UK deportee killed while Tamil Nadu returnees arrested in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2012, 11:41 GMT]
A 28-year-old Tamil man, recently deported from UK was found killed in Trincomalee on 18 April, news sources in the district told TamilNet Saturday. In the meantime, in a systematic combing operation launched by the special units of Colombo's military and police establishments, up to 300 Tamil males and females have been ‘arrested’ and sent to military detention camps in Welikanda and Vavuniyaa since last Saturday. Among the victims are also people who have recently returned from Tamil Nadu and they too have now ended up in Welikanda and Vavuniyaa, the sources in Trincomalee further said. 

Easwarathasan Ketheeswaran, forcefully sent back from UK in 2010, was living alone at Paalaiyoottu in Trincomalee city. Completing hotel management studies, he was making arrangements to leave the island seeking foreign employment. His wife is living abroad in UK. 

On 18 April, he was visiting his aunt and went out for shopping. When he returned he had reportedly told his relatives not to go out as strange persons were wandering around the house. But, he was killed when he left the house later, the sources said. 

Last year, SL military establishment let lose a so-called ‘Greese devil’ violent campaign threatening the security of Tamil women in the island. 

The ‘white-van’ disappearances are a well-known legacy of the Rajapaksa regime. But, the present trend seems to be the use of knife. Another foreign returnee from Quatar was knifed to death by a motorbike squad in a Sri Lanka Army camp in Vadamaraadchi on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, last week, the military and police units that had come from Colombo to launch the combing operations in the district were having lists of recently deported people from abroad, the details of returnees from Tamil Nadu and details of ex- LTTE members who were released by them earlier, the sources further said. 

Although the official explanation for the combing operations by the SL military was that it was targeting former LTTE members who had not undergone SL government ‘rehabilitation’ programme, the arrests that have taken place during the nights in the past week have also targeted those who were not members of the LTTE, civil sources further said. 

On 21 April, a delegation of TNA parliamentary group leader R Sampanthan, that was in Kumpu'rup-piddi was interrupted by the people asking Mr. Sampanthan to intervene to save the people being arrested and being sent to detention. Mr. Sampanthan visited the SL Police station at Kumpu'rup-piddi and returned empty-handed with the explanation that the police authorities in Trincomalee were pointing their fingers at their hierarchy in Colombo. 

The SL military has also taken an English teacher from Champoor. 

Despite the earlier reports that around 200 Tamil men and women were sent to detention, the civil sources in Trincomalee city now say that reports reaching from several remote villages indicate that around 300 Tamils have been taken. 

At Kumpu'rup-piddi alone, more than 40 Tamils have been arrested and sent to detention by the genocidal Sri Lankan military.

Only abide by judicial review on Dambulla - SLMC
28 April, 2012

SLMC leader,Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem

Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) says that it will only abide by a judicial review on the Dambulla mosque issue.

The leader of the SLMC, Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem said that it was the decision taken by the party following an extensive discussion on the issue on Saturday.

He said that the party is not in support of an administration decision to resolve the issue.

Current location

Minister Hakeem said that Sri Lanka Muslim Congress would not agree to move the mosque from its current location as proposed by the Prime Minister D.M.Jayaratne.

“We will not by any means agree to such a move,” he said.

He said that Rangiri FM Radio Service operating from Dambulla also came under discussion at the party meeting to hear concerns expressed by Muslims over its broadcast.

He said its programmes are detrimental to the unity and co-existence of the people in the country.

“I personally listened to it and felt this radio station should be banned,” SLMC Leader, Justice Minister, Rauf Hakeem said.

Answering to a question by Sandesaya that certain sections of the Muslim community are unhappy about his handling of the Dambulla issue while being with the government, he said that there is no dispute over the leadership of the party.

Sri Lanka: “Resettled” Tamils in Vanni live in poverty

A typical resettlement hut in Dharmapuram

By Subash Somachandran 28 April 2012

Amid international criticism of human rights abuses during the last stages of Sri Lankan government’s war against separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the government has stepped up its propaganda about the “resettlement” of war refugees. It insists that it has have “resettled” more than 90 percent of the refugees and claims they live in better conditions than before the war.

Three years since the end of the war in May 2009, however, “resettled” Tamils in the former LTTE-controlled Vanni in northern Sri Lanka are living in deplorable conditions. The following article was submitted by a WSWS reporting team that recently visited the area. Residents’ names have been withheld for obvious security reasons.

A Vanni resident outside his hut

Kilinochchi.

Full Story>>>

Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Two Constitutions Of Sri Lanka

Is the 13th Amendment: coming, going or gone? It is the question about which Sri Lankans are beating out their brains out and so are the Indians. Has Mahinda Rajapaksa accepted the 13th Amendment and will he implement it or he has decided—as we Sri Lankans say— to ‘quietly forget about it’?

Mahinda Rajapaksa meets S. M. Krishna

Who is lying?
Did he tell Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna when he visited Sri Lanka in January that the 13th Amendment Plus would be implemented or did Krishna make it all up when he said at press Conference that Rajapaksa agreed to implement the 13th Amendment? Or did Rajapaksa play and Indian rope- trick on the Indian Foreign Minister? Did Rajapaksa tell Sushima Swaraj the Leader of the Lok Sabha (Lower House) who led a delegation of Indian MPs to Lanka that the 13th Amendment Plus would be implemented or was the honourable Leader of the Opposition of the Lok Sabha lying?  Or was our leader lying? But whether the 13th Amendment is implemented or not it has been enacted into the Sri Lanka Constitution for a near 25 years and been there all the while. So what happens to the 13th Amendment?Read More »

Meeting of revived pro-Eelam outfit in Chennai on Monday

April 28, 2012
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The first meeting of the revived Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO), an outfit launched by Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi in 1985 to express solidarity with the Sri Lankan Tamil cause, will be held on April 30 at Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters.

Mr. Karunanidhi, who is also the TESO president, will chair the meeting, which will be attended by DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan, Dravidar Kazhagam president K. Veeramani, former minister Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan and Tamilar Peravai leader Suba Veerapanidan, who have been included as members.

Mr. Karunanidhi, who has been advocating a separate Eelam vociferously in the last few days, in a statement, called for a peaceful struggle in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi, C.N. Annadurai and Sri Lankan Tamil leader SJV Chelvanayagam, to set right the temporary setback to the cause of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Reacting to criticism that the DMK failed to take any sincere efforts to prevent the killing of thousands of Tamils in the last phase of the war and was belatedly expressing concern, Mr. Karunanidhi said the Sri Lankan Tamil groups failed to succeed in their objective because they were not united in their struggle.

“The fratricidal war among the militant groups led to such a situation. Though we made a fervent plea to them to stop the fighting among themselves neither were we able to root out their mutual animosity nor stop the consequent downfall. Who can avoid shedding tears over the internecine fight between the leaders of various groups and their deaths?”

He said that the DMK government made all possible efforts to prevail upon the Centre to intervene and stop the war in Sri Lanka and the Centre extended its cooperation. All DMK MPs in both the Houses of Parliament offered to resign to pressure the government to intervene in the war and this led to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh giving an assurance to find a political solution.

Recalling various protests organised by the DMK and a delegation of Tamil leaders being sent to Delhi to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking India's intervention, Mr. Karunanidhi said he undertook a fast demanding a ceasefire by the Sri Lankan government.

“The same day Sri Lankan government issued a statement saying the war was over in the North and advised the Army not to use heavy weapons or shelling from the air. It also said priority would be given to evacuation of innocent people.”

Mr. Karunanidhi said despite the efforts made by the DMK and the Centre, the Sri Lankan government violated its promise and won the war. However, this was only a temporary setback. He urged his supporters to dedicate themselves to the cause of Tamil Eelam.

Will Premier ‘DiMu’ ask pardon? resign ? or commit suicide ? or..?
(Lanka-e-News-28.April.2012, 11.30PM) To the Sri Lankans who follow their conscience , it is a big question preying on their minds for the last five days whether SL's ‘Prime’ Minister told a blatant lie or not? 

This is what SL’s Prime Minister told :

The Premier issuing a communiqué on the 22nd said , he took a decision after holding discussions with senior Minister A H M Fowzie , Western province Governor and Deputy Minister Hisbulla on the 22nd morning at Gampola .

This Premier circulated this official communiqué among all media Institutions.

Even as this communiqué was circulated , Deputy Minister Hisbulla spoke to Lanka e news and broke the news that there was no such discussion with his participation at Gampola and no such consensus was reached.

On the 22nd evening itself Minister Fowzie informed the Sirasa media that he did not have any such discussions with the Premier , no consensus was reached , and he is certain Governor Moulana also did not participate in such a discussion.

On the 23rd , Governor Alavi Moulana also confirmed that he did not have any discussion with the Premier on the 22nd , and no agreements were reached.

All these persons , the Premier , senior Minister and the Governor except Hisbulla are over the age of 60 , and senior citizens who are holding responsible positions and are therefore doubly responsible members of the society. Leave alone their official positions, as senior citizens over the age of 60, their statements are highly respected by society . Therefore they as responsible citizens ought not indulge in irresponsible lying . They are not considered by the people as just riff-raffs and scoundrels who utter any falsehood to cover up their weaknesses and wickedness in order to deceive the people.

In the circumstances , if the senior Minister Fowzie , Governor Moulana and Deputy Minister Hisbulla are telling in one voice that the Prime Minister of the country has brazenly and blatantly lied , the Prime Minister is duty bound to offer an explanation.

Or , are Fowzie , Alavi Moulana and Hisbulla telling lies ? This must be clarified. Otherwise the Premier must tender an open apology to the people that he grossly lied. If not , as the second in the hierarchy , he must accept that he could not but tell lies , whereby he is unable to defend his lofty position , and thereby resign from the post forthwith. Since he has proved he is not worth his salt , the best course of action available to him is to honorably resign. Otherwise he has been given a 9 m.m. pistol not for nothing , it is in these disgraceful circumstances when he is stigmatized beyond his bearable limits to use it and commit suicide , in which event at least posterity will hold him in high esteem as a Prime Minister who committed suicide to save his honor , if he has any.

If he hasn’t the guts to do any of these things , it is best from tomorrow , he changes his man’s kit , wears a saree does a make up to his face ( oh no , he has done it already) and appears before the public , in which case the public may feel sorry for him and pardon his sins.

As a last resort , if he feels that all these above actions would not wipe out his disgrace , it is best he distributes some sarees , blouses and frocks , and appears in their midst himself wearing a saree or frock , in which case he may be able to save his face.

India’s CPI-M cites gagged Eezham Tamils in negating their independence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 April 2012, 07:06 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday defended its parliamentarian TK Rangarajan saying that Eezham Tamils don’t ask for independence. Citing statements of politicians gagged in the island as authentic expression of the minds of Eezham Tamils and endorsing Rangarajan’s negation of Eezham Tamil independence, the CPI-M state secretary G. Ramakrishnan argued against the current stand of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and his criticism for Rangarajan. If the CPI-M is truly a party of oppressed people, and a party valuing true democracy, it should first demand removal of the Sri Lankan constitutional ban on talking about secession to help people and their politicians to talk from their heart, and it should support a referendum, rather than imposing conclusions of genocidal Establishments, said an Eezham Tamil politician having no freedom to even reveal his name. 

“On any issue, the opinion of the people involved takes precedence,” said the CPI-M press statement, in support of its stand negating independence as solution for Eezham Tamils.

• CPI-M statement in Tamil

According to the CPI-M, the Tamil politicians in the island who met Rangarajan, and politicians like Sampanthan and Suresh Premachandran of the mainstream political party TNA that is engaged in talks with the Sri Lanka government, didn’t ask for independence. They were all talking about solutions within a united Sri Lanka.

The CPI-M consistently stood for meaningful devolution of powers and maximum autonomy for combined north and east, within united Sri Lanka, the statement said, adding that the current needs of Eezham Tamils are reparations, rehabilitation and devolution of powers.  Full story >>

Crucial challenges for MR in victory month

Sunday April 29, 2012

Swaraj briefs Singh on visit; India's ruling party and main opposition take common stand on Lanka Snap polls in some provinces to show the world that people are still with the  Govt.

Indian High Commissioner Ashok K. Kantha showing the photographs of the first family to Indian Opposition Leader Sushma Swaraj when she met President Mahinda Rajapaksa at President’s House. By Our Political Editor Some of the bitter truths delivered to UPFA leaders by the visiting Indian parliamentary delegation just two weeks ago have now begun to unravel. This was after the delegation head and India's opposition leader Sushma Swaraj met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on her return to New Delhi to brief him on the visit. Unbelievable but true. This was the most unusual meeting for Ms. Swaraj, who heads the Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha. She was reporting to Premier Singh that her delegation's mission, to project India's latest foreign policy objectives towards Sri Lanka, had been accomplished. There was no discordant note and both were on the same page. Otherwise, the ruling Congress government of Premier Singh and Ms. Swaraj's BJP have been locked in some of the bitterest political battles. The shaky UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government wanted to continue in power despite mounting allegations of corruption. Just this week, the BJP raised issue over a Swedish police official, Sten Lindstrom, admitting that he was the whistle-blower in one of India's controversial corruption scandals in 1980 -- the purchase of 419 artillery pieces by the Indian Army involving kickbacks of some US$ 1.3 billion. Full Story>>>

Four Sri Lankan Allies Out Of UNHRC

Saturday, April 28, 2012

• China And Russia Not There For UPR

By Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema

Four countries that voted against the US backed resolution on Sri Lanka at the 19th UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva are to move out of the Council in June this year.
Two of Sri Lanka’s key allies, China and Russia are among those who will be leaving the Council at the next UNHRC session in June.
The other two countries that would be leaving the Council in June are Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh.
However, the support of China and Russia has played a crucial role on Sri Lanka’s diplomatic offensives at the UNHRC whenever issues on the country’s human rights track record have been taken up for discussion.
China helped Sri Lanka canvass for votes during the US backed resolution on Sri Lanka in March.
The government is concerned that China and Russia would not be present in the Council when the country’s human rights situation is to be taken up for review during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) scheduled in October this year.
Government sources told The Sunday Leader that while there were concerns about the absence of China and Russia during the UPR, the government believed that the two countries would continue to support Sri Lanka from the outside.

When Toronto is famous for its street food, you can thank this man

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Published Saturday, Apr. 28, 2012

Last spring, on an Easter weekend trip to Miami to research the area’s thriving food truck scene, Suresh Doss had a revelation. Mr. Doss, a 34-year-old computer systems engineer who runs a popular food and drink website called Spotlight Toronto, is the de facto face of street food in Toronto. He’s a born organizer. When somebody wants to start a food truck, or work through the city’s all-but-impossible street-food regulations, or even just to find a street-food seller at lunchtime, they turn to Mr. Doss, typically. He grew up surrounded by the stuff.

As a child in Colombo, Sri Lanka, he’d often buy a bowl of poori slathered with curry, or a paper cone filled with mango, pineapple and hot sauce from a street-side hawker on the way to school in the morning. He even worked as a chutney boy on the days when his mother, Bernadette, made her fermented rice and lentil dosas at fundraisers held outside one of Columbo’s Catholic cathedrals.

Protesters demand end to UN human rights investigation

Video

Mr Weerawansa is on hunger strike near the main gate of the UN office

FRIDAY, 27 APRIL 2012 

Increase in bread price will only cost as much as two bulath vitas -Wimal

Minister Wimal Weerawansa said though bread prices would go up by 5 or 6 rupees after the imposition of a Rs. 15 tax on a kilogramme of wheat flour, the most unfortunate family that eats bread for all three meals would have to additionally spend only a sum equivalent to the price of two quids of betel (bulath vitas).

The Minister in a statement said “as a nation we should encourage local food production, while facing challenges posed by the price hike.” He also said that it was time to change eating habits, as anyone could find enough rice and rice flour in the market at lower prices.

The minister also said the government had decided to impose a tax on wheat flour during the last budget in order to encourage local food production. “But we are unable to implement it yet and as a result farmers are unable to sell their harvest,” the minister said.

Wimal’s Multi Million Rupee Damp Squi

Wimal Weerawansa’s joy ride to New York turns out to be a multi-million rupee flop and Weerawansa speaks to a Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation cameraman with a measly crowd of 20 protesters behind him Photos by: A special reporter from New York

Leader for the National Freedom Front (NFF) and Housing and Construction Minister Wimal Weerawansa’s costly and extravagant trip to New York cost US$ 19,000 (approx. Rs. 2 million) each for himself and his young son Vibhuthi to travel first class on Emirates Airlines.
Weerawansa traveled to New York to participate in the 2600 Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi
celebrations at the UN headquarters on May 16 where UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had also graced the occasion.                              Read More »    

Witness: Man hit by cluster bomb in Sri Lanka war

EW DELHI (AP) — A Sri Lankan man was wounded in the final months of the country's bloody civil war by an unexploded cluster bomblet that tore into his leg and buried itself in the gash, a medical worker who saw the injury told The Associated Press on Friday.

The revelation, along with a photograph that purports to show the wound, added further credence to accusations cluster munitions had been used during the final months of the war.

Many of the thousands wounded in the government offensive against ethnic Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka also had burns consistent with those caused by incendiary white phosphorus bombs, the medical worker said. He spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals from the Sri Lankan government.

The accusation is likely to increase pressure for an international war crimes investigation into the final, bloody stage of the quarter-century civil war that ended in 2009 when the government overran the Tamil Tiger rebels' stronghold. A report last year by a U.N. panel of experts said tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the last months of the war and found credible allegations of war crimes by both government forces and the rebels.

Sri Lanka's government has repeatedly denied using either white phosphorus or cluster munitions in the war zone, where tens of thousands of civilians were trapped in a tiny spit of land along with rebel fighters.

In a statement Friday, it called the accusations "baseless."

"Neither 'cluster munitions' nor illegal weaponry were used," it said.

However, a U.N. demining expert separately wrote an email earlier this week saying he had identified unexploded cluster bomblets in the former war zone while he was looking into the death of a boy who had been foraging for scrap metal.

"These ongoing reports of cluster bombs being used in Sri Lanka are worrying, and we're taking them seriously," said Laura Cheeseman, director of the Cluster Munition Coalition, which advocates for the elimination of the weapon. "Experts within the CMC network are investigating further as we speak, and we encourage the Sri Lankan government to do likewise."

The medical worker said local U.N. staffers had told him in early February that they had found shrapnel from cluster munitions around a hospital in Puthukudiyiruppu.

The facility was later moved to a makeshift hospital in the village of Putumattalan, where patients began speaking of being wounded by cluster munitions, which make an unmistakable sound, a loud explosion followed by a burst of tiny blasts, the worker said. But medical officials could not find evidence of the munitions because the wounds were so badly infected, the worker said.

Then, in late March or early April, a man came in with a wound in his lower leg. After the medical staff cleaned the wound, they discovered a small unexploded bomblet from cluster munitions wedged into it, the worker said.

The staff amputated the man's leg below the knee, then took it, along with the bomb still inside and threw it into an empty field because there was no safe way to dispose of it, the worker said.

A photograph provided to the AP showed a lateral gash in a man's leg just below the knee with a greenish metal cylinder embedded in the tissue.

Technical experts shown the photo said they were unable to tell whether or not it was a bomblet.

Cluster munitions are packed with small "bomblets" that scatter indiscriminately and often harm civilians. Those that fail to detonate often kill civilians long after fighting ends. They are banned under an international treaty that took effect in August 2010, after the Sri Lankan war ended.

Patients also came to the clinic suffering burn wounds consistent with the use of white phosphorus, said the medical worker, who inspected a nearby area after a bombing and found it charred and aflame.

White phosphorus is not specifically banned under international law, but human rights groups says its use in heavily populated civilian areas could amount to a war crime.

The U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution last month urging a probe into allegations of summary executions, kidnappings and other abuses during the war. Human rights groups have said the government was incapable of conducting a fair investigation into its own behavior and called for an international probe.

The war pitted Tamil separatists against a government dominated by the Sinhalese majority, which has marginalized minority Tamils for decades.

Follow Ravi Nessman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ravinessman

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Saturday, 28 April 2012

Rule of law as antidote to religious Intolerance

The dispute over the presence of a Muslim mosque on Buddhist temple land in Dambulla points to an underlying tension in Sri Lanka's multi religious society that is being exploited by extremist forces.

The latest incident is a violent mob attack led by some Buddhist monks on the mosque in the presence of state security forces. The National Peace Council condemns this act of violence and damage done to the mosque that has caused a deep sense of hurt and insecurity in the minds of the Muslim community.

We are appalled that some leading politicians and religious leaders have justified the forcible removal of the mosque in these circumstances. At the same time we are gratified that religious leaders of both the Buddhist and Muslim communities have appealed for discussions and a mutually acceptable solution. The Anunayake of the Malwatte Chapter Most Venerable Niyangoda Sri Vijithasiri has said that all groups should respect and protect the rights of others. The All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama and Muslim Council of Sri Lanka have appealed against violent protests or demonstrations.

In recent decades there have been many reports of attacks on religious minorities including church burning and controversy over unethical conversions. However, the harmonious relations that exist between the people have continued. In virtually all parts of the country there are multi religious settlements where worship of different religions takes place in close proximity to each other in a peaceful environment. This is a heritage that Sri Lankans can be proud of and needs to be safeguarded.

NPC believes that the primary source of violent social behavior now manifesting itself in acts of religious intolerance is the absence of due emphasis to the Rule of Law. Maintaining law and order and civil administration is the prime duty of the government and state machinery. The breakdown of the Rule of Law within the country can lead to a situation where persecuted groups will feel justified in looking elsewhere for justice including the international community. Wherever and whenever there are disputes they need to be settled negotiations or by recourse to the law in competent courts in the country and never by force.

It is unacceptable that protests can emerge at anytime and anywhere with people being chased away, displaced, abducted and murdered while we claim to be a holy land. In particular, NPC calls for an end to the culture of impunity, in which those who wield power act as if they are in charge of personal fiefdoms, whether at the national or local levels. This is a point that has also been stressed by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission appointed by the Government in the aftermath of the country's three decade long internal war when it said that the Rule of Law and not the rule of men should prevail.