Monday, October 1, 2012

IDSA COMMENT-Why is Tamil Nadu Against Sri Lanka?

October 1, 2012

The recent developments in Tamil Nadu on Sri Lanka augur misfortune for centre-state ties, which have flared up a bit owing to certain events apart from posting New Delhi a message to no longer ‘neglect’ their views. Sri Lankan military personnel who were undergoing training at Wellington in Tamil Nadu were asked to immediately pack up. The junior Sri Lankan football team that was in Chennai to play friendly matches against the Chennai Customs football team was ordered to return. Subsequently, Sri Lankan pilgrims were attacked and their buses stoned. Finally, there was a protest against the visit of Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa to Sanchi, apart from AIADMK chief Jayalalitha’s petition in the Supreme Court challenging the gifting of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.

These political protests against Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu tend to give the impression of political drama and competitive politics staged by the Dravidian parties. Many arguments can even be made against the state’s parties’ gripe against Sri Lanka, including the attack on Sri Lankan tourists, a highly questionable course of action from the point of view of bilateral relations. Though Tamil Nadu has voiced its concern against Sri Lanka from time to time, the pertinent question is why now? Moreover, why are the protests more boisterous now than before; and for what?

There are many reasons for this. First and foremost, the sluggish attitude of the Sri Lankan government regarding carrying out a meaningful political solution to the Tamil issue, even after three years of the end of the civil war appears to be the main reason for this anti-Sri Lanka campaign. The dislodging of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009 gave rise to hopes that Sri Lanka might just be able to move forward towards a lasting political reconciliation, without citing terrorism as a hindrance. But recent twists and turns in the Sri Lankan political discourse, beginning with the abortive All Party Representative Committee (APRC) to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), point to an anti-climax of the Tamils’ hope.

Nearly three years after the LTTE was routed, Colombo is still far from achieving the promises that were made at the peak of the Eelam War IV, and at the end of the war. In particular, Tamil Nadu deems that the Government of Sri Lanka has failed to stand by its commitment in seeking out a political solution based on devolution of powers under the 13th Amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution. The avowal at the Sri Lankan Independence Day address, where President Rajapaksa reportedly persisted on home-grown solutions against “relying on imported solutions and utilising foreign influences”, to solve the Tamil problem, is a case in point. It is viewed that the Sri Lankan government has merely pledged its commitment to the political solution or 13th Amendment as a stratagem to deflect Indian involvement and scrutiny over allegations of human rights abuses, particularly in the final stages of the war. Notably, such an assurance also gave New Delhi the excuse to ignoreTamil Nadu’s sentiments on the Sri Lankan issue.

Moreover, Colombo’s utter failure to convince the international community as well as that in Tamil Nadu of its genuine efforts to address the grievances of the Tamil community on the island such as resettlement and restitution of the displaced lands, added to the latter’s boisterous dissent against the Lankans. Allegedly, even after the end of three years of war, Tamils in the northern Sri Lanka are living in “deplorable” conditions, thanks to the presence of High Security Zones (HSZ) and reported “systematic Sinhalisation” in the north and east of the country.1 As the control and distribution of land remains a key political tool, particularly in the Tamil areas, it is alleged that the government has attempted to manipulate the demographics in the Jaffna peninsula2 , though Colombo insists that all Sri Lankan citizens have the right to live wherever they desire.

Finally, the increasing harassment of Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu by the Sri Lankan Navy has also contributed to Tamil Nadu’s anger against Sri Lanka. Between 1983 and early 1986, the Sri Lankan Navy's attacks reportedly resulted in the death of 132 Indian fishermen, the destruction of about 300 boats and the detention of about 90 fishermen, apart from hundreds of others who went missing. Tamil Nadu has, several times, condemned the actions of the Lankan Navy and even called for an immediate cessation to the attack on the fishermen in the Palk Straits. No wonder, with New Delhi dithering over stopping the misery of Tamil fishermen, Tamil Nadu sees Sri Lanka as an interloper, against Tamil interests. As long as the contest for marine resources in and around Kachchativu remains unresolved, Sri Lanka bashing is unlikely to decline in Tamil Nadu.

With the stage set for the 2014 election, Tamil Nadu is expected to further its campaign against Colombo, even though raising the Sri Lankan issue domestically would not attract any vote bank. However, political demonstrations in Tamil Nadu would continue, unless the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka is addressed.

Dr. M. Mayilvaganan is Assistant Professor in International Strategic and Security Studies at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore.

Hettige working hard against the judiciary

Monday, 01 October 2012

The President’s coordinating secretary for parliamentary affairs, Kumarasiri Hettige is currently working hard over the President’s issues with the Chief Justice and the Secretary of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).

The President recently told the heads of print and electronic media institutions that he had received an affidavit from the Naula Magistrate, Rangani Gamage, stating that she had been subjected to undue sexual advances by the JSC Secretary, Manjula Thilekaratne. This affidavit had been given to the President by Hettige.

Hettige had received the affidavit through Rangani Gamage’s father. The affidavit had been taken after promising various perks and privileged to Gamage’s father, members of the Naula Magistrate’s Court Lawyers Association said.

Matale District parliamentarian, Attorney Lakshman Wasantha Perera had introduced Gamage’s father to Hettige. Perera had informed the President that he could arrange a meeting with Gamage’s father and the President had immediately asked Hettige to follow-up on the matter.

Visiting Scholar in Honors shares compelling story

From left, Robert Sullivan, director of the honors program, Sonali Samarasinghe, international visiting scholar in honors, and Jason Freitag, associate professor of history, share a laugh at the welcoming event for Samarasinghe Sept. 19 in the Klingstein Lounge. — Durst Breneiser/The Ithacan

By Kristin Mansfield — Staff WriterPublished: October 1st, 2012 8:00 am

She didn’t run from the people who threatened to hurt her. She didn’t run from the newspaper that made her and her husband national targets by the Sri Lankan government.

Sonali Samarasinghe didn’t run away at all. She was kicked out.

Freedom of Information has been an ongoing battle in Sri Lanka. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in 2004 former President Chandrika Bandaranaike’s cabinet approved a Freedom of Information Bill, but nothing came of it after the Parliament was dissolved. In 2011, a relabelled Right to Information Act was also denied.

Her whole life Samarasinghe believed in freedom of speech and open communication between the government and the people, things that Sri Lanka didn’t have. These beliefs only grew stronger after the assassination of her husband, Lasantha Wickrematunge, editor in chief of the Sri Lankan investigative newspaper Sunday Leader, in 2009.

“I’ve realized many things,” Samarasinghe said. “When the horrible death happened, I realized that humanity can be ugly and very wicked. But I also realized that there is goodness in people and compassion, and that really amazed me.”

Samarasinghe and her husband were threatened to shut down their newspaper numerous times, but they felt they had a duty to write about government wrongdoings.

Shortly after his assassination, she was exiled.

The well-known Sri Lankan lawyer, journalist and human rights activist was welcomed as an International Visiting Scholar in Honors to Ithaca College on Sept. 19. This program is in cooperation with the Ithaca City of Asylum, which supports writers who have escaped their country and whose works are suppressed.

Dan Renfrow, chair of the ICOA, said Samarasinghe is a perfect candidate to host in Ithaca as a Writer in Residence from 2012-2014 because of her work in activism towards freedom of the press and freedom of speech.

Samarasinghe’s experiences are not only inspiring, Renfrow said, but are very timely because of the growing number of ways people can share views and information with new technology.

“The liberty in our country for freedom of the press and freedom of speech doesn’t exist everywhere,” Renfrow said. “So it’s important for all of us to stand united in protecting those rights and trying to make certain that others have those rights as well.”

A witness to civil war and extreme journalistic censorship, Samarasinghe said she will use her knowledge and passion to teach courses in the areas of politics and communications this fall.

“The faculty and I have been able to discuss collaboration on many subjects and across many departments like anthropology, history, writing and modern languages and literature,” Samarasinghe said.

Samarasinghe has written many articles about political corruption and extreme human rights violations. She also had a large following at the newspaper, the Morning Leader, at which she was the editor in chief.

“Really, when it comes to legal studies and journalism I am in my element, because that’s what I’ve been doing for the past 25 years,” Samarasinghe said.

As an International Visiting Scholar in Honors, Samarasinghe will teach special courses and lecture on topics such as the forgiveness factor in reconciliation and transformative justice. The lectures will be open to all students, she said.

Barbara Adams, associate professor in the department of writing, is a member of the ICOA and a founding member of the organization. Samarasinghe is the first journalist they’ve hosted. Adams said she will give the Ithaca community insight into how those in other countries may have to fight for their freedoms.

“We live in a privileged society where we often take our freedom of speech for granted,” Adams said. “It’s enormously valuable to have access to any individual, but particularly writers, who has a very different sense of what it means to speak in a country where free speech is constrained as it was for her.”

An important aspect of Samarasinghe’s job at the college will be to raise awareness of the dangers of the Internet and how it can be used by not only activists, but also the government. In Sri Lanka, the government makes sure all news websites, even those created in the country, are registered with the Media Ministry in Sri Lanka, she said.

“In a way, what has happened with repressive regimes and the Internet is that it has become a lot more difficult to hide the truth, and that is a good thing,” Samarasinghe said. “But you must understand that they too have that tool. They could send us misinformation.”

Democracy and justice are important to Samarasinghe, she said, which is why she didn’t let her husband’s death impede her commitment to exposing the truth.

“Journalists are at the forefront of history,” Samarasinghe said. “They are able to change the world. Move forward, do what you’re doing, and do it better and do it faster and do it harder.”

When something as defining as her husband’s death happens, it changes you and gives you hope, she said.

“I’ve learned that when something horrible happens, like death, to respond to it with life,” she said. “When ugly happens, to respond with beautiful things.”

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Buddhist monks appropriate 100 acres of land in Akkaraippattu

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 September 2012, 22:05 GMT]
A group of one hundred Buddhist monks, backed by the Sri Lankan state in Colombo, visited Moddaik-kal-malai in Akkaraippattu division of Ampaa'rai district five days ago, declaring 100 acres of Tamils land surrounding the rock as a ‘sacred zone’ of Buddhists. Tamil civil officials in the area complain that Colombo and its Buddhist monks were planning to create a Sinhala colony in the lands that belong to Tamils.

The visiting Buddhist monks have claimed that the image of Lord Buddha is carved out in the rock in the area.

However Hindus in the area, disputing the claims by the Buddhist monks, say that the image is of Lord Vishnu and not of Lord Buddha.

The Saivite organisations in the three districts of Eastern Province have been complaining that the Sinhala Buddhist state in Colombo is waging an accelerated campaign of Sinhala Buddhist colonisation by destroying historic Hindu shrines in the East.

DDoS attacks on TamilNet foiled

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 September 2012, 22:47 GMT]

Following persistent Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks on TamilNet in late February that coincided with the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, the site was once again intensively attacked this week by sources originating from various countries. Most of the co-ordinated attacks on 26 September originated from India, Malaysia, Israel and Germany. The attacks have also come from Thailand, Georgia, Brazil and Pakistan. This time, the cyber attacks on TamilNet coincided with its exclusive coverage exposing resettlement farce in Vanni, while Colombo and its abettors in the International Community of Establishments and in the international organisations, were projecting the closure of the IDP camp in Vavuniyaa as marking the successful completion of resettlement, ostensibly for the bailout of Colombo and continuation of the deceptive LLRC roadmap.

“The attackers had IPs from many different countries, and multiple attack sources were from India. It is difficult, or perhaps sometimes impossible, to trace who hosted the attack, as the atttacks are normally commanded from a single source to many different hacked mach

TamilNet was able to sustain the service without interruptions.

TamilNet is thankful for the support it has received from its readers in materially enabling it to meet the technological challenges dealing with DDoS and other types of cyber attacks.

Established in June 1995 as an electronic mailing list, TamilNet emerged into a newswire service with dedicated reporters, special correspondents and feature writers since it launched its web-based newswire service on 07 June 1997.

It now completes 15 years of service as an independent and not-for-profit newswire.

Sri Lanka is blocking the site inside the island since June 2007, but many savvy Sri Lanka users have since used free services available through proxies to access TamilNet.

TamilNet now plans to interact with its readers in the diaspora through direct meetings to strengthen its independent news coverage and necessary infrastructure arrangements.

The above tables show the peak number of connections per hour from the top 15 most computers accessing TamilNet. From a single computer session, the average connections per hour is in the order of 200 to 400 connections. The attacking computers attempt to overwhelm the servers by trying to create tens of thousands of connections (per hour).

Issues behind President’s tussle with the judiciary

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, September 30, 2012

= Weeratunga writes second letter to CJ explaining reasons for the meeting with Rajapaksa
= Ministerial team and Government lawyers appointed to work out course of action

Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake receiving her letter of appointment from the President

Last Monday evening, actress Malini Fonseka was leaving the hallways of “Temple Trees,” once the home of British businessmen, an editor, colonial rulers and later for decades by democratically-elected leaders of Sri Lanka. I walked in to greet President Mahinda Rajapaksa and sit down for a 90-minute conversation.

Present was Bandula Jayasekera, President’s spokesperson. Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga was to join in later. If he sat in a chair placed in the middle, chairs in two rows on his left and right, on the floor that has seen how the country’s history has been shaped by its leaders over the years, were empty. “My commitment to ensure an independent judiciary is uppermost. I cannot understand why there should be such unfounded accusations against me or my government,” the President said. He was alluding to the statement issued by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) Secretary on Tuesday September 18. The full text of the statement appeared in The Sunday Times (political commentary last Sunday), for the first time in an English newspaper.
Only moments earlier, Rajapaksa had diffused a crisis after Ms. Fonseka, the heart throb of cinema lovers in Sri Lanka, was asked to step down as MP. She quit only to be told by Rajapaksa that she should withdraw her resignation. It was too late. Hence, she will soon be sworn in as a new MP.

Needless to say the break would affect her claims to a parliamentary pension. The JSC in what appeared to be an unprecedented statement claimed there was “baseless criticism” of it and on the judiciary by the electronic and print media. It said, “various influences have been made” regarding decisions taken by the Commission and cited disciplinary action against a judge as an example. What was more disconcerting to UPFA leaders was a paragraph which said “�. an attempt to convince the relevant institutions regarding the protection of the independence of the judiciary and the JSC over the attempt to call for a meeting with the chairperson of the JSC, who is the Hon. Chief Justice and two other Supreme Court Judges, was not successful. The JSC has documentary evidence on this matter.” JSC Secretary Manjula Tillekeratne said “I have been instructed by the Commission” to issue the statement.

“I wanted them to be present for a discussion in the light of the next budget. I wanted to make sure their financial requirements and other needs are met when the budget is presented in Parliament. I also wanted to discuss how foreign scholarships and other training programmes for judges had to be enhanced,” Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times. In the past, he said, those who held the office of Chief Justice and Judges of the Supreme Court had heeded calls to attend such meetings and did not in any way consider that “an interference in the judiciary.” He added, “It is incumbent on me to ensure the smooth functioning of the judicial system in the country. I can only find out the shortcomings by asking them what they need and what steps have to be taken.” He said he would place all the facts before the public when he meets editors of national newspapers and heads of electronic media on Thursday.

Sri Lanka's Controversial Menik Farm IDP Camp Closes- As POW's Remain Missing

One of the camps used to hold Tamils after the end of the decades-long war in 2009. Courtesy: Green Left

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - Very serious questions about captured Tamil Tiger fighters linger in the wake of the violent end of Sri Lanka's long-running civil war.

While it may never be possible to determine an accurate assessment of Tamil casualties, it may not be too late to save many who languish today in prison camps located in secured areas inaccessible to family or media.

That is what people located on the ground there have said for years. There are photos of imprisoned Tamils and there are prisons and prison camps that are not undisclosed, like Menik Farm, the IDP Camp that will be closed following its final release of prisoners by tomorrow, 30 September 2012. My friend Muthamizh Vendhan in Chennai, sent these videos to our newsroom several weeks ago and while I meant to publish them then, I realize now that this day when a notorious prison camp is closing, has perhaps even more significance.

When the government violence against in Sri Lanka finally subsided, 300,000 Tamil Hindu and Christian Sri Lankans qualified as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Those who had survived were transferred to camps in Vavuniya District and imprisoned against their will. This process, together with the conditions inside the camps and the slow progress of resettlement in 2009 became a focus of a great deal of criticism from inside and outside Sri Lanka.

By the 7th of May in 2009, Sri Lanka announced plans to resettle 80% of the IDPs by the end of 2009. But them when the war was over, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa assured foreign officials that most of the IDPs would be resettled in accordance with the 180 day plan. The camps were opened on 1 December 2009 but IDP's were only offered limited freedom. The

Then on 29 December 2009 the government of Sri Lankan (GoSL) announced that there was no deadline for the resettlement of the IDPs. The pace of resettlement increased in 2010 and by July 2011, most the IDPs had been released or returned to their places of origin,Wikipedia states, with about 7,500 still living in the camps. These quite interestingly, are people from areas in Mullaitivu District, which is heavily contaminated with landmines. That sad aspect of war goes on killing long after the battlefield goes quiet.

The article Sri Lanka: A nightmare for Tamils by Ash Pemberton for Green Left states:

Tamilnet.com

While there has been some international criticism of the Sri Lankan government, it has sought to deflect this through its “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission” (LLRC), composed of government-appointed officials, ostensibly to investigate claims of human rights abuses during the war.

However, its report largely exonerated the government and talked up “reconciliation” between the two sides.

jdslanka.org

However, the underlying cause of the conflict -- ethnic discrimination -- still remains.

This war will not really be over until all information is released on missing people. We have reported many times the terrible cruelty suffered by Tamils in the final stages of the war, which wound down just as the summer of 2009 began heating up. Now the GoSL needs to keep moving forward and do everything possible to restore balance, and that again, is all about accountability and full disclosure.

________________________________________

The FUTA Protest

FUTA put up a good show on Friday, as well it might, given the support it drew from disparate opposition forces hoping that the long-drawn struggle of university academics would be the incubus of regime change. Many motorists and other commuters in the city cursed the disruption and the traffic jams caused as a result of the several processions converging on Colombo from different directions. The police unsuccessfully sought a court order to ban a procession in the interest of preventing the inevitable chaos but most people, even those worst affected, were glad that the right to protest was upheld. Given that the police never invoke judicial intervention when incumbent regimes have their various carnivals to the detriment of the general population, it was refreshing that opponents of the government were granted the opportunity of having their say.

Most people do not believe that the demand that six percent of national GDP be spent on education is FUTA’s primary objective. That demand was cannily attached to the salary increase the academics are pushing for themselves to ensure wider support for their cause. They’ve certainly won a level of public support they might not have anticipated given the pathetic state of so-called free education in the country today. Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake claims that the total education spend is a much higher proportion of GDP than commonly believed. He is right if expenditure by non-State actors including various private participants like international schools, the various organizations offering higher education in a multiplicity of disciplines, what is drawn into the monolithic private tuition industry and daham pasalas, Sunday schools and Madrasas are all taken to account. The ``pearl of great price’’ that Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara bequeathed this nation is now old hat. Education is anything but free with many parents, particularly those aspiring to send their children to university, having to cough out rupees they can ill afford to pay for their children to go from this tuition class to that. Even a few of those university dons, striking for higher salaries, are part of that industry with some reportedly earning very big bucks from their `private practice.’

It is not only education that is no longer free in this country which once prided itself on a well-funded free education system from primary schools right through university. We once boasted the highest level of literacy in the region but today many rural schools are being closed and admission to the better equipped and funded schools has become a racket about which the less said the better. The once vaunted free health care is today anything but free with patients in government hospitals being compelled to obtain drugs, tests etc. from outside. We allowed our English language skills to be severely eroded; well-run State assisted denominational schools providing a useful service were undermined. It is clear that the FUTA struggle has resonated in the public mind the way it has largely on account of the progressive deterioration of welfare services, particularly education and health, in recent years. It is true that we are not a resource rich country and some economists believe that we have paid a heavy price in the lack of development by adopting unaffordable welfare expenditure. These are all matters that are debatable but it is inescapable that what is offered to the people today, especially in the spheres of health and education, is but a shadow of what was previously available; and the increase in population by no means tell the whole story.

Although the war ended three years ago, we continue to incur huge defence expenditures ostensibly for security reasons. While infrastructure must undoubtedly be developed for economic advancement, there are questions on whether mega projects like the Hambantota port and the international airport at Mattala will yield the anticipated returns. The money poured into Mihinair is a scandal and there are strong doubts on whether the airline will ever earn its keep. The people are not blind to the money the political establishment spends on itself with a jumbo cabinet of over a 100 ministers in office and more to come as various political arrangements are finalized. It is difficult to determine how well money has been spent on various mega projects and whether the cost-benefit ratios make sense. Public dissatisfaction on several fronts has resulted in the FUTA demands getting wider support than they otherwise would have.

The government says that university dons will get higher salaries from October but the figures released for public consumption lump salaries and allowance together. The Mahanayakes of Malwatte and Asgiriya have offered to mediate and there is yet no word either from the government or from FUTA whether this offer would be accepted. Meanwhile the strike has dragged on for over three months and the marking of GCE `A’ level answer papers have not begun. With academic activities disrupted, delays in students completing their course will be inevitable. The feisty Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake says there were more university students than academics in Friday’s protest. He alleges that the whole business is politically motivated and claims that senior professors are among the best paid public servants in the country with some drawing more than the chief justice. He says that talks are possible once the strike has ended. Given the tone and tenor of the speeches at Friday’s protest and the dons’ perception that they enjoy public support, the signs are than an early end to the deadlock is unlikely. The academics have already forgone three months salary and though the minister says that he’s received letters from many expressing a desire to return to work, it looks very much as though they are willing to go on longer.

Massive loan from China to rebuild roads

President works out US$ 500 m deal; two consultancy firms to get billions for supervisory services

China will provide Sri Lanka a loan of US$ 500 million (Rs. 64.6 billion) for the second phase of the Government’s Priority Roads Project in the north and the south.

As a prelude to the project getting under way, the Government will obtain consultancy services. The Cabinet last Wednesday approved a proposal by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as Minister of Ports and Highways, to award two local firms multi million rupee contracts for such services.

The firm handling the Southern Region — Consulting Engineers & Architects (Private) Limited — will receive Rs. 3,376,160,000 (excluding VAT) whilst the one handling the Northern Region – Resources Development Consultants (Private) Limited — will receive Rs. 401,404,000 (excluding VAT). The two firms have been picked by the Cabinet Appointed Consultants Procurements Committee (CACPC) after four firms were shortlisted.

President Rajapaksa has told his ministers in a Cabinet memorandum that the Government of Sri Lanka and the China Development Bank Company Limited (CDB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a framework for cooperation. In terms of this MoU, the CDB has agreed to provide credit facilities to finance, inter alia, “infrastructure development projects with great significance to economic development.”

Stemming from this MoU, he has said, that the CDB has agreed to finance the Priority Roads Project to be implemented by the Road Development Authority under the Ministry of Ports and Highways.

With the US$ 500 million provided by the CDB, President Rajapaksa has told his ministers, 19 civil works have been awarded. These civil works are intended to rehabilitate 504.9 kilometres of roads in the Western, Southern, Central, Uva, Sabaragamuwa, North Western and North Central Provinces and 85 kilometres of provincial roads in the Nuwara Eliya District.

Two new flyovers at Hambantota are also to be constructed with the same funding. The Ministry of Ports and Highways has grouped the work to be undertaken into two regions — Northern and Southern. President Rajapaksa has said the Road Development Authority intends to employ separate local consultancy firms for construction supervision of the project in each region. The funds required to incur the cost of such consultancy are to be drawn from the Consolidated Fund.

India trying to undermine post-war reconciliation says senior official

Media blitz influenced by decision makers

September 29, 2012

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The Sri Lankan government yesterday alleged that an influential section of the Indian media at the behest of decision makers there was making an attempt to undermine post-war reconciliation process.

The GoSL asserted that the one-time LTTE mouthpiece, the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi a.k.a Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which in late 2001 declared the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil speaking people was spearheading the campaign here, whereas the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) pursued an international campaign.

A senior GoSL official was responding to The Hindu editorial of Sept. 28 titled ‘Plain speaking to Colombo’ and GTF appreciating India emphasizing the urgency to President Mahinda Rajapaksa in achieving lasting political solution to the Tamil National question.

The GTF issued the statement on Sept. 27 following its leader Rev Father S. J. Emmanuel making representations to South Africa and Switzerland as regards an international war crimes inquiry in Sri Lanka.

Having claimed a critical Indian diplomatic role in Sri Lanka’s defeat of the LTTE, the Indian media had asserted that New Delhi felt betrayed by President Rajapaksa’s failure to settle the Tamil National Question due to what it called Sinhala triumphalism.

The TNA decision to boycott the proposed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC), too, was blamed on Sri Lanka citing the stopping of work undertaken by previous committees.

The GoSL said that it was unreasonable to compare President Rajapaksa’s initiative with any of the previous attempts. In fact it was not only unjust but foolish as all previous Sri Lankan and Indian governments had been forced to deal with the LTTE except at the onset of the negotiating process in the early 80s, when the TULF and several other Indian trained Tamil terrorist groups were involved.

Commenting on The Hindu assertion that the ITAK was skeptical about the PSC process, the official said that Trincomalee District MP R. Sampanthan’s party was in the limelight today thanks to the Sri Lankan military.

Recalling how the UK, France and India had intervened to stop the military offensive on the Vanni east front in early 2009, the official said that if LTTE leadership comprised Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman (intelligence chief) and Soosai (Sea Tiger leader) had survived, the international community wouldn’t have bothered with the ITAK/TNA.

The LTTE would have remained the sole representative of the Tamil speaking people, the official said. The formation of the GTF and the return of ITAK/TNA to active politics wouldn’t have been a reality without eradication of the LTTE’s conventional military power, the official said.

He reminded that the LTTE didn’t at least allow other Tamil political parties and groups, including the ITAK to freely engage in political activity even after the signing of the CFA under Norwegian auspices.

"Today two of the main beneficiaries of the LTTE’s destruction are demanding an international war crimes inquiry. On one hand, the GTF came into being due to eradication of the LTTE in May 2009. And on the other hand, the ITAK is free to take decisions on behalf of their people today. We challenge the ITAK to reveal just one decision it took without consulting the LTTE."

"When the LTTE was running the show, the ITAK meekly accepted its orders. In the run-up to parliamentary polls in late 2001, MP Sampanthan called a media briefing in Colombo to declare the LTTE as the sole representative of Tamil speaking people. Then the ITAK had to allow the LTTE to decide on its nominees for the parliamentary polls.

``About a week ahead of the Nov 17, 2005 presidential poll, the ITAK called a media briefing in Kilinochchi on behalf of the LTTE to urge Tamil speaking people not to exercise their franchise.

``In May 2008, the ITAK didn’t contest the first Eastern Provincial Council election as it feared to earn the wrath of the LTTE. However, it contested the second election for the Eastern PC on Sept 8, 2012 due to absence of LTTE threat. Instead thanking the GoSL, the ITAK is today trying to play the LTTE role in a different way."

The GoSL insisted that it didn’t need the Indian media to advice as regards the first election for the Northern PC. President Rajapaksa has assured that Northern PC poll would be held in September next year, the GoSL said. As a public announcement, too, had been made, there was no need GoSL’s part to give additional assurance to those acting as if the LTTE never existed, the GoSL said.

Issuing a statement from London, the GTF emphasized that only an international, independent investigation could secure truth and accountability, as recommended by the UN Panel of Experts in their report, in order to lay the foundations for meaningful reconciliation between all communities in Sri Lanka. In this regard, GTF would continue to engage internationally until justice is served.

Reiterating its commitment for a negotiated political settlement for decades long Tamil national question through a process of dialogue and engagement, the GTF said: "In this respect we are encouraged that as reported in the media recently, the Indian Prime Minister has emphasized the urgency to President Rajapaksa in achieving lasting political solution to the Tamil national question."

Those who talk disparaging of Sri Lanka’s track record as regards the Tamil national question had conveniently forgotten how India created a monster in Sri Lanka in the 80s, the GoSL official said.

Responding to Tamil Nadu political parties’ position on the Tamil National issue and that of the center, the official said that India’s plight was obvious. Those leading protests against Sri Lanka had also interfered with the Indian judicial process as obviously revealed in the case of LTTE operatives found guilty for Rajiv Gandhi assassination not being executed.

Commenting on India throwing its weight behind the US-led resolution in Geneva at the 19th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Feb-March 2012, the official pointed out that the UN had made a spate of allegations targeting India over accountability issues. Interesting the position on India was made known soon after vote on Sri Lanka.

The UK based Channel 4 which produced two unsubstantiated documentaries, ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ and ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War crimes unpunished’ had telecast a similar documentary on human rights violations by the Indian government.

The Indian media and ITAK were playing politics with many issues, the official said. "A case in point is poaching in northern Sri Lankan waters on a massive scale by the Tamil Nadu fishing fleet. ITAK politicians, who criticize the GoSL for not doing enough for post-war economic revival of the economy in the northern and eastern regions, are silent on destructive bottom trawling operations by the Tamil Nadu fishing fleet. In spite of a large section of Tamil speaking people here depending on fishing, the ITAK is yet to take up this issue."

Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics

By Emil van der Poorten -September 30, 2012

Emil van der Poorten

One cannot but be fascinated by the material appearing in the media, particularly information released by The Regime’s disseminators of propaganda.

We had one poll, conducted within goodness knows what parameters, that said that Mahinda Rajapaksa had in excess of a 90% approval rating. Yet, even in elections in which the opposition parties have, according to the same sources, been decimated, the total opposition vote has not reflected that “fact.” This kind of reporting is typical of the local media which, by and large, has proved to be among the world’s most supine in their efforts to curry favour with those who wield power. Pray tell me how you arrive at a 90%+ approval rating by the population at large when the enthusiasm for a “hugely popular” President is demonstrated by a 60% turn out at the most recent polls and the President’s party, leave alone garner over half that vote, does in fact poll barely over 50% of the opposition’s? The math just does not make sense unless, of course, you were tutored by an academic of the quality of Dr. Mervin!

And talking of minorities, what about the minorities that are engaging in protests against the anti-social conduct of this lot, risking life, limb and incarceration?
We have the university students launching protests left right and centre, their leaders, literally, at risk of paying the ultimate price, against the chaos that is post-secondary education in this country. In fact, theInter-University Students’ Federation have claimed that the most recent deaths of two of their leaders was not, as claimed, as a result of an “accident” and one newspaper reports that a vehicle had “swayed” (sic) at them forcing them off the road and on to a post resulting in their deaths.

We have the Federation of University Teachers, foregoing their salaries in a strike that has already gone on for nearly three months, resisting legal manoeuvres to paint them into a corner and force arbitration upon them. One must also remember that this strike is driven primarily, not by an “industrial dispute” about wages and conditions of employment but by the necessity for allotting an adequate portion (6%) of the national budget to education. Efforts to classify this struggle as one purely for a wage increase have failed, though for how long the government will resist the temptation to cut loose their usual extra-legal response in a losing battle is something known only to the decision-makers at this time.

You have the parents of students, monumentally wronged in the “Z Score” fiasco and in the Grade 5 Scholarship tests, going to the courts, seeking redress of terrible wrongs and demonstrating their anguish and dissatisfaction in a manner that even our “national media” cannot avoid reporting.

You have the doctors launching one token strike after another in protest against their colleagues being assaulted by government politicos.

These are only some of the formal protests and withdrawals of labour that one sees. The servile media of this country does not adequately report what sick people are going through by virtue of totally inadequate facilities in the hospitals, by state-supplied sub-standard drugs, by a paucity of trained staff leading to the shutting down of entire hospital wards. Note also that these are the most dramatic events in our medical services to which the occasional reference is made in the media. Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that, when you are referred to a specialist in one of the major hospitals in your district, you’d better be ready to line up outside his clinic before daybreak or, literally, sleep outside the building until the numbers are given out to those to be seen in the morning. And if you are unfortunate enough to be the forty-first on a day when the doctor is going to see forty people? Tough luck, buddy, go home and come another day!

What about drugs and medications in general. If, in the doubtful event that the prescribed drug is available in the medical institution from which you are seeking treatment, there is the very real possibility that it is sub-standard, thanks to some “higher up” being on the take in the matter of drug purchases for the state! This, of course, makes for an interesting situation in which the patient takes the drugs prescribed and when his condition worsens hears, via the grapevine, that drug X is little other than coloured chalk! “Average patient” has no one to complain to and if he or she does, how would they substantiate their complaint? They will not have access to any testing system because if they do, they’d belong to the affluent class that can afford to buy name-brand drugs at astronomical prices. Remember that all of this is under a government loudly proclaiming its “empowerment of the common man!”

What has been referred to in the preceding paragraphs is what keeps emerging from the less-silent majority when our gutless media deigns to report such dissatisfaction.

Consider the “silent ones” – I shan’t call them “the silent majority” because that would be statistically impossible when 90%+ of the population has been described as being, to all intents and purposes, charter members of the President’s fan club and subscribing to the belief that he and his government are infallible! The “silent ones” are in every village and town, bearing the brunt of an escalating cost of living driven to the levels it has by corruption and simple mismanagement. Of course, thanks to the monumental lies of those issuing “statistics,” people are told that they are paying less for essentials and living a life of luxury in every village and town in the Miracle of Asia.

Some have asked why people are seeking to cross the largest ocean in the world in leaky fishing boats to get to Australia, selling all their worldly possessions and, literally, mortgaging their futures to do so. I am sure everyone believes the official explanation that “these are economic refugees, mistakenly, believing that there is a pot of gold at the end of every down-under rainbow!” Simple explanation and if the interviewer insists on suggesting that things must be pretty bad for these people to risk their very lives on these perilous journeys, they are met with the suggestion that they must be out of their minds to abandon paradise on earth for someplace at the bottom of the planet!

At this point, let me emphasize the fact that I have only made reference to groups largely made up of the Sinhala majority. I have barely mentioned the minorities except in the matter of the “boat people.”

What should and obviously doesn’t concern this arrogant outfit is that, at some point (inevitably?) what they choose to term as “infinitesimal minorities” realize that they have a common enemy and choose to make common cause. While the concept of “critical mass” should have crossed the minds of anyone at elementary political science levels, it has obviously not occurred to this bunch or, in the alternative, it has only resulted in their readiness to fall back on a solution that was demonstrated in the Free Trade Zone of Katunayake or when the fishermen protested against the increase in boat fuel prices: the use of the gun to put down anything resembling dissent or resistance.

I have often been accused of being among the more pessimistic of columnists. Suffice it to say on this occasion that it is hard to abandon that view of the Sri Lanka situation when one is faced with the national tragedy unfolding before a nation whose government’s only response is suppression of dissent and the dissemination of fabrications.

Grant Indian citizenship to Lankan Tamil refugees: Sri Sri
September 29, 2012

Spiritual Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Saturday said the Centre and the state government must take steps to make thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils, who are living as refugees in camps across Tamil Nadu, Indian citizens.

"Sri Lankan Tamils living in India [ Images ] as refugees for more than 25-30 years is not something Tamil Nadu can be proud about," he told reporters, referring to those from Bangladesh and Nepal who have got Indian citizenship.

Grant citizenship to Lankan Tamils - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Contending that it was India's responsibility to see that on "humanitarian" grounds the Lankan Tamil refugees get their due rights and are able to work, he said "we cannot see these people forever in camps."

Elaborating on his organisation 'The Art of Living's contribution to this cause, he said it was running a signature campaign and has already got more than eight lakh signatures.

"We want to get at least one crore signatures before we give it to the Centre and the state government," he said,

"We have done that (granting citizenship) to a lot of Bangladeshis and people from Nepal as well. When that is the case, why can't we give it to Tamils from Lanka," he said.

Asked about the stand-off between the Centre and anti-nuke activists over commissioning of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, he said, "I go with the opinion of Abdul Kalam [Images ], our former President. He is an authority on the nuclear field. I know he cares for our people."

Kalam had earlier vouched for the safety of the plant.

Asked whether he was behind the split between anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, he said, "I have only made bridges and not tried to split anybody. Even now I am ready to build bridges between them."