Photo courtesy: Tamil Net
Tamil Net
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Mannaar magistrate conducted the inquest into the death Friday around 1:20 p.m at the place where the body was found.
Directed by the magistrate police handed over the body to Mannaar General Hospital mortuary for post mortem examination and identification.
© Tamil Net
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Sri Lanka: Burnt body of male recovered in Mannaar
Saturday, August 28, 2010
SL President secure two - thirds majority to change the constitution
By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal | Reuters
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"We will not join the government, but we will support the proposed constitutional amendments," Basheer Segu Dawood, the chairman of the ethnic minority party Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, told Reuters.
The president's United Peoples Freedom Alliance won a sweeping majority in an April parliamentary poll after Rajapaksa's re-election to the presidency three months earlier.
Rajapaksa has already struck a tentative deal to return Sri Lanka to rule by an executive prime minister. That would allow him to by-pass the existing two-term limit as head of state and run the country as prime minister.
With the latest support, Rajapaksa's ruling United People Freedom Alliance (UPFA) can command 154 votes in the 225-seat parliament, giving the president more than the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional change.
The crossovers come as the government and the main opposition United National Party are in discussions to change the constitution and reduce the president's executive powers.
Critics blame the president's strong executive powers under the present constitution for political interference in the judiciary, public service and police, allowing the head of state to manipulate the system as he or she wishes.
© Reuters
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Operation Pacific Angel-Sri Lanka concludes
Photo courtesy: Master Sgt. Mike Hammond | U.S. Air Force photo
By Master Sgt. Mike Hammond | US Air Force
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Pacific Angel-Sri Lanka medical teams provided primary, dental and optometry care to 4,647 patients in three locations and dispensed 4,462 prescriptions. Included in that total are 1,662 optometry patients and 562 dental patients who recieved medical care. The Pacific Angel optometrists provided 1,448 pairs of eyeglasses, and the dentists performed 78 extractions.
"Together, we were able to provide medical care to more than 4,400 Sri Lankans as well as conduct capacity building seminars in pediatrics and mental health," said Col. (Dr.) David O'Brien, the 13th Air Force surgeon general. "These activities have had an enormous and positive impact on several communities in Sri Lanka. This is an extraordinary accomplishment for all the participants of the Pacific Angel-Sri Lanka mission.
"A great deal of thanks to our Sri Lankan counterparts for their support during this Pacific Angel mission -- we couldn't possibly have been as effective without their support," he said.
Two medical educational programs were also offered, which provided U.S. and Sri Lankan professionals the opportunity to exchange information and practice advanced skills related to mental health and pediatric emergencies.
Following the completion of medical treatment at each site, Pacific Angel members donated the remaining medical supplies to the Cheddikulam Hospital and Puttalam Township.
In addition to the medical care provided during Pacific Angel-Sri Lanka, the Pacific Angel civil engineering teams repaired and refurbished two primary schools, which improved the educational environment for nearly 200 students. The U.S. forces also partnered with the mayor of Puttalam to provide a power generator, lighting and three new computers to the Semandalawa Kanista Vidyalaya school in Puttalam Township.
Pacific Angel is a humanitarian and civic assistance program aimed at improving military and civic cooperation between the U.S. and countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
This is the fourth and final iteration of Operation Pacific Angel 2010. Operations were previously conducted in the Philippines in February, Vietnam in May, and Bangladesh in June.
© US Air Force
Saturday, August 28, 2010
IMF urges Sri Lanka to broaden tax base
By Mary Swire | Tax-News
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The IMF mission said that overall economic conditions were improving, and the economy was likely to show strong growth this year. End-June performance criteria on domestic budget borrowing, reserve money, and net reserves had been met. With budget revenues increasing and expenditure restraint continuing, fiscal performance so far remained consistent with achieving the government’s full-year deficit target of 8% of GDP. Financial sector reforms continued to go forward in line with the program.
However the IMF thought that significant near- and medium-term macroeconomic challenges would need to be addressed, if Sri Lanka was to take full advantage of the current favorable environment. The IMF said:
“First, a fundamental tax reform is needed, and planned, to simplify the existing system, broaden the tax base (including by restricting concessions), spread the tax burden more equitably, and support economic growth, all while boosting the revenue-to-GDP ratio."
"The resulting fiscal space could allow increased public capital spending on reconstruction and infrastructure as well as social spending to support the vulnerable, but it is clear that the country’s large investment needs cannot be met through the government budget alone."
"Private-sector investment will need to play a critical role. To foster this investment, policies will need to be geared toward preserving macroeconomic stability, ensuring external competitiveness, facilitating capital market development, and improving the investment climate, all of which would lay the basis for higher sustainable growth in a post-war environment."
© Tax-News
Saturday, August 28, 2010
India wants new defence ties with Lanka
Daily Mirror
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This was after talks in New Delhi between a Sri Lankan delegation led by Minister Basil Rajapaksa and a high powered Indian delegation comprising National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar.
The Sri Lankan delegation included Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga.
The institutional mechanism of an annual defence dialogue was decided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during a meeting in June.
“It is time to look at greater comprehensive cooperation. In this context, we broadly discussed the areas which would be important to focus on in the annual defence dialogue. An earlier visit by the Indian Defence Secretary will help to understand the issues. In the aftermath of the conflict, there is a need for a different defence relationship,” the source said after the high-level India-Sri Lanka talks on Thursday.
He denied that Sri Lanka had approached India for assistance in building the second phase of the Hambantota port. China had undertaken the expansion and modernisation work in the first phase and was understood to have tied up with Sri Lanka for the second phase as well.
India was cautious in its defence ties with Sri Lanka during the conflict and had restricted military assistance to non-lethal aspects such as enhancing the Armed forces' maritime and aerial domain awareness. When Sri Lanka sought arms from other countries including Pakistan, New Delhi enabled Colombo to seal a $300 million armaments deal with its old ally Moscow.
The source said defence was one of the several issues at the table, most of which were a follow-up of decisions taken during Mr. Rajapaksa's recent visit. Both sides also discussed the problems facing fishermen, with India pointing out that killings were unacceptable and that a way had to be found to eliminate this altogether. It was agreed to open channels of communication between fishermen from both countries to understand issues that have sparked violence on the high seas.
Having embarked on building railway infrastructure in Sri Lanka, India has signed most of the contracts and an Export and Import Bank team will shortly complete the arrangements for the $800 million credit for the purpose.
India has completed the hydrological survey of the Kankesanthurai port and will be sending a team to finalise the detailed project report. It is also finalising the tender documents for the modernisation of the Palaly airport.
Sri Lanka said it appreciated the ground covered by India in three months to construct 50,000 houses for the internally displaced people with the pilot project for 1,000 houses set to take off soon.
© Daily Mirror
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Sri Lanka: The last debate on the constitution
By Basil Fernando | Asian Human Rights Commission
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Take for example the question of the constitution. Among the debates of any nation, those on the constitutions would receive the highest place. Not so in Sri Lanka. No one any longer debates the constitution.
The last debate on the constitution was on the 17 amendment. There were many who argued for it and they did so long a long time. Interestingly, no one argued against it. The government’s argument was that it was good piece of legislation but that there were some defects in it. To cure the defect, the government killed the amendment itself; very much like cutting off the arm to save a finger.
In fact, in that last debate on the constitution, the government preferred to bluff rather than to debate. The real problem of the 17th Amendment was that it tried to impose limitations on the power of executive president. The limitations were on his powers to appoint whomever he wished to important positions in the civil service. The government did not agree with having any such limitations and did not wish to debate it. The government made the decision unilaterally and merely created some pretexts for doing do so.
The problem for the government was that it decided that it was not possible to debate on the need to have checks and balances. It was not possible to say that this was a wrong principle. In fact, the government position was that was a wrong principle as far as the government was concerned. The government believes that having no limits to its power is a better principle for governance and that it is impossible to govern Sri Lanka with while trying to abide by the checks and balances principle. Thus, the government believed that this principle was wrong, at least, for Sri Lanka. It had to be abandoned.
However, this was not something that could be said openly as there is almost a universal belief that the principle of having 'checks and balances' is right. To say otherwise, would be tantamount to saying that the law of gravity is incorrect. To debate over the issue of the 17th Amendment was counterproductive. Thus, the only way out was bluff. And that was what the government did.
This example explains the reason as to why there are no longer any debates about the constitution in Sri Lanka. Debates involve principles and there cannot be a debate to reject all the principles on which constitutionalism is based. If one wants to rule in a way that rejects all these principles, then there is no point in debating. Besides, it would be counterproductive to say that our government believes that all principles relating to constitutional law is wrong.
The way out is to create a smokescreen. To have lots of quarrels going on and when you have the monopoly of the media it is easy to do that. The very style of the media in recent years has changed in order to trivialize everything. Trivialization is an essential component of creating quarrels and quarrels are quite an easy way of trivializing any issue.
To have 'no principles' is the very meaning of trivialization. From having shouting matches to some 'jokes' to tickle the audience is what the public get as their daily diet now. There are experts in the job now to keep the show going on.
Soon there will be some major changes in the constitution. However, such changes will not be preceded by any debates. As the proposed amendment is for displacement of limits relating to the president's power a debate will only create problems for the achievement of the government's plans. Indeed the proposed plan cannot be justified on the basis of principles relating to constitutional law. This change will also take place in the midst of some quarrels instead.
This constitutional change will also be introduced as a triviality, though its implications to the country are momentous.
What will this debate-shy society leave as a heritage for future generations?
© AHRC
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Sri Lanka: "Govt may have deliberately shelled civilians and hospitals" says UN Humanitarian Coordinator
By Matthew Russell Lee | Inner City Press
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Inner City Press asked Holmes about criticism of his and the UN's actions in Sri Lanka, for example pulling out of Kilinochchi, funding the internment camps and failing even now to get to the bottom of the murder of the Action Contre La Faim humanitarian workers.
Holmes called this the “ACF massacre,” and said it has still not been explained or even investigated. He did not explain the Kilinochchi pull out, which has been criticized including the International Crisis Group.
He said there's a need to know how many civilians were killed, when it was his OCHA unit which stopped reporting on civilians casualties when one of their reports was leaked to and published by Inner City Press.
Holmes began his answer by referring to the “heavy propaganda claims on both sides.” It was not clear if, beyond side of the the government and “Sinhalese extremists” -- to use Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew's description of Mahinda Rajapaksa -- Holmes meant the LTTE Tamil Tigers, or the Tamil diaspora.
As Inner City Press reported at the time, during Ban Ki-moon's trip to Sri Lanka in May 2009, Holmes during an on the record briefing on the UN plane said that he got lots of email from the Tamil diaspora alleging for example bias by Ban's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar. I just delete it, Holmes said of the e-mail.
Later after complaints, Inner City Press tried to soften the story. But that is what he said. And since he said it, information has emerged about Nambair's still unexplained role in telling LTTE leaders who wanted to surrender to come out with white flags. They were killed, and the leader of the unit which did the killing is now reportedly coming to the UN as Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative.
Holmes is headed to a think tank of sorts, Ditchley Hall. Perhaps he will write a book -- and perhaps it will address these issues.
© Inner City Press
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva To The UN
By Jamila Najmuddin | Daily Mirror
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Major General Silva’s appointment to the UN comes amidst human rights allegations being raised against the government and the military which resulted in UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon appointing a panel to advise him on Sri Lanka.
Foreign Ministry sources said that after taking over from former Deputy Permanent Representative Bandula Jayasekera, Major General Silva is expected to “clear the air” over the concerns being raised at the UN regarding Sri Lanka and the final stages of the war against the LTTE which ended last year.
Major General Shavendra Silva was allegedly among those mentioned by MP Sarath Fonseka in a media interview where he had said that the former 58 Division Commander had received orders to shoot at sight LTTE suspects who came with white flags to surrender to the army during the final stage of war. Fonseka was later indicted in Court over his claims.
During the war as the 58 Division Commander, Major General Shavendra Silva was instrumental in the military capturing several former LTTE strongholds including the Mannar rice Bowl, Nachchikuda, Devils Point, Pooneryn, Kilinochchi, Elephant Pass, Vishvamadu and Puthukudirippu.
© Daily Mirror
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
23 nails in body of tortured Sri Lankan maid
By Md Rasooldeen | Arab News
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“We have received this complaint from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo, who said the maid has been allegedly tortured by her sponsor,” a senior diplomat from the Sri Lankan mission in Riyadh told Arab News. “We are looking for the sponsor. We were able to track down the Saudi recruitment agent in Riyadh and we will summon the sponsor to discuss this issue,” the official said.
Doctors at the Kamburipitya Base Hospital in the Matara district, 140 km from Colombo, said the nails had been hammered into the maid’s body. Dr. Kamal Weeratunge, who was treating the maid, claimed the nails had been heated up before they punctured her skin.
On Sri Lankan television channel Newsfirst Sirasa, the maid showed the marks where the nails had gone through. The maid, identified as 50-year-old Ariyawathie, said that there were too many people to serve in the house where she worked.
“I had to work continuously since I had to do the chores of all the occupants and when I wanted to take rest due to tiredness, they inserted the nail in my body as a punishment,” she said.
“I had to work from dawn to dusk. I hardly slept. They beat me and threatened to kill me and hide my body.” She added that she arranged her travel documents to return home on her own expense. “They were really devils with no mercy at all,” she said.
According to records at the Sri Lankan Embassy, the maid came to the Kingdom on March 25. The diplomat said that the sponsor had bypassed the mission and made his own arrangements to send the woman home. “We can only deal with cases that come up before the mission,” he said. However, he added that the mission would take action following the complaint submitted to the embassy from Colombo.
The maid had come to Saudi Arabia after being registered at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE).
SLBFE chairman Kingsley Ranawake said that a formal inquiry would be held with the concerned maid and appropriate action taken.
© Arab News
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Cultural and psychological attack on Tamils in Jaffna
Tamil Net
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The Tamil name of the archaeological site is Kantharoadai, meaning the pond of Kanthar.
But the signboards presently displayed in the archaeological site give a Sinhala name Kadurugoda for the site. The description boards in the site are entirely in Sinhala. Besides, the Archaeology Department has also translated the name Chu'n'naakam of the nearby town, from Tamil into Sinhala Hu’nugama, even though the latter was never in usage.
First of all Kadurugoda is a translation of the Tamil name Kathiramalai. In a late historiographical literature of Jaffna, Kathiramalai is mentioned as a seat of an ancient kingdom that existed in the Jaffna Peninsula prior to the medieval Kingdom of Jaffna.
In the early 20th century when the archaeological site at Kantharoadai was brought to light by Paul E Pieris, (grandfather of archaeologist Siran Deraniyagala), it was assumed that Kathiramalai mentioned in the literature should be Kantharoadai. The name Kathiramalai for a locality a couple of kilometres away from the site was cited in evidence. Kadurugoda was then invented either as a translation of Kathiramalai or to rhyme with Kantharoadai.
Kathira-malai means ‘the mound of acacia’ (Udai-mu'l'lu or Karuveala-mu'l'lu).
Kathiram in Tamil, and Khadira in Sinhala stand for the spiky acacia shrub. The plant got the name because of its prominent spikes or thorns. The Tamil word Kathir means spike (Dravidian Etymological Dictionary 1194, 1195). This word has Kannada and Telugu cognates spelt as Kaduru.
Even though Kaduru in Sinhala is a generic name for some species of trees bearing poisonous nuts, what suits the natural vegetation of the locality is acacia.
Koadu (a synonym of Malai) in Tamil / Malayalam means hill, hillock, peak, summit of a hill etc., as well as bank of a stream or pond (Dravidian Etymological Dictionary 2049, 2200). Goda in Sinhala means heap, mass, mound etc as well as land at a water’s edge. Both the Tamil / Malayalam koadu and the Sinhala goda are popular place name suffixes. Thousands of place names in the Sinhala heartland of the island end with goda and in this sense the word also stands for a village or hamlet.
Obviously, even after rendering Kathiramalai into Sinhala as Kadurugoda, there is nothing non-Dravidian in it.
But we have some Sinhala academics not knowing their Sinhala, telling that Eezham Tamils are ‘language-replaced’ Sinhalese. They cite the Eezham Tamil place names as examples. Given the nature of the admixture of Dravidian and Prakrit in the island in evolving Eezham Tamil and Sinhala languages, the Tamils can also say that the Sinhalese are ‘language-replaced’ Tamils.
Amusingly, the same academics also imagine the presence of Sinhala-Buddhism wherever they find a Bo tree in the Tamil land.
The cluster of Buddhist stupas found at Kantaroadai is a heritage of the people of Jaffna. Buddhism was not the beginning of heritage in Jaffna. Below the Buddhist layer of Kantharoadai, evidences for an earlier culture called the megalithic culture of South India was noticed by Pennsylvania University archaeologists in the 1960s.
According to Pali chronicles, when the first Buddhist emissaries in the 3rd century BCE came to the island through Jaffna peninsula, the name of the port in its Pali rendering was Ko’la Patuna (Kozhu-paddinam, meaning the port at the point). The name clearly indicates that it was a Tamil port town, as both Kozhu and Paddinam are Tamil / Dravidian terms (DED 2147, 3868).
The Tamil Buddhist epic Ma’nimeakalai testifies to Buddhism prevailing among Tamils in the island in the early centuries of the Common Era. It was a cultural choice of Eezham Tamils that they relinquished Buddhism later. But the archaeological remains are their heritage.
This heritage doesn’t give licence to today’s Sinhala-Buddhists to alienate Tamils from their land or to justify cultural genocide.
Sinhala academics reacting to what Jeremy Page wrote on Army and Archaeology phenomenon in the island miss the point or intentionally ignore it.
The cultural and psychological assault that is taking place in the Tamil land may be unimportant to the development conquistadors, but these were some of the very fundamentals that brought in the conflict in the island and they are unleashed more than ever today. The chronic situation will aggravate without territorial power status quo of the ancient nations in the island.
© Tamil Net
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