Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Hisbulla lies that Dambulla mosque was not damaged –if he does not rectify he is a sly self seeking enemy

-The All Ceylon Jemmiyathul Ulema Association and the SL Muslim Council say

(Lanka-e-News-24.April.2012, 11.55PM) The All Ceylon Jemmiyathul Ulema Association and the SL Muslim Council issuing a joint communiqué on today had demanded that Deputy Minister Hisbulla shall immediately withdraw the false and misleading statement he made yesterday at the discussion with Inamaluwe Thero . Otherwise he is betraying the Muslim community and is a sly enemy of the Muslims acting with ulterior and most evil motives, the communiqué added.

Both Sheikh M M A Mubarak, the Gen. Secretary of the All Ceylon Jammiyathul Ulema Association and N.M. Ameen , the President of the SL Muslim Council had signed this communiqué.

The communiqué clearly declared that Hisbulla’s statement that the Mosque was not damaged, and that he made an inspection of the mosque are aimed at misleading the Muslims deliberately. Hisbulla had made these comments at a discussion held with the participation of a notorious illicit liquor dealer Lakshman Perera and InamaluweThero . The latter too said , no damage was done to the mosque.

‘The entire nation witnessed the damaged caused to the mosque through the media. Video and photographic evidence of the damage is also available on you tube and the internet. We urge Hon. Hizbullah to make necessary inquiries, look at the video and photographic evidence and issue a clarification to his statement immediately. Failure to present the true picture by Hon. Hizbullah will compel the community to assume that he is working with ulterior motives to undermine the Muslim community’ , the communiqué noted.
Hence there is palpable evidence to prove that the mosque was damaged as telecast by International TV and Rupavahini channels. There it was telecast how Inamaluwe Thero was furiously berating the fairer sex , and addressing the Muslims disdainfully as ‘Thambiya’ degrading his own Buddhist teachings not in keeping with his status as a Buddhist priest or the sacred saffron robe he was wearing. Like the rowdies who show their heroism by removing their sarongs , a priest removing his robe , and breaking the mosque door were clearly shown via the TV channels. Moreover the international channels also clearly telecast how the marauding group of monks and thugs forcibly entered the mosque. This disgraceful conduct not only earned the displeasure of the Muslims but also of the Buddhists who follow the true teachings of Lord Buddha as the latter preached Buddhism and not communalism or hooliganism.

In the circumstances , the communiqué issued today by the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulemas has demanded Minister Hisbulla to withdraw immediately his announcement made yesterday at the discussion that the claim Bairiya Jumma Muslim mosque had been damaged , is false .They assert that Hisbulla’s utterance is a brazen lie , and demanded that he rectifies his announcement. They have urged him to carefully view the pictures and video footage , and rectify his misleading statement . Otherwise they will be compelled to conclude that Hisbulla had acted mala fides and with ulterior motives , the Jemmiaythul Ulema and the SL Muslim Council had indicated in the joint communiqué.

Even the pus-balla will not let down its own clan like this, people say.

The communiqué issued on the 22nd by this Association and that issued today are given hereunder .

The video footage covering the incident where the mosque was damaged can be viewed via the links below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vUC4f0Pymk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO-CZoyjWzs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeBv8_zEZeE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HUHvTrXFGU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40okoIyjWOo&feature=related

WikiLeaks: Abduction Plague Muslim Community – Banks Tip Off Abductors Businessmen’s Details

April 25, 2012

By Colombo Telegraph -

“A source in the Central Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit said he believes the banks tip off abductors immediately after a large transfer appears in a businessman’s account.”the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from WikiLeaks database, the cabal named as “Abduction Plague Muslim Community”. The cable is classified as “SECRET” and written by the Ambassador Robert O. Blake on June 19, 2007.

Under the subheading “EMBASSY INTERLOCUTORS DETAIL ABDUCTION METHODS” Robert Blake wrote “Several credible Embassy interlocutors, including members of the Center for Policy Alternatives (strictly protect), a respected Sri Lankan NGO, have described how abductions of prominent Muslim businessmen sometimes occur. They told us that abductors illegally obtain copies of prominent businessmen’s bank documents from corrupt bank officers. A source in the Central Bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit said he believes the banks tip off abductors immediately after a large transfer appears in a businessman’s account. According to reports, the businessman is then abducted and held in a number of different safehouses, at least two of which are located in Kandy, requiring the abductors to pass several checkpoints between Kandy and Colombo. Contacts told us the businessman’s family is directed to pay between 20 and 50 million rupees (approximately 200,000 to 500,000 U.S. dollars), or the businessman will be killed. One interlocutor related that after payment is made, the businessman is escorted with the help of the Sri Lankan military out of the country to Singapore. He is told not to return to Sri Lanka or his family members will be killed. The Embassy has received reports of 11 Tamil and Muslim businessmen transported to Singapore after ransom has been paid.”

Placing a comment Blake wrote “ The negative impact of abductions is spreading beyond the Tamil community and past extra-judicial methods of dealing with possible LTTE supporters into abductions of any minority with a large bank account. Muslim leaders like Rauff Hakeem are increasingly critical of the Rajapaksa administration’s apparent tolerance for abductions, and numerous recent media reports have called attention to the growing trend of Muslim abductions for ransom. The Ambassador met with Foreign Minister Bogollogama on June 13 in part to flag to the Government our concern about this new trend and the need for the GSL to address it ”

Sri Lankan govt, opposition trade charges over reconciliation

PTI | 03:04 PM,Apr 25,2012

Colombo, Apr 25 (PTI) A revived debate in Sri Lanka on devolution package for the Tamils appears to have run into rough weather with the main opposition party, the UNP, accusing the government of "dilatory tactics". Charging President Mahinda Rajapaksa of changing stance on the 13th amendment, the UNP asked the government to come clean on its intended political solution. "It is the government's duty to tell the country their intended political solution. They make statements about the 13th amendment and then fall back on the parliamentary select committee proposal. All these are dilatory tactics," Tissa Attanayake, the United National Party (UNP) general secretary told reporters. To which Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, the acting government spokesman responded by saying, "Who caused the delay?, it is the opposition. We have invited them to name their representatives to the select committee. They are not doing that." The debate has been revived since the conclusion of a visit by the Indian parliamentary delegation led by the Lok Sabha opposition leader Sushma Swaraj. The Indian parliamentary delegation had urged expeditious settlement of the political impasse with the Tamil minority. Swaraj claimed that president Rajapaksa had once again pledged to grant "the thirteen plus"-- the full powers to provincial councils in terms of India initiated thirteenth amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution, as a solution. Yet the government favoured media institution stories seemed to contend otherwise since the visit. Attanayake said that talks with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) must resume and they be asked to enter the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) process, a point stressed by the Indian parliamentary delegation. MORE PTI CORR ASK AKD ASK

The latest in the series of Rajapakse regime’s Kovil and mosque destruction -at Trincomalee

Wednesday 25 of April 2012

(Lanka-e-News-24.April.2012, 11.55PM) The latest in the series of destruction and damaging of temples and mosques by the Rajapakse regime taking place at Trincomalee , according to reports.

The Urban Development Authority under Gotabaya Rajapakse had given notice yesterday to immediately remove the Pullayar Kovil (Hindu Temple) situated close to the Tricomalee General Hospital .

This is a Kovil where religious activities had been carried on for the last 60 years.

The Kovil’s ‘Kumba’ religious festival is scheduled to take place on the 05th of July . But. with the receipt of this written notice of evacuation yesterday , the entire plan and program had been plunged into confusion, reports say.

Militant Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalism: Context Of The Religious Freedom

April 25, 2012
By Uvindu Kurukulasuriya -

Uvindu Kurukulasuriya

This article was first published in January 2005 in Sinhala weekly Ravaya. It explains the background of the religious freedom and the politics of militant Sinhalese nationalism. This translation will help you to understand the context of ongoing attacks against Mosques and Hindu Temples. The article was published under the title ”Who Set Fire to Homagama Church?” and translated by T.C. Serasinghe.

A Despicable Act -
Ven. Bellanvila Vimalarathana

Ven. Bellanvila Vimalarathana

Church of Our Mother Most Pure, Mattagoda, Sri Lanka January 27, 2004

When the Christians all over the world were preparing to celebrate the Good News of Christmas, Sri Lanka has exhibited its disposition to the whole world by sending a piece of despicable news. That is the news of setting fire for the second time, to the Katuwana Roman Catholic Church at Homagama .

The culprits who committed this crime have so far not been apprehended. But it has been clear that there is one particular group behind the attack on this church and some hundred odd other churches throughout the country. The cause for alarm is that these people have been allowed to engage all along in their fanatical activities.

It is the everybody’s responsibility to make Sri Lanka a place suitable for human living, by getting involved in defeating decisively this extremist mania. Read More

President said, ‘go ahead’- Army Chief

TUESDAY, 24 APRIL 2012

Despite international pressures to sudden stop the military operations when the Wanni humanitarian operations were entering a decisive phases, President Mahinda Rajapaksa ‘personally’ instructed the military to pursue the operations as planned, the Army Commander revealed.

“President Mahinda Rajapaksa was determined and did not give in to pressures of the international community to suddenly stop the military operations when the Wanni humanitarian operations were entering a decisive phases around April 2009,” Army Chief Jagath Jayasuriya told troops today addressing an event in Kurunegala.

The Army Headquarters in a statement quoting the Army Cheif also said, “I still remember, the President, personally giving me a call instructing me to pursue the operations as planned, though he remained under enormous pressure to stop it. It was the country’s political leadership that gave strength to us to be successful,’ recalled the Army Commander.

Susma Swaraj led Indian Team’s Sri-Lanka Visit end in Zero (summa)

By: Dr C P Thiagarajah

The proverb “The mountain laboured and brought forth a mouse” aptly describe the result of the all party (minus the the ruling ADMK and the defeated DMK) fact finding team from the Indian parliament that ended on 21 of April 2009. A quick scanning of their press conference statement will reveal this.

In the first paragraph the visiting Indian Parliamentary delegation called for the urgent implementation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). The UNHRC with the help all the world powers had already made a famous move on this direction and the Sinhala hegemonic racist leader had categorically refused to implant the UN’s recommendations.

Will an opposition leaders pleadings change the confirmed hardened conviction of Mahinda Rajapakse, a person accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity and responsible for the genocide of nearly 40000 civilians in one day alone in May 2009? It is wishful thinking. The Tamils won’t buy this tom foolery of the Indians. The time wasting exercise of the Indians was another way to detract the international community from taking the war criminal Rajapakse to the ICC. This is another attempt to bury the UN Panel of Experts (POE) report (Darusman Report) regionally ie South Asia. All human rights organisation should take very active steps to counter the Indian subtle diplomacy garbed in the form of fact finding mission. Full Story>>>

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Witness give details of alleged sex abuse

The sexual abuse case against Ven. Pahalagama Somaratana, chief monk of Selsdon Buddhist Temple in London, continued proceedings at Isleworth Crown Court on Wednesday.

Ven. Pahalagama Somaratana, chief monk of Thames Buddhist Vihara

Tuesday 24 of April 2012

Can’t there be any minorities live near the Dambulu gala? (Stone of Dambulla)

(Lanka-e-News-24.April.2012,9.30PM) It is regrettable to see the conduct of Inamaluwe Sumangala thero marching and leading a protest to destroy a worship place of a minority community of Sri Lanka. It is a disgrace to witness the conduct of this thero to call an ethnic community of Sri Lanka in a nick name as “Thambiya” in public when addressing the protestors. We as Sri Lankans should condemn the act of this Thero in public instigating ethnic hatred between communities.

It is not suitable for this clergy trying to forcibly attack and evict a place of religious worship and engage in protest. If he has objection that the religious place is an unauthorized structure or a new site under construction he can go through a legal proceeding and seek the help of judiciary if the place is to be evacuated or be destructed. This clergy has gathered around 5000 people including monks outside the district and come by marching displaying placards that Dambulla is a Buddhist sacred area and no other worship places should be there in the area.

More >>

Mr. A Nawan, Deputy Solicitor General of Sri Lanka-Giving the middle finger: - Some thoughts on the Buddha and his teaching

Dambulla attack videos fake says leading monk

April 24, 2012

A senior Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka who led the protest in Dambulla against a mosque and a Hindu Kovil charged the video footage reporting the attack was fake.


	Mahanayaka of the Rangiri Dambulu chapter Inamaluwe Sumangala thero

Over a thousand people waving Buddhist flags forcibly stopped Friday prayers in the Masjidul Kairiya mosque in Dambulla and destroyed the contents of the mosque.

Peaceful and democratic

The Mahanayaka of the Rangiri Dambulu chapter Inamaluwe Sumangala thero told BBC Sandeshaya that he only led a 'peaceful and democratic protest against illegal constructions'.

He maintained that no violence was used.

Media organisations denied doctoring footage of the attack on the Dambulla mosque last week.

Technically manipulated

The convenor of the Free Media Movement (FMM), Sunil Jayasekera said the claim by Ven. Sumangala is an attempt to cover up the violence unleashed against the minorities in the country.

"Videos that portrayed the protest as violent were technically manipulated," said the Mahanayaka thero who also heads a media outlet.

"We saw the video footage on several television stations and have no reason to believe that the images were doctored." said Jayasekera.

unprecedented behaviour by monks

Ada Derana TV which reported the attack on the mosque denied the allegation that the videos were technically manipulated.

"We have not carried any doctored footage of the Dambulla violence and we stand by the authenticity of the material sent by our local correspondents," a spokesperson for Ada Derana told BBC Sandeshaya.

BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says that a monk was seen exposing himself against the mosque as an insult

The raw footage had to be edited to maintain the dignity of the people who participated in the protest, added the spokesperson.

Journalists at the scene had reported unprecedented behaviour by demonstrators.

BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo says that a monk was seen exposing himself against the mosque as an insult.

Many Muslims recruited into Sri Lanka Intelligence Service

( April 21, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Intelligence Service coming under administrative control of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse has shown inclination to recruit more Muslim staff as intelligence officers in the different departments attached to the Intelligence Service.

Defence Secretary’s decision to recruit more Muslim staff goes before the military defeat of the LTTE.

Muslim members are given Sinhala names for operational reasons and are given unhindered powers to exercise their duties without being questioned by any one.

The number of Muslims operating in the Intelligence Service is kept a top secret and using Sinhala names prevents correct names being established during their operations.

According to disgruntled Defence Ministry source, Muslims are taken in a disproportionate scale because of their anti-religious feelings towards the Hindus and Christians. There is also belief that Muslims do not fear to undertake any operations entrusted to them. Most of the white van abductions and targeting the Hindu and Christian institutions are said to be undertaken by these Muslim intelligence men under the given Sinhala names.

The Defence Secretary has decided to send more of the experienced Muslim Intelligence officers under false names to Sri Lanka missions overseas since the Geneva resolution on Sri Lanka last month and they are being given instructions to liaise with anti-west Muslim groups to target Ealam Tamil groups to silence their campaign against Sri Lanka.

Within those recruited, most of the Muslim intelligence officers are said to be from the Eastern Province and particularly from the Kaathankudi area where Muslim extremism is deep rooted.

Sri Lanka rejects call to withdraw army from north

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse, has refused to withdraw troops from the former warzone where Tamils are concentrated. The Tamil separatist war ended in ethnic conflict, claiming 100,000 lives.

Sri Lanka's president has rejected a call by Indian legislators to withdraw soldiers from the island's former war zone in the north where minority Tamils are concentrated, his spokesman said Sunday.

President Mahinda Rajapakse told a delegation of visiting Indian lawmakers that troops could not be pulled out despite the end of the decades-long Tamil separatist war in 2009.

"The president explained that there are troops elsewhere in the country as well," spokesman Bandula Jayasekera told AFP. "They are not only in the (Tamil-dominated) north."

The visiting delegation was the first team of Indian MPs to visit the island since Sri Lankan forces crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels, ending an ethnic conflict which had claimed up to 100,000 lives.

Indian opposition leader Sushma Swaraj and the cross-party delegation met with Rajapakse on Saturday.

Among the visiting MPs were representatives from Tamil Nadu state, whose 60 million population share close cultural and religious links with Sri Lanka's Tamils.

Sri Lankan forces have a strong presence across the north, which was badly damaged during decades of fighting.

Tamil politicians there have demanded political autonomy to address long-standing grievances of discrimination and oppression by Sinhalese-dominated governments.

Sushma apprises PM of discussions with Sri Lankan leadership

April 24, 2012 PTI
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj. Photo: PTI

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has apprised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of discussions with Sri Lankan leadership during the visit of a MPs’ delegation led by her to look into the resettlement and rehabilitation process of displaced Tamils there.

Ms. Swaraj called on Dr. Singh last evening to apprise him of the details of the 12-member delegation’s visit to Sri Lanka and meeting with the leaders and officials there. National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai were present during the meeting.

“I would say I am satisfied with our visit to Sri Lanka,” the BJP leader told reporters today. The delegation met representatives of all political parties in Sri Lanka and visited the rehabilitation camp for Tamils.

Ms. Swaraj said the delegation met the women and children living in the camp as the men were away at work. She said the rehabilitation efforts were good and ahead of schedule.

There are three lakh displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka of which only 3,000 have not been rehabilitated.

Ms. Swaraj also had a one-on-one breakfast meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksha.

“We discussed the withdrawal of army from civic life. They come to birthday parties uninvited or enter temples. We also discussed the 13th Amendment,” she said.

Ms. Swaraj noted that the delegation, comprising MPs from different parties, visited several areas across the length and breadth of Sri Lanka during its six-day tour.

The BJP leader said the delegation also pointed out to the Sri Lankan authorities that Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) “is their baby” and so they should go by its recommendations but “they had no answer”.

The leaders also met TNA and opposition UNP members.

“Tamil National Alliance (TNA) wants a negotiated settlement. TNA members say they are proud Sri Lankans. They are against violence and stand for an undivided Sri Lanka. So we asked the government what is the itch? We made a fervent appeal to both parties — the Tamils and the government — for settling the issues,” Ms. Swaraj said.

Will Inter-Confessional Peace Come To Sri Lanka?

April 24, 2012By Volkhonsky Boris/ Radio The Voice of Russia-

A new inter-ethnic and inter-confessional conflict has broken out In Sri Lanka – a country where a bloody civil war had ended only three years ago. On Friday, a crowd led by Buddhist monks gathered near a mosque building in the town of Dambulla, thus interfering with the Muslims’ Friday prayer. Muslims were forced to hide inside the building for a long time. And in the night from Friday to Saturday the mosque building was bombarded with Molotov cocktail bottles. Fortunately, nobody has suffered.

At an emergency meeting of the government of Sri Lanka held in the past weekend it was decided to take the mosque to another place, on the pretext that it was built there illegally.

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Photo: EPA

What is the essence of the problem? Dambulla is a sacred place for the Buddhist majority of the Sri Lanka population. There is a complex of cave temples, dated back to the early period of Buddhism on the island – 1 century BC. It is one of the most famous tourist sites as well. In 1982, the government of Sri Lanka issued a decree, announcing the Dambulla area a sacred place for Buddhists and, therefore, prohibiting construction of any other cult buildings there, except Buddhist.

But the matter is that the mosque has existed here long before this resolution, says Boris Volkhonsky, an expert of the Russian Institute of Strategic Research.

“The mosque was built in 1962. Though today, the opponents of the Dambulla mosque argue that the territory, occupied by the mosque, was recently unreasonably extended. However, the crux of the matter lies not only in this particular mosque.”

According to Boris Volkhonsky, a new axis of inter-ethnic and inter-confessional confrontation – between the Singhalese Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority, which represents about 7.5% of the population – is clearly emerging in Sri Lanka in the last few months. Last September a similar accident happened in another sacred for Buddhists and very attractive for tourists region of Anuradkhapur, where the crowd led by Buddhist monks defaced a Muslim shrine.

Sri Lanka has not fully recovered yet from the effects of a 25-year civil war, which had claimed up to 100 thousands of lives. The war was being waged between the government, dominated by the Sinhalese, and the insurgent grouping “Tigers of Tamil Elam”. The war, in fact, was not of a religious nature, but a number of radical Buddhist politicians made a lot of efforts to stir up hatred towards the Tamils in the society, Boris Volkhonsky reminds.

“The Muslims (the Moors, as they are called in Sri Lanka) have never been a party to the conflict in the civil war. They haven’t got a territory of their own for compact residence, so there are no separatist ideas among them”. Moreover, the Moors, who had lived in the North, in the province of Jaffna inhabited by the Tamils, had themselves become the victims of the separatists: in the 1990-ies the “Tigers” had expelled all of the Moors from the territory under their control, said Boris Volkhonsky.

Today the events of the civil war period attract attention of the whole world. From time to time the Sri Lankan government and personally President Makhinda Radjapaksa are charged with abuse of power and large-scale violations of human rights. Sometimes these charges are put forward not only for the sake of restoration of justice, but for the sake of exerting political pressure on Sri Lanka. But, one way or another, the government is forced to take a defensive position. Against this background, it is very doubtful that the new axis of inter-confessional confrontation will facilitate thereturn of inter-communal peace and tranquility to Sri Lanka.

Veteran Tamil activist and humanist reaches 88 in exile

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 April 2012, 20:06 GMT]
Solomon Arulanandam David (S.A. David), popularly known as Gandhiyam David, who presided the Gandhian movement which spread simple agriculture, self-sustenance, and importance to early education as a way of life in the deprived villages of Tamil Eelam for nearly a decade from 1972, reaches 88-years Tuesday as he spends his older years among his friends in Chennai. TamilNet extends its wishes to Mr David as it recognizes his unique and selfless contribution to Northeast Tamils and the hill-country Tamils displaced by Sinhala intimidation, riots and pogroms in the 1970s and 80s. David was assisted by another humanist of the 70s, the late Dr Rajasundaram. Rajasundaram was killed in the Welikade prison massacre in 1983, whereas his friend, David, escaped, re-incarcerated in Batticaloa jail to escape again in the famous Batticaloa jail break.

David's contribution in the history of the struggle of Eezham Tamils is that at the inception of the armed struggle he had conceived the importance of a grassroot civil movement to accompany it.

S.A. David at 88

Threatened by the popularity of the spreading Tamil cultural consolidation and self-reliance in the most underdeveloped areas of the Northeast, and the opportunities presented to fleeing hill-country Tamils to begin life anew in the Northeast, Colombo framed charges against Mr David and Dr Rajasundaram under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and jailed both, according to reports.

Dr Rajasunderam was killed in the Welikade Prison massacre of June 1983. Mr David escaped Welikade massacre, but was later taken to Batticaloa prison. Tamil prisoners decided to break out of the prison, and in the successful jail break, twenty prisoners escaped first, and Mr David was taken by a supporter through the jungles to Poonakari from where he found his way to Rameswaram by boat.

David has been living in exile in Anna Nagar in Chennai. He has been critical of how the Tamil refugees, who fled violence and repression in Sri Lanka, are being treated in India being denied of freedom of movement and right to citizenship.

Talking to TamilNet from his Anna Nagar Residence, Mr David said, "I appeal to the expatriate Tamils to continue the struggle in the Gandhian way to impose the moral responsibility on the leading Governments of the West to facilitate the birth of Tamil Eelam. There is no question in my mind that Tamils have the right to live freely in their own homeland.

"Studying Thirukkural is a must for the future generations of Eezham Tamils," Mr David said, reflecting his solid grounding on the Gandian principles that motivated his work with the Tamil people in Vanni in the 1970s.

Mr. David added, "I salute Professor Francis Boyle's contributions to our struggle, and when the time is appropriate I am certain that he will help our people to fight the legal battle in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and in the International Criminal Court (ICC), if the Security Council accepts to take our case."

Excerpts from Mr David's biography follows:

Meeting Uma Maheswaran and not informing the police
Meeting Santhathiar and not informing the police
Assisting Uma and Santhathiar to escape to India

The following is a response from Professor Francis A. Boyle, the author of The Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka, to Mr S.A. David:

STOLAT!

Exiled in Chennai, Mr David has been following the progress of, and writing about, the struggles of the Tamil refugees in different countries.

"Yearning for the homeland," a book on S. A. David in Tamil by Nanjil Natarasan is expected to be released at an event on the 29th in Anna Nagar felicitating Mr David's 88th birthday. The book is available with Kaanthalakam, Sasirekha, Chennai (tamilnool@tamilnool.com).

Mr Maravanpulavu K. Sachithananthan, continuing in his activities for the Tamil cause, was associated with Mr David during the Gandhiam period. He currently provides moral support to Mr David.

Mr David's last wish, his friend Sachithananthan said, is that his body is buried in the Vanni area when Tamil Eelam becomes a reality.