By Sutirtho Patranobis | Hindustan Times
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The government claimed to have settled 267,393 IDPs till last week. Critics have pointed out that most among the "resettled" IDPs have simply been released from the main camps to be moved to transit camps or temporary accommodations; some have even set up their own tents at their own places of origin. And rehabilitation is still a long way off.
Amid all this, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCCS) have announced that it is running hugely short of funds to take care of 5,000 displaced families under its care.
An emergency appeal was launched in April seeking $3.4 million in cash, kind, or services to support the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) as it assists approximately 5,000 families (25,000 people) for 24 months.
"With contributions received to date, including pledges in the pipeline, the appeal is about 40 per cent covered. Funds are urgently needed to enable SLRCS to provide much needed assistance to those displaced by years of conflict," a statement from its office said.
The government and humanitarian actors estimate that the total number of houses in need of rebuilding and reconstruction is around 260,000.
© Hindustan Times
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Over 35,000 displaced Tamils still in camps
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Sri Lanka: Panel pressure
By B.B. Muralidhar Reddy | Frontline
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Coming close on the heels of the decision of the European Union (E.U.) to discontinue, from August 15, tariff concessions to the garment and apparel industry (known as generalised system of preferences +, or GSP+) to the tune of $150 million per annum and the announcement by the Barack Obama administration of a review of trade tariff concessions (linked to workers' rights), the U.N. episode showed the complete isolation of the government not just from the Western bloc but also from the larger world community.
The Sri Lankan government may have a point in its criticism that the West is applying double standards on the human rights issue, but its failure to secure the support of the countries in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in its confrontation with the U.N. demonstrates the stark reality.
The supposed “fast-unto-death” by Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa, which went on for a little over 50 hours, seeking the scrapping of the three-member experts' panel appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on June 22 to advise him on accountability issues relating to alleged violations of human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the military operation against the LTTE was perhaps a telling commentary on the state of affairs in the “post-war” era. And with the U.N. showing no signPresident himself visited the protest site and offered a glass of water to Weerawansa to end the fast.
Weerawansa, a rebel of the ultra-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and leader of the National Freedom Front (NFF), a constituent of the ruling alliance, is seen as a staunch loyalist of the President. Little wonder no one was convinced by the government's explanation that the protest fast had nothing to do with it. The dominant view among political observers is that the government has no one but itself to blame for the crisis centred on the U.N.
The protest
On July 6, two weeks after the announcement by the office of Ban Ki-moon on the Sri Lanka experts' panel, supporters of the Minister staged a protest outside the main gate of the U.N. office compound in the heart of Colombo. Hours later, the hundred-odd demonstrators worked themselves into a frenzy and burnt an effigy of the Secretary-General as Weerawansa arrived on the scene. They laid siege to the U.N. office and prevented the U.N. staff from leaving the building for a few hours. The police tried to stop the protesters but had to retreat reportedly on the orders of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is the younger brother of the President. The drama continued into the night.
On July 7, the U.N. virtually shut down its office and asked its staff to work from home. The protesters continued to camp at the site. On day three the Minister joined the protest, set up a makeshift tent outside the gates of the U.N. compound and vowed not to eat until the U.N. panel was dissolved. A report that the U.N. was winding up the UNDP's office in Sri Lanka and “recalling” its chief, Neil Bhune, created a sensation on July 8. But it soon came to light that the UNDP was in the process of winding down for some time now. The timing of the news, however, was seen as a counter from the U.N.
Fifty-two hours into the fast, President Rajapaksa intervened. He visited the site and served water to the Minister, apparently after his family requested him to do so. The direct intervention from the head of state revealed once again the many layers of the politics of the island nation.
Meanwhile, on July 17, a week after his “recall” to the U.N. headquarters, the Sri Lanka Resident Coordinator was back in the island nation. He was reportedly called for consultations to the U.N. headquarters but was back in Colombo to help rebuild the nation and assist in rejuvenating its ties with the U.N. Despite the move, the damage seemed to have been done.
The experts' panel
What is this experts' panel that led to the showdown? It was announced on June 22 and its mandate is to prepare a report within four months on the implementation of the government's commitment on human rights accountability made in the joint statement issued by the Secretary-General and the President after the former's visit to Sri Lanka in May 2009, less than a week after the end of the war.
Indonesia's Marzuki Darusman is to serve as the chair of the panel, which includes Yasmin Sooka of South Africa and Steven Ratner of the United States. As per a statement by the U.N., the panel will examine “the modalities, applicable international standards and comparative experience with regard to accountability processes, taking into account the nature and scope of any alleged violations in Sri Lanka”.
'Not a follow-up'
Within hours, the government denounced the panel as an intervention in Sri Lanka's internal affairs and asserted that it was not a follow-up of the commitment made by Colombo during Ban Ki-moon's visit in 2009.
At a news conference, Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris went to the extent of saying that the panel's members would not be issued visas. The Minister noted: “Sri Lanka regards the appointment of the Sri Lanka panel of experts as an unwarranted and unnecessary interference with a sovereign nation. This interference, moreover, has potential for exploitation by vested interests hostile to the process of reconciliation taking place in Sri Lanka.”
The government referred to the ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation' Commission appointed by Rajapaksa in May and argued that it would address all concerns, including questions on accountability. The government's explanation raised more questions than it sought to answer. Why did it take a year for the President to appoint the commission after the end of the war?
If the government has nothing to hide about the conduct of the war, as Rajapaksa and others in his regime have said, why is it so allergic to a mere advisory panel to the U.N. Secretary-General?
Gap in perceptions
The answer perhaps lies in the gap in the perceptions of the government and the U.N. on the commitments made by Colombo to Ban Ki-moon. It is true that there is no specific reference in the joint statement on the alleged human rights violations and the accountability process. But there is also no movement on the promises made by the President on most issues.
Extracts from the statement read:
“The government expressed its commitment to ensure the economic and political empowerment of the people of the North through its programmes. President Rajapaksa expressed his firm resolve to proceed with the implementation of the 13th Amendment [on the devolution of powers to the provincial councils], as well as to begin a broader dialogue with all parties, including the Tamil parties, in the new circumstances, to further enhance this process and to bring about lasting peace and development in Sri Lanka.
“Sri Lanka reiterated its strongest commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights, in keeping with international human rights standards and Sri Lanka's international obligations. The Secretary-General underlined the importance of an accountability process for addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The government will take measures to address those grievances.”
In an opinion piece in the English daily Daily Mirror, Harrish Peiris (spokesman of the President from 2001-2005) wrote that while on the face of it the U.N. panel was a direct international intervention in Sri Lanka's affairs, it reflected the lack of credible progress on crucial issues of reconciliation and political solution to the ethnic confict.
The writer expressed the view that the U.N. endorsement of the victory of the security forces over the LTTE came with the caveat that Colombo would pursue three objectives, namely, rehabilitation and reconstruction of conflict-affected areas; finding a political solution that addresses the causes of the conflict, through a dialogue with all parties, especially the Tamil parties; and measures to deal with possible violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
Peiris wrote: “Of the three issues above, post-conflict rehabilitation we would need to do for humanitarian and equity reasons and to continue to claim to be a civilised society. It's the absence of a political solution or at least a credible political process, of engagement with the Tamil polity and its dominant representatives, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the world is suspicious about our intentions and the trajectory of our post-conflict socio-political order. A political solution that receives the approval of the TNA would have international credibility and reduce the political pressure on the accountability issues, which anyway we should do domestically with the emphasis on truth and reconciliation and not crime and punishment.”
In this context the protest and fast by a Cabinet Minister on the constitution of the U.N. panel becomes interesting. According to reports, the heat being turned on ever so mildly by the international players, as showcased by the E.U.'s latest moves plus the lack of support from the NAM, Russia and even to some extent China, perhaps fostered this approach – ingeniously unofficial yet enough to draw attention to the Sri Lankan government's official standpoint.
© Frontline
Thursday, July 29, 2010
How “responsible” SL Editors play foul on readers
By Kusal Perera | South Asia Speaks
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The Weerawansa fiasco is one incident that gathered major media coverage and thus provides ample space for an assessment of media professionalism and independence. “Daily Mirror” (DM), generally talked of as impartial and professional than most Sinhala news papers therefore would be best for this purpose. To talk on journalistic independence and media professionalism.
DM went online breaking news and providing explanations on their ‘broken’ news, clearly showing the slip that was intentionally “anti Ban Ki-moon”. Being anti Ban Ki-moon at that point of time in Sri Lanka, was (01) consciously getting in step with the government instigated Weerawansa ‘comedy’ (02) openly accepting the editorial policy as bias and not independent and (03) letting down the ‘Readers’ by publishing wholly twisted reports.
This is a case in point, on such DM reportage. Bias to the core and intentionally nuanced and malicious in reporting.
On 09 July at 11.50 am, DM told its readers that Ban Ki-moon had issued a statement misleading every one. Captioned “Ban statement misleading” it said, [quote] UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has misled the media and the public by giving the impression that the UNDP Regional Center situated in Sri Lanka had been closed as a result of the protest being carried out by Minister Wimal Weerawansa outside the UN country office in Colombo [unquote] The tone of the DM language without nuances, is loudly accusing.
Now, whom is DM using to accuse UN Secretary General as wrong and misleading ? An unnamed “UN Colombo official”. The man who took the decision to close down the UN regional centre in Colombo and says why he closed it down, is not “right and true” for DM. Why ? That does not fit the pre determined stand of DM on this whole Weerawansa fiasco. So they went to an unnamed local source to report what they had already decided, they would publish. “That the UN regional office in Colombo was not closed due to Weerawansa’s crude “patriotism”. How professional is that journalism ?
The DM did not stop at that. They wanted to prove their position with this unnamed, unidentified source in Colombo is right and carried the next news post the same day (09 July) at 23.00 hours with a caption, “UN contradicts UN again”. The report says,
[quote] Just hours after the UN office in Colombo said that the closing down of the UNDP Regional Center in Sri Lanka was not linked to the protests outside the UN in Colombo, UN Associate spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York a short while ago that both were linked.[unquote]
Who is this “UN office in Colombo” source that DM keeps insisting is more authoritative than even the UN Secretary General and the Associate Spokesperson ? Its the same unnamed, unidentified UN Colombo official. If at this point, the DM was so certain about its “Colombo office” source they should have clearly said who it is, instead of continuing to quote this unnamed, unidentified local source to contradict the UN Secretary General and the UN Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq, for such is not professionalism.
In fact with such stress laid down by both the UN Secretary General and the Associate spokesperson at UN head quarters on why the UN regional office in Colombo was closed, the right caption and the right news should have been that the Colombo office and the unnamed unidentified person has not been in line with the official UN position and has thus been giving out wrong information, misleading the media and the public. That was, IF the DM was independent and free of political bias.
DM did not want it that way. The DM news report thus says, [quote] When contacted by Daily Mirror online today, a UN Colombo official clarified that preparations were underway for several months now to close down the UNDP Regional Center in Sri Lanka and it was not linked with Weerawansa’s protest. [unquote]
Why did the DM contact an unnamed local source, when two top UN positions had officially stated the reason for the closure of the Colombo regional office ? If they still did not believe the two official UN statements from NY, why did not the DM contest that with their source named and with facts and figures ?
The UN regional office in Colombo did not allow DM to stay put with its pun on the news and sent in a clearly worded statement the next day. Therefore, on 10 July at 11.26 am, DM had to publish this UN Colombo regional office statement, on line. The DM once again tried a twist on it by giving that post the caption, “UN Lanka clarifies stand”. That in fact was not a clarification of the UN position, but “a correction” to DM’s previous day Gobel’s reporting on the closure.
This is how the DM says it in their “clarifying” news. [quote] Daily Mirror online had earlier quoted a UN Colombo official as saying that preparations were underway for several months now to close down the UNDP Regional Center in Sri Lanka and it was not linked to the protest outside the UN compound.[unquote]
Contradicting this unnamed “UN Colombo official” that DM wished to quote previously, the UN regional office in Colombo in an official e-mail sent to DM online, said that there was no doubt a ‘down sizing’ of its regional office in Colombo and also said very clearly they had in fact discussed it with the External Affairs ministry. But the statement clearly said this time the closure was the result of Weerawans’a protests.
This is how the Colombo regional office statement which confirms Ban Ki-moon’s New York statement 02 days before and Farhan Haq’s brief to reporters, contradicts the DM’s unnamed Colombo UN official. [quote] However in light of the UN Secretary General’s decision announced two days ago the UN is now closing the regional center outright and it is a direct response to the situation in Colombo and the inability for the UN staff to do their work without hindrance.[unquote]
That was simple, clear and loud enough for any fifth grader to understand the reason for the closure of the Colombo office. Yet not for DM and its editorial. For they had their ulterior motive(s) in making the UN a “comedy of contradictions” and save their comedy hero Weerawansa.
Who is this unnamed, unidentified Colombo office spokesman who played it out with the DM that DM refrains from naming ?
He is, most definitely Mohan Samaranayake, the Communication Officer with the Colombo UN office. This person who has broken all ethical and moral standards of decent professional behaviour and perhaps UN conditions of employment too, sitting in the Public Performance Board (PPB), a statutory board appointed by the government minister in charge, was the person who went round saying the closure of the UN facility in Colombo had nothing to do with the protests and that was pre determined. Being a privileged person of this Rajapaksa government, Samaranayake has been faithful to the regime here rather than to his “employer”, the UN. He was quoted by the AP and also by the Nation news paper on the same issue, although the DM kept him unnamed and undisclosed.
This also brings out the issue, what the UN would do, or should do with such local employees who not only contradicts UN interests in pledging their loyalty with the country government, but also helps ridicule and insult the UN, publicly.
Conniving with such devalued persons who are not even identified, such is the vested interest in DM’s professional media culture. Twist, turn and toast the news to suit its own petty agenda, never mind the responsibility to the “reader” public.
The Sri Lankan media in general has been this over the past half decade. It had tried to project itself as nationalistic and patriotic. In the process, they had given up their professionalism and their independence.
Therefore, there is no logic in asking the government to allow media freedom, when Editors and journalists themselves don’t act independent and ethically. They have to first establish their independence within the framework of the “Code of Professional Practice” known as the Code of Ethics drafted, agreed and accepted by the Editors’ Guild itself.
The editors who drafted this Code of Ethics for all journalists, agreed foremost in its preamble that [quote] This code of practice which is binding on all Press institutions and journalists, aims to ensure that the print medium in Sri Lanka is free and responsible and sensitive to the needs and expectations of its readers, while maintaining the highest international standard of journalism. [unquote]
The preamble goes on to say, “those standards require newspapers to strive for accuracy and professional integrity, and to uphold the best traditions of investigative journalism in the public interest, unfettered by distorting commercialism or by improper pressure or by narrow self-interest which conspires against press freedom”.
We are yet to see editors sticking by this Code of Ethics. There is no talk of journalists being told and advised by editors to work according to their own Code of Ethics.
One may also take refuge by saying that this Code of Ethics is only for the print media and not for others. But, an irresponsible editor handling a web based online news portal as an extension of the print media, can not be a responsible editor in the print media. That apart, this code of ethics should be discussed for all media now, for it is not print media alone that fashion the mindset of this society. True, this would not be taken as a responsibility by the publishers or their association(s). For they are all in this Sri Lanka, where businesses are almost always State sponsored and politically patronised. It is therefore, once again the Editors and journalists who would have to work towards an independent media and for their own self respect.
© South Asia Speaks
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Thousnads of students take to the streets against police killing
Photo courtesy: lankatruth
News First
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It was organised by the Inter University Students' Federation.
Udul Premaratne, convenor of the Federation, said that the protest was organised against the alleged incident where Ruhuna university student Susantha Bandara died due to a police assault.
The Federation added that the protest was being carried out to force the authorities to arrest the police officers responsible for the incident.
Newsfirst correspondent at the protest said that a large number of students were participating at the protest and added that they were carrying placards with pictures of the student who was allegedly killed.
Newsfirst cameras captured the Anti-riot squads and police stationed in several locations in the city from morning. A heavy deployment of security personnel could be observed at the Department of Higher Education and in Fort.
Despite these measures, large numbers of students could be seen arriving at the venue to take part in the protest campaign.
Speaking to Newsfirst at the venue, Udul Premaratne, convenor of the Inter University Student's Federation said that once the protest was organised, the government had threatened bus owners to hinder transport.
“We demand that the government arrest those police officers responsible for the death of student Susantha Bandara. He died due to an assault by the police. He was hit on the head and the government was attempting to shy away from the responsibility by allowing a student to be killed in this manner by blaming it on another student,” said Premaratne.
The students concluded the protest around 5.30pm and dispersed peacefully.
© News First
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Sri Lanka: Villagers protest against 'land grab'
BBC Sinhala
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Rev. Panama Chandarathana, the Chief Sanganayaka thero of Wellassa Digamadulla region along with villagers from Ragamwela agreed to call off a protest following a pledge by senior police officers.
Hundreds of Ragamwela villagers demonstrated at the Panama junction calling the police whom they accuse of occupying their ancestral land to leave.
Wasantha Chandrapala who visited the scene reported that protesters who burnt tyres and logs sat down to block the Pothuwil Okanda highway for a over an hour.
Security of the area was tightened by calling armed riot Police squads and the special task force, he added.
Senior Deputy Inspector General for East Edison Gunathilaka who met the protesters promised to 'find a solution'.
An armed group has destroyed several houses and attacked villagers in Ragamwela, Panama, Potuvil on the night of 17th July.
Dozens of villagers visited the Ampara Human Rights commission on monday to complaint against police occupying their land.
Panama is in the vicinity of the Yala wildlife sanctuary and the Arugambay surfing resort.
Tourism industry in the area that has been badly affected during the decades long conflict, has seen a revival in recent months.
© BBC Sinhala
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
University undergrads assaulted by police while putting up posters
Colombo Today
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Two students have been rushed to the Colombo National Hospital with injuries, hospital sources say.
One student has left the hospital after receiving treatment while the other is still at the Accident Ward, reports add.
Two more students were arrested by the police.
Yesterday, six university students were arrested by the Kirulpone and Welikada police for putting up posters.
Four of them were given bail after being producing before courts and the other two were released on police bail.
© Colombo Today
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The political lessons of the smilling assassin
By Publius | Groundviews
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In the field of Test cricket, we shall never experience again that delightful frisson of pregnant expectation in the images of Murali’s impish smile and devious, quizzical glances, disconcerting last minute field adjustments followed by devilish deliveries, nor the anarchic pleasures of his agricultural cameos with the bat. To be sure, we shall continue to see him in the shorter version, and also perhaps in that ultimate expression of vulgar populism in cricket, Twenty-20. But Test cricket is how cricket should be played, and it is the template that enabled the dazzling displays of stratagem and stamina, attack and attrition, subterfuge and intelligence that characterised his spin bowling.
The brilliant and controversial career of Muttiah Muralidaran has from the outset been underlined by an intensely political theme of identity. In the international contretemps over his bowling action, an argument that was frequently advanced by his supporters was the political one of latent racial prejudice; or in its more refined variation, that a Western individualist ideological bias informed the interpretation of the imprecisely drafted Law 24:2, which resulted in manifest injustice in Murali’s case. This was notwithstanding the fact that Murali’s most abiding (and graceless) detractor is Bishan Singh Bedi, an Indian, and one of his most ardent defenders has been the Englishman Peter Roebuck (Millfield, Cambridge, Somerset and England), who seems to exemplify the values of positivist liberal individualism given his Cambridge law degree (and that too, given his erstwhile advocacy of corporal punishment, of a veritably Edwardian variety).
The trauma of the chucking controversy was tangible, especially in Australia, where even Prime Minister John Howard joined the lynch mob with ill-informed comments patently designed for political mileage. He has since been suitably chastened, with his ambitions for ICC office peremptorily curbed.
Despite this, Murali underwent strenuous biomechanical tests which demonstrated the appearance of throwing as an optical illusion caused by a congenital deformity of his elbow. Perhaps as satisfyingly, this also showed that many other bowlers whose action had never been questioned were in fact bowling illegal deliveries, which led to a reform of the rules. The accomplishment of this ‘game-changer’ in the rules, in turn, has generated another kind of prejudice argument, viz., that if he were a white player, he would not have benefitted from such solicitous sympathy, or at least the fear of allegations of racism and neo-colonialism from Asian and African cricketing establishments, as to have had the rules changed. It would all have been, in Bedi’s words, a case of ‘tough luck.’ I think we were all rather lucky, if only for the sheer pleasure and entertainment Murali subsequently provided, that counsel saner than Bedi’s prevailed.
However, it is the symbolism of Murali being the first Indian Tamil in the Sri Lankan side that is of the much greater import in the politics of pluralism within the country. Of immediate cause for gratification is that he has ruled out a post-cricket political career, an irritating sub-continental tradition, and perhaps in this he drew a salutary lesson from the hero-to-zero metamorphosis of his fellow icon, Sanath Jayasuriya, if not from his former captain, the Schmittian Arjuna Ranatunga. To the extent he has made any public comments of a political nature, Murali has been at pains to make them as colourlessly unobjectionable as possible. That may be because he is uninterested in politics, but it may also be that he has the innate sense of pragmatism and survival that ethnic minorities develop in some types of majoritarian society, instilled through the baptism of fire his family experienced in the race riots of 1977. I suspect it is the latter. When a colleague of mine approached Murali to do a television spot in the 2008 campaign to commemorate the twenty fifth anniversary of Black July 1983, he declined, with disarming frankness, on the ground that his involvement would be perceived by the government as the espousal of an unacceptable political viewpoint, which would in turn harm his cricketing career.
It is this virtue of public ethnic neutrality that has made Murali a poster-boy for a widespread notion of ethnic harmony and general wellbeing, as some of the embarrassingly inept, if well-intentioned, commentary in the local press has shown over the years. The basic idea here is to interpolate from Muralidaran’s success in a national sporting endeavour, and his universal popularity among all Sri Lankans, a certain model of national identity as well as national success. If the minorities plight their troth with the majority as unequivocally as Murali seems to have done, the argument goes, what is there to stop us achieving great things, as we have shown the world in the field of cricket?
Without a doubt, in societies such as ours, the representation of diversity in national sporting teams is of enormous symbolic value. But to stretch the analogy too far is not only absurd, but also dangerous, for a cricket team is neither a country nor a democracy. The presence of Tamils, Moors, Malays, Burghers, and Hindus, Muslims and Christians together with Sinhalese and Buddhists in the national cricket team is a welcome symptom of the potential for inclusiveness and pluralism we retain in our society despite generations of discord and conflict, but it cannot serve as a model of national identity and statehood. It is as ridiculous as arguing that our cross-communal enthusiasm for arrack and baila, or love of political melodrama – between Thileepan and Weerawansa, demonstrably a shared weakness – can be contrived somehow into a basis of ethnic cohesion.
It should also be remembered that for those in the chauvinistic end of the political spectrum who subscribe to this model of unity in diversity, Murali’s apolitical tact in public utterances as a professional cricketer also denotes exactly how a Tamil should behave: recognised and even venerated for his talent, as long as he knows his place within the firmament and desists from making impertinent and awkward claims. That is, after all, the conclusion to be drawn from the mentoring relationship with Arjuna Ranatunga that gained so much for Murali in his formative years on the national side.
For the moment though, it is perhaps far more agreeable to just indulge in a bit of forgivable nostalgia on that footage from The Oval in August 1998 when Muttiah Muralidaran arrived upon the world stage, taking sixteen England wickets in the match (seven of them on the last day), and raise a glass to The Smiling Assassin, not only for the immeasurable joy he gave us for eighteen years, but also for the fact that, as the London Sunday Telegraph pointed out, throughout the vicissitudes of his career he ‘has always shown himself a pukka gent.’
© Groundviews
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
'SL Government controlled by international rulers’ says Left Front leader
News First
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Dr. Karunaratne was addressing a media briefing convened by the Palestine - Sri Lanka Friendship Society in Colombo yesterday on a statement alleged to have been made by the Sri Lankan ambassador to Israel, Air Chief Marshall Donald Perera, during an interview to a newspaper.
“This proves where our government stands today. There is no need for doubt. The truth is that this government is purely controlled by Companies, International, American, Indian rulers, and rulers of Israel.
“These actions are designed to achieve their own ends by tricking the Muslim community and the poor community of Sri Lanka and the international community too. Therefore, we must strongly object to this,” said Dr. Karunaratne.
Mujibar Rahman, Secretary of the Palestine - Sri Lanka Friendship Society, addressing the media briefing said that the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Israel, Air Chief Marshall Donald Perera had made a special statement claiming that the Sri Lankan government would extend support to Israel in order to eliminate terrorism between Israel and Palestine.
“The biggest issue faced by us now is that we know that the whole world including Sri Lanka accepts that there is a problem concerning Palestine.
“Our current President was the first Chairman of the Sri Lanka Committee for Solidarity with Palestine.
“Today we have an ambassador of this government who has gone to Israel and made statements against the Palestine freedom struggle,” said Mujibar Rahman.
Shafeek Rajabdeen, former MP of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress said that as Sri Lankans we had to call back the ambassador concerned.
“If this is the opinion of the government, we condemn him. We totally reject this. As Sri Lankans we must bring him back to the country. We must appoint a Sri Lankan with good principles to that position,” said Mr. Rajabdeen.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan ambassador to Israel, Air Chief Marshall Donald Perera has said that he had not made any remark against Palestine during the interview to the newspaper.
He said that during the interview in question, he had only spoken about how Sri Lanka had defeated terrorism.
© News First
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Sri Lanka: War over - But women wage battle for survival
By Amantha Perera | Inter Press Service
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But it was far from a typical day for some 100 people who sat, waiting patiently by the side of the road in front of the main government office here in Vaharai, some 65 kilometres north-west of Batticaloa.
Most of them were women of a diverse mix of ages. Some mothers cradled their children, gently soothing young nerves frayed by the smouldering sun. Seeking shelter under a large tree, they clutched forms – filled only minutes before – as they awaited their turn to meet the divisional secretary, the top government official in Vaharai.
"I have to get these documents cleared so that I have some kind of ownership to the land I live in," said Navunad Sudha, a 29-year-old mother. "We also have to register here before we can move about easily."
Sudha’s story is typical of many in Sri Lanka’s east, which along with the north are where many of the Tamil minority live, and are the areas most affected by the separatist war waged by the Tamil Tigers.
It is only now that people like Suhda feel they can breathe easy, after the war ended more than a year ago.
With her family and then five-year-old son, Sudha fled her home in the middle of 2008, when Sri Lankan government forces began their final, decisive push into areas in the north and east controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). After months of running and near-death horrors, she finally crossed the battlefront and moved to safety behind the government line in May 2009. Just two days after her escape, the military crushed the Tigers.
Civilians like Sudha bore the brunt of the LTTE’s conflict with successive Sri Lankan governments since the early 1980s, demanding a separate Tamil homeland.
But even after the end of the war, the battle for survival continues for many women here.
Most of the available work here, especially in construction of buildings, clearing of jungles, fishing and farming, is almost exclusively male- dominated. To make matters worse, many women are struggling to cope with having to head the household after losing their husbands and sons – the traditional breadwinners in this patriarchal society – to the war.
Sudha was born in the village of Kadiraveli just north of Vaharai, but fell in love with a man from northern Jaffna. They married, moved to the north, and finally settled in Puhtukkuddyiruppu – a Tiger stronghold for over a decade before government forces wrested control last year.
Sudha had no say when her husband joined the LTTE. He fought with them, Sudha admits, but left the movement years before the final bout of fighting erupted in mid-2007.
After crossing over to government-held areas, Sudha’s husband was arrested for possible links with the Tigers, and is still in detention. "I have written to ministers, to the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and to others with this, but so far I have not heard anything," she said.
While trying to convince authorities that her husband is a family man and not a hardcore separatist, Sudha also has to make a living. She returned to her native Vaharai and has set up small sewing business. "I have had to pawn all my jewellery. I’m trying to get a loan or a grant to start a small boutique," Sudha said.
Sudha’s woes are far too common among women in the war-affected areas. In Pillumalai, about 80 km from Vaharai, 20-year-old Sarojadevi Ramanathan is trying her level best to put the past behind and begin anew – an uphill battle, given that her life was at a standstill for two years beginning mid- 2006.
At that time, Sri Lankan forces had begun launching large-scale, sustained military forays into areas held by the Tigers in the eastern province of Sri Lanka. The Tigers – notorious for forced conscription of underage civilians – were desperate for new recruits.
At 16, Ramanathan would have been a perfect choice for the Tigers, so her parents took the drastic decision of never letting their daughter out their sight. The young girl stopped attending school and spent most of her life indoors. "That was the only way they could save me from being conscripted," she said.
The family fled the fighting in early 2007 and returned about a year later. But now, Ramanathan finds herself in limbo. Too old for school, too young and inexperienced for any other job, she is still stuck mostly at home. "What can I do? I can’t help my father who is a fisherman, so I help my mother in the kitchen," she said.
Marriage might appear to be her best bet, but there is no guarantee that life will become easier.
There are hardly any jobs to speak of here, and even less for women. Ramanathan’s neighbour, 18-year-old Ravindranathan Valarmadu, earns about 17 U.S. dollars a month, working six days a week at a milk collection centre. "This is the only job I could find," she said.
© Inter Press Service
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation
By Nick Davies and David Leigh | Guardian
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The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and more than 1,000 US troops.
Their publication comes amid mounting concern that Barack Obama's "surge" strategy is failing and as coalition troops hunt for two US naval personnel captured by the Taliban south of Kabul on Friday.
The war logs also detail:
• How a secret "black" unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial.
• How the US covered up evidence that the Taliban have acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles.
• How the coalition is increasingly using deadly Reaper drones to hunt and kill Taliban targets by remote control from a base in Nevada.
• How the Taliban have caused growing carnage with a massive escalation of their roadside bombing campaign, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians to date.
In a statement, the White House said the chaotic picture painted by the logs was the result of "under-resourcing" under Obama's predecessor, saying: "It is important to note that the time period reflected in the documents is January 2004 to December 2009."
"Wikileaks' story is a softened version" - Watch the report on the Russia Today
The White House also criticised the publication of the files by Wikileaks: "We strongly condemn the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organisations, which puts the lives of the US and partner service members at risk and threatens our national security. Wikileaks made no effort to contact the US government about these documents, which may contain information that endanger the lives of Americans, our partners, and local populations who co-operate with us."
The logs detail, in sometimes harrowing vignettes, the toll on civilians exacted by coalition forces: events termed "blue on white" in military jargon. The logs reveal 144 such incidents.
Some of these casualties come from the controversial air strikes that have led to Afghan government protests, but a large number of previously unknown incidents also appear to be the result of troops shooting unarmed drivers or motorcyclists out of a determination to protect themselves from suicide bombers.
At least 195 civilians are admitted to have been killed and 174 wounded in total, but this is likely to be an underestimate as many disputed incidents are omitted from the daily snapshots reported by troops on the ground and then collated, sometimes erratically, by military intelligence analysts.
Bloody errors at civilians' expense, as recorded in the logs, include the day French troops strafed a bus full of children in 2008, wounding eight. A US patrol similarly machine-gunned a bus, wounding or killing 15 of its passengers, and in 2007 Polish troops mortared a village, killing a wedding party including a pregnant woman, in an apparent revenge attack.
Questionable shootings of civilians by UK troops also figure. The US compilers detail an unusual cluster of four British shootings in Kabul in the space of barely a month, in October/November 2007, culminating in the death of the son of an Afghan general. Of one shooting, they wrote: "Investigation controlled by the British. We are not able to get [sic] complete story."
A second cluster of similar shootings, all involving Royal Marine commandos in Helmand province, took place in a six-month period at the end of 2008, according to the log entries. Asked by the Guardian about these allegations, the Ministry of Defence said: "We have been unable to corroborate these claims in the short time available and it would be inappropriate to speculate on specific cases without further verification of the alleged actions."
Rachel Reid, who investigates civilian casualty incidents in Afghanistan for Human Rights Watch, said: "These files bring to light what's been a consistent trend by US and Nato forces: the concealment of civilian casualties. Despite numerous tactical directives ordering transparent investigations when civilians are killed, there have been incidents I've investigated in recent months where this is still not happening.
Accountability is not just something you do when you are caught. It should be part of the way the US and Nato do business in Afghanistan every time they kill or harm civilians." The reports, many of which the Guardian is publishing in full online, present an unvarnished and often compelling account of the reality of modern war.
Most of the material, though classified "secret" at the time, is no longer militarily sensitive. A small amount of information has been withheld from publication because it might endanger local informants or give away genuine military secrets. Wikileaks, whose founder, Julian Assange, obtained the material in circumstances he will not discuss, said it would redact harmful material before posting the bulk of the data on its "uncensorable" servers.
Wikileaks published in April this year a previously suppressed classified video of US Apache helicopters killing two Reuters cameramen on the streets of Baghdad, which gained international attention. A 22-year-old intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning, was arrested in Iraq and charged with leaking the video, but not with leaking the latest material. The Pentagon's criminal investigations department continues to try to trace the leaks and recently unsuccessfully asked Assange, he says, to meet them outside the US to help them. Assange allowed the Guardian to examine the logs at our request. No fee was involved and Wikileaks was not involved in the preparation of the Guardian's articles.
© Guardian
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