New era for Hong Kong with big wins for young, anti-China activists

Pro-democracy "localists" have emerged big winners in #LegCo2016. Pic: AP

5th September 2016 

A BRAND new generation of political leaders seeking greater independence from Beijing have emerged victors in the just-concluded Hong Kong legislative council elections, a result likely to impact the region’s ties with Communist Party leaders in China.

Reports streaming in early Monday indicate that at initial count, at least four of the handful of new generation pro-independence candidates campaigning for seats have emerged victorious.

The full result of the polls is expected to only come in later today but according to a Reuters report, it appears likely that the pro-democracy opposition will retain its crucial one-third veto bloc in the 70-seat council.

SEE ALSO: Hong Kong: Record turnout for highly contentious polls

A record 2.2 million, or 58 percent, of voters cast their ballots yesterday in the city-wide election, said to be Hong Kong’s biggest and most historic since its handover from Britain in 1997 and since the series of mass pro-democracy rallies in 2014. The large turnout caused delays in the vote tallying process in some areas,  the Associated Press reported.

Among the four to win are Nathan Law, the 23-year-old leader of the “Umbrella movement” rallies who reportedly polled enough votes to come in second behind a pro-Beijing candidate, thus guaranteeing himself a seat in the council.

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Sanday KC @sandaykc

#HONGKONG: Legco losses for veteran pan-democrats signal end of era @SCMP_News http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2014933/legco-losses-veteran-pan-democrats-signal-end-era?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=SCMPSocialNewsfeed … #LegCo2016#LegCo

3:29 AM - 5 Sep 2016

Legco losses for veteran pan-democrats signal end of era

Four pan-democratic veterans are preparing to exit Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, making way for young localists advocating greater self-determination for the city....

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Duncan Innes-Ker @duncanik

Bit of a generational baton-passing for the opposition in#HongKong #LegCo2016 vote, but little change in the shape of the legislature.

3:26 AM - 5 Sep 2016 

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“I think Hong Kongers really wanted change. Young people have a sense of urgency when it comes to the future,” he was quoted saying in an AFP report.

Law also acknowledged the split in the pro-democracy camp, with some backing the idea of independence and others seeing this as too drastic a move. But the youth leader said he will seek to get both factions to close ranks.

https://twitter.com/crusherforce/status/772694933224382465

SEE ALSO: Voting underway in Hong Kong’s crucial legislative election

“We have to be united to fight against the (Chinese) Communist Party,” he told the news wire. Law leads Demosisto, a party newly-formed with fellow protest leader Joshua Wong. Both Law and Wong were last month sentenced to serve 120 and 80 hours of community service respectively as punishment for leading the 2014 protests.

Meanwhile, a South China Morning Post report said four veteran democrats are preparing to exit the council to make way for the younger batch of democrats fighting for a more confrontational stance with Beijing.

Among them are Wong Yuk-man of the Proletariat Political Institute, who was felled by Youngspiration’s Yau Wai-ching; Labour Party’s Lee Cheuk-yan, who was beaten by Civic Passion’s Cheng Chung-tai; and Lee’s colleague Cyd Ho Sau-lan, who lost in Hong Kong Island to Law.

Lee when conceding defeat said that a series of factors had contributed to his loss but of these, the most pivotal was the demand for change.

“Most importantly, it is because all of society wants to see change and new faces,” he was quoted saying in SCMP’s report.

Lee, who is stepping down after nearly two decades in office, also labelled the results the start of a “new era” in Hong Kong’s political landscape.

“People want change, change meaning that they want new faces… but the price is a further fragmentation (of the democracy camp).

“Ideologically they’re talking about independence and they want to assert themselves,” he was quoted saying in a Straits Times report by AFP.

Britain handed back Hong Kong to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” agreement meant to allow the region to maintain its freedoms and stay semi-autonomous until the deal’s expiration in 50 years.

The final resting place of U576: German U-Boat is found 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina 72 years after it sank during Nazi campaign of terror - and 44 sailors are entombed inside

A German U-Boat has been spotted 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina - 72 years after it sank during a Nazi mission

The crewmen of U-576 (pictured) found their final resting place at the bottom of the Atlantic after being sunk trying to disrupt Allied shipping. The bodies of the 44 sailors are believed to be entombed inside the vessel 

• Wrekcakge of the submerged U-576 submarine was found near Ocracoke
• Sonar discovered the sunken vessel seven years after the search began 
• It went down during a wild battle off the Outer Banks 15 July, 1942
• Video footage shows the U-Boat resting on its side on the ocean floor 
• Vessel lies below an area where Nazis wreaked havoc on merchant sailors
• They killed hundreds of people in the Atlantic in the process

By WILLS ROBINSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM-5 September 2016

A German U-Boat has been spotted 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina - 72 years after it sank during a Nazi mission.

Wreckage of the submerged U-576 submarine was discovered by sonar near Ocracoke on August 24, seven years after the search began. 

The vessel went down during a battle off the Outer Banks on 15 July, 1942, during the Second World War.

It is believed the 44 sailors who were on board at the time are entombed inside.

Video footage shows the U-Boat resting on its side on the ocean floor. 

It lies below an area where Third Reich sailors destroyed merchant ships and caused chaos on trade routes, eight months after the United States entered the war.

They killed hundreds of people in the process.

The wooden decking has rotted away after more than half a century under water.

But the hull, gun deck and the hatches leading to where the bodies likely lie are still visible.

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Soaring ocean temperature is 'greatest hidden challenge of our generation'

IUCN report warns that ‘truly staggering’ rate of warming is changing the behaviour of marine species, reducing fishing zones and spreading disease

The scale of warming in the ocean is ‘truly staggering’, the report warns. Photograph: Ralph Lee Hopkins/Alamy

Oliver Milman in Honolulu-Monday 5 September 2016

The soaring temperature of the oceans is the “greatest hidden challenge of our generation” that is altering the make-up of marine species, shrinking fishing areas and starting to spread disease to humans, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of ocean warming.

The oceans have already sucked up an enormous amount of heat due to escalating greenhouse gas emissions, affecting marine species from microbes to whales, according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report involving the work of 80 scientists from a dozen countries.

The profound changes underway in the oceans are starting to impact people, the report states. “Due to a domino effect, key human sectors are at threat, especially fisheries, aquaculture, coastal risk management, health and coastal tourism.”

Dan Laffoley, IUCN marine adviser and one of the report’s lead authors, said: “What we are seeing now is running well ahead of what we can cope with. The overall outlook is pretty gloomy.

“We perhaps haven’t realised the gross effect we are having on the oceans, we don’t appreciate what they do for us. We are locking ourselves into a future where a lot of the poorer people in the world will miss out.”

The scale of warming in the ocean, which covers around 70% of the planet, is “truly staggering”, the report states. The upper few metres of ocean have warmed by around 0.13C a decade since the start of the 20th century, with a 1-4C increase in global ocean warming by the end of this century.

The ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the extra heat created by human activity. If the same amount of heat that has been buried in the upper 2km of the ocean had gone into the atmosphere, the surface of the Earth would have warmed by a devastating 36C, rather than 1C, over the past century.

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At some point, the report says, warming waters could unlock billions of tonnes of frozen methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from the seabed and cook the surface of the planet. This could occur even if emissions are drastically cut, due to the lag time between emitting greenhouse gases and their visible consequences.

Warming is already causing fish, seabirds, sea turtles, jellyfish and other species to change their behaviour and habitat, it says. Species are fleeing to the cooler poles, away from the equator, at a rate that is up to five times faster than the shifts seen by species on land.

Even in the north Atlantic, fish will move northwards by nearly 30km per decade until 2050 in search of suitable temperatures, with shifts already documented for pilchard, anchovy, mackerel and herring.

The warming is having its greatest impact upon the building blocks of life in the seas, such as phytoplankton, zooplankton and krill. Changes in abundance and reproduction are, in turn, feeding their way up the food chain, with some fish pushed out of their preferred range and others diminished by invasive arrivals.

With more than 550 types of marine fishes and invertebrates already considered threatened, ocean warming will exacerbate the declines of some species, the report also found.

The movement of fish will create winners and losers among the 4.3 billion people in the world who rely heavily upon fish for sustenance. In south-east Asia, harvests from fisheries could drop by nearly a third by 2050 if emissions are not severely curtailed. Global production from capture fisheries has already levelled off at 90m tonnes a year, mainly due to overfishing, at a time when millions more tonnes will need to be caught to feed a human population expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050.

Humans are also set to suffer from the spread of disease as the ocean continues to heat up. The IUCN report found there is growing evidence of vibrio bacterial disease, which can cause cholera, and harmful algal bloom species that can cause food poisoning. People are also being affected by more severe, if not more numerous, hurricanes due to the extra energy in the ocean and atmosphere.

Coral reefs, which support around a quarter of all marine species, are suffering from episodes of bleaching that have included three-fold in the past 30 years. This bleaching occurs when prolonged high temperatures cause coral to expel its symbiotic algae, causing it to whiten and ultimately die, such as the mass mortality that hasgripped the Great Barrier Reef.

Ocean acidification, where rising carbon dioxide absorption increases the acidity of the water, is making it harder for animals such as crabs, shrimps and clams to form their calcium carbonate shells.

The IUCN report recommends expanding protected areas of the ocean and, above all, reduce the amount of heat-trapping gases pumped into the atmosphere.

“The only way to preserve the rich diversity of marine life, and to safeguard the protection and resources the ocean provides us with, is to cut greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and substantially,” said Inger Andersen, director general of the IUCN.

Brain radiotherapy 'no benefit' for lung cancer spread

Secondary brain tumours (or metastases) in lung cancer patients are usually treated with whole brain radiotherapy-SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYImage caption

5 September 2016

Whole brain radiotherapy is of no benefit to people with lung cancer which has spread to the brain, says research in the Lancet.

A trial of more than 500 patients found that it did not prolong or improve their quality of life any more than other forms of treatment.

More than 45,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer every year in the UK.

In a third of cases, the cancer will spread to the brain.

Secondary brain tumours are usually treated with whole brain radiotherapy along with steroids and other treatments to reduce the side-effects of cancer therapies.

But it can have serious side-effects, such as nausea and extreme tiredness, and cause damage to the nervous system.

This study, involving doctors, researchers and patients from hospitals right across the UK, found that there was no improvement in the quality of life of patients after one week of whole brain radiotherapy.

These patients tend to already have a poor prognosis.

Toxicity

Dr Paula Mulvenna, consultant clinical oncologist with Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said whole brain radiotherapy was used because it was thought to control tumours.

"But in our lung cancer clinics, we were not seeing the improvements we had hoped for in our patients.

"Survival times are poor and have hardly changed since the 1980s.

"What's more, the technique's toxicity can be substantial and it can damage cognitive function."

According to Prof Ruth Langley, from the Medical Research Council clinical trials unit at University College London, radiosurgery - a very precise form of radiotherapy - is a favoured alternative technique, which has minimal side-effects.

But some scientists say there may still be a place for whole brain radiotherapy.

Writing in a linked comment in the Lancet, Dr Cecile le Pechoux from Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus in France said: "We believe that optimised whole brain radiotherapy, given at the right time to appropriate patients, could lead to more individualised strategies."

They said all treatments should be discussed with patients, taking into account the result of this trial.

Ban backs foreign expertise on transnational justice 

By Uditha Jayasinghe -3 September 2016

Extending warm praise to the Government’s efforts to foster reconciliation, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday nonetheless backed infusion of foreign expertise into Sri Lanka’s transitional justice process to bring closure to thousands 

affected by the three decade war.

Ban, on a three-day official visit, praised the efforts of President Maithripala Sirisena’s administration since coming to power last year to address some rights abuses committed during the war. Over the past year the new Sri Lankan Government has worked to release land to original Tamil owners, reduce militarisation in the former war-torn north and pass legislation to begin investigations into thousands of people who disappeared during the conflict.

“I commend the Unity Government for taking steps to pursue truth seeking and accountability to deal with grievances from the people in the north and east. These are positive steps, but more needs to be done. Victims cannot wait forever, they deserve to have their voices heard, and they deserve credible transparent transitional justice mechanisms,” he told reporters at a press briefing before winding up his visit on Friday.

While acknowledging that promoting reconciliation would primarily be a function of the Sri Lankan Government, Ban stressed that transitional justice, which was a key component of the resolution Sri Lanka adopted at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), would be best served with involvement of the international community as it would provide more credibility.

Peace building, the third pillar, would also have support from the UN and other international community stakeholders, he added.  

“Transitional justice: There, I think we have to work with the international community, with the Human Rights Council having adopted a resolution last year recommending the Sri Lankan Government establish a credible transitional justice system. Credible, both nationally and internationally,” he noted in response to questions.

The Secretary General also called on the Government to deepen efforts to strengthen institutions such as the judiciary and security services and return land in the north.

“I also urge you to speed up the return of land so that the remaining communities of displaced people can return home. In parallel, the size of the military force in the North and East could be reduced, helping to build trust and reduce tensions.”

Ban also touched on the “Report of the Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on United Nations Actions in Sri Lanka,” which was convened by him in 2010 as a response to widespread criticism over the UN’s underperformance during the last stages of the conflict in 2009. The report found widespread bottlenecks and lack of expertise in the functioning of the UN officials in Colombo at the time and their engagement with the Sri Lankan Government.

The report had triggered “deep reflection” of the UN, revealed Ban, prompting it to become the base of subsequent efforts by the UN in war zones around the world where human rights “was returned to the core” of humanitarian operations. Ban also vehemently denied accusations of double standards in its treatment of allegations against Sri Lanka, saying the UN follows “one charter, one declaration,” for everyone.

The Secretary General met with members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) during his brief visit to Jaffna. Hundreds of family members of people who had disappeared during the war demonstrated outside the Jaffna Library seeking UN intervention to find their missing loved ones and calling for more accountability from the Government. 

---

President says meeting with UN Chief positive

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday described his meeting with UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon on Thursday as being very positive, with the latter assuring fullest support for the reconciliation process.

Briefing editors and media owners yesterday, the President said he explained the steps taken to strengthen democracy through the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and the establishment of Constitutional Council and Commissions. He also briefed about the reconciliation process, return of land in the north to original owners, resettlement, rehabilitation and development.

Ban Ki-moon expressed his appreciation over the progress made by the Government and assured fullest cooperation and assistance to the Government for carrying out these tasks, he said.

“The UN Secretary General’s smiling face, when he expressed his appreciation, is a glowing reflection of the United Nation’s goodwill towards Sri Lanka,” the President said. 

The President added that the Government’s intention is to return the remaining privately-owned lands in the north to rightful owners within the next three months. While vast extents of land have been returned to the original owners, State land is to be given to those who are landless and living in welfare centres or with friends and relatives.

Responding to a question, he said that extremist Tamil elements were attempting to prevent any solution to the land issue. When the Government allotted land to the people, these elements had forced them not to accept the lands as they wanted the problems to continue since it would suit their ulterior motives, he said.

When asked about demonstrations in the north, the President said he expected bigger protests during the UN Secretary General’s visit as there were elements with agendas.

When asked about different positions of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran, the President said that the Government wanted to bring all these elements with different postures in the north and south to an acceptable middle point and when the current policies continued with success, it would happen automatically.

President Sirisena said that Sri Lanka should look at the global policies towards us with wise, rational and prudent manner. A Government Minister protesting in front of an international organisation is not the sane behaviour of a cultured nation, he pointed out.

“During the hour-long bilateral discussion and the 10 minute one-on-one discussion with Ban Ki-moon, there was no mention about the UNHRC resolution,” the President answered when a journalist wanted to know if the Secretary General raised the issue of the UNHRC.

Democracy, not devolution, the only solution for the ethnic problem

Devolution on an ethnic basis can work smoothly only if there is a democratic political culture, one in which democratic values are internalized and democratic norms are put into practice as a matter of course. That is far from being the case in Sri Lanka, and it will take some time before such a political culture gets firmly rooted.

by Izeth Hussain

( September 3, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I want to establish in this article that in the contemporary world of multi-ethnic nation states democracy has to be regarded as incomplete and flawed unless it includes measures for the safeguarding of ethnic minority interests, measures regarded not as supplementary but as integral to the democratic order. This applies to the vast majority of nation states today as there are only four, according to other reckonings not more than twelve, states that are mono-ethnic. The reason why a new conceptualization of democracy is called for is that the aspirations of ethnic minorities towards a better life have been growing all over the world, and hence the growing salience of identity politics. Unless those aspirations, to the extent that they are recognized as legitimate aspirations, are reasonably accommodated, it can be held that there is no democracy or that it is deeply flawed. The reason is that democracy upholds as its secular trinity Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, the ideal of fair and equal treatment for all. By that criterion Sri Lankan democracy has certainly been deeply flawed.

It has been deeply flawed in other ways as well. Obviously the mistaken notion is still widespread that democracy is the expression of the will of the majority, just that and no more than that. Actually there is no democracy unless democratic values are respected and its norms are put into practice. The “tyranny of the majority” was exposed as anti-democratic by de Tocqueville at the very inception of modern democracy in the eighteenth century. I would add another factor as a requisite for democracy, without which it will be deeply flawed, and possibly collapse altogether: a vigorous civil society. Western theorists of democracy don’t seem to recognize that as a requisite for democracy possibly because they assume that it always exists in modern societies. That assumption does not hold for countries such as Sri Lanka.

I will go into a few more details to show what I have in mind. Rousseau wrote that the British people were free on the day they voted at the General Elections but in the years in between they were slaves. He was showing the prejudice against representative democracy of a Genevan who had direct experience of the participatory democracy of the Swiss cantons. He had not understood that British democracy, with its rotten boroughs and all its other faults, was an organic growth firmly rooted in British soil over many centuries, and that the potential tyranny of the elected Government was kept in check by the Opposition politicians and also by a vigorous civil society. In Sri Lanka there was no such thing in 1977, and democracy quickly collapsed. In India, by contrast, there was a vigorous civil society and that was why Indira Gandhi’s Emergency lasted only a couple of years, while for the rest of the period since independence democracy flourished unlike in Sri Lanka. One of the main reasons why I have written of the elections of January 8 last year as a Revolution was that it was preceded by a vigorous civil society campaign against the previous Government. That civil society still remains vigorously active. It is one of the reasons why I think that we can establish a fully functioning democracy under which we can find a lasting political solution for the ethnic problem. By a “fully functioning democracy” I mean – for reasons given in my first paragraph above – one in which there are adequate safeguards for legitimate ethnic minority interests, without which there is no democracy worth speaking about.

Whatever might be the fate of 13 A our way forward towards a political solution and the establishment of ethnic harmony can only be through a fully functioning democracy and safeguards for ethnic minority interests as in the West, not through devolution alone. It is understood that the Government is engaged in negotiations with the political parties on a political solution as part of the discussions on a new Constitution; the consensus reached will be put up for public discussion from December onwards; and finally a Referendum will be held. But why should a political solution be made part of protracted discussions on the Constitution when the only matters to be sorted out have been land and police powers under 13 A? Obviously the question of a political solution is being put into abeyance as during the period from 2009 to 2015 – for reasons that are quite understandable. The outcome could be a modified version of 13 A or its jettisoning altogether after the Referendum.

Either way, I hold, the way forward can only be through a fully functioning democracy. It is well-established that a system of devolution can work satisfactorily only if there is a spirit of accommodation between the center and the periphery. That, I hold, will be extremely difficult or may be even impossible, if both sides are racist. It has long been an assumption that the essential desideratum for a political solution is that the Sinhalese side surmount its racism. It has not been understood that the Tamils are also an intensely racist people, very probably much more so than the Sinhalese. I don’t believe therefore that devolution on an ethnic basis can lead to eventual ethnic harmony in Sri Lanka. We can learn by the contrast between the functioning of the Provincial Councils in the East and the North: the former functions smoothly enough with good relations with the center; the latter had to return eighty per cent of its unutilized budget at the end of its first year of functioning, and the Chief Minister – it is said – is not even on speaking terms with the Prime Minister. The explanation for the contrast might be found in the following stark dichotomy: the East is multi-ethnic with a Muslim Chief Minister; the North is mono-ethnic.

Devolution on an ethnic basis can work smoothly only if there is a democratic political culture, one in which democratic values are internalized and democratic norms are put into practice as a matter of course. That is far from being the case in Sri Lanka, and it will take some time before such a political culture gets firmly rooted. A democratic political culture is particularly important for the Northern Provincial Council as without it there can be no fair and equal treatment for the non-Vellala castes and the up-country Tamils who have settled in the North, not at any rate on an assured and permanent basis. A further reason why a fully functioning democracy is essential for the Tamils is the oft-repeated point that most of them are living outside the North, and consequently their legitimate interests cannot be secured through devolution.

We can learn a lot from India about the limitations of what can be achieved through devolution. The basis of devolution in India is linguistic not ethnic. All the states have Hindu majorities and the linguistic divisions don’t negate the sense of a Hindu commonality. In Sri Lanka there is no religious commonality between the Sinhalese and the Tamils, except that there are Christian minorities in both ethnic groups. I cannot understand how it came to be thought that the Indian model of devolution should be practiced in Sri Lanka. Furthermore the basic division in India is between Hindus and Muslims, not between Hindus and Hindus on the basis of different languages. But there has been no devolution for the Indian Muslims, except in Kashmir for historic reasons. How has the hundred million and more Muslim minority been faring in India? True there were the Gujarat riots of 2002, but by and large they have been faring well enough, and they have been doing so not on the basis of devolution but of democracy. Why, then, insist on devolution in Sri Lanka? I suspect that there has been some amount of mental confusion among our Indian friends.

A separate article is required to deal with the practical measures necessary to promote a fully functioning democracy with adequate safeguards for ethnic minority interests, safeguards that should be regarded as integral for democracy in the contemporary world for reasons spelt out in the first paragraph of this article. In conclusion I will mention just three practical measures. One is legislation against hate speech, which can do much for minority interests. Another is an Equal Opportunities Bill which was mooted in the late ‘nineties but aborted because of blatant Sinhalese racism. The most important is the setting up of the equivalent of the race relations boards that flourish in Britain, Canada, and elsewhere. Just those three measures can transform Sri Lanka.

Ramasamy: Inviting Rajapaksa insensitive to Tamil feelings

Penang Deputy Chief Minister II says many were killed, went missing or were raped and/or sexually abused during the former Sri Lankan president's reign of terror.

September 1, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR: Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy has warned the Malaysian Government there are already protests by local Tamil groups against former Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa being invited to attend a conference in Kuala Lumpur.

The Malaysian Government is being totally insensitive and uncaring towards the tragic plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, added Ramasamy. “It should not invite Rajapaksa to attend the conference on ‘Asian Political Parties’ from September 1-4, 2016 at the Putra World Trade Centre in the Federal Capital.”

Rajapaksa allegedly unleashed terror on innocent Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka during the civil war, he pointed out. “Hundreds of thousands were killed, thousands went missing and thousands of women and children were raped and sexually abused.”

By inviting Rajapaksa, he reiterated, the organisers have shown they are not sensitive. “Tamils in Malaysia are concerned about the plight of their brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka.”

The Gandhiyam

By Rajan Hoole –September 3, 2016 

Dr. Rajan Hoole

1979 – 83: The Mounting Repression – Part V

The feeling among Tamils that they needed a separate state reached a peak during the years following the 1977 violence.

Securing the border areas of the North and East from state sponsored colonisation had been a burning Tamil concern from the 1950s. The nationalisation of British owned estates in the early 1970s by the SLFP-led government led to disruption. This in turn resulted in starvation. There was also eviction of estate families by organised mob attacks. Many of the victims, Tamils of recent Indian origin, drifted to the North-East in search of a new livelihood. The drift became a flood following the 1977 communal violence.

From the time these displacements began, several politically backed Tamil groups sprang up to help these people to settle in the North-East, often along border areas and to provide them with means to a livelihood. There was a race as it were between these Tamil groups on the one hand and state-backed Sinhalese groups on the other, to match Tamil settlement with Sinhalese settlement. Settlements of displaced Hill Country Tamils came up in the interior of Batticaloa District in 1975 when Bradman Weerakoon was GA, Batticaloa, and Nihal Jayawickrema was Secretary, Ministry of Justice, in the SLFP-led government. The Police were sent in. Settlers were beaten and jailed. Telegrams were sent to Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, on their behalf. Thondaman and Devanayagam (both later ministers in the 1977 government) too were helping the settlers. Shanmuganathan who was then District Judge, Batticaloa, ruled the police action unlawful. The settlers dispersed by police action came back and prospered in areas such as Punanai and other interior areas until the violence of the 80s, when they had to flee once more.
Dr. Rajasundaram who was a medical practitioner, was involved in settlement work from early in the 70s. Following the violence of 1977 he and his wife, Dr. Shanthy nee’ Karalasingham who graduated from University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, in 1967, returned from England and started the Gandhiyam in Vavuniya. The object of Gandhiyam was to rehabilitate victims of the 1977 violence in the North-East. Its resettlement activities ranged through Trincomalee, Amparai, and Batticaloa districts as well. From the beginning, these activities had the support of all levels of Tamil society ranging through the universities, government services and professional classes.

The organisation’s president, S.A. David, was arrested at the YMCA

Posterity may find the passions of the times centred around land and borders truly remarkable. Without them, Tamil separatism and militancy would have lacked their cutting edge. It seemed a game of wits of the Tamil intelligentsia pitted against the wits of the Sinhalese intelligentsia. On the one side it was a passion for the preservation of what goes with a sense of community, and the desire for a homeland, secure from violence. On the other it was a passion to preserve what was deemed a Sinhalese unitary state from ancient times and to prevent what was perceived as the traditional Tamil menace from acquiring space for further expansion. This ideological position, as we shall see, was not unmixed with pedestrian economic and political motives for the ruling class.

What the Tamil side lacked in state power, man power and gun power, it tried to compensate with an articulate world-wide diaspora with no love for the Sri Lankan State, who could now and then pull off a propaganda coup highly irritating to the latter. The full potential of the Tamil diaspora did not come to be felt until after July ’83, and too often then, not to the best advantage of Tamils here.

The majority of those in and around groups like the Gandhiyam harboured separatist sentiments. Sometimes rural TULF supporters who worked with the Gandhiyam found Dr. Rajasundaram’s criticism of Amirthalingam too strong to stomach.

Depending on how one looked at it, Gandhiyam could have been viewed as causing a problem. But that problem also had an easy solution. For one the Government would have had to demonstrate in the clearest terms that it had no ethnic agenda, and no intention of pursuing demographic changes through colonisation of the border areas so as to bring insecurity to the minorities. The other was to address the many genuine grievances of Tamils in the Hill Country. This meant a political settlement in the broader sense. The Government showed few signs of decisive movement in this direction. That led to problems of a more serious nature.

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UN chief realises Tamils' demand for international justice - TNA 

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon told the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in a meeting on Friday in Jaffna that he fully realises the Tamil people's expectation of justice and that it must include international involvement, the TNA's spokesperson, M A Sumanthiran told reporters after the meeting. 

03 Sep  2016

"Today the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) met with the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon at the Jaffna public library and had lengthy discussions," Mr Sumanthiran said. 

"Mr Mavai Senathirajah, Mr Suresh Premachandran, Mr Selvam Adaikkalanathan, Mr Dharmalingham Siddharthan, Mrs Shanthi Sriskantharajah, Mr Yogeswaran, as well as myself, Sumanthiran took part in the meeting." 

"At this meeting the opposition leader [R Sampanthan] highlighted the situation today after the end of the armed conflict to the Secretary General."

"All efforts towards reconciliation in our country stem from his [Ban Ki Moon] visit to Sri Lanka on 23rd May 2009 when he released a joint statement with the then president Mahinda Rajapaksa, as well as the Panel of Experts appointed by himself. This is also the reason for a few efforts towards accountability. We thanked him for this."

"[R Sampanthan] also raised the ongoing present day issues of delays in released occupied land; the heavy military presence in the North; the Prevention of Terrorism Act has not been repealed; people continued to be imprisoned under this Act and detained without release; political process has begun but needs to address the Tamil people's legitimate aspirations. In his response the Secretary General said he agrees with all stated issues and raised them with the Sri Lankan prime minister and president." 

Mr Sumanthiran added that Mr Ban has said "during his meeting with the president he insisted that the Geneva resolution must be implemented 100%, as only if 100% is aimed for with 70%-80% be achieved; if 50% is aimed for then not even 20% will happen; therefore they must do some things boldly."

"Mr Ban said he intends to continue to meet Tamil people and that he realises the Tamil people's expectation for justice and their call for international involvement [in a justice mechanism]," Mr Sumanthiran said adding that the UN chief had accepted the UN's failure to act in 2009.

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NORTHERN LAND ISSUES RESOLVED IN THREE MONTHS: PRESIDENT

02/09/2016

President Sirisena at a meeting with newspaper editors and media heads this morning pledged to resolve land in issues in the Northern Province within three months.

“We, as a government should understand the grievances of the people. They don’t need lands owned by the military. They ask for their own lands. We have achieved remarkable progress on resettlement. But, there are some problems that need to be resolved,” he said.

“At this point, we have informed all IDPS in writing about the status of their lands. We have to admit that there is a delay on the part of the Survey Department as they do not have sufficient human capital to fast track the process,” the President said.

He added however that land issues in the North would be resolved in three months, despite these practical difficulties.

Commenting further on the matter, the President said those who staged protests in the North, on the land issue, had vested interests:

“Some of their demands were fair. But, they do not support our attempts to resolve their problems. They prevent government officials from surveying their lands.”

“I identify this as a well-organised campaign to hamper any possible solution. It is quite clear that a certain group wants to keep IDPs in their camps forever.”

“They want to perpetuate this issue and capitalize on the grievances of the helpless,” he stressed.

“When the UN Secretary General announced his visit to Sri Lanka, I expected a series of large scale protests in the North. But, the situation turned out to be different. There were only several minor protests in some places.”

“However, we do not intend to claim that their demands are totally dismissible,” the President explained, at the meeting.

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