By Dilrook Kannangara
LankaWeb.comFebruary 29, 2012
When the illegal CFA was signed, there were widespread protests organised by patriotic groups against it. Their slogan was a ‘respectable peace’. Interestingly the current President participated in them. These protests were extremely popular although the then government tried hard without succuss to downplay them; so successful that the CFA UNF government was toppled prematurely just two years later. Similar protests were launched in 1958 against the illegal Banda-Chelva and Dudley-Chelva (1965) Pacts, 1987 Indo-Lanka Peace Accord and the political package of 2000. People burnt the political package inside and outside the parliament. PTOMS (2005) is another case of public anger against anti-national moves despite the fact that collapsing PTOMS meant no tsunami aid to people under LTTE control. An excellent move that proved invaluable when war broke out a year later. However, there aren’t any such protests today. Government sponsored protests are too politicised that only UPFA activists and organisers participate in them. The problem with government sponsored patriotic agitations is their contradiction. On one hand they support unpatriotic moves of the government and on the other they want to display patriotism to the rest.
What created this pathetic situation?
All potent patriotic individuals and groups have been subjugated by the government. Wimal Weerawansa, Patali Ranawaka, Ven Ellawala Medhananda, Ven Elle Gunawansa and most other patriots and the movements they powered have been totally subjugated by the government. As a result there are no patriotic forces that can function independently and objectively against threats facing the nation. This is a much bigger threat than the threat posed by separatists and their western warlords. To some extent they are good salespersons. They very successfully sold patriotism to voters to get elected. But once elected they have abandoned that which made them winners.
Their cheap antics are a disgrace to the nation and fail to achieve anything. People find these antics amusing. Barking, screaming, name calling, threatening and burning aimed at UN agencies and powerful UN members cannot achieve anything. Nothing was achieved this way. Only decisive action can achieve tangible outcomes.
When the government entertains TNA demands, there is no one to oppose them either in public or from within the government!
Where are the patriots within the government? Probably they have very complex excuses – which the public either cannot understand or rightfully, don’t bother to understand – for not opposing the appeasement of TNA!
Give into some demands and there will be more demands
It was silly on the part of the government to entertain TNA concerns in the first place, sometimes at the expense of national security and equality. Once these initial demands were met (some demands were more than met), TNA leaders like typical bloodhounds started making more demands. It should have been expected. Now the demands, grievances, aspirations, allegations and all other names for extortion have snowballed. It is too big for the government to handle now. TNA has not made it a secret. They openly declare their “little now, more later” strategy. Knowingly the government has fallen head first into their trap.
Stupid antics of some by the name of patriotism look even worse in this background.
When demands cannot be won through puppets, puppeteers directly get involved. Before agreeing to anything demanded by US, EU or India, the government must consult the people, China, Russia and other genuinely friendly nations. All their interests must be protected in any move. Giving into US and EU demands will not make them friends but it can turn our friends into enemies. Same goes for TNA. Giving TNA demands never make TNA any better. It only destroys the future of non-Tamils.
We are in Geneva because of incompetent reconciliation advisors
A new breed of go-betweens emerged after the war triumph in 2009. They are called reconciliation advisors who are nothing but election refuse. People repeatedly rejected them at elections defeating them. If they had done their job properly, Sri Lanka will not be in Geneva today. Thankfully at this very late hour the government has finally realized their incompetency and not appointed them to any key position to handle the impending Geneva showdown.
Reconciliation advisors argued the reason behind allegations of war crimes is the weakness in government propaganda campaign that was not consistent. Though it is true the government propaganda campaign was weak, it is only part of the problem. They naively argued that if western nations and India know the ground reality, they would not believe anything the LTTE rump is spreading. Assuming their naive argument is correct, what did they do about it? Nothing.
US, EU and India know very well the ground reality. A few dozen visitors from these places have visited Sri Lanka with annoying frequency. They know Sri Lanka is safe for Tamils; they know Tamils enjoy an unfair advantage in Sri Lanka in terms of land rights, Tamil own land laws, the right and ability to live in any part of the island nation, all fundamental rights and equal rights. There is nothing they don’t know about it. Yet they demand more. Reconciliation advisors kept advising to appease Tamils and TNA more and more until their demands snowballed to a level they cannot handle. If TNA demands were cut down at inception, they would not be making any demands today.
Geneva has destroyed all reconciliation efforts and as a result Tamils and non-Tamils are divided to the extent they were before the reconciliation process.
What to do now?
This is not the last resolution USA will be presenting against Sri Lanka. It is only the first in a series of resolutions aimed at creating Tamil Elam and appointing pro-US and pro-Indian TNA puppets as its supreme rulers. TNA leaders are now in India getting further instructions.
At the very least now, the government must recognize the danger of inaction. The only political solution is ethnic integration in the north where the problem is. The Indian model of ethnic segregation is not going to work in Sri Lanka. It is the Sri Lankan model based on ethnic integration that works. Reconciliation advisors must make an about turn from ethnic segregation efforts (devolution, power sharing based on ethnicity) to ethnic integration efforts (making sure the Jaffna peninsular is not Tamil only). Reconciliation must break barriers to integration by scrapping the Thesawalamei Law that very effectively prevents integration. Scrapping this has no negative impact on the outcome of any future election.
Legal action must be taken against TNA for conspiring against the Constitution and the nation. The 13th Amendment must be put before the public. War time solutions are not suitable for peacetimes. People can decide its suitability to modern ground realities. Scrapping the 13A can save billions of dollars every year that can go into development benefiting everyone.
The independent Tamil nation USA and India trying to create in the island to counter China, Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, Russia and any other potential obstacle to neo-colonialism will be ruled by TNA. Eliminating TNA from the political sphere, legally, can disrupt their plans. It can make things easier for a proper political solution based on ethnic integration to be implemented. Similarly, western neo-colonial rulers have appointed their puppets in East Timor, Libya, etc. When it cannot be done peacefully, western colonials have used genocide to achieve it as exemplified in Diego Garcia. They provide useful geopolitical platforms to launch attacks on other nations. Giving into these moves to appease the puppeteer and the puppets is the worst the government can do. That will make Sri Lanka without any friends as friends of Lanka will find it a threat after puppet nations are created in its place.
Amidst this clamour there is resentment growing in the electorate against the government that is prepared to appease TNA at the expense of UPFA voters. Any power sharing deal no matter how weak it sounds with the TNA will be punished by voters at the next election. Since TNA will never be satisfied, no TNA voter will vote for the government. Even if they do the loss will be many times more than the gain. Losing the next national election will seal the fate of the Rajapaksha family in the hands of the opposition, US-EU axis of evil and the LTTE rump gunning for its blood. The government will be saved only to the extent it saves the interests of the people and its voters in particular.
This nation cannot stand on its own. The only way it can deflect interference from powerful nations is by having a symbolic military presence of China in the island. All nations big and small avoid confronting China for obvious reasons. There is no sense in putting off Chinese military presence in the island. It is a win-win situation for both nations which will be welcomed by most South Asian, African and Latin American nations. China is the centre of the new Non Align Movement. Sri Lanka has already aligned with China in development, finance of projects and credit. It is time to reaffirm this alignment economically, politically and militarily. Australia’s economic alignment with China saved it from one financial crisis after another. Singapore too avoided financial crises thanks to its very heavy economic alignment with China. Chinese military expertise will save Lanka from Indian sponsored separatists and any military threat they may mount.
President Premadasa successfully deflected Indian and British interference through his political and military alignment with China until Indian sponsored terror groups killed him. It is on record he is the only elected national leader since 1956 who didn’t offer any political solution to South Indian separatists. He surprised many by despatching the Indian invading army without any compromise. If anything came close to it, without a doubt it must be May 2009 when the Army Commander toured China with a military delegation at a time when India was expected to interfere in the island to avoid a “human rights catastrophe”. Since China is the only substantive lender and financier of Lankan projects, pro-western political parties have no future in Sri Lanka. If ever they come to power they will have to either lose their puppeteers and face dire consequences or lose the steady development support from China. That is a huge political incentive for the government to economically align with China. Economically, India is vastly disadvantageous to Lanka even without CEPA.
Indian action before Geneva has surprised many; it’s conduct during and after Geneva will shock them.
The Lion Flags say it ALL!
Sri Lanka Prevails against Australia in ODI in Melbourne - March 01, 2012
63 comments:
My Comment at LankaWeb.com
Dear Dilrook,
Excellent article that gets directly to the heart of the problem and to the only permanent enduring solution: Ethnic Integration that demolishes the very notion of “Tamil Majority” areas of Sri Lanka. I have posted this as a lead article at the SriLankaDefenceForum as well.
Sri Lanka MUST REMAIN ONE Nation, of ONE People sharing ONE Destiny without segregation into racially separate patchwork of communally disparate Bantustans that would set the stage for continued conflict. Community diversity should be preserved in the PRIVATE sphere of individual’s lives and their private community institutions such as temples and churches, and not in the PUBLIC sphere of public activities and governance.
The Government should recognize no attribute other than citizenship as the fount of all rights and benefits due a citizen. One vote for each citizen, irrespective of community, is all the political franchise that any law-abiding citizen wedded to the notion of equal citizenship with equal rights and equal responsibilities needs. Any and all demands for special rights on the basis of communal attributes, would deny those same rights to other citizens and create a basis for future conflict.
Therefore, Ethnic Integration to eliminate communal concentrations and wipe out the very basis of separatist demands is not only the prudent course for the government to pursue, but it also the only permanent and enduring solution that would promote empathy between the different communities of Sri Lanka essential to welding us into ONE Sri Lankan people.
Pandering to divisive demands for racially distinct Bantustans in Sri Lanka to placate incurably Racist Eelamists in Sri Lanka and abroad, or the Western Neo-Colonialists pursuing their global hegemony under various “democracy” and “human rights” pretexts is NOT the way forward to a safer and brighter future for our Motherland.
UA:F [1.9.13_1145]
Sri Lanka’s demand for hybrid cars sees over 1000% growth in 2011
February 29, 2012
SL see increased demand for hybrid vehicles
Sri Lanka’s demand for hybrid vehicles during the year 2011, has risen by 1200% compared to the year 2010, despite an upward revision in taxes, says the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
Accordingly, the country has imported 5927 hybrid vehicles during last year, compared to just 438 vehicles imported in 2010.
A study conducted by the Chamber has identified Japan as the leading supplier of hybrid vehicles to the country during 2011, covering almost all categories except for cars with a cylinder capacity exceeding 2000 cc, where Germany is the main supplier.
“The growth momentum is likely to continue with the increase in fuel prices”, added the Chamber in a media release issued.
Overall, the demand for vehicles in 2011 in the country has been at a higher level with the import bill of vehicles and parts during the same year rising to Rs. 218 billion, a growth compared to just Rs. 117 billion spent on 2010.
The Department of Motor Traffic has registered 525,421 new vehicles during the year under review.
Meanwhile, vehicles imported to transport goods between 5 -20 tones, have also recorded a massive increase of over 1000%.
Number of such vehicles imported has increased from 4359 in 2010 to 48,384 in 2011.
The Chamber study has found that the high demand for small vehicles in Sri Lanka continuing.
It says motor cars of less than 1000 cc capacity have recorded an import growth of 222% in 2011.
CCC believes that the introduction of Nano cars would have been a major factor behind this record growth.
“The number of petrol auto trishaws imported recorded an increase of 30% and the number of vehicles imported exceeded 100,000 in 2011”, adds the Chamber.
It has also found that the demand for diesel auto trishaws is also slowly picking up although the number still remains less than 20,000.
India accounts for 99% of trishaw imports into Sri Lanka while the country also continues to be the number one supplier of vehicles and parts to Sri Lanka despite the loss of market share in 2011 to 45% in terms of value compared to 51% in 2010.
Japan has slightly made progress in Sri Lanka in 2011 accounting for 36% of the market share compared to 33% in 2010.
China at the third place has retained its market share at 5%.
The UNP jumps into bed with TREASONOUS SEPARATISTS and LEFTIST TROUBLEMAKERS just to propel itself into power!
No PRINCIPLES LEFT in this party ... NONE at ALL!
...........
UNP woos JVP to join Opposition Front
by Zacki Jabbar
Island.lk
February 28, 2012
The UNP has commenced discussions with several political parties, including the JVP and TNA, to pressure the government to reduce the cost of living, implement the rule of law and eradicate corruption at the highest levels.
Mangala Samaraweera MP, addressing the launch of the Opposition Protest Front, in Colombo yesterday, said that they were not trying to form a political coalition, but to stop the corrupt and authoritarian Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, from heaping more burdens on the common masses.
"We have held discussions with several political parties, including the JVP and TNA, and their response has been positive," he said adding that the TNA had agreed to participate in a rally to highlight the worsening economic situation, to be held in Panadura today.
The common front that was taking shape also includes the Socialist Party, New Sihala Urumaya, United Socialist Alliance and Ruhunu Janatha Pakshaya, Samaraweera said.
The government had organised protests against the US to divert attention from the economic difficulties faced by the vast majority of people, he said while noting that the resolution before the ongoing UNHRC annual session in Geneva, was only a call for the LLRC’s recommendations to be implemented.
The US resolution does not violate Sri Lanka’s sovereignty nor was there an attempt to kill President Rajapaksa. The facts were being distorted to divert attention from the high cost of living, violation of human rights, non implementation of the rule of law and rampant corruption, which has resulted in many state institutions recording huge losses, Samaraweera said.
Meanwhile, the JVP is to establish a center for employees in the State and private sectors, where they could discuss their economic problems and plan out democratic strategies to force the government to listen and provide urgent solutions to their problems.
However, according to the TNA, the giving of these loans to ex-LTTE cadre amounts to DISCRIMINATION, for these Tamils are in fact being denied the opportunity to ply their former trade: terrorism!
............
Sri Lanka provides loans to rehabilitated LTTE cadres for self-employment
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 01, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has released Rs. 300 million to the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms to provide loans up to a maximum of Rs.250,000 to the rehabilitated former Tamil Tiger combatants to start their own employment.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal made by the Minister of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms Chandrasiri Gajadeera, to introduce a scheme through a State Bank to provide the loans to the rehabilitated LTTE cadres.
The government has reintegrated 10,375 former combatants from the North and East into the society following the successful completion of a rehabilitation programme conducted by the Commissioner General of Rehabilitation.
The reintegrated cadres have received vocational training as a part of the rehabilitation process to enable them to be self-employed.
Another 765 cadres are still in rehabilitation centers waiting to complete their program and be integrated.
The Ministry plans to provide loans to 2,000 persons recommended by Divisional Secretaries. Credit facilities to the recommended persons will be provided through Bank of Ceylon.
During and immediately after the final phase of the war 11,700 LTTE cadres have surrendered to the government security forces or arrested by the security forces.
The government says it has spent Rs. 2.5 billion on the rehabilitation of ex-LTTE cadres since the conflict ended in May 2009.
My Comment at LankaWeb.com:
Ananda-USA Says:
March 1st, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Agree with Dham on “RECONCILIATION” being the wrong word to use to apply to the post war rehabilitation and reconstruction phase in Sri Lanka. That word implies equal culpability on both sides. However, defeating a murderous terrorist movement is never viewed as a illegitimate action for which an elected government supported by the vast majority of its people, can be held “culpable”. Sri Lanka must NEVER apologize for defeating terrorists and rescuing its people from three decades of horror.
The UPFA Govt of Sri Lanka did not wipe out Tamils as a people, but rather protected Tamils in the South, and defended itself against a Racist, Murderous, Terrorist movement that killed, enslaved and ethnically cleansed all of its citizens without pity, rescuing 300,000 Tamils held captive in a human shield at the war front in the final phase. As a Government, democratically elected by the people on the promise to DEFEND and PROTECT the lives of ALL Sri Lankans without discrimination, the UPFA Govt discharged its duty to the citizens of Sri Lanka in bringing the plague of LTTE terrorism to final closure along the banks of the Nanthikandal.
On the contrary, it is the FAILURE of successive previous Sri Lankan Governments to attain that goal for three long and excruciating decades, heeding the self-serving homilies of foreign powers and NGOs while Sri Lanka burned, that is the REAL CRIME here. It is that dilly-dallying which condemned over 100,000 of our people to death.
With regard to the finality and completeness of the military defeat of the LTTE, we recall that the UPFA Government repeatedly called on the LTTE leaders to surrender to save the lives of their cadre and face the legal consequences of their actions. The LTTE leaders were NEVER promised freedom from JUSTICE for their crimes. One year before the end, every month thereafter, and even three weeks before the finale, the GOSL repeated that call. Having escaped complete defeat many times before due to Foreign Interventions (e.g., when the Sri Lanka Army had the LTTE corralled in Jaffna and the Indian Government forced Sri Lanka to end the offensive), the LTTE leaders thought they could escape again … and counted upon doing just that. Their mistake, for which they paid the ultimate price, was in misjudging the determination of a people who finally had enough of death and destruction the the LTTE had wrought. At least by dying in battle, the LTTE leaders spared themselves the humiliation of the gallows they richly deserved, like Saddam Hussein, Chemical Ali and others of Iraq, and the Nazis and Japanese leaders executed for war crimes after WW-II.
They were encouraged to fight to the last by the activities of the Eelamist Diaspora in the West and in Tamil Nadu, permitted and often aided and abetted by host governments, misrepresenting the impending demise of terrorist criminals as a “genocide” of “innocents”. to the world at large. Britain and France sent their representatives spouting pontifical homilies to the GOSL, happily ignoring the fact that they were totally unsuccessful convincing the LTTE to surrender, and release their “human shield” hostages.
My Comment at LankaWeb.com:
....continued 1.....
The Eelamists finally elicited a response from the United States. But it was not fully satisfactory to the LTTE because it did not stop the GOSL offensive; it only offered extraction of 50 of the top LTTE leaders from the Mullaitivu pocket. We can easily guess the motivation of the US in making that offer: to seize the opportunity to create a captive political constitutency that can be manipulated to divide and rule Sri Lanka tby re-inserting the LTTE leaders as “political leaders” into Sri Lanka at a later time. The UPFA Government, mindful of the lessons of our own national history of falling from the Portuguese frying pan into the Dutch fire, were not willing to let the LTTE leadership escape justice and having to deal with them again under the protection of an even greater foreign power than India. The UPFA politely thanked the US and declined the poison pill, albeit incurring the wrath of Caesar-like Hilary Clinton of “I came, I spoke, He (Gaddafi) died” fame. She was miffed by the rejection of her imperial offer by this poverty stricken “banana republic” that, as Bill Clinton derisively described Sri Lanka a decade previously, has a strange way of fighting a war by providing food to the enemy. Denial of food to civilians is clearly the preferred Western way of winning wars.
Indeed, the word “Reconciliation” is inappropriate for use by the GOSL, because one does not apologize to murderous criminals as if they were not guilty of horrendous crimes and are due a legitimate apology. It is not the GOSL that is at fault here, but the murderous killers who were vanquished. Policemen who shoot killers bearing arms in the US are NEVER compelled by the law, the judge or the rescued population, to apologize to the killers. There was no call for “Reconciliation” with the nations of Germany and Japan who initiated aggressive war without provocation in World War II, and committed horrendous murders of innocents by the millions in Europe, China and elsewhere. The Victors of WW-II NEVER dreamed of apologizing for defending themselves, and prosecuted and hanged all those who were responsible for those crimes. During the US Civil War, even the compassionate President Abraham Lincoln approved Gen. Sherman’s march from Atlanta to the Sea through Georgia laying waste all that the people needed to live and survive … in the interest of saving lives by shortening the war. At the end of World War II, President Harry S. Truman authorized the dropping of two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to compel Japan to surrender without the sacrifice of 500,000 tropps and untold millions of Japanese lives in invading the home islands of Japan. In holier-than-thou NORWAY, “Quislings” who collaborated with the Nazis were tarred, feathered and ostracized, hundreds were summarily executed, and hundreds were prosecuted, convicted and hanged for their misdeeds. That is how the Norwegian Peaceniks of today protected their country against future treachery. Today, the US acts with even greater determination … killing arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden in front of his wife, declaring Gaddafi should be killed to be US Policy thus blessing his execution after capture.
This is how the West defends itself when their own survival is at stake. Yet, Sri Lanka is pilloried for defending itself against terrorists within its own territory, not in far-off foreign lands. Double Standards me thinks, applied by Global Hypocrites.
My Comment at LankaWeb.com:
....continued 2.....
Indeed, the word “Reconciliation” is inappropriate for use by the GOSL, because one does not apologize to murderous criminals as if they were not guilty of horrendous crimes and are due a legitimate apology. It is not the GOSL that is at fault here, but the murderous killers who were vanquished. Policemen who shoot killers bearing arms in the US are NEVER compelled by the law, the judge or the rescued population, to apologize to the killers. There was no call for “Reconciliation” with the nations of Germany and Japan who initiated aggressive war without provocation in World War II, and committed horrendous murders of innocents by the millions in Europe, China and elsewhere. The Victors of WW-II NEVER dreamed of apologizing for defending themselves, and prosecuted and hanged all those who were responsible for those crimes. During the US Civil War, even the compassionate President Abraham Lincoln approved Gen. Sherman’s march from Atlanta to the Sea through Georgia laying waste all that the people needed to live and survive … in the interest of saving lives by shortening the war. At the end of World War II, President Harry S. Truman authorized the dropping of two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to compel Japan to surrender without the sacrifice of 500,000 tropps and untold millions of Japanese lives in invading the home islands of Japan. In holier-than-thou NORWAY, “Quislings” who collaborated with the Nazis were tarred, feathered and ostracized, hundreds were summarily executed, and hundreds were prosecuted, convicted and hanged for their misdeeds. That is how the Norwegian Peaceniks of today protected their country against future treachery. Today, the US acts with even greater determination … killing arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden in front of his wife, declaring Gaddafi should be killed to be US Policy thus blessing his execution after capture.
This is how the West defends itself when their own survival is at stake. Yet, Sri Lanka is pilloried for defending itself against terrorists within its own territory, not in far-off foreign lands. Double Standards me thinks, applied by Global Hypocrites.
The hypocrisy does not end there. Australia which wiped out most aborigines and abducted children from their parents for conversion to Chistianity, and the United States which killed off most native Americans offering rewards for their scalps (Tecumseh Sherman of “Only good Indian is a dead Indian” fame orchestrated the culling of the Indians culminating in the “Wounded Knee” massacre; Indian genocide was the worst in the West Coast against non-violent native populations of California), evicting entire populations from the East Coast (Andrew Jackson … the “Trail of Tears”) to deserts in the West, wiping out the food source of plains Indians, the Buffalo herds, placing the Indians in “reservations” under Indian agents to languish in hopeless idleness, and repeatedly dispossessing them of even those reservation lands in broken treaties with the “Great White Father” in Washington who, to the Indians who did not understand the successive election of “Presidents”, lived forever in Washington.
My Comment at LankaWeb.com:
.....continued 3....
These are the true “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”. The eradication of murderous terrorists who invented human suicide bombers and “human shields” in war zones, ethnic cleansing of entire populations, human smuggling of economic refugees as fake refugees on a vast scale to create a foreign tax base to support terrorism, abduction, brain washing and training of child soldiers into automantons who unthinkingly do their bidding, as deliberate war stategies to achieve their gastly racist goals, iis not a war crime … it is the deliverance of innocents from evil incarnate … as much as the Allies did in World War II in liberating Europe from the Nazis.
EXPUNGE the word RECONCILIATION with Eelamists from the GOSL Lexicon; REPLACE it with REHABILITATION of the innocent victims of war and RECONSTRUCTION of their societies of their societies and essential. INFRASTRUCTURE!
LAUNCH a campaign to convince the International Community why RECONCILIATION with Murderous Terrorists is NOT The WAY FORWARD. Instead, REHABILITATION, RECONSTRUCTION and REINTEGRATION of all peoples of Sri Lanka AGAIN into ONE Nation, of ONE People sharing ONE Destiny, free of communal divisions, SHOULD be, MUST be, and WILL BE our National Goal.
Let us END RECONCILIATION with Murderous Terrorists who killed innocents without pity.
It now appears as if it is the GOSL that has to abjectly apologize to the terrorists who preyed upon the people.
The word "reconciliation" implies culpability on both sides, but no Western Govt has ever apologized to murderous terrorists for bringing them to justice. Not to Al-Quaida or Osama bin Laden, not to the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein, not to Germany's Nazis, not to the war-mongers of Imperial Japan, nor to the Leaders of the Confederacy in the US civil War.
Why then should Sri Lanka, which that defeated a murderous terrorist movement within its own borders, and rescued its hapless citizens from their grasp, have to "reconciliate" with the same movement, the TNA, reaching AGAIN, as the SunGod of the LTTE did, for the mantle of the sole Representatives of the Tamil People. Please tell me Why!
How can we expect Tamils to support REINTEGRATION into Sri Lankan society, when they see their LTTE tormentors vying for power in their name as legitimate leaders, and the specter of being subjected to their control looms again in the distance? Please tell me How!
Why is the TNA not banned, and TNA leaders prosecuted, as the Baath party leaders of Iraq, and the Nazi Party leaders of Nazi Germany were? Please tell me Why!
THEREFORE, Let us EXPUNGE "RECONCILIATION" FOREVER from the GOSL Vocabulary, and REPLACE it with
1. REHABILITATION of people, and 2. RECONSTRUCTION of INFRASTRUCTURE, and
3. REINTEGRATION of society
into ONE Nation, of ONE People sharing ONE National Destiny.
Let us not APOLOGIZE to Racist Separatists and Terrorist Traitors EVER AGAIN!
...............
Sri Lankan government aides, Tamils spar at UN session
March 02, 2012
GENEVA: Sri Lankan government officials, Tamils in exile from the Indian Ocean island and rights groups sparred verbally at an open hearing Thursday during the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"After 30 years we are now coming out of a state of war and we want to engage with the Tamil diaspora," Sri Lankan human rights envoy Mahinda Samarashinghe told the heated meeting.
He and other Sri Lankan government officials reiterated that there was no justification for a US-backed move to censure the country over its investigation into alleged war crimes.
Some Tamils said they had been photographed during the meeting by a person with Sri Lankan government accreditation and they complained to UN security officials about intimidation.
At the opening session of the human rights council on Monday, Britain's minister of state for foreign affairs, Jeremy Browne urged Sri Lanka to implement the recommendation made in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
"Where states fail, institutions of the UN should act to make change," said Browne.
Sri Lankan government aides, Tamils spar at UN session
.....continued.....
Samarashinghe said Sri Lanka has taken steps to act on the recommendations and also referred to a five-year national plan of action for the promotion of human rights that was presented at the meeting.
"We resent deeply being told how to run our house," said one member of the Sri Lankan delegation who also attacked Western NGOs.
But he was countered by Tamils who said government reconciliatory promises were never kept.
Amnesty International Sri Lanka expert Yolanda Foster challenged the Sri Lankans to make public their findings on killings and disappearances saying the government has not come clean on its promises to victims of violence.
Sri Lanka has faced strong international criticism over the bloody finale of its civil war in 2009 but has avoided censure at the Human Rights Council amid hopes overseas that the government would come up with a domestic plan.
Human rights groups estimate that up to 40,000 civilians perished in the final months of the government's military campaign to crush the Tamil Tigers, who waged a bloody decades-long campaign for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority.
The UN estimates some 100,000 people died during Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict between 1972 and 2009.
-AFP/ac
My Comment at LankaWeb.com:
Ananda-USA Says:
March 2nd, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Fran Diaz is EXACTLY correct,
“Apologies must be felt, and come from both parties concerned. One party apologising for the suffering of all the people concerned is like one hand clapping – doesn’t work.”
Also treating separatist supporters of the LTTE as “The Sole Representatives of the Tamil people” and legitimate political leaders in a democracy, is just PLAIN WRONG.
Like the Baath Party of post-war Iraq, the Nazi Party of post-war Germany, and the Ku Klux Klan of post-Civil War United States, they should be banned and excluded from politics and power. Then their enslaved Tamil victims will summon the courage to reintegrate into Sri Lankan society and assume their rightful role as Sri Lankan citizens, free of fear.
As long as their former tormentors move unfettered among them , and give every indication of resuming the control over Tamils that the LTTE “Sole Representatives of the Tamil People” enjoyed under the late unlamented SunGod, they will stay dumb, voiceless, fearful of being targeted by the resurgent LTTE in the guise of the TNA.
When the killers of the past are walking among you, unfettered, unpunished, and reaching in “peace” through subterfuge for the dictatorial power they lost in abject defeat in agressive “war” … who wants to speak out?
Unitil the LTTE proxy, the TNA, is BANNED, UPROOTED & ERADICATED the Tamil people will not feel safe.
UA:F [1.9.13_1145]
Asia group of NAM backing SL
Commission appointed to create closer amity between the communities:
By Chaminda PERERA
DailyNews.lk
March 03, 2012
Despite lobbying by the US and several Western states against Sri Lanka, the Asian group of the Non Aligned Movement yesterday expressed unreserved support for Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva.
The members of the Sri Lankan delegation to the UNHRC session in Geneva yesterday met representatives of NAM’s Asian group and explained measures taken by the government to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to promote reconciliation among the communities.
They pointed out that the Commission was appointed by the President to create closer amity between the communities in the aftermath of the 30 year conflict.
According to Foreign Ministry sources, the Asian group members of the Non Alignment Movement said that Sri Lanka is emerging from the ashes of a protracted conflict and the government of Sri Lanka is capable of solving issues effectively.
The Russian representatives also expressed support for Sri Lanka at the UNHRC session at a special conference in Geneva.
The conference was held under the patronage of Plantation Industries Minister and President’s Special Envoy on Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe in Geneva.
Minister Samarasinghe said that Sri Lanka is committed to implementing the LLRC recommendations and that the government was ready to rectify any shortcomings in the process of implementation.
Former Attorney General Mohan Peiris PC gave a full account of how Channel 04 was involved in misleading the international community by telecasting false video footage on Sri Lanka.
The former Attorney General exposed the forces and the persons behind the Channel 04 fiasco which is aimed at bringing disrepute to the country. He denied that Channel 04 video footage is authentic.The documentary produced by the government in reply to the false Channel 04 video footage titled "Lies Agreed Upon" was about to be screen before audience yesterday.
The Racists of Tamil Nadu stay true to form, pushing for Eelam as a part of Greater Tamil Nadu in Sri Lanka while discriminating against their own Tamil people in Tamil Nadu!
Will they adopt the same policy against India, when India is pilloried for defending its Kashmir territory from foreign inspired terrorists?
Or, are their concerns limited to Tamils attempting to create a Tamils-only raj?
Bah! Bloody Racist Hypocrites!
..............
DMK wants India to support US-resolution against Sri Lanka
IndiaTimes.com
March 03, 2012
CHENNAI: DMK, a key constituent of the ruling UPA at the Centre, today insisted that New Delhi support a US- sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka over alleged war crimes in United Nations Human Rights Council and said it would "not compromise on anything less than a full support".
The message was conveyed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by DMK Parliamentary Party leader T R Baalu in New Delhi, two days after his party chief M Karunanidhi had urged that India should not back Sri Lanka though Colombo had claimed its support.
During the discussion which lasted for 20 minutes, Baalu categorically reiterated the statement made by Karunanidhi that DMK "will not compromise (on) anything less than a full support of the resolution brought by US, France and Norway at UNHRC", a release from Baalu's office said.
Karunanidhi had said on Wednesday that India should not back Sri Lanka at any cost when the UNHRC resolution comes up for voting, while recalling DMK's resolution adopted at its high-level committee meeting in April, stressing that Sri Lanka should be tried for alleged war crimes.
Sri Lanka has received India's full backing against the US-sponsored motion on alleged human rights abuses by its army during the war against LTTE, the country's special human rights envoy Mahinda Samarasinghe had recently claimed.
"The hypocrisy and the double standard thus displayed (by the US and the European Union), if should they be encouraged would affect the credibility and undermine gravely the legitimacy of the Council," -- Sri Lanka Ambassador to the UN, Tamara Kunanayakam
This Sri Lankan Tamil lady speaks especially for the "silent Sri Lankan Tamil majority" that YEARNS to be free of the Tiger Nominated Agents of the TNA.
The TNA men are walking among them and muzzling Sri Lankan Tamils with implied threats harking back to the days of the late unlamented LTTE SunGod, Velupillai Prabhakaran!
.............
UPR is the proper mechanism to review Sri Lanka's progress in human rights, UN Council told
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 02, Geneva: Expressing concern over a resolution against the country at the currently proceeding sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Sri Lanka told the Council that the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is the appropriate mechanism to discuss progress made in the promotions and protection of human rights in the country.
Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN mission in Geneva, Ambassador Tamara Kunanayakam exercising her right to reply to the statements made by the United States and European Union at the Council said Friday only 3 months after the release of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report and three years after the 30-year long terrorist conflict the United States appears to be "impatient".
The Ambassador, noting the significant progress the government has made in implementing the LLRC recommendations, pointed out to the Council that nearly 95 percent of 290,000 displaced has been resettled, and all but one detention center were closed and over 10,000 ex-combatants have been reintegrated into the society.
With regard to accountability, Ms. Kunanayakam said the Sri Lanka Army and the Navy have appointed two Courts of Inquiry and a Board of Inquiry.
Noting the comments made by the High Commissioner of Human Rights Navanetham Pillay that the LLRC, the domestic body appointed by Sri Lankan President to probe the conduct of war fell short of the comprehensive accountability process recommended by the UN Secretary-General's Panel of Experts, Kunanayakam said the LLRC report reflects the emblematic parameters of rule of law strategies, which the government has noted for speedy implementation.
Denouncing the debate of the LLRC report in the Council, the Ambassador pointed out that the UN Expert Panel report was the conclusion of a private consultation the UN Secretary-General used to advise himself on Sri Lanka's situation and not the product of the HRC, the General Assembly or any other UN body.
"A dangerous precedent is again sought to be established by way of a debate on the recommendations of a domestic process which Sri Lanka condemns as a retrogressive step that undermines the constitutional parameters of this Council," the Ambassador said in her written statement.
She informed the Council that Sri Lanka will be presenting its report on progress the country made on human rights issues for the second cycle of the UPR process in October this year.
Ms. Kunanayakam reiterated that the majority of the international community supports Sri Lanka's efforts and its stand that a functioning domestic mechanism should not be circumvented by interference until its conclusion.
"The hypocrisy and the double standard thus displayed (by the US and the European Union), if should they be encouraged would affect the credibility and undermine gravely the legitimacy of the Council," the Sri Lankan Ambassador warned.
False, Mealy-Mouthed Statements such as this, from those attempting to destabilize and undermine the Patriotic Government of Sovereign Sri Lanka that rescued its people from the grasp of terrorists, by countries seeking to impose their Neo-Colonialist hegemony over the developing world are COMPLETELY TRANSPARENT to us who have colonial double talk deeply etched in our brains.
US wants to curry favor with India, and with Tamil Nadu in case it secedes from India, in its strategy to confront the growing power of China in the Indian Ocean region.
So, the US is throwing Sri Lanka to the wolves, while preaching "democracy" , "human rights" , and "war against terrorism" even as it wages a global war against its own enemies.
If Sri Lanka, the Oldest Democracy in Asia, with universal franchise going back to the 1920's, is not allowed to defend itself, within its own territory, against foreign inspired terrorism, what is the meaning of this "democracy", "human rights" and "war against terrorism" that is being preached so vociferously?
Do those things only apply to these hegemonic Western Powers?
Double Standards by Bloody Hypocrites!
Different Strokes for Different Folks!
.............
Time is slipping away in Sri Lanka for lasting peace, US concerned
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 02, Geneva: The United States said Friday that three years after the war ended the time is slipping away for Sri Lanka to achieve reconciliation and lasting peace.
Addressing the 19th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday, Maria Otero, Under Secretary of state for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights of the US said the international community waited nearly three years for action and the United States is concerned.
"We know from experience that there can be no lasting peace without reconciliation and accountability, but the United States is concerned that, in Sri Lanka, time is slipping away," Otero said.
Welcoming the release of the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) the US official stressed that Sri Lanka must implement the domestic Commission's recommendations.
Otero said the US has been engaged with Sri Lanka bilaterally on the issues since the conflict ended in May 2009 and expressed the readiness of US to continue to work with Sri Lanka to address the accountability and to achieve lasting peace.
"Action now in this Council will sow the seeds of lasting peace in the ground," Otero said.
The Council plans to table a resolution with the support of the United States and several European member states to pressure the government of Sri Lanka to promptly implement the LLRC recommendations and address the accountability for the war crimes allegedly occurred during the final phase of the battle with the Tamil Tiger terrorists.
The US backed draft resolution calls on the Sri Lankan government to implement the constructive recommendations in the LLRC report and requests the government to present a comprehensive action plan before the next regular session of the UNHRC.
The backers of the resolution say it is an opportunity for the Sri Lankan government to describe how it plans to implement the LLRC recommendations.
Sri Lanka says the government is taking measures to implement the LLRC recommendations methodically and it needs time and space to work towards reconciliation without interference from the international community.
Why are US Special Forces operating in Sri Lanka, when the US is undermining and charging Sri Lanka with "war crimes" at the United Nations?
Does not make ANY SENSE to allow such activities in Sri Lanka!
Is ANYONE minding the security store?
............
Pentagon commander says US special forces in India
US and Indian air force paratroopers at the India-US joint air exercise in Agra on 19 October 2009 US troops have been involved in training in India
US special forces are present in five South Asian countries, including India, a top Pentagon commander has revealed.
US Pacific Commander Admiral Robert Willard said the teams were deployed to help India with their counter-terrorism co-operation.
The US and India were working together to contain Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, he said.
The US embassy in Delhi clarified that the troops were not stationed in India.
A spokesman told the BBC that there were "no special forces stationed in India", as media reports had suggested.
The embassy and India's ministry of defence said a unit from the US 25th infantry division was in India to hold an exercise with Indian forces.
'Working closely'
Adm Willard said US teams were also present in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
"We have currently special forces assist teams - Pacific assist teams is the term - laid down in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, as well as India," Adm Willard told a Congressional hearing.
"We are working very closely with India with regard to their counter-terrorism capabilities and in particular on the maritime domain but also government to government, not necessarily department of defence but other agencies assisting them in terms of their internal counter-terror and counterinsurgency challenges."
Adm Willard said Lashkar-e-Taiba was a "very dangerous organisation... so it is a very important threat, and we're working very closely with the nations in the region to help contain it".
He said the group was "responsible for many attacks in India, including the horrific attacks into Mumbai, Lashkar-e-Taiba is headquartered in Pakistan, affiliated with al-Qaeda... and contributes to terrorist operations in Afghanistan and aspires to operate against Asia, Europe and North America," he said.
In the past months, the US has trained Indian counter-terrorist specialists.
The two countries have also been working to counter piracy, conduct disaster response planning and training and holding joint armed forces exercises.
In July last year, Robert Blake, US assistant secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, said counter-terrorism co-operation with India was "a very high priority" for the US.
He said Washington was working with Delhi to ensure that "they have the best systems in place possible to prevent future attacks such as the one in Mumbai".
While making India dependent on US arms that can can be shut-off at will if the relationship goes belly-up, what other quid-pro-quos underlie these deals?
GOSL, Please take note!
............
Why India-US defence deals have become big business
By Moska Najib BBC News, Delhi
Hitting the tarmac at the Hindon airbase near the Indian capital, the C130 J Super Hercules is the Indian Air Force's latest acquisition.
It is one of six military transport aircraft ordered from the US in a deal worth almost $1bn.
Aimed at enhancing the special operations capacity of the Indian armed forces, it is the first major US defence sale to India in over 10 years.
For the American manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the arrival of its fleet is a step forward.
"The Indian government is slowly expanding its scope to different avenues to acquire different products," says its Chief Executive, Roger Rose.
"With the C130 J, we will be here for 30 years and we expect to expand in other areas as well."
This week, Lockheed Martin is taking part in the Aero India show in Bangalore, where some of the top aircraft manufacturers from around the world will display their latest wares.
Economic opportunity
India is looking to spend more than $50bn over the next five years to modernise its armed forces, including a $10bn deal to buy 126 new fighter jets.
Lockheed is hoping it will win the country's biggest defence contract and sell its F-16IN Super Viper combat aircraft.
"While the US is entering the Indian market, we are also getting access to some state-of-the-art technologies which will be to the benefit of our customers” Quote by Puneet Kaura Samtel Display Systems executive director
With the US economy still recovering, it is countries like India that present an opportunity to American firms.
On a mission to turn warming political ties into business, US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is visiting India this week.
With him are leaders of 24 US companies, including major players in defence and nuclear power.
It comes shortly after Washington ended most restrictions on sensitive technology exports to Delhi.
Secretary Locke is hoping to seize on the opening and boost American exports to India. And by promoting hi-technology goods, Mr Locke wants to create more job opportunities back home.
His trip is the first by a US cabinet member to India since President Obama's visit in November.
"When President Obama came to India and said I want to seek India's help in creating jobs, what he did not say is that one Boeing or another company's aircraft we buy produces 10,000 jobs in the US," says Dr Amit Mitra, the secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
He adds that India is a big job creator in the US, a reason why Mr Locke is making stops in Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay) and Bangalore to cut more deals.
As more American businesses hope to enter the hi-tech sector in India, it is local companies like Samtel Display Systems that want to benefit as well.
'New collaborations'
At its manufacturing lab in the outskirts of Delhi, technicians are mounting and testing electrical units.
Samtel Display Systems factory India is eager to acquire more technological know-how
Samtel develops cockpit display systems for military and commercial use.
Why India-US defence deals have become big business
.......continued......
The company's Executive Director, Puneet Kaura, says better trade relations between the US and India means it can get its hands on technology that has been so far inaccessible due to export restrictions.
"While the US is entering the Indian market, we are also getting access to some state-of-the-art technologies which will be to the benefit of our customers," said Mr Kaura.
"This wasn't happening before and with this new change I think the scenario will look very different in coming years. It would be in the form of new business opportunities, new collaborations on the technology front and redefining the future as we move forward."
India is fast transforming itself from a regional power to a global giant. Its rapid growth has managed to grasp the attention of many Western economies including America.
By forging closer defence and trade ties, it is now becoming a key market for the Obama administration's National Export Initiative (NEI), which aims to double US exports in five years.
But while it is helping the American economy to recover, India hopes that better trade relations will also be beneficial for its own local companies, many of which share Mr Kaura's eagerness to acquire up-to-date equipment from overseas.
My Comment submitted to Nation.lk
............
Apologies must be felt, and come from both parties concerned. One party apologising for the suffering of all the people concerned is like one hand clapping , simply doesn’t work.
Treating separatist supporters of the LTTE as “The Sole Representatives of the Tamil people” and as legitimate political leaders in a democracy, is just PLAIN WRONG.
Like the Baath Party of post-war Iraq, the Nazi Party of post-war Germany, and the Ku Klux Klan of post-Civil War United States, they should be banned and excluded from politics and power. Then their enslaved Tamil victims will summon the courage to reintegrate into Sri Lankan society and assume their rightful role as Sri Lankan citizens, free of fear.
As long as their former tormentors move unfettered among them , and give every indication of resuming the control over Tamils that the LTTE “Sole Representatives of the Tamil People” enjoyed under the late unlamented SunGod, they will stay dumb, voiceless, fearful of being targeted by the resurgent LTTE in the guise of the TNA.
When the killers of the past are walking among you unpunished, and reaching in “peace” through subterfuge for the dictatorial power they lost in abject defeat in aggressive “war” … who will be foolish enough to speak out?
Until the LTTE proxy, the TNA, is BANNED, UPROOTED & ERADICATED, the Tamil people will not feel safe to act without fear.
Surprise! Surprise!
US "Democracy Promotion" is making more enemies for the US busily delivering "democracy gifts" from the "Great White Father" in Washington, that nobody wants.
Strange, why don't they value the undermining and destabilization of their countries? Perhaps they are not as smart as us superior Americans.
The US should LEARN from the LESSON of IRAN, where engineering a coup-de-etat against the democratically elected Mossadegh Govt, and hoisting an imperial ShahinShah upon Iran, earned the undying enmity of most Iranians.
All Americans are today suffering from that enmity as the US gears up for another Mideast confrontation with Iran. It seems that there is no limit to our appetite for creating global conflicts.
The Neo-Conservative idealogues of the Bush Administration gave us the debacle of Fake-WMD-War against Iraq.
Now the Obama Administration wants to one better. Egged on by the imperial Hilary Clinton, ambitious to stamp her mark on history as the "Caesar of Democracy", is now sowing the seeds of future enmity with as many nations of the world as possible with her "democracy" and "human rights" campaign.
That will come to fruition, just as we emerge from the impending trillion-dollar war with Iran ... to make the world safe ... of course. It is all for you and me ... why worry ... with these peanut brains looking after our interests?
I wonder how many of us, struggling to get a job and feed our families, can avoid getting caught in the crossfire of these "ideological wars" and survive the coming holocaust!
God Save America from all of these ambitious ideologues on the left and the right trying to remake the world in their own fanatical images.
................
U.S. democracy promotion backlash? As Egypt said to lift travel ban on U.S. democracy workers, some say programs cause resentment
By Laura Rozen
February 29, 2012
Egyptian police raided the offices of NGO offices in Cairo in December. (AFP)Egyptian officials said on Wednesday that a travel ban has been lifted on U.S. pro-democracy workers previously barred from leaving the country, the Associated Press reported.
The United States has not yet received formal confirmation of the reported decision, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told Yahoo News Wednesday. But he said "we feel like we are getting really, really close."
Seven American citizens currently in Egypt are among some 40 pro-democracy group workers who have been formally charged by Egyptian prosecutors with being improperly registered and illegally receiving foreign funding. Most prominent among them is Sam LaHood, the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the head of the International Republican Institute's Cairo office, who has taken shelter at the U.S. Embassy there since being barred from leaving the country in January.
The standoff has opened the biggest rift in U.S.-Egyptian relations in some three decades, with American lawmakers threatening to cut off some $1.3 billion in annual U.S. foreign assistance funds to Egypt.
It has also generated some soul-searching among some veterans of U.S. government-funded pro-democracy programs about whether the programs tend to foster resentment and suspicion more than they advance democracy and civil society groups abroad.
"If someone comes into your house, and says 'this color is awful and you need to change the shade' and goes on and on, you'd say 'fine, don't come back,'" Ben Barber, the former lead writer of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) newspaper and former journalist, told Yahoo News in an interview this week. "No matter how crappy it is, the country does not want to be treated like a basket-case."
U.S. democracy promotion backlash? As Egypt said to lift travel ban on U.S. democracy workers, some say programs cause resentment
......continued 1....
American officials have hinted for days they saw signs the crisis over the U.S. NGO workers was moving toward a resolution. The trial of some 40 NGO workers that was slated to begin in Cairo on Sunday was abruptly adjourned until late April shortly after opening.
Among the U.S.-based democracy groups with employees facing charges are the International Republican Institute, National Democratic Institute and Freedom House. The International Republican Institute did not immediately return a call from Yahoo News Wednesday on whether it has received confirmation of the lifting of the travel ban.
A defense lawyer for some of those charged told the Associated Press Wednesday the Americans would be required to post some $300,000 bail and sign pledges agreeing to attend the next trial date.
Barber also questioned whether U.S. pro-democracy programs in many authoritarian countries have really shown lasting results.
"The reality is that these are countries that have been ruled by brutal people for centuries, and people don't trust each other," he said. "And they have never seen a fair justice system and law and order."
"I am not saying we shouldn't attempt to assist people who want democracy, but we have to be very low key," he added. "It might be better off if we can do regional programming."
Stephen McInerney, executive director of the Washington-based Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), defended the initiatives, saying the recent model of U.S. democracy assistance that connects civil society activists across their regions and helps them share successful "lessons learned" is valuable--and hardly heavy-handed.
"Democracy activists in the Arab world who suddenly face these transitions ... want to learn about successful transitions," McInerney told Yahoo News in an interview this week. "They don't want Americans and Western Europeans to tell them how to run their transition. But they want help in lessons learned and experiences, and they are especially interested in countries that transitioned to democracy recently," such as those in Central Europe.
Cuban security forces arrive with USAID subcontractor Alan Gross at Havana courthouse March 5, 2011. (Franklin …Even as the Egypt NGO case seemed to be moving towards resolution, the case of another USAID-funded democracy worker jailed in Cuba has raised new questions--and suspicions.
U.S. democracy promotion backlash? As Egypt said to lift travel ban on U.S. democracy workers, some say programs cause resentment
......continued 2....
Alan Gross, an international development specialist from Maryland, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Cuba last year for allegedly illegally bringing sensitive communications technology into Cuba under a $500,000 subcontract from USAID to boost the Cuban Jewish community's access to the Internet, the Associated Press reported earlier this month.
"The operation was funded as democracy promotion for the U.S. Agency for International Development," the AP's Desmond Butler wrote in his Feb. 12 investigation. "Gross, however, identified himself as a member of a Jewish humanitarian group, not a representative of the U.S. government. Cuban President Raul Castro called him a spy, and Gross was sentenced last March to 15 years in prison for seeking to 'undermine the integrity and independence' of Cuba. U.S. officials say he did nothing wrong and was just carrying out the normal mission of USAID."
Among the technology equipment Gross is alleged to have secretly brought into Cuba as part of his USAID-funded pro-democracy work, Butler reported: "a specialized mobile phone chip that experts say is often used by the Pentagon and the CIA to make satellite signals virtually impossible to track."
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who last week led a Congressional delegation to Cuba to try to seek Gross's release, said resolution of that case did not appear imminent. "We have a long way to go" to win his release, Leahy told the Associated Press.
This is an ABSOLUTELY ASININE decision.
Just when the TNA is getting global support for their moves towards an Eelam, the GOSL is dismantling our defenses, and leaving the Tamil population to be enslaved by the LTTE proxy (TNA) all over again?
On the CONTRARY, the presence of the SLDF should be INCREASED and a policy of ETHNIC INTEGRATION adopted to homogenize the demographic composition of communities in the North & East.
Don't leave the North & East to the Eelamists to revive their underground terrorist activities!
God Give us SANITY!
.................
Sri Lanka Army to scale down presence in North and East
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 02, Colombo: The Sri Lankan Army is to scale down its presence in the former battle zones of the country's North and East, where the Army troops fought bloody battles with the Tamil Tiger terrorists and liberated the region.
Sri Lanka's Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya has said that the Army is now completely ready for far-reaching reforms in its structural composition regarding ground realities, security and needs of island-wide ongoing development projects.
Addressing a function in Wellawaya Thursday, the Commander has explained how he intends to reform the organization in view of the fast changing development and security requirements at ground level.
The government has been criticized in recent times for the presence of military in the former conflict zones in the North and East nearly three years after wresting control of the region from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
As a part of implementing recommendations made by the President-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, the government has begun to scale down Army's involvement in the administration of the region and hand over certain operations to civilian administration.
"While scaling down the number of different regimental and area headquarters and presence of troops in the North and East, plans are afoot to assemble more and more battalions together to form only most required headquarters," the Army Commander has said.
According to the Army Chief the skilled troops who fought at the operational front during the final battles are to be deployed exclusively for security arrangements while troops with multi-faceted vocational skills are to be used for all island-wide development work carried out by the government.
The Commander has spoken about measures to expand training at battalion levels and to offer more career development training sessions in the future.
Great! Let us revive our ancient Buddhist links to China!
.............
China-Lanka MoU to develop Buddhist activities
DailyNews.lk
March 03, 2012
China will enter into a memorandum of understanding with Sri Lanka to develop and extend activities related to Buddhism. A wide ranging plan will be drawn up under this agreement to develop Buddhist temples and Dagobas in Sri Lanka.
An agreement was reached in this connection when visiting Chinese Religious Affairs Deputy Minister Zhang Lebin called on Prime Minister D M Jayaratne at Visumpaya and held wide ranging discussions yesterday morning. Detailed discussions were made during this meeting regarding relations between the two countries in the field of religion.
The Chinese Deputy Minister Zhang Lebin emphasized that China is Keen on strengthening Buddhist ties between the two countries. He said China practiced Mahayana Buddhism, but its locals automatically visited Sri Lanka to learn pure Theravada Buddhist principles practiced by the country.
Lebin said longstanding religious, social and economic ties between the two countries had forged ahead in recent times. The intention of the Chinese Government was to continue these relations and further strengthen them in the future. During the discussions Prime Minister D M Jayaratne thanked China for its positive vision about Sri Lanka and expressed his happiness about it. The friendly support given by China to Sri Lanka from the past is highly appreciated by Sri Lanka, he said.
China to continue supporting Sri Lanka to safeguard its independence
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 02, Beijing: China has once again assured Sri Lanka of its continued assistance to safeguard its national independence and sovereignty in the face of an onslaught from Western courtiers at the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Liang Guanglie had said that China will continue to support Sri Lanka's efforts in safeguarding state independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and realizing social and economic development, China's official news agency Xinhua reported.
Liang has given this assurance to Sri Lanka's Defense and Urban Development Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa when the two officials met in Beijing Thursday.
Expressing appreciation for Sri Lanka's solid support on China's core interests, the Chinese Minister has said that his country hopes to "work together with Sri Lanka to consolidate the friendship, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and improve communication and cooperation between the armies of the two countries," China's official news agency Xinhua reported.
"The two countries' relations have witnessed smooth development and we have made remarkable achievements since we entered diplomatic relations 55 years ago," Liang has been quoted by Xinhua.
Sri Lanka Defense Secretary has said that China-Sri Lanka ties have kept a healthy and smooth development and acknowledged China's support to end Sri Lanka's civil war and to begin the reconstruction and development.
China has been the largest donor to Sri Lanka even surpassing the Asian development bank (ADB) and World Bank with providing aids for the major infrastructure projects in the country including the Norochcholai coal power plant, Southern port, and second airport in Hambantota.
Sri Lanka has also sought China's backing to counter the allegations of war crimes leveled against the country by the report from the Panel of Experts appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to probe Sri Lanka's accountability during the later stages of the war.
I had questioned the wisdom of having US Special Forces in Sri Lanka at a time when the US is dragging Sri Lanka into UNHCR "war crimes" hearings.
Apparently, according to the following news report, the earlier news report was untrue, and no US Special Forces are operating/based in Sri Lanka.
However, a four-nation Special Forces training exercise is scheduled for September of this year.
.............
Military denies presence of US troops
DailyMirror.lk
March 03, 2012
The Military denied reports about the presence of US Special Forces in Sri Lanka.
Military spokesman Nihal Hapuarachchi said there was no American or any foreign force in the island at the moment.
A top Pentagon Commander has said that US Special Forces teams are stationed in Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives as part of counter-terrorism cooperation.
However the Army has invited four countries to come with eight-man teams comprising of 68 foreign servicemen attached to elite Special Forces along with 2500 of our servicemen for its annual ‘Comoran Strike’ SEAL (Sea, Air and Land) training exercise which is to be held in September to enhance the striking capabilities especially in amphibious warfare operations.
The training is focused on improving decision making, commanding and efficiency in deciding command capabilities at a given situation. (Supun Dias)
The TNA is CLEARLY "reorganizing" itself to confuse opponents and to protect itself better from legal prosecution. The stated "disagreements" between the "factions" are just a cover story that allows different factions to take responsibility for different parallel actions to avoid becoming targeted and extinguished as a whole.
Metamorphosing into, and adopting, multiple identities is a STANDARD DEFENCE TACTIC practiced by the Eelamist Diaspora from its very beginning. As soon as the law arrives at the front door to arrest the man, they step out the back door as a woman, and her children!
We are now seeing this strategy in action ... AGAIN.
Nevertheless, let us pursue each part of the TNA both separately and together as a group.
..............
Sri Lanka's Tamil National Alliance split into three groups - report
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 03, Colombo: The Tamil National Alliance, the major Tamil constituency in the country has split to three factions, Sri Lanka's Sinhala nationalist daily The Divaina reported today.
The three factions, according to the newspaper, are led by incumbent leader R. Sampanthan, Suresh Premachandran and Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam.
Reportedly, the other two factions have blamed TNA leader R. Sampanthan for rejecting to participate in the UN Human Rights Council being held now in Geneva.
They have said that Sampanthan will join the government and accept a Ministerial portfolio.
Sampanthan has reportedly decided not to travel to Geneva to attend the UNHRC sessions and the decision has caused a clash within the party.
Following a meeting of the TNA parliamentary group yesterday for over six hours, the party said it would monitor all the developments in Geneva despite not attending the meeting.
Earlier TNA said they would send a delegation to Geneva to apprise the international community of their grievances and later decided not to attend.
However, media reports said that Sampanthan had written to all 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council asking them to support the UN resolution against the country to be presented with the support of US and other Western nations.
>My Comment at LankaWeb.com:
Ananda-USA Says:
March 3rd, 2012 at 11:38 am
If Sampanthan “joins” the UPFA Govt as a Minister as stated, then the TNA will have one “faction” in the Govt, while having two other “factions” continue pursuing Eelam through “war crimes” and “human rights” charges.
It is like having a “Tamils-only” Eelam cake in the North and East of Sri Lanka, and a sharing the “Sri Lankan” cake equally with other communities elsewhere. You can have your cake and eat it too!
The GOSL should beware of this ploy of the TNA, for it will NOT bring ANY RELIEF to Sri Lanka or to the GOSL. It is another typical Machiavellian strategy of the Eelamist rattlesnakes.
Prosecuting the LTTE / TNA & the LTTE Tamil Diaspora for war crimes
By Shenali Waduge
March 02, 2012
The LTTE may not have status in international law in view of it being a terrorist organization but the TNA being the political wing of the LTTE can be prosecuted. If the LTTE could be banned by 32 countries & Sri Lanka, what is stopping Sri Lanka from banning the TNA? Its presence politically is posing a great threat to reconciliation. It is a party that strives only to recognize a Tamil homeland and guarantee its territorial integrity. TNA recognizes the inalienable right of self-determination of the Tamil nation and has always recognized LTTE as the sole representative to speak on behalf of the Tamil people. This clearly denotes that in the absence of the LTTE leader, the TNA must be charged for every crime that has been committed by the LTTE which has been endorsed by the TNA in view of its allegiance with the LTTE.
In the interest of the country & the Tamils, the TNA needs to be banned. The Tamil people must move away from decades of bitterness poisoned into them because of the LTTE & the TNA. The Tamil people would be better off without the LTTE who have been only deceiving their own people. As a proxy of the LTTE, now attempting to give itself a “new look”, it is once more attempting to fool the Tamil people. By not taking action against the TNA, Sri Lanka is allowing another LTTE to emerge in years to come. We have rehabilitated quite a large number of former-LTTErs but we also know that many escaped to foreign climes. TNA remaining in politics is a good means to buy time until another insurgency! Its time we wake up to these possibilities.
TNA should not be allowed to walk away scot free from being the spokesmen for the LTTE for decades – if the LTTE is responsible for war crimes so is TNA. TNA can thus never represent the Tamil community. They are nothing but traitors to the Tamil people & the Sri Lankan nation. What good is a political party that cannot think without running to India for guidance?
Accountability is a word that is being prostituted globally – if accountability is what needs to be applied then we better start with the accountability of the LTTE/TNA & the LTTE Diaspora for their crimes against humanity. Let us take out each of these international conventions and prosecute them.
Yes we took a military option. Not before series of peace talks, negotiations, cease fires, foreign mediations, foreign peace keepers, foreign monitoring missions and decades of watching our people be killed or assassinated by the LTTE. We did not like the US make up excuses or strike countries without valid reasons. It was after 3 decades of humiliation suffered by our country and its people watching for western-dominated theories to work which failed that the decision to militarily crush the LTTE was taken. Even in the last hours of that military onslaught the Government and military were kind enough to offer the option to lay down arms and surrender. This gesture was scoffed thinking that their bosom pals the West would save them. Sometimes arrogance does not bring expected results. The exercise to crush the LTTE, thus took just 3 years to complete and today 3 years on people do not fear to walk out of their homes expecting a bomb to go off or a suicide cadre to blow himself up. Should we then apologize?
Prosecuting the LTTE / TNA & the LTTE Tamil Diaspora for war crimes
.....continued 1.....
Is there a difference in Hamas or the TNA?
There are attempts to explore how HAMAS can be prosecuted for war crimes & which law & which jurisdiction would apply. HAMAS was created in 1987 and won the parliamentary elections in 2006 and is the de facto government of Gaza although not by Israel. Nevertheless, HAMAS is categorized as a terrorist organization in Canada, Japan, the US, Australia, Jordan Israel & by the EU. The UK has listed the military wing of Hamas – Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades as a terrorist organization. Now lets see the similarities with the TNA. Like Hamas, the TNA is the political wing of the LTTE, a terrorist organization banned in 32 countries. The TNA’s website clearly associates itself with the LTTE and statements given by its leadership do not attempt to disassociate itself from the LTTE even after the LTTE defeat. Moreover, Syria & Iran are chided for supporting & arming the Hamas while not a word gets said against India, Norway for their role in arming & supporting the LTTE. As with the LTTE, the Hamas are both not a State and thus not bound by international law, yet they quote international law and they use international laws to exert pressure on the Governments they are attacking while in the case of the LTTE in particular very few found the LTTE guilty of wrong doing let alone crimes against humanity.
The status of Gaza is unclear – is it a sovereign territory belonging to the state of Palestine? Is it not a sovereign territory or does it belong to the State of Israel, is it a territory claiming self-determination by the Palestinians & the Jews? Or is territory belonging to Palestine but under Israeli occupation?
Israel is quoting the UN Charter to claim it has the right to use force to defend itself against attacks from Gaza. Was that not what the Sri Lanka armed forces were doing? Yes, but then there comes issues of the type of self-defense. Was it “indiscriminate” or was it “disproportionate”. These are the areas that anti-Sri Lanka forces will attempt to prove to deny Sri Lanka’s right to self-defense against LTTE. Thus, the all out attempts to fabricate about “indiscriminate” shootings/bombings upon hospitals, schools, orphanages etc.
What then connotes a war crime? There are a number of international conventions which apply to humanitarian law.
If Hamas fires rockets targeting civilians in Israel not attempting to differentiate between Israeli civilians & soldiers how would these atrocities differ to the manner LTTE has been carrying out suicide attempts targeting civilians?
Hamas is said to disregard human life even that of its own people – Hamas uses Palestinian mosques to store weapons, uses Palestinian residential areas for battles in order to force Israeli attacks to strike and to cry foul over civilian killings. They use civilian infrastructure to avoid being targeted. Are these not the same strategies adapted by the LTTE – they were using hospitals, schools, churches, they kidnapped children and made them into child soldiers & even used Tamils as human shields. Both Hamas & LTTE have fired at civilians, they have both stolen humanitarian supplies sent for civilians.
We again ask are these atrocities committed by both Hamas & the LTTE war crimes?
Article 147 of the 4th Geneva Convention says that a war crime is “willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including…willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health…taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.”
The LTTE attacked villages and cut sleeping villagers to pieces. The LTTE struck places of worship and butchered people in prayer including Buddhist clergy. The LTTE posed as civilians with suicide kits strapped to their bodies and blew themselves up in high populated civilian areas.
Prosecuting the LTTE / TNA & the LTTE Tamil Diaspora for war crimes
.....continued 2.....
The International Committee of the Red Cross has elaborated further to say a war crime is when “parties to conflict must at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants in order to spare the civilian population and civilian property. Neither the civilian population as a whole nor individual civilians may be attacked”.
During the last stages of Sri Lanka’s conflict the LTTE used Tamil civilians as human shields and used the no fire zone areas allocated for civilians to set up their military equipment. It was from these positions that the LTTE fired at Sri Lanka’s military. If the military wished to since the LTTE was concentrated into one area they could have easily attacked from the ground & by air and completely flattened the area killing not only the LTTE but Tamil civilians as well. BUT – Sri Lanka’s military took several months to
a) free every Tamil civilian held hostage by the LTTE
b) thereafter President of Sri Lanka gave 24hour notice for the LTTE to lay down their arms & surrender which the LTTE ignored and only after the last warning that Sri Lankas military went ahead to eliminate the LTTE. This clearly scotches all the false propaganda associated with the elimination of the LTTE including dramas related to some white flag, and wannabe superstar journalists who desired to take credit for surrender through her!
The Statute of the International Criminal Court defines crimes against humanity as pursuant to Article 7 of the Rome Statute which include murder and “other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health”…..systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack”.
There is no doubt of LTTE’s guilt according the Statute of the ICC - we can give a list of people now maimed for life from all ethnic groups that survived to describe the brutalities carried out by the LTTE over 3 decades.
Pursuant to Article 8 of the ICC does have jurisdiction “in respect of war crimes in particular when committed as part of a plan or policy or as part of a large-scale commission of such crimes”.
Included to this list of war crimes by the LTTE should be the ethnic cleansing of Sinhalese & Muslims from the North of Sri Lanka who were given a few hours to leave or face slaughter. To this list will include how the LTTE brainwashed men & women into suicide cadres, how they strapped bombs to their bodies & instructed them to attack when the right time came – these were all premeditated murders.
These attacks by the LTTE were carried out over 3 decades why did the UN not use any of these Conventions to put an end to LTTE atrocities?
Prosecuting the LTTE / TNA & the LTTE Tamil Diaspora for war crimes
......continued 3....
How can we pursue a war crimes prosecution against the LTTE? Article 8 (2) (b) of the Geneva Convention gives a list of violations of laws:
* Intentionally directing attacks against civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities. Lets make up the long list!
* Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is objects which are not military objects. Trains, buses, airports, temples, mosques, banks, villages….these were all targeted by the LTTE to carry out each gruesome war crime.
* Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in humanitarian assistance…as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflict. Let’s include the LTTE suicide women sent as civilians to the humanitarian rescue center who blew herself up killing dozens of civilians & unarmed military personnel dressing the wounds of Tamil civilians & giving them food/water since they were all suffering from dehydration as a result of LTTE confiscating the food sent by the Government and sharing these amongst only LTTE families.
Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives. We have lists of such attacks by the LTTE which includes places of worship as well.
Utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas or military forces immune from military operations.
LTTE atrocities can also be included into Article 8 (2) (c) other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts not of an international character, within the established framework of international law – the crimes will include intentionally directing attacks against civil population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities”.
The following international conventions too can be applied for a war crimes prosecution against the LTTE:
* The UN General Assembly in 1968 adopted a Convention on the Non-applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.
* International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.
* International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings.
* UN Security Council Regulation 1566 adopted by authority of Chapter VII of the UN Charter which denies providing a safe haven.
* UN Security Council Resolution 1373 which denies providing a safe haven.
* Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
It is now time to prosecute the LTTE for war crimes, torture, crimes against humanity, genocide, suicides all crimes under international. The Government of Sri Lanka must be accountable to give justice to the thousands that suffered because of the LTTE.
Legislature must be introduced making it a criminal offence for any political party /organization to divide the country. A referendum can ask the people their thoughts for in a democracy it is the will of the people that counts.
By applying universal jurisdiction we can also take care of the LTTE diaspora that is bribing foreign MPs, NGOs, INGOs & influencing UN officials & diplomats – let us bring out every illegal activity of fund raising and other nefarious activity they have been involved in and charge them for these.
Dilly dallying with terrorists & their cohorts is not going to get Sri Lanka anywhere and it is time we assert the hard won freedom we have obtained at the sacrifice of thousands of people.
There is no need for ultimatums or compromises or any more carrots for the TNA or the LTTE Diaspora – we need to now take serious action against them legally and put to rest this demon of terrorism forever.
What is GOING ON?
Is the Pentagon lying to the US Congress on basing US Special Forces in South Asia?
.............
"No U.S. special forces in India"
TheHindu.com
March 03, 2012
But U.S. commander says forces are stationed for counter-terrorism cooperation
The Ministry of External Affairs and the Defence Ministry on Friday denied a top Pentagon general's statement that crack U.S. military troops were based in India besides Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to counter threats from organisations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Coming up with the denials after U.S. Pacific Command (Pacom) chief Admiral Willard made the claim in a prepared statement at a U.S. Congressional hearing, the MEA said India interacted with the American Special Forces only during joint exercises here and abroad while the Defence Ministry asserted that U.S. special forces teams have never been stationed in India in the past, nor are such teams stationed in the country presently.
“We have currently special forces assist teams — Pacific assist teams is the term — laid down in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, as well as India,” Admiral Willard told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing in response to a question on co-operation with India on counter-terrorism issues.
Both Ministries dismissed his claim as “factually incorrect so far as the reference to India is concerned.''
The statement is likely to make hackles rise in all the five national capitals. Here, the Communist Party of India demanded to know why the presence of U.S. special forces in India had been kept under wraps and Parliament not taken into confidence. In a statement, the party said it was shocking to hear that the U.S. assist teams are stationed in India, along with those from other countries, to fight against terrorism.
The Ministry of External Affairs said both countries occasionally conduct short duration special forces exercises in India and the U.S. while the Defence Ministry asserted that neither has the U.S. sought nor had India approved stationing of U.S. special forces in “any capacity'' in India.
That left the question open whether a component of Pentagon's special forces, who conduct operations of hazardous nature such as snatches, sabotage behind enemy lines or liquidation, were secretly stationed in the embassy or one of the consulates – as they do in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan – to track, kill or assist in killing militants. Officials when asked were not willing to hazard a guess on that.
Testimonies before the U.S. Congressional panels, as is the case with depositions before Standing Committees of Parliament here, are sacrosanct and an official may lie at the peril of his job and liberty. Admiral Willard heads the Pacom whose area of “responsibility'' begins from the eastern edge of Asia and end on India's western borders.
Therefore the Admiral would be in the know of all interactions with the Indian military and is unlikely to mix up short term presence of his troops for joint exercises with deployments. He said the special forces were deployed here to help in the maritime domain — that is, to counter threats such as sneak attacks from the sea. He went on to add that other U.S. government agencies were also operating in India.
While claiming deployment of special forces teams, he said the Pacom also hosted counter terrorist specialists for training exercises and exchanges throughout the U.S. The idea was to make the countries in the sub-region self-sufficient in tackling the challenges of terrorism, piracy, trafficking in narcotics and persons, disputed borders and insurgent movements. Pakistan lies in the domain of the U.S. military's Central Command.
Is INDIA going to stab Sri Lanka in the back .... AGAIN?
India initiated, trained, funded, delivered, and defended Tamil terrorists in Sri Lanka, before it ran afoul of its surrogates in protecting the integrity of India itself.
Every assistance India gave Sri Lanka to defeat the LTTE ... after India advanced to the rear after incurring massive losses ... should be viewed as "War Reparations" due Sri Lanka to compensate Sri Lanka for the grievous wound India inflicted upon us. Sri Lanka is still bleeding from that wound.
Now, is India REVERTING to its former role to placate the Racists of Tamil Nadu?
WE HOPE NOT, but will watch VERY CAREFULLY what India does!
.................
PM's assurance to DMK on Sri Lanka issue
By J. Balaji
TheHindu.com
March 03, 2012
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday reportedly assured the DMK that he would talk to External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and take appropriate action on a request of the party to support a resolution to be moved by the U.S., France and Norway against Sri Lanka in the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for “human rights violations.”
DMK Parliamentary Party leader T.R. Baalu met Dr. Singh and presented a memorandum containing the DMK's resolution passed recently in this regard. He told The Hindu that Dr. Singh promised to get back to the DMK after discussing the issue with Mr. Krishna.
“The party told the Prime Minister, reiterating DMK president M. Karunanidhi's statement, that the DMK will not compromise anything less than a full support of the resolution [against Sri Lanka],” Mr. Baalu added.
Mr. Karunanidhi, in a statement issued in Chennai, had urged India not to back Sri Lanka at any cost at the UNHRC meeting though Colombo had claimed New Delhi's support.
Sri Lanka expands international airport and other facilities to accommodate increasing tourist arrivals
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 03, Colombo: The Sri Lankan government is to develop the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake and other facilities in order to accommodate the anticipated increase in tourist arrivals to the country.
Deputy Economic Development Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena has said the BIA would be further modernized to international standards due to the increase in the number of tourist arrivals and the country's trade activities.
He has said the Japanese government has agreed to provide a yen loan amounting to approximately Rs. 40 billion through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the development work of the airport.
The Minister has explained that the government's aim is to convert the airport into a commercial and business hub in the country.
According to Abeywardena, measures have already been taken by the government to develop the tourism sector in the country and increase the number of star class hotels and rooms in the country.
Meanwhile , the government says the construction work of Sri Lankan's second international airport at Mattala in Hambantota district has nearly been completed and the airport will be opened for international flights at the end of this year.
Nothing has changed! The Tiger Nominated Agents of the TNA STILL don't understand that ALL of Sri Lanka is the BIRTHRIGHT of ALL of its people, and no part of Sri Lanka will be given to be ruled by the Tamils, of the Tamils, for the Tamils ONLY.
That is what they murdered over 100,000 citizens of Sri Lanka in the last 30 years as Proxies of the LTTE led by the late unlamented SunGod, Velupillai Prbhakaran.
They are now hoping to use "war crimes" and "human rights denial" charges to gain through subterfuge in "peace" what they failed to win through murderous war.
What don't they understand? There will be no devolution of power on communal bases to ANYONE in Sri Lanka ... PERIOD!
The central Government of Sri Lanka, has the responsibility to defend and protect the integrity of the nation, and the rights of ALL of its citizens. It will not devolve power ... particularly land and police powers ... to former separatists.
We are not that naive, and will defend our Motherland ... come HELL or HIGH WATER!
LEARN to Live as EQUAL citizens without demanding Special Rights unavailable to other citizens of Sri Lanka.
........
TNA Leader Sampanthan’s letter to UNHRC member countries
UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL – 19TH SESSION, GENEVA, MARCH 2012
27th February 2012
I write to you as the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the principal elected representative of the Tamil people in the North and East of Sri Lanka, to extend my gratitude for your sustained commitment to peace, justice and substantive democracy in our country.
Subsequent to assurances given by the President of Sri Lanka in May 2009, and in pursuance of the same, the Secretary General of the United Nations appointed a panel in June 2010 to advise him on accountability issues in Sri Lanka with respect to the final stages of the war. When the Panel released its report on 31 March 2011, stating that there were credible allegations that both sides had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, the TNA welcomed that Report and urged the implementation of its recommendations. We are convinced that telling the truth and ascertaining responsibility is the best means of avoiding a repetition of past tragedies.
The Sri Lankan government promised that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which it had appointed in May 2010, would address questions of accountability. The LLRC delivered its report in November 2011. We have shared with the international community our comprehensive analytical response to the said report, and also enclose it herewith. We submitted that the LLRC failed the victims of the war, and that its composition, mandate, process and findings fell dramatically short of international standards.
Notwithstanding this, the LLRC also made several positive recommendations, including for the rapid demilitarization of the North and East, investigations into human rights violations committed by paramilitary groups and legislative recognition of the right to information. Though the LLRC recognized the critical importance of making visible progress on devolution of power, successive governments for well-nigh six decades have failed to address this issue. The failure to evolve a political solution based on devolution of power is the root cause of the conflict in Sri Lanka. The government of Sri Lanka continues to demonstrate a lack of commitment to implement even the LLRC’s recommendations within a specific time-frame.
TNA Leader Sampanthan’s letter to UNHRC member countries
.....continued 1.....
In fact, even the LLRC observed that its own interim recommendations which were issued in September 2010, such as publishing a list of detainees and disarming paramilitary groups, have not been implemented. This consistent record of non-implementation by the government, and its refusal to take steps towards creating a social and political environment of positive peace and justice remains the most serious problem for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
The state of human rights protection and human security in Sri Lanka continues to cause great distress to us. The spate of killings and abductions, even in the last few months; the intrusive presence of the military in governance, on the streets, in trade and business as well as in the day to day lives of citizens; the negation of effective civilian administration in the North; the expropriation of private lands; the arbitrary utilization of state lands for sectarian purposes; and the erection of massive military cantonments in areas where people should have been allowed to resettle; are all manifestations of how the social and political freedom of the Tamil people in the North and East of Sri Lanka is being severely jeopardized. The worst affected victims of this intense militarization are women and children, where widows and orphans are rendered particularly vulnerable to systematic exploitation and violence. Former women LTTE cadres and other vulnerable women are coerced into playing the role of comfort women.
Furthermore, paramilitary groups acting in consort with the military are known to be involved in incidents of rape and abuse, as well as human trafficking and organized prostitution.
The democratic verdicts of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka have been consistently disregarded by successive governments for well-nigh six decades. There is now a concerted attempt to silence that Tamil democratic voice. At the urging of those with extremist views, the government is engaged in an irreversible process whereby the demographic composition of the North and East is being altered through the establishment of Sinhala settlements, the entrenchment of the military, and the systematic exclusion of Tamil people from the civil service. The juggernaut of the government and the military is relentlessly engaged in transforming the cultural, linguistic and religious makeup of the North and East and forcibly imposing the dominant culture on those areas. This is also evident in the destruction of numerous Hindu places of worship, and the proliferation of new Buddhist shrines.
We are convinced that a speedy resolution of the ethnic issue through a negotiated settlement with the government on granting the North and East access to powers of governance is necessary to reverse these trends. Despite many government commitments at the talks not being honoured, we have patiently and responsibly engaged the government in a series of bilateral talks in this regard since January 2011. We were also very disappointed when the government irresponsibly and unilaterally withdrew from these bilateral talks in January 2012.
TNA Leader Sampanthan’s letter to UNHRC member countries
.....continued 2.....
We remain committed to the evolution of a reasonable, workable and durable political solution within an undivided, united country.
We are also committed to the cause of truth, justice and reparations for the atrocities committed by both sides during the last stages of the war. We believe that it is our duty – as representatives of the Tamil people – to communicate their profound desire for truth and justice. We ourselves have been struck by the intensity of this desire, and the determination with which it is expressed to us.
We have maintained that accountability remains an urgent and important need to help victim communities overcome trauma and rebuild their lives; to bring closure to our collective and personal grief; to ensure genuine reconciliation; to break the cycle of impunity in Sri Lanka and most importantly, to insure against a return to violence. For these reasons we have urged the international community to take steps to institute an international investigation into the credible allegations of war crimes committed by both sides during the last stages of the war.
We observe that at the upcoming 19th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, a Resolution will be tabled that will declare that the government of Sri Lanka has not yet done enough to implement the recommendations of the LLRC, and will comprehensively address the issue of accountability. You are aware that the Sri Lankan government has consistently failed to abide by its commitments and to implement recommendations made by Commissions appointed by the government. This Resolution will provide an opportunity for the fulfillment of the commitments repeatedly made by the government of Sri Lanka, and now contained in the recommendations of the LLRC, and thereby for the realization of the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil people.
Yours sincerely,
R. Sampanthan,
Leader, Tamil National Alliance
Courtesy: TamilCanadian
Published on: Feb 29, 2012 20:19:26 GMT
Soaring construction costs a disincentive
By Hiran H. Senewiratne
Island.lk
March 03, 2012
Sri Lanka is one of the most expensive countries in the region where construction costs are concerned. Prices will further go up with building material costs climbing by 10 per to 15 percent in the recent past.
International Construction Cost Report 2011 released last year indicates that India and Sri Lanka share 13th position for the most expensive countries in Asia to build, and are placed 55th in the world.
Therefore, Sri Lanka’s construction industry is now in a crisis due to the increase of building material costs by 10 to 15 percent in the recent past due to the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar, along with the hike in transport costs due to recent fuel prices increases
"It is sad that 90 percent of raw materials for the construction industry are being imported and the devaluation of rupee has resulted in an increase of the cost. In addition, the recent fuel increase also adds insult to injury," President of the Chamber of Construction industry of Sri Lanka Surath Wickramasinghe said.
He said the increase of construction costs would mainly affect those contractors who had already contracted at previous prices, in which case they have to either renegotiate with their clients or go for litigation to avoid losses.
Wickramasinghe said that contractors now had to adjust their future projects by 10 per cent to 15 percent, which was a major increase when it comes to massive construction projects in the country. With the increase of the construction cost Sri Lanka will not be able to attract foreign direct investments. Therefore, other countries in the region will take the advantage to promote foreign investment into their country, he said
He said that fixed price contractors were now going through a difficulty due to the price escalations in raw materials and such contracts cover considerable number of such projects in the country. Therefore, some workable solution was needed to protect them from financial ruin.
To cushion the blow from the cost increase the Chamber was now in the process of suggesting a workable solution for the government by also taking bank interest rates also into consideration because the most of construction projects have raised funds through bank loans, he said.
Cement which was one of the main components in the construction industry has gone up in price due to the appreciation of the dollar. The current increase would be between Rs. 5.00 and Rs. 10.00 per bag and added that a further price hike would take place after the next consignment of cement was imported into the country, industry sources said.
According to the report Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Macau, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Taiwan are ahead of India and Sri Lanka in this segment.
The report released by built asset consultancy, EC Harris has named Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore as the most expensive places in Asia to build and are amongst the world’s top twenty most costly countries.
Hypocrisy and double standards will undermine UNHRC’s legitimacy’: Lankan envoy takes US under Secretary to task
By Manjula FERNANDO
SundayObserver.lk
March 04, 2012
Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Tamara Kunanayakam strongly objected to US Under Secretary Maria Otero’s comments at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday that Sri Lanka had failed to show progress on HR issues, warning that the hypocrisy and double standards of the US would undermine gravely the legitimacy of the Council.
“Only-two-and-a-half months since the publication of the LLRC report and three years after ending 30 years of terrorism and separatism, the US seems to be impatient,” Kunanayakam said.
Her comments were endorsed by key UNHRC members. The Chinese delegate who spoke before the Sri Lankan ambassador exercised her ‘Right of Reply’ saying “before criticising others you (US) should take a long and hard look at your own human rights record.”
The Chinese member said that no country can speak of a perfect human rights record and one must set an example before criticising others.
He said the Chinese delegation was deeply concerned over the US failure to address its own HR issues.
The Sri Lankan ambassador said she regretted the statement where ‘Ms. Otero has thought it fit to unilaterally develop and set forth values that would guide the workings of the HRC departing from its founding principles - universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity’. “This intentional departure aims at legitimising the politicisation of this Council and justify its approach in treating countries such as Sri Lanka.”
In making these comments on Sri Lanka, the US has overlooked the progress the country had made after a long drawn out battle against terrorism.
She said that due recognition and notice must be given to the fact that in Sri Lanka ‘Emergency regulations have been repealed, over 1,200 detainees released, one detention centre closed, apart from the 300 of over 11,000 former combatants who surrendered and have been rehabilitated and reintegrated into mainstream society, over 95 percent of the nearly 290,000 displaced persons have been resettled’ and significant progress made on land issues, implementation of the trilingual language policy, scaling down of HSZs and the demining and rehabilitation of child soldiers.
With regard to accountability, she said, two courts of inquiry and a board of inquiry has been set up by the Army and the Navy. A time-bound national HR action plan which has many synergies with the LLRC recommendations is also being implemented.
She said, “Sri Lanka will present its report during the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in October this year,” adding that this was the appropriate forum to discuss the progress various countries had made in promoting and protecting in human rights of all countries.
Following the US Under Secretary’s statement yesterday, the Head of the Non Aligned Movement also expressed support to Sri Lanka, criticising the US move.
Ms. Otero, however, fell short of mentioning anything about a US brokered resolution against Sri Lanka on Friday.
World divided over US resolution targeting SL
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Island.lk
March 03, 2012
The proposed US resolution targeting the Sri Lankan government over accountability issues has sharply divided the global community with the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) and the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) voicing opposition to UN intervention.
They backed Sri Lanka’s efforts against the US move on Friday (March 2), on the fifth day of the 19th sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
UN Security Council members, Russia and China and Pakistan, too, support Sri Lanka, while India is also certain to oppose the US move, diplomats in Geneva said.
India is yet to speak at the 47-member UNHRC sessions, which will continue till March 23.
Geneva-based sources as well as the Sri Lankan delegation involved in talks with member states of the UNHRC told The Sunday Island that many countries, including some of those pushed to back the US resolution felt that the West was trying to set a dangerous example.
Sources said that the UK’s call for UN intervention in Sri Lanka on the opening day of the current sessions followed-up by EU warning had helped Sri Lanka to convince many countries of being unfairly treated.
UK Minister Jeremy Browne in charge of the human rights portfolio said: "We, as UN member states, must take seriously our human rights obligations and, where States fail, the institutions of the UN should act and support change. Such actions are what make the Council an effective human rights body, able to scrutinize States’ compliance with their obligations and offer technical assistance."
Interestingly, a key US ally in global war against terrorism, Pakistan, issued a statement on behalf of the OIC, one of the largest groupings outside the UN supporting Sri Lanka.
World divided over US resolution targeting SL
.....continued......
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative, Zamir Akram, told the sessions: "The OIC commends the continued commitment of the Sri Lankan government to reconciliation through the establishment of its domestic reconciliation process. We strongly believe that Sri Lanka must be provided with the time and space required to continue with its genuine national endeavors towards achieving this objective, without external pressure."While appreciating the work carried out by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the OIC shared Ms. Navi Pillay’s concern over the rights of those held at the US detention facility Guantanamo Bay and her disappointment over the failure to close down the facility. The OIC reminded that the vast majority of those held there in a situation of legal limbo were Muslims.
The OIC was responding to a statement made by Ms. Pillay at the introduction of the latest human rights situation.
The OIC also targeted Ms. Pillay for failing to mention US military destroying holy Koran in Afghanistan recently. She also came under fire by IOM for deteriorating human rights situation in occupied Palestinian territories and Syrian Arab Golan. Geneva-based sources said that US move against Sri Lanka had been undermined by its own poor human rights record, particularly since 9/11.
Egypt on behalf of the NAM, while condemning Israeli military action in occupied Arab territories urged Ms Pillay to elaborate on atrocities committed by the Jewish State.
A senior Sri Lankan official said that those wanting to haul Sri Lanka before an international war crimes tribunal had been exposed at the ongoing sessions. South Africa, too, attacked the double-standards adopted by those championing human rights in some parts of the world.
Commenting on the situation in Sri Lanka, NAM strongly opposed UN intervention. Commending the ongoing LLRC process, the NAM said that there was no need on the part of the council to intervene.
"A functioning domestic mechanism should not be circumvented by interference until its conclusion," the NAM said.
The Philippines backed the NAM’s position on Sri Lanka.
The Malaysian government, too, opposed unilateral action on the part the international community, though no direct reference was made to Sri Lanka.
The World is pointing out that the US Emperor is NAKED on human rights.
The US, UK and other Western countries pursuing their Neo-Colonialist agenda around the world ... undermining and destabilzing sovereign nations under the new pretexts of "democracy" and "human rights" ... seem to be OBLIVIOUS to the fact that THEIR ACTIONS are now TRANSPARENT and RESENTED by most of the worlds nations.
Whether it is blatently feeding the "Arab Spring" fires engineered by their paid operatives; undermining, destabilizing, paying and arming of Syrians as a part of their strategy to isolate Iran; the targeting of Iran that is minding its own business and doing nothing that its critics are not already doing for themselves in trumps; and trying to topple Putin in Russia because he opposes them ... the World is increasingly recognizing the SLY Western hand behind these activities and RESENTS IT!
There is a GROWING GROUNDSWELL of OPPOSITION to their DOUBLE STANDARDS, HYPOCRISIES, and MANIPULATION of the UNITED NATIONS!
They Emperor and its Lackeys are INDEED SEEN TO BE NAKED!
As we Sri Lankans say ... Rajjuruwo HELUBALLENG Neda?
..............
US resolution: Gambit put in motion
By Wijitha Nakkawita
Nation.lk
March 04, 2012
The move to raise alleged war crimes and human rights violations by the armed forces during the final war against LTTE terrorists, a gambit put in motion by the US, UK and few other European governments against Sri Lanka, is being getting rejected by a majority of member nations of the UN Human Rights Council currently in sessions at Geneva, diplomatic sources in Colombo say.
The US Assistant Secretary Mario Otero was given a blunt rebuff by the People’s Republic of China on Friday when the chairperson of the sessions was asked how Otero came to be addressing the sessions when the agenda did not include an address by her.
However the urgency that US officials had attached to a motion against Sri Lanka is now getting watered down, especially in view of powerful nations like China and Russia directly expressing their opposition to the move, reports from Geneva stated.
More and more member nations were supporting Sri Lanka including the home nation of the controversial Human Rights Commissioner, from South Africa, while several other countries inclusive of the Non Aligned Movement member nations of Asia have indicated their support for Sri Lanka, senior foreign office sources said. Human Rights and Plantation Industry Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe on the opening day of the confab (February 28) told the plenary session that Sri Lanka refuted the allegation that war crimes were committed by the armed forces during the final phase of the war against the LTTE terrorists. Later the delegate of Thailand in his address said Sri Lanka was on the way to reconciliation and development and needed to be helped in its rehabilitation and reconstruction effort.
The biggest surprise came when the delegate of Russian Federaton Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov pointed out that the UN body could not be used as a tool to selectively intervene in some countries like Sri Lanka. In effect what Gatilov meant was that US, UK and a few other European nations whose machinations interfere in Sri Lanka and other selected countries cannot be condoned or allowed to continue.
Diplomatic sources also said the US and its western allies who stand charged with committing war crimes and worse in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and even Pakistan should be called up to answer cases like untenable killing of civilians by drones in Pakistan and other military hardware at their disposal. They said uncivilised acts like urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban cadres by US troops, burning copies of the quran, inhuman torture of captured persons at the Guantanamo base of the CIA were issues that have been deliberately ignored by the UN and its agencies.
Eelamists of the Tamil Diaspora who CONTROL the BBC, have RUSHED to point out to the world that Cardinal Malcolm Joseph's position against the US-led witch hunt against Sri Lanka at the UNHCR, is not shared by the "Tamil Catholic" "Bishop" Rayappu Joseph of Jaffna.
Ho! Ho! Ho! ... so what is new? given that the "Bishop" Rayappu Joseph is a "card carrying" member of the Racist LTTE and the TNA?
He is RACIST Terrorist hiding under clerical robes, who should be excommunicated and expelled from the Catholic Church, for his record of support for Tamil terrorists in Sri Lanka. From the beginning to the end he has been an LTTE supporter.
His hands are TAINTED with the BLOOD of over 100,000 innocent citizens of Sri Lanka who were shot, bombed, sliced into bits, hung from lamp posts, driven from their homes, assembled into human shields, tortured in the barbwire cages of the Wanni Gulag, abducted, brainwashed and converted into mindless killers by the SunGod and his Disciples that he worshipped, aided and abetted.
"Bishop" Rayappu Joseph, hides in clerical vestments and bringing the Catholic Church into disrepute.
He should be arraigned in court in Sri Lanka on war crimes charges for aiding and abetting the tormentors of Sri Lankan citizens.
If the Church will not discipline its priests and remove their religious cover for terrorist activities, then let the State do it and protect the citizens of Sri Lanka.
Religious affiliations CAN NOT, SHOULD NOT, and MUST NOT be allowed to exempt ANYONE from abiding by the Laws of the Land which Protect the Citizens.
............
Catholics divided on war crimes
BBC.com
March 03, 2012
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith (c) with Bishop Rayappu Joseph (L) in Madhu church
Bishop Joseph (L) has contradicted earlier statement by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith
Tamil Catholic priests from the north have called for an international investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, contradicting an earlier statement by the head of Sri Lanka's Catholic Church.
In a letter sent to UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the group urges the UN body to urge Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the government appointed war panel.
It also calls on the UN to urge Sri Lanka to accept an international probe into accountability issues that has not been dealt by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
"At least now, we urge the Council to act decisively in relation to Sri Lanka, to enable Sri Lankan to move towards genuine reconciliation," said the letter singed by 31 clergymen including Bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph.
At least now, we urge the Council to act decisively in relation to Sri Lanka, to enable Sri Lankan to move towards genuine reconciliation
A letter sent to UNHRC by a group of 31 clergymen
Although the LLRC has identified abuses by both the government forces as well as the LTTE, said the letter, "it has failed to address critical issues of truth seeking and accountability."
In a statement issued earlier, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith said the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka opposes the US-sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka at the UNHCR.
"Such efforts by western powers is an insult on the intelligence of the people of Sri Lanka", says the Cardinal.
But Fr Gerard Rosairo, one of the signatories, told BBC Sandeshaya that the Catholic Church has so far failed to discuss alleged human rights violations during the last phase of war against the LTTE.
My Comment at LankaWeb.com
Ananda-USA Says:
March 4th, 2012 at 2:00 pm
Christie,
I understand your frustration with Sri Lanka’s enemies. But, it is important that we do not broadly demonize people on the basis of their nationality, race, religion etc. None of us can change what we inherited at birth; we can only change the way we feel and act during our lives.
Let us judge people on the basis of what they say and do, and not the situation they were born into.
As a Sinhalese residing the USA, I find Indians to be just like us, and especially friendly to us as Sri Lankans, who they view as cousins … as we do them. By the way, most Indians are not Eelamist Tamils; they do not support Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka, and they truly regret tha calamity Indian inteference wrought in Sri Lanka.
Americans come in all flavours, and very often do not like what their government is doing in their name. But, they, are intensely patriotic. Americans will rally round and come together to defend their country in times of war … without exception. If the issue is important, and sufficiently visible to them, that gets reflected in the elections. I hope that Sri Lankans will become as patriotic as Americans in the fullness of time. Reminding people of the hallowed history of Sri Lanka is not enough to do that; transforming Sri Lanka into the New Wonder of Asia to give Sri Lankans a nation to be proud of in their lifetimes may achieve that goal.
If we want the US to be fair to Sri Lanka, and get them to support us, we have to educate them on that subject, because while the US Government plying its global agendas under the control of ideologues on the left or the right of the political spectrum, Sri Lanka is off the map to most US citizens who vote these politicians into power. Our task is to be Sri Lanka’s ambassadors to world while we help defend the motherland.
The main point I am trying to make here is that when we strongly criticize Sri Lanka’s enemies, let us be very careful in identifying them NARROWLY. It is generally OK to criticize the LEADERS who orchestrate these activities inimical to Sri Lanka, because they can be easily identified by name. It is more difficult to criticize their NAMELESS and FACELESS SUPPORTERS. When we criticize the latter, we have to NARROWLY categorize them, so as to not insult and demonize the vast majority of innocent people belonging to any group the miscreants spring from.
For example, I am careful to say Eelamist Tamils, or the Eelamist Tamil Diaspora, rather than criticize all Tamils of Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu, or the entire Tamil Diaspora.
All of us have many Tamil friends who do not intend any harm to Sri Lanka, and love Sri Lanka just as we do. They must be made welcome in the midst of Sri Lankan patriots.
After all, what we are trying to do is to DEFEND & PROTECT Sri Lanka by unifying ALL of its people into ONE Nation, of ONE people, sharing ONE national Destiny, irrespective of their community affiliations.
Let us hope that Ambassador Sison will have more EMPATHY for Sri Lanka as a Filipino-American than Amb. Patricia Butenis did.
During Amb. Butenis's tenure US-Sri Lanka deteriorated to new lows.
But, there is no guarantee of that.
Minority officials striving for acceptance in US govt bureaucracies rarely feel safe enough to rock the rock the boat and survive in their careers, and often are pushed to be MORE EXTREME than non-minorities.
They are often apppointed to lend their "minority faces" to get developing nations to swallow bitter pills while deflecting accusations of discrimination.
Let us wait and see .. Time will reveal the reality.
............
New U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka nominated
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 05, Colombo: Career diplomat Ambassador Michele J. Sison is slated to be the replacement for the current United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, Patricia Butenis, State Department sources said.
Reportedly, the U.S. State Department has informed Sri Lanka's External Affairs Ministry and the Ministry is in the process of approving the Ambassador-designate.
However, Sison is expected to undergo the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing prior to her appointment as the envoy.
According to the State Department, Ambassador Sison was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August 2008 as the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon. She currently serves as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Bagdad.
Sison is a career member of the United States Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor.
President Barack Obama nominated current Ambassador Butenis as the U.S. envoy to Sri Lanka and Maldives in May 2009 and she was confirmed by the Senate in August 2009.
Butenis is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, rank of Career Minister and has also served as DCM in at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2007-2009.
Ambassador Sison is of Philippines and American origin with family roots in Lingayen, Pangasinan, in the Philippines.
Let us hope that Ambassador Michele Sison will have more EMPATHY for Sri Lanka as a Filipino-American than Amb. Patricia Butenis did.
During Amb. Butenis's tenure US-Sri Lanka relations deteriorated to a new low.
But, there is no guarantee of Amb. Sison's appointment improving these relations and reducing the attacks being mounted against Sri Lanka.
Minority officials striving for acceptance in US govt bureaucracies rarely feel safe enough to rock the rock the boat by acting according to their conscience, and survive in their careers.
Often, they push themselves to be MORE EXTREME than non-minorities.
An example of this is President Barack Obama's aggressive current foreign policy against perceived and imagined enemies of the United States.
Minority officials are often apppointed to lend their "minority faces" to get developing nations to swallow bitter pills while deflecting accusations of discrimination.
Let us wait and see .. Time will reveal the reality. We hope she will concentrate on protecting ALL of the people of Sri Lanka and building bridges its majority community, and not on destabiling and underming its popular democratically elected government.
In the meantime, we wish Ambassador Sison well, and wish her every success in this appointment.
............
New U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka nominated
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 05, Colombo: Career diplomat Ambassador Michele J. Sison is slated to be the replacement for the current United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, Patricia Butenis, State Department sources said.
Reportedly, the U.S. State Department has informed Sri Lanka's External Affairs Ministry and the Ministry is in the process of approving the Ambassador-designate.
However, Sison is expected to undergo the U.S. Senate confirmation hearing prior to her appointment as the envoy.
According to the State Department, Ambassador Sison was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August 2008 as the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon. She currently serves as the Deputy Chief of Mission in Bagdad.
Sison is a career member of the United States Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor.
President Barack Obama nominated current Ambassador Butenis as the U.S. envoy to Sri Lanka and Maldives in May 2009 and she was confirmed by the Senate in August 2009.
Butenis is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, rank of Career Minister and has also served as DCM in at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2007-2009.
Ambassador Sison is of Philippines and American origin with family roots in Lingayen, Pangasinan, in the Philippines.
My Comment at LankaWeb.com.
Ananda-USA Says:
March 4th, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Charles,
Thank you for the update on Stanley Perera’s initiative. Let me add my support to this as well, and reiterate some comments I made in response to Shenali Waduge’s previous post.
The CLASS ACTION SUIT AGAINST THE TNA, as proposed by Stanley Perera, should be pursued VIGOROUSLY. Let Sri Lankan patriots give the GOSL a helping hand in a SUBSTANTIAL WAY to defend our Motherland. Let us give the TNA, and the Eelamist Diaspora, a taste of their own bitter legal medicine.
The TNA is running scared of being asked to account for LTTE/TNA atrocities. They avoided attending the UNHCR hearings in Geneva to avoid being cross-examined on their support for LTTE terrorism.
Let us pursue them from PILLAR to POST where ever they appear … ask them inconvenient questions, haul them before tribunals and investigative committees demanding equal time to question them, and impose huge financial penalties and burdens on their organizations through the courts of these countries.
The TNA posing as VICTIMS today were the PURVEYORS of TERROR yesterday. Hold them ACCOUNTABLE.
PROSECUTE them, CONVICT and SENTENCE them to HARD LABOR in PRISON and DISSIPATE the FUNDS they collect to engage in these skullduggeries. ENOUGH allowing racist terrorists wolves to hide under VICTIMS sheepskins! ENOUGH!
With regard to the splitting of the TNA, this may be a defence mechanism by the Eelamist Hydra. The TNA is CLEARLY “reorganizing” itself to confuse opponents and to protect itself better from legal prosecution. The stated “disagreements” between the “factions” may be just a cover story that allows different factions to take responsibility for different parallel actions without becoming targeted and extinguished as a single whole. Metamorphosing into, and adopting, multiple identities is a STANDARD DEFENCE TACTIC practiced by the Eelamist Diaspora from its very beginning.
Also, the TNA strategy may include one “faction” joining the Govt, while two other “factions” continue to pursue Eelam through “war crimes” and “human rights” charges, so they can come out winners under any scenario, while putting pressure on the GOSL as they are currently doing. It is the soft guy with the carrot, and the hard guy with the stick kind of strategy, to move the GOSL in the direction of devolving power to former terrorists searching for an Eelam.
The GOSL should beware of this ploy of the TNA, for it will NOT bring ANY RELIEF to Sri Lanka or to the GOSL to deal with them separately. It is another typical Machiavellian strategy of the Eelamist rattlesnakes.
We CONGRATULATE President Vladimir Putin for his victory in the Russian Presidential election.
His election to the helm of Russia will arrest the "Russian Spring" promoted by Russia's enemies in its tracks, and will help PROTECT developing nations from arbitrary policies of the Western Neo-Colonialists.
"His clear victory will enable him to portray his return to the post he held from 2000 until 2008 as strong public backing against the protesters, whom he has portrayed as a destabilizing minority and pawns of foreign governments."
.................
Tearful Putin wins back Russian presidency
By Timothy Heritage and Guy Faulconbridge
March 04, 2012
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin triumphed in Russia's presidential election on Sunday and, tears rolling down his cheeks, called his victory a turning point that had prevented the country falling into the hands of enemies.
Putin's opponents complained of widespread fraud, refused to recognize the results and said they would press ahead on Monday with the biggest protests since he rose to power 12 years ago.
But the former KGB spy said he had won a "clean" victory and was on course to return to the Kremlin after four years as prime minister with almost 65 percent of votes, partial results showed.
"I promised you we would win. We have won. Glory to Russia," Putin, dressed in an anorak and flanked by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev, told tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters at a late-evening victory rally under the red walls of the Kremlin.
Denouncing attempts to "destroy Russia's statehood and usurp power," he said: "The Russian people have shown today that such scenarios will not succeed in our land ... They shall not pass!"
The crowd at one point chanted: "Putin! Putin! Putin!" Some danced to keep warm and drank vodka from plastic glasses, with empty bottles crunching underfoot.
It was a defiant and angry speech which left Putin, 59, on collision course with the mainly middle-class protesters in Moscow and other big cities who have staged huge rallies since a disputed parliamentary poll on December 4.
"DECLARATION OF WAR"
Two exit polls showed Putin with 58-59 percent of the votes and incomplete results showed him winning more than 64 percent.
His nearest rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, had about 17 percent of votes, and nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, former parliamentary speaker Sergei Mironov and billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov were all below 10 percent, although Prokhorov won plaudits for his campaign.
Zyuganov said his party would not recognize the result and called the election "illegitimate, dishonest and untransparent." Liberal leader Vladimir Ryzhkov also said it was not legitimate.
The protest organizers, who see Putin as an autocratic leader whose return to power will stymie hope of economic and political reforms, said their demonstrations would now grow.
"The social base of the protest is going to grow and Putin with his team did everything wrong to make this happen. He really helped us," said journalist Sergei Parkhomenko, one of the leaders of the opposition protest movement.
"He is forcing things to breaking point. He is declaring war on us. As a result the base of aversion to him is growing."
Tearful Putin wins back Russian presidency
.....continued 1.....
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Despite the opposition, mainly among well-educated and relatively well-off young professionals, Putin's support remains strong in the provinces and his victory had not been in doubt.
He showed his gratitude in late-night video links with supporters around Russia, including workers at a tank factory in the Urals town of Nizhny Tagil who have denounced the protests.
"You put in their places those people who went one step too far and insulted the working man," Putin told them. "You showed who the Russian people are, the Russian working man, the worker and the engineer. You showed that you are a head higher than any layabout, any old windbag. This was for me the biggest present."
A spokesman later said Putin had wept real tears at the victory rally but said they were caused by the biting wind.
The main challenge for the man credited by many Russians with rebuilding the country's image and overseeing an economic boom in his first presidency, was to win outright on Sunday, avoiding a runoff election by receiving more than 50 percent.
His clear victory will enable him to portray his return to the post he held from 2000 until 2008 as strong public backing against the protesters, whom he has portrayed as a destabilizing minority and pawns of foreign governments.
But the reaction to his rallying cry at the victory rally was more muted than expected. Hundreds of buses had brought the crowd to Moscow, signaling that it was a well-organized show of force rather than a spontaneous display of support.
The mood has shifted in the country of 143 million and many people are uncertain whether he will be conciliatory and reformist, or stand in the way of political and economic change.
Putin, who will be inaugurated in May, is likely to revert to the fighting talk against the West that was the trademark of his first presidency and his election campaign.
Economists say a key test of Putin's return will be how far he is ready to go to reform an economy heavily dependent on energy exports, and caution that his populist campaign spending promises could return to haunt him.
"It's a watershed - Russia faces decline and stagnation unless they really kick-start reforms, and push forward an ambitious reform agenda," said Tim Ash, head of emerging markets research at Royal Bank of Scotland in London.
Tearful Putin wins back Russian presidency
.....continued 2.....
"LEADER OF THE NATION"
Putin has remained Russia's dominant leader and its most popular politician since stepping aside in 2008 to make way for his ally, Medvedev, because he was barred from a third straight term by the constitution.
Some voters said Putin, who has portrayed himself as a man of action and guardian of stability, was the tough national leader the world's biggest country and energy producer needed.
"I voted for Putin because he was a good president (from 2000-08) and our children were looked after and that's all. That's how I feel," said Maria Fedotova, a 92-year-old grandmother in fur coat and hat, flanked by relatives.
But others are tired of his macho antics, such as horse riding bare-chested, and a system that concentrates power in his hands. They fear he could win another term in six years and rule until 2024 - almost as long as Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
"They are stealing our votes," said Valentin Gorshun, a patient in Moscow hospital number 19, where more than 90 percent of votes went to United Russia party in December.
"It is probably the same at all hospitals," he said. "I think they are preparing a huge falsification. Emperor Putin has decided everything."
Thousands of opposition activists as well as an international observer mission also monitored the polls.
Vote monitors from the opposition and bloggers posted allegations of election rigging across the country of 143 million. Golos, an independent monitoring group, said it had registered at least 3,500 reports of violations nationwide.
The partial results showed Putin won almost 100 percent of votes in the Chechnya region, with almost 100 percent turnout.
An Interior Ministry spokesman denied there had been any major violations. Election officials also dismissed reports of widespread fraud in the December 4 parliamentary vote that sparked the protests.
An Astute Comment by a reader on article Sri Lanka against itself published at TheHindu.com:
The point is they should not poke their nose into other countries business. They (the promoters of HR) must use their time better in resolving their own crimes... from guantanamo to ethnic cleansing of Roma minority in France, "crime of the century" forced deportation of the total population of Chagos (happened 1965, no HR vendor to speak about those poor people living 40 years in slums of Mauritius), just to name a few. Sri Lanka is totally different... it has fought the most powerful terror group on earth and won the war. Now it's citizens are at peace. All it's ethnic groups now work together. Move freely anywhere. Tamil kids who carried guns/bombs now carry books and pens. Ex-fighters are given a training and money to start a new life... Give me a name of ANY WESTERN country that can match our little Sri Lanka. We are proud to have inherited our cultural DNA from the great India 2500 years ago... and will maintain our vaue system accordingly. Let the wild-west bark.
from: adhikari
Posted on: Mar 5, 2012 at 12:54 IST
US$ 278 million loan from China to extend Sri Lanka's southern coastal rail line
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 05, Colombo: Sri Lanka is to obtain a US$ 278 million loan from China to extend the Southern coastal railway line from Matara to Kataragama.
The Ministry of Finance has announced that the Exim Bank of China has agreed to provide the US$ 278 million concessionary loan for the construction of the Matara-Kataragama Rail Track Project.
The construction of the 27-kilometer long railway tracks from Matara to Beliatta under the first phase has already begun.
The project to lay single line broad gauge rail track includes construction of bridges across several rivers, culverts, flyovers, cross roads , access roads, four railway stations, and quarters for railway staff.
The entire project which is estimated to cost $366 million will be carried out in three phases and the remainder of the cost is to be borne by the government.
In Phase II, 48km-long track from Beliatta to Hambantota will be constructed. This line is scheduled to be complete by 2012.
Phase III will involve construction of the 39.5km-long segment from Hambantota to Kataragama.
The whole project is scheduled to be completed by 2015.
The construction of the new rail track will provide an efficient and environmentally friendly mode of transport to cater to increasing demand for transport due to development in the Southern region with the operation of the new port and airport in Hambantota, the government says.
"the US is prepared to work with Sri Lanka in order to bring lasting peace to the island"?
What NONSENSE! Where was the US when Sri Lanka was begging for weapons to fight the LTTE? We don't need US help now to "bring lasting peace" to our Motherland.
NONE of these Western Powers shedding crocodile tears about Sri Lanka's agony HELPED to ERADICATE Tamil terrorism from Sri Lanka.
Instead, they erected BARRIERS of various kinds to help the terrorists diplomatically, allowed terrorists to raise funds in their own countries, prevented the Sri Lanka Defence Forces from defeating the LTTE MUCH EARLIER than 2009, and forced Sri Lanka to accept loads of foreign NGOs to destabilize and undermine the country and the war effort against the terrorists.
These Western Powers are responsible for EXTENDING to 30 years a conflict that could have been ended much earlier had they supported Sri Lanka in meaningful ways.
Today, they are TRYING to REVIVE terrorism and conflict in Sri Lanka, to keep Sri Lanka weak and economically stagnant forever!
With "Friends" like these WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?
No. We don't need the US to PREACH to Sri Lanka rather late in the day "how to attain peace" after we have solved the problem ourselves at great cost in blood and treasure.
GO AWAY and ply your Neo-Colonialist games elsewhere. Has anything been solved in Lybia where armed groups are running amok and the country has descended into anarchy?
Don't try to cover up your own war crimes NAKEDNESS at Sri Lanka's expense.
BLOODY HYPOCRITES plying DOUBLE STANDARDS!
.............
Sri Lanka's LLRC report does not address accountability adequately - US
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 05, Geneva: The United States says the report of the Lessons Learnt and reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Sri Lanka's domestic body that probed the country's armed conflict does not adequately address the issue of accountability.
Addressing the 15th meeting of the 19th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva today, the US delegate John C. Mariz said the LLRC report does not include any plan to implement its recommendations, nor does it adequately address the crucial issue of accountability.
The US says accountability can play an important role in the reconciliation process as evidenced by the recent history from countries that have undergone similar experiences.
A resolution against Sri Lanka backed by the US, is expected to be brought before the UNHRC to press Sri Lankan government to promptly implement the recommendations made by the LLRC and address the accountability for the war crimes allegedly occurred during the final phase of the battle with the Tamil Tiger terrorists.
A draft resolution has been circulated among the UNHRC's 47 members.
Several member states, especially China, Russia and Pakistan, have shown support to Sri Lanka to fend off the resolution arguing that the UN should not address country-specific situations.
However, the US disagreed with the notion saying that the credibility of UN's human rights machinery depends on its capacity to address urgent and persistent human rights situations to protect people who suffer under oppressive governments.
The delegate said as US Secretary of State Ms. Hilary Clinton has noted, the US is prepared to work with Sri Lanka in order to bring lasting peace to the island.
Sri Lanka says the government is taking measures to implement the LLRC recommendations methodically and it needs time and space to work towards reconciliation without interference from the international community.
True Story of LTTE Conflict Not Highlighted Properly: Lanka
OutlookIndia.com
March 05, 2012
Claiming that the population of Sinhalese and Muslims in the Tamil-dominated Northern Province has dwindled due to LTTE's terror tactics, Sri Lanka today faulted the international community for not highlighting the "true story" of the 30-year-old conflict.
Patali Champika Ranawaka, the minister of power and energy and a senior member of the Sinhala majority nationalist heritage party, JHU (Jathika Hela Urumaya) said LTTE's terror tactics in their separatist campaign had caused the reduction of the Sinhala and Muslim communities in the north.
"There are only 884 Sinhalese in Jaffna and Kilinochchi from over 20,000 in 1981. The Muslim population has dropped to over 2600 from over 10300."
He said that the census had shown that it was the majority Sinhalese who had suffered most by the LTTE's 30 year campaign for a separatist Tamil homeland.
"This is the true story of the so called ethnic conflict," Ranawaka stressed.
Ranawaka faulted the international community for not highlighting the plight of the Sinhalese and Muslims affected by the conflict.
He also claimed that a total of 7934 people died during the last phase of the war with LTTE and not "tens of thousands" as reported by a UN panel which probed the allegations of war crimes by Lankan forces.
The census has shown that the total of 7934 deaths were recorded while the last battle with the LTTE was on, he said.
"This figure includes the number of suicides, those who died due to accidents, those killed by the LTTE and members of the LTTE," Ranawaka said.
"This has exposed the web of lies against Sri Lanka that tens of thousands of people were killed during the war", he said, adding that UN secretary general's special panel report on Sri Lanka had wrongly accused the country of excessive number of civilian deaths during the last stages of the conflict.
The panel report released in April last year called for investigation into alleged 40,000 deaths during the final phase of the war.
Late last month the department of census and statistics issued the release of a census conducted in the former battle zone district in the north and east.
Sri Lanka's first island wide census since 1981 is to take place end of this month.
Patali Champika Ranawaka, the minister of power and energy says the True Story of LTTE Conflict Is Not Highlighted Properly
1. The census had shown that it was the majority Sinhalese who had suffered most by the LTTE's 30 year campaign for a separatist Tamil homeland.
2. There are only 884 Sinhalese in Jaffna and Kilinochchi from over 20,000 in 1981. The Muslim population has dropped to over 2600 from over 10300.
3. A total of 7934 people died during the last phase of the war with LTTE and not "tens of thousands" as reported by a UN panel which probed the allegations of war crimes by Lankan forces.
Canada commission issues details abuse of native children
BBC.com
February 24, 2012
A commission examining Canada's policy to separate indigenous children from their families says the abuse created a legacy of turmoil.
From the country's formation in the 19th Century until the 1970s, the children had to attend schools where they were stripped of their identity.
Many of the 150,000 children also suffered physical abuse from the staff at the church-run boarding schools.
An interim report says children left the schools "as lost souls".
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report, They Came for the Children, says their lives were "soon to be cut short by drugs, alcohol and violence".
It concludes that the schools were an assault on indigenous children, their families, culture and their nations.
Native Canadians remain among the poorest members of society, with many still living on reserves.
The commission was formed as part of a landmark settlement in 2006 that included more than C$2bn (£1.3bn) compensation for surviving former children and their families.
It has already taken 25,000 statements from survivors, visited about 500 communities and has heard from about 100 former school employees.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
There is an opportunity now for Canadians to engage in this work, to make their own contributions to reconciliation, and to create new truths about our country”
End Quote Truth and Reconciliation Commission interim report
The schools were set up to assimilate native children into Canadian society.
The report starts with a quote from Hector Langevin, the Public Works Minister of Canada in 1883: "In order to educate the children properly, we must separate them from their families. Some people may say that this is hard, but if we want to civilise them we must do that.''
The federal government acknowledged 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was widespread.
Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages and losing touch with their parents and customs.
"It is commonly said that it takes a village to raise a child," said commission chairman Justice Murray Sinclair during a press conference to present the report on Friday.
"The government of Canada took little children away from their villages and placed them into institutions that were the furthest things from a village you could expect," he said
The report said the result was damaged relations within aboriginal families and with Canadian society at large.
It calls for a comprehensive programme of education to help the process of reconciliation.
The report concludes: "There is an opportunity now for Canadians to engage in this work, to make their own contributions to reconciliation, and to create new truths about our country."
A final report is due to be published in 2014.
AMAZING!, The US ASSERTS the right to kill people, even Americans, who are even CONTEMPLATING/PLOTTING attacks against the USA, without having ACTUALLY COMMITTED such attacks.
Very LAUDABLE, I am sure. But, why is such a right DENIED Sri Lanka? Sri Lanka targeted only those who had actually joined terrorist groups, and had attacked the nation.
Different Strokes for Different Folks?
DOUBLE STANDARDS & PURE HYPOCRISY!
...............
U.S. defends killing Americans who join al Qaeda
By Andrew Stern
March 05, 2012
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Obama administration asserted on Monday a right to kill Americans overseas who are plotting attacks against the United States, laying out specific details for the first time about a policy that critics argue violates U.S. and international law.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that Americans who have joined al Qaeda or its affiliates can be targeted for lethal strikes if there is an imminent threat to the United States and capturing them is not feasible.
In a speech to the Northwestern University School of Law, Holder did not refer directly to the CIA drone strike last year that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Muslim cleric who joined al Qaeda's Yemen affiliate and directed many attacks.
"Any decision to use lethal force against a United States citizen - even one intent on murdering Americans and who has become an operational leader of al Qaeda in a foreign land - is among the gravest that government leaders can face," he said.
"The American people can be - and deserve to be - assured that actions taken in their defense are consistent with their values and their laws," Holder said.
U.S. officials have linked Awlaki to several plots against the United States, including the 2009 Christmas Day attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a U.S. commercial airliner as it arrived in Detroit from Amsterdam with a bomb hidden in his underwear.
Holder received a standing ovation when he entered the crowded auditorium but departed to perfunctory applause as some in the audience expressed surprise by his remarks. A question and answer session was canceled, the event organizers said.
U.S. defends killing Americans who join al Qaeda
......continued ......
LICENSE TO KILL?
Civil liberties groups have decried the program as effectively a green light to assassinate Americans without due process in the courts under the U.S. Constitution, a charge that Holder flatly rejected.
Court approval for such strikes was unnecessary, he said, adding "the president may use force abroad against a senior operational leader of a foreign terrorist organization with which the United States is at war - even if that individual happens to be a U.S. citizen."
That drew sharp criticism from some in the audience. A third-year law school student, Russell Sherman, called such strikes "assassination". Scott Hiley, a language professor at Northwestern University, said Holder employed "endlessly circular reasoning" to try to explain the policy.
President Barack Obama and his aides have fiercely defended their stand on national security in the face of criticism from Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail that terrorism suspects are treated too leniently.
Holder said the use of lethal force against Americans abroad would have to comply with several principles governing the law of war, including ensuring the target was of military value and that steps were taken to limit collateral damage.
"The principle of humanity requires us to use weapons that will not inflict unnecessary suffering," he said, but added that "these principles do not forbid the use of stealth or technologically advanced weapons."
A U.S. official said that there was fierce debate within the administration about whether Holder should give the speech, questioning if it would assuage or irritate Obama's liberal backers who have been concerned that his policies were too close to that of his predecessor, President George W. Bush.
"The targeted killing program raises profound legal and moral questions that should be subjected to public debate, and constitutional questions that should be considered by the judiciary," said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project.
AERIAL DRONES
The United States has launched numerous strikes against al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan using drones, unmanned aerial vehicles that at times have killed and wounded civilians in addition to the intended target, provoking an outcry.
A U.N. special investigator in 2010 called on the United States to halt CIA drone strikes, though the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has avoided a direct condemnation and said it was up to governments and military authorities to decide.
Holder said the administration abides by "robust oversight" when targeting Americans abroad, informing senior lawmakers about its counterterrorism operations.
Like the Bush administration, Holder asserted that conducting counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda, the Taliban and their affiliates was the purview of the presidency, citing 2001 congressional authorization.
He said the president has constitutional responsibilities to protect and defend the country.
"Military and civilian officials must often make real-time decisions that balance the need to act, the existence of alternative options, the possibility of collateral damage, and other judgments," Holder said.
The ACLU last month sued the Obama administration in federal court, demanding that Holder's Justice Department release what the civil liberties group says it believes are legal memoranda justifying targeting Americans overseas using lethal force.
My Comment at LankaWeb.com.
..........
Ananda-USA Says:
March 5th, 2012 at 6:56 pm
He said the president has constitutional responsibilities to protect and defend the country.
“Military and civilian officials must often make real-time decisions that balance the need to act, the existence of alternative options, the possibility of collateral damage, and other judgments,” Holder said.
President Rajapaksa also had Constitutional responsibilities to protect and defend Sri Lanka. He and the SLDF had to make “real-time decisions that balance the need to act, the existence of alternative options, the possibility of collateral damage, and other judgments” just as US Presidents and US Armed Forces do, but in a MUCH MORE URGENT & COMPELLING situation WITHIN AN ACTIVE WAR ZONE with far more civilians requiring immediate rescue, and a far greater number of combatants taking part than the US counterparts had to deal with.
Why are these parallels ignored, as the US castigates Sri Lanka at the UNHCR adopting a holier-than-thou, we-can-do-better attitude. As I said before, it is PURE HYPOCRISY and DOUBLE STANDARDS.
The MIGHTY is BULLYING the WEAK plying their global agendas. Different Strokes for Different Folks!
As the Tiger Nominated Agents of the TNA, and "Tiger Bishop" Rayappu Joseph says, ALL LTTE were VICTIMS, NOT MURDERERS!
We KNOW that; that is why they were all ELEVATED to HEAVEN along the banks of the Nanthikandal Lagoon!
Bloody Hypocrites!
................
Arun humiliates Diaspora during Geneva confrontation
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Island.lk
March 5, 2012
Slain EPRLF MP Sam Tambimuttu’s son, Arun, targeted the Tamil Diaspora on the sidelines of the current session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in Geneva.
The outspoken SLFP organizer for Batticaloa, Arun Tambimuttu told the Diaspora that he wouldn’t seek revenge from those who had assassinated his father and mother in Colombo over two decades ago. They were shot dead on May 7, 1990.
Tambimuttu said that he wouldn’t go after LTTE personnel responsible for the killings, though he could have pursued the issue. "I was 14 years of age when the LTTE assassinated my parents. I fled the country. Now I’m back and I want to move on without seeking revenge."
Arun Tambimuttu was speaking at a ‘side-event’ arranged by the Sri Lankan government in Geneva, where government delegates clashed with Diaspora groups, led by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), over accountability issues as well as the national reconciliation process. Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe presided over the event.
Tambimuttu urged the Diaspora to follow his example.
Pointing out that the government had given an opportunity to those who once fought for the LTTE to start afresh, he urged the Diaspora to re-think post-war strategy. What would have happened if the government wanted to prosecute all ex-LTTE personnel? Would such a course of action have helped the national reconciliation process, he asked.
The young politician asked whether those raising accountability issues on the part of the government would have ex-LTTE cadres investigated for past atrocities. Those fighting for human rights were silent on crimes committed by the LTTE, he said.
Diaspora representatives accused Tambimuttu of being a government agent, though none of them challenged his accusations. The Diaspora alleged that Tambimuttu was a part of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s team.
Minister Samarasinghe said that those who represented the LTTE’s interests were engaged in a major disinformation campaign against the government. Samarasinghe alleged that a major reason for the ongoing Diaspora campaign was to pressure foreign governments to grant asylum to their members. In Switzerland alone, there were about 50,000 Tamils of Sri Lankan origin. As one third of them had still not been given asylum, the Diaspora was trying to pressure Switzerland to accommodate them on the basis of false allegations.
Russia, Pakistan and Venezuela made statements supportive of Sri Lanka.
TULF leader V. Anandasangaree’s son, Gary, threw a spate of allegations against government representatives, particularly EPDP leader Douglas Devananda. Anandasangaree strongly challenged Minister Devananda’s right to represent the government in the backdrop of his group still being armed. Citing the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation (LLRC) report, Anandasangaree attacked the government. He also accused the government of preventing civil society members from reaching Geneva in time for the 19th sessions.
Veteran politician Anandasangaree was given protection by Army Commandos during the eelam war IV.
Sri Lanka Cheap Holidays Known to anyone as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is nothing short of a paradise on earth. Turquoise waters, pristine white shores, golden sun only begin to describe what this lovely island has to offer. Lush green hills and magnificent cascading falls in the central hill country, amazing nature and wildlife and unique cultural heritage mixed with truly warm hospitality makes this a tropical paradise.
Post a Comment