By Amantha Perera | Inter Press Service
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
"Don’t forget that this is a nation that is wounded at its heart, the media reflects that psyche. The healing has not even begun," Sunil Jayasekara, the convenor of the Free Media Movement (FMM), the country’s foremost media rights group told IPS.
Jayasekara observed that as the war reached its climax in late 2008, journalists found it hard to report objectively.
"The media became a part of the military operation," Jayasekara said. "No one was able to report objectively, there was pressure on them from all parties." That pressure, Jayasekara says, has not eased.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) lists 24 Sri Lankan journalists killed since 2006.
One of the most frightening examples of intimidation - the January 2009 murder of prominent opposition editor Lasantha Wickrematunge still remains a mystery.
Last week, the pro-opposition website lankaenews.com was temporarily banned while a case against it for contempt was tried.
"All these things together have made the media community fearful and doubting every move they make," Jayasekara said, stressing that the climate of fear has prevented journalists from carrying out their work independently.
Coercion also comes in the form of government issued licences, especially for electronic media and by way of advertising revenue, Jayasekara said. Officials at very high levels and media owners have also been co-opted by political parties - diluting independence even further, he added.
"What you get is an industry that is deeply scarred," Jayasekara said.
Other media observers feel that the situation has been aggravated by talented and experienced journalists leaving the country.
Namini Wijedasa, who was feted by peers as the ‘Best Journalist of the Year’ at the 2010 Journalism Awards organised by industry bodies including the Editors’ Guild of Sri Lanka, told IPS that she is simply stunned by the steep drop in standards.
"I feel that the dedication to journalism as a craft is waning," she said. "It is being replaced by a job ethic to produce as much copy as you can."
Wijedasa told IPS that the media has been fighting too many battles on too many fronts, that it simply does not have the stamina to make sure professional standards are met. Today’s media here does not have the resources and will to chase after important stories on issues like poverty, gender, governance and corruption, she said.
"You have to get out of that mentality of just churning out copy. You have to feel that what you do impacts the society you live in," Wijedasa said.
Sanjay Senanayake, a media educator here, has tried to raise these issues with publishing houses on several occasions. Senanayake told IPS that editorial boards and management did not show any interest in improving standards.
"I don’t know where the real problem lies, but there is very big lack of willingness to make sure what we do, we do it right, despite the tiring conditions," Senanayake said.
Jayasekara, Wijedasa and Senanayake all agree that the combination of fear and slacking professional standards have created a vicious cycle eroding public trust in the media.
"How on earth can you question accountability in government when you yourself are not accountable," Senanayake laments.
Jayasekara feels the problem goes deeper than slacking copy. He told IPS that the media has to somehow begin to raise its voice as an independent force. A similar scenario arose in the late 1980s - when government pressure on the media was overbearing - leading to the formation of organisations like the FMM. "So far we have not seen those types of movements, that is why we feel the pressure so much," he told IPS.
For Senanayake the little bit of hope there is, lies in media not concentrated in the capital Colombo. He points to two regional radio stations Uva and Kotamale, where journalists have been building community trust by working on stories that matter locally. "When people realise that these stories can make a change, they look at media differently," he told IPS.
"When people trust the media more, it is difficult to muzzle it," Jayasekara said.
But he feels that breaking political and other systemic pressures is vital for this. " We have to get out of this cycle, they only way to do that is for the media to keep resisting the pressure."
© IPS
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Sri Lanka: War long over, media still muzzled
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Sri Lanka needs truth, not a national forgetting
By Dilan Thampapillai | ABC
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
The situation in Sri Lanka itself seems much the same from some accounts.
I raise the point about human contact because it is so vital to empathy and understanding. It is the absence of empathy that has given both sides a fairly vitriolic view of each other. The lack of real contact as equal human beings allows unhelpful stereotypes to prevail. An entire generation of Tamils brought up on the news reports that they have seen from Sri Lanka and the commentaries that they receive from the Tamil community might likely perceive the Sinhalese as violent and criminal. Similarly, the Sinhalese fed a diet of stories from government media about the Tamil Tigers might view the Tamils as terrorists and troublemakers. Racism grows in the absence of understanding.
None of that excuses or fully explains the violence in Sri Lanka. But it is relevant to the war crimes that were likely committed in Sri Lanka in the last stages of the civil war. But why else would Sinhalese soldiers, many of whom likely couldn't speak Tamil and who hadn't met Tamils before, commit atrocities against Tamil civilians? Why else did Tamil insurgents, many of whom would never have known a Sinhalese person other than as a soldier, go and kill Sinhalese civilians during the war?
The Sri Lankan Government is eager to deny that crimes were committed and has done everything that it can do to stymie an investigation. The United Nations Panel that released a recent report on war crimes in Sri Lanka was not even allowed into the country. The Sri Lankan Government has also done everything it can do to erase the conflict by demolishing Tamil Tiger cemeteries (despite their clear historical value) and resettling Sinhalese people in the North and East of Sri Lanka onto properties owned by Tamils.
The Sri Lankan Government wants to forget the Tamil Tigers. This is understandable – the Tigers came close to breaking Sri Lanka as a nation. Bear in mind that the Tamil Tigers, who at any one time had a fighting strength of just about 6000 soldiers, were able to fight the Sri Lankan Army and control swathes of territory for over 26 years. In military terms it was an extraordinary achievement. They were outnumbered 20:1 but they beat back the Sri Lankan Army invasions time and again. Sri Lanka was forced to launch a massive invasion into its own country to defeat them and even then it only managed it with substantial assistance from China and Pakistan in 2009.
However, in trying to forget the Tigers, Sri Lanka is forgetting the lessons of its own history. It is worth remembering that the Tamil Tigers existed because of the injustices perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Government. The Tigers were a violent and flawed organization, to say the least, but they enjoyed popular support amongst the Tamils because they provided armed resistance to a brutal government.
Instead of denying the truth Sri Lanka as a country needs a full investigation of the war crimes that took place in the last stages of the war.
Both communities are too big to ignore. Both sides suffered horrible losses in the war. Virtually every family was affected in some way or another. There are 14 million Sinhalese. There are about 2.5 million Tamils left in Sri Lanka and the diaspora, with children, likely matches that number. There are about 80 million Tamils worldwide. You can’t throw a stone in Asia without hitting a Tamil – and knowing our culture he’ll likely throw it back. So this issue isn’t going to go away.
With the truth comes closure.
It won’t suit Rajapakse, it definitely won’t suit Palitha Kohona and a host of other Sri Lankan politicians and military leaders, so it probably will not happen. But it would not suit the Tigers either.
The reason for that is that a full and proper investigation would disclose the true extent of the crimes committed by the Sri Lankan military and the Tamil Tigers. In doing so, it would explode the heroic warrior myth that currently sits around both camps.
It would raise some very difficult questions about the Tigers. For example, when it was clear that the war was lost why did LTTE recruiters feel that it was necessary to round up children to serve in combat? Why did the Tigers shoot at fleeing Tamil civilians?
An investigation would temper the triumphalism in Sri Lanka. After all, how many rapes occurred whilst women were in Sri Lankan custody and why did they occur? Why did Sri Lankan Government officials fail to investigate? How many executions took place? Who took part in them and how much did the Sri Lankan leadership know? What about the shelling of civilians?
In the absence of truth the myths and the suspicions will grow. It is better that the full horror of the war be investigated and discussed. That would be way better than maintaining these polarized positions of ethnic hate. I suspect that if the full and detailed truth came out we would see a picture of deeply flawed individuals committing terrible acts in a horrific conflict. As bad as it would be, it would share a commonality with so many other military conflicts.
Both communities need the truth. With the truth comes closure and with closure comes the prospect of a real reconciliation. It’s an issue that is bigger than the perpetrators.
Dilan Thampapillai is a Lecturer with the School of Law at Deakin University.
© ABC
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Sri Lanka's May Day rallies reject UN war report
AFP | Daily Times
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
The UN report released last Monday highlighted “credible allegations” that both the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels had been involved in violations that could amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.
The allegations referred to the final months of the government’s ultimately successful 2009 offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in which tens of thousands of civilians are estimated to have died.n “The report violates the UN charter, undermines the fight against global terrorism, and hijacks Sri Lanka’s reconciliation process,” senior minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told public radio on Sunday. He said the May Day theme was the “people’s power to protect the country”, adding that “the rallies are held to protest against (UN secretary general) Ban Ki-moon.”
Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to attend several demonstrations in Colombo, with President Mahinda Rajapakse due to address followers of his United Peoples Freedom Alliance in the evening.
Roads were decorated in the party colours of blue, red and maroon, while billboards were erected showing the president and recently-completed development work. “We want to send a clear message to the international community that no imperialist interventions are possible in Sri Lanka,” said petroleum minister Susil Premajayantha, who is also the ruling party’s general secretary.
More 8,000 police officers and hundreds of army personnel were deployed around the capital to maintain security on May Day, which is traditionally a day of workers’ demonstrations across the world.
© Daily Times
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
'Probe war crimes by Sri Lankan armed forces' demands CPI (M)
By a Special Correspondent | The Hindu
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
In a statement, CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan said the report of a United Nations committee has indicted the Sri Lankan armed forces for killing thousands of civilians in the armed struggle with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and of other human rights violations. The party's state executive committee has already passed a resolution seeking punishment against the war criminals.
The UN report has stated that over 40,000 civilians were killed in the last month of the battle and prisoners of war were shot dead at point blank range. The Sri Lankan government was responsible for the loss of lives of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils and human rights violations, he said.
The party would hold demonstrations in the first week of May demanding a detailed enquiry into such human rights violations, punishment to war criminals, rehabilitation of those affected and provincial autonomy for the Tamils in the island nation, Mr. Ramakrishnan said.
BJP stir
The State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a demonstration in Chennai on Friday (29)demanding the arrest of war criminals in Sri Lanka.
© The Hindu
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Sri Lanka: Dare not criticise
Himal: South Asian
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
The report addresses the major abuses alleged to have taken place in the lead-up to the May 2009 end of the 25 years of civil war on the island. The Panel of Experts – composed of three members, from Indonesia, South Africa and the US – has decided that there are credible allegations that both the government and the LTTE committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during this period. The report also details the denial of humanitarian assistance to civilians by the government as well as systematic attacks against them, involving widespread shelling and targeting of civilian facilities, including hospitals. The LTTE, for its part, is condemned for having used civilians as hostages and ‘human shields’, shot at and killed civilians who attempted to escape the conflict zone, forcefully recruited children into its army, and used military equipment in the proximity of civilians.
The report also addresses obstacles to accountability after the war. This includes the state of emergency that remains in place, having been extended month by month, including, most recently, in April; the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which likewise continues to be in force; as well as lingering militarisation of the conflict zone and restrictions on the media. Sections of the Tamil diaspora also come in for criticism for two reasons: for having provided support for the LTTE and for continuing to refuse to acknowledge the LTTE’s role in the humanitarian disaster, thus undermining a sustainable peace. Finally, the report rejects the ability of the Sri Lankan Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission – set up by President Rajapakse in May 2010 – to credibly address accountability, due to lack of independence and impartiality.
While the LTTE is gone, the significance of the report has to do with the record and continuing attitude of the Rajapakse government. None of the findings are new as such, reiterating concerns that have been voiced by rights groups and the media; nevertheless, the Panel of Experts report paints a very bleak picture of both the Sri Lankans state’s conduct during the war – and the steps taken since its end. This adds considerable weight to the demand that these concerns be taken seriously and addressed, which might go some way towards explaining the Rajapakse government’s vociferous reaction. However, what actually comes out of the work of the UN panel will depend on the steps that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon takes henceforth, as well as the political backing he gets from powerful international actors.
Here, the role of India and the US is probably going to determine whether the pressure mounts on Sri Lanka or the report is quickly forgotten. If one takes a cue from developments over recent years, Colombo’s successful prosecution of the war would not have been possible without both overt support and sins of omission and commission by both New Delhi and Washington.
Soon after the end of the war, an attempt by the European Union and other Western actors to condemn Sri Lanka’s wartime conduct at the UN Human Rights Council backfired. At that time, India, China and other governments turned the entire affair into a resolution congratulating Sri Lanka on ending the conflict. Indeed, one of the recommendations of the Panel report is for the UN Human Rights Council to reconsider that resolution. Now that India is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and is positioning itself as a regional power, it will be interesting to watch whether there is any change in New Delhi’s stance.
Polarising triumphalism
Since the war’s end, Colombo’s strategy has been to reject any criticism of its wartime actions, saying that such censure is being manipulated by the Tamil diaspora. While the new report does criticise sections of the diaspora, the latter’s importance as a political force has been on the wane. In fact, it could be argued that it is now the Western governments who use the politically weak diaspora to send a message to the Sri Lankan government, rather than the other way around. While Colombo is depending on Beijing and Moscow to mobilise support to undermine any political pressure relating to the Panel of Experts report, political will is required on the part of Washington and New Delhi ultimately to determine whether Sri Lanka will be called to account.
This month, we are seeing the second anniversary of the end of the war. But, after a quarter-century of conflict, with over 100,000 lives lost, the government of President Rajapakse has done little to deliver on the historic opportunity for political reconciliation presented by the conflict’s close. Rather than broad democratisation and a constitutional political settlement, which could have won over the country’s minorities, the Rajapakse regime has continued with its war-time mentality, promoting a polarising triumphalism in order to consolidate its power.
In this situation, the UN report could be a window of opportunity for progressive and democratic forces within Sri Lanka to begin a debate on the future of the country. Admittedly, this seems unlikely, given that the continuing repression and extreme nationalist demagoguery of the Rajapakse regime seems to have closed possibilities for a free, rational debate. Nonetheless, at the international level at least, if the Rajapakse government is in trouble with what it describes as the politically motivated ‘international community’, it has only its own post-war hubris to blame.
© Himal
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Last phase of Sri Lanka's civil war: What happened really?
By Sivanendran | South Asia Analysis Group
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
That the innocent civilians got massacred in large numbers is not in doubt, but the orthodox story omits entirely the context in which this occurred.
What is most important to keep in mind is that Mullivaikal today has sadly become largely a political tool, an excuse for ethno-nationalists on all sides to let loose their most radical sentiments and score points with their supporters. In the 2009 massacre in reports, the background and responsibilities for the disaster in Mullivaikal were absent. Preferred was the simple explanation: a black and white event in which the Tamils the terrorists were solely to blame.
"Truth and reason are eternal," Thomas Jefferson wrote to Rev. Samuel Knox in 1810. "They have prevailed. And they will eternally prevail . . ."
Mullivaikal was a village in Vanni besieged by the government forces. This massacre occurred because the Sri Lankan Army savagely lashed out s against the LTTE ignoring the civilian population of the area.. After promising safety and protection to the innocent inhabitants of Mullivaikal the governmental forces are said to have used disproportionate force indiscriminately attacking even assigned "no fire zones".
Throughout this period the U.N. adopted a position of "neutrality" that in practice meant inaction, even when large number of men, women and children were killed in these attacks. Sri Lankan forces attacked "no fire zones" or the warring parties otherwise violated ceasefire agreements.
It's a distasteful point, but it has to be said that, if you're committing whole scale slaughter, you don't let the women go since they are key to perpetuating the very group you are trying to eliminate. Many of the boys and girls were executed and buried in mass graves. Every day of this war has seen the most unspeakable atrocities committed against ordinary civilians. Trapped in this small land area, under constant Sri Lankan bombardment, sleepless and thirst-maddened, unarmed men, women and children succumbed to hallucinations, paranoia, and despair. The psyches of the people ruptured.
Mullivaikal is not simply a case of the international community standing by as a far-off atrocity was committed. The actions of the international community encouraged, aided, and emboldened the attackers. The fall of Mullivaikal did not have to happen. There was no need for thousands of skeletons to be strewn across that north eastern coast. There is no need for thousands of Tamil children to be raised on stories of their fathers, mothers, uncles and brothers slaughtered by Sri Lankan army.
How many died?
There are various estimates of the maimed and the dead. Some estimate the dead as about 10,000 whilst some others have even suggested as much as 100,000. The massacre accounts for an astonishing number of missing from the brutal conflict as a whole. By any standard, it was one of the worst and most concentrated acts of killing in the post-World War II era.
The fact beyond dispute is that during the siege of Mullivaikal thousands of Tamil men, women and children were killed. Most of them died when the enclave was completely encircled by the Sri Lankan Army and fell almost without a fight. A significant number reached safety only after the 18th May 2009.
It is now two years since the fall of Mullivaikal . Much has been written about the matter. Nonetheless the majority of reports have been limited to a broad media exposure of the event, with very little analytical rigor. Discussion of Mullivaikal cannot be limited to genocide and mass graves. A rigorous analysis of the events must take into consideration the background circumstances, in order to understand the real motives which led to the massacre.
Does Mullivaikal exemplify state brutality over the twenty five years of war? Let the truth be told. This is the question that needs to be answered by all including the international community.
Who is responsible?
The zone of Mullivaikal, like almost that entire coastline, is characterized by its flat terrain offering clear advantage to offensive forces. Sri Lankan army waited for months without attacking this enclave until the Indian elections were over. Given the resources available to both parties, and the characteristics of the terrain, it would seem that the Sri Lankan army had the necessary force to defend itself and be ever so mindful of the innocent people trapped in the war zone. This, however, did not occur.
Given the military advantage of the Sri Lankan forces it is very difficult to explain the amount of disregard that they showed to the innocent men, women and children in a siege situation, recklessly prosecuting a war in the absence of effective military resistance. The heavy casualties amongst the civilian population could have been avoided. The victims have many stories to tell. There are about 300,000 who survived these onslaughts waiting to tell their stories. There is no one asking for their stories much less to listen to them. There are many harrowing tales from these victims of Mullivaikal yet to be told.
The international community also bears responsibility for this massacre. Had the UN asserted its authority perhaps the world would have been spared of these mass killings.
The aftermath
Extensive forensic investigations of the Mullivaikal massacre sites have not been carried out systematically to identify the bodies and bury them appropriately. That area has been out of bounds to its inhabitants except the Sri Lankan military to enable them to clean up the land. We still do not know what the Sri Lankan army has done to the bodies. Is there a combined memorial or a mortuary in Mullivaikal for the dead?
The memory of Mullivaikal’s dead men women and children was kept alive by the surviving victims. They will continue to raise the memory at all international forums and will not rest until the truth is revealed.
Since the ending of the war in May 2009, the Tamil Diaspora has continued with their protest at the stalled investigations into the fate of their missing men, women and children and will do so again on the second anniversary of the massacre in May 2011. Their list of primary demands would include:
1.The full facts of massacre should be revealed and publicised.
2. A list of all dead and executed to be identified without delay.
3. A list of all survivors of Mullivaikal held prisoner in Sri Lanka should be released immediately.
So, here we are, two years later, going over the same old lines, while the families of the victims of Mullivaikal win nothing more than the moral high ground, which provides little in the way of closure. But, then, even closure is a tricky business. Even if the perpetrators themselves were to admit to the genocide and pay for their crimes, justice would not be served and the dead will not be brought back to life:
After all these years, there is still not a single high-profile political figure in Sri Lanka–who is capable of thinking of humanity over politics, of country over career. How can the people of Sri Lanka shrug it off not as the massacre of thousands of human beings, but as a tool to be used in political games?
UN Secretary General
A UN Secretary-General is not responsible for all UN actions - or lack of such, or for decisions made by the Security Council. Mr Bank ki Moon is however responsible for his own actions. During those fateful days in 2009, he had a choice: standing up against the Security Council in an attempt to shame politicians into intervening or keeping his head down and pretend he didn't know what was going on. Mr Moon chose silence, which satisfied the governments bent on ’business as usual’: seeing nothing and hearing nothing..
It has been argued that the Security Council was not really 'interested' or 'willing' to intervene and that this exempts him from blame. It is agreed that many politicians were extremely reluctant to intervene with force in Sri Lanka. But is it not exactly during such times when we most need a Secretary-General of the United Nations to speak up? Or, put differently, if politicians were head over heels to intervene to prevent crimes against humanity, why would we need a Secretary-General of the United Nations? Besides, the (unfortunately very belated) intervention of Britain and France almost at the end of the massacre showed that it was indeed possible to create enough public awareness for the international community to react.
If Mr Ban ki Moon had vigorously demanded a UN intervention and thereby confronted those governments in the Security Council that left civilians to their killers, he could rightly have washed his hands as he has since tried to do. However, for reasons of political and bureaucratic expediency he chose not to do so.
The United Nations must shoulder a large share of responsibility for allowing the massacre to take place under their noses however odious the LTTE tactics were. Through error, misjudgement and the inability to recognize the scope of evil confronting them, they failed to do their part to save the people of Mullivaikal from the mass murder.
The blame surely extends to the member states of the United Nations.
In the final days and hours of the advance on Mullivaikal, which American and Indian intelligence could monitor closely, the international community fell strangely silent. Mullivaikal duly fell, with consequences which were unspeakable in human terms, but not inconvenient diplomatically.
Mullivaikal– A call for justice
The Sri Lankan government deny that that there is anything to be explained or debated on this matter. This was only a problem of terrorism and its elimination. So many thousands people were killed and unknown number of prisoners were executed is not a matter that needs investigation. Even if a distinguished international judicial forum of unquestioned authority has found it to constitute unacceptable does not appear to persuade the Sri Lankan government that there is a need for an appropriate investigation of the matter. According to them there is nothing to debate because everything is settled and clear.
However, for the Tamils, it is noteworthy that "Mullivaikal" is used not as a geographic location but as a stand-alone term that denotes horror, "Mullivaikal" used in this sense has established itself as a horrible massacre of the innocent Tamils. Is Mullivaikal a hoax? Is it a myth based on a lie?
A distinguished panel of reasonable people with no ethno-religious axe to grind in the Sri Lankan quagmire have called for an investigation. If Sri Lanka has no blood on its hands why not agree for such an international investigation to bring a closure to this tragedy. We repeat- Let the truth be told.
© SAAG
Sunday, May 01, 2011
US envoy heads to Sri Lanka amid war flap
AFP | Yahoo! News
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Robert Blake, the assistant secretary of state handling South Asia, will leave Saturday on a six-day trip to Sri Lanka and Maldives for talks with political leaders and civil society, the State Department said.
A US official said Blake's visit to Sri Lanka had originally been planned a month ago and was not linked to the war panel report released Monday but that it was certain to come up in conversation.
The report commissioned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon found "credible allegations" that both the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels had been involved in what could amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.
The United Nations has estimated that tens of thousands of people died in the 2009 offensive, in which the government killed the top leadership of the Tamil Tigers and ended their nearly 40-year separatist insurgency.
Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris, meeting with diplomats on Thursday, denounced the report as "legally, morally and substantively flawed," and accused the United Nations of trying to destabilize the island.
But the United States has welcomed the report, with US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice calling for "an independent and full accounting of the facts."
Another US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States planned a "candid dialogue" with Sri Lanka and other countries to seek accountability over the civil war.
"We strongly support the secretary-general's call for Sri Lankan authorities to respond constructively to the report," the official said.
The Tamil diaspora has been actively pressing for an accounting of the war, contributing to calls by a number of US lawmakers for an international probe.
© Yahoo! News
Friday, April 29, 2011
Sri Lanka gives UK firm £ 35 million steel bridge deal
Lanka Business Online
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
A government statement said the Cabinet of ministers approved a proposal made by the minister of economic development Basil Rajapaksa for the project to improve access to villages.
The government accepted a proposal by Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd to build steel bridges of 06 - 30 metre lengths around the island, it said.
The total cost of the project, to be completed in the next three years, is 15,860 million rupees with the balance cost of 9,647.50 million rupees to be funded by the Sri Lankan government,
It said 9,400 kilometres of rural access roads had been modernised under a government programme to improve the rural economy by connecting villages with better roads.
"But due to the absence of bridges over perennial water bodies these developments have met with some hurdles," it said.
© Lanka Business Online
Friday, April 29, 2011
Post-war boost for Lanka - Israel relations
By Shamindra Ferdinando | The Island
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
Ms Noked will be accompanied by Mark Sofer, the Israeli Ambassador in New Delhi, responsible for the Jewish State’s affairs with Sri Lanka.
Last January Ms Noked succeeded Shalon Simhon, who was earlier scheduled to visit Colombo in his capacity as the Agriculture Minister.
An Israeli spokesperson told "The Island" that the Minister and the Ambassador would be accompanied by a business delegation. The visiting delegation would meet Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne, External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Livestock and Rural Development Minister Arumugam Thondaman, Foreign Employment Minister Dilan Perera and Irrigation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva.
Ms Noked launched her political career after completing her service with the Israeli Army in the rank of Staff Sergeant.
Defence and External Affairs Ministry sources told The Island that there was scope for increased relations between the two countries in many other fields, in spite of a drastic drop in Sri Lanka’s need for arms, ammunition and equipment due to conclusion of the war in May two years ago. Israel remained a key supplier throughout the war by providing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Kfir fighters, Fast Attack Craft (FACs) et al.
Sources said that both countries could benefit from enhanced bilateral trade, while Sri Lanka could draw on Israeli expertise in many vital fields.
The Israeli embassy in New Delhi said that Ms Noked would reiterate Israel’s aim to become a fully-fledged partner in Sri Lanka’s development efforts.
Minister Noked and her Sri Lankan counterpart, Minister Abeywardena, will inaugurate an Agro-Business Seminar and sign an MoU to further augment the agricultural cooperation between the two countries and develop areas of mutual interest in the agriculture sector. The various topics of cooperation included in the MoU are: capacity building and transfer of know how; technology transfer; development of R&D Systems; exchange of scientific and agricultural technology information; promotion of Public Private Partnerships (PPP); water management and innovative irrigation technologies; rural development; land conservation and precision agricultural practices.
© The Island
Friday, April 29, 2011
Sri Lankan carnage
Editorial | The Economic Times
.............................................................................................................................................................................................
The crimes listed are grisly enough — with most civilian lives having been lost due to indiscriminate shelling by Lankan troops during the months leading to the LTTE's defeat as well as the denial of aid and medical supplies to civilians in the conflict zone. Add the fact that these findings give the lie to Colombo's dismissal of video tapes aired late last year, which showed Lankan troops executing bound and stripped Tamils, as well as Lanka's insistence that it had not violated the 'No-Fire Zone' during the last stages of the war, and the scale of Colombo's tactic of denial while indulging in gross violations is manifest.
The Rajapaksa regime, meanwhile, has been using Chinese and Russian support to ward off discussions on the issue at the UN Security Council while whipping up even more Sinhala-nationalistic passions at home. The latter, in fact, posits the larger problem that the Rajapaksa regime has so far paid mere lip service to the broader need to devolve political power to the minorities as a lasting solution to the conflict as it wallows in its chauvinist, militarist belief that winning the war has ended all issues . Denial of having committed war crimes, leave alone acknowledging the necessity of conducting an investigation , fixing culpability and then possible reparations to the affected Tamil population, is an indication of the lack of any real intent to address the disempowerment of the minorities. That is the message New Delhi must, however diplomatically, deliver to Colombo. International opinion must make it difficult for China to offer support for Lankan reluctance to devolve power.
© The Economic Times
This site is best viewed with firefox
Visit the JDS New Website
Read the urgent alerts - act now!
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields
No Impunity for Enforced Disappearances
UN REPORT ON SRI LANKA
where is prageeth?
Amnesty: Failures of Sri Lanka's LLRC
Permanent Peopls's Tribunal on Sri Lanka - Final Report
Sivaram: A walk down memory lane
Remembering Lasantha
Subscribe to JDS newsfeeds
UN EXPERTS conclusion backs the JDS video
SL Execution Video : The truth comes out
A legacy unforgotten
Post-war justice in sri lanka : International Commission of Jurists
Evidence of Police Brutality in Sri Lanka
A Study of Police Torture in Sri Lanka
