For those people who cannot speak for themselves, we have a duty to speak.” – Jan Logie

Dec 3rd, 2013

On the 17th of November a room in the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall was overflowing with a tense and attentive crowd. We were all there to hear from Jan Logie, the MP recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka where she had been detained under claims of violating immigration laws. The meeting was hosted jointly by the National Council of New Zealand Tamils and the Green Party, and the crowd was a congenial mixture of supporters of both organisations.

After a welcome and introduction, Keith Locke provided some useful background; he had visited in 2003 when the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were engaged in peace talks. What was striking about his contextualisation was a rejection of the dominant international narrative around the Civil War.

“There’s often an assumption that there had to be a war, and it was a war against terrorists or terrorism. I don’t accept either of those things. You have to look back into history to see that the truth is a little bit different. There have been terror tactics used on all sides, and the impetus to the development and strength of the Tamil Tigers was as a result of Government-sponsored terrorism against the Tamil people.”
- Keith Locke

Logie explained that Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon and she had been careful to get advice on visas before the trip because of the Sri Lankan Government’s record. Two Australian journalists were recently interrogated for over 15 hours and deported – internationally it is increasingly accepted that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government has scant regard for freedom of speech.

“Closing down a press conference for a New Zealand MP and an Australian Senator is not a visa problem; it’s an utterly contemptible violation of free speech.”

- Keith Locke

There was an atmosphere of resentment and ample expressions of distaste around the room when the topic turned to the New Zealand Government reaction to the incident. Both Prime Minister John Key and Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully had effectively sided with Sri Lanka detaining a democratically elected MP on a human rights fact-finding mission. That could be looked upon as lèse majesty - at a minimum it is damaging, arrogant tribalism.

She went on to reveal some of the horrific abuses perpetuated on a regular basis by the Sri Lankan Government. Tamil children have been taken from their families and put into special homes, where they’re taught only Sinhalese and some are abused, physically and sexually. When the family had gone to the police not only was no action taken, the accused had been seen with military protection in the town. Politically-motivated rape and sexual abuse was a ‘very common thread, backed up by all of the external reports from the UN and Human Rights Watch’.

“We spoke to a man who had been in prison for ten months with no charge and had been tortured during that time.”
- Jan Logie

Another recurring theme was frustration with a deeply partisan and unethical justice system. President Rajapaksa impeached the Chief Justice and replaced him with his own legal advisor. Understandably public ‘confidence in the police and court system has been fundamentally undermined’. There were reports of buildings being bugged to covertly record people giving evidence. The elections had not been free and fair. People had been stopped by the police and told not to vote.

“So there’s no independent justice system, there’s no or very constrained media, there is regular intimidation and abuse of people who are trying to speak out or organise around issues. There is an active program of displacing the local people that is being lead by the Government. That was a consistent message – from Sinhalese and Tamil. My hope is that New Zealand will go back to our tradition of standing up for human rights internationally as well as in this country. For those people who cannot speak for themselves, we have a duty to speak.”

- Jan Logie

Unfortunately the New Zealand Government has a long way to go if we are to be seen as upholding human rights. Although John Key did raise disappearances at CHOGM, he did not condemn Rajapaksa. Given that David Cameron made headlines with his criticism, and

Stephen Harper boycotted CHOGM, it is truly telling that our Prime minister’s position is divergent. Key is of the bewildering opinion that ‘people now feel safe’ and ‘The rights and wrongs of all the issues are not for us to really delve into’. While Cameron spoke of the ‘harrowing’ experiences of those he met in the North, McCully talked about new roads. National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi has even praised the Sri Lankan government and said that their resettlement process was ‘impressive’ and going ‘in the right direction’. Key is determined not to support an independent investigation, and did not support Jan Logie when her fact-finding mission was compromised. Perhaps our government is not much better than Sri Lanka’s when it comes to discovering and communicating truth.

The day after the meeting, Amnesty International released a press release, echoing Jan Logie’s sentiments, and calling John Key’s performance at CHOGM a ‘failure’ 

‘by choosing self interest over a principled stance and effectively giving his seal of approval to a country whose Government stands accused of war crimes, John Key missed that opportunity (to stand up for our values) and in doing so has let New Zealand down.’

- Amnesty International Executive Director Grant Bayldon

Detained Aussie Senator to report on Sri Lanka human rights abuses

THURSDAY DECEMBER 05, 2013

Australian Greens Senator Rhiannon who was ordered out of Sri Lanka yesterday, is on a flight back to Sydney after being detained by Sri Lankan Government officials for over three hours.

Brami Jegan, the media adviser at the office of Australian Greens Senator for New South Wales Ms. Lee Rhiannon, has issued a media announcement regarding the incident which happened to the Greens Senator during her recent visit to Sri Lanka.

According to the announcement, the Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon and NZ Green MP Jan Logie were meeting with members of civil society yesterday (10) when four Sri Lankan immigration officials arrived at the location, confiscated their passports and detained them for over three hours.

Senator Rhiannon and Jan Logie MP were on a fact finding mission in Sri Lanka in the lead up to CHOGM which started yesterday.

It is said that the Government of Sri Lanka had been notified of Senator Rhiannon's trip to Sri Lanka prior to her visit.

Before their detainment, Senator Rhiannon and Jan Logie MP released a statement which said they have found that the ongoing abuses of human and legal rights are so serious that the Commonwealth meeting scheduled for Colombo should not proceed and that the Sri Lanka government should not be given the chair of CHOGM for the next two years.

Senator Rhiannon will be reporting her findings to the Australian parliament this week, the announcement further states.

It also states that A special media briefing will be held today (11) at 10.00am at the Terminal 1 of the Sydney International Airport, Australia, regarding the incident.

A Flawed Liberation Struggle: Massacres Of Sinhalese Civilians

By Rajan Hoole -December 5, 2013 

Rajan Hoole

The Indo-Lanka Accord and Sri Lanka’s Fault Lines: July 1987 – Part – 1

“The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgement in their goings : they have made them crooked paths : whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. Therefore judgement is far from us, neither doth justice overtake us : we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.” - Isaiah 59: 8,9

It was hard for the LTTE, which claimed to be the sole legitimate representatives of the Tamil people, to live down the fact that its way of settling political differences by annihilating opponents had led to the total collapse of the Tamil militant struggle. It was this, which enabled India to step in as the saviour of the Tamils. Through calculated provocations, the LTTE thus worked towards discrediting India by fomenting a war with the Indian Army that was very costly to the Tamil civilians.

Disregard for Humanitarian Norms and a Flawed Liberation Struggle 

At the time of the Anuradhapura massacre, even though many Tamils justified it as retribution, there was considerable social inhibition against such barbarousness. Most militant groups condemned it while the LTTE was shy to admit having done it. During 1986 the inhibition declined with the advent of aerial bombing and shelling by Government, particularly in Jaffna. By 1986, a new logic had crept into the killing of Sinhalese civilians (see Chapter 20).

What liberation groups lack in legal recognition in relation to state powers, they try to make up by acknowledging and trying to project higher humanitarian standards. Among these are an enlightened approach to dissent and clemency towards the civilian population in the adversarial camp. It adds to the stature of a liberation group in the eyes of the world when it succeeds in projecting such values. The opposites of these are generally characteristic of oppressive state powers. Even in liberation struggles where the degree of provocation from the oppressor was intense, such as in East Timor, South Africa and Palestine, those in the mainstream had to acknowledge higher humanitarian standards. They were obliged to condemn and act against deviations from these, before they became credible parties to negotiations.                                     Read More     

To be continued..

*From Rajan Hoole‘s “Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power  - Myth, Decadence and Murder”. Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish. To read earlier parts click here

No Country For Ordinary People (And Ordinary Dogs)

by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“…..luxury, opulence, and unjust extractions extorted by self-seeking corrupt individuals who scorn the distress of the multitude and rarely attempt to ease their hardships.”

Jonathan Israel (Revolution of the Mind)

( December 5, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Imported pet food was one of a handful of items accorded a tax break by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his 2014 Budget.

No Country for Ordinary People (and Ordinary Dogs) by nelvely

Reminding Britain of its geostrategic injustice against Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 December 2013, 23:35 GMT]
The British Prime Minister David Cameron seeking ‘engagement’ with Tamils needs to be reminded of the root injustice the imperial Britain had committed against Eezham Tamils by making them prone to more than 60 years of genocide in the hands of the unitary Sri Lankan State. The British cabinet in 1947 decided to short-circuit the discourse of an evolutionary constitutional approach with an accelerated process of handing over of power to Sinhalese, an exercise it carried out on the basis of its own geostrategic considerations amidst the pressure exerted by DS Senanayake, a shrewd politician on the Sinhala side. In their geostrategic concerns to secure defence, trade and external-affairs control of the independent Ceylon within the British Commonwealth, the British ignored the Tamil ‘50-50’ balanced representation demand as well as the Kandyan claim of three federal units.

Earlier, the British commissions had even disregarded the Switzerland model of federalism as ‘inferior’ to that of their own Westminster model, cabinet documents of the past reveal. 

• [CP. (47) 147] 05 May 1947: Report by the Chiefs of Staff

On 5th May 1947, a top secret document, titled ‘Ceylon Constitution’ was submitted to the British Cabinet by the Chiefs of Staff of the British armed forces at that time, Chief of the Air Staff , Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur William Tedder, who held high command during World War II as the deputy commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, Royal Navy’s Admiral of the fleet, Sir John Henry Dacres Cunningham, who was the First Sea Lord and British Army’s General Sir Frank Ernest Wallace Simpson, who served as the Vice Chief of Imperial General Staff (VCIGS). 

• [CP. (47)179] 09 June 1947: Defence Requirements in Ceylon

Again, on 9th June, 1947, a document with more details was produced jointly by the Chief of the Air Staff Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur William Tedder and Field Marshal Montgomery of Alamein who was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Vice Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Rhoderick Robert McGrigor.

Both these documents serve as the most crucial evidences establishing the geostrategic importance of the island of Ceylon from a British military perspective in late 1940s.

This geostrategic interest was a major reason for the ignorance of Tamil demands. And the failure to address the issue escalated the conflict further into a full-blown genocide.

* * *Earlier, the British, despite their injustice of making Tamils a minority in the unitary Ceylon, were concerned of an evolutionary constitutional process to arrive at an acceptable framework. 

• [WP (G) (41) 89] 02 September 1941: Interpretation of Point III of Atlantic Declaration

In an important memorandum to the War Cabinet in 1941, on the interpretation of point III of the Atlantic Declaration, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, observed: “Even in Ceylon where responsible government is in fact demanded by the Sinhalese majority, no solution has yet been found to secure the interests of Tamil and other minorities.” 

• [W.P. (44) 299] 07 June 1944: Memorandum by the Secretary of State for the Colonies

In 1943, the British government had laid it down that the final acceptance of any scheme of constitutional reform formulated by Ministers in Ceylon should be conditional inter alia on its acceptance by three-quarters of the members of the State Council. This was argued as a safeguard to protect ‘minority’ interests. 

• [CP. (45) 138] 31 August 1945: Soulbury Commission Report

In 1945, the Soulbury Commission, in response to G.G. Ponnambalam’s 50-50 balanced representation demand noted: “We are not inclined to agree that the system of representation recommended by the All-Ceylon Tamil Congress contains the germs of development, and we do not regard it as a natural evolution from the Constitutions of 1921 and 1924. On the contrary, we should describe a system which purported to reimpose communal representation in the rigid form contemplated, as static, rather than dynamic, and we should not expect to find in it the seeds of a healthy and progressive advance towards Parliamentary self-government.”

The Commission report also went further in stating: “We think it is highly probable that if the All-Ceylon Tamil Congress scheme were adopted action would be taken by the Sinhalese which would be by no means acceptable to the advocates of balanced representation.”

Further, in rejecting the Kandyan claim the Soulbury Commission noted: “At all events, it is clear that under a Constitution providing for full responsible Government in all matters of internal civil administration, those who advocate special concessions to the Kandyans must first convince their own people before they can hope to gain their ends. This is one of the reasons—there are many others—why we unhesitatingly reject a solution of the Kandyan problem suggested to us, as to the Donoughmore Commissioners, that Ceylon should be divided into three self-governing States, Kandyan, Low Country Sinhalese, and Tamil, under a Central Federal Government.” 

• [CM. (45)] 03 September 1945: Conclusions of Cabinet Meeting

Following the Soulbury Commission report, a British Cabinet document from 3rd September 1945, notes: “A special point arose in regard to the condition in the 1943 declaration that the acceptance of any constitutional scheme would depend upon its subsequent approval by three-quarters of the members of the State Council of Ceylon. This stipulation had been made because it was feared that the Ministers, in formulating their scheme, would ignore the views of minorities. What His Majesty’s Government now had before them, however, was a scheme formulated by the Soulbury Commission after full consultation with the minorities, and it was accordingly suggested in paragraph 10 of C P . (45) 132 (Revise) that, in the discussions with Mr. Senanayake, it should be open to the Secretary of State for the Colonies to indicate that His Majesty’s Government would not necessarily insist on this condition.”

Despite being aware of the concerns of the ‘minorities’, the geostrategic consideration was a major factor that caused the British to even abandon the ‘safeguard’ concerns in an accelerated process of giving independence to Ceylon.
The British were seeking a collaborative atmosphere from the ‘majority’ Sinhalese through DS Senanayake, as opposed to how they were being treated in India by the Indian Congress that was waging anti imperialist struggle.
* * *

• [CP. (48) 91] 17 March 1948: Memorandum by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Commonweal

Some extracts from a memorandum by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, titled ‘Report on Ceylon’, dated 17th March, 1948, give further insight on the British approach towards Ceylon. It also illustrates how Senanayake used the ‘Indian threat’ to the favour of the Sinhalese:

“Of the two contradictory themes the one of loyalty and rejoicing was far the more emphatic and dominant. The friendship of Ceylon for Britain, which was always strong, became stronger after 4th February. There is, however, a subdued note’ of doubt that is still to be overcome. It seemed to me that the root cause of this is the military agreement that was made a condition precedent of Dominion status. Why, it is asked by the opposition, was this insisted upon if it does not diminish independence? And Ministers do not find this easy to answer. Our defence relations with Ceylon will depend upon mutual friendship and confidence: this cannot be written into a document and certainly cannot be forced out of Ceylon as the result of a document. On balance the Prime Minister favours as early talks on defence as possible. His motives are:

(a) Doubt whether the existing Defence Agreement, which was agreed to by Ceylon before its independence, may not prejudice Ceylon’s entry into the United Nations Organisation; and

(b) His desire to get a firm defence agreement that will allay his fears about excessive Indian influence in the affairs and future of Ceylon.

It was not my intention to bring up this subject but it was immediately raised on their side. The chief points are :

(a) Ceylon will insist on the formal preservation and assertion of its sovereignty and would prefer unpublished agreements and assurances to a Formal Treaty.

(b) Ceylon is eager to get an extremely close military tie-up with us and will in fact give us all we want, if the forms of sovereignty are preserved.

(c) We may have some bargaining to do about rent, &c, for ground we use : but I do not think they will try and pinch us too far.

(d) They are not prepared to spend very much themselves on their own defence : and we may need to push them in this matter. They want an independent force of their own but are thinking of a force only 1,000 strong.

(e) They want us to train Ceylonese in our military bases and to raise Ceylon units of the Imperial forces, which can serve outside Ceylon. They want the Pioneer Corps in Malaya to be continued.

I am sure we can get all we want in the way of facilities for ourselves if we make the right approach. Everything could be spoiled if we talked to Ceylon as if it were a colony or dependency or as if we had rights in its territory. Any defence agreement we may make will depend upon the good will of the Government and people of Ceylon: we must assume this and can count on it. We must not attempt to substitute for it cast-iron concessions or extraterritorial rights.

Confidential defence talks should, I am sure, be conducted very soon and by our High Commissioner to whom the military should act as expert advisers.
[…]
The successful entry of Ceylon into the United Nations Organisation is of paramount importance, and is largely bound up with the Defence Agreement. The Prime Minister impressed this on me several times. If Ceylon fails and Burma succeeds in getting into the United Nations Organisation the present Government might be seriously shaken and might even be compelled, with the utmost reluctance, to leave the Commonwealth. Ceylon Ministers are alarmed about Russia’s possible attitude and use of the Veto.
[…]
Relations with India play a leading part in Ceylon’s policy. The Prime Minister told me that he regarded the Indian problem as one of the two dangers facing Ceylon (the other is the Left opposition). In part Ceylon fears Indian pressure and for this reason wants a close military tie-up with us. They want to be treated on their merits and do not wish to come too closely within the Indian orbit.

Dispatch: Sri Lanka’s 17 Murdered Aid Workers, Unforgotten

DECEMBER 5, 2013

James Ross

• 
  17 aid workers assassinated in Sri Lanka
  © Action contre la Faim, member of the ACF International Network (ACF-IN) Design graphic: Céline Beuvin, Printed in December 2013, by IGC Communigraphie

The tribute prefacing a new report by the international aid agency Action Contre la Faim (ACF, Action Against Hunger) is heart-wrenching: 17 black-and-white photos of fresh-faced, mostly 20-something men and women.  Most are humanitarian technicians. And all were shot and killed execution-style in Mutur, in northeastern Sri Lanka, on August 4, 2006.

Later that month I visited ACF’s Colombo office, where everyone was in shock. It was unclear who was responsible for the killings: the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who had briefly occupied Mutur, or state security forces who recaptured the town after heavy fighting. We discussed ways of pressing the government to conduct an investigation.

Doubts about the gunmen’s identities have now largely vanished. Careful investigative work by the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) fingered the police and navy special forces units involved, and named names of the higher-ups allegedly responsible for the killings.

But the government has found ways to look like it was taking action without really doing anything. In 2009, aPresidential Commission of Inquiry created to investigate 16 major human rights cases exonerated the armed forces in a flawed process, instead blaming the Tamil Tigers or a Muslim militia. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has never made the full report public.

The new ACF report says that security forces prevented ACF and other international agencies from reaching the crime scene for several days.  Police and state investigators made no effort to conduct a serious investigation. And subsequent government inquiries have only sought to deflect international attention.  ACF concludes that the 17 aid workers “were likely assassinated by members of Sri Lankan security forces and the criminals must have been covered up by Sri Lankan top authorities.”

ACF said they went public because there are “no prospects of an effective domestic investigation today.”  And “only an independent international investigation can effectively lead to prosecution of the killers.” 

Human Rights Watch and others have long pressed for an international investigation into this and many other atrocities committed by both sides during Sri Lanka’s 26-year-long civil war.

One hopes governments that can act on ACF’s plea – most readily at the United Nations Human Rights Council in March – are listening.  Those 17 black-and-white photos are not going away.

US Government Support for New Hospital for Palai Division in Kilinochchi

December 4, 2013

US Embassy Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Read this release in Sinhala (pdf, 164 kb)
• Read this release in Tamil (pdf, 248 kb)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Sherry Carlin, along with Dr. P. Sathiyalingan, Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine, Northern Provincial Council, inaugurated the newly constructed Divisional Hospital in Palai yesterday.  The hospital, at a total cost of $525,000 (approximately 69 Million SLR), consists of an emergency treatment unit, 24 inpatient beds (12 beds each for pediatrics and maternity ward with delivery room) and a pharmacy.  The hospital will also provide preventative health services through outpatient services.  

“This new hospital will have a significant impact on thousands of people living in the surrounding communities by offering accessible, quality healthcare,” said Ms. Carlin at the opening ceremony.  “The Divisional Hospital will act as the primary healthcare facility in Palai, until other medical facilities within the Province can be reconstructed and rehabilitated to help support the medical demands being placed on surrounding medical facilities.  This means the medical staff here will be able to treat people more quickly, offering urgent medical attention when needed while also offering less costly preventative care for the entire family.”

This hospital is one of nine hospitals being funded by a combined effort with the Civil Military Support Element (CMSE) from the U.S. Embassy in conjunction with NGO Medical Teams International, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health and Northern Province Directors of Health Services, World Health Organization, and a diverse group of engineers and specialists.  An additional five hospitals will also be opened in early 2014.

Embassy of the United States of America 

Colombo 

PRESS RELEASE 

Public Affairs Section 

Tel: +94 (1) 249-8100 ● Fax: +94 (1) 244-9070 

 Email: SpavenJA@state.gov ● http://srilanka.usembassy.gov 

Release No. 20131204 

Pr-4dec13_Tamil-Embassy of the United States of America by nelvely

Manmohan Skipping CHOGM Was A Lost Opportunity: Lankan Envoy To Delhi

December 5, 2013 

India has lost an opportunity by not attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo last month, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Prasad Kariyawasam told the Telegraph in Calcuta.

The newspaper said the Lankan envoy had described as “unfortunate” Manmohan Singh’s absence from last month’s Commonwealth meeting in Colombo.

Indian PM

Kariyawasam denied knowledge of a visit by Prime Minister Singh to the Northern capital of Jaffna as announced by Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram last week.

“It was unfortunate that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo,” Sri Lanka’s high commissioner in India Prasad Kariyawasam told The Telegraph.

He said Singh’s decision to be absent at CHOGM was an “opportunity lost”.

The Lankan High Commissioner told the newspaper that not only would have Singh’s presence at the CHOGM been widely applauded, he would have also had the chance to see the “enormous progress” in the work done with Indian help in the northern province of Jaffna that is home to Tamils.

“The progress we have made in the northern province with Indian help is enormous. Had the PM visited Jaffna for CHOGM, he would have been able to see it himself. It would have helped the India-Sri Lanka partnership and the reconciliation process further. It was an opportunity lost,” Kariyawasam said. The envoy said the Lankan government had no information about any forthcoming visit by Singh.

The newspaper also quoted a senior official at the Sri Lankan High Commission in New Delhi as saying that it was sad that Manmohan Singh succumbed to internal pressures without thinking about the long-standing relationship between the two countries.

The newspaper quoted a diplomat in Delhi as saying that President Mahinda Rajapaksa was “highly disappointed”. “When heads of all states were arriving at CHOGM, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif got the biggest applause. This applause would have gone to Singh if he had attended the meeting because he would have appeared as the tallest leader of the region who did not succumb to any internal pressure,” the diplomat said.

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) Begins its 2nd Parliamentary Term. Inaugural Session on December 6th.

Thursday, 05 December 2013 

Inaugural session will be broadcast live on: www.tgte-us.org and www.naathamnews.com

NEW YORK, USA, December 4, 2013 /EINPresswire.com/ --

1) During this session, TGTE MP’s will elect the Prime Minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

2) Several dignitaries from around the world, including legislators and political leaders, will address the opening Session.

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), which was formed after the mass killing of Tamils in the final months of the Sri Lanka war in 2009, completed its first Parliamentary term and begins its second Parliamentary term on December 6, 2013.

After completing the first term in office, the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam’s (TGTE) Prime Minister Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, dissolved the Parliament on October 1, 2013.

The TGTE Election Commission then took over the responsibility to hold elections for the 2nd term of the TGTE Parliament. The Chief Election Commissioner Mrs. S. Sridas along with her other Commissioners around the world organized elections in twelve countries.

The newly elected 112 TGTE Members of Parliament (MPs) will meet from December 6th to 8th in New Jersey in the United States to take oaths and to inaugurate the second Parliamentary term. Some MPs will join via video conference from Zurich, Switzerland.

Several dignitaries from around the world, including legislators and political leaders, will address the opening Session.

During this session, TGTE MP’s will elect the Prime Minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker.

The new session will convene under the newly elected Speaker. Numerous topics will be discussed during this Session and Resolutions adopted.

The newly elected MPs will represent Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway and New Zealand.

NOTE: The Parliamentary session will be broadcast live on: www.tgte-us.org and www.naathamnews.com

ABOUT TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM (TGTE):

Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a new political concept, formed after the mass killing of Tamils in the final months of the war in 2009.

It is a new political formation based on the principles of nationhood, homeland and self-determination. The raison d’etre for the TGTE is lack of political space inside the island of Sri Lanka for the Tamils to articulate and realize their political aspirations fully due to Constitutional impediments, racist political environment and military strangulation; and the coordination of diaspora political activities based on democratic principles and the rule of law.

The Constitution of the TGTE mandates that it should realize its political objective only through peaceful means.

TGTE held internationally supervised elections in 12 countries. These elections were held to ensure that core believe of democracy be upheld within the TGTE and to demonstrate TGTE's belief and reliance upon democratic ideals. TGTE has a bicameral legislature and a Cabinet. Although an elected body, TGTE does not claim to be a government in exile.

TGTE held its second elections in October 2013. Tamils around the world unitedly elected all the Members of Parliament without contest. With this election, TGTE begins its 2nd Parliamentary term.

The TGTE promulgated a Freedom Charter on May 18, 2013 incorporating “Freedom Demands” of the Tamils across the globe. Presently, in addition to the campaign for an international investigation, the TGTE is also campaigning for an International Protection Mechanism and the release of documents pertaining to Tamils prepared by the Office of the Special Advisor of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide.

TGTE believes that the referendum among the Tamils inside the island of Sri Lanka and the Tamil diaspora will contribute to the political resolution of the Tamil national conflict.

So far, the human cost has reached 100,000 as it grows. There are also 90,000 Tamil war widows. The Tamil women, especially female bread winners are subject to sexual abuse by the Sri Lankan security forces.

Suthan Raj
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)
+33651055300
email us here

Anuradhapura HC judge rescinds earlier illegal order but makes another more vicious creating more disorder

(Lanka-e-News- 05.Dec.2013, 7.00PM) Following the exposure by Lanka e news and the fierce protests lodged by the Anuradhapura Bar association against the permission given by Anuradhapura high court judge Bandula Karunaratne to Ms. Anoma Dissanayake , the child protection authority to use the Anuradhapura court premises as a car park for the ‘Royal channel center’ belonging to the family of Anoma Dissanayake, Bandula Karunaratne had been forced to rescind this order, according to reports.

Lanka e news reputed locally and internationally for its fearless and forthright exposures no matter what high position the targeted individual holds , reported on the 24 th of November about the unscrupulous trait of this judge who is treating the court premises as his dowry property for the most nefarious reasons despite holding a lofty judicial position, and thereby he is disgracing the whole judiciary.

When the Anuradhapura Bar Association met on the 26th to take a decision on this most reprehensible action of Karunaratne , it had come to light that the latter had committed another dubious and diabolic wrongdoing. Karunaratne had sent a spy of his to the Lawyers’ meeting and had been listening to the proceedings of the meeting via a device connected to his spy’s mobile phone.

Karunaratne who had through that device come to know of the lawyers who were critical of him is now seeking to take revenge against them , and is also enlisting the other judges too to join him to accomplish his vendetta aims. Karunaratne had arranged for the sly recording of the meeting to be played before the Anuradhapura magistrate Ruwanthika Marapone, Magistrate Chandima Edirimanne, High court judges Dhammika Ganepola and Kema Swarnadhipathy and district judge Indika Attanayake .

It is a pity that though Karunaratne is a judge of the high court he knows no etiquette or moral ethics so much so that he has stooped so low even to play the role of a peeping Tom like rascals and scoundrels who peep through the keyhole to watch what a couple is doing within a bedroom. A high court judge descending to the level of eavesdropping on a lawyers’ meeting by tape recording it on the sly is worse than a scoundrel and a rascal.

Though Karunaratne had commenced his vindictive action against the lawyers and trying to ride the high horse , it is a well and widely known fact that Karunaratne is a judge who collects bribes at his official residence itself , and the lawyers are well aware of this. It is therefore the opinion of the legal circles that Bandula Karunaratne cannot ride high for long as he is sure to have a heavy fall and face the same disgraceful and dismal fate that was suffered by the Homagama judge .

‘Do You Love Your Country?’ Is A Trick Question

By Anne Perkins -December 5, 2013

Anne Perkins

Do you love your country? When Keith Vaz, the MP who chairs the home affairs committee put the question to the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger, midway through yesterday’s evidence session on the NSA leaks, it was, almost certainly, meant helpfully. It was that lawyerly thing of getting out into the open the answer to the opposition’s charge (the rather hefty one of treason) before the opposition had a chance to put it themselves. Cue unqualified affirmation!

But do you love your country? Well do you? Quite right, it’s a trick question. The answer’s not what you say, or even the way that you say it. The answer is in the pause between the end of the question and the start of the answer. If you need to stop and think about it, then you might just as well say no. You almost certainly don’t love your country in the way that the person who asked the question meant.

Read more in the Guardian