Day: 28 August 2014

UN Investigators for Sri Lanka, Show Your Work!

Karu

If the U.N. wants to promote reconciliation in Sri Lanka, it has to show its work.  U.N. investigators should use tools and methods that are transparent, replicable, and open to scrutiny by all.  Every Sri Lankan, both inside and outside the country, deserves the chance to question the methods behind U.N. findings. Last week, Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, announced that he would not grant entry visas to U.N. human rights investigators looking into allegations of mass killings.  Since investigators won’t be able to collect evidence on the ground, they…

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Who is Mahinda afraid of?

Karu

by Upul Joseph fernando Political analysts are intrigued by what Mahinda is studying with much interest these days. It is, without a doubt, reports submitted to him by his political intelligence sources, in particular about the political leaders who attended Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera’s latest and much publicized meetings. He must be wondering who, among them will come to challenge him for the Presidency. A close study of his probable thought process on this matter will yield interesting results. Chandrika – A dangerous customer, she will try to rope in as many…

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13-A hoodwink continues under BJP New Delhi

Karu

 Tamil National Alliance leader and Sri Lankan MP R Sampanthan today alleged that the island nation government was not interested in implementing the 13th Amendment and was only impeding the functioning of the Northern Provincial Council. “The government is not interested in implementing the 13th Amendment and is interested in blocking, impeding and restraining the functioning of the NPC,” Sampanthan, the veteran Lankan Tamil leader told reporters here. The 27 year-old treacherous deceit of the New Delhi Establishment, committed on the nation of Eezham Tamils in the name of implementing…

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UK Tamils remember Chenchoalai massacre by Rajapaksha, condemn genocidal sex abuse

Karu

Tamils from UK gathered at Downing Street, London on Saturday to remember the Chegn-choalai (Sencholai) massacre and to condemn the ongoing genocidal sex abuse of Eezham Tamil women in the Tamil homeland by the occupying Sinhala forces. The protesters, most of whom were youth activists, held placards and banners stating that “Sri Lanka’s LLRC report is a blueprint for genocide of Eelam Tamil nation” and demanding the UN to investigate genocide and conduct referendum for Tamil Eelam. Chegn-choalai massacre of 61 Eezham Tamil schoolgirls happened on 14 August, 2006 when…

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TNA ready to resume talks with Govt.

Karu

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said today it was ready to resume talks with the Government in search of a lasting solution to the ethnic crisis based on power devolution within a united Sri Lanka.TNA parliamentarian M.A.Sumanthiran told a news conference that it did not have a hidden agenda and said it was strongly committed to finding a solution to the political question.“The Government is now saying it cannot hold talks with the TNA because we are representatives of the LTTE. The Government is trying to evade resolving the Tamil…

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‘Sinhala colonisation a great worry for Tamils’

Karu

The most urgent step necessary in Sri Lanka is to halt the Sinhala colonisation programme being implemented by the government to change the very identity of the traditional Tamil areas, Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sambanthan said on Wednesday. Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Mr. Sambanthan said the programme was aimed at drastically changing the demography of the Tamil-dominated areas and rendering the demand for devolution of powers redundant. “If there is no intervention, the damage… will be irreversible and irreparable,” he said. Mr. Sambanthan termed…

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Event: Issues Of Truth And Accountability – The Last Stages Of The War In Sri Lanka

Karu

The Marga Institute and Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) launched the publication – “Issues of Truth and Accountability – Narrative 3 (The Last stages of the war in Sri Lanka), on the 15th of August at the BMICH. As a follow up Marga Institute is organizing a Colloquium which will be held on the 29th of August 2014 at the BMICH Committee Room D at 4.30 pm. Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke Chairman Emeritus of the Marga Institute will be making the initial presentation which will be reviewed by a panel. Members…

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Protection urged for Sri Lanka war crimes witnesses

Karu

International rights groups have demanded protection for potential Sri Lankan witnesses at a UN-mandated war crimes investigation into the island’s ethnic war which ended five year ago.  Six organizations in a joint letter expressed alarm over alleged intimidation, threats and reprisals against those likely to engage investigators probing the bloody finale to Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatists war. The letter published on the website of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists urged “meaningful steps” to protect those who cooperated with the war crimes probe which was approved by the UN Human…

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What happened to 16,000 SriLankans?

Karu

The International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) says in Sri Lanka, the fate and whereabouts of more than 16,000 people remain unknown In the run-up to the International Day of the Disappeared, 30 August, ICRC is calling on the international community to show greater awareness of the tragedy of people who have gone missing and the plight of their families. Hundreds of thousands of people in all parts of the world have disappeared as a consequence of armed conflict, natural disaster or migration. The ICRC noted that each person who…

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Rajapaksa Security; Lankan Insecurity

Karu

y Tisaranee Gunasekara Terrorists resemble one another: state terrorists, respectable members of government, and private terrorists, madmen acting…. in the name of various gods, whether God, Allah, or Jehovah…. How much longer will we ignore that fact that all terrorists scorn human life and feed off of one another? Eduardo Galeano (How Much Longer?)   ( August 21, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian ) Zionist ultras, the sort who decry Binyamin Netanyahu for dovish tendencies, have a new role model: Sri Lanka. Mr. Netanyahu is being urged to learn from the…

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Why Mahinda Went To Houston?

Karu

by Upul Joseph Fernando   ( August 28, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Mahinda’s sudden visit to Houston in America has stirred the curiosity of many Sri Lankan watchers of the developing political scene. In January 2011 also Mahinda went on an unscheduled visit to Houston quite suddenly raising a whole host of speculations. To an inquisitive media the government sources at the time disclosed that the President was on a private visit to see his brother Dudley Rajapaksa who was an American citizen living in Houston. Later it transpired Mahinda…

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