Friday, November 23, 2012

ICG plays mischief with TamilNet

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2012, 08:40 GMT]
The International Crisis Group (ICG) in its latest report on Sri Lanka, No. 239, dated 20 November 2012, came out with the following sentence: “The influential website TamilNet, whose editors are linked to the so-called Nediyavan faction of the LTTE, frequently criticises the TNA for moderation allegedly imposed by the Indian and U.S. governments.” In the footnotes for the statement, the ICG cites Norway questioning Nediyavan, the Dutch investigating illegal LTTE fundraising and D.B.S. Jeyaraj writing on “Tigers overseas chief Nediyavan” getting questioned in Oslo over alleged links to LTTE fund raising (page 13).

The ICG comes out with the statement sounding in such a way that it is its own.

The total picture brought out by the statement and the footnotes is that TamilNet is linked to Nediyavan, who is viewed as the overseas chief of the still-banned LTTE and who according to sources cited by the ICG, is investigated by the governments in the West over illegal fund raising.

The implications are obvious: veiled intimidation to the global civil public, with the support and sponsorship of which alone the TamilNet is able to run, upholding the national cause of the genocide-affected Eezham Tamils, despite the open negation of Eezham Tamil independence by the USA, India and the ICG.

It is also a veiled threat to political activists and civil society movements having ideological affinity with TamilNet to disassociate them from it.

Dubiously linking TamilNet with Nediyavan originated with the writings of D.B.S Jeyaraj and Terrorism Professor Rohan Gunaratne.

TamilNet usually chooses to ignore when false pictures are painted by sources lacking credibility.

But the ICG, backed by globally powerful forces and individuals, is known for influencing the outlook of the World Establishments on the island of Sri Lanka and on its political and social players.

TamilNet is not afraid of accepting its link with anyone, if it is the truth.

TamilNet wishes to make it clear that its affinities are only with the national cause of Eezham Tamils and it is mischief to project it factional. Equally, TamilNet also doesn’t wish to associate itself with any of the mobilisations tagged behind the powers competing over the island of Sri Lanka.

TamilNet challenges the ICG to prove its credibility on the statement it has made.

If an open apology is not forthcoming from the ICG, TamilNet may have to seek justice from the law of the countries where the ICG is registered.

[ICG document] Sri Lanka: Tamil Politics and the Quest for a Political Solution

SAMSN Call to End Impunity in South Asia

Friday, 23 November 2012

November 23 2012 is a day of action against impunity for attacks on journalists. This is a global observance which commemorates the thirty-two journalists killed in the Ampatuan massacre in Maguindanao province in the Philippines. It is also an occasion for the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) to take stock of the distressing reality of impunity in the region and resolve to combat it through country-specific, though coordinated action.

Journalists in South Asia are consistently faced with threats, intimidation and violence, and in extreme (though disturbingly common) cases, murder. According to the latest estimation of the “impunity index” for the killing of journalists by the Committee to Protect Journalists (http://cpj.org/reports/2012/04/impunity-index-2012.php#index), five of the eight South Asian countries feature among the twelve with the worst record in failing to bring to justice the killers of journalists. The same compilation of data the previous year had an even more dismal story to tell: seven of the eight countries of South Asia featured in this list then.

Pakistan has had its impunity rating increasing rapidly and without break for the last four years. In many ways, the status of the country as one of the central staging posts of a global war has contributed to this rapid deterioration. Among the most traumatic events in recent times was the abduction and murder of the investigative journalist Saleem Shahzad in May 2011. This was also in many ways a key turning point for the struggle against impunity since Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and other professional groups, mounted an agitation in its immediate aftermath to secure the appointment of a judicial commission of inquiry.

The inquiry report, submitted in January 2012, observes how deeply traumatic the incident was. It was not just Shahzad’s family and the community of journalists that was left “in a state of shock”, but also “the public at large”, since the “net of suspicion was cast, amongst others, on institutions of the state itself”. On the basis of its extensive interviews and investigations, the Justice Mian Saqib Nisar commission concluded that “in all probability, the background of this incident is provided by the War on Terror”. This conclusion is warranted by the fact that as an “investigative reporter, Saleem’s (sic, Shahzad’s) writings probably did, and certainly could have, drawn the ire of all the various belligerents in the War on Terror – the Pakistani state, the non-state actors such as the Taliban and al-Qaida, and foreign actors”.

Though the Nisar commission failed to identify the agency responsible for Shahzad’s killing, its inquiries were valuable in highlighting how complex the struggle against impunity is likely to be.

The widespread sense of shock that followed Shahzad’s killing has not however, led to any material improvement in conditions for journalists. The IFJ’s record shows that in the eighteen months that have followed, no fewer than nine journalists have died in violent circumstances, mostly victims of targeted killings. The province of Balochistan, in the grip of an insurgency by elements seeking independence from the Pakistan federal government, has been an especially hazardous terrain.

In India, the areas of conflict remain extremely hazardous for journalists, but none more so than the north-eastern state of Assam, where twenty-one journalists have been killed in the years since 1990. Few of these cases have gone to trial, far less led to any manner of sanction against the perpetrators. In July 2009, the sole person to go to trial for the murder of Parag Kumar Das, an editor and widely respected public intellectual in 1996, was acquitted on all charges, with the trial court judge reserving special words of censure in his final judgment for the slipshod approach of the investigative agencies.

Some of the twenty-one cases identified in Assam may have been occasioned by causes other than journalistic work. But in several of them, such as Kamla Saikia, Indra Mohan Hakasam, Prahlad Goala, and most recently Raihan Nayum, there is evidence of the killings being motivated as revenge for particular news reports or for the editorial stance of the media outlet that the journalist worked for.

The ghastly 1997 killing of four members of the staff of Eenadu-TV, Gangadhara Raju, Jagadish Babu, Srinivas Rao and S. Krishna, in a bomb blast as they were leaving a film studio in Hyderabad city after recording a news report on a film under production, is yet to reach any kind of legal closure. It is believed that the journalists were not the primary target of the bomb, which was probably a murder attempt on the film producer, who was a former Maoist insurgent since come overground and active in mainstream politics.

Most recently, Umesh Rajput, a young reporter for a major Hindi language daily was shot dead near his home not far from Raipur, capital of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Rajput’s family and the local journalists’ unions are convinced that a report published just days before under his name, on a case of medical negligence leading to a woman’s death, was the principal motive for his killing. Despite evidence that has accumulated since then, pointing to the possible involvement of a local doctor and a political activist who had other reasons to resent the journalist’s work, there have been no arrests made or charges laid in the killing.

In Sri Lanka, a commission appointed with a presidential mandate recommended that cases of journalists being attacked during the country’s quarter-century long civil war be investigated and prosecuted as part of the national reconciliation process. There has however, been no indication of an effort being made in that direction. Journalists who have been seeking to report on the status of the war displaced and the faltering efforts to resettle them have faced obstruction and harassment from state agencies and the security forces.

None of the murders or disappearances of journalists that caused widespread distress in the country has been investigated, far less brought to trial. This goes for the January 2009 murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the campaigning editor whose work on official corruption earned worldwide recognition and the January 2010 disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda.

Plans by Sri Lanka’s journalists to observe a “black month” in January 2012 to mark the many traumas that the profession has faced in that month, were met by verbal threats over the government-owned media and outright physical intimidation. Reconciliation remains a distant prospect and impunity a seemingly ingrained element of the political culture in Sri Lanka.

In Bangladesh, journalists Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, a married couple, were murdered in February 2012 in their residence in the capital city of Dhaka. Despite frequent assurances from top police officials and government ministers that the case was on the verge of being solved, there has been little by way of clarity on the motives for the murder. A number of suspects have been arrested but in recent weeks, the Rapid Action Battalion – the security agency that was entrusted with the investigation despite its main competence being anti-terrorism operations – has been interrogating the couple’s six-year old son who was the first to discover the murder. Despite being under the same roof at the time the crime occurred, the young boy was asleep and only came to know of it the next morning. The interrogation to which he has been subjected has been widely deplored as deeply insensitive and a needless harassment of the bereaved family.

Journalism suffered serious assaults during Nepal’s decade long Maoist insurgency, leading to self-censorship as the norm. The abuses of this period remain to be addressed in a spirit of truth and national reconciliation. In terms of the threats and violations that persisted even after the Comprehensive Peace Accord of November 2006, the ordinary law of the land has been held appropriate by the Supreme Court. Among these are the killing of Prakash Thakuri sometime after his abduction from the western district town of Mahendranagar in July 2007; Birendra Sah, abducted in October 2007 from his home in Bara district of central Nepal and believed killed soon afterwards; J.P. Joshi, missing since September 2008, whose remains were found in a thickly forested region of western Nepal two months afterwards; and Uma Singh, murdered in her home in Janakpur in the southern plains in January 2009.

On May 30, 2011, a district court in Nepal sentenced two suspects to life terms in prison for Sah’s murder. Three other suspects in the murder, have been declared as absconders from the law. In June 2011, the Dhanusha district court in Janakpur sentenced two to life in prison for the murder of Uma Singh.

These partial gains in dispelling the climate of impunity have to be assessed against the continuing obstacles in the way of securing justice for Prakash Thakuri and J.P. Joshi.

On this day of global observance against impunity, we the unions of journalists in South Asia, resolve to closely monitor the progress of several of these key cases and ensure that justice even if long delayed, is not entirely denied.

The story of Sri Lankan Tamil female tea pickers

The Price of Tea - a campaign for the rights of Sri Lankan tea pickers

Photo Story

Rani was 14 when she started picking tea. Her daily wage now is 380 rupees (2 euros) but she has to pick 18kg of tea to earn that money. She works in a tea estate managed by the government, which has been neglected by the management company in recent years. She struggles to be able to pick the required 18 kg of tea to earn her daily wage. Read the full photo story >>>

‘It Is A Shame And Very Disappointing, BBC Should Investigate Its Journalists’ – Says Dr Saravanamuttu

By Colombo Telegraph -November 23, 2012

“It is a shame and very disappointing – it seems that some journalists are being supported by tax payers in two countries and with notions of conflict of interest and professional ethics and integrity thrown to the winds. The relevant authorities in both countries -this includes the BBC- should investigate as to how this could happen.” says Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu.

Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu

Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives and founder member of the Board of the Sri Lanka Chapter of Transparency International made the above remarks when asked how he saw the issue of senior journalists, particularly BBC World Service journalists applying for and receiving Rs. 1,200,000/- as an interest free loan from the state banks to purchase cars or vans.According to the Ministry of Finance Sri Lanka, the Treasury will pump in the interest due to the state banks for the loans under this scheme.

BBC Sinhala Service Colombo reporter Elmo Fernando and the Londoner BBC World Service – Sinhala senior producer Chandana Keerthi Bandara both applied the interest free loan from the Sri Lankan Government.

Bandara

Meanwhile the Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday that some media personnel who had received laptops and obtained vehicle loans, had defamed him in their publications the very next day.

“Last Sunday BBC Sinhala Service Colombo Reporter filed a distorted report on the Opposition Leader’s press conference and attacked him” a senior opposition legislator told Colombo Telegraph, asking for anonymity because he didn’t want to be targeted by the ‘laptop and interest free loan’ media. The BBC didn’t report what the leader said in full and just criticised him for not answering BBC questions. The BBC even failed to report what the questions were.

Listen to BBC Sinhala reporting on Ranil Wickremesinghe here at minutes 7.37 – 11.20.

Addressing new IT recruits at Sirikotha, Wickremesinghe said that the gifting of laptops and interest free loan to journalists and cartoonists, which coincided with the budget was no mere coincidence. It had been calculated to prevent the media from highlighting the burdens placed by the budget on the poor suffering masses.

“I see this interest-free motor vehicle loan as a sort of a ‘bribe’. I don’t think it’s appropriate at all for a BBC journalist to take this. Obviously it will damage their credibility.” the former head of the BBC Sinhala Service Vasantha Raja told Colombo Telegraph.

BBC guidelines says; “A conflict of interest may arise when the external activities of anyone involved in making our content affects the BBC’s reputation for integrity, independence and high standards, or may be reasonably perceived to do so. Our audiences must be able to trust the BBC and be confident that our editorial decisions are not influenced by outside interests, political or commercial pressures, or any personal interests.There is a danger of conflict of interest in every area of programme or content making. Each department or team must be aware of its area of vulnerability. There may be particular sensitivities for on-air talent.”

“The BBC’s reputation for impartiality and objectivity is crucial. The public must be able to trust the integrity of BBC programmes and services. Our audiences need to be confident that the BBC’s editorial decisions are not influenced by the outside activities or personal or commercial interests of programme makers or those who appear on air.”

For Tamils, UN mea culpa is meaningless without action

Friday, 23 November 2012

A UN internal review into the brutal Sri Lanka civil war has found it failed in its mandate to protect. Sam Pari from the Australian Tamil Congress says more is needed than just words.

An internal review has found the United Nations failed in its mandate to protect Tamil civilians during the final days of the war in Sri Lanka.

The report, released by the UN to the public without the executive summary, outlines that UN senior officials not only abandoned the Vanni region as the war escalated, but purposely avoided revealing casualty figures collated by its own staff, while knowing the death toll had entered the tens of thousands.

Furthermore, the UN was found to have failed to mention that the majority of killings that took place were inside government-declared “safe zones”, and chose to hide the fact that the Sri Lankan regime was responsible for these civilian deaths, instead casting blame solely on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

This recent internal review substantiates what the Tamil people had desperately tried to alert the world: the UN’s deliberate silence protected the Sri Lankan state from international criticism and allowed it to strategically conduct a genocidal campaign under the guise of a “war on terror”.

Even the death toll during the final stages of the war is unclear — some state it was up to 40,000; others over 75,000. Tamil church leaders and civil society, using census statistics, have calculated it to be 146,679. Yet, over three years later, the UN still refuses to release the official figure to summate the dead.

Tamils, displaced by war, are regularly being denied their right to resettle in their traditional lands. On 24 September, 2012, over three years since the war, Sri Lanka announced it had closed its military internment camp, once one of the largest in the world, which detained Tamil survivors of the war. However, further inquiry on where those “released” were resettled revealed that many were simply relocated rather than resettled, and that too into areas that were not sustainable for life.

Like the 100-odd families of war displaced community of Keappapulavu who found themselves dumped in a burnt clearing of jungle, which had neither water facilities nor basic infrastructure. Photo and video interviews reveal conditions worse than those within the internment camps.

While the Sri Lankan regime chimes “all IDPs resettled”, civil society activists estimate that about 26,000 people remain displaced by military occupation of their land in Sri Lanka.

The military occupation of the Tamil homeland is reportedly at a ratio of one army officer to every five civilians. Data from civil officials have revealed a concerted and structural move to turn traditional Tamil lands within the former warzone into a military enclave of the Sri Lankan forces, which is comprised overwhelmingly by Sinhalese.

“Systemic Sinhalisation“ of traditional Tamil lands is also taking place at an alarming rate. Buddhist temples are being built to cater for the changing demography, while religious churches and temples of Tamils people are being destroyed. Names of roads and villages are being converted from Tamil to Sinhala.

The heavy military presence also has other sinister repercussions such as the exponential increase in s-xual exploitation and abuse of Tamil women in the north-east of the island.

Rape of Tamil women by the military is a common threat, with several cases “reported to have been perpetrated in cells by guards or by officers usually at night, sometimes repeatedly and sometimes by more than one individual”.

Former female members of the LTTE are the most vulnerable with several cases of release and rearrest reported, with rape and s-xual abuse taking place both during detention as well as during “routine investigations” conducted on regular “summons” post-release. One such victim, a 38-year-old woman, was reported to have committed suicide as a result of repeated s-xual harassment and abuse.

A report by the International Crisis Group on the women’s insecurity in the north-east found many women to have been “forced into prostitution or coercive s-xual relationships” including being “trafficked within the country and abroad”. It added that “[p]regnancies among teenagers have increased” and that “[f]ear of abuse has further restricted women’s movement and impinged on education and employment opportunities”.

It further stated that the combination of such a large number of women-led households, heavy military and unsustainable conditions meant that Tamil women were forced to rely on the military for everyday needs, putting them at “greater risk of gender-based violence, but also prevent[ing] them from building their own capacity within communities”. There exist 89,000 Tamil widows and female-headed households as a consequence of the war.

Heavy military presence and the impunity that prevails mean not just Tamil women but men too are regularly arrested, tortured and disappeared. Sri Lankan prisons are notorious for deaths and disappearances in custody. In July this year, a young Tamil political prisoner reportedly assaulted by prison officials and died of injuries sustained.

In the scenario of such continuing abuses, for the Tamil victims and their families, the words of the UN internal review are meaningless without action. The conduct of the last war resulted not just in great loss of life for the Tamils, but also of dignity and freedom. For the Tamil people the pain and fear of war, excepting the bombs and bullets, continue even today.

Acts of genocide can take different forms. The Sri Lankan regime’s strategy of eradicating the Tamil people through various avenues is only being abetted by the super powers’ silence. What is required is a longer term solution that deals with the root cause — an oppressive force, the racist Sri Lankan regime, intent on erasing the identity of a people, the Tamils.

Courtesy -Crikey.com

MaRa’s JaRa (dross) appear in white Van sans number plate and distribute scurrilous literature against CJ

(Lanka-e-News-22.Nov.2012, 11.55PM) Copies of a booklet of 20 pages containing scurrilous literature relating to the chief justice was distributed today at Aluthkade precincts by a group that came in a white Van without a number plate.

This group resembled the security teams of the Govt. and the police took no action against them. The Van without the number plate was parked brazenly in front of the building of the Lawyers’ offices. The group which distributed these copies carried out their abominable tasks freely , shamelessly and left the scene without any hindrance. Meanwhile large groups of policemen and intelligence officers of the Forces filled the environs of the Colombo courts .

“I remain a friend of the Sinhala people and of Buddhism”

An Exclusive Interview with Fr. Emmanuel

Interviewed by Nilantha Ilangamuwa

(November 23, 2012, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Rev Fr Prof Dr S. J. Emmanuel is an eminent theologian and an academic who devoted much of his time for political upliftment of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. The 78 pontiff is the President of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) and even at his prime age is energetically campaigning for the just cause of the Tamil people.

File Photo:- Fr. Emmanuel

NI. Even at your prime age, you are boldly campaigning for justice. It is because of your passion for Tamil people or your Christian mission?

SJE. I was born a Tamil and baptized as a Christian (1934). Birth as a Tamil and call to be a Christian are both God’s gifts and call to me.

My life is to live faithfully to my vocation, vision and mission – all from God. In the changing contexts and challenges of my life, I act according to existential identities derived from birth, faith and profession. Hence my campaigning for justice springs, not from a mere superficial passion for Tamil people, but from my existential identities and mission to fight injustices anywhere and for all peoples.

If I may be allowed to narrate from my own life, it is a conviction and sensibility,from my young age against all forms of injustice, that keeps me struggling for justice.

Already as a young man in my own family, I fought against my own father discriminating others on the basis of caste, as an undergraduate at the University of Colombo (1954-8), I lobbied people on the streets of Pettah against the Paddy Lands Bill of Philip Gunawardene, as a Mannar correspondent for Lake House, Colombo (1959-61), inviting Sinhala politicians from the South, I fought against the Take-over of catholic schools.

After I resigned from my teaching(1962)studied philosophy and theology and ordained in Rome(1962-67),I returned to Sri Lanka where I was Parish Priest, Professor of theology (Kandy,1976-86) Rector of St. FrancisXavier’s Seminary,Jaffna and Vicar General of the Jaffna Diocese till 1997.

As a young priest, I stood against a crowd of over 1000 people in Sillalai giving equal status to a so called “low caste” couple at their wedding in the church, as theologian I fought for the rights of lay people in the church and helped the Asian Bishops at the Roman Synod in 1987, stood in defense of theonce excommunicated Father TissaBalasuriyaomi, both inside and outside Sri Lanka.

I have always encouraged my colleagues and students- priests and bishops – to follow Jesus Christ, the true Liberator of the whole man.

Hence my speaking up for the victimized Tamils is only a part of my mission based on my Christian convictions. That is why I spoke out as Vicar General against the bombing of churches and schools and killing of innocent children.

People accused me as being political and supportive of the LTTE. But that does not stop me from condemning anyone who behaves unjustly against fellow human beings. Silence in the midst of such carnage is connivance and sinful.

I wish my sisters and brothers in Sri Lanka of all religions and races serve the island and its peoples by standing up for truth and justice.

In my view, vis a vis the long ethnic conflict and war, all the four religions have rendered mostly humanitarian services sure, but not done enough by way of courageous protest against evil, standing up for truth and justice to build up a peaceful island.

Religions have their share of blame in our country losing its moral values and standards. Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath, said Jesus. Religions and governments are to serve man, not vice versa.

NI. The status quo has changed following defeat of the LTTE ( Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) . Do you still hold the objective of a separate state for Tamils to make life more difficult for them back home or is GTF you represent is willing to tone down the claim. Thestatus quo has changed, sure, but what is it now?

SJE. It is true that LTTE has been militarily and as an organization defeated.But the political aspirations and ideologies live on among the people.

LTTE, born after 1976, was not merely a terrorist or military outfit as the majority Sinhalese and their governments still make out to be. They fought for political aspirations and goals whichwere there before them. Hence those aspirations and goals do not die or get defeated, they still have much support among the people. And the new status quo as at present is strengthening them.

After May 2009, we see a victorious sand arrogant Government drunk with power, headed by a dictatorial family, executing its Mahinda Chinthanaya mainly against the Tamil people inside and outside the country.

Bulldozing cemeteries and memorials built by the LTTE, but were sacred places also for Tamil parents and people to venerate their sons and daughters are barbaric acts against a people.

Building new military bases on those places is an uncivilized way of showing anger against an enemy!

Are these forces truly descendants of a magnanimous Sinhalese Dutugemunu who built a memorial for a defeated Tamil Elara ?!

Now the Government and its military are eradicating the roots of Tamil claims for nationhood and homeland by militarization, sinhalisation and buddhistisation.

And this new status quo, with all these acts of hatred and anger,

a) further illustrates the hegemonic intentions of the government and of the majority supporting them,

b)further justify and strengthen the calls for separation which was never an arrogant claim of the Tamils but a helpless cry “leave us alone” for a survival free of oppression

and

c) shows how the majority have misunderstood the LTTE as mere separatists and terrorists and nothing beyond.

The majority Sinhalese and their governments seem to forget that LTTE was born 3 decades after the conflict started and was born as anti-state-terror outfit.

The birth of the LTTE is a military response of Tamil youth pushed to the wall, both by discriminatory laws passed by a Sinhala majoritarian democracy and executed with the help of a terrorizing military stationed in the Tamil provinces.

Hence “the objective of a separate state for Tamils” is not dead with the defeat of the LTTE. It will remainamong the Tamils as a last resort for survival. This objective is not our seeking, but thrust upon us and will remain with us allTamils inside and outside Sri Lanka, till a just and peaceful solution is found.

There is no question of the diaspora “toning it down for something lower to make life comfortable back at home”. It is up to the Governments of the majority to offer a political solution respecting the fundamental rights of the Tamils and make the objective of a separate state meaningless.

Let us not forget that a people fighting for their basic and fundamental rights and having suffered and sacrificed enormously during the last six decades will now give up their noble aspirations of freedom and human dignity just for a better looking or comfortable life.

Fr. S J Emmanuel (right) with Canadian

Tamil MP, Rathika Sitsabaiesan

The Colombo government has succeeded, even now succeeds, in buying over some Tamils by offering petty gifts. But that will not truly win over the hearts and minds of the Tamils towards genuine reconciliation.

It is the Tamils in Sri Lanka along with their elected parliamentary representatives, who have the primary responsibility and right to decide and determine the final goal or solution of the struggle.

The Tamil diaspora, in so far as they were forced to leave their homeland, go through much suffering in exile and wanting to return,, are also stake-holders in reaching a solution. Hence the diaspora are called to play a supportive-role in the struggle. This they do in the context of their present living.

And GTF, being a network of diaspora Tamil organizations, is in contact with the Tamils and their representatives in Sri Lanka. In spite of the Sri Lankan Government’s continued propaganda and activities against the diaspora Tamils as terrorists or potential terrorists, we are lobbying support from the international community for a just and peaceful solution.

Senior Tamils recognized at hospital

The next time Sinnappu Santhiapillai is at the Credit Valley Hospital, he can rest on a bench dedicated to the organization of which he is president, the Senior Tamils Society of Peel.

Senior Tamils CVH Donation. The Senior Tamil Society of Peel was recognized for their generous support of the Credit Valley Hospital as they have contributed a total of $33,256.20 since 2005. Thursday November 22 they presented a $30,000 gift to the CVH Foundation and the hospital unveiled a bench with a plaque bearing the Society's name situated in the Garden Terrace. Sitting on the bench from left, President of the Senior Tamil Society of Peel Capt. Sinnappu Santhiapillai and V.P. and C.O.O. Credit Valley Hospital Foundation Meaghan Stovel McKnight. Staff photo by Fred LoekThe next time Sinnappu Santhiapillai is at the Credit Valley Hospital, he can rest on a bench dedicated to the organization of which he is president, the Senior Tamils Society of Peel.

This morning he and several members of the organization were at the hospital for the unveiling of a plaque on a bench in the Garden Terrace. That bench and an exam room in the Carlo Fidani Peel Regional Cancer Centre recognize the Senior Tamils’ contributions of $33,256 since 2005, and their efforts to raise awareness about healthcare.
The 76-year-old Santhiapillai has been in Canada for 22 years, and has been president of STSP for three years. The organization has close to 800 members.
"The donations are a thank-you to the hospital that takes care of us," said the Mississauga resident. "We are repaying the free wonderful medical service we receive in Canada."
Realtor Esa Para Esananda of Mississauga is an advisor to the STSP board. "We are all from Sri Lanka," said Esananda. "When our part of the world was going through a civil war, Canada received us with open arms and gave us the opportunity to live in peace and harmony."
He said contributing to the CVH is a way of repaying this country, and it sets an example for the community.
Each year at the end of summer, the STSP organizes a walkathon to raise awareness for both the Credit Valley Hospital and Trillium Health Centre.

Sri Lankan army enlarges hospitality focus with Laya brand

Feizal Samath, Colombo, November 22, 2012

THE Sri Lanka Army recently debuted its new brand, Laya – which means 'tranquility' in Sanskrit – and announced three resorts bearing the name.

The 35-room Wadduwa Holiday Resort on the south coast has been rebranded Laya Beach and the 64-chalet Kukuleganga Holiday Resort in the south-east as Laya Leisure, while a new jungle-cum-beach resort at Yala, near southern Hambantota, will soon open as Laya Safari, according to Sri Lanka Army spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya.

Laya Safari is still under construction by the army’s Engineer Service Regiment, but will comprise 20 luxury cabanas when completed.

All three resorts will feature function halls, swimming pools, sports facilities and restaurants.

Wanigasooriya said while Laya Beach will be positioned as a three-star, the other two properties have yet to be classified. The resorts are manned by army officers and opened to local and foreign tourists.

The army has plans for two more hotels at Pasikuda and Nilaweli on the east coast, said Sri Lanka Army commander Jagath Jayasuriya, who presided over the launch event in Colombo on November 8.

Jayasuriya said the army felt obliged to align its resources in the leisure sector to contribute towards Sri Lanka’s tourism and post-conflict development.

Since Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict ended in May 2009, its armed forces have ventured into tourism through hotels (army), domestic air taxi services (air force), and dolphin and whale watching (navy). The army and air force also run commercial travel consultancy offices for outbound travel.