanka-e-News -08.Jan.2012, 11.55PM) While the powerful politicos of Sri Lanka are also on a rape spree , yesterday alone there had been three cases of rape committed on three teenage girls , according to police reports. One victim is only 13 years old and the rapist is as old as 62 years.

Hungama police of the Gotambaragama district had arrested this 62 year old criminal who had committed this brutal sexual assault .
The second case has been reported from Thanamalvila Police district inThivulara district – the Thanamalvila police had received a complaint that a teenager , 14 years old had been a victim of rape.

The third case of rape had been reported from the Matugama police division – another 15 year old teenager had been raped at a recreation Hall . The Matugama police has received a complaint in this regard.
It is to be pointed out with regret that despite the rape crimes in society spiraling in Sri Lanka with alarming rapidity , the regime or the religious organizations or non Governmental Organizations have not seriously addressed or focused on this issue.

It is also unfortunate that there is no one to question as to how MaRa is going to make Sri Lanka the much hyped Asia’s miracle when rapes are being committed with gay abandon not only on foreign tourists , but on teenagers too in Sri Lanka.
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Sri Lankan animal rights activists condemn gov’t dog culling plan

Bikya Masr Sharifa Ghanem | 8 January 2012

Dogs looking up for some fun.

DUBAI: The Sri Lankan government has sparked the ire of animal rights activists after it said it was looking into the possibility of killing some three million stray dogs in the country.

“It is simply destructive and does not fit with our beliefs as a country, especially when there are many other alternatives that we can achieve with the dog situation,” Mariana Novpichatne, a Colombo-based activist told Bikyamasr.com via telephone.

Sunday January 08, 2012

Security forces question mystery Kumar's separated wife Champa and children at BIA amidst concerns over serious threat to national security
Questions over the source of huge funds received by radicals for various events

By Our Political Editor

Last Sunday, hours after 2012 had dawned; life was lazy in the streets of Colombo and suburbs. Traffic along the main highways, choking even during holidays, had trickled down to a few vehicles. Most shops remained closed. Revellers who danced their way into the New Year in crowded hotels seized the holiday to sleep it out. So did most of those who watched the New Year dawn on television programmes. Some of the overtly enthusiastic contributed to the unprecedented rise in accidents. They had either consumed too much alcohol and begun another year with brawls or hurt themselves lighting crackers.

The LLRC Report: Foundation for a new beginning in 2012?

January 7, 2012
article_image

by Rajan Philips

By a curious coincidence, the LLRC Report was tabled in parliament and released electronically on 16 December 2011, the 40th anniversary of the end of the war of liberation of Bangladesh. Sri Lanka’s war started and ended quite differently, even though the birth of Bangladesh in 1971, after nine months of violent labour and India’s caesarian intervention, was a powerful demonstrational impetus to the movement for Tamil Eelam. The LTTE that usurped the Eelam movement and devoured Tamil politics is now gone, gone much more violently than it arrived. The defeat of the LTTE has not ended Sri Lanka’s predicaments. The government is unable to shake off calls to account for what happened during the war and to demonstrate what it will do after the war. The LLRC Report can be the foundation for positive actions that are long overdue after the war. The next steps in 2012 are the responsibility of the Rajapaksa government and no one else’s.Read more...

Accountability is critical and obligatory - US State Dept

Responding to an online petition demanding support from the Obama adminstration into an "international investigation into war crimes and other human rights abuses committed in Sri Lanka", the US state Department, in a statement released Friday, stressed the needed for accountability, as a "critical component of reconciliation" and warned that that "international accountability mechanisms" may be used if the Sri Lankan government is "unable or unwilling to meet its obligations".

Tamil Guardian 06 January 2012

The full statement - 'Accountability for the Alleged Violations of International Humanitarian and Human Rights in Sri Lanka' - by Michael H. Posner, the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the Department of State, has been reproduced below:

Full Story>>>

Tamil-Canadian student makes headlines over climate change speech

07 January 2012
At last month’s International Climate Change Talks in South Africa, Tamil-Canadian student Anjali Appadurai made headlines when she delivered a powerful speech urging world leaders to take action over climate change.

Her speech which has clocked up tens of thousands of views on YouTube, has won the praise of Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and award winning author Naomi Kleinwho tweeted;

“Anjali Appadurai is a hero, watch her brilliant speech that rocked the climate summit in Durban”

Speaking on behalf of youth delegates at the conference, Ms Appadurai started her speech saying,

“I speak for more than half the world’s population. We are the silent majority. You’ve given us a seat in this hall, but our interests are not on the table.

What does it take to get a stake in this game? Lobbyists? Corporate influence? Money? You’ve been negotiating all my life. In that time, you’ve failed to meet pledges, you’ve missed targets, and you’ve broken promises. But you’ve heard this all before.”

Ending her speech with a fiery “mic check”, she also managed to win the admiration of the the COP Chair of the session Artur Runge-Metzger, who said to applause,

"I wonder why we let not speak 'half of the world's population' first in this conference, but only last”."

Stepping up to the microphone Ms Appadurai delivered a rousing speech, proclaiming,

“Respect the foundational principles of this convention. Respect the integral values of humanity. Respect the future of your descendants. Mandela said, "It always seems impossible, until it’s done."

So, distinguished delegates and governments around the world, governments of the developed world, deep cuts now. Get it done.”

The 21-year old Tamil Canadian student, who cites Arundhati Roy as one of her heroes, is currently a student at College of the Atlantic in Bar harbour, USA.

See an interview with Ms Appadurai below.

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Young Indo-Canadian Woman Shines At UN Climate Summit

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

Anjali Appadurai, a former student of Gleneagle Secondary in Coquitlam, who is now a third-year student at College of the Atlantic (COA) in Maine, stepped up to the microphone and challenged the Climate change delegates in Durban, South Africa to put aside what she called short-sighted ambitions in order to set long-term goals to fight climate change. Andrew Revkin of the New York Times called the speech “remarkable,” while author Naomi Klein called Appadurai “a hero” on Twitter. Appadurai, who is back home in Surrey, was one of nine delegates from COA.

By Amy Goodman

“You’ve been negotiating all my life,” Anjali Appadurai told the plenary session of the U.N.‘s 17th “Conference of Parties,” or COP 17, the official title of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa. Appadurai, a student at the ecologically focused College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, addressed the plenary as part of the youth delegation. She continued: “In that time, you’ve failed to meet pledges, you’ve missed targets, and you’ve broken promises. But you’ve heard this all before.”

After she finished her address, she moved to the side of the podium, off microphone, and in a manner familiar to anyone who has attended an Occupy protest, shouted into the vast hall of staid diplomats, “Mic check!” A crowd of young people stood up, and the call-and-response began:

Appadurai: “Equity now!”

Crowd: “Equity now!”

Appadurai: “You’ve run out of excuses!”

Crowd: “You’ve run out of excuses!”

Appadurai: “We’re running out of time!”

Help us speak truth to power. Donate what you can afford to support NationofChange.

Crowd: “We’re running out of time!”

Appadurai: “Get it done!”

Crowd: “Get it done!”

That was Friday, at the official closing plenary session of COP 17. The negotiations were extended, virtually nonstop, through Sunday, in hopes of avoiding complete failure. At issue were arguments over words and phrases—for instance, the replacement of “legal agreement” with “an agreed outcome with legal force,” which is said to have won over India to the Durban Platform.

The countries in attendance agreed to a schedule that would lead to an agreement by 2015, which would commit all countries to reduce emissions starting no sooner than 2020, eight years into the future.

Courtesy Nationofchange!

Govt boycotts ANC centenary - Protest against participation of Global Tamil Forum

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

Sri Lanka has refused to accept an invitation from South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) to attend today's centenary celebrations attended by some 40 heads of state or government. The reason -- a delegation from the London-based Global Tamil Forum (GTF) also has been invited for the same event. Giving it official status and placing it on par with a government delegation, an External Affairs Ministry source said yesterday was not acceptable. Otherwise External Affairs MinisterG.L. Peiris was to represent Sri Lanka at the event.

A four member TNA delegation arrived in South Africa to take part in the centenary celebrations of the ruling African National Congress. TNA leader, R. Sampanthan, M.A. Sumanthiran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and Suresh Premachandran soon after their arrival.

Already in South Africa for the centenary celebrations is a GTF delegation led by its President, Rev. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel. Also taking part in the same event is a four member delegation from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) comprising Rajavarothayam Sampanthan (leader), M.A. Sumanthiran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and Suresh Premachandran. Both the TNA and GTF were also to hold talks on the sidelines of the centenary event.
The TNA move has angered President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He told his ministers during last Wednesday's weekly Cabinet meeting that the TNA was resorting to delaying tactics without engaging the government to work out a political package. He said the TNA had not nominated its representatives for a Parliamentary Select Committee and this was causing considerable difficulty. The government's dialogue with the TNA is to be a priority subject when Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna visits Colombo on January 16.
The ANC centenary celebrations will begin at the founding place of the Congress 100 years ago in Waalhoek in Bloemfontein. It will be held at the Free State Auditorium where President Jacob Zuma will make a centenary statement at a ceremony to be attended by 120,000 participants.

Sound of Silent Speech

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 January 2012, 16:57 GMT]
One can speak not only through words but through expressive conduct often called "Symbolic speech" - legally defined as nonverbal gestures and actions intended to communicate a message. In Western liberal democracies, most forms of symbolic speech are constitutionally protected. The Tamil diaspora's recent use of such protected expressive speech to publicize symbols of Colombo oppression as philatelic stamps has infuriated Sri Lanka diplomats, and is posing a long-term threat to Sri Lanka's image abroad. The autocratic suppression of free speech and threat to life have progressively shaped a local compliant media that exercises self-censorship, and have ill-prepared Sri Lanka's diplomats to confront the individual freedom enjoyed by the Tamil diaspora in the West.

French Stamps 2012 (Courtesy: Sri Lanka Mirror)

Postal stamps issued in Switzerland 2011

Pirapaharan stamp, France Jan2012

US stamp 2011, 2012

UK 2012, published by RSTE (Revolutionary Students of Tamil Eelam)

Navaratnam's stamp issued in Canada

Postal stamps issued by Switzerland 2011

Postal stamps issued in Switzerland 2011

US Stamp 2012

The "offending" stamps published in France, UK, Canada, and the US, are likely harbinger of future tactics the diaspora may employ in their countries of domicile. The reaction of Minister Peiris and other Sri Lanka officials have surprised the activists on the impact such symbolic actions can have on Colombo, members of the group that published stamps in France said.

In France, the stamps were produced using an online service offered by La Poste, a private business enterprise, not funded by French tax-payers. The Company deals with postal matters in several countries around France. The private businesses are likely to be only marginally affected by diplomatic pressure arising from France's foreign policy objectives, unless the images are blatantly illegal or constitutionally unprotected.

While local media in Colombo reported that French Ambassador "apologized," to Colombo on the stamp matter, the most relevant statement reported by UPI involved French embassy quoting the publisher's statement:

La Poste called the release of the "stamps with inappropriate visuals" a "mistake," the French Embassy in Sri Lanka said in a statement.The soft-language used in the statement by La Poste reflects the contradiction between the internal freedom enjoyed by the french on their right to publish and France's diplomatic need to maintain cordial relationship with other countries. Further, La Poste and the French embassy could not have been unaware of possible legal challenges that may ensue if barring publication of symbols can be shown to be racially or ethnolinguistically discriminatory.

In some countries, post-9/11 "terror laws" have eroded the supreme position of individual freedom, a pillar of western liberal jurisprudence in free democratic society, and perhaps may bar some symbols, but many symbols of Colombo oppression are not cognizable as illegal speech as a matter of French law in particular, and common law in general, legal sources in Washington said.

Spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), an activist group seeking legal redress to Tamil victims of Sri Lanka war said, "two evolving streams of activity will soon trouble Colombo's efforts to dampen Tamil diaspora activity. One, the bogey of 'LTTE rump' Colombo uses as a badge of criminality on the diaspora, will likely diminish with possible libel suits against fraudulent use of the label. Two, with the era of armed-struggle fast receding, countries that have proscribed the LTTE, will face moral dilemma and legal challenges in extending the ban," TAG spokesperson added.

The thinking of US justices to the "terror" argument to blunt speech rights is demonstrated in Virginia v. Black, where the Court struggled with how much one can suppress conduct without banning expression. The Court held that cross burning by Ku Klux Clan, a free-speech issue that triggers first amendment rights, was a "virulent form of expression" and is not constitutionally protected, but declared Virginia law that banned ALL forms of cross burning as unconstitutional.

The dissenting Justice Thomas, on the court declaring Virginia law as unconstitutional, failed to convince the court when he argued that the Ku Klux Klan is a ‘‘terrorist organization,’’ that there exists a ‘‘connection between cross burning and violence,’’ and that a burning cross is ‘‘now widely viewed as a signal of impending terror and lawlessness.’

French Challenge to Free Expression

"When not intended to intimidate, many forms of symbolic speech qualify as protected speech. So would be all forms of visual images that appear in stamps, except virulent symbols intended to intimidate, are protected, and attempts to attach the badge of terror by Colombo is unlikely to succeed despite pronouncements to the contrary," TAG spokesperson said.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Just 36 short of a century and still not-out -- Is it a covenant never to be consummated?

The national question in Sri Lanka has remained unresolved for 36 years short of a century if you start counting from 1948. This is the date to set the start as it was then that the Upcountry Tamils were disenfranchised and their citizenship robbed by the Senanayake-Bandaranaike UNP government. The history of the next 64 years is well known and oft repeated; it is redundant to recount it. I will only flag important milestones: the enslavement of plantation labour in 1948-49; Sinhala Only, and B-C & D-C Pacts, made to be broken; the 1972 Constitution, the 1976 Vattukotai Resolution and JR’s 1978 Constitution; the 1983 pogroms and the flight overseas of Tamils; the rise 18-3

of the LTTE, civil war and in 2009 its annihilation. That’s the storyline in a nutshell.
I made this summary not for my usual purpose of theorizing that the state in Sri Lanka, over a period of time and events, has mutated from the post-colonial liberal democratic model to a semi-authoritarian Sinhala State. My objective in this essay, irrespective of which community is right and wrong, and which numbskull politician is to blame, is to draw attention to the stubborn longevity of the conflict and to pose a different question. Can this problem ever be resolved? Does sheer persistence compel us to conclude that something is ingrained in Lanka’s DNA? Should we conclude that there is no way out on any road we have trodden thus far seeking exit from this labyrinthine maze?
I have no intention of pointing you to a preferred answer, or persuading you to say yes or no. My mind is open to possibilities and today I am asking you to think along with me.
Read more...

Cartoon of the day

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Govt boycotts ANC centenary Protest against participation of Global Tamil Forum

Saturday, 07 January 2012

Giving it official status and placing it on par with a government delegation, an External Affairs Ministry source said yesterday was not acceptable. Otherwise External Affairs MinisterG.L. Peiris was to represent Sri Lanka at the event. Already in South Africa for the centenary celebrations is a GTF delegation led by its President, Rev. Dr. S.J. Emmanuel. Also taking part in the same event is a four member delegation from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) comprising Rajavarothayam Sampanthan (leader), M.A. Sumanthiran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and Suresh Premachandran. Both the TNA and GTF were also to hold talks on the sidelines of the centenary event.

The TNA move has angered President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He told his ministers during last Wednesday's weekly Cabinet meeting that the TNA was resorting to delaying tactics without engaging the government to work out a political package. He said the TNA had not nominated its representatives for a Parliamentary Select Committee and this was causing considerable difficulty. The government's dialogue with the TNA is to be a priority subject when Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna visits Colombo on January 16.

The ANC centenary celebrations will begin at the founding place of the Congress 100 years ago in Waalhoek in Bloemfontein. It will be held at the Free State Auditorium where President Jacob Zuma will make a centenary statement at a ceremony to be attended by 120,000 participants.

PS members vow to snag Mervyn on bribery charges

Sunday 08 January 2012

By Gayan Kumara Weerasingha

LAKBIMAnEWS reliably learns that a group of Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) members from Kelaniya is planning to go before the Bribery Commission with a complaint against Minister of Public Relations and Public Affairs Mervyn Silva.

It is said that these Kelaniya PS members are to lodge a complaint against Minister Silva alleging that he is constructing a four-storeyed house costing millions of rupees, and that he had purchased land worth millions of rupees from a plot adjacent to the Liberty Plaza shopping mall at Kollupitiya.
A group of rebel members from the Kelaniya PS led by Prasanna Ranaweera says that Minister Mervyn Silva has acquired ill-gotten wealth to the tune of billions of rupees, and hence the Bribery Commission should begin an investigation as to how he has amassed such personal fortune.
They have further challenged the controversial minister to disclose how he has managed to acquire such wealth since engaging in mainstream politics.
They have also challenged him to reveal if he has any legitimate business enterprises through which he has acquired such a massive fortune.
Meanwhile, LAKBIMAnEWS has been made to understand that Minister Mervyn Silva, on his own, is formulating a corruption charge against the Kelaniya Pradeshiya Sabha.
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