Mindful of New Delhi’s concerns about Beijing’s increasingly close strategic relationship with Colombo, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Thursday stressed that Sri Lanka’s growing ties with China had no bearing on the country’s “unique” relationship with India. He described Sri Lanka’s relationship with the two countries as “two tracks on a railway-line running independently”.
One is a member of the Malkangiri District Cricket Association and custodian of its cricket kit. Another, a minor contractor in a public works project. A third runs a tiny shop. They’re all pretty rooted in Malkangiri. Not very different from any other small town group. Except that this one consists of a bunch of former Sri Lankan Tamil warriors settled in deep rural Orissa in one of the country’s poorest districts where they’ve been nearly 20 years.
...
The LTTE sought a separate Tamil state. But at what cost? The Sri Lankan Tamils are defined by two factors i.e. the Hindu religion and the Tamil language. The Tamil Tigers sought to defend the Tamil cause but intentionally weakened the Hindu identity. This explained their failure. The Christian influence on the top LTTE leadership was immense. This was despite the fact that Christians only constituted 14% of the Tamil population.
An internationally-financed Christian evangelism was initiated in LTTE-held areas in the 1990s. The Ceylon American Mission embarked upon a 'church planting campaign'. They opened new orphanages and new churches. The Methodist Church did likewise. The Roman Catholic church under its social service arm, HUDEC was not far behind. The pro-LTTE 'TamilNet' website was unabashedly anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist, anti-Indian and pro-Christian. 'Tamil Canadian' republished articles from Christian journals but failed to reproduce Hindu media clips. The 'Tamil Nation' in London even urged Tamils to jettison celebrating the traditional Hindu new year in mid-April.
The LTTE discouraged people from following the time-honored Tamil Hindu custom of cremation. It supported the burial of the dead. It attempted to jettison the traditional Tamil wedding ceremony introducing a civil ceremony instead. It encouraged beef-eating. It promoted the use of so-called Dravidian names that had no basis in our history. While Hindu temples flourished in Government-held areas, they were neglected in LTTE-held territory. The LTTE strategy entailed a de-Hinduization of Tamil identity. Was this not Christian evangelization under the guise of a Tamil revolt?
The continuation of the war was only intended to facilitate a gradual Christianization of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. The LTTE claimed that it was secular and neutral between the overwhelming Tamil Hindu majority and the better financed Tamil Christian minority. Religious dualism – the overt tolerance of two religions with the intent to undermine one while allowing the other to expand – was the ugly face of Tamil Tiger secularism. Its real intent was to weaken the Tamil Hindu identity under the guise of fighting the Sinhalese.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009- ... 647795.htmBEIJING, July 3 (Xinhua) -- China would work with Sri Lanka to promote the comprehensive and cooperative partnership to a new height, said Vice Premier Li Keqiang here on Friday.
"We attach great importance to the traditional friendship with Sri Lanka," Li told visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.
Hailing the China-Sri Lanka good-neighborly friendship, Li said the two nations had enjoyed smooth development of cooperation since forging diplomatic ties in 1957.
"The China-Sri Lanka relationship set a good example for the friendly ties between countries with different social systems," Linoted.
Bogollagama was here on an official visit from July 1 to 5 at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
Yang held talks with Bogollagama earlier Friday.
"China stands ready to expand cooperation with Sri Lanka, so as to consolidate the traditional bilateral friendship and breath new life into the cooperative relationship," Yang said.
Bogollagama spoke highly of the "close and productive" relations between the two nations, and applauded China's support for its struggle to safeguard sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Bogollagama reiterated Sri Lanka's adherence to the one-China policy and would push bilateral relations forward.
Bogollagama is to visit Chengdu, capital of southwestern province of Sichuan, during his visit.
Look like the regular quota of writing about how grateful and happy the Tibetians in Tibet are under Han Chinese rule is filled already...so has to find new pastures.RaviBg wrote:Visiting the Vavuniya IDP camps: an uplifting experience - N. Ram
Naxal ram goes on a visit to IDP camps in SL and reports back.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090705/News/s ... ws_16.htmlBy Asif Fuard, Pic by M.N. Noordeen
Eastern Province Muslim militant groups responding to a government amnesty yesterday surrendered dozens of automatic weapons before a major crackdown by the authorities, Police said.
Militants surrendered their weapons to the mosques in the area before they were collected in bulk and handed over to the Police at a Kattankudy mosque, they said.
A militant hands over his weapon.
Some weapons including 17 T-56 rifles were handed over initially with more weapons due to be handed over later in the evening, Police said.
The July 2 deadline for the surrender of weapons was given by the authorities after state intelligence services identified 18 Muslim militant leaders who are wanted for various crimes.
Investigations also were underway to ascertain whether these militants had links with foreign organizations such as al-Qaeda and who was financing them.
The police and the army in the Eastern Province have been hunting for three main Muslim militant leaders identified as Police Faiz, Muthur Nizam and Ruhul Haq. They were believed to be instrumental in recruiting Muslim youths in the east.
As of now seven militants have been nabbed and large caches of arms and explosives recovered in a operation conducted by special teams from the Kattankudy and Eravur police stations.
In one such raid on a jihadi safe house, police arrested two suspects and recovered seven T-56 assault rifles, SMG weapons, anti-personnel mines, claymore mines, detonators and high frequency communication sets.
The Eastern Province Deputy Inspector General Edison Gunathilake told The Sunday Times they had asked all members of the militant group to hand over their weapons by July 2 or face tough action.
“We will give an amnesty to those who surrender their weapons in Kattankudy. We have the names of those involved in crimes such as extortion, abductions and killings. We also have information that they are linked to the underworld. We are determined to disarm these people and restore law and order,” the DIG said.
Volume 26 - Issue 12 :: Jun. 06-19, 2009
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents
COVER STORY
Democracy deficit & two movements
B. MURALIDHAR REDDY
An analysis by the Asian Human Rights Commission draws a parallel between the militant politics of the JVP and the LTTE.
HOURS after the Sri Lankan military announced the recovery of the bullet-ridden body of Velupillai Prabakaran, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) put out an analysis under the title “Sri Lanka: Wijeweera and Prabakaran – rebels within a dysfunctional democracy’’.
Made in the form of a statement, it provides insights into the militant politics pursued by the Janata Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) chief Rohana Wijeweera and the LTTE supremo and throws light on what could be gained by studies and reflections of the movements they led.
Two unsuccessful ultra-left insurrections under the command of Wijeweera, according to one study, led to the death of 80,000 to 1,20,000 people. Most of those killed were Sinhalese, from all sections of society. The four Eelam wars waged under the leadership of Prabakaran are believed to have led to a loss of at least 80,000 lives representing all segments of Sri Lanka society. Actually, it is still early to put even an approximate count of the total number of casualties in the four Eelam wars.
Both the JVP and the LTTE were decimated by the Sri Lankan military and the police with generous help from the outside world. Leaders of both the JVP and the LTTE died or were believed to have died in combat. Historians in due course will judge both personalities and their style of functioning and ability to galvanise virtually a whole community, mostly Sinhalese in the case of Wijeweera and Tamils in the instance of Prabakaran, to embrace death for a cause that was no more than a pipe dream. However, there is little doubt that in the post-independence history of the island nation no one dictated the contours of the politics of hate and violence as Wijeweera and Prabakaran had done.
The Hong Kong-based AHRC, founded in 1984, defines itself as a regional non-governmental organisation (NGO) monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia.
We publish below excerpts from the 3,400-word, two-part statement:
Following the demise of the LTTE leadership there is now much discussion about the LTTE itself. In 1971 a similar movement in the south to the LTTE was the JVP and this movement, led by Rohana Wijeweera, took to arms again from 1987 to 1991…. Of course, there are vast differences in the two movements. The JVP was broadly based on class orientation, while the LTTE was based mainly on race orientation. However, there are many strong similarities:
• Both were non-elitist movements.
• The working language of each was their own language, Sinhala or Tamil, and not English.
• Both leaders represented socially lower strata and lower income groups and drew heavy support from the castes which were normally considered in Sri Lankan traditional society as low caste.
• Both had no faith at all in democracy. Wijeweera, after the failure of the 1971 insurrection, when released from prison, worked for a short while within the democratic framework. However, soon, for various reasons, he opted out of democratic politics. Prabakaran did not have any faith at all in the democratic process.
• Following these considerations, both believed in armed struggle with emphasis on assassination as a tool of their strategy.
• They and their followers more or less belonged to the same age group and were mostly products of the country’s free education system.
• The suppression of both movements was brutal and based on the premise that “those things cannot be done according to the law”, as a former Deputy Minister, Ranjan Wijeratne, told Parliament.
• Discussions about these movements by others, particularly those associated with the state, and the status quo, are more characterised by heat and hate rather than attempts to arrive at a rational understanding of these movements.
Why did they not trust democracy? Posing this question, the AHRC goes on to make a case that Sri Lanka does not have a functioning democracy that can make a convincing argument that all the problems that might arise within this society could be resolved within the framework of democratic institutions….
To the politically active young people it has created a sense of nihilism, which considers everything as permissive. In the political field, it means a belief in violence for its own sake. It is hard to believe that either Wijeweera or Prabakaran would have seriously believed that they would be allowed to achieve the aims they were claiming that they were trying to achieve. It is most likely that both, as persons who were hardened by the politics of violence, would have known the end that they faced.
That a whole young generation would have no political aspirations except for protest for its own sake reflects as to how deeply the dysfunctional nature of Sri Lankan democracy has affected the entire nation and particularly the young. Despite the violent ends of both these leaders and many of their followers, the basic lessons of what a dysfunctional political system does to the entire population and particularly to the young cannot be ignored.
One of the early writers to understand the impact of the result of dysfunctional democracy was the well-known author and journalist, the late Tarzei Vittachi, who in his celebrated book Emergency ’58: The Story of the Ceylon Race Riots wrote:
Unfortunately the Government made the mistake of throwing the baby away with the bath water. While repressive legislation and irksome, outmoded attitudes which had kept the masses in thrall had to be hurled away without delay, it was vital for the peace and order of the country, especially in times of rapid social change, to preserve and strengthen the rule of law and the authority of the officers who enforce the law. This salutary rule was ignored….
The abandonment of the rule of law and the authority of institutions, which was already visible in 1958, became a much greater problem in the years that followed, with a similar political approach by subsequent governments and even radical experiments to undermine democracy and rule of law in favour of the executive, particularly the adoption of the 1972 and 1978 Constitutions.
The only time there was a rare unanimity by all political parties in Sri Lanka was in 2001 when, on the basis of the admission of the collapse of all public institutions, an amendment to the Constitution was passed to take some limited measures to attempt to recover the authority of these institutions. This was again abandoned after a few years…. The country is now run by the executive President and the armed forces.
Holding of elections alone is not democracy. Many rogue systems have many forms of manipulated elections for no other reason than to have some legitimacy, particularly before the eyes of the international community. However, any reading of the material produced by the movements led by Wijeweera and Prabakaran, particularly in the early periods of their inception, would demonstrate the cynicism that their generation has for the mockery of democracy.
It is not only rebels that cannot understand democracy. The numerous spokesmen for the government, including Ministers and those who deal with media and information, demonstrate a very clear lack of understanding of democracy…. Just to mention one example, following the declaration of the victory against the LTTE by the government, there were many spokesmen who condemned Western governments for allowing the Tamil diaspora to have demonstrations and protests in their own capitals.
For these spokesmen, it is the duty of the Western governments to suppress all these protests and demonstrations. They also cannot understand how there can be any war crimes when the government was pursuing a good cause like the elimination of terrorism. According to this way of thinking, there cannot be any war crimes, either in wars between countries or civil wars, on the part of governments which are pursuing the good cause, for example, the allied powers trying to defeat Hitler. The forced disappearances of 30,000 persons in the suppression of the JVP were no crime at all.
The mentality of this distrust of democracy will remain so long as democracy itself does not exist by way of functioning institutions within the country. Dysfunctional institutions will confirm every day to the population, and its younger generation in particular, that there is no way to have any problem resolved within a framework of democracy in the present context of Sri Lanka.
Those who are seriously concerned with understanding the political developments in Sri Lanka, including also the rebel movements, need to pay attention to the way in which Sri Lanka has become a dysfunctional democracy.
Exactly what made both movements represented by these two leaders (the JVP and the LTTE) abandon the struggle for democracy and rule of law altogether and resort to violence reflects on the limitations of other political movements within the country. At no time was there a single political party or tendency in Sri Lanka which made it its aim to construct and improve the institutions of the rule of law and democracy. In this the Sri Lankan experience differed from that of India where the National Congress Party, which was started in 1885, had two programmes which were both pursued vigorously for a long period of time; the programme of emancipation of India from British rule and what was called the social programme, which was to prepare people for the democracy that would come after independence.
This, however, was not the case in Sri Lanka. Among the movements that came to light in Sri Lanka first was the labour movement which, by the 1930s, was under leftist leadership. While these leaders contributed to democratisation in some way, their main goals were more utopian…. These utopian values remained throughout their decline which, coincidentally, was the time when both the JVP and the LTTE had their origins. The parties of the elites such as the UNP [United National Party] and the SLFP [Sri Lanka Freedom Party] never had a programme for improvements and the consolidation of the institutional framework of democracy.
We have earlier quoted Tarzei Vittachi, who in 1958 observed how these political leaders abandoned the need to maintain the rule of law. The same can also be said of the Tamil political parties…. As against the political opportunism of the majority-based parties, the minority parties made demands for respect for the minority purely as a separate issue.
Thus the political and intellectual heritage of the leaders of the JVP and the LTTE was paltry. The JVP made a revolution with Marxist, Leninist, Maoist, Che Guevarist rhetoric but, in fact, there was nothing worthy of any intellectual exposition of its political philosophy. Nothing in that literature indicates any interest in democracy and the rule of law.
As for the LTTE, its expressions were based on race alone, which, of course, could never be the basis of democratic discourse. Its avowed goal of a separate state achieved by force alone left no room for democratic discourse even within the Tamils themselves. In fact, the killing of all Tamil opponents was one of the central components of the LTTE’s ideology…. This was noted very early by leaders such as Rajani Thiranagama, who was one of the first Tamil intellectuals to be assassinated by the LTTE.
By 1970 all the major political parties in the country had expressly rejected democracy as a suitable form of government for the country. The government of Mrs. Sirimao Bandaranaike, which included a coalition of three major parties, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist party, embarked on a new Constitution spoken of as a home-grown Constitution, which was incongruously called a socialist Constitution…. In 1977, J.R. Jayewardene’s United National Party was elected and in 1978 it abolished liberal democratic constitutionalism altogether in favour of creating a monster called the Executive President, who had more power than anyone under any government.
This was the political ethos within which these two rebels, Wijeweera and Prabakaran, had their movements…. The overall system unleashed terror on all political dissidents…. They, in turn, attempted to outdo the state apparatus in terror. A terror v. terror situation developed and the ultimate consequences are now a known fact.
Scepticism as Sri Lankan doctors backtrack over mass deaths by army shelling
(Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images)
The Tamil doctors Sivapalan, Shammugaraja, Vartharaja, Sathyamoorthy, Ilanncheliyan, all accused of aiding Tamil Tiger rebels
Rhys Blakely in Mumbai
Five Sri Lankan doctors who witnessed the bloody climax of the country's civil war in May and made claims of mass civilian deaths as a result of government shelling have recanted much of their testimony.
The men, who have been in police custody for nearly two months for allegedly spreading Tamil Tiger propaganda, were presented by officials at a press conference in Colombo, where they said the rebels had forced them to exaggerate the number of civilian deaths.
The doctors said that only up to 750 civilians were killed between January and mid-May in the final battles of the war, a number far below the estimated 7,000 released by the United Nations.
An investigation by The Times uncovered evidence that more than 20,000 civilians were killed in the final stages of the war — mostly by the Army.
The doctors, who appeared nervous but in decent physical condition, denied they were withdrawing their previous statements under pressure from the government, while expressing hopes they might be released.
The 25-year conflict between the Government and the rebel Tigers effectively ended on May 19. In the weeks running up to its victory, the Government was fiercely criticised by countries including Britain and the United States for not calling a ceasefire to allow civilians to escape the shrinking conflict zone in the northeast where the last Tiger troops were cornered.
At the time, the doctors described the shelling of civilians in the zone, including repeated attacks by Government artillery on a makeshift hospital, which they said was running chronically short of essential supplies.
Yesterday, by contrast, they said that the Tigers took medicine and food shipments sent by the Government and demanded that the doctors tell the media there were shortages.
"The information that I have given is false. ... The figures were exaggerated due to pressure from the LTTE," said Dr V. Shanmugarajah.
Dr Thurairaja Varatharajah, who was the top health official in the war zone, added: "It's difficult for you to believe, but it's true."
The claims were greeted with scepticism by human rights campaigners.
Sam Zarifi, the Asia-Pacific director for Amnesty International, said the statements from the doctors were "expected and predicted".
"There are very significant grounds to question whether these statements were voluntary, and they raise serious concerns whether the doctors were subjected to ill treatment during weeks of detention," he said. "From the time the doctors were detained, the fear was that they would be used exactly this way."
On February 2 Dr Varatharajah had reported that three artillery barrages hit the pediatrics ward and women's wing of a hospital in the war zone, killing nine patients. On Wednesday, he denied the hospital had been hit.
However, the UN and the Red Cross, who had staff at the hospital, confirmed the attacks, the location of the strikes and the death toll. The army denied the attack.
The Government blocked media access to the conflict zone, making the claims from both sides in the war all but impossible to verify.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... OizF88gzigBy Mel Gunasekera – 5 hours ago
WELIKANDA, Sri Lanka (AFP) — They begin each day saluting the national flag of the country they had vowed to defeat or die trying.
Gone are the cyanide capsules that, like all Tamil Tiger rebels, they had worn around their necks for use if captured by the Sri Lankan military.
In their place hang religious symbols -- a substitution that perfectly reflects the image Sri Lanka wants the world to see: Its former enemies on the path to redemption and rehabilitation.
More than 300 former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- including children forcibly recruited by the rebels -- are undergoing rehabilitation in tightly-guarded, state-run camps.
Where once they were trained for guerrilla warfare in the jungles of northeast Sri Lanka, they now receive vocational training in carpentry, masonry, plumbing, electrical wiring, sewing or cooking.
They are also learning computer skills, English and Sinhalese, the language spoken by Sri Lanka's ethnic majority.
Colombo, 11 July, (Asiantribune.com): Sri Lanka Governmnet has voiced confidence that efforts being taken by Chinese authorities will soon restore normalcy in the region.
In a statement released by the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry revealed, “The People’s Republic of China and Sri Lanka enjoy abiding friendship and respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. The Government of Sri Lanka considers Xinjiang as an inseparable part of the People’s Republic of China and that the situation there is an internal affair of the People’s Republic of China. While being concerned about the recent riots in Xinjiang in northwest China, the Government of Sri Lanka is confident that efforts being taken by Chinese authorities will soon restore normalcy in the region.”.
http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticN ... 2420090715By Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO, July 15 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka has cancelled a $200 million purchase of ammunition from Pakistan and China after the end of its war with the Tamil Tigers, the island nation's new top military commander said on Wednesday.
General Sarath Fonseka, who as army commander was one of the chief architects of the campaign to destroy the separatist Tigers and end a 25-year war, on Sunday was named to the newly created post of chief of defence staff. "We stopped the orders of $200 million worth of ammunition from China and Pakistan with the war's end," Fonseka said at his swearing-in. He is now in overall command of the military.
The order would have been enough ammunition to fire guns and heavy weapons at the rate seen during the climax of the war, which ended on May 18, Fonseka said. About 800 members of a breakaway Tiger group have also joined the armed forces, he said.
Sri Lanka wants a $1.9 billion International Monetary Fund loan to bolster foreign exchange reserves and solve a balance-of-payments problem, and diplomats are closely watching to see if the military remains a top government priority.
Western diplomats privately have frowned on plans to add 50,000 people to the security services, saying that Sri Lanka should be spending its money on post-war rebuilding.
Overall defence spending this year was estimated at up to 200 billion rupees ($1.74 billion), accounting for 17 percent of the country's total estimated expenditure.
The forecast came before the end of a war that has always been a drag on Sri Lanka's $40 billion economy.
Sri Lanka's military and police, with a combined strength of 350,000, won one of the Asia's longest modern wars and declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on May 18.
Fonseka's promotion, and that of navy chief Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda to the new post of the president's national security adviser, means the military will still have an influential role in President Mahinda Rajapaksa's administration.
Fonseka is close to Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the president's brother who fought the LTTE on Fonseka's flank in the 1980s. He now is the civilian head of the defence ministry.
Fonseka was nearly killed by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber in 2006, but in three months returned to his post as army commander and launched the offensive that would spell the end of the LTTE.
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNew ... 0620090713COLOMBO, July 13 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government on Monday launched a $26 million microfinance loan programme to spur local agriculture and business in the former northern war zone, part of the president's plan to resettle 300,000 displaced people.
Dubbed the "Awakening North", the Central Bank said the 3 billion rupee ($26.12 million) loan plan will support "the resumption of economic activities in agriculture, livestock, fisheries, micro and small enterprises."
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has staked reconciling Sri Lanka after a 25-year war with the Tamil Tiger separatists on rebuilding the economy in the north and resettling the 300,000 members of the Tamil minority from there who are now in camps.
Analysts say he must swiftly resettle those people, demine the north and deliver a political package that the majority of Tamils -- and hardline elements from the Sinhalese ethnic majority in his ruling coalition -- will accept.
Under the loan plan, people can apply for loans of up 90 percent of 200,000 rupees for a maximum of five years' repayment, at an interest rate of 12 percent.
Private lenders Commercial Bank of Ceylon COMB.CM, Hatton National Bank HNB.CM, Seylan Bank and SANASA Development Bank, and state banks Bank of Ceylon and People's Bank will take part, the central bank statement said.
The banks will be refinanced at an interest rate of 6 percent on the funds the loan, the statement said.
India was getting ready to send 500 soldiers to Sri Lanka — its largest contingent since the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in 1987 — to help de-mine north and north-east Lanka, Fonseka announced.
What would add to their furrows was his second announcement that $ 200 million worth of ammunition to be bought from China and Pakistan was no longer required as the war against the LTTE was over.{Deal cancelled as reported in Porky daily Times.}
The Lankan military says that a retreating LTTE had installed thousands of anti-personnel mines to stall the advancing Lankan troops. A private Indian company is already helping in de-mining areas in the north.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... IYgRkhVJ5wBy Anusha Ondaatjie
July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka is poised to raise its growth and income levels as the South Asian island rebuilds after the end of a 26-year civil war, the World Bank said.
“Ending the armed conflict definitely is an opportunity for Sri Lanka to graduate from a low-income country to a fully fledged middle-income country,” said World Bank Sri Lanka Director Naoko Ishii.
The island nation needs to strengthen its “business environment” and develop its “educated and skilled labor force” to help sustain higher growth levels, she said in an e- mail today in response to questions from Bloomberg News.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka this month raised its 2009 growth forecast to as much as 4.5 percent, from an earlier estimate of 2.5 percent, after the government in May crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam separatist rebels. Income per head rose to $2,014 last year from $1,634 in 2007 and $900 in 2000, according to the central bank.
“Reconstruction expenditure will give a short-term boost to the growth process,” said Dushni Weerakoon, deputy director of the Institute of Policy Studies in Colombo. “But if it is combined with a broader reform agenda, it will give the private sector a conducive environment to operate in and make a return on investments.”
Sri Lanka moved up to 29th position in 2008 from 47th place in 2007 for ease of starting a business in the country, according to the World Bank. The island allows 100 percent ownership to foreign investors in all businesses and places no restriction on repatriation of earnings.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47695By IPS Correspondents
COLOMBO, Jul 17 (IPS) - Elections in early August for local administrative bodies in Jaffna and Vavuniya, two Tamil-dominated northern towns, would be the first litmus test for the Sri Lankan government to restore normalcy in a region devastated by nearly three decades of war.
This would be the first time the predominantly Tamil population in the war ravaged north goes to vote after the government defeated the separatist movement led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May.
The two towns lie at the northern and southern edges of the Vanni region, the swath of land that witnessed the final battles between the Sri Lankan government forces and the Tamil Tigers. Government forces finally boxed the rebels into a tiny sliver of land along the eastern shore, eventually killing their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, on May 19.
Under the Tamil Tigers, who were averse to any political settlement with the government on power sharing, the Tamil community in the war-torn north was bereft of any alternate political leadership. These elections, some observers say, are an opportunity to restore democratic pluralism in the region.
"In the past, the powers were with the military or with the LTTE and not with the people of the north," says Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan, popular as ‘Col.’ Karuna, the former Tiger eastern military commander who broke away from Prabhakaran in 2004. Muralitharan is now a member of parliament in president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
"This election can change that, it can give the people a voice, like what happened in the east," he told IPS.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... cFnkJdDyeA(AFP) – 1 hour ago
COLOMBO — Sri Lankan troops have uncovered one of their biggest hauls of weapons and explosives since the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels two months ago, military officials said on Friday.
Troops found 332 roadside bombs in the northeastern district of Mullaittivu where Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran put up his last stand in May, a military official said.
He said the bombs weighing up to 18 kilos (40 pounds) were found at the village of Vellamullivaikal, a coastal area where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership was holed up in the final stages of the war.
"We have also found huge quantities of ammunition for automatic assault rifles and mortar bombs," a military official said.
He said the discoveries made on Thursday, which weighed over a tonne, constituted the largest haul since the government's recent victory over the Tiger rebels ended decades of ethnic conflict.
http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/full ... =788063560July 17, 2009 (LBO) - A proposal to build a bridge linking Sri Lanka and Indian across the Palk Straits is to be discussed at a meeting of South Asian transport ministers in Colombo, a senior official said.
Amal Kumarage, chairman of the island's National Transport Commission, said the bridge will help Sri Lanka regain its regional identity and be part of a continent.
The bridge, over the existing Adam's Bridge of sand banks, would almost be like an umbilical link between the two countries.
"If we have a land bridge with India it will revolutionise travel," he told a seminar organised by the Chamber of Construction Industry on transport needs to revive the island's north and east whose progress had been retarded by the 30 year ethnic war.
Government forces defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels in May after a lengthy military campaign. The government is trying to revive the former war zone.
Kumarage said the Indo-Lanka bridge is still at least 10 years away and should be looked at as a long-term project.
"Next weekend (South Asian) transport ministers are to meet in Colombo at which the Indo-Lanka land bridge is an item for discussion."
While the original proposal gave priority to a road bridge, current thinking gives priority to a rail link, Kumarage said.
"Given the distances covered, railway is a better mode of transport to link the sub-continent with Sri Lanka."
In the short- term, the two countries could run fast motorised ferries from Colombo to Tuticorin and Cochin in India with the distances being 400- 500km, Kumarage said.
FAIRNESS cream; scented hair oil; talcum powder: these are things that female ex-combatants of the Tamil Tiger rebels, many forcibly recruited as children, hesitantly ask for when placed in rehabilitation. Thousands of exhausted rebels surrendered in the weeks before the government declared its victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May. The army says more than 9,000 are now in custody. Some face prosecution; more are being absorbed into the army; others will be sent into rehabilitation as soon as space becomes available in these overburdened camps. But to judge by the stories of the former child soldiers, turning their lives around will be a lot harder than providing some of the frills denied them during their years of warfare.
The Protection and Rehabilitation Centre in Ambepussa is run by the Bureau of the Commissioner-General of Rehabilitation. To reach it, you take a narrow lane that snakes through paddy fields and thick woods, climbs a steep incline and stops at a neat collection of single-storey buildings. As the LTTE fought its final, doomed battle, 112 ex-fighters arrived there, fresh from combat, aged between 14 and 29.
Tall and thin, a young man with fragile features is summoned by army officers. Ganeshalingam Thayalan speaks softly, uncertainly. He has just turned 18. Today, he pores over maths and chemistry books to pass his advanced-level examination and enter university. There is no hint from his outward appearance that Thayalan was a trained suicide bomber
He was just two when his parents died in an air-force bombing and he was sent to Sencholai, a rebel “orphanage” in the Kilinochchi district. Every school holiday, he was trained in the use of weapons, psychological warfare, combat skills, and other military activity. After his ordinary-level exams he was taught to be a human bomb. The Tigers showed him how to wear and activate a suicide jacket. It was a compulsory lesson: other friends from Sencholai also had to learn it.
The LTTE subsequently deployed Thayalan in Vavuniya and ordered him to continue studying until they found him a target. He was living with a friend when, acting on a tip-off, the police arrested him. Would he have exploded himself when told to? Yes, he says, because the Tigers were watching. If he had disobeyed, they would have killed him anyway.
Kashyap wrote:Umbilical Link
Sri Lanka, India bridge proposal revived
July 17, 2009 (LBO) - A proposal to build a bridge linking Sri Lanka and Indian across the Palk Straits is to be discussed at a meeting of South Asian transport ministers in Colombo, a senior official said.
"Next weekend (South Asian) transport ministers are to meet in Colombo at which the Indo-Lanka land bridge is an item for discussion."
While the original proposal gave priority to a road bridge, current thinking gives priority to a rail link, Kumarage said.
"Given the distances covered, railway is a better mode of transport to link the sub-continent with Sri Lanka."
Sanku wrote:I am for the bridge. Big time.
I do hope you understand I am for the bridge for reasons why GoSL would never be for it (or for that matter the current GoI)chetak wrote:Sanku wrote:I am for the bridge. Big time.
And I am not.
There will always be two sides.
http://firstlanka.com/english/news/hamb ... ons-in-201The Hambantota Port is scheduled to start operations by November 2010 and nearly 55% of the construction of Hambantota Port has already been completed, Chairman of the Ports Authority, Dr. Priyath B. Wickrema told a special media briefing.
He pointed out that the first phase of the construction work is to be completed by October 2009.
According to the Ports Authority, the project is being built at a cost of US $ 437 million. The first phase is a joint venture between China Harbour Engineering and Sino Hydro Corporation. The Government of China is to provide 85% of financial assistance.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/18/stories ... 560100.htmSpecial Correspondent
K. Anbazhagan
CHENNAI: There is no move to send Sri Lankan refugees to their homeland forcibly, but if they wanted to return home, the State government would not stand in their way, Finance Minister K. Anbazhagan said on Friday in the Assembly
http://www.travelvideo.tv/news/sri-lank ... -sri-lankaBy Srilal Miththapala
With the ending of the war against terrorism and Sri Lanka’s ground security situation rapidly returning to normalcy, there is certainly considerable focus and interest on the tourism sector, which is expected to bounce back very soon. In this context, it could be worthwhile perhaps to reflect upon the Sri Lanka tourism industry - its past, present, and future.
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_091/ ... 616RA.htmlJuly 18, Colombo: The Census and Statistics Department of Sri Lanka is to conduct its next census which will cover the entire country in 2011.
Suranjana Widyarathna, the Director General of the Census and Statistics Department said this would be the first census that will cover the entire country after 1981.
The Department is currently preparing its maps and residential lists needed for the census, she added.
The people's awareness programs for the next census have already begun in twelve districts and the Census Department hopes to carry out those programs in other districts in the near future.
http://www.unicef.org/devpro/46000_48498.htmlSri Lanka, a lower middle-income country, has experienced a protracted civil conflict and the devastation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Yet the country’s progress in human development, particularly in maternal and child health and education, has been one of the key success stories among developing countries in recent decades. Sri Lanka’s maternal mortality ratio declined from 340 per 100,000 live births in 1960 to 43 per 100,000 live births in 2005, and 98 per cent of births now take place in hospitals. Rates of antenatal care (at least one visit) and skilled attendance at birth stand at 99 per cent. These results have also had positive effects on child survival: The under-five mortality rate has fallen from 32 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 21 per 1,000 live births in 2007. The latest available data suggest that the neonatal mortality rate has also fallen, to around 8 per 1,000 births in 2004. In basic education, too, Sri Lanka’s performance has been outstanding. According to the latest international estimates, net primary school enrolment stands at more than 97 per cent for both girls and boys, while literacy rates among young people aged 15–24 are 97 per cent for males and 98 per cent for females. Administrative data suggest that the completion rate for primary school is 100 per cent. Given the positive correlation between education and maternal and child survival, these are the results of sustained investment in all three areas.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/090719/News/s ... ws_26.htmlBy Damith Wickremesekara
Personal files belonging to the late LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran – with details about arms deals and arms shipments, intended targets, suicide cadres and other key information – were unearthed last week in what appears to be one of the most significant finds in areas formerly controlled by Tiger guerrillas.
The items were found at the end of a six-day search operation conducted by a police team led by Colombo Crime Division director SP Vass Gunawardena. The operation was undertaken on the directions of the Defence Ministry.
Anura Senanayaka, Deputy Inspector General of Police, CCD, told the Sunday Times that files with more than 270 personal documents belonging to Prabhakaran were found in three large plastic containers. recovered in Vellamullivaikkal, in Mullatitivu.
A close associate of Prabhakaran in CCD custody and key LTTE members accompanied the CCD team during the search. The LTTE members included one of Prabhakaran’s personal bodyguards, a personal assistant to the LTTE chief, a driver and a mechanic who had worked for the Sea Tigers.
Prabhakaran’s close associate had initially said he would disclose three locations, but eventually helped to pinpoint 11 sites where LTTE documents and materials were buried.
http://www.nation.lk/2009/07/19/news9.htmBy M.I.M.S. Anwar
A communal rift between the Tamil and the Muslim students has arisen at the College of Education in Thalankudah, Batticaloa when the second year Tamil students under the guise of ragging, had allegedly removed the scarves worn by the Muslim girls who entered the college for the first time recently.
There were arguments and fights between the students of the two communities and in this course, two Muslim students were badly assaulted by the Tamil students and were hospitalised.
It is reported that when the President of this College S. Pakkiyarajah was contacted and was requested by the All Mosques Federation of Batticaloa for a meeting to solve this problem, he had refused to meet the Federation denying the existence of any problem. Muslims here say this is his usual tactic to evade problems that confront him.
The Nation understands that Muslim students there had also written to the President of the Institution S. Pakkiyarajah to allow the Muslim girls to wear scarves and forwarded copies of the letter to Muslim ministers and organisations exceeding twenty but to no avail. The Muslim students say it is pathetic that there is none to look into this problem which is a total denial of their basic rights.
It is learnt that a media person in good intension had contacted MP Julian, the spokesperson of Minister of Integration P. Muralitharan, who had told him that the Muslim students could not be allowed to wear the scarves as they were trying to show that the College of Education at Batticaloa belongs to them.
http://www.nation.lk/2009/07/19/newsfe7.htmHaving authored two books on Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka – Tigers of Lanka and Inside an Elusive Mind - Prabhakaran - M R Narayan Swamy is an authority on terrorism and south Indian politics. He has been a mainstream journalist since 1978 and during this period he has worked with the United News of India, Agence France- Presse (AFP) and The Strait Times in Singapore. During his tenure with the AFP he was also based in Colombo for some time. He is now based in New Delhi works with Indo- Asian News service (IANS).
On the aftermath of the Sri Lankan military successfully defeating the LTTE and liquidating its leadership The Nation spoke to Narayan Swamy to find out his insights on the future of the LTTE and associated issues
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/07/19/pol04.aspby P. Krishnaswamy
All arrangements to hold the first post-conflict local government polls to the Jaffna Municipal Council and the Vavuniya Urban Council have been finalised.
Commissioner of Elections, Dayananda Dissanayake, held a meeting last Friday at the Rajagiriya Elections Office with Jaffna GA K. Ganesh, the two Returning Officers and other senior elections officials on security arrangements, transport facilities to voters in IDP camps, changes that may be necessary with regard to locations of polling centres and other relevant matters, well-informed sources said.
Seems all of them passed from Indian institutes.Good to know.Kashyap wrote:The week that changed the military outlook
President Mahinda Rajapaksa last Sunday made drastic changes to the country’s military hierarchy surprising the entire defence circle by removing the two topmost defence officials from their posts.
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/33027.htmJuly 22nd, 2009 SindhToday
Colombo, July 22 (IANS) For decades it lay at the heart of Sri Lanka’s Tamil conflict. Now that the Tamil Tigers have been crushed, Jaffna’s once tranquil beaches are getting ready for tourists from far and wide.
The Tamil residents of Jaffna peninsula, in the island’s very northern tip, are hoping that the beaches would badly revive their battered economy and improve their own living standards.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nat ... le1226525/As Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war raged to a bloody end a few months ago, thousands of Toronto-area Tamils took to the streets to decry the deaths of loved ones back home.
Now, the same Tamil community is grappling with the violent deaths of two of its young men in Scarborough in less than two weeks, and some wonder if a new kind of war, much closer to home, has taken its place.
“Since the protests have stopped, they have nothing to do,” a 25-year-old Tamil-Canadian woman said Tuesday outside an Eglinton Avenue strip mall where her family has a business. “I think the protests were holding us together really strong. Now, [their absence has] divided us into separate communities.”
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/07 ... 79150.htmlBy Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO, July 21 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's share market hit a near one-year closing high on Tuesday, on hopes of an economic revival, a fall in interest rates, and a boost to foreign investments after a loan agreement with the IMF.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Sri Lanka on Monday reached a $2.5 billion loan deal to help the country cope with a global financial crisis and pay for reconstruction after a 25-year war.
'It is the beginning of a new era,' said Geeth Balasuriya, head of research at Acuity Stockbrokers. 'The loan will give direction to the market with stabilised currency, more foreign investments, and declining interest rates.'
http://www.indopia.in/India-usa-uk-news ... nal/2/72/2After a gap of 19 years, a key highway linking the Sri Lankan capital to Jaffna re-opened today for general public following the defeat of the LTTE in May at the hands of security forces in the island's north.
The A-9 Jaffna-Kandy main highway, which remained closed due to terrorism, has been re-opened, an official statement said. A total of 225 civilians joined the first journey by public transport on the A-9 road this morning, heading to Medawachchiya in the North Central Province, from the Dureappa grounds in Jaffna in five state-owned buses, Military Spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.
Also, a group of people waiting to travel to Colombo from Jaffna by ship were taken by the bus along the A-9 road to the Sri Lankan capital. Plans are also afoot to introduce several buses from Jaffna to Vavuniya.
Passengers to the Jaffna Peninsula were earlier compelled to travel by sea and air at high cost for the past several years due to the LTTE terrorism. The reopening of the A-9 route enables civilians to travel between Jaffna and Colombo at a concessionary price.
By Rahul Dass
Ella (Sri Lanka), July 23 (IANS) With a quarter-century of ethnic conflict and terrorism in Sri Lanka left behind, the island nation, known for its sun-kissed beaches and rolling tea gardens, is wooing Indian tourists like never before by developing a Ramayana trail to enable them to visit the Lanka of demon king Ravana.
The Sri Lankan tourism department has identified about 50 sites that are said to be connected to the Ramayana that tells the tale of the Hindu god Rama, whose wife Sita was kidnapped by Ravana and taken to ’sone ki Lanka’, or the golden kingdom of Lanka.
“One just needs to talk to the local people, who would immediately tell which event in the Ramayana unfolded where,” said S. Kalaiselvam, director general of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.
http://www.lse.co.uk/MacroEconomicNews. ... 009_-_govt23-JUL-2009 07:23
COLOMBO, July 23 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's economy is expected to expand by 5 percent this year, stronger than previously forecast, the government said on Thursday, after the country reached a $2.5 billion loan accord with IMF.
The island nation raised its growth expectations for the second time in July, after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to help the country to cope with a global financial crisis and pay for reconstruction after a 25-year war.
'Sri Lanka's economy will grow by 5 percent by the end of this year,' the government's information department said, quoting Export Development and International Trade Minister G.L. Peiris.
Another failed attempt at doing an equal equal comparison.Most of the inmates, in 20s and 30s, have been languishing in the camp for more than three years. They have been picked by the Q branch for trying to smuggle consignments to LTTE and some on the basis of suspicion.
By Dianne Silva and N. Parameswaran
The Government yesterday facilitated the transport a group of passengers from Jaffna to Colombo along the A-9 main road marking the first time the route was used for passenger transport since the end of the conflict two months ago.
However the Government indicated that it had not yet fixed a date to open the road for civilian vehicles although plans are afoot to open the road to all vehicles soon.
A group of 180 passengers boarded five Ceylon Transport Board (CTB) buses in Jaffna and arrived at the Colombo Fort Central Bus Terminal last evening.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... 25ZGciZaxcBy Anusha Ondaatjie
July 23 (Bloomberg) -- The Asian Development Bank plans to increase its lending to Sri Lanka by 50 percent to help the South Asian island rebuild after ending its 26-year civil war.
The Manila-based lender plans to raise Sri Lanka’s annual allocation to $300 million in 2010 from $200 million, to fund road, power and water and sanitation projects in the island’s north and east, among others, said Narhari Rao, ADB’s South Asia lead economist.
“Sri Lanka is in an extremely favorable situation and the overall confidence of the international community is much higher,” Rao said in an interview in Colombo today. “We are trying to push ahead on various fronts since we feel it’s just the right time to give resources to Sri Lanka.”
