No conditions on aid given to SL: India

MONDAY, 15 APRIL 2013 

Asserting that it attaches no ‘conditionalities’ to assistance to countries including Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives and Bangladesh, India on Monday said it also does not "challenge national sovereignty" of these nations and noted such aids were demand driven and mutually beneficial.

It also cautioned against developed countries stopping ODA (Official Development Assistance) to their developing counterparts as suggested by the recent communique of the UN Secretary General on the post-2015 development agenda.

"Our engagement is demand driven and response to the developmental priorities of our partner countries. We do not attach conditionalities, we do not prescribe policies and we do not challenge national sovereignty. We promote mutually beneficial exchange of development, experiences and resources," Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said here.

He was addressing a conference here on 'South-South Cooperation: Issues and emerging challenges'.

The Foreign Secretary said, "we should reinforce the argument that while South-South cooperation and the voluntary efforts of developing countries such as India will continue to play an important role, it would be a travesty to project them as the principle new component of a redefined global partnership of the new agenda."

He cautioned against replacing North-South cooperation with South-South cooperation.

Observing that North-South engagement leads the aid process and should continue to do so, Mathai said it is self- evident that while South-South cooperation supplements North- South cooperation, the former bloc is not yet in a position to replace the latter in any significant measure.

The fact that the traditional donor community often underplays the distinctions between our forms of assistance does not diminish its validity, he said.

"It is surprising that even as crucial importance of the ODA for many developing countries have been reiterated at many high-level fora, this document (communique of the UN Secretary General's high level panel on the post 2015 development agenda) does not contain single mention of ODA," he said.

"We need to register a note of caution...That recommendations of the panel are to make a meaningful contribution to evolving a new developmental agenda that should reflect in equal measure the concerns of both the developing and developed world," Mathai said.

The communique was issued on March 27 by a high-level panel tasked with advising the UN Secretary-General on the global development agenda beyond 2015.

"Over the years, we have considerably expanded our development cooperation portfolio through grant assistance in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka for projects in infrastructure, hydroelectricity, power transmission and other sectors identified by the host governments as priority areas for their development," he said.

Dwelling on India's Technical and Economic Assistance programme ITEC, he said nearly 9,000 civilians from 161 countries attended various training courses conducted by 47 Indian institutions last year.

India offers 2,300 scholarships annually for degree courses in Indian universities, the Foreign Secretary said.

In addition, special courses are conducted at the request of countries or regions on specialised subjects such as election management, WTO studies, parliamentary practices and public-private partnerships, he said.

At the India-Africa Forum Summits in 2008 and 2011, India made a commitment to establish about 100 institutions in various African countries to strengthen capacities at the pan-African, regional and bilateral levels.

Indian experts are deputed abroad to share expertise in areas like IT, auditing, pharmacology, public administration and textiles research, he said. In their structure and diversity, these programmes do not have many parallels in traditional North-South cooperation.

On various aid-related programmes, he said through India's concessional Lines of Credit, over 150 Lines of Credit totalling over USD 9.5 billion have been allocated to finance a wide range of projects from drinking water schemes to power plants in Africa and elsewhere over the last decade or so.(PTI)

Amid Abuse and Fear, Tamils Continue to Flee Sri Lanka

By Krista MahrApril 15, 2013

Sri Lankan police stand outside the printing press of Uthayan, a Tamil paper, in Jaffna, 400 km (250 miles) north of Colombo, on April 13, 2013

The offices of a Tamil newspaper in northern Sri Lanka were attacked on Saturday morning, the latest in a string of outrages on the press and a fresh reminder of how the war’s end nearly four years ago did not bring peace for all in this South Asian nation. In what has been reported as the second strike on the paper’s operations in two weeks, senior staff of Uthayan, a Tamil paper that has been critical of the government and the nation’s powerful military, told reporters that three armed men broke into the paper’s headquarters in the northern city of Jaffna, setting fire to the day’s edition and to its printing presses.

No employees were hurt in the attack, but they have been in the past. In 2011, an editor and reporter were attacked, and in 2006, gunmen stormed the paper’s offices, killing two members of staff. Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, Uthayan’s owner and a parliamentarian for the Tamil National Alliance party, told the U.K.’sIndependent newspaper that he believed the attack on Saturday may have been linked to the military, which a military spokesman has denied.

The tensions revealed in the incident are becoming depressingly familiar. The clouds have been darkening over this picturesque island nation in recent years as euphoria over the end of its long-running civil war has ebbed. Since its 2009 defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an insurgency group that for decades fought for an independent homeland for the nation’s ethnic Tamils, the Sri Lankan government has not responded to increasingly vocal demands from the international community for a investigation into alleged war crimes committed in the final stages of the conflict. In March, 25 countries, including India, passed a U.S.-sponsored U.N. Human Rights Council resolution calling for a probe into those allegations and expressing concern at ongoing reports of human-rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture. Colombo called the measure a threat to Sri Lanka’s domestic reconciliation efforts; Minister of Media and Information and government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told the state-run Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corp. that “the U.S. government is trying to undermine Sri Lanka’s endeavor to consolidate peace and harmony.”

(MORE: Peer Pressure: Will Another U.N. Resolution Change Sri Lanka?)

That recalcitrance — paired with an oversize army without a war to fight and the enduring distrust of some sectors in the Tamil community — has prevented a more meaningful peace from taking hold. “It was the end of a war, but not the end of conflict,” says Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a Colombo-based research group. “There are flagrant violations of rule of law and a culture of impunity that envelop this country.”

One of the most obvious symptoms of that culture has been the near relentless siege on the nation’s press. Sri Lanka ranks 162 of 179 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2013 World Press Freedom Index. Tamil news outlets, particularly those with historic links to the separatist movement, have long been regular targets, but members of Sri Lanka’s Sinhala majority have not been spared either. In 2009, months before government forces defeated the LTTE, Sunday Leader editor and TIME contributor Lasantha Wickrematunge, an outspoken critic of the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was assassinated by two gunmen on the way to his office, prompting an exodus of independent-minded journalists. Wickrematunge had predicted his own demise. In a chilling posthumous editorial published days after he was murdered, he wrote: “When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.”

Recently, rights groups staged a campaign to stop the United Arab Emirates from deporting a well-known Tamil television reporter back to Sri Lanka, where they feared she would be tortured. Their concerns are well founded. Reports of military and police torture and sexual violence against Tamils with alleged separatist ties were not uncommon during the 26-year civil war. Returning Tamils now appear to be facing the same abuses. A Human Rights Watch report on alleged rapes that took place between 2006 and ’12 found that sexual violence continues to be used by security forces against male and female prisoners with suspected links to the insurgency. Because the agency was unable to speak to those currently in detention in Sri Lanka, or conduct open research in the country, it believes that the 75 cases it has documented represent “a fraction” of total custodial rape cases.

(VIDEO: Civilians Caught in the Final Days in Sri Lanka’s Civil War)

To escape this climate of fear, it appears that an increasing number of Tamils are fleeing Sri Lanka, boarding barely seaworthy vessels, bound for an uncertain future as asylum seekers. This is despite the government’s official effort to reconstruct the war-torn north of the country. “You have a significant number of people leaving postwar, at a point at which the government is assuring that economic development is prioritized and reconciliation is being effected in earnest,” says the CPA’s Saravanamuttu. The fact that so many people are choosing to go “seems to suggest people in the north don’t feel that way. They are voting with their feet, so to speak, and they are paying fairly large sums of money and risking life and limb to do it.” Saravanamuttu says that official numbers of the number of people leaving are unavailable, but to give just one example, over 6,000 Tamils arrived in Australia in 2012, some 30 times higher than the 2011 figure.

Uthayan, the newspaper whose offices were attacked, had been reporting on the encroachment of the military into local businesses in the north, the paper’s owner has said. The ratio of military to civilians is exponentially higher in the region compared with the rest of the country, and now that they are not required to mop up armed insurgents, soldiers have taken on nonmilitary roles, such as farming and running small shops that compete against Tamil businesses. While new roads have been built and internationally funded efforts are under way to help the region get back to some version of its prewar self, many say that the military’s overwhelming presence stands in the way of a return to anything resembling normalcy. Saravanamuttu recalls what one man from Jaffna told him after the war: “Things might look better, but they feel a lot worse.”

MORE: Three Years After War’s End, Sri Lanka Is Only Beginning to Make Peace

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/04/15/krista-sri-lanka-draft/#ixzz2QYMihsBD

Factors Making For Governmental Victory At Any Cost

By Jehan Perera -April 15, 2013 

Jehan Perera

The Sri Lankan government continues to be unyielding in its approach to governance and reconciliation issues. Having fought against the United States for two successive years in the diplomatic arena at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and failed to win against it, the government now appears to have changed its strategy. It has hired not one but two US companies that it believes are adept at public relations campaigning and are paying them to get the government’s message across. This action gives an indication of the government’s approach. PR firms are known to give a positive spin to their client’s activities.  The hiring of PR firms for lobbying in the United States suggests that the Sri Lankan government is not thinking of changing its own policies.  Instead it is thinking it can change the US government by projecting a positive image of developments in the country.

Whether the government will act differently on the ground in regard to good governance and reconciliation within Sri Lanka is doubtful.  Addressing Parliament, External Affairs Minister Prof GL  Peiris made it clear that the government was not going to yield on substance.  He said “there is no change of government policy towards the United States.  We do not concur with their resolution and our representative in Geneva distanced Sri Lanka very clearly from its contents.”   The government has therefore taken a public stand with the its Sri Lankan constituency in mind to say that it does not agree with the UNHRC resolution, which it voted against. There are certain aspects of the resolution that the government would be very much opposed to, such as the UN Human Rights Commissioner’s recommendation for an independent international commission to probe alleged war crimes.   The majority of the Sri Lankan population, especially those drawn from the Sinhalese ethnic majority, will be in agreement with the government.

The government’s strategy is a dual one.  With regard to the international community, it is to show that it is delivering on its commitments.  It seeks to project this image while retaining its credibility with the Sri Lankan population.  The main international commitment at this time is to deliver on the implementation of the two Geneva resolutions that were passed over its objections.  A key component of the UNHRC resolution is the implementation of the government appointed LLRC commissioners’ report.  The government has said that it will implement this and has prepared its governmental action plan for LLRC implementation.  The government now looks set to implement visible elements of this action plan, including the holding of Northern Provincial elections which is a follow up to the UNHRC resolution.  This is how the government will attempt to balance its internal political imperatives with those of the international community.

Early Elections

One of the key elements of the LLRC recommendations, which was included in the government’s action plan, is the holding of the Northern Provincial Council elections.  However, these are not elections that the government has wished to hold.  These are elections that the government promised to hold shortly after the end of the war.  This was a strategy to get the international community on its side or at least neutralized during the last war.  But nearly four years have elapsed and the government has offered many excuses for not holding those elections.  The reasons given have included the resettlement of voters, demining of territory and preparation of voter registers.  The government is concerned that these are elections it runs the risk of losing.  This will enhance the political strength of the Tamil minority and their representatives.  It can also send a message to the larger Sri Lankan population that the government is not politically invincible.

There is an increasing belief that the government is contemplating early national elections, including Presidential elections although little more than half of the President’s term of office has elapsed.  There is increasing international pressure on the country, which is also being reflected in the economic difficulties being experienced due to the loss of economic concessions such as GSP plus from the European Union.  There is also a sense that Sinhalese nationalism is growing outside of the control of the government and may pose a challenge to it in the future.  This may make the government feel that the only way out for it is to reaffirm its popular mandate with yet another election victory.  If the government is indeed contemplating early national elections, then securing victory at the Northern Provincial elections scheduled for September this year becomes imperative.  It now appears that the government is determined to win those elections at any cost.

The burning of the printing press of the Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna shortly after an attack on its distribution point in Kilinochchi is evidence that the government is getting itself prepared for a no-holds barred election season.  This is denied by the government.  A government spokesperson has said the latest attack is an inside job to discredit the government.   However, these targeted acts of violence perpetrated on the largest circulation newspaper in the Northern Province have taken place despite the very large presence of security forces.  They also follow another violent attack on a meeting of the largest opposition Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, in Kilinochchi where the security forces present on the scene of the attack remained inactive. The TNA, as well as the Leader of the Opposition, have alleged that these attacks are carried out by soldiers in civil clothing.

 Strengthening Extremism 

Along with the government’s plans to secure its own future, there is a danger of self-fulfilling prophecies that are detrimental to it and to the country at large.  The government’s concern is that the Western dominated section of the international community is looking for reasons to intervene in the internal affairs of the country.   If this is not to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, it is imperative that these elections be held according to internationally acceptable standards. The issue of the Northern Provincial election was referred to in the resolution on reconciliation in Sri Lanka of the UN Human Rights Council last month.   There is no doubt that the democratically elected government has the responsibility to stop these types of attacks, find the culprits and bring them to justice.  If not, the credibility of the government as one that follows democratic norms will collapse.  In particular, the government should show to the International community that the elections are being held to give the Tamil minority an opportunity to enjoy the devolution of power already provided for in the Constitution.

The failure to conduct a free and fair election in the Northern Province will only nullify this option and strengthen the demands emanating from extremist groups in Tamil Nadu and other places in the world.  There is a growing danger that the international community will begin to see that the government’s conduct of the Northern Provincial Council elections as being a deceptive  exercise in which the worst unfair and undemocratic tactics are used for the purpose of winning or undermining the Tamil National Alliance’s vote base. The government needs to ensure the rule of law and provide security to all its citizens in the North.  The failure of the government to protect its citizens will give rise to heightened international scrutiny and to strengthened demands for international intervention to determine the future of the Tamils within Sri Lanka.  Tamil Nadu state in India is already making such demands, with its legislative assembly having passed a unanimous resolution calling on the Indian government to stop considering Sri Lanka to be a friendly country and asking for the UN to conduct a referendum in the North and East of Sri Lanka on a separate state of Tamil Eelam.

At the same time, those in the international community who are genuinely concerned about the present trajectory of the Sri Lankan government, and its increasingly authoritarian actions, need to consider the thinking of the generality of the Sri Lankan population.  The perception of the great majority of Sri Lankan people is that there is an unnecessary international emphasis on war crimes in Sri Lanka in a world that is full of them.  To them the real issue is that the LTTE, which was a terrorist organisation that wreaked havoc in the country, is no more.  Getting rid of the LTTE was due to the government’s military action.  So long as the international community appears to be hounding the government for what it did in the war, there will be popular sympathy for the government leadership which is very adept at mobilizing this sentiment to its advantage.

US proposes 20% cut in aid to Sri Lanka

READ MORE Us Secretary Of State|John Kerry|Budgetary Proposals|American Aid

Kerry has proposed a $ 11 million in aid to Sri Lanka, which, according to a senior state department official, is a "drop of 20 per cent" from the actual spending in the 2012 fiscal.

WASHINGTON: US secretary of state John Kerry has proposed a 20 per cent cut in theAmerican aid to Colombo, a move reflecting the unease in their ties over issues related to human rights, reconstruction and political integration in Sri Lanka after the end of the civil war.

It is believed to be the highest drop for any South Asian country in Kerry's budgetary proposalswhich was sent to the Congress last week for its approval. 

In actual term, Kerry has proposed a $ 11 million in aid to Sri Lanka, which, according to a senior state department official, is a "drop of 20 per cent" from the actual spending in the 2012 fiscal. 

"This reflects both the fact that we had difficult time in programming a lot of our money in Sri Lanka. We tried to do a lot in the North to help the IDPs and get back to their normal life and support reconstruction efforts there. But in several cases we had programmes that we were trying to support, to which the government - the military got quite involved in them and so we were not able to pursue those programs," a senior state department official said. 

"So we made a decision that Sri Lanka as a middle income country, and in a country where we are having difficulty in programming, that is a place where we should probably cut that have a lot of own resources," the official told requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press. 

While the actual US development assistance to Sri Lanka in 2012 was $ 8 million, Kerry has proposed about $ 6 million for 2014. 

Kerry has proposed similar amount of development assistance to Bangladesh from $ 81.6 million in 2012 to $ 80.9 million in 2014. 

Kerry has proposed substantial increase in US aid to Maldives - Sri Lanka's neighbour. 

Majority of the US fund to Sri Lanka would go into key projects related to judicial reform and increasing Maldives counter-terrorism efforts. 

"India and the US are working closely on Maldives," the official said

Gillard uses her tin ear on ASIO hunger strikers

Monday, 15 April 2013 

Melbourne, Monday – As ASIO-rejected refugees entered the eighth day of a hunger strike, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has used her “tin ear” to listen to their pleas for justice.

Former Labor opposition leader and now backbencher Simon Crean said last week that Gillard has a “tin ear” for sound political strategy and it was on show today when she was asked about the hell her Government is inflicting upon refugees who are being held in indefinite detention.

Asked by Fran Kelly, of ABC’s Radio National, whether there was a better way than locking up people indefinitely and giving them no avenue to challenge their situation, Gillard  refused to budge.

She said only that the Government did “proper assessments” and had “duties and obligations” to the nation. (see below for the interview).

Meanwhile the hunger strikers spent another night in the open, in cold, wet Melbourne, determined to keep up their protest. “No-one in power seems to care about us. They just want us to suffer,” said one of the hunger strikers. “But we are determined to stay strong  and keep up our protest. We will keep doing it until there is a resolution one way or the other.

The hunger strike by 27 ASIO-rejected refugees – 25 Tamils and two Burmese Rohingyas --began last Monday at 2 a.m. Although they have all been judged genuine refugees by the  Australian government, adverse ASIO assessments mean that they are being held in indefinite detention. Most have been held for between three and four years.

The hunger strikers said they were buoyed by the massive support that has come from around Australia and the world. Messages have been pouring in to refugee advocacy networks and a strong presence is being maintained at a vigil outside MITA detention centre in Broadmeadows.

Here is the Prime Minister’s interview on Radio National this morning:

Fran Kelly: For one week 27 Sri Lankan men have been refusing any food. Most of these people have been locked up for three years or more. Is it beyond us as a nation to find a  better way to manage this other than locking refugees up indefinitely without a chance to defend themselves ?

Julia Gillard: First and foremost, Fran, we have proper assessments to see who has a genuine refugee claim and who does not....

Kelly: And these people have been assessed as genuine refugees.

Gillard: And we have proper assessments on security grounds, too. Both of them need to be done, both of them need to be abided by. And you do not change your circumstance as an asylum-seeker or a refugee with an adverse security assessment through hunger-striking.

Kelly: But these people have been locked up for three years.

Gillard: And, Fran, we have got duties and obligations to the nation here, in terms of properly assessing who’s a refugee and making appropriate security assessments.

Kelly: So will we find a way to manage this and allow these people outside eventually of the detention centre?

Gillard: Well, Fran, I’ve said to you how we’ve got to balance these things and weigh them for the nation and of course making sure that people are genuinely refugees and that we’ve got a proper security assessment process that is right for the nation. That’s what we do. And it is not changed, no-one changes it through personal conduct like going on a hunger strike.

Tamil Refugee Council spokesman, Aran Mylvaganam described the situation of the ASIOrejected refugees as Australia’s Guantanamo Bay. “How can such a thing be happening here? It is a shameful episode in Australia’s history,” he said.

Australians, Canadians and Palestinians have rallied behind the hunger-strikers.

“It is so sad to hear about this. I wish people all over the world would start to think of human rights as something that is very important,” said Gaza-based Shahd Abusalama, who represents the Palestinian prisoners detained indefinitely in Israeli jails, and who have bravely endured many hunger strikes, some to the death, in support of their struggle.

The Canadian Peace Alliance, Canada's largest peace network, has called on the Australian government to immediately end the indefinite detention of the refugees. In a letter to Prime Minister Gillard, it says: “Their continued detention goes against all standards of justice and the rule of law.”

For further information contact Trevor Grant 0400 597 351

IFJ Condemns Repeated Targeting of Tamil Newspaper in Sri Lanka

Media release: Sri Lanka                                                                                  

April 15, 2013

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins partners and affiliates in Sri Lanka in unequivocally condemning the repeated targeting of the Tamil newspaperUthayan. On April 13, just ten days after an assault on the newspaper’s distribution office in the northern provincial town of Kilinochhi, its printing press in the provincial capital of Jaffna was attacked and parts of it damaged in arson.

According to information received from the IFJ’s Sri Lankan affiliate, the Free Media Movement, the Uthayan office in Jaffna came under attack just before dawn on April 13, when three armed men arrived and began firing at random. Staff who were organising the day’s edition for distribution, scattered in panic. The armed intruders who remain unidentified as yet, then went to the printing shop, fired at some of the vital equipment with obvious intent to disable it, and set fire to both newspaper bundles and some of the machinery.

As the FMM, reports, Uthayan newspaper has been the target of violence for several years, with 8 workers being killed since 2005.

E. Saravanapavan, who is a Member of Parliament from the Tamil National Alliance of Sri Lanka and proprietor of Uthayan, has said that the chief editor of the newspaper had written to the top police officials of the northern province after the April 3 attack at Kilinochhi, requesting urgent security measures. He received no response. Furthermore, the single police officer provided to the newspaper for security since an especially violent attack in 2006, proved to be ineffective, although he was on the premises when the April 13 attack took place.

The FMM has pointed out in a statement released on April 13 that “the burning of the Uthayan printing press and other attacks on the Tamil media ... suggests a pattern of violence that is deliberate and that powerful political elements and the security establishment are aware of but are choosing to ignore”.

The effort to silence Uthayan after the country’s long civil war was formally declared over in May 2009, “is seen as a direct attack on post-war democracy and media freedom in the country, aimed at suppressing the dissemination of important information and diverse views among the public”.

The FMM has warned of the “serious implications of such actions for peace and reconciliation”. It has demanded that “the government take appropriate action to prevent armed individuals and groups from  committing violence in the north, in an area that has  the highest military presence in the country”.

The IFJ endorses these demands and calls on the Government of Sri Lanka once again, to set a course of action that will end the culture of impunity that has for too long, taken a heavy toll of free speech in the country.

For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0950

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

Find the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific

Find the IFJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/IFJAsiaPacific 

Selective justice for Uthayan

By  Ranga Jayasuriya-2013-04-14 “Last year, there had been 19 killings in Jaffna, but, police were keen about only one murder (of a suspected military informant),” recalls V. Premanath, Editor of Uthayan. When it came to that particular case, police really meant business; they arrested four men and obtained a court order for their prolonged detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act – though the case was remotely related to terrorism. In the meantime, the other 18 cases were put on the backburner. “When the police really want to arrest perpetrators, they always do, says Premanath, an experienced journalist, who has spent decades after decades reporting on Jaffna. But, Premanath, now the editor of Uthayan, is pessimistic about the prospects the perpetrators of the latest attack on his newspaper would ever be arrested. The Kilinochchi office of the Uthayan was attacked on 3 April by a group of masked men, wielding clubs and iron rods. Contacted by this newspaper, Police Spokesperson, SP Buddhika Siriwardene, said no arrests has yet been made on the latest incident, though a special team led by an ASP had been assigned to probe the attack. The anatomy of the latest attack is more reason for Premanath to feel cynical. The Uthayan office that came under the attack was located 500 metres from the Kilinochchi Police Station. Two female workers of a demining team had spotted the attackers lurching in the dark on a lane, near the office, until the delivery vehicle arrived at the distribution office. The two women fled the scene and later confided to the Uthayan staffers that they sensed the target was the Uthayan office. The attackers were professionals. They were taking orders from their leader, who allegedly spoke in Sinhala, according to eyewitnesses. Other than the man, who barked out orders, the rest of the men were wearing masks. After beating the employees with clubs and damaging property, the attackers walked away from the crime scene, casually. Uthayan has been at the receiving end of countless attacks. According to some statistics, it had been subjected to 32 attacks since its inception. Since 2006, it came under attack on 15 occasions, according to its staffers. A deadly attack on the World Press Freedom Day (2 May) in 2006 killed two staffers; its news editor was beaten up and was forced to flee the country; grenades were thrown at the newspaper office; its staffers were harassed and distributors were regularly assaulted. However, there had not been a single conviction against the perpetrators. Why now? The latest attack came in the wake of an anti-Uthayan campaign launched by the government’s constituent parties such as the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) and a group that is allegedly associated with Minister Rishad Bathiudeen. The protesters have accused that Uthayan had been discriminating against the people in the Vanni. A ruling party orchestrated protest in Vavuniya against a poem that appeared in the Uthayan was attended by just five persons. The poem under the spotlight had criticized the hastily issued transfer orders of the teachers from Jaffna to the Vanni, which is suffering from the dearth of qualified teachers. The protests and the accompanying ruling party propaganda against Uthayan set the tone for the attack. However, such a ground work is not even necessary any longer. There is a culture of impunity set in place in the North. Editor Premanath says his reporters and correspondents based in the Vanni do not identify themselves as media personnel. That way, they court much less troubles. Two employees, who had been distributing Uthayan, had been attacked in Point Pedro and Nelli Adi in two separate incidents during the last two weeks. During the same period, three vendors who had been threatened not to sell the newspaper lodged complaints with the police in Vavuniya, Mannar and Kilinochchi. The Army has denied the involvement in the incident.  Military Spokesperson, Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya, earlier told this newspaper the Uthayan newspaper and the military forces enjoyed a good relationship. He noted that when the Security Forces Commander, Kilinochchi, visited the scene and later the hospital, the employees had told him that they did not suspect the army as the two parties have a good rapport. “All of these allegations are fabrications stemming from planned political agendas that these politicians seek to espouse mainly among the international community. The Army is not a paramilitary group to be focusing on such dastardly acts. We are a professional organization committed to the security of all Sri Lankans equally,” he said. However, Uthayan Editor, Premanath suspects the military was involved in the attack. “The attackers were very ‘professional’ and sophisticated. If it is not the military, there should be another group as sophisticated as the army in the Wanni,” says Premanath. “We doubt that prospect,” he concludes. History of attacks Throughout its history, Uthayan has been a victim of violence blamed on the military, the LTTE, Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) and paramilitary groups. As way back as in 1987, stray shells fell near its office, wounding its staffers. In 1990, its office was hit by an air raid, which killed one person. In 1995, Uthayan journalists joined the exodus of the humanity fleeing Jaffna, as the military captured the town. They carried a printing machine and begun publishing in a makeshift office in Sarasalai. However, the worst came on the World Press Freedom Day in 2006. Its office was attacked by the paramilitary group, which stormed the office on 2 May 2006, killing two employees and wounding three others. The gory pictures of the bullet-ridden bodies of victims adorn the wall at one corner of the Uthayan office. Next to the pictures is another set of photograph by its Trincomalee correspondent, Sugirdharajan, who was among the first to arrive at the scene where the five students in Trincomalee were killed. His pictures, which revealed the students were shot on the head, in the execution style, were published by the Uthayan. Within days of their publication Sugirdharajan was killed by ‘unidentified gunmen.’

Arson against Sri Lanka paper targets Tamil vote

• 
  A demonstrator (C) from an anti-racism group formed on social media argues with police, during an attempt to hold a candle light vigil, in front of the headquarters of extremist Buddhist organisation Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force, BBS) in Colombo on Friday. (Reuters)

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Monday 15 April 2013

Last Update 14 April 2013 10:12 pm

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party accused the government yesterday of attacking the biggest opposition newspaper in an attempt to silence its political rivals ahead of key local council elections.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which represents minority ethnic Tamils, said Saturday’s torching of the Uthayan newspaper presses added to a “fear psychosis” among the population in the northern district of Jaffna.

“One of the main objectives (of the attack) is silencing the opposition ahead of provincial council elections,” TNA legislator Suresh Premachandran said.

“There is a fear psychosis in Jaffna, people are living in fear. They are scared to come out for political meetings. They fear there could be violence,” Premachandran said.

Three gunmen staged Saturday’s pre-dawn arson assault on Uthayan’s office and printing press in Jaffna, the capital of Sri Lanka’s former civil war zone in the north of the country.

Tamils have pressed for provincial elections to be called in the island’s Tamil-dominated north, where the first ever such vote is scheduled to take place in September.

Local media reports quoted the defense ministry’s publicity arm claiming that the attack was an “inside job” to discredit the government as the United States expressed concern for media freedom and urged a credible investigation.

The military in a separate statement issued Saturday denied any involvement in the attack.
Police said a senior officer was heading an investigation into the assault, which came on the eve of the traditional Sinhala and Tamil New Year. No arrests have been made so far.

Uthayan’s owner, Eswarapatham Saravanapavan, who is also a TNA MP, said it was the second strike on the publication this month. Five of his employees have been killed in recent years, but no suspects have been prosecuted, he said.

A local media rights group, the Free Media Movement, said Saturday’s arson was a “direct attack on post-war democracy and media freedom.”

Sri Lanka lifted emergency rule two years ago after the army crushed Tamil separatists in 2009 following a decades-long civil war, but media rights groups say journalists are forced to self-censor their work due to fear of reprisals.

Some 17 journalists and media employees have been killed in the country in the past decade and no-one has been brought to justice.

Unapproved visit by BBS to US temple opposed

MONDAY, 15 APRIL 2013 09:11

The Management Committee of the Anaheim temple in the USA has issued a statement opposing the visit of Bodu Bala Sena to the temple. It states the stay of BBS Bhikkus and the ‘Buddhanussathi Pooja’ held was not approved by the management committee of the temple and had been arranged by two individuals without the knowledge of the Management Committee.

The statement also states the Sri Ratana Viharaya should not support “Bodu Bala Sena” which advocates against the rights of minorities in Sri Lanka and resorts to violence, mob action and intimidation to advance their cause. The statement emphasizes that "The temple premises should not be used as a platform to promote hatred and/or to promote an extremist group like “Bodu Bala Sena”.

The Management Committee has requested devotees 'not to participate in any of the activities organized by BBS and not to support the extremist group now or in the future.'

No suspects arrested regarding torching of 'Uthayan' – Police

MONDAY, 15 APRIL 2013

Police Spokesperson SP Buddhika Siriwardhana states that no suspects have been arrested as yet with regard to the recent attack on the Uthayan news paper office in Jaffna. He said that police investigations had revealed that at the time of the incident CCTV cameras at the Uthayan office had not been operational. Three Police teams have been deployed to carryout investigations states the police.

Since the year 1987 over 25 attacks have been carried out on the Uthayan newspaper offices.

Meanwhile, the Tamil National Alliance has accused the government of attacking 'Uthayan' newspaper stating is an attempt to silence governmetn's political rivals ahead of key local council elections.The TNA said Saturday’s torching of the Uthayan newspaper presses added to a “fear psychosis” among the population in the northern district of Jaffna.

TNA MP Suresh Premachandran has told media that Oone of the main objectives of the attack was to silence the opposition ahead of provincial council elections.

Meanwhile, United America has urged Sri Lanka to conduct a credible investigation concerning the "Udayan" office attack.

It denounced the attack against the  main office of "Udayan" press located at Jaffna, Kasthuriyar Road and demanded the government to conduct a credible investigation concerning to the incident.

However Director General of the Media Centre for National Security Lakshman Hulugalle has said that the attack may be the work of an insider group. He is clever at coming to conclusions even before police investigations start on an incident. When two JVP members were shot dead by Joolampitiye Amare, who has been remanded on charges of murder, Hulugalle said the shooting was the result of an internal fued in eh JVP. When a forensic expert and an Archeology professor found that skeletal remains found at Matale mass grave belong to the 88 – 89 period Mr. Hulugalle quoting a Municipal worker involved in maintaining the drainage pipes of the area from 1962 - 1985 states "no conclusive evidence has yet surfaced to determine the exact age of the Matale mass grave".