dbsjeyaraj.com

By
M.A.Sumanthiran M.P

Last week saw a hugely dangerous move by the government. Section 2 notices under the Land Acquisition Act were pasted on trees in Valikamam North in the Jaffna Peninsula indicating that an extent of approximately 6,400 acres of private lands belonging to several thousand Tamil people would be acquired for Military cantonments.

Strangley, the notice says that the claimants are not traceable! The owners of these lands live just outside the so called illegal High Security Zone, in camps maintained by the government itself. They have lived there for over 25 years. And although their title to these lands were checked and cleared by a Committee appointed by the Supreme Court in 2006, they were not permitted to go and resettle on the false assertion that de-mining was not complete.

That it is false is demonstrated by the sight of soldiers cultivating these lands from which the owners were kept away. Now suddenly, the government has shown its true face: these lands will be taken and given to others to occupy, who will become voters in the North. Similar notices have been issued in the Kilinochchi Distrct also. In the Eastern Province, instructions have gone out to acquire all the land that the military deems necessary for its purposes.
Continue reading ‘6400 Acres of Private Lands Belonging to Tamil People in Valikamam North to be Acquired by Govt for Military Cantonments’ »

By

Rajavarothayam Sampanthan M.P.

Tamil National Alliance Leader Rajavarothayam Sampanthan making his speech-picture by Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai ©

(Text of Introductory Speech made by Tamil National Alliance Leader and Trincomalee District MP Rajavarothayam Sampanthan at the S.J.V.Chelvanayagam memorial lecture Event held in Colombo on April 27th 2013)

Mr. SJV Chelvanayagam QC was the founder leader of the Federal Party and the undisputed leader of the Tamil people.We welcome all those who have come here.

The Theme of the lecture today is ‘ Whither the Sri Lankan Tamils’.The theme would signify the uncertainty that prevails in regard to the future of the Sri Lankan Tamil people. The future is clearly challenging.

The lecture will be delivered by Mr.Justice C.V.Vigneswaran, Retired Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. Mr. Vigneswaran is known for his impeccable integrity and resolute independence. That is probably the reason why the organizers have chosen him to deliver this year’s memorial lecture.

Determined efforts are being made to distort and rewrite the history of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. The Tamil people are resolutely determined to resist this onslaught. It is our firm belief that injustice can never defeat the determined will of a people.

I would in my introduction outline some of the salient features that characterized Mr. Chelvanayagam’s political career and which constituted the bedrock of his political activity.(dbsjeyaraj.com)
Continue reading ‘No Dissension Within TNA on any Matter Pertaining to the Future of the Tamil People’ »

by
Tisaranee Gunasekara

pic courtesy: tamilwin

“I think we are blind….. Blind people who can see, but do not see” ~ Jose Saramago (Blindness)

Miracles happen in the ‘Wonder of Asia’.

Last week, the lawyers representing Parliamentarian Duminda Silva – on the basis of multiple diagnoses by eminent physicians – assured a court of law that their client was a grievously sick man. The judge was told that Mr. Silva’s left side was paralysed, his brain function down by 40% and his recovery contingent on immediate quite retirement into the bosom of his loving family.

The AG’s Department – as much of a Presidential appendage as the post-Impeachment Supreme Court – had no objections to bail. Thus persuaded, the judge gave bail to this key suspect in the Kolonnawa quadruple-murder case.

Then the miracle happened.
Continue reading ‘The ‘Miraculous’ Recovery of Duminda Silva in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ‘Wonder of Asia’’ »

By

Wasantha Ramanayake

Parliamentarian Duminda Silva returned to public life yesterday after spending 17 months in hospitals in Singapore and Colombo.

Mr. Silva is the eleventh accused in the Mulleriyawa shooting incident where Presidential Advisor Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and three others were killed.

Last morning Mr. Silva left the private hospital in which he stayed since he arrived in the country on March 5. He was discharged from the hospital following the Colombo High Court order to release him on Wednesday.The accused parliamentarian with his hair fully grown looked different from the pictures of a bald headed man with stitches, shown recently in the media.

Continue reading ‘Hale and Hearty Duminda Silva Leaving Hospital on Bail Makes a Mockery out of Sri Lanka’s Judicial System’ »

by

A staff reporter

Hirunika Premachandra

Hirunika Premachandra, daughter of slain politician, Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, said yesterday the President should provide a solution to the ‘Duminda Silva situation,’ and complained, “the man who destroyed four families has now gone to meet the President.”

Hirunika, addressing the media after United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP Duminda Silva – a suspect in the murder of her father – was released on bail and discharged from the hospital yesterday, said international claims of human rights violations in Sri Lanka “must have some truth in them, if such situations are allowed by the law.”

“The man who destroyed four families has now gone to meet the President.
Continue reading ‘“The Man Who Destroyed Four Families Has Now Gone To Meet The President.” -Hirunika Premachandra About Duminda Silva’ »

Dear Friends,

Given the recent spate of hate speech and the marginalization of minority communities in general in Sri Lanka, a voluntary movement of concerned Sri Lankans from various institutions, professions and industries are organizing a series of non-partisan, non-violent awareness campaigns and rallies against racist actions and hate-speech in Sri Lanka.

Attached for your information is a brief as evidence for the growing concern which had led to the creation of this initiative.
Continue reading ‘“Hate has no Place in Sri Lanka”-28th April Rally for Unity’ »

By

Justice C.V. Wigneswaran

(Text of THANTHAI CHELVANAYAGAM MEMORIAL LECTURE on the Theme ‘WHITHER SRI LANKAN TAMILS’ Delivered on 26/04/2013 FRIDAY at NEW KATHIRESAN HALL, GALLE ROAD, BAMBALAPITIYA COLOMBO 4 to mark the 36th death anniversary of S.J.V.Chelvanayagam, Q.C)

Justice C.V. Wigneswaran lighting the oil lamp~picture by Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai ©

Ajnaana Timiraamdhasya Gnaanaanjana Shalaakayaa
Chakshuru Miilitam Yena Tasmai Shrii Gurave Namah

Honourable Chairman, Distinguished Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Honourable Parliamentarians, my dear Brothers and Sisters!

Recently, I was called upon on different occasions to address different groups of the legal fraternity. The present period, as you know, is the most perilous in the history of our justice system, and to date the crisis remains unresolved. The future of an independent judicial system seems bleak, and despite the immense courage shown by some of its members, the community seems to feel despondent and desolate.

Delivering an Oration on the topic of “Whither Sri Lankan Tamils?” today, I address a community that is in an exponentially worse situation. The precarious position in which the Tamil speaking community is placed today is highlighted by the aftermath of my recent speeches.
Continue reading ‘Before Dealing With “Whither Sri Lankan Tamils” Let Me Start With “Whence Sri Lankan Tamils”’ »

By

Dharisha Bastians

In a major breakthrough Sri Lanka yesterday cleared what is likely the last diplomatic hurdle on its journey to playing host at the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet in November this yearThis was after the grouping’s Ministerial Action Group concluded its key meeting in London yesterday signalling no move to put the country on notice or shift the summit venue from Colombo.

It is learned that in the issue pertaining to Sri Lanka as next hosts of CHOGM the CMAG had decided it did not have a mandate to decide on the summit venue.

Continue reading ‘Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group Confirms Sri Lanka as Venue of Commonwealth Summit in November’ »

By

Dharisha Bastians

Sri Lanka is likely to feature during a meeting of the Commonwealth’s most powerful eight-member body in London today, with Canada hinting it is seeking a shift in the venue and Tamil Nadu political parties, international lawyers grouping and human rights activists lobbying against allowing Colombo to host a key Commonwealth summit in November.

The Government has consistently denied that Sri Lanka would feature on the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) 26 April meet, which will be chaired by Bangladesh and includes Australia, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Vananatu, Jamaica, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Maldives is also a CMAG member but is currently suspended.

The Daily FT learns that while diplomatic overtures, especially between Colombo and Dhaka, have prevented Sri Lanka from being an official CMAG agenda item, the issue of Sri Lanka hosting this year’s summit and the country’s human rights record is likely to come up for discussion at the London meeting under ‘any other matters’.

Continue reading ‘Bangladesh Keeps Sri Lanka out of Official Agenda at Crucial meeting but Canada Will Raise Issue of Commonwealth Summit under “any other matters”Item.’ »

By J. S. Tissainayagam

Sri Lanka, whose leaders are accused of committing war crimes against Tamils in the civil war that ended May 2009, and subverting democracy, is to host the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November.

In the past the Commonwealth, the 54-member intergovernmental grouping of mostly Britain’s former colonies, has emphasised human rights and democracy as core principles and chastised member countries that violated them. Sri Lanka however has not been censured but rewarded: named as CHOGM’s next venue, it will automatically lead the organisation for the coming two years.

The international community is clearly concerned that if it takes too strong a line with Sri Lanka, it will simply slip into China’s sphere of influence, and so lose all ability to promote Commonwealth values. However, this view fundamentally misinterprets Sri Lanka’s relationship with both China and the Commonwealth.

Continue reading ‘All Those who Believe in the Integrity of the Commonwealth Must Refuse to Attend CHOGM summit in Sri Lanka’ »

by

Frances Harrison

When they decided to have a meeting at their party office in the north of the island, the four Sri Lankan MPs probably didn’t expect that it would start raining concrete boulders.

Before they knew it, a mob of about 60 people had surrounded the building. After half an hour of sustained assault, the roof broke and the elected representatives found themselves sheltering in the archways of the doors, as if it were an earthquake. All the while the police looked on, doing nothing. At the end, they caught a few of the attackers but quickly released them, including a man who turned out to be one of their colleagues in civilian clothes.

“This is not the first or second time this has happened,” said one of the MPs, “it happens all the time and this was just a month ago”.

Continue reading ‘Will Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group Decide not to Hold Commonwealth Meeting in Sri Lanka?’ »

by

Vishnuguptha

“It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.”
~ Aristotle

The Government in general and the ruling family in particular, do not show any signs of learning any lesson from history. The local government elections concluded more than two and half years ago on July 23, 2011 and exactly twenty four years after the infamous ambush of thirteen armed soldiers at Thirunelveli, Jaffna and the riots that it ensued in the South of Sri Lanka, the Tamils of Jaffna once again passed a crushing verdict on the absurdity of naked chauvinism openly practiced by the first family and their cohorts in the Government of Sri Lanka.

After suffering one defeat after another at the international fora, after failing to prove their bona-fides regarding their commitment to the implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment to our Constitution, after making pledge after pledge to international leaders that a fair and just system of government would be put in place, after ensuring the sustenance of a ‘free and fair’ Press, the Government now seems to be desperate.

Continue reading ‘Recruiting LTTE’s Daya Master as Candidate for Northern Poll Demonstrates Political Bankruptcy of Govt’ »

OTTAWA – Official Opposition New Democrats Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre) and Rathika Sitsabaiesan (Scarborough—Rouge River) have launched a national campaign to pressure the Conservatives to fully boycott the Commonwealth meetings in Sri Lanka unless an independent and international investigation into alleged war crimes are accepted by the government of that country.

Continue reading ‘Canada’s New Democratic Party Launches National Campaign Urging Boycott of Commonwealth Meeting in Sri Lanka’ »

By

Tisaranee Gunasekara

“….the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think” ~ Tom Paine (Rights of Man)

In 2005 when he was nominated the SLFP’s Presidential candidate, Prime Minister Rajapaksa named his election manifesto Mahinda Chinthanaya (The Philosophy of Mahinda), after himself.

Within seven years, the Rajapaksas conquered the government, occupied the state and subdued the society.

With Basil Rajapaksa’s appointment as the National Organiser, the Siblings are set to breach the last frontier: the SLFP.

If Ranil Wickremesinghe did not exist, the Rajapaksas would have had to create him. Since he does, and Sajith Premadasa is no better in terms of effectiveness, the Siblings do not have to be overly concerned about the UNP. The JVP is too busy waiting for its own Godot – another ‘Indo-Lanka Accord moment’ – to seize the socio-economic issues with requisite vigour.
Continue reading ‘Rajapaksas Keep an Economically-flagellated Majority and a Politically-persecuted Minority in Thrall’ »

A Tamil Named “Kumar” living in Australia has detailed shocking claims of rape and torture at the hands of Sri Lankan army intelligence to Australia Broadcasting Corporation.

Transcript of Telecast is as Follows:
Continue reading ‘Tamil in Australia Claims he was Raped and Tortured by Sri Lanka Army Intelligence’ »

(New York, April 25, 2013) – A senior Commonwealth advisory group should recommend the organization shift the venue of its November 2013 Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) from Sri Lanka unless the government makes prompt, measurable, and meaningful progress on human rights, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), a grouping of Commonwealth leaders that addresses “serious or persistent violations” of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political values, including human rights, will meet in London on April 26, 2013.

Continue reading ‘Commonwealth Should Relocate Venue of November Meeting Away From Sri Lanka -Human Rights Watch’ »

By

Christian Caryl

pic courtesy: foreignpolicy.com

The man’s body lies on a blanket striped in white and blue. He’s wearing a dark brown tank top and a dark blue flowered sarong. Someone has tied his hands behind his back with rope. There are deep red gashes on his head and shoulders — some of them presumably the wounds that ended his life.

The man in the photo is a Muslim. The people who killed him were almost certainly Buddhists. He was a victim in last fall’s sectarian bloodshed in western Burma, which pitted members of the two religions against each other. The image comes from a new report by Human Rights Watch that carefully documents the violence that took some 200 lives and resulted in the forced displacement of some 125,000 people. (A more recent wave of violence within the past few weeks has taken some 40 additional lives and triggered another surge of refugees.)

Continue reading ‘Rise in Anti-Muslim Violence by Buddhist Militias an Ominous Trend in Burma,Sri Lanka and Thailand’ »

By

Karu Jayasuriya M.P.

Recent increase of electricity rates is unprecedented in Sri Lankan history. 75% or else 3.7 million of the electricity consumers use less than 90 units. This increase is unbearable to the low income groups and what action is taken by the government to mitigate this confusion? As they have been doing in the past, the government is trying to pass the blame on to the UNP. Yesterday it was reported in Dinamina, President has told the media chiefs that “We have to shoulder the burden of the mistakes committed during the UNP rule.

It is my duty to explain the truth as the former Minister of Power and Energy during the UNF government I called this press conference today for this purpose.

Continue reading ‘Robin Hood Took From Rich and Gave the Poor but This Govt Collects From Poor and Looks After the Rich’ »

A large-scale tourism project has been launched by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) on an area of 1,100 hectares that belongs to 14 islands that are connected to the Puttalam Lagoon. The homes and livelihood of 2,640 fisher families, who live in the Grama Niladhari Divisions in the area, have come under increasing threat due to this project.

The human, social and massive environmental costs of the large-scale tourism development the government has rushed into in the Kaplitiya region may overshadow the envisaged gains from tourism, local fisher activists and environmentalists warn.

Continue reading ‘Homes and Livelihood of 2640 Fisher Families Threatened Due to Large-scale Tourism Project in 14 Islands in Kalpitiya Region’ »

By

Dr.D.Gnanagurunathan

The debate about the ‘emergence’ or ‘re-emergence’ of India as an important player at the world stage goes on the one hand. On the other, the Indian state is confronted with a major challenge, as regions (provinces) are asserting their rights and able to influence the foreign policy discourse.

In addition, critics point out recent setbacks of Indian foreign policy in the Maldives and to a certain extent in Sri Lanka as signs of its non-arrival at the international arena since Indian foreign policy retains its primary focus on South Asia. Now, it is pertinent to investigate as to how India negotiates its foreign policy making challenges, especially towards its neighbour Sri Lanka.

Continue reading ‘India’s Vote Against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC was a Well-Calculated Decision’ »

By

Dr.Vickramabahu Karunaratne

Nobody expected this unbelievable increase in electricity charges. Hence there were protests everywhere including in clubs and associations limited to the industrialists and traders. However the tariff increases are friendly to the class separation indicating the departure from the social welfare ideology. Still, everybody feels that the government is putting the burden of their follies and misdoings on the people.

The Government claims that it took the hard decision to increase electricity tariffs to cover the losses incurred by the state-owned power generator. The Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board, sternly rejecting the accusation that electricity tariffs are increased to cover wastage, said the electricity generation through fuel combustion should be minimised in order to control the increase of electricity charges.

Continue reading ‘Left set to Launch Massive Protests Against Govt Decision to Increase Electricity Tariffs’ »

by

Upul Joseph Fernando

“Although it is not known yet who is responsible for Monday’s heinous bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three and injured more than 100 people, a source within the Iranian Intelligence Services told WND, the Islamic regime was behind them, and to look for trails through Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.”

Colombo implicated

American website, World Net Daily, came up with this theory even before the Boston bombers were tracked down and caught. The American media pointing its finger at Sri Lanka in connection with Boston bombing should be considered as a matter of grave concern by the Government of Sri Lanka. In another previous instance, when the German bakery bomb explosion took place in Pune, the chief suspect in his confession, had revealed that the final operational plan was drawn up in Colombo. The charge sheet filed with the indictment of the main suspects carried the following statement:

Continue reading ‘US and India Trying to Prove Sri Lanka is Hotbed of Islamic Terrorism Targeting Europe, America and India’ »

By

Ananth Palakidnar

Secretary of the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, has met former LTTE media head, V. Dayanithy alias Daya Master and 23 others in Jaffna over the Northern Provincial Council polls to be held later this year, informed sources said.

The meeting was held on Monday at the 52 Division Headquarters in Varani, where the Defence Secretary had a detailed discussion over the Northern Provincial polls and also on the possibilities of spearheading the political and the development activities through a possible UPFA-led Provincial Council, sources said. The meeting had also focused on the candidatures for the Northern Provincial polls where Rajapaksa had outlined that by contesting alone, the UPFA could work out its own strategies towards the development activities in the North, sources added.

Continue reading ‘Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Discusses Northern Provincial Poll with Ex-LTTE Media Chief “Daya Master” and 23 Others at 52 Div Hqr in Varani’ »

By

Latheef Farook

CHECHENYA is yet another Muslim entity destroyed and rendered a wasteland in the two senseless Russian wars to subjugate the republic. Demonising and killing Chechen Muslims were popular pastimes for Russian leaders in order to win voters.

View Larger Map

Going by historical records, war against Russia has been a regular unfortunate event for around a million
Chechens for centuries, usually in intervals of every fifty years, each conflict lasting between six to twenty-five years. Because of this almost ceaseless war and the sufferings it brought on the Chechen people, there exists a larger Chechen Diaspora in Turkey and Jordan than in their own republic.

Russia considers oil rich Chechenya as part of its territory, but Chechens, describing their struggle as a “war of liberation”, always claimed that they never voluntarily joined Russia, which conquered their territory by military force. All that the Chechens, known for their deep respect to elders and strong bond of friendship, wanted was independence or self rule to run their own affairs in keeping with their political and economic needs and religious traditions.

The latest tragedy struck when Chechenya declared its independence from Russia in November 1991.

Continue reading ‘Killing Fields of Chechnya: A Muslim Land Laid Waste by a Senseless War’ »

by

Sarah Kendzior

In 1901, a 28-year-old American named Leon Czolgosz assassinated US President William McKinley. Czolgosz was born in America, but he was of Polish descent. After McKinley died, the American media blamed Polish immigrants. They were outsiders, foreigners, with a suspicious religion – Catholicism – and strange last names.

At a time when Eastern European immigrants were treated as inferior, Polish-Americans feared they would be punished as a group for the terrible actions of an individual. “We feel the pain which this sad occurrence caused, not only in America, but throughout the whole world. All people are mourning, and it is caused by a maniac who is of our nationality,” a Polish-American newspaper wrote in an anguished editorial.

It is a sentiment reminiscent of what Muslims and Chechens are writing – or Instagramming – today, after the revelation that Dzokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, are of Chechen descent. At this time, there is no evidence linking the Tsarnaev brothers to a broader movement in Chechnya, a war-torn federal republic in southern Russia. Neither of the brothers has ever lived there. The oldest, Tamerlan, was born in Russia and moved to the US when he was sixteen. The youngest, Dzokhar, was born in Kyrgyzstan, moved to the US when he was nine, and became a US citizen in 2012.

Continue reading ‘How the US Media Demonised the Chechnyan Ethnicity in the Aftermath of the Boston Marathon Event Blasts’ »

by

Prof.Rajiva Wijesinha M.P.

Once again, following the vote in Geneva, which made clear how influential the United States of America was, and how comparatively friendless we were, there is talk of re-establishing relations with the West. Thankfully this year it has not taken the form of denigration of good relations with others, as happened last year when those elements in the Ministry of External Affairs, which would have been described in the Cold War days as the running dogs of imperialism, danced on the graves of Dayan Jayatilleka and Tamara Kunanayagam.

This was profoundly ironic, for it was those two who had built up our friendships with other countries in the time honoured fashion that had brought us so much respect internationally in the days of Mrs Bandaranaike. At the same time they did this whilst commanding the respect of the West, as numerous cables in Wikileaks make clear. It was no coincidence then that two of our most sympathetic, if not uncritical, interlocutors from the West said to me in astonishment, after the vote, that we had made insufficient use of Tamara, who was clearly our best representative at Geneva.

Continue reading ‘Three Elements in the Determination of the West to do Down the Current Sri Lanka Government’ »

by

DR DAYAN JAYATILLEKA

However bad Sri Lanka’s foreign policy is and external relations are, they have yet to hit the nadir that they did under President Jayewardene in the 1980s.

The first ever resolution on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka adopted in Geneva by the Human Rights Commission was in March 1987, while the first decision, which it ‘recalls’ in the resolution, was in March 1984, as was reported in the Lanka Guardian at the time (Vol 9, No 23, April 1 1987, p18).

This episode, which in a lead story in the same journal three months later was derided by its Editor as a “roasting”, has recently been disinterred and touted as nothing less than a model of professional diplomacy which should have been looked up to as a lodestar by Sri Lanka’s representatives in Geneva May 2009.

Continue reading ‘How Sri Lanka Got Roasted at Geneva in 1987 When Resolution on Human Rights Situation was Adopted by Human Rights Commission’ »

(Commemorating 20th death Anniversary of former National security Minister Lalith Athulathmudali)

by

S. V. D Kesaralal Gunasekara

Lalith Athulathmudali

People keep asking me why I continue to write about the late Mr. Athulathmudali two decades after his unfortunate and untimely demise.

The necessity to write invariably follows as a result of what is happening (or not happening) in the country. Very little seems to be moving in the right direction and there is a lot more to be done in each sector. The country seem to be facing crises one after the other and we do not seem to be having a National Plan. I recall, visiting India as a parliamentarian on its 50th Independence anniversary. On our request, the Indian government gave us an opportunity to meet the Head of the National Planning Commission.
Continue reading ‘If only the Country was Fortunate to Have a Statesman Such as Lalith Athulathmudali at a Time Like This’ »

by

Col R Hariharan

pic courtesy of: facebook.com/nknewsorg

North Korea’s deployment of two additional short-range scud ballistic missile launchers in its eastern coast has strengthened speculations in the South that Pyongyang might launch a missile on April 25, the anniversary of North Korean army. According to South Korean media, the latest deployment was in addition to the seven mobile missile launchers already in place on the coast.

Coupled with the two Musudan intermediate range missiles already deployed at a place 180 km from the South Korean capital Seoul, has compelled South Korea and the U.S. to take the North Korean bluster a little more seriously. Although, South Korean’s Chief of National Security Kim Jang-soo had recently said DPRK was not capable of conducting a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula he did not rule out localized ‘provocations.’

Continue reading ‘Speculation Rife in South Korea About Pyongyang Launching Missile on the Anniversary of North Korean Army -April 25’ »

by

Karu Jayasuriya M.P.

It is reported in the media that the President Mahinda Rajapaksa has stated at a meeting with Media Chiefs, elections could be held under the Commissioner of Elections without an Elections Commission. An Elections Commission was established by the 17th Amendment which was passed in Parliament by 2/3 majority, to achieve certain goals which included restraining powers surrounding the Executive Presidency, establishment of a strong democracy and good governance.

17th Amendment was repealed by introducing the 18th Amendment, which was passed by 2/3 majority obtained by winning the Members of Parliament of the Opposition by offering various benefits and other devious methods, not by the mandate of the people.

Continue reading ‘Govt Must Establish Elections Commission as Stipulated by 17th Constitutional Amendment Before Northern Provincial Poll is Held’ »

by

Col R Hariharan

Muslim owned Bicycle Shop in Minhla, Bago, Myanmar being attacked and looted-in March 2013~via: twitter.com/nslwin

Myanmar’s fledgling democracy faced yet another obstacle to its progress when anti-Muslim violence flared up in Central Myanmar town of Meiktila in March 2013. It quickly spread to six other smaller townships in Thayawady district in Bago Region in Lower Myanmar.

According to Human Rights Watch, it also spread to 11 townships in Mandalay and Pegu divisions, where Muslim neighborhoods were ransacked.
Continue reading ‘Aung San Suu Kyi Reluctant to Take Action Affecting Majority Community During Anti-Muslim Communal Violence in Myanmar’ »

by Meera Srinivasan

Lalgudi Jayaraman (1930-2013)~pic: courtesy: The Hindu Photo Libraray

It was one such harsh Madras summer. In the shade of the rich canopy on Venkatnarayana Road, a friend and I, both a little over 10 at that time, stood in eager anticipation.

With us was Lalgudi sir, clad in a sparkling white dhoti folded up to his knee and a white half-sleeve khadi shirt. He was carefully choosing mangoes ripe enough to eat the very same day. With him was his wife Rajalakshmi.
Continue reading ‘‘Lalgudi Sir’ The Incurable Romantic Who Was My Guru: A Personal Tribute to Violin Maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman’ »

By

Shalini Singh

In his 112-page written statement to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the 2G scam, the former Telecom Minister and prime accused, A. Raja, has said he personally met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh several times between November 2007 and July 2008 — the period when the scam was perpetrated — to keep him informed of all 2G-related decisions, and the Prime Minister agreed with him.

On Page 72, while challenging the JPC’s draft report and the CBI’s allegations that Mr. Raja had “misled” the Prime Minister, he says: “This allegation has been made by the CBI without even recording the statement of the Hon’ble PM. On what basis do they say he was misled?
Continue reading ‘Former Telecom Minister A.Raja in 112 Page Statement Implicates Indian PM Manmohan Singh in Massive 2 G Spectrum Scam’ »

By

Marianne David

A blacktip reef shark among the coral reefs off Pigeon Island

With white sandy beaches and sparkling seas, magnificent whales and dancing dolphins, vibrant corals reefs in shallow waters, multi-hued schools of fish – including sharks, who glide by without a second glance – and the breathtaking secluded beauty of Pigeon Island, not forgetting its gorgeous setting, heritage and beauty, Trincomalee is a whole lot more than just another holiday place.
Continue reading ‘Whales, Dolphins, Sharks, Fish and Corals: Aquatic Adeventures in the Tranquil Blue Waters of Trincomalee’ »

Secretary Defence and Urban Developemt Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa during his visit to the Jaffna peninsula, was the chief guest at a function held to distribute school uniform packs to students in Varani today (22nd April).

pic: defence.lk

1500 school children received gift packs from Mr. Rajapaksa at the function organized by the 52 Division of the SLA.

Selected students from the schools located around the 10GW, 16GR and 10SLNG Army camps thus received the gifts. During the function 24 school principals, 100 teachers and parents also received gifts form the Secretary Defence.

The event had been organized in association with several businessmen namely Mr. Morris Zonders Jayathilake (Canadian), Mr. Robert Arunashantha, Mr. Ajith Senanayaka and Mr. Anura Pathirana.

Continue reading ‘Sinhala Businessmen Donate Gift Packs to 1500 Students,100 Teachers and 24 School Principals in Jaffna’ »

Victoria Tkacheva

A woman raped at a hotel in Sri Lanka has spoken for the first time of the attack in which she was badly beaten and her British boyfriend was killed, the British Sunday Times reported today.

Victoria Tkacheva, 24, a Russian languages graduate, fears that the men responsible for her rape and the murder of Khuram Shaikh, a 32-year-old Red Cross worker from Rochdale, will not be brought to justice.

One of the eight suspects who were arrested but later released is a local politician whose family have close ties to the Sri Lankan president.
Continue reading ‘Russian Woman Raped at Tangalle by Rajapaksa Acolytes Speaks out Seeking Justice for her Murdered British Boyfriend’ »

By

Raisa Wickrematunge

The mother of a sick child at Lady Ridgeway Hospital says that she was asked to remove her ‘abaya’ (cloak) when she visited the hospital to see her child.

The mother, whose child was diagnosed with dengue fever, visited Lady Ridgeway Hospital on April 13 at around 9.30 p.m.

Continue reading ‘Mother of Sick Child Told She had to Remove her “Abaya” if she Wanted to Enter Lady Ridgeway Hospital’ »

by

Dilrukshi Handunnetti

The much-opposed recent move to acquire forestland in three districts in the Northern Province for distribution among Muslim returnees and their extended families is now in full swing, with a total of 2,388 acres of prime forestland already for this purpose.

While local people and environmentalists continue to protest the land acquisition move – critiqued as a land distribution initiative on the basis of ethnicity by some – the government has strongly defended the action as one that seeks to correct a historical injustice committed against the many-times evicted Muslims of the North.

As things stand, a total of 2,388 acres in the Mannar, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya Districts are to be utilized for this purpose. Approximately, 1,080 acres in Mannar, 983 in Mullaitivu and 325 in Vavuniya Districts will be covered by this initiative.

Continue reading ‘2,388 Acres of Forest Land in Mannar,Mullautheevu and Vavuniya Districts Being Cleared for Displaced Muslims and Extended Families Returning to North’ »

by
C.A.Chandraprema

During the new year holidays, the International Bar Association put out a report titled “A Crisis of Legitimacy: The Impeachment of Chief Justice Bandaranayake and the Erosion of the Rule of Law in Sri Lanka”. It is important for bodies purporting to represent the legal profession not to convey the impression of being a kangaroo court lest it undermines the confidence of the people in the legal system.

People expect a certain clinical rigour from bodies made up of the legal fraternity. The International Bar Association (IBA) markets itself as “The Voice of the Global Legal Profession” (no less!). So the standards that we should expect of them should be even higher than what we would expect from legal bodies here.
Continue reading ‘International Bar Association Acts Like a “Kangaroo Court” in the Case of Sri Lanka’ »

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday that elections to the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) would be held in September this year but the date of the poll would be decided based on the advice of his astrologer.

“My astrologer gives me a winning time and I will decide on the basis on what he says,” the President said at a ceremony yesterday in Welioya to hand over deeds of Mahaweli lands to people in the area.

Continue reading ‘Date of Northern Provincial Council Elections Will be Announced According to My Astrologers Advice says President Rajapaksa’ »

by

JAYANTHA JAYAWEERA BSc Civil Eng (Lon), MIE (Aust), CPEng.

I have just returned from Sri Lanka after attending the Thurstan College and Isipathana College 50th big match encounter at SSC cricket grounds. I spent eleven memorable days in Colombo and Galle with my schoolmates of both schools, whom I met after some considerable time.

During my visit, I noticed a substantial improvement to road infrastructure largely thanks to Defence Secretary Mr. Gotabaya Rajapakse’s vision for better roads for the future. I agree with the Defence Secretary’s courage to rebuild Colombo in line with other larger cities in the world.

In the past, Colombo was a well-planned city until R. Premadasa became the Prime Minister of the country. He changed the whole planning procedure that had existed within the City of Colombo since the times of the British Raj to accommodate his henchman and party supporters, and built unauthorised structures all over Colombo. He and his henchmen politicised the administration of the Town Hall and that legacy continued for 40 years until recently.

Continue reading ‘Number of People Getting Killed on Roads Due to Motor Vehicle Accidents has Risen to Unacceptable Levels’ »

By

Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Despotic governments…..all follow the same logic”.
Umberto Eco (The Prague Cemetery)

Economic punches and developmental disappointments might have bruised and battered Mahinda Rajapaksa’s once enormous popularity among Sinhala masses. Yet a considerable part of it still endures. There is nothing outlandish about this; despotic leaders are usually popular, for a while, before the devastating costs of their rule become manifest. Vellupillai Pirapaharan was popular in his time.

Blessings to the President — in Kataragama, Sri Lanka-Apr 17, 2013

So was Adolf Hitler, until the Americans’ daylight carpet-bombing of German cities and the Red Army’s arrival on the borders of the Thousand Year Reich compelled ordinary Germans to realise the inevitability of a defeat on a Götterdämmerung scale.
Continue reading ‘Rajapaksa Economic Policies will Enrich the Rich,Pauperise the Poor and Make the Middle Classes Mired in Debt’ »

By

N. Sathiya Moorthy

It takes a lot of courage to say, ‘Sorry’. In these years after the end of the ‘ethnic wars’, neither the Sri Lankan State, nor the Tamil community said as much to each other – and to itself. In these months after international intervention, everyone is blaming everyone else, instead. They are doing nothing about it, either.

It was/is reasonable to expect the State to start the reconciliation process by the use of that simple yet powerful, single word. President Mahinda Rajapaksa had the occasion to do it in style and with sincerity when he declared the conclusion of war in Parliament, way back in May 2009. That was the national occasion as much for reconciliation as for feeling relieved about the end of LTTE terrorism.

Continue reading ‘No Time is Bad Time for Sinhalese and Tamils to say “Sorry”to Each Other From the Heart’ »

by

Gamini Weerakoon

Placard at a Tamil Rally in NY

Fresh rustic breezes, whiff of delicacies from the Avurudhu table and nostalgic memories of the time spent in the gama in their salad days would have rejuvenated the patriotic fervor of those Sri Lankan patriots who were breathing fire and thunder before the New Year on protecting the sovereignty, integrity, unity of Sri Lanka.

Four quarrelsome years have passed since the bloody 30-year-war ended but after the end of the war has come not peace but fierce war of words. The nation is as polarized when the bloodletting was on. Many going on the premise that patriotism demands to be on the side of the government during an armed conflict or in a war of words, are solidly behind the Rajapaksa regime while a miniscule opposition is saying that justice has not been done to Tamils despite the settlement of a near 300,000 displaced persons in homes new as well as their own reconstructed, after de-mining etc.

Continue reading ‘Decisive Military Defeat of LTTE has not Eliminated Threat of Tamil Separatist Terrorism’ »

via: facebook.com/BuddhistsQuestioningBoduBalaSena

It all started with a Facebook group titled ‘Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena’. A tense situation developed last Friday as members of this group gathered in front of the Buddhist Cultural Centre on Sambuddatva Jayanthi Mawatha. The people planned to hold a candlelight vigil in front of the building at 7 p.m. During the vigil, the gathering planned to chant stanzas from the Subashithaya, which deal with the concept of ‘Samma Vacha’ (translating as good/beneficial words) and a section of the national anthem.

It was meant to be a peaceful event, but it quickly spiraled into chaos.

Fifteen minutes before the vigil was even scheduled to start, police descended on the crowd and began abruptly detaining the people gathered.

Continue reading ‘BBS Strikes back Against Participants of “Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena” Candle Light Protest’ »

Revati Laul ~ pic via: twitter.com/RevatiLaul

By

Revati Laul

(Disguised as a tourist, Revati Laul travelled through the country’s most war-ravaged districts. She spotlights a story that is rarely told)

The idea of a separate Tamil nation is not dead in Sri Lanka.

There was a time when this was espoused with brutal violence by the dreaded LTTE. That violence has been leached out now to be replaced by a kind of limitless — and perhaps more potent — despair. There are reasons why the idea of a separate Tamil nation refuses to die.
Continue reading ‘War May be Over but the Idea of a Separate Tamil Nation is not Dead in Sri Lanka’ »

By Lewis Garland

A year ago this week, on 20 April 2012, a 2,000-strong mob led by Buddhists monks stormed a mosque in Dambulla, central Sri Lanka, during Friday Prayers. They damaged both the building and property within it, including religious artefacts and texts.

The Mosque had already been fire-bombed the previous evening. The mob claimed that the Mosque was situated within a sacred Buddhist area and had been constructed illegally. The reality was that the Mosque, a small, corrugated iron structure reachable only via a narrow path, barely visible from the street, had been used by the local Muslim community for over half a century without question or incident.
Continue reading ‘Rise of Red-Robed Islamophobia in Sri Lanka: Series of High-profile Hate Campaigns Against Muslims and Their Practices’ »

By

Vishnuguptha

“The marathon can humble you.”

~Bill Rodgers, winner of four Boston and four NYC marathons:

When the Al Qaida planes stormed themselves into the soaring twin-towers of the World Trade Center in New York, a sea-change occurred in the American psyche. A hitherto complacent American was confronted, more with the enormous potential of the wrath and anger of an Islamic fanatic than the actual capability of a yet-undetermined fire-power of an angered adversary.

They responded with an equal quantum of anger and determination which were in today’s real terms, much more telling than the power of the bows and arrows of the ancient world of Romans and Greeks or for that matter, even the Chinese and Indian Empires. What was even more evident was the outpouring of empathy, not sympathy as in an average Asian or Oriental people, towards a city and her people and the collective American mindset that was embedded in its own all-powerful invincibility.

Continue reading ‘From New York 9/11 to Boston Marathon-it’s a long run for the United States of America’ »

By

Swe Win

YANGON, Myanmar — Five years ago, when Myanmar was still under military rule, some Western and Chinese friends asked me how there could be such oppression in a country where Buddhism, which preaches nonviolence, is the predominant religion.

I was in self-imposed exile at the time, studying journalism at the University of Hong Kong, and I would answer that the country’s military leaders were immoral, Buddhists in name only. I would also point out that Myanmar’s pre-colonial monarchical rulers — they, too, nominally Buddhist — also had committed great crimes. In other words, nothing was wrong with the religion itself; the problem was with the politicians who were flouting it.

I can’t give such answers any more — not since the recent deadly attacks by Buddhists against Muslims in Meikhtila, a city in central Myanmar with no history of sectarian violence. Reports that monks instigated some of those burnings, beatings and killings suggest a much deeper problem than unprincipled state officials.

Continue reading ‘969 Movement Run by Buddhist Monks in Burma Gives Hate Speeches Against Muslims’ »

By

Tariq Ali

Four years after the killing of between eight and ten thousand Tamils by the Sri Lankan army, which brought to an end a civil war that had lasted for 26 years, there is trouble on the island again. This time the army isn’t directly responsible: instead it’s the Buddhist monks from Bodu Bala Sena, the most active of the fundamentalist groups that have sprouted in Sinhalese strongholds. Three-quarters of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese; most of them are Buddhists. The monks’ target this time is the small Muslim minority. Muslim abattoirs have been raided, halal butchers attacked, homes targeted. The police merely stand and watch, and Sri Lankan TV crews calmly film the violence. A few weeks ago, Buddhist monks got some hoodlums to attack a Muslim-owned car showroom. One of its employees was going out with a young Sinhalese woman and her father complained to a local monk. The Sunday Leader reported that ‘an eyewitness saw a monk leaving one of the temples … followed by a group of youths, mostly under 25 years of age. The group carried stones and, people were later to discover, kerosene.’

Continue reading ‘Difficult to Imagine How Circumcision Could be “Nipped in the Bud”Even by a Buddhist’ »

By

“Jack Point”

“If you buy from Muslim shops, your money doesn’t just stop there,” “It will eventually go towards destroying your race and religion.”

Muslim merchants receive cash injections from Middle East oil state brethren and use these funds to undercut Buddhist rivals.

This Muslim alliance could outbreed Buddhists, steal away Buddhist women, overwhelm political offices and prohibit Buddhist ceremonies altogether. “We Buddhists allow them to freely practice their faith,” “But once these evil Muslims have control, they will not let us practice our religion. We must be careful. These Muslims really hate us.

Fliers urge locals to bar Muslims from renting homes and farmlands and ominously warn Buddhists acting as Muslim families’ middlemen.

These statements come not from the Bodu Bala Sena but from 969, a movement in Burma (Myanmar) that has emerged with the avowed aim of defending Buddhist faith, Burmese race and the Buddhist nation from Burmese Muslims.

Continue reading ‘Is Burma’s neo-Nazi Buddhist movement 969, a splitting image of the Bodu Bala Sena ?’ »

By

Kalana Senaratne

‘Long War, Cold Peace’ by Dayan Jayatilleka: A Review

After what seemed to be a brief but palpable and conspicuous absence from serious public engagement (in late 2012), Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka has returned from Paris; a return marked by his characteristic interventions in the press and the release of a book, titled ‘Long War, Cold Peace: Conflict and Crisis in Sri Lanka’ (Vijitha Yapa, 2013). The book, his second major publication on Sri Lanka, brings together most of his writings on Sri Lankan affairs which were published in the papers during the past few years.

This is a timely intervention; not only because the author was a former diplomat who had staunchly and successfully defended the country overseas, but mostly because his views on numerous domestic and foreign policy matters seem to run counter to the dominant ideological positions adopted by the present regime. The confluence of these factors makes Jayatilleka’s intervention a coruscating and critical one, with the delightful (or dangerous?) potential of irking the regime; especially a firm and unflinching political administrator like Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, than a seemingly indecisive political leader like President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Continue reading ‘Dayan Jayatilleka’s Critique Unmasks the Mediocrity of the Rajapaksa Regime:‘Long War, Cold Peace’ by Dayan Jayatilleka- A Review’ »

An Interview by Chamitha Kuruppu

(We are not engaged in any activities that are harmful to society, nor are we causing religious disharmony,” claims Bodu Bala Sena strongman Dilantha Withanage.“We do not want to get into politics,” says Withanage, Chief Executive Officer of the Bodu Bala Sena Headquarters, adding that the movement does not want to topple governments or form a government but needs an immediate change in the present condition in the country)

Following are excerpts of the interview:

Continue reading ‘“When a Buddhist Priest was Attacked in India , Factions in Sri Lanka Were Planning to Attack Tamils”-Bodu Bala Sena Strongman Dilantha Withanage’ »

by

Thrishantha Nanayakkara

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa

After nearly 7 years of postgraduate education and independent research experience abroad, I returned to Sri Lanka in mid 2003, to work in my mother country Sri Lanka that gave me free education all the way upto university level.

When I left Johns Hopkins University in USA, some of my friends cautioned me of the danger I might face in a possible breakout of the war in Sri Lanka. Still, a strong compulsion kept me firm on the decision to return. When I was interviewed by the University of Moratuwa, where I received undergraduate education, I made it clear to the Vice Chancellor that my intension of joining the University would be to set up a laboratory to develop new technologies to detect landmines.

Continue reading ‘A Message to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa-Please Keep in Mind That Sri Lanka is Not Your Private or Family Property’ »

By
SCT

(A Personal Response to the quashing of the first anti BBS protest on Havelock Road)

This evening (Friday, April 12th 2013) around 7.15pm on Havelock Road in front of the Sambuddhatva Jayanthi Building adjoining Laurie’s Road, I was reminded anew that there is no freedom in our land.

I am nearly 45 years old now, and for 30 long years, I have been reminded over and over again in different places, at different times that in many ways the citizens of Sri Lanka are trapped. We have been and still are, in fact increasingly so, trapped by our fear, our intolerance, our ignorance, our sheep like obedience, either to the powers that be or to our own desperate need to play safe and stay safe.

I am not a lawyer, a journalist, an academic or an activist. I am just an ordinary citizen who is sick of being intimidated by the forces that are empowered by us to protect us. I am tired of our short sighted, nepotistic governments, our corrupt politicians, our arrogant law enforcement officers, our extremist religious leaders, and our ignorant, complacent citizenry. I am just plain tired.

Continue reading ‘Anti-BBS Demonstration:May More of us Ordinary, Everyday Citizens, Rise up and Protest.’ »

by Prof. V. Suryanarayan

There is a huge divide between Chennai and New Delhi on how both see Sri Lanka. What remains the primary problem in India’s approach towards Sri Lanka, and why is there a divide within?

Continue reading ‘Huge Divide Between New Delhi and Chennai on India’s Foreign Policu Towards Sri Lanka’ »

By

Dharisha Bastians

Issuing a clarion call against what it called the Government’s ‘economic thuggery’ and ‘power shocks’ for the New Year, the Joint Opposition yesterday urged political parties, media personnel and ordinary people to unite in a fight to defeat a ruling party it said had no business being in power.

In a blazing critique of the electricity tariff hikes commencing retroactively from 12 April, Vipakshaye Virodhaya representatives told a news conference in Colombo that the ruling regime was making ordinary Sri Lankans pay the price for its bad energy policies and the massive losses incurred by the Ceylon Electricity Board exacerbated by State sector extravagance and wastage.

Continue reading ‘Citizens Can Either Commit Collective Suicide or Band Together to Fight the Rajapaksa Regime -Hemakumara Nanayakkara’ »

by

Yovahn Y.R. Hoole

In 2010, when my family returned to Sri Lanka, my father bragged how Jaffna was the pinnacle of education anywhere and surpassed US standards. But I soon came to understand that the war had turned his pinnacle into rubble.

After experiencing the different school systems, I came across the problems which I see destroying Sri Lankan schools. I wish to share my thoughts without giving any offence, particularly to my affectionate teachers. Being in a university town, I am comparing the best here and there. I am now finishing grade 11.
Continue reading ‘Jaffna and Michigan: A Student Perspective of Two Schooling Systems’ »

by

M. Z. Abdeen-Kandy

Though it is now settled policy that the Official Languages are Sinhala and Tamil with English as the link language, its implementation, as judged by government communiqués, lacks any commitment. Government letters and notices written in Sinhala only mostly, or in Sinhala and Tamil occasionally and hardly ever with an English copy, continue to be received as earlier. This causes much inconvenience (also justified annoyance) unnecessarily.

Continue reading ‘Sinhala Continues to be Sole Official Language in Practice Despite Constitutional Status for Tamil and English’ »

By

Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

I can hardly believe that it is thirty years since the untimely death of Karunaratna Abeysekara, known to our generation as Karuayya, who ‘ruled’ the airwaves for decades before his death. One of the great regrets of my life is that I was not there when Karuayya had the fatal heart attack. I could not even be there for his funeral, which turned out to be a massive farewell to a much loved personality, as I was in Vienna attending the World Congress of Pacing where I displayed a poster. On my way back I went to London to meet my long time friend, Dr Buddhadasa Bodhinayaka, with whom I did regular science programmes in Karuayya’s children’s programme ‘Saraswathie Mandapaya,’ broadcast over radio on Sunday evenings. It was in Bodhi’s place that I heard the sad news and the pain I felt that day continues still.

Continue reading ‘Remembering “Karuayya”:Karunaratna Abeysekara- Sinhala Film Lyricist and Broadcaster Par Excellence’ »

A respected senior economist said yesterday that easing monetary policy and bringing down interest rates would not help the country sustain high economic growth unless measures were taken to address long-standing structural deficiencies in the economy.

“The euphoria of the war victory and commencement of the US$ 2.6 billion IMF standby facility arrangement prompted a relaxation of fiscal and monetary policy to stimulate economic growth which saw economic growth average 8 percent in 2010/11, but could not be sustained due to structural problems in the economy which saw growth slip to 6.4 percent in 2012,” Institute of Policy Studies Executive Director Dr. Saman Kelegama said.

Continue reading ‘Top Economist Warns That Easing Monetary Policy and Bringing Down Interest Rates Would not Help Country Sustain High Economic Growth’ »

By

Latheef Farook

Political bankruptcy of Muslim parliamentarians was exposed by the Tamil National Alliance leader R Sampanthan and the TNA parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran when they raised the issue of growing disastrous hate Muslim campaign in the parliament.

R Sampanthan MP and M. A. Sumanthiran MP meeting (Jan 2013) with an Australian delegation lead by Scott Morrison MP (Member of Parliament for Cook in NSW)-pic courtesy of: Scott Morrison’s Flickr page

As it is well known that there has been a wave of well planned attacks on the political, religious, cultural, economic life of Muslims in Sri Lanka. This campaign which started early last year with the destruction of a more than 400 year old Muslim shrine in Anuradhapura continues unabated with growing intensity.

Continue reading ‘TNA Parliamentarians Sampanthan and Sumanthiran Exposed Muslim MPs political bankruptcy’ »

BANGALORE: Jyoti Sinha, a former research and analysis wing official, played an important role in increasing India’s influence in neighbouring countries like Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka during the NDA regime (1999-2004). He is also considered the architect of Indian influence in Sri Lanka from 2001-2004. The former IPS official spoke to TOI on the Tamil issue during his recent visit to Bangalore for a lecture on ‘Latest developments in Sri Lanka: India’s Interest and Concerns’.

Excerpts from an exclusive interview:

Continue reading ‘Playing a Big Brother Role in Sri Lanka will not Serve New Delhi’s Future Interests -Ex-RAW Official’ »

By

Mangala Samaraweera M.P.

In present day Sri Lanka it has become customary for whispers and speculation of impending elections to be followed up by brutal onslaughts on what remains of the country’s free press. It is a thinly veiled attempt to intimidate the media into silence ahead of crucial polls about the crimes and lapses of a completely corrupt incumbency.

It is not surprising therefore that a dangerous trend is being set, commencing with twin attacks on the Uthayan newspaper publishing in the country’s north in the space of less than a month and followed up with a threat against the Sirasa Media Network. Neither media organisation is a stranger to devastating and debilitating attacks against them; attacks that have only increased in brutality and impunity in recent years. Each time they are struck, the organisations and personnel find the strength to pick up the pieces and carry on. We salute their courage and commitment to their professional duty.

Continue reading ‘Media Suppression will not end Until Every Newspaper,Radio and TV Station is Effectively Silenced and Subjucated’ »

By
Amy Davidson

A twenty-year-old man who had been watching the Boston Marathon had his body torn into by the force of a bomb. He wasn’t alone; a hundred and seventy-six people were injured and three were killed. But he was the only one who, while in the hospital being treated for his wounds, had his apartment searched in “a startling show of force,” as his fellow-tenants described it to the Boston Herald, with a “phalanx” of officers and agents and two K9 units.

He was the one whose belongings were carried out in paper bags as his neighbors watched; whose roommate, also a student, was questioned for five hours (“I was scared”) before coming out to say that he didn’t think his friend was someone who’d plant a bomb—that he was a nice guy who liked sports. “Let me go to school, dude,” the roommate said later in the day, covering his face with his hands and almost crying, as a Fox News producer followed him and asked him, again and again, if he was sure he hadn’t been living with a killer.
Continue reading ‘Plight of a Saudi Arabian Injured by the Bomb Blasts at the Boston Marathon Event’ »

(Text of Communique Issued by Law Society of England and Wales Press Office)

The Law Society of England and Wales today added its voice to those calling for the suspension of Sri Lanka from the Councils of the Commonwealth, following reports of serious breaches of the rule of law and judicial independence.

It announced its support for the high-level international resolution at the 18th Commonwealth Law Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

Continue reading ‘England and Wales Law Society Support Commonwealth Lawyers Call Suspension of Sri Lanka From Commonwealth’ »

By

Muheed Jeeran

Recent domestic developments are not looking good for Sri Lanka’s ethnic minority Muslim community after they have been targeted by a revitalized and rather extremist Sinhalese grouping called ‘Bodu Bala Sena (BBS).’ This faction is led by a number of vociferous Buddhist Monks aimed at safeguarding the core principles of Buddhism. Let me be clear – of course these Monks have a right to protect their very own religion and culture, without any doubt.

news.lk

Fifteen diplomatic heads of Islamic countries, resident in Sri Lanka, met President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees on Apr 17. Ministers Prof. G.L. Peiris, Rauff Hakeem, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Parliamentarian A.H.M Azwer, Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga and Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs Karunatilake Amunugama were also present~news.lk

What I strongly condemn though is the fact that they are targeting the Muslim Community promoting a campaign based on nothing more than religious hatred.

Continue reading ‘Why Can’t Muslim Political Leaders Stand up For Their Own Muslim Community?’ »

By
Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear”.
Bertrand Russell (Unpopular Essays)

The malignant police response to the peaceful vigil organised by the Facebook group, ‘Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena’ proved one fact beyond doubt – the BBS is a protected species, protected by the Rajapaksas. According to video footage, the police acted as if they were the private army of the BBS, threatening and harassing the participants of the vigil. Clearly the police were under orders to display a zero-tolerance towards these non-violent protestors – just as they were under orders to employ a laissez-faire demeanour towards the mob attacking Fashion Bug.

The BBS will be above the law, so long as it does the Rajapaksas’ work.

The toxic conduct of the BBS can ignite an anti-Muslim Black July, jeopardise Colombo’s relations with the Islamic world and inflict a new war on Sri Lanka. Given these deadly potentialities, the order to protect and facilitate the BBS (and its offshoots) would have had to come from the very top. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa might be the Godfather of the BBS, but he could not have extended consistent patronage to an organisation trying to incite a Buddhist-Muslim conflict without the approval of his brother, the President.

Continue reading ‘Is the Bodu Bala Sena in the USA to Portray the Rajapaksa Brothers as Warriors Battling the Islamic Threat?’ »

By

Vishnuguptha

“All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s possible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.”

~ Niccolo Machiavelli

Bodhu Bala Sena might think that it enjoys the monopoly of the Sinhalese Buddhists’ range and scope of thinking. It might have been lured into the illusion that a great majority of our Sinhalese Buddhists are as warped and deranged in their assessment and reading of the average psyche of the average man, woman and child. Given the centuries-old conditioning the average person has been subjected to through mass education on the myths, legends and miracles of the Great Chronicle-Mahawansa- it is not all that imprudent to surmise that way either. However, time and time again, the average Sinhalese Buddhist has been a reasonable man, capable of differentiating between the absurd and the real, dangerous and safe and sacred and cruel.

Continue reading ‘Soldiers of the “Senas”and “Balakayas”Personify Every Fibre of Evil and Cruelty and Every Thread of Sadism and Inhumanity’ »

By

Kamaya Jayatissa

“If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable,
you know it’s not a broad enough coalition.”
-Bernice Johnson Reagon

When fighting in the international arena, one should know that the only way to survive is to constantly build new coalitions while strengthening and maintaining the existing ones. Due to its belonging to the Non Aligned Movement and to the various “Gs” (G77, G15), but also due to its long standing friendships with key countries such as Russia, China and India, Sri Lanka was so far able to keep close ties with the predominant coalitions present within international organizations; close enough to overcome the post-war international pressures in 2009 but not sufficient to maintain a prolonged legitimacy on the Geneva battlefield.

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka Must Constantly Build New International Coalitions While Strengthening and Maintaining Existing Ones’ »

By

Dharisha Bastians

Balasingham-Peiris peace talks in 2003 ~ pic: Guardian.UK

The prospect of elections for the Northern Provincial Council by September 2013, now a Sri Lankan Government promise cemented in a UN Human Rights Council Resolution on the country became just a little more remote last week after members of the main Tamil party and civil society activists in the North called for the setting up of an interim administration in the province overseen by India or the US until the Government comes up with a permanent political solution to address Tamil concerns.

The appeal made to a visiting Indian Parliamentary delegation in Jaffna, comes in the wake of calls for the abolishment of the 13th Amendment, that devolves some power from the central Government to provincial authorities, from the ruling regime’s top officials no less.
Continue reading ‘Tamil Parties are not Helping Their Cause by Parroting the Demands of a Defeated Separatist Movement’ »

By

Vijayani Edirisinghe

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption impounded the passport of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake to prevent her from escaping to a foreign country until the probe into the allegations of bribery and corruption against her is concluded. The Commission has taken this decision in keeping with the legal powers vested in it and had communicated it to Controller General of Immigration and Emigration Chulananda Perera, on April 11.

Continue reading ‘De-Jure Chief Justice Dr.Shirani Bandaranayke’s Passport Impounded’ »

By
Sunalie Ratnayake

Dr. Tissa Abeysekera

Tissa Abeysekera
Born: May 7, 1939
Died: April 18, 2009 (aged 69)
Other names: Ananda Tissa de Fonseka
Education: Dharmapala Vidyalaya
Occupation: Film director/writer
Political Party: Lanka Sama Samaja Party
Awards: Gratiaen Prize, Deshabandu
________________________________________

Today (April 18, 2013) is the fourth death anniversary of a legendary man of unparalleled faculty, whose life encompassed a sheer, rich versatility. The world of Sri Lankan screenplays, movie directions, performing/acting, political activism, writing and analysis was undeniably enriched by this startling human being, that possessed knowledge in each of the aforesaid spheres, and much more, in a manner that surpassed that of a routine intellectual.

Continue reading ‘Remembering Tissa Abeysekera:Versatile Legend of Unparalleled Faculty’ »

By
Gomin Dayasri

Naive live in bliss: after acting silly at Geneva 2013. Mileage gained by LLRC report abbreviated into an Action Plan, was placed on a mock timetable and fawningly delivered to Hillary Clinton, needlessly.

Now Americans complain of a failure to deliver. Without prattling gibberish nonsense: attend to the priorities; provide potent results, as when overcoming terrorists. Clip the lip and do the homework. Show results and walk upright. Instead we wobble blindly on bluff.

Action Plan is a revised LLRC report disarranged and disshevelled – jettisoning the cozy caveats that cut comfort corners. LLRC report was lethargically placed in the sin bin and fell into deep slumber by doing little else- weakened our position for the asking. Gone gaga with none daring to enlighten on the ongoing folly?

Continue reading ‘We need to court America with the Action Plan – a nutshell of the LLRC report.’ »

By
Sathya Liyanasuriya

Jayantha Dharmadasa

One of Sri Lanka’s most sought-after jobs was handed over to Jayantha Dharmadasa on Tuesday when he was appointed as President of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) after weeks of wild speculation and intense backroom lobbying in cricketing and political circles.

The appointment was somewhat of an anti-climax. What was expected was a mighty tussle between previous President Upali Dharmadasa-Jayantha’s brother and ruling party parliamentarian Thilanga Sumathipala.

Continue reading ‘Can New President Jayantha Dharmadasa Cleanse Sri Lanka Cricket of Corruption?’ »

By

Ifham Nizam

With the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the regulatory body giving the green to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) yesterday, to go for an electricity tariff hike with effect from April 12, the domestic users will have to pay some 68 per cent more on their monthly electricity bills, while others will have to pay more than 26 per cent.

Continue reading ‘68% Monthly Increase for Domestic Users after Massive electricity price hike effective from April 12’ »

By

Ravi Ladduwahetty

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) yesterday said it had not asked for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) for the Northern Province till the provincial polls were held.

This follows news reports that the TNA, with Mannar Bishop Rayappu Joseph and civil society members, had asked a visiting delegation of Indian Members of Parliament to press the Government of Sri Lanka to establish an ISGA.

Continue reading ‘Tamil National Alliance Has not Asked for an Interim Self-Governing Authority for North’ »

By

Jack Healey

Faith can be a comfort and faith can be a cudgel. Faith has been and remains for many to be a wellspring of inspiration that can be used to check one’s moral compass and to recharge one’s internal resources the struggle for all people’s human rights. It is also important to recognize that there is a long tradition of religion being misused to justify the systematic denial of people’s human rights, or indeed their very humanness. We must always be vigilant in watching religion.

The documented misuses of religion are considerable in their impact for human rights. Catholic Inquisitions spanned nearly six centuries and the justification to deprive people of rights, liberty, and in many cases life itself, was framed in the need to correct “heresy.” From the Partition Riots early in India and Pakistan’s independence, through the destruction of a mosque in Ayodhya, to the bombings in Mumbai, the use of religion to justify violence by both Hindus and Muslims is well-documented. The deployment of state force to dispossess Palestinians and to build Jewish-only settlements is defended on the basis of religion.

Continue reading ‘Imperative to “Protect”Buddhism in Sri Lanka has led to Discrimination Against Non – Buddhists for Decades’ »

Geneva : “Responsibility to Protect” Vs sovereignty of the people!

By

Tamara Kunanayakam

“Only the working class in its mass remained loyal to the profaned homeland!” Francois Mauriac, 1943

Reactions to the latest US resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council have varied from lamenting about unjust criticism when significant progress in resettlement, reconstruction and demining has been made, to complacency about minor amendments, although these have left intact its essence, the relentless logic that underpins the “Responsibility to Protect” (RtoP). Despite these differences, there seems to be a consensus that the text is soft, harmless, and “nothing to worry about.”

It is this latter interpretation, which disregards that accountability is only a pretext for Washington to advance its geopolitical interests in the region, that I consider my duty to challenge in this piece, an interpretation for which, until recently, I had a more charitable explanation – erroneous reading of the text! I have meanwhile revised this position. The startling suggestion from certain high quarters that Sri Lanka “become a stronger geopolitical and strategic ally” of the US and confirmation of behind the scenes concessions to Washington as the US draft was being considered by the Council, indicate that sections of the ruling elite might have chosen to capitulate and bargain away our independence and sovereignty.

Continue reading ‘Why the “Sri Lanka Issue” is Increasingly Moving to Centrestage in the most Politicised UN Fora’ »

By

Upul Joseph Fernando

India entertains misgivings about Mahinda Rajapaksa’s promised election to the Northern Provincial Council in September this year. At the same time, it is also pinning its hopes on a possible Tamil National Alliance (TNA) victory, if the elections are held, hopeful that such a victory would garner the crucial Tamil Nadu votes, which in turn would ensure an electoral victory for the Congress Party in the 2014 Indian elections. In such a scenario, India will surely be in the box seat, claiming the allegiance of Tamil Nadu for its success in influencing Mahinda Rajapaksa to establish a Provincial Council in the North, by way of a viable solution to the ethnic problem.

Continue reading ‘Mahinda Rajapaksa and SLFP Were Unwaveringly Opposed to Accord and Provincial Councils Imposed by Indians on Sri Lanka’ »

By

Lashane Cooray

Police launched an immediate investigation yesterday, following a complaint lodged by the Maharaja Television and Maharaja Broadcasting Corporation (MTV/MBC), regarding an imminent attack on their journalists.

Continue reading ‘MTV and MBC Lodge Police Complaint that Maharaja Group Journalists Face Threat of Imminent Attack’ »

By

Dr.Vickramabahu Karunaratne

Dr. Vickramabahu Karunaratne

“Let us join hands for an ANTI RACIST NATIONAL UNITY MAY DAY RALLY in the National capital Colombo! Let us save our Motherland from Racism and Religious Fundamentalism! JOIN as Political parties, minority organisations, trade unions, civil groups and Individuals!”

This was the spontaneous demand that started the discussion for a May Day which will bring out a powerful solidarity against racism and religious sectarianism. It has cut across the economic demands of the trade unions and the other democratic demands. According to the text books of radical politics such a mobilisation should be done by the working class organisations. But unfortunately still many trade unions are tied to the Mahinda regime which is mainly responsible for the rise of racism and religious sectarianism in this country.

Continue reading ‘Main Threat to Democracy Today is Racist and Religious Extremist Mobilisation Justifying Existence of Cruel Dictatorship’ »

By

Prof.Rajiva Wijesinha M.P.

When I was in Delhi last week, I was privileged to meet the Indian Minister of External Affairs who turned out, though he looks old and distinguished, to have been at Oxford while I was there – and to have succeeded Ravi Tennekoon as a Lecturer at Trinity College, before heading back to India to better things.

I still recall Ravi telling me that he was giving up the position at Trinity – which seemed to my undergraduate enthusiasms all one could hope for – to get back into real life. Salman Khurshid meanwhile is the Minister of External Affairs in India, and still extraordinarily mentally agile, as befits a lawyer turned novelist turned politician.

Continue reading ‘We Cannot Forget Special Relationship with India and Turn to the West or Think we can Cling to China and Ignore India’ »

by

Dr.Sudarshini Fernandopulle M.P.

Jeyaraj & Sudarshini Fernandopulle

Terrorism irrespective of where it happens and who is affected is brutal and has to be condemned by all. Sri Lanka suffered due to terrorism for more than three decades. As a victim of LTTE terrorism, I strongly condemn the brutal act of terrorists at Boston, states Member of Parliament Dr Sudarshini Fernandopulle in a release.

“I wish to convey my sympathies to the families of those who died and were injured. I know how hard it is to lose a beloved,” states MP Dr. Fernandopulle.

Continue reading ‘My Husband Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was Assassinated by a Suicide Bomber When Attending a Marathon Event as Chief Guest’ »

UNP MP and economist Dr. Harsha de Silva yesterday said the US fund cut had sent an ominous message to Sri Lanka. “It is not the amount of dollars that we should be placing our emphasis on, but the message that is being delivered. To me it seems that this latest action is building on what happened in Geneva last month and that is, the US would like to see us start implementing the LLRC report that we ourselves already undertook to do over and over again but are not moving ahead with.”

Continue reading ‘US Delivers Ominous Message to Sri Lanka Through its Fund Cut says Dr.Harsha de Silva MP’ »

By

R. A. Ratwatte

BBS seem to be the most important letters of the alphabet today, in Sri Lanka. Before I express my opinion on what is going on let me establish my credentials. I am a very proud Sinhala Buddhist of up- country origin. I have served a full five year term as a Basnayake Nilame, looking after the historic Maha Vishnu Devalaya at Lankatilleke in Pilimatalawe.

Continue reading ‘BBS: Utter Balderdash Carried out by a Bunch of IDIOTS in the Name of the Sinhala Race has Got to Stop Right Now!’ »

By

Kath Noble

The government is getting really good at denying responsibility for attacks on the media. Within hours of the incident at the Uthayan office in Jaffna on Saturday, its spokesman had issued a several hundred word statement claiming that it was an ‘inside job’. How’s that for efficiency? If only it put a fraction of that energy into finding proof of its imaginative theories, we might actually be convinced.

Unfortunately, it has not been able to identify the culprits in even one previous case, although there have been many.

That is what I would describe as an ‘interesting phenomenon’.

Continue reading ‘Eelam Will be a Distant Memory if 13th Amendment is Made to Work and TNA Gets to Run the Northern Provincial Council’ »

By

Shamindra Ferdinando

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has told a visiting Indian parliamentary delegation that a separate system of governance for the Northern and Eastern Provinces would never be a reality.

The Defence Secretary was responding to a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) suggestion, made through the six-member Indian delegation, during a meeting at the Defence Ministry last Thursday afternoon. The war veteran alleged that the TNA had been repeating the LTTE demands since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009.

Sources described the discussions as cordial.

Continue reading ‘Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Tells Indian MP’s that Separate Governance System for North and East Would Never be a Reality’ »

By

Samuel Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

Sri Lankan Regional Autonomy

pic courtesy: BBC

The provincial council system was set up in response to Tamil demands for separation in the face of brazen discrimination by the Sri Lankan state from the very time of independence. It was a compromise mediated by India in 1987 under the Indo-Lanka Accord to give Tamils a say in their own affairs while preserving the state without any breakup.

It was for the Tamils. However, although every province would receive the same regional autonomy without making it seem a Tamil thing, the Northern and Eastern provinces were merged into one North-East Province through the Accord because the Tamil numbers in the Eastern Province were vitiated through systematic colonization using poor Sinhalese and prisoners, and through ethnic cleansing using massacres by the state’s dreaded Special Task Force. For the Eastern Province was not expected to survive on its own.
Continue reading ‘Northern Provincial Council Elections in Sri Lanka’ »

By

Charitha Ratwatte

pic: facebook.com/dialog.lk

In 2011, Sri Lanka had an estimated eighteen million, three thousand, four hundred and forty seven (18,003,447) mobile phone subscribers. By the end of December 2012 the number was 20.3 million. This is for 20.8 million people!

Usage and penetration of mobile phone connectivity has a humongous effect on economic activity. The upside is obvious. Generating more business opportunities for micro, small and medium entrepreneurs, for example. Providing services and support to mobile phone users is another sector which is rapidly expanding.

An expanding market for suppliers of goods and services is the stuff of legend, whether it be fishermen returning with their catch who phone in to their home and other ports to find out the best price, to th driver/guides of tourist jeeps at the Yala National Park who alert their brethren on the presence of a tusker, leopard or a herd of elephants. The ubiquitous three-wheel driver, who drops you off with a cheery “just give me a missed call when you need to be picked up,” is another modern day icon.

Continue reading ‘Mobile Mania in Sri Lanka: 20.3 Million Mobile Phone Subscribers by End of 2012 in a Population of 20.8 Million’ »

By

N Sathiya Moorthy

Independent of the media-hype on all ‘controversial things’ that the Tamil Nadu Government and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa may be saying on the ‘fishing issue’, they have also quietly initiated steps over the past couple of years which could lead to reduction of tensions with Sri Lanka on the Palk Bay front. It is sad however that the media do not see it nor do they get to see it as the State Government seems keen on projecting not the ‘positive steps’ on this score.

Finance Minister O Panneerselvam did not say as much when he presented the State’s Budget for 2013-14 in the Legislative Assembly on March 21. His hope that the Government aid for deep-sea fishing will “slowly wean away our fishermen from unsustainable trawler-fishing in shallow waters to sustainable deep-sea fishing” however is a step in the right direction, as it could help wean them away from the Sri Lankan waters, as well. Rather, that could be one sector where the effectiveness of the Government initiative can actually be seen and felt, for the rest of the State’s coastal fishers to be inspired and to follow.

Continue reading ‘Tamil Nadu Govt Takes Steps to Quietly Wean Away Fisherfolk from Unsustainable Trawler Fishing in Palk Bay to Sustainable Deep Sea Fishing’ »

by

Ruki Fernando

On 12th April, around 7pm, I was amongst a group of people gathered on the pavement, outside the Sri Sambuddha Jayanthi building, situated at 32, Havelock Road, Colombo 5. This is the address of the Bodu Bala Sena, which has been accused of inciting and unleashing violence against minority religious communities, particularly Muslims and Christians.

We gathered without obstructing anyone passing by on the pavement, or road, or those entering the building. Infact, people walked passed us on the pavement and vehicles moved along at normal pace on the road, and several Buddhist Monks and men had come out of the building without any problem. I and some other friends had gathered in response to a public notice on the internet (http://www.yamu.lk/event/vigil-to-safeguard-the-dhamma.html)

Continue reading ‘Are Those Using Sticks, Stones and Other Weapons to Attack Religious Minorities and Threaten Peaceful Protesters “Real”Buddhists?’ »

By

Subha Wijesiriwardena

The growing anti-Muslim sentiment in Sri Lanka is pushing us to respond in numerous ways: we are talking, flustered, hopeless and helpless, shouting in outrage (when no one will listen), holding our knees to chests, trying to pull ourselves inside, into some sense of comfort and safety, whispers of more war, more conflict on our lips. The annoyance has turned to fear; the irritating din of the crowd has turned to the cries of a mob. In a matter of months, we have grown from worried to scared; that mob have grown from an absurd joke into a very serious problem. Worst of all, it has pushed some of us to retreat into the empty shells of ourselves, hidings our heads, hoping it will just blow over.

Here, at the threshold of this calamity, we teeter on the edge, about to make our most grave mistakes all over again; it may not blow over before it has destroyed so much more than we are willing to sacrifice.

Continue reading ‘Clear Agenda of Extremist Groups is-”We are Done With the Tamils,So Let’s Make the Muslims Our New Enemy”.’ »

By

Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka

It was doubtless in the spirit of the Sinhala-Tamil New Year that the Tamil (ultra?) nationalists presented the Sinhala hawks the gift of especially moronic remarks to the visiting Indian parliamentary delegation.

Here we are, with the 13th Amendment and provincial level devolution hanging by a thread, the most important state official in the island advocating its abolition and an opinion poll in the Daily Mirror with its sophisticated metropolitan readership showing only 33 % in favour of retention, and what do the Tamil nationalists do? True to form, they disown and denounce the 13th Amendment and call variously for an interim administration outside the Sri Lankan Constitution and supervised by India and/or the UN.

Continue reading ‘The Moronic Remarks of Tamil Ultra-Nationalists on 13th Amendment to Visiting Indian Parliamentarians’ »

by

S.L.Gunasekara

That democracy is being slowly and surely strangled in Sri Lanka and that many a critic of the Government, particularly in the media has met with a tragic fate is indisputable. Both Sampanthan and Surendiran wax eloquent about the atrocities purported to have been committed by the Government on Tamils in the North. Sampanthan concentrates on the alleged attacks on meetings of the TNA.

It would be highly unrealistic to even suggest that any of these allegations are ‘total’ fabrications. However, the practice of attacking opponents physically is not something that is restricted to attacking Tamil opponents of the Government in the North. Such attacks have been committed on Sinhalese and Muslims in other parts of the Country as well. If either Sampanthan or Surendiran had any trace of genuineness or sincerity in their purported lamentations one would naturally have expected them to have commented adversely on, and cried halt to the attacks on Sinhalese and Muslims as well.

Continue reading ‘It was not Sampanthan of TNA or Surendiran of GTF who Delivered the Tamils from LTTE Bondage’ »

TNA MP and owner of Uthayan newspaper, E. Saravanapavan today rejected accusation claiming the torching of the newspaper’s main office in Jaffna was an ‘inside job’ staged to ‘tarnish the image of the government’.

Continue reading ‘“Uthayan”Proprietor Saravanapavan Denies Attack on Newspaper Office in Jaffna was an “Inside Job”’ »

By

M.A.Sumanthiran M.P.

The discovery of the skeletal remains of what is reported to be more than a hundred people has dominated the press for some time. It is now clear that the mass graves were of victims of summary executions during the second Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurrection. It is also clear that the appointment of a Presidential Commission of Inquiry to probe these crimes – which are demonstrable crimes against humanity – is to protect those responsible for these crimes to begin with.

Continue reading ‘Matale Mass Grave Discovery Shows That Unless Culture of Impunity is Broken Atrocities of the Past Will Keep Recurring’ »

OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau has been elected to lead the federal Liberal party in a resounding first-ballot win.

Trudeau, eldest son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau and the Liberals’ undisputed star, swept 80% of the vote in a final field of six candidates.

The outcome was widely seen as a foregone conclusion since Trudeau launched his campaign last October. Now, the Liberals are hoping that the party’s undisputed rock star will be able to re-establish their reputation as the country’s natural governing party.
Continue reading ‘Justin Trudeau Elected New Canada Liberal Party Leader in Landslide Win with 80% of vote’ »

The Military vehemently rejected allegations that it was responsible for the attack on the Udayan press saying this was yet another attempt at discrediting the government and the military and a ploy by the TNA and pro-LTTE forces to use the adverse publicity “to support their claims that international interference was essential for local reconciliation”.

Continue reading ‘Sri Lankan Military Rejects Charges that it was Responsible for the Attack on “Udayan”Press in Jaffna’ »