By Shamindra FerdinandoIsland.lk
March 28, 2013, 12:00 pm
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday said that the ongoing crisis in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, over accountability issues here, should discourage those pushing for devolution of power under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
A hostile provincial administration in the Northern or the Eastern Province in Sri Lanka could be inimical to the post-war national reconciliation process, Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said in an exclusive interview with The Island. Such an administration could be as intimidating as the conventional military challenge posed by the LTTE, he said.
Asserting that Tamil Nadu was clearly dictating terms to the Central government of India at the behest of some Western powers as well as the LTTE rump, represented by the UK-based Global Tamil Forum (GTF), the outspoken official said that the deepening crisis in Tamil Nadu was nothing but a glaring lesson for the Sri Lankan government.
"Could we afford to have a provincial administration here, which pointed a gun at the national leadership at the drop of a hat? We don’t want to be at the mercy of scheming provincial administrations," the Defence Secretary said, highlighting the danger in foreign powers using bankrupt local elements to influence sovereign governments.
"We have had bad experience on a number of occasions due to foreign interference in our affairs. We are determined not to allow external elements to meddle in domestic politics at the expense of national reconciliation," the Defence Secretary said. With an unprecedented two thirds majority in Parliament, the government could take tangible action in accordance with the country’s Constitution to safeguard national interests.
The Defence Secretary said that those wanting to drag Sri Lanka before an international war crimes tribunal should peruse a recent commentary by former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal. He said that Sibal had lucidly highlighted the absurdity of the situation in one paragraph: "If our foreign policy towards Sri Lanka should be based on the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu today, then sentiments in West Bengal should dictate our foreign policy towards Bangladesh tomorrow, and those in UP and Bihar should determine what we do with Nepal day after. It would be a mistake to begin treating our relations with our neighbours as extensions of the pulls and pressures of our domestic politics. Our neighbours are independent, sovereign countries, which require that we control our domestic lobbies and prevent them from distorting our policies in our periphery. Moreover, when the states are today resisting strongly encroachment on their powers in a federal system, they should also respect the prerogative of the Centre to make foreign policy."
The former Indian Foreign Secretary couldn’t have made the statement at a better time, the Defence Secretary said alleging that Tamil Nadu was being used by Western powers to influence the Center much to the embarrassment to all those concerned. India would never have voted against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for two consecutive years if not for heavy Tamil Nadu pressure over this particular issue, the Defence Secretary said.
According to Rajapaksa, in the backdrop of member states of the European Union and those waiting to join the grouping voting against Sri Lanka in Geneva, in accordance with a policy decision, the role of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) should be examined. The Defence Secretary pointed out that EU countries and those waiting to join the grouping spoke in once voice during six votes moved against Israel also at the recently concluded UNHRC sessions, in spite of the US taking a different position. However, SAARC hadn’t probably discussed the issue, with major power taking position in Geneva contrary to the stand taken by other SAARC nations in two consecutive years, the Defence Secretary said.
Responding to a query, the Defence Secretary said that SAARC couldn’t be blind to what was happening, both regionally and globally. He insisted that whatever differences member states could have had on political issues, terrorism shouldn’t be tolerated and tangible action should be taken to protect interests of those countries fighting terrorism.
Gotabhaya said that an effort was still being made to undermine the government in a bid to effect a change of the Rajapaksa administration. But that wouldn’t be an easy task as long as the vast majority of people remained with the government, he said.
Commenting on the recent anti-Sri Lanka sentiments expressed by Tamil Nadu politician Sebastian Seeman during a meeting in Oslo, Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said that those who couldn’t stomach the LTTE demise were still propagating lies against Sri Lanka. He said that some of those countries taking a hostile approach towards Sri Lanka, like the failed peacemaker Norway should know the despicable strategies adopted by the LTTE. Had they bothered to go through the file pertaining to the Kadirgamar assassination and talks between Norwegian representatives and Anton Balasingham in London, the government would realize what was going on, the Defence Secretary said.
The External Affairs Ministry quoted Seeman as having said in Oslo: "Only 50,000 Tigers gave their lives for Eelam but there are over 500,000 Tigers in Tamil Nadu. We will start our war from this point.
"*Not only Karuna but also Tamils did not give Tamil names to their children and are using other languages when speaking. Therefore Tamils are their own traitors.
*We have to ensure there is a day where Sinhalese will combat for their freedom from Tamils like Tamils are fighting them now.
*If a Sinhala student gets 35 marks he will enter the University but a Tamil student must get 85 marks to enter the University in Sri Lanka."
*Sinhalese who cut ladies’ breasts and hang on ropes now need Tamils thigh curry. Nine crore Tamils join hands and should chase out the one and a half crore Sinhalese."
36 comments:
Precisely, Mr. Defence Secretary!
If Tamil Nadu can blackmail the Government of India to act against its National Interests,
then a Tamil-Controlled Northern Province, with Devolved Power, CERTAINLY WILL BLACKMAIL Sri Lanka against its National Interests.
This is what we have been saying all along: DO NOT DEVOLVE POWER TO UNREPENTANT SEPARATISTS .. it will Destroy Sri Lanka as a unitary sovereign nation.
The RECENT ACTIVITIES of ALL TAMILS ... Sri Lankan Tamils such as the TNA, Eelamist Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspra, and Indian Tamils in Tamil Nadu have NOW CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED their NEXUS on their EELAM PROJECT.
What more EVIDENCE is NECESSARY?
Answer: NONE!
Let Sri Lanka,
REPEAL the 13th Amendment and ABOLISH ALL Provincial Councils. Make DISTRICTS the largest administrative units directly administered byy a Government Agent as in the past,
FORTIFY the Northern Province and the entire shoreline of Sri Lanka FURTHER,
DISCOURAGE ALL involvement by India in Sri Lanka in Economic, Diplomatic and Military fields to get Sri Lanka out of India's DEADLY EMBRACE,
INCREASE alliances with other powers like China, Russia, Pakistan and emerging economies of Latin America and Africa.
Bravo, Shenali! This is perhaps your most insightful article.
Indeed ….. Evangelical Christians and Wahhabi Muslims are on the march to undermine and convert not only Hindu India and Buddhist Sri Lanka, but many other Asian Buddhist countries (Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, China etc) across the world. South Korea that used to be a majority Buddhist country only 30 years ago, is now a majority Christian country in which the Buddhist Koreans are discriminated against as a second class community.
I personally know many Evangelical Christians in the United States who aggressively support Evangelical missionary work in Sri Lanka. I have argued and pleaded to stop undermining Buddhist Sri Lanka, by exploiting its poor and needy people, and only incurred their wrath.
More than half of Christians in the US do not believe in or practice their religion. They are disgusted with the sexual abuses tolerated by Church elders. Fewer than half of the marriages survive intact in the United States. Why is it that in a rich nation where the struggle to put food on the table is not as great as in under developed societies, where democracy reigns in all of its presumptive glory, people cannot honor their promises to their spouses until death does them part? Why are the democratic freedoms unraveling traditional families and driving people, in ever greater numbers, to moral and emotional breakdown in these so-called “advanced” Western countries? Clearly wealth alone does not translate into personal happiness and empathy for one’s loved ones.
While the NEED for religious solace OVERWHELMS them in their own backyard, the Evangelical missionaries choose to ignore their neighbors in great need of the message of Christ. They choose instead to BUY needy converts on the cheap in poor under developed countries like India and Sri Lanka, blissfully ignoring their neighbors who have become disenchanted with Christianity right here in the United States! The disenchantment is even greater in European countries, especially those in the European Union.
The NEED for Christ’s message, and people FALLEN from the Grace of God, is RIGHT HERE in the West, not in majority Buddhist Sri Lanka nor in majority Hindu India! Perhaps their arguments are not compelling enough to well fed ears, or to those well aware of the abuses practiced by those hiding under those robes, or perhaps the price of their souls is too dear for the purses of the pious missionaries, or perhaps too many TV shows by millionaire TV Evangelists have jaded the American public, or even perhaps there is no time to spare from frenzied texting on smartphones to pay attention to God?
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While Evangelical Christian missionaries ply their evil trade buying souls in Sri Lanka and India with beads and blankets, the Wahhabi Moslems with their petrodollars and madrassas are not far behind, with their fanatical message of intolerance of other faiths. The Wahhabi Muslims even demonize other Muslims such as the Shiites and Alawaites and are now waging an internecine war in Syria to gain ascendency over the “heretics”.
These extreme Moslems have captured the Maldives in Sri Lanka’s own backyard …. banning worship of all other faiths, and banning non-Muslims …. Sri Lankan Buddhists in particular … from buying land and settling there. The Maldives were once settled by Sinhala Buddhists and their were many ancient Buddhist structures built by Sinhala kings. Those structures have systematically been razed and eradicated in the last few decades, as the Buddha statues in Bamiyan were destroyed by the Taliban. Most Maldivians, who speak Divehi … closely related to Sinhala… now belong to this intolerant brand of Islam.
Yet, the Maldivians, who ban Sri Lankans from settling in the Maldives, request that they be allowed to settle in Sri Lanka as rising sea levels due to Global Warming threaten to inundate the entire Maldives archipelago in the next decade. Why do they prefer Sri Lanka to Saudi Arabia … where they can practice their religious in pious purity and complete contentment?
Is it safe for Sri Lanka to grant citizenship to 330,000 Maldivians practicing an intolerant brand of Islam? If Sri Lanka does that, will the Muslem community of Sri Lanka be further emboldened with its increased numbers to make greater communal demands for a separate existence? Does Sri Lanka …. populated by generally tolerant people …. want to exacerbate communal divisions?
These are questions the Sri Lanka Government must ponder carefully, before graciously granting citizenship to our Maldivian cousins, for their religious dogma has clearly overwhelmed their love of their Sinhala cousins.
India’s NO today, could be YES tomorrow.
The Government of Sri Lanka should take defensive measures NOW to move Sri Lanka out of India’[s DEADLY Economic, Diplomatic and Military EMBRACE.
Make India a MINOR PLAYER in Sri Lanka … NOW … before it is TOO LATE!
A series of steps taken NOW will send the MESSAGE to India that Sri Lanka also considers India’s acts NOT ONLY UNFRIENDLY but INIMICAL as well.
Give India FAIR WARNING of the CONSEQUENCES…. NOW, not with WORDS but with a SERIES OF CONCRETE ACTIONS.
…………………..
Indian government rejects Tamil Nadu resolution on Sri Lanka
ColomboPage.com News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 29, New Delhi: The Indian government today rejected the resolution passed by Tamil Nadu assembly that called for slapping sanctions against Sri Lanka and holding a referendum to create a separate Tamil Eelam in the country.
The External Affairs Minister of India Salman Khurshid flatly rejected the Tamil Nadu government resolution that had asked the Central government to stop treating Sri Lanka as a friendly nation and slap economic sanctions while demanding a referendum for a separate Tamil Eelam.
In an interview to CNN-IBN Minister Khurshid said the Indian government considers the very strong feelings in Tamil Nadu and those are not entirely “out of sync with” what many people in the world think but the government believes that its negotiations, the dialogue with Sri Lanka and the effort it has made with Sri Lanka are equally important.
When asked if the Centre was rejecting the three crucial aspects of the resolution – declaring the country unfriendly, slapping economic sanctions and holding a referendum- adopted by Tamil Nadu Assembly on March 27, the Minister said a firm no to each demand.
“There is no question of accepting that and that is not the only state that has a stake in this. What about the other states? There are many other assemblies. The rest of India is not supporting this,” the Minister said in the interview.
“If all of India was supporting it, it would be another matter. But if one state supports something we are sensitive to their concerns, but we don’t have to necessarily accept everything they say,” he stressed.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution urging the Centre to slap economic embargo on Colombo till the “suppression” of Tamils was stopped and those responsible for “genocide and war crimes” faced an international probe.
The Lanka factor: Protest or propaganda?
By Sriranjani Datta
TheHinduBusinessLine.com
March 30, 2013
There have been many attempts by the DMK to tap into the peoples outrage to the alleged genocide of ethnic Tamils during the civil war in Sri Lanka. A Channel Four documentary, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, reported that rampant war crimes including mass killings in refugee camps occurred in the aftermath of the war.
During one such protest in Chennai, members of Tamil Eelam Supporters’ Organisation (TESO) were arrested in front of the Sri Lankan High Commission. The protest was led by former Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.K. Stalin, son of DMK supremo K. Karunanidhi.
The protestors were arrested by Chennai Police and whisked away to Rajaratnam Stadium where they were kept till late afternoon. Over 20 special vans and 500 personnel were deployed near the embassy. According to police sources the number of protestors was well over 3,000.
The reason the DMK is feeling edgy is because Chief Minister Jayalalithaa appears to be coming close to Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader Vaiko, a long-time supporter of the LTTE.
However, the sentiments expressed by common folk suggest that the DMK’s attempts to ride the anti-Lanka wave are not going far. “Kalaignar is our leader but we don’t vote on the Lanka issue. We don’t have clean water in our house,” said K. Lakshmi, a resident of Valluvar Kottam where the protestors were originally detained. Slogans of “Destroy Rajapaksha, destroy Amma” were heard as the protestors were pushed into vans after their arrest.“It is horrible that the boy (referring to the 12-year-old son of LTTE leader Prabhakaran) had to die. We feel very strongly for our Tamil brothers,” said Velu, a shopkeeper. “But what can a poor man like me do? I want 24-hour electricity and a good school for my son.”
“Youngsters don’t feel that deep a connection with Sri Lankan Tamils,” said T. Padmanabhan, a businessman whose son studies in Class 10. “Even amongst our generation, there are bigger concerns, of slowing economy and lack of water and electricity. We feel for Sri Lankan Tamils but what can we do?”
“DMK is trying to take Vaiko’s position in the Lanka protests,” said Anbuselvan, a resident of Valluvar Kottam.
(Sriranjani is a student of ACJ.)
ANTAGONISM AMONG MUSLIMS IN SRI LANKA
By Dr. Daya Hewapathirane
Vancouver, CANADA
LankaWeb.com
March 30th, 2013
Sufism or the Sufi Muslim Ideology
Traditionally, Sufism or the Sufi Muslim ideology had been the predominant Islamic spiritual tradition observed throughout Southern Asia, including Sri Lanka. Sufism is considered to be the mystical, ascetic branch of Islam which emphasizes personal experience with Allah. Sufis can be members of either the Sunni or Shi’a divisions of Islam who share most of the basic principles of Islam. These two divisions stemmed from ancient political strife among Muslims. Sunni Muslims being in the majority, amount to about 88% of the global Muslim population.
Threats to the Dominance of Sufism
Sri Lanka has a long history of Sufism dating back several centuries, although some modern elements have been imported in recent years. During the past five decades the dominance of Sufism has been undermined by the increased presence of other Islam sects. Among them is Tabligh Jamaat, which has been active since the 1950s and has developed a mass following in the last two decades. Initially it avoided explicit political activity and concentrated on encouraging Muslims to engage more actively in religious rituals. It particularly focused on encouraging performance of daily prayers and religious rituals, and also promoted rigid dress codes for its members. It promoted and encouraged a more conservative view of Islam.
Tabligh Jamaat was initially a religious movement founded in India in 1926 as a response to the deteriorating values and negligence of fundamental aspects of Islam which was becoming a threat to Muslims. Subsequently it became a transnational movement with followers in many countries. This ultraorthodox Islamic sect preaches that Muslims should replicate the life of Muhammad and tells them it is their duty to travel across the country converting non-believers to the Islamic faith. It has become common practice for Tabligh members to make regular journeys around the country to propagate the virtues of Islam. Young members are particularly encouraged to do so. This is said to be giving the younger generation of Muslims a chance to mix with other ethnic groups. Although Tabligh was of appeal to different classes of Muslims, its rather simplistic approach to religious belief and antipathy towards political and social action made it less popular among the educated, middle-class Muslims.
Jamaat-i-Islamiya (JI)
Jamaat-i-Islamiya (JI) became active in Sri Lanka since the 1950s, and gained many adherents during the past fifteen to twenty years. The JI was founded in Pakistan in 1941, starting as an Islamic political party with the objective of establishing an Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. The JI opposes Ideologies such as capitalism, socialism and secularism, and practices such as bank interest and liberalist social mores. In its operations in Sri Lanka, the more intellectual approach of Jamaat-i-Islamiya (JI) generated greater appeal among the more educated middle class Muslims. It largely concentrated on religious orthodoxy and did not openly advocate radical political ideas.
Emerging Trends of Ultraorthodox Islam
According to reports, in Sri Lanka, since the late 1980s there has been a strong growth in ultra-orthodox interpretations of Islam that have provoked conflicts with Muslims who traditionally profess Sufism. There are several emerging trends, with issues of identity and Muslim separatism also coinciding with the influx of some religious ideas from the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and elsewhere. These new trends appear to presage more difficult developments in the future.
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Arrival and Expansion of Wahhabism
Wahhabism as opposed to Sufism, is an ultra conservative branch of Sunni Islam which is dominant in Saudi Arabia. It is a movement that started in the 18th century, in Saudi Arabia, among fundamentalist Islam believers who were promoting a return to the earliest fundamental Islamic teachings of the Quran and Hadith or religious law and moral guidance enunciated by Prophet Mohamed.
After 1973, with the Arab oil embargo resulting in the enrichment of Saudi Arabia, the ultra-fundamentalist Wahhabi sect, dominant in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, began to have impact on Muslims living in other countries. Soon, it began encroaching Sri Lanka and having impact on adherents of the traditional form of Sufi Islam prevalent in Sri Lanka. Wahhabis began establishing itself in Sri Lanka despise the Sufis. They started operating through a movement called Thawheed funded by Saudi Arabian sources. They were instrumental in the establishment of numerous madrasas in Sri Lanka where young Muslims are being subject to various forms of indoctrination and brainwashing in Wahhabism including the jihad approach and Sharia law. During the last few decades, many Sri Lankan Muslims found employment in Saudi Arabia. Also, many young Sri Lankan Muslims were awarded scholarships by Saudi Arabia to study Wahhabism in Saudi universities. Upon their return to Sri Lanka they undertook in an organized manner the propagation of the ideology of Wahhabism. They were instrumental in the establishment of numerous madrasas where young Muslims were subject to various forms of brainwashing in Wahhabism including the jihad approach.
In Arabic, the word jihad translates to mean “struggle”. Persons engaged in jihad are called mujahideen. Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims. There are two meanings of jihad: an inner spiritual struggle and an outer physical struggle. The “greater jihad” is the inner struggle by a believer to fulfill his religious duties. The ‘halal’-haram- practices are related to this type of struggle. This is a non-violent struggle. The other meaning of Jihad is the physical struggle against the enemies of Islam. This physical struggle can take a violent form or a non-violent form. The proponents of the violent form translate jihad as “holy war”.
Indoctrination of Younger Generation
Zachary Abuza, in his book titled Militant Islam in Southeast Asia (Crusible of Terror), highlights the role of Madrasas or exclusively Islamic schools established by Muslim extremists in indoctrinating the younger generation. The author comments that “In their pursuit of the creation of Islamic states, many Southeast Asian jihadis established Islamic schools to indoctrinate, propagate, and recruit. The leaders of many militant groups in Southeast Asia, returned from training in Mid Eastern countries and established madrasas as the base of their operations and recruitment.” These radical Islamic madrasas, with unrestricted material support from foreign Muslim countries, especially Saudi Arabia, have begun to recruit and brainwash many Muslim children and youth in Islamic Jihadist movement and Islamic fundamentalism.
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Trend of Intolerance and Extreme Forms of Violence
Newspapers have reported a significant influx of Wahhabi preachers and activists from Saudi Arabia and South India during the past three decades in particular. The Saudi Embassy in Sri Lanka, has admitted that certain wealthy Saudi persons are helping various Muslim religious groups in Sri Lanka to put up mosques. The Wahhabi jihad trends have revealed their ambition to control South Asian Islam communities even by means of using violent methods. The traditionalists such as the Sufis of Sri Lanka, appear to be resisting this Saudi initiated Wahhabi- jihad aggression, hostility and violence.
It is evident that the traditional practices of Islam of the island’s Sufi Muslim community, are under threat by the Wahhabi group. Sufis are under attack not by adherents of other religions but by their own Muslims brothers. Worship of saints practiced by the Sufi Muslims of Sri Lanka is frowned upon by the Wahhabi group. Owing to increasing threats, many Sufi Muslims appear to be distancing themselves from their traditional practices such as mosque feasts and the worship of saints. Wahhabi groups are violently opposed to these traditional practices. They are in actual fact promoting the theology endorsed by senior scholars in Saudi Arabia. They claim that the religious practices of Sufi Muslims are impure, tinged with superstition and mystical rituals and they are determined to make Śrī Lanka’s Muslim community conform to more orthodox strictures and they are will use violence if necessary to achieve their ends.
The Sufis in the meanwhile has begun a campaign against the Wahhabis appealing to Sri Lanka authorities for an impartial inquiry into Wahhabi activities in the country, to disarm the Wahhabis and to enable the reconstruction of its headquarters in Kattankudy which was destroyed by the Wahhabis and the Sufis affected and displaced to be compensated by the Wahhabis so that they can rebuild their ruined homes and businesses.
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Thareekathul Mufliheen Organization of Sufi Muslims
In late 1980s, the Sufi Muslims formed an organization known as All Ceylon Thareekathul Mufliheen organization defining itself as “a peace loving and non-violent Religious Society, where members are expected to be patient and tolerant even in times of grave injustice and calamity brought about by the Wahhabis. This organization was founded by Sheihul Mufliheen M.S.M. Abdullah, known as “Rah,” in the southeastern Sri Lanka village of Maruthamunai. It was registered as a cultural society with the civil authorities in 1989. The headquarters of Thareekathul Mufliheen is now located in the small eastern coast village of Kattankudy.
This organization maintained that each human being is free to choose a path of faith and that there should not be any compulsion to embrace the views of the organization. This was published in a book in Tamil, in 1980, by the founder of this organization titled Imanin Unmaiyai Nee Arivaya, or Do You Know the Truth of Iman? – iman referring to Islamic belief. This led to serious problems. A book was translated into English as The Court of Reason, and was published in 2010. The country’s official Council of Islamic Scholars, the All Ceylon Jamiathul Ulama, purportedly without reading the book or holding a hearing to examine it, published a fatwa or religious opinion on September 10, 1989, declaring Abdullah (Rah) and his followers as murtadd or apostates, who renounced Islam, in the judgment of the clerics.
Abdullah (Rah) the founder of Thareekathul Mufliheen organzation filed a defamation suit against the All Ceylon Jamiathul Ulama in 1990 in Colombo which led the All Ceylon Jamiathul Ulama (ACJU) revoked the fatwa in 1996, and settle the complaint. Besides the fatva, the AUJU also took action to deny the Thareekathul Mufliheen to register marriages and the burial of the dead in conformity with Islamic practice. However, through legal action these rights were restored.
Thareekathul Mufliheen organzation of the Sufis opened a Meditation Centre at Kattankudy in 1996. Wahhabi extremists struck the building setting fire to it. Abdullah (Rah) and the members of the order were targets of shooting and grenade attacks, and other physical aggression, as well as threats.
In 2004, many Wahhabis organized under the title “Jihad” again set the Meditation Centre ablaze, destroying its library, along with homes and businesses owned by Sufis. Financial loss to the injured parties was considerable, and one Sufi was shot and killed while another was wounded by gunfire.
In 2005, a protest was filed by the organization, with the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (HRC) in 2005. The HRC found in favor of the Sufis, stating that their constitutional right to adhere to the belief of their will and choice had been violated. The Meditation Centre and headquarters were rebuilt in 2006.
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Sheihul Mufliheen M.S.M. Abdullah (Rah) the founder of the Thareekathul Mufliheen organzation died in December 2006. Wahhabi preachers and the armed “Jihad” incited the local clerics and politicians (Jamiathul Ulama Kattankudy, the Muslim Federation of Mosques, and the Urban Council of Kattankudy) to oppose his burial according to Islamic rites, in the Meditation Centre, as he was a supposed “apostate.” According to the Wahhabis and their accomplices, “apostates” could not be buried in Kattankudy.
The Jihadis, armed with lethal weapons, rioted after the death of Abdullah (Rah), causing widespread social disruption in Kattankudy resulting in a general work stoppage, shutting down of schools, government and private offices, banks and businesses. Some banks and shops were looted and burned in the process. The official clerics of All Ceylon Jamiathul Ulama, Jamiathul Ulama Kattankudy, the Muslim Federation of Mosques, other Islamic organizations, and the Kattankudy Urban Council initiated a judicial argument on December 11, 2006. They denounced Abdullah (Rah) as defying Muslim norms and traditions and charged that Thareekathul Mufliheen organization had failed to seek permission from the authorities for the burial. The petition by the official clerics and Wahhabis was dismissed in 2007. The Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission declared in 2007 that it could not “interfere in the disputes between various sects of a religion” and recommended the conflict be referred to the Council of Ulemas – All Ceylon Jamiathul Ulama, or to the Ministry of Religious Affairs.
In December 2006, in a separate controversy, the Urban Council in Kattankudy had ordered the dismantling of the minaret at the Meditation Centre, as an “unauthorized structure. Although the Police tried to prevent the commencement of the demolition, Wahhabi extremists interfered with the police resulting in shootings and the death of three rioters. A police post and police vehicle were assaulted. However, subsequently members of the Urban Council joined a Wahhabi mob and invaded the Meditation Centre and knocked down the minaret, removing the body of Abdullah (Rah), either burning or reburying it in a location yet unknown. The houses of 117 Sufis were leveled by fire. Many were threatened and fled the district.
Since then, however, abuses against the Sufis of Kattankudy have continued, with the Wahhabi Thawheed faction in the forefront of violence. Official ulema and the village authorities attempted unsuccessfully to prevent celebration of a Sufi festival in 2008. That year, a Sri Lanka Supreme Court order, providing that 200 members of Thareekathul Mufliheen be allowed to return to their homes in Kattankudy and practice their beliefs in freedom, was obstructed by armed Jihad members. In response to the campaign against it, Thareekathul Mufliheen has appealed to the Sri Lanka authorities for an impartial inquiry into Wahhabi activities in the country; to disarm the Wahhabis; to provide for reconstruction of the headquarters of Thareekathul Mufliheen in Kattankudy; to enforce the revocation of the fatwa issued by the All Ceylon Jamiathul Ulama against Abdullah (Rah) and his disciples, as ordered by the Colombo District Court, and to compensate the displaced Sufis, facilitating restoration of their lost heritage, ruined homes, and businesses. The Sufis of Kattankudy seek “peaceful resettlement with honor.”
There is clear evidence of increasing tension and extreme forms of violence between traditional and more fundamentalist Islamic groups in Muslim communities across Sri Lanka. During the latter period of the war with Tamil LTTE terrorists, Muslim Home Guards were recruited by the Sri Lankan government to fight the terrorists. In the East some of these Home Guards deserted with their weapons and joined the Wahhabis rebels to fulfill its demand for “Jihad” against traditional Sufi Muslims.
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The Beruwala Violence
The most cruel and crude nature of violence was well evident in the 2009 attack and devastation of the Beruwala Rahuman Masjid Mosque during its annual Buhari feast, which has been a practice in this mosque for over 130 years. A fundamentalist group of Muslim extremists armed with knives, swords and axes stormed the mosque, yelling that all those participating in the feast were infidels who had deviated from the path of Islam. The attackers set fire to the mosque and caused millions of rupees of damage.Two men were brutally hacked to death in the violence. They damaged cars, motor cycles and bicycles, and a special Police team had to be deployed in control the situation. A curfew was imposed in the area and some of the perpetrators were arrested but some had escaped.
In 2009 the Wahhabis vandalized and destroyed a 150-year old shrine located in Ukuwela near Matale. This was associated with violent clashes between Muslim groups. According to Muslim community leaders and groups this violence contradicts the fundamental teachings of Islam.
Saudi Arabian funding for fundamentalist groups
Sri Lankan Muslims, especially young males found easy employment in Saudi Arabia during the past few decades. Some were awarded scholarships by Saudi universities. Those who completed their studies returned to Sri Lanka and started to propagate the ideology of Wahhabism. In pursuit of their mission to expand their sphere of influence among Sufi Mulsims and others, these Wahhabis resorted to violence and intimidation culminating in death and destruction.
Most Muslim problems in the country at present appear to stem from foreign, particularly Saudi Arabian funding for fundamentalist groups. Also, the young Muslims who have been exposed to Saudi Islamic religious norms and who are being indoctrinated in madrasas and universities in Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and reading Wahhabi texts which are opposed to traditional practices such as those of Sufi Muslims. What is wrong with this trend is the approach adopted by these extremist groups to propagate and promote their ideology, thinking and practices among the traditional Sufi Muslims of Sri Lanka.
Their approach is unacceptable because it is causing disharmony and violence within the Muslim community. They should be aware of the fact that they are living in a non-Muslim country where Sinhala Buddhists form the mainstream dominant community. The approach to change by the extremist Muslim groups are not compatible with the social values of the country.
Harmonious Community Relationships threatened
The traditional Sufi Islam practiced by Muslims in Sri Lanka for centuries, and related lifestyle of Muslims facilitated harmonious relationships with other religions and communities in the country. Maintaining such relationships was necessary for most Muslims who were businessmen dealing with a market consisting mostly of non-Muslims. Owing to their living among Buddhists most Muslims were inevitably influenced by, and learnt to respect the social values of Sinhala Buddhists marked by tolerance and non-violence in particular.
It is unlikely that the more fundamentalist Muslim groups and related extremist attitudes and practices that appear to be emerging will help Sri Lankan Muslims to coexist successfully with the island’s other religions, as before. In fact the Wahhabis do not seem to be able to coexist peacefully with their own Muslim brothers.
....Continued 5.....
As a nation with a historic cultural tradition that extends to over 2200 years, where freedom, compassion, tolerance and accommodation of people of all faiths and ethnicities have been the founding principles, it is necessary that we as a nation take necessary steps to protect and preserve these noble and wholesome cultural traditions. We cannot allow them to be undermined under any circumstances. It is necessary that all communities living in this country develop respect towards the social values and norms of other communities inhabiting this land and not pursue policies and activities that would jeopardize the quality of life and stability of our nation.
Today there is increased interest in general, in the country, for the consolidation of national unity. Under the circumstances, divisive tendencies of any nature should not be encouraged or tolerated. With our massive success in containing Tamil terrorism and our determined efforts to bring the various communities together as One Nation, it is important that divisive tendencies in our society be eliminated. It is important that we try to prevent polarization tendencies in communities living in Sri Lanka and all communities are duty bound to see that this happens for the benefit of everyone that calls Sri Lanka their motherland.
Dr. Daya Hewapathirane
Vancouver, CANADA
What arrogant HOGWASH! Sri Lanka NEVER was, and NEVER will be, a part of India .... strategically or otherwise. This kind of attitude among Indians is what we Sri Lankans fear, although we are cousins of the people of India, and what drives us fopr protection towards China..
Let me see: India first plants terrorism in Sri Lanka, and when the country is aflame intervenes to provide "humanitarian assistance" to its terrorist surrogates, proclaining itself a high and mighty White Knight!. Bah! Absolute self serving Double Talk!
We Sri Lankans have fended off foreigners for over 3000 years and preserved our independence. We will do so again and again as long as one of us stands. With it communal policies and weak federal governmenyt, India will disintegrate well before Sri Lanka does. No Federalism for Sri Lanka ... period!
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India’s policy towards Sri Lanka
By M N Buch
NewIndiaExpress.com
April 1, 2013
The United States brought a resolution before the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC). India voted for the resolution in which Sri Lanka was called upon to make a credible and independent probe into the killings and human rights violations in that country in the context of the war against terrorism. Under pressure from DMK India was in favour of a stronger resolution, but ultimately we accepted the United States’ draft. As a direct reaction to this, the Sri Lankan government has decided to seize part of the Indian public sector-run oil depot in Trincomalee. This despite the fact that the Indian Oil Corporation has recently spent $17 million on refurbishing the depot. All this seems to be a part of the pro-China shift in Sri Lankan foreign policy under the stewardship of President Mahinda Rajapakse. China voted against the resolution as did Pakistan. Part of the shift is because of India’s tardy response to the Sri Lankan call for assistance. For example, the Sri Lankans wanted our help in developing the port of Hembantota in south Sri Lanka. It is only when India failed to respond favourably and quickly that Sri Lanka turned to China, whose rapid response was in sharp contrast to our tardiness.
India’s policy towards Sri Lanka
......Continued 1.....
Sri Lanka faced two major threats to its existence. The first was through the extreme left-wing JVP, a Sinhala outfit which waged war with the Sri Lankan government. At the invitation of that government we sent in units of CRPF which helped in restoring order in Colombo, but a much greater threat came from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), created by and composed of the Jaffna Tamils who had migrated to Sri Lanka centuries ago. Even the Sri Lankans recognised them as citizens of the country. The problem did not end there because when rubber and tea were introduced by the British to Sri Lanka as plantation crops, large numbers of Tamils were brought in as indentured labour. They were not treated as citizens by the Sri Lankans and it needed firm intervention by India to sort out their citizenship status. Even the Jaffna Tamils treat them as a different people. In 1956 the Sri Lankan government removed Tamil as one of the State languages of Sri Lanka and replaced it wholly by Sinhalese.
This was reversed in 1978 and Tamil was reintroduced as state language. The middle and higher ranks of the civil services and the armed forces were manned by a large number of Tamils and this parochial move of the Sri Lanka government severely jeopardised their position in government service. Resistance against this move started to polarise. In 1978 LTTE was born. When Indira Gandhi was the prime minister large numbers of LTTE cadres were trained in India and much of the armament of LTTE came from weapons surrendered by Pakistan to us in 1971 and subsequently passed on by us to LTTE. In 1983 there was a general massacre of Tamils by the Sinhalese, especially in and around Colombo. This hardened attitudes and LTTE not only came out with an open declaration of independence but it virtually declared war on Sri Lanka. Sinhala Tamils living outside the country started sending funds and purchasing weapons for LTTE and soon that organisation became the deadliest guerilla outfit in the world.The Sri Lankan Army also responded with great violence. Ultimately India stepped in with humanitarian aid for the Tamils, a pact was signed between Rajiv Gandhi and J.R. Jayawardene, the Indian Army sent a peace keeping force. LTTE attacked it and soon we were involved in a full-fledged war with LTTE.
The Indian Army established complete control over North and North East Sri Lanka and a semblance of civil administration was re-established. At this stage Premadasa became President of Sri Lanka. He was upto playing his own games and entered into a secret pact with LTTE. The Indian Army was forced to withdraw, leaving its work not fully done. LTTE reneged on its agreement and in sixteen police stations of the North more than 450 policemen were murdered. The uneasy peace ended. Ultimately Mahenda Rajapakse became President, a re-energised Sri Lankan Army declared all out war and the LTTE was crushed. It was a murderous organisation and perhaps there were cases where the Sri Lankan Army caused civilian casualties and there were a few cases of atrocities. That happens in a war and India was ill-advised to immediately adopt an anti-Sri Lanka government stance.
This has annoyed Sri Lanka, brought no relief to the Tamils, moved Sri Lanka towards China and the loser in all this is India. What we forget is that LTTE caused about 1,500 deaths of our soldiers and another 5,000 or so were wounded. Masters of ambush, of improvised explosive devices, expert in defensive warfare, so highly motivated that the LTTE cadres preferred suicide by the cyanide pill rather than surrender, there is no way in which LTTE could be handled with kid gloves. An enemy who fights to the last bullet and then commits suicide cannot be defeated; he has to be annihilated. A guerilla fighter mingles with civilians and killing him may hurt civilians. To judge the Sri Lankan Army harshly on this account is unfair.
India’s policy towards Sri Lanka
.......Continued 2.....
How should we deal with Sri Lanka? Geographically, ethnically, religiously and strategically it is part of India, though a separate nation. It has to remain in the Indian fold. We should generously open our markets to Sri Lankan tea, gems and other products. We should make heavy investment in infrastructure, including rebuilding the ravaged North and North East and Indian businessmen must help Sri Lankan industry to grow. We should gift one IIM and an IIT level institution and we should provide about 500 offshore fishing vessels to Sri Lanka to build a prosperous fishing industry.
At the same time we must insist that within a given time-frame Sri Lanka, though a unitary country, introduces strong elements of federalism and devolves power to the provinces in terms of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution. We should strongly counter Chinese influence and make it clear that if Sri Lanka fails to rehabilitate the Tamils, implement a scheme of devolution and ensure that all sections of society become part of the Sri Lanka mainstream India may be forced to intervene. We have proven capacity in this behalf. At the same time let us evolve our own foreign policy towards Sri Lanka without being dictated to by domestic compulsions of what the DMK wants.
M N Buch, a former civil servant, is chairman, National Centre for Human Settlements and Environment, Bhopal.
TNA may split over NPC polls
By Kelum Bandara
DailyMirror.com
April 1, 2013
Ahead of the Northern Provincial Council election likely to be held in September, the rift within the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has widened, opening up avenues for a possible split in the party in the near future, Daily Mirror learns.
The TNA is an amalgam of five parties - Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). Only the first three parties have Parliamentary representation.
These allies have held negotiations over a period of time on the registration of the TNA as a separate political party. However, there has been a conflict of opinion between the ITAK of R. Sampanthan and the other parties on the sharing of responsibilities when registering the party.
According to TNA sources, the rift has widened today, and the four parties are now considering a possible electoral pact for the northern election leaving aside the ITAK led by Mr. Sampanthan. Besides, the ITAK is represented by MPs Mavai Senathirajah and M. A. Sumanthiran.
The five parties were to meet last week. It is learnt that some senior members of the party have requested Mr. Sampanthan to take all possible measures to avoid a split in the party, ahead of the Northern Provincial Council election seen by many analysts as a stepping-stone to win over the political rights of the Tamil people.
The United States–sponsored Resolution, adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council acknowledged the government’s announcement to conduct the election in September. Besides, India also called for elections in the north.
My 2nd Comment on
India’s policy towards Sri Lanka
..............
The terrorism India spawned in Sri Lanka spanned half (30 years) of Sri Lanka's years of existence (65 years) as a sovereign nation, consuming the lives of 150,000 of Sri Lankans of every community: It brought Sri Lanka's economic development to a dead halt. Therefore, India's "reconstruction aid" is really "war reparations" .due Sri Lanka under International Law; it is not "charitable giving". India's surrogate, the LTTE, shot, bombed, hanged and tortured people of all communities. They executed 1,000 captured policemen en masse, sliced and diced entire villages of sleeping innocents in the dead of the night to spread terror and ethnically cleanse the North and East of Sinhalese and Muslims. Karunanidhi voices outrage at Sri Lanka today, forgetting the poems he penned praising the SunGod. Vaiko delivered motivational speeches to Black Tiger suicide bombers in the Vanni jungles. They are but a small sample of the criminal Tamil Nadu politicians who must pay for their crimes NOW!
My 3rd Comment on:
India’s policy towards Sri Lanka
................
The WAR REPARATIONS India provides as the so-called"reconstruction assistance" to Sri Lanka is deployed PRIMARILY (95%) for the benefit of Sri Lankan Tamils, only 5% for Sinhalese whose homes, livliihoods, businesses, and families were destroyed by India's proxy war in Sri Lanka. In addition, the infrastructure damage caused by India's terrorist surrogates, the LTTE... civilian aircraft, hospitals, buses, trains, govt offices, post offices, irrigation reservoirs, anicuts, canals etc .... is INCALCULABLE!
So, why is the aid directed ONLY towards Sri Lankan Tamils? Most Sri Lankan Tamils rode out the war living among the Sinhala people in the South of the country avoiding the tender mercies of their self-appointed lliberators, the SunGod worshippers of the LTTE.
Why is India DISCRIMINATING AGAINST the Sinhala people giving the aid to Tamils only? It is to CURRY FAVOR and create a captive political constituency among Sri Lankan Tamils ..... to DIVIDE & CONQUER Sri Lanka ....AGAIN?
My 4th Comment on:
India’s policy towards Sri Lanka
............
Mr. Buch's article reflects many Indian misconceptions about Sri Lanka. which is not a mere appendage to be dealt with at will to suit India's external agenda and internal politics. We are an independent sovereign nation severely abused by India in the last 30 years, The majority (80%) Sinhala people in particular, tied to India by ancient bonds of blood, religion, language, and culture, are naturally inclined to LOVE, RESPECT and PROTECT India. But, instead of reciprocating, India implants terrorists, interferes in our internal politics exacerbating divisions, attempts to partition our country, and collaborates with neocolonialist Western powers to undermine Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is the only neighboring nation of India that wants to have close relations and to work towards our mutual defense and economic growth. Instead of fostering this historical friendship, India is DRIVING Sri Lanka AWAY towards India's enemies. So, we Sri Lankans now want to DISSOLVE this abusive MARRIAGE!
It is curious fact that the demand for self-determination by Tamils focuses on their majority status in a local region, without regard to how large or small that region is, or how large or small their population is compared to those of the nation as a whole. The migration patterns that created those local majorities in lands previously occupied by citizens of other races is ignored, denying them their historical right to freely settle anywhere in the nation as a whole.
Consequently, Sri Lankan Tamils, about 12% of Sri Lanka's population now demand a sovereign Tamils-only state in the North and East comprising 40% of Sri Lanka's land mass, because they are a local majority there, Yet, when their lives were threatened by 30 years of warfare, they availed themselves of their right as citizens to move to Colombo in the Sinhala South, creating a Tamil majority city. If we invoke the "local-majority" principle, Tamils could demand that Colombo be declared a sovereign Tamils-only city!
If the existence of a "local-majority" is accepted as the sole criterion for the demand of "self-determination" and "sovereignty", why then every isolated province, district, city, town, village and even street with a local Tamil majority can claim sovereignty, irrespective of every other criterion, such as the historical rights of the citizens of the nation as a whole.
Once accepted, such rights would accrue not only to the Tamils, but also to the Sinhalese, the Muslims and to other small minorities such as the Chinese living in every Chinatown, and to people of specific religions and castes. Those who advocate such a principle for Sri Lanka, should examine the repercussions in their own countries. In Tamil Nadu, the Vanniyars definitely deserve a sovereign state, reviving the struggle by Ramadoss only a few decades ago. Why not separate states for the long persecuted Tamil Dalits and the Muslims who are politically organizing for a separate existence in Tamil Nadu?
We Sri Lankans reject India's enthusiastic prescriptions the of "Local-Majority self-determination principle" as a solution for the communal conflicts it triggered in Sri Lanka. We have assessed how it has worked for India and the prognosis is not good. As a patchwork of many ethnic, religious and linguistic groups and castes built by the British and inherited by Indians at independence in 1947, India is now teetering on the brink of disintegration along communal lines. Already there are separatist movements demanding sovereignty in Muslim-majority Jammu & Kashmir, Sikh-majority Punjab, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. In addition, the abject poverty of the masses of ordinary Indian citizens has led led to the rise of a Naxalite Maoist rebel movement across a broad swathe of territory, stretching from Arabian sea shore of Maharashtra to the North Eastern frontier of India, and occupied by over 850 million hapless people. Federal and State governments have only nominal control over areas and has to negotiate everything with the rebels.
Indian government policies that allocate benefits on the basis of caste, instead of need irrespective of caste, though well intentioned, further divides and pits Indian citizens against one another. Since India's rebel separatists are invoking the same "local-majority" principle of self-determination that India foolishly prescribes for Sri Lanka, how does India maintain its integrity advocating for others what India itself is not prepared to do?
India HEAL THYSELF first before PRESCRIBING POISONOUS PILLS to others!
It is important to note that "local majority" has not been recognized as a basis for self determination or sovereignty of a part of a country.
For example, it was precisely the "local-majority" principle that was invoked by the Southern Confederate States to secede from the United States.
As we all know, President Abraham Lincoln successfully contested this principle asserting that sovereignty rests NOT WITH A LOCAL-MAJORITY in a LIMITED geographical regions, but with the PEOPLE OF THE NATION AS A WHOLE. He argued that once a nation is created from disparate parts and exists as a single nation for a considerable period, that ALL OF THE CITIZENS COLLECTIVELY ACQUIRE RIGHTS to the benefits of the NATION AS A WHOLE, not separately part by part. On that basis, he justified and successfully waged the US Civil War to defeat the separatists and reunify the United States. The vast majority of the people of the United States agreed with him.
Moreover, unlike in the case of the Eelamists in Sri Lanka, the MILITARY defeat of the Confederate States was the FINAL RESOLUTION of the dispute. No demands for reviving the Confederacy by any other avenue, akin to the current demands being made to the UN by the Sri Lankan Tamil Eelamist Diaspora and Tamil Nadu politicians, were entertained or tolerated.
To ensure this, military occupation of the Southern States for maintained for many decades, and civilian administration of the defeated states was assigned to the victorious Northerners to ensure that the Confederacy would not again raise its ugly head. To achieve this end, Lincoln gave many speeches explaining and justifying the legal and moral basis of his stand.
The arguments used by President Lincoln to mobilize support for waging the US Civil war, to defeat the South, and to reunify the nation, were invoked by President Gowon of the Federal Government of Nigeria to defeat the secessionist Ibo-dominated Biafra in Eastern Nigeria. The primarily Christian Biafra was supported by several European states, such as Belgium, with colonial stakes in the rest of Africa.
The United States is now very proud of what President Lincoln achieved in keeping the United States whole including his sanctioning General Tecumseh Sherman march that laid waste Georgia reducing its people to abject poverty and famine.
Why then, we humbly ask, is it so difficult for the United States to accept that we Sri Lankans have the same inalienable right to protect the lives of our people, and the integrity of our Motherland, against murderous foreign inspired terrorists?
Why is the rule of "sovereignty resting in ALL the people of the nation" applicable to the United States " not applicable to Sri Lanka? Why?
We have always said that a Tamil Dominated Northern Provincial Council was the FIRST STEP to an independent Tamils-only Eelam.
Well, here is the PROOF: TNA says a Provincial Council under the 13th Amendment IS NOT ENOUGH for them! Nothing will EVER BE ENOUGH!
Are we still supposed to PARLEY with UNREPENTANT SEPARATISTS, or should we SCRAP the 13th Amendment, draw up the drawbridges and PREPARE TO DEFEND the Integrity of the Motherland?
There is NO OTHER CHOICE!
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Sri Lanka Tamil leaders demand an interim self-government
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Apr 10, Colombo: The Tamil people in Sri Lanka can find solutions to their grievances only through an interim self-government, Tamil political leaders have told the visiting Indian joint parliamentary delegation.
Demanding an interim administration, Tamil representatives who met the Indian MPs in Jaffna had told the Indian delegation that the Provincial Council system under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution are inadequate to solve their problems, BBC Sinhala Service reported.
Quoting the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP E. Sarawanabawan, the BBC said that all Tamil MPs belonged to several parties and the religious and civil society leaders asked the delegation for an interim self-government.
"We all said we wanted an interim self-government," the MP was quoted as saying.
The TNA MP has said that the Indian parliamentary delegation did not respond to their request.
A five-member joint parliamentary delegation comprising delegates from all Indian political parties arrived in Sri Lanka Monday night for a for a five-day tour from April 8-12. The visit, organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), is aimed at enhancing the relationship between the two countries.
The delegation comprises Saugata Roy (Trinamool Congress), Sandeep Dikshit (Congress), Anurag Thakur (BJP), Dhananjay Singh (BSP), and Prakash Javadekar (BJP) accompanied by two FICCI representatives.
India has NEVER ACTED RESPONSIBLY with regard to Sri Lanka.
First, it implanted terrorism, training, delivering, funding and supporting them.
Second, India violated Sri Lanka's sovereignty dropping food and supplies to the Tamil terrorists on the verge of defeat.
Third, India military invaded Sri Lanka under the guise of "Peacekeeping" to protect its separatist clients, partition Sri Lanka and carve out an independent state for them.
Fourth, India threatened Sri Lanka with permanent occupation and forced the 13th Amendment to the Constitution on Sri Lanka,
Fifth, when India realized the Pan-Tamil agenda threatened its own integrity, it turned on its surrogates, and backed out of Sri Lanka when it could not cope with the Tamil rebels it had heavily armed, leaving Sri Lanka to cope with a much bigger terrorist problem.
Sixth, when Sri Lanka was struggling against the well armed LTTE, it refused the Government of Sri Lanka arms to defend itself, and even prevented Sri Lanka from acquiring Chinese 3D radar systems to protect its air space.
Seventh, after Sri Lanka Defence Forces finally eradicated the LTTE in May 2009, India re-launched its efforts to create a captive Tamil constituency in Sri Lanka, collaborating with Western Powers, and Tamils in India, Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora to DEMONIZE & LABEL Sri Lanka as guilty of war crimes.
All of this is designed to REIPOSE Indian CONTROL over Sri Lanka, and forestall its RAPID POST-WAR DEVELOPMENT.
INDIA is NO FRIEND of Sri Lanka .... during the last 30 years, and NOW!
Sri Lanka should SCRAP the 13th Amendment, limit Indian involvement in Sri Lanka's economy, trade, politics, and defense.
GOSL: Get Sri Lanka out of India's DEADLY EMBRACE NOW ....before it is TOO LATE!
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Gotabhaya reminds former Indian UN rep of his role in Colombo during 80s
By Shamindra Ferdinando
April 10, 2013, 9:16 am
Had the then Indian government acted with responsibility, Sri Lanka wouldn’t have experienced a 30-year war, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said yesterday.
People of all communities would have been still suffering horrors of war, if not for the eradication of terrorism in May 2009, following a three-year combined security forces campaign, the Defence Secretary said, noting that India could never absolve itself of the responsibility for creating terrorism here, though some of those directly involved in subverting Sri Lanka were blaming the Rajapaksa administration for the plight of Tamil speaking people here.
Gotabhaya reminds former Indian UN rep of his role in Colombo during 80s
....Continued 1.....
He was responding to former Indian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Hardeep Singh Puri.
Puri had been directly involved in the Indian operation against the then JRJ government in the run-up to the July 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord, Rajapaksa said, alleging that he was one of those aware of the Indian operations here.
The Defence Secretary said that both Hardeep S. Puri and his wife, Lakshmi had been attached to India’s mission in Colombo during the tenure of J. N. Dixit as India’s High Commissioner here.
Puri had now called for an investigation into what he called specific allegations of war crimes during the last 100 days of military operations. Those demanding accountability on Sri Lanka’s part for alleged atrocities committed during the last 100 days of the conflict were silent on the origin of terrorism here, the Defence Secretary said.
Rajapaksa said that Puri should realize that the Indian intervention here had caused a major regional crisis, when Indian trained Sri Lankan terrorists raided the Maldives in early November 1988. The international community should consider a comprehensive investigation into the issue beginning with the Indian intervention, he added. India’s former Permanent Representative could help the investigation by revealing what was going on at that time.
The defence Secretary pointed out that Dixit, in his memoirs published during his tenure as the Foreign Secretary, had acknowledged that arming Sri Lankan Tamil youth was one of the two major policy blunders of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Commenting on Puri’s allegation that he (Rajapaksa) wanted to do away with the provincial council system and criticism on recent attacks on Muslims in Colombo, the Defence Secretary said that the Indian official couldn’t be unaware of what the Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik had said before he slaughtered 70 men, women and children. Breivik declared that he wanted the drive out Muslims out of Europe the way northern Sri Lanka was cleansed of Muslims during 1990. The Norwegian was referring to massacres carried out by the LTTE during President Premadasa’s administration.
The Defence Secretary said that those critical of the Sri Lankan government should peruse former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal’s recent piece to India Today.
The LTTE had used children as cannon fodder and Prabhakaran had forced the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to recognize the LTTE as the sole representative of Tamil speaking people. The TNA couldn’t even finalize its candidates’ list for parliamentary polls without Prabhakaran’s approval, the Defence Secretary said, alleging some interested parties were reluctant to acknowledge the fact that Sri Lanka was a much better place today without the LTTE.
India need to look inward
Apr 10 (The Nation) India has made it manifest that it is not happy in the way the Sri Lankan government of President Mahindra Rajapaksa is treating the Tamil minority, following the defeat of one of the most virulent strain of terror-laced insurgency.
The insurgency ended four years ago with the death of the deadliest terrorist of his times - Thiruvenkadam Velupillai Prabhakaran - at the hands of the Sri Lankan security forces.
To castigate Sri Lanka, India is using the platform of UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva and the lead provided by a US sponsored resolution condemning it for committing anti-Tamil atrocities during and following the anti-insurgency operations.
Brazenly interfering in its internal affairs, the Indian leadership at the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights Group in Geneva, said that it hoped "for an early progress towards reconciliation (between majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils), the reduction of high security zones and the return of private land by the military."
India, nevertheless, has a long history of playing a double game of supporting the LTTE terrorists and then coming around to lend a helping hand to the counterinsurgency efforts by the Sri Lankan government to find strategic leverage to check the country's pro- China leanings.
Another factor that played out significantly in this charade is the strident Tamil nationalism in India's southern states. It raked up separatism among the Tamils in Sri Lanka, who inhabit the northern and eastern parts of the island nation.
Prabhakaran, the moving spirit behind Tamil separatism, remained the darling of India's establishment, as well as the Tamil regional parties in the Indian south. In a close parallel to the manner of raising Mukti Bahini for operations in East Pakistan, India provided him with the space among the Tamil-dominated south along with ample material support to organise LTTE as a feared force, which turned the north and east of the country into no-go areas for the Lankan security forces.
As the menace of separatism grew, New Delhi offered Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte an accord that allow the landing of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) under General Harkirat Singh to quell the insurgency. The accord signed in Colombo by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Prime Minister Junius Richard Jayewardene in July 1987 led to large-scale protests and the event acquired an iconic touch with the snapshot of a Sri Lankan naval rating, Rohana de Silva, attacking the Indian VIP with his rifle, while his companions in the honour guard stood at present arms.
New Delhi's ambitions to find a military toehold in Sri Lanka failed to materialise as the LTTE turned out to be a hard nut to crack, stretching the Indian expeditionary force to the limits of its endurance. The mission was called off in 1990 and when the last ship carrying the IPKF sailed from Trincomalee, the Indians had 1,555 men killed, 2,987 injured and had spent Rs 10 billion in the jungles of northern Sri Lanka on a pain-ridden wild goose chase. As a postscript, it should be pertinent to recollect that in May 1991, Rajiv, the mentor of Indian military misadventure in Sri Lanka, who was then on the verge of reclaiming his prime ministerial office was assassinated in a suicide attack by a LTTE suicide bomber in Tamil Nadu.
No appraisal of Indo-Sri Lanka equation can be complete without bringing into reckoning the separatist ambitions of Tamil politicians of the Indian south, who harbour the ambition of returning to the grandeur of a Tamil nation state.
Since the late 1800s, the history of Tamil Nadu is driven by an ambition among the Tamil people for self-rule over a state comprising Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra, Karnataka, and the proposed states of Eelam in northeastern Sri Lanka and Malaya Nadu in plantation areas of central Sri Lanka.
India Needs to Look Inward
.....Continued 1.....
The strident political clout of the Tamil regional parties in the overall coalition based political scenario in India has given added weightage to the Tamil Nadu factor, which carries with it a history of campaigning for separatism and an impulse to interfere in the internal matters of Sri Lanka concerning the Tamil minority.
Many analysts believe that the Indian accommodation of the Tamil card in the realm of local and regional politics has widened the fissures of separatism within India; many prophesying that Tamil Nadu could well turn out to be "Kashmir of the south".
Anyway, India played an active role in supporting and directing the operations of LTTE cadres, who have finally been tamed through a determined and bloody military campaign by the Sri Lankan Army. The Indian advisories to Sri Lanka, from the podium of international human rights watch organisations to conduct independent and credible investigation into allegations of civilian deaths during the period of counterinsurgency campaigning is totally uncalled for.
Likewise its pontification to Sri Lanka to ensure welfare of the Tamils, which comprise 12 percent of the island's population on the basis that they share close cultural and familial links with 62 million strong Tamils community in south India, is manifestly stepping on the toes of its small neighbour and a brazen violation of its national sovereignty.
On its part, however, India has yet to come clean with its sponsorship of the LTTE terrorists and the grave human rights violations they perpetrated on innocent Sri Lankans. New Delhi also needs to acknowledge the role played by its intelligence agencies and the "Kazagham" parties that have embraced the separatist elements from Sri Lanka with open arms, providing them with logistics, weapons and safe sanctuaries to bleed their native land.
On such occasions India also needs to look inwards and pledge to conduct transparent investigations into the human rights abuses in the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). For one, numerous mass graves that dot the IHK landscape need to be forensically investigated to determine the identities of luckless individuals that were summarily disposed of by India's armed forces, operating with impunity under the overarching umbrella of draconian laws.
Coalition Tamil party of Sri Lankan government to launch a protest against Tamil Nadu
Tue, Apr 9, 2013, 09:52 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Apr 09, Colombo: Sri Lanka's largest plantation trade union-cum-political party, Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) has decided to boycott the Indian Tamil movies if the Tamil cinema artists continue the protests against the Sri Lanka government.
The Central Committee of the CWC that met recently under the patronage of the party leader Arumugam Thondaman has come to this decision.
A spokesman for the Tamil party said if Tamil Nadu actors revered by Sri Lanka's Tamil people launch a racist campaign against the country, they will request the Sri Lankan government to ban importing Tamil Nadu films.
"The Tamil people in Sri Lanka are frustrated about the film stars in Tamil Nadu who try to help extremist parties in Tamil Nadu," local media quoted the spokesman as saying.
CWC central committee has also decided to launch a protest campaign in the upcountry areas of the island. The party has delivered a report on these decisions to the Sri Lankan government, CWC sources said.
The CWC, a party of Sri Lanka's government ruling alliance, represents the Indian origin Tamils in the upcountry plantations.
Bloody US Hypocrites!
The US keesp digging up and ORCHESTRATING "human rights" issues and leveling fabricated "war crimes" charges against Sri Lanka, plotting and scheming hand-in-glove with Eelamists and the Tamil Nadu Racists, PRECISELY TO INCITE COMMUNAL DIVISIONSD and COMMUNAL VIOLENCE within Sri Lanka.
And, ... shamelessly ... here they are piously pontificating on the "need to reconcile and move beyond" ... blah blah blah !!!!!
We would have by now ... if they had stopped stiorring the COMMUNAL WITCHES BREW pursuing their own global politics!
Bah!
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US Navy commander says Sri Lanka needs to reconcile divided nation
Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 11:46 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Apr 10, Washington, DC: The commander of United States Pacific Command (USPACOM), Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Sri Lanka needs to move on and reconcile after the three-decade long war that divided the nation.
"Sri Lanka needs to work to move past its recent history and reconcile a nation divided by many years of civil war," Admiral Locklear said in a prepared statement.
Admiral Locklear was presenting an update on the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) to the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.
Speaking of South Asia, the USPACOM Commander said although India's relationship with Pakistan has gradually improved in recent years, US remains concerned as the progress could be quickly undone by a major terrorist attack.
He also noted that India's unresolved border disputes with China remains a source of friction in the region.
Elsewhere, South Asia is mostly free from direct conflict, but various, mostly internal, challenges remain, the Commander said.
Speaking of USPACOM operations in the region, Admiral Locklear highlighted that Operation PACIFIC ANGEL and Pacific Fleet's PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP bring joint, combined and non-governmental organizations together to deliver cooperative health engagements, engineering civic action programs and subject matter expert exchanges to many nations including Sri Lanka. Such operations open doors that would otherwise be closed to a U.S. military presence in those nations, he added.
Through U.S. Pacific Command, the U.S. has contributed US$9 million since 2009 toward projects such as renovating and rebuilding hospitals and schools in communities across Sri Lanka.
Comments by a reader on "Messing with Sri Lanka" article at newindianexpress.com:
*India is our neighbour that violated our sovereign airspace by giving Colombo a bare 35 minute notice and sending four Mirage 2000 fighter jet planes screaming over Northern Sri Lankan skies for their Anatov-32 Transport planes to drop 25 tons of parippu to feed 800,000 Tamil peoples in Jaffna peninsula. And we still call India our friendly neighbour!; *India is our neighbour, whose Prime Minister Indira Gandhi summoned a high powered meeting in August 1984 to discuss invasion plans of Sri Lanka. Indian troops were moved from Agra to Thivandrum. And in September plans to invade Sri Lanka was shelved. And we still call India our friendly neighbour!;
Posted by Donga-The-Bonga at 04/05/2013 17:42
The truth - India cannot be trusted! They have played the role of dividing countries from their independence. Sri Lanka will stand fast. Sri Lanka will NEVER be divided..... read on *India is our neighbour, who in1987 threatened to militarily intervene if the Sri Lankan Government end the Tamil Tiger separatist war when they were cornered by the military, navy and airforce in the Vadamarachchi region, a strategic area for traffic between India and the Jaffna peninsula. And New Delhi informed through private sources and through diplomatic channels that India will not allow Jaffna to be captured by the Sri Lankan forces. Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Tamil Tigers admitted that the Tamil Tigers would have been wiped out within four hours at Vadamarachchi if not for the timely intervention by India. India’s RAW shipped fresh arm to the beleaguered Tamil Tigers. And the war lasted another 22 years which killed scores of thousands of innocent Sri Lankans.
Posted by Donga-The-Bonga at 04/05/2013 17:44
‘China has no self interest in SL’
Priyanka Kurugala
Deputy Head of Mission and Political Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Colombo Ren Faqiang delivering the Keynote address. Picture by Sumanachandra
Ariyawansa
China and Sri Lanka are true friends, and cooperative partners. More Chinese tourists are to visit this beautiful island of Sri Lanka, Deputy Head of Mission and Political Counselor of Chinese Embassy in Colombo Ren Faqiang said.
China has no self interest in Sri Lanka. What China pursues is common development and mutual cooperation. Sri Lankan friends will see more Chinese state-owned and private enterprises make investments in Sri Lanka, he said.
He was delivering the Keynote address at a seminar organized by Sri Lanka-China Social and Cultural Cooperation (ASLCSCC) at the National Library Services Board yesterday, under the theme of China’s New leadership and a better Sri Lanka-China Relations.
After the new Chinese leadership took office, we have confidence in expecting brighter prospects for China-Sri Lanka ties, he said.
Ren refered to the recent telephone conversation between President Rajapaksa and new Chinese President Xi Jinping and noted that the Lankan President was among the first six Heads of States to wish the new Chinese leader. During the conversation with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, President Xi stressed that China would firmly support Sri Lanka’s efforts to protect its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said. The phone call by the Chinese leader to President Rajapaksa shows the great importance China has attached to its relationship with Sri Lanka and has injected a new impetus to further development of the bilateral relations, he said.
Ren elaborated the Chinese Dream, a concept pushed forward by Chinese President Xi, which means the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It includes the country’s prosperity and people’s happiness. When the People’s Republic of China celebrates its 100th anniversary in the middle of the century, China will be a prosperous, democratic, civilized and harmonious socialist modern country. Pursuing the Chinese dream is conducive to realizing the world dream of durable peace and common prosperity, he said. China’s sustainable development is good news and vast opportunities to the rest of the world. When China continuously grows, it will provide more products and markets to the world and it has more strength and power to support and assist the developing countries, including Sri Lanka, he said.
Executive President of ASLCSCC, Indrananda Abeysekera, also spoke.
While Nations always act in their self-interest, China has consistently identified its self-interest with Sri Lanka's.
The United States and India have much learn from China.
The principal lesson they should learn is to ALLY themselves with the MAJORITY COMMUNITIES of NATIONS instead of conniving to create minority FIFTH COLUMNS to UNDERMINE the majority community.
It is the alliance of the United States with the MAJORITY COMMUNITY of the British Isles, spanning two world wars despite the initial enmity created by the War of the American Independence and the War of 1812 in which the British even burned Washington, DC, that has created an enduring partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom.
Instead, for example, had the US espoused the IRA against the British and sought to UNDERMINE that nation, there would have been no British contingents supporting the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan because the British public is generally opposed to these two foreign wars having no direct benefit to them.
Both the United States and India must LEARN from China and support the interests of the grea6 majority of people of Sri Lanka to develop ENDURING ALLIANCES that will survive changes in the Government of Sri Lanka.
If however, they persist in their present course of action, they will only PERMANENTLY ALIENATE the vast majority of Sri Lankans instead of earning their ENDURING FRIENDSHIP, for we Sri Lanka have VERY LONG MEMORIES immune to transient obfuscations.
Make no mistake, Sri Lankans will hold those who DESTROY THE LIVES of their loved ones, UNDERMINE THEIR LIVELIHOODS, and ERECT BARRIERS to achieving our National Goal of becoming the New Wonder of Asia and join the First World at the end of the next decade, ACCOUNTABLE for their actions.
We will NEVER FORGET who our TRUE FRIENDS ARE!
...........................
>‘China has no self interest in SL’
Priyanka Kurugala
Deputy Head of Mission and Political Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Colombo Ren Faqiang delivering the Keynote address. Picture by Sumanachandra
Ariyawansa
China and Sri Lanka are true friends, and cooperative partners. More Chinese tourists are to visit this beautiful island of Sri Lanka, Deputy Head of Mission and Political Counselor of Chinese Embassy in Colombo Ren Faqiang said.
‘China has no self interest in SL’
.....Continued 1.....
China has no self interest in Sri Lanka. What China pursues is common development and mutual cooperation. Sri Lankan friends will see more Chinese state-owned and private enterprises make investments in Sri Lanka, he said.
He was delivering the Keynote address at a seminar organized by Sri Lanka-China Social and Cultural Cooperation (ASLCSCC) at the National Library Services Board yesterday, under the theme of China’s New leadership and a better Sri Lanka-China Relations.
After the new Chinese leadership took office, we have confidence in expecting brighter prospects for China-Sri Lanka ties, he said.
Ren refered to the recent telephone conversation between President Rajapaksa and new Chinese President Xi Jinping and noted that the Lankan President was among the first six Heads of States to wish the new Chinese leader. During the conversation with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, President Xi stressed that China would firmly support Sri Lanka’s efforts to protect its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said. The phone call by the Chinese leader to President Rajapaksa shows the great importance China has attached to its relationship with Sri Lanka and has injected a new impetus to further development of the bilateral relations, he said.
Ren elaborated the Chinese Dream, a concept pushed forward by Chinese President Xi, which means the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. It includes the country’s prosperity and people’s happiness. When the People’s Republic of China celebrates its 100th anniversary in the middle of the century, China will be a prosperous, democratic, civilized and harmonious socialist modern country. Pursuing the Chinese dream is conducive to realizing the world dream of durable peace and common prosperity, he said. China’s sustainable development is good news and vast opportunities to the rest of the world. When China continuously grows, it will provide more products and markets to the world and it has more strength and power to support and assist the developing countries, including Sri Lanka, he said.
Executive President of ASLCSCC, Indrananda Abeysekera, also spoke.
INTERNET communications is now an essential engine for economic growth and education, and it facilitates the efficient delivery of government services to citizens.
Therefore, Sri Lanka must make every effort to improve INTERNET availability to its citizens.
One idea is to develop and maintain a NATIONWIDE HIGH-SPEED WIRELESS NETWORK, and provide BASIC low-bandwidth access to it for free, while high-bandwidth access for power users and businesses is made available for a reasonable price.
This service should be government owned and tax-supported and provided as a UTILIY SERVICE. However, its operation can be contracted out to private companies.
Such FREE WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS is available in many US cities, including San Francisco.
................
Sri Lanka moves up two notches in the Global Network Readiness Index
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Apr 11, Colombo: Sri Lanka has improved its position by two places in the recently published Global Network Readiness Index (NRI) which measures a nation's or community's degree of preparation, to participate in and benefit from ICT developments which happen to be the driving force in today's world.
The NRI featured in the Global Information Technology Report (GITR) 2013, published by the World Economic Forum, establishes an international framework by which the performance in networked readiness of a large number of economies/countries can be assessed and benchmarked against one another over a period of time.
With the two-place improvement, Sri Lanka at 69th place out of 144 countries surveyed trails its neighbor India by just one rank although the score remained same as last year at 3.88.
Sri Lanka and India are the only two countries in the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) group to rank higher than the 100th mark. Other SAARC members are below the 100th mark of the NRI with Pakistan down by three at 105th, Bangladesh at 114th, and Nepal at126th.
This year's Global Information Technology Report, focusing on ICTs for growth and jobs, places a spotlight on the role that technology can have in economic growth and employment.
Sri Lanka scored very high in the affordability measure with mobile cellular tariffs ranking at 5th place based on purchasing power parity and second for fixed broadband. However Sri Lanka ranked low in internet and telephony completion at 129th.
In the Political and regulatory environment category, Sri Lanka ranked 25th for the effectiveness of national parliament as law-making bodies and ranked around the mean at 56th place for the independence of the judiciary from influences of members of government, citizens or firms.
Sri Lanka ranked at 33rd place for the efficiency of legal system in settling disputes while ranking at 34th for efficiency of legal system in challenging regulations.
Although ranked high overall, Sri Lanka's internet access at home was poor placing at the 104th place out of 144 countries and only 5.9% households were with Internet access at home.
Finland reached the top of the NRI rankings for the first time, due to improvements across the board while Singapore remained 2nd overall, slightly improving its score.
The United Kingdom climbed up three notches, placing at 7th and posting the biggest rank improvement among the top 10 economies while the United States slipped to 9th place, its worst showing since the start of the ranking in 2001.
My Comment at LankaWeb.com:
........
Hey SA Kumar, you phrase "modaya always modaya any way" caught my attention.
Prior to May, 2009, when they suddenly disappeared, Eelamists trolling Patriotic websites such as DefenceWire, always kept calling Sri Lankan Patriots "Modayas".
I suppose there was some truth to that then, because for 30 years successive Sri Lanka governments had allowed them to thrive killing its people, and bamboozling the world at large, without summoning all of its considerable resources to fight the terror in the way it should have been fought. The mollycoddling gloves finally came off in 2006 with the election of the present government to power.
Up to that time, the LTTE never had its butt kicked REALLY HARD, and the attitude of the Eelamist cheerleaders was that the demise of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces was all but a foregone conclusion, confident in their own delusions that they were "Super-Intelligent", "Cyanide Pill Biting", "Suicide Bombing" Tamil warriors led by the incomparable "SunGod" who could do no wrong in their eyes.
All that began to change when Kilinochchi failed to become the Graveyard of the Sri Lankan Army,
and the LTTE was abjectly defeated in EVERY BATTLE, and FINALLY corralled behind their human shield. The human shield itself was then penetrated, civilians rescued, and the LTTE as a military organization was eradicated by root, trunk, branch and leaf.
The internet warriors of Eelam went into shock, and disappeared from the scene in May 2009, when the "Thalaivar" was displayed along the banks of Nanthikandal lagoon, staring at the sky with half his head missing. The SunGod, after all, had been proven to be mortal like the rest of the modayas.
Nowadays, gone are the Thalaivar Worshipping Eelamist warriors. Every Eelamist has magically transformed himself/herself into that other category of Eelamists: INNOCENT VICTIMS. No WARRIORS now, just VICTIMS only.
One thing, however, remains the same: their DISHONESTY.
The Eelamists who hoodwinked the external world into believing they were VICTIMS, even as they pitilessly murdered tens of thousands of people at will by every foul means imaginable in Sri Lanka, has now become emboldened by the TEMPORARY success they are having in LABELLING and DEMONIZING Sri Lanka overseas. Now, they are not warriors, but reduced to posing as innocent victims, only because the Sri Lanka Armed Forces eliminated their ability to wage physical war of any kind in Sri Lanka.
As in the case of the Thalaivar and the various Tamil separatist terror groups, the day is coming when the current crop of Eelamists will get their comeuppance. The Eelamists have LEARNED NOTHING from the foiling of their best laid plans to date, for when the usually tolerant and patient majority community of Sri Lanka wakes up .... nothing can stand in their way. NOTHING.
Clearly, it is the Eelamists who have been amply demonstrated to be the "Real Modayas" who "Learned Nothing", for they allowed those they disparaged as "Modayas" to put them in their current predicament, the "Super Intelligence" of the Eelamist notwithstanding. So, I fondly ask "Who are the Real Modayas"?
My advice to you is: LEARN from the PAST and stop banging your head against the Sinhala rock ... It will not yield!
In plain English, Tamil politicians are demanding much more autonomy, approaching sovereignty, than provided for by the 13th Amendment.
This is made clear in the statement: “We told the visiting MPs that the ongoing genocide has to end here. There are serious livelihood issues prompting Tamils to leave the country. We need an interim administration, overseen by India or the United Nations, until there is a final political settlement for the Tamils.”
This INVITATION to foreign powers to INTERVENE & PARTITION SRi Lanka by Sri Lankan citizens should be viewed as TREASONOUS and SEDITIOUS., and PUNISHED accordingly.
We need a DRACONIAN anti-sedition law similar to that implemented by Nehru in 1983 to arrest SEPARATISM in India. The PENALTY for such TREASON should be DEATH. ENACT such a law NOW!
………………………….
‘Obsession’ with 13th Amendment won’t help, say Tamil politicians
Meera Srinivasan
TheHindu.com
April 12, 2013
The obsession with the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution will hardly help the Tamils, politicians and activists in northern Sri Lanka told the Indian parliamentary delegation, which wound up its visit to Sri Lanka on Thursday.
While members of the Indian delegation were rather reluctant to speak to the media here, enquiries with political parties, academics and civil society members who met the delegation revealed that the discussions gave the Indian parliamentarians an opportunity to listen to different perspectives, agendas and concerns in Colombo and in Jaffna.
In Colombo, the parliamentarians met senior members of the government, including Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa. On the interactions, Cabinet Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said: “It is always useful to have delegations come over, for they can assess the situation objectively.
Many in India – both at the Centre and in Tamil Nadu – are not aware of the progress we have made here post-war. The Indian MPs, who met a wide range of leaders and activists, will understand the intentions of the different groups they met,” he said.
In Jaffna, where the MPs spent nearly two days, the emphasis was on the need for transitional administration and for India to shed its “obsession with” the 13th Amendment — which followed the Indo-Lanka accord of 1987 — as it was “inadequate”. Civil society groups said starting with a clean slate would work better.
K. Guruparan, lecturer of Law, Jaffna University, said: “We told them that the 13th Amendment in itself had several contradictions and explained how, constitutionally, it would be difficult to implement anything beyond the 13th Amendment.” Mr. Guruparan, and Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) member and lawyer Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, reportedly emphasised that the 13th Amendment was not an adequate starting point in addressing the problems of the Tamils.
TNPF general secretary S. Kajendran said the MPs paid great attention to every word spoken. “We hope that they take our message back to the Indian government. India has to intervene and ensure there is no discrimination based on ethnicity,” he said.
The 13th amendment made to Sri Lanka’s Constitution in November 1987, provides for devolution of limited power to provinces. It has been implemented everywhere except in the Tamil-majority North.
‘Obsession’ with 13th Amendment won’t help, say Tamil politicians
....Continued 1.....
On discussions with members of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an umbrella organisation of parties representing Tamils of the Northern Province. President of TNA Suresh Premachandran said: “We told the visiting MPs that the ongoing genocide has to end here. There are serious livelihood issues prompting Tamils to leave the country. We need an interim administration, overseen by India or the United Nations, until there is a final political settlement for the Tamils.”
According to Mr. Guruparan, one of the BJP MPs asked them if the Northern Provincial Council elections would provide a “window of opportunity.” In response, civil society members are said to have prescribed a “transitional administration” model, outside the current Sri Lankan Constitution, as an alternative, where in Tamil representatives have actual powers in realms of education, health and livelihood issues. “In this model, the Sri Lankan government will also have a role and so will representatives of various communities. If the government is willing to engage with this option, we could work out the modalities,” he said.
Douglas Devananda, leader of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) – currently with the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) – said his party urged the Indian delegation to put pressure on the TNA and enable dialogue. “The President [Mahinda Rajapaksa] had said that a Parliamentary Select Committee would look into political solution and had originally set a time-frame of six months for the exercise. However, the reluctance of the TNA to nominate its members to the Committee has delayed the initiative. We need India to put pressure on them [TNA] to help us have a meaningful dialogue,” he said.
The Indian MPs also met members of the main opposition party, United National Party (UNP), including its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had recently visited India. According to sources with the UNP – which is affiliated to the United National Front (UNF) – Mr. Wickremesinghe underscored the urgent need for democracy and devolution, in addressing problems facing the country.
The five parliamentarians — Saugata Roy (Trinamool Congress), Sandeep Dikshit (Congress), Anurag Thakur (BJP), Dhananjay Singh (BSP) and Prakash Javadekar (BJP), were for a ‘Track Two political dialogue’, initiative of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
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