Putin claims Russian forces 'could conquer Ukraine capital in two weeks'

Leak reveals Russian president told José Manuel Barroso that his forces could conquer Kiev if he ordered them to do so

A Kremlin foreign policy adviser said the Russian president's remarks were taken out of context. Photograph: Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images

Ian Traynor in Brussels-

Tuesday 2 September 2014 

Vladimir Putin has said Russian forces could conquer the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in two weeks if he so ordered, the Kremlin has confirmed.

Moscow declined to deny that the president had spoken of taking Kiev in a phone conversation on Friday with José Manuel Barroso, the outgoing president of the European commission.

Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy adviser, said on Tuesday that the Barroso leak had taken Putin's remarks out of context.

"This is incorrect, and is outside all the normal framework of diplomatic practice, if he did say it. This is simply not appropriate for a serious political figure," he said of the Barroso leak, according to the Russian Interfax news agency.

EU leaders held a summit on Saturday to decide who should run the union for the next five years, but the session was quickly preoccupied by Putin's invasion of Ukraine and how to respond.

Barroso told the closed meeting that Putin had told him Kiev would be an easy conquest for Russia, according to the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica. According to the account, Barroso asked Putin about the presence of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine. Nato says there are at least 1,000 Russian forces on the wrong side of the border. The Ukrainians put the figure at 1,600.

"The problem is not this, but that if I want I'll take Kiev in two weeks," Putin said, according to La Repubblica.

The Kremlin did not deny Putin had spoken of taking Kiev, but instead complained about the leak of the Barroso remarks.

Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president, attended the EU summit and painted an apocalyptic picture of the conflict, with EU leaders dropping their usual public poise in a heated debate.

Dalia Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian president, declared Russia was "at war with Europe". The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the main mediator with Putin, was said to be furious with the Russian leader, warning that he was "irrational and unpredictable", while David Cameronwas said to have raised the issue of Britain discussing policy options regarding Putin.

Cameron likened the west's dilemma with Putin to relations between the then British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938, when Anglo-French appeasement encouraged the Nazi leader to launch the second world war the following year.

"We run the risk of repeating the mistakes made in Munich in 1938. We cannot know what will happen next," Cameron was reported as saying. "This time we cannot meet Putin's demands. He has already taken Crimea and we cannot allow him to take the whole country."

Merkel pointed to the dangers for the Baltic states on Russia's western borders, home to large ethnic Russian minorities. She said Estonia and Latvia could be Putin's next targets, according to La Repubblica.

Defence of the two countries – both of which are Nato and EU members and part of the euro single currency zone – is the centrepiece of this week's Nato summit in Wales and the alliance is said to view that defence as a red line which Putin dare not cross. The US president, Barack Obama, is to deliver a speech in Estonia on Wednesday repeating that message.

The main decisions facing the Nato summit in Newport include deploying rapid response Nato spearhead units to the Baltic and Poland if necessary, stockpiling arms and equipment in the region, and strengthening the Nato presence in the east.

The plans call for units of up to 5,000 forces to be deployed within two to five days, according to a senior military official at Nato.

To try to avoid a bigger legal dispute with Russia, the Nato presence in the east will not be called permanent – proscribed under a Nato-Russia pact from 1997 – but back-to-back rotation of alliance forces will mean there is a persistent presence, according to a senior Nato diplomat.

If the Baltics and Polish are reassured by Nato, there will be little short-term comfort for Ukraine at the summit, which Poroshenko will also attend.

"It's not actually Nato's job to be the police officer of Europe. Nato is not the first responder on this," the diplomat said. "Nato's planning is all about how to defend allies, not partners like Ukraine."

At the weekend, Grybauskaite demanded that the west arm Ukraine. That is unlikely. "Nato is not going to launch a defence capacity-building mission in Ukraine," said the diplomat.

The summit is also expected to take Nato membership bids by four former Soviet states off the table in order to not antagonise Putin.

Russia is certain to respond to the Nato moves in eastern Europe, though it is not yet clear how.

"Nato's planned action … is evidence of the desire of US and Nato leaders to continue their policy of aggravating tensions with Russia," said Mikhail Popov, a Kremlin military official. Russia's military posture would be adapted appropriately.

Is Vladimir Putin Covering Up the Deaths of Russian Soldiers in Ukraine?

• BY REID STANDISH-SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

With Russian soldiers fighting in eastern Ukraine, Russian soldiers are also all but certainly dying there. Now, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be mounting a campaign to find out that his constituents don't find out about that unpleasant and politically explosive fact.

Is Vladimir Putin Covering Up the Deaths of Russian Soldiers in Ukraine by Thavam Ratna

100 days of Modi: Good for business, not so good for marginalised groups

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives a speech during his lecture meeting hosted by Nikkei Inc. and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Tokyo September 2, 2014.

BY NITA BHALLA-Tue Sep 2, 2014

NEW DELHI, Thomson Reuters Foundation - In his first 100 days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has protected the food security of millions of Indians on the global arena, but early trends suggest his government's pro-business policy will hurt the environment and the poor.

In "100 days review of NDA government" – a report released on Tuesday, focusing on issues faced by the country's poor and marginalised - civil society groups delivered a mixed verdict on Modi's coalition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, which swept to power in May.

Compiled by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA), a coalition of more than 4,000 civil society groups, the report examines early trends and emerging policies in governance, environment, health, education and the rights of women and marginalised groups.

"There are several reasons to be optimistic such as India's robust position regarding food security on the global stage, a mission mode attempt to end financial exclusion, plethora of schemes announced for women," it said.

Last month, Modi's government vetoed the adoption of a World Trade Organisation (WTO) treaty to streamline rules for shipping goods across borders.

The deal was blocked as the government wanted more attention paid to WTO limits on stockpiling food which it feared would impact its subsidised food distribution programme that aims to feed nearly 850 million people.

The WNTA - which includes charities such as World Vision, Jagori, Water Aid India and India Alliance for Child Rights - praised commitments to stem the rising reports of violence against women with efforts such as the establishment of 660 One Stop Crisis Centres for rape victims.

The NGOs also lauded Modi for a decision to make 50 essential generic medicines free of cost, commitments to build toilets in every home, and the better functioning of parliament.

BUSINESS OVER ENVIRONMENT

One of the most worrisome trends in Modi's first 100 days was a policy to expedite environmental clearances for industrial projects.

"The environment minister has declared that the environment ministry is no more the 'roadblock ministry', but one where decisions are being taken faster," the report said.

"The civil society is concerned that haste or efficiency could be at the expense of justice and the well being of the environment, natural resources and community."

It said within a month of assuming power, the NDA's rural development minister hinted at diluting the amount of say local communities have in the exploitation of their natural resources.

Expansion of coal mines has been exempted from public hearings, and mid-sized polluting industries can now operate within 5 km of national parks and sanctuaries, as opposed to 10 km as indicated in a Supreme Court directive, it said.

The charities also said they were "unsettled" following the leak by the NDA of an Intelligence Bureau report that criticises organisations such as Greenpeace India, ActionAid India and Oxfam as being anti-development and funded by foreigners with interests against India.

"I don't think it’s good to be naming groups who are giving a voice to the marginalised. We are not anti-development, and we are hoping that this is not a move to shrink the space of civil society," said Paul Divakar, WNTA's convener.

"LOVE JIHAD"

The report criticised lawmakers for failing to pass key bills such as those aimed at politically empowering women and protecting low caste and tribal communities from violence.

It also questioned a decision by the NDA - which is led by the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - to amend a law to allow juveniles found guilty of crimes such as rape and murder to be given the same punishments as adults.

It said this was a populist demand following outrage after the high-profile Delhi murder and gang rape case where one of those who was convicted was a juvenile and was given only three years in a detention home.

The report also noted trends that did not bode well for Muslims, who account for about 15 percent of India's 1.2 billion people. Many Muslims continue to live on the margins.

It said some religious Hindu radical groups gained prominence soon after the government took office, and there has been a spate of anti-Muslim statements by some BJP leaders and religious groups.

Furthermore, there have been false rumours that Muslim men are conducting “Love Jihad” by ensnaring Hindu girls and forcibly converting them to Islam – which has alarmed Muslims and could lead to increased communal tensions.

Caged until 'broken': life for Mumbai's prostitutes

Hazel Thompson gains access to a brothel in the Indian city of Mumbai, where trafficked girls are kept in cages like slaves to stop them running away - and only allowed out to have sex with customers.

TUESDAY 02 SEPTEMBER 2014

It was pitch black as I stumbled through the labyrinth of the dark corridors of a large brothel house in Kamathipura, Mumbai's notorious red-light district.

I'd been told to hide my camera under my scarf, not to speak and not to make eye contact with anyone. With my hand I felt the filthy walls dripping with condensation from the intense heat.

Eventually, guided by my Indian colleague, I came to a dimly lit door at the end of a corridor. Like a prison guard, an ageing madam came to the front of the brothel and unlocked the large padlock with her set of keys.

I was taken into the reception area of the brothel, the space where the customers are taken to select a girl. On the ceiling I could see a small, open trap door. The madam disappeared, and I climbed up a wooden ladder and pushed through the small gap.

Caged

Suddenly I was face to face with a "box cage". I knew what I was looking at. The prostitutes I had met over years of investigating the sex industry in Mumbai had told me of the caged rooms and boxes they had been held in for months, even years. They told me they were held in the cages when they were first trafficked to the red-light district.

The madams would keep the girls like slaves in the cages until they were "broken" - the aim being to stop them running away. The girls told me they never knew if it was night or day when they were in the cages. They were only taken out to eat or to be given to a customer for sex. For years I had wanted to photograph these cages, to prove that these places actually exist.

I was returning to Kamathipura 11 years after my first visit - ostensibly as an aid worker with the charity Jubilee Campaign. In reality I was using the access I got to make a photographic and video record of a world that shouldn't be allowed to exist.

I did a lot of hiding in the back of brothels and on the roofs of the red light buildings, trying to chronicle the lives of girls trafficked and tricked into sex slavery.

Trafficked

Before 2002, when I first came to India to photograph children born into this vile industry, I knew nothing about trafficking. Those early days of visiting Kamathipura changed my life, and I've been unable to let this story go.

I was unable to let go because of girls such as Guddi, the prostitute in this film. I first met Guddi (pictured above) while I was shooting on 14th Lane, in the heart of Kamathipura. I was sheltering from the intense summer heat in a clinic run by a charity, when Guddi came rushing through the door. She was distraught and crying after being beaten by one of the gangsters who run the district.

Guddi was just 11 years old when she was trafficked from the countryside. She was lured directly from the protection of her parents and 13 other siblings, from her home in a poor village near Kolkata.

Her trafficker was her mother's friend, she says, who had lived next door to her family home all her life. She promised Guddi well-paid domestic work in Mumbai that would help feed her struggling family.

Raped

Guddi's life dramatically changed as soon as she arrived in Mumbai. She was taken to Kamathipura, where she was dragged into a brothel on 14th Lane and raped by a paedophile customer, while the madam and her daughter held her down by her arms and legs to restrain her.

The customer raped her so violently that she was hospitalised for three months. They raped her to break her, she says. She was then held, not knowing if it was day or night, in a caged room in a brothel house on 14th Lane - her tale sadly echoed by many of the girls I met and interviewed over the past 11 years.

Over those years, I have watched and photographed thousands of men visiting Kamathipura - they say they are looking for pleasure. But a red-light district is not a place of pleasure. It is a place of pain.

I have often wondered if men would come and have sex with these women if they knew their true stories, like Guddi's, if they knew how the girls have been trafficked, and that actually they are paying to rape a girl who is a sex slave.

Jubilee Campaign helps rescue and rehabiltiate girls and women from Mumbai’s red light district.

Ebola outbreak: call to send in military to West Africa to help curb epidemic

Head of Médecins sans Frontières urges UN to dispatch disaster response teams as cases and deaths continue to surge

Medical workers of the John F Kennedy hospital of Monrovia show the aprons they have been wearing during a strike. Photograph: Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images

Sarah Boseley, health editor

Tuesday 2 September 2014 

Military teams should be sent to West Africa immediately if there is to be any hope of controlling the Ebola epidemic, doctors on the frontline told the United Nations on Tuesday, painting a stark picture of health workers dying, patients left without care and infectious bodies lying on the streets.

The international president of Médecins sans Frontières, Dr Joanne Liu, told member states that although alarm bells had been ringing for six months, the response had been too little, too late and no amount of vaccinations and new drugs would be able to prevent the escalating humanitarian disaster.

"In West Africa, cases and deaths continue to surge," she said. "Riots are breaking out. Isolation centres are overwhelmed. Health workers on the frontline are becoming infected and are dying in shocking numbers.

"Others have fled in fear, leaving people without care for even the most common illnesses. Entire health systems have crumbled."

She said Ebola treatment centres had been reduced to places where people went to die alone.

"It is impossible to keep up with the sheer number of infected people pouring into facilities. In Sierra Leone, infectious bodies are rotting in the streets," she said. "Rather than building new Ebola care centres in Liberia, we are forced to build crematoria."

The World Health Organisation estimated last week that 20,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been infected over three months. Médecins sans Frontières has doubled its staff of volunteer doctors in the region but is unable to cope.

The epidemic can be stopped, said Liu, but only if governments send in their biohazard teams and equipment.

"Many of the member states represented here today have invested heavily in biological threat response," she said at the UN. "You have a political and humanitarian responsibility to immediately utilise these capabilities in Ebola-affected countries.

"To curb the epidemic, it is imperative that states immediately deploy civilian and military assets with expertise in biohazard containment. I call upon you to dispatch your disaster response teams, backed by the full weight of your logistical capabilities. This should be done in close collaboration with the affected countries. Without this deployment, we will never get the epidemic under control."

Money is no longer the main issue, according to MSF, and voluntary help is not enough. Skilled and well equipped teams are needed on the ground.

Governments should send in military and civilian experts who can scale up the numbers of isolation centres and deploy mobile laboratories that can be used to diagnose more cases.

Military-style operations are required to establish dedicated air bridges to move personnel and equipment around West Africa and a regional network of field hospitals must be built to treat medical staff who are infected or suspected of being infected. About a tenth of the deaths have been among health workers.

"We must also address the collapse of state infrastructure," Liu said. "The health system in Liberia has collapsed. Pregnant women experiencing complications have nowhere to turn.

"Malaria and diarrhoea, easily preventable and treatable diseases, are killing people. Hospitals need to be reopened and newly created."

Lastly, she said, there must be a change of approach by affected countries. "Coercive measures, such as laws criminalising the failure to report suspected cases, and forced quarantines, are driving people underground.

"This is leading to the concealment of cases, and is pushing the sick away from health systems. These measures have only served to breed fear and unrest, rather than contain the virus."

Liu was speaking as nurses in Liberia went on strike for better pay and equipment to protect themselves from Ebola.

John Tugbeh, spokesman for the strikers at John F Kennedy hospital in Monrovia, said the nurses would not return to work until they are supplied with "personal protective equipment (PPEs)", the hazmat-style suits that guard against infectious diseases.

"From the beginning of the Ebola outbreak we have not had any protective equipment to work with. As a result, so many doctors got infected by the virus. We have to stay home until we get the PPEs," he said.

The surgical section at John F Kennedy hospital is the only trauma referral centre in Liberia. The hospital closed temporarily in July owing to the infections and deaths of an unspecified number of health workers who had been treating Ebola patients.

"We need proper equipment to work with [and] we need better pay because we are going to risk our lives," Tugbeh said.

The UN has also warned of serious food shortages as a result of restrictions on movement in the Ebola-hit countries. "Access to food has become a pressing concern for many people in the three affected countries and their neighbours," said Bukar Tijani, Food and Agricultural Organisation regional representative for Africa.

"With the main harvest now at risk and trade and movements of goods severely restricted, food insecurity is poised to intensify in the weeks and months to come."

Bala Tampoe, Our Comrade No More..! -Dr. Bahu

(Lanka-e-News- 01.Sep.2014, 10.30PM) Bala Tampoe, our comrade Bala is no more. He joined the left movement when he was a student and continued to work for the LSSP while he was a lecturer in Botany and Horticulture in the Department of Agriculture. He came into the limelight as a strike leader after his dismissal from public service, for participating in the strike of public servants in 1947. Soon after, he joined the CMU as an energetic new leader. He was interested in political theory and soon became a political teacher as well within the LSSP. At the same time, he was keen to work among the urban workers and devoted much time for the CMU.

The CMU was originally built in 1928 as a white-collar union in the mercantile sector. After Tampo became its general secretary in February 1948, the union came under the influence of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), which at the time was part of the Fourth International. In the 1950s and 1960s, Tampo was known for his militant challenges to the political decisions of the government of the day. In 1963, he led a strike in the Colombo port that escalated into an all-island general strike and defied the government of Sirima Bandaranaike when it invoked its emergency powers.

When the LSSP left the Fourth International to join the Bandaranaike government in 1964, Tampo became a central leader of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary), which the United Secretariat of the Fourth International recognized as its section. However the LSSP-R could not survive as a mass organization and when NSSP evolved as a mass party Bala was eager to work with us. He remained loyal to the forth international though he was not very active. In 2010 when the pro government thugs tried to kill me when I was retuning from London after addressing the Tamil commemoration meeting, he embraced me and said ‘you are a true Sama Samajists living among us’.

He retained the position of CMU general secretary and participated actively in major negotiations with the government and employers even recently. He departed with the dignity and power of a proletarian leader.

Bala with us from tommorow 1.00pm, to 5th Friday 3.00pm. The funeral procession will start on from CMU Union Headquarters in Colpetty (Colombo 3) 22nd lane on 5th Friday at 3.00 pm

By -Dr. Wickramabahu -Leader of The Nawa Samasamaja Party

Veteran trade union leader BalaTampoe passes away 

  

September 1, 2014 5:21 pm   

The veteran trade unionist Bala Tampoe passed away today at the age of 92.

Bala Tampoe (1922-2014) was a lawyer and a trade unionist. He was the General Secretary of the Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers Union (CMU) in Sri Lanka.

Born on May 23, 1922 to a prominent family in Jaffna, he was educated at the prestigious Royal College Colombo and gained a B.Sc. degree from the newly established University of Ceylon in 1943 and the University of London in 1944. Later he studied law at the Colombo Law College and became an advocate, practicing criminal law.

The Bala Tampoe story

The Bala Tampoe story

Malinda Words-BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE-September 1, 2014 

Veteran trade union leader and General Secretary of Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers Union Bala Tampoe passed away in Colombo at the age of 92 today.  I interviewed 'Comrade Bala' for the Sunday Island 13 years ago.  That interview (published on April 8, 2001) is reproduced here by way of tribute to a colorful and evergreen red, so to speak, in labor politics in Sri Lanka.

Marx said somewhere that men make history but not in the circumstances of their choosing. This is fundamentally a thesis about the dialectic character of structure and agency. For the most part, it seems, human beings are overwhelmed by the conditions they find themselves in, and allow themselves to be carried by the tide of seemingly inexorable processes. Still, the world is not without heroes and heroism, for there are those who challenge and radically alter contours of engagement in the social. In the process, inevitably, they succeed in redefining who they are, often in opposition to the cultural code dictated by genealogy and blood line. Such a man is Phillips Balendra Tampoe, or 
"Comrade Bala" to thousands of trade union activists the world over.
The Bala Tampoe Story by Thavam Ratna

DOING MORE TO PROMOTE RECONCILIATION AT LOCAL LEVEL TO SOLVE PEOPLE’S PROBLEMS--JEHAN PERERA

01 September 2014

One of the many benefits of the end of the war is the ability of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims to mix with one another without the prospect of getting into trouble. During the time of war, such mixing was potentially problematic, as those who were Tamil could easily be suspected of having links with the LTTE. Therefore even those who were engaged in peace building were wary of bringing members of all ethnic communities together. There was also a second reason. This was the polarization that existed within the communities as they supported one side or the other. This was something that was far too volatile and controversial for anyone or any group to take up. So the issue of the war was, by and large, not discussed in multi-ethnic settings. It was safer to do so in mono-ethnic settings.
Doing More to Promote Reconciliation at Local Level to Solve People’s Problems--jehan Perera by Thavam Ratna

பாடசாலை அதிபர்களிடம் ரி.ஐ.டி விசாரணை 

 31 ஆகஸ்ட்டு 2014, ஞாயிறு

கிளிநொச்சி மாவட்ட பாடசாலை அதிபர்கள் மூவர் நேற்றைய தினம் கந்தசாமி ஆலயதிற்கு அருகில் உள்ள பயங்கரவத தடுப்புப் பிரிவு அலுவலகத்திற்கு அழைக்கப்பட்டு நீண்ட நேர விசாரணைகளின் பின்னர் விடுவிக்கப்பட்டனர்.

 

 

கிளிநொச்சிப் பகுதியிலுள்ள பாடசாலைகளின் முகவரிக்கு அண்மையில் அனுப்பி வைக்கப்பட்ட உயிர்ப்பதிவு என்னும் புத்தகம் தொடர்பிலேயே மேற்படி பாடசாலைகளின் அதிபர்கள் பயங்கரவாதத் தடுப்புப் பிரிவின் செயலகத்திற்கு அழைக்கப்பட்டு விசாரணையின் பின் விடுவிக்கப்பட்டனர்.

 

குறித்த புத்தகம் கத்தோலிக்க மதகுரு ஒருவரினால் அச்சிட்டு வெளியிடப்பட்டதாகவும், இதன் பிரதியினை பாடசாலைகள் விடுமுறை என்பதால் தாங்கள் இன்னும் படிக்கவில்லை எனவும் கூறிய அதிபர்களிடமிருந்து புத்தகங்களைப் பெற்றுக்கொண்ட பயங்கரவாதத் தடுப்புப் பிரிவினர் அதிபர்களை உடன் விடுவித்தனர்.

 

 

குறித்த புத்தகம் முள்ளிவாய்க்கால் இன அழிப்பு தொடர்பான தகவல்களை தாங்கி வெளிவந்துள்ளதாக தகவல்கள் வெளியாகியுள்ளன.

 

இதேவேளை ஏனைய பாடசாலை அதிபர்களும் பயங்கரவத தடுப்புப் பிரிவினரால் விசாரணைக்காக அழைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளதாக தெரிவிக்கப்படுகிறது.

- See more at: http://onlineuthayan.com/News_More.php?id=754313380501618403#sthash.tHPVaNBx.dpuf

India wants 13A and beyond – Senathirajah 

August 31, 2014

By Ananth Palakidnar
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian and senior Tamil politician Mavai Somasundaram Senathirajah, who is expected to succeed R. Sampanthan, as the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) leader, at the Party's annual general meeting this week in Vavuniya, speaks to Ceylon Today on the TNA's recent talks with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Senathirajah also expressed the readiness of the Tamil National Alliance to hold direct talks with the government as far as the chauvinist forces do not mess around in finding a durable solution.
Excerpts of the interview:
Q:
How do you see the Tamil National Alliance's recent meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
India Wants 13A and Beyond – Senathirajah by Thavam Ratna

PM Pledged 100 Per Cent Support, Says TNA

By P K Balachandran-01st September 2014

COLOMBO: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told a delegation of the Sri Lankan Tamil National Alliance (TNA), when the latter met him in New Delhi on August 23, that India would be 100 per cent with the Tamils of Sri Lanka.

“We are 100 per cent with you, Modi said at the end of the meeting,” TNA delegation member M A Sumanthiran told Express here on Sunday, confirming a quote in the political column of The Sunday Times.  

Asked if Modi had requested the TNA to talk to other Tamil-speaking Lankan parties like the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC) representing the Indian-Origin Tamils, to evolve a common front, Sumanthiran said: “He asked us to take on board, not only the SLMC and CWC, but the opposition parties and liberal elements in the ruling alliance also.”

A First

Traditionally, India has been talking to all political parties in Lanka, and not just the TNA. But this is perhaps the first time that an Indian Prime Minister has explicitly sought the formation of a joint Lankan front or joint negotiating plank on the Tamil issue.

It is learnt that the Lankan opposition leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, is to visit New Delhi soon. And according to Lankan Economic Development Minister, Basil Rajapaksa, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is now a bitter opponent of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has also put in a request to meet Modi. Kumaratunga still has influential friends in New Delhi. 

Sumanthiran said that Modi had gone along with the TNA’s stand that there should be bilateral talks between the Lankan government and the TNA to solve the Tamil question.

No Special Envoy

The TNA asked Modi to appoint a Special Envoy for Lanka, as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did in the 1980s (G Parthasarathy was the Special Envoy then). But Modi said the Indian High Commission in Colombo is sufficiently equipped to handle the matters.   

According to delegation member Mavai Senathirajah, when the TNA handed over to Modi, a letter from the Northern Province Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran and said that the latter would like to meet him, Modi said: “I am eager to meet him too.” Modi then handed over the letter to an aide, saying: “Please make the necessary arrangements.”

However, The Sunday Times has raised the pertinent question as to whether a provincial CM can go overseas to meet a foreign leader without clearance from the Lankan government. Wigneswaran’s case is different from that of TNA’s as the latter is only a political party and the former is a constitutional functionary. Therefore, the question is: “Will Rajapaksa give clearance?”

பிரிட்டிஷ் பல்கலைக்கழக விரிவுரையாளரிடம் இலங்கை அதிகாரிகள் விசாரணை

'விரிவுரையாளர் இலங்கை இராணுவம் பற்றி சிலரை அழைத்து தகவல் கேட்டுள்ளார்': காவல்துறை

இலங்கையின் குடிவரவு-குடியகல்வு சட்டத்தை மீறும் வகையில், இலங்கை இராணுவம் தொடர்பான தகவல்களை சேகரித்த முயன்ற இந்தியரான- பிரித்தானிய பல்கலைக்கழக விரிவுரையாளர் ஒருவரிடம் விசாரணை நடத்தப்பட்டுள்ளதாக காவல்துறையினர் பிபிசியிடம் கூறியுள்ளனர்.

எல்எஸ்ஈ என்ற லண்டன் ஸ்கூல் ஆஃப் எகானமிக்ஸ்- பிரிட்டிஷ் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தைச் சேர்ந்த விரிவுரையாளரான டாக்டர் ராஜேஷ் வேணுகோபால் குடிவரவு குடியகல்வுதுறை அதிகாரிகளால் தடுத்துவைக்கப்பட்டு விசாரிக்கப்பட்டதாக பொலிஸ் பேச்சாளர் எஸ்எஸ்பி அஜித் ரோகண கூறினார்.

'இலங்கையில் நடக்கும் ஒரு கருத்தரங்கில் கலந்துகொள்வதற்கான வீசாவுடன் தான் அவர் இங்கு வந்திருக்கிறார். ஆனால் அவர் மட்டக்களப்பு பிரதேசத்துக்குச் சென்று, சிலரை ஓரிடத்துக்கு அழைத்து இராணுவத்தினர் தொடர்பான சில தகவல்களை கேட்டிருக்கின்றார். அங்கு இராணுவ கெடுபிடிகள் எப்படி இருக்கின்றன என்றெல்லாம் அவர் கேட்டிருக்கின்றார்..' என்றார் அஜித் ரோகண.

'அவர் வந்திருக்கின்ற வீசாவின்படி, அவருக்கு அதற்கான அனுமதி கிடையாது. குடிவரவு அதிகாரிகளின் விசாரணைக்குப் பின்னர் குறித்த கருத்தரங்கில் கலந்துகொள்ள அவர் அனுமதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளார்' என்றும் கூறினார் காவல்துறை பேச்சாளர்.

டாக்டர் வேணுகோபால் கடந்த ஞாயிறன்று இலங்கைக்கு அவர் வந்திருந்தபோது, கட்டுநாயக்க விமானநிலையத்தில் தடுத்துவைக்கப்பட்டிருந்ததாக ஊடகங்களில் வெளியான செய்தியையும் பொலிஸ் பேச்சாளர் மறுத்தார்.

தெற்காசிய அரசியல் விவகாரம், அபிவிருத்தி, மோதல் நிவர்த்தி உள்ளிட்ட விடயங்களே டாக்டர் ராஜேஷ் வேணுகோபால் தேர்ச்சி பெற்ற பாடப்பரப்புகள் என்று அவரது டுவிட்டர் தளத்தில் குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

விசாரணை முடிந்து விடுவிக்கப்பட்ட பிரிட்டிஷ் பல்கலைக்கழக விரிவுரையாளர் ராஜேஷ் வேணுகோபால், வறுமை ஒழிப்பு ஆய்வு தொடர்பான சீபா (CEPA) என்ற இலங்கை நிறுவனத்தின் கொழும்பில் நடக்கும் வருடாந்த மாநாட்டில் மோதல் நிவர்த்தி தொடர்பில் திங்கட்கிழமை உரையாற்றுகின்றமை குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

Detaining Jeyakumari Is A Govt Attempt To Intimidate Those Who Wish To Speak Out Before UN Inquiry: NPC

September 1, 2014 

The arbitrary arrest and detention of Jeyakumari Balendran in April this year, can be perceived as an attempt to cause fear among victims of the war who have not had any relief from the State and may wish to take their cause before the UN Inquiry, the National Peace Council (NPC) said today.

Jeyakumari

Pointing out her arrest has intimidated local Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) due to the chilling message it has sent across – that their activism may be punished, the NPC in a statement issued to mark the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances that fell on August 30, the NPC has shed light on Jeyakumari – a campaigner for those who went missing during the war-  who is yet detained, separated from her 13 year-old daughter.

The NPC notes that her arrest has also raised concerns over manipulating the PTA to target and take arbitrary punitive action against those who speak out on behalf of those who went missing during the war.

While recalling the Army Spokesperson’s statement where he claimed that Jeyakumari was arrested for habouring an armed criminal wanted in connection with an ongoing investigation, the NPC states that to their knowledge, no credible evidence has been produced by the government to substantiate the allegations against her to determine that she was in any way involved in aiding and abetting the LTTE revivalists.

The organisation has pointed out that indefinite detention without charges gives rise to the reasonable suspicion that Jeyakumari is being penalised, deprived of her fundamental rights for speaking out on behalf of families who are seeking whereabouts of their loved ones who are missing.

They have also expressed concern for Jeyakumari’s mental wellbeing and physical safety against the backdrop of mounting allegations of torture that are being made against law enforcement officials.

Furthermore in the statement the NPC has called upon the National Human Rights Commission to probe into Jeyakumari’s case and other similar cases where persons have been detained under the PTA without being brought to trial.

“We also believe that the abuse of the PTA to detain persons to intimidate and silence them highlights the need for its repeal and re-affirms the citizen’s right to speak out and campaign for human rights and justice,” it adds.

Previously this year in March, several other HRDs were arrested and some of them were released following unrelenting international and local protests calling for their release.