Market bombing kill 33 in Pakistan's Peshawar: police

By Hamid Ullah Khan-Sun Sep 29, 2013 

(Reuters) - Twin blasts in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar killed 33 people and wounded 70 on Sunday, a week after bombings at a church there killed scores, police and hospital authorities said.

Islamist violence has been on the rise in Pakistan in recent months, undermining Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to tame the insurgency by launching peace talks with the Taliban.

The blasts outside a police station hit an area known as Quiswakhani, or the storytellers' bazaar, crowded with shoppers. Police said they thought at least one of the explosions in the city close to the Afghan border had been caused by a car bomb.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid condemned the attack.

Two policemen tried in vain to hold back the crowd gathered outside the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, where many of the victims had been taken.

Distraught relatives dialed mobile phone numbers of those caught up in the blasts but were unable to get through. Women sobbed as ambulances pulled up with more bodies.

"Who is burning Peshawar, who is burning Peshawar?" screamed one woman in a long headscarf.

Shop owner Sher Gul said he had made repeated trips on his motorbike to bring six people to hospital. Gul cursed a provincial government minister who came to visit the victims.

"Why have you come so late?" Gul shouted.

Inside the hospital, people tripped over the injured lying in corridors as they hunted for loved ones. Nine members of one family were among the dead.

The blasts follow an attack by a Taliban faction on Peshawar's Anglican church last Sunday that killed more than 80 people, the deadliest assault on Christians in predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

The Taliban have repeatedly rejected Pakistan's constitution and have called for the full implementation of Islamic law and for war with India.

Sharif was due to meet Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly later on Sunday, only hours after Singh described Pakistan as the "epicenter of terrorism in our region".

Another Pakistani politician, former cricket player Imran Khan, has suggested the Taliban might open an office in Pakistan to help negotiations, but the suggestion drew an angry response from those caught up in Sunday's blasts.

"The government wants to open an office for the Taliban? What office? They are killing us. For how long do we have to suffer like this? I have no hope," said Waheed Khan as he searched for his nephew, a rickshaw driver.

(Additional reporting by Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Paul Tait and Andrew Heavens)

Analysis: How to tackle slavery in Asia

It isn’t going to be easy by any means

By Asia Sentinel Sep 29, 2013 

There was a time when slavery was synonymous with shackles, whips, cramped ships and white plantation owners. Today the face of bonded labor and forced migration is a lot more disparate. In Asia, it could be the teenage bride from Myanmar, smuggled across the border by a Chinese wedding broker; the 29-year-old Cambodian whose passport was confiscated and is forced to work on a Thai fishing boat; or a 10-year-old Bangladeshi boy born into bonded labor.

Whatever it looks like, there’s no doubt slavery in its contemporary manifestation not only exists, but thrives in every continent and almost every country.

Low-earning workers in India (Photo: Hung Chung Chih via Shutterstock)

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), an estimated 21 million men, women and children are in forced labor around the world. Of those, 90 percent are in the private economy, exploited by individuals or enterprises. Most (68 percent) are forced to do manual labor in manufacturing, construction or agriculture, or as domestic workers. Around 22 percent work in the commercial sex industry.

Asian problem 
Asia has by far the biggest share of slavery. The ILO estimates 11.7 million – 56 percent of those in bonded or forced labor – are in the Asia-Pacific region. By way of comparison, the next worst region is Africa, with 18 percent. The numbers are shocking, but they’re not new, experts note.

In the last few decades the move to eradicate slavery has shifted into public consciousness and helped drive parts of the global development agenda. Countries where the problem is most prevalent have signed international agreements promising to work with humanitarian agencies and activists to tackle the issue.

International criminal networks responsible for trafficking people are better monitored and more frequently intercepted now than in the past, while corporations and consumers are more aware of the potential impact of encouraging cheap abusive labor, thanks in part to several high profile investigations in the international media.

For many governmental agencies and crime watchdogs working to eradicate slavery, there’s genuine reason to be optimistic. Yet there’s also a feeling among activists and those on the ground with firsthand experience of the trauma and abuse trafficked and enslaved people experience every day that still more could be done.

Continue reading at Asia Sentinel. 

Interview with Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Australian Broadcasting Corporatio

Broadcast: 27/09/2013

Reporter: Emma Alberici

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, joins Lateline live from New York to discuss her recent week-long fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka.

Video

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: Our guest tonight is Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Interview With Navi Pillay, The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights by nelvely

Are The Tamils And The Sinhalese, Same Or Different?

By Laksiri Fernando -September 28, 2013 |

Dr. Laksiri Fernando

Prof Ratnajeevan Hoole, quite gently responding to my article on “Some Ethnic Differences Observed by Robert Knox” has stated “I am particularly not sure about the following statement about Sinhalese light-skin.” To clarify my point of view, first I must say that I don’t believe that Sinhalese are light-skin or Tamils are dark-skin, but there are both light-skin and dark-skin people among both communities. How does this happen might be an intriguing question, explanations often going haywire, and anyway, light-skin or dark-skin does not represent any racial difference in my opinion or to authoritative views. This short rejoinder is a further explanation of my view on the issue, if I have not clarified it clearly enough.

I was commenting on a reference by Robert Knox in 1681 where he said “It is more probable, they came from the Malabars, their Country lying next, tho they do resemble them little or nothing. I know no nation in the world do so exactly resemble Chingulays as the people of Europe.”

I could have avoided Knox’s above observation given its sensitivity today, but as an academic, I am not in the habit of hiding issues and doing so to me is a dishonest exercise. My main purpose however was different. I made two explanations prefacing that “what the above shows is the apparent mix character of the Sinhalese as he had seen.” First was “Knox was mainly living in the Hill Country, where people were relatively fair-skinned due to the climatic conditions.” I also said that “Knox had not seen the Sinhalese people who were living in the coastal areas of the West and the South who would have mostly resembled what he called the Malabars,” which Hoole has not quoted because it is not very relevant to his point. But the second sentence put my point of view into a better perspective.

I do believe that climatic conditions do make a difference to the skin complexion, among other factors. Second I said, “…among the Sinhalese, it is also possible that there had been an ancestral mix of people who came from the Northern parts of India as well” (emphasis newly added). It is my view that when we discuss the ethnological issues, we should not completely disregard the possible play of ‘genetic’ or ‘hereditary’ factors. But we should not exaggerate them either. What are genes? To me or for my present purposes, genes are primarily the accumulation of environment, climate being one. Genes are specific to a person and not necessarily common to a community or ethnicity. There can be some and only some common genes running through at a given time and a given place. But those do not determine people’s psychological or ideological sphere but limited physical or physiological aspects.

I was referring to some ancestors (not all) of the Sinhalese coming from Northern parts of India where climatic conditions are again milder. When I said, “among the Sinhalese” I was referring to ‘Chingulays’ in Kandy and in the 17^th century and not today. I also believe that some of the ancestral roots of low country Sinhalese people are from South India including my own! I do have some reasons to say so.

In support of my particular comment on Knox, let me quote the following from a UNESCO Statement on Race dated June 1951.                         Read More

'I can't understand' allegations says Rajapaksa to Al Jazeera 28 September 2013 Interview with Al Jazeera - "this is all propaganda" Asked about Navi Pillay's criticisms of Sri Lanka following her visit, Rajapaksa said:  "This is what I can't understand. For last five years we've had about 19 elections. Provincial council election, then the parliamentary election. Every four years - my term is 6 years - but last year I went for election at 4 years. And it is up to the people to decide on governments." Apparently perplexed by Navi Pillay's assertion that critical voices are often attacked or permanantly silenced, Rajapaksa said:  "No I reject all that. I mean this is what I can't understand when a person come here. We have an opposition. You must remember in a democratic country - it's not like, a dictatorial country, where a dictator is there - so there are other views. So the opposition is always trying to defeat the government, whether it is with the international community, or inside the country." Asked about the harassment and intimidation of people who spoke to Navi Pillay during her visit, Rajapaksa said: "No. I asked, she never told us this. Otherwise I would have enquired into it.She never mentioned that to me, 'til she came out in public. When she met me she could have told me. If that happened, I don't know why she said this, because we will never do that. We would have stopped her coming, but we allowed her to go anywhere, allowed her to meet anybody she wants." Commenting on the TNA's victory at the Northern Provincial Council election, he said:  "We knew, it will happen, I knew, I told this... I told even the TNA leader that we are going to give you the election. You will win. We know our results, but we want to have it. we want you to take on the responsibility. Anybody can criticise, let them deliver now." Highlighting the TNA's manifesto, which demands including the withdrawal of the army and a degree of autonomy, the presenter asked if he would now listen to the people's demands. Rajapaksa replied:  "No. Do you know, that first they said something like that, then they changed it... They can't ask for the army to be withdrawn. If the otherwise provincial councils also ask for the army to be withdrawn, where can I have the army? Is somebody else going to give me a place to keep the army?" Asked why such a big army was still needed, in the absence of armed conflict, Rajapaksa retorted,  "No, you think so? No, for security we need an army. I mean we decide on our security and the strength, how many army we need. And when the army is discontinued what will happen? Vietnam war, what happened? So we have to change, in their attitudes, we have rehabilitate them also." "We have about 8000 to 12,000 army personnel in that area." "We have released all the private lands." Rejecting Navi Pillay's criticism of the lack of a credible inquiry into the last stages of the armed conflict, Rajapaksa said:  "Why? Why? I can't understand. We must look into the whole 30 years for what happened... You have to be fair in this game, because the treatment must be equal to all countries." Asked if the army committed any atrocities in the North-East during the last stages of the armed conflict, he said, "No they didn't, I enquired into it." Asked if he was ultimately responsible for the actions of the army, Rajapaksa emphatically replied, "Yes."

Out Goes The Winter Of Discontent & In Comes True Spring

( September 27, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Tamils have spoken again loud and clear. Despite the impediments by the forces of the government with all the resources at their command much more than seventy percent of the Tamil speaking people in the north have given their verdict in no uncertain terms as how they should be governed, of course within the terms of a watered down version of the 13TH Amendment made out to the world by Rajapaksa as being 13 plus.

The Tamil speaking people in exercising their vote had to withstand the threats and the atrocities of the army of occupation, faking of a leading newspaper reporting that the TNA had withdrawn, making a mockery of the claims of rehabilitation the terror inflicted upon Ananthi Sasitharan the widow of an LTTE leader who was tortured and killed by the army accepting the electoral process. It must be remembered that from the chief justice to the Sinhala chauvinists there were designs to sabotage the election even through a judicial process if such a need arose.

Considering the terms of the manifesto of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) the verdict of the Tamil speaking peoples is almost that of a referendum for the framework of internal self-determination subject of course to negotiations with the Sri Lankan government.

The Tamils in providing a clear mandate, while rejecting the notion of a separate state have also sent an unmistakable message to the international community of their desire for self rule but within the parameters of a united and undivided country. The leader of the TNA, Sampanthan, however, conceded a long, hard road ahead.

The Tamils through their resounding victory have also thrown off the yoke of the illegitimate control of their affairs by the common criminal Douglas Devananda who was hitherto dominating their life, which we believe, would also be a welcome relief to the Rajapaksa regime.

Sampanthan was quite clear in spelling out the short term goals as being: the resettlement of the people; proper recommencement of their livelihood; restoration of normal civilian life, plus demilitarisation; settlement of pending land issues; finality with regard to missing persons and persons in custody and the restoration of civilian administration.

Sampanthan has made it clear that the long term aim is to realise the evolution of an acceptable political solution a united and undivided country which would obviously mean the opportunity to exercise a substantial measure of self-rule that will enable the Tamil people their "legitimate social, economic and cultural aspirations." We believe that it is important to settle upon an acceptable mode of self rule, from the various paradigms available. It is a mutually acceptable form of self rule that could keep the possibilities of the return of Tamil militancy.

It is important that the bonus seats are offered to the Muslims without being squandered on fossilised museum pieces as should key official positions in the administration.

It is heartening to note that the Tamil speaking peoples having seen through the facade of the Rajapaksa regime, namely the uthuru vasanthaya, or the Northern Spring did reject outright this fraudulent concept constituting the spectacle of new roads built on Chinese loans and aid, foundation stones and the like, a facade of the Rajapaksa regime of the Northern spring.

While congratulating the people of the north for this historic victory it is also important to recognise the quality of leadership provided by Sampanthan the leader of the TNA. While congratulating Mr Wigneswaran for the resounding victory both of his and those of his team we have to remind him of the implicit faith that the Tamils have placed on him and his leadership. He has undoubtedly an unenviable task ahead of him. We wish him and his team all that is best. 

( The writer is the editor of the Eelam Nation, an online journal) 

Rajapaksa Rides The Lion Again

By Kumar David -September 29, 2013 |

Prof Kumar David

The utterance of a voice long suppressed

No doubt about it, cerulean has trumped viridescent, again, in the Sinhala heartland, the blues even comfortably winning Kandy District which the greens had hoped to bag. In the Tamil north, Rajapakse and his factotum Douglas have been given the thrashing of their lives in a TNA landslide like never before in our electoral history – over 80% of the vote. The Tamils have in an emotional sense affirmed war crimes accusations, they have also rejected the Sinhala State; there is no other interpretation for this result. Of course this is not a tribunal, but it is of political significance. There is a dangerous bifurcation of the country which will not diminish till the Gota-Mahinda regime is driven out. Let’s grow up and get real; there is nothing this regime will not do, if it can get away with it, to sink the new NPC-TNA Administration; the survival of dictatorship is predicated on snuffing out independent power centres. Call me a pessimist if you will; on this topic I am. Nevertheless, I have inserted the caveat, “if it can get away with it”, to concede that until CHOGM is done with, inflicting injury on the NPC will be restrained since Singh, Cameron and Abbot may pull out.

The statement from Navi Pillai’s office said: “We categorically deny the High Commissioner ever uttered a single word about the statue of Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake at any point during her visit to Sri Lanka, let alone asking the President to remove it. This claim is without a shred of truth”. This is beyond belief; extraordinary, unprecedented in global diplomacy. Are certain people of clinically unsound mind? My editor, understandably, cannot publish names if I utter them.

Don’t waste time with semantics like does Thamil Arasu imply a separatist agenda or does anyone have the right to praise Vellupillai Prabaharan in public; pointless discourses initiated by those who are unwilling to look at realities. And reality is, how will the NPC Administration, an occupying military of alien ethnicity, and a crude, cruel and corrupt government, co-exist. The next phase in the political game will be dominated by this imbroglio. If Sinhalese people continue to flock to the Gota-Mahinda agenda, as they seem to be, anything is possible in the coming years, an extreme scenario would be the resurgence of Eelam (meaning separatist) trends among Tamil youth. Paradoxically, Gota may be midwife to that which VP and the LTTE could not deliver.

Read More

NP Governor invites TNA to finalise CM appointment…unprecedented powwow between Maj. Gen. and ex-SC Judge

September 27, 2013, 9:08 pm 

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Northern Province Governor Maj. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri is expected to meet Northern Province Chief Minister elect, former Supreme Court Judge, C. V. Vigneswaran next week to finalize the latter’s appointment and the appointment of four ministers to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC).

Vigneswaran led the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) campaign at the first NPC polls since the introduction of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, in accordance with the July 1987 Indo-Lanka accord.

A senior government official told ‘The Island’ that Governor Chandrasiri had invited CM elect Vigneswaran for a meeting after having received a missive from the TNA informing him of their decision on the CM appointment. It was the Governor’s responsibility to invite the CM elect in line with the 13th Amendment, the official said, while explaining the ongoing efforts to finalize the swearing in of Northern Province ministers as quickly as possible.

TNA National List MP M. A. Sumanthiran confirmed the TNA’s decision in writing to the Governor soon after the announcement of NPC result.

Governor Chandrasiri confirmed the exchange of letters and the likelihood of meeting Vigneswaran, though he declined to elaborate.

In the run-up to Saturday’s poll, the TNA as well as the UNP demanded the removal of Governor Chandrasiri. They also accused the former Army Chief of Staff and one-time Jaffna Security Forces Commander, during Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s tenure as the Commander of the Army, of supporting the UPFA at the NPC polls. Allegations followed the Governor appearing on various platforms alongside senior UPFA political figures as well as UPFA candidates.

Harper should help Tamils by going to Sri Lanka

Friday, Sep. 27 2013,

The stunning results of the provincial election in northern Sri Lanka last week are cause for cautious optimism. With the Tamil National Alliance sweeping up 30 of 36 contested seats, Tamils have finally secured a much-needed voice within the political system. And while more profound reform is required, this small, democratic step should be celebrated and should lead Stephen Harper to reconsider his threat to boycott November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka.

Harper Should Help Tamils by Going to Sri Lanka by nelvely

An Accounting Of The Allegedly “Bought-And-Paid-For Enemies Of The Sri Lankan State”

By Emil van der Poorten -September 29, 2013 |

Emil van der Poorten

Every time any individual or group, foreign or local, sounds in any way critical of the Rajapaksa Regime, their local lackeys come storming out of their trenches, bayonets fixed, ready to do battle against “those in the pay of the neo-imperialists, “the “rump of the LTTE,” the “Tamil Diaspora” and/or some other anti-Sri Lankan entity that they either invoke or create for the occasion.

The reason that these folk incessantly advance for the allegedly evil conduct of these enemies of our heaven on earth is that they are simply “jealous of a country being run by and for Sri Lankan Buddhists as a virtual Valhalla.”  These enemies of the (Sri Lankan) people are allegedly driven by simple JEALOUSY, no less and no more.  I have been generous in my use of italics and bolded capitals in the preceding sentence because the obsessive behaviour I describe is deserving of such hyperbole.  What makes matters even worse is that a significant number of people in this country buy into this belief!  It has reached a point where a friend, writing recently to Colombo Telegraph, appears to have thrown up his hands in despair, saying the only sane response for anyone of decency was to leave Sri Lanka post haste!

Let me, however, try to advance a few facts that I hope will stop those now in mid-stride to the passport office, have them pause and consider the context of the current lunacy and return to hearth and home to give the land of their birth “another chance,” if you will.

Since these allegedly subversive organizations are identified as the root of Sri Lanka’s problems and ultimately responsible for a potential mass exodus of Sri Lankans of civility, it might be instructive to examine the credentials of those evil organizations.

The consistent claim –made over and over again, without a shred of evidence in support of it – is that those organizations critical of affaires Sri Lankan are in the pay of “the Tamil diaspora” in one guise or another.  They seek to destabilize Sri Lanka and hand it over, presumably, to those same evil paymasters, the Big Bad Wolves of this particular tale.  That scenario has the evil émigrés returning in triumph, killing all the Sinhala Buddhists and living happily ever after!                           Read More

Into The Vanni And Jaffna Of The 17th Century

By Darshanie Ratnawalli -September 29, 2013 

Darshanie Ratnawalli

His name was Knox. Robert Knox. English. He was a prisoner in Lanka from 1660 to 1680. Finally he escaped from Kandy or more specifically from Rajasinha II, who claimed to be the sovereign overlord of the whole of Lanka and its people. The world-view Rajasinha II inherited as a ruler of Sinhalē (a perception of pan island Chakravartihood) comes across in his correspondence with the Dutch. He told them that “the black people of this island of Ceilao, wheresoever they might be, [are] my vassals by right”- (Roberts: 2004[i]:78). In the royal view, the Dutch were the “faithful Hollanders, the guardians of his coast” and earlier during his enterprise to oust the Portuguese, they were “his hired guns”. In Rajasinha II’s early letters to the Hollanders (written in Portuguese) he was “The most potent Emperor of Ceilao” while they were “My Hollanders” and the fortresses held by them were “my fortresses” as in “my fortress at Gale”. What with “my black folk”, “my vidanas,” “these lowland territories of mine” and “my said island”, Rajasinha II was asserting that he “did not recognize Dutch claims to sovereignty over the coastal areas”- (ibid and Dewaraja 1995:189). The Dutch kept up the appearance of concurring with this assertion in their diplomatic relations. “The governor, Pijil, referred to himself as the “king’s most faithful governor and humble servant”, called the king “His Majesty” and spoke of “the king’s castle at Colombo.” He even “declared that all the island belonged to the Sinhalese King.”- (Roberts: 2004:79).                              Read More

TNA to study SC judgement before taking decisIon

SATURDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2013

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sampanthan said the party would ‘carefully study the Supreme Court judgement’ on the issue of land and the powers of Provincial Councils pertaining to land, before deciding on the next course of action.

 “The judgment of the Supreme Court does not appear to be in conformity with the judgements delivered earlier by the Supreme Court over a period of time,” he told Daily Mirror Online.

Speaking on the issue, Mr. Sampanthan said land has been a moot point of the conflict since Sri Lanka gained independence.

 “Land has been a controversial issue of the country ever since independence and it has been one of the primary causes of the conflict, The Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam pact and the Dudley- Chelvanayagam pact were primarily intended towards  addressing  the issue of state land in such a manner so as to ensure that the demographic composition of the Tamil speaking Northern and Eastern Provinces would not be altered through the instrumentality of the alienation of state land,” he said.

Speaking further he said the Indo- Lanka pact had accepted the principle of devolution.

 “The Indo-Lanka agreement of 1987 and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution has broadly accepted this principle. There are clear provisions in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to indicate that the power over land has been devolved to the provincial councils. This has been accepted in judgements delivered by the Supreme Court," he said.

 He also said the judgement raises very serious issues relating to powers of Provincial Councils over land.

Over the past few years the Sri Lankan government has been acting in contravention of the constitutional provisions pertaining to land. In these circumstances, the recent judgement of the Supreme Court delivered by the current Chief Justice Mohan Peiris and two other judges raises very serious issues relating to land,” he said.

 “This matter is being carefully studied by us, in order to decide on our next course of action," he said.(Hafeel Farizs)

TNA happy to appear before the Supreme Court

By Ananth Palakidnar-28 Sep 2013

General Secretary of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) and Jaffna District TNA Parliamentarian, Mavai
S. Senathirajah, said there was nothing to hide over the TNA manifesto for the Northern Province, and that he would be happy to appear before the Supreme Court (SC) on 2 October.

Senathiraja told
Ceylon Today, a petition had been filed at the Supreme Court, requesting the TNA manifesto be probed, to ascertain
whether it had been prepared in manner that would instigate separatism. "The TNA had prepared its NPC manifesto in a manner to safeguard the integrity and to ensure the self-determination of the Tamils.

We will have to worry about a Court hearing only if we have done anything to damage the integrity of the country. We have nothing to hide; everything has been mentioned in 'black and white.' Therefore, I can face the Court courageously. I will also consider our case as a good opportunity to explain to the whole country, the just stance we have taken," Senathiraja said.

Referring to the appointment of four NPC ministers, Senathiraja said, the TNA was in the process of finalizing the four Cabinet portfolios. "We will definitely offer the portfolios to suitable members," he said.

Commenting on the swearing-in ceremony of the NPC members, Senathiraja said a suitable date would be decided in the course of the week.

Government Too Needs A Sampanthan

By Rasika Jayakody -September 28, 2013 

Rasika Jayakody

Many claim that the reason behind the TNA’s resounding victory in the North is nationalistic inclination of Jaffna Tamils that was aroused to a large extent by pro-LTTE propaganda. Among the Sinhala community, a perception has already been created that Tamils, as a collective, have voted for the “nation”, while the Sinhalese are burying themselves in the mud pool of preferential votes.

The TNA’s victory in the North was not something unexpected. Everyone knew that the TNA would secure the power with a huge margin, probably with a two thirds majority. But many expected a keen contest between the TNA and the UPFA in some parts of Jaffna that were previously considered as EPDP strongholds. However, there was no competition whatsoever in the end and the election appeared to be a one horse race.

The TNA election campaign was cashed in on prevailing divisions and the election manifesto was clearly gravitated towards separatism. The need of an armed struggle was stressed at election rallies from time to time and incendiary speeches were made by top rung TNA leaders, including Wigneswaran, its Chief Ministerial candidate, from the outset of the campaign. Some candidates openly stated that they were seeking a mandate for ‘liberation’ and it was crystal clear that they were referring to the creation of a separate state. The TNA, throughout its election campaign, did not consider the 13^th amendment even as the starting point of a political solution. Above all, territorial integrity of Sri Lanka was challenged, overtly and covertly, and that seemed to be the core message of almost all their speeches and slogans.Read More

Time To Unclench Fists, Hearts And Minds

By Malinda Seneviratne -September 29, 2013 |

Malinda Seneviratne

On May 14, 1976 the Tamil United Liberation Front passed a resolution in Vadukoddai (Batakotte). That document, describable as Tamil nationalism at its chauvinistic best, was voted on, in effect, on July 21, 1977. The TULF won 18 seats.  Last Saturday, the political successor to the TULF, the Tamil National Alliance secured the Northern Provincial Council with a resounding majority. The election was preceded by the launch of a manifesto that was a virtual one-to-one of the Vadukoddai Resolution which, among other things, spurred Tamil youth to take up arms and precipitated an armed conflict that cost the nation and all communities, especially Tamils.

In hindsight both resolution-moment and election result in the seventies provided opportunities for all communities to revisit the ideas of nation and citizenship.  Exaggeration of grievance and tall-order aspirations generated less hope than fear, but had statesmanship prevailed monumental losses incurred over the next 30 plus years could have been shelved.

There were other such opportunities, especially when the tsunami hit the island in December 2004.  By that time, however, guns and bullets were the languages in vogue even in their largely reluctant mutations courtesy the 2003 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA).

The TNA’s victory last week comes in a post-conflict Sri Lanka. The guns have all gone silent.  The nation has recovered in ways that most countries plagued by terrorism and war have not. Indeed, the TNA owes a big ‘thank you’ to the Government for clearing the way for elections. A quick visual of a 2013 September with the LTTE militarily intact would not exactly make anyone in the TNA, including C.V. Wigneswaran, salivate.  In all likelihood, the ex-judge would have been enjoying his retirement in Colombo.Read More