Mel murder bloodied hands using a painter’s brush to paint a wrong picture- aim was to spite US

(Lanka-e-News- 03.Feb.2014, 11.45PM) The government is moving heaven and earth to wash off its bloodied hands by blaming the ghastly murder of Mel Gunasekera , a reporter for international media on Sri Lanka economic and analytical news , on an ordinary paint baas (painter)

It is well to recall the thwarted attempt to murder Sunday leader deputy editor Mandana Ismail recently on similar lines was also made by soldiers of the forces breaking into her house late night, in order to search for documents in her possession in connection with the collection of commission of Rs. 40 million by Namal Rajapakse from Krish Co.

Brutally murdered Mel Gunasekera too was well informed of a number of underhand deals of the Rajapkse regime. Killing of Mel the international reporter on the very day following the official notice given by visiting US state secretary Biswal that the US will be tabling a resolution at the Geneva conference on the crimes committed during the last phase of Sri Lanka (SL) war , as well as the dismal state of the human rights situation in SL , is to give a slap in the face of the US , according to political analysts.

Mel Gunasekera is a US educated female journalist. 

No matter what , there are a lot of disputes and confusion among the police itself over the incrimination of a drunk painter in this murder citing the motive to murder as robbery of Rs. 1200 .

Analysts say , even to feign madness there must be a method . The powers that be who want to cover up this crime should not have chosen a paint baas (painter) to paint a wrong picture because it is like a kindergarten class child being used to paint a picture.

Independence

Editorial-February 3, 2014, 

Sri Lanka celebrates its 66th Independence Day today. The British left in 1948, but has the country been able to throw off the colonial yoke yet? If the answer is in the affirmative then the question is whether British Prime Minister David Cameron would have behaved the way he did last November here if this country had been truly independent and sovereign. His hubris and callousness unbecoming of a head of state would not have stemmed from anything other than a misplaced belief that he was visiting a British dominion and, therefore, free to act according to his whims and fancies. (But, during his visit to China, he was put in his place!)

The government tells us that we are a sovereign state and no one will be allowed to dictate to it. Politicians may bellow such rhetoric for public consumption, but reality is otherwise. Even mid-level envoys of western governments throw their weight about when they land here; they even issue diktats to the government, meddling as they do with internal affairs of this country. We have seen quite a few of them during the last few months.

Charles de Gaulle it was who famously said if a country was to be truly independent it had to have the nuclear bomb—"No country without an atom bomb could properly consider itself independent." No truer words have ever been spoken about a nation’s independence and sovereignty!

For countries sans both military might and economic prowess, independence is a mere annual ritual. It is not being argued that Sri Lanka has been without any achievements all these years. What needs to be appreciated most is its resilience as a functional democracy—however flawed it may be—in spite of bloody conflicts which plagued it for the most part of the post-Independence era. This cannot be said of other trouble-torn, highly militarised nations in the developing world. Its socio-economic indicators also remain relatively satisfactory. But, it would have been able to achieve much more in terms of development if its focus had been on economic growth rather than power politics.

Opportunities that presented themselves after the conclusion of the war were sadly squandered. Instead of making a concerted effort to pave the way for national reconciliation, accomplish the formidable tasks such as reconstruction and rehabilitation and forge ahead as a nation, those responsible for defeating terrorism sadly fell out and started jousting for power. The rest is history.

Sri Lanka’s Independence Day is followed by the annual Geneva UNHRC summit where the worst war criminals responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of civilians masquerade as human rights crusaders and castigate others to further their geo-strategic interests and shore up their crumbling images as world powers. They also turn to soft targets and make beasts of the chase of smaller nations to stage diplomatic fox hunts in a bid to show off their power. However, this is something to be expected in a world where principles are conspicuous by their absence and might is right whether one likes it or not.

The government seems preoccupied with Geneva. Its concern is understandable given the realignment of hostile forces in the international arena. It, no doubt, ought to do everything in its power to defeat anti-Sri Lankan resolutions. But, that task requires a multi-pronged strategy whose success hinges on the government’s willingness and ability to get its act together on the domestic front. Improving its human rights record as well as implementing the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations—not to mention developing the economy to make the country less dependent on foreign aid—is half the battle.

Tear Up The National Flag And Dump It !

By Muhammed Fazl -February 4, 2014

Muhammed Fazl

I call upon all Sri Lankans to tear up the national flag & dump it & demand a new one to be designed so as to create a state of unity, equality & justice and to ward off the curse that has engulfed us all, all along!

Reasons for my conclusion;

1. SL never had lions nor was a bone ever found. We don’t have a national animal (we have a bird though) and the lion supposedly is to show bravery of the Sinhala race. The country was in existence thousands of years before the advent of the Sinhala race and it will continue to exist for thousands of years more even if the race becomes extinct! Talking of origins, neither the race, its people or the language is native and it all evolved from Asia, particularly India, Nepal etc…

And of bravery, now that is a far cry from reality. Sri lanka is a land of cowards & traitors who meekly surrendered it to the Portuguese, the Dutch and finally to the Britishers. Our independence was NOT hard fought, we just got it on a platter. Even at that stage, we were made to think that the Britishers were doing us a favor and we even said ‘thank you Sir’ on bended knees. Let us also NOT forget that it was the ‘Sinhala’ race that instigated and sustained the struggle for the division of the country during the 1983-1998 war!

One might wonder how the Sinhala race-led government sustained the war. First it was the ‘Sinhala-only’ policy followed by the marginalization of the minorities of every government in power that instigated the uprising of the Tamils, followed by the government’s lack of will to find a peaceful solution, give equality, separate state & religion & aiding the enemy with funds & weapons which resulted in it lasting longer with lethal devastation! Eliminating a rag-tag army of under 10,000 by a well equipped force of over 300,000 strong and dragging it for over 25 long years wouldn’t be considered ‘bravery’ in my book either. And questioning the alleged tactics of the SL armed forces, especially during the last stages of the war would definitely warrant an international War Crime Tribunal! But then again it is another long story…

The hard-line nationalist may want to portray the Lion symbol as bravery…. but in my view it is a flesh-eating, violent savage. No wonder the people of Sri Lanka resorting to violence & physical abuse at every altercation. A symbol of peace would be the need of the hour and an animal found in Sri Lanka would make it more sensible. My personal choice would be the elephant (majestic) or the peacock with its vibrant colors. (The government can request the Opposition party UNP to change their symbol).    

2. It is funny to see the colors of the flag depicting the 3 different races (Sinhala, Tamil, Moor). If a dimwit thought showing the 3 different races separately as unity, I beg to differ. It is WRONG to show divisions, by doing so, it divides the population and depicts an imbalance of rights when one sect is given prominence. Race and religion is a choice one makes or is made by a parent. either at birth or by marriage or by conviction and that SHOULD be a personal matter. Besides, history has shown that race only divides the people and that no good has come to date.

Let us have one common color that does not divide the people based on ethnicity!

3.  The 4 leaves of the Bo tree is supposedly to depict Metta (loving-kindness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita (the joy in other people’s well being) and Upekkha (spiritual state) of the Buddhist philosophy. But is it a common practice or is it still in existence by and large? The answer would be a big ‘NO’!

It is not uncommon to see the flag-bearers of Buddhism (monks) themselves being lustful, vengeful, racist, and violent among other negative attributes. In this context, how realistic would it be for its ordinary adherents to follow the teachings of Lord Buddha?

So who is fooling whom with this poorly thought-of design that we call the ‘National Flag’ and that which we are ‘forced’ to embrace??

Blame for us too, when Hemantha spoils all jobs - president

 Tuesday, 04 February 2014 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday (03) told some of his closest associates that president‘s counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya not only spoils all the jobs given to him, but that the blame has to be borne by not just him, but by all. His remark came after he got to know about the revelation we made the day before titled ‘Hemantha Warnakulasuriya’s 2nd conspiracy against Mangala revealed.’

All the parties involved are in a very bad jumble after Hemantha had spoiled the job by not doing it the way the president had told him to do.

The president had instructed that the ‘plant’ against mangala be first published in ‘Mawbima’ newspaper owned by Tiran Alles. But Hemantha had first published it in ‘Sunday Observer’ and yesterday’s ‘Dinamina’. When asked why, Tiran has said that Thushara Gunaratne had refused to publish it. When he heard the name Ruwan Sugathadasa, an astonished editor Gunaratne had asked as to from where he had been found. After Tiran enlightened him about everything, Gunaratne had advised him, “Do not make the newspaper a joke by conniving with jokers like him.” Hence, the decision to handover the publication of the article to Lake House.

When the persons tasked with finding the documents relating to the petition submitted by Sugathadasa had met Ports Authority chairman Priyath B. Wickrama, he had told them, “He is a schemer. Do not be deceived by him. If Mangala could have been ruined by this, I would have used it when Mangala was expelled from the government. I studied the case from A to Z. Sugathadasa uses people from time to time. Do not take his talks seriously.”

On information given by Sugathadasa, the CID had summoned Renuka Shanmuganathan to give a statement. This has badly frightened Sugathadasa. That is because once he had obtained Rs. 5 million from her saying the money was for Ruwan Ferdinandis. Later, when she met Ferdinandis, she had inquired whether he had received the money, and a perplexed Ferdinandis had asked what that was all about. Comprehending what had happened, she had explained everything to him. To save Sugathadasa, Ferdinandis has replied, “Yes. He told me about some money. I was not in Colombo. He may bring it to me. Do not fear.” Sugathadasa is afraid that Shanmuganathan will tell the CID about that incident.

However, Sugathadasa seems to be in a joyous mood these days, according to sources close to him. What he wants is to get attacked by the media and use that to deceive a western embassy and obtain visa. The other actor in this play-act, Sampath Kotelawala aka Shed Sampath, is following a crash course on computers at the insistence of presidential media unit head Mahinda Illeperuma since he fears the president will soon ask him how to access banned websites through proxies. Amidst all these, MP Buddhika Pathirana says that “I am not sure about my father-in-law. Otherwise, how can all these be carried by websites? This could well be a game among lawyers.

Expect more about this episode….

முஸ்லீம் கடையில் திருடும் பிக்குவின் திடுக்கிடும் காட்சிகள்

February 02, 2014
முஸ்லீம் வர்த்தக நிலையத்தில் பொருட்கள் வாகுவதற்கு சென்ற பௌத்த துறவி வாங்குவதற்குப் பதிலாக திருடும் நிலை பலரின் மத்தியில் ஆச்சரியத்தை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளதுடன் இது பல மக்கள் மத்தியில் அங்கலாய்ப்பை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளது.

Bhutan’s electric cars

• Maximising the use of hydro power- February 4, 2014 

Energy costs are an issue for all South
Asian nations. In Sri Lanka’s case, large hydro capacity is more or less exploited to the full. There is more space for mini hydro development but there are cost, purchase price and environmental iissues.

Bhutan’s electric cars by nelvely

Dear friends pls be carefull... 

Dear friends pls be carefull...Pass 2 all your contacts. Today again a boy died in Mumbai,Bcoz of attending a call while his mobile was at charge. That time he had sudden vibration 2 his heart & fingers were burnt. So pls don't attend calls while charging ur phone Pls pass this 2 all whom u care. When phone's battery is low to last bar, don't answer the phone, bcos the radiation is 1000 times stronger. — with Viru Dhiva and 47 others.



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Apple’s iPhone Sets Student’s Pants on Fire

NATHANAEL ARNOLD-FEBRUARY 01, 2014

Be warned: if you are an Apple (AAPL) user, you may want to sit down before reading this story – just make sure there is not an iPhone in your back pocket first. A thirteen-year-old student in Kennebunk, Maine, sustained “moderate” burns after an iPhone caught fire in her pocket on Friday, reports SeacoastOnline viaMacNN. It was unclear from the report which iPhone model was involved.

The incident occurred early in the day at Kennebunk Middle School. The student reported hearing “a pop” as she sat down at her desk and smoke immediately started billowing from her back pocket where her iPhone was located.

Kennebunk Middle School Principal Jeff Rodman noted that fellow students came to her aid while a teacher retrieved a blanket to smother the fire. As the student was trying to remove her pants, the iPhone fell out of her pocket and appeared visibly “burnt,” Rodman told SeacoastOnline. “It was something that I don’t think people had ever seen before. I’ve never seen anything like that,” added Rodman.

EMS Division Chief Andrew Palmeri speculated that the iPhone’s battery “shorted out” when the student sat on it. “People should obviously use caution when placing their phones in their back pockets so as not to crush them and cause an electrical short,” he stated via SeacoastOnline. Palmeri also noted that the incident would be fully investigated by the state fire marshal. Although Apple has yet to issue a statement about this incident, the company typically conducts its own investigation first, in order to determine why a device may have malfunctioned.

Rodman noted that the students’ quick reactions likely prevented more serious injuries from occurring. “I commend the students, I commend our staff, and the Kennebunk first responders for their immediate response and for the way it was handled,” stated Rodman per SeacoastOnline. “It was just a strange thing. A great response by everybody involved.”

Although an Apple iPhone bursting into flames is definitely a “strange thing,” it is not completely unheard of. Several years ago, an iPhone 4 caught fire on an Australian flight. More recently, a California man’s iPhone 4 caught fire while it was charging in his home. Apple’s iPads are apparently not immune to the occasional spontaneous combustion either. A demo iPad at a Vodafone (VOD) store in Canberra, Australia, reportedly burst into flames last November.

While the precise causes behind each of these incidents are not known, the lithium-ion batteries used in mobile devices do have the potential to combust when overheated or ruptured. For example,Boeing’s (BA) 787 Dreamliner planes experienced several fires last year due to overheated lithium-ion batteries.

Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS)

Tamils’ Smuggling Journey to U.S. Leads to Longer Ordeal: 3 Years of Detention

LANKAN ARRESTED AFTER BOMB THREAT ON PLANE

February 3, 2014 

Police at Arlanda airport in Stockholm have arrested a Sri Lankan man who attempted to enter the cockpit of a plane destined for Sweden claiming he had a bomb.

The Emirates airline flight, which departed from Dubai, was due to arrive at Arlanda before midday on Sunday. Not long after the plane left the United Arab Emirates, drama unfolded as the would be bomber rushed through the cabin screaming and shouting according to witnesses. 

Passengers reported that he tried to break into the cockpit before he was apprehended by members of the crew. He was wrestled to the ground and had cable ties put around his arms reports the TT news agency.

The man was kept stable for the remainder of the flight with passengers saying he was laying on the floor.

“There was no chance he would have been successful in trying to get into the cockpit,” Kenneth Knuts of the border police at Arlanda told TT.

“We met at the flight a man from Sri Lanka who had caused a disturbance onboard and had been shackled by the staff,” Albin Näverberg of the Stockhollm police told Expressen.

When the plane landed at Arlanda at 11am the man was taken in for questioning and subsequently arrested on suspicion of attempted aviation sabotage.   – The Local

Canadian NGO: Why we are suing the Prime Minister's Office

Prime Minister Stephen Harper treats the Muslim community as a political punching bag, writes Ihsaan Gardee

The National Council of Canadian Muslims is suing the Prime Minister's Office after the latter issued a statement tying the former to Hamas.

ADRIAM WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS

By: Ihsaan Gardee Published on Mon Feb 03 2014

The Toronto Star

One would think it unfathomable in Canada that the heart of our democratic government – the Prime Minister’s Office – would use the bullying tactics of undemocratic regimes to silence dissenters, but it has.

Canadian NGO Why We Are Suing the Prime Minister's Office by nelvely

World facing global 'cancer crisis', WHO warns

Worldwide cancer cases are growing at an alarming rate, the World Health Organisation warns, and "urgent" action is need to prevent a crisis.

TUESDAY 04 FEBRUARY 2014

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer agency of the WHO, has launched a report warning that the "worldwide burden of cancer" will hit 22 million cases a year in two decades, up from 14 million in 2012.

The World Cancer Report 2014 also says that the crisis is hitting the developing countries the worst, with 60 per cent of cases occurring in Africa, Asia and Central and South America.

It says that treating cancer alone will not solve the crisis, and that governments across the world need to implement early prevention strategies in order to curb the disease.

"Despite exciting advances, this report shows that we cannot treat our way out of the cancer problem," Dr Christopher Wild, director of IARC said.

"More commitment to prevention and early detection is desperately needed in order to complement improved treatments and address the alarming rise in cancer burden globally."

Lack of early detection

The report said that new cancer cases rose to 14 million a year in 2012, with the most common cancers being diagnosed being lung cancer (13 per cent), breast cancer (11.9 per cent, and large bowel cancer (9.7 per cent).

An estimated 8.2 million annual cancer deaths is expected to increase to 13 million in two decades, the report said.

Growing and ageing populations mean that around 8.4 million new cancer cases occur in developing countries. A lack of early detection in these countries has led to 70 per cent of cancer deaths occurring in these places, the report says.

It adds that developing countries need access to effective and affordable cancer treatments in order to avoid deaths, particularly in children. It says that around half of cancer death could be avoided "if current knowledge was adequately implemented."

Dr Wild said: "The rise of cancer worldwide is a major obstacle to human development and well-being. These new figures and projections send a strong signal that immediate action is needed to confront this human disaster, which touches every community worldwide, without exception."

Jarawa tribe now face sexual abuse by outsiders on Andaman Islands

Human rights groups call for protection as 'human safari' tribe face new incursions by other islanders and poachers

Members of the Jarawa tribe, who are suffering from exploitation as they begin to emerge from isolation in their forest reserve. Photograph: © Salomé/Survival

Gethin Chamberlain-Saturday 1 February 2014

India's threatened Jarawa tribe is facing a new danger from intruders in its jungle home. International attention has previously focused on the danger to the tribe from the daily human safaris that take tourists through the Jarawa's reserve on India's remote Andaman Islands, a phenomenon exposed by the Observer two years ago. But now a rare interview with a member of the tribe has revealed that they are also under attack from their own neighbours on the islands.

In the first public interview since the Jarawa began to make contact with the outside world, a member of the tribe has come forward to protest about the sexual abuse of young women from the tribe by outsiders. The man, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of those who helped him give his interview, claimed that other Andaman islanders and poachers had started to enter the forest to harass the tribe.

He alleged that the outsiders had introduced alcohol and drugs into the reserve and were sexually abusing girls from the tribe, which numbers about 400 and whose members only started to come out of the jungle 16 years ago.

"The girls say the outside boys press them lots," he said. "They press them using hands and nails, when the girls get angry. They chase them under the influence of alcohol. They fuck the girls. They drink alcohol in the house of girls. They also sleep in Jarawa's house. They chase the girls after smoking marijuana."

The tribesman spoke out days after eight Jarawa girls were allegedly kidnapped by men who landed at Jao Khana in dinghies. Seven men were arrested. That incident followed several other reports of the sexual exploitation of women from the tribe.

The interview is published in the Andaman Chronicle, whose editor, Denis Giles, has campaigned for years to prevent abuse of the Jarawa. He said the man who came out of the jungle did so because he was concerned about the incursions into their territory. And he said the interview showed that the threat to the Jarawa's existence now extended beyond the human safaris that run along the Andaman Trunk Road, which passes through the heart of their reserve. "Until today the world has confined the idea of the exploitation of the Jarawa to the trunk road, but there is another very real exploitation going on in the background," he said

Two years ago India was scandalised after the Observer exposed the human safaris by publishing video footage of girls from the tribe being coerced into dancing semi-naked in return for food. The safaris were condemned around the world and the Indian government promised to take action.

A year later the country's supreme court banned the safaris, only to row back on the decision after the island administration offered assurances that the Jarawa would be protected from the prying gaze of tourists. Hundreds of vehicles still pour through the jungle every day, packed with tourists whose main purpose is to see and try to photograph members of the tribe.

Giles said the trunk road remained the biggest problem facing the tribe. He said the island authorities were stalling on providing an alternative sea route to bypass the Jarawa's jungle, which is supposed to be completed by March 2015. "Andaman administration do not speak about it. They are confident that it will never take place and blame it on official delay," he said.

"But while the road is a major cause of exploitation, the other part is while the authorities were trying to cover up the road issue, they took it easy with exploitation being done by local poachers, in spite of being aware of it."

Poachers, many from Burma, are known to have been regular visitors to the Jarawa's territory, but this is the first public indication of the scale of the interaction with the tribe. Anthropologists and human rights groups have been concerned about the effect on the tribe of contact with outsiders. Disease and the effects of the introduction of alcohol and drugs have been cited as reasons for assisting the tribe in perpetuating its isolation until members are ready for greater contact.

However, other powerful voices on the island have argued for integration, insisting that the Jarawa should be drawn into the mainstream.

The first interview with a member of the tribe was in 2003 with a young man, Enmai, who had broken his leg on a raid on a neighbouring settlement. Since then no one from the tribe has spoken publicly.

The Jarawa is one of the four tribal groups on the islands. The others are the Sentinelese, the Onge and the Great Andamanese (themselves originally consisting of 10 separate tribes).

Sophie Grig, of Survival International, said: "This is shocking first-hand testimony that Jarawa women are being lured with alcohol and drugs and sexually exploited by poachers on their land. These revelations are just the latest example of the Andaman administration's failure to adequately protect the island's most vulnerable citizens.

"Exactly four years ago, the last member of the Bo tribe of the Andaman Islands died. The Bo were one of the 10 Great Andamanese tribes, and were devastated by diseases brought in by the British when they colonised the islands in the 19th century. Many Great Andamanese contracted syphilis after being sexually exploited by the colonisers. Numbering more than 5,000 when the British first arrived, only around 50 of the Great Andamanese still survive today.

"We must ensure that history does not repeat itself and that anyone caught exploiting the Jarawa is prosecuted."

Permanent Peoples’ Tribunals and the pursuit of justice in Sri Lanka

By JS Tissainayagam Feb 03, 2014

Can civil society initiatives succeed where the world’s powerful governments have failed?

Competitive, state-centred international politics are often a barrier for victims of human rights violations to find redress through global judicial institutions. To circumvent some of these restrictions the civil society-led International War Crimes Tribunal was founded by Bertrand Russell in 1967 to try the United States and its allies for war crimes against the Vietnamese people.

Permanent Peoples’ Tribunals and the pursuit of justice in Sri Lanka by nelvely

A ‘Re – Solution’ And Geneva

By Easwaran Rutnam- Monday, February 03, 2014

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran

Tamils want immediate solutions. The Government has failed to provide these solutions. A resolution at the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) was the best way to have the voice of the Tamils heard; that seems to have been the sentiments expressed by the NPC, when it passed not one, but three resolutions last week. Key among the three was the one calling for an international investigation into the alleged deaths of over 100,000 Tamils during the final stages of the war in the North.

A ‘Re – Solution’ And Geneva by nelvely

Finding A Resolution That Does Not Polarise Sri Lanka Even More

By Jehan Perera -February 3, 2014

Jehan Perera

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal who visited Sri Lanka made it clear that the United States would continue to pursue a resolution on Sri Lanka at the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.   The Sri Lankan government is totally opposed to the initiative spearheaded by the US to have a resolution that calls for an international probe into the human rights issues that arose in the last phase of the war.   Ms Biswal also explained her country’s interest in Sri Lanka as being motivated by its values and desire to see peace and prosperity in Sri Lanka and the region.  However, this latter motivation is unlikely to impress the ethnic majority Sinhalese population at large whose view of post-war Sri Lanka corresponds to that of the government, which gives priority to post-war economic development over other values.

While Assistant Secretary Biswal was meeting with the country’s decisionmakers and also visiting the North, I was in Avissawella in the Western Province.  The government has scheduled early elections in both the Western and Southern provinces and selected the day after the vote in Geneva for these elections.  The government appears to be calculating that the voters will be motivated by the spirit of nationalism to give it a victory at these elections, which will be a springboard for further victories at the more important Presidential and Parliamentary elections that are billed to follow in swift order.  On the Sunday morning I was in Avissawella, it presented a picture of tranquility and prosperity, with tea and rubber plantations and factories and schoolchildren going to Sunday school in their temples.  In conversation with people on the street getting about their daily business it could be seen that Ms Biswal’s concerns about post-war peace and prosperity were largely met, at least for them.

But the problem is that the same does not hold true in the North and East of the country where the war was fought, and even in the hearts of members of the ethnic minorities who live outside of those fromer war zones. The concerns of the Sinhalese majority are different from those of the Tamil and Muslim ethnic minorities, especially where it concerns their sense of security. The recently elected Northern Provincial Council has passed a resolution of its own calling for an international war crimes investigation.  The resolution of the Northern Provincial Council has pitted it frontally against the government and is likely to be based on their frustration at the emasculation of the Provincial Council despite its recent election.  However, most non-Tamil Sri Lankans would agree with the view that the government is being punished for having defied Western pressure to stop the war and negotiate with the LTTE.  Some would even say that the forces of separatism are at work again.

Government Warning                                                   Read More