[Translated from my sinhala blog]
It happened during the height of war. War had extended its destruction beyond the best of imagination. Death was everywhere. The leaders responsible for the death were in hiding.
There is an expiry time for everything. No difference for hiding too. Victorious armies were surrounding the hideout. There was little to none hope of escape. Suddenly an enlightenment of "Peace" tingled the otherwise dogmatic minds of the leaders. It was a feeling that never rose until the death loomed over their heads - the very death they prescribed for many others.
Evading an inevitable death they came out. They thought of surrendering, which was their last option, in order for them to live for another day to lead the same war.
Victorious armies shot the leaders dead. They were unarmed.
"These deaths of leaders... Are they war crimes?"
We asked the elite panel of judges comprising USA, EU, Canada, Australia etc.
"Nop. These are fair killings. By all means these chaps are murderers. They have killed thousands. So it is fair. Therefore, we do not consider the killing of Gaddafi as a war crime"
"Gaddafi?"
We were confused.
"We're not talking about Gaddafi killing. We're talking about the killing of Tamil Tiger leadership, whom you allege to have come out to surrender, after sacrificing thousands, including kids in forced conscription, as cannon-fodder."
The communication channel went blank.
It happened during the height of war. War had extended its destruction beyond the best of imagination. Death was everywhere. The leaders responsible for the death were in hiding.
There is an expiry time for everything. No difference for hiding too. Victorious armies were surrounding the hideout. There was little to none hope of escape. Suddenly an enlightenment of "Peace" tingled the otherwise dogmatic minds of the leaders. It was a feeling that never rose until the death loomed over their heads - the very death they prescribed for many others.
Evading an inevitable death they came out. They thought of surrendering, which was their last option, in order for them to live for another day to lead the same war.
Victorious armies shot the leaders dead. They were unarmed.
"These deaths of leaders... Are they war crimes?"
We asked the elite panel of judges comprising USA, EU, Canada, Australia etc.
"Nop. These are fair killings. By all means these chaps are murderers. They have killed thousands. So it is fair. Therefore, we do not consider the killing of Gaddafi as a war crime"
"Gaddafi?"
We were confused.
"We're not talking about Gaddafi killing. We're talking about the killing of Tamil Tiger leadership, whom you allege to have come out to surrender, after sacrificing thousands, including kids in forced conscription, as cannon-fodder."
The communication channel went blank.
47 comments:
Ha! Ha! Sujeewa!
Very Appropriate.
Your article exposes the DOUBLE STANDARDS of the Western Neocolonialists who INCESSANTLY PREACH to us what they themselves DON'T PRACTICE!
Different Strokes for Different Folks ... I imagine!
AMAZING how Western nations enforce their laws when their own societies are threatened, but had turned a blind eye during 30 long years as 150,000 people were sliced and diced by terrorists funded by the Tamil Diaspora residing in their countries.
Amazing!
...............
Dutch court jails five Tamil Tigers accused of funding LTTE
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Oct 21, The Hague: A Dutch court Friday convicted and sentenced five Sri Lankan Tamils accused of extorting money from other Dutch Tamils to fund the terrorist activities of Sri Lanka's terror outfit Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) .
The Hague District Court in Netherlands sentenced the five Tamil Tigers to prison terms of up to six years charged of financing an international criminal and terrorist organization responsible for suicide bombings, assassinations and murder of thousands by blackmailing and threatening the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in the country.
Prosecutors had argued the five men, all of whom are now Dutch citizens, that they ran front organizations like the Tamil Youth Organization and the Dutch Tamil Arts and Culture Organization to collect millions of euros to finance the terror war in Sri Lanka.
Following a long bloody battle the Sri Lankan government forces vanquished the terrorist organization in May 2009 but a recent Europol report says the organization is still active in Europe.
Sri Lanka wary of pro-LTTE elements overseas
ZeeNews.com
October 21, 2011
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the powerful Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka, on Friday warned that the military cannot rest on its laurels after the end of a three-decade separatist campaign by the Tamil Tigers, saying there were pro-LTTE elements in foreign countries.
Addressing the military at the opening of the security forces headquarters in the northern town of Kilinochchi, the younger brother of the president Mahinda Rajapaksa said that despite eradicating LTTE terrorism within the country the military still need to be aware of the dangers ahead.
"There are pro-LTTE elements in foreign countries who want to condemn the hard earned victory against terrorism," the Defence Secretary said.
Kilinochchi served as the international capital and its administrative seat when the LTTE ran its parallel administration.
The government forces wrested back the control of Kilinochchi from LTTE in January 2009.
Recalling the government action to rehabilitate the former members of the LTTE and reintegrate them in society, the defence ministry secretary said that there may be pro-LTTE groups who may still want to mislead the rehabilitated youth once again to take up arms.
"Therefore, the military must remain alert to prevent any situation like in the 1970s (when LTTE came to be formed)," Rajapaksa said.
Only a few hundred of LTTE-ers in rehabilitation remain to be released out of a total of over 11,000 of them who had surrendered to the government at the end of the conflict in May 2009.
Sri Lankan President opens flight training academy
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Oct 20, Colombo: Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa Thursday opened an academy to train aviation officers in the country.
The President declared open the Sri Lankan Flight Academy, a joint project of the SriLankan airlines and the SIM industries in the Netherlands and an Air Bus A-330 Air Plane Simulator at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake.
Addressing the function, the President stressed the need of training the Sri Lankan youth with the state of the art technology to lead the development of the country as Sri Lanka is engaged in a development programme that is based on local values and keeps pace with international trends.
The President noted that the Sri Lanka youth will be able to earn a great deal of knowledge in the aviation industry at this academy.
The new academy hopes to train the regional aviation officers as well as the local Sri Lankan officers. The national carrier Sri Lankan airlines aim to install an A-330 airbus simulator at the second quarter of 2012 at BIA and a similar simulator at the Mattala international airport.
Civil Aviation Minister, Priyankara Jayaratne, Parliamentarian Arundika Fernando, Chairman of SriLankan Air lines, Nishantha Wickremasinghe, Acting Ambassador of Netherlands in Sri Lanka, Bas Van Noordenne attended the ceremony.
(Photos by Sudath Silva)
Confucius Centers to Confuse the Neocolonialists!
China should EXPAND the Confucius Prize Organization as a more acceptable (to the vast majority of countries in the world) as a alternative to Nobel Prize Organization that has become a tool for pursuing Western REGIME CHANGE political agendas.
..............
China to set up Confucius Centres, TV channel here
DailyMirror.lk
October 21, 2011
China is hoping to establish Confucius Centres and a TV channel in Sri Lanka to popularise the Chinese language and telecast educational programmes, train teachers and school principals, an Education Ministry spokesman said yesterday.
The move comes after Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene had several rounds of talks with his Chinese counterpart Yuan Guiren and Deputy Minster Hao Ping during Mr. Gunawardene’s recent visit to China.
The ministers discussed how bilateral links in education, culture and IT could be strengthened and agreed to set up Confucius Centres in Sri Lanka to launch training programmes by way of a TV channel.
Mr. Guiren responded to a request by Minister Gunawardana to renovate the Lumbini Theatre.
He pledged to increase the number of scholarships offered to Sri Lankan students by the Chinese government.
Minister Gunawardana who visited China on an invitation by Mr. Guiren visited several educational institutions and got a first-hand experience of education methods in China. He also met Sri Lankan students who are studying at Chinese educational institutions.
(Sandun A. Jayasekera)
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2013 in SRI LANKA
News.lk
October 21, 2011
The Sri Lanka High Commission, London, in partnership with the Commonwealth Business Council, held a reception under the theme of "Expanding Pan-Commonwealth Trade”, and the opportunities which will ensue during the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting, which will be held in Sri Lanka in 2013.
The reception was attended by a wide representation from the Commonwealth High Commissions in London as well as members of the Commonwealth Business Council, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the British business community, and other Commonwealth organizations.
Dr. Chris Nonis, High Commissioner for Sri Lanka, who addressed the gathering, said that Sri Lanka today represents one of the most compelling destinations for investment in the Commonwealth. Following 28 years of conflict Sri Lanka achieved peace in 2009, and moreover, has also achieved the political stability which ensures consistency in policy. The post-conflict era has ushered in an extremely conducive macroeconomic environment and there is concomitant progress in developing the infrastructure of the country, particularly in the previously conflict-affected areas. Moreover, Sri Lanka is finally embarked on a comprehensive Reconciliation program, as it builds a pluralistic and inclusive society, in which all our communities can reap the dividends of peace.
The underlying policy of pro-poor growth, and growth with equity as outlined in the "Mahinda Chintana" aims to bring the dividends of peace of all sectors of the country, and make that peace a durable one. He emphasized that with the end of the autocracy of terrorism, people throughout Sri Lanka are now experiencing democracy and development, the twin pillars of Commonwealth values.
Dr Chris Nonis also referred to the keynote address which will be delivered by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Perth, Australia, which brings together over 1200 business leaders from the 54 Commonwealth Countries, and will present the opportunity to highlight and articulate the very real progress that is being made in the country in the post-conflict era.
Pan-Commonwealth trade and investment also plays a substantial role in stimulating rural development and in this context it is most opportune that Sri Lanka will be hosting the CHOGM in 2013. It is international forum such as these which will serve to stimulate regional development, and further contribute towards Sri Lanka making that transition from developing to developed nation, and furthermore will provide opportunities for all Commonwealth Countries and Communities to engage with Sri Lanka and join together in this endeavor.
Dr. Mohan Kaul, CEO of the Commonwealth Business Council, in his address reiterated that the Commonwealth is the largest grouping of Countries after the United Nations, and some of the fastest growing economies in the world are part of this association, including two G8 and five G20 members. He stated that the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting which is scheduled for Perth, Australia in 2011, and for Sri Lanka in 2013, will see the bringing together of Heads of State from 54 Commonwealth Countries, and this will provide tremendous opportunities for enhancing pan-Commonwealth trade, and contribute to the development of our regional economies, as well as those of other Commonwealth countries.
In preparation for CHOGM 2013 in Sri Lanka, the Commonwealth Business Council launched the publication ”Sri Lanka Investment Guide 2012”, which highlights the myriad of opportunities for investment in Sri Lanka from all other Commonwealth Countries.
I have a Suspension Bridge in New York to sell cheap to anyone who believes that Gaddafi's killing will be handled seriously by these "politically motivated" "human rights" organizations ... when dear old Hillary Clinton enunciated US Policy to kill him on 10/19/2011 and he was killed the next day!
Hah!
Different Strokes for Different Folks ... don't you know? ... LTTE apologists at BBC notwithstanding.
...............
Gaddafi killing and white flag case 'similar'
By Saroj Pathirana
BBC Sinhala service
October 21, 2011
There needs to be a very serious investigation into what actually happened, says HRW
There seems to be similarities between the killing of former Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi and Sri Lanka’s ‘white flag case’, says Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Col Gaddafi had been shot in the head in an exchange of fire between Gaddafi loyalists and NTC fighters following his capture in his hometown of Sirte.
“It is not so different from the allegations of the white flag incident in Sri Lanka where LTTE leaders and their families allegedly tried to surrender and allegedly were executed,” Asia director of HRW, Brad Adams told BBC Sinhala service.
Following calls from UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillai for an investigation into the death of Col Gaddafi, the HRW also calls for an urgent probe.
Everybody including Col Gaddafi and LTTE leaders, "no matter how heinous they are and no matter how many people they killed themselves", said Mr Adams, has a right to be “treated properly”.
'War crime?'
“Col Gaddafi had just as much right to be treated properly as anybody else,” said Brad Adams.
Sri Lanka forces are accused of executing surrendering LTTE leaders including B Nadesan
It is too early to describe the killing as a war crime as details are still coming in, he said, but added that “it could be a war crime.”
“There needs to be a very serious investigation into what actually happened, who killed him, under what circumstances, was it a local decision, whether somebody ordered to kill him, etc,” Mr Adams told BBC Sandeshaya.
Officials have denied Col Gaddafi was executed after being captured on Thursday.
Video footage suggests he was dragged through the streets.
A rebel fighter told the BBC he found the former Libyan leader hiding in a drainage pipe and he had begged him not to shoot.
Sri Lanka security forces were also accused of executing senior Tamil Tiger leaders who tried to surrender with white flags at the last stages of the conflict.
The government of Sri Lanka has continuously denied the accusation.
BBC Sandeshaya could not contact Sri Lanka government spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella despite repeated attempts.
Five Dutch Tamil "humanitarian workers" CONVICTED of fundraising for LTTE terrorists in Sri Lanka.
Only a CONFUSED Dutch Court could ACQUIT them of TERROR links at the same time!
In other words, their crime was to extort money from Dutch Tamil citizens, but not that they funded killing of innocents in Sri Lanka with those funds.
As I said before ... they are protecting their own society from criminals; they don't care one jot for what happens/happened to Sri Lankans.
And these addlepated hypocrites also preside over the ICC in The Hague policing the World?
God Help Us!
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Court convicts 5 Dutch Tamils of fundraising for Tamil Tigers but acquits them of terror links
WashingtonPost.com
October 21, 2011
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch court convicted five ethnic Tamils on Friday for raising illegal funds for the Sri Lankan rebel group Tamil Tigers, but in a ruling that ran counter to European and U.S. policy it refused to brand the Tigers a terrorist organization.
The defense attorney for two of the defendants said the decision by the Hague District Court “will have a huge impact” on a legal battle in the European Court of Justice to have the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, removed from the EU’s list of terrorists.
The court sentenced the five naturalized Dutch citizens to prison terms ranging from two to six years. Receiving the longest sentence was a man identified only as Selliah, described as the global bookkeeper for all LTTE operations outside Sri Lanka.
But in a decision that could have a broad impact, the three-judge panel acquitted them of membership of an international terror organization.
The court said the Tigers’ 26-year battle for an independent Tamil state, which cost an estimated 100,000 lives, was a “non-international armed conflict.” That means that any atrocities committed by either side should be classified as war crimes or crimes against humanity, and not terror attacks.
The ruling represented a significant public relations victory for the Tigers, who were notorious for launching suicide attacks on civilian targets during the conflict, and were widely accused of recruiting child soldiers.
Dutch attorney Victor Koppe said the outcome will be critical in his case to overturn the 2006 decision by the EU to put the Tamil Tigers on the terror list.
“For the LTTE, this is a very good judgment,” he told The Associated Press after the verdict. “It will be Exhibit A in the LTTE procedure in Luxembourg.”
Despite saying that the Tigers could not be considered terrorists under Dutch law, the Hague District court still convicted the five of fundraising for an outlawed criminal organization, basing their verdict on the EU terror listing.
The court said fundraisers used threats to wrest money from the Tamil community in the Netherlands. That continued even after the Sri Lankan military crushed the Tigers and killed their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in May 2009.
Court convicts 5 Dutch Tamils of fundraising for Tamil Tigers but acquits them of terror links
.......continued.....
Koppe said he would appeal the convictions.
“Basically what they are saying is that the LTTE should not be on the EU banned (terror) list and at the same time convicting them for membership of the group,” he said.
During the trial, Koppe called the Tamil Tigers “freedom fighters” and compared them to rebels who fought to topple Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi from power.
Nonetheless, the trial supported a long-held view by the Sri Lankan government that LTTE front organizations continued to operate among the 800,000 Tamils in the diaspora, many of them in the wealthy countries in Europe, Canada and Australia.
The extent of the operation was revealed in a USB stick containing the LTTE’s 2010 financial plan seized from Selliah, whom the court described as “an unmissable link” in the LTTE. “Without Selliah’s work many millions of euros would not have gone to an outlawed organization — the LTTE,” the judgment said.
The other men all worked for groups that judges called front organizations that raised money in the Netherlands.
The United Nations and other groups also have called for an investigation of alleged war crimes by the government and the military, particularly in the final months of the war when thousands of Tamil civilians were killed in the shelling as the army closed in on the LTTE leadership.
Prosecutors also have an opportunity to appeal the sentences, but did not immediately say if they would.
Judges also acquitted the men of extortion, but convicted them of using nonviolent threats to force Tamil exiles to donate to the Tigers.
Groups of fundraisers would repeatedly visit the homes of Tamils and threaten that they would not be allowed to visit their relatives in the predominantly Tamil areas of Sri Lanka if they did not pay up.
Several among the many Tamils who packed the court’s public gallery rejected the verdicts as unjust and said they had voluntarily contributed money for humanitarian goals in Sri Lanka.
“I feel very sad,” said the wife of one of the suspects. She declined to give her name, saying she feared reprisals by government forces on family members in Sri Lanka.
“My husband was a humanitarian worker. This is not a humanitarian verdict,” she said.
Minister Wimal Weerawansa is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!
No Ethnic Community has EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS to ANY PART of Sri Lanka.
ALL of Sri Lanka's citizens have an EQUAL RIGHT to settle in ALL PARTS of Sri Lanka.
For the TNA to claim otherwise, and DEMAND the Northern Province for the EXCLUSIVE USE of Tamils only is RACIST. It is the RACIST APARTHIED policy practized b y the Boers in South Africa ... we will NOT ALLOW IT in Sri Lanka.
The PATH to Ethnic Amity in Sri Lanka is Ethnic Integration with the goal of DEMOGRAPHIC HOMOGENIZATION. It is not to SLICE & DICE Sri Lanka into Communal Bantustans forever at war with each other.
ONE NATION of ONE PEOPLE sharing ONE NATIONAL DESTINY should be Our GOAL!
ONE SYSTEM OF LAW, ONE GOVERNMENT, ONE POLICE FORCE in all of Lanka.
Indeed, the Tiger Nominated Agents of the TNA are trying to REVIVE the late unlamented Sun God Velupillai Prabhakaran's dream of a Separate ""EELAM" in Sri Lanka for Tamils only.
These unrepentant RACISTS, NEVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE for their TREASONOUS ACTIVITIES of the last 30 years, are still working to achieve that RACIST goal by hook or by crook.
They conveniently IGNORE the fact that the VAST MAJORITY of Tamils in Sri Lanka live outside the Tamil majority North in Sinhala areas without any rejection of them by the Sinhala and Muslim communities of SRi Lanka.
Always deceptive, always communal, always greedy and self-centerd, always treasonous, it is HIGH TIME the TNA was banned from engaging in communal politics pitting Sri Lanka's communities against each other.
The FIRST STEP should be to ARREST, PROSECUTE, CONVICT and PUNISH these TNA terrorist lovers for the TREASON they committed over the last 30 years as the political arm of the LTTE terrorists. Let this crop of TNA Leaders BREAK ROCKS IN PRISON to the end of their days.
We are REAPING the results of OUR FAILURE to hold these RACIST SEPARATIST TERRORIST SUPPORTERS accountable for THEIR CRIMES against the people of Sri Lanka.
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Wimal decries TNA’ call for exclusive land rights in North
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Island.lk
October 21, 2011
National Freedom Front (NFF) leader and housing minister Wimal Weerawansa said that the Tamils couldn’t have the exclusive right for land in the Northern Province.
Addressing a public gathering at Daminnagahawatte, Katana following the launch of ‘Janasevana’ housing project, Minister Weerawansa emphasized that the ongoing campaign by Tamil politicians to pressure the government over the land issue wasn’t fair, therefore it was not acceptable.
Tamils live in the Western Province. The recently concluded LG poll for the CMC highlighted the fact that the Sinhalese were a minority within the city limits. Those demanding the Northern Province for the Tamils had conveniently ignored that the Sinhalese never objected to being outnumbered in the city, the MP said.
An irate Weerawansa urged Tamil political parties and groups not to look at the issue through what he called ethnic eyes. The bottom line was that the government couldn’t adopt a land policy based on ethnic lines whatever the Tamil politicians said.
MP Weerawansa criticized the TNA, TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF for launching a protest in Vavuniya over the land issue. In spite of the LTTE being defeated over two years ago there were those who still pursue Prabhakaran’s eelam dream, he said. Nothing could be as reckless as the effort to provoke Tamil speaking people living in the
Northern and Eastern Provinces, he said. Those seeking to undermine post-war recovery process were now working overtime to cause chaos, the minister alleged.
The NFF leader urged the people to be cautious in the wake of the ongoing sordid operation to trigger fresh ethnic hostilities.
Wimal decries TNA’ call for exclusive land rights in North
....continued.....
MP Weerawansa paid a glowing tribute to slain SLFP heavyweight Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. Jeyaraj had the talent to counter the Opposition in and out of parliament, the minister said adding that the assassination deprived the country of Jeyaraj’s services. Had Jeyaraj been alive, he could have played a crucial role in the post-war era.
Tamil political parties want India to pressure the government over the land issue. V. Anadasangaree, D. Siddharthaa and T. Sritharan representing the TULF, PLOTE and EPRLF (Pathmanaba faction) respectively met on Oct. 10 Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai at the India House to discuss what a spokesperson called urgent and important matters in the present context.
Alleging that the move to re-register land was unjustifiable, they said the government’s action caused suspicion among the people. They also expressed concern about taking over of 8,000 acres for the proposed Sampoor coal-power plant. They alleged that the government was planning to utilize a section of the land to set up a settlement. They urged India to intervene on behalf of some 1,400 families denied of their land due to the coal-fired project spearheaded by India.
They also opposed the creation of a new Divisional Secretary’s Division in Mullaitivu, alleging the government was planning to accommodate outsiders in the area.
Bravo ... the PROTECTOR of Sri Lanka does it right AGAIN!
PERMANENT Sri Lanka Defence Force CAMPS in EVERY AREA of Sri Lanka to be established to protect OUR MOTHERLAND.
The TNA demands dismantlement of army camps in the North so they can revive their separatist terrorist activities UNOBSERVED & UNMOLESTED.
What does the Defence Secretary do? He goes in the opposite direction ... developing PERMANENT ARMY CAMPS in all of Sri Lanka.
Let the TNA take note and GIVE UP their Unachievable Eelamist Dreams before they marginalize the once respected Tamil Community into a suspect anti-national fifth column.
TNA, LET YOUR PEOPLE GO!
Let the Tamil People of Sri Lanka regain their rightful place beside their Sinhala and Moslem brothers and sisters, without regard to communal differences, as EQUAL citizens of Sri Lanka endowed INALIENABLE EQUAL RIGHTS of shared citizenship, and bearing the EQUAL RESPONSIBILITY to LOVE, PROTECT, DEFEND and FOSTER our Motherland.
ONE NATION of ONE PEOPLE sharing ONE DESTINY is our GOAL.
TNA, set your people FREE OF COMMUNAL BONDAGE!
Let them LIVE FREE AGAIN of racist communal aspirations; you have tortured them ENOUGH with your RACIST policies!
Your RACIST policies will NEVER BE ALLOWED TO TAKE ROOT in Sri Lanka again!
LIVE and LEARN ... at leasty NOW!
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Sri Lanka defence intelligence network expanded to monitor LTTE activities overseas
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Oct 22, Colombo: Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says that several Army intelligence units have been set up to monitor the LTTE activities internationally.
Rajapaksa has said the LTTE was active internationally with the help of the Tamil Diaspora.
"There are pro-LTTE elements in foreign countries who want to condemn the hard earned victory against terrorism," the Defence Secretary has said.
The Defence Secretary made these comments during the opening ceremony of the security forces headquarters in Kilinochchi.
Rajapaksa has said that some LTTE members surrendered to the security forces during and after the war while some were arrested.
He warned that there may be some LTTE groups who would influence the rehabilitated youth to take up arms again.
However, he has noted that the intelligence units were expanded since the defence establishment was aware that some of the LTTE members who escaped would operate with the help of the Tamil Diaspora.
According to Rajapaksa, the defence establishment is also setting up permanent military camps in every area instead of the temporary camps that were set up.
As one who loves BOTH the United States and Sri Lanka ... my advice to the US Government is ... ABANDON YOUR CURRENT FLAWED FOREIGN POLICY on Sri Lanka of PUNISHING this courageous nation for MILITARILY EXCISING the CANCER OF TERRORISM that sickened it for 30 long years.
DO NOT PUNISH this small nation that fought its own War on Terror as an ally of the United States, and still desperately wants to preserve that close relationship.
The VAST MAJORITY of Sri Lankans SHARE the democratic values and national aspirations of the United States. They MOURN the emerging trend of increasing distance between the two nations. But if asked to choose between alliance with the United States accepting US interference in the internal matters of Sri Lanka critical to its survival, and protecting Sri Lanka's sovereign right to defend their nation's integrity and freedom from terror, as they see fit and know better how to achieve than any others, they will choose the latter path.
Recent events in Libya and elsewhere show that small countries that incur the wrath of misguided flawed US policymakers, plying their own agendas, will be destabilized, militarily attacked by one means or the other, economically marginalized, and lose their sovereign right to choose their own leaders and govern their own country free of external interference.
In this milieu, Sri Lanka needs friends ... so Sri Lanka embraces other powerful nations ... China, Russia and India ... with tears of disappointment and sorrow in its eyes as it drifts away from the United States. Sri Lanka must do what it must to survive when friends go mad.
It is ABOUT TIME that the United States rectified this situation of worsening US-Sri Lanka relations ... and it is so easy to do.
The United States needs to align itself with the LARGE MAJORITY OF CITIZENS of Sri Lanka, and not with disaffected minorities. Alignment with the ASPIRATIONS of the MAJORITY OF PEOPLE of a nation is the PATH TOWARDS ENDURING ALLIANCES, such as the one the US has with Britain. Undermining a popular government, enjoying successive landslide electoral victories, in alliance with disaffected minorities will not earn the US the love of the VAST MAJORITY of Sri Lankan citizens, but only their enmity.
When Britain was affected by IRA terrorism, the US did not abandon Britain in favor of the IRA despite Irish American support for the IRA. When Sri Lanka was affected by Tamil Eelamist terrorism, the US was the first Western nation to proscribe the LTTE, leading the way for other nations to follow. But now, the US has lost its way. It is falling prey to the propaganda of the global Tamil Eelamist Diaspora, while some US leaders are being swayed by cartloads of LTTE funds.
........continued 1 ....
It is EASY for the United States to align itself with the majority of Sri Lankans, because Sri Lankans want the same things and have many of the same views and aspirations for themselves as the citizens of the United States. The final goal of a democratic open society, with full religious and political freedoms, a free press, free-market capitalist economy, equal rights for all irrespective of race, religion, language, sex, wealth or caste is our goal. Their objective is to re-integrate its Tamil citizens into Sri Lankan society, not by giving them special rights unavailable to other citizens, but with the same equal rights they have always enjoyed as Sri Lankan citizens.
However, Sri Lankans will not accede to demands to divide Sri Lanka into ethnic Bantustans in the name of false "self-determination" or preserving "ethnic diversity". Every part of Sri Lanka is the shared birthright of all of its people to be accessed equally for their benefit under one system of fair and just national law. No part of Sri Lanka will be the exclusive domain of any one community group.
A federal system of governance, that spawned a civil war in the United States, is necessary for the vast territory of the US, but not for tiny Sri Lanka ... one of the few advantages of being small. Let Sri Lankans determine their own path towards Nirvana ... we are an ancient people with a rich history, culture and demonstrated abilities in governance ... we have sufficient wit and skill of our own to get there.
The US should also recognize that the financial aid Sri Lanka receives from China ... nearly $ 3 Billion last year ... is far greater than the pittance of $25 million or so from the United States primarily for soft "cultural" and "governance" activities. That is, US is not helping Sri Lanka recover from the ravages of war to any substantial extent ... commensurate with it concerns about Sri Lanka's strategic importance. This too should be reversed ... $ 1 Billion in aid in 2012, for infrastructure development and renewable energy would be good start!
We had great hopes that the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party would be supportive of Sri Lanka. Instead, it has gone DOWNHILL in its criticism and espousal of "war crimes" allegations.
Therefore, it is heartening to note that some Republican Congressman are interested in repairing this unnecessarily damaged relationship between the two allied nations.
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US concerned about growing Chinese military influence on Sri Lanka
by Zacki Jabbar
Island.lk
October 21, 2011
The United States of America was concerned about the growing Chinese influence including military ties with Sri Lanka, visiting US Republican Congressman Jack Kingston said in Colombo on Thursday.
Asked at a press conference in Colombo, as to how the USA which was earlier one of Sri Lanka’s closet allies felt about being distanced due to improved Sri Lanka-China bilateral relations including trade and military cooperation, Kingston who represents the State of Georgia admitted that America viewed the situation with a great deal of concern.
The growing Chinese military presence in the Indian Ocean was the most worrying, he noted.
Questioned as to how the USA planned to neutralise the increasing Chinese prescence, the congressman said that the historic ties between Sri Lanka and America which had encompassed many areas including trade, politicial and military cooperation should be strengthened.
Sri Lanka’s geographical location was important from a military standpoint and it was imperative that America does not lose sight of that fact, he observed.
......continued 2....
Kingston, said that even though the LTTE had been physically defeated, it was still active in various parts of the world through front organizations and needs to addressed.
Kingston, was part of a three member US Congressional delegation comprising Republican Party members headed by Albert Benjamin Chandler and Joseph Heath Schuler who were here on fact finding tour, to assess the Sri Lankan governments post war rehabilitation, reconstruction and reconciliation efforts, on the invitation of Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Mexico and the US Julia Wickramasuriya.
Chandler, who represents the North Carolina State said that human rights issues were important, but a balanced view had to be taken following the end of a near thirty year old war, during which a deadly terror outfit had been defeated.
Pakistan elected to UN Security Council as non-permanent member
Pakistan Times.net
October 23, 2011
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan was on Friday elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, the world body’s power centre.
Pakistan, which was challenged by Kyrgyzstan, was backed by 129 of the 193 member states in the General Assembly. Kyrgyzstan polled 55 votes.Pakistan will replace Lebanon, which currently occupies the Asian seat, on January 1, 2012, to begin a two-year term.
An elated Pakistan UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon,who spearheaded the campaign for a seat on UN’s high table—the 15-member Security Council—said, vote was an acknowledgment the country’s services towards the maintenance of international peace and security. “We worked very, very hard over the past months,” Ambassador Haroon said.
Pakistan has been on the Council six times earlier -- 1952-53, 1968-69, 1976-77, 1983-84, 1993-94 and 2003-04. It will be thus the seventh time Pakistan would be on the Council, and the fourth time its term would overlap with India. India and Pakistan have shared terms on the Security Council in 1968, 1977 and 1984.
The Security Council has five veto-holding permanent members - the United States, Britain, France,Russia and China—and 10 temporary elected members without vetoes.
Since joining the United Nations in 1947, Ambassador Haroon said Pakistan has shown a strong commitment towards multilateralism and promoting the principles and purposes enshrined in the UN Charter. As a non-permanent member of the Security Council in the past, he said Pakistan made significant contribution to its work.
Over the last 50 years, Pakistan has been a leading contributor to United Nations Peacekeeping Missions. Currently, it has over 9,000 troops and other personnel deployed in 8 UN Peacekeeping Missions around the world. “This amply demonstrates the country’s commitment to global peace and security,” Haroon said.
Pakistan is joining the Security Council at a time of great international upheaval and challenges, he pointed out. Pakistan’s extensive experience and active participation in the UN system makes it uniquely qualified to positively contribute towards addressing the current problems.
Cairn Lanka drills another well in Sri Lanka's prospective oil fields
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Oct 22, Colombo: Cairn Lanka, the wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India exploring oil in the Mannar basin off Sri Lanka's northwestern coast, has started drilling a second site, the government said.
The company has started work on a second well CLPL-Barracuda-1G/1 in the Block SL 2007-01-001.
Cairn Lanka, which began oil drilling operations in the Mannar basin in August, found gas deposits in its first well CLPL-Dorado-91H/1z.
According to the company, it has struck a gas deposit of a gross 25m hydrocarbon column with some additional liquid hydrocarbon potential in a sandstone between the depths of 3,043.8 to 3,068.7 meters.
Cairn hopes to drill three more wells under its exploration program, which is expected to be completed in early 2012.
Cairn has said earlier If Sri Lanka's drilling program is successful then commercial oil production can be expected by 2014 with a billion barrels.
The Block SL 2007-01-001 was awarded to Cairn in the 2008 Sri Lanka bid round.
Mannar basin has eight oil and gas exploration blocks and two of them have been granted to China and India. Russia's largest oil company, Gazprom and Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, PetroVietnam have expressed interest in oil exploration in the Mannar Basin.
Gaddafi shot dead after being captured alive.
Probe yes, Post-mortem no.
..................
Libyans rule out Kadhafi post-mortem but promise probe
By Marc Bastian
October 22, 2011
Military commanders in the Libyan city of Misrata said Saturday that no post-mortem would be carried out on the body of Moamer Kadhafi despite concerns over how the toppled dictator died.
Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said an investigation was being conducted into the circumstances of Kadhafi's killing following his capture, bloodied but still alive, during the fall of his hometown Sirte on Thursday, after several foreign governments and human rights watchdogs posed questions.
But the military leadership in Misrata, where Kadhafi's body had been stored in a vegetable market freezer overnight and was again put on display for hundreds of curious onlookers on Saturday, insisted the inquiry would involve no autopsy.
"There will be no post-mortem today, nor any day," Misrata military council spokesman Fathi al-Bashaagha told AFP. "No one is going to open up his body."
His comments were confirmed by two other Misrata military chiefs.
Bashaagha said that the new regime's military commander for the capital, Abdelhakim Belhaj, was expected to travel to Misrata later on Saturday to view the corpse of the man who ruled Libya with an iron rod for 42 years.
But he said there were no immediate plans for National Transitional Council (NTC) chief Abdel Jalil to visit.
"Abdel Jajil did not come yesterday and is not coming today, and for the moment it is not expected that he will come."
The interim leader was in the main eastern city of Benghazi on Saturday visiting some of the wounded from the eight-month uprising that felled Kadhafi.
"Yes," he answered when asked if the circumstances of Kadhafi's death were being investigated. He declined to take any further questions.
As the rigid, bloodied, yellow corpse of Kadhafi and his son Mutassim lay on dirty mattresses on the metal floor of the glacial makeshift mortuary, hundreds of Libyans were allowed inside to view them.
A man identifying himself as Sadiq said he was only 18 when the former despot took power in 1969.
"All my adult life I lived with this low life, this..." said the 60-year-old, who declined to give his last name, spattering curses against Kadhafi.
"But he is dead and I am happy," he said, laughing.
US President Barack Obama said Saturday that "in Libya, the death of Moamer Kadhafi showed that our role in protecting the Libyan people, and helping them break free from a tyrant, was the right thing to do," he said.
But questions remain over how Kadhafi met his end after NTC fighters hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following NATO air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown.
Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.
Footage shows the former dictator, his face half-covered in blood, being dragged towards a vehicle by a delirious crowd and forced on to the bonnet.
Those at the front push and shake him, pull him by the hair and hit him. At one point he appears to be trying to speak.
Subsequent footage shows him being hauled off the vehicle, still alive, and hustled through the screaming crowd, before he disappears in the crush and the crackle of gunfire can be heard.
NTC leaders are adamant he was shot in the head when he was caught "in crossfire" between his supporters and new regime fighters soon after his capture.
But in a video circulating on the Internet, a young fighter from Benghazi claims he shot Kadhafi twice after capturing him -- once under the arm and once in the head. He says he died half an hour later.
Libyans rule out Kadhafi post-mortem but promise probe
.....continued.....
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the "way his death happened poses an entire number of questions," and called for a probe.
"The images we saw on television show that he was taken prisoner while wounded, and then later, once already a prisoner, his life was taken away."
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the NTC "has already been working to determine the precise cause and circumstances of Kadhafi's death, and we obviously urge them to do so in an open and transparent manner as we move forward."
Toner repeated a US call to the NTC to treat prisoners humanely.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay also called for an investigation.
"On the issue of Kadhafi's death yesterday, the circumstances are still unclear," her spokesman Rupert Colville said. "There should be some kind of investigation given what we saw yesterday."
Claudio Cordone, senior director at Amnesty International, said that if Kadhafi "was killed after his capture, it would constitute a war crime and those responsible should be brought to justice."
He said the "NTC must apply the same standards to all, affording justice even to those who categorically denied it to others."
And Kadhafi's widow, Safia, who fled to Algeria in August, called on the United Nations to investigate the circumstances of her husband's death, Syria-based Arrai television said.
Libya's wanted former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, meanwhile, surfaced in neighbouring Niger after apparently fleeing through the desert following the fall of the oasis town of Bani Walid on Monday in the penultimate battle of the conflict.
"The presence of Abdullah al-Senussi has been indicated in the far north of Niger," near the border with Libya, a government source in the capital Niamey told AFP on Saturday.
"It's a report that we have but our defence and security forces have not yet intercepted him," the source said. "So his presence in Niger is not yet officially established."
Senussi was wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of "crimes against humanity," along with Kadhafi himself and the latter's son and longtime heir apparent Seif al-Islam.
Seif al-Islam too remains at large. NTC officials said that he too may have fled to Niger.
At a World Economic Forum in Jordan, Libya's interim prime minister Mahmud Jibril warned on Saturday that rebuilding his war-battered country would amount to a "Mission Impossible" task.
"Rebuilding Libya will not be an easy task. It is Mission Impossible of Tom Cruise," Jibril said, referring to the Hollywood star's movie.
What!! War Crimes Allegations again? Just Before CHOGM
Here is the tale of a Libyan Patriot demonized, hounded and killed at the behest of Western Neo-Colonialist powers so they can exploit Libya's petroleum resources by installing a puppet regime.
Under Gaddafi, Libya was transformed from a feudal village backwater into a relatively modern state in which the citizens enjoyed a standard of living rarely seen in the Arab world.
A man with unusual off-beat ideas, he was nevertheless good for Libya ... much better than King Idris he deposed. He built schools, universities, hospitals and other infrastructure, educated the people of his country, improved their quality of life, and gave them pride in their cultural roots.
He had enormous compassion for the less fortunate citizens of Black Africa ... treating them as honored guests and inviting them to come and work in Libya WITHOUT VISAS ... at a time when Black Africans were treated as persona-non-grata in Europe a short hop across the Mediterranean sea. In Libya ... they were welcomed.
Today a small privileged minority of rich Libyans have engineered what amounts to a foreign inspired coup-de-etat in Libya. Western propaganda paints them as the majority of suppressed Libyans welcoming democracy into their midst, but that is FAR FROM THE TRUTH of what happened here.
The so called "rebel" champions of democracy ARE NOT THE GREAT MAJORITY of Libyans who benefited mightily under Gaddafi's rule; they are the privileged few who wanted more than what equal Libyan citizenship gave them.
This was a foreign inspired coup-de-etat in collusion with a small local minority ... pure and simple ... not any different from the Bay of Pigs invasion of Castro's Cuba ... except that the Bay of Pigs plot was a fabulous flop given the Soviet Union's unstinting support for Cuba.
In the years ahead, the MAJORITY OF LIBYANS will speak, and their VENGEANCE for what happened here will be terrible to behold. They will drive out the lackeys of the Western Neocolonialists now posing as liberators of the Libyan people and positioning themselves to exploit and rape Libya.
As in Iraq, those best laid plans of Neocolonialist mice and men for ripping off Libya's wealth will soon come to nought.
Say what you will, this entire episode was a scam of vast proportion inflicted on the world in broad daylight.
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Clues to Gaddafi's death concealed from public view
By Rania El Gamal
October 22, 2011
MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan forces guarding Muammar Gaddafi's body in a cold storage room let in members of the public to view the deposed leader for a second day on Saturday, but the wounds that may hold the clue to how he died were covered up.
Clues to Gaddafi's death concealed from public view
.....continued 1.....
Gaddafi's body lay on a mattress on the floor of the cold room, as it did Friday when hundreds of members of the public filed in to see for themselves that the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was dead.
But unlike the previous day, Gaddafi's body was covered by a blanket that left only his head exposed, hiding the bruises on his torso and scratch marks on his chest that had earlier been visible.
And, crucially, a Reuters reporter who viewed the body said, Gaddafi's head had been turned to the left. That meant a bullet hole that earlier could be seen on the left side of his face, just in front of his ear, could no longer be seen.
Guards overseeing Gaddafi's body handed out green surgical masks to dozens of people filing in to take a look because of the stench of rotting flesh filling the room.
The bullet hole in Gaddafi's head, and the other wounds, could help solve the riddle of whether, as Libya's new rulers said, he was shot in crossfire in a battle or, as some accounts suggest, he was killed by the fighters who caught him.
A local military commander in the city of Misrata, where the forces which captured him took his body, said "over-enthusiastic" fighters took matters into their own hands when they came face to face with the man they despise.
"We wanted to keep him alive but the young guys, things went out of control," he said speaking on condition of anonymity.
Few people in Libya -- where thousands of people, including civilians, were killed by Gaddafi's forces in the seven-month rebellion -- say they are troubled by the manner of his death.
But if he was indeed killed by his captors, it will cast doubt on the promises by Libya's new rulers to respect human rights and prevent reprisals. It would also embarrass Western governments which gave their wholehearted backing to the NTC.
CAPTURED ALIVE, DEAD SHORTLY LATER
The dramatic minutes leading up to Gaddafi's death were chaotic, violent and gruesome -- as testified by the grainy mobile phone footage seen by the world of the former leader, bloodied and dazed, being dragged along by NTC fighters.
Gaddafi was still alive when he was captured hiding in a storm drain outside his hometown of Sirte, but he already had blood streaming down the side of his face and a wound close to his left ear very shortly after he had been seized.
Government fighters hauled him onto the bonnet of a Toyota pick-up truck with the intention, one of them said, of getting him through the crowd of fellow fighters and to an ambulance parked about 500 meters (546.8 yards) away.
Gaddafi can be heard in one video saying "God forbids this" several times as slaps from the crowd rain down on his head.
"This is for Misrata, you dog," said one man slapping him.
"Do you know right from wrong?" Gaddafi says.
"Shut up you dog," someone replies as more blows rain down.
Misrata, one of the heartlands of the anti-Gaddafi rebellion, suffered months of siege and artillery bombardment at the hands of his forces.
Another video shows Gaddafi being heaved off the bonnet of the truck and dragged toward a car, then pulled down by his hair. "Keep him alive, keep him alive!" someone shouts.
Another man in the crowd lets out a high-pitched hysterical scream. Gaddafi then goes out of view and gunshots ring out. One of the fighters present said Gaddafi was in a bad way but alive when he was put in the ambulance.
Yet the ambulance driver, Ali Jaghdoun, said Gaddafi was dead when he picked him up and he then drove the body to the city of Misrata. "I didn't try to revive him because he was already dead," Jaghdoun said.
In other video footage obtained by Reuters a convoy of vehicles is seen speeding along a desert road, horns blaring and men shouting "We have Muammar! It's Muammar!."
Clues to Gaddafi's death concealed from public view
.....continued 2.....
In later footage the convoy slows to a halt. Fighters rush to an ambulance shouting that Gaddafi is dead. In the back of the vehicle a body lies with a bandage over a wound on its upper abdomen, matching the spot where a bullet hole was seen on Gaddafi's torso after the body was put on display in Misrata. The head is covered with a white sheet, but a man beside it raises it briefly affording a glimpse of the former ruler's face.
A young man appears beside the ambulance, a bearded man beside him shouts out:
"He's the killer. And I am the witness who saw him."
The young fighter exclaims excitedly:
"We found him in a hole. He had somebody with him inside it."
Grinning and brandishing a handgun, the man is feted and embraced by fighters.
"This is the guy who killed Gaddafi. Using this, you see," the man with the beard shouts, holding up the young man's hand in which he has a gun.
"He did it in front of me. I saw it in front of me."
The new footage does not make clear whether Gaddafi died of wounds sustained before he was put into the ambulance or whether he suffered wounds while in the vehicle.
A journalist at the scene confirmed Gaddafi had a head wound before he was put into the ambulance.
Clues to Gaddafi's death concealed from public view
.....continued 3.....
WOUNDS STITCHED UP
In the cold store in Misrata, the body of one of Gaddafi's sons, Mo'tassim, had been moved from another location elsewhere in Misrata and placed next to his dead father.
The circumstances leading to the death of Mo'tassim, his father's national security adviser who was also captured in Sirte, are similarly murky.
A Reuters reporter was shown a one-minute segment of mobile phone footage in which a man, who resembled Mo'tassim, was squatting in a room. He was stripped to the waist, and smoking a cigarette. He did not appear badly wounded.
Someone could be heard telling him repeatedly: "Say Allahu Akbar, say Allahu Akbar." The phrase, which means "God is greatest," is a favorite mantra of the anti-Gaddafi fighters.
At some point after that, he died. When a Reuters reporter saw his body Thursday evening, it was laid out in a private house in Misrata. Wounds to his jaw and part of his neck were visible.
Saturday in the cold store, Mo'tassim's body was covered up to the neck with a blanket. The wounds to his jaw and neck had been stitched up.
Later in the day, the body of a third man, Abu Bakr Younus Jabr, was brought in and placed on a stretcher between Gaddafi and his son.
Head of Gaddafi's armed forces, by then just a handful of troops, Jabr was captured in Sirte alongside his leader. A bandage was tied under his chin and looped over the top of his head.
Bullet wounds could be seen to his chest and the top of his left arm. A Reuters reporter who was able to get close to the body said she could see gunpowder residue around the wounds -- which is often consistent with being shot at close range.
The people queueing outside the cold store, waiting to view the bodies, did not seem concerned about how their former leader and his entourage died.
Two Filipino nurses filed in to take pictures. Children were among the few dozen people waiting outside for their turn.
Abdullah al-Senussi, a man with a white beard, was so frail he had to be supported by people on either side of him as he made his way to the cold store.
"We wanted to know if it was true or not," he said. "We wanted to see him."
Two men arrived waving airline tickets, saying they needed to jump the queue to see Gaddafi or they would miss their flights.
Asked if it would not have been better for Gaddafi to stand trial, Abdulatif, a pilot waiting in line, said: "What would he tell the mother whose children were killed or the girls who were raped?"
"If he lived and was killed a thousand times, that would still only be a trifle."
(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Elizabeth Piper and Matthew Jones)
The cost of killing Gaddafi
By Shenali Waduge
LankaWeb.com
October 22, 2011
In 2009 Libya was a friend to the US so much so that Libya allowed several US corporate giants to enter & approval was given for training of Libyan security personnel & civilians. These were the civilians that eventually became “rebels” given arms by the West to overthrow Gaddafi in a movement called “liberating Libya”. Arming locals has become a new strategy to avoid deaths to coalition forces while NATO is tasked to take on the indiscriminate air strikes. So what has been the cost for killing a man who has ruled a nation for 42 years without debt to the IMF or the World Bank? It took 8 months for US-NATO to take over Libya, the pro-US Libyan Government may celebrate & rejoice but that celebration is as short-lived as the jubilations in Iraq & Egypt where the people are beginning to realize their country would have still been better off with Saddam Hussein & Hosni Mubarak!
The world needs to know that Gaddafi gave Libyans. Education in Libya is free to everyone from elementary school right up to university and post-graduate study, at home or abroad, Libyans enjoy free health care, ratio of one doctor per 673 citizens. Libyans are given interest free housing loans, free land for farmers. In 2010, Libya ranked 53rd on the Human Development Index (out of 170 U.N. member states), making it a “high human development” country, electricity is free for all its citizens. if a Libyan buys a car, the government subsidized 50% of the price. price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 per litre. Libya has no external debt and its reserves amount to $150 billion – now frozen globally A mother who gave birth to a child receives US$5,000 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $ 0.15 25% of Libyans have a university degree, All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 Dinar (US$50,000) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the family. Prior to the international sanction placed on Gaddafi & Libya in the 1980s, it was one of the richest in the world by GDP per capita – with a living standard higher than Japan. It was the richest in Africa before the revolution. Libya is the only country in North Africa where terrorists do not exist. Fundamentalists have no voice whatsoever in Libya. Not a single terror-incident has been recorded in Libya during Gaddafi’s regime. Gaddafi is no saint but the above examples show that the qualities of leadership that made Libya what it was need to be benchmarked against what the US & West have in store for Libya that has been purposely destroyed to advance the agenda of the West.
With the death of Gaddafi the most important question is where are the 50,000 people that Gaddafi is supposed to have killed prior to US-NATO forces attacking Libya? Clearly the “genocide” claim is a lie – a little too late as the objective of killing Gaddafi has been achieved.
The cost of killing Gaddafi
....continued.....
The number of civilian casualties as a result of US-NATO airstrikes, rebel attacks & pro-Government forces range between 1000 & 10,000. These remain only “estimates”. Mainstream media has erred in blaming deaths caused by pro-Gaddafi totally ignoring the reality that the majority of deaths would have resulted by the indiscriminate bombing by US-NATO air strikes. NATO cannot deny that it has purposely targeted civilian infrastructure – hospitals (Al-Tajura Hospital & Saladin Hospital in Ain Zara), power generating facilities, water purification systems, tv stations & other communication networks, civilian airports, schools, government buildings & residential complexes. The purpose of such bombings is obviously to destroy the country’s institutions. The UN Human Rights organization or other human rights bodies seem to care little for the realism behind the exercise of freeing Libya & at the fatalities that has been caused by NATO which has no mandate whatsoever to carry out air strikes on Libya. What these international bodies are doing to humanity is a shame & a crime for which all of them must be tried for holding office & remaining silent over crimes taking place under false motives & concocted lies.
Thus the “humanitarian” bombing campaign part of the R2P agenda is part & parcel of a new military strategy carved by the West & a major component of this strategy is to destroy civilian infrastructure. This methodology was applied in Yugoslavia & Iraq where bridges, power plants, water systems, cultural & historical heritages, schools & hospitals were all identified as “legitimate military targets” validated in advance. In Yugoslavia the civilian economy was the target.
The US military intervention in Libya has cost America USD896million. While UK tax payers have to fork out £200m & likely to cost up to £1bn & rising just to kill one man! In all the operation to free Libya of Gaddafi would have cost USD2billion.
The USA is morally and financially broke, uneducated and sick but it is its arrogance that continues to think that all nations must bow down to US dictates. Gaddafi’s Libya will soon find out what it is like to live in a country without Gaddafi’s charisma in a country that is soon likely to be fleeced by the West. Where people will be broke, without money, hungry, paying for all services but reminded all the while that they are “free, liberated & enjoying the fruits of human rights”. In the meanwhile, the US will ensure friction amongst tribes in Libya so that turmoil will prevail just like they are doing in Iraq & Afghanistan while Western oil giants cease the oil, gold & all natural resources that Libya possesses which in reality was the reason for the whole exercise of humanitarian intervention.
It is not difficult to comprehend the trend that is taking place & the dangers of the West’s financial turmoil will mean further “humanitarian” operations on targeted nations & the basis for the next stop being Syria is already under way.
Let all US-NATO nations realize that the people of the world are no fools. Citizens of these nations may be fooled since mainstream media have blinded them with lies & false versions to brainwash them but nemesis for the innocent deaths will follow US-NATO & their leaders for the destruction they are doing to the people, the environment & to nations throughout the past decade.
India-Lanka power grid link feasibility study likely by Dec
TheHinduBussinesline.com
New Delhi, Oct. 23:
A feasibility study for the interconnection of electricity grids between India and Sri Lanka is expected to be complete by December this year, more than a year after the two countries agreed on the proposal.
The nearly Rs 4,000-crore India-Sri Lanka grid interconnection project would see exchange of up to 1,000 MW power.
feasibility study
“Final submission of the feasibility study report, incorporating all the aspects ... such as funding and recovery of the investment, economic and financial analysis, legal and institutional aspects etc., is to be completed by December 2011,” according to a Power Ministry document.
In June 2010, a memorandum of understanding was signed among Indian and Sri Lankan Governments as well as the PowerGrid Corporation and Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for conducting the feasibility study.
The date for submission of feasibility study was decided by the task force and steering committee after their meetings in August.
The task force and steering committee set up for the proposed India-Sri Lanka electricity grid interconnection comprise members from both the Governments and State-run entities from the two nations.
According to the document, the feasibility study envisages “laying cable at a depth of 25 metres below the mean sea level for 500 m span while crossing the Sethusamudram Canal.”
Sethusamudram Canal
Noting that this would require dredging of about 15 metres below sea-bed in the Canal section, the Power Ministry document said the same would be feasible only if the Canal is executed before laying the submarine cable.
India-Sri Lanka electricity grid interconnection would span 360 km of lines, including 120 km of sea route.
“Alternatively, overhead option would be required to cross Sethusamudram Canal,” it said.
PowerGrid and CEB are the executing agencies for the study, which would cost roughly about $3 million and the amount would be equally shared by Indian and Sri Lankan governments.
Attention of business leaders from 54 countries to be drawn: Lanka’s booming investments, trade potential, the focus at CHOGM
by Manjula FERNANDO
SundayObserver.lk
October 23, 2011
Sri Lanka will draw the attention of business leaders from 54 countries to its booming investment and trade potential in the country, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that will be opened in Perth, Western Australia next week.
External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris told the Sunday Observer that the business forum of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) will focus on Sri Lanka at the biennial conference from October 28-30. “The business forum will attract our attention. Sri Lanka is participating in that,” he said.
Referring to the disturbing reports in Australia of war crimes charges against the Sri Lankan envoy and the Security Forces, whipped up by some human rights organisations and sections of the Tamil diaspora, the Minster said Sri Lanka was not disturbed over the reports.
“The Commonwealth does not examine domestic issues of countries. It is not that kind of organisation. It is a voluntary association,” he said. The Minister said, “This year there is a focus on several issues which are of interest to the Commonwealth. International trade is one area, migration is another topic.
Commonwealth leaders will also focus on food security, climate change and sustainable development.” He said these were some of the key issues that will be up for deliberation to reach a consensus on collective action, among the leaders of the Commonwealth.
The meeting of foreign ministers and Heads of Government will be preceded by a youth forum and a people’s forum.
Over 1,000 journalists have registered to cover the conference this year. “There will be opportunities for bi-lateral meetings on the sidelines of the CHOGM. These are opportunities of value,” Prof. Peiris said. The Commonwealth leaders met in the southern Caribbean state of Trinidad and Tobago in 2009 and the meeting will be held in 2013 in Sri Lanka, which is also vying to hold the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota.
"The call comes after the United States, UN and international human rights groups called for a proper and immediate inquiry into the last moments of Libya's former ruler."
BS! The countries that instigated the rape of Libya and called for his killing are now "calling for inquiry". LoL!
The "human rights organizations" that ignored massive bombing of Libya by NATO and collaborated in giving them cover to do that, are now ly "going through the motions" of "calling for inquiry" as a FIGLEAF to HIDE their own NAKEDNESS in the role they play to subjugate small developing nations WORLDWIDE under the Neo-Colonialist jackboot!
BLOODY HYPOCRITES!
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Sri Lanka calls for Gaddafi probe
BBC.co.uk
October 23, 2011
The Sri Lankan government has called for an 'explanation' into the killing of former Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Col Gaddafi was killed on Thursday after being captured by the rebels in his home town, Sirte.
Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Col Gaddafi had been shot in the head in an exchange of fire between Gaddafi loyalists and NTC fighters following his capture.
Video footage showed that the former leader was alive at the time of capture.
"The Government of Sri Lanka is of the opinion that the circumstances surrounding the death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi require an explanation," a one sentence statement issued by Sri Lanka External Affairs Ministry on Sunday said.
Sri Lanka 'war crimes'
The call comes after the United States, UN and international human rights groups called for a proper and immediate inquiry into the last moments of Libya's former ruler.
Namal Rajapaksa, MP (R), with former Libyan leader, January 2011 (photo: Sri Lanka government)
Namal Rajapaksa was among the last Sri Lankans to meet Col Gaddafi
It also comes in the wake of Human Rights Watch (HRW) comparing apparent similarities between the murder of Col Gaddafi and Sri Lanka's 'white flag case' in which surrendering Tamil Tiger leaders were allegedly executed by Sri Lanka troops.
HRW Asia Director Brad Adams told BBC Sandeshaya that Everybody including Col Gaddafi and LTTE leaders has a right to be treated properly, "no matter how heinous they are and no matter how many people they killed themselves."
Reiterating a call for independent investigation into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, Mr Adams also called for an investigation into the death of Col Gaddafi.
A senior Sri Lankan cabinet minister has, meanwhile, condemned the killing of Col Gaddafi.
In a statement issued on behalf of Jathika Nidahasa Peramuna (JNP), Housing Minister Wimal weerawansa has launched an scathing attack on the Western leaders including the US, UK, France and Canada.
'Brutal killing'
"The JNP condemn the brutal killing of Col Gadaffi with disgust," said the statement.
Minister Wimal Weerawansa (file photo) Mr Weerawansa has described the death of Col Gaddafi as a "brutal murder"
The JNP is a constituent partner in President Mahinda Rajapaksa's coalition government.
"The Libyan rebels supported by the USA-led Nato forces have brutally murdered the Libyan leader," it said, adding that the Western powers "nakedly invaded" Libya for its oil and other resources.
President Rajapaksa twice visited Libya in 2007 and 2010. It was reported that Libya pledged to provide jobs to 20,000 Sri Lankans following the visits.
Mr Rajapaksa's eldest parliamentarian son, Namal, was among the last Sri Lankans to meet Col Gaddafi when he visited Tripoli in January, this year, together with other parliamentarians.
The United Nations, USA, UK and other Western countries have called for an independent investigation into the last stages of the war against the LTTE in Sri Lanka.
Little by Little, the GOSL is assigning NATION BUILDING activities to the Sri Lanka Defence Forces.
I had recommended this long ago as a means of expanding and sustaining a large skilled and effective national defense force for Sri Lanka.
The announcement below that the Sri Lanka Air Force will handle the construction of the new Kandy Airport is a further step in this direction.
Bravo, GOSL!
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Construction of domestic airport in Sri Lanka hill country capital to commence next month
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Oct 23, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has identified over 300 acres of land in the Kandy District to construct a domestic airport proposed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the preliminary construction work is to commence next month.
The government has identified the land in the Karandagolla area in Kandy to set up the airport.
Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has said the preliminary construction work would commence next month and that the construction work would be handled by the Sri Lanka Air Force.
He has said that discussions were also underway to acquire some of the land belonging to the Peradeniya University for the airport project.
The proposed Kandy airport is expected to help boost the tourism industry in the country.
Kandy, the cultural capital of Sri Lanka with the world-famous Temple of Tooth is a major tourist destination next to the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.
Indeed, Sri Lankan pineapples are the most delicious in the world.
Pineapples available for purchase in USA and Europe are only the less delicious "Gal Annasai' variety.
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Sri Lanka produces the best fruits– LIRNEasia: Pineapples, a viable export production
By Lalin FERNANDOPULLE
Sri Lankas' pineapples are among the best in the world and has a high commercial value although it is not supported and promoted adequately in the country, a research conducted by LIRNEasia revealed.
According to experts Sri Lanka produces some of the finest pineapples in the world which has a huge potential for a major export market. Sri Lankan pineapples are in demand as they are nutritious and delicious.
LIRNEasia Research Manager, Nilusha Kapugama said that pineapple cultivation in Sri Lanka is neglected although it is a commercially viable crop with enormous potential for an export market.
Sri Lanka is the 37th among pineapple producing countries. Brazil, Thailand, Philippines, Costa Rica and China are the top five pineapple producing countries. Pineapples in Sri Lanka are grown on 4,750 hectares producing around 35,000 mt/ year as an intercrop in the coconut triangle.
Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that seeds and plant material are provided to farmers under a program launched to increase pineapple cultivation in the country.
“Improved seed varieties have been identified at the Research station in Homagama which will provide the material to farmers”, the Minister said.
Pineapple cultivation in the country is primarily done by the private sector for the export of fruits, jam and juices.
“Pineapple production has increased steadily over the years and our main markets are USA, Maldives, Middle East and Europe”, Agriculture Ministry sources said.
Around 90 percent of pineapples are cultivated in the Gampaha and Kurunegala districts providing a livelihood to a large number of people. Export of fruits and vegetables still account for less than one percent of the total exports in the country.
Pineapples botanically known as Ananas Comosus originate from South America and it is native to South Brazil and Paraguay. The popular varieties are Smooth Cayenne (Sarawak or Kew), Queen, Red Spanish and Mauritius.
The common variety in Sri Lanka is ‘Mauritius’ which is a ‘Queen’ type with spiny leaves, yellow-kernel and excellent flavour. Pineapples are enjoyed as a fresh fruit by locals and foreigners.
Kapugama said that Sri Lanka should promote high density planting and intensive management to boost pineapple cultivation in the country.
Pineapple cultivators in Sri Lanka face many challenges due to the scarcity of land, healthy suckers and the absence of high yielding cultivation methods. The high cost of fertiliser is a major factor that affects the cost of production.
Kapugama said that due to the problems faced by pineapple cultivators exporters and pineapple-based product manufacturers are adversely affected. “There should be a proper mechanism to obtain information on pineapple sucker providers based on their reputation”, Kapugama said.
She said that it is essential to promote good practices in pineapple cultivation and added that a market should be created for the organic cultivation of pineapple.
And so IT BEGINS ...the REACTION to the RAPE OF LIBYA .... as I PREDICTED!
The Libyan MAJORITY will organize at the GRASSROOTS LEVEL and HITBACK now ...
Neo-Colonialist Carpetbaggers should ship out now ....
God Help Libya!
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‘We continue our resistance to full revenge. I am in Libya, alive and free’ – Gaddafi’s son
RT.com
October 23, 2011
Libya, Tripoli: Saif al-Islam Kadhafi, son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, flashes the V-sign for victory as he appears in front of supporters and journalists at his father's residential complex in the Libyan capital Tripoli in the early hours of August 23, 2011. (AFP Photo / Imed Lamloum)
The son and one-time heir apparent of the late Colonel Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, is still in Libya. He is free and will go on with the resistance, he reportedly claimed in an address to supporters aired by Syria’s Arrai TV Channel.
“We continue our resistance. I am in Libya, I am alive, free and intend to go to the very end and exact revenge,” Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency quotes Saif al-Islam as saying on Saturday night on the Syrian Channel, which remains loyal to the Libyan ex-leader.
“I say go to hell, you and NATO behind you. This is our country, we live in it, we die in it and we are continuing the struggle,” Saif al-Islam said, according to Al-Arabiya news channel.
“I received a message from tribes in Bani Walid about a general consensus between them to respond to threats from the gangs of rats ─ the revolutionaries and the NATO alliance,” Saif al-Islam said.
Earlier contradictory reports suggested Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has been either killed or captured in the western Libyan town of Zliten and was in the hands of the country’s National Transitional Council.
Egypt’s Nile TV Channel reported on Thursday, October 20, that he had managed to flee Sirte and find shelter in the desert.
According to RIA Novosti, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has already got the support of the tribes loyal to his father, who promised to fight against the current government and take revenge for the killing of the colonel and his son Mutassim. Some experts now suggest the Libyan conflict could now be prolonged and grow from a political into an interethnic struggle.
Thirty-nine-year-old Saif al-Islam is the second son of Muammar Gaddafi and carried out public relations and diplomatic roles for his father. Western-educated and the most-recognized Libyan official, he was often viewed as Colonel’s successor and a possible reformer.
The RAILROADING of Muammar Gaddafi ... A classic Case of DEMONIZATION by Western Neo-Colonialists.
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The Gadhafi I Know - A Commentary on the Libyan Leader
By A. Akbar Muhammad
FinalCall.com
October 19, 2011
Listening and looking at the news reports on Libya since the turmoil began earlier this year, the corporate media portrayal of the North African country and its unjustly deposed leader is a depiction that's nowhere near the Muammar Gadhafi I know. I traveled to Libya for the first time in February, 1977 with Minister Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam and reflecting on our relationship with Muammar Gadhafi and the Libyan people that spans decades, it is disheartening to hear these reports which imply that in 42 years, Muammar Gadhafi has done nothing for Libya and his people. I thought long and hard about how the Western press shaped how Muammar Gadhafi is seen by the world since the uprisings against the Libyan government started in March.
I was a member of the Nation of Islam for nine years when Muammar Gadhafi came to power on September 1, 1969 in what later became known to the world as the Great Al-Fateh Revolution. Young people engaged in struggle worldwide were proud of the group of army officers led by the 27-year-old Muammar Gadhafi. He was inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and the Free Officer Movement that swept King Farouk out of power who was more concerned with pleasing England and Western interests than caring for the needs of his people. So it was in Libya where the young officers took power from its monarch, King Idriss Al-Sanousi, another minion of foreign powers. At the time of the Al-Fateh revolution, the Libyan people were poor and only 15 percent of the people had an education. We all took notice when the young officers led by Brother Gadhafi nationalized the oil industry in Libya; boldly closed the American and British military bases there and banned alcohol because the Libyans were an Islamic people.
The Gadhafi I know is the Gadhafi who came to power to change the power equation where outside forces were taking advantage of Libya's rich oil deposits for their own benefit while the Libyan people suffered in abject poverty and squalor.
The Gadhafi I know sent young Libyans to school all over the world as he strengthened and established schools all over Libya. The Gadhafi I know made free housing available to the masses of his people in Libya. The Gadhafi I know embarked on a great agricultural project called the “Green of the Desert” to grow produce to feed his people and cut down on importing food, taking Libyan mouths out of foreigners' kitchens. The Gadhafi I know embarked on one of the greatest engineering feats of the world called the “Great Man-Made River.”
The Gadhafi I know reached out to those who were struggling against oppressed rulers in the Arab and African world as well as other parts of the world. In generosity and solidarity, he used proceeds from the wealth of Libyan resources to support the movements, giving many of their causes international exposure. The Gadhafi I know gave international recognition to the plight of Indians in the Western Hemisphere and gave support for the Native American cause.
After being in power for only three years—because of the notoriety of Muhammad Ali, especially in the Muslim world—the work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad came to Brother Gadhafi's attention. In 1972, he made available a loan to the Nation of Islam to purchase what is now known as Mosque Maryam, the Nation of Islam headquarters and flagship mosque—this is the Gadhafi who I know.
The Gadhafi I Know - A Commentary on the Libyan Leader
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The Gadhafi I know continued to open his hands and country to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad through his students, Imam Warithudeen Mohammed and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. He loaned the Nation of Islam $5 million dollars for economic development projects in the 1980s. He helped finance “World Friendship Tours” that aided Minister Farrakhan to globally spread the message of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility that undergirded the 1995 Million Man March.
The Gadhafi I know wrote in his Green Book about the rise of the Black man, a vision that many of his own people disagreed with which is reflected in the current war against his government. Black workers in Libya are now suffering persecution from racism under the guise of being accused of being mercenaries hired by Muammar Gadhafi.
There are hundreds of thousands of Libyans in a population of six million who are Black. The Gadhafi I know reignited an idea of the great Africans like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Sekou Toure of Guinea and others, who yearned for the United States of Africa. Brother Gadhafi pushed the transformation of the former Organization of African Unity into the African Union as a necessary first step towards a United States of Africa. Who will pick up this banner now that the Transitional National Counsel backed by foreign powers has waged a war that removed Bro. Gadhafi from his seat of power? The Gadhafi I know is a leader who is responsible for many African leaders being in power in today. Those leaders know who they are and without the help and encouragement from Muammar Gadhafi they never would have achieved becoming leaders of their nations.
South African President Nelson Mandela (left) clasps hands with Libyan leader Col. Moammar Qadhafi during Mr. Mandela's arrival in Tripoli, Oct 22, 1997 In background is Mr. Qadhafi's house which was attacked by U.S. fighters in April 1986. AP Photo/Mohamed El-Dakhakhny
The Gadhafi I know gave recognition to African Traditional leaders and for the first time in history brought them all together at conferences held in Tripoli and other African nations. The Gadhafi I know brought hundreds of thousands of people together to celebrate Mawlid al-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). In the midst of volatile social and political climates, he called hundreds of thousands of Muslims together in places like Niger and Nigeria, leading them in prayer and preaching the importance of their unity.
The Gadhafi I know survived the most expensive assassination attempt in history by the United States government in April 1986 when America bombed Tripoli in an attempt to kill him. The Gadhafi I know suffered 14 years of devastating sanctions that his people survived, yet opened his borders to all that would come.
The Gadhafi I know financed the great film called “The Lion of the Desert” about the Libyan liberation fighter Omar Mukhtar who led and won the war for independence against Italy. He also financed the classic movie called “The Messenger” on the life of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him).
The Gadhafi I know opened an Islamic college and brought students from every corner of the Muslim world, mostly from African nations and gave them a free education so they could return to their countries and contribute to development and advancement.
The Gadhafi I Know - A Commentary on the Libyan Leader
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The Gadhafi I know may not have been perfect as no man is perfect. Perfection is only found with God, but he struggled to do what he believed was right to assist the suffering masses and encourage them in their opposition to unjust rulers and colonial masters who exploited and oppressed them. The corporate controlled media has branded Gadhafi, so people who don't know him will think the worst of him. I recently returned from a conference in Iran, where one of the speakers from the TNC of Libya accused Gadhafi of killing 400 children by infecting them with AIDS. These are the kind of vicious lies that people let stand and allow others to attack a man who tried doing the best he could for his own people. I challenged this speaker by asking him, “Are you saying to this audience that Gadhafi infected 400 children with AIDS? And his answer was “Yes.” The world knows what happened to those children and how they contracted AIDS. His phony charge was vicious and gratuitous, that he can falsely accuse the man responsible for his education.
This is not the Gadhafi I know.
Wonderful .. A'INT IT?
Western Neo-Colonialists in a panic that the so called "victory for demoracy" they engineered may be taken over by the dear old Islamists!
The best laid plans of mice and men to Rape Libya and relieve it of its Petroleum Resources may already going up in smoke ... as it did in Iraq!
If you can't set foot in the place to pump the oil because you'll be killed by the local Islamist, you can't make any money ... as simple as that.
Yikes, WHAT A WASTE .... All those $$ Billions wasted on NATO bombs and Special Forces Troops dressed as Libyans fighting the "Democracy Wars" .... DOWN the DRAIN ... AGAIN!
POOR INVESTMENT of scare dollars folks! Can't negotiate deals with compulsive bomb throwers!
These IDIOTS NEVER LEARN
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Libyan leader seeks to calm West on Sharia fears
By Hamza Hendawi and Kim Gamel
TheTorontoPost.com
October 24, 2011
TRIPOLI, Libya - After giving a speech that emphasized the Islamization of Libya, the head of the transitional government on Monday tried to reassure the Western powers who helped topple Moammar Gadhafi that the country's new leaders are moderate Muslims.
Just as in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, Islamists have emerged from yet another Arab Spring uprising as the most powerful group in the country. How far they will go will be decided at the ballot box — in Tunisia this week, in Egypt in November and in Libya within eight months.
National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said Sunday that Islamic Sharia law would be the main source of legislation, that laws contradicting its tenets would be nullified, and that polygamy would be legalized.
"I would like to assure the international community that we as Libyans are moderate Muslims," said Abdul-Jalil, who added that he was dismayed by the focus abroad on his comments Sunday on polygamy. A State Department spokeswoman said the U.S. was encouraged that he had clarified his earlier statement.
The stir created by Abdul-Jalil's address in Benghazi, the eastern Libyan city where the anti-Gadhafi uprising was born in mid-February, came as international pressure mounted on him to investigate the circumstances of Gadhafi's death.
Abdul-Jalil ordered an inquiry to establish whether the deposed Libyan leader was killed in an execution-style slaying after being captured alive Thursday by fighters in his hometown of Sirte or whether he died in the crossfire as government officials have suggested.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated U.S. support for a full investigation but said "it's now time for Libya to move on." She endorsed the NTC's proposed timeline for next steps in the democratic transition, and said Libyans "with no blood on their hands" must be ensured "a place in the new Libya, and that they are safe and they are included."
She also called a Human Rights Watch report that dozens of Gadhafi supporters were found dead with bullet wounds in the back of the head and their hands tied, "extremely disturbing." She said U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz raised Washington's concerns with the council and asked them to conduct another investigation.
Gadhafi's body went on public display since Friday in a commercial refrigerator in the port city of Misrata, where residents lined up to see it.
Libyan leader seeks to calm West on Sharia fears
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Late Monday, an APTN crew saw vehicles driving away from the refrigerator, and Associated Press reporters saw that it was empty. A military commander said the bodies were handed over to authorities for burial.
Ibrahim Beit al-Mal, a spokesman for the fighters, said he expected that the bodies of Gadhafi, his slain son Muatassim and former Defence Minister Abu Bakr Younis would be buried Tuesday in an unmarked grave in a secret location.
Abdul-Jalil said earlier that the transitional government has established a committee to determine what to do with Gadhafi's body, adding that the decision will be governed by a religious edict by the head of the Islamic Fatwa society.
Several videos have emerged showing Gadhafi was alive when he was captured and taunted and beaten by revolutionary fighters in Sirte. The Boston-based international news site GlobalPost posted a video showing Gadhafi's captors ramming a stick into his buttocks through his pants.
Guma al-Gamaty, a London-based spokesman for the National Transitional Council, said Abdul-Jalil had an obligation at the dawn of a new era to assure Libyans that Islam will be respected.
"This doesn't mean that Libya will become a theocracy. There is no chance of that whatsoever. Libya will be a civic state, a democratic state and, in principle, its laws will not contradict democracy," he said.
It is the kind of assurance Western powers that supported the anti-Gadhafi fighters with airstrikes and diplomatic backing may have been looking for.
In Washington, Nuland stressed the importance of creating "a democracy that meets international human rights standards, that provides a place for all Libyans and that serves to unify the country."
She said the U.S. was encouraged that Abdul-Jalil clarified his earlier statements on the topic, but hedged on an overall U.S. assessment of systems based on Sharia.
"We've seen various Islamic- based democracies wrestle with the issue of establishing rule of law within an appropriate cultural context," Nuland said. "But the No. 1 thing is that universal human rights, rights for women, rights for minorities, right to due process, right to transparency be fully respected."
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero played down the comments.
"We have confidence that the Libyan people, who have courageously freed themselves from 42 years of dictatorship, will build a lawful state, in conformity with the principles and universal values shared by the international community," Valero said in an online briefing Monday.
Many Libyans welcomed Abdul-Jalil's comments as a chance to overturn Gadhafi's rulings as he cracked down on Islamists in his later years. Others were critical, saying it was the wrong time to raise the issue.
Hana el-Gallal, a human rights activist, said she was not against the implementation of Sharia law but only if done correctly.
"For me, the speech was not up to the historical moment we are going through. We know the Qur’an and we know the basics of our religion. We are not against polygamy but it is better to regulate it," she said.
"Maybe he is trying to make sure that we are not going to be a Westernized country. I don't know what kind of threat he faces," she added.
Libya is a deeply conservative Muslim nation, with most women wearing headscarves or the all-encompassing niqab. Islamists were heavily repressed under Gadhafi and are eager to have their say, raising the prospect of a battle for influence between hard-line and moderate Muslims. Already several attacks have occurred on shrines in and around Tripoli belonging to Muslim sects whose practices are seen as sacrilegious.
Libyan leader seeks to calm West on Sharia fears
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Abdul-Jalil singled out banks charging interest as something that will be abolished to conform with Sharia laws that equate bank interest with usury. He also said that a Gadhafi-era law that sets conditions on Libyan men wishing to take a second wife, including the written approval of the first wife, will have to be nullified since the Qur’an allows men to take up to four wives.
"If we follow Islamic principles, then Islam does ban interest. This is an Islamic rule that can't be negotiated. Some banks are following the Islamic way, which is sharing losses or profits. ... Qur’an is the higher constitution for all Muslims," Abdul-Jalil said on Monday.
Implementing Sharia in Libya may not necessarily mean the North African nation will turn into regimes like clergy-ruled Iran or Afghanistan under the Taliban. The extent of how far Sharia law can be applied depends in large part on the interpretation of a large body of Quranic verses and sayings and deeds of Muhammad, Islam's seventh century prophet.
Sharia law is enshrined the constitution of a number of Middle Eastern countries with Muslim majorities, but the role it plays in society varies according to interpretations. Some nations, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, follow a stricter interpretation that mandates cutting off the hands of thieves, the heads of murderers and stoning adulterers to death. Those who drink alcohol are publicly flogged. Others, such as Egypt, state that Sharia is a main source of legislation but have largely secular laws.
"It may not be quite be the country that NATO thought it was fighting for (when Sharia is implemented in Libya)," said David Hartwell, a British-based Libya expert. "But the huge amounts of oil and gas in Libya will make everyone learn how to reconcile themselves with the new Libya."
Gadhafi's approach to Islam has changed through his nearly 42 years as leader. On coming to power in 1969, he pushed for an interpretation of Islam that encouraged the fight against European colonial powers in Libya and across the globe. He banned alcohol in line with the faith's teachings and turned against liberals and leftists during his early years in power.
In later years, however, Gadhafi saw militants as a threat to his authoritarian rule. He jailed and put to death many of them while sending agents of his powerful security organs to monitor and, in some cases, arrest Libyans showing signs of piety, such as frequenting mosques to offer dawn prayers.
Libyan leader seeks to calm West on Sharia fears
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Islamists are a small minority among Libya's population of 6 million, but they were by far the largest and most powerful faction among the fighters who battled pro-Gadhafi forces in eight months of civil war. Abdul-Jalil, analysts said, was likely to have given his address an Islamic slant as a nod to those fighters who were united with other factions by the common goal of ousting Gadhafi but now are jockeying to fill the political vacuum left by his ouster.
"Abdul-Jalil's religious rhetoric reflects moderate Islam," said Ali Ahmida, a Libyan who chairs the Department of Political Science at the University of New England at Biddeford, Maine. "His address was an attempt to appease the Islamic groups that fought Gadhafi, but should have come as no surprise in Libya, where Islam plays a much bigger role than it does in neighbouring countries."
The emergence of Libya's Islamists as the strongest faction in the wake of Gadhafi's removal repeats a pattern seen in Tunisia and Egypt.
Early signs from Tunisia's parliamentary election Sunday show that a once-banned Islamist party, Ennahda, has a commanding lead in the first vote since a popular uprising forced President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country on Jan. 14.
In Egypt, Islamists also are poised to emerge as the largest bloc when a parliamentary election is held next month. It will be the first nationwide election since Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's ruler of 29 years, was ousted in February.
Complex web of terror
DailyPioneer.com
October 24, 2011
A religious preacher and a financial wizard, in their own different ways, reportedly helped the LTTE prosper, exposing the many fronts of the banned group
Two events over the last fortnight have uncovered the role of the Catholic Church in fostering Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka. The first was the deportation by India of the Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic priest, Fr SJ Emmanuel, to Dubai, when he arrived at Chennai hoping to meet Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, attend some events at Chennai University and later be at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Fr Emmanuel is the president of the UK-based Global Tamil Forum (GTF), a leading LTTE front and umbrella organisation for the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora groups. The Sunday Observer from Canada reported that Emmanuel had recently visited Canada and Europe to raise funds and mobilise pro-LTTE groups to stoke anti-Colombo propaganda in the West. But now, moderate sections of the diaspora are questioning Fr Emmanuel’s role in radicalising Tamil youth while not utilising the millions of dollars collected through donations to help resettle and rehabilitate former LTTE cadres.
The second incident relates to the Oct ober 13 sentencing of Sri Lankan hedge fund billionaire Raj Rajaratnam to 11 years imprisonment for insider trading on Wall Street, by the US Federal district court, Manhattan.
Rajaratnam was actually investigated for his links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. According to an ex-Tamil Tiger turned FBI informant, codenamed ‘Rudra’ Rajaratnam’s father, Jesuthasan Rajaratnam, himself a wealthy financial manager, was a lavish donor. The father-son duo set up the Rajaratnam Family Foundation to support charitable causes in Sri Lanka and elsewhere; it was also a front to channel funds to the Tamil Tigers.
Vanity Fair reports that in November 2002 (the US State Department listed LTTE as a terrorist organisation in 1997), a Tamil cultural organisation, Ilankai Tamil Sangam, hosted its 25th anniversary celebration at the Doubletree Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey. LTTE flags and videos were displayed throughout the hall. It may be recalled that LTTE had assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991 and Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993, besides wreaking mayhem in the island nation with suicide attacks on buses, temples, shopping malls, and village massacres.
At the Doubletree Hotel, Raj Rajaratnam (secretly taped by the FBI) said, “Everyone must support the Tigers’ cause.” He had, in 2000, given $1 million after the victory over the Sri Lankan Army at Elephant Pass, gateway to the northern peninsula.
Rudra infiltrated the LTTE network abroad by meeting Tiger operatives at such events. Rumours were spread that Rudra had contacts with top mafia figures in prison and could access corrupt American officials and ‘get things done’ for the Tigers — such as smuggling Tamils into the US. FBI built his credibility by helping illegally get in nine persons at the Newark airport in 2001. In April 2004, Rudra saved Fr Gaspar Raj, a Catholic priest and key Tamil Tiger member, from being deported by federal agents at Newark.
Prabhakaran ran the Tamil Tigers abroad on classic, cellular lines, with one group unaware of the other. But Rudra soon emerged as a trusted go-between for many cells trying to raise money and procure weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. In August 2003, Rudra travelled with LTTE’s top international financier Vijayshanthar Patpanathan (Chandru), to the Tigers’ Vanni fortress. It had underground bunkers for advanced computers and communications equipment and two fully equipped subterranean hospitals. He met most of the senior LTTE leadership here, and recorded their conversations.
Complex web of terror
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By 2005, Rudra had helped the FBI get a comprehensive picture of LTTE’s fund-raising capability. Rajaratnam’s name cropped up often; LTTE gave Rajaratnam huge money to invest in his Galleon Group fund. The Tigers raised $1 million every time they held a function, and extorted thousands of dollars from diaspora professionals for ‘the next wave of operations’.
In 2001, when the FBI wiretaps detected an executive from Intel Corporation giving Rajaratnam insider tips, the link between terrorism and insider trading was exposed. And just as the legendary gangster Al Capone was actually convicted for tax evasion, so Rajaratnam was investigated for terrorist funding, and convicted for insider trading!
FBI uncovered LTTE’s main ‘front’ charities in the US and Great Britain, which were shut down. This impacted the LTTE’s capacity to fight. The Tigers’ last stand came in April 2009, when the Sri Lankan Army overran Vanni, killing Prabhakaran.
One important front group, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation, was active in 17 countries before the US Treasury froze its assets in November 2007. Rajaratnam played a key role in transferring money from the TRO to the LTTE. An April 2007 affidavit by an FBI special agent regarding Rajarathnam’s banking records showed that he wrote three checks totalling $1,000,000 between July and September 2000, which made its way to a TRO account in London (paradise of the arms merchants). Most of the money was later withdrawn in cash.
The TRO received maximum donations from America, where the Rajarathnam family was the largest private donor. The US Treasury said the TRO had “facilitated LTTE procurement operations, including purchase of munitions, equipment, communication devices, and other technology.” Through 2003, Raj gave $5.05 million to his family foundation, which passed on $5 million to the TRO. In June 2004, he gave $1 million directly to the TRO. After the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, Rajaratnam set up Tsunami Relief, Inc, which was administered by staff at the Galleon Group headquarters in New York. It collected over $7 million and gave nearly half the money to the TRO in America and in Sri Lanka.
These huge monies have prompted victims of LTTE violence to file for damages in New Jersey, for crimes financed by Rajaratnam. His lawyers assert that there is “no connection” between Rajaratnam’s donations to the TRO and the harm suffered by the claimants, as there is no evidence that he ever sponsored acts of violence.
Yet, in US law, one need not prove that money a person gave to an entity that funded terrorism was actually spent on armaments; it’s enough to show that the recipient body used some of its funds for terrorist purposes. The New Jersey federal court has already accepted jurisdiction and upheld the suit as a claim for crimes against humanity.
As India debates clemency for the murderers of Rajiv Gandhi, the New Jersey verdict will be interesting.
India won’t support move to re-open venue issue
CHOGM 2011: Lanka wins the day
by Shamindra Ferdinando in Perth
Island.lk
October 26, 2011
An attempt by a section of the Commonwealth to re-open the venue issue with regard to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 was thwarted by Sri Lanka with the support of several member states.
Sri Lanka alleged that the move had been made at a meeting of the Committee of the Whole (COW) at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre (PCEC) to finalise the joint communiqué to be issued on Sunday (Oct 30) at the end of the three- day CHOGM 2011.
Commonwealth sources told The Island that the Canadian representative at the PCEC meeting had suggested that the communiqué shouldn’t reaffirm a previously taken decision to hold CHOGM 2013 in Colombo. The Canadian official had proposed that the communique should recall the decision on the Colombo venue, thereby paving the way for subsequent challenge.
Opposing the Canadian move, Senior Additional Secretary of the External Affairs Ministry, Kshenuka Senewirathne pointed out why the COW shouldn’t violate the long standing practice of endorsing the next venue at the end of the last CHOGM. Responding to a query, sources said that Nigeria had backed Sri Lanka’s stand. Guyana, the Maldives and Pakistan, too, threw their weight behind promoting the COW to decide against the Canadian suggestion.
Responding to a query by The Island, a spokesperson for the Indian High Commission in Colombo yesterday said that India, too, opposed the moves to re-open the venue issue. India also endorsed Sri Lanka’s opposition to the appointment of a Commonwealth Commissioner for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights.
The spokesperson quoted Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai as having told a media briefing on Tuesday (Oct. 25) that as the decision on the next two summits (2013 and 2015) had been taken in 2009, it was not a subject which needed to be reopened.
The Indian Foreign Secretary was responding to a media query on India’s position with regard to ongoing efforts in Australia to have proposed hosting of CHOGM in 2013 put off until there was progress on human rights and accountability in Sri Lanka over the war and some allegations of war crimes.
India won’t support move to re-open venue issue
CHOGM 2011: Lanka wins the day
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Asked whether India had objected to the creation of a Commonwealth Commissioner for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights as proposed by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG), Mathai said: "As far as the EPG is concerned, we have seen the report and we had a discussion on it in New York when the Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth met. I was present at that meeting. The report is very voluminous. It has got 106 recommendations covering the entire range of activities of the Commonwealth. The report itself was prepared over a period of one year with five meetings between July 2010 and July 2011. Since that time the member governments have had only a few weeks to actually look at it and, in fact, to start a discussion on it. I would not like to comment on each of the recommendations. Even these 106 have been classed into 14 core recommendations and the others. There are a number of areas where we think there is need for a more careful view."
Mathai said: "Certainly the proposal for the Commissioner for Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights is one on which we have some reservations. The responsibilities spelt out in this would seem to undermine the role of both the Secretary-General and the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group itself which is actually dealing with precisely those issues. Secondly, it seems to us that this particular proposal is like a duplication of what the UN is already doing through its Rapporteurs. And at a time when the organisation is facing budgetary difficulties whether it should really go that direction, is not quite clear. In fact, I raised the specific issue as to where the money was going to come from, and it was mentioned that it might involve reallocation of some of the resources of the Secretariat as of now. And when you consider that the current allocation and budget of the Commonwealth secretariat has been decided after considerable discussion and approval by the Heads, reallocation at this stage does not seem appropriate. It seems to us that the real focus of the Commonwealth should be once again on the development challenges which are uppermost in the minds of the vast majority of the members. So, while we support the important values of democracy, rule of law and human rights, we believe the Commonwealth should focus on strengthening the existing institutions rather than trying to create new ones."
SL President admoinshes the West: Get your ECONOMIC houses and SOCIETIES in order before you tip the Global Boat.
.............
Sri Lankan President recognizes role of Asia Pacific region in global economic growth and stability
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Oct 27, Perth: The geographical area of Asia and the Pacific appears to be the only stable region today and the economies of that region play a key role in global growth and stability, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said Wednesday.
Delivering the key note address at the Commonwealth Business Forum at Burswood Entertainment Complex in Perth today, the President said clear economic decision making has been "too little, and too late" and urged the advanced economies to respond to the growing crises, and to do so quickly and collectively.
Speaking on the topic "The Indian Ocean and the Pacific Rim: Fastest Growing Markets", the President said one of the key challenges will be how to balance "regulation" against "innovation" and countries will have to continuously stimulate their economies, and not allow the systems to falter or fail.
He pointed out the need to face the challenge of dealing with commodity markets that are increasingly being used as financial markets by a large segment of investors.
The President observed that as economies of Asian nations grow the people will look for better living standards and the Asian economic leaders have to face the challenge of fulfilling those expectations.
If political and social unrest in advanced nations due to high unemployment is allowed to escalate unchecked, more serious political problems can threaten global economic stability, the President warned.
"It is therefore imperative that the more advanced nations respond quickly and effectively to deal with the rising inequalities and unemployment levels in their societies, without allowing that situation to reach unacceptable proportions," he urged.
The President noted that over the past six years, Sri Lanka has been successful due to consistency and clarity in economic policies under the Mahinda Chinthana policy agenda of the government that clearly spelt out the vision and the programme of action the country needed to follow.
"We have acted quickly and confidently, in keeping with our culture and the aspirations of our people and faced challenges directly," the President said.
The macro-fundamentals of Sri Lanka's economy, including unprecedented investment in infrastructure, were given equal priority resulting in substantial improvements, the President noted.
The President highlighted that Sri Lanka's economy grew from 6 to 8 percent and inflation declined from 28 to 6 percent over the last few years raising Sri Lanka's Global Competitiveness Index from 79th position to 52nd position and improving Doing Business Ranking from 102nd to 89th position.
President Rajapaksa said Asia has been able to provide a growing level of prosperity for its people, and to continue it in a sustainable manner it will be vital for Asia to maintain its growth momentum and remains financially strong.
(Photos by Sudath Silva)
Sri Lanka's Rajapakse says Asia key to stability
TimesofOman.com
October 27, 2011
Sri Lanka's President Mahendra Rajapakse Thursday accused Western nations of doing "too little, too late" to address economic problems, adding that Asia was key to global stability.
Rajapakse, in Australia for a Commonwealth summit, warned that high unemployment in some advanced economies was leading to violent unrest that threatened to spill into other areas.
"The biggest concern among economic players today is that clear economic decision-making has been too little and too late," he told a business forum.
"It is therefore time for advanced economies to respond to the growing crisis and to do so quickly and collectively.
"Otherwise we will find that the situation will become much worse and perhaps even reach a point of no return."
As European leaders were Wednesday thrashing out a plan to solve the eurozone debt crisis, Rajapakse called for action to counter the high levels of unemployment in some Western nations.
"At present, many advanced nations suffer from high unemployment which has resulted in the first signs of political and social unrest being felt in those societies," he said.
"Such situations, if allowed to escalate unchecked, could give rise to more serious political problems which would further threaten global economic stability."
Rajapakse said Sri Lanka had been able to turn around its economy after ending close to three decades of civil war in 2009, and was part of an Asian bloc that was supporting global economic growth.
"In a world that is increasingly complex, where markets and economies seem to be in a constant state of uncertainty and turmoil, the only geographical area that appears to be somewhat stable is the Asia and Pacific region," he said.
"In fact, today it is the Asia and the Pacific economies that are universally accepted in playing the key role in global growth and stability."
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