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
University undergrads assaulted by police while putting up posters
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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Monday, July 26, 2010
US FET Marines share experiences with Sri Lankan Armed Forces
Photo courtesy: U.S. Marine Corps Photo
By Corporal Gabriel Velasquez | US Navy
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"We invited them on board the Pearl Harbor to meet with them and discuss differences in our militaries and just in general being a woman in the military," said Marine Corps 1st Lt. Briana Carter, the assistant operations officer for Combat Logistics Battalion (CLB) 15.
During the interaction, Marines explained their roles within the organization, said Sgt. Krystal L. Marshall, CLB 15 communications detachment maintenance chief.
"We explained to them what a FET is and what we do on deployment," said Marshall "We told them that we're trained to go into hazardous zones with the male Marines and do everything from searching females to working security."
Sri Lankan and U.S. medical personnel inquired about different techniques and shared differences in their practices.
"I demonstrated to them what a sucking chest wound was and also what to do with a protruding intestine wound," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Lesheka D. Moore.
A modular tactical vest (MTV) was displayed so the Sri Lankans could see what kind of gear FET members carry.
"They really liked our [MTV]," said Marshall. "They said it was much more comfortable than the ones they wear, but they did say it was heavier."
Some participants were surprised by some of the differences.
"We found out that they do not serve on ships, so they were amazed that we live and work here with the males," said Carter. "It really showed us how different it is for women in other countries."
After their time together aboard Pearl Harbor, the FET members and Sri Lankans joined in the nearby Sri Lankan Naval Academy tug-of-war competition.
For the FET members, it was time well spent.
"It was a really awesome experience," said Marshall. "It was definitely time well spent, and I can't wait to do something like it again."
© US Navy
Monday, July 26, 2010
US 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit become teachers in Sri Lanka
Photo courtesy: Michael Russell | US Navy
By Cpl. Gabriel Velasquez | Marine Corps News
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During a Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief demonstration the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit held for the Sri Lankan Navy, Marines from Battery C, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment taught riot control and searching techniques to sailors of the SBS.
“We started by teaching them different formations when in a situation where riot control is needed,” said Staff Sgt. Osman Lima, platoon sergeant, Battery C, 1st Bn, 4th Marines. “We also taught them snatching procedures for an injured person or a high value target,” added the Los Angeles, Calif. native.
The sailors from the SBS listened intently to the Marines, absorbing all the Marines had to teach about riot control. The Marines explained in cases of disaster relief or humanitarian aid, chaos may ensue and safe control of the crowds would be needed.
Eventually, Marines turned over their gear and gave the sailors of the SBS an opportunity to apply their newly learned techniques.
“We gave them our helmets, the shin guards, and batons for some practical application,” said Cpl. Daniel Middlebos, artilleryman, Battery C, 1st Bn, 4th Marines. “They nailed all the techniques we taught very quickly and accurately,” added the 24-year-old artilleryman.
The Marines explained to them the different uses for the gear and the various parts of the weapons system used during riot control situations.
“We showed them our different non-lethal rounds used from the M203 grenade launcher,” said Lima. “We then instructed them on how and when we would use them,” he added.
Another topic of discussion was proper search techniques for any detained persons during a humanitarian operation.
“I gave a class on how to search detainees properly and safely,” said Sgt. Derek Stegall, artillery section chief, Battery C, 1st Bn, 4th Marines. “They were very eager to learn and performed the techniques well during the practical application,” explained the 28-year-old Festus, Miss. native.
With both the SBS and the Marines having an amphibious doctrine, the similarities between the two services were apparent.
“They’re incredibly intelligent and disciplined,” explained Stegall. “They picked up everything we taught and didn’t make any mistakes,” he added.
Overall, the Marines of Battery C agreed that the training was a success.
“I think the training went really well,” said Middlebos. “They were really hospitable, friendly, and the beach environment we trained on was great,” he added.
For one Marine, the experience was one that he will remember for his entire career.
“The camaraderie between the Marines and the Sri Lankan Navy will probably be one of the best memories I ever have in the Marines,” said Lima. “I really hope I get the opportunity to do something like this again,” he added.
© Marine Cops News
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sri Lanka: Six university students arrested
By Sherwani Synon | Daily Mirror Online
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Speaking to Daily Mirror online the spokesperson for the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF), Udul Premaratne said these students were arrested last night in Nugegoda while they were putting up these posters.
While two Sri Jayawardenepura University students were arrested by the Kirulapone police, four students of the Indigenous medical faculty of the Colombo University were arrested by the Welikada police.
The students are placed in remand custody at present. He further said that the police had also removed cut outs placed at the Kelaniya , Sri Jayawardenepura and the Indigenous medical faculty of the Colombo University.
"We will be filing a case at the Supreme court within this week as we think this is a violation to our freedom of expression," Udul said.
Meanwhile, when Daily Mirror online contacted Police media spokesman SP Prishanth Jayakody, he said he wasnt aware of such an incident as he had not recieved any details of these arrests.
© Daily Mirror Online
Monday, July 26, 2010
All things black since Black July
By Kusal Perera | The Sunday Leader
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It was a day when my parental house was cramped full with about 50 men, women and children, wanting refuge and security. All, neighbours and ordinary Tamil families, with whom we grew together from our infancy. With whom we played, went to school, quarrelled and made friends the next day. Long time neighbours in Rathnakara Place, whose houses were being looted and burnt, while my parents were helplessly watching two whole days, trying desperately to find a way out to move them to safety.
They moved out on the third day to Saraswathy Hall, Bambalapitiya and Hindu College, Ratmalana in navy escorted convoys with tears they couldn’t hold on to, in swollen eyes. My father was admitted to the Cardiac Unit of the Colombo General Hospital, the same evening. All that after a belated 48 hour curfew, imposed by President Jayewardene.
That was “Black” July in 1983. There were more horrific incidents acted out without shame and with braggardismo, in broad daylight. Doped heroes in mobs looking for loot and humans to kill. How many heroes have we had since that “Black July”, in this motherland given in custody to the Sinhala Buddhists by Lord Gauthama Buddha himself?
Sinhala heroes they all are. The Rajapaksas right in front, led by President Mahinda R. with brother Gotabaya close on his heels, or close by his side. The architects of the now concluded war and President Rajapaksa honoured as King Mahinda VII by that archaeological scholar, Ellawala Medhananda Thera of the JHU.
Gen. Sarath Fonseka also claims he alone commandeered the army to victory against the Tamil separatist Tigers, paraded as a hero by the JVP and their DNA. Now we have the Honourable Minister Weerawansa who almost starved to death on a saline drip, whose photo went up on city walls with gratitude, for that “heroic” fast.
They are descendant heroes after Kaluwa Dewage Cyril Mathew, a prominent minister in the UNP government of J.R. Jayewardene, who gave Sinhala extremism the modern day hard line brutality. Mathew was conspicuously racist with a vengeance in his call for Sinhala supremacy. He was openly accused for his role in creating mayhem in Jaffna, burning down the Jaffna Public Library and the residence of TULF MP Yogeswaran, during the final days of the District Development Council elections in 1981. Mathew was also accused of the pogrom on Tamil people on “Black” July itself.
The rest is knotted history with a protracted war and a human tragedy that kept heaping more and more complications over the past decades. In between there were All Party Conferences, the Annexe “C” as it was known, the famous Thimpu talks which brought consensus among all Tamil armed groups and the TULF on the concept of a “Tamil Homeland” with three other conditions that laid the basis for any further negotiations. There were also three further attempts at negotiations under Presidents’ Premadasa and Kumaratunga and then under PM Wickremesinghe.
Each failed attempt made it far more complex and brutal to live with and the war crossed seas and geographical borders, bringing in many and varied actors. Some wanting to push geo political agendas and some wanting to live and earn with the war. This war, concluded in May last year, left all the agonies of a never attempted reconciliation in a distraught, divided and a devastated country. It still leaves the decades old, unanswered question, “do we really want peace and reconciliation the decent and honourable way as a modern, democratic, nation state ?”
I would beg to answer in the negative, even after all the blood we’ve shed and lives, infrastructure and environment destroyed. After unaccounted numbers of soldiers, Tiger combatants and even civilians who never wanted this war, have been left disabled for life. They would say an emphatic “no”, though it may insult thousands of young war widows on both sides of the divide, Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim. And with children — how many exactly none would still not know — who are orphaned, have lost one or both of their parents in the North, Wanni and the East and those from soldier families added.
We yet take pride fooling ourselves that we Sri Lankans are the noblest (loken uthum rata) and we don’t take orders from imperialist Western and international countries, calling them conspirators. We still try to fool ourselves that we do best, our own way, a Sinhala society that has pushed for political hegemony over six decades and in the process have woefully failed to find positive answers to any of our national issues in a decent, democratic manner. We don’t have to listen to or take orders from any, if we are truly working towards solving our own socio economic problems, within democratic politics. But we honestly, DON’T.
Leaving aside all the criticism, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LL&RC) established by President Rajapaksa, does not prove the regime is sincere or committed in achieving what is said, it would. The way it is constituted, leaves no trust, no confidence for battered and bruised Tamil and Muslim people in North and East to walk up to the LL&RC, to say what they have to say. Will those people held in barbed wire camps under military guard, ever come up to this LL&RC to say how they were treated, how their relatives went missing and what they now need ?
If there was any serious commitment and a sincere political will for reconciliation in this ethnically divided and polarised society, the proposal for the LL&RC should have been brought to parliament for due consent from all political parties, including Tamil and Muslim members. A serious commitment would have sought a national consensus for honest reconciliation between estranged and polarised communities. But such was not even thought of. The LL&RC was established ex parté by the regime in control, only to counter any investigation, campaigned for in human rights circles.
It was the same with the APRC. As at all times in the past, there was no serious attempt to include democratic Tamil representation. The likes of EPDP were thought of as enough excuse. Dragged on for more than a year, the APRC began deliberating on a draft that is supposed to have spelt out the basis for a new constitution. Two years more and 128 APRC meetings to discuss the chapters of that draft document, produced a final report that was given to President Rajapaksa in June this year, only to be shelved and for other reforms to be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers for supposed extension of presidential terms.
That shelved on political uncertainties, Wickremesinghe as UNP and Opposition Leader accepts dialogue with Rajapaksa to bring in an Executive Premiership, totally outside the efforts of the four year old APRC.
It is again only about accommodating the political agendas of the Sinhala South and their post Mathew leaders, Rajapaksa, Wickremesinghe, et al. Where are the answers to the crying need of reconciling a nation that bled on either side of an ethnic divide for decades and is numbed for life ? Where are the answers for democratising a society to accommodate all within a secular, plural state ? Where are academics, intellectuals, civil society and corporate leaders, artistes, trade unionists and journalists, who should lead the people in finding answers ?
There are no leaders, no intellectual leaders, for sure. July ‘83 was a cardiac arrest that left us sick like dead. It left all things BLACK beyond that July, for sure.
© The Sunday Leader
Monday, July 26, 2010
A network of permanent bases in North-East with Chinese assistance
By Shamindra Ferdinando | The Island
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In keeping with the government policy, the army has established the 68 Division headquarters at Sugandirapuram, Puthukudirippu east of the Kandy-Jaffna A9 road. Army Chief Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya on Thursday (22) visited the new headquarters to meet senior officers and men deployed in the area.
Lt. General Jayasuriya told a gathering of men and officers that permanent bases were necessary to move security forces from private and public property currently occupied by them. Although the Jaffna peninsula had remained home to the largest concentration of forces before the outbreak of Eelam war IV in August 2006, today the single biggest deployment is in the Vanni.
The army chief appreciated the Chinese assistance to speed up the re-deployment process by making available what he called pre-fabricated technology. Lt. General Jayasuriya said: "These types of permanent buildings were made possible due to pre-fabricated technology from China. The government wants us to vacate all buildings, belonging to the civil sector, so that owners of those buildings could reclaim them and help bring normalcy to the area. Civil life should be restored and facilitated in the area. In the future, once married quarters of the officers and the other ranks are set up in respective areas, they would be able to live with their families as well while serving the areas."
The Army Chief thanked his officers and men for the ongoing development projects under ‘Uthuru Wasanthaya’ programme in the sphere of demining, bridge building, constructions, other humanitarian projects, etc.
The newly opened headquarters is the second new command headquarters established in the area controlled by the 59 Division.
Military spokesman Brigadier Ubaya Madawela said that permanent bases were being set up both east and west of the A9 road. Responding to a query by The Island, Madawala said that some of the new constructions would come up at Tunukkai. He emphasized that all new bases would be set up on State land, though some accused the government of taking over private land.
According to him, as part of the re-deployment in a post-LTTE era, a section of the 53 Division had been moved to the South to intensify security and also to assist in development programmes. The 53 Division troops are deployed in Galle, Hambantota and Moneragala, while a section of troops remained at Mankulam. Major General Amal Karunasekera, formerly head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) recently took over the 53 Division.
Brigadier Madawala said that the army was making an effort to vacate private property occupied by troops deployed in the Jaffna town area. He said that due to severe ‘space constrains’ they were finding it difficult to move troops, though they were looking for ways and means of finding alternative accommodation for them.
The army consists of 200,000 personnel. It numbers increased exponentially due to massive recruitment drives carried out during Eelam war IV to strengthen fighting formations.
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