A file photo of Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan aka 'Col' Karuna Amman
DMK president M Karunanidhi on Wednesday strongly objected to the reported remarks of Sri Lankan minister Champika Ranawaka, who allegedly warned of another “massacre” of Tamils in the island nation. Karunadidhi, in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urged him to take up the issue with the Sri Lankan government and the United Nations.
“It has come to our notice that Sri Lankan cabinet minister Champika Ranawaka has warned of hundred more massacres. He said that one Mullivaikal (where thousands of Tamil civilians were allegedly killed in the final battle against the LTTE in 2009) was enough and that no one should try to get hundred more,” Karunanidhi said.
“The remarks of the minister are highly provocative and therefore condemnable,” he said, adding that the Tamils all over the world were perturbed. “I therefore request you to kindly use your good offices to take up this matter with the Sri Lankan government with an advice to adopt a course of restraint and humanitarianism,” he said.
Karunanidhi said the UN may also be apprised of such harsh stance of the Sri Lankan government. PMK leader S Ramadoss too has urged the Centre to approach International Court of Justice on the remarks made by the minister.
“The Sri Lankan minister himself admits that there were ethnic killings in his nation. His remarks are a proof of that. Therefore, based on his statement, the Indian government should take steps to approach the International Court of Justice,” he said.
The Lankan power and energy minister Ramawala reportedly made the remarks while cautioning the island’s Tamil population to avoid following the politics of the main Tamil parliamentary group. Ranawaka gave the warning during a news conference on June 8 in Colombo. According to reports, Ranawaka remarked, “One Mullivaikkal is enough. Don’t try to get 100 more”
There was a mass demonstration which was organized by JVP committee in the UK on 22 June 2012 to condemn the unlawful, murderous Rajapaksha regime in Sri Lanka. The family hierarchy of Rajapaksha is conducting abductions and killing people using underworld thugs and they killed two JVP members recently in Katuwana during a pocket meeting which was organized by Janatha vimukthi Peramuna. The mass demonstration was held in front of the Sri Lankan High Commission in the UK in spite of unfavorable weather conditions and the bus strike in London.
Even though, from the very beginning of the event, there were hatred efforts to interrupt the demonstration by several parties, defeating all these obstacles, demonstration was held successfully. The demonstration was continued for 2 hours with the roar of anti- government slogans despite of the low number of participants due to the bus strike and bad weather.
At the end, the organizer of JVP committee in the UK, Comrade Darshana Hettiarachchi stated that it was only the first gunshot against the Rajapaksha regime and later on they would hope to hold more powerful and well organized demonstrations to force the government to establish democracy and human rights immediately in Sri Lanka.
26 June 2012 HELPING HAND:Government provides assistance to Tamil Forum Malaysia for its humanitarian work in Sri Lanka Datuk M. Saravanan (centre) handing the RM3.2 million cheque to Tamil Forum Malaysia representatives (from left) Dr Kunaletchumy, Dr N. Iyngkaran, K. Arumugam and S.P. Pathi. Pic by Mustaffa Kamal
THE Malaysian government has given US$1 million (RM 3.2 million) to Tamil Forum Malaysia (TFM).
The contribution will go towards helping 1,700 widows and orphans in Sri Lanka who lost their loved ones during the civil war which lasted more than 25 years.
Deputy Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk M. Saravanan said he hoped that the donation would be the starting point of a relationship between the government and TFM.
"TFM has been helping Sri Lankan Tamils for a long time and this contribution is an acknowledgement of their work all this time.
"I have to admit that the amount is small, considering that it is to help 1,700 families, but I believe it is a good start," he said.
He encouraged TFM to submit progress reports to the government to create a better relationship and trust so that the government could do more for its cause.
TFM is a coalition of 40 non-governmental organisations that aims to empower widows, single mothers, orphans and physically disabled who were affected by the war.
One of TFM's directors, S.P. Pathi, said the organisation had helped to set up micro businesses and train the 1,700 identified victims to lead normal lives.
"We want to help to reduce the financial burden of single mothers so that they can better support their families," he said.
"We will be sending our volunteers there and work with the United Nations and Sri Lankan NGOs to facilitate this programme," Saravanan added.
The organisation thanked the government for its help and hoped to receive more help in the future to better the lives of the Sri Lankan Tamils.
By Hannah Tennant-Moore June 15, 2012 An old wives’ tale returns, revealing post-war Sri Lanka. Photo courtesy of Indi Samarajiva
During my first two days on Sri Lanka’s Jaffna Peninsula, I heard about the Grease Man from everyone who spoke English. He smeared his naked body in oil to evade capture, the villagers told me, and then snuck into homes to commit random acts of violence. Most people said he sexually assaulted women, or bit their necks and breasts. One boy told me he had knives for fingers, which he used to cut out people’s organs while they were sleeping. He hid in trees, the villagers believed, waiting for the right moment to pounce upon his victims—women drawing well water or children using the outhouse. One man thought Grease Men were just common thieves, profiting from the rumors to take advantage of a cowed populace. But most people spoke of him in the singular, as if he were a mythical demon. What everyone agreed on was that the Grease Man was either protected by government soldiers or was a soldier himself.
During Sri Lanka’s thirty-year civil war between the Sinhalese Buddhist majority and the mainly Hindu Tamil minority, Jaffna was the unofficial capital of the separatist Tamil Tigers. The LTTE, as the Tigers are known in Sri Lanka, was vanquished in 2009 in a no-holds-barred offensive that killed tens of thousands of civilians in five months. Since then, the Sri Lankan Army has occupied the Tamil-dominated areas of the North and East. Shortly before I arrived in Sri Lanka last August, the government had lifted restrictions on travel to the formerly contested Northern Province. I had backpacked throughout Sri Lanka before and was eager to see a new part of the country I loved.
Six years ago, when bilateral and multilateral donors, representatives from the UN system, local NGOs and other humanitarian actors met weekly to share concerns and situational awareness over the war and human displacement, I was invited to address them at one of their meetings. I started in a novel fashion, by saying aloud the worst expletives imaginable. I then stopped, and looked around. As expected, there were looks of utter surprise, dismay and shock. After a minute of pin drop silence, punctuated only by uneasy shuffles in seats, I noted that “language is a funny beast – we abhor the use of cuss words, yet we rarely flinch when we speak, hear, see or write of thousands of IDPs starving, denied humanitarian aid, without food, shelter or water, with their children abducted, suffering agony and trauma of a magnitude that is incomprehensible – yet real.”
At the time, Sri Lanka’s war was on going, and even greater horrors lay ahead in the years to come. But even post-war, the central thrust of my submission stands – we are more easily offended by common expletives and the behaviour of couples in public parks than the violent language of Mervyn Silva in public, the deracination of identity and dignity when an official SMS from the President’s office is sent only in Sinhala and English or the outright hate speech against human rights activists on public TV and radio. Government promises and pronouncements are taken as gospel, or at worst, with apathy, yet courageous submissions based on real concerns over Sri Lanka’s post-war human rights situation in local and international fora inflame and incense.
Why is this?
Most of us justify, in our minds as well as in public, hate speech against human rights activists because we are convinced they have brought it upon themselves. Most of us don’t bother enough to actively listen to, read and engage with what government or for that matter, civil society says. We increasingly consume, but don’t critique. It appears we don’t know how. A key reason is our education and pedagogy, at secondary as well as tertiary levels in particular. Schools and universities in Sri Lanka teach only to passively receive ideas, genuflect to age (i.e. grey hair), mindlessly remember and carelessly regurgitate. While adult literacy is very high in Sri Lanka, the majority don’t know how to actively listen, mindfully reflect and robustly critique. This impacts what we produce, and how we perceive.
Take any mainstream TV talk or morning show. Listen to our radio DJ’s and their blithe ignorance. Read any editorial of any mainstream newspaper. Recognise the mass appeal of high-society lifestyle magazines and supplements. Look at Channel C on cable. Observe the difference in quality between a Giraya, Gamperaliya, Charitha Thunak, Ella Langa Wallauwa, or Kadulla of yesteryear and the Sinhala teledramas on any channel today. Look at the kind of theatre that fills the seats at the Wendt, and the serious plays that often struggle to. Look at our ads, our mainstream journalism, our culture of arts and book reviews, the nature of biographies and whom they are on, the idiom of op-eds. Take our re-naming of main roads in Colombo, and the naming of statues and buildings we are erecting. Read the Hansard today, and compare it to the quality of debates in Parliament a few decades ago.
Aside from the under-reported physical violence that continues in the North and East of Sri Lanka against Tamils, there is a deep violence in what the majority support, produce and consume. This violence is one of expression, exclusion, marginalisation, dumbing down, stereotyping and pandering to the basest nature in order to appeal to the widest audience. Banality is the new black. A retrogressive Sinhala-Buddhist monocultural lens, and worse, regime worship as a new cultural theism infuses most of what we read, see and hear. The real violence inherent in the resulting cultural, political and societal fabric is not one many see, or even wish to see.
Six years on from that speech I made, the guns are silent. But I wonder if Sri Lanka is any less violent.
Published in The Nation print edition on 24 June 2012
Diplomatic circles are currently discussing whether the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Sri Lanka was providing information on foreign refugees to the Defence Ministry.
The reason is the directive issued by the Immigration and Emigration Department under the Defence Ministry that all 150 refugees from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan leave Sri Lanka within four days. What was most troubling was the fact their reference numbers at the UNHCR office had been included in the letters sent to these refugees by the Department. These numbers had been given to the Defence Ministry by the UNHCR office in Colombo.
These persons who have been asked leave the country live in difficult conditions at the Grand Mosque in Negombo.
According to the agreement between Sri Lanka and the UNHCR, the Sri Lankan government does not have the mandate to deport any refugee who is registered with the UNHCR.
Some of the persons if deported back to Iran would directly fall into the prisons maintained of Iranian President Ahamadinejad, who is a close friends of the Rajapaksas.
Also, their deportation would be in violation of the UN policies.
In the event the Rajapaksa government deports these people who are registered with the UNHCR, the matter is to be taken up at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
The local officer who is employed as the head of providing for the refugees earning a foreign wage is Rajapaksa loyalist and Reuter’s cameraman Waruna Karunathileka’s wife, Menik Amerasinghe. There are so far no records of action taken by her to safeguard the rights of these refugees.
A Ministry of Health employee fumigates a house against mosquitoes as part of a campaign …
Sri Lanka is deploying 10,000 troops to tackle areas of stagnant water and other mosquito-breeding grounds in an effort to contain the dengue virus, the island's health minister said Monday.
Maithripala Sirisena said the troops will join a clean-up operation this week to fight dengue, which is spread by mosquitoes, after 75 deaths from the disease this year.
Stagnant water is a key breeding ground for mosquitoes and the authorities have begun prosecuting people who leave out containers which collect standing water. The forces will be helping to identify and remove such containers.
"Security forces will assist the national campaign against dengue," Sirisena said in a statement. "It will also be compulsory for all schools to spend one hour on Friday to clean up their premises."
Official figures show that 15,000 people were infected with dengue in the first five months of this year compared to 10,300 in the corresponding period last year.
However, health officials say the numbers could be much higher because many sufferers are not counted or seek treatment from private hospitals.
Dengue fever causes severe flu-like symptoms and there are no specific medications available to treat the disease.
Most people recover within two weeks, but it can be fatal if it leads to hemorrhaging.
Below
we produce Tim Kings report based on Colombo Telegraph
revelation.
I’ve
written about Issapria before… she was a young reporter from Sri Lanka whose
life and dignity were stripped away by government forces as they carried out a
series of war crimes on the minority Tamil population.
Issapria's body is lying in the foreground on the
left.
The
acts manifested particularly savagely in the Vanni during the bloody month of
May 2009.
The
Tamil minority of Sri Lanka waged a decades-long war for independence. This
unfortunate young woman was born into her existence, she didn’t choose it. Her
whole life was in front of her, when she was viciously sexually attacked and
murdered. This is the only woman I ever came to know after she was already
dead.
To
this day, in spite of mounting evidence, the government of Sri Lanka denies that
it conducted illegal war crimes against both resistance fighters and civilians
in the north during the conclusion of the three-decade long civil war.
The
administration of President Majinda Rajapakse refuses to acknowledge that its
goal was to humiliate and eradicate these Hindu and Christian victims.
But
Issapria, even in her death, is here to tell us a story that
allows everyone to conclusively agree that allegations of sex abuse,
murder and mass deception are part of this war and thus, a direct attribute of
the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and the Rajapakse government. Allowing Sri Lanka’s
crimes against its own citizens to remain unpunished, is like issuing a license
for mass murder.
It
rubs salt in the wounds of all war crime victim families, and makes
international law, frankly, into little more than a joke. Sri Lanka’s excuse for
ethnic cleansing is that the fought terrorists, but it employed terrorism a
thousand times more potent.
There
are too many excuses. These are what this government offers when it is not
directly accusing its critics of being blatant liars with personal
agendas.
Excuses,
reasons, explanations…
Also
known as ‘Shoba’, Issapria was many things. She was a mother, a dancer, an actor
and journalist with TamilNet, a media group we often carry. Issapria was a
member of the armed resistance group LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) but
she had health issues and she didn’t carry a rifle, she carried a
microphone.
But
even if she had been a full bore LTTE fighter, there are international laws that
protect combatants after they are prisoners of war.
Sri
Lanka did not follow these rules of war.
In
the first photos of Issapria, she is dead, her clothes are stripped away from
her body, her hands are tied behind her back and her pants are pulled down, her
legs are spread. But in similar photos of her in this same place, she is
alternately positioned.
Either
way, dead women with their legs open and their clothing stripped away, who are
bound, are generally rape victims.
She
is photographed and videotaped initially it appears, where the murder likely
occurred. These are the images that show her with her hands bound behind her
back. They are backed up with video that Channel 4 used in ‘Sri
Lanka’s Killing Fields’ and it shows, very very clearly, that the girls who are
recently killed, are actually covered up to some degree when the video begins,
and then the clothes come off again to reveal their damaged, nude, dead
bodies.
The
defensive posturing of Sri Lankan nationalists is endless, as are the endless
denials by a network of Sinhalese Buddhist supporters who refuse to accept
evidence or even acknowledge the extremely obvious. Some, like Romesh
Senewirante, claim to know all about the war, yet he was in Australia when it
happened. Commenting on the new information and video, Sinewirante wrote:
A
comment from another (there are many) person using the name Dissanayake in my
last article about these images, suggests that these blatant photographs
represent legal war conduct.
“It
is an exaggeration to say that these video clips show any war crimes”, fails to
hit its mark.”
In
disagreement with my assessment, Dissanayake added:
It
is very understandable to remove cloths of female fighters because they may be
from suicide formations. It is dangerous to take all the dead bodies without
through search. I can remember the cloths of the male LTTE fighter who was the
pilot of the last suicide air attack near the Katunayake airport were removed
for searching of similar items. It was done in front of the magistrate.
These
are hard images to look at, but they tell more of a story now, than they did at
first. A London attorney named Vasuki Muruhathas, who represents an unnamed
Tamil war crime victim, recently acquired and released 32 new video clips of
captured and dead LTTE fighters.
It
is clip #28, at 2:56, that heavily indicts Sri Lanka in the death of
Issapria. This video shows her body in a row of dead fighters, presumably
photographed for identification by the Sri Lankan Army.
Smoking
Gun
Even
in this video the photographer pauses and comments on her naked body. But the
thing that sets it apart, is that the young woman is not bound in these shots.
Her hands have been untied to make her appear as one more dead resistance
fighter, but we know that shortly before this, she was laying in a pool of blood
with her hands tied.
This
is where the deception of Sri Lanka’s government clearly enters the picture.
They really must have assumed their critics are dumb.
Several
things become clear:
Issapria
was captured alive or surrendered, or else she would not have been restrained.
Nobody ties the hands of a dead person, so she was alive at first.
The
positioning of her body; the nudity and seemingly depraved references to her
naked form recorded on video, indicate a state of sexual interest and
assault.
The
fact that her hands are untied and that she is laid in a row of corpses, proves
that the SLA tried to cause the viewer and consequently the world public, to
believe that her death was a legal act of war when it could not possibly have
been.
We
have the proof and there is no need to ask about whether war crimes took place,
indeed the only question left is ‘how many?’ This revelation brings hard reality
to Sri Lanka.
Donald
Gnanakone has been working with Vasuki Muruhathas to distribute this material
into the public channels and it is working. His contributions to
the Colombo Telegraph are both informative and revealing:
A
new video shows the LTTE media TV announcer Issapriya’s naked body lies with the
hundreds of dead bodies, but this time her hands are untied. The security forces
officer speaking in Sinhala language to a female says, “here, here, Voice of
Tiger announcer.” (Watch at 2.56mins in the below video) When
her dead body was photographed the first time , her hands were tied behind
her back and allegedly raped. -
www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/warning-disturbing-images-issapriyas-naked-body-with-tied-and-untied-hands/”> Exclusive
– Warning Disturbing Images: Issapriya’s Naked Body With Tied And Untied Hands –
Colombo Telegraph The video clearly demonstrates a pattern of woeful
consistency of the Sri Lankan forces. Most
of the female armed and unarmed combatants, and civilians are always stripped
naked or their underwear and down to their knees and the bras are either
missing or near their neck, exposing the breast of teenage girls or young women.
Only a few men are stripped naked.
I
did not know before, that Issapria would speak to us from the grave and point us
to irrefutable evidence, good enough to prove this point in any court. The real
tragedy is that her case is only one, and we are putting this together
largely because she is highly identifiable. I look at the other new video clips,
and compare them to the photos of slaughtered Tamil Tigers we are all supposed
to believe were “killed during combat operations” with the SLA. At this point
only Issapria is showing us proof positive evidence, but I suspect there is a
great deal more and it too will show itself to us eventually. At one point the
world will no longer be able to ignore this painful series of international
crimes and the reign of Majinda will come to a crashing close.
Few months back Herman Kumara was living virtually in hiding. He was a target of a state orchestrated smear campaign that portrayed him as the ‘prime culprit’ behind the massive protests staged by angry fishermen. Unidentified men visited his house to query his whereabouts. Unknown vehicles roamed the area. His colleagues who didn’t want him to take any chances forced him to keep a low profile.
But being the Convener of the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO) and the Secretary General of the World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP), Herman could hardly stay away from the protests. ‘The protests were totally spontaneous and inevitable’ says Herman. ‘When the cost of living increases and the oil prices go sky high, you don’t need ‘culprits’ to organize protests.’
Still, Herman refuses to back down. Since its’ inception, he has been the prime mover behind NAFSO, a network of community-based organizations, NGOs, cooperatives and trade unions working on sustainable fisheries in Sri Lanka. ‘I don’t think they have plans to abduct me’ he sounds a little less convinced. ‘But whatever we do, we are being closely monitored.’
Speaking to JDS, Herman Kumara vividly detailed the plight of the fisher people threatened by expanding tourism industry in the south and how the intensity of militarization curtail the livelihood of fishing communities in the north-east.
JDS: NAFSO has been actively engaged among the fishing communities in the south as well as in the north of the island. What are the parallels and the differences you see between the issues faced by these communities?
Herman Kumara: In a technical sense, main commonality between north and south is that small-scale fisheries remain as the dominant category. High fuel prices and poor income due to poor catch can be also considered as an important common issue.
Having taken note of such similarities, we have to identify the serious differences too. Even three years after the war ended, the northern fishermen still need to get ‘permits’ to go to the sea. Though the procedure may differ from area to area, the authorization remains in the hands of the military. Moreover, most of the areas in Mullaithivu district for example, still remain designated as military High Security Zones (HSZ). So, fishing is not allowed in those areas. But, the northern fishermen claim that southern fishermen are allowed to operate freely in those areas. Such policies have to be seen as clear practices of discrimination.
In Jaffna district alone, there are 21,191 active fishermen engaged in fishing operations. The official records reveal that the fish harvest in April 2012, is 229.3525 metric tons. This is a substantial increase of fishing compared to the war time and fishermen expect to increase it further if the facilities are provided. There are four harbours in Jaffna district while there is one in Mannar district. But all are occupied by the military. So, there is no space for fishermen to operate in those harbours. At the same time, there are more than 25,000 people living in 56 IDP camps in Jaffna district alone and most of them lived in Palali area. Even though all of them used to be fishermen none of them have been granted their right to return, so far.
JDS: In the aftermath of the war, a substantial growth in tourism can be seen and there is a massive drive to promote and encourage Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the tourism sector. How does it affect the livelihood of the common masses?
HK: Tourism itself is not an issue. Issue is the way it’s being implemented while destroying the livelihood of other people. Most of the coastal lands, lagoons, water bodies have now become proposed sites to promote tourism. Some of the most important environmental resources, such as Mangrove forest covers, are in the process of being completely destroyed. For example the government wants to use Negombo lagoon to land sea planes (or Air Taxi service) to transport tourists. The authorities show a blatant disregard to the fact that it may destroy the livelihoods of 3,500 fishermen and 15,000 households.
Apart from destroying the livelihood of those vulnerable communities, such proposals tend to totally undermine the foreign exchange earnings gain through fishing. Negombo lagoon alone earns more than Rs. 150 million from prawns, crabs and fish. This is besides the contribution it makes as a cheap protein source for poor people's food. The amount of reduction of malnutrition by fish production is not taken into account.
The next important thing is the land issue. The government plans to lease out large chunks of land from 35 to 99 years. These land can be coastal, even water catchment area of a reservoir, or very high ecologically sensitive areas (such as Knuckles Range,Kalpitiya islands etc) or bio diversity hot spots (such as Sinharaja Rain Forest area). All the ecological importance of such resources will be lost due to tourism. We talk a lot about precautionary measures to prevent climate change and to mitigate its adverse effects. But when all these plans proceed un-disrupted, what will happen to the long term sustenance of this island?
At the same time, if Air Taxis to land in reservoirs, there needs to be a certain water level to be retained for safety and safe landing. So, when it comes to reservoirs in the dry zone, most of the paddy fields are already drying and dying as people do not have enough water to cultivate. Just imagine the consequences, when there is a necessity to retain water to land air taxis? What will be prioritized? Everybody knows that priority will be given to the air taxi service over the paddy farmers. Can you imagine what will happen to the farmers who are depending on 28 inland reservoirs that have been already identified for Air Taxi landing?
It’s obvious what the government is doing in the cities. They want to create ‘clean-pleasant cities’ by forcibly removing the poor from the cities. The poor slum dwellers should pay the price and leave the cities sacrificing their daily earnings to make cities ‘pretty enough’ to impress western tourists. In this process, people are loosing not only the resources, but their customary and fundamental human rights too.
JDS: Moving back to north-east, many know that the government maintained High Security Zones (HSZ), at least since the early 1990s. Has the end of the war brought any change of policy towards removing such restrictions?
HK: When we consider the number of HSZ maintained in the south of the island during the war, it has substantially reduced by now. But as far as the north-east is concerned, we have to make clear that the situation has not largely changed.
For example, the Palaly area in north still remain as a HSZ and a huge number of people are still live displaced in camps. For decades, their own lands have been made out of bounds to them. They are living in 56 temporary IDP camps under severe conditions, since 1990s. These people have a right to return to their own lands. In the same way, there are number of places in Mullaithivu district that are still being designated as HSZs.
Several coastal areas are still not opened to civilians while in Mannar and Killinochchi fishermen still forced to live under a navy approved pass system for fishing. Important fishing harbours remain under the total control of the navy, while army and navy personnel are very much present in the landing sites of the Northern Province.
June 23rd, 2012 - 88th Birth Anniversary of President Premadasa
June 23, 2012, 4:43 pm
B Sirisena Cooray
Chairman, The Premadasa Centre
The ethnic problem did not end with the war. The ethnic problem has to be resolved to make peace work and prevent the next war.
Development, democracy and devolution: that was the Premadasa plan to resolve the ethnic problem. President Premadasa believed that to make Tamil people feel like Sri Lankan citizens, a power-sharing arrangement, restoration of democracy and rapid economic development were equally necessary.
Eelam illai; Ellam kudutharei – Not Eelam but everything else – that was his solution.
The LTTE has been defeated totally. But in order to prevent it from raising its head again, a similar plan is needed urgently today.
The Premadasa efforts to win over ordinary Tamil people took place in the middle of the war. There was a Presidential mobile service in Vavuniya which gave people of the area a chance to tell their problems straight to the President, the ministers and top officials. Several garment factories were set up in the North and the East as part of the 200 Garment Factories programme in order to provide much needed employment opportunities to the youth of the area.
President Premadasa incorporated his house building programme into the war-effort. In 1993 he called me and informed me about his plan for the North, where the military was to launch a big operation. As soon as the military liberated an area, we were to go in and build houses in that area for the people who had lost their homes because of the war. As the first step, he wanted me to build 1,000 houses in the already liberated area in three months. He wanted things done fast because he knew that not having a home can destroy a family and make life unbearable for all its members.
As always, this time too, I worked according to his deadline and finished the 1,000 houses in less than 3 months. But by that time Mr. Premadasa was dead. I believe the LTTE killed him because it feared his plans for the Tamil people, and did not want them to succeed.
He also planned to have elections as soon as possible, at Pradesheeya Sabha and provincial level, so that people of the North-East could elect their own representatives.
The LTTE was opposed to democracy and did not allow free and fair elections in areas under their control. Today the government can show that it supports democracy in word and deed, by holding elections to all elected bodies instead of to a selective few. Having free, fair and fast elections to the Northern Provincial Council is of the greatest importance because devolution is most needed there.
A Sri Lankan solution through
asymmetrical devolution
Now that the war is over, we have a good chance of coming up with a Sri Lankan solution to the ethnic problem which can satisfy all ethnic groups, which can gain the support of the moderate members of all communities.
Tamil and Muslim people must feel that they have enough power to manage their day to day affairs while Sinhala people must feel that national unity is not endangered.
A majority of people outside the North and the East do not want or need devolution. Devolution is needed and wanted mainly by the people of the North and the East. We cannot forget that. Devolution is a solution to the ethnic problem and the Sinhala people do not have an ethnic problem. So a solution must devolve power to those who want it.
That is why asymmetrical devolution may be the best possible way to come up with a viable solution today. That way power can be devolved or not depending on the need.
All the potential in the 13th Amendment has not been fully explored. The concurrent list, as it stands now, is too big and unwieldy. With asymmetrical devolution it can be reduced so that 13th Amendment can become 13th Amendment+. With asymmetrical devolution these extra powers can be limited to the North and the East, since there is no need or demand for enhanced devolution in other provinces. These measures can be implemented immediately, because they do not require a referendum; a simple majority in parliament is all that is needed constitutionally.
The Apex Council as an Administrative Bridge between the de-merged North and East.
Though the North and the East has been de-merged by a court order, the Tamil demand for merger has not ended. In any serious discussion about a political solution this can become a thorny issue. Setting up an Apex Council to create an administrative bridge between the de-merged North and East is one way out of the problem. The Apex body will consist of an equal number of provincial councillors from the two provincial councils. These members can be selected according to the ethnic composition of the two provinces.
The two chief ministers and the two governors can function as ex-officio members of the apex body. The Apex Council can be made accountable to the two provincial councils and the parliament.
President Premadasa once said that the past and future of Sri Lanka belong equally to all her people, Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and others. A successful solution to the ethnic problem will have to be based on such an outlook which treats all Lankan people with equal justice. That is the only way to ensure a lasting peace. And that is the best tribute we can pay to all those who fell victim to the war, including President Premadasa.
The ITAK Convention- Refuting some misconceptions
June 24, 2012, 7:07 pm
Continued from Saturday
By Dr. Nirmala Chandrahasan
The anguish and opposition of the people to this piece of legislation was given expression by the ITAK (Federal Party of Ceylon) both in parliament and through a peaceful Satyagraha on Galle Face Green opposite the old Parliament. The Federal Party MPs led by their leader S. J. V Chelvanayakam QC, and the co-founders of the Federal party Dr. E. M. V. Naganathan and C. Vanniasingham while performing satyagraha were set upon by thugs and rowdies and mercilessly beaten, some even had their clothes torn off, others were kicked and stamped upon and many were thrown into the Beira Lake, while the police looked on from the precincts of the old Parliament. The following year Mr. Bandaranaike and Mr Chelvanayakam entered into a pact under which the northern and eastern region was to have a measure of autonomy. However, the chauvinist forces forced the Prime Minister to tear up the pact. Thereafter in 1961 when the Government started to administratively enforce the Sinhala Only Act in the northern and eastern provinces, the Federal party started a Civil Disobedience campaign in the North and East. It was a non violent protest. People from all walks of life, Muslims and Tamils, men, women and even schoolchildren in large numbers performed satyagraha in front of the Kachcheris (Government Agents’ Offices). Once again they were met with violence, beaten and forced to move, in some instances, even trampled upon by government officials trying to get into the Kachcheris, but throughout they never retaliated and bore the blows in silence but without giving way. Subsequently, a state of emergency was declared and the Federal Party Members of Parliament and other supporters were arrested and kept under detention at the Panagoda Army Camp. In the 1972 Constitution even the protection afforded the minorities in Article 29(2) of the Soulbury Constitution, (albeit it had not proved very effective) was removed, and the leader of the ITAK, Mr. S. J. V Chelvanayakam, resigned his Parliamentary seat in protest and re- contested to show the peoples’ opposition.
However, what has to be remembered is that the ITAK never diverted from the principle of non violence which is the Gandhian way and in keeping with the teachings of the Buddha. Furthermore the Federal Party members, whom I have known personally, never bore any rancour or ill feeling towards the Sinhalese leaders or the Sinhalese people for the treatment which had been meted out to them, but instead always had good feelings towards their fellow countrymen. The spirit of self sacrifice and high principles that guided the party in those days must surely leave its imprint on the ITAK as it reconstitutes itself today.
My reading of Mr Sampanthan’s speech is that it has to be viewed against the backdrop of the long years since 1956, the non violent and parliamentary agitation conducted by the ITAK, the communal riots of 1983, the subsequent insurgency by militant groups, and the end of the armed conflict in 2009. So many years have passed since 1956 and still no political settlement has been reached to enable the Tamil speaking people to exercise their sovereignty within the constitutional framework. There is a feeling of frustration and mounting impatience and that is why throughout the speech the speaker is cautioning ‘Patience’. It will be noticed that word is frequently used.
With regard to the ‘other strategies’, referred to in the speech, the speaker is telling the people even if an intransigent government is not willing to negotiate a political settlement, be patient because there is still a way out of this situation and other strategies that can be followed. He is referring to the present International law and world order, under which human rights, self determination, the rights of minorities and even indigenous people are matters of international concern as evidenced in the various international conventions and treaties. The principle of self determination, along with core principles of international Humanitarian law, come within the classification of jus cogens i. e. principles of international law which are so fundamental to the international community that states cannot deviate from them. In respect of these matters the obligations of the state are erga omnes owed to the international community. The International Court of Justice has in recent cases affirmed these doctrines and the United Nations through its various bodies and agencies is actively supportive of the burgeoning International law.
The speaker also addresses the Sinhalese people and asks for their support, because he feels that they would be better able to recognize what is fair and just, than the politicians and the political pundits. The speech contains an implicit appeal to the Sinhalese leadership which is ‘do not push us to take this road but come forward yourselves to negotiate a settlement in the interests of the whole country.’
There was a mass demonstration which was organized by JVP committee in the UK on 22 June 2012 to condemn the unlawful, murderous Rajapaksha regime in Sri Lanka. The family hierarchy of Rajapaksha is conducting abductions and killing people using underworld thugs and they killed two JVP members recently in Katuwana during a pocket meeting which was organized by Janatha vimukthi Peramuna. The mass demonstration was held in front of the Sri Lankan High Commission in the UK in spite of unfavorable weather conditions and the bus strike in London.
By Hannah Tennant-Moore 
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