Friday, 22 July 2011, 9:54

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    SL Minister Nanayakara accepts mass killings of civilians in Vanni

    TamilNet, Thursday, 21 July 2011 – A top minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa regime has publicly accepted the mass-scale killing of Tamil civilians during the final months of the war in 2009. SL Minister and the leader of Democratic Left Front (DLF), Vasudeva Nanayakara on Tuesday said that his party accepted the important fact that innocent civilians have been killed during the Vanni war. Amid growing international pressure for an international probe into the credible allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka, Mr. Nanayakara, who was on a propaganda drive seeking the public in Jaffna to support the Rajapaksa alliance in the upcoming civic elections in North, said that Tamils could only exert meaningful pressure on the SL government by supporting his alliance.

    Stating that even the TNA has to negotiate with the Rajapaksa government, Nanayakara urged the people of Jaffna to vote for Rajapaksa’s symbol of beetle leaf to “ensure that there was no foreign interferences”. Nanayakara was addressing a press conference at a hotel near the Kachcheari in Jaffna.

    “It is not a problem when armed people get killed when a war is taking place, but the killing of innocent civilians matters very much,” Nanayakkara told reporters.

    Responding to a question relating to the UN expert panel report and the Channel 4 documentary, the SL minister said that it was “better to help the people who survived the war rather than counting the number of people who were killed”.

    “The people who survived the war should be resettled. They should be helped to get back to their normal life. I too really do not know the exact number of people killed in the war,” Nanayakara said.

    “I do not wish to talk about the number of people killed, but I agree that there should be proper statistics of people killed. I have urged the Sri Lankan police chief in writing to investigate into the scenes shown by the Channel 4 television,” he said.

    Answering to a question about the non-resettlement of people in the Vanni, he said that it was “very important to resettle people in their native places whether it is Jaffna or Vanni”.

    “These people need to be resettled in their native places before we focus on other issues. Those who killed innocent civilians in Vanni should be identified and properly brought before the government, so that it can launch proper investigations based on the evidences.”

    Claiming the credit for easing the pass system for diaspora Tamils to visit the north, SL Minister Nanayakkara said that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was holding talks with the government knowing well that confronting the government will be of no use”.

    “However, the TNA is contesting this election alone. It is not going to gain anything by going alone. Anybody who wish to exert a meaningful pressure on the government can only do it by supporting the UPFA in the elections," he said seeking to justify his alignment with the Rajapaksa regime.

    Nanayakara has also gone on record stating that he was totally against the alleged use of state resources for the party election purposes.

    http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=34207


    US Congress panel votes to bar aid to Sri Lanka


    TamilNet, Friday, 22 July 2011 - A US congressional committee voted Thursday to ban aid to Sri Lanka pending "accountability" over atrocities in the final months of the armed conflict in 2009, AFP reported. In a voice vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a measure that would ban all US government funding to Sri Lanka except for humanitarian aid, demining and activities to promote democracy and governance.

    The measure – sponsored by Representative Howard Berman, the top member of the Democratic Party on the panel – would only allow aid once the US administration certifies progress by Sri Lanka on key concerns.

    Apart from "accountability for those involved in violations of human rights and war crimes at the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war," these include an improved climate for freedom of the press, an end to emergency regulations and information from the Colombo government on the fate of people unaccounted for at the end of the war.

    While the House measure enjoyed broad support, it will not immediately take effect as it was in the form of an amendment for spending in the next fiscal year starting in October.

    http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=34210


    Rajapaksa gives Tamil Nadu trio stage fright


    TamilNet, Friday, 22 July 2011 - Three film singers from Tamil Nadu who had accepted a Sri Lankan government invitation to perform for Tamils in the former warzone town of Kilinochchi pulled out Thursday after finding out the event was to be part of the ruling party’s election campaign and that Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa would be attending, Indian press reports said. Mano, Krish and Suchitra (eds: single names only) were “shocked” to discover this whilst at Colombo airport waiting for their special military flight to Kilinochchi, and were hurriedly returning to Tamil Nadu, where their visit had triggered controversy, the reports said.

    The Sri Lankan government had invited the three, who are well known singers in Tamil Nadu’s movie industry, to give a live performance on the occasion of inauguration of a stadium in Kilinochchi.

    Mano, speaking on behalf of Krish and Suchitra, later told reporters the singers had wanted to perform for the Tamils in the former warzone, and that it was only on reaching Colombo they realised that their cultural show was ruling party event for the forthcoming local government elections, and that President Rajapaksa would be attending.

    Meanwhile, the singers’ planned performance had also triggered a row in Tamil Nadu, and they received phone calls from leading industry figures criticizing their involvement, he said.

    "The [Sri Lankan] authorities tried to persuade us for more than three hours, but we said no," Mano told reporters.

    Some press reports said the trio were accompanied by actress Kasturi, but gave no further details.

    South Indian Film Artists Association (SIFAA) President Sarath Kumar and Secretary Radha Ravi, Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) President V C Guhanathan and film director Seeman, who is also leader of the ‘Naam Tamizhar’ movement, were amongst those who had criticized the singers, press reports said.

    http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=34209


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