ExpressBuzz

‘90,000 war widows in North, East Lanka’Express News Service  02 May 2012

COLOMBO: There are up to 90,000 war widows in the Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka, according to the latest report of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Human Rights and Democracy.

The report for 2011 released by Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday noted that disappearances and abductions continued in 2011 with a sharp rise in the number of disappearances towards the end of the year.

In December, two political activists travelling in the North had disappeared. There was almost no progress in resolving past cases of disappearances, including that of cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda who went missing in 2010.

The report recalled that the Sri Lankan government’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) had complained about the lack of investigations and had pointed out that in some cases, the police had refused to register any complaints.

The British report pointed out that little or nothing had been done to reduce the military presence in the Northern Province even though the LLRC had said that extensive military presence was often making the place “unsafe” for women.

An International Crisis Group (ICG) report had also expressed concern over women’s security in the North and East.

Painting a grim picture of women’s empowerment in Sri Lanka, the British report said that the country had slipped from the 16th to 31st rank in the Global Gender Index of the World Economic Forum.

Rights Activists Endangered

As regards the safety of human rights activists, the Foreign Office report said the environment for rights defenders in Lanka was difficult throughout 2011.

On December 10, 2011 a group of 42 rights activists from South Sri Lanka were prevented from participating in a Human Rights Day rally in Jaffna.

On December 9,  2011 two Tamil rights activists, Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan, had dis- appeared while visiting Jaffna.

Demining: US official in Sri Lanka

YAHOO! NEWS

Colombo, May 2 (IANS) A US official has ended a week-long visit during which he meet NGOs in Sri Lanka's north and discussed the progress in de-mining activities.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Plans, Programmes andOperations Walter D. Givhan was in Sri Lanka from April 26 to May 2.

Givhan held meetings in Colombo and visited Kilinochchi and Vavuniya, two of the northern districts that were the war theatre until the Sri Lankan military crushed the Tamil Tigers in May 2009.

In the north, he met NGOs to discuss the progress of de-mining in the region.

Givhan met Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Army commander General Jagath Jayasuriya and Navy Commander Vice Admiral D.W.A.S. Dissanayake to discuss the military bilateral ties and support for de-mining.

The US has provided $34.5 million to aid Sri Lanka's de-mining activities since 1993.

The tea sector:-There are none so blind as those who will not see

April 30, 2012 

As a sector of indisputable importance to the nation, the tea industry draws periodic comments and now seems such a time. The various assessments and comments are naturally, not wholly acceptable. In fact, my long held view is that the assumed profitability of the industry is spurious. There is the peculiar phenomenon that while most of the estate operations report losses, the industry as a whole is said to be profitable. This is either bad arithmetic or superficial - for how can the whole exceed the sum of the parts? I believe that part of this puzzle derives from the fact  that the production and marketing arms display contrasting profitabilities. No plans or projections are valid unless this fundamental feature is recognised and accommodated.     Read More...

2011: Lanka $1.491 billion tea exports of $10 billion worldwide   

SRI LANKA: Tea rich but nutrient poor

Photo: Contributor/IRIN
Sunday 05 February 2012Children from the estate sector

2011: Lanka $1.491 billion tea exports of 

$10 billion worldwide

By Elmo Leonard
Sri Lanka’s 2011 tea exports of $1.491 billion was the highest for a tea producing country while global exports of this commodity was $10 billion, Minister of Plantation Industries Mahinda Samarasinghe said last week. Colombo tea auction prices for 2011 was higher by half a US dollar per kilogram over that in other auction centres the world over, Minister Samarasinghe told delegates at the 20th session of the Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) IGG – Inter Government Group, which met in Colombo, last week.
Colombo hosted the FAO sessions marking 145 years of commercial tea production in Sri Lanka. In attendance were over 100 delegates from 25 nations. Deliberations were intended to cover issues over the next ten years, from current market activity, the progress of selected tea markets, factors affecting supply and demand, analysis of risk management and short to medium term factors.
Also marking the milestone of the 145th year, chairperson, Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) Janaki Kuruppu took over the chairmanship of the FAO-IGG body on tea. Kuruppu will hold the post for the next two years having succeeded Ashok Mangotra, India’s additional secretary to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Minister Samarasinghe called on FAO to hold a producer forum of tea producing countries, to ensure mutual benefit for all.   
Minister Samarasinghe drew attention to external factors which affect tea prices. During the past year unrest in the Middle East reduced demand from some of Sri Lanka’s main buyers; the Euro Zone countries saw a weakening currency and Japan was hit by a series of natural disasters. Thus, there is a possibility in the future of external factors affecting global prices. Necessi-tating a win-win outcome, Minister Samarasinghe called for a producer conference, with Sri Lanka willing “without hesitation” to host such a conference on tea during the coming year.
Two million or 20 per cent of Sri Lanka’s workforce is directly and indirectly involved in the island’s tea industry. Around 1.5 to 2 per cent of Sri Lanka’s GDP comes from tea. Yet, there is a need to bring down Sri Lanka’s extremely high cost of producing tea, Samarasinghe said.
The Tea Board head said that while Sri Lanka had a name change from Ceylon, in 1972, the word Ceylon Tea, a branded name, stood firm and continued to grow.

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields gains support in Radio Times Bafta poll

Radio Times

Votes in our poll top 150,000 as campaigners for justice in Sri Lanka support Channel 4 film

Written By

Jack Seale

12:50 PM, 01 May 2012

More than 150,000 people have now voted in a RadioTimes.com poll asking users which programme should win the current affairs award at the Baftas – and now the poll's surprising status as a representation of the international struggle for democracy and justice has taken a new turn.

The Channel 4 film Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, which documented alleged war crimes perpetrated by the government during the Sri Lankan civil war, has received several thousand votes in the past 24 hours, as campaigners for justice in Sri Lanka have latched onto the poll.

Supporters of Sri Lanka's Killing Fields are using the Twitter hashtag #killingfields to encourage others to vote – and this morning they were joined by the presenter of the film, Jon Snow, and its director, Callum Macrae.

Previously, Bahrain had been the focus of the vote. Al Jazeera's programme Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark, which concerned how Arab Spring protests were dealt with by the ruling Bahrain monarchy, is also nominated in the Baftas' current affairs category. On Saturday, Bahrain foreign minister Khalid Al Khalifa took the extraordinary step oftweeting a link to the RadioTimes.com page, urging Bahraini loyalists to "vote against the harmful al Jazeera film".

Bahraini democracy campaigners responded by calling, via social networks, for support for the al Jazeera programme. Thus the poll became a fight between Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark and its nearest competitor, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, with the latter perversely enjoying a boost from those loyal to the Bahraini regime.

Now, however, that picture has changed. Although heavy traffic is still arriving at the page from Bahrain, users from across the globe are also voting for Sri Lanka's Killing Fields to express their desire to bring members of the country's government to justice.

"It's extraordinary how this Radio Times poll has turned into nothing less than an international pro-democracy campaign," Sri Lanka's Killing Fields director Callum Macrae told RadioTimes.com. "I'd like both films to win! What is very important, though, is that people are clear that to vote for the Sri Lankan film is a vote for democracy and justice in Sri Lanka – it would be a grotesque misrepresentation if the Bahraini government tries to claim it was a vote for them. 

"The votes for both of these films are votes for truth, justice and democracy," Macrae added. "Taken together they should be a warning to repressive regimes, whether in Sri Lanka or Bahrain, that people are demanding change.”

Sri Lanka's Killing Fields currently has 49 per cent of votes in the poll (up from 39 per cent on Sunday), with Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark on 51 per cent. The other two nominees are Undercover Care and The Truth about Adoption, both from BBC1's Panorama strand. All four are available to watch online.

The poll does not, of course, decide who wins the award itself. It will be decided by a Bafta jury and announced on 27 May.

Monks destroy Muslim shrine as police stand idle

Monks destroy Muslim shrine as police stand idle

“You can bend it and twist it... You can misuse and abuse it... But even God cannot change the Truth.”

The Mad Men of Dambulla 

“Ordered disorder, planned caprice, And dehumanised humanity…”
Brecht (The Exception and the Rule)

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

That the ancient-city of Dambulla is not sundered by religious violence is thanks to the sense and sensibility of its ordinary inhabitants (of all faiths) and the security personnel on duty.
Had the people of Dambulla been as virulent as the anti-Mosque/anti-Kovil demonstrators, had the STF and police personnel been as supine as the government, a religious conflagration would have engulfed the area and beyond.
Mobs have no sense; religious-frenzy is unconcerned about consequences. But governments need to count the cost of fanaticism, especially in a pluralist country which is yet to recover from the wounds of a 30 year war. The manner in which the Rajapaksa administration responded to the Mad Men of Dambulla indicates that the self-destructively myopic mindset, which created a linguistic issue and facilitated its evolution into an ethnic war, flourishes still, in the highest echelons of the Lankan state.

 Read More »

Ganadeviya (deity) statue at Anurapura burnt down using tires

Monks destroy Muslim shrine as police stand idle

Bishop's House appeals to Vatican to urge Colombo to renovate Vanni churches

  

  

Defunct Muslim Information Centre (MIC) Head espousing anti-Tamil hatred
by Our London Correspondent

S M Bazeer

( May 01, 2012, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The head of the now defunct London based Muslim Information Centre M S Bazeer, a solicitor by profession is being accused of expressing anti- Tamil, anti-Hindu and anti-Christian hatred in his campaign work for the government of Sri Lanka.

At the meeting held (30/4) at the House of Commons organised by the newly formed Tamil National Congress (TNC) S M Bazeer lambasted the Tamil groups involved in the TNC as unrepresentative terrorist groups.

The well attended meeting Chaired by Dr A Nicholaspillai and hosted by the Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Sri Lanka Andy Love MP, touched on wide ranging issues affecting the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

Seated in the back row next to K Pathmanathan, Minister Councillor of the Sri Lanka High Commission, S M Bazeer was seen agitated and conspiring with the Councillor by the attendees. Towards the end of the meeting, he went on the rage accusing the groups present at the meeting as unrepresentative organisations and praised the paramilitary outfit leader and the government Minister Douglas Devananda as a saviour and his group as a registered party and a representative organisation in Sri Lanka.

Publicity seeking S M Bazeer is given prominent role in the Douglas Devananda’s paramilitary group run Dan TV and a Paris based Jaljalpu website and is a known vociferous critic of Tamils, Hindus and Christians of Sri Lanka.

His pro-government--anti-Tamil campaign has caused considerable embarrassment for the expatriate Muslim community who have expressed their resentments in various forums and personally sympathising with the Tamils.

Following his angry charge at the parliament meeting, he is said have exited from the Westminster premises without facing any questions.

S M Bazeer is from the village of Earavur in the Eastern Provice and is said to be a very close relative of the Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister Raul Hakeem. According to information, S M Bazeer’s stand has caused major embarrassment for the Minister and both are said to be not in talking terms.

A close friend of S M Bazeer based in Oslo said Bazeer is aiming for a diplomatic post and is hell bent on convincing the President Mahinda Rajapakse that he his anti-Tamil. His comments on the Dambulla Mosque attack by the Buddhist monks is said to be very mild and favouring the government.

S M Bazeer is a practising lawyer in immigration and conveyancing work and is based in Wimbledon. Following the defeat of the LTTE in 2009, he is said to be acting as a campaigner for the Sri Lanka government and has severed his connections with several Tamil groups and is said to be a frequent visitor to the High Commission of Sri Lanka.

His Paris based website has taken over the role of the former LTTE’s Nitharsanam.com and is publishing doctored images and false and discrediting news of individuals whom were his colleagues before the defeat of the LTTE.

Sri Lanka And Its Broken Promises: Time For India To Re-Examine The Issue

May 1, 2012By Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah -

Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah

It is hard for a man to keep a straight face and tell a lie but President Rajapakse manages to do it every time he has to face the Indians and the International community about devolving power to the Tamil NorthEast. He just did it again when he had breakfast with Sushma Swaraj on the last day of the Indian delegation’s visit to Sri Lanka.

There is now a huge confusion as to who said what. Sushma says Rajapakse talked about devolution and mentioned 13th +Amendment and Rajapakse through the Island denies he said that: “The Sri Lankan government on Monday strongly denied a statement attributed to Indian Opposition Leader Sushma Swaraj, that her delegation had received an assurance from Mr. Rajapaksa on his commitment to the 13th Amendment, and his readiness to go even beyond it.”

Raising the matter of the continuing saga of Rajapakse saying one thing to Indian officials and then totally denying the statement when they have gone, under the headline “No assurance from Rajapaksa, says Sri Lankan daily,” R. K Radhakrishnan of the The Hindu, opines on Rajapakse’s promises “This is an exact replay of what happened with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna in January 2012. Soon after Mr. Krishna met the President, the Indian side released to the press, a statement, which said the President had agreed to the implementation of the 13th Amendment (which grants some powers to the provinces) as a means to cater to the hopes and aspirations of Tamils in the Northern Province. Then, too, there was no briefing from the government side. A day later, the government’s preferred newspaper, The Island, quoting the President, said he had not discussed 13-plus with Mr. Krishna.”

This clearly illustrates the sad spectacle, the tale of “Broken Promises” that Tamils have experienced under successive Sri Lankan governments and in this case under the Rajapakse regime.

When Is India Going To Re-Assess?    Read More

TNA demands release of arrested Tamil 

youth In a letter to President Rajapaksa:

April 30, 2012

By Franklin R. Satyapalan

 TNA Leader and parliamentarian R. Sampanthan has sought President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s intervention to secure the release of several youth taken into custody during the recent search operations in the Eastern Province, particularly in the Trincomalee District.

Sampanthan has in a letter, brought to the President’s notice that the arrested youth have been taken to Colombo and some undisclosed locations.

The TNAleader has said in his letter: "Many of those arrested have been leading normal civilian lives being bread winners of the young families. Some have had no connection to any illegal activities at all, certainly not recently. The action of the Police and the Security Forces, in addition to being arbitrary and illegal, has caused great consternation and unrest among the Tamil people of the Eastern Province. Some next of kin have been informed that they had been taken for "rehabilitation". I wish to bring to your notice that there is no legal provision under which this can be done".

Sampanthan has also requested President Rajapaksa to effect changes to the Pillayan Temple situated at the entrance to the General Hospital in Trincomalee.

"Renovations of this temple commenced in July 2011 and the structure had to be adjusted slightly to comply with the prescribed AHGAMAM rules. Consequently, some pillars of the temple seem to have been placed alongside the road. However, this section of the hospital road is no longer used as a public road since it is within the Hospital premises.

"The Urban Development Authority has directed that the front portion of the building, said to be on the road reservation area, be removed, on the basis that this is still a public road.

"I appeal to you to kindly intervene in this matter and direct the UDA to withdraw the said letter and permit the renovation work to be completed within one year as required by the AHGAMAM rules so that the Kumbabisheham scheduled for the 5th of June, 2012 can take place."

Responding to the TNA leader’s demand, the Defence Ministry told The Island last night that the security forces had been directed to conduct search operations in the former war zone and arrest the ex-LTTEcadres who had not undergone rehabilitation. The arrested youth would be rehabilitated and released, the government said.