Sunday, July 7, 2013

Sharma, You Are Granting The Commonwealth Seal Of Approval To An Emerging Dictatorship In Asia

By Mangala Samaraweera -July 8, 2013

Mangala Samaraweera MP

‘Rainbow’s End’, 141/5, Galkanuwa Rd., Gorakana,

Moratuwa,
Sri Lanka.

5th July 2013.

H.E. Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary-General,
The Commonwealth, Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House,

Pall Mall,
London SW1-5HX, UK

Your Excellency,

CHOGM – 2013

H.E. Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary-General,
The Commonwealth, Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House,

Pall Mall,
London SW1-5HX, UK

Your Excellency,

CHOGM – 2013

I am writing to you with reference to a news item published in the Sri Lanka Daily Mirror of 29th June 2013. The story, captioned ‘Commonwealth wants to make practical difference in Sri Lanka’ quotes a letter you have reportedly sent to an unspecified recipient . In the absence of any contradiction or clarification from your organisation, I assume that the remarks are accurate. You are quoted as saying:

Buddhagaya Blasts A Terror Attack – Home Secretary Anil Goswami

ASerial explosions inside and outside Mahabodhi temple in Bihar were a terror attack, the Home Ministry said today as it sent NIA and NSG teams for post-blasts investigations.
“It was a terror attack,” Union Home Secretary Anil

Goswami told PTI.

He, however, said so far no group has claimed responsibility for the multiple blasts and investigations were on.

Mr.Goswami said four blasts took place inside the temple complex while four occurred outside it.

VIDEO: PSC ONLY A ‘SUBCOMMITTEE’ OF GOVT PARLIAMENTARY GROUP - TNA

July 7, 2013
TNA MP M. A. Sumanthiran today stated that the committee appointed to look into changes to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution is not a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) at all, and that actually it’s a “President’s Select Committee.”

He stated that the idea for a PSC to find a solution to the national issue was formulated in September 2011 during bilateral discussion held between the Tamil National Alliance and the government, and that it was pushed “in-between” talks.

He stated that the government asked the TNA put aside the discussions and join the parliamentary committee instead, with assurance that the agreements they had reached during the talks would be taken to the PSC.

He stated that after an agreement was then reached between the President and the leader of the TNA on conditions to participate in the PSC, the government went back on its word, exited the bilateral discussions and asked the TNA to just attend the parliamentary committee.

Sumanthiran said that is the reason the TNA did not attend the PSC, and that this matter was even raised in parliament by the Opposition Leader.

Now after 2 years have passed they are saying the Parliamentary Select Committee is being established and are asking us to join it, he said. “We are not that stupid to attend such a select committee just shaking our hands.”

He stated that the government has an agreement with the TNA and that it should be fulfilled first. The government and the President themselves accepted the fact the TNA will only participate in the PSC after an agreement is reached through bilateral discussions.

The TNA MP stated that the same issue Majoritarianism which has existed in the country for 60 years has been brought to the PSC, referring to the majority representatives appointed by the government.

He further stated that Ministers such as Tissa Vitharana, Rauf Hakeem and Dr. Rajitha Senratne who had invited them to attend the select committee and assured that they would personally safeguard the rights of the Tamil people, have all been excluded from the PSC.

“This is not a Parliamentary Select Committee. PSC stands for President’s Select Committee,” Sumanthiran said, speaking at a ‘Vipakshaye Virodaya’ press conference in Colombo today.

Pointing out that there is no opposition representative in this PSC, he claimed that it is only a “sub-committee” of the Government Parliamentary Group and only those handpicked by the President have been included in it.

Sinhalicisation, demographic wedging accelerated in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 July 2013, 17:11 GMT]
Sinhalicisation of the Mullaith-theevu district of the Northern Province and demographically wedging it from the adjacent Trincomalee district of the Eastern Province in the country of Eezham Tamils, is structuralised in an accelerated way by the occupying genocidal Sri Lanka through recent activities in the newly created division called ‘Weli-oya.’ The name of the division itself is Sinhalicisation of its Tamil name Ma’nal-aa’ru. At the end of the war the Establishments of the USA, India, several other stooges and the UN were in complicity in sending the Eezham Tamils into barbed-wire camps. While their resettlement is stalled in many ways, every structural effort is now being made with full financial and material support to bring in Sinhalese into the land of Tamils.

For conceiving the genocide in war and ‘peace’ the full blame go to the USA and India more than anybody else, Tamil activists in Vanni said.

On the orders of Colombo’s colonial governor in the North, Maj. Gen. G.A. Chandrasri, separate divisional education office and other divisional offices are opened at the so-called Weli-oya to carryout the Sinhalicisation programme.

While only 15 schools are functioning, and less than 10 students attend some of them, the colonial governor has ordered to build and fully facilitate 42 schools in the division under Sinhala colonisation, to attract the Sinhalese to come and settle in the land of Tamils.

Building roads and providing electricity take place with a wartime effort in Sinhalicising the territory.

The most blatant act of the genocidal colonisation is the Sinhala State providing ‘military training’ to the Sinhala colonisers in the division.

Such military-trained genocidal colonisers are now paid a monthly ‘salary’ by the ‘defence’ ministry of Colombo headed by presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Colombo now provides various ‘government’ appointments also to the colonisers in the division.

Colombo has been aiming to Sinhalicise the division in the last several decades, as that would wedge the contiguity of the Northern and Eastern provinces of the country of Eezham Tamils, and would defy the claim of the Eezham Tamils for their homeland of contiguity in the island.

For three decades the militant struggle of Eezham Tamils stalled the geographic genocide and protected the contiguity of their country.

Colombo now shows all lures such as government appointments, to attract and bring in Sinhala men and women to Sinhalicise the division.

Chandrasri has ordered the provincial officials to provide all privileges at a priority basis to the Sinhala settlers in the Tamil district.

All ‘construction’ activities in the Northern Province now take place only in the Sinhalicised divisions such as Weli-oya and Vavuniya South, says SL Chief Secretary of the Northern Province, Ms. R. Vijayalakshmi.

As the entire money allocated to the Northern Province is diverted to the ‘development’ of the Sinhalicised divisions, there won’t be money left to build even sheds to the war-affected Tamil school students in the other parts of the province, in the next five years, she further said.

As the ‘Five Year’ plan money is already allocated in this way for the Sinhalicisation of the Northern Province, before the so-called Provincial Election expected to come in September, even if the Tamil side ‘captures’ the PC, they could neither alter it nor could have money for their programme, said an official fearing any citation of his name.

Army canvassing for UPFA in North

2013-07-06

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) yesterday accused the Army of 'selecting candidates' and canvassing for the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) in the North.

TNA MP Suresh Premachandran called for the need for independent international monitoring, to ensure free and fair elections.

However, Security Forces Commander in Jaffna, Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, denied the allegations.
"We don't have time to do politics," he said, adding that the Army is only involved in maintaining law and order. Maintaining law and order is constitutionally the duty of the police.

Premachandran also said, the Northern Provincial Council elections are long overdue, but the President has announced it now. "The TNA will issue a manifesto expounding their campaign policy, after a meeting with all factions of the Party", he said.

Leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), V. Anandasangaree, added a Coordinating Committee between the five parties of the TNA was set up on 4 July to prepare for the election.

Meanwhile, an All Party Conference, where the position of the international elections monitoring groups would be decided, is to be held on 13 or 14 of July, a spokesman for the Commissioner of Elections said. Secretary to the Election Commissioner, Rizan Hameed said observers from Asian Network for Free Elections and various Indian study groups may be invited to monitor the Northern elections.

Executive Director of the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), Rohana Hettiarachchi, confirmed, "We are ready for the NPC elections. We gave over 10,500 people, the documentation to vote last year. We have been conducting mobile services on a regular basis and there is going to be a large training programme for government election officials of the Northern Province in Colombo on 9 July."

Hettiarachchi also emphasized that over 85,000 people in the Northern Province lack adequate documentation to vote. The Elections Commissioner when questioned about this said, "I don't know. These matters can be addressed later." (EA)

Coaxing An Inch Of Accountability From Government Stone?

By Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena -

Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena

Tucked away in a small corner of Sri Lanka’s daily newspapers this Saturday was a government announcement on the arrest of twelve personnel of the Special Task Force (STF) including an assistant superintendant of police (ASP), allegedly responsible for the extra-judicial execution of five students in Trincomalee in 2006. The arrests had been made on ‘evidence available’, as we were informed. The alleged perpetrators were remanded until the next court date.

Protected by state patronage-Read More

State controlled Lake House ordered to pay Rs.500 m for defamation

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION SRI LANKA

Lake House 410px 06 07 13Colombo District Court has yesterday (05) confirmed previously issued order to Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd (ANCL) to pay an amount of Rs.500 million to Wijedasa Rajapakshe for publishing a defamatory article against him in the ‘Silumina’ newspaper.
The court issued the order rejecting the request made by the ANCL to suspend the previous order.
Colombo additional district court judge T.D. Gunasekara issued the previous order to pay Rs.500 million to Wijedasa Rajapakshe for publishing a defamatory article against him in the ‘Silumina’ newspaper in 2007 and the ANCL has submitted a petition requesting the court to reconsider the decision as its officers were unable to attend the particular hearing.

However, the judge Dhammika Ganepola rejected the petition yesterday and reaffirmed the previously issued order.

SLM

13A will make or break the government says Rajitha

Sunday, 07 July 2013

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne says that any move to repeal the 13th Amendment to the Constitution would be a make or break factor for the Rajapaksa government.

Senaratne has said that the government will lose power if the 13th Amendment is repealed.
Explaining that a political solution to the ethnic issue could only be found by removing any misunderstandings in the minds of the minority communities, the Minister has said that those opposed to the 13th Amendment are not nationalists, but chauvinists.
According to Dr. Senaratne, devolution of power under the 13th Amendment is the best possible solution available at the moment, since it maintains a unitary State, retaining control with the government and Parliament.
He has added that it was unlikely that amendments to the 13th Amendment would be made before the Northern Provincial Council election.

USA, India, UNHRC answerable to provincial meddling in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 06 July 2013, 23:56 GMT]
However condemned by Eezham Tamils, the USA and India have committed on several occasions to ‘provincial’ solutions to the national crisis of Eezham Tamils. The ‘provincial’ wording has also got into the UNHRC resolution, tabled and fine-tuned by the two and passed by 47 Establishments. But, what do they say for Colombo’s current meddling in creating a new Sinhala division, Weli-oya, in the Northern Province, by altering district boundaries and thus endangering the province’s demographic security and contiguity, ask Eezham Tamil civil service circles in the island. While official survey maps show that the Vavuniyaa district of the Northern Province has a boundary with the East, it is now erased out in the 2012 census map, while Anuradhapura will fill the gap.

Sri Lanka Administrative Map showing no common boundary between Mullaith-theevu and Anuradhapura districts. This is clearly shown in the official Survey Department maps too.

The Census Map of 2012 showing Weli-oya, a recently created and colonized division of the Mullaith-theevu district as an exclusive Sinhala division. The division has now wedged the contiguity between the Tamil districts Vavuniyaa in the Northern Province and Trincomalee in the Eastern Province, while it established contiguity with the Sinhala district Anuradhapura in the North Central Province.

The Weli-oya division in the Mullaith-theevu district of the Northern Province, newly created for the exclusive purpose of Sinhalicisation of a strategic piece of Tamil Land in order to wedge the North from the East, has been carved out by joining territories of the Mullaith-theevu district as well as territories of the Vavuniyaa district.

This has been done in such a way, so that Vavuniyaa would lose its boundary with Trincomalee and the Sinhalicised Weli-oya will have contiguity with Anuradhapura district of the North Central Province.

No Tamil civil servant in the Northern Province actually knows now what are the district boundaries and what are the village boundaries in the so-called Weli-oya division of the Mullaith-theevu district. No officials’ conferences related to the division invites any Tamil officials. Such conferences don’t take place in the Northern Province either.

All data related to Weli-oya is totally blacked out in the official web portal of Colombo’s Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs. In the 2012 Northern Province Statistical Handbook, 9 GSO (village level) divisions are listed under the Weli-oya division, but without proper code numbers due for such GSOs.

Only the map now released by the 2012 Census Commission shows that the Weli-oya division is a 100 per cent Sinhala division in the Mullaith-theevu district and it has a common boundary with the Anuradhapura district of the North Central Province.

Earlier the Mullaith-theevu district didn’t have a common boundary with Anuradhapura. Providing common boundary for Sinhala-colonised Weli-oya of Mullaith-theevu with the Sinhala NW province became possible only by wedging the contiguity of the Tamil districts of Vavuniyaa and Trincomalee.

The new division has been carved out in such a way so that all the potential tanks and arable lands will go the Sinhalese brought in to colonise the division.

Colombo is thoroughly opposed to ethnic divisions to protect Tamils in the Ampaa’rai district in the East. It has not earlier protected the identity of Tamils and Muslims in the Puththa’lam and Kurunegala districts of the North Western Province also.

There can’t be ethnic territories in the island says presidential sibling Gotabhaya and the genocidal regime. But how could an exclusive Sinhala division has been created in the Tamil province, so quickly within the last couple of years, and who is answerable to this, ask Tamils for alternative politics in the island.

The USA, India and the UN are answerable to so many crimes committed against Eezham Tamils as the entire genocide, which they are not prepared to accept, has now largely been perceived by Tamils as something that had been designed and executed by no one but the former two and the third one endorsing it.

But what is now happening even to the province for which they had committed is just another explicit example for the entire world and for those among the Tamils who still look upon to them to realise what these elements are really up to, commented Tamils for alternative politics in the island.

Rajapaksa regime bows to India and world community

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, July 07, 2013
View(s): 4346

Any changes to 13th Amendment put off until at least next year while nationalist forces breathe fire
Minister’s plan to cut 70,000 trees grounded, but Hakeem complains of subtle move to uproot his party tree

Since state takeover beginning in the post 1971 insurgency period, most tea plantations have been running at colossal losses mainly due to seething corruption and mismanagement. That the industry once brought name and fame to Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, is well known. Equally well known now is how some of the men tasked to run these properties became fat cats acquiring lucrative private businesses.

Tuesday’s rally at Maharagama by the National Collective to Abolish the Provincial Councils system. Pic by Susantha Liyanawatta

Rajapaksa Regime Bows to India and World Community by nelvely

Bring Lankan Tamils into mainstream: Khurshid

Sat, Jul 06 2013

External affairs minister Salman Khurshid. Photo: Bloomberg

New Delhi: India’s external affairs minister Salman Khurshid on Friday urged Sri Lanka to fully implement its pledges to integrate the minority Tamils into the country’s political mainstream as the island-nation announced polls to the predominantly Tamil-dominated Northern Province in September.

The minister conveyed the message to Basil Rajapaksa, minister for economic development and brother of Sri Lankan PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa, who is on a visit to India, the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.

“The external affairs minister expressed his appreciation for the announcement of the conduct of elections to the Northern Province,” the statement said, referring to the polls that are seen as a crucial step in the process of political reconciliation since the end of a brutal three-decade-long civil war.

Khurshid also “emphasized on the need to fully implement the provisions of the 13th Amendment and to go beyond it so as to ensure meaningful development of Sri Lanka. He urged Rajapaksa not to do anything to dilute the provisions of the 13th Amendment”.

This refers to the changes in the Sri Lankan constitution aimed at devolving more political freedom to the minority Tamils, who form about 12% of Sri Lanka’s population.

The 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution was enacted by the Sri Lankan government after the Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement of 1987 and provided for setting up provincial councils with the devolution of police and political powers to them. Sections of Sri Lanka’s ruling coalition have called for either repealing or removing some of the provisions of the amendment. According to a PTI report, Khurshid had spoken to his Sri Lankan counterpart G.L. Peiris recently and underlined the need to leave the amendment unchanged.

In his meeting with a group of Tamil National Alliance lawmakers from Sri Lanka in New Delhi last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had expressed his “dismay” at attempts to dilute the amendment, the Indian foreign ministry said.

India has its reservations over the move as it feels this could fuel feelings of alienation within the Tamil community.

The three-decade civil war between the minority Tamils and the majority Sinhalese that claimed tens of thousands of lives ended in May 2009 with the killing of the Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Since 2009, India has been nudging Sri Lanka to move quickly on the integration of the Tamils into the national mainstream. Sri Lanka, on its part, has been saying that it would proceed at a pace it was comfortable with.

“Rajapaksa expressed his appreciation for the vast number of projects that are being undertaken by India especially in the Northern and Eastern provinces,” the Indian statement said, referring to rehabilitation and relief works undertaken by the Indian government that also includes the construction of 50,000 houses for the internally displaced—mostly Tamils.

Basil Rajapaksa said “there was great appreciation amongst the people of Sri Lanka for the variety of projects being undertaken, especially the housing project (for people displaced by the civil war), which was proceeding extremely well,” it added.

India has a large Tamil population in southern Tamil Nadu that shares ethnic links with the Sri Lankan Tamils and any perceived maltreatment of Sri Lankan Tamils has led to protests in India.

A statement from the Sri Lankan high commission in New Delhi said Khurshid “expressed appreciation of the efforts taken by the government of Sri Lanka in reconstruction, resettlement, and infrastructure development as well as the steps taken to improve the livelihoods of the people in the Northern Province”.

Khurshid also stressed the importance of all political parties in Sri Lanka being represented in a Parliamentary Select Committee looking into possible changes to be made to the 13th Amendment.

India to sign trilateral maritime deal

Anirban Bhaumik, NEW DELHI, July 6, 2013

India will sign a trilateral maritime cooperation agreement with Sri Lanka and the Maldives next week, in a move to counter China’s bid to spread its strategic footprint in the Indian Ocean region.

National Security Advisor (NSA) Shiv Shankar Menon will visit Colombo next week to hold talks with his Sri Lankan and Maldivian counterparts for finalising a framework agreement for maritime cooperation among the three nations.

Sources told Deccan Herald that the agreement, to be signed during the NSA’s visit to Sri Lanka, will seek to set up a mechanism for trilateral cooperation in maritime security, information sharing, cooperation on search and rescue in the Indian Ocean region, surveillance of the Exclusive Economic Zones, collective response to marine oil pollution and capacity building through training and exercises.

Menon will also call on Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa during his visit to Colombo.

New Delhi’s move to sign a trilateral maritime cooperation agreement with Colombo and Male comes in the backdrop of China’s growing influence over Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Negotiation for the MoU started in 2011, but gained momentum only towards the end of 2012 and early this year.

China set up its embassy in Maldives in 2011 and has since been lobbying hard to get involved in the development of infrastructure in some of the strategically located islands of the archipelagic nation. New Delhi has of late been finding it a bit difficult to maintain its traditional influence on political and economic affairs of Maldives.

India has also been concerned over Chinese presence at the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka.

Hambantota, a town on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka, is being turned into a major port and Colombo had an agreement with Beijing for Chinese companies’ involvement in developing facilities at the port. The port, like Gwadar in Pakistan and Sittwe in Myanmar, is perceived to be part of the “string of pearls,” the strategic assets China has been developing in the Indian Ocean region, purportedly to encircle India.

Rajapaksa’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing in the last week of May saw the two countries upgrading the bilateral ties to a “strategic cooperation partnership.”

A release by the Sri Lankan government quoted Xi telling Rajapaksa that China was “strongly opposed to foreign countries interfering in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.”

New Delhi has been repeatedly asking the Sri Lankan government to ensure equal political, social and economic rights for the Tamils of the island nation. Ever since the Sri Lankan Army defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam guerrillas in 2009, New Delhi has been prodding Colombo to move towards a national reconciliation and prove alleged human rights violation by its soldiers during the crackdown on rebels.

China’s $ 1.05 billion aid commitment to Sri Lanka was the largest in 2012, while India ranked second with $ 700 million.

Basil silent on discussions with the Indians

Sunday, 07 July 2013
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s envoy to India, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa has refused to comment in the discussions with the Indian government leaders during his two day visit to New Delhi.

He has said that some things must necessarily remain secret — as they would be between “husband and wife”.
As for the government’s move to present an urgent bill to parliament to amend the 13th Amendment to the constitution, Basil has said the government would not let go of it easily.
He has said that there are times when the government has brought urgent amendments and retracted, but it would not be given up.
“We hold the common position that it must be broadly discussed by the public,” he has told journalists in Colombo, adding, “The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) is a good forum for this.”
“Some things can be said openly and some things cannot be said openly in diplomatic business between governments,” Basil has said.
“They gave us some of their views, we expressed our views. That is what usually happens,” he has added.
According to Basil, the two governments had not reached any agreements during his visit.
“I didn’t have the authority to reach agreements,” he has said.

US highlights SL as a country of particular concern with regard to HR

Sunday, July 7, 2013

The United States has once again highlighted Sri Lanka as a country of particular concern with regard to human rights.

US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council Eileen Donahoe made this statement addressing the 23rd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

During the general debate on Human rights situations requiring the attention of the UNHRC, the United States identified a number of countries. Speaking on Sri Lanka, Donahoe had emphasised on the need to set a visit date and provide access to special procedures.

She went on to note that violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly continue to take place in Sri Lanka.

Donahoe also noted that reprisals against human rights defenders, members of civil society and journalists also take place within the country.
Addressing the UNHRC the US ambassador had noted that there have been no credible investigations or prosecutions for attacks on journalists and media outlets.

Peace for the World

A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)

Search This Blog

Systematic Genocide of Tamils

Sunday, July 7, 2013

You may also like

Video