Ettappans And Don Quixotes In Sri Lankan Tamil Politics

By Arthagnani – July 27, 2013

Wigneswaran

One must despair about the destiny of the Tamils of Sri Lanka when one reads the words of a Ranawake, Wimalawansa or a Mahindapala  or a Seneviratne, or a Peiris and Amerasekere and Gunasekere,or one or other of various Silvas and even Ratnajeevan Hoole—not to speak of the internet commentators of doubtful wisdom or insight.

One must however feel a sense of despair too when one reads the outpourings of certain members of the overseas Tamil community with grandiose titles that they have given themselves and their fellow travelers. Reading the words of these overseas cabals one feels that the Tamils of Sri Lanka should worry more about the Don Quixotes among them rather than the Ettappans. In Cervantes’s  masterpiece the good Don imagines himself a knight and engages in various fantasy activities including seeking a duel with a windmill.

The late lamented leaders of the ITAK used to describe those who disagreed with them with words like these on public plat forms and look where it took them. Some of their fanatical followers took  them at their word and in the end turned on them and too. Some of their latter day followers are too ready to fix these labels of traitor and Ettappan on those who disagree with them and have a different agenda for the Tamils. The latest exercise of this form of labeling  is from “Diaspora Tamil Activist“. He compares Justice Wignesavaran with a certain traitor and then puts forth certain proposals that any Tamil chief minister should follow. He wants the CM to ask the international community to investigate the conduct of the Sri Lankan Army and the Sri Lankan state for war crimes and to have Sri Lanka condemned in international councils. Read More

Basil, Wigneswaran And Trust Building For Reconciliation!

By Austin Fernando -July 27, 2013 

Austin Fernando

‘Trust’ is defined as assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. Therefore, to consider trust as the closest relative one has, is right.

This definition is reminded as two politicians from the Government and the Opposition, worrying over trust has revealed “the extent to which absence of trust remains an obstacle to ethnic reconciliation in Sri Lanka.” (The Hindu reporting Minister Basil Rajapaksa), while concomitantly the Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) Northern Provincial Council (NPC) Chief Minister (CM) Candidate- former Supreme Court Judge CV Wigneswaran- has told media (Lakna Paranamanna in Daily Mirror) that he firmly believed “trust can be built through mutual understanding.”

The Minister has reiterated his heightened mistrust on devolution saying “Sri Lanka would never risk a provincial government forming its own “army” through devolved police powers (PP).” Yes, it could happen only if the government does not implement powers clearly demarcated in the Reserved List and some powers in Appendix II and if NPC blocks implementation by some means. Distrust emerges again!

There had been pro-government politicians commenting that sharing land and PP to the Provincial Councils (PCs) would lead to separation. Is it jockeying distrust? Minister Rajapaksa has been charitable by dropping land powers – not mentioning even once- in his presentation. Did he mean that land powers were already devolved? Or, is he silently distrusts such finality? May be, ignoring Appendix II, he considers that the National Land Commission has to fulfill its functions consonantly with List II – “National Policy on all Subjects and Functions”.

Government’s distrust     Read More

Wigneswaran, Senathirajah and the Facade of TNA Unity

26 July 2013, 1:30 pm

By D.B.S. JEYARAJ

Canagasabapathy Viswalingam Wigneswaran was named by the Tamil National Alliance(TNA) on the Ides of July as its chief ministerial candidate for the forthcoming Northern Provincial Council election.

The decision made by the premier political configuration of the Sri Lankan Tamils was welcomed widely by many shades of political opinion as a wise choice that would benefit the community in particular and the country in general.CV Wigneswaran as he is generally known is a former Supreme court judge who will turn 74 on October 23rd.

Wigneswaran, Senathirajah and the Facade of TNA Unity by nelvely

Egypt’s Opposition Dumber Than Lanka’s

By Kumar David -July 28, 2013 |

Prof Kumar David

Obfuscated “revolutionaries” who threw away the Arab Spring: Egypt’s opposition dumber than Lanka’s

The years since January 2011 in Egypt and May 2009 in Lanka have little in common, except the crass stupidity of the opposition. But this is worth probing since political leaders, if they think at all in historical terms may pick up a tip or two and that could benefit us all. Let me state my case up front: In both cases, the opposition has lost sight of the whole for the part and proved incompetent at reaching alliances and compromises for the greater good. Individual self-interest, sectarianism and dated ideology have prevailed over long-term values. I offer Ranil as an example of self-interest pushing aside general interest; the petty obstacles to trade union unity as sectarianism; and the JVP’s harebrained notions about Tamils, India and revolution as moribund ideology.

My focus will be Egypt and mostly I will leave readers to draw their own parallels. The underlying premises are that arresting military rule is the bottom line in Egypt, while turning back the drift to dictatorship, defeating rampant power abuse, and crafting a democratic constitution, represent the common political good in Lanka. The difference is that in Egypt the revolution won and then fritted away its gains; the voyage of its life was drowned in shallow waters of sectarianism (the radical opposition) and bankrupt ideology (the Islamists). In Lanka, conversely, the masses thirst for harmony with the established power and acquiesce to the worst regime since independence. In Lanka as in Egypt, the people and their leaders have been their own worst enemy, but in different ways.

Egypt: A quick recapitulation                   Read More

Mahinda-Gota Split: Where Stands The SLFP? Will There Be A CBK – Second Coming?

By Rajan Philips -July 28, 2013 

Rajan Philips

Real or faked, a Mahinda-Gota split has political implications. A fake split could have unintended consequences, even precipitating a real split.  Whether fake or real, the sibling split is primarily over one issue and one issue only: the unlucky Thirteenth Amendment. But the split over 13A goes beyond the siblings and it is no fake but real within the UPFA governing alliance itself. What is not clear is – how is the SLFP split on this? Where does the SLFP stand over the split, real or fake, between the President and his Secretary brother? If SLFP parliamentarians are leaning one way or the other, are they doing it for real, or, are they faking allegiance, while waiting a different leader? Where is the SLFP in the real split over 13A in the UPFA?

If the Mahinda-Gota split is real, it would mean that the split is not only political but also personal. If, however, the split is a political fake, then there is no split at the personal level, and really no split at all. Even on 13A, while the younger Rajapaksa is implacably opposed to 13A, the older brother has never wholeheartedly supported it. The President doesn’t care if 13A is dumped, while the Secretary cannot sleep till it is dumped. A split, it might be, with the Defence Secretary wanting the amendment thrown out right away no matter what, and the President vacillating between diluting and repealing it while trying to ‘shape up’ the fallouts.

As we know, the President is on his favourite hobby horse again – the parliamentary select committee, this time to ‘impeach’, if I may say so, the Thirteenth Amendment.  So he has packed the committee with all the rabble rousers against 13A, whose political godfather is Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. With brutal symbolism, the President has also excluded from the committee that dedicated constitutional beaver and supporter of devolution, Tissa Vitarana.

Disturbing and curious Read More

Thirty years backwards

Editorial Tamil Guardian 26 July 2013

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the anti-Tamil pogrom on the island of Sri Lanka, remembered as 'Black July'. The attacks saw Sinhala mobs roaming streets across the country, killing, burning, looting and raping their way through Tamil neighbourhoods. Tamils were singled out for attack purely on their ethnic identity - their facial appearance, their fledgling Sinhalese, their cultural symbols, and their names on electoral rolls. The pogrom was brutal - an inevitable outcome of decades of rising Sinhala nationalism and anti-Tamil sentiment. Black July was not a reactionary act of rioting. It was the persecution of one ethnicity by another, with the full endorsement of the state - an act of genocide. 

The UNP government, which was in power at the time, continued to enjoy mass support from the Sinhala populace and won the subsequent elections. Only a few days after the end of the violence, the government passed the 6th amendment to the constitution, banning the call for a separate state. This move was widely supported by the Sinhala people, but effectively criminalised Tamil national politics. The mandate that the Tamil nation overwhelmingly voted for in 1977 was made illegal, soon after the pogrom. The then-government played down the violence and even justified the attacks as a legitimate and understandable response to the LTTE assault on Sri Lankan soldiers in the North-East a few days earlier. This narrative is misleading, ignoring the organised nature of the riots, and that only a week before the LTTE attack, three Tamil school girls were raped by Sri Lankan soldiers and six schoolboys were shot and killed by security forces in Jaffna. The LTTE attack was but a convenient trigger, to release a simmering racism. The state's backing is unquestionable. Numerous testimonials from Tamils and Sinhala people repeatedly highlight the presence of security forces who idly watched by, as Tamils were slaughtered.

Through this massacre however, the bravery of some Sinhala people, who risked their lives to save their Tamil neighbours emerges. Many Tamil victims attribute their survival solely to these noble acts. These acts were exceptional. Yet, as with genocide committed else where, individual compassion is reconciled with - and fails to negate - collective apathy, silence and complicity. Thirty years on, there is yet to be an adequate inquiry into Black July, and no one has been brought to justice. Genocides cannot take place without the silent endorsement of the masses. 

Black July was one stage in a genocidal process of destroying the Tamil nation, that peaked in 2009, but continues to this day. Since Sri Lanka gained independence, there have been consistent episodes of anti-Tamil riots and pogroms, and each time, the government's anti-Tamil rhetoric has only increased in response to them. The ugly face of Sinhala nationalism was not one government or regime. Instead discriminatory measures against the Tamils have proved to be election-winning policies through the decades, including Rajapaksa's 2010 triumphant election victory. 

As Tamil oppression has consistently led to widespread Sinhala triumphalism, it has also unfailingly led to an upsurge in Tamil resistance. Just as the events of 2009 have resulted in an upsurge in political activity amongst thousands of second generation Tamil youths - the direct product of the 1983 exodus of fleeing Tamils - across the globe, Black July resulted in a burgeoning of Tamil armed resistance movements. Thousands of Tamils, now convinced that the nation's only security was in taking up arms, became eager to join. It is an unavoidable observation that during the time of the LTTE's military might, another large-scale attack on Tamils by Sinhala mobs did not happen. Meanwhile, the oppression of the North-East has intensified in the years since the end of the armed conflict, with all aspects of Tamil life, social, economic or academic, subjugated by the state. Although the state itself claims the defeat of the LTTE on the island, it continues to justify the military occupation in the Tamil areas, and employs the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act to arbitrarily detain and harass Tamils. 

The bitter memories of 1983 are often purported to fuel the Tamil diaspora's call for a separate state of Tamil Eelam. This is false. Thirty years on, has not been thirty years forward, instead Tamils have accumulated thirty years of additional and ongoing grievances. A generation has passed since the riots yet the similarities between then and now are deeply concerning: an aggrieved Tamil nation is increasingly frustrated by an ageing, political representation which is dithering on meaningless policies that will not address the most pressing concerns of the Tamil nation in the North-East. Meanwhile Sinhala nationalism, buoyed by the military defeat of the LTTE, is triumphant and the state's oppression of the Tamil nation, including the Tamil economy, education, land and people, continues. Indeed, the proclamation of 'never again' by some Sri Lankans during this 30th anniversary, rings coldly hollow after the massacre of 2009. Thirty years on, as the Tamil nation finds itself at the mercy of the Sri Lankan state and the Sinhala nation, the desire for security is palpable, and so the call for Tamil Eelam continues. 

North-South And South-South Politics

By Dayan Jayatilleka -July 27, 2013

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Sri Lanka’s post-war transition has resumed. That transition which was blocked by the neoconservative ‘national security’ fundamentalism has unfrozen with the imminent holding of the Northern Provincial Council election under the 13^th amendment as it stands.

If I may immediately qualify that statement, Sri Lanka is undergoing at least two transitions or a transition with two opposite tendencies, which are in a race with each other. One is that towards normalcy and structural reform (which takes the form of the reactivation of the frozen Northern Provincial Council) while the other is a radically conservative counter-reformation which takes the form of cultural and settler-colonial Occupation. The future of Sri Lanka will be determined by which tendency triumphs.

The Northern Provincial Council is an experiment that can go quite well or horribly wrong. It can wrong not only because of the obvious reason of suffocation, sabotage and eventual overthrow by the Sinhala Establishment provoked and supported by the most reactionary currents of Sinhala society, but also because of the decades-long propensity of Tamil nationalism to overshoot the mark of the strategically, structurally and socio-historically realisable.

Consider the Tamil criticisms of the 13^th amendment and their implications for the success of the Northern Provincial Council. Instead of the more obviously sensible stance of supporting the 13^th amendment and faulting the state and government, if necessary, for non-implementation or tardy implementation, Tamil nationalist discourse takes the a priori view that the 13th amendment is insufficient and therefore unworkable. When one commences with the teleology that the 13^th amendment is inherently unworkable and therefore has to be surpassed by a federal solution, then one is hardly likely to strive to make it work or develop the pragmatic patience requisite for that purpose.Read More

In The Long Run, You’ll All Be Dead: The Perspective Of A Corrupt Government!

By Emil van der Poorten -July 28, 2013

Emil van der Poorten

In the not-too-distant past, a cynical fallback for those who took a jaundiced view of the future of humanity was, “In the long run, we’ll all be dead,” more than suggesting that any attempt at improving the human condition was futile and  doomed to failure, at least insofar as the lifespan of anyone contemplating such action was concerned.

The title of this piece projects a slight change to that old adage, in that it doesn’t project cynicism on the part of the “great unwashed,” but a cynicism, bred of arrogance, of those who rule our destinies.  It suggests that our ruling junta and those like it around the world believe that time is on their side and those who might stand in opposition to them will simply disappear because what is being done – no matter how downright evil – will survive and Old Father Time will take care of those seeking a return to civility and democratic practice (if their lords and masters don’t do so themselves!)

The “united front” of politicians, regulators and businessmen involved in one of the largest financial scandals in the country’s recent history appears to prove this in spades.  One of the very large conglomerates in the country has allegedly been complicit with the very highest in our current Monarchy in extracting a larger-than-usual “commission” from a business giant/developer from across the Palk Strait.  This has apparently gone beyond the usual “carrot and stick” routine to include a serious threat of a “final solution” for one of the participants who has been painted into a hitherto unoccupied corner as “bag-man.”

What I find particularly intriguing and permitting me one of those “Didn’t I tell you so?” moments is the fact that the defenders of the head honcho of this particular business configuration have consistently insisted that he traipsed around the globe as a courtier to our New Monarch under duress and in order that his business empire survive through his supplicant conduct towards our Maximum Leader.     Read More

Another link to North and East sieged by Sinhala Buddhists

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 July 2013, 23:40 GMT]
A place called Kanthasaami-malai in Thennai-maravadi village, along the narrow border of the Trincomalee and Mullaiththeevu districts of the North and East provinces of the country of Eezham Tamils, is under siege by the Sinhala-Buddhist monks, who have arrived from the South. They claim that Kanthasaami-malai area belongs to a historic Buddhist Vihara and want about one hundred acres of land to be handed over to them. They have made ‘representations’ to the occupying Sri Lanka Army to get these lands for a new construction of the so-called Purana (ancient) Buddhist Vihara. While such claims are made for the interior landward link at Thennaimaravadi, a Buddhist monk from the South has already appropriated 500 acres of land at the coastal link at Pul-moaddai for a Buddhist enclave. The land was surveyed for him by the genocidal State’s Survey Department. 
Note the location of Thennai-maravadi in the interior and Pulmoaddai in the coast along the border of the Northern and Eastern provinces. [Satellite Image Courtesy - Google Earth. Legend by TamilNet]

Shown within the box is the target area of Colombo discussed in the feature

What is significant is that such a delinking demographic and cultural genocide taking place with a hitherto unseen intensity at the border of the North and East, while there is an ‘elected’ provincial council in the East. It shows how the provincial council system under a unitary constitution will be a smokescreen for the completion of structural genocide, political observers said.

Another Link to North and East Sieged by Sinhala Buddhists by nelvely

The Persecution Of Muslims In Sri Lanka And The Indifference Of Muslim MPs

By Aboobacker Rameez -July 27, 2013 

Rameez Aboobacker

The Persecution of Muslims in Sri Lanka and the indifference of Muslim MPs and Ministers

The LTTE was fiercely decimated purely because they forcefully expelled the Muslims from the Northern province at gunpoint, and abruptly put an end to the call for prayers ( Athan), thereby closing the mosques in the province.  As such, let those who attempt to close mosques currently in Southern Sri Lanka be decimated in the same way and I am sure that they will also face the consequences sooner or later. I deliver this speech today in this parliament, while fasting, during our sacred month of Ramazan in the strong hope that my plea will be answered by the Almighty Allah. The world knows what is happening to minority Muslims in this country and to their places of worship. I fervently request our brothers living here in Sri Lanka and abroad to pray (Duas) to Allah in this holy month of Ramazan against those who draw up a cunning plan to suppress and oppress Muslims and their mosques in this country. (The Speech delivered by MP. Hunaiz Farook in Parliament yesterday-26/07/2013)

This speech is a genuine reflection of the emotions and grief in the minds of any Muslim in the country, against the backdrop of them continuously being targeted by the ethno-religious fascist Buddhist forces likeBBS and SR, obviously stirred by the government. The recent months have seen that a large number of Muslim MPs and local government members, both government and opposition, choose to remain silent in the parliament or local government bodies against the stridently venomous persecution of Muslims across the country. The rapidly growing aggression against Muslims in the country requires our representatives in the government to raise their concern in parliaments and other forums. I began to worry that they are more concerned with protecting their own perks and privileges, rather than protecting the legitimate concerns of the people who elect these representatives. I was eagerly yearning for a day to witness someone in parliament representing the Muslims, standing up for the rights of the Muslim community, but my expectation resulted in utter vain and was really sickening. No representative in the parliament or local government bodies vehemently criticized the continuous persecution of Muslims or at least attempted to cross over to the opposition to show his or her condemnation against the unfair practices of the ruling government, if they had an iota of self-respect and prestige.

Gehanu Gathiya And Pirimikama: Desegregated Gender Relations In Rural Sri Lanka

By Arjuna Seneviratne -July 28, 2013 

Arjuna Seneviratne

Over the last nine years, as a facilitator, activist and developer working with rural communities in Sri Lanka on systemic environment management, agriculture, fisheries, rural climate response, rural disaster prep and mitigation, aid effectiveness and development sustainability through civil, government, private, media, academic organizations and  trade unions, I had, for quite some time, been looking for a rather elusive link. As each year slid into the next, I began to feel the same type of frustration as scientists searching for the missing link between man and African tree frogs whose DNA apparently most closely resemble ours. I also began to lose hope. Until that is, I realized I was searching for the wrong thing in the wrong place.

This particular Dodo I was after is so deeply entrenched as being real in the minds of people that its existence has almost been taken for granted. It’s called masculinity and femininity and their classic associative links to males and females respectively. You see, a whole barrel load of development paraphernalia from funds to expertise to beneficiaries to goals are supposed to even out real or imagined disparities and inequalities and equip human beings to acquit themselves equitably. One of the more vociferously articulated differences was supposed to be those between men and women with women generally assumed to be sitting on the lighter end of the balance due to the said associative links and the power dynamics that supposedly arise from it with men snarling and drooling like tigers over women who were cowering and whimpering like rabbits beneath them.

Read More

Another white van abduction : Another DIG behind it and ex-police CI is victim JULY 27, 2013 (Lanka-e-News-27.July.2013, 4.00 AM) The utter lawlessness in the country was once again underscored when a former chief Inspector (CI) of police was abducted by the criminal white Van , amidst allegations that a notorious senior DIG is behind this crime , according to reports reaching Lanka e News inside information division. This is another drama akin to DIG Vaas’ multiple crimes , clearly illustrating the impunity with which the police higher ups are committing crimes under a lawless regime. It is reported that this CI , Rohan Thusitha Kumarasinghe has had a love affair with a wealthy woman , Himali Karunaratne . The latter having subsequently separated from her husband , had been living with Kumarasinghe . The CI after resigning from the police service had been engaged in her business during which period , he had been receiving endless threats from Himali’s former husband Upul Abeysekera. One day , Abeysekera had even tried to run him down in a vehicle at Arpico vehicle park at Hyde Park corner, and Kumarasinghe had lodged a complaint in this connection with the Slave Island police. This incident had occurred on 7th February 2012 , and the vehicle used in this attempted running over was W P K G 9200, owned by Abeysekera , and had been driven by himself. But , as Abeysekera is a pal of the infamous SDIG Anura Senanayake , on Senanayake’s intervention the inquiry was suppressed. Kumarasinghe left with no choice had made a complaint to the IGP on 16 th July 2013 giving details of the life threats faced by him ; from whom and the high rung police officer who is interfering with this giving protection to the accused. On the 21st of July following this complaint , when Kumarasinghe was coming out of a saloon in Rajagriya after a hair cut , a group that came in a white van had abducted him . So far there is no information about him or his whereabouts Although Kumarasinghe’s wife Himali had made a complaint to the Koswatte , Thalangama police , no proper inquiry had been conducted . It is none other than this notorious senior SDIG Anura Senanayake who is impeding inquiries, it is learnt. A most intriguing and puzzling feature in this episode is this notorious SDIG taking official leave from 20th to 23 rd July . That is , on the 21 st of July when Kumarasinghe was abducted, this SDIG had been on leave. Based on the latest information reaching LeN inside information division , this scoundrel of a SDIG notorious for unlawful activities , yet free , is manipulating to acquire the assets of Himali who is now helpless and alone. She owns a 500 acre coconut land , reports say. While there is a complaint made by an Ex CI to the police in February 2012 , that there are attempts to murder him , and another more serious complaint made by the same party to the police on 16 th July 2013 , including a complaint to the highest in the hierarchy in the police - the IGP, it is a most pertinent question , what is the IGP doing even after 4 days have elapsed after the abduction ,and when it is well and widely known that the infamous SDIG Anura Senanayake is interfering and trying to suppress the investigations? In this lawless climate in the country , the question raised by the public is , whether the IGP is waiting until a repetition of DIG Vaas’ serial crimes occurs? Or is the IGP’s full time occupation fawning on and covering up the unlawful activities of the Rajapakses and their henchmen including the police higher ups , and therefore has no time to attend to his honest and onerous duties towards the public out of whose taxes and levies he is paid a salary . Is the Inspector General of Police(IGP) of Sri Lanka another Impotent Gadabout of Police (IGP) seeking idle pleasure at public expense ?

Gota cancels meet with UK MPs

July 26, 2013

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had cancelled a scheduled meeting with a British All Party Parliament delegation.

Sources told the Colombo Gazette that the meeting had been pre-arranged but was cancelled at the last minute.

The British All Party Parliament delegation was in Sri Lanka for a week and wrapped up their visit today with meetings in Colombo.

The delegation, which had visited the north as well as the southern areas, met Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem today. They also met External Affairs Minister Professor G.L Peiris.

Head of the delegation Eleanor Laing MP, said the visit was planned as a prelude to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka November.

She also expressed hope for Sri Lanka’s future and insisted that one cannot compare human rights in Britain to human rights in Sri Lanka as the island suffered 30 years of war and human rights issues in Sri Lanka are part of the aftermath of the war.

“There is a lot of hope for the future. We are very positive about Sri Lanka. I believe reconciliation is important. We should not rake back the past,” she said a select group of journalists this evening.

She also said that the elections in the North will be very important and she hopes foreign monitors will be invited to observe the election.

Meanwhile opposition MP Simon Danczuk‏, who has been pushing for justice over the murder of a British tourist in Tangalle in 2011, sounded optimistic that investigations and legal proceedings will progress.

He said that Minister Basil Rajapaksa had apologized over the incident in which British national Khuram Shaikh was killed and his girlfriend was raped.

The British MP said that Justice Minister Rauf Hakeem had said that the Attorney General’s Department was looking at the case.

“I am cautiously optimistic about the case progressing. I will continue to raise the issue in the British parliament,” he said.

He also said that he had no issues with British Prime Minister David Cameron attending the CHOGM summit in Sri Lanka as long as he raises the Khuram Shaikh incident as well if there is no progress by then. (Colombo Gazette)

Sinhala archaeology focuses operation in North-East corridor

The PGIAR team excavating a site at the Yan Oya Basin. The PGIAR that is supposed to have a ‘multicultural’ team of reasonable proportions, doesn’t have any Tamil staff or student. [Image courtesy: yanoyaarchaeology.com]

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 July 2013, 09:07 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Postgratuate Institute of Archaeology (PGIAR), based in Colombo and exclusively staffed by Sinhalese, has recently undertaken a special project called “Yan Oya Middle Basin” research for the years 2011-2015, which will be focussing on a region that links the Northern and Eastern provinces of the country of Eezham Tamils in the island. Yan Oya is a river that originates in the North Central Province, follows the boundary of the Eastern Province and enters into the sea at Pul-moaddai that links the North and East. The selection of this location for intense archaeological research by an exclusive Sinhala team, go hand in hand with the accelerated Sinhala-Buddhicisation of the region, observers said, citing a State-sponsored Buddhist enclave coming up at Pulmoaddai in 500 acres of land. 


The PGIAR project area for 2011-2015. Note how it borders the Eastern Province and gets into the North and East link at the narrow corridor at Thennaimaravadi-Pulmoaddai. The research area overlaps with the territory, where the Colombo-government is now intensely spearheading a Sinhala colonisation programme to wedge the North and East. [Image courtesy: yanoyaarchaeology.com]

Sinhala Archaeology Focuses Operation in North-East Corridor by nelvely

UNHRC security advisor visits SL ahead of 

Pillay’s visit

Details

 

Created On Saturday, 27 July 2013 06:07

Category: General

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday suddenly ordered his secretary Lalith Weeartunge to appoint a Presidential Commission to probe disappearances that had taken place during the 30 year period of the war.

The President’s action came as a surprise since it had taken over four years for him to issue the directive.

Even the recommendation in the Lessons Learnt and reconciliation Commission (LLRC) on taking action to probe the disappearances did not make the President issue a directive to appoint a Presidential Commission.
However, it was then revealed that the move was aimed at the impending visit of High Commissioner of the UN Human Rights Council, Navi Pillay to Sri Lanka.
The President has got activated since Chief Security Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Pillay was in Sri Lanka ahead of Pillay’s scheduled visit to Sri Lanka next month.
Security Advisor Abraham Mathai and his team had met with several local officials during the visit and visited the east and called on the Commander Eastern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Rohan Amarasinghe.
The Navy has said it was a cordial discussion on a range of topics which were of mutual interest, the Navy said today.
Mathai reportedly manages security operations of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) world-wide and as a member of the senior management team, he participates in organising policy issues.