'Annals of history'
[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 January 2009, 19:44 GMT]
The message of "veiled racism" in Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s remarks Friday in his telecast address announcing the capture of Ki'linochchi town, betrayed the true intentions of him and his ilk, camouflaged in saintly wordings against separatism, terrorism, racism, North-South war etc, to hoodwink the outside world, writes a regular academic commentator to TamilNet from Colombo. "Unfortunately, those who claim to be at the helm of the international community, even though very well aware of the impossibility of the Sri Lankan state to satisfy Tamil aspirations, refuse to acknowledge the logic and legitimacy behind the ethnonational demand of Tamils to have political sovereignty to save themselves from genocide," he further writes.
Edited version of the comments follow:
The capture of Ki'linochchi was celebrated with the bursting of crackers here in the Sri Lankan capital. There were also reports that the Sinhala diaspora celebrated it with the bursting of Champagne bottles. No wonder such things happen in a culture nurtured by cricket and football matches.
The Sri Lanka president in his address to the nation on Friday declared, “I am now ready to reveal to you the proud news of the most honourable victory in the annals of military heroism that runs through many centuries of our history”.
What Mahinda Rajapaksa refers to is obviously the military victory of the Sinhalese against Tamils, because in the annals of the many centuries of the history of the island there were no wars of significance fought by the Sinhalese other than what they fought with Tamils.
The colonial wars fought by them couldn’t prevent the advent of colonialism. The only outside military expedition made by them against Myanmar in the 12th century ended a failure in mid sea.
The message of veiled racism in Sri Lanka president’s remark betrayed the true intentions of him and his ilk, camouflaged in saintly wordings against separatism, terrorism, racism, North-South war etc, to hoodwink the outside world.
It is said that Rajapaksa’s next step is to seek electoral mandate from the Sinhalese to cook a political formula in order to give the semblance of a political solution.
Increasingly one hears talk on the ‘legitimate’ rights of the Tamils. Who decides what is legitimate and what is not? The universal principle of democracy is that legitimate rights are always decided by a concerned people. Others deciding for them is only legitimizing enslavement.
Perceiving everything of the state on ethnic lines and after deepening the ethnic divide of the island through a brutal war, it is folly to expect the outcome of a feasible solution within the Sri Lankan state system.
Unfortunately those who claim to be at the helm of the international community, even though very well aware of the impossibility of the Sri Lankan state to satisfy Tamil aspirations, refuse to acknowledge the logic and legitimacy behind the ethnonational demand of Tamils to have political sovereignty to save themselves from genocide.
Christmas in Vanni
Photos illustrating how Christmas was observed in Ki'linochchi district in Vanni this year. Some of the biblical texts follow. "Be strong and courages! Let's fight hard for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord's will be done." (2-Samuel 10:12); "You will cry and weep, but the world will be glad you will be sad, but your sadness will turn into gladness." (John 16:20); "I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18)
Christmas in Vanni
The recent interview given by the US ambassador in Colombo to a Sri Lankan newspaper while sounding skepticism in a subtle way about Colombo government’s approaches, not only still pins hope on a united Sri Lanka but also advocates the genocidal government of ways how to get rid of even the only existing safeguards of the Tamils, by isolating them from their fighters and from their diaspora.
He further applauded what the Colombo government is doing in the East and has said that it will be an inspiration to the North.
What is evident is that there is no democracy in the outlook of the guardians of democracy and what actually plays role is nothing but geopolitics. Such an approach is only going to deepen the crisis in the island and in the region and that is what perhaps they want to happen.
The lesson learnt by USA in Vietnam has already been written in bold in the annals of history.
The civilized world has to now teach a lesson to the so-called international community that this time it will be written in the annals of history that even if the elements of power all over the world align to the contrary, a righteous cause of humanity fighting against oppression in a humble corner of the world would still be successful.
The main element behind the present phase of war in Sri Lanka is mischievously silent as though it doesn’t know anything. We come to know that it is once again busy in formulating quislings. When the crisis spread in the region it will also be written in the annals of history how this element either bungled or consciously sabotaged the national and regional interests of a great country.
Chronology:
03.01.09 'Annals of history'
02.01.09 SLA occupies Ki'linochchi town
Related Articles:
31.12.08 North and South cannot remain separate, Rajapaksa tells Jaff..
Sunday, January 4, 2009
"This struggle was not meant to have an end story of surrender, that will never ever happen. -Tamils For Justice:
(Interview on live TV - Al Jazeera world news 9 PM, LA Time Friday, 2 January:
Sri Lanka bombs Tamil Tiger bases:
But Donald Gnanakone, founder of the Tamils for Justice, said that the loss, though symbolic, does not spell the end for the Tigers.
"They will never surrender," the Los Angeles-based activist told Al Jazeera. "This struggle was not meant to have an end story of surrender, that will never ever happen. This is like asking the Palestinians to surrender the Gaza Strip and other areas to Israel."
Separatist LTTE fighters have been battling
government forces since 1983 [AFP/LTTE]
Sri Lankan attack helicopters have bombed Tamil Tiger positions in the north of the island, a day after ground forces seized Kilinochchi, the separatists' headquarters.
The military says it is following up the seizure by targeting the port town of Mullaitivu and other rebel strongholds in the north.
It aims to push further into the separatist-held areas with the hope of bringing an end to a separatist war that has raged for 25 years.
A military source asking not to be named said on Saturday: "MI-24 helicopters attacked rebel positions west of Mullaitivu in support of ground troops."
Also on Saturday, at least three people were injured in an explosion in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, the second bombing there in two days.
"There has been an explosion in the Pettah area," a police official who asked not to be named told Reuters news agency. "A few vehicles are aflame, we have teams investigating," he said.
Fall of Kilinochchi
There has been no comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the fall of Kilinochchi, considered the capital of the rebels fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils.
But Donald Gnanakone, founder of the Tamils for Justice, said that the loss, though symbolic, does not spell the end for the Tigers.
"They will never surrender," the Los Angeles-based activist told Al Jazeera. "This struggle was not meant to have an end story of surrender, that will never ever happen. This is like asking the Palestinians to surrender the Gaza Strip and other areas to Israel."
Government troops entered the Tamil Tiger's de facto capital on Friday [AFP]
Still, troops fighting their way into Kilinochchi on Friday was one of the biggest blows for the separatists in years.
Details of casualties from the fighting have not yet emerged and a pro-separatist website, Tamilnet.com, said the Tigers had moved their headquarters further northeast before the town fell.
"The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has entered a virtual ghost town," the website said. "The Tigers, who had put up heavy resistance so far, had kept their casualties as low as possible in the defensive fighting."
Brigadier Udaya Nanyakkara, a Sri Lankan military spokesman, said troops were carrying out search and recovery operations in Kilinochchi town on Saturday.
Security, meanwhile, has been tightened across the island following a suicide bombing that killed three air force personnel in Colombo shortly after Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country’s president, announced the fall of the de facto rebel capital on Friday.
The LTTE started fighting the government in 1983. It says it is battling for the rights of minority Tamils in the face of mistreatment by successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority since Sri Lanka won independence from Britain in 1948.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Sri Lanka bombs Tamil Tiger bases:
But Donald Gnanakone, founder of the Tamils for Justice, said that the loss, though symbolic, does not spell the end for the Tigers.
"They will never surrender," the Los Angeles-based activist told Al Jazeera. "This struggle was not meant to have an end story of surrender, that will never ever happen. This is like asking the Palestinians to surrender the Gaza Strip and other areas to Israel."
Separatist LTTE fighters have been battling
government forces since 1983 [AFP/LTTE]
Sri Lankan attack helicopters have bombed Tamil Tiger positions in the north of the island, a day after ground forces seized Kilinochchi, the separatists' headquarters.
The military says it is following up the seizure by targeting the port town of Mullaitivu and other rebel strongholds in the north.
It aims to push further into the separatist-held areas with the hope of bringing an end to a separatist war that has raged for 25 years.
A military source asking not to be named said on Saturday: "MI-24 helicopters attacked rebel positions west of Mullaitivu in support of ground troops."
Also on Saturday, at least three people were injured in an explosion in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, the second bombing there in two days.
"There has been an explosion in the Pettah area," a police official who asked not to be named told Reuters news agency. "A few vehicles are aflame, we have teams investigating," he said.
Fall of Kilinochchi
There has been no comment from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the fall of Kilinochchi, considered the capital of the rebels fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils.
But Donald Gnanakone, founder of the Tamils for Justice, said that the loss, though symbolic, does not spell the end for the Tigers.
"They will never surrender," the Los Angeles-based activist told Al Jazeera. "This struggle was not meant to have an end story of surrender, that will never ever happen. This is like asking the Palestinians to surrender the Gaza Strip and other areas to Israel."
Government troops entered the Tamil Tiger's de facto capital on Friday [AFP]
Still, troops fighting their way into Kilinochchi on Friday was one of the biggest blows for the separatists in years.
Details of casualties from the fighting have not yet emerged and a pro-separatist website, Tamilnet.com, said the Tigers had moved their headquarters further northeast before the town fell.
"The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has entered a virtual ghost town," the website said. "The Tigers, who had put up heavy resistance so far, had kept their casualties as low as possible in the defensive fighting."
Brigadier Udaya Nanyakkara, a Sri Lankan military spokesman, said troops were carrying out search and recovery operations in Kilinochchi town on Saturday.
Security, meanwhile, has been tightened across the island following a suicide bombing that killed three air force personnel in Colombo shortly after Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country’s president, announced the fall of the de facto rebel capital on Friday.
The LTTE started fighting the government in 1983. It says it is battling for the rights of minority Tamils in the face of mistreatment by successive governments led by the Sinhalese majority since Sri Lanka won independence from Britain in 1948.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
TNA accuses Colombo of war crimes
TNA accuses Colombo of war crimes
[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2009, 21:06 GMT]
Describing several recent escalation in incidents where Sri Lanka Armed Forces have targetted Tamil civilian during festive days between Christmas and Thaipongal, Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a press release issued today, said that the "stringent economic, food and medical embargos on the war affected areas," ..."are not only War Crimes in contravention of the Geneva Conventions but are also a part of a policy of Genocide that the Sri Lankan State has been carrying out against the Tamil people." The release also noted with disappointment of the silence of the international community "whilst the Genocide of the Tamil people is taking place," and continuing military assistance of the international states to the Sri Lankan State "using various pretexts."
Full text of the press release follows:
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) notes the deliberate and systematic targeting of Tamil civilians and civilian infrastructure, particularly hospitals, in the LTTE administered areas by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The escalation in such targeting has taken place during the current Christmas/New year/Thai Pongal festive season, when civilian activity is at a high. Such targeted attacks have included the following:
* On Wednesday, 17 December 2008 a 5-month-old child and a 25-year-old male were killed and 13 other refugees including three children were wounded when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) jets bombed refugee settlements in Vaddakkachchi four times.
* On Friday, 19 December 2008, the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked civilian settlements in Mullivaikaal village in the morning and at noon causing injuries to 11 civilians, including 6 children. On the same day the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) had also fired artillery shells on the Mullaitivu General Hospital injuring two members of the medical staff and causing extensive damage to the hospital complex.
* On Saturday, 20 December 2008 the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling killed 2 civilians in Vaddakkachchi in Kilinochchi. From morning the SLA artillery fire had targeted civilian settlements in Vaddakkachchi and Kilinochchi destroying several houses. On the same day the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers had also attacked a coastal area in Mullaitivu where thousands of recently displaced civilians had established temporary shelters. The bombers dropped eight bombs on fishing huts and boats.
* On Thursday, 25 December 2008, Christmas Day, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells targeting the Kilinochchi General Hospital causing damage to the hospital buildings and narrowly missing several hospital staff, including the Medical Superintendent of Kilinochchi.
* On Saturday, 27 December 2008 the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) jets bombed the Iyakkachchi, Iranamadu and Vaddakkachchi areas targeting three civilian settlements killing a 24-year-old woman and seriously injuring ten persons, including an 18-year-old girl who lost both her legs.
* On Tuesday, 30 December 2008, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hitting the Kilinochchi hospital causing damage to the building.
* On Wednesday, 31 December 2008 Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked a civilian settlement in Murasumoaddai on Paranthan - Mullaitivu Road killing two females of a family and a male on the spot. Another man, who was seriously wounded, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. 16 civilians, including a couple, were wounded. The Sri Lanka Armed Forces also targeted fleeing civilians, Internally Displaced Person's huts in Karaichchi, a school, temple and agricultural lands on the same day.
* On Thursday, 01 January 2009, New Years Day, the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers again attacked Murasumoaddai on Paranthan-Mullaitivu Road thrice and bombed the next junction at Kandaavalai, while hundreds of civilians were fleeing due to the previous day attacks at Murasumoaddai. Two civilians, a 60-year-old mother and a 20-year-old male were injured in the attack on the densely populated junction. Three shops were fully destroyed and six shops damaged.
* On Friday, 02 January 2009 two persons who accompanied a convoy of ambulances from Puthukkudiruppu to Vavuniya were wounded when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells at Mannaakandal. The two ambulances with 13 civilians with serious injuries, being transferred from Tharmapuram and Puthukkudiyiruppu hospitals to Vavuniya hospital, were targeted after clearance had been obtained through the ICRC. On the same day Artillery shelling by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) killed a civilian and wounded at least 10 civilians at 3rd Mile Post in Murasumoaddai. Another civilian was wounded at Pannangkandi due to SLA shelling. The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers also attacked a petrol station and a bus depot killing four civilians and causing injuries to 8 close to Mullaitivu hospital. 8 buses were destroyed and the depot building was damaged and the petrol station completely destroyed.
* On Saturday, 03 January 2009 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling continued to target densely populated civilian area in Puliaympokkanai in Vanni where a 61-year-old civilian was wounded when at least 6 shells hit the settlement.
The abovementioned targeting of Tamil civilians and civilian infrastructure by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces is taking place whilst over 330,000 Tamil civilians are internally displaced in the Vanni. The Sri Lankan State has also imposed stringent economic, food and medical embargos on the war affected areas in the Vanni where there is a total population of nearly 500,000.
These measures that collectively target the Tamil population cannot be justified under any circumstances. They are not only War Crimes in contravention of the Geneva Conventions but are also a part of a policy of Genocide that the Sri Lankan State has been carrying out against the Tamil people.
The TNA notes with disappointment that the international community has not only been, by and large, silent whilst the Genocide of the Tamil people is taking place, but also that key international States are continuing to provide military assistance to the Sri Lankan State using various pretexts.
It is whilst these crimes are taking place in the Tamil Homeland that the Sinhala political parties and the Sri Lankan State have been celebrating what they consider to be military successes. It is this approach of subjugation of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan State that is at the root of the conflict. There can be little doubt that the continued desire to subjugate the Tamil people without addressing the long held legitimate political aspiration of the Tamil people, as overwhelmingly mandated at the 1977 General Elections to the TULF and thereafter to the TNA, will not produce any positive results. These events only further demonstrate the complete polarization between the Sinhalese and the Tamil peoples in the island.
The aforementioned are a reminder to the 70 million strong world Tamil population that the success of the Tamil peoples struggle to live as a free people with dignity on this island depends on our unity, strength and determination.
Parliamentary Group
Tamil National Alliance
[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 January 2009, 21:06 GMT]
Describing several recent escalation in incidents where Sri Lanka Armed Forces have targetted Tamil civilian during festive days between Christmas and Thaipongal, Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in a press release issued today, said that the "stringent economic, food and medical embargos on the war affected areas," ..."are not only War Crimes in contravention of the Geneva Conventions but are also a part of a policy of Genocide that the Sri Lankan State has been carrying out against the Tamil people." The release also noted with disappointment of the silence of the international community "whilst the Genocide of the Tamil people is taking place," and continuing military assistance of the international states to the Sri Lankan State "using various pretexts."
Full text of the press release follows:
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) notes the deliberate and systematic targeting of Tamil civilians and civilian infrastructure, particularly hospitals, in the LTTE administered areas by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The escalation in such targeting has taken place during the current Christmas/New year/Thai Pongal festive season, when civilian activity is at a high. Such targeted attacks have included the following:
* On Wednesday, 17 December 2008 a 5-month-old child and a 25-year-old male were killed and 13 other refugees including three children were wounded when Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) jets bombed refugee settlements in Vaddakkachchi four times.
* On Friday, 19 December 2008, the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked civilian settlements in Mullivaikaal village in the morning and at noon causing injuries to 11 civilians, including 6 children. On the same day the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) had also fired artillery shells on the Mullaitivu General Hospital injuring two members of the medical staff and causing extensive damage to the hospital complex.
* On Saturday, 20 December 2008 the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling killed 2 civilians in Vaddakkachchi in Kilinochchi. From morning the SLA artillery fire had targeted civilian settlements in Vaddakkachchi and Kilinochchi destroying several houses. On the same day the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers had also attacked a coastal area in Mullaitivu where thousands of recently displaced civilians had established temporary shelters. The bombers dropped eight bombs on fishing huts and boats.
* On Thursday, 25 December 2008, Christmas Day, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells targeting the Kilinochchi General Hospital causing damage to the hospital buildings and narrowly missing several hospital staff, including the Medical Superintendent of Kilinochchi.
* On Saturday, 27 December 2008 the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) jets bombed the Iyakkachchi, Iranamadu and Vaddakkachchi areas targeting three civilian settlements killing a 24-year-old woman and seriously injuring ten persons, including an 18-year-old girl who lost both her legs.
* On Tuesday, 30 December 2008, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells hitting the Kilinochchi hospital causing damage to the building.
* On Wednesday, 31 December 2008 Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked a civilian settlement in Murasumoaddai on Paranthan - Mullaitivu Road killing two females of a family and a male on the spot. Another man, who was seriously wounded, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. 16 civilians, including a couple, were wounded. The Sri Lanka Armed Forces also targeted fleeing civilians, Internally Displaced Person's huts in Karaichchi, a school, temple and agricultural lands on the same day.
* On Thursday, 01 January 2009, New Years Day, the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers again attacked Murasumoaddai on Paranthan-Mullaitivu Road thrice and bombed the next junction at Kandaavalai, while hundreds of civilians were fleeing due to the previous day attacks at Murasumoaddai. Two civilians, a 60-year-old mother and a 20-year-old male were injured in the attack on the densely populated junction. Three shops were fully destroyed and six shops damaged.
* On Friday, 02 January 2009 two persons who accompanied a convoy of ambulances from Puthukkudiruppu to Vavuniya were wounded when Sri Lanka Army (SLA) fired artillery shells at Mannaakandal. The two ambulances with 13 civilians with serious injuries, being transferred from Tharmapuram and Puthukkudiyiruppu hospitals to Vavuniya hospital, were targeted after clearance had been obtained through the ICRC. On the same day Artillery shelling by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) killed a civilian and wounded at least 10 civilians at 3rd Mile Post in Murasumoaddai. Another civilian was wounded at Pannangkandi due to SLA shelling. The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers also attacked a petrol station and a bus depot killing four civilians and causing injuries to 8 close to Mullaitivu hospital. 8 buses were destroyed and the depot building was damaged and the petrol station completely destroyed.
* On Saturday, 03 January 2009 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) shelling continued to target densely populated civilian area in Puliaympokkanai in Vanni where a 61-year-old civilian was wounded when at least 6 shells hit the settlement.
The abovementioned targeting of Tamil civilians and civilian infrastructure by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces is taking place whilst over 330,000 Tamil civilians are internally displaced in the Vanni. The Sri Lankan State has also imposed stringent economic, food and medical embargos on the war affected areas in the Vanni where there is a total population of nearly 500,000.
These measures that collectively target the Tamil population cannot be justified under any circumstances. They are not only War Crimes in contravention of the Geneva Conventions but are also a part of a policy of Genocide that the Sri Lankan State has been carrying out against the Tamil people.
The TNA notes with disappointment that the international community has not only been, by and large, silent whilst the Genocide of the Tamil people is taking place, but also that key international States are continuing to provide military assistance to the Sri Lankan State using various pretexts.
It is whilst these crimes are taking place in the Tamil Homeland that the Sinhala political parties and the Sri Lankan State have been celebrating what they consider to be military successes. It is this approach of subjugation of the Tamil people by the Sri Lankan State that is at the root of the conflict. There can be little doubt that the continued desire to subjugate the Tamil people without addressing the long held legitimate political aspiration of the Tamil people, as overwhelmingly mandated at the 1977 General Elections to the TULF and thereafter to the TNA, will not produce any positive results. These events only further demonstrate the complete polarization between the Sinhalese and the Tamil peoples in the island.
The aforementioned are a reminder to the 70 million strong world Tamil population that the success of the Tamil peoples struggle to live as a free people with dignity on this island depends on our unity, strength and determination.
Parliamentary Group
Tamil National Alliance
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Military victory meaningless without efforts to negate racial discrimination
Military victory meaningless without efforts to negate racial discrimination
“Then there were the several racial attacks on the Tamils and that too was another type of terrorism. Terrorism is an evil force and so is racism and whatever else that have streaks and strains of racial and religious intolerance ingrained in them.”
by Victor Karunairajan
(January 03, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) The year 2009 has begun for Sri Lanka with the president, the Honourable Mahinda Rajapakse claiming a major military victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with the reported capture of their de facto enclave capital of Kilinochchi. There is no doubt this has been an extremely costly venture in respect of loss of lives especially for the state forces, unaccounted rebels who must have perished, the civilians affected both by death and displacement and the extensive damage to one of Sri Lanka’s major agricultural regions.
It is hoped there will be no more aerial bombing anywhere in Sri Lanka.
We have had enough of this horrendous tragedy; even more the unfortunate aspect of this ghastly civil war resorted to by the LTTEE as the contention of the minority community treated as lesser citizens of the country. No Sri Lankan government has had the guts to come out and state that every citizen in Sri Lanka enjoys equal rights and no community lives by the grace of another ever since that infamous Sinhala Only legislation that became law half a century ago. It was a measure made rotten and rancid by an act of discrimination with the intolerable contention that the Sinhala race and Buddhism have primacy over all others. This is not democracy.
The Buddha himself would not have tolerated such a contention and a true Buddhist would shudder that such a position was given to his faith over and above that of other faiths. Political Buddhism has been the curse of Sri Lanka just like Catholicism was some centuries ago in Europe. No faith needs political patronage because faith is far beyond the regions of politicians.
During the period since independence Sri Lanka courted racism and religious bigotry cowering to Buddhist monks gone out of control and instigated violence against Tamil minorities. There were shameless racial violence, and in 1983 the hatred and sadist brutality spewed against the Tamils revealed signs of involvement of the government of the day. The intent certainly was genocidal and it was a defining moment for the Tamils and thousands fled the country. Those who fled were people the country could not afford to lose. But the racists and the bigoted did not care. In consequence they have harmed the country immensely.
Political terrorism of the LTTE was not the first to take roots in Sri Lanka. Terrorism first took shape in the south led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna exploiting the southern Sinhala youth who felt let down by the government; the government reacted in kind. Thousands of Sinhala youth were massacred as a result. Today, these Vimukthi people are in parliament many of them still reined in narrow political confines that abhor the reality that Sri Lanka is a multicultural country.
Then there were the several racial attacks on the Tamils and that too was another type of terrorism. Terrorism is an evil force and so is racism and whatever else that have streaks and strains of racial and religious intolerance ingrained in them.
The government forces may have won the Wanni campaign against the LTTE but that does not mean they have brought an end to the reasons for which it existed. A victory in this could be acknowledged only when the government is able to claim that from now onwards every citizen in the country will enjoy equal rights and none more and none less than the other.
President Mahinda Rajapakse is under obligation to announce that the Tamil-speaking community of Sri Lanka are also Sri Lankans as much as the Sinhala-speaking people and that his government will bring forth immediate measures to ensure that whatever measures sought by his government and the previous ones that led to the discrimination of one community against the other will be annulled and negated altogether without any delay.
The Tamils themselves have the responsibility and obligation to honour that Sri Lanka is their country as much as that of the Sinhalese, Muslims, Malays and Burghers and no leader of theirs flirts with any politician or political party of Tamilnadu and create false impressions both in Sri Lanka and India, that the Indian politicians can call the tune in respect of Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. Tamilnadu politicians have largely used the Sri Lankan problems to promote their own political goals on the subcontinent.
The Tamils have the right to seek their political identity as long as they subscribe to their Sri Lankan citizenship in all honour and dignity. They have a right to seek solutions to their problems within a unitary or federal system and also to have their unique cultural features respected and upheld as they would be in the case of other communities in Sri Lanka.
A true democracy accepts and appreciates diversities and helps a nation wedded to them to thrive towards the enrichment of the spirit of a nation. This is the moment for President Mahinda Rajapakse to accredit himself as a statesman, a stature that Sri Lanka has been denied for six decades.- Sri Lanka Guardian
“Then there were the several racial attacks on the Tamils and that too was another type of terrorism. Terrorism is an evil force and so is racism and whatever else that have streaks and strains of racial and religious intolerance ingrained in them.”
by Victor Karunairajan
(January 03, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) The year 2009 has begun for Sri Lanka with the president, the Honourable Mahinda Rajapakse claiming a major military victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with the reported capture of their de facto enclave capital of Kilinochchi. There is no doubt this has been an extremely costly venture in respect of loss of lives especially for the state forces, unaccounted rebels who must have perished, the civilians affected both by death and displacement and the extensive damage to one of Sri Lanka’s major agricultural regions.
It is hoped there will be no more aerial bombing anywhere in Sri Lanka.
We have had enough of this horrendous tragedy; even more the unfortunate aspect of this ghastly civil war resorted to by the LTTEE as the contention of the minority community treated as lesser citizens of the country. No Sri Lankan government has had the guts to come out and state that every citizen in Sri Lanka enjoys equal rights and no community lives by the grace of another ever since that infamous Sinhala Only legislation that became law half a century ago. It was a measure made rotten and rancid by an act of discrimination with the intolerable contention that the Sinhala race and Buddhism have primacy over all others. This is not democracy.
The Buddha himself would not have tolerated such a contention and a true Buddhist would shudder that such a position was given to his faith over and above that of other faiths. Political Buddhism has been the curse of Sri Lanka just like Catholicism was some centuries ago in Europe. No faith needs political patronage because faith is far beyond the regions of politicians.
During the period since independence Sri Lanka courted racism and religious bigotry cowering to Buddhist monks gone out of control and instigated violence against Tamil minorities. There were shameless racial violence, and in 1983 the hatred and sadist brutality spewed against the Tamils revealed signs of involvement of the government of the day. The intent certainly was genocidal and it was a defining moment for the Tamils and thousands fled the country. Those who fled were people the country could not afford to lose. But the racists and the bigoted did not care. In consequence they have harmed the country immensely.
Political terrorism of the LTTE was not the first to take roots in Sri Lanka. Terrorism first took shape in the south led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna exploiting the southern Sinhala youth who felt let down by the government; the government reacted in kind. Thousands of Sinhala youth were massacred as a result. Today, these Vimukthi people are in parliament many of them still reined in narrow political confines that abhor the reality that Sri Lanka is a multicultural country.
Then there were the several racial attacks on the Tamils and that too was another type of terrorism. Terrorism is an evil force and so is racism and whatever else that have streaks and strains of racial and religious intolerance ingrained in them.
The government forces may have won the Wanni campaign against the LTTE but that does not mean they have brought an end to the reasons for which it existed. A victory in this could be acknowledged only when the government is able to claim that from now onwards every citizen in the country will enjoy equal rights and none more and none less than the other.
President Mahinda Rajapakse is under obligation to announce that the Tamil-speaking community of Sri Lanka are also Sri Lankans as much as the Sinhala-speaking people and that his government will bring forth immediate measures to ensure that whatever measures sought by his government and the previous ones that led to the discrimination of one community against the other will be annulled and negated altogether without any delay.
The Tamils themselves have the responsibility and obligation to honour that Sri Lanka is their country as much as that of the Sinhalese, Muslims, Malays and Burghers and no leader of theirs flirts with any politician or political party of Tamilnadu and create false impressions both in Sri Lanka and India, that the Indian politicians can call the tune in respect of Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. Tamilnadu politicians have largely used the Sri Lankan problems to promote their own political goals on the subcontinent.
The Tamils have the right to seek their political identity as long as they subscribe to their Sri Lankan citizenship in all honour and dignity. They have a right to seek solutions to their problems within a unitary or federal system and also to have their unique cultural features respected and upheld as they would be in the case of other communities in Sri Lanka.
A true democracy accepts and appreciates diversities and helps a nation wedded to them to thrive towards the enrichment of the spirit of a nation. This is the moment for President Mahinda Rajapakse to accredit himself as a statesman, a stature that Sri Lanka has been denied for six decades.- Sri Lanka Guardian
Thursday, January 1, 2009
President Rajapaksa takes over media ministry
President Rajapaksa takes over media ministry
Thu, Jan 1 08:17 PM
Colombo, Jan 1 (IANS) Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa Thursday took over the media ministry and appointed the former media minister to handle the investment promotion portfolio, a top government official said.
'The president has taken over the ministry of mass media and information and appointed former media minister Anurapriyadarshana Yapa as minister of investment promotion,' director of the government information department Anusha Palpita told IANS.
He said that former minister of investment promotion Sarath Amunugama will take charge of home affairs and public administration.
Rajapaksa is also the minister of defence, finance and nation building.
The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, which are advancing from several directions to capture the last bastions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts in the north.
Thu, Jan 1 08:17 PM
Colombo, Jan 1 (IANS) Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa Thursday took over the media ministry and appointed the former media minister to handle the investment promotion portfolio, a top government official said.
'The president has taken over the ministry of mass media and information and appointed former media minister Anurapriyadarshana Yapa as minister of investment promotion,' director of the government information department Anusha Palpita told IANS.
He said that former minister of investment promotion Sarath Amunugama will take charge of home affairs and public administration.
Rajapaksa is also the minister of defence, finance and nation building.
The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, which are advancing from several directions to capture the last bastions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts in the north.
Tamils want Separation, urge new U.S. administration to send peace envoy to Sri Lanka immediately
Opinion Poll: Tamils want Separation, urge new U.S. administration to send peace envoy to Sri Lanka immediately
Thu Jan 1, 2:01 am ET
Poll shows Tamils internationally favor separation from Sri Lanka as solution to the genocidal civil war, and want quick U.S. support.
(PRWEB) January 1, 2009 -- This poll was conducted world-wide among Tamils. The result may surprise anyone who listened to the many international policy makers who stated that Tamils wanted to live in a united Sri Lanka, and did not support any independence movement. These policy makers include some leaders from the E.U., Japan, India and the current Bush administration.
Tamils want separation, the poll shows: separation was supported by about 90% of the respondents. They want the Obama administration to send former senator George Mitchell (Bill Clinton, Richard Holbrooke, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice were the other choices) to stop the genocidal war and initiate the process of separation.
Tamils who support separation were asked which of several models they wanted the new Tamil state to follow. The models were the Christians in Indonesia, who got their own state in East Timor; Muslims in the former Yugoslavia, who gained safety in the new Bosnian federation; Albanians in Kosovo, who escaped ethnic cleansing in independent Kosovo; and Slovaks in Czechoslovakia, who withdrew and formed their own country of Slovakia. A majority (55%) favored the East Timor model of independence through a UN-sponsored referendum. Kosovo was second with 19%.
If separation is not possible, about 83% of Tamils who participated in the opinion poll said they wanted a federation in which the Tamils would have all the powers of a separate state, including the power to secede. This was taken by the pollsters as a way of saying that they want a confederation.
Once they chose confederation, Tamils were offered four models of current successful confederations, and asked which model best suited Tamils in Sri Lanka. The models were Quebec in Canada, the Bosniak-Croat Federation in the former Yugoslavia, Wales and Scotland in the U.K., and Tamil Nadu in India. The poll showed that Tamils prefer the Quebec model.
In the poll, Tamils were asked "What should the Obama administration do in Sri Lanka?" There were five possible answers. Just over 76% of the respondents said they wanted the Obama administration to persuade the UN to have a referendum regarding partition separating the predominantly Tamil northeast of Sri Lanka from the rest of the country. There is precedent for this: the U.N. held such a referendum regarding East Timor before it gained independence. (Another question, below, deals with who participates in the referendum.)
The other four listed responses were: forcibly to bring representatives of the two sides to the U.S. and compel them to agree to a reasonable solution (7%); send U.N. peace-keeping troops to separate the combatants (9%); initiate a U.S. humanitarian intervention to save the Tamils from the genocidal war (6%); and ignore the problem and let it play out by itself (1%).
Who should be allowed to participate in the referendum if and when it happens? A majority (51%) said Tamils living in Sri Lanka and those living abroad who fled to get away from the civil war , and thirty-nine percent (39%) said only the Tamils still living in the northeast of Sri Lanka should be allowed to vote. Smaller numbers said Tamils living in the island of Sri Lanka (4%), or all persons living in the northeast of Sri Lanka, Tamil or otherwise (6%) should be enfranchised.
When should the Obama administration take action? Eighty-eight percent (88%) of poll respondents said that the new administration should take action immediately. Seven percent (7%) said within one hundred days, five percent (5%) said in his first year, and only one percent (1%) said "Don't take action".
For the question, 'How did they categorize the war in Sri Lanka?' Most said the war is genocidal (90%), and smaller numbers said the war is a battle for Sovereignty by oppressed Tamils (7%), a radical revolt by the Tamil Tigers (1%), or some other variety of civil war (2%).
The poll was conducted by Tamils for Obama. It was conducted through the internet from December 10, 2008 to December 31, 2008. Total participation was 8,249 individuals. Overseas Tamils, those who were uprooted by the genocidal war, participated from over 90 countries. The largest number of responses were from Canada (28%), followed by the United Kingdom (17%), Australia (9%), India (8%) and the U.S (7%), a very representative distribution of the diaspora. About ten percent (10%) of the respondents were Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Requests for participation in the poll were sent out through all available means of contacting the Tamil diaspora and Tamils on the island, including email lists, newspapers, websites, blogs and paid advertisements. Tamils for Obama believes the response to be representative, taking into account the distribution of internet connectivity, the complexity of the polling methods, the global dispersion of the Tamil population, and concerns many Tamils have for their safety in expressing any political opinion in public. In addition to sampling error, question wording can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
The pollster, Tamils for Obama, stated that the raw data of the poll is available for verification by any interested party.
More details of the poll results can be seen at http://www.tamilsforobama.com/poll/result.asp
Tamils are an ethnic group living mainly in the northeast of Sri Lanka and southern India. They are a minority population in Sri Lanka, and are currently engaged in a civil war they regard as genocide. Tamils for Obama is comprised of Tamils who have settled in the U.S., or who were born in the U.S.
To contact the group, call at (617) 765- 4394 and speak to or leave a message for the Communication Director, Tamils for Obama.
Tamils for Obama
www.TamilsForObama.com
Tamils for Obama
Communication Director
617 765 4394
E-mail Information
Trackback URL: http://prweb.com/pingpr.php/U3VtbS1Ib3JyLVByb2YtTG92ZS1Ib3JyLVNpbmctWmVybw==
Thu Jan 1, 2:01 am ET
Poll shows Tamils internationally favor separation from Sri Lanka as solution to the genocidal civil war, and want quick U.S. support.
(PRWEB) January 1, 2009 -- This poll was conducted world-wide among Tamils. The result may surprise anyone who listened to the many international policy makers who stated that Tamils wanted to live in a united Sri Lanka, and did not support any independence movement. These policy makers include some leaders from the E.U., Japan, India and the current Bush administration.
Tamils want separation, the poll shows: separation was supported by about 90% of the respondents. They want the Obama administration to send former senator George Mitchell (Bill Clinton, Richard Holbrooke, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice were the other choices) to stop the genocidal war and initiate the process of separation.
Tamils who support separation were asked which of several models they wanted the new Tamil state to follow. The models were the Christians in Indonesia, who got their own state in East Timor; Muslims in the former Yugoslavia, who gained safety in the new Bosnian federation; Albanians in Kosovo, who escaped ethnic cleansing in independent Kosovo; and Slovaks in Czechoslovakia, who withdrew and formed their own country of Slovakia. A majority (55%) favored the East Timor model of independence through a UN-sponsored referendum. Kosovo was second with 19%.
If separation is not possible, about 83% of Tamils who participated in the opinion poll said they wanted a federation in which the Tamils would have all the powers of a separate state, including the power to secede. This was taken by the pollsters as a way of saying that they want a confederation.
Once they chose confederation, Tamils were offered four models of current successful confederations, and asked which model best suited Tamils in Sri Lanka. The models were Quebec in Canada, the Bosniak-Croat Federation in the former Yugoslavia, Wales and Scotland in the U.K., and Tamil Nadu in India. The poll showed that Tamils prefer the Quebec model.
In the poll, Tamils were asked "What should the Obama administration do in Sri Lanka?" There were five possible answers. Just over 76% of the respondents said they wanted the Obama administration to persuade the UN to have a referendum regarding partition separating the predominantly Tamil northeast of Sri Lanka from the rest of the country. There is precedent for this: the U.N. held such a referendum regarding East Timor before it gained independence. (Another question, below, deals with who participates in the referendum.)
The other four listed responses were: forcibly to bring representatives of the two sides to the U.S. and compel them to agree to a reasonable solution (7%); send U.N. peace-keeping troops to separate the combatants (9%); initiate a U.S. humanitarian intervention to save the Tamils from the genocidal war (6%); and ignore the problem and let it play out by itself (1%).
Who should be allowed to participate in the referendum if and when it happens? A majority (51%) said Tamils living in Sri Lanka and those living abroad who fled to get away from the civil war , and thirty-nine percent (39%) said only the Tamils still living in the northeast of Sri Lanka should be allowed to vote. Smaller numbers said Tamils living in the island of Sri Lanka (4%), or all persons living in the northeast of Sri Lanka, Tamil or otherwise (6%) should be enfranchised.
When should the Obama administration take action? Eighty-eight percent (88%) of poll respondents said that the new administration should take action immediately. Seven percent (7%) said within one hundred days, five percent (5%) said in his first year, and only one percent (1%) said "Don't take action".
For the question, 'How did they categorize the war in Sri Lanka?' Most said the war is genocidal (90%), and smaller numbers said the war is a battle for Sovereignty by oppressed Tamils (7%), a radical revolt by the Tamil Tigers (1%), or some other variety of civil war (2%).
The poll was conducted by Tamils for Obama. It was conducted through the internet from December 10, 2008 to December 31, 2008. Total participation was 8,249 individuals. Overseas Tamils, those who were uprooted by the genocidal war, participated from over 90 countries. The largest number of responses were from Canada (28%), followed by the United Kingdom (17%), Australia (9%), India (8%) and the U.S (7%), a very representative distribution of the diaspora. About ten percent (10%) of the respondents were Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Requests for participation in the poll were sent out through all available means of contacting the Tamil diaspora and Tamils on the island, including email lists, newspapers, websites, blogs and paid advertisements. Tamils for Obama believes the response to be representative, taking into account the distribution of internet connectivity, the complexity of the polling methods, the global dispersion of the Tamil population, and concerns many Tamils have for their safety in expressing any political opinion in public. In addition to sampling error, question wording can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
The pollster, Tamils for Obama, stated that the raw data of the poll is available for verification by any interested party.
More details of the poll results can be seen at http://www.tamilsforobama.com/poll/result.asp
Tamils are an ethnic group living mainly in the northeast of Sri Lanka and southern India. They are a minority population in Sri Lanka, and are currently engaged in a civil war they regard as genocide. Tamils for Obama is comprised of Tamils who have settled in the U.S., or who were born in the U.S.
To contact the group, call at (617) 765- 4394 and speak to or leave a message for the Communication Director, Tamils for Obama.
Tamils for Obama
www.TamilsForObama.com
Tamils for Obama
Communication Director
617 765 4394
E-mail Information
Trackback URL: http://prweb.com/pingpr.php/U3VtbS1Ib3JyLVByb2YtTG92ZS1Ib3JyLVNpbmctWmVybw==
Sri Lanka: Troops enter rebel headquarters
Sri Lanka: Troops enter rebel headquarters
By KRISHAN FRANCIS,
Associated Press
Posted: 2009-01-02 00:36:22
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lankan soldiers fought their way into the Tamil Tiger rebel capital Friday for the first time in a decade, military officials said, following months of fierce battles on the outskirts that left scores dead.
Troops entered the northern town of Kilinochchi from two sides, senior military officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.
The level of fighting inside the town remained unclear. The military had predicted Thursday that soldiers would seize the town within two days.
The fall of Kilinochchi would be devastating to the separatist Tigers, who have has used the town as their political and military headquarters for the past 10 years and have created structures for an independent state, such as a police, courts, and tax offices.
Recent government military offensives have forced the rebels out of much of their territory in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to crush the rebel group and end the nation's 25-year-old civil war this year.
A 6-year-old Norway-brokered truce was officially called off last year with both sides openly violating the agreement.
Senior Sri Lankan officials have said repeatedly over the past two months that Kilinochchi would fall soon, but troops became bogged down by heavy rains and fierce rebel resistance.
The rebels could not immediately be reached for comment. But Tamil Tiger political leader Balasingham Nadesan told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they began as a guerrilla group and would be able to keep fighting even if they lost much of the territory they controlled in the north.
The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people.
By KRISHAN FRANCIS,
Associated Press
Posted: 2009-01-02 00:36:22
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lankan soldiers fought their way into the Tamil Tiger rebel capital Friday for the first time in a decade, military officials said, following months of fierce battles on the outskirts that left scores dead.
Troops entered the northern town of Kilinochchi from two sides, senior military officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.
The level of fighting inside the town remained unclear. The military had predicted Thursday that soldiers would seize the town within two days.
The fall of Kilinochchi would be devastating to the separatist Tigers, who have has used the town as their political and military headquarters for the past 10 years and have created structures for an independent state, such as a police, courts, and tax offices.
Recent government military offensives have forced the rebels out of much of their territory in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised to crush the rebel group and end the nation's 25-year-old civil war this year.
A 6-year-old Norway-brokered truce was officially called off last year with both sides openly violating the agreement.
Senior Sri Lankan officials have said repeatedly over the past two months that Kilinochchi would fall soon, but troops became bogged down by heavy rains and fierce rebel resistance.
The rebels could not immediately be reached for comment. But Tamil Tiger political leader Balasingham Nadesan told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they began as a guerrilla group and would be able to keep fighting even if they lost much of the territory they controlled in the north.
The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of marginalization by successive governments controlled by the Sinhalese majority. The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people.
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