"SELF DETERMINATION IS KEY TO THE WORLD PEACE"
Monday 23rd May
MONSTERS AND CRITICS
Sri Lanka begins military training for university students
Sri Lanka on Monday began compulsory military training for new university entrants, after the government rejected opposition demands to call off the programme. An estimated 10,000 students opened the training at 28 military camps in what has been defined by the government as a ‘leadership and positive attitude training programme.’ It includes three weeks of physical training and lectures from defence experts.
A second batch of 12,000 more students are to undergo the same training in two months. Critics of the programme said it would militarise students. The conduct of such compulsory training programmes in military camps is unacceptable and is against the laws of the country,’ the opposition United National Party said. The Marxist JVP, which has sizeable influence in universities, said the programme was designed to indoctrinate young people.
‘This is a move to force the students to be loyal to the government and not to support any other opposition party,’ said Sanjeewa Bandara, leader of the JVP-backed Inter University Student Federation. But Secretary of the Ministry of High Education Sunil Nawaratnewhich said the programme had advantages of promoting leadership skills, personal development and conflict resolution. The military has been used in a range of other civil affairs since the government defeated the separatist Tamil rebels two years ago.
SRI LANKA GUARDIAN
To save who from whom, the government wants Army camps all over the country?
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/05/to-save-who-from-whom-government-wants.html
The news that the Defence Secretary ordered the setting up of army camps all over the country to strengthen the security of the country has created fear and tension among the people. This step of the Government is considered as its first step for its plot to establish a dictatorial Government. It is beyond ones imagination as to how our people suffered under the dictatorship of the armed groups working under the garb of freedom fighters. Furthermore they have not yet forgotten how they lived under the subjugation of these groups. This decision of the Government comes a as great shock for the people who are disgusted with the presence of the army and are yearning for the withdrawal of the Forces from their midst, both in the North and the East. Like many others, I too feel that although it is said that these camps are going to be set up all over the country, it is being purposely being done to scare and harasses the Tamil People of the North and the East. This move will never achieve the desired object but will only end up in terrorising the Tamil People all over the country. My strong advice to the Government is to abandon this move. The Government should not scare the people, with something that is not in existence. There is absolutely no trace of anyone organizing the rebellion. There is hardly one person who can be called a rebel. Furthermore this is not the way to suppress a revolution.
LANKAWEB
Does Sri Lanka have to report to India?
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2011/05/22/does-sri-lanka-have-to-report-to-india/
Based on the premise that Sri Lanka is, has been & ought to be a sovereign nation, Sri Lankan’s need to demand to what extent spokesman for the Government has any right to jeopardize that sovereign status especially in the context of joint press releases made that compromises & leaves room to crucify Sri Lanka. Given that our leaders are elected by us & only for a term, they need to first answer the question of why we need to send officials to explain status of affairs in Sri Lanka & why Sri Lanka needs to give India any assurance on any matter related to Sri Lanka’s internal
affairs. India certainly will not entertain Sri Lanka’s interference in Indian affairs so why should we?
As a small nation, it is true Sri Lanka cannot dictate to larger & more powerful nations. But, that does not mean Sri Lanka needs to bend over knees to please & humiliate itself either. No country gives unless that “giving” has something in it for them. It is so for all countries that is presently encircling Sri Lanka with “gifts”! The only difference with some countriesis that while they give & they do take (may be later) they do not suddenly pull up issues like human rights, IDPs, accountability, responsibility & such other present day googlies thinking that while giving they can further
encircle Sri Lanka. This is where the giving aspect changes from country to country.
Though a small nation, the world must not forget that we braved over three decades of terrorist activity to which legal & illegal establishments all conspired. Powerful nations, powerful leaders must all feel ashamed & guilty of their own role in allowing terrorist activity to prevail in Sri Lanka, watching silently while innocents were killed but demanding action when terrorists were about to be cornered. They speak of accountability when they could easily have used the documented violations numbering over 3000 compiled by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (Nordic peace keepers) against the LTTE. This would have been ample reason to take action against the LTTE.
Yet documented evidence has no meaning for despite LTTE’s child recruitment for over 3 decades nothing was done beyond compiling reports & holding expensive conferences the world over chaired by a special rappateur who herself is a Tamil & who should have taken a proactive stance to put an end to LTTE terrorism knowing herself how brutal the LTTE was. That she did not again questions her own ethics and her own self-interest in the matter.
Nevertheless, terrorism has today become a means to dislodge governments,change regimes, overthrow democratically elected leaders in efforts to ensure sustainability for their own nations. That is why terrorists to some are freedom fighters and that is why the United Nations shies away from defining terrorism. That is why those holding powerful positions can do nothing other than to play lipservice to the desires of those who want terrorism to prevail & by doing so gain personal privileges for themselves…should we expect a second term for the UNSecretary General on these grounds…he certainly has pleased the establishments by his inaction therefore he has more than the criteria to remain.
When it comes to Sri Lanka’s problem it is nothing that can be explained in a few words. It was after over 500 years of colonial divide & rule policy that Sri Lanka was given independence. That independence came with a bagful of catch-22 situations. Both India & Sri Lanka like all other post-independent nations struggled to harmonize the repercussions of the divide & rule. Already India was speaking of “separatism” in deep south & many forget to juxtapose this with the formation of the Federal party of Sri Lanka (original name clearly reads as separate nation for Tamil eelaam)
Therefore far before Prabakaran began any fight or even thought of a separate eelaam, separatist thoughts were not only brewing, a political party had been formed to realize this initiative probably with the blessings of its Indian counterparts. India naturally was quick to take action & if separatism was the requirement they were ready to give it but not in India & thus India helped to train elements to start the eelaam struggle in Sri Lanka. We all know to what extent things prevailed thereafter. What confused matters were the role played by Indian intelligence & how far these members worked in cohesion with the Indian Government. That intelligence outlets often end up functioning as shadow governments is nothing knew & the US is a perfect example & this may be one reason why LTTE went ahead to assassinate the former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi. Yet, India’s desire to continue LTTE in Sri Lanka was far greater than punishing LTTE for Rajiv Gandhi’s death which is why LTTE prevailed & which is why even his widow did not want LTTE to be eliminated.
Sri Lankans in general are all in agreement that while Sri Lanka cannot completely cut ties with India for its duplicity vis a vis the LTTE factor, all Governments of Sri Lanka holding power for a period must be alert & ready to overcome whatever traps India tries to throw upon our nation. This is lesson number one & this is something that even an ordinary laymen will be mindful of – once bitten twice shy they say…& this should be Sri Lanka’s foreign policy with India at all times. India will never stop peddling into Sri Lanka’s affairs & it is only likely to get worse if Sri Lankan
politicians do not know how to deal with these high-handed Indian efforts.
India is presently showering Sri Lanka with housing, transport, rail facilities & what not. Its citizens are setting up companies & some are even employed soon. Colombo will have double the Indian populace. Yet unless Sri Lanka is prepared to & has thought of the influx & has a set of remedial actions to counter these factors, Sri Lanka is likely to be economically entrapped & Sri Lankans are likely to face employment issues as well. Whatever we receive as beneficiaries we must be clear that while accepting we do not sacrifice ourselves as a nation.
Why are we allowing Indians to interfere in our internal affairs? Do we tell the Indian Government to enter discussions with the Maoists, do we tell India to treat Dalits like humans, do we tell Indians to stop gender discrimination or stop child labor…& will India even welcome any suggestion from Sri Lanka on any matter it feels is solely the right of its Government to decide & not for external parties to interfere? If so, why are we always running across the Palk Strait to explain things to India? Can we as a nation behave with more integrity! If our politicians can behave all-powerful infront of the Sri Lankan populace but meek & compliant infront of Indian officials it is a crying shame! I can think of only one difference & that is the manner in which Israel has power over the US despite its size & how far Israel interests are controlling policies made by the US.
As a nation most politicians have become pray to astrological advice & expecting the Gods to be providing them the answers to the nations problems. This is the case with Government & Opposition politicians alike. When foreign leaders or other representative’s make requests it is rather callous to think that we can shrug these outcomes hoping that a few patriotic marches or slogans will put their desires against our nation aside. We must all recall the origins of the UN Panel of Experts to a suggestion mooted by the UNSG & agreed to by our leaders which later despite much objections went ahead & is now the primary reasons why all of us are attempting not to have Sri Lanka taken to any war crimes tribunal. What Sri Lanka’s external affairs minister has done is a repetition of almost the same suggestion. If we have done no wrong during the final stages of the war, why are we agreeing to Indian suggestion to have an investigation! It is tantamount to accepting wrong doing & will obviously lead to greater & far more serious implications as this would be the second phase of the move against Sri Lanka, the first being the Expert Panel report. Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn should seriously rethink of how far plans have succeeded to frame him using his weakest point & our politicians should also be wary of their weak points which are likely to be similarly used against them.
What features on the minds of most of us ordinary laymen is whether spokesman for the Government especially on international platform have an iota of patriotism in them or whether they are just doing their job…because there is more than a thin line between the two. Yet the present press release issued following a three day visit by Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister gives us reason to believe otherwise. He is afterall one of the key architects of the 2002 ceasefire agreement which almost handed over Sri Lanka on a silver platter to the LTTE & this is the very person who went globally praising the clauses of that agreement! Can Sri Lanka not find fine men & women who can function with a proper conscious & who love the nation? Given the manner he praised the 2002 CFA juxtaposed with the present set of statements one really wonders what he sincerely believes in.
Firstly, we must as a nation all be united in the stand that our military did not commit any acts that violates the Geneva Convention…let it be reminded that Geneva Conventions do not apply to terrorists and LTTE is defined a terrorist outlet by more than 32 nations. It behoves these nations to then explain to their own citizens why they have gone overboard in allowing LTTE to prevail …some nations now need to explain why it even assisted LTTE leaders to escape Sri Lanka.
The supposed Experts reports have been compiled on hearsay & have no evidence to prove each & every statement made. These statements even conflict with the heads of UN staff who commended the armed forces for their humanitarian operation, most of these incidents of relief efforts immediately broadcasted to public while they were taking place. If any nation expects a brutal terrorist outfit like the LTTE to be eliminated without a single civilian perishing has to really be dreaming (the Sri Lanka military have ample proof to show that they have saved so many Tamil lives & that 300,000 came to the side of the military is the best example) Can supporters of LTTE explain why the LTTE have been systematically killing off all Tamil moderate thinking politicians, Tamil civil society leaders, Tamil clergy who were against terrorist activity.
The absurdity of civilian numbers the military are accused of killing by foreign experts is farcical in deed. Given Sri Lanka’s population is 20m, Tamils account for 12% (2.4m) of this number 1m are living overseas. The remaining 1.4m divided throughout Sri Lanka. If 800,000 live outside North & East that leaves just 600,00 to be divided between the North & East. It is puzzling that 300,000 escaped the LTTE & seriously questions for how long Indian Tamils must have been setting residence in Sri Lanka over the years since much of the North was under LTTE rule…because in a population of 20m with 12% Tamils making 2.4m it is extremely difficult to even dream of the deaths that these foreign sources are quoting as having been killed by the military.
Attorney General Eric Holder speaking on the killing of Osama bin Laden says “”It was justified as an act of national self-defense,”.This is what the CIA director Leon Panetta had to say “The authority here was to kill bin Laden,” he said. “And obviously, under the rules of engagement, if he had in fact thrown up his hands, surrendered and didn’t appear to be representing any kind of threat, then they were to capture him. But they had full authority to kill him.” So the US enters a sovereign nation, kills the man they hold responsible for the deaths of US citizens of 9/11, & scatters his remains to sea & then only announces the death of Osama to the world feel justified why cant the US & other nations not understand that Sri Lanka has lost more lives throughout 30 years. US holds a grudge against a man they built & nurtured but Sri Lanka spent 30 years of holding peace talks, negotiations & cease fires before actually going all out to eliminate the LTTE…Sri Lanka should be now allowed to build some peace instead of attempting to revive the LTTE.
Those pointing fingers at Sri Lanka must first explain how many civilians the US killed in Iraq before getting Saddam Hussein, how many Afghans & Pakistani civilians had the US & NATO troops killed before getting Osama & how many NATO troops have killed civilians in Libya while accusing Gaddafi of purposely attacking his own people yet accusing Gaddafi of war crimes. NATO has struck over 2600 times upon Libya & what excuse has NATO to give to the civilians it has killed.
One of the mistakes Sri Lanka’s politicians continue to make is that without a proper foreign policy & simply believing that Sri Lanka can ride on the luck of our astrogical charts we cannot steer hostility nor can we find answers to brave the storms that come our way. We are far more vulnerable now as a nation for we are now a nation living in peace. While many Tamils openly feel happy, some are reluctant though inside their own conscience will tell how freely they are to travel to North or East any time they wish to. Yet, with the geographical significance of Sri Lanka the economic
interest will certainly push western & eastern interests towards Sri Lanka therefore whatever “gifts” (monetary & otherwise) that come our way must be accepted with great apprehension & with an action plan in place to ensure our sovereign status is never compromised.
Sri Lankans would be at peace if those tasked to represent the nation are men & women who have integrity & certainly not those who have been jumping from one political party to another purely for their own self interest. The risk factor is far greater for we will always wonder whether they will end up committing our country to adverse actions following discussions with foreign counterparts. As citizens we are not ready to suffer more years of hardships simply because suitable officials are not appointed.
DAILY MIRROR
Bridging the Trust-Deficit
http://print.dailymirror.lk/opinion1/44646.html
Two events in two days, and between them the 2600th Sri Sambuddathva Jayanthi of Lord Buddha and second anniversary of the conclusion of the ‘ethnic war’ brought out the inherent contradictions in contemporary Sri Lanka as none else could have. Lord Buddha stood for peace and harmony, and here we have a nation celebrating war’s victory almost alongside.
The contradiction does not stop there. It stands out even more. In a way, it is a part of the personality of the man who sent Buddhism to Sri Lanka. Yet, Emperor Ashoka having drunk war and victory to the brim gave them up wholly and whole-heartedly in favour of peace and piety. War was not an end in itself, as he discovered for himself. Peace was not a pit-stop, either. You cannot marry both.
In the global order that we are all part of, no nation can afford to lower its guard. One can predict where war could end and peace commence. No one can predict where peace could end and war begins. The situation in Sri Lanka may be no different, theoretically at the very least. Celebrations cannot substitute for preparations. It’s like crying for wolf.
There was no triumphalism when it all concluded in May 2009. There cannot be aftershocks two or more years hence. Human memory being what it is, scarred and confused, such occasions trigger a process where justification is sought to be found for the Drausman Report and like – and from within, too. Both tendencies need to be eschewed.
It is one thing, likewise, for the Tamils to mourn their dead. They did not die in the last stage of ‘Eelam War IV’. There were unclaimed bodies and unattended funerals, where the departed would have to be propitiated year after year, whatever the religion. If the sentiments are only religious and personal, one does not go by the Gregorian calendar. Customs and traditions demand otherwise.
A country in celebration and a community in continuing mourning make trust-deficit between the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil community that much more difficult to achieve. Inherent to the issue is also the decades of misunderstanding and mis-trust that had ruled and ruined their political interactions.
Ask anyone from either community, they have friends and well-wishers in each other, and for generations. Ask them as communities, they are not so sure. Even the patronising attitude some Sinhalese have had for their faceless Tamil brethren at the violent conclusion of the war is being replaced by the cares and worries of the day – where socio-political compulsions play their own role, as in the pre-war past.
It is no different in the case of the Tamils. There is unlikely to be anyone from the distant past who is still around and who can say that all was well with ethnic relations in the country. The new generation in either community has been born into an era of mis-trust and fought it out in terror camps and improvised battle-fields. The suspicions will linger for a long time.
This is now a reality that the two sides need to battle with, for them to overcome the prejudices from the past. At least from the commencement of the 20th century and long before Independence, this ethnic wound had festered. Even if surgically removed, as some may liken ‘Eelam War IV’, the wounds were so deep and so wide-spread that the scars will remain for a long, long time to come.
Development may be a panacea, and devolution a soother. They are not substitutes for each other.
The nation and its people cannot (be asked to) wait endlessly, holding their breath all along, for a day to arrive when that trust-deficiency had been negated. Symbolisms do substitution work, and signal a changing mind – if not any immediate change of mind-set. Issues of power-devolution, re-merger and the like comprise those symbols. Development is in the long term, instead.
The question is whether the Sri Lankan States want to integrate, or alienate the Tamils still. If the answer is in the affirmative for the first, then it has to act with the kind of self-confidence that the end of ethnic war has bestowed. It needs to repace the peripheral signs of triumphalism that are beginning to put their heads out. ‘Magnanimity in victory’ is not an empty phrase. It means this and more.
The Tamils face a problem in their leadership. Unlike the State and the Sinhala polity, most moderate players from the violence-torn past remain at the helm. Their memories are saddening. The memories about them are worse for the Sinhala polity and society.
The Tamils, particularly the TNA, need to acknowledge that they too have hurt the Sinhalese for long. It goes beyond the physical wounds inflicted by the LTTE or any other militant group before it. They need to acknowledge their deficiencies and apply correctives as much as they want the Sinhalese to ‘correct’ themselves. That is the way to true reconciliation.
The fact still remains that the present-day TNA leadership has not been associated with any Government for any length of time to appreciate the difficulties that attend on any party or person in power. Yet, they too are stymied by their own circumstances outside the Government, some of which are real.
There cannot be one-way streets. But to expect the man on the smaller and at times cheaper vehicle to give way is about inequity. Both have their use and the Sri Lankan State, as different from individuals and parties in power, have to strike that equity. The absence of which was at the root-cause not only of ethnic strife and war, but also the previous ethnic anger possibly of the Sinhalese under the colonial masters.
Both sides need to be realistic and more – to be able to do business. Their situations are real and their assessments should be realistic. Yet, they need to be more than real and more than realistic to be able to walk that extra mile, to be able to address the wounds that they need to heal in their times, and not allow to fester. Father Time may have patience but Sri Lanka may not have any left.
SRI LANKA MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
New Zealand Commemorates Ranaviru Day 2011
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20110523_02
The United Sri Lanka Association (USLA) of New Zealand held the annual Ranaviru day commemoration at Lak Madura, the association hall, in Tawa Wellington on the 21st May.
The meeting commenced with the singing of the national anthem, observation of a minutes silence and lighting of a candle by each of the attendees, in honor of the Ranaviru who had paid the ultimate price for the liberation of Sri Lanka from three decades of Tamil Tiger Terrorism.
Channa Ranasinghe, vice president chairing & welcoming the guests paid tribute to the war heroes. He recalled that though some had suggested after liberation in May ’09 that USLA would no longer be required to play it’s political role. The events of the last few months showed otherwise.
Hon. Consul for Sri Lanka in New Zealand, Mr. Aruna Abeygoonesekera speaking next having paid tribute to the Ranaviru recalled President Rajapaksha’s aim of reconciliation with and rehabilitation of , the victims of the war in what is a one country one nation, where all are equal. He also acknowledged USLA’s role in supporting Sri Lanka.
Dr. Chula Rajapakse , USLA spokesperson speaking for USLA, paid tribute also to the Ranaviru’s role in the worlds biggest hostage rescue and later rehabilitating them after a demining operation undertaken at great personal risk. He spoke of President Rajapaksa’s initiative to forge reconciliation by increasing the Tamil competency in the public service there by removing the genuine Tamil grievance of inability to communicate with the government in their mother tongue . He also sighted the Presidents personal example at reconciliation by addressing the UN general assembly in Tamil on more than one occasion, as the leader of two million Tamils, a step, that no other, not even the leader of 70 million Tamils in India, had thought important enough to , take.
Despite this President Rajapaksa was prevented from addressing the oxford union UK in Nov ’10 by vociferous Tiger Diaspora protests accusing him of war crimes. The British security forces stood by not prepared to violate their human right to protest but thought nothing of depriving the President of his human right to speak! Such are the contradictions of implementing democracy today bringing to mind the old saying " Britania rules the waves and waves the rules!". Apparently, partially true even today.
Having sighted many other measures of reconciliation such as northern spring and eastern reawakening development and development elsewhere such as roads, harbors and airport construction, he observed that all of these stand threatened by the activities of the Tiger international Diaspora, now cloaked as the Global Tamil Forum and the Transnational Government of Tamil Elam. This threat has come through fabricating an allegation with the help of their allies, that thousands of civilians had been killed deliberately by the SL forces in the last days of the war. This cry is now being internationally orchestrated. They are using the tactic of Adolf Hitler’s minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels that a big lie repeatedly uttered will eventually be believed, Dr. Rajapakse said.
He explained the evolution of these fabricated figures as follows. First the UN under secretary Sir. John Holms declared the number killed was impossible to estimate. This is probably the only reliable estimate. Then another UN a figure, made an estimate of seven thousand casualties using an unknown method The Times London next escalated the estimate to 20,000 based on areal photograph crater analysis . This figure was further escalated to forty thousand by ex UN employee Weisse through reexamination of same photos and was latched onto in the Darusman report . The figure has most recently been escalated to 140,000 by channel 4 BBC adding to it’s discredited videos. However, the American Association of Advancement of Science (AAAS) examining the same areal photos at the request of the human rights watch has not concurred with any of these estimates and simply stated "Crater analysis from satellite imagery is problematic"
Yet based on these estimations the accusation of genocide & war crimes and call for charging the SL leaders in an international court for this, was gathering momentum with demonstration screaming for the same in Middlesex at the SL cricket tour match and at a demonstration in Trafalgar square addressed by MP’s of all three main parties in the UK in the last few days. Keith Lock greens MP made a similar call a few days ago, in Wellington NZ.
Is it credible Dr. Rajapakse asked that, if as alleged thousands of tamil civilians had been killed by deliberate shelling of the SL security forces, three hundred thousand of them would stream into the arms of these same soldiers , in full view of news camera’s and the world, immediately after the tiger built embankment to prevent them from doing so was breached, as happened in May ’09 in the last days of the war. While conceding the possibility of collateral damage, which was inevitable as Tigers shielded heavy weapons behind civilians especially in the no fire zones , and these weapons had to be neutralized to rescue the civilians, he asked if the numbers were so high , would the civilians have streamed in with the calm and confidence they did.. Further, why should the soldiers shoot at the civilians and then rehabilitate them into their homes risking their lives to demine the land to do so as they have done in the to years following the war.
He called on Sri Lanka, all present and international Sri Lankan Diaspora to counter this misinformation through communication to western media and politicians sighting the above, lest the propaganda war in the western capitals reverses the hard won gains of Ranaviru. It was Sri Lanka not adequately countering the propaganda war in the western capitals in the first two decades that sustained the terrorists to wage war in Sri Lanka for three decades Dr Rajapakse reminded.
SRI LANKA MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
‘FORGIVE OR FORGET’- Retrospect of LTTE’s brutal assassinations
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20110523_04
As far as that event is concerned…I would say it is a great tragedy… a monumental historical tragedy… which we (LTTE terrorists) deeply regret, and we call upon the government of India and people of India to be magnanimous to put the past behind…" – Anton Balasingham( 27th June, 2006)
This was the note of condolences received by the Gandhi family on the 15th death anniversary of the former Indian Premier by the LTTE terror propagandist Anton Balasinghm on behalf of his ‘naughty boy’ Prabakaran during an interview with the South Indian TV channel NDTV in 2006.
The LTTE terrorist organization never claimed responsibility for its brutalities perpetrated against innocent civilians, politicians, clergy and children including unarmed Policemen. Surprisingly, the pledge for forgiveness on the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi (21st May, 1991), was the first and only in which LTTE claimed its direct involvement. The confession instead of smothering Indian displeasure towards the outfit resulted in a burst of revived hatred from Indian Political circles including former South Indian Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
According to defence observers this was a prime example of the evolution of a terrorist outfit through regional negligence into a transnational terror machine. Later, on 01st May, 1993 the Sri Lankan President R. Premadasa was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber during a May Day rally in Colombo. Yet, such brutality was just served as a mere news headline and no other seriousness by the now defiant international community and human rights practitioners.
Since, then the terror outfit till its military defeat by the Sri Lankan security forces cleansed all potential threats to its existence including the Tamil leadership critical and independent from its extreme ideologies. Over 19 Tamil inspirational leaders were killed while many failed assassination attempts were made on other Tamil Political leaders. The vociferous Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Laxman Kadirgamar(12th August, 2005), was also a victim of the LTTE’s assassination spree, an incident succumbed of similar faith as of the late President Premadasa.
Sri Lanka had to undergo the wrath of brutality and terror by LTTE and its sleuths as the world stood still in a course of ‘blind diplomacy’ for more than three decades. The silence and negligence for cooperation by some draconian saviors of human rights and humanity was a green light for the terror outfit to perpetrate crimes against innocent Sri Lankans with brutality never witnessed before in a post Hitler world.
Hence, the time has come for such individuals and organizations dozed in their own darts of misinformation to put apart the heinous ideologies and make a genuine effort assisting the dawn of peace in a bid neither to forgive the perpetrators of terror nor to forget the right a nation and its 20million people who silenced terror against all odds.
GROUNDVIEWS
Marketing a troubled land: War, peace and tourism in Sri Lanka
http://groundviews.org/2011/05/23/marketing-a-troubled-land-war-peace-and-tourism-in-sri-lanka/
Srilal Miththapala is a Project Director/Consultant at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka. With decades of experience in the hospitality industry, he is also one of the country’s most experienced voices on tourism development. Having experience the fallout of the war, the JVP insurrection and suicide bombings on the tourism industry, Srilal in this programme talks about the potential for tourism to grow post-war, and how the country can sustain this growth over the longer-term.
An electrical engineer by training, Srilal took to the hospitality industry by accident, and stuck on. He begins by noting how interesting the sector is, dealing with people everyday and the multitude of issues related to travel. Asked as to what the most difficult time for tourism, Srilal notes that it was during the JVP uprising in the late 80s. He also speaks about how tourism promotion changed – from an exclusive focus on beaches to campaigns that highlighted the diversity of Sri Lanka. Flagging the problems of ‘eco-tourism’, a term he agreed meant everything and nothing, Srilal noted that tourism initiatives that branded themselves as such had to “walk the walk, instead of just talking the talk”.
Asked to look back at the time when Sri Lanka was in the middle of a bloody war and there were suicide bombings in Colombo, Srilal reflects on how at the time the tourism industry grappled with the challenge of presenting the country as safe for tourists to visit and travel around in. Post-war, he reflects how the industry is gearing up to meet a Presidential target of 2.5 million tourists a year, a significant increase from around 800,000 a year Sri Lanka attracts now, and how this growth will impact the environment for example in areas like Kalpitiya over which there have been significant concerns.
Srilal also touches on the tourism boycott appeals various groups have launched, coupled with media coverage of, for example, the war crimes allegations contained in the recent report by the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts, which he notes are at best, of marginal concern to the majority of tourists who visit, and will continue to visit Sri Lanka.
Sunday 22nd May
THE SUNDAY TIMES
Diplomatic debacle
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110522/Editorial.html
s the majority of the people of Sri Lanka were celebrating the life and teachings of India’s greatest son, Gautama the Buddha, in the corridors of power of modern India, its leaders were lecturing to this island-nation’s Minister of External Affairs on how best to govern this country.
A former professor of law, Minister G.L. Peiris seems to have obediently capitulated. Going by the joint statement (‘joint’ is the operational word), the Minister committed himself, his government, and his country to doing all what his hosts wanted from him, his government and his country.
Our Political Editor analyses in great detail on this page, the joint statement that came out of New Delhi, the present-day seat of government of India. This document displays, sadly, how the Sri Lankan Minister has succumbed to the heavy breathing down his collar. It has reference to unsolicited counselling on the one hand, titillating offers of gifts and tantalizingly veiled threats, but nothing beats the reference to urging the Government of Sri Lanka to provide for "genuine reconciliation". This is nothing but an unmistakable slap that Dr. Peiris has timidly accepted on behalf of the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration for the inclusion of the word "genuine" before the word "reconciliation" is nothing but a reflection that India views present efforts at reconciliation to be ‘farcical’.
Why the Sri Lankan Minister permitted such wording in a joint statement requires an official explanation, especially because there is no rebuttal of this allegation to state that reconciliation efforts by the Rajapaksa administration are indeed genuine. The word could have been easily avoided and omitted. This is not about splitting hairs; but about a stinging message from India to Sri Lanka through the fine art of diplomacy, the nuances and skills the Sri Lankan side woefully lack to meet when dealing with those schooled in professionalism in other countries, like India.
The Foreign Service in Sri Lanka has been so politicised, but even so, there are those who can still match their counterparts abroad. It is, therefore, a total mystery to why the Minister went on an official visit of such paramount importance, and that to arguably Sri Lanka’s most important bi-lateral partner without a single official from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo.
There seems to be little or nothing that Sri Lanka has gained from these talks. Leave alone not getting any assurances of support to oppose the UN panel report on allegations of human rights violations, there is not a hum even about Indian support for Sri Lanka’s bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2018. Then the minister has not only agreed to develop on the 13th Amendment, but to do so in consultation with Tamil parties in Sri Lanka. What about other political parties? It has been a dismal performance, to say the least.
Having said that, there was at least one silver lining in an otherwise hopeless performance by the Minister of External Affairs this week, i.e., the congratulatory letter he wrote to Jayaram Jayalalithaa, the newly elected Chief Minister of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, thus re-opening the doors for a dialogue with that important state. We have long urged such interaction because such a political and diplomatic exchange is a sine qua non to stability in Sri Lanka’s immediate neighbourhood.
Ms. Jayalalithaa trounced her rival, the leader of the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) into third place in elections to the State Assembly, the results of which were announced late last week. Mutuvel Karunanidhi’s government was enveloped in financial scandal that reached his own family with his politician daughter being dispatched to jail.
Both, Ms. Jayalalithaa and Mr. Karunanidhi have long hitched their stars to the populist bandwagon in their state. They make promises that they cannot often keep and then get the Order of the Boot from the people. They have been taking turns over the past decades with Ms. Jayalalithaa taking over the reins from her mentor M.G. Ramachandran or more famously, MGR, who indulged in the same shenanigans. They are actors and actresses one way or the other and revel in the ‘politricks’ of Tamil Nadu.
Part of their role is to play the ‘Sri Lanka Tamil’ card, flogging the issue of the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka to whip up emotions and thereby garner votes in their constituencies. That this continued and frenzied attacks on the so-called ‘anti-Tamil’ state across the Palk Strait is nothing but the shedding of ‘crocodile tears’ was best displayed when the two of them encouraged Tamil Nadu fishermen – their voters – to poach in Sri Lankan waters, taking the bread out of the mouth of the northern Sri Lankan Tamils, who are not their voters.
It is, however, unfortunate that the Sri Lankan parliamentarians did not respond to the initiative by a Tamil Nadu all-party delegation’s visit to this country shortly after the defeat of the LTTE in 2009. The initiative was lost due to the lack of a follow up.
In that context, therefore, the writing of a letter by the government of Sri Lanka to Ms. Jayalalithaa, despite her belligerent noises during the election campaign and thereafter, is a welcome move, even if it may have been prompted by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s telephone call to the new Chief Minister congratulating her on her victory. It is a known fact that Ms. Jayalalithaa herself has been a victim of LTTE threats and increased her personal security to ward off any bodily harm to herself from that terrorist organisation. While giving to her the benefit that she would entertain some genuine concerns about the way the minority Tamils are being treated in Sri Lanka, given her new responsibilities she would naturally be expected to act more circumspectly — as did Mr. Karunanidhi in office. It will now be Mr. Karunanidhi’s turn to whip the Sri Lanka bogey to win back the votes he seems to have so drastically lost.
There are undercurrents that the ruling Congress Party in New Delhi might make overtures to Ms. Jayalalithaa’s All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (AIADMK) and in the process dump its long-time ally, Mr. Karunanidhi’s DMK for future elections considering the electoral shift towards the former film star’s party last month. New Delhi applying the pressure points even harder on Colombo would then intensify.
The re-opening of a dialogue with the state of Tamil Nadu, however, does not mean giving in to its whims, fancies and every demand as the Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister seems to have done in New Delhi this week. A complete review of Sri Lanka’s international relations with special emphasis on India and the region is called for. This administration must wake up to its inept foreign policy failures.
Next week, a new headache opens with the UN Human Rights Council meetings in Geneva as Sri Lanka tries to ward off any possible moves to bring ‘war crimes’ charges up for discussion. If the Sri Lankan Government feels it is being encircled and besieged by the International Community, including India, this is true. But it has no one but itself to blame for most part.
SUNDAY LEADER
India flexes Muscle
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/05/22/india-flexes-muscle/
Though western nations began to talk of possible war crimes in Sri Lanka immediately after the war ended, India was strangely silent. India did not even voice concerns over human rights abuses or the lack of democracy within Sri Lanka. The silence was broken recently and the Indian government began to speak of human rights violations within Sri Lanka. Many were the theories behind the sudden awakening of India but the most likely reason was that the western nations had prodded India to take a stance. Yet, others felt that it was the recent victory of Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu, which brought about this change.
Jayalalitha romped home with a comfortable margin and her AIADMK party gained a comfortable majority at the recent elections. Her maiden speech after the victory was on Sri Lanka. She urged for an investigation into reports on Sri Lanka, in addition to possible economic sanctions. Immediately following this statement Minister Keheliya Rambukwella allayed fears. He said that the Sri Lankan government had no dealings with Jayalalitha and there was no need to panic. But Foreign Minister G.L Peiris was to confront a divergent situation during his recent visit to India. Peiris did congratulate Jayalalitha on her victory and said that the Sri Lankan government looked forward to working with her. Analysts believe that this move was at the behest of the Indian Central government. The Central government has pointed out to Peiris that Jayalalitha was a difficult person to handle even by the Centre and that there was no need to confront her at this time.
Peiris, the Indian government had requested Sri Lanka to submit a working draft as to how power would be devolved to the north and east of Sri Lanka based on the 13th Amendment. The government of Sri Lanka forwarded a proposal which suggested a second chamber for the north and the east. This was discussed at length by the powers in Delhi and their think tanks. The proposal fell short of expectations by far and was considered an eye wash leading Delhi to reject it totally. Their conclusions were not to the liking of the Sri Lankan government.
Minister G.L Peiris left on an official visit to India to discuss the Darusman Report with the Indian Premier Manmohan Singh, Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon. Though a high powered team from India was to visit Sri Lanka it was held in abeyance till Peiris’ visit was concluded so that India would have advance information of the Sri Lankan government’s position into issues raised by them. Prominent amongst Indian concerns were the delays in approving land and police powers to the Provincial Councils as per the 13th Amendment. Other contentious issues such as approving the Sampur power station, building townships, jump starting resettlement and the violations of human rights of the people of the north and east were conditions expected to be fulfilled by the government of Sri Lanka.
As usual the government of Sri Lanka was lukewarm in responding to these requests. But the Indian government was persistent and expected Minister G. L Peiris to respond positively during his visit. India also did not divulge her opinion on the panel report until the response from the government of Sri Lanka to their requirements was received. Hence Peiris was forced to respond given these circumstances. He was unable to get past the Indian authorities to meet with the Indian Premier though a meeting had been requested at the outset. The Foreign Ministry tried its utmost to arrange this meeting but the Indian authorities were waiting to finish the rounds of talks with the other officials and based on the outcome of such, to arrange a meeting with their Prime Minister.
The meetings with the Indian Officials proved to be a handful for G.L. Peiris. He had to be in constant touch with President Rajapaksa to seek his advice on matters raised by the Indians. Though Sri Lanka wished to issue a joint statement with the Indians at the end of these talks the latter baulked. They were agreeable to a joint statement only when the issues raised by them were agreed to by the Sri Lankans. Peiris did inform Rajapaksa of this but did not forget to warn him that the Indian position unlike the previous occasion had firmed up and any response had to be carefully crafted. The President suggested that Peiris discusses all issues with the Indian officials but such matters should not be a part of the joint statement. The Indian view was that the statement was not to be released unless all issues were agreed to and also included in the statement. President Rajapaksa relented and advised G.L to include the issues raised by the Indians in the joint statement. G.L using this as a lever insisted that the Indians respond in favor of Sri Lanka on the Ban panel report. The Indian officials did not respond to this request. Their response was that Sri Lanka should undertake an internal inquiry into the allegations made in the panel report. The Tamil Nadu factor would have had a bearing and this response was a safe option for Delhi. It was also the reason why India could not continue to remain silent on the panel report any longer. The Sri Lankan government had to agree to hold internal investigations into the allegations in the Ban panel report in addition to the other conditions raised by the Indians. The Darusman report of Ban Ki Moon had included the possibility of the government of Sri Lanka conducting an internal investigation into the allegations but with the proviso of the presence of UN observers. Implementing the CEPA agreement and the removal of Emergency Regulations too were mentioned in the report. Eventually Peiris and the Indian Foreign Minister did sign the joint statement and the former did get his few moments with Premier Manmohan Singh finally after all the conditions set by the Indian government were met. The Indian Premier was insistent that the 13th Amendment be adhered to the very letter and the human rights violations be investigated. The Prime Minister was to set a time frame of six months for these conditions to be met by the Sri Lankan government. He added that the LLRC was not the answer to investigate human rights violations and an internationally accepted forum must be put in place instead. The government of Sri Lanka was careful to keep the time frame given by the Indian Premier away from the media.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh advised the Sri Lankan government to talk with the TNA on an exclusive basis to resolve the political solutions and that it would be futile to talk with the EPDP and KP towards this end. Observing that the change of stance in Delhi was primarily due to Jayalalitha and the western nations, the government moved to handle this diplomatically. Jayalalitha’s help was to be sought at the first instance. Arumugam Thondaman was selected to do the needful. Thondaman was able to cultivate the then Chief Minister Karunanidhi through his daughter Kanimozy and was therefore Rajapaksa’s obvious choice. A Tamil businessman close to him was added to the team. This was the person who made all the arrangements for President Rajapaksa with his religious observances in Tamil Nadu. The President sent for him and asked him to visit with allies of Jayalalitha and begin talks.
Peiris is to visit China next. The first salvo against the joint statement signed by G.L was from within the government ranks. This came from the National Patriotic Movement (NPM) supported by Minister Wimal Weerawansa. The NPM claimed that G.L Peiris had given away what the heroic soldiers had won, by signing this agreement. Weerawansa has been opposed to the UN in recent times. He even suggested an alternative arm of the UN be set up with international support after the Ban appointed Darusman report was released. He also showed his aversion to Ban Ki Moon by burning his effigy at the recent May Day Rally in addition to shouting anti Ban and UN slogans. Yet the same Wimal Weerawansa made his way to New York to be present at the 2600 years celebration to commemorate the enlightenment of Lord Buddha, held at the UN building. He travelled first class on an Emirates flight with his son Vibhuthi. Some say that he was unable to obtain even a visitor’s pass to enter the UN building. Sources in New York however said he did eventually enter the premises riding in Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona’s car. However Weerawansa was careful in not showing himself when the Secretary General was addressing the gathering. After the Secretary General left, the gathering had raised questions in English to which Minister Weerawansa had been tongue tied only to be rescued when the Deputy Permanent Representative Shavendra Silva and Palitha Kohona had come to his rescue by answering them. By now everyone had noticed that Weerawansa had entered the UN building. The following day during the customary press briefing, media personnel had raised this question from Martin Nesirky the Press Officer of the UN Secretary General. The Innercity Press web site had carried his response as follows…
UNITED NATIONS, May 16 — Relations between the UN and Sri Lanka took a surreal turn on May 16 when the minister who organized a blockade of the UN in Colombo last year Wimal Weerawansa appeared in the General Assembly, shaking hands with UN Under Secretary General Kiyotaka Akasaka and others.
While Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman Martin Nesirky refused to confirm, much less comment on, Weerawansa’s speech at a meeting on Buddhism in Ban’s presence, Inner City Press managed to speak with Weerawansa later in the day.
With Shavendra Silva, a Sri Lankan General who is now its Deputy Permanent Representative doing the translating, Inner City Press asked Weerawansa to contrast his visit to the UN with his calls to replace it, his organization of a blockade and so-called fasting unto death.
After a pause, Silva relayed “He says we are a member state of the United Nations, and he can here to attend the 2,600 year anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment. He’s happy he attended the 2,600 year celebration herein New York.”
Earlier, Silva had shown Inner City Press a copy of his book, which begins with a quote that “anger can’t be overcome by anger, because it has no end in itself – it can only be overcome by compassionate loving kindness.”
The book contains photographs by Helen Bohn Andersen. Inner City Press ask her about the irony of co-authoring a book with a general in charge in a military action that reportedly killed tens of thousands of civilians. “I didn’t write the text,” she said. “I only took the photographs.”
Here is from the UN’s May 16 noon briefing transcript: Inner City Press: at this meeting on Buddhism this morning, Wimal Weerawansa, it’s reported, it’s under the Colombo page, that the Minister of the Sri Lankan Government who led the protest against the UN compound in Colombo was present here. I don’t know if it’s true or not, I just know it’s reported in the press there. Is that the case, is the UN aware of Wimal Weerawansa, and what do you say about that?
Spokesperson Nesirky: And what would be your problem if that person was there?
Inner City Press: No, I want to know, did Ban Ki-moon meet with Wimal Weerawansa, and if so, would you have any…?
Spokesperson Nesirky: I have no idea. As you would have also seen if you went there, there was a lot of people and I do not know. I suspect that the Secretary-General moved on to other appointments without working his way around the room, Matthew.
Inner City Press: No, my point is the UN accredits people to come into the building. Since this is an individual that the UN condemns his organization of a blockade of UN staff in Colombo…
Spokesperson: Well, as we’ve said before, peaceful demonstrations are legitimate. Where someone has crossed the threshold and the authorities have taken action against them, that would be a different matter. But peaceful demonstrations are not against the law.
Question: Didn’t you condemn the Wimal Weerawansa sponsored demonstrations at the time?
Spokesperson: The point I am trying to make is that if people are demonstrating, they are legally entitled to demonstrate, and the demonstrations are peaceful, then they are legitimately entitled to do that. If I have any information about this person’s presence, and as you yourself said, you don’t know for a fact that that person was there. But you’ve seen reports.
Question: These are reports I am asking you to check with DSS [Department of Safety and Security] whether a pass was granted for Wimal Weerawansa…?
Spokesperson: Yes, yes, Matthew, I hear, and as your dutiful servant, I will take a look and find out, okay?
But after that, Nesirky never provided any answer, even nine hours later.
Footnote: Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona was also on the scene, insisting that Inner City Press take a picture with Weerawansa. Inner City Press obliged. We’ll see.
Minister Wimal did not stop at that but embarked on another project during this trip. That was to participate at the protest to mark the second year of the war victory opposite the UN building which was of course headed by him. This protest was a flop if ever there was one as only around twenty people had turned up. The majority amongst them were the security officers of Shavendra Silva and Palitha Kohona. Though permission had been obtained to hold the protest between 12.30 pm and 3.30 pm the gathering dispersed in ten minutes after a short speech was made by Wimal Weerawansa. The next day Minister Wimal and his son visited Niagara Falls.
UNP leaders too acted in a two faced manner in recent times and this was not the sole preserve of Minister Wimal Weerawansa, as stated in these columns recently. Examples of these were seen during the past couple of weeks. The first was when Ven. Galaboda Gnanissara Thero made a speech at the ceremony to celebrate the 2600 years of the enlightenment of Lord Buddha, where the President was in attendance. He recalled that he did ask Ranil to support The President and the Secretary Defense during the period the war was in progress. “At the time I requested Ranil Hamu to help the President and Secretary Defense Gotabhaya. He got angry and threatened to resign from the Dayaka Sabha. Fortunately he did not do that at that time. We are happy to notice that Ranil Hamu is supportive of the President on issues that affect the country. Not only are we happy about it but we will offer our blessings too that in future too he would continue to act in a similar manner…” The Thero’s speech was deemed to be poetic in that on two instances during the previous week his words proved to be true. Ranil met Mahinda Rajapaksa on the 14th. That was when the Church of England consecrated Rev. Canagasabey as the Archbishop of the Colombo chapter. Both were seen in earnest conversation. The next was when the duo met at another ceremony on Vesak Poya at the Kelaniya Temple. Present were UNP MP’s Karu Jayasuriya, Ravi Karunanayke, and Wijayadasa Rajapaksa amongst others. Minister Mervyn Silva was present representing the government. Though Ravi did not have an invitation to this ceremony he was present to speak with the President regarding the case he faced on his appointment as the National Organizer for the UNP. But the President did not respond.
There was another interesting episode that took place during the morning alms giving. All present were invited to partake. Though the President, Ranil and others present made their way towards the hall where the alms giving had been arranged, Minister Mervyn de Silva remained behind stating that he had already had his morning meal. However the truth was that he had told some people who were present at the function “I will not sit together and have even a sip of water with those traitors. These fellows behaved like traitors during the war. I feel sick to stay near these fellows…”
That afternoon Ranil, Ravi and Lakshman Kiriella visited Sarath Fonseka in prison. Outside the prison gates Ravi and Kiriella spoke to some media personnel they had invited and castigated the government for continuing to hold Fonseka in prison. Though some media men thrust the microphone towards Ranil, he did not say anything. This is not the first occasion in which Ranil was silent when asked about Fonseka. Ranil has been following this silent approach over the last few months and it has caused suspicion in the political circles as to whether there is a secret agreement between Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil on the subject of Fonseka.
In another previous incident when Mangala, Tissa and Jayalath chose to speak to the media, after coming out of prison after seeing Fonseka, Ranil was conspicuously silent. However, the strangest thing is, whereas all those who see Fonseka have to log in their names when they enter the prison premises, Ranil has opted not to sign his name – not one single time. He does it because he thinks that such logging in could harm him one day.
In the meantime Fonseka had noticed while watching evening TV news, Ranil and Mahinda Rajapaksa having a very cordial conversation at the Kelaniya Temple and thereafter Ranil protesting against Fonseka’s incarceration. Fonseka had told a lawyer who had gone to visit him in prison, “these guys hobnob with Mahinda in the morning at the Kelaniya Temple and to balance it out thinking that this would draw the wrath of the people, pay a visit to me in the evening. They don’t even come to court, they don’t brief the international community regarding the unjust treatment meted out to me; but make bogus appearances on media.”
Last week Ranil, Ravi and Kiriella had discussions with MPs of the TNA. Issuing a press release after the talks, TNA MP M A Sumanthiran stated that the UNP had agreed to support any agreement reached between the government and the TNA. This statement by Sumanthiran has caused a crisis situation in the UNP. They question as to how the leadership took such a decision and after consultation with whom. A group in the UNP is in readiness to ask the leadership as to how they gave consent to a blank cheque-agreement, the contents of which are yet unknown.
In the meantime there is great pressure being brought upon Karu Jayasuriya, who is always talking about good governance and democracy, by the senior UNPers. The central issue of this pressure is to force him take some meaningful action against the dictatorial manner in which the changes in the UNP are being effected, totally in violation of the party constitution. Over the last few days this pressure has been increasing progressively.
Last week on a court order, Sarath Fonseka was admitted to Navaloka Hospital to receive medical treatment for a throat problem. At the hospital Fonseka was confronted with some touching moments. Almost all who realized that it was Fonseka who was admitted to hospital, flocked around Fonseka asking about his well being. Some grown men were seen falling at his feet in tears. Some Doctors were seen rushing towards Fonseka voluntarily, leaving their regular duties.
In an instant Mahinda Rajapaksa was informed of the warm reception Fonseka received at Navaloka Hospital. He was also informed that although Fonseka had been imprisoned for a long time the love of the people had not lessened at all. Government leaders are greatly concerned about Fonseka who fell ill while he was giving evidence in the white flag case. They are even more worried as to what Fonseka will tell the courts after he gets well.
In addition, the Chief Buddhist monks, after coming to know that the government was intent on pardoning 2600 prisoners to commemorate the 2600 “Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi” made another appeal to the President, asking him to release Fonseka along with these other prisoners. Although similar appeals were made earlier by all religious leaders including the Malwatte Maha Nayake Thero, the government paid scant respect to those appeals. This time too the same fate befell the appeal. Following is the text of the letter sent by Malawatte high priest.
Another incident of interest is the construction of a tennis court and a swimming pool in Siri Kotha. Sudath Chandrasekera, Ranil’s private secretary, had proposed that a tennis court and a swimming pool be constructed within party headquarters premises. Sudath’s proposal had met with Ranil’s approval. In the same manner earlier, Ranil had taken steps to build a gymnasium in the Party premises. However, due to the vehement opposition from MPs about a gymnasium in the political party premises it had to be closed down. But now Ranil seems to have agreed to give priority to the sporting aspects of the MPs by agreeing to build a swimming pool and a tennis court in Siri Kotha.
While the UNP is engaged with their own problems, the government too is neck deep in trouble after Minister Peiris signed an agreement with India. This is due to the opposition by some patriotic government stalwarts to this agreement. As such the government now finds itself between a rock and a hard place.
COLOMBO PAGE
Sri Lanka major Tamil party to meet with ambassadors of China and Russia in Colombo
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_11/May22_1306037535KA.php
Sri Lanka’s major Tamil party Tamil National alliance (TNA) plans to meet ambassadors of key countries that are supportive of Sri Lanka, informed sources said.
Accordingly, TNA plans to meet with Colombo based Ambassadors of China, Russia and Japan within the next few weeks.
TNA expects to brief them on the ongoing talks with the government aimed at reaching a political settlement regarding the ethnic problem.
As a part of the lobbying, a TNA delegation had met with the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, prior to External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris’s visit to India.
Minister Peiris is scheduled to leave for China on a two-day official visit from May 23-24.
COLOMBO PAGE
The Eastern Tamil party to continue to support Sri Lanka government
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_11/May22_1306039466JR.php
An Eastern Province based Tamil political party Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) of Sri Lanka, headed by Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan has arrived at a policy decision to continue with its support to the government.
The TMVP last week said the party would decide on its future course of action and withdraw its support to the government after condemning the arrest of several of its party members by the police and a search carried out on the Chief Minister’s office and residence in the investigation into recent killings that have taken place in the Batticaloa District.
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa who met with Chandrakanthan at Temple Trees last week has resolved the issue.
Chandrakanthan has told the media that the President had asked the TMVP to continue to work with the people.
The President had called on IGP Mahinda Balasuriya to cooperate with the TMVP while conducting the investigation in to the killings and had also assured that he would obtain a report from the Police Chief about the arrest of five TMVP members in Batticaloa.
Five TMVP members were arrested over the killing of a coordinating secretary to Deputy Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman.
SUNDAY LEADER
Sinhalisation Continues, Not Only In Jaffna, But Also In Colombo
I went to sleep last week living down Havelock Road and woke up in the brand spanking spruced up renamed SSJ Mawatha. The first thing that came to my mind was as to how long it would take to type in Sri Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Mawatha into a vehicle’s satellite navigation system. I suppose by the time you got round to it, you might be in Panadura.
The bright sparks who come up with street name changes are perhaps unaware of the costs involved as a result of their foolish actions. But then, they may not be aware of satellite navigation and perhaps don’t care, as long as their ethno-religious madness is satisfied. They prefer to keep the population in the dark ages.
The Sinhalese are a minority within the city limits of Colombo. Those who are Buddhists among them are even a smaller minority. No one had consulted the residents of Havelock road about the change of name of their road. They had no voice.
Within the last few months we had witnessed Dickman’s Road becoming Lester James Pieris Mawatha, Guildford Crescent becoming Premasiri Kemadasa Mawatha etc. The residents of these roads also had no choice on the matter. It was imposed from above.
Under the present regime, ‘Sinhalisation’ continues, not only in Jaffna, but also in Colombo.
The masses, climbed into an array of vehicles, some parents had kids sitting in the boot of cars as they toured the country viewing the many Vesak spectacles and queuing up outside the generous dansala’s. It took me six hours to drive from Kandy to Colombo while negotiating ‘dansala’ traffic.
As I observed the thousands of children, grannies and entire families taking their lives into their hands by travelling at the back of tractors, half trucks, etc., the police looked the other way. The law is an ass, they say. But here in Sri Lanka, not only the law, the entire law enforcement system, seem to be braying asses.
What amazed me was the sight of adults, presumably parents, sitting inside a car, while their children were sitting inside an open boot with their legs hanging out. They were travelling on the crowded Colombo-Negombo Road.
Sri Lankans seemed unaware or unwilling to recognise the dangers to themselves and to others. For this great majority, Havelock Road becoming SSJ Mawatha was a cause for celebration. They saw nothing wrong in not consulting the residents of the street, where their majoritarian ‘identity’ was being ‘imposed’ without consultation.
It is the same in Jaffna. When so many Hindu Temples lie in ruin as a result of the war, the majority does not seem concerned about the building of new Buddhist shrines in the North and the East. For the Sinhala Buddhist majority, it is their right, and a cause for celebration. They are not tuned to the sensitivities of others. Almost all of these temples are built with state patronage with the security forces playng a major part. It was the same in Colombo where at the top of the new SSJ Mawatha, is the brand new SSJ centre for Buddhism. State involvement in the whole project was obvious.
Political and religious patronage of the dominant tribe by those in power is so that they can precipitate their rule over the masses. So you will see these politicians from world cup cricket to Buddhism.
To the outsider, it is blatantly clear that in Sri Lanka, the dominant tribe has seized control of the state apparatus, and state functions to precipitate the hegemony of their tribe. The minorities in Jaffna, Trincomalee, Batticaloa or Colombo are drowned in the majoritarian sea, where their identity is being crushed.
The Portuguese, Dutch, British and South Indian colonisation of Sri Lanka is a part of our heritage as much as the colonisation by the Sinhalese, which is as foreign as the others. Buddhism is as foreign to Sri Lanka as Christianity or Hinduism. In fact some will argue that Sri Lankan’s were Hindus before the arrival of Buddhism, during the reign of that Devanampiya Tissa, whose ‘high’ IQ was tested with that mango tree riddle.
Drive around Sri Lanka and you will see, statues of British leaders in Sri Lanka removed, place names changed, race courses nationalised, Hindu places of worship taken over, Sinhala only imposed, new Buddhist temples in predominantly Tamil neighbourhoods.
The ‘ancient’ Nagadipa Vihara for instance is a recent ‘innovation’ less than 100 years old. Now there is an even more recent one, the place where Sangamitta landed. Both places have no archaeological value, as they are not ancient sites. These are as authentic as you putting a stick on the beach and claiming it to be the spot where Vijaya landed.
Half a century after Sinhala Only, the Sri Lankan state has still failed to facilitate the practical use ofTamil language in police stations in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Sajith Premadasa states that he wants the population to be conversant in both Sinhala and Tamil and that a Tamil must be able to go to Cinnamon Gardens police station and make a police entry in Tamil and receive correspondence in Tamil.
I asked him if he speaks Tamil. He said “unfortunately, no”. I asked him if the President speaks Tamil. He says, “No, the President makes Tamil speeches with the help of a teleprompter.”
As a result of this ‘ethno-religious’ madness, hundreds of thousands of burghers were driven out of the country. Over a million Tamils have also been driven out of the country.
The “Diaspora” are not enemies.
They are citizens of Sri Lanka whom the Sri Lankan state has failed to represent. The governments of the European Union, United States, Canada, Australia and the Republic of India, now represent them.
I inquired from Mr. Sajith Premadasa about his statement that no war crimes were committed in Sri Lanka. He puts his Mill Hill School education in North London, into good use in telling me that Sri Lanka committed “excesses” not “war crimes”. I asked him what was the difference between “war crimes” and “excesses”?
He said that he will use the word “excesses” and that I can use the word “war crimes”.
Sinhalisation Continues…
So, lets use Sajith Premadasa’s word, “excesses”. Sri Lankans point to the US and the UK to justify “excesses” when those governments request Sri Lanka to put its house in order. A million Americans and British citizens are not living in Sri Lanka because of the “excesses” of their governments.
But over a million Sri Lankans are living in Australia, the European Union, North America and India, because of Sri Lankan “excesses”. Those governments now represent Sri Lankan minority communities in those countries, whom the Sri Lankan state has failed to represent.
They have every right to tell Sri Lanka to put its house in order. If after over 60 years of independence, the Sri Lankan state continues to fail its citizens who have a minority culture, it has no option, but to devolve power. Since the opposition in Sri Lanka is so inept, thank god some states and bodies outside Sri Lanka are opposing the hegemony of the majority. Since 2005, the Sri Lankan electorate seems to have moved to the right and this suits those in power, to ensure their continuity in office. I suggested that a petition be raised about the change of the street name without consultation. I was told that the citizens are today more scared than during Premadasa’s regime and that no one will dare protest.
That’s democracy for you and on Vesak day they were blaring from loudspeakers about “Budhu Guna”.
SUNDAY TIMES
Lanka launches pre-emptive strike at UNHRC
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110522/News/nws_01.html
By Chandani Kirinde
Sri Lanka is to carry out a pre-emptive campaign ahead of the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva next week to ward-off any moves to trigger a debate on allegations of human rights violations during the last stages of the fighting against the LTTE.
Plantations Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who has also been assigned the subject of human rights will lead the Sri Lanka delegation to the Council’s 17th session which begins in Geneva on May 30. With him is Irrigation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva. The two ministers will launch the pre-emptive campaign along with Attorney General Mohan Peiris who will join them soon.
Part of this campaign will be the debunking of the video footage telecast by Britain’s Channel 4 television station. The video purportedly showed soldiers shooting LTTE cadres held in their custody.
The Sri Lanka delegation will insist that the video was filmed with high quality equipment which was not available in the battle zone at the time. Those who claimed to have provided the footage say the incident was filmed by a soldier on his mobile phone camera. Several other factors will be brought up to prove that the footage was bogus.
The Sri Lankan delegation is also to brief UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay and delegates of other countries on its claim that the report of the UN Experts Panel appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was baseless.
Ms. Pillay has welcomed the Panel’s report on accountability in Sri Lanka and said the UNHRC "fully supports the recommendations to establish an international mechanism" to go into allegations of human rights abuses during the last stages of the war against the LTTE.
The report published late last month said there were “credible allegations” of war crimes being committed during the last stages of the war by government troops and the LTTE and recommended that an “international mechanism” be put in place to monitor national investigations and undertake its own, if necessary.
The Government has rejected the contents of the report and said the local mechanism, the Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), has been addressing the concerns raised in the report commissioned by the UN Secretary General.
The UNHRC sessions will go on till June17. The 47 member Council comprises Thailand (Chairman), Angola, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Hungary, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malaysia, the Maldives, Moldova, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Uganda, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay and New Zealand.
THE NATION
India’s stand clear with new dimension in South
http://www.nation.lk/2011/05/22/politics.htm
The official visit of External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris to New Delhi to solicit India’s support over the UN Expert Panel Report has apparently come a cropper. Though sounded positive in their joint statements, what India has urged is to respond positively to the UN Expert Panel Report. In other words, India had wittingly or unwittingly toed the US line in calling the Sri Lankan Government to expedite its reconciliation efforts. India’s position is clear with a new political dimension emerging in the South following the thumping victory of Jayalalithaa Jayaram, leader of the AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) who lately developed a soft corner for the LTTE after she joined hands with MDMK Leader Vaiko, somewhere in 2006. Jayalalithaa had already dumped Vaiko in the political wilderness before she romped to victory, defeating a long-time ally of the ruling Congress Party, M. Karunanidhi. Fortunately for Sri Lanka, Vaiko is no longer a political ally of the new Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, to advise or influence her to push the Centre to take drastic steps against her neighbour at the Southern end.
Vaiko
Vaiko was once arrested by Jayalalithaa for espousing LTTE politics, which was banned in India following the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Nevertheless, later she developed a close rapport with this pro-LTTE politician who makes inflammatory statements periodically from the Southern tip of India against Sri Lanka. Jayalalithaa’s affinity with the LTTE was through Vaiko and it is difficult to fathom whether she holds the same political posture today, as far as the LTTE is concerned. What is more important in the present political context is Jayalalithaa’s political rearing rather than what she believed and did as an opposition politician.
Jayalalithaa is essentially an ardent follower and student of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. G. Ramachandran, who put his weight behind former Congress Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during the Indo-Lanka standoff in the late 80s and the consequent agreement between the two countries to end the LTTE atrocities through a viable political solution acceptable to both countries. Ramachandran, in short, was a great advocate of the Indo-Lanka agreement signed between the two countries in July 1987 aimed at putting an end to the separatist bid of the LTTE.
In this backdrop, Jayalalithaa can be seen as a flexible politician, though her victory speech was full of vituperative stuff against Sri Lanka and more particularly against President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Jayalalithaa’s position was that India could not be in a laidback position any longer in the light of the UN Expert Panel Report, which includes inter alia allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, etc.
She called upon the Centre to do the necessary spade work to take the Sri Lankan President before the International Criminal Court on the strength of the report published by the UN Expert Panel, which is more popularly known as the Darusman Report in Sri Lanka.
Mere rhetoric?
Could this be mere rhetoric to please her electorate or is she genuine in her call? Is she prone to the same feeling that of her fellow countrymen towards the Tamils living in the Northern and Eastern sectors of the Sri Lanka? These are questions that are arising as a direct result of the remarks made by her in the victory speech lambasting Sri Lanka. However, Indian political analysts have called her whimsical and described her more as a politician who takes things as it comes.
Nevertheless, the Sri Lanka’s position in this respect is commendable. Instead of making an equally vituperative statement or getting somebody like Wimal Weerawansa to make an off-the-cuff insidious remark on Jayalalithaa, Sri Lanka on this occasion acted prudently by congratulating her on her overwhelming victory. Minister Peiris who sent a crisp congratulatory message informed the newly-elected Chief Minister that Sri Lanka is looking forward to working with her.
The diplomatic moves made by Minister Peiris are likely to douse a major fire that would have engulfed the Sri Lankan body polity. What is important at this juncture is to maintain consistency and prevent various ministers from making outlandish statements that would create unnecessary situations where Sri Lanka would have to put an extra effort to cushion its ill effects.
Jayalalithaa’s victory may have caused ripples at the Centre in India which is gradually losing its grip over the provinces. This may have prompted the Congress leader to invite her over to tea at No. 10 Janpath, which Jayalalithaa has accepted.
Mere courtesy
A Congress spokesperson, however, played it down and described it as a mere courtesy call and nothing more, but Indian analysts say that on the previous occasion when the two most powerful ladies met, it signified the fall of the government of Prime Minister Vajpayee. In the present political context, it is very likely that Congress may drop its longstanding ally M. Karunanidhi, the former Chief Minster and the leader of the DMK in favour of Jayalalithaa Jayaram.
At her swearing-in ceremony, Jayalalithaa had two influential friends, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and one time Chief Minister of Andra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu.
Both Modi and Naidu, who also heads the Heritage Foods, had close links with Sri Lanka on tourism promotion when Minister Milinda Moragoda held the portfolio.
Kachchathivu
Nevertheless, the immediate problem Sri Lanka faces now is whether Jayalalithaa would raise the issue of Kachchathivu, which was resolved amicably by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike in the 60s, is yet another question posed by many. But, others think that Kachchathivu may be in the shadows among many other problems that may crop up in the near future, especially relating to issues of fishing in the waters north of Sri Lanka.
In the joint statement issued by Sri Lanka and India following the end of the official visit of the External Affairs Minister it has been mentioned that the joint working group had been revived to deal with the issue
Following are the joint statement and the press conference reported in the Indian media:
India has urged the Sri Lankan Government for the early withdrawal of emergency regulations and investigations into allegations of human rights violations.
During talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart Prof. G. L. Peiris, India’s External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna has called upon the Sri Lanka Government for speedy implementation measures to ensure resettlement and genuine reconciliation, which includes early return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
GL meets Dr. Singh
Restoration of normalcy in affected areas and redress of humanitarian concerns of affected families was another area that was discussed.
Sri Lanka External Affairs Minister, Prof. G. L. Peiris during the two-day visit also held talks with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon.
Later speaking to journalists in Delhi on Tuesday, Minister Peiris said that most of emergency regulations have been lifted.
“It is not something that you can do overnight. Many have forgotten the situation at that time when emergency regulations were a regrettable necessity,” he said.
Answering a question, Prof. Peiris said that the government did not wish to demonise Tamil Diaspora or isolate them. Instead, he said, government wished to engage in dialogue with them and seek their participation in the welfare of their own community. Talking about fishermen’s issue, Minister Peiris said that the government was concerned about it and it is a human issue. “Talks between two governments and respective fisheries societies had taken place and a working group established is making progress,” he said. Rejecting calls for an international investigation on alleged human rights violations recorded in the UN Expert Panel Report, the minister was of the view that institutions within Sri Lanka are capable of ‘resolving issues.’ Human rights issues, Minister Peiris said, falls with the mandate of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and within Sri Lanka’s judiciary. “The Sri Lankan legal system is capable of resolving issues that has evidence which would stand up to scrutiny at the court of law,” he stated.
Claiming UN Panel Report a negative development, Minister G. L. Peiris said the report has a ‘debilitating effect on the delicate reconciliation process’ of the country.
Reservations on LLRC
It is worth noting some of the remarks made by Minister Peiris at the press conference held at the conclusion of his visit to India. The Minister had emphatically told the Indian journalists that issues relating to human rights are a matter for the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and the Sri Lankan Judiciary, but many international human rights organisations had expressed their reservations on the LLRC since it has been appointed by the government.
The government must also show that there is a genuine interest on their part to inquire into violations of human rights and appropriate action taken to rectify the shortcomings in this respect. If the findings are unacceptable to the victims and if they feel that there was no genuine desire on the part of the state to address these issues then Sri Lanka would once again be calling for international attention on those matters.
However, both the United States and India are on the same wavelength when both these countries insisted that reconciliation efforts are a key to get over the problems faced by Sri Lanka owing to the UN Expert Panel Report. In other words, both countries, being major players in the international political arena, are in agreement that Sri Lanka should respond positively to the Panel Report however much the government tries to reject it as fundamentally flawed in many respects. The US has also emphasised the need to have a mechanism for accountability, to deal with the issues that cropped up during the final phase of the war, while India has not used so many words, but had told the Lankan Government, that the need to inquire into allegations of human rights violations.
Now it is patently clear that a domestic inquiry is indeed a necessity, if the government could convince the world community that the LLRC is the mechanism in place and that it could handle all the concerns of the global community in an impartial manner then the government’s efforts in handling the UN Expert Panel Report will be successful, but yet again it is a hypothetical situation.
There was a discussion on the 13th Amendment to the Constitution where India was pushing for the full implementation of the 13th Amendment which was devised during the period of President J. R. Jayewardene.
The 13th Amendment, envisaged at ending the ethnic strife in the country, introduced a new set of councils for provincial administration which came into being in 1987.
Indigenous solution
However, now the Tamil parties are lobbying for the abolition of the concurrent lists and a solution that goes beyond the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The Rajapaksa administration, nevertheless, believes in an indigenous solution for the problem, but not something borrowed from outside.
In this backdrop both the government and the Tamil parties, the main stakeholder being the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), are holding discussions on how they should devolve power to the provinces. Land and Police powers seem to be key matters that have not been taken for discussion so far. According to government Ministers, both sides have discussed on a second chamber, but it has not created much of an impact on the TNA although the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) was in agreement of such arrangement.
The TNA and its Leader R. Sampanthan, in the meantime, had welcomed the joint statement issued by India and Sri Lanka at the conclusion of the visit of Minister G. L. Peiris to India.
While the government was doing its utmost to bail it out of a precarious situation, the Patriotic National Movement (PNM) had accused that the External Affairs Minister had betrayed the country by signing a joint agreement with India during his visit.
The PNM said that the government had agreed among other things to remove emergency regulations, implement the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and to devolve land and police powers, to ensure that expeditious and concrete progress is made to the ongoing dialogue with the TNA. They also alleged that Sri Lanka had apparently cowed down to the dictates of India to sign the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which they said would be detrimental to Sri Lanka.
TNA UNP meet
Amidst all this, a TNA delegation led by R. Sampanthan also met with Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe at the latter’s office at the Parliamentary Complex. The Opposition Leader was associated with party seniors such as Lakshman Kiriella and Ravi Karunanayake at the talks while the TNA delegation also included S. Sumanthiran.
The TNA’s main grievance was that the government so far had not handed over their set of proposals aimed at resolving the North-East question and that appear to have dragged on for some time now.
Senior Parliamentarian Lakshman Kiriella told this column that the UNP signed the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in 2002 in good faith, with the aim of preventing the country from slipping into a war which would have been disastrous for Sri Lanka in the global political context. The CFA bore desired results although there were shortcomings here and there. The first achievement of the agreement being the crossover of Karuna Amman, the LTTE’s Eastern Commander, along with a cadre base of nearly 10,000 that weakened the LTTE’s fighting capabilities to a greater extent.
Kiriella said that when the Chandrika Kumaratunga administration dissolved the Ranil Wickremesinghe government in 2004, the LTTE was ready to attend the second round of talks since there was a huge international pressure building on them, which compelled them to accept a negotiated settlement for the problem. The JVP and all the other affiliated parties put a spanner in the wheel and dissolved the then UNP government which had promised the full implementation of the 13th Amendment as the solution for the Tamil question. “We tried to do it without pushing the country to war because we know the cost and the suffering involved,” he said. He queried, “What is happening today? After a debilitating war which claimed the lives of so many in the security forces and on the other side as well, the government is contemplating in giving the Tamils living in the North and East more than what we promised.”
“The 13th Amendment + + means beyond what we envisaged as a political solution for Tamils living in the North and East, and that also after a massive war which left behind a trail of destruction.
All this is being done to ward off the war crime charges against Sri Lanka and to solicit the Indian help to bail Sri Lanka out of this difficult situation,” he added.
Kiriella said that he fervently hoped that the stand taken by the UNP in 2002 signing the CFA stands vindicated.
He also said that the government cannot call the UN Expert Panel Report illegal after answering 31 questions posed by them which were formulated at the Presidential Secretariat. “We have already submitted ourselves to the jurisdiction of the panel,” he said noting that the report had mentioned that Minister G. L. Peiris had communicated with the Expert Panel through our mission in New York.
Referring to the LLRC and its functions, Kiriella said that it had no mandate to investigate and the only mandate it has in its purview is to determine the causes for the CFA and its subsequent failure. In his view, he said, that LLRC is not a body set up for inquiring any irregularities.
Nevertheless, Kiriella said that the UNP would support a solution that would ensure lasting peace in this troubled nation. “But we have our reservations and we would tell the government what we have to tell them at that juncture,” he added.
LTTE marches in UK, US
In the meantime, there are reports from both New York and London that thousands of LTTE sympathisers went in procession protesting against the Government of Sri Lanka over the war crimes when they commemorated their dead, marking the second year since the end of the war. A UN representative was there to receive a petition by the protesting Tamils to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In London’s Trafalgar Square too there were similar protests by the Tamils with the participation of British Parliamentarians who pushed for an Independent International Inquiry into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.
In New York, a counter protest organised by the New York mission too was held with the participation of a few people. Most of the people stayed away due to the inaction of the mission in New York and various other reasons personal to them. The New York protestors were met by Minister Wimal Weerawansa briefly for a voice cut and he was seen whisked away in a limousine since there was hardly any crowd for him to make a big show.
Kabir and Imitiaz
In the main opposition UNP things are not settled yet though they try to emerge as one party to face the elections for the remaining local councils. During the week, Kabir Hashim in particular had a difficult time when he met with the Muslim Councillors in the Central Province. They demanded some sort of explanation from the Parliamentarian as to why Imtiaz Bakeer Markar was removed from the party Working Committee. It was an embarrassing situation for Kabir Hashim who finally promised them to take it up with the party leadership. Kabir had apparently promised to resign his position in the party in a bid to accommodate Imtiaz Bakeer Markar in the UNP’s Working Committee.
The party is also facing a problem as regards the Colombo Municipal Council. According to party insiders, there are two contenders for the coveted Colombo Mayoralty. They are Provincial Councillor A. J. M. Muzammil and the other was onetime Colombo Central Parliamentarian Mohammed Maharoof.
Insiders say that party leadership is tossing the names from time to time without being able to take a decision while others think that it may go to an entirely different person because of the tough fight between Muzammil and Maharoof. However, the party is to take decision soon to face the challenges thrown by the government in Colombo, who are contemplating on the candidature of Duminda Silva.
SUNDAY TIMES
UN: Only Lanka or inter-govt. agency can request probe
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110522/News/nws_04.html
Alleged war crimes
The UN Secretary General’s office has reiterated that the responsibility to probe alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka lies primarily with Sri Lanka and the UNSG will not launch its own investigation unless Sri Lanka or an inter-governmental agency makes a request.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s position was clarified by his spokesman Martin Nesirky at Friday noon’s news conference in New York. He was responding to a question from Inner City Press’ Mathew Lee who asked why Mr. Ban’s approach to war crimes in Sri Lanka was different from his approach to war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Accountability is for the national authority in any given case. And in this case, it is no different: accountability is for the Sri Lankan authorities,” Mr. Nesirky said echoing Mr. Ban’s position which was made known after the release of a report last month by a three-member experts panel the UNSG appointed to advise him on accountability issues during the last stages of Sri Lanka’s war in 2009.
“We’ve also said that, in this report on accountability that was given to the Secretary-General, it sets out that the Sri Lankan authorities should indeed be doing this. It also says that — and the Secretary-General said this in his statement with the report — that there needs to be, to take it forward, there needs to be either consent from the national Government, the national authorities — in other words the Sri Lankan authorities — or there needs to be a mandate from an intergovernmental body; and you know what they might be. And that’s the position,” the spokesman said.
An intergovernmental body refers to the UN General Assembly, the Security Council or the UN Human Rights Council. Recalling that the UNSG launched its own probe on alleged war crimes committed by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi in Congo during the civil war from 1993 to 2003, the journalist asked which intergovernmental agency approved the Congo probe.
The question went unanswered, according to the Inner City Press. Mr. Nesirky also confirmed that Sri Lanka had still not sent its response regarding the panel’s report to the Secretary General.
TAMIL WEEK
London rally urges Independent International Investigation on Sri Lanka
http://tamilweek.com/news-features/archives/2644
Despite torrential rain over twelve thousand people gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square, on Wednesday 18th May 2011, to commemorate Tamil victims on the second anniversary of Sri Lanka declaring the war ended on the island and urge for an international independent investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka.
Over 40,000 civilians are feared to have been massacred during the final stage of the war alone and two years on, over 146,000 persons remain unaccounted for.
A damning UN Panel Report of 31 March 2011 surmised credible allegations of the Sri Lankan military campaign, between September 2008 and 19 May 2009, using “large-scale and widespread shelling, causing large numbers of civilian deaths”. It also charged the Sri Lankan armed forces of repeatedly and knowingly shelling No Fire Zones, hospitals, UN hub, food distribution lines and near International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) ships involved in evacuating injured and their relatives.
The Rally was addressed by Rights Activists, prominent Members of the British Parliament, Members of the European Parliament, Trade Union representatives, International Lawyers as well as representatives from various community organisations. All those who spoke referred to the findings and recommendations of the UN Panel Report and pledged their support to strengthen the campaign for an international independent investigation into allegations of war crimes and the continuing human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
The rally was organised by British Tamils Forum (BTF), with the support of various organisations, in a joint effort to:
1. Pay respect to their loved ones who were victims of the genocidal war in Sri Lanka
2. Call for an international independent investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka
3. Call for a UN led humanitarian intervention to save the voiceless Tamil people now languishing without any means of subsistence in the highly militarised North and East of Sri Lanka
Lee Scott, Conservative MP for Ilford North and Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, pledged to take calls for an International Independent Investigation to the UN.
“Those who have committed crimes must be brought to justice”, he said. “Tamil people must be in control of their own destiny”, he further stated.
Simon Hughes, Deputy Leader of Liberal Democratic Party, urged that “other countries must not be allowed to veto an international inquiry” and called on the Commonwealth to “do the right thing” by the Tamil people, if it is to be seen to be upholding democracy and human rights.
Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow, pledged to do everything in his power to help those who have suffered genocide.
Claude Moraes, Labour Member of the European Parliament, spoke of the recent emergency debate held in the EU and the resolution that was adopted by the European Parliament on Sri Lanka urging the Sri Lankan government to implement the recommendations suggested by the UN panel of experts and conduct a genuine investigation.
Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament, Sadly there is no sign of willingness on the part of the government to launch a proper inquiry, in which case the EU and others must push for an international mechanism”.
Roger Evans, Conservative member of the London Assembly, compared the massacre of Tamils to Srebrenica genocide and urged that “it is important that the UN not just to do justice, but for justice to be seen to be done”.
A BTF initiative, ‘open your “I”s campaign’ signifying the call for an International Independent Investigation was launched at the rally to take the campaign to all corners of the UK.
John Mann, Labour Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw, said he was “privileged” to be the first politician to sign the “I campaign” and urged all elected politicians to join the campaign for an international independent inquiry.
Dr Andrew Higginbottom, Principal lecturer in Human Rights at Kingston University, called the Mullivaikal Massacre a “planned genocide”.
Martin Powel Davies, National Executive of the National Union of Teachers, pledged the support of the trade union for the rights of self-determination of the Tamil speaking people.
Jeremy Corbin, Labour Member of Parliament for Islington North, reminisced how he had joined Tamils in London when protesting against the riots against Tamils in Sri Lanka in 1983. Referring to the present situation in Sri Lanka he said “military occupation is not the same as peace”.
Tim Martin, Director of Act Now, launched a celebrity-backed Global campaign to the members of the UN Human Rights Council calling upon them to support and take forward the call for an international independent inquiry to the UN Security Council.
John Rees of Stop the War Coalition reiterated that “the international community and major powers had failed to intervene” in Sri Lanka. He called for an international independent investigation and pledged support for a boycott of Sri Lankan Cricket.
A memorandum was delivered to the UK Prime Minister, RT Hon David Cameron MP, to further the call he had made in October 2010 for an independent investigation into the allegations of war crimes and human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and to seek:
1. An International Independent Investigation; and
2. A UN-led humanitarian intervention to save the Tamil people from starvation. TEXT OF PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY BTF
THE SUNDAY LEADER
I Will Support Call For An Independent Enquiry” – Premadasa
The Co-Deputy Leader of the United National Party (UNP) Hambantota MP, Sajith Premadasa spoke to Faraz Shauketaly on a matter that continues to astound international observers of Sri Lanka and continues to irk those wishing for justice, fair play and good governance: the investigation into the murder of the founder Editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge.
Excerpts:
Q: As the Deputy Leader of the UNP why is it that the UNP has been so silent, no longer even uttering the name of Lasantha Wickremetunge? After all, the man devoted 15 years of his newspaper career towards uplifting the UNP. Why do you not push for his killers to be found?
A: Certainly he was a stalwart. I can’t speak for others but on various occasions I have made speeches; I have mentioned the dire need in our country for the protection of human rights, civic rights, political rights, and elimination of arbitrary killings, media freedom and specifically Lasantha’s case which is a gross violation of human rights. I think we should all – not as a political party only – but as citizens of Sri Lanka, we should all fight for a proper transparent conclusion to the investigation and for the culprits to be brought to justice.
Q: Why have you not pushed for an enquiry? The matter seems to be dragging along for nearly two years.
A: Once again my clear position is that Lasantha Wickremetunge’s killing I believe was an extra judicial arbitrary assassination and must be probed and that the culprits must be brought to justice.
Q: The UNP actually did say that General Fonseka was responsible for the Lasantha Wickremetunge assassination but then chose Fonseka as the Common Candidate at the Presidential Election. Isn’t that a display of a shocking lack of conscience on the part of the UNP?
A: You will have to ask those that made statements to that effect. What I said in terms of General Fonseka was that I have been a supporter of the General in terms of the war effort in order to eliminate the LTTE terrorists. I still have that regard; I certainly did not say that the General was responsible for the Lasantha case. In fact it would be for the Sunday Leader to examine the Hansard (parliamentary proceedings record) and establish who said what in regard to the Fonseka involvement and who then did an about turn and promoted the acceptance of General Fonseka as the common candidate. That would be for you to do.
Q: Why have you not raised the Lasantha issue in parliament?
A: I have raised this issue in public speeches and I admit I have not done so in parliament. I will raise this matter up in parliament and give my wholehearted support to lobby and call for an enquiry.
Q: Will you support a call for a Parliamentary debate on this issue?
A: Most certainly .. I will give it my fullest support. It is usually done through party leaders and the Speaker. We could go for an Adjournment motion for example.
Q: What do you say to Lasantha Wickremetunge’s family and three children, who don’t have closure as yet? Can you assure them of closure?
A: To be honest one cannot have closure without having a transparent investigation that looks into the whole episode.
If one can come to a concrete conclusion one must be happy about the investigation. As far as I am concerned I am not happy with it. The LTTE terror menace was resolved so I am amazed that the Lasantha case has not been brought to a conclusion.
Q: Would you support a move for a full independent enquiry into the Lasantha case, in the absence of progress being made by the authorities?
A: Absolutely. Certainly. I fervently believe that one must have a transparent investigation before bringing closure. He was a man who contributed in his own style to the perpetuation of media freedom, democracy and human rights. I for one will support vehemently any initiative that brings about a transparent and ethical investigation.
SUNDAY LEADER
A Peace Of Lost Opportunities
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/05/22/a-peace-of-lost-opportunities/
The second anniversary of defeating the LTTE is being celebrated with quintessentially Rajapaksa pomp and pageantry.
Peace has been good to the Ruling Family. It has won all elections, obtained a two-third majority in parliament, removed presidential term-limits, enhanced presidential powers, stymied the opposition and discouraged dissent. Post-war, the Rajapaksas rule continues untrammelled (with sons and nephews being groomed to takeover from the fathers and uncles, someday).
For most ordinary Lankans though, these are not good-times. This is not mere conjecture, but is based on a new Gallup poll. According to 2010 Global Wellbeing Index, 95% of Lankans are neither happy with their current status nor optimistic about their future prospects. Only 5% of Lankans see themselves as thriving; 75% see themselves as struggling and 20% as suffering. Being an opinion poll, these findings are based not on objective facts (such as growth rates/HDI rankings) but on subjective feelings i.e. how the respondents regard their present and their future.
And in the minds of the majority of Lankans, 2010, the first year of peace, has been a time of disenchantment.
And no wonder; in the South the peace dividend remains elusive, while economic woes mount. Peace dividends cannot materialise when countries continue their war-time spending patterns, post-war. In Sri Lanka, undiminished defence expenditure (plus gargantuan waste and corruption) has gobbled-up the peace dividend. The regime’s (reported) plan to turn the Uva-Wellassa University into a military academy is symbolic and symptomatic of this ‘guns over butter’ mindset and its consequences, for people and development. As the then US President Eisenhower remarked presciently about his own country, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed” (Speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors – 16.4.1953).
In Sri Lanka, the non-thriving 95% of the populace daily witness the smug-arrogance with which the thriving 5% overindulge themselves. Iniquitous inequalities, a near-staple of capitalism, are being aggravated immeasurably by the Rajapaksa proclivity towards generosity to their own and miserliness to everyone else. For instance, the regime, while unequivocally rejecting the salary demands of university lecturers, has recently doubled the allowance to senior officials of 230+ state enterprises.
For almost 30 years, rulers could blame their incompetencies and inabilities on the war (and the LTTE). Today this excuse is no more; thus the regime’s periodic attempts to propagandistically-resurrect the dead Tiger; thus its unremitting search for new enemies. This dangerous predisposition was evident in the outrageous official response to the trade union action by university dons: “President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said that certain elements are attempting to undermine the 2600th Sri Sambuddhatwa Jayanthi….. ‘It is the duty of all Sri Lankans to foil attempts to belittle the 2600th Sri Sambuddhatva Jayanthi,’ President Rajapaksa said. The President made these observations at a meeting with Vice Chancellors of all universities…. The discussion also focused on….conspiracies being hatched by various forces who stood against the country…. The Vice Chancellors opined that the members of the university academic staff should abstain from creating unnecessary problems when the entire country is prepared to celebrate the 2600th Sambuddhatwa Jayanthi” (Daily News – 13.5.2011). Never has a Lankan leader sounded so intolerantly paranoid towards the country’s academia; and never have Lankan Vice Chancellors fallen so low!
Vellupillai Pirapaharan equated even the most-minute act of non-compliance to a conspiracy to undermine the Eelam cause. Two years after defeating the Tiger, the Rajapaksa Siblings seem to be donning their vanquished enemy’s intolerant and irrationally-maximalist mantle.
The Abnormal North
Two years after the guns fell silent, the humanitarian and political problems of Lankan Tamils are still festering. According to a UN report, “117,888 displaced people…..are yet to be permanently resettled…. The resettled families in the North say they do not have proper dwelling places and they are at the mercy of friends and relatives for accommodation” (Daily Mirror – 19.5.2011). The following remark by a Vanni villager indicates the grim reality which persists behind the official hype about a Northern-Spring: “The LTTE controlled the people with repressive methods. Now people are afraid to speak because of the military. The war is over, yet our problems remain the same” (Transcurrent – 2.12.2010).
While most civilian Tamils languish in want and uncertainty, a glittering, no-expenses-spared ceremony was held at the Jaffna military headquarters, to launch the Defence Ministry’s reality show, ‘Ranaviru Real Star’. Such indecently insensate actions, which add insult to injury, foster not reconciliation but bitterness, which may spill-over from words to (hopefully democratic and non-violent) deeds someday.
The triumphalist-hype which provides the lyrics and the music of this Rajapaksa peace has rendered almost invisible the reasons which created a language issue, transformed it into an ethnic problem and, within that context, enabled the rise of the Tiger. According to the dominant (Sinhala supremacist) commonsense, trying to understand the root-causes of the war is tantamount to exculpating the horrific conduct of the LTTE. In consequence, a political solution based on power-sharing has been consigned to things untouchable.
There is a tiny snag though. Subsequent to the electoral-drubbing it received in Tamil Nadu, the Congress government is busy rethinking (or repackaging) its Lankan policy. The stridently anti-Rajapaksa attitude of the new chief minister, Jayalalitha Jeyaram, will further encourage this recalibration. The Congress Party’s Tamil Nadu debacle can be attributed, in part, to voter-anger over Delhi’s indifference towards the plight of Lankan Tamils, not just during the war but even afterwards. A change in India’s Lankan policy – or perhaps a show of it – thus may happen, because the Congress cannot afford to suffer the same fate in Tamil Nadu at national elections. The Darusman Report has given Delhi an ideal stick to prod Colombo with. When Foreign Minister Peiris went to Delhi requesting Indian assistance at the upcoming UN Human Rights Council sessions, the Indians had read him the riot act, according to an official source: “There is a lot of concern in India [over the pace of political reconciliation] because, after all, the conflict ended two years back. If they don’t take measures in the domestic domain there is bound to be pressure from elsewhere” (quoted in The Hindu – 19.5.2011).
In response, Minister Peiris, predictably, used the TNA-pretext; he “assured that after six rounds of talks, Colombo and the Tamil National Alliance were moving towards ‘substantial issues’” (ibid). In reality the talks with the TNA is another time-and-space-buying exercise, like the APRC. The best proof of the Rajapaksa-mala fide is the offer of a Senate (dominated by the Sinhalese) in lieu of devolution, as the ‘political solution’. Incidentally, the UNP’s excellent decision to back any UPFA-TNA agreement would make it a little harder for the regime to extricate itself via its usual charade.
No peace dividend; no political solution: the post-war conduct of the Rajapaksas indicate a mindset unresponsive to voluntary internal reforms, be it on devolution, good governance or human rights. This leaves us with a conundrum – is external pressure the only way Sri Lanka can be prevented from remaking old mistakes and retrogressing into past-nightmare.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
G.L.Peiris visit a flop: India browbeats Lanka
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110522/Columns/political.html
- Minister agrees to develop on 13th Amendment with Tamil parties, will include police and land powers
- New Delhi non-committal on international probe on alleged war crimes; sellout on fishing crisis
By Our Political Editor
The leaders of the country’s main political parties were in ‘shraddavantha’ (pious) mode this week. The 2600 Sambuddhatva Jayanthi – 2600 years since the Enlightenment of the Buddha and the enunciation of the Doctrine of the Middle Path that revolutionized half the known world at the time, would have had a sobering effect on them.
The lay leaders of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the party spearheaded by a group of politically active Buddhist monks, shaved their heads and took ‘sil’ (religious vows) for several days. Unfortunately, as some commentators have pointed out, the ego factor, one of the fundamental flaws in humankind as the Buddha has pointed out was the most difficult to shed. Photographers kept ‘shooting them’ and the pictures found their way to the media.
So too did President Mahinda Rajapaksa take ‘sil’, but on Vesak day only. He was the third head of State to do so, after William Gopallawa and Ranasinghe Premadasa. He too was disturbed by the bright lights and the clicking and whirring of cameras that conveyed to the public through state television the religious observances he was engaged in.
At ‘Temple Trees’ where the President was thus engaged, the Ven. Madagoda Abeytissa Thera was invited to deliver the Dhamma desanava or the sermon. The monk made some appropriate points only a Buddhist monk could to an all-powerful President. He was to say "Mr. President, you or anyone here will not take the wealth accumulated in this world to the next world when you die." He cautioned the President saying that though there might be several people around him, it was useless and that he should trust only those who worked for the upliftment of the country.
The President was seen nodding his head in seeming approval, and his acceptance of the monk’s advice.
The previous day, President Rajapaksa visited the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara in the outskirts of Colombo. Also taking part in Bodhi pooja (offerings to the Buddha) was Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, a long-time lay trustee of the historic temple. While Wickremesinghe took his MP from the Colombo district, Ravi Karunanayake, now in the centre of a storm within the United National Party (UNP) over his appointment as the party’s National Organiser, Rajapaksa took his controversial Public Affairs Minister and the area’s party organiser Mervyn Silva, who also had a run-in with some of his colleagues in the government over an extortion racket at the nearby fish market.
Shortly after the religious ceremonies conducted by the temple’s chief monk, Ven. Dr. Kollupitiye Sangharakhita Thera, the VIPs were taken to lunch. At the lunch the talk between Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe turned to the recent escapades of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn who had just been jailed in New York over an alleged sexual assault case. The Frenchman, a one-time Finance Minister and known in his country as ‘DSK’ was a possible Presidential candidate from the opposition Socialist Party to challenge the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe discussed the pros and cons of the entire episode being a ‘fix’ to prevent him from contesting the French presidential elections scheduled next year. The man’s reputation for womanising, however, preceded him and he had been warned by Sarkozy himself when he was taking the job as IMF chief with headquarters in Washington DC that the Americans were not as liberal as the French in these matters.
Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe later went their own ways as the Sambuddhatva Jayanthi celebrations ranged from the mega state-sponsored events to the Kottu roti and ice cream dansala to Chinese lanterns on tree tops and the humble decorations in thousands of homes island-wide.
Minister Peiris in New Delhi
While these celebrations were in full swing in all Buddhist countries, Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris was in New Delhi on an official visit, in what was the only political and diplomatic activity for the week. Alas, by all accounts, the visit was not a success for Sri Lanka.
One of the more significant aspects of the Peiris visit was that none of the Foreign Service professionals accompanied him. It was an unprecedented step taken. Usually, the secretary to the ministry is by the minister’s side should any professional advice be required; so too is the director in charge of India. But on this occasion, and for the first time, such a high profile visit on such important issues was without a single Foreign Service official.
Peiris was meeting not only his counterpart S.M. Krishna and Indian prime Minister Manmohan Singh but also senior External Affairs Ministry officials, known as the ‘Brahmins’ of the much-admired Indian public service. For Peiris to go to that den alone, accompanied only by a junior MP, Sajin Vaas Gunawardene, was brave if not foolhardy. The results showed that it was more of the latter.
The photograph of Peiris meeting Manmohan Singh depicted the Indian premier stressing a point with the Sri Lankan Minister with his hands clasped, listening. Even if a photograph only captures a mere split second of a moment, the joint statement that was issued after the official talks speaks for itself. It bears testimony to completely one-sided ‘talks’ between the two countries.
We carry below relevant extracts from this joint statement in bold type with how political and diplomatic analysts see it.
The joint statement begins by referring to the Peiris visit and that the "entire gamut of bi-lateral relations" were reviewed by the two sides. It would be more appropriate to say that the entire gamut of India’s concerns in the bi-lateral relations was reviewed by the two sides.
Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the joint statement have this to say (quoted fully);
4. " Both sides agreed that the end of armed conflict in Sri Lanka created a historic opportunity to address all outstanding issues in a spirit of understanding and mutual accommodation imbued with political vision to work towards genuine national reconciliation. In this context, the External Affairs Minister of Sri Lanka affirmed his Government’s commitment to ensuring expeditious and concrete progress in the ongoing dialogue between the Government of Sri Lanka and representatives of Tamil parties. A devolution package building upon the 13th Amendment would contribute towards creating the necessary conditions for such reconciliation.
5. " The Minister of External Affairs of Sri Lanka reiterated the commitment of his Government to continue to address issues related to resettlement and reconciliation in a focussed and progressive manner. In this regard, the Minister of External Affairs of Sri Lanka referred to the work of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and set out the steps taken by the Inter-Agency Advisory Committee (IAAC) chaired by the Attorney General in implementing the Interim Recommendations of the LLRC in relation to detention, law and order, administration, and language issues and socio-economic and livelihood issues. In response, the External Affairs Minister of India urged the expeditious implementation of measures by the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure, resettlement and genuine reconciliation, including early return of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their respective homes, early withdrawal of emergency regulations, investigations into allegations of human rights violations, restoration of normalcy in affected areas and redress of humanitarian concerns of affected families".
By paragraph 4 above it seems that Peiris has committed the Rajapaksa government to giving more than the 13th Amendment, and what is more can only be police powers and land distribution powers to be devolved to the Made-in-India Provincial Councils. Rajapaksa himself has said he would give 13A Plus, but not specified what the plus is. He reassures the majority Sinhalese constituency by saying that he will not give anything politically what the LTTE demanded by waging war. Now, Peiris has committed the government to a "devolution package building upon the 13th Amendment". So then, what could that be, is the question.
India wants genuine reconciliation
Having put the knife in paragraph 4, India turns it in paragraph 5 by asking the government of Sri Lanka to ensure "genuine reconciliation". What India is saying in everyday parlance is that stop beating about the bush, stop dragging your feet — provide proper devolution beyond the 13th Amendment according to what the Tamil parties in Sri Lanka want.
In paragraph 5, India goes one step further i.e. it wants allegations of human rights violations investigated. Vague as it is, it keeps open the question as to whether India wants a domestic investigation or an international mechanism as demanded by the controversial report of the UN panel of experts appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The panel had probed the last stages of the war against the LTTE in 2009. One might argue that India is even endorsing the UN panel report without saying so. It would, however, appear to many analysts, that India has deliberately left the question open to use it later as a bargaining lever against Sri Lanka, especially when it sees Sri Lanka gravitating more heavily towards China than India.
The Sri Lankan minister has been unable to get any assurances from India that investigations of such a nature would be purely domestic and not an international probe. This is a huge setback for Sri Lanka as it tries to ward off international pressure, especially from western countries that are pushing towards an international probe on ‘war crimes’ allegations.
Sri Lanka was unable to get India to challenge the UN panel report’s unverified account of 40,000 civilian deaths having taken place in those last stages of the war, a figure that Baroness Valerie Amos, the UN’s Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, repeated in the UN Security Council a week ago attracting a protest from Sri Lanka.
The remainder of the joint statement is as bad. In paragraph 7 Sri Lanka has caved into pressure for "early finalisation of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)" — something the Rajapaksa government torpedoed at the last minute in the face of stiff opposition to it from influential local entrepreneurs.
In paragraph 8, there is a complete let down of the northern Sri Lankan fishermen by agreeing to abide by the lop-sided October 26, 2008 Fishing Arrangements which provide for ‘accidental’ intrusions into each other’s territorial waters along the Palk Strait.
The joint statement says both sides agreed that "the use of force could not be justified under any circumstances and that all fishermen should be treated in a humane manner. The Indian side conveyed that the incidents of continued violence against Indian fishermen in the vicinity of Sri Lanka were of serious concern".
But the Sri Lankan side was unable to get a sentence included about the poaching by Indian fishermen "in the vicinity of Sri Lanka".
Peiris’ performance draws flak
And so, at the end of it, it is reasonable to ask what Sri Lanka got out of the talks. Peiris’ performance has already drawn flak from a pro-government nationalist organisation, the Patriotic National Movement (PNM). It has said that Peiris has betrayed the country on his Indian visit and PNM President Gunadasa Amarasekera has asked if all this was agreed to with President Rajapaksa’s concurrence.
Sri Lanka goes into next week when the UN Human Rights Council (UN HRC) meets with India non-committal while several western powers are expressing eagerness to bring allegations of human rights violations under the microscope of the world body.
Ministers Mahinda Samarasinghe and Nimal Siripala de Silva have already left for Geneva to meet any prospective challenge. They are to be joined by Attorney General Mohan Peiris. Two international human rights organisations have already fired salvos to coincide with the UN sessions.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly writing in the Indian-based Asia Age newspaper (May 17) taunts India to pursue a hostile approach towards Sri Lanka. "Now India has a new opportunity to promote justice for Sri Lanka’s war victims. Instead of being on the side of the abusers, India should be working alongside governments that wish to see that the people responsible for terrible crimes are held to account. India should not hold back," she writes.
Amnesty International (AI) in a public statement the same date called for the UNHRC support for an international investigation to "address impunity for violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law". It also urged the UNHRC to support the UN panel report’s recommendations calling for an international mechanism to probe these purported allegations.
AI goes on to provide an eight-point agenda for action and one of them is to get Sri Lanka to ratify the Rome Statute and co-operate with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
If Sri Lanka banking on India to help it out with the Ban Ki-moon report was a setback the political situation in India itself is a matter the government will need to closely monitor. Right now it is in a state of flux as the defeated Mutuvel Karunanidhi not only licks his political wounds, but is thoroughly disappointed with the central Government and his ally the Congress Party for permitting his daughter Kanimozhi to be sent to jail for her alleged involvement in a massive telecom scam.
The Congress Party tried its best to delay the process, but now the Indian Supreme Court has intervened and despatched the 43-year-old Kanimozhi to Thihar Jail, India’s Welikada in New Delhi. To aggravate matters Congress President Sonia Gandhi has telephoned J. Jayalalithaa and congratulated her signalling a possible future alliance in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu politics has influenced New Delhi’s decision-makers for decades. Despite the people of the state complaining of step-motherly treatment from the north, political alliances between national parties (like the Congress) and regional parties (like DMK or AIADMK) are compulsory for control of the national parliament. Former Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral’s recent autobiography ‘Matters of Discretion’ illustrates the point well.
In 1997, when he was PM, the Jain Commission that investigated the assassination of one-time premier Rajiv Gandhi confirmed a special police report of the nexus between the LTTE and the DMK, and added that the DMK had aided and abetted in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE. The Congress Party to which Gandhi belonged, demanded the DMK be sacked from Gujral’s coalition government, something he refused to do. The Congress then withdrew its support to Gujral and his government collapsed.
Since then, Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, assumed the mantle of the Congress Party and had no qualms in striking an electoral pact with the DMK for future elections. The shaky Congress government in New Delhi will therefore like to be on the good side of the voters of Tamil Nadu and Jayalalithaa, who on winning the elections made a stinging remark that the Sri Lanka President and his government must be investigated for alleged ‘war crimes’.
On Thursday, Ranil Wickremesinghe telephoned Jayalalithaa to congratulate her, but she was not available to take the call. Wickremesinghe and former Foreign Minister the late Lakshman Kadirgamar were probably the only two Sri Lanka political leaders who have met her and kept in regular touch. However, she had returned the call, and Wickremesinghe, a frequent visitor to Chennai said he would meet her "after she has settled down".
This by itself might unsettle the Rajapaksa government and a letter was shot off by Peiris to her to offset the Wickremesinghe-Jayalalithaa call. The Rajapaksa government is wary of destabilising moves not only from abroad, but from within as well, it seems.
SRI LANKA GUARDIAN
Diaspora role negative and obstructive
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/05/diaspora-role-negative-and-obstructive.html
Every mayoralty in Paris has tablets on which are inscribed the names of those from that locality who died in the many wars which France fought. Many are the works of art in the glorious buildings in Paris, which depict these battles, from Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) onward. Many are the military parades in remembrance.
This is so of most countries, not merely the hub of Enlightenment thinking. Russia recently celebrated with its parade in the Red Square, the victory over Nazi fascism. Thus we must be suspicious of the argument that Sri Lanka must not commemorate its victory over the terrorist separatist army of the LTTE. It is our legitimate entitlement which we must continue over the generations.
Is the war worth commemorating with celebration? The answer to that question resides in the answer to another: how many citizens of all ages are dying violently each week, compared to the average body count in the war years?
The cunning counter-argument is that the killing had stopped during the ceasefire (CFA). This is of course a blatant lie. Not only was our distinguished foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar killed during that period, so were a senior police officer inside a police station in Dehiwela, an Army colonel in Polhengoda, and 48 operatives of military intelligence – all with no price paid or penalties imposed on the Tigers by the government of the day or the so-called international community.
No less specious an argument is the one that contrasts the surgical character of the hit on Osama Bin Laden with the termination of the Tigers. The cold fact is that the Sri Lankan armed forces were surgically taking down the Tiger command structure with deep penetration LRRP operation, when the Prime Minister at the time (the present leader of the opposition) aborted the project by signing a lopsided ceasefire agreement, to the applause of the West. That surgical option aborted, the next time around, the endgame was bound to take an Old Testament character. As for the point that the dead Osama’s photographs were not shown, unlike those of Prabhakaran, the answer is that the irrational Al Qaeda swiftly admitted the death of its leader, therefore making photographic evidence unnecessary, while the pro-Tiger Tamil Diaspora demonstrated greater irrationality and delusion by refusing to admit the death of its leader, therefore rendering imperative the release of the photographs.
Another piece of propaganda masquerading as argument is that Sri Lanka merely liberated or reunified territory but more important is the people. Throughout world history, which is also the history of warfare, territorial control/recovery has been an objective in and of itself. Still more important is the primal existential urge to defend oneself from an enemy that is tormenting one’s collective, one’s community and to prevail over that enemy. This Sri Lanka has done. That alone makes the war a valid and legitimate one, and the victory worth celebrating. It is after all, the signal victory of our generation, on par with and possibly surpassing any contemporary ones anywhere in the world.
Post-War Debate
As a democracy let us by all means disagree, even vehemently, over the post war paths taken and not taken. Indeed the debates I have engaged in, in print, in the wake of the war, make interesting revisiting in the light of recent developments and prospects. These debates must not entail a rejection of the war and its legitimacy and a revalidation of the Tigers or those who prevaricated during the war. It remains a legitimate and valuable debate regarding the aftermath of a just war, a necessary war, and a victory which was grim but glorious.
This necessary debate on post-war policies must not be confused with or become a smokescreen for a de-legitimisation of our victory, for undermining it and rolling it back. The debate on the post war order is needed precisely for the consolidation of the military victory. The discussion must take into account the changed sub-regional, regional and international situation which constitutes our external strategic environment.
Where does the challenge to that victory come from and who drives it?
Pre-eminently, the embittered element of the Tamil Diaspora – How is this Diaspora to be viewed? What should be its recognised role and how should it be regarded by host societies, mainly Western democracies, and the international community of states?
Fred Halliday (1946-2010), Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Research Professor at the University of Barcelona, published an essay on the website ‘Open Democracy’ entitled The World’s Twelve Worst Ideas, of which worst idea Number Three was that “Diasporas have a legitimate role to play in national and international politics”. He went onto explain his point saying that “the notion that emigrant or Diaspora communities have a special insight into the problems of their homeland, or a special moral or political status in regard to them, is wholly unfounded. Emigrant ethnic communities almost always play a negative, backward, at once hysterical and obstructive, role in resolving the conflicts of their countries of origin: Armenians and Turks, Jews and Arabs, various strands of Irish, are all prime examples on the inter-ethnic front, as are exiles in the United states in regard to resolving the problems of Cuba or policy-making on Iran.”
Especially sad is the phenomenon that some elements of the Sri Lankan polity and intelligentsia seem to take their cue from the Tamil Diaspora, reinforce its ‘hysterical’ (to use Halliday’s adjective) if not hallucinatory (Mahinda Rajapaksa as Adolf Hitler, Sri Lanka today as Nazi Germany) propaganda, and is indistinguishable from it.
Sovereignty
Unacknowledged ignorance’ is the most dangerous thing in the world, according to philosophers. The dominant discourse regarding Sri Lanka, both within and without the island, reveals precisely such unacknowledged ignorance. The polarised debate between human rights and national sovereignty is a major symptom of that ignorance. One side holds that human rights trump all, and that national sovereignty is a mere fig leaf for repression by the state. National sovereignty is seen as an ideology upheld by narrow minded ethnic or ethno-religious chauvinists. The other holds national sovereignty is sacrosanct and human rights subordinate. These elements define the nation in narrow ethno-religious terms. Not only are both sides wrong, they are also ignorant.
Few are aware that in the intellectual history of the Enlightenment, human rights and sovereignty – precisely national sovereignty-are inextricably, demonstrably intertwined. Few know or acknowledge that the landmark document on human rights, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, prepared and proposed by the Marquis de Lafayette and adopted by the National Constituent Assembly in Paris on August 26, 1789, as the first and most universalist and universalising fruit of the French Revolution, has as its third article, the following unambiguous pronouncement on sovereignty: “The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does not proceed directly from the nation”.
Irrespective of one’s opinion about this or that political leader, party or policy the defence of the historic gains of the war, as well as of democracy, requires the defence of the principle of national sovereignty.
A Luta Continua!
In the movie ‘Man on Fire’ Denzel Washington says with deliberate emphasis, spacing the words as he walks away through an underpass in Mexico City from a guy cuffed to an engine block of a car with a ticking time bomb beneath: “I wish you had the time”. I wish we had the time. With new developments in the politics of the sub-region, we need to extricate ourselves fast because the clock is ticking.
Today, danger is of external pressure building up to encirclement and siege. How best to resist it and roll it back? How to secure time and space for Sri Lanka? Lessons can be learnt from the experiences of states in similar or far more onerous circumstances in contemporary history.
For decades, Cuba has been under siege, economically blocked by its giant Northern neighbour. It has survived not only because it obtained the support of the USSR, but because notwithstanding the disappearance of the USSR, it earned the respect of and has built support and influence in its neighbouring region of Latin America.
When China felt threatened by the West it tilted to the USSR (Mao called it ‘leaning to one side’), and when it felt enveloped by both, it neutralised one front by allying with the West against the USSR. All the while it cultivated what Mao had called the intermediate zone of Third and Second world states.
Just a few years ago, Zimbabwe was in dire straits internationally. Today one hardly hears about it. The secret of Zimbabwe’s success is the buffering role played by its respected and influential neighbour, South Africa. Without that shield, Zimbabwe would have been wide open to its enemies.
Because of the unreasonable and escalating external pressure exerted upon us, today, two years after the war, the watchword of the African liberation movements fighting (Portuguese) colonialism springs to memory and suggests itself as apposite: A Luta Continua! The struggle continues!
THE NATION
Cease talks and act fast – Anandasangaree
http://www.nation.lk/2011/05/22/inter1.htm
Ex-parliamentarian and TULF leader V. Anandasangaree, the laureate of the 2006 UNESCO Madanjeet Singh award for the promotion of tolerance and non-violence, says the government should now cease all types of talks with the minority groups but instead implement a substantial scheme based on facts collected from talks that have already been held with these parties in the past.
In a hard hitting interview with The Nation, Anandasangaree, a lawyer by profession, said the government’s proposal for a Senate will not directly help solve the minority issues but instead proposed the Indian model as an alternative for the resolution of the Tamil issue. He fatly rejected the government’s offer of a Senate to resolve the problem and added even the full implementation of the 13th amendment was not going to bring a solution. Paying a glowing tribute to the government armed soldiers for their humanitarian act to the Tamil civilians immediately after the war, he said however they should not continue to remain in the north, thereby giving the Tamil civilians a sense of fear and suspicion.
Following are excerpts:
Q: How do you view the reconciliation process the government has embarked upon, to bring a solution to the Tamil problem?
The government is not serious in the reconciliation process. If the government is serious, then by now something should have happened. First of all, the government should have seriously considered withdrawing the army from the north. At present the people of north are not free to express or free to assemble. The army is there everywhere and at every junction there are check points. The freedom of assembly is restricted due to army presence. Under normal circumstances by this time hundreds of meetings and demonstrations would have been organizsed in the north demanding the withdrawal of the forces from these areas. But today the people are not able to do this. The government is only trying to convince the international community that the army is doing humanitarian activities.
After the war when the people escaped from the LTTE, the army did a lot of humanitarian activities. I pay tribute to the women soldiers for moving the elders and looking after the women and children. We were more than happy to see the behaviour of our Sri Lankan soldiers when they were totally involved in humanitarian activity immediately after the war. But now it is two years after the war. Why remain there still and do what? So the first thing the government should do is to let the people free and not give the impression that they are under subjugation like how they were under the LTTE.
Q: The government says the army presence is to help the people on the one hand and not allow the reemergence of the LTTE on the other. How do you look at this?
For the first time, the President of our country is moving about everywhere in the country. That itself is enough proof that the LTTE can’t re-surface. On the other hand the government tells the international community that the LTTE is eradicated and the people are free. If the LTTE is eradicated, why then the presence of the army? Is this to keep the Tamils under subjugation? Even to have temple meetings, the Tamils cannot do it without the presence of the army. Where do you find army presence in the Hindu temples?
If the government fears that LTTE would be revived then why harbour ex-LTTE members like KP and others? KP claims to be the successor of the LTTE leader. He claimed that he was the rightful heir to the throne. Though the LTTE supporters and activists escaped from the LTTE at that time they can still consider KP as their own leader and work towards bringing another movement against the government. How come all the past LTTE cadres have become government supporters today? The people who opposed and whom the LTTE discriminated are suffering still
Q: Why do you think this is happening? Have you made representation regarding this to the President or the government?
I have been writing to the government about the army presence in the north, to no avail. Although I have paid high tribute to the army I think their presence is unnecessary. The army is not meant for humanitarian activities after the war. The government can have any number of police stations in the north but without the army. Army is army. Recently I appealed to the Jaffna Army Commander not to compel the Tamils to take part in the sports festival, once I was told they were forced. I feel the government does not want the Tamils to raise their heads again.
I have very high respect for the Sinhalese. If what I say is placed before the Sinhala masses, I am sure I will get the highest number of votes because even the ordinary Sinhalese don’t like to see Tamils suffering. I have been in my own way admiring some of the finest qualities of our Sinhala brothers and sisters. I have quite a number of Sinhala friends. I used to admire even a Sinhalese villager who generally is very polite to outsiders. Sinhalese in my view are such a fabulous bunch of people. But this is all done by politicians.
For instance, of the 247 candidates selected for the Sri Lanka Administrative Services not a single member from the minority group has been selected. So there is some hidden agenda. If we want a united Sri Lanka let there be a common list. But now the government, I am told, is trying to hold another selection for Tamil candidates. Why is this difference? People still feel they are discriminated.
Q: What progress do you see after the defeat of the LTTE by the government forces?
I don’t see any progress. The government says it has spent Rs. 47 billion on development. But I wonder how this money has been spent. We can’t even walk on these roads. The main roads are done up. Apart from that most of the by roads are in horrible conditions. A lot of buildings that are damaged are not touched. But a few new buildings are coming up but that is not development.
Then from Vavuniya to Jaffna there are a number of restaurants run by the army. Who gives them permission to do this? These things make people to wonder why the government is doing this. This creates more and more suspicion.
Q: What are the areas do you think that need development?
The main development will take place only if the roads are done up properly. It is now two years since the war is over. Beyond Vavuniya we don’t find proper roads. In Kilinochchi almost all the houses are damaged and the people have no money to repair them. No proper place to eat what is cooked. Cultivations cannot be done without proper roads. The government is talking about making one million houses. But why can’t they start with the first hundred immediately? Even the Sinhalese who come to the north as pilgrims have been in tears looking at the plight of the Tamils. Why is the government preventing foreign passport holders from going beyond Omanthai? The way things are done, we have no idea as to what is happening.
Q: How do you view the government’s efforts to find solutions to the minority issues?
President Rajapaksa has said many times that we are equals and a solution to the Tamils is vital. I have many times informed the President to go before the people and make a special appeal to tell the Sinhalese that he needs a solution to the Tamil problems. I am sure if he does it, then he will get the maximum support. The Sinhala and Tamil were made official languages but to date, not properly implemented. First the Sinhalese should be taught Tamil and vice versa. Tamil and Sinhala are not foreign to all of us. Then after a certain period every student must be forced to pass Sinhala and Tamil at the O/L exams. If there is a statue and if it is written in Sinhala, why can’t a translation of it be in Tamil? It is vital for every Tamil to learn about the cultural and historical values of the Sinhalese and vice versa.
Q: The government has proposed the setting up of a senate. Do you think this could be a solution?
No. This will not find any solution. I voted for the abolition of the Senate at that time. I was with the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC). The party leader at that time G. G. Ponnambalam (Snr.) asked me; ‘what the hell have you done’. I said for ten years I have taught civics and I could not vote for the Senate. At that time 90 percent of the members of the Senate were from the ruling party. This served only as the home for the aged. On the other hand, I wonder what wonders the Senate can do when parliament with two thirds majority cannot do. So why do we need a senate?
Q: Can’t there be checks and balances through the Senate and that becoming beneficial to the minority?
I don’t know what they mean by it. The Senate will not be empowered to pass legislation overriding the powers of the parliament. That itself is enough to throw the Senate to the dustbin.
Q: Do you think a Senate or a second chamber can solve the Tamil problems?
It will not solve the problem but it might make it worse. For instance, in a senate where there are 30 members, only four members will be from the minority. If they take a decision to change a law, the two thirds is needed. Then when it cannot be done we are making it worse. In my view the Senate can’t be made a useful Chamber to solve the Tamil issue. According to the Soulbury Constitution Section 29, subsection 11 (b) it says: “Do not make persons of any community or religion liable to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of other communities or religions are not made liable. Or (c) Confer on persons of any community or religion any privilege or advantage which is not conferred on persons of other communities or religions.”
You see, though it contains only three or four lines, it has a very large coverage. This section was violated and no more found in the new constitution that we have. If at least this section had not been removed from the Soulbury constitution then there could have been some safeguards for the minority.
Q: What then do you think can solve the problem?
Well, there must be a genuine attempt by the governments to forget the past and go ahead keeping in mind that ours is a multi racial, multi ethnic and religious country and that all ethnic communities must be taken into consideration when taking decisions. For instance the recruitments, appointments and many other activities of the government can be streamlined to the extent of giving the minority also some space. This will remove immediately the suspicion and we can work together as one country.
Recently I told the President that out of 52 Secretaries only two are from the minority. How many DIGs we have from the minority? Take the heads of Corporations and Departments. We cannot find a single Tamil as head of these institutions. From the platform you can say anything but then you must practise.
Q: Are you satisfied with the government – TNA talks?
I am not satisfied at all. The government is making the biggest mistake by talking to the TNA. TNA was boasting that they got 113,000 votes by supporting Sarath Fonseka. Three months later when the parliamentary elections were held the TNA got only 63,000 in Jaffna – Kilinochhi electoral district. They got five seats out of nine. How can the government recognise the TNA as the only party representing the Tamils?
The government knows it well that the 2004 election was manipulated by the LTTE. The members to the TNA were not elected but selected by the LTTE. So that influence is still there. The people talk on sensitive issues on national issues and so on. What is the meaning of this? After having five rounds of talks the government now says the TNA is not the sole representatives of the Tamils and that they must talk to the parties represented in parliament. But I am not in parliament then should I not be considered? So the government, it appears has lost its priorities and trying to grope in the dark.
Q: What progress do you see in these talks?
I see no progress. First of all if I were to talk to the government, I would have spoken about the army presence, then the land problems and so on. There is a huge land problem prevailing in the north. The lands that were sold by the residents out of fear to the LTTE at that time have today become the property of the government. Now is this fair? Why is the TNA not talking about this problem? Then we do not know how many people died during the war. We should have a record of this. Then, how about the loss of properties of the Tamils during the war? A large number of Tamils had pawned their jewellery to the LTTE during that time and today live with no hope. Is this not an issue to talk about? Then the language issues and so on. These are the areas where the issues need to be discussed with the government and the TNA is doing nothing about it.
Q: Do you think the government should only talk to the TNA or also speak with other Tamil parties?
Earlier the government said the Tamil parties must get together for talks but now it is different. But what I say is this. Firstly the government does not have to talk to any party. There are sufficient reports giving suggestions to the problems. For the past fifty years successive governments have had talks with various minority political parties. And I wonder why still continue with talks? It is up to the President to implement them with the powers vested in him.
Unfortunately, the government is talking to those who have never been heard of in the political arena. If the EPDP delegation is taken into consideration, except the leader Minister Douglas Devananda, the other representatives are unknown in politics. In the TNA too, the two lawyers have never been in politics and they in my view may not have even visited Jaffna for the past several years. They may have the capacities but I am not too sure whether they have any practical experience to offer solutions to the problem. I have nothing against them personally. But can they handle this situation without any experience on the ground?
Q: The government is also speaking to the EPDP. What is your observation?
Everything is done in the name of EPDP. It is another blunder. Certain advantages given to the EPDP is far beyond one’s imagination. Sand mining is done in the north by the EPDP. Why should that happen? I am asking my friend Douglas Devananda as to why he is doing that. The government on the one hand is freezing the people but on the other hand supporting certain individuals. It is wrong.
Q: The full implementation of the 13th amendment is thought to be the ultimate solution. Would you agree?
I am not in support of this. The entire country has sacrificed a lot during the past 30 odd years. Say if the 13th amendment is fully implemented and then a radical party comes to power and throws it out. Then what happens? This is why I ask for the Indian model. There should be union of regions – a provision that cannot be meddled with even if another party comes to power. But here with a simple majority the 13th amendment can be withdrawn. So what is the point in fully implementing the 13th amendment and then see it getting rejected by another party after some time. It is a waste. We should look at the Indian model and prepare something similar to that so that when political parties come and go, the system will remain strong and steady.
Saturday 21st May
SRI LANKA GUARDIAN
15 countries, including India, elected to UN Human Rights Council
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/05/15-countries-including-india-elected-to.html
The UN General Assembly has elected 15 countries, including India, to the Human Rights Council, filling the latest slate of rotating council candidates, Xinhua reported.
The new members elected by the 192-member General Assembly will fill the seats of 15 council members whose terms are set to expire in June this year.
India, Kuwait, Indonesia and the Philippines were elected as the Asian group of nations to fill seats in the council.
Syria withdrew May 11 its bid for a seat in the council as it faced widespread international opposition to its candidacy amid reported ongoing government crackdown on protesters in the Middle East country. Kuwait took Syria’s place in the Asian group.
Burkina Faso, Botswana, Congo and Benin made up the African group of states.
The Czech Republic and Romania were elected as part of the eastern European group, along with Italy and Austria who will hold seats as part of the western European group.
Chile, Costa Rica and Peru were elected as part of the Latin American and Caribbean group.
All 15 elected members will serve a three-year term.
Established by the UN General Assembly in 2006, the Geneva-based Human Rights Council is made up of 47 states tasked with addressing situations of human rights violation and providing recommendations to tackle them
DAILY MIRROR
GL to seek China’s support
http://print.dailymirror.lk/news/front-page-news/44634.html
External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris will visit China on Monday to seek the support of Sri Lanka’s powerful ally against the UN experts’ panel report on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.
Ministry officials said the panel report would be the primary reason for the visit on the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
They said the minister was only scheduled to meet Mr. Jiechi.
Minister Peiris was in India this week and discussed the panel report and other policy matters between the two countries. He met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a number of other senior state officials.
Ministry officials dismissed reports that the minister had signed an agreement with the Indian government during his recent visit. “Only discussions were held and no agreements signed though there are reports to the contrary,” the officials said.
DAILY MIRROR
Call for LTTE ban in Norway
http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/11506-call-for-ltte-ban-in-norway.html
Norway must follow the European Union and proscribe the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in the country says a Norwegian parliamentarian. Chairman of the Defence and Security committee of the opposition Conservative Party, Peter Gitmark says that it is wrong to allow the Tamil Tigers to operate in Norway.
Confirming the recent detention of a leading LTTE activist by the Norwegian police, the MP says Perimpanayagam Sivaparan, also known as Nediyawan is wanted by the police of the Netherlands.
"We have an investigative team coming from the Netherlands to question him. I also hope the Norwegian police would be able to interrogate this man to shed information on the LTTE activities in the Norway", said Gitmark.
"LTTE was a major player in the civil war in Sri Lanka. UN report on the civil war has condemned both the government and the LTTE in the strongest of words when it comes to war crimes".
He also claimed that there are recent reports of LTTE illegal fundraising in the Norway.
"I think it is not in the interest of the people of Sri Lanka for the LTTE to raise money in Norway and other places to renew its violent struggle against the government of Sri Lanka." The Conservative Party MP told the BBC.
UN report on the civil war has condemned both the government and the LTTE in the strongest of words when it comes to war crimes”
There had been numerous recent reports on the LTTE raising money in the Norway. I have urged the Norwegian police to take immediate action to see if this is the case and if that is the case to punish the responsible".
Dutch police however had not revealed the details of the interrogation of Nediyawan.
In April 2010, Police in Netherlands arrested several Tamil community leaders in the country.
Computers, paperwork, phones, documents, photos, DVDs and a sum totalling more than 40,000 Euros were seized.
"Among the suspects are the leaders of various organisations of Tamils in the Netherlands, which probably play a role in the international network of the LTTE," the justice ministry said in a statement.
Leaders of the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee (TCC), the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO), the Tamil Women Organisation (TWO) and the Tamil Arts and Cultural Organization Netherlands (TKCO), are believed to be among the suspects.
Norwegian parliamentarian Peter Gitmark also blamed the government of Sri Lanka for continues violation of human rights. (BBCSinhala)
INNER CITY PRESS
At UN on Sri Lanka, Ban’s Inaction on Report Contrasted With Rwanda Mapping
http://www.innercitypress.com/namban3sri052011.html
When the UN Panel of Experts recommended to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he establish an investigative mechanism for war crimes in Sri Lanka, Ban responded that he’d only do so upon a vote of one of the UN’s three “inter-governmental bodies.”
Ban’s claimed powerlessness, however, was called into question this week on the margin of the Human Rights Council vote in the General Assembly.
It was pointed out that when for example the UN did an investigation of abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the so-called Mapping Report with much information about Rwanda, it had not waited for any vote by the HRC, GA or Security Council.
Ban, it was said by contrasted, wants to say he can or will only act on tens of thousands of civilians’ deaths if one of the three bodies makes him. “Some leadership,” a expert in UN legal practice based in Geneva told Inner City Press.
At the UN’s May 20 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban’s spokesman Martin Nesirky to respond to this criticism, as well as to a published report in Sri Lanka that Ban has already negotiated away the Panel of Experts’ recommendations in a closed door meeting with Sri Lankan Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona.
Nesirky tried to limit the questioning by insisting “last question,” then saying he would revert with information about the mapping report, which had not happened more than five hours later.
From the UN’s May 20 transcript:
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Matthew, last question.
Inner City Press: Well, I don’t know, I have a couple.
Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, a last question; you can choose.
Inner City Press: well… There is an article in the Sri Lankan press that reports, and maybe you will just deny this one, in which case, I hope to have, to ask you about a protest that was held outside yesterday. But there is an article in the Sri Lankan press saying that the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, and Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona, have substantively discussed the Panel of Experts report and the forthcoming, now delayed, LLRC [Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission], and have come to an agreement; that there is some agreement reached, which recommendations would be implemented by Sri Lanka, which ones would not be, and that essentially the matter is finished. I can, I mean, the article, it is in [inaudible]; and I wonder whether the UN, given that it’s apparently, its’ summarizing a meeting between the two, is this accurate or not accurate?
Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, as you know, we’ve been very clear; the report has been published in its entirety. You can see the recommendations that there are there, and the Secretary-General stands by the report that’s been prepared for him by the Panel of Experts. That’s the first point. The second is that we have repeatedly said in the run-up to the report being published, and after the report was published, that the Government of Sri Lanka is welcome to provide its response, its official response, to the report. And we would welcome that. We haven’t seen it yet.
Inner City Press: This is related to that. Yesterday, in connection with this Human Rights Council vote today, it was said that the Secretary-General does have the power to begin his own investigative mechanism of a sort, and that this was the UN system’s — the report they did on Rwanda, the mapping report — that this was a report that was done by the UN system without authorization by any intergovernmental body. Is that accurate?
Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, as you know, we’ve been quite clear on that. Firstly, accountability is for the national authority in any given case. And in this case, it is no different: accountability is for the Sri Lankan authorities. We’ve also said that, in this report on accountability that was given to the Secretary-General, it sets out that the Sri Lankan authorities should indeed be doing this. It also says that — and the Secretary-General said this in his statement with the report — that there needs to be, to take it forward, there needs to be either consent from the national Government, the national authorities — in other words the Sri Lankan authorities — or there needs to be a mandate from an intergovernmental body; and you know what they might be. And that’s the position.
Inner City Press: So the mapping report, which intergovernmental body authorized it?
Spokesperson Nesirky: I can give you the details on that later.
But five hours later and counting, no information had been provided. Watch this site.
DAILY MIRROR
The rationale behind the outbursts of northern neighbours
http://print.dailymirror.lk/opinion1/44578.html
The impression that was given with the External Affairs Minister Professor GL Peiris’s visit to New Delhi from May 15 to 17 was that he was going to enlighten the Indian leaders on the Sri Lankan Government’s position on the UN Secretary General’s panel report. However, the joint statement issued at the end of his tour gave a different picture about India’s stance on the same.The joint statement said among other things that India urged the expeditious implementation of measures by Sri Lanka, to ensure early withdrawal of emergency regulations and investigations into allegations of human rights violations.
Sri Lankan Government might not have anticipated India to urge it to “investigate into allegations of human rights violations” at this time when pressure has been mounted by the West to do the same after the publication of the UNSG’s panel report. This had been viewed by some as a change in India’s stance towards Sri Lanka. Terming the joint statement as one “strongly worded” the AFP said “India broke with past practise on Tuesday and called on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of human rights abuses during the island’s civil war, upping pressure on President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Interestingly, Indian’s call to probe human rights violations comes following a roar by the new Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalaithaa Jayaram on the same issue soon after she was elected to power on May 13. She had called on the Indian government to take measures against the Sri Lanka president for alleged war crimes and genocide of Tamils.
Media in Sri Lanka apparently had not noticed India’s position on the alleged human rights violations, but ironically taken the call for the removal of the emergency seriously. Also Sri Lankan media and the politicians seem to have taken Jayalalithaa’s salvo as a harbinger of a future threat. They link her remarks on the alleged war crimes to her occasional vituperations against Sri Lanka with regard to the Kachchativu issue and the alleged attacks on the Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy.
However, it is not clear as to how serious
- Entries (RSS)
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